Linda Chavez and Family: It Sure Pays To Be Rightwing Hacks!
This page one article from the Washington Post is worth a read.
It turns out that one Linda Chavez -- the rightwinger whose bread-and-butter is using her Hispanic last name to bash liberal Latino organization, liberals, and labor unions -- has been raising tons of political money for her own (and her family's) personal use.
I knew Chavez in the 1980's. Her husband Chris Gersten was the AIPAC political director and a key player in moving the organization to the right. Gersten's game was using his labor union background to gain him cred for union bashing while Linda's was to use her union background and her surname for similar purposes.
Both were pretty standard Jewish neocons, at the far right of the Jewish community. Gersten's tenure at AIPAC was short. When he was discovered shilling too blatantly for Republicans, he disappeared.
I always thought that rightwing politics was the Gersten family's racket. Now, according to the Post, it was -- quite literally. What an easy way to make money! Send out fundraising appeals for various causes and do, God knows what, with the money!
Oh those neocons. But better this than dragging America off to war.


Comments (222)
"It turns out that one Linda Chavez, the rightwinger whose bread-and-butter is using her Hispanic last name to bash Latinos and "illegals" "
"Both were pretty standard Jewish neocons, "
Stalin's Last Crime: The Plot Against the Jewish Doctors, 1948-1953 By Jonathan Brent, Vladimir Pavlovich Naumov:
"Stalin’s interest in names was not new.
During the anti-cosmopolitan campaign artists and writers of Jewish origin who had adopted Russian pseudonyms were routinely unmasked as Jews in the press."
August 13, 2007 8:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hey Davai. What was your kid's SAT score again? You need to post more on your kids' high scores.
August 13, 2007 8:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
I hate the term "neo-con". It's so 70's.
It has no relevance now and I'm not sure why anybody uses it.
August 13, 2007 9:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
MJ,
OT: I thought you weren't going to disappear your posts anymore. So what happened to your "Jews-only highways" piece?
August 13, 2007 9:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
I have to say that I thought that the Jerusalem highway post, following up on the front-page NYT's article, addressed a timely, critical and troublesome issue. I thought the thread that followed was, at best, bizarre. That said, I restate that I am troubled by the concept of pulling whole posts and entire comment threads. It's a private site, I know, but still . . .
August 13, 2007 10:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm entirely confused. This post is about a couple of former politicos apparently raising money to support, well, themselves. Very interesting stuff.
But, uh, what in the heck is everyone else talking about? Not a single comment in this thread makes any sense to me at all.
Maybe I'm just being dense but I'm on this site all of the time and I suddenly feel like I came here from another planet.
When I come back to check on this post, somebody will probably answer it with a guacamole recipe.
thosethingswesay.blogspot.com
August 13, 2007 10:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry to confuse you destor. My point is being made to MJ, where it is made best, on a post which follows his previous post which, for whatever reason, has just disappeared--comment thread and all-- without explanation.
I do also happen to have a couple of good guacamole recipes.
August 13, 2007 10:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
Like any upstanding Republican, Chavez dislikes government, until it comes time to loot it, directly or indirectly.
August 13, 2007 11:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
MJ, I don't think you are right about Chavez bashing illegals. As far as I know, she is a big supporter of comprehensive immigration reform who has been subjected to offensive namecalling from conservative circles because of her stand.
August 13, 2007 11:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
Didn't mean to criticize anybody personally bslev. I think we all need to help keep MJ's discussion on track, though. I don't even get involved in a lot of them anymore (particularly if Israel is an issue) and that's kind of too bad.
Always taking Guac recipes, though!
thosethingswesay.blogspot.com
August 13, 2007 11:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
FYI: For folks allergic to avocadoes, green peas work pretty well as a base for "mock-guac," too.
August 13, 2007 11:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
Mark, I don't know if you saw my comment directed to you in the deleted "apartheid road" thread, but I suggest to you that in view of your unwarranted extrapolation of what "EVERYBODY" in Israel thinks, that you visit Benei Beraq to see what the "Ultra-Orthodox" (Haredim) and Hevron, Beit El and Ofra to see what the "crazy settlers" are really like, instead of basing your opinion on biased newspaper sources.
August 13, 2007 11:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
Points taken destor.
