not as flaccid as the American media's performance over the last eight years or so.... Pathethic would be a step up.

"you go to war with the Press corps you have. They're not the Press corps you might want or wish to have at a later time."

with this, and too many other things over the past (at least) eight years, i'm afraid (most of) the fourth estate has become a fifth column

it will be different now that a 'democrat' is in office, but for the wrong reasons

if we didn't have a corporate meadea, the page here: http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/category/y-2009/, would be devoid of content

This has been an eventful thread.

The I-P imbroglio has gotten very good coverage on both sides in the commentary here.

Personally I don't see a solution.

Giving the Palestinians what they want means the Jews leave.

Not gonna happen.

Giving the Israelis what they want means the Arabs get to live in ghettos and like it.

Not gonna happen.

But that stuff is just a diversion.

More important may be the Commenter kerfluffle.

Having poetic license here means following the rules of the road.

Glennzy's road.

This has me thinking also of other commenters who is no longer...

Lots miss WT, me too.

I also miss Paul Rosenberg. I know he's got his own gig, but I first read him here.

And LWM

I really wish LWM could have stayed. Great antidote to too much libertarianism, he. A wealth of info in his links.

But all that pales next to the real crux of this thread.

That is, the verbal humiliation of bourbon I witnessed yesterday evening around 6:15 pm by the poster called "totallyblase", and then almost partially echoed by "bystander".

This cannot and will not stand.

I can appreciate those who prefer scotch. Im sure the subtle intricacies of flavor in a good scotch are just wonderful to those that like it.

Fine.

I don't like scotch.

I like bourbon.

Corn squeezins.

And to sully the good name of bourbon at this time of year?

Its eggnog season. Eggnog was made for bourbon.

Try puttin yer beloved scotch in some eggnog.

Its even worse than ruining eggnog with rum.

If I ran this blog you two would be consigned to jebbies blog so fast it would make your heads spin.

Repent sinners!

The rotting carcass that is Meet The Press isn't living in this world. It died after a long illness at the Scooter Libby trial, revealed as it was as a podium for propagandists. Sticking a pretty George Bush Jr., Jr., on the teevee won't revive it.

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2008/12/israel-absorbs-bombs.html or sig

from "b" :

Israel "Absorbs" Bombs

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress of a possible Foreign Military Sale to Israel of GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs as well as associated equipment and services. The total value, if all options are exercised, could be as high as $77 million.

...

Israel will have no difficulty absorbing these additional bombs into its armed forces. The proposed sale will not affect the basic military balance in the region.

Defense Security Cooperation Agency - Israel - GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs, Sept. 9, 2008

The bombs now get "absorbed" by people in Gaza.

The Israel Air Force used a new bunker-buster missile that it received recently from the United States in strikes against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, The Jerusalem Post learned on Sunday.

The missile, called GBU-39, was developed in recent years by the US as a small-diameter bomb for low-cost, high-precision and low collateral damage strikes.

Israel received approval from Congress to purchase 1,000 units in September and defense officials said on Sunday that the first shipment had arrived earlier this month ...

IAF uses new US-supplied smart bomb, Dec. 29, 2008

Notice the fast, just in time, delivery ...

Like cheap gas? You know they lowered the price of oil to save our economy and our asses?

So now Israel decides to play Nazi Germany games.

America's leadership and media fawn over it and fight for the chance to kiss ass the best.

Guess who is going to pay for it.

Expect the price for a barrel of oil to rise.

We are also going to have to send more money to Israel to pay for this war crime.

Everyone in America really wants to pay 4 dollars a gallon for gas so the Israelis can bomb unarmed civilians with our taxpayers paying for it.

Let's offend everybody but Israel.

Opps, I forgot to post the link to Norman Solomon's wonderful essay. Here it is; or click sig.

http://www.antiwar.com/solomon/?articleid=13969

Norman Solomon:

...

The closing days of 2008 have heightened the Israeli government's stature as a mighty practitioner of the moral imbecility that Stone described.

Israel's air strikes"have killed at least 270 people so far, injured more than 1,000, many of them seriously, and many remain buried under the rubble so the death toll will likely rise," Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies pointed out on Sunday, two days into Israel's attack. "This catastrophic impact was known and inevitable, and far outweighs any claim of self-defense or protection of Israeli civilians." She mentioned that "the one Israeli killed by a Palestinian rocket attack on Saturday after the Israeli assault began was the first such casualty in more than a year."

Even if you set aside the magnitude of Israel's violations of the Geneva conventions and the long terrible history of its methodical collective punishment of 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, consider the vastly disproportionate carnage in the conflict.

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind," Gandhi said.

What about a hundred eyes for an eye?

...

I was raised to believe that God Almighty had put the Jews in Israel to fulfill his plan for the end of times. My entire family cheered any Israeli victory over the evil, sub-human A-rabs. Then about a quarter century ago, I started looking at the situation and how we all got to this point. I have spent nearly half my life looking at it.

I conclude that almost everything that Americans think they know about the middle east, its peoples, and its religions is false. We have been the target of a very large propaganda avalanche stretching back at least 2,000 years.

We must educate our neighbors on a few of the facts of the matter, but that will take a long, long time. In the meantime, we need to just look at the actions of the state of Israel in these present times. Would we not denounce, perhaps even go to war, actions of this nature if Iran was the guilty party? Or Russia? Or North Korea?

Bush is a war criminal. The leadership of Israel is also guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. It is time to stop all support of that terror state. (at the very least)