Stop Harassing Joe Lieberman!

America needs more politicians who follow their own minds and principles, rather than marching in lockstep.

June 18, 2008 - by Bridget Johnson

Word to the Democratic Party, eagerly frothing at the mouth with the prospect of the ascension of their anointed one, Barack Obama: Leave Joe Lieberman alone!

Simply put, the Connecticut senator — after years of service to his constituency and his party, including backing up Al Gore (not an enviable job) on the 2000 ticket — got completely hosed by the Democratic Party in 2006 over his support for the U.S. mission in Iraq, when he was bumped out in the senatorial primary. Showing the chutzpah of a true leader, he won the seat as an independent. And lefties haven’t known what to do with him since.

Especially in this, the election year that is supposedly destined to be the Dems’ for the taking, the claws have come out against Lieberman. He caucuses with the Dems, and if he shifted to the GOP he’d ruin their power advantage in the Senate. So there’s been a certain amount of kiss-up and toleration of his campaigning for fellow senator John McCain.

But they can’t very well have the Dem defector running around mouthing off against the anointed one, can they?

Or so seems to be the attitude that develops in a Sunday Associated Press story, which crosses the line into editorializing by leading off with “Joe Lieberman is fast becoming the Democrats’ public enemy No. 1,” and calling Lieberman’s recent criticisms of Saint Obama “the latest betrayal.”

Pray tell: Who betrayed whom?

The Dems cast out Honest Joe for, essentially, having his own mind and following his conscience on key issues. Shouldn’t all politicians grace us with such qualities?

The story singles out Lieberman joining in a McCain conference call the day after Obama secured enough delegates to win the Democratic Party’s nomination.

“Sen. Obama today argued American foreign policy in recent years has essentially strengthened Iran,” Lieberman said in that call, in which he also congratulated the Illinois senator on seizing the nomination. “At one point he almost seemed to suggest it helped to elect [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad and has made Israel less safe. I just disagree with that. Iran[ians] elected Ahmadinejad for their own reasons.

“If Israel is in danger today, it’s not because of American foreign policy, which has been strongly supportive of Israel in every way. It’s not because of what we’ve done in Iraq, it’s because Iran is a fanatical terrorist expansionist state. Iran has a leader — and leaderships — that constantly threatens to extinguish the state of Israel.”

The AP noted that hours after that call, “Obama led Lieberman to a corner of the Senate floor for a pointed private conversation.” Bring on the bullying, because in the flock led by Obama the only type of bipartisanship that counts is that which parrots their policy objectives pound for pound.

And here’s how their story ends, with talk of knocking Lieberman out of his chairman’s seat at the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee: “While there’s no serious talk afoot about punishing Lieberman, [John] Kerry said, ‘I can’t tell you what happens next year.’”

Didn’t the Democratic Party lose its right to send Lieberman to his room without supper?

It’s been speculated by campaign-watchers who don’t want to accept that a Democrat can support the war that Lieberman’s stumping for McCain is all about Obama having backed Ned Lamont, the anti-war standard-bearer who thought he could come to Connecticut Democrats’ rescue but instead took a mighty blow from Independent Joe. It’s conveniently overlooked that Lieberman is instead following his brain and his conscience on foreign policy at one of the most crucial junctures in American history, and from this comes his endorsement.

Lieberman’s experience — from his 2006 comeback to Sunday’s skewed wire coverage of his campaign activities — has exposed a disturbing trend in American politics today: Dissent will not be tolerated.

It seems that the GOP has thankfully pulled itself back from the brink of that abyss, where it teetered during the early primaries in the days when McCain was equated with Satan and those pundits who dared to tout his candidacy were routinely pummeled for supposedly betraying conservative ideals. And hopefully Lieberman will be invited to the podium of the convention, no matter which party he’s caucusing with at the time.

Lieberman will continue to back McCain. The media will continue to accuse the senator of betraying the party that hung him out to dry. His smiling mug may appear on a dartboard or two at the DNC.

And the Democratic Party will likely never realize the gravity of the damage that its shunning of Lieberman did to the principles of free thought and conscience — instead of embracing an agenda in blind lockstep.

