MF GALAXY

"What kind of courage does it take, for mercy's sake? The majority of the American people (55 percent) think the war in Iraq is a mistake and that we should get out. The majority (65 percent) of the American people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes to get it. "The majority (86 percent) of the American people favor raising the minimum wage. The majority of the American people (60 percent) favor repealing Bush's tax cuts, or at least those that go only to the rich. "The majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes. "The majority (77 percent) thinks we should do 'whatever it takes' to protect the environment. The majority (87 percent) thinks big oil companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits tax. That is the center, you fools. WHO ARE YOU AFRAID OF? "...Oh come on, people -- get a grip on the con...

If only Edmonton Public Schools would decide to stop making money from feeding children zero-nutrition, high-sugar garbage drinks which lead to obesity and diabetes. O, beautiful dreamworld... would that Edmonton Public Schools could dwell in you.... "High-calorie fizzy drinks will no longer be sold in thousands of schools across the US after a deal agreed by the country's top drinks distributors. " "Currently, about 119 million, or 64.5%, of US adults are either overweight or obese. "According to projections, 73% of US adults could be overweight or obese by 2008, Trust for America's Health warned. "In turn, this would mean many more people with obesity-related illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease , which could cost the nation billions of dollars. "The biggest rises in obesity have been seen in the south-eastern states. Oregon in the north-west was the only one not to see an increase between 2003 and 2004, maintaining a steady adult ob...

" Salt not good. Sugar not good. Oil not good. Fat not good. Blood pressure, heart problems . Yup, Yup."

Thanks to Max Blumenthal for the link to The Nation 's article. Zbigniew Brzezinski , of course, is the former Carter official who claimed he'd laid an Afghan trap for the Soviet Union which ultimately destroyed the Union itself. "Last Thursday, Brzezinski gave a fascinating talk sponsored by the New America Foundation, where he labeled Israel's ferocious military bombing of Lebanon 'dogged, heavy-handed, politically unproductive and morally wrong.' "'What Israel is doing today in Lebanon is in effect the killing of hostages,' Brzezinski said. And the US government enabled the military campaign 'by abandoning the tradition of being a negotiator to a promise of complete partiality.'"

Cartoon courtesy of Max Blumenthal (and Juan Cole for the link). Juan Cole writes: "Western and Israeli pundits keep comparing Hizbullah to al-Qaeda. It is a huge conceptual error. There is a crucial difference between an international terrorist network like al-Qaeda, which can be disrupted by good old policing techniques (such as inserting an agent in the Western Union office in Karachi), and a sub-nationalist movement. "Al-Qaeda is some 5,000 multinational volunteers organized in tiny cells. "Hizbullah is a mass expression of subnationalism that has the loyalty of some 1.3 million highly connected and politically mobilized peasants and slum dwellers. Over a relatively compact area.... "Where subnationalisms are organized by party-militias willing to use carbombings and other asymmetrical forms of warfare, they are extremely difficult, if not impossible to defeat militarily. It would take a World War II style crushing military defeat of these populations, with t...

Juan Cole makes several noteworthy remarks here.

Robert Fisk writes: "When the IRA used to cross the Irish border to kill British soldiers--which it did--did Blair and his cronies blame the Irish Republic's government in Dublin? Did Blair order the RAF to bomb Dublin power stations and factories? Did he send British troops crashing over the border in tanks to fire at will into the hill villages of Louth, Monaghan, Cavan and Donegal? Did Blair then demand an international, NATO-led force to take over a buffer zone--on the Irish, not the Northern Ireland side, of the border? "Of course not. But Israel has special privileges afforded to no other nation. It can do exactly what Blair would never have done--and still receive the British Government's approbation. It can trash the Geneva Conventions--because the Americans have done that in Iraq--and it can commit war crimes and murder UN soldiers like the four unarmed observers who refu...

