Palestine - Still a Dirty Word

It's amazing to think that it is considered a slur on your character if you have too much sympathy with the plight of the Palestinians:

Republicans in south Florida predict a 10% spike for McCain in the Jewish vote over the 24% polled by Bush in 2004. Their campaign line is that if Obama wins he will be the first pro-Palestinian US president since the foundation of the state of Israel. The Democrats hit back with leaflets showing Obama by Jerusalem's Wailing Wall wearing a yarmulka.

The fact that any candidate accused of showing sympathy with the impoverished and dispossessed still feels the need to distance himself from the most needy and align himself with the most powerful tells you all you need to know about the race for the presidency. 

Abercrombie Defends Support of WHINSEC

You may remember a little while back that many Democrats chose to support the establishment of WHINSEC, the successor to the School of the Americas. Well, I have finally had a reply from another one of the Democrats who supported the continued funding of a terrorist entity designed to pervert the course of democracy in South America. The following is an email I received from Neil Abercrombie:



Let's hope you do keep monitoring WHINSEC, Neil. Otherwise you are nothing more than a Bush crony.

Democrats Support School of Americas Funding

Hat-tip to Ten Percent for this one:


214 Members of Congress missed the chance to stand up for human rights, justice and democracy, and voted to keep the funding for the SOA/WHINSEC flowing.

The WHINSEC PR machine and high-ranking Pentagon officials used taxpayer money to put a lot of pressure on Members of Congress.

Tens of thousands of emails, faxes and calls flooded the halls of Congress over the past three days. Students, clergy, union members and veterans travelled to DC and visited with hundreds of Congressional offices to communicate clearly that there is no room for institutions like the SOA/WHINSEC in our future.


Thanks to the support of a few Democrats, the funding will continue. From IndyBay:


On 6/21/07, 42 Democrats voted No on the McGovern Amendment which would have cut off funding to the torture school formerly known as the School of Americas (Assassins), now known as Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). 6 more votes were needed to pass it. All Reds and Greens would certainly have voted Yes and that is what makes Reds and Greens viable.


The vote was 203 Yes, 214 No, 1 voting "Present" and 19 Not Voting. For more on the torture and murder training camp courtesy our tax dollars in Fort Benning, Georgia to train torturers and murderers of workers and peasants in Latin America who try to organize for a better life, see the School of Assassins Watch website at:


http://www.soaw.org/


The roll call vote may be found at:


http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll536.xml#P


and the list of House of Representative Democrats voting No may be found below. Strangely, House Speaker Pelosi is not found on any list, not even present.


List of Shameful Democrats, demonstrating utter bankruptcy of Democratic Party majority, one of many lists of shame:

• Abercrombie, Neil, Hawaii
• Barrow, John, Georgia
• Bishop, Sanford D. Georgia
• Boren, Dan, Oklahoma
• Cardoza, Dennis, California
• Carney, Christopher, Pennsylvania
• Castor, Kathy, Florida
• Clyburn, James, South Carolina
• Cooper, James, Tennessee
• Costa, James, California
• Cuellar, Henry, Texas
• Dingell, John, Michigan
• Edwards, Chet, Texas
• Gonzalez, Charles, Texas
• Gordon, Bart, Tennessee
• Herseth Sandlin, Stephanie, South Dakota
• Jefferson, William, Louisiana
• Johnson, E.B., Texas
• Klein, Ron, Florida
• Lampson, Nick, Texas
• Mahoney, Tim, Florida
• Marshall, James, Georgia
• Matheson, James, Utah
• McIntyre, Michael, North Carolina
• Meek, Kendrick, Florida
• Miller., Brad, North Carolina
• Murphy, Patrick, Pennsylvania
• Murtha, John, Pennsylvania
• Perlmutter, Ed, Colorado
• Peterson, Colin, Minnesota
• Reyes, Silvestre, Teaxs
• Rodriguez, Ciro, Texas
• Ross, Michael, Arkansas
• Ruppersberger, Dutch, Maryland
• Sestak, Joseph, Pennsylvania
• Skelton, Ike, Missouri
• Space, Zachary, Ohio
• Spratt, John, South Carolina
• Tanner, John, Tennessee
• Taylor, Gene, Mississippi

