Roxana Saberi has given an interview to NPR describing her harrowing tale of captivity in Iran’s notorious Evin prison. It should be read in its entirety. It provides a useful and rare insight into the nature of the regime. One part of the interview I thought particularly poignant:
MS. SABERI. . .So I think these experiences, they taught me a lot and I learned a lot from the other political prisoners there, too – the other women – because after several weeks, I was put into a cell with them – many of those women were there because they are standing up for human rights or the freedom of belief or expression.
Many of them are still there today; they don’t enjoy the kind of international support that I did. And they’re not willing to give in to pressures to make false confessions or to sign off to commitments not to take part in their activities once they’re released; they would rather stay in prison and stand up for those principles that they believe in.
MS. BLOCK: What were those conversations like?
MS. SABERI: They gave me a lot of inspiration. I learned a lot from those women. I think they’re some of the most admirable women I’ve met, not only in Iran, but all over the world. I shared a cell with Silva Harotonian, who is a researcher of health issues, and she’s been sentenced to three years in prison. I also shared a cell with university students, Baha’is – a wide range of women.
I couldn’t help but think: why is it that we don’t hear of these women? Well, for starters, our American media which remains obsessed with Obama’s “outreach” to Iran shows no interest in describing the nature of the Iranian regime and its victims. And more important, the Obama administration has gone mute on human rights, whether in Iran or China. Addressing such issues constitutes a stumbling block to “better relations.”
Unlike Natan Sharansky and the refuseniks of the Soviet Union who gained strength and were sustained during the Cold War by Ronald Reagan’s persistent commitment to freedom there is no such voice today to offer hope or comfort to those locked up in Evin or similar hell holes around the world. “Hope” and “change” apparently don’t extend to them.
Saberi has demonstrated a type of grace and courage at which most of us can only marvel. Moreover, she has done what her own government is failing to do — shine a bright light on the face of tyranny.
The man of no accomplishments is in over his head. Whoda thunk?
…well, he’s a very accomplished memoirist, rhetorician and campaigner
When Obama says “change”, think “entropy”.
Like I say, Commentary‘s stopped clock is right approximately twice a year. At the very most, if — and it’s a very big “if” — Geithner has to go, it will be an embarrassment. The wingnuts will crow about it, but everyone else will move on because there’s work to do.
“Fifty-five percent of the people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday say that since he’s taken over in the White House, Obama has tried to handle more issues than he should have.” — Jennifer Rubin
Pew Poll, per WaPo: “Only 35 percent of Americans think President Obama is trying to tackle too many issues in his first few months. Fully 56 percent of the poll’s respondents said Obama is “doing about right” — while four percent said he was actually focusing on too few issues.”
Froomkin: “So what both polls say, taken together, is that people think Obama is doing a lot — but they’re not really concerned about it.”
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/white-house-watch/2009/03/obama_is_doing_too_much_–_but/pf.html
The criticism of Obama doing “too much” comes from people who want their own pet issue left to the tender mercies of the lobbyists. Ignore ‘em, Obama.
John-
Geithner can’t go. There’s no one else in Treasury to step in. No one can survive the vetting process. You can’t leave Treasury vacant-it’d be a sure sign the SS obama is foundering.
That’s probably correct, Marty. Each new administration faces similar problems at the outset. Both Clinton and Bush Jr. were criticized for leaving key posts vacant in the beginning. It’s a big problem now at Treasury because Geithner arrived in the midst of a crisis.
I suspect that, when it all comes out in the wash, the reality here will be that the guy is putting in 20-hour days and delegated this decision because he’s got too many fires burning. Do the Republicans really want to leave the country without a Treasury Secretary at a time like this? I hope not.
I detest the bailouts, but I can’t see any other way to handle it. The last one that they let fail, Lehman Bros., just about brought the whole thing crashing down. I think the reality here is that George W. left us with a stinking, ugly mess, and the cleanup ain’t going to be pretty. The Republicans will try to deflect public anger onto the new administration, but I don’t think they’ll succeed. People know where this all came from.
MartyH – “No one can survive the vetting process.”
I find this extremely doubtful. I am pretty confident that there are plenty of people who can survive the vetting process. Obama’s mistake (at least one of them) was to move forward with nominees who had clear and obvious flaws. By ignoring these signs of lack of character and possible incompetence, he set himself and his nominee for a fall. And I blame members of both parties in Congress as well for buying into the “honest mistake” excuse. An honest mistake is an isolated incident. Multiple mistakes of the same nature are a pattern.
