Politics Of Terror Reign Supreme

 

What the hell are these people still doing in Great Britain? We will never learn will we. No, not until the politics of terror reign supreme, the delusional denial suffocates us to a painful death and liberal deranged PC-thinking chokes us with the perpetual whining: “we don’t want to hurt people’s feelings..”....eh?

In turn, the Liberals in America have brought every argument of this nature down to accusations of racial prejudice, and ad hominem attacks of being against other cultures if you dare declare that America has a culture of it's own. They have entirely managed to kill any sense of proud heritage they once had, in favor of some sort of misplaced democracy which allows others to spit on their culture. Why? Why should the Americans and the British allow others to spit on their culture whilst living in THEIR country? What's next? We all have to speak Arabic, and live by the Law of Shari'a just so as not to upset our Islamic friends who think our infidel culture is inferior and we should all be dead or converted.

Until the West begins to pay attention to what Muslim extremists are saying in Arabic, Persian and Urdu, rather than what their apologists sprout forth for foreign consumption, the word insulting will not take on the new meaning and level of hatred it should do.

It is a matter of 'demographic time' before Islam will become the religion of the majority, ruled by the law of Shari'a. Just in case we think we are sitting cosily here, and this is someone else's problem, we need to know that Islam is the fastest growing religion in America. Today, the number of followers of Islam in the United States has reached 7 to 8 million Muslims in the United States. More than a quarter of a million people of Arab descent live in southeastern Michigan, making the area the second-largest Arab community outside the Middle East (after Paris, France).

The vast majority (80%) of American mosques are funded with Saudi Arabian money and most subscribe to 18th century Wahhabism that calls for the spread of Islam through violence. Many mosques, "Islamic Learning Centers" and Arab/Muslim Student Unions are distributing large numbers of pamphlets and leaflets attacking Judaism, Christianity and other non-Muslim religions and urging young Americans to convert to Islam.

The so called 'moderates' don't exist. There are only those who admit openly to supporting conversion to Islam through 'Jihad' and those who don't. There are only those who get their hands 'officially' dirty and those that don't. And then of course there are the 'Ellison atheists', and they belong to the 'nutball category'.

The threat of Islam is real. More so than Communism and Fascism ever was, because with Islam, Muslim activists are willing to kill and to die for the cause of spreading their religion. 'Jihad', is a sacred duty for all Muslims to perform, by any support or means available to them. Jihad is not, as asserted recently by apologists in the West a "spiritual struggle", but a Holocaust of non-Muslims.

How many times are we going to hear the liberal whine: "There's nothing we can do to be friends?"

And the cold simple answer: "There is something you can do to be friends. You can convert." Yeah right.

Or the solution to the conflict in the Holy Land according to Abu Saif, a prominent Muslim leader:

"We want the Jews to leave Israel, and to hand the whole of Israel, not just Gaza and the West Bank – the whole of Israel to the Muslims. Only then will the Muslims stop."

Like I said...yeah right.

Across town from the site of the recent attempted car-bomb attacks, several thousand Muslims gathered in front of the London Central Mosque to applaud fiery preachers prophesying the overthrow of the British government – a future vision that encompasses an Islamic takeover of the White House and the rule of the Quran over America.

"One day my dear Muslims," shouted Anjem Choudary, "Islam will govern Britain!" Choudary was a co-founder of Al Muhajiroun, the now-banned group tied to suspects in the July 7, 2005, London transport bombings and a cheerleader of the 9/11 attacks.

[...] For Humphries, the response of the Muslims at Islam's largest house of worship in the UK was telling. "Not one said, 'You're not speaking for me' or 'Not in my name.' They stood there and watched and applauded," he told WND.

Like the UK, Humphries said, the U.S. has three major vulnerabilities to patient, fundamentalist Muslims who believe their purpose for living in the West is to help fulfill Islamic prophecies: The loss of border control, the inability to say no and lack of assimilation.

