Congratulations to Sec John Kerry and Pres Obama on what could become a truly historic step toward a safer world.
— Al Gore (@algore) November 24, 2013
Per the Washington Post:
GENEVA — Iran and six major powers agreed early Sunday on a historic deal that freezes key parts of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for temporary relief on some economic sanctions, diplomats confirmed.
The deal was reached after four days of marathon bargaining and an eleventh-hour intervention by Secretary of State John F. Kerry and foreign ministers from Europe, Russia and China, the sources said….
The deal, intended as a first step toward a more comprehensive nuclear pact to be completed in six months, freezes or reverses progress at all of Iran’s major nuclear facilities, according to Western officials familiar with the details. It halts the installation of new centrifuges used to enrich uranium and caps the amount and type of enriched uranium that Iran is allowed to produce…
The agreement is a long-sought victory for the Obama administration, which from its earliest days made the Iranian nuclear program one of its top foreign policy priorities. The administration, helped by its overseas allies as well as Congress, achieved unprecedented success in imposing harsh economic sanctions that cut Iran’s oil exports in half and decimated the country’s currency. It was hoping to quickly finalize an agreement in the face of threats by Congress to impose additional economic sanctions on Iran….
More at the link, including a roundup of early tweet response. (Ralph Reed is a terrible excuse for a human being, even as Repub godsbotherers go.)
Bill E Pilgrim
We’re breaking it? Already?
Oh. Sorry, I missed the colon. My eyes aren’t what they used to be.
Redshirt
Obama’s gonna win a second Nobel.
scav
@Bill E Pilgrim: Decolonization can pose problems.
srv
FB tells me Peace in our times.
RaflW
Wow. Just took to twitter to see how it’s playing.
This doesn’t feel encouraging
dww44
@scav: LOL!
AJS
@Redshirt: Maybe one with at least some justification.
PeakVT
Yay.
Maybe Cuba next? You know, the other nation we’re told we have to hate.
Bill E Pilgrim
Good God, I was sure that Tweet from Cornyn on the WAPO front page was a joke. Nope.
Yes, because I mean what possible other reason could their be for forging an historic agreement curtailing Iran’s nuclear program other than as a trick to divert attention from the latest Republican political outrage.
MikeJ
Where’s Cole to lecture us about dick swinging etc? I expect congressional republicans to be dumbfucks, but based on his over reactions, I count on John Cole to act like one too, just with a nominally liberal slant.
scav
@Bill E Pilgrim: The perpetual poutrage machine they got going could fuel world peace, a cure for not only cancer but the common cold as well as a better mousetrap.
handy
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Texas and politicians is a bad mix.
Redshirt
Seriously, I think Obama will go down in history as one of the top 3 Presidents in American history, and this latest news is but one story among the many stories of Barack Hussein Obama’s rule as most powerful man in the world.
Hill Dweller
@Bill E Pilgrim: I can’t personally verify it, but someone on the twitter machine claimed David Gregory went on TV and said Iran was being rewarded with this interim agreement.
NBC has become Fox-lite.
Roger Moore
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Flake’s isn’t bad. He’s mostly saying that he doesn’t want to put his foot in his mouth right away, but that still displays a level of wisdom beyond most Republican officials.
Violet
@Hill Dweller: Not sure all of NBC has gone that route, but Dancin’ Dave and Chuck Toddler are horrible.
Bill E Pilgrim
@scav: I’ve never seen or heard of an inflated sense of ones own self-importance in the scheme of things to this degree. It’s amazing.
It’s as if the apocalyptic scare stories they tell each other on talk radio every day about how the Fate of The Republic not to mention the world hangs in the balance if any American poor people get health care, they actually end up believing that all that not only rises to the level of actual world-changing events but dwarfs them by comparison.
JWR
Unless the agreement requires dismantling of the Iranian centrifuges, we really haven’t gained anything. #IranNukes – Lindsey Graham @GrahamBlog
Well then, I guess that settles it.
different-church-lady
@Bill E Pilgrim: Really clever the way he got Iran to go along with the trick, eh? That Obama, he’s a sly one.
