Reid And Durbin Say Franken Won’t Be Seated With New Senate Class

AP: “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yielded to Republican threats and agreed on Monday not to immediately seat fellow Democrat Al Franken, whose razor-close victory in Minnesota faces legal challenges.”

HuffPo: “Republicans will object to trying to seat him,” said Reid spokesman Jim Manley. Later in the day, Manley said that Democratic leadership would not seat Franken when the new class of Senators was sworn in on Tuesday. “Now that the bipartisan state canvassing board has certified Al Franken as the winner, we hope Senator Coleman respects its decision and does not drag this out for months with litigation… However, there will not be an effort to seat Mr. Franken on Tuesday.”

NOTE TO READERS: The amazing Cherie Welch, upgrader-in-chief of the News Dissector blog, is on self-assignment, parts unknown.

So, it is somewhat back to my pre-multimedia era, scaled down approach, with but a few pre-produced sections. Sorry …

Danny Schechter

MARCH OF THE DEAD TO GREET CONGRESS ON TUESDAY

A long column of figures dressed all in black with white death masks and bearing the names of those killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine.

The march will be followed by a dramatic nonviolent action intended to awaken Congress to the need to end the wars. March from noon to 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009. Additional dramatic action 2:15 p.m.

PANETTA TO CIA, FRANKEN TO SENATE?
ON THE COVERAGE OF GAZA
MANY ACCUSED OF CORPORATE CRIMES SETTLE CASES

The US news machine is a twitter (and not in the software sense) with Obama’s move to Washington and move on Washington with a flurry of meetings and a big new appointment. Once again, another Clintonista gets the nod, this time to head the CIA. It’s Democrats this time who have eyes raised.

• CLINTON WINS ANOTHER ONE Obama Picks Former Clinton Aide Panetta for CIA

Reuters: “President-elect Barack Obama has chosen Leon Panetta, who was White House chief of staff for President Bill Clinton, to lead the CIA, Democratic officials said on Monday.”

One Good thing: Panetta has spoken out against torture!

BUT…

• Dianne Feinstein Not Too Pleased With Panetta Pick By Spencer Ackerman - The Washington Independent, DC

Feinstein: “I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA Director. I know nothing about this, other than what I’ve read,” said Senator Feinstein, who will chair the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in the 111th Congress.

MORE ON PANETTA:

• PBS backgrounder

• MSNBC: “He served on the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan panel that released a report at the end of 2006 with dozens of recommendations for the reversing course in the Iraq war.”

• NYT-OpEd: What About Those Other Iraq Deadlines? by Leon Panetta - 04/04/2007

The Iraqis promised to achieve, by the end of 2006 or early 2007, the approval of a provincial election law (so far, no progress); approval of a law to regulate the oil industry and share revenues (while the Council of Ministers has approved a draft, it has yet to be approved by the Parliament); …

What that “law” Mr. Panetta refers to actually means, in simple terms, is satirically summed up by Jim Hightower asking: What Is Our Oil Doing Under Their Sand?

The law: Text of H.R. 2206: U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations…, which contains, as a benchmark, the underreported Iraq Hydrocarbon Law:

Sec. 1314, (b) Conditioning of Future United States Strategy in Iraq on the Iraqi Government’s Record of Performance on Its Benchmarks-

• Iraqi oil law history

12/07/2006 - Discussion pertaining to the oil aspects of the Iraq Study Group with leading oil industry expert and critic who also specializes in international trade and finance policy, Antonia Juhasz, and Amy Goodman on Democracy Now:

NOTE: A law that irrefutably favors big oil in ways unprecedented in the industry is “buried” in a list of so-called “benchmarks” while the benefit to big oil rarely receives a mention in the MSM. Cannot hep but wonder why. Hmmm.