"I feel like I'm Rusty Revere. I'm out there yelling the Muslims are coming, the Muslims are coming," he said. "But we don't want to hear it. We don't want to hurt people's feelings."

Humphries' interview with Abu Saif underscored the radically different vision many of Britain's citizens have for the country's future.

The Muslim leader said he does not believe in democracy and insists there is no such thing as freedom of religion, "because freedom is an absolute term."

"Are we to say that Muslims can fully practice religion in America," he asked in an attempt to explain. "Say, for instance, I was a Muslim in America. Could I call for the destruction of the American government and establishment of an Islamic state in America? No. So where is the freedom of religion? There is none."

Humphries asked: "Do you call for that?"

"Of course," he replied, "we want Islam to be a source of governance for all of mankind. And we also believe that one day America will be ruled by Islam."

Abu Saif explained Islam, like Christianity, has a prophetic tradition.

"One of the prophecies of the message of Muhammad was the hour will never come, i.e., the last day – which you also believe in – will never come until a group of the Muslims … will rise and conquer the white house."

The reference, many Muslims believe today, is to America's symbol of executive power. Islamic leaders in the U.S. largely have been careful to not assert publicly the Muslim belief that Islam ultimately will gain worldwide supremacy. As WND reported, Omar Ahmad, the founder of a prominent U.S.-based Islamic lobby group, denies a newspaper report that he told a group of Muslims in the San Francisco Bay area they are in America not to assimilate but to help bring about Islam's rule over the nation. Like other protesters, Abu Saif presented a typical list of grievances Muslims have with the U.S. and Britain, such as the nations' part in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the wars in Afghanistan and Iran. But the Islamic leader admitted he believes Jews and Christians will always hate Muslims, because Allah has said it is so.

But then of course we do have the so called "moderates":

The leaders of the Islamic Academy are so moderate that they were recently invited to share a platform with Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Yet there are growing suspicions that this suburban house is where the origins of the suspected London and Glasgow bomb plots may lie [...]

Comments

[Muslimokieinthewest]

Um so I didn't read your whole article but I hope you realize that the KKK does not represent most Christians. That the Taliban doesn't represent the majority of Muslims.
I am white female American and yes Muslim. I am a feminist and yes i wear hijab or a scarf. I vote, I am friends with my Christian neighbors. I also have Buddhist friends and Jewish friends. One of my oldest friends is atheist. I am not trying to convert any of them. It is not for me to even consider weather they are going to earn paradise or earn hellfire.
I am a practicing Muslim and I was shocked, horrified and scared like everyone else on 911. I would love it if everyone on earth believed what I do but it is not any of my business. What is my business is how I am treated, how my family is treated and how we treat others. I have no control over what you do or say. And guess what the ideal Muslim according to many scholar, (basically everyone) the ideal Muslim minds their own business. We Muslims believe that just saying things, even if they are true, about a person that they wouldn't want you to say will be the cause of the following punishment: you will have to eat their flesh in the hellfire. Not exactly something i want to do. The only time it is permissible is to prevent a greater evil, say that the person you are about to donate a lung to is actually going to sell your lung on the black market...that would be awful.....or you were going to look into marring that person but the person is an alcoholic.
I really just want you remind you of something you probably already know, nut jobs are just that and not representative of anything but themselves.

[Anonymous]

This is what's happening to Greenland families:
http://sioe.wordpress.com/

[Jeronimus]

We don't hold Christ to account for the inquisition or the lynchings carried out by the KKK. These acts of terror were perpetrated by people who considered themselves His followers.
Similarly we don't blame the Buddha for the acts of the Aum Supreme Truth Sarin Cult (which aligned itself with Buddhism, and received funding from the Dalai Lama). It is equally senseless to blame Muhammad for Wahabism and Al Quaeda.
The Jihad he spoke of meant inner warfare against one's own inner negativity. I hope you have the courage one day to face your own.

[Jeronimus]

A point about Islam that you may not have thought about:
The Koran was not written by Muhammad. He was illiterate.
The Koran was written by the man who persecuted and or killed much of Muhammad's family. It is therefore unfair to use quotations from the Koran to denigrate Muhammad.

