Break out the Dodger Dogs, Mahmoud! Americans who spent the past week transfixed by the brutal shooting of Neda Soltan and related horrifying events in Iran may be astonished to learn the following:
The United States said Monday its invitations were still standing for Iranian diplomats to attend July 4 celebrations at US embassies despite the crackdown on opposition supporters.
President Barack Obama’s administration said earlier this month it would invite Iran to US embassy barbecues for the national holiday for the first time since the two nations severed relations following the 1979 Islamic revolution.
“There’s no thought to rescinding the invitations to Iranian diplomats,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters.
“We have made a strategic decision to engage on a number of fronts with Iran,” Kelly said. “We tried many years of isolation, and we’re pursuing a different path now.”
It’s almost impossible to comment, except to note the article quoted is by Agence France Presse and we all know the wildly differing responses to the situation in Iran between French President Sarkozy and Barack Obama.
So, my “realist” friends at the State Department, continue with your “different path.” And don’t let the ghosts of murdered Iranian freedom fighters disturb your sleep. A few more words from Barack’s silver tongue and Ayatollah Khamenei will surely give up nuclear weapons. I mean it’s a wonder he hasn’t done it already.
And, Ian Kelly, here’s a new video to share with your friends and family on the Fourth. Think about it when you want to play “Let’s make a deal” with the Ayatollahs.
(via Michael Goldfarb and others)
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29 Comments
1. Promoguy:Since most hot dogs have pork by products in them, I guess they’ll have to succumb to a Hebrew National.
Jun 22, 2009 - 8:58 pm 2. Sally:Isn’t this just too silly and trivial and completely pointless? Embassy personnel have zero power or influence over the regime. It would be surprising if any of them even showed up since I would imagine the regime has to be paranoid about CIA recruiting them to be double agents or something. Silly and trivial and pointless but also rather horrifying. The last time Iranians spent any time in one of our embassies it was to hold our people hostage for 444 days and 8 soldiers died in the desert trying to rescue them.
Jun 22, 2009 - 9:31 pm 3. Lightnin' Hopkins:“American reporters, given a glimpse of Ayatollah Khomeini’s Iran at the end of 1982, were saying it was like *1984*. It’s Orwellian, one added.”
–Walter Cronkite, preface to the commemorative edition of George Orwell’s “1984″
The Ministry of Sparklers and Apple Pie is hard at work indeed. It’s already a cliche to say that it’s hard to tell the real news from “The Onion” these days for a very good reason – crap like this is simply beyond parody.
Jun 22, 2009 - 10:37 pm 4. Godzilla:Let me get this straight. The State Department has invited Iranian diplomats to U.S. Embassies to attend a function that celebrates U.S. independence? Is Karl Rove behind this? This is a public relations disaster in the making. This is like inviting Hitler to a Bar Mitzvah. The stepford media will explode trying to rationalize this. I might start watching ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN again just for the laughs. MSNBC is no fun because they don’t play at being impartial.
Jun 22, 2009 - 11:57 pm 5. Godzilla:Kos Kids at this very moment are probably working on pieces titled “Why inviting Iranian diplomats to the 4th of July celebrations is the right thing to do”. Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson, and Katie Couric will be taking notes.
Jun 23, 2009 - 12:13 am 6. Terrye:I sent the White House an email and suggested that if they were going to do something this ridiculous, why not add Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez to the guest list and replace the fireworks with their own Death to America rally. Same damn difference.
Outrageous. Over at Hot Air there was a video from C-Span of John McCain doing a sort of eulogy for that young woman Neda who was killed by Iranian security forces. I watched that and thought to myself how much better he would have been at dealing with something like this.
Jun 23, 2009 - 4:14 am 7. Mary Madigan:I’m not astonished, I’m not even surprised. This is how the state department reacted to 9/11. They were worried that the Saudi sponsors of 9/11 would cease to be our friends. Legitimizing, empowering and catering to our most vile enemies has always been State’s first priority.
They don’t care about us, they don’t care about freedom and they don’t care about democracy, yet for some peculiar reason, we continue to pay their salaries. What’s wrong with us?
Jun 23, 2009 - 4:49 am 8. fear obama:lol…
Let feed old Abernajab some good
Hot Dog Ingredients: pork, water,beef,salt,corn syrup, flavorings,dextrose,hydrolized soy and corn protien, oleoresin of paprika, monosodium glutamate, sodium-130g. erythorbate, sodium nitrite, collagen casing lips and rectums.
fatten him up for the rope
Jun 23, 2009 - 5:13 am 9. Bohemond:It would be nice if the Marine details were given ’special orders’ for the occasion.
Jun 23, 2009 - 7:01 am 10. plainslow:Why not show how fair we play. There should be those who also support the protestors, invited. After all, they are the ones who up until a few days ago, thought our goverment supported them.
