More protest… [update]

More protest… [update] 28 December 2008

Posted by marisacat in 2010 Mid Terms, Beirut, Culture of Death, DC Politics, Divertissements, Europe, Inconvenient Voice of the Voter, Israel/AIPAC, Spain, WAR!.
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David Bates: ‘I took this picture in a car park in Spain. A very imaginative use of a hole in a wall. Maybe it is a scream for help or just a clever piece of graffiti’ [Photograph: David Bates - Reader Photographs - Guardian]

I hardly go to HuffWuffMuffPo anymore.. and I am sure i miss a lot.. but it became too much like a tabloid during the primaries and the GE. Just too devoid of anything near reality.

But I dropped in and see this from Sam Stein, who I think has operated as a factoid, quote and whatever else upchucker for Obster… and is still at it…

One of Barack Obama’s chief spokesmen repeated on Sunday that it would be counterproductive for the president-elect to weigh too deeply into the crisis between Israel and Hamas while another commander-in-chief occupied the Oval Office.

But David Axelrod, appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation, did reaffirm Obama’s commitment to the “special relationship between the United States and Israel” in a way that suggested general sympathy for the Jewish state’s actions.

Speaking a day after Israeli airstrikes, targeting and destroying Hamas facilities in Gaza, killed more than 275, Axelrod said the president-elect, from on-the-ground experience, understood the urge for retaliatory action.

Last July, Obama visited Sderot, a southern Israel town on the border of the Gaza Strip that has taken the brunt of Hamas attacks, Axelrod reminded host Chip Reid. “He said then that when bombs are raining down on your citizens, there is an urge to respond and act to try to put an end to that. That’s what he said then. I think that’s what he believes.”

OH too funny… if Axelrod does not know what Ob believes then no one does.

And:

But the ascension of Hamas to political power has complicated not just regional politics but Obama’s approach to the matter. During the course of the election, his view on the organization seemed to harden. And when it was reported that his former church had reprinted a pro-Hamas op-ed in its bulletin, Obama offered deliberately strong lines of disapproval.

Hamas is a “terrorist organization,” he opined, “responsible for the deaths of many innocents, and dedicated to Israel’s destruction, as evidenced by their bombarding of Sderot in recent months. I support requiring Hamas to meet the international community’s conditions of recognizing Israel, renouncing violence, and abiding by past agreements before they are treated as a legitimate actor.”

He’s so fucking boxed in. If he does that… he’s a secret muslim! Or if he does this, then he really did listen to the Wright epistles, newsletters (given out at the services) and the various essays…

I think that suits Ob. And in the end, it all comes back to status quo.

I went back to that spineless, legless, armless post of Clemons’… to the thread … snipped from a comment:

[I] was in Israel in November listening to various Cabinet members assure the settlers on the status of peace negotiations.

Here is the deal – the Palestinians get about 75% of the west bank with Israel getting 25 years to remove the settlements that will ultimately give them about 91.7%. Israel retains control of the West Bank aquifers and all water resources in Palestinian territory. In addition, Israel controls the Jordan border and ALL ingress and egrees from the West Bank is forever under Israel control. Jerusalem for the Palestinians was a dead issue with the expansion of Har Homa meaning East Jerusalem is forever cut off from the rest of the West Bank. …

This peace crap has been going on for 40 years including the intensive Annapolis talks. If Israel really wants peace they could have had at any time over the past couple decades if they would be fair. Meanwhile the settlements expand and new ones crop up and within 10 years a two state solution will be impossible. Do you realize there are 500,000 Jews on the other side of the Green Line? Do you really think Israel would move them? That’s why the peace talks always remain talk – Israel could not move these people. That is why we get delays and subject changes(like the Gaza bombing) to indefinitely delay the time when Israel has to make serious decisions.

There’s not a lot of newer noooz around (we are in one of those holding pens of war) but down in the guts of an AFP article there is this…………. restating what’s been stated but also what is apparent to anyone sane:

[A]nd the UN envoy to the Middle East Robert Serry called for a new truce with international backing, telling AFP in an interview that there was no military solution to the conflict.

But a senior Israeli official insisted: “We have our goals and our timetable, and we don’t seek mediation.”

Israel in the meanwhile announced it would allow 100 truck-loads of humanitarian aid into Gaza on Monday but said it would maintain its crippling blockade on the impoverished territory. [...]

The beat goes on in the abattoir…

[T]he Israeli offensive sparked protests across the world. In the occupied West Bank, two demonstrators were killed in clashes with police.

Israel unleashed “Operation Cast Lead” against Hamas in the middle of Saturday morning, with some 60 warplanes hitting more than 50 targets in just a few minutes.

By Sunday, some 230 targets had been hit, the military said.

Hamas has responded by firing more than 90 rockets and mortar rounds at Israel, killing one man and wounding some 20 people.

The Israeli blitz came after days of spiralling violence since the expiry of the Gaza truce. It comes less than two months before snap parliamentary elections in Israel called for February 10.

Whenever anything big breaks out, Electronic Intifada starts running eyewitness diaries from those on the ground:

[E]yewitnesses said two Israeli missiles had destroyed the station. One had soared through a children’s playground and a busy fruit and vegetable market before striking its target.

Civilians dead

There was blood on a broken plastic yellow slide, and a crippled, dead donkey with an upturned vegetable cart beside it. Aubergines and splattered blood covered the ground. A market trader present during the attack began to explain in broken English what happened: “It was full here, full, three people dead, many, many injured.” An elderly man with a white kuffiyeh scarf around his head threw his hands down to his blood-drenched trousers and cried, “Look! Look at this! Shame on all governments, shame on Israel, look how they kill us, they are killing us and what does the world do? Where is the world, where are they, we are being killed here, hell upon them!” …snip…

It will be something, at least, of we don’t get a repeat of the silencio across the aligned blogs, like we had during the war against Lebanon in 2006.

SHAME ON THOSE WHO CHOOSE THE PARTY OVER JUST SPEAKING OUT AGAINST WAR.

Not like it requires courage, ffs.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

UPDATE, 2:02 am PT

While I was at Press TV, saw this – full text -

Mystery surrounds Gaza port condition

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 07:58:57 GMT

Israel may have bombed the Gaza seaport amid Iranian plans to send a ship to deliver humanitarian aid to the besieged coastal strip.

