Direct Action In Tehran

OK, this escalation is making me nervous:

Blasts target Iranian nuclear scientists

Reporting from Beirut —

Two separate explosions killed a nuclear scientist and injured another in the Iranian capital Monday morning, official news outlets reported.

Both scholars' wives and a driver were also injured in the attacks, according to the news agencies. The slain scientist, Majid Shahriari, was a member of the nuclear engineering team at the Shahid Behesti university in Tehran, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency, or IRNA.

No one claimed responsibility for the attacks and no arrests have been made, Iranian officials said. But they prompted a stern warning by the normally cool-headed head of Iran's atomic energy agency, Ali Akbar Salehi, who described Shahriari as a former student.

"Do not play with fire," he said, according to IRNA. "There is a limit to the Iranian nation's patience and if we run out of patience the enemy will suffer adverse consequences. Of course we still maintain our patience."

The injured scholar, Fereydoun Abbas, also taught at Shahid Beheshti, one of Iran's most prestigious institutions of higher learning.

And the method was right out of the movies:

The assassins, riding motorcycles, tossed bombs at -- or attached them to -- vehicles of the two Shahid Behesti University professors as they drove with their spouses en route to work between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m..

"A Pulsar motorbike drove close to Dr. Shahriari's car and stuck a bomb on his car which after a few seconds exploded," Tehran police chief Hossein Sajednia was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency.

"Experts are examining the incidents," Sajednia said. "The type of the bombs and explosive materials and the extent of damage have not been determined yet."

I suppose that some dissident Iranian faction could have pulled this off but the money bet has to be the Israelis.  (Hmm, might the Russians be on the board?  They could be playing both sides, publicsly sorta-supporting Irana while privately getting worried about a nuclear crazy on their border.)

Compounding the puzzle:

A powerful and still mysterious Jan. 11 explosion killed Iranian physicist Massoud Ali Mohammadi near his home. The attack led to speculation that Iran's international adversaries were targeting scientists as a way of slowing its nuclear research program. But others said he might have been killed for supporting the political movement opposed to the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

 

Comments

[Dr Meat]

Let Stuxnet work its magic and then target any scientist scrambling to fix the system. Easy enough, huh?

[Chubby]

My bet is on the Israelis, nix the Russians.

[Cecil Turner]

Wonder if we could make the foreign aid check dependent on them taking out Julian Assange? Can't imagine they would complain too much.

[Clarice]

I think it's like the Dubai business, a confluence of Arab. Israeli and Russian interests working together against Iran.But I'm just guessing.

[PaulL]

Hmmm, what a tough moral dilemma. 1) Let an evil regime obtain nuclear weapons that will threaten billions, or 2) murder a few nuclear scientists.

[Ignatz]

--Wonder if we could make the foreign aid check dependent on them taking out Julian Assange?--

Yeah, his continued breathing puts the lie to the obvious Hollywood and left wing stupidity of the Katzenjammer kids at Langley employing roving bands of skilled assassins to take out any presumed enemy doesn't it?
At this point I doubt the CIA could produce a dead General Franco.

[Jack is Back!]

Or, it could be a disgruntled student protesting his grades. Actually, someone has been reading Joel Rosenberg's "The Twelth Iman".

[Clarice]

Yes, Frank Church and the moral preeners aside, targeted assassinations are a lot less awful than war.If the Venezuelans had shot Chavez in the coup, that country would be full of happy and prosperous people today.Instead, Hugo's opening up his palace to the homeless. There are a lot of them. I hope he can't get into his own bathroom.

[narciso]

Honestly, it's like they had the mustangs of
the SOA class operating down, the class reunion must have embarassing, if they weren't
already in jail, that is.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

My bet is on the Israelis, nix the Russians.

Or the Saudi's given the wikileaks revelations.

I'd like to bet on the Iranian dissidents but I can't stretch the logic to them wanting todestroy their own nuclear power.

[Appalled]

TM:

I'm curious. Why does this make you nervous? The Iranians rhetorically believe that they are riddled by Israeli and American spies, and it seems likely they actually believe this to be the case. So, when spies do what they logically should do, what is Iran going to do? Launch a nuke they don't have?

[Neo]

prompted a stern warning
... from Hans Blix ?

