Did the Iranians Mine the Straits of Hormuz?

I saw this over at Knuckledraggin.com, and it made a lot of sense!

Quote du jour

White House press secretary Josh Earnest: the agreement “will be a significant constraint on Iran’s nuclear program.”

Significant constraint? They needed a straightjacket. We put them in a hula hoop.

-Harvey Harvelson (IMAO)

Imagine There's No Substance

Original art by John Cox. More at John Cox Art

"Traitors" of the Lost Snark

In keeping with our Harrison Ford themed headlines...I give you Moooove On dot Org!

Dear MoveOn member,
What's the word for American citizens who undermine the diplomatic efforts of the American president by communicating directly with a foreign government?
"Traitors," according to the New York Daily News—referring to the 47 Republican senators who signed a letter to the Iranian government with the goal of derailing sensitive and potentially historic nuclear negotiations.

I've been hearing this "47 traitors" horse hockey being tossed about for too long now. What's the word for American citizens who undermine the diplomatic efforts of the American president by communicating directly with a foreign government? Traitors?? Let me take you on a little trip down memory lane, and then you tell me!

According to wikipedia:

In the fall of 2002, (Baghdad Jim) McDermott and fellow Representatives David Bonior of Michigan, Nick Rahall of West Virginia and Mike Thompson of California visited Iraq; in Baghdad they met with members of parliament and the Iraqi Foreign Minister...

Wow! George Bush is president in 2002. (He was a Republican in case that small detail slipped anyone's mind.) Jim McDermott, Democrat, David E. Bonior, Democrat, who served as Democratic whip in the House from 1991 to 2002. Mike Thompson, Democrat. Nick Joe Rahall II, Democrat:

Rahall and another Congressman of Arab descent traveled to Syria and ignored State Department policy by meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat...

Great! Nicky Joe is a twofer! He was not only trying to "undermine the diplomatic efforts of the American president by communicating directly" with the foreign government of Iraq, but tried to "undermine the diplomatic efforts" of the American State Department by communicating directly with a foreign leader (and part time terrorist), Yasser Arafat.

So these four...traitors(??) didn't just send a letter to Saddam Hussein. What's that they say? When you care enough to send the very best? They traveled to Iraq and met with the Iraqi foreign minister and members of their parliament.

Now, typically foreign policy isn't the purview of the House of Representatives, there probably isn't a lot in the budget for treason (according to good liberals), so where did they get the funding to pay their way to Iraq? Funny you should ask!

Muthanna Al-Hanooti was an official with a Michigan "charity" that offered to pay their way. But, in reality, Saddam Hussein offered Al-Hanooti some 2 million barrels of Iraqi oil in exchange for the charity funding the treasonous (according to liberals) quartet.  Saddam apparently used Iraqi intelligence agents (read: "spooks") to fund the intermediary.

And, as they say in the infomercials, But wait! There's more!!

Remember the Sandinistas? Ronald Reagan was president. (He was a Republican, in case that has slipped anyone's mind). Remember how many Democrats tried to thwart Reagan?

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger hammered John Kerry in 1985 for interfering in diplomatic negotiations with Nicaragua’s Marxist government as a (Democrat) Massachusetts senator.
... Kerry and then-Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin (Democrat) visited Nicaragua in 1985 to cut a deal with the Sandinista government, which was close to the former Soviet Union. President Ronald Reagan, however, was already set on overthrowing the Marxist government in Nicaragua by sending aid to a group of Nicaraguan rebels — the contras.

So, Kerry and Harkin were  "trying to "undermine the diplomatic efforts of the American president by communicating directly" with a foreign government".  Which makes them (say it with me, America!)

Traitors.

(By the way, if you really wanted to call Kerry a traitor, there's more than enough material, but that's a story for another day!)

In 1984, Speaker of the House Jim Wright, Democrat (Are you starting to see a pattern here?) sent a letter - SENT A LETTER! - signed by ten Democrats, to  "undermine the diplomatic efforts of the American president by communicating directly" with a foreign government"!

Looking for this reference, I ran across the following from Breitbart News:

Senators John Sparkman (D-AL) and George McGovern (D-SD). The two Senators visited Cuba and met with government actors there in 1975. They said that they did not act on behalf of the United States, so the State Department ignored their activity.
Senator Teddy Kennedy (D-MA). In 1983, Teddy Kennedy sent emissaries to the Soviets to undermine Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy. According to a memo finally released in 1991 from head of the KGB Victor Chebrikov to then-Soviet leader Yuri Andropov...

...Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV). In 2002, Rockefeller told Fox News’ Chris Wallace, “I took a trip by myself in January of 2002 to Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria, and I told each of the heads of state that it was my view that George Bush had already made up his mind to go to war against Iraq...

...House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). In April 2007, as the Bush administration pursued pressure against Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi went to visit him.

Traitors, traitors, traitors, traitors, TRAITORS!!!!

Can you say "hypocrisy"? I will bet you a large lunch at a drive in of your choice, that you will not be able to find a liberal, Democrat, no good lying weasel (but I repeat myself) who called any of these Democrats "traitors".

Democrats have been trying to criminalize differences of opinion for years. (Remember the Boland amendment?)  Aside from the Jonathan "I know the entire Democrat base is stupid" Gruber crowd,  this is demagoguery of the worst kind. Well, maybe not the worst kind. Nancy Pelosi bleating that Republicans wanted to defund Homeland Security and leave America defenseless, because they wanted to defund the part of Homeland Security that funded Obama's illegal illegal alien program is petty demagoguery.

Of course, you can find examples at least as far back as Newt Gingrich's speakership, when Newt proposed giving MORE money to school lunches, but funding it through the states, demagogues and their accomplices in the MSM spread the lie that the Republicans wanted to "starve kids", because they wanted to eliminate federal funding for school lunches. More money for school lunches = starving kids, if the feds aren't in charge of the funds.

So, I guess you could say that dishonest, lying Democrats (but, I repeat myself!) accusing Republicans of being traitors for doing no more or no less than the things they themselves do is just more of the same when it come to demagoguery.

"I Came, I Saw, Iran"

"Cockhameini"‏
Original art by John Cox. More at John Cox Art

Meanwhile, In Neville Kerry Land

"There is no 'right' for Iran to enrich uranium. It is not in the document."

-John Kerry

Oh, well! If it's not in the document, what could possibly go wrong???

The administration also claimed it wasn’t recognizing Iran’s right to enrichment uranium, while Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araqchi, specifically told Iranian media that the agreement recognizes the country’s “enrichment program” and they wouldn’t have accepted a deal that didn’t recognize the right to enrich.

So, our Secretary of Stasis, John Kerry, has negotiated a deal where we transfer seven billion American dollars (much of it in cash), remove trade sanctions against them and in return, we get a document that both sides can't even agree upon what it says??

No wonder Teresa doesn't trust him with the checkbook!

Cross posted at LCR

The "Axis of Evil" Revisited

Sherman, set the Wayback Machine for January 29, 2002. The State of the Union address. George W. Bush.


Remember the amount of ridicule heaped upon George W. Bush for categorizing three countries, "regimes who sponsor terror", each seeking nuclear weapons, as the "Axis of Evil"? The first was Iraq, whose leader's dreams of being a nuclear power came to an abrupt halt at the bottom of a spider hole and the end of a short rope.

The second, Iran, has test fired missiles capable of reaching Israel and much of Europe, is closer to building a nuclear device than they've ever been, plus they continue to export weapons, jihadists and unrest to neighboring countries in the region. To many people, it is not "if" Israel or the US will be forced to take out Iran's nuclear program, but "when".

And when was the last time you heard a North Korean dictator threaten to fire nuclear missiles at the United States? Yesterday? Today?? Check Drudge, I'll wait.

The price of indifference is apparently still catastrophic, Mr. President. A lesson long in the learning for some...

We return you now to the economic chaos and diplomatic incompetence that is the Obama administration. Hope you enjoyed your brief respite.

To Paraphrase Reagan, We can Trust the Iranians... to Act Like Iranians

Here's another of the great Michael Ramirez cartoons, that seems to go hand in hand with Obama's policies towards Iran:

Obama's Passover Gift to the Nation of Israel

AFP - President Barack Obama has told Iran the United States would accept Tehran having a civilian nuclear program if the Islamic state can prove it is not seeking atomic weapons, the Washington Post said Friday.

Obama sent such a message to Tehran via Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who delivered it to Iran's Supreme leader Ali Khamenei last week, said the newspaper's foreign affairs columnist David Ignatius.

"President Obama has signaled Iran that the United States would accept an Iranian civilian nuclear program if Supreme leader Ali Khamenei can back up his recent public claim that his nation 'will never pursue nuclear weapons'," said Ignatius.

Sounds like a good news story for the administration to dump on an Easter weekend! If only that poor energy starved country (sarc) can prove a negative, the use to which Iran won't put their nuclear capabilities, (and pay no attention to all those centrifuges), then it's all okey dokey with Obama if Iran continues with its "civilian" nuclear program. In a related story, Obama is not sure what the civilians who rule Iran would do with a nuclear device if they had one...

