Albany, NY -- A Serious Challenge to Hillary?
I'm not sure how this fell through the cracks for me for almost a week (Thanks to Ted for catching me up), but a true progessive named
Jonathan Tasini is going to challenge Hillary in the 2006 Democratic Senatorial primary.
His platform:
End the War. Medicare For All. New Rules For the Economy.His specific ideas include: "creating a national wireless Internet network" and "every person should have the real right to join a union."
He sounds great, and it may be the perfect time for a progressive candidate in New York. I've donated some money his way and have offered a bit of my time. I'll give more as I find out more about him, and
here's his website if you'd like to know more.
Hillary makes my skin crawl, with her apparent continued support for the war in Iraq and her latest rightward gesture, the
cosponsoring of an anti-flag burning bill. Last week, I considered giving $1,000 to sponsor an event for her to support my own possible political ambitions, but decided that that's just not what I'm about.
I'm going to continue to follow this story closely.
Click here to donate to Jonathan Tasini's campaign for U.S. Senate.Now if only we can
primary Joe Lieberman.
Home Home Home! -- More From Christian Radio
Finally home for about 16 hours after about two weeks away in DC. During the drive, I listened to several hours of both Christian radio and NPR... Why on earth didn't anybody tell me that the new flick
Brokeback Mountain is about gay cowboys? Do these cowboys eat pudding (obscure South Park reference)? NPR gave a strong thumbs-up to the film, while the Christian station had a slightly different take: "This proves that not only is Hollywood telling our children that homosexuality is OK, but also that it is something that we should all try!" I love this stuff.
On the way up I-81, just over the PA/MD border, I saw one of those trucker sex shops. The large sign on the top of the building read "ADULT BOOKS -- ADULT MOVIES -- ADULT TOYS." Driving further down the road, I saw a smaller sign above the guardrail, which said, "What do you risk by using porn? Everything!" Mind you, this wasn't all that far from Dover, PA, where they recently debated intelligent design...
Getting closer to home on I-88 after having a way-too-filling Mexican dinner in Endicott with Ari, I found that there is, in fact, a center-of-the-dial FM Christian radio station, Victory 102, which broadcasts from an evangelical church on Osborne Road in Colonie. I'm going to have to check out that church sometime -- I don't even know any evangelicals in the Albany area!
I'm too tired to post coherently... more tomorrow before I leave for Jersey.
Binghamton, NY -- Is the security wall a final border?
With the barrier/fence/wall roughly 1/3 complete, questions have again arised as to whether the wall is simply a defensive barrier or if it is intended to be a final border. Looking at the
path of the wall as revised by the Israeli Supreme Court and the US State Department, it honestly could be both. If you scroll down to the middle of the page, you'll see a map of the West Bank with a few different brightly colored lines running around it. The Blue line was the original security line proposed back in 2003. The red line which runs right along the pink line (the 1949 Armistice "Green" Line) is the revised path. As it stands now, the Wall puts 7% of the West Bank territory on the Israeli-side. The bulk of that 7% is in the area surrounding Jerusalem. The rest is around the Palestinian town of Qalqilya. Then there are two additional areas in question -- the Ariel/Shomron region and Ma'ale Adumim. Those two areas comprise an additional 4% of the West Bank. The Court still has not decided what to do with those two regions since it's still not clear what will happen in the negotiation process.
One thing is clear from the map. Qalqilya is not going to be in good shape if the wall decides the border. Zufim, Oranit, and Alfei Menashe are just not going to be able to stay. And Ariel/Shomron will also have to be evactuated. Clearing out those three major settlements and the outlying minor ones (roughly 30,000 people) would smooth out the border between Tul Karm and Qalqilya and transfer back 5% of the West Bank to the Palestinians. Just with that step, the Palestinians would have 94% of the West Bank under their control -- exactly what Clinton proposed and (2 years later, Arafat accepted) -- only this 94% would not include Ariel and thus make the Palestinian state more contiguous with the alternative extra land making the Israeli border more defensible, and thus operate exactly like the "Peace Wall" in Northern Ireland. It could be done and it could be agreed upon.
Binghamton, NY -- Defense Secretary Lieberman?
So there's been a lot of
speculation that Joe Lieberman is going to take over for Rumsfeld. I'm sure Jason's going to be on top of this shortly, but I'd just like to speculate as to how this would impact US-Israeli relations. Most people would assume that since Joe's a Jew he's going to be very pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian. But that's where I will disagree and remain a pessimist on any positive impact from the Bush Administration. If you want to be pro-Israel, you have to be pro-Palestinian as well. There's no way around it. Demographically speaking, Israel cannot exist unless a separate Palestinian state is created. Anyone arguing otherwise either wants to see Israel's status as the Jewish state end (any number of Islamist groups, Chomsky, The Guardian, etc.) or is just plain ignorant (the bulk of the Israeli right and their supporters).
