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US Citizen Killed During Gaza Flotilla Raid
It is one thing for a country to attack a boat somewhere out of sight (and soon out of mind, as the collective American memory fades after 24 hours, whether it is geopolitical, or 1,000 point Dow crashes) in which the people killed are foreigners: the administration can talk up its teleprompter game which achieves nothing, but gives the impression of action (very much the same as what is happening in the Gulf), until people, sick of the spectacle, desire to move on. However, when a US citizen has been shot and killed during an armed incident in international waters, well, then talking ain't gonna cut it. It appears this is precisely what happened during the Gaza flotilla raid: "The U.S. confirmed that an American citizen, identified as 19-year-old FurkanDogan, was killed by multiple gunshots during the Israeli raid on a flotilla carrying activists attempting to run a blockade of the Gaza Strip ." To quote Marcus from Bad Boys: "Shit just got real."
From Bloomberg:
The Mavi Marmara was carrying 581 passengers, about 300 of them Turkish and the remainder from about 30 other countries including Greece, the U.K. and Algeria, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said on May 31. Arinc accused Israel of “piracy” for boarding the vessels in international waters.
Dogan was born in Troy, New York, according to State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley. The Dogan family now has his body, which is en route to their hometown in Turkey for burial, Crowley said.
A second American was injured on the ships and a third in a subsequent protest, according to Clinton. The U.S. is looking into what had happened to the Americans involved, she said.
“Protecting the welfare of American citizens is a fundamental responsibility of our government and one that we take very seriously,” Clinton said. “We are in constant contact with the Israeli government attempting to obtain more information.”
Clinton said this week that the situation in the Gaza Strip is “unsustainable and unacceptable” and that “ultimately the solution to this must be found in an agreement on a two-state solution negotiated” between Israel and the Palestinians.
The flotilla raid and the uproar surrounding it haven’t affected talks between Palestinians and Israelis, Crowley said. U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell, speaking in Bethlehem, said there should be a renewed focus on the talks.
From a purely diplomatic perspective, the continued attempts by the Obama administration to play down international outrage, when none other than an American citizen has been killed, will look very suspect to the international community, and risks the spillover and redirection of global anger, currently aimed at Israel, straight at the US.
In other news, AP provides advance notice of a Larry King interview with President Obama on this topic:
President Barack Obama is calling the deadly Israeli raid on an aid flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip "tragic" and says the loss of life that resulted was unnecessary. Obama stopped short of condemning the actions of Israeli forces, saying that the U.S. wants to wait for an investigation.
Obama says he believes Israel should agree to such an investigation because the incident isn't good for their long-term security."
Obama spoke in an interview with CNN's Larry King airing Thursday night.
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America is a failed state anyway. "You're a terrorist!" and you can be held in a dark hole for the rest of your natural life without ever seeing the inside of a courtroom. With BP obviously controlling the Coast Guard and relative silence from the current regime it's Gaaaaaaame Oveeeeer.
Noam Chomsky is an idiot but that doesn't change the fact that the US government is a plague upon the world.
It's even worse on Americans... think about it...
Chomsky fails at reading between lines. Most ivory tower types do, in history most have too. They get soft; never putting their hands in the earth, they forget their past. They lose their instinct up there in theirs. Instinct is essence. One is bare without it.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/exhausted-noam-chomsky-just-going-to-tr...
chomsky is very smart but even a dummy like me could see what chomsky wasn't saying. Ends up 20 years later he's just a gatekeeper keeping the idealists safely behind an intellectual fence.
Noam Chomsky is as idiot as Ron Paul.
How to compare the two?
Seriously, its like comparing apples and crap.
Chom is not crap.
Ron Paul? How do you come to that conclusion?
Is as idiotic.
Noam Chomsky is smarter than you.
and that's not saying much for noam.
They will never be able to get past the nationalistic tribalism that has been instilled in them WW... it's simply that powerful.
'Us' vs. 'Them' remember... they are completely blinded by dehumanisation...works every time.
Are you able to teleconference with Bilderberg? If you are currently online, please inform them that Hegel is passe. Thank you!
No... Thank you! :)
+10
Agreed.
"Question: Dr. Roberts, the United States is regarded as the most successful state in the world today. What is responsible for American success?
Dr. Roberts: Propaganda."
Almost spit my coffee out this morning when I read that. Kept me laughing all day.
American people have no idea about the reality. They remind me Russian people before the 1917th "socialist revolution".
Yes, Russia was somewhat backward country. But it did not bury its people alive, did not kill them in gas-chambers or by a deliberately created famine. In the 17 years, following the revolution, a quarter of the entire Soviet population has been slaughtered and the country went to the "Dark Ages" and slavery.
When a gang of Jewish terrorists and gangsters, calling themselves Bolsheviks, overthrew a freely elected government by promising freedom, democracy, and equality, people were happily looking for a change. Unfortunately for Russian people, they bought a big lie and paid terrible price for it. Later, these gangsters and bandits would blame all on Joe Stalin, playing once again a role of innocent victims.
As for America, it is in a terrible decline thanks to the WallStreet gangsters and endless wars Jewish neo-conservatives and neo-liberals got America into.
For someone who came to America from the evil Soviet empire things are painfully familiar.
disease gains its power from the rats that spread it
Makes me think that Hitler may have been on to something. I'm going to have to research it. The way America has been co-opted by the Jews is sickening. The money sent to israel by congress should stop.
Excellent post, WaterWings. Thanks! Dr. Paul Craig Roberts’ comment has stirred a bit of passion, and to give this great patriot his just due, here’s the bulk of his interview with Global Research:
Question: Dr. Roberts, the United States is regarded as the most successful state in the world today. What is responsible for American success?
Dr. Roberts: Propaganda. If truth be known, the US is a failed state. More about that later. The US owes its image of success to: (1) the vast lands and mineral resources that the US “liberated” with violence from the native inhabitants, (2) Europe’s, especially Great Britain’s, self-destruction in World War I and World War II, and (3) the economic destruction of Russia and most of Asia by communism or socialism.
After World War II, the US took the reserve currency role from Great Britain. This made the US dollar the world money and permitted the US to pay its import bills in its own currency. World War II’s destruction of the other industrialized countries left the US as the only country capable of supplying products to world markets. This historical happenstance created among Americans the impression that they were a favored people. Today the militarist neoconservatives speak of the United States as “the indispensable nation.” In other words, Americans are above all others, except, of course, Israelis.
To American eyes a vague “terrorist threat,” a creation of their own government, is sufficient justification for naked aggression against Muslim peoples and for an agenda of world hegemony.
