Egypt

Reason Morning Links: An Israeli Attack, a Plunging Euro, and the Shadow Congress

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• Israel attacks a flotilla of aid ships in international waters, killing at least 10 civilians; Egypt responds by opening its end of the Gaza border.

• A drone strike kills Al Qaeda leader Mustafa al-Yazid (for real this time).

• TPM posts an interactive map of legislators-turned-lobbyists.

• The Euro hits a four-year low.

• Dumb lawsuit of the day.

NEXT: One Important Reason Why We Are Out of Money

Books Editor Jesse Walker is the author of Rebels on the Air and The United States of Paranoia.

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  1. OBL

    drone strike kills Al Qaeda leader Mustafa al-Yazid

    Nyah, nyah, nyah, NYAH, nyah!

  2. Vinger molan

    Its pretty obvious things are going to get messy thats for sure.

    Lou
    http://www.anon-posting.at.tc

  3. anarch

    Concerning the “Dumbest lawsuit of the day” link, I wonder whether she attempted to return home using the Wayback Machine.

    1. Rich

      The suit has all the right verbiage: “John Does I through X, inclusive”; “high rate of speed”; “demands trial by jury”. Looks like a slam dunk.

    2. Saul Rosenberg

      Sue everybody!

      1. cgee

        Better Call Saul!

        (okay, that’s Saul Goodman, but whatev)

    3. zoltan

      Concerning the lawsuit, “Rosenberg, a Los Angeles California native” I understand now.

  4. SugarFree

    North Korean propaganda posters.

    The political haze of the io9 commenters is as amusing as always.

    1. Rich

      Oh, they’re pretty, all right. Just not in the same league as stuff like (marginally SFW) this.

    2. Zeb

      Well, at least they aren’t gushing about how little obesity they have in NK. Or did I not read far enough? Most seem to be trying to defend socialism’s good name from association with NK.

    3. Astrid

      The political haze of the io9 commenters is as amusing as always.

      There are reasons I don’t read the comments at io9 anymore.

    4. AdoraBelle
      05/29/10

      I grew up in socialism, and I’d like it back now, please.

      Good art. Far better than most capitalist propaganda out there.

      1. That capitalist propaganda must be REALLY effective, because I’m not even aware of it.

        1. Atanarjuat

          I wonder if they’re referring to advertisements. I had a TA in college who constantly wasted our class time bitching about things like McDonald’s signs.

    5. Ragin Cajun

      Socialism is a really broad word and has come to mean, in some quarters, the ideology of any sovereign state that actually collects taxes and spends them on anything except the military.

      Wow, just wow.

      1. Socialism just when people get together, and, like, help each other.

        1. Colonel_Angus

          You mean like a town?

          1. wylie

            No no. We’ll have this guy who makes bread, and another guy….

  5. Mango Punch

    WSJ on “intermairrage” and slowing assimilation of hispanics and asians

  6. Mo

    I figure we’ve killed at least a dozen AQ #3s. They have more #3s than a game of Stratego.

    1. BakedPenguin

      Being AQ #3 is like being the drummer for Spinal Tap.

      1. Derek al-Smalls

        It’s a bit of an extreme sport, to play with us.

    2. Intel Expert

      They keep replacing them. Duh.

      1. Mo

        al-Yazid had the exact same job title and rank 10 years ago. He didn’t replace anyone. The DoD just slap the tag #3 guy in AQ on every high level guy they kill. You’d think people would be a little bit less credulous about government press releases by now.

    3. Zeb

      Someone will always be number 3.

      1. CaptainSmartass

        It’s Number 6 you have to watch out for.

      2. spambot

        Who does #2 work for!!!???

        1. The Prisoner

          I am not a number… I am a free man!!!

  7. Atanarjuat

    Prosecutor fired for speaking at Tea Party rally

    Mexican pirates

    1. Rich

      “A certain official in Washington has implied that our Constitution’s ideas are flawed.”

      Well, there’s her mistake. She should have said “There are those who imply that our Constitution’s ideas are flawed.”

    2. SugarFree

      “?Arrrrrrrrrriba, matey!”

    3. CaptainSmartass

      All the Fish and Game boys need to do is start selling hunting licenses for pirates. There are plenty of hunters in Texas who’d love a chance to bag the “most dangerous game”.

