Tiny bit… 2 June 2010
Posted by marisacat in Culture of Death, DC Politics, Israel/AIPAC, Turkey, WAR!.trackback
Stop the Violence: art made of human bones by Francois Robert -
He spends hours painstakingly arranging the bones into striking shapes each five or six feet wide and photographs them. “I spend a lot of time on my knees,” he says. “You can imagine how my knees hurt when I decided to create a complete alphabet in order to make words along with the symbols/images”
[FRANCOIS ROBERT / CATERS]
****
In an interview with Fox News, he [Michael Oren, Israeli Ambassador to the UN] described the operation, in which nine people died, as “perfectly legal, perfectly humane – and very responsible”.
Is that anything like Rumsfeld describing the the invasion, bombing of Baghdad as “Oh the humanity!”
He defending the attack in open waters, saying: “Israel acted in accord with international law. Any state has the right to protect itself, certainly from a terrorist threat such as Hamas, including on the open seas.
“The US acted under similar international law when it fought the Germans and the Japanese in World War Two.” snip
All things considered (remember Leon Uris and Exodus) it’s a bit of a stretch. Just a bit. Bitty bit. Wittle bit.
***************
Some details on Emily Henochowicz:
American student loses eye in protest in Israel
….Emily Henochowicz, 21, lost her left eye and surgeons at Hadassah Hospital inserted three metal plates into her face Tuesday. ….
There are various articles in the press (including on the left, and by “left I don’t mean Josh Marshall) with the general theme of “Why Israel should have known better”. The implication is that the flotilla action was a political mistake, too harsh. I had that reaction at first.
Was it? Or was the message, “we don’t care for what the public reaction will be, and don’t for a minute think we won’t use our nuclear weapons even if it affects civilians”
I think that’s the message. Crystal clear.
I agree…
…“we don’t care for what the public reaction will be, and don’t for a minute think we won’t use our nuclear weapons even if it affects civilians”
Sure does seem to sum it up, pretty much identical to the message the US CorpGov, pukes out.
It was a fuck-you to Turkey and Obama.
I think it was also a very calculated move to continue to deflect attention away from the WB, where a lot is happening.
I agree, an updated version of Nixon’s Madman theory
Apparently Joe Biden wil be on Charlie Rose tonight. Some snips:
he is so full of shit.
Gaza flotilla: How Israel’s ministry of foreign affairs fakes photos of seized weapons
Publié le juin 2, 2010 par ibnkafka
”On the Israeli ministry of foreign affairs’ Flickr page, the pictures of the so-called weapons seized on the ships taking part in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla provide ample evidence of the deviousness of those darned anti-semitic terrorists. Be forewarned: the following pictures are not for the faint-hearted.
Exhibit A: bulletproof vests
piccy
A slight snag though: two commentators, probably anti-semitic, point out that this photo really is from February 2006:
Blue says: In addition, IsraelMFA has to be careful with the date settings of their cameras! This picture looks like it was taken on Feb 7, 2006.. Wth?
goplayer2008 says:
EXIF data
Date and Time (Modified): 2010:06:02 10:37:58
YCbCr Positioning: Co-sited
Exposure Program: Aperture-priority AE
Date and Time (Original): 2006:02:07 04:49:57
Date and Time (Digitized): 2006:02:07 04:49:57
snip
Finally, the smoking gun as it were: aa butterfly knife of sorts, with a blade slightly shorter than a thumb, a weapon ideally suited for use against marine commandos armed with high-velocity firearms:
piccy
If all this hard evidence isn’t enough to convince you of the legitimacy of the Israeli action, I rest my case.
PS: Hurry up visiting that Flickr page, as I fear that some photos might be withdrawn soon…”
bolding mine, hat tip to Philip Weiss
Above and beyond that, I think I would’ve wanted one of those bullet proof vests were I on that boat, at the very least.
They – Israeli mil spokespersons – have also said, forget who might have been Mark Regev…. that the terrists TOOK the guns from the IDF and then shot at them wiht the purloined WMD.
Somehow or oher only militants insurgents and terrists got shot. Etc.
