Despite the violent threats of the Israeli Occupation forces to the boats, the two boats with 44 human rights activists protesting the illegal and brutal siege of Gaza have reached Gazan waters.  

A main strength of nonviolent activism is that it challenges the opponent with very difficult options, making a violent response by the oppressor less likely. In this specific case, it is clear with the media attention these boats have received worldwide (even some limited coverage in the US) have made a violent response by the Israeli military politically impossible. So despite the threats of the Israeli military to "stop this provocation", it seems the mighty Israeli military has caved to boats filled with rubber balloons for the children of Gaza.

The siege of Gaza, for today, has been broken.
This is truly an historic day for the people of Palestine, for nonviolent struggle, for bringing peace to the Middle East.

As you may recall, the brains heading up the British Israel Communications and Research Centre claimed in a recent(ish) letter to the Guardian that the death of Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana (pictured below) was "accidental" (see my earlier response here).

There it is again!  McCain questions Obama's judgment.  It was a  drum beat on NPR today.  It is ridiculous.  George Lakoff must be screaming about it and I am unable to resist  ranting here!  How does he question Obama's judgment?   John McCain is promising that he can bring us victory!  Yup, for the first time in world history if we elect this man he will bring us victory in the occupation of another country!  He did not tell us what that meant.  Incidentally, he framed it as a "war".  But GWB declared the war over some years ago.  We are into an occupation.  Just a while ago we had an increase in our occupying forces.  The people who said the war was over some time ago called this increase in troop levels a "surge".  Today John McCain said that Obama lacks judgment because he still fails to acknowledge the success of the surge.  These are the front lines of the framing wars and Lakoff has warned us about them.  It seems that the warning that we can only lose the debate by accepting their framing still needs to be understood.  Look below the break and let's try again.

Steve Clemons of The Washington Note recently interviewed Mustafa Barghouti, general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, about the reality of the much-vaunted "Annapolis process":

Staff Sgt. Alex Jimenez comes home for funeral

A hearse bearing the remains of 25-year-old Staff Sgt. Alex Jimenez came to a halt in front of his father's house in Lawrence, the scene of a 14-month vigil as the family awaited word of his fate. A memorial shrine with floral arrangements and half-burned votive candles was on the sidewalk. (7-25-08)

Whoever scheduled Gordon Brown’s recent visit to Israel is surely out of a job. Brown’s dreary, etiolated performance – appropriate for a political corpse – was rendered even flatter by its proximity to Barack Obama’s headline-hogging whirlwind tour of Europe and the Middle East. Despite the differences in style, however, both politicians took to the podium in Israel with a similar message: one of support for the latter’s rejectionist expansionism.

The truth is that I only get around to checking this Iraqi Resistance website every once in a while. I when I do I end up posting something because we get so little real news from Iraq and we are so inundated with politicians and Media saying the "Surge is Working" because "Violence is Down" in Iraq. It has become so much the accepted wisdom that now certain politicians are publicly berated for not admitting that the "Surge is Working". So I post this here to remind us all that those are all lies!

Now here are the headlines for Monday in Iraq:

The West Bank is facing a severe drought this summer, made even worse by the long-standing control and abuse of water-resources by the Israeli Government.  According to B'tselem:

The 2008 drought, the most serious drought in the area in the past decade, aggravates the built-in, constant shortage of water in the West Bank. Rainfall this year in the northern West Bank was 64 percent of average, while in the southern sections of the West Bank, it was 55 percent. As a result, the water stored from rainfall has already been used.  ...

Many have noted that Maliki's preference for Obama's Iraq plan has put the Bush/McCain tag team in the untenable position of appearing to support the Democratic position on Iraq, or of attempting to throw Maliki under the bus, or of creating a preposterous middle ground between "time horizons" and "timetables."  The bobbing, weaving and dancing on Iraq that the GOP is having to do in the wake of this news leaves many Republican strategists rightly believing that, to sum it up, "they're fucked."

A video published today by the B'Tselem human rights organisation shows an unarmed, handcuffed and blindfolded Palestinian being shot by an Israeli soldier at very close range with a rubber-coated steel bullet (not, as some would have it, a "rubber bullet").

A UN report (.pdf) published last week concludes that the wall Israel is constructing in the occupied West Bank is creating severe "geographical and bureaucratic hardships for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians", "preventing and delaying Palestinians from accessing essential services and workplaces". Entire communities have been devastated. The densely populated Jerusalem neighbourhood of al-Ram is a typical example: since the annexation wall severed it from the rest of Jerusalem a third of businesses and "vast numbers" of residents have left, turning a once thriving area into "a virtual ghost town".

Yesterday I got an e-newsletter about the same time I caught this post. The e covered what prompted the post by ScottyUrb.

Today, the 4th of July, we here in the States celebrate our "Independence", no need to go into an explanation, or give a link to read about, we're all supposed to know and understand what that means, and so are others who think they've achieved that.

This year there'll be alot less traveling to a further destination for relaxation or whatever, more home bodies, we all know the reasons, or we should.

A Nation that sends its Sons and Daughters into Occupations?

A C-17 Airforce Transport plane arrives in Kandahar, Afghanistan to receive the bodies of five U.S. service members killed. Though more than 1,000 US and coalition forces were on hand to participate in the "ramp ceremony," a Los Angeles Times reporter and photographer were asked to leave the area by a military public affairs officer. A Pentagon policy banning coverage of this particular event was cited as the reason. [Photo: Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times]

Do you like what you see?

When you hear the term "Swiftboat" what comes into your mind?

I already know your answer, but it isn't the meaning for those who served on nor any Navy Personal who served In-Country Vietnam.

Not to far back a small group of misguided Navy personal, who served aboard 'Swiftboats' in 'Nam, took that once proud name and used it for their political purposes and gains, with some others joining them, who not only never served on  swiftboats, and the extremely dangerous missions they were sent into, but some never served at all, in the Military nor In War/Occupations!

Your word has turned to slime, hope the business world is paying attention, though you'll always find
snakes like you to deal with and make some bucks, and I'm sure many already have learned about you through your years of building your billions.

What's this all about? Well,

One is struck by the continual use of terrorism against civilians on the part of Israel and its bungling accomplice in the Middle East, the US government. The mindset is clearly one of civilized western values Americans and Israeli, taking action against Arab non-western "savages".

The stars are dead-set against George Bush (they always have been), and therefore against us.  Schade.  George Bush could actually salvage something from the burning wreckage of his legacy, if he did take this most excellent opportunity to begin troop withdrawals from Iraq.  He could then claim with greater credibility that he did, in fact, depose a dictator (however illegal) and allowed a newer, more representative form of government to take root in Iraq.  As one Iraqi businessman said:

http://www.usatoday.com/...

"I'm not ungrateful that they took away Saddam Hussein," says Salam Ahmed, 30, a Shiite businessman. "But the job is done. Thank you very much. See you later. Bye-bye."