Saturday, November 05, 2005
Bush Mum: President Bush
batted away questions about the CIA leak investigation Friday. He also declined to answer calls that he apologize for any administration official's involvement in the case. Bush refused to discuss if staff changes were in the cards. He used smoke and mirrors to deflect a question about whether Karl Rove, his top political adviser who remains under investigation in the CIA leak case, should stay on the job. And the president wouldn't comment on whether Rove told him the truth about his role in the events that led up the investigation. Like usual Bush said nothing and covered his ass at the expense of the nation.
PBS Hack In Hot Water: Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, the former head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, was
forced to step down as a member of its board on Thursday evening. The move came after the board began reviewing a confidential report by the inspector general of the corporation into accusations about Mr. Tomlinson's use of corporation money to promote more conservative programming.
Torture Chambers: The European Commission said Friday that it would encourage governments in Eastern Europe to comment
on allegations that the Central Intelligence Agency had set up secret prisons in the region to interrogate terrorism suspects.
Libby Says Not Guilty: I. Lewis Libby Jr.
pleaded not guilty to obstruction and perjury charges on Thursday in a case that lawyers on both sides acknowledged could stretch well into next year because of complications over access to classified material. We know a sociopath like Libby doesn't have a guilty conscience, but I doubt he is innocent of the charges of covering his boss Dick Cheney's butt.
Intelligent Design Fiasco: Attorneys clashed in a federal courtroom Friday as a
landmark trial over intelligent design and evolution came to an end. The case grew out of a decision last year by school board members in Dover, Pa., to tell biology students about intelligent design — a theory that living organisms are so biologically complex that they were created by a "designer."
High Gas Prices Hurt Job Growth: Job growth was surprisingly
meager last month, the Labor Department reported yesterday, in a sign that business executives have become worried that the economic damage from high energy prices might be growing.
GOP Trashes Artic: The Senate yesterday narrowly approved a plan to
allow oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, paving the way for energy exploration in an environmentally sensitive region that has been closed to developers for more than four decades.
Ney Won't Go Away: Representative Bob Ney, the Ohio Republican who is chairman of the House Administration Committee, was
subpoenaed this week for documents and testimony in the federal corruption investigation of the Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, House officials announced Friday.
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Friday, November 04, 2005
I happen to agree with an
editorial today by
The Washington Blade's Chris Crain that the GLBT movement needs to get more aggressive. I think he lays out a solid case that we are letting our "friends" ignore our interests and that we are running away from a national conversation about marriage, to our own detriment. We can win the marriage debate within a decade, if we only have the courage to open our mouths and stand up for ourselves.
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Tens of thousands of people have gathered in the Argentine city of Plata del Mar to
protest President Bush's war on Iraq and international economic policies.
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Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., told Bush to
shove it today. The president wanted to railroad his Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito through the confirmation process, not giving senators enough time to review his record. Bush doesn't seem to understand that reviewing a person's record is important if you don't want to end up with a Michael "Brownie" Brown type in a key position - like the Supreme Court.
"It couldn't be done, " Specter said of the White House's push for a confirmation vote by Christmas. "We have to do it right, we can't do it fast." The committee hearing will start Jan. 9, he said, with a targeted Senate confirmation vote on Jan. 20.
Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., wins demagogue of the week. He suggested that Democrats can't do their job and review Alito's record, because it would ruin Christmas.
"Anybody who wants to blast this guy over the holiday season, before he's had a chance to speak, is going to come out bad in the public eye."
So, I guess legitimate criticism is off limits until Santa leaves. Thanks Lindsey, for protecting the sanctity of the Christmas spirit! The reindeer simply wouldn't be able to fly if we had an intelligent national debate about a judge with a lifetime appointment.
Let us hope Republicans will listen to Graham's snow job about the holidays and refrain from their usual smear campaigns, character assassinations and outright distortions. Now, that would be the perfect Christmas gift!
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A new
Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that for the first time in his presidency a majority of Americans question the integrity of Georg W. Bush. On almost every key measure of presidential character and performance, the survey found that Bush has never been less popular with the American people.
** A pathetic 39 percent approve of the job he is doing as president. (47 percent said they strongly disapprove of the way he was performing in office, compared with 35 percent who expressed strong disapproval in January. At the same time, the percentage who say they strongly approve of his performance has fallen from 33 percent last January to 20 percent today.)
