Fannie, Freddie Spent $200M to Buy Influence

Tweet Got this from Washclean.org, the local public financing campaign (from Politico)
Portion below; whole thing here: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11781.html

If you want to know how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have survived scandal and crisis, consider this: Over the past decade, they have spent nearly $200 million on lobbying and campaign contributions.

But the political tentacles of the mortgage giants extend far beyond their checkbooks.

The two government-chartered companies run a highly sophisticated lobbying operation, with deep-pocketed lobbyists in Washington and scores of local Fannie- and Freddie-sponsored homeowner groups ready to pressure lawmakers back home.

They’ve stacked their payrolls with top Washington power brokers of all political stripes, including Republican John McCain’s presidential campaign manager, Rick Davis; Democrat Barack Obama’s original vice presidential vetter, Jim Johnson; and scores of others now working for the two rivals for the White House.

Fannie and Freddie’s aggressive political maneuvering has helped stave off increased regulation and preserve special benefits such as exemption from state and local income taxes and the ability to borrow at low rates.

When their stock prices took a dive last week, their government allies extended another helping hand with a plan for the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve and, possibly, Congress to shore up the companies.

The housing crisis is sure to linger into the next administration, when the mortgage companies will inevitably be well-represented — no matter who’s in the White House.

Fannie and Freddie’s political contacts exist deep in the two presidential campaigns.

At least 20 McCain fundraisers have lobbied on behalf of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, netting at least $12.3 million in fees over the past nine years.

***

Fannie’s government relations operations dramatically expanded in the mid-1990s, when then-CEO Johnson recruited Washington A-listers Robert Zoellick, who served in the Reagan and Bush administrations; Lawrence M. Small, former secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; and William M. Daley, commerce secretary in the Clinton administration.

Johnson spearheaded an aggressive campaign to create a local grass-roots network of company advocates. Under his leadership, Fannie opened more than 50 partnership offices in cities and rural communities. At the same time, the Fannie Mae Foundation, a private nonprofit financed by the mortgage giant, contributed generously to local charities, arts institutions and housing organizations, giving Fannie influence in lawmakers’ home districts.

Both Fannie and Freddie made large and visible commitments to low and moderate-income housing, quieting criticism from advocacy groups. With the companies in trouble, their political ties are under new scrutiny.

Johnson headed Fannie Mae from 1991 to 1998, leaving with a $21 million payout. Even after he left, Fannie continued to pay him an annual fee of at least $300,000 a year for consulting services and a $71,000 monthly pension, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

From 2001 to 2005, Fannie also paid for Johnson’s support staff, communications services and provided him a car and driver.

Won't Get Fooled Again -- The Who

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Fortunate Son -- Credence

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Baseless in Obamaland -- by Eric Patton

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These are the ending paragraphs of a meandering tale about a football player getting even with the uncooperative owner of his team. But the main point of the article comes after the first 3 paragraphs. Love it!

Whole article on Counterpunch can be find here: http://www.counterpunch.org/patton09062008.html

Now Chad has gotten revenge. Chad's self-annointed nickname is "Ocho Cinco." His jersey number is 85, and since he knows just enough Spanish to be dangerous (since ocho cinco is actually "eight five" in Spanish, not eighty five), he wanted to put ocho cinco on the back of his jersey, in place of his birth name, Johnson. The Bengals said no. The NFL said, under league policy, only last names could go on the backs of jerseys.

Now, there are a lot of things one can fairly say about Chad - but stupid isn't one of them. He may not be Albert Einstein, but he's smarter than Mike Brown (okay, okay - that's not saying much). Look, Chad really is a bright guy. And he's actually not a bad guy. Unlike Randy Moss (who literally hit a cop with his car when he played in Minnesota) and Terrell Owens (who has made a career out of questioning the sexual orientation of his quarterbacks), Chad has never broken the law. He's not a drug user, and he's friendly with the fans. I actually like Chad (I wish I could say the same for the Bengals, but fuck them - I'm a Steeler fan).

Chad legally changed his name from "Chad Johnson" to "Chad Ocho Cinco." (Haven't you noticed I've been going through this entire piece calling him by his first name?) So now he can put ocho cinco on the back of his jersey.

How will this affect the Bengals? Quite simply, get ready for the return of the Bungles. Chad's action will destroy what little chemistry the team still had. Chad has killed the team's chances of winning squat this year. And I, for one, love it. Why? Because Mike Brown is a fuckhead, and he deserves what he's about to get.
So what in the blue hell does all this have to do with the left? Well, you know that old expression "What goes around..."? How about "You reap what you sow?" Just like Mike Brown is about to get what's coming to him, so too are the Democrats.

The Democrats and Barack Obama spent the last year shitting and pissing all over their rank-and-file supporters. The details need not be reviewed here. We shouldn't even be talking about the Republicans right now, except to ask whether it's going to be a burial or a cremation. But the mealy-mouthed, spineless, corporate-grubbing, and base-screwing-over Democrats are now getting their asses handed to them by one formerly-little-known-Governor-turned-rock-star Sarah Palin. The Democrats deserve it. And I've got to tell you, I'm laughing my ass off watching it.

I watched a little of McCain and Palin on the stump this evening - or should I say, I watched John McCain gravy-training on the next Vice President. McCain is so obviously just a spectator during his own damn presidential campaign. He should be on his knees every night thanking Palin's parents for conceiving her. McCain should change his name to American Tourister, because Palin is carrying him like a cheap piece of luggage.

And there's not a damn thing the Democrats can do about it.

Obama left the Republicans the opening when he fucked his base over. Radical lefties tried to tell Obama, but he wouldn't listen. Now he's getting exactly what his arrogance deserves: a one-way ticket to the same mausoleum where the political corpses of Mondale, Dukakis, Gore, and Kerry are interred.

So long, Barry. It was nice knowing ya. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out...

Thick as Thieves...

Tweet Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Jr., left, and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart, right, exchanges places during their news conference in Washington, D.C., on Sunday on the bailout of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. (September 07, 2008) Credit: Associated Press

Suppressing grins, aren't they, at what they have put over on the American public. Will they use this "bail-out" to plead poverty when it comes time to send your next Social Security check?

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/1310ap_mortgage_giants_crisis.html

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration, acting to avert the potential for major financial turmoil, announced Sunday that the federal government was taking control of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Officials announced that the executives of both institutions had been replaced. Herb Allison, a former vice chairman of Merrill Lynch, was selected to head Fannie Mae, and David Moffett, a former vice chairman of US Bancorp, was picked to head Freddie Mac.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says the actions were being taken because "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are so large and so interwoven in our financial system that a failure of either of them would cause great turmoil in our financial markets here at home and around the globe."

The huge potential liabilities facing each company, as a result of soaring mortgage defaults, could cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars, but Paulson stressed that the financial impacts if the two companies had been allowed to fail would be far more serious.

"A failure would affect the ability of Americans to get home loans, auto loans and other consumer credit and business finance," Paulson said.

Both companies were placed into a government conservatorship that will be run by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the new agency created by Congress this summer to regulate Fannie and Freddie.

The Federal Reserve and other federal banking regulators said in a joint statement Sunday that "a limited number of smaller institutions" have significant holdings of common or preferred stock shares in Fannie and Freddie, and that regulators were "prepared to work with these institutions to develop capital-restoration plans."

