Terror Time

Maybe it's best that liberals don't talk about Israeli aggression, because when they do, they usually have no idea what the fuck they're saying.

Take radio lib chatter Ed Schultz. Most days, I'd rather listen to that tape of screaming, slaughtered rabbits that the ATF blasted outside the Branch Davidian compound (before they went Israeli on Koresh and crew) than subject myself to that guffawing, dimbulb Dem mouthpiece, but yesterday I was curious to hear what Big Eddie had to say about the current madness. And he didn't disappoint -- "I support Israel!" he bellowed in the show's opening, because "Israel is a democracy" and "the Palestinians are not innocent" and Hezbollah is to Israel what North Korea is to the US. Yes, Schultz actually made that comparison in an effort to get his listeners to appreciate Israel's fear. Of course, the IDF doesn't fear Hezbollah, seeing how they possess superior firepower and are backed by the US. But Schultz tried to make it seem that Israel was being cornered by Hezbollah, just as we might be cornered by the mighty North Korean state in the near future. So strap saddles on some fat boys and let 'er rip!




Al Franken wasn't much better -- oh hell, why be polite. Franken was his usual clueless self, muttering about how Israel has a "right" to go apeshit in Lebanon, but maybe they were going a bit too apeshit, yet Franken confessed that he really didn't know what to think, and quickly moved on to less stressful topics.

Don't you love "progressive" radio?

(BTW, I have some rather juicy info about the inner-workings of Air America from someone in the know, nothing that should surprise you, but interesting all the same. At some point I'll write about how these defenders of humanity operate off-air, but that's of little import at the moment.)

It looks like 1982 all over again, only this time, Israel has bigger fish to bomb out of the water. The fact that their sponsors in Washington are blaming Syria and Iran for the ongoing violence should tell you exactly where Israel's actions will ultimately lead, or at least where they would like it to lead. But for the time being, the Lebanese are in the crosshairs, as are the Palestinians, who are taking a major hit while trapped in their Gazan cage (which the US fully supports, as evidenced by their predictable veto of a UN resolution calling on Israel to pull out of Gaza -- the lone country to do so, of course). And again, anybody who seriously thinks that the present aggression has anything to do with three captured Israeli soldiers, much less with "defense," is either politically stupid or simply in favor of killing "these animals," a term I heard more than once used by callers on liberal radio shows.

The one good thing about this -- and note that I mean "good" in an educational sense -- is that anti-Arab racism can now come out in the open from every quarter, and not just from the Little Green Fascist crowd. Scratch a mainstream liberal today and find a wog-hater who points an accusing finger at the incinerated remains of a Lebanese or Palestinian child. "They have it coming," is the mantra, and as Israel prepares for a full-scale ground invasion of Lebanon, we're going to be hearing more of the same from the likes of Ed Schultz, Al Franken, their listeners and online allies, with a little hand-wringing thrown in for humanistic effect. State terror is fine, so long as it's not too terroristic. But even if it is, that's just the way the shrapnel flies. What can you do?

EXCEPTION: My good friend, the humorist Barry Crimmins, appeared with Sam Seder on last night's Majority Report, and injected a bit of sanity and context into that rant hole. And speaking of Barry, do check out his latest comedy CD, "Blues In The Key Of W." A little old school satire goes a long way in these horrid times.

READ: Marwan Bishara, who goes beyond the wire service reports.

SUPPORT: The brave activists of Gush Shalom, who protested in front of Israel's Ministry of Defense, only hours after the bombing of Lebanon began. Let's hope their numbers grow.