Israel’s Defense Minister, Zionism Equals Apartheid.

“The simple truth is, if there is one state” including Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, “it will have to be either bi-national or undemocratic. … if this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state.”

Does this sound like Jimmy Carter?  It was Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

Israel was founded on the principles of Zionism. The concept of Zionism is complex one. It means different things to different people, even among Zionism’s supporters. Anti-Zionism is often a mask for antisemitism. But everyone agrees that Zionism at its core means that Israel is a Jewish nation. This is problematic for anyone wishing to keep Israel democratic as well as a Zionist.

Here are the demographics of  the “bi national “, “one state” Barak is talking about. Israel has a population of about 8 million people. About 6 million Israelis are Jewish, and about 2 million are Arab. The Palestinian population in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is about 2.5 million. Gaza has a population of about 1.5 million. That makes 6 million Jews and 6 million mostly Muslim Arabs. The Birth rates of the Arabs are higher than the birth rates of the Jews. A democratic Israel can not remain a Jewish state when Jews become a minority. Israel could incorporate the disputed lands and deny the Palestinians the right to vote, and remain Zionist, but no one could call disenfranchising half of a population on the basis of race or religion a democracy.

This basic problem is why many, including the United States has advocated a two state solution. But for a two state solution to be viable, each state must be viable. Every time Israel “settles” her citizens on land in the West Bank or east Jerusalem, they unavoidably lesson the viability of a Palestinian state, and therefor lesson the viability of a two state solution. Israel has so far “settled” about half a million people in the West Bank.

Map of West Bank settlements and closures in January 2006: Yellow = Palestinian urban centers. Light pink = closed military areas or settlement boundary areas or areas isolated by the Israeli West Bank Barrier; dark pink = settlements, outposts or military bases. The black line = route of the Barrier

Map from wiki commons.

Many in The United states have little sympathy for the Palestinians and support Israel uncritically. But what they don’t realize is that when the right-wing is in power in Israel, they are supporting policies that will lead to the end of Israel as a Jewish nation, or far more likely to an Israel that must permanently practice apartheid, keeping 4 million Palestinians captive . Many Americans will say “too bad. The Palestinians deserve it.” But those same Americans should realize that Israel too, will be condemned. Israel will be condemned to be hated by her neighbors. long term peace will be impossible. She will be seen by the world as an oppressor. And Israelis themselves will have lost the dream of what Israel was conceived to be, a free Zionist nation, replaced by Zionist Fascism.

“The lack of a solution to the problem of border demarcation within the historic Land of Israel – and not an Iranian bomb – is the most serious threat to Israel’s future.”

Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

It is rare to find the level of criticism of Israel in this post in America’s popular press. When it is expressed it is always countered with a frantic push back, mostly based on charges of antisemitism. Jimmy Carter is perhaps the best example. He has become a political untouchable since his book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” came out.

But the Israelis are far harsher critics of themselves than anyone is allowed to be in America. Check out this Oped in Haaretz. Haaretz is widely considered to be the best and most influential newspaper in Israel.

Fear of peace will be the death of Israel by Bradley Burston.

According to the American press’ logic, Israel is full of Jewish antisemites.

Glenn Beck, Blaming America for Pearl Harbor. Accuses America of Terrorism.

Beck says, Pearl Harbor was bombed…

“because Woodrow Wilson told England, ‘You need to align yourself with us and not Japan…So we humiliated Japan, So it was terror, the progressives (Americans) started it.”

Audio here

Thanks Glenn, and all this time I thought Japan was responsible when they dropped bombs on our ships and strafed our sailors with bullets. I thought it was the Japanese who crippled our navy , and killed or wounded almost 4000 American servicemen.

Who knew they were just fighting back against American terrorism. Now I know that it was all our fault, thanks to you Glenn.

I guess when you look at the way you do Mr. Beck, you would have to conclude that the attack on the twin towers on 9/11 was Americas fault too. Al Qade and Osama, were forced to do it because of Bush’s support for Israel. How humiliating for them. They were just fighting back against the terror  by the conservatives. This conclusion is inescapable if a guy thinks like you do Mr. Beck.

