Tikkun on the Israeli-Hezbollah Conflict-Where's the Airplay?

..because MSM is corporate-owned & Republican-backed & the weapons-sellers are powerful?

Morning stuff from the hypocrisy-based world:

Embattled Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman - facing a possible primary defeat Tuesday because of his strong backing for the Iraq war - yesterday launched a Hail Mary attack on the Bush administration's handling of the war.

"I supported our war in Iraq but I have always questioned the way it was being executed," Lieberman said.

"This administration took far too many shortcuts. We continue to suffer the consequences, as do the Iraqi people."

But the cheerleader image was cemented last year when Lieberman chided Democratic Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) for suggesting a troop pullout. "We undermine the President's credibility at our nation's peril," Lieberman said last year of war critics.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/story/440252p-...
-------------------------------------------------------------

Rumsfeld: Iraq Isn't In "A Classic Civil War At This Stage...Certainly Isn't Like Our Civil War"...

Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs Of Staff General Peter Pace answered reporters' questions Wednesday at a Defense Department news briefing. Reporters asked Rumsfeld about the worsening security situation in Iraq, where ongoing violence kills scores of people daily throughout the country, including fifty-three civilians who died Wednesday. The Bush Admin. has called the violence "sectarian" even though a growing number of Iraqis and Americans believe Iraq is on the brink of civil war.

At the press briefing, Secretary Rumsfeld refused to directly answer whether Iraq was on the brink of civil war. Rumsfeld replied by saying, "A civil war? I guess you can decide for yourself. And we can all go to the dictionary and decide what you want to call something.

But it seems to me that it is not a classic civil war at this stage. It certainly isn't like our Civil War."

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines civil war as "a war between opposing groups of citizens of the same country." Rumsfeld also included in his answer that "people are being killed. Sunnis are killing Shia; Shia are killing Sunnis. Kurds seem not to be involved."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com http://www.billmarkley.com

---
It will be a "low-intensity civil war" rather than a stable democracy (in Iraq), says Britain's Ambassador to Iraq.

Spike Lee, on New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS ˜ From the beginning Spike Lee knew that Hurricane Katrina was a story he had to tell. Watching the first television images of floating bodies and of desperate people, mostly black, stranded on rooftops, he quickly realized he was witnessing a major historical moment. As those moments kept coming, he spent almost a year capturing the hurricane‚s sorrowful consequences for a four-hour documentary,
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, to be shown on HBO this month.

The film, which Mr. Lee directed and produced, comes 20 years after the August 1986 debut of his first hit, She‚s Gotta Have It, about Nola Darling, a Brooklyn graphic artist, and her three lovers. The provocative films that followed (Do the Right Thing, Jungle Fever, Malcolm X among others), with their searing cultural critiques, cemented Mr. Lee‚s reputation as his generation‚s pioneering black filmmaker. This year he had a commercial and critical success with Inside Man, about a bank heist.

Like him or not, Mr. Lee, 49, is an artist many people feel they know. People, black and white, approached him and the Levees crew here, he said, imploring: „Tell the story. Tell the story. „It becomes like an obligation we have, he said.

Mr. Lee‚s reputation helped get his camera crew into the city‚s water-soaked homes, he said. It allowed him to stretch out a complex story, with themes of race, class and politics that, he said, have too often been sensationalized or rendered in sound bites. He received permission, for example, from Kimberly Polk to film the funeral of her 5-year-old daughter, Sarena Polk, swept away when the waters ravaged the Lower Ninth Ward. „She came to me in a dream, Ms. Polk says in the film. „She said, Mama, I‚m falling.‚

„Levees opens with the Louis Armstrong song „Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans? and offers black-and-white images of the city‚s Southern-with-a-twist past ˜ Mardi Gras, Confederate flags ˜ interspersed with scenes of children airlifted from demolished houses, a door marked „dead body inside....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/03/arts/television/03lev...

"We undermine the President's credibility at our nation's peril," Lieberman said last year of war critics."

Lieberman's comments such as this on protesting the war represent a second issue comparable in severity to his support for the war in giving reason why he should be voted out of office.

It is bad enough that he has the wrong position on the war. It is far worse when he goes along with the idea that Bush should not be questioned when a major problem right now is abuse of power by the Bush administration

Posted by: Ron Chusid at August 3, 2006 10:02 AM

Furthermore, the presidents credibility has been in peril, through his own actions and/or lack thereof, and that fact ALONE has weakened this nation beyond comprehension.

To not understand that, and to recommend following blindly behind what the world sees as a menace, is not the stuff of leaderership.

March comes in like a lyin'.

I agree, Fe. Michael Lerner has received some face time as of late (he was on Russert a couple of months back, as part of a panel of "spiritual leaders"), but his views on Israel are completely ignored.

CNN.com headline story...

Triple digit heat is killing us

People are dying. Sweltering temperatures drained life out of 164 Californians last week, and just since Sunday, heat is suspected of killing 20 across the country. A New England resident says it's "Texas hot," and zookeepers are feeding lions frozen blood to cool off.

http://www.cnn.com/

Dear Fundies...

You wanted so desperately to blame the residents of New Orleans for their 'sinful' ways as the culprit for Katrina... but it appears the entire nation is getting singled out...

DO YOU GET IT YET???

False Profit

ah global warming
I am organizing a work party to encourage people to come see "An Inconvenient Truth" this weekend following a lunch of Afghani food.

Noticed "World Can't Wait" has an impressive full-page New York Times ad.

Noticed it's easy to subscribe the BBC podcast service & will be a nice addition to trying to drive to location where I can pick BBC up on radio & to streaming it on-line.

Posted by: DiAnne at August 3, 2006 09:15 AM

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck.......

That's like saying a zebra isn't a zebra if it doesn't have a stripe running down it's nose.

Only Rummy could come up with that analogy of "civil war" in Iraq.

(2008 can't come soon enough)

It will be a "low-intensity civil war" rather than a stable democracy (in Iraq), says Britain's Ambassador to Iraq.

Posted by: DiAnne at August 3, 2006 09:15 AM

Gotta love that "freedom and democracy" we're spreading around to all those "evil doers".

(Couldn't help mahself)

When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, to be shown on HBO this month.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/03/arts/television/03lev...

Posted by: DiAnne at August 3, 2006 09:20 AM

After filming for a year, Mr. Lee probably has quite a story to tell. The story needs to be told loud and clear. I wish it could be made into a movie and sent to theatres, with portions of the proceeds to be distributed to the victims of Katrina. I also wish it could be broadcast on the major networks.

I could guarantee it would change more than a few votes this fall.

Streep Narrates Katrina Documentary
Wednesday, August 2, 2006 5:39 PM EDT
The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) "Meryl Streep won't be stealing any scenes in her next gig. The Oscar-winning actress narrates "Hurricane on the Bayou," shot before and after Hurricane Katrina, MacGillivray Freeman Films announced Wednesday.

The documentary will open in New Orleans on Aug. 29 to mark the anniversary of Katrina's surge through the Gulf Coast, the company said. It will be released in Los Angeles on Sept. 8 and in IMAX theaters worldwide on Dec. 22.

http://midco.net/news/read.php?id=14283070&ps=1016&cat=&cps=0&lang=en

Matt:

Besides the media push to support the war against Hezbollah, which I'm sure the Administration is trying to connect to the GWOT (Global War on Terror), who is siding with who amongst the pro-Israel groups to keep alternative, progressive Jewish American viewpoints from getting aired?

This exclusion of Lerner and the ceasefire effort is deeper than at first glance.