• 06/01/07 - Defense Secretary, Top General Endorse 50-Year U.S. Presence In Iraq

• 06/01/07 - Kucinich Exposes Iraqi “Hydrocarbon Act” Privatization — Speech

• 08/18/08 -Iraq “Abandons” Contracts from Oil Change International.

THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA REPORT: FRANKEN WINS MN

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota board has certified results showing Democrat Al Franken winning the state’s U.S. Senate recount over Republican Norm Coleman, but a legal challenge probably will keep the race in limbo.

The Canvassing Board’s declaration Monday starts a seven-day clock for Coleman to file a lawsuit protesting the result. If he doesn’t, Franken will get the election certificate he needs to take the seat in Washington.

Franken, a former “Saturday Night Live” personality, ended the recount up by 225 votes.

Coleman’s lawyers have argued that some ballots were mishandled and others were wrongly excluded from the recount. After a Minnesota Supreme Court decision went against Coleman earlier Monday, lead attorney Fritz Knaak (kuh-NOCK’) said a lawsuit was inevitable.

Al Franken: Campaigns on ‘Freedom from Fear’ and quotes:

• AL FRANKEN WINS, BUT WHAT HAS HE WON?

BRAD BLOG: Franken Declared ‘Winner’, But Final Certification Will Likely (and Appropriately) be Delayed — Excellent provision in MN law requires election challenges settled before U.S. Congress is given jurisdiction over Senate seat

The state canvassing board in Minnesota has now certified Al Franken (D) as the winner over incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman (R) in the race for the U.S. Senate. Barring a successful legal challenge by Coleman, Franken will have won the seat by an astoundingly close 225 votes, out of some 2.9 million cast.

But there’s still a chance, albeit a slim one, for Coleman to reverse his fate. A very good provision in MN’s law — not found in most other states — may delay Franken’s seating, meaning he will not be sworn in with rest of Congress at the beginning of the new session slated to start tomorrow. Ultimately, however, the provisions should ensure that whoever is eventually sworn in to serve as the state’s Senator will not be forced to serve under a cloud.

The voters of MN deserve that much, no matter how long it takes, and thankfully, like its hand-count laws, the state’s provision requiring the completion of legal challenges before final certification is sent to Congress by the Sec. of State, is a model for the nation.

FRANKEN ALSO SILENT ON GAZA

• Where’s Al? By Bob Collins - Minnesota NPR

“Does he have any positions or comments on the last two months of political news and events that have gone on? What is his stance on Israel’s incursion into Gaza?”

WORLD NEWS:

CBS: Doctor Decries Israeli Attacks

Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor in Gaza, tells Sky News that the number of civilians injured and killed in Gaza proves that Israel is deliberately attacking the population.

“We have been doing surgery around the clock,” Gilbert replied. “I just talked to one of my colleagues in the ICU who has not been sleeping for three days and the hospital is completely overcrowded and we are running six, seven OR’s and there are injuries that you just don’t want to see in this world. Children coming in with open abdomens and legs cut off.

“We just had a child who left. We had to amputate both legs and the arms and the only crime they have done is been civilians — Palestinians living in Gaza. The relief now is not more doctors and more drugs; the relief now is to stop the bombing immediately. This cannot go on. It is a disaster.”

Israeli Troops Killed By ‘Friendly Fire’

Three Israeli soldiers have been killed and 24 wounded by one of their own shells as the bloodshed continues in Gaza.

ISRAEL REBUFFS GAZA CEASE-FIRE OVERTURES, HAMAS FIGHTS ON

AP: GAZA CITY, Gaza — Israel ignored mounting international calls for a cease-fire Monday and said it won’t stop its crippling 10-day assault until “peace and tranquility” are achieved in southern Israeli towns in the line of Palestinian rocket fire.

Israeli forces seized control of high-rise buildings and attacked smuggling tunnels and several mosques in a campaign against Hamas militants that took an increasing toll on civilians. Three young brothers were reported killed during shelling. Palestinian wounded filled hospital corridors.

