John McCain’s latest, taking Obama’s words out of context (of course), not noting that Obama said - correctly - that Iran was a minor threat compared to the Soviet Union:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhH2q6h7_Ow

I’ve little doubt though, that the ad will be effective. What it also is is the end of the line.
I’ve always marveled at how conservatives are […]

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So Yahoo/The Politico’s Mike Allen sits down with Condoleeza Rice to discuss Iran, and it’s Condi who comes off sounding sane.
Allen baits her - What’s the nightmare scenario if Iran gets Teh Bomb??? - and he’s obviously wanting her to say that Iran will immediately launch salvos at Israel or maybe even the good old […]

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The idea came out of the vice-president’s office. Of course.
Do they make false flag lapel pins?

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Speech today, and it’s a good one.

Sullivan has the text. Obama talks of opportunities missed as a result of the relentless focus on Iraq; and what he would do to bring the war to a close. Anyone who says “surrender” is simply lying:
George Bush and John McCain don’t have a strategy for success in Iraq - […]

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Sullivan, continuing to argue with Max Boot, makes a very good point:
But let me remind Boot that there was no mention before the war that we were there to secure oil supplies as he now argues.
In fact, that very idea was regarded as a left-wing smear. Nor were we told that we would invade and […]

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Phil Gramm’s comment continues to be batted around, and rightly so. McCain has ditstanced himself from the comment - but I get the idea that this is really what the right-wingers think; that the economy is doing just fine, and even if not it’s just a temporary bump, you live in the best country in […]

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It’s getting more and more obvious that our belligerent stance in the Mideast is a direct contributor to the deteriorating economic conditions in this country.
As in, here we have a story today in whcih the head of OPEC is warning that if Iran is attacked, oil prices would see an “ulimited” increase:
“We really cannot replace […]

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McCain seems to think so:
Republican presidential candidate John McCain was asked about an Associated Press report that $158 million in cigarettes have been shipped to Iran during George W. Bush’s presidency despite restrictions on U.S. exports to that country.
”Maybe that’s a way of killing them,” McCain told reporters, smiling as he waited for a cheesesteak […]

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The hubbub today is all about Iran firing off some missles that could hit Israel.
I’m rather confused by all this.
Israel has missles that could reach Iran, doesn’t it?
Indeed - we have missles that could reach Iran, right?
But Iran isn’t allowed to have missles with the same offensive capability?
Iran is obviously staging its war games with the […]

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Via Matt Y., a really handy chart to pull out next time your favorite winger suggests Iran is an existential threat.

UNITED STATES
IRAN

Population
303,824,646 (July 2008 est.)
65,875,223 (July 2008 est.)

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
$13.8 trillion (2007 est.)
$0.75 trillion (2007 est.)

Defense spending fiscal year 2009
(% of global total)
$711 billion (includes Iraq/Afghanistan)
48.4%
$7.2 billion
0.5%

Total troops
2,580,875
(1,498,157 active + 1,082,718 reserve)
895,000
(545,000 active + […]

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Hm. So Sy Hersh has a piece in the upcoming New Yorker about how we’re closer to war with Iran than anyone thinks; that last year, in fact, Congress ” approved 400 million dollars to ramp up covert operations in Iran to undermine Tehran’s leadership.”
And then we get this:
An Iranian navy commander leading a unit […]

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Sure. But it’s the only word some conservatives know.

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Sullivan:
A fascinating little moment on Fox News Sunday today. Bill Kristol airs the idea that if Obama looks as if he will win the election, Bush or Israel may be more likely to attack Iran before next January. Bush could say: Obama made me do it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuUnFIpSb-4

So if Bush worries “Obama won’t follow through on that […]

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…is Iran:
In an interview with former UN ambassador John Bolton today, Fox News anchor Gregg Jarrett asserted that Iran’s Shahab missile “could actually hit — I think — some military installations in the United States.” …
<snip>
The current range of Iran’s Shahab missiles is said to be 1,200 miles, but the United States and Iran are […]

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Not that Teh Leader or Darth Cheney wouldn’t, you understand. But if they do, batten down the hatches:
If the U.S. or Israel so much as drops a bomb on one of its reactors or its military training camps, Iran will shut down Gulf oil exports by launching a barrage of Chinese Silkworm missiles on tankers […]

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McClellan goes on Olbermann last night to talk about his book and says something destined to outrage the 28 pecenters, but which makes perfect, unfortunate sense for everyone else:
I think that you would need to take [the administration’s] comments [on Iran] very seriously and be skeptical.

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Iran has always been in “secret talks” with Eastasia… er, al Qaeda.
Watch for the “proof,” the causus belli to justify the attack we plan to make no matter what, in the coming months.

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This came up in the previous thread, and in fact comes up all the time with my winger correspondents, who seem to think that Israel, at some point, became the 51st state.
Israel is not the United States.
Israel is absolutely an ally, a crucial ally. And you may believe we owe some sort of moral fealty […]

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I’m tempted to say I don’t get this, but in fact I get it perfectly.
So Jimmy Carter “outs” Israel, saying it’s got about 150 nukes. Well, big surprise; Israel has long been thought to have a relatively large stable of warheads, and if you’re Israel, you’ve got to: it’s called deterrent.
But, of course, we’re currently […]

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Clueless, and proud of it:
Yesterday, the Wonk Room’s Matt Duss noted that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) often incorrectly portrays Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as if Ahmadinejad has a significant role in formulating Iranian foreign policy. He doesn’t. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Iran’s National Security Council set Iran’s foreign policy.
Yesterday, Time’s Joe Klein […]

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