Atzmon: Israel is the Ultimate Aggressor

... the biggest threat to world peace

Contributor: "Bugman"

Interview with Gilad Atzmon: Calling A Spade A Spade

Our academics are suppressed, and scholarship is silenced, for within the tyranny of political correctness, our academics are forced to primarily consider the boundaries of the discourse — they first examine carefully what they are allowed to say – and then they fill in the empty spaces, formulating theories or narratives.

This quote from Gilad is so true, not only as used here within the zionist-guided constraints.

We find these restrictions also developing in the biological, physical and other fields due to guided limits set by large corporations and enforced on academics.

However this should not take away the importance of the rest of the interview.

Union Busting in the Land of the Free

Contributor: "YYC"

Defiant Wisconsin governor says state is 'broke'

While the president has publicly expressed support for those fighting to keep collective bargaining in Wisconsin, he has not joined them at protests.

VIDEO: 2007: Barack Obama promised to "walk on that picket line" if workers are denied the right to bargain

Obama knew what was coming, and he deliberately misled the people.

Unions in general are a thorn in the side of the New World Order, an impediment to the goal of the manufactured financial crisis - that is, to lower wages and raise prices, thereby wiping out the troublesome lower middle class.

Unions are also a dissident force that can quickly call out thousands of protesters.

By the way, I mentioned a while back, when discussing AOL's buyout of the Huffington Post, that I was going to watch Arianna's "Waiting for Superman" to see just how "progressive" she and HuffPost were at heart.

Well, I did. It's passed off as a documentary, but it does not show both sides of the argument. Like all propaganda, it takes a bit of truth - the sad state of education in the US - and mixes it with a huge dose of fear mongering about "the enemy" - that is, the teachers' union.

The aim is to convince the public to accept a strange form of privatization that involves the closing of existing public schools and diversion of public money into independently operated so-called Charter Schools that can apparently govern themselves any old way they like, and hire teachers at lower salaries.

To accomplish this across the board, however, the union must be busted. In Wisconsin:

"Walker is saying it's a budget crisis when it isn't a budget crisis," said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. "The workers have already said publicly, because he refuses to meet with them, that they would take the cuts to take-home pay that he has asked for here. So this is a ruse to shift power to his friends, because at the same time what he said was that he wanted to give tax breaks to the friends who put him into power."

Unregulated Charter Schools will turn out good little recruits for the military, and a continued high unemployment rate will guarantee their orientation in that direction.

Libya Intervention: All for Israel?

It will be a very, very dangerous situation for Egypt to have any foreign intervention in Libya.

Contributor: "Bangbang"

I, for one, am for the Colonel to stay big time. It is the regimes of AlBahrain and the Yemen that should be ousted NOT Libya's. Why? Because the happenings stink of urgent countermeasures being taken to offset the Egyptian 'miracle' ousting of Israel's whore:the Mubarak regime.

Way I see it:

Iran has to be squashed, Israel wants it stat, has wanted it for years, BUT, BUT, nothing turns out the way that the Zionist spearhead wishes. Iraq is quicksand, Afghanistan the same.

NATO is running thin of personnel and credibility. Winter turns to summer, bad time for wars in the gulf, then another winter lost and another.

Then, of all things, an uprising in Tunis because of poverty and persecution gone unbearable by a despot. And the worst-of-the-worst Mubarak gets kicked out and has to fend for his life.

When we talk Egypt, it is the Suez Canal that has been the waterway for weapons of mass destruction to be piled up on the shores of AlBahrein and the seas around, and of course, US bases in the Yemen to fight the Al Qaada of Grimm's tales.

And what do you know? Uprisings there too. These are still going on but with all the war barges and their aircraft carriers and bomb-carrying submarines, anything the Zionists find too threatening will be squashed with little effort. Let the reels roll.

But Egypt has to become a Zionist bastion again (God Forbid). And that is where Libya comes in. And that is why it is a brave effort the eccentric but politically savvy Colonel is putting on. And I'm glad Hugo Chavez spoke for him. And it is a pity the Egyptians don't see the risk of having (God Forbid) NATO or somesuch other occupying force at its borders.

It will be a very, very dangerous situation for Egypt to have any foreign intervention in Libya. I wish they saw that, the people who made the revolution of the 25th of January. And I wish they stuck to the hard work of getting rid of the remnants of Mubarak's regime which could, at any time, overturn any benefit of having the head ousted.

Meanwhile, the illegitimate* state of Israel is attacking Hamas spots in Gaza, killing civilians (reported by Al Quds Al Arabi), and sending their tanks in and out to "finish" some job, as they please.

They infiltrate Lebanese airspace and Lebanon is crying foul but all ears and eyes and tears and sighs are on the reelorama of uprisings here, there and everywhere, but especially in Libya right now.

The global gullibles would so like one uprising to be like every other: same reasons, same happy ending, OK a few martyrs, and we can all sleep tight. Baloney.

*Ed Note: Whatever the writer's intention may have been in using the term "illegitimate", for the record: YYC recognizes the legality of the state of Israel, but considers illegal (illegitimate) the military occupation of UN-designated Palestinian territories and Israeli settlements beyond the pre-1967 borders.

Freedom v. Control: Which side are we on?

Contributor: "PAJU"

AT THE BARRICADES: CONTROL VS LIBERTY

From Tahrir to Tel Aviv, there are only two sides of the barricades: the side of freedom and the side of control

January 25, 2011 was Day One of the Egyptian Intifada. During the week that followed there were two organized demonstrations in Tel Aviv in front of the Egyptian Embassy. Both protests included people of various ethnic identities, but they were primarily made up of Palestinian-Israelis, and Arabic was the language of the angry chanting.

I believe that we owe a great debt to the brave souls in Tahrir Square and all across Egypt who are fighting for their freedom, for inspiring us to do the same. But I'm also thankful to them for shining a light so bright that it renders us all almost transparent, allowing us to see ourselves as we really are and to easily understand all the other actors on stage.

There are only two sides of the barricades: the side of freedom, and the side of control. Which side are we on? Do we stand for freedom or control? And, since demonstrations have broken out across the Middle East, one may well ask: which side are Jewish Israelis on? Do they stand on the side of freedom or of control?

I interviewed a number of Jewish Israelis on the street to see how they interpreted and felt about the Arab Israeli demonstrations in support of the Egyptian uprising. An older Jewish Israeli woman said that Arab Israeli citizens should "go home" to hold peaceful political protests there. By "home" she meant Jordan. She, like many Jewish Israelis, believes Arab Israelis do not belong in Israel, even though they are native to the land.

Jewish Israelis who have recently arrived from places like Russia feel the same way. Their attitude is: It’s a bit scary because "they" (Arab Israelis) speak a language that "we" don’t understand. And, indeed, even though Arab Israelis speak fluent Hebrew, most Jewish Israelis see no reason to learn Arabic, which they consider the language of the "natives". Why bother to do so when you are the majority, when you have power - when you have control?