As people reach home or host countries tho, other stories are comng out…
Those spokespersons, are obviously from that ancient School of: Keep tellin that Lie with Full Out Umbrage at the Accusations cause most honest folk will amazingly be befuddled and back down from the accusation, not being used to such blatant outrageous lies right up in their face by those in a position of responsibility to civilians. I’m positive there are a multitude of Whitepapers on this, written by upper echelon, psychotic APA members.
The Befuddle/Back Down Syndrome, is said to be related to the Stockholm Syndrome, in some circles.
Biden’s comment
So what’s the big deal here?,
noted in the post above by Marisa , is a more subtle variation on that theme of Malicious and Undeserved Umbrage.
And of course as fun loving and puppyish as Biden may seem, he would never ever accept that his vital needs were hijacked in such a sadistic way as was done in the effort to provide vital needs to those in Gaza.
(Indeed, what did you have to say about this,….or this? …….. BIDEN? ….. MONSTER?
“They fired many canisters at us in rapid succession. One landed on either side of Emily, then the third one hit her in the face,” said Soren Johanssen, a Swedish ISM volunteer who was standing with Henochowicz at the protest.
link)
and …..A word, or more, …… from Israel : Promised Land
news and opinion from Israel:
Flotilla: VP Biden justifies Israel (but gets his facts wrong), UK Prime Minister condemns raid
Excerpt:
”Check out my op-ed on the flotilla affair, from the Israeli point of view, in the Jewish Daily Forward:
…Amid feelings of sorrow and anger, Israelis should be asking one simple question: What were the soldiers doing aboard an unarmed private vessel, carrying hundreds of civilians — hostile and violent as they may have been — dozens of miles from Israel’s territorial waters?”
I gather Biden is on his way or perhaps already there, to Brussels…
In NYC, at a soemthing or other for the Brooklyn Bridge, he said NYC is “like San Francisco”.
I think the Biden pick was two things, the Dems fucking freaked over the war in S Ossetia. They needed some foreign policy cred for the ticket.. and, like Spiro Agnew pick by Nixon, it was some insulation insurance. Obby may be half dead … by now, but Biden is a motor mouth and a scrwball idiot.
GOOD LUCK, may they all bite each other to death.
Tiny Revolution has anothe post up on Emily H… and checking the comments, she may be the daughter fo a Tel Aviv born medical doctor.
Thanks for that. Interesting, I hope her dad gives quite a few folks, the nailing they deserve, not that the buzzards appear to be capable of any remorse, or anything approaching shame.
duh
The Truth About Drones- They are inspiring homegrown terror.
1) Butt-ugly banana tent skirt
2) Harry Reid scaring children
Leesssay we call it even with the whole
soda schnortled thru the nose thing.
I’m not sure of what to make of this dichotomy that Richard Seymour poses here
Given the last two or three sentences, I would assume he doesn’t buy either one of these two narratives (as of course neither do I as I said above), although that’s not entirely clear.
The incident was a strategic calculation: meant to convince everybody that Israel will act regardless of what the public relations consequences are. It said in particular, Iran take notice.
what he says that I don’t agree with, is that this, all of this, will ”buy some breathing space for Gaza”.
I don’t think so.
As an addendum, and I don’t know from whom this is actually coming, but there are reports that Hamas will not open their side at Rafah (not as of yesterday) and that when a small (and I do mean small, a few trucks, not the hundred + it would take to move the tonnes and tonnes of stuff on the flotilla) convoy arrived at Gaza, Hamas would nto accept the flotilla aid.
I am sure this is a much more complicated story then is presented… but……….
I don’t see any breathing space for Gaza from all of this…
Nancy Pelosi exposed her vacuous brain at a conference.
Did he promise not to come in your mouth? Oh, wait, that was the Priest.
A freak. On wheels.
Well, yes Madman, but
have you heard about the Word? Because,
The Bird Bird Bird,
the Bird is the Word.
Bird Bird Bird…
and so forth.
She is probably headed somewhere long winded and boring, about The Speaker and The Word.
Jesus speaks to La Nan.
On the Down Low.
I swear, the jokes write themselves! They really do!
