As the Free Gaza Movement continues its challenge of the naval blockade of Gaza, a bizarre action is being attempted by right wing Zionist supporters of Israel, who contend that this Movement is violating the US Neutrality Act.

Perhaps the most ridiculous notion in this contention is that the US is neutral with respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Each year the Congress allocates up to six billion dollars to Israel, much of it in the form of military equipment, that helps Israel maintain its 41 year long military occupation of Palestinian territories, while it continues to confiscate land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Presumably, the purpose of this long term Zionist project is to make a two state solution impossible, if it has not already reached that stage. Today, the territories in question are so fragmented that, at best, only a noncontiguous series of bantustans is possible.

Today, 20 August, is Hungary's Foundation of the State Day. As such, it is the primary state holiday, but also the most boring and least inspiring.

20 August fireworks over Chain Bridge and Buda Castle in Budapest. 2005 photo from Index.hu's gallery.

Yet, for me a good occasion to tell about some old and some recent quirks of history, about a country being torn between East and West.

This holiday originates as the veneration day for Saint Stephen/Stephen I, Hungary's first Christian king. This cult was of course heavily instrumentalised by the feudal and clerical elites, especially between the two world wars.

But the Saint Stephen cult was well-established in people's minds, so after WWII, the communists attempted a time-proven weapon of the Catholic Church: cultural assimilation (see f.e.: Christmas and Saturnalia). 20 August became the day of the (1949) Constitution, and the Day of New Bread [first bread made from the new harvest].

Exactly 25 years ago, King Stephen was also the inspiration for a rock opera, which has unique relevance both in culture, and the System Change (known in English as 'End of Communism') - the real inspiration for this diary.

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

Keith Olbermann is very good at soundbite polemic; the rise in popularity of Countdown has as least as much to do with his inarguably charming personality as with Olbermann's ability to transform complex issues of modern political science into televised Reader's Digest versions both palatable and comprehensible to today's harried and confused American citizen.

Olbermann's genuinely outraged Special Comments -- the ones he aimed at Bush when he first started offering them on Countdown -- were things of beauty.

Lately, however, they've lost their impact. It started with the one he aimed at Hillary Clinton. They have become, successively, less effective with each attempt.

If he wishes to preserve the power of this particular element in his arsenal, if indeed it remains salvageable, Keith Olbermann ought to retire the "Special Comment." He must reserve its use for the truly heinous, the truly momentous, the truly "Special" -- or risk its becoming yet another Countdown number, no more nor less notable or effective a propaganda tool than the "Worst Persons" or "Bushed."

Several days ago, Lefty Coaster posted this diary on the American political blog, Daily Kos, which deserves sharing as it substantiates that, in spite of the Road Map, Annapolis, and the Bush Peace Initiative, Israel continues right on confiscating Palestinian lands, killing along the way as needed, in short, its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

But what is most significant about this diary is that it was based on a report from NPR or National Public Radio, a favorite news source for many educated people. Breakthroughs in the censorship of news from the Israel-Palestinian front like this one suggests that at least some news sources will no longer stand by and watch human rights crimes take place and say nothing about them. A few nights earlier, NBC Nightly News featured a video showing an Israeli soldier shooting a blindfolded, handcuffed Palestinian in the foot.

These breakthroughs indicate progress in countering the censorship/propaganda that pervades the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the American news media.  Perhaps still others will follow.

Contents:  Neither constructive analysis nor gratuitous Putin photos.  I don't know how to constructively analyze a situation in which multiple insane parties are trying to win an argument and the one sane party in the thick of it is trying to decide if they should take advantage of the fact that everyone else is insane, or resent the fact that they even have to deal with the loonies.  Also, I suspect sentiments like, "Jesus Vova, that is crazy hot how you just went and got your war on.  So manly and in charge like...," would be interpreted as insensitive.  The is just an attempt to purge ridiculous thoughts from my mind.  They call it a diary, don't they?
 

The SS Free Gaza.

My letter to the Editor on the South Ossetia crisis was published by both the Irish Times (today) and as the featured Letter in Saturday's Irish Independent, the largest circulation newspaper in Ireland.

It has also drawn a vituperative response in today's Irish Independent.
Another case of America-bashing - Letters, Opinion - Independent.ie

...the letters by Frank Schnittger and John Gunning attempting to link America to the catastrophe were ludicrous.

The former's insinuations about a supposed role played by the McCain campaign in fomenting unrest in the region, would be laughable if they weren't so serious.

Both letters [UPDATE - and a string of further Letters to the Editor which have been published in the Irish Times and Irish Independent since] are reproduced in full below.  Perhaps ET readers might like to suggest an appropriate response.

Michael Lillis once ran the Anglo-Irish section of the Department of Foreign and was a central player in the British Irish peace process.  As heavyweight civil servants go, they don't come much heavier.  Now retired, he has written a Letter to the Editor (below the fold) outlining the consequences, as he sees them, of the Irish No vote in the Lisbon Treaty Referendum.

Basically he sees the Irish No vote as giving the next (Conservative) British Government the opportunity to scupper the Lisbon project altogether.  The rest of the EU will carry on regardless leaving Ireland, trailing in Britain's wake, in a second tier arrangement almost wholly dependent on Britain once again.

"Where's your f*cking pride" he asks the Irish people.  We were more independent as full members of the EU than we ever were.  Do we want to go back to a form of neo-colonial dependency?  

No vote campaigners are still in denial that the No vote means anything other than the maintenance of the status quo - as if the democratically elected Governments of 25 countries are going to allow a small island to halt the further enlargement and development of the EU. Many would be glad to be rid of the UK in any case, and Ireland will be lost in its wake.

