Read more at NYPost.com (NYPost!?)

Heckling is good, but I can’t help feel nostalgic toward what I’ve read about tar and feathering.

Massachusetts residents will be voting to abolish the state income tax and replace it with nothing. Find out more at smallgovernmentact.org.

When I talk small government, particularly with my liberal friends, they often ask “what about the poor,” thinking the poor will suffer without government largess. In fact, the opposite is true. Free markets are responsible for ending famine in Europe. The worst famines occurred in the most government-manipulated economies – USSR, China. Here and now, I can point to low-tax New Hampshire, which has the lowest poverty rate of all states. (Read more at dailypaul.com)

Read more from thinkprogress.org

“by Mel Frykberg

JERUSALEM – Israel has published tenders for the construction of 1,761 illegal housing units for Israeli settlers in occupied east Jerusalem alone, according to the Israeli rights group Peace Now.

The expansion plans come despite promises by the Israeli government at last year’s peace summit at Annapolis, Maryland (in the US) to freeze all settlement growth.

‘Once again this government has shown that its words and commitments are meaningless, and they have no intention of keeping to their word,’ says Peace Now.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has stressed repeatedly that settlement construction or expansion in the West Bank is contrary to international law and Israel’s commitments under the ‘road map’ peace process.

The road map was a series of peace-building measures proposed by US President George W. Bush in 2002 and subsequently developed by the diplomatic Quartet of the European Union, the United Nations, Russia and the United States.

Ban Ki-moon further urged Israel to freeze all settlement activity and to dismantle outposts erected since March of 2001.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, normally a diehard supporter of Israel, also expressed her concern about the settlement building during her last visit to Israel several months ago.” (Read more from antiwar.com)

. . . but that doesn’t stop our government from giving tax breaks to organizations funding the settlements. (See Below)

AIPAC: The UN is irrelevant! Fire Ban Ki-Moon!

A better word for settlers is colonists.

“JERUSALEM, Aug 25 (Reuters) – The United States says Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank threaten any peace between Israel and the Palestinians — yet it also encourages Americans to help support settlers by offering tax breaks on donations.

. . . .

Pro-settler groups say they are entitled to the tax breaks because their work is ‘humanitarian’, not political, and reject any comparison to Palestinian charities, some of which face U.S. sanctions over suspected links to Islamist groups like Hamas.

The full extent of tax-exempt U.S. funding for settlements is unclear because so many groups are involved and their spending practices are not always transparent. But a review by Reuters of U.S. tax records found 13 tax-exempt organisations openly linked to settlements that have raised more than $35 million in the last five years alone.

. . . .

In one example, when settlers took over a new building in the flashpoint city of Hebron last year, a tax-exempt New York organisation sprang into action to solicit funds for renovations to accommodate more families.

The Hebron Fund, which raises an average of $1.5 million a year to support Jewish settlers in the city, and other groups said they were as entitled to tax exemptions as other charities.

‘Are you saying you can get a charitable deduction for helping starving people in New York City but you can’t get a charitable deduction for helping starving people in Judea and Samaria,’ said Sondra Oster Baras, president of Christian Friends of Israeli Communities, using an Israeli term for the West Bank. ‘That’s an argument that doesn’t make sense.’

. . . .

Ian Lustick, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania, played down the chances the tax breaks will be rolled back. ‘It’s a political hot potato,’ Lustick said, citing the clout of U.S. pro-Israel groups to block any change.”

(Read more from alertnet.org)

SEE ALSO:

-Occupation by Another Name: Meron Benvenisti in an excellent article mentions the “success of the propaganda campaign known as ‘negotiations with the Palestinians,’ which convinces many that the status quo is temporary.”

“This earned [Biden] the approbation of John McCain, who, on April 11, 1999, declared to Tim Russert on Meet the Press: ‘We need Joe Biden for secretary of state.’ An astounded Russert asked: ‘Is that an offer by President McCain?’ McCain replied: ‘Absolutely!’

