The story:

After Paris warned that new sanctions against Teheran remained an option despite the likelihood of negotiations with Iran, French President Nicolas Sarkozy maintained that the Islamic republic was still working on a nuclear weapons program.

“It is a certainty to all of our secret services. Iran is working today on a nuclear [weapons] program,” Sarkozy told lawmakers from his UMP party on Tuesday, according to Press TV.

“We cannot let Iran acquire nuclear” weapons because it would also be a threat to Israel, he added.

Negotiations, at this juncture, are quite pointless – we first must demonstrate to the Iranian leaders that we will not permit them to obtain nuclear weapons, and thus they’d better negotiate away their “right” to do so for the best deal possible. The best way to convince the Iranian leadership we mean business is to blockade Iran’s gasoline imports, with the escalation being the destruction of Iran’s gasoline refinery. Gasoline is Iran’s Achilles heel – they import most of it, and they can’t continue to repress their people without it. With the Iranian people simmering on the verge of revolt, the Iranian government cannot afford to go even a week without the means of swift repression..and you can’t get the goons around effectively on foot.

If we don’t do this, then Israel’s only recourse – her only chance at survival – is an all-out military attack on Iran’s nuclear program. Such an attack would have wide and unforeseeable results – of such things are world wars made…but Israel cannot afford to live under an Iranian nuclear gun – it does no one in Israel any good to think that they’ll be able to retaliate…two or three nukes would destroy Israel, utterly…a counter-attack might be grimly desired by the few survivors, but it wouldn’t revive the dead. It is either a vigorous American effort, or an act of desperation on the part of Israel – wisdom dictates that its better if we can force Iran to the table…but we won’t be able to do so by being nice or refusing to attack Iran at its weak points.

Nothing like a mid-week gab fest, free for all, huh? Plus it gets me out of thinking of something to write for the AM.

Have at it, boys and girls.

Indeed:

People do not believe lies because they have to, but because they want to. – Malcolm Muggeridge

Senator Feinstein and I disagree on lots of things – heck, most things – but I’ve always thought of her as one of the two or three adults in the Democrat party…and now she goes and proves it:

…After Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress Wednesday night, Feinstein remained skeptical about the wholesale overhauls to the nation’s health care system that Obama contemplates.

“I just find that if you’re going to remake a sixth of the American economy, it’s very difficult at this time of great economic angst,” Feinstein said in an interview with The Chronicle…

…”There is real concern over debt and deficits, and whether this bill will create additional entitlements,” Feinstein said. “That’s important to me and I think it’s important to them.”

Do keep in mind that Senator Feinstein is a tax-and-spend liberal’s tax-and-spend liberal – but she’s also no fool. We’re broke, my fellow Americans. If you are in favor of government-funded health care, then your first concern is how much money the federal government has. Right now, Uncle Sam is flat busted – he’s going towards $13 trillion in debt and his revenues are declining while the economy contracts. If there is a time to spend gobs of money, this isn’t it. Maybe in ten or twenty years, after we’ve put our economic and fiscal house in order, we can entertain grand, new experiments…but for now, in 2009 and for the next few years, its a matter of setting priorities.

If liberals want to do something – and something worthwhile – then attention should be paid towards figuring out how to ensure that no one with a chronic or catastrophic illness is unable to get the care they need. This, in and of itself, would dial back the “crisis” part of health care – there would still be plenty more work to be done (especially in opening up inter-State competition and changing the tax laws to allow private individuals and ad-hoc groups to purchase insurance as easily as corporations), but what is our big worry? It is that some poor guy will lose everything because he comes down with cancer, or is stricken with cerebral palsy, or some such. Cure that ill, and we’re in a much better position.

Senator Feinstein, for all her ardent – and gravely misguided – liberalism understands that there isn’t a magical money tree which will provide the funds necessary for Obama’s health care experiment. While I’ll bet dollars to donuts she’d prefer to have a single-payer plan in her heart of hearts, the merest application of rational thought reveals that this can’t be done. In my view, it can never be done as its destructive – but even if one wants to take the view that its not destructive, it is certain that, right now, it can’t be afforded.

Our real trouble is that with Obama, Pelosi and Reid in charge, sensible people like Feinstein won’t be able to make much headway…doubly so because while she’s got some sense, she’s also going to be unwilling to really go against her party. It is up to us, the American people, to thwart Obama and hold things off until new political realities emerge from the voting booth…and then we can, perhaps, work across the aisle with those very few liberals of good will and common sense for the benefit of the American people.