So why am I pessimistic about Joe? Lieberman has supported Bush blindly in the Iraqi War and the War on Terror. Adding another Yes-Man to the team isn't going to help at all with the Palestinian issue. A few weeks ago Condi Rice made headlines by negotiating a solution to Israel's security questions regarding the Egyptian-Gazan border. That was the first break any Bush official has had with the standard practice of speaking loudly but having an overall policy of disengagement with Israel. The United States needs to continue to push Sharon in the right direction, that is, to move settlers in the northern West Bank (the Samaria region) down to the major settlement bloc surrounding Jerusalem (Ma'ale Adumim). Between the fringe settlements and the larger settlement of Ariel, roughly 10% of Israeli settlers dot the land. Even more pressing is the issue of the Jordan River Valley. Israel currently controls the flow of water for the entire West Bank. Any independent state, however, would need to be able to manage its own water. Consolidating the settlers in the north and the Jordan Valley into the small region that Israel is going to be keeping anyway (via a land-swap deal) is a necessary step in the peace process. Otherwise, how can anyone expect the Palestinian state to be viable? Dennis Ross made sure that the Jordan Valley was one of the key concessions that the Israeli side was giving up back in 2001 (though Israel was allowed to retain Ariel as part of the land-swap deal). To date though, the Bush Administration has not pressured Israel into taking either of these steps.
Gaithersburg, MD -- Week 14 NFL Picks
I just looked at my post log and realized that between Ari and me, there have only been about half a dozen posts on this blog in the last week. I'll be posting more starting next week; I'm a bit burnt out from a lot of travel.
For now, here are our NFL picks:
Tampa Bay (+6) at CarolinaJB: Panthers
K-Hole: TB
New England (-3.5) at BuffaloJB: Pats
K-Hole: Bills
St. Louis (+7) at MinnesotaJB: Rams
K-Hole: Vikings
Chicago (+4.5) at PittsburghJB: Bears
K-Hole: Bears
Oakland (-3) at NY JetsJB: Oakland
K-Hole: Jets
Indianapolis (-8) at JacksonvilleJB: Indy
K-Hole: Indy
Houston (+6.5) at TennesseeJB: Houston
K-Hole: Houston
Cleveland (+12.5) at CincinnatiJB: Cincy
K-Hole: Cincy
Washington (-3) at ArizonaJB: Skins
K-Hole: Skins
NY Giants (-7) at PhiladelphiaJB: Giants
K-Hole: Giants
San Francisco (+16) at SeattleJB: Seattle
K-Hole: Seattle
Miami (+13.5) at San DiegoJB: Chargers
K-Hole: Miami
Baltimore (+14) at DenverJB: Baltimore
K-Hole: Denver
Kansas City (+3) at DallasJB: Dallas
K-Hole: Chiefs
Detroit (+5.5) at Green BayJB: Packers
K-Hole: Packers
New Orleans (+10) at AtlantaJB: Saints
K-Hole: Saints
Binghamton, NY -- Latest Polls in Israel
The latest polls show Kadima is now up to 39 seats in Knesset, Labor is down to 22 seats (just one more than they currently have), and Likud seems to have picked up a little and is now back up to 12. The jump from Kadima to 39 means they can form a coalition with Labor without worrying about appeasing the little religious parties.
Another big newsworthy event is that
Tzachi Hanegbi, the chairman of Likud, has joined Kadima. So Sharon now has major leaders from both sides of the political spectrum under his wing. Kadima might just break 40...
Gaithersburg, MD -- A Short Speech
Funny story from a wedding I attended this weekend: At the reception, the best man,got up to make a toast. "A wise man once told me that the best man's speech should be as long as the groom's ability to make love. Thank you." And with that, he walked off.
Rockville, MD -- Week 13 NFL Results
Seattle
put a hurtin' on the Philadelphia Eagles last night, 42-0, bringing our records for the week to:
JB: 9-7
K-Hole: 11-5
Our overall record is:
JB: 17-14-1
K-Hole: 20-11-1
Man, K-Hole should be a professional gambler! Oh wait... he already is.
Herndon, VA -- A Three-State Solution?
I didn't get around to posting over the weekend because I was at a wedding (more later), but here's an idea from Martin Indyk worth serious consideration -- a
separate Palestinian state in Gaza.
I expressed similar sentiments last week to Ari. Since it would be impossible to create a contiguous Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza without Israel giving up an important part of Israel proper, why don't the Palestinians just have two states?