Jun 23, 2009 - 8:48 am 11. Barry Dauphin:The White House now wants to take credit for the brave folks standing up to the mean authorities, but not the kind of credit that constitutes meddling, you see. It was all a subtle (but not meddling) after effect of the president’s speech in Cairo. So, if they overthrow the regime, the Administration wants credit, but not credit for meddling just inspiring, and if the protesters are killed, it’s not because we were meddling nad that would really be Bush’s fault.
Jun 23, 2009 - 8:57 am 12. hermie:And if things turn even worse, the ‘Won’ will still blame Bush; while Olberman, Couric, and the rest of the MSM nod in agreement.
Jun 23, 2009 - 10:24 am 13. David Thomson:“The White House now wants to take credit for the brave folks standing up to the mean authorities”
It’s too late for that. This would be like the gambler placing a bet on the winning horse after the race is over. No, even the Obama loving media can’t help him get out of this mess. I suspect that he already reached his zenith—and its all downhill now until he leaves office. This is a man who has to do virtually nothing to get so much in return during his lifetime. Will Obama be able to handle defeat? Is it possible that he might even have a nervous breakdown?
Jun 23, 2009 - 10:24 am 14. Steve Skubinna:Jeez, Roger, what part of “without preconditions” is giving you trouble? Guess you just can’t wrap your mind around nuance.
As for me, my mantra since Inauguration Day has been to shrug and say “Well, this is what we voted for.”
Jun 23, 2009 - 10:26 am 15. Delia:Scary.
Jun 23, 2009 - 11:12 am 16. Delia:Ugh. I feel sick after watching that video. Terrifying.
Jun 23, 2009 - 11:15 am 17. TomF:Any such 4th of July celebration is a farce. You want to talk? Pick another day. We can have discourse without dishonoring our forefathers and the protesters who have died for their desire for freedom.
Jun 23, 2009 - 12:41 pm 18. EdSki:#1 Promoguy – Outstanding!
As for Mr. Simon’s piece, we truly are being led by children in America. No wonder the EU is tilting right. Some one has to be the grown up in this world.
Jun 23, 2009 - 12:48 pm 19. TomF:This is just too mind-boggling. I have to write again. This decision to go ahead or not must come from pretty high up. If it didn’t come straight from the President, it should have. At least they called it the 4th of July, instead of Independence Day. Somebody has no idea what Independence Day is all about.
Jun 23, 2009 - 12:55 pm 20. Godzilla:“It was all a subtle (but not meddling) after effect of the president’s speech in Cairo.”
If Obama is stupid enough to say this, it’ll be his “flying into Boznia amid a hail of bullets” moment.
Jun 23, 2009 - 1:19 pm 21. Godzilla:BTW, a small point. I’m pretty sure that Obama said that he “joined” or “joins” with the American people in being appalled at the brutality witnessed against the protesters.
This is a very poor choice of a word by his speechwriter, because of actual truth behind it. A more savy writer would have used “along with” the American people, which implies a step-in-step advance in the reaction. “Join” implies attaching oneself to a thing after the fact, especially in this case, as the American outrage has been in force for weeks. “Followed the American people” would have been more truthful yet.
I caught this just by chance on Fox while I was making coffee. That’s about the only time I watch new on TV anymore, and even then I usually turn the volume down because the voicees along with the phoney smug faces are too much to bear. In this case I actually wanted to hear what Obama said today about the protests. It was actually okay, but about a week and half too late. That’s what he gets for following and not leading.
Jun 23, 2009 - 1:30 pm 22. Terry Johnson:We need the whole of America to become aware of this appalling act of appeasement by Obama and State. I just spoke to a liberal friend about the 4th July invitation to the Iranian thugs and he was shocked by it but hadn’t heard about it until I told him. Let’s spread the word on this invitation…if we can force Obama and State to back down this it will be another serious, unforgettable blow to the One’s credibility. We’ve got two weeks to embarrass the hell out of the White House anf get this disgusting invite withdrawn.
Jun 23, 2009 - 1:45 pm 23. David Levavi:The State Department has been looking for someone to surrender to since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The eunuchs at State hoped they could negotiate America’s surrender to the Russian Communists and were well on their way to succeeding when, alas, the Soviet prison state collapsed under the weight of its own corruption and ineptitude.
It is worth remembering as we watch events unfolding in Iran that the State Department and the CIA have suffered the bulk of American casualties at the hands of the Mullahs. The Americans held hostage, tortured and murdered during the ayatollah’s revolution were State Department employees. The CIA station chief in Teheran was horribly tortured for days before being slaughtered.
Then there was the Iranian bomb in Lebanon under Reagan–among the largest conventional explosions ever detonated–that killed hundreds including some of State and CIAs top people in the Middle East.
But hey, State and CIA are cool with that. Vengefulness is verbotten for these high-minded cold-blooded creatures of state and intelligence. They’re too sophisticated to allow emotionalism or personal prejudice or animosity to influence policy.
