Well, here I am, a senior citizen playing a rap song. Bound to happen, like , the medium is the message. I'm not worried yet, but if & when they cut off my social security I'm going to wish I could have my share of the bail out money too. Especially if I also lose my medicare.
If I have to start mowing lawns to make ends meet, do you think that the gubmint will replace my broken lawn mower? Will they front me some money for fuel and upkeep of my equipment? I think not...G:
Thom Hartmann is an American radio host, author, and liberal political commentator. His nationally-syndicated radio show, The Thom Hartmann Program, airs throughout the United States on Air America Radio and has over 1.5 million unique listeners every week. He is a lay scholar of the history and textual analysis of the United States Constitution, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), electronic voting fraud, and environmental issues like global warming. Hartmann's original article "Talking Back To Talk Radio" became part of the original business plan of Air America Radio. He replaced Al Franken on the network on February 19, 2007.
Another significant change will be in Duhbya's weekly radio address, which IMHO has been done for all these years with a text to speech program. Obama will, instead, post his weekly video address on Youtube.
Guest Author TechCrunch.com Saturday, January 24, 2009; 2:54 AM
Editor's Note: The following guest post was written by Kevin Merritt, the CEO and founder of blist, a Web-based list manager and spreadsheet that was used on Change.gov, the Obama Administration's transition Website.
President Barack Obama was sworn into office this week as our nation?s 44th president. Despite running into a few technical challenges in the first few days at the White House, the Obama Administration will embrace technology in unprecedented ways. Led by forward thinking, web savvy technologists, President Obama?s new media team looks poised and ready to fulfill President Obama?s vision of open-source democracy.
Coincident with Mr. Obama being sworn in, the Obama Administration?s new media team assumed control of WhiteHouse.gov at 12:01 PM EST on Tuesday. This is the official website of the sitting administration. The new media team has identified three top priorities of the new administration ? communication, transparency and participation. Let?s examine how the new administration has been leveraging web technologies to meet these priorities.
Communication. This administration?s use of Google?s YouTube during both the campaign and after winning the election leverages Internet video to reach a generation of Americans and global citizens who no longer tune in to AM radio on a regular basis. President Obama has vowed to continue video recording his fireside chats and publishing them via YouTube and other video sites. With the transition of WhiteHouse.gov to the new administration, for the first time ever an official White House blog came online. You can sign up for email updates from the president. Through the blog, Mr. Obama is the first U.S. president to have an RSS feed!
A few months before 911 Wolfowitz gave a chilling speech at west point that was all doom and gloom. Strange that he mentioned Pearl Harbor, surprise attack, and sabotage.
Here's part of it
This year marks the 60th anniversery of a surprise disaster, whose name has become synonomous with surprise, the attack on Pearl Harbor. Interestingly that surprise attack was preceedeed by an astonishingly number of unheeded warnings and missed signals. Intelligence reports warned of a surprise move in any direction, but this made the commander in Honolulu think of sabotage not attack.
And at the end...this part
A hundred years later we live, once again in a time of great hopes for world peace and prosperity. Our chances of realizing those hopes will be greater if we use the benefit of hindsite to replace the poverty of expectations with the anticipaton of the unfamiliar and the unlikely. By doing so etc. (end of video)
According to the PNAC's own document, Rebuilding America’s Defenses ( .pdf format ) their stated goals would never be realized “absent some catastrophic catalyzing event –like a new Pearl Harbor”. (page 63). Wolfowitz is one of the signers of this document.
Wolfowitz knew that we were going to war in the middle East because he helped draw up the plans, so why was he giving a lecture of this nature? His name is on both of the following documents contained in the Project for the New American Century papers.
American foreign and defense policy is adrift. Conservatives have criticized the incoherent policies of the Clinton Administration. They have also resisted isolationist impulses from within their own ranks. But conservatives have not confidently advanced a strategic vision of America's role in the world. They have not set forth guiding principles for American foreign policy. They have allowed differences over tactics to obscure potential agreement on strategic objectives. And they have not fought for a defense budget that would maintain American security and advance American interests in the new century.
We aim to change this. We aim to make the case and rally support for American global leadership.
