What should have been Headlines in the Corporate Media: Today’s Best of the Blogosphere

Posted on 09/28/2011 by Juan

Talking Points Memo: Michele Bachmann’s latest batsh*t crazy conspiracy theory has Lebanon’s Shiite Hizbullah hooking up with Castro’s Communist Cuba.

Tomdispatch: A State Department official is being threatened with losing his job for linking to a Wikileaks cable at his blog. Perhaps not coincidentally, he blew the whistle on the SNAFU that was the American administration of provincial Iraq. The growing US government doctrine that for government employees to see or cite or link to leaked classified documents is illegal or actionable is stupidly stupid and is also a dire threat to the US first amendment. The settled law on these issues is that the US government has a right to try to keep documents secret. But once it fails to do so, they are public documents (paid for by the US public, which has a right to see more of them anyway).

Daily Kos: In a new poll, 73% of Americans agree with the ‘Buffett Rule’ proposed by billionaire Warren Buffett, that people making over a million dollars a year should have to pay taxes at at least the same percentage rate as people who make less than that. We’ve long known that a majority of Americans favors higher taxes on the rich, but this polling result is huge. Even two-thirds of Republicans polled agreed with the proposition, against only 16% who disagreed!

Sandy Tolan nails it at Tomdispatch: The very fact that the Palestinian West Bank is occupied has been successfully covered up for the American public.

Len Levitt looks at the evidence unearthed by AP that the NYPD has illegally placed Muslim-Americans under domestic surveillance, and wonders if anyone cares. He can’t find much evidence of newspaper coverage of the abuse, but does locate a couple of supportive editorials! What I can’t understand is that they targeted Moroccans. Moroccans? I say what is behind this is that the rice lobby is afraid of couscous becoming more popular.

Former NYT journalist Chris Hedges of Truthdig joins the Occupy Wall Street protests. Some brokerage firms are well run, but there were those that did illegal things and others that did very unwise things, and there has never been much accountability for either.

P.Z. Myers: In a new book, Stephen Pinker argues that human violence is declining rapidly over time.

A survey of 54 countries finds that a more progressive taxation system(where the rich pay higher tax rates than workers and the poor) actually makes the general population happier and more satisfied. Lowering taxes on the rich makes them increasingly wealthy at the expense of the rest of society, causing psychological pathologies.

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Palestine UN Vote and American Decline (Cole at Truthdig)

Posted on 09/28/2011 by Juan

My column, “Palestine Vote Showcases the Decline of American Power,”, is out at Truthdig.

Excerpt:

“The United States, castigated by its critics as recently as a decade ago as a “hyper-power,” is now so weak and isolated on the world stage that it may cast an embarrassing and self-defeating veto of Palestinian membership in the United Nations. Beset by debt, mired in economic doldrums provoked by the cupidity and corruption of its business classes, and on the verge of withdrawing from Iraq and ultimately Afghanistan in defeat, the U.S. needs all the friends it can get. If he were the visionary we thought we elected in 2008, President Obama would surprise everyone by rethinking the issue and coming out in favor of a U.N. membership for Palestine. In so doing, he would help the U.S. recover some of its tarnished prestige and avoid a further descent into global isolation and opprobrium.”

I go on to discuss the defection from the anti-Palestinian Washington position of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, France and Spain, among others, and the pro-Palestinian stance of the BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Instead of leading an international consensus, the US is increasingly isolated on this issue with regard to its own allies, much less the international community.

Read the whole thing.

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Pakistani Newspapers Respond to US Threats, call for War Readiness

Posted on 09/28/2011 by Juan

The USG Open Source Center translates or paraphrases Pakistani Urdu newspaper editorials responding to the US threats against Pakistan should it not curb the Haqqani Network (Pashtun Mujahidin based in North Waziristan). The US is convinced that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence is running the Haqqani Network to project Pakistani power into Afghanistan.

Some newspapers urge that the Pakistani government develop contingency plans for the defense of the country if the United States should attack it (as Sen. Lindsey Graham appeared to call for on Sunday) Other newspapers expressed confidence that the two countries would work out their disputes with wisdom .

