Bachmann for President
By Margaret Kimberley | Black Agenda Report | August 17, 2011
Listening to most Democratic liberals or progressives (you choose the term) leads one to believe that the biggest menace to civilization today is Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann. If not Bachmann, the latest and greatest bogeyman is Texas governor Rick Perry. Bachmann won the recent Iowa straw poll and in so doing made herself more of a serious candidate, in media eyes at any rate, for the Republican presidential nomination. Perry’s announcement of his presidential ambitions shortly thereafter moved him up on the liberal fear meter.
Predictably, Barack Obama lovers are in a panic because the Perrys and Bachmanns of the world give them so much material to work with. Bachmann called the agriculture department’s settlement of proven discrimination against black farmers a form of reparations. She claims to follow biblical teachings urging women to be submissive to their husbands while at the same time being an attorney, a member of congress and now a presidential candidate. Her husband claims to be able to “cure” gay people and turn them into heterosexuals.
Perry may be the only one of the declared Republican candidates who can raise more ire than Bachmann in the liberal imagination. He signed a resolution declaring days of prayer for his drought stricken state and then held a large rally for more prayer (and fasting too) at a stadium in Houston. He has implied that Texas ought to secede from the union and he called Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke “treasonous.” As if that were not enough, he packs heat while jogging, carrying a loaded gun during his daily constitutional.
While Bachmann and Perry stir up the Democrats’ antipathy to all things they claim to care about, Obama gets a pass no matter how awful his actions. The same people who get the vapors over prayers to end droughts, say nothing as their president wages wars of aggression in Libya and Somalia. Recent reports estimate that up to 168 Pakistani children have been killed by American drone attacks but that news brings not even mumbled words from the mouths of Obamaites.
Michele Bachmann does play fast and loose with the truth, having famously claimed that Obama’s trip to India in 2010 would cost the government $200 million per day. Her misstatements make her a favorite foil for Democrats who are snooty about style, and never about substance. It is true that Perry called Social Security a ponzi scheme, but it is Barack Obama who has made common cause with Republicans to cut the program. While Perry raises liberal hackles every time he opens his mouth, the Obama administration has confirmed that the current military pension system may be a thing of the past. Retired service members will have to take a risk with the insecure 401(k) system just like the rest of us. That is the kind of news that would get liberal pants in a twist if the president were a Republican.
A cynic might conclude that Barack Obama pays Bachmann, Perry and their cohorts under the table to utter racist, foolish and just plain crazy statements. Every time they open their mouths Democrats who have some degree of frustration with Obama forget all about their misgivings because the big, bad barbarians are at the gate. Hand wringing about prayer rallies and cures for gay people are distractions, very dangerous distractions for many important issues in the world.
Nearly three years ago the world economy nearly fell off the precipice when market manipulation burst the most recent capitalist bubble. All of the indices of crisis are still present. There is still fictitious capital plaguing the world markets. The United States never returned to manufacturing anything useful, but instead churns out bombs and guns and the inevitable wars that come with them. Western European nations are going broke, and austerity, not the stimulation which would save western economies, has become the cure all for a dangerous situation.
None of this seems to matter to Democrats, who will only speak up when gaffe prone conservatives are in danger of becoming president. Their beloved president rarely makes any gaffes. He is a smart man from the right schools and from the right party. While he brokered a budget deal which Reagan would have killed for, and presides over the biggest military budget in American history, his liberal fans don’t care. They only care that Bachmann confuses Massachusetts with New Hampshire or Elvis Presley’s birthday with his death day.
So, why not Michele Bachmann or Rick Perry? Since all of the conservative dreams are coming true under Obama anyway, it may make sense to have an honest conservative back in the White House. The comedic possibilities are endless. We should at least have opportunities to laugh as we head over the cliff.
Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR. She lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgandaReport.com.
