Israeli occupation soldiers trying to explain to Palestinian children that Israel is "the only democracy in the Middle East."

Old Tree at Dusk, c. 1936. Emily Carr.

The bridge that Israel bombed in South Lebanon two days ago. Israel claimed that the bridge has terrorist connections and Palestinian nationalist sympathies.

"The United States ranks 67th in the world by this measure, with only 15 percent of the House of Representatives being female. The lowest representation by region is in the Arab world, with women making up only 8 percent of legislatures."

"An unrepentant Ahmad Chalabi celebrates his return with his neocon pals"

"The Fall of Bob Woodward"

"The Times Disses Women"

American media is out of control. They are in a state of shock because Liberia has a female president.

Despite "liberation": "A number of emigres who returned after the fall of Hussein have left again, dismayed by conditions far worse than they had imagined."

"Omani Foreign Minister Yusuf Bin Alawi declared Wednesday that the Gulf sultanate would forge ties with "the Israeli peace forces" if doing so would lead to peace." (When asked to define "the Israeli peace forces", he said: "they are all those forces who have a long record of killing Palestinians but who have been identifed as "peaceful" by George W. Bush")

US media will soon hail him as a symbol of democracy: "The choice of Bakheet, who has a long career in military intelligence, reaffirms the leading role of the security forces in decision-making, a senior official told Reuters"

A Palestinian child terrorized by two Israeli occupation soldiers.

George W. Bush really wants to explore space. He has been told that people on Mars possess WMDs that pose a threat to the US. In fact, Al-Qa`idah has sleeper cells on Mars too. But Bush has been assured by his science advisors that the people of outer space would welcome US troops with "sweets and flowers." Dick Cheney added--based on the expert opinion of Fouad Ajami--that Arab people would also rejoice for the occupation of other planets. And it is highly unlikely that the people of other planets would mount an insurgency against US (and Macedonian) troops. And Ahmad Chalabi volunteered to serve as the new prime minister of the Martian government. Most importantly, Abu Mus`ab Az-Zarqawi has slipped into Mars, and the US wants to take him out. In fact, it has been a week since US troops have captured or killed a "senior aide" to Zarqawi. That is most unusual and worrisome.

"BAUDRILLARD ON TOUR"

"US intelligence classified white phosphorus as 'chemical weapon'"

Israeli foreign minister selects the new Jordanian prime minister (seen to the right).

For those who care, I shall speak on Flashpoint tonight at 5:00PM (Pacific Time). You may listen live (or taped). Warning: I taped it earlier, and I am angrier than usual.

Scorned as Timber, Beloved of the Sky, 1935. Emily Carr.

"Liberation" procedures: "All men of military age were detained. they had material sprayed on their hands to reveal whether they had handled explosives or gunpowder. Families were split up and loudspeakers were barking commands. Some of the detainees came back and some did not."

"Iraq's oil: The spoils of war"

"Companies waiting in the wings for Iraqi riches"

Sovereignty in the age of Empire: "Romania's former defense minister said Monday that parts of an air base used by U.S. troops during the Iraq war were off-limits to Romanian authorities"

"the strategic balance in the Middle East clearly favors Israel" (and yet, it always wants more weapons and more bombs and more WMDs. It can never have enough).

Ever since the advent of Zionism, Israeli specialty has been to attack civilians and civilian targets. This is a bridge in South Lebanon that Israel bombed yesterday.

Evidence of the failure of Zionism.

The US pushed the Arab League to convene the conference on Iraq in Cairo. But the results were--like everything else related to Iraq since the war--counter to American intentions and plans. The final statement basically legitimized the insurgency, and legitimized the demands for a timetable for the withdrawal of US troops.

Israeli occupation soldiers showing the essence of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Lebanese performers think that by visiting Los Angeles, they can claim a professional association with "Hollywood." Some come for a week's visit, and then go back to Lebanon to speak about their "experience in Hollywood." Fake claims and false pretensions. Are these not the essence of the Lebanonese idea? I have a struggling actor relative who lived in LA, trying to make it for years before returning to Lebanon, and his family would proudly talk about "our son in Hollywood."

The Rafiq Hariri grave site in Beirut, which I did not visit, is fitting for Lebanonese nationalist standards. Tacky, vulgar, and showy. Just what Lebanonese culture is known for.

"Here, however, Finkelstein lays the ground for a rational discussion about Israel. Finkelstein shows a clear correlation between moments when the anti-Semitism alarm is rung and the needs of Israel’s apologists who deploy agitprop against anyone seeking to present a clear understanding of what Chomsky calls the “international consensus”—a reference to the fact that the United States and Israel have blocked resolution of the conflict. In polite circles, this is called the “peace process,” an Orwellian term which occludes the techniques of domination and control through which the United States and Israel stop serious peace measures, i.e., a not out-of-the-ordinary display of the power of the doctrinal system and the racism of articulate Western elites. That, in fact, according to Finkelstein is what the new anti-Semitism is all about—a desperate ploy to bury Israeli and U.S. war crimes."

NOT even a nightlight unto the nations: ""Israel is one of the most unequal societies in the world. Twenty-five percent of Israelis live below the poverty line - one-third of all Israeli children. We have the highest rate of poverty among people 65 and older in the Western world. Those are terrible numbers."