[Danube of Thought]

I have always thought that the destruction of American foreign intelligence is directly traceable to Frank Church.

[Neo]

I can't stretch the logic to them wanting todestroy their own nuclear power.

There is this perverted logic that says ... if a nuclear attack occurs in the Middle East that can't be easily traced to Israel, Iran will get the blame.

[Chubby]

((I'd like to bet on the Iranian dissidents but I can't stretch the logic to them wanting todestroy their own nuclear power.))

Maybe there are some dissidents who hate the clerics and their crazy president more than they love nukes?

If the Israelis are responsible, it shows remarkable restraint that they didn't take out nutty and scary Ahmadinejad a long time ago.

[Neo]

it shows remarkable restraint that they didn't take out nutty and scary Ahmadinejad

Imadinnerjacket is a low value target

[Clarice]

Largely, DoT. What he didn't destroy, Carter did.

We must now largely depend on outside contractors--i.e., the only folks who formerly inside the operation fled to places they could actually do some work.

[Sandy Daze]

29 November 2010
Baghdad

Strangely enough, the first suspect that came to mind when I heard of the attacks in Tehran, was the government itself.

Take good care,
Sandy

[Chubby]

((Strangely enough, the first suspect that came to mind when I heard of the attacks in Tehran, was the government itself.))

That came to my mind as well. Like the pulp fiction mystery gambit of the bad guy doing the crime against himself so he can blame it on others.

[Jim]

Maybe it was the sunnis?

[Chubby]

((Imadinnerjacket is a low value target))

So my thoughts that he is a reincarnation of Hitler are off target? One of the few nightmares I've had in my life, where I woke up in terror and sweat, featured him prominently.

[Thomas Collins]

See the LUNed February 17, 2009 Outlook India article, which suggests that targeting Iranian nuclear scientists is part of an ongoing Israeli program.

[Clarice]

sandy, if the Iranian govt thought these scientists were double agents wouldn't it be more likely to lock them up and find out the details?

If it didn't think they were in on the sabotage, why would they target them?

[PaulY]

Jane has a good point. Sounds like Saudi job. There know Iran is threat to them aqnd owe them something for the assassination in Lebanon.

[Danube of Thought]

Definitely the work of Identity Mohametans.

[Neo]

((Imadinnerjacket is a low value target))

So my thoughts that he is a reincarnation of Hitler are off target?

There are so many just like him waiting in the wings. Hitler was unique, his minions not nearly as "gifted"

[Stephanie]

Some days you just wish you were a lesbian so you could hit on Megyn Kelly...

She just made the atheist doofus on her show look like, well, a doofus.

[Sandy Daze]

Clarice -

My thought is that the govt is sending a signal to the others involved in trying to remediate the effects of Stuxnet. I read somewhere that one of the targeted was leading the recovery effort.

We know that paranoia and conspiracy theories are the breath of life in this region. Stuxnet is not only inside thier nuke program, it is also inside their minds. They don't know whom to trust.

Same-same-but-different, Sadamn used to kill senior members of the hierarchy all the time to keep the others in line, and to ensure their buy-in. My sense is that when your regime employs the Law of Rule instead of the Rule of Law, you must underline your commitment through public display.

Someone posted the link to The Untouchables and "Enthusiasm" the other day (well done by Robert Deniro) LUN.

Just so.

Take good care,
Sandy

[Neo]

My biggest memory of Leslie Nielsen is from a 70’s TV commercial for Philadelphia Electric Company in regard to their building of Limerick I & II nuclear power plants.
The commercial was punctuated by the words “... but these environmentalists ...” said in stern terse voice.

[Ziva David]

I was getting my nails done! I swear!

[NK]

I'd bet locals did it-- foreign help? maybe. The Mullahs to stoke up the street? Less likely. The software virus was clearly a cyber attack on the Nuke program by the US/Israelis. This kind of steet assasination makes me nervous, but it is necessary.

[laura]

Hah, It's a lie from an impostor. Ziva David would never get her nails done.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Maybe there are some dissidents who hate the clerics and their crazy president more than they love nukes?

I sure would like that. I have a real soft spot for Iranian dissidents, but I think my soft spot may be misplaced. Still, unless they have a solution to Stuxnet (and wouldn't that be amazing?) I think it is too much to imagine.

