Does he really believe that we'll listen to his whining from atop his charmed perch, a perch that comes complete with record-long vacations and ample free time, and suddenly we'll all feel bad for him?

Why should we? At every turn, he's condescended to us. He's lied to us. He's bullied us into believing that if we question him and his policies we're not real Americans. His gestures suggest that if he could personally scold each and every one of us who dares question him, he would.

Instead, by proxy, when Brian Williams (the most recent reporter in the queue) challenged him on his policies, the president puffed his chest out -- his arms hovering a good foot away from his hips, reaching for invisible six-shooters.

As he raised his voice beyond a conversational volume, he began to push forward towards Williams until he, what's the phrase? Got all up in Williams' shit, as if to intimidate the anchor.

It was subtle but noticeable. And it's not the first time. To a much broader and more visible degree, he pulled the same stunt on Charlie Gibson in the second 2004 debate with Senator Kerry (the "rumors on the internets" debate) when he disregarded the rules and practically charged the moderator desk demanding to be heard.   more »

The entire sordid Karr affair has revealed the American media, more than ever, to be engaged in one conscious, ceaseless effort to pollute public sensibilities. It deliberately appeals to and encourages the worst instincts in the population.

In obsessively covering stories like the JonBenet Ramsey murder, the media personalities are not, in any sense, betraying themselves.

Wealthy, narcissistic, self-involved and uninformed, they tend to be fascinated by the prurient and salacious.

This is their ‘meat,’ this is what gets them going, and they assume the same holds true for the general public.

The American political establishment, more broadly, increasingly feels called upon to feed the population stimulants—scandals, sex crimes, celebrities on trial and, of course, terror scares—on a daily basis.   more »

Nobody can understand what's going on politically in the United States without being aware that a political coalition of major pro-Likud groups, pro-Israel neoconservative intellectuals and Christian Zionists is exerting a tremendously powerful influence on the American government and its policies.

Over time, this large pro-Israel Lobby, spearheaded by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), has extended its comprehensive grasp over large segments of the U.S. government, including the vice president's office, the Pentagon and the State Department, besides controlling the legislative apparatus of Congress.

It is being assisted in this task by powerful allies in the two main political parties, in major corporate media and by some richly financed so-called "think-tanks," such as the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, or the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

AIPAC is the centerpiece of this coordinated system. For example, it keeps voting statistics on each congressional representative and senator, which are then transmitted to political donors to act accordingly.

AIPAC also organizes regular all-expense-paid trips to Israel and meetings with Israeli ministers and personalities for congressmen and their staffs, and for other state and local American politicians.   more »

The latest big lie unveiled by Washington’s neoconservatives are the poisonous terms, "Islamo-Fascists" and "Islamic Fascists." They are the new, hot buzzwords among America’s far right and Christian fundamentalists.

Bush made a point last week of using "Islamofacists" when recently speaking of Hezbullah and Hamas – both, by the way, democratically elected parties. A Canadian government minister from the Conservative Party compared Lebanon’s Hezbullah to Nazi Germany.

The term "Islamofascist" is utterly without meaning, but packed with emotional explosives. It is a propaganda creation worthy Dr. Goebbels, and the latest expression of the big lie technique being used by neocons in Washington’s propaganda war against its enemies in the Muslim World.

This ugly term was probably first coined in Israel – as was the other hugely successful propaganda term, "terrorism" – to dehumanize and demonize opponents and deny them any rational political motivation, hence removing any need to deal with their grievances and demands.   more »

There is a heightened danger in coming weeks that Neocon's proposed "clean break" strategy may be put into action by a politically beleaguered Ehud Olmert.

The result could be a civilian bloodbath far worse than Lebanon, one which will probably get less attention because the world is tied up with bolstering Israel's border with Lebanon (and Syria and Iran).

Under this strategy, Israel is to throw off all international agreements concerning Palestine, and evict, relocate or "otherwise deal with" Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.

Shin Bet Chief Yuval Diskin was upfront in saying Gaza could become another Lebanon and indicating the Israelis didn't have to "wait three years" for an investigation to be conducted into alleged arms smuggling by Hamas.   more »

The other day I crossed paths with a conservative talk show host. We chatted about current events.

He noted that he was quite pissed off at the neocons for suggesting that American blood should be spilled to benefit the Iraqis. Let the Iraqis take care of themselves, he huffed. I asked, “Are you in the Bush-is-an-idiot camp?”

This was a reference to a recent segment on Joe Scarborough’s MSNBC show during which Scarborough, a former Republican congressman from Florida, posed the question, “Is our president an idiot?”

After playing a montage of video clips showing Bush at his tongue-tied worst (“Fool me once, shame on you—fool me—you can’t get fooled again”), Scarborough said that a former close aide to President Bush had recently told him that Bush is “intellectually shallow and one of the most incurious public figures this man has ever met.”

Scarborough claimed that Bush is “getting worse instead of better” and that when it comes to presidential stupidity Bush is “in a league by himself.” He added, “I don’t think he has the intellectual depth.”   more »

30 AUGUST

Disaster Capitalism: There's Profit in Misery

The New World Order: America's Raging Bull in the Global China Shop

Maureen Dowd: Begat, Bothered, Bewildered...Bush as Hamlet?

Rumsfeld's Rant: Muslim Extremists Are Now Islamic Fascists

The Israelis Are Racist to the Bone

Once Again We're Being Prepped for Another Devastating War in the Middle East