Joey Maloney
@Violet: Have you seen Toddler’s little promos for MSNBC where he prattles about using his “special access” on behalf of the little people? Makes me throw up in my mouth every time I hear it.
Chris
I guess it doesn’t take Nixon to go to China.
Culture of Truth
Obama, just achieving historic things, and stuff. Go back to whatever, he’s got this.
Roger Moore
@Redshirt:
He still isn’t George W. Bush- firebagger claims notwithstanding- so he qualifies.
Gin & Tonic
@JWR: With this part of the agreement Dilute below 5% or convert to a form not suitable for further enrichment its entire stockpile of near-20% enriched uranium before the end of the initial phase. it doesn’t seem to matter how many operable centrifuges they have.
Hey, maybe next we can bring Israel to the negotiating table to reduce its offensive nuclear capabilities.
Alison
@RaflW: Why do you see her tweet as not encouraging?
Also too, why in the precise fuck does anyone care what Ralph Reed has to say on this subject? We’re not talking about opening Planned Parenthoods or gay bars in Iran…
…yet.
David Koch
scav
@different-church-lady: Don’t forget the five other nations that have no higher agenda on their plate than glossing over some tech issues. Well, I guess as Poland isn’t involved, it doesn’t matter. Poor little under the bed whimpering repubs; I guess everyone in the world is conspiring against their political agenda and serenity.
Anybodybuther2016
Has anybody given all the credit to Hilary yet? You know it’s only a matter time. ;p
mk3872
Worse than Bush! W’s 3rd term!
Roger Moore
@Anybodybuther2016:
The usual suspects aren’t going to give credit to Hillary because they’re afraid of her running in 2016; they’re going to give it to Kerry or to the other countries involved. And give the HCDS a rest.
Redshirt
ahem, Ben Ghazi
seaboogie
@Bill E Pilgrim: I’m sure Cornyn’s tweet passes for what is considered wit amongst the repubs – a bunch of cravenly petty douchebags with no desire to actually govern or make the lives of the citizens of this country, or the world in general, better.
Reminds me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_KDAicF0Yo
West of the Cascades
@Roger Moore: Flake’s tweet was the traditional way of an opposition party responding to a President’s foreign policy initiatives … reserving judgment, possibly expressing “concern,” but not acting like bratty children. Cornyn and Reed let their inner 2-year olds take over their twitter accounts.
handsmile
This BBC article helpfully details what is in the agreement on the parts of both Iran and the P5+1 negotiating group (US, UK, Russia, China, France, Germany):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25074729
At the news conference announcing the agreement, several of the foreign ministers described it as a “first step” or “first stage” in reaching a comprehensive agreement on Iran’s nuclear program. So there will still be plenty of time for the US Congress (and in this matter I’m sorry to say it will be bipartisan) to find some way to obstruct it.
Also, I am struck by the remarkable improvement in US-Iran relations since the inauguration of Hassan Rouhani as Iranian president less than four months ago. A very good start.
Anybodybuther2016
@Roger Moore: The usual suspects aren’t going to give credit to Hillary because
She doesn’t deserve it. What did Hilary “I will obliterate them(Iran)” Clinton do?
No.
Roger Moore
@West of the Cascades:
There used to be a saying that politics stops at the water’s edge, but the Republican party seems unable to recognize the existence of anything but politics.
Davis X. Machina
Now the way is clear for us to invade Syria, which was Obama’s intention all along.
MikeBoyScout
This is all very distracting.
Did Obama do this to distract us from skewed polls or Fast & Furious or Benghazi! or Cole’s cat, Steve, having precocious bowel movements?
Roger Moore
@MikeBoyScout:
All of the above. Actually he’s created a series of fake scandals in order to distract the Republicans from the previous fake scandals, which seems to have been a smashing success.
