Iran

An Iranian woman faces death by stoning after being convicted of adultery. Amnesty International yesterday called on the Iranian authorities to halt the imminent execution of mother-of-two Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani and the hanging of another woman said to be a political activist.

Ashtiani was convicted of having an ‘illicit relationship’ with two men in May 2006 and received 99 lashes as her sentence. Despite this, she has also been convicted of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning. The 43-year-old has retracted a ‘confession’ she said was made under duress.

Appealing for help to the international community, her daughter, Farideh, 16, and son, Sajad, 20, said yesterday: ‘Please help end this nightmare and do not let it turn into a reality. Help us save our mother.’

Sign the Petition  Not that those barbarians will care what the rest of the civilized world thinks.

A young man named David caught people's attention this week, because he would not be silenced, despite the fact he was outnumbered by those who tried. 

Watching brave David made me very sad, but it also made me come to terms with what Progressives have wrought, and what they are attempting. (Have you been thinking along those lines? I certainly hope I'm not the only one.) 

It looks like Obama could be getting what he wanted - a new world order. From what we're watching taking place, it looks like Israel could be kicked to the curb, despite Obama's campaign speeches that promised otherwise. In less than 18 short months, his presidency has made major strides in solidifying his Progressive agenda. 

Who can forget candidate Barack Obama pledging during the primary debates that he would negotiate with Iran? He was ridiculed by McCain for his point of view, but when history proved Obama the victor he set out to keep his promise. Obama was supported by those he selected as his foreign policy advisors, including Zbigniew Brzezinski, Susan Rice, and Richard Danzig.

Unfortunately, Hillary Clinton bought into Obama’s “I won” mentality, kicked her own doubts to the curb, and worked to make Obama’s world view a reality. On Monday, we saw the results. The world was treated to a photo op (Left) in which Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad raised his arms with the leaders of Turkey and Brazil to celebrate a new atomic pact that made irrelevant 16 months of President Obama's "diplomacy."  The pact is nothing short of a political coup for Tehran and possibly puts an end to the West's half-hearted, mealy mouthed efforts to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear bomb. 

Last Sunday, the Iranian government hung five political prisoners, using politically-motivated executions to intimidate and terrorize its opposition. We knew before that lashings are required for women judged as "immodest" in Iran and that death by stoning is almost a national pastime there. Now we learn that the Iranian government arrests innocent people; makes them stand trial in a kangaroo court; keeps prisoners confused about the state of their incarceration; and then hangs them in secret.

Since some people may not have seen the video of Neda bleeding to death on a Tehran street or may be somewhat confused by the UN’s decision to allow Iran a seat on its influential human rights body known as the Commission on the Status of Women, let’s put it in print. Human rights are nonexistent in Iran, because a totalitarian, misogynist, theocratic government reigns supreme there without checks or balance. The executions only underscore that point; the Iranian government is nothing but supremely malevolent.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Yesterday, we learned that the United Nations elected Iran to its Commission on the Status of Women, which is "dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women,” thereby handing a four-year seat on the influential human rights body to a misogynist theocratic state, where lashings are required for women judged as "immodest" and where death by stoning is almost a national pastime. According to a story by Joseph Abrahms on Iran’s election to the commission:

“Buried 2,000 words deep in a U.N. press release distributed Wednesday on the filling of vacancies in subsidiary bodies, was the stark announcement: Iran, along with representatives from 10 other nations, was elected by acclamation, meaning that no open vote was requested or required by any member states.

 

The U.S. currently holds one of the 45 seats on the body, a position set to expire in 2012. The U.S. Mission to the U.N. did not return requests for comment on whether it actively opposed elevating Iran to the women's commission.”

The UN is now officially a joke. The countries that allowed Iran to participate in the Commission on the Status of Women have shown themselves sadly lacking in both integrity and moral fiber. By their actions/ inactions, they have proven that women's rights is on the back burner of the UN agenda.

 ed. note: I've promoted this back to the top in order to remind people of what is happening in Iran.  Wear Green or think Green.