August 13, 2007 11:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
Wssn't Ms. Chavez disqualified from a cabinet post in 2001 for non-payment of nanny taxes, a la Zoe Baird? Hey, whatever else is going on, make sure they pay their taxes!
Don't like the term "neocon"? How about "neofascist"?
August 13, 2007 11:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
Davai - you really know your Stalinist history! It is interesting that, in spite of the fall of the Marxist/Leninist Communist system, that type of thinking is still around and even spreading, particularly among so-called "progressive" types. I recently reread Arthur Koestler's "Darkness at Noon" and it certainly explains how certain "peacenik" types in Israel keep clinging to suicidal policies even after they have repeatedly been proven to bring disaster on both Jews and Arabs.
August 13, 2007 11:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
Are you sure? Sounds like you are so I'll change original. My apologies.
August 13, 2007 11:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
She's still hideous. I haven't been able to listen to her ever since she came on the stage in Reagan's first term back when.
August 13, 2007 11:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
If it's any consolation, she does not believe a single thing she says.
I wonder. Is it better when these people believe this crap or when they just say it. Should one like a Huckabee, who is a true believer, better than a Santorum or a Romney who are fakes.
I kind of like the Huckabee model. Same reason I like Kucinich.
August 13, 2007 11:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Something about AIPAC puzzles me. It is true they are bipartisan and it makes sense that they fired Gersten if he was too closely associated with the Republicans. But their behavior at the last convention contradicts that. I heard they gave Cheney a standing ovation but booed Pelosi. What gives here? And why do the Democrats keep on pledging fealty to such a blatantly right wing organization?
August 13, 2007 11:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
The initial posts have to do with the relationship between antisemitism and the fact that no one has bothered to tell us the religious preferences of other corrupt politicians.
August 13, 2007 12:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Destor, don't you realize, we tried offering them chips and salsa, and the terrorists still hate America (or Israel, or freedom, or your message here). And now you want to offer them guacamole? When will you learn?
john
http://www.haberarts.com/
August 13, 2007 12:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
AIPAC is not Republican or Democratic. I think that only a few people at the convention booed Pelosi.
It is hardline on Israel. That means it will support politicians of either party who share that view. But it is not a Republican organization. My guess is that right now its members are split between Clinton and Giuliani, viewing both as hardline and more likely to take a militant stance vis a vis Iran.
It's not a Dem/GOP thing. They are a single issue group and would support anyone who endorses their positions on Israel, Iran, and the region.
I think they are usually wrong but I do not think their motivations are partisan.
August 13, 2007 1:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's Chavez taking heat from the right on immigration:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Y2UxNmQ0NDBjYmU3MjkzYzc1ODAzMzFhYmY3ZjFlNTc=
Even conservatives become liberals on issues that personally affect them.
August 13, 2007 1:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
But notice, so far nobody took a bait from MJ,
people stay away from antisemitic comments, even so MJ gave them a bait.
August 13, 2007 1:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
My guess that Josh was ashamed of MJ's comments where he suggested that Jews don't have connection to this country (or something like that).
August 13, 2007 1:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, he said that some right-wing Orthodox Jews in New Jersey lack a sense of connectedness to America at large. He was talking about a tiny fringe of right-wing Jews like yourself.
Two, I'm sure Josh didn't take MJ's comments down. I'm sure MJ did because he can't stand having his comments stunk up by the illiterate racist blatherings of you and Bar Kocha.
He has said in the past that he won't keep posts up that are stunk up by the likes of you. MJ and most TPM people cant stand the stench of racial hate that emanates from you.
August 13, 2007 2:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Actually, he said that some right-wing Orthodox Jews in New Jersey lack a sense of connectedness to America at large. He was talking about a tiny fringe of right-wing Jews like yourself."
No, it's not what he said. He really was talking about much bigger slice of American Jews.
"TPM people cant stand the stench of racial hate that emanates from you."
Yes, for you and majority of MJ's admirers, Israel existence is racial hate,
Israel = apparteid. I'm a supporter of Israel, therefore from your point of you, I'm racist and apparteider.
August 13, 2007 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
MJ mentions Huckabee as a true believer in the neocon cause, but I'm really beginning to wonder if there's a damn one of them left in any kind of leadership role. It seems like they're all shills. Grover Norquist sold his soul to Abramoff and no one seems to care. He's still out there trying to set the GOP agenda on behalf of the highest bidder.