Jesus, yes, the Word made Flesh, speaks to La Nan.
Yet, we are reminded that God the Father also speaks, that is,
A Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow a Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow,
Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow a Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow
and so forth.
Writes themselves! Shving!
It is! Like reciting a creed! As much sense, anyways!
In there somewhere is a correntewire post showing the sinkhole in Guatemala (and it really is astounding…) and calling it “obama’s ego”.
The jokes do write themselves…
there are some amazing shots of that sinkhole at the end of this photo set. Scroll to the end.
Which word would that be? “Fairytale”?
Did you say ‘Word” ? Because the word word word, the B-
I’m still bopping to your last performance.
from Aljazeera:
Echoes of the past in Israeli ship raid
By Andrew Wander in Middle East on June 2nd, 2010
It was a military raid on a civilian ship bound for Palestine, carried out in the international waters of the Mediterranean to prevent the boat from reaching its blockaded destination.
When the soldiers boarded they met with stiffer resistance than they expected, and so they used force, killing some of the passengers and injuring many others.
The commandeered ship was towed to port and the survivors were detained, before being deported amid a storm of international condemnation.
The year was 1947, and the boat – the Exodus 1947- was carrying Jewish refugees seeking to land without the permission of the British military force in charge of Palestine.
The incident, which left three dead, is now seen as a key event in the lead up to the end of the British mandate in Palestine and the establishment of the state of Israel.
Israeli historians will be hoping that this week’s raid on the humanitarian flotilla that was bound for Gaza will not be Israel’s own Exodus moment.
It is too early to tell whether the incident will change the way the world sees Israel’s strangling blockade of the Gaza Strip. But the parallels between this week’s events and those of 1947 will be enough to worry Israeli historians.
snip whippety
.
Except that it won’t…
Well, I’m sure it won’t worry all of them, but I’m betting it is worrying at least some of them.
a jewish woman mp tried to physically attack the arab woman mp who was on the flotilla, when she tried to speak in the knesset… they had to pull her off and bundle off, stage right..
There are some articles in Haaretz on various incidents in the Knesset. Also BBC on their newscast this evening had a video of that particular incident.
that is where I caught it, BBC….
Ugh, I hope MK Hanin Zoabi stays alive, sounds like it was a courageous action she took in the Knesset. Found these articles:
‘Facebook’ page issues assassination threat to Palestinian Knesset member who was on flotilla
Israeli Arab MK who joined Gaza flotilla: IDF raid was a ‘pirate’ operation
‘Joining the flotilla – a mitzva’
MK Regev tells Zoabi: Go to Gaza, traitor! – Fight breaks out in Knesset as members turn violent towards Arab MK who took part in Gaza flotilla
Gaza as a proving ground for neo-liberal systems of social control
.Pretty Damning.
Another Drop Out of Sen Race for White House Job Case surfacing…
Andrew Romanoff: W.H. offered three jobs
Hmmm. The Prtzeldent is a lawyer…right?
Isn’t there somethin scrawled down somewhere about how ya can’t use da Gubmint money to buy off political challengers with Gubmint paid jobs? Depriving the Public of services?
Why yes I think there is. I seem to remem hearin sumpin like it in the funny papers. Welp. Great timing given the webporn surfing, meth snorting MMS as BP blew.
And… They guy rleased an EMAIL from Messina.
Dated Sept 11th! High Holy Day of the Empire! See ya, Messina!
ILLEGAL. WDTPK&WDHKI?
I bet Messina (Rahm’s deputy CoS ) leaves with Mr Naked Shower Guy’s knife visibly implanted in his back. Somebody’s pokin around, that this stuff is coming out. And It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy , as Messina is a real POS ( Think Houle if he actually got some juice and visibility) Isn’t this great? Not to mention it being further confirmation that the retail vote in this country is worth about half ‘a shit.
While it’d be tempting to think someone’s whiffin Rahm’s behind ….Fitzgerald? Blago lawyers? An axegrinder like Arlen? Enh.
