Propaganda brochures

From The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب by As'ad

A colleague, Lara, sent me this (I cite with her permission): "A friend of mine who signed onto the U.S. call for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel is listed on that website received a package today from the Israeli consulate in Atlanta. It included a letter suggesting to her that her support of the boycott was misguided and could easily be corrected through proper information and that Israel is a democracy that celebrates its diversity in every possible way. It also included a number of glossy Israeli government propaganda brochures and pamphlets, and a book called "The Israelis" by Donna Rosenthal ...that includes chapters with titles like "Dating and Mating Israeli Style" "Oy! Gay?" and "Hookers and Hash in the Holy Land," alongside chapters like "The Bedouin: Tribes, Tents and Satellite Dishes" and "Out of Africa: Ethiopian Israelis in the Promised Land." In all, the package seemed to be cast towards a stereotyped view of a "liberal academic" (as opposed to their propaganda for born-again Christians) who is assumed to know extremely little about the Middle East and who is assumed to be stupid enough to believe this shit."

A really dumb Zionist agreed to debate Angry Arab,,,, poor fool, maybe we can make it smell like Banana Pie so he can Devour it

Chutzpah (Molly,,,, spell check?)

Congresswoman brags of checking with Zionist Organization president before she signs on to legislation

From the JTA report on the Zionist Organization of America's lunch on Capitol Hill last week. Best moments belong to Shelley Berkley. Emphasis mine:

Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV) joked that she always brings [ZOA President] Mort Klein her ZOA membership check each time our Mission is in Washington but that today she had left her checkbook in her car. She said that “being Jewish is a lifelong occupation. It’s what we do as Jews, more than any place else, we are experiencing the liberties our ancestors only dreamt of for generation after generation. There is a price to pay for this and the price is being engaged in our government process and no one does this better than ZOA.” Speaking of the rocket falling on Israeli towns like Sderot, she said that she “knows every neighborhood of Sderot … Israel has exercised extraordinary restraint and did not use disproportionate force. On the contrary, it didn’t use enough, soon enough. Many of my colleagues were concerned at this – I ask them, ‘Would you have been happier if a thousand more Jews had died?’ ... UNRWA is nothing but the face and arm of Hamas. We are giving funds to rebuild Gaza for UNRWA to administer – I couldn’t think of anything more ridiculous than this. I was delighted when my colleagues Mark Kirk and Steve Rothman introduced it – but first I called Mort to make sure it was strong enough before I signed on … There is no way on G—’s green earth that we can allow Iran to get nuclear weapons. I remember Ariel Sharon telling a group of us at Blair House that a nuclear Iran is as much a threat to the U.S., to the West and the Arab nations and that the world should not be expecting Israel to take care of its dirty work. And I couldn’t agree more.”
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/03/congresswoman-brags-of-checking-with-zionist-organization-president-before-she-signs-on-to-legislati.html

And even though those criminals brag about the Israel lobby and how much power it is those disgusting criminals have no shame to criticise those people that criticise them!!!!

ADL slams Louis Farrakhan for 'bigoted' comments on Israel lobby
The Anti-Defamation League lashed out at Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan on Monday for remarks he made earlier this month in which he accused "the Israeli lobby" of controlling the government.

"When the people of Gaza were being slaughtered, the pro-Israeli lobby sent messages to the House and the Senate of words that they wanted them to use, gave them the language, and now you have bipartisan support," Farrakhan told supporters in Rosemont, Illinois in a March 1 speech.

"You cannot deny the pro-Israeli lobby and get re-elected," Farrakhan said. "Ask Cynthia McKinney. Ask David Hilliard. Ask our mayor in Oakland, California. Ask [former Illinois Senator Charles] Percy. Ask Jimmy Carter. You can't criticize, you can't say nothing because if you do, you're branded as an anti-Semite."

"Why, U.S. Congress, will you not speak? It is because you fear a lobby that has money and influence that will turn you out of your seat? So you're terrorized. That's why you don?t act for the American people that sent you to Congress. You are not their representative. You are the representative of the money and interests that have bought your soul."

At one point during his address, Farrakhan implied that the validity of Holocaust records should be open to debate.

