To Martin "Chuzzlewit"

So activists who have a conscience and are brave enough to put their lives on the line to try to prevent the daily crimes against humanity carried out by Israeli Defense Forces and others, on Palestinians are "immature" and want "bragging rights"? What a strange philosophy!

LAILA-

We know the facts - Rachel Corrie was, tragically, a "useful idiot" of irresponsible activists who valued their bragging rights over the life of this young woman. She was an immature young person searching for herself and ultimately manipulated into being the martyr that you pretend to grieve.

Please, haven't you people done enough to her?

I'd like to expand on the idea of non-reported stories during the RNC Convention. One caller gave the example of the trial of Rachel Corrie, a young American woman who was run over by a Caterpillar tractor to prevent it from demolishing the home of a Palestinian doctor. According to witnesses, the Israeli army operator ran over her twice, even though she was wearing a bright orange vest and the Caterpillar was very close to her. The Israeli Court had just exonerated the gov't of Israel for the murder of Ms. Corrie, just as it has exonerated every alleged crime against Palestinians or those in solidarity with Palestinians, for many years. The RNC Convention had nothing to do with this oversight. I listen to Brian Lehrer every day and I don't remember having ever heard him report on any story which sheds a negative light on Israel's practices in the Occupied Territories. There is a virtual blackout on such stories. As one example, Israeli "settlers" have in the recent past destroyed, burned or ransacked a number of mosques in Palestine and I've never heard it mentioned even once on the Brian Lehrer Show. There are many related stories of such crimes and inhuman practices, but I'll not hear about it on his show. As a consequence, on this particular subject, his listeners are left totally ignorant of the facts. I hope that this will change in the future.

The Obama administration gave "initial approval" (not sure exactly what that means) for oil drilling in supposedly protected wildlife habitat in the Arctic, according to an email the Center for Biological Diversity (press release at http://biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2012/arctic-drilling-08-30-2012.html). Not gonna stop the rising seas that way.

Don't think you addressed the $17.7 BILLION PROFIT the U.S. government cleared from TARP:

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/government-makes-177-billion-profit-aig-bailout/story?id=17074275#.UEDaYxyYTPY

In non-convention news, we have had a plethora of shootings this summer, including one in a Pathmark store in New Jersey this morning. Why are the candidates not addressing gun control? Has the NRA managed to invade the Democrats as well?