Iran Watch

Per McLatchy, Iran's senior cleric has called the election a sham:

"No one in their right mind can believe" the official results from Friday's contest, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri said of the landslide victory claimed by Ahmadinejad. Montazeri accused the regime of handling Mousavi's charges of fraud and the massive protests of his backers "in the worst way possible."

"A government not respecting people's vote has no religious or political legitimacy," he declared in comments on his official Web site. "I ask the police and army personals (personnel) not to 'sell their religion,' and beware that receiving orders will not excuse them before God."

The rulers of Iran are in their right minds?  Who knew?

Hot Air has more on Montazeri's background.  We are sending this one out to the Ayatollahs.

Finally, Will Collier tells us what he really thinks:

Rather than offering any crumbs of support to the Iranians who are literally putting their lives on the line for their own freedom, Barack Obama could only manage "deep concerns." In Obamaland, it's not as important to offer even moral support to people trying to shake off the yoke of a barbaric dictatorship as it is to not appear to be "meddling."

This all sounds quite familiar, and everyone over 30 has seen it before. Did somebody replace the "community activist" with a self-righteous peanut farmer while we weren't looking?

...I've met a lot of Eastern Europeans who have pictures of Ronald Reagan on their mantles. They never forgot the way he stood up for them, in public, against the commissars. Iran's population is going to run off the mullahs one of these years, hopefully this year. When that happens, what do you want them to remember, that we were supporting them, or worrying about what their oppressors would think about it?

Ahh, well.  Robert Kagan explains Obama's realism:

For, in fact, Obama never meant to spark political upheaval in Iran, much less encourage the Iranian people to take to the streets. That they are doing so is not good news for the president but, rather, an unwelcome complication in his strategy of engaging and seeking rapprochement with the Iranian government on nuclear issues.

One of the great innovations in the Obama administration's approach to Iran, after all, was supposed to be its deliberate embrace of the Tehran rulers' legitimacy. In his opening diplomatic gambit, his statement to Iran on the Persian new year in March, Obama went out of his way to speak directly to Iran's rulers, a notable departure from George W. Bush's habit of speaking to the Iranian people over their leaders' heads. As former Clinton official Martin Indyk put it at the time, the wording was carefully designed "to demonstrate acceptance of the government of Iran."

This approach had always been a key element of a "grand bargain" with Iran. The United States had to provide some guarantee to the regime that it would no longer support opposition forces or in any way seek its removal. The idea was that the United States could hardly expect the Iranian regime to negotiate on core issues of national security, such as its nuclear program, so long as Washington gave any encouragement to the government's opponents. Obama had to make a choice, and he made it. This was widely applauded as a "realist" departure from the Bush administration's quixotic and counterproductive idealism.

So Obama has been, to use the soccer metaphor, wrong-footed.  Hmm, to a basketball player that would be something like picking up the dribble too soon.  [Mark Coffey has more.]

THE WORLD HAS CHANGED FOREVER:  You are not ready for what comes next:

The President yesterday denounced the "extent of the fraud" and the "shocking" and "brutal" response of the Iranian regime to public demonstrations in Tehran these past four days.

"These elections are an atrocity," he said. "If [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad had made such progress since the last elections, if he won two-thirds of the vote, why such violence?" The statement named the regime as the cause of the outrage in Iran and, without meddling or picking favorites, stood up for Iranian democracy.

That is from the Wall Street Journal.  Continuing:

The President who spoke those words was France's Nicolas Sarkozy.

The French are hardly known for their idealistic foreign policy and moral fortitude. Then again many global roles are reversing in the era of Obama. The American President didn't have anything to say the first two days after polls closed in Iran on Friday and an improbable landslide victory for Mr. Ahmadinejad sparked the protests. "I have deep concerns about the election," he said yesterday at the White House, when he finally did find his voice. "When I see violence directed at peaceful protestors, when I see peaceful dissent being suppressed, wherever that takes place, it is of concern to me and it's of concern to the American people."

