By Debbie Schlussel
Who is the most influential person on the American book-buying public?
Well, there’s good news and bad news.
The good news is that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, Oprah is not the most influential.
The bad news? It’s Jon Stewart. In my book, he’s equally as moronic and annoying, as are his followers to hers. Mere sarcasm and being obnoxious–without any substance to back it up, as in Stewart’s case–does not make you smart. On the contrary, it betrays your simplicity.

Alien v. Predator
Yup, America–with Jon Stewart and Oprah as your Number 1 and Number 2 literature critics–you’re goin’ down the tubes very quickly.
But there’s a silver lining to this dark cloud. Stewart only influences 8% of book-buying decisions, and Oprah only 5%. Yes, those are significant spheres of influence. But at least we know the other 87% don’t listen to these “culture” cretins.
What influences the smarter 87%?

No one is more revered in publishing than Oprah Winfrey and her televised book club. But when asked “What makes you buy a book?” more readers named Jon Stewart (8%) than Winfrey (5%), according to a poll of reading and book buying habits to be released today at BookExpo America. “The Oprah book phenomenon is well-documented,” says Fritz Weaver of Zogby International, which conducted the poll for Random House. “But Stewart’s audience, although smaller, cuts across more demographic lines.” The biggest influences in picking a book: suggestions from friends and family, what publishers call “word of mouth” (60%) and book reviews (49%). The poll also reports 11% prefer curling up with an e-book reader, PDA or other format rather than a printed book. Details of the online poll of 8,218 adults are at www.zogby.com.

While I don’t hold much stock in Zogby polls–their polls on Arabs, Muslims, and the Mideast are skewed to match the Arabist Zogby Brothers’ anti-Israel, pro-HAMAS/Hezbollah positions, and Zogby polls have been wrong in a lot of elections–there is some interesting info in the poll summary about who is buying books, why, and what their habits are. . . if it can be believed.
Also, I wonder how accurate online polls are in this case, since I’d bet a significant number of book-buyers are not frequent online users.

By Debbie Schlussel
We already know that rising gas prices are affecting the American economy in many far-reaching waves, from rising food prices to more businesses going out of business.
But a auto industry source of mine tells me that Wall Street financial analysts, with whom he consults on the auto industry, say that America’s gas purchasing and usage in autos is down to 1974 levels.
If accurate, that’s an especially drastic change since:
* At that time, there was an oil embargo and gas was scarcer and rationed (odd numbered and even numbered license plates allowed gas only on alternate days); and

* America now has far more cars on the road–geometrically far more.
Will gas hit $7 a gallon by early 2009, as some are predicting? Don’t count it out.
Sadly, our own leaders counted themselves out, by doing nothing to:
* Develop alternative fuels and energy sources; and
* Push for oil drilling offshore and in Alaska.
Like diamonds, the price of gas is artificially high because, for once, OPEC countries are actually finally keeping their anti-competitive agreements to limit production. If we drilled offshore and in Alaska, it would likely bring down the price a great deal.
And if only we could get a President that is serious on these issues, rather than lip service while he counts his future Saudi and other Gulf State contributions to his future Presidential Library.
Finally, the Wall Street Journal also claimed that aside from China’s growing use of oil, it steeply increased its use of gas (and, also, hoarding of diesel, too) in its endeavor to put on the Olympic Games–making the price for the rest of us climb even higher. Yet, another reason I hate “The Games.”

By Debbie Schlussel
A sign of the times is that American cash and technology gadgets are now useless as incentives, compared with the best commodity investment right now: gasoline.
A number of businesses and corporations are offering gas as a prize and incentive.
The most interesting:

Popular Mechanics. The magazine put its own spin on parent Hearst’s $250,000 sweepstakes to increase subscriptions at its publications, labeling it “free gas for life.”

Hmmm . . . the way gas prices are going. I’d say that’s “free gas for a year.” Hardly “for life.” And that, perhaps, a better sweepstakes prize would be a horse.

By Debbie Schlussel
**** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE ****
Late last night, a number of prominent conservative commentators and bloggers sent me a column that they noted was almost word for word an exact replica of most of my January exclusive on Barack Obama’s Nation of Islam personnel, Jennifer Mason, Cynthia K. Miller, and Shakir Muhammad. One of them e-mailed:

This is yours …………… almost word for word.