Adapted from the article "From Tahrir to Tel Aviv…", written by David Sheen.

-----

Ed Note: Related: Montreal city council condemns boycott of Israeli shoes
A council motion deploring the campaign, proposed and supported by Mayor Gerard Tremblay, passed Tuesday by a vote of 38 to 16.
Pro-Israel groups protest upcoming Boycott Israel day [March 30]
"We are telling people to go to their local stores, request the exact Israeli products being targeted, and buy them out”

Final Solutions: Super Critters and Nuclear Winter

Contributor: "YYC"

Further to Brian H's contribution yesterday regarding military robotics:

Army Building Robot Cheetah to Hunt Down Enemy Prey

The above contains a number of links to other articles and videos about other types of robots besides cheetahs.

If you're into this kind of thing, you might enjoy a novel by James Rollins titled "Altar of Eden" (see sample pages). Well, enjoy may not be the right word, because the book suggests that there is not only experimentation with mechanical super creatures, but also live animal experiments going on as well, where DNA is manipulated to produce genetic throwbacks having super strength and enhanced hive mentalities (they think better as a group due to manipulation of brain fractals producing a kind of telepathy, mentally shared knowledge; for example, in nature it may be the kind of thing that tells flocks of birds when, where and how to migrate, and in humans it may be what is called the "collective unconcious").

The author is a veterinarian, and in the back of the book he tells you what is fact and what is fiction in his novel. The research facility, ACRES, where the novel's action focuses is a real place, but they insist their genetic research is only a means to preserve endangered species. It's all very cute and cuddly.

While we're on the subject of bizzare scientific solutions to humankind's failure to adapt readily to the dicates of the powers that be, what about NASA's research into whether or not a small nuclear war might help combat "global warming"?

Like I always say, it was proved at Hiroshima and Nagasaki that if it can be done, it will be done.

Related: Lethal Military Robots will have Ethics
YYC: By whose standards?

Telewoman?

Contributor: "YYC"

Does Obama adhere to the mythological three main forms of communication: telegraph, telephone, telewoman?

According to the CBC - UN imposes sanctions against Libya:

Obama told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that Gadhafi should step down - "in a private telephone conversation Saturday as they discussed the violence in Libya".

So far, Obama has said nothing like that publicly. in every report I've read so far - with headlines like this one: Barack Obama calls on Col Gaddafi to step down - it turns out that he said it only to Merkel.

So did Merkel immediately call up the media or what? "The Taliban" does that from time to time, when they want to take the blame for something, so why shouldn't she?

The CBC gave the impression they received a call from "the Taliban "last September:

"After the police, we will attack those active in forming anti-Taliban lashkars if they have not given up their activities," Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

And earlier, in August, the CBC said "the Taliban" called up the AP:

... the Pakistani Taliban has warned against accepting international aid. ... [Azam]Tariq spoke with The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Merkel probably calls up the media all the time. But here's something you'll never hear out loud from either her or Obama. It was found at the Canadian Spectator (Feb. 27) in response to this CNN article predicting UN, US Intervention in Libya (you have to scroll down the page to the CNN headline and the comments are below that):

So here's the new scheme. First we foment violence, then we go in to stop it, then we instigate a democratic revolution, then we buy the government.

If the government won't be bought, we buy the opposition and fund it at the next election.

I guess there is no suitable form of official communication for that kind of announcement.

Related: Libyan regime crumbles; violence in Oman

You can star in a video game

Contributor: "Brian H"

VIDEO: Remote Control War
Billions of dollars are driving an unnoticed shift to Robots in the military that has revolutionized how war is fought, the rules of war, and creating new technologies that will soon change our world.

The only thing missing from this doc is mention of the propensity of western governments to use this technology against its own citizens a la G8/G20 events of 2010.

Ed Note: 2010 G20: Transport Canada rules don't yet allow drones over cities The key word is "yet". If they were actually discussing it, it's going to happen. It's "cheaper" than conventional crowd control methods.
UK: Police plan to use military-style spy drones ... for the ­"routine" monitoring of antisocial motorists, ­protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers ...

Image borrowed from here.

Burlusconi: Chain of Events

Contributor: "YYC"

VIDEO: Queen annoyed at Burlusconi
The nerve of that upstart talking loudly in my royal presence!

Ruby the Heartstealer: Berlusconi's undoing?
We used tax dollars to silence Philip's little tarts. Not we've used them to induce the little twerp's floozie to tell all. But, oh dear, it seems to have backfired. Italian men are so boorishly macho that two thirds of them admire that fat little imbecile. And now Italian women are out marching for jobs! Jobs! Imagine. Ordinary women wanting a chance to be common roustabouts! Highly paid ones at that. They make us all look like tarts!

Any dalliances we, meaning I myself, may or may not have had were not tawdry and certainly not cheap.

Scandal-hit Berlusconi faces tax fraud trial
Yes, speaking of tax dollars ... this might do the job nicely.

Short and Terrifying

Contributor: "YYC"

VIDEO Jiminy Glick Interviews 'Ronald McDonald'
Check out this footage of "Ronald McDonald" (aka Andy Dick) talking about killing chickens and the cruelty behind Unhappy Meals during an interview with the legendary Jiminy Glick (aka Martin Short).

I love Martin and I'm glad he's still Short, but he seems to have gotten quite a bit wider. Too many McBurgers?

Warning: At the end of the clip you'll see the URL McCruelty.com. Their homepage video is not funny!

Hall-Findlay: The Height of Partisan Duplicity

Contributor: "YYC"

Security deal won't solve trade problems: Liberals
... the discussions are happening mostly behind the scenes, leaving Canadians in the dark about what's at stake

So much for all the leftie hype about the SPP being dead. You know why they said it was dead? Because "activists" building careers for themselves wanted to take credit for stopping it. They wanted to show that their brand of "activism" works - like taking 10,000 petition signatures and leaving them in the middle of the road (VIDEO) (both literally and metaphorically), instead of bothering to look for other ways to get them to Parliament - because there was a lot more media attention to be enjoyed at Montebello.

And then Maude Barlow told the crowd to go back to the protest cage where they belonged and stop confronting the police. Like good little children!

I was at Montebello and I watched those petitions being trampled upon and their plastic lids bashed in by media people who used them to get up higher to take photos.

The only reason the Liberals are talking about this now is because it's Harper swinging the secret deals, not them. Does anybody need to be reminded that it was Liberal PM Paul Martin VIDEO who helped get the ball rolling? Watch the video and hear him say that he, Bush and Fox signed the agreement.

