China's Foreign Ministry on Thursday told Chinese nationals to leave Israel due to fighting on the Lebanese border, the government's main news agency reported. "The conflict between Lebanon and Israel is increasing, so Chinese citizens in Israel should get as far from the battle area as possible," the notice said, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Let's hope that US and Israeli Generals read Sun Tzu's 'Art of War'
Pushing, shoving, conniving towards an ineluctable need for war
RawStory features Sidney Blumenthal's disturbing assertion that the White House wants a 'four-front war'
According to this national security insider, "the neocon scenario extends far beyond that objective to pushing Israel into a 'cleansing war' with Syria and Iran," with the full admission that their current guidebook, written originally for the Israeli Likud Prime Minister to use inside Israel, is: "a 1996 neocon manifesto against the Middle East peace process [entitled] A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm"
A 20th C foreign nation's screed now dictates policy in 21st C America?
Blumenthal's tagline ought to send chills up the back of any reasonably intelligent average American: Secretly devising a scheme that might thrust Israel into a ring of fire cannot be construed as a blunder. It is a deliberate, calculated and methodical plot,because it begs the harrowing question of what happens to the 135,000 troops at the center of this "ring of fire" who are now its bull's eye.
The National Security Agency is providing signal intelligence to Israel to monitor whether Syria and Iran are supplying new armaments to Hezbollah as it fires hundreds of missiles into northern Israel, according to a national security official with direct knowledge of the operation. President Bush has approved the secret program.
According to this national security insider, "the neocon scenario extends far beyond that objective to pushing Israel into a 'cleansing war' with Syria and Iran," with the full admission that their current guidebook, written originally for the Israeli Likud Prime Minister to use inside Israel, is: "a 1996 neocon manifesto against the Middle East peace process [entitled] A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm"
A 20th C foreign nation's screed now dictates policy in 21st C America?
Blumenthal's tagline ought to send chills up the back of any reasonably intelligent average American: Secretly devising a scheme that might thrust Israel into a ring of fire cannot be construed as a blunder. It is a deliberate, calculated and methodical plot,because it begs the harrowing question of what happens to the 135,000 troops at the center of this "ring of fire" who are now its bull's eye.
Losing Relevance
Journalist and historian Tom Segev wonders in this English article whether IDF spokeswoman Miri Regev or Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is the more annoying, and decries the fact that Israel has adopted the moral values of Hezbollah: Whatever they are doing to the residents of northern Israel, we can also do to the citizens of Lebanon, and even more. Many Israelis tended to look at the Qana incident primarily as a media disaster and not as something that imposed on them any ethical responsibility.
Having identified the collapse of the U.S. as a leader in morality and justice, he recommends that Israel turn to Europe, which understands that even if the United States conquers Tehran, [Israel] will still have to live with the Palestinians. - while the U.S., driven by the NeoCons and their delusional map of the world, apparently does not.
How badly have we lost relevance as a world leader when even in Israel our foreign policy appears immoral and unpractical?
Having identified the collapse of the U.S. as a leader in morality and justice, he recommends that Israel turn to Europe, which understands that even if the United States conquers Tehran, [Israel] will still have to live with the Palestinians. - while the U.S., driven by the NeoCons and their delusional map of the world, apparently does not.
How badly have we lost relevance as a world leader when even in Israel our foreign policy appears immoral and unpractical?
What Do You Get
If you Google the word, "asshole?"
Oh, and it wouldn't be fair to exclude this, my favourite Anti-Bush rock video of all time.
"He's too dumb to eat pretzels. Apparently smart enough to fix an election."
Ex-patriots?
What about the Americans? There is no real way to find out how many U.S. citizens are fighting in Lebanon and Gaza right now. 2400 of the soldiers are so keen on Israel that they came there especially for the purpose of joining Israel's army - 120 of them from the U.S. and Canada. In the article, the soldiers from the U.S. are described as "the most patriotic, the most 'poisoned'". Poisoned? Are we talking toxins? Of sorts. Israeli military slang refers to people who take their roles seriously as "poisoned soldiers" - perhaps because they're the ones who really drank the [famous trademarked drink]?
