This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Jonn Lilyea

  • Myanmar government guns down nine more protesters

    According to the AP, nine more people were killed in Yangon, Myanmar today while 11 were wounded in anti-government protests, including an APF reporter;

    Among those killed was Kenji Nagai, 50, a journalist covering the protests in Yangon for Japanese video news agency APF News. He was confirmed dead after his father and a company representative identified him in a photo, a Japanese Embassy official in Myanmar told The Associated Press.

    Nagai had been covering the protests in Yangon since Tuesday, APF representative Toru Yamaji said.

    In Japan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Tokyo will lodge a protest against Myanmar’s military junta.

    An American eye witness talked to CNN;

    An American witness told CNN soldiers waded into a crowd of protesters in Myanmar and beat several of them mercilessly, at least one of them to death

    “All of a sudden, the police and military guys started coming toward the crowd, and all of a sudden started beating them and running after them,” said the woman, who witnessed the incident from atop a nearby building.

    “And in one corner they got around, maybe, five or seven people, and they started beating them so bad for almost five minutes, and then they took them and put them in trucks.

    “And there was this one guy, laying down on the floor, and he was dead. And then these same police came a few minutes later and picked him up and took him to the police station.”

    This time the “Saffron Revolution” was missing their most ardent protesters;

    Red-robed Buddhist monks who had led several days of marches were largely absent from the streets Thursday after soldiers raided monasteries the night before. Monks reportedly were beaten and taken into custody or confined to the monasteries.

    “This morning, around noon, we went around the city and we saw that most of the monasteries were locked and we saw some of the monks inside,” the American witness said. “So the government is keeping them locked because they don’t want them to go out and protest anymore.”

    She said the soldiers used batons, rifle butts and riot shields to beat the protesters.

    “It was a crowd of, I would say, around 2,000 people, between 2,000 and 3,000 people today, and they … put 10 monks in front of them as a human shield. But the police didn’t care. They just came and started even beating the monks,” she said.

    Streets that had been jammed with as many as 100,000 protesters were deserted by 6 p.m. after the violent crackdown, the witness said.

    “Right now it’s a ghost town. I mean, nobody’s outside. Everybody is so afraid,” she said.

    “Please, these people need help,” the woman said. “It’s inhumane what’s happening here.”

    Not to worry, Anonomous Witness, the UN is on it’s way;

    After initial resistance from China, the U.N. Security Council issued a statement of concern about Myanmar’s violent crackdown on Buddhist monks and urged the military regime to let in a special envoy.

    Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, was expected to leave for the region Wednesday night after briefing the emergency council meeting in the afternoon on the fatal violence.

    Council diplomats said China, which has close economic ties to Myanmar, did not want any document issued after the closed-door session but relented and agreed to a brief statement, which was read to reporters by France’s U.N. Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert.

    And the UN is not just making strong statements, there’ll be emergency meetings, too;

    The U.N. Security Council was to hold an emergency meeting here Wednesday over deadly clashes between anti-government protesters and the military junta in Myanmar as the White House described the situation there as “troubling.”

    That should have that Myanmarian junta shaking in their collective boots.

    The State Department has background on the current turmoil and some historical perspective. Closet Republican gives us an historical overview.

    Kate from A Columbo-Americana’s Perspective emailed me about a protest outside of the Myanmar Embassy tomorrow afternoon at 4pm. I might head over and put up some pictures and videos on the Old Blog tomorrow night.

    Michael Goldfarb, Gateway Pundit, Michelle Malkin and Andrew Sullivan have all the links that matter. TimesOnline has links to Burmese Blogs.

  • Democrats meltdown during Indian Summer

    Well, temperatures are back up in the 90s here in our nation’s Capitol thanks to an early Indian Summer – the unexpected turn about in weather has caused some Democrats to wilt in the face of Republicans steadfast rejection of a firm withdrawal date. According to Washington Post’s Dana Milbanks, wrinkled old relic of the segregation era, Robert Byrd was the looniest;

    Democrats’ anger has built for weeks over their failure to end the war in Iraq. When Defense Secretary Bob Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace arrived on Capitol Hill yesterday, the lid came off.

    Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Appropriations Committee, didn’t just harangue the two men. He did so in triplicate.

    The displeased Sen. Byrd: “All of this for a war — a war! a war!” (By Melina Mara — The Washington Post)

    “Funding for the war in Iraq will exceed 600 billion — billion! billion! — dollars!” the 89-year-old lawmaker bellowed, pointing his finger wildly while Gates picked at his cuticles.

    “All of this for a war — a war! a war! — that General Petraeus, two weeks ago, could not say had made Americans safer!”

    “A long-term presence could cost well in excess of 2 trillion — 2 trillion! Yes, you heard me — 2 trillion!”

    Byrd’s angry theatrics made for a performance reminiscent of Al Pacino in “Scent of a Woman.” And Byrd did Pacino one better: He invited the audience in the room to join him in heckling the witnesses, creating a responsive Greek chorus.

    Byrd: “Are we really seeking progress toward a stable, secure Iraq?”

    Read the whole thing, Byrd is actually becoming a caracature of himself. I guess Byrd is upset because that money we’re spending in Iraq could probably build a new skating rink named after him in Clarksburg or something.

    Even the main characters in the Democrat presidential campaign are caving in to the reality of Republicans’ stalwart stance (Washington Examiner);

    The leading Democratic White House hopefuls conceded Wednesday night they cannot guarantee to pull all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of the next presidential term in 2013.

    “I think it’s hard to project four years from now,” said Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois in the opening moments of a campaign debate in the nation’s first primary state.

    “It is very difficult to know what we’re going to be inheriting,” added Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

    “I cannot make that commitment,” said former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.

    Well, except for Chris Dodd – Mr. Waitress Sandwich himself – and Bill Richardson;

    “I’ll get the job done,” said Dodd, while Richardson said he would make sure the troops were home by the end of his first year in office.

    And then Edwards made a distinction about who is a bigger pussy, Edwards or Clinton - Edwards, of course, won (Washington Times);

    But that position came under immediate fire from former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who said that although he “cannot make that commitment,” he “would immediately begin to draw down 40,000 to 50,000 troops and begin to withdraw all troops out of Iraq.”

    The only exception would be to retain noncombat forces for humanitarian purposes, he said, estimating that this would require “about a brigade” of 3,500 to 5,000 troops.

    “Good people have differences about this issue. Senator Clinton said we would continue to have combat missions in Iraq. I would not have any combat mission in Iraq,” he said.

    Mrs. Clinton quickly denied Mr. Edwards’ assertion, saying that she intended only to retain counterterrorism forces there “aimed at al Qaeda in Iraq, but the vast majority of our troops will be out.” 

    But, at least the Senate has decided to involve themselves in the politics of Iraq instead of involving themselves in the politics over Iraq (Wall Street Journal);

    The Senate signaled strong bipartisan support for the U.S. taking a more regional, federal approach to power sharing in Iraq rather than continuing to promote a strong central government in Baghdad.

    The language, adopted 75-23, is nonbinding and leaves any final decisions to the Iraqis. But the vote reflects growing pressure on the Bush administration to encourage new approaches toward political reconciliation even if it means dividing power among different Iraqi factions.

    Recent votes have shown no consensus in Congress on the U.S. military strategy, but lawmakers from both parties cite a need for a “political surge” to match increased troop levels. The Iraqi constitution provides a potential framework for more local power sharing, and the Kurdistan regional government already is given broad administrative authority in three Iraqi provinces.

    At least the rancor is down, although the uselessness of Congress continues unabated.