Urdu Press Discusses Pakistan Strong Opposition To US Threats
The following is a roundup of excerpts from editorial and articles on the tension between Pakistan and the US over the latter’s insistence that former should take action against the Haqqani network or else it will do it at its own, and need for chalking out strategy to counter the US pressure, published in the 26 September 2011 editions of 7 Urdu dailies.
Pakistan — OSC Summary
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Document Type: OSC Summary…

Nawa-e-Waqt Editorial Terms US Pressure as Opportunity for Nation To Unite

Demanding formulation of a national policy to safeguard the integrity of the country, the editorial states: “It has now become necessary that the joint session of the parliament should be convened to formulate a national policy to defend and protect the integrity of the country. The country should leave the war of the US interests and the Armed Forces of Pakistan should be put on alert to defend the borders of the country on all fronts. That is why, Prime Minister Gilani has perhaps made telephone contacts with the political leaders and decided to convene an all parties conference soon. It is welcoming. Similarly, the decision to recall Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar from the US is also appreciable. At this stage, nothing can be dear to us than the security of the country. We thank the United Sates because its aggressive policies and designs against our integrity have provided an opportunity for us to unite as a nation and concentrate.”

(Description of source: Rawalpindi Nawa-e Waqt in Urdu — Privately owned, widely read, conservative Islamic daily, with circulation around 125,000. Harshly critical of the United States and India.)

Jang Editorial Emphasizes Need For Formulating Strategy to Deal With Possible US Action

Maintaining that Pakistan should formulate its strategy by keeping all eventualities in view, the editorial says: “The nation will stand with the rulers like a strong fortress provided that they show steadfastness, because the people of Pakistan are no more ready to accept any policy contrary to the national dignity. Similarly, it is the responsibility of our political parties to unite to back the national stance. There is likelihood in the prevailing situation lest the United States should take some dangerous action against us. We should chalk out our strategy by keeping all these possibilities in mind. It is hoped that the commanders’ conference would have taken stock of all these important aspects.”

(Description of source: Rawalpindi Jang in Urdu – “The War,” an influential, largest circulation newspaper in Pakistan, circulation of 300,000. One of the moderate Urdu newspapers, pro-free enterprise, politically neutral, supports improvement in Pakistan-India relations.)

Express Article by Zamrud Naqvi Highlights Army Chief’s Statement

Referring to the reaction expressed by Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kyani over the allegations leveled by Admiral Mike Mullen, the article states: “Kayani said that the US admiral knows well ‘which counties’ have links with the Haqqani network. It is unjust and unproductive to single out Pakistan for blame. The Army Chief said that Admiral Mullen fully knows that which countries are in contact with the Haqqani network. The allegations are troublesome because recent meeting held with Admiral Mullen in Spain was very constructive. However, we have deep concern about such statements. The Army Chief emphatically turned down the allegations of proxy war against Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) saying that the blame game should come to an end now. Pakistan is not part of any proxy war.”

(Description of source: Islamabad Daily Express in Urdu — Daily owned by Century Publications of the Lakson Business Group. The second largest daily after the Jang newspaper with a circulation of over 120,000. Provides good coverage of national and international issues and follows moderate and neutral editorial policy.)

Jinnah Article by Khushnood Ali Khan Believes Pakistan Conveyed Strong Message To US

Discussing reports that Islamabad has told Washington to produce evidence of its involvement in Kabul attack or else stop the blame game, the article says: “The truth is that the Americans have been told that they should talk in an honorable way if they want to talk. No pressure will work now and we shall not hear calls to do more. It has also been told to the US and Afghanistan that if any attack is launched from Afghanistan, it will fully be retaliated. The Pakistani Army, air force, and the navy are on high alert. Pakistan has made it clear to the United States that it should produce evidence if it has any about attack on the US Embassy in Kabul otherwise it should stop the blame game and hostile statements.”

(Description of source: Islamabad Jinnah in Urdu — Daily owned by a prominent businessman who is mainly involved in real estate business and said to be close to military high-ups. Carries good investigative reports and conducts surveys on relevant issues. Editorials are harshly critical of US policies. Recently it has adopted sensationalist reporting and tends to splash corruption stories out of proportion. Editor Khushnood Ali Khan strongly criticizes Musharraf in his daily columns.)

Jinnah Editorial Calls for Chalking Out Policy to Counter US Plan

Commenting that the US blame game is part of its strategy for the period after its post withdrawal from Afghanistan, the editorial states: “The current US behavior and its planning ahead of its withdrawal from Afghanistan demands that Pakistan’s political and military leadership should join heads together and think, by keeping in view the broader national interests, independence, security, and sovereignty, as to what strategy we are required to adopt in this situation. Our trustworthy friendly countries like China and Iran have fully backed our stance and acknowledged our role in war on terror. We should be ready to counter the plan that the United States has made after its withdrawal from Afghanistan. We should also take stock of the situation and happenings with full seriousness and in light of ground realities and realize that we cannot counter some eventuality or extraordinary situation by blame game only. Our military leadership has taken right decision in view of the national interests.”

