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TechnoratiCongress Out of Step With Public on Intl Law?
WASHINGTON - The U.S. House of Representatives passed a non-binding resolution Tuesday condemning the Goldstone Report on Israeli and Hamas actions taking during the Gaza War as "irredeemably biased" against Israel and calling on U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to oppose any consideration of the report in multilateral fora, such as the United Nations.
![["HR 867 was written and promoted by AIPAC," said MJ Rosenberg, a senior fellow at Media Matters for America.]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/flags-1105_0.jpg "flags-1105.jpg")
(See how your representative voted here)
But a poll released just the day before found that a large majority of U.S. citizens believe the U.S. should abide by international laws and view the international legal system favorably.
House Resolution (HR) 867 called on the White House and State Department to oppose any future examinations of the report, which members of Congress felt focused disproportionally on alleged Israeli war crimes while paying little attention to violations committed by Hamas during the Gaza War from Dec. 27, 2008 to Jan. 18, 2009.
"The 344 supporters have apparently not read the report," wrote Human Rights Watch senior researcher Fred Abrahams. "The 575-page document records violations of the laws of war by Israel, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, and concludes that all sides committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity."
"Both Israelis and Palestinians need to carry out investigations that meet international standards or face international prosecution," he said.
The report called for an independent committee of experts to examine how Israel and Hamas conduct domestic investigations into war crimes accusations. The U.S. State Department has suggested that - although it believes the report is biased - it should be handled within the U.N.
"We have serious concerns about the Goldstone Report and its unbalanced focus on Israel and its sweeping conclusions of law," a State Department spokesperson told IPS. "We believe the report should be handled within the U.N. Human Rights Council and we disagree with many of its recommendations including that it should be taken up by the U.N. Security Council."
The resolution's strong endorsement by Congress - which voted 344 to 36 in favor - stands in marked contrast to both the State Department's position that the report should be handled within the U.N. Human Rights Council as well as U.S. public opinion on international law.
A new poll by World Public Opinion (WPO) and the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) found that 69 percent of U.S. citizens believe that, "Our nation should consistently follow international laws. It is wrong to violate international laws, just as it is wrong to violate laws within a country," making the U.S. public one of the biggest supporters of international law of any country polled.
Only poll respondents in Germany - where 70 percent agreed with the statement - and China - where 74 percent agreed with the statement - had a higher opinion of international law.
"I thought that when you watched some of the speeches by members of Congress in support of this resolution opposing Goldstone, you saw people who were emotionally exercised that they thought, 'well this was a report that was attacking Israel and making Israel vulnerable' and they didn't like that," Joe Volk, executive secretary at the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), a Quaker advocacy group, told IPS. "You could see jaws and lips quiver," he added.
"While the members of Congress who said 'don't vote for this resolution because it's besmirching an international jurist who has distinguished himself, and look at the report itself. It's not an attack on Israel. It's a call to investigate crimes that may have been committed.' They spoke in very thoughtful tempered rational terms," Volk went on to say.
Lobbying in favor of the resolution to condemn the Goldstone report was particularly strong with heavyweight advocacy groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which endorsed the resolution, and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which condemned the report on its release and, in a statement released Wednesday, "welcomed the moral stance taken by the U.S. House of Representatives in passing Resolution 867".
The resolution's cosponsors - Rep. Howard Berman, a California Democrat, and Rep. Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican - along with 12 other senators and representatives, had attended the Jerusalem Conference on "Reinforcing U.S.-Israeli Ties" Tuesday before the Goldstone resolution vote.
"Unfortunately the U.S. has been too focused on getting sacrifices from Israel while telling the Palestinian authority, 'you're off the hook'. That is unbalanced. That is unfair. That is not the way we need to do business," Ros-Lehtinen told the conference.
"And moving forward we're going to urge the U.S. foreign policy to recognize the reality of what Israel is facing. Israel continues to make sacrifices in pursuit of peace while the Palestinian authority remains part of the problem, not part of the solution," she concluded.