Glenn Beck, Why do you hate America?

PolitiFact Wrong on Reconciliation, Calls Obama a Hypocrite.

PolitiFact gives  Obama a “full flop” on reconciliation largely based on this,

“But the fact is, the health care bill is not getting any Republican support, and Obama is pressing forward with a plan to push through a health care plan without them, and without a 60-vote majority.“

But the politi-FACT is that the Senate passed their health care bill with a 60 vote majority. And if a health care plan is to become the law of the land, the house will have to pass that same bill.

In fact news reports yesterday had the Senate parliamentarian ruling that the President must sign the bill into law before reconciliation can even take place.
Therefor it is incorrect for PolitiFact to conclude that Obama is pushing through a healthcare plan with out a 60 vote majority.

An attempt to use reconciliation to augment the bill in a manner completely consistent with how reconcilliation has been used in the past will be made. So if PolitiFact wants to give Obama a full flip on reconciliation based on his approving of augmenting a health care plan, not passing a health care plan, They may have a case. I wonder how they would rule if they took the proper, narrower focus?  I doubt that PolitiFact will find quotes of Obama trashing the traditional use of reconciliation.  I could be wrong. Anybody got any?

At the very least PolitiFact is guilty of sensationalism. Now that is what I call hypocrisy.

Why isn’t David Vitter in Jail ?

David Vitter confessed to a crime. He payed for sex. Kinky diaper sex.

Paying for sex, employing a whore, exchanging currency with a hooker in exchange for her doing nasty things to your ugly old body, is a crime.

So why has Vitter gotten away with committing a crime ? Why were no charges brought against him? Everyone thinks the Senate is full of criminals but this Senator has admitted it.  How is this not a smear on the integrity of the Senate?

Hey Super Rich Liberals, Democrats need a lie machine.

It is all about manipulating the Main Stream Media,(MSM) .

When the Fairness Doctrine was gutted, ushering in the era of the “Free Market of Ideas”, it was the repubs who first realized that just like any other market, When it comes to selling abstractions,the facts are too hard to pin down, but sensationalism sells. The left was left behind.
The left has become better at turning reality into sensational narratives. But considering the very ugly the reality that eight years of Bush have supplied, our job has been easy, yet still we find ourselves being neutralized by the wing-nut machine.

The arrow we are lacking in our quiver is the power of the lie.
Repubs have an arsenal of big lies. lies that have been cultivated for decades. Even when these lies are exposed as falsies by events in reality, the Republicans don’t abandon them.
Even the most obvious reality is never simple when put under a microscope. Repubs are masters at looking under the microscope and lying about what they see and they always ‘see” the same things…Proof that their big lies were right after all.

The MSM treats every issue as if each side has equally valid points. They operate as if it is their job to present both sides of the case and then let the Public decide. They have abandoned their jobs as truth seekers.

So we have a situation where one side is dealing in truth while the other pushes more and more lies and a press that splits the difference. What is half way in between the truth and a lie?
A lie.
If both sides lie, the middle point is still a lie. There is no longer a truth continuum. But there is still a right / left emotional continuum to consider. A dem lie machine could go along way in moving peoples perceptions toward the left.

There is no reason we can not deal in truth, while simultaneously on other levels through alternative venues, lie our asses off….

PS…Bringing back the fairness doctrine is not a viable solution. It is not gonna happen, and with the internet explosion in media streams it would be impossible anyway.

‘Filegate’ after fourteen years ‘there’s no there there.’

From WaPo,

Clinton-era Filegate appears to have closed, 14 years on.

Filegate  “…allegations that the administration conspired to use the FBI for a political witch hunt…Filegate, one of the many “-gates” of the Clinton administration, looks to be over — after a 14-year run…U.S. District Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth tossed the case. “After years of litigation, endless depositions, the fictionalized portrayal of this lawsuit and its litigants on television,” Lamberth concluded in a 28-page opinion, “this court is left to conclude that with the lawsuit, to quote Gertrude Stein, ‘there’s no there there.’ “

Are liberals somehow fundamentally unable to organize and maintain “fanciful, unglued attacks against” Republicans?

