hmmm… No. 28 November 2006
Posted by marisacat in Big Box Blogs, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Iraq War.trackback
This is so bad I don’t know where to begin. Above all else, this has nothing to do with “Kramer” / Richards inexcusable behavior and language (and his frankly ridiculous and largely inappropriate and useless post event appearances), it really does not.
However it is anti-democratic… for one thing censorship is NOT, NEVER the answer. And I am sorry to say, Jesse and Maxine are acting like fools. Upchuck the stupid pills… Now.
Rev. Jesse Jackson will meet with TV and film executives to discuss banning the use of derogatory expressions in the entertainment industry. “We want to give our ancestors a Christmas present,” he said. Asked about free-speech issues, Jackson said the word is “unprotected.”
The Rev. Jesse Jackson and others said they will meet with TV networks, film companies and musicians to discuss the “n-word.” They also sought an effort by the public to stop using the term. “We want to give our ancestors a Christmas present,” Jackson said at a news conference. “Dignity over degradation.” Jackson also asked the public to not buy a DVD box set of the seventh season of the TV show “Seinfeld” that was released last week.
“This is not simply about whether or not the black community forgives or forgets, this is about understanding that this is pervasive, that this happens in all of our institutions, one way or the other,” U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-California, said. [snip]
What do they intend to do about Blacks who use language they deem worthy of censorship? Shall we divide permitted language by skin color?
Oh, and this too: shall we go back and kill Lenny? Try him – and the words – again?
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If you need a hearty laugh… Dkos is open for new editorial staff. I do believe he is calling them ”paid”.
This will mean a couple of things — one, the site will become more professional, with paid bloggers helping maintain site content, and two, it will become a true “group” blog.
I did not get to the thread. And a quick look at the diary column showed there is already politiking, campaigning for the jobs… Cannot read everything and, LOL, I must preserve what little sanity is left to me in the America on offer… of which Kos and his whacks are part of the tired passion play.
Oh yes, new staff must of course join the movement… As I said, laugh at it… 
Almost forgot the biggest horselaugh! .. don’t miss this so important job requirement… it has so been on view at DKos, Yes? (obvioiusly emphasis is mine)
While we all lose our tempers at times, being generally level-headed is important.
They have to be humble. (This is not a good gig for people with big egos. Believing the hype is dangerous.)
I won’t pay any heed to physical attributes (sex, race, etc). In the blog world, the writing — and how it fits in my vision for the site — is everything. They have to understand that to the outside world, they speak editorially for the site, and that’s a heavy burden.
Oh hon bun, stop! No one believes that pile of steaming whatever…
More to come, I am sure…
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UPDATE, 3:20 pm on the Pacific Ocean
Hell on earth continues, call it what you will…
Last month I linked to a Pepe Escobar Asia Times article in The Battle for Baghdad…
Escobar is back and it is hard to pick an excerpt, here is the concluding segment:
The fall of the Green Zone
Everyone is guilty in the ongoing Iraq tragedy. The US-trained new Iraqi army is infiltrated by militias, by death squads and even by al-Qaeda in Iraq. The SCIRI, Da’wa and the Kurds are only worried about their own interests, not the interests of Iraq as a nation. And the US – always hiding under the dubious mantra of “Iraqi democracy” – totally evades its responsibility in provoking the appalling chaos in the first place.Militia hell will remain impervious to any summit. Shi’ite clerical leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani may call for restraint. But Sistani does not control the Shi’ite proletarian masses anymore, Muqtada does. The Americans – attacked at least 180 times a day, every day – will keep “controlling” only one piece of real estate in the whole of Mesopotamia (although an extremely valuable one): the Green Zone.
The ISG may recommend more summits and more covert contacts with the Sunni Arab resistance. Ahmadinejad, Talabani and Assad may even meet again. But Baghdad sources close to the resistance in the Sunni belt have told Asia Times Online of another coup in the making – and that goes way beyond the removal of the Maliki government.