"[You] can't even engage in constructive argument over the veracity of the figures of the Holocaust. We know something happened, sure, but you can't talk about [it]. In certain cities in Europe they arrest you and put you in prison for denying such."

"There's not a vote that the pro-Israeli lobby wants that doesn't get bipartisan support," Farrakhan said. "Why? Because the Israeli lobby controls the government of the United States of America."

The remarks were met with strong condemnation by ADL chief Abe Foxman.

"Louis Farrakhan is at it again," said Foxman. "After his near-silence on Jews over the last several years, we thought Minister Farrakhan had put his long history of anti-Semitism and racism behind him, or at least had held his views in check. Apparently, that was wishful thinking. Once again he is clearly comfortable with putting his bigotry on display, unfettered and unhidden for his supporters and the world to see."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1075002.html

Did Hamas send those Israelis flowers and candies yet?

Before the war which resulted in mass killing of Palestinian women and children the whole Western world but Especially the USA was to to to happy to keep ignoring Hamas,,,,, can you imagine those guys want to negotiate with the Taliban but they are unwilling to talk to Hamas,,,,,, goes to show how much those Americans "care" about women and children,,,, all of these politics are for opportunistic reasons. They made friends with the Awakening (US-allied Sunnis alarmed at Baghdad crackdown) then they turned there backs on them,,,, they made friends with the Kurds when they needed them and now they are turning there backs there to (They have been the US's staunchest ally, but as Iraq's situation improves, its Kurdish minority is becoming dispensable),,,,,,,, I wonder what it is about Mahmoud Abbas and his wicked collaborating ways that these Americans just cant resist?????

But how stupid are the Israelis that every thing that they do creates the oppossite of what they want? They attacked Gazza to get rid of Hamas and now Hamas is stronger.

Think tank urges US to adopt more pragmatic approach toward Hamas
A new report from a New York-based think tank and delivered to US President Barack Obama by a signatory who is also an adviser recommends that Washington forcefully reinsert itself into the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, calling for "a more pragmatic approach to Hamas." Even by its title, the report from the US/Middle East Project (USMEP) alludes to the urgency of US involvement: "A Last Chance for a Two-State Israel-Palestine Agreement."
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=100491

What it means to talk with Hamas

Typically, meetings between European lawmakers and Hamas leaders are conducted discretely, if not entirely in secret. Now, the trips have begun to be publicized: In March there were trips by a cross-party group of British and Irish members of parliaments, as well as their counterparts from Greece and Italy.

There was also an open letter to President Obama, published on March 10, and signed by more than 120 experts and academics. The letter urged a change of US policy in the Middle East. Significantly, the signatories advocated an end to the US "fear of Islamist parties coming to power," and also urged prioritizing human rights over supporting the region's autocrats.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0330/p09s01-coop.html

Hanniyeh owes those Israeli criminals one big tray of Baklawa for making his job easier,,,,,,

Aparthied Updates

1) Jewish Settlers to Build Road on Palestinians’ Lands
http://www.paltelegraph.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=393:jewish-settlers-to-build-road-on-palestinians-lands&catid=59:west-bank&Itemid=183

2) A Palestinian girl in traditional clothing plants a tree to mark Land Day in the northern Gaza Strip. The event included a march, which marked the 33rd anniversary of Land Day, commemorating the killing of six Arab citizens of Israel by the Israeli army and police on March 30, 1976, during protests over Israeli confiscations of Arab land.

(Khalil Hamra / Associated Press)

3) Extremist settlers attack Palestinian homes in Hebron
A group of extremist settlers attacked on Tuesday a number of Palestinian homes in the southern West Bank city of Hebron causing excessive damage and terrifying the residents, especially the children.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59695

4) Palestinian students say beaten at checkpoint
Alla's father told Ynet that after identifying themselves, his son and Iad were taken into a room, where the officers ordered them to strip and "beat them for no reason."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3694720,00.html

