By Robert Fisk, Independent UK - Alternet
Quite a lot of the dead this weekend appear to have been Hamas members, but what is it supposed to solve?
We've got so used to the carnage of the Middle East that we don't care any more -- providing we don't offend the Israelis. It's not clear how many of the Gaza dead are civilians, but the response of the Bush administration, not to mention the pusillanimous reaction of Gordon Brown, reaffirm for Arabs what they have known for decades: however they struggle against their antagonists, the West will take Israel's side. As usual, the bloodbath was the fault of the Arabs -- who, as we all know, only understand force.
Ever since 1948, we've been hearing this balderdash from the Israelis -- just as Arab nationalists and then Arab Islamists have been peddling their own lies: that the Zionist "death wagon" will be overthrown, that all Jerusalem will be "liberated." And always Mr Bush Snr or Mr Clinton or Mr Bush Jnr or Mr Blair or Mr Brown have called upon both sides to exercise "restraint" -- as if the Palestinians and the Israelis both have F-18s and Merkava tanks and field artillery. Hamas's home-made rockets have killed just 20 Israelis in eight years, but a day-long blitz by Israeli aircraft that kills almost 300 Palestinians is just par for the course.
The blood-splattering has its own routine. Yes, Hamas provoked Israel's anger, just as Israel provoked Hamas's anger, which was provoked by Israel, which was provoked by Hamas, which ... See what I mean? Hamas fires rockets at Israel, Israel bombs Hamas, Hamas fires more rockets and Israel bombs again and ... Got it? And we demand security for Israel -- rightly -- but overlook this massive and utterly disproportionate slaughter by Israel. It was Madeleine Albright who once said that Israel was "under siege" -- as if Palestinian tanks were in the streets of Tel Aviv.
By last night, the exchange rate stood at 296 Palestinians dead for one dead Israeli. Back in 2006, it was 10 Lebanese dead for one Israeli dead. This weekend was the most inflationary exchange rate in a single day since -- the 1973 Middle East War? The 1967 Six Day War? The 1956 Suez War? The 1948 Independence/Nakba War? It's obscene, a gruesome game -- which Ehud Barak, the Israeli Defence Minister, unconsciously admitted when he spoke this weekend to Fox TV. "Our intention is to totally change the rules of the game," Barak said.
Exactly. Only the "rules" of the game don't change. This is a further slippage on the Arab-Israeli exchanges, a percentage slide more awesome than Wall Street's crashing shares, though of not much interest in the US which -- let us remember -- made the F-18s and the Hellfire missiles which the Bush administration pleads with Israel to use sparingly.
Quite a lot of the dead this weekend appear to have been Hamas members, but what is it supposed to solve? Is Hamas going to say: "Wow, this blitz is awesome -- we'd better recognize the state of Israel, fall in line with the Palestinian Authority, lay down our weapons and pray we are taken prisoner and locked up indefinitely and support a new American 'peace process' in the Middle East!" Is that what the Israelis and the Americans and Gordon Brown think Hamas is going to do?
Yes, let's remember Hamas's cynicism, the cynicism of all armed Islamist groups. Their need for Muslim martyrs is as crucial to them as Israel's need to create them. The lesson Israel thinks it is teaching -- come to heel or we will crush you -- is not the lesson Hamas is learning. Hamas needs violence to emphasise the oppression of the Palestinians – and relies on Israel to provide it. A few rockets into Israel and Israel obliges.
Not a whimper from Tony Blair, the peace envoy to the Middle East who's never been to Gaza in his current incarnation. Not a bloody word.
We hear the usual Israeli line. General Yaakov Amidror, the former head of the Israeli army's "research and assessment division" announced that "no country in the world would allow its citizens to be made the target of rocket attacks without taking vigorous steps to defend them". Quite so. But when the IRA were firing mortars over the border into Northern Ireland, when their guerrillas were crossing from the Republic to attack police stations and Protestants, did Britain unleash the RAF on the Irish Republic? Did the RAF bomb churches and tankers and police stations and zap 300 civilians to teach the Irish a lesson? No, it did not. Because the world would have seen it as criminal behaviour. We didn't want to lower ourselves to the IRA's level.
Yes, Israel deserves security. But these bloodbaths will not bring it. Not since 1948 have air raids protected Israel. Israel has bombed Lebanon thousands of times since 1975 and not one has eliminated "terrorism". So what was the reaction last night? The Israelis threaten ground attacks. Hamas waits for another battle. Our Western politicians crouch in their funk holes. And somewhere to the east -- in a cave? a basement? on a mountainside? -- a well-known man in a turban smiles.
REUTERS/Baz Ratner
Were the more than 250 tremors a sign of something bigger to come?
Yellowstone is an active volcanic and tectonic area, and small earthquakes happen frequently. But scientists say the spate of small quakes that shook up the area on Monday were unusual.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Yellowstone National Park was jostled by a host of small earthquakes for a third straight day Monday, and scientists watched closely to see whether the more than 250 tremors were a sign of something bigger to come.
Swarms of small earthquakes happen frequently in Yellowstone, but it's very unusual for so many earthquakes to happen over several days, said Robert Smith, a professor of geophysics at the University of Utah.
"They're certainly not normal," Smith said. "We haven't had earthquakes in this energy or extent in many years."
Smith directs the Yellowstone Seismic Network, which operates seismic stations around the park. He said the quakes have ranged in strength from barely detectable to one of magnitude 3.8 that happened Saturday. A magnitude 4 quake is capable of producing moderate damage.
"This is an active volcanic and tectonic area, and these are the kinds of things we have to pay attention to," Smith said. "We might be seeing something precursory.
"Could it develop into a bigger fault or something related to hydrothermal activity? We don't know. That's what we're there to do, to monitor it for public safety."
The strongest of dozens of tremors Monday was a magnitude 3.3 quake shortly after noon. All the quakes were centered beneath the northwest end of Yellowstone Lake.
A park ranger based at the north end of the lake reported feeling nine quakes over a 24-hour period over the weekend, according to park spokeswoman Stacy Vallie. No damage was reported.
"There doesn't seem to be anything to be alarmed about," Vallie said.
Smith said it's difficult to say what might be causing the tremors. He pointed out that Yellowstone is the caldera of a volcano that last erupted 70,000 years ago.
