Gord's Poetry Factory

Obama Administration Gave Israel "Green Light" To Attack Gaza While Israel Targeted Journalists And Civilians And Anonymous Released Edict To #Israel

2012-11-25T17:49:00.001-04:00

Anonymous Edict To The State of Israel

Israel like the USA has once again tergetted Jounalists in its recent bombing of Gaza.

Israel and USA war crimes kill journalists and civilians with impunity.

Journalists in Gaza claim Israel targeted them as militants
RussiaToday Nov 25, 2012 by RussiaToday

International human rights watchdogs are now investigating the conflict for war crimes. Militant rockets targeted Israeli cities, killing several civilians.
While Tel Aviv has been condemned by some observers for causing massive collateral damage. Film-maker Harry Fear was inside Gaza throughout the bombing.

South Africans want decisive stance on Israel

Obama gave Israel the green light but when it became a PR nightmare so Obama demanded that Israel agree to a ceasefire but this is not a real substantive solution. Israel in this case as in 2008-2009 invasion of Gaza was an act of aggression and not self-defense.

Israel assault on Gaza planned with US support, threatens wider war'

and now my take on this:

Israel has been over the last 60 years or so has bee bombing and killing civilians attacking Palestinians without much push back but this time the Palestinians fought back and the Israelis are not used to having those they attack actually fighting back. The Palestinians like Israel or any sovereign people or nation have a right to fight back against naked indiscriminate military force. Why is it that the Americans believe that Israel has a right to defend itself but the Palestinians do not.

The Palestinians in this conflict are still the conquered people and their nation is under the control of Israel and is forced to abide by a draconian medieval style siege .

The Americans including President Obama are all for the rule of law and spreading freedom and democracy and most of the time when a nation tries to hold Washington to this ideal Washington finds a way to justify crushing and or ignoring the demands for freedom and democracy in countries where such ideals do not fit with Washington's real motives and agenda. Israel Washington claims is an ally and so will have their back no matter what the Israelis do. So when the Israelis trample on the rights of Palestinians the American government including the Obama administration defends Israel and criticizes the Palestinians even when it is the Palestinians who are the ones being treated unfairly and unjustly by the Israeli government .

Israel holds thousands of Palestinians as prisoners who are often not told what they are being held for and who are denied their basic rights under International Law. So the Israelis like the Americans just label someone as a "terrorist" even if they do not have any real evidence against someone .

And so according to the current American system of justice the authorities in the US or in Israel can deny these prisoners their rights and to physically and psychologically torture these prisoners all with impunity. Once an individual is labeled a terrorist supposedly they lose any legal rights they may have had otherwise. Obama and Netanyahu are both guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity but they both believe as George Bush Jr. & Dick Cheney believed that their respective countries are special and that International Laws do not apply to them. If that is their argument then any other sovereign nation or peoples can insist on the same exceptions from the Rule of Law.

The attacks and invasion in 2009 of Gaza by Israel 's military were both acts of aggression and not self-defense but President Obama is unable to condemn such actions by Israel or any other nation since in 2003 the USA under false pretenses and fabricated intelligence and lies invaded Iraq. From that point on according to the poisoned fruit or tree each overt use of force by the USA in Iraq is tainted and is therefore just another incident of war crimes being committed. The USA no matter what Obama and other American apologists believe the USA had no right to invade Iraq resulting in the deaths of about 1 million citizens of Iraq and thousands imprisoned abused and tortured or even murdered by US troops or British troops or America's supposedly Iraqi allies . Further the home invasions and check points and the firing on alleged terrorists who more often than not were innocent civilians each incident is just another war crime or crime against humanity.

And even though the US managed to dazzle the United Nations with its dog and pony show of fabricated , invented and imaginary intelligence on Saddam including lies about WMDs or Saddam's non-existent connection to the 9/11 tragedy or to Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden any legal foundation the Bush Regime believed it had was null and void once it was exposed that those at the highest levels in the Bush Regime knowingly fabricated and concocted this dog' mess of so called intelligence. Again the whole argument of going to war with Iraq was a collection of lies and so any encouragement they were given by the UN or other nations were based upon lies sold to them by the Bush Regime.

And it can be argued that since Obama did nothing to seriously investigate the alleged crimes of the Bush Regime he himself can be considered a war criminal after the fact by giving aid and protection from prosecution those who committed these alleged crimes.

Lets look at the way things are set up in Gaza by way of an analogy or thought experiment .

So Imagine if in a Ghetto in the USA such as Harlem were to be walled off from the rest of New York and that the people in Harlem would be required to carry special ID which they had to present to the guards on the various gateways in and out of Harlem.First there would not be sufficient gateways and or guarded post to allow for an efficient system making sure people do not have to wait for hours on end to cross through these gates by car or on foot.(note the long lines during the recent 2012 election when people tried to exercise their right to vote in the USA this was especially true in some area which were predominately Black or Hispanic and given America's poor record on having fair elections we can expect it again 2014 & 2016) Add to this restrictions on a number of goods going in and out of Harlem . One should be able to imagine this scenario since the US itself had the racist unjust Jim Crow laws right up til the 1960s and 1970s. Or just take a look at South African Apartheid which the USA supported for decades esp. people like Sen. Jesse Helms and Sen. John McCain etc.

Imagine if each time someone from Harlem was even suspected of having robbed or beaten, or killed someone outside Harlem that the NYPD were then allowed to either shoot rockets into the civilian population or to enter Harlem in full force indiscriminately killing people in Harlem would this be justified . To do so is to contravene international law by punishing the population on the whole or collectively for the crimes of one or of a few. As it is Black and Hispanic Americans are already stopped and frisked at the whim of a police officer in New York as Arabs or those who look like Arabs are stopped by police and /or IDF in Israel even if they are considered Israeli citizens.

Imagine for a moment certain highways in America or some other Western Nation which were reserved for "White's Only" or "Christians Only " and that everybody else were forced to drive on secondary highways which were left in a decrepit state . Would Americans or Canadians or Europeans think this was fair.

Israel is accused of for instance using banned weapons during their bombings and invasions of Gaza such as "White phosphorus ", "cluster bombs", 'land mines" and weapons using depleted uranium besides attacking Civilian Infrastructure including schools, hospitals, apartment buildings , private businesses , government buildings , attacking first-responders , doing the old double taps using a second strike to deliberately maim and kill those who try to help the victims of a first strike . Israel's forces the IDF etc. do not discriminate between civilians and armed combatants and has on occasion fired upon enemy combatants who wave a white flag trying to surrender.

Given that the Bush and now the Obama regime have committed the same war crimes as Israel the US therefore since the US doesn't want to own up to its own crimes feels obliged to defend all of these unwarranted, unnecessary, illegal and immoral and inhumane uses of naked force.

And if anything since Obama was first elected in 2008 rather than going after the members of the former Bush regime who in one way or another permitted or gave the Green Light to the use of kidnapping foreign citizens aka renditions and to imprison them indefinitely then abusing and torturing said prisoners and denying them any of the rights guaranteed to all Prisoners of War or Enemy Combatants by the Geneva Conventions etc.

The USA also used illegal weapons and used them on civilian populations in Iraq and Afghanistan most notably in Fallujah when the USA armed forces declared no mercy for anyone left in Fallujah civilians or combatants were treated the same .

The US forces rained down conventional bombs, bunker busters, depleted uranium ordinances and massive amounts of White Phosphorus while blowing up schools and hospitals and civilian infrastructure such as water and waste treatment plants all in contravention of International Law . The USA in the case of Fallujah kept the Red Cross and Red Crescent and other humanitarian aid organizations out of Fallujah while the US military literally went on a rampage mass murdering alleged terrorists and innocent civilians alike. So given these crimes the US is extremely reluctant to criticize any similar actions committed by Israeli forces.

The American people and its government and the Pentagon and US military and so forth sound rather disingenuous and hypocritical when they condemn the actions of any other nations using similar tactics as the USA. What's good for the Goose is Good for the Gander . So when US troops or Israeli IDF soldiers are captured by enemy combatants or another nations troops the USA and Israel have forfeited their right to complain or to get any sympathy from the International Community. So America has to decide if it really believes in the Rule of Law or believe that "all's fair in love and war".

Maybe now the International community will see that Israel had no right attacking Gaza or keeping 1.7 million Palestinians in an open air prison.

Combining this failure with the Arab spring which is still reverberating throughout the region the Americans fear the spreading of democracy and freedom and an insistence on justice and protection of human rights . This also means these various nations and peoples will demand autonomy and freedom from foreign interference ie USA, Europe, Israel etc.

Israel's failure is a blow to the Americans and other Western Powers

'Gaza war, Israel's intelligence failure'-News Analysis-22-11-2012

and so it goes,

GORD.

President Obama Continues With The Bush Regime's Criminal Activities Torture, warrantless Wiretaps , Indefinite Detenion etc.

2012-11-24T20:15:00.000-04:00

Still, there's something particularly revealing about the US demanding that the governments of Afghanistan and Iraq abandon any commitment they are attempting to develop (albeit quite selectively) to basic due process rights and instead imprison anyone the US wants imprisoned - even in the absence of evidence of their guilt and even in the face of judicial findings that their detention is without evidence and unlawful. As it turns out after all, the US is indeed spreading its core values to those two nations, though those values have nothing to do with freedom and democracy except to the extent that they are the primary impediments to achieving it.

...It is ironic indeed that the US is demanding that the practice of due-process-free indefinite detention be continued in Afghanistan and Iraq, two countries it invaded and then occupied while claiming it wanted to bring freedom and democracy there. But on one level, this is the only outcome that makes sense, as a denial of basic due process is now a core, defining US policy in general.

Above quote from Glenn Greenwald's recent article which is a scathing though fair critique of Obama's foreign policies US Battles Iraq and Afghanistan Over Detention Without Charges The Obama administration fights to spread its own values on the core, fundamental right of due process By Glenn Greenwald at The Guardian via Information Clearing House, Nov. 23, 2012

In the two articles below from FAIR: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting we get examples of the American and Western Mainstream Media's standard cliched and erroneous reporting on the on going conflict between Israel and Gaza in which the Media ignores that the suffering of the people of Gaza is a hundred times worse than what Israeli citizens are suffering. Once again the media ignores the criminal and inhumane and immoral treatment of 1.7 million civilians in Gaza. The Media is once again in rewriting even recent history to fit their biased narrative about Israel as the "Victim" The Media fails in its duty to honestly present the facts and not just the propaganda that spews out of Washington and Tel Aviv.

The media has an obligation to tell the truth about the Israeli blockade of Gaza which has turned Gaza into a MegaGhetto or open air prison . What Israel has been doing to the Palestinians is unconscionable and yet President Obama defends Israel and ignores the suffering of the civilians of Gaza because he does not have a sense of justice and fairness which he claims to have. Is this just part of being a real American to speak about injustice but do nothing about it.

Video: Israeli forces fire shots to disperse Palestinians by Anup Kaphle Washington Post, November 23, 2012

So is this now what President Obama and his administration and his supporters believe in that the Israeli Apartheid system is a good thing and that all Arabs should be treated like dogs . Obama is great with giving speeches but basic human rights for all no way . Whether it is the Palestinians or the Occupy Movement Obama says nothing in their defense . His Cairo speech in 2009 he has once again proving to be just an act something to tell the natives when they really get restless and stat demanding equal rights and justice. The African Americans live under various forms of segregation for a hundred years which had been preceded by centuries of slavery and so anyone who cares about human rights and justice should be outraged at how Israel treats the Palestinians in the Occupied territories or in the Gaza Ghetto.

It seems that if tomorrow the Israeli government were to drop nuclear bombs on Gaza President Obama would come up with some justification for the action so he would not be seen criticizing Israel.

Cruelty At Israeli Apartheid's Racist Checkpoints

"Animals. Animals. Like the Discovery Channel. All of Ramallah is a jungle. There are monkeys, dogs, gorillas. The problem is that the animals are locked they can't come out. We're humans. They're animals. They aren't humans we are."
- Israeli border police (you can find at 5:03 of this video)

"We let them suffer, in the sun, in the rain, that's it. That's what I wanted to say. Let the whole world know."
- Israeli border police

"When the Palestinians come...we put on our show."
- Israeli border police

"Nobody knows about us here. Nobody in the world." - Palestinian businessman

False Balance and Civilian Suffering in Gaza Crisis by Peter Hart, FAIR : Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting , Nov. 20, 2012

People who follow media criticism are likely aware of the term "false balance," used to describe coverage that presents "both sides" of an issue as if they are equivalent–when they are anything but. Does that label apply to coverage of the current Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip?

A November 15 Washington Post headline read, "Civilians in Gaza, Israel Suffer Amid Conflict." The piece would appear to want to give readers the sense that comparable suffering is occurring on both sides. But reality tells a different story–one that is not so symmetrical.

The piece begins in a Gaza hospital, where an eight-month-old with a shrapnel wound to the head is being treated. She does not survive, and becomes at that point the 16th Palestinian to die in the current violence. But the Post nonetheless tries to stick to the formula:

As the Israeli military assault ramped up and militants retaliated with rockets, civilians on both sides faced painful but all-too-familiar scenes.

On the Israeli side, three have died from rockets fired from Gaza. And these deaths, Israeli officials argue, were preventable:

Israel's minister for civil defense, Avi Dichter, told reporters that the three would not have died had they followed instructions and stayed in a shelter or in the rear of their apartment.

Few in Gaza can hide in bomb shelters or rely on air raid sirens to warn of incoming attacks. But the media desire to make the suffering seem proportional could be seen elsewhere. In the Los Angeles Times (11/17/12), Edmund Sanders reported:

Back-and-forth violence between Israel and Hamas left civilians on both sides digging out of rubble and broken glass Saturday as the conflict entered its fourth day.

At that point, 38 Palestinians had died. In Israel, meanwhile:

In Israel, three people were injured Saturday by rockets fired into southern Israel.

The military released a photo of one house in Ashdod, where window frames and glass shards blanketed one home's living room.

No one should minimize the fear of living anywhere where bombs or rockets are falling. But given the one-sided death toll of the attacks on Gaza–three Israeli deaths and over 120 Palestinians–media accounts that try to paint a "balanced" picture do a great disservice to reality.

What's Missing from CBS's Gaza History? by Peter Hart, FAIR : Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting ,Nov. 21,2012

Giving viewers a quick sense of context and history is important in any story, but especially in the Israel/Palestine conflict. Doing a bad job of it is perhaps worse than not doing it at all.

CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley gave this summary on November 19:

We wanted to remind you tonight of what Gaza is and how it came to be. The Gaza Strip was laid out in 1949 after the war that created Israel. It's home to Palestinians displaced in that war and to the generations that followed. Only 25 miles long, roughly ten miles wide, Gaza's population is 1.7 million, most of them living in poverty. Israel captured Gaza in 1967 and occupied it until 2005. One year later, the Hamas political party won the election there. The U.S. says the Hamas military wing is a terrorist organization.

Rocket attacks from Gaza have been frequent for years. Israel says the goal of this military operation is to destroy those rockets, missiles, and their launchers.

To summarize: Gaza is a poor place run by terrorists who frequently fire rockets at Israel.

The following night, nearly the same story (11/20/12):

Now, we want to remind you what Gaza is and how it came to be. The Gaza Strip was laid out in 1949 after the war that created Israel. It's home to Palestinians displaced in that war. 25 miles long and roughly ten miles wide, Gaza's population is 1.7 million. Israel occupied it until 2005. A year later the Hamas political party won the election there. The U.S. says the Hamas military wing is a terrorist organization.

All of this started when Israel retaliated after weeks of rocket attacks from Gaza.

So basically the same again, only this time we're told Israel's attack is in retaliation for weeks of rockets. (This is, to put it mildly, misleading.)

What's missing from both these brief histories? The previous Israeli military attack on Gaza, 2008-09's Operation Cast Lead, which killed about 1,400 Palestinians, including 344 children, and did extensive damage to the Gaza's civilian infrastructure. The assault was the subject of widespread international condemnation.

Most people in Gaza living under the current Israeli bombardment are probably thinking about Cast Lead, wondering if this round of violence will be as bad. But to CBS Evening News, when they tell viewers they want to "remind you what Gaza is," this history is not worth mentioning.

US Battles Iraq and Afghanistan Over Detention Without Charges The Obama administration fights to spread its own values on the core, fundamental right of due process By Glenn Greenwald at The Guardian via Information Clearing House, Nov. 23, 2012

In Afghanistan and Iraq, the US government is engaged in a fierce and protracted battle over the fundamental right to be free of indefinite detention. Specifically, the US is demanding that the governments of those two nations cease extending this right to their citizens. As a Washington Post article this morning details, Afghan President Hamid Karzai is insisting that the US fulfill its commitment to turn over all prisons, including the notorious facility at Bagram, to Afghan control, but here is one major impediment [emphasis added]:

"Afghan and U.S. officials have also disagreed on the issue of detention without trial. Washington wants the Afghan government to continue holding certain prisoners it views as dangerous, even if there is not enough evidence to try them.

"Aimal Faizi, the chief spokesman for Karzai, told reporters Monday that detention without trial is illegal in Afghanistan and that more than 50 Afghans are still being held in U.S. custody at Bagram, 35 miles northeast of Kabul, even though they have been ordered released by Afghan courts."
...As is true in Afghanistan, this battle over basic due process rights has a long history over the course of the US occupation of Iraq. In 2008, the US refused to release imprisoned Reuters photojournalist Ibrahim Jassam despite a ruling from an Iraqi court many months earlier that there was no evidence to justify his detention and that his release was therefore compelled. For two years, the US imprisoned AP journalist Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi citizen, without charges of any kind until a four-judge Iraqi judicial panel found his detention in violation of the law and ordered him immediately released.

It is ironic indeed that the US is demanding that the practice of due-process-free indefinite detention be continued in Afghanistan and Iraq, two countries it invaded and then occupied while claiming it wanted to bring freedom and democracy there. But on one level, this is the only outcome that makes sense, as a denial of basic due process is now a core, defining US policy in general.

The Obama administration not only continues to imprison people without charges of any kind, but intended from the start to do so even if their plan to relocate Guantanamo onto US soil had not been thwarted by Congress. At the end of 2011, President Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act which codifies the power of indefinite detention even for US citizens, and - after an Obama-appointed federal judge struck it down as unconstitutional - continues vigorously to fight for that law. And, of course, the power to assassinate even its own citizens without a whiff of due process or transparency - the policy that so upset Afghan officials when it was proposed for their country - is a crowning achievement of the Obama legacy.

It's hardly unusual, of course, for the US government self-righteously to impose principles on the world which it so flamboyantly violates. Indeed, such behavior is so common as to barely be worth noting.

Just this week, President Obama managed with a straight face to defend Israel's attacks on Gaza with this decree: "there's no country on Earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders." As Liliana Segura, Jemima Khan and Reason's Mike Riggs all quickly noted, this pronouncement came from the same man who has continuously rained down missiles on the citizens of Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and other countries. Meanwhile, UN Ambassador Susan Rice took to Twitter last night to denounce changes to a draft UN resolution that condemns "extrajudicial killing" - even as her own nation and its closest Middle East ally continue as the global leaders of this practice.

President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan is fighting with the Obama administration insisting contrary to Obama administration that all detainees/prisoners be no longer held indefinitely and that all should be charged with offenses and have their day in court or just released. The irony here in this case is quite shocking given America's claim to fight on behalf of freedom, democracy and the rule of law as Glenn Greenwald in his article has justly pointed out.

Karzai orders ‘full Afghanization’ of U.S.-run Bagram prison by Pamela Constable Washington Post , Nov. 2012

KABUL — President Hamid Karzai has ordered his aides to institute the “full Afghanization” of the U.S.-run prison at Bagram air base, charging that American forces are continuing to detain Afghans despite a bilateral agreement in March to transfer all prisoners to Afghan authorities.

In a Pashto-language statement tweeted from the presidential palace late Sunday after Karzai met with his top security officials, the president complained that some prisoners ordered released by Afghan courts are still being held by U.S. forces...

and so it goes,

GORD.

Israel's Colonization and Ghettoization of Gaza & Will Obama Re-establish The Rule Of Law Or Continue Assuming More Power To The Presidency

2012-11-23T19:20:00.001-04:00

Was it all cynical electioneering when President-Elect Obama told the Boston Globe in 2007, with reference to specific executive powers the Bush administration had claimed or exercised, that he rejected "the view that the President may do whatever he deems necessary to protect national security, and that he may torture people in defiance of congressional enactments;" that the "detention of American citizens, without access to counsel, fair procedure, or pursuant to judicial authorization, as enemy combatants is unconstitutional," that "[w]arrantless surveillance of American citizens, in defiance of FISA, is unlawful and unconstitutional"?

The president itemized the specific counts of an indictment yet in his first four years he utterly failed to take any step whatsoever to hold the Bush administration accountable for any of its crimes, preferring instead to use the vast resources of his Justice Department to actually defend members of the Bush administration on the one hand and vigorously prosecute whistle-blowers on the other.

...For if he(President Obama) is excused by the rest of us from his solemn duty, we should tremble over the prospect that the unrestrained executive powers, born in the Bush administration, to subject citizens and non-citizens alike to ever widening abuses, including unwarranted surveillance, indefinite detention, torture and targeted killings, which have since gone unchecked and indeed have taken root and been cultivated during the Obama administration, will spread and grow even stronger in future administrations, blossoming with poisonous thorns and unbreakable branches, choking off constitutional rights, suffocating dissent and strangling democracy.

above quote from: Will President Obama Restore the Rule of Law During His Second Term? by Stephen Rohde, Truthout, Nov. 23, 2012

Tariq Ali: Israel wants Gaza colonized, peace killed with Hamas leader

Israeli Troops Kill 1 Palestinian, Wound 19 in First Violence Since Cease-Fire by kristen Gwynne Alternet.org, Nov. 23,2012

Violence has returned to Gaza, but hopefully only briefly.. The region's short-lived truce was upended on Friday, as Israeli troops today fired on a Palestinian crowd reportedly "surging toward" Israel's border, killing one Palestinian and wounding 19. The Associated Press calls the shooting "unlikely to jeopardize" the cease-fire that followed eight days of the worst violence between Israel and Hamas in four years.

The AP explains:

On Friday, hundreds of Palestinians approached Israel's border fence in several locations in southern Gaza.

In the past, Israel's military barred Palestinians from getting close to the fence, and soldiers routinely opened fire on violators to enforce a 300-meter-wide no-go zone meant to prevent infiltrations into Israel.

Since the cease-fire, growing numbers of Gazans have entered the no-go zone, testing expectations that such restrictions would now be lifted.

Stephen Rohde suggest that Obama during his first four years did not fulfill his promises regarding the abuse of power by George W. Bush but now Obama has another chance to do the right thing. While in power Obama has extended the scope of the presidents power to do whatever he feels to be necessary to protect US security including warrantless wire taps, torture ,ignoring the rights of alleged enemies of the state and the use of Drones on Civilian populations and targeted assassinations of American and foreign citizens .

Unfortunately I see no real substantive change taking place by the Obama administration on any of these issues especially after Obama and Clinton and the team defended Israel's invasion of Gaza in 2008-2009 and the during the recent conflict in which Israel killed over 170 civilians and wounded over a thousand which again the Obama team made excuses for but felt pressured into forcing Israel to agree to a truce. Obama like most presidents in the last 60 years or so still sees Israel as the perpetual victim rather than at times being the victimizer and the oppressor .

I hope though that there is at least some chance of Obama doing the right thing as Stephen Rohde suggest and if Obama does there are many around the globe who would be thankful for it. But how can Obama now try to investigate the former Bush Regime since he is also involved in the same criminal activities whether they are legal or not under US law they are not in most cases under international law but Obama knows this and now possibly fears that at some point he will be brought before the courts in the US or the International Court. For instance Obama could be charged with War Crimes or Crimes against Humanity for his drone strikes which have killed so many innocent civilians or for any abuse and/ or torture being meted out to alleged terrorists or other alleged enemies of the state . The abuses he permitted of the Whistleblower Bradley Manning(the man in the iron masque if you like) should in themselves be enough to have Obama imprisoned for a few years be sides all the other nameless faceless one whom he has allowed or ordered to be tossed into medieval style prisons though originally constructed and imagined by the former Bush Regime.