Memo to Aaron Klein, WND:
Imitation is Not Flattery, It is Robbery
Yup. Except a funny thing happened: the exclusive January column by Debbie Schlussel now says “WorldNetDaily Exclusive” and “By Aaron Klein” on top of it, and someone else is collecting a paycheck for my work. You see, as I’ve pointed out in the past, that’s what WorldNutDaily and its “writers”–especially Aaron Klein–do, all with “editor”/WND owner Joseph Farah’s approval and sanction. They rip off articles from mainstream newspapers and exclusive work of conservative columnists and bloggers and don’t give credit. Farah asked me to return to WND, from which I happily left in early 2002, and I said, no. I guess his motto is: if you can’t beat ’em–and you can’t join ’em–rip ’em off.
Since I’ve been a repeated victim of WND’s drive-by robberies, I suppose I should be overwhelmed with joy that I got a tiny last sentence mention stating that the information and almost exact quotes in this “WND Exclusive By Aaron Klein” was first reported by Debbie Schlussel. Thank Heaven for small favors. Maybe I should write a book, “The Lord of the Rings,” and at the end of it, in the acknowledgements, say, “This was first written by J. R. R. Tolkein.” By WorldNetDaily’s and Aaron Klein’s standards, that will make the book “a Debbie Schlussel Exclusive.”
Aaron Klein is notorious for doing this, and for making up information, which he does here. The only information in his plagiarized, non-exclusive “Exclusive” not already reported in exact words and details by me back in January, is information he made up and can’t source.
Klein has a habit of dishonesty and making things up. He notoriously made up a “World Net Daily Exclusive,” claiming that FOX News paid $2 million dollars to Palestinian terrorists to obtain the release of its two staffers, reporter Steve Centanni and cameraman Olaf Wiig. Klein was forced to retract the entire story. It was utter fiction.
In my own dealings with Klein–who, in marketing his book and his other “work,” has repeatedly identified himself as an Orthodox Jew–the dishonesty is legion. When Klein was upset that I wrote about how another one of his “WorldNetDaily Exclusives” was actually ripped off from liberal website Crooks and Liars and had already been quoted all over the internet, Klein claimed–as his plagiarizing friend, Sean Hannity, often claims–that he doesn’t read blogs. A complete lie, since most of what Klein “reports” is repeated carbon copy cut-and-paste of conservative blogs like Sweetness and Light‘s and BizzyBlog‘s newsbreaking stories about Barack Obama and other topics.
But what was really notable to me was that Klein e-mailed me his protest on the Jewish Sabbath. This is a guy who not only claims to be an Orthodox Jew but has marketed himself that way and sports a big black velvet yarmulke, a sign of very religious Orthodox observance. But the key requirement to be Orthodox is to keep the Jewish Sabbath, which includes no websurfing and e-mailing or computer use from sundown Friday Night until the nightfall Saturday Night. Then, to pimp his book, he appeared on FOX News Channel’s “O’Reilly Factor” on an important Jewish holiday, an Orthodox no-no. This guy is a fraud. And he’s not honest. I don’t judge people by their level of religiosity or even their religion. But I do judge them by their level of integrity, and he ain’t got none.
Why read “his” “exclusive” work, er. . . cut-and-paste, when you could have read it on my site–and others from whom he’s stolen–five months ago?
And then there’s the additional, fraudulent information and the sleazy, dishonest “source” from which Aaron got this “non-exclusive” exclusive.
Back in September, during the week I was mourning my late father’s death, I spoke with the source, a former Obama staffer. I asked him why he was telling me about this–the Nation of Islam staffers, Obama’s relationship with Palestinian activists Ali Abunimah and Edward Said, and Obama’s alleged statements to the source against Jews and Israel–now. The source claimed that he’d “seen the light” on Obama and terrorism and Israel.
But it bothered me that this source–who handled all of Obama’s Jewish and Israel stuff during his U.S. Senate campaign–was not bothered as a Jew and as an American at that time and stayed silent. The source told me that he reworked Obama’s image of being anti-Israel and radical and sold it to Jews at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), despite Obama making several blatantly anti-Semitic statements against Jews on Israel and despite the source’s knowledge that Nation of Islam staffers worked for Obama. In short, the source was like a kapo for the Nazis, selling Jews down the river. And now, suddenly, when it’s way too late and when he could have exposed Obama BEFORE he joined the U.S. Senate, he has a morality tick.
Regardless, with that in mind, I thought the information the source had on Obama–the stuff I could verify–was important, and I agreed to work with him and write about it on the condition that it would be and remain an exclusive story for me and that he would work with no-one else. He agreed. But didn’t keep his word.
A month or so ago, the source decided that his story was not getting the attention he felt it deserved. No biggie that the story was all over the internet and getting a lot of attention. That simply wasn’t enough for this source, who insisted that since my piece didn’t get published in the New York Post–because he refused to provide additional sources to corroborate his claims and also insisted on remaining anonymous–that he now had license to break his deal with me. The source said that he realizes that Sean Hannity repeatedly plagiarizes me (and many others), but that he was going to Sean Hannity.
Apparently, that didn’t work so he went to Sean Hannity-even-liter, Aaron Klein. And there’s a tiny bit of “new” information in the story that–based on my interaction with the source and Aaron’s established record of deceit and fabrication, I can only conclude is fraudulent.
In addition to his almost word-for-word reproduction of my work, Aaron Klein “reports” that the source claims that “his sources” claim that former Obama campaign contractor Shakir Muhammad–about whom I first reported–was a Nation of Islam bodyguard for Louis Farrakhan. Based on my information, Klein made this up. But I’m sure he has many Nation of Islam sources in his Jerusalem apartment . . . just like his regurgitation of my five-month-old column is an “exclusive.”
Then, there’s the source’s alleged new claim–to Klein–that Barack Obama asked indicted Arab businessman Tony Rezko to get a job for Nation of Islam member Cynthia K. Miller with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Klein quotes the source as saying:

