sinful upper arms banned in ramat gan

Meretz ad in Ramat Gan deemed immodest
Adi Sasson, YNet, 11.02.08

Meretz’s Ramat Gan branch was told last week that if the sleeves of the party’s third municipal candidate, Yuli Goldstein, are not lengthened in the party’s ad campaign the ads would not be posted on local buses. The Canaan advertising company, which is responsible for ads on buses belonging to the Dan Bus Company operating in central Israel, referred to a sign featuring Goldstein wearing a short sleeved t-shirt, surrounded by high-rising buildings.

The sign in question actually addresses the fast growing skyscrapers being built in the city, and Meretz, a party known for its struggle against religious coercion, refused to be censored. “It was a bit surprising,” said head of the Meretz municipal list, Tsachi Zelicha. “She is not dressed in a revealing or provocative way, and to the best of my recollection, we did not pass a municipal bylaw forbidding women in Ramat Gan to walk around without wigs and in long sleeves.” Ramat Gan’s Meretz campaign manager, Roy Yellin added that “the strict laws of modesty that start with signs on buses could eventually reach the internal seats, and since there really was no reason for the censorship, we refused to force the laws of modesty on the candidate.” The Dan Bus Company was unavailable for comment.

obama, gas, jews, etc.

from Eric Boehlert, Jamison Foser, Media Matters

During the Oct 30 broadcast of his Cincinnati-based radio show, Bill Cunningham asked “Randy Furman,” a fictional Jewish character voiced by fellow WLW-AM host Scott Sloan:

Did you hear about this Khalidi tape where Obama is toasting a guy who wants to gas and fry Jews? … This Obama guy loves the PLO. Can’t you figure that out? … Jews for McCain because Obama wants to gas the Jews, like the PLO wants to gas the Jews, like the Nazis gassed the Jews. You got Obama introducing Arab terrorists, and the LA Times won’t release the story.

Echoing McCain’s reported Oct 29 statement that “if there was a tape of John McCain in a neo-Nazi outfit … I think the treatment of the issue would be slightly different,” Cunningham stated earlier in the show:

I guess the LA Times still has that tape on Khalidi, and they don’t release it because it’s injurious to the interest of Obama. Can you imagine if the media had a tape of maybe John McCain at a Ku Klux Klan rally or at an abortion-clinic benefit and he’s standing there toasting the guy who bombed the abortion clinic, and the LA Times wouldn’t release it?

The NYT profiled Khalidi in an Oct 30 article. The profile quoted Rabbi J. Rolando Matalon of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, who “said he has known Mr. Khalidi for years,” stating of Khalidi: “In no way has he ever indicated that he favors the destruction or disappearance of Israel … He has always been consistently in favor of dialogue and common ground.” The article also reported that Khalidi “has denied working for” the PLO. As Media Matters for America has documented, numerous conservative media figures have compared Obama to Adolf Hitler or the Nazis in recent days.

hate to tell ya, cockburn

[…] Nader’s supporters, when questioned by pollsters, indicate he may be pulling almost equally from both McCain and Obama, though I’d bet otherwise. Some polls show Nader is at 3% nationally; the latest Real Clear Politics average gives him 2.3% of the total vote, and Bob Barr, the right-wing former Republican running on the Libertarian ticket, about 1%. Meanwhile, most of the polls show Nader taking two votes from Obama for every one that Barr might get from McCain. Almost all the math shows the net effect of Barr and Nader’s candidacies hurting Obama disproportionately. […] – from Carl Bernstein, HuffPost

to win these wars in iraq and iran?

from FOXNews.com

VAN SUSTEREN: When you talk to Senator McCain, is it mostly about strategy or are you talking big picture right now?
GOV. SARAH PALIN: Both. Both. But not so much strategy about the campaign at all because we both are so confident that we are on the right path, and in these final days of the campaign, we’re acknowledging that people are understanding the stark contrast between the two tickets. And that’s good. This is the place we need to be right here, still as a bit of an underdog in these last few days, but realizing that Americans are really starting to hear what our opponents are talking about when they talk about spreading the wealth, taking more from our small businesses and from our families and then redistributing other people’s hard-earned money according to a politician’s priorities, that that is — that is not good for this uniquely American, pro-entrepreneurial system that we have that has allowed our country to be the greatest country on earth. We realize that more and more Americans are starting to see the light there and understand the contrast. And we talk a lot about, OK, we’re confident that we’re going to win on Tuesday, so from there, the first 100 days, how are we going to kick in the plan that will get this economy back on the right track and really shore up the strategies that we need over in Iraq and Iran to win these wars?

