David Lieberman's Open Salon Blog

Scent of a Yellow Rose

Thu, 9 Dec 2010 16:12:41 -0500

So for some Texas Republicans, it seems, being Jewish is enough to disqualify a fellow Republican from holding high office in the state legislature.

https://www.texasobserver.org/hotonthetrail/srec-member-i-got-into-politics-to-put-christian-conservatives-into-office

I wonder if anyone's told Congressman Cantor ...

What double standard?

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:08:44 -0400

Khaled Abu Toameh notices an epidemic of not noticing [extended excerpt follows]:

"The arrest last week of seven Palestinian university lecturers at the hands of Palestinian Authority security services in the West Bank is yet another example of how the international media functions in this part of the world.

"Some Palestinian stringers and reporters offered the story about the arrest of the academics to at least a dozen foreign correspondents and newspaper editors in North America and Europe.

"Only one foreign journalist agreed to write about the story. His colleagues gave different excuses for turning their backs on the story.

"Some said they were concerned about their personal safety should they report a news item that was likely to anger the Western-funded PA security forces in the West Bank.

"Others simply blamed their editors in New York, Paris, London and Toronto for turning down the story as 'insignificant.'

"Earlier this week, a disenchanted Ramallah-based Palestinian journalist decided to put her Western colleagues to the test. She contacted the same group of newsmen and editors who had been offered the story on the academics' arrest with a 'new idea' for a news item.

"The Palestinian journalist proposed that the foreign press write about a Palestinian university professor who complained that Israeli authorities had turned down his request to visit Israel together with his wife and three children.

"The response from the international journalists came almost instantly. All but two said it was a 'great story' and expressed readiness to start working on it immediately."

[End extended excerpt].

Any OS takers?

Didn't think so.

This one really is America's mayor

Wed, 4 Aug 2010 16:08:33 -0400

Michael Bloomberg -- a mayor in whom New York can truly take pride:

The simple fact is, this building is private property, and the owners have a right to use the building as a house of worship, and the government has no right whatsoever to deny that right. And if it were tried, the courts would almost certainly strike it down as a violation of the U.S. Constitution.

Whatever you may think of the proposed mosque and community center, lost in the heat of the debate has been a basic question: Should government attempt to deny private citizens the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their particular religion? That may happen in other countries, but we should never allow it to happen here.

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/08/03/mayor_bloomberg_on_mosque/index.html

In other news: Gaza summer camp for kids attacked

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:06:08 -0400

... and guess who didn't do it?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/06/28/gaza.summer.camp.attack/index.html

Heard any outrage about this here in OS land?

Didn't think so.

Turkey: When Kurds and Armenians just aren't enough anymore

Tue, 8 Jun 2010 10:06:04 -0400

Here we go. Up front: I'm not particularly in favor of the Gaza blockade (though I do think when it is lifted some provision needs to be in place to ensure Hamas doesn't import rockets along with the coriander), and I agree with the many Israelis who think the raid was just plain bone-headed as a matter of policy and of execution. But really, given Turkey's history with its own minority populations, shouldn't we have seen this coming? These images were captured at the June 5 protest in Istanbul, organized by the Islamic Saadet Party.

The text translated: "Legendary leader Adolf Hitler, our patience is running out, we need your spirit."

Here's another gem:

The text translated: "Well done."

Why, just last week, the Turks gave a clear official demonstration of how far their humanitarian concerns extend: "On June 4, Sevahir Bayindir, a Kurdish MP, was attacked by the police and hurt in Silopi during a protest against the military operations in the Kurdish regions. A day earlier, Firat Basan, a 14-year-old Kurdish boy, was killed when a tank rolled over him during a similar protest in Sirnak. Also on June 4, Irfan Aktar, a Kurdish journalist, received a prison sentence of one year because of an article he wrote on the Kurdish issue in a magazine. Over 1,400 members of the pro-Kurdish party DTP are in prison since 2009—some of them are elected mayors and prominent members of human rights organizations. More than one million Kurds have been displaced in Turkey in the past decade, and they can not go back to their villages because the state does not clear landmines."

The display of humanitarianism is just overwhelming, isn't it? Peace activists, indeed.

Read the whole thing.