The ICRC and the American Red Cross are now labeling the situation in Gaza a humanitarian crisis as well. ARC is sending $250,000 in relief aid and the ICRC is coordinating with the MDA and the PRCS to implement relief including hospital supplies, medical support and relief supplies (and other stuff like keeping the generators going at Shifa hospital Both MDA and PRCS are part of the IFRC since 2006, in case there are some to-be-left-unnamed people who would like to renew their insane claims of ICRC anti-semitism.

The ARC press release is here:

http://www.redcross.org/pressrelease/0,1077,0_314_8552,00.html

Glossary:

ICRC - International Committee of the Red Cross

IFRC - International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

ARC - American Red Cross (member of IFRC)

MDA - Magen David Adom (member of IFRC)

PRCS - Palestinian Red Crescent Society (member of IFRC)

Remember how I said that humanitarian crises meant humanitarian groups asserted their rights to provide relief and care for the sick and wounded in conflict areas?

I wonder what they'll do to the Magen David Adom.

Yo, Wally:

[snip] ...I don't plan to engage you, rise to your bait or otherwise 'debate' with hate mongers. I plan to look into how to stop it.

Well, that was a lie, since you continued to "engage" commenters here, you rose to bait, and you failed to find a way to stop it. I could have helped you there --- click on the white X in the red box in the upper right hand corner of your screen.

And to use such a cute little marsupial as a handle. For shame.

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Meanwile, back at the Retzilian Observatory, my comments on current events: I think Obama dissed Feinstein on purpose (ha ha), just to show her who's boss, even though Biden made a courtesy call. I am quite pleased with the choices of Johnsen (gotta love her) and Panetta. I think the Senate should have sworn in Burris and Franken (but watching Darth swear in the new senators was muy bizarro). I predict they'll both be seated in the very near future.

Jeb Bush says he won't run for senate in 2010, but watch what he does in 2012. We haven't seen the last of the Bush family in national politics.

I feel sorry for Hugh Hewett and didn't find him nearly as polite as Glenn did, but I have a low threshhold of moonbat republican tolerance. Really low.

Too bad about Richardson. ((eyeroll)) Me thinks there is still a lot of selective law enforcement in New Mexico. I kinda wish Obama had given Iglesias a job.

And to Jebbie - not to be a nitpicker, but Cheney got his fifth military deferment when his wife got conveniently pregnant, not when he got married. Just a little FYI. Loved the list, BTW.

--Anonymous.

that Matt is going there to change them, not be changed by them. He has no interest in having some establishment job unless he can use it to be disruptive.

Hard to see how a single staffer can effect much change there, but I appreciated his essay and approach.

In the meantime, while he's turning DC upside down, hopefully he'll pipeline some good info out to the roots.

this is not a Sports bar anymore - but Ikalos is right - who knows what it is - am i still allowed to post i am such a wimp - but you gals and guys should try now to get to the next level - do you know it would be so much scarier if you would address each other with words like 'darling' or 'honey' - i just saw this film were all the monsters were these soft spoking dudes and dutetts

you know the kind of nice neighbors you meet in your local Sports bar and then at night they come out and post - and perhaps Glenn could reinvite the poets and the wordsmith's who used to roam these pages and they could be so friendly it would freak yall out!

I wonder if this "Anonymous" is the same as the one from a few weeks ago. You would think Salon would have fixed the glitch. They must be too busy "fomenting hate speech" like Wally said.

Sanjay Gupta for Surgeon General.

Have you ever heard of anything more absurd?

I haven't seen an 'anon' in some time.

Ah, crazy times...

Show of hands. Who cares?

;

;

k

h

8

Crickests

Somebody whined about Salon fixing it a couple of threads ago, it is related to the mobile version of the web page. I have my suspicions that it is Electro. BTW, does anyone know if he's also s-g-rm-n?

(sorry for the no vowels, shuo cao cao, cao cao jiu dao).

we cross posted.

Actually, I have mixed feelings. One of the roles of the Surgeon General is chief educator on health for the public. He's really good at that educator part. I don't know whether he has public health credentials (I'm a Julie Gerberding fan on that stuff).

derbig, darling, I wish you wouldn't discuss our personal paper folding adventures on a public forum.

Now, why is it that Republicans are incapable of discussing gay marriage without bringing up bestiality, incest, and polygamy?

It's because they enjoy thinking about bestiality, incest, and polygamy so much. It's kind of like what Keith O. says O'Reilly does: O'Reilly likes to complain about the immorality of lewd images of women on the air, because it gives him a reason to broadcast lewd images of women on the air. Similarly, for these guys, discussing gay marriage is just a gateway to fantasizing publicly about their real interests. Repression tends to take the strangest turns.

pointus writes: "40 innocent people murdered at a UN school. I don't think I will pay my federal taxes this year, if one more penny goes to Israel."

Innocent?? Nope, they were Palestinians. Not innocent . . . that's why they are being collectively punished. Though against International Law, it does not apply to superior nations. But then, nothing new here. Only 40?? Sheesh.

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April 18, 1996 -- QANA, Lebanon Israeli artillery shells slammed into a UN base today, killing at least 75 Lebanese refugees who had sought sanctuary there from an Israeli military offensive, a UN spokesman said. Other reports put the toll from the attack on the southern village of Qana as high as 94. More than 100 people were wounded, and two Fijian soldiers with the United Nations peacekeeping force were missing. Most of the casualties were people who had gathered under a traditional hut that Fijian soldiers built to remind themselves of their Pacific Island home, he said. Israel's foreign minister, Ehud Barak, called the attack on the base an "unfortunate mistake."

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Beirut, July 26, 2006: An Israeli air strike on Tuesday hit a U.N. base in southern Lebanon, killing four United Nations observers, Lebanese security sources said.

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January 4, A paramedic working for an Oxfam-funded organisation was killed today after an ambulance was hit by an Israeli-fired shell, the charity said. The Palestinian, working for the Union of Health Work Committees, was killed in Gaza. Another paramedic lost his foot and the ambulance driver was injured in the same incident.

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August, 2006 -- According to the Lebanese Health Minister, on 7 August at least 50 civilians were killed and eleven missing after an IAF missile "destroyed one residential building and damaged several others in the Shiyyah district of Beirut's southern suburbs."

And the killing in Lebanon continues -- cluster weapons, which the IDF forces poured onto adjacent areas of Lebanon (the buffer zone), especially in the last few hours of the war (which dragged on as Condi dragged her feet). "The death toll estimates (from 800 to 1200) do not include Lebanese killed since the end of fighting by land mines or unexploded Israeli cluster bombs. So far, these have killed 29 people and wounded 215 — 90 of them children

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