The Iranian FarsNews newswire just released a new statement from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadenijad as to what, in his analysis, the reasons for the Wall Street downfall are. Speaking to journalists, he blamed America’s military intervention abroad, saying:
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared Monday that the turmoil on Wall Street was rooted in part in US military intervention abroad and voiced hope that the next American administration would retreat from what he called President Bush’s “logic of force.” …
“Problems do not arise suddenly,” he said. “The US government has made a series of mistakes in the past few decades. First, the imposition on the US economy of heavy military engagement and involvement around the world . . . the war in Iraq, for example. . . . These are heavy costs.”
Had this been the full text of the statement, dayenu. Americans are already quite familiar with the rising costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the horrible effect they have had on America’s fiscal health.
However, Ahmadenijad also went on to stress that Israel “was doomed like an airplane that has lost its engine” and that Western intelligence documents “questioning the peaceful purpose of Iran’s nuclear program” were “crude forgeries.” Ahmadenijad also gave his assessment of the Iranian economic situation:
Ahmadinejad acknowledged that the sanctions, the global financial crisis and wars in neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan were hurting Iran’s oil-fueled economy.
But the Iranian president, who is seeking reelection next year, said that 98% of Iranians support his government and that “we do not have poor people or people who live below the poverty line to the extremes that you find in the United States.”
It must be nice to be a president who enjoys 98% support and zero (extreme?) poverty. (Such a poverty statistic has a margin of error of at least, oh, 9 percent at a minimum, and the 98% support belies the fact that, well, let’s just say it’s not so easy to voice a dissenting political opinion in Iran.)
Someone so well-accustomed to a state of affairs so distant from reality will likely not be readily swayed by speeches or strongly worded UN statements.
Originally from Maryland and now holding it down in the shtetlach of New York, won the Jewish Music Awards for "Best Hiphop" in 2006.Vocally anti-prejudice and pro-unity.
Love me, hate me, or debate me, know you can't ignore me, though.
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Alex,
Just kind of curious: when you compose these gems of trenchant political analysis, do you produce any kind of actual secretion — you know, some kind of mucous or other distinctive lubrication — in order to alert your fellow ultra-mega-dittoheads in the Rush fan club that you’re marking your territory?
Mass moonbattery never was that depressing since Munich 1938
Don’t you understand? Can’t you READ?
He is “seeking re-election”!
So of course talking with him will work…
Bush and Imadinnerjacket do have one thing in common, though:
they both look like chimps.
Where did you see that? Because regarding whether anyone has the right or not to speak at the UN, that’s the UN’s jurisdiction, not that of the US government. Hence the special travel visa for people like Fidel Castro and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, because Turtle Bay is technically not US territory (just as Embassy Row is technically not US territory).
This just in: Barack flip-flops on A’s right to speak at the UN. Marvelous– just in time for Friday’s debate!
I can deal with Ahmadinejad, just spare me Sarah Palin.
Uh greg? what? You didn’t say what it was about the anti-ahmadinejad protesters, many of whom were just high school kids, that you didn’t like. Us Jews want to know…
that guy in Cuba is not my friend btw.
It really takes a lot for me become unsympathetic to Ahmadenijad protestors but you Jews really have done it. You have really alienated lots of Americans this week.
Now, I will always for my own reasons be against Ahmadenijad, but I will now always look with suspicion too at groups who oppose him remembering the enemy of my enemy isn’t always my friend.
I hope the American government look into these anti-Ahmadenijad groups to see if they have broken any laws or have committed any acts that have gone against their tax status!
This reminds me of the 1980s when I once saw a flier about a parade they were going to have against racism. Great, I thought, I am against racism too. But the reading further down I found out that it was going to be put on by a Marxist-Leninist group. As you can expect, I didn’t attend.
Just like from now on I will not attend any anti-Ahmadenijad function. I will still hate him, but again, the enemy of my enemy isn’t always my friend and it has become clear that the anti-Ahmadenijad people might indeed actually be a greater threat to America than Ahmadenijad himself.
““We don’t have gay people!â€
They don’t in Iran because the moment one is discovered they execute that person.
But then again I have heard some horror stories about how your friend in Cuba treats Gays with AIDS.
It really takes a lot for me become unsympathetic to Ahmadenijad protestors by you Jews really have done it. You have really alienated lots of Americans this week.
Now, I will always for my own reasons be against Ahmadenijad, but I will now always look with suspicion too groups who oppose him remembering the enemy of my enemy isn’t always my friend.
I hope the American government look it these anti-Ahmadenijad groups to see if they have broken any laws or have committed any acts that have gone against their tax status!
This reminds me of the 1980s when I once saw a flier about a parade they were going to have against racism. Great, I thought, I am against racism too. But the reading further down I found out that it was going to be put on by a Marxist-Leninist group. As you can expect, I didn’t attend.
Just like from now on I will not attend any anti-Ahmadenijad function. I will still hate him, but again, the enemy of my enemy isn’t always my friend and it has become clear that the anti-Ahmadenijad people might indeed actually be a greater threat to America than Ahmadenijad himself.
Alex, you are the king of all things awesome†.
†Things which are awesome:
* Severely misinformed political commentary
* Vacuous conjecture (Also: See point 1)
* Irrational Iran hatred (Also: See points 1 and 2)
Ck, the best way to keep from cringing when you write his name is to say out loud what you already know; the guy is a looney toon!
The bellicose rhetoric and thinly-veiled threats are nothing new to post-revolutionary Iran. Unfortunately for most Iranians, neither are the results failed international and economic policy. Nearly every time since 1979 that the middle class or peasantry of Iran have expressed displeasure with the current regime’s policy, the regime takes its rhetoric up a notch both domestically and internationally to deflect. This time around, the Guardian Council chose a guy to the right of Khomeini himself on many religious issues, who happens to have a propensity for saying some wild shit! He’s like W to the Republican’s Reagan. And he looks silly. Like a CPA with the eyes of an Angel Dust addict.
“We don’t have poor people!” – Sure you don’t! Sorry, I nearly missed that statement, I tripped over that homeless man!
“We don’t have gay people!” – Totally! Hey, pass that pipe full of PCP dustam!
“98% of Iranians love the government!” – Can’t argue with that statistic wizardry! Super Cool!
He’s a joke and the world should treat him as such.
Hmmm. I’m kinda left of center and I really dislike Ahmadinejad. I hate having to write his name and it makes me laugh that now I am assured that Iran has neither homosexuals nor poor people. And certainly no poor homosexuals!
Oy Alex… if only the world really was as perfectly dichotomous as you make it out to be.
OK. I’ll shut up now. Because I’m Canadian. Sorry to intrude…
Jon Stewart would make a great friend. Maybe he can pal around with him like he did with Musharaf and tell stupid Bush jokes all night, then have one of his stooges bash on Israel like they do for the rest of the show.
I hope this time he will make it to the Daily Show while he’s in NYC.
This guy knows how to play lefties like a fiddle. Most of what he says can be found on a Daily Kos and even a Huffington post almost any day. He speaks at Columbia, to a gathering of the press, and then on Larry King. About the only things he hasn’t done are donate to the Obama campaign (symbolically he has) and eat cornflakes with Olbermann and Mathews. I’m surprised he’s disliked so much on the left. Must be that quite understanding to keep what’s left of Democrat Jews stalwart on the left.