"People who heard what Biden said [to Israeli officials behind closed doors] were stunned," the centrist Israeli daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported. "'This is starting to get dangerous for us,' Biden castigated his interlocutors. 'What you're doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us, and it endangers regional peace.'"
"In language that could only have been finalized shortly before he delivered the speech, Biden reiterated that it was Israel's perceived breach of trust that had been so galling - at a time, with the fragile proximity talks just getting under way, when trust was at a premium," Jerusalem Post editorialist David Horovitz wrote Thursday.
Ackerman:
http://attackerman.firedoglake... Today Secretary Clinton got in the act. Netanyahu is an obstructionist and it's good to see the Obama administration remind Israelis that its interests are not abstract things. The truth is it's not "starting" to get dangerous for us.
My friend Daniel Levy has forgotten more about Israeli politics than I'll know and he writes that Netanyahu may be the last best hope for the two-state solution. For the life of me I just don't understand the logic. As best as I can understand, Daniel believes Netanyahu's obstructionism, combined with statebuilding efforts from Salam Fayyad in the West bank, will strengthen international support for... what? Imposing a solution on Israel?
Catch the commenter #8 on March 14th 2010 at 11:09 am, at FDL
Roll out the sternly worded speeches.
Did Biden really say the U.S. troops are fighting in Pakistan? And there weren't headlines on that?
"undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan."
Aye yup. When one pits one Muslim country after another, against another non Muslim country, one who is already small in size but mighty in power, with a history of justified paranoia because of World War II, it can get dangerous for the perpetrator. But who ever thought it would be .... us ?
QUICK UPDATE: Friday noonish: Just an alert to let y'all know Tess made it by with a comment, see comments! :-)
Last week, I left you hanging with OTW: Bienvenidos a Miami Part 1. In that Essay, I told you a little bit about my growing up in Miami, Florida, alongside the initial wave of Cuban refugees in the early 1960's. I also promised you I was going somewhere with this. Yes, I do have a Point. :P I will make good on that promise near the end below. And finally, I left you with a cliffhanger with my mention of my Cuban friend, Maria {not her real name}. Well, guess what? I have a surprise for you!
Let's pick up with a little snapshot phone convo between me and Maria, shortly after college.
She picks up on the third ring and I immediately lay into her. "Where the hell are you? It's one o'clock already! Ive been ready for an hour! We're gonna be late!!"
Maria is ever so casual. "Calmate, we have plenty of time. I'll be there to pick you up around 2, like I told you. Man! Calm down."
"But... the invitation says the wedding starts at 2, and it's a 45 minute drive, at least, up to Hollywood. We are sooooo late. This is so bad." I'm whining and pleading now.
Maria assures me and tries to explain. "Bueno, she's Cuban, remember? Are you kidding me? We would look so stupid if we actually had the nerve to arrive at 2PM. They'd lookit us like we're crazy."
"No, no, no, but Maria... he is Jewish! This is just so not done. You don't get it."
"No, you don't get it, the bride's family is Jewban. The groom doesn't count when it comes to a wedding anyway, ferchrissake. Hang up the phone and go fix your lipstick or something. Ill be there in a bit. Jewbans are on Cuban time, reglas cubanas. lolol
Okay, as culture clashes go, this one is certainly tame and a little funny, but it did happen, and yes, we were terribly late by the wall clock, with me fretting all the way of course, but it all turned out just fine. Maria was right. lol We arrived just as the ceremony started, at about 4PM, which was just right by the culture clock.
Did you know that about 10 years ago, Ira Shorr of the Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) sent a toaster to every member of congress to warm them about the danger of having nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alerts- "In the time that it takes to make toast, we could all be toast". Mr Shorr has been PSR's National Field Director for the last 25 years but is retiring this year. To celebrate his decades of activism for peace, our good friend David Hart (also the director of Grow the Hope) is holding a video contest for people to take their own stand on essential issues of our time, such as nuclear weapons and climate change. You can get all the info about the contest by going to www.PSR.org/video
January 15, 2010
Author and humanitarian Greg Mortenson, whose best-selling books Three Cups of Tea and Stones Into Schools argue that education is the best way to peace in Afghanistan and across the Islamic world.
