Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Thank God for David Horowitz! (9:33 am)

This made my day! Ahhhhhh ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaaaa…woooo hooooo! Oh sweet Jesus! (sniff!—anyone got a Kleenex?)

It’s great to see that the rightwing of this country can think of no better way to spend its time than to attack a 23-year-old college student who was killed by Israeli bulldozers (and, oh yes, also her grieving parents. Solid, guys, very upstanding!). I also immensely enjoyed their sober reporting on the menacing threat posed by the apparently left-leaning Chevron-Texaco foundation (?!):

On its website, ChevronTexaco pledges its support for “programs and non-profit organizations that exemplify and explore the traditions and heritage of diverse cultures in our communities.” Environmental issues also rank high on the foundation’s list of priorities.

Moreover, ChevronTexaco extols the virtues of diversity in the workplace, devoting an entire page of its website to this topic. The foundation proudly states that it “has been a major sponsor of the Mosaic Project that provides K-12 educators and community-based organizations with resources for teaching students how different cultures shape our community.” In addition, the Chevron and Texaco minority vendor programs resulted (from 1996 - 2002) in the purchase of $8.6 billion in products and services with women or minority-owned suppliers.

MOREOVER! Can you believe it?! Chevron devotes “an entire page” of its website to extolling the virtues of diversity in the workplace?!! Don’t these oil execs realize it’s only a short step from “diversity in the workplace” to universal health care and a leftist-anarcho bonfire-orgy on the Capitol steps with Noam Chomsky leading the heathens in godless chants and the heads of the Senate Intelligence Committee bobbing on pointed sticks? Yea, ‘tis a slippery slope! Thank heavens we have Horowitz to keep an eye on Texaco for us!

But you know what, David? You really should relax. Don’t be so credulous as to take ChevronTexaco’s word on their commitment to “environmental issues.” They’re still ruthlessly poisoning the environment and exploiting the indigenous of the Third World. Just ask Guillermo Maldonado. And who is he?

Maldonado, a 47-going-on-60-year-old day-worker for Petroecuador, walks us over to a toxic water pool dug by Texaco to be used as part of its petroleum separation process. The pool lies just 100 meters behind the wooden shack he shares with 12 members of his family. Inside the station’s perimeter fence, a gas flare burns with an intense heat, releasing invisible fumes that send my head spinning and leave me feeling physically sick. The pool is filled with black slimy water, and is lined with a single layer of black plastic—standard Texaco and Petroecuador operating procedure. It has ruptured and the water has leaked through the soil and into a nearby stream—the only local source of drinking water. ”We have bad headaches, stomach pains, and our skin looks like this,” says Maldonado. His body, like that of every member of his family, is covered in white pustulated boils. It could be a hereditary disease, except that nearly everyone around here has a similar affliction.

So you see, David, relax, it’s cool. Chevron may throw some rhetorical bones to the liberals, but when push comes to shove, they don’t shy away from inflicting whole villages with “white pustulated boils.” They’ve got…whatdoyacallit? Oh yeah, that’s right. “Steely resolve.” Cold as fucking metal.

posted by Brian Cook

Reader Comments

Why those right-wingers at Mother Jones!!!
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1329/is_5_28 8/ai_107897303

posted by Michael Pugliese on 2-16-05 at 12:23 PM

Okay, Michael, did you also read this <http://192.211.16.13/a/asdf/response.html> about the plagiarism and sloppy reporting in that Mother Jones article?

posted by Liane Rozzell on 2-16-05 at 2:20 PM

Yup, months ago.
Main political point being that ISM by defending houses that are atop the arms smuggling tunnels is, (’er, Stalinist rhetorical tactic ;-), “objectively supporting, “ terrorism of Hamas, Hizbollah, Islamic Jihad. I support the Geneva accords, as does the Israeli and Palestinian moderate left. Do you support more of the “armed struggle” that has led to further destitution and failure?

posted by Michael Pugliese on 2-16-05 at 2:36 PM

Yowzer! Some biting prose.... The “profile” of Rachel Corrie is just factually incorrect, in addition to being insensitive.

