The Lebanese feuding factions reach an agreement in Qatar. The Syrians and the Israelis are talking peace with the help of Turkey. What’s going on? And why are traditional mediators like the US absent from the negotiating tables?
Answers to these questions and more on Link TV’s Mosaic Intelligence Report.
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The second story is a must-see video. ~ Lo
Bill Moyers Journal
May 23, 2008
Help Wanted: A Bill Moyers Essay Continue reading
May 23, 2008
Howard Fineman on Hillary’s Comments
Keith talks to Howard Fineman about Hillary Clinton comments on assassination and staying in the race.
Johnathon Alter on Hillary’s Comments
Johnathon Alter weighs in on the political implications of Hillary’s comments about assassination.
Douglas Brinkley on Hillary’s Comments
Douglas Brinkley gives some historical context to why what Hillary Clinton said about assassinations was such a bad idea, and what her campaign should be doing to heal the wounds inflicted by this.
McCain’s Medical Malpractice and Pastor Problems
Keith reports on John McCain’s lack of openness about his medical records and the latest news on his pastor problems. Chris Hayes from The Nation weighs in.
Bushed!
Tonight’s: Torture-Gate, We Support the Troops by Not Actually Supporting Them-Gate and Mustache-Gate.
Worst Person
And the winner is…Rear Admiral Mark Busby. Runners up Campaign for Children and Families and Lou Dobbs.
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Coutdown: Special Comment May 23, 2008 + Clinton Assassination Comment
McCain Rejects Hagee: How Long Before Major American Jewish Groups Do the Same?
McCain Endorser Hagee: God Sent Hitler, Jews Have Dead Souls
Rapture Ready: The Christians United for Israel Tour (video)
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Clinton, you invoked a political nightmare
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Hillary Clinton Assassination Comment Kennedy Obama Shocking
h/t: Mary
Hillary Clinton’s comment on assassinating a candidate as an issue in the election. She even surprises herself as you can see she stumbles after saying it and proceeds to talk/laugh nervously thereafter. Probably said to herself ‘Gee, did I just SAY that, I was only thinking it…’
Hillary has gone off the edge. Can you say ‘sociopath?’
If the ‘Super’Delegates don’t come out immediately after that, someone needs to generate a list of these ‘informed’ politicians and make sure they are not re-elected. They will have shown they have NO REGARD for the Democratic Party, and have nothing but themselves at interest.
People have been very patient up until now, but when Hillary Clinton does and says THIS, she has finally shown her true colors – and her lack of dignity and tact… the beast emerges.
SHOW YOURSELVES SUPER DELEGATES or show your OWN true colors – or may God have mercy on your political Souls.
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Countdown: Hillary’s Comments + McCain’s Medical Malpractice & Pastor Problems
Posted with permission by Green Left Weekly
by Federico Fuentes
Green Left Weekly
17 May 2008
Caracas
A new period of uncertainty has opened in Bolivia with the initiation of recall referendums for the president and prefects of Bolivia’s nine departments by the opposition-controlled Senate.
The law, first introduced into the House of Deputies by the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) government in December, had been gathering dust due to the refusal of the right-wing opposition to approve it in the Senate. The sudden move this month to pass the law has left many wondering why the opposition would take a decision that will have Bolivia go to the polls on August 10.
The idea behind the law is to let the people resolve through the ballot box the “catastrophic deadlock” between the government of President Evo Morales, backed by the social movements, and the opposition, spearhead by the elites from the eastern region who are tied to gas multinationals and agribusiness interests.
Elite manoeuvres
MAS and the social movements have been campaigning to approve the new constitution, finally handed down by the elected constituent assembly in December, that needs to be ratified by a national referendum. The new constitution would dramatically broaden recognition of indigenous rights within a new “plurinational” state, as well as increase state control over natural resources.
Seeking to defend their economic and political interests, the elites based in the eastern Santa Cruz department have counterposed a proposal for increased autonomy for the eastern regions — where the opposition control the prefectures and where most of Bolivia’s natural resources and more than 60% of GDP originate from.
