Olmert: Withdraw From Occupied Land

Better 35 years late (in a career that promoted the Israeli government's vision of perpetual war) than never, but like other pols driven from office by personal disgrace and political disaster, Olmert's epiphany comes drenched in the blood of innocents:

"Jerusalem - Israel's departing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that his country will have to withdraw from 'almost all' of the land it seized in a 1967 war if it wants to have peace with Syria and the Palestinians.

"In an interview published in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper yesterday, a week after his formal resignation, Mr. Olmert said that Israelis need to make a 'supremely difficult' decision about whether or not they really want to have peace with their neighbours. If the answer is yes, he said, Israel will have to withdraw its soldiers and settlers from the Golan Heights and nearly all of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

"Mr. Olmert said that peace is within reach on both fronts if Israel is willing to accept the necessary sacrifices. He said that he will continue to pursue peace agreements as long as he remains in office and suggested that his presumptive successor, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, will continue on the same path.

"'We have an opportunity that is limited in time, in which we can perhaps reach a historic deal in our relations with the Palestinians and another historic step in our relations with Syria. In both cases, the decision we must reach is a decision that we have been refusing to accept for the past four decades,' Mr. Olmert said in what the newspaper called a legacy interview..."

Post-political recriminations are cheap.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080929.wolmert0930/BNStory/International/home

-Nation Of Hoovervilles-

Tent city in the Los Angeles suburb of Ontario, 2008.

Dems Cave On Offshore Drilling

"WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in a months-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline prices this summer.

"...While the House would lift the long-standing drilling moratoriums for both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, a drilling ban in waters within 125 miles of Florida's western coast would remain in force under a law passed by Congress in 2006 that opened some new areas of the east-central Gulf to drilling.

"Just last week, the House passed legislation to open waters off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to oil and gas drilling but only 50 or more miles out to sea and only if a state agrees to energy development off its shore. It quickly became clear that measure would not get the 60 votes needed in the Senate.

"...Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama has said he would support limited drilling in certain areas — possibly the South Atlantic region — if it is part of a broader energy plan to shift the U.S. away from oil to alternative fuels and more energy efficiency.

"...Lifting the drilling ban gives considerable momentum to the underlying bill, which includes the Pentagon budget, $24 billion in aid for flood and hurricane victims and $25 billion in loans for Detroit automakers in addition to keeping the government open past the Oct. 1 start of the 2009 budget year.

"But Democrats decided not to use the must-pass measure as a battering ram to carry an extension of unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless past White House veto promises, prompting grumbling among some lawmakers. Efforts to boost food stamps and give states billions of dollars to help with Medicaid bills also fell through. But the measure would double, to $5.2 billion, funding for heating subsidies for the poor.

"The measure also would provide more than $600 billion to fund the 2009 budgets for the Pentagon, Homeland Security Department and the Veterans Affairs Department. Nine other spending bills for the 2009 budget year starting Oct. 1 remain unfinished."

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gB6bi0EyTozdEPy0KGisTQNaS2PQD93CO7OG0

Vote No Bailout

https://secure2.convio.net/pepib/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=123

Fighting Fossil Energy: Gore Urges Civil Disobedience

Not that i would follow this inconvenient fraud one block to the nearest Barnes and Noble for an autographed copy---

But that's an academic concern, since he won't be out there getting clubbed:

"If you're a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration."

---Al Gore, at the Clinton Global Initiative gathering, 9/24/08

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE48N7AA20080924?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&rpc=22&sp=true

McCain/Obama Bail On The Bailout

The felons and pod people we elect to Congress seemed to be watching their emails and taking note of their phone calls today, despite the fact that Democrats were generally lined up behind Pelosi (with a personal half mil in AIG stock) to toss more of our tax dollars at the super rich.

i got through on the Capitol switchboard to Hillary's office this afternoon after about 20 minutes. Later i was told that Schumer's voice box was full. i didn't want to visualize what his voice box was full of. 202-224-3121.