And deal it from the bottom of the deck:

Rep. Henry “Hank” Johnson (D-GA) has pulled out a whole deck of race cards and slapped them down on the floor of the United States Congress. So Joe Wilson is instigating a 21st century mob of horse-riding KKK members? Will there be any repercussions for his verbal vomit, or will he, like all racist claims made by the Left, be kicked under the rug by party cohorts and their media matrons? Remember, being on the Left means never having to say you’re sorry.

You can see Johnson on video here.

Johnson should be expelled from the House – but, it’ll all be swept under the rug and he’ll keep getting re-elected….and Democrats will still claim that it is we Republicans who are causing all the trouble.

From Rasmussen:

Following President Obama’s speech to Congress last week, support for his health care reform plan increased steadily to a peak of 51% yesterday. However, the bounce appears to be over. The latest daily tracking shows that support has fallen all the way back to pre-speech levels.

Forty-five percent (45%) of all voters nationwide now favor the plan while 52% are opposed. A week ago, 44% supported the proposal and 53% were opposed.

The problem with the President’s plan is that its utter nonsense, and people know it – you can’t increase coverage and control costs; you can’t mandate new requirements while keeping doctors and patients in control; you can’t bring in 30 million more people and not add a penny to the deficit…you can’t do what Obama says he wants to do, and every time he reiterates his plan, he looks more like a fool, or a con man.

Its time to start concentrating on reforming health care – in other words, working out ways and means to ensure access to the sort of care people need; care for chronic and catastrophic illnesses and means of lowering the cost of insurance by increasing competition in the insurance industry…grand plans to re-work the whole system are unworkable and not worthy of serious consideration.

Ok, liberals – here’s the video – now, will you finally admit that its time to call ACORN the criminal organization it is?

Its all so clearly common for these ACORN types – prostitution, child abuse…general illegality and gross immorality. In an insane world, we have a group like ACORN and there are people who still defend it…

Show the corrupt hypocrites of the House Democratic caucus that we’re not taking their asinine behavior, any more. Go here to help re-elect Joe Wilson.

The “ghost fleet”

Revealed: The ghost fleet of the recession

The biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history lies at anchor east of Singapore. Never before photographed, it is bigger than the U.S. and British navies combined but has no crew, no cargo and no destination – and is why your Christmas stocking may be on the light side this year…

…The world’s ship owners and government economists would prefer you not to see this symbol of the depths of the plague still crippling the world’s economies.

So they have been quietly retired to this equatorial backwater, to be maintained only by a handful of bored sailors. The skeleton crews are left alone to fend off the ever-present threats of piracy and collisions in the congested waters as the hulls gather rust and seaweed at what should be their busiest time of year…

…This time last year, an Aframax tanker capable of carrying 80,000 tons of cargo would cost £31,000 a day ($50,000). Now it is about £3,400 ($5,500)…

There are no “green shoots”, boys and girls – just a bit of money-shuffling which government and corporate bean counters will call “growth” over the next few quarters…but out there in the real world, nothing is happening. The global economy is still declining – not rising, not even bottoming out. And eventually the unsustainable fiscal policies of all the major nations of the world will come home to roost – you can’t spend your way to wealth; and when you’re broke, borrowing money just makes things worse. The final collapse of all this will be quite stunning – very sad, too, as a lot of people are going to get hurt who wouldn’t have if we hadn’t tried to bail out failed corporations like GM and BofA…

HAT TIP: Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis

UPDATE: US credit shrinks:

Professor Tim Congdon from International Monetary Research said US bank loans have fallen at an annual pace of almost 14pc in the three months to August (from $7,147bn to $6,886bn).

“There has been nothing like this in the USA since the 1930s,” he said. “The rapid destruction of money balances is madness.”

The M3 “broad” money supply, watched as an early warning signal for the economy a year or so later, has been falling at a 5pc annual rate.

Similar concerns have been raised by David Rosenberg, chief strategist at Gluskin Sheff, who said that over the four weeks up to August 24, bank credit shrank at an “epic” 9pc annual pace, the M2 money supply shrank at 12.2pc and M1 shrank at 6.5pc.

“For the first time in the post-WW2 [Second World War] era, we have deflation in credit, wages and rents and, from our lens, this is a toxic brew,” he said.

Earn as much as you can; save as much as you can; pay off as much of your debt as possible – those who are wise, now, will bear the next few years better than those who aren’t.

Sage advice from the father of our Country:

Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God. – George Washington

In the end, its all men and women of honor can hope to do.