by Patrick Adams, Patrick's World --
Tea Party protesters and Town Hall meeting attendees have been mocked and vilified by the American left in such a nasty hateful way, you wonder if liberals ever had an ounce of decency to begin with. Last week, we had a G20 Summit with hundreds of arrests after protesters threw rocks and became violent. Liberals were silent. We had hundreds of thousands, possibly a million people in Washington DC for the 9/12 Tea Party with no arrests. Liberals were outraged, calling them "angry mobs." The ugly political discourse we are witnessing today is a direct result of the fact that liberals are hypocrites, intellectually inconsistent and downright intellectually dishonest.
UPDATE
It's ironic that after writing this blog about how hypocritical it is that the left calls the right out for it's "ugly political discourse," Alan Grayson contributes this example: Grayson: Gop Wants You to Die.
END UPDATE
After the Tea Parties, Nancy Pelosi accused American citizens who were exercising their right of free speech of carrying swastikas and being part of a funded AstroTurf movement. The president also chided his own citizens in a way most management and leadership trainers will tell you is destructive to the relationship between a leader and his people.
Many liberals who accuse the Tea Party and Town Hall movements of being racist, hate mongering, anti-American are the same people who burned American flags and acted violently at anti war protests during the Vietnam and Iraqi wars. The Snooper Report said:
I didn't see anyone dropping their trousers and crapping on the American Flag at any of the Tea Parties. Did you? I didn't see anyone dragging the American Flag behind them as they walked around. Did you? I didn't see anyone vandalizing any private or government property at the rallies. Did you? Apparently, that is reserved for the anti-Americanist crowds to do and Nancy Pelosi says that they can do that because it is OK with her.
For years, liberals have screamed "freedom of speech" when protesting. But when the shoe is on the other foot, they don't think very highly of freedom of speech. They considered it patriotic to protest. Now, right wing protesters are considered unpatriotic.
"I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this (the Bush) administration somehow you're not patriotic," a shrill-sounding Clinton shouted during her address to Connecticut's Jefferson Jackson Bailey dinner. Oh well, you can throw that argument out the window. The shoe is on the other foot. That argument is no longer convenient for them.
It's the epitome of irony that the president of the United States goes before Congress and calls American citizens and government leaders liars and a few days later, he is complaining to the press about the political discourse on health care reform.
The liberal media, of course, continues the hypocrisy. Gary Fouse of Radarsite writes:Some of people's concerns have grown out of bogus claims spread by those whose only agenda is to kill reform at any cost. The best example is the claim made not just by radio and cable talk show hosts, but by prominent politicians, that we plan to set up panels of bureaucrats with the power to kill off senior citizens. Now, such a charge would be laughable if it weren't so cynical and irresponsible. It is a lie, plain and simple. - President Obama
I think it's important for the media, you know - not to do any media-bashing here - to recognize that right now, in this 24-hour news cycle, the easiest way to get on CNN is or Fox or any of the other stations, MSNBC is to say something rude and outrageous," Obama said on CNN's Sept. 20 "State of the Union." "If you're civil and polite and you're sensible and you don't exaggerate the-bad things about your opponent and you know, you might get on one of the Sunday shows. But you're not going to be on the loop. And, you know, part of what I'd like to see is all of us reward decency and civility in our political discourse. - President Obama
Pop culture also rears it's ugly head as the godless wonder himself decides he is going to take a "righteously indignant" position regarding health care reform on the Jay Leno Show:It's hard to put into words just how arrogant a man Keith Olbermann is after watching his performance on "Countdown" tonight, which was devoted to insulting the thousands of Americans who turned out to demonstrate against high taxes and profligate government spending today. And why did he insult them? Was it because they threw rocks at police, rioted or had to be taken off to jail? Hardly because that did not happen. No, Olbermann attacked them for having the temerity to protest high taxes and out-of-control spending.
