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Feb 1, 2011

Could It Happen Here? By Dr. Payback

 

February 1, 2011

Could It Happen Here?

By Dr. Payback 

Tunis…Cairo…Wall Street?...Washington?

Could it happen here?

Consider:  In North Africa, unresponsive, self-interested, moneyed tyrants falling to popular revolt.  People impoverished by an unaccountable government run and funded by a wealthy and corrupt elite.  Two leaders, both "key allies" of the United States, leaders in the "war against terror," and thus against true democracy and Arab and Muslim self-determination. 

Ben Ali—the dictator of Tunisia, became president for life in 1987, held a series of 'elections' in which he never won less than 90% of the vote.  Ben Ali, the man who looted his own country, set up Swiss bank accounts for his family, and lived opulently amid the squalor of his own people.  Ben Ali, the "friend" of the West, key American ally in the 'war on terror' that is in reality a war on Islam.  But the people delivered justice.

Mubarak—the enemy of his own people, a traitor and betrayer, surviving only through the magnanimous "aid," $1.5 billion per year, from the U.S.—in return for serving as the American puppet, for enforcing Israeli-American interests over those of his own people, for helping to crush the innocents in Gaza on his doorstep.  Mubarak—the Judenknecht, as the Germans would say, a slave to the Jews.  But the people delivered justice.

Could it happen here?

Wall Street—the pinnacle of Jewish-American-Zionist financial power.  Hedge fund managers making literally $5 billion per year, while 43 million Americans are on food stamps.  Half of all workers earn less than $500 per week.  One in six Americans are in a federal anti-poverty program.  Nearly 85% of people hate their jobs, and want to change, but can't.  The richest 1% take home 24% of all income.  The 30,000 employees of Goldman-Sachs earned a total of $11.4 billion last year—an average of $770,000 per person.

Washington—where every major action and every major decision centers on the concerns of the Jewish community.  Washington, where the Jewish Lobby reigns supreme, thanks to their omnipresence and ability to give millions of dollars to campaign funds.  Literally 90% of Congress yields without question to AIPAC, the Jewish Council of Presidents, and Zionist money (evidence:  during the Gaza massacre two years ago, 390 of 435 Congressmen [89.7%] voted to support Israel).  Democrats and Republicans, Republicans and Democrats, guilty alike. 

President Obama—friend of the Jews, the man who said "my closeness to the Jewish American community was probably what propelled me to the Senate," the man who chose the self-named "Zionist" Joe Biden as his second-in-command.  Obama, who said, "If you are waiting for America to distance itself from Israel, you are delusional"—God forbid that we should "distance" ourselves from a criminal, apartheid, illegitimate state.  Obama, the "true friend of Israel," a nation who's security is "sacrosanct" in his mind.  Obama—the Judenknecht, the Jew-slave.

Congress—535 millionaires, 90% of whom take Jewish money and Jewish orders.  Congress—Democrats and Republicans, Republicans and Democrats alike—who support an eternal 'war on terror' which is nothing less than a war on the enemies of Israel: a war that costs Americans over $1 trillion per year, and a military/security machine that consumes more than 40% of actual income. 

Six million Jewish-Americans should not exercise overwhelming and decisive influence on a nation of 310 million; this is an elementary fact of democracy that any 4th-grader could understand.  And have no doubt:  the vast majority of American Jews exercise their privilege in ways small and large.  Directly so in institutions where Jews predominate:  government, media, entertainment, finance, medicine, law, academia.  Indirectly so in many other areas, due to leverage from advertisers, financial backers, and favorable legislation.  Even your 'average Jew' will call in the ADL, file complaints against neighbors and colleagues, and surreptitiously act to defend Jewish interests.  And nearly every American Jew is an explicit or implicit Zionist. 

Could it happen here?

Consider:  What if thousands of committed and enraged Americans took to the streets—to Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue—just as thousands of Tunisians and Egyptians have done?  What if they smashed the windows of the luxury suites in Manhattan, burned the castles of the rich, demanded payback, demanded justice

What if they came by the thousands, by the hundreds of thousands, bearing the arms guaranteed to them by the Constitution?  Thousands of Tunisians and Egyptians, with no weapons at all, took down their governments—imagine what thousands of armed and enraged Americans could do? 

