HELEN THOMAS: NEWS, NOUN, VERB, ADJECTIVE

By now you have probably seen the videoclip of Helen Thomas putting her foot in her mouth and biting down hard.


"Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine"

"Remember these people are occupied and it's their land, not Germany and not Poland"

"They can go home, Poland, Germany, and America and everywhere else"


This is not some inbred European ultra-liberal, nor a devolutionary throwback like Ahmedinejad speaking. This is one of the sharpest tacks in the Washington toolbox.
Helen Thomas has had an illustrious career as the liberal reporter baiting presidents in their den for decades. She's still smart as a whip, despite being older than Adam.
A real sharp cookie, right on the ball.

This was no senior moment, either. Go ahead, look at that clip again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQcQdWBqt14&feature=player_embedded

That she resigned her job with the Hearst corporation this morning, and posted an apology for her remarks, is cold comfort.

Now she can say whatever she wants about Jews and Israel, while blaming the Zionist lobby for forcing her to quit.
She could, perhaps, take a post with Tikkun Magazine in Berkeley or Hamas Television in Gaza - either would be glad to have her.

She may also enter the modern vocabulary.



THE HELEN THOMAS THING


Helen Thomas
Noun. Definition:
1. The inadvertent spilling of one's true feelings about an ethnic, racial, religious, or cultural group. Usually negative.

Examples: "Man those Lebanese Americans piss me off." "I'm surprised the Irish boat got anywhere near Gaza, drunks usually can't navigate; they must've been on auto-pilot." "All of the Turks are vicious swine, not just their violent peace activists."

2. The apology for saying something offensive in an unguarded or unmedicated moment.

Examples: "What I meant was that Lebanese Americans are such forthright people!" "Let me be the first to admit that the Irish have many fine qualities!" "After all, everyone knows the Turks are still better than the Greeks."

3. Unguarded moment of candour.

Examples: "Whenever he drinks too much, he pulls a Helen Thomas." "Erdogan has been afflicted with Helen Thomas several times since he was elected." "Oh crap, another Helen Thomas from Ahmedinejad!"

4. Something one deems foul or unpleasant.

Examples: "The accommodations at the caravan-saray were Helen Thomas." "Irish cooking? Nothing but boiled Helen Thomas!" "Let us not talk about Turkish Helen Thomas."

5. Liberal with some startlingly primitive or ridiculous ideas.

Examples: Alice Walker. Daniel Bernard. Noam Chomsky.


Verb. Definition:
1. To say something stupid and offensive.

Examples: "I'm sorry I Helen Thomassed all over the Lebanese Americans just now." "He shouldn't Helen Thomas at the Irish the way he does." "The Turks are still furious over American bloggers Helen Thomassing about them."

2. To apologize for an ignorant or bone-headed utterance.

Examples: "He Helen Thomassed for his generalizations about Persians, terrorists, and Lebanese Americans." "I would like to profoundly Helen Thomas to the Irish for implying that they're drunken sots." "The Turks refused to accept his heartfelt Helen Thomassing, and issued a fatwa."


Adjective. Definition:
Unfavourable description of an utterance or statement.

Examples: "That was the most Helen Thomas thing I've ever heard!" "That statement was horribly Helen Thomas." "Whenever Ahmedinejad opens his yap he says something Helen Thomas."



Once more, watch that Helen Thomas clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQcQdWBqt14&feature=player_embedded

Find new ways to use the word. Enrich the English language. Express yourself.

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AFTERTHOUGHT

To any Helen Thomasses among my readers who are offended by my having committed Helen Thomas, I offer my sincerest Helen Thomas.
May none of you EVER Helen Thomas so Helen Thomasly as Helen Thomas Helen Thomassed.

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REPORT ON INTERNATIONAL ANSWER PROTEST

Location: on the sidewalk outside the new Federal Building on Seventh Street between Mission and Market.

Got there at about 5:20 PM.
Stayed till 6:00 PM.

Mostly, a waste of time. 'Borat' was there, gibberingly upset that we weren't - somebody had told him we would be out in force.
I gave him a cigarillo. It kept going out.


AFGHANISTAN WAR DEMONSTRATION


ATTENDEES: 150 to 160 people, mostly elderly, some substance abuser-types, a few young Pally looking fellows. One, maybe two, anarchist-bandanna across the ponim.
Average age of the crowd was forty or so, average skin-hue was middle-class Berkeley, average gender veered slightly towards earth-mother.
Half a dozen keffiyot maximum. Three things that looked like Palestinian colours, but no Palestinian flags.