Arab delegates met with the U.N. Security Council in New York Monday, urging members to adopt a resolution calling for an immediate end to the Israeli attacks and a permanent cease-fire. At the same time, diplomats and European leaders traveled the region in an effort to stop Israel’s expanding ground and air offensive.

WAR IN CONTEXT, A VALUABLE SITE: GAZA: Quatar, considered a US ally, is calling for an Arab summit on Gaza.

FT: Israel Says NO to EU calls for ceasefire

Israel rebuffed a call from visiting European foreign ministers on Monday for an immediate ceasefire in its Gaza offensive, as troops engaged in their heaviest clashes with Hamas fighters and the civilian death toll mounted. At least 14 children were reported to have been killed.

PERSPECTIVES

If Obama Is Serious, He should get tough with Israel by Aaron David Miller, Newsweek

Jews worry for a living; their tragic history compels them to do so. In the next few years, there will be plenty to worry about, particularly when it comes to Israel. The current operation in Gaza won’t do much to ease these worries or to address Israel’s longer-term security needs. The potential for a nuclear Iran, combined with the growing accuracy and lethality of Hamas and Hizbullah rockets, will create tremendous concern. Anxiety may also be provoked by something else: an Obama administration determined to repair America’s image and credibility and to reach a deal in the Middle East.

US ROLE IN GAZA WAR: Bush Plan Eliminated Obstacle to Gaza Assault Analysis by Gareth Porter

WASHINGTON, Jan 5 (IPS) - Until mid-2007, there was a serious political obstacle to a massive conventional war by Israel against Hamas in Gaza: the fact that Hamas had won free and fair elections for the Palestinian parliament and was still the leading faction in a fully legitimate government.

But the George W. Bush administration helped Israel eliminate that obstacle by deliberately provoking Hamas to seize power in Gaza. That plan was aimed at getting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to dissolve the democratically elected Hamas government — something Bush had tried unsuccessfully to do for many months.

Hamas won 56 percent of the seats in the Palestinian parliament in the January 2006 elections, and the following month, the Palestinian Legislative Council voted for a new government under Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. The Bush administration immediately began to use its control over the “Quartet” (the U.S., European Union, United Nations and Russia), to try to reverse the results of the election.

The Quartet responded to the Hamas victory by demanding that Hamas renounce all armed resistance to Israel and even “disarm” before a political solution was reached. That was in effect a demand that Israel be allowed to use its military and economic controls over the West Bank and Gaza to impose its own unilateral solution on the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration and the Europeans cut off all financing for the Palestinian government, while Israel refused to hand over to the Palestinian authorities the VAT and customs duties it collected on behalf of the Palestinians under the Paris Protocol signed with the PLO as part of the Oslo Accords.

When Abbas continued to resist U.S. demands for an end to the elected government, both Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told him at the United Nations in September 2006 that they would not accept a Palestinian government with Hamas participation.

ISRAEL CROSSES THE LINE

FINANCIAL TIMES: Gideon Rachman: By sending ground troops into the Gaza Strip, Israel has crossed a line that brings it perilously close to strategic failure.

ISRAEL MESSAGING FOCUSES ON HAMAS ROCKETS

Some grandstanding in Israel by New York Mayor Bloomberg: big picture of him going into a shelter in Israel in the New York Post next to a column call on to Israel to wipe out Hamsas.

I am being sent stories like this to win sympathy for Israel.

Another Day, Another Rocket

“I am presently at home in the northern Negev spending much of the day going in and out of the bomb shelter in my home as Grads drop from the sky nearby. The small space is shared with 6 grandchildren and parents. We make the best of it. We actually welcomed in the new year in the place as another missle was landing nearby. Spending time in the shelter is actually less troubling this time since we have not yet been asked to put on our gas masks. When we exit and see foreign newscasts, the BBC and Sky for example, we wonder what reality are they describing. It certainly is not ours.”

