Pollice Verso Patriotism

Leo Tolstoy on patriotism (1900):

I have already several times expressed the thought that in our day the feeling of patriotism is an unnatural, irrational, and harmful feeling, and a cause of a great part of the ills from which mankind is suffering, and that, consequently, this feeling--should not be cultivated, as is now being done, but should, on the contrary, be suppressed and eradicated by all means available to rational men. Yet, strange to say--though it is undeniable that the universal armaments and destructive wars which are ruining the peoples result from that one feeling--all my arguments showing the backwardness, anachronism, and harmfulness of patriotism have been met, and are still met, either by silence, by intentional misinterpretation, or by a strange unvarying reply to the effect that only bad patriotism (Jingoism or Chauvinism) is evil, but that real good patriotism is a very elevated moral feeling, to condemn which is not only irrational but wicked.

[...]

One would expect the harmfulness and irrationality of patriotism to be evident to everybody. But the surprising fact is that cultured and learned men not only do not themselves notice the harm and stupidity of patriotism, but they resist every exposure of it with the greatest obstinacy and ardour (though without any rational grounds), and continue to belaud it as beneficent and elevating.

[...]

All the peoples of the so-called Christian world have been reduced by patriotism to such a state of brutality, that not only those who are obliged to kill or be killed desire slaughter and rejoice in murder, but all the people of Europe and America, living peaceably in their homes exposed to no danger, are, at each war thanks to easy means of communication and to the press--in the position of the spectators in a Roman circus, and, like them, delight in the slaughter, and raise the bloodthirsty cry, 'Pollice verso.'

Howard Zinn on Voting

A wondeful Zinn quote from the Bill Clinton era. It comes from A New Foreign Policy : Justice Without War (a terrific talk).

"People have asked me sometimes, recently: 'Are you for Clinton?' People want desperately to know what side you're on. What I have said is: 'I will be for Clinton for one minute - the minute that I'm in the voting booth, I'll be for Clinton. Before and after, I will be a harsh critic of Clinton.'"

Joe Hill sung by Phil Ochs

(h/t Rustbelt Radical)

Wikipedia tells us:

Philip David Ochs (pronounced /oʊks/) (December 19, 1940 – April 9, 1976) was a U.S. protest singer (or, as he preferred, a topical singer) and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice. He wrote hundreds of songs in the 1960s and released eight albums in his lifetime.

Ochs performed at many political events, including anti-Vietnam War and civil rights rallies, student events, and organized labor events over the course of his career, in addition to many concert appearances at such venues as New York City's Town Hall and Carnegie Hall. Politically, Ochs described himself as a "left social democrat" who became an "early revolutionary" after the protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago led to a police riot, which had a profound effect on his state of mind.

After years of prolific writing in the 1960s, Ochs's mental stability declined in the 1970s and eventually he succumbed to a number of problems including bipolar disorder and alcoholism, and he took his own life in 1976.

The Price of Pacifism

Shirley Williams on her mother, Vera Brittain (the novelist, feminist and pacifist):

"Around that time my mother was going through an extremely difficult struggle of conscience. She decided she had to come out against the saturation bombing of Dresden and Hamburg. She was a pacifist and couldn’t stay silent while civilians were deliberately being killed. She wrote a pamphlet called 'Seed of Chaos' and the roof fell in. She was forbidden to speak on the BBC. In the US she was denounced by Franklin Roosevelt. She was denounced in the House of Commons. Many of her lifelong friends cut her off. People crossed the road to avoid her. Publishers sent telegrams saying they’d never touch her work again. It was really bad."

Link to Seed of Chaos. In the United States, it was called Massacre by Bombing.

STOP VERIZON'S CLEAN COAL LIES!!!

PLEASE SIGN THIS PETION!!! Another disgraceful display of corporate arrogance. If you are a Verizon subscriber, please consider switching to CREDO, a communications company that supports environmental issues, human rights, and civil liberties. The minimal extra cost is worth a few extra cents. You may edit the Center for Biological Diversity.

The Center for Biological Diversity kindly provided me a phone number at which you can contact the Verizon headquarters—908.559.2000.

NYT

Verizon—Forged Letters

---

Now I know why I tell everyone I know not to purchase Verizon Services. Your cosponsors the upcoming “Friends of America” rally by Massey Energy, which attacks “environmental extremists” for trying to stop coal mining by mountaintop removal. Although I am not an environmental extremist, I am scientifically educated about the dangers of global warming and an opponent of endangered species protection. To act as if global warming is not a real concern indicates a corporation with no scruples.

Environmental activists--not extemists--oppose mountaintop removal: (1) coal-fired power plants are the largest single source of U.S. and global greenhouse gas emissions; and (2) mountaintop removal lays waste to entire mountains and the streams below them, which are literally buried in mining residue. Thousands of fish and other aquatic species are harmed in the process, many of them endangered species

The rally organizers are also aggressively anti-union which undermines Americans' freedom of choice and speech.

Verizon claims that "environmental stewardship is ingrained in Verizon's heritage, and the company prides itself on having a positive influence on the environment in which it operates." Your corporation makes this claim with no specific facts or scientific backup. Unless you can provide such evidence, such pronouncement is specious on its face. Mountaintop-removal mining involves blowing up the tops of mountains in fragile habitats and laying waste to surrounding lands and water.

If Verizon is serious about its heritage of environmental stewardship, it will immediately withdraw sponsorship of the upcoming Labor Day rally and explain its support for mountaintop removal.

I am proud not to use Verizon products and advise everyone I know to boycott your corporation. As the word about your company's disregard spreads, I hope to see your diminish. . Consider investing in environmentally friendly energy sources. Your corporation can make a significant profit while doing the environment some good for a chnage.

I respectfully request that you do not support this Labor Day massacre and expect a reasoned response for your actions.

Charles Dickens channels Rush Limbaugh

From the short story, The Noble Savage:

It is not the miserable nature of the noble savage that is the new thing; it is the whimpering over him with maudlin admiration, and the affecting to regret him, and the drawing of any comparison of advantage between the blemishes of civilisation and the tenor of his swinish life. There may have been a change now and then in those diseased absurdities, but there is none in him.

[...]

The noble savage sets a king to reign over him, to whom he submits his life and limbs without a murmur or question, and whose whole life is passed chin deep in a lake of blood; but who, after killing incessantly, is in his turn killed by his relations and friends, the moment a grey hair appears on his head. All the noble savage's wars with his fellow-savages (and he takes no pleasure in anything else) are wars of extermination - which is the best thing I know of him, and the most comfortable to my mind when I look at him. He has no moral feelings of any kind, sort, or description; and his 'mission' may be summed up as simply diabolical.

[...]

To conclude as I began. My position is, that if we have anything to learn from the Noble Savage, it is what to avoid. His virtues are a fable; his happiness is a delusion; his nobility, nonsense.

We have no greater justification for being cruel to the miserable object, than for being cruel to a WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE or an ISAAC NEWTON; but he passes away before an immeasurably better and higher power than ever ran wild in any earthly woods, and the world will be all the better when his place knows him no more.