I always knew there were a few who were just mouthing the right sounds but lately it seems like all of the bastards are faking it.
August 13, 2007 4:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
....
August 13, 2007 4:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
AIPAC is not Republican or Democratic. .....
It is hardline on Israel. That means it will support politicians of either party who share that view.
Ah. So US interests take a back seat.
Glad thats cleared up.
August 13, 2007 6:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Tell you what, now that I think about it......whenever some corrupt loon
puts a political party of a foriegn power, or a foriegn power, before US interests, lets by all means mention what crackpot bunch of god thugs they also swear fealty to.
Just to be fair.
August 13, 2007 6:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with you as to the reasons the thread was removed. Your comments about "rootless cosmopolitans" and the need for the "proletarian masses" to "ferret out Jews hiding under non-Jewish names" are the best zingers I have ever seen here. I am envious! I wish I had thought of them.
August 13, 2007 9:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here is my challenge for AIPAC's haters.
Take a look at
http://aipac.org
and find something untruthful, unreasonable or something that is against US interests
August 13, 2007 10:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why isn't anyone saying that the Irish/American society, some of them sent money to Sinn Fein, outs America second?
August 13, 2007 11:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Being Democrat or Republican is no problem for both the neoCONS and loyal followers of AIPAC. After all, what's in a name?
That their causes tend to mingle and come together at points like two steams intersecting on the way to the same river is beneficial to both causes.
As Americans have found out (the hard way) since last Fall's mid-term elections, there is basically no difference between Dems and Repubs.
The majority of both Dems anbd Repubs belong to one party: The Corporate War Party.
Both parties have ulterior motives that have nothing to do with serving the people of this former democratic republic.
August 14, 2007 2:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
I see we are witnessing a return of Millard Fillmore's Nativist "American" or "Know-Nothing Party".
I move that MJ be put in charge of the party's panel that will ascertain which American Jews are "loyal Americans" in his eyes, and which are "ethnic nationalists" (i.e. support AIPAC) and will have their right to vote rescinded.
Nothing like the good old days!
August 14, 2007 4:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
To Mr Don K--I have come to realize that your viewpoint is far away from mine, so I would appreciate it if you would either not rate my comments at all, or give them a low rating, because I am interested in gauging the reaction of those who are active in this group to what I write. I don't understand why you give me and others "5" ratings all the time.
August 14, 2007 5:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
A troll complains:
Bar K writes: "To Mr Don K--I have come to realize that your viewpoint is far away from mine, so I would appreciate it if you would either not rate my comments at all, or give them a low rating, because I am interested in gauging the reaction of those who are active in this group to what I write. I don't understand why you give me and others "5" ratings all the time."
I'll tell you the reaction of TPM regulars to your posts. All but 2 or 3 think you are a racist crackpot and don't belong here.
August 14, 2007 5:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
Why isn't anyone saying that the Irish/American society, some of them sent money to Sinn Fein, outs America second?
Well, if the Irish/American society was trying to drag us into war with the United Kingdom, and if Congress and Presidential candidates were taking them seriously, and everyone else was afraid to speak up lest they be accused of anti-Irish racism, then I would feel the same way about them that I feel about AIPAC.
August 14, 2007 5:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Can't we stick to the topic of bitch-slapping Chavez & Gersten? Those two so deserve it, and it's fun.
August 14, 2007 5:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Looking over AIPAC's front page and the directly linked pages, I see a lot about what is good for Israel but very little about what is good for America. Support for sanctions on Iran and continued military aid to Israel are framed in terms of Israel's safety and security, not America's.
I think that American foreign policy should be made in the best interests of the majority of the American people. This means that special interests like the Cuban exile lobby, the Israeli lobby, and corporate executives asking for special favors should all be excluded.
August 14, 2007 5:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
You are right. Chavez and Gersten do indeed deserve it.
Unfortunately, the site pests Bar K and Davai use TPM as their personal racism disseminator.
But engaging with trolls is dumb. So we should stay on topic.
August 14, 2007 6:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
They did hold America's interests second. The money raised for the IRA, the gunrunning, the hiding of terrorists, damaged our alliance with the U.K.
