Finkelstein on Gaza in Context

Norman Finkelstein has an excellent article that puts the invasion of Gaza in context of forty years of Israeli history. Highly recommended.

A Look Back at the Good Old Days of the Miracle Economy

More Ridiculous Sexism from PETA

I don't take the animal rights movement seriously. There is something profoundly disgusting about a movement that consistently values the lives of chickens above those of humans. This is one more example. The article's subtitle says it all: "The animal-rights group doesn't want people to eat meat, but they don't mind treating women like it."

Mark Ames Agrees with Me on SWPL

Those who strive can be saved; those who are content to chortle at themselves cannot. There is more honor and courage in the smelly, fat carcasse of a science-fiction nerd than in this vast horde of people who are proud not to take themselves too seriously. We say to you again: yes, even Chad Castagana is more worthy than you, chroniclers of wasted life. We say to you: The road to Hell is paved with old issues of The New Yorker.

< / capitalism >

Human costs of an economic meltdown.

Taibbi on Friedman

If Thomas Friedman had any sense of honor, integrity, or human decency, he surely would have committed seppuku by now. But since there is a void in Mr. Friedman's soul where those qualities reside in the rest of us, he continues to degrade the written word with machine-like consistency. Fortunately, Matt Taibbi has his tanto sharpened. Enjoy.

Iceland's Government Collapses!

Huzzah! The ruling Independent Party in Iceland has been forced to resign by massive protests in response to the country's economic devastation. The Social Democratic Alliance, which had been a minority partner in the government, looks poised to win the early elections scheduled for May 9th.

There are also massive protests in Eastern Europe, where many countries face the same kind of debt trap more commonly associated with the Global South. All this coming in the wake of the continent-wide protests over Israel's assault on Gaza. Which came after the "Greek Intifada." Just a few months ago the victory of the fascists in Italy and the routing of the Left in the London mayoral elections had many convinced that continent was on a rightwards drift. Things are looking up.

Does Anyone Else Find the Right Wing's Hard-on For Jack Bauer Creepy?

National Review's Jonah Goldberg goes in for a hug.

I don't get it. I guess Kiefer Sutherland is OK looking, but he's certainly no Christian Bale. Yet the right wing seems to have a dual obsession with him. First, he really puts the dill in their collective pickle. Second, they seem to think that he, a fictional character, is the best possible argument for torturing people. It reminds me of those people in college who, when I told them I was a socialist, would tell me that Lord of the Flies had shown why I had it all wrong. I liked to respond that Star Trek had proven Marx was right.

So today we have the Wall Street Journal crying JB at Obama's executive order restricting intelligence service interrogation techniques to those specified in the Army Field Manual. The Journal sniffs that the CIA would "now be required to give prisoners gentler treatment than common criminals. The Field Manual's confines don't even allow the average good cop/bad cop routines common in most police precincts." The Journal seems willfully unaware of what goes in some police precincts, but that's beside the point.

The article's main argument is same tired ticking bomb scenario. Alfred McCoy dissected the scenario expertly in 2006, and the argument hasn't changed since then. Here McCoy recounts the rather improbable sequence of events involved in the scenario:

—First, FBI or CIA agents apprehend a terrorist at the precise moment between timer’s first tick and bomb’s burst.

—Second, the interrogators somehow have sufficiently detailed foreknowledge of the plot to know they must interrogate this very person and do it right now.

—Third, these same officers, for some unexplained reason, are missing just a few critical details that only this captive can divulge.

—Fourth, the biggest leap of all, these officers with just one shot to get the information that only this captive can divulge are best advised to try torture, as if beating him is the way to assure his wholehearted cooperation.

David Rose has updated McCoy's argument recently in Vanity Fair. Rose interviewed a whole host of intelligence operatives, who uniformly told him that torture did not produce good intelligence. In fact, it tended to produce bad intelligence that caused investigators to waste resources following. Of the much hallowed waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one Pentagon analyst said “K.S.M. produced no actionable intelligence. He was trying to tell us how stupid we were.”