SIGNS: 120 - 150, mostly on focus (Afghanistan), mostly ANSWER productions.
About sixteen of the signs mentioned Gaza, Occupsacrime, or The Right of Return - possibly all of them recycled from previous festivities.
One sign said" Without Justice, Freedom is Meaningless".

SPEECHES: Somebody (Borat, please stop screaming "you assholes" when you're standing next to me) quoted from Pastor Niemöller's famous text ("first they came for..."). Somebody else (Borat, stop shouting!) speeched about the war not being to the benefit of the people of Afghanistan, Iraq, or Israel (yes, that's right - 'not beneficial to the people of Israel').
Richard Becker said a lot, but by now Borat was going all apoplectic, and I couldn't figure out what Becker was going on about - sorry, I was distracted.

Gloria LaRiva accused the board of supes of being war-mongering imperialists, primarily because she and a companion got arrested on Mission Street last week for putting up posters - the nerve! (something about a twenty-thousand dollar fine?) - and secondarily because the Blue Angels will be in town this weekend. She also hates the Oakland City Government - they too are imperialist warmongers, chiefly because of their parking policies. Evil, evil, evil.

Someone else speeched about healthcare. Money for our schools. Old folks. The Cuban Five. The San Francisco Eight. Borat, will you just shut up! I'm here to take photos, count people and signs, and NOT to attract attention or pick fights. Yes, here's my lighter - those things do go out if you're not paying attention (because you're jumping up and down and screaming).

Daisy cutters on Afghan villagers. War crimes. Destruction of Afghan hovels. The recruiting of fourteen-year olds by the US military in our schools. Outing homosexuals.
A Vietnam vet spoke, a female soldier who had been in Iraq also. The San Francisco Labor Council sent it's support, but was not physically represented.
If Israel was mentioned at all, it was in passing, and only to the already converted.

POLICE: Ten officers in front of the door to the Federal Building. Another half dozen or so on the peripheries. A blue minyan walked past me on the other side of the street.

GENERAL IMPRESSIONS: No passers-by to impress, no swelling of the crowd. Some attendees left before I did. The guy dressed like a weird Greek Orthodox priest was there - he was the only one with an American flag. Two or three people had 911 truth signs. The three or four Palestinian teenagers had a bullhorn, but didn't use it. Borat was hideously upset that some of the signs mentioned Israel, or Palestine, or Gaza - "Zees piple, zey are not on our side I don't zeenk". Couldn't have said it better myself.
There were three news vans there. It must be a slow day.



I have no doubt that many in the crowd hate Israel - that's par for the course at most far-left protests, the strident ideology attracts vermin.
But Israel was not the focus. There actually wasn't a focus.

ANTI-SEMITIC ORGANIZATION INT'L ANSWER BECOMING JUSTICE FIRST?

GUEST-POST BY "SLEEPING BUNNYRABBIT":

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Modified 09:49 AM 05/13/2009
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International ANSWER, known for subverting the peace movement with their anti-Israel agenda, appears to be trying to hide their tracks. Posters up and down Market street have the ANSWER address and phone number, but show the name "JUSTICE FIRST" - alleged to be "a newly formed national organization that is dedicated to fighting for people's economic, social and political rights".

[The brick-and-mortar location of Justice First and International ANSWER is at 2489 Mission Street.]

International ANSWER may have tanked their reputation with the public by their over-the-top "blame Israel for everything" antics, but they have most certainly made enemies of the Department of Public Works with their littering and nuisance-postering in several parts of the city. The latter issue has caused a legal problem for ANSWER.

The posters on Market Street were probably put up by ANSWER activists heading to the Federal Building to pack the public seating at ANSWER's Court of Appeals hearing on illegal postering.

Per the rebuttable presumption clause of the relevant ordinance, if an illegal poster has your organization's name and contact info on it, there is a rebuttable presumption that you are responsible for the posters that were put up. The burden is on you to prove the contrary.

The six elderly communists 'packing' the courtroom are merely there to create a threatening environment, as there will be no input permitted from the public in today's hearing.


