Why Would Iran Fake It?

Mitchum is often quoted as saying “”Half the people in America are faking it.”  Seems they’re not alone.  Yesterday, we were treated to a display of Soviet-like militariaas Iran showed the world an impressive display of it’s missle ability. Or, were we?

Charles Johnson over at LGF has done some serious work with the propaganda pics released by Iran, showing  a multiple missle launch. My proxy seems to be having some problems with LGF at the moment, so I can’t say this link works… and so I won’t post it. But Suitably Flip has echoed the stuff, so we’re OK for the moment.

(Hmmmm. I wonder if LGF is under attack? It would explain what I’m seeing here. Maybe.)

The photos that SF has up are clearly doctored, and that particularly clear when the original photo, undoctored, also shows up on the net.

First, let me say I’m a little bit amused by the idea that the western media so quickly accepts any info coming from Iran without any checking whatever. This goes directly to what I’ve been saying about our press for some time, now, on matters of accuracy. That our press booted this one is beyond question. The only question is stupidity vs bias, and at the moment, I don’t know the answer to that question.  Either way, the weight of this screwup falls directly on the shoulders of AFP, far as I can see.

However that falls out, the question comes almost at once, why Iran would want to play it this way. Clearly, they’re faking their own weapons ability. But to what end?

This is speculation, but it seems to me that this was designed to provoke a response from Israel.  Why would Iran invite such an attack, if they’re so low on weaponry that they have to fake their own ability to create propaganda stills?  Because Iran is depending on some sort of help from their allies in the region, such as Syria. I wouldn’t put it past them to have planned this in advance.

Clearly, Israel will be able to walk over Iran in about 20 minutes, if they don’t stop for the traffic lights on the way in.  If Iran stood alone, here, I’d be fine with that.  But a move from Israel at this stage of the game will cause of a lot of faux Muslim outrage from places like Syria, and Jordan, and I’d not be too shocked to see Egypt get into the game at that point.

Of course, there’s one other reason for all of this; To increase the price of oil and destabilize the west thereby.  With oil markets reacting in a panic every time someone clears their throat over there, the result of the kind of sabre rattling we see now is affecting the oil markets in a way we’re just now starting to get our arms around. At the least, it’s extending this bubble we’re in, to some degree.

Launching such missles, then, even with the issue of the fauxtography, from the view of Iran’s leadership, is a win-win for them, even assuming Israel takes the bait and attacks.  That by the way is something I’m hearing Washington has been repeatedly warning them via the back channels against doing.

memeorandum and particularly Michelle Malkin have more.

Addendum: Via email, comes the question of Iran and their desire to attack anyone.

That’s an important question. They may well desire it,  but I have my doubts, based on my admittedly limited understanding of their current military ability, if they could, at least alone. There’s an old Russian saying: Rattling a sabre  makes noise. Drawing it does not.

I doubt Iran has the ability at the moment, to make a credible attack on anyone. If they were planning to do anything of the sort, on their own, they’d not be spending as much time andeffort of propaganda, faked or otherwise. My take is they’re trying to set something up so they cam claim the status of ‘victim’. And we all know what that status provides in the UN, and in much of the west. So do they.

Well, if Jesse Jackson is that pissed at Obama,  he must deserve a second look.

I kid you not, I got this on my way in this morning. they’re talking of course abut Jackson’s comment that he wanted to cut Obama’s nuts off. Or, word to that effect. Stoty here.  And it got me wondering just a bit; Jackson is perhaps the biggest target of White Democrats who will not vote for Obama. What if this comment of Jackson’s was staged to give Obama some white street creds?

Normally, I’d not give the man credit for being able to take part in any kind of coordinated effort, including arranging a lunch.  But with results like I saw this morning, and assuming of course this one guy I overheard this morning, wasn’t unique, it could hardly have been planned better.

If on the other hand, Jackson’s comment is genuine, what does this say about the much touted unity of the black vote, and the much touted unity of the Democrat party as a whole? Is it possible that we’ve just seen a fin in the water?

