General Strike Cartoon on U.S./Israel

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Louis Proyect Writes to Dr. Bass at Princeton on His NYTimes Screed

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Dr. Bass,

I should send you a bill for a bottle of Maalox that I had to
purchase after stumbling across your article "Humanitarian Impulses"
in the NY Times Magazine section this morning as I wended my way
toward the crossword puzzle--the saving grace of this atrocious
neoconservative/neoliberal periodical. It was bad enough that
Condoleezza Rice was droning on in the background on Bob Schieffer's
gabfest without being confronted by your exercise in imperialist propaganda.

In trying to put across the argument that the U.S. should police the
world, you seem completely oblivious to counter-arguments. Even a
skilled propagandist like Christopher Hitchens would acknowledge the
opposing viewpoint. For example, you quote Madeleine
Albright--infamous for her observation that the end of "liberating"
Iraq might justify the means of killing 1/2 million of its children:
"many of the world's necessary interventions in the decade before the
invasion [of Iraq] ­ in places like Haiti and the Balkans ­ would
seem impossible in today's climate."

Excuse me, professor, I know that you are a disadvantage teaching at
a place like Princeton, which like Columbia, Yale and Harvard are
branch offices of the U.S. State Department, but it is particularly
obscene for Albright to talk about humanitarian intervention in Haiti
given the fact that the U.S. Marines occupied this sad country for 19
years and then backed its murderous dictator as a bulwark against
Communism in the 1960s. With this on its record, the U.S. had no
business ever sending troops to Haiti again.

You do admit of course that the U.S. "was rarely moved by
humanitarianism alone". That's quite an admission from an imperialist
mouthpiece like you, but it would be more accurate to state exactly
why the U.S. sends troops abroad. It is to defend the profits and
future profit possibilities of the capitalist class. You have the
brass to begin your article crowing about the capture of Radovan
Karadzic when just moments earlier, I read this item titled "License
to Steal" from the Al Ahram Weekly Online August 7-13 issue, which began:

>>"Our country has been undergoing the longest, slowest economic
transition in Eastern Europe," remarked Djordje Petkovic, a Serbian
rubber factory worker whose company, Rekord, recently shut down,
leaving him jobless for the past 10 months. Frustrated with his
country's current economic state, he continued: "We have seen nothing
of the grants and loans the West has given us. The new transition
laws have brought popular misery and raised the cost of living for
many. My company, which has existed for 100 years, has now
ceased to exist, but nobody cares."<<

That's what these "humanitarian interventions" bring: popular misery. Haiti is worse off than ever as the U.S. conspired to topple its popular president who was too far to the left. Some day the lying propagandists who have made a career at prestigious Ivy League colleges will have to be accountable to a world that is sick of U.S. bullying and corporate plunder. The sooner the better.

Louis Proyect

Free Gaza Boats -- Israel Threatens Force

Tweet It’s appalling enough to receive phone calls, warning us that our boats will be blown up or asking us if we know how to swim, but when the callers go after our families, then that crosses the line from adolescent intimidation to psychological terrorism. This past Thursday, Lauren Booth received one such call.

“On the 14th of August 2008, an anonymous man called my home in France as my daughters played hide and seek in the garden. This stranger spoke to my husband, warning him that 'your wife is in great danger. These ships will be blown up.' My husband asked how it was this person had obtained our private home number. No response was forthcoming, but the illicit threats carried on.”

Other members of our nonviolent project have had their families in Occupied Palestine threatened with violence as well. From these threats, a pernicious pattern of intimidation is beginning to emerge. The question, of course, is just who benefits the most by trying to terrorize and stop us from breaking Israel’s terrible siege on 1.4 million Palestinians in Gaza?

In April, 2008, The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel released a report stating, “The illegal exploitation of family members, who, in most instances, are not suspects themselves, has on many occasions caused severe psychological suffering to interrogees and to their innocent relatives. In more extreme cases, this method takes the form of psychological torture of a detainee rendering him a victim of a cruel psychological manipulation via the illegal exploitation of a close relative.”

Today in the Israeli newspaper, Haartez, Amos Harel writes: “Defense officials favor forcefully blocking two boats, which a group of U.S.-based activists plan to sail to Gaza ... A position paper by the Foreign Ministry's legal department says Israel has the right to use force against the demonstrators as part of the Oslo Accords ... the Foreign Ministry's paper means that security forces could detain the vessels upon entry to Gaza's territorial waters, arrest the passengers and haul the ship to Israel, where the detainees could be interrogated.”

The Oslo accords expired in 1999, but even when they were in place they never advocated or allowed Israel to use deadly force against nonviolent human rights workers. However, Israel has decided to interpret the now-defunct accords as giving them permission to act violently against us.

Given this situation, we, the members of the Free Gaza Movement, would like to make two things very clear to the government of Israel:

1) We are nonviolent human rights activists and we have vowed to take no violent action, in either word or deed, against any other human beings - including against Israeli government and military officials who, apparently, wish us harm.

2) The threats and intimidation that we have received these past few days, though disturbing, do not even come close to the suffering imposed on 1.4 million Palestinians through the illegal and immoral Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. Given the enormity of this crisis, we will not be deterred.

We will sail to Gaza, and this siege will be lifted.
Members of the Free Gaza and Liberty, setting sail this week.
http://www.FreeGaza.org

Blackwater Guards "Caught Up" in Nisoor Square Indictments -- AP & NYTimes

Tweet http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/washington/AP-Blackwater-Guards.html?pagewanted=print

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Half a dozen Blackwater Worldwide security guards have gotten target letters from the Justice Department in a probe of shootings in Baghdad that killed 17 Iraqis, The Washington Post reported.

The Blackwater guards are caught up in the investigation of shootings that took place last September when a Blackwater team arrived in several vehicles at an intersection in Baghdad where shooting erupted, leaving numerous Iraqis dead and wounded.

Attributing its information to three sources close to the case, the Post said that any charges would be brought against the guards under a federal law used to prosecute cases referred to the Justice Department by the Pentagon for crimes committed by military personnel and contractors overseas.

Target letters often are a prelude to indictment.

The Post story appeared on the newspaper's Website Saturday night.

The shootings began when a Blackwater convoy, which was responding to a Baghdad car bombing, entered the Nisoor Square traffic circle.

Blackwater says the convoy was ambushed by insurgents, touching off a firefight. Iraqi witnesses, however, described an unprovoked attack in which security guards fired indiscriminately, killing motorists, bystanders and children in the square.

From Angry Arab Newservice -- (Hearts and Minds?)

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"Why is she not happy? He is merely "liberating" her in Baghdad."

"When You Have to Leave the U.S. To Be Free" -- The Al-Arian Case

Tweet Portion below; whole thing (by Charles Davis) here:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43434

Because of his refusal to testify, Al-Arian is now set for an Aug. 13 trial for criminal contempt. However his lawyer, George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, says he has been barred from meeting with his client and is seeking to have the trial delayed and Al-Arian released.

In a motion filed Aug. 1, Turley -- who is also seeking to take the case to the Supreme Court -- argues that Al-Arian is being illegally detained by authorities in contravention of a Jul. 10 court decision, finding that he posed no flight risk or threat to his community and should be granted bail. "Put simply, Dr. Al-Arian is being held unconstitutionally," Turley states in the motion.

Al-Arian's supporters also maintain that he is a victim of a federal prosecutor -- Kromberg. During a 2005 trial, Kromberg told jurors that the defendant in the case -- Ali Al-Timimi, a devout Muslim -- could not be trusted, as his religion required him to lie to non-believers.

And according to Al-Arian's attorneys, Kromberg told them in a 2006 meeting that he would not grant Al-Arian's request that he not be forced to testify before a grand jury during the Islamic holiday of Ramadan.

"If they can kill each other during Ramadan, they can appear before the grand jury; all they can't do is eat before sunset," Kromberg is quoted as telling Al- Arian's legal counsel. "I am not going to put off Dr. Al-Arian's grand jury appearance to assist in what is becoming the Islamisation of America."