Spoken like a good lawyer.

The WSJ is lauding France for diplomatic courage.  Fire me.

Comments

[Danube of Thought]

Just posted this on another thread, but it's more on point on this one:

"The Polish nation, speaking through Solidarity, has provided one of the brightest, bravest moments of modern history. The people of Poland are giving us an imperishable example of courage and devotion to the values of freedom in the face of relentless opposition. Left to themselves, the Polish people would enjoy a new birth of freedom. But there are those who oppose the idea of freedom, who are intolerant of national independence, and hostile to the European values of democracy and the rule of law.

"Two Decembers ago, freedom was lost in Afghanistan; this Christmas, it’s at stake in Poland. But the torch of liberty is hot. It warms those who hold it high. It burns those who try to extinguish it."

--Ronald Reagan, December 1981

[clarice]

I have so often hoped that the freedom loving Iranians would prevail only to see uprising after uprising dashed in days, I am afraid to hope again.

Maybe the Israelis and others anticipating Obama (President Present) would be elected got to work in the Persian fields themselves..All these people ever needed were better communication facilities, and twitter seems to have provided that.

[Jack is Back!]

Tom, actually instead of wrong-footed, the proper soccer term here is "he has scored an own goal". That is what happens when your "gold paved road of good intentions" turns out to be Iron Pyrite.

[sylvia]

I agree with Kagan. Obama almost seems disappointed. All his hard work and planning for naught. He seems like the kind of guy who likes to plan it all out beforehand, and this uprising is messing with his plans.

[Neo]

From that famous neocon, Juan Cole, (LOL) …
“Mousavi-chiha nadarim, hame ye Iran hastand!”
We don’t have Mousavi supporters, it’s now all of Iran…

… this is exactly what neocons have been hoping for many years now.

[Ignatz]

--Did somebody replace the "community activist" with a self-righteous peanut farmer while we weren't looking?
--

The implicit assumption, a highly dubious one, is that the community activist in chief cares one whit about anyone's freedom, including ours.

[Mike Myers]

Wrong footed? How about "ham fisted"? I don't know whether I'd rather have Obama overseas doing tours from Ulan Bator to Ougudugu or home screwing up the economy.

[Danube of Thought]

I think it's LeBron's crab dribble. Whatever.

[Danube of Thought]

Obama is simply above such concepts as "freedom." What's important above all is stability in Iran, and disrupting that stability is the last thing in the world he wants to do.

So he lags behind the likes of Sarkozy in saying anything harsh about this thugocracy.

When will we begin to hear discussion of what the Saddam regime might have been doing right now?

[clarice]

Good point Dot.

Steve Gilbert makes fun of the latest govt climate report and that gives me a brainstorm:

It's obviously a waste of time to fight the hysteria head on. Let's try to avoid financial ruin in the meantime by arguing it's too late, we're doomed, no amount of money we spend can change the outcome. The end is near.
Then Mr PUK and I can invest in the Final Moment Resting Place ("Get your plot now while there's still time and space")

[Porchlight]

Does anyone else find it intensely frustrating that the same people who sneered at free elections in Iraq are now wholeheartedly cheering on demonstrators in Iran? I thought the Middle East was incapable of anything resembling democracy, in their eyes.

[clarice]

Actually, besides us who is cheering this on? Certainly not Obama for whom this represents a total repudiation of his world view.

[Porchlight]

I'm getting this from the twitter feed, clarice. Some people are even praising Obama and saying that it's partly his doing (demonstrators are inspired by his Cairo speech or something).

Folks like Juan Cole, Sullivan, Marshall etc. are also loving it. Every lib blogger I've looked at is giving support.

I agree that Obama is not thrilled. But as with everything else people are projecting their desires onto him.

[glasater]

Here's an article from CNET for those of us who use Twitter and help out the Iranians from censors.