5a) Palestinian Gandis
Eight Palestinians wounded as Israeli troops disperse nonviolent protest in Hebronauthor Monday March 30, 2009 19:15author by IMEMC Staff Report this post to the editorsEight Palestinian civilians were injured on Monday midday when Israeli troops attacked a nonviolent protest in Ithna village near Hebron city, in the southern West Bank. The protest was organized on village lands where Israel is building the Wall. The protest was in commemoration of the 33rd anniversary of 'Land Day'.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59680

5b) Israeli forces escalate suppression of Ni’lin resistancePosted on: March 31, 2009 | ShareThis27 March 2009Residents of Ni’lin, along with international and Israeli solidarity activists, gathered to demonstrate against the construction of the Apartheid Wall on Friday, 27 March 2009. Shortly after protesters began marching on the main road in town, they were attacked with tear gas by Israeli forces. The army maintained a presence in the village, occupying several Palestinian homes and shooting gas and 0.22 live calibre bullets at demonstrators. One demonstrator was shot with live ammunition in his leg, another was hit by a tear gas canister and many suffered from tear gas inhalation.
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/03/5652

Do you remember the nice articiles in the NYT and Wapo about how Jenin is a model city and the Palestinian security forces (aparthied apparatus) is doing so well there? How well could they be doing if the Israelis are going to Jenin to arrest people? Or maybe the Israeli aparthied entity and the Palestinian collaboration entity are working together to arrest Palestinians?

6a) Israeli forces detain young man, 39-year-old woman from Jenin
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36789

6b) Israel to transfer security in Jenin area to Palestinians
Israel will still be able to enter Jenin and its environs to act against "ticking bombs," that is, someone who has knowledge of a terror attack to be carried out. In other cases, Israel will transfer the names of wanted men to the PA security forces, and if the PA forces do not arrest those wanted, the IDF will be able to do so.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/983279.html

The entity is Doomed

Did you all notice how in the last days there are so many "reports" from those Israeli criminals saying that they already finished there "investigation" and they did nothing wrong in Gazza? Well if you ask me they are doing all this because they are afraid of war crimes charges,,,,, never will I get my hopes up for those Western and European countries to do something Right for the Palestinians but the war crimes Chatter got more loud this time so those Israeli criminals and murderers are beginning to make there excuses. I have to repeat my questions because I never got answered by an American person before,,,,, what the hell did Israel win in Gazza?

Lets repeat
1) Hamas more popular in Gazza/Dafah
2) Palestinian collaborations was Finally Exposed for all the stupid people that could not see it before.
3) Tunnels still operating
4) More countries now ready to make negotiations with Hamas
5) Every one is talking about those Israeli criminals with language that usually gets reserved for Hamas
6) Those Israeli criminals and crooks are afraid of being arressted
7)Israel lost another war in the Middle East (of course they are #1 for killing babies and women) but nothing long term got established.

Israel is Doomed,,,they failed,,, ten-fifteen more yrs the only thing people will be saying is that Israel is one Shitty Apartheid country,,,, 20 more years and even the newspapers in the United States with people like Bronner, Kershner and the rest of the criminals working for them will be embarrassed to say favourable things about those criminals.

...........IDF ends Gaza probe, says misconduct claims are 'rumors'
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1074981.html

Ben Nitay aka Bibi Netanyahu, 1978, featuring Fouad Ajami

Bibi vs. Ajami, back in the days

Update: VIDEO FOUND OK, a little Googling enabled me to find a copy of the Netanyahu tape on the Israeli site MahNishMah!?, since the original YouTube version was removed and its account shut down.

It turns out that the tape has made quite a stir in Israel, as Netanyahu is about to become PM for the second time. Right-wingers saw in Young Bibi (who then called himself Ben Nitay) a better version of his current self, seen as too accommodating (!) to Obama.

In the video, Bibi says he is 28-years-old and describes himself as an “economic consultant” — indeed according to Wikipedia he worked at Boston Consulting Group immediately after graduating from Harvard at that time. He was as smarmy then as he is now.

But actually if you listen carefully to what he says, he is arguing that Palestinian should not have self-determination (which would be “unfair” because there are already 21 Arab states) but instead integrate Jordan or Israel. He argues forcefully that Israel is a democracy and West Bankers and Gazans would be given the right to vote in Israel. Obviously this must predate the current Israeli concern about Palestinian demographics, although Fouad Ajami does raise this issue. So, once again, is Bibi Netanyahu advocating a one-state solution?