The two companies had nearly $36 billion in preferred shares outstanding as of June 30, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Definition of Occupation -- Abdelnasser Rashid, 11th Grade, PALESTINE

Tweet Occupied, terrorized, genocide
while the whole world is hypnotized,
Sixty years, incessant tears
no day passes by without countless fears
For our lives, our wives, our children cry
yet the world turns away, and our spirits die.
For my land, I do stand
but I remain hopeless without a helping hand,
Oppression, suppression, depression
of every aspect of my life, you've taken possession,
Our weapons are stones, to protect our homes
but your bulldozers win and terror roams,
Yours are tanks, helicopters, and military jeeps
to kill the young man, as his mother weeps,
You control our electricity, you control our seas
you control our streets, and uproot our trees,
You close our schools, our children can't learn
you deny the refugees their right to return,
Suffering orphans, under your persecution
when they rise up, they face execution,
Families are separated, and farmers (merely) recall
the land they lost by your Apartheid Wall,
Through your diplomacy and your foreign relations
you attempt to justify and give credence to your occupations,
Palestine is my land, and I won't let you take it
and while you put the world to sleep, I try to wake it.

Bad Campaign Moon Rising -- Richard Rhames

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“Politics is the shadow cast on society by big business... the attenuation of the shadow will not change the substance...”

John Dewey, 1859-1952

Yeah, what he said! http://www.counterpunch.org/rhames09062008.html

The bad moon of another campaign season rises. The depoliticized, disinformed, and disengaged American electorate twitch in their culture-coffins. Soon they will be urged to arise and plod across the dim landscape. Robotically they will stand in line to perform their ritual; attempting to hungrily suck meaning from the wizened and bloodless corpse of a rumored democracy. Then, still famished, they will return to their vaults. But the moon will rise again, and so will they --- on and on.

It’s that time again in Obamanation, where two corporate-approved candidates and their running-mates cluster on the right side of the arena. The Anointed signal over the heads of their fans to the funders in the posh VIP suites above the faux-fray. McCain is Able, his sponsors assure the audience. He has the proven character to bomb civilian power plants and irrigation projects. Though he admits to not knowing much about economic issues, he clings tenaciously to Laffer-ism, the totally discredited notion that cutting taxes on rich folks and their corporations increases Treasury revenue.

In a grotesque and Rove-ian move he passed over his ally, apologist, and prompter, Jihad Joe Lieberman for the VP spot in favor of proven breeder, exploiter, and weapon wielder Sarah Palin. As governor of Alaska, Palin consistently sided with oil, mining, and “safari” interests, including those who enjoy shooting fleeing wolves from the comfort of airplanes. Now that she’s officially tapped, some questions are arising about the “vetting” process behind her cynical nomination.

But as John Dolan noted to AlterNet readers (9/2/08), “Perhaps the saddest aspect of Palin’s disgusting record on environmental issues is the fact that it’s hardly even being mentioned in the debate about her nomination. Most of the focus, for an audience of suckers weaned on celebrity gossip, seems to be about her mothering skills, her daughter’s pregnancy and whether she was Miss Congeniality or just a runner-up in some beauty pageant. The fact that she makes her living helping to wipe out whole species, poison productive watersheds and play to the ... great-white-hunter fantasies of her constituency hardly seems worth a mention.”

Obama, and his hair-plugged hack of a VP contestant are long on empty oratory and eager to partition Iraq while escalating the carnage in Afghanistan. But as Michael Yates has written recently (CP, 8/26), “Obama has failed to say anything meaningful” about issues of importance to working people: “Will he make the Occupational Safety and Health Act a real law and not the dead letter it is now. Will he engineer a public works program that rebuilds the infrastructure of ... forgotten [mill] towns and puts their people back to work?... Will he do something about public education and get rid of the corporate-inspired No Child Left Behind legislation? ...Stop wasting billions of dollars on ... criminal wars? Demand that unions be made legal in Iraq?”

Yates notes that Obama’s labeling corporate shill and gaffe-meister Joe Biden as “'working class' ... tells us just how lame U.S. politics are.” Still, he laments, “Obama might have won over the voters Hillary Clinton got by pretending she was still a working class woman from Scranton, while she slugged down shots and beers in [Pennsylvania] bars. He could have intertwined his hand with the hand of the white worker, like the emblem of the old Packinghouse Workers Union, and gone out on the stump and told the truth about class struggle. A lot of white workers would have eaten this up.”

Such solidarity-based electoral politics is a practical impossibility at present of course. As professor Paul Street, wrote in his Brave New America piece recently, “The popular majority of the citizens ---the People --- in whose name U.S. ‘democracy’ purports to function is politically disinterested, infantilized, obedient, distracted, and divided. An increasingly spectator-ized and subordinate public is shepherded by the professional political class across a painfully narrow business and Empire-friendly field of political, policy, and ideological ‘choices.’”

He quotes from Sheldon Wolin’s new book Democracy Inc. : Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism : “The citizenry, supposedly the source of government power and authority as well as participant, has been replaced by the ‘electorate,’ that is, by voters who acquire a political life at election time. During the intervals between elections the political existence of the citizenry is relegated to a shadow-citizenship of virtual participation. Instead of participating in power, the virtual citizen is invited to have ‘opinions’ : measurable responses to questions to questions predesigned to elicit them....”

“...In elections parties set out to mobilize the citizen-as-voter, to define political obligation as fulfilled by the casting of a vote. Afterwards, post-election politics of lobbying, repaying donors, and promoting corporate interests --- the real players --- takes over. The effect is to demobilize the citizenry, to teach them not to be involved or to ponder matters that are either settled or beyond their efficacy.”

Street notes that this evolving new totalitarian system “requires no great sacrifice or strength on the part of its subject populace. It creates a ‘soft,’ childish, and fearful citizenry that is asked mainly to buy things, to watch their telescreens, and perhaps to occasionally vote...”

And so another tawdry and demeaning campaign season begins in arenas named by and for corporations. Outside these “secure” sites, journalists and dissenters to empire/ “managed democracy” are bloodied, roughed up and arrested by latter-day Praetorian Guards. The debased, diversionary jibes and twaddle spewing out of these coliseums, feverishly reported by the corporate press would sicken and shame a truly sovereign people.

But here, as the sun sets on what’s left of America the Dutiful, we stir ever so slightly. November night will soon descend.

Briefly emerging from our comfy-crypts, The Time is upon us again.

Bad Campaign Moon Rising -- Richard Rhames

Tweet

“Politics is the shadow cast on society by big business... the attenuation of the shadow will not change the substance...”

John Dewey, 1859-1952

Yeah, what he said! http://www.counterpunch.org/rhames09062008.html

The bad moon of another campaign season rises. The depoliticized, disinformed, and disengaged American electorate twitch in their culture-coffins. Soon they will be urged to arise and plod across the dim landscape. Robotically they will stand in line to perform their ritual; attempting to hungrily suck meaning from the wizened and bloodless corpse of a rumored democracy. Then, still famished, they will return to their vaults. But the moon will rise again, and so will they --- on and on.

It’s that time again in Obamanation, where two corporate-approved candidates and their running-mates cluster on the right side of the arena. The Anointed signal over the heads of their fans to the funders in the posh VIP suites above the faux-fray. McCain is Able, his sponsors assure the audience. He has the proven character to bomb civilian power plants and irrigation projects. Though he admits to not knowing much about economic issues, he clings tenaciously to Laffer-ism, the totally discredited notion that cutting taxes on rich folks and their corporations increases Treasury revenue.

In a grotesque and Rove-ian move he passed over his ally, apologist, and prompter, Jihad Joe Lieberman for the VP spot in favor of proven breeder, exploiter, and weapon wielder Sarah Palin. As governor of Alaska, Palin consistently sided with oil, mining, and “safari” interests, including those who enjoy shooting fleeing wolves from the comfort of airplanes. Now that she’s officially tapped, some questions are arising about the “vetting” process behind her cynical nomination.

But as John Dolan noted to AlterNet readers (9/2/08), “Perhaps the saddest aspect of Palin’s disgusting record on environmental issues is the fact that it’s hardly even being mentioned in the debate about her nomination. Most of the focus, for an audience of suckers weaned on celebrity gossip, seems to be about her mothering skills, her daughter’s pregnancy and whether she was Miss Congeniality or just a runner-up in some beauty pageant. The fact that she makes her living helping to wipe out whole species, poison productive watersheds and play to the ... great-white-hunter fantasies of her constituency hardly seems worth a mention.”

