The Cheney-Bush Administration case for the War on Iraq is a blazing gun, not in the shape of a mushroom cloud but in the form of big lie.

Bill Moyers program " Selling the War" aired last night on PBS is perhaps the best documentary ever seen on America's media and its collusion with Washington and without doubt an indictment of the independence of media as guardians of the debate over public issues, especially with important issues such as going to war.
The American media did not fair well in Mr. Moyers program in fact the documentary showed the American media is in bed with the White House and the Cheney-Bush Administration and colluding with the administration as it planned the seeds in the public mind of going to war for the wrong reasons. This kind of conspiracy to hide if not seek the truth is a direct contribution factor in the murder of over 3,500 of our finest soldiers and a direct contributions to robbing the nation of over $ one trillion dollars that could have been put to good use for the benefits of citizens of this country.
One can see how the promoters of the war" the Tel-Aviv mafia" having succeeded in getting America into a war retreated behind microphones in their safe offices and on media circuit while sons of daughters of Americans where fighting a war they did not know what for and for whose benefits. Certainly the sons and daughters of these promoters where not fighting in Iraq but sitting in some Ivy league of living in kibbutz in Israel or even fighting in the Israeli Defense Forces.
The documentary showed the real fear felt by major media if it failed to toe the Cheney-Bush administration line as it tried to make the case for the war against Iraq and against Saddam. As Dan Rather said in the documentary, one need not wait for a memo from the top telling to go soft on the administration position when recognizing the media has all of its future and fortune in the hands of the White House and US Congress.
Bob Simon of CBS and the Night Ridder where the only exception to the herds of sheep that toed the administration line as it sought to make the case for the war. They were the only ones to raise some questions, not enough, but never the less did raise and questioned the administration case. All the rest went along and played dead to the administration when they should know better.
Mr. Pincus of the Washington Post described this administration as the most savvy and manipulative of the media of all previous administrations yet he forgot to mention that it is also the most stupid and corrupt of all administration and that the truth will always come out even if there is ten thousand Carl Rove or Bill O'Reilly.
It is too bad that such icons of the American media as the New York Times and the Washington Post did not live up to their standard of commitment to seek the truth and challenge the administration on its propensity to lie. Both succumbed to the leaks planted by the administration and then where used by senior members of the administrations, the likes of Dick Cheney to recycle the story and confirm what the administration already leaked. Both failed to go one step further and search for the truth as the administration and its many NeoCons pundit were pushing hard to sell the war to America, a war they chose not send their sons and daughters to.
It is so hard to believe how the American media could become a suckers fool for this administration when all of the evidence was overwhelming that the administration did not have a case for the war on Iraq, and not only allowed and gave the administration a venue for its case but actively engaged in selling the war, when little research would have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, Americans and Iraqis.
One can see the very well scripted sales message as it is delivered by Dick Cheney, George Bush, Condy Rice and Colin Powel, not to mention the scripted statements and declarations of the likes of Bill Crystal, Charles Krauthammer, William Safire, George Wills, Richard Pearl as they lead the marketing campaign to sell their stupid ad senseless war where the only loser are the poor brave American soldiers who had to die so these people can continue with their Sunday media pundit circles collecting fat checks while hundreds of thousands of people are dying and while this administration is burning over a $ trillion on its war.
One has to raise serious questions about the independence of the American media where it is looking more and more like a third world country media heavily induced and directed from the top either by its owners or by the government.
One also has to raise the culpability of the American media and the role it played in the death of thousands of our soldiers and the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and the almost total destructions of an entire country not to mention bankrupting our treasury. When any one of those within the administration and within the circles of NeoCons and within the media accepts the responsibility, even a partial responsibility for leading us to war that should never happen.
Failure of the American media to call Lyndon Johnson a liar too the lives of fifty thousands of our soldiers who died in Vietnam and with hundreds of thousands injured for life. How many more of our soldiers have to die until the American media wake up to its responsibilities and challenge this administration and make amend for failing the American people? And when the American media will revert to its commitments to independence and to simply have the courage to question those in power. With a congress that has failed us at the most critical junction in our history, we need a courageous media to call the government bluff. It is our only hope.

Abdullah Gul for President. Perhaps it is the Turkish military that has to take its caps off when entering the presidential palace.

Quoting from today's New York Times article written by Sabrina Tavernise, regarding the on going debate in Turkey of the forthcoming selection of a new president "Mr. Gul's candidacy goes to the heart of the secular-religious debate, because the presidency is such a revered symbol with real powers-he is commander in chief and has a veto. Turkish military leaders in the past have remarked that they would refuse to visit the presidential palace if a woman in head scarf were living in it"
This is the real debate and the real issue with Turkish secularist and the military who have defined Turkish secularism as a way to deny the very nature of Turkey as a state where the majority of the population is Muslims.
It is one thing to be secular and it is another thing to take secularism to the point of denying the citizens the right to express their faith and value system.
The military in Turkey have been the guardian of "secular" Turkey in the same way the "Mullahs" of Iran are the guardians of Iran Islamic Republic. Both parties appointed themselves as the guardian of the state, making sure the state is a defined through their own eyes. It is not the nation that counts it is their privileges that matters, preserving that interest at all costs.
In Turkey, women with traditional headscarf are forbidden from entering any governmental buildings and forbidden from entering public universities. A Turkish-American woman was elected to the Turkish parliament was refused the right to take her seat and was not sworn in because she was wearing headscarf.
Turkey like Iran both are doing their best with the first defining secularism in complete denial of the people faith, tradition and value system while the later is refusing to acknowledge the fact that people and citizens have a varying degree of commitment to traditions or Islamic life style.
Turkey takes secularism too many steps toward total denial of the rights of people to choose what they wear and the right to exercise their religion and values without the state denying them full access to its institutions. As if secularism is a form of National Socialism like that of Germany where only members of the Nazi party had full access to the state and its institutions. Perhaps Turkish secularist like women in mini-skirts to suite their own taste of fashion designs. There is nothing wrong with secularism as long as it recognizes and accepts that people have certain religious and traditional value system that shape their private and public behavior and value systems. Even a secular country like the US with separation of church and state many if not most of its laws and constitutional value systems are imbedded in religion and the believe in God. With both mini-skirts living in harmony with headscarves.
Secular Turks and especially the military are trying to preserve the most restrictive form of secularism which is denial of religious values and beliefs. As if secularism is the religion of the state and as if belief in secularism is a condition of membership n the state. One has to ask the question why a mini-skirt is accepted as a fashion while secularist denies Turkish women the right to wear a head scarf. Perhaps it is time for secular Turkey to accept both the right of the mini-skirt and the head scarf as a private choice not a state regulated national dress code. Attaturk was not very successful when he mandated that Turks not only change their traditional dress but the letterings of their language. Turkish military leaders must not think they are the guardians of secular Turkey, but must think of themselves as professional soldiers leaving the people with the right to define their own value system. The Turkish military leaders are no different than Iran's Mullahs who made sure they write their own selfish and personal interest in the country constitutions. I am often asked the questions of my preference between a "secular" state and an "Islamic" state and my answer always was and will be " I want to live in secular state where my rights as a Muslims are fully respected and not defined by my faith rather than live in an Islamic state that define my rights as citizen only through my faith and consequently denying people of other faiths full rights and citizenship" Perhaps Turkey should and can learn from the American model of a "secular" state where people value systems and faith or lack of it are fully respected and this protection is imbedded in the constitution. There are no reasons for a Muslim, a Jew or a Christian or Hindu or Atheists not fully exercising their rights and value systems in a secular state, but not the Turkish model. It is time for both Iran and Turkey to redefine what a secular or a religious state is all about.
Abdullah Gul, no doubt will make a first class president and his wife with the headscarf will also make a first class first lady. Perhaps it is the Turkish military that have to take their hats off when entering the presidential palace in honor of its resident, President Abdullah Gul and his wife Hayrunisa.