Bridget Johnson is the online opinion editor, an opinion writer, and a blogger at the Rocky Mountain News.

Bookmark and Share
Email Print Podcasts Digg PJM Home

Pajamas Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:

1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.

2. Stay on topic.

3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.

4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.

5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.

The clause regarding "hate speech" has been deleted because readers criticized it as being too loosely defined. We agreed.

These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that Pajamas Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pajamasmedia.com.

30 Comments

1. David Thomson:

I have changed my mind. Joseph Lieberman should officially join the GOP. It may be the only way to to provide a wake up call to those naive folks who believe the Democratic Party can be straightened out regarding national defense issues. The odds of this ever occurring are next to nil. And yes, we should be wary of treating the Republicans as the only real game in town. Nonetheless, that’s the harsh reality of the matter. Senator Lieberman is unwittingly confusing the American public by caucusing with the Democrats. It essentially provides them with false hope.

Jun 18, 2008 - 1:38 am 2. Don:

Politics is a buffet. Any politicians who feel their only responsibility is voting party line is a waste to their voters, a waste of a paycheck, and a waste of o2 (Gee, isn’t OB a strictly “Party Line” kind of guy?). Political “conscience” is an oxy”moron”, and it seems we’ve got a load of them in congress and the senate. There is no better example than what is going on with energy policy now

Jun 18, 2008 - 4:20 am 3. Ed Wallis:

This all sorta reminds me of the difference in the way the “R” and “D” parties dealt with “punishing” states which held primaries earlier than allowed per rules:

The Republican Party penalized the state by 50% of its delegates, whereas the dear, tolerant, unifying, hopeful Democrats wiped out 100% of the offending state’s delegate count.

Oh yeah…did I mention tolerant? Heh.

Jun 18, 2008 - 4:59 am 4. david levavi:

Its darkly amusing that in an election where identity politics rules and 90% of the African American vote tilts for Obama, the dissing of the nation’s most prominent and respected Jewish politician by the so called “Democratic” party draws no criticism from the Jewish community.

What a pluralistic, broadminded and selfless folk are American Hebrews. Who needs Lieberman of Connecticut say the liberal Jews. We still have Snarl Levin in Michigan and Chucky Shvitzer in New York. Reminds you that the intelligence of Jews is much overrated.

I’m with David Thomson. Not only should Lieberman switch, he should vigorously campaign for his coreligionists to switch as well. The Democratic party is no place for respectable Jews.

Jun 18, 2008 - 7:07 am 5. woman:

I have a hard time forgiving Lieberman for caucusing with the dems and giving us hairy reed! If he had the strength of his convictions he would’ve overturned the hold the dems have had in the senate. I think he’s a good man, but as an independent he could’ve changed the balance and he didn’t. Can you imagine caucusing with the dems after the way he has been treated by them>

Jun 18, 2008 - 7:11 am 6. politicalreacharound:

Yes I agree with Thompson, make Lieberman a republican. After November the dems won’t need him for a tie-breaker anyways. BTW- Obama actually endorsed Lieberman in 2006. A mistake and common feature of the shoddy reporting done by PJM contributors.

Jun 18, 2008 - 7:11 am 7. Darryl Gillikin:

I’m increasingly growing of the opinion that McCain should risk drawing the ire of the ultraconservatives and tab Lieberman as his running mate. It would again underscore that while Obama talks a good game in bringing people together and working across party lines, McCain is the one with the record of doing so. And it would certainly make it more difficult for Captain Hope ‘n’ Change to paint McCain as an agent of typical Washington politics–never mind the “third Bush term” trope–if he goes outside of the Republican party to pick a running mate.

Like most elections, this won will be won not by either the Left or Right base, but by the majority of folks in the middle. And that’s who McCain should play to.

Jun 18, 2008 - 7:17 am 8. deguello:

The little socialist leprechaun is just another worthless dc, internationalist;his harebrained energy bill is just an excuse to keep the us involved in middle east,to protect Israel,under the guise of safeguarding oil supplies.