[polzoo]

Hi there,

I read your blog and think you're a good writer. I would like to invite you to join our new online community at polzoo.com. It is a user generated political editorial and social network. We also choose from amongst our own bloggers to be featured columnists on the front page. I think your voice would be a great addition to our site.

Polzoo

[Ghost Dansing]

Paul Krugman, once again, providing the facts..... the irrefutable facts about modern Republicanism also known as "movement conservativism"..... what was it really all about Paul?

No wonder Republicans slam the New York Times whenever they can..... they cannot challenge the facts...... the facts that more and more Americans are finding to be the truth of an American political party so ideologically inbred that they can't mount a viable counterpoint to any of it, because it is all so transparently true.

So it remains their sad mantra invoked against the "Liberal Media", that this or that "Liberal" writer is to blame for the increasing disgust and low esteem held by their fellow Americans and the World towards them and their failed malignant ideology.

[Ghost Dansing]

As a matter of ethics and competence, this Republican administration is faced with another test of it's crediblity in prosececuting the Iraq war..... I predict they will fail as usual.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch:

State Department employees accused the White House-appointed inspector general, Howard Krongard, of blocking rather than abetting their efforts to uncover fraud and abuse in the contract billions being showered on Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. Krongard denies serving as the administration’s lap dog against embarrassment. Critics accuse him of delaying investigations, censoring reports on security weaknesses in Baghdad and tipping off a fellow political appointee of a pending inquiry.

Krongard, it turns out, has a brother that sits on the Blackwater board.

[Ghost Dansing]

Here's something a little different..... times they are apparently changing in Iraq..... so how 'bout it?

All in all, violence in Iraq has dropped precipitously since late summer. With Al Qaeda declared dead, former Sunni resistance fighters wearing American-supplied uniforms, and the Mahdi Army lying low, killings in Iraq are way down. The security situation in Iraq is far better than it’s been at any time since 2005. Many American antiwar critics, who are invested in the notion that no good news can come out of Iraq and who (secretly or openly) revel in the Bush administration’s Iraqi failures, are reluctant to admit that things are getting better.

Perhaps they worry that, if the situation in Iraq improves, the prospect of Democratic gains at the polls next November will diminish. Perhaps they’ve convinced themselves that Iraq’s ethnic and sectarian divide is so enormous that partition is the only solution, and that Iraq doesn’t deserve to be a country anyway. Perhaps their distaste for President Bush (which I share) is so all-consuming that they fear any improvement in the situation will be credited to the President — something they can’t tolerate....

......In fact, the “strategic drift” that the Center for American Progress refers to is beginning to look more and more like a Washington establishment with every intention to stay put in Iraq for decades to come. Even if the more rabid neoconservative calls for escalating the war into Iran and Syria are left aside, it’s still clear that many centrist Republicans and moderate Democrats expect a long occupation followed by an even longer period in which the presence of U.S. forces will remain significant. Former Centcom Commander General John Abizaid, a realist-minded, anti-neocon officer, recently predicted that U.S. forces would have to stay in the Middle East “for the next 25 to 50 years,” and he was pretty blunt about the importance of oil. “I’m not saying this is a war for oil, but I am saying that oil fuels an awful lot of geopolitical moves that political powers may take there.” 

Who’s the Enemy?
In Iraq, It’s Getting Harder to Find Any Bad Guys Robert Dreyfuss

[Ghost Dansing]

Link

[Ghost Dansing]

An excellent article in Tikkun by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH, discussing how torture is actually a useful tool afterall.

"Why Torture"
 

Any serious student of the issue would definitely read this..... that of course would rule out Republicans who aren't serious students of anything except the propagation of their own propaganda. 

[Ghost Dansing]

As usual an excellent piece by Frank Rich at the New York Times (you know, the National Treasure)....... a "Must Read" for anybody seriously doing the math on the Iran issue.

