Outside the Spectrum

   Oliver North is up to his old tricks on Fox, saying that he’s not sure if Israel even bombed Qana, and “whether they did it or not” they “are going to get blamed for it.”

   You have got to be kidding me, people. How many crimes to you have to be convicted of, how many lies do you have to tell before you lose your place in the conservative media? How ridiculous do you have to be before the audience stops watching?

   Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert, maintained that “We are paying a very precious and almost unbearable loss of life, major damage to public and private property and tranquility—and we’re not prepared to give up our right to live perfectly ordinary lives.” Here we see Israeli moral relativism in all its glory. Israel’s losses of 51 civilians and military personnel is “almost unbearable.” How does he judge the 500+ civilian fatalities in Lebanon? He speaks of “major damage to public and private property and tranquility,” but how does he measure the billions of dollars in damage in Lebanon that dwarf the damage done to his country? The 500,000 to 700,000 refugees in Lebanon that are ten times the number of dislocated people in Israel? Do Lebanese civilians just not count? More Lebanese children have died than all of Israel’s fatalities put together. Is their loss bearable?

   Apparently they are bearable, as Israel’s Justice Minister said the IDF had given Lebanese ample time to leave southern Lebanon and anyone remaining could be considered a supporter of Hezbollah—and fair game. “All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah,” he said, according to the BBC, on July 27th.

   Forget about trying to leave and being blocked by bombed out bridges. Forget about having nowhere to go, or having to stay behind to care for sick or injured friends or relatives who can’t be moved. As Human Rights Watch has said, most of those left behind are “unable to flee due to destroyed roads, a lack of gasoline, high taxi fares, sick relatives, or ongoing Israeli attacks. The sick and poor are those who mostly remain behind.”

    Forget about it. If you are left behind you are meat as far as Israel is concerned. What we are seeing in southern Lebanon is a free-fire zone.

   Human Rights Watch, while also documenting Hezbollah’s obviously indiscriminant attacks, has unleashed a blistering criticism of Israel’s rampantly indiscriminant firing. Peter Bouckaert, Emergencies Director for Human Rights Watch, called Israel’s justifications of its actions “fantasy.” He wrote “I have seen my share of modern wars, as a researcher at Human Rights Watch. In Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, we found many civilian casualties due to bombing campaigns. Civilians fleeing attacks were hit by mistake. In Iraq, US bombs often hit civilian homes, hours after Saddam Hussein or members of his inner circle had left, missing their legitimate targets but killing civilians. In Lebanon it is a very different picture. Time after time, Israel strikes at civilian homes and civilian vehicles attempting to flee the besieged southern border zone, killing families without any military objective in sight…Although mistakes are made in the fog of fighting, the pattern of Israeli behavior in southern Lebanon suggests a deliberate policy…our investigations have not found evidence to support Israeli allegations that Hizbullah are intentionally endangering Lebanese civilians by systematically fighting from civilian positions.”

   It reminds me of one of Noam Chomsky’s quotes: “You never need an argument against the use of violence, you need an argument for it.”

   And another: “Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it.”

   When Israel announced its suspension of bombing after the Qana attack I wondered why they were bothering. They have never shown much concern for civilian casualties or the ensuing international condemnation before, even after the Marwaheen Massacre. My intuition raised a small red flag. Hezbollah halted its bombardment of Israel after the cessation went into effect.

   Apparently my intuition was correct (if I can say that without sounding too pompous). Israel resumed bombing hours after the incident. So much for the suspension of bombing.

   Hezbollah has retaliated by firing 157 really ineffective rockets at Israel, resulting in 0 fatalities, one “moderate” injury, and 12 “slight” injuries.

   The international isolation of the US and Israel is becoming painfully obvious to commentators in the US, even the conservative ones. It is dismissed as unimportant, of course, but it can’t be ignored. I overheard Laura Ingraham awkwardly acknowledging it even as she mischaracterized it (only Arab countries are angry at the US) and dismissed it (“these were the same people who protested us when Reagan was president and he was building up our military”). Way to knock down the straw man, Attention Deficit. You are the master of your own little fantasy world.

   Kofi Annan expressed irritation when he reminded his audience at the UN that his earlier proposal for a cease-fire was rejected (by a US veto). Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said that “nothing can justify” the Qana strike. Jacques Chirac issued a statement saying that “France condemns this unjustified action.” Britain’s foreign secretary described the strikes as “absolutely dreadful” and “quite appalling,” saying that “we have repeatedly urged Israel to act proportionately.”

   Arab countries, as you might expect, were even more direct. Syria’s president labeled the Israeli strikes “state terrorism.” King Abdullah of Jordan called the attack “criminal aggression.” Iran and Egypt condemned the attack. The United Arab Emirates called the attack an “ugly massacre.” All of the aforementioned European and Arab countries have called for an immediate cease-fire, against the wishes of the US and Israel. Human Rights Watch labeled the attack a “war crime.”

   More ominously, the armed wing of Abbas’s Fatah faction in Palestine said it would target the United States and other Western countries in retaliation. "From now on we consider the United States and certain other Western countries our target," said a statement from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.

   So this foreign policy strategy President Bush has is making us safer? I beg to differ.

   Tony Blair is taking some heat for his decision to allow US planes loaded with bombs bound for Israel to refuel on British soil. He is also attracting criticism for his decision to side with President Drinky and not support an immediate cease-fire, which the majority of Britains and Europeans in general support.