Point is ,somebody’s driving this. I saw a blip last week that Liz Cheney had sunk her teeth well into the Sestak thing, which struck me as odd as it was post primary as the thing started to fade. Looks like she was working with some solid inside dope, because
Messinathe White House has some splainin to do over why THEIR GUY was sending paid federal Plum Book job descriptions in the email to a Primary challenger in Colorado.No quid pro quo on the email released anyways.
Could work for Rahm and Bill if Arlen is shitting on them all with the Sestak scoops, they should be able to pin it all on Messina with or without their tracks covered. As much as I loathe Arlen it’d be nice to see him screw Ob, Rahm, AND Clinton on his way out the door, which would be classic Arlen anyways. Rahm and Bill will prolly get over tho, Bill just shucksin through his Tryin to Help routine.,. Wondering tho, Rahm sure got out of town quick after Arlen lost and the questions started to gain ground…
Grover Norquist has it in for Rahm.
I don’t know about all the connections here but I do know the list of people who’d like to see him gone grows daily.
Just readint it at Politico… er, People Mag!
i don’t care about what was or not offered to whome for what.. BUT I do think the WH is sorry they did not deal with the Sestak accusations months ago. Plus now we get weeks and months more of Gibbsy stammering.
WHERE I think this is all leading – in terms of Republican game plans, is to coming revelations in Chicago, Blago trial and pre trial discovery… etc. There is a paper, memo and email trail w/r/t to the filling, selling, stufing whatevering! of The Obama Seat in the senate. Already mentions of a union boss in the deal, plus Valerie who I assume is a R target (puhleese take her out!) … and so on!!
YUM!!
Here is a giggle from page 2:
Read more:
People Mag,Page 2Well, at least he had some hits back when he was with Kenny Loggins…
hmm Middle finger air kiss… via http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/
hmm snax and snickers. These people just totally miss the optics.
Read more: Link to SF Gate
Catching Carol Browner on NPR, promising, guaranteeing that the relief wells are the answer and will work.
wow. Good luck.
Okay. So it wasn’t just a figment of my imagination when I wrote that the CW seems to be that the relief wells won’t fail.
I don’ get the impressioin that ordinary people believe in the CW tho.
Some am show, think it was CBS took a camera crew thru several states, asking people, mostly at the pump I noticed, about the Gulf. People are ENRAGED. It was very arresting. Beyond anger. Just white hot rage.
And Thad Allen STILl looks like he’d prefer to be anywehre else. Well OOPS.
Reuters UK
I caught a single line comment on one of the morning shows that a ”US citizen” was killed on the flotilla. This is the ONLY report I could find.
The single line did manage to add it was “at close range”.
From Turkey holds activists’ funerals
Al Jazeera’s Jamal Elshayyal reports from Istanbul after being released by Israel following convoy raid
Thursday, June 03, 2010
16:22 Mecca time, 13:22 GMT
Turkish forensic experts have confirmed that the nine activists killed during the Israeli raid on the Gaza aid flotilla were shot with guns.
Eight were Turks and one a US national of Turkish origin, the Anatolia news agency reported on Thursday as funerals got under way in Istanbul.
The remaining activists, including some who were injured in the Israeli raid, landed in the Turkish city early on Thursday.
Al Jazeera’s Jamal Elshayyal, who reported from the ship as the raid began, was also sent to Turkey by Israel after being released by the Israelis.
Elshayyal said that he witnessed some of the killings, and confirmed that at least “one person was shot through the top of the head from [the helicopter] above”.
IN DEPTH
Our producer was on the top deck when the ship was attacked and said that within a few minutes of seeing the Israeli helicopters, there were shots being fired from above.
“The first shots [coming from Israeli boats at sea] were tear gas, sounds grenades and rubber coated steel bullets,” Elshayyal said.
“Live shots came five minutes after that. There was definetly live fire from the air and from the sea as well.”
He confirmed that some passengers took apart some of the ship’s railing bars to defend themselves as they saw the Israeli soldiers approaching.
“After the shooting and the first deaths, people put up white flags and signs in English and Hebrew,” he said.
“An Israeli [on the ship] asked the soldiers to take away the injured, but they did not, and the injured died on the ship.”
snip
bolding mine, hat tip to this piece: Can the Israeli government kill Americans with impunity?