Jun 18, 2008 - 7:39 am 9. Stop Harassing Joe Lieberman! America needs more politicians who follow their own minds and principles, rather than marching in lockstep. « Tizona’s Weblog:

[...] See, I can do it. Close anyway. Pajamas Media [...]

Jun 18, 2008 - 7:44 am 10. njcommuter:

Why, WHY didn’t Joe Lieberman join the GOP when it would have changed control of the Senate?

Jun 18, 2008 - 9:15 am 11. Chris Jones:

Joe is a good man and true patriot

Jun 18, 2008 - 9:15 am 12. David Thomson:

“Why, WHY didn’t Joe Lieberman join the GOP when it would have changed control of the Senate?”

This is because folks like Joe Lieberman and myself were hopeful the Democrats could get their act together regarding national defense issues. Once again, it is most disturbing that the GOP is the only game in town! This is not a healthy development for our political system. On the contrary, it is very dangerous!

Jun 18, 2008 - 10:20 am 13. Javelin:

Yes, we should send in the police to stop this harrassment.

Jun 18, 2008 - 10:48 am 14. Bridget:

politicalreacharound: Obama endorsed Lieberman in the 2006 Democratic primary. But after Ned Lamont won that, Obama ditched his support of Lieberman in his run as an independent and backed Lamont instead.

Jun 18, 2008 - 11:02 am 15. david levavi:

deguello:

Say what? Leprechauns protecting Israel? Quick! Call Chris Matthews and sound the alarm. Does Pat Buchanan know about this?

Jun 18, 2008 - 11:49 am 16. DrKrbyLuv:

McCain & Lieberman…now theres a dream ticket…if you happen to be Israeli

Jun 18, 2008 - 12:50 pm 17. Jim in CT:

I live in Connecticut . I’ve meet Dodd,Lieberman and Lamonte. The left wing attack on Lieberman was unbelievable. He votes straight Democrat Party line on everything but the war and they cast him out like a leper. The guy who ran against him in the Democrat Primary,Little Neddy Lamont from Greenwich, had all the qualifications to be in the Senate-he inherited millions of dollars. If I remember right,he spent about 16 million dollars of his inherited wealth on the campaign . That ,to them,made him a better choice than Joe. The campaign was like something out of Robert Conquest’s book, “The Great Terror”. He didn’t go along with the party so he must be expelled. They were even talking of taking his picture down in the state democratic headquarters. The whining when he decided to run independently was unreal. I will never forget the commercial that Chris Dodd made endorsing Lieberman,then when Lieberman lost the primary,Dodd made one for Lamont,saying it was time for new blood in Washington. This from a guy who’s been there since 1974.I hope this lending scandal will finally be the nail in Dodd’s coffin politically,but I doubt it. The sad thing is,he could retire now from the Senate with a pension larger than my salary. How can we,and I mean everyone nationally,keep electing these self important clowns to Washington ?

Jun 18, 2008 - 1:41 pm 18. abe coen:

Keep drinking the Kool-aid people. A little hypocritical isn’t it? She says that in the Democratic Party “Dissent will not be tolerated”. Ha! ask an anti-war Republican how tolerated that view is by the machinery. Apparently, Johnson would be lauding the qualities and the principled independence of Castro or Chavez if they supported the war in Iraq.

Jun 18, 2008 - 3:09 pm 19. deguello:

levavi: no, yes, and increasingly, so does the rest of the nation.What is deliciously ironic that the waves of muslim immigrants let in by open border fanatics like Lieberman will eventually undermine support for Israel in thisn country. Joke’s on the leprechaun!

Jun 18, 2008 - 3:25 pm 20. David P:

Why are you surprised that the democratic party led by Barrak Obama would tear into Lieberman? It’s the reception that awaits many of us Jews if the polls prove to be accurate.

Jun 18, 2008 - 5:44 pm 21. DrKrbyLuv:

The Democrats are smart to dump neocons like Lieberman. The neocons hi-jacked the Bush administration after 9/11 and have put their zany plan to democratize the middle east ahead of US national security. Their agenda trumps our interests – forget the cost to our economy or the lost lives.