** Nearly 7 in 10 -- 68 percent -- believe the country is seriously off course, while only 30 percent are optimistic,
the lowest level in more than nine years. Only 3 in 10 express high levels of confidence in Bush, while half say they have little or no confidence in this administration.
** 60 percent disapprove of his performance in office --
the highest level of disapproval ever recorded for Bush in Post-ABC polls.
** Just 35 percent of those surveyed rated the economy as either excellent or good, with 65 percent describing it as not so good or poor.
** 40 percent now view Bush as honest and trustworthy -- a
13 percentage point drop in the past 18 months.
** Nearly 6 in 10 -- 58 percent -- said they have
doubts about Bush's honesty, the first time in his presidency that more than half the country has
questioned his personal integrity.
** Nearly 6 in 10 -- 58 percent --
doubt Bush shares their values, while 40 percent say he does
** 52 percent say the charges against Libby signal the presence of
deeper ethical wrongdoing in the administration. Half believe White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, the president's top political hand, also did something wrong in the case -- about 6 in 10 say Rove should resign.
** 67 percent rate the administration
negatively on handling ethical matters, while just 32 percent give the administration positive marks.
** Four in 10 -- 43 percent -- say the level of
ethics and honesty in the federal government has fallen during Bush's presidency, while 17 percent say it has risen. (This means that 4 in 10 Americans think Bush's ethics are below Clinton's, even with the Monica incident)
** Fewer than half -- 47 percent -- said Bush is a strong leader, and Americans divided equally over whether Bush can be trusted in a crisis.
**
Here is the bad news: Judge Alito begins the confirmation process with the support of 49 percent of the public, while 29 percent say he should not be confirmed, the poll found. One in 5 Americans -- 22 percent -- did not yet know enough about him to make a judgment.
** Almost 8 in 10 -- 78 percent -- of Republicans support the president, while just 11 percent of Democrats rate him positively. (This truly makes me sad. Most Republicans continue to be in denial about the disaster they elected. It is time for Republicans to put America ahead of Team GOP. We need patriots, not parrots, to move this nation forward. The evidence against Bush is overwhelming. It is time for our Republican friends to start using their brains. Or go to Iraq and fight. The Army needs soldiers.)
**
Among independents, Bush's approval has plummeted since the beginning of the year. In the latest poll, 33 percent of independents approved of his performance, while 66 percent disapproved. In January, independents were evenly divided, with 49 percent approving and an equal percentage disapproving.
** About 3 in 4 -- 73 percent -- say there have been an
unacceptable level of casualties in Iraq. More than half -- 52 percent -- say the war with Iraq has not contributed to the long-term security of the United States.
** A clear majority -- 55 percent -- now says the administration
deliberately misled the country in making its case for war with Iraq -- a conflict that an even larger majority say is not worth the cost. (With a death toll over 2,000, this is a pretty serious poll number)
Folks, this is where the Bush presidency was headed before 9-11. After the attacks, people rightfully rallied around the president. But in doing so, they overlooked his shortcomings, moral malfeasance and gross incompetence. Bush had the chance to bring this nation together after we were attacked and instead he created wedge issues, a phony war and bogus terror alerts every time his poll numbers dropped. It was only a matter of time before the truth caught up to this administration. These awful poll numbers are a day of reckoning. However, if we want America to succeed, Republicans are going to have to admit they have made a terrible mistake. Sadly, they seem as arrogant and stubborn as the bum they elected. It is time to quit the divisive and destructive "Republican Revolution" and rejoin America.
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Thursday, November 03, 2005
The Washington Post reported today that Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald is snooping around looking for evidence to nail Karl Rove.
While Rove faces doubts about his White House status, there are new indications that he remains in legal jeopardy from Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald's criminal investigation of the Plame leak. The prosecutor spoke this week with an attorney for Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper about his client's conversations with Rove before and after Plame's identity became publicly known because of anonymous disclosures by White House officials, according to two sources familiar with the conversation.
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(Weekly Column)By
nominating a man known as "Scalia-lite" for the Supreme Court, President George W. Bush may have
picked a fight he is going to lose, unless the Democrats prove to be losers. The choice of Samuel A. Alito, a
right wing stalwart, to replace the moderate Sandra Day O'Connor is at once, audaciously brazen, spit-in-the eye insulting, nakedly partisan and just plain dumb.