"[HR 867] was written and promoted by AIPAC," MJ Rosenberg, a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, a research center that monitors "conservative misinformation" in the media, told IPS. "The thing that makes this more egregious than any other Israel related resolution is that it's an attack resolution. It's an attack on this great judge, [Richard] Goldstone."
"The most infuriating part is that some of these liberals [who voted for the Goldstone resolution] are some of the harshest critics of America's actions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo," Rosenberg continued. "The standards they apply to the U.S. aren't applied to Israel."
The State Department's measured language - suggesting the report was biased but should be dealt with in the U.N. Human Rights Council - appears to reflect the multilateral world view and embrace of international law espoused by the Barack Obama administration.
"I think that one of the roles of this resolution is that it is a dissonant against Obama's message that the U.S. is going to take a new approach and take a new posture in the world," said Volk.
"Many members of Congress voted for a rejection of the Goldstone Report because they say the U.N. Human Rights Council will use it in a hypocritical way. But the predictable outcome of that is that people in other countries will look at this and say, 'Look how hypocritical the U.S. is'," he concluded.
47 Comments so far
Show AllOnce again AIPAC and corporate lobbyists prevail.
No surprise that Congress is trying to censor Goldstone and cover their culpable asses for during the 23 days of Israeli assault on Gaza, "Washington provided F-16 fighter planes, Apache helicopters, tactical missiles, and a wide array of munitions, including white phosphorus and DIME. The weapons required for the Israeli assault were decided upon in June 2008, and the transfer of 1,000 bunker-buster GPS-guided Small Diameter Guided Bomb Units 39 (GBU-39) were approved by Congress in September. The GBU 39 bombs were delivered to Israel in November (prior to any claims of Hamas cease fire violation!) for use in the initial air raids on Gaza.
"Human Rights Watch researchers found spent shells, canister liners, and dozens of burnt felt wedges containing white phosphorus on city streets, apartment roofs, residential courtyards, and at a United Nations school in Gaza immediately after hostilities ended in January.
"Militaries officially use white phosphorus to obscure their operations on the ground by creating thick smoke. It has also been used as an incendiary weapon, though such use constitutes a war crime.
"In Gaza, the Israeli military didn’t just use white phosphorus in open areas as a screen for its troops," said Fred Abrahams, senior emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch and co-author of the report.
"It fired white phosphorus repeatedly over densely populated areas, even when its troops weren't in the area and safer smoke shells were available. As a result, civilians needlessly suffered and died."
During the 23 days of attack on Gaza, the UN Security Council, Amnesty International, International Red Cross, and global voices of protest rose up and demanded a ceasefire, but both houses of Congress overwhelmingly endorsed resolutions to support a continuation of Israel’s so called "self defense" and its collective punishment upon Gaza.
http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1479&Itemid=226
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WATCH:
Hamas's "crimes against humanity" and israel's "innocence":
http://palestinian.ning.com/forum/topics/the-other-side-of-the-story
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"Despite the mission’s charges over Israeli war crimes, South African jurist Richard Goldstone actually bent over backwards to protect Israel as much as possible"
Jeff Halper
http://www.icahd.org/eng/articles.asp?menu=6&submenu=2&article=552
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The FOOLS, blinded by ARROGANCE and SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS, are rejecting even SEMI-TRUTH, which comes from ZIONISTS, their own lovers and supporters:
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My mission - and motivation
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1255694838474&pagename=JPArticle/ShowFull
By RICHARD GOLDSTONE
“as a Jew who has supported Israel and its people all my life..................I sincerely believed that because of my own record and the terms of the mission's mandate we would receive the cooperation of the Israeli government. Its refusal to cooperate was a grave error."
“Israel missed a golden opportunity to actually have a fair hearing from a UN-sponsored inquiry. Of course, I was aware of and have frequently spoken out against the unfair and exceptional treatment of Israel by the UN and especially by the Human Rights Council. I did so again last week. Israel could have seized the opportunity provided by the even-handed mandate of our mission and used it as a precedent for a new direction by the United Nations in the Middle East. Instead, we were shut out"
"As I stated in response to a recent letter from the mayor of Sderot, I believed strongly that our mission should have been allowed to visit Sderot and other parts of southern Israel.................We were prevented from doing so by, what I believe, was a misguided decision by the Israeli government."