As a true conservative, I will not support the Republican party until they dump McCain and distance themselves from aggressive Zionists like the co-maverick Lieberman. I want a strong, America first economy and an immigration policy that has some sanity.

Oh, did you notice, Bush is running around Europe rallying support for Iranian sanctions. Then we find Israel is buying oil from Iran…go figure…

Jun 18, 2008 - 6:24 pm 22. david levavi:

Deguello:

Gee. Thought the bee in your bonnet was “a harebrained energy bill…to keep the us involved in middle east,to protect Israel,under the guise of safeguarding oil supplies.” Now its open border fanaticism that “will eventually undermine support of Israel in this country.”

So what am I to assume? That you want Israel protected? That you’re concerned lest Israel’s support be undermined? That you’re worried Lieberman’s harebrainedness and fanaticism poses a threat to the Jewish state? Somehow I don’t think so.

Lets let our hair down here, D’jello. Two of my kids were in Stuyvesant High School when the World Trade Center was hit. My youngest, at fourteen, stood at a tenth floor chem lab window and watched people jumping out of windows. She continues to suffer the effects. Her older sister signed up for AFROTC when she graduated at the end of the year. Not a choice she ever considered before Sept 11.

Whether or not Saddam had weapons of mass destruction doesn’t interest me in the least. Hate filled Muslim bloodsheders terrified and very nearly killed my children. By my lights, payback is reason enough for for American troops to be in the Middle East. Three days of shock and awe wasn’t nearly shocking enough or awesome enough for my taste. I wanted rolling thunder with Buffers overhead unloading bombs day and night for a month.

If American troops ringed oil fields in the major oil producing countries with troops and armor and pumped oil and sold it at a discount to any industrial nation with the cash to pay for it, I would cheer. Just deserts for scavenger folk whose culture is rooted in piracy, kidnap and slavery.

Being that most Americans, to their credit, pale at such solutions for insuring our energy supplies, I’ll reluctantly settle for a long armed occupation until energy from the middle East is no longer critical to our survival.

As for Israel, she can well take care of her own defense without American boots on the ground in the Middle East.

Illegal immigration into the United States is another issue entirely. We probably agree that current immigration laws should be vigorously enforced. It’s worth remembering, though, that when Barry Goldwater, the proud son of a Polish Jew, founded the conservative movement, social conservatives flocking to the cause, notably the YAF (Young Catholics for Freedom) were called “new conservatives.” True paleoconservatives were the nativists of generations earlier. Had the true paleos had their way, the neo-paleos of today who sneer at “neocons” would still be in Ireland along with their leprechauns and their small minded moral crochets and prejudices.

Jun 18, 2008 - 7:23 pm 23. Conservative1:

McCain isn’t tough enough on the Muslim enemy. The anti-American left will pay dearly for the way they have hurt this cpountry.

Jun 18, 2008 - 10:29 pm 24. SpongeBob:

Both parties have dissed members who went against their respective party lines on Iraq. Remember (former) GOP Senator Lincoln Chafee in Rhode Island.

Jun 19, 2008 - 2:25 am 25. saus:

I’d fight alongside a levavi any day of the week.

Jun 19, 2008 - 11:26 am 26. seeker:

JFK WENT TO WAR IN VIETNAM. NOW DEMS ANTI-WAR. SEE THE SHIFT. IT’S BEEN EVOLVING. CPUSA AND DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF AMERICA ARE THE MOST POWERFUL ENTITY NOW IN DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

I COMMEND THEREFORE THE COMMENT BELOW. TO AMERICAN VOTERS, PLEASE WHICH POLICIES ARE PRO-AMERICANS AND WHICH POLICIES ARE ANTI-AMERICANS. THAT WILL GIVE YOU A CLUE AS TO THE RIGHT CHOICE THIS COMING ELECTION. SAVE YOUR COUNTRY AMERICA. IT’S NOW UNDER THE ATTACK BY SO MANY ENEMIES WEARING CAMOUFLAGE!