Critics say Kromberg's comments -- and his unabashed support for the state of Israel -- show that his targeting of Al-Arian is based on politics, not terrorism.

"He's been singled out because he's been an effective, courageous man," said Mike Gravel, a former U.S. Senator from Alaska, at the event with Al-Arian's family. Like other supporters, Gravel believes Al-Arian is the victim of a politicised Justice Department eager to silence a controversial and outspoken critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

In an interview with IPS, Gravel said he was "absolutely outraged over the injustice" of the government's treatment of Al-Arian. He also singled out as "gutless" members of Congress -- such as Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont -- who have refused to take any action on Al-Arian's behalf.

Since Democrats took over control of Congress, Leahy's committee has held hearings on everything from polygamy to the rights of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, but none regarding Al-Arian.

An aide to Leahy told IPS that his office continues to receive calls from Al- Arian's supporters, but offered no comment on what -- if any -- action Leahy would take regarding the case.

"This all stems from AIPAC [the American Israel Public Affairs Committee]," Gravel told IPS. Lawmakers are afraid of offending the powerful lobbying group -- which supports a hard-line position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in line with Israel's right-wing Likud Party -- and thus are unwilling to take up Al-Arian's case, he said. "This guy is just speaking out very effectively for the Palestinian cause, that's what is the root of this, and [the government is] trying to stifle that."

Gravel's comments on the case are echoed by Scott Horton, a former chair of the of the New York City Bar Association's Committee on International Law and a writer for Harper's Magazine.

"I believe that the defence is on firm ground saying that this is a case of political persecution," Horton stated in an interview with IPS. "In fact, I am hard pressed to find another case just like it."

Horton believes Al-Arian has been targeted not because he poses any sort of violent threat, but because he has been a high-profile and articulate critic of Israeli policies. And he believes the case shows that -- especially since 9/11 and the advent of the "war on terror" -- not even an acquittal is enough to exonerate someone accused of terrorism in the U.S.

"The prosecution's conduct is typical of the Bush AdministrationŠ in that it will not accept defeat, whether from a jury or a judge," stated Horton. "When they fail to get the relief they seek, they simply connive another way to secure it."

At the Washington event, Al-Arian's son Abdullah said that, at this point, the best his family could hope for is that the government ultimately decides to deport his father, as they promised to do in the 2006 plea agreement. "It's a sad day when you have to leave America to be free, but that's the America we live in -- for some people at least."

Speaker Pelosi Stunned by Effective Critics at Her Book Event

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Portion below; whole thing here: http://www.pubrecord.org/nationworld/1-nationworld/255-pelosi-clashes-with-protesters-over-impeachment.html

Halfway through [Pelosi's] discussion at The American University of Judaism, where more than 300 people paid $30 each to hear Pelosi speak about her upbringing and her family's impact on her political career as detailed in her book Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters, the topic shifted to Congress's historically low approval rating and how it reflected on Pelosi’s tenure as Speaker.

American University of Judaism's Rabbi Robert Wexler, who moderated the 75 minute discussion, asked Pelosi to analyze a recent Rasmussen poll that found nine percent of voters dpolled believed Congress was doing a good job, far lower than President Bush's overall approval rating.

According to the results of the July poll, 72 percent of voters believe Congress is more interested in furthering their own political careers. Fourteen percent believe members of Congress are genuinely interested in helping people.

Pelosi responded to the statistics by defending her performance and the performance of her Democratic colleagues in Congress.

"I preside over the greatest collection of integrity and idealism," Pelosi said.

Prior to her appearance in West Los Angeles Monday evening, CNN’s Larry King interviewed Pelosi. She told King she was willing to drop her staunch opposition to offshore drilling and would likely allow the House to vote on the issue.

She said, in her opinion, the reason behind Congress’s historically low approval rating was largely due to the fact that Democrats could not muster up the votes to end the Iraq war, which the Democratic Speaker from San Francisco said she could not do much about because of the Democrats’ razor-thin majority in both Houses.

Wexler, however, continued to press Pelosi to elaborate on her response given that the Rasmussen poll suggested that a wide-range of issues beyond the Iraq war was responsible for Congress’s single-digit approval.
Pelosi, visibly flustered, said she was well aware that “much more work needs to be done.”

In November 2006, Pelosi explained the significance behind the record voter turnout that helped shift the balance of power in Washington for the first time in 12 years.

“People voted for change and they voted for Democrats who will take our country in a new direction,” Pelosi said during a victory speech in San Francisco on Nov. 8, 2006.

But Pelosi, who became House Speaker, never managed to exact the change she promised. She explained that she and her colleagues tried vigorously to pass legislation to end the war in Iraq.

"The public doesn’t want to know about process and 60 votes, they want outcomes, they want results," Pelosi said, explaining why Democrats could not end the war as promised prior to the midterm 2006 elections.

But Pelosi’s comments appeared disingenuous to many, since she was largely responsible for crafting an appropriations bill in backroom discussions with House Democratic leaders, passed in June, and then worked secretly with the White House budget director offering up concessions on Iraq war benchmarks if Bush would agree to the domestic spending attached to the final bill with little debate preceding a vote on the measure.

In fact, since the electoral victories in November 2006, the Democratic-controlled Congress has approved more than $300 billion in emergency spending bills for Iraq and Afghanistan without the benchmarks or withdrawal timetables that Pelosi and other leaders said they would demand.

When Pelosi launched into the reasons an administration led by presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain would be dangerous for the country, identifying the candidate's support for an endless war in Iraq and his intention to uphold many of the questionable constitutional interpretations relating to torture and civil liberties during the Bush administration, Pelosi said the only way to "dig our way out" is by electing Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

“Whether it’s the deficit or the challenges to the constitution we have to dig our way out,” Pelosi said, adding “this election is like death for life on this planet as we know it today."

Her response led Peter Thottam, founder of the LA Impeachment Center, to demand Pelosi "do her job" and pursue impeachment hearings against President Bush for launching a war on false pretenses.

"Who gave you the right to take the constitution and shove it down the toilet? Who gave you the right to take impeachment off the table? Nobody told them to do this,” Thottam shouted at Pelosi moments before Secret Service agents removed him from the packed auditorium and turned him over to officers with the Los Angeles Police Department. “One million Iraqis are dead. Five thousand Americans are dead. You have destroyed the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth and Eighth Amendments."

Pelosi seemed stunned by the outburst, but the way she addressed Thottam’s charges further fanned the flames and led to additional verbal protests over her decision not to hold the administration accountable for what many individuals in the audience believe are High Crimes and Misdemeanors by President Bush.

When a member of the activist group Code Pink stood up and insisted Pelosi brush up on her reading regarding evidence of the Bush administration's long list of alleged constitutional violations, Pelosi reacted angrily.

"I take an oath of office to uphold the constitution of the United States and don't tell me that I don't do that,” Pelosi said, using hand gestures to emphasize her disdain over the impeachment demands. "Why don't you go picket the Republicans in Congress that will not allow us to have a vote on the war. This is not very effective. Not very effective."

"As Speaker of the house, the third highest office, first is the president, then vice president, and then Speaker, I take my responsibilities deadly seriously,” Pelosi said. “I try to promote bipartisanship but that's not what the other side wants."

Before Election 2006, Pelosi declared impeachment “off the table,” in part, to avoid alarming centrist voters. Now, with Democrats hoping to gain additional seats in Election 2008, a similar political calculation applies, fearing a backlash against a last-minute drive to impeach Bush and Cheney. Bush knows that Pelosi long ago rejected impeachment proceedings, the one instrument included in the Constitution for Congress to wield against a President who has abused his powers.

Pelosi's refusal to consider impeachment hearings or cut off funding for the Iraq war prompted antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan last year to launch a campaign for Pelosi's congressional seat. On Monday, San Francisco election officials said Sheehan has obtained enough registered voters on her petitions to be placed on the November ballot. Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq in 2004, is running as an Independent.