Sarah Palin is the one who brought up death panel... And you know what, Sarah Palin? I got news for you, honey. If we were gonna get rid of useless people, you would be the first to go. -Bill MaherThere is no worst example of leftist hate mongering, hypocrisy and leftist lies than what comes out of the mouths of liberal bloggers, pundits and talk show hosts when discussing Sarah Palin. They have become a caricature of cynicism and negativity, demeaning themselves and making a mockery of the political debate as a whole.
Isn't it time we acknowledge that no human being with any passion and deeply held beliefs ever emerged flawless into the world? And that if every mistake, misstep, boneheaded decision, or error in judgment becomes an automatic disqualifier for public service, then we're going to be left with a political landscape filled with nothing but wrinkle-free, foible-free, passionless automatons who have never made a mistake because they never took the risk of having an original thought.This would have been an eloquent argument for Sarah Palin after the Katie Couric interview, don't you think? So now it's been proven. Liberals use one set of standards while judging their own, but conveniently toss those standards aside when judging conservatives like Palin. If it feels good just do it. There is no need to have sound footing for a liberal argument. It merely needs to float on whatever the "premise du jour" is.
Contrary to the media caricature (emphasis added after the soda went up my nose), the real Van Jones is a thoughtful leader who knows how to use words to move people to action. To stick him behind a desk, working out the details of tax credits for green jobs -- incredibly important though the job is -- was never the best use of his unique and abundant skills.Exchange the names Palin and Jones in the article and tweak a few words for the situational and gender differences and you could practically plagiarize it and use it as a defense of Sarah Palin and an explanation of how she was driven from office by a smear campaign.
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She’s built a capable staff that’s shielding her and providing her with some
basic political professionalism—she made her foreign-policy debut in Hong Kong
last week without incident. She’s touring the country on behalf of local
Republicans, building up a bank of politico IOUs. She’s got a fund-raising
effort going that’s aping the Obama Internet campaign (she may be the savviest
buyer of search terms in politics). And, with her blowout book, she’s going to
secure personal wealth as well as mightily advance her brand.
Difficulties mastered are opportunities won.
This week, I witnessed something in the checkout line at my local Safeway that broke my heart.
An older woman with two small children — I suspected her grandchildren — had just unloaded eggs, milk, bottled water and a dozen Rice-A-Roni boxes onto the belt. When she swiped her credit card, the clerk said it had been declined.
The line behind me was long. Many people had probably just gotten off work — so perhaps that was the reason for the deep sighs of impatient disapproval rather than any sense of compassion for the poor woman.It was the third time in two weeks that I had seen someone publicly humiliated in the grocery store when it came time to pay.
My country is definitely at a crossroad. Polling in the U.S. shows a majority of Americans no longer believe that their children will have a better future than they have had...that is a 1st.
When members of America’s greatest generation – the World War II generation –
lose their homes and their life savings because their retirement funds were
wiped after the financial collapse, people feel a great anger. There is suddenly
a growing sentiment to just “throw the bums out” of Washington, D.C. – and by
bums they mean the Republicans and the Democrats. Americans are suffering from
pay cuts and job losses, and they want to know why their elected leaders are not
tightening their belts. It’s not lost on people that Congress voted to exempt
themselves from the health care plan they are thrusting on the rest of the
nation. There is a growing sense of frustration on Main Street. But even in the
midst of crisis and despair, we see signs of hope.
In fact, it’s a sea change in America, I believe. Recently, there have been protests by ordinary Americans who marched on Washington to demand their government stop spending away their future. Large numbers of ordinary, middle-class Democrats,
Republicans, and Independents from all over the country marching on Washington?! You know something’s up!
These are the same people who flocked to the town halls this summer to face their elected officials who were home on hiatus from that distant capital and were now confronted with the people they represent. Big town hall meetings – video clips circulating coverage – people watching, feeling not so alone anymore.