This hubristic attitude explains why among most Americans there is no remorse over the one million Iraqis killed and the four million Iraqis displaced by a US invasion and occupation that were based entirely on lies and deception. It explains why there is no remorse among most Americans for the countless numbers of Afghans who have been cavalierly murdered by the US military, or for the Pakistani civilians murdered by US drones and “soldiers” sitting in front of video screens. It explains why there is no outrage among Americans when the Israelis bomb Lebanese civilians and Gaza civilians. No one in the world will believe that Israel’s latest act of barbarity, the murderous attack on the international aid flotilla to Gaza, was not cleared with Israel’s American enabler.
Question: You said that the US was a failed state. How can that be? What do you mean?
Roberts: The war on terror, invented by the George W. Bush/Dick Cheney regime, destroyed the US Constitution and the civil liberties that the Constitution embodies. The Bill of Rights has been eviscerated. The Obama regime has institutionalized the Bush/Cheney assault on American liberty. Today, no American has any rights if he or she is accused of “terrorist” activity. The Obama regime has expanded the vague definition of “terrorist activity” to include “domestic extremist,” another undefined and vague category subject to the government’s discretion. In short, a “terrorist” or a “domestic extremist” is anyone who dissents from a policy or a practice that the US government regards as necessary for its agenda of world hegemony.
Unlike some countries, the US is not an ethic group. It is a collection of diverse peoples united under the Constitution. When the Constitution was destroyed, the US ceased to exist. What exists today are power centers that are unaccountable. Elections mean nothing, as both parties are dependent on the same powerful interest groups for campaign funds. The most powerful interest groups are the military/security complex, which includes the Pentagon, the CIA, and the corporations that service them, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, the oil industry that is destroying the Gulf of Mexico, Wall Street (investment banks and hedge funds), the insurance companies, the pharmaceutical companies, and the agri-companies that produce food of questionable content.
These corporate powers comprise an oligarchy that cannot be dislodged by voting. Ever since “globalism” was enacted into law, the Democrats have been dependent on the same corporate sources of income as the Republicans, because globalism destroyed the labor unions. Consequently, there is no difference between the Republicans and Democrats, or no meaningful difference.
The “war on terror” completed the constitutional/legal failure of the US. The US has also failed economically. Under Wall Street pressure for short-term profits, US corporations have moved offshore their production for US consumer markets. The result has been to move US GDP and millions of well-paid US jobs to countries, such as China and India, where labor and professional expertise are cheap. This practice has been going on since about 1990.
After 20 years of offshoring US production, which destroyed American jobs and federal, state and local tax base, the US unemployment rate, as measured by US government methodology in 1980, is over 20 percent. The ladders of upward mobility have been dismantled. Millions of young Americans with university degrees are employed as waitresses and bartenders. Foreign enrollment comprises a larger and larger percentage of US universities as the American population finds that a university degree has been negated by the offshoring of the jobs that the graduates expected.
When US offshored production re-enters the US as imports, the trade balance deteriorates. Foreigners use their surplus dollars to purchase existing US assets.
Consequently, dividends, interest, capital gains, tolls from toll roads, rents, and profits, now flow abroad to foreign owners, thus increasing the pressure on the US dollar. The US has been able to survive the mounting claims of foreigners against US GDP because the US dollar is the reserve currency. However, the large US budget and trade deficits will put pressures on the dollar that will become too extreme for the dollar to be able to sustain this role. When the dollar fails, the US population will be impoverished… (emphasis mine)
( Dr. Paul Craig Roberts is a former Assistant Secretary US Treasury, Associate Editor Wall Street Journal ,and Professor of Political Economy Center for Strategic and International Studies Georgetown University Washington DC.)
Thanks JR.
Israelis subdued captain by pointing gun at a child
Algerian activist gives chilling account of atrocities
Dubai/Cairo: According to a report in The Guardian, an Algerian activist, who gave her name as Sabrina, revealed that Israeli troops pointed their gun at a one-year-old Turkish child in front of his parents to force the captain of the Mavi Marmara to stop sailing.
Many reports have emerged from among the 124 activists who crossed over into Amman, Jordan, yesterday.
In an interview with Sky News, IT professional Hasan Nowarah, from Glasgow, described the moments as the Israeli troops descended on the ship.
"All you could see was screaming and bullets. Out of the blue as I looked around our ship, all I could see were hundreds of Zodiacs. Hundreds of Zodiacs full of soldiers, and big ships, lots of ships, and I believe as well submarines in the sea."
Kuwaiti MP Walid Al Tabtabai said the Israelis were "brutal and arrogant".
"Israelis roughed up and humiliated all of us, women, men and children," he said.
Algerian Izzeddine Zahrour said Israeli authorities "deprived us of food, water and sleep and we weren't allowed to use the toilet".
"It was an ugly kidnapping and subsequently bad treatment in Israeli jail," he said.
"They handcuffed us, pushed us around and humiliated us," Egyptian MP Hazem Farouq, who was also on the boat, said and added what he witnessed on the ship "defied his imagination".
"It was hell on the sea. I saw Israeli soldiers killing activists in cold blood and then walking on their bodies," Farouq, who was one of more than 700 activists aboard the Freedom Flotilla attacked by Israeli commandos, said on Tuesday in Cairo.
"The Israeli soldiers sprayed bullets as if they were a mafia in an American film."
Farouq and his colleague Mohammad Al Beltagui were detained along with many activists, who survived the widely condemned Israeli attack. They were released late on Monday after direct intervention by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.
Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.
Robbed
"The Israelis left some of the injured activists bleeding without treatment until death," Farouq said.
He added that he and Al Beltagui had been robbed of all their belongings and around $3,500 in cash. Both MPs belong to the banned Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's strongest opposition force.
"All the survivors on the ship were beaten up, stripped and humiliated by the Israeli commandos while other Israeli soldiers were busy firing teargas," said Al Beltagui.
"What happened is sheer thuggery and piracy," he added.
According to him, the blood was so copious on the ship that some Israeli soldiers slipped while on board.
"We were kept aboard the ship until 3pm under the blazing sun, a situation that made many people, including women, suffer sunstroke and lose consciousness."
The two lawmakers, whom the Egyptian authorities said they had joined the humanitarian effort without notifying them, said they and other activists had refused to sign a written Israeli statement that they had attempted to illegally enter Israel.
"Al Beltagui and I left the detention centre only in the underwear, which were stained with blood of the martyrs, and without shoes until the Egyptian Consul in Israel came to accompany us to the [Egyptian] border town of Taba," said Farouq.
This is almost funny. The terrorist group most associated with putting children in danger for political purposes?
Hamas. Period. No one else even comes close.
and, by your rule book, anyone who tries, is vindicated. Not the best comedy material....
The only death that affected me, today, was Rue McClanahan's.
Wow, I was junked 14 times!!!
Not sure what you said since your comment was junked to oblivion, but having read previous comments of yours, and being a comrade in golden arms, I have to at least try to educate you.