Alexander Cockburn writes: "The guiding rule in this tsunami of drivel is that the v iewers should be denied the slightest access to any historical context , or indeed to anything that happened prior to June 28, which was when the capture of an Israeli soldier and the killing of two others by Hamas hit the headlines, followed soon thereafter by an attack by a unit of Hezbollah’s fighters. "Memory is supposed to stop in its tracks at June 28, 2006. "Let’s go on a brief excursion into pre-history. I’m talking about June 20, 2006, when Israeli aircraft fired at least one missile at a car in an attempted extrajudicial assassination attempt on a road between Jabalya and Gaza City. The missile missed the car. Instead it killed three Palestinian children and wounded 15. "Back we go again to June 13, 2006. Israeli aircraft fired missiles at a van in another attempted extrajudicial assassination. The successive barrages killed nin...

Saul Landau writes: "Bush's July Cuba plan calls for the resumption of US control in the post-Castro era; privatizing its economy and reshaping its politics.... The United States would even show Cubans how to manage their schools and farm efficiently. As of July 2005, Bush had already appointed a transition coordinator ­ without even bothering to invade Cuba, as he ordered for Afghanistan and Iraq. "The 'Made in Washington' blueprint shows the mind-altering glue inherent in imperial memory. In Washington, the policy crowd sticks to old economic claims on Cuba. The July plan should remind Cubans that they will lose free education, health and housing and start paying heavy prices for these services. Cubans should imagine life under real-estate hungry Miami exiles. How hard and meaningless their work lives would become when their labor went to enrich a true parasite class!...

"When fighting broke out in Lebanon, college students studying there for the summer anxiously awaited their turn to evacuate . As it turns out, if you were an Ivy League student in Beirut, your turn came first. "Among those enrolled in the summer Arabic program at the American University of Beirut, students told ABC News, those from Harvard, Yale and Princeton were in the first group evacuated – by high-end private security firms. Students from other American schools were left behind, waiting it out for days while the U.S. embassy formulated its plan. "A.G. Leventhal, a Junior and Near Eastern Languages concentrator at Harvard University, was enrolled in summer classes at AUB when bombs began falling on southern Beirut. Leventhal was immediately contacted by Harvard and informed of the International SOS service, which would begin evacuation the next day. "While Leventhal and his cohorts were being bussed or flown to safety, other students were to...

Jonathan Cook: "[David] Horowitz's response to every question, every development in the Middle East, whether it concerns Lebanon, the Palestinians, Syria or Iran, is the same: 'They want to drive the Jews into the sea'. It's as simple as that. Not even a superficial attempt at analysis; just the message that the Arab world is trying to finish off the genocide started by Europe. And if Laura is any yardstick, a lot of Americans buy that stuff. "

"The European Union 's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said nothing could justify the Qana bombing and said he had spoken Siniora to express his 'profound dismay'." "Lebanese citizens responded with fury at the news that more than 50 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in the southern town of Qana on Sunday.Across the nation, Lebanese woke up to graphic pictures of at least 37 dead children being removed from the rubble of a destroyed house." "We utterly condemn what happened in Qana," says Khaled Mansour, spokesman for the UN in Lebanon. "The Secretary-General has called for an emergency session of the Security Council with the hope of bringing an immediate cessation of violence." "Nearly ten years after the first Israeli massacre at Qana which killed 120 civilians who had taken shelter at a UN compound, Israeli air strikes at a civilian shelter in the town killed at least 56 Lebanese civilians, includ...

"The Cabinet revolt against Tony Blair intensified last night as Jack Straw broke ranks to condemn Israel for causing 'death and misery to innocent civilians'. "Mr [Jack] Straw, now Leader of the House, said that he grieved for innocent Israelis but also the '10 times as many innocent Lebanese men, women and children who have been killed by Israeli fire', adding: 'It's very difficult to understand the kind of military tactics used by Israel. These are not surgical strikes but have caused death and misery to many innocent civilians.'"