Link

[Ghost Dansing]

by the way mac...... divinyls

[Ghost Dansing]

I agree with mac Brachman on this...... I'm not of the opinion that the Koran turns everybody into terrorists.

[mac Brachman]

Robocop- Not Islam. Islamofascism, the new absolutist belief system of those who are displeased with the idea that people may have different ideas, different notions of the Holy One and how to approach him/her/it, etc., different ways of organizing their lives, and seek to destroy all those who refuse to go along or convert and to impose their POWER-HUNGRY, DOMINEERING, and IMPERIALISTIC views on all others. There are many Muslims who do not believe this way. But I agree there is an enemy and it needs to be confronted. Incidentally, I'm Jewish so I have no particular bias in favor of Muslims or Islam. Shalom and Shabbat Shalom, Mac Brachman

[Ghost Dansing]

Some expert opinions have recently been provided on the water board technique..... Dubya and his Republican administration don't know if it is torture or not.

Link

Another case of Republicans not knowing what they're doing.... incompetence? Surprising?

[Jeremayakovka]

Miss your blogging, Alexandra.
best,
-J

[Robocop]

First, let me compliment you on this blog. It is unique in a good way. Second, Islam is the enemy in this new cold war, except that this war is not so cold.

[Ghost Dansing]

More on modern Republicanism and laissez faire political and economic philosophies.....

Link

Seldom in doubt, frequently wrong in all matters foreign and domestic. Dubya and this Republican administration are the rotten bitter fruit of movement conservativism, what I call modern Republicanism. Anyone casting a vote for a Republican after this administration truly has a lot to answer for.

[igout]

Amen!

[mac Brachman]

We need this blog back. Soon. It was one thing that helped me keep my sanity. (And I don't mean GD constantly showing us she/he is familiar with the contents of the NYT and WP). Alexandra, Kenny, anybody, let me know if there is anything I can do. Please get this blog up and running again. Shalom, Mac Brachman

[Ghost Dansing]

So what will Iraq ultimately look like?

Link

[Ghost Dansing]

The glorious results of modern Republicanism.... laissez faire economics.... insane profits for the few, chaos for the many.

Energy Traders Avoid Scrutiny
As Commodities Market Grows, Oversight Is Slight

By David Cho
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 21, 2007; A01

[Ghost Dansing]

 The sounds of flushing modern Republicanism down the toilet:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 — President Bush’s nominee for Attorney General pledged today to run the Justice Department in an independent, nonpartisan way, and said the president did not have the authority to allow harsh interrogation of terrorism suspects.

“We are parties to a treaty that outlaws torture,” the nominee, Michael B. Mukasey, told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “Torture is unlawful under the laws of this country. The president has said that in an executive order.”

“But beyond all of those legal restrictions, we don’t torture — not simply because it’s against this or that law or against this or that treaty,” Mr. Mukasey added. “It is not what this country is about. It is not what this country stands for. It’s antithetical to everything this country stands for.”

As for any notion that politics should intrude into the administration of justice — a situation that many administration critics say existed under former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales — Mr. Mukasey, a former federal judge, said that “partisan politics plays no part in either the bringing of charges or the timing of charges.”

Responding to questions from the panel’s chairman, Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, Mr. Mukasey noted that a 2002 memorandum by Jay S. Bybee, an assistant attorney general at the time, stating that the president had the power to circumvent the Geneva Conventions as well as laws banning torture, was later disavowed and superseded.

“Would it be a safe characterization of what you’ve just said that you repudiate this memo as not only being contrary to law, but also contrary to the values America stands for?” Mr. Leahy asked.

“I do,” the nominee replied.

“Thank you,” Mr. Leahy said. “Is there such a thing as a commander-in-chief override that would allow the immunization of acts of torture that violate the law?”

“Not that I’m aware of,” Mr. Mukasey said.

 Link

 

[Ghost Dansing]

Speaking of studies in demonization:

Paul Krugman

[Ghost Dansing]

That's why I always caveat my comments by saying "modern" Republicanism...... what the Republican Party has become..... who's running it..... who's running the nation.