What if, when the National Guard came in to "restore order"—in other words, to restore control by the rich and powerful—what if they refused orders, joined the rebels, and turned their weapons against their criminal bosses?

What if, when the military was called in to do the job that the Guard failed to do, the soldiers, too, refused orders to capture or kill their fellow men?  What if they, too, joined the rebel masses—the people—and turned their weapons against those petty dictators and Judenknecht who run the show?  What if a phalanx of tanks arrived in Washington DC, took charge of their own destiny, drove down to Pennsylvania Avenue, and began firing point-blank at the White House?

What if the people took hold of their own destiny?  What if they refused to have their lives and livelihoods stolen from them, for the sake of the wealthy few, the Zionists, and the Jews—for whom no wealth is sufficient and no power too extreme? 

Ten million Tunisians can demand their freedom from the Jew-slaves.  Seventy million Egyptians can demand their freedom from the Jew-slaves.  What's wrong with 300 million Americans?

Arabs and Muslims throughout the world deserve our respect.  For decades they have put up with Jewish-Zionist bullshit.  They have had to tolerate our idiotic labels:  "Muslim extremist" (anyone who refuses to be a Jew-slave) and "Muslim terrorist" (anyone who fights to defend their basic human rights).  American propaganda and American bombs have rained down on their heads for years, and yet they would not surrender.  When the time came, they demanded their freedom—and they won it.

Could it happen here?

Just imagine.

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Thank you and remember: 

Peace is patriotic!

Michael Santomauro
253 W. 72nd Street
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Dr. Toben...

 

Feb. 1, 2011


Mr Peter Hartung

Director

Adelaide Institute

 

Peter, me mate – just a brief info update from me, and also sent to a number of individuals as well as to those mentioned by name below:

 

This morning around 1045 hours, Tuesday, 1 February 2011, James Damon drove me to Austin's Bergstrom International Airport where I had no problems booking my onward journey to Los Angeles and Brisbane and beyond. In fact, I was lucky; owing to the cold Arctic front coming south again with its cold snap already interrupting flights from the north-east of the USA, I was asked if I would like to be re-booked on the earlier LAX flight that would start boarding in about 5 minutes time. My original 6pm flight from Austin to LAX was already anticipating a delay – and that would be bad news for my trying to connect to the Qantas flight departing ten minutes to midnight at LAX.

 

Don't you like my use of LAX instead of Los Angeles International Airport – Tom Bradley International Terminal?

 

As is usual if things go right there is always that unknown factor that has control-freaks tearing out their hair - a slight problem. I had checked in my bag because it was possible for me to have it checked through to Singapore – and you recall how on our trip to Iran we found that Qantas does not transfer luggage beyond Singapore to Kuala Lumpur Airport but that this would have to be done Air Malaysia.

 

So, the two obliging reception ladies at the Austin Admiralty Lounge made a phone call with the question: can this black roller bag with a couple of red and orange pom-poms be found and placed on this earlier flight. Apparently only three bags had so far been received for this later flight, and word came through that my bag would be retrieved.

 

And I didn't even have time to indulge in a complimentary drink but had to make my way down to Gate 13, immediately, below the lounge. This was a relief because on my transit from Raleigh via Dallas-Fort Worth to Austin I had a much longer trip to get from D to A terminal, which I did per train service – but then the gate number had changed from 13 to 38 and so I actually walked the whole length of Terminal A. But you know I need the exercise and so I saw all this as a good way in getting fit...funny how sitting in a plane can also make you feel too tired for walking...

 

Once on the plane I found my seat, a window seat in Row 7 – later I learned that this seat costs $30,- extra, like the EXIT seats, which cost about $80,-+ –  and glanced out the window where I could see the luggage conveyor belt sitting there idle but not for long. The trolley truck and three carriages came along and two held the luggage destined for LAX.