At the conclusion of Monday evening’s presentation, Pelosi signed books but refused to answer questions about her policy decisions. The Public Record asked Pelosi whether she would authorize the full House to vote on contempt charges against former White House political adviser Karl Rove, who has refused to comply with a congressional subpoena to testify about his role in the alleged political prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, a Democrat.

Immediately following his query to Pelosi, The Public Record's Alan Breslauer was grabbed by Secret Service and dragged away from the table where Pelosi was signing copies of her book. The Speaker did respond to Breslauer's question, however, saying a vote on contempt charges against Rove is "up to [House Judiciary Committee Chairman John] Conyers."

Social Security: Here today, Still Here Tomorrow

Tweet Portion below; whole thing (via Counterpunch) here: http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/ib246

Why today’s young workers should be confident about the program’s future

By Alexander Hertel

This August 14th Social Security will celebrate its 73rd anniversary, a good time to reflect upon a program that allows us to retire after a lifetime of work and keeps millions of people out of poverty.

But advocates for privatization continue to paint a bleak picture of Social Security’s future, and the message has reached young adults in particular: 73% born between 1977 and 1994 believe the program will no longer exist when they retire.¹

The reality is far more optimistic.

Since the early 1980s, Social Security has been taking in more in worker contributions than it has been paying out in benefits. This has resulted in a growing trust fund of more than $2 trillion. These reserves are projected to grow for another decade, and then will decline and run out in 2041. If no action is taken, benefits will have to be cut by about 25%, as they will be funded entirely from current contributions. Even if lawmakers allowed this to happen, future retirees will receive benefits that are more generous than those received by previous generations. Retiring at 65, the typical young adult born between 1980 and 1990 will receive retirement benefits valued at $188,000 in 2007 dollars, up from $181,000 for retirees born between 1960 and 1970.

The bottom line is that Social Security is in good shape—we should all be so lucky at age 73. Changes to shore up the program’s financing and make it more progressive are warranted, but there is no crisis, and certainly no need to rush to dramatic reform.

Dennis Perrin: Another Chokehold Routine

Tweet http://dennisperrin.blogspot.com/

If it wasn't for the thousands of dead, and the tens of thousands running for their lives, the American pundit-politico reaction to Russia's pummeling of Georgia would be a dark laugh riot. Okay, it is a dark laugh riot, with blood and broken bone spewing out of cynical American mouths. What a nasty, predictable sight: US elites condemning "Russian aggression" from the heart of Murder Central, which gave Mikheil Saakashvili what he thought was imperial-backed carte blanche. McCain, of course, is feasting on as many bodies as his aging frame will allow, bellowing between bites about "international law." Obama, naturally, is going the pragmatic route, calling for UN intervention, a review of Russia's global status, and most telling of all, "deepening relations between Georgia and transatlantic institutions, including a Membership Action Plan for NATO."

The President-In-Waiting clearly understands what his upcoming gig demands. NATO expansion is but one of many tasks on the docket. The only "change" we can believe in is how Obama will polish the same old bullshit using fresh, uplifting rhetoric. Yet I suspect in the short-run, when shoved and slimed by a desperate McCain, Obama may very well dispense with the niceties that have endeared him to so many hopeful consumers, and show that he too can growl and promise sadistic punishment for our many enemies. Not that his liberal followers will mind all that much. A few may wince and wish it weren't so, but they will be kicked into place by heartier mules and angrily reminded that winning is the only thing that matters.

One cannot assume state power without proving you can and will kill. To McCain, such a demonstration will come easily and with a wicked grin. Obama's version will be no less deadly, only painted in cooler colors. Unlike their hippie predecessors, Obama Youth will remove daisies from the rifle barrels, their strawberry fields forever aflame. You won't need to play Obama's speeches backwards to discover what that mea

Study: Most Companies Avoid Income Taxes

Tweet Portion below; whole thing here ON MSNBC!:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26145921/

WASHINGTON - Unlike the rest of us, most U.S. corporations and foreign companies doing business in the United States pay no federal income tax, according to a new report from Congress.

The study by the Government Accountability Office, expected to be released Tuesday, said two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, and about 68 percent of foreign companies doing business in the U.S. avoided corporate taxes over the same period.

Collectively, the companies reported trillions of dollars in sales, according to GAO’s estimate.

Tel Aviv to Tbilisi: Israel's Role in the Russia-Georgia War -- Ali Abunimah

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Israelis wave both Georgian and Israeli flags as they chant anti-Russian slogans during a demonstration outside the Russian embassy in Tel Aviv, 11 August. (Gali Tibbon/AFP/Getty Images)

End portion below; whole thing here: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9756.shtml

Since the end of the Cold War, the US has been steadily encroaching on Russia's borders and expanding NATO in a manner the Kremlin considers highly provocative. Shortly after coming into office, the Bush Administration tore up the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty and, like the Clinton administration, adopted former Soviet satellite states as its own, using them to base an anti-missile system Russia views as a threat. In addition to their "global war on terror," hawks in Washington have recently been talking up a new Cold War with Russia.

Georgia was an eager volunteer in this effort and has learned quickly the correct rhetoric: one Georgian minister claimed that "every bomb that falls on our heads is an attack on democracy, on the European Union and on America." Georgia has been trying to join NATO, and sent 2,000 soldiers to help the US occupy Iraq. It may have hoped that once war started this loyalty would be rewarded with the kind of round-the-clock airlift of weapons that Israel receives from the US during its wars. Instead so far the US only helped airlift the Georgian troops from Iraq back to the beleaguered home front.

By helping Georgia, Israel may have been doing its part to duplicate its own experience in assisting the eastward expansion of the "Euro-Atlantic" empire. While supporting Georgia was certainly risky for Israel, given the possible Russian reaction, it has a compelling reason to intervene in a region that is heavily contested by global powers. Israel must constantly reinvent itself as an "asset" to American power if it is to maintain the US support that ensures its survival as a settler-colonial enclave in the Middle East. It is a familiar role; in the 1970s and 1980s, at the behest of Washington, Israel helped South Africa's apartheid regime fight Soviet-supported insurgencies in South African-occupied Namibia and Angola, and it trained right-wing US-allied death squads fighting left-wing governments and movements in Central America. After 2001, Israel marketed itself as an expert on combating "Islamic terrorism."

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez recently denounced Colombia - long one of the largest recipients of US military aid after Israel -- as the "Israel of Latin America." Georgia's government, to the detriment of its people, may have tried to play the role of the "Israel of the Caucasus" -- a loyal servant of US ambitions in that region -- and lost the gamble. Playing with empires is dangerous for a small country.

As for Israel itself, with the Bush Doctrine having failed to give birth to the "new Middle East" that the US needs to maintain its power in the region against growing resistance, an ever more desperate and rogue Israel must look for opportunities to prove its worth elsewhere. That is a dangerous and scary thing.

More on Obama's Triangulating on Russia Georgia Conflict [Surpise Surprise]

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Portion below; whole thing here: http://www.newshoggers.com/blog/2008/08/obama-turns-mor.html

[Obama's] statement [go to link above to see the actual statement referred to] contains more condemnation of Russian aggression against Georgia, and its trespassing on Georgian sovereignty, than Obama's first well-balanced statement. It's playing right into McCain's camp, as Obama is obviously moving towards the hawkish anti-Russian rhetoric emanating from there.

There's no apparent mention of Georgia actually, you know, starting the thing by sending its entire army into an unstable area which doesn't want to be Georgian sovereign territory in the first place and in which Russia had an internationally-recognised and CIS-mandated duty as a protector of the local's lives and liberty. No mention that Georgia, a CIS member, violated its own obligations to the CIS brokered deal over South Ossetia. But at least Obama's correct that Russia can no longer continue that role. It's just not a neutral enough actor and never was - which didn't stop anyone approving said role before now.