On May 4, Santa Cruz authorities held a referendum, declared unconstitutional by the national Supreme Court, on a proposed “autonomy” statute that would hand enormous power over to the prefectures — including control over natural resources, distribution of land titles and even the right to sign international treaties.
While claiming victory, with 85% support for the “Yes” vote, high abstention — called for by the Morales government and social movements — meant that the “Yes” vote represented just over 50% of the Santa Cruz electorate.
Since then, the four prefects of the “half moon” (the four eastern departments) have rejected Morales’s call for negotiations, forming a united bloc that will negotiate after autonomy referendums are held in the rest of the half moon in June.
Recall referendums
These sectors received the Senate’s decision on recall referendums as a cold shower. “A grave error”, “a political stupidity” and “a disservice to autonomies” were just some of the comments from those quarters.
The opposition control six prefects and MAS two, with one up for election on June 29 following the resignation of the Sucre prefect elected on the MAS ticket.
The president and prefects have to receive a vote in favour of their recall that is higher both numerically and percentage to that obtained in the December 2005 general elections. So while the opposition will have to surpass 53.74% of votes (1,544,374 votes all up) to remove Morales, the prefects are more vulnerable — as none got over 50%, they could be recalled by a minority vote.
The most precarious case is that of opposition La Paz prefect, Jose Luis Paredes, who received only 38% of the vote in 2005 and who will have to obtain 62% to avoid recall.
Many believe the vote in favour of recall referendums was a move by Podemos, the largest opposition party in the Senate, aimed at retaking the initiative within the opposition from the Santa Cruz autonomists. Part of the thinking is also the hope of being able to stop the referendum to approve the new constitution, as the law on referendums only allows one per constitutional period.
MAS senator Felix Rojas, quoted in Bolpress on May 13, argued that Podemos miscalculated and that “errors in politics are made to pay”. He said it would also be possible to move ahead with the referendum on the new constitution in conjunction with the recall referendums.
Responding to these events, the proclaimed “governor” of Santa Cruz, Ruben Costas announced on May 14 the formation of a provisional legislative assembly of the “autonomous government of Santa Cruz”.
“Following the political earthquake caused by the approval of the recall referendums … Santa Cruz had to once again put on the agenda the issue of autonomy and to do this it needed a radical dramatisation”, a Santa Cruz journalist told the May 15 Argentine daily Clarin.
“They can call it what they want, it is only symbolic. For us what counts is the constitution”, was the response of Vice-President Alvaro Garcia Linera. MAS Senator Antonio Peredo called for charges of sedition to be laid against the Santa Cruz leaders.
Meanwhile, excitement is rising in the presidential palace at the possibility of removing at least two opposition prefects — La Paz and Cochabamba, heartlands of MAS’ base among the indigenous poor — with further opportunities in Pando and Tarija in the half moon, which have strong peasant movements and where MAS mayors control the departmental capitals.
The recent mobilisations in defence of national unity and the new nationalisations of oil and telecommunications announced on May 1, has not only seen Morales’s support increase but helped create greater unity among the popular sectors.
A concerted campaign of mass mobilisation that builds on this increased unity could ensure an important victory for Morales through the recall referendums — turning it into a vote to ratify Morales’s project for change.
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Jewish Voice for Peace Press Statement
Contact: Sarah Anne Minkin, Director of Education and Outreach
Cell: 510 599 1874
Office: 510-465-1777
[Oakland, CA, May 22, 2008] Today, John McCain finally rejected Pastor John Hagee’s endorsement. When will the American Jewish establishment do the same?
John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), is known in the U.S. as a strong supporter of Israel. He’s very close to prominent Jewish organizations – even giving the keynote at the 2007 AIPAC conference – who promote him as a friend of Israel and Jews. In 2006, Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, hosted a briefing for Hagee when he arrived in DC with 2,000 Israel lobbyists, responding to critics, “We don’t have to be skeptical about everything, sometimes good things do happen.” (http://www.jewishaz.com/issues/story.mv?060714+preacher)
Is Hagee one of those “good things”, as Hoenlein says? And what kind of friend is he?