Secular former Ba’athists and Saddam’s fighters congregated in the Army of Mohammed – the paramilitary wing of the Awda Party – are already in control of the Syrian border (and not Salafi-jihadis of the al-Qaeda kind).The next big step for the Sunni Arab resistance – according to sheikhs of the powerful Shammar Sunni tribe – would be to take out the Badr Organization, holed up in the Ministry of the Interior, and the two most murderous factions of the Mehdi Army. That would mean an Iraqi nationalist purge of the hated “Iranians”. And that implies an all-out attack on the Green Zone.
The return of the Ba’athists and the fall of the Green Zone: now that’s a prime-time double bill to knock ‘em dead.
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UPDATE, 5:20 pm
Patrick Cockburn has up a piece on Iraq. A long, sad, unsurprising read. Really, we, both America and the UK, we are led by madmen. Insane killers.
[O]f course Bush and Blair argue that there is no occupation. In June 2004 sovereignty was supposedly handed back to Iraq. “Let Freedom Reign,” wrote Mr Bush on the piece of paper informing him of the carefully choreographed return of power to an Iraqi government at a ceremony in the heart of the Green Zone. But the reality of power remained firmly with the US and Britain. The Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki said this month that he could not move a company of soldiers without seeking permission of the Coalition (the US and Britain). Officials in Mosul confirmed to me that they could not carry out a military operation without the agreement of US forces.
There is a hidden history to the occupation of Iraq which helps explain why it has proved such a disaster. In 1991 after the first Gulf war a crucial reason why President George Bush senior did not push on to Baghdad was that he feared that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein would be followed by elections that would be won in turn by Shia religious parties sympathetic to Iran. No worse outcome of the war could be imagined in Washington. After the capture of Baghdad in 2003 the US faced the same dilemma. Many of the contortions of US policy in Iraq since then have been a covert attempt to avoid or dilute the domination of Iraq’s Shia majority. [snip]
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UPDATE, 9:00 pm
Oddly, I have on Apocalypse Now, the luncheon scene as Sheen gets his order to “terminate Kurtz’s command” with “extreme sanction”, as I hear of the 5 dead children… Just a snippet that goes by on the cables.
BAGHDAD, Nov. 28 — American troops killed five girls, including at least one baby, and what the military described as either a boy or a man, when the troops attacked a house Tuesday in volatile Anbar Province after they suspected insurgents of firing at them from the roof of the house.
Stop it, end it now, pull back to bases. We have all become Col Kurtz. Again.
The military said the Americans returned fire with machine guns and small arms and rounds from the main gun of one or more tanks. After the firefight, the Americans discovered the six dead Iraqis in the house.
Finally, down the article:
American troops in Anbar are fighting a holding action, unable to make any real headway against the insurgency while facing a mostly hostile civilian population. The pressures have already led to prominent incidents of civilian deaths — one unit of Marines is being investigated for whether it wrongfully killed 24 unarmed civilians in the town of Haditha last year.
Just today, Bush said what he has said for years, that we are going to win.
Win What?
Stress Disorders, Drug Abuse, Little Help for Troops
By Anne Usher
The Austin American Statesman (via TruthOut)[H]e says many of the hundreds of troops he has interviewed at post-deployment sites are addicted to medications given to them in the field, such as painkillers and sleeping pills. But they are not getting the therapy that normally goes with such medications, Robinson said.
Adam Reuter, a 23-year-old former Army specialist, said that after he was tossed out of a Humvee in an accident in Iraq, a medic handed him a plastic bag filled with pills and gave him no instructions.
The bag contained four kinds of painkillers, an anti-inflammatory drug and a muscle relaxant, said Reuter, an Atlanta native who served with the 3rd Squadron of the 3rd Armored Company from May 2003 until February 2004. He said he went back for more and developed a dependency that he is still trying to shake.