Bad News Bush has watched his poll numbers sink faster than New Orleans. Yet, he makes a choice of swagger, even as he staggers. With his legacy on the rocks, he chooses a right wing rock star that is going to exacerbate his problems and derail his agenda. One look at the political landscape, and it is fair to ask, what is Bush thinking?
Lewis Libby was
indicted. Karl Rove is under investigation. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's R-Tenn. stock has fallen after and unseemly stock trade. And House Majority Leader
Tom DeLay was fingerprinted.
Meanwhile, Iraq is a bloody quagmire. Middle East peace is unraveling into an endless cycle of violence, with a series of Palestinian terrorist bombings, followed by Israeli retaliation. Iran's citizens are burning American flags and their new president
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he wanted to "wipe Israel off the map," at the very same time he is actively pursing nuclear weapons.
If that isn't enough, the
artic is melting, which may be a good thing, I guess, because America's heating bills are expected to be unaffordable, leaving may working class Americans in the cold this winter. Fortunately, the homes we will be heating are smaller because housing in most major cities in unaffordable. It is no longer enough to win the lottery to buy a family home in New York, DC, Seattle, San Francisco or San Diego -- you now have to win the power ball.
This avalanche of bad news is the backdrop for Alito's
confirmation battle. What is going to happen, I believe, is that the Democrats will be in a strong position to filibuster the nomination. The right will pressure a weakened Bill Frist to "go nuclear" with the GOP taking away the Democrats right to filibuster judicial nominees.
If the GOP goes down this nihilistic road, it will threaten their majority in the 2006 elections. They will, of course, try to portray the Democrats as obstructionist. But how can they make a credible case after the Democrats supported the Supreme Court nomination of conservative John Roberts, and a right wing cabal killed the nomination of Harriet Miers? The Democrats have the high ground in this fight, and if they lose the battle of public opinion, the party is in deep trouble.
The Democrats, especially Howard Dean and now
Sen. Harry Reid, have done a good job of making the case that the Republicans are taking America in the wrong direction. It is now crucial for them to show why they are the party to lead us in the right direction.
There is the temptation to wait until we are closer to the 2006 midterm Elections before introducing a powerful, coherent strategy, but that would be a huge mistake. The time to do this is now, while the GOP is treading water. There is a leadership vacuum in America. Will the Democrats fill it?
Creating a popular agenda for the Democrats is never easy and has inherent challenges. The GOP can always throw their right wing followers red meat. If the Democrats try to throw red meat to the base, about a quarter will claim to be vegetarians. It really is herding cats.
Democratic leaders, on the eve of a potentially monumental war over the Supreme Court, should lock themselves in a room and emerge only when they have created a positive, easily understood message. They should steal a page from New Gingrich's "Contract With America", and call their document, a "Partnership with America." It should avoid divisive social issues, focus on ending GOP corruption, real homeland security and sensible solutions for middle class families.
Partnership with America** Real Homeland Security: All ports, chemical plants and other key targets will be protected
** Restore fiscal sanity to the budget
** Energy independence within 10 years: The goal is to lower gas prices and get us out of the Middle East.
** Competence Over Cronyism for Appointments
** Sunshine over Secrecy in decision making
** Halliburton Rule: Bidding on all government contracts
** Real Healthcare Reform
** Repeal tax cuts for the wealthy to strengthen Social Security
** Raise the minimum wage
**Terri Schiavo Rule: Less intrusive government
Bush and the GOP are in the middle of a perfect storm. It is up to the Democrats to show that beyond the dark clouds, there is a party of light that will lead this nation.
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Wednesday, November 02, 2005
With all the political news this week, it has been easy to forget about the people in South Florida who are still recovering from Hurricane Wilma. Many people still don't have electricity or cable. My parents finally got their lights back on Monday. Here are a few pictures my father took of the devastation. Please send your wishes and good karma as South Floridians dig themselves out of the storm.
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The New York Times reports today that Alito has not built a large record on gay rights cases. According to the newspaper:
"While he has given the legal status of marriage a great deal of thought and has seemed to endorse a traditional understanding of it, he has not participated in any significant cases involving gay rights. People on both sides of the gay marriage debate will be reading many of Judge Alito's abortion opinions with intense interest.