OTB has more on this, so does Sister Toldjah,The Jawa Report,Wizbang,Stop The ACLU, Riehl World View, La Shawn Barber’s Corner, Don Surber Michelle Malkin, and Patterico

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FISA passes the Senate.  Michelle has the story.   I wonder if BO’s website will cover his reaction to the taste of crow?    Expect much unpleasant reaction of the lefttards.

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• Boortz, today, says:
  

  Thomas Sowell has a great article on Barack Obama: “Many are for him for no more serious reasons than his mouth and his complexion.” That’s true, Mr. Sowell … but are you a racist for saying so?

  Well, how could that be? He’s black after all.  Maybe he’s not black enough? No, that doesn’t work either since there’s a lot of leftists out there tossing that charge at Obama, too. All of this is likely why he’s getting away with these quantum shifts in position.

• Speaking of Obama, that plane trouble he had was more dangerous than was let on, according to Popular Mechanics. Then again, they’ve been known to come out swinging for leftists in the past, so it all may be food for the conspiracy theoriests. Anything that keeps ihis name in the press is money they need not spend for name recognition elsewhere.
• If we take this story  as any indication, trusting in the global warming hucksters like Al Gore is a sign you’re missing a few marbles; Doctors are apparently officially labeling  “climate change delusion”,  a mental disorder.
• Speaking of mental disorders….  Naked people have little or no influence on society, said Mark Twain, though I’ve always wondered on what he based that observation.   Today I note someone who has apparently never heard of Twain, and whose room is current being fitted with rubber wallpaper.
• James Lileks who I quote al too infrequently here as compared to the quality of his work, makes a great point about vid games, and the mixed messages sent by busybodies trying to oversee control them…
  

  “Somehow a sim about saving relief workers by blowing up terrorists is BAD, but a game in which one plays a criminal who drives around town running over pedestrians is okay. I’d say boys are getting mixed messages, but they’re probably not listening to the boycotters on either side.”

  True. But I’m willing to bet the pols are, wherein lies the danger.

• So, Obama is ‘ embarrassed ” that we here in the states can’t speak other languages as a rule. Far as I’m concerned, it’s of far greater import that they learn English. I also note with interest however that the speech at the Brandenburg Gate he’s been planning to give will be in English. Doesn’t that make you wonder, just a little?
• The guy subbing this week for Quinn and Rose down in Pittsburgh notes a report that says high CO-2 is great for plants, which in turn produces more O^2.  I managed to find the article. Why aren’t the tree huggers celebrating?
• I see cop killer Mumia Abu Jamal is still making the same arguments that ahve been turned down previously. Let’s solve this…Just shoot the mudering bastard and be done with it, OK? Can I make my thought any clearer, here?
• Oh, and lest we forget, oil dropped again, today. The drop comes despite concerns over Iran’s sabre rattling, and adds to the comment I made this morning. This makes it what, four days straight of drops, now?

Yesterday, David and I both blogged regarding Nancy Pelosi’s stonewalling on energy management.  The saga continues today. I’d like you to see something. Here’s a letter ostensibly written by Pelosi, to President Bush:(with my commentary interjected.)

July 8, 2008

The Honorable George W. Bush
The President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

The severe energy price crisis facing millions of Americans compels strong presidential action to assist consumers and strengthen the economy.

Two months ago, after initially opposing our proposal to suspend government purchases of high-priced oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), you signed our bipartisan legislation into law.
But further action is needed to protect our economy. I call on you to use your authority as President to draw down a small portion of the oil held in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in order to expand available supplies and help reduce the record prices that are helping push the economy toward recession.

Since your Administration took office, the price of oil has increased from less than $30 per barrel to a recent record high of nearly $150, and the price of gasoline has risen from $1.47 per gallon to a record high of $4.11 per gallon.

The destabilizing impact of these price increases, driven both by market forces and by excessive speculation, has been devastating to tens of millions of Americans and businesses – and to our larger economy as a whole. These are the kinds of circumstances, in addition to national security conditions, in which utilization of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is more than justified.