Now, I fully realize that Israel requires military service from all Jews living in it (actually, all non-Arabs), so that if you happen to be an American living there, you can't really get out of the service. But wouldn't you think that going to a foreign country expressly for the purpose of volunteering for a foreign army - to which the soldiers swear their allegiance - would be an expatriating act?
Now, I fully realize that Israel requires military service from all Jews living in it (actually, all non-Arabs), so that if you happen to be an American living there, you can't really get out of the service. But wouldn't you think that going to a foreign country expressly for the purpose of volunteering for a foreign army - to which the soldiers swear their allegiance - would be an expatriating act?
Thursday Open Thread
Post away rowdies. Hey, listen up, by providing you with open threads, we hope that you will only post comments elsewhere that are ON TOPIC. I am seriously contemplating a policy of deleting anything posted off the open threads that has nothing to do with the subject at hand. For some reason I just find it rude.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Wednesday Open Thread
We may be a small blog, but we're in good company. Move over AP and NYTimes. We're on the move!
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
It's as easy as riding a bicycle
A long, long time ago (okay it was June 15th), Congressman Gil Gutknecht (R-MN) stood in the House and proclaimed: “Members, now is not the time to go wobbly. Let’s give victory a chance.” Then a month later he took a trip to the war zone:
“The condition there is worse than I expected,” he said. “... I have to be perfectly candid: Baghdad is a serious problem.”
Gutknecht went on to compare Iraq to a child learning to ride a bicycle, saying:
" America needs to be willing to let the country suffer some bruises as it attempts to take charge of its own affairs. “I think it’s time to take off the training wheels of their bicycle,”
Finally, someone stops listening to the Whitehouse spin and actually goes and sees for himself. And his mind is opened. Let's hope and pray that more of the kool-aid drinkers will take an honest look for theirselves...for the sake of the children.
Dear Mr. President
I thought one way I could contribute to this blog is to publish my letters to the President and other officials. This is my most recent letter to the President.
Dear President Bush:
I am writing to you because I am having difficulty understanding what seems to me to be two contradictory messages you have given recently.
On July 19, 2006 you vetoed the stem cell research bill stating that you did not want to destroy life in the name of science. Meanwhile the conflict between Isreal and Hizbollah continues to rage on and you refuse to call for a ceasefire unless a "lasting peace" could be achieved. In essence, you are allowing life to be destroyed in the name of peace.
I would be very interested to hear how you can hold these two statements together. Because it seems to me that you are saying that no death is to be tolerated in the laboratory, but hundreds of civilian deaths on a battlefield that includes kitchens and nurseries is legitimate.
Sincerely,
RevPhat
I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live...Dt. 30:19b
Dear President Bush:
I am writing to you because I am having difficulty understanding what seems to me to be two contradictory messages you have given recently.
On July 19, 2006 you vetoed the stem cell research bill stating that you did not want to destroy life in the name of science. Meanwhile the conflict between Isreal and Hizbollah continues to rage on and you refuse to call for a ceasefire unless a "lasting peace" could be achieved. In essence, you are allowing life to be destroyed in the name of peace.
I would be very interested to hear how you can hold these two statements together. Because it seems to me that you are saying that no death is to be tolerated in the laboratory, but hundreds of civilian deaths on a battlefield that includes kitchens and nurseries is legitimate.
Sincerely,
RevPhat
I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live...Dt. 30:19b
HERE IT IS FOLKS
Welcome, unruly mob, to unrulymob.blogspot.com. If everyone accepts the name, this will be the new home of Les Enragés. Take off your trousers and make yourselves at home. I hope you like what I've done to the place. I took the liberty of cutting and pasting from sans' own template to provide a familiar look for everyone, and to give links to sans' favourite causes, band of brothers, net neutrality, etc. So far my limited knowledge of HTML (actually I think XHTML is being used here) hasn't caused any major crashes. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. On my to-do list: registering the blog with haloscan, technorati, and that cool mapstat thingabob. In terms of formatting, I've already done more here than on my own blog that is now 6 months old. But as I say, I only copied and pasted from sans' code, so the effort was minimal.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Why Sans Has So Many Fans
The ever-growing superthread of comments to sans-culotte's July 23 post here is clear evidence of how well liked he is by a wide variety of people who share his general worldview. I would like to provide some insight into why this is so.
