Woody--Tokin Librul's blog

"Dershowitz, and others like him - Joe Lieberman, et al - do not speak for Jews..."

2007-11-11T11:29:56-05:00

Take for example the latest Alan Dershowitz column in the Wall Street Journal. Aside from getting the new meme on Mukasey about how the Democrats are beholden to MoveOn.org - echoed by meister Rove, President Bush, Dick Cheney, and the right wing propaganda machine as if one ring ruled them all - Dershowitz actually writes this:

“There are some who claim that torture is a nonissue because it never works—it only produces false information. This is simply not true, as evidenced by the many decent members of the French Resistance who, under Nazi torture, disclosed the locations of their closest friends and relatives.”

This statement defies logic. Even if in some instances Nazi tactics worked, why would anyone endorse them for any reason, especially a Jewish man? Dershowitz, and others like him - Joe Lieberman, et al - do not speak for Jews, nor do they speak for Israel. In fact, the far right regime that has co-opted Israel and the US both is not representative of Judaism or Christianity for that matter. Whatever or whomever it is they represent, it is not the Israeli people or the American people. It is as though a multi-national organized crime syndicate has taken over both countries and is using the cover of religion as a shield against criticism.

Fine, Larissa. I’ll buy that…exactly when the majority of ~~Jews/Israelis~~ the Druze PUBLICALLY ANNOUNCE THEIR REPUDIATION OF/REVULSION WITH the Dershowitzs and Liebermans (to say nothing of the Doug Feiths, Paul Wolfowitzs, Richard Perles, the Elliot Abrams, the Podhoretzs, pere et fils, the Kristols, et al).

Exactly the way I’ll accept the ’honest charity of Christians” when the expel the Fred Sheltons, Pat Robertsons, James Dobsons, et al.

These religious fux cannot have it both ways: Either the fundie fux (~~Jewish~~ Druze or Xian) are members of their ’confessions,’ or they are not. If they are not, then the ’leaders’ of the ’responsible sects’ need to disavow their bug-shit crazy ’bretheren’ and join the SECULAR community of citizens in abhoring the shitwhistling fucknozzles in their ranks who work for Theocracy, Armageddon, their own Rapture, and the 2nd Coming.

If It Worked For Goering, It's Good Enough For Dershowitz

2007-11-08T12:10:22-05:00

I keep returning to Jon Schwartz’s TinyRevolution:

If The Nazis Could Make It Work, Why Not Us?

This is an unusual rhetorical gambit from Alan Dershowitz:

Marginal Democratic candidates certainly benefit from moving to the left on national security issues, but serious candidates—candidates who want to have any realistic chance of prevailing in the general election—must not allow themselves to be pushed, shoved or even nudged away from a strong commitment to national security.

Consider, for example, the contentious and emotionally laden issue of the use of torture in securing preventive intelligence information about imminent acts of terrorism…

There are some who claim that torture is a nonissue because it never works—it only produces false information. This is simply not true, as evidenced by the many decent members of the French Resistance who, under Nazi torture, disclosed the locations of their closest friends and relatives.

You know, I was on the fence there about torture, until Dershowitz pointed out it really worked well for the Nazis! Color me convinced!

Is it fair to ask if Dershowitz has become the Jewish Limbaugh?

Didja Know Yahoo Ratted Out A Chinese Dissident?

2007-11-07T19:46:21-05:00

S’true…

Top Yahoo officials on Tuesday were forced to defend their company’s role in the jailing of a Chinese journalist. They ran into withering criticism from United States lawmakers who accused them of complicity with an oppressive Communist regime.

“While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies,” Tom Lantos, Democrat of California and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said angrily after hearing from the two executives, Jerry Yang, the chief executive, and Michael J. Callahan, the general counsel.

The journalist, Shi Tao, was sent to jail for 10 years for engaging in pro-democracy efforts deemed subversive after Yahoo turned over information about his online activities as requested by Chinese authorities.

Mebbe we shouldn’t be surprised, or be too judgmental, though, considering the close cooperation of the giant US Telecos in the Bush regime’s illegal, unauthorized data mining through the correspondence and communications of American citizens. Obviously, if they’d do it for the Chinese, they’d do it to us, doncha think?