 

I reminisced when I saw my bag making its way into the hold because about 30 years ago I flew from Lagos/Nigeria via Nairobi/Kenya to Harare/Zimbabwe and at the transfer at Nairobi I was sitting in a window seat as I was at Austin and saw how my suitcase wasn't going into the plane's hold but was on a conveyor belt going in the opposite direction. I alerted the flight attendant and she alerted the captain who ordered the closed plane door to be re-opened and I sprinted own the gangway that was still attached to the plane and jumped across a structure in the luggage holding area, which was half roofed over, and grabbed my suitcase. As I did my pants split – but did I care for that? Somehow within a couple of minutes I was back on board with my suitcase and within another minute or so had a blanket around my waist and my pants in my hands and a needle and thread in my fingers stitching up the damage.

 

This time things ran more smoothly because it's all scanned technology that does the luggage handling, though Johanna informed me that her luggage from the SUA to Germany ended up somewhere in Asia – and that indicates to me the USA is still functioning, something that I noted during my six weeks stay was still a matter of fact. For example, when a 911 emergency call was made from a housing estate in Raleigh, it was only a matter of minutes before two Ambulances, three police cars and two fire trucks arrived. From hearsay reports it was a domestic between a mother and daughter – so what's new about that?

 

Even our trip into the snowy northern USA was without incident, except when on our way to Cleveland in front of us a truck lost pieces of its iced-up roof and a lump of it hit the windscreen, causing a fine horizontal hair-line crack, which fortunately did not extend from end to end and then only about five inches from the top. Still, in time this windscreen needs to be replaced – thanks to the weather ... and not to my driving!

 

All in all, here at LAX all is well and I am preparing myself for that 14+ hour flight to Brisbane, this 3-hour flight from Austin to LAX is nothing compared to what's ahead of me. Then, of course, it's a five-hour transit at Brisbane before heading for that 7h+ Singapore flight and where I will make that overnight transit Hotel stop for the minimum of six hours, then pay for each additional hour....

 

And the next leg of the journey to Teheran you well know, which is just over 8 hours, with that additional 50 minute flight from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

 

And so I depart the USA after a most enjoyable and informative time spent with friends, and I do hope my US exit will not cause headlines such as:

'Toben found with 22 books in his bag all questioning the Holocaust!'

 

- Raleigh: Amelia who had the patience to tolerate me for so long - but we did not talk matters Holocaust-Shoah all the time as it's really such a boring topic now because the facts are out but we lack the political power to spread the truth, which will happen automatically when it is not a business proposition anymore. The USA will be saved as a political unit if individuals return to the wisdom enshrined within the Constitution.

 

- Washington: Elisabeth and Willis – and Hasso  who more than any other couple I know have weathered the enemies' onslaught, even the most painful one – the enemy from within. Why have they lasted the distance?  They have their moral and intellectual integrity in-tact, something that is not easy to sustain especially when former friends attempt to destroy that which they have created.

 

- Toledo/Maumee: Carol and Gordon – and their many cats – who  delighted us with their hospitality at short notice, and a different focus/perspective as to what ails the world. That the global problems are multi-faceted and that it is simplistic to blame just one 'perpetrator' still has me pulling out the quip: 'Don't blame XXX; blame those that bend to their pressure'. The inverse of this is the thought censored by Amelia as she edited my book: 'Nobody like me: I xx xx and I bend over – it not help'. Of course, underpinning this thought structure is the death dialectic of win-lose instead of the life-giving dialectic process of win-win, which additionally has a civilizing effect – as the individuals I met embody so nicely, and that keeps me humble ...

 

- Austin: Johanna and James – and their 12-year old doggy- and I have a blank as to her name, which is not a rarity anymore. I think I need those memory pills that are now so quickly and freely handed to individuals who are 'suffering' usually from an 'extremely rare form of dementia'. Then again, I think I'll stick to my invisible Happiness Pills that I am selling for free to anyone who wants them. To date I have not succeeded in this venture but I must admit I myself do take one a day.

 

Our trip in James' 25-year-old Honda along Route 35 to San Antonio is an adventure in itself and the fuel economy is startling, and though one cylinder has a broken ring there is no smoke pouring out because the additive oil is smokeless – a miracle in technological advancements. The Alamo has a monument that lists the heroes who gave their lives for a cause – and it includes the names of two of James' ancestors. Today James is the translator of things German and although he has his Weltanschauung his primary passion is the German language, something both Johanna and James instruct in the evenings at the Free German School, Austin. James informs his students that mark Twain was a great Germanophile as well.

