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As I wrote in my post from the previous evening's show, I was pretty sure Jon Stewart would be following up his segment on Mitt Romney's disastrous visit to London with his debut in Israel. He didn't disappoint and went after him for his aide losing his temper with reporters in Poland as well.

Stewart then showed part of Mitt Romney's speech in Israel and thought he possibly managed to at least make it through that country without any headaches, and then he managed to insult both the Palestinian and the Jews with his "culture" remarks, which he's also now on his third flip flop on: Take Three: Mitt Romney Now Says He Stands By Palestinian ‘Culture’ Comments:

On Sunday, Mitt Romney boldly declared that Israel’s economic superiority over the Palestinians was due to its culture. On Tuesday morning, he dismissed any notion that he had even discussed Palestinian culture. On Tuesday night, Romney reversed himself yet again, in an op-ed entitled “Culture Does Matter.”

“During my recent trip to Israel, I had suggested that the choices a society makes about its culture play a role in creating prosperity, and that the significant disparity between Israeli and Palestinian living standards was powerfully influenced by it,” Romney wrote in the National Review. “In some quarters, that comment became the subject of controversy. But what exactly accounts for prosperity if not culture?”

Good grief, what a nightmare. The man can't even take a consistent stance on what he said within the matter of a few days, much less a few years.

Stewart finished his segment with Daily Show "reporter" Al Madrigal, and making a mockery of Romney's statements about the "cultural" difference between the Israelis and Palestinians, and what it's like for them to be living under Israeli occupation.

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This was worth sitting through just to watch PNAC war monger Cliff May get called a war monger to his face by Salon's Glenn Greenwald.

David Gregory did his part to help Gen. David Petraeus start the first leg of his media blitz to try to sell the public on continuing our occupation in Afghanistan past the 2011 deadline for troop withdrawal. From the HuffPo:

Gen. David Petraeus Cites Progress In Afghanistan, Hedges On July 2011 Troop Withdrawal:

Progress in Afghanistan only began this spring and needs time to take root, Army Gen. David Petraeus said in comments broadcast Sunday that were aimed at shoring up American support for the war.

Petraeus, who's been credited with a successful war strategy in Iraq and who took charge of U.S. and NATO military operations in Afghanistan in July, described an "up and down process" of seizing Taliban-controlled territory and creating "small pockets of progress" that he hoped will expand.

The goal, he told NBC's "Meet the Press," is to keep al-Qaida and other extremist groups at bay while the Afghan government has a chance to take control and earn the trust of the local population.

"We're here so that Afghanistan does not once again become a sanctuary for transnational extremists the way it was when al-Qaida planned the 9/11 attacks in the Kandahar area," Petraeus said in an interview taped in Kabul, the Afghan capital.

The general also stressed that the withdrawl of U.S. troops scheduled to begin in July 2011 would be based on conditions on the ground, and that he could advise President Obama to keep U.S. forces in Afghanistan if he felt it was not the right time for a drawdown. [...]

On Sunday, Rethink Afghanistan released a video hammering Petraeus' comments as just spin. Read on...

And from Firedoglake:

Sunday Late Night: Stretch Talks Progress with TMCP:

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Whether you agree or disagree with this woman, she strikes me as a fairly reasonable, passionate person.

Someone called an alert into the FBI expressing concern that she might be ready to cause destruction or harm to others or others' property. This evidently stemmed from a protest she was involved with against the occupation of Palestine.

She advocates a point of view that is unpopular politically; that is, a one-state solution for the Middle East. Be that as it may, it's still not a crime to speak one's beliefs peacefully.

Watch this video. I'm less bothered by the FBI questioning her than I am by the idea of someone reporting her to the FBI as a danger. As should we all be. If people start reporting others with differing views to the FBI as terrorists, the real terrorists win.