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GOLDSTONE is a ZIONIST; hardly an objective report that comes from a ZIONIST and LOVER OF ISRAEL
This Goldstone report was cleansed by Goldstone to protect Israel and to include an occupied people, Palestinians, as being guilty of “war” crimes and “crimes against humanity” when Goldstone, as a judge, knows that an occupied people have EVERY right to resist the occupiers
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"MY FATHER IS A ZIONIST, LOVES ISRAEL"
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1251804583376&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull
Quote:
“Nicole Goldstone, the daughter of Richard Goldstone, whose report on Operation Cast Lead alleged that Israel committed war crimes in Gaza, maintained on Wednesday that her father "is a Zionist and loves Israel."
"Speaking from Toronto, where she now lives, Nicole told Army Radio she had many conversations with her father after he was asked to head the UN inquiry…
She said she planned to host her parents in Toronto for Rosh Hashana, and that while speaking with her father following the report's release, he had quipped, "Are you sure we can still come?"
"Nicole insisted that the fact the report also accused the Palestinians of crimes against humanity showed that her father tried to be balanced.
"I am not angry with him. I love him and respect him," she said."
"He is a Zionist," she added. "My dad loves Israel and it wasn't easy for him to see and hear what happened. I think he heard and saw things he didn't expect to see and hear, and I am 100 percent sure he [conducted the investigation] in the hope that the Israelis would come to cooperate, and he wanted to help find a long-term solution for the state of Israel."
Nicole, who lived in Israel for six months, said that the country "is the most important thing in my life, my heart is there.... I love Israel more than my family and friends and anything else."
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Here are the courageous, principled 36 House members who voted against this cover up:
Baird
Baldwin
Blumenauer
Boustany (Republican)
Capps
Carson (IN)
Clarke
Clay
Davis (KY) (Republican)
Dingell
Doggett
Edwards (MD)
Ellison
Filner
Grijalva
Hinchey
Johnson, E. B.
Kilpatrick (MI)
Kucinich
Lee (CA)
Lynch
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
Miller, George
Moran (VA)
Olver
Pastor (AZ)
Paul (Republican)
Price (NC)
Rahall
Snyder
Stark
Waters
Watt
Woolsey
http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll838.xml
My representative was one of these, Brian Baird. I called his office and praised the vote.
Russia was not established on land previously owned and inhabited by Chechnya, the same applies to the rest of the examples you brought up.
Israel is a special case because it continues to deprive the native population of basic rights, just like the aborigines and the Native Americans were.
Russia and Chechnya, China and Tibet, Mugabe ......none of these cases are examples of colonialism invading on a native population and displacing it.
There's a HUGE difference.
As for "propaganda"....meh, I think your posts are loaded with far more propaganda than that which you assume is found in Richard Goldstone's report.
HR-867, rejecting the Goldstone report, insures three things:
First, that the war crimes against the Palestinian civilian population are not going to be swept out of sight, or lost in a U.N Review Commission.
Second, 344 Congressional Representatives are going to be targetted for defeat in the next election.
Lastly, AIPAC and its members should be hauled before Congress to examine its un-American activities; as well as its corruption of the Government of these United States.
/
I agree. Israel is not God. Time to get rid of that leach.
Apparently "bias" is proved because the report criticises, justly, Israel. Critising Israel is forbidden and is in itself proof of bias, it seems. Why any rational, fair-minded person goes along with this edict baffles me. Evidently neither the US government, nor the US Congress, nor the US media is rational, fair minded or unbiased with regard to favouring Israel.
The report criticizes Hamas, as well.
The Israeli government and AIPAC just don't want the truth regarding their actions to out, whether Hamas is included or not. It's all about Israel's public relations image. That's its main concern.