McCain wasn’t joking, and his comments underscore the essential unity of Washington’s bipartisan foreign policy consensus, which is firmly anchored in an interventionist outlook, a militarist mindset that assumes unlimited American power and a position of unchallenged preeminence. Yet reality – economic reality – is setting in, and even the most stalwart advocates of America’s role as the world’s policeman are losing their pretensions. Not, however, Sen. Biden, whose most recent noteworthy contribution to the Iraq war debate was a proposal to divide Iraq into three separate quasi-independent nations, one for each of the three main ethnic-religious factions. The problem is, he didn’t bother consulting with the Iraqis before floating this idea, and the Iraqis were apoplectic.

Obama’s claim that he’s the harbinger of a new politics is, unfortunately, belied by his choice of a running mate. A truly new politics, one that goes beyond the red-state/blue-state dichotomy that polarizes our politics between two false choices, would have at least seriously considered Sen. Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, who has all but endorsed Obama and seemed to be in the running at some point.” Read more from antiwar.com

This article by Stephen Zunes seems like a very comprehensive portrayal of Georgian history and the current crisis. It concludes: “This doesn’t mean that Russia’s military offensive should not be rigorously opposed. However, the U.S. contribution to this unfolding tragedy and the absence of any moral authority to challenge it must not be ignored.”

He discussed Russian ambition in Georgia in the context of America’s then-recently-declared policy of pre-emptive strikes.

–>see video<--

The Great Game is the name originally given to the strategic rivalry between Great Britain and Russia in Central Asia, mostly in the 19th century. While the demagogues in Big Media are hyperventilating about Russia’s treachery, it’s important to recognize our own coerciveness in the region.

“Now that the dust is settling the big question about the dust-up in Georgia remains: Why was Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili so stupid to start this war?

There are a couple of theories. One is Saakashvili was under the mistaken impression the US military, even NATO, would intervene if Russia fought back after Georgia entered the breakaway province of South Ossetia on 7-8 August, devastating Tskhinvali, and according to Moscow, killing a number of Russian peacekeepers.

The US stood on the sidelines when Russia indeed punished Georgia. Georgian civilians at first told Western reporters they were angry at America for not coming to their aid. Then several days later many started to blame Saakashvili for creating such a mess.

It seems hard to imagine he would have tried to seize South Ossetia if he were not led to believe he had American backing. According to Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s UN ambassador, joint US-Georgian military exercises code-named Immediate Response ended just hours before Georgian troops moved into the province.

Churkin says the Americans gave Saakashvili a ‘green light.’ But there was no immediate response from the United States.”

Read more from Huffingtonpost.com

This blog post is dedicated to my self-described liberal friends who squarely blame the evil Republicans for all this country’s woes. YOU know who you are! All excerpts are from “The Senate Caves,” by Tim Dickinson, RollingStone June 12, 2008.

“Since regaining the majority in 2006, the Democrats have granted the Bush administration and big telephone companies immunity for illegal wiretapping, declared a branch of the Iranian military a terrorist organization and stuffed the recent Foreclosure Prevention Act with far more goodies for big lenders than for struggling homeowner. They also confirmed Attorney General Michael Mukasey despite his refusal to disavow torture – a move engineered by Schumer.”

Chuck Schumer (D – NY)
“Every democrat in the Senate likes to imagine himself as a friend of the middle class. But few take the delusion to the extremes of Chuck Schumer. In his book Positively American, the senator from New York writes in eerie detail of his decades-long, entirely imaginary friendship with Joe and Eileen Bailey, a non existent middle-class couple from Long Island who struggle to get by on $75,000 a year. . . But Schumer’s love of his made-up friends in the middle class didn’t stop him from championing one of the biggest tax breaks for billionaires in the history of the republic. Last year, Democrats in the House fought to close a loophole that levies a tax rate of only 15 percent – barely half what real-life versions of the Baileys pay – on hedge-fund managers who make as much as $3.7 billion a year. But when the debate reached the Senate, Schumer broke with his fellow Democrats and sided with Wall Street – inspiring the hedge-fund industry to hail him as its ‘guardian.’”

Harry Reid (D – NV)
“In a recent interview with Reid in his opulently chandeliered suite in the Capitol, I ask why the Democrats had not used their majority in the Senate to close the hedge-fund loophole. He greets the question with dead silence. When he finally speaks, he tells me something I never thought I would hear from a Democrat: that it would be wrong to single out the nation’s wealthiest investors simply because they are bilking the treasury out of billions. ‘The only difference between hedge fund operators and other folks similarly situated,’ Reid argues, ‘is that they make more money.’ . . . What Reid also failed to mention is that the real difference between hedge-fund billionaires and others ‘so situated’ is that they are the ones underwriting efforts by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee run by Schumer. . . . All told, the hedge-fund and private-equity sectors have showered the Democrats with more than $14 million this year – double what they have given Republicans.”

