Clipmarks | papananook's clips

American and Israeli War Crimes: Same Atrocities, Different Responses

Fri, 02 May 2008 20:29:30 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: A spokesman for the group, Sarit Michaeli, says that Israeli claims that it is not responsible for such deaths are incorrect, and adds that under international law, “Even if you attack a legitimate military target, the anticipated damage has to be in proportion to the anticipated gain.”

How does such a moral calculus apply to American military policy? The most recent example of US military tactics in this regard came yesterday, when American forces, in clear violation of international law regarding national sovereignty, fired a missile into a house in Somalia (a nation that the US is not at war with), reportedly killing an alleged leader of the Al Qaeda organization in Somalia, Aden Hashi Ayro, but also another nine people—all unidentified. Reports suggest that many of those killed and another seven who were wounded, were innocent civilians who happened to be sleeping in the house in question.

To date, no American human rights group has protested this action as a criminal violati

Clip Source: www.smirkingchimp.com

In the last few days, both the Israeli military and the US military have fired missiles into homes, in an effort to target what they said were terrorists, in the process killing many innocent civilians.

But what a contrast we see in both the reporting on these events, and in the response within the two countries!

In the Israeli case, the IDF fired a missile into a family home in Gaza, killing a mother and her four young children, who were eating breakfast at the time. The children were aged 6 through 15 months. While the IDF and the Israeli government blamed the tragedy on Hamas, saying it operates in proximity of civilians and is thus responsible for their deaths, an Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem, has caqlled for a criminal investigation into the killings, saying that Israel and the IDF have violated internation law by firing the missile in a densely populated area where civilian casualties would be likely.

A Special Report: The Right's America-Hating Preacher

Fri, 02 May 2008 19:24:31 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Once his plan to “swallow entire America” is complete, Moon told his followers in one sermon, there will be “some individuals who complain inside your stomach. However, they will be digested.”

But Moon’s hatred of America is not deemed news, in part, because Moon has financed the Washington Times since 1982 to the tune of more than $3 billion, according to former newspaper insider George Archibald.

Moon also has lavished many millions of dollars more to pay for conservative conferences and to bail out key right-wing figures when they have found themselves in financial distress, including Republican direct-mail guru Richard Viguerie and the late Jerry Falwell.

Plus, Moon has paid large speaking fees to former President George H.W. Bush – estimated in the millions of dollars – and has feted President George W. Bush’s brother Neil at recent events for the Moon-sponsored Universal Peace Federation.

In 2004, thankful Republicans even gave Moon use of a room in the Senate Dirksen

Clip Source: www.smirkingchimp.com

One of the advantages that the American Right has achieved from investing tens of billions of dollars in media – from talk radio and cable TV, to print and the Internet – is the ability to define what is and what isn’t a “scandal,” a powerful factor in determining who wins national elections.

By comparison, American progressives have short-changed their own investments in media. The disparity leads to the spectacle of Democratic presidential candidates submitting to questioning on Fox News while no one would expect a Republican leader to undergo interrogation from, say, the DailyKos.

While Sen. Obama has to explain what he knew and when he knew it about Wright’s angry sermons, the Bush Family floats above its financial and political associations with the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, a South Korean theocrat who had denounced the United States as “Satan’s harvest” and likened American women to “prostitutes.”

vowing to sweep aside American democracy and individualism as he builds a one-world state

Time to Hit Back Harder

Fri, 02 May 2008 18:34:27 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: We need some of Rev. Wright's fierce truth...Not Obama's weak jazz.

Clip Source: www.opednews.com

We are so enamored of mental tranquility that we stop short at any semblance of a truth, and go to sleep in the clouds.

Liberals and progressives have let right wingers say all kinds of things that are racist, nasty, stupid, dishonest, misinformed or worse. It's often easy to let those remarks pass. Now that the Republican party has its lowest ratings since ratings were measured, meaning right wing ratings are at their lowest, it's time to stop tolerating any of this kind of crap. It's time to hit back at the bullshit with powerpunches.