Obama, and his hair-plugged hack of a VP contestant are long on empty oratory and eager to partition Iraq while escalating the carnage in Afghanistan. But as Michael Yates has written recently (CP, 8/26), “Obama has failed to say anything meaningful” about issues of importance to working people: “Will he make the Occupational Safety and Health Act a real law and not the dead letter it is now. Will he engineer a public works program that rebuilds the infrastructure of ... forgotten [mill] towns and puts their people back to work?... Will he do something about public education and get rid of the corporate-inspired No Child Left Behind legislation? ...Stop wasting billions of dollars on ... criminal wars? Demand that unions be made legal in Iraq?”

Yates notes that Obama’s labeling corporate shill and gaffe-meister Joe Biden as “'working class' ... tells us just how lame U.S. politics are.” Still, he laments, “Obama might have won over the voters Hillary Clinton got by pretending she was still a working class woman from Scranton, while she slugged down shots and beers in [Pennsylvania] bars. He could have intertwined his hand with the hand of the white worker, like the emblem of the old Packinghouse Workers Union, and gone out on the stump and told the truth about class struggle. A lot of white workers would have eaten this up.”

Such solidarity-based electoral politics is a practical impossibility at present of course. As professor Paul Street, wrote in his Brave New America piece recently, “The popular majority of the citizens ---the People --- in whose name U.S. ‘democracy’ purports to function is politically disinterested, infantilized, obedient, distracted, and divided. An increasingly spectator-ized and subordinate public is shepherded by the professional political class across a painfully narrow business and Empire-friendly field of political, policy, and ideological ‘choices.’”

He quotes from Sheldon Wolin’s new book Democracy Inc. : Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism : “The citizenry, supposedly the source of government power and authority as well as participant, has been replaced by the ‘electorate,’ that is, by voters who acquire a political life at election time. During the intervals between elections the political existence of the citizenry is relegated to a shadow-citizenship of virtual participation. Instead of participating in power, the virtual citizen is invited to have ‘opinions’ : measurable responses to questions to questions predesigned to elicit them....”

“...In elections parties set out to mobilize the citizen-as-voter, to define political obligation as fulfilled by the casting of a vote. Afterwards, post-election politics of lobbying, repaying donors, and promoting corporate interests --- the real players --- takes over. The effect is to demobilize the citizenry, to teach them not to be involved or to ponder matters that are either settled or beyond their efficacy.”

Street notes that this evolving new totalitarian system “requires no great sacrifice or strength on the part of its subject populace. It creates a ‘soft,’ childish, and fearful citizenry that is asked mainly to buy things, to watch their telescreens, and perhaps to occasionally vote...”

And so another tawdry and demeaning campaign season begins in arenas named by and for corporations. Outside these “secure” sites, journalists and dissenters to empire/ “managed democracy” are bloodied, roughed up and arrested by latter-day Praetorian Guards. The debased, diversionary jibes and twaddle spewing out of these coliseums, feverishly reported by the corporate press would sicken and shame a truly sovereign people.

But here, as the sun sets on what’s left of America the Dutiful, we stir ever so slightly. November night will soon descend.

Briefly emerging from our comfy-crypts, The Time is upon us again.

"Surge Protectors: Obama Embraces Bush-McCain Spin on Iraq"

Tweet From Chris Floyd at Empire Burlesque
Portion below; whole thing here: http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1599/135/

Barack Obama has now declared -- on Fox News, no less -- that George W. Bush's escalation of the flagrant war crime in Iraq has "succeeded beyond our wildest dreams." He also proclaimed his "absolute" belief in the "War on Terror," and pledged, once again, "never to take a military option off the table" (not even the nuclear option) against the "major threat" of Iran.

In short, he continued his relentless campaign to purge himself of any of that weak-sister "anti-war" taint that got attached to him in the early days of his campaign -- which was, of course, responsible for his phenomenal rise in the first place. He rode that wave to national prominence -- trading on the desperate hopes of millions of Americans that the ungodly criminal nightmare in Iraq might finally end -- but it was obvious long ago that he was never going to dance with the ones that brung him. Once it was clear that he might really make it all the way to the top of the greasy pole, he began a dogged campaign to prove to our ruling elite that he would be a "safe pair of hands" for the imperial enterprise.

We've seen this in, among other things, the shameful FISA vote, the bellicose threats to launch incursions into Pakistan (a policy which the Bush Administration is already implementing, with the usual deadly results for civilians), the ritual and repeated assertions of his willingness to attack Iran, and the foolhardy promise to shepherd Georgia's entry into NATO -- a mirror-image of Dick Cheney's stance, and a policy guaranteed to ratchet up tensions with Russia and quite possibly spark not only a new Cold War but a hot war of horrendous proportions if Georgia pulls its future NATO treaty partners into another conflict with Moscow.

But it is Obama's surrender on the Iraq War front -- or rather, the anti-Iraq War front -- that is most striking, and most disheartening. On the very night that John McCain was putting the "success" of the surge at the center of his campaign, Obama was openly, cravenly laying down one of his chief weapons at the feet of Bill O'Reilly. Obama's cheerleading for the surge -- "beyond our wildest dreams!" -- surpassed anything that McCain himself has claimed for the escalation.

Obama also emphasized the obscene and morally depraved position that has become the Democrat's standard line on Iraq: that the lazy, no-good Iraqis "still haven't taken responsibility" for running "their own country." The arrogance and inhumanity of this position is staggering, almost indescribable. The United States of America invaded Iraq, destroyed its society, slaughtered its citizens, drove millions from their homes, occupied the country and made itself the ultimate master and arbiter of the conquered land -- but still the Iraqis are condemned for "not taking responsibility for their own country."

Not a single Iraqi attacked America. Not one. America's action has killed more than a million Iraqis. But it is the Iraqis who are now "responsible."

Not only has Obama validated McCain's position on the surge, but his and the Democrats' stance on the Iraqis' "responsibility" also completely buys into the Bush Faction's lie that the "government" of Iraq -- installed at the point of foreign guns, with a "constitution" based upon the arbitrary directives of an occupying power -- is somehow legitimate. This stance too validates the "success" of the entire war: "Hey, they've got a legitimate government there now, so they need to take responsibility for their own country."

This bears repeating: the Democrats' position on Iraq fully accepts -- and even celebrates -- the Bush Administration's fundamental claims for the war. The war has established a legitimate, democratic government in Iraq, Bush and the Democrats both say. The "surge" has succeeded "beyond our wildest dreams" in "securing" Iraq, Bush and the Democrats both say. When "conditions on the ground" are right, America should withdraw its "combat troops" from Iraq, leaving behind an unspecified number of troops for training Iraqi security forces, conducting counterterrorism operations and providing security for other American personnel and reconstruction projects, Bush and the Democrats both say.

Where then is the actual difference -- the evidence for genuine "change" -- between these two positions? While the Democrats will occasionally assert that instigating the war was a "mistake" -- because we should have been fighting more wars elsewhere -- they steadfastly refuse to denounce it as an illegitimate and criminal action. And, as we have seen, they agree almost entirely with Bush on the results that the war has produced. The rhetoric is different, of course, and each side denounces the other in the usual partisan bickering -- but the fundamental agreement is undeniable.

Times Ltr. to Editor Lays Out Real Issues in Boeing Strike

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Fairness is the issue, and Boeing seems to be crashing and burning

The story "Boeing strike on hold" [Times, page one, Sept. 4] covers the key bases. Yes, assembly-line workers in all industries are anguished by the outsourcing that globalization has brought. Unfortunately, there is no alternative for today's "cost-focused" multinational corporations.

