Propeller Week in Review: April 16, 2009 »
Posted By JamesMarcus 8 months ago in NewsThis week, the Propeller community watched with bated breath as Captain Richard Phillips was rescued from the clutches of his Somali captors. Everybody cheered the outcome--but there was some sharp debate about President Obama's handling of the crisis, much of it divided along partisan lines. At least one member, tanglang, had his eye on the next chapter: "If Obama has since given the navy the authority to seek out and kill every one of these terrorists in the region, he has done the right thing."
Speaking of partisan slapdowns, there was also some lively discussion about the "Tea Party" protests held across the nation. Most (but not all) Republicans viewed these as populist criticism of a deficit-happy administration. Most (but not all) Democrats viewed them as the sourpuss complaints of an embittered minority. In the words of cowboygrandpa: ""The party with no clue has boiled itself dry."
Finally, there were lively conversations about gun control, gay rights, and the surprise success of frumpy Scot Susan Boyle on a British talent contest. Dream on, Susan!
Week In Review: April 16, 2009
A US flag can be seen flying in a mast of the US merchant ship Maersk "Alabama" as she sits moored at the Mombasa port on April 12, 2009 a day after arriving in this Kenyan coastal city. Pirates hijacked the ship as it sailed towards the port of Mombasa carrying food aid
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In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, Maersk-Alabama Capt. Richard Phillips (R) stands alongside Lt. Cmdr. David Fowler, commanding officer of USS Bainbridge (DDG 96) after being rescued by U.S Naval Forces April 12, 2009 off the coast of Somalia. Three of the Somali pirates were killed and one captured in the firefight that freed Philips, who was held hostage for five days.
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In this photo provided by the U.S. Navy, a team from the amphibious assault ship USS "Boxer" tows the lifeboat from the Maersk "Alabama" to the "Boxer" to be processed for evidence after the successful rescue of Capt. Richard Phillips April 13, 2009 in the Indian Ocean.
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The USS "Bainbridge" (background) approaches a berth as it arrives in the port of Mombasa on April 16, 2009. The US Navy vessel was escorting a US merchant ship unsuccessfully attacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean a day earlier.
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A supportive sign is seen a day after sea Capt. Richard Phillips was rescued by U.S. Navy SEALS from pirates near the coast of Somalia April 13, 2009 in Underhill, Vermont.
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A computer monitor shows a simulated pirate attack from a small boat on a cargo ship during a demonstration of how they use simulators at the Simulation, Training, Assessment & Research Center (STAR) to teach merchant marines how, among many things, to react to a potential threat from pirates on April 13, 2009 in Dania Beach, Florida. Most of what they teach now is non-lethal, such as maneuvering the boat or the use of water canon to thwart a boarding attempt.
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Demonstrators shout slogans during a "Tea Party" protest on April 15, 2009.
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Nancy Thorner, dressed as Lady Liberty, participates in a Tea Party protest at the Federal Building Plaza April 15, 2009 in Chicago, Illinois.
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Juan Bedoya, an immigrant from Colombia, demonstrates against California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger at an American Family Association (AFA)-sponsored T.E.A. (Taxed Enough Already) Party to protest taxes and economic stimulus spending on the last day to file state and federal income tax returns, April 15, 2009 in Santa Monica, California. The protesters say that taxes and government spending are too high while the Obama administration contends that it is lowering taxes for 95 percent of the population and using stimulus money to save the nation from economic collapse.
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With tea bags hanging from her glasses, Marianne O'Neil participates in a Tea Party protest at the Federal Building Plaza April 15, 2009 in Chicago, Illinois.
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JamesMarcus
James Marcus is a writer, translator, critic, and editor. He is the author of Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot-Com Juggernaut and ...
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BronxBomberComment removed: Retracted by user12 Replies
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JamesMarcus8 months ago
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Thanks for the kind words, BB and C-M. It's glorious weather here in NYC, with sunshine and the trees budding out (any tree that can survive being embedded an NYC sidewalk deserves all the credit we can give it). In other words, spring. Have a great weekend, and I hope Minneapolis/St. Paul gets a similar dose of sunshine.
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BronxBomberComment removed: Retracted by user5 Replies
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Spadecaller8 months ago
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Thanks James for your WIR. I am posting this comment to bring it out in the open. I find remarks like this digusting and the report feature is hardly ever responded to. I wonder how you feel about it...
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libsRfunnyblock1 hour, 53 minutes ago
"Yes. This intolerant hypocrite sounds like the second coming of Adolph HItler. You'd think a Jew like Spadecaller would know better than to espouse the same policies Hitler supported: Banning gun ownership, no free speech, subordinating the individual for the "greater good" of the nation, etc., etc.
