Clipmarks | merrie's 'ahmadinejad' clips

Pegging Biden

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 09:03:28 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Update: I loved it when Sarah Palin said "I watched all those debates" basically telling Biden in not so many words that she knows what he said in those primary debates and what he is saying now is not true. I smiled when she said that because I know she probably watched "those debates" this week in preparation for this debate and almost certainly remembered more of what Joe Biden said in them than he did.

Clip Source: wizbangblog.com

Jonah Goldberg has Joe Biden pegged:

What struck me the most about the debate - and it probably helped having quintessential Obamaphiles in the room - was how Biden's "gravitas" is derived almost entirely from the fact that he can lie with absolute passion and conviction. He just plain made stuff up tonight.

Just a few: Flatly asserting that Obama never said he'd meet with Achmenijad; that absolute nonsense about spending more in a month in Iraq than we've spent in Afghanistan ("let me say it again," he said as if he was hammering home a real fact); the bit about McCain voting with Obama on raising taxes; his vote in favor of the war etc.

When Biden spews up a warm fog of deceitful gassbaggery the response seems to be "what a great grasp of the issues he has!"

Along those same lines, read Amanda Carpenter's column about Biden's 14 lies.

Tags: biden's faux faq, ahmadinejad, taxes, war resolution

Not Ready For Prime Time

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 05:21:40 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: But according to Hillary's people, she wasn't aware that she'd have to share the stage with Washington's new it girl when she accepted. And when Hillary found out her limelight would be dimmed by the Alaskan upstart, she pulled out.

Some things are just more important than stopping Iran (now).

Clip Source: www.suitablyflip.com

Hillary Clinton was all set to attend a "Stop Iran Now" rally in New York next Monday, hosted by the Jewish Community Relations Council.

I wasn't sure whether it might be a hoax when word of the announcement email went out last night, given the event's other headliner.

Tags: "stop iran now", jewish community relations council, sarah palin, hillary clinton, united nations, ahmadinejad

The Death Of OPEC September 11, 2008

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 03:49:37 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: “We will see what the market requires and we will not leave a customer without oil." “Saudi Arabia will meet the market’s demand,” a senior OPEC delegate said.

OPEC will still have lavish meetings and a nifty headquarters in Vienna, Austria, but the Saudis have made certain the the organization has lost its teeth. Even though the cartel argued that the sudden drop in crude as due to "over-supply", OPEC's most powerful member knows that the drop may only be temporary.

The downward pressure on oil got a second hand. Brazil has confirmed another huge oil deposit to add to one it discovered off-shore earlier this year. The first field uncovered by Petrobras has the promise of being one of the largest in the world. That breadth of that deposit has now expanded.

Clip Source: www.247wallst.com

Saudi Arabia walked out on OPEC yesterday. It said it would not honor the cartel's production cut. It was tired of rants from Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and the well-dressed oil minister from Iran.

As the world's largest crude exporter, the kingdom in the desert took its ball and went home.

Cold weather later this year could put pressure on prices. So could a decision by Russia that it wants to "punish" the US and EU for a time. That political battle is only at its beginning.

OPEC needs that Saudis to have any credibility in terms of pricing, supply, and the ongoing success of its bully pulpit. By failing to keep its most critical member it forfeits its leverage.

OPEC has made no announcement to the effect that it is dissolving, but the process is already over.

As the Saudis left the building the message was shockingly clear. According to The New York Times, “Saudi Arabia will meet the market’s demand,” a senior OPEC delegate said.

Tags: saudi arabia opec, hugo chavez, vladmir putin, ahmadinejad, petrobras brazil

The Goodwill Of Nancy Pelosi

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:01:53 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: continued
when the fighting would end, they negotiated that cessation of hostilities-the Iranians.” Of course, Basra had nothing to do with the surge in the first place and in the second Iran has been, along with al Qaeda, the chief facilitator of terrorism in post-Saddam Iraq.

You’d think after giving credit for American success to America’s sworn enemies, the Speaker of the House would back off from flattering the mullahs. She might even attempt to clarify or correct the record. A mere “‘goodwill’ was the wrong term” would have gone a long way. Yet no clarification or correction was issued. And Pelosi’s comments this morning confirm the reason: She gives Iran the benefit of the doubt.