The writer is not sure whether this will help or not but it involves going into one's Twitter settings and changing your timezone to Tehran's.

[Porchlight]

Another thing a lot of the Obots are swooning over is the State Dept's requesting to Twitter to postpone maintenance Monday so that the Iran election tweets could keep going overnight. TPM linked to the WaPo story on it - apparently it was a young, presumably Dem guy at State that made the request.

I'm glad young, idealistic liberals are showing support. I just wish they understood the huge gulf between them and their Dear Leader.

[matt]

my concern is that one Iranian crazy will be replaced by a different Iranian crazy. Crazy and nuclear weapons does not mix well for the rest of us.

[Porchlight]

Agreed, matt. It's just interesting that some people's positions appear to depend on who's in the White House. Funny how that works.

[Danube of Thought]

For some reason I am reminded of George McGovern bemoaning the fact that the premiership of such an enlightened fellow as Yuri Andropov had to be wasted because we had the troglodyte Reagan in the White House.

[Parking Lot]

Despite the shoe attack, I bet a lot of Iraqis have pictures of W on their mantles.

[clarice]

Yes, DoT..exactly.

Of course, if the opposition wins and the Ayatollah's rule somehow eroded, The Won will surely claim he played a part in it:
"As I've always said....."

[Soylent Red]

The implicit assumption, a highly dubious one, is that the community activist in chief cares one whit about anyone's freedom, including ours.

I think Ignatz gets to the crux of it. The goings on in Iran are an issue to Zero only insofar as they affect the way he is perceived by the American electorate and the international liberal elite. Mousavi, Dinnerjacket, doesn't matter.

Which is why I differ with most of the prevailing opinion here on this matter. Zero should, in this case, keep his damned mouth shut.

I say that because this is a situation in which deeds must follow words. Were Zero to stand up and give a barnburning speech supporting democratic dissidents in Iran, those same dissidents might be fooled into thinking that he might actually have their backs. As has been demonstrated, Zero cannot be reliably counted on to have anyone's back, ever.

I also don't believe we are seeing in Iran what we think we are seeing. Thinking that this election was decided by anyone other than the mullahs might lead someone to believe that the situation is similar to a contested election in the West. I don't believe this is the case for a variety of reasons. Suffice it to say, no matter who wins the vote tally, the mullahs are the only ones sure to win.

So why would they jerryrig the election to cause Dinnerjacket to win and set off anti-government riots? Well, remember Mousavi is essentially the same as Dinnerjacket in terms of beliefs and policy. So the mullahs could set up a situation by which they re-legitimize their electoral process (and its results) by giving the appearance of reversing a fraudulent Dinnerjacket win, while getting a slightly more malleable but still ideologically pure replacement.

Iranian people think they have won and are placated for a while. Zero sees this as a chance at a new start with a new guy, plus his Cairo speech is tacitly legitimized, so his ego is fed and the endless nuclear negotiation cycle is reset. Mullahs just keep on keeping on.

Just some thoughts I've been pondering.

[Parking Lot]

((Of course, if the opposition wins and the Ayatollah's rule somehow eroded, The Won will surely claim he played a part in it:
"As I've always said....."))

yup he will take full credit

[Stephanie]

Miracle Grow or Manure (and I don't mean fertilizer)....

Planted March 20 - Harvested June 16th?

I don't remember lettuce, peas and other crops being fully mature in less than 8 weeks when my grandparents planted their fields every year. Wouldn't that imply that the southern states could have 3 (or even 4) growing cycles every year and not one? Stupid farmers planting just one cycle...

LUN

[Stephanie]

Should say 10 weeks... this funemployment is causing lib math... still not possible to have a garden in that time frame... not with those crops and not in DC with the weather this year.

[Porchlight]

Heh, Stephanie. Those lettuces look picture perfect, don't they? So clean and fresh, almost as if they'd been grown in a greenhouse somewhere.

