Left I on the News

Gary Leupp elaborates on events in Kosovo, greatly supplementing what I wrote below. You do know that the KLA, now leading the "independent" Kosovo, was characterized by the U.S. as ""without any questions, a terrorist group" in 1998, don't you? That was shortly before the U.S. began openly supporting them.

A report in Israel finally forced to light reveals:

More than one-third of West Bank settlements were built on private Palestinian land that was temporarily seized by military order for "security purposes."

The settlements in question...have tens of thousands of residents, and many have existed for decades. A security source termed this a "difficult statistic" that is liable to cause trouble for Israel both in Washington and its own courts.

International law allows the seizure of occupied territory, but only for military needs. Instead, Israel built many of the settlements via such seizures.

Even though Denzel Washington is perhaps my favorite actor, and even though I was on the debating team in high school, I was prepared to pass up "The Great Debaters," until I read this review. I'll just quote one paragraph:

The most poignant scene, one that has or will resonate with the oppressed from South Central to Pine Ridge to Iraq, is one where James Farmer Jr., when debating the validity of civil disobedience with white Harvard students, talks of the right of the oppressed to resist by whatever means necessary. He says, "I have a right, a duty to resist, with violence or with civil disobedience. You should pray I choose the latter."

And finally, this "blast from the past" from a man who is now the favorite of liberals like Daily Kos and MoveOn.org, about a man who they consider a pariah:

"I know that some in the party have differences with Joe," Senator Obama said, all but silencing the crowd. "I'm going to go ahead and say it. It's the elephant in the room. And Joe and I don't agree on everything. But what I know is, Joe Lieberman's a man with a good heart, with a keen intellect, who cares about the working families of America."

Then, with applause beginning to build, he finished the thought: "I am absolutely certain that Connecticut's [by which he means the Democratic primary voters in a primary in which liberal Ned Lamont was challenging, and eventually beating, Lieberman] going to have the good sense to send Joe Lieberman back to the United States Senate."