The town halls and the Tea Party movement are both part of a growing grassroots consciousness among ordinary Americans who’ve decided that if they want real change, they must take the lead and not wait to be led. Real change – and, you know, you don’t need a title to do it.
“When our days become dreary with low hovering clouds of despair, and when
our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there
is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic
mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and
transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the
moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”
Let us realize that William Cullen Bryant is right: 'Truth crushed to the earth
will rise again.' Let us go out realizing that the Bible is right: 'Be not
deceived. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also
reap.' This is for hope for the future, and with this faith we will be
able to sing in some not too distant tomorrow with a cosmic past tense, 'We have
overcome, we have overcome, deep in my heart, I did believe we would overcome.'"
by Lisa Graas, editor --Librarian Jessamyn West, who blogs at librarian.net, writes, "Usually I’m just happy to see libraries even mentioned in national level politics, but not like this."
This seems like a good time to mention Banned Books Week, beginning Sept. 27, which celebrates the freedom to read. 2007's most challenged book was "And Tango Makes Three," a children's book about a penguin with two dads; books by Mark Twain and Alice Walker appear, again, on the list. Exactly what books Palin might have wanted to ban have not been identified (other than some unsupported rumors), but it's safe to assume that she won't be joining in to celebrate the idea that no books should be banned at all.
Taylor Griffin, a McCain spokesman, said Palin raised the issue of the library's policy because there had been widespread discussion in Wasilla at that time about banning books. She was trying to understand the city's policy, he said.
"Sarah Palin has never asked anyone to ban a book," Griffin said. "It shouldn't be surprising that the new mayor of a city that had seen recent protests over books and was in the process of re-evaluating the book-challenge policies at its library would ask the librarian what those policies were."
Palin Derangement Syndrome strikes again. This time it’s hysterical librarians and their readers on the Internet disseminating a bogus list of books Gov. Sarah Palin supposedly banned in 1996. Looks like some of these library people failed reading comprehension. Take a look at the list below and you’ll find books Gov. Palin supposedly tried to ban…that hadn’t even been published yet. Example: The Harry Potter books, the first of which wasn’t published until 1998.
The smear merchants who continue to circulate the list also failed to do a simple Google search, which would have showed them that the bogus Sarah Palin Banned Book List is almost an exact copy-and-paste reproduction of a generic list of “Books Banned at One Time or Another in the United States” that has been floating around the Internet for years. STACLU notes that the official Obama campaign website is also perpetuating the fraud. And it’s spread to craigslist, where some unhinged user is posting images likening Palin to Hitler. Here it is again.
[...]
It’s a fake. Not true. Total B.S. A lie.
If it gets sent to you by a moonbat friend or family member, set ‘em all straight. Fight the smears. They’ve only just begun.
She did not demand that books be banned from the Wasilla library. Some of the books on a widely circulated list were not even in print at the time. The librarian has said Palin asked a "What if?" question, but the librarian continued in her job through most of Palin's first term.
[...]
One accusation claims then-Mayor Palin threatened to fire Wasilla’s librarian for refusing to ban books from the town library. Some versions of the rumor come complete with a list of the books that Palin allegedly attempted to ban. Actually, Palin never asked that books be banned; no books were actually banned; and many of the books on the list that Palin supposedly wanted to censor weren't even in print at the time, proving that the list is a fabrication.
The book, which will be published on November 17, was a crash project. Ms. Palin actually moved temporarily to San Diego after she resigned the governorship in July so she could be close to her collaborator, Lynn Vincent. I bumped into Ms. Vincent, a former editor at the Christian-oriented World magazine, in New York a few weeks ago, where she had parked herself in a hotel close to the offices of HarperCollins while working on the book's final edits.