As Israel celebrates its 59th birthday, the Palestinians are having a tough time managing and bring under control a run away ministry

No one can deny, least not me that the Jews and their leadership did a much better job at finding and establishing the state of Israel than the Palestinians and their leadership was able to deal with the catastrophic result of the creation of Israel and its aftermath on the Palestinian people.
It is true that the world Jewish community pulled together and was able to get the best and brightest and enlist them in the service of a Zionist cause that succeeded in the creation of Israel and with the subsequent expulsion of more that 700,000 Palestinians. The world Jewish community by hooks and by crooks was able to enlist the support of key leaders and key states and enlist them, together with their world wide economic and financial resources and with a well armed militia and terrorist organizations was able to win their war of independence over a people that for the most part did not know what was going on and for the most part led by a most incompetent and intellectual inept leadership of the time. Yes, the Jews succeeded because they knew what they were doing and succeeded because they have accountable leadership and we failed because we did not have the kind of leadership that was a match for the Zionist leadership at the time. Yes the Jews were damn good at what they were doing and they succeeded while the Palestinians failed.
59 years later and the Palestinian people and the leaderships are not much better than they were in 1948. While Israel is celebrating a garrison state with perhaps the most ruthless army in the world, it was also able to become an economic power house attracting some $14 billions in foreign investment last year while it waging its most criminal war against the people of Lebanon, and with some of the best and well known corporations leading the world in science and technology. The Palestinians are having a tough time managing and bringing under control a runaway ministry full of lose guns and with so many ambitious small time thugs masquerading as colonels and generals, as if they have won the Battle of the Al-Alamain.
One could not help but compare Ben-Gurion with Arafat. While Ben-Gurion made sure he attracted the best of Jews and gentiles to support his drive for the establishment of the state insuring not only its survival but that it thrives as well, No one cold deny that many committed and talented Palestinians joined the cause for liberation, Arafat attracted for the most part not the best and brightest, but the mediocre where loyalty counted for every thing. This policy of Arafat continued even after Oslo where many of those parasites returned with him to run a mini-state for the occupation, and they have shown they are as inept at running the state as they did in Beirut and Tunis for over 40 years. While Ben-Gurion made sure he has a state operating like a state within one minute from his declaration of independence, Arafat and his PLO had 40 years to prepare for such a day when they can run an independent state and they have proven they were ill prepared not only to run a state but were and are ill prepared to even manage a department. While Ben-Gurion made sure he attracted the best brains to serve Israel, Arafat and the PLO made sure that only those who were out to rob and fleece were invited to join a fledging Palestinian Authority that is till today riddled with corruption and incompetence.
With hundreds of thousands of talented Palestinians in all fields, we did not see mass migration back home join and build a nation. All leaderships and key position in the new authority was given to loyalist whose only qualification they kissed his ass ad feet and said yes to his every wish and ever challenge his many wrong policies and ill advised missteps. The same remain true now as it was in the days of Arafat.
One has to raise even more questions as to why after all these 59 years the Palestinians are not closer to freedom and independence, with the priorities on finding funds to run inefficient and badly managed departments and with no priorities on ending the occupation.
In over 40 years of PLO leadership we did not see much improvement in education or health care let alone preparedness for that day when we will sit down with the Israelis and seek a final settlement. Non of our organizations and institutions have the tools nor the talent to address all of the issues of exiles, properties, wrongful use of stolen properties, war crimes and restitutions for the more than 750,000 where were jailed by Israel at one time or the other. After 40 years we do not see a vision for that future state that may come one day. After 40 years and with hundreds of thousands dead and with more than $ 30 years of funding over the years, there is no support for a total accounting for all that happened in the last 40 years and there is no calls for bringing the leadership past and present to account for its actions and failures and also for the billions of missing funds.Perhaps as a first step to redeem ourselves as people we need to clear out act and we need to put the interest of the nation and people above the interests of every one. We need to make sure that the Diaspora people are involved in all decisions and to make sure that the Diaspora Palestinians not only well represented at the table supported by the best and brightest ( Palestine Agency/Palestine Documentation Center), and that all Palestinians share in the formulation of a vision for the new state, if and when it comes, rather than rely on a leadership that after 9 years of trying is unable to reform one single ministry with over some 70,000 undisciplined gun carrying militia without loyalty to the nation and the cause but loyalties to a bunch of thugs and mafia like bosses. The Palestinians of today are perhaps in much worse position than they were some 59 years ago. Too bad for all of the millions with so many talents and life time commitments that the present leadership is unable to go out of its parasite infested circles and see the support and active input of all Palestinians at home and abroad. May Alla/God help us, we need all the help we can.