"Musing on roses and revolutions, I saw night close down on the earth like a great dark wing, and the lighted cities were like tapers in the night, and I heard the lamentations of a million hearts regretting life and crying for the grave, and I saw the Negro lying in the swamp with his face blown off, and in northern cities with his manhood maligned and felt the writhing of his viscera like that of the hare hunted down or the bear at bay, and I saw men working and taking no joy in their work and embracing the hard-eyed whore with joyless excitement and lying with wives and virgins in impotence. "And as I groped in the darkness and felt the pain of millions, gradually, like day driving night across the continent, I saw dawn upon them like the sun a vision of a time when all men walk proudly through the earth and the bombs and missiles lie at the bottom of the ocean like the bones of the dinosaurs buried under the shale of eras, and m...

The recent shooting of innocent people at a Seattle Jewish community centre was a sickening act of depravity. I don't care who you are, what's been done to you or people like you, or what your anger is at whatever topic, NO ONE EVER HAS A RIGHT TO HARM THE INNOCENT, and "innocent" should be defined as absolutely broadly as possible in all contexts. This killer, Pakistani-American Naveed Afzal Haq, while differing in planning and results, is morally on the same plane as Timothy McVeigh. Our prayers go out to the victims: "Six women were shot, including 58-year-old Seattle resident Pamela Waechter , who died from her injuries. Other victims were: " Dayna Klein , 37, of Seattle, who was in satisfactory condition early Saturday at Harborview Medical Center with a gunshot wound to her arm. Cheryl Stumbo , 43, of Seattle, who was in serious condition at Harborview. Carol Goldman , 35, of Seattle, who was shot in the knee. She was in satisfactory conditi...

My friend and colleague Gwen Becker pointed out to me how this brilliant poem by South African writer Mazisi Kunene could be read not only in a voice of defiance, but of profound ambivalence. "Was I wrong when I thought All shall be avenged? Was I wrong when I thought The rope of iron holding the neck of young bulls Shall be avenged? Was I wrong When I thought the orphans of sulphur Shall rise from the ocean? Was I depraved when I thought there need not be love There need not be forgiveness, there need not be progress, There need not be goodness on the earth, There need not be towns of skeletons, Sending messages of elephants to the moon? Was I wrong to laugh asphyxiated ecstasy When the sea rose like quicklime When the ashes on ashes were blown by the wind When the infant sword was left alone on the hilltop? Was I wrong to erect monuments of blood? Was I wrong to avenge the pillage of Caesar? Was I wrong? Was I wrong? Was I wr...

Stephen Harper, Canada's prime minister, said a few months ago that Canadians should not "cut and run" from Afghanistan. It's revealing that Harper precisely parroted the Bush phrasing (regarding ending the US occupation of Iraq). But when Israel apparently deliberately targets a clearly-marked UN compound in Lebanon (after receiving ten warnings from the UN not to hit the base), our courageous PM first questions why our peacekeepers would stay in harm's way! Let's get this straight--he demands that peacekeepers explain why they remained on duty in the face of aggression, blaming not their killers, but them . Stephen "Cut-n-Run" Harper has said to Israel, "Go ahead. You killed eight Canadian civilians. You've killed a Canadian peacekeeper." Further reading: "The wife of a Canadian soldier missing and presumed dead in an Israeli air strike on a United Nations observation post in southern Lebanon says she believes the attack was i...

JANE TOBY: "I’m Jewish. And I’m here because I feel that the Jewish community needs to talk out, to speak out against the crimes that the U.S. government and the Israeli government is perpetrating against the people in Palestine, committing genocide in Gaza and killing people in Lebanon." Listen to/watch/read the rest of "Protests Across U.S. and Around the World Call for End to Israel Bombardment of Lebanon" here. And let's not forget that innocent people are dying in Israel. Yes, the numbers are ten to one "favouring" Lebanese civilian death, but all deaths of innocent people are monstrous crimes . Check out coverage in Ha'aretz here.