   Meanwhile, all is not quiet on the southern front. 30 Palestinians have been killed over the past three days in an Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip. A few Israelis have been injured by retaliatory rocket fire from Palestinian militants.

   The oil spill in Lebanon caused by an Israeli strike is the worst environmental disaster in the history of the Mediterranean. The beaches of six nations, including Israel and Lebanon, are threatened.  

Correction: The Marwaheen Massacre may have been the result of a fighter aircraft strike instead of a helicopter strike.

The slaughter continues in Lebanon, with a devastating strike by Israel killing over 50 people in Qana in southern Lebanon, 27 of them children. This prompted international condemnation of the attack. Lebanese mobs, angry at the inaction of the UN, stormed the UN building in Beirut and smashed it up. The Israeli Army said a new wave of Hezbollah rockets hit Nahariya, Kiryat Shemona, and Mallot, although no one was injured. There are over 450 people confirmed dead in Lebanon, although up to several hundred more are thought dead. 51 Israelis have died, most of them soldiers. A massive oil spill caused by an Israeli strike on a Lebanese power plant (but one that supplied power to Hezbollah, of course) has covered the Lebanese coastline in sludge. I guess the tourism season is over.

Israeli forces have killed the leader of Islamic Jihad in Nablus. Troops came to arrest him while he was playing football with his friends and relatives. Apparently there was some resistance. Islamic Jihad has been responsible for all 12 suicide bombings in Israel over the past 17 months, killing 71 people.

This strange story caught my eye: a relatively conservative pastor of a megachurch refused to preach on political issues. 1,000 people in his congregation left.

It is a great story. His concerns about mixing politics with religion began on the 4th of July when he visited another megachurch and saw images of the US flag and military units mixed up with the cross on the main screen of the church as the chorus sang God Bless America. He asked himself “What just happened? Fighter jets mixed up with the cross?”

Another interesting little story: the UN is urging the US to give the District of Columbia a voting member of Congress, as the current situation appears “Inconsistent with international law.” Hah! That’s right America! Stop picking on little DC!

A nice little piece working Hannity over.

Greg Palast with a good interview with Hugo Chavez.

Finally, how many “liberals” can Rupert Murdoch buy?

   Winning hearts and minds, cowboy style. US foreign policy mobilizes the region as Israel claims the international community is giving it a green light. Meanwhile, Secretary Rice ignores the entreaties of her counterparts asking for support of a cease fire resolution in Iraq.

   “Staying the course” in Iraq is the GOP’s national security message. You know, the course that has seen three times as much money spent on rebuilding Iraq as was spent by the United States under the Marshall Plan to rebuild all of Western Europe, with Iraq in utter chaos and the power and water systems still at pre-war levels.

   The coal industry mobilizes its propagandists against global warming.

   Democratic insiders recoil at the idea of impeding free-trade iniatives to secure American workers’ share of the profits.
  
   I suppose I have an obligation to report this: Ann Coulter calls AL Gore a “total fag.”

   Neocon pundits still dominate the airwaves, even after their predictions about Iraq proved so ridiculous. I would love to have that job security. That means you, Charles Krauthammer.

   And finally, the happiest countries in the world? Six if the top ten are in Europe, if you count Iceland as European. The small nations of Bhutan and Brunei also round out the top ten, along with Canada.

  

   Israel continued its offensive in Lebanon, focusing its energies on the Hezbollah stronghold of Bint Jbail. One refugee described the heavy bombardment as “worse than a nightmare. I saw dogs and cats on bodies that couldn’t be taken from bombed-out houses…Everything is finished.” The Israeli military has reportedly suffered several casualties in the offensive.

   This devastation was echoed in towns like Nabatiye, a Hezbollah stronghold with many Hezbollah-associated businesses. Several Hezbollah-associated businesses were struck (including a bank), as well as many that weren’t associated with Hezbollah: many houses, a gas station and a parking garage.

   The coverage of the carnage isn’t quite so honest on Fox, of course. I wonder if in their coverage of “all” of the sides, they have ever had an advocate like this on their program. Or how about this one. Israeli bombs struck a UN outpost, one of several that have been hit, killing four UN peacekeepers. Kofi Annan castigated the Israeli government for its “apparently deliberate targeting.” Israel claimed it was a mistake, even as the Irish Foreign Ministry said it had contacted the Israeli military repeatedly to warn them they were striking very close to UN installations in the region.

   A brutal little story I first heard on alJazeera. At first I didn’t believe it, but the story was picked up by the Jerusalem Post: IDF Chief of Staff Halutz ordered that 10 buildings be leveled in Beirut for every rocket attack on Haifa.

    Have I not spoken of Israel’s conscious, cold-blooded calculation to inflict several times the injury they suffer in loss of life and destruction of infrastructure on the civilians of their neighbors? Have I not?

    Israel continues its destruction in the West Bank and Gaza: as dozens have died during the period of Israel’s Lebanon offensive Israel has also arrested half of the government of the Palestinian Authority and destroyed many of Palestine’s government buildings, including the foreign ministry in Gaza and nearly every government building in Nablus.

   Republican Senator Worm has decided to submit a bill that will allow Congress to sue the president over his use of signing statements. This is after the American Bar Association has concluded that the president has sidestepped his constitutional authority to either “sign a bill, veto it, or take no action.” Bush has issued over 700 signing statements, more than all other presidents in history put together. I have previously written about the nature of some of these signing statements, which amount to little more than the president saying he will not enforce a law if he feels it impinges on his “constitutional” authority.