Of course while US troops were still operating officially in Iraq those troops committed a thousand war crimes and crimes against humanity not just during the Bush Regime but also under the Obama regime and Obama has done little to investigate the US military command to see if atrocities including torture, rape and murder took place with the full knowledge and even under the orders of those in command or if those in command just let be known that any such cases were not to be reported to any of those in command. Throughout the war in Iraq and Afghanistan troops were often informed that there was a daily quota of killed Iraqis that must be filled one way or another. If Bush were to finally be held accountable then what about President Obama. So maybe Obama is fearful of opening that particular can of worms.

Will President Obama Restore the Rule of Law During His Second Term? by Stephen Rohde, Truthout, Nov. 23, 2012

...The American ideal of the Rule of Law took a beating under President Bush and four years ago candidate Obama campaigned to change all that. "These last few years we've seen an unacceptable abuse of power at home," Obama said in Chicago in October of 2007. "We've paid a heavy price for having a president whose priority is expanding his own power."

Yet, last May the New York Times assessed the president's record on national security and concluded that "nothing else in Mr. Obama's first term has baffled liberal supporters and confounded conservative critics alike as his aggressive counter-terrorism record." In July, Georgetown University law professor David Cole provided the details:

Obama has radically escalated drone strikes, continued military detention without charge and military commissions for trying terrorists, prosecuted more government officials for leaks than all prior presidents combined, maintained the discretion to render suspects to third countries, and opposed efforts to hold U.S. officials accountable for authorizing torture of terror suspects.

The contrast between Obama's campaign promises and his performance in office during his first term is stark. In December 20, 2007, the Boston Globe published the president-elect's responses to a questionnaire designed to elicit comparisons with the policies of the outgoing Bush administration.

Asked if there were circumstances where the president as commander-in-chief is free to disregard international human rights treaties that the U.S. Senate has ratified, Obama responded that it is "illegal and unwise for the president to disregard international human rights treaties that have been ratified by the United States Senate, including and especially the Geneva Conventions. The commander-in-chief power does not allow the president to defy those treaties."

As far as whether the president had "inherent powers under the Constitution to conduct surveillance for national security purposes without judicial warrants, regardless of federal statutes," Obama responded that the "Supreme Court has never held that the president has such powers. As president, I will follow existing law, and when it comes to U.S. citizens and residents, I will only authorize surveillance for national security purposes consistent with FISA and other federal statutes."

Asked whether the Constitution permits "a president to detain U.S. citizens without charges as unlawful enemy combatants," Obama was unequivocal. "No. I reject the Bush administration's claim that the president has plenary authority under the Constitution to detain U.S. citizens without charges as unlawful enemy combatants."

Asked if "Congress prohibits a specific interrogation technique, can the president instruct his subordinates to employ that technique despite the statute," Obama again was unequivocal:

No. The president is not above the law, and not entitled to use techniques that Congress has specifically banned as torture. We must send a message to the world that America is a nation of laws, and a nation that stands against torture. As president I will abide by statutory prohibitions for all U.S. government personnel and contractors.

Asked if "any executive power the Bush administration has claimed or exercised" was unconstitutional, Obama declared "I reject the view that the president may do whatever he deems necessary to protect national security, and that he may torture people in defiance of congressional enactments." Significantly he added the "detention of American citizens, without access to counsel, fair procedure, or pursuant to judicial authorization, as enemy combatants is unconstitutional," that "[w]arrantless surveillance of American citizens, in defiance of FISA, is unlawful and unconstitutional" and the "violation of international treaties that have been ratified by the Senate, specifically the Geneva Conventions," and the "creation of military commissions, without congressional authorization," were both unlawful (as the Supreme Court held) and "bad ideas."

However, on New Year's Eve last year Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act ("NDAA") which granted the government the power to put U.S. citizens in military detention indefinitely, without the usual recourse to civil courts. In particular, the law authorizes the detention of anyone who has "substantially supported" al Qaeda, the Taliban, or "associated" forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners.

A lawsuit brought by journalists Chris Hedges, Daniel Ellsberg and Noam Chomsky, argues that the law is so broad that it infringes on their own First Amendment rights. Over strenuous arguments from the Obama Justice Department, U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest, a recent Obama appointee, granted a preliminary injunction. She wrote that the government did not argue that "activities protected by the First Amendment could not subject an individual to indefinite military detention under ¬ß 1021(b)(2). The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides for greater protection: it prohibits Congress from passing any law abridging speech and associational rights. To the extent that ¬ß 1021(b)(2) purports to encompass protected First Amendment activities, it is unconstitutionally overbroad."

The judge also held that the "due process rights guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment require that an individual understand what conduct might subject him or her to criminal or civil penalties. Here, the stakes get no higher: indefinite military detention -- potential detention during a war on terrorism that is not expected to end in the foreseeable future, if ever. The Constitution requires specificity -- and that specificity is absent from ¬ß 1021(b)(2)."

Contrary to Obama's campaign pledges, his Justice Department strenuously defended the provisions of the NDAA allowing U.S. citizens to be indefinite detained without traditional recourse to judicial review. Echoing precisely the arguments Bush's lawyers made for years, Obama's lawyers told the court that the issue was none of its business, and that at most, courts could consider individual habeas corpus petitions after U.S. citizens have already been detained. But the court would have none of it. "That argument is without merit and, indeed, dangerous ... If only habeas review is available to those detained under ¬ß 1021(b)(2), even U.S. citizens on U.S. soil, core constitutional rights available in criminal matters would simply be eliminated. No court can accept this proposition and adhere truthfully to its oath."

Instead of accepting this wise and well-considered judicial analysis, the Obama Justice Department fought on and succeeded in getting the injunction reversed.

Despite its lofty promises to restore the Rule of Law, the Obama administration has vastly expanded the use of drones to kill U.S. citizens, civilians and alleged terrorists. On November 16, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) hosted a Congressional briefing to examine the U.S. policy regarding the use of armed drones. U.S. drone strikes are estimated to have killed thousands of people, including 3,378 in Pakistan, 1,952 in Yemen and 170 in Somalia, all sovereign countries with which the United States is not at war.

According to news reports, President Obama maintains a list of alleged militants to be assassinated. Some are U.S. citizens. None will get to plead his case. The president tells us to trust that this is all perfectly legal and constitutional, even though Congress is not allowed to see any legal justification.

According to Rep. Kucinich, "targeted killing of suspects is becoming institutionalized as a permanent feature of the U.S. counter-terrorism strategy, without any oversight, transparency or accountability. Victims of drone strikes - including U.S. citizens -- are secretly stripped of their right to due process and are arbitrarily deprived of their life, in violation of international human rights law."

As the authors of a recent groundbreaking report by Stanford and New York Universities on drones in Pakistan powerfully stated:

"In the United States, the dominant narrative about the use of drones in Pakistan is of a surgically precise and effective tool that makes the U.S. safer by enabling 'targeted killing' of terrorists, with minimal downsides of collateral impacts. This narrative is false."

Four years into the Obama administration's vast expansion of the program, members of Congress and the public are still being denied access to internal legal memos, which purportedly serve as the basis of the legal justification for such killings.

At the Congressional briefing, Rep. Kucinch declared:

The world is now our battlefield. Our credibility as a voice for human rights has been undermined. A dangerous precedent has been set for all nations. We must reject the notion that Congress and the American people have to be kept in the dark when it comes to modern warfare. We must begin with a full and robust debate on the ramifications of these policies. We must insist upon full accountability and transparency.

Finally, President Obama's legacy will forever be tarnished, and our constitutional system forever diminished, if he persists in blindly refusing to authorize his Justice Department to launch a comprehensive investigation (and if warranted to file criminal charges), to determine whether officials in the Bush administration violated federal law and treaty obligations in its eight-year "War on Terror."

Was it all cynical electioneering when President-Elect Obama told the Boston Globe in 2007, with reference to specific executive powers the Bush administration had claimed or exercised, that he rejected "the view that the President may do whatever he deems necessary to protect national security, and that he may torture people in defiance of congressional enactments;" that the "detention of American citizens, without access to counsel, fair procedure, or pursuant to judicial authorization, as enemy combatants is unconstitutional," that "[w]arrantless surveillance of American citizens, in defiance of FISA, is unlawful and unconstitutional"?

The president itemized the specific counts of an indictment yet in his first four years he utterly failed to take any step whatsoever to hold the Bush administration accountable for any of its crimes, preferring instead to use the vast resources of his Justice Department to actually defend members of the Bush administration on the one hand and vigorously prosecute whistle-blowers on the other.

...everyone who cares about the future of the Constitution must organize, advocate and demand that President Obama spend a considerable share of his political capital to fulfill his constitutional obligation to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed."

For if he is excused by the rest of us from his solemn duty, we should tremble over the prospect that the unrestrained executive powers, born in the Bush administration, to subject citizens and non-citizens alike to ever widening abuses, including unwarranted surveillance, indefinite detention, torture and targeted killings, which have since gone unchecked and indeed have taken root and been cultivated during the Obama administration, will spread and grow even stronger in future administrations, blossoming with poisonous thorns and unbreakable branches, choking off constitutional rights, suffocating dissent and strangling democracy.

and so it goes,
GORD.

Thanksgiving Prayer By William S. Burroughs And Truce Between Gaza and Israel & 165 Gazans Killed & Israel Blockade Of Gaza Continues

2012-11-22T18:17:00.000-04:00

Update Israel using social media to spread its propaganda.

Twitter Warzone: Israel losing battle of words on social media

The ceasefire between israel and Gaza is just another lull in the violence and does not resolve any substantive issues such as Israel's inhumane, psychopathic hatred of all Palestinians and it illegal, immoral draconian blockade of Gaza.

Truce Hurts: Gaza gutted after Israeli attacks, Iran next?

CrossTalk on Gaza: Pillar of Hypocrisy

also see from Human Rights and World Health Organization and UNICEF for examples of outrage expressed by aid and human rights organizations and other NGOs. Of course the appeals from such organizations land on deaf ears in Israel and the USA since they reject the United Nations resolutions passed over the years especially those passed since the Israeli/Arab six day war in 1967. Both nations argue that their sovereignty can not be affected by the UN or the international Community whether its bombing civilians or the illegal use Napalm or other incendiary weapons ie white phosphorus on civilian populations or the abuse of prisoners from indefinite detention to the use of torture or the use of targeted assassinations in other nations by American or Israeli operatives or by drone strikes.

Israel/Gaza: Avoid Harm to Civilians
No Justification for Unlawful Attacks; Palestinian Groups Need to Halt Rocket Attacks on Civilians November 15, 2012

(New York) – Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups in Gaza need to take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians as hostilities between the two sides intensify.

Palestinian rocket attacks into civilian areas violate the laws of war prohibition against targeting civilians, and Israel should ensure it is only targeting military objects, Human Rights Watch said.

A rocket launched by an armed group killed three Israeli civilians on the morning of November 15, 2012. Strikes by Israeli forces on November 10 and 14 killed at least nine civilians in Gaza.

“Israeli and Palestinian forces alike need to make all feasible efforts to avoid harming civilians,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “There is no justification for Palestinian armed groups unlawfully launching rockets at Israeli population centers.”

The occupied Palestinian territory - archive

22 November 2012 -
Shifa hospital patient, Gaza City 20 November 2012. Photo: Mustafa Haabi OCHA
Following eight days of violence in Gaza, a cease-fire was declared effective 21:00, 21 November 2012, between Israeli and the Hamas authorities in Gaza. The cumulative casuality figures preorted by the Ministry of Health in Gaza are (as of 22 November, 13:00):
163 persons killed (139 males; 22 females; 2 not yet identified) of whom 42 (26%) are children; 17 children are less than 5 years old.
1269 persons injured (911 males; 358 females) of whom 431 (34%) are children; 134 children less than 5 years old. Shifa hospital in Gaza city has received 80% of the injured cases.
WHO oPt Situation Report No. 2| Gaza Strip, 22 November 2012

Situation reports archives
2012
World Health Organization concerned over the emergency situation in the Gaza Strip
17 November 2012 – The World Health Organization (WHO) is deeply concerned about the escalating situation in the Gaza Strip and Israel and its impact on the health and lives of civilian populations in the area.

and :

Beit Hanoun hospital, a 36-bed Ministry of Health facility in the north of the Gaza Strip, suffered a direct hit in the late afternoon today (November 21) which penetrated the roof and damaged an internal stairwell; some injuries were reported but no details were available.

A 40-bed Jordanian field hospital, which has operated in Gaza City since 2009, was hit by a missile November 19 which penetrated two floors of the hospital, damaging the in-patient department nursing station in the centre of the hospital. Patients had been evacuated only 10 minutes earlier following attacks in the surrounding area. The hospital was partially functioning today with the reopening of a second ward department.

Hospitals operated by the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip are functioning but are reporting difficulties due to severely depleted medical supplies. 46 patients were transferred via Erez checkpoint since November 17 (including two sets of twins) and 34 patients via Rafah to Egypt

Also see from UNICEF

2012 reports

Children Affected by Armed Conflict Israel & the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) July 2012

In May and June 2012, four Palestinian children were reported killed (3 boys and 1 girl) and 190 Palestinian children were reported injured (184 boys and 6 girls). No Israeli children were reported killed or injured during this reporting period. This represents a significant increase in the number of Palestinian children injured compared to March and April 2012. In the first half of 2012, ten Palestinian children were killed and another 300 injured. No Israeli children were killed and one was injured.

Children Affected by Armed Conflict Israel & the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) May 2012

In March and April 2012, 6 Palestinian boys were reported killed and 84 Palestinian children were reported injured (82 boys and 2 girls). No Israeli children were reported killed and one Israeli girl was reported injured during the same reporting period. This represents a significant increase in the number of children killed and injured compared to the first two months of the year, when no Palestinian children were reported killed but 26 were reported injured, and no Israeli children were reported killed or injured.

Children Affected by Armed Conflict Israel & the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) March 2012

In the first two months of 2012, no Palestinian children were reported killed but 26 were reported injured ((22 boys and 4 girls). No Israeli children were reported killed or injured during the same period This represents a decrease in the number of children killed and injured compared to the same period last year when three Palestinian children were killed and 61 Palestinian children injured. Seventy-seven per cent of the injuries reported took place in the West Bank, including fifteen per cent in East Jerusalem and fifteen per cent in Hebron Old City. Twenty-three per cent took place in Gaza.

also see more recently from UNICEF:

UNICEF calls for children protection in Gaza, Israel , Nov. 17, 2012

UNITED NATIONS - The Untied Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Friday voiced its deep concern about the deteriorating situation in Gaza and Israel and its impact on children, calling for efforts to protect children in the conflict area.

UNICEF's appeals came at a time when both Israeli and Palestinian militants have brushed aside international calls for restraint on Thursday and engaged in more violence over the Gaza Strip.

"UNICEF calls on all parties to do everything to exercise the utmost restraint and to protect the rights and well-being of all children," UNICEF said in a press release.

"In the past two days, six Palestinian children aged 10 months to 15 years have been reported killed in air strikes on Gaza, and 60 injured," said the press release. "Another Palestinian child was reported killed by a rocket which fell short. Gaza is under closure making it difficult for civilians to flee."

In southern Israel, schools within 40 kilometers of the Gaza Strip remained closed due to indiscriminate rocket fire, it said.

"Both rocket attacks and air strikes are putting children and their families at risk, leaving them exposed to physical harm and mental distress," said the press release.

and here is another detailed article about what Israel has been doing to the people of Gaza and why the Israeli policies are criminal , unjustified, immoral , outrageous and inhumane though the Isreal's government and the IDF and their partner in crime the USA believe that they are justified in killing or starving the people of Gaza.

Israel’s starvation diet for Gaza
Jonathan Cook The Electronic Intifada Nazareth 24 October 2012

Six and a half years ago, shortly after Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections and took charge of Gaza, a senior Israeli official described Israel’s planned response. “The idea,” he said, “is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.”

Although Dov Weisglass was adviser to Ehud Olmert, the prime minister of the day, few observers treated his comment as more than hyperbole, a supposedly droll characterization of the blockade Israel was about to impose on the tiny enclave.

Last week, however, the evidence finally emerged to prove that this did indeed become Israeli policy. After a three-year legal battle by an Israeli human rights group, Israel was forced to disclose its so-called “Red Lines” document. Drafted in early 2008, as the blockade was tightened still further, the defense ministry paper set forth proposals on how to treat Hamas-ruled Gaza.

The fine print

Health officials provided calculations of the minimum number of calories needed by Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants to avoid malnutrition. Those figures were then translated into truckloads of food Israel was supposed to allow in each day.

The Israeli media have tried to present these chilling discussions, held in secret, in the best light possible. Even the liberal Haaretz newspaper euphemistically described this extreme form of calorie-counting as designed to “make sure Gaza didn’t starve.”

But a rather different picture emerges as one reads the small print. While the health ministry determined that Gazans needed daily an average of 2,279 calories each to avoid malnutrition — requiring 170 trucks a day — military officials then found a host of pretexts to whittle down the trucks to a fraction of the original figure.

The reality was that, in this period, an average of only 67 trucks — much less than half of the minimum requirement — entered Gaza daily. This compared to more than 400 trucks before the blockade began.

To achieve this large reduction, officials deducted trucks based both on an over-generous assessment of how much food could be grown locally and on differences in the “culture and experience” of food consumption in Gaza, a rationale never explained.

Chronic malnutrition

Gisha, the organization that fought for the document’s publication, observes that Israeli officials ignored the fact that the blockade had severely impaired Gaza’s farming industry, with a shortage of seeds and chickens that had led to a dramatic drop in food output.

UN staff too have noted that Israel failed to factor in the large quantity of food from each day’s supply of 67 trucks that never actually reached Gaza. That was because Israeli restrictions at the crossings created long delays as food was unloaded, checked and then put on to new trucks. Many items spoiled as they lay in the sun.

And on top of this, Israel further adjusted the formula so that the number of trucks carrying nutrient-poor sugar were doubled while the trucks carrying milk, fruit and vegetables were greatly reduced, sometimes by as much as a half.

Robert Turner, director of operations for the UN agency for Palestine refugees in the Gaza Strip, has observed: “The facts on the ground in Gaza demonstrate that food imports consistently fell below the red lines.”

It does not need an expert to conclude that the imposition of this Weisglass-style “diet” would entail widespread malnutrition, especially among children. And that is precisely what happened, as a leaked report from the International Committee of the Red Cross found at the time. “Chronic malnutrition is on a steadily rising trend and micro-nutrient deficiencies are of great concern,” it reported in early 2008.

Collective punishment

Israel’s protests that the document was merely a “rough draft” and never implemented are barely credible — and, anyway, beside the point. If the politicians and generals were advised by health experts that Gaza needed at least 170 trucks a day, why did they oversee a policy that allowed in only 67?

There can be no doubt that the diet devised for Gaza — much like Israel’s blockade in general — was intended as a form of collective punishment, one directed at every man, woman and child. The goal, according to the Israeli defense ministry, was to wage “economic warfare” that would generate a political crisis, leading to a popular uprising against Hamas.

Earlier, when Israel carried out its 2005 disengagement, it presented the withdrawal as marking the end of Gaza’s occupation. But the “Red Lines” formula indicates quite the opposite: that, in reality, Israeli officials intensified their control, managing the lives of Gaza’s inhabitants in almost-microscopic detail.

Experiments in social engineering

Who can doubt — given the experiences of Gaza over the past few years — that there exist in the Israeli military’s archives other, still-classified documents setting out similar experiments in social engineering? Will future historians reveal that Israeli officials also pondered the fewest hours of electricity Palestinians in Gaza needed to survive, or the minimum amount of water, or the smallest living space per family, or the highest feasible levels of unemployment?

Such formulas presumably lay behind the decision to bomb Gaza’s only power station in 2006 and subsequently to block its proper repair; the refusal to approve a desalination plant, the only way to prevent over-drilling contaminating the Strip’s underground water supply; the declaration of large swaths of farmland no-go areas, forcing the rural population into the already overcrowded cities and refugee camps; and the continuing blockade on exports, decimating Gaza’s business community and ensuring the population remains dependent on aid.

It is precisely these policies by Israel that led the United Nations to warn in August that Gaza would be “uninhabitable” by 2020 (“Gaza in 2020 - A livable place?,” 27 August 2012).

Doctrines for destruction

In fact, the rationale for the Red Lines document and these other measures can be found in a military strategy that found its apotheosis in Operation Cast Lead, the savage attack on Gaza in winter 2008-09.

The Dahiya doctrine was Israel’s attempt to update its traditional military deterrence principle to cope with a changing Middle East, one in which the main challenge it faced was from asymmetrical warfare. The name Dahiya derives from a neighborhood of Beirut Israel leveled in its 2006 attack on Lebanon.

This “security concept,” as the Israeli army termed it, involves the wholesale destruction of a community’s infrastructure to immerse it so deeply in the problems of survival and reconstruction that other concerns, including fighting back or resisting occupation, are no longer practicable.

On the first day of the Gaza offensive, Yoav Galant, the commander in charge, explained the aim succinctly: it was to “send Gaza decades into the past.” Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai may have been thinking in similar terms when, months before Operation Cast Lead, he warned that Israel was preparing to inflict on Gaza a “shoah,” the Hebrew word for Holocaust.

Seen in this context, Weisglass’ “diet” can be understood as just one more refinement of the Dahiya doctrine: a whole society refashioned to accept its subjugation through a combination of violence, poverty, malnutrition and a permanent struggle over limited resources.

This experiment in the manufacture of Palestinian despair is, it goes with saying, both illegal and grossly immoral. But ultimately it is also certain to unravel — and possibly sooner rather than later. The visit this week of Qatar’s emir, there to bestow hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, was the first by a head of state since 1999.

The Gulf’s wealthy oil states need influence, allies and an improved image in a new Middle East wracked by uprisings and civil war. Gaza is a prize, it seems, they may be willing to challenge Israel to possess.

Jonathan Cook won the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His latest books are Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East (Pluto Press) and Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair (Zed Books). His new website is www.jonathan-cook.net.

A version of this article first appeared in The National, Abu Dhabi.

And so it goes,
GORD.

Updated: Israel Continues to Target Civilian Infrastructure and Innocent Civilians And Media/Journalists In Gaza And The Horrific Living Conditions In The Open Air Prison of Gaza

2012-11-22T13:15:00.000-04:00

"[I]t hardly takes more than a day in Gaza to begin to appreciate what it must be like to try to survive in the world’s largest open-air prison, where a million and a half people, in the most densely populated area of the world, are constantly subject to random and often savage terror and arbitrary punishment, with no purpose other than to humiliate and degrade, and with the further goal of ensuring that Palestinian hopes for a decent future will be crushed and that the overwhelming global support for a diplomatic settlement that will grant these rights will be nullified." Quote from Noam Chompsky

Or, as Amnesty International describes, the blockade of Gaza has been for 1.4 million Gazans, "a form of collective punishment," as well as "a flagrant violation of international law." Moreover, whatever justification the Israeli state provides, "the blockade is collectively punishing the entire population of Gaza, the majority of whom are children, rather than targeting the Hamas administration or armed groups."
The various definitions of terrorism are poignant, especially when applied to Israeli actions against Gazan civilians. Thus it is instructive to recall Operation Cast Lead, a one-sided slaughter, where B'Tselem found that the "magnitude of the harm to the local population was unprecedented." Moreover, it found that 1,387 Palestinians were killed during the operation, 773 of them not having taken part in the conflict, and of that number, 320 were children and teenagers. That is compared to the 9 Israelis killed by Palestinians, 3 of whom were civilians.