August 14, 2007 6:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bar_Kochba132,
If you are interested in gauging the individual reactions of others to your posts, you can see them by clicking on the "see individual ratings" link.
August 14, 2007 6:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
"All but 2 or 3 think you are a racist crackpot and don't belong here."
Notice, that according to MJ, people who openly advocate destroying Israel, (majority of MJ supporters here) belong here.
August 14, 2007 6:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's one thing to criticize, it's another thing to disagree, but this is just the same damned thing over and over - and it's abuse.
August 14, 2007 6:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
JohnW1141: "So MJ, what's the weather for today?"
MJ: "John, I understand its gonna be cloudy with a lot of rain."
Seer of all that is anti semitic: "MJ is obviously hoping it floods Israel!"
August 14, 2007 6:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
"I see a lot about what is good for Israel but very little about what is good for America"
Sure, They say openly
"America's Pro-Israel Lobby"
They don't hide it.
But did you find that anything that they advocate is unreasonable or wrong for America?
Did they lie, mislead?
August 14, 2007 6:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm here in Israel where calling people Jew-haters, Nazis and the rest is off-limits.
I think the best thing TPM can do is either ban these guys or TPM regulars should refuse to engage them.
I was at a meeting at Tel Aviv University of people trying to come up with new strategies to end the occupation. A bunch of rightwingers showed up (more than the whole Davai, Bar K "crowd:" of 3 at TPM). Everybody just ignored them.
They yelled for awhile but then all left but one who sat there taking notes or something.
Without anyone saying not to engage them, no one did. It's a good approach.
Ignore the crazies.
August 14, 2007 7:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sorry but this is antisemitics:
"It turns out that one Linda Chavez, the rightwinger whose bread-and-butter is using her Hispanic last name to bash Latinos and "illegals" "
"Both were pretty standard Jewish neocons, "
It was totally uncalled for.
As well as his claims in the previous post that American Jews lack connection to US.
August 14, 2007 7:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
davai: But did you find that anything that they advocate is unreasonable or wrong for America?
Support for Israel, especially the uncritical support that currently exists, is not in U.S. national interests. Our only real interest in the Middle East is in ensuring a steady flow of oil at market prices. Propping up Israel detracts from that by angering virtually all of the oil-producing states. It also serves as a rallying point for anti-American terrorists.
Israel gets a lot out of the U.S.-Israel alliance. I don't see what America gets.
August 14, 2007 7:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
1) It's not anti-semitic. When Chavez was up for a cabinet post, it came out that although she pretends to be a Hispanic Catholic, she is actually
a Jew, who was married to Aipac's political director. She denied she was Jewish until a rabbi came forward who converted her. The relevance is her lying about who she is and what drives her. MJ is right to point out that she is a total fake.
She is as Latina as Norman Podhoretz!
August 14, 2007 7:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
How about calling people racists?
August 14, 2007 7:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
deleted
August 14, 2007 7:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
The old "Five million Frenchmen can't be wrong" line. I would appreciate it, MJ, in light of your recent revelation to us (or me, at least) that your true motivations in criticizing Israel and its supporters like AIPAC in the US, is that they are supposedly endangering your position as a Jew in the US, then could you explain why do you write fairly regularly in the Jerusalem Post, (which is NOT a "progressive" newspaper as has been pointed out in this group) and why you do not state the real reasons for your harsh criticism in that forum?
August 14, 2007 7:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
So why you are telling this here?
What the article in WP has to do with Chavez being Hispanic Catholic or Hispanic Jew? What that article has to do with AIPAC?
August 14, 2007 7:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
" Davai use TPM as their personal racism disseminator."
Yes, I'm an supporter of Israel, therefore according to your twisted logic I'm racist as most American Jews and Americans in general.
Other that your twisted logic, you can't point to anything racist that I wrote.
However, you've shown openly your hate for Jewish people and people of Israel. You constantly stoke antisemitism with your comments.
The way you brought "Jewish" and "AIPAC" to this topic is totally disgusting and antisemitic in the best traditions of Hitler or Stalin or Breshnev press.
There are several other people on TMP who post on I-P topics. In general they have the same position as you.
However, they can express their view without showing hate for Israeli people and hate for American Jews. Somehow you just can't hide your hate.