It seems that the Gaza seaport was the latest target of Israeli attacks, Press TV’s Gaza correspondent, Yousef al-Helou, reported after explosions were heard around the port.

It is no longer clear whether aid ships will be able to dock at the port as Tel Aviv has also bombed the area late Sunday.

The news comes amid plans for aid deliveries to the coastal area to begin via the sea.

As well, Press TV had “Breaking News”:

Medical sources have confirmed to a Press TV reporter at the scene that at least 1550 Gazans have been injured and 310 have been killed.

An earlier shipment of Iranian aid supplies has gone to Cairo by plane..

Link to Press TV’s Palestine page.

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Comments»

1. marisacat - 28 December 2008: Dennis Perrin, at the end of a post on Obama in Hawai’i, lights out in Oahu and how we are taxed to pay for the shelling and bombing and killing Gaza…

Indeed, I was surprised and pleased to see a top liblog like Firedoglake actually mention the Israeli attacks, not once but in several posts. Many of FDL’s comment threads are filled with disgust and anger toward the IDF, which is a huge step in libbyland. Where this will lead I’ve no idea. But it is something. Meanwhile, the carnage continues.

he embeds a link to the thread at issue…

LOL How many of them I wonder think Obster will “do something”… let’s see what they say as he and his retreat.

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2. marisacat - 29 December 2008: LOL we are so blessed:

Veterans of ’90s Bank Bailout See Opportunity in Current One

By ERIC LIPTON and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: December 28, 2008

WASHINGTON — A tight-knit group of former senior government officials who were central players in the savings and loan bailout of the 1990s are seeking to capitalize on the latest economic meltdown, enjoying a surge in new business in their work now as private lawyers, investors and lobbyists. …

“It is a good time to be me,” said John L. Douglas, a partner in Atlanta at the law firm Paul Hastings and a former lawyer for bank regulators who helped create the agency that administered the last federal bailout, the Resolution Trust Corporation.

Some of these former federal officials, like L. William Seidman, the first chairman of the R.T.C., are serving as advisers — sharing ideas with Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and the transition team for President-elect Barack Obama — even while they are separately directing investors or banks on how to best profit from this advice.
…snipwhippy…

Sounds like a conflict to me. In on all sides of the damned deals. Maybe incoming guy is the one to stop them… hmmm? hmmm?

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3. marisacat - 29 December 2008: Lenin has a couple of entries up on Gaza… this one excoriates a lame UK Independent editorial:

Soon, the tanks that are gathering around the borders of Gaza, this “enemy entity”, will be rolling in. As hundreds of deaths turn into thousands, the argument will be heard that no nation can tolerate missile attacks being launced against its civilians (exactly the same argument that was offered to justify the slaughter in Lebanon, and just as disingenuous). The racist logic of this argument is obvious enough: it will never occur to these people to ask why Palestinians should tolerate being occupied and confined, subject to regular killings and a military blockade.

Right, more than one kind of racism.

Maybe we will be advised that Gazans are being collectively punished because they bear collective responsibility for supporting Hamas’ slow-burning genocide against the Jews. Maybe someone will say that not enough people are dead, because too many jihadists are still alive. There might even be a benefit concert for poor, captive Sderot, with Paul McCartney singing about freedom and Maureen Lipman channelling Joyce Grenfell. Public discourse is about to get very ugly.

Public discourse is about to get very ugly

Oh I think we got that one…

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4. marisacat - 29 December 2008: From a thread at lenin, Press TV

Citing diplomatic sources, the London-based daily al-Quds al-Arabi reported Sunday that Egyptian Intelligence Minister Omar Suleiman had deceived Hamas into believing that Israel would not launch an attack on the Gaza Strip in the near future.

According to the report, the misinformation lured Hamas into not evacuating its security compounds and headquarters.

Suleiman convinced a number of Arab leaders that Israel was intending to launch only limited operations into the Gaza Strip to mount pressure on Hamas ahead of signing a new ceasefire agreement, the report added.

Egypt told Hamas on Friday evening that Israel had agreed to begin talks on a ceasefire and would not attack Gaza before Cairo ended its diplomatic efforts, the daily quoted Hamas sources close to former Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar as saying. …snip…

hmm Livni and Olmert were def shaking their fists and threatening war on Thursday, tho…………….

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5. marisacat - 29 December 2008: Michael Goodwin in NYDN says, Say Goodnight Caroline.

Sensing she’s not ready for prime time, her handlers, most of whom have connections to Mayor Bloomberg, suddenly insisted media questions be submitted in writing. The answers they provided, under their names, were vapid. And she will not, as is the campaign custom, release financial documents that reveal her wealth and holdings. We’re expected to trust she has no conflicts of interest.

Even the one job she had in public life has come into question. Apparently on the basis of a chance meeting with New York’s schools chancellor at a party on Martha’s Vineyard, she signed on as a part-time fund-raiser. How much she raised and how much she worked have been challenged, but no matter. The point is that this self-described advocate for the public schools did not send her children to them.

Enough.

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6. BooHooHooMan - 29 December 2008: Israeli Troops Mass Along Border; Arab Anger Rises
By TAGHREED EL-KHODARY and ISABEL KERSHNER 1 minute ago

Israeli troops and tanks massed along the Gaza border as the death toll increased to nearly 300 after Israeli aircraft pounded Gaza for a third day on Monday while a furious reaction spread across the Arab world.

And on and on… and on and on.

{The Pinter Vid for those who missed it}

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7. BooHooHooMan - 29 December 2008: Opps.

Mark Penn forced to Drop
People’s Judean Front
in favor of
Judean People’s Front.…

{Snip}
{Penn… Hillary …Her Nom at State…Basic Expository Blah blah bla}

Still, the details of the Pakistan contract provide a rare and revealing look at the techniques Penn’s firm promised a foreign government to use to legally influence American public opinion and official policy.