Email from Professor Ilan Troen of Brandeis University, January 1, 2009

ON THE MEDIA COVERAGE

JUAN COLE: THE MEDIA COVERAGE OF GAZA IN THE US

“The Israeli leadership knew that it could not reply to Hamas’s microwar without engaging in total war on the Gaza population, and that this step would be unpopular with the world’s publics. But the Israeli leadership has successfully thumbed its nose and world public opinion so often and so successfully that this sort of consideration does not even enter into their practical calculations (except to the extent that they are careful to do a lot of propaganda for their war effort). Their estimation that they will suffer no practical bad consequences of attacks on civilians is certainly correct in the short to medium term.

“The Israel lobbies are wealthy and powerful, and the US congress depends heavily on them for campaign funding…”

[SNIP]

“The big long-term problem Israel has is that its assiduous colonization of the West Bank has made a two-state solution almost impossible, turning it into an Apartheid state. And if you go on practicing Apartheid long enough, that begins to attact boycotts and sanctions. And forestalling a Palestinian state means that likely the Palestinians will all end up Israeli citizens.”

[SNIP]

“You can’t keep them stateless and virtually enslaved forever, occasionally exterminating some of them as though they were vermin when they make too much trouble. That, sooner or later, will lead to boycotts by rising economic powers and by Europe that could be extremely damaging to Israel’s long-term prospects as a state.

“It may still be 10 or 20 years in the future. But because of Israel’s economic and demographic vulnerabilities, for it to lose the war of global public opinion may ultimately be more consequential than either macro-war or micro-war.”

IN THE US, GAZA IS A DIFFERENT WAR h/t to Sarah Meyer

Gazans flee homes and seek refuge in UN schools

More Video:

• Waiting to treat Gaza’s wounded

• Gazan Father Mourns baby’s death

EDITOR AND PUBLISHER: Media Commentary Muted as Israel Invades By Greg Mitchell

NEW YORK (Commentary) Israel launched its much-anticipated invasion of Gaza on Saturday. For over a week, U.S. media had provided largely one-sided coverage of the conflict, with little editorializing or commentary arguing against broader Israeli actions.

Most notably, after more than eight days of Israeli bombing and Hamas rocket launching in Gaza, The New York Times had produced exactly one editorial, not a single commentary by any of its columnists, and only two op-eds (one already published elsewhere). The editorial, several days ago, did argue against the wisdom of a ground invasion - - but even though that invasion had become ever more likely all week the paper did not return to this subject.

Amazingly, the paper has kept that silence going in Sunday’s paper, with no editorial or columnist comment on the Israeli invasion. The Washington Post did manage to work up an editorial for Sunday which, in the usual contortionist manner, found the invasion “justified” but also highly “risky.”

The invasion, to no one’s surprise, did begin on Saturday — so any further criticism will now come too late. As in the past, U.S. media coverage and commentary has overwhelmingly backed the Israeli actions (as it did in the Lebanon war in 2006, which turned into a fiasco). CNN has provided some helpful balance, starting late Saturday, but on the Sunday morning talk shows Democratic leaders said little, or nothing, critical of Israel.

Of course, most on-the-scene coverage of civilian casualties in Gaza has been hindered, to say the least, by Israel barring foregin journalists from entering.

On Friday, Amnesty International condemned the U.S. response to the “disproportionate” Israeli bombing of Gaza — with largely U.S. weapons. Some of it amounts to U.S.-backed “human rights abuses,” it charged.

The group recalled that the U.S. supplied most of the millions of cluster bombs dropped by Israel in the Lebanon war in 2006.

• Ron Paul: Israel had US OK for war on Gaza

• White phosphorus added to Israeli fire

PERSPECTIVES

• An Eyewitness Account of Conditions on the Ground in Gaza By ABC News

What we are seeing now is like nothing that’s ever been seen before in the Gaza Strip.