The WSJ article is useful in one respect, however: it disproves the self-righteous laments from Democrats who angrily shake their fist and cry "This never would have happened but for NADER!" Observe:

An anecdote former Clinton counterterror czar Richard Clarke recounts in his memoir "Against All Enemies" is instructive. In 1993, White House Counsel Lloyd Cutler was horrified by Mr. Clarke's proposal for "extraordinary rendition," where our spooks turn over prisoners to foreign countries like Egypt so they can do the interrogating.

While Mr. Clinton was still chewing his fingernails and seemed to side with Mr. Cutler, Al Gore arrived late to the meeting. "Clinton recapped the arguments on both sides," Mr. Clarke writes. "Gore laughed and said, 'That's a no-brainer. Of course it's a violation of international law, that's why it's a covert action. The guy is a terrorist. Go grab his ass.'"

British MP on Israel and Palestine

One of the best statements by a politician I've heard.

Getting to Know Dr. King

It's Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and, for the first time I can remember, the holiday isn't being greeted with an avalanche of cant. Yahoo News ran a good story about Dr. King's frequently forgotten commitment to economic justice, and CNN has an article interviewing SCLC leaders and King's sister. The right wing, meanwhile, which never wastes an opportunity to hijack King's legacy, has been curiously silent, with the exception of Michelle Malkin, who wants to paint King as an enemy of teacher's unions (right. he supported sanitation workers but drew the line at educators.)

Clearly, this has something to do with Obama's election, which has helped make clear the drastic changes in American racial attitudes over the past few decades. Viewing this sea change, I am reminded of Marx's appropriation of Hamlet: "Well grubbed, old mole!"

Given the reprieve we've been granted from right wing idiocy about King, now is a perfect time to familiarize yourself with the radical Dr. King.

Brian Jones - The Martin Luther King They Won't Celebrate

FAIR - Martin Luther King and Affirmative Action

Kai Wright - Dr. King, Forgotten Radical

Brian Kelley - Unfinished Business: Martin Luther King in Memphis

Stevie Wonder also has something to say:

Epic Fail in Zionist Apologetics

Elizabeth Wurtzel's piece today in the Guardian is the single worst defense of Israel I've read this time around. I'm actually glad she's a Zionist, because frankly I'd be embarrassed to have someone writing this drivel for my side. Apparently the only possible reason people are upset with Israel is antisemitism (the "purest antisemitism since the Nazi era," in fact). Just read the piece, and revel in the fact that Israel's defenders have reached rock bottom, intellectually (they've been there morally for decades).

Zionist Thuggery in the US

And you thought Zionists only hated Arabs. Turns out they're more than willing to use violence against American Jews who speak out against them. Adam Shapiro, founder of the International Solidarity Movement, has received death threats against him and his family from the Jewish Defense League. JDL threats are not to be taken lightly, as they have a history of following through with them.

While Haaretz and other Israeli outlets raise a tremendous hue and cry over every mean thing an Arab says about Israel in Europe, they are silent on the very real crimes of their supporters.

Max Blumenthal: My Kind of Asshole

After seeing Max Blumenthal's excellent coverage of the pep-rally for ethnic cleansing in New York, I decided to look him up on youtube and see what else he's done. Turns out the guy is hilarious. Lots of very funny stuff skewering the right wing.


However, he does occasionally get too big for his boots. Watch Nader stuff Blumenthal's blame game down his throat. (Yes I know Ralph gets wierd around immigration)

Civilizing the Brutes in Afghanistan

Ethiopian Troops Leave Mogadishu

A glimmer of good news amidst the carnage: Ethiopian troops are finally leaving the capital of Somalia. The Ethiopian occupation has been incredibly brutal, overthrowing the only stable government the country had seen in decades and causing more than a million Somali's to become refugees. Though there has been fighting between al-Shabaab, the main resistance group, and other groups fighting the occupation, al-Shabaab controls the entire country outside Mogadishu, and now that the Ethiopians have left will probably take that quickly as well.