After the kidnappings, the terrorist activities that have killed Americans over three decades, the threats to destroy Israel, the attempts to destroy Iraq, the training and support of Hezbollah, the torture and murder of thousands of Iranians,

Clip Source: www.commentarymagazine.com

For all appearances, Nancy Pelosi is establishing herself as a bona fide advocate of Iran’s terrorist regime.

This morning, NBC aired footage of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during which the president of Iran claimed to see “new behavior shown by the United States and the officials of the United States,” and stated “if the [American] approach changes, we will be facing a new situation, and the response by the Iranian people will be a positive one.”

Soon afterward, Pelosi appeared on NBC’s “Today Show” and said Ahmadinejad’s comments “represent an opening in terms of him saying he’ll try to find common ground.”

But taken in concert with her full-throated appreciation of the Islamic Republic’s kindly actions in Iraq, today’s sunny review necessarily raises questions about Pelosi’s fundamental assessment of the Iranian threat.

In May, Pelosi told a group of reporters from the San Francisco Chronicle that “some of the success of the surge is at the goodwill of the Iranians-they decided in Basra

Tags: ahmadinejad, nancy pelosi, nbc's "today show', san francisco chronicle, surge, al-qaeda, iranians goodwill, basra

Suicidal Mystics With Nukes

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 07:27:05 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks:
After more UN sanctions were threatened, Ahmadinejad stated:

As God promised, the oppressors will have their noses rubbed in the dirt. Now they are fulfilling this promise by themselves... Let it be known that in whatever we do, I see the hand of God and the hidden imam at every moment.

The expansion [of the city of Qom] is driven by an apocalyptic vision: that Shiite Islam's long-hidden 12th Imam, or Mahdi, will soon emerge -- possibly at the mosque of Jamkaran -- to inaugurate the end of the world. The man who provided $20 million to prepare the shrine for that moment, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has reportedly told his cabinet that he expects the Mahdi to arrive within the next two years.

Clip Source: directorblue.blogspot.com

According to 'Twelver' Shi'a Mulims, Imam Hujjat al-Mahdī ( المهدى) is the twelfth Imam and the Mahdi, the ultimate savior of mankind. Twelver Shi'as believe that Muhammad was born in 868 and has been hidden by God (referred to as occultation) to later emerge to fulfill his mission.

Twelver Shi'as cite various references from the Qur'an and reports (Hadith) from Muhammad and the twelve Shi'a Imams. These texts predict the reappearance of Muhammad al-Mahdi which would, in accordance with God's command, bring justice and peace to the world by establishing Islam throughout the world.

Shi'as believe that Muhammad al-Mahdi will reappear when the world has fallen into chaos and civil war emerges between the human race for no reason.

As mayor of Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is reported to have ordered the city council to build a boulevard to prepare for the Mahdi. A year later, as Iran's president, he budgeted $17 million for a blue-tiled mosque in Jamkaran that is directly tied to the Mahdi.

Tags: madhi, tehran, ahmadinejad, islamic republic of iran, nuclear weapons

Obama The Humble Savior

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 23:56:16 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Only last week, another of his pals bit the dust, convicted by a Chicago jury of 16 counts of this and that. "This isn't the Tony Rezko I knew," said the senator, in what's becoming a standard formulation. Likewise, this wasn't the Jeremiah Wright he knew. And these are guys he's known for 20 years.

"I face this challenge with profound humility and knowledge of my own limitations. But I also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people … . I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we........

It's a good thing he's facing it with "profound humility," isn't it? Because otherwise who knows what he'd be saying. But mark it in your calendars: June 3, 2008 – the long-awaited day, after 232 years, that America began to provide care for the sick.

Clip Source: www.ocregister.com

Speaking personally, I don't want to remake America. I'm an immigrant, and one reason I came here is because most of the rest of the Western world remade itself along the lines Sen. Obama has in mind. This is pretty much the end of the line for me. If he remakes America, there's nowhere for me to go – although presumably once he's lowered sea levels around the planet there should be a few new atolls popping up here and there.

Nothing in Obama's resume suggests he's the man to remake America and heal the planet.

Yet at the same time as he's being stunned by the corruption and anti-Americanism of those closest to him, Obama's convinced that just by jetting into Tehran and Pyongyang he can get to know America's enemies and persuade them to hew to the straight and narrow. No doubt if it all goes belly-up, and Iran winds up nuking Tel Aviv, President Obama will put on his more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger face and announce solemnly that "this isn't the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad I knew."