Republicans in a Lincoln Day dinner declare illegal immigrants as the greatest threat to Western Civilization.

In a rousing speech that had Republicans standing on their feet at the annual Lincoln Day dinner in Iowa, the Republican Congressman from Colorado, Representative Tom Tancredo declared illegal immigration as the greatest threat to Western Civilization, for sure angering the White House for not using Al-Qaeda as the greatest threat to Western Civilization. How could any one but a Republican buy such a stupid declaration? And how could any one but a Republican buy into the idea that illegal immigration is the greatest threat to Western Civilization?
Now joining Congressman Tancredo ( I am sure he is not a Native American Indian but an immigrant from somewhere) is the Republican presidential candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City who himself is not a Native American Indian, but the son or grandson of an Italian immigrant, albeit legal/illegal immigrant.
Now the Republican Party has a great platform for its coming presidential campaign. It is the illegal immigrants that pose the greatest threat to America. Of course not the stupid and reckless policies of the White House and the Republican controlled congress that lead us to the War on Iraq costing the lives of some 3,500 of our finest soldiers, putting our country on debt for generations to come, putting priorities such as education, healthcare and affordable housing at great risk, and of course the killing and murder of over 750,000 Iraqis, and the only thing the leading activist of the Republican Party can come up with is illegal immigration as the platform. Only if they claimed illegal immigration as a threat to the US one perhaps can uderstand that, but declaring illegal immigration as the greatest threat to Western Civilization is taking it a bit too far. Perhaps they could have said, Jihadist or international terrorism, or drug trafficing, or white color crimes committed by their friends in corporate America, but to declare the poor Spanish immigrant from Mexico and Central America as a threat to Western Civilization is a bit too much. Once again, the Republicans are proving they lost their marbles.
Of course Republicans want to hid and ignore their failures at every front, from the War on Iraq to their War on Terrorism, to the War on Drugs, and of course having succeed at their War against the poor and the unemployed. With the exception of making money for their friends in the business community who robbed the country blind in Iraq with cost to tax payers in the tens of billions of dollars,the only thing Republicans can say to cover up their failure is to blame every thing on illegal immigrants. That is a repeat of what the small town of Herndon, VA said when it declared the Latino illegal immigrant as the greatest threat to its community and values.
I could not understand how an illegal immigrant from San Salvador or Ecuador can be a great threat to Western Civilization, a civilization that stretches from Greece in the East to Los Angeles in the West. Keep in mind the Republican did not claim illegal immigrant as a threat to the US but to Western Civilization. Of course, it is true these hard working immigrants are a threat to Western Civilization; they are the one who build our homes, making lots of money for White American and Republican businessmen. They keep the grass cut and our highways clean, they cook for us in restaurants where lobbyist buy a $100 dinner for members of congress. They clean the homes and baby sit for rich Republicans as they go out and rob and fleece America and corrupt the core values of America as the land of freedoms and the homes of the brave.
Yes, these poor and hardworking illegal immigrants are the greatest threat to Western Civilization far greater threats than nuclear war, or the bird flue or the drug trafficing. Why? Because these illegal immigrants are not White. They do not come from "White" countries such as Russia, or East or West Europe, where the Russian Mafia have substituted and taken over from the Italian mafia illegal gambling, drug trafficking, prostitution and while slavery and racketeering. Of course these millions of illegal immigrants are working so hard accepting minimum wages to keep the farms of Californian and Florida thriving, and keeping the US construction industry and housing market going. What if these "Brown skinned" illegal immigrants where "White skinned" would Republican say they are the greatest threat to Western Civilization. I do not think so.
What so amazing is that such alarming and racial calls find listing ears among the very poorest of poor within "White America" with people who have been left out of any economic and social development in the country and who are at the greatest risk when tornados hit their trailer homes and shacks in the South? These poor and left behind White are the core support of a racist Republican Party that in itself is the greatest threat not only to American but our democratic values. Let us not say the greatest threat to Western Civilization.

Aljazeera dared to take Fairouz off the air to let us hear George Bush tells his lies.

