THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† The Geneva Conventions For Jihadis: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warns that Iran would “cut off the hands” of any foreign enemy attacking his country, according to a report in the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency. “Before the enemies can put their fingers on the trigger, the armed forces will cut off their hands.”
Editorial Note: Proving yet again that Muslims can’t take a joke, The Associated Press reports that Iran Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mohammad Ali Hosseini “condemned” a joke made by GOP presidential candidate John McCain when asked about the U.S. having exported $158 million in cigarettes to Iran during Bush’s tenure: “Maybe that's a way of killing them.” As far as The Stiletto knows, Barack Obama, McCain and Bush Administration officials have yet to condemn Ahmadinejad’s threat of committing war crimes against captured enemy combatants.
† The Uniter: Part II: The New York Times reports that the moonbats are getting restless, and interviews several of them, including one Martha Shade, an artist who describes herself as “pretty far out of the mainstream”:
In the breathless weeks before the
Now, however, after critics have accused Mr. Obama of shifting positions on issues like the war in Iraq, the Bush administration’s program of wiretapping without warrants, gun control and the death penalty - all in what some view as a shameless play to a general election audience - Ms. Shade said she planned to switch back to the Green Party.
“I’m disgusted with him,” said Ms. Shade, an artist. “I can’t even listen to him anymore. He had such an opportunity, but all this ‘audacity of hope’ stuff, it’s blah, blah, blah. For all the independents he’s going to gain, he’s going to lose a lot of progressives.”
Of course, that depends on how you define progressives.
Indeed. The Times also interviews forgiving progressives, such as Nate Gulley (“It’s important not to get swept up in ‘Is Obama posturing?’ It’s self-evident that he’s a different kind of candidate.”) and pragmatic progressives, such as political analyst David Sirota (“He is a transformative politician, but he is still a politician.”)
Either that, or he’s too clever by a half. Washington Post columnist David Broder writes that while some think Obama’s zigzagging on the issues is meant to “confuse the opposition,” he may end up confusing voters, instead:
No one in recent decades has emerged as the party standard-bearer from so truncated a political career: four years in the U.S. Senate, during which he has yet to lead on any major domestic or foreign policy issue, preceded by largely anonymous service in the Illinois state Senate.
He won by convincing a narrow majority of Democratic voters that he could mobilize otherwise distrustful and alienated citizens with his promise to change Washington and to introduce a more open and less partisan brand of politics. Because his personal credibility was such a key to his success - and remains so - the changes now occurring in his positions have a significance far beyond themselves. …
Obama will be in trouble only if the pattern continues to the point that undecided voters come to believe that he has a character problem - that they really can't trust him.
Meanwhile, speaking at the National Governors Association's semiannual meeting former president Bill Clinton lamented that “the country is becoming increasingly polarized despite the historic nature of the Democratic primary,” according to a paraphrase of his comments by The Associated Press [emphasis, The Stiletto]. Being that these are Dems, “because of” would be more accurate than “despite.”
† To Tell The Truth: Part II (second item): With Barack Obama surrogates Ret. Gen. Wesley Clark and Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) questioning the relevance and value of John McCain’s stint as a POW in Viet Nam, historical filmmaker Debra Watkins has provided several never-before-seen still shots of his prison cell in the Hanoi Hilton to U.S News and World Report from 31 hours of footage she shot in 1993 and 1994 for a planned documentary. “She is now offering it to cable news companies because she has heard of reports of people questioning McCains POW experience.
In yet another example of an Obama surrogate disparaging McCain’s heroism informal Obama adviser Rand Beers made these remarks at recent gathering at the liberal Center for American Progress Action Fund in
“[M]embers of the Senate who were in the ground forces or who were ashore in Vietnam have a very different view of Vietnam … than John McCain does because he was in isolation essentially for many of those years and did not experience the turmoil here or the challenges that were involved for those of us who served in Vietnam during the Vietnam war.
“So I think to some extent his national security experience in that regard is sadly limited and I think it is reflected in some of the ways that he thinks about how
† The Other Shoe Drops (fourth item): Federal judge Arthur Spatt awarded $936K in unpaid back wages to two Indonesian housekeepers who were enslaved by Varsha and Mahender Sabhnani, a wealthy couple who immigrated from India and currently live in Muttontown, LI. The couple was also sentenced to jail.
Editorial Note: In an op-ed published by The New York Times, John R. Miller, the former State Department ambassador at large on modern slavery, takes issue with Department of Justice’s strenuous efforts to derail a bill that would put further the Bush administration’s anti-human trafficking efforts by streamlining the process by which victims get U.S. visas, and would require the Homeland Security and Health and Human Services Departments to data share and coordinate their activities to prevent human trafficking. For some unfathomable reason, DOJ even objects to “a citizen task force to help develop an information pamphlet for victims.”
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