 

Of interest is that while writing this I receive a call on my mobile phone from, of all places, Israel. It's a recorded message whose content I naturally do not understand. Such is life. My mobile with Sydney time says it's 11:20am.

 

Sadly I missed to say hello to Michael in New York, Art in Chicago, John in Pittsburg, and Raymond in Victoria, TX,

 

So, now with much gratitude to the above who made my stay in the US of A a somewhat positive affair, I surprise myself in forgetting to mention the Tucson massacre and how that impacted on the dialectic set on 9:11, and its failure to fuse into a massive onslaught on the First Amendment, though little ol' Foxy Foxman had the script all ready, and now the external expression of this dialectic in the Egyptian, et al, uprising - I am now off to Teheran for that Bioethics conference where the equivalent 'uprising'a year ago failed because the Iranians are a proud nation that can withstand external interference of the materialistic and intellectual kind – until later.

 

Fredrick



---- Message sent via Adam Internet WebMail - http://www.adam.com.au/401200EC-69F0-4777-85BF-6843876BEE55/Toben%2520Alamo%25202011.JPG441310C1-AF31-4E53-A161-AAF971C3042B/Toben%2520Riverwalk.JPG776E6D54-1687-47B9-9B55-8FB0C468D693/01022011(001).jpg



Peace.
Michael Santomauro 
@ 917-974-6367 

What sort of TRUTH is it that crushes the freedom to seek the truth?

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THE MYSTERIOUS MR. SHAMIR

 

THE MYSTERIOUS MR. SHAMIR

Click here:
http://tinyurl.com/69h5klq



Peace.
Michael Santomauro 
@ 917-974-6367 

What sort of TRUTH is it that crushes the freedom to seek the truth?

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WikiLeaks: Britain secretly advised Libya how to secure release of Lockerbie bomber

 



WikiLeaks: Britain secretly advised Libya how to secure release of Lockerbie bomber
Ministers secretly advised Muammar Gaddafi's Libyan regime how to secure the successful early release of the Lockerbie bomber, documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph have disclosed.
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Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi clasps the hand of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the Libyan leader's son, after arriving back in Tripoli Photo: AFP










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By Christopher Hope, and Robert Winnett 9:00PM GMT 31 Jan 2011

A Foreign Office minister sent Libyan officials detailed legal advice on how to use Abdelbaset al-Megrahi's cancer diagnosis to ensure he was released from a Scottish prison on compassionate grounds.

The Duke of York is also said to have played a behind-the-scenes role in encouraging the terrorist's release.

The Libyans closely followed the advice which led to the controversial release of Megrahi – who was convicted of the murder of 270 passengers on Pan Am Flight 103 – within months of the Foreign Office's secret intervention.

The disclosure seriously undermines British Government claims that is was not complicit in the release of al-Megrahi, and that the decision to free the convicted terrorist was taken by the Scottish Executive alone.

It will also lead to renewed pressure from senior American politicians on David Cameron to release all internal documents detailing Britain's role in the scandal. Last summer, the Prime Minister pledged to release the relevant information – but the publication has yet to occur sparking fears that a cover-up may have been ordered.
The Daily Telegraph today publishes more than 480 American documents detailing international relations with the Libyan regime over the past three years.

The documents – obtained by the WikiLeaks website and passed to this newspaper – provide the first comprehensive picture of the often desperate steps taken by western Governments to court the Libyan regime in the competition for valuable trade and oil contracts.
Any perceived political slight on the part of the Libyans often leads to western companies losing lucrative contracts with Gaddafi's erratic behaviour a major problem in maintaining good relations.

Last year, the British Ambassador is recorded as telling his American counterparts in Tripoli that he had to negotiate with the Libyans "on their terms" and should "not be frightened by the name Gaddafi".

The documents disclose in detail how British ministers and officials were desperate not to allow Libyan anger over the ongoing imprisonment of Megrahi to derail the growing commercial relationship between the two countries.
Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer, was imprisoned in 2001 for life after being found guilty of bombing Pan-Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988.

For several years, the Libyans pressed for the terrorist to be returned to the north African country under a prisoner transfer agreement that was being negotiated.
According to American officials, Tony Blair was suspected of securing trade deals after agreeing to include Megrahi in the agreement.

