Thirty-eight percent of Israelis support the Arab League Initiative (formerly, the Saudi peace plan) while 69 percent of Palestinians do.
That is the finding of a September poll conducted jointly by the Harry Truman Institute at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah.
Now we know why among the very first people Sarah Palin sat down with after being nominated was Joe Lieberman and the head of AIPAC.
She needed the latest talking points and, boy, did she learn her lines. Read this from the Gibson interview.
GIBSON: Let me turn to Iran.... : What if Israel decided it felt threatened and need to take out the Iranian nuclear facilities?
For some reason, I find this column in today's New York Times almost comforting.
Somehow, taking the seven year 9/11-Bush nightmare and putting it into Biblical cadences works. At least it does for me.
Cohen reminds us that today we mourn just just for the victims of 9/11/01 but for the country we lost on that day -- not due to anything the terrorist monsters did, but thanks to the Bush/Cheney neocon gang.
Cohen writes:
"And in the seventh year after the fall, the dust and debris of the towers cleared. And it became plain at last what had been wrought.
"For the wreckage begat greed; and it came to pass that while America's young men and women fought, other Americans enriched themselves. Beguiling the innocent, they did backdate options, and they did package toxic mortgage securities and they did reprice risk on the basis that it no more existed than famine in a fertile land."
Worth reading.
This is an important piece by one of America's leading political scientists Andrew Hacker.
I knew that the GOP makes it difficult for African-Americans to vote. I did not know just how sophisticated their vote suppression efforts are. According to Hacker, vote suppression could be the key to a McCain victory this year. It comes down to this: our chances of winning depend on an unprecedented increase in the African-American turnout. Their chances hang on blocking that turnout.
They are ready.
We better be. We weren't in 2000 or 2004 and a strong case can be made that it was vote suppression (not to mention other forms of cheating) that won it for them,
I think it is absolutely right that our Presidential candidate go after their Vice Presidential candidate.
Why? Because, as the Republicans learned under Karl Rove, you go after the other side's strength not its weakness. You attack Kerry on his military record or Gore for being smart. The idea is that if you hit them where they are strong, the rest collapses too.
Sarah Palin has turned out to be the GOP's #1 asset this year. That is not only because she's a woman and an interesting character. It is because McCain is just so utterly flat and uninspiring.
He is now running on her coat tails and it's up to us to cut them off. Both Obama and Biden should go after her hard, laughingly rebuke the GOP's shock and horror that they would attack a mother, and let the media do the rest. Today's NEWSWEEK story could be an indication that the Palin master stroke could well end up destroying the GOP's chances. Hit 'em where they are strong and let the old white guy fade into oblivion. (Not that we shouldn't attack him too).
But, first, sack the QB. That's Palin.
This is great news for Democratic chances in Florida.
Former New York Mayor Ed Koch has endorsed Barack Obama. Koch's big issue is terrorism and he endorsed Bush in '04.
But Palin pushed him over the edge.
"I have concluded that the country is safer in the hands of Barack Obama, leader of the Democratic Party and protector of the philosophy of that party. Protecting and defending the U.S. means more than defending us from foreign attacks. It includes defending the public with respect to their civil rights, civil liberties and other needs, e.g., national health insurance, the right of abortion, the continuation of Social Security, gay rights, other rights of privacy, fair progressive taxation and a host of other needs and rights.
"If the vice president were ever called on to lead the country, there is no question in my mind that the experience and demonstrated judgment of Joe Biden is superior to that of Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin is a plucky, exciting candidate, but when her record is examined, she fails miserably with respect to her views on the domestic issues that are so important to the people of the U.S., and to me. Frankly, it would scare me if she were to succeed John McCain in the presidency."
Bravo, Mayor Koch. Memo to Obama Campaign: Get Koch to every synagogue in Florida!
This op-ed by Jeff Goldberg is definitely worth a read.
He writes that experts believe that there is a 20-50% chance of a WMD attack on a major American city over the next decade. He is referring to the so-called "dirty bomb." He maintains that A-Q is seeking a weapon and will deploy it when it can. (He says that smuggling it into the US should not be hard; just hide it in a cocaine shipment).
He also points out that the Bush administration has not only done nothing to defend us against an attack but has made things worse. In addition to the pointless slaughter, the Iraq war is also a giant diversion from the real threat. And now the Bush administration is suspending nuclear cooperation with Russia to punish Russia for its intervention in Geogia. Typical idiocy).
I simply can't fathom it. Why would anyone vote for the Republicans this year?
Other than this. The New York Times today offers a valentine to our Sarah, the mom to end all moms, the new feminist/activist/working mom who is an nspiration to all womanhood.
It seems to be working. But why?
Okay, I understand that Republicans, for the most part, vote Republican. Democrats are, for the most part, equally loyal to their party.
But what about independents and swing voters. Other than the factor one is not supposed to discuss (but which we all know is a big one), why would any American vote to continue the status quo?
It's almost un-American, the idea of perpetuating bad times. Overwhelmingly the American people think George W. Bush was a terrible President, that the Iraq war was a mistake, and that the economy is in a free fall.
How then can they vote for four more years of the same. Again, I have no problem with Republicans voting Republican. And I know why racists and neocons and the abortion-obsessed will vote Republican. But why would any normal patriotic American vote for the continuation of a status quo that, we pretty much all agree, sucks?
