Gay Judge at Prop. 8 trial highlights Judicial issues

kind of sad that people can't see that this would make him biased. The argument is that straight judges were presiding over this issue before. They would be correct to point out that this would therefor be fair, but they are incorrect in that these kinds of issues should not be decided by the judicial branch and this is exactly why.

The biggest open secret in the landmark trial over same-sex marriage being heard in San Francisco is that the federal judge who will decide the case, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, is himself gay.

Andy Pugno, general counsel for the group that sponsored the Prop. 8 campaign asserted that Prop. 8 backers haven't gotten a fair shake from Walker in court. He cited both the judge's order for the campaign to turn over thousands of pages of internal memos to the other side and Walker's decision to allow the trial to be broadcast - both of which were overturned by higher courts.

"In many ways, the sponsors of Prop. 8 have been put at significant disadvantage throughout the case," Pugno said. "Regardless of the reason for it."

"There is nothing about Walker as a judge to indicate that his sexual orientation, other than being an interesting factor, will in any way bias his view," said Kate Kendell, head of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which is supporting the lawsuit to overturn Prop. 8.

mmmm... she must be selling a bridge somewhere. Is the Golden Gate for Sale?

via sfgate.com

Israel Threatens Assad with Regime Change

Apparently Assad's regime is a house of cards and if they fall it could be just as bad for everyone, but...  The fact that he can suppress sectarian violence at home isn’t worth much if he won’t stop exporting it everywhere else.

There are good reasons to feel squeamish about the aftermath of regime change, whether it comes at the hands of Israelis or not. The same sectarian monster that stalks Lebanon and Iraq lives just under the floorboards in Syria. The majority of Syria’s people are Sunni Arabs, but 30 percent or so are Christians, Druze, Alawites, or Kurds. Assad himself is an Alawite, as are most of the elite in the ruling Baath Party, the secret police, and the military. Their very survival depends on keeping Syria’s sectarianism suppressed. The country could easily come apart without Assad’s government enforcing domestic peace at the point of a gun. This is a serious problem. It’s not Israel’s problem, but it’s a problem.

via commentarymagazine.com

Posted via web from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Iran's 20% Purity

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that his country had succeeded in enriching uranium to 20% purity, which is a key step on the path to nuclear weapon

US and European officials at a gathering of the world’s top defense officials in Munich on Friday rejected statements from Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki that Teheran was “approaching a final agreement.”

Mottaki attempted to revive a UN proposal in which Iran would swap enriched uranium for fuel rods to be used in its nuclear power plants, but with new Iranian conditions added to the plan.

German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said Iran’s tactics were a “transparent play for time.”

via jpost.com

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates sharply criticized the Iranians during a visit to Ankara, suggesting that Washington was losing its patience.“The reality is they’ve done nothing to assure the international community” or “to stop their progress toward [building] a nuclear weapon,” Gates said, “and therefore various nations need to think about whether it is time for a different tack.”“Iran is the only country in the region that has publicly declared its intent to destroy another country in the region,” Gates told reporters in Turkey, in reference to Iran’s threats to Israel. If Iran proceeds with this program “unrestrained,” there is a “real danger of proliferation” that would destabilize the region.US National Security Adviser Gen. (ret.) James Jones spoke of Iran’s continued “puzzling defiance” of Western demands that it freeze uranium enrichment.“We have not seen indications that it is willing to do so at this time,” he said.US Sen. Joe Lieberman, the influential Connecticut independent, said the time for talk was over and that the international community should pursue “tough economic sanctions to make diplomacy work.” He called Mottaki’s comments “laughable” and “intellectually dishonest.” 

Israel News: The secret cause of Israel's PR and image catastrophe

While I agree with Israel Matzav and Zionism-Israel that Israel will not solve anything by selling *T* and *A* to replace the Jewish homeland and repackage Israel as *Sexy*, *Rich* and *Vogue* ....I certainly see the point that any image can be co-opted and it is better to just be about Love, G-d, Community but I also have no problem with *SEXY ISRAEL* existing in parallel marketing, though I sincerely think it shouldn't be state financed because I don't think it is in the interests of Israel to turn itself into Los Vegas.

Israel advocacy is not about telling people Israel is a good place to invest or that we have pretty girls and nice beaches. "Everyone knows," don't they, that Jews are "clever with money" and that Jewish girls are hot and loose, right? Does that help us? Will it win support in international fora? Bragging about Israeli economic prowess plays into the image of the blood-sucking Jew-Zionist colonialists who are getting rich by oppressing the poor Palestinians, who are minding their own business, trying to make an honest living in the suicide vest business. Bragging about our technologically advanced society plays to Palestinian propaganda too. They are poor helpless native victims of a heartless and evil advanced society. Of course, the Iranians, who are building atomic weapons, tell a different story, and that too is accepted.

People do not base political opinions on a few factoids or "images." They may use the images or the factoids to bolster their opinions. They build a narrative and force the facts to fit that narrative. One we have been demonized it doesn't matter what we do. If we send rescue teams to Haiti, the mainstream "responsible" media like TIME ignore it, because it doesn't fit their narrative about the evil Zionists, the more sophisticated Israel bashers use it as a platform for an attack on Israeli policy, and the professional Israel haters say Israelis went to Haiti to harvest organs for illegal transplant traffic.

In the business world, PR and "image" and "branding" are acceptable. In the world of ideological advocacy, they are dirty words. "Image building" is what an oil company does after a tanker spill. It's what tobacco companies tried to do for smoking. In other words, it is lying or "improving the truth." "Rebranding" and remaking of images are what sleazy politicians do in order to foist themselves on the public. Some of us remember "the new Nixon." He wasn't much different from the old model Nixon, but the "image remake" fooled enough people long enough to get him elected president of the United States.

via zionism-israel.com

Media Backspin

NY Times and Conflict of Interest Appearances

NY Times public editor Clark Hoyt today calls on the paper to reassign Jerusalem bureau chief Ethan Bronner. Why?

Because Executive editor Bill Keller confirmed what Electronic Intifada first claimed: Bronner's son serves in the IDF, creating a conflict of interest for the paper.

Keller wrote that he doesn't intend to replace Bronner, despite Hoyt's concerns about appearances of conflict of interest.

I don't have any problem with Bronner being replaced as long as the MSM's consistent. All the western journos sleeping with Palestinian stringers and activists create their own conflicts of interest too.

via backspin.typepad.com

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