MacaKhatami

Rich Masio is a friend of mine who lives on Long Island and is eager to see Dave Mejias defeat Peter King in November. He's helping out with our Blue America project through his company, the Independent Online Distribution Alliance (IODA). His favorite musicians are Neil Young, The Minutemen, The Fall, Kitchens of Distinction, Wire, Fugazi, Beefheart... you get the picture. He just sent me this little update on part of the glorious Republican presidential field.


It's encouraging to know that future potential Republican presidential hopefuls are continuing the hypocritical acrobatics King George has mastered.

Roll call:

Sam Brownback's talking embryos saying splicing stem cells is murder while forgetting those microscopic bits of protoplasm are generally tossed in the trash when no longer used by couples.

George Allen must have made some snarky comment about the French leading up to the Iraq invasion; it makes it all the more awesome that he uses a French slur for Africans when mocking a Jim Webb campaign volunteer. And Allen's mom is French. Take that Kerry. And if you believe rumors, Wayne Madsen's blog is reporting people in DC's gaydar have gone off around Felix.

Now we have Gov. Mitt Romney:

It was reported to me by a business associate that as he was coming to his gate in Boston's Logan Airport on Sept 12th at 11:30am, just as the Jet Blue flight to New York was about to leave the gate, former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami and his entourage arrived to board the flight.

'Get the fuck out of here,' you say? After his speech at Harvard where he throws his support to Hezbollah, Harvard, with BILLIONS in endowments, sticks the former butler to the mullahs on a discount airline with free DirecTV? My friend then had an unfortunate spell of vigilantism when he ranted to the Jet Blue gate employees that he would not board the plane with this guy on it, referring to Khatami.

Now here comes the best part. The Homeland Security, State Dept. and MASSACHUSETTS STATE POLICE, that were escorting the former Iranian leader detained my friend and threatened to arrest him for riotous behavior and interfering with a federal agent. It was the reported "9 foot tall" state cop my friend was most insulted by.

BOSTON GLOBE Sept 9, 2006:

In addition, Romney failed to provide documentation for his claim that "Khatami has endorsed [current President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad's call for the annihilation of Israel." The Iranian government has long maintained that Israel was established illegally, but Ahmadinejad's call to "wipe Israel off the map" was widely seen as a dangerous provocation.

Romney's spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom, cited four statements by Khatami that were sharply critical of Israel, but all predated Ahmadinejad's remark.

Nonetheless, Romney's stance on Khatami-- and his refusal to allow Massachusetts State Police to protect the former president during his speech tomorrow at Harvard University -- has been widely praised in conservative circles.

Note that Gov. Romney got to puff his chest out and blanket the media with press releases on how he was taking a moral stand by refusing police escorts for Khatami partly out of good ole patriotism and partly to save the cost to the Massachusetts taxpayers.

What he failed to mention was they weren't going to form a partition around him while speaking on stage at Harvard, but nearly every step in the state of Massachusetts he was being protected by state police.

The Mass. State Police, Mass. Governor's office, Homeland Security and Harvard University all declined to comment.

-Rich Masio