      1. anarch

        Yeah, but see raw milk thread.

  8. ?

    killing at least 10 civilians

    No one rolling up on Israel chanting “Khaybar, Khaybar, ya Yahud, jaysh Muhammad saya ud” is a civilian. That means the Prophet’s army is returned to kill all the Jews, like we did in Khaybar back in the day.

    There’s video of the boaters bellowing it. The European ones, too. Fun! So that “flotilla of aid ships” was full of Nazis. It’s good when Nazis die, right?

    Of course it’s better when non-governmental Nazi-killers take ’em out, but the Middle East isn’t libertopia. So, oh well.

    1. but the Middle East isn’t libertopia.

      Which is exactly why the only official American policy should be to stop subsidizing both Islamists and Militarist Race States.

      1. Which is exactly why the only official American policy should be to stop subsidizing both Islamists and Militarist Race States.

        There is a war against sand Nazi terror, and that means allying with Israel.

        1. I think we should concentrate on Cave Nazis or Wood Nazis.

      2. Cytotoxic

        “Militarist Race States”-Uhmmm..like every nation in the ME that ISN’T Israel? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

    2. Zeb

      “No one rolling up on Israel chanting “Khaybar, Khaybar, ya Yahud, jaysh Muhammad saya ud” is a civilian.”

      I think that the civilians doing so might differ. I can say I am the king of Spain all I want, it doesn’t make it so.

    3. Corduroy

      Outside of the unnecessary conflict and bloodshed, the disappointing thing to me will be watching the Tea Partiers devolve into Armageddon theorists and end of the world proclaimers.

      It’s already begun. Glenn Beck, who was starting to sound like a rational libertarian, has kicked it off this morning. Evangelical sermons will be certain to follow in the coming weeks.

      This will do nothing to help improve the Tea Party’s chances in November. It’s going to hurt Rand Paul and any other sane individual associated with it.

      1. The Gobbler

        Fuck Rand Paul. He’s no more a Libertarian that Reagan was.

        1. Draco

          Gobbler,

          I guarantee you that in your lifetime you will never see a person more libertarian than Ronald Reagan elected POTUS.

          If you want to spend the rest of your life making the perfect the enemy of the good, be my guest. But you are harming your own cause in doing so.

          1. Trueofvoice

            Reagan was a big-government, tax-and-spend radical. The idea he was a libertarian is laughable.

            1. Enyap

              If you believe libertarian means, running up the deficit, building up the military, inviting social conservatives into the republican party, setting back drug policy 30 years, and supporting gun control, then Reagan was libertarian

            2. cynical

              As long as a popular leader convinces people he is libertarian, other figures will feel pressured to out-libertarian each other for success, rather than out-socialist one another. So there’s that.

    4. R C Dean

      The Israelis told the Turks and other sponsors of this flotilla that all they had to do was pull into the designated port for aid shipments and have the “aid” inspected and trans-shipped the usual way, and it would get to Gaza.

      This whole thing is a PR setup. The “peace activists” on that ship had flash-bang grenades and molotov cocktails, and and attached the Israeli commandos with deadly force.

      About the only mis-step that I think the Israelis made was boarding the ships in international waters. And that’s only a misstep if the convoy couldn’t have gotten to Gaza without going through Israeli waters.

      1. Mo

        Just because it’s a PR setup doesn’t make what the Israelis did right. See the thread on civil disobedience.

      2. About the only mis-step that I think the Israelis made was boarding the ships in international waters.

        Right, that minor detail.

        The Israelis told the Turks and other sponsors of this flotilla that all they had to do was pull into the designated port for aid shipments and have the “aid” inspected and trans-shipped the usual way, and it would get to Gaza.

        That’s only relevant if you agree that Israel has a right to blockade Gaza to begin with.

        If we were talking about a domestic trade restriction of some kind – say, if the government here decided that you could read the bible if you wanted to, but only if you reported to the appropriate reading room in the appropriate port city – and a bunch of activists were driving a truck convoy full of bibles somewhere and got shot to pieces, most of the people today saying, “Well, they just had to do as they were told and everything would have been OK” would be saying something different. The entire point of the convoy was to defy Israel’s blockade and make the Israelis use force if they wanted to maintain it.