Here is the video on YouTube. (It will take a little while for YouTube to process the video, so it might not be immediately available.)

Betrayed Awakening

Maliki sent out his army to capture Awakening leaders no longer payed by the U.S.:

The arrest of Raad Ali, who helped the Americans stabilize the west Baghdad neighborhood of Ghazaliya, came to light Sunday, five days after the Iraqi army picked him up in a midnight raid, his aides said.

The U.S. is actively helping in this:

A combined force of American and Iraqi Army troops and National Police descended on Fadhil, a Sunni neighborhood and former insurgent stronghold in central Baghdad, and arrested the head of Fadhil’s Awakening Council, Adil al-Mashhadani, on terrorism charges, according to Maj. Gen. Qassim Atta, spokesman for the Iraqi security forces in Baghdad. He said firefights broke out afterward.

This might well reignite a civil war, but with the Iraqi army now more capable, the chances are against the insurgents.

Parviz thinks that this is part of a U.S.-Iran rapprochement.That is certainly possible. The U.S. may have decided to defer to Iran in Iraq for cooperation in Afghanistan and to generally lower level the hostility level.

On the other side it seems that the U.S. wants to leave Iraq and that alone is motivation enough. To leave Iraq in even greater chaos is not in U.S. interests. It is better to have a strong government there than a weak government and permanent civil war that could escalate into neighbor countries. 'Cleaning up' the opposition while the U.S. is still there in full force is thereby a necessity on its own.

In Afghanistan the U.S. now tries to repeat some aspects of the 'Awakening' movement by arming and paying local forces at the town level. Those forces should note how the U.S. is now betraying such 'allies' in Iraq. It is likely to happen to them too.

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2009/03/betrayed-awakening.html

Welcome to me ha ha

Just a couple of things before I go to a meeting...

Anand, 4 u habibi: You said Arabs got some big issue with talking about takfiris I want to know what the problem with you is that each time someone talks about India you ignore those critcisms and instead tell the people that they are "jealous" of India???

Purification rites
With nationalist demagogues rising to power in both India and Israel, Pankaj Mishra examines the parallel histories of violent partition, ethnic cleansing and militant patriotism that have led both countries into a moral wilderness.
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090327/REVIEW/384079579/1008

Gandhi arrested over 'hate' speech
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2009/03/20093291142305958.html

Hmm I wonder what the reason could be that Anand chooses to focus on those Arab takfiris that he always lectures about when he doesnt say one word about those fascists in his own country.
Just looking to point out the hypcritical nature of this creature Anand.

Now for the other news, I have a big meeting for a few hours but think about this:

All the Arab collaborators did find some reason to ignore Palestine again

Sudan eclipses Palestine at Arab League Summit
Doha – Ma’an – Sudan and its indicted head of state, Omar Al-Bashir, are likely to eclipse Palestine at this year’s Arab League Summit in Doha, Qatar. While the organizers of the conference say that the Palestinian struggle for self-determination will be a key issue, the attention given to Al-Bashir’s arrival at the airport on Sunday already shows how Sudan has risen to the top of the agenda.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36763

Waaaaw the whole time that those Palestinian babies were getting mass killed by the Zionist Janjawid people those little Arab puppets were sending there dogs for treatment to Israel!
Imagine!

You can't make this news up, even if you try
"The Jordanian royal family's dog was secretly rushed to Israel for treatment in the midst of Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Sunday. Relations between the royal palace in Amman and the Beit Dagan veterinary hospital have been good for many years now. The Israeli medical team's expertise has served Jordan a number of times, almost always under a heavy veil of secrecy, as per the royal court's request. During the fighting in the Gaza Strip, the Jordanians once again called on the Israeli veterinarians for help. King Abdullah and Queen Rania's beloved dog had fallen ill.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3693607,00.html

