Bachmann To Obama At White House Christmas Party: ‘Bomb, Bomb, Bomb... Bomb, Bomb Iran...’

Oh, wait, maybe it was John McCain, during his presidential campaign. But Michele Bachmann took the opportunity of the White House Christmas Party to urge Obama to order the bombing of Iran. Some folks are just full to overflowing with the Chrtistmas spirit...

Admit It: Obama Has Excellent Political Skills, When He's Inclined To Use Them

House GOP demands Pony

Obama and the House GOP both needed to make a point about the relative significance of things. The GOPers threatened... are still threatening, as far as I know... a government shutdown if Obama doesn't both sink his signature health care legislation and give them their entire conservative Christmas list, probably including a pony. Obama, on the other hand... well, let Daniel Strauss at TPM tell us about it:

The White House released a photo of President Barack Obama's phone call with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Friday.

...

The photo follows the White House announcing that the two leaders spoke on Friday. According to the Associated Press, the phone call was the first conversation between an American president and an Iranian president in three decades.

After the phone call Obama said it he could see the United States and Iran coming to an agreement concerning Iran's nuclear program

President Obama
calls
President Rouhani

Right. OK. Let's see. The GOPers demand a pony or they'll hold their breath 'til the government turns Blue. Meanwhile, OBAMA ESTABLISHES DIRECT LEADERSHIP TIES WITH AMERICA'S GREATEST NUCLEAR-CAPABLE ADVERSARY IN THE MIDDLE EAST FOR THE FIRST TIME IN DECADES. Hmmmm, which is more deserving of public attention? which event puts which event in perspective? Of course, the public could always find out from Fox News...

I wish I could like the man better as president, but I have to admit he can play the House GOP like a circus calliope...



AFTERTHOUGHT: Heh. It didn't dawn on me until later. It's not Obama's fault if the only tune anyone can play on the House GOP calliope is Waitin' for the Robert E. Lee...

Netan-yahoo Invades US Politics

David Jackson at USA Today:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his demands that the United States step up pressure on Iran's nuclear program have nothing to do with the U.S. presidential election.

"What's guiding me, contrary to what I have read in the United States, is not the American political calendar, " Netanyahu said on CNN's State of the Union. "It's the Iranian nuclear calender."

Netanyahu said "we know they (the Iranians) are working toward a (nuclear) weapon," and he wants the Obama administration to draw a "red line" that Iran cannot cross without inviting military action.

Such a red line "actually reduces the chance of a military conflict" because Iran will pull back its enrichment process rather than risk war, Netanyahu said.

Obama administration officials say economic sanctions are working in Iran, and have urged Israel not to launch any pre-emptive military action of its own.

...

Oh, give me a break... Benjamin Netanyahu reminds me a great deal of George W. Bush: a mean-spirited, reckless cowboy, a small child prone to tantrums when he doesn't get his way. And why not: with tantrums, he often gets his way. Israelis may like this guy, and the US may back Israel, but the two-year-old child has no business drawing the US into a preemptive, invasive war against yet another country that poses minimal military threat to the US. If Israel is so goddamned sure Iran is about to have nukes, but doesn't have them yet, let Israel bomb those presumably secret sites... what do we provide Israel all that high-tech weaponry for, if not so they can defend themselves? Why must the US change their diapers?

If Netanyahu insists on attacking Iran now, let him do it without American help. Israel is threatening a preemptive invasion, much like the one GeeDubya perpetrated against Iraq; we all saw how well that worked out for America. Now Bibi wants a second helping, and has shown clear signs of taking sides in the US presidential election in favor of Rmoney.

A word to the "wise": Bibi... keep your hands off our elections. If you meddle, you might just give us ideas about doing the same in Israel's politics. You wouldn't want that, I'm sure.