Universal Health Care

IS WHAT THE "RIGHT TO LIFE" REALLY MEANS.







I'M NOT GIVING UP ON THE PUBLIC OPTION!

Rethink Afghanistan

Part 6 of the documentary.


Katrina Bisheimer:

The BBC reported that in the first six months of 2009, the conflict in Afghanistan had resulted in 1,013 civilian casualties compared to only 818 in 2008 and only 684 in 2007. There has been a parallel rise in suicide bombing and roadside explosives, which usually result in many civilian deaths. There were no suicide bombings in Afghanistan before this “war of terror” began. The report says that from 2007 through 2009, insurgents were responsible for more deaths than the government-allied forces were, but two-thirds of the deaths caused by government-allied forces were from airstrikes. Recently, U.S. warplanes dropped bombs in a village in the western province of Farah that resulted in about 100 women, children and men turned into corpses and bits of human flesh by iron fragments. The Afghan survivors carted dozens of corpses in trucks from their village to the provincial capital to publicly denounce the carnage, shouting “Death to America!” U.S. forces have actually killed more civilian Afghans during 2009 than the Taliban has. Our military approach has backfired and has become a great recruiting tool for the Taliban.

Those who are fighting this war also suffer. We usually hear about the number of U.S. soldiers killed in combat, but not so much about the less visible injuries to the psyche. Author and activist Arundhati Roy says that you can’t expect soldiers to wage war and not bring it home. In January, the suicide rate for active-duty sol-diers was higher than the total number of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan during the same month. An army unit based in Fort Carson in Colorado Springs has a murder rate 114 times the rate for Colorado Springs at large.

Think!

Anarchism is everywhere!

Paul Goodman:

Anarchism is grounded in a rather definite proposition: that valuable behavior occurs only by the free and direct response of individuals or voluntary groups to the conditions presented by the historical environment. It claims that in most human affairs, whether political, economic, military, religious, moral, pedagogic, or cultural, more harm than good results from coercion, top-down direction, central authority, bureaucracy, jails, conscription, states, pre-ordained standardization, excessive planning, etc.

[...]

In the period of mercantilism and patents royal, free enterprise by joint stock companies was anarchist. The Jeffersonian bill of rights and independent judiciary were anarchist. Congregational churches were anarchist. Progressive education was anarchist. The free cities and corporate law in the feudal system were anarchist. At present, the civil rights movement in the United States has been almost classically decentralist and anarchist. And so forth, down to details like free access in public libraries.

Of course, to later historians these things do not seem to be anarchist, but in their own time they were all regarded as such and often literally called such, with the usual dire threats of chaos. But this relativity of the anarchist principle to the actual situation is of the essence of anarchism.

There cannot be a history of anarchism in the sense of establishing a permanent state of things called "anarchist." It is always a continual coping with the next situation, and a vigilance to make sure that past freedoms are not lost and do not turn into the opposite, as free enterprise turned into wage-slavery and monopoly capitalism, or the independent judiciary turned into a monopoly of courts, cops, and lawyers, or free education turned into School Systems.

"Hunting is a noble sport. It is not killing. It is communing with nature.”

Thomas Paine's Corner on How to confront 100 hunters at once and escape unscathed:

At another point, another hunter repeated, “We are the original and true conservationists of wildlife. You guys are just long-haired, welfare-collecting social parasites, using us to raise funds with.”

[...]

“This guy’s front is to attack the Grizzly bear hunt,” said another hunter, except this time he is addressing his cohorts, “but in fact, it is an attack on the entire hunting tradition, establishment and fraternity, from the top down, and from the foundation up. His real agenda is to stop all hunting, of all species.”

“For once, you might be right,” I said. “Killing animals for entertainment is barbaric and morally bankrupt, no matter what you kill.”

“Are you calling us ‘barbarians’? You Chinese people are very good with that, I hear.”

“My apologies on behalf of the Chinese people. But no, I did not call you a ‘barbarian’, although I do call your so called ’sport’ ‘barbaric’, and I mean it.”

A woman spoke up, “We don’t kill for entertainment. Hunting is a noble sport. It is not killing. It is communing with nature.”

“Hunting is not killing? Tell it to the bear, and the deer, and the moose. Well, they might consider you not a hunter, but a terrorist, if that makes you feel better.”

"So long as I confine my activities to social services and the blind the newspapers compliment me extravagantly..."

[source]

"History is a record of the incessant struggle of humanity against ignorance and oppression." - Helen Keller, 1918

"We must fight for the deliverance of the oppressed, the beaten, the betrayed, the plundered." - Helen Keller, 1919

Socialist Worker:

Helen Keller joined the US Socialist Party in 1909. She soon became a leading figure in the socialist movement and wrote for a number of left wing newspapers. She fought for equality for women and was an active opponent of racism. But her most inspirational writings and speeches were those in support of workers' struggles. She never failed to publicise the dreadful conditions workers faced at the time. At a rally of striking lace makers she said, "The white lace which we wear is darkened by the fading eyes of the lace maker." Helen became one of the most vocal opponents of the slaughter of the First World War. She wrote, "How can our rulers claim they are fighting to make the world safe for democracy while here in the US negroes may be massacred and their property burned?" The press, which had previously treated her as a heroine, now turned against her. An editorial published in the Brooklyn Eagle was typical: "Her mistakes spring out of the manifest limitations of her development." But Helen fought back. Her response was not only a scathing attack on the paper's attitude towards her disabilities. It was also a passionate defence of socialism.

Her reply was printed in countless newspapers: "So long as I confine my activities to social services and the blind the newspapers compliment me extravagantly, calling me an 'arch – priest of the sightless' and 'wonder woman'. "But when I discuss poverty and the industrial system under which we live that is a different matter. "It is laudable to give aid to the handicapped-but to advocate that all human beings should have leisure and comfort is a utopian dream, and one who seriously contemplates its realisation must indeed be deaf, dumb and blind!"

Helen Keller also helped to found the ACLU.

When a statue of Keller is unveiled at the Capitol in October, will her work on behalf of the oppressed be honored?

For a taste of the ignorance Keller was fighting, go here and here.

The discrimination may go away, the inequality persists

Racism may be in decline but an intractable and outrageous inequality, accepted by most Americans, is on the rise.

Walter Benn Michaels:

No group dedicated to ending economic inequality would be thinking today about declaring victory and going home. In 1969, the top quintile of American wage-earners made 43 per cent of all the money earned in the US; the bottom quintile made 4.1 per cent. In 2007, the top quintile made 49.7 per cent; the bottom quintile 3.4. And while this inequality is both raced and gendered, it’s less so than you might think. White people, for example, make up about 70 per cent of the US population, and 62 per cent of those are in the bottom quintile. Progress in fighting racism hasn’t done them any good; it hasn’t even been designed to do them any good.

[...]

