680-10

That's right, as of this morning 680 Palestinians have been killed while 10 Israelis have died (at least 4 of them by the Israeli military itself in a friendly fire incident). The wounded numbers are off the charts - several thousand Palestinians and likely about 100 or so Israelis.

It's what you'd call a turkey shoot or shooting fish in a barrel.

Yesterday Israel killed at least 40 people at a United Nations run school they bombed. Israel quickly claimed that Hamas fighters were using the school as a hideout. But this morning a U.N. spokesman said they were 99.9% certain that there were no Hamas at the school and that they had in fact informed Israel about the exact coordinates of the school to ensure it not be hit.

Kind of reminds me of the U.S. hitting the Chinese embassy during the Yugoslavia war - bad maps the U.S. claimed - this in the days of focused satellite images.

Now Israel is saying they will stop the fighting for three hours each day to allow humanitarian aid to be trucked into Gaza. My cynical reaction: as the people attempt to get to the distribution sites they will be killed. This is now happening to ambulance drivers who go out to pick up people who have been wounded. They get targeted.

Obama broke his silence and told reporters yesterday, "We are going to engage effectively and consistently in trying to resolve the conflicts that exist in the Middle East........the loss of civilian life in Gaza and Israel is a source of deep concern to me, and after January 20th I am going to have plenty to say about the issue."

The fact that Obama was forced to make even that weak statement means that the pressure from the peace movement and international outrage is having a bit of impact. We've got to multiply the pressure.

I sent a letter to the editor of my local paper yesterday. For two hours I just sat staring at the computer, completely immobilized by despair after viewing photos and reading articles about the Gaza carnage. The fog that descended on me was part rage and part depression. Finally I crawled out of it and wrote the letter and this morning the editor called and said it would appear in the paper by the end of the week. There have been few letters in the paper about Gaza, adding to my utter frustration, and most of the ones printed so far were of the GO ISRAEL variety.

In these moments I keep pushing myself harder to do something else. I tell myself, "Find some way Bruce to do at least one thing a day."

We can't leave the people in Gaza to suffer this genocide alone.

Watch this video of a courageous Palestinian girl.

YOU MUST DO THIS NOW

First of all you must watch this CBS TV interview with Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor in Gaza, as he describes the number of civilians and children injured and killed there. His heart breaking interview proves that Israel is deliberately attacking the civilian population.

The Washington Post reports, "About 550 Palestinians have been killed and more than 2,500 have been reported wounded in the 10-day offensive; Palestinian health officials estimate that many of them -- between 24 and 30 percent -- are women and children. Most are at Shifa, Gaza's largest hospital. Doctors there are working day and night on floors soaked with blood to help the rapidly mounting numbers of wounded. In the halls and corridors, screams and uncontrolled sobbing, along with the sounds of bombs and mortars, punctuate conversations.
'The numbers of killed and wounded are rising. Every minute we have a bombardment,' said Hassan Khalaf, the director of Shifa Hospital. 'The number of cases is overwhelming us. No hospital in the world can handle this.' It's become too dangerous for his staff to retrieve victims. Eleven members of his medical staff have been killed since the offensive began. 'They were in ambulances,' Khalaf said."

Then you must take five minutes and call your Congressional delegation and DEMAND that the US must force Israel into a ceasefire.

Do not just click away. Please make the calls.

The Congressional phone number is (202) 224-3121. When they answer just ask for your Senator and/or Congressman's office.

If you don't know who they are just click here:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/index.html

OUT BEFORE THE SHOW STARTS

Obama's Secretary of Commerce appointee, Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, withdrew his name from consideration this past weekend when it became public that a grand jury is investigating him for a "pay to play" deal, similar to the controversy that is now sweeping the state of Illinois. A federal investigation is looking into how a big-money political contributor of the governor landed lucrative state contracts. Richardson denies all wrong doing.

