New contributor!

Yes ladies and gentlemen, we have found a new member for our ever increasing stable of writers here at LSWTF.com...

None other then SayHey's good friend, President Ahmadinejad of Iran!

Apparently he is quite the blogger and is not nearly as firebrand in his own pulpit as he is in the court of public opinion!

Equally surprising for a leader known for a kind of thundering public
presence, his blog is not especially tough. He condemns Washington’s policies, but writes infrequently and more ponderously than in his confrontational speeches. Yet the reader comments posted alongside his own seem far less censored and harsher than one might expect.

“I think you are an evil leader,” one comment posted by an American reader said. “Freedom and tolerance are necessities in this day and age, and the fact that your country kills intellectuals, journalists, minorities is horrible and deeply disturbing.”

Those comments run along with supportive ones, including postings that seem
to refer to the new American intelligence estimate that Iran is not actively
pursuing a nuclear weapon, something Mr. Ahmadinejad had repeatedly
asserted.

“I knew you were telling the truth,” wrote a Canadian.

Canada! You have totally gotten me off the hook for occasionally saying I am fascinated by this guy by giving credence to his line of thinking!

And to think, I thought all of Canada was like the Quebecois province... Full of strippers and gravy fries... Apparently you guys hate minorities too! :)

Dews Tuesday Round-up

(Picture shamelessly taken from Drudgereport.com)

Putin and Ahmadinejad are good buddies apparently... Personally I think Putin is just getting on the "We hate America" bandwagon, but just a bit too late given the elections aren't THAT far away... He shoulda been doing this 2 years ago.

Now he's taken a pretty tough stance though against the "Great Satan", he is actually warning us against attacking Iran...

"We are saying that no Caspian nation should offer its territory to third powers for use of force or military aggression against any Caspian state," Putin said.

Thats as subtle as then following up with how much damage said Caspian nations would be in line to receive from Russian Military after said involvement. Basically, Russia no likey US in Irany.

The most wonderful invention ever (The Pill) is apparently being bounced around as something to be given away to students as young as 11?
Hope this isn't anything to do with those Sex in the City crowd...

Finally our lovable "Idiot Boy King" gets to meet with the Dalai Lama... No clue as to what the hell either of them could possibly say to each other, but this has certainly pissed off the Chinese government (Costco, Walmart, etc).

Finally, a quick admission on my own part, as I have officially become part of the Corporate whore/Capitalist Pig world today... Yes, I have outsourced a web project overseas... To be fair though, I have never made any false pretenses about how easily I could be bought and sold like a commodity and quite frequently have been quoted as saying I aspire to be treated "Like a piece of meat", so its not like this is a stretch and yes, I do intend to keep railing against other companies that do the same exact thing as me!

That is all.

Crap...

Just going over the hit count from Google Analytics today and noticed that we've actually gotten a hit or two from Iran...

For the record, I have no idea where Salman Rushdie is, I have nothing by the utmost respect for President Ahmadinejad (maybe not so much the whole destruction of Israel and all though, hope you can understand our differences there), and certainly do know and respect what a fatwa is and really can't afford to have one of those right now.

So, in closing, I just want to say I hope our fan, or fans in Iran have a good sense of humor and have no idea where Vermont is. Thank you, salaam and please enjoy the last 2 weeks of Ramadan...

Update: The hits are coming from a city called Yazd. Never heard of it, but Welcome aboard Iran!

"Yes there are no gays in Irania and the streets are filled with cheeeeese"

I couldn't help myself, all I could think of when I heard Ahmadinejad's (well, excerpts of his speech anyway) speech was poor little Fievel.

In case you missed it, there are plenty of articles about it in today's news here (Shimon Peres blasting Columbia U), here (Direct reference to the whole "no gays" comment), here (College kids laughing it up at a foreign president's expense), and of course here (Iran is apparently even more pissed at his reception here).

Now, regardless of how I feel about Iran, its leader, or any of the hugely messy political issues connected with Ahman (I'm gonna call him that from now on, since its a helluva lot easier then copy and pasting it), I DO respect Columbia University for showing some balls and allowing this man to speak.

Say what you will about so many of those issues that may or may not have anything to do with Ahman, but you gotta respect any organization (I feel anyway) that is willing to take a chance on something so immensely unpopular to allow this man a chance to be heard to an American audience. I applaud the fact that ANYONE in position of power is able to do controversial things for the sake of spreading ideas because I couldn't tell you the last time I've seen a person in a position to do this actually allow it to happen.

They may not have helped their cause by proclaiming that they would "Invite Hitler to speak", since that lovable nutcase's name brings up so many wonderful images that the press can easily attach to this event, but at least they put themselves out there.

The fact that people protested this event should also be applauded though. Good for you for showing how you feel about the scheduled speaker, this is part of what makes democracy work!

My only regret is that given all the events and complicated issues surrounding this moment, that all I"m left with is a damn cartoon mouse singing some song in my head that I haven't heard in easily 12-15 years... Damnit...

Iran fascinates me...

Ok, thought I had reached my limit for thinking for the day (hoped anyway, thinkin is HARD!), but I came across this on Drudge and had to comment...

First off, yes I read Drudge all the time. I enjoy reading how he words headlines to fit a certain "message" he is obviously trying to send out (ie, a bit conservative), but moreso I was counting down the days from when his articles were all Pro-Bush, to when they would eventually become more Pat Buchanan-esque (My Hero if he wasn't such a bible-thumper) and start to really criticize Bush while continuing his tirade against the Clintons of course (obviously the Anti-christ right?).

But, I also enjoy his sources too. Besides the Washington Times, which is just awful outside their Redskins coverage, and the New York Post, which I always confuse for the National Examiner...

Anyway, he currently has snippets from the interview with President Ahmadinejad referencing his desire to visit Ground Zero. Apparently him visiting it would cause a bit of an uproar here afterall, but he seems genuinely surprised at the interviewer bringing this up.

I am genuinely fascinated by him and current "leader" of Venzuela Hugo Chavez purely for their attitude towards Bush and company. I don't necessarily agree with what it is they are doing, whether it be wipe Israel off the map, or seize all private industry in their respective nations, but you gotta at least respect the underdog standing up to the cocky cowboy, don't you?

I mean, in Chavez's case, it is kind of a reaction to the destructive world bank policies that just about bankrupt South America, and most of Eastern Europe.

In Ahmadinejad's case, he walks a delicate line between a well-educated student population of western leaning minds and the hard-nosed Ayatollah following class.

Iran doesn't sound all that different then us now that I think of it... Just replace "Student population" with "coastal urban educated" and "Ayatollah" with "Christian Right" and you've got American politics reincarnated...