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, leader of Reform Jewry (as president of the Union of Reform Jews) explains that Hagee, CUFI and other Christian Zionist organizations believe that Jewish control over Israel will lead to the end-times battle of Armageddon and the return of Jesus. (http://www.jewsonfirst.org/07b/yoffie.html) In other words – they want Jews to be in Israel so that we’ll bring on the war to end all wars.
Now an old tape of Hagee has resurfaced in which he called Hitler “a hunter” who, in killing Jews who did not move to Israel, was doing God’s work. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/21/mccain-backer-hagee-said_n_102892.html)
Hagee, CUFI and their ilk are rigidly right-wing and staunchly opposed to any land-for-peace negotiations. They are not concerned about the lives of Jews or Palestinians. Israeli peace activist and political analyst Uri Avnery wrote about a recent visit Hagee made to Israel, saying: “… he forbade us, in the name of (his) God, to give up even one inch of the Holy Land and commanded us to fight to the last drop of (our) blood.” (http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1211059332/)
Sarah Anne Minkin, Jewish Voice Peace’s Director of Education and Outreach, points out that Hagee’s views on Hitler and Israel are not contradictory, saying “Whether Jews are victims of genocide or the rulers of a country doesn’t matter to Hagee, for whom Jewish lives – and Palestinian, for that matter – are just stepping stones on his path to personal glory.”
We note that Hagee is also famous for his slurs against Catholicism, Islam and homosexuals, among others, and his strong support for military actions against Iran.
As the new Jewish lobby organization J Street said, “Not only are John Hagee’s words [about Hitler doing God’s work] unacceptable, but wrapping them in supposed support for Israel doesn’t excuse them. In fact, Hagee’s views – from his implacable opposition to territorial concessions for peace to his outspoken support for military action against Iran – have nothing to do with Israel’s best interests and everything to do with Hagee’s own interest in promoting his movement and his own theology.” (http://www.jstreet.org/campaigns/mccain-finally-renounce-hagees-extremism)
It’s time for Jewish leaders to stand up and bring an end to their alliances with an extremist like Hagee.
As Haim Beliak and Jane Hunter of Jews on First (www.jewsonfirst.org) point out, “Most Jewish organizations favor cooperating with CUFI.”
Not this one.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
see
McCain Endorser Hagee: God Sent Hitler, Jews Have Dead Souls
Christian fundamentalism & Zionism – Time To Terminate This Unholy Alliance?
Bill Moyers Journal: The GOP’s Nominee + Christians United For Israel (CUFI)
Rapture Ready: The Christians United for Israel Tour (video)
By Alan Hart
05/23/08 “ICH”
In the light of the revelation (devine or not) about Pastor John Hagee’s assertion that Hitler was God’s agent, is it too much to hope that Jews everywhere, and Jewish Americans especially, will insist that Zionism terminate its unholy alliance with Christian fundamentalism?
By Paul Craig Roberts
05/23/08 “ICH”
The US Senate has voted $165 billion to fund Bush’s wars of aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq through next spring.
As the US is broke and deep in debt, every one of the $165 billion dollars will have to be borrowed. American consumers are also broke and deep in debt. Their zero saving rate means every one of the $165 billion dollars will have to be borrowed from foreigners.
The “world’s only superpower” is so broke it can’t even finance its own wars.
Each additional dollar that the irresponsible Bush Regime has to solicit from foreigners puts more downward pressure on the dollar’s value. During the eight wasted and extravagant years of the Bush Regime, the once mighty US dollar has lost about 60% of its value against the euro.
The dollar has lost even more of its value against gold and oil.
Before Bush began his wars of aggression, oil was $25 a barrel. Today it is $130 a barrel. Some of this rise may result from run-away speculation in the futures market. However, the main cause is the eroding value of the dollar. Oil is real, and unlike paper dollars is limited in supply. With US massive trade and budget deficits, the outpouring of dollar obligations mounts, thus driving down the value of the dollar.