They have been kind enough to grant us a period of reflection, but do we really think they are going to stop the world for us indefinitely?

Excellent LTE below the fold - afew

You might be surprised to find out that despite being the number three wind producer in the world, Spain is dead last among developed countries in meeting its Kyoto targets.  In this diary we'll take a look at how that happened and why Spain (and the rest of the United States) needs a dose of Californication.

According to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the European Union is to cut its emissions of greenhouse gases by 8% relative to 1990 levels by the period 2008-2012. Because at the time the agreement was signed, Spain was considered one of the less developed economies (it currently ranks 5th) among the then 15 European Union members (there are currently 27), its emissions target was set at a 15% rise over 1990 levels. (Greece, Ireland and Portugal were also allowed to grow their emissions.)

However, as of 2007, Spain is 52.3% above its Kyoto target and, despite optimistic government promises that it can still meet the target, it seems extremely unlikely that the Spanish will be able to reduce emissions by 35% relative to 1990 levels in only 4 years.

Yeah! I finally got my passport!

For those of you who don't know, or remember, I wrote a diary in January of 2007 re: my quest for recognition of Italian citizenship by descent. The link is here: Jure Sanguinis Diary

Here's the picture of me, with vital information redacted, in my shiny new EU passport.

Continued below the fold....

Totay I had a gruelling day: Murphy worked overtime to break down everything from shunters to software. Then back in Budapest, I ran around for stuff still missing for Prague/my bike trip. All this on the hottest day of August, I drank three litres but must have sweat even more.

But on my trip home, a pleasant surprise awaited me.

Mid-August Monday Train Blogging - afew

Uri Avnery, Israeli peace activist and founder of Gush Shalom (The Peace Bloc), in this article pays tribute to Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian poet, on his death. Darwish's life as well as his poetry is a mirror of the sixty years of agony experienced by his people, the Palestinians.

Now that Solveig and I have booked Ryanair flights (boo....!!) to and from "Paris (Beauvais)" - which seems analogous to London (Milton Keynes) - I'm just updating the list

Will attend:
Ceebs
Colman + Sam + Christopher
Crazy Horse
Cyrille
Fran
Frank Schnittger
Helen
In Wales
Izzy
Jérôme
LEP and estHer
linca
Melanchton
Metatone
Migeru
redstar
sassafras
someone and ???
tzt
whataboutbob and Liliana
ChrisCook and Solveig
dvx

Maybe:
afew
DoDo
Mnemosyne
siegestate
Sven Triloqvist
the stormy present
metavision
Bernard

It appears that

PassyHome

is the ET Annexe.

Who's booked there?

Here you can see Czech documentary "Stolen Kosovo", which has been censored in Czech Republic after Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg recognized unilaterally declared independence of Serbian Kosovo and Metohija province by the Pristina separatists, is now also available with English captioning on: http://ca.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=Faktastick I was in a hurry to post this diary and I did not realize that first link I gave you was one of the site with very strong Serbian national views. I thought it is Czech’s site actually. Anyway I do not endorse all of the views of this site but I will still leave it here for those of you who may be interested to see Serbian affairs through the eyes of Serbian nationalist. "Nationalist" with no bad connotation... http://byzantinesacredart.com/blog/2008/06/stolen_kosovo_english.html

This article appears in the August 2008 issue of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and was distributed by the Council for the National Interest. In it, John Mearsheimer, Uri Avnery, and others offer advice to the US administration. It was the result of a forum hosted by the Council for the National Interest held on Capitol Hill on May 29 entitled Israel, Palestine, and the U.S. Congress: Realities and Opportunities.

According to CNI chairman Ambassador Robert Keeley and CNI president Gene Bird, the purpose of the forum was to discuss the conflict as the present administration nears the end of its term and suggest recommendations for the next.

It's a slippery road, and someone is afraid of how the Italian people, already squealing at rising food costs, energy prices, deaths in the workplace and worry over globalisation's ambiguous benefits, will react.

The anti-Rom gestures, while repulsive, were merely that, there are too many for such grandstanding sallies to make more than a small dent in, it's a dogwhistle to all thuggish types that their attitudes are in season,  primordial spasms of hatred given a target.

  Below this level of mediated hate-whipping, there is a concern Italian excitability may erupt into social unrest, specifically targeted against 'la Casta', those pampered courtiers to the status quo, whose machinations are being increasingly exposed by citizen journalism, and criticised by law'n'order types like Antonio di Pietro, whose magisterial career ripped the lid off many a shady set-up in the early 90's.

With the fearless French strikers showing the way to confront governments just to the north, it's possible that we may be nearing a flashpoint here, not in the Red Brigade sense, thankfully, but probably millions 'in piazza', bills in their hands, looking for change that will help them deal with the inflation that has held back economic growth predictions to 0% for the coming year.

Promoted by Colman

Some seemingly long-settled issues didn't go away, they went underground.  This time around some of the key players are acting a lot like those they once disdained.

For more on pruning back executive power see Pruning Shears.

Now that Obama has evidently won the tire gauge battle it is time to press that advantage.  The Obama campaign or another group should produce commercials that go farther.  Even a few interested people could make such ads and get them placed on TV through an organization like SaysMeTV, the group that the Get FISA Right group is now working with to place their ads.

Here's the draft for one such spot I'd like to see:

Even John McCain admits that keeping your tires properly inflated will save you gas and save you money.  Immediately.  
You can save more gas and more money through proper maintenance of your vehicle:  
change your oil regularly,
replace your air and oil filters,
get regular tune-ups,
and keep your wheels aligned.  
We know these measures work.  
Today.  
Sometimes the change we can believe in is the change that is simply common sense.

Gaza awaits its rescue.

Happy End of Summer to all!