? Martin
How do we know what to think of this? No word yet from President McCain.
chopper
@Davis X. Machina:
he’ll pay for it by cutting social security.
Davis X. Machina
@chopper: Obama is not only more devious than we imagine, he is more devious than than we can imagine.
Bubblegum Tate
@Bill E Pilgrim:
I literally laughed out loud at Cornyn’s tweet. What a pathetic loser that guy is.
Belafon
@JWR: I know you’re being sarcastic, but according to the White House’s fact sheet (from Daily Kos):
GregB
Obama is so cynical that he’s using this ruse of a fraud of a sham of a capitulation to distract the nation from the War on Christmas.
Narcissus
I think the greatest legacy of the Obama years might be in diplomacy, contrasted with the Bush years, in that diplomacy actually works if you fucking bother.
amk
@? Martin: mcangry is pissed off that the kenyan muslin has removed one more country from his pet list of countries that he wanted to bomb, bomb, bomb.
Anoniminous
Just James gahdarned Polk alloveronemoretime again!
He campaigned on 54-40 or FIGHT and then he lies down and lets Iran walk over us and have British Columbia. And Guam. If we let the Iranians have Guam them pretty soon they have the Dry Tortugas and will be building FEMA mosque Gay Abortion Death Camps in Philadelphia, Mississippi and lesbian commandos in Oklahoma will strike!
WAKE UP SHEEPLE!!!!
(Channeling my inner Ralph Reed.)
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@chopper:Hitler like to negotiate too. Worse-than-Bush
amk
@GregB:
covers the entire teabagger to firebagger spectrum.
Omnes Omnibus
This is great news. The particulars of deal aren’t all that important. A deal is a good thing and sets the stage for further talks and further progress. As Churchill once said, “Jaw-jaw is better than war-war.”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Someone needs to do a Downfall pardoy about this agreement
Roger Moore
Just words!
BillinGlendaleCA
@amk: I’m sure he’ll find another country to bomb. My bet is on North Korea.
Suffern ACE
@Hill Dweller: wow. They were being punished for not making agreement. Now that the agreement is made, it would seem crazy to keep punishing them or punish them some more.
Unless of course you are a child who pulls wings off of flies. Which is who our pundits are.
askew
@PeakVT:
That’s the one I am hoping for. Backchannel talks have been going on for awhile with Cuba.
Kerry is shaping up to be one of the best SoSs in decades between this deal and Syria. Hillary got a lot praise without a lot of accomplishments while Kerry is racking up the accomplishments with almost no praise. He needs a better PR team.
Omnes Omnibus
@askew:
No, he just needs to keep doing his job. For those knocking Clinton on this, it has been an ongoing effort that has borne fruit. She does deserve some of the credit.
? Martin
@askew:
Hillary deserves quite a bit of credit here. She was central to the push for tougher sanctions and worked the planet to get all other nations on board. The only reason Iran is here now is because we’re fucking strangling them economically. Hillary didn’t get a lot of payoffs, but she did the tough grinding work to get the state set for outcomes like this.
Honestly, we’ve had two very good SecStates here.
Captain C
@Roger Moore: Steve and the Precocious Bowel Movements sounds like it should be a cloying punk band.
This agreement is great news. I often think that the greatest foreign policy blunder of the Bush Administration was not taking the deals offered by Iran in 2001 and again in 2003, in which they would have given us pretty much everything we wanted except regime change. A friendly, or at least cooperative Iran would have gone a long way in mitigating the disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan that the Bush-Cheney Gang was intent on perpetrating for fun and profit.
David Koch
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: All-time greatest “Downfall” parody
Amir Khalid
@askew:
Are you so sure that Kerry is not in fact building on foundations laid by Hillary’s earlier work, that he came in and started over pretty much from scratch? Because it seems to me that that’s not really how diplomacy works.
ETA: I see Martin was first to bring up this point.