Who would believe that the Arabic news satellite Aljazeera would take off a program and documentary on Fairouz to bring George Bush live from Ohio to tell his lies? But this is exactly what happened on Thursday night at 17.15 GMT few minutes in the program on perhaps one, and together with the late Om- Kulthoum the most beautiful and powerful voice.
Om-Kulthum has her style but Fairouz is a special phenomenon with a mesmerizing soft voice and with a wide range of music and song that she was able to entertain generations of Arabic listeners from Morocco to Bahrain from Aleppo to Sana'a.
Fairouz was that special voice that sang love songs, sad songs, nationalist songs, funny songs. She sang for people and for counties. She sang for causes and for cities. Most of all she sang for all of us. We loved and will always love her voice, her music and the themes that inspired her music.
With hardly any documentary on the first lady of music, Aljazeera started the documentary with a visit to where she was born showing pictures of the young Fairouz and showing pictures of Fairouz with her long time music partner and husband, with some of the old and most beautiful songs, only for the station to interrupt the program and bring that stupid man, George Bush alive from Ohio to tell us and Arab viewers why he was at war in Iraq.
Having not learned from over 4 years of lies and more lies, George Bush again, try to us in the US and tell Arab audience that his was on Iraq was part of his war on terror, part of his war on Alqaeda. George Bush in his message in Ohio as to win votes and to intimidate the US Congress that finally caught up with his lies and that finally woke up to its responsibility, albeit late with more than 3,500 brave American soldiers killed in a senseless war and with more than 700,000 Iraqis dead and more than 2 millions exiles as refuses seeking to escape the death and destruction that George Bush's Tel-Aviv mafia brought about.
While this mafia, with the exception of their godfather, Dick Cheney all left the stage to more lucrative jobs at the World Bank and at Georgetown, poor George was left holding the bag after sticking it to the US tax payers with more than $ 500 Billons that the war on Iraq has cost and of course not to mention the invaluable lives lost because of his war and the ineptness of those who planned, and managed the war.
Now George Bush is desperate to keep the war going telling us that his stupid war is succeeding when we see on the daily news the Talibans are every where in Afghanistan and with Osama Bin Laden somewhere in Pakistan or Afghanistan and with his was in Iraq igniting a very ugly and destructive civil war that only Iraqi can excel at with daily suicide bombing and with daily truck and car bombs that kills innocent people before any thing else.
One has to ask Mr. Bush how can you claim you are winning the war on terror when there is terror every where, nurtured by your incompetence and reckless leadership? How dare you tell us to give you more chance to succeed when you have been nothing but failure for the last 4 years? A total failure at your war on terror and total failure of your domestic programs at home. Your tenure in office has been nothing but jinks for America and the world.
I never could understand why Aljazeera or for that matter Alarabyia and Al-Ekhbaryia, all leading Arabic satellite station interrupt their programs to bring George Bush live from Ohio to tell Arab viewers his views on the war on terror and on the need to keep the funding going to keep the his stupid and reckless war going. Of course the Iraqis with their vindictiveness and their disregards for any human values are not helping to bring an end to this war. The Sunnis and Shiites are both supporting George Bush and his war against the Iraqi people and in turn against the American people.This is lost war from the very start. The wrong war for the wrong reasons and in the wrong country. It was a war well planned by Bibi Netanyahu friends and partners in the Reagan and Bush administration and it was a war promoted and managed by the Likudists in Washington, DC. It was an Israeli proxy war fought and paid for by American and Iraqi lives and of course paid for by American tax payers. The only beneficiaries of this reckless war are the NeoCons who are out to destroy America, and so far they are succeeding at it. Fairouz that very beautiful voice that sang for Jerusalem, as the wounded city and the grandest of all cities was taken off the air to allow the man who funds and sponsor the continued killing of Palestinians, who continue to fund the Apartheid Wall and the man who continue to sponsor the ugliest military occupation in the last century. Perhaps all 3 networks got their instructions from Washington. How could any one listen to George Bush when they can listen to the very beautiful and serene voice of Fairouz.

Yes, it is Apparthied, Yes, it is Censorship

Several theaters in New York, Miami and Toronto cancelled the planned staging of the play, "My name is Rachel Carrie" the young American activists who was killed by and American made bulldozer in Gaza few years ago as she tried to defend and stop the uprooting of trees and destruction of homes by an Israeli army driving by hate.
The cancellation of the show, which had a very successful run in London, should not come as a complete surprise. This story reminded me of the time when as young activists in New York City we wanted to show a documentary about the forced exiles of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians by Jewish terrorists back in 1948
An agreement was reached with the operator of the theater in Mid-Town only to be cancelled when he knew that we planned to show a film about Palestinian exiles and of course about the behavior of Jewish terrorists. We end up showing the film within the compound of the UN as the only place with a free speech zone in New York City.
For the most part and it is sad to say, that when it comes to Israel and when it comes to the criminal actions of Israel the American Jewish community for the most parts shut off its eyes, its ears, and its conscious and refuse to admit that the Israeli Wall is nothing but an Apartheid Wall designed to prevent terrorism, but as a way to steal ad rob Palestinians of their homes and farms and destroy their community. They refuse to accept that Jewish Only Road for the Jewish settlers and trespassers are apartheid and they refuse to accept the idea of separate cards and separate colors and separate license plates and destructions of tens of thousands of Arab homes and the refusals to give permits to Palestinians to build on their own properties are nothing but simple Jewish Apartheid.
In the US there are very few possibilities for any readers to get published any editorial comments in major news papers let alone publish any features in the editorial pages. When this happens and it does happen once in great while it is considered a major event celebrated by the Arab and Palestinians communities as a public holidays. News media hardly ever invite Arabs to give their point of views and of course Congress hardly ever has Arab staff experts on its payroll preferring to get its experts from the many Israeli and Jewish shops in town. There is simply no equal opportunity for Arabs when it comes to the issue of Israel and the Israeli Occupation of Palestinians and Arab land.
Publishers and editorial managing editors always exercise "self censorship" let they cross the lines and always leery of the advertising power of major advertising companies that simply can kill any publication that cross the red line.
The Jewish community has its watch and attack dogs on college campuses and in the class rooms and they have the same in the media giving its dogs some nice sounding names like Campus Watch and Accuracy in Media and Flame among others.
With that kind of environment, no wonder there are hardly any open and full fledged debate on the Arab-Israeli issues and conflicts. No wonders why we as citizens in the US can debate whether God exists or not. We can debate whether God is a man or woman, we can debate George Bush whether he is smart or simply stupid. We can debate the creation. We can openly debate Moses, Jesus, and Mohamed and can debate racism, and many social and political issues with some varying degrees of rigors. But we never have the chance to openly debate US partnership with Israel and the Occupation, or the influence of the Jewish and Zionist lobbies on decision making process in the US. I would like to know why is it that this issues that has cost US tax payers over a trillion dollars, and have cost the US so many lives most of it gunned down by the Israel Army. I ask the question why the murder of some 36 US navy personnel by the Israeli Air Force does not merit a Naval Board of Inquiry when the alleged funding of Palestinians terrorism by Professor Sami Al-Aryan merit the spending of some $100 millions on his trial and the flying at tax payers expense some 40 Israeli witnesses. Lyndon Johnson did not have the balls or the courage to order a naval board of inquiry into the murder the crew of the USS Liberty. Why the murder of Rachel Corrie by the Israeli Army does not merit or own State Department opening an investigation and the flying of the FBI agents to investigate? Why the murder of Palestinian-Americans by Israeli army and settlers does not merit opening an investigation when the murder of an American Jew makes the entire government jump from its seat and shake the White House and the US Congress. We only ask our government to treat its citizen in the same way, whether they are murdered or killed by Palestinian or Jewish terrorists. Yes, it is Apartheid and its censorship.