With its aircraft wings built in England, even Airbus uses outsourcing. But for the aerospace industry, foreign-built subcontractor parts also help obtain aircraft orders from those same countries.

The article touches on another key annoyance for American workers, and not just Boeing's: "Boeing's offer increased the basic monthly retirement pension from $70 to $80 per year of service." We can understand the workers' frustration when the article goes on to state that, "soon after the initial offer from Boeing last week, Machinists started forwarding around e-mails from a 2006 Boeing filing with the Securities Exchange Commission, showing that at that time, low-level executives got monthly pensions of $400 per year of service and top executives got $4,000 for each year of service."

So, $4000 vs. $70? Bingo. Boeing cannot, at the expense of its highly trained workforce, try to have its cake and eat it, too. It's time for Boeing executives to set an example by cutting the huge disparity in pay between themselves and line workers. This is a troubling national syndrome, not just a Boeing anomaly.

If the executives took a 30 percent pay cut, agreed to no bonuses and capped all executive monthly pensions at half their current amount, they could go to the workers and say that "we are now trying our best to do our part, and we will increase your pension — not salary — benefits to the same equivalent level." The executives would still make millions.

We're in this together. Now help us out so we can all keep the 787 on schedule. Fairness is the issue. Boeing needs to do its part.

— Lee Gaillard, Saranac Lake, N.Y.

New “Break the Siege” ship to sail to Gaza -- IMEMC

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SS Liberty (Photo: Free Gaza Movement)

Legislator Jamal Al Khodary, head of the Popular Committee Against the Siege, stated on Thursday that a new Break the Siege ship which includes European legislators, physicians, reporters and international figures will sail to Gaza from Cyprus on September 22.

Al Khodary added that physicians on board will remain in Gaza to perform surgeries and relief work for sick and injured Palestinians residents.

He added that on its way back to Cyprus, the ship will carry nine internationals who remained in Gaza after arriving on board the first ship in addition to nine Palestinians who could not leave after visiting the coastal region.

The nine internationals, including the sister of Tony Blair’s wife, arrived on board the SS Liberty and Free Gaza ships on August 23 and delivered aid and essential supplies to the residents. The ships were filled with humanitarian supplies and carried 60 international activists.

Nine international activists refused to leave the Gaza Strip while the rest left and vowed to come back soon in bigger ships and additional activists.

Important Summary of Free Gaza Boat Trip from Israeli Participant

Tweet End of an Odyssey
By Jeff Halper

Now, a few days after my release from jail in the wake of my trip to Gaza,
I'm posting a few notes to sum things up.

First, the mission of the Free Gaza Movement to break the Israeli siege
proved a success beyond all expectations. Our reaching Gaza and leaving
has created a free and regular channel between Gaza and the outside world.
It has done so because it has forced the Israeli government to make a
clear policy declaration: that it is not occupying Gaza and therefore will
not prevent the free movement of Palestinians in and out (at least by
sea). (Israel's security concerns can easily be accommodated by
instituting a technical system of checks similar to those of other ports.)
Any attempt on the part of Israel to backtrack on this - by preventing
ships in the future from entering or leaving Gaza with goods and
passengers, including Palestinians - may be immediately interpreted as an
assertion of control, and therefore of Occupation, opening Israel to
accountability for war crimes before international law, something Israel
tries to avoid at all costs. Gone is the obfuscation that has allowed
Israel to maintain its control of the Occupied Territories without
assuming any responsibility: from now on, Israel is either an Occupying
Power accountable for its actions and policies, or Palestinians have every
right to enjoy their human right of traveling freely in and out of their
country. Israel can no longer have it both ways. Not only did our two
little boats force the Israel military and government to give way, then,
they also changed fundamentally the status of Israel's control of Gaza.

When we finally arrived in Gaza after a day and a half sail, the welcome
we received from 40,000 joyous Gazans was overwhelming and moving. People
sought me out in particular, eager it seemed to speak Hebrew with an
Israeli after years of closure. The message I received by people of all
factions during my three days there was the same: How do we ("we" in the
sense of all of us living in their country, not just Palestinians or
Israelis) get out of this mess? Where are WE going? The discourse was not
even political: what is the solution; one-state, two-state, etc etc. It
was just common sense and straightforward, based on the assumption that we
will all continue living in the same country and this stupid conflict,
with its walls and siege and violence, is bad for everybody. Don't
Israelis see that? people would ask me.

(The answer, unfortunately, is "no." To be honest, we Israeli Jews are the
problem. The Palestinian years ago accepted our existence in the country
as a people and are willing to accept ANY solution -- two states, one
state, no state, whatever. It is us who want exclusivity over the "Land of
Israel" who cannot conceive of a single country, who cannot accept the
national presence of Palestinians (we talk about "Arabs" in our country),
and who have eliminated by our settlements even the possibility of the
two-state solution in which we take 80% of the land. So it's sad, truly
sad, that our "enemies" want peace and co-existence (and tell me that in
HEBREW) and we don't. Yeah, we Israeli Jews want "peace," but in the
meantime what we have -- almost no attacks, a feeling of security, a
"disappeared" Palestinian people, a booming economy, tourism and
ever-improving international status -- seems just fine. If "peace" means
giving up settlements, land and control, why do it? What's wrong with the
status quo? If it's not broken, don't fix it.)

When in Gaza I also managed to see old friends, especially Eyad al-Sarraj
of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program and Raji Sourani, Director of
the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, whom I visited in his office. I
also received honorary Palestinian citizenship, including a passport,
which was very meaningful to me as an Israeli Jew.

When I was in Gaza everyone in Israel -- including the media who
interviewed me -- warned me to be careful, to watch out for my life.
Aren't you scared? they asked. Well, the only time I felt genuine and
palpable fear during the entire journey was when I got back to Israel. I
went from Gaza through the Erez checkpoint because I wanted to make the
point that the siege is not only by sea. On the Israeli side I was
immediately arrested, charged with violating a military order prohibiting
Israelis from being in Gaza and jailed at the Shikma prison in Ashkelon .
In my cell that night, someone recognized from the news. All night I was
physically threatened by right-wing Israelis -- and I was sure I wouldn't
make it till the morning. Ironically, there were three Palestinians in my
cell who kind of protected me, so the danger was from Israelis, not
Palestinians, in Gaza as well as in Israel. (One Palestinian from Hebron
was in jail for being illegally in Israel; I was in jail for being
illegally in Palestine.) As it stands, I'm out on bail. The state will
probably press charges in the next few weeks, and I could be jailed for
two or so months. I now am a Palestinian in every sense of the word: On
Monday I received my Palestinian citizenship, on Tuesday I was already in
an Israeli jail.

Though the operation was a complete success, the siege will only be
genuinely broken if we keep up the movement in and out of Gaza. The boats
are scheduled to return in 2-4 weeks and I am now working on getting a
boat-load of Israelis.

My only frustration with what was undoubtedly a successful operation was
with the fact that Israelis just don't get it - and don't want to get it.
The implications of our being the strong party and the fact that the
Palestinians are the ones truly seeking peace are too threatening to their
hegemony and self-perceived innocence. What I encountered in perhaps a
dozen interviews - and what I read about myself and our trip written by
"journalists" who never even attempted to speak to me or the others - was
a collective image of Gaza , the Palestinians and our interminable
conflict which could only be described as fantasy. Rather than inquire
about my experiences, motives or views, my interviewers, especially on the
mainstream radio, spent their time forcing upon me their slogans and
uniformed prejudices, as if giving me a space to explain myself deal a
death blow to their tightly-held conceptions.