Mashriq Editorial Terms Unity Prerequisite for Success

Advising the rulers to focus on uniting and strengthening the nation to counter the external challenges, the editorial says: “Responsibilities should be assigned to intellectuals and honorable people to end ethnic and sectarian differences. The political leadership should leave the job of challenging the United States to the concerned people and focus on resolution of the people’s problems. We do not say that the government should accept the US as master and bow before it but we can make preparedness after overcoming the challenges faced on the internal front that may enable us to give befitting response to any hostile power of the world. A divided nation cannot achieve success.”

(Description of source: Peshawar Mashriq in Urdu – “The East,” a prominent daily newspaper published by Mashriq Group of Newspapers. Provides good coverage of events in Peshawar as well as tribal areas along the Afghan border. The Statesman in English is a sister publication from the same group.)

Ummat Article by Nadim Mehmood Discusses Meeting Between Pakistan Army Chief, Head of US Central Command

Referring to the complain by Pakistan Army Chief in his meeting with head of the US Central Command that the United States did not act upon the consensus reached at Spain meeting with Admiral Mullen, the article states: “According to the sources, at the meeting General Kayani referred to his recent talks with Admiral Mike Mullen in Spain and made it clear that it was agreed that the top military leadership of the two countries will refrain from issuing strict statements on the Pakistan-US strategic relations but the latter did not act on it. The sources say that Gen Mattis said on the occasion that the US administration is under great pressure from the Congress, Pentagon, and its people that strict steps should be taken in response to Pakistan government’s policy of not taking action against the Haqqani network. However, Gen Kayani did not give any signal to Gen Mattis about launching operation in North Waziristan but clearly stated that Pakistan will launch such action or take any step by keeping in view its own interests. He said that we shall also have to keep the sentiments of our people in view in this connection.”

(Description of source: Karachi Ummat in Urdu — Sensationalist, pro-Usama Bin Ladin Urdu daily. Harshly critical of the US, Israel, and India. Propagates Muslim unity to counter US/Western influence. Circulation 20,000. Editor-publisher Rafiq Afghan is an Afghan war veteran.)

Khabrain Editorial Suggests Resolving Issues Through Diplomacy

Maintaining that reason and diplomacy should go hand in hand to improve the situation, the editorial says: “It is expected that both the countries will give preference to wisdom and sagacity over aggression and resolve the issues through diplomacy, be these diplomatic means or military sources. However, we should brace for the worst while hoping for the best. The political and military leadership of Pakistan should mentally prepare itself for all the possibilities and apprise the nation of all facts. The courage and prudence should go hand in hand.”

(Description of source: Islamabad Khabrain in Urdu – “News,” a sensationalist daily, published by Liberty Papers Ltd., generally critical of the Pakistan People’s Party; known for its access to government and military sources of information. The same group owns The Post in English, Naya Akhbar in Urdu, and Channel 5 TV with a circulation of 30,000.)

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Lindsey “Dr. Strangelove” Graham & War with Pakistan

Posted on 09/27/2011 by Juan

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a major proponent of the idea of a US perpetual war, now wants conflict with Pakistan. He told Fox News Sunday,

“The sovereign nation of Pakistan is engaging in hostile acts against the United States and our ally Afghanistan that must cease. I will leave it up to the experts, but if the experts believe that we need to elevate our response, they will have a lot of bipartisan support on Capitol Hill…”

The comment came after the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff accused the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence of backing the Haqqani Network, which in turn is accused of having attacked the US embassy in Kabul.

Aljazeera English reports:

Here are some problems with Graham’s startling suggestion.

The US does not have a prayer of succeeding in Afghanistan without a Pakistani partner. Pakistan is a complex place, and its civilian politicians have a different agenda than its conventional army, which in turn has a different agenda from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Even within the ISI, there appear to be secret rogue cells. Some ISI officers appear to be hooked up with the Haqqani Network and with terrorist organizations such as the Lashkar-i Tayyiba. But Pakistan has lost thousands of troops fighting the more militant Afghan and Pakistani-Pashtun fundamentalist groups, and it is not a task the US could take on by itself.

