01-04-09
- Democrat Al Franken to be declared Senate victor in Minnesota, with a lead at the moment of 225 votes (reuters). This has been a grueling ordeal for him and for Minnesota. The only reason it was possible to do such a recount at all is that there were paper ballots available to recount. If Minnesota were a DRE black box voting state like Georgia and too many others, there would have been no possible way to do such a recount. Republican incumbent Norm Coleman has tried to throw every possible roadblock in the way of a complete and accurate recount and will continue to try to get the courts to turn it around for him. Franken, never a fan of the election integrity movement, is the only host on liberal radio network Air America (Listen) who would never invite Brad Friedman (The Brad Blog), election integrity blogger and expert, to come on his show to discuss election integrity issues. I wonder if Franken is still as closed-minded and myopic -- or has The Universe spoken to him in a way he can finally understand?
- Orwell, blinding tribalism, selective Terrorism, and Israel/Gaza (Glenn Greenwald, salon) A look at the sociopathic logic regarding Israel's form of "terrorism" against Hamas leaders (a 2000-pound Israeli bomb dropped from an airplane, that wipes out not only the target individual, but also 18 others in his home, including his four wives and nine of his children -- "the good kind" of terrorism) versus Hamas's form of "terrorism" against Israelis (suicide bombs and poorly guided homemade rockets that kill and maim indiscriminately -- "the bad kind"). Greenwald says, "There are few concepts more elastic and subject to exploitation than "Terrorism," the all-purpose justifying and fear-mongering term."
- Israel's goal in Gaza is to utterly crush any semblance of Palestinian resistance to Israel's continuing theft of Palestinian lands (map of shrinking Palestinian borders), brutal occupation, apartheid, and inhumane and illegal cruelty toward the Palestinian people. Israel basically fears the Palestinians because they produce large families and one day could far outnumber Israelis in the land of Canaan. To indulge in a little belated quarter backing, Israel should never have been reestablished in the Middle East, but it served the Western powers' desire to plant a strategic wedge deep in the Arab world to try to control future Arab growth as a unified power. Maybe better that Israel had been created in some other place, like West Texas on the Mexican border, for example, brutally uprooting hundreds of thousands of Texans and appropriating their assets. After all, West Texas is also stolen land. Perhaps by now we would have an expanded Israel down there on the Rio Grande, with enlarged borders in every direction, at continual odds with both Texans inside and outside of Israel, and Mexicans--and, of course, all in the name of Israel's national security against any who would like to destroy her and wipe her off the face of the map. Israel has no inherent right to be in its present location in the Middle East, other than the legal claim given it by the League of Nations. The land was Palestinian and had been so for hundreds of years. Prior to all this, those Israelis still living there and their Palestinian neighbors had gotten along generally well. However, in the late 1940's, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were both driven out of their homes and killed in order to appropriate their lands and assets. Israel often sanctimoniously proclaims that the land belongs to Israelis because Israel is God's Chosen People and that He gave it to them--Eretz Yisrael. Such utter, unequivocally self-serving nonsense! If over centuries in the Bronze Age I were concocting a national history to justify my national existence and security among my neighbors, I suppose I might be tempted to include claims of great miracles and victories over my enemies at the hands of the gods, the greatest masters of heaven and universe, and the granting of my country their/His special blessings and protection, and, of course, the deed of ownership to the land. --- Has any of the foregoing rant anything to do with anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Well, yes and no. YES to anti-Zionism and NO to anti-Semitism. Zionism has to do with politics, with the political state of Israel and Israel's policies, and all that that engenders in Israel's present location--and, well, what you see is what you get. Semitism, on the other hand, is all about the people as people. Some of my best friends from infancy on up through the years have been Semites, and I have treasured them all.