You'd think the Holocaust would have taught Spadecaller just how radical his blatant intolerance truly is, but that is how history repeats itself."-
BronxBomberComment removed: Retracted by user21 Replies
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smithichie8 months ago
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I must say I find it very amusing, if not surprising, just how quickly certain folks on the right adopted tactics they used consider beneath them. It wasn't very long ago, (less than 100 days as a matter of fact) that protesters were considered to be lazy, unemployed, whiners with too much time on their hands. Now they are TRUE Americans.
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Likewise, I swear I have seen certain folks on the right used to claim that anyone who dared bring up a Hitler comparison had no argument worth hearing, just inflammatory rhetoric, but now Hitler comparisons are perfectly acceptable. -
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hyperbola8 months ago
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Well Spade, you are trying for censorship to cover up zionist crimes against humanity again. The fact is that there are many paralells between zionism and nazism. For example: "master race", "subhumans", "living space (lebensraum) for the master race", and "ethnic cleansing / genocide for the subhumans". We see reflections of that zionist ideology almost everyday here, for example in demands for a racist "jewish" state. An exact parallel to an "aryan master race" state in nazi Germany or a "white supremacist state" in South africa.
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We should not forget that zionism has its roots in the same east european racism, colonialism and totalitarianism that also gave us both Hitler and Stalin. We should also not forget that the early zionists were proud that they were planning to create a society similar to the Nazi society. Here is what an honest american jew has to say about zionism and the Nazis.
51 Documents:
Zionist Collaboration with the Nazis
In 1983, Croom Helm Ltd. published my 1st book, Zionism in the Age of the Dictators....
There are six selections re Zionism's relationship to anti-Semitism and racism prior to Hitler....
Zionism convicts itself. On June 21, 1933, the German Zionist Federation sent a secret memorandum to the Nazis:...
"Zionism believes that a rebirth of national life, such as is occurring in German life through adhesion to Christian and national values, must also take place in the Jewish national group. For the Jew, too, origin, religion, community of fate and group consciousness must be of decisive significance in the shaping of his life. This means that the egotistic individualism which arose in the liberal era must be overcome by public spiritedness and by willingness to accept responsibility."
Zionist factions competed for the honor of allying to Hitler. By 1940-41, the "Stern Gang," among them Yitzhak Shamir, later Prime Minister of Israel, presented the Nazis with the "Fundamental Features of the Proposal of the National Military Organization in Palestine (Irgun Zvai Leumi) Concerning the Solution of the Jewish Question in Europe and the Participation of the NMO in the War on the Side of Germany."
Avraham Stern and his followers announced that -
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hyperbola8 months ago
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We should also remember Spade that an increasing majority of the world's jews condemn the zionist crimes against humanity in Palestine, including many jews in Israel. Only in America do those like you have much success in trying to censor information about zionist crimes against humanity.
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Perhaps it is appropriate for an Israeli jew, and IDF veteran, to tell you why your support of a jewish state in Palestine has parallels to the racist ideology of nazism.
Why Israel Has No "Right to Exist" as a Jewish State
By OREN BEN-DOR
... In our world, a world that resisted Apartheid South Africa so impressively, recognition of the right of the Jewish state to exist is a litmus test for moderation and pragmatism. The demand is that Palestinians recognise Israel's entitlement to constitutionally entrench a system of racist basic laws and policies, differential immigration criteria for Jews and non-Jews, differential ownership and settlements rights, differential capital investments, differential investment in education, formal rules and informal conventions that differentiate the potential stakes of political participation, lame-duck academic freedom and debate....
... The Jewish state could only come into being in May 1948 by ethnically cleansing most of the indigenous population--750000 of them. The judaisation of the state could only be effectively implemented by constantly internally displacing the population of many villages within the Israel state....
...The Right of Return of Palestinians means that Israel acknowledges and apologises for what it did in 1948. It does mean that Palestinian memory of the 1948 catastrophe, the Nakbah, is publicly revived in the Geography and collective memory of the polity. It does mean that Palestinians descendants would be allowed to come back to their villages. If this is not possible because there is a Jewish settlement there, they should be given the choice to found an alternative settlement nearby. This may mean some painful compulsory state purchase of agricultural lands that should be handed back to those who return. In cases when this is impossible they ought to be allowed the choice to settle in another place in the larger area or if not possible in another area in Palestine. Compensation would be the last resort and would always be offered as a choice. This kind of moral claim of return would encompass all Palestine including Tel Aviv....
...The upshot is that only by individuating cases of injustice, by extending claims for injustice to all historic Palestine, by fair address of them without creating another injustice for Jews and finally by ensuring the elimination of all racist laws that stems from the Jewish nature of the state including that nature itself, would justice be, and with it peace, possible. -
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Spadecaller8 months ago
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Thanks BB!
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Some of my adversaries will use my exposure of that disgusting comment as an opportunity to blame me for advocating censorship, which I had not done. The amount of anti-Semitism and racism on Propeller is rampant and systematically ignored despite the TOU. That comment does not call for action; it is simply a statement.