August 14, 2007 7:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yep, especially medium distance. I never figured out why my high school insisted on doing 600 yards rather than a more traditional 440 or 880, or even something metric.
Y'know, Davai, I once had someone walk up to me and say "I think you're a bastard."
"Yes, that's probably true."
"What, you're a bastard?"
"No, I said it was probably true that you thought I was a bastard. I've never met you before, but you probably weren't lying about what you thought. On the other hand, I am more impressed with my senior cat, Mr. Clark's, knowledge of Bolivian history than yours of my parentage."
From my perspective, Davai, your identity is tied up in being a victim, or, perhaps more precisely, whenever you are questioned, you change the subject, just as you did here, not answering but throwing back a distracting question. Whatever is questioned, you justify your position not because it is ethical, but because others are just as bad.
Actually, you're rather amusing, although it does make me guilty to laugh at your insecurities and general charm.
--
Howard
*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" [George Santayana]
August 14, 2007 7:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bottom line, you didn't find on that website anything objectional. So you are not against AIPAC, you are against US support for Israel in general.
"Our only real interest in the Middle East is in ensuring a steady flow of oil at market prices."
Israel does a lot to help here, but it's a subject for another discussion.
August 14, 2007 7:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
"you change the subject, just as you did here"
What you are talking about?
"Whatever is questioned, you justify your position not because it is ethical, but because others are just as bad."
Yes, I want Israel to be judged by the same standards the rest of the world is judged.
August 14, 2007 7:48 AM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, MJ's shift in the nature of his criticism from the old "we have to force Israel to capitulate to Arab terror for her own good", to the more recent "Israel, AIPAC and the 'ethnic-single issue'-voting-Jews in the US are endangering ME and mine in the US" actually clarifies a lot to me, particularly why he never criticizes blatantly anti-Jewish and anti-Israel comments seen here (e.g. the old "Zionism is a racist, ethnic cleansing movement" line).
The reason is that MJ is under pressure to continually "prove" himself to the supposedly "progressive" circles that he has chosen to hang out with that he is not one of "THEM"-the supposedly (in these "progressive's" eyes) "primitive, obscurantist, racist, bigoted, ethnocentric" JEWS. A modern reply of what was heard in Berlin in 1930...."it's THEM, the primitive Ostjuden from Poland that they don't like....we can convince them that WE are loyal, we fought in the Great War, we speak the native language properly, we are cultured, we read Goethe and Schiller, we love Wagner, we are clean-shaven, we don't wear long coats, etc. Once we convince them that we are not like those dirty Ostjuden, then they will understand that we are LOYAL in spite of what they are saying about us now, which is obviously ridiculous". Good luck, MJ.
August 14, 2007 7:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Ask the Wash Post why they thought it was relevant to put it in.
I suppose MJ included it because he knew Chavez when her husband was Aipac's political director or whatever it was.
The point is that Chavez goes around bashing affirmative action, then gets jobs by claiming to be Latina, while she is in fact a white Jew from the suburbs and a neocon.
In other words, a fake. Not an authentic paranoid like Davai.
August 14, 2007 7:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm breaking my own rule about not responding to BarKy.
He writes: "MJ is under pressure to continually "prove" himself to the supposedly "progressive" circles that he has chosen to hang out with that he is not one of "THEM"-the supposedly (in these "progressive's" eyes) "primitive, obscurantist, racist, bigoted, ethnocentric" JEWS."
No, I don't. I don't think anyone on the left considers me a rightwing Jewish chauvinist and the people on the right think I'm a self-hating Jew! But as Woody Allen once said: "It's not me I hate. It's Jews like you."
Well, I don't hate anybody. But I do have pity on paranoid Jews who still think it is 1942 and that we are all about to be shipped to Auschwitz. I think it's a form of mental illness which can and should be treated.
August 14, 2007 8:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Ask the Wash Post why they thought it was relevant to put it in."
They didn't put it in.
"The point is that Chavez goes around bashing affirmative action, then gets jobs by claiming to be Latina"
What's Latina? Why she is not Latina?