If you go back to Eisenhower you see a totally different political Party..... more centrist..... Liberal. An ideological revolution started in the Reagan era that swung the Party's center of gravity far right, and the current crowd is rightist.

The strategy at the polls was to count on the loyalty of moderate Republicans while mining the "christian" right and a collection of fringe single issue voters to win narrow majorities...... this administration is the culmination of a stratetgy to gain power and employ it in such a way as to benefit only corporate America (actually now transnational corporations) and the wealthy elite. All the string-alongs for voting purposes were dupes. The objective was a sort of corporate plutocracy in which government is reduced to serving corporate interests and the interests of the nation's wealthy elite. The effects are not theoretical, they are documentable.

What is happening with the Republicans is that their political philosophy has become so rightest that their center is cracking.

[mac Brachman]

Jess: Thanks; things are looking hopeful, but we're not out of the woods yet and more treatment is in store.

GD: I'm with you on this one. However, in PK's recent columns, he has taken the Bush/GOP heartlessness over S-CHIP and other issues and used it to make a blanket condemnation of ALL Repubs and ALL conservatives. We'd all be the spawn of Satan if judged by our worst thoughts and actions.

Shalom and Shabbat Shalom (It's Friday night), Mac Brachman

[Ghost Dansing]

The issue isn't Graeme Frost. The issue is the poverty of modern Republican ideology. This time they got caught in mid-swiftboat operations and the boat got scuttled.

Paul Krugman

I"m afraid it is movement conservativism, also known as modern Republicanism that is being revealed as "the fraud" on all matters foreign and domestic..... seldom in doubt, frequently wrong..... the Republican Party.

[jess1dering]

Mac, Wishing you strength as you walk through this time of illness in your family. Do keep us posted, won't you? I don't get to stop by as often as I'd like. I find the silence from Kenny and Alexandra REALLY unnerving. Have you any idea what's behind it ?
Peace....

[olivia]

Miss you Alexandria and hope you are well.

[Ghost Dansing]

It also makes my point about limiting yourself to a knife when you're going to a gunfight. Also, there is a difference..... movement conservatism (modern Republicanism) denigrated the terms Liberal and liberal by subtly changing the meaning..... specifically equating it with Leftism, a cluster of political wedge issues, and weakness on defense (which was never true).

The Neocons did take one Liberal idea, specifically the importance of national and military strenghth in defense of freedom (Liberal Democracy) and slammed it into a unconstitutional, rightist political philosophy of international bullyism, preemption and rull resurrection of ideals that are jingoistic in nature.

In the first case there is massive untruth intended to undermine the very basis of the American Nation. In the second case, there was expedient use of a concept borrowed out of context from Liberalism in order to pursue objectives outside the interests of the whole American People..... I would say in pursuit of Corporate transnational and other foreign interests.

 

[mac Brachman]

GD, maybe, just maybe, a little bit of the point Kenny P. was making months ago in his post on this website about the dangers of demonizing others who disagree with you is getting through to you. Even YOU may have a capacity for open-mindedness. Makes this Jewish agnostic wonder if there really is a God...

Old joke: (warning, possibly politically incorrect as it makes a joke about a recognized learning disability): Did you hear about the man with dyslexia who was agnostic and became an insomniac? He lay awake all night, every night, wondering whether or not there was a Dog... Shalom, Mac Brachman

[Ghost Dansing]

 An interesting piece in the NYT by Cohen...... Liberalism and Neoconservatism...... political word play an the problems of lost nuance by a writer who is making fine differentiations..... a Liberal.

A few years back, at the height of the jingoistic post-9/11 wave, the dirtiest word in the American political lexicon was “liberal.” Everyone from President Bush to Ann Coulter was using it to denote wimplike, Volvo-driving softies too spineless for dangerous times and too given to speaking French.

Liberals were going to hand the country’s defense to the United Nations, turn the war on terror into police work and cave to bin Laden’s Islamofascism.