As you are aware, there is nothing new or untested about releasing oil from the Reserve or deferring purchases during times of economic instability. You have done it yourself – as have President Clinton and President George H.W. Bush:

? 1990-1991 Desert Shield/Storm Drawdown. President George H.W. Bush withdrew oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve ahead of the first Gulf War on January 17, 1991. The Administration conducted a 4 million barrel test sale in August 1990 and a Presidentially-ordered drawdown of 17 million barrels in January 1991. According to the Energy Department, “The rapid decision to release crude oil from government-controlled stocks in the United States and other OECD countries helped calm the global oil market, and prices began to moderate. When the 1991 SPR drawdown was announced in conjunction with Operation Desert Storm, the price of oil immediately dropped $8 per barrel.”

? 2000 Swap in the Face of Rising Prices. In late 2000, President Bill Clinton authorized a swap of oil in which 30 million barrels were released from the SPR to address rising oil prices and alleviate the threat of a home heating oil crisis due to low inventories. The MIT expert testified: “The results were immediate, in spite of the fact that oil prices had not yet moved into the market – demonstrating the psychological impacts on the market when the U.S. signals its intention to act. . . By the end of the year, actual oil prices had dropped from $30.94 to $20.38 per barrel, a 34% decrease.”

? 2005 Hurricane Katrina, Drawdown. Your Administration also offered 30 million gallons of SPR oil (only 11 million gallons were actually withdrawn), helping reduce crude prices by about $5 a barrel.
Releasing oil from the Reserve is a tool to manage our national and economic security, and when judiciously used will in no way jeopardize national security. The Reserve is currently 97 percent full – the highest level ever – with enough oil to meet our national security needs. We have more oil in the SPR than we did in 2006 (702 million barrels vs. 688 million in 2006) when you deferred deliveries stating: “Our Strategic Reserve is sufficiently large enough to guard against any major supply disruption over the next few months.” The current inventory exceeds our International Energy Program commitment to maintain at least 90 days of oil stocks in reserve (when you include private and public stocks, as other countries do).

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, oil from SPR deployment can enter the market 13 days after a Presidential decision. Deploying a small portion of the resources in the SPR would provide much needed assistance to American consumers facing record prices and help our economy during a serious period of instability. I strongly urge you to use every available tool, including deployment of the SPR, to provide timely relief for American consumers and businesses.

Thank you for your consideration of this urgent request.

best regards,

NANCY PELOSI
Speaker of the House

A while ago, I asked how the Democrats planned to deal with all the whack jobs showing up to the convention in Denver, saying at least some of that was bound to be broadcast and therefore be a topic of discussion.

They appear to have found a way to deal with it. David Kuhn at The Politico:

Major television networks are considering curtailing coverage of the Democratic National Convention after Monday’s announcement that Barack Obama will accept his party’s nomination in a Denver stadium.

According to several broadcast executives, the networks will still cover all the major speeches. But beyond that, all options are open as they look for savings to balance out the anticipated costs surrounding the stadium event. The acceptance event is an unexpected departure from the traditional convention hall format for which they have spent months planning.

So, aside from the allousions to JFK, ( a politically desireable picture of Obama doing a little Choir Preaching) that stadium speech will apparently also serve the purpose of diverting news media attantion away from the politically undesirable picture of caged moonbats who will be protesting against everything at the convention.

Oil is now off for the third straight day, dropping a little over $5 yesterday.

Again, remember I said midsummer would be when the bubble breaks.

Americans are feed-up with paying over four dollars a gallon for gasoline.   Most members of Congress, republicans and a lot of democrats, agree and want to open-up domestic oil production.  Mrs. Pelosi does not.   Mrs. Pelosi would like to take the high price of gasoline and would push it even higher.  Susan Duclos, Wake up America, quotes one unnamed ‘rat:

Right now, our strategy on gas prices is ‘Drive small cars and wait for the wind”

Jared Allen and Mike Soraghan, Hill, report, “Energy bill out of gas:”

House Democrats are in a bind on the focal point of their energy plan.