• Gaza: The Death and Life of my FatherBy Fares Akram in Gaza

For Fares Akram, The Independent’s reporter in Gaza, the Israeli invasion became a personal tragedy when he discovered his father was one of the first casualties of the ground war.

Reuters.com - U.S. governors seek $1 trillion federal assistance

p align=”justifyGovernors of five U.S. states urged the federal government to provide $1 trillion in aid to the country’s 50 states to help pay for education, welfare and infrastructure as states struggle with steep budget deficits amid a deepening recession.

End of the Year Brings A Burst of Settlements With Justice Department By Carrie Johnson

The Justice Department has reached more than a dozen business-related settlements since the presidential election, with more in the pipeline for January, prompting lawyers and interest groups to assert that companies are seeking more favorable terms before the new administration arrives.

The climate for business settlements could grow more harsh when Obama appointees seize the reins at the Justice Department, corporate lawyers say. They point to statements by Attorney General-designate Eric H. Holder Jr., who told an audience last month that he would expand the focus of federal prosecutors into corporate suites.

A review of 15 agreements involving corporations since early November suggests that much of the alleged misconduct dates back five years or more, provoking questions about why the cases took so long to mature and why resolutions are coming with only weeks left in President Bush’s term.

“What they obviously are trying to do is take advantage of an administration that’s deemed to be more friendly to business,” said Cono R. Namorato, a Washington defense lawyer who ran the Internal Revenue Service’s office of professional responsibility earlier in the Bush administration. “I know of no tax reason for doing it now.”

INVESTMENT NEWS: Congress Holds Hearings on Madoff and SEC

The $50 billion fraud allegedly perpetrated by Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC provides ample evidence that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. should regulate investment advisory firms, the ranking minority member of the House Financial Services Committee indicated today.

“One factor that allowed his alleged fraud to continue as long as it did was the differential regulatory treatment of broker-dealers and investment advisers,” Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., said at a hearing this afternoon on how the alleged Ponzi scheme, perhaps the largest in history, should influence Congress as it takes up what could be the most substantial rewrite of the laws governing financial markets since the Great Depression.

NYT: Bleak Sales in December Cap a Grim Year for Automakers

Sales fell 37 percent at Toyota, 35 percent at Honda and 32 percent at the Ford. G.M. and Nissan reported 31 percent declines over December a year ago.

INDICATORS: ECONOMY (From Undernews)

• Minimum wage as a percent of average wage: down from the 1950s

• Real wage of average worker: lowest since 1973

• Real income: down

• Top 1% share of total income: 24% in the 1930s, 8% in the 1960s, 21% in this decade

• Top 1% share of the wealth: 39%, up from 29% in the 1970s, 36% in the 1930s

• Income gap between rich and poor: widening

• Family indebtedness: increasing

• CEO pay as a percent of average worker’s pay: 300 times, up from 24 times in the 1960s

• Women’s pay vs. men’s pay: improving

• Foreign debt as a percent of GDP: Up five times 1980s to present.

• Older families with pensions: down over 50% since 1970s

• Workers with defined benefit pensions: down by two thirds since 1970s

• Savings rate: negative for first time since depression

• Age at which one can receive Social Security: down

• Median rent: up one third in last decade

• New home building: lowest since 1991

• Use of soup kitchens: up

• Personal bankruptcies: up

• Housing foreclosures: up

• Credit card debt: up

• Child poverty rate: up since 1970s

• Black, latino, senior poverty rate: down since 1970s

• Severe poverty rate: up

• US share of world tourist market: down

• Number of women owned businesses: up over 50% in decade

• Number of MBAs issues: up over three times since 1970s

• Manufacturing jobs: down

• Unemployment rate: up

Credit Card Companies Willing to Deal Over Debt

Hard times are usually good times for debt collectors, who make their money morning and night with the incessant ring of a phone. But in this recession, perhaps the deepest in decades, the unthinkable is happening: collectors, who usually do the squeezing, are getting squeezed a bit themselves.