The Cons told us, oh, don't make a fuss. Nothing was ever signed. Knowing full well it was.

Because of the Liberals, Canada is already under the power of Homeland Security! Does the Northern Command mean nothing to these people? Don't they see how the American eagle spreads its wings across the whole of North America?

Of course they see it. Of course they know it. And if the Libcons were in power right now, it would be the Harper bunch screaming about loss of sovereignty.

Political Poll Dancing

Contributor: "YYC"

A couple of days ago, I enjoyed a chortle about a WashPost reporter who doublespake all over the place trying to convince the public that his extreme weather conclusions are more reliable than anyone else's - abso-lootely.

Lo and behold, today we have a Canadian pollster doing the same kind of thing with a little help from an Ottawa Citizen reporter who pretends to hate all polls while craftily bringing Harris/Decima's Allan Gregg - "Canada's first celebrity pollster" to the forefront:

Two out of three pollsters can be wrong
Harris-Decima chairman Allan Gregg, Canada's first celebrity pollster, is worried about the profusion of increasingly unreliable polls, the unhealthy relationship between unqualified pollsters and headlinehungry media and confident assertions based on flimsy data. One week the Conservative gender gap is gone, the next week "oops, it's back"

Hard to blame Gregg for feeling miffed. His compamy went to a lot of trouble to produce these ever-so-impartial poll results:

Conservatives Hold Ten Point Lead
“These are the best numbers we've seen for Stephen Harper and the Conservative since the afterglow of the 2008 election. They have picked themselves off the floor in Quebec and are now tied with the Liberals, the historic gender gap has been virtually eliminated, they have a solid lead in Ontario and since the fall of 2010 are more competitive in Toronto than any time in recent history, and seem to be taking advantage of NDP difficulties in BC. While it is always a dubious exercise trying to isolate one event, instance or individual that is responsible for shifts in voter preference, other work we have completed on leadership favourability suggest that the turn in Conservative fortunes may be the result of Mr. Ignatieff's misfortunes."

... and no sooner were they published than out trots cheeky prime competitor EKOS with a contradiction (pdf file):

Newly Volatile Electorate Reels in Conservative Lead
The Conservatives have bled nearly five points of support back to 32.4 and the Liberals have moved up more slightly to 27.3.

Who's to say whether or not Gregg's competitors are reliable. For me, apart from the fact that his mom dresses him funny, what trashes Gregg's own credibility as a pollster is that he was (is?) a longtime - to be polite - highly creative Tory strategist who "pushed for negative tactics" - something the Citizen reporter sort of admits have not gone down well with Canadians.

After the "unmitigated disaster" of Gregg's 1993 election campaign strategies, you might wonder why the Cons have gone down that same back alley. Maybe I shouldn't have put a question mark beside the "is" in the paragraph above?

For instance, who recommended this trashing of EKOS' head honcho Frank Graves?

In April, 2010, John Walsh, president of the Conservative Party of Canada, sent a letter to the CBC accusing Graves of giving partisan advice to the Liberal Party of Canada, noting that Graves had donated $11,042.72 to the party since 2003. Any previous work conducted for a political party would have disqualified EKOS from conducting public opinion research for the CBC. An investigation conducted by the CBC ombudsman found no evidence to support these allegations, stating that personal donor history is not relevant to one's objectivity as a pollster and Graves was subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing.

Doublespeak and doublethink. The Cons think it's okay to work for them and be a pollster too, but it's not okay to conduct polls if you've worked for the Liberals.

And the CBC ombudsman says flat out that evidence of partisanship does not affect one's objectivity. Well, then, by all means believe the EKOS polls, and to heck with sulky Gregg, eh?

I wonder if he thinks the Abacus poll is faulty too. NOT.

Related: Breaking news Tory Criminal charges: The federal Conservative party and its top fundraiser have been charged with giving false and misleading information to Elections Canada ... Senator Irving Gerstein ... Senator Doug Finley, Mike Donison and Susan Kehoe. The four are to appear in Ontario Provincial Court on March 18.

PM must explain charges against ‘inner sanctum,’ Liberals say

Bin Laden/Nescafe causing unrest in Libya

Contributor: "YYC"

Gadhafi says bin Laden behind Libya uprising
"exploiting" teenagers, giving them "hallucinogenic pills in their coffee with milk, like Nescafe."

The video reports that the military are supporting Gadhafi (does anybody know how to spell his name? Lately, the N.A. media seem to have settled on "Gadhafi".) This is a good argument for not having a military at all; they always support the power structure. Like the police, they say they are there to protect the people, but it seldom turns out that way whenever there is criticism of the government, which is usually dictated to by the wealthy - in Gadhafi's case big oil.

In this case they are supporting "the mad dog of the middle east". But it was Reagan who said that. Things are apparently different now. GWB managed to work out a nice deal with the mad dog, and it's being said that Obama and Gadhafi go way back - although it's WND saying it and they hate Obama for not being enough of a theocrat. I think it's more than enough that Obama is continuing the Bush tradition.

There's a CNN video discussing an "ad hoc" government reportedly set up in Benghazi, Libya; journalist Ben Wedemen describes being lauded by the people as they rolled in like "liberating heroes". Americans really get off on that image of themselves. He says the only shooting going on is celebratory. Clinton, however, strongly condemns "the violence". View it all with a handful of salt.

Aljazeera has a video with "the inside story" on Gadhafi's state of mind. Take a gander at the mean mug on '"one of his closest aides". That ship is deserting the sinking rat, scraping off its barnacles, and heading for friendlier, more lucrative shores. Pretty soon, maybe, Gadhafi will be going into his coma (you know, like Mubarak and Ariel Sharon).

Related on YYC:
Libya's Gaddafi could find refuge in Israel

Help Stop Secret Trials in Canada

Contributor: "Sophie"

If you have already signed our Statement Against Security Certificates ... THANK YOU VERY MUCH !!!

We still need your support ... please tell your family, friends and co-workers !

I'm planning to present our petition/statement to Minister of Citizenship & Immigration Jason Kenney during a protest on March 22nd and we hope to reach at least 3000 signatures by then.

We are looking for more endorsements from groups (religious, political, environmental, other), organizations, locals, unions and many, many more individuals. Over 2800 have signed. View by category here.

Your support is crucial. We CAN make a difference!

WashPost Freedman on Manmade Climate Change

... proving there are many different shades of absolutism.

Contributor: "YYC"

Global warming, extreme events and weird weather

Here's a reporter whose very name implies free thinking, and who isn't shy about patting his own back for it.

As a reporter, I tend to see things in varying shades of gray, rather than black and white, and I gravitate towards stories that are full of nuance and complexity, where absolutes are rarely, if ever, to be found.

But he doesn't want you to think freely, so he informs you up front what you need to "cringe" at - that is, any global warming reports other than his own.