  • The Nuanced Left and Ahmadinejad

    I may have been wrong early in the week when I said that no one on the Left could possibly think that Ahmadinejad had anything of value to offer the public in his scheduled speeches. I wasn’t wrong that he had nothing of value, I was wrong for giving the Left credit for having a bit of common sense. Apparently, they have none.

    While Congress got to work yesterday expanding sanctions against Iran and punishing the corporations that continue to support the 12th Century government, a small crowd of protesters vied for attention in front of the White House calling for a halt to our “planned invasion” of Iran (Washington Post);

    The 25 protesters, most of them from the Troops Out Now Coalition, walked in a circle on the sidewalk north of the White House, chanting “Get out of Iraq! Stay out of Iran!” and holding signs that read: “Don’t Terrorize Iran” and “Don’t Appease Israel.”

    “There’s a hysteria in the media emanating from New York . . . against the president of Iran,” coalition spokesman Larry Holmes said. “We’re here in response to what’s been going on in New York: the Columbia debate, the front pages of the tabloids, the electronic media, demonizing the president. And we know what it’s about.

    “We know that the government is in very advanced stages of planning for a war in Iran. They’ve got a naval armada” in the Persian Gulf, he said. “The Pentagon’s got its plans. And now we see the psychological preparation.”

    Um, maybe there are preparations because Iran would be a very dangerous government if if owned weapons with which they could obliterate entire races of people by pushing a button. And the only hysteria I see runs the other way – hysterical defense of govenment bent on destroying its neighbors and the rest of the civilized world.

    And the only reason that Iran is the target of the world’s ire stems from the fact that they don’t want to follow international protocols (Washington Post);

    Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed Tuesday not to give in to pressure by “arrogant powers” trying to force him to abandon his nation’s uranium-enrichment program and unilaterally declared that as far as he is concerned, “the nuclear issue of Iran is now closed.”

    In a fiery speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Ahmadinejad denounced what he called the “master-servant relationship of the Medieval Age” imposed by the United States and other leading nations through the Security Council. He expressed confidence that God would not allow the Bush administration to launch a military attack against his country and said Iran has “spared no effort to build confidence” that it wants only civilian energy, not nuclear weapons.

    Uh-uh, and that’s why they’re working on long-range missiles that reach Israel. Instead of working with the UN, Iran has sticking it’s finger in the eye of the UN and has so far disregarded no less than three deadlines established by the UN to prove to the world that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons – I wonder why they’d do – unless they’re building nuclear weapons, of course.

    Instead of working towards being a responsible nuclear power, Iran’s President sticks his finger in the eye of the UN, yet again, and makes unilateral declarations (Washington Times);

    “I officially announce that in our opinion the nuclear issue of Iran is now closed and has been turned into an ordinary [regulatory] matter,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said, speaking on the opening day of the U.N. General Assembly debate, hours after President Bush criticized the country’s human rights record.

    So let me guess who the Left is going to blame when Iran eventually becomes a nuclear power and starts firing off missiles at random.

    In an amazingly naive article in the Washington Post’s PostGlobal section, Ali Ettefagh writes “Wake Up, America” which turns out to be nothing but a footnote to Ahmadinejad’s three appearances this week in front of the US media. Claiming that we think Iran is still in the 1970’s, Ettefagh chastizes the US media for asking the Iranian president the same questions over-and-over;

    It was also amazing to see the American Rainman repeat the same questions over and over again. A reporter from CBS’ 60 Minutes asked tough questions in an interview in Tehran, which was broadcast on Sunday and subsequently reported in newspapers and more than 2000 websites. The very next day, the National Press Club members repeated the same questions, and later that day, an academic put the same questions to President Ahmedinejad a third time. Somehow, the CBS reporter, the National Press Club and the professor did not recall that it is their treasure and blood that funds Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and the death and destruction of Iraq. (They are probably too busy congratulating themselves on their massive foreign aid of US$20 per Palestinian!).