After helping to foster the explosive growth of consumer debt in recent years, credit card companies are realizing that some hard-pressed Americans will not be able to pay their bills as the economy deteriorates.

So lenders and their collectors are rushing to round up what money they can before things get worse, even if that means forgiving part of some borrowers’ debts. Increasingly, they are stretching out payments and accepting dimes, if not pennies, on the dollar as payment in full.

“You can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip,” said Don Siler, the chief marketing officer at MRS Associates, a big collection company that works with seven of the 10 largest credit card companies. “The big settlements just aren’t there anymore.”

Lenders are not being charitable. They are simply trying to protect themselves.

Banks and card companies are bracing for a wave of defaults on credit card debt in early 2009, and they are vying with each other to get paid first. Besides, the sooner people get their financial houses in order, the sooner they can start borrowing again.

The story:

A former U.S. congresswoman was on a volunteer ship during a clash with the Israeli Navy. CNN’s Brooke Baldwin reports.

An Israeli patrol boat struck a boat carrying medical volunteers and supplies to Gaza early Tuesday as it attempted to intercept the vessel in the Mediterranean Sea, witnesses and Israeli officials said.

An email from Congresswoman McKinney:

December 30, 2008: Oh What a Day! I’m so glad that my father told me to buy a special notebook and to write everything down because that’s exactly what I did.

When we left from Cyprus, one reporter asked me “are you afraid?” And I had to respond that Malcolm X wasn’t afraid; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wasn’t afraid.

But little did I know that just a few hours later, I would be recollecting my life and mentally preparing myself for death.

Lebanese fishermen cheer, as the vessel SS Dignity from the group Free Gaza, arrives in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2008. The boat, carrying international peace activists and medical supplies to the embattled Gaza Strip, arrived back in Tyre, after being turned back and damaged by the Israeli navy, according to organizers of the trip.
(AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

When we left Cyprus, the Mediterranean was beautiful. I remember the time when it might have been beautiful to look at, but it was also filthy. The Europeans have taken great strides to clean it up and yesterday, it was beautiful. And the way the sunlight hit the sea, I remember thinking to myself that’s why they call it azure. It was the most beautiful blue.

But sometimes it was rough, and we got behind on our schedule. We stayed on course, however, despite the roughness of the water and due to our exquisite captain.

There were no other ships or boats around us and night descended upon us all rather quickly. It was the darkest black and suddenly, out of nowhere, came searchlights disturbing our peace. The searchlights stayed with us for about half an hour or so. We knew they were Israeli ships. Who else would they be?

They were fast, and they would come close and then drop back. And then, they’d come close again. And then, all of a sudden there was complete blackness once again and all seemed right. The cat and mouse game went on for at least one half hour. What were they doing? And why?

Calm again. Black sky, black sea. Peace. And then, at that very moment, when all seemed right, out of nowhere we were rammed and rammed again and rammed again the last one throwing me off the couch, sending all our food up in the air; and all the plastic bags and tubs–evidence of sea sicknesses among the crew and passengers–flew all over the cabin and all over us. We’d been rammed by the Israelis.

Lebanese fishermen look at the damaged vessel SS Dignity in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2008. A boat carrying international peace activists and medical supplies to the embattled Gaza Strip sailed back into a Lebanese port on Tuesday — after being turned back and damaged by the Israeli navy, organizers of the trip said. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

How did we know? Because they called us on the phone afterwards to tell us that we were engaging in subversive, terroristic activity. And if that if we didn’t turn around right then and return to Larnaca, Cyprus, we would be fired upon. We quickly grabbed our life vests and put them on. Then the captain announced that the boat was taking on water. We might have to evacuate. One of my mates told me to prepare to die. And I reflected that I have lived a good and full life. I have tasted freedom and know what it is. I was right with myself and my decision to join the Free Gaza movement.