...the African-American woman who cleans my office is supposed to feel not so bad about the fact that I make almost ten times as much money as she does because she can be confident that I’m not racist or sexist and that I respect her culture. And she’s also supposed to feel pride because the dean of our college, who makes much more than ten times what she does, is African-American, like her. And since the chancellor of our university, who makes more than 15 times what she does, is not only African-American but a woman too (the fruits of both anti-racism and anti-sexism!), she can feel doubly good about her. But, and I acknowledge that this is the thinnest of anecdotal evidence, I somehow doubt she does. If the downside of the politics of anti-discrimination is that it now functions to legitimate the increasing disparities not produced by racism or sexism, the upside is the degree to which it makes visible the fact that the increase in those disparities does indeed have nothing to do with racism or sexism.

The Moral Bankruptcy of Conservative Christianity

Do we need any more evidence than this?

WASHINGTON — Conservative Christian groups on Wednesday ramped up opposition to health care reform, saying the current system "has problems" but "it is working."

[...]

The Freedom Federation includes, among others, the American Family Association, the Church of God in Christ, Concerned Women for America, Family Research Council Action, Liberty University and the Traditional Values Coalition.

"We did not vote for you to see if you could get Chuck Grassley or Michael Enzi to date you."

Anne Lamott:

I am afraid there has been a misunderstanding since that election in 2008, during which 66,882,230 Americans cast their votes for you. Perhaps one of your trusted advisors has given you bum information. Maybe they told you that we voted for you -- walked, marched, prayed, fund-raised and knocked on doors for you -- because we hoped you would try to reunite the country. Of the total votes cast that long-ago November day, I'm guessing that about 1,575 people wanted you to try to reconcile the toxic bipartisanship that culminated in those Sarah Palin rallies.

The other 66,880,655 of us wanted universal healthcare.

You inherited a country that was in the most desperate shape since the Civil War, or the Depression, and we voted for you to heal the catastrophic wounds Bush inflicted on our country and our world. You said that you were up to that challenge.

We did not vote for you to see if you could get Chuck Grassley or Michael Enzi to date you. The spectacle of you wooing them fills us with horror and even disgust. We recoil as from hot flame at each mention of your new friends.

[...]

I hate to sound like a betrayed 7-year-old, but you said. And we believed you. Now you seem to have abandoned the dream. That is why moderates and liberals and progressives like myself all seem a little tense this summer. It is time to call your spirit back. We will be here to help when you get back from vacation. We want to help you get over the disappointment of Mr. Grassley's cold shoulder, of Mr. Enzi blowing you off, even that nice Olympia Snowe standing you up. We can and will take to the streets again, march and hold peaceful rallies, go door to door, donate to any causes that will help get out the truth of what a public option would mean. But we need you to shake off the dust of the journey and remember the promises of Dr. King, and we need you to lead us toward what is no longer so distant a shore.

Do it for Teddy Kennedy, boss. Do it for the other Kennedys too, for Dr. King, for Big Mama, for the poorest kids you met on the trail, the kids who go to emergency rooms for their healthcare, do it for their mothers and for Michelle. Just do it.

"Some things do not have a price tag on them."

"I don't want to live in a country where I'm on a hospital floor getting an operation that costs 25,000 dollars and two floors above me somebody's being denied that same surgery because he or she has no money. What kind of civilization is that? What kind of moral order is that?"
- Bill Moyers, August 28, 2009

"Barack Obama will become the Grover Cleveland of this era."

Don't miss this fascinating Bill Maher interview with Bill Moyers.

MOYERS: I don’t think the problem is the Republicans.... The problem is the Democratic Party. This is a party that has told its progressives -- who are the most outspoken champions of health care reform -- to sit down and shut up. That’s what Rahm Emanuel, the Chief of Staff at the White House, in effect told progressives who stood up as a unit in Congress and said: "no public insurance option, no health care reform."

[...]

There’s this fear that Barack Obama will become the Grover Cleveland of this era – Grover Cleveland was a good man, but he became a conservative Democratic President because he didn’t fight the powerful interests.... [source]

Video here.

The Ted Kennedy you may not know

Ted Kennedy:

"The task of leadership in 1980 is not to parade scapegoats or to seek refuge in reaction, but to match our power to the possibilities of progress. While others talked of free enterprise, it was the Democratic Party that acted and we ended excessive regulation in the airline and trucking industry, and we restored competition to the marketplace. And I take some satisfaction that this deregulation legislation that I sponsored and passed in the Congress of the United States."

Steve Early:

In several key industries—trucking, the airlines, and telecom--nothing has undermined union membership and bargaining power more than de-regulation. Kennedy embraced de-regulation with gusto and, despite his other differences with Jimmy Carter thirty years ago, helped ram through industry restructuring harmful to hundreds of thousands of workers and their union contracts. By 1985, as Kim Moody describes in U.S. Labor in Trouble and Transition, the number of workers covered by the Teamsters' biggest trucking contract had been halved. Today, fewer than 100,000 work under the National Master Freight Agreement (NMFA)—down from 450,000 before Carter and Kennedy transformed the role of the Interstate Commerce Commission and codified that regulatory change via the Motor Carrier Act of 1980. The business-backed policy agenda "that would become known as ‘Reaganomics' or more generally as neoliberalism," had its roots in the Carter Administration, Moody points out. Two of its key objectives were deregulation and free trade; the first having been accomplished under Carter, the second was pursued with equal fervor and Kennedy vigor after Clinton became president.

[...]

In a cover piece for Newsweek last month, entitled "The Cause of My Life," Kennedy proudly recalled his backing for Medicare in 1965. After that vote, he continued to advocate expanded public health insurance coverage for another decade or so. But just as more Americans—like the NYNEX strikers in 1989—began to gravitate toward his "Medicare for all" position, Kennedy abandoned it. As he explained in Newsweek, "I came to believe that we'd have to give up on the idea of a government run, single-payer system if we wanted to get universal care."

[...]

In 1993, Kennedy embraced Hillary Clinton's ill-fated "managed competition" plan, helping to deflate grassroots organizing for social insurance instead. He did lend his name to a 2006 bill to expand Medicare coverage but devoted most of his time, lately, to promoting the Massachusetts model of subsidized private insurance coverage, which utilizes individual and employer mandates to prop up our dysfunctional system of job-based benefits. Cooked up as a bi-partisan solution with Republican governor Mitt Romney (who now criticizes the Massachusetts plan), this budget-busting scheme is the current inspiration for "Obamacare."

Fifty Fucking One!

Allison Kilkenny:

Many politicians (especially Democrats) will claim to have respected Kennedy today, but if they want to really pay tribute to the man, they should stop watering down healthcare reform. Democrats should end this silly debate over insurance co-operatives and securing 80 votes in the Senate (instead of the 51 they actually need) and just get Americans affordable healthcare right now. It’s what Ted would have wanted. After all, it was the cause of his life.

For many Americans, this issue is not an abstraction, it is a matter of life and death. For many, the failure of reform will mean financial ruin. For Harry Reid to be counting votes at this point, when he has the 51 he needs, is despicable.

Only two numbers matter in this debate, 51 and 22,000.

51
votes
can
prevent
22,000
deaths
per
year

I need to say this...