However, Megrahi was imprisoned in Scotland – where the offence occurred – and any decision on his release was for the Scottish authorities although Westminster drew up the relevant legislation.

In October 2008 – as negotiations on the prisoner transfer agreement were ongoing – Megrahi was diagnosed as suffering from cancer.

It can now be disclosed that within a week of the diagnosis, Bill Rammell, a junior Foreign Office minister, had written to his Libyan counterpart advising him on how this could be used as the grounds of securing al-Megrahi's compassionate release from prison.

Rob Dixon, a senior Foreign Office official, met with the American Ambassador to brief him on the letter. An official American memo on the meeting states: "FCO Minister for the Middle East Bill Rammell sent Libyan Deputy FM Abdulati al-Obeidi a letter, which was cleared both by HMG and by the Scottish Executive, on October 17 outlining the procedure for obtaining compassionate release.

"It cites Section 3 of the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act of 1993 as the basis for release of prisoners, on license, on compassionate grounds. Although the Scottish Crown informed the families of the Pan Am 103 victims in an email October 21 that the time frame for compassionate release is normally three months from time of death, Dixon stressed to us that the three month time frame is not codified in the law."

Mr Dixon went on to disclose to the Americans that Jack Straw, the then Justice Secretary, had also spoken to Alex Salmond, the Scottish First Minister about the case which had led Government officials to believe that the terrorist would be released.

The minute of the meeting with the Americans records: "Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond told Jack Straw that he will make the final decision in this case. Salmond told Straw that he would make the decision based on humanitarian grounds, not foreign policy grounds; Dixon told us HMG has interpreted this to mean that Salmond is inclined to grant the request."
Following the meeting, the American Ambassador reported back to his superiors in Washington said that the release of al-Megrahi could "occur sooner rather than later" and that Whitehall officials were handling sensitive negotiations with the Libyans on the issue.

Later documents also disclose that the Qatari government, one of the richest in the world, also became involved in the effort to secure al-Megrahi's release. The Americans thought that the Qataris may have offered financial incentives to the Scottish Government. The Libyans are also recorded to have offered a "parade of treats" to the Scottish government.
A senior Qatari minister visited Scotland to discuss the case.

The documents reveal a meeting between the American Ambassador in Doha and the Qatari government. "At an October 28 meeting with MFA Minister of State for International Cooperation Khalid Al-Attiyah, Ambassador raised strong USG concerns about Qatar's role in the release of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbasit Al-Magrahi," the record of the meeting states. " Al-Attiyah said that Qatar became involved because Qatar, as 2009 President of the Arab League, had been asked by the Arab League to do so.

"Ambassador pressed the issue of whether Qatar had offered any financial or trade incentives to induce Al-Megrahi's release. Al-Attiyah strongly dismissed such speculation, saying 'That is ridiculous; It was not necessary to offer money. It was all done within Scottish law. We offered no money, investment, or payment of any kind'."

After Megrahi was released in August 2009, another American document records Gaddafi's comments – which suggest that Prince Andrew, the UK's trade envoy, may have played a role.
The document records: "He [Gaddafi] went on to thank his 'friend Brown', the British Prime Minister, his government, Queen Elizabeth, and Prince Andrew, who 'against all odds encouraged this brave decision'. [Gaddafi] noted that the UK efforts would positively affect 'exchange' between the two countries.

When al-Megrahi was finally released, it also emerged that Gordon Brown instructed the British ambassador to hand deliver a note to Gaddafi. The letter was ostensibly to ask the Libyan leader not to lionise the released terrorist but the delivery of the letter also presented British officials with the opportunity for a rare private meeting with Gaddafi. The leader usually only sees very senior foreign politicians and dignitaries.

The disclosure of the secret Foreign Office advice to the Libyans is set to spark renewed calls for the British government to appear before the US Senate to justify its role in the bomber's release.

In September 2009, it emerged that Mr Rammell had told the Libyans that neither the Foreign Secretary or the Prime Minister wanted to see al-Megrahi die in prison. However, government ministers strenuously denied that they had become involved in the release.
David Miliband, the then Foreign Secretary, said that there had been "no double dealing".



