Undernews is the online report of the Progressive Review, edited by Sam Smith, who covered Washington during all or part of one quarter of America's presidencies and edited alternative journals since 1964. The Review, which has been on the web since 1995, is now published from Freeport, Maine. See main page for full contents
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Your editor has been a
musician for many decades. He started the first band his Quaker
school ever had and played drums with bands up until 1980 when
he switched to stride piano. He had his own band until the mid-1990s
and has played with the New Sunshine Jazz Band, Hill City Jazz
Band, Not So Modern Jazz Band and the Phoenix Jazz Band.
APEX BLUES Sam
playing with the Phoenix Jazz Band at the Central Ohio Jazz festival
in 1990. Joining the band is George James on sax. James, then
84, had been a member of the Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller
orchestras and hadappeared on some 60 records.More
notes on James
Wonkette -eBay CEO and McCain campaign "female supporter" Meg Whitman, currently running for governor of California, has simply had a terrible last week. Some lib for the Sacramento Bee exposed her recently as a lousy civic bum who had never registered to vote before age 46. Dearest Meg has apologized numerous times since then, but has only now offered this mea culpa: "I was focused on raising a family, on my husband's career, and we moved many, many times."
When you read things in the Review that seem a little strange, please be patient. For example, 37 years ago we called for a return of the streetcar in the nation's capital as part of a mixed transit system. The idea went nowhere. But just the other day, the city's Department of Transportation issued this announcement: "Better mobility, economic development and congestion relief may soon come to the streets of the District of Columbia in the form of a new transit system.DDOT is embarking on a public outreach tour to all eight wards of the District to engage residents and businesses in the implementation of a new streetcar system in the city."
Boston Globe - A Delaware first-grader who was facing 45 days in an alternative school as punishment for taking his favorite camping utensil to school can return to class after the school board made a hasty change granting him a reprieve. The seven-member Christina School Board voted unanimously to reduce the punishment for kindergartners and first-graders who take weapons to school or commit violent offenses to a suspension ranging from three to five days.
WCBS TV, NY - According to a new report, the number of homeless people sleeping in New York City shelters has reached an all time high at 39,000 -- many of them are children.
Daily Beast -An interracial couple was denied a marriage license by a Louisiana justice of the peace, Keith Bardwell, who said he turned them down out of concern for their potential children. Bardwell said he wasn't racist and had done ceremonies for black couples in his house; he explained that his decision to deny a license to Beth Humphrey, 30, and Terence McKay, 32, of Hammond, Louisiana, was based on his personal observation that neither white nor black families are accepting of interracial kids. He also thinks interracial marriages don't last. . . "I don't do interracial marriages because I don't want to put children in a situation they didn't bring on themselves," Bardwell says, adding that if he did one interracial marriage, he'd have to do them all. "I try to treat everyone equall
Guardian, UK - A vote to endorse a highly critical report on the Gaza war passed at the UN human rights council in Geneva, despite opposition from the US and Israel. The council approved a resolution endorsing the report, which was written by the South African judge Richard Goldstone and accused Israel and the Islamist group Hamas of war crimes during the Gaza war. It said the report should go to the UN general assembly for consideration. The resolution condemned "the recent Israeli violations of human rights in occupied east Jerusalem", referring to recent demolitions of Palestinian houses and excavation work near the Haram al-Sharif, also known as the TempleMount. The vote passed with 25 votes in favor, six against and 11 abstentions.
Huffington Post - The zoo in Gaza cannot afford to buy zebras and has instead painted stripes on two donkeys. Israel controls the movement of goods into and out of Gaza and only allows in humanitarian and basic supplies. The zoo could smuggle zebras into Gaza through tunnels connecting the strip with Egypt, but that would cost $30,000. The zoo director, Mahmud Barghut, told AFP: "We couldn't afford real zebras." Donkeys only cost $700. [Link includes slideshow]
Israel and the Goldstone Report War Criminals Are Becoming Arbiters of the Law By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
The double standard under which the Israeli government operates is too much for everyone except the brainwashed Americans. Even the very Israeli Jerusalem Post can see the double standard displayed by “all of Israel now speaking in one voice against the Goldstone report”:
“This is the Israeli notion of a fair deal: We’re entitled to do whatever the hell we want to the Palestinians because, by definition, whatever we do to them is self-defense. They, however, are not entitled to lift a finger against us because, by definition, whatever they do to us is terrorism.
“That’s the way it’s always been, that’s the way it was in Operation Cast Lead.
“And there are no limits on our right to self-defense. There is no such thing as ‘disproportionate.’
“We can deliberately destroy thousands of Gazan homes, the Gazan parliament, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Interior, courthouses, the only Gazan flour plant, the main poultry farm, a sewage treatment plant, water wells and God knows what else.
“Deliberately.
“Why? Because we’re better than them. Because we’re a democracy and they’re a bunch of Islamo-fascists. Because ours is a culture of life and theirs is a culture of death. Because they’re out to destroy us and all we are saying is give peace a chance.