He said Yellowstone remains very geologically active — and its famous geysers and hot springs are a reminder that a pool of magma still exists five to 10 miles underground.
"That's just the surface manifestation of the enormous amount of heat that's being released through the system," he said.
Yellowstone has had significant earthquakes as well as minor ones in recent decades. In 1959, a magnitude 7.5 quake near Hebgen Lake just west of the park triggered a landslide that killed 28 people.
REUTERS/John Kolesidis
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Astronauts on the shuttle Columbia were trying to regain control of their craft before it broke apart in 2003, but there was no chance of surviving the accident, a NASA report said on Tuesday.
From the crew's perspective, the shift from what appeared to be a normal descent on February 1, 2003, into disaster happened so fast that the astronauts didn't even have time to close the visors on their helmets.
Columbia broke apart about 12 miles over Texas as it headed for landing at the Kennedy Space Center. The cause of the accident was traced to a hole in one of the shuttle's wings, which was hit by a piece of falling foam insulation during launch 16 days earlier.
Seven astronauts, including Israel's first astronaut Ilan Ramon, were killed when superheated atmospheric gases blasted inside the breach like a blow torch, melting the ship's structure.
The crew cabin broke away from the ship and started spinning rapidly. Analysis of the wreckage indicated the crew members had flipped cockpit switches in response to alarms that were sounding. The astronauts had also reset the shuttle's autopilot system, the report said.
"We have evidence from some of the switch positions that the crew was trying very hard to regain control. We're talking about a very brief time in a crisis situation," said NASA's deputy associate administrator, Wayne Hale.
But rapid depressurization caused the Columbia crew to lose consciousness, and medical findings show that they could not have recovered, said the report, which took four years to compile.
"This report confirms that although the valiant Columbia crew tried every possible way to maintain control of their vehicle, the accident was not ultimately survivable," said Hale, who oversaw the shuttle program during its return to flight after the accident.
TRAUMATIC INJURIES
Analysis shows the astronauts' shoulder harnesses failed and their helmets did not adequately protect their heads. The lack of safety restraints caused traumatic injuries.
The investigation also found problems with the shuttle's seats and parachute landing system, which requires astronauts be conscious to operate manually.
Even if the safety gear had worked, the astronauts would have died due to the winds, shock waves and other extreme conditions in the upper atmosphere.
Designing spacesuits that are more automated and integrated into future spaceships is among 30 recommendations made in the report.
"I call on spacecraft designers from all the other nations of the world, as well as the commercial and personal spacecraft designers here at home to read this report and apply these hard lessons which have been paid for so dearly," Hale said.
Also killed in the accident were shuttle commander Rick Husband, pilot William McCool and astronauts Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark. (continue reading)
REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom
By Robert Parry - Consortium News
Israel, a nation that was born out of Zionist terrorism, has launched massive airstrikes against targets in Gaza using high-tech weapons produced by the United States, a country that often has aided and abetted terrorism by its client military forces, such as Chile’s Operation Condor and the Nicaraguan contras, and even today harbors right-wing Cuban terrorists implicated in blowing up a civilian airliner.
Yet, with that moral ambiguity excluded from the debate, the justification for the Israeli attacks, which have killed at least 364 people, is the righteous fight against “terrorism,” since Gaza is ruled by the militant Palestinian group, Hamas.
Hamas rose to power in January 2006 through Palestinian elections, which ironically the Bush administration had demanded. However, after Hamas won a parliamentary majority, Israel and the United States denounced the outcome because they deem Hamas a “terrorist organization.”
Hamas then wrested control of Gaza from Fatah, a rival group that once was considered “terrorist” but is now viewed as a U.S.-Israeli partner, so it has been cleansed of the “terrorist” label.
Unwilling to negotiate seriously with Hamas because of its acts of terrorism – which have included firing indiscriminate short-range missiles into southern Israel – the United States and Israel sat back as the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza worsened, with 1.5 million impoverished Palestinians packed into what amounts to a giant open-air prison.
When Hamas ended a temporary cease-fire on Dec. 19 because of a lack of progress in those negotiations and began lobbing its little missiles into Israel once more, the Israeli government reacted on Saturday with its lethal “shock and awe” firepower – even though no Israelis had been killed by the post-cease-fire missiles launched from Gaza. [Since Saturday, four Israelis have died in more intensive Hamas missile attacks.]
Israel claimed that its smart bombs targeted sites related to the Hamas security forces, including a school for police cadets and even regular policemen walking down the street. But it soon became clear that Israel was taking an expansive view of what was part of the Hamas military infrastructure, with Israeli bombs taking out a television station and a university building as well as killing a significant number of civilians.
As the slaughter continued on Monday, Israeli officials confided to Western journalists that the war plan was to destroy the vast support network of social and other programs that undergird Hamas’s political clout.
“There are many aspects of Hamas, and we are trying to hit the whole spectrum, because everything is connected and everything supports terrorism against Israel,” a senior Israeli military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Washington Post.
“Hamas’s civilian infrastructure is a very, very sensitive target,” added Matti Steinberg, a former top adviser to Israel’s domestic security service. “If you want to put pressure on them, this is how.” [Washington Post, Dec. 30, 2008]
Since the classic definition of “terrorism” is the use of violence against civilians to achieve a political goal, Israel would seem to be inviting an objective analysis that it has chosen its own terrorist path. But it is clearly counting on the U.S. news media to continue wearing the blinders that effectively limit condemnations about terrorism to people and groups that are regarded as Washington’s enemies.
Whose Terrorism?
As a Washington-based reporter for the Associated Press in the 1980s, I once questioned the seeming bias that the U.S.-based wire service applied to its use of the word “terrorist.” A senior AP executive responded to my concerns with a quip. “Terrorist is the word that follows Arab,” he said.
Though meant as a lighthearted riposte, the comment clearly had a great deal of truth to it. It was easy to attach “terrorist” to any Arab attack – even against a military target such the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983 after the Reagan administration had joined hostilities against Muslim forces. But it was understood that different rules applied when the terrorism was coming from “our side.”
Then, no American reporter with any sense of career survival would think of injecting the word “terrorist” whatever the justification.
