Hi. This morning’s Democracy Now interviews a
who states my own position on the current intervention in Libya, but with far greater
knowledge. Amy is to be commended for this, as it’s the very first I’ve heard from
the barrage/din of ‘progressive’ sources. Thank you, Amy. My sense is that
by the time peaceful steps had been discussed, voted upon, agreed to, an emergency
delegation organized and a visit to
would already have been razed, hundreds killed and the organizers/leaders of the
insurrection, already identified by spies, assassinated. There is no doubt in my mind
that this scenario is reality. I can state, un-equivocally, that the movement in
agrees with that assessment. This is not to support the motives and aims of imperialism,
including those of the Obama administration. Rather, this particular intervention allows
this greatest of our time democratic revolution to continue. Listen or watch the debate
on today’s Democracy Now. Below, is another great truth-sayer and maverick.
Ed
From: Sid Shniad
Sent: Monday, March 21, 2011 3:50 PM
http://www.bradenton.com/2011/03/17/3041886/helen-thomas-is-playboys-april.html
Mar. 17, 2011
Helen Thomas is Playboy's April Interview A Candid Conversation with the
Disgraced Dean of the White House Press Corps About her Rage against
her Sympathy for Palestinians and Why she was Fired Playboy
/PRNewswire/ -- "I knew exactly what I was doing – I was going for broke. I
had reached the point of no return. You finally get fed up…I finally wanted
to speak the truth," explains former dean of the White House Press Corps
Helen Thomas when asked about her now infamous May 27, 2010 comments on
**www.playboydigital.com* <http://www.playboydigital.com/>* Friday, March
18).* The outspoken journalist sparked controversy when a rabbi and blogger
asked her for remarks on
out of
and
viral and Thomas abruptly resigned from her post at Hearst Newspapers on
June 7, 2010.
The 90-year-old veteran reporter sat down with *Playboy *Contributing Editor
David Hochman for her first in-depth interview following her contentious
remarks. Not only did she share her thoughts on
also discussed her sentiments towards Jews, her supposed retirement,
President Obama, Congress's anti-Arab agenda and her obituary. Following
are selected quotes from the interview:
*On the aftermath of her May 27 remarks about
self-imposed house arrest for two weeks…Every columnist and commentator
jumped on me immediately as anti-Semitic. Nobody asked me to explain
myself. Nobody said, 'What did you really mean?'"
*On the situation in
Palestinians have been shortchanged in every way. Sure, the Israelis have a
right to exist – but where they were born, not to come and take someone
else's home. I've had it up to here with the violations against the
Palestinians…[The Palestinians] are incarcerated and living in an open
prison. I say to the Israelis, 'Get out of people's homes!' It's
unacceptable to have soldiers knocking on a door at three in the morning and
saying, 'This is my home.' And forcing people out of homes they've lived in
for centuries? What is this? How can anybody accept it? I mean,
Jewish-only roads? [*She later corrected herself to say Israeli-only roads.
*] Would anyone tolerate something like that in
*On Palestinian violence against the Israelis: *"Of course I don't condone
any violence against anyone. But who wouldn't fight for their country?
What would any American do if their land was being taken? Remember
Harbor. The Palestinian violence is to protect what little remains of
generations of Palestinians have been forced out of their homes – by
Israelis – and into refugee camps."
*On American support of
government bribes the Israelis by saying, 'Please come to the [negotiating]
table and we'll give you this and we'll give you that'…Why do you have to
bribe people to do the right thing? I don't want my government bribing
anybody. I want them demanding. Stop all this aid to
killing people!...Why do they send my American tax dollars to perpetuate
it?"
*On Jews:* "I think they're wonderful people. They had to have the most
depth. They were leaders in civil rights. They've always had the heart for
others but not for Arabs, for some reason. I'm not anti-Jewish; I'm
anti-Zionist."
*On Jewish persecution and victimization:* "The slaughter of Jews stopped
with World War II…They were liberated since then. And yet they carry on the
victimization. American people do not know that the Israeli lobbyists have
intimidated them into believing every Jew is a persecuted victim forever –
while they are victimizing Palestinians…Why do they inflict the same pain on
people who did nothing to them?"
*On memorializing the Holocaust:* "There's nothing wrong with remembering
it, but why do we have to constantly remember? We're not at fault. I mean,
if they're going to put a Holocaust museum in every city in
fine with me. But we didn't do this to the Jews. Why do we have to keep
paying the price and why do they keep oppressing the Palestinians? Do the
Jews ever look at themselves? Why are they always right? Because they have
been oppressed throughout history, I know. And they have this persecution.