I was wondering if we should be offended that In These Times didn’t make Discover the Network’s list of media.... Are we too small or just not evil enough?

posted by Emily Udell on 2-16-05 at 3:27 PM

Michael,

I am all for critically evaluating and passing judgments on the ISM and the validity, and morality, of its tactics. But there is a world of difference between the Mother Jones article, which does precisely that, and the post on the “Discover the Network” website, which speaks of the “Corrie family jihad,” incorrectly claims that your cited MJ article concludes that Corrie “was a dangerous and demented little twit,” and attempts to link the deceased Corrie in some strange, conspiratorial nexus with Noam Chomsky, Betty Freidan, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Mohammed Atta. The former is useful and necessary; the latter is ABSOLUTELY BONKERS!

posted by Brian Cook on 2-16-05 at 3:33 PM

Thank you, Brian for>posted by Brian Cook on 2-16-05 at 5:33 PM.
Individual ISM members I’ve met in S.F. at United for Peace & Justice meetings at the AFSC office, have been more than reasonable. Others active in Palestine Solidarity like Stalinoid Charlotte Kates of NJ Solidarity or Alison Weir, OY VEY!
C. Seitz who has written for I.T.T. has a good piece in the J. of Palestine Studies in 2002 if memory serves.
On the Horowitz spider webs (akin to Nesta Webster conspiranoia post WWI, see the Michael Lind takedown of Pat Robertson in, “Up From Conservatism, “ for much on Webster, anti-semitism, way out far right anti-communism and Pat R.) I just read his entry on Daniel Berrigan. Omitted this>>...
To:
Re: http://discoverthenetwork.org/contact.asp CDO.Message.1 error ‘80040220’
The “SendUsing” configuration value is invalid.

/contact.asp, line 25

Re: Daniel Berrigan
You omit that he signed the Joan Baez open letter to his credit. And
anti-abortion.
http://216.239.63.104/search?q=cache:XiyiCapXcw4J:vietp page.com/
archive_news/politics/2002/May/21/att-0149/01-
Nguyen_Thi_Ngoc_Hanh_next_trial_will_be_on_May_21.doc+DANIEL L+BERRIGAN+open+letter+baez+socialist+republic+vietnam&h hl=en
Joan Baez wrote an open letter to the New York Times (May 30, 1979)
addressed to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and signed by 78 other
prominent individuals, including Cesar Chavez, I. F Stone, Daniel
Berrigan, Jerome Weisner and Nat Hentoff. It read in part:

?�?��?�?Ǩ?�We appeal to you to end the imprisonment and torture?�?��?�?Ǩ?��to
allow an international team of neutral observers to inspect your
prisons and reeducation centers.

?�?��?�?Ǩ?�We urge you to follow the tenets of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant for Civil
and Political rights which, as a member of the United Nations, your
country is pledged to uphold.

?�?��?�?Ǩ?�We urge you to reaffirm your stated commitment to the
principles of freedom and human dignity...to establish real peace in
Vietnam.

posted by Michael Pugliese on 2-16-05 at 3:49 PM

------- Forwarded message -------
From: “Nathan Newman” <nathanne@nathannewman.org>
To:
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Nathan’s “Fun Tool”
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 17:52:42 -0500

My friends at ACORN certainly appreciate being described as the largest
radical organization in the country. My job at the Brennan Center is
described as being legal counsel to the “ACORN cult.” But if you ignore
the bias and assume that a chunk is untrue, it still has some fun juicy
history on various groups—some of which I know is true but often not
discussed in politie left company :)

----- Original Message -----
From: “Dennis Perrin” <dperrin@comcast.net>
To: <lbo-talk@lbo-talk.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2005 4:58 PM
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Nathan’s “Fun Tool”

Seems I jumped the gun on this. After tooling around its vile bowels for
about half an hour, I’m beginning to see Nathan’s point. The thing is
downright hilarious, riddled with inaccuracies and outright falsehoods, but
entertaining all the same.

Check out this --

<http://discoverthenetwork.org/individual.asp>

then this --

<http://discoverthenetwork.org/media.asp>

We need to get our names on these lists. Email them and demand it!!

___________________________________
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk

--
Michael Pugliese

posted by Michael Pugliese on 2-16-05 at 3:53 PM

Mr. Pugliese, your defense of the IDF’s actions against Ms. Corrie are disgusting. There is no question that Israel’s policy of house demolition is a flagrant violation of international law; it has been criticized by human rights groups inside and outside of Israel. Furthermore, not even the Israeli Defense Forces has claimed that the family whose house Rachel was trying to protect was involved in arms smuggling of any kind. Do you really believe that opposing house demolition is tantamount to “objectively” supporting Hamas?

posted by Peter on 2-16-05 at 6:02 PM

Thanks to David Horowitz, I now have the phrase “pro-terrorism Left” in my lexicon, with which I can name my band.

posted by rocco on 2-17-05 at 4:54 AM

Another ISM has fallen prey…

http://gaelicstarover.blogspot.com/2005/02/by-lonely-pr rison-wall.html

posted by Daith?? on 2-17-05 at 12:30 PM

Another ISM volunteer has fallen prey?Ķ

http://gaelicstarover.blogspot.com/2005/02/by-lonely-pr rison-wall.html

posted by Daith?? on 2-17-05 at 12:32 PM

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