   The US war machine grinds onward: the Air Force has approved $11 billion for more of the F-22 fighter aircraft, the most expensive fighter aircraft in history. The Institute for Defense Analysis recommended the sale, even though the president of the IDA enjoys a particularly lucrative conflict of interest.

   Some illusions never die. Despite the fact that the WMDs in Iraq were never found, or were sample amounts or small amounts in degraded form left over from the Gulf War, 50% of US adults still think Iraq had WMDs when we invaded. 64% still think Saddam Hussein had strong links to al Qaeda. I would like to thank Fox News and Sean Hannity for making Americans to most delusional people on Earth regarding the war we are fighting.

   More anti-American sentiment from the speaker of the Iraqi parliament. Funny how democracy doesn’t always turn out like you planned, isn’t it?

   Conservatives in Ohio reply to calls for an increase in the minimum wage with the old story of how increasing the minimum wage will lead to unemployment.

   The dumbest senator in the Senate is on the warpath against the concept of global warming again, even going so far as to compare people who raise concerns about global warming to Nazis.

   War in the Middle East? Afghanistan in chaos? No problem. The president is meeting with the cast of American Idol, after which he will take fifteen days of vacation in August. Hey, Tony Snow! Let’s hear it about what a lazy president Jimmy Carter was again (you know, the president who took the least amount of vacation days of any president in modern US history).

   Speaking of the Middle East, how about that stilted coverage in the New York Times? Despite the fact that some defenders of Israel have lauded her for her “restraint,” Human Rights Watch has reported the use of cluster munitions in Lebanon in populated areas.

   The Butcher’s Work continues. Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament Mahmoud al-Mashhadani castigated the US war effort as “the work of butchers” done “under the slogan of democracy.” Josh Bolten, the president’s chief of staff, as part of their unending efforts to put a happy face on the disastrous and unpopular war, described the speaker as appreciative of the “sacrifices Americans have made.” In other words, Bolten lied his ass off.

   As a part of this effort to put lipstick on a pig, the White House released a fact sheet that was simply saturated with lies. This issue is linked to the upcoming confirmation hearings on Ambassador Bolton. It would do us well to remember the advocates of Bolton last year, like the Wall Street Journal, who ignored the evidence against him and took time to smear Bill Clinton, of course, with a lie.

   Orifice continues his peddling of conservative lies. Bob Geiger has a decent deconstruction of the incredibly fair and scientific polls of Fox News and Hannity here.

   Israel and our administration (through Secretary Rice) have made it clear that there must be no ceasefire for now. Israel maintains that it must be allowed to continue to hammer Lebanon to destroy Hezbollah…in other words, to somehow accomplish what they failed to do after twenty years of occupation. The US and Israel, in the face of the mounting humanitarian disaster (previously described on this blog) have belatedly decided to send relief to the war zone…but to continue to hammer it. Secretary Rice maintains that after this Israeli bombrdment peace will be “sustainable,” magically enough, for the first time in the modern history of the Middle East.

   I have previously asked the question “how disproportionate must the slaughter be before the US or Israel decides enough is enough?” The current conflict has resulted in ten times as many Lebanese dead as Israelis. It turns out that my question has been answered by the unknown amount of relief that is going to be sent to Lebanon by the US and Israel. I’m sure these politicians think that this relief will salve the weeping wounds of Lebanon and legitimize the aggression as it has happened so far, but this thinking is what has sustained the violence in the Middle East for generations. James Zogby echoes my opinion here.

    Israel still isn’t allowing the UN to ship relief into the area, a curious decision. I can’t help but wonder if the decision is based on spite, seeing as Israel has been the target of more Security Council resolutions than any nation in history. The efforts of conservatives to discredit the UN as an impediment to their desire to trample international law are in close alignment with those desires in Israel.

  
  

   The head of NATO’s security forces in Afghanistan describes the country as “close to anarchy,” criticizing private security forces as “poorly regulated” and “all too ready to discharge firearms.” Ahh, the free market at work.

   Europe effectively has and is evacuating its citizens from war-torn Beirut; the US bungles the operation and then the right criticizes the evacuees for even needing help. Meanwhile, US media coverage of the conflict is bent hard right. The United States speeds up bomb delivery to Israeli so it can use them to pound Lebanon as the Lebanese Prime Minister vows that the Lebanese Army will resist an Israeli invasion.

   The stated policy of the Executive Branch to ignore congressional law at will raises its ugly head again as the Executive Branch refuses to estimate how much the Iraq War will cost. I have said it before, I will say it again, this movement refuses to acknowledge that Congress or the American people have any real right to know or provide input as to what is going on the sphere of foreign relations.

   The most bigoted and pig-ignorant member of the Senate once again opens his mouth, this time to attack Al Gore and the concept of global warming. Thank you, Oklahoma, for sending yet another jackass to the US Senate.

   The White House transcript of the president’s NAACP speech gets edited.

   Good news on the NSA wiretapping program: a federal judge has dismissed the government’s state secrets claim.

   The Butcher of the Honduras has stonewalled the CIA’s efforts to produce a National Intelligence Estimate for Iraq, as the situation there is so bad. Honestly, how long and how badly can this administration beat up on intelligence gatherers to keep a positive face on its policies?