If a right winger or, really, anyone, dishes out some nonsense right wing talking point, like, "there were WMDs in Iraq" or "Democrats just want to raise taxes" or "You want to leave Iraq like cowards" don't let them get away with it. Don't let them get away with any right wing garbage. Declare war on the garbage.

These are times, when if you CAN respond, you should. Failure to do so allows the lie, the abuse to remain uncontested.

Obama's Divorces of Wright, etc.

Fri, 02 May 2008 18:27:42 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: I've lost any little respect I had for the guy...He's back to wishy-washy.

Clip Source: www.time.com

In the hour before he divorced himself from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama held a town meeting in Winston-Salem, N.C., and used the occasion to announce several other divorces. He divorced himself from Hillary Clinton and John McCain on the issue of a summer gasoline-tax holiday, which he correctly described as "not an idea designed to get you through the summer. It's an idea designed to get them through the election." And then he divorced himself from some of the recent negative tactics of his campaign. "Over the past month or so, we've been getting whacked ... and sometimes we've been hitting back in ways that we're really not about." It was as if Obama were putting his personal gyroscope in order for the main act, the press conference in which he said he was "appalled" and "outraged" by his former pastor's views.

Gen. Sanchez (Ret.) reveals Rumsfeld complicty in crimes, bad mistakes

Fri, 02 May 2008 18:23:06 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: See link for Rumsfeld's lies and wonderful attitude towards Gen. Sanchez (one of those HONEST generals)

Clip Source: www.time.com

Then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld talks to Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, head of Coaltion Forces in Iraq, May 13, 2004.

Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of U.S. Forces in Iraq in 2003-2004, has written a new memoir, Wiser in Battle: A Soldier's Story, an account of his life and his service in Iraq. Sanchez was a three-star general — and the military's senior Hispanic officer — when he led U.S. forces in the first year of the war. He was relieved of his command by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in 2004 following the revelations of the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison. In 2005, Marine General Peter Pace, the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called him to say his career was over and he wouldn't get the promotion to a full general — four stars — that Sanchez says he was promised. Six months later, at Rumsfeld's request, he showed up at the Pentagon for a meeting with the defense secretary shortly before retiring. In this exclusive excerpt, Sanchez details

Hillary an O'Reilly--Courtin the Repug vote?

Fri, 02 May 2008 18:05:53 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: Said O'Reilly: "You're going to raise taxes on the wealthy. That's income redistribution. You know what that is. And income redistribution is why some conservatives don't like you. It's because it takes from the wealthy and you give the less afluent - that's socialism - that has a socialist component ..."

"No it isn't" said Hillary who recoiled from the S word like a vampire confronted with a cross. "Was Teddy Roosevelt a socialist?" she asked. When O'Reilly said "somewhat," she added that, "Teddy Roosevelt was a great American. Our country works better when we're all in it together.”

On her $110 billion-a-year health care plan, O'Reilly, citing California's $8 billion health care deficit and New York's $5 billion health care deficit, asked "Are you going to tell me President Hillary Clinton is going to A) run this efficiently and B) not bankrupt the country when California and New York are already bankrupt?"

In reply, Mrs. Clinton simply side-stepped defending the ruinous fis

Clip Source: www.newsmax.com

There were no fireworks in Hillary Clinton's sit-down interview on The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News Wednesday night, but sparks began to fly from the outset of part two, broadcast Thursday Night.

Under aggressive questioning from host Bill O'Reilly, Sen. Clinton played down some of the danger Iran poses, unless it becomes a nuclear power.

Noting that Iran wants the U.S. to pull its troops out of Iraq so Iran can dominate its neighbor, O’Reilly asked his guest how she planned to stop Iran, since she wants to withdraw our forces from Iraq.

Hillary responded with the standard Democratic Party claim that there can be no military victory in Iraq and that the Iraqis must now take charge of their own situation.

The only mildly heated dispute Wednesday came when O'Reilly identified Hillary's stance on taxing the rich - those she said earn $250,000 or more - as a policy of taking from those with high incomes and giving to those who earn less.