Ms. Vincent didn't reveal any details about the book, but did acknowledge it will describe Ms. Palin's frustration over her treatment by the staffers she inherited from the McCain campaign after her surprise pick as the GOP vice presidential nominee last year. Ms. Palin was booked on grueling interviews with hostile reporters while talk-show hosts such as Glenn Beck couldn't even get through to her aides. Mr. Beck tells me he was stunned when he picked up the phone one day just before the election to discover Sarah Palin was on the other end of the line. "She explained that she had been blocked from reaching her audience, so she was now 'going rogue' and booking her own interviews," Mr. Beck told me. "I was thrilled she had burst out of the cage they'd built for her and we were finally talking."
That incident was the only time Ms. Palin declared her independence from her keepers, and it's fitting that the title of her upcoming book will be "Going Rogue: An American Life."
Sarah Palin burst onto the political scene at the height of the 2008 presidential campaign and overnight became a national sensation. Adored by the right, bitterly reviled by the left, she is the most polarizing figure to emerge in American politics in decades. Yet for all the dirt digging and gossip that has surrounded her, very little is actually known about who she is, what she believes, and above all, about her plans for the future. In her new book, Sarah Palin tells the story of her Alaskan upbringing, her marriage and family life, her political career, her religious beliefs, and her meteoric rise to national prominence. With her customary blunt common sense, she sets the record straight about the many myths and lies that have been spun around her and lays out her vision for an America that is strong, independent, and free.
and is about 400 pages in length. In regards to the memoir itself, Burnham said:"It's her words, her life, and it's all there in full and fascinating detail."As the quote above states, the memoir was in her own words. Too bad the same can't be said for our president's books. Burnham also said:
"Governor Palin has been unbelievably conscientious and hands-on at every stage,
investing herself deeply and passionately in this project."
As President Obama fumbled badly at the UN and G-8 last week, Sarah Palin began redefining herself as presidential timber.With these words James Lewis begins his American Thinker article. In it he highlights the disaster that was President Obama's speeches before world leaders last week but praises Sarah Palin's speech in Hong Kong. While the president seems to be on a downward spiral, showing himself to be unprepared to deal with many things, including America's enemies, Sarah Palin is showing herself to be stepping further into a leadership role to take America forward.
So we are seeing a president who is way over his head. Obama has great political talent, but not nearly as great as his overweening pride. So he keeps over-reaching, and there is a good chance that we will see him hit the first massive brick wall in his health-care power-grab in the coming weeks. The Democrats may pass a symbolic medical package to save face for Obama --- but then watch American seniors turn out in the tens of millions next year to throw the bums out of the House and part of the Senate. Seniors see their Medicare being stolen from them and they are not going to forget that by election time 2010.
Obama seems to be incapable of controlling his own egomania, and that means further humiliations in the years ahead. Remember that Bill Clinton looked unbeatable in 1992 and was impeached by a Republican House in 1998. No president since Richard Nixon has been brought lower than Clinton was ten years ago. Today we may be seeing Obama at the very peak of his ballistic orbit, and just beginning to curve down.
But you can't beat a strong candidate with a weak one, and the GOP notoriously nominates some real duds. Palin has scared the Left into mass hysteria because of her star quality on the campaign trail with a visibly creaking John McCain. Sarah Palin is our only charismatic leader at this profoundly dangerous time. That is why her actions are so important to the fate of the GOP, and to the future of this country and the world. Her use of Facebook to make public policy statements has been both effective and smart. Palin is using the web just as Reagan used radio and TV, to get around the murderous filter of the media.
Sarah Palin gave an extraordinarily well-crafted speech in Hong Kong, a real Reagan speech. It almost sounds as if Henry Kissinger is advising her.
[...]
Since the election campaign, it seems that Sarah Palin recruited a top-notch team of advisors and political talent. The Hong Kong speech goes straight to her alleged weakness in foreign affairs, and it is a very good first step toward re-making her media image to be more substantive. The truth is that most of our media heads would not recognize foreign policy substance if it hit them right between the eyes. But they know the image of substance, and the Hong Kong speech was good on both appearance and reality. She demonstrated "gravitas" -- in the pop slogan of the early Bush years. We need more of the same, but she has now shown convincingly that she can do it.
