by masthead · Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008
guest post from Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster:
In the days that lie ahead, we’re going to hear a lot of rhetoric about restoring America’s moral standing after eight years of the Bush Administration, doing collective teshuvah for the sins of our nation.
President-elect Obama has been. And again, in his 60 Minutes interview, he stated that he wanted to end torture and close Guantanamo, that “[t]hese are part and parcel of an effort to regain America’s moral stature in the world.” He said something similar when he accepted the Democratic nomination. Part of the collective teshuvah is holding him to his word. Calls for an Executive Order against torture during the first 100 days of the Obama presidency have been issued by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, Human Rights Watch, and the Center for Constitutional Rights, among others. An Executive Order would be more than symbolic. The Bush Administration’s expansive view of the powers of the Executive Branch allowed them to circumvent American laws and treaty obligations, including those outlawing torture.
But we shouldn’t assume that this is case-closed. Already, reports have appeared (and have been critiqued) that Obama may not revoke the CIA’s ability to use harsh interrogation techniques that the military is prohibited from using. This backtracking, if true, would be a major blow in the effort to end torture. After all, many of us in the anti-torture lobby used to quote John McCain (author of the Detainee Treatment Act) until he decided at some point during the Presidential campaign that it was okay for the CIA to torture. Torture isn’t suddenly effective because the CIA is using it.
I would also argue that ending torture is not simply a top-down cause. We all have to be part of the national teshuvah and take responsibility for what we, the people, have done. The limited public outcry against torture (and many other civil liberties issues such as wiretapping) gave no incentive to stop doing it. Torture happened over there, to someone else. And with all the depictions in popular culture of torture being effective, many Americans want to believe that torture keeps us safer.
I wish I didn’t believe that last sentence, but I do. I work to raise the awareness of the Jewish community about ending torture, and I’ve noticed something disturbing. On the one hand, many Jews I speak to understand that Judaism is against torture and that torture doesn’t work. They don’t want to talking about the halachic reasons—they just want to know what they can do to end it. But when I press deeper, something else is uncovered. If torture did work, if it truly gave real intelligence that kept us safer, if the ticking time bomb wasn’t just a mythical scenario…then its harder to get them to say they are against torture.
This is the moral legacy of the past eight years. Deep down, we’ve bought the message of the Bush Administration’s dark side. Now we need to do teshuvah. President Obama needs to hear from us.
And here’s how:
• Go to http://change.gov/page/s/ofthepeople.
• Fill out your contact information. Write “torture” in the “another issue” box.
• In the “Your ideas” box, explain why you believe torture is wrong. A sample statement might be: “As a Jewish American, I am deeply troubled by our nation’s use of torture. The Jewish tradition urges us not to oppress the stranger, because we were strangers in the land the Egypt, and implores us to honor the image of God in every person. Torture goes against these values and against everything America stands for as a country. Please act to end U.S.-sponsored torture by issuing an executive order based on the Declaration of Principles endorsed by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.”
• Then click “submit form.”
Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster is the Director of Education and Outreach for Rabbis for Human Rights-North America, where she directs K’vod Habriot: A Jewish Human Rights Network.
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Sunday, November 2nd, 2008
Last week, Salon’s Glenn Greenwald took on the continuing Nareshkeit about how Obama has a Jewish problem, how our grannies aren’t voting for Obama, and so on ad nauseum. Greenwald gives as examples a tediously long list of media and blatherers who have claimed this, such as,
then-Weekly-Standard blogger and now McCain campaign spokesman Michael Goldfarb, who claimed earlier this year:
Obama has a Jewish problem, whether or not it’s merely guilt by association is irrelevant. Politics is about perception, and the perception is that Obama’s one step removed from the Nation of Islam.
he includes such theoretically reliable (I don’t think so, but then I think all the corporate media are basically shills anyway) such as U.S. News & World Report (”the uneasy evolution of Obama’s relationship with a wide swath of the nation’s Jewish voters,” ) The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, and The Miami Herald.