Anybodybuther2016
@Omnes Omnibus: @? Martin:
It starts. ;p
Yatsuno
@? Martin: Anyone who thinks all this happened since Kerry’s appointment is either naive or foolish. Something tells me Obama re-opened some of the channels Dubya burned after the goodwill of 9/11 and pushed the Swiss to get Iran anywhere near a table. That is years and years of diplomacy with many setbacks and pratfalls. Foggy Bottom done good here.
piratedan
@? Martin: I would agree, how many missteps did we take while the Arab Spring was going on? As far as foreign policy goes, at least as what gets published in the semi-MSM and that folks on boards that I read have covered, we’ve made strides in the Middle East, out of Iraq for the most part, getting out of Afghanistan. Have earned some cred in the Arab community (not a whole lot, but some) by keeping the tyrants from genocide but not stepping in and dictating the outcomes. Really, outside of Pakistan, North Korea and Venezuela, we’re more or less getting along with folks internationally (although the actions of Russia and China post Snowden make me think that these guys think that they can play Obama and I’m not very sure of that)
askew
@? Martin:
Eh, she likely laid some of the ground work. I am just sick of her supporters who claimed that she was one of the greatest SoS and that Kerry would be a letdown. Also, just getting my preemptive strike in for when she takes credit for all of Kerry and Obama’s work. Nothing Hillary likes more than taking credit for other people’s hard work.
Omnes Omnibus
@Amir Khalid: There are a number of people who have not been able to leave behind hard feelings from the 2008 campaign. Some on the Clinton side and some on the Obama side. Personally, I think it is idiotic.
Roger Moore
@Captain C:
I think invading Iraq would have to rank higher on the list. It’s probably the worst foreign policy blunder in US history, unless you’re willing to count the whole series of blunders that got us into Vietnam as a single mistake. Of course both of them [ETA: Iraq and Iran] arose from the same basic overconfidence in the efficacy of American military power. The Bush/Cheney administration really seemed to have believed that we could accomplish everything we needed in foreign relations by application of sufficient firepower.
Bubblegum Tate
@Roger Moore:
It’s
turtlespolitics all the way down.GregB
@David Koch:
Jeepers, that is laugh out loud funny.
Suffern ACE
Hah. Something good must have happened; The democrats are tearing themselves apart trying to assign the credit.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anybodybuther2016: You are an idiot. I was an early Kerry supporter in 2004, and I think Kerry would have been an outstanding president. In 2008, I voted for Obama in the Ohio primary. I am not really in favor of Clinton running in 2016. But I also have no interest in falsely bad mouthing her. If she ends up as the Democratic nominee in 2016, I will happily vote for her. Same as in 2008.
Choosing this forum to attack her is insane.
Roger Moore
@Omnes Omnibus:
I think the name is all you need to look at. Anybodybuther2016 is obviously suffering from a severe case of HCDS.
Omnes Omnibus
@Roger Moore: I know. I know.
ETA: Sometimes I find it important to put things on the record. And, weirdly, I am a Kerry guy – if for no other reason but that he can’t do sound bytes.
Belafon
Leave it to the the Democrats to have two fringes instead of a wimpy single fringe like Tea Party Republicans. In 2008 we had the pro-Hillary PUMAs, and we’re starting to see the anti-Hillary PUMAs, though I expect they’ll be out in force in 2016.
Suffern ACE
@Belafon: the odd thing is that there is no difference between these “fringes” at all. Obama and Hillary are interchangeable.
Captain C
@Roger Moore: The reason I put it (slightly) higher is the effect it would have had on so many other things. Any number of tense international relationships could have been defused with Iran and the West on roughly the same page if not actively working in concert, and perhaps we’d have seen a version of the Arab Spring come earlier. I would certainly agree that the Iraq War did more damage, both to the U.S. and especially (and a lot more) to the Iraqis.
When you put the two fuckups in combination, I don’t think Bush-Cheney could have done worse if they had tried.
ETA: That is, unless they had actually invaded or attacked Iran.