Tags: mark steyn, obama, corrupt, anti-american, rezko, ahmadinejad, tel aviv

U.N. Chief Meets With Ahmadinejad

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:39:29 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: particularly the demand that it suspend its uranium enrichment.

"We expect to hear that the secretary-general told the Iranian president that he was in violation of three Security Council resolutions, that he should comply with international demands to stop enriching uranium, and to stop the crazy talk," a spokesman for the American mission to the United Nations, Richard Grenell, said.

Iranian officials increasingly are emphasizing Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's prophecy that Israel will be erased from the map of the region, but the Western response has been muted.

The U.N.-affiliated Food and Agriculture Organization is hosting the three-day food conference in Rome, where yesterday Mr. Ahmadinejad blamed the "bullying powers" for creating a food crisis and called for the formation of "an independent and powerful body" that would "justly regulate" food distribution.

Mr. Mugabe, who critics say has single-handedly transformed his country from a food exporter into a starving n

Clip Source: www.nysun.com

Yesterday's meeting in Rome underlined the increasingly chaotic state of a U.N. conference on food shortages, at which Zimbabwe's dictator, Robert Mugabe, has been given a platform to disparage perceived enemies such as Britain. Thirty world leaders, gathered in the Italian capital to discuss food aid, have instead heard Mr. Ahmadinejad blame "powerful and international capitalists" for rising food and energy prices.

"Mr. Ban said that Iran needs to resolve its nuclear issue through dialogue and in a way consistent with all relevant Security Council resolutions on the issue."

The European Union's top negotiator with Iran, Javier Solana, has been unable to secure a meeting on the nuclear issue with Tehran's leading mullahs for months.

Secretary of State Rice and other Bush administration officials have said in the past that American and Iranian officials have a number of issues to discuss, but a high-level meeting can take place only after Iran obeys Security Council resolutions,

Tags: u.n. conference, rome, food shortages, zimbabwe, mugabe, ahmadinejad, ki ban-moon, security council, nuclear issue, tehran

Mullahs Keep Fighting Us While Destroying Iran

Sat, 31 May 2008 10:27:20 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: against an official estimate of $45 billion. This sort of discrepancy typically occurs when capital flight is disguised as imports through fraudulent invoices and similar devices. A small current-account deficit would be of little concern for a nation with normal access to world capital markets, but Iran is unable to borrow.

There is indeed massive capital flight. As I wrote a couple of years ago, Gulf bankers told me that they can’t handle all the money pouring out of Iran. Wealthy Persians long since saw the doom of the Islamic Republic, and have been looting the country’s resources for their own gain.

They are printing money, further pauperizing Iranian workers–who are famously paid very late, if at all, as demonstrated by the ongoing demonstrations and strikes at government-owned companies–

The message Spengler delivers is that there is no way out of this war. Left to their own devices, the mullahs will destroy Iran, and, if they can, us as well.

Clip Source: pajamasmedia.com

I’m a big fan of “Spengler,” the elegant and cultured columnist for “Asia Times.” He’s just come out with a new think piece on Iran, which comes to the right conclusion (that is, the same one I have)

His central theme is that the Iranian economy is a basket case, that the country is facing hyperinflation, that there is a great lack of public confidence in the regime, and that the mullahs will (quite soon) have to choose between a Gorbachev-style surrender, or war. He thinks they have already chosen war. And he doesn’t think we can offer them anything that will produce Iran’s “giving up its nuclear ambitions and kenneling its puppies of war.”

He is certainly right about the economic diagnosis, which I have discussed at great length in “The Iranian Time Bomb.” He considers the very real possibility that Iran is running a current account deficit right now, despite the extraordinary runup in oil prices:

President Mahmud Ahmadinejad denied a report that Iran’s imports now exceed $60 billion,

Tags: ahmadinejad, mullahs, hyperinflation, funding terror, arming shi’ites, economic degradation

What Would Reverend Jeremiah Wright Do?

Thu, 08 May 2008 10:58:10 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: In an emotional testimony he tells the world how, as he was watching YouTube clips of the Reverend, a voice said "Follow this man." He then made his hajj to Chicago, joining Rev. Wright's congregation.