Our Friend Ruth's Mom Has Had A Stroke, And She Called Me

2007-11-07T17:58:38-05:00

to ask that I inform you all, her friends, that she will be absent from our deliberations for a while, as she is expecting hourly the call that informs her she has become an orphan. We are NEVER to old to be orphaned…
If any of y’all can post on eschaton (alas and alack, i cannot), please convey the news to her many friends there too, that she’s well, but encumbered with death, and may be away for a while.
Join me in wishing the best for her mom.

Those Clenis Years: "New Dems" & The CitiCorp Sub-Prime Debacle

2007-11-07T09:00:36-05:00

From the lapidary “TinyRevolutions dot com”:

William Greider explains how the Citibank catastrophe comes to us courtesy of our beloved former president. We must elect Hillary so we can experience even more massive financial disasters.

Dept of Dollars-to-Donuts: The Busheviks will threaten not to relinquish power unless the new Regime

2007-11-05T17:43:39-05:00

(probably, but not necessarily, Dems) grants ’em blanket, retroactive immunity for the high crimes and misdemeanors for which they could be brought to the Bar.

By the fact that the new regime will temporize and babble about “looking forward, not back,” you will know the fix is irremediably IN.

DiFi Vote On Mukasey Explained: Her Hubbie's Company NEEDS Bushevik Approval For Proposed Buy-Out

2007-11-05T11:20:28-05:00

“Senators Feinstein and Schumer gave Mr Mukasey the green light after asking him what he would do if Congress passed a law giving explicit definitions of torture.” Inexplicable? I think not!

URS Corp. increased its offer Monday to buy Boise-based Washington Group International.
The San Francisco-based company said it will now pay Washington Group shareholders an offer worth $97.89 a share based on the closing price of URS shares Friday.

Shares of WGI closed at $96.15 Friday.

When the two companies postponed the Oct. 30 shareholder vote on the buyout, analysts speculated that URS would come back with a higher offer.

Opponents of the buyout have said the original offer didn’t provide enough money for WGI shareholders given the strong performance of the company.

DiFi’s (third) husband, Richard Blum, is one of the major investtor/owners of URS, which will need federal approval for the merger/take-over.

Addendum: Another piece of the puzzle, by Glenn Greenwald for CommonDreams in Sept…

There are 68,300 'page hits' on "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007."

2007-11-04T15:34:32-05:00

The measure, sponsored by Jane Harman (DINO , Ca) passed the House by a vote 404-6, and probably 68,000 of those sites are critical of the act for the apparent loopholes it opens up in the Constitutional protections to security of property and/papers from the prying eye of the Regime. The following is one such exegesis, from the folks at ThePeoplesVoice dot org. It is a bit hyperbolic, as posts on this site are wont to be, but I think it raises the necessary issues. Plug “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007” into your favorite search engine if this is unsatisfactory. The salient issue is, indeed:

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed HR 1955 titled the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. This bill is one of the most blatant attacks against the Constitution yet and actually defines thought crimes as homegrown terrorism. If passed into law, it will also establish a commission and a Center of Excellence to study and defeat so called thought criminals. Unlike previous anti-terror legislation, this bill specifically targets the civilian population of the United States and uses vague language to define homegrown terrorism. Amazingly, 404 of our elected representatives from both the Democrat and Republican parties voted in favor of this bill. There is little doubt that this bill is specifically targeting the growing patriot community that is demanding the restoration of the Constitution.

Like I said, a little hyperbolic. But, if you couple this bill, and its companion in the Senate, with the National Security Directives the Bushevik Cabal signed into action last summer (NSID 51?), making the president the sole authority and power in the case of a national emergency, it’s hard to escape the feeling that these folks aren’t really planning to leave in Jan, ’09. This measure would be an exceptionally effective way to repress resistance to such an outcome…

Barak Obama Wants To Unify Us...

2007-11-04T10:44:42-05:00

But at what price?

“Uniting The Country” is the generic phrase which permeates the national campaigns this year…

But I wonder if I (or ’we’) want to BE ’unified’. I’m realllllly ambivalent about it…

Unified around what? GWOT/TWOD? Persecuting ’illegal’ immgration? Health INSURANCE for all? Homophobia? Racialism?

Well, yeah, I could unite against those things. But to ’unify’ the country as a whole, wouldn’t we on the left have to be prepared to accept some part of that hateful, fascist agenda in the name of “unity?”