Well, guess what? Sarah Silverman, don’t go around thinking that Bubbe and Zayde are dumb or bigoted just because they’re old, ‘kay? Turns out they’re just fine, thanks, along with the rest of us.
On the 23rd, Gallup finally brought out its support for those who have been actually paying attention to facts, rather than MSU (Making Sh** Up) - debunkers including The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder, back in March, ABC News’ Jan Crawford Greenberg in May, and Salon’s own Mike Madden, also in May.
Here’s what Gallup had to say:
Jewish voters nationwide have grown increasingly comfortable with voting for Barack Obama for president since the Illinois senator secured the Democratic nomination in June. They now favor Obama over John McCain by more than 3 to 1, 74% to 22%. . .
…support for Obama among Jewish voters has expanded …from the low 60% range in June and July to 66% in August, 69% in September, and 74% today.
The current proportion of U.S. Jews backing Obama is identical to the level of support the Democratic ticket of John Kerry and John Edwards received in the 2004 presidential election (74%) . . .
In a slightly later released Quinnipiac poll, Obama is shown leading in Florida 77 - 20 percent among Jews.
So, now can we quit hearing from the right how only the ones who want to convert us really love us and will protect our interests? Cause, you know, guys, we just aren’t falling for that crap again. Bubbe is smarter than you.
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Thursday, June 12th, 2008
Just a few hours ago, the Supreme Court made a very important ruling that the U.S. Constitution applies to Guantánamo Bay, and thus that detainees held at Guantánamo have a right to challenge their detention in federal court,through habeas corpus.
As the ACLU email release notes, this is a long-awaited assertion, as Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote in today’s decision, that “The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times.”
As opposed to powerful people using times of crises to grab power and abuse it, thank you very much.
The AP timeline shows quite clearly the extraordinary lengths to which the Bush administration has gone to try to find ways to abuse the presidential powers by keeping detainees, trials and of course, its dirty little secrets of all kinds, secret. Hopefully, this will be the final blow (although I daren’t hope) to Bush’s nasty little secret power grab. Not only should times of crisis not upend our safeguards, but someone should teach our current administration that it is indeed precisely for those times that the safeguards were written.
AP notes that, this decision also, “resurrected nearly 200 detainee cases that had been on hold in the Washington federal courthouse.”
.
by Kol Ra'ash Gadol · Monday, September 10th, 2007
Ok, I grant you, I’m a little behind in posting this; 
last Tuesday, I was listening to NPR on my way to a doctor’s appointment, and since recently someone commented on one of my other posts how nice Jewschool has been since Mobius and his self-hating self was gone (although thankfully, he wasn’t and proceeded to prove it by commenting himself) and with him apparently all dissent in favor of sweetness and light and imbecility, I feel very fortunate to have caught this pair of interviews on Fresh Air (here’s the other). These two interviews are those of Stephen Walt of the infamous Walt and Mearsheimer, commenting on their book The Israel Lobby, and Abe Foxman, being interviewed on his rebuttal of their book in his book, The Deadliest Lies.
Now before I begin, I have to admit that I have read neither of the books in question, neither Walt and Mearsheimer’s, nor Foxman’s (which I should do, and will), and so I have to grant that how incredibly reasonable and even-handed Walt came off, and how frothing and foolish Foxman sounded, could simply be, for either, or both, of them, a matter of presentation or an artifact of the medium, or a coincidence of a bad (or good) confluence of the type of questions they were asked.
But I don’t think so. Walt was interviewed first, which in theory (assuming the interviews were actually in real time) ought to mean that Foxman should have heard what he said and been able to respond to it. But in truth, there wasn’t really all that much to respond to. Oh, I could certainly wish that W&M knew more about the various organizations in the Jewish community opposed to the policies of the Israel right or wrong no criticism crowd. But it was clear that he had heard of them. And, on the other hand, Walt certainly made it clear that he was aware that the organizations that support the “pro-Israel lobby” (*quotes, because I understand that those so called, are not necessarily those who are bringing about results beneficial to Israel) don’t actually represent the majority of Jews in the USA. He said so outright. He was also clear that although there are certainly Jews in the political allies of the so-called Israel lobby, Jews are not the only ones who are pushing for the policies which he is analyzing as problematic (and which many , many Jews have also called on for analysis, too) -and he names names, off the top of his head, of non-Jews and some non-Jewish organizations who fall into that category, as well. So the charge of antisemitism is hard to make stick, especially when he also noted that there is nothing wrong with lobbying-that Greeks and Poles and Irish, and Airline pilots and teachers all do it, and that it’s a part of our political system and perfectly okay, but that that is also why it is so essentially important that no one be above the possibility of analysis and critique. If whenever one questions any policy decision, for any reason, one is labeled as an anti-Semite, that can be no good for anyone in a free society.