HOMELAND DEFENSE. America must defend its homeland. During the Cold War, nuclear deterrence was the key element in homeland defense; it remains essential. But the new century has brought with it new challenges. While reconfiguring its nuclear force, the United States also must counteract the effects of the proliferation of ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction that may soon allow lesser states to deter U.S. military action by threatening U.S. allies and the American homeland itself. Of all the new and current missions for U.S. armed forces, this must have priority.
LARGE WARS. Second, the United States must retain sufficient forces able to rapidly deploy and win multiple simultaneous large-scale wars and also to be able to respond to unanticipated contingencies in regions where it does not maintain forward-based forces. This resembles the “two-war” standard that has been the basis of U.S. force planning over the past decade. Yet this standard needs to be updated to account for new realities and potential new conflicts.
CONSTABULARY DUTIES. Third, the Pentagon must retain forces to preserve the current peace in ways that fall short of conduction major theater campaigns. A decade’s experience and the policies of two administrations have shown that such forces must be expanded to meet the needs of the new, long-term NATO mission in the Balkans, the continuing no-fly-zone and other missions in Southwest Asia, and other presence missions in vital regions of East Asia. These duties are today’s most frequent missions, requiring forces configured for combat but capable of long-term, independent constabulary operations.
TRANSFORM U.S. ARMED FORCES. Finally, the Pentagon must begin now to exploit the so called “revolution in military affairs,” sparked by the introduction of advanced technologies.
The following video is by the Heritage Foundation and is meant to instill fear, which seems to be the common modus operendum for the Neocons
COMMISSION ON NATIONAL SECURITY SPACE MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION HOLDS FIRST MEETING
The legislatively-mandated Commission to Assess United States National Security Space Management and Organization held its initial organizational meeting at the Pentagon on July 11. The commission has been tasked by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000 to investigate major changes in the management and organization of national security space assets.
Rumsfeld was chairman of the Commission to Assess U.S. National Security Space Management Organization. In its final report, submitted to Congress on Jan. 11, 2001, it warned, "If the United States is to avoid a 'Space Pearl Harbor,' it needs to take seriously the possibility of an attack on U.S. space systems."
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) has an indexes of publications from the US Space Command Doctrine.
Why are we so resistant to raising taxes? It's our nature. Nobody likes to give up their own money for the common good.
US economic growth has been strongest when our taxes have been high. During World War II, then under Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy, our upper marginal tax rates were between 88-92%. Read those numbers again. They are astonishingly high. Those were our strongest growth years.
I never expected to say this. Pelosi's right, Obama's wrong.
Do keep in mind that we are talking about higher taxes on the richest members of society, the very richest. So, unless you're among that elite group, don't panic for personal reasons.
Keep in mind, also, that we are speaking only of income taxes.
You have certainly heard, several thousand times, that tax cuts lead to economic growth.
That's not true.
Moderate tax cuts lead to a flat economy. (The Johnson tax cuts, usually misnamed the Kennedy tax cuts, lead to 16 years of virtually no growth.)
Large tax cuts are followed by a boom in the financial sector, a bubble, and a crash. Then a recession or depression with massive bank failures. This has happened three times, in the 1920s, under Reagan, and under George W. Bush.
During a depression or recession, the point where taxes are increased marks the point when the economy begins its recovery: 1932 under Hoover, Roosevelt's second round of tax hikes in 1940, the first president Bush's tax hike, followed by the Clinton tax hike. (There's one exception. Roosevelt's tax hike of 1936, which was accompanied by cuts in government spending.)
By Caren Bohan and Matt Spetalnick, ReutersJanuary 21, 2009 3:07 PM
U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday plunged into Middle East peace diplomacy on his first full day in office and looked poised to order the closing of the internationally condemned military detention camp at Guantanamo within a year.
Acting swiftly the day after his inauguration, Obama — who had vowed a bolder pursuit of Israeli-Palestinian peace than his predecessor George W. Bush — called Israeli and Arab leaders to commit to "active engagement" and to promise help in consolidating the Gaza ceasefire.
"He pledged that the United States would do its part to make these efforts successful, working closely with the international community and these partners as they fulfill their responsibilities as well," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
Obama's packed agenda, including summoning his economic and national security teams to confront the financial crisis and the unpopular Iraq war, signaled his intention of meeting his promises to break sharply with the Bush era.