I could unify/find solidarity with OPPOSITION to the agenda of the global expansion of militarism and ’free trade,” etc…

Sher a lot of folks who could get behind that. But it wouldn’t unify the country, cuz there’s enormous shit-pots of money to be made by NOT unifying around opposition to corpoRat metastacization. The people who stand to get their hands on all that money won’t ’unify’ with the people who won’t get any of it.

Opposition to increased civilian surveillance? Sure; but how do you “unite” with folks who want MORE surveillance, less free speech, less dissent, less heterodoxy in the public sphere?

I have no desire at all to compromise principle in the name of spruious, specious “unity.”

It strikes me that the folks extolling the merits of “unity” just wanna make sure the status quo ante survives and is strengthened, and with it (not coincidentally) their power and influence…I don’t want to ’unify’—I WON’T ’UNIFY’—with the people who wish me dead or imprisoned for my opinions.

That’d just be stupid.

What If The Good Samaritan Had Had To Ask For Papers Before Offering To Help?

2007-11-03T09:17:33-04:00

It’d be a whole ’nother Bible, wouldn’t it?

So you gotta wonder where a whole State full of the most prodigiously, proudly, persistently “Christianist -religious” folks you can imagine got the idea behind the Oklahoma Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act of 2007 which went into effect yesterday. Any person in Oklahoma who provides a ride anywhere to anyone not a legal resident is liable for a 1-year stint in the pokey.

I’ll let The John Birch Society, one of the original sponsors of the measure, explain:

On November 1, a new illegal alien bill became law in Oklahoma, and it is one of the toughest in the country. Earlier in the week, on Monday, an opposition group delivered 1,100 signed petitions to the governor’s office. On Thursday, local JBS leader Clark Curry delivered nearly 2,700 signed petitions he had collected at the 2006 Oklahoma State Fair in support of “no amnesty.”

“The people of the great state of Oklahoma have taken a giant step forward to protect the critical public resources available to legal, taxpaying citizens by passing the Oklahoma Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act of 2007. Now they want to see it carried out,” Curry stated.

The new law helps to keep illegal aliens from receiving public assistance by requiring proof of citizenship or valid visas before being able to get government identification, such as a driver license. Those charged with a felony or with driving under the influence will have their citizenship verified or the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will be notified. The law also makes it illegal to transport or harbor illegal immigrants. Public employers and their subcontractors have to register with a Basic Pilot Program to verify the work authorization status of all new employees.

The law reads:

The State of Oklahoma finds that illegal immigration is causing economic hardship and lawlessness in this state and that illegal immigration is encouraged by public agencies within this state that provide public benefits without verifying immigration status. The State of Oklahoma further finds that illegal immigrants have been harbored and sheltered in this state and encouraged to reside in this state through the issuance of identification cards that are issued without verifying immigration status, and that these practices impede and obstruct the enforcement of federal immigration law, undermine the security of our borders, and impermissibly restrict the privileges and immunities of the citizens of Oklahoma. Therefore, the people of the State of Oklahoma declare that it is a compelling public interest of this state to discourage illegal immigration by requiring all agencies within this state to fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities in the enforcement of federal immigration laws. The State of Oklahoma also finds that other measures are necessary to ensure the integrity of various governmental programs and services.

“While there are those that claim we cannot deport all the illegal aliens,” Curry said, “it’s clear to the state of Oklahoma that we won’t be catering to their needs any longer and in the resulting environment, they will merely deport themselves.”

I commend you to the site to cast your eyes upon the smiling author of this deathless prose.

P.S.: In the interests of honesty and full disclosure, I hereby admit to having spent 30 wonderful years in Oklahoma, from 1994 to 2000.

When IS "The Perfect" The Enemy of "The Good?"

2007-11-02T10:25:12-04:00

The Lieberman-Warner “Environmental Sell-out to REEELLY BEEG Corporate Polluters” bill got through its first markup in committee yesterday. Kate Shepard on Tapped today noted:

Yesterday afternoon, John Kerry held a conference call with bloggers that covered a range of topics, from international accords to probably the hottest domestic topic, the Lieberman-Warner bill, or “America’s Climate Security Act.”…Kerry seemed to think that worries about passing weaker legislation now and getting stuck with it are unfounded. We can pass a plan now and strengthen it later, he says, as support for action on climate change grows among citizens and businessfolk

.Just out of curiosity, can somebody provide examples of bills—legislation, yaknow?— which were regarded as too weak at their passage, and which were subsequently STRENGTHENED in the public interest—that is, their regulatory properties were INCREASED—later at the expense of the interests which assured their weakness in the first place?

