Government Wastes Billions of Taxpayer Dollars in the Post-9/11 Security Feeding Frenzy

This is a disgrace. But hey, so long as the word “security” can be applied, who cares about billions of dollars going down the drain with nothing to show for it? That has NOTHING to do with so-called “out of control government spending.” No, the real problem is poor people who milk the system with […]

Israel’s Claim That Terrorist Attacks Came From Gaza Called Into Question

I’ll admit to feeling sort of vindicated by this story in the independent Israeli mag +972 after being verbally taken to the woodshed by a liberal American Rabbi on Twitter yesterday who felt the need to school me about how Hamas was responsible for the terror attacks in Southern Israel last week. All I was […]

Gaza: And So It Begins

It really began yesterday with a massive Israeli air assault but it has continued throughout the day and night today. The tragic murder of eight Israelis has brought out the full force of the Israeli military. While it goes without saying that Israel has a right to defend itself, this seems less like self defense […]

Israel Doesn’t Seem to Know Who is Responsible for the Terrorist Attack

But despite this, Gaza is being pummeled. from The Real News Network: From War in Context: The Kalashnikov is the most widely available weapon on the planet. According to Jane’s Infantry Weapons 2009/2010 this rifle is in use in over 70 countries. An estimated 20% of all firearms available worldwide are of the Kalashnikov family. […]

Washington Post Ombudsman Defends Jennifer Rubin’s Post About the Norway Attack

What is the point of having an ombudsman if all they are going to do is get defensive and rationalize the nonsense that gets printed by their writers/bloggers? So much for accountability. I won’t bore you with a total re-hashing of the controversy, which I wrote about at length when it happened. I was one […]

Planned Parenthood in Texas Attacked with Molotov Cocktail & No One Seems to Care

Just another day in the War Against Women. A Planned Parenthood health facility in Texas was targeted for attack last week and no one really seems to have taken much notice. Luckily no one was at the clinic at the time because the attack happened at night: McKinney police are investigating a case of arson […]

The National Security State: If We Keep This Up The Terrorists Win

The events of 9/11 have spawned an understandable focus on security, however, the extent of fear-mongering, Islamophobia and ongoing curtailment of civil liberties, along with the meteoric rise of an unwieldy national security state which operates like a secret government within a government, is at odds with the principles and values of representative democracy. The […]

Anders Behring Breivik’s European Declaration of Independence 2083

This is the first chance I’ve had to actually go read some of Anders Breivik’s, aka Andrew Berwick, 1500 page manifesto against Islam, assimilation, multiculturalism and liberalism. Breivik is of course responsible for the terrorist attack in Norway. You can take a look at it here. The reason I went over and read some of […]

It’s Only Terrorism If The Perpetrator Is Muslim *updated*

Yesterday I wrote about how the media’s response to the attack in Norway changed dramatically after it was revealed that the perpetrator was a White, right-wing Islamophobe who was an avid reader of American right wing blogs. What was initially described as an obvious terrorist attack soon became the work of a “lone wolf” motivated […]

The Israeli Right Has Totally Lost It

At least J-Post lets their racism hang right out there in the open. I’m not even going to excerpt it. Basically, they want to draw attention away from the fact that the Norway killer, Anders Breivik, was a far, far right Islamophobe and Zionist and to the importance of his message- that, in their view, […]

*updated* Neocons & Islamophobic Right Not So Interested in Oslo Bombing Now That It’s Clear It Was Not Perpetrated by Islamofascists

Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up. I have been crazy busy at work and at home and was barely able to watch/listen to/read that much about the tragic terror attack in Oslo. But one of the things I did initially hear is that it must be the result of a Jihadi movement. Now that […]

Some Rare Good News: Unprecedented Security Cooperation Between Palestinian Authority and Israeli Defense Forces

When we briefly put aside all the rhetoric, propaganda and finger pointing on both sides, there have definitely been improvements in the relationship between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. One thing that helped improve the relationship was the death of Yasser Arafat, who continued to play both sides- he said publicly what people in the […]

Terrorist Attack in Mumbai

India is reeling after a coordinated terror attack involving a coordinated triple bombing in Mumbai. Details are still trickling in but over twenty people have been killed and over 100 injured: …The bombings came just months after peace talks resumed between India and Pakistan, which New Delhi has blamed for past attacks. Prime Minister Manmohan […]

News Round-Up

On this day in history, July 10, 1509, theologian John Calvin, a key figure of the Protestant Reformation, was born France. Some news bits: ~Elizabeth Warren for Senate? ~The GOP has predictably rebuffed the President’s so-called Grand Bargain, which is really a Grand Capitulation to corporate interests on the backs of the middle class, so […]

Rep. Gary Ackerman Wants You To Know That All Disagreement with Israel is Antisemitism

Yup, that’s the low bar that’s been set by our government when it comes to debate about the policies of our closest ally. From J-Post: …Our gathering is focused on the twin challenges of delegitimization and regional change. Despite the rhetoric, I don’t believe that increasing attacks on Israel’s right to exist and efforts to […]

How Israel Uses It’s Total Control of Access Points to Prevent Palestinian Rallies

We’ve often discussed the impact it would have if Israeli Arabs began to rally in support of their rights in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. I’ve asked some Palestinians about this and their general sense is that this doesn’t happen for several reasons including a) more than 10 Arabs standing in a group will get arrested […]

U.S. Militarism and Women’s Rights

This is a subject that I’ve been interested in for a long time. I’ve always had a hard time rationalizing certain feminist principles with the United States’ hawkish foreign policy. How can we as a country proclaim our unyielding support for women around the world while at the same time advocating military solutions to almost […]

The Politicization of Terrorism and the Role of the Neocons

It’s pretty obvious by now that whom we deem a “terrorist” is largely political. You would think after some of our disastrous foreign policy blunders such as arming the Mujahadeen, aka Al Qaeda and Bin Laden, during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, being best friends with Saddam for a period when it suited our economic […]