{True, that old saw::It’s what’s LEGAL that’s outrageous – BHHM}

According to the terms of a contract on file with the Department of Justice’s Foreign Agent Registration Office, Burson-Marsteller planned to interview “100 American political journalists and business elites in Washington, DC and New York, as well as elites in the United Kingdom, the European Union and Pakistani expatriates living in the United States. The contract made clear that Mark Penn’s market research consultancy Penn, Schoen, Berland & Associates would also contribute to the project.

Other efforts Burson-Marsteller would conduct on behalf of the Pakistan People’s Party included conducting “an internal brainstorming session,” authoring “white papers” by experts and academics, and drafting and seeking placement of op-ed pieces in newspapers. “Burson-Marsteller will work with the [Pakistan People's Party] to draft and seek placement of op-ed pieces on the issue and will identify appropriate ‘authors,’ depending on tone and subject,” the contract noted.

What’s more, Burson-Marsteller promised it would promote credible “third-party” supporters of Pakistan, recruiting such backers from the ranks of “former U.S. government officials involved with Pakistan during their tenure”; “Academics and think tank experts”; and “Pakistani Americans in influential positions.”

In the lobbying section of the contract, the companies committed to launching a broad public affairs campaign within the Bush Administration and the U.S. Congress, coordinating meetings for the late Prime Minister Bhutto in Washington,as well as working to “identify House and Senate champions.”

{ Well, THAT certainly turned out well, Mark.
Nothing like the Penn stamp of Excellence on a project.}

The public relations firm also promised an aggressive reach out to American journalists, such as New York Times Columnist Thomas Friedman and Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria. Burson-Marsteller planned to compose articles about the need to hold free elections in Pakistan and “place these articles in top publications.”

And finally, it said it would find Pakistani families living in the United States whose plight might make good raw material for journalists writing human-interest feature stories.

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8. BooHooHooMan - 29 December 2008: So, meanwhile,
while PropelHer Head Penn is bagging the money…
Hillary’s peeps, Bush peeps, Barack’s Peeps,
the whole country a sheeps peeps—
THE CIA- was setting Bhutto up to Assassinated.

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9. BooHooHooMan - 29 December 2008: AIPAC Founder’s Newly Declassified
Foreign Agent File Reveals Shift to Stealth Lobbying

WASHINGTON, Nov 24, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ —

Declassified US Department of Justice (DOJ) files about AIPAC founder Isaiah L. Kenen are now online

Six decades ago Americans working as registered Israeli foreign agents launched New York, Washington and Los Angeles “Israel Office of Information (IOI)” branches. Newly declassified records document IOI actions that forever changed foreign government lobbying on Capitol Hill. The 1938 Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) was strictly enforced at that time to shield the US Congress and American citizens from the effects of foreign propaganda and stealth lobbying. FARA required biannual disclosure of all propaganda activities on behalf of foreign principals to the DOJ. Beleaguered by reporting requirements and citations for deficient declarations, IOI director Isaiah L. Kenen coordinated shifting Israel lobbying away from FARA oversight, as he later noted in his book Israel’s Defense Line:
“Israelis began looking for a lobbyist to promote the necessary legislation…would I leave the Israeli delegation for six months to lobby on Capitol Hill?
“There were other questions. Should I continue my registration as an agent of the Israel government? Was it appropriate for an embassy to lobby? Embassies talked to the State Department, and American voters talked to their congressmen.”

Archival records reveal that on January 17, 1951, the Justice Department ordered Kenen to reregister if he left IOI to continue lobbying and public relations for the government of Israel. Kenen instead left IOI to lobby for arms and foreign aid legislation at the American Zionist Council (AZC) while continuing to receive Israeli government funding.

And on and on… and on and on.

The AZC’s “Kenen Committee” later launched Madison Avenue publicity, media and university honorarium payments while funding Washington and grassroots lobbying. In 1962, the DOJ also ordered the AZC to register as a foreign agent after discovering the AZC received the equivalent of $35 million from Israel. But after three years of secret legal maneuvers, the AZC negotiated and filed a secret FARA declaration before closing down in 1965. Kenen then led lobbying at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee until retiring as chairman in 1975.

Today’s document release
includes Kenen’s personal FARA declarations
and filings Kenen made as director of the IOI,
DOJ deficiency notices, and
FBI investigative inquiries in the FARA section’s
working file.

SOURCE:
Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy

And on and on… and on and on.

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10. BooHooHooMan - 29 December 2008: from Pinter’s Art, Truth, and Politics.

Mountain Language pretends to no such range of operation. It remains brutal, short and ugly. But the soldiers in the play do get some fun out of it.

One sometimes forgets that torturers become easily bored. They need a bit of a laugh to keep their spirits up. This has been confirmed of course by the events at Abu Ghraib in Baghdad. Mountain Language lasts only 20 minutes, but it could go on for hour after hour, on and on and on, the same pattern repeated over and over again, on and on, hour after hour.

Ashes to Ashes, on the other hand, seems to me to be taking place under water. A drowning woman, her hand reaching up through the waves, dropping down out of sight, reaching for others, but finding nobody there, either above or under the water, finding only shadows, reflections, floating; the woman a lost figure in a drowning landscape, a woman unable to escape the doom that seemed to belong only to others.

But as they died, she must die too.

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11. BooHooHooMan - 29 December 2008: What then canbe taken away from Pinters Ashes to Ashes?
An allegory for American Exceptionilsm? Israels?
The CKS “candidacy”? LOL.
For appointment?

Breakfast is served. I’m out

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12. Madman in the Marketplace - 29 December 2008: You Know Who We Really Hate?

I have had a ringside seat to the economic downturn this year. It is not an abstraction to me. The folks at the bottom are always the first to feel the pinch, when it comes. Clients of the agency I work at come through our doors every day requesting assistance with basic necessities like food, clothing, shelter and medications. As the year has progressed and New York State has chosen to repeatedly victimize its most vulnerable citizens, it has become more difficult to help people meet these needs. I have visited food banks with empty shelves, been told clients were ineligible for help when I knew they were and had to challenge these decisions. I have sat with clients while their applications for public assistance were reviewed by fraud investigators at social services. Our local social services department actually hired fraud investigators at the same time that it was laying off child protective workers demonstrating conclusively where our values lie and how genuinely mean spirited we are as a people. At the federal level Social Security routinely denies people eligible for benefits in the hopes that they will not reapply. Many people who receive benefits must hire a lawyer before social security will concede that they are indeed eligible. As the resources have become more limited, the level of scrutiny and inhumanity has risen accordingly.