BILL MOYERS: Beyond his domestic woes, certainly the issue that has preoccupied President Obama the most since he took office is Afghanistan. The war he inherited from George W. Bush is now its ninth year and seems no closer to resolution. Almost daily, it seems, there are more stories of fighting in far off mountains, of suicide bombers killing CIA operatives, of drones raining bombs down on villages and killing innocent people. THE NEW YORK TIMES reports this week that unlike the past, when Afghanistan's brutal winters would slow the violence for awhile, "both sides seem determined to make a larger political point by continuing to fight through the snow season."
Hard sometimes to remember that this whole thing began in pursuit of Osama Bin Laden and his accomplices in the attacks of 9/11....>>>>>
There's a phrase originating with the peace activism of the American Quaker movement: "Speak Truth to Power." One can hardly speak more directly to power than addressing the Presidential Administration of the United States. This past October, students at Islamabad's Islamic International University had a message for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. One student summed up many of her colleagues' frustration. "We don't need America," she said. "Things were better before they came here."
The students were mourning loss of life at their University where, a week earlier, two suicide bombers walked onto the campus wearing explosive devices and left seven students dead and dozens of others seriously injured. Since the spring of 2009, under pressure from U.S. leaders to "do more" to dislodge militant Taliban groups, the Pakistani government has been waging military offensives throughout the northwest of the country. These bombing attacks have displaced millions and the Pakistani government has apparently given open permission for similar attacks by unmanned U.S. aerial drones.
Every week, Pakistani militant groups have launched a new retaliatory atrocity in Pakistan, killing hundreds more civilians in markets, schools, government buildings, mosques and sports facilities. Who can blame the student who believed that her family and friends were better off before the U.S. began insisting that Pakistan cooperate with U.S. military goals in the region?
I have recently been calling for a large social movement (or, more realistically, an expansion of the social movements for justice already in existence) and here are a few ways we can all get started on being part of this movement.
(Included: Cindy Sheehan's thoughts on recent events and a list of upcoming action events you can get involved with.)
So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
A new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear ones
The old and the young
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
(War is Over)
For weak and for strong
(if you want it)
The rich and the poor ones
(War is Over)
The road is so long
(now)
So happy Christmas
(War is Over)
For black and for white
(if you want it)
For yellow and red ones
(War is Over)
Let's stop all the fight
(now)
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
(War is over)
And what have we done
(if you want it)
Another year over
(War is Over)
And a new one just begun
(now)
And so this is Christmas
(War is Over)
And we hope you have fun
(if you want it)
The near and the dear ones
(War is Over)
The old and the young
(now)
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
God. Good. Love. Is that REALLY your God, people? Are you honoring my request?
No. You are putting money before me, power before me, and every other God before me, including the Message I gave other people.
You are more obsessed with THEIR god, than your own contract with me. I told you NOT to put their Gods before Me, just as I told them not to put your God before Me.
Mind your business with yourself and Me. Mind not Atheists either, you are making their lack of God more important than your relationship with me. Perhaps I am already IN THEM directly. It is NOT your business.
It's about time for a substantial anti-war movement to start in this country - and with Obama probably announcing an escalation of 34,000 troops to Afghanistan (in addition to the 20,000 he already sent), there is no better time than now. A leading anti-war organization, World Can't Wait, is holding protests around the nation.
Throughout next week, there will be protests in (this list will probably include more cities by the time the protests start - and you can always organize a protest yourself!):
We often gauge a war by who conquers whom, and look to which army stands at the gates when the fighting ends. We talk about insurgents and militias and which warlords control what parts of the globe. So often, we fail to see the distinction between winning the war and creating the peace.