No mention either that a senior State Dept. official was in Georgia just last week or that the US actually has a small permanent military base in Georgia - a tripwire pretty much guaranteed to ensure that Russia doesn't try to annex georgia proper, even if it really wanted to - and so the Bush administration must have known which way Saakashvili intended to jump and seems to have done diddly-squat to dissuade him.

It looks, at first glance, like Obama's been listening too hard to old Cold Warriors like Zbigniew Brzezinski, who wants to compare Putin to Stalin and Hitler. (Is it required by American hawks that any foreign leader they don't like be compared to Stalin and Hitler?) Brzezinski also backed McCain's call to throw Russia out of the G8, saying the G8 Group is "an impotent fiction anyway", and included a call to add Georgia to the NATO membership action plan forthwith - so that the West is obligated to get militarily involved next time out too!

Yet another disappointing move by triangulating Obama. "Change you can believe in" shouldn't include swapping the last set of hawks for the previous ones, but apparently it does - and it also includes playing to decades old American fear of the Soviet/Russian "menace". I can console myself with the thought that Clinton would have been even more hawkish and McCain is dreadfully warlike in comparison still, but it doesn't really give me a warm-fuzzy about the elections.

Bolivia's Morales Easily Wins Recall Vote - Exit Polls

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LA PAZ (Reuters) - Bolivian President Evo Morales easily won a recall vote on Sunday, unofficial results and exit polls showed, but he will likely remain deadlocked with opponents of his leftist reforms.

A quick count of votes at a sample of stations by respected pollster Ipsos Apoyo showed Morales had secured 60.7 percent support with 80 percent of ballots counted, private television channel ATB reported.

Morales needed 46.3 percent to keep his job.

An exit poll by private TV channel Unitel said Morales won 60.12 percent of the vote. Both results were sharply higher than the 53.7 percent margin by which Morales was elected in December 2005.

Morales and eight of Bolivia's nine regional governors faced the recall. Three governors, including two of Morales' opponents, lost their jobs, while four pro-autonomy governors were ratified, the unofficial results showed.

"The initial reading is that the political crisis and tension in the country is going to deepen greatly," said Franklin Pareja, professor of political science at the state-run San Andres University in La Paz.

"While the president has garnered a (strong) ... vote, the governors who are against the president have won votes that legitimize their own position and strengthen them," he said, adding that implementing reforms would remain a battle for Morales.

Morales, a former coca farmer who is Bolivia's first Indian leader, hopes a victory will allow him to forge ahead with changes like nationalizations, land redistribution and a constitution that aims to give more power to the poor.

The bitter power struggle between Morales and opposition governors has exposed deep divisions between the wealthier east of the country and the more indigenous west, and has forced Morales to put many reforms on hold.

But with Bolivia roiled by protests, and most of the governors expected to survive, few people expect the recall vote to restore calm in South America's poorest country.

The opposition governors are angry that Morales has cut their share of windfall natural gas revenues and accuse him of governing only for his supporters.

"He's manipulating uneducated people and isn't caring for the middle classes," said 40-year-old designer Roxana Bleichner after the unofficial results were announced.

Final official results are due in next few days.

On This Earth Is What Is Worth Living - Mahmoud Darwish (1942 - 2008)

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We have on this earth what makes life worth living: April’s
– hesitation, the aroma of bread
at dawn, a woman’s point of view about men, the works of
– Aeschylus, the beginning
of love, grass on a stone, mothers living on a flute’s sigh and
– the invaders’ fear of memories

We have on this earth what makes life worth living: the
– final days of September, a woman
keeping her apricots ripe after forty, the hour of sunlight in
– prison, a cloud reflecting a swarm
of creatures, the peoples’ applause for those who face death
– with a smile, a tyrant’s fear of songs.

We have on this earth what makes life worth living: on this
– earth, the Lady of Earth,
mother of all beginnings and ends. She was called
– Palestine. Her name later became
Palestine. My Lady, because you are my Lady, I deserve life.

U.S. & Israel -- Together Again (in Georgia)

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August 9, 2008

There is an obvious Israeli involvement in the present conflict between Georgia and Russia. There are hundreds of Israeli military advisers in Georgia and this is not just the claim of the rather unreliable DebkaFile but also the more respected Ha'aretz expert Yossi Melman, the daily Ma'ariv and also the rather reliable website "News First Class" (NFC).

Melman wrote on 25.6.2008 that Georgia became a real El Dorado for Israeli arms dealers and numerous representatives of the army and intelligence services. Some former generals like Israel Ziv and Gal Hirsh (with his company Defensive Shield) are very active there.

"Gal Hirsh and Israel Ziv are mainly training and consulting Georgian arm units. They are using the "chain" method common among Israeli arm dealers: a main contractor wins a tender and employs then sub-contractors – in this case Israeli officers and former Shin Beth employees," wrote Melman.

According to him there was a project to sell Merkava tanks to Georgia, but allegedly the Israeli foreign ministry prevented the deal and a policy was outlined that only defensive weapons are allowed to be sold.

Just the same Russia protested agains the Israeli military support to Georgia after an Israeli produced UAV was shot down. On August 5 Israel reiterated its official policy that it allegedly sells only defensive and not offensive weapon systems to Georgia. This is the version published e.g. in the Jerusalem Post; other sources, like the Israeli daily Ma'ariv on 8.8, claim that Israel decided to stop altogether the military support to Georgia. Just the same Ma’ariv points out that the Georgian defense minister, David Kezerashvili, lived for a while in Israel and speaks Hebrew. In a lengthy article the military exports to Georgia are described. Ma’ariv estimates them to be of a value of at least USD 300 million. An Israeli marketing expert told Ma'ariv: "To every Israeli agent representing an Israeli defense company is attached a cousin of the defense minister, who opens the doors for him."

Also NFC confirms the massive presence of Israeli advisers in Georgia and writes: "The Israeli military industries upgraded in recent years the Georgian air force, sold unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), advanced artillery systems and trained infantry units." (9.8) The NFC claims that according to sources in Washington in Moscow the war started because Georgia wants to reverse Israel’s decision and achieve the continuation of the support. Israel, according to NFC, conceded to the Russian threatening that it would otherwise go through with the sale of its most advanced anti-aircraft missile system S-300 to Iran and Syria.

Actually the opposite conclusion is also possible, namely that Israel wants to pressure Russia not to sell the S-300 and stop its support to Iran.

The Israeli website DebkaFile, that is known to publish mainly conspiracy theories, believes that up to 1,000 Israeli advisors are active in planning and implementing the present Georgian military action (8.8). This conclusion sounds plausible.

Actually it has to be taken into consideration that also U.S. "consultants" are helping the Georgian army, as according to Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, there are 127 U.S. military trainers there, of whom about 35 are civilian contractors.

In addition to the trainers, 1,000 soldiers from the Vicenza, Italy-based Southern European Task Force (Airborne) and the Kaiserslautern-based 21st Theater Sustainment Command, along with Marine reservists with the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines out of Ohio, and the state of Georgia’s Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry participated in "Immediate Response 2008."

Operation Immediate Response 2008 was held from July 15-July 30, with U.S. personnel training about 600 troops at a former Soviet base near Tbilisi, the largest city and capital of Georgia. The goal of this operation was allegedly teaching combat skills for missions in Iraq. The Marines left already the country, but not the airmen.

It is obvious that there are numerous Israeli and U.S. interests in Georgia and it is highly likely that they are behind the dangerous Georgian move.

Free Gaza Boats in Crete (via Palestinian Pundit via Norman Finkelstein)

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SS Free Gaza and SS Liberty Arrive in Chania, Crete, Saturday, 9 August at 21:00 p.m.

For further information, contact:

+6932 766496 for directions or Greta Berlin, +357 99 08 17 67

"Nicosia/Lefkosia, Cyprus, August 9. The Free Gaza Movement announced yesterday that their boats, the SS FREE GAZA and the SS LIBERTY, destined to break the Israeli siege of Gaza, will arrive in Chania, Crete, today, Saturday, August 9, at 9 p.m. where a press conference will be held to welcome them, near Crete’s Souda Bay US Sixth Fleet and NATO base.