Most Americans grew up on the following myths:
1) There's no such thing as a Palestinian as there was never such place called "Palestine". Also, Palestine was barren of people, and the Jews came in to create a state out of an unused desert deadscape, "a land without a people for a people without a land";
2) Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East;
3) Israel just wants to live in peace but the Arabs just want the destruction of all Jews, hence the problem is blood-thirsty Arabs;
4) Jews are a race and because of the discrimination suffered by Jews throughout history they should get their own country;
Let's look at the problem with all these myths. If you're even slightly informed about the history of Palestine, from reputable authors that have been vetted by their peers, you already know that all of these assertions are silly.
If any of your knowledge is based on sources such as Joan Peters or Alan Douchewitz nee Dershowitz or Thomas Friedman then are you worse than uninformed: you are misinformed. In the absence of any other input, anything you might say in regards to the conflict will likely be so egregiously incorrect as to make you a clown for regurgitating it.
You don't necessarily need to know the history to deduce that these assertions are silly. Palestine is a land mentioned in the Bible extensively. It's where Jerusalem is, FFS. That area of the world to one extent or another has been inhabited continuously since Biblical times. Of course people were there when the Zionists showed up. This is extensively documented by even Jewish historians and is not in dispute. Bernard Lewis, a classic "orientalist" writes about Palestine under the Ottomans in 1550:
In 1890, the beginning of the Zionist movement, the population of Palestine was over half a million, with the vast majority being Muslim, about 11% Christian, and 8% being Jewish. Note, these were all basically Arabs. These were not Europeans Jews that began to arrive later as the zionist movement picked up steam and then the later influx from the Holocaust.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Palestine#Early_demographics
The bottom line is that the land was hardly barren. It harboured a thriving culture of Arab Muslims, Christians and Jews living in harmony. Of course the myths fractal off from here, as they do with all of them. You refute it, the zionists come back with something else: the Jews bought the land they inhabited, the Jews under Arab rule were treated as second class citizens, the Arabs were backwards until the Jews brought civilization to them, etc. This is just bigoted, racist obfuscation. The historical record is there for you to read, and I can't rebut everything, suffice it to say that the land of Palestine was hardly empty when the state of Israel was created out of it.
As far as being the "only" democracy in the Middle East, let alone an actual democracy (it's really a theocratic militocracy), this is easily refutable horseshit. Lebanon has had a parliamentary system of government since the 1940s when it gained independence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon#Government_and_politics
And guess what? We just spent a trillion dollars (that we know of) installing a (albeit sham) democracy in Iraq. Even though Turkey is a wannabe Euro country, or used to be until they gained self-respect, is primarily Muslim and a parliamentary republic.
Another one bites the dust. Moving on...
Most Americans are fed a steady diet of crap news from the likes of CNN, Fox, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, etc. You'll never get the real story from these sources about ANYTHING. They are government propaganda. You know this if you're a gold bug or if you're a truth seeker because you know what kind of bullshit they spew about the banking system, our government, etc. So why should it be any different about Israel?
Do this: next time you see a story about Israel on any of the above named sources, watch how the Israeli side of the story is told in explicit detail, by Israelis themselves, or pundits sympathetic to Israel (to say the least), and with a preponderance of the on air time. When it comes to the Palestinian side, you'll be hard pressed to get a quote out of an actual Palestinian. Instead, you'll hear from pundits, most of them Jewish American, who will tell the Palestinian story for them. Don't believe me? Just watch for yourselves while keeping this in mind. You'll wonder why you never noticed it before.
So now, when it comes to the myth that Israel is just trying to make peace while the Arabs just want to "push the Jews into the sea", you only fail to notice that Israel is almost always the aggressor or the initiator of violence because of the above described spin. You never hear the Palestinian side of the story. Furthermore, pay particular attention to the wording used to describe outbreaks of violence or war. Israel always, ALWAYS "retaliates". They never initiate. Israel is always "defending herself" (oh I hate it when they use the feminine in reference to that vile entity). The Palestinians always "attack", "bomb", "infiltrate", etc. They are always the nameless, faceless savages who strap bombs to themselves and blow up Israeli civilians because it's a quick way to the 72 virgins awaiting them in heaven (another myth this 72 virgins thing, I've mentioned this before; a quick google search dispels it). What you almost never hear about is the Israeli bombing or missile attack or "incursion" (translation: invasion) or shooting that killed a Palestinian that provokes a response from the Palestinians. Especially over the past 5 years or so, most violence that breaks out, the vast majority in fact, was initiated by Israel, but it is reported in the American press as being started by Palestinians. Also, it isn't the siege of Gaza that is the problem, it's those "savage" "so-called peace activists" that attacked the Israeli commandos as they peacefully descended onto the boat to take it by force in an act of piracy, etc. The issue is always framed as the Israelis defending themselves, even when it's patently obviously in this case that they were the mother fucking aggressor.
If you read enough articles about the Palestinian/Israeli war, you start to notice these things. In the New York times, the first 15-20 paragraphs will be about how the Palestinians did something to provoke an Israeli "response" or "retaliation", and it is until paragraph 22 or whatever that you learn that, in fact, Israel shot or killed or arrested someone or demolished a house a few days before, and the Palestinian attack was a reaction to this provocation. Don't take my word for it. Pay attention to this the next time you read an article by the mainstream press.
The fact is that peace has been close at hand on numerous occasions but in all cases Israel did something to thwart the process. An article that's useful despite its age in demonstrating this is "Debunking 6 Common Israeli Myths":
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article865.shtml
Read the section on Myth 5: Ehud Barak's "generous" offer at Camp David.
Also, Israel violated the truce that was in place between them and Hamas in Gaza:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Israel-Hamas_ceasefire#Dissolution
I'm not saying the Palestinians never initiate violence, but the myth is that they always do, if you only listen to Israeli spin, which is all you're ever fed from the MSM.
Onwards.
If Jews are a race then why aren't Scientologists? Or Jehovah's Witnesses? What happens when an Asian converts to Judaism? Does their DNA suddenly transmogrify into Semetic genes? Enough said on that. And if Jews deserve a homeland, why not these other religious groups? And if they want their own homeland, fine, but why do they have to steal someone else's? Because they have a 2,000 year old claim on it? If that's the case, everyone has a claim on every spot of Earth and everyone is a squatter where ever they live. Put 2 and 2 together. It's not hard.
Why did the Jews immigrate en masse to Palestine during WWII? The Allies won the war. We could've repatriated the Jews. Why didn't we? We could've made the German people do whatever the fuck we told them to. If we told them they were going to have Jewish neighbors then fuck all, they were going to accept it and like it. So why did they all emigrate to Palestine, a fucking shithole compared to where they were born? The dirty secret is that non-Jewish Europeans were in the main anti-Jewish. They didn't want them. Americans didn't much care for them either. Truman didn't really give a shit about the Jews; all one need do is read the various historical accounts of his deliberations over whether to recognize Israel if a state was declared. The fact is, the only reason the Jews were made to go to Israel is because the WASPs didn't much care for the Jews, and they cared less about the Arabs that they woud displace.
