Ron Paul Revolution Continues…

From time to time commenters on this blog say that American Jews are risking anti-semitic retaliation because of their unwavering and selfish support for Israel. I don't like this line of argument. It seems vicious, or a veiled threat. Yes, the Jewish leadership has been selfish in its unending contempt for Palestinian human rights; but I see hope that the next generation of Jews will lead my tribe out of the parched desert of parochialism.

That said, it appears that Henry Kissinger and Hannah Arendt, both German-born Holocaust survivors, expressed the attitude I find lamentable. Let's go to the videotape.

A historic volume of Arendt's Jewish writings was published last year. She was an unbelievable writer. In 1952, mourning her dear friend Judah Magnes, the founder of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, who often opposed political Zionism, she wrote that his stature had only grown in the four years since he died:

Magnes was the conscience of the Jewish people and much of that conscience has died with him--at least for our time. Magnes's protest rose from the Zionist ranks and its validity lay in this origin. He raised his voice primarily on moral grounds, and his authority was that he was a citizen of Jerusalem, that their fate was his fate, and that therefore nothing he said could ever be blamed on ulterior motives. He was a very practical and a very realistic man; it may be that he, like the rest of us, was also inspired by fear for coming generations of Jews, who may have to suffer for the wrongs committed in our time. But this was not his primary motive. He passionately wanted to do the right thing and had a healthy distrust of the wisdom of our Realpolitiker; and if fear did not really touch him, he was very sensitive to shame. Being a Jew and being a Zionist, he was simply ashamed of what Jews and Zionists were doing....

It has happened that the last years of his life coincided with a great change in the Jewish national character [foundation of state of Israel and "flight," Arendt believed, of the Arabs]. A people that for two thousand years had made justice the cornerstone of its spiritual and communal existence has become emphatically hostile to all arguments of such a nature, as though these were necessarily the arguments of failure. We all know that this change has come about since Auschwitz, but that is little consolation. [italic emphasis is Arendt's; bold is mine]

Beautiful. Safe travels, Hannah.

Now the Realpolitiker himself: Kissinger. First, a little explanation. In his richly-detailed history of the peace process, The Much Too Promised Land, Aaron David Miller writes of Kissinger's frustration with the Israelis in 1975, when the U.S. was trying to get Israel to disengage from the Sinai. This was a tortuous process, in large part, Miller shows, because of the Israel lobby in our country. At one point Kissinger, then sec'y of state, felt doublecrossed by Israeli Prime Minister Rabin and attributed "Rabin's refusal to make concessions... to domestic politics, which, he observed scornfully, was really all there was to Israel's foreign policy." That is to say, Rabin knew that he could call on Jewish allies in the U.S. to nullify Ford Administration policy. Indeed, at that time, when President Ford, fed up with Israeli intransigence, said that the U.S. was "reassess"-ing its Middle East policy, Miller says that "reassessment provoked a furious response": a letter signed by 76 senators, which Miller says AIPAC had drafted, warning Ford that he must be responsive to Israeli needs. 

Kissinger worried that Israel's hardline position would cause the U.S. to lose power to the Soviet Union at the upcoming Geneva convention and might endanger Anwar Sadat in Egypt. These were not trivial risks. He warned the Israeli negotiating team:

"'That's my nightmare--what I now see marching toward you. Compared to that, 10 kilometers in the Sinai is trivial.' Harold Saunders [then deputy assistant secretary of state] recalls that after Kissinger unloaded on the Israelis, the secretary of state confided that Israeli shortsightedness concerned him seriously: 'Well, you know when they act like this I worry about the future of my son as a Jew in America.'"

Arendt fled a German internment camp in 1940. Kissinger lost 13 members of his family in the Holocaust.

It seems a given that mobile social networking is going to be “the next big thing”, but squinting at tiny text is still a pain on today’s phones. To deal with this issue, Blabnote, a British startup that is currently in private beta, has created what may be the world’s first “vocal social network.”

To login to the network, you simply call Blabnote from your phone, which uses caller ID to match you to your profile. From there, you can vocally enter any number of commands. For example, if I wanted to create a group for TechCrunch fans, I might say, “Create Group called ‘Team TechCrunch’”. Members can be added by saying, “add Mike and Mark”, and you can send messages to group members in a similar fashion.

Blabnote has no shortage of obstacles to overcome, to put it mildly. For one, the entire system is going to rely on voice recognition, which isn’t exactly a perfected technology. Imagine creating a very personal voice message and sending it to an ex-girlfriend on accident - the setup is ripe for disaster. And should you get sick of talking (and listening), you’re out of luck: there is no web management interface, though Blabnote says it will provide an API for third parties.

Blabnote could be a useful organization and notification tool for established groups, like soccer teams or clubs. But if it aspires to become a large social network, this company is going to be teetering perilously close to the DeadPool.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

It’s coming up on a year since the iPhone was released, and the second version appears to be just around the corner. So it’s a good time to check in with our readers and see just how many of you actually use the device.

Please take a second and let us know where you stand.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Epic Gillmor Gang today. Everyone went in with guns blazing over the data portability/ownership debate that has spilled out over the Facebook/Google scuffle. DataPortability founder Chris Saad was also on the call, but failed to take a leadership position in the debate (he did, however, weigh in with a blog post on the subject before the call). Their influence may be waning.