Human rights activists Lauren Booth (sister-in-law of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair), Huwaida Arraf (a Palestinian-American residing in Ramallah, Palestine), and Jeff Halper (an Israeli Jew nominated for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for opposing demolitions of Palestinian homes) will be available at the press conference for interviews.

"This will be the first time that our two boats will be publicly displayed and photographers are welcome to come, take photos and post their images," said Paul Larudee, on board the boats sailing toward Chania. "Internationals are gathering across the world – in Beijing and Cyprus – with the common dream of peace and justice for everyone."

Some survivors of USS Liberty request: “What is the possibility of you and the crew of the SS Liberty throwing 34 long stemmed roses into the sea as a memorial to the 34 Americans killed aboard the USS Liberty? We will pay for the roses or whatever else you have in mind. The survivors of the Liberty and their families would be eternally grateful to you and your ship mates for this gesture as no one has ever done anything like this before.” Another wrote: “I am one of the survivors of the USS Liberty. A very tired man, who woke up somewhat when I heard of the SS Liberty. I was the petty officer in charge of the body recovery and identification, and I remember it almost like it was yesterday. May God Be With You.” So, when we leave Cyprus next week, we hope to have a ceremony for all of those Americans (whose names we shall read out) killed by the Israelis on board the ship in 1967.

For more information: www.freegaza.org – live video streaming will soon be available

Photos of participants:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29205195@N02/

Media:
http://www.freegaza.org/index.php?language=EN&module=latest_news "

Obama Following Bush Lead on Russian Response to Georgian Invasion

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I have to agree with the commenters below on Informed Comment. Obama is either being disingenuous or duplicitous on U.S. foreign policy regarding Russia.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20080810/pl_politico/12419

August 9, 2008

"I just spoke separately with Secretary Rice and President Saakashvili about the grave crisis in Georgia. I told President Saakashvili that I was deeply concerned about the wellbeing of the people of Georgia.

"Over the last two days, Russia has escalated the crisis in Georgia through its clear and continued violation of Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. On Friday, Aug. 8, Russian military forces invaded Georgia. I condemn Russia’s aggressive actions and reiterate my call for an immediate ceasefire. Russia must stop its bombing campaign, cease flights of Russian aircraft in Georgian airspace, and withdraw its ground forces from Georgia."

-- Barack Obama

[A disgraceful statement.]

and another commenter says:

"Obama wanders the Middle East and Europe selling war in Afghanistan, and assorted attacks in Pakistan, while being incapable of understanding what has happened in Ossetia. What a disgrace."

Plucky Little Georgia? Mark Almond in Counterpunch

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For many people the sight of Russian tanks streaming across a border in August has uncanny echoes of Prague 1968. That cold war reflex is natural enough, but after two decades of Russian retreat from those bastions it is misleading. Not every development in the former Soviet Union is a replay of Soviet history.

The clash between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia, which escalated dramatically yesterday, in truth has more in common with the Falklands war of 1982 than it does with a cold war crisis. When the Argentine junta was basking in public approval for its bloodless recovery of Las Malvinas, Henry Kissinger anticipated Britain's widely unexpected military response with the comment: "No great power retreats for ever." Maybe today Russia has stopped the long retreat to Moscow which started under Gorbachev.

Back in the late 1980s, as the USSR waned, the red army withdrew from countries in eastern Europe which plainly resented its presence as the guarantor of unpopular communist regimes. That theme continued throughout the new republics of the deceased Soviet Union, and on into the premiership of Putin, under whom Russian forces were evacuated even from the country's bases in Georgia.

To many Russians this vast geopolitical retreat from places which were part of Russia long before the dawn of communist rule brought no bonus in relations with the west. The more Russia drew in its horns, the more Washington and its allies denounced the Kremlin for its imperial ambitions.

Unlike in eastern Europe, for instance, today in breakaway states such as South Ossetia or Abkhazia, Russian troops are popular. Vladimir Putin's picture is more widely displayed than that of the South Ossetian president, the former Soviet wrestling champion Eduard Kokoity. The Russians are seen as protectors against a repeat of ethnic cleansing by Georgians.

In 1992, the west backed Eduard Shevardnadze's attempts to reassert Georgia's control over these regions. The then Georgian president's war was a disaster for his nation. It left 300,000 or more refugees "cleansed" by the rebel regions, but for Ossetians and Abkhazians the brutal plundering of the Georgian troops is the most indelible memory.

Georgians have nursed their humiliation ever since. Although Mikheil Saakashvili has done little for the refugees since he came to power early in 2004 - apart from move them out of their hostels in central Tbilisi to make way for property development - he has spent 70% of the Georgian budget on his military. At the start of the week he decided to flex his muscles.

Devoted to achieving Nato entry for Georgia, Saakashvili has sent troops to Iraq and Afghanistan - and so clearly felt he had American backing. The streets of the Georgian capital are plastered with posters of George W Bush alongside his Georgian protege. George W Bush avenue leads to Tbilisi airport. But he has ignored Kissinger's dictum: "Great powers don't commit suicide for their allies." Perhaps his neoconservative allies in Washington have forgotten it, too. Let's hope not.

Like Galtieri in 1982, Saakashvili faces a domestic economic crisis and public disillusionment. In the years since the so-called Rose revolution, the cronyism and poverty that characterised the Shevardnadze era have not gone away. Allegations of corruption and favouritism towards his mother's clan, together with claims of election fraud, led to mass demonstrations against Saakashvili last November. His ruthless security forces - trained, equipped and subsidised by the west - thrashed the protesters. Lashing out at the Georgians' common enemy in South Ossetia would certainly rally them around the president, at least in the short term.

Last September, President Saakashvili suddenly turned on his closest ally in the Rose revolution, defence minister Irakli Okruashvili. Each man accused his former blood brother of mafia links and profiting from contraband. Whatever the truth, the fact that the men seen by the west as the heroes of a post-Shevardnadze clean-up accused each other of vile crimes should warn us against picking a local hero in Caucasian politics.

Western geopolitical commentators stick to cold war simplicities about Russia bullying plucky little Georgia. However, anyone familiar with the Caucasus knows that the state bleating about its victim status at the hands of a bigger neighbour can be just as nasty to its smaller subjects. Small nationalisms are rarely sweet-natured.

Worse still, western backing for "equip and train" programmes in Russia's backyard don't contribute to peace and stability if bombastic local leaders such as Saakashvili see them as a guarantee of support even in a crisis provoked by his own actions. He seems to have thought that the valuable oil pipeline passing through his territory, together with the Nato advisers intermingled with his troops, would prevent Russia reacting militarily to an incursion into South Ossetia. That calculation has proved disastrously wrong.

The question now is whether the conflict can be contained, or whether the west will be drawn in, raising the stakes to desperate levels. To date the west has operated radically different approaches to secession in the Balkans, where pro-western microstates get embassies, and the Caucasus, where the Caucasian boundaries drawn up by Stalin, are deemed sacrosanct.

In the Balkans, the west promoted the disintegration of multiethnic Yugoslavia, climaxing with their recognition of Kosovo's independence in February. If a mafia-dominated microstate like Montenegro can get western recognition, why shouldn't flawed, pro-Russian, unrecognised states aspire to independence, too?

Given its extraordinary ethnic complexity, Georgia is a post-Soviet Union in miniature. If westerners readily conceded non-Russian republics' right to secede from the USSR in 1991, what is the logic of insisting that non-Georgians must remain inside a microempire which happens to be pro-western?

Other people's nationalisms are like other people's love affairs, or, indeed, like dog fights. These are things wise people don't get involved in. A war in the Caucasus is never a straightforward moral crusade - but then, how many wars are?

Mark Almond is a history lecturer at Oriel College, Oxford.

It's Official: Cindy Is on the Ballot!!!

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Barrier To Life: West Bank Pregnant Women At Risk

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US Family Values: Sending money to Israel's Occupation of Palestine!