So, DoChenRollingBearing, why should you care? Because the tax dollars that are extorted out of you go to pay for this folly. Your government, which represents you, fully supports and even assists, in complete hypocrisy, Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine, the siege of Gaza, and their constant war mongering and actual acts of war against neighboring states (Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, etc.) These are acts condemned by most other nations on Earth, yet we, as in I and You, always defend Israel against sanction and condemnation in the UN. Israel goes out and acts like the little shit sidekick of the neighborhood bully, picking fights with everyone and wreaking havoc on the weak and indefensible, because they know that their big brother will always back them up, no matter how fucking psychotic they are. And this, my dear friend, reflects on YOU. Everything Israel does has a stamp of approval of YOU, paid for by YOUR tax dollars, and supported by your willful ignorance of the issue.
I say it often and I'll say it again:
What you sow is what you reap.
If you don't take the time to understand this very basic fact of reality then please don't whine and ask, "Why do they hate us?" the next time we are attacked, because you'll already know the answer.
I am Chumbawamba.
Sorry chumba but I didn't have time to read your whole post but I wanted to comment.
What I think is really funny about all this is how many times throughout history the Jews have "Occupied" Israel. What is it like the 4th or the 5th time?
Great post Chumbawamba, everyone should read it. It made me think of Thomas Paine.
If the "palestinians" get to chase the "eeevil jews" into the sea then why don't the Germans get back the Sudetenland and Alsace, the Serbs get back Krajina, the Basques southern France, the Georgians Abkazastan, the Poles part of byeloruss, the armenians eastern turkey, the american indians America, the canadian indians canada, the Austrians Tyrol, the Rutherians southern poland, the hungarians northern Serbia, and on and on and on.
In the office where I work in Switzerland, all the Swiss were ranting about how the Jews were torturing the "peace seekers" from the Mamara, and you think only Americans are fed propaganda?
Sheesh Chumba, why can't you just accept that we are all being misled and that the "Palesitinians" are a bunch of useless crybabies who should give up try to "steal back" land that their forfathers lost in a war of their making 2 generations ago.
What's your point? Do you have one?
Israel occupies Palestine. US supports Israel financially and militarily. It is our problem.
All the other comparison conflicts you mentioned are of no consequence to the US or me.
Israel's occupation of Palestine has directly affected me. My freedoms here at home in the US have been curtailed and diminished due to our government's support of Israeli brutality against Arab's in a crude and obvious religious holy war, a 4th Crusade being funded by the US tax base.
If you can't make this obvious connection then you need to take vitamins or fish oil or something to boost your brain power. I suggest you smoke more weed.
I am Chumbawamba.
Well Chumba, here's my point: If the Ottoman empire had committed genocide on the "Palestinians", they would be as irrelevant as the Armenians or the Greeks of Syracuse. The reason the "Palestinians" are such an issue goes far beyond American support of Israel (which I think is far to generous, btw). They are such an issue because Islam is a political-religion of conquest and subjugation, and is allied with the left so both can increase thier hold on power.
Now as far as foreign actions that have directly affected my life, how about China and Russia's attempt to extend communism into the Korean peninsula, western Europe, Taiwan and into Indochina. The US still spends hundreds of billions defending countries around the world in defense subsidy that is no longer sustainable, yet you single out Israel for scorn.
So many Americans allow themselves to become dupes to the Islamist Jihadi's because they continually drink the "palestinian" koolaid fed by the media. I refuse to get into a pissing match over who suffered the most "unfairness" over a history that my forefathers had no control over, much less me living here now. The Mamara was a blatant attempt by Islamic Jihadis to force Israel to make a mistake so they could have some kind of propaganda victory, and you are supporting them in this because you claim Isreal caused your freedoms to be curtailed? Give me a break.
Hence, avoid foreign entanglements.
Total ass butter.
You, sir, are a deranged lunatic. Your logic is stunningly bad and you seem to lap up misinformation like a whore laps up jizm on the set of "One Chick and 400 Dicks".
I am Chumbawamba.
OMG. LOL. That was funny.
Guess they just succeeded, then.
Your post seems to be attempting to shift to a new topic though I'm not entirely sure of this new topic's bounds.
Most all religions have at some point turned the words of their prophets and priests towards the waging of a war at the present. That a religion's texts have been used to support violence by some should not be used to dehumanize the religion, it's members, or nations; if we did so we would all be inhuman, atheist, or fascinated by a flying spaghetti monster.
Communism affecting your life, huh. Fear of that now nearly lost labor revolution, though still in vogue, is likely misplaced. Rather than fear the relics of communism you should fear a new revolution based on monetary issues. Monetary issues which are directly related to the Middle East and Israel through the oil-dollar relationship.
I would disagree with you that the media favors the Palestinian side. Chumba is right that in the US major news networks purosefully fail to convey a full, unbiased reporting of facts; such a thing looks more like a debate, not a purposeful message.
I'm already a debt slave to fascists who are outside of my influence, mostly; do not tell me that my remaining freedoms are safe from influence with regards to Israel. The loss of freedom is the business of law and government, my government and its laws are influenced by Israel and the situation we have involved ourselves in, in the whole of the region. The relationships between the middle east nations (including Israel) and my own, have, over time, caused the laws and government to take freedoms based on events and strategy surrounding these relationships.
Additionally, I have nothing against atheists or flying spaghetti monsters. Except that atheists often forego learning all they can from religions and the totality of history, and worshippers of the church of the flying spaghetti monster may be doing the same thing while mocking attempts at similar education, rather than focusing of the value of being able to see things as silly or humorous in order to gain understanding.
because the israeli persecution of the useless crybabies who refuse to give up trying to steal back land that their forfathers (sic) lost in a war of their making 2 generations ago (more like 3) is the root cause of, apparently now endless, war for the united states, endless vulnerability to terrorist attack (including, eventually, nuclear -- why not?), the utter destruction of the founding document of our republic (we can be imprisoned without trial or appeal, assassinated anywhere in the world -- bipartisan agreement on this) and paying for all this folly is no small part of why our currency and economy are dying.
Chumbawamba, that pretty much deserved it's own ZH post.
Respect.
I only wish I had time to write a more comprehensive version. The information is out there. It's not hard to find the truth in all this. Volumes have been written by people far more articulate on the issue than I.
The problem is it's easier to just fall back on one's bigoted inclinations and not only not care but join in on the vilification. Much easier than actually doing the research for yourself.
I am Chumbawamba.
chumba...if it ok I would like too add...
It seems you only cheer for one team and do not take in the larger scope of this conflict, both have blood on their hands. My question to you is, which are the bloodiest, whom is the disposesed, the weaker, yet which side claims the status of under dog, threaten from all sides (BTW which is Americas new tune).
