SIRATYST (Stuff I Read and Thought You Should Too) -- “To ravage, to slaughter, to usurp under false titles, they call empire; and where they make a desert, they call it peace.” (Calgacus, as quoted by Tacitus, Agricola 30-31)"
"It is Americans who are the victims of these abuses, not terrorists. The Times was informing the people of this land, whose rights are being continuously violated by their so-called servants, what these impostors are really up to. It’s about time they did something besides lie us into war."
"These clowns in congress seem to be trying their best to make us prefer an imperial president to their lousy rule. Try to resist."
Via Antiwar.com"One of the family members they allegedly killed was a child, said a senior Army official who also requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. The senior official said the alleged incident was first revealed by a soldier during a routine counseling-type session. The official said that soldier did not witness the incident but heard about it."
From MSNBC via War & Piece.com"SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office in charge of protecting California against terrorism has tracked demonstrations staged by political and anti-war groups, a practice senior law-enforcement officials say is an abuse of civil liberties."
"Daily reports prepared for the state Office of Homeland Security in recent months contain details on a number of upcoming political demonstrations in the state."
"Initiative 920 pits two powerful forces against each other — educators who want more money for schools versus the wealthy who don't want their life's worth taxed when they die."
"Several hundred million dollars in funding for public schools and colleges are at stake. The estate tax is expected to bring in more than $480 million during the next five years, all of which is dedicated to education."
From the Seattle TimesAnd yet, even all this misery is overshadowed by a grimmer fact: no water. Gaza's public water supply is pumped by electricity. The taps, too, are dry. No sewage system. And again, word is that the electricity is out for at least six months.
The Gaza aquifer is already contaminated with sea water and sewage, due to over-pumping (partly by those now-abandoned Israeli settlements) and the grossly inadequate sewage system. To be drinkable, well water is purified through machinery run by electricity. Otherwise, the brackish water must at least be boiled before it can be consumed, but this requires electricity or gas. And people will soon have neither.
Drinking unpurified water means sickness, even cholera. If cholera breaks out, it will spread like wildfire in a population so densely packed and lacking fuel or water for sanitation. And the hospitals and clinics aren't functioning, either, because there is no electricity.
Finally, people can't leave. None of the neighboring countries have resources to absorb a million desperate and impoverished refugees: logistically and politically, the flood would entirely destabilize Egypt, for example. But Palestinians in Gaza can't seek sanctuary with their relatives in the West Bank, either, because they can't get out of Gaza to get there. They can't even go over the border into Egypt and around through Jordan, because Israel will no longer allow people with Gaza identification cards to enter the West Bank. In any case, a cordon of Palestinian police are blocking people from trying to scramble over the Egyptian border--and war refugees have tried, through a hole blown open by militants, clutching packages and children.
Virginia Tilley in Counterpunch.org
"No concessions will be made," Ismail Haniya said on Friday in his first public appearance since the abduction of Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit.
Addressing Muslims praying in Gaza's main mosque, Haniya said that the Israeli offensive was premeditated to bring down the Hamas-led government, but said his government "would not fall and would not change its position".
From Information Clearinghouse.org
"The Bush Administration has it right. The Democratic Party is the party of cut and run. It used to be the party where progressives could find a home. No longer. Cut and run has turned it into the party that stands for total disarray, desertion of core values, or nothing at all."
"What happened to universal health care? Cut and run. The welfare state? Cut and run. Calling as a party for an end to atrocities such as torture and rendition? You guessed it. Holding government leaders responsible for their actions? Donald Rumsfeld is still secretary of defense. Support for international law and the United Nations?"
"On the bridge, Curt Bell and his wife, Linda McKimbell, both of Portland, stood with a sign bearing the photo of Bell's brother John. "Died in Vietnam for another stupid war," the sign said.
"Some men who say they are veterans of other wars stood with the Watada supporters. John Mackey, a Korean War veteran, said it was important to be there."
"I have a guilty conscience for what I did (in Korea)," Mackey, 76, of Mountlake Terrace, said. "I didn't give a damn then. It's only afterwards that I began to think about what I did. The lieutenant has sense enough to recognize now what's going to happen."
