Thanks Spencer, and Happy New Year.

A two-state solution when Rush Limbaugh says Obama is a good president.

and for all the charter members of the HH Club (Hillary Haters), I say…pfffffddddp! So there.

The best job in the world, Secretary of State of the United States – she was born for it, it seems.
What a surprising development.

Happy New Year, Spencer.

Saying we reject any Israeli settlement construction is meaningless unless we are willing to back it up. Has AIPAC disbanded? If so, I missed that little news item.

Pretty words, do America’s actions back them up?

We’ll see. It’s a nice picture she paints, of an Israeli government going where none has gone before. We’ll see, won’t we?

Happy New Year, Spencer!

Spencer,

On Rosh Hashana it is written, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed. You got the first part down.

Meanwhile, Putin is responding in good faith to Obama’s good-faith gesture on missile defense:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/9/19/82339/5611

Isn’t it nice to have sane people in charge again?

I find it unbelievable that Obama said this about himself or the Secretary of State, even in a private meeting:

Indeed, when Obama met with Jewish leaders in July and was asked about a perceived imbalance toward Israel, he responded: “We have been trying not to do this through the press, and other than my comment to the prime minister and a couple by Hillary, we have been disciplined,” according to the contemporaneous notes of one participant.

It just goes to show how some participants simply cannot be trusted to keep their own counsel when presented with an opportunity to make their own case.

It won’t happen overnight, but the world will breathe a little easier.
And a sliver of my mean-ass self wants to see them make great strides so we can watch Condi Rice squirm in her later years.
On second thought, if I never have to look at her lying, incompetent ass again…

Haven’t heard a peep outta Condi since 1/21, have we? Not that I am interested in what she has to say, but she must be applying herself diligently to her book. I wonder if she’s got a macro to replace “my husband” with “President Bush” whenever it appears in her manuscript.

To be fair most of the damage was done during Bush’s first term when Condi was just the lying incompetent National Security Advisor. The Bush Junta had so little credibility by the time she became Secretary of State the best anyone could hope for is that she would stop digging the hole deeper and she managed that, more or less. At any rate, we didn’t invade or occupy any ADDITIONAL countries.

They couldn’t find them.

And while there is evidence that Rice may have had some sway over Bush (possibly convincing him that not everything Shooter said was Moses-like), she sat in meetings where torture was approved and widely reviewed.

She needs to go straight to jail like all the rest, and we won’t be hearing those truths told in her upcoming opus.

Dubya was bad about dripping ketchup on maps while eating his Freedom Fries.

Aw, give her a break. Nobody ever imagined planes could be used as weapons…

Ding.

Did I miss something or isn’t there still a government so far to the right in Israel that it would be called fascist anywhere else? Has everyone forgotten who Benjamin Netanyahu is and that he has a record of doing in peace processes? I used to make fun of Condoleezza Rice because she used to declare talks on having talks about setting up preliminaries for a return to talks on talks. I agree with ratfood. Until there are actions we can all point too this means nothing. And the only action I have seen so far is that Mitchell came back after failing to get the Israelis to freeze settlement construction.

Well wasn’t there a YouTube of Condi being asked about torture? Or was that Yoo? Or both?

As for the two state solution, the last chance for it died in 1995 with Yitzhak Rabin.

Here’s Rice on torture in repsonse to student Q.

Righto. Anyhow, facts on the ground, as I understand them, preclude a 2-state solution, as Israel has carved up Palestine beyond repair.

FORE

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has joined two exclusive golf clubs in Alabama.

Rice is a native of Birmingham and has family there, though she does not own a home in the city. Chief of Staff Colby Cooper says the golf memberships at Greystone Golf & Country Club and Shoal Creek golf club are part of an effort to reach out to citizens of her home state.

I would not be surprised if Obama plans to let Max Baucus craft a Mideast peace plan.

No state has cornered the market on stupid but Alabama is MESSED up.