Pakistan is a nuclear state. The United States has never fought a major military engagement with a nuclear-armed country, and it would be unwise to begin now. Would you really want to take the risk that they might feel cornered and find a way to deliver a warhead against an American target? In the Cold War, the nuclear standoff was called ‘Mutual Assured Destruction’ (MAD). There is no reason to think that such considerations have lapsed or do not obtain when the US is facing a state with a smaller nuclear arsenal.

Pakistan is a close ally of China as well as trying to keep an alliance with the US. Graham’s sort of talk will have the effect of pushing Islamabad further into the arms of Beijing. China is unlikely to stand idly by as one of its major geopolitical assets in its contest with India is taken out by the United States. That is, US-Pakistan war would very likely become US-China war.

Pakistan has a regular army of 610,000 men, and can call up about 500,000 reserves if it needs to. Some 15,000 Taliban in Afghanistan have been pinning down tens of thousands of US troops, so what would happen if they faced over a million?

Pakistan’s population is at least 170 million. The US was defeated by an Iraqi insurgency in a small country of 25 million; imagine how a country 7 times more populous could tie it down.

Lindsey’s way of speaking shows how wars benefit hawks and beget more wars. He is reluctant to see the US withdraw from Iraq because, he says, Iraq might then fall into the hands of Iran. But Iraq was a bulwark against Iran in 2002 and was only made open to Iranian influence by the unprovoked US aggression against Baghdad in the first place.

So now Iraq has been devastated and made supine and the US has to be on a war footing with Iran in order to “protect” Iraq from the latter. But Iraq’s Shiite government likes Iran and doesn’t see it as a threat, so Graham would be “protecting” Iraq against the will of Iraqis. Moreover, Graham doesn’t seem to think he needs to ask the Iraqi parliament whether it will permit any US troops to remain in Iraq at all.

Graham keeps trying to find a pretext for the next war, dismayed at the prospect of the US slipping into peace. He had tried to get up a war against Iran, but hasn’t had any takers.

Just as Graham wants to keep a division in Iraq because of Iran, he wants permanent bases in Afghanistan. And now he is looking for a fight with Pakistan, representing himself as “protecting” the US-installed Afghan government from Islamabad. But most Pashtuns would choose Pakistan over Graham any day of the week.

Pakistan’s alliance with the US is a marriage of convenience. Pakistan wants to see some groups, such as the Old Taliban and the Hikmatyar Hizb-i Islami, much weakened. But cells within the Inter-Serices Intelligence appear determined to retain the Haqqani Network, based in North Waziristan, as a means of projecting authority into Afghanistan. That emphasis makes Pakistan both an ally to the US in fighting some Taliban, but makes it only a partial ally, since it has its own reasons to use some of those Taliban to project its own authority and prepare for the peace after the US leaves. This difficult kind of alliance is nothing new in US history. Abruptly turning on such a complex ally and starting yet another war is madness.

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Saudi Women’s Vote: Does it Go Far Enough?

Posted on 09/26/2011 by Juan

The surprise announcement on Sunday by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia that women will be allowed to vote in and run for office in the municipal elections scheduled in four years is another sign of the pressure the kingdom is under to reform. Although this announcement wasn’t anticipated, it comes as a result in part of nearly a decade of women’s activism, beginning with a January 2003 petition from Saudi women demanding their political rights. The recent Facebook campaign for driving rights for women, and the act of civil disobedience by some 80 or so in daring to drive, probably helped impel the king to make this decision.

Treatment of women in Saudi Arabia has much more to do with Gulf customs and feelings about gender segregation and male honor being invested in protecting the chastity of the family’s women than it has to do with Islam. The Qur’an sees women as spiritually equal to men. One of the prophet’s wives later led a battle, so women in early Islam were hardly shrinking lilies. Islamic law gives women extensive property rights (unlike in Europe, women did not lose control of their property to their husbands when they married). The real question is whether the Gulf societies can, after 1400 years, catch up to the rights granted women in Islam.

Aljazeera English has video:

An even bigger question is whether the Saudi dynasty, among the last absolute monarchies in the world, is moving fast enough to avert a revolution. This article is a few years old, but it lays out many of the social problems that persist to this day. There are just few safety valves for discontent. Workers cannot unionize. Political dissidents are treated harshly.

