End the Crisis in Gaza

By David Gibson and Dr. Janet Amighi,
7/20/14

While Israel claims it is under threat, its own actions and policies are actually the driving force of Palestinian resistance.  It is most extreme in Gaza.

Gaza is kept shut off by land, sea and air from the rest of the world and even from their relatives in the West Bank. They cannot export their products or import needed supplies to rebuild after each Israeli incursion or bombing. They are locked in an overcrowded prison with undrinkable water and worse and then condemned as terrorists if they protest.  Gaza is permanently under siege- who can live like that?

Now as Israel attacks, Gazans run terrorized in the streets or cower in their homes with nowhere to flee. (Warning leaflets dropped from the air have no use when there is no place to evacuate to.) They have no shelters, they cannot become refugees. They can’t even get ambulances through to collect the wounded and the many dead. Even on the beach a group of boys are not safe.  They are trapped victims of an unbelievable horror. No one comes to their aid.

What is the cause of this brutal attack?  Israel says it is self-defense, against rockets, against kidnappers, against tunnels.  Palestinian leaders in Gaza say they will not accept a ceasefire until the blockade is lifted, that they will not stop resisting until they can lead tolerable lives.

According to Nathan Thrall writing in the New York Times, the trigger of this most recent Israeli attack against Gaza was the Reconciliation Agreement under which Hamas agreed to turn over leadership of Gaza to President Abbas and his Fattah party and create a unity government.  The West at first supported this move, but Israel resisted and her allies fell into line. Thrall calls it, “Gaza and Israel: The Road to War, Paved by the West, (July 17, 2014).  He claims that Israel is trying to preserve the status quo- keeping control over Palestinian land, water, and lives.

The US is Israeli’s willing ally to the tune of 3 billion dollars a year in military aid, not because it is in our national interest, but because our politicians are afraid to confront right wing actions by the Israeli government.

The United States can help save both Israeli and Palestinian lives by demanding a lasting ceasefire, lifting the blockade on Gaza, ending U.S. military aid to Israel (or at least withholding such aid until a ceasefire begins and lasts for, say six months), hold all sides accountable for human rights violations, and engage with all Palestinian factions (including Hamas).

Peace, Shalom, and Salam to all

Please take action for peace in Palestine and Israel.

Call the White House comment line:

202.456.1111

Demand a ceasefire and suspension of U.S.  weapons and military aid to Israel.

To call your Member of Congress:

US Capitol Switchboard (202) 224-3121

To locate your Member on-line:
U.S. House of Representatives: www.house.gov
U.S. Senate: www.senate.gov

White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/

Demand a ceasefire and suspension of U.S. weapons and military aid to Israel.

Let’s Stay Together…

Obama 2012

The Early Tea Bag Wearers – Updated

This is a re-posting of an earlier video produced by Keystone Progress.  The people in these videos will eventually staple tea bags to their hats and refer to themselves as “tea baggers”.  When they found out what the term “tea bagger” meant, they got their panties in a knot and now call themselves  “bigots”.

It’s a reminder of how all this hatred and racism towards Obama began.

And remember “monkey man”?  Thanks again to Keystone Progress for being there and capturing the truth.

Things have not gotten better.  The hatred, racism and violence has only gotten worse.

UPDATE:  The people in the above videos are the ones that cling to their guns and Jesus while living in the parts of Pennsylvania that either will be or are already open to gas drilling (fracking).  Soon, these people will be seeing this when they turn on their faucets…

Dear Mr. President

Dear President Obama,

I am not in the mood to have you negotiate ANYTHING with this Congress especially the expiration of the Bush tax cuts to the rich. I am sick and tired of footing the bill for the rich people and getting little in return. I wanted a single payer health care plan or at least a public option and you dropped the ball on that one by caving into the Republicans temper tantrums. Instead, I got a watered down health care bill that won’t fully go into effect until 2014 which gives the insurance companies plenty of time to double and triple my current premiums. I wanted real Wall Street reform. Instead, I got weak financial reform because Wall Street took precedent over Main Street. Having said that, you probably still want me to vote for you and the weak Democrats in 2012. You need to convince me that YOU can do better than negotiating with greedy Republicans. You need to take control of the agenda. If you want my vote, then you need to earn it. I’m getting tired of footing the bill and getting nothing in return. I wouldn’t return to a restaurant that gave me poor service and bad food and I won’t vote for politicians that give me bad service and bad bills.

Real Americans vs Real Americans

That’s right, you read that correctly.  We live in a strongly divided nation.  One where Americans hate other Americans.  Timothy McVeigh, the terrorist, bombed the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma killing 169 Americans which included seniors and little children and he felt no remorse.

In took weeks of sorting through debris to find the victims. In all, 168 people were killed in the explosion, which included 19 children. One nurse was also killed during the rescue operation.

Recently, Scott Roeder, believed it was perfectly acceptable to walk into a church and shoot another American because he hated him.  Mr. Roeder did not know the man he killed.  He never even met this man until he faced him with a gun.   Jim David Adkisson walked into a church in Tennessee and started shooting because he hated liberals.  Mr. Adkisson was encouraged to hate liberals by the authors of books that he read.

The media gives us Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter and Bill O’Reilly.  All of these people preach the hatred of other Americans, especially liberal Americans.  Some have even gone as far as suggesting that Supreme Court Justices be murdered and promoted the poisoning of the Speaker of the House.  This isn’t just freedom of speech.  This is promoting violence.  This is pitting Americans against Americans and it isn’t humor or funny.