She got an offer but turned it down. She ended up doing real estate.

But when I was writing my January column–after months of research and talking to both the source and Cynthia K. Miller, herself–I repeatedly asked the source what he could tell me about Miller’s relationship with Obama. He repeatedly told me that he knew nothing other than that she was Obama’s U.S. Senate campaign treasurer and that Obama–after months of claiming that her membership in NoI did not mean she shared Farrakhan’s views–forced her out, when he decided to run for President because he realized that the Nation of Islam connection would look bad for him.
We discussed Tony Rezko and Rod Blagojevich many times, and the source never once mentioned this important detail that Obama tried to get Miller a job through them. Instead, after repeated questioning, he told me he knew little about her other than her website and that she was a real estate agent.
Therefore, I can only conclude that the source–and/or Aaron Klein–are making up this new “revelation” about Obama, Miller, Rezko, and Blagojevich. . . just so Aaron Klein’s carbon copy will have a few differences in it.
Aaron Klein’s “editor,” WND “editor”/owner Farah, wrote that Klein is one of the bravest reporters he knows because he risks his life every day when he sets foot outside his Jerusalem apartment.
Well, sitting at a computer and cutting and pasting is hardly “bravery.” Neither is theft. And Klein very apparently risks his life very litte, since it’s evident that most of his “reporting” is done without ever setting foot outside his Jerusalem apartment; but instead, ripping off the original work of others.
Oh, and BTW, Aaron Klein’s publicist, listed at the bottom of my, er . . . “his” “WND Exclusive” column is Maria Sliwa, who is apparently marketing this story as Aaron’s. This is not new for her either, as she once ripped off a column I wrote on “former” Palestinian terrorist Imad Hamad and used it, word-for-word, for a press release for another fraudulent client of hers, phony “former terrorist” Walid Shoebat. When I confronted her, she claimed that Shoebat insisted she remove my name and not give me credit for her work.
And ever the moral paragon, just like her clients Aaron Klein and Walid Shoebat, Sliwa complied with the dishonesty and rip-off. Birds of a feather . . . .
Exit question: Which part of “Copyright, Debbie Schlussel” don’t they understand?
**** UPDATE: My Obama source claims that WND’s Aaron Klein approached him, via e-mail, to do this story, and that the source responded in writing that the story was mine and that I already wrote it. Yet Klein ripped me off anyway (and the sleazy source helped him do it, just as he helped Obama win his U.S. Senate race, despite Obama’s anti-Semitic and anti-Israel comments, and remained silent until recently).
The source also said he agrees with me that Aaron Klein made up the claim that he has NoI sources and that Shakir Muhammad was a Farrakhan bodyguard.
Since they’re both very dishonest, it’s hard to believe either of them, frankly.
Either way, one message is clear:
Hey Aaron, take that yarmulke off. It’s as phony as you are.****