Even historical references to acts of terrorism – such as the brutal practice by American revolutionaries in the 1770s of “tar and feathering” civilians considered sympathetic to the British Crown or the extermination of American Indian tribes – were seen as somehow diluting the moral righteousness against today’s Islamic terrorists and in favor of George W. Bush's "war on terror."
Gone, too, from the historical narrative was the fact that militant Zionists employed terrorism as part of their campaign to establish Israel as a Jewish state. The terrorism included killings of British officials who were administering Palestine under an international mandate as well as Palestinians who were driven violently from their land so it could be claimed by Jewish settlers.
One of the most famous of those terrorist attacks was the 1946 bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem where British officials were staying. The attack, which killed 91 people including local residents, was carried out by the Irgun, a terrorist group run by Menachem Begin who later founded the Likud Party and rose to be Israel’s prime minister.
Another veteran of the campaign of Zionist terrorism was Yitzhak Shamir, who also became a Likud leader and eventually prime minister.
In the early 1990s, as I was waiting to interview Shamir at his Tel Aviv office, I was approached by one of his young female assistants who was dressed in a gray and blue smock with a head covering in the traditional Hebrew style.
As we were chatting, she smiled and said in a lilting voice, “Prime Minister Shamir, he was a terrorist, you know.” I responded with a chuckle, “yes, I’m aware of the prime minister’s biography.”
Blind Spot
To maintain one’s moral purity in denouncing acts of terror by U.S. enemies, one also needs a large blind spot for recent U.S. history, which implicates U.S. leaders repeatedly in tolerance or acts of terrorism.
For instance, in 1973, after a bloody U.S.-backed coup overthrew the leftist Chilean government, the new regime of Gen. Augusto Pinochet joined with other South American dictatorships to sponsor an international terrorist organization called Operation Condor which assassinated political dissidents around the world.
Operation Condor mounted one of its most audacious actions on the streets of Washington in 1976, when Pinochet’s regime recruited Cuban-American terrorists to detonate a car bomb that killed Chile’s former foreign minister Orlando Letelier and an American co-worker, Ronni Moffitt. The Chilean government's role immediately was covered up by the CIA, then headed by George H.W. Bush. [For details, see Robert Parry’s Secrecy & Privilege.]
Only weeks later, a Venezuela-based team of right-wing Cubans – under the direction of Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles – blew a Cubana Airliner out of the sky, killing 73 people. Bosch and Posada, a former CIA operative, were co-founders of CORU, which was described by the FBI as “an anti-Castro terrorist umbrella organization.”
Though the U.S. government soon learned of the role of Bosch and Posada in the Cubana airline attack – and the two men spent some time in a Venezuelan jail – both Bosch and Posada since have enjoyed the protection of the U.S. government and particularly the Bush Family.
Rebuffing international demands that Bosch and Posada be held accountable for their crimes, the Bushes – George H.W., George W. and Jeb – have all had a hand in making sure these unrepentant terrorists get to live out their golden years in the safety and comfort of the United States.
In the 1980s, Posada even crossed over into another U.S.-backed terrorist organization, the Nicaraguan contras. After escaping from Venezuela, he was put to work in 1985 by Oliver North’s contra-support operation run out of Ronald Reagan’s National Security Council.
The Nicaraguan contras were, in effect, a narco-terrorist organization that partially funded its operations with proceeds from cocaine trafficking, a secret that the Reagan administration worked hard to conceal along with the contras’ record of murder, torture, rape and other crimes in Nicaragua. [See Parry’s Lost History.]
President Reagan joined, too, in fierce PR campaigns to discredit human rights investigators who documented massive atrocities by U.S. allies in Central America in the 1980s – not only the contras, but also the state terrorism of the Salvadoran and Guatemalan security forces, which engaged in wholesale slaughters in villages considered sympathetic to leftist insurgents.
Generally, the major U.S. news outlets treaded very carefully when allegations arose about terrorism by “our side.”
When some brave journalists, like New York Times correspondent Raymond Bonner, wrote about politically motivated killings of civilians in Central America, they faced organized retaliation by right-wing advocacy groups which often succeeded in damaging or destroying the reporters’ careers.
Double Standards
Eventually, the American press corps developed an engrained sense of the double standards. Moral outrage could be expressed when acts of terrorism were committed by U.S. enemies, while studied silence – or nuanced concern – would be in order when the crimes were by U.S. allies.
So, while the U.S. news media had no doubt that the 9/11 terrorist attacks justified invading Afghanistan, there was very little U.S. media criticism when President Bush inflicted his “shock and awe” assault on Iraq, a war that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths.
Though many Muslims and others around the world have denounced Bush’s Iraq invasion as “state terrorism,” such a charge would be considered far outside the mainstream in the United States. Instead, Iraqi insurgents are often labeled “terrorists” when they attack U.S. troops inside Iraq. The word “terrorist” has become, in effect, a geopolitical curse word.
Despite the long and bloody history of U.S.-Israeli participation in terrorism, the U.S. news media continues its paradigm of pitting the U.S.-Israeli “good guys” against the Islamic “bad guys.” One side has the moral high ground and the other is in the moral gutter. [For more on the U.S. media’s one-sided approach, see the analysis by Greg Mitchell of Editor & Publisher.]
Any attempt to cite the larger, more ambiguous and more troubling picture draws accusations from defenders of U.S.-Israeli actions, especially the neoconservatives, of what they call “moral equivalence” or “anti-Semitism.”
Yet it is now clear that acquiescence to a double standard on terrorism is not just a violation of journalistic ethics or an act of political cowardice; it is complicity in mass murder. Without the double standard, it is hard to envision how the bloodbaths – in Iraq (since 2003), in Lebanon (in 2006) and in Gaza (today) – would be possible.
Hypocrisy over the word “terrorism” is not an innocent dispute over semantics; it kills.
from AllHatNoCattle
CINCINNATI (AP) - A 45-year-old paraplegic rammed his wheelchair into an officer, threw urine from his catheter bag a patrol car and spat at the officer, police said Sunday. Ralph Evegan was arrested on charges of assaulting a police officer, obstructing official business, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.
