My Father Died Alone in Gaza

from CounterPunch, here.

by Ramzy Baroud

He is also the editor-in-chief of PalestineChronicle.com. He can be contacted at: editor@palestinechronicle.com

I still vividly remember my father’s face – wrinkled, apprehensive, warm – as he last wished me farewell fourteen years ago. He stood outside the rusty door of my family’s home in a Gaza refugee camp wearing old yellow pyjamas and a seemingly ancient robe. As I hauled my one small suitcase into a taxi that would take me to an Israeli airport an hour away, my father stood still. I wished he would go back inside; it was cold and the soldiers could pop up at any moment. As my car moved on, my father eventually faded into the distance, along with the graveyard, the water tower and the camp. It never occurred to me that I would never see him again.

Hillary’s Hypocrisy

by Scott Creighton

Recently Barack Obama made an elegant speech on the state of racism in America and other things. I have made my feelings about this speech clear enough. No need to go back over that.

But I was reminded about a reaction from Hillary Clinton to Obama’s clear gift for public speaking. This is what she said;

“That’s the difference between me and my opponent. My opponent makes speeches. I offer solutions. It is one thing to get people excited. I want to empower you,”

“Now, over the years, you’ve heard plenty of promises from plenty of people in plenty of speeches. And some of those speeches were probably pretty good. But speeches don’t put food on the table. Speeches don’t fill up your tank, or fill your prescription, or do anything about that stack of bills that keeps you up at night,”  Reuters 

From Hillary Clintons income disclosure summary on her site, here:

“CUMULATIVE TOTAL(GROSS) INCOME: $109,175,175

Including, among other items:

• Senator Clinton’s Senate Salary:           $1,051,606
• President Clinton’s Presidential Pension: $1,217,250
• Senator Clinton’s Book Income:            $10,457,083
• President Clinton’s Book Income:          $29,580,525
• President Clinton’s Speech Income:       $51,855,599 “

52 million dollars puts alot of food on the table for most Americans. And since they are given free univeral health-care, on our dime, she isn’t spending any nights up worrying about those bills either. Can’t say the same for her campaign staff though.

 

“Blind Trust” Tax Return… Withheld

by Scott Creighton

In a previous post, here , I mistakenly suggested that the $15 million in income left off of the Clintons tax summary, here , was the income off of their “blind trust” set up through Citibank. However, I was mistaken. They filed for an extention for their 2007 tax returns, just because of that “blind trust”. I guess they don’t want people talking about it before the convention.

Apparently they only had to claim the income earned off the blind trust on their 2007 tax returns and the $15 million not detailed in the “summary” on the Clintons website is from payments made by Ron Burkles, Yucaipa Cos. to Bill Clinton for unspecified work.

I should have known they would have more than one financial skeleton in their closet.