By Debbie Schlussel
When then-Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Jack Kemp (under President George H. W. Bush) hired the Nation of Islam to patrol Chicago’s housing projects, I was apalled.
And my outrage over the hiring of this group of anti-Semites, anti-Whites, and anti-everythings-not-Black continues, as we learn today (thanks to the tip of reader and author Paul Karcher) that the Nation of Islam has been given a $150,000 contract with the City of Miami to patrol the streets:

Controversy is growing in Miami over the city’s decision to launch a nearly $1 million crime-fighting initiative that will include street patrols by a group with close ties to the Nation of Islam.

Yeah, That’s the Ticket: Farrakhan’s Loony Minions “Patrolling” the Streets

The City of Miami says it plans to give $150,000 to a civilian patrol group known as the Peacemakers, to be run by the Progressive Land Development International, an organization that shares a mailing address with the Nation of Islam in Miami. . . .
Details of the program are still vague and an official contract has yet to be signed. But Ed O’Dell, spokesman for the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, said the suit-and-tie wearing Muslim group will be working independent from police as role models and crime watchers.

ROLE MODELS?! What the %^#@!?! It would be hilarious, if it weren’t so damned outrageous and disturbing that anyone would cite this group as “role models.” By this standard, David Duke and Goebbels were role models.

“These are really three separate contracts, the surveillance cameras, extra police, and the Peacemakers,” said O’Dell. “The idea is to have as a component of the whole package people on the street who are taking charge of their own community so that it’s not just a police state, with big brother and cameras watching.”

So, instead it’s a Black Muslim caliphate with Big Islamofascist Nutjob Brother watching. A marked improvement, don’t ya think?

While the Peacemakers say they are not officially affiliated with the Nation of Islam, the group is headed by Rasul Muhammad, a prominent Nation of Islam member and the son of former leader Elijah Muhammad, and its corporate offices are at the group’s Miami mosque.

Uh-huh, not affiliated with NoI. That’s why they have the identical address. Just a coinkydink.

In 2005, police in New Orleans were forced to dropped a $15,000 police sensitivity training contract with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan following public outcry about the group’s anti-Semitic reputation.

That’s the New Orleans “Chocolate [Bigot] City” for ya. Thanks, Mayor Nagin.

City officials are defending their decision, saying they sent invitations to other community and faith-based groups to participate in the “ecumenical” program after residents and nightclub owners in the area asked for increased security.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you (for more than seven years now) about this when President Bush launched his noxious Faith-Based Initiatives push. Well, he got what he wanted, as now others are adopting his Initiative Based on paying your tax dollars to very dangerous “Faiths.”
Thanks, President Bush. Yours is the legacy that keeps on “giving.”
Now, maybe, the citizens of Miami can look forward to this kind of Black Muslim “policing.”

By Debbie Schlussel
As you know, I’ve been following the case of Imad Fadlallah (here and here), Principal of Fordson High School in Dearbornistan for some time. As I’ve noted, Fadlallah is the cousin of Hezbollah spiritual leader, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadallah, and Fordson is the nation’s first Muslim-dominated public high school, at 90% plus Muslim students.