Portion below; whole thing here:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0808/S00154.htm

Women in the northern West Bank village of Azzun 'Atma, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), reside only a few kilometers from three hospitals. However convenient the physical distance may seem, the reality is far more concerning. Due to security procedures triggered by the Israeli-Palestinian animosity, many pregnant women are currently living in fear that, when their time comes to give birth, they won't be able to access a health-care facility.

In between the dreams of hopeful mothers-to-be and safe medical care, stands an electric gate. This barrier is manned by Israeli soldiers and remains unconditionally closed at night. Even daytime crossings are less than certain.

Six months ago, Benan Yusef, a small woman with a striking moon-shaped face, went into labor with her second child just before dawn. Her husband wasn't there; he spends nights in Israel where he works in construction. Instead, she called his family, and together Benan and her relatives set out to the hospital in a nearby village called Qalqilya.

When they arrived at the gate, soldiers appeared to be preparing for its usual opening at five in the morning. They had come down from the guard tower and lifted the metal spikes that are placed across the road at night.

But no amount of persuasion could convince the soldiers to let the 28-year-old woman pass. "I was very afraid that the baby would die," she remembers. "It was so cold. I kept trying to hold [the baby] back."

Benan had no option but to rest in the back seat, waiting for the gate to open at its normal time. She felt the baby pressing down, but her mother-in-law told her to hold on and tried to cover her legs.

It was no use. Just as the car passed the gate, Benan told the driver to pull over and bright-eyed Aya was delivered in the dark by her mother-in-law. "The soldiers heard the sound of her voice," she recalls. "We had nothing to wrap her in, so I put her in my jacket. But the water was all under me."

Azzun 'Atma has a visiting doctor who sees patients twice a week in a nurse-staffed clinic. However, if residents have more than a cold or minor illness on the days he is absent, they must travel to Qalqilya for proper care.

What happened to Benan is common place for many Palestinians who need to pass through the military gate in Qalqilya. The entrance is part of a 723-kilometer long complex of cement walls, barbed wire, patrol roads and guard towers that Israel is constructing throughout the West Bank. The barrier is needed for security reasons, Israel says, but its route was declared illegal in an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice at The Hague in 2004.

The residents of Azzun 'Atma are among some 10,000 Palestinians who live in five closed military areas created by the barrier in the northern occupied West Bank, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

If leaving Azzun 'Atma isn't an easy task, entering the village can be even harder. Only those with a proven address and a special permit are allowed to to pass through the gate. Azzun 'Atma lies near the Israeli West Bank settlements of Oranit, Sha'are Tiqva and Elqana, which were built in part on the village's land. The planned route of the barrier will ultimately separate the village from these settlements, while allowing free Israeli access to and from this settlement bloc. Residents of Azzun 'Atma, on the other hand, are in a no-man's land when it comes to services - such as health care.

Nineteen-year-old Muntaha Ahmed believes that as many as half of the village's pregnant women leave Azzun 'Atma before their due date to avoid having to pass the gate in an emergency.

"It is difficult to stay here," she says. "What if your labor starts at night?" Muntaha expected to have a regular birth, but nevertheless went to stay with her family in nearby Ras Attiyeh ten days before her due date. Fortunately, she made the right decision; her doctor was forced to perform an emergency C-section and if she hadn't been in the hospital, her pregnancy could have ended in tragedy.

Tamam Yusef (no relation to Benan) knew what to expect from childbirth. Nonetheless, she was warned by her doctor that due to her advanced age (41) she should give birth in a hospital. When her water broke in the middle of the night, however, the soldiers manning the gate wouldn't allow her and her husband through.

"I have an emergency case," he shouted at them. But they refused. They were looking down through the window in the tower," the elder Yusef remembers. "They said, 'If you don't get out of here, we will shoot you.'"

After over an hour pleading with the soldiers to let them through, the couple had to drive back home. Tamam was so weak that she couldn't get out of the car, but with the help of one of her daughters, who had studied nursing, she gave birth right there to her baby boy. Her daughter then helped her inside and they cut the umbilical cord.

"That was the worst thing," Tamam says. "Afterwards, I learned that maybe if I had stayed sitting there in that position, the boy could have suffocated to death."

Cindy Naming Names -- "This is Horseshit"

Tweet Cindy continues to hit on all cylinders! Portion below; whole thing here:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20454.htm

I get so pissed off when one of my supporters has a tooth ache and can't afford to go see a dentist to fix it or when my sister has had a cough for almost two years and doesn't have the health insurance she needs to get fully well. And when I think that almost 50 million people in this country are non-insured or under-insured, I see red. Why, in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, do some have the "privilege" of being fully insured and healthy, when health care is a basic human right, not a privilege for the elitists? My heart hurts every night when the men who sleep propped up against my campaign office, huddled under their blankets against the San Francisco chill, wish me a "good night" and I can't choke the same words back to them, or do much of anything but give them coffee to keep warm and books to read to help pass the time. My campaign office is being visited on a daily basis by Iraq war vets who can't access the help they need to get physically or mentally healthy---and I am "extreme" because I actually want things to really change and choose to act on this desire and not sit around passively pretending that this horseshit doesn't exist?

Since Casey died, even though every day I am filled with pain and longing, I have tried to be the poster-mom for this pain telling my neighbors and fellow Americans how it feels to be profoundly hurt by the Military Industrial Complex and that it wouldn't be too long before the cancer of BushCo would strike every American home and now that this prediction is awfully coming true, I see more and more apathy and less and less action.

Three years ago today, I first sat in a ditch in Crawford, Texas and three years later, we are in dire straits, my friends, and the prognosis is not good, unless we all make a conscious effort to sacrifice some of today's comfort for the sake of our children and grand-children's futures.

Sixty-three years ago today, the monsters of the US war machine dropped a WMD on hundreds of thousands of innocent women and children and since then, this nation has just descended into a further spiral of war and profiting from war and preparing for war and more profiting from war; which is destroying every aspect of our society and we MUST reclaim our very souls from the Military Industrial Complex before it is too late.

Please don't wait for November, or January or for the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius because every second we allow this demented pattern to continue, is one second too long!

Get moving!

I'm So Proud of My Attorney -- LeGrand Jones Arrested for Constitutional Principle

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Below is from the Tacoma SDS website by Drew Hendricks -- I'd put the PI article in here, except they spelled LeGrand's name wrong -- great reporting!
http://tacomasds.org/node/789

Olympia Attorney LeGrand Jones in Tacoma Court Wednesday

Courtroom support has been requested.

LeGrand Jones, a local attorney from Olympia, was the first person arrested during this round of PMR activity in Tacoma, for failing to provide his cattle tag to the overseer when requested. He will appear in Court at Tacoma's City-County building at 1:30PM Wednesday, and requests the pleasure of our company if we are able.

Please come dressed for court. A friend of the defendant will provide wrist binders if you are so inclined (to send a visual message).

LeGrand's stand against police harassment is just part of our movement, but please do consider supporting him as he tries to overturn this harassment technique of the Tacoma Police Department. Officers who consistently refuse to abide in their duty to identify themselves have no right to demand ID of persons who are committing no crime. Washington State has no "stop and identify" law.

Those persons who have bar-code tattoos should choose attire which places emphasis on those markings, and present them if asked for ID. Do keep in mind that they search bags coming into the facility.

Drew Hendricks
(in his own capacity)
360-870-3127

Truth and Consequences Under the Israeli Occupation -- Mohammed Omer

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Palestinian and foreign journalists demonstrate in Gaza to mark two months since the death of their colleague, Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana, who was killed by fire from an Israeli tank, 16 June 2008. (Wissam Nassar/MaanImages)
Found on Palestinian Pundit and Electronic Intifada

I am a Palestinian journalist from Gaza. At the age of 17, I armed myself with a camera and a pen, committed to report accurately on events in Gaza. I have filed reports as Israeli fighter jets bombed Gaza City. I have interviewed mothers as they watched their children die in hospitals unequipped to serve them because of Israel's embargo. I have been recognized for my reporting, even in the United States and United Kingdom, where I have won two international awards. I have also been beaten and tortured by Israeli soldiers.

