First: Good news out of Palestine: Hamas wins Palestinian elections: why do I think this is good news? The major terrorists win, and I think that’s good? Am I nuts? Probably, but hear me out. Firstly, it appears that some contries are still capable of having a fair and democratic election, even if ours is not one of them. In this day and age, a fair and honest election seems truly remarkable. Secondly. I don’t believe that the people leading hamas are inherently bloodthirsty. I think they simply recognized that there were no options other than terrorism to get the world to pay attention to the Palestinians plight and certainly no other options to get the Israeli leadership to recognize that they as a people had any legitimate aspirations. Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups learned their lessons from the Zionist groups that successfully terrorized the british out of Palestine after ww2. The british didn’t give up their colonial territory until the Zionists terrorized them into leaving. Amongst other terrorist acts, the Zionists assassinated the un envoy to Palestine, count bernedette, blew up the king david hotel in Jerusalem, and embarked on a campaign of kidnapping and executing ordinary british soldiers occupying Palestine. But now hamas has won the elections and they for the first time have political power and recognition. They have achieved their primary goal. They no longer need terrorism. I suspect and I hope we will see a diminishing of terrorist acts perpetrated by the Palestinians. What remains to be seen is how the israeali govt reacts to this probable diminishing of terrorism. The isrealis may be forced to actually negotiate. Or they may chose to create false flag acts of terrorism, blaming it on the Palestinians and perpetuate the warfare, and their rational for dominance and subjugation of the Palestinian people and claim to their lands. And it will be interesting to see two things: how will hamas, formerly concerned only with committing terrorist acts, now deal with being responsible for fixing roads, maintaining sewage systems, and bringing electricity and potable water to their people? Will the Israelis let them suceed? Will they pitch in and help? Will the wealthy nations of the world give aid, money and technology, or will they sit on their purse strings and hope that hamas will fail? And will hamas be able to govern without succumbing to massive corruption and cronyism? With the hamas victory at the polls, Israel/Palestine has suddenly gotten much more interesting.

Next item: Perspective: 911 the greatest staged and scripted theatrical performance of all time. There have been precidents: just going back a few years we have fdr setting up the Japanese to bomb pearl harbor to get a reluctant American public to agree to enter ww2. then we have the bombing of the federal bldg in oak city, to get a reluctant then democratic controlled congress to pass stalled fascist legislation. And lately, we have 911, a brilliant maneuver designed to insure passage of the usa unpatriot act, and goad some the congress along with some of the american people into supporting the invasion and conquest of both Afghanistan and iraq, to further the interests of the oil industry. And let us not forget that while these ongoing military fiascos cost the taxpaters bundles of money and cripple social services, they are enormously profitable for the only people who matter. Don’t be fooled by the media hype. These wars are not money losers, they are money redistributors, and they are succeeding brilliantly. What? You don’t like these wars? You just happen to be outside the loop. You’re just sore losers. We on the inside love these wars. Just look at our stock portfolios. We want more wars. It’s the best business we know of

Next item: a listener sent this in. you got to love it. "Here's one more tidbit on wire-taps: They get you free phone service! The feds tapped the phone of the Sisters of Mercy in Washington D.C. because of some anti-war stance they took in the 1980s. The good sisters noticed some kind of clicking on the phone at times, and finally decided that someone must have tapped into their phone. Their solution: Don't pay the bill so the phone company will have to shut off the phone. The phone never went dead, and they quit sending them bills! The Feds wouldn't let Ma Bell shut them down, and probably began paying the bills. The sisters talked long and free with their friends across the country!". Now if that isn’t creatively working the system, I don’t know what is.

Next item: dateline wash dc: This year, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union Address fall on the same day.   As Air America Radio pointed out, "It is an ironic juxtaposition: One involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a creature of little intelligence for prognostication, and the other involves a groundhog."  Hail to the Groundhog !