Hezbollah High: Violent, Bigoted Fordson Principal Imad Fadlallah is Hezbollah Spiritual Leader/Terrorist Mohammed Fadlallah’s Cousin
As I’ve also noted, in addition to promoting Islam within the school, firing Christian wrestling coaches because of their religion, hitting students, and giving students the day off and extra credit to campaign for Muslim candidates and against Christian ones at the polls, Mr. Fadlallah has been involved in a grade-altering scandal to improve “performance” at Fordson, where tests show only half the students are proficient in reading and even less are proficient in basic math.
Now, I’ve received this e-mail–in addition to several others that are essentially the same–from a Fordson student showing me why Mr. Fadlallah needs to alter grades and how Islamofascism is the theme of this school you fund with your taxes:

From: Fathi Abdullah x00fathi@hotmail.com
Date: Tue, Jun 3, 2008 at 1:21 PM
Subject: HELLO
To: writedebbie@gmail.com
I think that you are the worst lady in AMerica because you have the mind of a baby. YOU ARE A RACIST IDIOT WHO DOES NOT KNOW WHAT THE WORD ISLAm MEANS. I AM SORRY THAT UR SMALL BRAIN CANNOT HOLD ANY GOOD INSIDE OF YOU AND THAT THE DEVIL IS INSIDE OF YOU because you might not think there is no god. THEn when you parish and being totureed in HELL fire you’ll remeber what you used to think. TO the disibliever(like yourself) this life is heaven to them.
I hope you can respond but probablaby not since your a coward who only talks but cannot back up her words.
i am at FORDSON HIGh come any time

Fathi, Habibi [My Buddy/Lover/Dearest]:
I know very well what Islam means. As I’ve noted in my words and writing for well over two decades, “Islam” means submission, as in forced submission. I do think there is a G-d, but His name is not Allah.
One quick rhetorical [that means, please don’t answer it] question: Is the part about “when you parish [sic] and being [sic] tortureed [sic] in HELL fire,” a threat about the violence you intend to do to me . . . or is it a threat about what you claim will happen to me because I am a “disibliever [sic]” and don’t buy into the extremism also known as Islam?
Oh, wait. One other question: Just how many of your grades did Mr. Fadlallah feel the need to alter?
A lot, judging from your e-mail.
So sorry, but I won’t be visiting your Hezbollah High a/k/a Fordson High School, anytime soon. I value my life. And my IQ.
Aleikum Salaam,
Debbie
***
Here’s another e-mail, my fave from a Fordson alum, which backs up the whole Fadlallah incompetence:

From: [DS: Redacted]
Date: Sat, Sep 22, 2007 at 4:13 AM
Subject: fordson high
To: writedebbie@gmail.com
I just came across your story on fordson and I must say everything you said is true.
I was a student there back in the 80’s when Mr fadalah was a auto shop teacher and he was
dumber than a box of rocks!the main auto teacher at the time Mr Heinz used to get on Mr fadalah
all the time for screwing up! it took him 8 hours to change a starter! anyway’s I cant believe they made him
a principal.
keep up the good work
your truly
[DS: Name Redacted]
PS please excuse any of my mistakes writing
this I went to fordson.lol

By Debbie Schlussel
. . . and that we still have freedom of speech here, unlike in Canada and the home of Brigitte Bardot and Peppy Le Pew . . . or is that Lepieux . . . or is that Al-Pew?
I’d better not guess at the new Islamic version of the skunk’s name, or I’ll be found guilty of incitement, as Bardot just was.
As reader Fred says, “What utter BS!” Or Le BS.

By Debbie Schlussel
Remember Katherine Lester, the teen from hicktown Michigan, who met a Palestinian Muslim on MySpace right under her parents’ nose, then fled to the Mid-East to meet and marry him?
As you’ll recall, I followed this story (including here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here) from the time Lester first ran away, to when, as an 18-year-old she legally moved to Jericho, Israel to live with Abdullah Psycho a/k/a Abdullah Jimzawi a/k/a Abdullah Jinzawi, to when Lester broke up with Abdullah Psycho on a dumb set of three episodes on “Dr. Phil,” during which she said the Palestinian Muslim beat, hit, and bit her. (I also noted how Lester’s father and stepmom whored her out for media glory and allowed her to continue the relationship, and how Seventeen Magazine glamorized this experience: “Online Love: Make It Work.”)