But the
Boston Globe said today that Alito appeared to stand for
gay rights while a student and Princeton and produced a report with classmates calling for an abolition of sodomy laws.
The report, issued in 1971 by Alito and 16 other Princeton students, stemmed from a class assignment to study the 'boundaries of privacy in American society' and to recommend ways to protect individual rights. Alito wrote in the report's forward, "We sense a great threat to privacy in modern America. ...We all believe that privacy is too often sacrificed to other values; we all believe that the threat to privacy is steadily and rapidly mounting; we all believe that action must be taken on many fronts now to preserve privacy."
If this is true and indicative of how Alito feels today, it puts the right wing in a bind. Having sabotaged Harriet Miers, they are in no position to demand another litmus test for the Court. If Alito, by some fluke, turns out to be pro-gay, conservatives are screwed.
Stay tuned, as we learn more about the nomination.
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(Rep. Tom DeLay)Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, is trying to manipulate the court that will hear his corruption case, as if he were illegally gerrymandering congressional districts. Yesterday, he bumped judge Bob Perkins off his case because he is a partisan Democrat who has given small amounts of money to groups such as MoveOn.org.
I can see where DeLay is coming from, as I would not want to stand trial in front of a judge who had given money to The Family Research Council. The problem is, in Texas all judges are elected and therefore can be accused of some degree of partisanship. I am highly troubled that Perkins was replaced by Republican Judge B.B. Schraub. A Democrat who had not given to MoveOn.org should have been appointed to DeLay's scumbaggery case.
It is clear that Team DeLay is judge shopping and tampering with the judicial process. His lead lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, said as much when he claimed that Perkins was, "not the right judge for this case." Presumably, the "right judge" would be one who would let the oleaginous DeLay off the hook.
Most disturbing is that DeLay's defense team launched a smear campaign against Judge Perkins. They falsely claimed that he was connected to a MoveOn.org T-shirt with a mugshot of DeLay. This was a lie and after the damage was done, DeGuerin glibly said, "I found out I was wrong." How typical of politics in DeLay's slippery and underhanded world.
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(Sen. Harry Reid)Congratulations to the Democrats for finally taking a
strong stand against the manipulation of faulty intelligence that got our nation into a phony war with no end in sight. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., showed guts and grit in focusing the nation's attention on the stonewalling by the Bush administration and Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who have showed no real desire to get to the bottom of the Iraq debacle.
And, who can really blame these hapless Republicans from letting America know what really happened? The President "fixed" intelligence to send us to war. He sent out Condi, Cheney and Rummy to hard sell the war to the American people with horrible images of mushroom clouds and chemical weapons. They even snookered Colin Powell into making a fool of himself in front of the United Nations.
Now we all know that there were never weapons of mass destruction. The despicable and unpatriotic smear campaign against Joseph Wilson and other dissenters shows the lengths that the administration went to in an effort to cover up their pathological and calculated lies. America deserves to know the entire truth and the Democrats took a powerful symbolic step yesterday by invoking Rule 21, which called for a rare closed door session. Equally interesting was the churlish reaction by sniveling GOP Senate leaders over the maneuver.
"I'm astounded by this," racist Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss, whined. "I don't really know what the tenor of this is, or what the justification for it, and why this extreme, you know, approach was used."
"This was an affront to me personally," Sen. Majority Leader and stock market manipulator Bill Frist, R-Tenn., griped. "It's an affront to our leadership. It's an affront to the United States of America. And it's wrong."
Actually, creating a war under false pretenses, outing CIA agents, stalling an inquiry over war failures and having an indicted House leader is an affront to the United States of America. If only Frist and Lott would get as angry about the more than 2,000 American soldiers killed in their phony war!
The truth is, this maneuver by the Democrats had as much to do with the ill-advised Samuel Alito nomination to the Supreme Court, as it did with investigating the war. Harry Reid shrewdly showed how the Democrats will find technicalities, like Rule 21, to tie the Senate up in knots, if the Republicans use the "nuclear option" to prohibit filibusters for judicial nominees. It is about time the Democrats played hardball with the GOP bullies, who think they are above the law and can steamroll the opposition in the name of misplaced and false patriotism.