Evegan's lawyer said the case is a misunderstanding, and that his client was just trying to break his fall after the officer threw him to the ground. Police said they originally had gone to Evegan's apartment to arrest him on an old disorderly conduct charge.
Hamilton County Municipal Judge Ted Berry ordered Evegan tested for diseases that can be transmitted by bodily fluid.
by Ed Naha - The Smirking Chimp
As 2008 stumbles to the finish line like the last member of "The Wild Bunch" to eat the dirt, it's time to pause and reflect on the past twelve months. Yet, how to do so without using George Carlin's famous "Seven Words" a thousand times in five minutes? There's only one course to take. It's time for the "2008 'WTF?' Awards!
THE GOP BIG (TENT?) PLANTATION AWARD goes to RNC candidate Chip Saltsman who sent out a Christmas gift CD to committee members including the song "Barack the Magic Negro." It was part of a handful of right-wing parody tunes with the umbrella title "We Hate the USA." Saltsman is reportedly surprised at the subsequent uproar. Insiders say that he's secretly relieved he didn't send out his first gift choice: "The Songs of Al Jolsen in Blackface."
THE "I GOT A ROCKET IN MY POCKET" AWARD is bestowed upon CIA operatives in Afghanistan. In an attempt to win the loyalty of grizzled warlords, the agents are giving them the gift of Viagra. In an effort to win the loyalty of warlords' wives, they are giving them running shoes and a six-hour head start.
THE "THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON DRUGS" PRIZE goes to economics whiz Rush Limbaugh who, shortly after the election, declared: "The Obama recession is in full swing, ladies and gentlemen. Stocks are dying, which is a precursor of things to come. This is an Obama recession. Might turn into a depression." He then forecast a return of zeppelin travel and told his maid go get more of his special take-out.
THE BOP 'TILL YOU DROP AWARD goes to Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez who, back in 2003, authorized loud music to be played 24/7 for months at a time at Gitmo in order "to create fear, disorient...and prolong capture shock." Among the artists on the recently revealed Git Parade are Queen, AC/DC, Pentera, Nine Inch Nails and the cast of "Sesame Street." This past year, Gitmo guards began to complain of side effects. "It's not easy being green," declared one. On the plus side, they'll be primed for the new "Torture Me, Elmo" doll due next year.
THE "DEAL OR NO DEAL" CONSOLATION PRIZE goes to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich who was caught trying to sell Barack Obama's Senate Seat to the highest bidder. "Blago" didn't believe in the soft sell approach: "I've got this thing and it's fucking golden, and I'm just not giving it up for fuckin' nothing. I'm not gonna do it. And I can always use it. I can parachute me there," he said, putting the kibosh on a future career in advertising. ("Hi. I'm a Mac. And I'm a fucking P.C!")
THE ORIGINS OF FECES GOLDEN PLUNGER is awarded to McCain/Palin poster child "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher, who is neither named "Joe" nor is a licensed plumber. Currently working on a book, Joe revealed that being on the campaign trail with McCain "appalled" him and made him feel "dirty." The proposed title of his tome is "I Don't Know Shit."
THE TURN THE OTHER CHEEK PRIZE goes to president-elect Barack Obama who, honoring The Golden Rule, asked controversial preacher Rick Warren to say the prayer at Obama's Inauguration.
THE SIZE NINE BETWEEN THE CHEEKS AWARD is given to all of Obama's shocked supporters who find Warren's brand of Christianity as appetizing as rat's ass-on-a-stick.
THE VERY INTERESTING - NOT! Certificate of Merit is given en masse to nervous investors who've recently snapped up $30 billion of four-week T-Bills that boast a zero interest rate. That's right. Zero. On the plus side, the T-Bills have a higher rating than Bush.
THE PETA POUNDER PRIZE goes to the airline passenger who was stopped at Dulles International Airport when it was discovered he was carrying the charred carcasses of three monkeys in his luggage...as food. Honorable mention goes to Washington state's Gypsy Lawson, 29, who was just convicted of sneaking a rhesus monkey into the states on a return trip from Thailand. The drugged monkey was hidden under her blouse as Lawson pretended to be pregnant. Worried Creationists applauded her conviction.
THE NO DOLLARS AND NON-CENTS tin-foil crown is shared by Karl Rove and Bill O'Reilly, who declared that the current recession is just media hype designed to bolster the standing of Barack Obama. O'Reilly asked if it all isn't just an "effort on the part of 'The New York Times' and other liberal media to basically paint as drastic a picture as possible, so that when Barack Obama takes office that anything is better than what we have now?" The ever-sage Rove replied: "Yes." They then both interviewed Leprechauns about the myth of global warming.
THE NUMBER ONE WITH A BULLET, AND A GRENADE AND A CLUSTER BOMB position is snared by former presidential candidate Senator John McCain for his touching rendition of "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran." Now that the campaign is over, he plans to take his act on the road, crooning such Golden Oldies as "Zeroes and Villains," "Cursin' Safari," "Poop John B." and "Wild Money."
THE "DO THE FUNKY CHICKEN" AWARD goes to George W. Bush who, waiting for tardy Senator John McCain to arrive at the White House for a photo op, broke into a dance for the cameras, not once, but twice. "I'm just going to tap dance the day away," Bush said. Oddly enough, that phrase has been on the Presidential letterhead for eight years.
THE "FANTASY ISLAND" MEETS "LOST" ORATORY AWARD goes to Condoleezza Rice who, this past weekend, declared that claims that the Bush Administration is one of the worst ever are "ridiculous." "I think generations pretty soon are going to start to thank this president for what he's done. This generation will," she declared before being tranquilized and carted off to "Our Lady of Cashews' Home for the Reality-Impaired."
THE "THIS IS WHY GOD GAVE US TEMPS" AWARD is split between Amazon com. customers who made the "Sarah Palin Calendar" the most popular product in office supplies this Christmas. Number two was a pair of scissors. No word on the number three slot, but those in the know say it was oxycontin.
THE PARTY'S OVER AWARD is given to Fox News' Brit Hume who retired from his post and hosted a farewell show featuring pre-recorded testimonials by both Bush and Cheney. Mussolini showed up too late for the taping.
THE "ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME" PRIZE goes to the Philippines' Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which is having a hard time being taken seriously. Their acronym is MILF. Sarah Palin is thinking of suing.