Each time the dollar price of oil rises, the US trade deficit rises, requiring more foreign financing of US energy use. Bush has managed to drive the US oil import bill up from $106 billion in 2006 to approximately $500 billion 18 months later–every dollar of which has to be financed by foreigners.
Without foreign money, the US “superpower” cannot finance its imports or its government’s operation.
When the oil price rises, Americans, who are increasingly poor, cannot pay their winter heating bills. Thus, the Senate’s military spending bill contains more heating subsidies for America’s growing legion of poor people.
The rising price of energy drives up the price of producing and transporting all goods, but American incomes are not rising except for the extremely rich.
The disappearing value of the US dollar, which pushes up oil prices and raises the trade deficit, then pushes up heating subsidies and raises the budget deficit.
If oil was the reason Bush invaded Iraq, the plan obviously backfired. Oil not merely doubled or tripled in price but quintupled.
America’s political leaders either have no awareness that Bush’s wars are destroying our country’s economic position and permanently lowering the living standards of Americans or they do not care. McCain says he can win the war in Iraq in five more years and in the meantime “challenge” Russia and China. Hillary says she will “obliterate” Iran. Obama can’t make up his mind if he is for war or against it.
The Bush Regime’s inability to pay the bills it is piling up for Americans means that future US governments will cut promised benefits and further impoverish the people. Over a year ago The Nation reported that the Bush Regime is shedding veteran costs by attributing consequences of serious war wounds to “personality disorders” in order to deny soldiers promised benefits.
Previous presidents reduced promised Social Security benefits by taxing the benefits (a tax on a tax) and by rigging the cost of living adjustment to understate inflation. Future presidents will have to seize private pensions in order to make minimal Social Security payments.
Currently the desperate Bush Regime is trying to cut Medicaid health care for the poor and disabled.
The Republican Party is willing to fund war, but sees everything else as an extravagance. The neoconized war party is destroying the economic prospects of American citizens. Is “war abroad and poverty at home” the Republican campaign slogan for the November election?
Paul Craig Roberts wrote the Kemp-Roth bill and was assistant secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was associate editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and contributing editor of National Review. He is author or co-author of eight books, including The Supply-Side Revolution (Harvard University Press). He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon chair in political economy, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, and senior research fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He has contributed to numerous scholarly journals and testified before Congress on 30 occasions. He has been awarded the U.S. Treasury’s Meritorious Service Award and the French Legion of Honor. He was a reviewer for the Journal of Political Economy under editor Robert Mundell.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
By Ryan Singel
freepress.net
Wired, May 22, 2008
Internet service providers that monitor their networks for copyright infringement or bandwidth hogs may be committing felonies by breaking federal wiretapping laws, a panel said Thursday.
University of Colorado law professor Paul Ohm, a former federal computer crimes prosecutor, argues that ISPs such as Comcast, AT&T and Charter Communications that are or are contemplating ways to throttle bandwidth, police for copyright violations and serve targeted ads by examining their customers’ internet packets are putting themselves in criminal and civil jeopardy.
“These ISPs are getting close to the line of illegality and may be violating the law,” Ohm told conference goers at the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference Thursday.
Charter’s proposed test of a system that eavesdrops on the URLs its customers visit, in order to serve them targeted ads, has already spurred a powerful Congressman to question whether the scheme would violate the Cable Act. For its part, Comcast’s heavy-handed throttling of peer-to-peer sharing by sending fake stop messages to its customers has the Federal Communications Commission holding hand-wringing public hearings over whether it should ban the practice as being inconsistent with its open network principles.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Warning
.
This video may contain images depicting the reality and horror of war/violence and should only be viewed by a mature audience.