   Tony Snow has repeatedly bumbled about during his press briefings, handling pointed questions with hostility, as I have written previously. He repeats the pattern again. Then he sinks to just lying about another troublesome issue.

   Limbaugh continues to lead the legions of inbred born-again zealots in their assault on the concept of science.

   Neal Boortz once again simply spouts unabashed bigotry: “it is perfectly legitimate, perhaps even praiseworthy, to recognize Islam as a religion of vicious, violent, bloodthirsty cretins.”

   I’m not even sure it’s even worth it to criticize a man whose audience must be composed of three-toed troglodytes and mullet-coiffed, proud, confederate-flag-waving patriots, but there are a billion Muslims, you Nazi, and they are not all the same. They are not an “inferior” religion, Adolf, and there is no American flag big enough for you to hide your elephantine slander behind.

   Chris Matthews kisses Trent Lott’s ass. We know Chris LOVES his conservatives, but Trent Lott, Chris? Have you no shame? The unreconstructed secessionist? The KKK sympathizer? The man who compared homosexuals to alcoholics and kleptomaniacs?

   Even the National Review turned on Lott back in 2002, though the Brutus carrying the dagger was, amusingly, the black republican Deroy Murdock. I suppose that Bill Buckley thought it might be ironic to send his house nigger to stab Lott in the back; it certainly was amusing to me to read an article written by an African-American who excoriates Lott for racism while gushingly describing his affection for Ronald Reagan, one of the masters of the Southern Strategy. Ha! That one was priceless. Thanks, Bill.  

   I actually sympathized with Trent a little, back in 2002. Here he was, a cultured southern gentleman from Mississippi. Of course he’s racist. Then Buckley gives space in his magazine for a lunatic to stab Lott in the back: a gay, black republican, undoubtedly one of the most conflicted and hysterically-Stockholm-Syndrome-ridden individuals on the planet, a man who should be committed. Jesus, Buckley. Why didn’t you just send a homeless guy with a gun to shoot Lott?

   For what? Because racism is any worse than fascism? What is your litmus test for a republican, Buckley?  

   Honestly, for a fascist you really lack spine. How do you have the gall to say, regarding a dictator like Pinochet, “Chile was happy to have produced one in its hour of need,” but you don’t have the courage to defend a Mississippi senator with the typical southern prejudice? Saying that “Chile was happy” to have Pinochet is the equivalent of shitting your pants in public: it’s so embarrassing and disgusting I am not going to draw any more attention to it.

   But conservatives have an amazing habit of throwing one of their members under the bus when their whole movement is guilty of the same thing. It’s like some sacrificial scape-goat will carry their sins away from them and erase the long, sad history of conservative race-baiting from existence.

  
  

   Even the Energy Secretary echoes ridiculous White House spin regarding the situation in Iraq, even as the situation in Iraq deteriorates to a level of violence never before seen in the three-and-a-half years of the US occupation.

   Over 6,000 civilians have died in the last two months, according to the UN. Six thousand. As driftglass writes, this is not sporadic violence. This is total war.

   Now might a good time to revisit the assurances of the administration that Iraq has “turned a corner,” and turned back from the “abyss.” Now might be a good time to remember Vice President Cheney’s assurance that the insurgency is in its “last throes.” How about Bill Kristol’s self-assured predictions regarding Iraq.

   President Bush issued the first veto of his presidential career today, vetoing the Castle Bill to provide funding for research using embryos that would be discarded anyway. Press Secretary Snow maintained it was a moral decision. This despite the fact that a majority of US citizens support increased funding for stem cell research. Bush’s veto was defended by Karl Rove, the president’s most important domestic advisor, with a flagrant lie: there’s “more promise from adult stem cells than from embryonic stem cells.”

   Israel continued its offensive in Lebanon today, targeting a food processing plant, and aid convoy, and the nations largest milk factories, adding to the emerging humanitarian crisis. About 500,000 Lebanese have been displaced, and are facing food, water, and medicine shortages. Ten of thousands of Israelis have also been displaced, according to the LA Times, but are not suffering from the same shortages. The death toll for the war now stands at about 295 Lebanese and 25 Israelis, mostly civilians.

   There are concrete political consequences for supporting rampant military responses in retaliation for terrorism: Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has maintained that his government is planning a cross-border military action into Iraq to hunt down Kurdish PKK guerillas (categorized as terrorists by Europe and America). The US has warned him not to, calling such action “unwise.” Erdogan shot back, “Terrorism is terrorism everywhere," Erdogan said in Istanbul. "It is not possible to agree with a mentality that tolerates country A and displays a different attitude when it comes to country B.” He dismissed the US ambassador’s warning and hinted that his military will pursue PKK militants into Iraq pending “new developments.”

   The long-awaited first veto of this president’s career might take place this week, as the Senate is prepared to vote overwhelmingly to expand embryonic stem-cell research. Tony Snow gives the president’s explanation here, while Thinkprogress refutes the explanation given here.

   Seeing as conservatives are so eager to jump on Cynthia McKinney when she says something controversial, I thought I might cite the Thinkprogress blog entry on Rep. Lincoln Davis, who thinks that divorce and adultery should be illegal and should disqualify the “perpetrator” from serving in Congress.