THE "COVER ME BOYS, I'M TAKING THE HILL" AWARD is given to perpetually dour Tom Brokaw who, stuck in The Greatest Generation mode, consistently stated that Senator John McCain was criticism-proof because he was "a genuine war hero." Close friends are worried about Tom. He's currently having all of Audie Murphy's old flashbacks.
THE "ENEMY OF MY ENEMY IS SOMETHING OR OTHER" PRIZE is won, hand's down, by George W. Bush who has just quietly signed a strategic security pact with Georgia. Bush figures this will give Putin's soul the blues.
THE "PARDON ME, NO, REALLY, PARDON ME" AWARD goes to convicted real estate Scrooge Isaac Robert Toussie who was given a year-end pardon by President Bush only to find himself "un-pardoned" less than 24 hours later when it was discovered that Toussie's father was a big Republican donor. In Toussie's defense, most white-collar criminals are big Republican donors.
THE "DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY" AWARD goes to all Republican pundits who insist that FDR's New Deal made The Great Depression worse. These are the same folks who label Herbert Hoover an "activist."
"SPAMALOT" KNIGHTHOOD is bestowed upon Barack Obama who revealed to reporters that, on his holiday trip to Hawaii, he would indulge in one of his favorite foods: Spam sushi. This disclosure outraged both food connoisseurs and Right Wing whack-jobs who saw their "he's a secret Muslim" attack plan defeated by a porcine taste-bud treat.
THE "WE'VE LOST OUR MITTENS" AWARD goes to former Republican presidential candidate and full-time hack Mitt Romney who based his campaign on the threat of "jihadists" and "Islamofascism" to stateside Christian values. A Mormon Church spokesman, Michael Purdy, explained Romney's paranoia. "We believe that Christ will return again to the Earth, and while that day is not imminent, it is our responsibility to prepare for that eventuality. One appearance will be to the new Jerusalem and another will be to the Jerusalem of the old world," he said. "It is our belief that the new Jerusalem will be established within the state of Missouri." No comment from the raccoon of Turin.
THE "THERE GOES MY BABY" AWARD goes to George W. Bush who, when earlier in the year, was informed that 79% of Americans wanted the next president to be the anti-Bush, stated: "What am I supposed to do, go into a fetal position because of your polls?" It would have been a good start.
THE "JUSTICE IS BLIND AND DEAF AND REALLY, REALLY DUMB" GAG ORDER is awarded to Supreme Court Justice Antonin "Noodles" Scalia who ruminated to the BBC about his take on torture. "Is it really so easy to determine that smacking someone in the face to determine where he has hidden the bomb that is about to blow up Los Angeles is prohibited in the constitution? - It would be absurd to say you couldn't, I don't know, stick something under the fingernail, smack him in the face. It would be absurd to say you couldn't do that." He later claimed that he didn't like the final season of "The Sopranos" because it wasn't violent enough.
THE "YOUR FREUDIAN SLIP IS SHOWING" ACCESSORIZING PRIZE goes to Mitt Romney who, on the stump, stated: "My mom made pancakes every single morning at our house. MY WIFE! I called her my MOM. My WIFE." His wife later shoved him off the stump and hit him with it.
THE "PANTS SUIT OF STEEL" AWARD is given to Hillary Clinton who, while in the presidential race, re-imagined a trip to Bosnia when she was First Lady in bullet-biting terms that a subscriber to "Guns and Ammo" would have loved. It turned out to be a lie. On the plus side, Sylvester Stallone has optioned the story for his next Rambo film.
THE "WAR IS SWELL" PRIZE goes to President George W. Bush who, without a trace of irony (or intellect), told troops during a teleconference: "I must say, I'm a little envious. If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed. It must be exciting for you - in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks." After the call, he went off to stalk a pretzel with a bayonet.
THE "MERRY CHRISTMAS! WAR IS OVER!" MEDAL OF VALOR is given to the top three TV networks for pulling their full-time Iraq reporters out of the country.
THE "BIGGUS DICKUS" PROFILES IN DEMENTIA AWARD goes to Dick Cheney. He began the year with an interview where he was told that two-thirds of the country thought the Iraq invasion was a colossal screw-up. He replied with: "So?" He ended the year, ruminating on the fact that he's as popular as an anal wart. "I don't have any idea" why. If nothing else, he's consistent.
THE "WHO COULD'VE SEEN IT COMING?" CRYSTAL BALL is awarded to the Bush financial team. The following is a series of headlines that appeared in a single week in February. "Recession fears rise on more job cuts." "Fed takes new steps to boost cash for banks." "World markets slide as US economy groans." "Housing market spirals, no end in sight." "Consumer confidence at lowest since 2002." "Studies: Iraq costs US $12B per month." "Gas prices rise to new national record." "Consumers increased their borrowing by $6.9 billion in January." "Bush says no recession in sight."
THE "JUNGLE FEVER" WASHCLOTH is tossed at Fox pollster Frank Luntz who, after a Clinton-Obama debate asked his control group, "How many of you want them to make love to each other?" He then went home and watched the film "Mandingo" with a can of Reddi Wip.
THE "I THINK, THEREFORE I AIN'T" TIN WHISTLE goes to ever vigilant broadcast barnacle Michael Savage who, pondering the existence of Obama, offered: "We have a right to know if he's a so-called friendly Muslim or one who aspires to more radical teachings."
THE "WHO WOULD JESUS PISS ON?" PRIZE is nailed by Southern Carolina Pastor Roger Byrd, who posted this message on a sign outside his church. "Obama, Osama, Hmmmm, are they brothers?" Hmmmm. Byrd? Turd? Separated at birth?
THE GOP BIG (PLANTATION?) SLAVE QUARTERS MEDAL is hung around the neck of Rep. Geoff David (KY) who, after calling Obama "a snake oil salesman," added, "That boy's finger does not need to be on the (nuclear) button." He later said his use of the word "boy" was not meant to be offensive. He meant to say "pickaninny."