Fighting with the truth as your weapon as Media Matters does so well is great. But IMO, unless we are fighting on all levels we are ceding part of the constituency. After what we have witnessed in Obama’s first year there can be no denying that the Repubs still are able to create memes and media narratives, far better than the Dems. And they do it through the basest means; by appealing to the worst in us.
Of course we have MM, Hufpo, Koz, 538, TMP, and many other fine organizations that do a great job of turning the truth into memes and narratives. (just think how terrifyingly dark it would be in America with out them) But we do not have a ANY organized or funded effort to out right lie, and misinform.
Big mistake.

I think there is a logic in the minds of liberals that prevents us from simultaneously telling the truth and telling lies.

This affliction, obviously, does not hinder the average repub.
I am not advocating that MM and koz and all the rest become liberal versions of FOX, ushering in an age of universal Orwellian Newspeaking (Fox and Msnbc are alike in that they are both partisan, but unalike in that Fox is not overly concerned with the truth, and MSNBC for the most part is. )
But what Must happen if we are to be able to fight the repub-con corporatist on a more equal footing is for a liberal ends justify the means, lying smear machine to be funded by some rich ego driven Machiavellian liberals and fear based fund-raising.

Congressman Joe Barton: “California health care premiums would go down 50% if Californians could by health insurance from Nevada or Oregon.”

Just about half an hour ago, at the health care summit, Congressman Joe Barton (R, TX)  made the statement, “There is a study just out… In the state of California health care premiums would go down 50% if Californians could buy health insurance from Nevada or Oregon. ” This was news to me. I jumped on the internet and and tried to find the study he was referring to. After several attempts, I got nada.

So I called the Congressman’s Barton’s office. A man answered right away and he was extremely nice. I asked him if he could direct me to the study . He said he could not because he did not know what study the congressman was referring to. I have to say I was shocked. To be fair he went on to say that the person in the office who was the expert on health care was not in the office because of they were at the summit. Totally understandable.

He invited me to call back, (stupidly I did not ask when would be a good time) and he supplied me with the number to the congressional health care committee saying they could tell me where to look for the study.  A man answered right away and he was extremely nice. I told him Barton’s office had directed me there and I asked him if he could direct me to the study . He told me that they were unaware of the study and since the congressman said it, his staff would be the best place to find it.

Funny stuff.

So I am gonna call back, later today, and tomorrow , and the next day…Until I find it.

Can anyone save me some time? Anyone know what study he was talking about?

Update. February 26.

I called the Congressman’s Barton’s office again to day. A man answered right away and he was extremely nice. Again I asked him if he could direct me to the study. I think it was the same man. (I should ask his name, don’t ya think? Rude of me.) He told me he still could not direct me to the study, and that Congressman Barton’s health care expert was out for the week. Bummer! He sounded genuinely disappointed that he could not help and invited me to call back on Monday.

I will.

Update 2, Feb 26,

WaPo has Congressman Barton’s compleat health care summit remarks here.

Update 3, March 3,

Well after several calls today was a bit different . The very nice man asked me for my information and said he will send it to the committee and they would get back to me with the study. I wonder how long that will take? Has my question just been sent to committee to die?

Well, I will give them a few days. And if the committee does not help, then I will call the very nice man at The congressman office again.

Republicans say: We Just Want to Compromise.

Tomorrow’s Health care summit, Trap or political theater?

Tomorrow Obama and the Republicans will meet on live TV for the death match of the century . OK, not really. Tomorrow’s six-hour meeting will be full of lots of detail and facts coming from Obama, countered by hysterical warnings of doom and faux common sense  from the Republicans. It is funny to think this meeting was actually asked for by the Republicans. Remember how they complained about being locked out of the debate? Now they are calling the summit  a trap and the press is calling it political theater.

It is a trap.   There is nothing wrong with trying to trap your political opponent. It is potentially just as much a trap for Obama as the repubs.

