Watch this film

The Road to Guantánamo
http://www.roadtoguantanamomovie.com/




Great movie, makes you want to do something about the injustice.

Finally!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1856587,00.html

Amnesty report accuses Israel of war crimes
David Fickling
Wednesday August 23, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

"Israel deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure and committed war crimes during the month-long conflict in Lebanon, according to an Amnesty International report.
The report said strikes on civilian buildings and structures went beyond "collateral damage" and amounted to indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks under the Geneva conventions on the laws of war...

"Israel's assertion that the attacks on the infrastructure were lawful is manifestly wrong," she said.

"Many of the violations identified in our report are war crimes. The pattern, scope and scale of the attacks makes Israel's claim that this was collateral damage simply not credible."

Amnesty called for an official UN inquiry into human rights violations on both sides of the conflict..."

Read it all: http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1856587,00.html

NY Times on this topic: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/24/world/middleeast/24lebanon.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Democrats and Republicans summed up

Democrats believe in rights for everyone except embryos and stem cells.

Republicans believe in rights for white-Judeo-Christian-American republicans, embryos, and stem cells. I think those last two are regardless of race, religion, nationality, and political party.

"Illegal" is a strong word... so use it!

This is one of the few times I find myself partly siding with right-wingers.

Way too often in the illegal immigration debate, people don't mention the word "illegal". They say certain proposed laws discriminate against immigrants, immigrants are losing their rights, etc., when really it's the illegal immigrants that said laws target. The failure to specify that these immigrants are illegal lumps them together with legal immigrants. I think I speak on behalf of all legal immigrants when I say I do not want to be associated and equated with illegal immigrants. We did not commit their crimes and we resent being grouped together with them.

Attention Qana Conspiracy Nuts!

An Israeli news website is one of many sources confirming the IDF was responsible for the Qana massacre.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3285572,00.html

2 August 2006

"The Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday evening published its formal investigation regarding the aerial strike on Qana , in which 27 Lebanese civilians were killed. IDF sources state that their work assumption was that the building was emptied of civilians and was being used as a cover for terrorists.

"Had we known the building was occupied by civilians, we would not have attacked it," they said.
On Sunday, a building in Qana was bombed by the IDF and later collapsed. According to Lebanese claims, the building was being used as a shelter for south Lebanon refugees. The area incurred vast damages and rescue operations lasted for hours.

Pursuant to this, Defense Minister Amir Peretz instructed the IDF to conduct an immediate investigation of circumstances surrounding the incident. In the mean time, the IDF announced a 48 hour cessation of aerial attacks.

Findings confirm initial statements
The investigation reveals that, prior to the attack on the building housing the civilians, several other structures were attacked in the same area, because they served as terrorist infrastructure. Findings, which were presented to the Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz authenticated previous IDF statements regarding the attack: the building was struck at 00:25 Sunday by two bombs launched by the IAF. One of the bombs exploded and the other was apparently a dud..."