[Threadkiller]

In India, the CEO of Bajaj Auto(manufacturer of the Pulsar Motorbike) and two top executives ">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJBUcPegElc&NR=1"> celebrate. They were pleased their crappy bike did not cause the explosion.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

I was rushing to get out the door sometime last week when I heard a TV report that was on in the background that the Iranian parliament? dissidents? or some group voted or called for Imanutjob's impeachment but the final decision was with the Ayotollah and he nixed it. I haven't heard another word. Did anyone else hear this story?

[I R A Darth Aggie]

There is this perverted logic that says ... if a nuclear attack occurs in the Middle East that can't be easily traced to Israel, Iran will get the blame.

Especially if it occurs in Israel. In which case, Terhan gets converted into the parking lot for Qom's new Super Wal-Mart.

[Old Lurker]

No. Ziva would say she was out getting her nails cut.

Wow. Meghan and Ziva on the same page. Who says Thanksgiving was last week?

[Clarice]

YOU DID NOTICE, DIDN'T YOU, THAT IT WAS THE ARABS WHO KEPT PUSHING FOR US TO ATTACK IRAN, NOT THE ISRAELIS?
AND THAT IN THIS BATCH OF STUFF THERE IS NO INDICATION THAT THE ARABS CARE ONE WHIT ABOUT THE PALESTINIANS? THEY JUST WANT IRAN WIPED OUT?

(SORRY ABOUT THE CAPS)

[Melinda Romanoff]

Sarah-

Yep, actually voted through the upper chamber but kiboshed by Khameni.

[Neo]

Perhaps these guys were the moles who placed Stuxnet into their systems.

[Ignatz]

--My biggest memory of Leslie Nielsen is from a 70’s TV commercial for Philadelphia Electric Company--

Mine is from the TV show Police Squad when he says "Yes, it's quite impressive" in answer to the well endowed young woman who asked "Is this some kind of a bust?" when he and his partner burst into her place of business.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

So look whose side John Kerry is on.

Why am I not surprised? Hope he isn't expecting any Jews to go to his BSO shindig.

[Sue]

Jane,

Will Jews stay away because of what he said? I have never understood why American Jews continue to support people who really don't like them. But they do. In large numbers.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

Me neither - I have no clue at all.

[Neo]

Too good to miss

[daddy]

OT,

But I think it is time to fire NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

You'll recall that over 4 months ago he advised us that Obama had said that his "foremost" mission as the head of America's space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world.

Speaking to Al Jazeera in July Bolton said "...foremost, he (Obama) wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science ... and math and engineering..."

Well here it is 4 months later, and has anybody heard this guy saying or doing a single word of what he was tasked to do by the Prez? Of course not.

Fire him.

[Sandy Daze]

Exactly, Clarice,

re the Saudis wanting us to take out Iran, it is really no different than Saudi support for the Israelis against Hizb'allah. To me it gets confusing when you start looking further north into Beirut, where everyone seems to be against everyone, except while there is a truce, during which some of the best liberty in all of the world is to be had. My friends there--long time residents--tell me that the temperature is again increasing, so if you are planning that once-every-couple decades visit to Lebanon, do it now before its too late.

Earlier reports said there were upwards of three million documents to be released during this round. 250K is a lot, but not nearly close to that estimate. My sense is that there is much more to come. (That is, we ain't seen nutin yet. . . ).

Take good care,
Sandy

[Sandy Daze]

Exactly, Clarice,

re the Saudis wanting us to take out Iran, it is really no different than Saudi support for the Israelis against Hizb'allah. To me it gets confusing when you start looking further north into Beirut, where everyone seems to be against everyone, except while there is a truce, during which some of the best liberty in all of the world is to be had. My friends there--long time residents--tell me that the temperature is again increasing, so if you are planning that once-every-couple decades visit to Lebanon, do it now before its too late.

Earlier reports said there were upwards of three million documents to be released during this round. 250K is a lot, but not nearly close to that estimate. My sense is that there is much more to come. (That is, we ain't seen nutin yet. . . ).

Take good care,
Sandy

[Old Lurker]

Question:

Am I right to assume that Obama's "pay freeze" for fed workers will mean the chart itself will not change due to CPI changes, but movement within a grade from step to step by the passage of time will continue?

