When Israel attacked the Gaza aid flotilla, Congresswoman Jane Harman was engaged in a parallel assault. Israel’s government relied on the efficacy of violence; Harman’s campaign was counting on the power of paid media. In both cases, the targets were advocates of human rights for Palestinian people.

Brandishing guns and stun grenades, in international waters, Israeli commandos rappelled from a helicopter and boarded from a fast-moving boat onto the flotilla’s largest ship. The mission was to halt a Gaza-bound expedition carrying 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid.

The mission of Harman’s campaign strategists -- targeting her progressive opponent with a slick TV commercial -- was to achieve a related goal in California’s 36th congressional district. Stopping the Gaza flotilla and stopping the congressional campaign of Marcy Winograd are similar agenda items.

Harman, a powerful member of the center-right Blue Dog Coalition, is one of the Israeli government’s most valued allies on Capitol Hill. She’s a standout -- even in a Congress teeming with fervent apologists for Israel’s relentless suppression of Palestinian rights.

The God of War doesn’t dine on raw shank bone or bellow orders quite like he used to. When he talks to Congress, say, it goes more like this:
“And, oh, while you’re up, I’m going to be needing, uh (cough, cough) . . . $159 billion this go-around, you know, for the troops. Thanks.”
It works.

With the war on terror in its ninth year and disappearing from even the pretense of national debate, let alone outrage and protest, and with the President of Hope prosecuting it so quietly most of us no longer notice, we could be at an eerie national transition point, beyond which war is no longer controversial or a big deal but just the way things are: “normal,” like background noise. And the enormous transfusions of cash it requires — well, nice people don’t talk about it.

Oh Lord.

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.

Yesterday police arrested one of the dairy workers documented maliciously torturing animals at Conklin Dairy Farms in Plain City, Ohio by an undercover Mercy For Animals investigator. Billy Gregg, Jr., 25, was taken into custody by the Union County Sheriff's Department and charged with 12 counts of misdemeanor cruelty to animals.

MFA commends the City Prosecutor and law enforcement for their swift and decisive apprehension of Gregg, a violent individual who is extensively documented sadistically abusing newborn calves and cows.

Following the arrest, MFA conducted news conferences statewide and released the undercover footage of farm workers beating, stabbing, clubbing, and kicking cows and calves. Even the owner was caught on camera kicking a cow.

A media flurry erupted as the case crossed the nation on outlets such as CNN, ABC, Fox and the Los Angeles Times, and in scathing coverage on CBS affiliate WOIO in Cleveland. The case went on to receive worldwide coverage, including in the UK and Australia.

MFA's investigator documented Ohio dairy workers:

I first encountered Reza Aslan on the Jon Stewart Show and was somewhat perturbed by his interview - unfortunately I have not been able to retrieve that reference on the internet, but it did intrigue me and led me to purchasing his book Beyond Fundamentalism. More than likely that was what his intentions originally were for, to promote purchase and readership of his latest book, originally published as “How to Win a Cosmic War.”

At first appearances the writing seemed highly sensationalized, presenting definitions about the differences between holy wars and ‘cosmic’ wars as if there was a substantial difference between the two. That a “cosmic war is a religious war,” does not seem to offer much differentiation to that of a holy war. That cosmic warriors “are fighting a war of the imagination,” seems all too obvious, either from a secular perspective without a god, or from a religious perspective in which the image and reality of god are often described as unknown realities to mere humans.

The Independent Film Channel is airing a series of four programs this week that illustrate the kind of media we need in this country. The four programs, titled "Fear," "War," "Greed," and "Disaster," feature the reporting of four independent unembedded journalists: Max Blumenthal, Nir Rosen, Charlie LeDuff, and Andrew Berends. The 30-minute episodes premiere Monday, May 24 through Thursday, May 27 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT.

I've had a chance to preview the "War" episode, featuring Nir Rosen, and highly recommend it. Rosen is a freelance, unembedded writer, photographer, and filmmaker who has reported from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Somalia. The IFC show is, necessarily, self-referential, but the reporting included is of the sort that ought to be routine and not need to call attention to itself. That independent online and cable video always presents serious journalism as a novelty is precisely what's wrong with our communications system; there ought to be serious journalism in all news media all the time.