Above quotes from article by James Connolly
Israel Hamas War Highlights Horrific Palestinian Living Conditions by James Connolly at policymic.com, Nov. 17, 2012

As we have seen president Obama and the US media gives little time to those civilians killed by the American drone attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Obama argues that any male 16 years of age or above is to be counted as a terrorists even if not an actual terrorists. So on this score on foreign policy Obama still doesn't see the hypocrisy in all of this.

Israel bombing civilian infrastructure government buildings more attacks on buildings housing journalist blowing up a football stadium

American media still claiming Israel has a right to destroy civilian infrastructur and to murder civilians in Gaza

Western media not bothered by Israel's attacks on Middle Eastern Media.
So is playing football and other team sports a threat ot Israel.

So once again the propaganda machine of Israel is distracting Americans and other Westerners to forget about the long suffering Palestinians but to concentrate on the unwarranted deaths of 3 or 4 Israelis or a busload compared to the over 150 deaths in Gaza and the wounding of close to a thousand Civilians in Gaza . But the Israelis claim that even a toddler will one day just grow up to be a "terrorists" well they are partially correct if the Israelis refuse to trate the people of Gaza and the West Bank fairly and justly and remove its Apartheid style Walls and checkpoints and its Jews only highways and laws which make life a misery for most Palestinians or Arabs in those areas but also within Israel itself.

'Media Bunker' Peppers Internet With Propaganda Tweets And Facebook Posts by Lauren Bohn via Huffington Post ,Nov. 21, 2012

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli government is trying to pre-empt a publicity pounding over its Gaza offensive by aggressively pushing out its version of events, furiously tweeting and Facebook posting updates from a "media bunker."

The instant they heard about a bus bombing in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, scores of tech-savvy youth in Israel's government media command center in Jerusalem sprang into action.

They began flooding social media with updates and created a graphic exclaiming: "We didn't send in our ground troops, but they sent in theirs! (at)IsraelUnderFire."
In an operation attached to Israel's press office, hundreds of volunteers produce and post instant videos and graphics about the latest twists in the Gaza offensive from Israel's point of view. Its Facebook site, "Israel Under Fire," has gained more than 24,000 "likes" over the last week.

Israel began its campaign of airstrikes in Gaza last week following months of rocket fire from Gaza-based Palestinian militants. More than 140 Palestinians and five Israelis have been killed in the violence.

"People need to put themselves in Israelis' shoes," said Natan Epstein, 22, putting the finishing touches on an animation of Manhattan under a simulated rocket attack. "And luckily we don't need a biased media to help us do that anymore."

"We're removing the media middle men," said Daniel Seaman, deputy director general of Israel's Ministry of Public Diplomacy, as youth buzzed around with computers and smartphones. "They used to say the Elders of Zion controlled the media. Well, here are the youngsters of Zion who are running it."

-------
----------------------------
My take on this issue follows:

As we have seen during other conflicts between Israel and Gaza the Western Media and especially the American media including some journalist who otherwise appear progressive or at least a bit objective even for them the killing of Israelis is a great crime while the deaths of Gaza's civilians is treated as if those deaths were of little real meaning.

President Obama mentioned the deaths of Israelis but acted as if those in Gaza who were killed were all Hamas terrorists or some splinter group of Hamas and therefore getting what they deserved. But most of those killed in this latest conflict were innocent civilians as it was in the 2008-2009 Caste Lead operation . But most of the Mainstream Media then and now ignore the facts or claim the numbers of casualties is just part of Hamas' propaganda while whatever the Israeli well oiled well financed propaganda machine delivers via the media must be true since the Israeli government is always in the right .

So starving and killing the people of Gaza is therefore justified whether man woman or toddler since all are to be punsihed for any Israeli deaths . As I have suggested this is part of Biblical seige mentality in which amongst the enemy there are no innocents. So I will still ask where are the people of Gaza to go into the sea.

It is I know from President Obama or the American media to be objective about this issue since according to their religious paradigm Israel is the nation first chosen by God and in order for Biblical prophecies to be fulfilled Israel must regain all of the land promised to the ancient Israelites by God or Elohim.

It is also a matter of inapropriately responding to the collective guilt of the West and that it did nothing to stop Hitler's final solution since anti-Semitism was bred in the bone of most citizens of Western Civilization . So to assuage this guilt the USA and other nations fear or dred criticizing Israel in the way that they would some other nation.

For instance it took a while but even the USA eventually caved in to international pressure to stop supporting the South African Apartheid system Even in the 1980s there were still Americans and even Canadians who saw nothing amiss in the White supremacists rule over a majority made up of Black African people .

The colonialist conservative and even the liberal view was that in some way Black Africans were better off basically living like slave under the Africaaner Regime. In the USA influential politicians and business people were more interested in making a profit off this injustice in South Africa which included Senator Jesse Helms and Sen. John McCain and their white supremacist friends.

Now we have a similar issue over the Israeli Apartheid system which treats the Palestinians as third class citizens whom the Israeli are happy to have around when they need their man power but when they don't they do not want to recognize them as human beings let alone citizens or equals to other Israelis where religious or secular.
And once again America currently the Obama Regime is the major stumbling block to bring justice to the situation in the Israeli Apartheid Regime.
If the USA threatened to cut off financial aid and military aid to Israel they could get Israel to stop their horrifying oppression of the 1.6 million Palestinians in Gaza and those in the Occupied territories .

But first the US government and its bought and paid for media should try if they can to see the Palestinians and all Arabs and all Muslims as being part of the human race and not just some sort of disease or vermin that must be contained and or destroyed .
If Americans and the Media in general can begin to see Latinos as human and as equal citizens and therefore treat Latino Americans as equals then they can begin to see the human face of Latino American citizens and those Latinos risking their live to cross the border into the USA.

What many Americans and those outside of America have been hoping that surely president Obama have managed to become the first black president would have a better understanding of racial, ethnic and religious bigotry, prejudices and hatred which are erroneously sterotype a whole people because they appear to be different and imposing negative stereotypes on a people because of the acts of a few.

So when Obama states that Israel has a right to defend itself it does not enter his mind even for a second that just maybe the oppressed people in Gaza also have a right to defend themselves even if it were and is for them a hopless situation as they continue to watch their loved one suffering from malnutrition and diseases and medical problems all due to the Israeli Seige on Gaza.

When the Gazan people build their own companies the Israelis eventually will interfer by either not allowing products in to keep the business going or to alllow an Arab business to export goods in a reasonable fashion and then eventually Israel bombs that business or Industrial plant to leve the Palestinians barely struggling to get by.

Even schools, hospitals, TV stations and other media outlets and even buildings schools etc. run by the United Nations and even Commercial Banks in Gaza and government buildings which hand out food and welfare payments and police stations and of course fishing boats or Palestinians going to the seashore for a break or a picnic all are according to Israel and President Obama supposedly justified legitimate targets for the Israeli War Machine since the USA appears to hate, loathe, and despise the Palestinians and most Arabs and Muslims as much as the Israelis do.

Obama should take it to heart that racism and injustice is not unique in its treatment of African-Americans or Latino Americans but such bigotry and prejudices are a global issue affecting negatively the lives of not just Palestinians but also the Rhuhinga Muslims in Burma or other groups such as the Roma in Europe or the native aboriginal people of various Latin American countries which are often ruled by those with a European pedigree such as being Spanish, British, Portuguese , French, German , Dutch and so forth.

Israel Hamas War Highlights Horrific Palestinian Living Conditions by James Connolly at policymic.com, Nov. 17, 2012

Unfortunately, as the New York Times reports, Israel is currently preparing for another ground invasion of Gaza in order to punish the crippled population for resisting oppression. As is to be expected, both sides will float justifications for their actions, but the fact remains: Gazans have been forced to live under appalling conditions, and they have been subjected to extreme acts of Israeli terrorism. Thus, their resistance should come as no surprise, even if it is bound to fail.

Based on accounts from inside Gaza, it is less an occupied territory than what Noam Chomsky calls an open-air prison:

"[I]t hardly takes more than a day in Gaza to begin to appreciate what it must be like to try to survive in the world’s largest open-air prison, where a million and a half people, in the most densely populated area of the world, are constantly subject to random and often savage terror and arbitrary punishment, with no purpose other than to humiliate and degrade, and with the further goal of ensuring that Palestinian hopes for a decent future will be crushed and that the overwhelming global support for a diplomatic settlement that will grant these rights will be nullified."

Or, as Amnesty International describes, the blockade of Gaza has been for 1.4 million Gazans, "a form of collective punishment," as well as "a flagrant violation of international law." Moreover, whatever justification the Israeli state provides, "the blockade is collectively punishing the entire population of Gaza, the majority of whom are children, rather than targeting the Hamas administration or armed groups."
The various definitions of terrorism are poignant, especially when applied to Israeli actions against Gazan civilians. Thus it is instructive to recall Operation Cast Lead, a one-sided slaughter, where B'Tselem found that the "magnitude of the harm to the local population was unprecedented." Moreover, it found that 1,387 Palestinians were killed during the operation, 773 of them not having taken part in the conflict, and of that number, 320 were children and teenagers. That is compared to the 9 Israelis killed by Palestinians, 3 of whom were civilians.

As the Goldstone report found, Israeli forces "launched direct attacks against civilians with lethal outcome." Moreover, "the consequences of the Israeli attacks against civilians were aggravated by their subsequent refusal to allow the evacuation of the wounded or to permit access to ambulances." And as for "attacks on the foundations of civilian life in Gaza," the report found that "there was a deliberate and systematic policy on the part of the Israeli armed forces to target industrial sites [food production, sewage treatment, etc etc] and water installations." One of these industrial sites was the Al Bader flour mill, the only flour mill in the Gaza strip. It is no wonder then, that Gazans have a hard time, bettering their living conditions and livelihoods.

Perhaps a more telling, and more chilling, assessment of the current state of Gaza is found in a recent UN report that predicts that Gaza won't even be a "livable" place by 2020. Moreover, this report does not take into account the aftermath of this new conflict. If Operation Cast Lead was indicative of Israeli military tactics, then perhaps the UN will be forced to move that date closer to 2012.

This pure terror and destruction of living conditions and livelihoods of the Gazans on the part of Israel, is not just relegated to the Gaza Strip; instead it is in line with a systematic Israeli state policy of territorial expansion and terror against the Palestinians in the West Bank as well. As Ha'aretz reports, Benjamin Netanyahu's government "has quietly doubled the portion of Israel's national budget allocated to Jewish settlements in the West Bank." And as Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz explained, the expansion of funding to the illegal settlements was done quietly so that "elements in Israel and abroad" would not be aware of it happening thus preventing any attempts at stopping it.

Yes the kind hearted Israelis supposedly are making sure that the Palestinians in Gaza only get enough food to put them barely above the malnutrition rate. There is something rather cruel and calculating about the attitude and policies of the Israel supposedly enlightened government it sounds more and more like a plan to ethnic cleanse greater israel of most of the Palestinians by slowly starving them while allowing disease to run rampant and to not allow the free flow of food and goods and medical supplies into Gaza. Instead the people of Gaza swallow their pride for a time begging for a few more crumbs from the prosperous people of Israel until they snap and decide it is better to die like a human being than to die like a dog in the streets of Gaza.

Israel Gaza Blockade: Calories Calculated By Israelis To Avoid Malnutrition from Reuters via Huffington, Oct. 17,2012

JERUSALEM, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Israel calculated the number of calories Palestinians would need to avoid malnutrition under its blockade of the Gaza Strip, according to a study which the Supreme Court forced the government to release.

"It was part of a research paper that came up in two discussions and that we never made use of," Defence Ministry official Guy Inbar said on Wednesday after the document was published by Gisha, an Israeli human rights group that petitioned to receive it.

Release of the document, presented in January 2008, shed new light on the thinking that helped to shape the blockade that Israel tightened in 2007 after the Gaza Strip was seized by the Hamas Islamist movement.

Palestinians described the restrictions, which drew international criticism and were eased in 2010, as collective punishment stifling their economy.

The study, "Food Consumption in the Gaza Strip - The Red Lines", estimated the required daily calorie intake in the territory at 2,279 per person.

The document said that "in order to maintain the basic fabric of life" in the area, Israel would allow in 106 trucks with food and other essential goods every day. Gisha said some 400 trucks delivered goods to Gaza before the blockade.

Last week Israel delivered 935 truckloads of basic goods and construction material to the territory which has a population of 1.6 million.
The calorie calculation was based on a model formulated by Israel's Health Ministry and was largely in line with average Israeli consumption. According to Britain's National Health Service, the average man needs 2,500 calories to maintain his weight and a woman requires 2,000.

Wikileaks has published diplomatic cables that showed Israel told U.S. officials in 2008 it would keep Gaza's economy "on the brink of collapse" while avoiding a humanitarian crisis.

To circumvent the blockade, Palestinians have brought in tonnes of goods through smuggling tunnels dug under Gaza's border with Egypt.

Malnutrition widespread amongst Palestinian children By Harvey Thompson via World Socialist Website,16 August 2002

A study released August 5 reveals a drastic deterioration in the health of thousands of Palestinian children since the beginning of the Israeli military crackdown.
The report, by the US Agency for International Development, showed more than one-fifth of young Palestinian children are malnourished. This is more than a threefold increase since the last study two years ago. The plight of children under 5 years of age was particularly alarming. Twenty-two percent of Palestinian children under age 5 were malnourished, up from seven percent in an agency survey two years ago. Of that number, nine percent suffered from acute malnutrition—resulting from poor nutrition over the short term—and 13 percent suffered from chronic malnutrition—longer-term deficiencies that can result in stunted growth. About 20 percent of children under 5 had some form of anaemia.

The study, carried out by Johns Hopkins University and the humanitarian group CARE, found that the Gaza Strip was particularly hard hit, with 13 percent of children suffering from acute malnutrition, putting it on the same level as Nigeria, Somalia and Bangladesh.

A market survey also showed shortages of protein-rich foods, such as fish and chicken, among retailers. About half of retailers and wholesalers surveyed said they had shortages of infant formula.

About half of the 1,000 households surveyed in June said they had to borrow money to buy food. Some 70 percent of Palestinians are now living on $2 a day.

Following the release of the report, the Palestinian Health Minister, Riad Zanoun, declared a state of emergency. “I call on the international community to work to end the real reason behind the health deterioration, which is the occupation, the curfew and the Israeli army. Without the real intervention of the world, all our efforts will only be temporary ones,” said Zanoun. Palestinian officials have called on the US to provide health experts, vitamins and medical equipment.

As damning as the USAID study is of the affects of the recent Israeli offensive against the Palestinians, another earlier report paints an even bleaker picture.
The study, released just four days before the USAID report, was conducted by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics for UNICEF and was taken between March 23 and June 30. No data was collected in April due to a six-week-long Israeli raid on Palestinian cities in the West Bank that effectively shut down government offices.

The study surveyed 5,228 households (as opposed to the USAID’s 1,000 sample), including 3,684 children, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It had a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points. It found that 45.5 percent of Palestinian children aged 6 months to 5 years are suffering from chronic malnutrition (a four-fold increase since September 2000), their growth having been stunted as a result of poor diet. Another 32.5 percent have acute malnutrition, where they were found to weigh less than they should for their age or height group.

Compared to statistics from 2000, the survey found a 22.6 percent increase in the number of children suffering from moderate stunting due to malnutrition and a 36 percent increase in the number of children who are underweight for their age. There was an increase of 50 percent in the number of children suffering from low weight for their height.

Around 65 percent of households surveyed said they had faced difficulties getting food for their families during the 22-month-long Palestinian uprising due to Israeli curfews and loss of income as a result of Israel travel restrictions and blockages. A total of 85 percent surveyed specifically blamed Israeli blockades

The Economic Impact of the Conflict on Israelis and Palestinians Palestinian malnutrition at African levels under Israeli curbs, say MPs By Ben Russell of the UK Independent via If Americans Knew.org, February 5, 2004

Malnutrition rates in the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank are as bad as those in sub-Saharan Africa, MPs said yesterday. They warned that the Israeli security fence around the occupied territories was “destroying the Palestinian economy and creating widespread poverty”.

The all-party Commons International Development Committee called for European Union trade sanctions to be imposed on Israel until it allowed the free export of goods from the West Bank and Gaza.

The committee’s report also condemned suicide bombings as “morally abhorrent” and “a catastrophic tactic that has done great harm to the Palestinian cause”.

MPs called on the Palestinian Authority to be more vocal in its condemnation of attacks. “Israel’s security measures are preventing Palestinians from accessing services as well as inhibiting humanitarian and development work,” the MPs said. “They are destroying the Palestinian economy and creating widespread poverty.”

and so it goes,
GORD.

Israel's Pillar Of Cloud(Fire) From Exodus To The AMALEKITES To "Erase Gaza From The Map" & Over 100 Gazan Civilians Murdered Yet Defended By Israel And USA Gov'ts & Their Respective Media

2012-11-20T15:28:00.000-04:00

Israel's Pillar Of Cloud(Fire) To "Erase Gaza From The Map" & Over 100 Gazan Civilians Murdered Yet Defended By Israel And USA Gov'ts & Their Media
Updated: 8:57 PM Nov. 20.
This is what Israel and Obama call targeted or surgical strikes in the middle of a city in Gaza. Surgical not so much! Just a blatant effort to terrorize and even kill civilians .

Overall, the Israeli onslaught has killed 108 Palestinians, including at least 24 children, and wounded roughly 800 people, including roughly 227 children, according to Gaza health officials, with tolls on the rise.

Day 6: Outrage, Protests Show Gaza Solidarity in Middle East :Death toll climbs on sixth day of Israeli attacks by Common Dreams, Nov. 19, 2012

...Washington supports Israel’s “right to defend itself” then claims a spurious neutrality – as if Israel’s bombs on Gaza didn’t come from the United States as assuredly as the Fajr-5 rockets come from Iran.

Meanwhile, the pitiful William Hague holds Hamas “principally responsible” for the latest war. But there is no such evidence that this is true. According to The Atlantic Monthly, the Israeli killing of a “mentally unfit” Palestinian who strayed towards the border may have been the start of the latest war. Others suspect the killing of a small Palestinian boy may have been the provocation. But he was shot dead by the Israelis when an armed Palestinian group tried to cross the frontier and was confronted by Israeli tanks. In which case Palestinian gunmen – albeit not Hamas – may have kicked-off the whole shooting-match.

Quotes from: Journalistic Cliches: 'Surgical Air Strikes', 'Rooting Out Terror', and 'Cyber-Terrorism' Cannot Conceal Reality By Robert Fisk November 19, 2012 "The Independent"

Update 8:29 PM

Obama and the Western Colonialist should take note as other Middle Eastern nations show support for Gaza against Israel and the interfering Americans who always side with the Israelis and ignore the death of civilians in Gaza or the crimes committed by Israel. President Obama can waffle all he wants but he must take a stand and stand on the side of the Rule of Law and International Law and morality or will he stand firmly on the side of Israel unconditionally.

If the Israel's intentions are to target Hamas Terrorists then why target journalists , the Media in Gaza, a national bank and innocent civilians -it should be clear Israel is out to undermine what civil society is left in Gaza so they can continue to tray to starve them out . Unfortunately if they try to cross over on the water the Israelis as is their habit is to shoot to kill anyone beyond the one mile safe zone. During Caste lead the Israelis destroyed cement factories and other industrial sites plus the United Nations compound and targeted journalists and first responders when they do the "double Tap". Americans either forgot that last war or think the Israelis should be permitted to obliterate Gaza and all of the people in it.

The Israelis are using a medieval or Christian Crusader form of warfare or even more ancient as in the long seige hoping to weaken the alleged enemy but then what ? Let them die in the streets from malnutrition and various diseaes cause by contaminated water because the IDF destroyed Gaza 's water and sewage treament facilities .

This is all very similar to what the US military did in Iraq bombing various utilities disrupting power destroying water and sewage plants blowing up hospitals police stations and schools and religious buildings all of which contravene International Law which neither the Americans or Israelis recognize as having authority over them.

Israel- Gaza conflict- Arab leaders show solidarity with Gaza
Published on Nov 20, 2012 by AussieNews1
There've been more Israeli airstrikes on Gaza in the past few hours which have killed nine people.
It pushes the death toll to over 120 Palestinians, since last Wednesday.
But as Jacky Rowland reports from Gaza, Arab leaders have arrived to show solidarity.
Source, credit to Aljazeera- http://www.aljazeera.com/video

And now a word from the Religious Right in the USA via Right Wing Watch

Liberty Counsel: In Re-Electing Obama, America Has Adopted "Sin As Official Public Policy" Published on Nov 20, 2012 by RWWBlog

Two weeks after the re-election of President Obama, Mat Staver and Matt Barber are warning that we have brought God's judgment upon this nation for doing so.

What is odd about this pronouncement is that it does not match the reality of what Obama is actually doing. For instance they call Obama anti-Israel and yet the Obama administration has in fact defended Israel's latest attack on Gaza. They call Obama a socialist yet he has spent billions bailing out private banks , investment firms and private industries such as the auto industry.

Obama is also far from being a pacifist after continuing the bombing in Afghanistan and taking on Qaddafi and giving the green light spending some six months non stop bombing of Libya. Obama has widened the drone wars and does not apologize for these attacks and Obama has allowed for the targeted assassinations of alleged terrorists. Obama did nothing while Israel carried out targeted assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists .

Obama has still not condemned the brutal crackdown on protesters in Bahrain or Saudi Arabia.

Obama ordered the arrest and indefinite detention of Whistleblower Bradley Manning and has not treated him with kid gloves but rather Manning has undergone physical and psychological abuses tantamount to torture under International Law.

Obama has banned certain torture techniques but also allows the military and CIA to use a number of other techniques which under International Law constitute torture on detainees but now refers to them as Enhanced interrogation Techniques.
Obama has also not taken any action to investigate the police brutality visited upon the Occupy Movement . You would think the right would be pleased about these actions or in some cases lack of action.

In the English version the Israelis are calling their latest "Action" against Gaza "Pillar of Defense" whereas in Israeli media it is called "Pillar of Cloud" which is a reference to the Biblical account of Moses and the Israelites exodus from Egypt . In order to hold back the Egyptian army God creates a "Pillar of Fire" . Once the Israelites have made their journey through the Sea of Reeds on the sea bed as God holds up the waters on both sides creating a path to let them pass the Pillar of Fire vanishes and of course the Egyptian army tries to cross through the path made by God God allows the water to come crashing down wiping out the Egyptian army .

It is noteworthy that the Israelis in taking part in a war of aggression uses the Biblical notion of the Pillar of Cloud or Pillar of Fire in order to not just justify the assault on the innocent civilians of Gaza but to give it a Biblical and religious context to put forth the idea that per usual the People's Of Israel /The Israelites are the chosen of God and whatever they do is sanctified by God and need not to be approved by man or International Law.

Using such language the Israelis can compare the evil Egyptians in the time of Moses to the evil Palestinians who are the enemies of Israel and therefore by extension the enemies of God and so to completely exterminate the Palestinians would be justified. I mentioned previously this is the Hebrew or Israelite notion of "harem" annihilation or Genocide as required by God as God ordered when dealing with the Canaanites, the Amalikites etc. that none be left alive including babies and toddlers and the men and the women because the land upon which these peoples lived was not theirs to occupy but was promised to the Israelites. So the Palestinians are also in breach of God's law by remaining on soil that God gave to the Israelites.
Here's an explanation of the terms Pillar of Cloud and Pillar of Fire as used in the Book of Exodus in the Bible that is the Old Testament sourced from The Jewish Virtual Library

PILLAR OF CLOUD AND PILLAR OF FIRE

The earliest traditions of the Exodus from Egypt refer to the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, which accompanied the Children of Israel on their way through the desert (Ex. 13:21–22). The visible symbol of the presence of God caused a panic among the Egyptians as it cut them off from the Israelites (Ex. 14:19b, 24a), and continued to guide and protect the latter uninterruptedly throughout their wanderings.