Did anyone notice that the RNC paid the filing fees to place a Green Party candidate on the Pa ballot, certainly a desperate and cynical move by Santorum to help in Nov. Such activities first initated by Delay here in Texas ought to be addressed and prohibited by any future campaign reform legislation. Incidentally Frist vowed today to hold up all Senate legislation until the end of the year unless he gets his way on changing the estate tax. The response ought to be fine Senator Frist you and your party will be out of control in '07 when America's real business can then be tended to.

Bloggy Note to a Fish Mammal Out of Water

Joe Lieberman is slippery when wet, but who isn't, really?

~snip

A Mammish plays the slippery political games with great skill, so great he doesn't even have to listen to anyone he represents, because having a dual-life he already knows more than anyone else. He knows what a fish thinks like, and he knows what a mammal thinks like, and he knows what he likes. End of story.

If you hook Mr. Limpet (aka Joe Lieberman, the Mammish Mauler) be careful, because he could use his powers of soothing monotones to lull you into a pile of anchovy paste. He has been marked for an early retirement, a fate no Mammish can bear. Better to be blabbering support for a criminal war than to stand back and smell the sulfer. But enough of Mr. Limpet: old fish mammals never die, they just float away. Far, far away. Really, really, really far, far away. Off the map.

more....

http://www.correntewire.com/a_bloggy_note_to_a_fish_mammal_out_of_water

Listening to Sen.Colins..."Troops will sit down as Iraqis stand up...why isn't this happening..." Also, "We need a political solution."

Umm...gee...where have I heard this from before?

Colins asking for the war costs to be included in the budget not as emergency bills.

Geez..she's sounding like a Democrat!

Jim Talent (R) (Missouri) is speaking but he's claiming we're getting closer to the point where Iraq can assert itself.

(He also spoke about 'always needing to get rid of Sadam and make Iraq a multi-sectarian democracy.)

France circulates a revised resolution
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
29 minutes ago

UNITED NATIONS - France circulated a revised U.N. resolution Thursday calling for an immediate halt to Israeli-Hezbollah fighting and spelling out conditions for a permanent cease-fire in Lebanon.

French Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere cautioned that a resolution might not be adopted quickly in the Security Council, but added: "I think we are making progress, I would say real progress."

The new draft, which was sent to all 15 council members Wednesday night, calls "for an immediate cessation of hostilities" and emphasizes the need to find "a lasting solution to the current crisis between Israel and Lebanon."

The U.S. and France have been trying to reach agreement on all elements for a peace, and de La Sabliere said he would continue talks with U.S. Ambassador John Bolton on Thursday. Diplomats said the draft was a way to keep other Security Council members apprised of their efforts.

MORE:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060803/ap_on_re_mi_ea/mideast_fighting_un

Posted by: Fe at August 3, 2006 12:55 PM

It's official.

Under Bush and the neocons, we've officially lost our standing in the world.

Isolationist, arrogant, and incompetent, and very likey corrupt, is how the world sees us now.

August 3, 2006
New Poll Shows Lieberman Losing Ground
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 8:45 a.m. ET

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Millionaire businessman Ned Lamont opened a double-digit lead over veteran Sen. Joe Lieberman less than a week before Connecticut's Democratic primary, according to a poll released Thursday.

Lamont, a political novice, had support from 54 percent of likely Democratic voters in the Quinnipiac University poll, while Lieberman, now in his third term, had support from 41 percent of voters. The sampling error margin was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

A similar survey July 20 showed Lamont with a slight advantage for the first time in the campaign.

- more -

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Connecticut-Senate.html

Top General: Iraq may be headed for civil war

RAW STORY
Published: Thursday August 3, 2006

Gen. John Abizaid, Commander of the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) has told Congress that violence in Baghdad is as common as he can ever recall, and that the nation may be headed for civil war, RAW STORY has learned.

Abizaid oversees US operations in a 27 nation region covering much of the middle east.

Military leaders are also reporting to Congress that they did not anticipate a civil war one year ago.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Top_General_Iraq_may_be_headed_0803.html

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday vowed to strike Tel Aviv in retaliation for Israel's bombardment of Lebanon's capital, Beirut.

"If you hit Beirut, the Islamic resistance will hit Tel Aviv and is able to do that with God's help," Nasrallah said in a televised address.

His comments came shortly after Israeli media reported that Israel's defense minister has ordered generals to prepare to push up to 18 miles into Lebanon, up to the Litani River, The Associated Press reported.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/08/03/mideast.main/index.html

Rumsfeld vs. Clinton
“I think it’s possible that in the period ahead of us in Baghdad that we’ll take increased casualties — that’s possible,” Gen. John Abizaid said.

Rumsfeld, who testified alongside Abizaid and Pace, did not comment directly on the prospect of civil war but said Iraq’s future lay in the hands of Iraqis, beginning with a reconciliation process that has yet to get under way.

“Ultimately the sectarian violence is going to be dealt with by Iraqis,” Rumsfeld said.

And under tough questioning by Sen. Hillary Clinton about previous appearances before the committee, he denied that he had ever “painted a rosy picture” of the situation in Iraq.

Pace said he did not anticipate one year ago that Iraq would now be in danger of plummeting into civil war. Abizaid said it was obvious a year ago that sectarian violence was on the rise, and that Iraq’s police forces did not develop as well as U.S. officials had expected.

“It’s vital that we turn this around,” the general said.

Pressed about the prospect of reducing U.S. troop levels in Iraq, Rumsfeld stuck to his usual assertion that it depends on conditions and on the ability of the Iraqi government to suppress sectarian tensions. He said the Pentagon is seeking a careful balance between having too few troops and having too many.

“That’s a fair tension there,” Rumsfeld said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14159535/

pay-a-tension

Posted by: DiAnne at August 3, 2006 09:20 AM

Just picked up: "My New Orleans: Ballads to the Big Easy by Her Sons, Daughters, and Lovers" edited by Rosemary James

Writers include: Walter Isaacson, Wynton Marsalis, Poppy Z. Bright, Christopher Rice, Bret (not Trent) Lott, Rick Bragg, Stewart O'Nan, Mark Childress, Roy Blount (not Blunt), Jr., Elizabeth Dewberry, Ella Brenan, Andrei Codrescu, Charmaine Neville, etc.

Part of the book's proceeds (although no % given), will benefit The Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society and PEN American Center's Writers' Fund.

On Monday I advised you guys that HE'S BACK; Tom Delay that is. We thought he was gone forever, apparently the 5th Circuit finally caught up with him and his tactics.

"Court rules GOP can't replace DeLay on ballot"

Houston Chronicle

By R.G. RATCLIFFE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

AUSTIN - The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today ruled that former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay must stay on the November ballot for the office he resigned from in June, according to a lawyer for the Texas Democratic Party.

I guess Kerry will be making remarks on the Senate floor r/t Rumsfeld & Iraq etc.

Thanks for all the good lunch reading!!

(Mostly in "lurk" mode)

Gonzales proposes new detainee trials

Published: Thursday August 3, 2006

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has asked the US Senate to craft and approve a bill that would allow for terror war detainee trials similar to those recently ruled unconstitutional, RAW STORY has learned.

"The Administration believes that Congress should respond to the Supreme Court's decision in Hamdan by providing statutory authorization for military commissions," Gonzales told a Senate committee, "to try captured terrorists for violations of the laws of war."

Gonzales specifically requested a new type of trial modeled after military court-martials, but applied to civilians. He opened the request by asking for legislation that would also "preserve flexibility in the procedures."