Military personnel said they used banned substances as a way to mentally escape the violence around them. Drugs ranging from marijuana to prescription anti-depressants are easily accessible in Iraq, according to interviews with more than a dozen soldiers who served there.
John Crawford, a 28-year-old former Florida National Guardsman with the Army’s 101st Airborne Division, said soldiers in his unit drank alcohol, some took steroids, “pretty much everyone took Valium,” and “some did all three.”
Crawford said he bought 200 to 300 Valium pills on the street in Baghdad for $2 as a way to get some sleep between patrols. After eight months, he built up a tolerance and was taking seven or eight at a time.
The extent of alcohol and drug abuse among combat veterans is difficult to quantify. The Pentagon declined to release the results of announced drug tests specifically for Iraq. The tests are usually done just once a year. [snip]
How much Afghani product, refined in Turkey, smuggled and trucked across the “peaceful” Northern iraq, the Kurdish area, is being consumed by the US military?
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UPDATE, 8:30 am Wednesday
Oh what the hell. Pour s’amuser. The Neddie post rises from this at Tom Watson and the source of ire, irritation, advice, exclamation, etcetera! is this from FDL and Pachacutec.
Right, you know this will be good, or bad, depending on your view from the parapet.
What it is is tabloid work… and more of the old extortion games the Blahgs run. I am, however, glad that I clicked thru to Tom Watson’s post… so I could read this choice tid bitty:
I hope Peter Daou is reading this, because his boss may well have to face this kind of sexist attack beginning next year. It’s so bad, so poorly executed, that it really does appear to be a clumsy Republican efforts to pollute a top Democratic blog. These posts are permanent, folks. They give aid and comfort to the other side. They make our side look surly, sexist, hypocritical.
To put is another way: are you stupid? Or just insane?
And if you read his opening grafs (full of political love and nice words for the tabloids who run the extortion games), wellll… I have to wonder. The Pups in the Puddle have been on display for a good year now. And they like the ta$te of political games. Ye$$iree, they surely do.
Oh, if PD does not know what he and she will be dealing with in the Blahgs… then he is not the ad man I consider him to be. Nor would he be the creator of blog storms that he considers himself to be…
May I say, Good Luck to all. Surely the best man – the politician most willing and able to spread cash to the Blahgs – will win.
And last, if you lick the boots of, and suck up to, Reid, you are not “Left”. Maybe some tired Wilsonian Liberal. The Blahgs appear most tightly aligned to Reid.
Eww.
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UPDATE, 7:53 pm Wednesday…
JJB helpfully linked to the diary of Big Drahma Tent… with some of the comments also in the thread below. But I landed on this:
BINGO, big time would be my comment… and BRAVA to Miss Devore who got it said:
in one respect (1+ / 0-)
- Recommended by:
- fairfax
hrh is correct in that one gets to be an alpha female here by kissing/being indulgent to- alpha male ass.
Rome wasn’t burnt in a day.
by Miss Devore on Tue Nov 28, 2006 at 06:07:55 PM PST
[ Parent ]
-
Always with the insults (6+ / 0-)
- Recommended by:
- clonecone, cookiebear, vcmvo2, Elise, Nightprowlkitty, buhdydharma
This is the worst side of you Miss D.
I wish you would stop this.
More at TalkLeft
by Big Tent Democrat on Tue Nov 28, 2006 at 06:45:28 PM PST
[ Parent ]
-
as per DKos protocol……. (1+ / 0-)
- Recommended by:
- fairfax
the worst sides of you have always been explained away, for your “ultimate value”How dare you talk to me about insults. Do you really think I have insulted as many people here as you?
I stand by what I say (ok-RenaF & SusanG probably excepted): I cannot think of any female of “alpha-status” or FP status that hasn’t bowed to you.