I heart

Wednesday

and

No. 44.

Reid "doesn't think the public option ought to be a government run program"

TPM:

During a tele-townhall with constituents today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he supports a public option...but then he added an extremely important caveat. Reid said he doesn't think the public option ought to be a government run program like Medicare, but instead favors a "private entity that has direction from the federal government so people that don't fall within the parameters of being able to get insurance from their employers, they would have a place to go."

Bob Cesca says:

This guy's utter lack of testosterone is outstandingly aggravating. How much more of this can we endure?

Update: More Bob Cesca:

At this point, maybe the best thing we can do is to facilitate some medical intervention here. Let's send Harry Reid some important information about being treated for low testosterone. Email his office with links to this article from ABC News about "male menopause." Maybe, just maybe he'll seek treatment prior to healthcare reform reaching the floor of the Senate. Fingers crossed!

What's lower than low?

Mike Huckabee "suggested during his radio show, 'The Huckabee Report,' on Thursday that, under President Obama's health care plan, Kennedy would have been told to 'go home to take pain pills and die' during his last year of life." (Huffington Post)

IS IT 2010 YET?

Given to (and stolen from) Mad Mike

Visit:

• Mad Mike
• Cats 
• Dogs

Going Postal

"Firms like FedEx and UPS compete with some of the services the Postal Service offers. That's because they've targeted parts of the delivery business that can be profitable if run efficiently. But they want nothing to do with universal mail delivery, which would be a guaranteed money-loser. Gee, that sounds a lot like insurance companies that want to cherry-pick the profitable parts of the healthcare business, offering care to healthy people with employers who can help pay the premiums while steering clear of people with costly problems or less money to spend....As a nation, we support universal mail delivery but not universal healthcare."

Personally, I hate the elitist notion that public healthcare would be a "last resort" for those who can't afford "quality" medical insurance; but I find the argument in this analogy kind of hard to refute, from apractical, "Republican" standpoint.

Capitalism: A Love Story

Here's one you don't want to miss.  Thanks, as usual, to Vigilante for keeping me in the loop.  See the film and get angry.  Get very, very angry.

THIS TIME, IT'S PERSONAL!

Opens October 2, 2009

Director:  Michael Moore

Site still in progress.

1 Taser + 1 Tea Party Loving Cop = Free Speech No More

A minister who screamed at tea partiers protesting health care reform in Brunswick, Ga., was arrested Wednesday for not having a permit to demonstrate.

In video of the protest, Zack Lyde was loudly arguing with protesters when a police officer approached him and asked if he had a permit to protest.

"I'm not gonna move and you're not gonna arrest me!" Lyde yelled. Backup officers arrived and ordered Lyde to leave.

When he refused, two officers pointed Tasers at him.

"Put your hands behind your back or I'll shoot you with a Taser!" one yelled. Lyde got onto his knees and put his hands behind his back, and the officers pushed him to the ground.

He was charged with disorderly conduct and released on his own recognizance.

1 Waxman + $$$ from G.E. = Crap Legislation

I was going to title this post "YOUR government at work" but it's not YOURS anymore, it's theirs now entirely.

Washington Examiner:

"The intersection between GE's interests and government action is clearer than ever," General Electric Vice Chairman John G. Rice wrote in an Aug. 19 e-mail to colleagues.

[...]

"On climate change," Rice wrote, "we were able to work closely with key authors of the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill, recently passed by the House of Representatives. If this bill is enacted into law it would benefit many GE businesses."

Most of all, Waxman-Markey would profit a GE joint venture called Greenhouse Gas Services, which deals in greenhouse gas credits, products that have value only if a cap-and-trade bill like Waxman-Markey passes.

The leaked e-mail shows how tightly GE connects PAC contributions and lobbying efforts.

Senator Kennedy Blasts Republicans

On the minimum wage

"When does the greed stop?"

On health care


On Bork


On Alito


On the Surge in Iraq


On retroactive immunity

"The supreme act of citizenship is to choose among saviors..."

Change we can believe in

- OR -
Compromise we can't believe in?

Howard Zinn:

All those histories of this country centered on the Founding Fathers and the Presidents weigh oppressively on the capacity of the ordinary citizen to act. They suggest that in times of crisis we must look to someone to save us: in the Revolutionary crisis, the Founding Fathers; in the slavery crisis, Lincoln; in the Depression, Roosevelt; in the Vietnam-Water gate crisis, Carter. [...] They teach us that the supreme act of citizenship is to choose among saviors, by going into a voting booth every four years to choose between two white and well-off Anglo-Saxon males of inoffensive personality and orthodox opinions.

The idea of saviors has been built into the entire culture, beyond politics. We have learned to look to stars, leaders, experts in every field, thus surrendering our own strength, demeaning our own ability, obliterating our own selves.

Californians: More Reasons to Support Jerry Brown for Governor

Email from Ann Gust Brown:

There is big news out of San Francisco where voters support Jerry Brown for Governor over their own Mayor by a 17 point margin.  Jerry -- who hasn't even made a final decision on whether he will be running -- is ahead by 29 points in the most recent statewide poll. But his margin in San Francisco where Mayor  Newsom (the only declared candidate) is best known is stunning (see story below).

We have had great success in fundraising in the first half of the year-more than $7.5 million in the bank (BTW--an 8 to 1 lead over Newsom).    Our expenditures are running at only 5 percent, showing a fiscal discipline sorely needed in state government.

But it is not a time for complacency. As you know, in the upcoming election, two well-heeled Republican candidates are promising to spend more than $100 million of their own wealth.  Any Democrat-to be successful-will have to enjoy an unprecedented base of financial and activist support.  Your personal commitment is absolutely crucial!

Please share this e-mail with your friends and family and encourage them to join www.jerrybrown.org and to contribute.

Jerry Brown

---

From today's San Francisco Chronicle:  Poll finds Newsom trailing Brown even in S.F.

August 21^st - Brown and 8 District Attorneys Force U-Haul to Improve Handling of Hazardous Materials.  U-Haul has turned a blind eye to California's hazardous materials laws for years, even after an explosion and fire severely damaged one of its facilities. This agreement forces U-Haul to clean up its act and improve the way it handles hazardous materials, plans for emergencies and trains employees.

August 14^th - Brown Creates Nation's First Enforceable Lead Standards for Artificial Turf .  As schools and daycare centers replace grass with artificial turf, extreme care must be taken to minimize lead exposure. This agreement is the first of its kind and will help make playgrounds and ball fields safe for our childre

August 12^h - Brown Arrests two Individuals for $678,000 Medicare Rip-off.  At a time when government needs every dollar it has, these individuals submitted completely false claims for equipment they never purchased.

August 12^th - Brown Orders Mortgage Foreclosure Consultants to Post $100,000 Bond or Face Prosecution.  Hoping to lower their mortgage payments, thousands of homeowners were instead duped by slick advertising and money-back guarantees. The time for accountability is at hand, and this rogue industry must clean itself up or face legal action.