Later generations remembered it as a special sign of divine favor (cf. Ps. 78:14), no less important than the parting of the Sea of Reeds itself. Another early tradition connected the cloud with the *Tent of Meeting. According to the view attributed by critics to the author of the Elohist account (E), the pillar of cloud served not as a regular escort marching at the head of the people, but as an intermittent presence, descending from time to time to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting when God conversed with Moses (Ex. 33:9–10; Num. 11:25; 12:5).

The priestly authors, on the other hand, taught that "a cloud of the Lord" (not a pillar) with a fiery appearance by night, permanently covered the Tabernacle from the day of its completion, lifting only to signal the breaking of camp for a new journey (Ex. 40:34–38; Num. 9:15–23; 10:11–12, 34; 14:14). The Divine Presence in Solomon's Temple was similarly accompanied by the descent of the cloud (I Kings 8:10–11; cf. Ex. 16:10; Lev. 16:2) though the pillar of cloud and of fire did not accompany the Israelites into the Promised Land.

Note I have also borrowed this analysis from Philip Jenkins illuminating book Laying Down The Sword: Why We Can't Ignore The Bible's Violent Verses on Biblical cases of harem /annihilation/extermination /genocide as ordered by God.
also note Christians have also used such incidents in the Bible to justify their own Genocidal attacks on various peoples who they believed stood in their way and whom they Demonized as being as evil as the Canaanites or AMALEKITES (see notes at end of post).

and from the Real News Network:

Israel's government and its media have joined forces to defend Israel's unnecessary war against Gaza.Israel's Media Joins the WarIsrael's media rallies support for war as politicians jump on bandwagon for attack ahead of elections.

Alongside the military assault on Gaza, the Israeli army has a adopted a new media strategy which has influenced coverage of the war in the Israeli press. Unlike in Operation Cast Lead four years ago, this time Israel decided to allow journalists into the Gaza strip, and has streamlined its process of delivering material from the battlefield to the press conference. The Israeli media has adopted the government's line that only military targets are being hit regardless of the rising Palestinian casualty toll, reported at 115 on Monday night. The Real News' Lia Tarachanky summarizes the coverage of Operation Pillar of Defense (Pillar of Cloud or Pillar of Fire ala Moses and the exodus from Egypt) in the Israeli press, quotes Editor-in-Chief of Ha'aretz Aluf Benn, and speaks to Michael Omer-Man, the Head of the Newsdesk at Jerusalem Post Online. Omer-Man is also the author of the analysis and news blog

-------
Journalist Robert Fisk notes that far too many journalists and the Media in general accepts the Israeli' Government propaganda about its latest "war on Gaza" . The Media are either too lazy or themselves immune to the deaths of over 100 innocent Palestinians while making a fuss over the 3 Israelis killed in this conflict.

Sadly even Rachel Maddow with whom I more often than not agree with sounds like another Media hack for the Israel government and for President Obama in speaking about the current conflict she ignores the deaths of over 100 innocent Gazan civilians compared to 3 Israelis killed. Listening to her and other media pundits you would think that the rockets sent by Hamas into Israel had destroyed multiple building and killed hundreds or thousands of Israelis -this conflict is not comparable to 9/11 so it would be refreshing if the media including Rachell Maddow could be a bit more objective when it comes to Israel's propaganda. Maddow like Obama appears to accept the Israeli propaganda which ignores that Israel is the oppressor not the Palestinians. It is Israel which has turned Gaza into a giant open prison where the prisoners have been put on a strict diet and whose infrastructure has been obliterated .

Is Maddow just naive on this subject or just reflecting the knee jerk American /Neocon/Neoliberal response to defending Israel unconditionally. Besides even if Israel does not send in ground forces this is already a war of aggression. According to Maddow and Obama killing /murdering innocent civilians is justified because one can only surmise that the Palestinians are getting what they deserve since they have refused to leave Gaza that is self-deport themselves to some other nation. Even she seems to think the Gazans somehow have a military equal to that of Israel and is therefore an existential and imminent threat to Israel -this is nonsense . over a million people in Gaza are being collectively punished by Israel which under International Law is a crime. Maybe like other liberals she believes taking a moderate view of the conflict this absolve her for ignoring the War Crimes and Crimes against humanity committed by Israel . If one hopes for justice on this conflict then the Israeli government must end its siege of Gaza and allow the free flow of goods and people in and out of Gaza.

So here's Rachel Maddow on Gaza and Israel as she ignores the death and destruction caused to Gaza by Israel's first class military machine which is fed by the American government .She appears to treat the whole issue as if it were a trivial matter. It is not a trivial matter to the over one million Palestinians in Gaza who are on a daily basis barely struggling to stay alive. She doesn't mention that over 100 innocent Gazan civilians have been killed or that according to real journalist on the ground that Israel began this fight by killing a mentally disabled Gazan for the crime of approaching the pretend border of Israel .

As for Obama he is just parroting the party line towards Israel that all American presidents do since when it comes to Israel they must support it unconditionally.

Journalistic Cliches: 'Surgical Air Strikes', 'Rooting Out Terror', and 'Cyber-Terrorism' Cannot Conceal Reality By Robert Fisk November 19, 2012 "The Independent"

-- Terror, terror, terror, terror, terror. Here we go again. Israel is going to “root out Palestinian terror” – which it has been claiming to do, unsuccessfully, for 64 years – while Hamas, the latest in “Palestine’s” morbid militias, announces that Israel has “opened the gates of hell” by murdering its military leader, Ahmed al-Jabari.

Hezbollah several times announced that Israel had “opened the gates of hell” for attacking Lebanon. Yasser Arafat, who was a super-terrorist, then a super-statesman – after capitulating on the White House lawn – and then became a super-terrorist again when he realized he’d been conned by Camp David; he, too waffled on about the “gates of hell” in 1982.

And we journos are writing like performing bears, repeating all the clichés we’ve used for the past 40 years. The killing of Mr Jabari was a “targeted attack”, it was a “surgical air strike” – like the Israeli “surgical air strikes” which killed almost 17,000 civilians in Lebanon in 1982, the 1,200 Lebanese, most of them civilians, in 2006, or the 1,300 Palestinians, most of them civilians, in Gaza in 2008-9, or the pregnant woman and the baby who were killed by the “surgical air strikes” in Gaza last week – and the 11 civilians killed in one Gaza house yesterday. At least Hamas, with their Godzilla rockets, don’t claim anything “surgical” about them. They are meant to murder Israelis – any Israelis, man woman or child.

...Washington supports Israel’s “right to defend itself” then claims a spurious neutrality – as if Israel’s bombs on Gaza didn’t come from the United States as assuredly as the Fajr-5 rockets come from Iran.

Meanwhile, the pitiful William Hague holds Hamas “principally responsible” for the latest war. But there is no such evidence that this is true. According to The Atlantic Monthly, the Israeli killing of a “mentally unfit” Palestinian who strayed towards the border may have been the start of the latest war. Others suspect the killing of a small Palestinian boy may have been the provocation. But he was shot dead by the Israelis when an armed Palestinian group tried to cross the frontier and was confronted by Israeli tanks. In which case Palestinian gunmen – albeit not Hamas – may have kicked-off the whole shooting-match.

Day 6: Outrage, Protests Show Gaza Solidarity in Middle East :Death toll climbs on sixth day of Israeli attacks by Common Dreams, Nov. 19, 2012

The death toll in Gaza continued to rise on Monday -- 108 people at last count -- following a night of Israeli airstrikes in the densely populated occupied territory, which continued throughout the day Monday. Israeli forces openly targeted residential and public areas and continued targeting media centers in Gaza City -- making it increasingly difficult to report ongoing Israeli war crimes.

Civilian causalities doubled over the weekend as Monday marked the sixth day of attacks. Monday has proven to be the deadliest day so far with at least 24 deaths.

Overall, the Israeli onslaught has killed 108 Palestinians, including at least 24 children, and wounded roughly 800 people, including roughly 227 children, according to Gaza health officials, with tolls on the rise.

On Monday a missile struck a three-story home in Gaza City's Zeitoun area, destroying the building and several surrounding homes. Associated Press reported this morning:

Shell-shocked residents searching for belongings climbed over debris of twisted metal and cement blocks in the street...Sitting in mourning with her mother and siblings just hours after her father's death, 11-year-old Aya Kitati clutched a black jacket, saying she was freezing, even though the weather was mild. 'We were sleeping, and then we heard the sound of the bombs,' she said, then broke down sobbing.
The strike killed three adults and a 2-year-old boy, and wounded 42 people, officials said.

Another four were killed, including two children, in a strike on a sports stadium, adding to the alarming child death toll.

NOTES:
AMALEKITES from The Jewish virtual Library
(Note I added more paragraphing to the original text)
AMALEKITES (Heb.עֲמָלֵק), people of the Negev and the adjoining desert, a hereditary enemy of Israel from wilderness times to the early monarchy (Exod. 17:8–16; Judg. 3:13; 6:3; 10:12; I Sam. 14:48; ch. 15; ch. 30). Amalek, a son of Esau's son Eliphaz (Gen. 36:2), was presumably the eponymous ancestor of the Amalekites.
Amalek and Israel

According to the Bible, Amalek was the first enemy that Israel encountered after the crossing of the Sea of Reeds. Inasmuch as contemporary archaeology has convinced most biblicists that the biblical traditions of enslavement in Egypt, wilderness wandering, and conquest of the land are unhistorical, traditions about Amalek and Israel in the pre-settlement period probably reflect later realities. In effect, by setting encounters with Amalek in the days of Moses and Joshua, the writers of the Bible were saying that hostilities existed from time immemorial. Among these traditions we find that Amalekites attacked the Israelites in a pitched battle at Rephidim, which, to judge by the Bible (Ex. 17:6, 7, 8–16; 18:5), is in the neighborhood of Horeb; if the locality Massah and Meribah (17:7) is to be found in the region of Kadesh-Barnea or is identical with it (Num. 20:1–14, 24; Ezek. 47:19), then this battle was waged in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula.
The Book of Exodus relates that Joshua fought against Amalek under the inspiration of Moses, who was supported by Aaron and Hur, and that he mowed them down with the sword. Amalek was not destroyed, however, and at the end of this war Moses was ordered to write in a document, as a reminder, that the Lord would one day blot out the memory of Amalek from under the heaven. In commemoration of the victory, Moses built an altar which he called "YHWH-Nissi," and proclaimed that "The Eternal will be at war against Amalek throughout the ages." This implies that Israel is commanded to wage a holy war of extermination against Amalek (Deut. 25:12–19), for in the early days "the wars of Israel" and the "wars of the Lord" were synonymous expressions (cf., e.g., Judg. 5:23).

In the biblical traditions, Israel, after sinning through cowardice and lack of faith as a result of the discouraging report of the spies, turned around and "defiantly marched to the crest of the hill country" (Num. 14:44–45) against the divine command and was punished by sustaining a shattering blow at the hands of the Amalekites and Canaanites who inhabited the hill country, the former no doubt being confined to its southernmost end (Num. 14:45). In this particular case, therefore, YHWH, who according to Exodus 17:16 had sworn eternal enmity to Amalek, permitted Amalek to defeat Israel, but, since He had specifically warned Israel against this particular undertaking, there is no real contradiction between Exodus 17:16 and Numbers 14:45. It is possible that this tradition is based on abortive attempts by Israel to expand its holdings in the South during the premonarchic period (see Num. 13:29; 21:1–3, 4–34; Deut 1:44).

More closely historical than the Pentateuch's accounts of Amalek are the traditions set in the period of the Judges and the monarchy. During the period of the Judges, the Amalekites participated with other nations in attacks on the Israelite tribes. Together with the Ammonites, they joined Moab against Israel and were among those who captured "the city of palms" – apparently Jericho or the pasture lands of Jericho (Judg. 3:12–13). It seems probable that the wanderings of the Amalekites, or of a particular part of them, extended as far as Transjordan in the neighborhood of Moab or Ammon. (Some scholars (Edeleman in Bibliography) have argued that there was a northern Amalekite enclave adjoining Ephraimite territory.)

The Amalekites and the people of the East joined the Midianite raids on the Israelites in the time of *Gideon, and, like true desert tribes, undoubtedly participated in the destruction of the crops, as related in the Book of Judges (6:1–7). The Amalekites took part in the battles in the valley of Jezreel (6:33; 7:12) and perhaps also in the Jordan Valley, but there is no evidence that Gideon also fought with the Amalekites in his pursuit of the Midianites in Transjordan. In no case did the Amalekites as a whole suffer decisive defeat at this time and their center in the Negev was not harmed.

The decisive clash between Israel and Amalek came only with the advent of the monarchy, in the famous Amalekite war of *Saul. According to the biblical account, the war began as a result of a divine command of the Lord to Saul through Samuel to smite Amalek and destroy it, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass" (I Sam. 15:3). Although Samuel alludes to Amalek's provocation of Israel, "in opposing them on the way, when they came up out of Egypt" (15:2), there is no mention of the battle of Rephidim and of the victorious war of Moses and Joshua. Samuel's words more closely parallel the narrative about the attack of Amalek in the Book of Deuteronomy (25:17–19), which relates that the Amalekites attacked the Israelites on their way out of Egypt, "when you were famished and weary," and cut down the stragglers in the rear, without mentioning any victorious Israelite counteraction. Deuteronomy explicitly admonishes the Israelites to remember Amalek and blot out its memory from under heaven, whereas in the Exodus version this can only be inferred (see above).

The command imposed on Saul to subject the Amalekites to the ban (*ḥerem), however, conforms to the version in Deuteronomy. The dispute between Samuel and Saul with regard to the ḥerem was not over the command itself, but the extent to which it had been put into effect. Saul's act of extermination was not absolute, for he spared the best of the sheep and cattle – setting aside part for a sacrifice to God – and *Agag, king of Amalek.

It should be noted that even the deuteronomic ḥerem, though it does not allow for the sparing of persons (such as Agag), except for particular ones (like *Rahab) specified in advance, permits the taking of booty (e.g., Deut. 2:34–5; Josh. 8:26–27) except in special cases (Deut. 13:13 ff.; Josh. 6:17 ff.). Despite the "pre-deuteronomic" literary framework of chapter 15 and its prophetic-ideological aim, embedded in it is an ancient historical tradition about a war of extermination that reflects Saul's war against Amalek. This may be seen in the record of Saul's wars in which the war of Amalek receives special mention: "He did valiantly, and smote the Amalekites, and delivered Israel out of the hands of those who plundered them" (I Sam. 14:48). The matter was, therefore, a war of rescue as were the wars of the Judges, and it seems that because of its difficulty Saul vowed that in the event of success he would devote the spoil to the Lord by ḥerem.

And so it goes,

GORD.

Photos of Smiling Israeli Soldiers in Instagrams "War is Fun" As Israel Rains Down Bombs On the Civilian Population of Gaza And Obama Once Again Defends Israel

2012-11-19T15:42:00.000-04:00

IDF soldiers apparently happy about going to war looking forward to killing the enemy -but who's the enemy Hamas officials and their armed militants or does it include all of the civilian population of Gaza.

Instagram photos of IDF soldiers getting ready to invade Gaza seem quite happy about taking up arms against the Palestinians of Gaza who are a weakened oppressed enemy having been put on a strict diet and their civil society destroyed and the people terrorized by the Israeli forces who have Ghettoized the Palestinians in what has been called "The Largest open-air prison in the world". The Israelis backed by the Americans believe that all of the people of the Gaza strip all one and a half million Gaza citizens are each and everyone from new born infant to children , men, women, and the elderly and the disabled are equally guilty of terror because they elected Hamas as their government and Israel calls Hamas a terrorist organization .

The war is also being waged on social media mainly Twitter as these examples show:

Israeli soldiers shock the web with smiling Instagram photos by Lauren O'Neil via CBC.caNews November 16, 2012

They’re young, they’re attractive, and like many teens around the world they live much of their lives online.

But the people shown in a group of Instagram photos making their way around the web right now are also trained members of the Israeli Defense forces; a military group in the midst of a deadly battle with Hamas in Gaza.

These “surreal Instagrams” of young IDF soliders at ease looking happy and approachable were rounded up by Buzzfeed’s Katie Notopolous as drama continued to unfold between the two groups today.

As CBC News reported Wednesday, official military spokespeople for both the IDF and Hamas have been using their Twitter accounts to threaten each other and provide real-time military updates.

Examples from Twitter social media treats war destruction and death as if they were a game . But in team sports such as soccer the players don't all carry Uzis or AK 47s and other weapons.

So the Israelis claim God Elohim is on their side while the Palestinians claim God/Allah is on their side while America and president Obama believe God /Jesus is on their side .

So all of these God's are supposedly just and compassionate . Though all three religious traditions Judaism, Islam and Christianity each pray to the God of Abraham and the Prophets.Otherwise it is a pissing contest between three different Gods . Maybe God by whatever name is not on anyone's side but rather weeps for all who are victims that is the innocent caught in the crossfire of religious supremacists on all sides.
image

Palestinian death toll mounts as Israel targets Hamas 24 Palestinian civilians killed in 24 hours, Gaza health official says The Associated Press Nov 19, 2012

Israeli aircraft struck crowded areas in the Gaza Strip and killed a senior militant with a missile strike on a media centre Monday, driving up the Palestinian death toll to 96, as Israel broadened its targets in the six-day-old offensive meant to quell Hamas rocket fire on Israel.

Escalating its bombing campaign, Israel on Sunday began attacking homes of activists in Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza. These attacks have led to a sharp spike in civilian casualties, killing 24 civilians in just under two days and doubling the number of civilians killed in the conflict, a Gaza health official said.

"We've heard pretty loud detonations all through the night, especially the beginning of the evening," said Jean-Francois Belanger from the Gaza Strip, reporting for CBC's French-language network Radio-Canada. "It's been the fiercest and most intense shelling that we've heard since the beginning of this conflict."
...Military activity over the past two nights has dropped off as targets change and international efforts to wrest a ceasefire plod ahead.

But failure to end the fighting threatens to touch off an Israeli ground invasion, for which thousands of soldiers, backed by tanks and armoured vehicles, have already been mobilized and dispatched to Gaza's border.

U.S. President Barack Obama said he was in touch with players across the region in hopes of halting the fighting. While defending Israel's right to defend itself against the rocket fire, he also warned of the risks the Jewish state would take if it were to expand its air assault into a ground war.

"If we see a further escalation of the situation in Gaza, the likelihood of us getting back on any kind of peace track that leads to a two-state solution is going to be pushed off way into the future," Obama said.

From CBC News

Obama gets pawned by Israel a second time just after being re-elected. When Obama was first elected in 2008 in the period between his election and inauguration the Israelis launched "operation Caste Lead" and now after being re-elected the Israeli government is using this period in time to launch another campaign against Gaza "Operation Pillar of Fire " Obama still not willing to condemn Israel's disproportionate retaliation against Gaza .

Gaza has become the Israelis version of the "Jewish Ghettoes " or even more specifically "The Warsaw Ghetto" of the NAZIs . At what point we might ask is it acceptable for a people who have been Ghettoized and oppressed to be permitted to fight back as those Jews trapped facing almost certain death in the Warsaw Ghetto did. At what point does this action by the Israelis become a War Crime or a Crime Against Humanity as defined by International Law and by /or be categorized as immoral.

Unfortunately the Palestinians and all Arabs and Muslims in general have been demonized not just over the last thirty years dating back to the overthrow of the Shah of Iran and the creation of OPEC but going back to before the Christian Crusades in 1095 onward . Islamophobia is so embedded in Western Culture that many in the West are unable or unwilling to admit its existence as another blatant form of prejudice and bigotry.

As Phyllis Bennis reminds us that what is happening in Gaza now has its roots going back before the escalation . In order to better understand the current situation it must be seen in context. Once seen in context the issues are not so black and white or good versus evil.

We must resist the simplification of the current conditions and to reject the notion which George W. Bush argued "you are either with us or against us" there is therefore no middle ground and no way to broker any peaceful settlement. If one side sees the other as the eternal enemy and even as acting on behalf of evil that is the devil or Satan there is little left to discuss and so at that point the discussion or conversation is shut down.

The Roots of Israeli Attack on Gaza Published on Nov 17, 2012 by TheRealNews Phyllis Bennis: The current conflict did not begin with rockets fired at Israel

and here's our response:

It is difficult to comment on Israel's actions in Gaza if we dare to even attempt to objectively look at both sides of the conflict without being called anti-Semitic. That is even to assume that the Israelis might be in the wrong just in this particular set of circumstances is to draw the ire of the Israelis and Israel's most prominent ally and defender the USA.

We are supposed to acknowledge at all times in each incident which occurs between the Israelis and the Palestinians that Israel is always in the right . To suggest that what Israel has been doing to the people of Gaza over the last six years or so is unwarranted and that the Israelis are involved in the war crime of collectively punishing not just the militants in Gaza but also all of the civilians as well in Gaza. It is in this case the Palestinian people who are being oppressed and facing ethnic cleansing by Israel and those countries which back Israel unconditionally such as the USA.

President Obama and the USA could end most of the aggression from the Israeli side by cutting funding to Israel and stop supplying Israel with weapons or even no longer allow the specially modified caterpillar tractors from being shipped to Israel. Instead the US will in all likely increase the financial and military aid to Israel so that Israel can bomb more civilians .

It was hoped that President Obama in his second term would take a stand against Israel if Israel was the true aggressor . Obama this time around does not have to worry about re-election but it maybe due to party loyalty he doesn't want the Democratic Party to appear unfriendly towards Israel or possibly Obama has no real sympathy of any kind in the case of the Palestinians trapped in Gaza waiting for total destruction and annihilation .

Like certain nations in the past the Israeli military and people believe they have a God given literally that is to exact revenge on any who attack them and to kill 100 of the enemy to each Israeli killed. This is part of the ancient Jewish Biblical law of "harem' but that was over 2000 years ago now we expect nations to operate by a different moral code to pursue even a war in the most humane and just fashion as possible .

This is why since the Holocaust/Shoah the nations agreed to develop international laws which would govern armed conflict and many of the foundational legal and moral notions for such International Agreements came out of the Nuremberg trials and judicial decisions.

As pointed out by Philip Jenkins in his book- Laying Down The Sword (pub. 2011)

" Where God has given lands as part of the Hebrew patrimony , all current residents must be subject to the law of "harem"-that of extermination. In those cities,"thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: But thou shalt "utterly destroy" them ; namely the Hittites, and the Amorites,the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee".( Deuteronomy 20:16-17) (p.33,Jenkins)

For some 2000 years during the Diaspora the Jewish people were persecuted and by the Babylonians, the Romans and then the intolerant Christians who erroneously blame the Jews for killing Jesus (Deicide) and then came the Shoah/Holocaust and now unfortunately some Israeli leaders appear to be misguidedly exacting revenge on the Palestinians .

There is a difference between defending ones self or nation and merely exacting revenge, retaliation and collective punishment that is wanting not just an eye for an eye or seeking justice but rather demanding ten or a hundred eyes for the two you have lost .

As Ghandi said "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind". Otherwise the cycle of violence will continue between Israel and the Palestinians. An innocent Palestinian civilian and an innocent Palestinian child and an innocent Palestinian mother are each still as worthy of life as an Israeli or an American though Israel and America both deny it as so and cavalierly kill Palestinians without any remorse.

And then the Americans ask disingenuously "why do they hate us".

and so it goes,

GORD.

Maddow : GOP Purging The Crazies & Israel Once Again Targeting Journalists In Gaza Megachurch Pastor: Obama Re-Election "Reign of the Antichrist"

2012-11-18T18:03:00.000-04:00

Megachurch Pastor: Obama Re-Election "Reign of the Antichrist"

Rachel Maddow Suggests the republican Party is now purging some of the Conspiracy Theory crazies from the party.