    Of course, Ahmadinejad’s apologist never bothers to mention that Ahmadinejad never answered any of the questions in a serious manner – and so the questions needed to be asked three times – to no result. But let’s change the subject of the unanswered questions and mention Abu Gahraib, Guantanamo and the fact that we only partially fund terrorist operations in the West Bank. Cuz it’s all the US’ fault – that’s thrown in for all of the guilt-ridden Leftists to get them slobbering and frothing about their sexual inadequacies and to get them raging at the Judeo-Christian neo-cons (and it works in this case).

    The truly amazing part of the piece, besides the fact that Ettefagh can apparently type while engaged in an air-tight lip-lock with Ahmadinejad, is the Washington Post’s readers comments which generally thank Ali for “thinking outside the box” as one writer, absolutely unafraid of worn cliches, puts it.

    I guess we should over look the fact that the “thinking” in this case, is pure propaganda mouthed by someone comfortably ensconced in Western culture while encouraging a blood-soaked tyrannt to bathe in even more blood while Ettefagh covers for him a half-a world away. And the “box” is nakedly-expressed aggressive intent to wipe out entire races of people so some wizard in a magic well can rise and rule the world. 

    I’m just simply amazed that the American Left can just chuck aside common sense in favor of pure politics, despite the risks to national security. Are universities just sucking the brains out of people these days?

  • How can we not act unilaterally?

    All I’ve heard the last six years is how “Bush The Cowboy” acted unilaterally against Afghanistan and Iraq and al Qaeda, in general. How could we not use the goodwill al Qaeda generated for us in taking potshots at us to gather a consensus worldwide to fight terrorism and evil…blah-blah-blah-blah! Well, let me ask these short-sighted imbeciles; what choice do we have besides acting unilaterally.

    Yesterday, President Bush told the UN they should do something about Myanmar or Burma or whatever it is today – a brutally repressive regime that the UN ignores (Bloodthirsty Liberal has a whole slew of posts on the situation there). There’s the Rawanda genocide, the Darfur genocide, Iranian and Syrian nuclear programs. Every single day I read from Little Green Footballs that “The Religion of Peace Strikes Again in Thailand“. Russia and China are ganging up, Venezuela’s Chavez is buying arms, suppressing opposition and forming military alliances at the cost of his own people’s living conditions.

    Anyone who reads Kamangir for a minute knows that Iran is a repressive government which squeezes the life out of it’s citizens daily.

    What has the community of nations done to ease suffering in North Korea? Besides pay-off the government to continue repressing their people.

    And who is stepping up? Where are all of the do-gooders who are sickened by these regimes and the absolute injustice? How can the US NOT be cowboys when the rest of the world is populated by pussies and pretentious pseudo-intellectuals who are willing to bide their time with useless sanctions and empty discussions while hundreds of thousands – no, millions – suffer daily.

    They suffer because they’re women, or because they’re the wrong color or the wrong religion, or because they want the right to speak freely, or because they’re gay – all of the reasons that these neo-liberals claim to be “their” issues, “their” reason to exist. And yet, they expect the Conservatives to do something about it, because they can’t summon the gumption to make the necessary decisions – it’s easier to let the suffering continue than to hitch-up their collective trousers and get off their dead collective ass.

    Who’s being the humanitarian here?

  • Bob Herbert; the ugliest side of racebaiting

    You’ve probably already read the drivel that Bob Herbert stole his weekly check with this week called The Ugly Side of the GOP. He begins his ignorant, valueless rant yapping about giving a Congressional vote to the District of Columbia;

    Enough is enough. Last week the Republicans showed once again just how anti-black their party really is.

    The Republicans are anti-black because they won’t give the District of Columbia a Congressional vote. The District is 65% black – that means there’s 175,000 whites and hispanics in the city that don’t gt a Congressional vote either. Does racist Herbert say a word about that? Nope, the Republicans didn’t change the law because they want to disenfranchise Blacks – most of those disenfranchised moved from a place where they had a Congressional vote to the District where they knew they wouldn’t have a Congressional vote.