August 5^th - Brown Wins "Roadless Rule" Victory, Protecting 40 Million Acres of Forest Land from Development.  This is a profoundly important decision because it brings to a halt the ill-considered development plans of the Bush Administration and preserves for generations to come 4.4 million acres of prime California forest.

Brown for Governor⊸2010

Finally: The beginning of America's Nuremburg?

I received the following email from Wednesday with deep thanks. We all need a little light at the end of the tunnel after the sad news about Senator Kennedy. Let''s hope this beginning leads to a full hearing and that what goes around comes around. It's been a long time coming...

---

From the ACLU:

Attorney General Eric Holder finally made the announcement that he will appoint a prosecutor to investigate prison abuse cases carried out as part of the Bush torture program. However, the very limited scope of the investigation he launched today is nowhere near as thorough and broad as the torture investigation America really needs.

Holder's announcement stops far short of a thorough criminal investigation. The investigation will be limited to roughly a dozen cases in which CIA interrogators and contractors may have violated U.S. torture laws and other statutes, letting those who authorized these illegal acts off the hook.

We cannot have an investigation that completely overlooks those who authorized and condoned a systematic program of illegal torture.

That's why I just sent a message to the Attorney General asking him to make sure the investigation follows the evidence -- wherever it may lead. Will you join me? Visit Investigate Torture"

---

WEDNESDAY'S COMMENT

TO THE ACLU

“Failing to enact a full investigation also gives the message that our government leaders are exempt from accountability, and that they will allow ‘expendable’ lower-level agents to take the fall for their orders. This is immoral and unacceptable in a democracy.”

Brilliant...

Remembering Senator Ted Kennedy: by Dennis Kucinich

Received via email:

Dear Friends,

Senator Kennedy visits then Cleveland City Councilman Dennis Kucinich at St. Alexis Hospital, May 4th, 1971

"I first met Senator Kennedy on May 4, 1971, when he visited me at St. Alexis Hospital in Cleveland. I was then a Cleveland City Councilman recovering from an injury and, somehow, he discovered I was in the hospital and paid a surprise visit to my room. He was visiting hospitals as part of his national effort to raise awareness of the need for reform of our health care system. I was elated to meet him. The visit began a friendship which has spanned four decades, during which time I had the privilege of serving with Senator Kennedy in the United States Congress.

His compassion and caring was always personal and always real. When my brother Perry died unexpectedly in December of 2007, Ted Kennedy was one of the first to call with condolences, sharing his sympathetic understanding of what it means to lose a sibling.

He had a powerful sensitivity to human emotion and his life writ large the range of human experience: great triumphs and sudden reversals. His tenacity often came against the heavy burden of deep personal tragedy, which enlarged the quality of his spirit, and made his frequent expressions of humor poignant and profound. Yes, he made himself into one of the greatest Senators, with his advocacy for human rights for health care, education and worker protections.
But Ted Kennedy was more than a great Senator. He was a great friend."

"A fundamental right and not a privilege..."

May Democrats in Congress use and abuse Edward Kennedy's death - to the hilt - to pass landmark legislation that will fulfill his dream of health care for all Americans.

Whatever your perspective, Camelot is gone...

From CNN:  breaking news:

Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy

Dead at 77 

At 11:50 a.m., PSD time, Senator Edward Kennedy passed away from brain cancer.  Whatever your opinion of Kennedy, with his death, the legacy of the 60s, the Civil Rights movement, strong proponent of  health care, and the last survivor of Camelot ends an era.  None of us who remember the 60s as a time of hope and innocence are saddened.   Excerpts follow.

* Death marks twilight of a political dynasty

* Kennedy's presidential aspirations were dashed

* His healthcare reform drive topped a liberal agenda


One of the most influential and longest-serving senators in U.S. history -- a liberal standard-bearer who was also known as a consummate congressional dealmaker -- Kennedy had been battling brain cancer, which was diagnosed in May 2008


[...]
His death marked the twilight of a political dynasty and dealt a blow to Democrats as they seek to answer President Barack Obama's call for an overhaul of the ealthcare system. Kennedy had made healthcare reform his signature cause.


[...]

He held fast to liberal causes deemed anachronistic by the centrist "New Democrats," and was a lightning rod for conservative ire.

He helped enact measures to protect civil and labor rights, expand healthcare, upgrade schools, increase student aid and contain the spread of nuclear weapon

[...]

After Robert Kennedy's death, Edward was expected to waste little time in vying for the presidency. But in 1969, a young woman drowned after a car Kennedy was driving plunged off a bridge on the Massachusetts resort island of Chappaquiddick after a night of partying.

Kennedy's image took a major hit after it emerged he had failed to report the accident to authorities. He pleaded guilty to leaving the scene and received a suspended sentence.

[...]


He drew praise from liberals, labor and civil rights groups and scorn from conservatives, big business and anti-abortion and pro-gun activists. His image was often used by Republicans in ads as a money-raising tool.

"I've benefited from the best of medicine, but I've also witnessed the frustration and outrage of patients and doctors alike as they face the challenges of a system that shortchanges millions of Americans," he wrote in a May 28, 2009, issue of the Boston Globe.

[To inform people of this sad news, this article reposted at Mad Mike's America

Dumb Americans

From a Jay Leno commercial:

Q: Who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?

A: I don't know [Bimbo-ish tone]

Q: Who lives in a Pineapple under the Sea?

A. SPONGEBOB!

I'm not a huge Leno fan, but I love his ability to expose ignorance. How many people know who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in this country? Survey needed?

Ayn Rand Takedown

"She saw smoking as a Promethean symbol of creativity and regarded health warnings as a socialist conspiracy."

Great piece at Rustbelt Radical on The Myths of Ayn Rand. Supposedly, a t.v. mini-series on Atlas Shrugged is in the works, so it's a good time to dismiss Ayn Rand all over again.

The cult of Ayn Rand

For a lot of people the success of American cults – like Scientology for example – seems a mystery. How did Scientology manage to recruit all those Hollywood stars? It is less of a mystery when you realise that Scientology is really a self-improvement system. On the basis of mumbo-jumbo, it aims to convince you that you are the centre of the universe, you can do anything, you must concentrate all your energy on being successful.

Thus with Ayn Rand thought. Individuals must be morally comfortable with unbridled self-interest, and use reason to think through the ways they can be most successful. This is deeply appealing because it links in with the great American myth – anyone can make it, on the basis of hard work, creativity, intelligence. It’s all up to you: individual and not collective solutions are the key.

All these systems fall on one central point. Stephen R. Covey says in his multi-million selling ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’, “Highly effective people make their own world”. Covey is incapable of seeing that making our own world is just not available to the vast majority of the world’s population. How does a poor women in an Indian village make her own world? Or a peasant in a Mexican village? Or a Russian factory worker? The realities of class, of power and wealth – the deep structures of capitalism – prevent the vast majority of people exercising the kind of autonomy necessary to make real choices.

Capitalism does not make free. It enslaves people.

Lt. William Calley and the My Lai Masacre

My sincerest thanks to the always thought-provoking Vigilante at Sozadee, CA. If you're not visiting his blog, you're missing some greate material. Also, thanks to my Brother Mike's comment, that generated even more reflection about Calley.