August 14, 2007 8:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, it is quite permissible for "progressives" (i.e. Leftists) to call their political opponents Nazis. Ben-Gurion said Menachem Begin was "just like Hitler". Prof Moshe Zimmerman (a "progressive") called the kids of the National Religious Benei Akiva youth movement "just like the Hitlerjudend". Or they themselves conciously adopt Nazi attitudes, like when "progressive" Israel Prize winning sculptur Yigal Tumarkin said "when I see the Haredim (Ultra-Orthodox) and their kids, I can understand the Nazis". Israel is very insistent on "freedom of speech" for post-Zionist Establishment "progressives", if not for others.
When you where at Tel Aviv University, did you or any of the "progressives" who were dealing with ways of "ending the occupation" (which "occupation", 1948 or 1967?) realize that the very ground you were standing on, at TAU, was the former Arab village of Sheikh Munis, and the owners of that land are now languishing in a refugee camp in Gaza (most likely) and I can assure that TAU didn't give them a single dime for it? Now, I have no problem with it because they started the war, and they, like the Sudeten Germans expelled by the Czechs in 1945, had to face up to the consequences of their aggression, but YOU, as a "progressive" who "wants to end the occupation" must realize that those Arabs from Sheikh Munis view the land you were standing on as being just as "occupied" as anything in Judea/Samaria. Did any of you address this issue, which is the core issue of the Arab/Israeli conflict, NOT the "occupation" 1967?
August 14, 2007 8:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
I shall speak for myself.
I don't believe that either bar kochba or davai is a racist and I see a gang mentality permeating this and other threads that makes me very uncomfortable, and even more sad.
I see lots of hate on this and other threads, and it comes from many sources.
August 14, 2007 8:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
From the Washington Post:
"Chavez was the staff director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights under President Ronald Reagan from 1983 to 1985, giving her a prominent platform to talk up traditional family values, to criticize affirmative action and to debate comparable pay for men and women. Gersten, meanwhile, became political director of AIPAC, the powerful pro-Israel political committee."
August 14, 2007 8:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
" But I do have pity on paranoid Jews who still think it is 1942 and that we are all about to be shipped to Auschwitz"
It's totally straw man argument.
"Well, I don't hate anybody"
You do hate American Jews who don't agree with you. You charge them with lack of patriotism and lack of connection to own country.
Yoo hate Israeli people who don't accept your views.
You are bitter hateful person.
I remember hate you expressed when you thought that TNR was caught in lies. It was so small and pathetic.
August 14, 2007 8:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Quod erat demonstratum.
I judge other threats to the United States in equal manner. When the US has a treaty commitment to another country, or a clear benefit such as the technical intelligence on the Soviet Union that came from Israel during the Cold War, there can be a value to the US taking billion-dollar steps to assist that country. Otherwise, the US has about as much real reason to maintain the identity of Botswana as it does of Israel. Cuba represents no particular threat to the US, but you'd never know it to listen to its US interest groups. When a state is identified as a US client and then jeopardizes US relations and safety, I judge it equally. If Israel goes its own way, fine with me -- just don't depend on the US or involve the US in its fears.
--
Howard
*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" [George Santayana]
August 14, 2007 8:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
OK, you are right,
Still what's Latina, and why she is not Latina
August 14, 2007 8:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
I wonder if Hitler ever said Hitler was just like Hitler, especially in the springtime? Seems like everyone else uses it. Arafat was just like Hitler to Begin.
Depending on one's political analysis, the National Socialist German Workers' Party was either far left or far right, so I suppose either rightists or leftists can claim the other side is acting like Nazis.
Yawn.
--
Howard
*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" [George Santayana]
August 14, 2007 8:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
What you said reminds me of an article I read last year about someone (pro-Israel) decided to attend an orientation meeting for volunteers for the International Solidarity Movement (the pro-Palestinian organization that sends Europeans and Americans to serve as human shields and to confront Israeli security forces) to see what it is like. The director told the initiates that "when you go among the Palestinians you will hear things like "the Jews are the enemy", "the Jews have to be eradicated" and the such, but what they REALLY mean is "the Zionists". No doubt the director is a mind-reader.
We always hear the argument that one can be "strongly" critical of Israel and yet not be an antisemite. However, how is one able to discern what the critic is really thinking? Thus you, MJ, have opted to use your pen and blog to make sure that you are on the safe side. After all, you yourself have stated that "single issue ethnocentric Jewish voters" who "don't care about America" are endangering you. What if a non-Jew thinks the same and "mistakenly", knowing your Jewish identity, and without knowing your views, AUTOMATICALLY puts you in that category? That is why you have to prove yourself over and over and over, again, just to be on the safe side.