Obama is in for real competition in 2012; since world peace and our national well-being are clearly at stake, the more strong conservatives emerge, the better off we will be. Obama is the very worst president for these times. It is important to defeat him in a fair fight. Palin can do it; so can some others, but she is exceptionally talented.
Sarah Palin is starting to slowly re-appear on the world scene. Now that she is free of the hopeless McCain campaign and no longer tied up in Alaska, she’s presenting a clear ideology with a potent delivery. It's a pure antidote to the current American pathology. Many U.S. Catholic leaders, so key to the liberal government’s ascendance, should try to hear what Sarah is ready to teach the country.- JP
[..]
From their holy offices many bishops are keen to promote uncontrolled immigration, an end to capital punishment for brutal killers, subsidized housing, and free healthcare even at the expense of the Catholic conscience. When we hear bishops condemn abortion today, we must ask ourselves if his Excellency has a sincere interest in what he is saying based upon his actions, or whether he is just using genocide to rally the faithful toward another deadly statist cause.
In her Asian speech Sarah Palin mentioned government re-distribution and its flaws. Considering all the compromises bishops have been making in the name of social justice, perhaps Mrs. Palin in her common sense way could teach from the lives of Christ and St. Mary Magdalene. It was not a small, simple thing for Magdalene to be changed by Jesus. She showed her gratitude with a priceless jar of perfume at the house of the Pharisee. Even with this extravagance, her loving affection, and the entirely humble spectacle the honor and appreciation could never repay. Regardless, the apostle Judas, humiliated by the scene and envious of the "misused" money, took what he saw as a weak moment to publicly challenge, "Why was not this ointment sold and given to the poor?"
Even for someone without any faith there was much to envy in Jesus. Judas must have been that way. He held the money bag, he was a thief and the other apostles had to go to him for what they needed. Although ill-gotten, that perfume still belonged to Mary. She had not stolen it. She broke the jar for Jesus. He had not asked for it. Where were Judas' rights in the matter? This exchange was not his to possess or to advise. Perhaps after years of deciding the fate of other people's money, he'd forgotten to whom things belong; he elevated his own choice and wisdom.
Speaking critically of the current U.S. political climate, Sarah Palin has said, "There is no justice in taking from one person and giving it to another." Some of our bishops might learn a thing or two from Palin. It sounds like she grasps the scriptural story of Mary Magdalene, Jesus, and Judas. I wonder whether some of our bishops do.
The Obama administration and Congressional leaders are hoping to save hundredsI hope Americans will use their brains and hearts here for a moment. The NYTimes admits that the Medicare system is "vast and inefficient". We agree. The solution to inefficiency, however, is not to make the system MORE vast by covering "tens of millions" who are not elderly and disabled and to do it on the very backs of the elderly and disabled.
of billions of dollars by slowing the growth of spending in the vast and
inefficient Medicare system that serves 45 million older and disabled Americans.
The savings would be used to help offset the costs of covering tens of millions
of uninsured people.
being in charge of making cuts in the health system that was put in place to cover the weakest among us and to set us on the road to making private purchase of health care illegal as they long for a single-payer plan.Medicare vouchers would give everyone on Medicare the chance to decide for
themselves which health plan to use, rather than leave that decision to
government bureaucrats. Such proposals are the kind of health care reform that
Republicans stand for: market-oriented, patient-centered, and
result-driven.
The White House talking points leave the rest of my arguments unanswered.
They don't respond to the idea that all individuals should get the same tax
benefits received by those who get coverage through their employers; that we
must reform our tort laws; and that we should allow Americans to buy insurance
across state lines. The White House also fails to respond to the Nyce/Schieber
study indicating that wages will fall if the government expands coverage without
reducing health care inflation rates.
One last thing: after President Obama's speech tonight, listen for which
pundits use the words "false", "scary", and "risky" in describing the proposals
I put forward. That's how you'll be able to tell who the White House counted as
"allies" worthy of receiving its talking points.
