The extremists on two sides of a conflict are almost always identical

i've said for years that there is a frightening similarity between extremists of all stripes... islamic religious extremists are a mirror image of christian religious extremists... there isn't even a sliver of daylight between republicans and democrats... the bigotry of some people in the black and hispanic communities can easily rival that of whites...

glenn, in his usual masterful and thorough way, makes the same case for those who ceaselessly push the war on terror and those who ceaseless wage the war of jihad...

The Enemy — which America’s warriors maintain and glorify with their endless we-are-at-War! fixation and in whose name Endless War is waged and civil liberties are destroyed — is, indeed, “on many counts the projection of the self.” There’s a good reason why Al Qaeda members and American would-be warriors are both equally desperate to maintain the we-are-at-War! mindset: it’s what gives them purpose and justifies everything they do.

i've only excerpted a small portion of glenn's post... it's well worth reading in its entirety as it sets forth a compelling perspective on these two events from thursday...

(1) the Democratic-led Senate rejuvenated and expanded the War on Terror by, among other things, passing a law authorizing military detention on U.S. soil and expanding the formal scope of the War; and (2) Obama lawyers, for the first time, publicly justified the President’s asserted (and seized) power to target U.S. citizens for assassination without any transparency or due process.

interesting times, eh...?

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Glenn: " How can an administration ... which ... sustains itself with Wall Street funding ... possibly maintain any pretense of populist support...?"

answer...

It can't.

i was talking with (ok, ok... more like i was expounding to) my macedonian friend earlier today while waiting for the bus to prishtina about how i have grave fears for my country, fears i thought would disappear like a bad dream once obama got elected but instead are even more dire than they were in the depths of the bush era... then i met three particularly nice folks on the bus - a swede, an austrian and a german - and got wound up all over again... (i don't know why it is but non-u.s. people seem to be able to understand what's really going on in the world so much better than my fellow countrymen...)

glenn, as is so often the case, captures my feelings precisely...

There are few more bitter ironies than watching the Republican Party -- controlled at its core by the very business interests responsible for the country's vast and growing inequality; responsible for massive transfers of wealth to the richest; and which presided over and enabled the economic collapse -- now become the beneficiaries of middle-class and lower-middle-class economic insecurity. But the Democratic Party's failure/refusal/inability to be anything other than the Party of Tim Geithner -- continuing America's endless, draining Wars while plotting to cut Social Security, one of the few remaining guarantors of a humane standard of living -- renders them unable to offer answers to angry, anxious, resentful Americans. As has happened countless times in countless places, those answers are now being provided instead by a group of self-serving, hateful extremist leaders eager to exploit that anger for their own twisted financial and political ends. And it seems to be working.

It is indeed difficult to believe that the country will so quickly return to power the same Republican Party -- in an even more warped and primitive form -- that virtually destroyed the U.S. over the last decade through a mix of extreme corruption, recklessness and lawlessness. But nothing is more foolish than underestimating the dangers that come from this potent mix of economic oppression and the aggressive fanning of racial and ethnic resentments.

i see nothing good down the road and am deeply dreading the november elections...

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What is the difference between Palin and a Muslim fundamentalist? Lipstick.

given the recent unfortunate increase in the public profile of sarah palin, juan cole feels moved to revive his salon article from september 2008...

Sarah Palin, more resemble those of Muslim fundamentalists than they do those of the Founding Fathers. On censorship, the teaching of creationism in schools, reproductive rights, attributing government policy to God's will and climate change, Palin agrees with Hamas and Saudi Arabia rather than supporting tolerance and democratic precepts. What is the difference between Palin and a Muslim fundamentalist? Lipstick.

i've been of this same opinion for quite some time... there is very little daylight between fundamentalist religious extremists of any stripe... all of them are obsessed with control over the lives of others and use their supposed direct "pipeline" to "god's truth" to justify it, and it's all nothing but pure, unadulterated shit...

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It's always interesting to see how people REALLY behave in unguarded moments

from haaretz via information clearing house...

As someone who lives on and off in the American bubble in Tel Aviv and came to Israel on a Birthright tour like some of the kids in the video, this is embarrassing, shocking, bizarre, but familiar. And as someone who spent many nights grimacing at similar overheard conversations from American Jews in town for the week from Long Island, the booze-fueled hubris and uber-Zionism is not so strange at all. In the Jewish homeland for the first time, on a free trip, fleetingly experiencing a place gripped by a visceral realism and powerful sense of purpose, it's easy to let the beer overtake you.