As always Seymore has to to to many interesting things to say

Syria Calling, The Obama Administration’s chance to engage in a Middle East peace, by Seymour M. Hersh
When the Israelis’ controversial twenty-two-day military campaign in Gaza ended, on January 18th, it also seemed to end the promising peace talks between Israel and Syria. The two countries had been engaged for almost a year in negotiations through intermediaries in Istanbul. Many complicated technical matters had been resolved, and there were agreements in principle on the normalization of diplomatic relations. The consensus, as an ambassador now serving in Tel Aviv put it, was that the two sides had been “a lot closer than you might think.”
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/04/06/090406fa_fact_hersh?currentPage=all

And now for the Ya Haram Iraq sections

Iraq: Poor sell kidneys just to survive
Despite Iraq’s massive wealth – it has among the largest oil reserves in the world – poverty is rife. A 2007 study by the United Nations found one-third of Iraqis lived in poverty, with five per cent of the population in extreme poverty.
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090327/FOREIGN/967836593/1011/NEWS

And 1 thing from an Iraqi woman who speaks for a lot of people,,,,, ok Maybe Iraqi Mojo will tell me she does speak for him but my Iraqi colleague asked me please to add this nice partially Jewish girl to my Ya Haram section,,,,,,,,,,, so this is for Haider,,,,,,,,,

Not an anniversary to celebrate: Dahlia Wasfi on six years of the Iraq War, by Dahlia Wasfi
Dr. Dahlia Wasfi was born to a Jewish-American mother and a Muslim-Iraqi father. She has been educating people from all over the world about America's brutal occupation since visiting her family in Basrah and Baghdad in 2006. One source of Dr. Wasfi's determination is the inspirational story of Rachel Corrie, whom she calls an "American Hero." Four days after Corrie's murder by the Israeli military America invaded Iraq under several false pretenses, including the claim that they would bring 'freedom' to the Iraqi people and protect the U.S. from the threat of nuclear weapons that Iraq never possessed. The Israeli government has never apologized to the United States for Corrie's murder and the U.S. administration has yet to compensate the Iraqis for the brutal illegal war they have waged on their sovereign country.
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticlePrint/21004

That is all for now,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Now for me time to go eat the disgusting American pastierries.
,,,,,,,,,,,Saif

Goodbye

So, first I get attacked by Yasmin for daring to complain about laws unfair to women in the Arab world. Laws that she would hate to live under herself, but never mind, it offends her for a white girl mention it. Because I wield so much power, it's threatening. Yes, from my perch on top this mighty blog read by 14 people (at most), I am able to affect world events and my mentioning my dislike of custody laws in the Arab world just might lead to another war. Then my little sister tells all of her friends embarrassing things about me on her blog (that I just became aware of today). Well, my sister took down the offending post but did not apologize. (And this was after she did not help out AT ALL after I had the baby even though she lives 2 miles away-okay, just needed to complain about that). Anyhow, I don't feel like blogging with someone who will be monitoring my posts for political incorrectness. So you may find me on the Palestinian Pundit. Oops, is that a pet cause? Is that okay with you, Yasmin? Or perhaps I will start blogging on mollistan.blogspot.com again. I'm a bored housewife and need something to keep me occupied.

Why are Americans allowed to pay for Israeli settlements?

For many years, the United States has had a policy against spending aid money to fund Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which successive administrations have regarded as an obstacle to peace. Yet private organizations in the United States continue to raise tax-exempt contributions for the very activities that the government opposes.

World Depression: Regional Wars and the Decline of the US Empire

By James Petras

We are living the end of an entire epoch: Experts everywhere witness the collapse of the US and world financial system, the absence of credit for trade and the lack of financing for investment. A world depression, in which upward of a quarter of the world’s labor force will be unemployed, is looming. The biggest decline in trade in recent world history – down 40% year to year – defines the future. The immanent bankruptcies of the biggest manufacturing companies in the capitalist world haunt Western political leaders. The ‘market’ as a mechanism for allocating resources and the government of the US as the ‘leader’ of the global economy have been discredited. (Financial Times, March 9, 2009) All the assumptions about ‘self-stabilizing markets’ are demonstrably false and outmoded. The rejection of public intervention in the market and the advocacy of supply-side economics have been discredited even in the eyes of their practitioners. Even official circles recognize that ‘inequality of income’ contributed to the onset of the economic crash and should be corrected. Planning, public ownership, nationalization are on the agenda while socialist alternatives have become almost respectable.

