I can't believe I am allowed to write about something without being banned, censored, vilified or ignored. I am a New York Jew, was raised in a religious household, went to and matriculated from a Jewish day school in Johannesburg and have always been proud of being a Zionist and Jew until about 5-6 years ago when a first cousin in Israel stopped talking to me because I did not support the Iraq invasion. I educated myself, read a lot and today empathise with the Palestinians, something I would never ever have done before.I see how brain washed I was and today even look upon the present Likud government as Nazis, especially when I read about the genocidal inhuman attacks against an entire civilian population in Gaza. There is no excuse. Like the torture endorsed with glee by our wonderful president, there is no justification and not to speak to Hamas only validates their determination never ever ever ever to have peace. Their present barbarism allows Israel to control the Arabs better than if there were a two state situation, even of it means sustaining the rare suicidal bomber, which they regard as the forfeit they need to pay to exercise this control. I praise President Carter for his refusal to be intimidated and welcome more dialogue with Hamas. It's easy to speak to one's allies, which goes nowhere,and diplomacy to speak to one's enemies.

Some have commented that a truth commission may work. I don't think so. For politicians to tell the truth, they have to have immunity from prosecution (=pardon) which will happen anyway, but the motivation to tell the truth when given immunity is, in my opinion, only when that person knows his/her goose is cooked, and that is impossible without the truth, hence a catch 22. It only worked in South Africa because those were very special and exceptional circumstances where there were two equal visionaries who both wanted to avoid a bloodbath from an overwhelming majority of blacks.

That is why it would never work currently in Israel's apartheid with the Palestinians, where there is no equal footing and the Palestinians don't overwhelm the Israelis in numbers (yet).

Another point is the anticipated protracted position of the power enacted by Bush with an Obama presidency.We have now a clear demonstration of the one fatal flaw of a democracy, namely that power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.It is debatable that a better system of government would be what's called a "benevolent dictatorship", as in Singapore, where, I am told, there is no corruption.Just thinking aloud.

"This has nothing to do with Iraq. Putin wants the oil and he wants to rebuild the empire" (Fleiter)

You're right: It has everything to do with oil.

You're wrong: That it has everything to do with oil was a opportunity enabled directly by the distraction of the US being bogged down in the quagmire of Iraq (and Afghanistan. Putin may be hegemonically inclined, but he is also smart. And the Iraq misadventure made him determined to beat Cheyney and his puppet Bush at their own oil game.He saw Georgia being armed by the US and Israel and calculated that the American public or Congress would never have the stomach, manpower or money for another escapade be it Iran or the Caucuses. He was right. And Bush and his incompetent useless secretary of state never saw it happening.As usual.

"We live in a Democracy, and there are procedures in place to elect candidates" -- jebldmm

Oh is that so? Let's see now.. Eight years and we still have voting machines which can be hacked without a trace; We do not have habeus corpus, but hey! Maher Arer, the innocent Canadian who was tortured, was Muslim so why should we care, right? Our judiciary has been totally politicized, just like with Musharraf, but we're not Muslim so why should we care? We've had two stolen elections, martial law can be instituted with the snap of a finger, but we're not Muslim, so why should we care? Our constitution and Bill of Rights have been trashed, all power has been concentrated in the executive, but we're not Muslim so why should we care? Our country has been under the control of two dynasties for 20 years, but anyone can still be elected right? Our Congress is impotent but we're not Muslim, so why should we care? A foreign government, Israel, controls our foreign policy, but we're not Muslim, so why should we care? You are delusional.

"Let us call PUMA what they are: an organization whose sole goal is to ensure the election of John McCain".

Thank you. You are 1000% right.

It's actually rather clever (in a diabolical way) to mask oneself as a (disgruntled) Hillary supporter, thus causing division of the Democratic party.

One way to unmask this scum is to get their names when they protest at the convention and prove that (most are) Repugs.

How often can one say that a speech was expertly crafted, sincerely from the heart and brought tears to my eyes? Add poised, elegant, humble to that mix. You saw the pride in her own mother's eyes. And what's more, without actually saying so, she left no doubt that if, heaven forbid, she were crippled in a car accident, Obama would never ever dump her for an heiress to a beer fortune.