   More news on an old subject: President Bush personally blocked the Department of Justice investigation into the legality of the NSA warrantless wiretapping program.

   Also, more news on how the investigative powers of the Congress have been hijacked by partisan propagandists.

   The situation in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate.

   Tony Snow gets flustered with Helen Thomas, slanders her as some kind of terrorist shill, and flat-out denies that the United States vetoed the UN Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire. I’m telling you, Snow deserves some kind of Pravda Press award.

   Cenk Uyger has a hilarious post over at The Huffington Post. Oh, good Lord, I am still recovering from reading it. The truly choice excerpt:

The camera is focused elsewhere and it is not clear whom Bush is talking to, but possibly Chinese President Hu Jintao, a guest at the summit.
Bush: "Gotta go home. Got something to do tonight. Go to the airport, get on the airplane and go home. How about you? Where are you going? Home?
Bush: "This is your neighborhood. It doesn't take you long to get home. How long does it take you to get home?"
Reply is inaudible.
Bush: "Eight hours? Me too. Russia's a big country and you're a big country."At this point, the president seems to bring someone else into the conversation.
Bush: "It takes him eight hours to fly home."
He turns his attention to a server.
Bush: "No, Diet Coke, Diet Coke."
He turns back to whomever he was talking with.
Bush: "It takes him eight hours to fly home. Eight hours. Russia's big and so is China."

   A retarded child? No, the President of the United States, and our face to the world. In the words of one historian speaking about Preznit Drinky, “He neither speaks nor processes information well.”
  

   As I mentioned two days ago, the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) targeted a convoy of civilian cars leaving an area the IDF told them to evacuate. The convoy was then struck by Israeli missiles and over a dozen were killed.

   You wouldn’t know this sad story if you simply watched CNN reports, but many in the world (including me) check Aljazeera and other Arab media outlets for information.

   Human Rights Watch has picked up on this story, demanding an explanation from the IDF (which is somewhat amusing, given that Israel stages some truly amazing whitewashes that it calls “investigations,” including the one regarding the shelling of a beach in Gaza that HRW castigated Israel for all of two weeks ago).

   What drew me to this story, though, is the “defense” of this action that the Israeli military offered. A cynic might suggest that it is truly demonic for a military to demand that some law-abiding people pack up and leave their homes so that the military can devastate an area, only to kill them as they flee. The truth is that what is really cynical is to do all that and then offer a defense of the action that blandly admits that Israel doesn’t give a rat’s ass about civilian casualties. The response in question: “Israel Air Force targeted an area near the city of Tyre, in southern Lebanon, used as launching grounds for missiles fired by Hezbollah terror organization at Israel. The IDF regrets civilian casualties while targeting the missile launching area.” (emphasis mine).

   Note the language. Israel doesn’t target guerrilla fighters; Israel targets areas. I suppose I must point out it is a war crime to target areas, blithely blowing up civilians without making any apparent effort to avoid doing so.

   But the story gets “curiouser and curiouser.” HRW interviewed a journalist, the UN, and witnesses and it turns out that there were two rockets fired at the convoy, apparently by helicopters. This was not Israel shelling “an area.” This wasn’t artillery fire that destroyed the convoy in the context of Israel shelling “an area.” These were two missiles fired from a helicopter, apparently, that targeted the convoy. The convoy was not weaving through an area being bombarded by the IDF, dodging shells. They were picked off.

   I am not waiting for Israel to investigate itself with the same probity it used in investigating the shelling of the beach in Gaza. Israel’s simple calculus is to kill several Lebanese or Palestinians for every casualty they suffer, even if they have to line them up against a wall and shoot them.

   It turns out that 20 people died in that attack, 9 of them children.

   Kofi Annan called for a cease fire and the installation of UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, a call Israel rejected. Miri Eisin, an Israeli government spokeswoman, said: "I don't think we're at that stage yet. We're at the stage where we want to be sure that Hezbollah is not deployed at our northern border."

   In their efforts to ensure that Hezbollah was not deployed at their northern border Israel invaded Lebanon. Israel’s airstrikes continued, killing 17 civilians overnight and another 17 early in the day. Factories and power stations have been targeted. Hezbollah retaliated with rocket strikes into Haifa that killed 8.
  
   In Turkey the Turkish government has vowed to punish the PKK, the Kurdish Workers Party, that is apparently responsible for a raid on a Turkish army post that left 13 soldiers dead. The PKK is considered a terrorist organization by the US, Europe, and Turkey. The PKK has been active in attacks on the Turkish government before, including bombs in Istanbul recently. The PKK and the Turkish government have a long history of violence: in the 1990s the Turkish government cracked down on PKK areas in the southeast of the country, killing tens of thousands.

   Things are not going so well in Iraq. A car bomb killed 55 in a town 30 miles from Baghdad yesterday, following the suicide bomber that killed 26 in a Baghdad café and other sectarian violence, including the recent massacre (reported this morning) of another 50 or so people in a town south of Baghdad.

   Lebanon’s Daily Star editorial sounds an ominous warning. It points out that Ehud Olmert and Washington are on the same side, reminding the reader that the “bombs and missiles raining down”on their heads are “American-made,” warning that a new generation of militants is being born, and reminding the reader that “Lest we forget, it was during Israel's bloody invasion of Lebanon in 1982 that a young Osama bin Laden watched the destruction of high-rises in Beirut and first resolved to take down the towers of the World Trade Center.” Jonathan Cook,  another editorial writer at the paper, also mentions the United States as Israel’s “paymaster.” Al-Ahram (one of Egypt’s main media organizations) is regularly full of vitriol directed towards America regarding the Iraq War or Israeli alliance.