The Virginia Tech tragedy should give the Republicans and the NRA a good reason to celebrate

The tragic and shocking mass murder today at Virginia Tech should give the Republican Party and the NRA a good to celebrate and dance in the streets having succeeded in giving Congress and the Courts the only interpretation of the Second Amendment rights to bear arms and go out and kill and murder innocent people and students.
During the last several decades some 40 such incidents took place where students and young kids taking free and liberal interpretation of the Second Amendment and taking full advantage of lose and very liberal laws covering ownership of guns, went on rampage killing and murdering fellow students. Columbine High School and University of Texas at Austin are but few incidents of such killing and murder.
It is obvious to so many American and the world that it is the gun lobby, the National Rifle Association and its Republican mistresses in Congress have always stood in the way of putting an end to such reckless and painful killing of innocent people and the total destruction of innocent families who lost a loved ones. Yes, it guns and it is guns in hand of people that kills.
The tens of millions of dollars of the gun lobby money that goes to Republican members of Congress make it easier for the courts to give expansive and lose interpretation of the Second Amendment that gives citizens the right to bear arms, even though the first part of the amendment talks of the need for armed and organized militias to protect the states from insurgents and to defend against the colonialist Brits, and does not cover the kind of guns that are on sales now especially since we have a professional army and national guard.
While one can understand the need of hunters, whether professional or armature to own hunting rifles and the need to have such ownership restricted through some very well worded laws and regulations to prevent abuse, there are simply no needs for any professional hunters to buy and carry bazookas or RPG or Uzi or M-16 or for that matter automatic and high caliber weapons such an M-50 mm gun. There are simply no needs for any professional or armature hunter to own and buy an Uzi to go out and hunt animals. A simple shotgun can kill even the most powerful animal. No needs for any hunter to use an Uzi to hunt and kill a moose or a dear. These guns are made to kill people and only people, and Republicans are partners in the assault on America.
The Cheney-Bush’s White House and before that the Reagan and Bush’s White House have always supported the purchase and use of a wide range of weapons including automatic weapons. In the US some 40,000 people are killed annually by gun wielding citizens. This is Vietnam day in and day out with the annual total victims is only few thousands less than the total number of American soldiers who died in Vietnam.
No one can convince me and convince the millions of Americans who are simply fed up with the easy access to guns, that the Republican Party and the NRA are defending the Second Amendment right to bear arms. It is all about lobby money and it has nothing to do with defending the constitution or the rights of citizens. Since when Republicans are known for defending the US Constitution. The Founding Fathers were not in bed with the NRA and did not write the Second Amendment with the futuristic view of giving average citizens to go out and buy all kind of guns and to go out and kill and murder. The Second Amendment was and is designed to give the rights to “bear arms within the context of organized militias. Perhaps the Republican Party can organize its own militia making sure that the millions of Americans who own guns are members of the Republican Militias. At least there will be the possible chance of putting some kind of gun control in the country. At least we citizens who chose not to bear arms know very well that we are secure in our homes and shops and are secure in our towns and cities with the present of a well-armed Republican Militias. Perhaps George Bush and Dick Cheney will consider the needs to send members of this militia to Iraq to fight the Republican War on Iraq. Thus saving the lives of our soldiers and members of the national guards for other and better things.
How many more have to die until such time the Republican Party and its representatives in Congress will come to their senses and put forward an effective gun law that puts behind lock once and for all the tens of millions of guns that are lose and within the reach of so many crazy people. Time for the Republican Party to join all of us and say enough is enough and to say NO to the tens of millions of dollars from the NRA. One has to recall the late Charles Heston as he stood up with his rifle in the NRA convention and declared" Over my dead body" a challenge to America and to Congress. Perhaps Heston is now celebrating too.

Wolfowitz can teach Blacks and Arabs something about nepotism

As someone who travels very frequently through Paris on Air-France, one only need to see and view the check-in counter at Washington-Dulles Airport where a special check-in counter is set up for the World Bank employees traveling First Class on their mission to tell poor countries and poor government to reduce subsidies for basic food such as bread and maize. Keep in mind the cost of a First Class ticket on Air-France to a country in Africa is not less than $ 8,000. That amount can buy over 300,000 loafs of bread in Egypt, perhaps more in some African countries.
The World Bank well known for top tax free salaries and first class tickets and early retirements is also well known for making sure that poor countries take drastic measures to cut down expenses including subsidies for the basic food items such as bread, and cooking oil. This same World Bank in the early seventies was silent when poor African and Latin American countries where building huge White Elephants such as conference centers in cities that no one even dare to think to travel to let alone hold a conference at costs of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Come Dr. Paul Wolfowitz, that Zionist and Likudist, the architect of Cheney-Bush disastrous war on Iraq to lead the World Bank with a promise to clean up the bank from corruption and with a promise to make sure that recipient countries are free from corruption and of course that include nepotism.
Of course, Dr. Wolfowitz left the Defense Department making sure that his Zionist war on Iraq will costs the US tax payers hundreds of billions of dollars and making sure that it is American soldiers that die in his stupid war and making sure hundreds of thousands of Iraqis will perish during this war, for the most by killing each others. The Tel-Aviv mafia got us in this mess and they went to bigger and bigger jobs including Dr. Wolfowitz who went to head the World Bank to do some good, perhaps to make up for his sins.
Before leaving the Defense Department, Dr. Wolfowitz was romantically involved with a highly paid and highly compensated Shaha Riza a public relation employee at the World Bank. So far so good. There is simply nothing wrong with romantic engagement with one or more person. That is a private matter. The World Bank has very strict rule covering such relationships within the bank, where supervisors are simply forbidden to get romantically involved with their subordinates. Of course with one simple exception, Dr. Wolfowitz.
However Dr. Wolfowitz with his contacts in the Bush Administration arrange to give Ms. Shaha a $61,000 annual raise and dispatch her to the State Department where she became the highest paid employee, getting paid $193,000 annually, tax free and of course with a maid that comes with the job. Believe it or not more than Candy Rice gets.
Dr. Wolfowitz of course is so outraged with these Blacks, Arabs and Muslims leaders and officials who are simply too corrupt and who nurture nepotism. So now this Ashkenazi Jew is telling these leaders and officials to clean up their act, while he as someone who think he is superior to these Blacks and Arabs is doing simply what he is telling others not to do. No corruption, no nepotism and of course no subsidies for the poor. It seems that Shaha needed some subsidies to buy not bread but caviar. People with salaries like that do not eat bread and do not buy cooking oil. They have simply very expensive habits of eating low calorie caviar. Well, Dr. Wolfwotiz, you certainly can teach these Blacks and Arabs something about integrity and good government and of course nepotism. You are in deed setting a good example of what someone in your position should do to help his lover. So please do not complain when a Black or an Arab official hires his mistress and put her on the payroll of government. At least this mistress may be in a position to buy whole lots of loaf of bread for her family and friends. For sure she will not buy caviar. Let us not hear any more of your nonsense talk of helping the poor. The World Bank under your leadership is a joke. Time for you to go home and save us from your high sense of false morality and moral virtues. The World Bank should let its employees travel economy class and not first class saving the money and given it to the poor to buy bread, maize and cooking oil with it.
Just remember next time you are at Washington-Dulles Airport waiting to check in at Air-France, take a look at the World Bank employee and think with his ticket someone in Egypt can buy 300,000 loafs of bread.