What on earth is wrong with this president?Senators Murkowski and Begich should be commended for continuing to fight for compensation for these heroes of World War II. Sarah Palin, as Governor, also wrote to the president back in January about the need for continued compensation for these patriots.In a strongly worded message to Congress outlining presidential priorities for a military spending bill, the Obama administration said Friday it disapproved of including money for pensions for 26 elderly members of the World
War II-era Alaska Territorial Guard.
The White House move drew swift rebuke from the state's two senators, Republican Lisa Murkowski and Democrat Mark Begich, who had together sponsored the pension fix.The legislation honors 26 elderly Alaskans who are the few remaining survivors of a military unit that served the country with valor, Murkowski said, calling the administration's direction "deeply disappointing, bordering on insensitive."
Iran has test-fired medium-range missiles, state TV reported on Monday, a day after the Islamic Republic's elite Revolutionary Guards launched short-range missiles as part of several days of war games.So Obama, should Americans be worried now?????
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will on Monday test-fire a missile which defence
analysts have said could hit Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf region, state
radio reported on Sunday. It said the surface-to-surface Shahab 3 missile
would be tested on the second day of missile manoeuvres by the elite
Revolutionary Guards that got under way on Sunday. Iran says the Shahab 3,
which has been tested several times in the past, can travel about 2,000 km.
(Reporting by Hossein Jaseb; writing by Fredrik Dahl; editing by Robin Pomeroy)
Today, Sarah Palin was scheduled to speak at a rally in New York opposing President Ahmadinejad of Iran who will speak at the UN. Due to pressure put on rally organizers by the Democratic Party, Palin was disinvited. Below are the remarks she intended to make at this rally. Palin describes the threat Iran imposes to the security of Israel, the world and the freedom of the Iranian people (particularly women), outlines a many-faceted plan -- rooted in bipartisanship -- for responding to this threat and ends with some tough words for the Iranian regime.
```````````````````````````I am honored to be with you and with leaders from across this great country
— leaders from different faiths and political parties united in a single voice
of outrage.
Tomorrow, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will come to New York — to the heart of what
he calls the Great Satan — and speak freely in this, a country whose demise he
has called for.
Ahmadinejad may choose his words carefully, but underneath all of the
rhetoric is an agenda that threatens all who seek a safer and freer world. We
gather here today to highlight the Iranian dictator's intentions and to call for
action to thwart him.
He must be stopped.
The world must awake to the threat this man poses to all of us. Ahmadinejad
denies that the Holocaust ever took place. He dreams of being an agent in a
"Final Solution" — the elimination of the Jewish people. He has called Israel a
"stinking corpse" that is "on its way to annihilation." Such talk cannot be
dismissed as the ravings of a madman — not when Iran just this summer tested
long-range Shahab-3 missiles capable of striking Tel Aviv, not when the Iranian
nuclear program is nearing completion, and not when Iran sponsors terrorists
that threaten and kill innocent people around the world.
The Iranian government wants nuclear weapons. The International Atomic
Energy Agency reports that Iran is running at least 3,800 centrifuges and that
its uranium enrichment capacity is rapidly improving. According to news reports,
U.S. intelligence agencies believe the Iranians may have enough nuclear material
to produce a bomb within a year.
The world has condemned these activities. The United Nations Security
Council has demanded that Iran suspend its illegal nuclear enrichment
activities. It has levied three rounds of sanctions. How has Ahmadinejad
responded? With the declaration that the "Iranian nation would not retreat one
iota" from its nuclear program.
So, what should we do about this growing threat? First, we must succeed in
Iraq. If we fail there, it will jeopardize the democracy the Iraqis have worked
so hard to build, and empower the extremists in neighboring Iran. Iran has armed
and trained terrorists who have killed our soldiers in Iraq, and it is Iran that
would benefit from an American defeat in Iraq.
