the bonds of the Book, the ties of the soul

Eleven minutes later:

It is a clash of visions, a great ideological struggle. On the one side are those who defend the ideals of justice and dignity with the power of reason and truth. On the other side are those who pursue a narrow vision of cruelty and control by committing murder, inciting fear, and spreading lies.
This struggle is waged with the technology of the 21st century, but at its core it is an ancient battle between good and evil.
[...]
In truth, the men who carry out these savage acts serve no higher goal than their own desire for power. They accept no God before themselves. And they reserve a special hatred for the most ardent defenders of liberty
[...]
There are good and decent people who cannot fathom the darkness in these men and try to explain away their words. It's natural, but it is deadly wrong. As witnesses to evil in the past, we carry a solemn responsibility to take these words seriously.
[...]
Leaders who are accountable to their people will not pursue endless confrontation and bloodshed.

think about what we have witnessed in our own time

GWBush Addresses Members of the Knesset 16.May.08

in recent years, we have moved beyond finger-pointing:

We understand and acknowledge that the Government of Vietnam and the Vietnamese people are concerned with the perceived negative health effects of exposure to Agent Orange and its contaminant, dioxin. At the same time, the United States does not recognize any legal liability for damages alleged to be related to Agent Orange. We continue to stress that discussion of the effects of Agent Orange needs to be based on credible scientific research that meets international standards.
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Examples of our ongoing bilateral cooperation on Agent Orange include:

Formation of a Joint Advisory Committee composed of U.S. and Vietnamese government officials and experts to review possible joint activities...

Scot Marciel, Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
US State Department
ScoopNZ

it can happen again if enough people with enough good will and enough sense of morality...

our only hope for true peace and security

Underneath the western skies

the shelling of the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad by a U.S. Army tank on April 8, 2003

When Golden Shield is finished, there will be a photo in those databases for every person in China: 1.3 billion faces.

Who you gonna believe?

Visiting US President George W. Bush paid a 60th anniversary tribute to Israel as a democracy challenged by "terrorists" on Wednesday just before a rocket attack wounded 14 people in a shopping mall.
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Bush called Israel a "thriving democracy" which "like other democracies, is being challenged by extremists and terrorists."

Yahoo/AFP 14.May.08
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Me, or that terrorist?

A report published last summer by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs found that almost 40% of the West Bank is now taken up by Israeli infrastructure -- roads, settlements, military bases and so on -- largely off-limits to Palestinians. Israel has methodically broken the remainder of the territory into dozens of enclaves separated from each other and the outside world by zones that it alone controls (including, at last count, 612 checkpoints and roadblocks).
[...]
Although Olmert says he believes in theory that Israel should give up those parts of the West Bank and Gaza densely inhabited by Palestinians, he also said in 2006 that "every hill in Samaria and every valley in Judea is part of our historic homeland" and that "we firmly stand by the historic right of the people of Israel to the entire land of Israel."
[...]
What room is there for the Palestinians in this vision of Jewish entitlement to the land? None. They are regarded, at best, as a demographic "problem."
[...]
Even among its citizens, Israeli law grants rights to Jews that it denies to non-Jews. By no stretch of the imagination is Israel a genuine democracy:
It is an ethno-religiously exclusive state that has tried to defy the multicultural history of the land on which it was founded.
To resolve the conflict with the Palestinians, Israeli Jews will have to relinquish their exclusive privileges and acknowledge the right of return of Palestinians expelled from their homes. What they would get in return is the ability to live securely and to prosper with -- rather than continuing to battle against -- the Palestinians.
They may not have a choice. As Olmert himself warned recently, more Palestinians are shifting their struggle from one for an independent state to a South African-style struggle that demands equal rights for all citizens, irrespective of religion, in a single state. "That is, of course," he noted, "a much cleaner struggle, a much more popular struggle -- and ultimately a much more powerful one."

Saree Makdisi/counterpunch 13.May.08
emph. add. ed.

They add that a tourism model based on huge resorts and golf courses is also unsustainable.

crankenstein:

Federal authorities charged that a methamphetamine laboratory was operating at the nation's largest kosher slaughterhouse and that employees carried weapons to work.

The charges were among the most explosive details to emerge following the massive raid Monday at Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa.

JTA 13.May.08

not a whisper but a desperate shout, a shout that made desperation thrilling, a new way of singing the song so undeniable...

...like looking at Hell as a fractal. You zoom in, and there’s more Hell. Zoom in again, more Hell. Zoom in again, GPS tracked students. Zoom in again, breakfast stick.

"I have a better idea", Aya said.