Walt also stated, correctly, that anyone trying to make hay out of the connection between the neo-cons and the Jews was off in left field, given that Jews were less likely to support the Iraq war than the general population, making any accusation of Jews responsibility for the war completely absurd. In fact, his main point seemed to be that, although they believe themselves to be acting for the benefit of BOTH the USA and Israel, this group of conservatives that he is calling the Israel lobby are quite likely not doing any favors for either.
More »
by Mobius · Sunday, July 29th, 2007
The son of a good family who stole apples from a cart did not become a thief overnight. The deed has its roots in previous generations. Perhaps his very pious grandfather hid behind the bimah of the synagogue in the name of humility, but the act contained a trace of deception (geneivas daas) because he was acting more pious than he really was. His scholarly son went a step further and “stole” chiddushei Torah from other scholars by reciting them in his own name. The grandson, in turn, became an apple thief.
–Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, the Alter of Slabodka
***
If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator.
–George W. Bush
Last week the BBC uncovered evidence of President George W. Bush’s grandfather Prescott Bush’s involvement in a 1933 plot to overthrow FDR in a famous coup that would have replaced American democracy with a fascist dictatorship. The coup was the subject of the acclaimed 1973 book The Plot to Seize the White House.
Document uncovers details of a planned coup in the USA in 1933 by right-wing American businessmen.
The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell Hse & George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression.
Mike Thomson investigates why so little is known about this biggest ever peacetime threat to American democracy.
Listen to the entire documentary here.
The BBC’s revelation is compounded by the fact that Bush and his partner E. Roland Harriman served as allies of Fritz Thyssen, the German industrialist who financed Hitler’s ascent to power and the Nazi war machine. Bush and Harriman’s bank, the Union Banking Corp., was seized under the Trading With The Enemy Act in 1942. Harriman was also a major financial contributor to the American eugenics movement, which advocated, among other things, the forced sterilization of non-white Americans.
The current president’s policies seem to be an extension of his grandfather’s thinking. Bush’s latest string of Executive Orders are so disconcertingly undemocratic and un-American that even the Right-wing is growing leery. Last week, Bush signed an order that would enable him to seize the financial assets of anti-war activists. And in his most troubling move to date, on May 9, Bush signed an order that states that in the event of another terror attack on U.S. soil, the legislative and judicial branches of government would become subservient to the executive. This move is precisely how Hitler concretized his power following the Reichstag fire.
Of course, this is not to say that Bush is a genocidal maniac, but rather that his policies pose an existential threat to American democracy.
Welcome to the new fascist era, kids.
Don’t say we never warned you.
[Update 7/29 10:15PM]
From: Daniel Sieradski
Subject: Question on Godwin’s Law
Date: July 29, 2007 3:59:52 PM EDT
To: Mike Godwin
Hi Mike,
My name is Dan Sieradski and I’m the editor-in-chief of Jewschool.com [...] I contacted you once before, I believe, with regards to a panel I had attempted to put together that explored the question “when is it okay to call someone a Nazi.”
Sadly, it never came together. Nonetheless, this issue is still pertinent, especially now with Bush’s passage of an executive order on May 9 that would make the legislative and judicial branches of government subservient to the executive in the event of another terror attack on U.S. soil. (Details here.) As you may be aware, following the Reichstag fire, this is precisely the procedure Hitler used to concretize his power.
