My only criticism is he needs to get with someone who can make beats so he can develop his own sound instead of using others’ beats. As much as I like his track over a Mobb Deep classic, his own music would go with the words and themes, making the songs more powerful.

Follow the Winged Villain on Twitter and check his YouTube page.

Warning: slight profanity if you consider “cunt” profane, but it’s said with a charming accent.

[tarboush tip: Offendum]

Using terms like “ignorance,” he denounces the “crazies” who have for some odd reason come to an obsession with some purported Muslim conspiracy to implement sharia law.

I was expecting for Christie to say, “but he’s a Republican!”  Props to Christie for slamming the idiocy that has for too long gone unopposed by American politicians.  Even McCain’s correction to the woman who suggested Obama was an Arab (:50 in) still included the remark that he’s a family man.

I would add that it also takes an amazing amount of ignorance of the American judicial system to think rulings based on sharia law would be sustained in higher courts.  In other words, even a New Jersey superior court judge’s decisions are not necessarily the last word — making Sharia impossible to implement, even if the absurd notion that an American lawyers would use a judicial appointment to advance a completely different body of law.

If we all succumbed to stereotypes, we might expect that Christie ends the presser by beating the sharia law-questioner to death with a baseball bat.

[tarboush tip: George]

Some speculate that the tyrannical fear barrier has been breached, meaning people are past the point at which they can be intimidated and brutalized into submission.  Robert Fisk thinks Syria may be past the “tipping point.”

However, the AJE report raises the possibility of direct western intervention.  That would clearly spell the end of the revolt in Syria. If it’s to prevent genocide, a case can be made for intervention.  But even floating the idea at this point is not going to help the protesters who the regime is already trying to paint as foreign agents. Yes, the regime’s in complete denial of its own authoritarianism.

Syrians have to make their own future, and already some on the outside want to poison it, to shape it so that it suits their interests rather than the will of the Syrian people. Whether that means tacitly supporting  the regime, or seeking to further de-stabilization through the use of agents, or propping up dissident groups, the hands of external players in Syria will likely doom it to a new tyranny.

Also, Palestinians should not back the Assad regime. As much as they think it is a friend against Israel, a. it is not and b. Palestinians must in principle refuse the support of regimes that oppress others.   Failure to do so constitutes hypocrisy.

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Reports from Twitter and other social media are coming in that the singer in this video, Zeid Hamdan, was arrested because of this one year-old music video (the song is older apparently). While it does name Lebanon’s president explicitly, lists common grievances against the state, the overall tenor is quite pacifist. The charge is apparently “defamation,” and the singer is calling out for people to mobilize in his defense.

This follows a state campaign against Facebook users who criticized the Lebanese president.

People should contact the embassy today to demand Zeid Hamdan’s release and that the government drop any charges stemming from this harmless song.

Here is the USA embassy’s info:

Embassy Directory
Embassy of Lebanon
2560 28th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20008

Tel: (202) 939-6300
Fax: (202) 939-6324
Email: info@lebanonembassyus.org

Ambassador’s Office

Ambassador Antoine Chedid
Ambassador of Lebanon to the United States

Mrs. Christine DeLeon
Ambassador’s Secretary
Tel: 202 939-6320 to 22
E-Mail: CDeleon@lebanonembassyus.org

Mahmoud Abbas and his grandson Ziad — a likely future successor in the Palestinian mini-kingdom — were the first to accept the offer.  The former Palestinian Authority president, a recognized leader in flopping during negotiations, will coach the team on how to dive convincingly after the slightest physical contact. Ziad will spend his first few years as the official ball warmer.

While this self-sacrificial move by the famous club could spell its end or its first relegation from La Liga in the club’s 112 year history, the prospects for advancing Palestinian rights will never be more promising.

Barcelona’s motto “Més que un club” (“more than a club”) proved true, as it has now done more for the cause of peace than the United States and Europe combined.

FC Barcelona’s gesture was well-received by La Liga rival Real Madrid and it’s recent Champion League victim, Manchester United.

She clarifies many of the misunderstandings some in the general public hold about the Flotilla.

This boat exposes not only the criminality of Israel’s efforts closing off an entire, largely-refugee population, but the bankruptcy of American foreign policy.

I urge you to support this boat as a powerful symbol against the wrong ways of the American and Israeli governments.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Athens: Felice Gelman, 30-694-266-0406;
New York: Donna Nevel, 917-570-4371
Twitter @USBoatToGaza

State Department Officials Have an Obligation to Speak Out Against Israeli Threats to Attack U.S. Boat to Gaza

Athens, June 24, 2011 – U.S. peace activists preparing to set sail on the U.S. Boat to Gaza, The Audacity of Hope, expressed profound disappointment over a statement issued by the U.S. State Department on Wednesday, June 22, 2011. Instead of calling on the Israeli government to let a flotilla of unarmed civilians sail to Gaza, the United States government is pressuring its own citizens to refrain from legal acts.