If that is correct, then equating a frozen fed worker to a private sector employee is brazenly misleading.

[daddy]

OT,

But I think it is time to fire NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

You'll recall that over 4 months ago he advised us that Obama had said that his "foremost" mission as the head of America's space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world.

Speaking to Al Jazeera in July Bolton said "...foremost, he (Obama) wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science ... and math and engineering..."

Well here it is 4 months later, and has anybody heard this guy saying or doing a single word of what he was tasked to do by the Prez? Of course not.

Fire him.

[Old Lurker]

Question:

Am I right to assume that Obama's "pay freeze" for fed workers will mean the chart itself will not change due to CPI changes, but movement within a grade from step to step by the passage of time will continue?

If that is correct, then equating a frozen fed worker to a private sector employee is brazenly misleading, is it not?

[Old Lurker]

How'd that happen?

How'd that happen?

[daddy]

"So look whose side John Kerry is on."

Jane,

Didn't we just have stories earlier in the month discussing how inappropriate it was for Senator Elect Marco Rubio to be going over to talk to the participants in the Mid East like John Kerry is obviously doing in your WikiLeak link?

Or am I misremembering that correctly?

[Ignatz]

--Am I right to assume that Obama's "pay freeze" for fed workers will mean the chart itself will not change due to CPI changes, but movement within a grade from step to step by the passage of time will continue?--

Yep, and they'll still be eligible for bonuses just no cost-of-living adjustment, which is a joke since the CPI was so dnky SS doesn't even rise this year.
The usual joke from this clown show.

[Old Lurker]

Iggy, I'm sure the crack reporting pool will make this clear to the muddle.

[Neo]

Prof. Majid Shahriari, who died when his car was attacked in North Tehran Monday, Nov. 29, headed the team Iran established for combating the Stuxnet virus rampaging through its nuclear and military networks. His wife was injured. The scientist's death deals a major blow to Iran's herculean efforts to purge its nuclear and military control systems of the destructive worm since it went on the offensive six months ago. Only this month, Stuxnet shut down nuclear enrichment at Natanz for six days from Nov. 16-22 and curtailed an important air defense exercise.

[daddy]

Well as long as they're going to be feeling us old guys up at the TSA check in stand, perhaps we could have them coat their plastic gloves with some of this ">http://www.news.com.au/business/business-owner/aussie-hypogonadism-lotion-to-debut-in-us-in-2011/story-e6frfm5i-1225961457290?from=public_rss"> brand new Aussie Testosterone Lotion. It's just come on sale in the US and is supposed to be great for erectile disfunction, so just have
'em coat their mitts with that stuff for the offensive gender pat down, and we'll save millions in Medicare costs for Viagra:)

Heck, geezers would probably be volunteering for the TSA pat down line!

What could go wrong?

[Janet]

So look whose side John Kerry is on.

What a horse-face loser. How bout he give up his own property instead of telling the Israelis what to give up? He is such a loser.

[Specter]

Neo...loved the 4th Amendment Underwear...LOL

[hit and run]

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/254047/potus-notes-robert-costa>Uh oh:

The entire statement lasted roughly eight minutes. It started about 30 minutes past its scheduled time, which had been 11:35 p.m. Obama read from prepared remarks on the lectern, though two teleprompters appeared to be available, just not in use.

Crud. You don't think they've found the Stuxnet planted on TOTUS do you? It was not supposed to be found out. It's been working so beautifully.

[centralcal]

Back at work, trying to keep up with the news and this thread (not successfully, I might add). I think the Saudis and Israelis found a common cause.

Neo, is your quote the same one Clarice referenced (on some thread) from Debka?

[Janet]

from Jane's 3:35 link -

"Kerry agreed with the emir that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is a man who wants change but pointed out that his arming of Hezbollah and interference in Lebanese politics were unhelpful."

a man who wants change?....arming Hezbollah is "unhelpful"? Good Lord...just sickening & weak.

[Old Lurker]

You mean his wife's property, right Janet?

[Jack is Back!]

Clarice,

Re: Frank Church. Wait until Anduril finds out that Ben Yamagata over at Van Ness, Feldman used to be one of Church's staffers:)

[daddy]

Cavuto just now doing a segment on Dem Senator Max Baucus and the Health Care debacle.