Rome wasn’t burnt in a day.
by Miss Devore on Tue Nov 28, 2006 at 06:58:41 PM PST
[ Parent ]
-
You’ve insulted more … (8+ / 0-)
- Recommended by:
- Sharoney, clonecone, PaintyKat, cookiebear, vcmvo2, Elise, buhdydharma, Big Tent Democrat
… and you’re the only one who doesn’t see that. Your post alone has insulted me and every other woman who values BTD or any other man who you may objectify as an “alpha male.” And your “ultimate value” … well I’ll leave it at that.
by Nightprowlkitty on Tue Nov 28, 2006 at 07:23:09 PM PST
[ Parent ]
-
if you really think (2+ / 0-)
I have insulted more people at this site than Armando/BTD, then you don’t really want to know the history.waitaminute. you don’t want to know it either.
Rome wasn’t burnt in a day.
by Miss Devore on Tue Nov 28, 2006 at 07:32:17 PM PST
[ Parent ]
-
No. I don’t. (7+ / 0-)
- Recommended by:
- Sharoney, clonecone, PaintyKat, cookiebear, Elise, buhdydharma, Big Tent Democrat
What’s between the two of you personally doesn’t belong on this site. But if what you say is true, you’re doing a pretty damned good job catching up with him. I’ve seen you hurt people who did nothing whatsoever to harm you or to insult you. If you had one tenth the ability to see the results of your own actions you wouldn’t be so quick to slam BTD or anyone else.
I read the diary you wrote about him that rightfully got deleted. It had no business at this site. You’re speaking about things that happened a long time ago. But the hurt you’re causing is in the present.
And it’s not about BTD being a man, and I find that objectification by both you and hrh to be offensive.
by Nightprowlkitty on Tue Nov 28, 2006 at 07:41:03 PM PST
[ Parent ]
Well, as I recall NightProwlKitty was one of the pack. Miss Devore was not.
The End..
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I don’t think I’ve ever read anything quite as hilarious as the back-slapping, ass-kissing and outright fellating going on over at DKO$. I couldn’t make up anything that funny. Not in a dozen lifetimes.
In the blog world, the writing — and how it fits in my vision for the site — is everything. They have to understand that to the outside world, they speak editorially for the site, and that’s a heavy burden.
Hilarious.
Even more amusing is [this poll http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/11/28/91427/816} which does not exactly reflect the demographics of the Democratic party. Only 1/3rd female readership at DK? Perfectly understandable.
Frankly I am surprised it is that much. They likely hve sock puppettas faking it.
Or Blog Maids voting twice when not on their knees in Aisle 10…
Speaking of DKos, the month of Dec is right around the corner, isn’t Armando about to make his big return? Just asking….lol
Ummm… can some one tell me what is so “progressive” about these rulz and exactly how standing up for NOTHING will bring more “progressives” into the Democratic Party:
LOL I read that earlier and laughed hard.
He should add a 9th. Party members are commanded to vote the party ticket. And boot lick the BlahgSnots.
Boot licking is twice on Sundays…
Values you know.
Oh I forgot to add to his list:
Sieg Heil. Achtung and click those jack boots together.
Drop Toto from the plane when at cruising altitude… and deny the Tin Man a heart.
You get the picture.
BTW, someone emailed me this.
Don’t do not have liquids in your mouth when you read it…
This is perfect:
Has anyone sent that message on to Big Tent Democrat?
Those are his hidden comments, of which there are too few. Just check out this exchange from earlier today:
Same as it ever was, except he seems to have less willing Armandildos to help him out these days. Maybe they’ve gotten a life, maybe even they’ve seen through him, maybe he’s turned on all of them.
Anyway, here’s the relevant thread, for those of strong stomach or in need of a purge.
Just read that idiotic post by BooMan. So Jim Webb may never represent his values the way Paul Tsongas does, huh? Well, Robert Novak tried to push Tsongas’ presidential candidacy as much as he could, which should tell you all you need to know about BM’s alleged progressivism.