As the podcast ended the blog posts started rolling in.

Marc Canter, who I accuse of compromising his position as a thought leader in the data portability debate simply because Facebook is suddenly telling him everything he wants to hear, says that his position hasn’t changed (nevertheless, it has). Robert Scoble simply apologized for being on the wrong side of the issue, yet again. And Dan Farber, a Gillmor Gang regular who missed the call, picked up on the analogy to the founding fathers writing the Bill of Rights and wrote about it here.

All in all, the group seems to be in alignment after the talk. Data ownership is an important issue that cannot be left in the big co.’s hands. Because if it is, they’ll serve their interests first, and that will lead to more walled gardens.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Storyblender, which recently launched in private beta, is a new casual animation platform that will appeal to users who want customized movies in a hurry. The site was a presenter at TechCrunch 40. If you’d like to try it out, you can grab one of 500 invites here.

The site is straightforward, which is a good thing because there doesn’t seem to be a tutorial yet. New users are presented with the video wizard that offers a number of pre-created movies that can be easily modified. Each movie is broken up along the bottom of the screen into brief scenes in a manner that will be familiar to anyone that has used a video editor like iMovie.

The site has hundreds of pre-rendered characters, backgrounds, music, and effects, which can be added to a scene by simply dragging and dropping. Nearly all of these have a distinctly comical look to them - the site doesn’t seem to offer “serious” movie making at this point. Instead, many of the backdrops and characters are better suited for video greeting cards (samples include “<a href="Happy Birthday" and "Party Time!“). Users can lend their own voices to clips, and they can import media from YouTube and Flickr. Members can share their movies with friends, who can modify them further if they wish.

Storyblender is competing with other animation sites like Fuzzwich, aniBoom, and JibJab.

Here’s one of the sample videos provided by the site:

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke asked Congress to accelerate the date when the Fed can pay interest on reserves, a power that would give it better control over interest rates and more leverage to battle the credit crunch.

Bernanke

In the letter to House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi May 13, Mr. Bernanke noted Congress gave the Fed the authority to pay interest starting 2011 because “the payment of interest on reserves would contribute to the efficiency of the financial system… In order to prevent further delay in realizing the benefits of this legislation, we recommend that the date be changed to make the legislation effective immediately.” Similar letters were sent to Senate Banking Committee Christopher Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, and the committee’s senior Republican, Richard Shelby of Alabama.

The letter was expected. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month the Fed was seeking the authority.

Banks are required by law to hold a certain fraction of their deposits in reserve accounts at the Fed, but receive no interest on these deposits. Having the authority to pay interest would solve two technical headaches for the Fed. If they earned interest from the Fed, banks would have no incentive to lend out excess reserves for less. That would make the Fed’s benchmark federal-funds rate, which banks charge on overnight loans to each other, less likely to plunge below the Fed’s official target — now 2% — on days when the banking system was awash in cash. In addition, the Fed could theoretically combat the credit crunch by buying securities or extending loans without limit without causing the federal-funds rate to fall to zero, something that could fuel inflation or distort markets.

Officials from both parties have suggested they are favorably disposed to the proposal. Passage is not guaranteed, however. The controversy surrounding the Fed’s loan of $29 billion to assist in J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.’s takeover of Bear Stearns Cos. means some lawmakers may balk at any move that would benefit banks. The proposal would likely be attached to a larger and probably unrelated bill. -Greg Ip

Like Thucydides, Mises wrote, Anderson unfortunately did not live to see his book published. After his premature death, much lamented by all his friends and admirers, the D. Van Nostrand Company published it, with a preface by Henry Hazlitt, under the title Economics and The Public Welfare: Financial and Economic History of the United States, 1914-1946 . It contains more than this title indicates. FULL ARTICLE

Like Thucydides, Mises wrote, Anderson unfortunately did not live to see his book published. After his premature death, much lamented by all his friends and admirers, the D. Van Nostrand Company published it, with a preface by Henry Hazlitt, under the title Economics and The Public Welfare: Financial and Economic History of the United States, 1914-1946 . It contains more than this title indicates. FULL ARTICLE

Like Thucydides, Mises wrote, Anderson unfortunately did not live to see his book published. After his premature death, much lamented by all his friends and admirers, the D. Van Nostrand Company published it, with a preface by Henry Hazlitt, under the title Economics and The Public Welfare: Financial and Economic History of the United States, 1914-1946 . It contains more than this title indicates. FULL ARTICLE

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.) had high praise for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, saying the central bank chief has been a responsive advocate for consumers during the recent credit turmoil.

Dodd

“I thought Ben Bernanke, I don’t want to use the word ‘progressive’ and ruin his career, but he’s been an activist on issues” that consumer groups, homeowners, and others “wrestle with every day,” Sen. Dodd said in an interview.

Separately, Sen. Dodd said his initial impressions of Steve Preston, the White House’s nominee to lead the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, are favorable. The two met recently and Sen. Dodd could have a hearing on Mr. Preston’s nomination as soon as next week.

“I’ve heard good things,” Sen. Dodd said. “I was impressed by him.” –Damian Paletta