Here’s a headline that I really didn’t want to ever read: Iran Placing Medium-Range Missiles in Venezuela; Can Reach the U.S.

Iran is planning to place medium-range missiles on Venezuelan soil, based on western information sources[1], according to an article in the German daily, Die Welt, of November 25, 2010. According to the article, an agreement between the two countries was signed during the last visit o Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to Tehran on October19, 2010. The previously undisclosed contract provides for the establishment of a jointly operated military base in Venezuela, and the joint development of ground-to-ground missiles.

At a moment when NATO members found an agreement, in the recent Lisbon summit (19-20 November 2010), to develop a Missile Defence capability to protect NATO’s populations and territories in Europe against ballistic missile attacks from the East (namely, Iran), Iran’s counter-move consists in establishing a strategic base in the South American continent – in the United States’s soft underbelly.

The Mullahs of Iran have their scientists working overtime to get that first nuclear warhead developed, and if a related move a day or so ago announced that they now had the capability to make their own yellowcake, so now they don’t have to work around international sanctions for that critical ingredient.

The Stuxnet worm can’t stave them off forever on their nuclear development. I would like to see a threat map of what part of the U.S. their missiles could hit launched from Venezuela. If it’s just the south (GOP strongholds) and southern CA (La La Land) will the administration care? Maybe if D.C. is in the zone someone will wake up. Wonder if the Obama/Chavez love fest is still goin’ on?

Guess they could always call on ol’ Slick Willy to come in and run that war . . .

The people of Iran are pouring into the streets in protest of last week’s election, which has all the signs of having been stolen by current President/anti-Semitic lunatic Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Some of the protesters have been shot. News is leaking out of this tightly controlled country via Twitter!

What has been the very late reaction of our own fearful leader, President Barack Hussein Obama?

Mr. Obama said he was deeply troubled by the violence surrounding the election, but stressed it was up to the Iranian people to choose their leadership. He said he would maintain his policy of directly negotiating with Iran’s leaders on its nuclear program, irrespective of the vote.

Way to go, Barry. Give this homicidal A-hole legitimacy while the Mullahs charge the enforcers with the task to put down this protest before it becomes a new revolution. Can’t have freedom breaking out all over the place, now can we.

Especially since our own government is working overtime to abridge ours.

When even WaPo notices, that’s sayin’ something.

My message to the people of Iran?

Viva La Revolución!

Gee, if you look at the YouTube of our Prez, ol’ Barry ‘O’ bowin’ low to the Saudi king, it would make you wonder what the boys in the big White House are a drinkin’ or maybe that should be a smokin’ with statements like this one highlighted at Ben Smith’s Politico blog.

The White House is denying that the president bowed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at a G-20 meeting in London, a scene that drew criticism on the right and praise from some Arab outlets.

“It wasn’t a bow. He grasped his hand with two hands, and he’s taller than King Abdullah,” said an Obama aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

No kidding — if I was a lyin’ SOS weasel I’d insist on anonymity, too.

Take a good close look and then decide for your own self.

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air asks:

Will the media finally report this, as Ben Smith did, now that the White House is trying to deny the obvious and rewrite history? Or will they continue to sit silently while Obama tinkles on their heads and calls it rain?

The MSM is so in the bag for this administration they’ll let themselves get piss-soaked and still feel clean. Oh, and speakin’ of the press. In this morning’s presser our fearful leader declined to make any comment on the continuing Somali pirate standoff. In the face of reporters wanting to know what the White House’s stand would be Obama said that he wanted to remain focused on housing. Hillary warned us about this neophyte’s potential to not be up to the 3 AM call — which he’s had two of in less than a week.

So, let’s wrap up here. In the case of a bow that can be nothing but a bow — Obama says that he didn’t bow.

Liar!

In the case of No. Korea firing a multi-stage rocket/missile over an ally’s territory and against UN sanctions — nothing but more talk, Talk, TALK!

Bullshit artist!

And with pirates holder a US flagged vessel’s captain and a US warship now on the scene — nah, don’t feel like discussin’ it.

Coward!

Wow! That’s just a bit too much hopey-changiness for me for one week.

Damn, the week’s not over yet . . .

Over at Joshuapundit it’s not put exactly that way, but the meaning is the same: Obama To Israel – Get Bent

The Obama Administration is sending a clear message that they no longer consider Israel as one of our most important allies but as an obstruction. And they couldn’t care less about making it blatantly obvious.

Seems like senior Israeli officials have come to D.C. to discuss the Iranian nuclear threat and can’t get meetings with anyone of authority in the Obama administration. At the same time, the Obama folks are pushing for $20-plus million dollars to facilitate Hamas immigration to the US. WTF???

President Obama’s foreign policy direction is crystal clear. He has accepted the leftist doctrine that the problems in the Muslim world are all the fault of the evil colonialist West, so he plans to placate them as much as necessary.That’s what’s behind his distancing himself and his administration from Israel, and from Britain, which is seen in the Arab world as a former occupier and colonial power.