As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California declared in 2004: “If you believe you must be fierce and relentless and terminate terrorism — then you are a Republican.”

No matter that none of the above was true. No matter that 20th-century liberal thought, like Isaiah Berlin’s, stood in consistent opposition to totalitarianism in fascist or communist form. The nuance-free message served to get the commander in chief re-elected.

In time, the fever ebbed. Iraq imploded, Bush fizzled and the Democrats took Congress. A retooled Schwarzenegger began sounding like a closet Democrat.....

......But who cares about such distinctions? Democrats have learned from their nuance-free bludgeoning by Republicans in the 2004 election, and they’re reciprocating. I’ll see your “liberal” with a “neocon” — and truth be damned.

But distinctions matter. The neocon taste for American empire is not the liberal hawk’s belief in the bond between American power and freedom’s progress. As for social questions, the gulf is large.

Has Iraq deep-sixed liberal interventionism? Kouchner, a socialist, is now French foreign minister — hardly a sign the credo’s dead. He, in turn, is close to Richard Holbrooke, who brought peace to Bosnia and may be secretary of state in a Hillary Clinton administration.

When John Kerry was vilified as a flip-flopping liberal by those armchair warriors, Bush and Cheney, I knew where I stood. When Michnik and Kouchner are neocons and MoveOn.org is the Petraeus-insulting face of never-set-foot-in-a-war-zone liberalism, I’m with the Polish-French brigade against the right-thinking American left.

The New L-Word: Neocon 

 

 

 

[Ghost Dansing]

WASHINGTON (AP), 30 September 2007 - Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is troubled by the Iraq war. He thinks it has become such a consuming focus of U.S. attention that it may be overstretching the military and distracting the nation from other threats.

Duh..... ya think? 

[Ghost Dansing]

Paul Krugman at the New York Times has provided another insightful article on the relationship between malignant Republican political ideology and the conduct of just about everything governmental..... even war.

Sometimes it seems that the only way to make sense of the Bush administration is to imagine that it’s a vast experiment concocted by mad political scientists who want to see what happens if a nation systematically ignores everything we’ve learned over the past few centuries about how to make a modern government work.

Thus, the administration has abandoned the principle of a professional, nonpolitical civil service, stuffing agencies from FEMA to the Justice Department with unqualified cronies. Tax farming — giving individuals the right to collect taxes, in return for a share of the take — went out with the French Revolution; now the tax farmers are back.

And so are mercenaries, whom Machiavelli described as “useless and dangerous” more than four centuries ago.

As far as I can tell, America has never fought a war in which mercenaries made up a large part of the armed force. But in Iraq, they are so central to the effort that, as Peter W. Singer of the Brookings Institution points out in a new report, “the private military industry has suffered more losses in Iraq than the rest of the coalition of allied nations combined.”

And, yes, the so-called private security contractors are mercenaries. They’re heavily armed. They carry out military missions, but they’re private employees who don’t answer to military discipline. On the other hand, they don’t seem to be accountable to Iraqi or U.S. law, either. And they behave accordingly.

We may never know what really happened in a crowded Baghdad square two weeks ago. Employees of Blackwater USA claim that they were attacked by gunmen. Iraqi police and witnesses say that the contractors began firing randomly at a car that didn’t get out of their way.

What we do know is that more than 20 civilians were killed, including the couple and child in the car. And the Iraqi version of events is entirely consistent with many other documented incidents involving security contractors.

For example, Mr. Singer reminds us that in 2005 “armed contractors from the Zapata firm were detained by U.S. forces, who claimed they saw the private soldiers indiscriminately firing not only at Iraqi civilians, but also U.S. Marines.” The contractors were not charged. In 2006, employees of Aegis, another security firm, posted a “trophy video” on the Internet that showed them shooting civilians, and employees of Triple Canopy, yet another contractor, were fired after alleging that a supervisor engaged in “joy-ride shooting” of Iraqi civilians.....