Chris
@Omnes Omnibus:
Am I the only one who really had zero dog in that fight? Granted, I still wasn’t following politics quite as closely then as I do now, but as far as I could tell we had two Democrats whose policies were pretty close together on most things and I expected to be pretty happy no matter which one was in the White House.
Anybodybuther2016
@Omnes Omnibus: It wasn’t the fight for the nomination that left us with hard feelings. It was how the fight exposed a lot about the character of each of the candidates. Most of the vile disgusting rumors about PBO started in the Clinton camp whereas the worst thing he or any of the other candidates said about her was that she was trying to take credit for her husbands work which she was. Hilary Clinton doesn’t have character she is one.
RobertDSC-Power Mac G5 Dual
I’m glad.
Belafon
@Suffern ACE: Oh, I know. That’s what makes us even more special. We go out of our way to make things hard on ourselves.
rikyrah
Go Mr. President, go. Thank you Secretary Kerry
A Humble Lurker
@Roger Moore:
HCDS doesn’t exist. Or if it does, it’s incredibly rare. A lot rarer than it’s counterpart, anyway.
askew
@Suffern ACE:
They may share similar political views but their characters and temperment are polar opposites. Hillary lives for mudslinging and partisan warfare. She plays the media game and is overly invested in her legacy and place in the political world. There is also nothing she won’t say to win. No lie is too big. Obama doesn’t have any of those characteristics, which is why I voted for him. He’s honest (sometimes too honest), has no interest in the media spin game and cares more about getting stuff accomplished than making sure he gets credit for something. If you compare their Senate careers, you have Hillary who is playing the Senate/media game and doing nothing vs. Obama who is getting bills passed as a freshman and not wasting time on making sure he gets the PR for his work.
But, enough about Hillary. Tonight is about Kerry and Obama’s extraordinary work. Between this and the Syria deal, they really deserve a Nobel peace nod.
Now, they just need to get Israel and Palestine to the bargaining table.
Anybodybuther2016
@Omnes Omnibus: Choosing this forum to attack her is insane.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chris: I chose Obama in the primary, but I would have happily vote for Clinton in the general had she received the nomination. Part of my reasoning, though, was that Obama was of my generation. Less than three years older than me. We never met one another, but we share friends/acquaintances. I wouldn’t be unhappy if true Boomers are done with the presidency, either. There are a bunch of fights that I don’t think I want to be a part of any more. Vietnam is chief among them.
Anybodybuther2016
@Suffern ACE: you must be on crack if you think there is no difference between them.
Omnes Omnibus
Jesus fucking Christ. A really good thing happens and people want to turn it into a Clinton-slanging? In-fucking-sane.
Anybodybuther2016
@A Humble Lurker: I hear CFS (Clinton Fatigue Syndrome) is more common. ;)
askew
@Omnes Omnibus:
Boy do I agree with you on this.I still remember the frustration of the 2004 election when the media spent more time talking about the Vietnam War than the Iraq War.
JoyfulA
@Omnes Omnibus: We Silents got left out. The presidency went directly from not-the-Greatests Reagan and Bush Sr. to the Boomers.
Sarah, Proud and Tall
@Anybodybuther2016:
You are Mirror Universe myiq2xu and I claim my £5.
Omnes Omnibus
@askew: I just don’t want people savaging Clinton. She might well be the nominee in 2016. She will be leagues better than any GOP nominee. Right now, O’Malley intrigues me. Let’s see what happens and not fuck over a possible nominee in advance.
Omnes Omnibus
@JoyfulA: Well sorry, but I am not sure that it should go to anyone under 50 in the future. The job ages people.
askew
@Omnes Omnibus:
O’Malley is my choice right now. I can’t stand the Clintons but I’ll vote for her in the general if she gets the nod. I still think she might not run though. She is too old to be president IMO and she has had some health scares already.
Suffern ACE
@askew: @Anybodybuther2016: nope. I give askew +1 for at least trying to explain what the difference is. But seriously, these are generic 21st century Dems. Beige vs light Tan at best.
pseudonymous in nc
@? Martin:
Yep. In slightly different, but equally effective ways.
