"One President at a Time"

Yes, and it hardly matters which one it is, does it?

The Izzies are again playing "Final Solution" with their Pals:

The toll of Palestinians killed by Israel's three-day bombing campaign in Gaza today rose to at least 325 as Israeli jets bombed a university's science laboratories and hit the interior ministry in a widening series of air strikes.

The Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak - who has already said his government does not want another ceasefire with the Islamist Hamas movement - said his army was fighting a "war to the bitter end".

Israel declared the border area around Gaza a closed military zone which, together with preparations for a call-up of thousands of reservists, could suggest a large ground invasion is planned next. Barak said the military campaign would be "widened and deepened as needed".

The number of civilians killed in the fighting continued to rise. The UN Relief and Works Agency, which supports Palestinian refugees and has large programmes in Gaza, said it believed at least 57 civilians were among the dead, but described that as a conservative estimate.

The overall number of injured is thought to be as high as 1,400, although Gazan hospitals are so overcrowded and short of medicine and equipment that they are turning away all but the most seriously wounded.

No doubt, we'll all be surprised to hear that the Chimperor is very much on board with his masters:

CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) — The Bush administration called Monday for an end to the new flare up in Mideast violence, saying Hamas has "once again shown its true colors as a terrorist organization" with attacks on Israel.

White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the Hamas organization had chosen not to renew a six-month cease-fire agreement arranged by Egypt. At the same time, he said the United States has asked Israel to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza.

The spokesman declined to respond to questions about whether the United States believes Israel is ready to launch a ground attack on Gaza, but said the ultimate goal of Israelis is "for their people to be able to live in peace."

But while the Wee Emperor's replacement is supposed to represent Change, well, you know ... meet the new boss, same as the etc., etc.:

Since his election, Mr. Obama has said little specific about his foreign policy — in contrast to more expansive remarks about the economy. He and his advisers have deferred questions — critics could say, ducked them — by saying that until Jan. 20, only President Bush would speak for the nation as president and commander in chief. “The fact is that there is only one president at a time,” David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, told CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, reiterating a phrase that has become a mantra of the transition. “And that president now is George Bush.”

Mr. Obama, vacationing in Hawaii, talked to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday. “But the Bush administration has to speak for America now,” Mr. Axelrod said. “And it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to opine on these matters.”

Now, really -- who's going to pretend to be surprised about this? If Mr. Obama had been in any significant way unsatisfactory to the corporate powermasters who have pulled the strings on Mr. Bush and Mr. Clinton and Mr. OlderBush and Mr. Reagan and ... well, then, Mr. Obama wouldn't be where he is today. He'd be sitting around with Ralph Nader and Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich in Hypothetical-Land. The mere fact of his having obtained power under the modern American system establishes, firmly and unmistakably, that he cannot possess a soul.

And, speaking of not pretending to be surprised ... the world isn't completely blind. Everyone knows that when the Chosen People do what they do with their arsenal, all paid for check-kited by the American taxpayer borrower, with General Dynamics and General Electric nameplates on all of it, there isn't so much as a nanometer's separation between the actions of Greater Israel and those of Imperial America. So, the next time we get a faceful of blowback, 9/11 style, let's not be hearing anyone asking "why they hate us." And no, it won't have the slightest thing to do with our fast-evaporating "freedom" or our alleged values. It'll have everything to do with the oceans of blood even now being spilled by our bitter-end-seeking proxies.