August 14, 2007 8:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
I came to this thread expecting some good old bashing of Repubicans who hate government except when they can use it to line their pockets, and I'll I got was a bunch of fanatically pro-Zionist trolls.
August 14, 2007 8:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Please.
August 14, 2007 8:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Be careful there John you might be branded anti semitic by Davai and BarK. These 2 just can't understand that some people in this country, you know the one with freedom of speech somewhere on some important document,can criticize Israel for their policies against Palestine and still not be, in their eyes, an anti semite. That being said I'm sick and tired of the American government's whole hearted support of the Israel right or wrong crowd. Now that will put me squarely in the sights of the above mentioned, as MJ put it, TROLLS.
August 14, 2007 9:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
Linda Chavez was nominated as Secretary of Labor? LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL
YEAH RIGHT!
Who in their right mind would nominate her as Sec of Labor? LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL
Next you'll be trying to tell me Elaine Chou was nominted for the same post.
LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL
August 14, 2007 9:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
Englands brutal, sometimes genocidal 800 year occupation of Ireland deserved to be opposed. Individual citizens raised funds & supported the IRA.
Britain had its own AIPAC like influence over the US in that fight, for a while. But they were blunted by US citizens acting to influence the US governments stance.
I wonder how many years you'd get today for "abetting terrorism" after Bush & the laws passed since AIPAC & what itfronts for has become a branch of government?
I raised funds & supported the Salvadoreans & Nicaraguans against US backed thugs.
In niether cases, were the workings of the US State hyjacked to do the bidding of a foriegn power.
Can you see the difference, or are you gibbering about antisemitism?
August 14, 2007 9:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
Flood? That unfortunately reminds me of a poll that suggested that a significant number of Americans believed Noah's wife was Joan of Ark.
Truth may be stranger than polls. About a week ago, I was driving in what Maryland calls the Cumberland Gap, but what looked more like the Himalayas. As we ground down one slope (I am not an experienced truck driver, but luckily my friend was driving), we passed a church, outside of which was a skeletal steel frame, identified by a sign indicating it was an Ark under construction. Locals told us it had been in that state for 30 years or so.
Perhaps the lack of progress on the ark was due to a shortage of arc welders.
--
Howard
*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" [George Santayana]
August 14, 2007 9:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
Kathyg,
What a shame that calling someone an antisemite is covered by the same speech clause of the First Amendment, huh.
Meanwhile, much of the same people who have no problem hurling accusations of treason and racism at Israel, Jews and Zionists stroke their own sense of martyrdom at being accused of antisemitism. May there be no end to the delicious irony of free speech.
August 14, 2007 9:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
Jews are white -- Sephardim, Mizrachim, Falashim, whatever. You must appreciate the narrative, davai. Namely, all Jews are white by default, since Jews are against the Brown People of Palestine.
August 14, 2007 9:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
White Falashim? Slap me with injera.
--
Howard
*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" [George Santayana]
August 14, 2007 10:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
But you sure are having a swell time with the ratings. Anyway, I'm sure the discussion being sidetracked has absolutely nothing to do with MJ's habit of tossing his posts down the TPMmemory_hole when the discussions get too weird for comfort.
August 14, 2007 10:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe that's why they don't use forks...?
August 14, 2007 10:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm still curious why MJ post attract so many
Jew-haters, and not posts of others left wing TMP contributers?
August 14, 2007 10:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
Frankly, I think at this point we should be passing around the tej.
August 14, 2007 10:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
What if a Black is converted to Judaism, Is he she is no longer Black, but automatically Jewish neocon?
Thanks to MJ we are having very interesting discussion.
With progressive like MJ, who need reactionaries?
August 14, 2007 10:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe it is because of the "you see, one of their own is saying it, so we won't be accused of antisemitism" syndrome.
August 14, 2007 10:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
That can be dangerous. Some colleagues and I introduced one distinguished member of the Internet community to Ethiopian food, with abundant tej. He couldn't get enough of the food after everyone else was stuffed.
Plenty of stews were on the table, but the injera pile had been refreshed several times. Unfortunately, the staff thought we were finished, and brought extra napkins, some in warm water.
