By Richard Edmondson
In a humiliating display of servility, members of Congress in essence threw U.S. sovereignty out the window last week—and the verdict coming in from a good many American bloggers is one of hot anger.
What took place in a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, May 24, was very similar in conduct to a coronation—of Benjamin Netanyahu as King of America—with the tone being set from the start by House Speaker John Boehner, who in his introduction referred to the Israeli prime minister as “His Excellency.”
In a recent post, entitled Thirty Standing Ovations…as Joplin digs itself out of the rubble, I tallied up the number of standing ovations given to the new monarch, concluding that the total came to thirty—or thirty-one if you wish to count the uproarious applause immediately following Boehner’s fawning introduction. Here is what I wrote:
Boehner:
“I have the high privilege and the distinct honor of presenting to you His Excellency, Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel.”
I then followed that with an enumerated list of the lines from “His Excellency’s” speech which drew standing ovations. Here is the list.
Netanyahu:
1. “I’m deeply moved by this warm welcome…I see a lot of new friends of Israel here as well—Democrats and Republicans alike!” (standing ovation)
2. “Israel has no better friend than America and America has no better friend than Israel.” (standing ovation)
3. “Congratulations America. Congratulations, Mr. President. You got bin Laden. Good riddance!” (standing ovation)
4. “You don’t need to send American troops to Israel, we defend ourselves.” (standing ovation)
5. (Netanyahu gets heckled by protestor Rae Abileah. Abileah is booed, but Netanyahu gets another standing ovation—for saying nothing)
6. “You know, I take it as a badge of honor and so should you—that in our free societies you can have these protests. You can’t have these protests in the farcical parliaments in Tehran or in Tripoli. This is real democracy!” (standing ovation)
7. “In a region where women are stoned, gays are hanged, Christians are persecuted, Israel stands out! It is different!” (standing ovation)
8. “Israel is not what is wrong about the Middle East. Israel is what is right about the Middle East!” (standing ovation)
9. “Leaders who spew such venom should be banned from every respectable forum on the planet.” (standing ovation)
10. “There are many who rush to condemn Israel for defending itself against Iran’s terror proxies. Not you. Not America!” (standing ovation)
11. “The more that Iran believes that all options are on the table, the less the chance of confrontation.” (standing ovation)
12. “And this is why I ask you to continue to send an unequivocal message—that America will never permit Iran to develop nuclear weapons!” (standing ovation)
13. “We’re a nation that rose from the ashes of the holocaust. When we say never again, we mean never again!” (standing ovation)
14. “The peace agreements between Israel and Egypt and Israel and Jordan are vital, but they’re not enough. We must also find a way to forge a lasting peace with the Palestinians.” (standing ovation)
15. “You have to understand this. In Judea and Samaria the Jewish people are not foreign occupiers!” (standing ovation)
16. “No distortion of history could deny the 4,000 year old bond between the Jewish people and the Jewish land!” (standing ovation)
17. “The Palestinians share this small land with us. We seek a peace in which they’ll be neither Israel’s subjects nor its citizens. They should enjoy a national life of dignity as a free, viable and independent people living in their own state!” (standing ovation)
18. “You see, our conflict has never been about the establishment of a Palestinian state. It’s always been about the existence of the Jewish state. This is what this conflict is about!” (standing ovation)
19. “And worst of all, they (Palestinians) continue to perpetuate the fantasy that Israel will one day be flooded by the descendants of Palestinian refugees. My friends, this must come to an end!” (standing ovation)
20. “It’s time for President Abbas to stand before his people and say, ‘I will accept a Jewish state!’” (standing ovation)
21. “I will be prepared to make a far-reaching compromise.” (standing ovation)
22. “Israel will not return to the indefensible boundaries of 1967!” (standing ovation)
23. “It means that the Palestinian refugee problem will be resolved outside the borders of Israel!” (standing ovation)
24. “Jerusalem must never again be divided. Jerusalem must remain the united capital of Israel!” (standing ovation)
25. “Could you live that way? Well we’re not going to live that way either!” (standing ovation)
26. “So it’s therefore vital, absolutely vital, that a Palestinian state be fully demilitarized. And it’s vital, absolutely vital, that Israel maintain a long term military presence along the Jordan River!” (standing ovation)
27. “Peace cannot be imposed. It must be negotiated!” (standing ovation)
28. “Israel will not negotiate with a Palestinian government backed by the Palestinian version of Al Qaida! That we will not do!” (standing ovation)
29. “And if you do, I promise you this, Israel will not be the last country to welcome a Palestinian state as a new member of the United Nations. It will be the first to do so!” (standing ovation)
30. “May God bless all of you, and may God forever bless the United States of America!” (standing ovation)
I have noted that other writers (see here and here, for instance ) have placed the number of standing ovations at 29. I do not know how they arrived at this figure unless it is by not counting the ovation in item number 5 in the above list. However, a standing ovation for saying nothing is still, nonetheless, a standing ovation. Thus the true total is 30, or, as I say, 31 if you want to count the Boehner introduction.