The first blow is against truth:

Among those who were extradited Tuesday were several top leaders, like Salvatore Mancuso, Diego Murillo, alias "Don Berna" -- the heir to late druglord Pablo Escobar -- and the commander of the paramilitary militias on the north coast of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Hernán Giraldo.
Iván Cepeda, spokesman for the Movement of Victims of Crimes of the State (MOVICE), complained to the press that the extraditions would "seriously affect" the rights of survivors, and said they were aimed at keeping the paramilitary leaders from continuing to provide the names of military, political and business accomplices and allies.

Constanza Vieira - Helda Martínez/IPS 13.May.08

He got richer faster than anyone else in history
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Sheldon’s got it fixed
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Freedom's Watch
Freedom’s Watch Bears Watching
via Jim Lobe
founders, funders and key personnel:

• Sheldon Adelson
• Bradley A. Blakeman
• Matt Brooks
• Ari Fleischer
• Richard J. Fox
• Mel Sembler

In case you're keeping track each one of those guys is Jewish.
But then so's Jim Lobe.
Mel Sembler, well oh well. Mel Sembler is one sick son of a bitch.
He gets his own set of links.
Sembler:

Ambassador de Sade
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Sembler, founder of Straight Inc, taken down by Montel Williams
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They put stuff up my butt
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Sembler founded Straight after a congressional investigation determined that the last detox program he oversaw, The Seed, was using mind-control tactics similar to those used by North Koreans during the Cold War.
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Tough love has become a billion-dollar industry

Adelson - Sands, Vegas
Lansky - Sands, Vegas
Lansky:

Asked why all the gangsters were tolerated in Cuban casinos, the U.S. ambassador Earl Smith reportedly explained, "it seems to be the only way to get honest casinos". Lansky's days in Cuba, however, were numbered when Castro took power in Havana. In October 1960 the Riviera Hotel and 165 other American enterprises were confiscated and nationalized.

Lansky:

Even Al Capone realized they were more powerful than he.
In remarks attributed to Luciano, he once explained, "I learned a long time before that Meyer Lansky understood the Italian brain almost better than I did. . . . I used to tell Lansky that he may've had a Jewish mother, but someplace he must've been wet-nursed by a Sicilian." Luciano often said Lansky "could look around corners," or anticipate what would happen next in underworld intrigues, and that "the barrel of his gun was curved," meaning he knew how to keep himself out of the line of fire.

Lansky:

The Lanskys and Traficante organized a pipeline of Peruvian cocaine from Cuba to the US with an associate named George Zarate.

Somewhere in all this is the reason and cause drugs are so viciously illegal and at the same time so readily available; the cause of the constant unquestioned hysterical condemnation of the Cuban revolution; the reason for US nurturing and maintenance of the fascist Columbian government (and recent extradition of key witnesses in Columbian corruption cases to the US , where they can be silenced); and the war in Iraq.

I could have supported a lousy treaty and everybody would have went, `Oh, man...'

In the face of climate chaos and a deepening world food crisis, the Gene Giants are gearing up for a PR offensive to re-brand themselves as climate saviors.

"They've taken away all the witnesses," she said Tuesday.

A happy slave is the biggest threat to freedom

Settlements at this juncture are not helpful:

And, speaking in a kind of code Jews readily understand, Obama also made sure to mention that he was fond of the writer Leon Uris, the author of Exodus.

the idea of returning to a homeland
...
my starting point when I think about the Middle East is this enormous emotional attachment and sympathy for Israel, mindful of its history, mindful of the hardship and pain and suffering that the Jewish people have undergone
...
if you’ve gone through the Holocaust, then that does not offer the same sense of confidence and security as the idea that the Jewish people can take care of themselves no matter what happens
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One of the things I loved about Israel when I went there is that the land itself is a metaphor for rebirth, for what’s been accomplished
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I think I learned that partly from Jewish thought, that your actions have consequences and that they matter and that we have moral imperatives
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My position on Hamas is indistinguishable from the position of Hillary Clinton or John McCain.
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that’s something they’re hopeful about. I think that’s a perfectly legitimate perception as long as they’re not confused about my unyielding support for Israel’s security.
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When I visited Ramallah, among a group of Palestinian students, one of the things that I said to those students was: “Look, I am sympathetic to you and the need for you guys to have a country that can function, but understand this: if you’re waiting for America to distance itself from Israel, you are delusional.
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JG: What do you make of Jimmy Carter’s suggestion that Israel resembles an apartheid state?
BO: I strongly reject the characterization.

You will not see, under my presidency, any slackening in commitment to Israel’s security.

Goldberg/Atlantic 13.May.08
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I'm sorry to offend any readers who still find sexual metaphors distressing but this is Obama with Goldberg's dick in his mouth.
The raging arrogance behind Goldberg's questions, not in them but working them up out of the Semitic zeitgeist toward expression, is beyond metaphor for me, I literally don't know how to describe it except technically.
I wish for a chorus of mutilated children, women frozen in the postures of grief, men whose faces have gone white with horror, all around these two scamming opportunists.
Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba Naqba.

350.