Joe's Scratchpad

Meet the Frankensteins: Bachmann, Beck, and Limbaugh

As you know, today’s Republican party has become a deflated hulk of its former self. Sadly, its soul is now firmly planted in the old Slave states, and when I see some of those hate-filled GOP rallies on TV I can’t help thinking that they look eeirly like the southern lynch mobs of old.

But, hey, that’s what happens to a party that deliberately drives out its moderates in the quest for ideological purity. As result, the worst elements of our society now constitute the core of what used to be called ‘the party of Lincoln.’

With that in mind, here’s as good a description of today’s GOP as you’ll find anyplace:

“Out of the corpse of the republican party, a monster has been created. It contains limbs from all the stinking, most rotten parts of the conservative movement—the white supremacists, the anti-abortion zealots, the leaders of the homophobic groups, the xenophobes, the would-be domestic terrorist militias, and the extreme “Christian” fundamentalists. Its heart pulses to the relentless beat of hatred…”

Read the whole thing:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/11/6/801577/-Meet-the-Frankensteins:-Bachmann,-Beck,-and-Limbaugh-(updated-w-picture)

I Think Kay Graham Might Be Spinning...

I don’t know if any of you Washington Post readers out there have noticed, but ever since former publisher Kay Graham passed in 2001, the paper has made a subtle turn to the right. This is especially noticeable on it Op-Ed pages which often seems a refuge for the pro-war neocon types most responsible for our disastrous Iraq war inanities and our unbalanced policies in the Middle East.

What I’m writing about here has fortunately been made note of by the prolific legal blogger Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com.  Here’s a snip of his take on the WP from a just a few days ago:

The Post today has two former Bush officials, one former Reagan official, two right-wing politicians, a Fox News neocon, the CEO of America’s largest oil and gas producer, a defender of the right-wing Honduran military coup leaders, and one liberal columnist.  That overwhelming right-wing presence on the Post Op-Ed page is anything but unusual …

The Post is obviously free to publish whatever it wants, but, wth some very rare exceptions, its Op-Ed page under Fred Hiatt now really is the leading outlet for neoconservatve and related right-wing advocacy.  It is one of those outlets typically counted as part of the “Liberal Media” by right-wing self-victimizers and their media amplifiers, yet The Post’s claimed devotion to airing a “wide range of views” is scarcely more credible than Fox News’ “fair and balanced” slogan.

Read the whole thing:

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/11/06/washington_post/index.html

_______________

Folks, I think I’ll drop old Fred a little note.

Joe

Ho-Hum...

America, stop sucking up to Israel

By Gideon Levy

Before no other country on the planet does the United States kneel and plead like this… Did anyone in Washington consider begging Saddam Hussein to withdraw from occupied territory in Kuwait?

But Israel the occupier, the stubborn contrarian that continues to mock America and the world by building settlements and abusing the Palestinians, receives different treatment…

As long as Israel feels the United States is in its pocket, and that America’s automatic veto will save it from condemnations and sanctions, that it will receive massive aid unconditionally, and that it can continue waging punitive, lethal campaigns without a word from Washington, killing, destroying and imprisoning without the world’s policeman making a sound, it will continue in its ways…

Israel of 2009 is a spoiled country, arrogant and condescending, convinced that it deserves everything and that it has the power to make a fool of America and the world. The United States has engendered this situation, which endangers the entire Mideast and Israel itself. That is why there needs to be a turning point in the coming year - Washington needs to finally say no to Israel and the occupation. An unambiguous, presidential no.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1124928.html

For FOX Sake!

In the clip below, Jon Stewart neatly summarizes the truth about FOX.  Namely, that it’s not NEWS!

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-october-29-2009/for-fox-sake-

UN Report: War Crimes Committed in Gaza

Bill Moyers recently talked with Justice Richard Goldstone, who headed up the controversial UN Human Rights Council investigation into fighting in Gaza between Israel and Hamas last year. The report accused both the Israel Defense Forces and Hamas of war crimes, but its harshest language was reserved for Israel’s treatment of civilians in Gaza.

Here are some excerpts:

BILL MOYERS: Your report, as you know, basically accuses Israel of waging war on the entire population of Gaza… I mean, there are allegations in here, some very tough allegations of Israeli soldiers shooting unarmed civilians who pose no threat, of shooting people whose hands were shackled behind them, of homes, hundreds, maybe thousands of homes destroyed, left in rubble, of hospitals bombed. I mean there are some questions about one or two of your examples here, but it’s a damning indictment of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, right?…

RICHARD GOLDSTONE: Well, I saw the destruction of the only flour-producing factory in Gaza. I saw fields plowed up by Israeli tank bulldozers. I saw chicken farms, for egg production, completely destroyed. Tens of thousands of chickens killed. I met with families who lost their loved ones in homes in which they were seeking shelter from the Israeli ground forces. I had to have the very emotional and difficult interviews with fathers whose little daughters were killed, whose family were killed. One family, over 21 members, killed by Israeli mortars. So, it was a very difficult investigation, which will give me nightmares for the rest of my life…

BILL MOYERS: Those particular incidents, what makes actions like that a crime in war? …

RICHARD GOLDSTONE: Absolutely.

[…]

BILL MOYERS: Our state department has come right out and said, your findings are unfair toward Israel.

RICHARD GOLDSTONE: Well, you know, those are statements it’s impossible to respond to, because there’s no detail… if we if we made mistakes in those are pointed out, I would be the first person to admit it.

Watch or read the whole interview:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10232009/watch.html