America lost a few thousand, in attempting to fix this we have killed hundreds of thousands and with no end in sight, is this the road that we sould stay on?.
Again I point out an act that preempts all Palestinian acts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_David_Hotel_bombing
Irgun (Hebrew: ?????; shorthand for Ha’Irgun HaTzva’i HaLe’umi BeEretz Yisra’el, ?????? ????? ?????? ???? ?????, “National Military Organization in the Land of Israel”) was a militant Zionist group that operated in the British mandate of Palestine between 1931 and 1948.
Irgun members were absorbed into the Israel Defence Forces at the start of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. In present-day Israel, the Irgun is commonly referred to as Etzel (??”?), an acronym of the Hebrew initials.
See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irgun
So one group decries acts and tactics that helped them to achieve their goals, why is the whole world dragged into this fracas where as other larger events don’t get the same treatment, I submit to you that their is undo influence to this regard.
A hole lot of the pot calling the kettle black in my book, they are more alike than not, and either would like to admit.
and
The real question is: “Is the blockade itself lawful?’” says Douglas Guilfoyle, a specialist in international and maritime law at King’s College London. “Everything else turns on that.”
Mr. Guilfoyle says that under the international Law of Armed Conflict a state that has legally established a blockade can enforce it by boarding vessels in international waters that it reasonably expects might breach the blockade.
But a blockade itself is illegal, he says, “if it will cause excessive damage to the civilian population in relation to the military advantage gained… so therefore intercepting a vessel on the high seas to support or enforce the blockade would not be lawful.”
that is indeed the legal question, but when has the US, Brittain, Israel or anyone else respected international law in the "middle east?" We certainly don't do it, and never have, when it comes oil, invasions, nuclear weapons, terrorism and a host of others. As Chumba suggests, I really don't think the US gives a crap about either group of peoples and never has. We are interested in certain natural resources and use whatever tricks at hand to play sides against each other hence creating the necessity of our pressence.
Exactly, international law is a tool of the powerful nations used to provide more legitimacy to actions of strategy. It is not a tool for weak nations seeking fair treatment generally or under the law. This discrepancy between the treatment of the small/weak and large/powerful is present in US domestic law as well. We use international law to justify actions and wars we want, not to ensure equitable treatment, and certainly not to seriously condemn Israel, who is strategically a US proxy, for taking actions against activists who confront their strategic actions/policy on the grounds of equitable treatment of humans or to condemn wars strategically important to Israel.
Heavy - a very succint precis of the current reality, and perhaps unintentionally) an illustration of the reason why the peons will ultimately withdraw their consent.
History shows us that if a train ofr abuses continues long enough, a bunch of people get pissed off about it and take matters into theirr own hands. These people are ALWAYS and EVERYWHERE referred to by the incumbent powers-that-be as 'terrrrrrists' (going right back to the Palestinian liberation movement in the early part of the first century - the Romans called them 'lestai').
Legal frameworks exist primarily to give a veneer of respectability and equity to what is actually highly differential treatment between classes (I think of capital as a 'class' politically, since it seeks to influence policy to its own ends - as it should if the mechanisms exist).
A good example of this is the deductability (for tax purposes) of every possible cost involved in keeping a corporate person 'alive' (from electricity, to its lodgings, to the sandwiches and coffee at board meetings - yea verily even unto the strippers paid for on corporate expense accounts). Contrast this with the paltry range of deductions afforded human beings (labourers). And yet the legal fiction exists that corporations pay a tax rate of 30% (give or take) on income... it's simply that 'income' for a corporation is "revenue less everything required to stay alive" whereas 'income' for a human being is "whaever money you exhcange for your labour".
Once enough people wake up to this disparate treatment - be it in international relations or in domestic taxation/expenditure arrangements - they will in time start slaying the perpetrators.
I note here that my chums in the financial services industry no longer make strident statements about benefit recipients - at least not in my presence... since I pointed out that the amount of tax money expended on bankster bailouts is equivalent to (roughly) five hundred thousand years of payments to one of Reagan's mythical Caddy-driving welfare queens ['black' was implicit in Reagan's lie].
It is absolutely wonderful to see the hypocrisy and fraud of the political class laid bare: on the one hand Obama has made explicit Bush's (and others') implicit assertion that the political class holds the power of life and death over we peons - for our protection, you understand - and on the other hand they drop the ball on the very protection that is supposed to issue from the government.
I am loving this period of history: it vindicates everything that folks like me have babbled about regarding the political class, the tribal-psycho-religious whackers (of all denominations) and the corrupt nexus between finance and the political-parasite class.
To quote yet another rehashed 1970s TV show which is now a movie (are there ANY original writers in Hollywood now?)...
I love it when a plan comes together.
Cheerio
GT
Triple Cross: How Britain Created the Arab-Israel Conflict[/b]
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/05/triple_cross_how_britain_creat.html
The Falseness of the Zionist State of Israel[/b]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgLKNiREcGA&feature=related
Adolf Hitler Founded Israel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KKgNToLrYk
"...continued attempts by the Obama administration to play down international outrage, when none other than an American citizen has been killed, will look very suspect to the international community...."
Ditto docj's comment, and to the quote above, well boo fucking hoo. For related attitude and associated entertainment, it is hard to beat the following pop songs designed to diss fellow dead retardian Rachel Corrie:
Can't get no hippie traction:
http://armor.typepad.com/bastardsword/2004/01/i_cant_get_no_h.html
There are a solid dozen of these. Anti-idiotarian comedy gold.
too bad for you rachel keeps getting traction and momentum while you and your cause keep slipping farther behind. wonder what the afrikaners felt like about 1990?
So since he left the us at the age of 2, it's no big deal that he died ?
I wonder how you will feel when it is your neck with a knee in it?
If anyone tries to stick a knee in my neck, they're going to find themselves without a knee very fast.
anyone? anyone at all? you are omnipotent?
He was never an American in any way that I recognize.
well, that's settled then.
+1,000 Right on!
We're all Gazans now? Speak for yourself. I shower.
Perhaps Palestinians could shower more if Israel hadn't laid claim to and taken their water from the aquifers underneath the West Bank even... oh perhaps you didn''t know scofflaw? Well now you do!
http://www.grist.org/article/blood/
Ignorance was bliss wasn't it!
Junk it if you must but it remains the truth... I guess some people just can't handle the truth!
Nah, had plenty of them in my engineering classes here in the US.
They wouldn't know how to put water and soap together to create clean.
Of course I did see a guy wash his feet in the men's room sink though. Wouldn't take a shower and use soap, but had no problem washing his feet in the bathroom sink.
Gotta admit... that washing the feet in the sink thing is a real non-starter with me...