Obama's quick foray into Middle East diplomacy coincided with circulation of an unsigned draft executive order that would require the closing by early 2010 of the Guantanamo prison opened by the Bush administration to house terrorism suspects.
The facility, which Obama had vowed to shut down, has been widely seen as a stain on America's moral standing in the world because of harsh interrogation methods that human rights groups said amounted to torture.
The Obama administration would also start an immediate review on how to deal with the remaining prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, according to the draft order obtained by Reuters.
Critics had faulted Bush for taking a largely hands-off approach to Middle East peacemaking for much of his eight years in office.
Obama spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah not long after he stepped into the Oval Office for the first time since his historic inauguration as the first black U.S. president.
He is expected to name a Middle East envoy soon.
The fledgling president, who has vowed strong action to deal with the worst U.S. economic crisis in decades and to hammer out an exit strategy from the unpopular war in Iraq, planned separate meetings in the late afternoon with economic advisers as well as with his national security team.
Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 at 12:01 pm Change has come to WhiteHouse.gov Welcome to the new WhiteHouse.gov. I'm Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media for the White House and one of the people who will be contributing to the blog.
A short time ago, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of the United States and his new administration officially came to life. One of the first changes is the White House's new website, which will serve as a place for the President and his administration to connect with the rest of the nation and the world.
Millions of Americans have powered President Obama's journey to the White House, many taking advantage of the internet to play a role in shaping our country's future. WhiteHouse.gov is just the beginning of the new administration's efforts to expand and deepen this online engagement.
Just like your new government, WhiteHouse.gov and the rest of the Administration's online programs will put citizens first. Our initial new media efforts will center around three priorities:
Communication -- Americans are eager for information about the state of the economy, national security and a host of other issues. This site will feature timely and in-depth content meant to keep everyone up-to-date and educated. Check out the briefing room, keep tabs on the blog (RSS feed) and take a moment to sign up for e-mail updates from the President and his administration so you can be sure to know about major announcements and decisions.
Transparency -- President Obama has committed to making his administration the most open and transparent in history, and WhiteHouse.gov will play a major role in delivering on that promise. The President's executive orders and proclamations will be published for everyone to review, and that’s just the beginning of our efforts to provide a window for all Americans into the business of the government. You can also learn about some of the senior leadership in the new administration and about the President’s policy priorities.
Participation -- President Obama started his career as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, where he saw firsthand what people can do when they come together for a common cause. Citizen participation will be a priority for the Administration, and the internet will play an important role in that. One significant addition to WhiteHouse.gov reflects a campaign promise from the President: we will publish all non-emergency legislation to the website for five days, and allow the public to review and comment before the President signs it.
We'd also like to hear from you -- what sort of things would you find valuable from WhiteHouse.gov? If you have an idea, use this form to let us know. Like the transition website and the campaign's before that, this online community will continue to be a work in progress as we develop new features and content for you. So thanks in advance for your patience and for your feedback.
We’ll be fighting in the streets With our children at our feet And the morals that they worship will be gone And the men who spurred us on Sit in judgement of all wrong They decide and the shotgun sings the song
I’ll tip my hat to the new constitution Take a bow for the new revolution Smile and grin at the change all around Pick up my guitar and play Just like yesterday Then I’ll get on my knees and pray We don’t get fooled again
Raw Story | A group calling itself "Arrest Bush 2009" has announced its intention to hold a "Yes We Can Arrest Bush" event in front of the FBI Building in Washington, DC during the Inaugural Parade.
However, coordinator Jose Rodriguez insists, "It's not a protest; it's a celebratory event."
Arrest Bush 2009, which is sponsored by the Washington Peace Center, After Downing Street, and Shoes For Bush, is demanding that Bush be arrested for war crimes and for lying to the American people.
Calls for Bush's arrest began last March, when two Vermont towns approved a measure "that would instruct police to arrest President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for 'crimes against our Constitution.'" In September, a large "Arrest Bush/Cheney" banner was hung on a ledge at the National Archives by members of Veterans for Peace.
According to the press release from Arrest Bush 2009, "We call for the arrest of George W. Bush for instigating war against a sovereign nation that posed no threat, wanton attacks on civilian populations, use of torture, and violations of the U.N. Charter. We call for the arrest of George W. Bush for lying to Congress and the American people about the reasons for invading Iraq, for the deaths of US service members and Iraqi civilians, and for the abuse of the United States Constitution."