Obama/McCain spent the day with the rest of the trash. The Obama half reconsidered and did not comment to the press as it left the meeting, but what it has said since then is froth and babble. The other muttering head on the shoulders of this sideshow freak when it wasn't zoned out or caught in a droolfest over its Air Force days which were pretty truncated anyway as you will recall seems to be flirting with the conservative GOP element that is the only substantial opposition to the bailout and the sole reason the great robbery hasn't f'd you over yet.

If the latest campaign of finance shock and awe has left any sentient life that has not been dumbed, numbed, cowed, or buffaloed, suggest lots of ongoing emails and phone calls to our officials. Populous neighborhoods---which leaves out these upstate communities---have seen some street protests.

No bail out. Jail them all.

-Mystery Street, USA-

Before the fall: A) Gasoline Alley? B) Damnation Alley? C) Tortilla Flats? D) Thunder Road?

No Wall Street Bailout---From The Right

"Then come the scare tactics. If we don't give dictatorial powers to the Treasury Secretary 'the stock market would drop even more, which would reduce the value of your retirement account. The value of your home could plummet.' Left unsaid, naturally, is that with the bailout and all the money and credit that must be produced out of thin air to fund it, the value of your retirement account will drop anyway.

"...The president also tells us that Senators McCain and Obama will join him at the White House today in order to figure out how to get the bipartisan bailout passed. The two senators would do their country much more good if they stayed on the campaign trail debating who the bigger celebrity is, or whatever it is that occupies their attention these days...

"The very people who have spent the past several years assuring us that the economy is fundamentally sound, and who themselves foolishly cheered the extension of all these novel kinds of mortgages, are the ones who now claim to be the experts who will restore prosperity!

"Just how spectacularly wrong, how utterly without a clue, does someone have to be before his expert status is called into question?

"...I continue to urge you to contact your representatives and give them a piece of your mind. I myself am doing everything I can to promote the correct point of view on the crisis..."

---Ron Paul, updates 08, 9/25/08

No Wall Street Bailout---From The Left

"The bailout package takes our money and gives it to the same bankers and executives who drove the economy into the ground. The pay for chief executives of large U.S. companies is now at 275 times that of the average worker's salary in 2007. It was 25 times greater in 1965. The same bankers who will be given our hard-earned tax dollars refuse to support even the bailout of their own institutions if their obscene salaries are even slightly compromised. Bush and top leaders of the Republican and Democratic Party are poised to sign this legislation. The so-called concessions by Bush and the bankers are basically a fiction. This is the biggest power grab in U.S. history. It is also one of the biggest transfers of wealth from working families to the ultra-rich in the history of the United States."

http://bl111w.blu111.mail.live.com/mail/InboxLight.aspx?n=1000280711

House Passes Drilling Bill

Re: HR6899 (passed 236-189)---It's hard to know whether Pelosi cobbled together this frankenstein in an effort to innoculate Dems against the current pro-drill epidemic or whether she actually thinks it might survive additional freakish surgery in the Senate.

Of incidental interest is the bill's response to the little-known sex scam involving, of all things, Minerals Management:

"The bill would establish new ethics requirements for the Minerals Management Service, a division of the Department of the Interior that oversees the leasing program. This follows an Inspector General report that found federal employees engaged in sexual misconduct and illegal drug use with oil industry workers."

Also note the provision to open devastating oil shale extraction and Pelosi's shameless protection of her own personal investments in methane cars:

"The legislation would use new oil and gas royalties to offset the cost of incentives designed to promote energy efficiency, renewable energy or carbon capture and sequestration. It would require utilities go generate 15 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020.

"The bill also would extend tax credits for wind and solar energy. It includes new tax breaks for coal projects that capture carbon, fueling stations for natural gas vehicles and energy conservation. Spending on these provisions would be offset by rolling back tax subsidies for oil companies.

"And an 11th-hour addition to the bill would lift a moratorium on an oil shale leasing program for Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, but only if a state decided to move ahead with leases. This provision was a priority for Jim Matheson, D-Utah..."

http://www.truthout.org/article/oil-drilling-bill-passes-house

-The Vatican Obelisk-

---brought to Rome from Egypt to highlight Caligula's racetrack.

