The President Can't Take a Joke

I don't mean President Bush.

He manages to handle the daily barrage of jokes at his expense. I'm referring to the president of Iran.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could take a few lessons from Bush.

Tehran, 14 April (AKI) -- Iran's hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has apparently been incensed by an anonymous text message suggesting he does not wash enough. Ahmadinejad has taken legal action over the offending text, has fired the president of a phone company and has had four people arrested and accused of colluding with the Israeli foreign intelligence service, Mossad, the anti-government website Rooz Online reports.

Poking fun at the president, the regime's senior figures and its policies, has reportedly become a national pastime in Iran. The Iranian authorities are paying particular attention to jokes comparing Iran's nuclear programme with sex. Several people are widely believed to have received court summonses for sending nuclear-related jokes, according to Rooz Online.

...The clampdown is in line with the authorities' uncompromising stance on Internet bloggers. Large numbers of the nation's estimated 70,000 to 100,000 bloggers have faced harassment or imprisonment. The regime has acknowledged monitoring text message traffic. This apparently began in the run-up to the presidential election last June.

Next time someone complains, most likely a liberal, that the chill wind of censorship is blowing in America, that freedom of expression has been squelched under the Bush Administration, tell them about this.

Can you imagine what would happen if Bush threw in jail everyone blogging or text messaging jokes about him?

We wouldn't have prisons to handle such an influx of offenders.

Instead of using the Iranians' method to crackdown on criticism of the president, perhaps Bush could revoke jokesters' citizenship, forcing them to flee to Mexico.

If Russ Feingold were a member of the Iranian National Assembly, do you think he would introduce a resolution to censure Ahmadinejad for his warrantless monitoring?

Obviously, not all countries are created equal.

God bless the USA!
____________________________________

Here is some more news out of Iran.

Iran said it could defeat any American military action over its controversial nuclear drive, in one of the Islamic regime's boldest challenges yet to the United States.

"You can start a war but it won't be you who finishes it," said General Yahya Rahim Safavi, the head of the Revolutionary Guards and among the regime's most powerful figures.

"The Americans know better than anyone that their troops in the region and in Iraq are vulnerable. I would advise them not to commit such a strategic error," he told reporters on the sidelines of a pro-Palestinian conference in Tehran.

..."I would advise them to first get out of their quagmire in Iraq before getting into an even bigger one," General Safavi said with a grin.

"We have American forces in the region under total surveillance. For the past two years, we have been ready for any scenario, whether sanctions or an attack."

Some of General Safavi's remarks sound as if they could have come out of General Zinni's mouth.

Scary.