Shoes for Bush also plans a separate "shoe hurling action" on January 19 to protest what they anticipate will be Bush's "unprecedented pardoning of crimes he authorized." Veterans are encouraged to bring their combat boots to hurl.
During Bush's second inauguration in January 2005, an estimated 10,000 antiwar protesters showed up in Washington, and there were protests in other cities as well. However, it is not clear how much attention anti-Bush protests will garner on a day when most Americans may simply be glad to see him leaving town.
John Chiang announces that his office will suspend $3.7 billion in payments owed to Californians starting Feb. 1, because with no budget in place the state lacks sufficient cash to pay its bills.
By Evan Halper and Patrick McGreevy
January 17, 2009
Reporting from Sacramento — The state will suspend tax refunds, welfare checks, student grants and other payments owed to Californians starting Feb. 1, Controller John Chiang announced Friday.
Chiang said he had no choice but to stop making some $3.7 billion in payments in the absence of action by the governor and lawmakers to close the state’s nearly $42-billion budget deficit. More than half of those payments are tax refunds.
The controller said the suspended payments could be rolled into IOUs if California still lacks sufficient cash to pay its bills come March or April.
“It pains me to pull this trigger,” Chiang said at a news conference in his office. “But it is an action that is critically necessary.”
The payments to be frozen include nearly $2 billion in tax refunds; $300 million in cash grants for needy families and the elderly, blind and disabled; and $13 million in grants for college students.
I found a book in the library, "actually a stand with all kinds of reading material on it that sits in the bathroom", today that was laying there opened up to this page. There it was laying with a copy of Mad Magazine and one of Gary Larson's "The Far Side" publications. I had no idea that my daughter had such good taste in literature as I read this worn old paperback from the 1980's. What I was reading was pretty much relevant to the happenings today, so here's a picture of it...
please click to enlarge
Anyways, I've decided to read the rest of it even if it is fiction it's close enough to sci-fi for me. Kinda like Steinbeck with a little bit of Mark Twain and Henry Miller thrown in for good measure.
As the time draws near for the exit of Bu$hco I would like to wish a happy, democratic, truth filled, peaceful existence to all and a small reminder to love your brothers and sisters, as well as any other critters, and especially plants...G:
In Israel just as in the US people are outraged and many are engaged in demonstrations against these atrocities. Why isn't there more news like this in the main stream media?
Methane, an organic molecule that on Earth is usually produced by life, has been found emanating from three specific regions on the surface of Mars.
The regions have suddenly become the most defined and accessible regions in the solar system to look for extraterrestrial life. While the observation is not definitive proof of life on Mars, it's the most promising sign yet.
It's still unclear whether the methane seeping out of the Martian ground is generated by geological or biological processes, but the discovery is surprising and important enough that it could reset NASA's Mars exploration strategy.
"It's prudent that we begin to explore Mars looking for the possibility of a life form that's exhaling methane," said Lisa Pratt, director of NASA's Astrobiology Team and a geoscientist at Indiana University who was not involved in the research.
Though we've been looking for life on Mars, it was no longer considered the best candidate for contemporary life in our solar system. Several scientific missions stretching from the Viking missions through the recently completed Mars Phoenix mission have found no evidence for life or liquid water on the surface of the red planet.
But the new spectroscopic observations of a seasonal methane release point to some active process on Mars — and it's as likely to be life as anything else. That's because most of the methane that we know here on Earth is produced by microbes as a waste product of, well, living.
Tom Friedman, one of the nation's leading propagandists for the Iraq War and a vigorous supporter of all of Israel's wars, has a column today in The New York Times explaining and praising the Israeli attack on Gaza. For the sake of robust and diverse debate (for which our Liberal Media is so well known), Friedman's column today appears alongside an Op-Ed from The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, one of the nation's leading (and most deceitful) propagandists for the Iraq War and a vigorous supporter of all of Israel's wars, who explains that Hamas is incorrigibly hateful and radical and cannot be negotiated with. One can hardly imagine a more compelling exhibit demonstrating the complete lack of accountability in the "journalism" profession -- at least for those who are loyal establishment spokespeople who reflexively cheer on wars -- than a leading Op-Ed page presenting these two war advocates, of all people, as experts, of all things, on the joys and glories of the latest Middle East war.
