The Blog @ Spolitics

Iran Calls Obama a Dangerous Phony

From WaPo:

Since 2006, Iran’s leaders have called for direct, unconditional talks with the United States to resolve international concerns over their nuclear program. But as an American administration open to such negotiations prepares to take power, Iran’s political and military leaders are sounding suddenly wary of President-elect Barack Obama.

“People who put on a mask of friendship, but with the objective of betrayal, and who enter from the angle of negotiations without preconditions, are more dangerous,” Hossein Taeb, deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Wednesday, according to the semiofficial Mehr News Agency.

“The power holders in the new American government are trying to regain their lost influence with a tactical change in their foreign diplomacy. They are shifting from a hard conflict to a soft attack,” Taeb said.

Hopefully, this will be illustrative for anyone who thought electing Barack Obama would suddenly make everyone love us.

What Iran Expects Of President Obama

During the election, Iran’s leadership gave conservatives a chuckle when they informed Barack Obama that they wouldn’t be willing to meet with him without preconditions of their own.

Now, Iran’s President has written President-elect Barack Obama a letter spelling out what he expects from an Obama administration. According to the New York Times, Ahmadinejad’s letter stated the following:

“People in the world expect war-oriented policies, occupation, bullying, deception and intimidation of nations and imposing discriminatory policies on them and international affairs, which have evoked hatred toward American leaders, to be replaced by ones advocating justice, respect for human rights, friendship and noninterference in other countries’ affairs,” the letter said, according to ISNA.

“They also want the U.S. intervention to be limited to its borders, especially in the sensitive region of the Middle East,” it said. “It is expected to reverse the unfair attitude of the past 60 years to restore the rights of people in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan.”

As many on the right expected, the “hope” other nations saw in Obama appears to be hope for a weakening of America’s role around the globe. It remains to be seen whether or not President Obama will comply.

Obama’s Chief of Staff Tied to Freddie Mac Scandal

From ABC News:

President-elect Barack Obama’s newly appointed chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, served on the board of directors of the federal mortgage firm Freddie Mac at a time when scandal was brewing at the troubled agency and the board failed to spot “red flags,” according to government reports reviewed by ABCNews.com.

According to a complaint later filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Freddie Mac, known formally as the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, misreported profits by billions of dollars in order to deceive investors between the years 2000 and 2002.

Emanuel was not named in the SEC complaint but the entire board was later accused by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) of having “failed in its duty to follow up on matters brought to its attention.”

The American people have just handed complete control of our government to the party — and in some cases, the very people — who have their fingerprints all over the current financial crisis. So much for change.