It is political theater. All politics is theater.  Good politics like good theater has to be entertaining. But great politics like great theater is illuminating; it can change the way people see the world.

Tomorrow will probably have a few moments of great theater for anyone willing to endure. Anyone that actually watches it with an open mind will come away very educated, and left with the inescapable conclusion that  health care reform should be passed. NOW.

Not many will watch. Who has the time? We count on reporters to watch it for us and give us an honest educated distillation. Too bad we don’t live in a time where that  happens. Fox will give us their unfair and unbalanced right-wing spin. MSNBC will offer its typically schizo spin of attacking Obama from the left while celebrating his victory over the repubs. Most of the other News sources will offer a mix of these approaches on the same program or printed page. Almost no one will actually do an in-depth analysis of all the complex facts. It does not sell. Welcome to the modern “free market of ideas”

One theme we will hear a lot tomorrow is that repubs want to compromise.

Every kid on the playground knows what compromise means. Compromise means you give up something if the other kid will give up something, so they can get on with it and play the game.

The Republican kids in congress have a different view. The Repub kids won’t agree to anything they don’t like. The Repub kids say compromise is finding what rules all the kids agree on.

The Repub kids sound reasonable. The kids in the media are buying it. But the Dem kids know it is bunk. For a year now they have been trying to get the repubs to play a game…any game.

The Dem kids say “lets Play Baseball!” The Repub kids say, “Yes we all want to play baseball, but no bats. On this we must agree”

The Dem Kids say, “Lets play Football!”
The Repub Kids say, “Yes all of the kids want to play football, but no one is allowed to use their hands, It is football after all. On this we can not budge an inch.”

Dem kids, “OK Soccer then”
Repub Kids, “As long as no one kicks the ball.”

Dem kids, “How about tag?”
Repub kids, “No touching.”

Dem kids, “You really don’t want to play at all do you?”
Repub Kids, “Of course we want to play. All the of the playground wants to play. If you dem kids would just compromise we could all play. Ya know what? You dems have messed this all up. Let’s start over ! “

Senate Dems adopted 161 amendments and key GOP planks while soft-pedaling the public option. read more.

Harry Reid, White House, Will Work to Pass Public Option in Reconciliation.

The news just keeps getting better.

From HuffPo’s Sam Stein

Reid Offers Support For Public Option Through Reconciliation.

Update : It is looking more like a meaningful Health care bill can be passed through the reconciliation process. Back on January 22 Chris Matthews condescendingly insisted to Senator Alan Grayson (D) That health care legislation could not be passed in reconciliation. The right wing press lionized him for it. I dug up the video of it. You can see it upper right.

Chris Matthews regularly gets slammed from the right and the left for being partisan. The truth is that he worships the powerful regardless of ideology. And he is awful at self-censorship.

Chris Mathews is a combination unbridled Id and weather vane.

The Palin’s Attacked a Downs Syndrome Actress.

Sarah Palin has been donning a cloak of victimhood, playing politics with her downs syndrome child Trig ever since she stumbled into the national spotlight.

Most recently in a twisted chain of events, she called for Obama’s Chief of Staff to be axed because it was leaked that in the heat of the moment he called liberal Obama opponents “fucking retarded”. Then when Rush, speaking to an audience of tens of millions used the “R” word forty times, she knelt down before him and pronounced his spew tasty “satire”. Next the makers of the Fox show Family Guy sensing a publicity opportunity , baited Palin with some downs syndrome satire of their own. Predictably, Sarah responded. Shockingly, Sarah pushed her daughter Bristol into the political fire fight.

Now in the latest turn in this tangled web, it turns out that the actress who voiced the downs syndrome girl on the cartoon, Andrea Fay Friedman, who said the controversial line ,“My mother is the former governor of Alaska.” has downs syndrome.

Oops!

Needless to say Andrea Fay Friedman, was not happy to have the Palin’s denigrating her work. So she sent off an email.

Here is what she had to say about the kind of mother Sarah is :

“My parents raised me to have a sense of humor and to live a normal life.”…”My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes.”

Smart girl this Andrea Fay Friedman.

Related videos in upper right of page.