As for the Cockburn piece, it’s yet one more confirmation that unless we get our troops out of Iraq fast, we’re going to suffer a defeat very much like the one we suffered in the Phillippines in the early days of WWII. Our troops won’t have to surrender en masse, but the fighting retreat to Kuwait will be an extraordinarily bloody affair in which the fatality total for the entire war may be doubled in a matter of a few weeks.
BTW, it seems the Iraqi PM decided he would not meet with Boy George tonight:
The catastrophe is fast approaching, and BushCo. is completely oblivious.
oh but AGG used to be his private email mentor…
what? Old congealing warts and wounds… on display…??
Like politicians they turn on each other for PERSONAL reasons.
She was their enabler.
as I say, fuck ‘em all.
oh Tsongas. He lied about health care in Canada and he lied aobut his own cancer.
End of story iwth him. I had sent some small early money to him, not that I thought he could go all the way, but that his voice against Clinton should be heard for a while.
But LOL when he lied about the Canadian health system, I demanded my money back.
How exactly does Bowers expect you to go about changing the Dem Party (#8) if you never criticise Dems on the issues (#6)? Mad.
marisacat: He should add a 9th. Party members are commanded to vote the party ticket. And boot lick the BlahgSnots. But that’s actually in #2 (D. Throat highlighted it). Well, not actual boot licking. But the other part.
Who are these people?
Also, didn’t they used to get a pretty even split between women and men on those polls? So not just a pattern, but a trend.
that WAS right gong he did command strict adherence to the party ticket. And at least when I read the thread (early on, around 20 comments) they were falling in line, pretty much!
And that, #2, always sticks in my craw. One – you own your vote. And Two – I hve never diverged. LOL I just skip the Dems I will not vote for… never a Republican. Ever. Not that it matters, now or ever…
LOL.
That comes across for me too, the sense that the main thing it’s doing is telling people to cede their vote to the Party.
another addition to Bower’s list:
10) Come’on KIDS, if you clap REAL HARD, Lamont will come back to life!!
And you gotta wonder, where does a stupid play that went very very fuckedly wrong land in the list.
I’d be screaming with laughter, if McCain (who reportedly DID consider a split ticket in ’00 to the point of discussion with possibles) Lieberman and Bloomberg (who has been a public asshole over the horrific cop shooting) were not out and out dangerous.
Mess…
Aiggh. What I don’t understand are all the people in that thread who are *surprised* that BTD is Armando — how was this not just completely obvious to anyone paying attention? Sheeesh.
Medley … how to explain it?
Herd animals are stupid.
Not to nitpick madman (well actually, it is nitpicking, but since I’m a monkey’s nephew, WTF, its in my genes), Not all herd animals are stupid. I have great respect for the intelligence of the horse (smart fuckers) but not so much for cows (although the penchant of psilocybe cubenisis to grow on the dung of Bos indica, the brahma type of rumniant, raises the value of bovines in my estimation, although this does nothing to change my assesment of their intelligence).
I’m not sure what I’m trying to get at here, but to riff off of Bob Marley; You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time…and I have to agree only stupid people pay any attention to Farm Woman’s ex-beau’s (or is it still an ongoing affair?)
the BBBs looks more like a circus tonight than an opera.
can any more clowns possibly come out of that car? i can’t even keep up with them all, multiple circus rings full of clowns. if this keeps up, marisa, you might want to think about adding peanuts to the bill of fare. i’ve spent time already reading the thread at Tom Watson’s and haven’t had a moment to glance at kos and his whacks, :::best description yet!:::: center ring.
poor tom. he seems to have discovered that DogFuddle truly is the mommy dearest of blogs, all the front-paging joans were over there chasing him around, virtual coat hangers in hand, discipline in mind. a good thread though. lots of pushback against FUDL on the internets too, i see posts up at many of the women’s sites with none i’ve read registering approval.
even wolcott chimes in.
if anyone goes over to read at FUDL, watch out for fleas.
jane has put up a sort of fake “let’s talk about the site”… LOL I just finished the thread, fwiw.