Present: Christensen, Donna, US Virgin Islands
Not Voting: Bordallo, Madeline, Guam
Costello, Jerry, Illinois
Cramer, Robert, Alabama
Johnson, Henry, Georgia
Meehan, Marty, Massachusetts
Melancon, Charles, Louisiana
Napolitano, Grace, California
Ortiz, Solomon, Texas
Rangel, Charles, New York
Sanchez, Loretta, California
Scott, David, Georgia
Weiner, Anthony, New York

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll536.xml#P

If your representative is listed above, write them an email and ask them why they voted in support of WHINSEC.

Fuckwitpedia Now Online!!!

I have been meaning to blog about this ever since I saw it reported in The Guardian last week. A group of right-wing activists have got together to produce a competitor to Wikipedia, which they see as being too left-leaning and liberal. Called 'Conservapedia', it is an attempt by the right to redress this balance. It is, however, unintentionally hilarious in it's ignorance. Here are a few choice selections from this Bible of Wonder:

George W Bush

In 2004, George W. Bush won reelection by a popular margin of millions of votes, including a landslide victory in the State of Florida where the outcome had been so close in 2000.

[Marvel at the specific detail]

The Democratic Party

....the national leadership of the Democratic Party tends to be soft on terrorism, insufficiently patriotic, supportive of abortion on demand, and hostile to America's founding principles such as freedom of religion.

Evolution

...the biological world has the strong appearance of being created...

Abortion

The vast majority of scientific studies have shown that abortion causes an increase in breast cancer, including 16 out of 17 statistically significant studies. Studies showing that abortion increases breast cancer predate the political controversy. It is undisputed that having a baby protects against breast cancer, and thus early termination of pregnancy must increase the risk of cancer for the mother compared to carrying that same pregnancy to birth.

Interestingly, the last, rather disturbing, entry cites a report by the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons. A conservative group, they have also previously published a report on the effects of immigration on healthcare. Here's a little sample of that report:

Illegal aliens' stealthy assaults on medicine now must rouse
Americans to alert and alarm. Even President Bush describes
illegal aliens only as they are seen: strong physical laborers who
work hard in undesirable jobs with low wages, who care for their
families, and who pursue the American dream.

What is unseen is their free medical care that has degraded and
closed some of America's finest emergency medical facilities, and
caused hospital bankruptcies: 84 California hospitals are closing
their doors. Anchor babies' born to illegal aliens instantly qualify
as citizens for welfare benefits and have caused enormous rises in
Medicaid costs and stipends under Supplemental Security Income
and Disability Income.

Close America's borders.
Prevent illegal entry with fences,
high-tech security devices, and troops re-deployed from Germany
and South Korea. Deport illegal aliens. Homeland Security's
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has a division of Detention
and Removal dedicated to deportation. It is hobbled by the
powerful Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), the
Department of Justice court system that consists of the U.S.
Immigration Court (USIC) plus an appellate court, the Board of
Immigration Appeals (BIA). The equation EOIR = USIC + BIA
usually provides amnesty for the illegal alien, plus another level of
appeal against deportation in federal circuit court.
Internment and deportation are politically incorrect. But
America's inadequate federal border enforcement permits massive
daily border penetrations that violate the integrity of our medicine
and our national security.

Something tells me that they are slightly less concerned with medical fact than political point scoring. Whatever their intentions are, it is perfectly clear that any report that they produce will be heavily skewed towards a particular viewpoint. How do these shitheads sleep at night?? The last one in particular is pretty offensive stuff to say the least. In actual fact, no major charities support this view and various studies have been conducted that suggest this is complete bollocks. Perhaps they should rename it 'Fuckwitpedia'.

Further Information: If you want more information on the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, ConWebWatch has more, or visit the Wiki page.