THE "SCHOOL IS OUT ... OF THE CLOSET" AWARD goes to the religious zealots who voted for the anti-gay marriage Proposition 8 in California. They feared that "Gay Marriage" would be taught in schools, presumably after "Tranny Trig" but before "Gender Bender Geometry." On a somewhat related note, a recent study showed that the "Virginity Pledges" taken by Christian youths doesn't stop them diddling with danger. In fact, the "saved" are prone to use condoms less than the Hell-bent and engage in oral and manual sex more. Fundamentalism. Takes a licking but keeps on ticking.
THE "KEEP YOUR EYES ON HIS BALLS" TROPHY goes to John McCain who sold sacks of golf balls on his web site but didn't take into account the wave of satisfied "customers" who would post their testimonials. "The Golf Pack is great," wrote one, "but when are you going to offer a Joe Lieberman Certified McCain Ballwasher?" "I LOVE it!" declared a customer named Gramps. "I appreciate the compartment for my soiled Depends."
THE "SOMETHING IN MOUTH" DISEASE AWARD goes to bathroom stall stalwart Senator Larry Craig who, fuming over the high price of gas, declared on the Senate floor, that he was sick of foreigners who "jerk us around by the gas nozzle." He allegedly amended the statement later, stating that he meant to say he enjoyed it.
THE "BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE A MOOD ELEVATOR" BEGGING BOWL is thrown at Senator Phil Gramm (Cracker) who, as a McCain economics expert, intoned: "You've heard of mental depression; this is mental recession. We have sort of become a nation of whiners." He later sat down to watch "It's A Wonderful Life" and root for the banker.
THE GOP BIG (SLAVE QUARTERS?) HANGING TREE DESIGNER SHEET SET goes to such party bastions as the white guy who was arrested in Louisiana for threatening election officials for not sending him a voter registration card fast enough because he had to "keep the nigger out of office" and the sweet little old lady Sarah Palin supporter who, at a rally in Ohio, declared: "I'm afraid if he (Obama) wins, the blacks will take over." I see CDs coming their way from Chip Saltsman.
THE "SARAH PALIN IN A NUTSHELL" AWARD is given to David Letterman who noted: "To improve her foreign policy experience, she recently went to the International House of Pancakes."
THE "GREAT AMERICAN PIG-OUT" PRIZE goes to the Republican Party who, over eight weeks, spent $68,400 for Sarah Palin's makeup artist, $42,000 for her hair stylist and over $150,000 on clothing. Swill, baby, swill! You betcha.
And, finally, THE DIRTY, ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS AWARD goes to the Bush Administration; the biggest collection of lying, corrupt, ideology-driven, callous, immoral, uncaring, arrogant, factually ignorant, pompous, preening clowns ever to befoul Washington. May your heads always be targeted by Buster Brown and Tige.
Condolences to the runners-up: the bankers, Wall Street wizards and captains of Industry who destroyed the American economy through sheer greed. You never literally bombed innocent civilians, so you missed by inches.
from BartCop
By Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon, AlterNet
The year's stinkiest media performances.
Now in their 17th year, the P.U.-litzer Prizes recognize some of the nation's stinkiest media performances. As the judges for these annual awards, we do our best to identify the most-deserving recipients of this unwelcome plaudit.
And now, the P.U.-litzer Prizes for 2008:
HOT FOR OBAMA PRIZE -- MSNBC's Chris Matthews: This award sparked fierce competition, but the cinch came on the day Barack Obama swept the Potomac Primary in February -- when Chris Matthews spoke of "the feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama's speech. My, I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don't have that too often."
BEYOND PARODY PRIZE -- Fox News: In August, a FoxNews.com teaser for the "O'Reilly Factor" program said: "Obama bombarded by personal attacks. Are they legit? Ann Coulter comments."
UPSIDE-DOWN "ELITIST" AWARD -- New York Times columnist David Brooks: For months, high-paid Beltway journalists competed with each other in advising candidate Obama on how to mingle with working-class folks. Ubiquitous pundit Brooks won the prize for his wisdom on reaching "less-educated people, downscale people," offered on MSNBC in June: "Obama's problem is he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who could go into an Applebee's salad bar and people think he fits in naturally there. And so he's had to change to try to be more like that Applebee's guy." It would indeed be hard for Obama to fit in naturally at an Applebee's salad bar. Applebee's restaurants don't have salad bars.
GUTTER BALL PUNDITRY AWARD -- Chris Matthews of MSNBC's "Hardball": In program after program during the spring, Matthews repeatedly questioned whether Obama could connect with "regular" voters -- "regular" meaning voters who are white or "who actually do know how to bowl." He once said of Obama: "This gets very ethnic, but the fact that he's good at basketball doesn't surprise anybody. But the fact that he's that terrible at bowling does make you wonder."
STRAIGHT SKINNY PRIZE -- Wall Street Journal reporter Amy Chozick: In August, the Journal's Chozick went beyond the standard elitist charge to offer yet another reason that average voters might be wary of Obama. Below the headline "Too Fit to Be President?" she wrote of Obama: "Despite his visits to waffle houses, ice-cream parlors and greasy-spoon diners around the country, his slim physique might have some Americans wondering whether he is truly like them." Chozick asked: "In a nation in which 66 percent of the voting-age population is overweight and 32 percent is obese, could Sen. Obama's skinniness be a liability?" To support her argument, she quoted supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton. One said: "He needs to put some meat on his bones." Another, prodded by Chozick, wrote on a Yahoo bulletin board: "I won't vote for any beanpole guy."
"OUR CENTER-RIGHT NATION" AWARD -- Newsweek editor Jon Meacham: With Democrats in the process of winning big in 2008 as they had in 2006, a media chorus erupted warning Democratic politicians away from their promises of change. Behind the warnings was the repeated claim that America is essentially a conservative country. In an election-eve Newsweek cover story with the subheadline "America remains a center-right nation -- a fact that a President Obama would forget at his peril," Meacham argued that the liberalism of even repeatedly re-elected FDR offended voters. And the editor claimed that a leftward trend in election results and issues polling means little -- as would Obama's victory after months of charges that he stood for radical change. Evidence seemed to lose out to journalists' fears that campaign promises might actually be kept.