For a change, I see both sides of this issue. As a person who commonly articulates a strong position on issues, My Lai is my Achille's heel. I've quoted Ann Coultergeist (~loathsome~) many times that people who sit on the fence are stupid and can't form an opinion. I argue that people who sit on the fence are intellectually mulling over the facts as they see them. If you need to firmly adhere to any side, then you're not thinking for yourself.

---

Vigilante provided me food for thought—both the news about Calley's regret and the horror of this terrible event in American and Viet Namese history.

Forty years later, how do I feel about Lt. William Calley? I hope No. 44 will weigh in on this post: he will have much to say, and often helps me to rethink my opinions. Dissent is healthy. We must remember that most of the troops in Viet Nam were drafted, rather than enlisted, another issue contributing to My Lai.

Bro Mike states there is no reason for Calley's actions and that he was caught in a terrible situation. I recognize and respect his contriteness and, yes, war sucks. However, I do believe he acted on orders. I can't believe that he was the only person involved in this horrible tragedy. I posted my comments on the blog to which Vigilante linked. There are no clear-cut answers, so I cannot offer an educated opinion.

---

Sure, in many ways, each of us could argue Calley deserved a life sentence, but I must admit his regret seems genuine. I am, however, sick and damn tired of people comparing every wrong they perceive as "Nazism." That is not an apt comparison, but hyperbole, especially in this case.

Jamie68 states the same, tired Nazi allegory again, denying being a leftist and proclaiming he's a Conservative Christian. If so, where is your belief in forgiveness? "Judge ye not" is a part of Christian beliefs, and yet you judge. Although the Nazi soldiers claim they were "just following orders," Viet Nam was an entirely different situation.

Anyone who believes that strongly progressive people do not understand Calley's situation in Viet Nam are in error. My Lai was a horror--I place more blame on the DoJ, which issued the orders. I agree that Calley was a scapegoat. May I remind you that both Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were part of the Nixon Administration when this horror occurred? How much culpability exists among them and Nixon? What of the DOJ, other members of the Executive Branch, and Congress?

If Calley truly believes what he says, and I'm not sure, I can at least respect his remorse and understanding that "...to obey an unlawful order is to be unlawful yourself. He said, “I believe that is true. If you are asking why I did not stand up to them when I was given the orders. " His comment echoes Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's statement: "One who breaks an unjust law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law." Would that Calley considered King's words. I am struck by the close comparison of these statements.

Angie points out "Since you were not there and have no idea what you would have done in his shoes," Even as a strong progressive, I respect her comment. Read Rick Boyette's comment. C.J., I do not stand up for my rights when it's in my (personal) interest to do so. As a fellow progressive I fight like hell to support policies in which I believe, even those which do not affect me personally. I do not subscribe the LaRochefaucalt's precept that "When deciding what to do, [people] will follow their own ends." As a fellow progressive, please do not speak for me.

Devin, your statement resonates with me most of all: "...try not to judge harshly those who had to be on the ground in combat, I do reserve judgment for the higher up brass and the respective administrations involved in Vietnam and other wars. They should be held to a higher standard and a stiffer punishment. This isn’t a Republican or Democrat argument Jake … it’s really a moral argument." Right. If you weren't there, then you cannot judge the situation. In North Viet Nam, women and children were strapped to bombs to kill enemies and conduct suicide missions. Was this part of the reason for My Lai?

I have no answer and refuse to speculate on such a complicated and oblique situation.

The My Lai massacre and Iraq, among many other wars around the world, strongly demonstrates that dialog among people is a critical component of ending the carnage and learning to co-exist with each other. (A bit Pollyana-ish, but I can still hope.) Did the soldiers who participated in My Lai have foreknowledge of the horror they caused? Without full knowledge of the situation, I cannot answer the question.

As a felon, and I agree he earned his status, he cannot vote; he cannot go to the post office. Is that not punishment, also? Consider Calley's comment: "Calley also pointed out that when the Army photographer who brought about the investigation into the incident – he sent information and pictures to New York Senator Jacob Javits – the Army denied that it happened. When the Inspector General conducted an inquiry into the incident, Calley, when questioned, did not deny that it happened."

I don't know if Calley should be in jail for the rest of his life, but AM vehemently against war. Based on what we've learned at My Lai alone, we are all clear that military mistakes cost innocent lives. I never supported Viet Nam, and felt Johnson and Nixon were too close to believing in the Cold War mentality, which caused them to deploy troops.

I grew up in a politically involved family and know first-hand that knee-jerk responses to difficult questions do not always lead to the correct answers. My opinion? I both understand and cannot answer for Calley's actions or meet out the appropriate punishment.

Each of you must come to your own conclusions; however, I strongly believe there's always more complexity to a situation such as My Lai than we know.

---

The truth behind My Lai? Wikipedia defined the term "truth" quite well:

The word truth has a variety of meanings, from honesty, good faith, and sincerity in general, to agreement with fact or reality in particular.[1] The term has no single definition about which a majority of professional philosophers and scholars agree, and various theories and views of truth continue to be debated. There are differing claims on such questions as what constitutes truth; what things are truthbearers capable of being true or false; how to define and identify truth; the roles that revealed and acquired knowledge play; and whether truth is subjective, relative, objective, or absolute. This article introduces the various perspectives and claims, both today and throughout history.

"It was the era of homo economicus, humans in service to the economy."

Good writing abounds at the Logos Journal!

Mike Lynn:

Our present economic collapse comes on the heels of a solid three decades in the grip of the extreme free market fundamentalism of the neoliberals. Like all fundamentalist faiths, neoliberalism reduces a complex world to a simple schematic. All of society is viewed through the prism of an economic lens. Economic growth, measured by increases in GDP, is the ultimate goal. Indeed, it’s the ultimate good. The market is the perfect mechanism to achieve this goal. And the market functions best with minimal or no interference from government or civil society. Armies of bright young economists armed with complex equations attested that this was so.

The genius of neoliberalism was in its ability to cloak market leadership of society in an aura of scientific and historical inevitability. The collapse of the Soviet Union seemed to validate Margaret Thatcher’s claim that there was no alternative.

The great economic historian Karl Polanyi observed, “The idea of a self-adjusting market implied a stark utopia.” And neoliberalism was a stunning utopia of economic determinism, one even more ambitious than that of Marx.

With all the big questions thus settled, history appeared to be at an end. There was one and only one route to prosperity and peace. All that was required was to make sure the model was correctly applied and all would be well. We all settled into our assigned roles. Capitalists retreated to the role of technocrats, eschewing risk themselves while shifting and spreading it throughout society. The rest of us were relegated to the roles not of citizens, but of consumers. Using our homes as ATMs, we filled our lives with Chinese-made goods, oblivious to the looming environmental and social costs of a runaway, unregulated consumer-driven society. Only a marginalized few questioned the basic economic structure. It was the era of homo economicus, humans in service to the economy.

Also from the current issue, see this interesting article on the origins of Labor Day, which I will be tempted to post about next week.