Katherine Lester:
From Dumb Small-Town Teen Girl to Islamic Palestinian Bride

Well, now, Abdullah Psycho claims that this idiotette, Katherine Lester, actually married him while she was visiting him in “Palestine.”

Last Sunday, Abdullah had the opportunity to give his side of the story on the MBC1 chat show Kalam Nawaem, a sort of Arabic version of The View.
The female hosts rounded on him for not properly defending himself or his culture on Dr Phil, and then he dropped the bombshell. According to him, the pair had married but Katherine hadn’t wanted to admit this on TV.

You know what that means. Under Islamic law, they’re still married, and he basically owns her. And she can be subject to honor killings, beatings, etc.
Well, it’s a good thing for her and us that he didn’t get that green card he wanted. Sad for us that she didn’t stay there with him. Would have been far better for her to serve as his dumb American baby making machine–to further dumb down the Muslim Palestinian population.
Her Paris Hilton level of brainpower and gene pool isn’t needed here.

By Debbie Schlussel
As many readers know, I am the proud owner of the OprahSucks.com domain name. I use it to direct attention to Ms. Winfrey’s jihadist sympathies and some of the more disgusting pan-Islamist things she’s done on her daytime talk show. Click on it and read the article.
A couple of years ago, I made the stupid mistake of not buying DebbieSchlusselSucks.com when I saw that it was available. When I returned to buy it, I discovered that Oprah Winfrey and her Harpo Productions bought it and used it to redirect people to the Oprah.com site to get back at me for my OprahSucks.com site. I was surprised that billionairess Oprah and her people are paying such close attention to little me. That, in and of itself, was sort of a moral victory. But, still, I wanted that domain name and tried and tried to get it.
Today, I am happy to announce that I have recovered ownership of DebbieSchlusselSucks.com from Oprah and her crew, and it now links to this site, not Oprah’s.

(Islamofascist Oprah Artwork courtesy of Preston Taylor Holmes of Six Meat Buffet)
Free at last. Free at last. Thank G-d, Almighty, I’m free at last.
One other thing: Remember–since I recognize that Schlussel ain’t exactly “Smith” in the spelling department–in addition to DebbieSchlusselSucks.com, if you forget the spelling of my last name, you can always access this site by typing in any of these:
* www.IHateDebbie.com
* www.DefeatTerrorism.org
* www.DebbieDoesPolitics.com
* www.DebbieDoesSports.com
(And a few others I won’t note here.)
Oh, and Oprah still Sucks.

By Debbie Schlussel
We already know that Barack Obama does NOT understand the Iranian threat and that he wants to break pita with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. That’s a foregone conclusion.
But the troubling thing is that the candidate who claims he DOES understand the Iran threat–John McCain–has made some very inconsistent statements on Iran and what he intends to do, and other statements indicating he doesn’t really know what’s going on, that he doesn’t know what American policy has been thus far.
Exhibit A is McCain’s speech, last night, to the annual conference of AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee–the pro-Israel lobby dominated by liberals and self-appointed rich Jewish bullies who constantly pressure Israel to give up–give up land, give up homes, and just give up. AIPAC, itself, has been openly phony and tw-faced on Iran. More on that later.

McCain, AIPAC:
Two-Faced, Wimpy on Iran and Ahmadinejad
Last night and prior to that, McCain said he wants to get tough on Iran. That was the theme of his speech and has been the theme of several of his speeches, lately.
But friends of mine who attended a May 5th Michigan fundraiser with McCain at the home of billionaire Pete Karmanos said McCain was hesitant and not exactly tough on Iran then . . . at least not as tough as Hillary Clinton. That’s troubling. One strong face at AIPAC, another–much weaker–at a Michigan billionaire’s home.
The week before, both Hillary Clinton and columnist Charles Krauthammer said that if Israel is attacked by Iran, we should attack Iran. McCain was asked at the Michigan fundraiser whether he would attack Iran if Israel was attacked. His response was a non-response. At first he hesitated, telling his audience that he needed to think about it for a moment because it’s a tough question and he’s not sure. Then, he gave a non-answer. Not exactly tough on Iran.
Then, last night, at the AIPAC speech, McCain’s new “get tough” on Iran policy was actually more of the same sanctions we’re already imposing and which are having little effect to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions or Ahmadinejad’s madness.
McCain told the AIPAC audience

he would drastically ramp up financial pressure on Iran’s rulers by targeting the country’s gasoline imports and imposing sanctions against its central bank