It must be wonderful to think so highly of yourself... but let me be the first to tell you that it is simply a self-created illusion which only comes from putting others down to raise your own internal level of self-esteem... and you seem to be the only one not recognizing that fact (BTW that is called 'lack of insight'). What a sad specimen of a human being you exemplify this evening.
So true. That aside I am so glad Obama picked Larry for the interview cause everyone knows he's an expert on principles, loyalty and commitment
Hey... welcome to fight club girl! :)
Hey there... it's been a while since I have seen these type of comments on ZH... and you know me... I can't let it go unchecked :-)
Likewise MN, good to hear from you.
Hey there Marley... nice to be back :-)
Thanks for stopping by to point out that your superiority in understanding the humand condition is much superior to my superiority. I guess you feel better now for putting me in my low life lack of insight place.
After reading your post I'm beginning to feel guilty now that I don't live up to your elevated level of human understanding and compassion.
Now, back to washing my hands in a sink after some asshole just washed his feet in it. What next, since Muslims don't use toliet paper, and like Hindu's, wipe their arse with their hands, I'm supposed to wash my hands in the same sink after that?
And don't let them tell you Jesus wasn't blonde
Well, actually he was a natural blond according to recovered non-redacted versions of the new testament. That didn't go over well with the latin looking types that edited the final version.
you mean the book of facts?
Just keep me apprised on which sink you used to wash you hands... so I make sure to steer clear of it in the future.
Sure, I use all the sinks, so you can go wash your hands in the toliet for all I care. In fact, since I'm such a low life in your eyes, stick your face, your feet, and your hands in the toliet to wash them.
Feel better now?
I'm definitely a low life, scum sucking asshole, puke hole, redneck, racist, Jew hating, Aryan brotherhood member, and anything other diatribe you can think of, and proud of every damn one you can think of.
What amazes me is how superior you are to everyone else and have deigned to float down off your ivory tower to point out the baser animal instincts in the ignorant masses, especially me.
I always thought demi-gods like you prefered to stay up in heaven while preening about how superior they are to the lower life forms, all the while just letting the animals fight it out.
Once you float back up to Mount Olympus don't forget to take some soap so you can wash off the stink of having to hang out with the unwashed ignorant masses.
Oh... you are the only "unwashed ignorant mass" that I am concerned about tonight... and actually you are still rather confused as to who is viewing himself superior to others (it's that insight thing again)... I actually see myself equal to Muslims, Somalis, Hispanics, Germans (actually I am 1/2 German for the record), and every other nationality, faith, and minority that you have disparaged tonight in your numerous comments throughout this post... perhaps if you spend some time thinking about this concept you will be able to grasp it eventually :-)
my dog drinks from the toilet
3.2 million microbes per sq.inch....I mean in Gaza.
what is a toliet?
It is called "wudu" - a ritual bathing prior to prayer.
I'd rather be Indiana Jones...
You must be kidding. Somebody should glass Gaza.
What you said... Plus a fucking trillion gigatons!
you daring little pirate you.
The United States considers the young man an American.
The United States said Thursday it would probe the death of a Turkish-American killed in an Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, but said the FBI were not involved "at this point."
"We will look into the circumstances of the death of an American citizen, as we would do anywhere in the world at all times," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_to_probe_American_death_in_Israe_0603201...
No we fuckin' ain't.
We are all Gazans now
By Pepe Escobar
Just imagine if these were Iranian commandos attacking a multinational, six-boat aid flotilla in international waters. The United States, the European Union and Israel would instantly make sure to shock and awe Iran to kingdom come.
Instead, it was Israeli commandos who perpetrated this bit of gunboat diplomacy - or "self-defense" - in the dark hours of the early morning, in international waters, some 130 kilometers off the coast of Gaza.
And what if they were Somali pirates? Oh no, these are Israeli pirates fighting shady, "terrorist" Muslims ... It doesn't matter that Arab, Turkish, European, developing-world public opinion and governments are fuming. So what? Israel always gets away with - as Turkey
is stressing - "murder" (or "state terrorism", according to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan).
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LF02Ak02.html
Let's imagine that Israel aided and abetted pro-Kurd activists to send an aid convoy with hundreds of people on board plsu a bit of aid directly to the Turkish part of Kurdistan, with explicit telegraphed plans to blow through security checkpoints. Ya think Turkey wouldn't stop the convoy using lethal force as required, and insist on inspecting every single package? They'd do worse and much faster than the Israeli army did, with their tip-toeing, don't-hurt-anybody attempt to take over the one ship that resisted. The Turkish tolerate no aid to their Kurds, whereas Israel provides free passage of all non-military, non weaponizable aid to Hamas Gaza through its checkpoints into Gaza. Double standard much?
Like you care about the Kurds? Right, only inasmuch as you can use them as a rhetorical device to spew your tired propaganda.
Anyway, Kurds? Who the fuck are they? No one cares.
Let us know when you finally can differentiate between your ass and a hole in the ground.
I am Chumbawamba.
Like you care about Hamas...
Israeli Propaganda
The sloppy Israeli propaganda effort against the Free Gaza humanitarian flotilla has been so bad that the pictures released by the Israeli army have been tagged by alert bloggers as forgeries, some of them having been on the Web for years. This site alleges that many of the pictures put out by Israel purporting to show arms on the aid ship still contained internal tags allowing them to be identified as old photos from years ago. Even if the charges of forgery are false, the photos show chains, sticks, an axe– things that would be on any ship.
The defiant speech on Wednesday of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu defending the Israeli boarding of an aid flotilla headed for Gaza, and his insisting that the blockade of Gaza would continue displayed all the problems with hyper-nationalist Israeli discourse, of inappropriate analogies, factual errors, propaganda, and magical thinking. These fallacies have dominated the narrative presented by members of the Netanyahu government and those who support it.
http://www.juancole.com/2010/06/netanyahu-defiant-still-fighting-ww-ii-h...
I literally LOL'd when I heard that Netanyahoo indignantly complaining that "this was not the Love Boat, this was the Hate Boat".
Pure comedy. You can age that kind of cheese. It just comes out and is.
I am Chumbawamba.
Israel's defenders mobilize, threaten
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - Faced with what the Wall Street Journal calls "one of Israel's worst international relations disasters in years", the right-wing leadership of the so-called "Israel Lobby" has been pulling out all the stops to defend the Jewish state against global outrage over its deadly seizure of a Gaza-bound vessel in international waters carrying humanitarian supplies early on Monday morning.
Its biggest concern for now is to prevent the administration of US President Barack Obama from distancing itself in any way - let alone joining in the almost universal condemnation - from the military operation in which at least nine civilian passengers of the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara were killed by Israeli commandos.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LF04Ak01.html
He is a natural born citizen. How is he an American in "name" only? Not hat I give a shit what his nationality is. I just find it shocking that being born in the country is not enough.