Ben Dror Yemini of the popular Ma'ariv newspaper called us a "satanic
cult." Another suggested that a prominent contributor to the Free Gaza
Movement was a Palestinian-American who had been questioned by the FBI, as
if that had to do with anything (the innuendo being we were supported,
perhaps even manipulated or worse, by "terrorists"). Others were more
explicit: Wasn't it true that we were giving Hamas a PR victory? Why was I
siding with Palestinian fishermen-gun smugglers against my own country
which sought only to protect its citizens? Some simply yelled at me, like
an interviewer on Arutz 99. And when all else failed, my interlocutors
could always fall back on good old cynicism: Peace is impossible. Jews and
Arabs are different species. You can't trust "them." Or bald assertions:
They just want to destroy us. Then there's the paternalism: Well, I guess
it's good to have a few idealists like you around...

Nowhere in the many interviews was there a genuine curiosity about what I
was doing or what life was like in Gaza . No one interested in a different
perspective, especially if it challenged their cherished slogans. No one
going beyond the old, tired slogans. Plenty of reference, though, to
terrorism, Qassam missiles and Palestinian snubbing our valiant efforts to
make peace; none whatsoever to occupation, house demolitions, siege, land
expropriation or settlement expansion, not to mention the killing,
imprisoning and impoverishment of their civilian population. As if we had
nothing to do with the conflict, as if we were just living our normal,
innocent lives and bad people decided to throw Qassam rockets. Above all,
no sense of our responsibility, or any willingness to accept
responsibility for the ongoing violence and conflict. Instead just a
thoughtless, automatic appeal to an image of Gaza and "Arabs" (we don't
generally use the term "Palestinians") that is diametrically opposed to
what I've seen and experienced, a slavish repeating of mindless (and
wrong) slogans which serve only to eliminate any possibility of truly
grasping the situation. In short, a fantasy Gaza as perceived from within
a bubble carefully constructed so as to deflect any uncomfortable reality.

The greatest insight this trip has given me is understanding why Israelis
don't "get it:" a media comprised by people who should know better but who
possess little critical ability and feel more comfortable inside a box
created by self-serving politicians than in trying to do something far
more creative: understanding what in the hell is going on here.

Still, I formulated clearly my messages to my fellow Israelis, and that
constitutes the main content of my interviews and talks:

(1) Despite what our political leaders say, there is a political
solution to the conflict and there are partners for peace. If anything, we
of the peace movement must not allow the powers-that-be to mystify the
conflict, to present it as a "clash of civilizations." The
Israeli-Palestinian conflict is political and as such it has a political
solution;

(2) The Palestinians are not our enemies. In fact, I urge my fellow
Israeli Jews to disassociate from the dead-end politics of our failed
political leaders by declaring, in concert with Israeli and Palestinian
peace-makers: We refuse to be enemies. And

(3) As the infinitely stronger party in the conflict and the only
Occupying Power, we Israelis must accept responsibility for our failed and
oppressive policies. Only we can end the conflict.

Let me end by expressing my appreciation to the organizers of this
initiative - Paul Larudee and Greta Berlin from the US, Hilary Smith and
Bella from the UK, Vaggelis Pissias, a Greek member of the team who
provided crucial material and political input, and Jamal al-Khoudri, an
independent member of the PLC from Gaza and head of the Popular Committee
Against the Siege and others - plus the wonderful group of participants on
the boats and the great communication team that stayed ashore. Special
appreciation goes to ICAHD's own Angela Godfrey-Goldstein who played a
crucial role in Cyprus and Jerusalem in getting the word out. Not to
forget our hosts in Gaza (whose names are on the Free Gaza website) and
the tens of thousands of Gazans who welcomed us and shared their lives
with us. May our peoples finally find the peace and justice they deserve
in our common land.

-----
Jeff Halper is the Director of the Israeli Committee Against House
Demolitions (ICAHD). He sailed to Gaza on August 23rd aboard the SS Free
Gaza. For more information on the ICAHD, please visit:
http://www.ICAHD.org. For more information on the Free Gaza Movement,
please visit: http://www.FreeGaza.org. Jeff can be reached at
<jeff@icahd.org>.

Police Informants Infiltrated Peace Groups at RNC

Tweet Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2008 16:17:11 -0500
From: Bruce Nestor
Subject: Ramsey County Charges RNC 8 Under State Patriot Act,
Alleges Acts of Terrorism

In what appears to be the first use of criminal charges under the 2002
Minnesota version of the Federal Patriot Act, Ramsey County Prosecutors
have formally charged 8 alleged leaders of the RNC Welcoming Committee
with Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism. Monica Bicking, Eryn
Trimmer, Luce Guillen Givins, Erik Oseland, Nathanael Secor, Robert
Czernik, Garrett Fitzgerald, and Max Spector, face up to 7 1/2 years in
prison under the terrorism enhancement charge which allows for a 50%
increase in the maximum penalty.

Affidavits released by law enforcement which were filed in support of the
search warrants used in raids over the weekend, and used to support
probable cause for the arrest warrants, are based on paid, confidential
informants who infiltrated the RNCWC on behalf of law enforcement. They
allege that members of the group sought to kidnap delegates to the RNC,
assault police officers with firebombs and explosives, and sabotage
airports in St. Paul. Evidence released to date does not corroborate these
allegations with physical evidence or provide any other evidence for these
allegations than the claims of the informants. Based on past abuses of
such informants by law enforcement, the National Lawyers Guild is
concerned that such police informants have incentives to lie and
exaggerate threats of violence and to also act as provacateurs in raising
and urging support for acts of violence.

"These charges are an effort to equate publicly stated plans to blockade
traffic and disrupt the RNC as being the same as acts of terrorism. This
both trivializes real violence and attempts to place the stated political
views of the Defendants on trial," said Bruce Nestor, President of the
Minnesota Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. "The charges represent an
abuse of the criminal justice system and seek to intimidate any person
organizing large scale public demonstrations potentially involving civil
disobedience, he said."

The criminal complaints filed by the Ramsey County Attorney do not allege
that any of the defendants personally have engaged in any act of violence
or damage to property. The complaints list all of alleged violations of
law during the last few days of the RNC - other than violations of human
rights carried out by law enforcement - and seeks to hold the 8
defendants responsible for acts committed by other individuals. None of
the defendants have any prior criminal history involving acts of violence.
Searches conducted in connection with the raids failed to turn up any
physical evidence to support the allegations of organized attacks on law
enforcement. Although claiming probable cause to believe that gunpowder,
acids, and assembled incendiary devices would be found, no such items were
seized by police. As a result, police sought to claim that the seizure of
common household items such as glass bottles, charcoal lighter, nails, a
rusty machete, and two hatchets, supported the allegations of the
confidential informants. "Police found what they claim was a single
plastic shield, a rusty machete, and two hatchets used in Minnesota to
split wood. This doesn't amount to evidence of an organized insurrection,
particularly when over 3,500 police are present in the Twin Cities, armed
with assault rifles, concussion grenades, chemical weapons and full riot
gear," said Nestor. In addition, the National Lawyers Guild has previously
pointed out how law enforcement has fabricated evidence such as the claims
that urine was seized which demonstrators intended to throw at police.

The last time such charges were brought under Minnesota law was in 1918,
when Matt Moilen and others organizing labor unions for the International
Workers of the World on the Iron Range were charged with "criminal
syndicalism." The convictions, based on allegations that workers had
advocated or taught acts of violence, including acts only damaging to
property, were upheld by the Minnesota Supreme Court. In the light of
history, these convictions are widely seen as unjust and a product of
political trials. The National Lawyers Guild condemns the charges filed in
this case against the above 8 defendants and urges the Ramsey County
Attorney to drop all charges of conspiracy in this matter.

