Antiwar.com Blog

Riverbend is blogging about the draft Iraqi constitutions.

Saturday on the Weekend Interview Show (6-8 pm eastern), I’ll be talking with Lew Rockwell from the Mises Intitute about economics, Katrina and the war. In the second hour, I’ll be talking again with Antiwar.com’s own Gordon Prather about Iran and North Korea.

Update: Show’s over, archives here.

Since some of the sludge has subsided in New Orleans and some survivor stories have begun to trickle in, it’s possible to find a new perspective in some of the statements made during the worst of the disaster the government made of the rescue effort. I didn’t see this particular briefing at the time it was made, but I was enraged and sickened when I came across it today. This is Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief, National Guard Bureau, who oversaw the National Guard response in NOLA, briefing the Department of Defense on Saturday, September 3rd, the day after Bush did his “tour” of the area. Remember that until the Friday (Sept 2) that Blum is talking about, no National Guard troops set foot in New Orleans. Here’s why (emphasis mine): Continue reading ““We took this convention center down””

An interesting nugget from an otherwise boring festival of self-pity:

The moment you utter one positive word about the Palestinians or a negative word about Israeli policies, you are branded a Jew-hater, an Anti-Semite, and a Hitlerite-Nazi.

Why yes, Michael Calderon, that’s true. And you know who will brand you “a Jew-hater, an Anti-Semite, and a Hitlerite-Nazi”? Among others, your buddies in Horowitz-land. In one particularly revolting example, your pal Ben Johnson called Cindy Sheehan an “American Nazi idol.” And here’s the ringleader himself:

Is Saddam Hussein a monster who needs to be removed? Only the Jews think so, but THEY control the White House. Neocon Jews are behind it all. Just ask Cindy Sheehan. Since the Jews and Halliburton are responsible for global evil, eliminating THEM is the only way to create a world in which there will be “social justice.” How far is this from the raving lunacies of anti-Semites?

And what, pray tell, did Cindy Sheehan say about Jews to justify this two-minute hate? Ask the Anti-Defamation League – oh, sorry, they have nothing on Cindy Sheehan. But that hasn’t stopped Likudnik piranhas from calling her a terror-loving anti-Semite for criticizing U.S policies toward Israel.

Of course, Calderon, you and your friends have your First Amendment – nay, God-given – right to smear public figures and fantasize about your enemies being assassinated, and we have ours to call you out for it. We’re using that right. Stop your sobbing.

In June, John Conyers’ mock impeachment hearing “took an awkward turn when witness Ray McGovern, a former intelligence analyst, declared that the United States went to war in Iraq for oil, Israel and military bases craved by administration ‘neocons’ so ‘the United States and Israel could dominate that part of the world.’ He said that Israel should not be considered an ally and that Bush was doing the bidding of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon,” according to the Washington Post.

“‘Israel is not allowed to be brought up in polite conversation,’ McGovern said. ‘The last time I did this, the previous director of Central Intelligence called me anti-Semitic.'”

Conyers quickly denounced the Post for “giv[ing] such emphasis to 100 seconds of a 3 hour and five minute hearing” and divorced himself from McGovern’s “anti-semitic assertion…I consider myself to be friend and supporter of Israel and there were a number of other staunchly pro-Israel members who were in attendance at the hearing. I do not agree with, support, or condone any comments asserting Israeli control over U.S. policy, and I find any allegation that Israel is trying to dominate the world or had anything to do with the September 11 tragedy disgusting and offensive.”

In August, Cindy Sheehan denied having written that her son “was killed for lies and for a PNAC Neo-Con agenda to benefit Israel.” Like Justin Raimondo, I hope she isn’t engaging in some doomed effort to “appease” the “War Party.”

Jane Fonda is scheduled to introduce George Galloway Sunday night here in Madison and Monday night in Chicago. Galloway just “caused paroxysms” in New York by “saying the planes that slammed into the twin towers four years ago did not come out of ‘a clear blue sky’. Rather it was the fault of the US and its foreign policies, especially on Israel. ‘I believe they emerged out of a swamp of hatred created by us’, he said. ‘I believe that it’s because of the total, complete unending and bottomless support for General Sharon’s crimes against the Palestinian people.'”

Will Fonda show up Monday if Galloway talks like that on Sunday? Will she even show up on Sunday? I’d be speculating even if she didn’t have a history of being an avid supporter of “General Sharon’s crimes.”

Via Alex at Martini Republic, Condoleeza Rice and Bill O’Reilly:

O’Reilly: The truth of the matter is our correspondents at Fox News can’t go out for a cup of coffee in Baghdad.

Rice: Bill, that’s tough. It’s tough. But what — would they have
wanted to have gone out for a cup of coffee when Saddam Hussein was in
power?

Bill: No, no-but after three years you expect a little security in the country…

Condi: …there is security…

Bill: They can’t get coffee…

There is security in Iraq?  Not even Bill "Shut Up" O’Reilly is buying that whopper.