JUST THE FACTS

FACT CHECK: Health overhaul myths taking root

WASHINGTON – The judgment is harsh in a new poll that finds Americans worried about the government taking over health insurance, cutting off treatment to the elderly and giving coverage to illegal immigrants. Harsh, but not based on facts....

THE POLL: 45 percent said it's likely the government will decide when to stop care for the elderly; 50 percent said it's not likely.

THE FACTS: Nothing being debated in Washington would give the government such authority. Critics have twisted a provision in a House bill that would direct Medicare to pay for counseling sessions about end-of-life care, living wills, hospices and the like if a patient wants such consultations with a doctor. They have said, incorrectly, that the elderly would be required to have these sessions....

THE POLL: 55 percent expect the overhaul will give coverage to illegal immigrants; 34 percent don't.

THE FACTS: The proposals being negotiated do not provide coverage for illegal immigrants....

THE POLL: 54 percent said the overhaul will lead to a government takeover of health care; 39 percent disagree.

THE FACTS: Obama is not proposing a single-payer system in which the government covers everyone, like in Canada or some European countries. He says that direction is not right for the U.S. The proposals being negotiated do not go there [although I wish to God they did!]....

THE POLL: 50 percent expect taxpayer dollars will be used to pay for abortions; 37 percent don't.

THE FACTS: The House version of legislation would allow coverage for abortion in the public plan. But the procedure would be paid for with dollars from beneficiary premiums, not from federal funds. Likewise, private plans in the new insurance exchange could opt to cover abortion, but no federal subsidies would be used to pay for the procedure....

"Sire, the people are revolting!"*

PROPAGANDA WORKS ~
"More than 50 percent of Americans believe a public insurance option will increase health care costs, according to a new survey on assertions the White House has called myths.

'....If the White House hopes to convince the majority of Americans that they are misinformed about health care reform, there is much work to be done.'

Among the results on items the White House considers [???!] myths:

+67 percent of respondents believe that wait times for health care services, such as surgery, will increase (91 percent of Republicans, 37 percent of Democrats, 72 percent of Independents).

+About five out of 10 believe the federal government will become directly involved in making personal health care decisions (80 percent of Republicans, 25 percent of Democrats, 56 percent of Independents).

+Roughly six out of 10 Americans believe taxpayers will be required to pay for abortions (78 percent of Republicans, 30 percent of Democrats, 58 percent of Independents)

+46 percent believe reforms will result in health care coverage for all illegal immigrants (66 percent of Republicans, 29 percent of Democrats, 43 percent of Independents)...."

~ I'M NOT BUYING THIS DEFEATIST PROPAGANDA EITHER, HOWEVER: I'M STILL FIGHTING!

*Mel Brooks, History of the World, Part I.

Law Enforcment Officers Against Prohibition (LEAP)

Al Capone

 Same problem...

Pablo Escobar
Columbia Drug Cartel

Same solution!

Repeal Prohibition Now!

COPS SAY LEGALIZE DRUGS!

After nearly four decades of fueling the U.S. policy of a war on drugs with over a trillion tax dollars and 37 million arrests for nonviolent drug offenses, our confined population has quadrupled making building prisons the fastest growing industry in the United States. More than 2.2 million of our citizens are currently incarcerated and every year we arrest an additional 1.9 million more guaranteeing those prisons will be bursting at their seams. Every year we choose to continue this war will cost U.S. taxpayers another 69 billion dollars. Despite all the lives we have destroyed and all the money so ill spent, today illicit drugs are cheaper, more potent, and far easier to get than they were 35 years ago at the beginning of the war on drugs. Meanwhile, people continue dying in our streets while drug barons and terrorists continue to grow richer than ever before. We would suggest that this scenario must be the very definition of a failed public policy. This madness must cease!

The stated goals of current U.S.drug policy -- reducing crime, drug addiction, and juvenile drug use -- have not been achieved, even after nearly four decades of a policy of "war on drugs". This policy, fueled by over a trillion of our tax dollars has had little or no effect on the levels of drug addiction among our fellow citizens, but has instead resulted in a tremendous increase in crime and in the numbers of Americans in our prisons and jails. With 4.6% of the world's population, America today has 22.5% of the worlds prisoners. But, after all that time, after all the destroyed lives and after all the wasted resources, prohibited drugs today are cheaper, stronger, and easier to get than they were thirty-five years ago at the beginning of the so-called "war on drugs". With this in mind, we current and former members of law enforcement have created a drug-policy reform movement -- LEAP. We believe that to save lives and lower the rates of disease, crime and addiction. as well as to conserve tax dollars, we must end drug prohibition. LEAP believes that a system of regulation and control of production and distribution will be far more effective and ethical than one of prohibition. We do this in hopes that we in Law Enforcement can regain the public's respect and trust, which have been greatly diminished by our involvement in imposing drug prohibition. Please consider joining us. You don't have to be a cop to join LEAP!

[Sign here to learn what you can do and sign the petion.  America can put our tax dollars to better use and heal the deficit.]

SILENCE = COMPLICITY

LEAP recommends California's Mariajuana  Policy Project [MPP].

 

"It doesn't make a damned bit of difference who wins the war to someone who's dead."

[source]

This quotation from Catch-22 made me think about what is going on with the heath care debate. Many Americans have turned the debate into a struggle between capitalism and socialism, and forgotten the truly important thing: keeping more Americans alive. Do Americans really want to win some absurd war against the bogeyman of "socialism" if health care under profit-driven capitalism means certain death (live free and die?) for many Americans?

"You are talking about winning the war, and I am talking about winning the war and keeping alive."

"Exactly," Clevinger snapped smugly. "And which do you think is more important?"

"To whom?" Yossarian shot back. "Open your eyes, Clevinger. It doesn't make a damned bit of difference who wins the war to someone who's dead." Clevinger sat for a moment as though he'd been slapped. "Congratulations!" he exclaimed bitterly, the thinnest milkwhite line enclosing his lips tightly in a bloodless, squeezing ring. "I can't think of another attitude that could be depended upon to give greater comfort to the enemy." "The enemy," retorted Yossarian with weighted precision, "is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on, and that includes Colonel Cathcart. And don't you forget that, because the longer you remember it, the longer you might live."

But Clevinger did forget it, and now he was dead. [source]

Swiftspeech new link to Halliburton Watch

CAUTION: could create high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack, estreme indignation, frustration, and vehement anger. Keep an eye on this one: Halliburton Watch

PETA nails Ronald McDonald

Israel Declares War on Sweden!

Or at least on the Swedish press...?

From

[WARNING—long rant ahead]

You understand the rules of the game, right? When a Scandinavian paper prints something offensive to the Muslim world and Islamic leaders condemn it, protest it, or ask for an apology it's simply more evidence that the "false religion" doesn't mix with democracy, and an occasion for fonts of outrage on the part of newly minted free speech enthusiasts on the right.

[The Brussels Journal announced four months later that the "Danish Imams Propose to End Cartoon Dispute.]