        The “peace activists” on that ship had flash-bang grenades and molotov cocktails, and and attached the Israeli commandos with deadly force.

        If Somali pirates said, “The only reason we machine-gunned the crew of that boat was because they hit us with clubs and pipes when we boarded their vessel to seize it” no one would accept that as a valid defense.

        1. Matt

          Its not just Israel blockading Gaza, its Egypt too. Important tidbit there.

      3. Tulpa

        Contrary to the current neocon talking points, the Israelis would NOT have transferred building materials such as concrete to Gaza. Such materials are kind of necessary for humanitarian purposes when IDF is leveling neighborhoods every once in a while.

        A blockade also does NOT allow you to board ships in international waters under any circumstances. They should have intercepted them in Gazan waters if they gave a crap about international law.

        1. grrizzly

          They should have intercepted them in Gazan waters if they gave a crap about international law.

          Don’t be ridiculous. Palestinians in Gaza don’t give a shit about international law. Otherwise they wouldn’t have elected Hamas and wouldn’t approve launching rockets in Israel. Launching rockets must be against some international law, I guess. Israel is the only side in the conflict that is expected to follow international law.

          1. The Palestinians don’t have a state, so it doesn’t make any sense to tell people living in Gaza that their actions violate “international law”.

            Since Israel claims the right to decide what goods can go into or out of Gaza, Israel is effectively still in control of Gaza and has never really withdrawn. As far as I am concerned, that makes the activities of Hamas within Gaza insurrectionist, and I have to judge the merits of that insurrection by the merits of the still ongoing occupation.

            Want me to hate Hamas? That’s really easy to do. Give the Palestinians a state. If Hamas ends up in charge of it, I’ll probably hate them very quickly. Right now, this whole “Palestine’s not really a state, and we’re not really occupying it either – we’re just keeping them surrounded and letting them starve. And when they shoot stuff at us we bomb the shit out of them,” stuff just really isn’t making me hate Hamas very much, you know? Sorry.

            1. As far as I am concerned, that makes the activities of Hamas within Gaza insurrectionist, and I have to judge the merits of that insurrection by the merits of the still ongoing occupation.

              Hamas is on the same side as people who flew airliners into the World Trade Center and murdered Theo Van Gogh.

              1. Tulpa

                Maybe reason needs to sponsor a Draw Hamas contest. That’ll show ’em!

            2. Give the Palestinians a state.

              I believe they’ve been offered one several times and they won’t take it. The whole “we want a state” thing is a PR front. They don’t care about a state. They just want Israel destroyed.

              1. I believe they’ve been offered one several times and they won’t take it. The whole “we want a state” thing is a PR front. They don’t care about a state. They just want Israel destroyed.

                Indeed.

                We should all remember that they are on the same sides as the nithings who crashed airliners into the World Trade Center, who murdered Theo Van Gogh, and who sent death threats over the South Park episode “201”. There is no negotiation with militant Islamist sand Nazi terrorists.

            3. Cytotoxic

              “still ongoing occupation”

              Bullshit. The Israelis tore up their settlements and left behind perfectly good greenhouses. The Palestinians, being culturally inferior, decided to make war upon Israel and so Israel is perfectly justified in not only blockading that mofo strip but in leveling it.

        2. Seamus

          Gosh, too bad no one told that to Abe Lincoln when he had the U.S. Navy intercept blockade runners on the high seas, before they could enter the territorial waters of the Confederacy (or, if you prefer, of the southern United States).

    5. Rachel Corrie

      They should have learned from my mistake.

    6. Tulpa

      No one rolling up on Israel chanting “Khaybar, Khaybar, ya Yahud, jaysh Muhammad saya ud” is a civilian.

      1. They were 80 miles from Gaza’s shoreline, and even further from Israel.

      2. Chants do not change one’s civilian status. If a bunch of people started chanting this at Times Square, would that make them eligible to be shipped to Gitmo as enemy combatants?

      1. +1

      2. Cytotoxic

        Yeah, they kind of lost that civilian protection bit when they started shooting/stabbing at Israel soldiers. They should’ve been sent to the bottom.