The President cannot afford to lose the public’s confidence…
That’s why Obama is going on Jay Leno’s show tonight!
I don’t know why the GOP isn’t hammering Barack more on his incompetence. As the original post points out, that’s the charge that sticks. Once it does, you’re done.
The guy obviously is in over his head. Just say so. Throw in some commentary on the teleprompter absurdity and you have a winner. Mock him. Then ruin him, before he ruins us.
GOP keeps claiming in public they’re not criticizing Barack because his approval ratings are too high. Seems like they have crossed the cause and effect.
The guy obviously is in over his head. Just say so. Throw in some commentary on the teleprompter absurdity and you have a winner. Mock him. Then ruin him, before he ruins us.
Yes, wingnuts, please follow that strategy. It’s a sure winner.
Sonny, come up out of the basement and get out of you jammies. You’re late for your job at Mickey Ds.
If Obumbles is going on Leno, will he read Leno’s lines on the Tonight Show teleprompter? Or will they set up the Teleprompter in Chief for him?
Leonardo, I’m assuming that the GOP is attempting to strike back, but that the media isn’t giving them airtime. Why interview the opposition when you know what they are going to say and know the facts back them up? This is cover, pure and simple.
If I understand Jen, she thinks it was a mistake for Geithner to take the Consitution into account in drafting the TARP legislation. The problem is not Geithner, nor is it AIG, as there appears from Liddy’s testimony to have been very little about these retention payments that was undeserved. The problem is that politicians lack the stuff at either end of their torsos to understand what is happening or to stand by the Constitution.
I was happy to see that some 90 representatives voted against this disavowal of our system of government. And I conitnue to marvel that any Jewish-oriented publication can fail to see that the confiscation of property from the unpopular poses a far greater threat to our way of life than preventing anyone from getting paid more than the mob thinks appropriate.
John-
Here’s my point. Geithner is the ONLY nominee that the Obama administration has brought to the Senate in the middle of the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression. John, you can’t blame the Republicans if the nominees never make it to the floor.
Steve-
Maybe I should rephrase my statement “No one has survived the vetting process.” Geithner may have been a below the waterline mistake for Obama-he had to be appouinted despite his tax problems. Now it appears that the one “indispensible” man may instead be incompetent. And Obama can’t find staff for him or replace him because Geithner used the one “Get out of Taxes Free” card in the deck, or citizens do not want to submit to the colonoscopy that is public life these days.
Regardless, Geithner has job security until someone else makes it through Congress.
Robert the little is like a hemorrhoid. He goes away for a while than flares up again and becomes a pain in the rear.
Robert the Little is looking to become the next Sec of Treas.
The GOP ought to make John Thane the point man on this and everything else. You may remember he is who who retired Tom Daschle to lucrative private life. The guy is smart, attractive and well spoken.
Mrs. Hartland,
I had not realized Johnny had moved back home. He hasn’t trolled at Commentary for such a long time I was worried that something ill may have become of him because of his criticisms of the vile neocons. He might have been disappeared in the middle of the night or been taken off to, what is it they are calling Guantanamo now? I am sure Barrack has come up with a clever new name for it that sounds like something completely different.
Johnny. even your Psychiatrist, Dr. Hoffman, has been looking for him. Its not that often the he sees such a textbook case of Edible Complex. He is willing to treat you for free Johnny. Keep in mind he is a vegan so you can’t come in smelling all charbroiled. Oh well, gotta run. Little Che has turned the backyard into a “black site” and that nice Mr. Holder is going to bring in some nice chauffer’s and butlers who just happen to speak arabic to hang around for a while until their cabbie medallions come in from New York. It will be nice to have some real men around here for once. Only Mr. Holder says I have to cover my head with a keffiyeh or they may cut it off. I need to lose 10 pounds but that does seem to be a bit extreme. Oh well, as long as they like pork barbecue I guess I will be ok.
“what me worry?”…”I’m goin’ on Leno, should be a good time.” “Look at those approval ratings, yeah baby, and March Madness right around the corner.”
OMG..what a joke…WE ARE DOOMED…DOOMED!!!!!!!
Joan, I didn’t know that Johnny was married. I hope you’re not m.o.t.
Come over for Sunday dinner. We’re having a nice ham.