BAILOUT BLUSTER AWARD -- Pundit David Brooks: On Sept. 30, just after the House defeated the $700 billion Wall Street bailout measure, Brooks' column in the New York Times denounced the balking House members for their failure to heed "the collected expertise of the Treasury and Fed." But a week later, after the House approved a bailout -- and with the credit crunch unabated and stock market still plunging -- Brooks wrote: "At these moments, central bankers and Treasury officials leap in to try to make the traders feel better. Officials pretend they're coming up with policy responses, but much of what they do is political theater." Now he tells us.
"STATUS QUO CENTRISTS CAN'T BE IDEOLOGUES" AWARD -- Too many to name: In late November, corporate media outlets began to credit Barack Obama with making supposedly non-ideological Cabinet picks. The New York Times front page reported that his choices "suggest that Mr. Obama is planning to govern from the center-right of his party, surrounding himself with pragmatists rather than ideologues." Conservative Times columnist David Brooks praised the picks as "not ideological" and the economic nominees as "moderate and thoughtful Democrats." USA Today reported that Obama's selections had "records that display more pragmatism than ideology." In mediaspeak, if you thought invading Iraq and signing the NAFTA trade pact were good ideas, you're a pragmatist. If not, you're an ideologue.
"WHO WOULD HAVE PREDICTED?" AWARD -- New York Times: The Times' op-ed page marked the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion in March by choosing "nine experts on military and foreign affairs" to write on "the one aspect of the war that most surprised them or that they wish they had considered in the prewar debate." None of the experts selected had opposed the invasion. That kind of exclusion made possible a bizarre claim by Times correspondent John Burns in the same day's paper: "Only the most prescient could have guessed ... that the toll would include tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians killed, as well as nearly 4,000 American troops; or that America's financial costs by some recent estimates, would rise above $650 billion by 2008." Those who'd warned of such disastrous results were not only prescient, but were routinely excluded from mainstream coverage.
IMPERIALLY EMBEDDED PRIZE -- John Burns, New York Times: Described as "the longest-serving foreign correspondent in New York Times history," Burns seemed less a skeptical reporter than a channeler of Henry Kissinger when he offered his world view to PBS' Charlie Rose in April: "The United States and its predominant economic, political and military power in the world have been the single greatest force for stability in the world, such as it is now, certainly since the Second World War. If the outcome in Iraq were to destroy the credibility of American power, to destroy America's willingness to use its power in the world to achieve good, to fight back against totalitarianism, authoritarianism, gross human rights abuses, it would be a very dark day."
by Deena Guzder - Common Dreams
Amnesty International and other human rights organizations have decried Israel's continued aerial bombing campaign as unlawful and denounced the killing of more than 300 Palestinians since 27 December, including scores of unarmed civilians not taking part in the hostilities. Israel's attacks on the densely populated Gaza Strip also elicited condemnation from numerous world politicians and sparked protests in global cities.
Despite international outcry over escalating violence, the U.S. mainstream media continues to privilege a prepackaged narrative in which Israel's actions are never disproportionate, never counterproductive and certainly never gratuitous. According to the mainstream media, the U.S. must continue uncompromisingly supporting Israel because the allegedly beleaguered democracy is held hostage by monomaniacal Islamofascists who are inherently evil. Promoting a paradigm in which Israel is always David up against Goliath, the U.S. media presents suffering Palestinians as expendable for the greater cause of Israel winning its epic struggle. To justify U.S.'s carte blanche to Israel, the mainstream media restricts American readers to an echo chamber in which the following claims are repeated ad nausem until they are mistaken for fact:
Israel has a legal and moral right to bomb Gaza out of defense Security concerns are not and never have been a tolerable justification for pre-emptive attacks. Israel's decision to bomb Gaza represents a major assault on the international rule of law. The law of occupation is one of the oldest and most developed branches of international humanitarian law. An occupying power is obliged to follow the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, which protects the civilian population. The United Nations Security Council held in 1979 that the Fourth Convention did apply in the territories seized by Israel in 1967. Article 48 of the additional protocol is clear that Israel, as an occupying power, has obligations: "The Parties to the conflict shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives and accordingly shall direct their operations only against military objective."
The latest Israeli attacks come on top of a brutal siege of the Gaza Strip which has created a humanitarian catastrophe of dire proportions for Gaza's beleaguered Palestinian residents by restricting the provision of food, fuel, medicine, electricity, and other necessities of life. "International law is not observed with respect to Israeli policies towards the Gaza Strip, Israel continues to reinforce an occupation whose every element violates international humanitarian law, and particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention," notes Jeff Halper, an Israeli-American Anthropologist, author, lecturer, political activist, and co-founder and Coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.
Israeli citizens live in constant fear of Hamas rockets Since 2005 Hamas has fired some 6,300 rockets from Gaza at Israel, killing 10 people.[1] In just the last four days, Israel has reduced the Gaza Strip to rubble and killed over 300 Palestinians. During the ongoing four-decade-long brutal occupation of historic Palestine and the recent grotesquely inhumane blockade of Gaza, Palestinian deaths have far outnumbered Israeli deaths. Since September 29, 2000, approximately 123 Israeli children have been killed by Palestinians whereas 1,050 Palestinian children have been killed by Israelis. Since September 29, 2000, a total of 1,062 Israelis and no fewer than 4,876 Palestinians were killed in the conflict.[2]
Hamas refuses to recognize the right of Israel to exist and has never made any concessions As Seth Ackerman of Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) notes, there is no need to euphemize Hamas' history of brutal tactics or its bellicose ideology, but Hamas has signaled its potential willingness to accept a two-state settlement and make other concessions to broker peace.[3] Hamas has also made tentative offers of a long-term "hudna," or truce, albeit with less gusto than Israel demands.