Politics is a buffet. Any politicians who feel their only responsibility is voting party line is a waste to their voters, a waste of a paycheck, and a waste of o2 (Gee, isn’t OB a strictly “Party Line” kind of guy?). Political “conscience” is an oxy”moron”, and it seems we’ve got a load of them in congress and the senate. There is no better example than what is going on with energy policy now

Jun 19, 2008 - 11:57 pm 27. deguello:

Levavi,or is it Levitra? or Lavabo? I struck a nerve didn’t I? A few points:Genocide for oil is not a policy most Americans (unlike you)will suport, especially when knowing that Lieberman and other liberals have prevented American energy self-sufficiency,with hysterical global warming laws designed to keep us from drilling.Israel cannot take care of its own defense without the 10billion dollars she gets from the US(As well as some judicious spying).The muslims a scavenger culture? Does that make Jews a Greed culture ?,Americans a culture of racist imperialists? I’m all for finding terrorists and killing them, which is more than many of those liberal folks doing a flying nun impersonation, did on(9/11) These were the same whores, who blindly supported Clinton’s flaccid security policies because as they said:’The economy is so good leave Clinton alone,”while driving gas hog suvs with anti nuclear plant bumper stickers on them. Finally; given that several of the WTC terrorist were here illegally, thanks to the pro illegal alien policies favored by Lieberman, Mccain and our cretinous president,how can you say that Illegal immigration ,in the context of national security, is another issue entirely? Goldwater would have been sick to his stomach at a concept of national security,which placed 140000 soldiers in Iraq, but left our borders wide open to terrorist infiltration. The problem for Lieberman is ultimately insoluble: Energy independence means a pull-out from the middle east,rendering the idea of israel as an ally obsolete, and he ,thinks, imperiling its existence. Hence his imbecilic law desiged to keep us enmeshed in the Middle East protecting oil we wouln’t need were we allowed to develop our energy resourcces.Incidentally,while American soldiers die in Iraq,the polticians indiscriminately let in thousands of people,many of them muslim, who hate this country, and will do it harm.What a criminal farce!Bring the troops home,deploy them on the border,drillfor oil, go nuclear, build the abm defense,and park a boomer off the Iranian coast after telling the mullahs that a nuclear launch against any US ally,will be met with the total desruction of Iran. You may not like this policy, but it might keep your daughter out of harm’s way.

Jun 20, 2008 - 8:03 pm 28. david levavi:

Sounds like you forgot to take your meds again D’jello. Keep on like this and you’ll be recording your ideas on walls with spray paint.

While you’re still able to use a keyboard, if only barely, I’ll try to unravel some of your screechy screed and provide enlightenment.

“…Israel cannot take care of its own defense without the 10billion she gets from the US…”

Israel took care of its own defense in 1948 with no American government aid and arms purchased mainly from Czechoslovakia. Against five Arab armies supported by a sore-losing British pullout that held the Jews at bay while turning over British positions to the Arabs.

(What made the British sore was that the Jews, unlike the Irish, weren’t willing to put up with British occupation for eight hundred years. Some in the British Foreign Office and elsewhere remain bitter about their expulsion to this day. But for the damned Jews, British officers and their ladies might yet wile away an evening over gin stengas at the bar of the Ginza Club in Cairo where no Gyp is allowed entry without a barman’s coat.)

Later, the Soviet Union took up the Arab cause. Trained Arab and Egyptian officers as well as Palestinian terrorists. Provided them with the latest of its technology, land sea and air. Often ahead of its own Red Army. Soviet pilots flew Soviet aircraft with Arab markings. Soviet technicians manned radar and missile installations in Egypt and Syria.

But the Arabs were shamed again. In war after war. Shamed again, and again, and again. Oh, Allah, what a gnashing of teeth. The cup of Arab bitterness runneth over.

Its a childish scenario, D’jello, but if the Americans and Europeans butted out and left the Israelis and their neighbors to slug it out on their own, I’d put my money on the Israelis.

…as well as some judicious spying…

Spying is a secretive business folk like you and I know little about, D’jello. In an information explosive age, the very definition of spy is unclear. America is spied upon by friends and enemies alike. Never doubt that the British, who are popularly accounted our closest allies, are informing, disinforming, and skulldugging right now, right here in the US of A. Spying between America and Israel cuts but both ways.

