It's Dump on Obama Day

++I've listened to right-wing radio this morning and you would never know that Bibi speaking to a joint session of Congress was unusual, There was no mention that it is unprecedented in our history to invite a foreign leader to attack the policy initiative of a sitting president--and in the midst of negotiations.

++Lindsey Graham, speaking to AIPAC, told the crowd that he would cut off funding for the United Nations because it fomented anti-semiticism in the world and he would block the Iranian deal.

++Dick Cheney will be briefing the GOP Caucus on the House side about these important issues.

++Bibi got over 80 standing ovations at AIPAC and claimed that the relationship between Israel and the United States was stronger than at any time. 

++AIPAC participants were told not to boo Samantha Powers, who appeared in a paper given out to the press during Bibi's flight as having made concessions to Iran. I would love to know how she could have anything to do with the Iranian nuclear talks.

++So the neo-cons are out in force today but they don't answer one of Israel's generals' complaint. Bibi could have played a subtle background role in shaping an Iranian deal but blew it. Now what is to be done.

++The Republican side really does support a war with Iran. It is incumbent on everyone for force them to flesh this out. There have been multiple studies showing that any bombing attack on the installations would have to be more intense and prolonged than anything we have yet seen in our Middle East ventures. Also,the conclusion of the studies show that Iran is likely to strike back both at Israel and the United States facilities within the region. 

++Then what happens with the Iranian participation against ISIS. Do they immediately become hostile to the United States? 

++For all the bluster of Bibi and the GOP neo-cons,massive questions need to be asked because their basic position is nihilism/

++For all of us who are on public record supporting a negotiated settlement of the Iranian nuclear program,we have to remain intellectually honest and not get carried away by the war fever. 

++This is a situation where all intelligence agencies and Mossad agree that Iran does not have a nuclear device. It's like getting whipped up with disinformation about Weapons of Mass Destruction that just aren't there. 

++Watch the IAEA and its reporting. I feel sorry for the guys because they can not confirm whether Iran worked on weapons systems before the negotiations began. You will recall the George W. Bush administration did everything to discredit the agency in its investigations into Iraq, which showed there was no longer a nuclear program since it had been dismantled after the Gulf War. This is just non-political reporting being done now but this time they will be used to justify some awful scheme.

++Ray Takyh today in the Washington Post wrote a surprising , for him, op-ed about the strategic genius of Ayatollah Khameni. His point was that yes the Ayatollah wants nuclear weapons but he will wait out the deal,reviving it in ten years when the ability of the West to respond will have waned. His op-ed is excellent. But I and people in the Obama Administration believe that he will be gone and that Iran will suffer a crisis of regime which will challenge the theocratic state. 

++In fact both Bibi and Takyh worry about the agreement dwindling down after 10 to 15 years. The odds are I will be dead then and so will the Ayatollah. And Israel will not have any transparency about its nuclear program

++There is one school of thought that believes Iran possessing a nuclear weapon makes them invincible throughout the region. We've seen governments with Weapons of Mass Destruction haven't been invincible just very scary. This school of thought says that such an achievement will solidify Iran's control over Iran, Syria, Yemen and possibly Lebanon. The vaunted Shi'ite Crescent. 

++This ignores that Iranians are Persians and must militarily attain hegemony over the Arab world. If we have learned anything in the last 12 years is that tribalism and ethnicity are controlling factors in conflict states, not just whether the population is Sunni or Shi'ite.

++I have heard the old cry of regime change again from conservative Republicans. But additional sanctions do not cause the unrest the conservatives want. You are more likely to experience popular unrest with a rising middle class. Sanctions never provoked an uprising against Saddam Hussein and in the case of South Africa it was the sports boycott that did the most damage.

++I believe that the nuclear talks do not have a positive or negative effect on human rights or the prospect of a democratization of Iran. 

++Some wave of amnesia has swept over the GOP on this issue. The party is practically owned by the champions of Iran sanction busters like the Koch Brothers, who were exposed in Forbes a couple of years ago. The GOP presidential candidate in 2012 , Mitt Romney lost out as a candidate to be vice-president to John McCain because of his sanctions busting investments. Do you have to square this to be intellectually honest?

++There is one thing that an Iranian deal will do. It will stop the return of the neo-conservative project and force the United States to soberly look at its options in the region. 

++ I expect Bibi to lie like hell tomorrow about the negotiations like he did about the Iraq War bringing an age of peace in the Middle East. If he believes the negotiations are an existential threat to Israel,he knows what to do. But as his military advisers suggest that would be insane.

++I expect this whole week to be filled with nonsense. I also expect that the "details of the plan you hear tomorrow" doesn't resemble in thought or deed the plan being negotiated.