In the wake of the Arab Spring and the overthrow of the iron-fisted rulers of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, the Saudi royal dynasty has clearly been frantic with apprehension that a similar movement will get going in their country. There were some small protests last spring, as Aljazeera English reported at the time:

That fear is one reason that they intervened so heavy-handedly in the affairs of neighboring little Bahrain, where crowds were demanding constitutional reform (and a minority was even insisting on a revolutionary republic). While the Shiite coloration of the crowds in Manama especially worried Riyadh, that there were massive crowds challenging the king was alarming enough. (Saudi Arabia has its own relatively oppressed minority of Shiites, some 12 percent of the population, who are inconveniently located right above the country’s oil deposits).

In March, King Abdullah offered a big increase in social benefits and bonuses to a wide cross-section of the population, a move widely interpreted as an attempt to bribe Saudis into staying home and not going to the streets in protest.

This new benefits package cost so much money (an estimated $38 billion a year) that the Saudi state is estimated to now require that petroleum stay above 90 dollars a barrel to avoid big budget deficits. Since the kingdom is a swing producer, it can affect the price by reducing exports (and because of the consequent rise in prices it would not even necessarily suffer a shortfall in income if it did so carefully). That is, keeping the Saudi public happy is costing you at the pump.

Giving the vote to women may be part of this attempt to tamp down dissatisfaction with the state. The royal family has fought against Muslim radicals since May of 2003, when the al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula began blowing things up in Riyadh itself, and Muslim political currents to the right of the king (yes, it is possible) have put political pressure on him. We have seen a number of attempts in the region to dilute the power of Muslim fundamentalists by using women voters and office-holders.

Gen. Pervez Musharraf set things up so that a third of seats in the Pakistani parliament have to go to women. There is also a quota in Iraq. The hope that women (or rather the sort of middle or uppper class women most likely to serve in parliament) will support political reform and oppose religious fundamentalism is not always well borne out. In Pakistan and Iraq, the parties simply put women of their party into parliament, who tended to vote just as patriarchally as the men of the fundamentalist party.

Nor does the right to vote in municipal elections four years down the road in Saudi Arabia amount to all that much. The royal family only allows half the seats on the city council to be filled by elections. It appoints the other half. And it appoints a mayor as a tie-breaker. So the women are being offered the opportunity to vote for 49% of the important decision-making posts.

Moreover, the municipal elections are it. There are no provincial elections. The national Shura Council (advisory body to the king) is appointed by the monarch, though now it can have women on it. At a time when Tunisians, Egyptians and Libyans are demanding free and fair, transparent parliamentary elections and the end of secret-police rule, the Saudi monarchy is taking not so much baby steps as embryonic ones. Elections to a national parliament or at least parliament-like advisory body had been scheduled for 2010, but they were never held.

The royal family may be moving too slowly. Half the population is less than 25 years old. The country is 82 percent urban, and 79 percent literate (i.e. aside from the elderly, most people can read and write). Some 60 percent of university students are women. Relatively well-off middle classes in countries like Saudi Arabia frequently get up the courage to challenge the authoritarian character of their government. Saudi Arabia is ruled by a core of powerful princes led by the octogenarian king, but it has altogether some 7,000 princes. Inequality of wealth, high youth unemployment, allegations of corruption, and political repression have all contributed to subterranean discontent. Whether mollifying the half of the population that consists of women will be enough to forestall a growing movement of discontentment remains to be seen.

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Greater Middle East Turns More Dangerous for US

Posted on 09/25/2011 by Juan

Here are some troubling reports suggesting trouble ahead for the United States in the Greater Middle East, and, indeed, trouble for the region internally:

1. The surprise return to Yemen on Friday of President Ali Abdullah Saleh has been followed by a bloody Saturday. Some 40 persons were killed yesterday in Sanaa, as forces loyal to Saleh attacked positions of an officer who had defected from the military and joined the protesters.

2. Military defections in Syria: Clashes continue between protesters and the Baath regime of Bashar al-Asad in Syria, with 18 civilians killed, mostly in the central area of Homs on Saturday. Some 12 were killed in al-Qusair in Homs district. But in news that could be significant, Al-Sharq al-Awsat says that a significant number of military personnel has defected to the protesters in the Homs area, and that the struggle there is starting to take on a para-military character for the first time.

3. The US has accused Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence organization of actively supporting the Haqqani Network of guerrillas, based in North Waziristan, who have been attacking US and Afghan National Army forces. They may have been behind an attack on the US embassy in Kabul. The charges have caused the most serious rift in US-Pakistan relations in recent decades.

4. In Bahrain, the majority Shiites boycotted the parliamentary by-election held Thursday. Electoral boycotts tend to make things worse because they reduce participation by dissidents in the political process.