  9. Have some morning Satanic metal, fuckasses.

    1. I would, but all of the Scandinavian Black Metal bands would tip over my tour bus and try and behead me.

    2. BakedPenguin

      Dammit, I went to Black Mass last night. That should be enough, without having to come here and listen to more sacremental music.

      1. Murderface at the Satanic Mass: “It’s all the same! All religions are the same BORING CRAP!”

        1. except for Jainism.

          1. Yeah, but people who won’t eat meat aren’t fully human.

        2. The Agnostics vs. Athiests fight from the ep was great.

    3. gnoming

      I dint know that metalocalypse stuff was real. It effin cool, it is.

      I go weedwhacker to satan know, LOOK WHAT YOU’VE DONE

      GER
      GER
      ONIMOS!

  10. a

    Yep, they were really going to kill all the Jews. Look at the scary kitchen knives and sling shots! And the screws!!! Thank god they didn’t make it to shore!
    http://ht.ly/1Smoo

  11. And in honor of the latest massacre, have some Israeli metal.

    1. aNONy

      +1

      This also qualifies.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqGoCa22DfU

  12. P Brooks

    In some universes, armed men attempting to board and seize control of your vessel are known as “pirates”. And you are justified in attempting to repel them.

    1. R C Dean

      So our Coast Guard should fly the Jolly Roger, P? Because they’re armed, board vessels all the time, and will take control under a number of circumstances.

      1. I believe the Coast Guard only boards vessels in international waters when it has the consent of the ship’s flag nation.

        1. a

          Anti-Semite!

      2. Cosmotarian Overlord

        they can fly whatever flag they want…and they can justify their actions anyway that pleases them…actions make the man…the fact is they are pirates who kill innocent people…doesn’t matter what uniform they wear or what king told them it was the patriotic thing to do.

      3. Steve Nash Equilibrium

        The Coast Guard does not board ships in international waters without the permission from the country whose flag the ship is flying. If they don’t get permission, they will wait until the ship is in U.S. waters to board.

        1. CaptainSmartass

          That’s because the Coast Guard are cops not military. The Navy is under no such restriction. It can, and does, board civilian ships for inspection in international waters anytime there’s a blockade. And guess what? Israel has a blockade on the Gaza Strip.

          This is a total non-story. The people delivering aid were told to hove to and suffered the consequences for not doing so.

          1. a

            The people delivering aid were told to hove to and suffered the consequences for not doing so.

            Ladies and gentlemen, this is Reason libertarianism. Obey the state or die.

          2. I think Iran should start stopping all civilian vessels on their way to Israel – and if anyone resists, machine-gun them.

            I wonder what Captain Smartass would have to say if they did that. Would that be a “total non-story”? Or would it be worth a few minutes of coverage?

            1. Maverick

              I think that the eye-for-an-eye supporting Israelis would relish this hypothetical opportunity to torpedo some Iranian ships.

            2. Cytotoxic

              I think anyone setting up a moral equivalence between the ME’s only true democracy besides Turkey and the ME’s chief sponsor of terrorism is a moral retard.

        2. Sean Healy

          You mean like during the Cuban missile crisis? Israel is blockading a belligerent territory.

  13. WINNAR

    1. SugarFree

      The T-Shirt for PriestsRapeBoys.com is a nice touch.

      Sister Sites

      GodHatesFags.com
      The main web site of the most controversial church in the world ? Westboro Baptist Church!

      SignMovies.net
      Brief, fascinating videos that offer Bible-based expositions of the message of WBC.

      GodHatesTheWorld.com
      As it was in the days of Lot and Noah, so shall it be when the Son of Man returns.

      AmericaIsDoomed.com
      Builds the airtight case that america is not only cursed of God, but that this curse is irreversible.

  14. War history nerds: make sure to keep up with Orwell’s War-time Diary.

  15. Too bad neither Israel or Turkey are in the World Cup this year.

    1. that’d settle it once and for all.

  16. P Brooks

    they’re armed, board vessels all the time, and will take control under a number of circumstances.

    Let me know when they start intercepting ships bound for Havana.

    1. Sean Healy

      Is this tongue-inc-cheek, because we did exactly this in 1962.

      1. gnoming

        tongue placed firmly in cheek, check!