FWIW, my one issue with HRC is that she has hired some pretty ropey (cough, Mark Penn, cough) people and is will need to show a willingness to reach out beyond DC’s permanent political operative class to run a campaign in 2016.
Worth remembering that nonproliferation was one of the areas where Obama took a very immediate and active interest as a freshman senator, and did so by working with Dick Lugar.
Yatsuno
@Sarah, Proud and Tall: Okay I LOLed.
Sly
I guess Ralph Reed is done humping in corporate accounts.
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore:
All you have to do is dangle a shiny object in front of them, and they forget, completely, the previous shiny object that was dangled in front of them.
Redshirt
So what has Barry done for me lately? I mean like in the last 6 hours?
Villago Delenda Est
@Redshirt:
Took Bo for a walk?
? Martin
@pseudonymous in nc:
Yeah, I agree with that. As a candidate, I’m not terribly fond of her. But when she’s not taking positions for the electorate (Iraq, etc), I think she does well.
Redshirt
@Villago Delenda Est: Did he let Ron get an exclusive photo series? No? FAIL.
fuckwit
excellent. now on to cuba, n. korea, and israel.
Matt McIrvin
Uh… um… Let’s see… THIS IS EXACTLY LIKE IRAN CONTRA NOT A DIMES WORTH OF DIFFERENCE
Just One More Canuck
@Alison: “why in the precise fuck does anyone care what Ralph Reed has to say”
You could have stopped right there – why does anyone care what Ralph Reed says about anything?
Matt McIrvin
Speaking seriously, nuclear arms control has always been something Obama cares a lot about, going back to his days in the Senate, and it doesn’t get much attention. It’s a thing I really appreciate about him, though. Probably because, like me, he was young during the scary Cold War re-escalation of the early 1980s.
Matt McIrvin
@pseudonymous in nc: Well, Mark Penn’s currently busy running the incompetent “Scroogled” ad campaign for Microsoft, so at least he’s probably out of the picture.
cmm
No one has yet mentioned this egregious little turd from Ari Fleischer: “The Iran deal and our allies: you can’t spell abandonment without OBAMA.”
geg6
@Matt McIrvin:
HA! That made me LOL just like Tweety. Sounded weird coming out of me and not my tv.
What good news, though! Congratulations to PBO and SoS Kerry. I have always had a soft spot for Kerry and was heartbroken by his ’04 loss. This makes me even prouder of that vote and volunteering than I already was.
geg6
@cmm:
There’s only one ally these fucks give a shit about and that’s Bibi. Not Israel, just Bibi. I hate that fucker with the heat of a thousand suns. Fucking murderous deranged piece of shit, that Bibi. Which is exactly why those dumb fucks Pittypat and Grampa Simpson love him so much. They actually WANT to be his hitmen.
JPL
@geg6: this
It would not surprise me if David Gregory has already called Bibi for his reaction.
cmm
Exactly. There is only one ally who would think this means we abandon them. I just don’t see how pulling the hands a few more minutes back from midnight is bad for Israel.
geg6
@cmm:
It’s not bad for Israel. It’s bad for Bibi. Now people might pay attention to the Warsaw ghetto he’s been recreating in the West Bank.
Mustang Bobby
Why anyone would ever pay any more attention to the thoughts of Ralph Reed than they would to the urine-soaked homeless guy on the corner screaming about the bats in his belfry is beyond me.
JWR
Speaking of Bibi:
“What was achieved last night in Geneva is not a historic agreement, it is a historic mistake,”
That was Bibi. This one’s from his minister of trade, and it’s a doozy:
“If in five years, a nuclear suitcase explodes in New York or Madrid,” Naftali Bennett, the Israeli minister of trade and industry, said, “it will be because of the agreement that was signed this morning.”
A real fortune teller, that one. With what Obama’s got to work with, I’d say he’s batting .1000.
(Oh yes, the link to CNN.)
Baud
@JWR:
Fixed.
