Pink Floyd support for the Zaytouna-Oliva flotilla

Thursday night, the disbanded musical group Pink Floyd "united" to express their support for the Zaytouna-Oliva flotilla that sought to break the blockade on Gaza and that was stopped by the Israeli Navy on Wednesday.  The three living members of the band posted on Facebook their support and decried the Israel Navy's intervention as 'illegal.'

Is Israel Building Permanent Apartheid Regime?

In 2010, Israel’s then-defense minister, Ehud Barak, explicitly warned that Israel would become a permanent “apartheid” state if it failed to reach a peace agreement with Palestinians that creates their own sovereign nation and vests them with full political rights. “As long as in this territory west of the Jordan River there is only one political entity called Israel, it is going to be either non-Jewish, or non-democratic,” Barak said. “If this bloc of millions of ­Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state.”
Honest observers on both sides of the conflict have long acknowledged that the prospects for a two-state solution are virtually non-existent: another way of saying that Israel’s status as a permanent apartheid regime is inevitable. Indeed, U.S. intelligence agencies as early as 45 years ago explicitly warned that Israeli occupation would become permanent if it did not end quickly.
The sad reality is US aid to the pariah state is cementing its fate to become the permanent apartheid state in our time.
To read the story by Glenn Greenwald, click here.

Southwest - the airline run by the bigots - does it again!

One would have thought that the Southwest Airlines would correct its history of bigotry and evolve into a friendly airline. But the airline refuses to brush off stains of bigotry that is written all over it.


Read the latest story when an Arab was deplaned for saying InshaAllah.


The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has filed a complaint with the US Department of Transportation Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings against Southwest Airlines for "racial and religious profiling of a Muslim passenger".
"We don't want this to become 'normal'," said Saba Maher, civil rights coordinator of the local CAIR chapter.
"We are looking for a federal investigation and for the Department of Transportation to hold Southwest Airlines accountable."

The FBI’s Secret Methods for Recruiting Informants at the Border

It is widely known that without the informants US government's global war on terror would have long ceased. So, what does the government do to recruit informants?
 To read the above topic, click here.

Freedom of Speech threatened in Kansas City

The executive director the Kansas City library system says he is "outraged" that prosecutors continue to pursue charges against a man who was arrested after asking pointed questions during a library discussion about the Middle East peace process and an employee who tried to intervene.

Although the arrests occurred in May following a speech by author and diplomat Dennis Ross (who is an unabashed surrogate of the Israeli pariah state), the library system only recently went public about its opposition to charges, the Kansas City Star reported.

R. Crosby Kemper III, executive director of the city's library system, said "we're going to be living in a different kind of country" if people can be arrested for asking questions at a library. "If this kind of behavior is unacceptable to the police, then I guess we're going to have to shut the library down."

Issues arose after Ross finished speaking and took a question from Jeremy Rothe-Kushel concerning whether Jewish Americans like Rothe-Kushel should be concerned about actions by the U.S. and Israel that amount to "state-sponsored terrorism."

"When are we going to stand up and be ethical Jews and Americans?" Rothe-Kushel asked.

When Rothe-Kushel tried to ask another question, a private security guard grasped his arm, followed by an off-duty police officer, both employed by the Jewish Community Foundation. Rothe-Kushel then shouted, "Get your hands off of me right now!"

Steve Woolfolk, director of public programming for the library, tried to intervene. Both men were arrested by off-duty officers.

"Every police officer who was on duty that evening was very communicative and respectful," Rothe-Kushel said. But he said he would have left if he had been asked to and given the chance to do so.

Kansas City police spokeswoman Capt. Stacey Graves said off-duty officers hired by the event sponsor acted properly in helping private security stop an audience member from asking follow-up questions.

Rothe-Kushel is charged in city court with trespassing and resisting arrest. Woolfolk is charged with interfering with an arrest. Woolfolk said he suffered a torn medial collateral ligament in his knee when a police officer kneed him in the leg.

Kemper said the private security guards had no right to remove a patron for asking a question.

Ross' speech was the inaugural Truman and Israel Lecture, established by the Truman Library Institute and the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Kansas City.

Norway joins the class of bigots

Norway has become the latest country showing its dirty bigotry and xenophobia. Its right-wing government on Wednesday announced plans to ban the full-face Islamic veil from classrooms and university lecture halls.

Education Minister Torbjorn Roe Isaksen, quoted in the Vart Land newspaper, said the government was seeking "national regulations prohibiting the full-face veil in schools and universities".

Muslim women are rarely seen wearing such veils in Norway, let alone in schools. But the issue has come up recently in political debates, with less than a year to go before parliamentary elections.

Several political parties including the opposition Labour Party had expressed support for such a ban.

The Norwegian plan comes as several European countries have moved to ban the face-covering niqab and full-body burqa.

Bulgaria on Friday banned women from wearing the full veil in public, and Switzerland's lower house last week narrowly approved a draft bill on a nationwide ban.

In August Germany's interior minister came out in favour of a partial ban.

France and Belgium have both banned the burqa and niqab in public, while French beach resorts sparked international controversy this summer with local bans on the full-body "burkini" Islamic swimsuit.

A poll published earlier this month showed Britons to be strongly in favour of a burqa ban.

Tax Evasion by the filthy rich is not uncommon

In recent days, we learnt that the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has been a tax dodger who may not have paid federal taxes for at least 18 years. He considers such evasion as a "smart" thing to do, which is also paraded as a virtue by immoral guys like former NY mayor Rudi G. What a shameful display by these guys with no moral compass!
How can such guys lead a nation or be a source of inspiration for others, let alone preach virtue and nobility?
By the way, Donald is not alone in tax dodging. Remember Marc Rich, another filthy billionaire? He was pardoned by Clinton. Obviously, politics is dirty and nasty!
None of our politicians has a clean slate, or so it seems!
Click here to read an analysis on Marc Rich's pardon.