Like many others, I first encountered sans, not through his excellent and often unique work on his own blog, sans-culotte.org, but through his comments on Americablog, where he has been an active participant for some time. In an instance I mention in the thread below, he went out of his way to provide technical advice on how to post links to a relative newcomer (Mike in Philly) , and did so without condescension or haughtiness. As it happens I am in a position to give a concrete example of his unique and endearing presence on Americablog.
[-note: the above reference to 'the thread below' is to comments on the original blog this post was written on, now defunct. -SBT]
On June 30, 2006 John Aravosis posted this item on Americablog: Bush Stands Rebuked which deals with the very important Hamdan v. Rumsfeld Supreme Court decision. The entire blogosphere on both the left and right was discussing this, so it was a no-brainer for Aravosis to do so too. In fact the issue was so hot that I decided not to post anything about it on my own blog because I thought there was little I could conceivably add to what was already out there; on any issue like this, involving a legal decision, you really don't have to read much more than Glenn Greenwald's Unclaimed Territory to get a good picture of what's going on.
First let's quantify Aravosis' effort on this post.
-He wrote one sentence: "Great analysis of th Supreme Court decision from the Wash Post:"
Not even a grammatically complete sentence, and he didn't bother to correct the typo on the word 'the.'
-He provided one link to one article.
-He provided an 'extract' from the article, consisting of paragraphs 1,2,3, and 6.
No commentary, no analysis, and no further participation in the thread were forthcoming. His glorious job done, he turned his back and walked away from the most important issue in probably a month, giving it no further consideration.
About 27 minutes later, sans-culotte joins the thread for the first time with this. (Open in a new tab in firefox or a new window if you still, for some ungodly reason, subject yourself to IExplorer.) Now, I like etymologies (word origins) so I might not be a good judge of this comment, but it shows something about sans I find unique. He goes onto the path less taken, and finds something of interest there to share with others. Furthermore, its not just the raw material but what he does with it. From 'rebuke' to its Germanic root in "busche" - to chop wood, then to Bush's name and his penchant for clearing brush, a brilliant synthesis. I thought it was so good I saved a link to the comment # (which is why I can go back to this a month later.)
For my money, at this point sans-culotte has already contributed more of unique value to this blogpost than its author, JA. But if you look at the comment thread from 12:27 to 1:27 am., here's what you'll see: A total of 12 comments by sans-culotte, with 9 links. This is out of a total of 35. Another 5 comments are in response to something sans-culotte has said. So he has taken over almost half of the comment thread. But not in a way anyone could possibly object to, even Aravosis at his most hissy-fittest. Here's a play-by-play for that one hour period.
Have I made my point yet? Read the whole thread, even after sans leaves at 2:12 am, for the tokens of admiration and respect from other commenters, including Gregory Lyons, Fernando, Mike in Philly, and Reality Check. I already told you one reason Mike in Philly is a big fan. The rest probably all have similar stories.
TAGS: Sans-culotte, Blogger, Americablog, Comments
Like many others, I first encountered sans, not through his excellent and often unique work on his own blog, sans-culotte.org, but through his comments on Americablog, where he has been an active participant for some time. In an instance I mention in the thread below, he went out of his way to provide technical advice on how to post links to a relative newcomer (Mike in Philly) , and did so without condescension or haughtiness. As it happens I am in a position to give a concrete example of his unique and endearing presence on Americablog.