Published on Nov 14, 2012 by MidweekPolitics
--Texas megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress indicated that President Obama's reelection would lead to the "reign of the antichrist," and we wonder whether this is a political-enough statement to meet the threshold for having his church's tax exemption removed.

Once again Israel deliberately targets journalist this time in Gaza and comes up with another unbelievable excuse .

Israel as usual when bombing Gaza claims it takes precautions not to target civilians and argues Hamas using civilians as human shields. So the IDF claim that they can blow up buildings and kill civilians because it is aiming at Hamas members. During the 2008-2009 Cast Lead operation against Hamas the Israelis even deliberately and apologetically attacked schools, hospitals, and the UN compound and made various excuses for doing so. But rather than Israel being cautioned or charged for war crimes America under Obama defended Israel as he later did in the Free Gaza Flotilla fiasco . So like other leaders in the USA Obama may chastise publicly Israel but in fact reassures Israel that the United States still supports Israel unconditionally.

The United States government and military forces have also been accused of deliberately targeting journalists in Iraq and Afghanistan .

The USA under Bush and Obama ignores international law and traditions that the military is to do all that it can do to avoid killing journalists instead from the beginning of the Iraq war up to the present the US has informed journalist that the US military has no legal or moral obligation to takes measures to protect the safety of journalist in a combat zone.
But what can we expect president Obama like President Bush and other American presidents has no real respect for iInternational Law claiming such laws cannot be applied to a sovereign nation such as the USA or that is these laws apply to all other nations but not the USA and Israel and other American allies such as Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and so forth.

The problem is that Obama has a delemma because the US military under his command does basically as it pleases as it did under the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld Regime. Now for instance the torture techniques which are permitted under Obama's Regime don't include waterboarding but it seems do include most of those torture techniques which were used under Bush . These techniques are supposedly according to Obama do not constitute torture such as sleep deprivation ;prolonged isolation ie solitary confinement ; invasive and intrusive unnecessary searches of a detainee's cell and of their person; denying detainees their basic rights as guaranteed under international law etc.

So the Obama thing to do as it were is merely relabel or rebrand these techniques which do constitute torture as "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques" which are permitted by the US military Operating manual. Obama says that he personally has the authority to deny the basic rights and freedom from torture or inhumane conditions under which someone is held . Obama says this applies not just to foreign combatants but any American citizen as he sees fit. So Obama continues to imprison Bradley Manning for doing his civic duty by reporting about the crimes committed by American soldiers and other government personnel.

So to cover its war crimes and crimes against humanity the Israelis argue they have told civilians in Gaza to keep their distance from Hama members . This is sheer nonsense given the over crowded conditions in Gaza which is in actual fact merely an open prison or Ghetto created by israel and the USA. So for instance an Hamas leader is driving through Gaza city all the citizens on that street must be aware that the vehichle contains an Hamas official and so run away but even if they knew where do they run to the sea but the Gazans are fired upon if they dare to take a boat out to seas.

Israeli Missile Strike Hits Gaza Media Center, Wounds Journalists Reuters via Huffington Post 11/18/2012

* Two city-centre media buildings hit in air strikes

* Eight wounded; Israel says Hamas using human shields

By Maayan Lubell and Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA/JERUSALEM, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Israeli aircraft hit two Gaza media buildings on Sunday, wounding eight journalists and drawing concern from press covering the fighting between Palestinian militants and the Jewish state.

The Israeli military said the attacks were pinpoint strikes on Hamas communication devices located on the buildings' roofs, and accused the Islamist group of using reporters as human shields to try and protect their operations.

Britain's Sky News, German ARD, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya, Beirut-based al Quds television and other broadcasters operate from the two buildings, which are a block apart. One employee from al Quds TV lost his leg in the early morning strike.

The attack came on the fifth day of heavy air strikes on the coastal enclave which Israel says are needed to halt repeated militant rocket launches into its territory.

The Foreign Press Association covering Israel and the Palestinian Territories issued a statement in which it expressed concern over the bombings and quoted a U.N. Security Council resolution that condemned attacks against journalists.

Israeli military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich denied that journalists were the target of the strike.

"Hamas took a civilian building and used it for its own needs. So the journalists ... were serving as human shields for Hamas," she said.

The military added that in order to avoid worse casualties, it had refrained from firing at an Hamas operations room which it said was located inside one of the buildings.

Abdel-Ghani Jaber, director of a private Palestinian media production company, said two of his employees were wounded when the blast shattered the windows of his office.

"I was asleep when it happened ... I jumped from the mattress because it sounded so near," Jaber said, "I wanted to look out the window when someone told me the building was being bombed and I started to run. As I ran a second missile hit just above our floor and damaged a room in my office."

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, journalists held a protest against Sunday's strikes. Palestinian government spokeswoman Nour Odeh said the attacks were "a clear message against the freedom of journalism and opinions".

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights condemned the raid and said that: "Israeli forces jammed the broadcasts of a number of local radio stations."

An Israeli military spokesman said the army had cut into a Hamas radio frequency on Sunday and used it to broadcast warnings to residents to get away from Hamas properties and avoid becoming casualties.

In a 2008-2009 war against Hamas, Israel attacked one of the same buildings that was blasted on Sunday, again accusing Islamist militant of operating out of the tower block. (Writing by Maayan Lubell; editing by Crispian Balmer)

It is odd that when a journalist is tragically killed by terrorists the Europeans and Americans go ballistic but when Israel or the USA murders a journalist they just make excuses and so get away with their deliberate attacks on jounalists as the US did in conquering Baghdad in 2003 .

Journalist often targeted by US Forces and The US government and military and even the US Mainstream Media defend such actions. Once again we see the USA like Israel has no respect for the rule of law and are in fact lethally antagonistic towards journalist who do not follow the party line which the rest of the media has agreed to.

For example is the Baghdad massacre in which journalist were ruthlessly murdered along with a dozen innocent civilians but even Obama and company see such acts as unimportant since none of those murdered were American citizens .

Journalists targeted by US forces
Uploaded by RTAmerica on May 4, 2011
Cases continue to mount of journalists willed while covering war, not because they are caught in the crossfire, but because they are targeted by US forces.

Israeli forces target Palestinian journalists in Gaza
Uploaded by Yousef Al-Helou on Nov 16, 2007

Gaza journalists under israeli fire while covering an incursion in beit lahia town

Israeli soldiers attack a TV correspondent

Israeli soldiers fire on Al Jazeera correspondent - 04 Sep 09

Reuters journalist killed in Gaza
Uploaded by unite2starcrosslover on Apr 18, 2008

Footage of Fadel Shana, 23, being killed by a tank shell in the Gaza Strip has been released by the news agency, which said that the cameraman was hit despite clear markings that showed him to be a journalist.Footage released by Reuters shows Mr Shana filming a tank positioned a few hundred yards away in the distance, over the Israeli border.

and so it goes,
GORD.

War On Women: Death Of Savita Halappanavar & Austin Texas Petitions For Succession From Texas To Join The Union? & Limbaugh Single Handidly Lost The Election

2012-11-17T00:28:00.002-04:00

Is there any truth to the assertion by Rush Limbaugh that he is being accused or will be accused for single-handidly lost the election for Mitt Romney and the Republican Party?

Is he just delusional or a megalomaniac or seeking more notoriety or doing this to keep his ratings up ? If his "dittohead" fact challenged followers believe he is that powerful or that influential or viewed as a major threat by the Republican Party establishment then this would lend credence to his importance and to his own personal integrity since the establishment are far too willing to compromise according to this twisted point of view.they will keep listening to him

The Republicans are still in turmoil and shock to have lost even though they thought the Fix was in due to their various unethical quasi-legal dirty tricks and such. So they are looking for people to blame from the Black and Latino and female voters who voted for Obama or Colin Powell for his support for Obama which the GOP just says is really to do with race as with all those "Urbanites" code for Blacks who voted for Obama.

It is possible that due to the illegal and unethical manner the Republican Party and its Karl Rovian operatives interfered with the election process that some 2 million American voters if not a great deal more were not given the opportunity to register to vote or to cast their votes or were told they could cast a provisional ballot and hundreds of thousands of ballots may have been illegally or at least unethically tossed out by Republican operatives.

Rush Limbagh: 'I Am the Primary Reason' Mitt Romney Lost
David Pakman Show Published on Nov 14, 2012 by MidweekPolitics
--Rush Limbaugh says that he is the primary reason that Mitt Romney lost.

Over 31 states in America have presented petitons to the federal government to seccede from the union while claiming to be the Real Patriots who respect the Founding Fathers and the Constitution and like to remind everyone that their party the Republican party is the party of Lincoln
(Don't laugh they are like Sheldon Ironically impaired)

Meanwhile in a clever and somewhat humorous counter move the city of Austin Texas has presented the federal government with a petition to allow Austin Texas to be able to secede from the state of Texas and remain part of the United States.

Austin Files Petition to Secede from Texas, If Texas Secedes from US
Sam Seder of The Majority ReportNov. 15, 2012

The recent case in Ireland in which a woman who's life was in danger was denied an abortion which ultimately led to her death illustrate in a very stark and real way what the Republicans want to do in America by passing various forms of legislation to make abortions almost impossible though their long game is to over turn SCOTUS Roe V Wade 1973 which essentially made abortion legal in the USA .

Update War on Women: Ireland's NO Exception Abortion Laws

Woman Dies Due to Abortion Ban: "We Are A Catholic Country"
Published on Nov 15, 2012 by SamSeder Majority Report
Ireland's abortion ban has come into major scrutiny after 31 year old woman has died. Savita Halappanavar was denied a life-saving abortion and died of blood poisoning at Galway University hospital.

And even though the election is barely over Ohio Legislators are using the "lame Duck Session" to pass laws making it more difficult to get an abortion but are also designed so that it will lead to a court challenge they hope going all the way to the Supreme Court in hopes that Roe V Wade would be declared unconstitutional.

Ohio Legislature Seeks to Punish Women with Unconstitutional Bills During Lame Duck Session by Robin Marty, Senior Political Reporter, RH Reality Check November 13, 2012

...a "compromise" may have been reached between Ohio's anti-choice activist groups Ohio Right to Life and Faith2Action on the long blocked "heartbeat ban" that would make abortion illegal from the moment an embryonic heartbeat can be detected.

That compromise? Make it even more restrictive.

The "heartbeat ban" was always intended to be unconstitutional. The extreme group Faith2Action proposed it as a way to invoke a challenge to Roe v. Wade, allowing a possibility for the case to work its way through the court systems and end up in front of the Supreme Court. Ohio Right to Life, on the other hand, urged caution, worried that if the case made it all the way up the ladder, Roe would be reaffirmed rather than overturned.

Rumor has it that caution has been thrown out the window. Although previously anti-choice politicians showed reluctance to write a law so destined for a court challenge, now they have decided that rather than write a more constitutional bill, they will instead break it into pieces. Should the bill fail to overcome a legal challenge, the unconstitutional aspects of it can be dropped, and a defanged, more moderate set of pre-termination restrictions will remain instead.

With that sort of "get out of jail free" card attached, the bill's backers have allegedly decided to go all out when it comes to unconstitutional abortion bans. According to speculation from multiple sources, rather than just banning abortion at the point of a heartbeat—which could be as much as 4 weeks post conception—they have chosen to write the bill so abortion is banned at conception itself. Should that be struck down by the courts, the ban would revert to the heartbeat as it was originally proposed. If the courts strike that down, then the law would default to a trigger law that would go into effect if Roe ever is overturned, banning abortion at any point and for any reason. Until that goes into effect, women would still be required to have a forced ultrasound prior to terminating a pregnancy, and be forced to listen to the embryonic heartbeat before having an abortion.

The actual bill hasn't yet been introduced for Thursday's senate session. Those who support abortion rights have noted that the anti-choice political groups have been playing it close to the vest, not wanting to unveil too soon a bill that most believe they have been working on quietly and out of sight while the bulk of attention has been on the 2012 election.

"We knew all along that the bill was still alive," state Senator Nina Turner told RH Reality Check. "It's crystal clear what they are doing. They have been working on this all this time and here it is. They are following through on everything they said they would."

Senate Leader Tom Niehaus may have blocked the original "heartbeat ban" from coming out of committee prior to the election, but now that he is finishing his final days in the senate and the contentious 2012 elections are over, he's ready to take the ban up.

"I'm not surprised," said Turner, who said Neihaus never actually spoke out against the ban while he was blocking it. "This has always been on their agenda. They are very shrewd, they took this behind the scenes while we waged this fierce battle
nationally."

Even though the Republican pro-life champions of "personhood" party did not win the national election don't take it for granted that the War on Women and their reproductive rights . In Palin Land that is Alaska the government there has done all it can to prevent women with having easy access to have an abortion.

Eight Clinics, One Plane, and a Vast Number Of Reasons It's So Difficult to Get an Abortion In Alaska by Robin Marty, Senior Political Reporter, RH Reality Check November 13, 2012

Tomorrow magazine profiles a woman's attempt to obtain an abortion in Alaska, showing the perils of trying to balance privacy and convenience in accessing safe abortion care. The author discovers her pregnancy at just five weeks, yet by the time she is finally able to end it, she is nine weeks along. In Alaska, an abortion requires far more than just the surgery; it also means airplane tickets, multiple appointments scheduled and rescheduled, and finally a trip to a private doctor. It didn't have to be that way, but a combination of limited clinics in a vast geographic area, the fact that only a handful of practitioners are willing to provide abortions, and restrictive rules governing safe medication abortion all make what could be a very simple process overly burdensome.

...With a nearly $700 bill for an abortion, not including her plane ticket to the clinic, Annoymous incurred well over $1000 so as not to be forced to be pregnant for longer than she wanted to be. For women in Alaska without financial means, those expenses would be nearly impossble. Yet the state continues to try to find ways to block even more low income women from using state funding for any abortion coverage.
Will the redefinition of a "medically necessary abortion" come up before the 2013 legislature as it has in the past? For the sake of Alaskan women, lets hope not.

And shaming young girls for using Family Planning Services for contraception and even medical purposes such as a yeast infection is the extremes to which the pro-personhood movement has been and is willing to go. As Robin Marty explains the pro-life mevement is not just about preventing abortions but also is trying to make all forms of birth control illegal.

The Pro-lifers show their true colors as they protest and pray outside a Family Services center where no abortions are performed though the center does give out advice to women about birth control methods and take care of women's health in general.

They Are Coming for Your Birth Control: Bless Me, Father, For I Have Sinned... and Need Monistat by Robin Marty, Senior Political Reporter, RH Reality Check November 12, 2012

Wausau, Wisconsin, doesn't have a clinic that provides abortion services. But that doesn't mean anti-choice protesters in the community are willing to bypass the tradition that is the "40 Days for Life" vigil, a twice-yearly event where religious advocates try to pray to "end abortion."

No, in Wausau, they simply took their protest to the sidewalk in front of Family Planning Services. Those services? Birth control, WIC distribution, STI screenings.
Oh, and basic health care, too...

...Those who protested the clinic see it as just as "dangerous" as those that provide abortions. According to the participants (members of Pro-Life Wisconsin, of course), the fact that they allow contraception at all, especially to teens, shows they are willfully promoting illicit, illegal behavior.

"State financing of Family Planning Health Services isn't just a failed policy, however. It's also a policy that encourages illegal behavior. The age of sexual consent in Wisconsin is 16. Yet FPHS proudly distributes contraception to kids as young as 15..."

So as we see in the article refered to below according to Cardinal Timothy Dolan president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops it is not just abortions that they are against but also all forms of birth control. They want to ensure that birth-control is not readily available from the birth control pill to condoms to the morning after pill and abortions.

and also see:

Catholic bishop vows to keep fighting birth-control mandate By Sam Baker at The Hill - 11/13/12

Catholics won't stop fighting the Obama administration's contraception mandate, Cardinal Timothy Dolan reportedly said Tuesday.

The Associated Press reported that Dolan, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the church will not comply with the mandate and will continue challenging it in court.

Churches and houses of worship are exempt from the administration's policy requiring employers to include contraception in their employees' healthcare plans. The White House has also made a more nuanced "accommodation" for religious-affiliated employers, such as Catholic hospitals and universities.

In a series of lawsuits challenging the contraception policy, critics argue that any employer should be able to opt out of the mandate based on their religious beliefs, even if their business isn't at all connected to a religious organization.

The birth-control policy created a short but intense political headache for the Obama administration last year as Catholic leaders, including Dolan, said the White House was forcing them to pay for a product they find immoral.

But after announcing accommodations for religious-affiliated employers, Obama seemed to regain the political upper hand on the issue by shifting the debate away from religious liberty and toward women's health. He campaigned aggressively on the contraception policy this year as part of a push for female voters.

and so it goes,
GORD.

Nothing Says Merry Christmas Like Santa & Kids With AK47s & Sheriff Joe Arpaio Playing Secret Santa Gives Out Automatic Weapons To His Posse

2012-11-16T12:55:00.001-04:00

Reality once again in Arizona reality is stranger than fiction

Santa ,Guns & Kids part of a truly American Christmas

Bill O'Reilly and the gang at Fox News should take heart that in Arizona they know the true meaning of Christmas a time to give your loved one's automatic weapons ie AK 47s as appropriate gifts on Jesus' birthday.
Meanwhile Israel getting into the spirit of the Holiday Season is going to celebrate Christmas this year after Obama's re-election as they did after Obama's election in 2008 by bombing the crap out of Gaza.

A father laments that under Arizona laws his children have to wait til they are 5 years old before getting certified to use an automatic weapon.
Only in America!
Arizona getting ready in case the GOP declares another Civil War all because Obama won a second term???

Sheriff Joe Arpaio as part of his outreach to the Latino community for Christmas is giving his Posse Semi-Automatic weapons .
Arpaio is also dumbfounded and flabbergasted that when he or his Posse try to arrest an alleged criminal they have the audacity and the effrontery to run away.

Santa and Machine Guns: In Arizona, Christmas Is Here Again By DAVID WRIGHT (@abcdavid) and ERIN KEOHANE ABC Nightline, Dec. 22, 2011
Nothing says Christmas like a family photo with Santa and an AK-47.

Arizona's Scottsdale Gun Club hosts what might be the oddest photo opportunity of the holiday season -- a family picture with jolly Ol' St. Nick and some high-powered firearms: AK-47s, grenade launchers and machine guns.

"People decide to celebrate the holidays in unique ways," said club spokesman Ron Kennedy. "Some choose to do it with Santa at the mall, others in front of their tree. Our members and customers like to do it with 'Santa and Machine Guns.'"

Video removed for technical reasons.
here's the link to youtube:

Guns, Santa ,Christmas and Jesus as American as "apple Pie".

Replaced by :

Unique offer to pose with Santa & machine guns in Scottsdale

Guns For Tots! Arizona gun club poses kids with Santa and rocket launchers!

"Forget The IPod, Santa Giving More Guns This Year."

Gun sales rising in Arizona

Don't Worry, Folks: Santa and His Machine Guns Are Back in Scottsdale By Matthew Hendley Phoenix New Times.com (Valley Fever) Nov. 16 2012

In case anyone was worried, we can indeed confirm that Santa (yes, kids, the real one) will be back at Scottsdale Gun Club this year with his machine guns.

According to the shooting range's blog, the jolly fat man will be there on November 17 and December 2. They also upped the price five bucks over last year.

As you may recall, this same event last year ended up being a really successful publicity stunt, with most of the news coverage apparently reinforcing a thought that everyone in Arizona's a hillbilly -- like the guy who told ABC News, "Our kids have never touched guns. The little ones have never touched guns. Not until they are 5 years old..."

Arizona is the "Colt Single-Action Army Revolver State," after all -- and the location of a mass shooting involving a congresswoman, and where the federal government gave guns to people to bring to Mexico (some of which were lost, and some of which were found at crime scenes).

Welp, happy holidays.

Wild, Wild West
Merry Christmas! From Your Toddler, Santa, and a Machine Gun
By James King Phoenix New Times.com (valley Fever) Nov. 30 2011

Nothing says happy holidays (in Arizona, anyway) like Santa, your toddler, and a machine gun -- and you can celebrate the holidays by getting a picture of all three at the Scottsdale Gun Club next month.

According to the club, "Santa's back with his bag of goodies" -- which happens to include an arsenal of machine guns -- and on December 10, it will give families the opportunity to have their pictures taken with Santa and his guns.

Even children will be allowed to be photographed while holding the weapons, the club says.

Arizona doesn't exactly have the best reputation when it comes to firearms -- the Tucson shooting, the fact that guns are allowed in Arizona bars, and "Operation Fast and Furious" certainly haven't helped the state's image. So it only makes (gulp) sense to arm children with high-powered machine guns for family Christmas cards.
And not to be outdone racist thug Sheriff Arpaio is giving his posse automatic weapons for Christmas because whenever they try to arrest people they run away . Did Joe Arpaio take a degree in Criminology to figure this out. Yes Joe criminals don't want to be caught whether they are illegal aliens or not. Or is Sheriff Joe just getting ready in case the feds try to capture him and his posse for the numerous crimes they have committed.

Another Stupid-Sheriff Story: Joe Arpaio: "Illegal Aliens" Keep Trying to Run Away, So All Deputies Get Automatic Weapons By Matthew Hendley via Phoenix New Times.com (Valley Fever) Nov. 15 2012

Sheriff Joe Arpaio put out a press release today, in part explaining the reason that every MCSO deputy will be getting an automatic weapon.

"More and more illegal aliens are attempting to escape which places my deputies in dangerous positions," Arpaio's press release says. "In the near future I will be issuing automatic weapons for all my deputies."

The Sheriff's Office points to a pair of "short vehicle chases through the desert" as evidence of the escaping illegal immigrants.

In one case, the MCSO says deputies tried to go after a speeding car, but that car ended up going even faster, then going off-road, through a fence, and into some desert area in the southeast Valley.

About a mile after the tires went flat, all eight people in the car bailed, but they were caught.

In the other instance, Human Smuggling Unit detectives caught some guys in the act, loading up a car with marijuana. After a chase that ended "a short distance later," MCSO says six people were eventually arrested, and the Valley's now short 120.5 pounds of weed.

Well, the buck stops here. Auto weapons for everyone.

Gang of Clowns Scare White Supremacists & Religious Right Calls Obama Wicked & Update Arpaio & Arizona Voter Suppression & Woman Dies Due To Ireland's War On Women

2012-11-15T18:20:00.000-04:00

Update Religious Right reaction to Obama's re-election and gay marriage : Obama is a wicked man
Published on Nov 14, 2012 by RWWBlog
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/joyner-our-president-barack-obama-wicke...
"Prophet" Bob Jones says that Hurricane Sandy was God's judgment for legalizing gay marriage while Rick Joyner says that President Obama is a wicked man.

White Supremacists Get Trolled By Clown Protestors
Published on Nov 13, 2012 by TheYoungTurks
"Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police say no one was arrested during a loud -- and very colorful -- KKK rally and counter-protest in uptown Charlotte Saturday afternoon.

Election in doubt in Arizona due to voter suppression by Republican state and local government authorities. It should be investigated by the Department of Justice to determine the extent of the problem in Arizona . There are still protesters in the streets demanding an investigation or have another vote if problems were and are widespread. But corrupt racist Sheriff Arpaio after declaring himself the winner even though thousands of votes go uncounted or tossed in the garbage and citizens were misinformed that is lied to by Republican controlled government officials about where to vote and when they could vote or what ID they needed to vote .

The election outcome was guaranteed from the outset by Sheriff Arpaio and the corrupt officials who support Sheriff Arpaio and his reign of terror over a large part of the state. At times it appears even the state governor and the legislature tends to bend to Sheriff Arpaio's will. Anyone who dares to oppose him soon find they are under his scrutiny and that their job and reputation and even their freedom is at stake.