A man trying to eat a linen napkin full of kitfo is not a pleasant sight.
--
Howard
*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" [George Santayana]
August 14, 2007 10:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
And these Jew haters are whom?
--
Howard
*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" [George Santayana]
August 14, 2007 10:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
Lenny Bruce, How to Talk Dirty and Influence People; Playboy Press, softcover edition, 1972, p.6:
August 14, 2007 10:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
Are they all also neocons?
August 14, 2007 11:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
Howard, you're on a roll:
""No, I said it was probably true that you thought I was a bastard. I've never met you before, but you probably weren't lying about what you thought. On the other hand, I am more impressed with my senior cat, Mr. Clark's, knowledge of Bolivian history than yours of my parentage."
"Flood? That unfortunately reminds me of a poll that suggested that a significant number of Americans believed Noah's wife was Joan of Ark."
"Perhaps the lack of progress on the ark was due to a shortage of arc welders."
or architects. :-)
August 14, 2007 11:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
Refer to post on MJ and weather forecast.
August 14, 2007 11:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think its a shame but we should be sure the charge is true. But who decides that? Maybe we should organize a committee
to decide what posts/people are anti semitic?
Hey, I think The Iraq Survey Group is free.
August 14, 2007 11:23 AM | Reply | Permalink
Fanatic; M J Rosenberg, hmmm, M J Rosenberg, hmmm.
Look at that, he has a J, and an E in his name, and if you turn the letter M upside down its a W.
The last 4 letters are "berg".
Its obvious; MJ is accusing the Jews of pushing the iceberg in front of the Titanic!
August 14, 2007 11:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Not as much fun as Dan K, though.
August 14, 2007 11:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
One must be sensitive to diversity, and recognize that in Salt Lake City, Jews are Gentiles.
How can this be? Jesus was Jewish, but also Irish. Clear evidence:
--
Howard
*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*
"Let him who is without sin cast the first stone..."
B*O*N*K
"Motherrrrrr!"
August 14, 2007 11:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
Don't knock Bolivia. Any landlocked country that has a navy, complete with admirals, gets points for creativity.
--
Howard
*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" [George Santayana]
August 14, 2007 11:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
Linda Chavez, Elaine Chou, what's in a name? Being Secretary of Labor in a Republican administration is a part-time job anyway. I think they spend their afternoons doing bicycle deliveries for delicatessens.
August 14, 2007 1:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Listen, I lost track of that thread on Israeli apartheid roads. But I just want to know one thing. When I said that the entire demographic imbalance of the region is due to the excessive chastity of Israeli girls, who won't do their part to address these issues (I'd settle for a phone number), did anyone like Davai come up with any examples to prove me wrong.
And does she have a sister?
August 14, 2007 1:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
John,
It's very good idea.
Before posting here any charges, Iraq Survey Group needs to take a look and decide if they are true.
The following charges have to be approved by them:
anti semitic
racism,
apparteider
lichudnick,
right winger,
neocon,
Jewish neocon,
Jewish lack of connection to countries they live in,
not patriotic,
Israel first,
Jewish parasite,
etc.....
August 14, 2007 1:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
JohnW1141,
Maybe the charges of treason, backstabbing and dual-loyalty don't bother you, but perhaps you could expand your investigative committee's mandate beyond only those freely spoken charges of antisemitism. I'm just sayin'....
August 14, 2007 1:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dan K appears to be on a noble mission. Keeping trollrated comments safe for the perusal of lurkers anywhere any time. Kind of a Mario Savio for the internet age.
August 14, 2007 1:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
In all fairness, I started out in the USDOL after law school during the 80s, and I will say that there is simply no way to compare the committed, albeit GOP labor secretaries from that time (William Brock, Ann McLaughlin and even Libby Dole after I had left)with the downright anti-labor orientation of Bush's DOL under Secretary Chou.
I was in the DOL Solicitor's Office back then and we had a terrific guy appointed by the Reagan folks to head that office, George Salem. Incidentally, I believe Salem may have been the highest ranking Palestinian-American presidential appointee at that time. Whenever Salem visited the New York regional office where I worked he expressed nothing but support for the various enforcement efforts we, the non-political appointees, were engaged in.
Those were the days. Times have changed indeed. This is not your parents' DOL.