As I contemplate how to pry a few dollars from these systems designed to humiliate and degrade my clients, already struggling with being social outcasts, chronic illness, drug addiction and mental illness I sigh audibly. I read of billion dollar bailouts and disappearing pallettes of cash as I ponder how to help a family with $400.00 so they will not be homeless in three days. I am so very tired.

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13. marisacat - 29 December 2008: 2 of BHHM and one of Madman’s out of Moderation…

……..sorry for the delay……… 8)

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14. catnip - 29 December 2008: I don’t see how the Palestinians can get to any aid brought into Gaza as it is since they’re under constant threat of being obliterated if they go out on the streets (or even if they stay home).

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15. BooHooHooMan - 29 December 2008: Lunch.

I posted about Hunter’s 22 Masterpiece on Saturday that the sum grand Total of 22 commnets.

Yesterdays piece by the inestimable Chipmunk Cheeck of Orange?
44 comments.

The current FP’s offer?
While Gaza is being pounded?
“Slow News Day” by BarbinMD.

DKoser “dansac”, armed settler he, is making a show of it,
a sacrificial circumcisory do-over in that most peculiar of DKos rituals of submission, the GBCW.

Some guy, the “Chilean Jew” or other.. meanwhile has 1700+comments
in his declared renunciation of support for Israel. Complete with invitation to log on to another site declaring that, YOU TOO will line up with others …. LOL. The Guy’s diary speaks of years seeing these atrocities feeling ….well, a bit of a tummyache…
But Today, no Today- he’s a CONVERT!
just ready to spread the Good News!
And wants YOU to log on, too…. LMAO.

Where the fuck are these people when the cops are knocking heads in DC or at the UN or in Denver? GMAFB.

Fuck Israel. Fuck their herders. Their corrals,
their Free Speech Zones …

So tired of the same M.O.

Last week, [ Move-On ] members chose their top four priorities for the organization, winnowed down from a top-10 list culled from 50,000 suggestions. The decisions they weighed would determine in large part whether the group would become a friend or foe of the Obama administration, a player or a gadfly in progressive politics, a piece of the Democratic machine or a thorn in the party’s side.

What they chose: universal health care; economic recovery and job creation; building a green economy/stopping climate change; and end the war in Iraq.

What they didn’t: holding the Bush administration accountable; fighting for gay rights and LGBT equality; and reforming campaigns and elections.

MoveOn Executive Director Eli Parisersays that this happy alignment with Barack Obama’s agenda — and fortuitous absence of conflict with same — comes in part because “the people he’s listening to and the people we’re listening to are the same people.”

Eli Pariser. What a fucking douchebag.
His Seed money patrons, too: Joan Blades and Wes Boyd.
For all that money raised and efforts, DIVERTED.

…Absolutely Nothing accomplished. Nothing.

Back to work.

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16. mattes - 29 December 2008: Merkin’s Role in the Madoff Scandal Coming to Light As Lawsuits Fly

Who is Merkin?

Jacob Ezra Merkin is an American money manager, financier and philanthropist. To many, he is known best as the chairman of GMAC and the general partner of Gabriel Capital LP, a $5 billion family of hedge funds. Previously, the Harvard honors graduate was a general partner of the Ariel Fund and a managing partner of Gotham Capital.

Merkin still serves on the board of the UJA Federation of New York, an umbrella group for Jewish activities in New York, and is a trustee of Carnegie Hall and a member of the Columbia University Board of Visitors. He has donated to a spectrum of Republican figures, from Mitt Romney during his presidential bid, to Rick Lazio, to President George W. Bush. For sure, Merkin has been a key fundraiser in Jewish circles. On December 10, 2008, just a day before the Madoff scandal erupted, Merkin held a posh fundraiser in his multi-million-dollar apartment for the Israel Museum. Indeed, Merkin has been a key philanthropist for other Israeli projects and enjoyed close personal relationships with former Israel Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as well as that country’s current Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert. A much seen press picture of Merkin shows him handing an oversized ceremonial check to an enthusiastic Sharon with a smiling Olmert looking on.

Beyond his honors and philanthropy, Merkin also manages Ascot Partners LP, a hedge fund which was valued at $1.8 billion prior to the collapse of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. It was Merkin’s decision to funnel nearly all of Ascots’ holdings into Madoff’s operation. Any ponzi scheme must have more money flowing in than flowing out. So too, Madoff’s investment firm was dependent on new flows of money coming into the firm. Merkin’s Ascot Partners LP was one of the key “feeder” funds for Madoff Investment Securities. A confidential 60-page 2006 Ascot memorandum obtained by The Cutting Edge News states on page 23, “All decisions with respect to the management of the capital of the Partnership are made exclusively by J. Ezra Merkin. Consequently, the Partnership’s success depends to a great degree on the skill and experience of Mr. Merkin.”

Clearly, Merkin’s relationship with Bernie Madoff is multifaceted and deep. Madoff served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University, as well as Treasurer of its Board of Trustees. Merkin also served as a Trustee on the Board of Yeshiva University and served on its investment committee. Yeshiva University’s endowment fund has incurred losses of $110 million, or 8 percent of the university’s endowment, according to school sources.

In addition, Merkin is the president of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue in New York City. Members of this synagogue have lost an estimated $2 billion. His father, Hermann Merkin, was an icon of Jewish philanthropy who gave millions to help build Yeshiva University, the Fifth Avenue Synagogue and Merkin Concert Hall. This legacy was wiped out in a matter of a few days, according to outspoken criticism in the Jewish community. Among Synagogue members losing millions were: Ira Rennert – $200 million; Elie Wiesel—$37 million; Michael Jesselson—$1.3 million. The main reason so many Fifth Avenue Synagogue members invested with Madoff was the powerful recruiting effort put forth by Merkin.

It is unclear what benefit Merkin received from Madoff for his recruiting efforts, only that Merkin was a prolific source of funds for the scam. Interestingly enough, numerous professional investors at the synagogue refused to invest with Madoff. Joseph Sprung, a synagogue member and financial advisor, decided not to invest when a former client informed him that “it was not legit.”