Where did all this hate other Americans begin?  It started with Ronald Reagan and his designating liberal as a dirty word and lying about poor people on welfare driving Cadillacs.  Yes indeed, Ronald Reagan loved to divide this nation into the conservatives that were real Americans and that other group known as the liberals.  Reagan preached that the 11th commandment was to never speak ill of another Republican but it was certainly acceptable to trash non-Republicans.   What is really disturbing about Reagan’s words is that he was President of the United States which includes every American and not just Republicans.  Rush Limbaugh is an admirer of Ronald Reagan and Rush is always telling Americans to hate other Americans.  He even went as far as stating that he hopes America fails at a time when Americans need to pull together.  Ann Coulter has gone as far as stating that college liberals should be beaten up and pushed around.

“When contemplating college liberals, you really regret once again that John Walker is not getting the death penalty. We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too. Otherwise, they will turn out to be outright traitors.”

Many Americans are out of work, lack health insurance and are at risk of losing their homes, yet the media keeps tearing this country apart by providing the disciples of hate a platform from which they can preach their hate.

It seems like the real enemy is within our own nation.  When we pledge allegiance to America, we say “one nation…, indivisable… “.  Our military fights and defends this one nation.  If can’t learn to live together and accept each other, then we will become our own worst enemies.

“We can agree to disagree without being disagreeable.” – Barack Obama

HOPE

Pandora shut the box in time.  I still have hope and faith in our President.  The alternative to Barack Obama is not acceptable and would be dangerous to our health, wealth and safety.

Democracy Is Coming To The USA.  Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the GOPers need to come back to reality.  Barack Obama is our democratically elected President.

Thank God We Kicked Him Out

More nonsense from former Senator Santorum…

Ricky thinks that President Obama should have taken First Lady Michelle Obama out for a shot and a beer instead of going to a Broadway Show.  In other words, don’t support the arts.

I wonder if former First Lady Laura Bush would have appreciated being courted so eloquently by her husband former President George W. Bush.

We Can’t Afford to Play that Game

One of the things that I admire about Barack Obama is his ability to speak the truth to lies and rumors.

Here’s his speech from Thursday.

(h/t DailyKos)

Part 1

Part 2

We need to think big and act boldly.

JOBS and more JOBS!

Thank You Lilly Ledbetter

Finally, equal pay for women.

The Bitchin’ Pesky Media

President Elect Barack Obama

Campbell Brown actually had the nerve to call out Barack Obama on his response to a silly question by a reporter. During a news conference, President Elect Barack Obama was asked about his choice of Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State. This softball question was asked:

(excerpt from Huffington Post)

BAKER: You’ve talked about the importance just now of having different voices and robust debate within your administration. But, again, going back to the campaign, you were asked and talked about the qualifications of the — your now, your nominee for secretary of state. And you belittled her travels around the word, equating it to having teas with foreign leaders. And your new White House counsel said that her resume was grossly exaggerated when it came to foreign policy. I’m wondering whether you can talk about the evolution of your views of her credentials since the spring.

President Elect Barack Obama responded with:

OBAMA: Well, I mean, I think — this is fun for the press to try to stir up whatever quotes were generated during the course of the campaign. No, I understand. And you’re having fun.

The fact that Obama brushed the reporter’s question off his shoulder irritated Campbell Brown to no end. She slammed him stating:

BROWN: There we go again. The pesky media, all we want to do is have a little fun, stir things up for our own amusement.

I mean, really, how silly of that reporter to dare ask you, Mr. President-elect, how it is that you completely mocked Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy experience just a few months ago and yet today you think there is no one more qualified than she to lead your foreign policy team? It’s a clever device, treating a question so dismissively in an attempt to delegitimize it, but it is a legitimate question. As annoying how you may have found it, it is a fair question.

And her complaint went on and on and on. Listen to her at the Huffington Post video.

Really, now! Obama laughs at a silly question about “campaign politics” and Campbell Brown gets bent out of shape. Where the (fill in the expletive) has the media been for the last 8 years? There have been nothing but “fluff” questions asked of the boy Bush during his presidency.

Where were the tough questions about the August 6th 2001 memo? Where were the tough questions about torture? Where were the tough questions about WMDs in Iraq? Where were the tough questions regarding exposing a CIA Agent, an act that jeopardized the safety of all Americans and was akin to treason? Where were the tough questions when it was discovered that the boy Bush had been illegally spying on Americans? Where were the tough questions when billions of American taxpayer dollars were lost in Iraq? Where were the tough questions when the boy Bush trashed the US Constitution? Where? Where? Where?

Could this irresponsible press be accused of treason for NOT doing its job by questioning President George W Bush as he spit on his oath of office and by doing so, 4000+ Americans lost their lives needlessly in a war based on lies? A war that the press never questioned.

The media never complained about George W. Bush’s inability to speak the English language and never complained when instead of answering questions, Bush would make jokes about nonsense. Heh, heh, heh.

Campbell Brown has nothing to say about the negligence of the media when it comes to the incompetence of George W. Bush. Instead, she gets her knickers in a knot over some silly campaign politics question that President Elect Barack Obama found amusing. Campbell Brown is going to have to get used to having an adult in the White House. The boy Bush is set to leave on January 20, 2008. There will be adults in the Executive Office running the business of this nation. This will be a change for the media and something that they will need to adjust to.