Modern conservatism has been a bizarre experiment in poor governance that has failed. The Bush regime has been divisive, destructive, demoralizing and deadly. They have also weakened our military. We can't get enough warm bodies to join the Army and the cold bodies of good soldiers are coming home in body bags that the administration won't allow us to see. If this does not deserve further investigation by the Senate, what does? It is time Republican Sen. Roberts gets off his rump and produces a report showing the truth about what happened. America is fortunate Harry Reid shined a spotlight on this worthy cause and sent a message to the GOP that they are prepared to fight.
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Tuesday, November 01, 2005
The latest USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll, taken over the weekend showed that 55 percent of Americans say that Bush's presidency is a failure. From a position of incredible weakness, he nominates a nut to the Supreme Court. Unless the Senate Judiciary Committee finds surprise writings that portray Judge Samuel A. Alito as a moderate, it looks like this is headed for
all out war, culminating with a filibuster. By choosing Alito, Bush has picked a fight he is going to lose.
Even a victory is really a defeat if Alito gets confirmed only by the Senate majority resorting to the so-called nuclear option. This will destabilize America and create a situation where half the nation views the Supreme Court as illegitimate. The Court already suffered a crushing blow after the Bush v. Gore decision. The only reason the bitterness subsided was because America pulled together after 9-11.
The biggest enemy to alito's nomination is the obnoxiously over-the-top celebrating of the
extreme right wing. They are practically doing backflips and end zone dances. Here are a few reasons why Alito's nomination is troubling:
** The Associated Press reported that Alito's 91 year old mother said that: "of course he's against abortion."
** Among the first people the Bush administration contacted prior to the public announcement of the nomination were right wing lunatics. Karl Rove personally called Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention. Ed Gillespie, former chairman of the Republican Party, called Paul Weyrich of Free Congress. A Rove deputy called Rev. Jerry Falwell. These are the crazy people that the White House is trying to satisfy. If Land, Weyrich and Falwell are happy, I'm usually not! This is a pretty big indication of how bad and divisive this nomination is for the nation.
** "The air went out of everything a month ago," said Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. "Now everything is getting inflated again...We are ready to rumble"
** "We are going to test the Gang of 14's [Moderate Senators] commitment to moderation," said Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention.
** "I think there were about eight to a dozen names that would have evoked great excitement, and he was definitely one of them," said Jordan Lawrence, a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund. Lawrence went on to compare the glee to a "combination of a wedding reception, Super Bowl party and a bar mitzvah."
Friends, when the right wing is celebrating like this, it is time that we say the party is over and do whatever it takes to defeat this awful nominee. Bush had a chance to unite America, but he instead chose confrontation, and that is what he shall get. The future of the court is hanging in the balance and this is when we must make our stand. We cannot allow the extreme right to turn back the clock and bring down this nation. We have had almost five years with the right running the show, and they have brought us nothing but pain, death, war, deficits, indictments, corruption, cronyism and political conflict. Have they done anything to make America better?
It is time we stand up and put an end to this assault on freedom, liberty and true American values. Unless new evidence surfaces, we must "Bork" the nomination of Samuel Alito.
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Monday, October 31, 2005
When will the idiot child George W. Bush learn that the right wing has held his fledgling presidency hostage and in the end will destroy his already bruised and bloodied legacy? Today, he continued down the path to historical oblivion and capitulated to right wing demands by nominating
Samuel A. Alito, known as "Scalia-lite", for the Supreme Court.
Lambda Legal immediately raised "red flags" over the nomination.
The Republicans are in a very weak position, after knee-capping Harriet Miers. The Democrats are in a stronger position after holding fire on Miers and confirming Roberts. Bush has no political capital to spend, at the moment. This means that if Alito turns out to be a right wing nut, the Democrats must filibuster the nomination. If the Republicans retaliate by going "nuclear", it will destabilize our country, cause the Supreme Court to be viewed by half the nation as illegitimate and hurt America. This will be a disaster that causes major setbacks for the Republican Party. As for now, let us sit back and wait to we
learn more about Scalia-lite. Here is a quick snapshot of his record.
** In 2001, Judge Alito authored a decision in Saxe v. State that declared unconstitutional a public school district policy that prohibited harassment against students because of their sexual orientation or other characteristics.