As anyone who can read, I never advocated censorship. Nonetheless, I expect that kind of interpretation from some members who would want to use this as opportunity to characterize me as the demonic agent of censorship. Just a tactic used by some who prefer to find fault with me.
Some will use this as an opportunity for antizionist rants.
Some will condemn if for its inappropriate historical perspective.
And then there will be some who are sensitive to the the pain it causes a human being who happens to be a Jew. Comparing a Jew to Hitler and bringing up the Holocaust is an experience for some us that completely escapes some member's understanding.
But then there are members like Bronx Bomber, and fortunately, I could exhaust the limit on this post by naming those friends on Propeller who somehow can empathize with the pain it causes those of us who have grown up with holocaust survivors -- those of us who understand this issue beyond the historical dynamics, in other words, those who can feel the impact that this horrific period of history has caused so many people, Jews and Christians alike.
"Anti-Social Studies"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSlpz_CAYPg -
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jovial8 months ago
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That was downright obscene! Libsrfunny is anything but funny. I take it he is in the "last throes of his insurgency' Like most of the other conservatives like him. My prediction is that the Republican party is going to change radically. The extremists in their party have lost control. They just don't know it yet. I'm so sorry you had to be subjected to that comment. I get a lot of attacks too, but none yet as bad as this one.
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jovial8 months ago
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Just looked at the comment and Lo and Behold! Six people actually thought this was a positive comment and I provide their handles here. Locky12, airglide, nostalgia, tanglang, k9kssr, and to round off the Bush six, prophypocrites. So it seems that some people are actually enablers. When it comes to regulating Republicans suck at it.
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libsRfunnyComment removed: Hard Banned9 Replies
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CRYMTYPHON8 months ago
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I don't know.
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It lacked...something.
It lacked that j'ne sai pas of articulation and articulated argumentation and articulated segmentation seen in the more elegant arthropods;
We all sound like pairs of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse
A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma perciocche giammai di questo fondo
Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero,
Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo-
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Shixa_Reborn8 months ago
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When I 1st read it, it reminded me of Echoes.
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Overhead the albatross hangs motionless upon the air
And deep beneath the rolling waves
In labyrinths of coral caves
The echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand
And everything is green and submarine.
And no-one called us to the land
And no-one knows the wheres or whys
But something stirs and something tries
And starts to climb towards the light
Strangers passing in the street
By chance two separate glances meet
And I am you and what I see is me
And do I take you by the hand
And lead you through the land
And help me understand the best I can
And no-one calls us to move on
And no-one forces down our eyes
And no-one speaks and no-one tries
And no-one flies around the sun
Cloudless everyday you fall upon my waking eyes
inviting and inciting me to rise
And through the window in the wall
Come streaming in on sunlight wings
A million bright ambassadors of morning
And no-one sings me lullabies
And no-one makes me close my eyes
And so I throw the windows wide
And call to you across the sky -
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tadair9198 months ago
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these "weeks in review" tend to commit the same fallacy as the mainstream media. it pins the left v the right in poignant talking points. he said x, but then he said y! oh shnap!
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before long, our mindset is polarized and we all grow old as grumpy old men. -
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JamesMarcus8 months ago
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You know what? I tried to include the Susan Boyle video, but all the embed codes had been removed by request. I'll try to find a good video next week. Something humorous might be nice. Harvey Korman, where are you when we need you?
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sandhi38 months ago
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after reading the above comments there is'nt any thing left to say that would be understandable to this group of bloggers eccept just maybe they might understand this { what a bunch of weakneed almost american except for their pesimistic,socilalistic views , another night might provide an more real bunch of conversations ,thanks but no thanks!!
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donald518 months ago
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sand, I put in over 24 years in our US Army to demonstrate my weak kneed beliefs and Dumya and the sycophant repugs in Congress finally convinced me that the Republican party is morally bankrupt.... any sane, patriotic person reviewing the past 8 years would surely agree with me!
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So what have you done in your life to demonstrate your patriotism beyond your partison rants?
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TimALoftis8 months ago
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Another great WIR...lots of great comments and thoughts here on the thread as well.
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So many of you have hit it on the nail as usual. Here On Propeller, we see a great deal of extreme views from both sides of the political spectrum. Some may come from the OpEd submissions themselves and others are formed in the comment threads here on the site. I have found that when one (left or right) overreaches so to speak the Propeller community is quickly able to get the necessary facts on the table to counter the extreme submission or comment. A simple removal of the comment in most cases would not do that.
With that being said we must all understand the Terms of Use...we should never go after and make personal attacks on each other. One must always stick to the facts.-
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donald518 months ago
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tim, if you had loved ones permanently damaged as a result of repug policies perhaps you would be a little more understandable of the satisfaction of calling some of these people the Un-American pukes that they are (backed up with supporting facts also)!
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