Whoever scheduled Gordon Brown’s recent visit to Israel is surely out of a job. Brown’s dreary, etiolated performance – appropriate for a political corpse – was rendered even flatter by its proximity to Barack Obama’s headline-hogging whirlwind tour of Europe and the Middle East. Despite the differences in style, however, both politicians took to the podium in Israel with a similar message: one of support for the latter’s rejectionist expansionism.

I think the view that we should not publish Obama's prayer is wrong.  It has already been overexposed.  This is not a question of what is right or wrong.  That cat is already out of the bag.

What we can do is SING IT TO THE HEAVENS!  I am not a religious man.  I respect the importance of religion in people's lives though and I understand the outrage in reaction to the unbeleivable inappropriateness of someone taking and publishing a note from a man to his God, especially from such a sacred place.

It (taking the note) is not something I would do.  I do not condone it.

A video published today by the B'Tselem human rights organisation shows an unarmed, handcuffed and blindfolded Palestinian being shot by an Israeli soldier at very close range with a rubber-coated steel bullet (not, as some would have it, a "rubber bullet").

A UN report (.pdf) published last week concludes that the wall Israel is constructing in the occupied West Bank is creating severe "geographical and bureaucratic hardships for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians", "preventing and delaying Palestinians from accessing essential services and workplaces". Entire communities have been devastated. The densely populated Jerusalem neighbourhood of al-Ram is a typical example: since the annexation wall severed it from the rest of Jerusalem a third of businesses and "vast numbers" of residents have left, turning a once thriving area into "a virtual ghost town".

We cannot forget who we are. We are a nation of, a nation welcoming and built by immigrants. And though this Administration wants to divert attention from its current mistakes, we cannot forget who we are in the process. To Dennis Kucinich, America means "give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses...". To Dennis Kucinich, in an open and free democratic nation there must be a path to citizenship. To Dennis Kucinich, there is no such thing as an illegal human being.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) last week published a report (.pdf) examining the humanitarian impact of Israel's "security fence" on 67 Palestinian communities in the northern West Bank, representing a combined population of nearly 220,000 Palestinians. 15 of the communities surveyed, with a total population of 10,000, are located west of the wall, confined in a "closed area" between the barrier and the Green Line.

Tom Tancredo is being hailed as a saint for his visionary mercy when he created the wall that spared the lives of millions of Mexicans from the fiery Katrina that is engulfing much of their northern neighbor.

When asked about his being compared to Mother Teresa and James Lee Witt, Mister Tancredo, ever the shy cosmopolite, whisked it away with a gentle flick of his polished hand. "It is nothing any other shy cosmopolite would do."

The Bush administration is trying to stem the tide of illegal immigration across the Arizona border, pero, son mensos. Unfortunately, it affects us detrimentally.  Read below the fold to see how it affects us here in Baja, AZ.

duh-duh-duh-dun ta-dun ... WALLLL!!!!!

When it comes to solving problems, here seems to be the prescribed order of operations out of the Republican playbook.

1. Bomb it.

2. Build a wall around it.

You'd think after Reagan made such a hubbub about tearing down a wall, R's might think twice about putting up new ones.  

Work On Baghdad Wall Continues Despite Premier's Opposition
http://www.democraticunderground.com...

US Republicans propose Mexican border wall
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/...

Can't afford health care? Build a wall around it!  
Staggering budget deficit? No problem, build a wall around it!
Big wall getting in your way?  Build a wall around it!

Are imperial occupation forces erecting a large wall to divide the major city for the second time in a century?

Or is this different?

It's been rumored well in advance: Dick Cheney is heading over to see Saudis. I am quite intrigued. No I am not surprised that Acting President Of U.S. is going to see some Middle East biggies. We got some serious trouble going on over there. I am a little bit surprised about personnel pick for the mission though. After all Dick isn't exactly known for his diplomatic prowess. Last time he traveled on foreign business I recall, he caused a minor version of diplomatic tsunami at the East European summit of sorts when he found a few choice words for Russians.

Since 1982 following Israel's disasterous invasion of Lebanon, the Israeli government and Israeli Defense Forces have mounted a strenuous campaign to censor and distort knowledge pertaining to the Middle East, especially about the nature and purpose of Israel's 39 year military occupation of the Palestinian people. This propaganda effort is primarily directed at the United States, recently with the complicity with the US State Department, which has incorporated this propaganda into foreign policy initiatives. Recently, another propaganda effort, the Israel Project, was developed to stave leaks that have emerged in the Israeli PR machine's smokescreen, what America is permitted to see and know about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and how this conflict is played out in US media.

Hey, over at Truthdig, we just posted a really thoughtful, searing piece:

Chris Hedges, former Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times and author of the bestseller "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning" examines the way Israel's security wall has ripped a mortal gash in the lives of Palestinians living in its shadow, and argues that there can be no hope for peace in the Middle East as long as America continues to aid Israel in its dehumanizing practices.

Hedges: "Until we grasp that these militants do not come from another moral universe, until we face our own complicity in their creation and the awful violence now underway in Lebanon and the occupied territories, we cannot begin to understand the gross injustices that fuel these militant movements.  It was, after all, the $10 billion in loan guarantees by the United States that made this barrier possible."

http://www.truthdig.com/...

Most people probably know by now that the "Roadmap" for Middle East peace has flown out the window.  Perhaps this is a good time to look at one of the most important underlying assumptions of that plan - namely a Palestinian state.  After the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993, there was a chance that a Palestinian state would emerge in the West Bank and Gaza after protracted and difficult negotiations.  But for a two-state solution to be workable, both states must be viable entities.  Unfortunately, the territories turned over to the Palestinian Authority were never more than isolated enclaves - lacking jobs, infrastructure, water, and most importantly, hope.

The Imagined and the Actual Palestinian State

Source: http://www.americantaskforce.org/...
Source: http://www.afsc.org/...

please see http://www.americanleft.bravehost.com
Have you been paying any attention to what is going on in this country? Well I have. I am noticing things happen in this country that I don't like. Things are happeing in this country that shouldn't be happening. And if you, like me, will take a close look at what has been happening in America, you will see an huge similarity between modern day America and Nazi Germany. Let me explain....

A militia type wrote a friend of mine saying, "I thought this was kinda cool when I read it... Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907."

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American... There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

I couldn't stand it. I had to fire back.

When I first learned of Sharon's plans to put up a fence between the West Bank and Israel, I was flabbergasted.  How stupid could he be?  Terrorists would climb it, blow it up, go around it and under it in an attempt to kill more Jews.  It could never work.

I was wrong.  I admit it.  

This found its way into my inbox.  I found it a pretty stunning read because it was such a different perspective than I am exposed to through the mainstream press the political press, and even daily kos.  It regards someone a few degrees away from me and his impressions of visiting Palestine.