Ironically, while the nation is littered with sharp financial eyes who guessed or concluded that Madoff was a scam, complaints to the highest levels of the SEC were ignored for a decade.

The most shocking revelation to investors, who were paying Mr. Merkin a 1.5 percent management fee plus 20 percent of the profits to manage their money in his Ascot Partners LP hedge fund, was that the entire fund was invested with Madoff. These investors were paying high fees to Mr. Merkin for his investment expertise. Little did they know that he was just feeding the funds through to Madoff Securities. One investor had asked him directly whether he had invested all the funds with Bernie Madoff. His answer was reportedly “no.” The auditors for Ascot Partners LP were BDO Seidman. If the entire fund was invested with Madoff Securities, it seems logical that an auditor would verify that the funds actually existed. Trusting the investment statements produced by Madoff without verification of the figures seems, on its face, to be negligent on the part of BDO Seidman.

Many feel the truth will be revealed in many courts of law, as lawsuits fly. New York Law School, which has lost $3 million investing in the Ascot fund, has already filed a lawsuit against Merkin and BDO Seidman.

http://www.thecuttingedgenews.com/index.php?article=1009&pageid=37&pagename=Page+One

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17. mattes - 29 December 2008: Funny, I see some of Paul Findley youtube videos on aipac disappearing. See the whole category of Jews in Business gone from wiki. hmmm.

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18. marisacat - 29 December 2008: Electronic Intifada:

[T]he massive air strikes came after a food crisis broke out in Gaza, as Israel’s banning of imports into the Strip have depleted stocks of flour and cooking gas, causing some bakeries — the few still in operation — to resort to baking bread made out of animal feed. On 18 December, the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) was forced to stop its food aid delivery to 750,000 refugees in the Gaza Strip.

These measures of collective punishment are resulting in “the breakdown of an entire society,” according to economist Sara Roy, who asks in a commentary published recently by The London Review of Books, “How can keeping food and medicine from the people of Gaza protect the people of Israel?”…

“Israel seems intent to mark the end of its 60th year of existence the same way it has established itself — perpetrating massacres against the Palestinian people. …

****

Ali Abunimah in the Guardian:

[D]iplomatic fronts, such as the US-dominated Quartet, continue to treat occupier and occupied, coloniser and colonised, first-world high-tech army and near-starving refugee population, as if they are on the same footing. Hope is fading that the incoming administration of Barack Obama is going to make any fundamental change to US policies that are hopelessly biased towards Israel.

In Europe and the Middle East, the gap between leaders and led could not be greater when it comes to Israel. Official complicity and support for Israel contrast with popular outrage at war crimes carried out against occupied people and refugees with impunity…..

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19. marisacat - 29 December 2008: Meanwhile I read in Ha’aretz:

Underground medicine

Ashkelon’s hospital moves essential departments into an underground bomb shelter.

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20. marisacat - 29 December 2008: mattes is out of moderation ….

sorry for the delay.. making coffee.. kind of a long process here….

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21. marisacat - 29 December 2008: 16

I need to inform you that Merkin appears to be a Joo. You are a Joo Hater.

They are ALL Joos I see. Well maybe not Rick Lazio.

LOL Personally I think we were all in it together.. Jew Wasp Whoever. Is there a smiley for Congealing Fuckball?

On the other side of the whirled: It is certainly mixed message ordnance being dropped on the heads of the Palestinians…

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22. BooHooHooMan - 29 December 2008: Cue Boyle up at 2:20 from last summer

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23. mattes - 29 December 2008: Merkin, a Jew?? How can you tell.

I am still counting on a change from ObamaCo.

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24. marisacat - 29 December 2008: FFS: Hamas strategy of Elevation ?? wtf? IS THERE A SMILEY FOR CONGEALING FUCKBALL??????????

Jsut the blurb in the Spiegel email, alone…

The Gaza Conflict: Hamas’ Strategy of Escalation

The Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip entered its third day on Monday
with over 300 Palestinians now dead. The Arab world is up in arms, and with Palestinians as fragmented as ever, the dream of an independent country seems no closer today than it did decades ago.

LINK

ugh.. from the text, after it summarises all the rising jihadists on earth rallying for the Pals. As if.

But as bloody as the Israeli offensive has been, it comes largely as the result of a deeply cynical calculation on the part of Hamas. The Islamist group must have known that Israel would not tolerate the incessant cross-border rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip indefinitely. Since the six-month cease-fire between Hamas and Israel ended on Dec. 19, dozens of rockets once again began landing well inside Israel, killing one civilian last week and another, an Arab-Israeli, on Monday.

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25. marisacat - 29 December 2008: 23

well mattes, he ws a feeder to Madoff. Of course he is a Joo.

[for those reading along and not eating their Wheaties every morning, this was a JOKE]

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26. marisacat - 29 December 2008: The generators are dying.. Israel has blockaded diesel fuel…

[W]ith Israel showing no sign of heeding international calls for an end to hostilities the people of Gaza were left guessing what the next range of targets would include.

The centre of Gaza City was plunged into darkness after the local power station stopped functioning because Israel had refused to allow deliveries of diesel oil needed by the generators.

Israel provides most of the power to the Gaza Strip although a local power station, bombed by Israel in 2006 but now partially repaired, provided electricity to Gaza City’s most densely populated area.

The antiquated switching system of Gaza’s power distribution network meant that the power still coming in from Israel could not be diverted to Gaza City so the hundreds of thousands of people got set for lengthy power cuts.

Israel took care to justify the bombing raids on the Islamic University issuing the following statement. …snip…

From the Telegraph

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27. BooHooHooMan - 29 December 2008: Frida Berrigan:
Dismantling Peace Movement Myths{ – Youtube }

So many gems.

Myth Four: We are not smart enough to end the war…..

Our role is to say: you do not need to have a PhD in foreign affairs to say that the war is wrong, to say that withdrawal needs to be immediate and complete, to say that we should not be spending our blood and treasure on wars of preemptive aggression based on lies…………

The U.S. occupation is a catalyst and cause of violence, not the deterrent.