Quote For The Day

"Like Caligula, (McCain) could make a horse his running mate, and we, the free world, are expected to grin and bear it."

---Peregrine Worsthorne, in the UK's FirstPost, of the white trash from Alaska

Of course, you don't want to look at how much better some of our other vice presidents and noms have been, ranging from Agnew and Quayle through Lieberman and Cheney. Or some of our presidents. Or congressmen and senators. Or cabinet secretaries. Or SCOTUS appointees. Oh, hell.

Iceland And Responsible Energy Transition

"As much as 70% of Iceland's total energy (and 100% of its electricity and heat) comes from renewable energy. This is the highest percentage of any country in the world and puts Iceland on track to meet its goal of providing 100% of its energy needs from zero-emission renewable energy sources before mid-century.

"To complete their mission, Iceland plans to use geothermal electricity to split hydrogen from water and use hydrogen fuel cells for its fishing fleets and transportation sector, the last industries in Iceland still using fossil fuels..."

http://edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=26780

Comcast Challenges FCC On Internet Access

"Late last week, Comcast filed a lawsuit to overturn the landmark Federal Communications Commission order to stop blocking users' access to the free and open Internet.

"With its army of lawyers and billions of dollars, Comcast is betting it can dismantle the protections that you and hundreds of thousands of other Free Press and SavetheInternet.com supporters fought so hard to establish. Free Press Action Fund is rallying our small legal team to fight Comcast, but we urgently need your help."

Don't Let Comcast Overrule the FCC

Vetting Palin

Good theater:

If he hasn't already, Obama should deploy a couple hundred of his useless policy analysts to the full time vetting of the nutjob from Alaska, including her whole nutjob clan.

It is practically inconceivable that this psychovangelist cannot have left a trail of lunacies as thick as snail slime in a back alley of Peyton Place.

How better to demoralize the McCain campaign and a good hunk of its base, than to trigger the recall of this slight-of-hand pick? Or was she plucked?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/08/AR2008090803088.html?wpisrc=newsletter

Georgia: A Tel Aviv Connection?

As J. Raimondo ruminates:

"According to this report by veteran Washington Times correspondent Arnaud de Borchgrave, the close cooperation of the Israelis with the Georgian military in the run-up to President Saakashvili's blitz of South Ossetia was predicated on a Georgian promise to let the Israelis use Georgia's airfields to mount a strike against Iran.

"...De Borchgrave avers:

'"In a secret agreement between Israel and Georgia, two military airfields in southern Georgia had been earmarked for the use of Israeli fighter-bombers in the event of pre-emptive attacks against Iranian nuclear installations. This would sharply reduce the distance Israeli fighter-bombers would have to fly to hit targets in Iran. And to reach Georgian airstrips, the Israeli air force would fly over Turkey.

'"The attack ordered by Saakashvili against South Ossetia the night of Aug. 7 provided the Russians the pretext for Moscow to order Special Forces to raid these Israeli facilities where some Israeli drones were reported captured.'

"Reports of anywhere from 100 to 1,000 Israeli 'advisers' in Georgia do not bode well for the situation on the ground. With the Israelis already installed in that country, the logistics of carrying out such a sneak attack are greatly simplified. Israeli pilots would only have to fly over Azerbaijan, and they'd be in Iranian airspace – and within striking distance of Tehran..."

http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=13401

Police State In St. Paul

From CounterPunch:

"Since Friday, local police and sheriffs, working with the FBI, conducted preemptive searches, seizures and arrests. Glenn Greenwald described the targeting of protestors by 'teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets.' Journalists were detained at gunpoint and lawyers representing detainees were handcuffed at the scene..."

http://www.counterpunch.org/cohn09022008.html

Amy Goodman Busted At RNC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ

A Gene For Monogamy

"Men are more likely to be devoted and loyal husbands when they lack a particular variant of a gene that influences brain activity, researchers announced yesterday -- the first time that science has shown a direct link between a man's genes and his aptitude for monogamy..."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/01/AR2008090102087.html?wpisrc=newsletter