** Among his noteworthy opinions was his lone dissent in the 1991 case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey, in which the 3rd Circuit struck down a Pennsylvania law that included a provision requiring women seeking abortions to notify their spouses.
** In 2000, though, Alito joined the majority that found a New Jersey law banning late-term abortions unconstitutional. In his concurring opinion, Alito said the Supreme Court required such a ban to include an exception if the mother's health was endangered.
** In Fatin v. INS (1993), Alito joined the majority in ruling that an Iranian woman seeking asylum could establish eligibility based on citing that she would be persecuted for gender and belief in feminism.
HRC's Reaction: "President Bush chose to placate the far right instead of appealing tothe fair-minded values of the American people," said Human RightsCampaign President Joe Solmonese.
NGLTF's Reaction: "President Bush capitulated to the howling from the extreme, evangelical right and threw them red meat in the form of U.S. Circuit Court Judge Samuel Alito. The country will now be put through a wrenching, divisive and damaging confirmation process. One more travesty inflicted on this nation by the president and his right wing allies," said Matt Foreman, NGLTF's Executive Director.
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Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) held a hearing on a
proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution to ban gay marriage, saying swift approval by Congress and the states was needed to protect the country from "judicially imposed same-sex marriage."
The sky is falling for the GOP and they have turned to "Old Faithful" to bail them out -- gay bashing. What does it say about a political party that can only rally people by finding scapegoats? Republicans ought to be ashamed of the party's treatment of gay people - 25 percent of whom voted for Bush. I guess it is easier to go after gays than enact a positive, coherent agenda that lifts middle class Americans and moves the nation forward.
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(Paul Weyrich)After causing a late-term abortion of the
Miers nomination, the right wing is demanding that Bush choose a radical right wing nut for the Supreme Court. If the president doesn't act like a puppet and follow their explicit marching orders, the right is threatening to pick up their marbles and go home. Here are a few quotes from The
New York Times:
Paul Weyrich, Free Congress Foundation"If we don't get a good nominee - if it's somebody else who is a stealth candidate, and we don't know what their judicial philosophy is - well then that will be the end of the Bush coalition."
William Kristol, Editor, The Weekly Standard"To the degree that Bush was enamored of a stealth strategy, I have got to believe he has learned there is a real downside."
Gary Bauer, Right Wing Leader"I am hopeful that the one thing that they may have learned from all of this is that if you are going to be in a fight in Washington, it is best to fight with your political opponents and not your friends."
James Dobson, Focus on the Family"I would hope that we would not have to go through yet another agonizing period where undisclosed facts are leaking out and alarming us."
Folks, I turned out to be dead on in
my column where I said that if either Richard Land or James Dobson pulled their support from Harriet Miers, she was doomed. In the
New York Times, Dobson said that he was going to pull his support from Miers, after it was discovered that she
might not be a right wing lunatic. It is scary to think that Dobson had veto power over a Supreme Court nominee, but it appears it may be true.
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Having worked in the PR biz, I've had to shovel ten pounds of shit into a five pound bag on more than one occasion. But, get a load of this spin job.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he wanted to "wipe Israel off the map". Instead of apologizing, he reiterated his statement saying, "My words are the Iranian nation's words. Westerners are free to comment, but their reaction is invalid." Totally embarrassed by his buffoon of a nutjob president, Ahmad Nateq Nouri, a senior cleric translates what Ahmadinejad really said.
"What the president meant was that we favor a fair and long-lasting peace in Palestine," Nouri told the Iranian Student News Agency.
Let me get this straight: "wipe Israel off the face of the map" = "a fair and long-lasting peace". Nice try Mac, but I'm not sure I'm buying it. Talk about trying to spin silk out of sour milk!
Sadly, this hate rhetoric is too typical of those who say they support the Palestinian cause. If the Palestinians would stop blowing up Jews they might actually have a state before the year 3025. Try channeling Martin Luther King Jr., instead of worshipping mindless martyrs. But, this whole wipe out Israel nonsense, is a dangerous delusion and severely undermines peace in the Middle East. It also makes the case for the U.S. or Israel to preemtively bomb Iran's incipient WMD program. World leaders who talk so irresponsibly simply can't be allowed to posses nuclear weapons.
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