Schlemizel
@Redshirt:
I LOVED him in “The Fugitive” on TV when I was a kid!
Matt McIrvin
@geg6: I really wonder what Ballmer was thinking. “We need to work on our image. Something like a political campaign… I know! We’ll hire the political genius whose finger on the pulse of the nation catapulted Hillary Clinton to victory in 2008! Uh…”
geg6
@Matt McIrvin:
Okay, you’re killing me this morning. I haven’t had enough coffee to be laughing this much.
JWR
@Baud: Fix accepted. But I sincerely hope you are proven wrong. ;-)
HeartlandLiberal
Of course the GOP had to respond, so John Cornyn tweetedley-deeted:
Amazing what WH will do to distract attention from O-care
— @JohnCornyn
JWR
@HeartlandLiberal: Last week it would’ve been Harry the nuclear terrorist or Benghazi!1!! or whatever. ~sigh~ Politics ends at the waters edge my sweet patootie, is what I say!
Schlemizel
@Matt McIrvin:
While I have never met the slimy turd I really would like to. I have to assume he is the consummate con man who could sell bottled water to a drowning man.
OTOH, I doubt that Ballmer is much of a judge. It is often assumed that someone who excels in one area has skills in others but in my experience the opposite is generally true. So maybe Penn has played out the suckers in politics and found a fat mark in the tech sector.
debbie
@Hill Dweller:
I had the tv on when they broke in with the news. I didn’t hear Gregory saying that. I’m not a fan of his, but fair is fair.
Roger Moore
@Villago Delenda Est:
Kind of like cats, then.
debbie
@geg6:
I’m already dreading the family arguments over the Thanksgiving table. There will doubtless be a prayer to save Israel from Obama. I’m wondering if I’ll be brave enough to pipe up, “Only by deposing Netanyahu.”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Roger Moore:
I think it was more Bush could have cared less and Darth Cheny and his neo-cons friends have never meet a war they didn’t like, provided they didn’t have to fight in it. Iran was just another vulnerable third world country they could target.
Matt
Shorter Ralph Reed: “WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THIS GIANT WAR-BONER?!”
biff diggerence
“What was achieved last night in Geneva is not a historic agreement, it is a historic mistake”
Hey, Bibi.
Fuck You. This agreement only confirms that 80 million Persians are no more and also no less important than 8 million Israelis.
Go back to bullshitting American morons that Israel is sacred because the Baby Jeebus was born there.
El Cid
@JWR:
If in 5 years Iran has developed–unlike apparently anyone–a nuclear fission bomb capable of being put in a suitcase, and then chooses to either directly deliver it or give this astonishing invention away to some terrorist nitwits, then they can look forward with satisfaction to no potential consequences, right?
After all, no one would then attack Iran, certainly not with nuclear weapons.
It’s just like all those nuclear wars we were constantly having with the USSR because nobody at all feared for war as a consequence of recklessly destructive acts against a powerful or indeed vastly more powerful nation-state.
biff diggerence
Perle, Wolfowitz, Feith and Ari Fleischer can now take that slow boat to Haifa.
And stay there.
chopper
@debbie:
It would be great to be at some super Christian thanksgiving where some dude coughs up that type of prayer. and be all ‘I’d like to offer a Jewish prayer. Dear lord, ignore the concern trolling from the guys who spent the better part of the last two millennia trying to off the Jewish people and only give a shit about Israel because its necessary for their end times fantasy where all the Jews die horribly anyway. Thx’
drops mic. walks away.
chopper
@Baud:
do people still believe in the horseshit about ‘suitcase nukes’? Tom Clancy is dead, you know.
biff diggerence
@chopper:
What would a suitcase nuke weigh? A couple hundred pounds.
Baud
@chopper:
That’s not even in the top 100 of ridiculous things they believe in.
Talentless Hack
@Belafon: And you had Democrat-for-a-day PUMAs in open primary states. Don’t forget about them.