Killing and murder in the name of Islam

Killing and murder in the name of Islam
The alleged killing of BBC reporter Alan Johnson by an unknown Islamic group and the suicide bombing in Casablanca and the truck bombs in Algeria added to the daily suicide bombing and murder in Iraq, and the beheading of the Afghani translator by the Taliban are but a symptoms of what is wrong with Islam today.
For a long time, Islamic Jihad was dormant, until the Reagan administration and the CIA decided to revive it and with it the Afghan Mujahedeen became a household name in Arab and Muslim homes. Jihad became mission for many of those recruited by CIA agents with the cooperation of Arab governments who no doubt where getting a “commission” on every recruit that was heading to Afghanistan.
Suicide bombing and martyrdom became a mission from Casablanca to Kabul, passing through Riyadh, Gaza, Jerusalem Amman, Cairo, Lexuor, and of course the daily suicide bombing in Iraq became a culture, nurtured by a group of Muslim clerics who finally discovered their role and mission within an Islamic society for the most part ignorant and illiterate.
When young, desperate, poor, illiterate and drug addicted young men and women become human time bombs armed with a suicide belt raises many questions as to who stand behind all of these suicide bombing and the killings and murder of thousands of innocent people. No one simply go out and decide to become a suicide bomber. Someone must be the brain behind all of these suicide bombings. Who and what they are for sure is a puzzle that many heads of security agencies in countries like Morocco, Algeria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia would like to know?
To commit suicide without the intent of killing any one else is a simple task. One only needs to take an overdose of drugs or jump off a bridge or a tall building and they can commit suicide easy. But to commit suicide with intent to kill others is a process that takes too many players and requires sophisticated logistics, in addition to recruiting and brain washing these poor misfits.
The brains behind the killings and murder of innocent people are sophisticated well organized, well funded with access to places, like mosques and drug infested corners where they are able to recruit and send these young misfits and ignorant people to a mission to hell while they sit comfortably at home or at the mosque waiting for the next victim.
Suicide missions as a culture of death is new and strange to Islam and Muslims, especially when suicide itself is simply wrong or “haram” in Islam. Not so sure where the idea came about and who promoted it. However one thing for sure, Afghanistan was and is the breeding ground for such culture of death. And one has to go back to the roots of such culture and one has to go back to the Reagan administration with its mission of using Jihad as a way to defeat the Soviet and drive them out of Afghanistan.
Now with so many Muslim clerics appearing on television and in the media as heads of groups and organizations one has to raise the questions, since when Muslim clerics play a prominent role in society. I thought this is a Christian and Jewish phenomenon but not a Muslim one, since religious leaders in both Christianity and Judaism play major role in society and the lives of people. But not in Islam. In the Quran is no such class of people.
In my mind and in my view these Muslim clerics are the scrooge that is the cancer, spreading a culture not known in Islam. With a total absence of democracy and freedom in the Arab world, the only place where there is or perhaps a room to speak out was the mosque and of course the mosques are the domain of Muslim clerics. These Muslim clerics are working so hard these days to create a special “class” and status for themselves. Arab and Muslim democracies have to reckon with this class of religious professionals who want to make sure they are the “reference or marja’a” in society. Perhaps it is time to pull the carpet from underneath these clerics and send them back for some education and introduction starting with Islam 101, and reminding them of Allah’s words that those who kill an innocent life is like killing an entire humanity. One need to remind the clerics of Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Morocco, Algerian and Saudi Arabia that we need Muslim clerics that teach the world and us true Islam, not an Islam where they are the center of the universe, and where the true words of Allah are supreme.

Bush-Cheney should be impeached and not allowed to remain in power until end of their terms of office

No one can accuse Scott Ritter of being anti-American. He served his country, our country very well, with professionalism, integrity and under difficult conditions. Scott Ritter is one of the very few brave Americans who dare to speak out and tell it like it is. Perhaps other former officials dare to come out and speak the truth and tell American why the Cheney-Bush administration decided to go to a war, that it was ill prepared and badly managed. In the business sector, the CEO is fired under similar circumstances. George Bush always claimed to manage the country as a CEO, and he has done a very poor job of it. Bush and Cheney should be impeached and not allowed to remain in power until the end of their terms.