The immediate and complete withdrawal is not a process;
it is an executive order.
::
::
Myth Five: We can elect our way to an end to war.

But, if we can’t stand up for all of that, we fall back on another myth — the myth that we can express our anti-war sentiments through candidates. That the democratic majority in Congress — the so-called revolution of 2006 — or an Obama or Clinton in the White House — will fulfill our anti-war agenda. The myth is that the right politician will say the right thing at the right time. Those magical incantations will part the quagmire like Moses parted the Red Sea and allow a new administration to do right what Bush did so wrong. It is a myth.

It is a myth. And I am not just saying this because I have found the last two years of campaigning emotionally and physically exhausting. And I’m not even running. Just watching it is irritating at this point.

Politicians will not save us. Democracy is not lever pulling or chad punching. It is not branding and messaging and framing and divining the new micro-interest group. It is not one day every two or four years. And it certainly is not the elaborate and vicarious puppetry spectacle and pageantry of the last eight years.

The name plate on the desk in the Oval Office is a very very small part of what we need to be working for. And yet the election sucks all the oxygen out of the room — especially this one when there are racial and gender milestones at stake. And it sucks all the money out of the room. And it sharpens the lines that divide us.

And when we cede the answers to some politician, we invest in other people and in other systems what we really need to be investing in ourselves, in one another and in our movements. It puts our hope and our energy in the hands of people with other agendas and other masters.

Full Text.

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28. mattes - 29 December 2008: marcat…I don’t knooooow, He might be faking it.

I really hope some of the money is cut off.

Well, so today CNN is finally reporting on I/P. A little bias, but at least they are no longer ignoring it.

maybe hamas intended this over play by Israel, and they were ready to be sacrificed. Just wish they could have hung a little longer before escalating this. More orphans, newest terrorists/freedom fighters.

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29. marisacat - 29 December 2008: 12

We have a brutal caste system. I wonder we have not started some decorative identification routine, a la India.

Attention: Poor Schlob, would you like a large dark dot for your forehead, or would you like a small red one?

High forehead, bald head, glasses and you are a BRAHMIN, like Paulson. The sneer is the really revealing touch. And that he is likely some sort of fascist.

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30. marisacat - 29 December 2008: 28

maybe hamas intended this over play by Israel, and they were ready to be sacrificed.

Oh I am nto saying I TRUST Hamas leadership, that would be a waste of my time… but the tone from Spiegel was that Hamas is utterly culpable..

I always lay immense blame on the dominant, the better armed, the richer. The US supported. Makes sense to me at least..

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31. BooHooHooMan - 29 December 2008: mattes!
Obama.
=
lay down
fall down
DEM.

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32. marisacat - 29 December 2008: Berrigan via BHHM:

Politicians will not save us. Democracy is not lever pulling or chad punching. It is not branding and messaging and framing and divining the new micro-interest group. It is not one day every two or four years. And it certainly is not the elaborate and vicarious puppetry spectacle and pageantry of the last eight years.

hmm make that a longer stretch of time and I agree. Puppetry and pageantry my entire life, most certainly my entire adult life. And as I keep saying, Obster has no personal power. NONE.

I just heard some drivel about how “tested” and “proven” he is.

WHERE? HOW? WHEN?

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33. BooHooHooMan - 29 December 2008: Obama’s a fuckin politician.
Jesus. Even Madoff didn’t bag 500 million a year coming out of the gate.

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34. catnip - 29 December 2008: 28. Well, so today CNN is finally reporting on I/P. A little bias, but at least they are no longer ignoring it.

Rick “The Dolt” Sanchez: (paraphrased) What?? You’re saying that these killings are political?

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35. mattes - 29 December 2008: #33..lol.

Gotta have some hope, if only hanging by a paper clip.

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36. marisacat - 29 December 2008: Obama means only the best for all, funny how his words always help the bombers, the Warrens, the Prop 8 religionists – or those who think women have abortions becuase they are “blue” and he’ll stop that!….. and it works for Ehud Barak (omigod he’s a Joo!).. via Ha’aretz:

Barak also cited a comment made by U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, who visited Sderot during his election campaign earlier this year.

“Obama said that if rockets were being fired at his home while his two daughters were sleeping, he would do everything he could to prevent it,” Barack told the plenum.

The defense minister went on to say that Israel is engaged in a “war to the bitter end” against Hamas in Gaza.

Barak added that the massive air assault Israel launched beginning Saturday is aimed not at Gaza’s residents but at the territory’s Hamas rulers. He said the operation’s goal is to force Hamas to stop its hostile actions directed at Israeli civilians.

And some more… gonna be a long siege:

“Hamas is responsible for everything that happens in Gaza and which emanates from it,” the defense minister said. “This operation will be widened, deepened as we see fit.”

Barak told the assembled lawmakers that the defense establishment spent months preparing for the Gaza operation.

Likud chairman MK Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the Arab protests while calling on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to dismiss minister Raleb Majadele, the lone Arab serving in the cabinet.

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37. marisacat - 29 December 2008: via The page:

The Bush administration again condemns attacks in region Monday, insists Hamas “stop firing rockets into Israel.”

White House spokesman Johndroe releases a statement from Bush’s Crawford ranch saying an end to the violence depends on getting Hamas to “agree to respect a sustainable and durable cease-fire.”

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38. marisacat - 29 December 2008: More ha’aretz… Livni says “don’t even talk to me!”

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni lashed out at Hamas in her remarks, imploring foreign leaders to not judge Israel solely on the images broadcast on television screens.

“Israel is acting against Hamas and not against the population,” Livni said. “We are once again making clear that whoever has complaints over the state of the population should take them to those who have responsibility over the situation there – Hamas.”

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39. mattes - 29 December 2008: Olmert instructs top officials not to refer possibility of truce

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert instructed his top officials to refrain from speaking of a possible ceasefire with Hamas.

The decision followed a briefing attended by Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, Shin Bet Chief Yuval Diskin and Mossad Chief Meri Dagan. (Roni Sofer)

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3646866,00.html

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40. BooHooHooMan - 29 December 2008: True, the puppetry and pagentry ….
much longer than the last 8 years.

I thought Berrigan stepped up in laying out Ob and His Mom,though.