When we look at the outcome of war, we talk about property damage, refugee camps, monetary cost, number wounded, and how many people died. We rarely mention life. If our goal is to overcome anti-American extremism, we have to talk about how people live. How do people survive in the midst of war? How do they rebuild their communities?
An army can win a war on the frontlines, but creating a peace takes a backline effort -- work that our government cannot do as a unilateral occupying force. This is work that must be done in the non-profit sector by active people like us. Winning the peace is a matter of empowering the survivors of war in their everyday lives.
Across the country, there's a movement quietly taking shape to reclaim November 11 as a day of peace.
What is now called Veterans Day was originally designated in the US as Armistice Day, the day that World War I ended at 11 a.m. on 11/11. In the UK and elsewhere, it is also known as Remembrance Day or Poppy Day.
This past Wednesday, Admiral Mullen (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) announced that the Pentagon will seek additional war funds for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in 2010. While he did not give a firm dollar amount, the New York Times reported that defense budget analysts are kicking around the number of $50 billion. The Times also
reported that Jack Murtha, Chair of the Defense Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, indicated on October 30 that he expects the supplemental spending bill for 2010 to be in the range of $40 billion. The final dollar amount won't be known until the White House submits its "emergency" supplemental spending request to Congress, most likely around February 2.
In the immortal words of Coach Vince Lombardi: "What the hell is going on out there?"
We should be so lucky if it were a simple matter of the Green Bay Packers screwing up the power sweep.
Instead, it's a matter of the Obama Administration now leading us down the path of the most expensive year in war funding since President Bush began the so-called "Global War on Terror" (now morphed into the "Overseas Contingency Operations" under President Obama).
When he or she is a Veteran for Peace, according to the committee which runs Milwaukee's Veterans Day parade.
According to the committee's logic, inviting non-veteran politicians to march in the Veterans Day parade is not political, but having the word "peace" in an organization's name is.
Members of Veterans for Peace have again been barred from participation in Milwaukee's Veterans Day Parade, although the parade website says the event is "Honoring all Americans who have served."
The committee has refused to allow Veterans for Peace members - many of whom are combat veterans with Purple Hearts - from taking part in the observance on Saturday, Nov. 7, saying Veterans for Peace is "a politically motivated group," and therefore not welcome.
So much for "honoring all Americans who have served."
Chapter 102 members (I am one) did not ask to participate in the parade to make a political statement, but to take our rightful place in the annual event saluting all who served our country in uniform.
Yet the committee, which finds us "political," invites non-veteran politicians -- Scott Walker, Gwen Moore, Tom Barrett -- to march in the parade, and welcomes veterans groups which are outspoken in support of military action and war.
The committee's reply, from Chairman David Drent, said,
"There is no doubt that your organization is a politically motivated group. One visit to the organization's website makes your views perfectly clear.
"We don't make judgment on your purpose. End the war or escalate it carries the same weight with the board. A political statement is being made and there is no room in the parade for it."
"We thank you for your service in our Armed Forces, but our goal has always been to have a day of honor that is 100% politically free."
Jill Richardson runs La Vida Locavore, a blog about food. Jill writes her heart out about the politics of food safety, and her blog has attracted gardeners and farmers and people like me, who write there too sometimes.
Jill's brother died last year. He was in his 20's. Jill posted an essay late this evening about Adam, about how this would have been his birthday. "What can I give him?" she wrote.
Adam died when he was 23. Jill's essay is painful and beautiful.
I went to a concert the other day and I couldn't stop thinking about him. He was so into music and he knew so much about it. He would have been happy I was going to a concert.
Below the jump is the music I posted over there. A moment of silence for a fellow blogger, please.
Dude, now like the cat is out of the bag and like we know everyone but 'conservatives' and old people just want to have fun, I think you'll see more top-of-the-line revolutionaries come out of the closet of stonerdom and, you know, not be afraid to have our revolutionary fervor tempered by a joint or two on the way to the big protest march or strategic infrastructure demolition.
