After reading this pandering rant from Fox News Columnist and consummate Hillary worshipper, Susan “put-him-in-the-tank” Estrich, I think I am gonna be sick. This is shameless, journalistic quackery. This, from the same political hack who gave us the unforgettable tank moment in 1988 on the way to squandering a 17-point lead to Lee Atwater and George Bush Sr.  Read more 

Lukery says we should keep an eye on this, and I agree.  Read more 

This makes me so fucking angry. How dare they?

rch 13, 2007
Members of the main pro-Israel lobbying group offered scattered boos to a statement by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that the Iraq war has been a failure on several scores.

The boos, mixed with some polite applause, stood in stark contrast to the reception House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) received minutes earlier. Most of the crowd of 5,000 to 6,000 stood and loudly applauded Boehner when he said the U.S. had no choice but to win in Iraq.  Read more 

A Quickie and then I’m out for a while:

AIPAC is not Israel, nor is it all “the Jews,” nor does it speak for a majority of Israelis or non-Israeli Jews.

There is going to be a lot coming out in the next couple of days relating to AIPAC, and I want to make this distinction clear. I won’t tolerate sloppy formulations that fail to take this into account. Just as the Bush government doesn’t speak for me, or Dobson for true Christians, AIPAC is not the voice of Jews and Israel. Let’s all keep that in mind.
Some reading.

Despite the timid coverage of Dick Cheney’s recent speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee 2007 Policy Conference, America’s violent-tongued Vice President gave a speech that all but accused the Democratic party of plotting to commit treason and kill American soldiers. Somehow, the thinly-veiled threats and violent vocabulary of Cheney’s horror-soaked speech was missed by CNN when it described the Vice President as “chiding” Democrats.  Read more 

I’ve got a lot to say about AIPAC, but today is move in day so I really need to unpack. Suffice it to say that AIPAC’s influence is wide and deep, and that a Democrat has been sucked into this investigation surprises me none. Short version of what I think: it’s long past time for an open, honest, critical discussion about how much influence Israel has on the government of the United States. Being friends is one thing, dragging each other down the Neocon/Likudnik vortex of total disaster in the Middle East is another. Time:

The case is a spin-off of a probe that has already led to charges under the Espionage Act against two AIPAC lobbyists, whose case is still pending, and to a 12-and-a-half-year prison sentence for former Defense Intelligence Agency official Lawrence A. Franklin. Franklin pleaded guilty a year ago to three felony counts involving improper disclosure and handling of classified information about the Middle East and terrorism to the two lobbyists, who in turn are accused of passing it on to a journalist and a foreign government, widely believed to be Israel. The two lobbyists, who have denied any wrongdoing but were dismissed by AIPAC in April of 2005, were indicted on felony counts of conspiring with government officials to receive classified information they were not authorized to have access to and providing national defense information to people not entitled to receive it.  Read more