When Baudrillard speaks, you...LISTEN.
"Are you saying that America represents the ideal of democracy?
No, the simulation of power.
At 76, you are still pushing your famous theory about "simulation" and the "simulacrum," which maintains that media images have become more convincing and real than reality.
All of our values are simulated. What is freedom? We have a choice between buying one car or buying another car? It's a simulation of freedom.
So you don't think that the U.S. invaded Iraq to spread freedom?
What we want is to put the rest of the world on the same level of masquerade and parody that we are on, to put the rest of the world into simulation, so all the world becomes total artifice and then we are all-powerful. It's a game.
When you say "we," who are you talking about? In your new book, "The Conspiracy of Art," you are pretty hard on this country.
France is a byproduct of American culture. We are all in this; we are globalized. When Jacques Chirac says, "No!" to Bush about the Iraq war, it's a delusion. It's to insist on the French as an exception, but there is no French exception.
Hardly. France chose not to send soldiers to Iraq, which has real meaning for countless individual soldiers, for their families and for the state.
Ah, yes. We are "against" the war because it is not our war. But in Algeria, it was the same. America didn't send soldiers when we fought the Algerian war. France and America are on the same side. There is only one side."

The New York Times reviewed the new book by Robert Fisk. Now as some know, I have--politically speaking--broken with Robert Fisk over his lousy Hummus coverage of the Lebanese events in the course of this year. He writes like Hariri staffers. Not that he cares about my opinion, and not that I ever met him. But I was outraged at this review in the Times. An ill-informed writer for the Times, takes it upon himself to decide who is knowledgeable and who is not? "Mr. Fisk is most passionate and least informed about Israel." To that I say: the New York Times is most passionate and least informed about the entire Middle East.

I have received several more pictures of Hayfa Wahbi's visit to AUB in Beirut, but will not post any of them. The picture yesterday invited too many sleazy, vulgar, and sexist reactions.

Al-Hayat columnist, Jihad Al-Khazin, has the most racist column against the Iraqi puppet Minister of Interior, who is a ruthless and brutal guy, no doubt. So Al-Khazin was offended that Bayan Sulag attacked the Saudi foreign minister who, according to Khazin, is a "prince son of a king, and grandson of a king" as if that would impress anybody except those with potato heads who respect the titles and honors according by Western colonial powers on their client tribes and families. Al-Khazin, who clearly has not read Al-Muqaddimah which talks about the mixture of races and ethnicities after Islam, then velifies Sulaq because his name and origin are not Arab. He assumed that he is Persian, which he is not. The origin of the name Sulag is Hindi, and he is Indian in descent, as if whether he is Indian or Persian or Arab in origin should make any difference.

"PRESIDENT Bush planned to bomb Arab TV station al-Jazeera in friendly Qatar, a "Top Secret" No 10 memo reveals."

"Taken entirely from prisoner letters, family interviews and official government statements, this documentary drama offers an intimate and unforgettable look at the human stories behind the headlines." (thanks Steve)

So did the "Democracy and Human Rights President" Discuss Human Rights with the Chinese leadership? ""Honestly, human rights issues made up a tiny, tiny, tiny part of the meeting between the leaders of the two countries," said Kong Quan, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman."

The radical change in political rhetoric in Lebanon in the wake of the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon only reveals that the political groups and personalities in Lebanon are guilty of hypocrisy, deception, cowardice, duplicity, and utter submission to the will of whoever has troops on the ground. But that is the real Lebanon, on its National Day.

Clovis Maqsud has decided to stop writing for An-Nahar.

Standards of LBC-TV: I find it hilarious, but entirely consistent with the standards of Al-Hurra TV and Bush's team, that LBC-TV would never interview the leaders of the Lebanese Communist Party, but regularly interviews the leaders of the Iraqi Communist Party, simply because they support US occupation. So if Lebanese Communist Party comes out in favor of foreign occupation, LBC-TV would start featuring them.

And who is the terrorist?

This is a sign: "Iraq War Debate Eclipses All Other Issues" (When the war becomes a domestic issue, the end begins).

I don't get it. The media keep referring to Sen. Jon Corzine as a successful politician, or as a "rising star." Ya. But only if you forget that he spent $63 million of his own money on his senate campaign, and $40 million of his own money on his governor's race. And this without counting the millions that he collected from others. US democracy at work.

"When we went to Iraq whether there were weapons of mass destruction or not, the key is -- we won. And Saddam is out! Whatever we want, will happen. Iran? We will not let Iran become a nuclear power. We'll find a way, we'll find an excuse- to get rid of Iran. And I don't care what the excuse is. There is no room for rogue states in the world. Whether we lie about it, or invent something, or we don't... I don't care. The end justifies the means. What's right? Might is right, might is right. That's it. Might is right." (thanks Fadi and Kamal) (But this article in general is very weak, and contains nothing new, even if one sympathizes with the political orientations and suspicions. Mostly speculation, conjectures, and guesses. Look at this sentence: "Feltman, closely linked to Ariel Sharon and Karl Rove, is an associate of the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans that created the false evidence and "mushroom cloud" intelligence used to justify attacks on Iraq." Explain? How is Feltman "closely linked to Ariel Sharon and Karl Rove"? Evidence. Evidence, please.)