Nancy Pelosi (D – CA)
As speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi can bend Democrats to her will – including the likes of Rep. John Dingell, the lifelong champion of automakers whom Pelosi has muzzled in the debate over global warming. She has even been able to bring conservative “blue dog” Democrats to heel, repeatedly garnering their support for a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq.”

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: It’s not right vs. left, it’s power vs. liberty. Right vs. left is an illusion and distraction from what’s most important.

Read more from Haaretz.com

I’m no fan of Russia. In fact, I’m somewhat obsessed with the excesses of the Soviets, Holodomor, etc. But the unanimity and savagery with which Big Media has condemned the Russians, makes me think they’re at least partially innocent – for once. Whenever Big Media tells you to hate someone, you should seek other sources. In this case, the Indy press has been quick to point out the rest of the story.

The rest of the story is well expressed in yesterday’s “Blowback From Bear-Baiting” by Patrick Buchanan:

“Mikheil Saakashvili’s decision to use the opening of the Olympic Games to cover Georgia’s invasion of its breakaway province of South Ossetia must rank in stupidity with Gamal Abdel-Nasser’s decision to close the Straits of Tiran to Israeli ships. . . Saakashvili’s blunder probably means permanent loss of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

After shelling and attacking what he claims is his own country, killing scores of his own Ossetian citizens and sending tens of thousands fleeing into Russia, Saakashvili’s army was whipped back into Georgia in 48 hours.

Vladimir Putin took the opportunity to kick the Georgian army out of Abkhazia, as well, to bomb Tbilisi, and to seize Gori, birthplace of Stalin.

Reveling in his status as an intimate of George Bush, Dick Cheney, and John McCain, and America’s lone democratic ally in the Caucasus, Saakashvili thought he could get away with a lightning coup and present the world with a fait accompli.

Mikheil did not reckon on the rage or resolve of the Bear.

American charges of Russian aggression ring hollow. Georgia started this fight – Russia finished it. People who start wars don’t get to decide how and when they end.

Russia’s response was “disproportionate” and “brutal,” wailed Bush.

True. But did we not authorize Israel to bomb Lebanon for 35 days in response to a border skirmish where several Israel soldiers were killed and two captured? Was that not many times more “disproportionate”?

Russia has invaded a sovereign country, railed Bush. But did not the United States bomb Serbia for 78 days and invade to force it to surrender a province, Kosovo, to which Serbia had a far greater historic claim than Georgia had to Abkhazia or South Ossetia, both of which prefer Moscow to Tbilisi?

Is not Western hypocrisy astonishing?

When the Soviet Union broke into 15 nations, we celebrated. When Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia, Montenegro, and Kosovo broke from Serbia, we rejoiced. Why, then, the indignation when two provinces, whose peoples are ethnically separate from Georgians and who fought for their independence, should succeed in breaking away?

Are secessions and the dissolution of nations laudable only when they advance the agenda of the neocons, many of whom viscerally detest Russia?” (Read more from antiwar.com)

Other headlines:

Spinning the issue:
-Georgia loses the fight with Russia, but manages to win the PR war.
-From the Jerusalem Post: “As the Russian bear plunges its claws into the heart of its much smaller neighbor Georgia. . . .”
-From BBCnews: “[Ossetians] are very clear who they blame: Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili, who sent troops to re-take control of this breakaway region. That effort has clearly backfired. The pro-Russian sentiment I experienced on my last visit four years ago has become far fiercer as a result of this conflict.”
-Bush Says Russia Must Stop ‘Bullying’ Georgia.
-from NY Times: “Russians Push Past Separatist Area to Assault Central Georgia”
-from CNN: “Commentary: Russian bombs’ message is ‘this is for America’”
-from Al Jazeera: “Russian forces sink Georgian ships”
-from Pravda.ru via indybay.org: “Georgia’s Aggression and Atrocities: US presidential runoff John McCain said that Russia should not interfere in the conflict in South Ossetia. The pro-Georgian propaganda in the US media testifies to the same opinion. It brings up the idea that the Georgian aggression against the unrecognized republic of South Ossetia has been coordinated with the US administration.”
-Despite our call for peace and a unilateral ceasefire separatists continued the shelling of Georgian villages,” it quoted Mamuka Kurashvili as saying. “We are forced to restore constitutional order in the whole region.”
-Hezbollah Leader Nasrallah: ‘Failed’ IDF generals caused Georgia defeat in war.