Everyone is acepted under Jeremiah Wright's large tent as long as they accept a few simple dogmas and agree to repeat them five times a day during prayers:

* Being White is immoral. Every White person is guilty of conspiring against the Blacks
* Being rich is immoral. Every rich person is guilty of conspiring against the poor
* America is the infamous product of conspiracy by rich White males to create the source of all evil. Later it turned even more evil under the rule of Zionist puppet masters.
* Jesus was a homeless African-American male who fell victim to a conspiracy of the rich Whites against the poor Blacks that resulted in racial profiling, followed by torture and crucifiction
* The 10 Commandments are optional.

Clip Source: thepeoplescube.com

"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law, and then wants us to sing God bless Amerika? No, no, no! Not God bless Amerika! God Damn Amerika! --- it's in the Bible -- for killing innocent people! God Damn Amerika for treating her citizens as less than human"!
-- Reverend Jeremiah Wright 2003

Thousands of new Rev. Wright followers gather for worship, canting "God Damn Amerikkka" as they burn President Bush in effigy.

Hamas freedom fighter and new Wright convert.

It is rumored that Al Jazeera has received a new video message from Osama bin Laden, in which he praises Reverend Jeremiah Wright and directs his followers to join the "God Damn Amerika" movement.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad baptized in Lake Michigan, March 2008.

One name among the converts gives us hope for change more than any other: the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Tags: jeremiah wright, hamas, ahmadinejad

Ahmadinejad: Israel Is Doomed

Thu, 15 May 2008 11:30:57 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Ahmadinejad used an Arabic word, ismihlal, that can also be translated as destruction, death and collapse.

"Nations of the region hate this criminal fabricated regime (Israel) and will uproot this fabricated regime if the smallest and shortest opportunity is given to them," Ahmadinejad said Wednesday in an address broadcast live on state television.

He spoke hours after President Bush arrived in Israel for the anniversary celebrations.

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

Israel considers Iran a serious threat because of its support for Hamas and Hezbollah militants, its nuclear program and its arsenal of long-range missiles, which can be fitted with nuclear warheads and are capable of striking the Jewish state.

Tehran is equipped with Shahab-3 missiles, which have a range of up to 1,250 miles. Israel is about 625 miles west of Iran.

Iran doesn't recognize Israel, and Ahmadinejad has repeatedly called for Israel's destruction. Threatening exchanges between Iran and Israel have intensified since 2005, when Ahmadinejad said in a speech that Israel will one day be "wiped off the map." The Iranian leader has also described the Holocaust as a "myth."

"The Zionist (Israeli) regime is dying," said Ahmadinejad during a speech in northern Iran. "The criminals assume that by holding celebrations ... they can save the sinister Zionist regime from death and annihilation."

Tags: ahmadinejad, "annihilation", israel, 60th anniversary celebrations, hezbollah, hamas, shahab-e missiles

They're People, Too, Just Like My Uncle

Fri, 02 May 2008 10:39:05 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong-Il, Chavez, and Obama

Clip Source: scottthong.wordpress.com

Tags: obama, ahmadinejad, kim jong-il, chavez

"False hopes?" Obama told a crowd "There's no such thing."

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 13:47:16 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Meanwhile the authoritarian Putin has punkishly succeeded in restoring Russia to its inglorious heritage, reminding the world of the old formula that capitalism plus state power equals fascism. In Iran, none of Ahmadinejad's domestic troubles seem to have modified the state's sense of ascendancy, or its will to nuclearize itself, or its appetite for instability in its region. In Iraq, the streets are safer but the sects are not sweeter. In the Korean peninsula, diplomacy has gone ominously cold. In Palestine there are two Palestines, and one of them belongs to Hamas. In Darfur--well, you know, because everybody knows. In Latin America, the failures of liberal economics have sullied the reputation of liberal politics. And so on.

And into this unirenic environment strides Obama, pledging to extract us promptly from Iraq and to negotiate with our enemies.
What is the role of a conciliator in an unconciliating world?