In any event, the notion that Israel’s defense relies on spying on the US is ludicrous. An irrepressible blurt from a closet anti-Semite, is my surmise. Sorry, D’jello. Anti-Zionist.

…The Muslims a scavenger culture? Does that make the Jews a greed culture?…

The answer to the first question is yes. To the second, no.

Islam is an overwhelmingly derivative faith. Derivative of Christianity and Judaism on one side and meteorite worship (the star and stone, Baal and Ashtaroth worship of Genesis) on the other.

But for Mohamed’s conquest and looting of the Jewish city of Medina, the richest city in Araby, there would have been no Muslim expansion and no Islam in the world today.

Arabs don’t eat pig because the Jews don’t eat pig. Arabs pray five times a day because the Jews pray five times a day on their Day Of Atonement with which the Muslims are obsessed.

(Christians are obsessed with Passover, the night of the Last Supper [seder]. The matzoh is the wafer/body; the four cups of wine, the blood; the Passover cup, the Holy Grail.)

The greatest Arab accomplishments—cultural, intellectual, technical and military are “borrowed” from the Persians, Kurds and Moguls. The Arabs have contributed precious little to the common store of human knowledge though they claim much.

Jewish greed is greatly overrated by its detractors. Intelligence, talent, free thought and intellectual honesty are the underpinning of Jewish success.

…enmeshed in the Middle East protecting oil we wouldn’t need were we allowed to develop our energy resources…

Under the best of circumstances, we will we dependent on oil for a few years yet. Look around your environment, D’jello. It’s petroleum based. Your heat, your fuel, your artifact—it all leads back to the same black ooze.

I agree we have to move down the chart of elements and find something other than carbon. Hydrogen is infuriatingly enticing but yet out of reach. Nuclear energy, suppressed by influential Hollywood Luddites, should be exploited post-haste. Wind thermal, solar–bring it on.

Meanwhile, we are stuck with oil. Plain ole grease. It’s our lifeblood and anything we have to do to protect it is okay by me and should be okay by you. Dig in Anwar, dig in the Washington mall. Research alternatives with a vengeance. But drill, drill, drill. Nature, especially with the help of responsible human planning and oversight, will protect itself. Fears to the contrary are an environmentalist conceit.

…park a boomer off the Iranian coast after telling the mullahs that a nuclear launch against any US ally, will be met with the total desruction of Iran…

When last I heard, there were two carrier groups off the Persian gulf with a third approaching. That’s an awesome array. But threats don’t necessarily work with Muslims. Loony, twisted Persian Shia ayatollahs especially. They’re guided by a higher (lower?) authority.

…polticians indiscriminately let in thousands of people,many of them muslim, who hate this country, and will do it harm…

Round them up, throw the dangerous ones in jail and send the rest home. I’m with you D’jello.

…it might keep your daughter out of harm’s way…

My daughter, a mathematician, is currently on a research project for DOD she’s not at liberty to discuss at a facility she’s not at liberty to describe. She’s well out of harm’s way, thank you.

Sounds like you forgot to take your meds again D’jello. Keep on like this and you’ll be recording your ideas on walls with spray paint.

While you’re still able to use a keyboard, if only barely, I’ll try to unravel some of your screechy screed and provide enlightenment.

“…Israel cannot take care of its own defense without the 10billion she gets from the US…”

Israel took care of its own defense in 1948 with no American government aid and arms purchased mainly from Czechoslovakia. Against five Arab armies supported by a sore-losing British pullout that held the Jews at bay while turning over British positions to the Arabs.

(What made the British sore was that the Jews, unlike the Irish, weren’t willing to put up with British occupation for eight hundred years. Some in the British Foreign Office and elsewhere remain bitter about their expulsion to this day. But for the damned Jews, British officers and their ladies might yet wile away an evening over gin stengas at the bar of the Ginza Club in Cairo where no Gyp is allowed entry without a barman’s coat.)