Israel is only targeting Hamas headquarters Gaza, one of the most densely populated tracts of land in the world, is home to about 1.3m Palestinians, about 33% of whom live in United Nations-funded refugee camps.[4] Avoiding civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip during aerial raids is comparable to trying to avoid such casualties in Washington DC, New York City or Los Angeles. "Because Gaza is so densely populated, there is no such thing as precision strike - you have glass, brick, shrapnel flying into people's homes," notes Ewa Jasiewicz, a volunteer with the Free Gaza Movement.[5]
Attacking Hamas will help Israel achieve security There is no doubt that the recent attacks will only embolden and multiply Israel's detractors. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a religious decree to Muslims around the world on Sunday, ordering them to defend Palestinians against Israel's attacks on Gaza. For a second day in Jordan, several thousand protesters gathered in Amman and burned Israeli and American flags.[6] There were similar rallies in Egypt, Syria, Libya and Iraq with many calling for a firm response from their leaders. Hamas' military is barely dented by the Israeli attacks and, according to a poll by Israel's Channel 10 television station, only 6% of Israelis believe its governments aerial bombings will end Hamas' rocket attacks. [7]
The Bush administration has the implicit support of the international community in blaming Hamas "thugs" and applauding Israel's show of defense With the exception of the U.S. and her staunchest allies, the international community has largely condemned Israel's attacks. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called on Israel to "urgently halt" its military campaign. Japan's Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said, "Japan calls on Israel to exercise its utmost self-restraint."
China's Vice-Premier Li Kequiang joined the voices urging a halt to violence and said, "The Chinese side is shocked and seriously concerned over the current military operations in Gaza that have caused a large number of death and injuries."[8] Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi similarly stated, "Malaysia deplores the disproportionate use of military power by Israel against the people of Gaza." French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the European Union presidency, told the Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas of his serious concerns about the escalating violence. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon added his voice to the 15-member Security Council's call for an immediate end to hostilities and urged Israel to allow humanitarian aid into the poverty-stricken territory.[9] Humanitarian organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reiterate their call for an end to reckless and unlawful Israeli attacks against densely populated residential areas.
The attacks on Gaza are supported by the entire Jewish community Jewish Voice for Peace joins millions around the world, including the 1,000 Israelis who protested in the streets of Tel Aviv this weekend, in condemning ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza. The organization calls for an immediate end to attacks on all civilians, whether Palestinian or Israeli. In the face of mounting deaths, several Israeli and American Jewish peace groups are protesting the recent air raids by demonstrating in the streets, petitioning their elected officials and directly reaching out to Palestinian civilians. Groups that are encouraging peace between Palestinians and Israelis include Rabbis for Human Rights, B'Tselem, Bat Shalom, Ta'ayush, Yesh-Gvul, Peace Gush Shalom Tikkun, and many others.
While there is no consensus in the Jewish community on the recent Gaza air raids, the underreported efforts of the Jewish "left" is far from negligible; Jewish Voices of Peace claims more than 10,000 members and has been instrumental in drawing attention to the lopsided media coverage through their "Lights out in Gaza, News Blackout in U.S." campaign. Many of these Jewish peace activists are deeply religious and draw on the Torah to support their stand against Israel's attack on Gaza. The media has extensively covered the Israeli settlers who cheer on Israel's more hawkish actions, but little has been written on dissident Israeli Jews and their American Jewish sympathizers who are advocating a more peaceful, non-violent course.
The mainstream media is culpable for American's ongoing ignorance and knee-jerk loyalty to Israel. Instead of elucidating motives and contextualizing actions, reporters' biased diction obscures facts and editors' cursory commentary muddles logic. By de-historicizing the conflict, the media reduces Palestinians to stock-characters who reject generous olive branches offered by Israel in favor of advocating for the dissolution of the Jewish state. A column by Israeli Gideon Levy in Haaretz, entitled "The neighborhood bully strikes again," could never appear in a paper in the U.S nor could a single paragraph be uttered by any American politician, in either party, of any national prominence without damning consequences.[10]
While visiting Israel in July, President-elect Barack Obama said, "If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I would do everything to stop that, and would expect Israel to do the same thing." The question remains, what would Obama do if his daughters were deprived of food, electricity, medical care, and human dignity? What would Obama do if his daughters were humiliated when they traveled, maimed when they walked away from bomb shelters and robbed of their childhoods? If Obama fails to answer these questions with humanity, we can expect 4 to 8 more years of President Bush's failed Middle East strategy.
Notes:
[1] Wall Street Journal (Asia Edition), Editorial, December 30, 2008 (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123051140769338457.html)
[2] If Americans Only Knew http://www.ifamericansonlyknew.org/
[3] Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2974
[4] BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/middle_east/03/v3_israel_palestinians/maps/html/population_settlements.stm
[5] Evening Standard (London) http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23608798-details/Defiant+Palestinians+fire+rockets+deep+into+Israel/article.do
[6] BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7803569.stm
[7] TIME Magazine http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1868929,00.html
[8] AFP News, http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iWdYoZ5ATqNC6YY2jiHKiBQ0D5FA
[9] AFP News, http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iWdYoZ5ATqNC6YY2jiHKiBQ0D5FA
[10] Salon.com http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/12/28/peretz/
REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco
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The Key to Eliminating Your Slice
Making a proper “full shoulder turn” is one of the most important fundamentals of the golf swing, yet it's one of the most common mistakes made by golfers; and why so many have slice problems. A proper shoulder turn is when you rotate the shoulders so the leading shoulder comes under your chin, without letting your hips turn much at all. Below we explain the ways this eliminates the slice:
• If your shoulder rotation is stopped too early, your arms will tend to continue by fling across the target line and causing an outside-to-inside swing path, resulting in the dreaded banana-ball. A full shoulder turn will help the club fall “on plane”, which greatly reduces the chance of cutting across the target line and slicing the golf ball.
• A full shoulder turn will promote proper weight shift. Remember too keep your lower body from moving laterally. Do not confuse the full shoulder turn as meaning you must get the club back to parallel at the top of the swing. Many great golfers have a compact swing that comes up far short of parallel at the top, but all great golfers take a full shoulder turn when executing a full shot.
• A full shoulder turn will bring you to the top of the swing and assist in getting the hands and arms into proper position.
• Keep your chin up and off your chest so the leading shoulder can rotate and pass under the chin. If the shoulder hits your chin, it will cut the shoulder rotation short and encourage a slice.
• When a golfer does not utilize a full shoulder turn, they tend to rely more on the small muscles (hands and arms) to swing the golf club. This leads to inconsistent ball striking and shots prone to slicing. With a full shoulder turn, you will use more of your big muscles, which are much more consistent, and help you square the club face and avoid a slice. Don’t be in a rush; taking the club back slow will help you to finish the back swing with a full shoulder turn. More body, less arms.
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