Random Thoughts

[verbal gymnastics]

Or have an acronym of DECK.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Fuck it I'm drunk tonight.

[miss buenos aires]

I wish I had a friend who would just email me every news article I needed to read to be semi-informed about US news. I just can't keep up from here...

[Who Shot Sam?]

I wish I had a friend who would just email me every news article I needed to read to be semi-informed about US news. I just can't keep up from here...

Here's the news in an nutshell - Bush is floundering around with his Supreme Court nomination, we're still getting daily casualty reports from Iraq, it's been rainy as can be in the Northeast, hurricane season is mercifully coming to a close...

Care to make yourself the first South American poster on our EC FF global map (see the "Put Yourself on the Map" thread, which by the way is still missing a number of other key board members, such as the Spookys, the foyles and El Vez - for shame).

[miss buenos aires]

Thanks, WSS. Now if you could just do that about three times a week, that would be peachy.

[Who Shot Sam?]

Can I make stuff up?

[miss buenos aires]

I would never know.

[bobster]

Who Shot Sam left out the part about Harry Reid pulling an ultra-cool pairlamentary maneuver (forcing a closed session) and getting the investigation of the run-up to the war re-opened and making Bill Frist really, really angry and getting me to give my first contribution to the Democratic Party proper in my entire life (good behavior must be rewarded!).

He also left out the about mutant dolphin invadion of the West Coast. My new boss is a bottle-nosed porpoise named "Skippy."

[Mr. Average]

Bobster: You contributed money to a political stunt? The investigation is ongong with substantial bipartisan progress. Even Democratic members of the Senate were more than a little embarrassed by Reids action, as it was all a facade. Republicans will be forced now to show the progress, which again has been made through cooperative bipartisan meetings. Of course, Reid and his group will proclaim that it took this "double secret probation" closed door session to unlock it. Problem it, much of it is alreay done, and the delays are directly, and documented, as being heavily related to Democratic members of the senate failing to attend the sessions as a protest. So you cannot show up to contribute, then say that contributions have been one-sided, then employ a stunt to decieve the public. It might work, but it already appears that it has backfired and the public isn't taking the partisan bait.

Meanwhile, a news report from today. Associated Press. I presume the retort will be that we 'caused' this. That is the easy action. But this President of Iran was a member of the ultra-extremist groups back during the Carter Hostage Crisis. He wasn't 'created' by this. He was socialized to believe this from the early, develomental years.

In a Diplomatic Shake-Up by Iran's Hard-Line Government, 40 Ambassadors Will Be Removed From Posts


TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's hard-line government said Wednesday it was removing 40 ambassadors and senior diplomats, including supporters of warmer ties with the West, from their posts in a shake-up that comes as the Islamic republic takes a more confrontational international stance.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki announced the changes to parliament, saying "the missions of more than 40 ambassadors and heads of Iranian diplomatic missions abroad will expire by the end of the year," which is March 20 under the Iranian calendar.

Mottaki, quoted by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency, did not specify which ambassadors were among those being removed.

But IRNA said they included the ambassador to London, Mohammad Hossein Adeli, one of Iran's top diplomats and a leading member of the pragmatic foreign policy wing that supports contacts with Europe.

The moves give the new government of ultraconservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the chance to purge pro-reform figures brought in by his predecessor, moderate Mohammad Khatami, and install its own supporters.

Ahmadinejad has taken a tougher line on a number of issues, particularly negotiations with Britain, France and Germany over Iran's controversial nuclear program. Hard-liners have criticized Khatami's government for agreeing to freeze much of the country's atomic activities during the talks, and Ahmadinejad already has replaced much of the negotiating team with hard-liners.

The new president, elected in June, also generated a storm of international criticism last week when he called for Israel's eradication, saying it should be "wiped off the map."

Tensions with Europe and the United States over the nuclear issue are high after Iran ended part of its freeze on nuclear activities earlier this year, resuming uranium conversion at a plant in Isfahan. Washington accuses Iran of secretly aiming to develop nuclear weapons, while Tehran counters that its nuclear program is for generating electricity.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, will review Iran's cooperation on the nuclear issue during a Nov. 24 meeting, and Washington is pressing for Tehran to be referred to the U.N. Security Council, where it could face sanctions for violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Sanctions, however, are unlikely.

Iran is sending conflicting signals to an international community concerned about its nuclear agenda, granting U.N. inspectors access to a secret military site but also saying it would process a new batch of uranium that could be used to make atomic weapons, diplomats in Vienna, Austria, said Wednesday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The diplomats said IAEA experts were allowed to revisit a high-security military site in Parchin as they try to establish whether Tehran has a secret nuclear weapons program.