The White House has been in full "re-write history" mode the past few months, but even the brilliant Bush spinmeisters couldn't spin the fact that no one really cares about what Bush has to say anymore.
With seven days left until he surrenders power, Bush will have to do a heck of a sales job to convince the nation of this. Further complicating his last-minute legacy rehabilitation: Nobody seems to be paying attention. The White House had high expectations for yesterday's final, historic news conference. "ONE CORRESPONDENT PER ORGANIZATION," proclaimed the bulletin sent to reporters. "STANDING ROOM ONLY FOR NON-SEAT HOLDERS." But when the appointed hour of 9:15 a.m. arrived, the last two rows in the seven-row briefing room were empty, and a press aide told White House interns to fill those seats.
Osama bin Laden calls for new jihad over Israeli offensive
President Bush admitted this week that he did not know whether bin Laden had ever come close to capture during that time, although he was "absolutely" certain that he would be caught eventually. More improbably, Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, suggested that the Administration had a "few days left" to capture bin Laden and his deputy, the Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahi.
So I guess what this miserable son of a she dog is trying to say is that in spite of being the commander in chief with unprecedented powers to snoop on any information on planet Earth including the Googleplex, DARPA, the CIA, the FBI, the Mossad, etc. blablablabaa that he knows nothing about the most wanted man on Earth, in spite of the fact that he can imprison and torture anyone he wants any where he wants. I mean, like this unqualified and self proclaimed war president has blood on his hands and makes light of events that have lead to...Excuse me while I go into a mind lock even thinking about a small part of it....zzzzzZZZZZ* Lets see? Where was I? Hmmm Nuremburg trials, the Hague, justice, karma?
I have always detested George Duhhbya Bu$h, but If I had dreamed up the worst possible candidate for the leader of this country, it wouldn't even come close to what we have witnessed these last 8 years. I don't like to use the word hate, but for lack of a better one I have to say that was what I felt for "Dick" Nixon, & Ronny Raygun. Then when George H W Bush came along I felt fear.
Mike Malloy understands the true meaning of what's coming down and Duhhbya's role in this whole evil mess. He can be heard nightly on Air America and does wonders for my sanity in these weird times, as I can actually laugh at what is truly the greatest tragedy to come down in recent history.
George W. Bush gave his last press conference today. Did you watch the coverage? Did you have trouble – again; still – repressing your gag reflex? The suspension of reality during yet one more Bush/White House Press Corp circle jerk was breathtaking.
Still cowed by Bush’s toxic arrogance, still ordered by their corporate controllers not to stir the waters too deeply, the assembled reporters did what they have done for the past eight years: give this lawbreaking, miserable, failed man one more free pass. And giggle while they did so.
The content of his answers to half-witted questions was meaningless. Without substance, context, insight, overview – nothing. Dull and reflexive, he did what he has done for the entirety of his political career: overwhelm the questioners with the enormity of his ignorance and his arrogance.
His body language and his non-answers were clear indications that he knows neither he nor his corrupt administration will be held accountable for the catastrophic damage they have done to this country. Already, those speaking for Barack Obama have made it clear there will be no investigations, no indictments, no prosecutions for any of the long list of crimes this administration has committed. One estimate says that list includes 269 laws, domestic and international, broken by the Bush thugs, starting with illegal wiretapping and surveillance, the firing of US Attorneys, the corruption of the Department of Justice, the invasion of Iraq, state-sanctioned torture, so-called “rendition” which is, in fact, kidnapping . . . on and on and on.
Dahlia Lithwick - in an op-ed piece in today's New York Times - writes: Those who say that there should be no investigation or prosecution of senior officials who authorized torture and warrant-less surveillance rarely even bother offering legal justifications. They argue that the Obama administration has more urgent problems to contend with. They insist that any such process would devolve into partisan backbiting from which this country could never recover. And they insist, as did Attorney General Michael Mukasey in early December, that there is no basis on which to prosecute the architects of torture and wiretapping policies because each was acting to "protect the security in the country and in the belief that he or she was doing something lawful."