This summer, at age 24, I was honored to learn that I had become the youngest journalist to receive the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism, named for the famed American war reporter and awarded to journalists who counter propaganda with the truth. Although Israel has sealed Gaza's 1.5 million Palestinians in what many now call the world's largest open-air prison, Dutch MP Hans Van Baalen lobbied the Israeli government to let me leave Gaza to receive my award in person. Upon my return from London, I was surrounded by Israeli security officers. I was stripped naked at gunpoint, interrogated, kicked and beaten for more than four hours. At one point I fainted and then awakened to fingernails gouging at the flesh beneath my eyes. An officer crushed my neck beneath his boot and pressed my chest into the floor. Others took turns kicking and pinching me, laughing all the while. They dragged me by my feet, sweeping my head through my own vomit. I lost consciousness. I was told later that they transferred me to a hospital only when they thought I might die.

Today, I have difficulty breathing. I have abrasions and scratches on my chest and neck. My hands don't function well; typing is difficult. My doctor informed me that due to nerve damage from one kick, I may be unable to father children and will need to have an operation.

Israeli attacks on journalists are not new; nor are they rare. In April, Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana was killed by fire from an Israeli tank. He was in a car, clearly marked as press. According to Amnesty International, "Fadel Shana appears to have been killed deliberately although he was a civilian taking no part in attacks on Israel's forces."

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the Israeli military's widespread "abusive behavior" of Palestinian journalists. And the Committee to Protect Journalists reports that journalists covering Israeli military actions in the West Bank and Gaza "contend with perennial abuses at the hands of Israeli forces." In 2007 alone, Israeli soldiers shot photographers from Agence France-Presse, Al-Ayyam newspaper and Al-Aqsa TV. The television cameraman, Imad Ghanem, fell to the ground when wounded. Israeli forces then shot him twice more in the legs. Both of his legs have been amputated.

Could it be that despite their tanks, fighter planes and nuclear arsenal, Israel is threatened by our cameras and computers, which give the world access to images and information about their military occupation of Palestinians? Indeed, this month a Palestinian girl filmed an Israeli soldier shooting a blindfolded Palestinian at point blank range with a rubber bullet. The video aired widely, on CNN, NBC News and the BBC, among other media outlets.

Although Palestinians face this violence daily, the images and our stories rarely travel beyond our borders. Israel seems intent on hiding its oppression of Palestinians under its rule -- including its dual system of laws, one giving civil, political and social rights to Israelis, and the other denying those rights to Palestinians living under occupation. This system allows Jewish settlers in the West Bank to enjoy freedom of movement and access to healthcare and education, while Palestinian children in Gaza die of curable illnesses because hospitals have run out of medicine.

Martha Gellhorn brought to light atrocities committed in World War II and in the Vietnam War. In her tradition, I remain committed to accurate reporting from Gaza today. For this I may suffer lifelong consequences. But I hold on to the hope that Americans -- as well as journalists worldwide -- will impress upon Israel the need to respect the rights of reporters. Freedom of speech and a free press are hallmarks of any democracy. I am proud to call myself a Palestinian and a journalist. The might of the Israeli military will not silence my pen or darken my camera lens.

Mohammed Omer is an award-winning photographer and journalist based in Rafah Refugee Camp in the southern Gaza Strip. This article originally appeared in The Nation and is republished with the author's permission.

Ohio Officer Acquitted of Killing Mom Holding Baby

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Iraq or here -- no justice.

Portion below; whole thing here:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-SWAT-Shooting.html

LIMA, Ohio (AP) -- A white police officer was acquitted Monday in the drug-raid shooting death of an unarmed black woman that set off protests about how police treat minorities in a city where one in four residents is black.

The all-white jury found Sgt. Joseph Chavalia not guilty of misdemeanor charges of negligent homicide and negligent assault. He had faced up to eight months in jail if convicted of both counts.

Chavalia shot 26-year-old Tarika Wilson and her year-old son she was holding, killing her and hitting him in the shoulder and hand, during a Jan. 4 SWAT raid on her house. One of the child's fingers had to be amputated.

Officers had been looking for Wilson's boyfriend, a suspected drug dealer.

Wilson's family members stormed out of Allen County Common Pleas Court before visiting Judge Richard Knepper finished dismissing the jury.

Outside the courthouse, Wilson's brother, Ivory Austin said he wasn't surprised by the verdict.

''Now he (Chavalia) gets to get back on with his life,'' he said. ''He took my sister's life.''

He said he was hoping someone from the police department would at least admit a mistake was made.

''I'm not saying he went up there to kill her,'' Austin said.

Lima Police Chief Greg Garlock said the jury made the right decision.

''They confirmed what our sense was and our belief was in this,'' he said.

Prosecutors said Chavalia recklessly fired into a bedroom where Wilson and her six children were gathered.

He fired three times at her even though he could not clearly see her or whether she had a weapon, prosecutor Jeffrey Strausbaugh said. ''He couldn't tell Tarika had a child in her arms,'' he said during closing arguments Monday.

Chavalia had testified that he thought his life was in danger when he fired the shots. He said he saw a shadow coming from behind a partially open bedroom door and heard gunshots that he thought were aimed at him. It turned out the gunfire he heard was coming from downstairs, where officers shot two charging pit bulls.

The Peace Candidate -- by Mr. Fish

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Found on Palestinian Pundit

Living in Hell for Life -- Marlene Martin

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Portion below; whole thing here:
http://www.counterpunch.org/martin08022008.html

According to a study by the Pew Center on the States, one out of every 100 adults in the U.S. is in prison or jail. And because of the racism of the American "justice" system, the numbers are much higher for people of color--if you are an African American man between the ages of 20 and 34, your likelihood of being behind bars today is one in nine.

But the U.S. stands even further apart from the rest of the world in one nightmarish aspect of its prison system--the men and women sentenced to spend the rest of their lives behind bars.

There are over 132,000 people serving life sentences in the U.S. One in 10 are forbidden from ever receiving parolee, but overall, only one in four of the larger group will ever come before a parole board. Despite FBI crime statistics showing a drop in violent crime over the past decade, the number of people sentenced to life in prison has nearly doubled.

Paul Wright, the editor of Prison Legal News and author of two books on the prison system--who himself served 17 years of a life sentence--said life without parole sentences are "a death sentence by incarceration. You're trading a slow form of death for a faster one."

This kind of sentencing is virtually unheard of elsewhere in the world. "Western Europeans regard 10 to 12 years as extremely long term, even for offenders sentenced to life," says James Whitman, author of the book Harsh Justice.

And among the prisoners with life sentences in the U.S. are 2,380 people who were sentenced to life without parole as "juvenile offenders"--in other words, they were under the age of 18 when the crimes they were accused of were committed--according to Human Rights Watch.

Of these juvenile offenders, 73 were sentenced to life in prison without parole at the age of 13 or 14 years old, according to research done by the Equal Justice Initiative.

To put this in perspective, no other country in the world sentences 13 year olds to life without parole. In fact, outside of the U.S., only 12 juvenile offenders anywhere in the world are serving this sentence, according to Human Rights Watch. Seven are in Israel, four are in South Africa, and one is in Tanzania.

There are over 2,000 in the United States.

* * *

"I'm the first to say that I made my share of mistakes in life--I'm not perfect. But life without the possibility of parole is a life-draining sentence. No matter how hard I try to better myself, I'm treated as if I am the worst of the worst. I can't sleep nights. I can't rest in my body because this one bad choice to hang with friends could cost me my freedom forever."

-- Daniel Henney, serving a juvenile life without parole sentence in Illinois

ONE THING that stands out about prisoners sentenced to life without the possibility of parole is that they don't stand out as the inhuman monsters they are often depicted to be.