Blacks 'hurting worse' in grim US economy: report

African Americans are far more likely than whites to be poor, out of work or in jail, and are "hurting worse" in the floundering US economy, a report published Wednesday showed.

Where the death penalty was used most last year, globally

Chart

Mexico's drug war (34 photos)

View photos

An Army of Extremists

Article by Christopher Hitchens (I know, I know, but it's interesting) The chief army "chaplain" in the occupied territories, Rabbi Shmuel Derlich, issued his troops a 1,000-word pastoral letter enjoining them to apply the biblical commandment to exterminate the Amalekites as "the enemies of Israel." Nobody has recently encountered any Amalekites, so the chief educational officer of the Israeli Defense Forces asked Rabbi Derlich whether he would care to define his terms and say whom he meant. Rather evasively—if rather alarmingly—the man of God replied, "Germans." There are no Germans in Judaea and Samaria or, indeed, in the Old Testament, so the rabbi's exhortation to slay all Germans as well as quite probably all Palestinians was referred to the Judge Advocate General's Office. Forty military rabbis publicly came to Derlich's support, and the rather spineless conclusion of the JAG was that he had committed no legal offense but should perhaps refrain in the future from making political statements on the army's behalf.

EU presidency: US economic plans 'a road to hell'

STRASBOURG, France – The president of the European Union slammed President Barack Obama's plans to have the U.S. spend its way out of recession as "a road to hell," underscoring European differences with Washington ahead of a crucial summit next week on fixing the world economy.

It's fear (and ethnic cleansing) that keeps Baghdad's peace

BAGHDAD – The streets are calmer now. The fighting between Shiites and Sunnis has largely ceased. But this is not a sign of normalcy in the Iraqi capital. It's fear that keeps the peace.
Only an estimated 16 percent of the mainly Sunni families forced by Shiite militiamen and death squads to flee their homes have dared to return.
It takes two sides to have a fight, and there's really only one side left in Baghdad after violence and fear turned parts of neighborhoods into ghost towns.
Families that have gone back are sometimes met with spray-painted threats and other forms of intimidation.

Thomas Geoghegan on “Infinite Debt: How Unlimited Interest Rates Destroyed the Economy”

(From Democracy Now, an important discussion) THOMAS GEOGHEGAN: In the article, I talk—that appeared in Harper’s, I’ve talked about the fact that we’ve not focused enough on the big deregulation that precedes all other deregulations, and that’s the ceiling that has existed on the financial sector since time immemorial on the amount of interest that banks can get from their clients, their customers, their depositors. Historically, and even up through movies like It’s a Wonderful Life with Frank Capra and Mr. Potter and George Bailey, the interest rates in this country were capped at eight percent, nine percent. In the 1970s, we began to deregulate this, and then we had a massive big bang with a Supreme Court case that effectively knocked out all the interest rate caps. And we have today, taken as common, that banks can charge 17, 18, 19, 30, 35 percent, not to mention payday lenders charging 200, 300, 400 percent in states like Illinois, California

Ben-Gurion considered Lebanon "the weakest link in the Arab coalition" on account of its fragile internal equilibrium, making it "easy to contest the domination of the Muslims, which was artificial." The objective should be "to establish a Christian state whose southern border would run along the Litani river," to be ratified by a treaty. (Since 1907, Zionist leaders had looked to extend Eretz Israel northward to include the hyd0rstrategic Litani River Basin, predominantly inhabited by Shi'a Muslims.)

from Plowshares into Swords: From Zionism to Israel by Arno Mayer, Verso press, 2008

I hate the custody laws in the Arab world

A British mother jailed for adultery in Dubai has lost custody of her two young children, aged four and seven.

Yes, custody laws don't always give men a fair shake in this country, either.
This is one instance where feel As'ad is putting defensiveness before accuracy. Whenever anyone criticizes women's rights in the Arab world, he just gets defensive and talks about women's rights here. No-one is saying things are perfect for women here (well, okay, perhaps some are), but let me tell you, almost any mother would rather live under the custody laws here. Or the inheritance laws. Or the testimonial laws (in court cases). Women are second class citizens in those areas of the law. It's not orientalist to say that.