So are we to be left no accountability for the crimes committed repeatedly, relentlessly, arrogantly over an eight-year period? Will there not even be a "truth commission" of some sort modeled perhaps on that used by South Africa following the end of apartheid? Is the fear that such a commission might be forced, after taking testimony and hearing witnesses, to recommend legal action by the Obama Justice Department? The conclusion to which the power elite seems be finalizing is that we will see business as usual in the Obama administration, even though the political and financial futures of the US are shaky at best, near-collapse at worst.
Will the decision not to investigate and prosecute be one the American people are willing to accept?
As a versatile musicologist and trenchant social commentator, Nat Hentoff brings uniquely pertinent credentials to his dual tasks in this month's issue - as the author of "We're Happening All Over, Baby!" (on page 82) an insightful anatomizing of America's youthful new generation of anti-establishment social activists, and as interviewer of this month's controversial subject, about whom he writes:
"Less than five years ago, Bob Dylan was scuffling in New York - sleeping in friends' apartments on the Lower East Side and getting very occasional singing work at Gerde's Folk City, an unprepossessing bar for citybillies in the Village. With his leather cap, blue jeans and battered desert boots - his unvarying costume in those days - Dylan looked like an updated, undernourished Huck Finn. And like Huck, he had come out of the Midwest; he would have said 'escaped.' The son of Abraham Zimmerman, an appliance dealer, he was raised in Hibbing, Minnesota, a bleak mining town near the Canadian border. Though he ran away from home regularly between the ages of 10 and 18, young Zimmerman did manage to finish high school, and went on to spend about six months at the University of Minnesota in 1960. By then, he called himself Bob Dylan - in tribute to Dylan Thomas, according to legend; but actually after a gambling uncle whose last name was similar to Dylan.
DYLAN: The truth is that we're born and we die. We're concerned here in this life with the journey from point A to point Z, or from what we think is point A to point Z. But it's pretty self-deluding if you think that's all there is.
PLAYBOY: What do you think is beyond Z?
DYLAN: You mean, what do I think is in the great unknown? [Pause] Sounds, echoes of laughter.
PLAYBOY: Do you feel there's some sense of karmic balance in the universe, that you suffer for acts of bad faith?
DYLAN: Of course. I. think everybody knows that's true. After you've lived long enough, you realize that's the case. You can get away with anything for a while. But it's like Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart or Dostoievsky's Crime and Punishment: Somewhere along the line, sooner or later, you're going to have to pay.
PLAYBOY: Do you feel you've paid for what you got away with earlier?
DYLAN: Right now, I'm about even.
PLAYBOY: Isn't that what you said after your motorcycle accident-"Something had to be evened up"?
Media bias about the Israeli - Palestine conflict EXPOSED!
Christian Zionist John Hagee misrepresents the Jewish people
At about 5:10 into this video Holy Joe Lieberwienerman, once again, makes me lose my groceries...):
At the recent annual CUFI summit in Washington, D.C., prominent politicians were present to pledge support for this growing movement, including Senators John McCain, Joseph Lieberman, House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, as well as former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Lieberman particularly sang Hagee's praise:
"He is a Ish Elokim, a man of God and those words really fit him...like Moses he's become a leader of a mighty multitude, even greater than the multitude that Moses led from Egypt to the promised land."
The Bible commands us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6), to speak out for Zion's sake (Isaiah 62:1), to be watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem (Isaiah 62:6) and to bless the Jewish people (Genesis 12:3). These and so many other verses of the Bible that have one overriding message-- as Christians we have a Biblical obligation to defend Israel and the Jewish people in their time of need.
Israel’s time of need is now. There is a new Hitler in the Middle East --President Ahmadinejad of Iran -- who has threatened to wipe out Israel and America and is rapidly acquiring the nuclear technology to make good on his threat. If we learned anything from the Holocaust, it is that when a madman threatens genocide we must take him seriously.
UPDATE August 18, 2006: JewsOnFirst leads discussion on CUFI's Nights to Honor Israel.
Christian Zionists -- Christian evangelicals who avow support of Israel based on a belief in Biblical end-times scenarios -- are whipping their followers into a fervor in favor of an attack on Iran. In a related development, conservative commentators like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich have been beating the drum for a US attack on Iran, characterizing the current conflict in Lebanon as the start of “World War Three."
