That’s Right Nate

Unfortunately, Youtube kills the audio and I can’t figure out how to put Vimeo.com videos on the blog. Here’s a link to the video I made this morning while following the latest news from Iran. It’s probably the most serious thing you’ll see on this blog.

Today, Obama got a bit more forceful about Iran saying, “We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people.”  Unfortunately, he uses large words and by the time it gets translated into Farsi, it’s going to read as having the same impact as telling a waiter that you ordered your steak medium and he gave you medium.  The key to being forceful is to to call Iran evil.   For 8 years it worked quite well for George Bush and that’s why Republicans like myself are so disappointed to see Obama do away with the Bush strategy.

The key to being successful when dealing with Iran is to use strong language–exactly what Obama is avoiding.   Another technique is to threaten.   Obama refuses to do this because he doesn’t reallize that you don’t actually have to carry through on a threat for it to be effective.  Tell Iran that if another protester is so much as touched, we will be dropping a nuclear bomb in the center of Tehran.  We don’t actually need to do this, but that kind of rhetoric will get the Iranians to quickly cave.   Threaten them that we will send a massive army to conquer the country.  It doesn’t matter that we don’t have troops to spare.

I learned these lessons from my father.   One of the best parts of growing up was when my sister and I would get in trouble.   My dad would always tell us he was going to kick us out of the house or that he wouldn’t let mom give us food anymore.   The threats would get larger and larger and so totally preposterous that even at 7 I didn’t believe them.  I knew the odds of putting all my toys on a rocket ship and shooting them off into space was well beyond my father’s capabilities.  Still, the threats were great.   Eventually my sister and I would look forward into getting into trouble just so we could hear what threat my dad came up with next.   We used to love telling our friends about them.   This is exactly the approach that we Republicans want Obama to take with Iran.  Let’s make this a Happy Father’s Day in Iran by letting some good threats fly.

The Grand Old Party has fans all over the planet, not only in the United States.  It seems that the current fight for freedom in Iran was inspired by none other than Pete Hoekstra, John and the Republicans in the House of Representatives last year.   As Hoekstra said today via twitter, “Iranian twitter activity similar to what we did in House last year when Republicans were shut down in the House.”

This was backed up by Texas’s own John Culberson who said, “Good to see Iranian people move mountains w social media, shining sunlight on their repressive govt – Texans support their bid for freedom.”  He then added, “Oppressed minorities includeHouseRepubs: We are using social media to expose repression such as last night’s D clampdown shutting off amends.”

It is amazing to see our plight as a minority party has not been lost on the people of Iran who undoubtedly took inspiration from the Republican attempt to overthrow the opression of Nancy Pelosi.  I took heart to see the way that twitter users immediately came to their aid including many who changed the location on their profiles to Washington DC and their time zone to Eastern in order to confuse Democrats who were trying to use twitter to track down Republican sources of information.  To our brothers in Iran who continue to fight the tyrany of Islam, I wish you good luck in your revolution.   I can assure you that Christianity is worth it as is Democracy.

Over this past weekend, we have seen the people of Iran get beaten, shot, and stabbed as they fought to make their voices heard against a totalitarian state.  Tomorrow, there will be another protest, where brave men and women put themselves in harm’s way to demand that their votes be counted.  Less reported, is an equally heroic march in the United States.  The protester’s goal is nothing less than the firing of David Letterman.

Sure, they don’t have the media spotlight that the Iranians do, but the heroic selflessness of the New York protesters is an inspiration to all who believe in democracy.   These brave men and women will be ready to confront riot police and interns  outside of the Ed Sullivan Theater at 4;30 Eastern Time, an hour before Letterman goes on live.  While Ahmadinejad supposedly committed voter fraud, Mister Letterman most assuredly made an off color joke about Sarah Palin’s daughter.   At least the voters defrauded in Iran were adults.   I guess Bristol Palin is too, but she’s only 18.

The Letterman rally is the work of Michael Patrick Leahy best known for threatening to sue bloggers and tweaters.  However, standing up to David Letterman and the forces of CBS is going to be even more dangerous.   Stay safe Michael.  Our prayers go with you in your fight for freedom.

Not that you could find this out on American television.

Iranians take to the street in protest

As a Republican, I have a natural affinity for conservatives in all elections.   I was thrilled by the results in Europe last week, but this week it was tough to root for Ahmadinejad despite his conservative props.   Many Americans know he’s talked about destroying Israel, but few know that he has an admirable record in crushing feminists, labor unions, and the gay agenda in Iran.

I’m not surprised to see Iran’s regime having trouble keeping control of their people.   After all, when Reagan called the Soviets an “evil empire” and told Gorbachev, “tear down this wall” look at the effect he had on the Soviet Union.   Of course, it didn’t actually collapse until his successor was in the White House.   I’m sure having George Bush call the Iranians part of “the axis of evil” and warn them “you’re either with us or against us” had a similar effect on Iran.  Still, I think all Republicans naturally pull for the riot police when they see them fighting with rabble in the streets.

I believe that much of this is Obama’s fault.   For years, Ahmadinejad had been able to keep a tight grip on Iran by claiming the United States was the great Satan.   During his recent speech in Cairo, Obama disarmed much of the Iranian populace with his diplomatic posture.    Ajmadinejad no longer had a way to deflect criticism of his regime and the economy by calling on the country to unite against America.   Yet another classic example of Obama’s foreign policy naievte.

In the pictures I’ve seen from Iran, I have to admit that it is really hard to tell who are the protesters and who are the Muslims, but it is clear that many in Iran are outraged at the election results.  I don’t think any of us in this country can know what its like to cast a vote and have your candidate declared winner only to have victory snatched in the middle of the night, by a less than fair process and a government with a vested interest in the outcome of the election.

It seems to me that with Iran in chaos and many of the young people in the country crying out for freedom, that this is the perfect time to bomb them and take out their nuclear capabilities once and for all.   With their attention focused totally inward, they will not be able to stop us and there is a very good chance that we will be seen as liberators.   of course Obama would never do that.  He’ll probably just keep being diplomatic.  Isn’t that what got us in this fix in the first place?