The Big Takeover

It's over — we're officially, royally fucked. no empire can survive being rendered a permanent laughingstock, which is what happened as of a few weeks ago, when the buffoons who have been running things in this country finally went one step too far. It happened when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was forced to admit that he was once again going to have to stuff billions of taxpayer dollars into a dying insurance giant called AIG, itself a profound symbol of our national decline — a corporation that got rich insuring the concrete and steel of American industry in the country's heyday, only to destroy itself chasing phantom fortunes at the Wall Street card tables, like a dissolute nobleman gambling away the family estate in the waning days of the British Empire.

Monday: 45 Iraqis Killed, 96 Wounded

At least 25 people were killed and 50 others were wounded in a suicide bomb attack as a Kurdish family was receiving condolences northeast of the Iraqi capital on Monday, local officials said.

China's top banker proposes new world currency

In an essay published Monday, the head of China's central bank proposed a plan to displace the American dollar as the world's standard and replace it with a global reserve currency operated from the International Monetary Fund. The proposal is also supported by Moscow.

US will appoint Afghan 'prime minister' to bypass Hamid Karzai

The US and its European allies are preparing to plant a high-profile figure in the heart of the Kabul government in a direct challenge to the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, the Guardian has learned.

Khamenei dismisses Barack Obama's overtures to Iran

Iran's supreme leader rebuffed President Barack Obama's latest outreach on Saturday, saying Tehran was still waiting to see concrete changes in U.S. policy.

Khamenei has the last word on major Iranian policy decisions, and the way in which the country ultimately responds to any concrete US efforts to engage it will depend largely on his say.

Khamenei said there would be no change in relations between the two countries unless the president brought an end to US hostility towards Iran and brought "real changes" in foreign policy.

Juan Cole on why we went into Iraq

There are two schools of thought. One says that the Cheney oil gang manipulated us into Iraq to get their hands on the oil forever. The other argues that the Feith/Perle neocon crowd did it to take out Israel's powerful enemy.

The problem is. These two groups don't get along. The neocons always hated the oil lobby for its pro-Saudi bias. And the oil boys couldn't stand the Israel lobby for complicating US relations with the Arabs and getting Congress to put sanctions on oil dealings with various anti-Israel potentates.

So how, in the end, did they come together to push one disastrous war?

Who can we thank for this unfortunate friendship?

Cole's answer: Dick Cheney.

Scenes from the worldwide recession

The state of our global economy: foreclosures, evictions, bankruptcies, layoffs, abandoned projects, and the people and industries caught in the middle. It can be difficult to capture financial pressures in photographs, but here a few recent glimpses into some of the places and lives affected by what some are calling the "Great Recession". (35 photos total)

Six Years Later: Iraq War Continues Apace

The American invasion of Iraq began six years ago, and a lot has happened: the nation descended into a civil war, 4,259 American soldiers were killed, over 1.3 million Iraqis are estimated to have died, and victory has been declared countless times.

But while the war has largely fallen off the front pages, it continues on with no real end in sight. Sure, the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) only covers a US deployment through the end of 2011, but the Iraqi government has already made it clear they’re operating on a much longer timeframe.

Arab and Iranian governments' defense of that butcher Bashir disgusts me. Yes, and American defense of Israel, too. But we talk about that everyday.

On the 50th anniversary of his flight from Tibet, the Dalai Lama accused China of having brought "hell on earth" to his homeland.

"Even today, Tibetans in Tibet live in constant fear, and Chinese authorities remain constantly suspicious of them. Their religion, culture, language, identity are near extinction,’’ the Dalai Lama told his followers in India.