That's true, but they shouldn't use that to dominate."
*On the Jews' influence and power:* "[The Jews are] using their power, and
they have power in every direction…Power over the White House, power over
Congress…Everybody is in the pocket of the Israeli lobbies, which are funded
by wealthy supporters, including those from
financial markets. There's total control…It isn't the two percent. It's
real power when you own the White House, when you own these other places in
terms of your political persuasion. Of course they have power. [*To the
interviewer*] You don't deny that. You're Jewish, aren't you?"
*On Congress's anti-Arab sentiments:* "I want you to look at the Congress
that just came in. Do you think [
Schumer and Lehtinen – whatever her name is – in
representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a strong supporter of
to be pro-Arab? No. But they're going to be very influential. Eric
Cantor, the majority leader of the Republicans, do you think he's going to
be for the Arabs? Hell no! I'm telling you, you cannot get 330 votes in
Congress for anything that's pro-Arab. Nothing."
*On the uprisings and demonstrations sweeping through the Arab world:* "I
love the new revolutionary spirit in the Middle East and
power of the people is removing ruthless dictators in
and that's only the beginning. There is no stopping this free new movement.
The Arab world is waking up to the possibilities of democratic life and
freedom for its people, and I am happy to see this happening in my
lifetime."
*On what her obituary will say:* "[*Eyes suddenly fill with tears*] Oh, I
know what they're going to say: 'anti-Semite'…They don't give a damn about
the truth. They have to have it their way, and they'll be writing my
obituary…I don't care what they write about me…Because of what happened
recently, people are going to remember me a certain way. The truth is, I
don't hate anybody. I care deeply about people. I care for the poor, the
sick, the lame, the harmed, those who've been treated unjustly."
*On whether or not she has lost her mind: *"I resent that question! I
thoroughly resent it. Why are you interviewing me if I'm crazy? It
wouldn't be worth it to you, would it?...You should apologize."
*On her supposed retirement:* "I'm not retired! I was fired. In fact, I'll
die with my boots on. I'm still writing and I'll continue to write and ask
hard questions. I will never bow out of journalism."
*On why she became a journalist:* "I got into it because I am very nosy,
very curious, and because I thought it was a great profession. It's an
education every day to be in journalism, and it's given me a great life."
*On the changing nature of journalism:* "Everyone with a laptop thinks
they're a journalist and everyone with a camera thinks they're a news
photographer. Where are the standards? How can we get back to the ethics
and standards of journalism? There's no editing, no oversight. It's just
thrown to the wind. I'm afraid of what's happening."
*On WikiLeaks:* "I think it's great. It's important to reveal what's going
on behind the scenes. We wouldn't have known half this stuff without this
information, and it's going to change everything as far as diplomacy."
*On Obama's conservatism:* "People are unhappy. The trouble is, swinging to
the right is always dangerous. We end up losing so much in the rush to
conservatism. But even Obama has fallen down that hole. He's pushing a
conservative agenda…Look at
after Obama took the oath he should have said, 'We're getting the hell out
of here.' Same thing with
to be in war…I thought Obama would be for peace, but he's not."
*On her belief that Hillary Clinton and President Obama would be
liberal:*"I thought, naively perhaps, that [Hillary Clinton] and Obama
would bring
change, that they would be different. I assumed wrongly that they would be
liberal because he's black and she's a woman. It's maddening."
*On George W. Bush's handling of the war in
of the CIA and chairman of the Republican National Committee. He knew
politics and he knew foreign policy, but he didn't give any of that to his
son. Dubya was a hip-shooter. If you look at the Downing Street Memo from
2002, you see the chief of British intelligence had come here just before
George W. Bush's invasion of
was determined to go to war and that he wanted to fix the facts to do it.
But there were no facts. We just went to war for no reason."
*On the hanging of Saddam Hussein:* "I think it was wrong to hang Saddam
Hussein. He should have been put before an international court for war
crimes and everything else. But for us to just bypass the law and have him
hanged was wrong. Not that the press called the president on it. The press
rallied around the flag on that one."
*On Dick Cheney:* "Now, there was a vice president. [*laughs*] The idea
that he could have been president. I think Cheney is diabolical."
*On George Stephanopoulos:* "He started closing the door to the press
secretary's office his first week on the job. 'Journalists keep out!'…He
didn't treat [journalists] civilly. But then immediately after he's out of
the White House, he wants to go into our profession. It's like he couldn't
stand being out of the limelight. I mean, why should George Stephanopoulos
have been a great journalist? Well, he's not, in my book."
SOURCE Playboy
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