Later, the Soviet Union took up the Arab cause. Trained Arab and Egyptian officers as well as Palestinian terrorists. Provided them with the latest of its technology, land sea and air. Often ahead of its own Red Army. Soviet pilots flew Soviet aircraft with Arab markings. Soviet technicians manned radar and missile installations in Egypt and Syria.

But the Arabs were shamed again. In war after war. Shamed again, and again, and again. Oh, Allah, what a gnashing of teeth. The cup of Arab bitterness runneth over.

Its a childish scenario, D’jello, but if the Americans and Europeans butted out and left the Israelis and their neighbors to slug it out on their own, I’d put my money on the Israelis.

…as well as some judicious spying…

Spying is a secretive business folk like you and I know little about, D’jello. In an information explosive age, the very definition of spy is unclear. America is spied upon by friends and enemies alike. Never doubt that the British, who are popularly accounted our closest allies, are informing, disinforming, and skulldugging right now, right here in the US of A. Spying between America and Israel cuts but both ways.

In any event, the notion that Israel’s defense relies on spying on the US is ludicrous. An irrepressible blurt from a closet anti-Semite, is my surmise. Sorry, D’jello. Anti-Zionist.

…The Muslims a scavenger culture? Does that make the Jews a greed culture?…

The answer to the first question is yes. To the second, no.

Islam is an overwhelmingly derivative faith. Derivative of Christianity and Judaism on one side and meteorite worship (the star and stone, Baal and Ashtaroth worship of Genesis) on the other.

But for Mohamed’s conquest and looting of the Jewish city of Medina, the richest city in Araby, there would have been no Muslim expansion and no Islam in the world today.

Arabs don’t eat pig because the Jews don’t eat pig. Arabs pray five times a day because the Jews pray five times a day on their Day Of Atonement with which the Muslims are obsessed.

(Christians are obsessed with Passover, the night of the Last Supper [seder]. The matzoh is the wafer/body; the four cups of wine, the blood; the Passover cup, the Holy Grail.)

The greatest Arab accomplishments—cultural, intellectual, technical and military are “borrowed” from the Persians, Kurds and Moguls. The Arabs have contributed precious little to the common store of human knowledge though they claim much.

Jewish greed is much overrated. Intelligence, talent, free thought and intellectual honesty are the underpinning of Jewish success.

…enmeshed in the Middle East protecting oil we wouldn’t need were we allowed to develop our energy resources…

Under the best of circumstances, we will we dependant on oil for a few years yet. Look around your environment, D’jello. It’s petroleum based. Your heat, your fuel, your artifact—it all leads back to the same black ooze.

I agree we have to move down the chart of elements and find something other than carbon. Hydrogen is infuriatingly enticing but yet out of reach. Nuclear energy, suppressed by influential Hollywood luddites, should be exploited post-haste. Wind thermal, solar–bring it on.

Meanwhile, we are stuck with oil. Plain ole grease. It’s our lifeblood and anything we have to do to protect it is okay by me and should be okay by you. Dig in Anwar, dig in Washington mall. Research alternatives with a vengeance. But drill, drill, drill. Nature, especially with the help of responsible human planning and oversight, will protect itself. Fears to the contrary are an environmentalist conceit.

…park a boomer off the Iranian coast after telling the mullahs that a nuclear launch against any US ally, will be met with the total desruction of Iran…

When last I heard, there were two carrier groups off the Persian gulf with a third approaching. That’s an awesome array. But threats don’t work necessarily work with Muslims. Loony, twisted Persian Shia ayatollahs especially. They’re guided by a higher (or lower, depending on opinion) authority.

…polticians indiscriminately let in thousands of people,many of them muslim, who hate this country, and will do it harm…

Round them up, throw the dangerous ones in jail and send the rest home. I’m with you D’jello.

…it might keep your daughter out of harm’s way…

My daughter, a mathematician, is currently on a research project for DOD she’s not at liberty to discuss at a facility she’s not at liberty to describe. She’s well out of harm’s way, thank you.

Jun 21, 2008 - 1:43 pm 29. YHW:

Is this author off their rocker? Can’t understand why the left wants to throw Lieberman under the bus? Just imagine a former Republican Vice Presidential candidate endorsing and actively campaigning for the Democratic nominee. If you were a Republican witnessing such a scene, what would YOU do?