The real laugher in this stupid House vote is that the information is out for the world to see and decide upon, so what was the ridiculous point that IAPAC and the other Israeli lobbying groups were trying to make? Oh, that they can get the US Congress to dance to their tune and grovel and throw money at them? We already know that and the rest of the world knows that. So that vote was really an exercise in futility and stupidity! The old phrase,"closing the barn door after the horse is gone" comes to mind.
Maybe we should at least look at a ray of light on the vote.
The last vote that supported Israel was 394(about) to 6 against.
This vote wsa only 344 for with 36 against and 22 voting only 'present'.
My rep was one of the ones who voted 'present' because she felt she did not have enough facts ( in spite of the AIPAC blitz).
This is better than in the past where there was unabashed support for Israel-especially if party leadership demanded support.
Maybe the times are a-changin' ! I hope that this unheard of shift in votes for/against Israel pressure is just a beginning.
But I could be wrong !
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/
"I spoke with the head military lawyer of the IDF [Israeli Defense Force], Joel Zinger, and I said 'You know, I'm two weeks here, and it's clear you people are inflicting Nuremberg crimes on the Palestinians, exactly what the Nazis did to the Jews. What's your explanation?' He said 'Military necessity'. Notice, he didn't disagree with me. I said 'That argument was rejected at Nuremberg when the lawyers for the Nazis made it.' So then he said, "Well, we have public relations people in the United States, and they handle these matters for us.' "
-Francis Boyle, Professor of International Law, University of Illinois
Francis Boyle is a credible, smart attorney. He has defended some soldiers who refused to deploy on principle. One such solder was Yolanda Huet-Vaughn, MD, an official with Physicians for Social Responsibility and a fine doctor who refused to serve in Gulf War I because the war was immoral and illegal.
Well, let's see now; a little Palestinian kid standing on a heap of rubble throws a rock at an Israeli tank, and is cut in half by machine gun fire. Obviously, Israel was defending itself against a terrorist attack, wasn't it? Remember, a Palestinian defending himself or his family against an Israeli attack is automatically a terrorist or an insurgent, just like an Afghan, Iraqi or Pakistani defending himself against US attacks.
My Dad's definition of an honest politician still holds true; "One who stays bought." We have the most honest politicians that money can buy, and don't you forget it! AIPAC and corporate money has bought all but a negligible handful of American politicians, regardless of party, and they do what they are told.
Much of the legislation passed by the "new" Congress is just amplification on the past decade or so. More restrictions on our freedom, our right to privacy, our right to travel where we wish. KBR built the concentration camps, NorthCom is training combat brigades in "suppression of civil dissent," the power of the "thought police" is growing daily.
What do you expect from this country? And We the People have let it happen. Everybody watches the endless game shows, sports and sitcoms on TV, but nobody reads Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, Tom Paine anymore. Most won't even recognize the names.
Goldstone Report? Support International Law? Don't make me laugh!
Well this shows the AIPIC boys and Congress are in a deal to subvert international Law.
They enabled the new speculation bubbles and they will probably screw up health care and everything that they do for a long long time.
Osama's Ghost is chalking up another one.
This disclosure of Graham as an aspirant war criminal did not excite any commotion when it became public.
Very different has been the reception of a new tape revealing Graham, Nixon and Haldeman palavering about Jewish domination of the media, and Graham invoking the "stranglehold" Jews have on the media. On the account of James Warren in the Chicago Tribune, who has filed excellent stories down the years on Nixon's tapes, Nixon raises a topic about which "we can't talk about...publicly," namely Jewish influence in Hollywood and the media. Nixon cites Paul Keyes, a political conservative who was executive producer of the NBC hit Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, as telling him that "11 of the 12 writers are Jewish." "That right?" says Graham, prompting Nixon to claim that Life magazine, Newsweek, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and others are "totally dominated by the Jews."