Clip Source: www.tnr.com

He makes no applause line out of American defense. And jihadist terrorism is only one of the disorders in an increasingly disordered world. The most repercussive fact of our time is surely the transformation of China. The "metrics" are all staggering. Quantities, quantities, quantities. China already has the power to wreck the American economy. However many tanks and fighters it has, its hoarding of American dollars is itself a kind of arsenal. And the bounty of wealth that it promises American business, the fantasy of greed-fulfillment that it represents, makes it almost impossible to conduct a serious discussion of the implications of this emerging world power for American principles and American interests--certainly not in Washington, where, when it comes to the art of dodging debate, Beijing is better than Bandar. What China wants, China gets. Not even the gold medal in tyranny that Beijing will win in its Olympics will make a difference.

Tags: obama, hope, china, american economy, putin, ahmadinejad, kim jong-il, chavez

Iran's Nuclear Program

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 01:32:01 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Editorial cartoonists comment on the National Intelligence Estimate that says Iran stopped its nuclear weapons program years ago.

Clip Source: www.ocregister.com

Cartoon by LISA BENSON / Washington Post Writers Group

Cartoon by MIKE RAMIREZ / Investor's Business Daily

Tags: iran, nuclear, programs, hezbollah, ahmadinejad, president bush, nie, cia

Warhead Built Within A Year UN's Nuclear Watchdog

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 02:59:27 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Russian officials yesterday called for patience, insisting Iran could still clinch a deal with the international community in the next few weeks. They pointed to other parts of the IAEA report showing Tehran had been cooperating with the agency's inspectors on other nuclear issues.
"We are most concerned to prevent Iran being cornered so that they walk out of the Non Proliferation Treaty, and break relations with the IAEA," one Russian source said. He said Chinese officials were stepping up diplomatic pressure on Iran, with Moscow, to avert a collision.
"They are on high alert that something has to be done quickly," the source said

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Iran has installed 3,000 centrifuges for enriching uranium - enough to begin industrial-scale production of nuclear fuel and build a warhead within a year, the UN's nuclear watchdog reported last night

David Albright, a former UN inspector and now an independent nuclear expert in Washington, said ElBaradei appeared to be trying to put "a happy face" on a worsening situation. "The main issue is that Iran now has 3,000 centrifuges," he said. "The report doesn't even judge the quality of the information being offered, but it's clear it is giving minimal answers."

Gordon Brown has called for increased pressure on Tehran, including an international ban on investment in the Iranian oil and gas industry

Against the fraught backdrop, a meeting of senior officials from the UN security council's five permanent members and Germany to decide on sanctions, planned for Monday, was put off after the Chinese delegation said it could not attend.

The critical meeting has been pushed back to later this month

Tags: elbaradei, iaea, ahmadinejad, david albright, gordon brown, russia, china

President Putin:: Found Iran's Leaders 'Bizarre'

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 02:56:24 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: "This was the first time that Putin was talking to senior Islamic Republic leaders in a substantive and focused way," says a senior Russian official familiar with what happened. "The president found his Iranian interlocutor weird, to say the least. The Iranians mouthed a lot of eschatological nonsense and came close to urging Putin to convert to Islam. It was clear they lived in a world of their own."
Ahmadinejad gave the impression he sought neither advice nor support from the Russians. All he wanted was to project the Islamic Republic as the regional superpower and invite Putin to acknowledge its new status. "It was as if Russia needed Iran, not the other way round," says the Russian source. "Putin was taken aback. He had not expected what he heard."
"The Iranians think they have already won," reports one Russian source who witnessed the visit. "So intoxicated they appeared with hubris that they did not even ask Putin to help them ward off further United Nations sanctions."

Clip Source: www.nypost.com

Putin appears to have discussed his proposed compromise only with Khamenei and not with Ahmadinejad

only days after his Tehran visit, Putin instructed the Russian delegation at a session of the Five Plus One group (the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany) to agree to devise new sanctions against Iran

Putin also didn't give Iran the scientific code for the type of enriched uranium that the Bushehr plant would need as fuel

Putin refused to announce a long-promised scheme under which Russia would train hundreds of Iranian scientists and technicians

Another sign of Putin's disappointment: his last-minute decision not to issue an invitation to Ahmadinejad for a state visit to Moscow

But his trip may have helped him understand the limits of playing the Khomeinist card. A member of Putin's entourage sums up the Russian leader's visit to Tehran: "He came, he saw, he was dismayed!"

Iranian-born journalist Amir Taheri is based in Europe.

Tags: putin, khomeini, tehran, bushehr, enriched uranium, fuel, convert to islam, ahmadinejad