Fatah Increases Attacks on Hamas

In recent weeks, the Fatah-led government in the West Bank has sharply increased the pressure on the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip. Since Hamas' defeat of Fatah's abortive coup attempt last summer, the two governments have engaged in a series of tit-for-tat aggressions resulting mainly in the detention by security forces of the opposition's loyalists.

Recently, however, Fatah has markedly increased the pressure on Hamas. First, there was the bomb on a Gaza beach a month ago which killed several high-ranking Hamas military figures. Though no conclusive evidence has surfaced linking the bomb to Fatah, there is reason to believe that the West Bank government was at least sympathetic to thsoe who planted it. Egyptian Labour Party leader Magdi Hussein pointed out that "When news of the beach blast was initially broadcast on PA television in Ramallah, it was accompanied by triumphant music and patriotic anthems as if it were a victory."

Following this, Fatah ceased its regular shipments of Palestinian passports to Gaza. Though Fatah and Hamas are officially not talking, they have continued to work together on some bureaucratic issues like the distribution of passports. Withholding the documents from Gaza residents has effectively intensified the Israeli-led siege that Gazans have suffered under since they dared elect Hamas in Feb. 2006. Though Fatah spokesmen blamed the cessation of shipments on a lack of paper, West Bank residents are still receiving their passports.

In the last few weeks, Fatah has moved against Hamas-associated charities and hospitals still operating in the West Bank. PA Minister of the Interior Abdul-Razzaq Al-Yehia ordered his forces to take over "all Islamic institutions, including charities, boarding schools, orphanages as well as youth and sports clubs." PCHR Gaza also reports that included in the raids were a number of independent printing houses in the West Bank. The attempt to dissociate Hamas from the infrastructure of civilian relief in West Bank is clearly an attempt to remove a major source of its popularity and consolidate Fatah's hold over the West Bank.

All of this occurs, disgustingly, with the death of the great Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish in the background. An initial supporter of the PLO, Darwish left the organization in 1993 over its participation in the Oslo Accords. After Darwish died, Abbas and Fatah held a state funeral in which they attempted to use his legacy as a bolster for their own policies of Israeli appeasement. Darwish's death, as Sumia Ibrahim points out, is in many ways symbolic of Palestinian politics' inability to forge the unity for which Darwish fought.

Punk

Living for the City

Taliban begin 'surge' against NATO forces

The New York Times explains how this latest and fiercest offensive by the Taliban is putting 2008 at a pace to be the deadliest year for NATO forces.

Also, "For the third month in a row, more US troops have been killed in Afghanistan than in Iraq."

Wow. I've always thought that Iran would be the next walloped by US military intervention, however these articles tend to suggest that Pakistan might be the next victim. I mean, I guess this IS the center piece of Obama's foreign policy: punitive strikes against guerrillas in Pakistan and a surge in Afghanistan.

Another one bites the dust... another US-backed stooge, that is

"Snehal Shingavi explains why the U.S. could no longer keep its man Musharraf in charge of Pakistan."

Gaging the recent referendum in Bolivia

Tom Lewis argues that Evo Morales' recent victory in the recall referendum is anything but a reason to celebrate for the Bolivian Left. When Lewis breaks down the numbers, tit is undeniable that the Right is gaining steam. A victory of the right-wing separatist movement (which would completely eviscerate the country's natural resources, the major engine of its GDP) would be a huge blow to the living standards of the already heavily impoverished country.

The New York Times and the End of White Guilt

Having just moved to Newark, New Jersey, I recently found myself confronted at a newsstand with this week's New York Times magazine's Profound Quandary: "Is Obama the End of Black Politics?" Since Obama secured the nomination, this kind of article has been appearing in every pesudo-intellectual magazine in the country.

I loathe these writings with an intensity I find hard to describe. What makes them such, vile, foetid pools of intellectual sewage is the barely contained celebratory air over the supposed death of the "Civil Rights Generation"-style politics (i.e. holding America responsible for its racism) present in every one of them. The NYT piece is merely the culmination of an underground party that's been going on in White Middlebrow America for the last few months, the invitation to which reads "The Guilt is Over!" (The card, it should be noted, is signed by Barack himself.)

The piece itself is unremarkable in its banalities. Lots of quotes from conservative Black mayors, like Newark's own Cory Booker, exalting their own supposed novelty and relevance. A profound ignorance of the history of Black politics (seemingly a job requirement for being hired by the NYT). And of course, a great deal of feigned chin-scratching over "what this all means now."

One item that jumped out at me from the article was author Matt Bai's tortured attempt to demonstrate Black economic progress. In a classic case of the proof disproving itself, Bai writes "According to an analysis by Pew’s Economic Mobility Project, almost 37 percent of black families fell into one of the three top income quintiles in 2005, compared with 23 percent in 1973." First of all, who ever uses a category as utterly arbitrary, and confusing, as "top three economic quintiles" unless they are trying to pull a fast one? I can picture Bai at his desk, working late into the night, trying desperately to find some articulation of the statistics that can make Black economic progress seem impressive. Second, and most importantly, the stat, while appearing to suggest something like a twofold growth in Black income parity, actually reveals the tremendous gap that still exists. The top three economic quintiles should represent 60% of the population. Yet Bai's example shows that Black folks constitute almost half of the proportion they should of these brackets. Hardly something to celebrate.