I remembered my father’s parting words, “You all will be sitting ducks.” Just like the U.S.S. Liberty. We were engaged in peaceful activity, a harmless pleasure boat, carrying a load of hospital supplies for the people of Gaza, who, too are sitting ducks, currently being bombarded in aerial assault by the Israeli military.

Activists aboard the Dignity boat (R) arrive to the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre. An Israeli naval vessel collided on Tuesday with a boat carrying activists and medical supplies that was trying to break the blockade of Gaza, forcing it to divert to a port in Lebanon. (AFP/Mahmoud Zayat)

It’s been a long day for us. The captain was outstanding. Throughout it all, he remained stoic and calm, effective in every way. I didn’t know how to put my life jacket on. One of the passengers kindly assisted me. Another of the passengers pointed out that the Israeli motors for those huge, fast boats was U.S. made–a gift to them from the U.S. And now they were using those motors to damage a pleasure boat outfitted with three tons of hospital supplies, one pediatrician, and two surgeons.

The crew of the vessel SS Dignity along with journalists, raise their hands before a press conference at the Lebanese journalist syndicate in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2008. The boat carrying international peace activists and medical supplies to the embattled Gaza Strip sailed into a Lebanese port on Tuesday — after being turned back and damaged by the Israeli navy, organizers of the trip said. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Tawil)

I have called for President-elect Obama to say something. The Palestinian people in the Gaza strip are seeing the worst violence in 60 years, it is being reported. To date, President-elect Obama has remained silent. The Israelis are using weapons supplied to them by the U.S. government. Strict enforcement of U.S. law would require the cessation of all weapons transfers to Israel. Adherence to international law would require the same. As we are about to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, let us remember that he said:

1. The United States is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world, and

2. Our lives begin to end the day we remain silent about things that matter.

I implore the President-elect to not send Congress a budget that contains more weapons for Israel. We have so much more to offer. And I implore the Congress to vote “no” on any budget and appropriation bills that provide more weapons transfers, period.

Israel is able to carry out these intense military maneuvers because taxpayers in the U.S. give their hard-earned money to our Representatives in Congress and our Congress chooses to spend that money in this way. Let’s stop it and stop it now. There’s been too much blood shed. And while we still walk among the living, let us not remain silent about the things that matter.

We really can promote peace and have it if we demand it of our leaders.

CNN correspondent Karl Penhaul was aboard the 60-foot pleasure boat Dignity when the contact occurred. When the boat later docked in the Lebanese port city of Tyre, severe damage was visible to the forward port side of the boat, and the front left window and part of the roof had collapsed. It was flying the flag of Gibraltar.

11alive

On Russ Baker’s new book from BUZZFLASH — One of my favorite sites.

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW The Patrician, Elitist Corruption of the Bush Dynasty and Where Was George H. W. Bush on November 22, 1963 Anyway? submitted by Mark Karlin

I am very careful not to speculate. What I do is begin with the curious fact that G.H.W. Bush has said he could not remember where he was on November 22, 1963. That makes him just about the only adult alive at the time who has that memory defect. — Russ Baker, author, Family of Secrets — The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America

BuzzFlash has often said that “conspiracy theories” exist because a threshold of people believe that the official version of an event or personal history does not pass the believability test. But then the fun begins, because theories are just that, so you become an advocate of one perspective or the other, hopefully based on the strength of the argument and the backing of documentation. But that becomes more difficult as time passes and access to the unofficial version of events becomes more difficult.

Russ Baker has assembled the case to be made for the dark underside of the Bush dynasty, sort of a corrupt patrician elitist mob that relocated from New England to Texas (and Florida).

Choose what you want to believe from Baker’s book, but he’s a credible journalist who has a case to make, and he’s got a lot of tasty Bush family morsels to chew upon.

We interviewed him about his just published, Family of Secrets — The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America

BuzzFlash: These are the last days of Bush dynastic rule, unless Jeb — running for Florida Senator in 2010 — makes a run for the presidency in 2012 or 2016. Why did you release this expose on the Bush dynasty now?

