Doing Iran's Bidding

Today's Washington Post editorial on the Bush Administration's new Iran sanctions is wrong from top to bottom, but this statement stood out in particular:

If this diplomatic offensive fails, President Bush or his successor is likely to face a choice between accepting Iran's acquisition of the means to build nuclear weapons and ordering military strikes to destroy its facilities.

Describing these new sanctions as a "diplomatic offensive" is simply ridiculous. They are nothing of the sort. The US has had several opportunities in the last six years to engage with Iran in meaningful dialog, but the US response has always been "do everything we want now or else." Whatever else that might be (stupid warmongering comes to mind), it's not diplomacy.

It is interesting to note that Akbar Ganji, an Iranian dissident published in the very same op-ed section, is basically calling bullshit on the Administration's "freedom agenda" in Iran. If I didn't know better, I'd be tempted to speculate that President Bush is just Ahmadinejad's puppet. Certainly, you couldn't invent a foreign policy that better fed the paranoid delusions that increasingly solidifies Ahmadinejad's political power if you tried.

Heck of a Press Conference

So yesterday FEMA holds a press conference to talk about the response to the California wildfires. The presser is carried live on cable news. And according to all who saw it, it was a public relations triumph for FEMA. Deputy Director Harvey Johnson appeared poised and answered the reporters questions in an informed way.

Just one thing, though: reporters weren't asking the questions. The press conference was staged. As Al Kamen reports:

We're told the questions were asked by Cindy Taylor, FEMA's deputy director of external affairs, and by "Mike" Widomski, the deputy director of public affairs. Director of External Affairs John "Pat" Philbin asked a question, and another came, we understand, from someone who sounds like press aide Ali Kirin.

Heck of a job, guys.