[Gabriel Sutherland]

When I've had the pleasure of meeting refugees that survived behind the iron curtain they actually have two photos on the mantle.

Reagan and Pope John Paul II.

Obama is blowing the biggest opportunity for an exercise in soft power in the Middle East in the last 25 years. He's going to miss the boat.

[Stephanie]

The soil doesn't even look right... check out the before and after pics... from brown dirt to amended black soil...

I loved this line... not.

And by making this whole process fun -- and we've got some advantage because we have the White House, right? It's fun being here, right?

Bossy ain't she? And rather possessive of the people's house....

[MayBee]

Obama is simply above such concepts as "freedom." What's important above all is stability in Iran, and disrupting that stability is the last thing in the world he wants to do.

So he lags behind the likes of Sarkozy in saying anything harsh about this thugocracy.

When will we begin to hear discussion of what the Saddam regime might have been doing right now?

Exactly! There is nothing in his record that shows he stands on the side of life-taking risks for freedom.

He was for keeping Saddam in power.
He was for pulling our troops from Iraq when it would have meant mass killings.
His Secretary of State indicated the US isn't going to be hard on China for it's human rights abuses.
He spoke from Cairo to let the muslim world know-- if you don't bother us, we won't bother you. I'm not going to disturb your thug governments if they just play nice with me.
He is an ice cube, this man.

Obama wants to get Ahmadinejad to the table, and Ahmadinejad doesn't want to meet with us because they don't want to get rid of nuclear weapons and end support of terrorism. Obama has turned us into the beta dog.

[Porchlight]

Stephanie, I also saw this from MO's remarks at the garden event:

But I also thought that this would be a fun and interesting way to talk to kids about healthy eating and nutrition. The President and Congress are going to begin to address health care reform, and these issues of nutrition and wellness and preventative care is going to be the focus of a lot of conversation coming up in the weeks and months to come. And these are issues that I care deeply about, especially when they affect America's children.

What a miracle, that the harvest came just in time for the Obamacare rollout.

[Neo]

Now this is funny...

Ahmadinejad’s Millions of Photoshopped Supporters

[hit and run]

The President and Congress are going to begin to address health care reform, and these issues of nutrition and wellness and preventative care is going to be the focus of a lot of conversation coming up in the weeks and months to come.

Well, of course...http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGY4MThiZTE4OTQzNzM1ZjI1MDMxYzRjYzQyOTdmYzk=>Michelle during the campaign...

And you start reading the labels and you realize there’s high-fructose corn syrup in everything we’re eating. Every jelly, every juice. Everything that’s in a bottle or a package is like poison in a way that most people don’t even know. . . . Now we’re keeping, like, a bowl of fresh fruit in the house. But you have to go to the fruit stand a couple of times a week to keep that fruit fresh enough that a six-year-old—she’s not gonna eat the pruney grape, you know. At that point it’s, like, ‘Eww!’ She’s not gonna eat the brown banana or the shrivelledy-up things. It’s got to be fresh for them to want it. Who’s got time to go to the fruit stand? Who can afford it, first of all?”

1. Ban high-fructose corn syrup.
2. Fresh fruit subsidies and free home delivery for everyone!

[Pofarmer]

Now C'mon guys. We planted Garden back in March and we've had lettuce, and yes, Arugula, and spinach for weeks. Peas are actually producing quite nicely. Carrots are a long season though, and a little early for them. Lettuce and the like are really about 45-60 day crops. You can be picking small spinach and arugula in as little as 25 days.

[Stephanie]

Meet Mrs. Cocteau...

[Amused Bystander]

If it was not on twitter they would not care at all. It is the ascent of their tech that half of them are cheering. They think that they are "engaged" and actually making a difference. They are not. They are cheering on their cohort in their medium.

State making a gesture about Twitter shows just how superficial this administration really is and how truly weak and cowardly are the minds and hearts of its leaders and officials. If State (and the administration) wanted to help, they would take a firm and unequivocal stance and push this wall over.