I find it shocking that we're still allowing that nonsense. You're only American if your ancestors have been here for at least several generations and if some of them risked their lives fighting for this country. END OF STORY.
Gives us your tired, your hungry, your poor and then... Get in the back of the bus for forty years
Right.
It's as American as pizza, baba ganoush, and anything on the Taco Bell menu.
I am Chumbawamba.
i find it shocking we are still allowing this nonsense.
Dont forget to tell your whole point of view You're only a US citizen if you are white and...
It might read obvious to you but that it is not the case for some others.
http://flotillafacts.com/
I guess flotillafactsasperthestateofisrael.com was taken.
You think you and your family are any different than the guy that got killed? You're made of "better" stuff, you have "better" ideals? You deserve better? You're the same rotting flesh, eating, sleeping, shitting, bundle of perceptions, thoughts, habits, behaviours, matter that this guy was, same as I am, same as everyone on this board.
At least try to see your own ignorance, try to improve yourself.
I am certain that MY family and I are quite different from the guy who got killed. I cannot imagine any of us becomming a supporter of the murdering headchopping terrorists that are Hamas. I expect that the guy who died was one of those who made his will before the encounter. They are of that group which seems to "Love Death." Now he has his wish and it was not carried out by one of his own religion bombing him at the mosque.
The Mullahs have proclaimed that the wdomen should wear a head covering at all times as the sight of a woman's hair will cause all men to become uncontrollable with lust. Perhaps this man became uncontrollable at the sight of a real live Jew. He was controlled.
If the do gooders are in turkey and need a project, they should take supplies to the Armenians or Kurds. No need to go to sea.
Dude, talk to Muslim women, they like wearing the shrouds; it is their choice.
And did you know this man? You are making quite the statement otherwise!
Being born into misogyny will do that to you. Wake up. It is a misogynistic death cult founded by predatory pedophile psychopath, according to Islam's own documents. Peace and love and respect for women my ass.
+ 1
How does any of this have to do with the occupation of Palestine and the siege of Gaza?
+1? Seriously?
How about +stupid?
I am Chumbawamba.
What you think we are any less brainwashed than they are by culture. Please.
SteveNYC,
My Family and I live in the United States of America.. By choice.
And if I were to involve myself in a fight I would not be the one getting shot in the head.
My ignorance of not moving away from My Country?
My ignorance of Not putting myself on that boat pushing a people who are in fact surrounded?
As far as me deserving better? I think it really is more about making good choices verse getting shot in the head. So, NO! I am not like minded, with regard to that indvidual. If you prick me do I not bleed, sure... but you can'g fix stupid or dead in this case.
As for habits? I don't know what his habits were... other than leave this Country for that Country and getting in the middle of someone else's drama.
He and I are so very un-alike that I am still breathing and that speaks to our not sharing habits.
In reference to the links, do you know the history behind these events and what provoked them?
Do I know why those kids where killed in thier sleep by cowards?
You should have asked the question like this...
James, do you care why the Marine's where blown into little... ittsy.. bittsy. bits?
and then Rick, I would have said No! and I don't care why those sleeping 18 year old kids where blown into little... ittsy.. bittsy. bits? all I care about is those that were responsible and thier families, friends and other like minded people... were found and erased from the planet... in total...
Those fucking towel heads... get to much of you and Bush on T.V. and more than likely... sooner than later... the mood will shift from one of "lets all just hug" ... too break out the tactical nukes and pepper them up and down then side to side for good measure.
Holy War? well I could same something witty like those two words should not be in the same sentence... But if they want one so fucking bad, give the the business end of a multiple warhead rocket... over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Or until I am no longer pissed about the Twin Towers in New York... or those innocent(s) in Israel who get rockets landing on thier kids...
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=israel%20rocket%20attack&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbo=u&tbs=vid:1&source=og&sa=N&tab=wv&fp=6ba432fc873ada65
I have been done with these fucking freaks... DONE! I am just waiting for the rest of the Country to catch up to where I am.
"i am just waiting for the rest of the country to catch up to where i am."
Insanity has that effect...seek meds or lean into the plate and do the team humanity a favor, and take one for it.
Skippy...suggest .45 cal
"the business end of a multiple warhead"
and what happens when our business ends? It is a lot easier if you think of them as subhuman. That's the first rule of imperialism.
Don't misunderstand me. I don't justify those atrocities, but there are reasons and if you don't examine them then you can never resolve the problem. Just as you are taking the view you have, so have the Israelis and the Palestinians. Their families have been killed , and now they are born with a hatred of each other. The violence begets more violence. You can let your hatred rule your thoughts but it will accomplish nothing except more violence. Like any problem you have to get to the root of the problem before you can fix it. There is a lot of hatred against the U.S. by the Arabs and its not because they think we are decadent infidels as reported in the media, it goes way beyond that.
Maybe the kid wanted to be a patriot, so be it. Live like a patriot, die like a patriot. And try to get out of the way when the bullets start flying. Not one person on this thread has any idea what was going through that kids head - no one. For all you know, he charged head long into his personal glory. Whatever your cause - BE PREPARED FOR CONSEQUENSES. Over and out.
Ok, but 4 bullets through the head and 1 in the chest. WTF
A pattern like that would typically suggest that the victim really. stood. out.
I don't know the details, but unless he was armed that was way over the top.
Seasoned police often empty their mags at a perp when firing under adrenaline powered stress. This is FBI stats we are talking about. If you go to a concealed carry self defense course, you get a lot of real world stats about how actual real world shots-fired situations play out. Most people end up emptying their mags at an attacker and continue pulling the trigger for a little while to no effect. The untrained shooter will have sprayed bullets everywhere, but the heavily trained will generally have put a round or two center body mass and quite a few more to the head, if in close range. Tons double-tap plus headshot drills, over and over, under all sorts of conditions. Still, the adrenaline factor is damned near impossible to simulate, so the four or more to the head scenario could easily occur with a highly trained soldier in actual combat. For real.
you would know for you are james bond.
Why not use rubber bullets?
Fuck you JW n FL. I hope maggots infest your eyeballs.
Hey, that might be a good look!
Comments like these don't help.
Refute the position instead of spouting vitriol.
You may not agree with a position; illustrate why.
These forums should not devolve away from rational debate.
Too late.
I am Chumbawamba.
Can KSM give you the Danny Pearl love treatment?
Becuase some towel head got shot in a different Country?
Freedom of speech, gotta Love it!
I would hope that you are more of a patriot to the rest of America than this little tid bit allows for...
If I shoot an american citizen who happens to be attacking me with an iron pipe here in Dallas, does that make it a Big Deal? Does the asshole in question become a martyr? How it different if a foreign soldier defends himself in precisely the same way? In the Dallas shooting case it goes on page 27C of the paper, and I get a no bill the next day, and walk, pistol in hand with a case number engraved in it. In the Isreali soldiers' case it is a Big Fucking Deal, and the idiot asshole becomes a martyr.
