Vladislav Davidzonthe art of doing the impossible – thoughts on the great turning

Relativity, LA Times Style (http://www.ifamericansknew.org/media/relativity.html)
Alison Weir (Also in Electronic Intifada and CounterPunch) – Friday, February 25, 2005, 9:30 p.m.

Well, I just got hung up on again. This time by an editor on the Los Angeles Times foreign desk. He didn’t give me his name.

I had called and attempted, as politely as possible, to give him a correction for the story on the Times’ website tonight. This will probably be their front-page lead news story tomorrow morning.

The trouble is, their headline and lead paragraph are just plain wrong. And now, of course, they’ll stay wrong in the paper tomorrow.

The headline proclaims: “Palestinian Suicide bomber Shatters Calm of late.” The lead sentence then goes on to state that this bomber “shattered a months-long period of relative calm…”

The fact is, however, that the truce and this “calm” were shattered long before this. The last suicide bombing against Israeli civilians was Nov. 1, 2004. It took three Israeli lives. Since that time, while Israelis have basked in “relative calm,” 170 Palestinian men, women, and children have been killed.
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Ward Churchill — Press Release — Monday, January 31, 2005

In the last few days there has been widespread and grossly inaccurate media coverage concerning my analysis of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, coverage that has resulted in defamation of my character and threats against my life. What I actually said has been lost, indeed turned into the opposite of itself, and I hope the following facts will be reported at least to the same extent that the fabrications have been.

The piece circulating on the internet was developed into a book, On the Justice of Roosting Chickens. Most of the book is a detailed chronology of U.S. military interventions since 1776 and U.S. violations of international law since World War II. My point is that we cannot allow the U.S. government, acting in our name, to engage in massive violations of international law and fundamental human rights and not expect to reap the consequences.

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Wow. This is one beautiful document… about freaking time.

Resolution on University of Wisconsin Investments and Social Responsibility
Adopted by UW-Platteville Faculty Senate, January 25th, 2005

WHEREAS, American principles, values, and traditions emphasize the right of the individual to basic freedoms without regard to ethnic origin or religious affiliation and support the protection and extension of these freedoms to all peoples around the globe, and where the systematic denial of these freedoms prompted the University of Wisconsin System to take action by divesting its holdings in Apartheid era South Africa, in accordance with investment policy 78-1;
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Condi’s bizarre justification/dismissal of the problems in Iraq in her Senate hearings today:

“So far I have not seen the Iraqis or for that matter the Afghans make compromises as bad as the one in 1789 that declared my ancestors to be three-fifths of a man.”

Umm…. okay. Apparently as long as modern oppression isn’t exactly the same as good old fashioned slavery, everything’s peachy.

This incredible interview with Ralph Nader came across my e-mail box today… well worth a read.

Reflections on the 2004 Election
An Interview with Ralph Nader
by Merlin Chowkwanyun
www.dissidentvoice.org
December 30, 2004

Ralph Nader ran as an independent candidate in 2004 for US President. Unlike both John Kerry and George W. Bush, Nader unequivocally opposed the US invasion of Iraq. During his candidacy, Nader embraced single-payer health care and tackled numerous issues ignored by the two major parties’ candidates, including the proliferation of the racist prison-industrial complex, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and increasing concentration of corporate power. If the Democrats continued to adopt “Bush-lite” policies, argued Nader, they might well lose the election by alienating their traditional base.

Nader’s run earned harsh scorn from Democrats and many of his former supporters in 2000, such as Medea Benjamin, Norman Solomon, and Jeff Cohen. Yet in light of emerging post-election commentary partially attributing the Democrats’ loss to the party’s tepid economic policies, many of Nader’s campaign arguments now seem utterly prophetic in hindsight. In a recent article blasting John Kerry’s hasty election concession, Harper’s Magazine publisher Rick MacArthur expressed regret over not voting for Nader.
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This came through my e-mail today… (by Carl J. Mayer)

1) I will never, ever, let so-called progressive leaders and corporate Democrats tell me I have to vote for a pro-war candidate to end a war and achieve peace.

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I think this speaks for itself…

“WASHINGTON — FBI agents have lodged repeated complaints of physical and mental mistreatment of prisoners held in Iraq and Cuba, saying in reports that military officials have placed lighted cigarettes in detainees’ ears and humiliated Arab captives by wrapping Israeli flags around them, according to new documents released Monday.”

Group Says FBI Ruse Used at Guantanamo

RHR is a somewhat well known Israeli organization supposedly fighting for human rights. Recently they published a somewhat nasty letter condemning the Presbyterians for beginning a divestment process against companies involved in the brutal Israeli occupation. This is my response to that letter.

Dear Rabbi Ascherman,

You probably do not remember me, but we stood side by side at a protest near Budrus last spring. I had volunteered as a human rights activist with the ISM at the time, and it was an absolute honor to have met you and I know that your organization does much good work.

I am however writing because I am tremendously disappointed by your organization’s response to the divestment campaign being waged in the US, starting with the Presbyterian church’s divestment. Words cannot begin to describe my disappointment when I saw your organization’s statement on the Presbyterian Divestment. Read the rest of this entry »

Good morning Vietnam! Err I mean VietIraq! Err Viraq? Good morning Iraq!

Once again. Did we not tell them so? Did we not protest by the millions in the streets, saying that the very things happening in Iraq now (house-by-house fighting, a quagmire) will happen?

US Isn’t Winning Against Iraqi Insurgents, Agencies Warn

I like this bit: “A theocratic state in Iraq “is not exactly what the United States or the Europeans had in mind before the war,”"

So it looks like our new Secretary of State Condi-Betray-All-That-You-Are Rice is going to be pushing us into a cold war posture against Russia.

Brilliant. Just brilliant. Really, can’t the apocalypse wait?!
Seeking Putin’s Soul