Bruce Nestor, President
Minnesota Chapter of National Lawyers Guild
3547 Cedar Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55407
612-659-9019 - Phone
612-436-3664 - Fax
612-991-9488- Cell

Rebel Yell: Resistance and Renaissance in the Age of Terror

Tweet Chris Floyd at Empire Burlesque posits the only sane response to current dire conditions, portion below; whole thing here: http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1597/135/

The whole world absent-mindedly turns its back on these crimes; the victims have reached the extremity of their disgrace: they are a bore. – Albert Camus, The Fastidious Assassins.

The "War on Terror" is a brutal and criminal enterprise launched by George W. Bush and fully supported by John McCain and Barack Obama, both of whom have pledged not only to continue its deadly operations but to expand them to new killing fields. Iran, Pakistan, Russia's "soft underbelly" in the Caucasus – these and other regions have been moved into the cross-hairs of the voracious war machine that drives the foreign policy of both parties. And of course, the countless "covert ops" carried out by the plethora of secret armies and agents of Washington's hydra-headed "security organs" will likewise continue unabated.

Three nations have already been destroyed (or driven into further ruin) by the Terror War: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia. More than a million innocent people have been murdered, either by direct military action by American forces and Washington's various proxy armies and hired killers, or indirectly, in the savage internal conflicts spawned by the vast state terror of invasion and occupation. A million people slaughtered, millions more left dispossessed, orphaned, suffering, grieving, lost: these are monstrous crimes on a scale that make the depredations of Slobodan Milosevic, Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden look like child's play.

Yet almost the entire American political and media establishments – and most of the public as well – approve, even applaud this monstrous engine of depravity, though they may disagree on a few tactics or targets here and there in the overall operation. Despite the fact that the corridors of power in Washington are flooded with the viscera of disemboweled children – murdered in the name of every American – this campaign season is just "business as usual," the same old horse race, the same fevered attention to polls, veep picks, gossip and posturing, to the exclusion of all else. "Hey, get those guts off my Guccis; we're trying to shoot a commercial here!"

It is an extraordinary situation. Those who lived in Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia might find it familiar: the broad acceptance of a system of barbarous criminality as a normal state of affairs, the ordinary – even laudable – circumstances of life in which one simply gets on with things. The victims – the boring victims – whose blood and anguish feed the system are always somewhere else: in a camp, a secret prison, some faraway land.

We live in despairing times. And the presidential campaign – which has turned many "dissidents" into fierce partisans of political forces that will, by their own proud admission, continue to feed the Terror War machine that has dishonored and degraded us all – only deepens the despair.

But despair is a condition, not a response. The only worthwhile response to our historical moment, it seems to me, is rebellion, in the profound sense in which Camus uses the term: a highly individual act which nonetheless expresses a universal value – our common humanity and the inviolability and integrity of every human being. Rebellion is the adamant – and forever flawed and conflicted – resistance to everything that threatens this integrity.

Floyd then goes on to quote Camus (go to link at beginning), a paragraph of which below:

Claiming the unity of the human condition, [rebellion] is a force of life and not of death. Its most profound logic is not the logic of destruction; it is the logic of creation. Its movements, in order to be authentic, must never abandon any of the terms of the contradiction which sustains it. It must be faithful to the yes that it contains as well as to the no…The logic of the rebel is to want to serve justice so as not to add to the injustice of the human condition, to insist on plain language so as not to increase universal falsehood, and to wager, in spite of human misery, for happiness. …The consequence of rebellion is to refuse to legitimize murder because rebellion, in principle, is a protest against death. …Every rebel, by the movement that sets him in opposition to the oppressor, therefore pleads for life, undertake to struggle against servitude, falsehood and terror.

Osama Dawoud - Israelis Hinder Academic Pursuits

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Not many people in the Gaza Strip spend their time thinking about Utah’s Great Salt Lake. I have been dreaming of it for months. This year, I was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to the University of Utah to study in the department of civil and environmental engineering. Palestinians in Gaza suffer from critical water and environmental contamination problems. I planned to focus my Utah education on water resources and environmental engineering so that I could return home and help to alleviate these problems. But I will not be attending this fall. On the basis of secret evidence conveyed by the Israeli government, my American visa was canceled.

I am a scientist dedicated to advancing the well-being of the Palestinian people. Yet despite playing by the educational rules and excelling in the academic arena, I am being hurt by an Israeli government that has bottled Palestinians up in Gaza rather than allowing them to pursue opportunities abroad. Hundreds of students in Gaza have been accepted to foreign universities but are nonetheless prevented from attending by Israel.

After Hamas won elections supported by the Bush administration, Israel put financial restrictions on Gaza and then imposed a devastating embargo in June 2007. While Israel claims it no longer occupies the Gaza Strip, this is belied by Israel’s control over our land exits, airspace and seaport. Our economy has been pulverized by the embargo and by Israeli military airstrikes. We are encaged here — 1.5 million people collectively punished for the results of a democratic election whose results Israel rejects.

My dream of a first-rate American education in a Ph.D. program may well be over. Financially, I do not have the means to pursue an education without the help of a scholarship. Unemployment here is 45 percent. A Fulbright scholarship is an extraordinary lifeline extended by the United States.

I have spent my life learning or teaching others. I have been a model student and example of high academic achievement for younger Palestinian students. Such students, including two of my own younger brothers, will surely grow doubts about the worth of pursuing higher education when they see Fulbright scholars being denied entry to the United States on grounds obviously trumped up by the Israeli government.

The Great Salt Lake and unusual Utah environment were particularly enticing to me. Having never been to the Dead Sea, because Israeli travel restrictions make the short trip practically impossible, I looked forward to learning about a salt lake thousands of miles away.

It’s the water contamination in Gaza, however, that draws me to Utah and the expertise of the university’s professors. Israel’s settlers, illegally occupying our land in the Gaza Strip, used a disproportionate amount of water until their departure in 2005. But most of the salinity in our water supply is, in fact, a consequence of Israel’s confining a million refugees to this narrow strip of land. Additionally, Israel’s cutting of our electrical supply leads to waste water not being properly treated. Through a Ph.D. at the University of Utah, I hoped to expand my expertise and help solve Gaza’s acute water pollution. My individual loss, however, is part and parcel of Israel’s decision to keep Gaza impoverished and ill-educated.

My people long for their freedom, and our young people champ at the bit when limited to a spit of land 25 miles long and six miles wide. Education and travel provide our students with tremendous opportunities to learn and return to contribute to the well-being of the Palestinian people. A remarkable program is now faltering on account of Israeli policies.

Labor Day and the Fat Cats -- Nader Sez Repeal Taft-Hartley

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Cindy Sheehan also calls for this.
Portion of Nader's article below; whole thing here: http://www.counterpunch.org/nader09032008.html

Employers have slashed benefits for those workers lucky enough to retain a job. And many workplaces remain far more hazardous than necessary.

Most people struggle to get by and they are working more and more—either working longer hours or picking up a second or third job—to pay the bills and meet rent or mortgage payments. In two-parent families, increasingly both parents are in the workforce. Just to meet everyday expenses, they’re borrowing more and more from credit cards, home equity loans, or second mortgages, or from legal loan sharks at check-cashing operations. If someone in the family gets sick and lacks health insurance—forty-five million Americans are in that boat—the economic pressures on the family can be overwhelming. Even if a family has insurance, the exorbitant price of medicine may not be covered, or covered entirely, and paying for the pills can drive a family into despair.

The Economic Policy Institute reports that: “The inflation-adjusted value of the minimum wage is 19 percent lower in 2008 than it was in 1979. Since September 1997, the cost of living has risen 32 percent, while the minimum wage, even after the increase to $6.55, has fallen in real value.”

In recent times, the gap between haves and have-nots is more severe and the demands for worker rights have never been more powerless since World War 2.

Consider the following:

· S&P 500 CEOs now make about 344 times more than the average worker at their firms.

· The top fifth of households own more than 84.7 percent of the nation’s wealth, the middle fifth percent less than 3.8 percent of the nation's wealth.