Apparently there are threads at Feministe and elsewhere (I cannot keep up). Thanks, I had missed that Wolcott commented… I have not read him in months.. Dew Drop In time…
To me, it is not the words, it is the unravelling hatred being off loaded and USING Tauscher as an excuse…. Frankly imo the BBB give a flying hoo hoo, really. Pachacutec also USED the Tauscher post/ thread to really lickspittle love Miller from an adjacent district to Tauscher… who is a mixed bag to be frank. But they hung crosses of gold and diamonds off him. Bullshit. He and Kennedy sold out on NCLB… and the stories of how the WH soft soaped them was hilarious and reported at the time. Also according to Cockburn at Counterpunch, Miller helped Rahm push Filson in an effort to dislodge Mcnerney in the primary.
so take the wings off Miller.
It is an excercise in bullying and EXTORTION.
The Tauscher post is so over the top that I have to think it is making the rounds in DC and CA, heavily.
oh.. bay… not sure how far you made it in the thread at Tom Watson… but apparently he is involved with DMI. Drum Major Institute. Another tired useless Dem hang out. Andy Young on the board kind of place… K v d Heuvel and Freddie Ferrer (I mean he even LOOKS like a hack).
SOmeone credited TW with being the originator of the DMI blog. Who knew.
IIRC it is DMI that has lauded and awarded Kos… and hmmm also Greenwald (I am not a big fAN)
Shakespeare’s Sister has a post up on it too. And there are two posts at feminste, one by ZuZu who really took it to the joans in Tom’s thread and also one by pliny. Amanda also mentions the event and im seeing links to these posts from other blogs via technorati.
ooo thanks… Yes I did like zuzu’s comments in the Tom thread.
What a hoot!
“the joans” Good one!
Well, as I recall NightProwlKitty was one of the pack.
Oh yes, a relatively new member but I believe she will go far on Daily Kos. She’s my personal pick for Mrs. DHinMI v. 2 or 3.
Hey
Havent had a chance to even read the site lately, or anything else. My mini mac’s hard drive fucking died on me… after only a year. Im borrowing a computer (boyfriend’s, while he’s out) but it is virtually impossible to use it most of the time because he is on it most of the time – it is his work. And it is very awkward for me, negotiating an entirely different (Windows) set up. Takes me longer, getting to know it…
Aside from the internal Internets stuff I havent had a chance to look at – FDL, Kos topics currently chewed on here – wanted to weigh in with Jimmy Carter.
Bless you, fucking bless you, Jimmy Carter.
I assume everyone here is aware that he is out on solo flight as a Democrat with stature, (virtually any Democrat who holds or has held public office) daring to point the finger at Israeli wrongs in the I/P Conflict, in his book Palestine, Peace Not Appartheid. I dont know how good the book is in terms of overall content and writing, but I know what his main message is and god, is it about time. A refreshing blast of sharp, fresh air, cutting thru that wall of taboo and propaganda.