In that context, the Obama Administration could care less about the implications of Iran having nuclear weapons. They don’t see that as a threat to the new policy of moving closer to the Muslim world…and the last thing they want is for those pesky Jews in Israel to upset things.

Ya know — I pushed all the Jewish friends and acquaintances that I had not to vote for this fool. He was anti-Israel from the get go but talked his way into their lil’ Lefty hearts.

Gonna regret that someday real soon — mark it!

Technorati Tags: Obama, Iranian nuclear threat, Jews in Israel

With headlines like these:

Obama mulls reaching out to moderate Taliban

CRISIS IS ‘GREAT OPPORTUNITY’

CHAVEZ CALLS ON OBAMA TO FOLLOW PATH OF SOCIALISM…

Obama can not assure economy will grow again by end of year; Urges Americans not to ‘stuff money in mattresses’…

. . . What else can we say?

Well, it was interesting, if not terrifying to contemplate. However, according to Information Dissemination, the Iranian ship MV Iran Deyanat that had been hijacked by Somali pirates and then spirited away after the pirates agreed to give it back has made it to its original destination: Rotterdam.

Well, the MV Iran Deyanat popped up in the news again today, this time making port in Rotterdam. Not only was the ship deemed unsuspecting of any problems, but it underwent a normal inspection without issue and according to this news report, is tied up to bouy 29 without the necessity of extra security as the ship waits to unload cargo.

Hopefully this will allow the never ending conspiracy theory surrounding the ship die. Was there anything that made this ship unusual? Hell ya! Pirates turned down a $2 million dollar ransom at one point, the ship had an unusually long official transit log, Reuters reported on dead people and other health related problems of those exposed to the ship, and official government folks in Somalia threw plenty of gas on the fire. In the end, it amounted to nothing, adding just one more legend to the piracy off the Somalian coast.

Laer at Cheat-Seeking Missiles is offering up his mea culpa with a caveat:

Plus, I wouldn’t put something as nasty as a ship-borne dirty bomb beyond the Iranians. Anyone odd enough to spiritedly deny the holocaust while aggressively calling for a new one provides plenty of evidence of being a wee tad meshuggah.

Well, we can’t get ‘em all right — but I still think there are nuggets of possibility in the ID post’s comments.

OK, Dave — this one’s for you!

A couple of days ago I got an email form Shirat Devorah with an update on that Iranian ship that was being held captive by Somali pirates. The Brian Harring article declares that the ship WAS a dirty bomb that was going to target Israel on Yom Kippur. Did you read about it in the MSM? Didn’t think so . . . (nuttin’ but crickets chirping over at AP, NBC, CBS, ABC, NYT, LAT, etc.)

“October 10, 2008 Armed Somalia pirates on Friday released three Indians and 26 other members of the crew on board a hijacked cargo ship after keeping them in captivity for more than one and half months. ….The ship MV Iran Deyanat, carrying 40,000 tonnes of iron ore en route from China to Netherlands, was hijacked on the Red Sea by Somali pirates on August 22.” 80 nautical miles off the coast of Yemen.

{…}

An American-based website, http://www.longwarjournal.org/ strongly pro-U.S. Department of Defense initially discussed this on September 22 but, like the DoD, has had nothing to say about it since, and this in spite of an enormous flood of commentary on the internet that never somehow seemed to filter its way downward to any aspect of the American media. After her capture and removal to a Somali port, the Deyanat’s cargo containers were broken into by the pirates in search of loot.

The result? Sixteen of them died of extreme radiation poisoning.

Once this bizarre and frightening information emerged, a blackout was imposed inside the United States and from the date of capture until today, not one word of this has ever been seen in or on the American media.

{…}

The ship was released by Somali pirates on October 10, after a $250,000 cash bribe was paid by the U.S. Navy for her release. The MV Iran Denyant was taken into immediate custody of a joint naval taskforce present, to include Russian and French ships. Crew members had all been interrogated and all of them, deemed “uninformed of the ship’s course or cargo” were duly released to their diplomatic representatives. The ship was boarded, occupied and thoroughly searched by U.S. Navy specialists but a subsequent report on the suspicious cargo containers has been heavily classified.(‘Top Secret- Galactic’)

{…}

I have a correct copy of the ship’s real manifest that a U.S. Navy source faxed me about two hours ago. There was no rocket fuel on board. Her cargo contained “a significant quantity” of radioactive waste from China, in lead-lined and secured cargo containers. The ship was never boarded by anyone from the time she left Nanjing in China until the Somali pirates grabbed her. Sixteen pirates died within two weeks, of heavy radiation poisoning, and three more are expected to die. An international force consisting of American, Russian, French and Dutch ships were involved in blockading the ship and preventing her from leaving Somalian waters.

{…}

The entire matter has been shut up and you will never see any mention of it in any mainstream media. The matter is now considered closed.

The author goes on to speculate that the Bush administration’s desire “to open a ‘US Interest Section’ in Tehran just after the presidential elections on November 4th” is the reason that this has been totally clamped down and buried.

Me? Shoot, I don’t know — doesn’t look like any of us will for 20-50 years or so . . .

Technorati Tags: Shirat Devorah, dirty bomb, MV Iran Deyanat, Somali pirates

Iranian parliament Speaker Ali Larijani has spoken — Iran would rather see Barack Obama in the White House than John McCain. Why?

We are leaning more in favor of Barack Obama because he is more flexible and rational, even though we know American policy will not change that much[.]

I think it’s because they believe that ol’ Barry will be a big ol’ pussy, rolling right over if Iran attacks Israel! At least that’s the impression VP candidate Joe Biden made the other day with his rant about a new Obama administration facing a huge International crisis within the first 6-months of taking office. The general consensus is that Joe is warning all of us that Barack will blink and try to talk his way out of a conflict with ol’ Mahmoud and the Mullahs instead of kickin’ some Iranian ass!

Haaretz is reporting that Iran has warned foreign diplomats in London that senior officials in Tehran are leaning toward a preemptive attack on Israel. Maybe that is what ol’ Slow Joe was referring to — and telling us not to get too terribly upset when Obama turns the other cheek; when he turns away from Israel to avoid a larger conflict with Iran.

A third hot front in the war with radical Islam we sure don’t need, but unless you’ve never paid any attention to history, ignoring someone that is lobbing attacks your way isn’t the way to make them stop — unless you simply surrender. Hmmm, that’s what Obama has been recommending us doing in Iraq. See a pattern yet?

President John McCain won’t let Iran get away with an attack on Israel without paying a heavy price and the whole world knows that to be a fact. Therefore, if McCain is elected Iran more than likely won’t dare to attack Israel on his watch. No one in the world knows anything about how a President Obama would react except that his rhetoric to date strongly indicates that he wouldn’t.

See a pattern yet? Doah!

Technorati Tags: Ali Larijani, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, President John McCain, President Obama

The MV Iran Deyanat. Photo from Maritime News Russia.

[H/t: Cheat-Seeking Missiles]

I meant to link to this the other day after reading Laer’s post at C-SM and was reminded of it again after seeing it also on Ace today. From Shirat Devorah: Hijacked Iranian Ship was a Dirty Bomb Meant for Israel on Yom Kippur

On August 21st, 2008, the MV Iran Deyant, 44,458 dead weight bulk carrier was heading towards the Suez Canal. As it was passing the Horn of Africa, about 80 miles southeast of al-Makalla in Yemen, the ship was surrounded by speedboats filled with members of a gang of Somalian pirates who grab suitable commercial ships and hold them and their cargos and crews for ransom. The captain was defenseless against the 40 pirates armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades blocking his passage. He had little choice other than to turn his ship over to them. What the pirates were not banking on, however, was that this was no ordinary ship.

The MV Iran Deyanat is owned and operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) – a state-owned company run by the Iranian military that was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury on September 10, shortly after the ship’s hijacking.
According to the U.S. Government, the company regularly falsifies shipping documents in order to hide the identity of end users, uses generic terms to describe shipments to avoid the attention of shipping authorities, and employs the use of cover entities to circumvent United Nations sanctions to facilitate weapons proliferation for the Iranian Ministry of Defense.

{…}

Within a period of three days, those pirates who had boarded the ship and opened the cargo container with its gritty sand-like contents, all developed strange health complications, to include serious skin burns and loss of hair. And within two weeks, sixteen of the pirates subsequently died, either on the ship or on shore.

News about the illness and the toxic cargo quickly reached Garowe, seat of the government for the autonomous region of Puntland. Angered over the wave of piracy and suspicious about the Iranian ship, authorities dispatched a delegation led by Minister of Minerals and Oil Hassan Allore Osman to investigate the situation on September 4. and they witnessed some of the deaths due to exposure to ‘something on that ship.’

{…}

Although American intelligence and government sources are maintaining a strictly observed silence, the same does not apply to the Russians and so it is that we learn the real story of the MV Iran Deyanat. She was an enormous floating dirty bomb, intended to detonate after exiting the Suez Canal at the eastern end of the Mediterranean and in proximity to the coastal cities of Israel. The entire cargo of radioactive sand, obtained by Iran from China (the latter buys desperately needed oil from the former) and sealed in containers which, when the charges on the ship are set off after the crew took to the boats, will be blasted high into the air where prevailing winds will push the highly dangerous and radioactive cloud ashore.

Given the large number of deaths from the questing Somali pirates, it should be obvious that when the contents of the ship’s locked cargo containers finally descended onto the land, the death toll would be enormous. This ship was nothing more nor less than the long-anticipated Iranian attack on Israel. Not the expected rocket attacks (which could be intercepted by the Israelis) but an even more deadly and unexpected attack by sea.. It is very interesting to note that the Israeli government has in the past few weeks, been loudly demanding that the United States establish a naval blockade of Iran.

The reason for this blockade would be to prevent any more Iranian ships with deadly cargos from attacking either Israel or other targets from the sea.

Laer wrote:

If this is true and Iran had pulled it off, it would have been impossible for the Tehraniacs to avoid blame for the attack, and the Chinese would have been hard pressed to avoid accusations of knowingly abetting the plot. I’ve always felt that if (when) Iran gets the bomb, it will be delivered via intermediaries to Israel for detonation, not atop an Iranian missile because I thought plausible deniability was important to the Tehraniacs.

Apparently I was wrong, and they’re crazier than I thought.

Ace looked at this story and concludes:

Although this all seems patently absurd, so did 9/11. While liberals will all laugh at the cowardly chicken little conservatives, the difference between us seems that we can imagine the possibility of the next 9/11, whereas they can barely even acknowledge the last one.

And here’s the thing: We must have paid off the pirates to have ourselves a sneaky-peek at this ship by now.

Assuming we did that, why is there no statement from the US that the cargo is harmless whatsits or the like?

The Drawn Cutlass has an opinion on why this story isn’t getting any attention from the MSM.

This story is under tight wraps, it isn’t getting coverage at all. There’s another Somali pirate story, the ship with the tanks aboard, and this isn’t that ship. If this story was covered by the MSM it would doom Obama’s chances at being elected, because the electorate would turn to McCain in a nuclear war situation. The MSM, which would normally jump at the chance to reveal a story that the administration is keeping under wraps, has its own reasons to spike this story.

Things like this must be kept fully in mind when you cast your vote for President on 11/4. We all can imagine how John McCain would react to something like this if, God forbid, Iran or another Jihadist entity were to launch a successful attack on our ally, Israel. One can only speculate on what a President Obama would do, and the best guess is that he would think about it — a whole lot! — and then what?

Exactly . . .

It’s all a story that would do Tom Clancy proud. Wait a sec. Clancy’s Jack Ryan novel Debt of Honor — about a 747 being crashed into the Capital building during the State of the Union Address — was published way back in 1994, 11 7 years before 9/11!

Uh Oh!

“Calling John McCain! President John McCain . . .”

Technorati Tags: MV Iran Deyant, IRISL, John McCain, President Obama

Laer over at Cheat-Seeking Missiles has been real busy today so I’ll excerpt and link to a couple of his goodies.

First, if you missed it on Face The Nation yesterday like I did, General Wesley Clark — at the time a Barack Obama ‘mouthpiece’, intimated that John McCain’s military career didn’t make him qualified to be Commander-in-Chief. Laer responded to Clark’s lambasting of McCain:

What a sterling condemnation of … Barack Obama. What does being a Socialist organizer in Chicago do to prepare Obama for president? How much executive experience did he gain as an abortion hawk in the Illinois Senate? And in his 143 days on the US Senate floor?

Yeah! 143 days with nothing to show for it, a bunch of South-side Chicago political wheelings & dealings trumps riding a fighter jet, being a prisoner of war and commanding a naval air wing, huh General?

Never mind, though. Obama promptly threw the General under the bus! Man, it’s gotta be gettin’ crowded under there.

I caught the blurb on Drudge last night that President Bush was livid over a story in The New Yorker that would again expose the details of a classified program in our war on terror — or as Seymour Hersh puts it, “the President’s war on terror” — not any of us involved, natch — just ol’ BushCo at it again.

I’ll have to agree with Laer again:

Sedition, thy name is Seymour Hersh.

The Liberal elites don’t get it at all, and they don’t respect anything about the military. In fact, their behavior shows that they fear our own government and those sworn to protect it more than they fear those striving to obtain nuclear weapons in order to kill us in mass.

Technorati Tags: General Wesley Clark, Barack Obama, Seymour Hersh

[Update: Today's article in Reuters puts my little musing of yesterday in a sharper focus.]

I think of things while in the shower. Like this moring, I was thinkin’ that in just a few more weeks the eyes of the world will be on the new Olympic stadium in Bejing as the athletes march in the opening ceremony. Heads of state from all over the world will be there, including President Bush and one would assume the highest ranking of the Chinese Communists. All the high-ranking al Queda operatives and planners could possibly be thinking as they watch and read about the 2008 Olympics is, “What a target rich environment — Oh ya betcha!” When I got that far in my mind, my inner Tom Clancy decided it was time for a little channeling o’ the Okie . . .

“No, it wouldn’t be easy, maybe not even possible, but if one could pull this off, Allah would be most pleased and the virgins would be non-stop — even to the point where a faithful man would have to consider asking for them to stop, or maybe slow it down a bit. But, one would have to have faith that if there would be so many of them that the stamina would also be provided. What other payment would suffice the success of such a demonstration of the power of Allah? The time to dream is over, time to act. The torch has reached the platform and in mere moments the Olympic flame will be lit — and then the flame of cleansing will follow. Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! . . . It is time.”

The last thing that anyone in the Olympic Stadium saw was the Olympic flame coming alive followed by a searing beyond-white light — microseconds later no one in the immediate area was alive, actually no one was anything at all except for vaporized and burned at the molecular level. Televised images of the Olympic Opening Ceremony from inside the Olympic village ceased immediately, those from remotes within a few miles went black seconds later — only those from far away that had satellite links showed what had to have been a nuclear blast. Spy satellites confirmed this and that knowledge set off a second chain of events.

The Chinese military immediately began looking for the likely culprit — surely this had to have come from Russia, or the U.S., probably Russia. Not England, or France. Pakistan? India? Not likely, but have to admit, close. North Korea? No.

Most of all, must save face. Who to strike? Eenie. Meenie. Miney. Mo.

The Russians saw it coming but with little time to decision make, let alone act. “Punch the Button comrades . . . punch ALL the buttons!”

Washington had more time, and the ballistic missile defense system saves San Francisco. Lucky them . . . The President gone, the east coast soon to be history — what to do? Launch ‘em ALL! Let God sort it out.

The Israelis weren’t stupid. Western Europe and America were never going to help, never going to be able to help, not in this or the next generation’s lifetimes. The Arabs and the Persians would descend upon God’s people and finish what the Nazi’s started decades ago. It really wasn’t a decision to make, it was fate, and destiny, and if God was willing — self preservation.

They launched ‘em ALL! No more Saudi oilfields and refineries. No more Iraqi oil. No more Arabic capitals. No more Iranian nuclear threat. No more much of anything . . .

Needless to say, what would be left of the world, and the world’s economy, wouldn’t be a very fun place to be. We don’t really understand the environmental fallout of pumping that much radioactive matter into the atmosphere, but one wouldn’t be able to put up an argument that what followed wasn’t man-caused Climate Change. This time, that moniker would fit.

If I were even remotely as talented at Robert Ferrigno this would be a great place to start a story. I’m not — so let’s hope we never have to live it to find out what happens . . .

Gee, Barack’s forthcoming soul buddy and anticipated dinner companion, (Hey, let’s talk Jack), ol’ Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is at it again, threatening the end of the state of Israel and the United States. Breitbart reports:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predicted on Monday that Muslims would uproot “satanic powers” and repeated his controversial belief that Israel will soon disappear, the Mehr news agency reported.

“I must announce that the Zionist regime (Israel), with a 60-year record of genocide, plunder, invasion and betrayal is about to die and will soon be erased from the geographical scene,” he said.

“Today, the time for the fall of the satanic power of the United States has come and the countdown to the annihilation of the emperor of power and wealth has started.”
{…}
“I tell you that with the unity and awareness of all the Islamic countries all the satanic powers will soon be destroyed,” he said to a group of foreign visitors ahead of the 19th anniversary of the death of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
{…}
“With the appearance of the promised saviour… and his companions such as Jesus Christ, tyranny will be soon be eradicated in the world.”

In your dreams, dude! Of course, Obama is promising to make dreams come true . . . let’s hope this isn’t one of them, even if just by rank stupidity and the willingness to appease. Someone needs to tell ol’ Barack that it’s much easier to “negotiate” with a loaded Colt on your belt than it is being bound with a scimitar at your neck.

Peace through strength, baby! Peace through strength.

Technorati Tags: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

In his speech to Israel’s Knesset in honor of the 60th anniversary of Israel’s independence, President Bush makes it very clear what he thinks about those that would rather jawbone with terrorists then fight them.

Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along,” the President said to the country’s legislative body, “We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: ‘Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.’ We have an obligation to call this what it is –- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.

Yeah, let’s sit down a spell and powwow with Mr. A.L. Qeada and Mr. End-Times 12th-Mahdi Nutjob — they seem like reasonable folks, when they aren’t sawing off the heads of live victims, blowin’ up their own children, hanging gays or honor-killing their women. Talk to these guys — sounds like a pretty solid plan to this ol’ Okie — NOT! But wait, someone on the Democrat campaign trail has got his widdle feewings hurt. Awwww, ain’t that just tooooooo bad.

In a statement, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., shot across the bow: “It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 6Oth anniversary of Israel’s independence to launch a false political attack. It is time to turn the page on eight years of policies that have strengthened Iran and failed to secure America or our ally Israel. Instead of tough talk and no action, we need to do what Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan did and use all elements of American power — including tough, principled, and direct diplomacy – to pressure countries like Iran and Syria. George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the President’s extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel.”

Wow, who knew that ol’ Barack’s skin was this thin? After twenty years of sittin’ in a pew hearin’ the Rev. Jeremiah Wright “God Damn” this and “God Damn” that, you’d think the fella woulda grown a bit o’ emotional callus here and there and be able to take a shot, that really isn’t a shot at all. After all Barack, it’s not always about you, You, YOU! You know? Well maybe in Obama land, it really is . . . In his endorsement of Obama last night, John Edwards called Barack the “one man who knows and understands this is a time for bold leadership.” Bold leadership like meeting with the likes of Iran’s Ahmadinejad or Cuba’s Raul Castro without preconditions. Bold, but supremely stupid, IMO! Guess that adds up to leadership on the Left side of the isle.

Seems like Senator Obama has some company in the thin-skin league in the House of Representatives. Man, can you imagine these guys with veto-proof majorities in both houses and Obama as the Negotiator in Chief? That’d be scarier than Saw 15!

In the speech, following the remarks quoted above, Bush promises Israel that although they are only a nation of seven million, when they stand up to terrorism they are 307 million strong, as the 300 million Americans are standing with them. Well, at least for another 5 months and 3 weeks or so . . . If the Dems win, all bets are off on that promise!

Technorati Tags: President Bush, Barack Obama, Rev. Jeremiah Wright

Ol’ Mouth Almighty Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is at it again, threatening Israel:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that Israel would “be soon swept away” from the Palestinian Territories by the Palestinians. It is the second time within less than three years that the Iranian president predicted the eradication of the Jewish state.

The first time was in 2005 when Ahmadinejad hoped that Israel would be eradicated from the Middle East map.

“This terrorist and criminal state is backed by foreign powers, but this regime would soon be swept away by the Palestinians,” Ahmadinejad said in a press conference in Tehran.

Referring to worldwide celebrations for the 60th anniversary of Israel’s foundation, he said that “it would be futile to hold a birthday ceremony for something which is already dead.”

“As far as the regional countries are concerned, this regime does not exist,” Ahmadinejad added.

I think this little fella better hope that we all lose our collective minds and put ol’ Barack Obama in office, ’cause Hillary’s already made it very clear that she’s got a big-red-dot on her map of Iran, and I don’t think that anyone would underestimate what a peeved John McCain would be willing to do.

Big Botta Boom – indeed!

Technorati Tags: Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Geez, while the ol’ Okie was sleepin’ all peaceful and stuff, an agent from the “Religion of Peace” half way around the planet sends me the following little love note.

1. amir Says:
April 6th, 2008 at 2:52 am

shame
down with israel
you are terrorist
you kill children&women
israel is filthy regime

Kinda like a “haiku”, except without the “hai” or the “ku”.

Ol’ Amir banged around in ‘Okie’ for 26-minutes and 13-seconds — Well, golly gee . . . I didn’t know you cared, Amir. Strange reaction to my last year’s post about the former Dutch Parliament member Ayaan Hirsi Ali! That’s real peaceful there, buddy, ol’ pal.

Funny ain’t it. On Thursday my Jewish Persian friend takes me to the Dennis Prager 25th Anniversary Roast and just days later an Iranian retard in Tehran comes up with this. Crazy world, my friends — Crazy!

Hey, that reminds me of a little song. So here ya go Amir — grab yourself a smoke and a brew and enjoy Jessica Lange lip syncin’ to Patsy Cline’s version of Willy Nelson’s Crazy . . . and don’t worry, you can cover up the “pointy bits” with you thumb while you watch.

Sheer, unadulterated arrogance and hubris — thy name is the Los Angeles Times! I’ve got a few more words for them as well, some beginning with “a” and some with “f”, but none that I usually allow on this blog. What’s got the Okie’s ire all up and foaming this AM? Well, in today’s page one, above the fold story, right next to their crocodile tears filled pat-on-the-back coverage of the 4,000th American to make the ultimate sacrifice they have this “story”, Terrorism money is still flowing, where LAT staff writer Josh Meyer opens with:

The U.S.-led effort to choke off financing for Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups is foundering because setbacks at home and abroad have undermined the Bush administration’s highly touted counter-terrorism weapon, according to current and former officials and independent experts.

In some cases, extremist groups have blunted financial anti-terrorism tools by finding new ways to raise, transfer and spend their money. In other cases, the administration has stumbled over legal difficulties and interagency fighting, officials and experts say.

But the most serious problems are fractures and mistrust within the coalition of nations that the United States admits it needs to target financiers of terrorism and to stanch the flow of funding from wealthy donors to extremist causes.

Sounds pretty damning now, doesn’t it? Why can’t BushCo put together a “coalition of nations that the United States admits it needs to target financiers of terrorism”? Why are they having so much trouble trying to “stanch the flow of funding from wealthy donors to extremist causes?” Mr. Meyer, Mr. Meyer — the Okie knows! It must be here somewhere in this in-depth blathering — wait, there must be more . . . there must be some acknowledgment of the SWIFT Program that was combining the cooperation with International banks and the Treasury Department to “track” terrorists funding efforts all around the globe.

Oh yeah, you, the LA Times and the New York Times blew the whistle on the SWIFT terrorist-financial-tracking program way back in June of 2006 in order to get a big “GOTCHA” on the Bush administration just in time for the ’06 Congressional election cycle. The administration, and anyone else with at least half a mind was aghast at your combined arrogance and actions bordering on treason. Of course, Lefties everywhere sang your praises for “protecting” their rights. Please . . . and then you, via the now gone LAT editor Dean Baquet along with the NYT’s Bill Keller, doubled down and made public statements supporting your actions.

In that last Okie post on the Keller statement I made this observation:

In other words, “we [the MSM] so hate George Bush that nothing he has ever done or will ever do, successful or not, on our behalf or not, for the good of America, or not — can be tolerated. If we can get some agenda-driven weasel in the Executive bureaucracy to spill some classified dope, we’ll roll with it — Every time!” So according to you guys, in WWII the press should have spilled the beans about Enigma, our breaking of the Japanese codes, (oh yeah, the Chicago Tribune DID that! Yipes!), or the launch timing of D-Day?

We are in a WAR! Hello!

Well, gee guys, we’re still in a war! The radical Islamic Jihadis still want all of us DEAD! You still want to GET George Bush so much that you’ll print anything to make this administration look inept. Maybe all this terrorist monies wouldn’t be moving around so easily if you had kept your big collective pie hole shut!

Sometimes need to know shouldn’t get trumped by right to know. Once again the LA Times shows its true colors, and they aren’t Red, White & Blue. Probably not nuanced enough . . .

Technorati Tags: Los Angeles Times, Al Qaeda, SWIFT Program, Dean Baquet, Bill Keller

When you wake up to Sunday morning stories like this one from the AP:

President Hugo Chavez ordered Venezuela’s embassy in Colombia closed and told the military to send 10 battalions to the border after Colombian troops killed a top rebel leader.

Chavez told his defense minister: “move 10 battalions for me to the border with Colombia, immediately.” He ordered the Venezuelan Embassy in Bogota closed and said all embassy personnel would be withdrawn.

The announcements by Venezuela’s leftist leader pushed relations to their tensest point of his nine-year presidency, and Chavez warned that Colombia could spark a war in South America.

He called the U.S.-allied government in Bogota “a terrorist state” and labeled President Alvaro Uribe “a criminal.”

Or, this one about Iran’s nuclear weapons ambition from the LA Times:

Iranian documents obtained by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog strongly suggest that Iran was working on a nuclear weapons design as recently as four years ago, U.N. officials disclosed last week in a private briefing.

The documents suggest that Iran’s research on nuclear weapons continued several months after U.S. intelligence officials say the effort was suspended, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s top nuclear security expert told diplomats in Vienna, according to notes taken by a participant.

Olli Heinonen, the IAEA’s deputy director general, was elaborating on a report released Feb. 22 that questioned whether Iran had come fully clean about its nuclear past.

In the report, the watchdog agency said that Tehran had not credibly explained documents that appeared to point to research programs devoted to uranium processing, high explosives and missile design — all of which can be used in making nuclear weapons. Iran has denied ever seeking nuclear weapons and has dismissed the documents as fakes.

And this one from Voice of America:

Israeli aircraft fired missiles at the office of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza City, escalating an offensive aimed at halting Palestinian rocket attacks. Mr. Haniyeh was not there.

Israel says the attack is a message that it is now targeting the political leaders of Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza. Hamas refuses to renounce violence or recognize Israel.
{…}
The Israeli offensive took a bloody toll on Saturday. At least 54 Palestinians were killed, about half of them militants and the rest civilians. Two Israeli soldiers were also killed. It was the highest single-day death toll since the Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000.

In New York, the United Nations Security Council issued a statement urging Israelis and Palestinians “to immediately cease all acts of violence.” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the rocket attacks, but accused Israel of an “excessive use of force.”

In contemplating all this you gotta ask yourself — “Self, who in the current Presidential campaign will really be ready on “Day One” to deal with a potential war in South America, the continual threat of an Iranian nuclear bomb and an escalating Israel/Palestinian crisis?”

Clue one — that ain’t gonna be Barack (I ain’t never done nothin’ outside guvment) Obama. Won’t be the (Hey, at least I watched for eight years) Shrillary either. Funny, how Democrats see “experience” so much differently from Republicans. Not “funny” ha ha, just “funny” with a dangerous lack of insight and awareness of reality. As the pundits, those that think anyways, say — “Change can be either for the good, or for the bad.” Someone that promises “change” for change sake is not being intellectually honest. That’s a vapid moniker for “nothingness” being sold to those that “feel” their way through life instead of reasoning their way through their own existence. You gotta have heart, but heart without a mind won’t lead to making good decisions. Like who to vote for in November.

Enjoy YOUR Sunday folks . . .

The next time someone tells you that all things are relative and that we shouldn’t be judgmental of other cultures, read them this:

Two women suicide bombers who have killed nearly 80 people in Baghdad were Down’s Syndrome victims exploited by al Qaida.

The explosives were detonated by remote control in a co-ordinated attack after the women walked into separate crowded markets, said the chief Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad General Qassim al-Moussawi.

Other officials said the women were apparently unaware of what they were doing in what could be a new method by suspected Sunni insurgents to subvert toughened security measures.

More than 70 people died and scores were wounded in the deadliest day since the US “surge” of 30,000 extra troops were sent to the capital this spring.

There’s low, there’s lower, and then there are those that need to be hunted down and destroyed like rabid dogs. Al Qaeda is firmly in that latter category!

[Update]
Captain Ed remarks about this in a much more elegant manner:

In a way, this shows how desperate AQ has become. They obviously cannot fill their ranks with willing participants, and even hostages won’t suffice. Instead, they exploit the weakest and most innocent and use them as commodities to kill as many people as possible.

The Iraqis have seen this evil up close and have rejected it. They understand now that there is no accommodation with evil. It has to be defeated, and defeated utterly.

Technorati Tags: Al Qaeda

I just heard this on the Dennis Prager show and had to put it in my “A Future For Mankind?” section. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Pope Benedict has been censored by the Sapienza University of Rome.

American universities aren’t the only places where politically incorrect speakers are silenced nowadays. This week in Rome, of all places, Pope Benedict XVI found himself censored by scholars, of all people, at one of Europe’s most prestigious universities.

On Tuesday the pontiff canceled a speech scheduled for today at Sapienza University of Rome in the wake of a threat by students and 67 faculty members to disrupt his appearance. The scholars argued that it was inappropriate for a religious figure to speak at their university.

As Dennis remarked, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a welcomed speaker at universities, but the Pope is verboten. When you ask yourself why and get the answer, it’s even weirder.

This pope’s specific sin was a speech he gave nearly 20 years ago in which, they claimed, he indicated support for the 17th-century heresy trial against Galileo. The censoring scholars apparently failed to appreciate the irony that, in preventing the pope from speaking, they were doing to him what the Church once did to Galileo, stifling free speech and intellectual inquiry.

Strange world we live in, strange indeed. As Hugh Hewitt remarks:

This is nuts. The West is threatened by jihadists intent on sending civilization back more than a thousand years, and academics in Rome are gagging one of the West’s most skilled and respected defenders.

Hey, this deserves one of the rare Head Up The Wazzoo awards! Congratulations Sapienza University of Rome — hope you are enjoying the aroma up there!

Technorati Tags: Pope Benedict, Sapienza University of Rome, Head Up The Wazzoo

Things are heating up a bit in the Persian Gulf — from the TimesOnline:

The White House issued a stern warning to Tehran today after Iranian speedboats buzzed three US navy ships passing through the strategic Strait of Hormuz and reportedly threatened to blow them up.

A Pentagon official said that US forces were “literally” on the verge of firing on the Iranian boats and had moved to man their guns when the Iranians turned and sped away. No shots were fired in the incident yesterday morning in one of the world’s key shipping routes for crude oil.

“We urge the Iranians to refrain from such provocative actions that could lead to a dangerous incident in the future,” said Gordon Johnson, spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council, in a terse statement.

Details of the incident remain unclear, but the skipper of one of the five Iranians speedboats reportedly said in a radio transmission: “I’m coming at you and you will blow up in a couple of minutes.”
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“It is the most serious provocation of this sort that we’ve seen yet,” a Pentagon official said.

News of the stand-off emerged as President Bush prepares to leave tomorrow on a trip to the Middle East in which he is expected to tackle Iran’s growing regional influence.

Can’t wait to hear it . . . “It’s all Bush’s fault!” BLAME BUSH — BLAME BUSH — BLAME BUSH!!!!!

Yep, on the same page is this comment:

Are we building to a Gulf of Tonkin style false-flag event in order that Cheyney [sic] gets his war with Iran before the Democrats take office?

Rolf Hansen, Edinburgh, Scotland

You go Rolf — you’ll have lots of company in Kosland and at MoveOn. I guess it will take another Cole over there to get the Left’s attention — no, that won’t even do it. Besides, I don’t think our Navy will let another suicidal-jihadi get all that close before blowin’ their Bandini off to the land of the 72 virgins.

Who you gonna vote for in Nov.?

Technorati Tags: Iranian speedboats, Strait of Hormuz