licentious radio

Saturday, April 13, 2002
[7:27:55 PM]

So old Al Gore says: "If you agree with me, then stand up with conviction for what we believe in and fight for it." (CNN)

He's got time to do some fighting before the next primaries. As far as I'm concerned, it's time to lead, follow, or get out of the way. The next Democratic candidate is going to be someone who leads the way in the next few years.

At least Gore called the GOP "the party of the pirates of Enron". If he blocks funding for the Fatherland Security gestapo, prevents the war on Iraq, pushes through a thorough investigation of Enron, including firing or jailing the people that allowed the documents to be shredded and the money to be looted, that would be a start.

People learn, but frankly, Gore was saying "I'll fight for you" the last time around, and he lost the fight pathetically.

[6:50:09 PM]
San Francisco Chronicle: "Although many crucial details remained unclear yesterday, it appeared that the only true undemocratic actions were by the military-civilian junta that overthrew Venezuela's entire legal order.

"Leading the junta is Pedro Carmona, leader of the nation's business lobby. With no apparent legal authority, he dismissed the entire Congress and Supreme Court, abolished the constitution and claimed the right to fire any elected state or municipal leaders."

Greg Palast (Transcript of March 4, 2002 interview): "...the IMF has announced, listen to this, that they would support a transition government if the president were removed. They are not saying that they are going to get involved in politics - they would just support a transition government. What that effectively is saying we will pay for the coup d'etat, if the military overthrows the current president, because the current president of Venezuela has said no to the IMF. He told those guys to go packing. They brought their teams in and said you have to do this and that. And he said, I don't have to do nothing. He said what I'm going to do is, I'm going to double the taxes on oil corporations because we have a whole lot of oil in Venezuela. And I'm going to double the taxes on oil corporations and then I will have all the money I need for social programs and the government - and we will be a very rich nation. Well, as soon as they did that, they started fomenting trouble with the military and I'm telling you watch this space: the President of Venezuela will be out of office in three months or shot dead. They are not going to allow him to raise taxes on the oil companies."

[1:44:36 PM]
The horror [washingtonpost.com]

Sharon's resume of state terrorism [electronicintifada.net]

"The massacre in the West Bank village of Qibya, on October 14, 1953, was perhaps the most notorious. His troops blew up 45 houses and 69 Palestinian civilians -- about half of them women and children -- were killed."

In 1956: "Israeli paratroopers killed about 270 Egyptian prisoners of war"...

"In August 1971 alone, troops under Mr Sharon's command destroyed some 2,000 homes in the Gaza Strip, uprooting 12,000 people [Palestinian refugees] for the second time in their lives. Hundreds of young Palestinian men were arrested and deported to Jordan and Lebanon. Six hundred relatives of suspected guerrillas were exiled to Sinai. In the second half of 1971, 104 guerrillas were assassinated."

Plus some tens of thousands of non-combatants in Lebanon in 1982, including the sponsored massacres at Sabra and Shatila. "Children were shot dead, women and girls were raped and mutilated and men were disembowelled prior to being executed." The Serbs used the same tactics in Kosovo: regular army surrounds, others do the dirty work while the army looks on.

The origin of the Palestine- Israeli conflict [zmag.org]

Menachem Begin: "My friend, take care. When you recognize the concept of "Palestine", you demolish your right to live in Ein Hahoresh. If this is Palestine and not the Land Of Israel, then you are conquerors and not tillers of the land. You are invaders. If this is Palestine, then it belongs to a people who lived here before you came. Only if it is The Land Of Israel do you have a right to live in Ein Hahoresh and in Deganiyah B. If it is not your country, your fatherland, the countries of your ancestors and your sons, then what are you doing here? You came to another people?s homeland, as they claim, you expelled them and you have taken their land."

David Ben-Gurion: "Why should the Arabs make peace? If I were an Arab leader, I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country. Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them? There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we came here and stole their country. Why should they accept that?"