Thursday, March 06, 2008

Shame on you, Hillary

Pub owner bans “Danny Boy” for entire
month of March, Irish tear-jerker written
by Englishman who never visited there.

Apparently it turns out that the big flap about Obama assuring Candada that his threat to renegotiate NAFA was (wink, wink) just rhetoric, was actually another dirty trick of the Clinton campaign. It was someone from the Clinton campaign that called Canada but somehow Obama got the blame and, of course, by the time the truth came out, it was too late, the Ohio race was over. In any case, it is clear that Clinton blatantly lied about her support for NAFTA. She claimed to have always questioned it and thought maybe it wasn’t a good thing, and blah, blah, blah, when, in fact, she was strongly supportive of it at the time and up until now when she needed to deny it. Add this to her suggestion that McCain would be a better President than Obama because of his experience, her refusal to categorically deny that Obama might be a Muslim, and her fearmongering 3:00 a.m. ad, and I think it is eminently fair to say, SHAME ON YOU HILLARY.

In spite of almost universal condemnation from the international community Israel continues to systematically kill in Gaza, including, of course, the usual women and children. It should be clear enough by now that Israel has nothing but contempt for the United Nations and the international community in general. They have violated U.N. rules and suggestions from the very beginning and continue to do with impunity, knowing that their criminal partner, the U.S. will back them every time, no matter how egregious their behavior. Abbas, who said he would not negotiate further until Israel stopped their killing, has now been forced by Bush/Rice to rescind his statement of refusal. There can never be peace in the Middle East until Israel is forced to give up its colonial aspirations and stop stealing more and more Palestinian land. Israel will never negotiate in good faith as long as they have overwhelming military superiority and sanctioning by the U.S. Jimmy Carter is quite right on this issue, Israel promotes apartheid and is not going to change unless someone forces them to do so. One would like to assume that eventually Israel will have to go the way of South Africa and drastically change its policy.

The U.S. started a pre-emptive “war,” a blatant war crime. As might be expected other war crimes were executed as well: torture, killing of civilians, use of illegal cluster and phosphorus bombs, renditions, war profiteering, hiding of prisoners, and so on. Probably three to four million Iraqis have been uprooted from their homes and employment. Four thousand American troops killed, many thousands more maimed and crippled for life, trillions of dollars wasted, unspeakable misery so profound it is impossible to even comprehend, and what are we now upset about? A marine threw a puppy over a cliff to its death! I don’t condone the killing of helpless puppies. But I don’t condone the killing of helpless children either and there are one hell of a lot more of them than puppies. And we have ghouls like Madeleine Albright telling us “it’s all worth it.” Well, it hasn’t been and isn’t all worth it. This is in the same category as reading about some soldier or marine adopting a dog and sending it home. Or, equally as absurd, rhapsodizing over a sick child being sent to the U.S. for medical treatment after thousands and thousands of her countrymen were murdered. I’m not against this either but somehow I can’t help but see the hypocrisy and the absurdity of it all.

Now Boeing and everyone else in the U.S. is all upset because a 55 billion dollar contract for tanker aircraft went to another company, a foreign company (if there really is any such thing anymore as at least part of the planes will be manufactured in the U.S.). What I find fascinating about this is the argument that we should buy American. Doesn’t this seem to imply that we should buy American no matter how inadequate or shoddy the product? I don’t believe people started buying Japanese cars because they were not manufactured in America. They started buying them because they were better. I don’t know what kind of political factors may or may not have been involved in this decision but if the European planes are better why shouldn’t we buy them? Maybe Boeing and other American companies will eventually get the message, just like our car companies finally have, built a better mousetrap and they will come.

LKBIQ:
"The best liar is he who makes the smallest amount of lying go the longest way."
Samuel Butler

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