------Sleeping Bunnyrabbit

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Here is part of a message that was sent out on behalf of the swine at ANSWER:

We are appealing for your support as our struggle for free speech with the San Francisco Department of Public Works (DPW) reaches a critical stage. The DPW has imposed fines for postering violations against the local ANSWER Coalition that now total more than $45,000! Similar circumstances also exist in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

There was an initial finding for the DPW in Superior Court, but the ANSWER Coalition and its renowned civil liberties attorney, Carol Sobel, have relentlessly pursued an appeal in order to protect free speech and the First Amendment. Our appeal is set for oral arguments before the California Court of Appeals this coming Tuesday, May 12, 9:30 am, 350 McAllister St. Division 2, San Francisco.

Ms. Sobel, who lives in Los Angeles, has very generously taken our appeal pro bono, but there are still many expenses for filing fees, travel and organizing work around the case. You have been instrumental in supporting previous campaigns, and we are asking for your help again.

Nearly all of the citations against us are for flyers and posters posted in the Mission District of San Francisco. We view the city’s campaign against us to be an integral part of the continuing gentrification drive in the area. Political and cultural notices are regarded as nothing more than "blight" by the developers and big property owners, and their friends in city government.

There are hundreds of volunteers who work with the ANSWER Coalition. We have a notice up in our office published by DPW regarding sign posting requirements, and inform people who pick up our material about the legal ways in which material can be posted. Our flyers are also available on-line, as is common practice these days.

We have no way to control what anyone does with the materials we make available. Yet, in the administrative hearings held in DPW, whoever's name is on a cited poster or flyer is presumed guilty under the doctrine of "rebuttable presumption." Before April 2003 when the ordinance was amended, there had to be an actual link shown between an individual and an illegally posted flyer. Not anymore.

In every case that we, or our attorneys have witnessed, the cited party is found guilty—whether or not they posted the offending flyer—and usually fined the maximum—an astounding $150 for each flyer and $300 for each poster! The DPW's position is that they don't have to show anything more than the name on the literature in question. There are no rules of evidence, in fact there is no real due process at all in these hearings.

That the DPW adheres to this "process" is hardly surprising given the fact that under the April 2003 amended ordinance, DPW now gets to keep all of the fines levied, instead of them going into the city's general fund. The fines of $150 to $300 for each flyer taped to a pole are ludicrous. If one is cited for a few flyers, the fines can easily exceed those assessed in many serious criminal cases..

The ANSWER Coalition, as you know, has played a key role organizing many mass protests against war, racism and bigotry of all kinds in San Francisco.. We have already been forced to divert from our real work far too many hours and thousands of dollars from our very limited funds. Now we are threatened with tens of thousands of dollars in fines, which would be impossible for us to pay.
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NOTE: International ANSWER and Richard Becker (Western Regional Coordinator of ANSWER) have been prime instigators of anti-Semitic actions in the Bay Area for several years.
An overwhelming majority of their events singled out Israel, no matter what the purported raison for the actual protest, and mister Becker himself is on record as having thrown a monumental tantrum in public at one point, screaming that the Zionists were behind it, the Zionists were behind it, the Zionists were behind it!

One of the things that International ANSWER has recently attempted to do is blame the Israelis and the Mossad for the police-shooting death of a black man in BART at New Year.


Previously, when certain city supervisors were covering for Richard Becker and his revolutionaries, charges against ANSWER's egregious littering, thuggish behaviour, and promotion of hate never went anywhere.
Fortunately the skin-blemished haramzad and most of his cadre of morally corrupt acolytes are no longer in office, and their influence has started to wane.
Still a few more to go before the city is entirely free of that lot, though.


Those who have been at ANSWER rallies can attest to the nauseatingly high level of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel venom.
The speeches by International ANSWER leaders and guest-speakers (most of which are findable on the internet) mark them as egomaniacs and psychopaths.
Except, of course, for that insane performance by Cindy Sheehan - I am still not quite sure what the heck she was trying to say, and no one else who listened to her that day has been able to figure it out either. She may have been on medication.

ISRAELI APARTHEID

Now that the usual participants have contributed to make Israeli Apartheid Week a splendid success at campuses all across America - swastikas, threats, and strange theatre performances - about the only thing left is to highlight how the press happily collaborates.


See this post:
http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2009/02/israel-apartheid-week-message.html


Well, that about says it all, doesn't it?