    By moving 5 miles in any direction, a resident of the District could get a Congressional vote if it meant that much to them. So the residents of the District of Columbia choose to not have a Congressional vote.

    The only people who need a Congressional vote for the District are the politicians (most of whom are Black – so that must be the people Herbert is concerned about) who want to rape the American taxpayers. That’s the truth – the politicians in the District whip the masses into a frenzy with intellectually bankrupt platitudes to enrich themselves.

    I suppose Herbert blames the Republicans for Katrina, too, instead of the Democrat governor and mayor (a Black) who stood at a distance (in his comfy hotel room in Baton Rouge) and left the people of New Orleans to their fate despite pleas from the Republicans to evacuate the city.

    Someone should remind Herbert that it was a Republican Senate and President that enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1957 that formed the Civil Rights Commission. It was also Republicans that passed President Johnson’s Civil Rights Act of 1964 despite Democrat opposition.

    He also complains about “states’ rights” – that Ronald Reagan announced he was for states’ rights. I remind Herbert, despite his misuse of the word, the Constitution guarentees states’ rights in the 10th Amendment. Herbert should read it sometimes.

    He goes on (and on and on…);

    At the same time that the Republicans were killing Congressional representation for D.C. residents, the major G.O.P. candidates for president were offering a collective slap in the face to black voters nationally by refusing to participate in a long-scheduled, nationally televised debate focusing on issues important to minorities.

    Why should they waste their time addressing issues that Democrats (like Grand Kleagle Robert Byrd) have been paying lipservice to for decades. That’s all racebaiting thugs like Herbert care about – they don’t want solutions to problems, they just want someone to feel sorry for them and someone to tell them how helpless they are, and throw money at them. The Democrats do that well – other people’s money.

    Blacks have disenfranchised themselves – they bought into the Democrat rhetoric and they follow Democrats like sheep – for scraps. And then they demonize Blacks who choose to become Republicans. The Democrats take them for granted and Republicans just don’t work for their vote – because it’s a lost cause.

    And clowns like Herbert, who are in a position to change the way Blacks are treated in the political system, instead take the easy route and run to “Massa” and point out the fieldhands that are sneaking off the plantation.

  • Chavez the gladiator battling the evil oppressor

    While the Ahmadinejad play fades into history, the other dwarf on the world stage is busy pumping up his stunted image with the willful assistance of the Associated Press;

    “‘Gladiator’ — What a movie! I saw it three times,” [Hugo Chavez] tells an Associated Press reporter traveling with him in a Toyota 4Runner, along with his daughter and a state governor. “It’s confronting the empire, and confronting evil. … And you end up relating to that gladiator.”

    The parallel is unstated but clear. To Chavez, the United States is the empire, and he is the protagonist waging an epic struggle to bring justice to the oppressed of Venezuela and the world.

    Yes, the United States and George Bush, in particular, have so interferred with Chavez plans to conquer South America, haven’t they? He’s a brave soul to stand up to such a fearsome enemy. Dumbass. So interferring are we that we’ve sent hack-actor Kevin Spacey to undermine Chavez’ grip on power (h/t A Columbo-Americana’s Perspective) ;

    Actor Kevin Spacey met privately Monday with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, one of Washington’s most outspoken critics in Latin America.

    Neither Spacey — who has won Academy Awards for roles in “The Usual Suspects” and “American Beauty” — nor Chavez spoke to the press after the nearly three-hour encounter in the presidential palace in Caracas. They shook hands warmly on the red carpet as Spacey left after a dinner with Chavez.

    Another in long line of failing Hollywood-types dipping their toe in world politics half-assed understanding the causes they’re supporting – or not supporting. I guess all that’s important is that Chavez calls President Bush “The Devil” – that’s as deep as they go.