Jun 22, 2008 - 3:43 pm 30. abe coen:

it is a popular myth that arabs (muslims) support terrorism while it is antithema to israelis (or jews). i guess it just depends on who is in power. From wikipedia:

The King David Hotel bombing (July 22, 1946) was a bomb attack against the British Mandate government of Palestine and its armed forces by members of the Irgun, a militant Zionist organization, which was led at the time by Menachem Begin, a future Prime Minister of Israel.

The ensuing explosion caused the collapse of the south-western corner of the southern wing of the hotel. 91 people were killed, most of them staff of the secretariat and the hotel: 28 British, 41 Arab, 17 Jewish, and 5 others. Around 45 people were injured. Some of the deaths and injuries occurred in the road outside the hotel and in adjacent buildings.

The attack on the hotel was the deadliest attack against the British during the years of the Mandate (1920-1948) and is often credited as being a major factor in the British decision to relinquish the Mandate. It has also been cited by Walter Enders and Todd Sandler’s book The Political Economy of Terrorism as an event that provided a role model for other massive bombings in the 1980s and beyond such as the Bologna railway station bombing (1980) and Chechen bombings in Moscow.[2]

In July 2006, Israelis including former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former members of Irgun attended a 60th anniversary celebration of the bombing, which was organized by the Menachem Begin Centre. The British Ambassador in Tel Aviv and the Consul-General in Jerusalem dissented, saying “We do not think that it is right for an act of terrorism, which led to the loss of many lives, to be commemorated.” They also protested against an Israeli plaque that claims that people died because the British ignored warning calls, saying it was untrue and “did not absolve those who planted the bomb.” The plaque read “For reasons known only to the British, the hotel was not evacuated.” City officials agreed to slightly amend the wording on the plaque.

Also take this recently declassified British assessment. here are some excerpts of the news story:

-LONDON – When British military leaders set up a special task force in 1969 to study how best to use deception to achieve their battlefield aims, they turned their attention to the tactics used by the Israelis — not the Americans.

…After Egypt blocked the strategic Straits of Tiran and expelled U.N. forces from the Sinai Desert, Israel launched pre-emptive strikes on June 5, 1967, against Egyptian and Syrian air forces, destroying them on the ground. In six days of one-sided battles, Israeli forces captured the West Bank, Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip and Sinai from Jordan, Syria and Egypt.

In an unsigned, top secret military document, that war was cited as “an example of how deception can be employed in the modern era and in such a way that the enemy decision making process is placed at a severe disadvantage.”

…A “Top Secret UK Eyes Only” document from June 1, 1972, states that radical differences in the national character make it unlikely that American officers will be able to use deception to their strategic advantage.-

huh, national character. interesting.

so factor this in with ever increasing evidence supporting the claims made by the survivors of the USS Liberty attacked by israel in that war.

also keeping American energy locked up and unavailable has one of the effects of keeping the middle east a key strategic priority. is this just a coincidence?

it is easy for israel to say we are americas best friend. it is a very one way relationship. they give us some throw away votes in the UN, it’s never any skin off them…”oh we’d love to help but that would incite the arabs”. and for their freindship they only require billions in economic and military aid, and stolen national security secrets to sell to the highest bidder. whatever is best for israel, for it’s only natural for a nation to look out for it’s best interests…as long as that nation isn’t the USA.

and israel plays the evangelical christians masterfully. lobbying congress for israeli interests at america’s expense, but the evangelical’s believe they are speeding the way to the second coming by blindly supporting every israeli action. the irony must be very rich to the israeli’s.

so, if you are so confident that israel can stand on its own. and since many believe they would benefit without the us trying to reign them in. let’s test your theory. it’s a win win right? i mean if you really believe it. israel is very good at making enemies. let’s see if that strategy works with a neutral US policy toward israel.

Jun 23, 2008 - 1:45 am

Write a Comment

Name: (required, displayed)
Email: (required, not publicized)
URL: (optional, displayed)
Comments: