Suck it, you bastard:

ADDITION:

You can view more Israeli graffiti here and here.

This is one of the larger issues between the two U.S. Presidential candidates, McCain and Obama.  Should the United States have direct talks with Iranian leader, Ahmadinejad?

McCain says,  “Absolutely not.  The guys a terrorist!”  Obama says, “Absolutely yes.  The guys a terrorist!”

The Bush administration was prepping to send a diplomat to Iran considering the accelerated rate at which Iran was developing nuclear capabilities.

But now Bush has changed his mind and it’s gonna have to wait until a new president is elected:

The proposal to send US diplomats to Teheran for the first time in three decades attracted great attention when it was floated seriously midyear, but has been placed on indefinite hold as November’s election nears and Iran continues to defy demands to halt suspect nuclear activities, officials told the AP.

The officials said it had been decided to leave the decision to the next US president because it could be seen as a reward for Iran’s nuclear intransigence especially when Iranian policy has become a major part of the heated campaign between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain.

My personal opinion? The Bush administration is a bunch of spineless pussies.

The Tehran Times announced that Iran successfully launched its first domestically produced satellite into orbit yesterday.   Initially, the Iranians forgot to mention one small, little, tiny detail….  it’s a DUMMY satellite:

Iran corrected earlier reports it made Sunday and said that it had launched a dummy satellite into orbit.

At first, Iran’s IRNA news agency reported that the Iranian-made communications satellite Omeid was launched but a later report said the satellite was a dummy.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad read the countdown to the launch on Iranian TV.

The urgency of the story just went from Iran successfully launching a spy satellite into space to Iran successfully launching a big rock.

Way to go.

Israeli expert Iftah Shrir’s analysis of the situation:

Iftah Shrir, who heads the Military Balance project at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) claims Iran is still far from its goal of launching a real communications satellite into space. “This was a step towards the launching of an Iranian military satellite, but the road is still long,” he said.

“Prestige-wise a two-kilogram satellite waving an Iranian flag in space would be enough, but capability-wise, even if the satellite is launched, it will be a tiny research satellite without any real ability.” He added that Iran launched a Russian satellite into space in 2005, but it disappeared without a trace.

That’s one small step for Iran, one giant leap for paper weights.

“We’re friends with Israelis! No we’re not! We are! No….! ”

Boys, boys. Please. There’s enough maniacal inbred fighting for everyone.

Iran’s vice president [Esfandiar Rahim Mashai] has said the Iranians are friends of all people in the world – even Israelis, Tehran state media reported on Monday.

It’s a rare comment from a government official in Iran, whose president regularly calls for Israel’s destruction.

….and from the Arabic new source Asharq Alawsat:

Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani said on Monday Iran is no friends of the Israelis, reacting to remarks to the contrary by an aide of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Fars news agency reported.

“We are not friends with the Israeli people and Iran has a logic which is what the (supreme) leader (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) has said,” Larijani was quoted as saying.

Interestingly, the Iranian VP Mashai is in charge of Iranian tourism and his recent positive sentiments towards Israel may actually have more to do with bringing in foreign tourist money rather than sincerity.

"The Land of Civilization and Friendship"

I mean, c’mon! The Iranian tourism slogan is “The Land of Civilization and Friendship” for goodness sake!

On second thought, perhaps we’re not translating the meaning of “Iranian friendship” properly. This and this and this should clear things up.

…you get the idea.  Iranian Prez Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took a two day trip to the wartorn nation, and was welcomed by some, not so welcomed by others, and surprise surprise had some wonderfully kind words to say about U.S. involvement in the region.  (no, not really)

Ahmadinejad’s visit follows trips to Iran last year by top officials of Iraq’s Shiite-led government, who have been fostering a closer relationship with predominantly Shiite Iran since the Saddam Hussein regime was toppled.

His visit was greeted warmly by Iraq’s Shiite Muslim leadership, who have had longtime links with Iran that predate the overthrow of Hussein. At the same time, many Sunni Muslims in Iraq dislike the Iranian regime and have demonstrated against his visit.

The Iranian president made digs at the United States. He contrasted his trip, which was advertised in advance, with the “stealth” visits of others, a reference to visits by U.S. officials, who don’t broadcast their visits to Iraq for security reasons.

Aside from this, Ahmadinejad made statements about the U.S. no longer being welcome in the region, and his opinion that we should leave matters of the Middle East to the peoples and governments who live in that region.  He also had a bit to say about U.S. claims that Iran is backing and arming many insurgent groups that have been causing problems in Iraq.

“We do not care about their statements and remarks because they make statements based on erroneous information. We cannot count on what they say,” Ahmadinejad said. “We can offer them a friendly recommendation. We think that leveling allegations against others will not resolve the problem Americans are facing in the region.”

He said the foreign forces that came to Iraq from afar “shouldn’t interfere in the affairs of regional countries” and “should allow the region’s countries to run their own affairs.”

Now, don’t get me wrong here, I’m not normally one to side with madmen who live in states of great delusion… however, I do have to say, there might be some validity to parts of what has come out of his mouth regarding the visit, and the state of the region.  Especially what follows:

Although Iraq invaded Iran in September 1980 after a territorial dispute, and the two countries fought an eight-year war, Ahmadinejad said the nations share a common history and he addressed what he called the common problems of terrorism.

“We think that terrorism is something as an issue detrimental to all parties,” he said, noting that Iran, Iraq and Turkey have all been hurt by terror.

“The peoples of this region, have seen nothing but devastation and destruction and sectarian attitudes , they have seen nothing but insult and humiliation.”

How very profound.  Go figure.  That from the “We do not have homosexuals in our country” guy.  I guess even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.