    And honestly, that’s as deep as Chavez goes, too. He’s made shallow promises to nearly every nation in South and Central America none of which have come to fruition. Of course this all the fault of the United States;

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday denied media reports that he clashed with his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at a Thursday meeting, saying the United States was behind the reports.

    “That is the handiwork of the Empire, but it will never achieve its goal of making us fight,” Chavez said during his Sunday radio and TV show “Hello, President.”

    Chavez promises are now extending to Europe as well;

    Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will visit France in November to discuss the fate of hostages, including prominent Franco-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt, held by Colombian Marxist rebels, the French President said Monday.
        “Mr. Chavez will visit France in November. I have spoken with him by phone three or four times over the past 15 days,” President Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.
        Chavez has offered to mediate between Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and the Marxist rebels who are holding 45 hostages including Betancourt, who has dual citizenship, and three Americans.
        “France’s obsession is to have Betancourt returned to her family as soon as possible,” he added.

    And don’t forget that he’s still best buds with Ahmadinejad;

    President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez, in a telephone conversation on Monday, called for further promotion of Tehran-Caracas cooperation.

    President Ahmadinejad is currently in New York to attend the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly to begin on Tuesday.

    “Ahmadinejad and Chavez are two brothers who have joined hands at international arena to establish peace and tranquility,” the Iranian president said.

    Of course – that’s why Chavez has tossed out Christian Missionaries from the Venezuelan interior but allows Hezzbollah (the Syrian client terrorists of Iran) to recruit there.

    The Devil’s Excrement explains why Chavez makes long term plans with foreigners instead of his own people;

    The first few years of Chavez’ presidency, you could tell he was frustrated with economic issues, he did not know how to manage them, did not understand them and could not control them, in contrast with social and political issues where he could really understand what the people wanted and used it to his advantage, blaming the previous forty years for all the problems.

    Since then, Chavez has learned that you can lie, exaggerate and make up numbers on just about any subject, but it is precisely in social issues where he has to walk a very fine line, because the people are not dumb. You can’t fool people into believing there is no crime or it has not increased, no inflation and he has stopped it, no shortages or a boom in housing. Thus, Chavez avoids these subjects. Chavez never says “we have built so many housing units…”, he knows that if he exaggerates, some people will feel that they were left out, so it is better to say “We will build so many thousand units…”. In a year, nobody will check anyway.

    And that’s how he manages his foreign policy – he deals in vague statements, empty promises, crowd pleasing emotional outbursts. Full of sound and fury signifying nothing. Chavez is more like Alonso Quixano (ingenious hidalgo Don Quioxte, knight errant) than a gladiator and socialism is his fair and elusive Lady Dulcinea.

    Bloodthirsty Liberal just cracks me up with his Chavez posts – everytime.

  • Protest at National Press Club tele-luncheon

    A small group of protesters gathered outside of the National Press Club on 14th and F Streets in Washington DC today, a few blocks from the White House, to protest members of the National Press Club lending a forum to Iranian cheif thug Ahmadinejad.

    There were probably two dozen and they were able to attract some minor media attention (outside of the NPC, though, it seems they’d attract more) while members of the National Press Club were listening to the Iranian President’s 45-minute speech. It was supposed to be followed by 30-minutes of questions from the Press Club, but given Ahmadinejad’s responses the night before on 60-minutes, I suspect that each of his “answers” began with the question “Are you a Zionist?”

    Regardless, here are the pictures.

    They were the politest protesters I’ve ever seen in DC – but they still endured some insults from this guy and the guy whose back you see on the otherside of the door. The comments were something about “why don’t they protest Abbas” or some such goalpost movement. When I got my camera out to photo him, the guy who insulted the protesters turned tail and ran inside the Press Club.

    The security guard had a very boring day.

    Here’s a video of some of the press coverage of the protest. I suppose the members of the press club went in through the parking garage because I didn’t see anyone enter at this door or at the other door where I kept my vigil by the ashtray. It was a small protest by very well-behaved protesters – something the media habitually avoids.