"We would propose," he told Senators, "that Congress establish a system of military commissions, presided over by a military judge, with commission members drawn from the Armed Forces. The prosecution and defense counsel would be appointed from the JAG corps, with an opportunity for the appointment of Justice Department prosecutors and with the ability of the accused to retain a civilian counsel, in addition to assigned military defense counsel."

Other rights, however, would be limited. "The UCMJ provides Miranda-type protections for U.S. military personnel that are broader than the civilian rule and that could impede or limit evidence obtained during the interrogation of terrorist detainees," the Attorney General contended. "I am not aware of anyone who contends that terrorist combatants must be given Miranda warnings before interrogations."

The Administration is requesting a system that "would not include such Miranda requirements," but would apply the fifth amendment's right against self-incrimination.

Gonzales also called for compliance with Article 3 of the Geneva convention through the standards adopted in the McCain Amendment to the Detainee Treatment Act, and by defining "war crimes" as the US would interpret them.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Gonzales_proposes_new_detainee_trials_0803.html

Monkey:

Gonzales is so bad he makes us yearn for Ashcroft.

I heard Gonzales on the radio this morning -
he has the least authoritative voice for
someone who .. authorizes torture.

Alen Spector was really standing up to him,
asking questions that need to be asked.

Under the new Bush proposal, it sounds like
the Defense Secretary could decide which
crimes were punishable - shouldn't that be
Congress? This thing would not even be
getting any hearing before the Senate had
the Supreme Court not put it's foot down.

Rumsfeld, Rice OK plan to train Lebanese army
International community would also help equip troops, State Dept. says

Updated: 51 minutes ago

(AP)WASHINGTON - The United States plans to help train and equip the Lebanese army so it can take control of all of its territory when the warfare between Israel and Hezbollah eases, the State Department said Thursday.

The program was approved by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to take effect “once we have conditions on the ground permitting,” said department spokesman Sean McCormack.

McCormack provided no details on what equipment the United States might provide, the type of training that would be conducted, how many U.S. personnel would be involved, or how much the effort would cost.

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14171553/

Nice diplomacy. Peace out.

Posted by: monkey at August 3, 2006 04:48 PM

Not good. Prrretty slick. Time to whip out the song of a well-oiled man?

"Civil" war?

Okay, I know it's a repeat, but today's news warrants another round.

A Suit to Suit a Viper

I took a viper and I put him in a suit
I combed his hair across his head
To make him look real cute

I reminded him to keep his venom low
I taught him everything I know
Everything I know

I found a scorpion and trained him how to sit
He practiced tea and sympathy
His act was quite a hit

I took his stinger and wrapped it in a bow
I taught him everything I know
Everything I know

(chorus)
They sit angelic, composed and full of grace
They learn their lines by heart and keep a poker face
I know the world will benefit when they are truly free
To come and poison you and me
To come and posion you and me

I spied a vampire and put him to the test
Got him a lawyer and then
Sued God for damages

I told him: "be patient, blood will surely flow"
I taught him everything I know
Everything I know

I gussied up a tumor and took it to DC
And there it had a great career
It acted naturally

At the cocktail parties it always thanks the host
I taught it everything I know
Everything I know

(chorus)
They sit angelic, composed and full of grace
They learn their lines by heart and keep a poker face
I know the world will benefit when they are truly free
To come and poison you and me
To come and posion you and me

I took a viper and I put him in a suit
I combed his hair across his head
To make him look real cute

I reminded him to keep his venom low
I taught him everything I know
Everything I know

I found a scorpion and trained him how to sit
He practiced tea and sympathy
His act was quite a hit

I took his stinger and wrapped it in a bow
I taught him everything I know
Everything I know

(chorus)
They sit angelic, composed and full of grace
They learn their lines by heart and keep a poker face
I know the world will benefit when they are truly free
To come and poison you and me
To come and posion you and me

+++

One may smile and smile and be a villain

Hamlet
Wm. Shakespeare

http://www.correntewire.com/song_in_the_key_of_a_well_oiled_man

UN report a 'moral indictment' of US

by Larisa Alexandrovna
Published: Thursday August 3, 2006

The United Nations Human Rights Committee has released its final report after a series of hearings in Geneva last week, which RAW STORY has learned amounts to a moral indictment of US treaty violations, as well as what some attendees and delegates described as US hubris, willful disregard for international and domestic law, and contempt for the Committee itself.

more...
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/UN_report_moral_indictment_of_US_0803.html

Excellent work from the party and administration who claim all their guidance comes from a higher power.

Pop me a judge mint.

Lieberman playing the race card in CT race versus Lamont. Al Sharpton is bashing Dan Gerstein, Lieberman spokesman, on Hardball.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5240808.stm
Iraq civil war warning for Blair
Civil war is a more likely outcome in Iraq than democracy, Britain's outgoing ambassador in Baghdad has warned Tony Blair in a confidential memo.
He did also say that "the position is not hopeless" - but said it would be "messy" for five to 10 years.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060803/ap_on_go_co/minimum_wage_estate_tax
Minimum wage, estate tax showdown looms

Joe-mentum continuing in full reverse.

Cyrano:

Can we say the phrase OUT. OF. TOUCH. loud enough?

Posted by: Cyrano at August 3, 2006 05:37 PM

Boy, I wish I could see that.

Alas, cannot.

Is that Tweety's show? The airing should repeat tonight if so, and I could catch it then.

I have come to the conclusion that Neoconism is a disease affecting the brain.

Those infected with the disease speak in very short sentences, and use their hands while doing so. Their thinking processes are retarded and they are unable to comprehend concepts beyond a primal level, let alone communicate them to others.

It seems to infect people with predisposition to small brain syndrome ~ thus explaining how easy it is for some Joes to cross over their own party's line and objectives and plant soft kisses on the nether regions of the Neocons, then quickly hop back over the line when panicked, thinking no one notices.

Yeah, we don't see ya, Slow Joe.

We don't care where, we don't care how.
Just go, Joe. Go now.

The Lieberman campaign put out flyers in black churches making a stink about the fact that Lamont had been a member of a nearly all white country club, that he only quit once he began to run for the Senate.

Sharpton made the point that Bill Clinton had once belonged to an all white country club, which he only quit when readying to run for President -and Lieberman had no problem having Clinton campaign with him.

Sharpton demanded that the Lieberman spokesman instead explain his candidate's continuing support for the Iraq war and for President Bush.

Another one who needs to go: Rummy

Hillary is calling for his resignation.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton called Thursday for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, hours after excoriating him at a public hearing over what she said was a "failed policy" in Iraq.

"I just don't understand why we can't get new leadership that would give us a fighting chance to turn the situation around before it's too late," the New York Democrat told the Associated Press. "I think the president should choose to accept Secretary Rumsfeld's resignation."
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2271419

My mom went live on the Catherine Crier show on Court TV today.

You know, it has been a week since the news broke and every day it seems LESS real not more.

We have learned more in the last week from reporters than we ever did in the 23 year police investigation. The more we know the worse it feels.

I remember trying to tell this story before, here and everywhere else, and I always knew the... ummm, disbelief ... on the part of others was perfectly natural, but I just realized today how even I still have trouble simply believing it when I hear it all laid out.

I thought we, myself, I thought there would be a sense of vindication if this day ever came, I never expected to feel so utterly empty.

1) Why is Tikkun having to go to these lengths raising money to buy ads providing this perspective on the conflict?
~~ Currently, money = free speech.
The slogan/cliche "Put your money where your mouth is" exists because it's reality. Billboards cost $$, ads cost $$. Speaking "freely" costs something, always.