For solid entertainment in that vein regarding Rachel Corrie, or St. Pancake as she is lovingly known in some circles, here is a great link:
http://armor.typepad.com/bastardsword/2004/01/i_cant_get_no_h.html
What a traitor you are. You twisted your words like a fucking crazy straw just so you could demonstrate how much your allegiances lay with a foreign country.
Why, fuck you. If the basic tenets of America decency don't jibe with your brand of hate then you're welcome to make aliyah so you can stop polluting the body American.
I hope someone very important to you dies in a way much more horrible than that which Rachel Corrie suffered. Someone you didn't even know yet you vilify her as if she were your personal nemesis. You're deranged.
I am Chumbawamba.
Solid entertainment? Go fuck yourself, you maggot.
What I prefer the best is how certain US citizens like to tell that some have a legitimate right to defend themselves, others dont.
In the first type, that is "shoot that fucker who set one toe on your lawn."
For the other, that is " dont defend yourself when you see armed men jump in"
People are equal in rights so say the US citizen.
If you boarded the guys boat in Dallas and he attacked you with a metal pipe then you shot him 4 times in the head and once in the chest, ah ya you would be tried for murder. Good analogy you just needed to put it in perspective.
I'm amazed you didn't get JUNKED at least 500 times for saying GOD BLESS AMERICA at least.
Makes me wonder how many of the commentors are living in Europe that are pro-Palestinian. Europeans hate Israel with a passion, remnants of Nazi Germany I guess.
Of course, the US is controlled by the Jews which is why they are pro-Israeli.
Strange fact though, most jews in the US are liberals and vote Democratic and hate Zionism.
Very strange paradox, the US is controlled by Jews that hate Israel and Zionism, but yet the US is pro-Israel because they're controlled by the Jews.
"Strange fact though, most jews in the US are liberals and vote Democratic and hate Zionism"
sure they are
The belt way is pro Israel because they pay for the whores like everyone else... not because anyone owns anyone... they lease, tax deductable.
http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=Q05
They are number 26 (http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/mems.php), on the top list of dollars to whores of the beltway.
Also it is the bible belt, and the Jews are the chosen people according to the bible which the Jews wrote.
Oh really?
"I'm just unsure of why my outrage-o-meter should peg on this."
Here's a tip: if you have to care about the minutiae of the kid's citizenship and/or whether his birthright was adequately reinforced given that he left the hallowed shores, then your outrage-o-meter is fucked to begin with.
The kid was on a boat taking relief supplies to some of the most benighted people in the world - people living through the same shit as their oppressors' forebears lived through in the Warsaw ghetto (the bulk of the supposed 'Semites' that we're not supposed to be 'anti-' are Eastern-European hovel-dwellers).
The Gaza blockade is illegal - at least as illegal as Saddam's annexation of Kuwait.
This kid was on a boat trying to take stuff to starving children who are living under military occupation - in a place that was bombed because their occupiers don't like the party they elected (Hamas WON an election). (I hate democracy, as a side note - but I hate all political life).
The kid was trying to do some small thing to ameliorate others' suffering, and some tax-eating sociopath put FOUR US-aid-funded rounds in his head.
Your outrage-o-meter has trouble with this how exactly?
Would you have found it this hard to figure out if the guy holding the gun was Iranian?
Jesus wept.
GT
Yeah - let's bring jesus in to the fray! You don't know what the motives were. On either side. Remember the old adage - "Truth lies somewhere in the middle." Move on.
Nicely put.
The "kid" was helping to supply the Hamas terrorists who even threw their own people from the tops of buildings if they were political opponents. The leader avowed that they love death. The kid died in love and achieved his objective. Same as suicide by cop.
duck and cover. You never know where a commie or a terrorist might be hiding. Some even disguize themselves as infants.
Is the Turks treatment of the Kurds, who outnumber the "palestinians" by a wide margin, any better, or is it actually much worse? Any thoughts?
Does it matter that Israel permits the free flow of actual humanitarian aid into Gaza daily? Yeah, about four times more aid than what was contained on the flotilla passes the checkpoint every day. So the flotilla was supposedly rescuing people with 1/4 day worth of "aid" that flows through in a single average day? Did they need hundreds of "activists" on board, or would they have better used all that space to fill the boats with, you know, substantial quantities of actual aid?
You need to research the items they are restricting and the amount of aid actually needed. They are restricting items that aren't related to weapons or weapon making . This is the reason that they refused to go through Israeli customs. As far as so many people being on the boat, it was a publicity stunt to bring world attention to the illegal embargo. They probably thought Israel would think twice before attacking in front of world wide coverage thus it was covered by the media well before their departure.
What does it mean to be an American? It was founded on an ideal that only resonates with what I guess is 30-40% of the population. Is being American a tribal identification or a principled one?
Clearly for the majority of US citizens it is blind tribalism replete with glaring double standards and narcissism. It is a tragedy really, your forefathers and founding principals were for a time the 'holy grail' of free minded peoples around the globe.... sadly not any more.
Reading some of comments I quiety wonder had these same standards been applied in your own historic situation if they might see it differently?
I.e What if instead of supporting the 'terrorist' citizens of the British colony fighting for their freedom, the Russian Tsar and French aristocrats decided to back / not resist the British empire and thus facilitate the complete blockade of the new world by the British? ... no guns, no ammo, no money = no sucessful revolution.
We would be shit on a dick, that's for sure.
But what group of humans aren't controlled by tribalism. Look around, we have nations, states, religions, cities, football (American and Soccer) teams, other sports teams, families, clubs, and any other type of paradigm that humans group to and rally around. It's the human condition to from alliances with people that are percieved to be of the same kin.
Even male chimpanzees in the wild go on war raiding parties, hunting down other monkeys to eat, or other males from different chimpanzee clans to kill and mutilate.
Its genetically ingrained.
When the first humans lived on the African plains, there was a need to form alliances, or tribes, to protect the women and children, and provide for the common welfare. Males could work together to bring down game on hunting trips, while the women could work together to collect the fruits, nuts, and vegetables.
Living alone in the wilderness is a dangerous business.
Tribalism is everywhere, for the good or the bad.
Bingo!
Here is what the state-enforcer-thugs did to the protester from Maryland.
Found via the In Case You Missed It RSS Feed.
She was injured protesting at a checkpoint! WTF was she expecting to happen?
The common-sense expectation that criminals will aggress against peaceful people does not excuse the act of aggression.
Kindly re-examine the look on the Palestinian woman's face who is holding the bleeding American girl (Who I believe was Jewish)...
I see grief, concern, and empathy for someone who is not of her nationality, race or religion.
Anyone who does not understand this is somewhat less than human in my honest opinion... that woman puts 90 percent of Americans and apparently many of the posters here to shame!