Worried that a floor vote on any energy-related measure would trigger a Republican-forced vote on domestic drilling, the leadership has scrubbed the floor schedule of the energy legislation that it vowed to tackle after the Fourth of July recess.

No it is not that the energy bill is out of gas, rather it is that Mrs. Pelosi is out of ideas.   Lead, follow, or get out of the way.  Mrs. Pelosi you have become the problem.

Don Surber says the ‘rats are “clueless.”

Oh Mrs. Pelosi may have a clue, but it it is not how to represent the interests of the American people.

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• So, Ezra Klien is miffed that the New York Times didn’t write a hit peice on Limbaugh?  Ask me again why I’m ever more unimpressed by Klien.
• At some point, someone’s going to make mention of the idea that both Obama and McCain are tracking to the right. Apparently, my original perception was correct; the right is far more powerful than either candidate was giving them credit for while the Democrat nomination was still on the line. Now that’s decided….
• I note that oil is down around $8US in the last 48 hours. Remember, Midsummer, I said, is when this bubble will break.
• Iraq is making noise about a timetable for withdrawal. My read is this is noise over negotation.
• Obama is saying now that he needs to earn the trust of the troops. Newsfash, pard… if you don’t have that by now, you’re hosed. Interesting how the only time in his life he’s taken such matter seriously is when he’s coming up a few votes short, isn’t it? Demonstrating what a sham this is, it’s a surefire bet he doesn’t understand what caused this.
• Think Progress, a blog which involves neither thought nor progress, complains today about Goldberg’s apt linking of forced “volunteirism” to slavery.  Hey, guys? think “Draft” and recalculate. You do recall your objection to the draft when it was suppsoedly surrounding involuntary servitude, don’t you? Funny how that argument isn’t valid, here. Or were you, as I spspect, simply anti-Military at the time?
• And I’m sure we won’t hear much frm the MSM about Obama’s pals at Acorn and heir voter fraud
• Hey Tigerhawk… perhaps your problem is cars aren’t geared for 55, anymore. My Rainier SUV, for example works best at around 63. To mandate even slower travel is just plain stupid.
• Webb doesn’t want to be Obama’s VP. Perhaps he knows a losing ticket when he sees one?
• The approval rating for Congress has fallen to single numbers. And yet the media still is trying to sell us on the idea that the Democrats, who currently run that zoo, are going to remain in charge? What’s wrong with this picture?
• Hugo and Hezbollah. I mean, you’re not surpised, are you?

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Rush is more engaging than Sean Hannity, more comfortable than Michael Savage, funnier than Gordon Liddy, and less preachy than Laura Schlessinger.

His act wears thin if you’re an intellectual. But he can afford to lose a few hundred people.

James Joyner, Outside the Beltwar.

From the North Jersey Record:

Congress must not allow drilling for oil and gas off the New Jersey coast, Governor Corzine and federal legislators said today in Belmar.

 “Our world-renowned coastline is the lifeblood of our economy and a fragile environmental treasure,” Corzine said. “We will fight any attempt to jeopardize it.”

Corzine was joined by Democratic U.S. Sens. Frank R. Lautenberg and Robert Menendez and Rep. Frank Pallone Jr.  They were speaking to raise awareness of the Clean Ocean and Safe Tourism Anti-Drilling Act, a proposed permanent moratorium on offshore mining.

The current ban on drilling, in effect from Maine to North Carolina, will expire in 2012.

Actually, it will end sooner, it is to be hoped.   And how do the Democrats figure we’re to get to this tourism mecca without fuel to get there? And why should we be paying higher prices for fuel so as to bow to the enviro-whack-jobs?  Morons!

But you know, I have a plan that may loosen things up just a bit. I have proposed, tongue in cheek in the past, that we allow no gas or oil to Democrats, which by definition would cut our need for imported oil by half.  But, now, in all seriousness, I’m going to make a proposal which I think will stop the stonewalling by Democrats on this issue:

I propose the federal government imposing a $6.00/gallon tax on gasoline, to be effective in only those states which have laws on the books prohibiting oil exploration, oil drilling, and/or refineries from being built or their development slowed. This proposal does not run afoul of the states’ right to do what it wants. It simply imposes consequences for their foolishness.