2) Why is this view on the conflict not getting airplay in the mainstream news media?
~~ See above. But, for better or for worse, what is "mainstream" is being redefined each day. For example, Comedy Central, almost mainstream. @;-)

Any answers out there?
~~There are many, many feeder streams into the consciousness of a nation and a world. Advice my mother gave me years ago was to "lead with your strength." Mine in turn is to say, "Do what I/you love, which- not surprisingly- will probably be what turns out to be what you/I do best, and don't let the well go dry!" (A bit of detachment can fill my well... a moment watching sparrows swirl, the sun play on a field of grass or water, sunrise, sunset. I'm not talking about just poetry, but LIFE.)

What we do matters. So we do it, wherever we find ourselves.

Hey kj,

Welcome back. Thanks for sharing the wisdom.

Rummy talks to himself again at today's hearings with the Senate Armed Services Committee meeting (the one he said last night that he couldn't find time in his schedule to testify...)

Afghanistan. I don't know who said what about where the Taliban had gone, but in fact the Taliban that were running Afghanistan and ruling Afghanistan were replaced, and they were replaced by an election that took place in that country, and in terms of a government or a governing entity, they were gone - and that's a fact.
Are there still Taliban around? You bet.
Are they occupying safe havens in Afghanistan and other places, correction in Pakistan and other places? Certainly they are.
Is the violence up? Yes.
Does the violence tend to be up during the summer and spring, summer, and fall months? Yes it does. And it tends to decline during the winter period.
Does that represent failed policy? I don't know, I would say not. I think you've got an awful lot of very talented people engaged in this, and the decisions that are being made are being made with great care after a great deal of consideration.
Are there setbacks? Yes.
Are there things that people can't anticipate? Yes.
Does the enemy have a brain and continue to make adjustments on the ground, requiring our forces to continue to make adjustments? You bet.
Is that going to continue to be the case? I think so.
Is this problem going to get solved in the near term about this violence struggle against extremism? No, I don't believe it is.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Video__Clinton_to_Rumsfeld_Why_0803.html

If you're really bored, you can watch the video...

Carol, thanks. :-) Just coming off a physically demanding *long* move in the high middle of the heat wave, with a fever to boot, and am seriously in "one foot in front of the other" and "do the next right thing" and "don't let the well go dry" mode. :-)

How do people live in Afghanistan, that's what I kept asking myself. I could always duck into an airconditioned restaurant that played classical music and order really good chicken dumpling soup whenever I couldn't move another inch or ounce... in Afghanistan? Could I do that? I know the answer to that question.

End of another grueling hot day in NYC, but a light rain tonight bodes hopeful. Today we ran the entire piece and it looked and sounded like it is moving in the right direction!

Tickets are selling and we received an inquiry from a Seattle theatre to see the script.

Also, Camp Democracy is moving RIGHT along: http://www.campdemocracy.org
with films, amd a concert and workshops and media training and election reform activities and speakers (but not TOO many!)...

September 5-15 (realistically--we are having some challenges with permits after that). COME and help make a declaration of peace, a pledge to work for justice, and gain some skills for ending the wars peacefully.

Let us know if you can make it!

The Senate has rejected a Republican bill to cut estate taxes and increase the federal minimum wage.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/08/03/national/w191146D14.DTL

Posted by: madame defarge at August 3, 2006 10:17 PM

Priceless.

John Kerry: “Administration Sending U.S. Troops into Crossfire of Escalating Civil War”

Below John Kerry’s remarks on Iraq on the floor of the Senate this afternoon. In his remarks, Kerry spoke about Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee this morning.

As prepared for delivery.

Mr. President, yesterday I was at Arlington National Cemetery for the funeral of Lance Corporal Geoffrey R. Cayer, a 20 year old from Massachusetts, and I was struck by the number of funerals taking place and the number of new headstones bearing the inscription “Operation Iraqi Freedom” and “Operation Enduring Freedom.”

One of those among the fallen is Phillip Baucus, the nephew of our friend and colleague Sen. Baucus. Phillip was a proud and brave Marine Corps Corporal who gave his life serving his country last Saturday in Anbar Province in Iraq. He was an extraordinary young man, and I know from Max what he meant to his family and what a totally devastating blow this is to all of them. My prayers are for Phillip and every family which has endured this kind of monumental loss. Phillip and Lance Corporal Cayer and all those who have given their lives are a tough reminder to all of the incredible sacrifices Americas’ children are making every day.

Mr. President, with the violence in Iraq growing worse by the day, it was stunning to hear Secretary Rumsfeld come before the Armed Services Committee this morning with a laundry list of excuses and denials about what is happening there and its consequences for the region. General Abizaid candidly acknowledged that the “sectarian violence is as bad as I’ve seen it,” that he’s rarely seen the situation “so unsettled and so volatile.” He warned of coming civil war, and that “failure to apply coordinated regional and international pressure ... will further extremism" and could lead to a widening and more perilous conflict.

But this morning Secretary Rumsfeld did not call for that kind of diplomacy, and he did not lay out a plan for that kind of leadership. Nor has President Bush reached out to undertake the kind of crisis diplomacy needed in Iraq or to leverage the regional pressure to stop Iraq from descending into irretrievable chaos.
No – Secretary Rumsfeld announced that “there's a number of good things happening… amidst all of this difficulty, the currency is fairly stable, the schools are open, the hospitals are open, the people are functioning.” Secretary Rumsfeld waxed optimistic about an Iraq where “you see people out in the fields doing things and people driving their cars and lining up for gasoline and going about their business.” He went on to say that “despite all of the difficulties, there are also some good trend lines that are occurring, and I think the period ahead is an important period.”

Mr. President, this is more than an important period, this may well be the moment that decides the security of the Middle East itself, and it’s time the Administration was candid about the situation and got to work on rescuing what’s salvageable in Iraq.

With at least 2,578 Americans killed, over 19,000 wounded, and no end in sight, we simply cannot sit idly by as more of our kids die for a policy that isn’t working. And we cannot be silent while this Administration continues to deny reality and repeat the same mistakes.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this Congress has a constitutional responsibility and a moral obligation to hold this Administration accountable for making the right choices for our troops and our country.

That starts with demanding honesty when it comes to the war in Iraq. Because the bottom line is that this Administration is sending more U.S. troops into the crossfire of an escalating civil war in Iraq – and they refuse to come clean with the American people about it.
No more half measures, no more staged phony political debates -- it’s time to tell the truth about the consequences of today’s failed policy in Iraq.
No matter what the Administration tells you, there is a civil war raging in Iraq.
The President’s policy of standing down U.S. troops as Iraqis stand up has finally been exposed as nothing more than a misleading myth: in fact, we are actually increasing our overall troop presence even as they tell us that many more Iraqis soldiers have been trained -- and we’ve reportedly all but abandoned hope of withdrawing significant numbers of U.S. troops this year, even as the Iraqi President tells us that Iraqis can take over security responsibility throughout their country by the end of the year.
Yesterday, we learned more about our dangerously overstretched military when the top National Guard General warned that more than two-thirds of the Army National Guard's brigades are not combat ready.
And worst of all, there is no end in sight and no realistic plan to turn the tide.
To change course we must first confront the realities on the ground, starting by acknowledging that there is a civil war going on in Iraq. The Administration denies that because it doesn’t fit their rhetoric -- but by objective standards that is exactly what’s happening. Just look at the facts.
In the first six months of the year, 14,338 Iraqi civilians were killed, mostly in sectarian violence. Prime Minister Maliki acknowledged last week that an average of 100 Iraqi civilians are being killed every day. Just think about that for a second: 100 people killed every day. And the violence has only been getting worse: 2,669 civilians were killed in May, and 3,129 civilians were killed in June. That’s nearly 6,000 Iraqi civilians killed in the last two months alone. And since the February 22nd bombing of the Shia mosque in Samarra, the government reports that 30,359 families — or about 182,000 people — have fled their homes due to sectarian violence and intimidation
Mr. President, this is not just a civil war – by historical standards, it’s a relatively large scale civil war. In fact, a recent academic analysis published in the New York Times showed that the median number of casualties in civil wars since 1945 is 18,000. Estimates of total casualties in Iraq vary, but the number is probably at least twice that many. Larry Diamond, a former consultant to the provisional authority in Baghdad, has put it simply: "In academic terms, this is a civil war, and it's not even a small one."