Ralph Nader: "The border between Israel and Lebanon involves raids of Israel, much more than Hezbollah, because of the more powerful factor. They still control large farm acreage, the Shebaa Farms, which are Lebanese soil. The Israelis have abducted civilians. They won’t tell the United Nations or the Lebanese government the location for thousands of land mines in South Lebanon so they can be deactivated. "And during the 18-year occupation of South Lebanon, itself illegal under international law from 1982 to the year 2000, Israel drew water, precious water, from the Litani and even took fertile topsoil back to Israel, and other plunders. "So, you know, for Tony Snow to act like, well, you know, everything started with this attack by Hezbollah, which is basically an attack designed to provide for a prisoner exchange. This has happened numerous times over the Lebanese-Israeli border. "But as Israeli commentators pointed out, this invasion of Lebanon doesn...

“ Israel 's air force has continued to pound Lebanon as its ground forces battle Hezbollah fighters in the country's south. Lebanese police said that Israel had carried out more than 130 air raids on Friday, killing at least 13 people and wounding many more. “The flurry of air attacks came amid reports that Israeli troops were retreating from the town of Bint Jbeil near the Israeli border. The first Israeli bombs on Friday fell shortly after dawn, killing two people in their home in the village of Deir Aamiss south of the city of Tyre . “A separate Israeli air raid destroyed a deserted four-storey building near the town, a local official said. The building housed a construction company owned by a Hezbollah member, the officials said. Hussam Abu Shamet, a Jordanian man in a nearby house, was killed by missile shrapnel in that attack. “Others civilians died elsewhere across southern Lebanon and also in the Bekaa valley where Israel 's air force struck at a...

"Israel has said it has received implicit 'authorisation' from international powers to continue its attacks in Lebanon. "The Israeli justice minister, Haim Ramon, said Israel had 'in effect obtained the authorisation to continue our operations' by Wednesday's 15-nation Rome conference on the crisis in Lebanon."

"The UN Security Council has passed a statement expressing shock at Israel's attack on a UN observer post in Lebanon on Tuesday which killed four peacekeepers, but made no condemnation of the action. The United States had refused to allow any criticism of Israel in the statement. "China's envoy to the UN complained that the final version was 'watered down'. The statement, passed unanimously by the 15-nation council, said: 'The security council is deeply shocked and distressed by the firing by the Israeli Defense Forces on a United Nations observer post in southern Lebanon on July 25.' "After the meeting, Dan Gillerman, Israel's UN ambassador, said the resolution was 'a very fair and balanced statement' about what he called 'a tragic accident'. Large parts of the original Chinese draft text were taken out in order to get the 'presidential statement' passed. "A paragraph which said 'the Security Council conde...

"Britain dramatically broke ranks with George Bush last night over the Lebanon crisis, publicly criticising Israel's military tactics and urging America to 'understand' the price being paid by ordinary Lebanese civilians. "The remarks, made in Beirut by the Foreign Office minister, Kim Howells, were the first public criticism by this country of Israel's military campaign, and placed it at odds with Washington's strong support. "The Observer can also reveal that Tony Blair voiced deep concern about the escalating violence during a private telephone conversation with the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, last week. But sources close to Blair said Olmert had replied that Israel faced a dire security threat from the Hizbollah militia and was determined to do everything necessary to defeat it. "Britain's shift came as Israeli tanks and warplanes pounded targets across the border in southern Lebanon yesterday ahead of an imminently expected gro...

Howard Dean: Iraqi PM an “Anti-Semite” for Criticizing Israel "Meanwhile, leading Democrats continue to denounce the Iraqi Prime Minister over his recent criticism of Israel’s attack on Lebanon. Several Democratic lawmakers boycotted Maliki’s speech. The boycott came after Senate Democrats wrote Maliki Tuesday they questioned his leadership because of his stance on the Israeli attack. "But the harshest criticism of Maliki came from Democratic Party chair Howard Dean. Speaking at a gathering of business leaders in Florida on Wednesday, Dean called Maliki “an anti-Semite.” Dean added: ' We don't need to spend $200 and $300 and $500 billion bringing democracy to Iraq to turn it over to people who believe that Israel doesn't have a right to defend itself and who refuse to condemn Hezbollah.'" Jewish Peace Group Criticizes Howard Dean's Comments "Dean’s comments are coming under criticism. In a statement released to Democracy Now, Mitchell Plitnick o...

