Take One Jew, One Muslim and One Christian
And if you put them together and they were civilized people, they would have a pleasant afternoon. Over good food from each ones background,they could discuss their differences and their many similarities. The common ground they would find would be more than a true nationalist could stand...
Prissy, did you say "nationalist"? Yes Dearest Readers, as that is Israel's major problem. "Those who say they are Jews, but they are not..."
Prissy's Jewish friends will tell you the Torah does not allow the justification of killing and maiming the innocent. Nor does the Qu'ran. Neither does the Bible.
However, the Israeli government does as policy, and they train their forces accordingly. Call it what they may-but it is not religion which justifies such barbarism. Cease fire indeed and go collect your thoughts-please.
At what point does genocide begin? When the numbers are two to one? Or three to one? Indeed the United Nations should step in and be quick about it-only by a concentrated world effort will about a cease fire. More on this later...
Prissy will return to DC in a couple of weeks, let her know if there is anything you want your rep to know about how you feel about the war in Iraq. Write an email and Prissy will hand deliver on your behalf.
Hot Links
Think Progress Williams Confronts Kristol: ‘You Just Want War, War, War, And You Want Us In More War’
You just want war, war, war, and you want us in more war. You wanted us in Iraq. Now you want us in Iran. Now you want us to get into the Middle East. … You’re saying, why doesn’t the United States take this hard, unforgiving line? Well, the hard and unforgiving line has been, we don’t talk to anybody. We don’t talk to Hamas. We don’t talk to Hezbollah. We’re not going to talk to Iran. Where has it gotten us, Bill?
Rolling Stone Flashback With the army desperate for recruits, should college students be packing their bags for Canada?
In the three decades since the Vietnam War, the "all-volunteer Army" has become a bedrock principle of the American military. "It's a magnificent force," Vice President Dick Cheney declared during the election campaign last fall, "because those serving are ones who signed up to serve." But with the Army and Marines perilously overextended by the war in Iraq, that volunteer foundation is starting to crack. The "weekend warriors" of the Army Reserve and the National Guard now make up almost half the fighting force on the front lines, and young officers in the Reserve are retiring in droves. The Pentagon, which can barely attract enough recruits to maintain current troop levels, has involuntarily extended the enlistments of as many as 100,000 soldiers. Desperate for troops, the Army has lowered its standards to let in twenty-five percent more high school dropouts, and the Marines are now offering as much as $30,000 to anyone who re-enlists. To understand the scope of the crisis, consider this: The United States is pouring nearly as much money into incentives for new recruits -- almost $300 million -- as it is into international tsunami relief.
Baltimore Sun Bush forced to reverse course again
In a tentative deal with lawmakers announced yesterday, he said he would authorize a secret intelligence court to review the National Security Agency's surveillance program. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the Republican Judiciary Committee chairman who drafted NSA legislation with Bush's support, announced the agreement on Capitol Hill, declaring that his bill constituted an acknowledgement "that the president does not have a blank check" even in wartime.
Bush's decision followed a Pentagon statement this week extending provisions of the Geneva Conventions to terrorism suspects - a stark reversal of a policy Bush set forth in the months after the 9/11 attacks. The shift suggests that the president, facing challenges from Congress and a recent Supreme Court rebuke, is adjusting his broad definition of presidential prerogatives, legal analysts said.
Also the Baltimore Sun NSA's spy program might get court test
WASHINGTON // President Bush has agreed on a plan to submit the National Security Agency's controversial domestic electronic surveillance program to a secret court for a limited review of its constitutionality, senators and White House officials said yesterday.
Under the plan, Bush would sign legislation allowing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which reviews government requests for wiretaps, to decide whether the administration has the legal authority in terrorism investigations to eavesdrop on American citizens without first obtaining warrants.
UK Independent 'Yo, Blair!': Overheard at the G8
Bush: Yo, Blair. How are you doing? (Does he regard Mr Blair as an equal? What about 'Yo, Tony'?)
Blair: I'm just...
Bush: You're leaving?
Blair: No, no, no not yet. On this trade thingy....(inaudible) (Mr Blair is getting anxious that the World Trade Organisation is falling apart because some nations, including the US, are putting domestic interests before a worldwide free trade agreement)
Men's Style? Great article via RAW THE SINS OF RALPH REED
The morning begins with a prayer in Jason’s Deli, a strip-mall joint in Atlanta, and we all bow our heads and say amen. We—me, the Atlanta reporter, and all the Buck Springs Republicans—stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and the fine a cappella rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and then we—me and the other reporter—sit down in our booth and scribble notes throughout the short, civil debate between the two candidates who are seeking the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor of Georgia. One of the candidates is state senator Casey Cagle, who was a businessman before he was first elected twelve years ago. The other is Ralph Reed.
Remember Ralph Reed? Executive director of the Christian Coalition. Hardball Republican operative. Cherubic embodiment of the religious right. He may not have created the movement, but he was the one who mainstreamed it. After a decade of TV-preacher scandals and jowly old scolds wagging moralizing fingers, Reed was slick and sensible. He was young and smart and erudite, and he had that face, that unlined diamond under a swoop of Big Boy hair that had writers struggling for something, anything, other than choirboy or altar boy or angelic to describe it. Time magazine put that face on its cover in 1995 next to the words THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD. Just 33 years old, and Reed was an icon.
But that was eleven years ago, a lifetime in politics.
No one then would have guessed that Ralph Reed would end up chasing a second-tier office in a down-ballot race in an off year in Georgia. Or that he might lose.