On January 28, Iran’s government executed another young Iranian to silence opposition forces protesting the re-election of Mahmud Ahmadinejad. Arash Rahmanipour, just 19 years-old, was one of a group of eleven people sentenced to death for “moharebeh”, which means “waging war against God”. I’ve posted his photo on the left, because his image is so unlike what one would expect given the accusation against him. It was taken in court as he faced his accusers. Arash looks like a lamb led to slaughter and that pretty much accurately describes what happened to him.

While the Iranian government spread its version of the story, Rahmanipour’s lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, has told the truth as she witnessed it. Tehran’s Chief Prosecutor General said that Arash Rahmanipour confessed to crimes and had been tried in the presence of his lawyer. But Sotoudeh, said that the confessions were extracted under duress, and that she was not allowed to attend the trial. According to the Islamic Republic News Agency, Rahmanipour had been arrested during the post-election turmoil. Sotoudeh says he was arrested two months before the election, and his case had nothing to do with the post-election strife. 

So many things going on right now and so many things about to happen. First, let's go back to a 1943 Disney cartoon called Chicken Little.

That was a little parable about the threat of Communism, a threat we still face today. Sure, there's no more Soviet Union and no more Mao. China has adopted a sort of state-sponsored capitalism. The threat isn't from without, it's from within. The DNC was taken over by leftists* in 2007 and the first thing they did was change the rules that governed them. They changed them again at the RBC meeting on May 31, 2008, thus ensuring that Obama would win the Democratic primary. The sky fell and we ended up with president Obama.

The Kennedy Center Honors is on as I write this. I got an email from the office of George Stevens, Jr., the producer, alerting me that it was on tonight. I had done some work for him at his office in the Kennedy Center when I was a consultant. Caroline Kennedy came on, making me ill, and then a scene of Obama & wife. The people being honored, though, make this worth watching. Loving the tribute to de Niro. Dave Brubeck next. I used to hang out with his far left niece who is now living in Norway.

There's something happening in Iran. I wrote to a friend recently about it, suggesting it might be at a tipping point. We had been discussing the possibility of an attack on Iran in the new year unless something happened to change the equation on the ground. Well, maybe it's happening. THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS: ***UPDATED*** Dealing In Terms of Days Until the Mullahs Fall

Also, see: Iran Ayatollah: 'The Regime Will Collapse'

Wow, loved the tribute to Mel Brooks!

Let's hope the new year brings hope for better relations with Iran if the leadership can be overthrown. Otherwise, there's no choice but the military option.

I wonder what John would think about our world that is in never-ending war.  In fact I wonder if Orwell had it right all along.

WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, and IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

"Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them."

---George Orwell

Many know that I get royally pissed when people say we should abandon Afghanistan.  The ones who don't give a rats ass about the women and girls who have had a taste of freedom because of us.  My country used to stand for good.  We used to place morality ahead of economic success, people ahead of disgusting regimes.

But no longer it seems.  Mr. Obama and his lackeys would rather be known as pragmatists.  Something I used to call myself but threw out when the real pragmatist had the election stolen by the con man. 

James P. Rubin writes about this in Newsweek and he hit the nail on the head.  Why I ask do we, in response to the lows of the Bush years, why do we have to go 100% the opposite way and pull back into our little cocoon on America?  Rubin says it better.

The Principle of the Thing

How America's commitment to democratic values is waning in the age of Obama.
 

A lot has been going on in the world lately and I've been wanting to write about it. A blank word processing document has been open on my desktop for days now, residing behind Safari pages, but only now do I feel compelled to write something. The topics of interest have been jobs, the stock market, and the economy; Iran, Afghanistan; Obama, Congress, and ClimateGate. This is a busy time of year so it's hard to keep up. To keep things simple, I'd just like to list the topics with a brief comment on each.

Jobs, Market, Economy

The new unemployment numbers came out today and they were much better than expected. Only 11,000 jobs were lost in November and the unemployment rate declined to 10%, down from 10.2% in October. Job losses for a couple of preceding months were revised downward. The trend is certainly encouraging but it'll be a while before we're out of the woods.