Egypt’s Secret Minister
By THOMAS C. MOUNTAIN | CounterPunch | August 17, 2011
Just exactly what influence Omar “The Secret Minister” Suleiman retains over the military junta that rules Egypt is a question of utmost importance for those who live on the banks of the Nile River. With a resume including 20 years as head of Egyptian Intelligence he is not someone anyone of those who helped bring about the downfall of Mubarak can afford to ignore.
He was the CIA’s go to man when it came to doing the Agencies dirty work in the Middle East as well as being the liaison with Israel and was reported to be in contact with Mossad on an almost daily basis.
Suleiman is infamous for enforcing the blockade of Gaza, saying he wanted the Palestinians there to “be hungry but not starving” in punishment for supporting Hamas. Hungry as in a 40% level of malnutrition related disability rates amongst Gaza’s children.
Mubarak as Egypt’s Godfather was as lacking in charisma as any leader in the Arab world and ruled by brute force alone. Omar Suleiman was his consigliere and enforcer combined, and was reputed to having a hands on approach to how his torturers carried out their interrogations.
While Mubarak and Sons lived a very publicly ostentatious lifestyle and were well known for their corrupt and decadent ways, Suleiman “The Secret Minister” always preferred to remain behind the scenes, at least until those last desperate days of the Mubarak regime and his “appointment” to the new position of Vice President of Egypt. It was he who announced to the world that a military coup had been carried out and that Mubarak was officially “retired”.
Of course, every member of the Egyptian military junta that overthrew Mubarak had arrived on the Supreme Military Council with his appointment stamped “Approved by Suleiman”. While they may hate “The Secret Minister” one could expect that the junta leaders know that if they want to avoid ending their careers standing in a cage in an Egyptian court “they had better hang together or they will all hang separately”.
Suleiman put them where they are and who better to keep matters from really disintegrating? And who better to keep them informed about what the CIA will and will not approve of.
Today the whereabouts of Suleiman the Secret remains just that, a secret. The last time he was allegedly heard from was via a letter to Al-Ahram newspaper in which he disavowed any desire to be elected President of Egypt. No, all he wanted to do was “live a quiet life with his family”.
Trial by military courts, torture and disappearances, all the hallmarks of Suleiman the Secret are still a part of today’s Egypt and those who partied in the streets after the Coup against Mubarak had better be warned. Behind the scene and still pulling the strings, Suleiman the Secret remains a danger whose continued influence will be ignored at the peril of those who rejoiced at Mubarak’s downfall.
Thomas C. Mountain is the only independent western journalist in the Horn of Africa, living and reporting from Eritrea since 2006.
Invitation to olive picking [Palestine, October, 2011]
2011 will be the 8th year the annual JAI / ATG Olive Picking Program in Palestine from October 15th to 24th 2011. This event is of special significance to the Palestinian economy when all energies and efforts are mobilised.
Since the beginning of the second Intifada in 2000, the olive harvest has been overshadowed by the Israeli policies of repression, closure, blockage of streets, confiscation of agricultural lands, as well as repeated attacks against Palestinian farmers by Israeli settlers. Now with the construction the Apartheid Wall and the continuous expansion of Israeli settlements at the expense of agricultural land in the occupied Palestine , many farmers are separated from their trees, and help is most needed.
The objective of this program is to mobilise as many people as possible for olive picking, especially in areas that are situated in proximity to Israeli settlements and bypass roads, in order to help Palestinian farmers harvest their olive trees which they might be unable to do without international support. Also, the event has brought up awareness to hundreds of people from many countries around the world about real life under the Israeli Military Occupation, and the experience itself was referred to by several participants as a life changing one. You too are invited to join us for this event.
Besides picking olives, the program will feature introductory presentations about the organising institutions, the current situation in Palestine and the effect of the Apartheid Wall, tours in the old city of Jerusalem and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem , a tour of Hebron , cultural evenings and social gatherings.
There will be opportunities to visit the dead sea prior to and after the program and on the day off as well as visiting holy places of interest including historical sites such as the Al Aqsa and Ibrahimi mosques and Nativity.