The Military Industrial Complex meets the Terroism Industrial Complex.
In his widely reported London speech earlier this month, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, described how people constantly offer him ideas for fixing that country's problems. One of the more unusual recommendations, he suggested, came from a paper that advocated using a "plan called 'Chaosistan.' " McChrystal said it advised letting Afghanistan become a "Somalia-like haven of chaos that we simply manage from outside," but there was no further explanation of its origins.
President Obama's awarding of the Noble Peace Prize may be more about making a strong statement condemning what came before than it is a desire to reward the man who will benefit from the news. At a time when Obama is facing the sharpest criticism of his still-nascent Presidency, the Noble win temporarily distracts from Afghanistan, Health Care Reform, Don't Ask, Don't Tell, banking regulation, Guantanamo Bay, and a variety of other items on the agenda. It will dominate the news cycle at least for today and likely into the weekend, with all the usual suspects chiming in to comment. Obama's resume towards world reconciliation and peace activism around the globe, up until now, has been on the thin side, though he has certainly taken much care to begin to undo the damage of the Bush presidency. I welcome the announcement, though I wonder if perhaps those with a lower profile might have been more deserving.
One also wonders what impact this award will have on the President's domestic approval rating or the public support for his substantial agenda. The Nobel Peace Prize has a long history of courting controversy, and one expects to see no small degree of backlash from conservatives along the same lines as when Al Gore won in 2007. My initial thought is that this event, notable though it is, really won't make much difference either way. It will be a short-term matter that Obama will rightly use to bolster what he wishes to accomplish, particularly in a diplomatic context. The Republicans will scream bloody murder and the Democrats will release complimentary press releases which politely reveal nothing more than safe, unsubstantial praise.
Contemplating why the awards themselves were established explains something of their presumptive function. The Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of the explosives dynamite and gelignite, set up a series of separate prize designations in his will. Winners of these prizes would also be rewarded with a substantial cash prize paid out of Nobel's personal fortune. Upon his death, a committee was instructed to award the most deserving person who had to advanced human improvement in a each of a variety of areas. Ever since their establishment, the committee has often broadly interpreted Nobel's rather vague directives.
The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way:
The capital shall be invested by my executors in safe securities and shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics; one part to the person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine; one part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency; and one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity among nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.
It was a premature obituary published in a French newspaper that led Nobel to establish these prizes that bear his name.
The obituary stated Le marchand de la mort est mort ("The merchant of death is dead") and went on to say, "Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday." On 27 November 1895, at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, Nobel signed his last will and testament and set aside the bulk of his estate to establish the Nobel Prizes, to be awarded annually without distinction of nationality.
Nobel himself was the owner of a large factory which designed war munitions and combined with his brilliant discoveries regarding explosive substances, he is a reminder that human progress and innovation can be used to kill millions of people in open combat. Not only that, he is a sobering example that we ourselves might prove to be our own undoing when we selfishly advance our own sordid motives at the expense of our brothers and sisters. Thus, the Nobel Prizes are a lasting testament to one man's atonement and his desire to seek forgiveness. This is an unselfish gesture I do not believe was made to whitewash over past sins. It would be wise to keep that solemn fact in mind when we contemplate the very intent of the awards themselves. Though we need and must continue to cite instances where the wealthy and powerful destroy human unity on behalf of the pursuit of profit, there are those like Nobel who aim to leave a lasting legacy behind them as more than butchers, or amoral profiteers, or purveyors of anguish. Political footballs aside and back and forth arguments aside, we shouldn't let petty grievances detract from the power and grave reverence these awards demand.
Reform Immigration -
March on Washington
There's a phrase originating with the peace activism of the American Quaker movement: "Speak Truth to Power." One can hardly speak more directly to power than addressing the Presidential Administration of the United States. This past October, students at Islamabad's Islamic International University had a message for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. One student summed up many of her colleagues' frustration. "We don't need America," she said. "Things were better before they came here." 
When is a veteran not a veteran? 