The Final Act of Submission
Posted on Apr 13, 2007
By Scott Ritter
In the months leading up to President Bush’s ill-fated invasion of Iraq, I traveled around the world speaking to various international groups, including many parliamentary assemblies. I spoke about democracy and the need of any nation or group of nations espousing democracy as a standard to embrace the ideals and values of justice and due process in accordance with the rule of law. I spoke of international law, especially as it was manifested in the charter of the United Nations (a document signed and adopted by all of the countries I visited).
Invariably, my presentation focused on the nation in question, whether it was Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, Japan or Great Britain, and the status of its relationship with the United States. As an American, I said, I appreciated each nation’s embrace of the United States as a friend and ally. However, as a strong believer in the rule of law, I deplored the trend among America’s so-called friends to facilitate a needless confrontation which would severely harm the U.S. in the long run. These nations were hesitant to stand up to the United States even though they knew the course of action planned for Iraq was wrong.
Such permissive submission was deplorable, and invariably led to a comment from me about the status of genuine sovereignty in the face of American imperial power. If a nation was incapable of defending its sovereign values and interests, then it should simply acknowledge its status as a colony of the United States, pull down its disgraced national flag and raise the Stars and Stripes.
Now the tables have turned. Americans, through the will of the people as expressed in the November 2006 election, voiced their dissatisfaction with the conduct of the American war in Iraq, and empowered a new Democratic- controlled Congress to reassert itself as a separate but equal branch of government—especially when it came to matters pertaining to war and the threat of war.
This new Democratic leadership has failed egregiously. Not only has the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, been unable to orchestrate any meaningful legislation to bring the war in Iraq to an end, but in mid-March she carelessly greased the tracks for a whole new conflict. By excising language from a defense appropriations bill which would have required President Bush to seek the approval of Congress prior to initiating any military attack on Iran, Pelosi terminated any hope of slowing down the Bush administration’s mad rush to war.
Despite the fact that Congress was only stating through this language a simple reflection of constitutional mandate, Speaker Pelosi and others felt that the inclusion of such verbiage put the security of the state of Israel at risk by eliminating important “policy options” for the president of the United States. In short, Israeli national security interests trumped the Constitution of the United States.
I consider myself to be a friend of Israel, a status which has been demonstrated repeatedly through words and deeds from January-February 1991, when I was involved in the effort to stop Iraq Scud missiles from striking Israel during the 1991 Gulf War, to the period between October 1994 and June 1998 when I served as the lead liaison between the United Nations weapons inspectors and Israeli intelligence, working to find a final accounting of Iraq’s proscribed weapons of mass destruction. I know only too well the precarious reality of Israel’s security situation, and am sympathetic to its need to proactively deal with threats before they manifest themselves in a manner which threatens Israel’s ability to survive as a nation-state.
However, as an American who served on active duty in time of war as an officer of Marines, I also remember the oath I took to “uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” As such, I am troubled by the recent actions of Speaker Pelosi and other members of Congress who have not only abrogated their collective responsibility to uphold and defend the Constitution but have taken actions which, under normal circumstances and involving any other nation, would border on treasonous. Our collective duty as Americans must center on defending the very document, the Constitution, which defines who we are and what we are as a people and a nation. To have our elected representatives flagrantly push aside their constitutional responsibilities in the name of the security interests of another nation is unthinkable. And yet it has just happened, apparently without consequence.
Sadly, the new Democratic Congress has cemented its status as yet another iteration of a system which long ago sold its soul to special interests. Democrats can cackle about Republican scandals, including the Jack Abramoff affair, which brought down Rep. Tom DeLay among others. But history will show that the Pelosi-led sellout to Israeli special interests endangered the viability and security of America as a sovereign state governed by the rule of law more than Jack Abramoff ever could.
In this time of constitutional crisis, the American people need to wake up and demand that the basic tenets of the Constitution be adhered to. Congress is solely empowered by the Constitution to declare war. Demanding that the president of the United States adhere to this prerequisite is a logical and patriotic stance. Allowing any non-American interest, even one possessing such highly charged political and emotional sensitivities as Israel, to dictate otherwise represents nothing more than a capitulation of sovereignty. We the people need to rally around this defense of sovereignty. We must demand not only that Congress reassert its constitutional responsibilities and authority by demanding the president obey the letter of the law when it comes to war, whether against Iran or any other nation, but also to place in check the anti-American activities of one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington, D.C., the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee.
For decades AIPAC has operated in the shadows of American foreign policy decision-making, exerting its influence on elected officials away from the public scrutiny of the very constituents who elected those officials to begin with. It is impossible to hold someone accountable for actions that are kept secret, and as such AIPAC’s ability to secretly influence American foreign and national security policies represents a flagrant insult and threat to the very essence of American democracy. I am not advocating the dissolution of AIPAC. However, I am demanding that AIPAC be treated as any other representative of a foreign nation is treated. It should have to register as an agent of a foreign power so that the totality of its interactions with American officials can become a part of the public record. We require this of all other nations, including our good friends the British.
To state that AIPAC, and by extension Israel, is above the law in this regard is to acknowledge the reality that American national sovereignty no longer matters when it comes to the state of Israel. So be it. But then we are, collectively, no better than those nations I mocked prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 as “colonies” of the United States. So if we are to continue to permit AIPAC to operate as an undeclared agent of a foreign nation, and to influence American foreign and national security policymaking at the expense of our Constitution, then we should acknowledge our true status as nothing more than a colony of Israel, pull down the Stars and Stripes and raise the Star of David over our nation’s capitol. While representing the final act of submission, it would also be the first truly honest act that occurred in Washington, D.C., in many years.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_final_act_of_submission/

Again, no one talks of the Israeli Occupation, worst than apartheid

Every one including the Palestinian leadership talks of aids, peace discussions etc, yet no one talks of ending the Israeli Occupation to immediate end. Of course, Israelis and beyond them the Jewish community at large simply ignor that the Israeli and Jewish Occupation is not only legally wrong, but morally wrong as well. For a community that talks so much of morality, there is not only total silence, but try to find execuses and justification for the worst military occupation in modern history after the Nazi and Japanes occupation. My wife told me of an incident that happened in an Israeli court looking into fraudulent property transaction. When the Palestinian landowner presented all the legal documents proving evidence of ownership according to Israeli laws, the Jewish settlers stood up in court and said, but I have a more superior document of ownership one from G-d. Of course, the document was did not have the seal and signiture of G-d and was not legalized at the Israeli Embassy in Washington.