   There are and will be concrete repercussions from US political and military action in the Middle East. Perhaps if anther terrorist attack takes place on US soil Americans will not ask themselves “Why do they hate us?” They will already know.

  
   I am not the only person to remark on how disinterested Bush seems with the whole Middle East World War III thing. While President Bush enjoyed a barbeque in Germany on his visit there Thursday Lebanon continued to burn under Israeli assault. He conferred with some people in the Middle East by phone on his flight to Russia for the G8 meeting. Then he spent Saturday biking in Russia.

   James Wolcott snidely remarked “perhaps the president might make an effort not to see quite so blase, detached, and in-character.” Josh Marshall remarked that the Bush Administration has “marginalized itself” and shown “impotence and irrelevance.” Jon Stewart ran a piece at the Daily Show mocking the President’s lack of interest in Middle East questions Thursday at the barbeque in Germany.

   Is this not reminiscent of Bush’s delayed reaction to Hurricane Katrina, when it took him days to realize that the city was sinking beneath the waves? What diplomatic mission to Germany could be so important so as to pre-empt the beginning of a region-wide disaster?

   You will find no leadership from the White House on this issue. Bush’s plan since the beginning of his presidency was to ignore the peace process in the Middle East and let Israel do whatever it felt necessary. The results of that diplomacy are evident today.

   A good president would have gotten on the horn with Ehud Olmert and told him to suspend his military strikes. But, of course, this president will do no such thing, even when he finds the time to address the situation. He has voiced support for the Israeli action and even directed a veto of the UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel’s actions (and, of course, the kidnapping of the Israeli Army members).

   German media covered the president’s visit to Germany by highlighting the protestors there protesting Bush’s visit, in America we received no such information. His visit was covered by a small story buried in the depths of the Chicago Tribune, which made no mention of the inconvenient fact of the protestors.

In other news:

   When it comes to the K Street Gang, it’s just a different face, same situation.

   Presidet Putin of Russia gives President Bush a snide jab over the results in Iraq.

   A certain Judiciary Committee Chairman who is dead to me (previously referred to as “Worm”) floated his previously-mentioned sham legislation in Congress recently, a bill that was mostly written by Dick Cheney.

   So Israel is threatening to devastate all of southern Lebanon nowadays, with the Israeli Army saying it has warned civilians to leave southern Lebanon. Hezbollah rockets struck Haifa and killed about ten people. So far about 16 Israeli civilians have perished in hundreds of rocket attacks mounted by Hezbollah over the past several days.

   On the Lebanese side the death toll is about 100. Lebanese President Emile Lahoud maintained on Sunday that Israel has used “phosphorus incendiary bombs, which are a blatant violation of international laws” against Lebanese civilians. Zeev Boim, Israeli minister of immigration and political ally of Ehud Olmet, said that the leader of Hezbollah “had better pray to Allah” because Israel was going to “wipe him out.” Saudi Arabia and Kuwait pledged a total of $70 million to help rebuild the devastated infrastructure of Lebanon.

   Meanwhile, the United States opposed a Security Council resolution of any kind and Great Britain opposed one calling for a ceasefire. Lebanon criticized the United States for obstructing the resolution proposed by Qatar calling for a ceasefire, for the protection of civilians, etc. Nouhad Mahmoud said, “It sends very wrong signals not only to the Lebanese people but to all Arab people, to all small nations that we are left to the might of Israel and nobody is doing anything.”

   It does indeed send a very bad signal to Arab nations that the UN is unwilling to even issue a ceasefire resolution. US obstructionism is disgracing both itself and the entire UN.

   Meanwhile, the Bush Administration continued its PR offensive against Hezbollah and Lebanon, insisting that “Hezbollah...is at the root of the problem” and working to convince other G8 nations to adopt a resolution “blaming Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and Syria” for the violence.

   And so the Bush Administration master plan unfolded, a plan to blame anyone for the violence except the people actually doing the vast majority of the killing.

   Indonesians protested Israel’s actions (about 85% of Indonesia’s 220 million citizens are Muslim). Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, criticized Israeli action:"Bombs are exploding, innocent people are being killed, infrastructures are being destroyed ... The powerful continue to crush the weak, but unfortunately those who hold the power in the world are keeping mum.” The Arab League unanimously condemned the Israeli action. The European Union was critical.

   Gaza has seemingly been forgotten, even as Israeli raids continue. Israel’s campaign to free its captured soldier has led to 82 Palestinians and one Israeli solider dead.

  



  

   Lebanon continued to suffer under the punishment of Israeli bombardment. Israeli forces used loudspeakers to tell villagers in Marwahin (a village in southern Lebanon) to leave. No reason was given. Villagers gathered in vehicles and exited the village. They were turned away from a UN peacekeeper position. Shortly thereafter, an Israeli missile struck the convoy and killed a dozen people, including women and children.

   Husan Hutait, an advisor to Lebanon’s Health Minister, put the total death toll of Lebanese at 79.