The gal who asked him if he had read the bill at a debate a few months ago was dumped on by Baucus, saying voters didn't want him wasting his time reading the bill, since Lawyers and specialists etc were reading it so he didn't have to.

Well today Baucus is on the Senate floor trying to get some egregious part of the Bill stricken. Cavuto played the tape of that early debate question and then had the questioner on. A decent segment. Nice to see he's still paying attention to ObamaCare.

Any Lawyers know if Congressional votes like this, trying to slowly fix the damn thing, will be touted as the tactic that ObamaCare supporters can point to as how the Bill should be ruled Constitutional, as they fight the Court battle over the mandate? And if so, should Repub's strategically refuse to vote in favor of Baucus's amendments to massage ObamaCare until this damn thing reaches the Supreme's?

Just wondering, as I set off to walk the dog. Saw 3 moose yesterday BTW. Pup is a bit afraid of them and stands right by my knee without moving, just very subtly growling. grrrrrrrrr.

Good Dog!

CayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyRooooooooo

[Janet]

Yeah OL, his wife's property.

[BobDenver]

My apologies if this has been covered elsewhere, but in the LUN is a NY Post review of a new book about the Obama administration by an MSNBC guy, which turns out to have some apparently inadvertent and very unfavorable revelations about Obama. Among them: he involved himself in the New START treaty negotiations by "negotiating obscure details himself. He sprints through the process and pronounces the treaty done."

Can you imagine the reaction of the Russian negotiators when they realized that they would have to go mano a mano with the World's Smartest Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty Negotiator, who was determined to negotiate even the obscure details himself? They must have been shaking in their boots!

Why, he wrote a paper on the subject in college!

[bunkerbuster]

Clarice writes: ``IT WAS THE ARABS WHO KEPT PUSHING FOR US TO ATTACK IRAN.''

And yet again the facile, paranoid notion of a global Islamic conspiracy atomizes on collision with reality.
As I've said so many times, moderate Islam is the only effective antidote to radical Islam and the world's vast majority of Muslims are on the front line of the war against fake religious gangsters who usurp the good name of Islam.

[narciso]

You're just tempting fate, there JIB, Medvedyev is terrified I bet, he only ran the National oil company, before

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

A picture waiting for a caption:

[MayBee]

And yet again the facile, paranoid notion of a global Islamic conspiracy atomizes on collision with reality.
As I've said so many times, moderate Islam is the only effective antidote to radical Islam and the world's vast majority of Muslims are on the front line of the war against fake religious gangsters who usurp the good name of Islam.

You think Saudi Arabia is the home of moderate Islam?

Their problem with Iran is about their own national survival. It isn't a reaction to the way Iran practices religion.

[Clarice]

Exactly, MayBee. Other docs in the release show members of the Saudi family heavily financing AQ.

[bunkerbuster]

Excellent point, Maybee. Iran's geopolitics aren't driven by its religion, and even you, and the Saudis know it.

[Melinda Romanoff]

MayBee, why's youse playin' wit' de tah baby?

[boris]

"And yet again an old hat and some old clothes stuffed with straw and bound with flimsy facile twine comes apart like a straw dummy should on collision with with bubu's manure drenched boot"

FIFY

[bunkerbuster]

And if the Saudis equal AQ, where's the uproar about selling them $60 billion worth of advanced weapons, our biggest arms deal ever??

[bunkerbuster]

If the Saudi monarchy are radical Islamic terrorists, what does that make the U.S., their closest global ally?

[MayBee]

Iran's geopolitics aren't driven by its religion, and even you, and the Saudis know it.

Yes, it is to a great extent. Why do you think they support Hezbollah in Lebanon?
That's very different than saying that those who oppose Iran getting nukes don't oppose them because they don't like the way Iran practices Islam.

[MayBee]

And if the Saudis equal AQ, where's the uproar about selling them $60 billion worth of advanced weapons, our biggest arms deal ever??

The Saudis don't equal AQ, but Wikileaks documents that many Saudis financially support AQ.
As for the weapons deal, that was Obama's doing.