For more: http://linktv.org/originalseries
“New Arms for Iraqis,” Al-Iraqiya TV, Iraq
“Developing Countries at Breaking Point Due to Food Crisis,” Al Jazeera English, Qatar
“Israelis Split Over Peace Talks With Syria,” Al Jazeera TV, Qatar
“Arab Investors in Bethlehem,” Abu Dhabi TV, UAE
“Terror Attack Thwarted,” IBA TV, Israel
“Royal Treatment For Bush in Israel,” Al-Alam TV, Iran
“Lebanon Will Soon Have a President,” Al Arabiya TV, UAE
“Israeli Cluster Bombs Continue to Kill Civilians in Lebanon,” New TV, Lebanon
“Petraeus Says He’s Likely to Urge More Troop Reductions,” Press TV, Iran
Produced for Link TV by Jamal Dajani.
Democracy Now!
May 23, 2008
“War, Inc.”: John Cusack’s New Film Satirizes the Corruption, Profiteering and Hubris Behind the Iraq War
John Cusack joins us to talk about “War, Inc.”, his new film taking on issues few in Hollywood today would dare to: war profiteering, mercenaries, political corruption and embedded journalism. A political satire, the film stars Cusack as Brand Hauser, a hit-man for hire who is deployed to the fictional country of Turaqistan to kill a Middle Eastern oil baron. Hauser’s employer is Tamerlane, a secretive for-profit military corporation headed by a former US vice president played by Dan Aykroyd. We also speak to Democracy Now! correspondent Jeremy Scahill, author of the bestselling book “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.”
The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org
. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.
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War, Inc. John Cusack’s new movie about war
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News release sent to me from: The REAL News Network website
Fear of Islam hurts Obama in Kentucky
Rural voters swayed by campaign to brand Obama “un-American”
May 23 – In an election where Clinton won by 35% of the vote, Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama was faced with voters’ grave concerns over his ties to Islam, and exit polls showing that race played a larger role in Kentucky than in previous states. One out of five voters said race was a factor for them, and of those, 88% voted for Hillary Clinton.
Talking to The Real News Network’s Matt Palevsky, some Kentuckians say it is the uncertainty of his background and unreadiness for a black president that has them not only supporting Clinton, but unwilling to stand behind Obama if he were to be the Democratic nominee. One man refers to Obama’s pre-dominantly black church as “un-American”, and another asserts that one “can’t be a good American and be a Muslim. If he is a Muslim, he can’t be a good American.” Some say there is especially hesitation towards his “hidden” belief system due to the turmoil the country has faced post-9/11.
One Clinton supporter not only admits race is effecting his vote, but points out that the race issue is a factor for supporters of both candidates, with 90% of blacks voting for Obama.
Watch the full piece on The Real News Network: http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=1546&updaterx=2008-05-23+00%3A17%3A34
(Also available on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CnJ6UuIJb4)
see
Obama Is No Apostate — Arab Media Have No Problem with his Christian Faith
More at http://therealnews.com/c.ph…
can’t decide to recognize common interests in a stable Iraq, or weaken Iran as a regional power…
see
Ray McGovern: Admiral Fallon Should Speak Out + Can Fallon Prevent WWIII? (videos)
An Appeal to Admiral Fallon on Iran By Ray McGovern
Where Are Those Iranian Weapons in Iraq? by Gareth Porter
Israeli press reports US pledge of war on Iran—is Bush preparing an October Surprise?
This Week:
1. New Crude Oil Record.
2. Happy Daniel Yergin Day!!
3. I-Ran from the Dollar
4. Coal Blockade
5. Eric McDavid
6. Apeasing Dubya
7. Government of Occupation
8. Stimulator’s Stimulating Stimulus Package
9. Eco-Defense or Eco Terrorism?
see
Green Scare State Terrorism by Stephen Lendman
Appeasing the Nazis? + They Might Be Giants: One More Parade
Bush defends grandfather: He only supported good Nazis (satire)
Countdown: Bush’s Speech + McCain’s Hypocrisy + Matthews: Appease This + Bushed!
Bush Addressing Israeli Parliament + Bush Compares Obama To Hitler Appeasers + Kerry & Biden
Talk by Bill Fletcher, Jr. – “The Immigrant Rights Movement: Forging Black-Brown Unity” given at a breakfast on May 19th during the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee Conference May 19, 2008.
Dandelion Salad 