· The percent of wealth owned and controlled by the wealthiest 1 percent of households, now equals that of the bottom 92 percent.

· Women and minority males earn 69 percent to 80 percent of what White men make. In addition, more than a third of single mothers with children live in poverty.

Repealing Taft-Hartley would certainly help workers to organize for better wages and working conditions. The fight would be monumental, but so would the gains.

Act of War -- U.S. Troops Kill 20 in Pakistan Attack

Tweet http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20679.htm

03/09/08 --- -WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - "Suspected" U.S. commandos from Afghanistan killed 20 people, including women and children, in a pre-dawn raid inside Pakistan, officials said, an attack branded as an assault on the nation's sovereignty.

The attack is likely to spark uproar in Pakistan, where it will be seen as undermining sovereignty at a time when a new civilian government is struggling to assert authority in the turbulent nuclear-armed state.

"It is outrageous," Owais Ahmed Ghani, governor of North West Frontier province, said in a statement.

"This is a direct assault on the sovereignty of Pakistan and the people of Pakistan expect that the armed forces ... would rise to defend the sovereignty of the country and give a befitting reply," he said.

Security officials in the region said they suspected U.S. soldiers backed by helicopter gunships mounted the attack.

A spokeswoman for Afghanistan's NATO-led force said she had no information about the incident.

A spokesman for a separate U.S.-led coalition force declined to comment, referring questions to the U.S. Central Command.

The United States says al Qaeda and Taliban militants are based in sanctuaries in northwest Pakistan's ethnic Pashtun tribal areas on the Afghan border, where they orchestrate attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan and plot violence in the West.

Since the emergence of a civilian-led government following elections in Pakistan in February, there has been mounting concern that U.S. military operations were becoming more aggressive in the tribal lands bordering Afghanistan.

The number of missile attacks launched by pilotless drone aircraft have multiplied, and there have been fears U.S. forces would use helicopter gunships or put troops on the ground for "hot pursuit" or commando-style raids to destroy al Qaeda nests.

THREE HOUSES

The attack took place in a village in the South Waziristan region, a known sanctuary for al Qaeda and Taliban militants.

The village is across the border from Bermal, a village near a U.S. base at Shikin in Afghanistan's Paktika province.

"Troops came in helicopters and carried out action in three houses," said Angor Adda village shopkeeper Gul Nawaz.

Other residents said the foreign troops detained some people and took them away.

U.S.-operated drone aircraft have launched attacks in Pakistani border regions several times this year, killing dozens of militants, but U.S. ground troops had not been known to cross into Pakistan to fight militants.

Pakistan is a staunch U.S. ally, even though the campaign against militancy is deeply unpopular with many people, but it rules out any encroachment by foreign soldiers onto its soil.

Pakistani Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said aircraft belonging to foreign forces in Afghanistan attacked three houses at 4.30 a.m. (2230 GMT).

He declined to comment further, saying the Foreign Ministry was investigating.

A Heartbroken Groom in Nangarhar -- Iqbal Sapand

Tweet http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20680.htm

03/09/08 "NBC" -- - "I thought American forces were in Afghanistan for our security," said Attiqullah, his voice trembling. "I could never have imagined that they would bomb my wedding party. They killed my entire family. I will never forgive them."

I sat with Attiqullah, who gives his age as around 15, near the graves where his family members are buried. He described what happened the day of July 6, 2008 -- his wedding day -- when his bride, two of his brothers and a sister, along with 45 relatives, were killed by a U.S. air strike on the remote village of Oghaza, in Nangarhar Province in eastern Afghanistan.

Attiqullah’s father had sent the entire family to the bride’s house the night before the wedding ceremony, as per Afghan custom. "The women were playing musical instruments and everyone was singing and dancing," Attiqullah said. "Then, according to our tradition, the entire groom’s family must escort the bride from her house to meet the groom. Early the next morning everyone set out on the way to my house, walking in a kind of procession through a mountain pass. And then, the unimaginable happened."

"It was 6:30 in the morning and there were 300 of my relatives and friends gathered at my house waiting for the bride to arrive," he said. Attiqullah, by now his eyes brimming with tears, was barely audible and wanted to appear strong in front of me. He was fighting hard not to lose control as he told his story so he avoided my eyes and drew circles in the mud as he answered my questions.

"I was watching the cooks cut the meats, prepare the potatoes, and wash the rice," he continued. "This was all for me and I felt so happy and proud. I was day-dreaming of welcoming my bride, wondering how she would feel as she entered my house and also how I would feel. I was counting the minutes to her arrival."

"Then there was a loud explosion on the top of the mountain," Attiqullah, crying, explained what happened. "I saw balls of fire explode in the sky, the mountain seemed to be burning. I ran from the house and started climbing. I ran faster and faster. I could hear the cries of children and women. And then the second explosion."

Attiqullah / NBC News

Attiqullah prays in the graveyard

Attiqullah’s house, a simple structure of mud, rock and wood, is built along the side of the mountain. It took him a half hour to run up the mountain, his uncle running with him.

"And then there was a third explosion," he said.

"Oh my God!" Attiqullah was now sobbing uncontrollably. " I saw my bride and my family members; I saw the pieces of their bodies scattered all over the place."

The U.S. military is investigating the incident and said in a statement: "Any loss of innocent life is tragic."

"I assure you we do not target civilians and that our forces go to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties," U.S. military spokesman, 1st Lieutenant Nathan Perry said.

An investigation by the Afghan government concluded that 52 people died in that air attack - 45 women and children were killed. Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered his government to pay $2,000 for each person killed and $1,000 to each injured person.

Attiqullah told me there was no offer of assistance to the family from coalition forces.

From Lawrence of Cyberia: Why Don't Zionists Adopt Gandhi's Methods?

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Whole column reprinted below or linked here: http://lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com/

I've just been reading a post at Mondoweiss (Why Don't Palestinians Adopt Gandhi's Methods?), which describes one of the practical reasons - i.e. Israel's (mis)use of the law enforcement and judicial system - why Palestinian non-violent resistance has not been effective in the way that those who lament the lack of a "Palestinian Gandhi" imply that it should be.

I should start out by saying that personally I am not convinced that most of the people who lament the lack of a Palestinian Gandhi do so sincerely. What I mean is, non-violence might well be an effective means of realizing Palestinian rights, but I do not believe that the people who criticize Palestinians for not adopting it are necessarily interested in seeing the Palestinians realize their rights at all. I don't think for a minute that Israel and its supporters would treat - or would ever have treated - the Palestinians any better had the Palestinians gone quietly. Zionism's problem with the Palestinians is not that they are terrorists. Zionism's problem with the Palestinians is that they exist. The Palestinians have to be forcibly displaced, dispossessed and disenfranchised not because of anything they do, but because that is the only way to create a Jewish state in a land where there is a pre-existing indigenous majority population that happens to be overwhelmingly non-Jewish. Even if every single Palestinian became a pacifist right now, Zionism would still have no room for them: Israel would still be colonizing the West Bank, and still depopulating East Jerusalem of residents who happen to have the wrong ethnic-religious background. It takes a special kind of nerve to embark upon a project - Zionism - that can be fulfilled only through the violent destruction of another people, and then criticize the people you are destroying for their failure to adopt non-violence.

But even if we suspend our disbelief about Zionism's willingness to respond to Palestinian non-violence, and assume the very best about Israel's intentions, it still strikes me as a little odd that any Zionist would use the moral authority of Mahatma Gandhi as a line of attack against the Palestinians, seeing as Gandhi himself was very opposed to Zionism:

Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. …Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home. The nobler course would be to insist on a just treatment of the Jews wherever they are born and bred.