.
This is also AIPAC’s phony public position (while it quietly has worked against clamping down on Iran).
But in an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal, Senator Charles Schumer (most of whose politics I abhor, but who is right on Iran) notes that we already boycott Iranian banks, as do European central banks. Schumer calls this “the mildest of economic sanctions.” He claims this “has already produced an economic slowdown, and unrest among Iranians.”
Maybe so. But since we are already doing this, I’m not sure how McCain imposing the same old, same old will get different results. Ahmadinejad is still in power and still striving to achieve his nuclear reality.
McCain also said that he would support AIPAC’s purported policy of

international divestment from companies doing business in Iran, while also seeking more unilateral U.S. sanctions against Iranian state instutitutions, such as the central bank.

Again, see my comments above about how we’re already boycotting Iranian banks, including its central bank.

Sen. McCain said he supported this approach, arguing that “as more people, businesses, pension funds and financial institutions . . . divest from companies donig business with Iran, the radical elite who run that country will become even more unpopular.”

Great, but as Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick pointed out, the group he was speaking to–AIPAC–has been working (despite its public position for divesting from Iran) to stop all legislation around the country aimed at promoting Iranian divestment:

[Ohio State Rep. Josh] Mandel’s initiative received a body blow from an unexpected direction. AIPAC representatives asked him to pare down his bill’s divestment requirements to include only companies that invest more than $20 million in Iran’s oil and gas sector.
Mandel was surprised. Why should companies that invest in Iran’s defense, telecommunications and other sectors be immune from divestment? AIPAC went over his head to Ohio House Speaker Jon Hustead. Hustead amended the bill along AIPAC’s suggested lines.
Mandel’s experience is not unique. . . .
[I]n Texas and California, AIPAC lobbyists led by AIPAC’s policy director Brad Gordon, advocated that divest terror bill sponsors take North Korea and Syria off their bills. As they did in Ohio, they also strongly recommended that divestiture from companies invested in Iran be limited to companies that invest more than $20m. in Iran’s oil and gas sector.
In Texas, AIPAC’s interference so frustrated the bill’s sponsor, State Senator Dan Patrick, that he allowed the initiative to fizzle out. In California, the bill passed into law reflected AIPAC’s view, except that at the insistence of the bill’s sponsor Assemblyman Joel Anderson, it also divested California from companies involved in Iran’s defense and nuclear sectors.
In Florida, AIPAC pre-empted supporters of broad-based terror divestment. It advocated its pared-down, Iran only, oil and gas sector only divestment plan before a broader-based initiative could get off the ground.
Currently, AIPAC is working to pare down bills in Massachusetts, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Georgia.

Too bad McCain doesn’t know this, what AIPAC is really up to, regarding Iran. Too bad, if he does know, that he didn’t have the guts to call this fraudulent group on it. And too bad, he doesn’t know that most of what he’s calling for–limp economic sanctions, we’re already doing . . . to little effect.
If AIPAC’s policy–limiting divestment to those companies who do more than $20 million in biz with Iran and only in gas and oil–is President McCain’s policy, look for Iran to continue chugging along with its nuclear destroy-Israel policy attainment.
Without absolute divestment from Iran, Iran will absolutely win. Remember the oil-for-food “exceptions” for Iraq and how they worked so “well”?
The problem is, as I’ve repeatedly noted on this site, even with our economic boycott of Iran, there are so many loopholes, that we’re still shipping Pepsi and Coke to the Iranians.
Think they’re suffering, when they can get anything they want from America, even Pepsi and Diet Coke?
We must really get tough on Iran and that means not only closing the loopholes, but militarily going in and taking out those weapons, a tough proposal to undertake.
But none of the people running really wants to do it.
All wimps with no heart. So sad that Hillary Clinton was the only real man among them when it came to Iran.
Two-faced (on Iran) John Mccain at two-faced (on Iran and so much else) AIPAC.
Which face will be serving at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?