I seldom see any good coming from a tax increase, but there it is; For once a tax is a good thing. Once so imposed, this tax would turn the Democrats stonewalling around so fast, half the nation will be complaining of whiplash.

It’s time. But who has the guts to make this happen?

Hume, last night:

Such has been the progress in Iraq that even Democratic Congressman John Murtha of Pennsylvania is not only not denying it but now admits it has worked.

Murtha, a longtime critic of the war, said last June that President Bush’s claims of progress from the surge were “delusional,” adding, “There’s no way you’re going to have success.”

But now he has told a radio interviewer in Pittsburgh, “I think in the short term it certainly reduced incidents… certainly the way they are doing it today makes a big difference.”

So is Murtha now a fan of our military operations there? Not exactly, since he attributes the success to the fact, he says, that we stopped breaking down doors and killing people.

As for political progress, Murtha claimed only four benchmarks have been met, despite a recent report from the administration that cited progress on 15 benchmarks.

This guy so very much needs to be removed from office. How about it, Pennsylvanians? Had enough, yet?  We have. How much longer are you going t inflict this moron on the rest of us?

I commented earlier tonight on Billy’s comments on voting. We pick up the conversation…. Me at Samzidata just now:

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We’re both 50, you and I. Whatever happens, in terms of future direction for this country, and by extension, western culture in general, be it good or bad, we won’t live to see it. A bleak outlook, certainly, but as you say, I know... and you also know I’ve never been one to back off from an unpleasant truth. (Or a good argument with a friend, for that matter… Chuckle) And the truth is, that another republic… another chance… good or bad, isn’t going to spring up out of a hole in the ground… there are no instant answers, here… such a new situation will simply not happen within the timeframe we have. I should think that amply clear, by now. It’s also true that what we have now is the best we’re likely to see, as a basis to work with… to improve on.

(Whence my question about how leaving your power to move this mountain by the side of the road unused helps your situation. Clearly, it cannot)

Anyway, with that in mind, all we can do is kick this can down the road a bit further, and hope to hell we’re kicking it in the proper direction. And yes, sometimes that means making choices among less than optimal players, most cycles, and making choices so as to minimize the damage to what we have. Not only so that I might live out my days in the best manner possible, but so that my kids and their grandkids can, as well. It’s the nature of the rather distasteful beast, but there it is. It’s what we have, and we’re not likely to get a better deal. So I work with what we have trying to improve on it. I work, trying to change minds, among my other efforts. Why?

There comes a time in a father’s life that you cannot know, Billy, (Your loss… you’d have been a good father) when you recognize that your largest obligation is to that next step along the way… your kids… and beyond them….and you do everything in your power to arrange a better life for them, than they might have had if you just sit back and let it all fall down around your ears. I chose to use what power I have, less than direct though it is, to effect the future for the better.

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And now perhaps you also have a fair enough idea why I’ve made he effort I have with this blog, over the years, and why I stay at it. This blog is, first and foremost, about changing minds. It’s lost of other things, too, of course.  I try to make the going fun. But in the end changing minds is the driving force.  And this place is my voice to that end. A small thing, of course in the annals of this world but you do what you can.  Else, you simply stop living. And I’m not there, yet.