The Iraqis from all sides understand what’s going on in their country – and they’re not afraid to speak the truth. Haidar al-Ibadi, a prominent Shiite legislator, said that "Certainly, what is happening is the start of the civil war. Saleh al-Mutlak, a Sunni legislator, also described the recent violence as "the start of a civil war," and another leading Sunni, Adnan Dulaimi, recently said “It’s nothing less than an undeclared civil war.”

Still, the Administration continues to deny the plain facts about the civil war just as they once downplayed the insurgency. Remember when it was first clear that chaos had given way to a determined insurgency? Secretary Rumsfeld told us they were just a bunch of “dead enders.” Vice President Cheney told us last year that the insurgency was “in it last throes.” And just look at the results. Since then, the number of Iraqi insurgents has increased by 20 percent, and the insurgency is now more than six times stronger that it was in May of 2003. And once again, it’s our troops that pay the price – in fact, the number of IED attacks on U.S. troops has nearly doubled since January.

Now, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, the Administration denies that there’s a civil war. Who do they think they’re kidding? Why not just level with the American public? Because this is one more inconvenient truth they’d prefer not to deal with. In fact, Secretary Rumsfeld said just a few months ago that if civil war did break out, Iraqi forces – not U.S. troops-- would be the ones dealing with it.

Yet not only are our U.S. troops now caught in this civil war – we’re actually sending more of them into the crossfire. That’s right: the Administration doesn’t want to talk about it, but we are actually sending more U.S. troops into Iraq.

When the President announced his plan last week to increase the U.S. troop presence in Baghdad, he said the troops would come from other areas of Iraq. He did not mention that additional troops have been sent into Iraq from Kuwait, and that current deployments were being extended as new troops arrived. He did not mention what both the Washington Post and New York Times have reported: that the total number of U.S. troops in Iraq is going to increase by several thousand. And he did not mention that recently-announced deployment schedules could bring the number of U.S. troops in Iraq even higher in the coming years.

Finally, he did not explain why this strategy will work when similar efforts have just failed. The fact is that a few months ago, U.S. and coalition troops in Baghdad increased from 40,000 to 55,000 – and the violence has only gotten worse. Now, the President says we are going to send a few thousand more U.S. troops into Baghdad. Why is this going to be any different?

One thing is clear: under this Administration’s current approach, it’s highly unlikely that we’ll be drawing down any significant numbers of U.S. troops from Iraq this year. This is despite the fact that Secretary Rumsfeld said on Wednesday that there are some 275,000 trained Iraqi security forces, with 325,000 expected to be trained by the end of the year. And General Martin Dempsey, the American general in charge of training Iraqi security forces, said in June that the new Iraqi army would be formed and at full strength by the end of this calendar year. In fact, Iraqi President Talabani declared just yesterday that Iraqis could take over security in the entire country by the end of this year.

If the Iraqis are standing up, as the Administration is telling us, why are U.S. troops not standing down? Because the President’s mantra that “as Iraqis stand up, we’ll stand down” is not a plan - it’s misleading rhetoric that now rings as hollow as “we’ll be greeted as liberators”, and “mission accomplished.” And given how bad the situation has gotten, does “stay the course” really sound any better?

This bottom line is that this approach hasn’t worked because its underlying assumption – that more troops are the real solution to the problem – is fundamentally flawed. As our generals, the Iraqi leaders, and the Secretary of State herself have told us, there is no military solution to the insurgency. And just today, Secretary Rumsfeld acknowledged that there’s no military solution to the sectarian violence. In fact, all can agree that the only hope for salvaging a measure of lasting success in Iraq is finding a political solution that all of the Iraqis can buy into.

So how do we accomplish that? By finally engaging in the intensive diplomacy that has been so inexplicably lacking from this Administration’s approach to Iraq.

We used to understand diplomacy must be the primary means of advancing America’s national security interests. We used to remember that war is the ultimate failure of diplomacy – and the best way to end it.

Unfortunately, our current diplomacy is not anywhere near as effective as it needs to be. In fact, so much of what we used to take for granted in national security policy has now been called into question.

We used to know that despite our differences in political philosophy and in perspective our two great parties could cooperate to craft international policies in our national interest.

We used to understand that the unique and historic role of the United States in world affairs required a far-sighted and multi-faceted approach to protecting our people and our interests.

We used to value as a national treasure the international alliances and institutions that enhanced our strength, amplified our voice, and reflected our traditions and ideals in maintaining a free and secure world.

We used to say politics stopped at the water's edge--we used to call on our people to share in the sacrifices demanded by freedom, and our leaders used to raise hopes and inspire trust, not raise fears and demand blind faith.

We used to measure America's strength and security by our moral authority, our economic leadership, and our diplomatic skills, as well as by the power of our military.

Think about how much things have changed, when Tom Friedman wrote just days ago that “our President and Secretary of State, although they speak with great mortal clarity, have no moral authority. That’s been shattered by their performance in Iraq.”

Key to any hope of stabilizing Iraq is changing course and engaging in the sustained diplomacy from the highest levels of America’s leadership that matches the effort of our soldiers on the ground.

History shows the results that genuine diplomacy can bring. In 1995, there was a brutal civil war in Bosnia involving Serbs, Croats and Muslims. Faced with a seemingly intractable stalemate in the midst of horrific ethnic cleansing, the Clinton Administration took action. Led by Richard Holbrooke, they brought leaders of the Bosnian parties together in Dayton, Ohio with representatives from the European Union, Russia and Britain to hammer out a peace agreement that brought relative stability to the region.

It is past time for the Administration to engage in this type of major diplomatic initiative. While an international process has begun to bring reconstruction and economic aid to Iraq, a true national compact is still needed to bring about a political solution to the insurgency and end the cycle of Sunni-Shia violence.

My strategy would help achieve this by working with the Iraqis to convene a Dayton-like summit that includes leaders of the Iraqi government, the countries bordering Iraq, the Arab League, NATO, the European Union, and the Permanent Members of the United Nations Security Council. This would enable the Iraqis to engage in the intensive diplomacy necessary to forge a comprehensive political agreement that addresses security guarantees, oil revenues, federalism, and the disbanding of the militias. And all parties would agree on a process for securing Iraq’s borders.

These are the key elements of the political agreement necessary to decrease the violence – and they are not tasks that U.S. troops can – or should – be responsible for. They are the responsibility of civilian personnel, especially Iraqis. And success will require collective effort that engages members of the international community who share our interest in a stable Iraq. To enlist their support, we must address their concerns about security in the region after we have withdrawn from Iraq. That’s why this summit should lay the groundwork for creating a new regional security structure that strengthens the security of the countries in the region and the wider community of nations.