The calls for aggressive action against Iran wouldn’t amount to much more than laugh lines for Comedy Channel newscasts, were it not for the involvement of some highly influential, right-wing Christian evangelical leaders in a new Christian Zionist organization, Christians United for Israel, or CUFI.
Religious right groups typically support aggressive foreign policies because of their identification with the Republican Party and their interest in missionizing where the US intervenes. But CUFI, which recently brought 3,500 citizen-lobbyists to Washington, is advocating confrontation with Iran based on "cherry-picked" Biblical interpretations.
CUFI's founder, Rev. John Hagee, is leading this push for aggressive US action, purportedly based on Biblical principles. Hagee heads the Cornerstone megachurch in San Antonio and a big evangelical television operation. He founded CUFI in February and packed its leadership with luminaries of the religious right.
A Christian lobby for Israel Hagee established CUFI as a Christian congressional lobby in support of Israel, modeled on the pro-Israel congressional lobby AIPAC (the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee), according to news reports. (However, for unknown reasons, he disclaims similarity in an opinion article for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA).)
While AIPAC generally supports current Israeli government policy, Hagee and CUFI board members, including Rev. Jerry Falwell, make clear that they do not support Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories, based on their Biblical interpretations. (For more on Christian Zionism, see the sidebar at right.)
Hagee has been promoting war with Iran since February. His book on the subject, Jerusalem Countdown: A warning to the world, has sold 700,000 copies, the Wall Street Journal reports. Speakers at CUFI's July 18th kickoff banquet hurled imprecations at Iran.
This site was created to provide historical documentation refuting the misconception that all Jewry supports Zionism (the existence of the so-called "State of Israel") for website visitors seeking information on the history of Zionism, its historical and current day impact on the Jewish community worldwide and the danger it presents to us all.
For decades renowned Rabbinical leaders and scholars have opposed the creation of a "Jewish State", supporting their opposition with words of the scriptures and of the Torah, as being diametrically opposed to the ideology of Judaism. We have provided many such quotations for the inquiring website visitor who is seeking such information.
Although there are those who refuse to accept the teachings of our Rabbis and will continue to support the Zionist state, there are also many who are totally unaware of the history of Zionism and its contradiction to the beliefs of Torah-True Jews.
Prior to the recognition of the so-called "state of Israel" by the United Nations in 1948, Orthodox Rabbis in Jerusalem, the United States, and Canada issued pleas to the U.N. Security Council and the Commission on Palestine opposing the creation of a state in Holy Land and offering compromises and solutions.
The new embassy, already underway in early 2005, was not mentioned in the main stream media at the time, and was supposedly a secret. I didn't see anything on Google untill 2006, but it was underway by May 11, 2005 when funding was signed by congress under an emergency supplemental appropriation, (H.R. 1268/P.L. 109-13), which included $592 million for embassy construction.
The position of Ambassador to Iraq was initially filled by John Negroponte, who served from May 2004 to March 2005. On April 5, Secretary Rice announced President Bush’s intention to nominate Zalmay Khalilzad (formerly the Ambassador to Afghanistan) as the new U.S. Ambassador to Iraq; this appointment required Senate confirmation.
Guess who the emcee for the dedication of the (cough cough) new embassy is? Yep, you guessed it and he can be seen in todays presentation on CNN VIDEO
*The Real Irony here is when Mr Immanuel is talking about "citizenship", he is an Israeli Citizen and fought in the Israeli Military (but not ours, the American Military), and Obama has yet to prove he is even a Natural Born American Citizen (which is required under the Constitution to be President)-despite repeated requests and even federal lawsuits
I noticed that too when I was watching CNN live. If that is an aircraft, it is sure moving fast, and the elevation and angle of descent doesn't seem to make sense. Oh well, it's a normal day...G:
Take a look at Gaza on Google Earth folks. The grass is indeed greener on the other side, with ritzy communal farms and irrigated crops. Allmost very one of these communities has a swimming pool, sports complex, tennis court, and medical clinic, etc. Some of them, formally called a kibbutz, are within a stones throw from the parched city of Gaza.
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture and is a form of communal living that combines socialism and Zionism. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, but have gradually embraced a more "scientific" Socialist approach. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Although less than five percent of Israelis live on kibbutzim, they are disproportionately represented in key positions and high-status fields.