Russ Baker: There was so much disinformation out there, and so many layers of secrecy and obfuscation, that it took me five years to complete my reporting. As for relevance, there is no better time than now to try and comprehend what we have just been through–and how it is likely to affect us as Barack Obama takes over. Some countries have convened “truth commissions” to come to terms with their own tragic epochs. But here in the U.S., we tend to want to shut the door and move on. As I discovered, there was an entire hidden stratum of truth underlying the rise of the Bushes — a truth that, if not reckoned with, threatens to derail the reforms we all hope are on the horizon.

IN MEMORIAM:

Griffin Bell

“He was hired by E.F. Hutton to investigate charges that some members of the brokerage firm had engaged in complex fraud schemes. He also headed investigations into the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, and Procter & Gamble Co. hired him to sue people who circulated false rumors that the company’s moon-and-stars logo was a satanic symbol.

“In 1986, he went to Nicaragua to help represent captured American mercenary Eugene Hasenfus. And in 1992, President George H. W. Bush hired Bell to be his private lawyer in the Iran-Contra scandal.”

Claiborne Pell — The Right Kind of Aristocrat

“Born to a family whose wealth dated back centuries, Pell married Nuala O’Donnell, who comes from a family that founded the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., the A&P. Democrats both, the Pells believed in noblesse oblige, with Claiborne in his 36 years as senator an ardent supporter of the environment, the arts and education, and a considerable force in the shaping of American foreign policy.

The Pell Grant program, arguably his greatest achievement, has allowed millions of lower-income students to earn a college degree.”

MUSIC VIDEO OF THE DAY — 14 G sung by Kristen Chenowith

LETTERS

Joe Dunphy writes:

“Danny/Staff: one of the technical aspects of war reporting to look out for is whether Israel uses the bunker-buster cluster bombs that were sold to it by the US late last year. If the bombs are used in Palestine, they would therefore be unavailable for use in Iran, unless there were some quick reverse-engineering, and scale up of manufacturing. The bombs, of course, have been considered de facto war crimes if used against humans. If one hits the ground/bunker, and does not explode, that potentially puts the technology in the hands of potentially anti-American sympathizers. This is not an issue one is likely to see explored on GE/NBC.”

ON GAZA

Da’ud X Mohammed writes:

“American political leaders are for the most part silent, unwilling, and perhaps even afraid to encourage the UN’s call for a ceasefire and humanitarian aid.”

That’s a helluva statement! That could be the opening line in a four-volume set.

I posted some excerpts from a dKOS piece by David Mizner:The Israel-Palestine Conflict is Simpler than You Think

In particular he sez, “Given the near-world wide consensus, you need not know much about the issue to see that if the US used its power and its influence with Israel to press for an agreement, a settlement would be within sight.”

Before seeing your statement, but taking into consideration Mizner’s, I wrote:

There can be no agreement or settlement because serious campaign funding from the Jewish community favors those who favor Israel the greater Israel Lobby has a kind of de facto veto-power over who serves in the Congress the likes of AIPAC and the neocon (literally) furnish legislation (that favors Israelis over Palestinians) to members of the House and Senate for passage, and which the always pro-Israel President signs into law.

That is the uniquely “American” status quo and the quid pro quo all rolled into one.”

DON’T ANSWER THEM!

Dennis Abbot writes from St. Paul about a suggestion by another reader:

I see Daniel Spak (1-5-9) thinks you should argue with commenters who disagree with you. Don’t! You have too much important work to do for the rest of us. I suggest those with an ax to grind comment on Mr. Spak’s blog instead of yours. He says he has time to answer.

Back with more tomorrow if I can drive, speak, show a film and write at the same time. I am screening, In Debt We Trust, in Hartford CT at 6PM.

Your comments welcome to dissector@mediachannel.org