Mr. President, we must also recognize that redeploying U.S. troops from Iraq is an essential part of a strategy for success. In fact, our own generals and the Iraqi National Security Adviser, Mr. Rubaie, tell us that the presence of large numbers of U.S. troops actually fuels the insurgency. That’s why I say that to change course now, we must acknowledge that it takes a deadline to get Iraq up on its own two feet and get American troops home. My strategy would redeploy U.S. forces from Iraq within one year in accordance with a schedule coordinated with the Iraqi Government, leaving only those forces that are critical to completing the mission of standing up Iraqi security forces, conducting targeted counter-terrorism missions, and protecting United States facilities and personnel. It also calls for keeping a rapid reaction force over the horizon in Kuwait so that we can always bring overwhelming force to bear on any concentration of enemy forces.

Coordinating a schedule for redeploying our troops is not cutting and running – it’s a key to finding the political solution that is needed to stabilize Iraq. As we know from Mr. Rubaie, this will give the Iraqi leadership the best chance to stabilize the country by empowering and legitimizing the new government with the Iraqi people, expediting the process of getting Iraqis to assume a larger role in running their country, and undermining support for the insurgency among the vast majority of Iraqis who want U.S. troops to leave.

We know that Prime Minister Maliki understands this, that’s why he has talked openly about a timeframe for the reduction of U.S. forces. We know that Ambassador Khalilzad and General Casey are discussing with the Iraqi government the formation of a joint commission to outline terms and conditions for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. We know from Mr. Rubaie that there is already “an unofficial ‘road map’ to foreign troop reductions that will eventually lead to total withdrawal of U.S. troops.” We know that General Casey has drafted a plan for significantly reducing U.S. troop levels by the end of 2007. We know that polls of Iraqis have shown that 87% – including 94% of the Sunnis and 90% of the Shia -- support their government endorsing a timeline for U.S. withdrawal.
If the Iraqi government and the Iraqi people, our Ambassador and top military commander, and the majority of Americans can see that the time has come for a timeframe for the redeployment of U.S. forces, why can’t the Bush Administration?
Think about that for a second: for over three years, the President has said that we’re prepared to stay “as long as it takes,” and during this time the insurgency has only grown stronger and sectarian killings are now at an all time high. Does anyone really think more of the same will solve the problem?

We simply cannot allow the Administration to undermine this key aspect of a successful strategy in Iraq because they are too stubborn to admit that the timeline they have so adamantly opposed is now clearly an important part of the way forward. The bottom line is that by the middle of next year, the presence of large numbers of U.S. troops will have served its purpose. That does not mean we will be abandoning Iraq, it simply means our involvement will change.

Mr. President, even as we consider the way forward in Iraq, we must not lose sight of the war raging on the other side of the Middle East in Lebanon and Israel. Watching the news from the Mideast these days is an exercise in continual heartbreak. As Israel continues military operations to defend itself against the grave threat from Hezbollah in Lebanon and missiles still rain on innocents in northern Israel, our hearts go out to people suffering all across the Mideast.

We all want peace, and the death of every child—Lebanese in Qana or Israeli in Haifa—is an unspeakable tragedy. But we know from the hard lessons of the past that lasting peace will not come easily – and it will not come without the type of sustained involvement at the highest levels of the U.S. government that we have not seen from this Administration.

In fact, the violence we are seeing now is in part the bitter fruit of years of U.S. neglect in the region, yet another disastrous byproduct of being distracted and bogged down in Iraq. Our inattention to diplomacy and failure to disarm Hezbollah and stop the flow of weapons from Iran and Syria -- as required by UN Resolution 1559 -- left Israel to respond to this terrorist organization’s provocations with a bloody war that threatens to spread into a larger regional conflict. In fact, just a few hours ago General Abizaid testified that if that Resolution 1559 had been fully implemented, we wouldn’t be in this situation today. And it’s clear that our compromised position in Iraq, combined with our diplomatic isolation in the region, has reduced our leverage and undermined our ability to bring about the lasting resolution that is so desperately needed.

Make no mistake about it: Israel has every right to defend itself against these terrorists. The people of Israel can count on the stalwart support of the United States during these difficult times. At the same time, the Lebanese people must know that Americans also care deeply about protecting innocent civilians and preserving their fragile democracy.

That’s why we must work urgently to achieve a viable and sustainable peace agreement that includes an international force capable of ensuring Israel's security and Lebanon’s complete territorial sovereignty, the return of the kidnapped Israeli soldiers, and the permanent removal of the threat posed by Hezbollah. Given the dire circumstances, it’s imperative that we do everything in our power to accomplish this as soon as possible – and we shouldn’t be afraid of talking to any country that will help us advance this objective.

But that cannot be the end of our involvement – in fact, it must be the beginning of a new era of sustained diplomatic engagement in the region. The unmistakable lesson here is that we need more much than just crisis diplomacy – we need preventive diplomacy that addresses the underlying problems before they explode. That means putting an end – once and for all – to state sponsorship of terrorism by Iran and Syria. And that requires a renewed commitment to work ceaselessly to achieve a lasting peace in the Middle East.

On Fear Up; mkh reminded me that I should always tell you how to get tickets!

Here's how:

DATES AND TIMES: August 11 at 7:00, August 15 at 4:00, August 16 at 11 pm, AUgust 17 at 9:15 pm, and August 23 at 9:15 pm

VENUE: Dance New Amsterdam/ 280 Broadway at Chambers, NYC

All Tickets: $15. For tickets visit http://www.FringeNYC.org or call In New York: (212) 279-4488 or Outside New York: 1-888-FringeNYC

I am on the Progressive Radio Network tomoorow morning:

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.org/

10 am. Virginia Reed's show.

Listen live!

I just got The Progressive in the mail & read it cover to cover.
It's my free subscription, from the Editor, who I met at YearlyKos in Las Vegas. It really took me back. In fact, it had an article about YearlyKos convention - specifically about Mark Warner & his $70,ooo party at the top of the Stratosphere. Exactly what did Mark Warner stand for? Electablity? No one seemed to know but it was a good party. Attendees disagreed about the role of the blogosphere but the consensus was that if Lamont took on Lieberman and won, it would be huge.

There was also this incredible interview with Gore Vidal - such wisdom. It was a pleasure to be reading real text on real pulp paper with black & white illustrations, kind of a blast from the past but in a good way. I also keep getting mail from people I promise money to over the phone. I ask them to send real envelopes to my address, as I don't like to be giving out credit info all the time over the phone. Then the envelopes collect & even though I pledge a small donation, they add up. Then one day I get to feeling guilty & send them all in at once.

Ah liberal guilt .. I guess I'm not in Afghanistan. But if I was, maybe I could find a cool cave. & I'll bet the food is really good. I met with a Kurdish family today, as part of my work - I learned alot. Things were terrible under Saddam and now they're so terrible that people are afraid to call to find out how terrible. It's even worse than that.

Karen
As Fe taught me to say, "Break a leg!"

Posted by: karen at August 3, 2006 11:11 PM

I will - or at least catch it after work.

For me, Camp Democracy attendance looks less and less likely... It's impossible to get enough time off to make a trip to DC meaningful. Oh well. :(

Tom Delay Endorses Lieberman

http://www.crooksandliars.com/posts/2006/08/02/tom-delay-hearts-joe-lieberman/

I'm speechless.

I was going to say "break a leg," to Karen as well, but didn't know if that applied to anyone but the actors. ;-) At any rate, my best wishes for the play are extended.

"Tom Delay Endorses Lieberman" Priceless. Just love it when real life is even better than The Daily Show. ("We can't make this stuff up.")