Never mind that nobody ever considered invading a Soviet embassy or torturing and killing Soviet intelligence agents precisely because brutal vengeance by the Soviet intelligence services was guaranteed. But then loyalty to comrades was the fashion among Communists. Our American foreign policy people are above that sort of thing. They are professionals who don’t take the insult, torture and murder of their own personally.
In Barack Obama, the eunuchs in Foggy Bottom finally have someone who sees things in the Middle East their way. Finally the eunuchs have someone in the White House whose scrotum sac is as shriveled and empty as their own.
Alas, for all their efforts, the Iranian dissidents insist on turning over the apple cart. Just as State and the Administration are setting the stage for capitulation of everything that makes the United States special and unique, along come these dissidents and screw it up. Now who is left for Obama to grovel and apologize and demonstrate America‘s contrition and obeisance to?
Listening to official spokesman from State day after day no one can miss that they’re behind the curve. These are the follks who failed to predict the collapse of the Soviet Union. Were negotiating away liberty until the day Communism collapsed.
No one at State or any of our intelligence services ever gets fired. Their pig-blind and ignorant lurching and stumbling rocks the nation. But no one ever walks the plank. Monstrous blunders, oversights and derelictions are forgiven and forgotten.
My favorite State Department guy is Richard Murphy. Murf the Surf. Dicky M. Grand Shill to the Shieks. The original striped pants dippy. Lantern-jawed, stentorian, Sir Richard. Knight of This, That and What Have You.
More Catholic Knighthoods hath Sir Richard than hath a dog fleas. Arthur and Lancelot and the others at the round table were mere pikers by comparison.
Every dustup in the Middle East brings Sir Richard to the network newsmikes. Offering his grave and deeply considered opinion on this that and the other. And in virtually every instance these past thirty years, events have proven Sir Richard wrong.
Yet there he is before the cameras at the next crisis. Again offering his grave and deeply considered opinions. One of the Wise Men. Gravity itself. A classic Jew-hating minister playing out his Haman’s role. An ancient enemy of Israel heaped with papist honors.
We need a housecleaning at Foggy Bottom. Think of the long file of evicted eunuchs in Bertolucci’s, The Last Emperor, carrying their shriveled privates into exile with them in little lacquered boxes. Imagine Sir Richard in striped pants at the head of the line.
Jun 23, 2009 - 4:43 pm 24. Russ:The Soiling of July 4th.
“Independence Forever!”
Two words were all that 90-year old patriot and former President John Adams needed to sum up the meaning of the 4th of July. Fast forward to this year’s 4th of July celebrations and you will find that our current President, Mr. Obama, is soiling the 4th of July.
According to a State Department memo, in a new overture to Iran, the Obama administration has authorized U.S. embassies around the world to invite Iranian officials to Independence Day parties they host on or around July 4th.
Good lord, what is wrong with this man. The Iranian government funds and supports terrorism around the world.
These very government officials that will be coming to our embassies, have the blood on their shoes of every U.S. solider killed fighting terrorism.
My god, man, I know you are the President, you keep telling us that at every opportunity but have you completely lost your mind!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Obama’s own nationalized press corp even gave him an opportunity in today’s press conference to walk away from this invitation but he didn’t.
This is getting painful to watch . . .
Jun 23, 2009 - 8:21 pm 25. PatriotUSA:The Iranians are coming to the 4th Of July parties, eh? Good. Let’s serve them lots of PORK ribs, chops and nice bacon. Have the food delivered to them by dogs, trained to wait tables. Make sure the meats are not halal but kosher. Be sure to have lots of beer, wine and other spirits available for our Islamic guests. We want to make sure they have a really good time American style, not the dhimmi panty waist way Obama and the State Department have planned.
Jun 23, 2009 - 11:47 pm 26. Ivri:Give them pork Kilbasas.and bullets.
Jun 24, 2009 - 7:58 am 27. ray_g:The usefull idiots @ State are at it again.
read “the secret war against the Jews”
Comment #23 states the problem well. The State Department has been in a mode of appeasing every nation in the world, basically since Henry Kissinger left. And it is independent of the party of whoever is President. There needs to be a major purge of State’s bureaucracy to eliminate their culture of believing that they are in charge of foreign policy, rather than the elected representatives of the U.S. citizens, namely the President and Congress.
Jun 24, 2009 - 9:59 am 28. Bohemond:What a sacrilege, what a soiling of Independence Day!
Does Ogabe have a clue what this holiday commemmorates? The ratification of the document that proclaims “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
And to this he invites the representatives of death, repression, and enforced misery.
May God damn Ogabe to Hell.
Jun 24, 2009 - 11:31 am 29. Pat J:I heard the State Department withdrew the invitation. Too bad. I was hoping maybe some of them would ask the U.S. Embassies for asylum.
Jun 24, 2009 - 1:55 pm