• It amazes me, the amount of grave dancing going on with Jesse Helms. I won’t even bother linking it, but I note LGF already has. You’d think the left would recall that the Ted Kennedy and Jimmy Carter are waiting in the wings. I’ll wait for them to complain about my comments on both those days. Oh, and speaking of Helms… Hey Ramesh; Look, man…  if this were the Democrats and we were talking about Byrd, the Dems would say that the fact that he is a former segregationist is exatcly the point.
• There’s all kinds of directions my former radio morning man persona could take this. Space, the final frontier, and all that…. but can you imagine the kind of publicity surrounding being the first?
• For those of you who think it best that we treat terrorism as a criminal offense, a little shock. The records show we’ve been doing that. And, it wasn’t working.
• James at OTB notes attempts to put together a “Union of the Mediterranean” There’s no way this will end up being anything but a centraization of government, again.   It interests me that the people who have been arguing against the buyout fever in private industry of late, (Such as the anti-Starbucks crowd)  which results on massive companies which tend to be less responsive to and less respectful of individuals, tend to hold their silence when governments play the same game, as in the EU, or in this case.
• CNN is reporting that Obama’s losing support… among Democrats.  Pretty much the situation I’ve been writing about all along. At least some of it is from the lurching to the right he’s been doing, as Doctor Krauthammer notes. Odd how suddenly the Democrats are seeing value in principle.
• Well, perhaps that’s not overly fair to Obama. After all, his role as “community organizer and activist” certainly showed us he does have some principle. Of course the effects of the application of those principles aren’t all that great. And let’s not forget those who share Obama’s principles.
• I’m telling you, gang, we’re headed toward another 1968, complete with a Republican landslide.
• Speaking of which, your biggest problem, Billy is that those who vote do in fact get represented.  And why is that? They really do think that way.  And here again, when we ask why that is, we arrive at the “changing minds” part. As I’ve written so often before, that’s the hard part.  the easy way out is to abdicate the whole thing. The harder, but far more productive path in the long view, is changing minds. It takes a long time. But it is the path.
• All of the Democrat protests about how Republicans were “only there for the oil” are being laid bare, and they started demanding we in the US micromanage Iraqi oil processes.  It strikes me that what annoys them so is that private industry is making the lion’s share of the decisions, instead of government at some level. Given the front-line activities of Schumer and Waxman, here, that’s a surefire bet anyway. Such a move away from government, in my view guarantees success. But, at what point does the MS start calling them out on their lies?
• Meanwhile, McQ points out an article in the Guradian which makes note that nobody’s mentioned the poil in the artic. Funny, how that’s not come up before.
• Obama; Going boldly where everyone else has gone before. What in the world of substance is Obama going to offer the world in a speech at Brandenburg? I mean…tell me again how this guy’s all about substance, and not frothy showbusiness ploys.
• Joyner notes the USSC made an error in the chiild rape ruling of a few weeks ago.  And James is correct I think that this was a pre-cast ruling, looking for a rationale to paint over it.
• The fires out in California continue to burn.They’re starting to complain about funding for the firefighters. Well, gee; maybe a little less social spending? Those fires are putting more carbon in the air than all the cars in LA. Yet they’ll spend more on maintaining their stranglehold on oil, out there. Wwlcome to California.
• Meanwhile, the smong levels in the worker’s paradise of China is at around five times the safe limit.
• And then, there’s the plague of locusts to be concerned about.
• Oh… yes, Mike, I’ve already been saying they were smuggled out of the country.

Lynn Sweet, Sun-Times (Chicago) reports the BO campaign is  trying some imaginative rebranding and is attempt to foist BO off as a reincaranted version of both John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan:

WASHINGTON–A German friend passed along the news Saturday that local sources in Berlin are confirming that the Obama campaign was in contact with city authorities to discuss the possibility of presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) delivering an outdoor address in front of the Brandenburg gate. The thinking is Obama would follow in the footsteps of two very famous Cold War-era speeches of U.S. presidents speaking in Germany: JFK “Ich bin ein Berliner” and Reagan “tear down this wall.” It would probably be Obama’s only public speech during upcoming visits to Germany, France and England on a swing to include stops in Israel and Jordan. There is still no date for the trip. German news sources are reporting the Obama team is working on a visit during the “second half of this month”.

Cut me a farking break.  Kennedy understood that words could be used to motivate people, “Ask not what you country can do for you, but rather what you can do for your country.”   It has never crossed BO’s mind to inspire anybody to do more for his country, save paying yet more in taxes.

As for the Gipper, Reagan understood both the sound and the meaning of his words.  Reagan knew what his words meant.  All BO is capable of grasping is that he words sound pretty when he says them.   Believe me BO, we knew Reagan and you are no Gipper.

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