Parchin has been linked by the United States and other nations to alleged experiments linked to nuclear arms. The IAEA had for months been trying to follow up on a visit in January for further checks of buildings and areas within the sprawling military complex as it looks for traces of radioactivity.

Iran also has handed over documents and granted interviews with several senior officials believed linked to black market purchases of uranium enrichment technology, the diplomats said.

Ahmadinejad's victory in June elections sealed the decline of Iran's reform movement and solidified the control of hard-liners over the government. Some Iranians fear Ahmadinejad _ a longtime member of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards _ will bring back the policies of restrictions at home and confrontation abroad seen after the 1979 Islamic Revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

On Wednesday, more than 10,000 demonstrators shouted "Death to America!" and "Death to Israel!" in front of the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran in the largest such demonstration in years.

Hard-liners organize protests at the site annually to mark the anniversary of the Nov. 4, 1979 seizure of the embassy by student militants.

Demonstrators carried a large picture of Ahmadinejad emblazoned with his quote, "Israel must be wiped off the map." They burned U.S. and Israeli flags and effigies of President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Arial Sharon. Some wore a traditional Palestinian kaffiyah headdress, symbolizing their readiness to fight Israel.

"We have to continue our confrontation with the United States and Israel. This could help the world get rid of the arrogant powers," the hard-line Jomhuri Eslami daily said in an editorial.

___

Associated Press reporter George Jahn in Vienna, Austria, contributed to this report.

[bobster]

Yep. Hey, I'm a movie fan. Stunts are a fine and time-honored political too. I have no problem with them at all, except when they involve starting a war and killing God knows how many people and then executing that war in the stupidest, most callous way possible. That's the kind of political stunt of which I don't approve.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Hey MBA, Blunkett resigned today! he had no option. First the hilarious piss-taking drama, and then the dodgy dealings. Bad boy, David.

[Extreme Honey]

Why does everrone hate Iran? Don't you see it's just america trying to warm up thei population before attacking yet another country to defend Isreal? I mean really, what did Iran ever do to the USA? In fact, they even bought quality weapons during the Iraw-Iran war (and America also sold weapons to Iraq-how heroic)!

[Who Shot Sam?]

I mean really, what did Iran ever do to the USA?

You're joking, right? Ever hear of the 1979 hostage crisis?

[BlueChair]

Or the fact that their president just held a "Death to America!" rally last week?

[verbal gymnastics]

It's gone all Monty Python Life of Brian!

[miss buenos aires]

Would it impress anyone to know that I might know one of the ambassadors being fired? If it's the ambassador to the UN, he's a very nice man.

[mood swung]

is it just me, or was Val Kilmer channelling Mr. Krabs?

[Extreme Honey]

Ya I guess Iran had it's share of anti-americanism. But nowadays 90% of all countries are anti-american. I wonder if if the next president might help the situation

[bobster]

Well, there's "angry at America for it's idiotic recent behaivor" (Canada and Europe), "permantly and justifiably pretty damn mad at America because they raped us repeatedly for centuries" (Latin America and other places), and blind, insane hatred, which is what this new Iranian President is trying to whip up. He's pretty much the Iranian W -- whipping up emotion, not behaving rationally, etc. Of course, he doesn't have to worry about a (largely) free press and an opposition party like our W, so he's going to be worse and can, indeed, be very dangerous.

[Who Shot Sam?]

The Band's cover of Johnny Cash's "Long Black Veil" (from Music From Big Pink) is utter shit. Good thing there's so much other terrific stuff on the album to make up for it.

[BlueChair]

The Band's cover of Johnny Cash's "Long Black Veil" (from Music From Big Pink) is utter shit. Good thing there's so much other terrific stuff on the album to make up for it.

Isn't "utter shit" kinda harsh? I kinda like that version, but maybe that's because it introduced me to the song.

[Who Shot Sam?]

The Band's cover of Johnny Cash's "Long Black Veil" (from Music From Big Pink) is utter shit. Good thing there's so much other terrific stuff on the album to make up for it.

Isn't "utter shit" kinda harsh? I kinda like that version, but maybe that's because it introduced me to the song.

Maybe. There's something sort of half-hearted about it IMO, and the sense of foreboding that you get from Cash's (or even Nick Cave's) version is totally missing.

[BlueChair]

True. It does kinda lack that soulful spark you'd expect from Danko.

[Who Shot Sam?]

True. It does kinda lack that soulful spark you'd expect from Danko.

It's also the fact that it's sung in almost a celebratory way - a strange choice for such a dark song.

[spooky girlfriend]

I'm completely alone in the house for the whole weekend!

Daughter is on a high school trip for the weekend and Doc and all three boys just left for a camping trip with the scouts - none of them will be back until Sunday.

What kind of trouble can I get in to. . . . . . .