The US connection:
-Both McCain and Obama’s advisors want war in Georgia
-McCain Adviser Was Lobbyist for Georgia
-Troops from Atlanta will train in Republic of Georgia(Jul 14)
-U.S. Military Instructors Command Hirelings in Georgia (Aug 11) “Thousands of mercenaries are fighting for Georgia in this burning conflict with South Ossetia. They are commanded by the U.S. military instructors, RIA Novosti reported with reference to a high-ranked officer of Russia’s military intelligence.”
-US troops still in Georgia (Aug 12)
-U.S. to take control of Georgian ports: Saakashvili (Aug 13)

The Israel Connection:
-Georgia president denies Israel halted military aid due to war
“‘The Israeli weapons have proved very effective,’ he said at a press conference at his office. When asked whether the Israeli arms played a role in the military successes he claimed the Georgian army had achieved, he joked: ‘Are you asking me as a representative of Elbit or of Israel Aerospace Industries?’
To a reporter’s question about Jews who have fled the fighting and come to Israel, he said: ‘We have two Israeli cabinet ministers, one deals with war [Defense Minister David Kezerashvili], and the other with negotiations [State Minister for Territorial Integration Temur Yakobashvili], and that is the Israeli involvement here: Both war and peace are in the hands of Israeli Jews.’
Yakobashvili is actually not an Israeli citizen. Saakashvili’s statements are part of his government’s attempt to bring other countries into its war against Russia.”
-exerpt from Haaretz.com: “Brig. Gen. (Res.) Gal Hirsch was the commander of the Israel Defense Forces’ Galilee Brigade when reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were abducted by Hezbollah on the northern border, sparking the Second Lebanon War. He operates a privately-owned Israeli military contractors that recently trained Georgian security forces .”

About Ukraine:
-Ukrainians wonder what Georgia crisis means for them
-“Ukraine threatened to blockade the Russian Black Sea Fleet yesterday in an act of solidarity with Georgia that risked escalating the conflict.” I worry this escalation, along with the issue of Sevastopol might bring Russian “peace keepers” to Crimea.

Misc:
-PHOTOS from the conflict (graphic)

“Most corporations, including the vast majority of foreign companies doing business in the United States, pay no income taxes, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Tuesday.

During the eight-year period covered by the report, 72 percent of foreign-owned corporations went at least one year without owing taxes, and the same was true for 55 percent of domestic corporations.”

(Read more from cqpolitics.com)

“A new report by the conservative Rand Corporation calls the so-called ‘War on Terrorism’ fundamentally flawed, doomed to failure. The study pulls the rug from under John McCain who had promised not just more of the same old horse dung but perhaps another one hundred, another ’10,000 years’ of war against Iraq!

Saying that the US should ‘re-think’ the so-called ‘war on terrorism’, the report claims that Bush failed to meet his own stated objectives. It was, the report concludes, the wrong approach to begin with.” (Read more from existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com)

Read actual RAND report “U.S. Should Rethink ‘War On Terrorism’ Strategy to Deal with Resurgent Al Qaida”

From an interview with former CIA agent, author Robert Baur in Mens’ Journal May ’08:

“We’re going on seven years in Afghanistan, and the Taliban are still closing down schools in Kandahar. It’s a joke. And Iraq is a corpse that Petraeus keeps putting lipstick on to make it look like it’s still alive. All the Iraqis are doing is cooperating to get American arms. Petraeus says it’s thanks to Iran that they’re keeping the peace. That’s an extraordinary statement: Our main Middle Eastern enemy is keeping the peace for us? We’re fucked. What to do? Come home. Just come home. Impose visas, make sure you know who’s coming into your country, lock the cockpit doors, and be nice to Muslims here. The worst thing to do is to continually shed Muslim blood.”

You said it bro. “Just come home.” I’ll point out, however, that Ron Paul said it first.