If we retreat without leaving a stable Iraq, Iran's nuclear ambitions will
be bolstered. If Iran acquires nuclear weapons — they could share them tomorrow
with the terrorists they finance, arm, and train today. Iranian nuclear weapons
would set off a dangerous regional nuclear arms race that would make all of us
less safe.
But Iran is not only a regional threat; it threatens the entire world. It
is the no. 1 state sponsor of terrorism. It sponsors the world's most vicious
terrorist groups, Hamas and Hezbollah. Together, Iran and its terrorists are
responsible for the deaths of Americans in Lebanon in the 1980s, in Saudi Arabia
in the 1990s, and in Iraq today. They have murdered Iraqis, Lebanese,
Palestinians, and other Muslims who have resisted Iran's desire to dominate the
region. They have persecuted countless people simply because they are
Jewish.
Iran is responsible for attacks not only on Israelis, but on Jews living as
far away as Argentina. Anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial are part of Iran's
official ideology and murder is part of its official policy. Not even Iranian
citizens are safe from their government's threat to those who want to live,
work, and worship in peace. Politically-motivated abductions, torture, death by
stoning, flogging, and amputations are just some of its state-sanctioned
punishments.
It is said that the measure of a country is the treatment of its most
vulnerable citizens. By that standard, the Iranian government is both oppressive
and barbaric. Under Ahmadinejad's rule, Iranian women are some of the most
vulnerable citizens.
If an Iranian woman shows too much hair in public, she risks being beaten
or killed.If she walks down a public street in clothing that violates the state
dress code, she could be arrested.
But in the face of this harsh regime, the Iranian women have shown courage.
Despite threats to their lives and their families, Iranian women have sought
better treatment through the "One Million Signatures Campaign Demanding Changes to Discriminatory Laws." The authorities have reacted with predictable
barbarism. Last year, women's rights activist Delaram Ali was sentenced to 20
lashes and 10 months in prison for committing the crime of "propaganda against
the system." After international protests, the judiciary reduced her sentence to
"only" 10 lashes and 36 months in prison and then temporarily suspended her
sentence. She still faces the threat of imprisonment.
Earlier this year, Senator Clinton said that "Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps is in the forefront of that" effort. Senator Clinton argued that part of our response must include stronger sanctions, including the designation of the IRGC as a terrorist organization.John McCain and I could not agree more.
Senator Clinton understands the nature of this threat and what we must do
to confront it. This is an issue that should unite all Americans. Iran should
not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons. Period. And in a single voice, we
must be loud enough for the whole world to hear: Stop Iran!
Only by working together, across national, religious, and political differences, can we alter this regime's dangerous behavior. Iran has many vulnerabilities, including a regime weakened by sanctions and a population eager to embrace opportunities with the West. We must increase economic pressure to change Iran's behavior.
Tomorrow, Ahmadinejad will come to New York. On our soil, he will exercise
the right of freedom of speech — a right he denies his own people. He will share
his hateful agenda with the world. Our task is to focus the world on what can be
done to stop him.
We must rally the world to press for truly tough sanctions at the U.N. or with our allies if Iran's allies continue to block action in the U.N. We must start with restrictions on Iran's refined petroleum imports.
We must reduce our dependency on foreign oil to weaken Iran's economic
influence.
We must target the regime's assets abroad; bank accounts, investments, and
trading partners.President Ahmadinejad should be held accountable for inciting
genocide, a crime under international law.
We must sanction Iran's Central Bank and the Revolutionary Guard Corps —
which no one should doubt is a terrorist organization.Together, we can stop
Iran's nuclear program.
Senator McCain has made a solemn commitment that I strongly endorse: Never
again will we risk another Holocaust. And this is not a wish, a request, or a
plea to Israel's enemies. This is a promise that the United States and Israel
will honor, against any enemy who cares to test us. It is John McCain's promise
and it is my promise.
Thank you.
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