[-note: the above reference to 'the thread below' is to comments on the original blog this post was written on, now defunct. -SBT]
On June 30, 2006 John Aravosis posted this item on Americablog: Bush Stands Rebuked which deals with the very important Hamdan v. Rumsfeld Supreme Court decision. The entire blogosphere on both the left and right was discussing this, so it was a no-brainer for Aravosis to do so too. In fact the issue was so hot that I decided not to post anything about it on my own blog because I thought there was little I could conceivably add to what was already out there; on any issue like this, involving a legal decision, you really don't have to read much more than Glenn Greenwald's Unclaimed Territory to get a good picture of what's going on.
First let's quantify Aravosis' effort on this post.
-He wrote one sentence: "Great analysis of th Supreme Court decision from the Wash Post:"
Not even a grammatically complete sentence, and he didn't bother to correct the typo on the word 'the.'
-He provided one link to one article.
-He provided an 'extract' from the article, consisting of paragraphs 1,2,3, and 6.
No commentary, no analysis, and no further participation in the thread were forthcoming. His glorious job done, he turned his back and walked away from the most important issue in probably a month, giving it no further consideration.
About 27 minutes later, sans-culotte joins the thread for the first time with this. (Open in a new tab in firefox or a new window if you still, for some ungodly reason, subject yourself to IExplorer.) Now, I like etymologies (word origins) so I might not be a good judge of this comment, but it shows something about sans I find unique. He goes onto the path less taken, and finds something of interest there to share with others. Furthermore, its not just the raw material but what he does with it. From 'rebuke' to its Germanic root in "busche" - to chop wood, then to Bush's name and his penchant for clearing brush, a brilliant synthesis. I thought it was so good I saved a link to the comment # (which is why I can go back to this a month later.)
For my money, at this point sans-culotte has already contributed more of unique value to this blogpost than its author, JA. But if you look at the comment thread from 12:27 to 1:27 am., here's what you'll see: A total of 12 comments by sans-culotte, with 9 links. This is out of a total of 35. Another 5 comments are in response to something sans-culotte has said. So he has taken over almost half of the comment thread. But not in a way anyone could possibly object to, even Aravosis at his most hissy-fittest. Here's a play-by-play for that one hour period.
-12:59: ha ha - is in response to an audio link posted at 12:55. This encourages others to post, and helps keep the thread alive and vibrant.
-1:05: -off topic but interesting Repug-bashing item about Bob Ney's staff quitting, with links to Roll Call and TPM - if you follow the link to Ney's statement it is redolent with prevarication
-1:06 - laughing emoticons in response to cowboyNEOK -once again encouraging others, and 'rallying the troops.' Boy, any politician with an ounce of grey matter would give up his arm to have such an effective supporter.
-1:14 - reprints bulk of a 10 month old AmericaBlog post - great anti-Repug ammunition - Catapulting the propaganda, sharing talking points that other participants can use. sans the campaign manager. -provides link, of course. credit where credit is due.
-1:15 - More strokes for 2fortheshow - rallying the troops
-1:21 - In response to question by Kim Chi, sans googles Karen Hughes' name, provides links to info. Acting as a research assistant to others. Both links are to hours-old posts.
-1:23 - morale-building response to Sharona's rather defeatist 1:21 comment.
-1:34 - link to salon article indicating that Guantanamo interrogators were trained by torture experts. Building evidence for a possible future warcrimes trial. Very lawyerly.
-1:43 - Now apparently responding to DKarma's 1:35 comment, expands on his 1:23 explanation re: impact of Hamdas decision - succinct, informative, upbeat
-1:47 - Responding to Fernando's 1:42 comment 'Bush stands and puked', sans pulls out a story about Bush Sr. projectile vomitting on the Japanese Prime Minister. - very funny, good bash, with link provided.
Have I made my point yet? Read the whole thread, even after sans leaves at 2:12 am, for the tokens of admiration and respect from other commenters, including Gregory Lyons, Fernando, Mike in Philly, and Reality Check. I already told you one reason Mike in Philly is a big fan. The rest probably all have similar stories.
TAGS: Sans-culotte, Blogger, Americablog, Comments
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