TPM’s version:

jazeera discussion of the syria raid

Part One (13 mins)

Part Two (10 mins)

David Schenker vs. two other people on the Syria raid. Somewhere in the second half, Schenker, a serious neocon type, manages to assert that Syria is behind the activities of ‘Fatah al-Islam’, not that this is at all relevant, but in March 2007 Seymour Hersh, investigative reporter for New Yorker magazine, suggested that the Lebanese government was giving support to Fatah al-Islam, in order to defeat Hezbollah. Independently, Dr. Franklin Lamb, a researcher at the American University of Beirut, a Hezbollah expert and the author of “Hezbollah: A Brief Guide for Beginners”, located at the time in Lebanon, made allegations that were similar, but more detailed. He claimed that assistant to Secretary of State David Welch negotiated with the Saudis, and with Saad Hariri of the American-backed Siniora government, to funnel aid to Fatah al-Islam, so that the Sunni group could eventually attack Shi’ite Hezbollah. Lamb referred to this group of plotters as the ‘Welch club,’ but others call it the ‘Friday lunch club.’ and that’s BEFORE the psyops start! The psyops in Assad’s case being a non-stop psywar campaign, originally run out of the Israeli Foreign Ministry and dating back to the time when Alon Liel was minister, that has been planting stories in innumerable western mainstream mass media asserting that Assad is secretly requesting these raids, begging for help in escaping from the clutches of Iran, and so on. This psywar campaign is Israeli in origin, but, like other Israeli bad habits, appears to have been taken up by the Pentagon, which now provides unattributable spokespeople to encourage it.

lots of last minute bullshit

from Nicholas Graham, HuffPost

With Election Day looming and the polls suggesting John McCain faces a daunting challenge, the GOP and the McCain campaign have ramped up their negative attacks on Barack Obama. Just to start, McCain attacked Obama’s patriotism and Republicans made much hay out of a video that purportedly shows Obama attending a party where Palestinian, and Columbia University Professor, Rashid Khalidi was also a guest. Below is a round up of some of McCain’s and the GOP’s 11th hour attacks.

McCain Attacks Obama’s Patriotism:
McCain seized on, and took out of context, remarks made by Obama today to question the Democrat’s patriotism:

John McCain unveiled a new attack on Barack Obama’s patriotism Saturday, jumping all over, and taking out of context, remarks made yesterday in which the Democratic nominee said the Iowa Caucuses vindicated his faith in the American public. Campaigning in Springfield, Virginia, McCain told the crowd that he had always had faith in his country and, dinging his opponent, claimed that the US “has never had to prove anything to me.” Past statements aside, if one actually takes a look at what Obama said, and what he has said before, it is hard to interpret in any way that he doubted the US. Just look at the sentences before his “faith” remark, in which he lavishly praises the American people, who he “knew” were “decent” and “generous.”

GOP Flier: Obama More A Friend To Criminals Than Cops:
HuffPost‘s Sam Stein reports on a GOP flier circulating in Virginia that accuses Obama of being more of a friend to criminals than to cops:

The pamphlet, flagged by a recipient in the state and a new version of one previously reported in several other states, includes a photo of a quiet suburban neighborhood and young children playing on in a classroom — the implicit message being, Obama will make you and your family less safe. “Protecting your family comes first,” reads the front. “A record of being soft on crime,” reads the back. “Barack Obama has consistently opposed tougher penalties for criminals — including major offenses — allowing criminals to remain on the streets.”

GOP Mailer In Pennsylvania Suggests Electing Obama Could Lead To Second Holocaust:
Talking Points Memo flags another GOP flier that is particularly nasty:

A reader sends in a nasty mailer that just hit Philadelphia-area in-boxes, blasted out by a GOP group called the Republican Jewish Coalition, suggesting that a vote for Barack Obama could lead to another “tragic outcome” for the Jewish people. “Concerned about Barack Obama? You should be,” the mailer warns. “History has shown that a naive and weak foreign policy has resulted in tragic outcomes for the Jewish people.” The mailer helpfully notes that the image is a pic of Obama speaking in Germany.

House GOP Leader Calls Obama “Chickenshit”:
House Minority leader John Boehner shockingly used an expletive to describe Obama for his “present” votes in the Illinois State Senate:

House minority leader John Boehner’s spokesman confirms the accuracy of this quote, from an Ohio student newspaper:
“Now, listen, I’ve voted ‘present’ two or three times in my entire 25-year political career, where there might have been a conflict of interest and I didn’t feel like I should vote,” Boehner said. “In Congress, we have a red button, a green button and a yellow button, alright. Green means ‘yes,’ red means ‘no,’ and yellow means you’re a chickenshit. And the last thing we need in the White House, in the oval office, behind that big desk, is some chicken who wants to push this yellow button.”

Regional McCain Manager Denies Obama’s Citizenship:
Tim McClellan, a regional manager in Florida for the McCain campaign, isn’t sold on the idea of Obama as an American citizen:

The most surprising statement was something we’ve been hearing from McCain supporters but not from anyone actually on the McCain or RNC payroll. “I have strong concerns that Obama is not a citizen. I suspect the US Supreme Court will prove that Obama’s not a citizen,” Tim continued. “Did he go to Indonesia and become an Indonesian citizen, and if so, did he take steps to regain his (US) citizenship? There’s no seal on his birth certificate and the font is wrong.”