Peace.
Michael Santomauro 
@ 917-974-6367 

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Mubarak Says He Won't Run for President Again

 


Tuesday 1 February 2011 

Mubarak Says He Won't Run for President Again
David D. Kirkpatrick and Mark Landler, The New York Times News Service: "President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt said he would not run for another term as president of Egypt. His decision came after President Obama told the embattled president of Egypt, that he should not run for another term in elections scheduled for the fall, effectively withdrawing American support for its closest Arab ally, according to American diplomats in Cairo and Washington." 
Read the Article 

Robert Pollin | Back to Full Employment
Robert Pollin, Boston Review: "Employment conditions in the United States today, in the aftermath of the 2008-09 Wall Street collapse and worldwide Great Recession, remain disastrous - worse than at any time since the Depression of the 1930s. Since Barack Obama entered office in January 2009, the official unemployment rate has averaged more than 9.5 percent, representing some fifteen million people in a labor force of about 154 million. By a broader definition, including people employed for fewer hours than they would like and those discouraged from looking for work, the unemployment rate has been far higher - 16.5 percent, on average." 
Read the Article 

Jordan's King Dismisses Cabinet as Tremors Spread Through Region
Ranya Kadri and Ethan Bronner, The New York Times News Service: "King Abdullah II of Jordan fired his government in a surprise move on Tuesday, in the face of a wave of demands of public accountability sweeping the Arab world and bringing throngs of demonstrators to the streets of Egypt. The Jordanian news agency Petra announced that after recent protests in Jordan itself, the king had dismissed Prime Minister Samir Rifai and replaced him with Marouf al-Bakhit, a former general and ambassador to Israel and Turkey. He is widely viewed as clean of corruption." 
Read the Article 

White House Vows to Implement Health Care Reform, Despite Judge's Ruling
Warren Richey, The Christian Science Monitor: "Senior administration officials vowed on Monday to continue with the full implementation of President Obama's health care reform law despite a federal judge's decision declaring the law unconstitutional and void in its entirety. 'This is not the last word by any means,' a White House official told reporters in a background briefing. 'We are quite confident it won't stand.'"
Read the Article 

Crashing the Koch's Billionaire Caucus
Lindsay Beyerstein, The Media Consortium: "Oil barons Charles and David Koch held their annual billionaires' summit in Palm Springs on Sunday, Nancy Goldstein reports in The Nation. Every year, the Kochs gather with fellow plutocrats, prominent pundits, and Republican legislators to plan their assault on government regulation and the welfare state. This is the first year that the low-profile gathering has attracted protesters." 
Read the Article 

Largest Crowds Yet Demand Change in Egypt
Anthony Shadid and David Kirkpatrick, The New York Times News Service: "Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians poured into Tahrir Square on Tuesday in scenes of jubilation and protest that cut across Egypt's entrenched lines of piety, class and ideology, marking the largest demonstration yet against the nearly 30-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak and energizing a country that feels on the cusp of change." 
Read the Article 

A New Arab Street in Post-Islamist Times
Asef Bayat, Foreign Policy: "The popular uprising in Tunisia has surprised many - Western observers, the Arab elites, and even those who have generated this remarkable episode. The surprise seems justified. How could one imagine that a campaign of ordinary Tunisians in just over one month would topple a dictator who presided over a police state for 23 years? This is a region where the life expectancy of 'presidencies' match only the 'eternal' rule of its sheiks, kings, and Ayatollahs who bank on oil and political rent (western protection) to hang on to their power and subjugate their people." 
Read the Article 

Nothing-Backed Securities
P.X. Casey, Truthout: "Is it a good idea to let the foreclosures roll on? Absolutely, say the banking and mortgage industries, among others. 'Home repo' is critical to economic recovery, they argue. Stopping foreclosures would cut the legs off of a still wobbly rebound. In the industry's view, the fewer foreclosures, the fewer resales; the fewer resales, the more depressed the home prices and the greater the losses; the greater losses, the less capital to lend. And we are back on the precipice of depression." 
Read the Article 