    Kesher Talk and Atlas Shrugs have pictures of the protest in New York at Ground Zero. Little Green Footballs discovers that DailyKos diarist thinks Ahmadinejad sounds “entirely too reasonable”. Michele Malkin has the whole “Mahmoudapalooza“. Hot Air on the “no gays in Iraq” comment. Ace of Spades has Republican candidates’ reactions to the Columbia farce.

    A Columbo-Americana’s Perspective had the NYT Live blog if you missed the whole thing like I did. She also has more pictures of the signs – Kate’s my protest buddy – she keeps me in line and out of jail.

  • Ahmadinejad short and stout

    Yes, it’s all about the Iranian President these days. The US is finding more evidence that we’re already at war with Iran while their head of state can’t summon the courage to admit it;

    Military spokesman Rear Adm. Mark Fox said U.S. troops were continuing to find Iranian-supplied weaponry including the Misagh 1, a portable surface-to-air missile that uses an infrared guidance system.

    Other advanced Iranian weaponry found in Iraq includes the RPG-29 rocket-propelled grenade, 240 mm rockets and armor-piercing roadside bombs known as explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, Fox said.

    Iran has denied U.S. allegations that it is smuggling weapons to Shiite militias in Iraq, a denial that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” aired Sunday.

    “We don’t need to do that. We are very much opposed to war and insecurity,” said Ahmadinejad, who arrived in New York Sunday to attend the U.N. General Assembly. “The insecurity in Iraq is detrimental to our interests.”

    We were at war with bin Laden for a decade before anyone recognized it, too. Kat-Missouri at Ace of Spades thinks this is the final confrontation that Ahmadinejad has been hoping for. Boker Tov, Boulder! says NYT banishes Ahmadinejad to the Metro section and quotes Ahmadinejad hatin’ in his own words.

    Meantime, the Iranians have shut down the border between Iran and the Kurds;

    Iran closed major border crossings with northern Iraq on Monday to protest the U.S. detention of an Iranian official the military accused of weapons smuggling, a Kurdish official said.

    At least four border gates have been closed and one remains open, the governor of the Kurdish province of Sulaimaniyah, Dana Ahmed Majeed, told The Associated Press. The move threatens the economy of Iraq’s northern region – one of the country’s few success stories.

    In Tehran, the public relations department in Iran’s Interior Ministry said no decision had been taken to shut the border.

    But Kurdish authorities said the Iranians began shutting down the crossing points late Sunday near the border towns of Banjiwin, Haj Omran, Halabja and Khanaqin.

    The closings came four days after U.S. troops arrested an Iranian official during a raid on a hotel in Sulaimaniyah, 160 miles northeast of Baghdad.

    The Iranians are so untrustworthy that they can’t even admit when they close the border – something people can see with their own eyes.

    Yesterday I linked up a Columbia students’ plea for Ahmadinejad to speak, but I wonder how those same students feel about the Iranian government closing down an Iranian website critical of the little fella?

    Iran’s judiciary has sealed off the offices of a popular news Web site critical of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s policies after journalists continued to update it despite official filtering, the Web site said.

    Rights groups and diplomats say there is a broad crackdown on dissenting voices in the Islamic state, which is under growing Western pressure over its disputed nuclear programme. The authorities deny such moves, saying they allow free speech.

    Blocking access to Baztab.com earlier this year was seen as part of the clampdown. Updates to the Web site, which is published in English and Farsi, were still available to Internet users outside Iran until the offices were sealed.

    The last item on the Web site carried the headline: “The wish of the presidential office was realised and Baztab’s offices were sealed off”. The site, when accessed via a link outside Iran, indicated it was last updated on Sept. 23

    Kamangir reports more on Baztab and adds;

     It is quite hillarious to remember Ahmadinejad’s claim that “Complete freedom exists in Iran and all individuals and groups can express their ideas

    He claims a right to speak out against our president and our policies in our own country, but denies his own people the right to do the same. And just as with Chavez, the American left defends behavior from the Iranian government that would send them into hyperdrive if it happened to them here.