Anyone who wants to check my count is free to do so. Here are the links to the four-part video segment of the speech:
American Bloggers Fire Back
Congress’ abject self-abasement is not playing well in the blogosphere, nor is the broader issue of AIPAC influence in general. Both, in fact, have ignited blistering anger in recent days and weeks. In response to King Benji’s address to Congress, the blog Kenny’s Sideshow published a post entitled The Smell of Sulpher, which included the comment, “The whole Congress reeks of it today” along with links to the offensive speech. Also on the same page—an embedded video of a Press TV report showing an Israel supporter violently knocking a camera out of the hands of Palestine solidarity activist Alison Weir, and in which former CIA Agent Philip Giraldi also appears—discussing, among other things, the Zionist state’s rather distinct proclivity for conducting espionage operations against America.
Comments in response to the blog post indicate more awareness of the problem than most people give the American public credit for. Addressing the issue of congressional fawning over Netanyahu, a commenter named “chuckyman” intoned, “Arph, arph - watch the trained seals perform. Did you ever watch any of the old Soviet newsreels Kenny? The only difference here was that it was in colour this time – high definition no doubt also.” An anonymous poster commented, “His Excellency???? Why not skip the groveling and go straight to the licking and kissing.” But perhaps the most salient comment came from “Steve in Iowa,” who called into question the necessity of remaining polite under the present circumstances: “When will the people of The USA stand up with the rest of the world and say “enough!”? Is being called an anti-semite really THAT bad? It's just a f*cking word people. Get over it.”
There are indications that a number of Americans have in fact “gotten over it”—or at any rate may be getting there—and this too is being reflected in the blogosphere. Some of what follows might be deemed by many as crossing the line into “anti-Semitism,” however, I reproduce it here as a means of showing that the mood in certain quarters in America has passed the point of maintaining delicate niceties. One blog that indeed seems to have shed its fear of being labeled with the fearsome “anti-Semite” brush is How Dare I, an anonymously maintained site describing itself as “political and social viscera, rejecting all things Judaic.” On the day of Netanyahu’s speech, the anonymous administrator of the site, who goes by the pseudonym Timster, posted the following:
Some feel that the disease has spread too far. Some feel the parasite that sucks our very life cannot be stopped, nor can its damage be undone. I understand that. It seems that way now. To those of us that name the beast, it can be like living a nightmare. Nowhere can we turn without seeing its influence. And almost nowhere can we see this influence not being purchased by those unaware of the nature of this beast. I name the beast. Judaism.
From the Xymphora blog, posted May 26—two days after the King Benji speech: “Those who have problems with discussion of the Zionist Occupation Government should probably just shut the fuck up now. ‘Netanyahu gets more standing ovations than Obama’ ‘Don’t ever be the first to stop applauding.’”
A list of “18 quotes about the tribe of mendicant miscreants” was published on Friday, May 27, at the Veritas 6464 blog. Top on the list—a quote from Voltaire: “Why are the Jews hated? It is the inevitable result of their laws; they either have to conquer everybody or be hated by the whole human race...” The post’s title: “What there is to say about the filthy Yiddish Khazars.”
From the World According to American Goy blog: “I have just re-watched ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu’s speech in Congress given Tuesday, 24th of May, 2011. The sorry spectacle had a familiar feeling to me: here was the big boss speaking to his underlings, desperate to clap harder, to shout and show themselves to him, to prove their loyalty by how desperately they wanted to please. Clap harder, worthless underlings!”
“Speaking of betrayal, this has to be the most brazen, in-your-face display of it in modern history,” said San Diego blogger John Friend in a May 25 post at his site, Mr. Friend’s Blog. Friend included an embedded video of the Netanyahu speech and went on to add: “We are watching a foreign leader tell lies right to our faces as the people supposed to be representing us, the American people, mindlessly cheer and clap away. It’s time for a new government.”
Commenting on Obama’s speech before AIPAC, two days before the king’s coronation, blogger John Kaminski wrote, “Jews prove their treason to America every day, in every way, writ large as Eustace Mullins’ conception of a parasitic group eating its way through the sinews of society. Yet official America, locked in the fantasy of its media blindfold, pretends the disease does not exist, and eagerly leads us further down the path to destruction.”
