The Holocaust: From 'Never Again' to 'We Will Holocaust You'

Just in case there was any doubt that Israel is targeting civilians in Gaza, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai decided to clear things up. According to the BBC:

Speaking on Israel Army Radio, Mr Vilnai said if Palestinians increased rocket fire, they will bring upon themselves what he called a "shoah" - a Hebrew word for catastrophe, and for the Nazi Holocaust.

Nah -- he couldn't have said that, could he? I mean, the BBC doesn't give the exact quote, and, while they haven;t sunk quite as low as US mass media, they do have a spotty history. What was the exact quote?

The more qassam fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves (Source: Telegraph)

Nope, he actually said it.

Now some would assume that a threat to commit genocide would go somewhat noticed by the world, especially given how infrequently the word shoah is used in Israeli public life to refer to anything other than the Holocaust (nor, as I am being informed, in prescriptive policy making). And it ain't like this is some back-bencher. This is the Deputy Defense Minister, a high-ranking government official.

But no, CNN needs to have a fluff piece on Sderot. Not that I don't sympathize with the people of Sderot, but somehow I think that one death in nine months is not actually more significant than genocide. Crazy me.

How I will be occupying my time, until March 4th

Slate has come out with the single greatest time wasting device any political junky could ever wish for.

Check it out.

What does this quote mean?

<--What and uncanny resemblance!

NYTimes is running yet another article on the latest opinion polls. I guess they finally realized that numbers don't tell you everything, so they are doing follow up interviews with certain respondents to supplement the polls. Here's what one Obama supporter had to say:

“He’s from Illinois, and I’m from Illinois, and he reminds me of Abraham Lincoln,” said Dylan Jones, 53, a laborer from Oxford, N.C., who was interviewed in a follow-up to the poll. “I can see him out there splitting rails. I don’t have anything against Hillary Clinton, so I guess it’s because he’s new blood.”

Um...did you know Abraham Lincoln? I mean, I'm a fan of the O as well, but he reminds you of Abraham Lincoln? Just how old are you, Dylan Jones of Oxford, NC, anyway?

Seriously, can anyone tell me what this means?

Bonus points for the first one to do a good Lloyd Bentsen imitation.

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It appears that Ralph Nader is running for President// I repeat, Ralph Nader is running for President//

Mr. Nader represets the greatest threat to the MDM ever, ever// He got 411,304 votes, roughly 1%, in the last election// Even worse: he got 2.74% of the vote in 2000. That makes him solely responsible for the loss of a sitting vice-president of a wildly popular administration// This madman must be stopped// This time, he may garner upwards of .5% of the vote//

Supporter of MDM// Gather your gear and stop this man before Americans have more than the minimal number of candidates possible!// We must protect our minimal democracy, lest it become a full-fledged democracy!

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Seriously people, what's with all the Nader Hate? You just put an irrlevant man into his third day in the news cycle.

Obama: You're on notice

So Barack Obama and Hill-Dog debated yet again last week. It was pretty blah. Obama seems like he is finally learning to do stuff like plug in stump speech and not trip over himself. But then he said this:



Did he just suggest that intense debate on immigration causes hate crimes against Latinos? That all we need to do is "tone down the rhetoric" and magically all the nationalist Know-Nothings are going to vanish? For real?

Help Me!

OK. The News has been a little slow lately. Which is surprising given that there is a U.S. election campaign, Israel is more or less committing genocide in Gaza, Pakistan is voting, and who the heck knows what else. But nonetheless, the news is slow. So I thought I'd do something different.

I think I'm gonna throw out one of those world issues that I have no idea what to do with: Kosovo. Kosovo recently declared independence, with the backing of the U.S., UK, and most of Western Europe. Meanwhile, Serbia, backed by Russia, most of the old Warsaw Pact and, strangely enough, Spain (I guess they are worried about Basque country following suit?).

Honestly, I don't really know where to come down on this one. On the one hand, self-determination and all that. On the other hand international law and all that, not that international law on the founding of new states is all that clear. So I guess this one is open to whomever wants to comment. Go for it.