I was just wondering if you could offer a perfunctory statement to my readers on this matter, seeing as how that, in response to making a comparison between these two policies, I have been accused of violating, well, your law.
The question is, essentially, why is it out of bounds to draw comparisons between specific policies of the Hitler and Bush regimes that achieve the exact same ends (in this case, eradicating constitutional checks and balances and enshrining the authority of the executive)?
I’ve CC’d Rabbi Dr. Michael Berenbaum, former director of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, who has taken the position that it is never acceptable to draw comparisons to Hitler, and who on this subject, I also invite to offer his thoughts.
___
Daniel “Mobius” Sieradski
***
From: Mike Godwin
Subject: Re: Question on Godwin’s Law
Date: July 29, 2007 8:04:36 PM EDT
To: Daniel Sieradski
Hi, Daniel.
I get requests like yours from time to time, and my best answer has been to refrain from telling anyone whether it’s appropriate to cite or invoke Godwin’s Law (which, like any other 17-year-old, tends to operate independently from what its parent may dictate).
I will say that I crafted Godwin’s Law with an eye to keeping the memory of the Holocaust and other horrors of the Nazi era alive and in perspective — I was worried that the overuse of Nazi comparisons would trivialize a historical effort that we’d do better to remember in all its magnitude and detail.
That said, I have watched the progress of the Bush Administration with great fear and trembling, and of course I disapprove of many and perhaps most of its policies.
–Mike
Alright kids — question: How can we uphold the credo of “never again” if we view the Holocaust as a singularly unique event to which there can be no parallels ever drawn? How do we learn the lessons of the Shoah if we cannot refer to history in order to identify consistencies between history and current events, particularly when such comparisons may serve as a warning signal that may help us evade another tragedy? And with regards to the politicization of the Shoah, why is it acceptable to make comparisons between Ahmadinejad and Hitler, but not between Bush and Hitler? Discuss.
See also: “Compulsions of an Anti-Anti-Semite” @ JSpot - Keith Ellison sideswiped by ADL over Bush-Reichstag reference.
by Mobius · Monday, July 23rd, 2007
Jew-liani.
We’ve all seen it already, right?
Well, West Bank-based blogger Yisrael Medad hadn’t. And even if he had, he apparently wouldn’t have gotten the joke. Which is cool and all — you wouldn’t normally expect an Orthodox religious settler to get all that D.C. politico insider baseball. Guys like Medad usually have other areas of expertise, like say, halakhic proofs legitimizing ethnic cleansing.
At any rate, in a nod to the brilliance of said video, Wonkette’s been on a roll with a tongue-in-cheek if mildly disconcerting branding of Rudy as “Jew-liani” in various posts to their blog. If anything, Medad should have accused Wonkette of serving that dish far past its expiration date. What was that, a month ago guys?
But instead, being unfamiliar with both the video and Wonkette’s naughty charm, Medad wheeled out the antisemitism charge, setting off a round of denunciations throughout the right-wing blogosphere.
Wonkette editor Ken Layne responded in poor fashion, going so far as to allude to taking possible legal action against Medad. He later followed up with a retraction and cited an inbox full of Lizard Freeper hatemail as the source of his outrage. Being familiar with the experience, I can empathize.
I wonder, had Jon Stewart made the same joke, would Medad have reacted in the same way?
~~~
If Medad really wants to go after an antisemitic website, he should investigate why it is that every time I post a comment to this article on Digg challenging Reagan-era economist Paul Craig Roberts’ assertion that the Mossad is conspiring with Bush to fake terror attacks in America, it gets voted out of existence.
by Mobius · Monday, July 16th, 2007
Headed down to DC this past weekend with Kol Zimrah (a NYC-based indie congregation in which many Jewschoolers participate) for a pow-wow with Tikkun Leil Shabbat (a DC-based indie congregation in which, likewise, many Jewschoolers participate). We took over the Religious Action Center’s headquarters for an evening of songful praise and a bangin’ veggie potluck, followed by a big ol’ picnic in Malcolm X Park (or Meridian Hill or whatever it’s government name is) Shabbos afternoon.