All Africa.com reports: "The election in Democratic Republic of the Congo will be the most expensive to be supported by the United Nations (UN), costing the international community as much as $400m to give the country a new start. "On Sunday, more than 25-million registered voters will go to the polls to elect a president and parliamentary representatives. "Incumbent President Joseph Kabila is considered a favourite, though yesterday opposition demonstrators rioted in the capital, pulling down his campaign posters. "Foreign troops, including 780 from Germany, are on the ground to help quell violence. "German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany saw the election as a chance for lasting peace in Congo. "There are 17,000 UN Mission to the Congo troops in the country, helping to disarm militias and preparing for the election. But this force does not have the best reputation in Congo. It was not able to prevent civilian massacres in 2003 and its members have b...

"WACO, Texas -- Did you know that many college administrators and other officials feel that credit card debt is a bigger problem on college campuses than sex, drugs, and Rock and Roll? "Students who carry large credit card bills earn lower grades, work more (the two are apparently related), are more depressed, and are more likely to drop out. "And, the problems don't stop there. "College graduates with bad debt on their records may find it more difficult to find a job (yes, employers look at these things), get a home loan or go to graduate school. "Additionally, they also are less likely to take lower paying jobs (teachers, non-profits) because of the need to pay off their debt. "'Parents, be sure to take the steps necessary to be sure that little Johnny or Sally is prepared to pass Credit Card Use 101 when he enters the school of hard knocks,' says James A. Roberts, Associate Professor of Marketing at Baylor University's Hankamer School of...

" Nigeria has so far evacuated 500 people to safety as hostilities rage on in the Middle East, Nigerian Foreign Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said in Abuja on Friday. "Okonjo-Iweala, who addressed a news conference in Abuja, said that the evacuees were moved to Syria , adding that 420 of the evacuees were Nigerians while 80 were Africans from other countries."

" WASHINGTON, DC—Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced Tuesday that Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, has 'at long last been found.' "'For more than two years, we combed the Middle East looking for bin Laden,' Rumsfeld said. 'Frankly, it was starting to be an embarrassment. You can imagine our surprise when we finally found him hiding deep inside the darkest recesses of each and every one of our souls.'"

The former "Klondike Days" parade in Edmonton (part of a summer carnival of rides, children's gambling and bad deep fried food) had a military theme this year. For the Americans reading this, understand that military parades are definitely not a big part of Canadian culture. They exist, but they're rare. I can't help but wonder if our new minority government's emphasis on imperialism (whoops, I mean to type "being openly sycophantic remoras to the American war machine, rather than the more covert sycophantic tapeworms of the American war machine under the Liberal government) helped decide this theme. Then again, the theme was probably chosen before the Conservatives came into office. But hey, when our Prime Minister shows the kind of bold leadership in declaring that the wiping out of a Canadian family and aerial stone-ageing of an entire, modern, beautiful country is "measured," then I guess all bets on common sense are off, huh? So it is perh...

I always loved this song. Thanks, Jackson. "I’ve been waiting for something to happen For a week or a month or a year With the blood in the ink of the headlines And the sound of the crowd in my ear "You might ask what it takes to remember When you know that you’ve seen it before Where a government lies to a people And a country is drifting to war "And there’s a shadow on the faces Of the men who send the guns To the wars that are fought in places Where their business interest runs "On the radio talk shows and the TV You hear one thing again and again How the USA stands for freedom And we come to the aid of a friend "But who are the ones that we call our friends-- These governments killing their own? Or the people who finally can’t take any more And they pick up a gun or a brick or a stone "There are lives in the balance There are people under fire There are children at the cannons And there is blood on the wire "There’s a shadow on the faces Of the me...