[narciso]

Rush made the point, kind of facetiously, the Sauds fund AQ in large part, along with sundry
prices across the gulf, and other player, have them take out the reactors at least at Bushehr, which is right across the way from Kuwait City. Of course the last time there was
a need for such an expedition in 1856, it departed from India

[MayBee]

It's like saying the USSR and Mao's China weren't both motivated by communism, and the proof is that they didn't get along.

[Old Lurker]

Mel, MayBee is just catching up for the time she spent away from us. After she goes a few rounds with that one, we will put her in the ring with Anduril.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Oooooh, I'll split the popcorn tab with you.

[MayBee]

Ha!

[Extraneus]

Didn't we just have stories earlier in the month discussing how inappropriate it was for Senator Elect Marco Rubio to be going over to talk to the participants in the Mid East like John Kerry is obviously doing in your WikiLeak link?

Wasn't that Eric Cantor for having lunch with Netanyahu?

[Old Lurker]

We did miss you a lot.

[Melinda Romanoff]

OL + MayBee-

You might have noticed I don't respond to that one's economic commentary anymore. It's an exercise for debate, not exchanging of information, of which I have no use for.

[MayBee]

Completely understand, Melinda.

OL- xoxox

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Let the fantasy begin:

Is WikiLeaks a Dick Cheney Front?

Lee Smith has a fascinating article over at Tablet. His conclusion: WikiLeaks must be in cahoots with Cheney and Netanyahu because the revelations are a vindication of what the neoconservatives have been saying all along. An excerpt:

“Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has positioned himself as a left-wing whistleblower whose life mission is to call the United States to task for the evil it has wreaked throughout the world. But after poring through the diplomatic cables revealed via the site yesterday, one might easily wonder if Assange isn’t instead a clandestine agent of Dick Cheney and Bibi Netanyahu; whether his muckraking website isn’t part of a Likudnik plot to provoke an attack on Iran; and if PFC Bradley Manning, who allegedly uploaded 250,000 classified documents to Wikileaks, is actually a Lee Harvey Oswald-like neocon patsy.

[fdcol63]

It must be a grand Cheney/Netanyahu plot. Otherwise, the Left and the peaceniks would have to accept that they've been dead wrong about everything all along.

But I'd sure like to see some heads explode if the reality every got through their drug-addled, Kool-Aid besotted FantasyWorld brains.

[Old Lurker]

That Dick Cheney sure is one tricky guy.

[narciso]

Well it does seem that reality is not what the "reality based community" is about, fancy
that. In the short term, Iran has been the more significant foe, in the long term, though
the Ilkwan (note how I don't say the Sauds) are the bigger threat. Llorens, my paisan, shows he doesn't understand the Honduran Consitution to save his life, much less anybody else

[matt]

who was the moron who gave this moron a security clearance?

Bradley Manning had more issues that Time Magazine. LUN.

[Danube of Thought]

The only good Identity Mahometan is a dead Identity Mahometan.

[narciso]

# 12, things we already knew, but it's good to bto be confirmed, in the LUN

[PD]

Just wondering, as I set off to walk the dog.

Shucks, I guess you're not flying my computer to me, then. It arrived in, and left from, Anchorage this afternoon.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Hey DOT, how 'bout our Chargers?

[Janet]

Matt, I remember in an earlier article there was something about the kids in Wales teasing him about drinking Dr. Pepper. You DO have to wonder who gave him clearance....wonder if there was some kind of gay quota in place?

[Rob Crawford]

Lee Smith has a fascinating article over at Tablet. His conclusion: WikiLeaks must be in cahoots with Cheney and Netanyahu because the revelations are a vindication of what the neoconservatives have been saying all along.

So let's see... according to the "reality-based community", Obama's economics is a failure because of a conspiracy among US businesses, and now his foreign policy is a failure because of a conspiracy between Cheney and da Joooooz to leak his diplomatic communications.

Of course, the original "reality based" crap was itself an anonymously sourced piece of crap worthy of conspiracy nuts, so I guess it's all wrapped up nicely.

[Danube of Thought]

I love the throw-away reference to Lee Harvey Oswald, who the reality-based community knows was a neo-con plant. (Never mind that there were no neo-cons then.)

Them Bolts are amazing, Sara. I just keep agonizing that if it weren't for special-teams fiascoes they'd be 10-1 or 11-0.