If young people see this business as anything more than weakness then they are fools.

You can bet if W or RR where at the helm they would seize the hour and this would be the end of the Mullahs. How far we have fallen.

When Reagan made those remarks about Poland we had 300k troops in Europe facing a million or more Soviet troops in the field, and both side's nuclear arsenals were set and targeted for launch on order.

That Obama cannot make a meaning, manly and truly American response to all this in these much less dangerous circumstance tells us all that we need to know about him and his party.

However...
these kids have been socialized for this "truth to power" protesting since childhood. if we could just but turn them our way...

[clarice]

It's very rainy here this spring. I expect the lettuces could be ready--and the carrot she's eating is a teensy one. I put out some arugula and bok choy and lettuces and herbs in potagers in my garden and have been picking bits off to eat for over a week now.

[hit and run]

Who's got http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/80297/>dibs on Walpin?

“That’s a total lie,” Walpin said of the latter charge. And he said the accusation that he was dazed and confused at one meeting out of many was not only false, but poor rationale for his ouster.

“It appears to suggest that I was removed because I was disabled — based on one occasion out of hundreds,” he said.

“I would never say President Obama doesn’t have the capacity to continue to serve because of his (statement) that there are 56 states,” Walpin said, adding that the same holds for Vice President Biden and his “many express confusions that have been highlighted by the media.”

Or if you prefer, I'd be glad to mudwrestle anyone for him. Or, we could just mudwrestle anyway.

[R.J. Torre]

"Ah-bama's" policy is appeasement, and his use of "meddling" as a touchstone implicitly endorses the Iranian Revolution's raison d'être, and motive for invading the US extraterritorially and taking hostages, because the US was "meddling" in Iranian affairs since 1953 coup. Indeed, Ahmadinejad himself was involved in the terroristic invasion of our Embassy, and likely too that "Ah-Bama" believes that the hostage taking was justifiable aggression for the "meddling."

The elephant in the Oval Office is actual democracy nascent in Iraq, which "Ah-bama" cannot, indeed dare not, acknowledge as an inspiration to the Iranian people protesting at the risk of their lives, because opposition to the regime change in Iraq is the "Ah-bama" pusillanimous presidency's raison d'être; hence, he cannot endorse regime change in Iran. So, as he bows to the Saudi King, he readily bestows honorifics in addressing the Supreme sham "investigation." (Meanwhile, "Ah-bama" fails to apprehend or acknowledge the nexus between the Shia majorities of Iraq and Iran, and their profound common veneration of the Iraqi holy places - that the Iranian can now visit freely thanks to freedom borught by US force.)

Reality and revolution is coming at "Ah-bama" like a bullet and it cannot be dodged, nor deflected with his cant's refrains of "Ah . . . Ah . . . Ah . . . " in grasping for a losing, and perhaps fatal, policy. Now, the determinative event will be whether the authoritarian forces of order will fire their bullets against the forces of freedom - kill their fellow Shia, and ricochet and wound the "Ah-bama" policy of appeasment?

[Captain Hate]

Well stated, RJ Torre.

[Thomas Collins]

Montazeri has support from folks with guns. Khamenei is facing a challenge from more than idealistic students and professionals. This is getting interesting.

[Ignatz]

--And you start reading the labels and you realize there’s high-fructose corn syrup in everything we’re eating. Every jelly, every juice. Everything that’s in a bottle or a package is like poison in a way that most people don’t even know. . . . Now we’re keeping, like, a bowl of fresh fruit in the house.--

Ummm, she does realize that fructose is the primary sugar in fruit right?
So it's a poison in her Smuckers Grape jelly but a nutrient in a grape.
Too much of anything is bad for you including water; does that make it a poison?

[clarice]

Come noe, ignatz, you are talking about a Princeton, HLS grad. You surely can't be implying that she's a scientific illiterate?