According to the Albuquerque Journal, "The big picture is fairly simple. CDR Financial Products LLC of Beverly Hills was paid $1.4 million from work it did on behalf of the New Mexico Finance Authority, which issued GRIP transportation bonds. David Rubin, the company's principal owner, made at least $100,000 in contributions to Richardson-backed political committees about the time the firm got the work with the finance authority. Two substantial contributions were three months apart and generally coincided with the separate awards to CDR — one of them a no-bid, sole-source deal."

I've followed the career of Richardson closely. He was a former member of the House of Representatives in Washington. He served as Bill Clinton's Secretary of Energy (DoE) and we all know that New Mexico long ago was chosen as one of the nation's "nuclear sacrifice zones" where nuclear testing was first done and where today several nuclear labs and many military bases test all kinds of futuristic weapons systems.

Albuquerque has many nuclear weapons stored at Kirtland AFB right inside the city. Kirtland is also the space laser directorate for the Pentagon. Many "missile defense" systems are flight tested in southern New Mexico at White Sands. Bill Richardson has always been about bringing home the "Pentagon bacon" and has never shown an inclination to interrupt anything involving the military industrial complex.

When Obama chose Richardson for his cabinet, the message to me was, here goes more of the same.

I sent a message to my good friend, and Global Network board member, Bob Anderson in Albuquerque who co-directs the group Stop the War Machine. I asked Bob to give me his thoughts on the Richardson scandal. Here are some of them:

"It raises a lot more questions about the Obama team. It was obvious to anyone here not connected to the ideologues of the Democratic Party that this man [Richardson] was a carpetbagger who moved here just to run for higher office, and along the way was a global type corporate criminal. Richardson was a director of Kissinger Associates (as in Henry the butcher) which is a private sector firm that brings in politicians to keep them on a payroll when they are out of elective office.

" Richardson campaigned in 2000 on an economic plank of more militarization as a way to solve the state economic problems. Along with Republican Senator Pete Dominici, who just resigned to avoid an ethics investigation for election tampering saying he has an incurable brain disease and now has miracle recovery, they turned the state over to every war and weapons program imaginable -- from nuclear war planning, to war in space planning and development. Along the way they had help from another carpetbagger, Heather Wilson, Republican member of the House, and against whom I ran in 1998 as a Green.

"People like Richardson and Wilson move to states like NM as carpetbaggers to position themselves for political office to better serve the private sector interests and the military. This is the political arm of the military industrial complex in action.

"Richardson specialized in taking public assets, taxes, and turning them over to private sector interests. The state pension and rainy day fund was raided for millions with investments in Wall Street schemes like the Madoff fiasco, when other investors were abandoning hedge funds and pyramid schemes last fall. $200 million was tapped for a private spaceport for the global elite and Lockheed Martin to launch space research weapons and fun flights for celebrities. All these were part of his plan to get money for his run for president, which was a failure.

"Richardson talked [nuclear] nonproliferation but stood by while the Reliable Replacement Warhead was discussed. While he was Secretary of the DoE he oversaw an expansion of the WMDs in Albuquerque and never responded to our campaign to rid the city of 2,000 WMDs stored at Kirtland AFB. In fact he helped the Air Force locate the new WMD center at the base, along with the space battlefield program. SO much .... When the BRAC [base closing commission] planned to close Canon AFB at Clovis, NM he rushed out there and stood shoulder to shoulder with the Republican Senators Domenici and Wilson to promise to find a new mission for the base. We've now got a new covert operations training base there. The whole state has seen an expansion of war research and planning under his term while poverty has grown here. White Sands Missile Range is now to be home to a battalion of regular Army in addition to other programs, to train for wars in Eurasia."

So basically, according to Bob, Gov. Richardson was just another garden variety center-right Democrat disguised as a progressive.

It's good to see him out of contention for the Obama cabinet post but there are plenty more like him out there. I'm certain Obama will find another person like Richardson for the Commerce Department post.