Arizona yet to finalize votes: suppressing the minority vote?
Published on Nov 14, 2012 by RTAmerica
It's been over a week since President Obama was declared the victor of the 2012 presidential election, but in Arizona the outcome of several races are up in the air. Still hundreds of thousands of votes remain to be counted and many claim that the votes that remain uncounted are from minority voters. Petra Falcon, director of Promise Arizona, brings us more.
RT America LIVE http://rt.com/on-air/rt-america-air/
Subscribe to RT America! http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=RTAmerica

And now to continue where we left off yesterday in our commentary on the messy elections in the USA.

As mentioned in yesterday's post the flawed elections in the USA is just another part of the corrupt system in the nation which has accepted corruption as just part of business as usual whether its rigged elections, voter suppression , lobbyists buying off elected officials who serve those lobbyists rather than the citizens who voted them into office . Even career bureaucrats or civil servants view their jobs in the light of what sorts of financial security they can get once they leave government to go to work as lobbyists or working in some cases in the very industries and businesses which as government employees they are supposed to be helping to oversee and regulate. If the only values one has are those based upon material wealth then talk about ethics and morality are just words people spout to make themselves appear as if they had some depth or personal integrity when in fact their integrity is for sale to the highest bidder whether the individual is some lowly bureaucrat or head of a major government department or a member of Congress or even in the White House they all have their price . And the selling out as it were crosses party lines and is not unique to the GOP as some would prefer to think. Of course it's not quite accurate to say these people have sold out since that implies they once had ideals and a sense of personal integrity but in most cases they never did.

The long stupefying surely unnecessary lines at the polls in Arizona or Florida on election day in the USA as such look like the lines one sees in elections in some Banana Republic one run by a dictator or Military junta or authoritarian regime or Oligarchy where elections are meaningless and just part of a dog and monkey show to appease foreign powers and the USA or the United nations. In those nations people are intimidated and threatened by those in authority and told who they can and who they cannot vote but they must go through the mechanics of voting or there will be severe consequences.

What has emerged in the USA is one party in particular that is the Republican party which believes it has a better chance of winning elections at whatever level by having a low voter turnout. The Democratic party has found that it prospers best with a high voter turnout. So whenever Democrats dare to suggest streamlining the registration and the casting of ballots and making the whole process easier as they say user friendly and more transparent the Republicans call such measures partisan and as being in fact just another way for Democrats to defeat Republicans. This is a rather cynical move on the part of the Republicans since one would expect agreement by all political parties on such improvements in the election process . So Republicans are very much against such scrutiny especially since in this election it appears that most egregious tactics used to undermine the voting process were carried out by Republicans and their operatives .

So in this election cycle recounting of votes or insisting on deeming election results in one region or state as null and void and that there must be a new election held where it is deemed necessary is treated as if this were a complete and utter condemnation and repudiation of America's elections and of the American system of government and of America itself and such a person would be labeled as being UnAmerican and unpatriotic .

Democracy that is genuine democracy is based upon electing representatives to form the government and the loyal opposition who then engage in debates over legislation based upon the needs and desires of their constituency. There is then a process for passing legislation and putting it into law. But those representatives are supposed to be working for their constituency and not for some other group such as lobbyists and the elected officials biggest financial backers. This abuse of authority and power in the USA has now reached dizzying heights and is the very essence of corruption in which elections may be considered window dressing for a non-democratic regime which no longer answers to the people but primarily to the rich and powerful and their minions. It may be that nationally for the most part in most regions or state the outcome of the election is to a greater or lesser degree considered legitimate but that in some regions or entire states the process is not merely flawed but rather purposely dysfunctional and corrupt in which case there should be on going investigations by the federal government to discover how widespread these illegal or at least unethical practices are to then determine the legitimacy of the outcome of the election process in that particular region or state.

The problem in the USA is the notion of the sovereignty of each state as if each state has merely agreed conditionally to be part of this collective or commonwealth which is the construct known as the United States of America and that leaving this construct is always an option when the states see the federal government as no longer representing that state's interest.not merely the registering to vote and then casting a ballot this is only one step in the process. At the very least the ballots must be counted honestly and with due diligence in a transparent manner. But keeping hundreds of thousands if not a few million citizens in the recent case of the USA from voting or having their ballots counted in other nations this would constitute a fraudulent or dysfunctional process and therefore should be investigated and at the extreme if the voter suppression and vote rigging is considered egregious enough the election could be considered null and void for the nation as a whole or just particular regions ie states or counties.

But in the USA it is now taken for granted by the media , the two major parties and a large swathe of the public that such anti-democratic tactics are just another part of the election process that is all's fair in love and war and election campaigns. The only caveat seems to be to not get caught at least not until the election is over and if your guy wins why ask for a recount or investigation into voter suppression and other "dirty tricks". According to those who supported President Nixon they believed and many still believe that Nixon's problem wasn't that he committed various crimes and abused his position of authority but rather that he got caught and so was forced to resign . The Republicans could not for instance understand why such a fuss was made about the Watergate break in since they believed that both parties are involved in questionable tactics whether illegal or immoral so why should their party and their leader be singled out.

Update: War On Women -

The war on women and on reproductive rights versus the rights of the unborn is not just a theoretical debate as the recent incident in Ireland proves the injustice done to a woman who was allowed to die rather than attempting to save her by performing an abortion on a non-viable fetus. Yes there was a heartbeat but doctors said it could not survive . And yet the leaders and spokespersons for the pro-life " personhood " movement in the USA as defended by Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and others are not deterred as they claim a woman's life is never in danger to the degree that an abortion would save her life. Simply put they are wrong.

We Are All Savita Halappanavar: Catholic Hospital in Ireland Denies Woman Life-Saving Abortion by Jodi Jacobson, Editor in Chief, RH Reality Check November 13, 2012

...Someone's daughter, wife, friend, perhaps sister is now dead. Why? Because a non-viable fetus was more important than her life. Because she was left to suffer for days on end in service of an ideological stance and religion she did not share. Because a wanted pregnancy went horribly wrong, and, because as must now be clear, there are people who don't care about the lives of women. And there are others so invested in their uninformed misogynistic ideology that they claim there are no situations in which a woman's life might be endangered by pregnancy. Like, say, the recently defeated Congressman Joe Walsh.

This case happened in Ireland. But it is not isolated. Just this past summer, a teen in the Dominican Republic died because she was denied chemotherapy for cancer. Countless others die every day, but without press coverage we just don't see or hear about them. As Ipas notes, Women in El Salvador and Mexico have been put in jail for both abortions and "suspicious" miscarriages. Young girls in Argentina and Brazil, victims of violence and incest, have been denied safe abortion care. A total abortion ban in Nicaragua means that not only do women die for lack of safe abortion care, but that untold numbers of women and girls who are the victims of violence are forced to endure pregnancy and childbearing against their will.

And if they have their way, anti-choice fanatics in the United States want this country to join these others in denying women their very personhood. There is H.R. 3, the Let Women Die Act, passed in the last Congress by the rabidly anti-woman House majority. There is the "Sanctity Of Human Life [As Long As You Are Not Female] Act," so strongly supported by recent Vice Presidential candidate and current congressman, Paul Ryan (R-WI). There are heartbeat bans, and bans on medication abortion, laws that force doctors to lie to women, and laws that force women to undergo unnecessary trans-vaginal and abdominal ultrasounds. There are attacks on Planned Parenthood and Title X, past and future. And in addition to the terrorism and accosting of women in evidence wherever safe abortion care is provided, there is harassment at clinics that do not even provide abortions.

These are the lives of your sister, your mother, your daughter, your aunt, your friends, and your colleagues. These are the lives at stake. These are the very people that the fanatical anti-choice and religious right see as "not people."

They are all Savita Halappanavar.

We are all Savita Halappanavar.

But we do not have to die at the hands of misogynists.

In honor of Savita Halappanavar; in honor of the nearly 22 million women worldwide each year who endure unsafe abortion in honor of the 47,000 women per year worldwide who die from complications of unsafe abortion and the estimated 10 times that number who suffer long-term health consequences; in honor of the millions of women who do not have access to contraception, who have no control over whether and with whom they have sex or and whether or with whom they have children, we can fight back. In honor of the young girls married young and the women forced to bear children long past the point they are able to care for more... for all these women, we must continue to act, to liberalize abortion laws, ensure every woman has access, remove the stigma, and trust women, like Savita, who know when it is time to end even the most wanted pregnancy.

Because she deserved to live. We deserve to live. We are people.

and so it goes,
GORD.

Re-electing Notorious Racist Sheriff Arpaio & The On Going Election Fiasco In The U.S.A.

2012-11-14T23:16:00.000-04:00

Though sheriff Arpaio and his politically corrupt and racist friends have also managed to get re-elected in large part to on going voter suppression the movement to remove him from office continues based on his racial profiling and questionable police activities and accusations of tolerating police brutality and poor to inhumane treatment of prisoners in his tent city in the hot Arizona desert.

Arpaio was even proud to have served baloney sandwiches which had been turning green and proud of his use of chain gangs and making all male prisoners wear pink underwear which he thinks is funny. Any municipal or state official who speaks out against him often lose their jobs and/or are arrested for minor infractions . He sees nothing wrong with keeping the entire Latino population in his jurisdiction living in fear even if they had not broken any laws .

Meanwhile Sheriff Arpaio obsessed with illegal-immigrants neglects other on going crimes whether murders or robberies or sex crimes . He is too busy setting up check points to harass mainly non-whites and doing massive seeps through residential areas using his posse of over 300 officers merely to further intimidate these communities so that they have become afraid to go to the media or to the Feds to make complaints. Even if they do those complains are more often than not ignored because those agents of the FBI or other federal agencies approve of what Arpaio is doing or are afraid to take him on .

Sheriff Arpaio's newest obsession has been as a "Birther" investigating whether or not Obama is legally an American citizen.

Even president Obama, Joe Biden, Hilary Clinton, Eric Holder appear to be afraid to even criticize Arpaio let alone insist on an in depth substantive investigation of Arpaio or his backers in government and at the powerful Well Fargo and its Wall St. backers..

Unfortunately this is how most republicans and conservative Democrats believe that all other police chiefs and departments should be doing ti impose law and order on the citizens of the USA especially those who are not white and to hell with old antiquated and as George W. Bush and his posse would say quaint legal restrictions such as the US Constitution , the Bill of rights and constitutional amendments. It puts Obama in a difficult situation since he has done nothing to seriously investigate the heavy-handed police response to the #OWS Occupy protesters across the USA over the past year and there are some who believe Obama gave the Green light to these police departments to do as they pleased short of killing large numbers of protesters.

Sheriff Arpaio 432 Sex Crimes Ignored - 432 Victims Silenced (Mirror)

Published on Nov 7, 2012 by TheBadcop69
We need your help to air this TV commercial!
Donate here: http://noarpaio.org/donate

Sheriff Arpaio's MCSO failed to investigate 432 sex crimes. Want more information about his massive failure? You can learn more here: http://noarpaio.org

Maddow Arizona's election broken on purpose -Nov. 12, 2012

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

More on Arpaio below my commentary on the U.S. fiasco of an election .

Notorious racist anti-immigrant Sheriff Arpaio of Arizona has supposedly been re-elected .

"Supposedly" meaning he claimed victory even though several hundred thousand ballots have not been counted and may have been or will be tossed into the garbage because most of these ballots are provisional ballots. It is a serious matter legally and ethically when someone who thinks they have registered to vote goes to vote and they are informed at the last minute they are not registered but may fill out a provisional ballot which may or may not be counted.

That's democracy 101 in the USA that is passing voter regulations which rather than helping people to register to vote as has been done in other democratic countries or to actually cast a ballot instead in the USA regulations are passed to make registering to vote and casting a ballot ignoring even common sense as difficult and as complicated and as even arbitrary as possible. Besides these provisional ballots which may or may not be counted there were a large number of voters who didn't cast their ballots because of a deliberate effort on the part of the Arizona government purposefully to give out "accidentally on purpose" misinformation such as that the polls would be open a day after the election was held so who knows how many people fell for this tactic or others including the long lines at the polling stations in which people would be in line anywhere from 4 to 9 hours.

In fact who knows how many potential voters after standing in line for hours may have just given up and went home without casting a ballot or who just seeing the lines on TV were dissuaded them from voting . Democrats and anyone who supports the very idea of democracy should want more objective and closer scrutiny of the election process and making it more transparent and accountable not just in Arizona but throughout the United States.

The fiasco we have seen via television and on the net on Twitter ,Facebook and at Youtube etc you would think would shame the American public into taking substantive measures to develop a national set of rules to make elections fairer and more transparent across the nation. This fiasco should be seen as an embarrassment to the U.S. government and to the media and public instead it is more often joked about than taken as a serious issue.

The point being it does not matter which party across the nation in a particular region or state is found to be guilty of undermining election results and the election process because without such genuine scrutiny during or after an election the ideal of democracy has no real validity since anyone can put the fix in and get away with it. There is as has been said no point in laws which are either unenforceable or which there is no genuine intention to enforce them in the first place.

So granting citizens the right to vote becomes meaningless if they in fact are unable to vote due to unnecessary regulations which are aimed to stop certain groups from voting because they may vote in a way contrary to what those in power want.

Who is afraid of Sheriff Joe Arpaio?

Video Uploaded by Dennis Gilman on Feb 4, 2012 On January 31

After being denied the opportunity to comment on agenda items concerning Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Citizens for a better Arizona (CBA) walked out of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors meeting.

The boards Chairman Max Wilson, a loyal supporter of Arpaio, changed the rules so no agenda items were allowed direct public response. Even when it was discovered 100 million tax dollars were misspent, incest victims (as young as 2 years old) cases were closed without investigation and racial profiling reached historic levels, The republican supervisors are afraid (to) the challenge Arpaio. In Arizona, to go up against Arpaio means your political career is over (if you are a republican). It also has meant that you, your family and career could be threatened.

ARREST ARPAIO/Occupy Arpaio Uploaded by Dennis Gilman on Jan 16, 2012

In the first of what the Puente Movement pledges to be bi-monthly rallies until the Sheriff is brought to justice, people rallied in Cesar Chavez Park across the street from the Wells Fargo Building that houses the offices of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. They marched to Arpaio's 4th Avenue Jail, protesting the murder of Marty Atencio, a veteran suffering from a bipolar condition who was brutally attacked and beaten to death by Sheriff Arpaio's guards and the Phoenix PD. This happened on December 15, less then 24 hours after Arpaio was served notice from the DOJ.

The Puente Movement has held rallies and marches against the Sheriff since February of 2009. Now, in the wake of the recent news of the 432 children of El Mirage who suffered sexual abuse without investigation due to the Sheriff's neglect, the DOJ report that affirmed that Sheriff Arpaio's office is the worst purveyor of racial profiling investigators have ever seen, and the recent jailhouse murder of Marty Atencio, the non-partisan organization is calling for the arrest of the Sheriff and calling for all the Sheriff's supporters and collaborators to heed the moral responsibility to cut their ties.

Diana Perez of Puente announced, "In the face of such blatant injustice, we all have a moral responsibility to do whatever is in our power to stop Sheriff Arpaio's abuses. To stand idly by is to be complicit in the suffering in Maricopa County and every county where Arizonification has turned public servants into political sadists like Arpaio."

As for Arpaio and the " birther " movement he gets more notoriety and distracts from his own criminal activity and contravening American and international law while making money on fueling conspiracy theories and selling food to inmates .And the more inmates he has the more money he receives for his Prison Complex For Profit

Sheriff Arpaio profiting from birther battle?

and more fun with the stereotypical toughest inhumane unjust Sheriff in America who lives up and beyond his stereotype in the name of publicity and the big bucks through government and Well Fargo :

Ruby Wax talks to Sheriff Joe Arpaio about his harsh policies
Nov. 14, 2012

Arpaio proud of his inhumane treatment of prisoners and making them pay for their food. It's all about the money. He also admits he's like to make the living conditions even worse than they are to punish these criminals in the way that they should be

Sheriff Joe Arpaio talks to Ruby Wax about prisoner humiliation

and so it goes,
GORD.

GOP #FAIL Number One Prority Obama One Term Presidentt

2012-11-13T17:31:00.000-04:00

"But if you had said to me three weeks ago, Mitt Romney would get fewer votes than John McCain and it looks like he’ll be 2 million fewer, I would have been dumbfounded."

Newt Gingrich quote from: Newt Gingrich 'Dumbfounded' By Obama's 'Extraordinary Victory' Over Mitt Romney by Elyse Siegel, Huffington Post, Nov. 12, 2012

“We cannot be, we must not be, the party that simply protects the rich so they get to keep their toys.” [Jindal] was just as blunt on how the GOP should speak to voters, criticizing his party for offending and speaking down to much of the electorate.

“It is no secret we had a number of Republicans damage our brand this year with offensive, bizarre comments — enough of that,” Jindal said. “It’s not going to be the last time anyone says something stupid within our party, but it can’t be tolerated within our party. We’ve also had enough of this dumbed-down conservatism. We need to stop being simplistic, we need to trust the intelligence of the American people and we need to stop insulting the intelligence of the voters."

Quote by Gov. Bobby Jindal from
"Reality is not simple Politico interview with Gov. Bobby Jindal", via Right Hand Thief blog, Nov. 13, 2012

Newt Gingrich Dumbfounded (not that surprising)About Obama's Election Win

GOP #FAIL : No wonder Newt Gingrich is dumbfounded since he and his fellow Republicans have now failed in their #1 priority which since day 1 of Obama's Presidency was to make him a one term president.

As disclosed in April 2012 The Republicans did in fact plan since day 1 to oust Obama

Secret Meeting to Take Down Obama exposed
1 minute snippet taken from the 12 minute msnbc video of The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell's program which aired Wednesday 4-25-2012. O'Donnell is speaking about an excerpt from the book 'DO NOT ASK WHAT GOOD WE DO' author Robert Draper

The Real GOP Priority? Deny Obama A Second Term

The Republicans having lost the election are now busy trying to figure out why they lost. Some merely complain that too many American's as Bill O'Reilly proclaims they just want "free thing" and Obama promised them even more "free things".Other Republicans complain that the white males in America are now a minority and that they have to find ways to reach out or to dupe these non-white males that the Republicans better represent their ideals and values.

But as Latino American actor John Leguizamo points out even when Republicans are talking about reaching out to Latinos they sound patronizing and in effect racist. While Republican Grover Norquist appeals to his new political theory that President Obama won basically because he indulged in name calling calling Mitt Romney a "poopy Head". So this is the Poopy Head political theory.

But if it were just about name calling then shouldn't the GOP and Romney have won since for four years they haven't stopped calling Obama names for instance Glenn Beck almost exhausted all of the names he could call Obama on national TV such as Beck called Obama a socialist, a communist, a collectivist, a new Hitler or a Stalin or Mao Tze Tung possibly the anti-Christ or the precursor to the anti-Christ and as being a secret Islamic Jihadists; a Manchurian candidate for Kenya ; that Obama was a racist angry black man who hates all white people ;as a guy who pals around with domestic terrorists and is in fact a champion for the terrorists and who is not legally an American citizen and that he was involved with Chicago gangsters , a drug addict , a pimp so on.

John Leguizamo Takes On Bill O'Reilly Over GOP, Shift In White Political Power (VIDEO) Huffington Post Live 11/12/2012

Emmy-winning actor John Leguizamo stopped by HuffPost Live to share his thoughts on the presidential election and how Latinos have shaped the political landscape. In an interview with host Alicia Menendez, he was critical of the conservative shuffle to explain their loss of the Latino vote, and how they intend to court it in the future. “I feel like they’re even talking down when they’re trying to reach out,” he said.
“They’re still doing us a favor. I know Bill O’Reilly feels like America’s changed and is no longer in the control of white power. But it never really has been. It’s been a false power. I mean, this country was founded by Latin people. We have been here all along. Some of us are from different parts of Latin America, but Mexicans have always been here. And the Spaniards discovered the country. You just have to understand that we’ve been here.”

Newt Gingrich after the Republicans lost the election offers up supposedly sage advice about what they should learn for the Obama campaign. This is rich coming from one of the leading promoters of "The Birther Conspiracy" and was a powerful voice against building a mosque near the 9/11 ground zero location in New York because he tried to suggest Obama was a secret Islamic Jihadists who sympathized with the Muslim terrorists and would eventually incorporate the medieval style Sharia Islamic law across the USA. Gingrich said in 2010 that no more mosques should be built in America until the Saudi Arabian government allowed churches to be built in their country.

So Gingrich proposed following the bad policies of Saudi Arabia and therefore setting the Saudis up as America's model for democracy and religious tolerance.

So Gingrich's disputes with Obama were not just over a difference in policies but that in his view Obama was out to destroy America and transform it into a socialist Islamic Fascist state.As Gingrich proclaimed in September of this year that Obama is not a real president and is contemptuous of most Americans.

Like NFL refs, President Obama 'not real' President Sept. 26, 2012

And so now we have what the kinder gentler wise sage like Gingrich who is dumbfounded that all the mud-slinging by him and other Republicans did not affect the outcome of the election. And what galls these GOP clowns is that after spending hundreds of millions to rig the election to engage in voter suppression across the USA still Obama won. In the meantime they have the effrontery to claim they are the real Americans who believe in democracy and the Constitution and the rule of law and yet they threw all of that along with common decency overboard throughout Obama's first term and during this election.

They are not real patriots they appeal to patriotism to win votes while denying average Americans the Right To Vote especially if they are black or Latino or anyone who wants to vote Democrat and not republican.It is because of these phony patriots that due to their calls for deregulation that the US economy has been broken and in need of emergency care from the moment Obama won in 2008. Their attitude is that they don't personally care as long as they and their friends prosper and even make huge profits while gutting the nation leaving despair in their wake.

Mitt Romney was in many ways the perfect candidate to reflect their motives of Greed and Selfishness and their mean spirited attitudes towards those left bruised and in pain by their desire for bigger and bigger profits at any cost.

Newt Gingrich 'Dumbfounded' By Obama's 'Extraordinary Victory' Over Mitt Romney by Elyse Siegel, Huffington Post, Nov. 12, 2012

In the aftermath of Barack Obama's victory over Mitt Romney in the presidential election, Newt Gingrich said it's time for the Republican party "to stop, take a deep breath and learn."Gingrich reflected on the outcome of the contest during an appearance on NBC's "Today" on Monday.The former House Speaker, who made a failed bid for the GOP presidential nomination earlier this year, said, "The president won an extraordinary victory. And the fact is we owe him the respect of trying to understand what they did and how they did it."
He added, "But if you had said to me three weeks ago, Mitt Romney would get fewer votes than John McCain and it looks like he’ll be 2 million fewer, I would have been dumbfounded."In a Politico op-ed published online on Monday, Gingrich wrote, "For the conservative movement and the Republican Party to succeed in the future ( and while they are not identical the two are inextricably bound together) we will have to learn the lessons of 2012."
He explained, "An intellectually honest and courageous Republican Party has nothing to fear from the current situation."Asked about what he wrote on NBC's "Today," Gingrich said, "The great thing about elections is they belong to the American people." He added, "I was wrong last week, as was virtually every major Republican analyst. And so, you have to stop and say to yourself, if I was that far off, what do I need to learn to better understand America."

Meanwhile Republican Grover Norquist offered up his own theory about why Obama won and that it had nothing to do with policies.

Norquist argues Mitt Romney lost because President Obama called Romney a "Poopy Head" and other names. So what would he suggest that Romney should have attacked Obama more on his personal character .

So is he saying that the Republicans were afraid to go too negative on Obama that's a laugh. The GOP Norquist forgets has been calling Obama names and claiming Obama was a liar who had a secret agenda to undermine America and its values.

Limbaugh and others vowed from the moment of Obama's inauguration that their main agenda was to do all they could to make Obama a one term president and to block anything he tried to do. This turned into a hate fest with the founding of the faux populist grass roots protest movement called The Tea Party .

The Tea Party in 2010 stormed the Town Hall meeting across the country to prepare for the mid-term election to put Tea Party know nothings into government .