Who is supporting Montazeri,TC? If the army gets involved, the mullahs are done for. (Is is possible the Saudis were gardening in Qom?)

[Stephanie]

Every jelly, every juice? She's got a "vast jelly conspiracy" rant coming on... it's the evil corporations that are packing and bottling that stuff... unfortunately the government just made it harder for vegetable stands to operate.

and I might add that a bowl of fruit sounds like a good thing unless you are eating the whole bowl every day...

[Sophomore]

Poland was resisting a foreign oppressor - Russia. At that time we were speaking out for them against a common enemy.

Iranians, by contrast, are in the middle of a purely internal power struggle. Ahmedinejad's power is based in no small part on his ability to excuse the faults of his administration by whipping up patriotic fervor against America.

Which is why many of the protest leaders have been urging the US to tread very carefully.

[Thomas Collins]

You may be more attuned to the real power in Iran than I am, clarice. I thought that the mullahs had the Guards behind them, and enough of the army and other security forces to keep control. I still think this is a dispute among folks with essentially the same world view but from different factions (keep the theocracy, and use the students and professionals as pawns). I would be extremely happy to be completely wrong on this.

Of course, whoever the guns may be supporting at this moment, the aim of guns can change.

At this point, I don't think that whatever faction emerges will be more inimical to US interests than the present faction in control. But I don't think it will be much better for the US. Now, if what is really going on is regime change and not faction change, that is probably better for us. I don't think that's the case, but if the Tweeter Revolution really does effect regime change in Iran, I will be happy and celebrate my complete wrongness with Bruichladdich scotch and red wine!

[clarice]

TC--You said Montazeri has support from guys with guns. Whichever way the military--which remains highly professional and rather westernized in its respect for civil authority --goes, will determine how this ends up.

IIRC Montazeri is hated by the more repressive mullahs.

[Danube of Thought]

"Poland was resisting a foreign oppressor - Russia. At that time we were speaking out for them against a common enemy."

Actually, the Polish people were resisting the government of Wojciech Jaruzelski, and Reagan spoke out against that government. He also spoke out forcefully and often against the government of the Soviet Union, despite the concerns of the usual suspects that doing so would only antagonize them.

No one needs to plead with Barack Obama to tread cautiously--he knows no other way. He is voting "present" while Sarkozy, among others, speaks truth to power. Shame on Obama.

[Thomas Collins]

The LUN indicates that you are right and I am wrong about Montazeri (at least with respect to Montazeri's lack of support from the folks with guns), clarice. It also seems to indicate that Montazeri is more than just another factional leader, but has pushed, at personal sacrifice, for a liberalized regime.

Perhaps the guns they are a turnin'.

[Thomas Collins]

Another LUN with an interview from Montazeri. This guy sounds like a real Profile in Courage.

[dk70]

Now Mohammed El-Potatohead has a gut feeling that Iran really wants nuclear weapons technology.

Funny I don't remember any of these statements during the many years the Bush Administration was stating that Iran wanted nuclear weapons. I just remember Mohammed protecting Iran.

[clarice]

If Montazeri had the army's support, I'd be booking a plane ticket for the regime change ball in Tehran right now.

And Mr. PUK would be following with plane loads of whiskey and scanty clothing.

[narciso]

It takes people with real clout, like the detestable Mohsen Rezai (my view of him, is conditioned by Timmerman's profile of him)
and Montazeri, to be able to swing the balance against the Supreme Ayatollah.

[Thomas Collins]

Scanty clothing for whom, clarice? For the employees of the newly opened Hooters restaurant in Tehran? I guess that's when we'll know regime change has really come to Iran!

[AL]

“there’s high-fructose corn syrup in everything we’re eating. Every jelly, every juice. Everything that’s in a bottle or a package is like poison…Now we’re keeping, like, a bowl of fresh fruit in the house.”

Kind of amazing how stupid and illiterate she is. What makes fruits sweet? Isn’t it pure fructose?