Wars Without Enemies Without End, Amen: "Smoke'em Ifya Gott'em" Edition

2007-10-31T20:07:27-04:00

Sen./Candidate Chris Dodd, in DemDebIX, last night addressed the issue of marijuana decriminalization more candidly, and more honestly than is usual in these increasingly censorious times. He described how criminalizing marijuana use filled the prisons, clogged the judicial system, and severely sanctioned a behavior that is less toxic than at least one, and probably many “legal” drugs. God knows Dodd’s remarks were an island of sanity in a torrent of craziness where marijuana is concerned. But I am very skeptical that any sanity can or shall attend further discussions of decriminalization for a number of reasons.

Too Many Jobs, Too Much Pork, Too Much POWER depends On TheWarOnDrugs (TWOD) to imagine that those who benefit, profit, and prosper because of it will surrender their perqs.

Like its younger sibling, GWOT (though domestically, rather than internationally), TheWarOnDrugs (TWOD) is an amazingly useful program. It is a staple in the repression of people of color: pot busts put a blot on your record in the “serious” universe. One way to keep ’undesirables’ out of the work place is to disqualify ’em from the get-go, nest pas? It doesn’t matter HOW you test, it’s WHO you test. Pot convictions can disqualify a person from voting. Very useful for disenfranchising potentially disruptive voters.

The prison guards’ union in California has prevented reform of the ’three-strikes’ and ’mandatory sentencing’ laws—the victims of which are overwhelmingly drug(and mainly pot)related charges—ferociously lobbying state lawmakers to defeat them because it would mean a loss of jobs if the reforms passed and fewer people were incarcerated, necessitating fewer guards to manage them.

California also has chosen to build prisons instead of universities. Which is suggestive of the the trajectory of anticipated social mobility and utility for the foreseeable future.

Thom Hartmann frequently repeats the statistic that there are nearly a MILLION home invasions every year by police, the MAJORITY of which are prompted by nothing more sinister than the report of a family-crop.

Police forces and municipalities prosper from the appropriation of drug-related property.

The drug-testing industry has only really gotten off the ground in the last decade or so, but it already constitutes a huge, wealthy factor in TWOD, when every kid in America who wants to participate in sports must submit to tests in which the primary object is to discover marijuana and steroid use.

I admire Dodd for his candor, and abominate the others for their caution. But likely as not, TWOD will endure as long as the GWOT…endlessly!

Max Blumenthal: Bravest "Mensch" In The Village Marches Into Den Of Theocracy, Returns

2007-10-31T13:44:12-04:00

He ventured out among the ’faithful’ at last week’s Values Voters conference, sponsored by the vicious child-abuser James Dobson’s Focus On The Family franchise, and actually got into the grill, a little, of the Christianist Fascisti. He returns hale and hearty, and with more priceless video. At least this time he did not find himself unceremoniously escorted from the place. It’s a really dirty job (he had to get within arm’s length of Phyllis Schlafly & James Dobson on the same day, without a change of clothes)
Go here for the viddie.
Go to Huffpost for the article.

Have Congressional Dems Sold The Country Down The River

2007-10-29T20:23:42-04:00

to have their ’turn’ at unlimited power?

1) Does the Pope wear Prada?
2) Maybe they’ll be better at it?
3) How EVER could you IMAGINE something like that?
4) You Tell Me?

Correct Me If I'm Wrong: Isn't "Collective Punishment" Forbidden By Int'l Accords?

2007-10-26T11:28:20-04:00

Richard Boudreaux reports for The Los Angeles Times: “Israel approved Thursday a plan to start punitive disruptions of the Gaza Strip’s scarce supplies of electricity in response to rocket attacks from the
Palestinian territory…. Since Israel’s government began debating the sanctions, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and numerous international organizations have warned against what they say is unfair collective punishment.”

But IOKIYAI…(Via TruthOut.Com)