Uh oh, this isn't good. Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu flew to Washington with some staff members to meet with the president Monday night but the usual photo op didn't happen. The meeting was held behind closed doors and the usual post-meeting news conference didn't happen. Something is up and it isn't good. Only two subjects were on the agenda: the peace process and Iran. Obama wants to give Iran more time to respond to the idea of shipping enriched uranium to Russia for further processing. So far, Iran has flatly rejected the idea. This isn't a new idea, either. It was first mentioned several years ago as a way to keep Iran from making progress on its covert crash nuclear weapons development program.

All major leaders of the free world have stated that Iran cannot be allowed to possess nuclear weapons. Germany PM Angela Merkel made a similar statement to a joint session of Congress recently. Sunni Arab states have been urging the US and Israel to deal with the issue and soon. Time is running out but it seems Obama and Netanyahu can't come to terms. Israel may be forced to act on her own if our dithering president can't take decisive action.

During the first quarter of next year, either Iran will have to yield to efforts to curtail their nuclear weapons program or suffer an attack. An ultimatum is fast approaching.

There are a lot of things I'd like to discuss here but I'm shy about broaching some subjects. That's because I'm not sure where everyone's head is at these days and fear how some topics might be perceived. Maybe a list of possibilities will get the feedback I need to proceed.

West Bank Settlements:

What we're supposed to think is that Israelis are in the wrong for building there because those settlements are an obstacle to peace. The reality is the fact that between 1948 and 1967, there were no settlements there and there was no peace. Since the settlements were built, there has been more peace and the economy there has improved. Palestinian workers like getting work building them. This is just another area where Obama is dead wrong.

The Economy and the Recession:

We're supposed to think that the Stimulus Bill helped the economy, caused it to improve, and averted an economic collapse. You may not be surprised that none of these things are true. What averted a collapse were actions taken by the Fed which began during the Bush administration. The Stimulus only helped save a few state jobs but so far has created very few new ones. Unemployment continues to climb even as the economy begins to slowly improve.

My God, it's full of czars!

You may have heard that the "Clunkers" auto rebate program has gone kerplunk, kerplooey. If not, there are a couple of articles about it here:

AP sources: Govt to suspend 'cash for clunkers' - Yahoo! Finance

‘Clunkers’ Auto Rebate Plan So Popular That It’s Broke - NYTimes.com

My wife and I tried to take advantage of that program by going car shopping this week. The program only became officially active starting July 24. I looked up the combined mileage of my wife's 1988 Acura Legend last week and the fueleconomy.gov site said 16 mpg. Based on that, we looked at cars that had a combined mileage estimate of 26 mpg or better to qualify for the $4500 tax refund. The car was for my wife so she drove 3 different Toyotas, a Corolla, the new Prius, and a new 2010 Camry. She really liked the Camry.

Ever since President Obama returned from his Middle East Apology Tour, he has pretty much publicly avoided the subject of Iran, which should give every American pause. Remember this Imperial President did say that we could not stop another country from attaining nuclear capabilities, just before all hell broke lose in Iran over a rigged presidential election.  Since then, the world has witnessed the ruthless treatment of Iranian citizens by  Khamenei and Ahmadinejad.

Iranian military police and imported Hezbollah and Hamas thugs wrecked havoc on unarmed Iranian protesters. Some were brutally beaten; some were murdered. Word has it that Iranian Green Party members were picked up after the protests were quelled, that they were imprisoned and tortured. Some Iranians died as a result; some are still imprisoned.

Many of us will never forget the murder of the young Iranian woman named Neda. Since the ruling Iranian government has no qualms about killing its young people, it is doubtful that it would restrain itself in the use of nuclear weapons. So what’s up with the POTUS and Iran?

I will be wearing green this Friday, June 26, to show my support for the People of Iran.

Will you join me Partizanes?

They have been fighting the Mullahs for almost 2000 years.