   Meanwhile, in Egypt about 5,000 protestors gathered to protest Israel’s military bombardment of Lebanon. In Jordan about 2,000 gathered. Saudi Arabia issued a statement condemning the actions of Hezbollah. Al-Ahram noted the reactions of many who believe that Israel and the United States are complicit in this behavior. They cited the example of the American occupation of Iraq as evidence that the United States is the moral equivalent of Israel.

   Dan Gillerman, the Israeli ambassador to the UN, echoed the language of President Bush, calling Hezbollah part of an “Axis of Terror” along with Hamas, Syria, and Iran.

   Meanwhile, Israel continues to bombard Gaza. The Palestinian Economy Ministry was struck. The offices of the Prime Minister and Interior Minister have also been destroyed.

   In other news, now that sanctions against Libya have been lifted major US corporations are eager to do business there. The two biggest potential investors? Bechtel and Exxon, of course.

   In this article Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the International Institute of Economics, was very frank with Aljazeera: “I do think Libya will continue in its autocratic ways while no longer being antagonistic towards the West. Al-Qadhafi could become no more autocratic than the King of Morocco, whom we like a lot.”

   In the words of Ace Ventura, re-heh-eally? Please google for yourself the questionable record of the King of Morocco, the autocrat who created the ERC, a human rights commission that was supposed to investigate the human rights abuses of his father’s (Hassan II) reign. However, the commission wasn’t allowed to mention his father by name, nor was it allowed to investigate human rights violations since 1999, of which there are many.

   There is an interesting article at Al-Ahram regarding Israeli press censorship.

Correction

Thursday I mentioned “hundreds” of Palestinians had died, based on reports mostly from Al-Ahram. The number of Palestinian deaths in Gaza and the West Bank just over the past few weeks approximates the number of Lebanese dead so far, or 70 or so, according to other reports from Aljazeera and Al-Ahram. My apologies. Under Thursday’s “Further Military Action” entry substitute “dozens” for “hundreds.”

    This is the image Republicans don’t want you to see.

    You might be asking yourself, as I was, “What’s wrong with flag-draped coffins? There’s no nudity. The bodies are clearly being treated with reverence and care.”

    The answer, of course, is that Republicans don’t like powerful images like this that show the results of war. They kicked and screamed and have convinced every major newspaper in the country that I have read (New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, USA Today) not to show pictures of the mutilated bodies in Iraq, or those hundreds now in Gaza or Lebanon. It’s not “appropriate.” It’s appropriate to kill the people we (or Israel) have killed, but not to have the public see the bodies. As Noam Chomsky once said, “Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the U.S. media.”

    Aside from a once every six months or so we just don’t see the human cost of our war. It is even “inappropriate” to see the coffins of our soldiers who have given their lives for their country.

    This is part of an effort to run a war and keep its costs distant and invisible. There is no draft, even when the administration has been forced to extend tens of thousands of soldiers’ tours of duty. The price of the war massively contributes to the national debt, but the US simply runs with a deficit year after year and postpones paying the debt into the indeterminate future. The US military has insisted it won’t keep body counts of slain Iraqis, and so that cost is invisible to Americans.

    There is a price for war, however, and it is duplicitous and vile in the extreme to conceal the costs of war from the public that is paying for it.

     Two Israeli soldiers "trophy pose" with a dead Palestinian.

      The United States officially vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning the Israeli assault on Gaza and Lebanon.

      Shame on our government. Shame on President Bush and that lunatic excuse for a diplomat, John Bolton. We are the shame of the United Nations Security Council and the World, today.

      Let me make this unambiguous: when you provide political cover for and protect war criminals you are complicit in war crimes. There is no plausable excuse or reasonable position to be taken in defense of a nation that is reducing another nation to ruin over the kidnapping of two men, for the love of God.

     This is hardly the first time the United States has done this, which makes it worse. This part of a long, shameful history of the United States defending the atrocities of Israel.

   Hezbolla has retaliated against Israeli bombardment by firing dozens of rockets into Israel, killing two Israelis and injuring dozens more.

   Lebanon has called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. France and Russia have condemned both the capture of the two Israeli soldiers that prompted the Israeli assault and Israel’s “disproportionate” use of force. President Bush has maintained that “Israel has the right to defend itself” but also urged that Israel not do anything that would destabilize the Lebanese government. Of course, the United States has recent memories of what happens when a regional government is destabilized.

   Speaking of destabilizing governments, Israel has struck the Palestinian Foreign Ministry lately, part on it ongoing military operations in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel has already taken 120 Palestinian lawmakers and government officials. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has threatened a “long war” as Israeli military forces bombard the civilian infrastructure of Palestine, targeting power plants, civilian homes, schools, and government buildings. The Al-Arkam primary school was struck along with the Palestinian Foreign Ministry. Israel said the attacks were a reprisal for the firing of a homemade Qassam rocket into Askalon, causing no casualties or damage. On Wednesday, Zeev Boim, an aide to Olmert, urged hundreds of thousands of residents in northern Gaza to “start packing.” Avigdor Lieberman, a member of the Knesset and the head of the fourth largest political party in Irsrael, urged the Israeli military to conduct a carpet bombing campaign of Palestinian population centers.

   Olmert has refused to consider negotiation with the terrorists who have seized the Israeli soldier that started this latest military action. Israel has 10,000 Palestinian prisoners in its jails, many held without charges or trial dates.