Infinite Debt

I highly recommend you buy (it doesn't seem to be available on the web) this month's issue of Harper's and read the article by Thomas Geohegan called:
Infinite Debt: How unlimited interest rates destroyed the economy

Prominent labor lawyer, former congressional candidate
(for Rahm Emanuel’s open seat in Illinois), and author
of the definitive title on labor relations, Which Side Are
You On, Thomas Geoghegan writes on American usury.
He begins his report by noting the extraordinary fact of
how America “dismantled the most ancient of human
laws, the law against usury, which had existed in some
formin everycivilization from the time of the
Babylonian Empireto the end of Jimmy Carter’sterm,
and which had been so taken for granted that no one
ever even mentioned it to us in law school. That’s
when we found out what happens when an advanced
industrial economy tries to function with no cap at all
on interest rates.” Geoghegan makes a convincing case
for the idea that usury is the hidden-in-plain-sight
source of our ruinous financial condition. With the
overturning of interest-rate laws in the 1970s, usurious
rates created the ultimate in perverse incentives: soon
profits in the financial sector so dwarfed those of stur-
dier industries that every capitalist strove to become a
banker, and many of those sturdy companies to become
pseudo-banks. The resulting capital flight established
the lopsided framework for the current catastrophe.


Best explanation of how this happened that I have read so far

Megaphone desktop tool

The Megaphone desktop tool is a Windows "action alert" tool developed by Give Israel Your United Support (GIYUS) and distributed by World Union of Jewish Students, World Jewish Congress, The Jewish Agency for Israel, World Zionist Organization, StandWithUs, Hasbara fellowships, HonestReporting, and other pro-Israel public relations, media watchdog, or activism organizations. The tool delivers real-time alerts about key articles, videos, blogs, and surveys related to Israel or the Arab-Israeli conflict, especially those perceived by GIYUS to be highly critical of Israel, so that users can vote or add comments expressing their support of Israel. The tool was released in July during the 2006 Lebanon War. An RSS newsfeed is available so that non-Windows users may also receive the Megaphone "action alerts."

I just listened to this interview with Benyam Mohammed, ex-Guantanamo prisoner

"Literally dead" in 'dark prison'


chilling

The "put them on a diet" policy

Chickpeas, soap, toilet paper, toothbrushes, toothpaste: things Gazans aren't allowed to have. Because it will make them oust Hamas, you see.

Three recent victims of "justice"

An 20-year old freethinker

An 75-year old woman

A brave journalist

If it were Muslims doing this, would they be called barbarians? Interesting that it's Europe, not the U.S., that's considering it. Anyway, I think it's a good idea. It's the only way these people will change.

This blog needs pro-Palestinian commentators

Go!

And this one, too.

What Freeman said about Israel

I can't find any quote from him criticizing Israel (not even they make bad cookies) but the right wing bloggers are up in arms about this being published in a journal he edited:

...beginning that the war was an excuse to enlarge the U.S. strategic “footprint” (as neocon William Kristol calls it) on top of the lakes of oil in the Gulf region and make life safer for Irael, starting with the easiest problem case, Iraq. If the governments in the area did not come around, no problem; American troops were there in any case and would protect Israel....In a New York Times op-ed (July 18), Benny Morris put the matter to Bush/Cheney crudely: bomb the suspected sites now or Israel will have to use nuclear weapons on Iran later. Call it extortion, if you will. But perhaps a better term is moral hazard: having been “insured” by the United States, Israel does not have to be cautious or even sensible. The Georgians seem to have learned this lesson too, and without having to pay the high premium that a first-class standing army of lobbyists requires.

My computer's fixed. It has been for a few days now, but I have avoided spending too much time on it because I was reading and relaxing much more in the evenings without it. Anyway, sad story: my husband was in the park with our son and heard one kid, about four (or so he says, I don't know how good he is at estimating ages) said to another four year old, talking about a 3 year old nearby, "he's a Palestinian, he's a terrorist". He said the kid saying this looked Korean and that the Palestinian kid didn't hear him (thank god). This is a very mixed neighborhood, but probably the second biggest ethnic group is Arab, so you would think the parents wouldn't have these views (if that is where the kid learned them). Palestinians flee their country because it is being destroyed, and then have to put up with this when they get here...I am just happy the kid didn't hear it and I hope the other kid will unlearn it soon. Well, if he lives here, he will probably make some Arab friends who will quickly disabuse him of his views.