Then you must believe him that there is no hot debate about global warming being "very likely" manmade (graciously excluding women). His insertion of the all-important words "very likely" demonstrates his open-mindedness, but since he's already said there is no debate, we can very likely assume they are there to provide an out should his overall kow-tow to the prevailing theory prove a future embarrassment.

He actually admits his attempt to cater to both sides (the key word here is "directly":

On a weekly basis I see headlines along the lines of "Global warming caused [insert extreme weather event here]." I've written some of these stories myself, although hopefully I've managed to steer clear of directly attributing an individual weather event to global warming.

In a fair world, there'd be an award for the most adept journalistic obfuscator. Maybe there is, and Freedman is bucking for it. It's so cool the way he gets across that manmade climate change isn't the reason for all weather extremes, but maybe it is. And how he decries absolutism, while "at the same time" letting you know in no uncertain terms that his colleagues are often "flat out wrong":

At the same time, ignoring the growing evidence that certain types of extreme events are already shifting, or claiming that a single study proves there is no climate change link with extreme weather ... is also flat out wrong ...

Citing a single study to prove a point is absolutely wrong, except when he does it himself, quoting from a study released by the Bush administration in 2008:

"Heavy precipitation events averaged over North America have increased over the past 50 years, consistent with the observed increases in atmospheric water vapor, which have been associated with human-induced increases in greenhouse gases."

But there is method in his madness. He uses the study to reinforce the earlier-implanted idea that he is impartial, by allowing that:

The report did not find, however, links between climate change and tornadoes, or many other weather phenomena ...

So what should we surmise? Is he hinting that further studies under the Obama administration may? will? find some links? Not very likely, since Obama has flatly stated "the science is clear". The facts are in. Abso-lootely.

It doesn't take much chutzpah to lord it over one's peers with the permission of one's boss; I'd like to see Freedman do that to a sitting president.

Listen, as a fence-sitter on the topic of CO2 (if scientists can't agree, who am I to argue?), I think I'm a much freer thinker than Freedman, and certainly not nearly so easily distracted from the real dangers to planet earth - run-amok capitalism and unending wars.

NATO/Israel: Iran Fixation

Contributor: "BeeSting"

Afghans have no parental feelings for their children: they burn them to crank up the number of dead civilians. That's what Petreus said. How's this for dehumanization?

Poor Petreus must be very upset that the "war on terrorism" in Afghanistan is not going according to plan, even after the surge. He hasn’t understood that using the same hammer technique will result in the same failure, over and over again. Drones and smart bombs are not smart at all when they are manipulated by gamer-kid soldiers thousands of miles away. Smart bomb and drone "errors" have proved to be the best recruiting tool for the Taliban.

The US presence in Afghanistan is said to be about the war on terrorism, but there were other reasons to bomb and invade, one of them being the network of US military bases that now surrounds Iran. An upgrade of Shindand Air Base "comes as the U.S. is helping to strengthen missile defence systems in Israel and allied nations in the Persian Gulf".

The fixation with Iran is not imaginary as The Pentagon Preps for Iran has documented.

According to the Iranian FARS, “Israel has deployed its troops at a NATO base in Afghanistan near Iran's border to launch joint operations against the Islamic Republic”.

Beyond bilateral treaties with the US, Israel has an agreement with NATO:

“…the NATO-Israel Agreement on the Security of Information allows us to share intelligence, which is crucial in the fight against terrorism and to achieve military interoperability. In 2006 Israel decided to contribute to NATO's anti-terrorist Operation Active Endeavour in the Mediterranean. All in all, this is a broad menu of cooperation which benefits us all."

The Israeli Institute for National Security Studies writes about NATO and Israel:

“If however, the option is raised of formal membership, it is essential that Israel achieve understanding with the leading countries in NATO regarding two major issues. The first is that NATO members will agree to the existing strategic understandings between Israel and the US regarding the nuclear option. In addition, Israel's military freedom of action must not be limited by NATO countries if and when Israel feels that a real threat exists to it or to its vital interests.”

Iran decided to send two ships through the Suez Canal, a first since the Iranian revolution. Even before the warships arrived, Israel rang alarm bells and said that this was a "provocation" and "proves that the self-confidence and chutzpah of the Iranians are growing from day to day.”

Natanyahu uses the opportunity to assert “that Israel's defense needs will increase and the defense budget will grow accordingly."

However, Haaretz reminds us that:

“Israeli warships have traversed the Suez Canal in the past and, in at least one case, an Israeli Dolphin-class submarine also passed in what appeared to be a message to Iran. Some foreign media reports say that Dolphins can fire nuclear-tipped cruise missiles.”

Those submarines cruised just off Iran’s coast. And, far away in South America, “Israel was working with the Chilean government to spy on the Iranian Embassy in Chile, according to a diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks.”

Bottom line: only Israel has the right to spy and do whatever it wants to, while still reserving the right to cry "provocation".

Ottawa to Ban Spit?

Contributor: "YYC"

Ottawa to Ban Saliva
“I’m concerned about it and I don’t know a single parent who wouldn’t be concerned,” St. Boniface MP Shelly Glover said at a press conference on Tuesday. “We are very worried about the long-term effects.”

Indeed parents should be worried. Without saliva how are you going to get a dirty smudge off your kid's face? And where will all the spit curls go?

How will children turn the pages of their school books? What will they drool with when they're asleep?

What will their puppies and kitties lick their little faces with? (Or themselves?)

No more bird's nest soup? Well, maybe that's a good thing. The swifts would probably think so.

I could list a few more things, but children shouldn't be doing that anyway.

Actually, I think saliva has been hard to come by for quite some time, judging by the ubiquitous water bottles you see compulsively popping into people's mouths everywhere. I thought it might be because they were bottle fed babies. That's what I get for thinking.

Oh, I'm getting a nudge. I'm told it's not saliva that's been banned. It's salvia. Well, that's very different, isn't it.

Nevermind.

Apologies to Emily Litella.

Who is "Israel"?

Or Canada, for that matter?

Contributor: "YYC"

In case you've been reading the hype about the Iranian warships that headed out to Syria, you might be pleased to learn that even Israel doesn't believe there was any hostile intention on the part of Iran.

Turns out it was only Avigdor Lieberman who saw it as a "provocation", and apparently he isn't Israel - not quite yet. He's only one part of the official doublespeak.

And we've learned that this kind of sensationalism from FOX is to be expected:

Israel saw the passage as a provocation. Israeli officials refused to comment Tuesday, though earlier this week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he viewed the move "with gravity."

Yeah, the international community should get all upset that boats Israel doesn't like are on the open sea to which they are entitled, and making use of the Suez Canal, which Israel itself insisted should be freely used, yet pressured Mubarak into excluding Iran.