That movement was mixed in with the Birthers and calling Obama a usurper and not a real American and therefore not the real president of the United States. They called Obama a socialist, a communist, a fascist, a NAZI , a collectivist the new Hitler or Stalin while the GOP media stars such as Glenn Beck and Limbugh, O'Reilly ,Michael Savage , Michele Malkin, Laura Ingraham, Pam Geller, Sean Hannity and Fox News Channel promulgated all of this nonsense to their audience on a daily basis .

This merely proved that Republicans and their angry bigoted base had few if any policies to offer besides defeating President Obama.

Grover Norquist: Obama Won Because He Called Romney A 'Poopy Head' By Luke Johnson at huffington Post, Nov. 12, 2012

Grover Norquist, founder and president of Americans For Tax Reform, has a new theory about why President Barack Obama won -- he portrayed Mitt Romney as a "poopy head.""The president was committed; elected on the basis that he was not Romney and Romney was a poopy head and you should vote against Romney and he won by two points," Norquist said on CBS' "This Morning" Monday.
"But he didn't make the case that we should have higher taxes and higher spending, he kind of sounded like the opposite."Host Norah O'Donnell pushed back. "Well, I'm not sure that's what the president called Mitt Romney, Grover," she said.
"That's not the debate that was had ... he said very clearly throughout the debate that the wealthiest Americans should pay more and he won eight of the nine battleground states and Republicans failed to reclaim the White House or the Senate."
"What about the exit polls that show a broad support for raising taxes on the wealthiest americans. Are you wrong?" she asked.Norquist pointed to negative advertising against former GOP nominee Mitt Romney."Well, again, you saw those ads that suggested Romney gave people cancer in Ohio for months and months unanswered. You can trash an individual and get people to vote against him," he said. He then touted Republican governors who won elections pledging to phase out state income taxes. O'Donnell replied that those were state issues.
The ad Norquist is referring to -- a spot by pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA, tying a Bain Capital-controlled steel mill's closure to a lack of health care for an employee's wife, who eventually died from cancer -- aired mistakenly, according to Priorities USA. The ad was sharply criticized for being inaccurate.Other Republicans have struggled to explain Obama's win.
Karl Rove echoed Norquist recently, saying that the negative ads succeeded in "suppressing the vote."When asked if any members of Congress who have signed Americans for Tax Reform's pledge not to raise taxes would accept new revenue, Norquist said, "The pledge is to the American People not to me.""So they don't need my permission to vote," he said. "They made a commitment to the people in their states."

And so it goes, GORD.

Republican Calls Obama Voters " Maggots "

2012-11-12T00:10:00.000-04:00

Well it appears the Republicans are once again bad losers who are showing their disdain for all those UnAmerican American citizens who voted for more socialism and collectivism and for the Anti-Christ himself to rule America and the world.

They are hoping mad after spending a billion dollars or more and training their goons to make sure the election was in the bag more voters showed up at the polls and in F...U mood stood their ground literally by stubbornly waiting in line up to 9 hours or so to vote not fro the angry white guys party but for President Obama once again just to piss these guys off anticipating with glee Karl Rove's big head exploding and Michael Savage and Limbaugh and Glenn Beck blaming the Chinese communist and the Soviet operatives who have been working under cover since the Vietnam war .

It is a bit funny but also sad and sobering because some of their unhinged followers may take some sort violent reaction ala Dr. Strangelove or Red Dawn .

But America has seen its tragedies on at least a yearly basis as right wing domestic terrorist murder and maim and fire bomb and turn buildings into rubble and people they hate into victims of the not just the loony fringe but of those even Honourable good Americans on the right who believe only they and they alone should be permitted to govern in America.

The very idea of a black president is at odds with their narrow bigoted world view as they had hoped to further disenfranchise all Blacks and other minorities and gays and liberal women who don't know what's good for them.

As we were told as children its all fun and games til someone loses an eye -in this case let us hope that the FBI and others are on high alert cause these Repugs are not joking and as I have said before they never were - When Barry Goldwater said Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice these true believers took this as their creed and motto so they have never since then see anything wrong with getting elected even if they do so illegally and unethically since democracy is just a word they drag out just before an election .

For instance in this article we are told about a Republican who has called all those who voted for Obama "Maggots" well that should endear theses voters to in the next elections 2010 & 2016 to switch their votes to the Republicans and they wonder why they keep losing . Michael Savage said Obama rigged the election others will claim it was the Muslim Botherhood or the Illuminati and David Icks Lizard People led by the Queen of England and the Dali Lama .

Texas Republican Says ‘Maggots’ Re-elected Obama Posted by John Viall at Blog Addicting Info ,Nov. 11.2012

Let’s be sympathetic, now. America’s red-state patriots are having a tough time these last few days. Watching FOX News on election night, for example, a liberal might have been forgiven for assuming Megyn Kelly was undergoing an on-air colonoscopy.
She looked that grim.
Meanwhile, Karl Rove couldn’t believe his lying eyes. When Ohio went blue, you thought Brit Hume might have to use a stun gun to silence the gibbering fool.

On talk radio the morning of November 7th, Rush Limbaugh had to break the bad news to all patriotic Dittoheads: the black guy was still in the White House. The “entitlement class,” he grumbled, had spoken. The “takers” had elected Obama. Now the “makers” would suffer hideous fates…like seeing their marginal tax rates rise by 3%! Maybe a whole 5%!
On Thursday, Michael Savage assured listeners that, no, their side didn’t lose. Obama had sinister ties to some computer company somewhere that somehow allowed him to rig the election and turn reliable red votes blue. Only Savage, Savage noted, was reporting the story. Something to do with the liberal media bias. Or Hitler. Or unicorns.
Down in Texas, Peter Morrison, a Hardin County Republican and county treasurer wanted no part of the awful news. A Tea Party stalwart and Ron Paul supporter, Mr. Morrison wanted to know: “Why should Vermont and Texas live under the same government?”
“Let each go her own way,” Morrison said, invoking the spirit of an earlier age (not 1776, exactly, but more like 1860). If the “maggots” voted for Obama, let those “maggots” suffer the consequences. He really called his countrymen that. By “maggots,” Morrison meant Asian Americans and Hispanics who cast ballots for President Obama and carried him to victory.
Bud Kennedy, writing for the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram broke the story first, adding this reassuring note: “Oh, did I mention that Morrison was chosen by former State Board of Education Chairman Don McLeory to help screen Texas public school textbooks?” That ought to make us feel better, don’t you think? A great guy like Morrison helping decide what Texas public school students learn.
So, how did the GOP lose? Did it have anything to do with the fact that they didn’t turn out their own side? In 2008 John McCain lost the popular vote by ten million, 69-59. Now, four years later, with Republicans poised, according to all their own pundits, for a landslide win, and Obama actually losing 8 million votes, they pulled in only 58 million themselves. In fact, it might salve Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan’s wounds and sober the right-wing to remember that their side has carried the popular vote only once in the last six tries.
What about this idea that the “takers” are seizing control? Asian Americans–pretty much the “perfect” minority, well-known for their work ethic–went for Obama by something like 74 to 25%. Americans with college degrees split down the middle. According to exit polls reported in USA Today, 46% of this group favored the President while Romney captured only 52% of the “makers” vote. It seemed even “worse” if you looked at the surveys for voters who had done post-graduate study. Here the maggots were really squirming. Fifty-five percent of the most-educated Americans said they had supported Mr. Obama. Damn physicists and geologists and historians with their Ph.D.s and “taker” mentalities! Even the underclass–the “takers” by any Rush Limbaugh-Michael Savage-Peter Morrison-47%-definition–defied classification. True: according to a report in the New York Times, Obama won their support by about 28 points, roughly 64-36, but that would still mean more than a third of the “takers” still follow the Tea Party Way.
What about all those “taker” females voting Democratic, 54-44%, forgetting that if they were raped it would be God’s will they become pregnant, and forgetting it was Rick Santorum’s and Paul Ryan’s will that they not have access to an abortion?
Were Latinos really so stupid as to vote for Obama by 69% to 30%, even after right-wingers in Arizona gave them the right to be stopped and asked to prove their citizenship by showing their papers? Were they so stupid as to not vote for a party that wanted electrified fences? Not to understand that the DREAM Act was tyranny in disguise?
Did young voters stupidly choose to support a man who rammed “socialized medical care” down their throats, so that they’d be covered on their parents’ insurance policies until age 26, thereby threatening the “socialized medical care” of people over 65, the retired “makers” in the very same country?
These were all hard questions and might involve soul-searching and thoughtful analysis to answer.
For now, however, the truth as seen through right-wing eyes was clear: Rush and the boys considered the numbers. They studied the whole democratic political process. They looked at the changing makeup of the American electorate.
And they saw maggots.

and so it goes,
GORD.

David Frum Why Romney Lost & The GOPs Unwinnible Strategy And Jim Crow Alive and Well In Florida & Arizona etc.

2012-11-11T17:17:00.000-04:00

"Mitt Romney's message is I am going to take away Medicare from everybody under 55, I'm going to cut Medicaid for everybody but about a third, and I'm going to do that to finance a giant tax cut for me and my friends, and the reason I'm doing that is because half the country contribute nothing to the national endeavor."

David Frum explaining why Mitt Romney lost the election on Morning Joe , MSNBC and sourced from Blue America scorecard by digby From Howie at Hullabaloo:, nov. 10, 2012

Voter suppression in this last US election according to the complaints being made and the videos of the outrageously long lines at polling stations in some states is evidence of the need for reforming the election process and election campaigns.

And here's an update on the notorious racist Sheriff Arpaio and the crooks who run Arizona who believe only the votes of white men should be counted.

Voter suppression USA :Arpaio watch Arizona
Heard in Arizona: #CountEveryVote By Laura Conaway Sat Nov 10, 2012
Maddow blog MSNBC

If you're not in Arizona, you could easily miss the story of what's happening there this week: More than 630,00 votes left to count after Tuesday's election, more than 172,000 of them provisional ballots, and many of those believed to have been cast by newly registered Latino voters who experienced some kind of hitch at the polls. Voters who used a provisional ballot face a deadline of Wednesday to return to their county elections offices and present ID that shows they voted rightfully.

Enough votes remain uncounted to swing several races in Arizona, including three for Congress and some where candidates have conceded or declared victory. At the far end of the spectrum, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's apparent re-election falls within the range of votes still not counted. Much closer is the race for Congresswoman Gabby Giffords old seat, now divided by a few hundred votes.

Jim Crow voter suppression is alive and well in Florida and Arizona etc. As we have seen since the 2000 election til this recent election there is a need for election reform . Supposedly we are told American citizens have the right to vote but it appears that Republicans treat this right in a rather disdainful or cavalier fashion and so do all they can to try to rig the vote in their favor and they really see nothing wrong with that . But it doesn't matter which party is involved with election rigging and voter suppression it is surely an important issue but those involved in these 'dirty tricks" and what have you to steal the vote from average Americans see it all as business and politics as usual that screwing with the system is the greater right as it were than the right to vote and have one's vote counted .

and in her ongoing concern over voter suppressions and the right to vote Rachel Maddow adds this :

Rachel Maddow Supreme Court To hear Voting Rights Act Challenge

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

As mentioned in an earlier post David Frum whether or not one agrees with his politics and ideology he is one of the few conservatives in the Republican party who appears to be a fairly rational person who is thoughtful and knowledgeable and doesn't play to the worst parts of the GOP base. Frum argues that the Republicans lost the election because they played too much to the worst parts of their including those who believe in or at least promote various conspiracy theories about Obama. Frum on Morning Joe: a remarkable 15 minutes of television by David Atkins at Hullabaloo/digby Nov. 10

Former Bush speechwriter David Frum made a remarkable appearance on Morning Joe, saying things even many progressives often won't come out and say. The video is below.

Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks and newly elected (or re-elected) Democrat Senator Alan Grayson in the video below posted at Hullabaloo discuss the basic reluctance for Democrats to fight for their principles either because they are owned by wealthy donors or are just cowards. As the article points out this was a stunning victory by Alan Grayson. Blue America scorecard by digby From Howie at hullabaloo:, nov. 10, 2012

The first time he ran for Congress, Alan Grayson lost the primary. Two years later Blue America encouraged him to run again and he did. Derided by the political Establishment in Florida and in DC, he beat their favorite in the primary and went on to beat the incumbent Republican congressman in the November general. He then went on to inspire millions of Americans desperate for political leaders who could and would stand up to the conservative consensus that dominates Beltway politics. And when Grayson lost in 2010, he started working on the 2012 race. Blue America was with him every step of the way. And on Tuesday we celebrated when he won the biggest congressional comeback in American history-- a 62.5% victory that saw him win the vote in every municipality in Florida's 9th district. He won among men and he won among women; he won the youth vote and he won the senior vote and he won the votes of people in between. He won among white people, among black people, among Hispanics and among Asians. He won the urban vote, the suburban vote and the rural vote and he won over 60% of the vote in Orange County, in Osceola County and even in red-leaning Polk County! 3,205 individual contributions from Blue America donors added up to $57,190 for Alan this year.

The organization FAIR in a recent article attacked The new York Times for claiming that there was no real difference in the way news is treated at either MSNBC or Fox News Channel that both are partisan and have an axe to grind.But as the title of the article at FAIR suggests there is in fact a difference but having been partisan itself the New York Times doesn't see the difference. ( It's Awkward for NBC When MSNBC Tells the Truth by Jim Naureckas at FAIR.org, Nov. 6,2012

The New York Times has a news piece today (11/6/12) reporting that MSNBC is just like Fox News, and isn't that awful. Now, MSNBC, for all its flaws, is not really anything like Fox News. And most of Times reporter Jeremy Peters' evidence for their similarity comes from a Pew study of "positive" and "negative" news coverage–the kind of study that will only be meaningful after someone comes up with an objective scale for measuring how positive or negative reality is. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow (JD Lasica) But I was struck by this anecdotal example of the Fox-like "partisan bitterness" supposedly on display on MSNBC:

In her ad, Rachel Maddow breathlessly decodes the logic behind the push to overhaul state voting laws. "The idea is to shrink the electorate," she says, "so a smaller number of people get to decide what happens to all of us." Such stridency has put NBC News journalists who cover Republicans in awkward and compromised positions, several people who work for the network said
. Now, if you've been following the voter ID story at all closely, you know there's no evidence of any organized voter impersonation on any kind of scale at all–that these laws will make it harder for millions of people to vote in an ostensible effort to stop a handful of people from cheating. So the obvious conclusion is–that the idea is to shrink the electorate. (This intention can also be seen, by the way, in the coordinated GOP efforts to curtail early voting.) You can see how it might make it awkward for reporters if their pundit colleagues are analyzing reality too accurately. It's obviously much easier for journalists covering Republicans if everyone at their network pretends the party is telling the truth about its concerns about voter fraud. You know who else would have made it awkward for NBC to cover Republicans if he had worked as a pundit for MSNBC? Conservative movement pioneer Paul Weyrich:

I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of the people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down

Paul Weyrich and Republicans in fact are anti-democracy

There is in fact a difference between an uninformed reality adverse opion as opposed to a learned and knowledgeable opinion derived from looking at the facts and seeing them in their context in the real world where often things are not as clear cut as any ideologue of whatever stripe might maintain. The New York Times is once again promoting the notion of objective journalism which on the face of it is comendable but they go to far. Objective journalism means taking on a story with no partisan axe to grind. In this sense one speaks of the idea that there are at least two sides if not more of a story. This may be the premise one begins with but the actual facts and reality need to be taken into account. For a supposedly liberal media outlet such as the New York Times they appear to believe that all so called truths and even facts are relative.

So for instance on the issue for example of the necessity of going to war with Iraq and its leader Saddam the Bush administration's arguments and their so called irrefutable facts about invading and occupying Iraq turned out to be non-existent in the real world. Saddam was not involved with 9/11 terrorists attacks on the USA. Saddam in fact was no longer a threat to the USA after some ten years of sanctions and the Gulf War though the Bush administration argued otherwise. . Saddam had also in fact destroyed his so called WMDs in the early 1990s . The Bush administration with the help of the Mainstream Media claimed contrary to the facts that Saddam was not cooperating with the UN inspectors looking for evidence of WMDs and for evidence that Saddam was secretly persuing the building of a nuclear weapons stockpile. The UN inspectors left Iraq because the USA was geared towards an invasion of Iraq irrespective of the facts. Those at the highest levels of the Bush administration and the Pentagon and intelligence agencies knew these above mentioned facts about Saddam and that he was no longer a threat but this reality was not conducive or supportive of a rationale for going to war with Saddam. So these various high level authorities in Washington wanted for whatever reason to take out Saddam and to do so by means of invading and occupying a sovereign nation and so they manufactured evidence to suggest Saddam was still involved with the production of Weapons of Mass Destruction such as chemical and biological weapons and was trying to build nuclear weapons as well and was behind the 9/11 attacks . The New York Times and most of the Mainstream Media fell for these lies and are still embarrassed about admitting they had been bamboozled.

Even president Obama is uncomfortable speaking bluntly about the lie the Bush administration had promulgated in their propaganda war to convince the Media and the American people and the United Nations that Saddam was an imminent threat to its neighbors including Israel and was an imminent threat to the USA. None of this was true.

So given all of the evidence we now have The New York Times appears to argue that it is all a matter of perception and nothing to do with a "perceived reality" as created by the Bush administration and that of what the reality actually was based upon proven facts. So the New York Times believes that facts are unimportant its rather a matter of what a president and others in positions of authority say that really matters.

So getting back to Mitt Romney there were various facts and evidence revealed about him and his ideological point of view which suggested that he was not being truthful in all that he said. Just because Romney or even Obama say something and claim it as the truth or reality does not make it so. The secret video of Romney at a Republican wealthy donators event said he was ignoring 47% of the electorate because for various reasons are never going to be in favor of his ideological approach to governance and his belief that this 47% were in favor of his opponent President Obama because they wanted "free stuff" and Obama he claimed would give them more "free stuff "and would excessivly tax the wealthy to pay for all of the "free stuff". Romney was quite blunt in the way that he spoke and sounded sincere so according to The New York Times and others of the Mainstream Media it was beyond the pale to suggest that Romney had written off 47% of the electorate before the campaign really began and was revealing his negative and distainful attitude towards that 47% and thereby adding credence to labelling him as elitist and appearing to be out of touch with the struggles of the Middle Class and working class people in America .

So according to Mitt Romney given this statement he believes that almost half of all American citizens are lazy "moochers' and "takers" and welfare bums as opposed to real Americans like him who are "producers "and "makers". To have this disclosed during an election campaign is rather damaging to the candidate and his or her party affiliation when they are trying to appear as populist and on the side of the average citizen.

But Romney also told lies about his connections with Bain and about how he made himself wealthy . He did not help to prop up a number of businesses in America as he would like to have people assume but rather made money by dissolving businesses and laying off thousands of employees and outsourcing work to other nations while investing and banking a large amout of his money in countries which are used as tax shelters for American businesses.

But adding to his branding as an elitist Romney admitted he enjoyed firing people which is not helpful at all for appealing to average Americans when so many are struggling just to get by who have lost their jobs or fear losing their jobs and if they find work it may be work they either don't like as much as the job they had previously or doesn't pay as well as the job they had So according to the Objective theory of journalism just by reporting these facts shows a partisan point of view . These so called gaffes fed of course into the Democrats narrative and branding of Mitt Romney and the Republican party as being out of touch with the reality which average citizens face each and every day. So Romney's obvious lies and lame defense and gaffes are not seen as fair game to the New York Post this is understandable because they believe that journalist have no right to judge a candidate even based upon the known facts. But these glimpses into Romney's world of the super-wealthy did not serve him or his party well . But Romney also did not come back with a good response to these gaffes and about his actual business experience or his life style. Part of what's troubling about all of this in regard to the New York Times is that at times the New York Times acted as a conduit for the Bush Regime .

So it is a bit galling that the New York Times would be so willing to judge other journalist and claiming any journalist who is critical of Romney based upon the facts is merely playing partisan politics. In that case it would have been a good thing if there had been more so called partisan politics on the part of journalists in regards to the Bush Regime's propaganda pushing America into going to war with Iraq .Instead as usual the mainstream media for which the New York Times is a prime example merely doubles down to find more ways to justify its past actions in which it was silent and tacitly agreed with Bush on most issues without any fact checking or stepping back and thinking about what the Bush regime was up to.

So we could suggest that it is somewhat disengenuous of The New York Times to criticize MSNBC of being partisan given the notorious role The New York Times and other Mainstream Media played in promulgating the Bush Regime's propaganda for unnecessarily going to war with iraq or the Bush Regimes use of torture on detainees and its disdain for American law and the US constitution and Bill Of Rights and International Law. The media in the the United States played a similar role as the media in non-democratic nations of supporting those in positions of authority no matter the consequences. In the case of torture rather than a consensus that first that the Enhanced Interrogation Methods were and are to be deemed as torture the media argued over what constitutes torture questioning whart had been the international consensus about what constitutes torture going back to at least the Nuremberg trials and legal decisions.

Suddenly Americans were told its all relative that the definiton of torture was up for grabs. Its odd that those on the right who ridicule liberals for their appeal to relativism when it comes to other values and cultures and norms have been so adamant that torture in some cases is necessary and that it also depends upon what constitutes torture so the whole question of torture is up for grabs .

In the writings of the right secular and religious are adamant that values and ethics or morals are not relative . Their source of these eternal morals and values is the Bible . The Bible therefore must also be in favor of rigging elections and inventing conspiracy theories and is against real democracy . But what sort of governance be in favor of ? Jesus never mentioned that he favored democracy and if we refer back to the Old Testament then it would seem the Judeo-Christian God is in favor of monarchies as in King David and Solomon etc. Maybe this explains their somewhat ambivalent attitude towards democracy .

Unfortunately even President Obama has a rather twisted definition of torture in which like Bush he doesn't take such accusations of the US using torture as being serious. So now torture is defined in a way which is in agreement with Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, John Yoo, Bybee and Condi Rice. The denial of legal process and justice for individuals and the acceptance of some forms of torture as being the new norm in the USA and the draconian police state style of crushing populist protests in the streets of New York, Chicago, Portland etc. and the anti-democracy rules and tactics used by various states and municipalities to discourage or prevent all citizens who are eligible to vote to actually voting all of this leads one to conclude that something is deeply wrong with America and that it looks and sounds like some nations like Bahrain ruled by an authoritarian regime.

also see: Dueling Bitterness on Cable News by Jeremy W. Peters at The New York Times, Nov. 6,2012

And so it goes,

GORD.

Republican Voter Suppression Strategy a Symptom of The Rot Begun By President Bush Which Has Trickled Down To An Attack On The Right To Vote Let Alone Protest

2012-11-10T02:35:00.001-04:00

Just came across this video on voter suppression which has been an ongoing strategy of the Republican party since these supposedly "Real Americans" and the most patriotic who claim to be committed to democracy and the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights and yet do all they can to prevent those who may not vote for the Republican party. So the long lines and other confusion at the polls was a deliberate part of the Mitt Romney campaign. And Obama has said he will do something about this but will he or is he too ensconsed in the establishment to take bold action.

Unfortunately those who are concerned about the issue such as rachell maddow are reluctant to accept that these problems have been deliberately created by operatives and consultants within the Republican party. Others who should be insisting that this level of corruption of the democratic political process in America are not as "fired-up" about it since their candidate president Obama has won despite all of the ongoing dirty tricks of the Republican party.

These dirty tricks are sometimes given a legal veneer like they did under Bush to get away with using torture and deliberately dragging their nation into an unnecessary unwinable war. That is even though Obama and some of his supporters have argued that the US won the war in Iraq when infact US troops left Iraq because the Iraqi government insisted they leave or if not the troops would be treated essentially as foreign invaders and as criminals by the Iraqi state and its courts.