The women of Persia, the Women of Iran, have fought this battle since the Arabs invaded in 623AD.  I believe what I've been reading on a few un-verified websites.  I believe the history and the truth has been hidden, or at least not mentioned in order to appease the bastards who have ruled that land for 30 years.

Oil you see, is more valuable than Women.  More valuable than Human Rights.

So I browsed the webs after hearing so much in the last few days about the women who want to reclaim their Persian identity.  Many don't realize that Iran is not an Arab land.  Definition time.

I am so very conflicted about Iran.  I want Obama to scream and yell his support for the revolution, yet i don't want him to give the Iranian regime the excuse they want to crack down harder on those people.  I think today he gave the Iranians the strongest support he could without outright calling the Islamic Republic Illegit. 

This is one of those times when I have no idea what to do.  I am personally a lousy negotiator and poor verbal communicator.

When I have no idea what is best I must trust my President and trust in the hope that he is using his Secretary of State in developing the calcualted response today.

We have seen the video; we know her name was Neda. Her story is slowly unfolding and knowing the specifics of her life adds to the tragedy of her death. Some online commentators have said that her dying image ranks alongside that of the 1989 unnamed man standing in front of a Red Army tank in Tiananmen Square. I remember that man in Beijing and I always will; so I know that I will remember Neda.

I prefer the picture of Neda on the left to that in the video. The photo shows the sweetness, depth and promise of the young woman who was murdered in Iran. I think she would like to be remembered like that.

We have learned that Neda means “voice” or “call” in Farsi. It seems sadly appropriate given the circumstances. Her spirit speaks out loud and clear.

It is not known who killed Neda, but according to a doctor on the scene she was gunned down viciously and purposefully with one shot directly to the heart. How much hate must someone have in their spirit to gun down another human being? Did he hate the young girl, because she was speaking out against the regime; or was it simply because Neda was a “she”? We’ll probably never know, like other cowards he shrouds himself in anonymity.

The young, brave girls pictured above are members of Iran's Green Party, which is currently demonstrating against the results of the Iranian Presidential election held last week. Seventy per cent of the population in Iran is under 30, and many of those young people are in revolt against their government, the system it perpetuates, and an election they call fraudulent. This is an age group our media usually worships, but for some reason we haven’t been seeing and hearing much about Tehran or about the Iranian people, who are protesting, being beaten, and even dying in the streets, because they believe they have the right to pick their own leader. With the exception of perhaps Fox News, our media, following the lead of Aljazeera Arabic and Aljazeera International, is doing it's best to avoid the topic. Why is that?

After the November national election and prior to his Inauguration, Barack Obama was often asked to answer questions on a wide range of foreign policy topics that plagued the final days of the Bush administration. Before answering, Obama would invariably put on his most diplomatic face, and in a professorial tone give his nod to the sitting president, implying with his response that our government should speak with one voice in those matters.

The last time I remember him using this artful dodge was the Oval Office photo-op with President George W. Bush and our three former presidents, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. (The photo above was taken at that event.) It was there that Obama used his “one president at a time” defense to avoid answering a reporter’s questions in regards to Israeli military operations in Gaza. The media on that day, as in all the previous days it was used, seemed to buy Obama’s defense.

The Santa Claus Rally I've been talking about is here. The market was up about 3% Friday and around 4% today and it should continue through most of this week and maybe into next week. This is a last chance to take some profits this year before the market bottoms again early next year.

How high will this rally take the market? My guess is that it'll peak when the S&P 500 gets to around 1045, ±5.  Right now, it's around 909.

Thanks to an email from New Hampster, I'm going to try to collect my thoughts for the first time since the election. We've all been getting back to our lives and trying to put the outcome of the election behind us but there's something else we can think about. We can make ourselves heard. We can make a difference.

During the campaign, Hillary supporters and PUMAs did some amazing things and we were noticed. We spoke out and were seen and heard. Yes, some in the media tried to dismiss us but we did indeed have an impact on the race. Polling suggests Hillary would have had a more significant lead over McCain if she had been the candidate so the PUMAs were certainly a factor.