Furkan Dogan

Montana man gets two weeks
jail time every Christmas for five years,
“to keep him out of trouble.”

You may or may not have heard that Israeli commandos brutally slaughtered a helpless American citizen during the attempt that was made by Turkish ships to stop the blockade of Gaza. Furkan Dogan, a 19 year-old American citizen of Turkish descent was shot at least twice in the head from close range as he was lying helpless on the deck. Why is this not reported with outrage on the part of the U.S.? Why, because it was done by Israelis, our best buddies in the Middle East, buddies that have killed American previously and spied on us for years. It seems there is nothing Israelis can do, no matter how unbelievably awful or horrifying, that the U.S. refuses to accept. As far as peace between Israel and the Palestinians goes, forget about it. Palestinians have said they will not continue negotiations unless Israel freezes the settlements. Israel has refused. What more do you need to know? The Palestinians may decide to continue anyway, as they obviously have no choice if they are serious about wanting peace, but it is perfectly clear the Israelis do not want peace, do not want a Palestinian state, and, indeed, according to the PM “There will never be peace until the Palestinians are expelled.” Now that is a real framework for a serious peace! What if the Palestinians say there will never be peace as long as Israel exists? No, that would be grounds for further genocide. I have to say it again, I do not believe the Israelis are serious about making peace, I do not believe they want to give up even an inch of the land or a gallon of water they have already stolen from the Palestinians, I do not believe they are negotiating in good faith, and, as the U.S. is so clearly on their side, and they have such overwhelming superiority and command of the situation because of our one-sided commitment, there will never be peace. The U.S. could change this, but of course we won’t, and things will muddle on until some future date when perhaps a miracle will occur.

The hypocrisy of the United States is so obvious, so blatant, so excruciatingly awful, it might well be considered the eighth wonder of the world. Eight Iranians are now being put on a blacklist (I guess some kind of financial blacklist) because they engaged in torture and other illegalities during the recent upheavals in Iran. Those Iranians! How awful! They tortured people and did other bad things! They must be punished! But not so for George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and the rest of our own torturers and war criminals. They just blissfully live out their wealthy comfortable lives with apparently no fear of being held to even minimal standards of accountability. I must have some serious misunderstanding of American law and the Constitution because I thought war criminals must be held accountable. I guess that means only non-American war criminals.

Back to Christine O’Donnell and the Republicans for a moment: not only has Ms. Airhead claimed masturbation is a form of adultery, that evolution is a myth, that mice have been created with fully functioning human brains, and she is guilty of the criminal use of her campaign funds, it now turns out she has lied about her education. These are facts. There is also a rumor (I think it may be just a rumor) that she was once caught cheating in school. A real winner, this O’Donnell, who remains an official candidate of the Republican Party that is supporting her in spite of her obvious, shall we way, shortcomings.. Just imagine the important contributions she could make to our Senate, already choked with enough morons to keep anything positive from ever happening (at least as long as we have a Black Democratic President threatening to take away their license to steal). Having now voted against the middle class at every opportunity, voted against extending unemployment benefits, against a plan to keep jobs in America, having announced they will try to repeal the recent health care provisions, as well as privatizing Social Security, VA Hospitals, and most everything else, and having voted “no” for anything proposed by President Obama (even things they once proposed themselves), plus having brought about the worst recession since the 1930’s, and having no articulate plan of their own for the future, they believe they should be returned to power. You know what is truly “sick” about this? They could possibly win.

LKBIQ:
The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.
H. L. Mencken

TILT:
The closest relative to the giraffe is the okapi.