Al Jazeera reports: "Hundreds of Ethiopian troops in armoured vehicles have entered the central Somali town of Baidoa, home of the country's transitional government. "Residents said Ethiopian troops arrived on Thursday afternoon and set up a camp near the president's home there. A spokesman for the transitional federal government denied that any Ethiopian soldiers were in the town and maintained the claims were part of an Islamist plot to launch an attack. "'It is absolutely false," Abdirahman Nur Mohamed Dinari told AFP news agency. "Every time the Islamists want to attack, they start propagating rumours and manufacturing lies.' "A top Islamic leader Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed responded to the reports saying: 'We will declare jihad if the Ethiopian government refuses to withdraw their troops from Somalia.'" The Concord Monitor reports: "Hundreds of Ethiopian troops in armored vehicles rolled into Somalia yesterday to prot...

Thank God for Ralph Nader, and thank God for Israeli peace activtists and brave journalists. Listen to Ralph Nader and Illan Pappe (Israeli academic) here. And check out my man Gideon Levy here. Go, Gideon. I'm sure they're ou t there, but I as a non-Arabic reader would love to hear from far more Arab journalists and activists on the problems internal to their countries (I'm obviously fond of Lebanese-American professor As'ad Abu-Khalil, but I'd like to hear of and from more). So anybody out there have good dissidents I should know about, please let me know. And of course, the same goes for every single country of the Afrikan planet. Please, please, please let me know. I'm taking this current Israeli war against Lebanon very personally because of my work there last year and my great affection for the amazing people I met, but I want to make absolutely clear that I have nothing but contempt for Hezbollah's violence and for the brutality committed by the...

Democracy Now! reports: "...torture and brutality here in the U.S. For nearly two decades an area in Chicago's city jails known Area 2 was the epicenter for the systematic torture of dozens of African-American males by Chicago police officers. "Close to 150 people say they were subjected to abuse including having guns forced into their mouths, bags places over their heads, and electric shocks inflicted to their genitals. "Four men were released from death row after government investigators concluded torture led to their wrongful convictions. "Yet to date no police have been charged with any crime. "...[Y]esterday the findings of a four-year investigation into the cases were released. The investigation found evidence that several officers in the department tortured criminal suspects but concluded that they cannot be prosecuted because too much time has passed. Flint Taylor , an attorney with the People's Law Office in Chicago. He represented many of th...

Tom Hayden: "What I fear is the rehabilitation of the discredited U.S. neoconservative agenda to ignite a larger war against Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran. "The neoconservatives’ 1996 'Clean Break' memo advocated that Israel 'roll back' Lebanon and destabilize Syria in addition to overthrowing Saddam Hussein. "An intellectual dean of the neoconservatives, Bernard Lewis , has long advocated the 'Lebanonization' of the Middle East, meaning the disintegration of nation states into 'a chaos of squabbling, feuding, fighting sects, tribes, regions and parties'.... "One might argue, and many Americans today might agree, that Hezbollah and Hamas started this round of war with their provocative kidnappings of Israeli soldiers. "Lost in the headlines, however, is the fact that the Israelis have 9,000 Palestinian prisoners, and have negotiated prisoner swaps before. Others will blame the Islamists for incessant rocket attacks on Israel...

I may not care for Fisk's opening comment below, but the rest is good stuff, as usual: "It amazes me -- I mean, living here in Beirut, as I have for 30 years. Here are the Lebanese people, sophisticated, educated, cosmopolitan, people who don't look like the Arab world, they look like us; I mean, people who could be quite at home on the streets of Paris or New York and London, and some of them ar e; people who read, who are very well educated; people who speak English fluently, French beautifully, and fluent Arabic, as well, of course; and who, when they die in such large numbers, the best we can produce is a call for restraint by the State Department and a claim by the British, our own dear Tony Blair, that the Israelis are using disproportionate force. "The exchange rate for neutral slaughter between Israel and here at the moment is now 1 to 10. 24 Israelis – I think 25 now -- to 242 Lebanese, many of whom, as I say, most of whom, but a far larger proportion of ...