Nixon says network tv anchors Howard K. Smith, David Brinkley and Walter Cronkite are "front men who may not be of that persuasion," but that their writers are "95 percent Jewish." Magnanimously, Nixon concedes that this does not mean "that all the Jews are bad," but that most are left-wing radicals who want "peace at any price except where support for Israel is concerned. The best Jews are actually the Israeli Jews." "That's right," agrees Graham, who later concurs with a Nixon assertion that a "powerful bloc" of
Jews confronts Nixon in the media.
http://www.christianaggression.org/item_display.php?type=ARTICLES&id=1132794762
+++++++++++
And in 40 years, it might leak out what Obama and Hillary *actually* think of AIPAC and the Jewish hawk-nation.
Israel is the third-rail of American politics.
Ros-Lehtinen is an embarrassment to Florida.
The Goldstone Report is central to the peace process. Until now, Israel has steered the discussion of peace in terms of its own security. Israel portrays itself as the victim, the small outpost of democracy in the midst of backward Arabs. This is the image of Israel that its leaders would like the world to have.
The Goldstone report demolishes this image, and re-imagines Israel as an entity capable of committing war crimes. It describes how Israeli soldiers used Palestinian civilians as human shields, how Israelis targeted Palestinian civilians and civilian infrastructure, and how Israel used chemical weapons on a civilian population. These are not the actions of a helpless, morally just state.
Furthermore, the report would lead to real questions about the siege of Gaza and the right of Palestinians to resist the illegal occupation. Israel claimed it attacked Gaza to stop the rockets on Sderot, but in truth, those rockets were in response to the siege, targeted assassinations, the killing of civilians, and the occupation in general.
Aside from weaponry, Israel’s big advantage over the Palestinians is its PR abilities—it gets better press because it knows how to manipulate the press and because racist Americans want to believe that it’s the good guy. No doubt we can identify with Israeli theft of Palestinian land as our ancestors stole Native American land. But the Goldstone report would hang Israel’s dirty laundry out for all the world to see, and it would force Israel to acknowledge its illegal and inhuman actions. It would also expose the US Congress--Israel's weapons' supplier--as complicit in Israel's war crimes.
Congress is a body of primarily old capos at the service of the big industrial and military bosses. Mostly in a state of disconnection from the majority of the citizenry. A kind of political black hole: no light ever comes out of that place.
Misinformation and propaganda at it again; Josef Goebbels would have felt at home in Washington DC.
GIANT ROGUE NATION and LITTLE ROGUE NATION
USA and ISRAEL - joined at the hip.
Question: Which one of these two are running the show? I don't think it is U.S..
It says "... which members of Congress felt focused disproportionally on alleged Israeli war crimes while paying little attention to violations committed by Hamas..."
I don't know that members FELT that -- that's what they said, but what they might feel or think is not the same as say or do, under the fear and of pressure by the zionists (as well as the desire for a military proxy in the Middle East, and a booming weapons trade).
I have started watching an excellent series on the Palestine/Israel problem (thanks to the tip-off from http://www.informationclearinghouse.info) 'Hart of the Matter' @ http://vimeo.com/6047949 (this is the link to the introduction of a 13 part video series, all on line).
No, Congress and the US government has very little to do with what people want, or even what the people think they want after being stuffed with propaganda. This is no democracy -- we live in a fascist state. The pity is it has taken so long for a respectable portion of the people to wake up to that fact.
EDIT:
P.S. One of the things that the Hart series brings out is that what the Zionists (and Israel) are doing is setting up a new wave of antisemitism, especially in the US.
What they didn't mention is how dangerous it is for half the world's Jews to be living in one small area: imagine how Hitler would have loved it of there were such an Israel when he was in power, especially if he had biological and nuclear weapons -- half the 'final solution' with dropping just one bomb. Zionism is the worst enemy of the Jewish people.
Thank again for your link to: The Hart of the Matter
This should be compulsory viewing for all Americans who have so far got their ideas from the MSM. Time to wake up!