[Stephanie]

Speaking of illiterate... ever notice how Owebama uses "a" in front of words starting with a vowel instead of "an"... my profs would have failed a paper from anyone with that error.

Did it all the way through that presser today...

[Jane]

Iranian people think they have won and are placated for a while.

I don't think so. It never was about either candidate, it was always about the vote, and now the freedom to protest. Mussavi is a thug. He authorized the killing of 7000 protesters in 1979 as Prime Minister. There is some glee about his wife (who was a huge proponent of the Berkha in the 70's but is now advocating equality for women - something she helped take away in the '70's.)

WE missed an incredible opportunity to support the dissenters. WE failed. WE failed because our president doesn't appear to have the same love of freedom as a lot of us. And my guess is that thousands of Iranians will be killed sometime soon, Ahmadinejad will play on the weakness Obama has shown and rapidly develop his nukes the people of Iran have been set back a decade in their quest for freedom.

[fdcol63]

I'm all for the Iranian people finally revolting against the clerics and effecting regime change with the goal of establishing something that more resembles democracy.

But this will most likely involve a great deal more bloodshed and sacrifice on the part of the Iranian people. The mullahs will not go quietly into that dark night without putting up a serious fight.

Whatever slim chance we now have of the Iranian people overthrowing the mullahs THEMSELVES would not be happening without these 2 events:

1) The advent of the internet, which makes it harder for the regime to suppress opinion and news.

2) The US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, on both of Iran's borders. As even Thomas Friedman of the NYT wrote recently in "Winds of Change":

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/opinion/14friedman.html?_r=2&ref=opinion

"Second, for real politics to happen you need space. There are a million things to hate about President Bush’s costly and wrenching wars. But the fact is, in ousting Saddam in Iraq in 2003 and mobilizing the U.N. to push Syria out of Lebanon in 2005, he opened space for real democratic politics that had not existed in Iraq or Lebanon for decades. 'Bush had a simple idea, that the Arabs could be democratic, and at that particular moment simple ideas were what was needed, even if he was disingenuous,' said Michael Young, the opinion editor of The Beirut Daily Star. 'It was bolstered by the presence of a U.S. Army in the center of the Middle East. It created a sense that change was possible, that things did not always have to be as they were.' "

Bush's critics have to throw in their snark to maintain their liberal creds, but it's refreshing to hear them finally having to face reality.

[Porchlight]

A whole bunch of people are "against" high-fructose corn syrup. It's all the rage among the organic food crowd to hate that stuff. IIRC one of the studies that said it was really bad for you was recently found to be bunk.

Knowing my food-freak friends and their endless lists of can't-haves for their children, I pity Michelle's mom, having to take instructions from MO on all this stuff while taking care of the girls. Is Mrs. Robinson still at the WH or is she back in Chicago now?

[Jane]

FDCOL63

IMO Iraq has everything to do with this. Remember the impact of blue jeans on the cold war? The most compelling explanation I've ever heard about the end of the Cold War was: once the Soviet kids saw blue jeans there was no going back." And I've always thought that was the ultimate rationale for going into Iraq - so the kids in the middle east could see freedom and democracy and demand it.

I'm sorry if this has all been said. I've been really busy and am rushing.

[fdcol63]

Have we really gotten to a point where a US president considers it "meddling" to support those who wish to live in freedom and democracy?

[cathyf]

A whole bunch of people are "against" high-fructose corn syrup. It's all the rage among the organic food crowd to hate that stuff.

The really funny thing is how this one illustrates the "just make s*** up" wing of the anti-science crowd. They have made up this complicated stuff about how terrible fructose is for you. Except that HFCS has less fructose than cane sugar. Corn syrup isn't naturally very sweet, and so they cook it up to boost the sweetness by boosting the fructose. A more accurate name would be Higher Fructose Corn Syrup. Or maybe "Low Fructose Corn Syrup" to distinguish it from "Really Low Fructose Corn Syrup".