Democracy Now aired part of the 1992 documentary Haiti: Killing the Dream on their show today. While Anderson Cooper is running around down there trying to win himself another prize for his station's coverage of the tragedy after the earthquake, Democracy Now is taking the time to inform the public about the role the United States played in that country suffering from the poverty and corruption the people there have already endured long before the earthquake pulled them into the American public's radar screen. While I commend Anderson Cooper and Sanjay Gupta for going back down there and continuing to shed light on what's going on there right now, there is no major media outlet in the United States that is going to tell this story in the manner it deserves and as Democracy Now has done here.

From Democracy Now -- “Haiti: Killing the Dream”: Excerpt of Documentary on Centuries of Western Subversion of Haitian Sovereignty

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go now to an excerpt of a documentary that, actually, my colleague here at Democracy Now!, co-host Juan Gonzalez, wrote the screenplay, if you will, or rather the script for, because it is not—it is a documentary. To put history of Haiti in context, we’re going to go to Haiti: Killing the Dream, that was produced by Hart and Dana Perry of Crowing Rooster Productions. This is just an excerpt. I think it demonstrates what you are laying out. Thank you so much, Danny Glover. Read on...

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Sen. Russ Feingold explained to Wolf Blitzer why he doesn't think a troop surge in Afghanistan makes any sense, and that he would vote against funding it.

BLITZER: Let's talk about this with Democratic Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin. He's a key member of both the Intelligence and Foreign Relations Committee.

Did I get that right, Senator?

SEN. RUSS FEINGOLD: That's right, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, a key word there being key, is that...

FEINGOLD: That's right.

BLITZER: OK.

Let's talk a little bit about why you oppose what the president is doing. What's wrong with his logic?

FEINGOLD: Well, it just doesn't add up for me.

The president says, we're doing this. We're adding 30,000, 35,000 troops to finish the job. And I ask the question, "What job?" because the president has been so eloquent in pointing out our issue is fighting al Qaeda.

The argument falls apart when you realize that al Qaeda does not have its headquarters in Afghanistan anymore. It is headquartered in Pakistan. It is active in Somalia, and Yemen, North Africa, affiliates of it in Southeast Asia.

Why does it make sense to have a huge ground presence in Afghanistan to deal with a small al Qaeda contingent, when we don't do that in so many other countries where we're actually having some success without invading the country and attacking those that are part of al Qaeda? It doesn't make sense.

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From Democracy Now:

A group of Iraqi labor leaders are here in the United States trying to bring international attention to the lack of a basic labor law in Iraq guaranteeing the right to unionize without repression. Although the United States has scrapped several Saddam Hussein-era laws since the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, a 1987 law banning unions in all public-sector workplaces remains in place. Last week the AFL-CIO adopted a resolution defending Iraqi labor rights. We speak to Iraqi labor leaders Rasim Awadi and Falah Alwan.

Once again, Amy Goodman is covering the stories the mainstream media won't touch. Most of their coverage of Iraq has fallen completely off the map. I'm glad to see the AFL-CIO getting involved in trying to do something to make these people's lives better after we went over there and blew up their country.

AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to Iraq, where Vice President Biden recently pressed Iraqi leaders to enact further regulatory and financial protections to make Iraq more attractive to foreign investors. Speaking to Iraqi officials in Baghdad’s Green Zone last week, Biden called for the Iraqi Parliament to adopt laws to offer more incentives on oil concessions. He also noted the Iraq Business and Investment Conference in Washington next month could encourage private US investment in the country.

Well, as the Vice President was in Iraq promoting privatization last week, a group of Iraqi labor leaders were here in the United States attending the AFL-CIO convention, trying to bring international attention to the lack of basic labor law in Iraq guaranteeing the right to unionize without repression.

Although the United States has scrapped several Saddam Hussein-era laws since the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, a 1987 law banning unions in all public-sector workplaces remains in place.

The AFL-CIO adopted a resolution defending Iraqi labor rights last week, and US Labor Against the War is urging Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to press the Iraqi government to protect labor rights.

You can watch the rest of the interview and read the transcript at Democracy Now's web site.