Worse Than Apartheid?
By Robert D. NovakMonday, April 9, 2007; 12:00 AM
BETHLEHEM, West Bank -- Hani Hayek, an accountant who is the Christian mayor of the tiny majority-Christian Palestinian village of Beit Sahour, was angry last week as he drove me along the Israeli security wall. "They are taking our communal lands," he said, pointing to the massive Israeli settlement of Har Homa. "They don't want us to live here. They want us to leave."
Har Homa, dwarfing nearby dwellings of Beit Sahour, seemed larger than when I saw it at Holy Week a year ago. It is. The Israeli government has steadily enlarged settlements on the occupied West Bank, and I could see both the construction at Har Homa and road building for a dual transportation system for Israelis and Palestinians.
Jimmy Carter raised hackles by titling his book about the Palestinian question "Peace Not Apartheid." But Palestinians allege this is worse than the former South African racial separation. Nearing the 40th anniversary of the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank, the territory has been so fragmented that a genuine Palestinian state and a "two-state solution" seem increasingly difficult.
The security wall has led to virtual elimination of suicide bombings and short-term peace. But life is hard for Palestinians, whose deaths because of conflict increased 272 percent in 2006 while Israeli casualties declined. In a minor incident last week of the type that goes unnoticed internationally, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troopers killed a Palestinian man accused of illegally entering a firing zone while collecting metal scraps to sell. The Britain-based organization Save the Children estimates that half the children in the occupied territories are psychologically traumatized.
Palestinians argue that things have gotten worse because of pervasive feelings of hopelessness. Students at Bethlehem University (run by the Catholic Brothers of De La Salle, with an enrollment that is 70 percent Muslim) sounded more pessimistic and radicalized than a year ago. Ahmad al Issa, a fourth-year journalism student, was held for a year in an Israeli prison on charges of throwing stones at Israeli troops. Now he has bought into the libel that Jewish employees at the World Trade Center were warned in advance of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The U.S.-backed boycott following the election victory of the extremist group Hamas in early 2006 has made the Palestinian Authority destitute, crippling government services. Deprived of help from the authority, with the economy in a shambles, city governments are bankrupt. Bethlehem's mayor, Victor Batarseh, has a special problem because tourists and pilgrims no longer stay overnight in the city of Christ's birth. Out of money and credit, he is ready to lay off the city's 165 staffers.
Batarseh, a U.S. citizen who practiced thoracic surgery in Sacramento, is pinned down in Bethlehem. A Christian and political independent who calls himself a private-enterprise democrat, Batarseh is on the Israeli blacklist because he contributed to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which the State Department has designated a terrorist organization. Denied permits for Jerusalem, the mayor must drive to Amman, Jordan, to get to meetings in Europe.
Contact with the PFLP is not a requirement for being holed up by the Israel Defense Forces. Bethlehem University students cannot get to Jerusalem, a few minutes' drive away, unless they sneak in illegally. The students from the separated Gaza enclave have to take classes from Bethlehem via the Internet.
Republican Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey was at the university the same day I was, and faculty members could hardly believe a real live member of Congress was there. Smith later was given a tour of Jerusalem to see with his own eyes that the separation barrier in most places is a big, ugly and intimidating wall, not merely a fence.
Smith, an active Catholic layman, was drawn here because of the rapid emigration of the Holy Land's Christian minority. They leave more quickly than Muslims because contacts on the outside make them more mobile. Peter Corlano, a Catholic member of the Bethlehem University faculty, told Smith and me: "We live the same life as Muslims. We are Palestinians."
Concerned by the disappearance of Christians in the land of Christianity's birthplace, Smith could also become (as I did) concerned by the plight of all Palestinians. If so, he will find precious little company in Congress.
© 2007 Creators Syndicate Inc.

Daniel Pipes and John Bolton, most abnoxious appointees of George Bush

George Bush not known for his smarts and is well known for choosing mediocre if not incompetent senior officers within the administration (minor exceptions are Bill Gates and John Roberts, chose to circumvent the normal process of having senior appointments come before US Senate, chose to appoint Daniel Pipes board members of US Institute of Peace and chose to appoint John Bolton as US Ambassador to the UN.
Daniel Pipes is not known for his intellect nor for his intellectual credentials, but is well known for his hate and his attacks on freedom of speech through his dog pack like organizations Campus Watch and his attacks on Arabs and Muslim was appointed to perhaps one of the most prestigious US institutions known for the quality of scholars it hosts and well known for the work it does around the world and of course the god face of an otherwise ugly ad vindictive foreign policy.
Of course Pipes appointment was against the majority will of the US Senate and many of senators voiced their appositions to such appointments. However George Bush chose to be feisty and chose such an obnoxious senior officers and his appointment is nothing more than an insult to our sense of sensibilities and our sense of honor and dignity. One would think that George Bush would chose against the advice of his senior administration advisor one who will promote reconciliations and who will promote the mission and vision of the US Institute of Peace. As one except from such an incompetent administration, George Bush chose Daniel Pipes to sit on the board of directors of US Institute of Peace.
Adding insult to injury, again, George Bush chose other senior officers not know for his intellect but is well know for being obnoxious to represent us at the UN.
One only to recall some of our UN ambassadors such as Henry Cabot Lodge, George Bush, Arthur Goldberg, Richard Halbrook, even Madeline Albright and compare to that of John Bolton. What an insult such an appointment not only to us, the people of the US but to the UN and to the world at large.
However with the exception of John Roberts and Robert Gates, most if not all appointees where chosen for their right wing ideology and not known for their competence and intellect. One only need to see how we made such a big mess of Iraq and how George Bush and Dick Chaney chose to appoint a High Commissioner, Paul Bremer, who knew nothing about Iraq and whose decisions are directly responsible for the tens of dead US soldiers and Iraqis and responsible for the big mess that is Iraq today and responsible for the billions of dollars stolen by US corporation and of course stolen by senior Iraqi officials.
Thanks God, our democracy does not allow such incompetent, vindictive highly ideological president and vice president to stay in power beyond their maximum 8 years term. We can only hope that Cheney/Bush team will not commit more stupid reckless ventures in what is left of their term. Their tenure can only be classified as the worst in our history and history of the world. There are jinxed from day one. They came to power not to uplift American but to destroy what ever great things we have. They totally failed at their war on terror, and they succeeded to fleece the country and take it to being broke and of course they could only succeed in instilling hate and fear in our people and the world. They will not be missed.