      2. I’d like this whole comparison better if Honduras had sent a “peace flotilla” of communist sympathizers to bring attention to the blockade.

        Of course, none of those sympathizers made it to the boat because the right-wing paramilitaries we were funding probably herded them into a church and set it on fire long before they could book their tickets.

        politix R fun

      3. Maverick

        1962? The US Navy boarded dozens of ships in 2003 in the very same “international” waters (Eastern Mediterranean) where this most recent event occurred. Probably didn’t hear about this because it wasn’t widely reported–if it was reported at all. Also, this practice was widely supported just before and during the 2004 Athens games. I don’t recall if any ships were boarded or not, but boardings were authorized. And these boardings would’ve occurred in “international” waters too.

        Claims of international waters are dubious in confined spaces like the Mediterranean. Boundaries overlap and everybody claims waterspace beyond prescribed norms. Anybody remember the whole Gulf of Sidra line-of-death thing? What about that infamous Cynthia McKinney head-lined “aid” ship that was boarded last June? Precedent establishes the norms in these situations.

        The various parties involved with assembling this “aid” flotilla–especially the Turks and Mairead Maguire–know the precedents involved with Israeli territorial waters claims and how Israel will react to blockade runners–the Israelis are testier than most but not nearly as bad as the North Koreans and no worse than the Chinese. And besides, it would be difficult (straight-line direct) to transit from Turkish Republic of North Cyprus to Gaza without traveling through Israel’s 12-mile coastal waters (regardless of Israel’s other water space claims and the Gaza blockade). (Transit through a nation’s 12-mile limit is allowed but you have to be expeditious and traverse the most direct path; deviations for emergencies are always allowed). It would be less of a hassle (and somewhat less dangerous . . . Hamas runs this place afterall) for these so-called aid groups to use the same aid corridors that the UN and International Red Cross use to supply Gaza.

  17. P Brooks

    I’ll be a lot more sympathetic with our “special relationship” with Israel just as soon as they adopt a mirror of our Constitution, with special emphasis on the First, fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments.

    Until then, fuck ’em.

    1. Tulpa

      I believe they do have similar constitutional rights; they just don’t apply to residents of the occupied territories.

    2. zoltan

      I hate the idea of “special relationships” to paraphrase Washington.

    3. I’ll be a lot more sympathetic with our “special relationship” with Israel just as soon as they adopt a mirror of our Constitution, with special emphasis on the First, fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments.

      Until then, fuck ’em.

      Israel is our greatest ally in the war on sand Nazi terror.

      Is that not enough?

      1. Seamus

        In what sense is Israel an “ally” of the United States? Do we have a mutual defense treaty with Israel? Is Israel obligated to come to our defense if we are attacked or go to war? (Or maybe we consider them an ally if, as in the first Gulf War, they comply with our request to *refrain* from becoming co-belligerents with the United States.)

        1. Cytotoxic

          They kill the people who are waging a war on our freedoms ie the Islamists.

  18. Evan

    Philly cops take gruesome crime scene photos, text them to their friends.
    http://tinyurl.com/36oupam

    1. From the links on the side: Shamelessly Proud

  19. No love today for the “anarcho-surrealist” party that won elections in Reykjavik?

    1. SugarFree

      Art for breakfast. Politics for lunch.

  20. Ska

    Not discussed in the morning links – what’s up with the Supreme Court saying you have to explicitly invoke your Mirnada right to remain silent? It seems really fucking backwards.

    1. Tulpa

      Especially since by invoking a right to remain silent, you’ve already waived it.

    2. RyanXXX

      what happens if you don’t “invoke it” and just don’t speak? They force you to talk?

  21. Worthless Koppel cuntfruit drinks self to death.

    1. Tulpa

      Are you this pleasant in real life, Warty?

      1. a

        He’s really exxxtreme! He listens to metal! And probably has a tattoo or a piercing or a shirt with “cuntfruit” in big Gothic lettering! Badass! I think he’s a little jealous of the dude who drank himself to death, though. That’s way more metal than anything Warty’s ever done.

        1. If I had a shirt that said cuntfruit, it would have umlauts, you parasite-ridden labial abcess.

      2. a regular

        What’s real life?

