Israel, a nation that was born out of Zionist terrorism, has launched massive airstrikes against targets in Gaza using high-tech weapons produced by the United States, a country that often has aided and abetted terrorism by its client military forces, such as Chile’s Operation Condor and the Nicaraguan contras, and even today harbors right-wing Cuban terrorists implicated in blowing up a civilian airliner.

Yet, with that moral ambiguity excluded from the debate, the justification for the Israeli attacks, which have killed at least 364 people, is the righteous fight against “terrorism,” since Gaza is ruled by the militant Palestinian group, Hamas.

Hamas rose to power in January 2006 through Palestinian elections, which ironically the Bush administration had demanded. However, after Hamas won a parliamentary majority, Israel and the United States denounced the outcome because they deem Hamas a “terrorist organization.”

http://www.alternet.org/audits/116726/the_long_and_bloody_hypocrisy_of_u.s.-israeli_acts_of_terrorism_

An analysis of campaign finance records shows that about two-thirds of his bundlers are concentrated in four major industries: law, securities and investments, real estate and entertainment. Lawyers make up the largest group, numbering roughly 130, with many of them working for firms that also have lobbying arms. At least 100 Obama bundlers are top executives or brokers from investment businesses: nearly two dozen work for financial titans like Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs or Citigroup. About 40 others come from the real estate industry."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/06/us/politics/06bundlers.html?scp=16&sq=bundlers&st=cse

The country's financial markets have collapsed, as they tend to do when left without adult supervision, and they're taking our economy with them. With the large banks refusing to make loans after losing billions on worthless subprime derivatives, the government stepped in and agreed to October's financial bailout package.

The $700 billion legislation was meant to buy banks' "troubled assets" for cash, and thus improve banks' balance sheets to the point that they would lend again. This would mean credit for struggling businesses and households and could encourage expansion and hiring, thus pulling us out of recession.

But the plan has not been carried out as advertised -- rather than buying the subprime securities from the banks, the government has instead decided to "recapitalize" them. Meaning, invest money in the big banks for some equity, money which the banks could then loan to the staggering economy.

The fact is that the banks are not making loans -- the "credit crunch" goes on, and the economy is the worse for it. After so many of Wall Street's great investment banks went bankrupt, or were bailed out by the government, or were bought by competitors, the banks want to "hoard cash" to avoid a similar fate. But besides shoring up their own finances, the banks are putting our public bailout money to another purpose -- buying up their smaller competitors.

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/116859/why_big_finance_is_laughing_all_the_way_to_the_bank

The Palestinian death toll continues to mount on the eleventh day of Israel's attack on Gaza. The Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reports 100 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks Monday, "a large number" of them civilians. At least twelve of the dead were children. At least two whole families were wiped out, one family of seven inside the Shati refugee camp and another family of eleven in the neighborhood of Zeitoun. Earlier today, at least ten Palestinian civilians were killed when an Israeli naval boat shelled their home on the Gaza shore. Witnesses say Israeli tanks have now entered a second major Palestinian city, Khan Yunis, in addition to Gaza City in the north.

Meanwhile, five Israeli soldiers were also killed Monday. The Israeli military says four of them died in two separate incidents when Israeli tank shells errantly hit the areas where they were operating. The mistaken killing of its own soldiers could serve to further bolster criticism of Israel's claim to be attacking Gaza with precise strikes on military targets.

Overall, an estimated 562 Palestinians have been killed with more than 2,500 wounded

http://www.alternet.org/rights/117696/israel_bombs_un_school%2C_three_killed%3B_death_toll_100_on_monday_alone

or the defense industry or Israel.

Democrats in Congress are "scrambling to push out" a "non-binding resolution supporting Israel's goal" in the Gaza military operations:

U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the U.S. House of Representatives majority leader, told JTA he was looking at such a resolution, which is being drafted in the office of Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/117952/democrats_%27scrambling_to_push_out%27_pro-israel_resolution

she can appear with Rick Warren.

of every branch of the US government for 2 of those years.

The Democrats now have control of congress and Obama is worried about pleasing the GOP.

What is wrong with this picture?

postponing a vote is a snap.

but we deserve a president that was chosen that way?

Being a 4-time state loser (Burris) or being dangerously inexperienced and unqualified (Caroline Kennedy)?