The New York Times headlines that Israel is Silent, but then goes on to quote Israel anyway. Talk about yer cognitive dissonance:

Reports that two Iranian Navy ships were passing through the Suez Canal early Tuesday, heading for the Mediterranean, were initially greeted with a tense silence in Israel where officials have described the move as a provocation.

Then there's the Israeli Navy who reportedly believe the chances of Iran making any kind of a move toward Israel's territorial waters are "slim".

So I guess the question is, "Who is Israel?"

Golly, there was hardly any hubbub at all when "integrated" US and Canadian ships took up residence in the Persian Gulf. Just a weird sort of misplaced pride in Canada being able to "integrate" so well into US mode you can't even tell the diff. Like, who is Canada, eh?

Image borrowed from here.

"Terrorism" is just a word ... like "sovereignty".

Contributor: "YYC"

Please watch these videos carefully; ask yourself who is really being terrorized and why Canada's "justice" system has become so unjust, then pass on the links to everyone you know.

The reason PM Stephen Harper talks so much about "sovereignty" is to hide the fact that ours has been handed over to the global capitalist agenda - this is what Harper calls "enlightened sovereignty" - "for the global good" (the international banking/corporate cabal), not the good of the people living in Canada.

Remember the dreaded fear of communism and its plan to take over the world? Remember the evil secret police of the Soviet Union? Remember how we tsk-tsked that people in Soviet Russia were imprisoned for alleged thought crimes? How we decried that Soviet citizens were encouraged to spy on one another and report on their neighbours' activities? Follow the links in this paragraph and ask yourself if you see any difference in what is happening now under the glorious banner of capitalism?

To impress on us all the need for global governance, we have been sold a bill of goods regarding a fake "war on terror".

France would never extradite anyone to Canada; why is Canada so eager to cooperate in extraditing to France - on dubious and secret evidence?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBf3T5WvHIU

Justice for Hassan Diab


Imprisoned without charges, and years of mental torture in a country that claims to abhor torture!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i3ftNd1zyk

Justice for Mohamed Harkat


The word "terrorism" is in itself a political weapon ... it's a word for any act that threatens the agenda of the globalists.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPnT6B5HpkA

I would add that it's a word for any alleged act that threatens the agenda.

Libya's Gaddafi could find refuge in Israel

Contributor: "BeeSting"

Libya is on fire. Gaddafi and his clan have declared war against the people of Libya. Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, having been promoted as the “friendly, liberal” face of Libya, warns that the Gaddafis are ready to use all means to crush the protest, even if it means a civil war (which they presumably think they can win).

Protesters however, have now some heavy weights on their side: 50 Muslim leaders have told the military to stop killing civilians, and tribal chiefs have asked for an end to the bloodshed or else they would stop the oil exports.

Just as for Mubarak, the Gaddafi scions resent leaving what they see as their rightful fiefdom. My hope is that the Libyan army follows Tunisia’s and Egypt’s and forces Gaddafi to step down. This revolution has already cost more blood than the one that brought Gaddafi to power in 1969 .

There are reports coming out of Egypt that Saif al-Islam had been wounded and that his father has gone into hiding (he is used to doing this, especially during the years when he was an international pariah) or fled.

Canada has no problem ‘censoring’ (see difference in language used for Yemen on the same day, and for Iran ) a despot, Gaddafi, who is an enemy of Israel – or is he? Apparently, he could find refuge in Israel since: “Gaddafi’s grandmother, herself a Jewess, was married to a Jewish man at first. But he treated her badly, so she ran away and married a Muslim sheikh. Their child was the mother of Gaddafi.”

Ed Note: See also:
Canada deserves a thoughtful and intelligent foreign policy in the Middle East

History as wrote by the RCMP

Contributor: "YYC"

Montreal activist told RCMP of connection between Tommy Douglas and Jane Fonda

The above article is full of laffs. Tommy Douglas is long since dead, and Fonda has got religion (she felt that "something was missing" in her life, same as Shirley Maclaine did, but Maclaine found fulfillment in the teachings of space aliens - same thing really - both women equally damaging their own credibility, although the spooks would probably look closer at Maclaine now than at Fonda) so it's hard to get too personally worked up about it.

It's worth noting, though, that the RCMP compile their files according to their own Joan "Bias".

Basically they and now CSIS are little more than gossipy snoops in the finest, nastiest tradition of little old ladies with no lives but those of others - except that the spooks exhibit more hysteria.

They, themselves, are the consummate "conspiracy theorists", their paranoid imaginings being far grander than any looney blogger's.

They don't worry about the reliability of their ramblings; they just "believe" in it.

I've been warned about my own RCMP file, and I'm grateful for the concern, but here's the way I look at it: anybody can make up stories about you, so it's futile to try to stamp out every rumour. Besides I'm going to be dead and gone in a few years so I amount to little more than entertainment and job justification for people unfit for any other sort of employment.

The redacted areas of released files are most likely just things that would embarrass the spooks. What's not funny, however, is that the judge reviewing the redactions in the Douglas file was former defence counsel for the RCMP when it was rife with dirty dealings in the 70's, which feels a lot like a conflict of interest - especially in light of the power he holds over the fate of Mohamed Harkat on the basis of secret, unproven, un-cross-examined "evidence" - but our justice system has gone a long ways downhill since 2001.

It's designed to keep the general public as paranoid as CSIS and the RCMP because therein lies the government's power. If justices cared less about their own perceived status and more about the integrity of the justice system, they would refuse to try cases based on secret information from sources proven in the past to be unreliable.

The investigating commission in the case against the RCMP concluded {{{duh}}} that the police should be required to obey the law. And then they birthed CSIS.

Image: Waiting for Gossip by Erika Oller

Harperoda

Contributor: "Bugman"

Kairos case is a reminder of the real Harper agenda

What happens when the smartest man in the room (by his own estimation)proves too clever by half? What happens when a one-man band puts on a third-rate show? What happens when a "brilliant strategist" is so full of uncontrollable resentment and meanness that he keeps getting himself in trouble by interfering where he has no business?

The Oda case might have a scandalous odour, but is is really a sign post of a trend in our political realm that is troublesome to say the least. The source is our glorious leader and his one man show.

The motto: “I for myself and the rest can go to hell” used to be a liberal moniker, but is taken over very successfully by the Conservative plebeians and their leader.

This to the detriment of our Canadian traditions and name.

Related on YYC
Bev Oda's middle name: "Patsy"?

US Military expanding into Twilight Zone

Military Wants More Global Partnerships In Space
As the U.S. and other countries depend more on their satellites for critical data, those assets become greater targets for their enemies ... "It's prudent to anticipate that, at this point, we will not go into a future conflict with a sophisticated adversary and not expect to be challenged in the space domain" ...