        1. SugarFree

          Real Life is a Melbourne-based Australian New Wave/Synthpop[1] band that had hits with its debut single, “Send Me an Angel” (1983) and with “Catch Me, I’m Falling” (1984), both of which were featured on the band’s debut album Heartland (1983).

          1. dbcooper

            Yo, that was a huge hit in NZ.

            “Don’t know what to do, don’t know what to do!”

          2. That’s two synthpop references from you in one morning. Do you have something you need to tell us?

            1. SugarFree

              “Are you saying ‘keytar’ or are you just saying ‘guitar’ like a hillbilly?”

      3. I rescue kittens from trees and hold doors for little old ladies, Tulpa. Don’t be a fag.

    2. zoltan

      Who is Ted Koppel? I feel like I just lost my worthless pop-culture-fu.

      1. Nipplemancer

        he was like Dan Rather, but on ABC and way bitchiner hair.

      2. Tulpa

        He talked about girls in Texas masturbating with cucumbers on ABC late night, man.

  22. I like the iPhone version of H&R, but there’s no comment button. Is this a tacit appraisal of the value of comments from iPhone users?

  23. Oh, and since I’m sitting on a barstool in O’Hare and had my first encounter with backscatter x-Ray technology this morning, let me take this opportunity to exercise my First Amendment rights and say “Fuck the TSAr!”

    1. SugarFree

      TSA Worker Arrested After Jokes, Fight About Size of Genitalia

      1. My god! The jokes have started already? Actually I refused the scan and got the full-body frisk by a TSAr goon who seemed to enjoy making me pay for my noncooperation.

        1. I was flying with my grandma last week, and she got one of those for having the temerity to have two artificial knees. Alas, I was too much of a coward to choke the goon-lady to death when she started jabbing my grandma in the boobs.

  24. Jay

    And Instapundit + other favorites of Nick and Matt are busy defending the Israeli assault. The Israelis could cut cut open pregnant Palestinian women’s stomachs and rip out the fetuses, and Glenn Reynolds would claim that it was in self-defense. Despicable.

    /Jay

    1. Glenn Reynolds

      The fetus could have been a bomb.

    2. Cytotoxic

      That never happened, so they haven’t. Israel has ALWAYS been the victim.

  25. x,y

    Woman Sues Google for Bad Directions

    Must have counted on her going the wrong way.

  26. P Brooks

    the full-body frisk by a TSAr goon who seemed to enjoy making me pay for my noncooperation.

    Did you get the happy ending?

    1. No, even though his caresses are best described as “loving.” I did fill out a complaint form, which made me feel better, though not quite orgasmic.

      1. Gabe

        wow CN… I empathize with your anger, but that is one big difference between us…I would never fill out the complaint form.

        Anytime you fill out a form you are basically sucking the dick of the man. There is no stronger “form” of domination. Have some respect for yourself man.

      2. Tulpa

        I’ll be polite and not ask if “it moved”.

    2. Gabe

      do you realize that the man is using their implanted themes of shame against you here? They only have the power over you because you slavishly gave it to them when you adopted their programming as your personal beliefs.

      I walk through the scanner saying, “yes i have a very large penis…I understand why you’d want to see it so bad…I have no shame in this penis … I do feel sad that your best employment option is too look at penis for the government, but good luck fighting the homegrown penis bombers”

  27. P Brooks

    Israel is our greatest ally in the war on sand Nazi terror.

    WTF?

    As far as I am concerned, we should just let all those stone age voodoo cultists have at it like ants in a jar. We can then enter the field of combat and bayonet the wounded.

    1. Or fry them all with magnifying glasses.

  28. P Brooks

    And, just in case anybody is confused, I include the Israelis in the stone age voodoo cultists club.

    1. Judaism: All the worst parts of the bible plus a thousand other stupid rules that only make sense if you lived in the desert when Egypt was a superpower.

      1. Mullah

        Don’t toss it just yet.

      2. Tulpa

        I don’t know if I’d tar Judaism by associating it too closely with the Israeli state.

    2. Floyd

      I assume you include the U.S. as well?

    3. Cytotoxic

      Yeah, the country that protects basic human right-even the ones of its enemies in the Palestinian territories of Israel-are stone age voodoo cultists. Fuck all moral equivocators.

  29. thanks

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