“The Goldstones of the world call this hypocrisy, a double standard. How dare they! Around here, we call it moral clarity.”
A person would never read such as this in the New York Times or Washington Post or hear it from any US news source. Unlike Israeli newspapers, the US media is a complete mouthpiece for the Israel Lobby. Never a critical word is heard.
This will be even more the case now that the Israel Lobby, after years of effort, has succeeded in repealing the First Amendment by having the Hate Crime Bill attached to the recently passed military appropriations bill. This is the way the syllogism works: It is anti-semitic to criticize Israel. Anti-semitism is a hate crime. Therefore, to criticize Israel is a hate crime.
As the Jerusalem Post notes, this syllogism has “moral clarity.”
Britain’s ambassador to the United Nations, John Sawers, stepped into the hate crime arena when he told Israel Army radio that the Goldstone report on Israel’s military assault on Gaza contains “some very serious details which need to be investigated.”
A year from now when the Anti-Defamation League has its phalanx of US Department of Justice (sic) prosecutors in place, Sawers would be seized and placed on trial. Diplomatic immunity means nothing to the US, which routinely invades other countries, executes their leaders or sends them to the Hague for trial as war criminals.
In the meantime, however, the Israeli government put Sawers and the UK government on notice that British support for the Goldstone Report would result in the destruction of the double standard that protects the West and Israel and create a precedent that would place the British in the dock for war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“London,” declared the Israeli government, “could find itself in handcuffs if it supports the document [the Goldstone report].”
Once the DOJ’s hate crime unit us up and running, “self-hating Jews,” such as leaders of the Israeli peace movement and Haaretz and Jerusalem Post journalists, can expect to be indicted for anti-semitic hate crimes in US courts.
re: DC Streetcars: I loved riding the DC streetcars, with my Grandmother, and still have one of the dime-sized DC Transit streetcar tokens. Whenever I drive in Georgetown I try to drive over the road-level rails, which are smoother than the cobblestones . . .
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Israel and the Goldstone Report
War Criminals Are Becoming Arbiters of the Law
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
The double standard under which the Israeli government operates is too much for everyone except the brainwashed Americans. Even the very Israeli Jerusalem Post can see the double standard displayed by “all of Israel now speaking in one voice against the Goldstone report”:
“This is the Israeli notion of a fair deal: We’re entitled to do whatever the hell we want to the Palestinians because, by definition, whatever we do to them is self-defense. They, however, are not entitled to lift a finger against us because, by definition, whatever they do to us is terrorism.
“That’s the way it’s always been, that’s the way it was in Operation Cast Lead.
“And there are no limits on our right to self-defense. There is no such thing as ‘disproportionate.’
“We can deliberately destroy thousands of Gazan homes, the Gazan parliament, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Interior, courthouses, the only Gazan flour plant, the main poultry farm, a sewage treatment plant, water wells and God knows what else.
“Deliberately.
“Why? Because we’re better than them. Because we’re a democracy and they’re a bunch of Islamo-fascists. Because ours is a culture of life and theirs is a culture of death. Because they’re out to destroy us and all we are saying is give peace a chance.
“The Goldstones of the world call this hypocrisy, a double standard. How dare they! Around here, we call it moral clarity.”
A person would never read such as this in the New York Times or Washington Post or hear it from any US news source. Unlike Israeli newspapers, the US media is a complete mouthpiece for the Israel Lobby. Never a critical word is heard.
This will be even more the case now that the Israel Lobby, after years of effort, has succeeded in repealing the First Amendment by having the Hate Crime Bill attached to the recently passed military appropriations bill. This is the way the syllogism works: It is anti-semitic to criticize Israel. Anti-semitism is a hate crime. Therefore, to criticize Israel is a hate crime.
As the Jerusalem Post notes, this syllogism has “moral clarity.”
Britain’s ambassador to the United Nations, John Sawers, stepped into the hate crime arena when he told Israel Army radio that the Goldstone report on Israel’s military assault on Gaza contains “some very serious details which need to be investigated.”
A year from now when the Anti-Defamation League has its phalanx of US Department of Justice (sic) prosecutors in place, Sawers would be seized and placed on trial. Diplomatic immunity means nothing to the US, which routinely invades other countries, executes their leaders or sends them to the Hague for trial as war criminals.
In the meantime, however, the Israeli government put Sawers and the UK government on notice that British support for the Goldstone Report would result in the destruction of the double standard that protects the West and Israel and create a precedent that would place the British in the dock for war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“London,” declared the Israeli government, “could find itself in handcuffs if it supports the document [the Goldstone report].”
Once the DOJ’s hate crime unit us up and running, “self-hating Jews,” such as leaders of the Israeli peace movement and Haaretz and Jerusalem Post journalists, can expect to be indicted for anti-semitic hate crimes in US courts.
Paul Craig Roberts
re: DC Streetcars: I loved riding the DC streetcars, with my Grandmother, and still have one of the dime-sized DC Transit streetcar tokens. Whenever I drive in Georgetown I try to drive over the road-level rails, which are smoother than the cobblestones . . .
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