Today Democracy Now devoted a full segment to a talk he gave at Borders. From it, I see our much vaunted leftists, Pelosi and Conyers, were quick to spin Dem distance from Carter out of the gobs of cotton candy, or artificial spun-sugar love for Israel, that fills the toxic abyss that is our deafening national silence, total lack of meaningful discussion, regarding the I/P CRISIS. Or conflict. Or Israeli-American joint venture in ME colonialism. (Also good segment from a few days ago on the topic, with kudos given to Carter by Ali … Electronic Intifada, and Colombia’s Edward Said Org chair, a professor, name escapes…)
I missed the Larry King interview on CNN on Mon night, but caught Carter interviewed by Woodruff 2 nights ago on News Hour… God, she was smarmy, her mouth actually contorted into a kind of nightmarish grimace-smile, melting into her surgically strained face, as he countered her CW (PRO Israeli govt, dull witted American media) questioning. He never wavered, he delivered. Apartheid, worse than in S Africa, even. Horrendous is the adjective he used to describe the treatment by the Israelis of the Palestinians. The kidnapping issue (9,000 Palestinians to an Israeli soldier – what say YOU, J Woodruff, to that?), he turned on its head. He aimed for the bullseye re our nation’s willful lack of discussion, its HORRENDOUS taboo over criticism of Israel, which sets it apart from all other places on the globe, it seems. (Land of 1st Amendment pride. Ha.) And lack of any attention over the past 6 years whatsoever to resolving it, and he means EVENhandedly. He talked of how the wall cuts into Palestinian’s already shrunk 1967 cut of land, and, of course, the settlements. I always said like rats in a maze. He said to envision a honeycomb or spider web.
Amy G says no major newspapers discussing his book, his controversial book.
I checked to see if Franken, who is loathe to criticize Israel, would give him an invite, and he did yesterday. He even shut up and let Jimmy talk. Randi Rhodes, it seems, spent a lot of time on it yesterday – caught tail end of her show, but boyfriend said she was on it a long time. She emphasized that it is DEATH to those in the limelight to discuss it without the pro Israel bias. I long ago saw that she is NOT of the AIPACed mindset on the ME, but even she has been woefully inadequate on this topic. They all are on AAR, as far as I can see, except when Jeanine Garofalo was on the air. Some, those who are not wed to the Israeli-American line, gag themselves only to keep their jobs. Pathetic state of affairs.
Well, Good On YOU, Jimmy Carter. May the space you broke open in our horrendous wall of taboo only widen and allow us to finally break on through… to sanity in our discussions of ME policy and the policies themselves. I only hope.
Here is an excerpt from the DN intro to the segment:democracy now
Hey
Havent had a chance to even read the site lately, or anything else. My mini mac’s hard drive fucking died on me… after only a year. Im borrowing a computer (boyfriend’s, while he’s out) but it is virtually impossible to use it most of the time because he is on it most of the time – it is his work. And it is very awkward for me, negotiating an entirely different (Windows) set up. Takes me longer, getting to know it…
Aside from the internal Internets stuff I havent had a chance to look at – FDL, Kos topics currently chewed on here – wanted to weigh in with Jimmy Carter.
Bless you, fucking bless you, Jimmy Carter.
I assume everyone here is aware that he is out on solo flight as a Democrat with stature, (virtually any Democrat who holds or has held public office) daring to point the finger at Israeli wrongs in the I/P Conflict, in his book Palestine, Peace Not Appartheid. I dont know how good the book is in terms of overall content and writing, but I know what his main message is and god, is it about time. A refreshing blast of sharp, fresh air, cutting thru that wall of taboo and propaganda.
Today Democracy Now devoted a full segment to a talk he gave at Borders. From it, I see our much vaunted leftists, Pelosi and Conyers, were quick to spin Dem distance from Carter out of the gobs of cotton candy, or artificial spun-sugar love for Israel, that fills the toxic abyss that is our deafening national silence, total lack of meaningful discussion, regarding the I/P CRISIS. Or conflict. Or Israeli-American joint venture in ME colonialism. (Also good segment from a few days ago on the topic, with kudos given to Carter by Ali … Electronic Intifada, and Colombia’s Edward Said Org chair, a professor, name escapes…)
I missed the Larry King interview on CNN on Mon night, but caught Carter interviewed by Woodruff 2 nights ago on News Hour… God, she was smarmy, her mouth actually contorted into a kind of nightmarish grimace-smile, melting into her surgically strained face, as he countered her CW (PRO Israeli govt, dull witted American media) questioning. He never wavered, he delivered. Apartheid, worse than in S Africa, even. Horrendous is the adjective he used to describe the treatment by the Israelis of the Palestinians. The kidnapping issue (9,000 Palestinians to an Israeli soldier – what say YOU, J Woodruff, to that?), he turned on its head. He aimed for the bullseye re our nation’s willful lack of discussion, its HORRENDOUS taboo over criticism of Israel, which sets it apart from all other places on the globe, it seems. (Land of 1st Amendment pride. Ha.) And lack of any attention over the past 6 years whatsoever to resolving it, and he means EVENhandedly. He talked of how the wall cuts into Palestinian’s already shrunk 1967 cut of land, and, of course, the settlements. I always said like rats in a maze. He said to envision a honeycomb or spider web.
