Leen, your link isn’t working for me. Try this.

thanks.

Thanks to you, Leen, for writing this.

Y’know, it’s funny. On the one hand, I know that we all have to remain critics. It especially matters to me that we remain critics on Obama’s foreign policy, because we know that enlightenment is inevitably going to be a long way away.

But I think it’s also important that we keep reading cool heads like Juan Cole, who stick to the details and haven’t shifted to Chicken Little mode too quickly. I can’t believe how many people I’m reading who are doing that on so little evidence.

So anyway, it just makes me feel better to read a calm smart guy like Cole — thanks for reminding me that he is there.

I keep trying to push C-Span, Diane Rehm, Talk of the Nation to have Juan Cole on as a guest to discuss Iran, and other spots in the middle east. Diane did have Juan on once. Met Chris Matthews and had his ear for a second time in Denver(first time during the Libby trial he was totally accessible). When I brought the I/P conflict up and how the MSM will not touch it he said “I do not control the programming” confirming once again what so many of us know. The I lobby is a filtering system in the MSM and
also in the so called progressive blogosphere.

Real News and the appointment of Rahm Emmanuel “this is a disaster”
http://therealnews.com/t/index…..%3A34%3A35

Here is Noam Chomsky on Obama Presidency
http://therealnews.com/t/index…..mival=2593

National Intelligence Estimate on Iran
http://64.233.169.104/search?q…..#038;gl=us

Flynt Leverett on Iran

Bush’s real lie about Iran
http://www.salon.com/opinion/f…..an_policy/
“Dec. 7, 2007 | The latest National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s nuclear program raises questions once again about the Bush administration’s veracity in describing a nuclear threat. But President Bush’s worst misrepresentations about the Iranian nuclear issue do not focus on whether Tehran is currently pursuing a nuclear weapons program or when Bush knew the U.S. intelligence community was revising its previous assessments. Rather, the real lie is the president’s claim that his administration has made a serious offer to negotiate with the Islamic Republic, and that Iranian intransigence is the only thing preventing a diplomatic resolution.”

New America Foundation. Great place to go read about Iran and other important issues.

flynt on Iran
http://www.newamerica.net/pres…..talks_iran

Leen, I am surprised at you being surprised; Obama is saying the same crap he said during the campaign.

More insight.

As Shakespeare said, the wish is father to the delusional thought.

I am surprised that no one has commented on the ‘Yes, we can’ statement being a restatement of the the The Little Red Engine(The Little Engine that Could) story.

I am not surprised and that pisses me off. I was not on Obama’s bus only after he won the nomination did I then put in many hours for his campaign. I am surprised he kicked so many of us in the guts so quickly by choosing Emmanuel as Chief of Staff.

It is up to those of us who supported Obama from early on to remind him why we did – because we saw the value of an un-entrenched leader who stood by his principles on the Iraq war. He also represented someone coming from the grass roots, who would fight for the poor and the powerless and the minorities, who would understand the plight of the real underdogs of the world. And when the primaries came down to him vs Clinton, the fact that he was not a big player in the AIPAC crowd was very promising.

Maybe it was because he felt he needed to go out of his way to assure voters that he was not a “secret muslim” that he fell into their hands and began pandering to AIPAC so shamelessly. I had hoped it was just a ploy, but now this Emanuel thing is very troubling to me, and the issue of Iran brought up by Juan Cole. So that is where we come in. I went on the Obama website earlier today to send a comment about how the world was looking to him to represent peace and justice and help for the downtrodden, and encouraged him to pressure Israel to end the illegal and immoral blockade of Gaza as a precursor to peace talks between Israel and Palestine that would give the people of Gaza some kind of signal that there was hope for them against the overwhelming force of the Israeli military. We just can’t let him buy into the narrative that Israel needs to perpetrate the same pre-emptive military strategy that we know and love here in the States as “the Bush Doctrine.”

Towards the end of Noam Chomsky’s interview he says, “You’re doing something good if you pick the lesser of two evils.” I like seeing him say that, because that is, of course, what many of us did.

For me it’s not a question of being surprised. It’s like when someone you love is sick and dying, you know they’re going to die, but when they actually die, it breaks you all apart.

Many of us are not surprised by what Obama is doing, based on what he’s done before and what he’s said, but it still feels really lousy.

Our country is very sick, it’s people are suffering. And many people in the world are suffering because of U.S. policies. All I can say and think now that Obama’s elected is that some things will probably improve. And that’s a lot better than what I believe would have happened under a McCain-Palin administration as I believe they would have been even worse than Bush-Cheney.

I was not on Obama’s bus in the beginning by any means. Watched him ride the fence most of the time during his few years in the Senate(obviously running for the Presidency) But when he sat out (or happened to be out of town) during the Kyl Lieberman amendment ( a great deal of unsubstantiated claims about Iran in that amendment) last fall Obama really lost me. It was his one solid opportunity to demonstrate that he would take a stand against the unnecessary war mongering pushed by the radical wrong. (Lieberman, Kristol, John Bolton, Cheney etc). I did not support Hillary because of her yes vote on the 2002 war resolution and her yes vote on the Kyl Lieberman amendment.

John Edwards was the only viable candidate to state no lobbyist in my administration and no one who has ever lobbied for a foreign country. Along with getting that his 2002 war resolution vote was a huge mistake. Plus Edwards was the only one to focus on our Vets under bridges and poverty.

When Obama won the nomination I put hundreds HUNDREDS of hours in for him. But have been very apprehensive about his slogan campaign.

We are watching what his actions are…Rahm Emmanuel as his first pick is not a good sign.

Agree

Leen, here’s a link to some of my old posts on Iran… A lot of good links are contained in them! Worth a read…

thanks. Read everything Flynt Leverett writes about Iran. So amazing how the latest NIE on Iran keeps being ignored…especially after Iraq. It is hard to believe how many times the MSM has allowed unsubstantiated claims about Iran to be repeated.

Also appreciate how Professor Juan Cole has debunked the claims that Iranian President said “Israel should be wiped off the map”

http://www.juancole.com/2007/0…..mitic.html
“As most of my readers know, Ahmadinejad did not use that phrase in Persian. He quoted an old saying of Ayatollah Khomeini calling for ‘this occupation regime over Jerusalem” to “vanish from the page of time.’ Calling for a regime to vanish is not the same as calling for people to be killed. Ahmadinejad has not to my knowledge called for anyone to be killed. (Wampum has more; as does the American Street).

If Ahmadinejad is a genocidal maniac who just wants to kill Jews, then why are there 20,000 Jews in Iran with a member of parliament in Tehran? Couldn’t he start at home if that was what he is really about?”

Funny how they keep ignoring that fact(Ahmadinejad uttering no such)! True, about the NIE on Iran, and, also the fact that Darth Cheney has attempted to stove pipe and cherry pick the intel, ala Iraq…! In some of my Iran posts I have Scott Ritter’s words on it and several other links to credible Intel folks stating we either buried or fabricated the facts…!