Explosion at Second Iranian Nuclear Facility

Image from Der Spiegel

"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."

-Auric Goldfinger (Ian Fleming)

AN IRANIAN nuclear facility has been hit by a huge explosion, the second such blast in a month, prompting speculation that Tehran's military and atomic sites are under attack.

Satellite imagery seen by The Times confirmed that a blast that rocked the city of Isfahan on Monday struck the uranium enrichment facility there, despite denials by Tehran.

The images clearly showed billowing smoke and destruction, negating Iranian claims yesterday that no such explosion had taken place. Israeli intelligence officials told The Times that there was "no doubt" that the blast struck the nuclear facilities at Isfahan and that it was "no accident".

Actual, twice seems like quite a coincidence. And all, apparently without the need for F-16's, bunker busters or brinksmanship. At least, not yet.

The explosion at Iran's third-largest city came as satellite images emerged of the damage caused by one at a military base outside Tehran two weeks ago that killed about 30 members of the Revolutionary Guard, including General Hassan Moghaddam, the head of the Iranian missile defense program.

Iran claimed that the Tehran explosion occurred during testing on a new weapons system designed to strike at Israel. But several Israeli officials have confirmed that the blast was intentional and part of an effort to target Iran's nuclear weapons program.

If, indeed, this is an Israeli plan to take out Iran's nuclear capabilities, they are doing a bang up job (pun intended). That would require a highly sophisticated intelligence network and impressive covert capabilities, to penetrate two highly sensitive targets deep within Iran.

On the other hand, if this were a matter of Iranian incompetence in their nuclear projects, what better way to crawl inside their heads than to imply that you had?

Either way, looks like a win-win to me!

H/T Memeorandum

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Slams the West and Octopus Paul

by the Left Coast Rebel

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has an opinion on an octopus?

When I first saw this story out of the Telegraph, I thought for sure that it was an Onion piece. Ahmadinejad criticized a cephalopod mollusk named Octopus Paul?

Catch - it's not that Octopus Paul is a bad mollusk, it's that Octopus Paul predicted the Spanish World Cup win:

Paul, who lives at the Oberhausen Sea Life Centre, in Germany, won the hearts of the Spanish by predicting their World Cup victory. He became an international star after predicting the outcome of all seven German World Cup matches accurately.

I'd like to take Paul with me to the Del Mar horse races - I wonder if that would turn any heads?

Anyway Ahmadinejad chalks Octopus Paul's oracle abilities up to a giant Western conspiracy of propaganda, superstition and what not:

However, the Iranian president accused the octopus of spreading "western propaganda and superstition." Paul was mentioned by Mr Ahmadinejad on various occasions during a speech in Tehran at the weekend.

"Those who believe in this type of thing cannot be the leaders of the global nations that aspire, like Iran, to human perfection, basing themselves in the love of all sacred values," he said

I can clearly see Ahmadinejad's need for distress here. Also, he clearly needs to preside over a vast arsenal of nuclear weapons. Anti-octopus tendencies aside - how about the little snippit from his tirade about Iran 'aspiring for human perfection'? Very Hitler-esque, no?


The Oracle Octopus Paul is no joke. Here are some of the odds that he has pulled off per Wikipedia:

Assuming Paul's predictions were no better than fair independent coin flips, the probability of at least 12 successful predictions from 14 attempts is p = 0.0065, or 0.65%.^[42] (154 to 1). And the probability of his 8 successful World Cup predictions out of 8 attempts is 1/2⁸ = 0.0039, or 0.39% ^[43] (256 to 1). The first three matches were in the group stage where the outcome could have been a win, loss, or draw, resulting in a less than 50% probability of getting the result correct. Assuming a probability of 33.3% in 6 out of 14 matches instead, the probability for 12 or more successes can be simulated numerically to be 0.11% (corresponding to 3.2 standard deviations in gaussian statistics)^[44].

Paul started to receive international recognition after he correctly predicted Germany's win over England; after that he made four correct predictions. The chance of those final four predictions being correct is 1/2⁴ = 6.25% (odds 15 to 1).

José Mérida, a data analyst from Guatemala City, used a coin tossing model to calculate that only 178 individuals are needed to have someone correctly guess/predict all the winners from a series of 8 matches most of the time; and points out that there were certainly thousands and thousands of individuals all over the world making predictions on this matter during the 2010 FIFA World Cup.^[45]

Exit question - how do you think this octopus id able to do this? Do you think he may be a reincarnated Nostradamus?

Via Memeorandum, cross posted at Left Coast Rebel.