Missives, Not Missles
A sitting president may do as he shall,
Without having to explain his rationale.
While we thought Khamenei
Was his sworn enemy,
In fact, he’s President Obama’s pen pal.
Tag: Iran
Carter: It was More Important to Not Kill Innocents than to Appear ‘Manly’
I could have wiped Iran off the map with the weapons that we had, but in the process a lot of innocent people would have been killed, probably including the hostages.
— Jimmy Carter, in an interview with CNBC, defending his decisions even if it meant he didn’t show “that I was strong and resolute and, um, manly.”
Don Rickles Diplomacy
Senator John McCain proves, time and again, that he’s nobody’s flunkey.
Indeed, he’s shown us, time and again, that he can be downright spunky.
But in international politics
It’s not diplomatic — just for kicks —
To equate the Iranian president with an orbiting space monkey.
In Foreign Policy Debate, Romney Displays Ignorance of Geography of the Persian Gulf, Site of Two U.S. Wars in the Past 20 Years
Apparently, Herman “Uzbekstan-stan-stan” Cain helped with Mitt Romney’s geography prep going into the presidential debate on foreign policy last night — and it was not the first time he’d gotten the geography of the Middle East wrong:
Oops! Michele Bachmann Promises to Close U.S. Embassy in Iran When She Is President
In light of the British Foreign Ministry pulling all U.K. nationals out of the British embassy in Tehran after students stormed the building in protest, GOP presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann told a crowd in Waverly, Iowa, today that she would close the U.S. embassy in Iran.
One small, tiny note: The U.S. hasn’t had an embassy in Tehran since 1980. Following the Iranian Hostage Crisis, where 52 Americans were held for 444 days, the United States cut all diplomatic ties.
According to reports, Bachmann applauded the U.K.’s move, adding, “That’s exactly what I would do [if I were president]. We wouldn’t have an embassy in Iran. I wouldn’t allow that to be there.”
Recall just a few weeks ago when Bachmann bragged to Fox News that she had a squeaky clean record.
“I haven’t had a gaffe or something that I’ve done that has caused me to fall in the polls,” she said.
Now — wait for it! — the walk-back:
Evolution of a Rightwing Tweet
Rubio’s twitter profile picLove twitter, hate twitter, or just wish people understood the difference between status updates on facebook and tweets, and didn’t post the identical thing in both places. But. Whatever you feel about twitter, you have to admit that something very brief can provide huge insight.
Take Marco Rubio for example, or should I say marcorubio? The only guy not scared of running against Charlie Crist in a Republican primary in Florida for U.S. Senate is exploring his inner Iranian freedom meme on twitter. In successive posts on Father’s Day, you can watch him home in on how best to slam Obama, strike the proper note of patriotism and far rightwing zealotry, and applaud fatherhood. It’s not an easy job, but I think he’s done it.
First, there was this.
#May God bless those fathers in Iran who are speaking out in order to protect their childrens future. #iranelection #tcot #sayfie44 minutes ago from TwitterFon
A good start, but we’re missing the “terrorists have won” sentiment that Republicans so enjoy.
#An American govt afraid to speak out for freedom is exactly what the terrorists wanted to accomplish. #sayfie #tcot #iranelection #tehran36 minutes ago from TwitterFon
That’s better, but not overtly insulting to Obama and the Democrats.
#American govt may be afraid to speak out in support of Iranian freedom but the American people are not! #sayfie #iranelection #tehran #tcot32 minutes ago from TwitterFon
Almost perfect. Let’s just think about it a little more…Hey! Guns!
# I have a feeling the situation in Iran would be a little different if they had a 2nd amendment like ours. #sayfie #tcot #nra20 minutes ago from TwitterFon
Now you’re tweeting, Marco! Way to make that Charlie Crist guy look like a wuss!
Iran Designates CIA, U.S. Army As Terrorist Organizations
Last week, the Democratically controlled U.S. Congress was caught red-handed aiding and abetting the Cheney-Bush drumbeat for war in Iran — just as they helped the administration in its run-up to the war in Iraq when Republicans controlled both houses.
On Tuesday, the House voted 397 to 16 to endorse the Cheney cabal’s assertion that the Iranian military’s Revolutionary Guard is a terrorist organization. In a 76-22 vote on Wednesday, the Senate agreed to similar language.
On Saturday, the Iranian parliament countered with an in-kind declaration that elite U.S. institutions to be terrorist organizations, a move that was backed by Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday:
Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters in his weekly brief that he agreed with the symbolic resolution passed by Iran’s hardline parliament Saturday, which condemned the two American institutions for its actions in Japan in World War II, as well as more recently in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq.
“The label of terrorist is suitable for the military and security forces of the United States,” he said.
Seymour Hersh reported last week in the New Yorker that the administration has shifted the rationale for war because the public was not buying an earlier assertion it floated that Iran’s deployment of nuclear weapons was imminent.
Now Bush and Cheney are trying to convince Americans that Iran is responsible for the violence in Iraq because Iranian Shias are supplying weapons to Iraqi Shia insurgents in their civil war against Sunnis. This is ironic, of course, because it is the United States who invaded and is occupying Iraq — and because U.S. ally Saudi Arabia is also supplying weapons to Sunni insurgents in the sectarian civil war.
By voting for the Cheney-Bush designation of the Iranian military’s elite guard as a terrorist organization, Democrats in Congress have given the administration their tacit approval to escalate the U.S. war in the Middle East.
Ahmadinejad: ‘We Don’t Have Homosexuals’ in Iran – Same Country That Executed Two Gay Teens in 2005
Iranian Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaking today at Columbia University:
“In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country. We don’t have that in our country. In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon. I do not know who has told you that we have it.”
Three weeks ago, two Iranian teenagers who had been imprisoned and mercilessly beaten, were finally executed by hanging in Iran for the crime of sex with another male, indeed, apparently it now seems within the context of a committed relationship. At that time, … The young guys, one of whom was under the age of 18 at the time of the execution and both of whom were under 18 at the time of their arrest, underwent more than a year in prison and were subjected to 228 lashes of a whip, before Iran robbed them of their young lives on Tuesday, July 19, 2005.
The teenagers, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni (yes, these two human beings had names), still call to me from their graves. I can hear their plaintive cries that we shall forget them and their deaths will be for naught.
John McCain’s Macacca Moment
The day John McCain lost the 2008 presidential campaign:
O.K., the guy is obviously sick — blowing his nose and probably hopped up on antihistamines — but, come on. “Bomb Iran?”
Sen. Webb Introduces Bill to Stop Bush’s War on Iran
Fox News is reporting that Sen. Jim Webb (D-Virginia) has proposed a bill intended to stop Pres. Bush’s march to war with Iran. If the bill were to pass, it would it would prohibit funding “for military operations and activities within or above the territory of Iran, or within the territorial waters of Iran, except pursuan to a specific authorization of Congress.”