Goodnight, Gracie. @;-)

The US-backed Israeli assault on Lebanon has left the country numb, smouldering and angry. The massacre in Qana and the loss of life is not simply "disproportionate". It is, according to existing international laws, a war crime.

The deliberate and systematic destruction of Lebanon's social infrastructure by the Israeli air force was also a war crime, designed to reduce that country to the status of an Israeli-US protectorate. The attempt has backfired. In Lebanon itself, 87% of the population now support Hizbullah's resistance, including 80% of Christian and Druze and 89% of Sunni Muslims, while 8% believe the US supports Lebanon. But these actions will not be tried by any court set up by the "international community" since the US and its allies that commit or are complicit in these appalling crimes will not permit it.

It has now become clear that the assault on Lebanon to wipe out Hizbullah had been prepared long before. Israel's crimes had been given a green light by the US and its loyal British ally, despite the opposition to Blair in his own country.

In short, the peace that Lebanon enjoyed has come to an end, and a paralysed country is forced to remember a past it had hoped to forget. The state terror inflicted on Lebanon is being repeated in the Gaza ghetto, while the "international community" stands by and watches in silence. Meanwhile, the rest of Palestine is annexed and dismantled with the direct participation of the US and the tacit approval of its allies.

We offer our solidarity and support to the victims of this brutality and to those who mount a resistance against it. For our part, we will use all the means at our disposal to expose the complicity of our governments in these crimes. There will be no peace in the Middle East while the occupations of Palestine and Iraq and the temporarily "paused" bombings of Lebanon continue.

Tariq Ali
Noam Chomsky
Eduardo Galeano
Howard Zinn
Ken Loach
John Berger
Arundhati Roy

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1835915,00.html

In stores 06/06/06 same day as Anne Coulter's book

Armed Madhouse by Greg Palast
http://www.gregpalast.com/

from http://www.juancole.com

Patrick McGreevy writes from Beirut:

“Justice” Comes to Qana

' The attacks of 11 September 2001 gave many ordinary Americans a palpable experience of injustice. Addressing both houses of Congress nine days later, President Bush proclaimed: "Our grief has turned to anger and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done." By nearly conflating justice and revenge, the President—and, alas, the vast majority of Americans who applauded him—lost an opportunity to see with new clarity, justice itself, cast into relief by the very experience of injustice. Instead, the United States launched an endless war, the first stage of which was to be called Operation Infinite Justice.

This week “justice” came to the Lebanese Village of Qana. The United States had blocked every attempt to end the violence, and, before the attack, Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon had announced that “everyone who is still in south Lebanon is linked to Hizbullah.” The Anglo-American-Israeli juggernaut had brought “justice” to “our enemies.”

Reacting to the horrors of World War II, the bold thinking Max Horkheimer suggested that we finally make social progress from the experience of the opposite of justice. We learn about the value of the individual life, for instance, from the experience of a world that treads mercilessly on human lives and bodies, treating them as so much soulless stuff. Though a European Jew, Horkheimer was a dialectical materialist, and therefore no kind of theist. Yet he believed that the notion that each human is equally and, in a sense, infinitely valuable, was a religious innovation. “The very concept of the soul as the inner light, the dwelling place of God,” he wrote, “came into being only with Christianity, and all antiquity has an element of emptiness and aloofness by contrast.” To our modern sensibilities, he observed, “some of the Gospel teachings and stories about the simple fishermen and carpenters of Galilee seem to make the Greek masterpieces mute and soulless—lacking that very ‘inner light’—and the leading figures of antiquity roughhewn and barbaric.” For Horkheimer, this insight came from the painful experience of its negation, and any hope of justice lay, paradoxically, in the deep experience of injustice. Hence, “the anonymous martyrs of the concentration camps are the symbols of the humanity that is striving to be born,” and we could expect insight from those “who have gone through the infernos of suffering and degradation in their resistance to conquest and oppression.”

Hassan Nasrallah speaks to the Arab World and the Muslim World about their common experience of injustice. Do not doubt its deep resonance. Its truth. Qana is just the latest, and one of the clearest, and most globally visible, examples. Can those who launched the endless war finally recognize the infinitely valuable “inner light” so callously snuffed out of each of those dusty child corpses? Will Nasrallah, and those now fixated on his voice, see justice, against the background of injustice, any more clearly than did Bush and those fixated on his voice? Can we expect such magnanimity, given the asymmetry of the suffering?

In human affairs, cycles of violence and revenge, cascades of injustice, are not inevitable. Our sole hope is that we have not only an inner light but an ability to choose and act, to consider not only means, but ends, with what Horkheimer called reason—that having lived through hell, we might see not only the injustice done to us, but the horror of injustice no matter who is the victim. A simple thing. We know the alternative.

Patrick McGreevy '

Arundhati Roy is one of the most gorgeous, politically- and socially-aware voices on the planet today. Nearly every sentence in book, "The God of Small Things (another Booker Prize winner), left me speechless with its power and beauty.

G'nite again. '-)
As Scarlett said, "Tomorrow is another day."

Administration, Congress Eye "Liberation" of Cuba
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306B.shtml
The White House and Congress, caught unaware by Fidel Castro's illness, prepared Wednesday for a possible showdown in Cuba as lawmakers drafted legislation that would give millions of dollars to dissidents who fight for democratic change.
{{{Errr... (shaking head to try to get marbles to fall into place)... huh? Is this yet ANOTHER Bu$hCo plan to impose democracy on yet another country, and this time treating the situation like it's an emergency??? Hasn't the Bu$hCo administration figured out yet that they're just no damned good at "nation building" and imposing democracy on people, that the best governments are those when people have some say-so in what they want?!? Neffer mind. I had a momentary lapse in memory about who/what is running the puppet show in DC....}}}

Top Military Lawyers Oppose Plan for Special Courts
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306A.shtml
The military's top uniformed lawyers, appearing at a Senate hearing yesterday, criticized key provisions of a proposed new US plan for special military courts, affirming that they did not see eye to eye with the senior Bush administration political appointees who developed the plan and presented it to them last week.
{{{IMHO, this is BS. DumDum uses the words 'ter-ra' and 'terrorist' to scare the sheeples into voting for neoCons, which negates the basic elementary FACT that the individuals who commit these crimes are criminals and ought to be tried in criminal courts (if they don't blow themselves up with suicide bombs, that is). The "terrorists" (viewed as 'patriots' by countries who want the US out of their nation!) are NOT part of any organized military representing any country. They are criminals. Bu$hCo, et al., are full of hot air and nonsense, trying to keep control through their own verbal terrorist tactics by scaring sheeple witless.}}}

Military Unit Accused of "Racism" and "Kill Counts"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306Z.shtml
Military prosecutors and investigators probing the killing of three Iraqi detainees by US troops in May believe the unit's commanders created an atmosphere of excessive violence by encouraging "kill counts" and possibly issuing an illegal order to shoot Iraqi men. At a military hearing Wednesday on the killing of the detainees near Samarra, witnesses painted a picture of a brigade that operated under loose rules allowing wanton killing and tolerating violent, anti-Arab racism.
{{{We SO need to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan!!!!!!!!}}}

Barb Guy | Signing Off on a Constitutional Crisis
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306M.shtml
"This is the way it's supposed to work: A law makes its way through both houses of Congress and lands on the president's desk. He signs it and it's the law. Or he vetoes it and the veto can be overturned by a super-majority of Congress," write Barb Guy. "Those were the days. It's no longer that simple. President Bush doesn't even inform Congress when a signing statement precedes his signature."
Excerpt:
The American Bar Association became so concerned they set up a task force to investigate. They'll present their report on Aug. 7 at the ABA's annual meeting, but the 34-page report was released July 24. The ABA's task force, composed of conservatives, liberals, Democrats and Republicans, concluded that President Bush is doing some very creepy stuff with these statements.
The report is online at: http://www.abanet.org/op/signingstatements/aba_final_signing_statements_recommendation-report_7-24-06.pdf

Joyce A. Green, whom the ABA calls a "concerned and public- spirited Oklahoma lawyer" has built a Web site that meticulously provides the text of all President Bush's notoriously difficult-to-locate signing statements: www.coherentbabble.com/signing statements/about.htm.