For some mysterious reason the Obama administration refused to label the Bush administration as a criminal organization which abused its power and authority. And now President Obama has another chance to this time do the right thing and investigate thorougly with the power to suboena witnesses and to be able to hold them in contempt if they refuse to show up or if they are in fact uncooperative and do as Condi Rice and Yoo and others did before not really answer any question directly or truthfully see after this video.

How Lawyers without any personal integrity or ethics use a form of legaleese or abuse normal common sense language usage to baffle average people and in these cases members of Congress as if those members were naive or had no traing in the law or had never practiced law. As the saying goes "Bullshit Baffles brains" the three "Bs".

Then again if America were truly a just society based upon common decency and the rule of law the present administration would have formally charged all those responsible from George W. Bush to John Yoo and Condi Rice, Bybee , Rumsfeld, Cheney , Karl Rove and any agency such as the CIA and the Pentagon who aided and abetted what constitute War Crimes, and crimes against humanity and other criminal actions as defined by International Law.

But then again since Obama won the election will he now be able to spend time reflecting on America's criminal actions under International Law which it has been involved in since 2001 . Will Obama in an act of good faith release Bradley Manning who has done a great and heroic act on behalf of the American people and in agreement with International Law and will stop persecuting Julianne Assange and Wikileaks or will he just order a "hit " on Assange since he believes he has the power to do this on his own as president.

The point here is that the American system is becoming less and less democratic and more and more corrupt and criminal in its behaviour lacking a common sense and a commitment to justice even when this may be difficult and a hardship which the American government and justice system and its citizens must confron before even more criminal acts are committed. If lying to go to war is OK then there is is very little incentive to run a political campaign in a legal and ethical manner. So the Republicans if the allegations are true can not be condemned or judged for abusing the democratic process in an election.

If torture and Wars of Aggression are permitted then what limits can be imposed on any action committed by the Federal government or state governments or either political party. Either judge and condemn all such criminal activities or just stop pretending to believe in real justice and common decency .

This has also slowly but surely trickled down to the state and federal penetenteries and even to the local police as we have seen police acting as if they can do as they please and they are no longer accountable since they have been given carte blanche by the mayors and governors of the various states which have been given tacit approval by the Congress the Supreme Court and the White House.

Hearing on Torture with Addington & Yoo: Conyers' Questions

Uploaded by raphi72 on Jun 29, 2008
Rep. Stephen Cohen asks Deputy Assistant Atty. General John Yoo about his torture memos. Questions focused on the witnesses' participation in the drafting of legal memos relating to the president's constitutional authority to authorize the interrogation techniques used at Guantanamo Bay and the legality of those techniques.

Given how John Yoo during this inquiry in the use of "torture" obstructed justice and held the congress in contempt in legal terms or in ordinary language Yoo and Rice and others including Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld etc. showed unabashed disdain for the Congress and the legislative branch of the government and therefore in effect contempt and didain for the American people.

and so it goes ,
GORD.

GOP War On Women Backfired And Election Impacted By Citizens United and Republican Voter Suppression

2012-11-09T14:03:00.000-04:00

President Obama won the election but if the GOP hadn't engaged in dirty tricks and had not been able to outspend the Democrats due to the Citizens United decision It is conceivable that a much larger number of votes would have gone to president Obama and the Democrat candidates. Since Obama won in spite of the dirty tricks of the Republicans at every stage of the elections to game the system in their favor it is treated as just some minor glitch in the system .

In other democracy if this many problems occurred during an election the citizens would insist upon reform or even call the election outcomes not merely unreliable but rather as a scandal in which average citizens were in various ways prevented from voting or having their votes not counted. This is a fundamental undermining of the democratic process . So what would pro-Obama supporters have said if Romney and the Republicans had managed to rob Obama of his victory. They would be mad as hell and would demand either a recount or call the outcome unconstitutional and the results null and void. But many Americans appear to accept the notion promulgated by the political elite that all fair not just in love and war but also during election campaigns and up to including voter registration and the counting of ballots.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

GOP's War on women backfired Lawrence O'Donnell

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Republican party sees this loss as merely a matter a failure to get their message out or a failure on the part of the electorate (being too stupid or being under some magical spell which was cast by president Obama) to understand the differences in policies between the two parties.
GOP slow to come to grips with lessons of loss Maddow Republican's War on Women Backfired

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The problems with voting in the USA were similar to what one sees in anti-democracy third world nations run by authoritarian regimes or dictators like those propped up the USA. In Canada one can register to vote by simply checking a box on one's Income tax forms which allows Elections Canada to use specifically required information for the purposes of being registered to vote ie name, age, address.

Americans in general enjoy making fun of Canada but our elections have fewer problems than the USA even if conservatives such as Tucker Carlson think Canadians are like "your retarded cousin " at a family gathering . ( So which is the mentally challenged nation in regards to simply voting . See Tucker carlson interview by CBC's George Stroumboulopoulos http://youtu.be/02_nC9B0vvU at YouTube And Ann Coulter/Tucker Carlson talk about Canada at YouTube http://youtu.be/v5Eq9GNEPIA and Fox News Douchebag Apologizes to Canada at YouTube http://youtu.be/dh88QfzcaDY)

So the citizens of America should be "mad as Hell " given the insane partisan obstructionism in regards to elections in the USA which are a complete debacle and should be regarded as a scandal which undermines America's belief in being the model for all democracies .

The attitude in the USA has been that partisan politics play a role in registering voters and with the actual process of voting and is therefore considered fair game. Rachell Maddow may think this is just some sort of glitch in the American election process but it seems to us outsiders to be just another part of politics and that each political party has the freedom to interfer with the election process at any level that they can.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Maddow naively believes that Repairing the election system is possible because she sees it as a problem with the process and the mechanics and technology of the system rather than a deliberately constructed system which allows either political party to use its power and authority to game the system. This is similar in some ways to pork in which each state attempts to get as much money out of the federal government as it can even if it is not necessary so you get projects like Alaska's "bridge to nowhere in which there is no real incentive for states not to demand its share of pork .

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
and so it goes, GORD.

Jim Crow GOP Voter Suppression : Virginia 2012: Polling Place Ordeal Aimed At African American Voters & Obama Must Take Action

2012-11-08T15:47:00.000-04:00

Jim Crow alive and well in some states in the USA as officials do whatever they can to prevent or make voting into an ordeal by making people wait unnecessarily in lines from three hours to nine hours . There have been operatives who claimed individuals or non-partisan groups handing out water to people in the long lines was considered illegal .

Virginia 2012: Polling place ordeal at the most African American precinct...

and from Democracy Now!

"In Key Florida Battleground, Tea Party-Linked "True the Vote" Challenges Voters at the Polls- Nov. 6, 2012"

"Election Day 2012 has arrived, and the battle over voter suppression has reached a fever pitch in battleground states. We go to Virginia, where volunteers with the tea party-linked group True the Vote are challenging voters at the polls. We speak with Brentin Mock, the lead reporter for Voting Rights Watch 2012, a collaboration between The Nation magazine and Colorlines.com. Mock also describes voter suppression efforts in Florida, where True the Vote has also targeted alleged felon voters who will be asked to submit a provisional ballot if they attempt to vote today."

And here's my rant for the day:

The Republicans had coordinated thousands of operatives to try to prevent American citizens whom they believed were more more likely to vote for Obama and Democrats from exercising their God given right to vote.

The Republicans make a big to do about their faith in God and Country and the sanctity of the American Constitution and yet they brazenly use dirty tricks tactics to make the election go their way. So no wonder Karl Rove had a meltdown when informed Obama had won re-election even after Karl Rove spent some 300 million $ and pulled out all the stops to make sure the election would be in Romney's favor. Their dirty tricks did not prevent Obama from being re-elected but given their attempts we wonder how many more votes would Obama have received if Rove and the GOP hadn't illegally and unethically interfered in the election process.

So though re-elected to office Obama should take steps to investigate the vote rigging and dirty tricks and to take action so that in the future no political party would even think about trying to rob average American citizens of their right to vote.

If Obama does not take action then we can assume that like the Republicans he sees such underhanded schemes to change the outcome of an election as "business as usual " like the corruption in the Congress and their selling out to lobbyist for the right amount of money.

This is a serious issue even if Fox News claims that there has been little or no organized attempts to prevent people from voting at least not by the Republicans.

Such on going voter suppression during this election and past elections is damaging to America's reputation around the world. If Americans can not hold fair and just elections than they can not expect the same from other nations . This time the outcome of the election was not what the GOP election machine had hoped for but that was a matter of getting out the vote despite the shenanigans of GOP operatives such as "true the Vote' and others.

But it does leave open the very real possibility that the GOP may have been successful in some cases in getting their candidates elected when in fact they should have lost.

If Democrats were doing this the GOP would be up in arms and ready to storm the Capitol otherwise pro-Republican pundits and media talking heads ignore the issue as just more whining from liberals.

This could easily be resolved in other democratic countries by making it easier first to register to vote and then expanding the opportunities to vote by having more early voting days and having more polling stations in any given area and making it easier for someone having an issue ie not being on the voters list to resolve it by having government officials standing by to help who are doing so on a non-partisan basis and the polling stations need more voting machines to accommodate a bigger than expected turn out .

There should either be non-partisan observers at each polling station and law enforcement personnel at each polling station who have been given some training about voter's rights when trying to vote to prevent intimidation etc.

If local police can not be trusted like the characters working for Sheriff Arpaio in Arizona then you bring in for instance FBI agents and soldiers if necessary as the government had to do when they were trying to protect the rights of African American voters in the 1960s.

But first president Obama and the Attorney General's office and other relevant departments have to be mobilized to investigate and take action and not just treat it as if voter suppression is just part of the American democratic system. This action should also be taken so America is not seen as some sort of backwater tin pot dictatorship and a laughing stock to the rest of the world.

The USA claims to be a free democracy and a nation of laws but in this instance (and many others it is not) American citizens trying to exercise their "right to vote" are treated as somehow suspects or would be criminals because they might vote the wrong way depending on what officials affiliated with whichever party control voting in a specific area.

The GOP and the Fox News channel have become in this election the enemy of the American people that is of average voters . According to these mean-spirited wealthy conservatives if they had their way fewer Americans would be allowed to vote and of course as they have been doing for decades going back to Jim Crow in the south to now in 2012 creating onerous regulations to especially prevent those voters who might vote for a democrat from voting. This is odd since when it comes to businesses and corporations the conservative want no regulations period whether for protecting worker's rights and health and safety or regulations on quality control or for protecting the environment but for voting they are always dreaming up new schemes to suppress voter's rights.

They would like to return to an earlier time when only property owners, business people and those of certain professions would be permitted to vote or they would like to re-institute onerous poll taxes use literacy test to keep certain people from voting as they did in the 1960s. As we saw in this past election in some ways America has not changed much in the last forty years or so when it comes to voting .

And we know there is little chance that the Obama administration or government agencies will be willing to investigate the most egregious forms of voter suppression in America primarily in this election by the Republican party vote rigging machine and their tens or possibly hundreds of thousands of operatives who were breaking the law on a daily bases all through the campaign .

It would have been an improvement if the USA had allowed United Nations or some international or even national NGO human rights organization to monitor elections in the USA.

This is something that the American people should be demanding. The voter lines look those we have seen in countries such as Honduras after the Military coup/Junta or the phony purple thumb elections in Afghanistan or Iraq etc. Casting a vote and having it counted is just one part of the democratic process.

What bothers Karl Rove , Bill O'Reilly and Donald Trump and other anti-democracy conservative Republicans is that in their view too many American citizens didn't allow the GOP's attempts at voter suppression to stop them from trying to vote. In other words too many Americans who favored the Democrats and Obama were permitted to vote.

Across the USA one state after another did what they could not to help people to exercise their "Right to Vote" but to prevent them from voting. The Republicans and their oafish thugs at Fox News were upset that all of their fear mongering propaganda and dirty tricks were not enough to clinch the election of Mitt Romney .
Now they are scrambling around trying to generate excuses for why Obama won such as because he's black or because his supporters as O'Reilly said just want more free stuff . It of course in their view had nothing to do with the draconian austerity economic program they wanted to force upon the nation while eliminating even more taxes on the richest Americans.

also see : Voter Intimidation and Suppression Reported in California, Virginia, and Colorado by Lakshmi Sarah at policymic Nov. 7, 2012

" When asked to make a prediction about the elections, Robert Entman, Professor of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, said it would be close. He also remarked that in the past, polling places with predominantly black voters have had fewer polling machines which have caused longer lines.

Though Entman's talk at Aarhus University on Monday focused on "Political Scandals in the USA and Scandinavia" the real scandal may be occuring as I write — with cases of voter suppression and intimidation across the nation.

One example occured in a Redwood City, Calif. polling place on Tuesday. Two men stood in front of a polling place and asked voters to present identification, even though the state does not require ID to vote. Redwood City-Woodside Patch reports:

"The two men, described as "thug-looking," tall and Caucasian with shaved heads, were wearing all black with dark sunglasses and standing in front of the polling place at 134 Hemlock Avenue with their arms crossed.

They carried a binder which they claimed had names and addresses of eligible voters, [voting supervisor Marilyn] Tinderholt said. They were also asking voters to show their IDs, which is not a requirement to vote in the state of California, said volunteer Debra Prime."

In Virginia, volunteers with a tea party-linked group "True the Vote" are also challenging voters at the polls. Democracy Now spoke with Brentin Mock, a lead reporter for Voting Rights Watch 2012, collaborating with The Nation magazine and Colorlines.com. Mock also describes voter suppression efforts in Florida, where "True the Vote" focuses on alleged felon voters.

Colorlines has also reported voter suppression in Colorado.

As one of my European classmates said, "Really? In America?"
America deserves, and expects, so much more."

also see: Sheriff Deputies, Poll Worker Harass Latinos in Swing State by Aura Bogado at Colorado Colorlines, Nov. 6, 2012

Although both presidential candidates stopped their visits to Colorado days ago, it remains a crucial swing state in this election. With just nine electoral votes, and its distance from the eastern part of the country, the Centennial State has lost its spot in the national media, but may prove important in this tight race.

That’s why canvassers have been busy encouraging people to vote here. But it hasn’t necessarily been easy to either canvas or show up to the polling station for some Latinos. One canvasser, who works with a coalition of groups leading a get out the vote initiative told me that, during her training, she was told, “And watch out for police. They don’t always think people who look like us should be out in the street.”

Not many job descriptions include a warning that the work may entail police harassment, but this is Colorado, where demographics are changing. In 2010, the Latino population hit one million—accounting for every one in five Coloradans. As more and more Latinos turn 18, it’s that younger generation that may hold the key to sway this election. The Latino vote here is expected to increase 15 percent over the last presidential election, accounting for nearly 9 percent of the state’s electorate.

The quiet, rural town of Pueblo West, just a two hour drive from Denver, is a mixed neighborhood that’s part of the greater city of Pueblo, which makes up more than 40 percent of the state’s entire Latino population. And canvassers there are eager to encourage all voters to get out to the polls. One canvasser, who declined to have his name for publication, was doing just that last week when he ran in to trouble. He and his canvassing partner, who are both Latino, noticed local Sheriffs were sometimes tailing them, but they continued their work.

and so it goes, GORD.

Obama Re-elected Fox News Make Up Excuses For Their Loss & Why They Were So Wrong

2012-11-07T17:55:00.000-04:00

Kudos to Cenk Uygur's Sept. 27 ,2012 prediction that Obama would win the election

Prediction: Obama Will Defeat Romney
Published on Sep 27, 2012 by TheYoungTurks
Will President Obama win or lose against Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the 2012 election? Numerous polls (and other evidence) are broken down by The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur who makes his official prediction.

Rachel Maddow slams the Kardinal Rove for not accepting reality

Published on Nov 7, 2012 by TheZoomanager
For some on the right, reality has no point. Dick Morris and Karl Rove will have 4 more years explaining to do.

Bill O'Reilly raises the alarm that America's demographics have changed and that the white establishment is now the minority in America because the country has been over run it seems by Latinos, Blacks and other non-whites.

Fox News initial reaction to Obama being re-elected showed their partisan views that is pro-Republican , Pro-Romney pro-Roger Ailes and their disdain for President Obama and all of those who voted for him . Fox news has been promulgating one lie after another about Obama since before the 2008 election and they find it difficult to understand how their daily assaults on President Obama and on the Democrats or anyone who supports Obama did not end with Obama losing in 2008 and once again in 2012.

So their insane conspiracy theories and lies about Obama such as accusing him of not being born in America or as not being a "real American" or of being a secret stealth Muslim Jihadist or Marxist, Fascist, socialist, or of being an angry Black man looking for revenge were all seen through for the blatant lies and fabrications that they actually are by enough American voters to put Obama back into the White House .

Fox News and the GOP believe that many American voters are too naive or stupid and believe Obama's lies and do not see what a real threat he is to America or at least to the male white elite . They seem unable to comprehend that a large portion of Americans in a rational manner voted for Obama or at least against Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan and Republican Party which has been taken over by extremist ideologues of the secular and Religious Right varieties.

Fox News has been relentless in its propaganda war against President Obama and the Democrats and once the final tally was in they were shocked and then went back to attacking Obama and his supporters whom O'Reilly and others characterize as moochers, as takers and not makers or eaters as opposed to producers .

Fox News and the GOP have revved up their propaganda machinery to explain away Obama's win as a fluke or he won because he is black and so too many in their view black and Latinos voted for Obama .

According to Fox News and its gang of angry right wingers Obama's win wasn't a "real win" or "legitimate win "its like comparing "legitimate rape" versus that other kind of up that is made up allegations of rape.

So they weigh in claiming Obama doesn't have a real mandate or he ran a superficial Faux campaign in which all he did was attack the super-wealthy while Romney ran a campaign based on real ideas and policies.

It will be interesting to see if any of the Fox News gang and GOP pundits will criticize the Republican party for going too far to the right on issues such as abortion, rape, women's reproductive rights, women's role in society which they see as being staying at home and producing as many kids as possible just like the good old days when a woman had a number of babies and she couldn't produce anymore her husband could have her replaced by a younger model.(as Newt Gingrich has done )

Anyway the Romney campaigns strategies of trying to rig the election and appealing to their white racist , sexist , homophobic anti-Muslim base all backfired. The more the Romney campaign was deconstructed or unveiled the more they looked like the party of the rich and not the party of the poor, the unemployed, minorities or women or average Americans struggling to get by as those with good jobs have seen their real income either frozen in place or having gone down over the last 12 years or so.

When you combine these economic concerns with the GOP embracing the radical right that is the secular and Christian Right and their policies on various social issues and their policies to press on with even more wars the GOP gutted any gains they could have had due to Obama's soft support. Instead all of their campaign strategies and gaffes almost guranteed the re-election of Obama.

Fox News Election Coverage: Questions Turn From President Obama's Victory To 2nd Term Mandate (VIDEO)" by Michael Calderone Huffington Post Nov. 7, 2012 article continues after video.

... When Rove finally accepted defeat, he echoed Baier's fact about Obama's win. "This is the first president ever reelected to a second term who has gotten a smaller percentage of the vote and a smaller vote in the electoral college the second time around," Rove said.

The post-victory emphasis on division and supposed lack of mandate wasn't out of step with some other prominent forces in the conservative media. The Drudge Report, which continued showing Romney's popular vote lead long after Obama was declared winner in the electoral college, splashed a cracked Liberty Bell image across the site along with the ominous headline: "The Divided States of America." Of course, Rove and others were less likely to question the mandate of George W. Bush after he beat Al Gore in the electoral college while losing the popular vote.

It's not surprising that Fox News hosts and commentators would question Obama's mandate given how the network -- run by former Republican operative Roger Ailes -- has covered the Democratic candidate down the stretch.

In September, Fox News hyped a 14-year-old, out-of-context clip in which Obama talked of "redistribution," just as Romney's comments dismissing 47 percent of Americans were getting significant coverage. A couple weeks later, Fox News -- along with The Drudge Report -- played up another old Obama video from a 2007 speech that was covered extensively at the time, including on Fox. And last week, Fox's primetime hosts virtually ignored Hurricane Sandy to continue hammering the Obama administration over the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi, Libya, complete with suggestions of a White House cover-up.

Throughout Tuesday, Fox News ran video several times of a member of the New Black Panther Party outside a polling site in Philadelphia on Tuesday, echoing the network's seeming obsession with the fringe group a couple years back.

Election results aside, Fox News' Tuesday night broadcast at times resembled a typical night in primetime, with the network's obsessions -- such as Benghazi and "liberal media bias" -- receiving attention between calling states for one candidate or the other.

When Kelly noted that exit polls showing that Americans gave Obama "kudos" for his handling of international affairs, she followed up with a question to Fox News contributor Tucker Carlson about whether such numbers relate "to the media coverage, or lack thereof, on that issue," presumably Libya.

"Yes, I do," Carlson responded, adding that 2012 "press coverage has added points to the president's scoreboard."

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly appeared during the 8 p.m. hour, his normal time slot, and also mentioned Benghazi, while also talking about how the "the white establishment is now the minority" in the United States -- at topic that wouldn't be out of place on his show. O'Reilly already seemed to view the election going Obama's way when talking about how "people feel that they are entitled to things" and suggested the presidency would go to "the candidate, between the two, [who] is going to give them things."

And conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, who has filled in at times for O'Reilly on his top-rated show, criticized the Romney campaign's strategy before the candidate officially lost, specifically mentioning his decision to "play is safe" by, in her view, not appearing enough on Fox News.

Will The Real Mitt Romney Please Stand Up (feat. Eminem) - YouTube

2012-11-07T02:29:00.001-04:00

Will The Real Mitt Romney Please Stand Up (feat. Eminem) - YouTube: "http://youtu.be/bxch-yi14BE"

'via Blog this'

Don't Let it Happen Again - Maddow & Scarborough: Two Views Of The 'Brooks Brothers Riot' Of 2000 (HQ)

2012-11-06T22:42:00.001-04:00

updated: Nov. 9, 2012 after the US election of Nov. 6, 2012.
.

After the election in 2000 when a recount was started in Florida the Republicans brought in dozens of paid operatives to stage a faux populist protest to stop the recount and it worked. The protest became known as the Brooks brothers riot or dockers rebellion . So it was decided that the election would go to George W. Bush and not Al Gore though in the real world a judicious recount would have most likely given the election to Al Gore. George W. Bush then became the defacto winner and became president of the USA. The GOP was able to bully the state of Florida and the courts into favoring Bush over Gore.

Unfortunately for the Republicans and Mitt Romney all of their dirty tricks throughout the campaign and their massive attempts to rig the election through voter suppression using legal and illegal and unethical tactics did not save them from defeat. The issue remaining is that if the Republicans hadn't used these thugish tactics would a fairly large number of votes have gone to Obama and the democrats because it could just as easily have gone in Mitt Romney's favor.

Surely no political party should be permitted to get away with such anti-democratic strategies and tactics. In the USA it appears that many politicians and voters and the media seem to take it for granted that each party has the right to use whatever tactics necessary to win an election even if that means using dubious ethical tactics or even illegal that is criminal activities. They believe that election campaigns are like a game and that all that matters is winning and not how you play the game. So as has been noted too many Americans appear to believe that all's fair in love and war and political campaigns and there is no sense in crying over spilt milk.

Will Ferrell Will Do Anything to Get You to Vote

2012-11-06T22:24:00.001-04:00

Jennifer Lopez: Join Latinos for Obama - YouTube

2012-11-06T22:18:00.001-04:00

Jennifer Lopez: Join Latinos for Obama - YouTube:

'via Blog this'

Romney Style: How to Destroy Your Campaign's Credibility in Five Easy Steps - YouTube

2012-11-06T22:16:00.001-04:00

Romney Style: How to Destroy Your Campaign's Credibility in Five Easy Steps - YouTube:

'via Blog this'

Alicia Keys: Every Vote Counts - OFA North Carolina - YouTube

2012-11-06T22:13:00.001-04:00

Alicia Keys: Every Vote Counts - OFA North Carolina - YouTube:

'via Blog this'