Olive Picking 2011–
15th – 24th October ( Starting Saturday 15th October 2011 for 9 nights )
Click for Olive Picking 2011 – Proposed schedule
More Information:
- The cost of the program including accommodation in a double room, meals, guides, local transportation and other relevant expenses is $650 or the equivalent in your local currency. – please check the currency converter – http://www.xe.com/ucc/
- Accommodation can be arranged at a hotel or with a local family.
- Travel from and to the airport is not included in the cost but can be arranged for groups.
To learn more about previous seasons please go to the video and watch a 10 minutes film about the event here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UYxAIxY2xA
Israel detains Al-Jazeera reporter alleging ties with Hamas
Palestine Information Center – 16/08/2011
JENIN — Al-Jazeera’s bureau chief in Afghanistan Samer Allawi is being held by Israeli intelligence agency Shin Bet for alleged affiliation to Hamas.
An Israeli military court extended Allawi’s term of detention on Tuesday after Shin Bet filed an indictment against him alleging that he is affiliated to Hamas and had relations with some of the commanders of its armed wing.
Allawi has denied all charges, saying the Israeli authorities were trying to produce fraudulent charges and that his arrest was actually based on his work as a reporter. He said interrogations focused on his professional work, social ties, and financial affairs.
The defense has refuted the possibility of Shin Bet having any evidence to support the charges.
Allawi, 46, was arrested while departing from the West Bank on Tuesday Aug. 9 after a three-week visit to his home village of Sebastia northwest of Nablus city.
He told the lawyer of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society last week that the Israeli intelligence tried to recruit him and that when he refused to work with them he was threatened with being accused of something serious.
Israeli police jeep kills Palestinian
Press TV – August 17, 2011
A Palestinian pedestrian has been killed after an Israeli border police vehicle hit him in East al-Quds (Jerusalem) suburb near an Israeli settlement neighborhood. The 38-year-old victim Amin Talab Dabash was hit by an Israeli police jeep in Har Homa in East al-Quds, AFP reported on Wednesday.
A spokesman for the Israeli border police, however, claimed that the victim died in a traffic accident.
“Last night in the area of Har Homa, there was an accident when one of our jeeps hit a pedestrian. As a result of the accident, he died,” the Israeli spokesman said.
“He was crossing the road in a dark area, an area without lighting and the jeep hit him,” he added.
The Dabash family accuses Israel’s border police of having intentionally killed him.
At least 1,000 Palestinians attended Dabash’s funeral chanting slogans against the Israeli regime.
Settlers torch farmland near Nablus
By Saed Bannoura | IMEMC & Agencies | August 16, 2011
Ma’an Images
A group of armed extremist Israeli settlers torched dozens of dunams of farmland near the Homesh former settlement, north of Nablus city, in the northern part of the West Bank on Tuesday evening.
Ghassan Douglas, a Palestinian official in charge of settlements file in the northern part of the West Bank, stated that the settlers set ablaze all trees planted around the evacuated settlement and that the fire consumed hundreds of almond trees and evergreens.
He added that the trees belong to the local Palestinian residents, and that the attack was carried out just as the residents were preparing to break their fast as the Muslims are marking the holy month of Ramadan.
On Sunday evening, July 31, a group of fundamentalist Israeli settlers set ablaze, 150 Dunams of farmlands that belong to residents of Ein Jaloud village, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
On Friday July 15, settlers torched Palestinian olive orchards in Jabal Suleiman area, close to Burin village, south of Nablus.
The attack was carried out by a group of twenty heavily armed settlers who set ablaze at least 80 Dunams of farmlands, including dozens of olive trees.
Israeli soldiers arrived at the scene but failed to stop the settlers, but instead, obstructed the work of local firefighters.
The repeated attacks by the settlers are part of what they dub as “Price Tag” and include attacking and torching mosques in the West Bank, in addition to attacking farmers and their lands. The settlers hold the Palestinians responsible for the few random settlement outposts that were evacuated by the Israeli army in the West Bank.