CSPAN: Iranian President Interview Repeat NOW

[LSK]

CSPAN is playing the edited version that aired on 60 minutes and then the ENTIRE interview afterwards.

[BushOut06]

1. I heard Hannity talking to Mike Wallace about that interview last week

It was actually quite humorous. Here's Hannity, with this set of RW talking points, talking to Wallace, who actually got to meet the president of Iran in person. Wallace said that he went in with the same preconcieved notions, how that Ahmadinejad was a irrational madman. However, after actually talking to him, all those ideas were proven wrong. Instead of the raving lunatic that is often portrayed here in the US, Wallace met a man who was calm, collected, and quite intelligent. Most importantly, his statements have been widely misinterpreted here in the US. He has no desire to literally destroy Israel. He merely wonders why Israel couldn't be located in Europe, where the Holocaust occured. The Palestinians had nothing to do with that, why should they be made to suffer? We may not agree 100% with his statements, but it's far from the fiery rhetoric that is often attributed to him.

Yet did any of this stop Hannity? Noooooo. It's as if Hannity refused to hear anything that Wallace had to say, and instead kept pressing on with his RW talking points, how that Ahmadinejad was evil, how he wanted to destroy Israel, etc.

[Strelnikov_]

5. After Seeing His Reluctance To Address The Questions About His

previous belligerent statements regarding Israel, I have the opinion that these statements are simply red meat for the base, kind of like Chimpco saying that some Democratic politicians are the 'Al-Queda' candidates. He almost seemed embarrassed.

I think we have to remember that he has the power of the Senate Majority Leader (if that). The position of President in Iran seems to be part Senate Majority Leader, part Government Spokesman.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/middle_east/03/iran_power/html/president.stm

The president is elected for four years and can serve no more than two consecutive terms. The constitution describes him as the second-highest ranking official in the country. He is head of the executive branch of power and is responsible for ensuring the constitution is implemented.

In practice, however, presidential powers are circumscribed by the clerics and conservatives in Iran's power structure, and by the authority of the Supreme Leader. It is the Supreme Leader, not the president, who controls the armed forces and makes decisions on security, defence and major foreign policy issues.

All presidential candidates are vetted by the Guardian Council, which banned hundreds of hopefuls from standing in the 2005 elections.

[BushOut06]

6. Just be glad that the United States isn't run like that

As bad as it is having * in the White House, can you imagine if the real power in this country was held by the RW wingnuts, like Pat Robertson? I know we like to joke around about how the religious right is running the country, but what if that were really true?

[Emit]

8. Yes, red meat

Here's a quote by Richard Heinberg

At the ASPO conference a riveting presentation was delivered by Terence Ward, a writer (Searching for Hassan) who grew up in Iran and is currently a cross-cultural consultant for businesses, foundations, and governments in the Islamic World and the West. Ward believes that a US bombing attack on Tehran is nearly inevitable (a view that I put forward in MuseLetter #155, March 2005, “Onward to Iran”), and that it will have devastating consequences for the region and for the world.

~snip~

Ward’s presentation was remarkable for its depiction of Bush and Ahmadinejad as two sides of the same coin. Both need external conflict to maintain domestic legitimacy, and both are right-wing hard-liners supported by religious fundamentalists; they are also unpopular at home and habitually rely on bravado to boost their image.

http://www.energybulletin.net/18904.html

[caligirl]

2. I saw that interview last night, must scare the living s*** out of Bush to

know the American people observed the Iranian President seemed lucid, reasonable, humorous and intelligent. He didn't come off as a wascko as Bush so often does.

[LSK]

3. kick

[Blue_In_AK]

4. I saw that interview last night, too,

and I was struck by how reasonable and calm the man seemed and how much sense he made. I find ** ever so much more scary, personally.

[evox]

7. Wallace

was being disrespectful and a jerk to a man with a president's status. Let's see an Iranian journalist talking to Bush that way. No matter what you think of the other person, as a journalist you should always keep it professional.