In the evening, following seudah shlishit, we attended a fundraiser for Jews United for Justice, hosted by Jewschooler Backbeat (who was also part of the live musical entertainment). Photos of the evening’s festivities here.
After spending yesterday recovering, I headed over to Silver Spring for a community poetry reading at the new Moishe House which became an impromptu klezmer party when the Vulgar Bulgars (a central VA-based and incidentally non-Jewish klezmer band) showed up to rock the house down.
Yes — we’re aware of the 9 days and all… But how could you pass this up?
Photos from the Moishe House event here.
Is it any wonder I’m looking for work in the DC area right now? This place is hoppin’!
by Mobius · Friday, June 22nd, 2007
The NJDC today was apoplectic at the GOP’s partisan rejection of a foreign aid bill yesterday that would have provided Israel with $2.4 billion in funding.
“After all their rhetoric about supporting Israel, Republicans yesterday placed politics above the U.S.-Israel relationship,” wrote NJDC Executive Director Ira N. Forman in a press release issued this morning. “By claiming to support Israel from one corner of their mouths, while telling Members to vote against billions in aid from the other corner, the Republican leaders have engaged in a sad, cynical act of political hypocrisy. For years, support for the foreign aid bill has been a top priority of the pro-Israel community. This vote was a real blow to the bipartisan consensus that we’ve worked so hard to develop on Israel.”
In toll, 164 out of 195 Republicans voted against the bill, which passed 241-178 in the House.
The JTA reported today on the GOP’s position:
Republicans opposed the overall bill because it restores some funding for contraception aid to overseas groups that provide abortions. Rejecting such funding has been a Republican red line for over two decades.
The Senate has yet to consider its own version of the bill. If the amendment restoring the funding survives the Senate-House conference, President Bush is sworn to vetoing it.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbied hard for the inclusion in the bill of $2.4 billion in defense assistance for Israel and another $40 million in refugee assistance.
In a P.S. attached to a memo to all Republicans instructing them to vote “no,” minority leader Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio.) adds: “Members are advised that the Leadership has drafted a letter to AIPAC affirming Republican support for Israel funding, not withstanding final passage of this bill. This letter will be available for Members to sign at the Leadership Desk on the floor tonight. A copy of that letter is attached.”
The NJDC, as usual, seems to have jumped the gun and made themselves, and Democrats in general, look ridiculous by engaging in the same sort of excessive hyperbole for which most Jewish liberals denounce Republicans. I mean, come on– The GOP “placed politics above the U.S.-Israel relationship?” What an absurd contention. The U.S.-Israel relationship is politics. “G-d forbid our politicians should be playing politics!” What the hell are we paying them for? To play pinochle?
I think the more fascinating issue here is that of the GOP’s hierarchy of priorities, of which the NJDC made no mention.
This incident evidences the fact that pandering to Christian fundamentalists (by denying contraception to AIDS-stricken nations, thus causing millions to die annually — how Christ-like!) is a greater priority than bolstering Israel, America’s most committed ally in the War on Terror™. According to the GOP’s own talking points, without the U.S.’s ardent support of Israel, the fate of Western civilization in-and-of-itself lies at risk. Yet nonetheless, in this case, Christian “sexual ethics” have trumped our national security interests. More fascinating than even this fact, though, is that Christian groups that are likewise committed to Israel’s defense for theological reasons here have put “sexual ethics” before even fulfilling the criteria of the Second Coming.
Now’s a great opportunity for Israel’s Jewish swing-voting supporters to ask themselves some serious questions, like:
Are Republicans really better for Israel if their bizarre need to impose conservative Christian values on third-world nations is allowed to stand in the way of supporting Israel?
And likewise, is getting GOP support for Israel really worth the cost of, in this case, millions of AIDS victims lives? Should we support the GOP’s decision to push for a separate bill just to suit Israel’s needs, while davka, leaving the poor and the sick behind?
And finally, if you’re a God-fearing Christian fundamentalist who believes in the Second Coming and the defense of Israel as an a priori of that event, is the prohibition of sex that’s not intended for procreation really more important than saving lives, both in AIDS-stricken nations and in terror-threatened ones?