Among all prisoners with life sentences, from 1988 to 2001, 40 percent were convicted of a crime other than murder. Of juvenile offenders given life without parole sentences, 59 percent--well over half--had never been convicted of a previous crime, according to Human Rights Watch.

Antonio Nunez was raised in Los Angles, his life shaped by gang violence. As the Equal Justice Initiative described in its report "Cruel and Unusual," at the age of 14, he got into a car with two older men, one of whom had been kidnapped. A police chase ensued, and gunfire was exchanged. No one was killed; no one was even hurt. But Antonio was sentenced to life in California's San Quentin prison, where he remains today.

"He has lost all hope," his sister Cindy Nunez told Reuters. "We try to keep his spirits up by saying something will change in the law."

Rather than their alleged crimes, other factors stand out about those serving life without parole sentences. Invariably, they are poor. Many came from violent homes or suffered abuse. And an overwhelming proportion are minorities. According to Human Rights Watch, among juvenile offenders serving life without parole for crimes other than murder, every single one is a person of color.

Carlos LaTuff: Gaza Arena

Tweet Found on Palestinian Pundit

The Legalities of the Free Gaza Boat Trying to Break the Siege This Week

Tweet Portion below; whole thing here:
http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=46164&s2=03

Right-thinking people may be wondering why there is no international action to ensure the freedom boat's safe and uninterrupted passage to Gaza, considering that it will be sailing through international waters and Palestinian territorial waters. Any attempt to stop the vessel would surely contravene maritime law and breach the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The latter is an important set of undertakings and Israel happens to be one of the 137 States that are party to it.

Article 1 states:
1. All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.

2. All peoples may, for their own ends, freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources... In no case may a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence. This of course includes fishing and Gaza's off-shore gas resources.

3. The States that are party to the Covenant, including those having responsibility for the administration of Non-Self-Governing and Trust Territories, shall promote the realization of the right of self-determination, and shall respect that right, in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.

Article 2 requires States to guarantee that the rights enshrined in the Covenant will be exercised without discrimination of any kind as to race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Quartet, please note.

Article 6 says that the States recognize the right to work, which includes the right of everyone to the opportunity to gain his living by work which he freely chooses or accepts, and will take appropriate steps to safeguard this right.

Article 12 recognizes the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, and requires the States to take the necessary steps to provide for the healthy development of the child; improvement of all aspects of environmental and industrial hygiene… and conditions which would assure to all medical service and medical attention in the event of sickness.

Article 16 requires States to submit reports on the measures which they have adopted and the progress made in achieving the observance of the rights recognized… Where can we read Israel's reports on the steps they have taken to promote the realization of these rights for the people of occupied Palestine?

For those who accept the fundamentals of human rights and count themselves members of the human race, nothing could be more straightforward than implementing this Covenant. But the appalling, dragged-out situation in Gaza and the West Bank begs the question: has Israel or any of the Western powers read and understood the Charter?

Speaking of Abortion -- The South Dakota Fairytale

Tweet At Counterpunch.org by Christopher Brauchli, a lawyer living in Boulder, Colorado

Herewith a suggestion on how to improve the South Dakota Fairy Tale that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit has approved for reading to women before they undergo abortions. The case was Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, et al vs. Mike Rounds, et al. It pertained to a piece of legislation passed by the South Dakota legislature, a mostly male body that has, until now, unsuccessfully tried to tell women what they may and may not do with their bodies. Thanks to the Court it has finally succeeded.

The essence of the case was that although women may continue to get abortions in South Dakota, the physician performing the procedure is required to read aloud to the prospective mother. Under section 7 of the statute a woman is required to receive oral disclosures about the procedure she is about to undergo. Some of the information must be given orally AND in writing and other information only in writing although the language of the statute can be read to require that all information must be imparted orally by the physician.

Although the prescribed reading (and writing) is not the sort of thing the mother would read aloud to the child were the child to be born, it has a certain fairy tale like quality to it. Among the things the physician is required to tell the mother is that an abortion will “terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being,” that the woman has an “existing relationship with that unborn human being, ” that the relationship enjoys protection under the United States constitution and under laws of South Dakota” and that “by having an abortion, her existing relationship and her existing constitutional rights with regards to that relationship will be terminated.”

It is patently absurd to describe the embryo has a “whole” and a “separate” human being since whatever else it may be, it is neither whole, having many months to go before it achieves that state, nor is it “separate” since ordinarily it cannot survive outside the mother’s body at the time the abortion is performed. It is equally absurd to say that the “relationship” “enjoys protection under the United States Constitution” since it does not.

Sarah Stoesz, president of the regional Planned Parenthood office, said the statute represents an “unprecedented interference in the doctor-patient relationship and unprecedented interference in a woman’s life.” She also observed that the law is “non-science” based but as we have been taught by none other than the president of the United States and his minions, science is an elective subject whose proofs one may accept or reject based on one’s personal biases. And speaking of science, we are brought to the Environmental Protection Agency’s most recent pronouncement that if added to the South Dakota statute, will bring the number of abortions performed in South Dakota to zero.

The E.P.A. issued a report on July 19, 2008 that pertained to a matter with which few people knew the E.P.A. was concerned. The report said the value of a human life has gone down from $8.04 million to $7.22 million. That does not mean, as the report is careful to point out, that every reader of this column is worth that. Some will be worth more and others less and most readers know to which group they belong.

The reason it is important to know the value of a human life is that when you have the answer to that question you can decide whether certain governmental actions are worthwhile. If something is proposed that a governmental agency determines will save 50 lives and cost $500 million, the agency determines if the proposal makes sense by multiplying 50 lives times $7.22 million. If the product is less than $500 million, the project is abandoned and if more, it may be implemented. If, in that example, 200 people were affected, then the math would justify the cost.

Now that this information is available, the South Dakota legislature should promptly amend House Bill 1166 to include a requirement that the fairy tale be refined to add a section that will inform the woman that not only is she “terminating the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being” but she is also disposing of an asset that has a scientifically established value of $7.22 million. Armed with that scientifically correct information most women will immediately spring for the cash and abortions in South Dakota will come to an end. There will, of course, be a modicum of disappointment when the kid hits college age and the parent goes looking for the $7.22 million the parent knows was being stowed away. Parents will find, to their dismay, that the $7.22 million was, like much of the rest of the language in the South Dakota Fairy Tale, made up by ignorant busy bodies more interested in controlling women’s bodies than in educating their proprietors.

Sexual Harassment Okay As It Ensures Humans Breed, Russian Judge Rules

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Found on Angry Arab Newservice.
My take: The mothers of the judge and the woman's boss should have had preventive abortions.

The unnamed executive, a 22-year-old from St Petersburg, had been hoping to become only the third woman in Russia's history to bring a successful sexual harassment action against a male employer.

She alleged she had been locked out of her office after she refused to have intimate relations with her 47-year-old boss.

"He always demanded that female workers signalled to him with their eyes that they desperately wanted to be laid on the boardroom table as soon as he gave the word," she earlier told the court. "I didn't realise at first that he wasn't speaking metaphorically."

The judge said he threw out the case not through lack of evidence but because the employer had acted gallantly rather than criminally.

"If we had no sexual harassment we would have no children," the judge ruled.

Since Soviet times, sexual harassment in Russia has become an accepted part of life in the office, work place and university lecture room.

According to a recent survey, 100 per cent of female professionals said they had been subjected to sexual harassment by their bosses, 32 per cent said they had had intercourse with them at least once and another seven per cent claimed to have been raped.

Eighty per cent of those who participated in the survey said they did not believe it possible to win promotion without engaging in sexual relations with their male superiors.

Women also report that it is common to be browbeaten into sex during job interviews, while female students regularly complain that university professors trade high marks for sexual favours.

Only two women have won sexual harassment cases since the collapse of the Soviet Union, one in 1993 and the other in 1997.

Human rights activists say that Russian women remain second-class citizens and are subjected to some of the highest levels of domestic abuse in the world.

Israeli Apartheid

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