Ah, "the enemy". That nebulous, ever-morphing phantom, created for the purpose of some jackass needing to be big man on campus.

When and if the US succeeds in gaining the cooperation of all the countries they feel threatened by in space, who will be "the enemy"?

Will leaders point to aliens on the dark side of the moon? Is that the reason for the controversy over the Sunday Times article that said the UN had appointed "an ambassador to greet extraterrestrials if and when they contact" - a little advance preparation should the need for an "enemy" in outer space present itself? Yes, we said it; no we didn't say it; mind games galore.

I have to tell you something. Last week I had my first glimpse of a UFO, which simply means that I saw objects in the sky that I couldn't identify:

I was in the laundry room, which looks out over a rooftop patio at the sky, and there were red clouds low on the western horizon. At the eastern, bottom end of one those clouds, I became aware of a round, bright, silvery object that became slowly but progressively larger, as if moving toward me, until it was a sort of elongated oval.

Then from behind a tall building to the right, there appeared a round, much smaller, very bright, star-like object, moving slowly toward the large oblong object.

Suddenly, as the smaller object moved closer, the oblong object became smaller and smaller, as if moving rapidly backwards, and then it disappeared. I turned to put some coins in the laundry machine and when I looked back at the sky, the small, star-like object was gone too. I had only turned away for seconds, so I have to assume it speeded up when I wasn't looking and went back behind the building, or else it just went out like a light.

The big one I thought could have been a plane, but how could it head back the way it came without turning?

The small one I thought might be a helicopter, but why couldn't I see its shape and why no flashing lights? It just looked like a very bright star. There were no flashing lights on the one that looked like a plane either. Just solid, bright silver, possibly reflected light.

Here's a similar report from an Ottawan back in September. His sighting was at night; mine was in daylight, pre-dusk.

When you know about HAARP and the possibility that it can create "natural" disasters, hologram technology, and digital TV tricks, can you blame anyone for at least entertaining the idea that a fake alien invasion is a possibility?

Didn't Reagan see an extraterrestrial threat as the solution to global enmity? Suggesting, of course, that there must always be an enemy.

Doesn't it make you think that the push for global governance - the New World Order the elder Bush spoke of so fondly exactly 10 years to the day before 9/11 - is predicated on a common, external enemy?

Who knows what it was that I saw in the sky last week? I do know that the technology exists to bamboozle us all.

The Heather and Gerry Show Goes On

University of Ottawa Haifa exchange program funded by the Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman Foundation

Contributor "YYC"

Reisman is a member of the Bilderberg steering committee. She and Schwartz founded the Heseg Foundation which provides perks to young people willing to go to Israel to serve as mercenaries in the IDF. Their bookstores Chapters/Indigo, scenes of pickets and protests for years now, are a result of the couple's expertise in hostile corporate takeovers, and are slowly putting small local bookstores out of business in much the same manner as WalMart.

Reisman has received several doctorates from Canadian universities, due no doubt to generous monetary donations. Look for yet another doctorate from Ottawa U.

Schwartz founded the Canwest media bully. The couple is working hard to monopolize sales of practically everything -books, toys, gifts, "life style" items, in Canada through "partnering" with multi-national corporations.

In fact, Reisman and Schwartz are human examples of the typical corporate psychopathic personality described in the famous documentary The Corporation. Outwardly they are affable, congenial, sociable, homey parents and grandparents, while at heart they are compulsively, ruthlessly acquisitive, and if you tapped on their perfect little noses you would find them made of solid, clanging metal. They would literally kill to own everything in sight, and certainly all of Palestine - not out of a love for Israel but simply because of their pathologically grasping natures.

They are also helping to destroy the multi-party political system in Canada by having thrown their support behind Harper. Little wonder that in Harper's eyes Israel can do no wrong.

We live in a society that celebrates acquisition - the most famous people are the ones who literally can't control their inner compulsion to own everything in their line of vision, like an infant putting everything into its mouth. It's an illness, really. Some people fill the void with food; others become packrats, and we tell them to get therapy, but when the pathology goes external on a massive scale, we call them "successful" and want to shake their hands.

From Wiki: "In 2006, [Schwartz} made a donation to University of Waterloo for $578,000 for an exchange program between University of Waterloo, Canada and University of Haifa, Israel. (more information) He wanted Canada to be working with Israel as partners."

He wanted; he has a void that nothing can completely fill.

Why should Canada be partners with Israel any more than any other country? Because Reisman and Schwartz identify with Israel (even though they don't seem to want to live there) and therefore everyone else must too. Because they want it.

Now they've moved into the University of Ottawa, the administration having gone so Uriah Heep-ish they overlooked some necessary formalities. Consequently objections have been raised in the Senate.

If you're concerned about the deliberate and systematic infiltration of Israel into so many aspects of Canadian life, especially where it affects our youth, and especially since Reisman and Schwartz are looking for more fighting mercenaries for Israel, now's the time for you to speak up.

Related on YYC:
U. of Ottawa hijacked by Israel
The Canadian Zionism Question ...
Downsview Park promotes JNF Racism to kids

Image borrowed from PostCity.com

Bev Oda's middle name: "Patsy"?

Contributor: "Ron"

Likely Harper forged the Kairos document at the Apartheid Israel Lobby's request and then forced Oda to be the patsy

The mainstream media keep pushing the spin that Canada's International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda initially lied before committee and then subsequently told the truth earlier this week before the House of Commons. However it is much more likely that she was telling the truth before committee when she said she did not forge the Kairos document and did not know who did.

It is also very likely that she DID INDEED approve the Kairos grant, as her signature attests, and then someone AFTER THE FACT forged the already signed document to make it appear that both CIDA and Oda had refused the grant.

Everyone knows that elements of the Apartheid Israel Lobby had been pressuring the Harper government to cut funding to groups like Kairos, Al Haq and others who support Palestinian human rights. Does any objective viewer need any further proof of this than Minister Kenney’s bragging in Jerusalem before the Apartheid Israel Lobby that the Harper government had done exactly what the Lobby wanted by cutting Kairos’ funding? Could it be any more obvious?

Indeed the whole scandal at Democracy and Rights is also related to the Apartheid Israel Lobby’s efforts in this regard. All MPs and everyone in the mainstream media know this but no one says it out loud.

It is also very likely that when Harper realized that the public release of the forged document would shine the spotlight on the influence of the Apartheid Israel Lobby upon the Harper Government, he acted to make it look like it was a run of the mill decision by Minister Oda based on CIDA guidelines. The only way he could do this was to get Minister Oda to pretend that she had initially lied before Committee and was now telling the truth before the House when she confessed that she altered the document.

It is obvious that Oda’s Commons testimony is just not believable. If you don’t agree with a document which has already been co-signed by CIDA, you don’t sign it. You instead send it back with a note saying that the Minister has decided to overrule the recommendation by denying funding.