Spain's Troubles Are Tied to Eurozone Policies
Mark Weisbrot, The Center for Economic and Policy Research: "It has become fashionable since Spain's economy began to decline to make comparisons to Germany, which is rebounding strongly. The idea is that the Germans went through their restructuring, got organized labor under control, and thereby made their economy more competitive. According to this narrative, this is the key to their economic success - so Spain should do the same if the Spanish economy is to recover. This fits well with various stereotypes of Germans as disciplined and hard working, willing to do what is necessary to be competitive in the global economy, while their counterparts in Europe's periphery are seen as undisciplined and indulgent. However, the story does not fit the economic facts very well." 
Read the Article 

Paul Krugman | Perpetual Pessimism at Central Bank
Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co.: "Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank, is sounding hawkish about inflation again, indicating in interviews that the bank will raise interest rates if officials see the need, even as countries struggle to recover from debt crises." 
Read the Article 

Clay Bennet | Ocracy
In Clay Bennet's latest editorial cartoon, Egyptians remove the "aut" from their "autocracy," and consider its replacement. 
View the Cartoon 

EcoTipping Points: Strategies for Shifting From Decline to Restoration
Gerald Marten, YES! Magazine: "Most environmental stories we hear are tales of decline. In complexly interwoven natural systems, one ecological problem, such as loss of a forest, often leads to many others. It becomes hard to imagine stopping the downward spiral, much less reversing it. But it can be done." 
Read the Article

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TRUTHOUT'S BUZZFLASH DAILY HEADLINES

What do Hosni Mubarak and the major United States cable companies have in common?

They have banned Al Jazeera.

That's a shame, because Al Jazeera has great "on the ground" coverage and literally speaks the language of the tumultuous happenings in the Middle East. But in 99 percent or so of America, the only place you can follow Al Jazeera's English channel is on a live feed on the Internet.

According to The New York Times, "cable and satellite companies in the United States have largely refused its requests to be carried."

As you can read in a 2004 BuzzFlash interview with the director of"Control Room," the riveting documentary on the network, Al Jazeera is a Western-style news operation. It is owned by the oil-rich and pro-US Qatar government.

Reporting with the kind of vigor you expect from serious journalism, Al Jazeera takes on all comers. During the invasion of Iraq, the US bombed the Al Jazeera Baghdad bureau from the air and killed a staff member. Currently, the Palestinian Authority claims that Al Jazeera reported on an embarrassing story in collusion with Israel.

Al Jazeera must be doing something right. It is a station that manages to tick off a lot of governments and movements, as well as corporate broadcasting in America.

Mark Karlin
Editor, BuzzFlash at Truthout

Liberal Groups Want a More Aggressive Job Creations Program
Read the Article at The Hill

Russia Protests: Hundreds Rally Against Putin
Read the Article at AP

Twitter Helps Protesters Circumvent Internet Ban in Egypt
Read the Article at CNN

Uncloaking the Kochs: Hitting the Streets for Economic Justice
Read the Article at BuzzFlash

Kristof: Exhilarated by the Hope in Cairo
Read the Article at The New York Times

An Outrage: Republican House Proposes a Bill to Redefine Rape
Read the Article TPM

Condi's Bizarre Relocation Plan for the Palestinians
Read the Article at BuzzFlash

Click here for more BuzzFlash headlines


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Peace.
Michael Santomauro 
@ 917-974-6367 

What sort of TRUTH is it that crushes the freedom to seek the truth?

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Review: My Brother's Keeper: Recent Polish Debates on the Holocaust

 



3.0 out of 5 stars Blonski's New Judeocentrically-Framed Morality and its ImplicationsApril 17, 2007
This review is from: My Brother's Keeper: Recent Polish Debates on the Holocaust (Hardcover)
Jan Blonski has invented a new form of morality, in which indifference to a murder now makes one morally (though not legally) guilty of the murder. How creative! Not surprisingly, Blonski's "new morality" is entirely one-sided. Not a single one of the following questions is answered in this volume: Should those Jews who were indifferent to Polish deaths also share in moral guilt for them? In fact, how often did Jews include Poles in THEIR universe of moral obligations? Had Poles disappeared instead, wouldn't there have been some Jews delighted at this outcome? Should Jews also be enjoined to stop searching for attenuating circumstances behind their conduct, and admit fault for their complicity in Polish sufferings (as from the Zydokomuna)? Should the endless discussions on the Church's traditional negative view of Jews be expanded to include Judaism's historically negative view of Christianity? Or are there different moral standards now in existence for Poles and Jews? 