[Elliott]

And you start reading the labels and you realize there’s high-fructose corn syrup in everything we’re eating. Every jelly, every juice.

Hopefully, she was given some nutritional advice during her recent visit to the Palace, for, having just examined the ingredients of a jar of preserves produced by Wilkins and Sons Ltd, by appointment to Her Majesty the Queen jam and marmalade manufacturers, I am assured it contains no high fructose corn syrup.

The President and Congress are going to begin to address health care reform, and these issues of nutrition and wellness and preventative care is going to be the focus of a lot of conversation coming up in the weeks and months to come.

I'd better go find something to put Devon cream on while I'm still allowed.

[AL]

Gee, 5 minute query at Wiki for “fructose” would put all this nonsense about “HFCS is bad for you” to rest.

Is it too much to expect from Harvard-educated health care executive?

[Captain Hate]

The really funny thing is how this one illustrates the "just make s*** up" wing of the anti-science crowd.

When borderline retards like Al Gore pronounce that there's no longer a debate on glowbull warming, wtf do you expect?

[clarice]

I told you. We're wrong, Capt. We should now just argue it's too late to undo or even retard glowbull warming. And then take it from there.

[Danube of Thought]

I understand HFCS can give you a really big ass if you're not careful.

[Rick Ballard]

"Is it too much to expect from Harvard-educated indoctrinated health care executive activist?"

Precision counts. The moron credentialing process no longer produces patriarchal "executives" and education is not involved in the process in any recognizable manner.

BTW - let's just drop this "expect" crap as well. Your job is to accept whatever is shoveled out.

[glasater]

As Spengler writes in this article--Iran's attention may be that of:

Ahmadinejad's invective may be aimed at Jerusalem, but his eye is fixed on Islamabad. That explains the decisions of his masters in Tehran's religious establishment who may have rigged, or at least exaggerated, his election victory. Pakistan's ongoing civil war has a critical sectarian component which the Shi'ites never sought: the Taliban claim legitimacy as the Muslim leadership of the country on the strength of their militancy against the country's Shi'ite minority. Were the Taliban to succeed in crushing Pakistan's Shi'ites, Iran's credibility as a Shi'ite power would fade, along with its ability to project influence in the region.

Spengler along with Steyn has a concern with fertility rates in various parts of the world.

[Yehudit]

High-fructose corn-syrup is not fructose. It is corn syrup mixed with fructose. It is used because we have high sugar tariffs so corn syrup is cheaper, and US farmers grow corn they need to dump, er, sell. Also as a liquid it is easier to transport than sugar, and extends shelf life.

It has been linked to obesity and diabeties in some studies but its effects on health are under dispute. In this case MO is right to suggest ingesting less of it.

[Reaganite Republican Resistance]

Our False Prophet appears to have no idea what a golden opportunity he is passing up... overthrow this evil regime without firing a single shot... get their Armageddon-inspired nuke program off the world stage... and free 30 million people all at one time.

But the boy wonder is too stupid to see it... or somehow just doesn't care?

And isn't this what George W Bush told you was going to happen in the Middle East?

Maybe that's why Barack Obama has so little apparent interest in finishing the job in Iran... no matter how much it benefits the US and free world.

http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com/

[He's a totally inadequate blank male.]

Boy, you said a mouthful, RRR. If he did this right, he could impress China enough to get their co-operation cleaning up Kim's mess, too.

[Help, we need somebody. Help, not just anybody.]

Hey, I kinda like 'Totally Inadequate Blank Male'. It's not quite correct though; he's more than adequate as a mouthpiece for, and a facilitator of, some very bad people.

[Bill Peschel]

Now that the blogwaves are filled with praise for the people of Iran, reflect on this.

Most people who voted for Obama want him not to interfere. They don't want him to intervene in Iran.

They're not going to come out and say it, but these are the people who didn't want us in Iraq. They're sure as hell don't want us drawn into Iran.