By forcing Oda to be the patsy, Harper knows that he has to try to make it look like he is defending her, otherwise he would lose face before the members of his own Conservative caucus who know Oda is innocent.

This explains why he didn’t immediately cut her loose, like he did with Ministers Bernier and Guergis. Also playing into Harper’s charade is his need to keep placating the Apartheid Israel Lobby by saying that Oda “made the right decision” in defunding Kairos.

This leaves us with the the real question, and that is WHO overturned Minister Oda’s approval by forging the document after Minister Oda had followed CIDA’s recommendation and approved the Kairos grant. Was it Harper? Was it a staffer in the PMO? Was it the Clerk of the Privy Council?

One thing for sure is that our democracy is a joke. And a bad one at that.

Related on YYC:
Not is a Four Letter Word
79% say Oda "misled" Commons

79% say Oda "misled" Commons

Contributor: "YYC"

Image: from Ron

Do you believe International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda misled the Commons over how funding for aid organization KAIROS was ultimately blocked?

Bev Oda knows what she has to do to stay within the Con caucus. She has to know how to obfuscate Harper-style. Like Bill Clinton, Harper believes that if it can't be proven to be a lie, then it's not a lie.

It's this kind of blatant manipulation that has 60% of the Canadian people not interested in voting for Harper.

Problem is they don't want to vote for the Liberals or the NDP either, and even some evangelical Christians see the Harper government as so corrupt they have formed their own party.

The solution may well be to simply vote Independent.

Related on YYC: "Not is a four-letter word"

Turning up the heat on the JNF

Contributor: "YYC"

From Jewish Voice for Peace regarding the demolition of a Bedouin village in the Negev desert:

JNF and the Israeli Government hope to wipe out the village once and for all. As in previous demolitions, the residents were forced into the village’s 100-year old cemetery, but this time the JNF bulldozers crashed right up to the cemetery's gates. Villagers held them closed with their bare hands, causing five people to be injured and hospitalized. Their courage in facing down bulldozers and risking injury should inspire us all to take the next step.

Tell the JNF: Not another demolished home! Not another brutal expulsion of Bedouin, or wiped out village, for JNF forests! Stop sowing conflict between Jews and Arabs in the Negev!

Call-in Day: Tell the Jewish National Fund No More Demolished Villages
See video, sign petition, call the JNF office.

Here are the telephone numbers in Canada

Photo Gallery: Bedouin People of Israel's Negev Desert

UPS driver opts for McDouble over needs of disabled

Contributor: "YYC"

UPS apologizes to disabled senior
... for one of its trucks parking illegally in a disabled parking space.

I'm all for disabled people having special parking spots, and anything else special that makes their lives a little easier. But was this really a sincere apology from UPS. I mean, they gave him a $20 gift certificate to McDonald's for pity's sake!

McDonald's! Are they trying to kill him?

Come to think of it, the location of the altercation suggests how he got his "bad heart" in the first place.

I personally know a guy who had quadruple bypass surgery and has since allowed himself to become grossly overweight - and he has trouble moving his legs now too.

It's hard to feel sorry for people like that.

See VIDEO "McLibel". It's brilliant.

Freshly Sanitized Cdn Cyber Security

Contributor: "YYC"

Damage from cyber attack on financial records limited, Day says
"As technology increases, the hackers become more rigorous and more robust and it just means we have to continue to make sure our defences are in place."

Ah, yes, that would be the Communications Security Establishment, who must be looking for a pay increase in the next federal budget. How many Canadians even know about the CSEC - not to mention its murky past.

The damage was "limited", and so is the information to the public. Oh, well ... if you believe that "ignorance is strength" (VIDEO) ...

What "financial records"? Yours and mine? And is it really the handy-dandy bogeyman China or is it Lockheed Martin grabbing details they couldn't get by perusing our last census with the software they provided for it?

Surely that would be by governmental consent, so the alarm must have gone off accidentally. I guess you can tell I wouldn't put anything past these jokers.

Nor have I forgotten that authoritarian PM Harper no longer thinks the census should be mandatory. That tells me there are now more sophisticated methods being used to invade our privacy.

Interesting that we're suddenly being fed this non-information, and not to worry, the CSEC will fight our battle against the mythical Goldstein - when the real enemy daily crawls unhindered out from under government-funded rocks.

The CBC also plays up the role of the CSEC, but reveals it was CSIS that concocted the story about China.

Image borrowed from Two Animators!

Another JNF ethnic cleansing

... funded by Canada Revenue Agency

Contributor "Ron"

Beduin town of Al-Arakib demolished; 2 reported injured

This latest demolition carried out by the Israel Lands Authority, the Jewish National Fund and police forces brought the total number of demolitions close to twenty.

Rabbis for Human Rights reported that JNF and ILA bulldozers dug up the road leading to to the village's cemetery and said that two people were evacuated to an area hospital.

Please note: The inhabitants of this village in Israel are Israeli citizens who are not Jewish. The Canadian Government is knowingly and willingly subsidizing JNF bulldozers to ethnically cleanse Israeli citizens who are not Jewish from their villages inside Israel.

Read more about how Canada supports ethnic cleansing in Israel/Palestine through tax free status for the Jewish National Fund in Canada.

Mubarak Arafated?

Contributor: "YYC"

Mubarak falls into coma after final speech
Mubarak underwent a successful surgery in March 2010 at a German clinic for an inflamed gall bladder. Since then, doubts increased over the former president's health.

Not doubts - rumours! Cancer also being one of them. And they came from "intelligence sources". Big surprise.

Wikipedia reported a couple of days ago that Mubarak is "near death and in a coma". I thought at the time that either this was grossly exaggerated, or else reader "maddy" wasn't kidding when she said she heard in Arabic that he would be poisoned like Arafat.

If so, then manufacturing confusing reports of prior illnesses would be a good cover for that.

Gee, and his last words were criticism of the US - so an Israeli lawmaker said.

I wonder how long Mubarak will remain "near death". As long as Ariel Sharon has? It's only now that I begin to wonder if Sharon didn't really have a stroke. He didn't start his own party for no reason - he had severe local enemies.

Yet look at how all these human bulldozers are publicly lauded for their "public service" and their "sacrifices". (Well, actually they're naming a garbage dump after Sharon, but they're calling it a park, so that's something.)

All of which makes it seem like such a sick joke that Obama slung a hunk of metal around the elder Bush's neck, and they all think this says something about his life. But he didn't speak, did he. He only "smiled and wiped his eyes". I wonder how many drugs he's loaded with so he doesn't blurt.

As I often say, beware of anyone who receives awards from the establishment. Even the establishment becomes wary of such individuals when they are no longer useful to the New World Order (VIDEO)?