    The Washington Times editorial board suggests questions that Columbia University students should ask the Iranian President;

     But in the event that anyone at Columbia seriously decides to challenge him, it would be nice to ask him things like: Why have you called the Holocaust a “myth” and a “sheer historic lie?” Why did you invite “scholars” like former Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard David Duke to Iran last year for a Holocaust-denial conference? A senior adviser to you and Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has talked about a strategy for the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization “by means of our suicide operations or by means of missiles.” Is this part of your government’s message of “peace?”

    Of course, I won’t be holding my breath waiting for the answers – nor will I wait for anyone allowed into the “forum” to summon the testicular fortitude to ask the questions. The Wall Street Journal even reports that some low-profile Democrats are miffed at Columbia University offering the forum to the little terrorist;

    But critics like Christine Quinn, Democratic speaker of the New York City Council, counter that the prestige of the institution offers the Iranian leader too high a perch. “He can say whatever he wants on any street corner — but should not be given center stage at one of New York’s most prestigious centers of higher education,” Ms. Quinn wrote Mr. Bollinger in a letter last week.

    Some lawmakers bemoan that Mr. Ahmadinejad and his delegation were even granted a visa to come to New York, a step the U.S., as host to the U.N., is essentially obliged to take.

    And the Republican New York Speaker of the Assembly threatened to cut off Columbia from the state teat;

    In an interview with The New York Sun, the speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, said lawmakers, outraged over Columbia’s insistence on allowing the Iranian president to speak at its World Leaders Forum, would consider reducing capital aid and other financial assistance to the school.

    Israel Matzav responds to the CU Alumni Association. Judith at Kesher Talk has the scivvy on today’s protests and a couple of photos of some of Ahmadinejad’s supporters here. Gateway Pundit reports that anti-Ahmadinejad ads don’t get the same discount rate at the NY Times as anti-Petraeus ads.

    Well, I’ll be in front of the National Press Club this morning where there’s supposed to be a protest against Ahmadinejad’s tele-luncheon (I’m guessing it’ll be in the club’s First Amendment Room on the top floor – if that’s not enough irony for you). The NPC website says their conference will start at noon- Ahmadinejad will speak for a half hour and take 45 minutes of questions from the assemblage. I can only imagine what those questions will be. Sort of like the 60 Minutes interview last night (I couldn’t watch the interview – the Giants were busy holding back the ‘Skins at the two yard line);

    Wallace tried to ask him about Hezbollah’s use of missiles, rockets furnished by Iran, but he wanted to talk about Israel’s attacks with American bombs.

    “The laser-guided bombs that have been given to the Zionists and they’re targeting the shelter of defenseless children and women,” the president said.

    “Who supports Hezbollah?” Wallace asked. “Who has given Hezbollah hundreds of millions of dollars for years? Who has given Hezbollah Iranian-made missiles and rockets that is making — that are making all kinds …” he continued as he was interrupted.

    “Are you the representative of the Zionist regime? Or a journalist?” Ahmadinejad asked Wallace.

    “I’m a journalist. I am a journalist,” Wallace replied.

    “This is not journalism, sir. Hezbollah is a popular organization in Lebanon, and they are defending their land,” the president said. “They are defending their own houses. And, according to the charter of the United Nations, every person has the right to defend his house.

    “What I’m saying is that the killing of innocents is reprehensible. And making this — the displacement of people and making them refugees, again, is reprehensible,”

    Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs has more on the ’60 Minutes’ interview. 

    Because I’m not a member of the NPC nor an “accedited” member of the press, I’ll just be standing on the corner taking pictures and reporting back to ya’all. Ya know, like the accedited media should be doing. I expect I should have pictures up by about 2PM today if anyone is interested.