....And the danger out-of-control military contractors pose to American forces has been obvious at least since March 2004, when four armed Blackwater employees blundered into Fallujah in the middle of a delicate military operation, getting themselves killed and precipitating a crisis that probably ended any chance of an acceptable outcome in Iraq.

Yet Blackwater is still there. In fact, last year the State Department gave Blackwater the lead role in diplomatic security in Iraq.

Mr. Singer argues that reliance on private military contractors has let the administration avoid making hard political choices, such as admitting that it didn’t send enough troops in the first place. Contractors, he writes, “offered the potential backstop of additional forces, but with no one having to lose any political capital.” That’s undoubtedly part of the story.....

But it’s also worth noting that the Bush administration has tried to privatize every aspect of the U.S. government it can, using taxpayers’ money to give lucrative contracts to its friends — people like Erik Prince, the owner of Blackwater, who has strong Republican connections. You might think that national security would take precedence over the fetish for privatization — but remember, President Bush tried to keep airport security in private hands, even after 9/11.

So the privatization of war — no matter how badly it works — is just part of the pattern.

Hired Gun Fetish, Paul Krugman, NYT, 28 September 2007

 

 

 

 

 

[mac Brachman]

Jess- I'm fine, family is MOSTLY OK (some serious health issues have cropped up in immediate family but treatment is under way and prognosis is looking good, but in the meantime treatment is arduous); working as usual, missing Alexandra, Kenny and the rest of the crew. Shalom, Mac Brachman

[jess1dering]

Hello Mac,
I did write something. Haven't the foggiest notion of what that something was, though. I do thank you for the greeting. That was nice.
I am staggered to learn ( hope I misunderstood ) that Kenny is going through a divorce ??!!??!!
And where IS Alexandra ???
And how are you??
Sometimes I let too much time elapse betwee visits to ATB. Gotta stop doing that..

[LilMissIndie]

Hello, all. Thought you might be interested in this piece from The Chronicle.

http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=8ytztvdt6sy6x5p550p2m258myk1c1nm

Hope all is well with you, Alexandria, and the rest of you as well.

[Ghost Dansing]

Here's some excerpts on the same issue:

In an interview with This Week, anchor George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, former President Jimmy Carter said that his recent book Palestine Peace Not Apartheid has led to the most personal criticism of his life. Carter said that he has been called a "liar," "anti-Semite," "plagiarist," "thief," "coward"--and yet the 82-year-old remains as focused, passionate and articulate as ever on his reasons for writing the book and what he hopes it will accomplish.

"If I have had one burning desire in my heart and mind for the last thirty years, I would put peace for Israel at the top of the list," Carter said. "And commensurate with that has to be justice and human rights for the Palestinians next door." (To readers who would still question Carter's commitment to Israel, read the article in The Nation by former national Director of the American Jewish Congress, Henry Siegman). Carter hopes his book will precipitate an open debate on the Israel-Palestine conflict and renew the abandoned peace process- certainly, as both Carter and Stephanopoulos noted, it has already accomplished the former.

In Carter's opinion, the need for this vigorous public debate is all the more crucial since he doesn't believe the Democratic Congress will take any more of a balanced approach to peace than its Republican predecessor. Aside from "maybe two or three members" Carter believes that our representatives view any position critical of the current conservative Israeli government as  "politically suicidal."....

....At a time when there is too little honesty or boldness in our politics, Jimmy Carter speaks his mind, with sanity and humanity. His ideas deserve discussion and debate, not vituperation and ad hominem attack.

I agree 

[Ghost Dansing]

But Carter is not completely wrong..... just read what he actually said. Do you disagree? On the basis of what? Do you really think Iran could pull off a preemptive attack on Israel without getting its clocks-cleaned by Israel and possibly other Western nations?

Carter is demonized because he doesn't go along with rightest rhetoric and sees  both sides of  the  Israeli-Palistinian  issue.....  and there are a lot of Israelies (non-Likudnic) Israelies that see it the same way.

