BUSH STUNG BY MC CLELLAN, CALLS HIM "DISLOYAL"

The only criticism of Scott Mc Clellan that I hear coming from the White House or from Bush's attack dogs is that Scott has no "loyalty." It is not about how Mc Clellan messed up or failed to do his job. It's all, "the president gave you your job, then you turn around and stab him in the back."

Gail Collins writes about this loyalty today in her op-ed piece in The New York Times:

"“DISLOYAL, SICKENING AND DESPICABLE DISLOYAL, SICKENING AND DESPICABLE,” wrote Bernard Kerik in an e-mail that he was circulating around this week. Kerik, you may remember, was the former New York City police commissioner who George W. Bush once tried to make chief of Homeland Security. This was during Kerik’s happier, preindictment era.
Kerik’s outrage was directed at Scott McClellan, the former Bush press secretary whose much-discussed memoir, “What Happened,” reveals that the Bush White House put politics ahead of truth and openness with the American people."

And, from Jonathan Martin at Politico, how about this put-down by former senator Bob Dole in an e-mail addressed to Mc Clellan:

""There are miserable creatures like you in every administration who don’t have the guts to speak up or quit if there are disagreements with the boss or colleagues," Dole wrote in a message sent yesterday morning. "No, your type soaks up the benefits of power, revels in the limelight for years, then quits and, spurred on by greed, cashes in with a scathing critique." "

This is the same ad hominem and worthless argument made by countless other people in authority who dislike the actions of subordinates which criticize the authorities. "You owe it to us out of loyalty to remain silent and not rock the boat." When no other grounds can be found to dismiss the tale teller, authorities love to fall back on the loyalty argument.

The only thing an argument based on loyalty shows is how weak the case for the authorities. Not willing to respond to the substantive criticisms, they try to diminish and demonize the subordinate by calling him/her "disloyal."

ISRAEL PREVENTS FULBRIGHT SCHOLARS FROM LEAVING GAZA - A GOOD EXAMPLE OF COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT

Ethan Bronner of The New York Times reports in today's paper that Israel will not allow Fulbright scholars from Gaza to leave and come to the U.S. to study.

Talk about collective punishment! These gifted students have not fired missiles at Israel, they have not shot at Israeli troops, they have not instigated violence. Nonetheless, Israel will not allow them to leave Gaza to study abroad. This is the very essence of collective punishment - punishing the population because of acts of a small minority.

U.S. REFUSES TO BAN CLUSTER BOMBS, MAJOR KILLERS OF CHILDREN

The BBC reports more than 100 countries have reached an agreement to ban cluster bombs. But guess who refuses to go along? - the United States and George Bush.

Reports the BBC:

"More than 100 nations have reached an agreement on a treaty which would ban current designs of cluster bombs.

"Diplomats meeting in Dublin agreed to back an international ban on the use of the controversial weapons following 10 days of talks.

"But some of the world's main producers and stockpilers - including the US, Russia and China - oppose the move."

The only reason to use cluster bombs is their lethality. And not only against soldiers. Cluster bombs prove to be even more lethal against civilians, especially children, because to the untrained eye, cluster bombs appear to be attractive metal toys. Imagine a six-year old playing in his backyard and seeing a cluster bomber canister laying among the weeds. This is how cluster bombs kill children, they appear to be toys. But when a child picks one up, it explodes with deadly force.

That the United States is one of the few countries to support the continued use of cluster bombs is outrageous and cruel. All children of the world should oppose the U.S. in its stubborn and cruel irrationality against children.

JIMMY CARTER CRITICIZES EUROPEAN LEADERS FOR NOT DENOUNCING ISRAEL'S UNJUST TREATMENT OF PALESTINIANS

The Guardian has an article by Jonathan Steele and Jonathan Freedland about former president Jimmy Carter criticizing a "supine" Europe for failing to protest the Israeli blockade of Palestinians in Gaza.

Write Steele and Freedland:

"Britain and other European governments should break from the US over the international embargo on Gaza, former US president Jimmy Carter told the Guardian yesterday. Carter, visiting the Welsh border town of Hay for the Guardian literary festival, described the EU's position on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute as "supine" and its failure to criticise the Israeli blockade of Gaza as "embarrassing"."

Carter is the only American out there who is not afraid to go up against the powerful Israeli lobby and denounce Israel's unjust and criminal collective punishment of the Palestinians.

Steele and Freedland report more on Carter's speech:

"The blockade on Hamas-ruled Gaza, imposed by the US, EU, UN and Russia - the so-called Quartet - after the organisation's election victory in 2006, was "one of the greatest human rights crimes on Earth," since it meant the "imprisonment of 1.6 million people, 1 million of whom are refugees". "Most families in Gaza are eating only one meal per day. To see Europeans going along with this is embarrassing," Carter said."

Carter brings up a subject upon which European leaders such as Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown have been strangely silent. And how about the silence of former prime minister Tony Blair? He has a job of trying to bring peace to Palestine, yet he has remained incommunicado. Why hasn't he spoken up as Carter? Europe's leaders are a milquetoast bunch. They loudly protest against Iran's development of nuclear power but they are mute when it comes to Israel's enforcement of collective punishment.

