Tim Russert Dead at 58
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Friday June 13, 2008
The Maestro of the Political Interview is dead. Long live the Maestro! This is a total and complete shock. This Leftwing Nutjob would like to extend his condolences to Mr. Russert’s family and to all political junkies everywhere. Little Russ, you will be missed.
Newsman Tim Russert dies at 58
Travelin' Man
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Sunday May 4, 2008
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was in India earlier this week, meeting in New Delhi with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and several cabinet ministers on an unoffical state visit.
President Ahmadinejad took the opportunity to tweak the United States over its “bullying” of Iran and other nations in their efforts to seek the use of nuclear power — a thinly veiled nuance to the United States as last year it had awarded India the right to purchase non-military American nuclear technology on the world market.
The Iran president had earlier in the month toured his own nuclear facility at Natanz, inspecting the site’s uranium enrichment centrifuges and other technology while on Iranian television, allowing the world to see up-close the progress it has made with its own nuclear initiative.
In related fashion news, President Ahmadinejad looked fashionably scientific as he donned a white lab coat and green booties for the tour, a look that served to accentuate his Don Johnson stubble and beady-eyed stare.
Iran and India True Friends: Ahmadinejad — Arab News.com
Western scientists intrigued by photos from Iran’s nuclear site — International Herald Tribune
Sabre Rattling, Texas Style
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Sunday May 4, 2008
The disclosure last week of both video tape and photographs of a purported Syrian nuclear reactor —which was later destroyed by an Israeli air strike — are now being used by the Smirking POTUS as a warning to those who dare challenge the will of the Bush Doctrine.
Speaking at the White House this past Tuesday, Mr. Bush made it clear in no uncertain terms that both Iran and North Korea face the same threat of an air strike within their sovereign borders if they choose not to cooperate with the UN Security Council and come clean about their own respective nuclear programs.
The mysterious destruction of the nuclear facility, which, according to intelligence materials, appeared to be of a North Korean design, had not been officially confirmed by either side until last week.
Syria, which has continually denied that anything at all had occurred last September in the desert south-west of its Damascus capital, later scrubbed the site clean. Israel, for its part, while trying to contain its glee, was nevertheless forced to deal with Benjamin Netanyahu’s unguarded statements that it was, indeed, the Israeli air force that had done the deed. He later retracted his statement.
Now, with the United States coming forward with what it knows — ostensibly because the environment in the Middle East is currently less volatile — the whole bloody mess is being turned into a propaganda campaign, with the Bush Administration attempting to use the disclosure to try and get North Korea to live up to is obligations and sign some kind of agreement about limiting its own nuclear ambitions, while at the same time saving face with the right wing of the Republican Party.
Ladies and gentlemen, this Leftwing Nutjob wonders whether or not the Smirking POUTS “sprint to the finish” mentality regarding his few remaining months in office is now forcing him to accept any kind of foreign policy accomplishment, however limiting, even if it compromises the now flawed neo-conservative world view. And as it currently stands, North Korea may end up signing an agreement that is less stringent, less forthcoming than what President Bill Clinton secured nearly a decade ago, an agreement that was derided as nothing short of worthless by the current administration only two years ago.
I wouldn’t call President Bush’s foreign policy accomplishments over the past eight years a complete failure — after all, there is Poland — but its pretty darn close.
Bush defends Syria reactor claim — BBC News
Retirement
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Friday April 25, 2008
Michael Hayden, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, announced on Wednesday that he was giving up his day job as an Air Force Four Star General and will henceforth be devoting his full attention to running the ‘The Company’ after his retirement party this July.
Mr. Hayden, who has served in the USAF for 39 years, will enjoy a comfy pension of $204,000 a year after he hangs up his stars later this summer. That tidy sum will be in addition to the $172,000 salary that he will be bringing home to the wife and kids as the director of the all things clandestine at Langley, Virginia.
Mr. Hayden’s doppelgänger, actor Kurtwood Smith, was unavailable for comment.
Sources:
CIA director retiring from the Air Force — Air Force Times
GENERAL MICHAEL V. HAYDEN — Airforce.mil
Chemical Imbalance
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Tuesday April 22, 2008
Ali Hassan al-Majid, a first cousin of Iraq’s former head honcho Saddam Hussein and better known around the world by the moniker “Chemical Ali”, has suffered a heart attack while in U.S. custody according to officials.
Ali Hassan became infamous for his use of mustard, sarin, VX, and tubun chemical gas agents in 1998 against Kurdish civilians in Northern Iraq. He was later convicted of that and other crimes by an Iraqi court after his capture in 2006 by the U.S. military and was sentenced to hang by the neck until dead. Mr. Ali continues to appeal his conviction.
Ali Hassan, who apparently unhappy with the fact that he needed to share a bathroom with 3 other inmates, joined a hunger strike against such indignities just last Friday. It is unknown what affect Mr. Ali’s self-imposed starvation stunt played in his subsequent myocardial infarction.
Sources:
‘Chemical Ali’ is hospitalized in Iraq after hunger strike —Associated Press via Google News
Hussein Henchman Has Heart Attack — New York Times
Ali Hassan al-Majid — Wikipedia.org
Podcast #117
By Thomas JeffreyArticle Posted: Tuesday April 15, 2008
Leftwing Nutjob Podcast, Episode 117, for Sunday, April 13, 2008
Penn hits the bricks, Iran in the spotlight again, the Obama money machine, al Qaeda’s rising star and more!