Conservative Group To Run Rev. Wright Ads Through Election Day:
National Republican Trust PAC has a major ad buy on national networks to run anti-Wright attacks:

Get ready for a deluge of Wright rantings. The National Republican Trust PAC, which has been airing an ad attacking Barack Obama’s association with Reverend Wright in three battleground states, has now put down for a national buy on five networks that will last from now through election day, a consultant with the group confirms to me. The ad will run nationally on Fox, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC for the next five days, the consultant, Rick Wilson, says, “all the way until election day.” The ad features the now-infamous footage of Wright’s livelier sermons, and intones that Obama “never complained” about Wright “until he ran for President,” adding that Obama is “too radical, too risky.” (too strong, too black – RB)

Obama Campaign Manager Questions Timing Of Aunt Story:
David Axelrod is suspicious of the timing of the story about Obama’s aunt living in the country illegally:

Speaking to reporters today, Obama chief strategist David Axelrod addressed reports that Zeituni Onyango, the half-sister of Obama’s Kenyan father, has been living illegally in the US for four years. Axelrod expressed some skepticism about the timing of the news, which first broke in the Times of London and was confirmed by AP in the waning days of the presidential race. “The campaign issued a statement on that,” Axelrod told reporters, “And I don’t have anything more to add to it, other than I think people are suspicious about stories that surface in the last 72 hours of a national campaign. I think that they’re going to take that. They’re going to put it in that context.” In a statement earlier today, the campaign said that “Sen. Obama has no knowledge of her status but obviously believes that any and all appropriate laws should be followed.”

More GOP Mailers Hitting The Streets:
A new GOP flier hits Obama on lobbyists, taxes and socialism:

The anti-Obama mail keeps piling up. A reader forwarded a set of pieces that go after the Illinois Democrat for not, really, being a thorn in the side of lobbyists and for planning to raise taxes alongside his liberal allies in Congress,The first piece accuses Obama of funneling the “hard-earned money of America’s taxpayers to pay his friends and family with political favors.” As evidence the literature cites the Senator’s relationship with Tony Rezko, the indicted Chicago insider, and two earmarks that Obama helped bring to Illinois; projects that, tangentially, were connected to his wife or a political supporter. It is, in short, thin gruel.

McCain Campaign Demands LA Times Release Khalidi Video:
The McCain campaign sought to portray Obama as an extremist after learning that the LA Times has video of Obama attending the same party as Rashid Khalidi. HuffPost‘s Seth Colter Walls discovers that this guilt-by-association game will be difficult for McCain to pull off:

In regards to Khalidi, however, the guilt-by-association game burns John McCain as well. During the 1990s, while he served as chairman of the International Republican Institute (IRI), McCain distributed several grants to the Palestinian research center co-founded by Khalidi, including one worth half a million dollars. A 1998 tax filing for the McCain-led group shows a $448,873 grant to Khalidi’s Center for Palestine Research and Studies for work in the West Bank. The relationship extends back as far as 1993, when John McCain joined IRI as chairman in January. Foreign Affairs noted in September of that year that IRI had helped fund several extensive studies in Palestine run by Khalidi’s group, including over 30 public opinion polls and a study of “sociopolitical attitudes.”

traditional british sunday disinfo

from Marie Colvin, Uzi Mahnaimi, Sunday Times

[…] sources in Washington last week revealed to the Sunday Times an intriguingly different background to the events in Sukariyeh. According to one source, the special forces operation had taken place with the full cooperation of the Syrian intelligence services. “Immediately after 9/11, Syrian intelligence cooperation was remarkable,” said the Washington source. “Then ties were broken off, but they have resumed recently.” Abu Ghadiya was feared by the Syrians as an agent of Islamic fundamentalism who was hostile to the secular regime in Damascus. It would be expedient for Syria if America would eliminate him. The threat to the Syrian government has made the regime of President Bashar al-Assad jittery. In September a car bomb exploded in Damascus near its intelligence headquarters. Many of the 17 victims were Shi’ite Muslim pilgrims at a nearby shrine. The Washington source said the Americans regularly communicate with the Syrians through a back channel that runs through Syria’s air force intelligence, the Idarat al-Mukhabarat al-Jawiyya.

In the time-honoured tradition of covert US operations in the Middle East, this one seems to have gone spectacularly wrong. The Syrians, who had agreed to turn a blind eye to a supposedly quiet “snatch and grab” raid, could not keep the lid on a firefight in which so many people had died. The operation should have been fast and bloodless. According to the sources, Syrian intelligence tipped off the Americans about Abu Ghadiya’s whereabouts. US electronic intelligence then tracked his exact location, possibly by tracing his satellite telephone, and the helicopters were directed to him. They were supposed to kidnap him and take him to Iraq for questioning. According to defence sources, when the four US helicopters approached the Syrian border, they were detected by Syrian radar. Air force headquarters in Damascus was asked for permission to intercept. After an Israeli airstrike against a suspected nuclear reactor in the same region last year, Syrian air defence has been on high alert. The request was turned down by senior officers because the American operation was expected. It is not clear what went wrong, but it is believed that the helicopters were spotted by the militants on their final approach and a gun battle broke out. That is supported by an account from a local tribal leader, who said a rocket-propelled grenade had been launched from the compound at the helicopter. The firefight blew the cover on a supposedly covert operation.[…]