This from TPM

Out earlier this evening from White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs …

On Tuesday, September 22, President Obama will host a trilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The trilateral meeting will be immediately preceded by bilateral meetings between President Obama and the two leaders. These meetings will continue the efforts of President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Special Envoy George Mitchell to lay the groundwork for the relaunch of negotiations, and to create a positive context for those negotiations so that they can succeed.

snip

This comes after George Mitchell had reportedly been unable to secure such a meeting.

What a joke! Reaching out to people in Ala. by joining 2 country clubs. Most of the people in Ala. are doing well if they manage to eat – why doesn’t she finance a homeless shelter or something.

Divide and conquer. Repeat every 3-5 years or during an election cycle, whichever comes first.

All the end of my comment should have been within the quote.

It took me a while to find Condi’s quote on torture but this is her from 2002 chairing the National Security Council in the meetings discussing what kinds of torture to use:

This is your baby. Go do it.

I’d rather see the country clubs converted to homeless shelters, or free clinics… preferably both.

And the original source of the Condi quote:

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/L…..038;page=4

Don’t forget that Condi was an active participant during the implementation of torture. Did you ever hear her play piano?

Oy.

Just wait until the um…er…well…to put it delicately…uh…how to say it…er…um…looking for the right word…er…um…(burp), oh yeah… Just wait until the “Yid Gestapo”* gets through with her (and Obama). Character assassination is their specialty.

*Brothers can you spare a slime (or two, or three, or…..ad nauseam)?

burp

USS Liberty was attacked in international waters by Israeli forces on June 8, 1967, killing 34 Americans and wounding another 174.

I have despised the government of Israel since that date, when the Israeli’s knowingly, killed and wounded my fellow Sailors. I have never heard a word from either the Government of Israel or the United States either condemning or apologizing for the attacks and the cover-ups. President Johnson was President at the time and it is my understanding that he wanted the ship sunk and the entire crew obliterated. Being a French Citizen now, I don’t have very much in the line of nice things to say about eithre the US or the Israeli’s. Both seem to be very hypocritical and self serving. I have the feeling that President Obama is trying to straighten out our problems in the middle east, but he is going to need a hell of a lot of help and he will be needing every iota of diplomatic “sagesse” he can possibly muster. I really wish him luck as I am very tired of watching the tail wag the dog in this matter.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not talking about Jews as a people or their religion or beliefs. I am talking about the fascist right wing that seems to control their country and the damage they have done along with the Right wing religious nuts in the United States.

Just this old Chief’s 2 cents

Thank you for your service, Chief.

It’s a shame more people in the US are not aware of this incident, as well as the shameful response of U.S. leadership.

Maybe – someday – if we are still maintaining a military, and it is still controlled by our civilian (political, economic, and technocratic) leadership, said leadership will treat the military with true honor and respect, rather than with only shallow expressions of patriotism (bumper stickers, etc.). It is going to take considerable work and time to achieve that, though.

I’m glad to see there are others who appreciate her blunt speech on the issue of Israeli settlements although it will be interesting to see what happens when Israel continues to ignore she and Obama. Also, I was a bit surprised she accepted that nut-case racist, Avigdor Lieberman’s invitation to visit with him in Israel in October. I have a feeling that what is on the menu is a) settlements and his view that the US position is totally unreasonable and b)the Goldstone Report. If I were Hillary, I think I would have respectfully declined the invitation.

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Secretary Clinton Blog

And you think that it’s a good idea not to confront Lieberman?

Avoiding talks is not usually the best way to conduct foreign policy.

It is a party here! The last year of FDL action brought new meaning to the phrase “May they all become a single society (aguda achas), to do Your will wholeheartedly.” This goal would require both overcoming passionate convictions to work together and taking account of the core aspirations which produced the passionate convictions in the first place.

As a side benefit, a “aguda mktzoait” is a “trade union” where a “mktzoa” is an occupation. So “aguda” has more of a sense of common purpose than “hevra”, which can also mean a group or association.