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore:
Yes, but much less intelligent than cats.
Mike E
Heh, Vass Defferens musta tucked Anybody’sbutthurt?16 into bed with a lil kiss on the cheek, the troll chain remains unbroken.
W was the perfect prez for our indolent news media, Colbert aptly pointed it out, and now dead-enders are gladly lighting themselves on fire just to get some moar attention for themselves AND the stenographers who eagerly promote them. I, for one, welcome the warming glow!
Matt McIrvin
@El Cid: The Likud position has always been that the nation of Iran is collectively a suicide bomber, and will happily self-destruct just to burn Israel because they’re all crazy, in spite of all evidence to the contrary (which is just what they want you to think; they’re wily that way).
And the US Republican Party and more than a few Democrats go along.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
-WATB and republican troll, NR
liberal
@chopper: actually,I read somewhere about Israel telling the Soviets that the might want to take action X, lest a small portable nuke go off in one of their cities
liberal
@biff diggerence: Wikipedia claims the core of the W54 weighed a little more than 50 pounds. A different page says its M 388 delivery system weighed 76 #s.
Lex
I responded directly to Cornyn that if this was a distraction from Obamacare, I couldn’t wait for the next distraction. (A cure for global warming? World peace?) I’ve been on Twitter almost from the beginning and admittedly am not a Twitter star, but I got more favorites and retweets on that than on anything else I’ve ever tweeted.
Jay C
@PeakVT:
A different, and knottier problem, due to the presence in the US of a significant (locally significant, that is: but still not ignorable) domestic voting bloc who would be able to make a politically-viable fuss over any “sellout” over present Cuba policy – “sellout” in this case, meaning anything other than a do-over of the Bay of Pigs invasion.
Anything to do with Cuba is going to have to wait for Castro to croak, though – the old bastard is 88, but is still hanging in there in retirement – so who knows?
Ruckus
@Anybodybuther2016:
I’ve been against Mrs Clinton from the start but I have to admit that your reverse psychology is starting to work on me. Every time I see your nym or read one of your posts I lose a little of my resistance to voting for her. I think it may only take one or two more posts to get me in her camp. 4 or 5 and I may have to quit my job and work on her election full time. I mean I’m convinced that if someone is willing to be this much of a douchebag there must be something there to work for.
Ripley
Amazing what GOP will do to distract attention from fleecing Americans.
Chris
@JWR:
If a nuclear suitcase explodes in New York or Madrid, the odds are better than even that it came from Pakistan. If Iran by that point has an entire nuclear arsenal, the odds will still be better than even that it came from Pakistan.
The impolitic truth about the region is that our buddies the regimes in Riyadh and Islamabad are a far bigger problem over the long run for everyone involved than the one in Tehran.
Ruckus
@Matt McIrvin:
When trying to figure out MS you have to invert and rotate all your logical thought. That is the only way to understand them. It will give you a migraine and make you want to go out and buy an apple product, any apple product but you will at last understand MS logic. Watching them is like watching someone try to do a backwards, 2 1/2 with a twist, from the tuck. Off the low board. And then trying again and again.
chopper
@liberal:
the H-912 was pretty big.
Lurking Canadian
Ignorant foreigner question: Does this treaty need Senate ratification? And if so, is treaty ratification filibuster-able?
Cause I know some Senators who are looking for any excuse they can find to stick it the Sheriff.
chopper
If Iran, in five years, is able to go from zero to a fully functional bomb that will fit in a suitcase all while having their facilities inspected on a daily basis and being unable to test any device without the world flipping their shit, then we need to just hand the keys over to them cause they fucking win.
biff diggerence
@liberal: Thanks, I wanted to end that sentence with a question mark.
eemom
@Ruckus:
Late to the par-tay, but I must commend you on this. It is a little masterpiece.
sm*t cl*de
Notably not threatening that the nuclear suitcase will be from Iran.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Lurking Canadian:
Yes, a treaty can be filibustered. The treaty of Versailles, for instance, was filibustered.