GOD HELP THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE - THE AMERICANS WON'T

Israeli peace protesters opposing their country's Gaza attack

There is more debate inside Israel about their nation's illegal and immoral attack on the defenseless people of Gaza than here in the US. In America we witness a non-stop display of Israeli government spokespersons on TV justifying their murderous assault on the Palestinian people. I've seen nothing on TV or in the newspaper about protests in our country.

Tonight I even heard Israeli government representatives on CNN and MSNBC denying that more than 400 Palestinian people had been killed in recent days by Israel's incessant bombing. These bold faced liars accused the Palestinians of making up the numbers of dead in order to sway public opinion. How despicably low can Israel stoop? And how low can the American media stoop in their servitude and complicity?

It is a virtual turkey shoot, like shooting fish in a barrel, happening right now in Gaza. The corrupt American media asks few tough questions as the Israeli government keeps the world media from filming their military rampage.

On the topic of Israel's current attack on Gaza, South African Archibishop Desmond Tutu said on Sunday: "In the context of total aerial supremacy, in which one side in a conflict deploys lethal aircraft against opponents with no means of defending themselves, the bombardment bears all the hallmarks of war crimes."

I read a report tonight from a friend that Cynthia McKinney is now back in the US and that Israel today bombed and destroyed the port that Cynthia and a European medical team tried to sail into earlier this week with medical supplies. All of the fishing boats have also been blown up in the port making it virtually impossible for them to transport food into Gaza.

Still we hear nothing from Obama. We expect nothing from Bush but we must insist that Obama stand up and call for an end to this systematic slaughter of a people who have no Army, Navy, or Air Force. The excuse that Hamas is launching some ineffective rockets to justify this genocidal policy is deceptive and sickening. We Americans are allowing this madness to continue and we are paying for it with our tax dollars!

Yesterday I joined an hour long protest in Portland at noon and two TV stations came to cover the event. But they spent at least 20 minutes interviewing the one Jewish man in a suit that crashed the protest, began yelling in some of our faces, and then went over to the media who eagerly put him on camera. Our very diverse group of at least 75 people, standing in the freezing cold, was not reported on by the local newspaper.

The media are captives of this war machine that is now churning death full bore in Gaza.

God help us all and most importantly, god help the Palestinian people. Not enough of us seem to care. Our hearts have turned cold.

SPREADING LIKE A BAD COLD

Last Sunday I attended a public forum on health care at the library in Brunswick. The event was led by Bill Clark, a retired doctor, who I have interviewed a couple of times on my public access TV show called This Issue. The meeting was organized in response to Obama's request for feedback on his health care plans.

The Obama team gave a list of seven questions they wanted discussed. The questions were policy wonk oriented, things like "How can public policy promote healthier lifestyles?"

There were 60 people present and early on the group made it clear that they didn't want to talk about the seven questions from Obama. Instead they over and again spoke about their belief that health care was a human right, that the profit motive should be taken out of health care, and in the end the people pretty much unanimously requested that Dr. Clark inform the Obama team that those assembled supported a single-payer health care program, or "Medicare (the program that covers people over 65) for all" as it is often called.

Richard Rhames from Biddeford, who was there filming the meeting for public access TV, reminded us that while a state senator in Illinois Obama had helped defeat a single-payer health care program that was brought to his state legislature. During the recent Democratic primaries it was Rep. Dennis Kucinich who was the leading advocate for government run single-payer system while Obama and Hillary Clinton championed "national health insurance for all" which means having the government further subsidize the insurance companies to broaden their coverage to include more of the 48 million across the nation who have no coverage.

Health insurance corporations premiums have doubled in the past eight years and medical bills now contribute to 50% of the bankruptcies and home foreclosures experienced by the public.

Advocates of single-payer have made a strong case that expanding private health insurance may not mean a better delivery system as we know that the "market driven" insurance companies are less efficient. The government run Veterans Administration (VA) health program has the best quality scores (for diabetes, blood pressure control, and the like) of any system in the US.