On Wednesday, the State Department sent out a “travel advisory” urging Americans not to participate in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. According to the statement, U.S. citizens are advised against traveling to Gaza by any means, including via sea, noting that previous attempts to enter Gaza by sea “have been stopped by Israeli naval vessels and resulted in the injury, death, arrest, and deportation of U.S. citizens.”

“Apparently, the State Department subscribes to the view that Israel’s anticipated violence against unarmed protesters is an immutable act of nature,” said Hagit Borer, a professor of Linguistics at the University of Southern California and a passenger on the U.S. boat. “This is a remarkable attitude, coming from a government that provides the Israeli government with billions of dollars in military aid and routinely uses its veto to protect the Israeli government from censure of its occupation policies by the UN Security Council.”

Passengers on the boat noted that the U.S. State Department has a legal obligation to act to protect U.S. citizens when they are traveling abroad. “So far, U.S. government officials have failed to use their influence to discourage Israeli authorities from ordering a physical assault on us,” said Just Foreign Policy policy director Robert Naiman, another passenger on the U.S. boat. “Of course, State Department officials have an obligation to speak out against threats to attack us. It is deeply disappointing that they have so far failed to do so.”

Below is a copy of a letter the passengers of The Audacity of Hope sent of June 14, 2011 to President Obama, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and other high-ranking government officials. There has yet to be a response to the letter.

###
14 June 2011

The President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. Obama:

We are writing to inform you that 50 unarmed Americans will soon be sailing in a U.S. flagged ship called The Audacity of Hope as part of an international flotilla to Gaza.

Our peaceful demonstration will challenge Israel’s blockade of Gaza, which has effectively imprisoned 1.6 million civilians, almost half of whom are under the age of 16. The blockade has impoverished the people of Gaza, deprived them of needed materials and supplies to rebuild their lives after the Israeli attack of late 2008 – early 2009, impeded those who are ill or infirm from seeking outside medical aid, and prevented students from seeking education outside of Gaza. 45% of the working age population is unemployed.

In addition to 36 passengers, 4 crew, and 10 members of the press, our boat will carry thousands of letters of support and friendship from people throughout the U.S. to the women, children and men of Gaza. There will be no weapons of any sort on board. We will carry no goods of any kind for delivery in Gaza. Our mission is from American civil society to the civil society of Gaza. We do not serve the agenda of any political leadership, government or group. We are engaged solely in non-violent action in support of the Palestinian people and their human rights.

In our country’s great tradition of citizen activists taking nonviolent action to stand up to injustice, we sail in the hope that our voyage will show the people in Gaza that they are not alone, and that it will call attention to the morally and legally indefensible collective punishment of a population of civilians.

Mr. President, you have noted the unsustainability of the Gaza blockade. And your administration has spoken boldly in support of peaceful demonstrations throughout this “Arab Spring.”

As U.S. citizens we expect our country and its leaders to help ensure the Flotilla’s safe passage to Gaza – as our country should support our humanitarian demand that the Gaza blockade be lifted. This should begin by notifying the Israeli government in clear and certain terms that it may not physically interfere with the upcoming Flotilla of which the U.S. boat—The Audacity of Hope — is part. We—authors, builders, firefighters, lawyers, social workers, retirees, Holocaust survivors, former government employees and more—expect no less from our President and your administration.

Our boat will sail from the eastern Mediterranean in the last week of June. We shall be grateful to you for acting promptly and decisively to uphold the rights of civilians to safe passage on the seas.
Sincerely,
The passengers of The Audacity of Hope

Nic Abramson, Johnny Barber, Medea Benjamin, Greta Berlin, Hagit Borer, Regina Carey, Gale Courey Toensing, Erin DeRamus, Linda Durham, Debra Ellis, Hedy Epstein, Steve Fake, Ridgely Fuller, Megan Horan,Kathy Kelly, Kit Kittredge, Libor Koznar, Melissa Lane, G. Kaleo Larson, Richard Levy, Richard Lopez, Ken Mayers, Ray McGovern, Gail Miller, Carol Murry, Robert Naiman, Henry Norr, Ann Petter, Gabe Schivone, Kathy Sheetz, Max Suchan, Brad Taylor, Len Tsou, Alice Walker, Paki Wieland, Ann Wright

cc:

The Honorable Ban Ki-moon, U.N. Secretary General
The Honorable Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State
The Honorable Jeffrey Feltman, Assistant Secretary of State
The Honorable Susan E. Rice, Permanent U.S. Representative to the United Nations
The Honorable James B. Cunningham, U.S. Ambassador to Israel
The Honorable John F. Kerry, Chairman U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee
The Honorable Richard G. Lugar, Ranking Member U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee
The Honorable Robert P. Casey, Chairman Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs
The Honorable James E. Rish, Ranking Member Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs
The Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Chairman U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs
The Honorable Howard L. Berman, Ranking Member U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs
The Honorable Steve Chabot, Chairman Subcommittee on Middle East and South Asia
The Honorable Gary L. Ackerman, Ranking Member Subcommittee on Middle East and South Asia

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For regular updates follow the US Boat to Gaza on Twitter: http://twitter.com/usboattogaza and visit the US Boat to Gaza website.