Re Puppets and Masters,
I’d prefer that no one is in the military…
And – At least here in the U.S. – some folks agree…
Ironic or heartening?
Let’s hope for the latter.

Jews make up only two tenths of one percent
of US Armed Forces

Los Angeles, Alta California – November 14, 2003 – (ACN) The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles made a startling revelation today when writer Phil Shuman wrote, “Only some 3,000 out of 1.4 million active duty servicemen and women are Jewish, about two-tenths of one percent. When it comes to Marines, the numbers are even more startling. It’s one out of 1,000. One-tenth of one percent.” . Los Angeles, Alta California – November 14, 2003 – (ACN) The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles made a startling revelation today when writer Phil Shuman wrote, “Only some 3,000 out of 1.4 million active duty servicemen and women are Jewish, about two-tenths of one percent. When it comes to Marines, the numbers are even more startling. It’s one out of 1,000. One-tenth of one percent.”

another link FWIW.
A lot of historical ref’s googlable from WWll, of course.
But Almost crickets as to precise numbers today.
Seems to square with the less than 5000 out of 1.4 million active duty and .8 million Reserve…

One Major Ass Hat asked after 9/11:
Where are the Jews in the U.S. military?

Better percentages back then in Wolfowitz’s Strategic Planning Op
and, of course in Congress now…très difficile to google precise numbers on it tho…A bit dated the links above, but who knows? Maybe there will be a huge uptick in laid off lawyers and brokers, dispossessed Foundation types just dying to sign up,.. Help Old Uncle Sam make that new 30 Thousand Recruiting Goal….

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41. diane - 29 December 2008: Tribes and tribalism

Unfortunately…on this earth…(this reality?…..who’s mine?)…we are tribal…”our website (kisses to Marisa)” is no exception….

What does it all mean?

well I don’t know, I get gut feelings of something really benevolent that brings us all butterflies of something kinder…other than that…. well I hope something has made every single one of us feel like they’re a part of something worth having to live for….because it’s pretty fuckin hard to go about ending one’s life “in this realm”….

……..they looks tasty……………what about ‘is legs?………..’e don’t need em

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42. lucid - 29 December 2008: I slogged through the first couple hundred comments in the Dkos diary linked a few threads back… I must say I’m so glad I no longer participate in that truly awful community. Such a waste of time.

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43. catnip - 29 December 2008: 36.

Likud chairman MK Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the Arab protests while calling on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to dismiss minister Raleb Majadele, the lone Arab serving in the cabinet.

Racist asshole.

I saw a clip of Obamalama coming down the stairs of a plane with one of his daughters who was wearing a peace symbol t-shirt. Too bad she doesn’t know just how into war her father is.

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44. marisacat - 29 December 2008: AN Israeli died in Ashdod. AN Israeli died in the Negev. Barak says Hamas threatens to assassinate Livni. And assassinate Barak.

IT’S WAR! The headlines in Ha’aretz are like some bloody comedy.

This will go on some time.

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45. marisacat - 29 December 2008: 40

I jsut saw a breakdown of numbers in Congress, by religion. Last night in a blither of reading. If I can find it will post. ALL groups were over represented iirc. Think they counted Jews at over 7% of congress and they identifed them, adults only (hmm maybe limited to last census?) … as 1.7% of the pop. But as I said, all groups were higher percentage in congress than in the nation.

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46. BooHooHooMan - 29 December 2008: Tribes and tribalism. -diane

yeh ,wèll.~~~.

except for the Warring Tribes part.
even the “peaceable” ones no? …
Well, ~maybe~ not…
at least not the Chosen and various visions of Lambs of God.
I mean, It was written right there in The Book. Or Two! Or Three!
How cool is THAT!??

afterall,
.
.
somebody’s gottta lead the others into –
or out of-
The Promised Land.

But maybe we shouldn’t criticize that.
Or at least go Halfsies… go “Dutch”. …Like….
All the way to the Hague.

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47. diane - 29 December 2008: ….my blood brother dove head first out of a second story window believing the devil was after him…hopped up on his feet in some other reality….. while a neighbor rushed and saved him ..because his blood was flowing like water……truest of stories, and lives to tell…….no doubt…the devil was after him……

thank you Dr. Noodleman………………and hugs to ya……………..

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48. marisacat - 29 December 2008: 43

LOL slap an [false] ad on the kid. Why not. He’s used his daughters in examples that ended up undying headlines. For abortion (baby as punishment) and for war (Barak of Israel is using it now….)

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49. diane - 29 December 2008: that actuallty was his name..at least phonetically on this earth…Dr. Noodleman….

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50. mattes - 29 December 2008: Oh may god, you guys are right just show a video interview of Caroline….not really for primetime!

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51. mattes - 29 December 2008: ..just saw.

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52. marisacat - 29 December 2008: mattes

in her NYT interview she used “you know” ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY EIGHT TIMES.

I caught myself at 14 saying it too much (I have no idea where I picked it up, either) and I made sure I dropped it. Pronto.

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53. diane - 29 December 2008: …not only did he hop back up on his feet in some other reality…but , he physically hopped back up on his feet on this earth……is the thrill really gone hons?

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54. marisacat - 29 December 2008: First Read overview of recent CKS interviews, subsequent reporting, etc…. my guess, what little tide there was has turned.

But you know, CNN has a recent national poll (so vital for a NYS senator!) and 52% say she is qualified. LOL.. Democracy has failed, evidently. Fully.

Too little there there.

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55. diane - 29 December 2008: ahhh…the days of hagus, gvelte fish….hogshead cheese and badly prepared shitlins ooops chitlins…..exploding ……gimme some brass bells and let the tune resound….who knows waz up nut (oops but )the ride is certainly inetersting?

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56. diane - 29 December 2008: oopsie forgot the goatshead stew…saw that,….. at,….. of all places,…yosemite national……….

who gets the eyeballs?….are they prized?

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57. diane - 29 December 2008: what would the season be without this

The Beatitudes

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely………..

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you….”