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Palestine, Bahrain and US Hyprocrisy

Posted on 09/24/2011 by Juan

Brazen hypocrisy most often deeply damages the reputation, whether of a person or of a country.

President Barack Obama appears to have thought that he could go to the UN with a liberation of Libya and a further postponement of Palestinian rights to boast of, and that these stances would make him popular in the global south. But in fact he just looked inconsistent and hypocritical and self-interested.

The United States was not at the forefront of the changes sweeping the Middle East in the past year, and its instinct as a Great Power is to support the status quo. Thus, the Obama administration had almost nothing to say about Tunisia until after the populace had forced their president out. President Barack Obama appears to have been on the fence about what to do about Egypt after January 25, but his instinct certainly wasn’t to support the revolutionaries against their own government. Only about a week before it was all over did Obama join the chorus of those saying that Hosni Mubarak had to go.

It was Saudi Arabia, France and Britain who decided that Muammar Qaddafi would have to go. Obama reluctantly went along.

In the meantime, the US has done little but say tsk, tsk over the crushing of the street movement for reform in Bahrain. Geopolitics there trumped human rights concerns. The Sunni monarchy in Bahrain leases to the US the naval base that serves as HQ of the Fifth Fleet.

Now it turns out that the Obama administration even wants to more or less reward the Bahrain government for its repression by resuming arms sales to it. It is like a week-old widow deciding to go dancing.

But the biggest hypocrisy in Washington was reserved for the Palestinians, who labor under a repressive military occupation in the West Bank and are besieged and blockaded in Gaza. If anything they are far more deprived of basic political rights than the people in Egypt or Tunisia last year this time.

But the Obama administration’s response to the bid of the Palestinians for membership in the United Nations has been to seek to forestall it, to strong-arm Mahmoud “Abu Mazen” Abbas, and to twist the arms of countries like Nigeria and Gabon to get them to vote against it.

Obama’s argument, which simply echoes that of the Likud government in Israel is that the Palestine Authority is sidestepping the peace process by going to the UN. But that is a ridiculous proposition. There is no peace process. Obama failed to provide one. Thus, the Palestinians are wise to make an end run around the US in the region, since American policy toward the Palestinians has been since the time of Harry Truman to sacrifice them at the altar of US domestic politics (Truman pointed out that he had Jewish constituents, but no Palestinian ones to speak of). The Israel lobbies in the US are so powerful and successful that 81 congressmen spent some of their August recess in Israel!

The Palestinians are stateless. They have no citizenship in anything. That is why the Oslo process could be short-circuited by Binyamin Netanyahu and why Israel could renege at will from all the commitments it had made to the Palestinians. It is why Palestinian land can be usurped at will by Israeli squatters on the West Bank.

Obama made fine speeches about the Arab Spring, about the will of the people and the idealism and activism of the youth. He even did so with regard to countries such as Egypt, where the Mubarak dictatorship had faithfully served US purposes.

But apparently he feels that the Palestinians of Gaza, who are not even allowed by the Israelis to export their made goods, deserve only further occupation via blockade until such time as the far right Israeli government deigns unilaterally to revoke its punitive policies toward the stateless Palestinians, who were made stateless by the Zionist ethnic cleansing campaign of 1947-1948 (40% of the people of Gaza, their families expelled from their homes by Israelis, still live in refugee camps).

Obama gives a good speech and can invoke high ideals, but when, in Bahrain and Palestine, Washington pursues massive hypocrisy, it completely undermines the good will it might have otherwise gained by at least not standing in the way of change in Tunisia and Egypt, and by intervening to prevent a Qaddafi massacre in Libya.

Foreign policy victories are rare. Obama has squandered the positives by pandering to the right wing forces in Manama and Tel Aviv. This is change that Arab youth won’t be able to believe in.

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Strange Satellite Craze

Posted on 09/23/2011 by Juan

The NASA satellite re-entering earth orbit late Friday has caused a sensation for some strange reason. Maybe because people have heard that it is 6 tons, about the weight of a mail truck, or because of the danger that someone might be hit by it.

But the six or seven tons won’t stay together. Most components will break up and burn up in the atmosphere. Really hard metals might survive to hit earth. They will be scattered.

The risk to you as an individual human being of being hit by this satellite debris is one in 20 trillion.

The odds of an American being struck by lightning in any given year are roughly one in a million.

So it is twenty million times more likely that you will be struck by lightning than that you will be hit by a piece of debris from this satellite.

The Telegraph has video:

In other words, worry about something else.

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