How many of the worst 20th century public offenders have had dignified old ages? Reagan's another good example. Wait till they start worrying about what Billy Clinton will mutter through his drool.

Here's what you can do (VIDEO) at their age if you haven't lived a criminal life. Or is that because she's a woman? No. There's at least one old man still functioning well and with all his marbles too.

Palestinian Revolution?

Contributor: "BeeSting"

Will Palestinians follow in the Egyptians’ footsteps, even as their flag adorns the Washington skyline? Last month, Palestinians were allowed to hoist their flag in Washington.

The Quartet of Middle East “peace mediators” (United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations) met in Munich in early February for a security conference, and on the sidelines held discussions on the stalled negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Guess what … they decided to meet again in mid-March !

Hanan Ashrawi had some advice for them and asks for a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. How she can still believe that a two-state solution is possible remains a mystery.

Palestinians have tried everything and got nowhere – except being crushed under an Israeli boot that gets heavier by the day.

Why not dissolve the Palestinian Authority (which has less authority than the mayor of any Canadian city)? Once the PA is defunct, the various elements of Palestinian society could unify and pursue a strategy of nonviolent resistance to get their rights and freedoms.

But then again, Abbas may not be particularly keen on democracy: he banned most anti-Mubarak protests, but allowed one pro-Mubarak demonstration even as Egyptian civilians were protesting peacefully in Tahrir ("Independence" in Arabic) Square and being killed and maimed for it.

But then again, Palestinians know that the Mubarak regime has been a tool with which Israel and the US have pressured them .

Should we trust medical "wisdom"?

Contributor: "Bugman"

How to keep faith in our medical professionals?

Why Almost Everything You Hear About Medicine Is Wrong

If you follow the news about health research, you risk whiplash. First garlic lowers bad cholesterol, then—after more study—it doesn’t. Hormone replacement reduces the risk of heart disease in postmenopausal women, until a huge study finds that it doesn’t (and that it raises the risk of breast cancer to boot). Eating a big breakfast cuts your total daily calories, or not—as a study released last week finds. Yet even if biomedical research can be a fickle guide, we rely on it.

But what if wrong answers aren’t the exception but the rule? Read more

Ed Note: Take charge of your own health. It's very simple. Eat only enough food to sustain yourself, make sure your diet is well varied and don't worry about what time of day you eat - worry is a killer. Get plenty of exercise, don't be a substance abuser, don't dramatize yourself - develop your sense of humour, trust your body (and your life) to right itself, and above all listen to your own inner voice. For that last item you will need to shut off the TV, radio, iPod ...

Image borrowed from: JokesAndHumor.com

NOT is a four-letter word

Contributor: "YYC"

But will Oda be emanated from Parliament? Probably not. Expulsion of Harper is the overt goal of the Liberals - though why they have helped him stay in power is a conundrum - NOT.

Former provincial NDP, now Federal Liberal Bob Rae (he is nothing if not uncommitted) clarifies:

"We cannot say that if Ms. Oda was not there the problem would be resolved. It would not be. This is a question of a government's culture of deceit, a culture that gives all the power to the PMO."

MetroNews has the easiest, most tongue-in-cheek read on this Not-ty (naughty?) issue:
Oda clears air on KAIROS funding, or not

Ah, the air has been cleared, so the lingering redolence must be rising from John Baird's socks. Or not. Could be Iggy's socks. If the Liberals were in power they too might well chop off funding for NGOs believed to be sympathetic to Palestinians, and Rae hisself might get to scribble the all-important four-letter word on funding docs.

It's easy to see why they all thought for so long that Mubarak was an okay dude.

Scanned image of the offending document, plus a poll "Are you satisfied with Bev Oda's Apology?

VIDEO: Bev "Not" Oda performs "Lies"

Herzliya

Contributor: "BeeSting"

While the media are focused on Egypt, and trying to find an angle that has not been covered yet, the Israel/Palestine conflict has disappeared from their consciousness. Palestinians however are still living under a foreign brutal military occupation that the Israeli government has no intention of ending.

And Israel's footsoldiers are still packing conferences, think tanks and other elevated parking spaces from which they dispense mis-information, dis-information and other elements that make up the Israeli Hasbara (PR in Hebrew).

Part of the network is the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya in Israel. The Herzliya conference is a 4-day affair that brings together neo-cons from around the world yearly to “discuss the main security challenges faced by the Jewish state.” Liberal Member of Parliament and former Attorney General of Canada Irwin Cotler was a speaker in 2007 .

Matthew Duss attended this year's conference (February 6 to 9, 2011) and wrote about it in
Letter From Herzliya, Neocon Woodstock.

One would think that Palestine would be an important subject to discuss, but no:

As for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, signifying the low priority that Israelis themselves now give to the conflict, it got one panel out of four days.

Iran figured prominently in the conference (war drums galore) – as is expected from this crowd. Another topic this year was Egypt:

As a result of the revolution in Egypt, a key theme that emerged at the conference was hostility to Arab democracy and the assumption that it would bring only chaos and danger for Israel—a mantra that also exposed a division between Israeli neoconservatives and some of their American comrades. “In the Arab world, there is no room for democracy,” Israeli Major General Amos Gilead told a nodding audience. “This is the truth. We prefer stability.” Former Israeli Ambassador to the US Zalman Shoval scoffed that George W. Bush’s freedom agenda’s “principle accomplishment seems to be the victory of Hamas in Gaza.” Boaz Ganor, the executive director of the IDC’s International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, warned, “When these people [Arabs] vote, they are voting for what Coca-Cola calls the real thing and that is fundamentalism.” Shmuel Bar, Director of Studies at the IDC’s Institute of Policy and Strategy, declared that the US had “become an agent of revolutionary change in the Middle East, at the expense of stability.”

As I sit writing this, Mubarak has just stepped down. It’s unclear exactly where Egypt is going and how its new iteration will affect Israel. But it’s safe to say that the Egypt-Israel relationship won’t be the same; the sense of dread over that in Herzliya was palpable. Mubarak may not have been the greatest guy, certainly no democrat, but he was the devil they knew. Israeli leaders love to brag that Israel is “the only democracy in the Middle East.” From the reaction at Herzliya to Egypt’s freedom fever, it’s clear that quite a few influential Israelis would prefer to keep it that way.

But they’ll cope. In at least one interesting way, they already are. Two weeks after the demonstrations began in Egypt, and four days before Mubarak finally abdicated, I visited the Israeli Prime Minister’s office for a meeting with a member of his cabinet. Just beyond the reception desk is a hallway whose walls are ornamented with large photos of past and present Israeli prime ministers with other world leaders. One was a photo of President Obama, Prime Minister Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah, taken at the reopening of direct talks last September. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had already been cropped out.

Interesting, isn’t it?