Thank you for the information on this video series which I am about to take a look at. I hope it does not perpetuate the "endless victim" fantasy, or the "Jewish People" myth. There is no such thing as a Jewish People, any more than there is a Protestant People or a Buddhist People. The idea of a Jewish people is only relevant to Zionists as is an Aryan people to Nazis. I hope you read your history and you may discover that anti-Semitism is the tool most effectively wielded by Zionists. If you study history you can trace the development of Zionism in Germany under the third Reich and note that it benefited greatly from collaboration with Hitler's government, especially the SS, which was very close throughout the thirties to derive agreed mutual benefit, and in fact in the early 30's while the Zionists preached global boycott of Germany they were in breach of their own trade embargo in order to concentrate the movement of people, capital and goods to Israel. As you said Zionism is the Jew's worst enemy. Unfortunately most Jews are brought up as a product of the Zionist propaganda which instills the myths and lies needed to perpetuate the kind of rubbish we have reflected in this Congressional Resolution.
If you look REALLY Close at the US Flag, you will notice that those are all 6 pointed stars.
The US and Israel are leaving the Palistinians with no other option but armed struggle.
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
I would say Congress is out of step COMPLETELY with the public on almost every single issue.
Except for the elite being protected from punishment, government is dysfunctional.
Welcome to he United States of Israel....
NOW THAT's a Clever one!
"The Israelis control the policy in the congress and the senate."
-- Senator Fullbright, Chair of Senate Foreign Relations Committee: 10/07/1973 on CBS' "Face the Nation".
"Congress Out of Step With Public on Intl Law?" Congress is out of step with everything that is important in our lives and has been for years.
I agree laffingbear.
The U.S. Congress wouldn't recognize a "moral stance" if it bit them in the buttocks.
"The standards they apply to the U.S. aren't applied ..." The U.S. has NO standards when it comes to the rule of law in America OR Internationally.
The U.S. Congress IS hypocritical, all day, every day. Their corruption has no limits. They legislate devastation for all Americans and ignore the rest of entire world.
Congress is beyond "Out of Step". They are an archaeological site of petrified wood.
Well said.
AIPAC and its big bucks for its congress supporters once again triumphs over the popular will.
This country is a JOKE. It's funny how an extremely bias congress is condemning a unbiased report of being bias.
A. Push poll's like this one are not exactly reliable indicators of public attitudes. Anyone that believes that 69 per cent of Americans are willing to give presedence to International law and allow it to supercede our own laws is not playing with a full deck.
B. There is no such thing as International Law as fact. Law without a means of enforcement is no law at all.
C. Time must come when reality is served over wishing and it better come soon, before all our aims are pushed into a corner and buried. Thats the truth.
B. There is no such thing as International Law as fact. Law without a means of enforcement is no law at all.
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That sounds like the Cheney defense. If no court is prepared to bring him to trial, then he obviously has not violated any laws. Simple, yet false.
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Time must come when reality is served over wishing and it better come soon, before all our aims are pushed into a corner and buried. Thats the truth.
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Huh? You want the truth? The truth is in the Goldstone report, not Abe Foxman's mouth. Methinks you can't handle the truth. Have you ever been to the occupied territories as an outside observer, or serve there among Israeli soldiers? There are Israeli soldiers who participated in the attack on Gaza who have already confirmed that Goldstone's findings are accurate.
So, where do YOU get your reality from?
>>B. There is no such thing as International Law as fact. Law without a means of enforcement is no law at all.
Then by your own reasoning The USA is not a Nation of Laws.
Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln ignored Supreme Court Rulings because the Court has no enforcement mechanism.
The Supreme Court ruled on the side of the Cherokee and their rights to lands in the Eastern US and Jackson still ran them off to Indian Territory. The Supreme Court ruled against the suspension of Habeus Corpus and Lincoln simply ignored the rulings.
I guess this explains why so many in the USA are above the law. There is not any law.
Your entire post is horsesh*t but
"....Anyone that believes that 69 per cent of Americans are willing to give presedence to International law and allow it to supercede our own laws is not playing with a full deck."
Where is your proof that any percentage of American's feels otherwise?