With millions of people now losing their jobs many more will join the ranks of the uninsured. For each 1% increase in unemployment, over one million more folks join those without coverage.

On New Years Day MB and I went to a party held in South Paris, Maine at the home of retired doctor and Cuba solidarity activist Tom Whitney. Tom told me that just days ago a similar health care forum had been held in Augusta that he attended along with 75 others. He said that similar to the one I had gone to, the people in Augusta also resisted the programed questions from Obama and instead spoke out for single-payer health care.

This seems to be contagious. It's spreading like a bad cold. The people are tired of watching the health insurance company executives walk away with $42 million annual bonuses while more go without the ability to see a doctor when sick. There is only one real prescription for this malady and it is free health care for all. Let the "market commodity" system of health care delivery die and instead resuscitate Medicare for everyone across the nation.

THE YEAR AHEAD - WISHING YOU BETTER THINGS

On Christmas day our Addams-Melman housemates gathered to paint self-portraits. This is what I came up with.

In the spirit of self examination I will share my New Years Resolutions.

• I will continue to criticize politicians who belong to both corporate parties. I won't show any favor to either mainstream party.
• I won't believe hardly anything I read in the mainstream press.
• I won't claim to have been influenced by Abe Lincoln, it's becoming over used lately.
• No more eating between meals...OK, not as much eating between meals. (I am still down 10 pounds from my hunger strike last summer.)
• I will only buy foam board to make anti-war signs from now on because it lasts longer.
• I won't begin the baseball season expecting my beloved (#&*@!) Orioles to win any games.
• I'll try to not say the words "conversion of the military industrial complex" in every conversation I have.
• I will go cross country skiing as often as my sore legs will allow me.
• I won't shop at corporate chain stores/restaurants unless I am drugged, dragged, or forced at gun point except on those occasions where I don't have any other options available to me......
• I won't make excuses for weak or bad behavior.
• I won't buy the new line of kids Army clothes at Sears stores. I will not be a slave to fashion.
• I'll listen to music other than The Kinks - sometimes.
• I won't ever long for Bush-Cheney to kick around anymore.
• I won't use the word Iraq without adding Afghanistan.
• If I have to sit-in a Congressional office and be arrested I won't bail out of jail.
• After I have genuinely reflected on the boundaries of my "personal box" I will summon up the courage to step outside as often as possible.
• I will walk more often.
• I promise not to invite Nancy Pelosi to write a fundraising letter on behalf of the Global Network.
• I will stop expecting the oligarchy to develop a conscience.
• I won't invest the coins in my penny bottle in any hedge funds or ponzi schemes.
• I will continue to refuse to pay thousands of $$$ each year for a $15,000 deductible health insurance policy that does me absolutely no good even if it means I remain one of the 48 million without health care.
• I will (try) to spend less time on the computer and more time reading the old fashioned way.
• I won't criticize any politician on this blog unless they deserve it.
• I will call the New York Yankees the "evil empire" every time I look at the major league baseball standings and see them in first place after spending zillions of dollars buying up the best free agent players this winter.
• I will wean myself from corporate dominated sports, even if it hurts.
• I will ride my bicycle more.
• I will everyday remember that the CIA-Mafia runs the world and that we must have a non-violent revolution.
• I will never, ever expect a savior to get us out from behind the eight-ball.
• I will trust working in collaboration with others is better than powerless isolation.
• I will do as my dentist says and floss more often.
• I will continue to explore and awaken the sleeping artist inside of me, even if it takes forever.
• I won't step on anyone else's spiritual practice.
• I will eat more green veggies and fruit.
• I will not look the other way when I see suffering people in Africa, Palestine, or any where else. Or suffering animals or plants or water or air.
• I will continue to enlarge my sharing heart.
• I will attempt to live one precious moment at a time.

That should be enough for one year's work. Wish me luck please.

And best wishes to you in 2009.

Please enjoy The Kinks singing Better Things.