Best wishes, Mommy
Well Mother Hartland, I have not posted for some time because Johnny has been hiding. For a while he was a voracious poster slaying the neo cons with his superior wit and intelligence. I bet you didn’t know you have two lovely grandchildren, they do resemble my side of the family after all, because after all Johnny has a face that, well, only you could love. Johnny left me though several months back before Barack won the election and I have been posting here when I saw him ever since trying to get him to come home. I am surprised in the 8 long years of our marriage Johnny never mentioned he had a mother. I am disheartened to hear he is working in the McDonalds, I hope he at least is running the register or something that is suitable to his intellectual capacity. Plus, the grease makes his acne act up so. Perhaps I will come over for dinner. Don’t tell Johnny, it will be a surpise. It will be nice to meet you. Is there a Mr. Hartland I might inquire? Johnny always claimed he was raised on a Native American reservation and was running the slots and numbers at a very early age. I am disappointed it is not true. It seemed so , you know, colorful.
I can’t top that Joan. Johnny married well!
Johnny did have an Indian headress as a youth and he also excelled in math. I’m sure that’s why he’s manning the cash registers at McDonalds as I type.
Now children play nice. Here in O Calcutta, we never make reference to Indian Head dresses, sluts, tats, and numbers (smoke ‘em if you got ‘em). As for Johnny, he passed though town a while back and found it not to his liking, “too damn hot” he said. I can empathize given the heat coming off the chapati grills in the convent kitchen. Still, we did have a nice visit from Christopher Hitchens, who was kind enough to take time out of his “God is NOT Great” world tour to pay us a visit. I’m happy to report the Sisters fed Johnny and Chris before sending them on their way. Which, of course, raises the eternal question, “Quo Vadis” you Godless pagan scum suckers (the editors insisted on the ‘s’ preceding scum). But please whatever you do, don’t blame the sisters for their lack of success with these to recalcitrants, there is after all only so much that can be done with Johnny and Chris. Let it be known that when Johnny and Chris left, or should that be “Left,” they were ready for prime time, having been washed and cleaned up to within an inch of their very worthless lives. As they drove off into the sunset in Johnny’s stolen Tata, Chris nearly touched off a Muslim riot by throwing caricatures of Johnny out the car window, which the practitioners of the religion of peace took for cartoons of Johnny’s doppelganger. I would add that while Johnny was here, the sisters that worked on him averred, to a nun, that he, given his mental difficulties and general lack of grace, was better than a plenary indulgence as a sin absolver. The point being that there are many ways to get to heaven, and one of them is to treat the less fortunate with kindness. So you folks at Contentions should be glad, and sing hymns of praise for Johnny’s attendance on you. You are paving your road to heaven while L’il Johnny is greasing his own to Perdition. You Contentions folk should see this is your three-quarters-full glass of grace, God’s own Mocha-Java heavy on the whip.
“At the very most, if — and it’s a very big if — Geithner has to go, it will be an embarrassment. The wingnuts will crow about it, but everyone else will move on because there’s work to do.”
**
That’s right Johnny. If another guy has to walk the plank for Obammy, then so be it. Let’s all just Move On. Nothin’ to see here.
The One’s incompetance is showing. All he ever had going for him was the ability to give a good speech.
MartyH – “There’s no one else in Treasury to step in.”
The Treasury Department has tens of thousands of employes in 12 bureaus that are run by folks handling as much in resources as a typical large corporate COO. Most of its employees are careerists. If there is no one else in Treasury who can step into the Secretary’s job it says a lot about the quality of government employees.
“Most of its employees are careerists. ”
There is a real difference between a careerist and a professional, and if you don’t know what that is, then you haven’t a clue why the government can’t manage the economy.
My tongue was firmly in cheek Stuart.
I understand the government quite well, Stuart. Each new program deposits fresh new careerists on top of the already existing careerists who’ve given themselves up to safe inaction and back side covering. Motivated professionals don’t work in such bureaucracies for long.
Professionals also don’t often volunteer themselves for what Liddy got the other day either. The good news is that Barney’s spectacle will hasten the departure of all the remaining talent from the firms that have gotten bailouts.
Both Clinton and Bush Jr. were criticized for leaving key posts vacant in the beginning
In Bush’s case, the Democrats were still fighting the battle of Florida and refusing to allow nominees to be voted on. Remember ? As someone else brought up, Zero hasn’t nominated anybody. I can’t believe he is running out of leftist professors. When he ran the Annenberg Challenge taxi drivers were getting grants.