Visualizing the BP oil disaster
Wall Street bullied us, claim ratings agency staff
Goldman Sachs sold $250 million of BP stock before spill
Gulf Tribunal
Celery, peaches and strawberries are the most contaminated by pesticides
Good to know.
Not following the whole Nikki Haley/SC race but some dolt of a male CNN “anchor”, responding to a story that 2 men have now come forward saying they had flings with her, asked where the “discretion” was with these 2 men? Implying that only teh wimmens come out and tell all about their little sexual escapades and that – somehow – men have some sort of higher standard about these things.
lol
dolt = Drew Griffin
I wonder if they were “fantasizing” that they had these affairs. What would happen if Nikki Haley responded “you wish”?
And BTW Josh Marshall just keeps pushing this story along.
That sounds like what I’d say.
Let’s play compare and contrast…
kos – today:
kos’ – bio:
Nope. Nothing about toilet paper or mail there…
hmmmm, not sure what his intent was, but it comes off as if it was the first time in his life that he had to transport toilet paper to a bathroom, or perhaps even change the roll when he used the last of it, and, that he believes that no one can imagine His Majesty Tube Pundit, doing something so mundane as ‘hefting’ toilet paper, and that the wimmens and wimps have done that work, in his personal life, ever since those days ….
hope ya didn’t get a hernia from it kos.
Well, it must have been doubly stressful since he was also so worried about Teh Gays in the bathrooms back then…
hmmmmmm I might revise that one to his possible fear at being busted for the fact, that he may not have an iota of respect for females ……I find it hard to believe that anyone who embraced Shwarzzengroper, could, …..speshully if they are so Net Savvy
You mean the “sanctimonious womens’ studies set”?
I believe so …….
because he was horny and afraid he wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation?
The Israeli flotilla attack: victimhood, aggression and tribalism
CNN is showing new video of oil-covered birds.
Boston.com
This is truly horrific.
….. bobo does rise …what the fuck have we done ………
Black America, Corporate Media and the Siege of Gaza
Using military blockades to besiege and starve civilian populations for political or warlike objectives is wildly immoral and flatly illegal, a violation of the United Nations Charter. Thanks to the disciplined effort of US corporate media, the brutal blockade of Gaza imposed by the US and its client states of Israel and Egypt is largely invisible to the US public. You will search US media pretty much in vain for the accounts of journalists who live in or who make their way to Gaza, for the damning UN figures on homelessness and malnutrition, on the collapse of health care, trade, education and employment in the besieged zone where half the population is under the age of 15.
(Black Agenda Report has a number of good reads up)
heer’z anuther:
Yes, Obama is “Engaged” – in a Colossal Crime
Corporate media pretend to measure degrees of presidential “engagement” with the Gulf crisis – an “oceanic version of Chernobyl.” Such superficial reporting is totally disengaged from the truth that screams from the depths of the sea: “Huge corporations are empowered to seek profits with absolutely no regard for the consequences to Earth or Man.”
and yet another:
Obama’s Scheme to Kill Public Housing and Give the Land to Banks
For the Obama administration, every bit of public space and property is “on the table” – subject to privatization. Transfer of public wealth to private hands seems a White House obsession. Next on the auction block: the nation’s public housing stock. “This is gentrification and urban displacement on a gargantuan scale.”
(sounds like Cali ……and the Groper…et al…….dems and repubs alike ……identical twins?..)
He hasn’t given a prime time news conference on Oilmageddon – but he is going on Larry King’s show tonite!
King should have had him on with the American Idol bunch earlier this week. Or Lady Gaga…
yep …….. along with the …the wanna be muse$ ….and the made mu$ ….wut cood be moor $peshul?
Interior Dept. denies it has extended drilling freeze to shallow gulf waters
More bozo activity at MMS…
BOBO RIZES?
(please don’t affirm …….)
HA! One stab at state wide office, loses in the primary. Takes ball, whines, goes home.
What is this need to be LOVED? In politics of all things…
Whammmmmmmmbulance!
gnu
LINK
……………………… 8)