HILLARY'S MEAN TALK ABOUT ASSASSINATIONS IN JUNE

I don't feel as sympathetic as Juan Cole in his Informed Comment to Hillary Clinton's talk about why she is staying in the race. After all, she said, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in the the month of June, implying that the same thing could happen to Barack Obama.

Talk about low class and inappropriate! Clinton is staying in the race because she thinks something bad could happen to Obama in June, something like an assassination?

Who is this lady? Obama calls her a formidable opponent, but this lady is more than formidable. What won't she do to get her way?

This is one mean lady.

STOP USE OF WAR PLANES FIRING MISSILES IN DENSELY POPULATED AREAS IN IRAQ

Ernesto Londono and Amit Paley report in today's The Washington Post that the U.S. military in Iraq is using more air strikes to kill insurgents in densely populated areas. This means that innocent civilians including women and children are being caught up in the fighting and are being killed indiscriminately.

Write Londono and Paley:

"In recent weeks, Katzenberger and other pilots have dramatically increased their use of helicopter-fired missiles against enemy fighters, often in densely populated areas. Since late March, the military has fired more than 200 Hellfire missiles in the capital, compared with just six missiles fired in the previous three months.

"The military says the tactic has saved the lives of ground troops and prevented attacks, but the strikes have also killed and wounded civilians, provoking criticism from Iraqis.

"On Wednesday, eight people, including two children, were killed when a U.S. helicopter opened fire on a group of Iraqis traveling to a U.S. detention center to greet a man who was being released from custody, Iraqi officials said."

This is what Bush has caused with his War in Iraq - the deaths of innocent Iraqis who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Furthermore, Bush has caused the pilots of these U.S. war planes and helicopters to be in a position where they think that they are doing a service for their country when they pull the trigger that launches the rockets and missiles that incinerate their Iraqi targets.

Londono and Paley write:

"Those civilians include people like Zahara Fadhil, a 10-year-old girl with a tiny frame and long brown hair. Relatives said she was wounded by a missile on April 20 at approximately 8 p.m. in Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City. The U.S. military said it fired a Hellfire missile in Zahara's neighborhood at that time, targeting men who were seen loading rockets into a sedan.

"Her face drained of color and her legs scarred by shrapnel, Zahara spoke haltingly when asked what she thought of U.S. troops.

"They kill people," she said. Lying in bed, she gasped for air before continuing. "They should leave Iraq now."

BUSH DENIGRATES RAUL CASTRO, CALLS CUBAN REFORMS "SO CALLED"

Now George Bush says he will seek to change the U.S. law on trading with Cuba to allow Cubans in the U.S. to send cell phones to their relatives in Cuba.

Bush says this move is designed to see if "Raul" carries through with his "so called reforms."

Is it necessary for Mr. Bush to call everyone by his or her first name, even other world leaders? It seems contemptuous and condescending for Bush to call President Raul Castro by his first name. I get the impression first-naming other leaders is a technique for Bush to demonstrate his own "superiority."

Furthermore, what is achieved by terming Cuba's relations "so called reforms"? Today, Cubans have many more economic freedoms and liberties than in the past. Does Bush do any good to U.S.-Cuban relations by minimizing and questioning Raul Castro's reforms to date?

OIL'S PRICE MAY PREDICT ATTACK AGAINST IRAN

With the price of crude oil hitting over $131 per barrel, the question arises as to whether the markets are telling us anything about whether traders believe George Bush and Dick Cheney will attack Iran.

Apart from supply and demand or the role of speculators in pushing up oil's price, I have an uncomfortable nagging feeling that the real reason for oil's meteoric rise is that Bush & Co. is getting closer to shoot missiles and drop bombs against the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and against the Iranian people.

This would be the greatest folly of U.S. foreign policy since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

SEN. TED KENNEDY IS IRREPLACEABLE, WE WISH HIM SPEEDY RECOVERY

Our wishes to Senator Ted Kennedy for a speedy and safe recovery.

Juan Cole in Informed Comment remarks on the role Ted Kennedy plays in pushing back against AIPAC and those neo-con supporters of Israel who want to take away funding for Middle Eastern studies at American universities.

Writes Juan Cole:

"Kennedy has been among the more effective legislators of his generation and has helped make the lives of most Americans better. He has been a friend of higher education and stood against attempts by the Israel lobby to defund or censor Middle East studies at US universities. You can't think of anyone who could step into his shoes in the latter regard, and certainly not . . . . Hillary Clinton."

However, the last thing we need is for that phony self-appointed High Priest of the U.S., George W. Bush, to release a statement saying how he and Laura are "praying" for Ted Kennedy and "asking God" to restore his health. Please, Mr. Bush, stop your sanctimonious politicizing and religious posturing.

MC CAIN RECYCLE BUSH/LIEBERMAN RUBBISH ABOUT IRAN AS THE "ENEMY"

So John McCain believes Iran is an "implacable enemy," intent on destroying Israel and fostering terrorism attacks. Sounds like he has been listening too much to pious Joe Lieberman. Joe has been whispering in his ear on those trips to Iraq and the Middle East.

This is the same old Bush gunboat diplomacy, only now the U.S. wages war with guided missiles and cluster bombs instead of gunboats.

No country is the implacable foe of the U.S. Mc Cain is merelyrecycling the old Bush hogwash. Even during the Cold War, the U.S. maintained diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.