It’s something to think on…
by Mobius · Friday, May 25th, 2007
Ariel Sharon and Congressman Tom Lantos
It’s hard to be mad at Tom Lantos.
First of all, he’s a dyed-in-the-wool progressive. As Wikipedia notes,
Lantos is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and has repeatedly called for reforms to the nation’s health-care system, reduction of the national budget deficit and the national debt, repeal of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, and has opposed Social Security privatization efforts. He supports gay marriage rights and marijuana for medical use, is a strong proponent of gun control and is adamantly pro-choice.
Lantos is a well-known advocate on behalf of the environment, receiving consistently high ratings from the League of Conservation Voters and other environmental organizations for his legislative record
“One of us! One of us!”
But what makes Lantos even more admirable and worthy of my respect is the fact that he risked his own life for the sake of his fellow Jews as a member of the Hungarian Underground resistance, and despite being captured and brutally beaten by the Nazis, he survived the war and lived on to become the first-and-only Shoah survivor in the U.S. Congress.
Lantos has credibility, as far as I’m concerned. His experience lends authority and weight to his voice. Which is why I’m so troubled by Mr. Lantos’ proposed resolution [PDF], “Relating to the 40th anniversary of the reunification of the City of Jerusalem,” which upholds The Official Zionist Narrative™ as the capital-T “Truth” and as the final word on the status of Jerusalem as “the eternal, undivided capital” of Israel.
More »
by Mobius · Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
As I mentioned in my post on the latest WJC scandal, I desire to see a MoveOn-like organization that would empower Jewish individuals to have more direct democratic control of the Jewish communal agenda. While the fulfillment of this vision is quite a ways off (it will take at least two years to build up such an organization) there is at least some light on the horizon.
Often, when I publicly fantasize about “a Jewish MoveOn,” people say to me, “but MoveOn is the Jewish MoveOn,” citing the prevalence of Jews in both MoveOn’s leadership and constituency. While that’s certainly true — there are a lot of Jews involved with MoveOn — there is nonetheless nothing about MoveOn that lends the authority of the wider Jewish community’s voice to the positions of the MoveOn community. It is a secular organization, comprised of not only Jews, but the wider American progressive community. Furthermore, MoveOn does not focus on internal Jewish community issues, nor on the America-Israel relationship.
Now, thankfully, moving us further in this direction, there is JSpot.
Though its scope is limited to domestic social issues (ie., it too says nothing of foreign policy nor of internal Jewish community issues), JSpot has just launched a remarkable new initiative that invites the wider American Jewish community to participate in setting our own policy agenda as a Jewish community.
What are your priorities for 2008? Child care, civil rights, education, the environment, health care, housing, immigration, Katrina/Rita relief, seniors, wages? Pick your top five issues and JSpot will average out the top five of greatest concern to all participants, and forward our collectively-drafted agenda to all the 2008 presidential candidates, along with our signatures and a request for their stated positions on these issues.
Again, this is a direct democratic initiative, and one that provides a clear alternative to both the JCRC bureaucracy-driven representative model and the Conference of Presidents oligarchic model. This gives you, the individual, the power to call the shots, rather than entrusting so-called “Jewish leaders” to decide on our behalf that which is in our own best interests.
It’s a great start, and hopefully something that will grow into a more concrete and powerful initiative over the course of the 2008 campaign cycle, and perhaps within American domestic politics in general, in the coming years.
Kol hakavod l’JSpot.
by Mobius · Sunday, May 6th, 2007
Dana Milbank reports in WaPo:
Let us pray.
Let us pray that, on next year’s National Day of Prayer, there is better attendance at the “Bible Reading Marathon” on the West Front of the Capitol.
Organizers put out 600 folding chairs on the lawn — the spot where presidents are inaugurated — and set up a huge stage with powerful amplifiers. But at 9:30 a.m. yesterday, not one of the 600 seats was occupied. By 11 a.m., as a woman read a passage from Revelations, attendance had grown — to four people. Finally, at 1 p.m., 37 of the 600 seats were occupied, though many of those people were tourists eating lunch.