This Republican administration has accomplished nothing in a any area of foreign affairs..... made America weaker and chosen the wrong fights that actually make things worse.

Compared to Carter, most Republican politicians have the IQ of a carrot.
 

[Ernesto Ribeiro]

Yeah: actually, Carter may be completely wrong, but he is a pretty straight shooter... to shoot his own feet.

[mac Brachman]

Kenny- (Now that the Yom KIppur fast is over and I'm over my caffeine-withdrawal headache, which usually sets in about 3 p.m. on Yom Kippur afternoon). I'm very sorry to read about your travails and wish you and yours Godspeed. I too hope it will be over soon. Until then, our thoughts are with you, and looking forward to your (and Alexandra's) return to blogging. Shalom, Mac Brachman

[vetman]

we need the draft, too much of our country just doesn't understand.

[Kenny]

Mac,

I appreciate the implied compliment; but the divorce is really brutal, and it takes all my energy NOT to write, a cryptic statement upon which I will now make the effort not to write further...[wry grimace]

Really, I just have nothing in the tank. I hope it'll be over soon.

[Ghost Dansing]

Missing Link

[Ghost Dansing]

ATLANTA (AP) - Former President Jimmy Carter said Wednesday that it was almost inconceivable that Iran would "commit suicide" by launching missiles at Israel.
Speaking at Emory University, Carter, who brokered the 1979 Camp David peace accord between Israel and Egypt, said Israel's superior military power and distance from Iran likely are enough to discourage an actual attack.

"Iran is quite distant from Israel," said Carter, 83. "I think it would be almost inconceivable that Iran would commit suicide by launching one or two missiles of any kind against the nation of Israel."

Iran's deputy air force commander said Wednesday that Israel is within range of Iran's medium-range missiles and bombers and that Tehran would strike back if Israel "makes a silly mistake."

The White House said the comments almost sound geared toward provoking a fight and Israeli officials said they take the threats seriously.

Carter did not dismiss the idea that Iran might want to attack Israel, noting Iran's refusal to suspend uranium enrichment production despite two United Nations resolutions imposing sanctions on the country. Tehran insists its nuclear program is aimed at producing energy for civilian use but the U.S., its European allies and many others fear the program's real aim is to produce nuclear weapons.

"Obviously, we all hope we can do whatever we can to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear power," Carter said.

Carter said unease between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank is a far greater threat to Israel's security than Iran. He criticized the Bush administration for not doing enough to broker peace in the region.

Link 

Jimmy Carter may be occasionally wrong, but he is a pretty straight shooter compared to many many others..... especially rightists.

[mac brachman]

Israelinsider.com reports today that, in a major address at Emory University in Atlanta, the Nobel Peace Laureate, author, and distinguished former President of the U.S. and governor of Georgia, His Highness the Sage of Plains, Jimmy Carter, has pronounced it "inconceivable" that Iran would attack Israel or send its missiles toward it. Well, I'm certainly glad we cleared that up. I'm sure Ghost has more reassuring words of wisdom to add to Mr. Carter's words of wisdom. Shalom, Mac Brachman

[mac Brachman]

Jess- Did you write something? Haven't seen you for a while; please re-post it. Good to see your name on a post, even if the post didn't come through. Now if we can only get Alexandra and Kenny P. out of the woodwork... Shalom, Mac Brachman

[Pugnus]

I'm back to see that Ghost has posted quite a long retort to my assertion that the problem with the USA is the liberal left, not the right. Well, we'll just have to agree to disagree. As a conservative, I don't recognize anyone on the leftist side of the political continuum who expresses my ideological beliefs and standards, with the sole exception of Joe Leiberman. But I'm no fan of Dubya, either. I wrote in my daughter's name on the ballot card for the last Presidential election.

[Ghost Dansing]

There are many paradoxes, yet much can be clarified if viewed from an accurate perspective:

Krugman, NYT, 14 September 2007

It is amazing how many seeming paradoxes make sense from this perspective.