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58. diane - 29 December 2008: …I still beleive it to be true …but then again I’m quite the insane asshole..and certainly never make it to sun-day “WAL-MART – MASS”

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59. diane - 29 December 2008: ….ah…yes and jesus was a jew, but more improtantly, a human,….. (according to many) ….who would die before he would let palestinian shepards minding their own sheep…to be blown….to smithereens……

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60. marisacat - 29 December 2008: A blog I got onto thru Democracy NOW!

http://a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com/

“I was out in the souk when the strikes began- I saw the missiles falling and prayed; the earth shook; the smoke rose; the ambulances screamed” he said, the sirens audible in the background. he was on talateeni street at the time of the attacks, just a few streets down from one of the attack sites.

My mother was in the Red Crescent Society clinic near the universities at the time of the initial wave of attacks, where she works part-time as a pediatrician. Behind the clinic was one of the police centers that was leveled. She said she broke down at first, the sheer proximity of the attacks having shaken her from the inside out. After she got a hold of herself, they took to treating injured victims of the attack, before they transferred them to Shifa hospital.

There, she said, medical supplies were in short supply: face masks, surgical gloves, gowns…

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61. diane - 29 December 2008: …”importantly” too…. what the fuck ever….i guess we get to find out…

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62. diane - 29 December 2008: ;0)

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63. BooHooHooMan - 29 December 2008: the numbs of Zionists, and similarly tweaked ass kissing Catholics, Rapturistas, Mormons etc…, the numbers are truly a disaster when it comes to key leverage points within Congress, State houses, Courts , regulatory agencies,e.g. The SEC… Hello@!??? Guys?? _-
You married off that nice young Jewish Guy – The “investigator” to
Bernie Madoff’s NIECE / SLASH! / Compliance Lawyer.l???!!! LOL..
Hoist those chairs! Mazal tov!! LOL.

Take the Senate Judiciary Committee – Please.
A place that, Henny Youngman aside, theoretically, could do away with the lawlessness of our Regime, perhaps by looking inward–:: Yeh maybe–If uh, the Ranking Member for so many years wasn’t a drunken Irish lout who killed a girl then swam away… maybe if it wasn’t all about money anyways…

Senate Judiciary Committee:

Good Catholics: 5 Teddy Kennedy, Dicky No Turbin, Bidenysm, Sam the Whack Brownback, And Patty the Pushover / Put Up with Cheney’s Potty Mouth Leahy. LOL. Christ, back in the day our NUNS taught us how to kick the shit out of Lotharios like Kennedy and avoid the cussing. Didn’t Leahy get the briefs? Not even Teddy’s?

Jews: 6 Schumer, DiFi, Kohl, Feingold, Specter, Cardin.

Then there’s the Love Em Some Fundy Nutballers:
Lindsey Graham, Jeff Sessions, Tom Coburn, Cornyn, Chuck Grassley, , Kyl, etc.
The Catholics and Jews cross-dressing for the occasion.

19 members:. 6 Jewish. 31 percent.
5 Very Good Catholic Boys.
Hatch the Mormon.
Sheldon Whitehouse the circumspect Episcopalian.
Fundy Plugs in the rear. With all those VERY GOOD PEOPLE…
Bush’s noms to the Bench? Confirmed.

With all those VERY GOOD PEOPLE…
Cheney Walked. Bush? – Walked.
Rumsfeld? Wofowitz? Feith? Gonzales? Rove?
Walked ,Walked, Walked, Walked, Walked.
Gitmo? Still Open.

And on and on… and on and on.

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64. diane - 29 December 2008: …thinking of Joni Mitchells’s “Sire of Sorrow”…….

we all want to get to that kind place………………but something seems to prevent us………………….

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65. BooHooHooMan - 29 December 2008: As for criticism that says:

“Well it’s not like anyone votes in one block…blubbarubbadubba.”

They don’t have to
Consistency of any one position of ANYONE is soooo OVER.
They can trade votes at will.
As long as it has nothing to do with Money and the MIC.

And right now?

Our Money and the MIC are wantonly dropping high explosives on an abandoned starving lot of people, a people consigned to a provincial Ghetto known as Gaza.

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66. marisacat - 29 December 2008: I’d rather hang with Ginsberg and Breyer… than the 5 Catholics on the SCOTUS.

Those Catholics are fucking scary.

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67. diane - 29 December 2008: …ah well …….In the meantime…..(words always fall short….far short)…speaking for myself shades of Armando?..OF COURSE….despite ourselves, we are profoundly interested in one another, well we all do live in each other’s shadow…I may live in your shadow, yet you live in mine…………is likely the reality at the end of the day…

where it all ends?……..if it does end? my gut is that love wins over hate…….hate is truly a dead end.

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68. BooHooHooMan - 29 December 2008: Diane
I tell you this because as an artist I think you’ll understand.

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69. diane - 29 December 2008: love that line:……..what is the reason for your heavy hand….…we can’t all be everything….sometimes we absolutely mean no harm…yet we perpetrate…………….I’ve spoken a lot of idiocy in my fifty three plus years…but I believe my prior sentence should hit some heart strings…liver strings…what have you…can’t put it in words….simplicity is relevant what is in your gut before you head towards ending your/a life?

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70. marisacat - 29 December 2008: neue thread……………………………..

LINK

…………………….. 8) …………………..

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71. diane - 29 December 2008: …boo hoo hoo man…I’ve always loved a man who was able to weep….because I know you do, and have just a little inlking in my misery………gonna put that link on hold…cause I’m quite late in an obligation I’ve made…Frankly everything I write ends up echoing potentially cheap and tawdry…after it’s visible on an internet screen..but I do mean it, I will visit your gift!

;0)

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72. BooHooHooMan - 29 December 2008: Catholics on the Supreme Court

You mean the Inquisition?

Oh but they’re not REALLY Catholics…
Their Catholicism has nothing to do with it. LOL…Or So it goes…

Ginsberg and Breyer are both Brilliant, truly – not in that
assumed-to-be-so-manner too easily afforded Supremes…. As near as I can tell, { hey, consider the source}Ginsberg and Breyer don’t have a prejudicial bone in their bodies.

It’s funny though, , listening to some of the oral arguments, RBG inserts her wit so very well… and Breyer has made me LOL in some of the dissembly he has served to barristers…actually the best sense of humor among the Supremes IMO.

2 of few appointments Clinton could say “he” got right…

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Marisacat