Where was everybody?
“This isn’t that kind of event,” explained Jeff Gannon, spokesman for the host, the International Bible Reading Association. Gannon, actually a pseudonym for James Guckert, had earned fame in 2005 representing a conservative Web site at White House briefings until it was revealed that he posted nude pictures of himself on the Web to offer his services as a $200-an-hour gay escort.
Let us pray for the power to understand how Gannon made his way from HotMilitaryStud.com to the International Bible Reading Association.
Full story.
by Mobius · Sunday, April 15th, 2007
Muriel Kane writes,
There’s been a fair amount of attention paid to the Republican Jewish Coalition lately as a result of their sponsorship of an ad swiftboating Nancy Pelosi for her trip to Syria. Most of the analysis I’ve seen has focused on links between the RJC and the Bush administration — most notably Sam Fox, recently recess-appointed by Bush as ambassador to Belgium, who headed the RJC until just a few months ago. The current RJC leadership also includes such GOP stalwarts as Ari Fleisher, Ken Mehlman, and the ever-slimy Mel Sembler.
However, when I checked through my notes and files, I found that the largest number of mentions of the RJC involved a less well-known member of the board of directors named Fred Zeidman.
In related news, The Forward reports,
Sam Fox, President Bush’s controversial recess appointment as ambassador to Belgium, is vowing to continue donating to political candidates during his time in Brussels while forgoing contributions to 527s, the campaign vehicle that sparked the recent political firestorm that derailed his Senate confirmation.
by Mobius · Sunday, April 8th, 2007
There you go: Laura Bush visiting al Aqsa wearing a hijab. Will the right-wing kindly shut up about Pelosi now?
Haaretz has been abuzz with chatter about backchannel peace talks between Israel and Syria for months now. As far as I can tell, Pelosi just tried to give the motion some traction. That’s not coddling terrorists.
This is coddling terrorists:
Now that the U.S. Congress is investigating the truth of President George W. Bush’s statements about the Iraq war, they might look into one of his most startling assertions: that there was a link between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.
Critics dismissed that as an invention. They were wrong. There was a link, but not the one Bush was selling. The link between Hussein and Bin Laden was their banker, BCCI. But the link went beyond the dictator and the jihadist — it passed through Saudi Arabia and stretched all the way to George W. Bush and his father.
BCCI was the Bank of Credit and Commerce International, a dirty offshore bank that then-President Ronald Reagan’s Central Intelligence Agency used to run guns to Hussein, finance Osama bin Laden, move money in the illegal Iran-Contra operation and carry out other “agency” black ops. The Bushes also benefited privately; one of the bank’s largest Saudi investors helped bail out George W. Bush’s troubled oil investments.
Full story.
by Mobius · Thursday, April 5th, 2007
That shit weasel!
The AP reports,
President Bush named Republican fundraiser [and head of the Republican Jewish Coalition] Sam Fox as U.S. ambassador to Belgium on Wednesday, using a maneuver that allowed him to bypass Congress, where Democrats had derailed Fox’s nomination.
The appointment, made while lawmakers were out of town on spring break, prompted angry rebukes from Democrats, who said Bush’s action may even be illegal.
[...]
Recognizing Fox did not have the votes to obtain Senate confirmation in the Foreign Relations Committee, Bush withdrew the nomination last week. On Wednesday, with the Senate on a one-week break, the president used his power to make recess appointments to put Fox in the job without Senate confirmation.
This means Fox can remain ambassador until the end of the next session of Congress, effectively through the end of the Bush presidency.
Full story.
by Mobius · Thursday, April 5th, 2007
The Nation’s David Corn writes,
Every day, the presidential campaigns email to reporters press releases touting the endorsements they have most recently snagged. On Tuesday morning, the John McCain campaign, stinging from the news that its first-quarter fundraising efforts were anemic, zapped out word that GOP moneyman Fred Malek is joining the McCain team as a national finance co-chair. [...] The McCain press shop left out an interesting piece of Malek’s history: when he counted Jews for President Richard Nixon.