In a somewhat different mood, the art of satire was employed by Roger Bacon in his post on the Netanyahu speech—an article headlined, “Feds Bust Up Large D.C. Prostitution Ring.”
Washington--Federal agents of a task force that busted one of, if not the largest prostitution rings in the history of America held a press conference today to disseminate more details about last night's raid.
John Galt, head of Task Force CLAP-- Chasing Lechers And Prostitutes--said this was the largest house of prostitution he had ever raided. “We had gotten tips for some time that a place called ‘The Hill,’ was a hotbed of illegal and sordid sex acts for pay, and so we were finally able to get some agents inside to secure the necessary info to issue warrants."
The piece was accompanied by a photo captioned, “The FBI released this picture of the nation’s largest whorehouse.” The image was that of the capitol building in Washington.
Brother Nathanel Kapner is a video blogger and Jewish convert to Christianity who runs the site Real Zionist News. On Saturday, May 28, he posted a video in which he pointed out something which I have asserted numerous times as well—that the coinciding of AIPAC’s three-decade rise to power in Washington and the dismantling of our Constitution and Bill of Rights over the same period is no accident. View the video here.
On Monday, May 23—one day before the King Benji coronation—the blog Equal Party USA published a post that included the following: “We’ve been taught to be repelled by any use of the word ‘jew’ in a negative way. Many readers are repulsed right now. But these facts of ownership and control are, for the most part, easy to find. We’ve done it here, and we’ve linked to many other writers who have done so. Also, it’s easy to find jews who boast about it. As always, we’re not talking about ‘all’ jews. We’re talking about a giant subset of self-described ‘jews’ and crypto-jews who criminally conspire against the decent people of our country and of the world.”
In an article published in conjunction with the holiday to honor the nation’s war dead, Veterans Today website called upon readers to “Remember the USS Liberty and Crew this Memorial Day.” In extremely strong terms (though not as strong as above), columnist Bob Johnson relates the particulars of the attack carried out by Israel against a U.S. Navy ship in 1967:
On June 8, 1967 the terrorist Jewish state of Israel launched attacks against the U.S.S. Liberty which killed 34 U.S. sailors and Marines. The U.S. government ordered pilots flying American fighter jets that were on their way to rescue their fellow Americans from this vicious attack of Biblical ferocity to return to their carriers and let their fellow American sailors and Marines die. The politicians did this for the benefit of their own political careers.
This Memorial Day we need to take stock of this very disgusting, cowardly and revealing act of Israeli aggression and murder. We need to make certain we all learn the real lessons this war crime is teaching us. If we don’t, we’re letting those 34 Americans die in vain and we will allow Israel to continue its destruction of the United States via sacrificing our troops in Israel promoted wars and draining our finances through billion dollar hand outs the politicians give them.
And that’s just a small sampling of what’s out there.
An Act of God Rains on the King’s Parade
The timing of Netanyahu’s crowning was inauspicious, to say the least. On Sunday, May 22, Obama made his second fawning speech at an AIPAC convention (the first was in 2008 and was equally as fawning); later that same day, a behemoth of a tornado hit the American heartland and destroyed much of the city of Joplin, Missouri—and by the time King Benji was being royally feted in Washington, the residents there were digging out from the worst disaster in their town’s history.
The twister was rated “EF5” by the National Weather Service, and not only was it the severest storm ever to strike Joplin, it was the deadliest single tornado in the history of the United States—since records began to be kept in 1950. One week after the destruction, on May 29, the death toll stood at 142, with approximately 100 people still missing.
Moreover, 2011 has been one of the worst tornado years on record, and the season does not end until July. In mid-April the nation saw a three-day outbreak of tornadoes ranging from Mississippi to North Carolina; then in late April came a convulsion of nearly 250 tornadoes over a four-day period, including one monster funnel approximately a mile wide that rampaged through the Alabama cities of Tuscaloosa and Birmingham. Then arrived the hellish disaster in Joplin. Many people, there and elsewhere in the United States, are now homeless. But as I wrote in a recent post, the victims of all these storms may expect only limited federal assistance due to the fact that in fiscal year 2011, under $2 billion was allocated to the Department of Homeland Security’s Disaster Relief Fund (compared to the $3 billion sent to Israel). Moreover, FEMA, the federal agency which administers the fund, limits its relief to only $28,000 per household—and many, probably most, do not get that much or even near it.