… I am not defending the Arab excesses. I wish they had chosen the way of non-violence in resisting what they rightly regarded as an unwarrantable encroachment upon their country. But according to the accepted canons of right and wrong, nothing can be said against the Arab resistance in the face of overwhelming odds.

-- The Jews In Palestine, by Mahatma Gandhi; The Harijan, 26 Nov 1938.

From a Zionist perspective, Gandhi apparently has enough moral authority to be called upon when he criticizes Arab violence, but not enough to be listened to when he condemns the underlying injustice against the Palestinians that gives rise to the violence in the first place.

One of the commenters at Mondoweiss cited a quote from Gandhi, lamenting Zionism's reliance on terrorism to impose itself on Palestine. I looked for the context to the quote, and found the source article, in which Gandhi had this to say about the use of terrorism to establish a Jewish state in Palestine (click images to enlarge):

-- Jews and Palestine, by Mahatma Gandhi; The Harijan, 21Jul 1946. (via The Gandhi Reader).

And that strikes me as the biggest irony of all. Here in the U.S., where Zionism is the default perspective for viewing the Middle East, people look at Palestine's confrontation with Zionism and ask: Why can't the Palestinians adopt Gandhi's nonviolent methods? But when Gandhi himself looked at Palestine's confrontation with Zionism, the question that occurred to him was: Why can't the Zionists adopt my nonviolent methods?

Some Kids Respond to the Free Gaza Boats

Tweet http://www.globalcitizencorps.org/group.htm?mode=gvb&igid=12841&op=ViewArticle&articleId=462&blogId=23

An Interview with Hope...... Posted by Ziad B. on 2008/08/30 2:33 pm

Three days ago , me and my friends had the opportunity to be a part in one of the most wonderful experiences. We made interviews with the people who were on board of the "FREE GAZA" boats.

In addition to making the first step in breaking the siege , they wanted to send a message to the Palestinians , that they did not forget about us , and they care about us and willing to do whatever it takes to help us.

So many sacrifices were made, some of them received threats , while others lost their jobs ,but they did not care , all they care about is to be here in Gaza and make the change.

One of the questions that we asked them was about the media, most of them said that the media in their countries does not show the true facts , while few of them answered in the opposite way.

Another thing that bothered them is that they did not have the chance to go and deal with ordinary people , they went with fishermen on boats and went to some camps , but they are still looking for more participation with people .

Most of them are gone now , but some are going to stay for about another 14 days.

Having these heroes in Gaza made our hearts full of hope , enthusiasm and love.

Ziad

2 COMMENTS

A portion of light

Reem O. | 2008/08/31 2:14 pm

I agree with you Ziad that the 2 boats of breaking the siege shed a portion of light on Palestinians lives as they were about to lose hope.

When I met some of them, I was impressed of their belief in us, in our issue and how they took the risk to support us.

It was obvious that they have the same honest message to Palestinians, they all came to say to us "You're not alone".

They meant sending another message to the whole world which is "You have the power to make a change and to break this siege".

We all appreciate their support and the sacrifice they are willing to offer for us...

As Ziad said...They are true heroes and they shared in building more Palestinian heroes by their support and love.

Reem

Well Done Nasser B. | 2008/09/01 4:10 pm

Thanks alot Zyad and Reem for sharing your experience with us, i also had the chance to talk to 2 of them but for few time and wish if i could spend more time.
What they did was one of the greatest thing that would support the palestinian cause and we the people in Gaza, because it gave us much hope and that there are still great people outside who would sacrifice for us.
Hopefully the siege will end soon.
Thanks again Guys for your efforts.
Nasser

Amy Goodman and Two Democracy Now! Producers Unlawfully Arrested At the RNC

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www.democracynow.org

September 1, 2008

Contact:
Denis Moynihan 917-549-5000
Mike Burke 646-552-5107, mike@democracynow.org

ST. PAUL, MN—Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman was unlawfully arrested in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota at approximately 5 p.m. local time. Police violently manhandled Goodman, yanking her arm, as they arrested her. Video of her arrest can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ

Goodman was arrested while attempting to free two Democracy Now! producers who were being unlawfully detained. They are Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. Kouddous and Salazar were arrested while they carried out their journalistic duties in covering street demonstrations at the Republican National Convention. Goodman's crime appears to have been defending her colleagues and the freedom of the press.

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher told Democracy Now! that Kouddous and Salazar were being arrested on suspicion of rioting. They are currently being held at the Ramsey County jail in St. Paul.

Democracy Now! is calling on all journalists and concerned citizens to call the office of Mayor Chris Coleman and the Ramsey County Jail and demand the immediate release of Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar. These calls can be directed to: Chris Rider from Mayor Coleman's office at 651-266-8535 and the Ramsey County Jail at 651-266-9350 (press extension 0).

Democracy Now! stands by Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar and condemns this action by Twin Cities law enforcement as a clear violation of the freedom of the press and the First Amendment rights of these journalists.

During the demonstration in which they were arrested law enforcement officers used pepper spray, rubber bullets, concussion grenades and excessive force. Several dozen others were also arrested during this action.

Amy Goodman is one of the most well-known and well-respected journalists in the United States. She has received journalism's top honors for her reporting and has a distinguished reputation of bravery and courage. The arrest of Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar is a transparent attempt to intimidate journalists from the nation's leading independent news outlet.

Democracy Now! is a nationally syndicated public TV and radio program that airs on over 700 radio and TV stations across the US and the globe.

Video of Amy Goodman's Arrest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ

Happy Labor Day -- Cindy for Congress!

Tweet The bookends of summer have become the Memorial Day weekend and the Labor Day weekend. To many Americans, the two "long" weekends are nothing more than that, long weekends: chances to travel (not much of that this summer, due to high energy prices); cook-out; catch up on chores, or just relax for an extra day off.

Memorial Day took on a sorrowful, yet profound, meaning to me when my son Casey (who was born on Memorial Day in 1979) was killed in BushCo's demented occupation of Iraq. I can no longer celebrate my son's birth, or think of it just as another day to sleep in.

Labor Day was made a Federal holiday in 1894 and is celebrated on the first Monday in September. It was proposed by the Central Labor Union in NYC as a "day off" for workers and was accompanied by speeches from politicians and prominent Labor activists on everything from the economy to social issues.

Labor Day is significant to Cindy for Congress because we recognize that workers courageously sacrificing for future workers is what elevated the working class to the middle class and is what elevated the working poor to a much higher standard of living. Cindy for Congress is appalled at the attempts to quash the rights of workers to organize and at unions that have leaders that seemingly negotiate for the "bosses" and not for the members.

Cindy for Congress has a labor platform that has been hailed by union activists from around the world and we would like to take this day to honor workers and to promise that we are together in the struggle for better jobs, a living wage, health and education benefits and the right to work in a safe and oppression-free work place, among other struggles. The right to work must be extended to our brothers and sisters from across the border who migrate to the US not only to survive, but also because of the "free" trade agreements that suppress wages and either send jobs to other coutnries or make them disappear all together.

Many people don't fully grasp our "People before Politics" slogan, but it is quite simple. People, ordinary people, are marginalized or ignored by the political spheres and processes in this nation where big business and special corporate interests are served before the needs of the citizenry. Cindy for Congress believes that the foremost thought in ever politician's mind should be: "How will this decision affect my constituents, and what can I do to make things better?" Cindy for Congress is fully committed to ordinary citizens that don't have the capital behind them to buy their representative's votes, legislation, or even attention.

Cindy for Congress supports Labor because we believe that organized Labor has made this world a far better place and the right to organize is a basic human right.

Cindy for Congress would also like to send solidarity to our friends and colleagues in New Orleans who have been working for the people of New Orleans and the Gulf States since Katrina. Our hearts and best wishes go to the people who have been struggling to put their lives back together for the past three years in hopes that Gustav won't be as devastating as the last natural disaster that turned into a man-made calamity.