[...] Nixon summoned the White House personnel chief, Fred Malek, to his office to discuss a “Jewish cabal” in the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The “cabal,” Nixon said, was tilting economic figures to make his Administration look bad. How many Jews were there in the bureau? he wanted to know. Malek reported back on the number, and told the President that the bureau’s methods of weighing statistics were normal procedure that had been in use for years.
Full story. More at Media Matters.
by Mobius · Wednesday, March 28th, 2007
The AP reports,
As one of the GOP’s most prominent national fundraisers, Sam Fox should have an easy road to an appealing diplomatic post.
But Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and other Democrats are raising concerns about Fox’s nomination to be ambassador to Belgium because of a $50,000 contribution Fox made in 2004 to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
[...]
“U.S. Ambassadors need to be both responsible and credible, and Mr. Fox’s support for an organization known to have spread falsehoods illustrates neither,” said [Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.], who is seeking the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
Fox, 77, of St. Louis, is national chairman of the Jewish Republican Coalition and has donated well over $1 million to Republican candidates and causes since the 1990s, according to Federal Election Commission records. He was deemed a “ranger” by President Bush’s campaign for helping to raise at least $200,000.
The nomination was hurriedly withdrawn earlier this afternoon.
by Mobius · Wednesday, March 21st, 2007
Vice President Dick Cheney will be the featured speaker Saturday at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s winter meeting in Manalapan.
Cheney will speak during the organization’s dinner at the Ritz Carlton, which recently reopened after being closed for eight months for a $60 million renovation.
Totally the guy I want to speak at my convention.
by Mobius · Saturday, March 17th, 2007
- “On March 13, the same day House Appropriations Chairman David R. Obey, D-Wis., said he had removed the Iran provision from the draft war spending measure, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., quietly promised Appropriations Committee Democrats that she would soon bring the measure up as a stand-alone bill, said James P. Moran, D-Va., who attended the meeting in Pelosi’s suite.”
- “Taming Leviathan”: The Economist chimes in on the divide between liberal American Jews and AIPAC.
- Sarah Posner @ The American Prospect: “In anticipation of Hagee’s appearance at AIPAC’s conference, there has been much discussion about whether Hagee is actually an anti-Semite who blames Jews for the Holocaust yet anticipates their conversion at the Second Coming — and another debate over whether it’s actually good for Israel or the world’s Jews when groups like AIPAC ally themselves with him. But judging from the crowd’s reaction, and that of delegates I spoke with afterwards, none of that mattered. Like other Jewish leaders I’ve talked to about Hagee, the attitude is simply that Israel has very few friends, and it needs all the friends it can get. If Hagee is willing to mobilize hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of conservative Christians to the cause, then they’re willing to overlook his eagerness for the Second Coming (when we’ll all become Christians), because it’s just a silly fantasy that won’t come to pass, anyway.”
- “Defense lawyers and media organizations are objecting to what they say is a government effort to bar the public from the upcoming trial of two pro-Israel lobbyists charged with violating U.S. espionage laws.”
- Cenk Uygur @ HuffPo: “If they represented what was in Israel’s best interest, why on God’s green earth would they have lobbied for the Iraq War? All that war has done is destabilize the region, created more Sunni and Shiite extremists - both of whom hate Israel, and strengthened Iran. The Iraq War has been an utter disaster for Israel. And yet the so-called Israeli lobby lobbied for it. Now, they are doing the same with Iran. And if you thought the Iraq War turned out badly for Israel, wait till you get a load of the Iran War.”
- Jewish Analysts Investigating Peace and Conflict (JAIPAC): “Most experts predict that an assault on Iran will produce immediate retaliation against U.S. and British troops in the region, attacks on shipping in the Straits of Hormuz, sharp increases in the worldwide prices of oil and gas, and an explosion of violence against Israel, Jews, and United States interests around the globe. Israel could be subject to missile attacks by Iran or Hezbollah, and the war could become regional, spiraling out of control. The continuing toll of innocent life will play into extremists’ hands, creating another generation of anti-American, anti-Israel terrorists, motivating attacks here and abroad.”