To add insult to injury, there is a suggestion now that relief monies dispensed to tornado victims in the weeks and months ahead may in fact be withdrawn at a later date. A tip of the hat to Kenny’s Sideshow for the following. Just over a year ago, flooding of almost epic proportions struck the state of Tennessee, an event which saw approximately 16 inches of rain fall in a two-day period in the central part of the state. Homes and businesses were inundated. The Cumberland River exceeded its banks and flooded a considerable portion of downtown Nashville. Many people applied for, and received, assistance from FEMA, but some are now being told they must pay back a portion of what they got. According to The Tennessean, a total of 403 of the state’s residents, mostly in the Nashville area, have been sent letters informing them they must return assistance payments totaling $1.6 million that FEMA now says were improper. And it isn’t just in Tennessee this is happening.
Nationwide, 5,650 recipients of federal assistance are being told to return about $22 million. And this is just the first batch of letters that FEMA plans to send out as it plows through a backlog of 168,000 improper payments totaling $643 million going back to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.
The fact that the hard-hit residents of Joplin face a lengthy application process to receive even the smallest of stipends from FEMA, along with the prospect that at some point down the road they may be forced to pay back some portion of that assistance they do receive, is not likely to mitigate the sense of outrage many Americans are now feeling. In touring the Midwest city on Sunday, May 29, Obama seemed to offer the customary assurances. “The main thing I just want to communicate to the people of Joplin is this is just not your tragedy,” he said. “This is a national tragedy and that means there will be a national response.”
But is the president really just pulling their legs?
Scenes from Joplin:
They’re not Israelis, so let’em eat cake
Last week, Senate Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Jewish Republican, announced that Congress would only approve emergency funding for tornado victims if the assistance provided is offset by “pay-fors”, i.e. budget cuts in other areas. However, late last year, fearing a new crop of fiscally conservative, Tea Party-backed Republicans coming to Washington, Cantor contrived a strategy to protect and insulate aid to Israel from any possible cuts in funding. His proposal? To completely sever aid to the Zionist state from the State Department’s overall foreign aid budget…and to and move it over to the Defense Department, where presumably it would be impervious from any cuts. While the plan eventually came to naught—and Israel suffered no loss or cutback in U.S. assistance in any case—the episode suggests something about the prevailing line of thinking in the Washington Beltway, which, if true, would almost have to be regarded as flabbergasting: that aid to Israel is holy and sacrosanct, while aid to disaster-hit Americans constitutes nothing more than a negotiable, non-essential expense.
Cantor’s words, perhaps predictably, prompted renewed indignation in the blogosphere. “Hey Eric, I got a great idea! How about cutting back on those monthly welfare checks the American taxpayer is forced to send to Apartheid Israel!!” commented Roger Bacon in an article entitled Only Anti-Semites Want to Help Tornado Victims! Bacon, who likened the destruction in Joplin to that of Gaza, referred to Cantor as an “Israel-Firster” and called upon the Senate majority leader to “shag your sorry, back-stabbing traitorous ass back to the FATHERLAND, Apartheid Israel.” “What a vile piece of shit that Cantor guy is. Those people need assistance, only a satanist or a Psychopath would deny aid to those in this devastated area,” says one reader comment on Bacon’s post, while another reads, “Arrest the bastard for sedition and execute him slowly.”
Conclusions
In an article published at Uprooted Palestinians on Saturday, May 28, Franklin Lamb, who writes extensively on Middle East issues, discussed the reaction to the Netanyahu speech amongst unnamed Capitol Hill congressional staffers. He notes that some of the staffers are now calling it “Congressional Black Tuesday,” taking the view that, in its bizarre display of fawning, the nation’s legislative branch has in essence “fouled itself.” Strong words, to be sure, especially coming from faceless federal employees who, one might suppose, normally would be prone to civility and diplomacy. But if the blogosphere is any indication, we see that amongst “the neighborhood crowd that shouts for something better,” as Kenny’s Sideshow describes itself—essentially the “American street,” if you will—the mood is far stronger…and patience much thinner…even than that. Israel of course still has many supporters in this country, particularly from Christian Zionists. But America is currently $14 trillion in debt, largely because of its subservience to Israel and its tolerance of a coterie of mainly Jewish criminals on Wall Street, and as Lamb suggests, an “Arab spring” may be building here as well. With public education being cut and social programs decimated and ripped apart—and with anti-Jewish sentiments increasingly out in the open—the kingly coronation of May 24 could end up being viewed as a major turning point in America’s longstanding love affair with the Zionist state.
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian
No comments:
Post a Comment