   Meanwhile, the Israeli operations in Lebanon have widened, including attacks against “at least” five bridges, residential buildings, and an electrical sub-station. Olmert has made it clear that, "This morning's events are not a terror attack but the action of a sovereign state which attacked Israel without any reason ... The Lebanese government is responsible. Lebanon will pay the price.”

   Indeed, 54 Lebanese civilians have already paid the ultimate price, as will many more. Hundreds of thousands more will pay a price as their country’s infrastructure disintegrates under Israeli bombardment. Israel has paid very little: two captive soldiers, another half a dozen or so dead in military operations, and two dead civilians.

   Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea disagreed with Olmert’s characterization of the Lebanese government being responsible for the actions of Hezbolla: “Only when decisions are made within Cabinet or Parliament can these be regarded as the choice of the Lebanese people," Geagea said in an interview with LBCI television.

   It continues to amaze me that the abduction of two soldiers by a paramilitary force in Lebanon can justify (is Israel’s eyes) the bombardment of an entire country and scores of civilian deaths. That’s like a couple of Mexican bandits crossing the border into Arizona and killing a couple of people and the United States using that as a pretext for an invasion of Mexico.

   Israel has “abducted” 10,000 Palestinians and kept them in jail, many without due process, and will continue to do so for an indeterminate time as part of their occupation of Palestine. A few Palestinians do the same thing to one soldier and all of Gaza is attacked by Israel, resulting in hundreds of deaths and massive destruction. Because of the abduction of one soldier.

   Words fail me.

Israel broadened its war against militants Thursday, striking Lebanon in response to Hezbollah attacks. Some highlights:

“Two days of Israeli bombings had killed 47 Lebanese and wounded 103, Health Minister Mohammed Jawad Khalife said. Besides the Israeli civilian, eight Israeli soldiers had also been killed.” This is the typical calculus of the Israeli Defense Forces. As I have pointed out in the past, Israel will kill three or four or five civilians for every Israeli citizen or soldier that perishes.

“Israeli warplanes blasted craters into all three runways at the airport, located by the seaside in the Lebanese capital's Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs, forcing incoming flights to divert to Cyprus.” The justification was that Hezbollah guerillas use the airport. Israel also blockaded Lebanon’s port and plan to do the same to the main highway into and out of Lebanon.

“It was the first time since Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon and occupation of Beirut that the airport was hit by Israel. The Israelis in 1968 sent commandos to Beirut airport, blowing up 13 passenger planes in retaliation for Arab militants firing on an Israeli airliner in Athens.” Read this last sentence again. Israel targeted civilian airliners in response to some terrorists in Athens firing on one of its airliners.

Hezbollah has acquired a new rocket that can travel up to 12 miles, though what good that will do them against the massed might of the IDF I don’t know. Keep in mind this offensive against Lebanon was sparked by a couple of Israeli fatalities from a Hezbollah attack a few days ago. Israel has said it holds Lebanon responsible for the actions of Hezbollah.

   The administration is asking for another $110 billion for Iraq next year. The total cost of the Iraq War through next year will top $400 billion. Overall U.S. military spending will once again roughly equal that of every other nation on Earth put together: about $450 billion dollars a year.

   As the administration celebrates the fact that the deficit is only a little less than $300 billion this year, President Bush has announced “that the time has arrived to make cuts in such major entitlement programs as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid,” according to the Chicago Tribune. Indeed, the president said, “In the long-run, the biggest challenge to our nation's economic health is the unsustainable growth in spending for entitlement programs; mandatory programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid…To solve the problem, we need to cut entitlement spending.”

   Barry Goldwater would be proud. Conservatives have been trying to roll back the New Deal since Truman’s day. Every damned year it’s the same battle, over and over again. There’s just no money to pay for healthcare for people or aid to the poor. Nevermind that every industrialized democracy on Earth has universal health care: we, the United States of America, the richest country on Earth, simply can’t afford it.

  
   How does the President of the United States become “the moral equivalent of a mafia boss?” According to Andrew Sullivan, when he threatens the wife and children of a terrorist in custody in order to get the terrorist to talk.

   Medicare Part D has some serious problems.

   Tony Snow debased himself and his office another level by (surprise) bashing Clinton in response to criticisms of the Bush Administration’s progress with North Korea. This is special because it is unheard of for a Press Secretary to insult the foreign policy of a previous administration, much less twice in as many months (readers will remember Snow’s sarcastic and ridiculous criticism of Jimmy Carter’s presidency).

   Poland, one of the former members of the “Coalition of the Willing,” rips the Bush Administration’s performance in Iraq.

   Senators Graham and Kyl sink to lows not seen “since Nixon’s reign.”

   Finally, I must make a note on this blog of Santorum’s and Hoekstra’s bizarre claims of “new” information regarding WMDs in Iraq, touted by Sean Hannity (of course) as “vindication” of the administration’s pretext for war. Every time I hear Sean Hannity speak I wonder why it isn’t against the law to lie publicly and constantly in this country.

   Hoekstra is the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, is he not? Is this the man in charge of “overseeing” the intelligence efforts of this administration? Does it need explanation why this story looks incredibly bad specifically regarding the status of congressional oversight?
Does it require further explanation to make clear that propagandists are in charge of governance is Congress?

   Another note (OK, I lied about the “finally” part): since when did cable news viewers get so old? Bill O’Reilly’s viewer’s mean age is 71! Olbermann’s isn’t that much younger. I think someone should inform Bill that his average audience member only has (mathematically) three years to live.