A) No children deserve to suffer. Period. B) Teaching children to hate is evil. C) Killing them is even worse. B will always, eventually, lead to C.

Canadian deaths in Lebanon do not change Ottawa's view of Mideast crisis Arabs don't cry. Democracy Now! reports today: Death Toll From Israeli Assault on Lebanon Reaches 215 U.S. & Israel Reject Calls for Cease Fire Olmert Vows To Continue Attacks on Lebanon Air Strikes Cripple Lebanese Civilian Infrastructure Report: Israel Using Banned Phosphorus Weapons Sen. Hillary Clinton Vows Support for Israel At Rally (Clinton is now being supported by Rupert Murdoch--for real) AUDIO/VIDEO: World Health Organization: Lebanese Residents Displaced by Israeli Bombardment Expected to Top 900,000 (Almost a third of the entire country) BACKGROUNDER: U.S. Foreign Policy, the Resistance in Iraq, Syrian-Lebanese Relations and More A Sampling of Arab TV Coverage of the Middle East Crisis Daily Star (Lebanon) reports today: "Lebanon evacuees speak of terror, minister says Israel is aiming to bring famine to Lebanon

Today's headlines from Democracy Now! Israeli Attack on Lebanon Enters Sixth Day; Death Toll over 150 Hizbollah Rocket Attack on Haifa Kills 8 Israelis Israel Warplanes Destroy Palestinian Foreign Ministry Office Eight Canadians Killed in Israeli Airstrike in Lebanon Lebanon’s Infrastructure Dismantled Tens of Thousands Flee Country U.S. Blocks UN From Calling for Ceasefire BACKGROUNDER TO THE CRISIS "As Israeli warplanes continue to bomb Lebanon and Hizbollah fires rockets into northern Israel we get context on the crisis with two analysts: As'ad AbuKhalil , a Lebanese professor of political science at California State University (he runs a blog called "The Angry Arab News Service" ) and Chris Hedges , a senior fellow at The Nation Institute and the former Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times (r ead Hedges' article, "Mutually Assured Destruction in the Middle East" )." Audio/video interview is here . Lebanon's The Daily Star ...

"One side fights with awesome high-tech weapons; while the other side fights with whatever it can get its hands on. The Iraqis (and now the Afghans) did not invent the art of asymmetric warfare, but they seem to be writing a new chapter. In the process, Iraq and Afghanistan are steadily sliding toward mayhem. The 'victor' in this war will be the one that has the political capability and resolve to outlast the other side."

Like my friend Tim who gave me the link, I don't like Russia's de facto dictator Vladimir Putin . So I'm impressed by the following observation by Putin : "'If we go back 100 years and look through the newspapers, we see what arguments the colonial powers of that time advanced to justify their expansion into Africa and Asia.... They cited arguments such as playing a civilizing role , the particular role of the white man, the need to civilize 'primitive peoples'.... "We all know what consequences this had. If we replace the term 'civilizing role' with 'democratization,' then we can transpose practically word for word what the newspapers were writing 100 years ago to today's world and the arguments we hear from some of our colleagues." I agree with the need to civilise the uncivilised. I disagree with some on who fits into which category.

I was in Lebanon last year just around this time. I was at the airport that has now been bombed by Israel. I visited the refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh which Israel has attacked . I was in Beirut neighbourhoods where Israeli jets are maiming and killing people as I type these words. Hell, people are being murdered by their own governments or somebody else's or their own church or somebody else's or their own mercernaries or somebody else's all the time, all over the world . So why focus on this case? Other than the extremely subjective fact that this all seems more real to me because I've actually been there, and more personal to me because I've met people who are being affected (if not wounded or killed) right now, I'm angry at the double standards of Western corporate reporting on the Middle East. On Israel's current aerial invasion of Lebanon, Meris Lutz of The Daily Star (Lebanon) writes, "'Israeli attacks have been barbaric. We have one ki...