While documentary filmmaker Max Blumenthal rejects this argument ("No amount of alcohol could make me express opinions that were not authentically mine," he says. "If anything, alcohol is a crude form of truth serum that lubricates the release of closely held opinions and encourages confessional talk."), many American Jews understand how hubris and chutzpah can flow much freer in Israel. Spared the political correctness, decorum and social morays of America (or Britain, South Africa or Australia), many find that they walk taller, step louder, and even sprinkle their speech with words they'd never say back home.

Not to excuse the behavior of those in the video, I don't believe this idiocy reflects the values of young American Jews or their opinions on Obama, but rather the way that Israel, in particular Jerusalem, can radicalize the young to the left or the right. It also proves (once again), that fools and alcohol and camcorders do not make a good match.

Coincidentally, the video comes about a week after Haaretz reported on the campaign launched by far-right Israelis called "No, you can't," meant to persuade their countrymen of the dangers of the "anti-Semitic" Barack Hussein Obama - with the emphasis on "Hussein." So far, the campaign appears to consist of sparsely attended rallies and posters of Obama in a kaffiyeh, much like those of Yitzhak Rabin before his 1995 assassination.

For many, the video is shocking because they think Jews aren't supposed to be racist. Especially not nice Jewish boys like those in the video, showing off the hip hop gear bought on the mean streets of Great Neck, their hats cocked sideways as they survey the city they profess to own after five days.

There are really only two types of young American Jews in Israel: the ones who head for Jerusalem, and the ones who go to Tel Aviv. I hope Blumenthal films his next segment in Tel Aviv, though the results would probably be far less salacious. On a balcony in Florentin, he would ask the drum circle what they think of Obama and through the purple haze would hear only praise for the president, before being forced to listen to a 30-minute account of a recent trip to Nepal.

This video either proves that drunk Americans are starting to resemble Kahanists, or Israeli far-rightists have achieved the rhetorical brilliance of drunk American Jewish yahoos in town for a week. Talking to drunken Birthrighters to gauge Israeli opinion on Obama is like using Mormons to measure American public opinion on gay marriage. You're speaking to the wrong crowd and at the wrong time of night, only in a country where there is no closing time or public drinking ordinances. One can only imagine what would be caught on film in an American college town under these circumstances.

youtube...

See Max Blumenthal's shocking footage of the reaction by some Israelis and American Jews in Jerusalem to Obama's speech to the Muslim world. Co-produced by Joseph Dana, aka Ibn Ezra: ibnezra.wordpress.com and Mondoweiss, a blog that covers the Israel-Palestine conflict and the Middle East from a progressive Jewish perspective.

well, we know for damn sure that this kind of deplorable behavior coming from people who think they're in their zone of safety ain't at all unusual... you can bet your boots there's plenty of it right here in the u.s. of a. from coast to coast being dispensed by bigots, intolerant bastards, skinheads, hate-mongers, and extremists of every stripe be they christian, muslim OR jewish... what i want to know is when we can dispense with this hateful shit and get on with living together and treating each other like genuine human beings...

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A highly personal perspective on Afghanistan

a friend of mine, perhaps motivated by my presence here in afghanistan, has been taking a much greater interest in the situation here... i received an email from him just this morning asking me if i would "connect the dots" for him... here's what i wrote back...

i don't know what the picture is on the puzzle box-top, my friend... i only have some pieces, same as you...

the only things i know for certain are that virtually every one of my afghan colleagues are smart, committed, open-minded, warm, friendly, compassionate people who would like nothing better than to have some peace and stability in their country so that they can get on with their lives...

most folks i know are devout muslims who reject extremism in all forms, be it islamic, christian, or jewish... they respect people of different beliefs and want that respect reciprocated... they have a hard time understanding the tendency of westerners to demonize islam across the board... they see christian and jewish extremists behaving in equally violent ways but understand that doesn't mean that christians or jews as a whole should be condemned...

people here work very hard to keep body and soul together... they are savvy business people who have been at it since well before marco polo stopped through the neighborhood, and are pragmatic enough to go with what works...

they feel powerless to change a system that seems to have them in its tight grip and they define that system as their own leaders who are out for themselves rather than the common good and are intent on raking in as much as they can before the door slams shut and they know it will sooner or later; the taliban who cannot bear the thought of people making choices that don't align with their fundamentalist beliefs and who want to destroy the infidels who advocate individual choice; and the current occupying power who they see as just one more big dog that blew in to town in pursuit of its national interests, interests that very little to do with the welfare of the common folk...