Good idea BuyBlue
Jewish Week Jewish Law And Torture
In sum, according to Jewish law and ethics, torture in the context of war is no more problematic than death itself, and is permitted by the general license to wage war. There is no logical reason that halacha would categorically prohibit duly authorized wartime torture as a method for acquiring information otherwise not available, in order to save lives in the future. Of course, not all conduct permitted as a matter of Jewish law is wise or prudent; the consideration of which policies work in what settings is fundamentally not a question of Jewish law or ethics, but one for military and political leadership.
Note the term law...and the attempts to justify it while misusing religion overtones.
Boston.com Vermont judge rejects U.S. Supreme Court search ruling
The Supreme Court said June 15 that evidence obtained without first knocking could be used at trial, but Bent said that would not apply in Vermont.
"Evidence obtained in violation of the Vermont Constitution, or as the result of a violation, cannot be admitted at trial as a matter of state law," Bent wrote, citing an earlier state case as precedent. "Introduction of such evidence at trial eviscerates our most sacred rights, impinges on individual privacy, perverts our judicial process, distorts any notion of fairness and encourages official misconduct."
A defense lawyer in the Vermont case said Bent's ruling was an important statement. "Sanity prevails in Vermont," said attorney David Williams.
Muckraker Have Jews and Arabs always fought over Palestine?
By all accounts, history proves that the fears of the Arabs were and remain justified. The Jews have not only shouldered into Arab lands, but in many instances, the Arab land has been confiscated at gunpoint, with the owners and dwellers of the confiscated lands, displaced or murdered. Why so many Americans shrug off this fact as unrelated to the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts of today is directly related to the fact that Americans seldom read, hear, or watch balanced reporting on the conflict. If Americans do see news that implies that the Zionist state is acting inappropriately, it will only be reported as a brief snapshot rather than placed in its historical context.
Journals Missourian NewsJuly 3, 2006 HOME FRONT
Military Families Speak Out is a national, nonprofit organization of over 3,000 military families that provides an emotional and physical support network for deployed and returning troops and their families. The group also protests the war in Iraq and lobbies to get the troops home.
Two months ago, Hafley founded the Missouri/Midwest Chapter to help people like Tina and Cloy Richards. After a four-month battle against the Army to bring her husband home from Iraq to take care of their children after she fell ill, Hafley wanted to help other military families in crisis. Most of all, she wanted to spare them the long, bureaucratic struggle that left her utterly exhausted.
Financial Times Bush doubts Lebanon peace plan
Europe’s leaders on Monday sought to build momentum behind a United Nations plan to send soldiers to the conflict zone in Lebanon. But doubts about the viability of such a move – already resisted by Israel – were raised when George W. Bush, US president, made unguarded critical remarks about the thinking behind the idea.
Meeting at the G8 summit in St Petersburg, Tony Blair of Britain, Jacques Chirac of France and Angela Merkel of Germany rallied behind the proposal to deploy thousands of soldiers to southern Lebanon to serve as a “buffer” between the battling forces. This would supplement a UN force of 2,000 already in the area with a mandate to restore “peace and security”.
“The only way we are going to get a cessation of hostilities is if we have the deployment of an international force,” said Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general, at an appearance with Mr Blair.
Ansa, at least Prodi has a cool head. Prodi backs UN-led Mideast force
Premier says Italy would be willing to send troops (ANSA) - St Petersburg, July 17 - Italian Premier Romano Prodi said on Monday that Italy backed the idea of sending an international force to Lebanon to help stop an escalating regional crisis and would be willing to contribute troops . Speaking at a press conference at the end of the Group of Eight summit in the Russian city of St. Petersburg, Prodi said: "Italy firmly supports this proposal and is ready to do its part" .
He added that Italy and Britain were the two European Union nations most in favour of sending a United Nations-led buffer force to southern Lebanon
Aljazeera Immunity gone, Pinochet to face trial
Chile's supreme court has removed the former dictator, Augusto Pinochet's immunity to reopen a case against him involving the "Caravan of Death" murder squad that operated during his regime.
On Monday, the country's highest court accepted a petition to withdraw Pinochet's immunity as a former president so he could face charges involving the murder of two personal aides of former president, Salvador Allende, whose ouster in a 1973 coup led to Pinochet's 17-year authoritarian rule.
The "Caravan of Death" was a military squad which travelled around the country killing dozens of people after the coup to eliminate opponents of the new regime.
Asia Times Hezbollah and the art of the possible
They also underestimated Israel's standing and friends in the international community, which since 1967 have exceeded those of the Arabs - at least in quantity. Many in the Arab world, including the regimes of Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, see Nasrallah as the new Nasser who will lead his people to certain defeat. Saudi Arabia even issued an official statement warning against "irresponsible adventurism adopted by certain elements within the state" in Lebanon.
Global Research US, Israel push world to brink of world war
What must be underscored and grasped at this historic moment are not simply the atrocities on the part of Israel, but the Bush administration’s pathologically sinister actions fanning the flames of this mushrooming war.
The insane Condoleezza Rice condoned the bombing of Lebanon, and then condemned Syria and Iran, and launched into the “terrorists” talking point mantra, repeatedly. Quoting the sick bitch (and I use the two words studiously and without hyperbole; they are accurately descriptive), “I am not going to try to judge every single act.”
The fact that this monster is the US Secretary of State is beyond words. The insane George W. Bush repeated the same “terrorists” talking point mantra, the same “get Iran and Syria at the same time” memo: “Every nation must defend herself against terrorist attacks and the killing of innocent life.” The Bush administration and its insane UN Ambassador John Bolton cast the lone vote (1-10) against a UN resolution condemning the Israeli aggression, killing the resolution.
Quotes of the Day
Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.--Confucius
To see what is right, and not to do it, is want of courage or of principle.-- Confucius
If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.--Plato
Ignorance, the root and the stem of every evil.--Plato