Glenn Ford of the Black Agenda Report does an excellent job taking apart the specific logic of Bai's article, so I'll point readers there for more. In closing, I just want to note the article's denkverbot on any of the actual issues facing Black America today. The Black Gulag isn't mentioned. The mortage companies' swindling is no where to be found. Likewise for Katrina. And Black poverty is whitewashed. These issues are the real reason that, when I walk down 125th street in Harlem, I see street vendor after vendor selling shirts juxtaposing Dr. King and Obama. Black America doesn't celebrate Obama because they think he's going to leave Civil Rights politics behind, but because they hope he will complete them.

Mark Ames on Georgia

Mark Ames, one of my favorite writers, has good piece in the Nation last week on the invasion of South Ossetia. He does a good job of providing some of the crucial context that's missing from the media's ebullient celebrations of Georgian nationalism, such as the long history of South Ossetian oppression. He goes a bit overboard, however, in his attacks on McCain, which, while hilarious, ignore Obama's similar response to the fighting. He has, as the Chicago Sun-Times notes, stepped on board the "Blame Russia"* train along with the rest of the ruling class. Even more disturbing is this interview with Obama's main man on foreign policy,Zbigniew Brzezinski, who, in a daring simile never before attempted by a ruling class politician, compared his enemy to Hitler. Brzezinski is an old hat at Russia-bashing, going back to his days in the Carter administration when he helped engineer the bloodbath in Afghanistan in the eighties. Ultimately, while Obama may be immeasurably more well-spoken than his fossilized opponent, he is no less dangerous when it comes to projecting American power.

*To be sure, Russia has imperialist ambitions for Ossetia and ultimately Georgia, but that hardly means the United States does not.

*UPDATE*
Ames has a newer piece on the Nation that is equally valuable. I particularly like his description of Saakashvili:

While Bush and McCain speak of Saakashvili as if he's a combination of Thomas Jefferson and Nelson Mandela, he's seen by his own people as increasingly authoritarian and unbalanced. Last year, Saakashvili sent in his special forces to violently disperse opposition protesters in the capital city, followed by a declaration of martial law. He sacked the opposition television station (partly owned by Rupert Murdoch), exiled or jailed his political opponents, and stacked the courts with his own judges while removing neutral observers, leaving even onetime neocon cheerleaders like Bruce Jackson and Anne Applebaum feeling queasy. Hardly the image of the "small democratic nation" that everyone today touts.

A good antidote to the know-nothing delusions of that blonde ass-hat on CNN Glenn Beck.

Fallout for NATO in Georgia

As Georgian and Russian military leaders toss recriminations back and forth regarding who first violated the French-brokered ceasefire, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has taken a page from Karzai and Musharraf's book and petulantly blamed his imperial backers for his own misfortune. Saakashvili told CNN that Western leaders had "failed to analyze Russia's intentions" before it invaded Georgia and "are partly to blame" for the current situation. He continued ""The response has not been adequate. Not only those people who are committing all those atrocities are responsible, but those who don't react to that, I think they also share responsibility." This little display of snotty sub imperial whining has made me wonder what the fallout for NATO is going to be here. As StratFor argues, this war did not shift geopolitical relations; rather, it revealed the already established shift of US impotence and Russian ambitions. Given this, I wonder to what degree Saakashvili will try to turn this against his former allies. It seems he is quite interested in using the Americans' current situation to his advantage as much as possible, but how much room does he really have? DEBKAfile is promising an analysis of "Why Saakashvili stirred the Pot" that I'm very much looking forward to, as the future of the conflict in the Caucuses right now seems very unclear (at least to me).

NATO-Israeli involvement in the Georgian conflict

Here's a great article from Global Research that explains the rationale behind Israel, US, and Nato backing of Georgia in this conflict and provides a very helpful discussion of the geopolitics of energy at stake.

Olympic Pwnage

Continuing our round-the-clock coverage of the Olympics, I want to draw attention to the Dave Zirin's smackdown of Jonah Goldberg on the 1968 games' Black Power salute. I won't waste time describing it. Just read it.

Blackface is not satire

Alright. I need to start the discussion about this crap movie now. I'm sure everyone has heard of the new Ben Stiller/Jack Black/Robert Downey Jr comedy 'Tropic Thunder' that's coming out in the near future where RDJ plays an actor who takes a blackface role. This is not satire. Everyone who thinks otherwise needs to see Spike Lee's Bamboozled, stat. I imagine that the controversy on the Left over this movie will be quite loud. I'm guessing that Stiller will be held up as a brilliant satirist - which he firmly believes. Fpr example:

"It's such a touchy area, " he said. "It had to be clear: What we are satirizing is the character and his loss of identity. So we have a black actor there" -- Brandon T. Jackson, who plays the braggadocios rapper-actor Alpa Chino in -- "calling [Lazarus] on every moment to be perfectly clear about our point of view. We never wanted it to be OK."

Let's see if Spike Lee anticipated this kind of tried and true bullshit excuse, shall we?


This sambo crap needs to be called out for what it is: straight up racism.

Here's a montage of blackface in US history from the end of Bamboozled and more fuel for why Chuck D had it right about Hollywood:

Has liberalism made a comeback?

Rock and Roll

Bob Dylan - Isis


Warren Zevon - Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner

The United States Military is An Apparatus of Rape

GAO reports that up to 40% of women in the military have been sexually assaulted by their fellow servicemen.