"B. There is no such thing as International Law as fact. Law without a means of enforcement is no law at all. "
I wonder if the folks that swung at Nuremburg Trials post WWII agree with that?
There most certainly is International Law "in fact" -- and plenty of means of enforcing it.
The WILL to enforce it may be missing, but most certainly not the means.
George Bush certainly found the means to go in guns blazing in Afghanistan and Iraq to "enforce" UN resolutions (though only in his pea sized brain and albeit illegally).
"C. Time must come when reality is served over wishing and it better come soon, before all our aims are pushed into a corner and buried. Thats the truth."
WTF is that supposed to mean? Whose reality? and what wish? Yours? Israeli? Palestinian? Likewise, whose aims? Many of us have aims as HUMANS - not self identified by national interest - or religion, or creed of any kind other than the benefit of all.
Perhaps it is time for Congress to be less influenced by AIPAC and it's wealthy donors, and more influenced by their own morals and listening to the dictates of the common person they are supposedly serving?
Naaaaah.
Never gonna happen.
These venal and immoral thugs, Democrat and Republican alike, have had their noses in the trough of Corporate and Elite payoffs for too long to change now.
The only way the government of the United States will change and obey international law and binding treaties is if there is a revolution (peaceful or otherwise) that forcibly removes them from their lofty perches.
And as we have seen recently how the elite react to peaceful demonstrations (G20 Meeting in Pittsburgh comes to mind), I think it can be reasonably surmised they will have to be physically pried loose one at time and dragged screaming into the street by a determined public action.
We must remove these venal and immoral thugs, Democrat and Republican alike, but we can do it by peaceful means. We can vote them out. These elected officials are now representing those who pay the most for their votes. The venal and immoral thugs need that money to be re elected. An elected officials highest concern is keeping their cushie job. And in the past, the TV advertisements have been successful in keeping their jobs. Studies have shown that the more money spent on advertising, the more votes are received.
We, the people, must change this. You must ignore those ads, do not look to see if the candidate has a D or a R after their name. Look instead at their voting record. If your rep voted against the will of the people to approve the bankster bailout, he/she was paid to do so. If your rep voted to approve the surge in Afghanistan, the official ignored the desire of the people to end these illegal wars. If your rep is not supporting HR 676, Medicare for all, his/her pockets are stuffed with big bucks from big pharma and the insurance companies.
To get rid of the venal and immoral thugs we must not vote for them.
We get a new bunch of officials, but these may realize that their job is to represent us, the people. In this way we may bring democracy to the United States of America.
To suggest we remove from power those elected officials you call "venal and immoral thugs" sounds good, reasonable and achievable. But, in reality our system of electing the candidate of choice is just as corrupted as those who, once in office, refuse to represent the people's wishes. Until we can hold honest, clean, reliable elections, we're stuck with mostly bought and paid for politicians--and the charade goes on.
Vote them out and replace them with who? Are you running?
I ran for Congress against Tom Lantos in California on the Green ticket. How about you?
We are not ready to run candidates under the current rules. It is very hard to get your name on the ballot and most voters feel that they must choose the lesser of the two corporate evils or they will "throw their vote away' or 'spoil the election'. We have to break the strangle hold that the two corporate parties have on our electoral system.
My idea of Kick the Corrupt Out of Congress is just a first step to regaining some democracy in our nation. If people would not vote for officials who have betrayed the voice of the people, it will open the system to the possibility of more candidates stepping forward. If the incumbent is thrown out; the primary will be open to new candidates. If the imcumbent is thrown out, there will be an opening for independent candidates.
Even if we are not successful in kicking the corrupt out, we can have a major effect on the political situation. We can frighten the elected officials with the threat of lossing their jobs to the point that they may listen to their constituents.
What do we have to lose? You worry that if we kick out a Democrat the Republican will win? So what? Do you see any real difference between Twiddle De Dumb and Twiddle Dee Dumber? Both the Democrats and the Republicans represent those who pay the most for their votes.
We need to kick them out and have some 'HOPE' for real 'CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN'.