{{{If these links don't work on this excerpt, they do on the TO link.}}}

The New York Times | Strong-Arming the Vote
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306N.shtml
"The Justice Department is giving the impression that it is less concerned that elections be lawful and fair than that they come out a particular way," writes the New York Times Editorial Board.

Guantanamo Detainees May Remain Indefinitely: Gonzalez
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306O.shtml
US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the US government could "indefinitely" hold foreign 'enemy combatants' at sites like the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Army Raises Enlistment Age to 42
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306P.shtml
The Army has begun training the oldest recruits in its history, the result of a concerted effort to fill ranks depleted during the Iraq war. In June, five months after it raised the enlistment age limit from 35 to just shy of 40, the Army raised it to just under 42.

NOW | Reporters vs. the White House
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080306T.shtml
Is the press failing its responsibility to the truth? This time on NOW.
{{{Might have to make sure to tune in to see how PBS's NOW treats this story....}}}

I'm speechless.
Posted by: DiAnne at August 3, 2006 11:53 PM

Ditto.

Good to see you, KJ. Hope the move went as well as possible.

I bet Lieberman isn't happy about that endorsement this morning.

With friends like Dubya and Tom Delay, Joe doesn't need enemies...

Exxon astroturf
by kos

YouTube, meet astroturf.

Everyone knows Al Gore stars in the global warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." But who created "Al Gore's Penguin Army," a two-minute video now playing on YouTube.com?

In the video, Mr. Gore appears as a sinister figure who brainwashes penguins and bores movie audiences by blaming the Mideast crisis and starlet Lindsay Lohan's shrinking waist size on global warming. Like other videos on the popular YouTube site, it has a home-made, humorous quality. The video's maker is listed as "Toutsmith," a 29-year-old who identifies himself as being from Beverly Hills in an Internet profile.

In an email exchange with The Wall Street Journal, Toutsmith didn't answer when asked who he was or why he made the video, which has just over 59,000 views on YouTube. However, computer routing information contained in an email sent from Toutsmith's Yahoo account indicate it didn't come from an amateur working out of his basement.

Instead, the email originated from a computer registered to DCI Group, a Washington, D.C., public relations and lobbying firm whose clients include oil company Exxon Mobil Corp.

They should've told the truth. Seems silly to lie about it.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/8/4/04639/29412
(Hat tip to Bert)

------------------------------------------------------

Comcast is my internet provider.

Today Comcast - the nation's largest cable company - announced they would broadcast ImpeachPAC's TV ad criticizing Joe Lieberman in advance of Tuesday's primary in Connecticut.

There is one simple reason why they changed their minds - because HUNDREDS of you called Comcast's President, Brian Roberts, and politely asked Comcast to support the First Amendment.

YOU made the difference. THANK YOU!!!

Our ad was meant to have an impact, but some thought it was confusing. So we produced a shorter ad that packs a more direct punch.

It's called "Lie and Die" and you can watch it here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=FV6Fbgp3J-s

The ad features lies by Bush, Cheney, and Lieberman. Each lie is separated by a photo of an Iraqi child who has died because of these lies. It then quotes John Kerry as he declares, "Our policy is not 'cut and run.' Their policy is 'lie and die.'"

And it concludes with a simple question about Joe Lieberman: "6 More Years?"

That's the choice Connecticut voters will make on Tuesday. And it will be a truly historic choice.

Lieberman Accuses Lamont of Lying About Blogger Relationships

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/situation.room/blog/2006/08/lieberman-accuses-lamont-of-lying.html

MSM and politicians no longer ignore bloggers.

Someone spent an awful lot of time putting together a review of recently released material about the reach of the Abramoff scandal which includes an itemized list with lots of embedded links on every congress-critter who is directly connected. Check it out here and bookmark for future reference...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/8/4/23043/47662

Just a reminder...

Karen's going to be live on the Progressive Radio Network in about 15 minutes (an internet radio station).

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.org/

10 a.m. edt Virginia Reed's show

Posted by: dwahzon at August 4, 2006 09:47 AM

oops...not awake yet.

Thanks dwahzon!

(I was so tired I thought Karen meant tomorrow morning--ie SATURDAY.

No...I haven't had coffee yet.

how's THIS for a headline, at msnbc.com (main story)...

"Sharp Expansion: Isreal widens bombing of Lebanon, hits at Christian heartland for first time"

Is Mel Gibson now writing copy for msnbc????

link now available - I posted the text yesterday

John Kerry: "Troops Being Sent Into Crossfire of Escalating Civil War"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/080406Z.shtml
Senator John Kerry, during a speech on the floor of the United States Senate, said: "Mr. President, this is more than an important period, this may well be the moment that decides the security of the Middle East itself, and it's time the Administration was candid about the situation and got to work on rescuing what's salvageable in Iraq. With at least 2,578 Americans killed, over 19,000 wounded, and no end in sight, we simply cannot sit idly by as more of our kids die for a policy that isn't working. And we cannot be silent while this
Administration continues to deny reality and repeat the same mistakes."

Good job, Karen. Your voice is so smooth. And thanks for the plugs for the DCP, women, & tech goddesses.

Re: Rummy's remark

"Does that represent failed policy? I don't know, I would say not. I think you've got an awful lot of very talented people engaged in this, and the decisions that are being made are being made with great care after a great deal of consideration."

Posted by: madame defarge at August 3, 2006 09:24 PM

Oh, really? Does that include torture?

Hi Matt :-)

From DemBloggers
http://www.dembloggers.com/story/2006/8/4/17259/73170

Republicans Advise Candidates to Run Away From Their Record

By Ron Chusid
Posted on Fri Aug 4th, 2006 at 05:25:09 PM EST

How's this for realizing you cannot run on your record? The St. Paul Press reports on strategy recommendations given at a meeting of the Republican National Committee:
The theme of the meeting--the RNC's first in Minnesota--is "Defining the difference," and that means debating the Democrats on the issues and not defending Bush and the Republican Congress on the policies they have instituted in the past six years.
They claim they want to run on the issues, but they have to convince voters they have the best approach to the issues when they have botched the job so badly that they don't dare defend their own party's record. Based upon the misinformation they spread in 2004 and other elections, we can also assume that to them "debating the issues" means attempting to define the Democrats by conning voters into thinking their approach to the issues is far different from what it actually is. They'll continue to cry that Democrats will increase their taxes, ignoring the fact that the largest growth in the size of government in recent years has occurred under George Bush and Ronald Reagan. They will accuse the Democrats of being weak on defense, when it is Republican policies which have undermined our national security while strengthening enemies such as al Qaeda and Iran.

Lieberman more popular with Republicans than Democrats:

http://poll.gallup.com/content/?ci=24007

"...attempting to define the Democrats by conning voters into thinking their approach to the issues is far different from what it actually is."
~~ This is the challenge. This has been the challenge the Democrats, as a whole, as not met. Self-definition, accept no less. :-)

Bush is even dumber than we thought:

http://www.dembloggers.com/story/2006/8/4/174313/9054