Amy G says no major newspapers discussing his book, his controversial book.
I checked to see if Franken, who is loathe to criticize Israel, would give him an invite, and he did yesterday. He even shut up and let Jimmy talk. Randi Rhodes, it seems, spent a lot of time on it yesterday – caught tail end of her show, but boyfriend said she was on it a long time. She emphasized that it is DEATH to those in the limelight to discuss it without the pro Israel bias. I long ago saw that she is NOT of the AIPACed mindset on the ME, but even she has been woefully inadequate on this topic. They all are on AAR, as far as I can see, except when Jeanine Garofalo was on the air. They do it to keep their jobs, those who are sympathetic to the truth getting out. Pathetic state of affairs.
Well, Good On YOU, Jimmy Carter. May the space you broke open in our horrendous wall of taboo only widen and allow us to finally break on through… to sanity in our discussions of ME policy and the policies themselves. I only hope.
Oh sorry, MC!
Please delete the repeat of my 1st post in the 2nd post. As I said, it is quite frustrating using this computer, and I was so eager to finally post, I forgot to get rid of the repeated text in 2nd posting. Argh!
Jimmy has increasingly been out there. It is my take he is going to open up more. For one thing, I think the Clintons disgust him. I watched his body language at the Clinton Library dedication. Pretty clear. And he says more and more about Clinton and NKorea and Darfur and other things.
AND Jimmy has come a long way on I/P. He had Wolf sweating bullets the other day…. I have the link to the interview on CNN will hunt it up.
Woodruff should get a grip, she owes her career to the rise of Carter, she followed the campaign to DC (she was local GA news) and the rest is history.
Also Jimmy broke with the rules at the convention (that stupid mess in 04) and his speech was not submitted for approval… LOL.
Sorry to hear about the computer! Hope it gets straightened out… is one year under warranty?
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/28/1454248
One State or Two? Rashid Khalidi & Ali Abunimah on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Here is the other discussion from DN I referenced above.
Sigh… must get off now. He who must use this computer 24/7 is back.
Just wanted to mention how moved and upset I was to hear of the man who committed suicide to protest the war. And it wasnt even noted in the media. In Chicago. As commuters passed, he burned. Self immolation. Video taped by him, message left. Heard it on Free Speech TV today and on Randi. Wow.
Fuck the media.
Thanks MC … just passed the warranty by a few weeks. Will call today to bitch heavily about it.
Check back when I can.
Thamks for all the great info and links!
Fucking Conmen!
From Carnacki’s Rec diary’s lead in paragraph.
Goddamn congenital liars, every last one of them…
Goddamn congenital liars, every last one of them…
I note with some amusement that with the promotion of the Humble Kagro almost all the FPgers on Dana’s blog (the most boring centrist blog of them all) also have FP privileges on DK. I’m likewise amused by his appalling taste in women fpagers, something he’s been remarkably consistent about.
I expect that Fox news will admit to a civil war in Iraq before Daily Kos admits that it’s become viciously anti-liberal and centrist and has done so by deliberately purging the blog of the most liberal, voices in much the same way the DLC has purged the Democratic party.
Just more GateKeepers. And the more I read the background on (congressional) wins, where the money, organisation and human hours came from.. blogs are so far down the list it is not even funny.
Helium…