they are deeply frustrated but, nonetheless, they keep on keepin' on... about 2/3 of them are taking classes of one sort or another - english, computer, etc., and a large chunk of that number are in university degree programs, either at kabul university or the american university of afghanistan... some work all day and take classes at night... some of the drivers and guards work all night and take classes during the day... there are three former fulbright scholars on the project staff... i am a one-man academic counseling and letter of recommendation factory, having written letters to brandeis, univ. of maryland, univ. of texas, univ. of kent in the uk, and unr... i probably do 3-4 off-the-cuff, micro-seminars of 15-20 mins. each per day on various topics ranging from iso standards to leadership to communication and facilitation skills... they have an insatiable hunger for learning and see education as the most important thing besides food and shelter for moving their country forward...

that's my highly personal perspective, but it's my story, and i'm stickin' to it...

fwiw...

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Read Or Die

the anime music video. (Just something whimsical.)

However bad you think things are, they are so much worse.

As far as option 6 in jburke6000's "Response to ProfMarcus: What To Do Next?", no doubt the administration is counting on it.

As far as a previous comment I made, "what Posse Comitatus Act?", here's more:

Meanwhile, last October Bush and Cheney, with the help of a compliant Congress, put in place some key elements needed for a military putsch. There was the overturning of the venerable Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which barred the use of active duty military inside the United States for police-type functions, and the revision of the Insurrection Act, so as to empower the president to take control of National Guard units in the 50 states even over the objections of the governors of those states."

That entire article, "Martial Law is Now a Real Threat - Declaring the US a Battlefield", By Dave Lindorff (7/27/07),is well worth reading.

I notice that when I went to read a new article at the New York Times, about Bush challenges critics of new spy laws, it runs sponsored propaganda first about "Anti-Drugs", which has a message that pedophiles are not the only people our kids are meeting online.

We know that mainstream media shills for the government. The preferred order of alliance among states and in fact, probably true with the media, is:

1. To remain neutral
2. To join the side of the strongest
3. To join whichever side one must

many Right Wing apologists scoffed at the notion that when Bush and Putin met last, they may have discussed staying late at the party.

Now Pravda has this.

Many Right Wing apologists now scoff, in much the same way, at comparisons of present America to Nazi Germany.

uh, hello?

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Joe Klein and "extremist" left-wing bloggers

Joe Klein

basically, i haven't bothered to post on joe klein because i seriously don't give a rat's ass, but this pushed me over the top...

obviously, jokeline just can't give it a rest...

[T]he smart stuff is being drowned out by a fierce, bullying, often witless tone of intolerance that has overtaken the left-wing sector of the blogosphere. Anyone who doesn't move in lockstep with the most extreme voices is savaged and ridiculed—especially people like me who often agree with the liberal position but sometimes disagree and are therefore considered traitorously unreliable. Some of this is understandable: the left-liberals in the blogosphere are merely aping the odious, disdainful—and politically successful—tone that right-wing radio talk-show hosts like Rush Limbaugh pioneered. They are also justifiably furious at a Bush White House that has specialized in big lies and smear tactics.

And that is precisely the danger here. Fury begets fury.

but, ya gotta understand, this isn't ABOUT JOE... oh, no... he's ever so concerned about our POLITICAL PROCESS...

The spitballs aimed at me don't matter much. The spitballs aimed at Harman, Clinton and Obama are another story. Despite their votes, each of those politicians believes the war must be funded. (Obama even said so in his statement explaining his vote.) Each knows, as Senator Jim Webb has said repeatedly, that we must be more careful getting out of Iraq than we were getting in. But they allowed themselves to be bullied into a more simplistic, more extreme position. Why? Partly because they fear the power of the bloggers to set the debate and raise money against them. ... In the long term, however, kowtowing to extremists is exactly the opposite of what this country is looking for after the lethal radicalism of the Bush Administration.

you don't get it, joe, and you aren't being honest either... the liberal, progressive, democratic, anti-war - whatever label you want to stick on us - aren't EXTREMISTS... moreover, you can take your goddam concern for our precious political process and stick it directly up your ass... the united states is in the middle of the biggest constitutional crisis in its history and those who are speaking out about it and insisting that the united states halts its criminal behavior are EXTREMISTS...? it's precisely the demonstrated lack of urgency and concern on the part of those we thought we had elected to represent us that drives us into hissy fits... that you don't see that and don't appreciate just how much we care, is a pathetic demonstration of narrow vision... and comparing us to those who advocate murdering innocents, torturing detainees, castrating gays, and assassinating leaders of other countries is despicable...

whatever credibility you might have had with me, joe, is gone...

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