Polonsky (p. 11), Blonski (p. 46), and Bryk (p. 176) portray Polish defensive reactions against Jewish accusations as tacit admissions of Polish guilt. Oh, really? Using the same reasoning, when Jews likewise react against falsifications of their history (e. g., by the Holocaust Deniers), should one conclude that the Deniers may be on to something? 

What purpose does Blonski's "new morality" serve? Kazimierz Kakol (p. 146) sees it as yet another dilution of German guilt (however subtly, in this case). Otherwise, it is, not surprisingly, all about Holocaust uniqueness. Andrzej Bryk writes: "The Polish side has had difficulty in grasping that Jews have been struggling for the acceptance of the uniqueness of the Holocaust very often by indirect means, even through libelous accusations, bordering on the irrational. Yet it has to be added that faced with moral insensitivity toward's one's suffering, one fights with anything at hand, very often with shock." (p. 176). Taking Bryk to his logical conclusion, one could exonerate the Holocaust Deniers by treating their views as an irrational but somewhat understandable reaction against the chauvinistic exultation of Jewish sufferings over those of all others! 

Blonski repeats the myth of the 10,000-strong Kielce mob (p. 39; actually 200-300 at its peak, with no more than 150 at 4 Planty Street) and the myth of equivalency in risk to life from participating in the Underground and from rescuing Jews (p. 38; Actually, one search by a dog-wielding German was usually sufficient to uncover a hidden Jew). Bryk (p. 170) complains that the AK was planning a desperate, suicidal uprising in the event of wholesale German extermination of Poles, but not for the 3 million Polish Jews (p. 170). What he conveniently forgets is that the AK also didn't launch an uprising for the 2-3 million murdered Poles. 

Teresa Prekerowa (p. 74) presents an oft-quoted computation of only 1-2.5% percent of Poles ever helping Jews. Her computations are invalid because they do not factor the tiny number of Jews ever potentially AVAILABLE to be rescued. (The vast majority of the Jews remained trapped in ghettos until their journeys to the death camps). Owing to this fact, the vast majority of potential Polish rescuers never had access to a single Jew during the entire German occupation (Turowicz, p. 139)! 

Poles are repeatedly berated (pp. 22-23, 77-80, 142) for discussing "Jewish passivity", when unmentioned is the fact that many Jewish authors (e. g., Bruno Bettelheim, Yitzhak Zuckerman, Leon Poliakov, Hannah Arendt) also shared this view. In attempting to create a Polish counterpart to "Jewish passivity", Prekerowa asks: "But was every Pole a conspirator? The enormous majority of the population even in Warsaw, in this heart of underground Poland, to say nothing of the inhabitants of the tens of smaller cities and towns and hundreds of villages, thought only about ways to survive the war, to stay alive...Their everyday lives were filled by commonplace activities which helped to make living under the occupation bearable." (p. 78). Ironically, by hinting that most Poles were afraid to participate in Underground activities, Prekerowa weakens the argument about Polish risk-taking in this activity but not in the hiding of Jews. And, ironically, by admitting the harrowing experiences of Poles, Prekerowa demolishes the usual portrayal of Poles as "spectators" of the Jewish catastrophe. 

Salmonowicz (pp. 56-57) identifies Russian and Prussian Jews as 19th-century disseminators of anti-Polish writings. Rymanowski (p. 156) points out that few Jews were involved in the 19th-century Polish insurrections against foreign rule. Jan Karski (p. 86) confirms the shortage of arms faced by the AK at the time of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and the disbelief of Judge Felix Frankfurter to his testimony (p. 88). Yisrael Gutman (p. 202) again repudiates the notion that the German [...] death camps were set up in occupied Poland because of Polish attitudes. He also recognizes the difference between traditional anti-Semitism of the Polish type, and the racist and exterminationist [...] anti-Semitism. 

The informed reader understands that this book is part of the same old genre of Judeocentric selective moralizing against Poles--which continues to this day. After the recent publications of NEIGHBORS and FEAR by Jan Tomasz Gross, there was the predictable media fascination about the moral issues and responsibilities that Poles now must face, but not a trace of interest in any of the unsavory aspects of past Jewish conduct against Poles. 

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Michael Santomauro 
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