But don't hold your breath waiting for those voices to condemn the exact same behavior from The Only Democracy in the Middle East®.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel urged the Swedish government on Sunday to condemn an article in a Swedish newspaper last week accusing the Israeli Army of harvesting organs from Palestinians wounded or killed by soldiers.

hat's going on? Well, a little wag the dog ...

"I was amazed at the Norwegian government's decision to celebrate the 150th birthday of Knut Hamsun, who admired the Nazis," [Israeli Prime Minister Avigdor] Lieberman told students at the Ariel University Center.

Whatever.

Anyway, beyond the value this brouhaha has for Lieberman personally, there's also some poisoning of the well.

Sweden [like Switzerland, a neutral nation] just took over the EU presidency, and is expected to take an activist position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. So we'll be hearing a lot about how Sweden's government is rife with anti-Antisemitism over the next five months. And, as is very often the case, the Israeli government's view of the matter is totally at odds with that of Sweden's Jewish community, according to this report in Ha'aretz:

Lena Posner, president of the Official Council of Jewish Communities in Sweden, said Sunday that Israel's demand that Sweden officially condemn the article that accused Israel Defense Forces of harvesting Palestinian organs "had blown the issue completely out of proportion.

"No one even noticed the article—which is, incidentally, Antisemitic and absolutely untruthful—when it was buried in the last pages of Aftonbladet," Posner explained. "But the Israeli response pushed the journalist who wrote it, Daniel Bostrom, to the front of the stage and into the heart of the Swedish mainstream."

"What's even worse is that by making the preposterous demand for a government condemnation, the debate has changed from [Antisemitism] to freedom of speech in Sweden: Instead of concentrating on debunking the story, they have made it a freedom of speech issue. The government is not going to condemn the article freedom of speech here is sacrosanct," added Posner, who said she could see how the Swedish mainstream media, which at first attacked the tabloid for printing the piece, were now supporting it, based on the principle of preserving the freedom of speech.

Lieberman is the subject of multiple corruption probes. In all likelihood, he'll have to resign in disgrace at some point soon, and may face jail time. But in the meantime, a nice, juicy foreign scandal—blood libel, no less—might just take some heat off of the controversial far-right minister.

And he's apparently not satisfied only going after Sweden:

Amid escalating tensions between Israel and Sweden, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Sunday accused another Scandinavian country—Norway this time—of promoting Antisemitism. On Sunday, Lieberman moved his criticism on to Norway for marking the birthday of an early 20th century "pro-Nazi" author.

As much as I vehemently dissent with war, clearly the ire directed at the Swedish press is replete with historical errors. Dissent with the press should become a fundamental right of all people around the world. However, dissent must be well informed, factual, and make arguments germane to the topic.

Israel, formed in 1948, undermines the argument that the Palestinians and Israelis fought for centuries—not without considering actual hostilities could arguably have started in the past 61 years when the Allies established a homeland for Jews tortured in concentration camps and survived the Holocaust.

My disappointment about Israel's objections to this article stems from the support of Scandinavia of the Jews and their ferocious fight against the Axis on behalf of the Allies.  As concerns Knut Hamsen, the author supported the Nazis. This separated Hamsun from other intellectuals and writers who supported the Soviet Union and Stalin. After the war, Hamsun was consequently ostracized as a traitor [by Norway], clearly indicating the Norwegians could hardly be termed Nazi sympathizes.

Norway's Aftenposten recounts Norway's Nazi sympathizers, who were banished from the country immediately after the end of the war. About 6.000 Norwegians volunteered to fight against the Soviet Union with the German occupiers during the Second World War. After the war, survivors were sent to prison for collaborating with the enemy. The remaining 600 troops were banished and sent to the Eastern front.

This missing fact completely undermines the comment regarding the celebration of the 150th birthday of Knut Hamsun, who admired the Nazis were many Nazi sympathizers in America. Ezra Pound. who, despite his vehement hatred of the Jewish people, is read throughout English classes. His poetry and development of of vorticism critical theory (don't ask...) were the ramblings of insanity. Prescott Bush and Henry Ford were Antisemitic and did business with German during WWII.

A post from Nordic Notes discusses immigration: If Sweden was pro-German post-WWI, the attitude changed during WW2. Germany's occupation of both Norway and Denmark was not popular and with Russia occupying Finland, Sweden was surrounded and the outside threat created a feeling of unity among the Swedish people. It was a feeling of we-and-them..

Nordic Notes provides a balance of history that demonstrates anti- and pro-Nazi perspectives in Scandinavia. To state that Sweden, Norway, and Denmark are wholly prejudiced against Israel is a skewed perspective.

To debunk rumors of Nazi sympathizers in Denmark, readers can dismiss that fallacy, also. Snopes takes provides an excellent background of the following folk tale.

When the Germans ordered Jews in occupied Denmark to identify themselves by wearing armbands with yellow stars during World War II, King Christian X of Denmark and non-Jewish Danes thwarted the order by donning the armbands themselves....the German occupation headquarters at the Hotel D'Angleterre came the decree: ALL JEWS MUST WEAR A YELLOW ARMBAND WITH A STAR OF DAVID.

That night the underground transmitted a message to all Danes. 'From Amalienborg Palace, King Christian has given the following answer to the German command that Jews must wear a Star of David. The King has said that one Dane is exactly the same as the next Dane. He himself will wear the first Star of David and expects that every loyal Dane will do the same.' The next day in Copenhagen, almost the entire population wore armbands showing a Star of David. The following day the Germans rescinded the order. Elements of fact gave rise to this tale. Although the Danes did undertake heroic efforts to shelter their Jews and help them escape from the Nazis, there is no real-life example of the actions described by this legend. Danish citizens never wore the yellow badge, nor did King Christian ever threaten to don it himself. In fact, Danish Jews never wore the yellow badge either (except for the few who were finally deported to concentration camps), nor did German officials ever issue an order requiring Danish Jews to display a yellow star.

[...]

As usual, the occupied engaged in symbolic gestures of defiance against their occupiers, such as wearing four coins tied together with red and white ribbons in their buttonholes. (Red and white are the Danish colors, and four coins totaling nine ore represented the date of the occupation, April 9.) Tales of King Christian's snubbing of Hitler and the Nazis (some true and some apocryphal) began to circulate. When Hitler sent a letter of congratulations to King Christian on the latter's 70th birthday in September 1942, the monarch's brief response ("My best thanks") was taken as an insult by Hitler, who recalled and replaced the German ambassador in Denmark. A Swedish newspaper cartoon (possibly the origin of this legend) depicted the monarch talking with the former Danish prime minster,, asks him, "What are we going to do, Your Majesty, if Scavenius makes all the Jews wear yellow stars?" (Erik Scavenius was the Danish foreign minister who became prime minister at the insistence of the Germans after the Danish government resigned in 1943.) The king responds by asserting, "We'll all have to wear yellow stars.

It would appear, for the most part, that most Scandinavians were fighting the Nazis, although some were sympathizers

Ironically, the very people Hitler admired as the "pure race—were vehement fighters against his occupation