Would someone PLEASE tell Jimmy Carter that he’s not the President anymore??? What is wrong with him? I’m embarrassed for him and I’m not even kin to him.

I originally posted the cartoon above in January 2006, so this isn’t new behavior on this man’s part!!!!

The Washington Post

Former president Jimmy Carter plans to meet next week in Damascus with Khaled Meshal, the head of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, in a direct rebuke of the Bush administration’s campaign to isolate it.

The disclosure of Carter’s plans by the Arabic-language newspaper al-Hayat and subsequent confirmation by sources familiar with his itinerary instantly placed the campaigns of Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in a political bind.

The campaign of Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the presumptive Republican nominee, was quick to blast Carter’s plans and called on both Obama and Clinton to condemn the meeting with what the State Department lists as a terrorist group.

Both Clinton and Obama issued statements with milder language, saying they “disagreed” or did “not agree” with Carter’s plans.

Hamas is a terrorist organization that regularly bombs Israel and is an enemy of the United States. They receive assistance from Iran and Syria who have declared they are committed to the destruction of the United States and Israel and who are supplying weapons that are KILLING and maiming American Soldiers in Iraq.

A former President of the United States carries a certain amount of official clout. This meeting by this SILLY man will be used as a propaganda tool for the enemies of the United States and Israel. Former President Jimmah Carter is bringing shame on himself and on the United States though his misguided attempt to salvage some sort of legacy for himself. And I do believe this is all about HIM for him.

Its not wonder that his wife looks so angry all the time.

I can’t think of an example of a former President behaving so badly. T.R.E.A.S.O.N.

BTM with Right Pundits calls him a ‘dangerous coot’. HA!

President Carter is a disgrace to this country. It has gotten beyond the point where he is the crazy old former president who likes to build houses. The guy is now a plain embarrassment and frankly dangerous coot now.

Allahpundit thinks this is just too good to be true … for the election.

The left’s senior statesman, sitting down for a photo op with this degenerate in the heat of an election? After having only just recently quasi-endorsed a guy who, thanks to his associates, is already suspect on Israel? It’s too good to be true. Memo to JC: As an icebreaker, ask him how many Jews really died in the Holocaust.

Something … and Half of Something says this is a real opportunity for Hamas:

This is an outstanding opportunity for Hamas! Is it too much to hope for, that Al-Hayat will realize what a wonderful hostage Jimmy Carter would make? I sure would like to see a video of his sorry ass sitting in front of bunch of jihadis with a flag, some AKs and at least one kitchen knife. Yep, I’d call that a win-win situation, just think! Carter could give his all for his principles and beliefs, and we would be spared having to listen to the happy horseshit that pours out of his mouth every time he opens it. I’d call it poetic justice, and it would surely be a very fitting end to a very stupid man.

Beth at My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy is outraged.

If there were ever any doubt as to where Carter stands on terrorism vs. Israel–and for that matter, the West in general, including us–this ought to settle it. Hamas? I shouldn’t be surprised, but HAMAS? A former President of the United States is going to legitmize this?

ShrinkWrapped says its an unconscious hate.

Jimmy Carter is the Godfather of the modern leftist hater. He presents a pious mien, untroubled by rage or hate. He truly sees himself as a man of peace. Yet Hamas is openly and unapologetically genocidal. Jimmy Carter hates through others maintaining deniability of his own monstrous impulses. His evil is worse than the banality Hannah Arendt described because he should know better. The compartmentalization required to embrace the murderers of innocents while proclaiming their moderation is breath taking yet never seems to give pause to our ex-President. Jimmy Carter is a hate filled and bitter man and every effort he makes seem to support monsters. It is a mystery only to him.

Hyscience says Jimmy Carter is a friend to our enemies.

Slobokan’s Site O’ Schtuff has a pictorial reminder of who it is that Jimmy Carter is meeting with.

This time, it’s worse than overseeing the election in Venezuela for Hugo Chavez. It’s worse than rubbing elbows with Fidel Castro. It’s worse than inviting Robert Mugabe to the White House. This time he is meeting with the exiled head of a terrorist organization.

Others posting: Tel-Chai Nation, The Hedgehog Blog, Meryl Yourish, Stuck on Stupid, Tizona’s Weblog, Gay Patriot

Related Posts:

• All We Are Saying …
• Jimmy Carter’s Book Sells Alongside Mein Kampf in Amman
• Can the Progressives Find Something to Hang Their Hats on?
• The Illusion of Democracy Dies in Venezuela
• How the left led us into 9/11
• Jimmy Carter Isn’t New to Interfering With International Affairs
• Jimmy Carter Interceded on Behalf of Death Camp Nazi
• Jimmy Carter: Conduct Unbecoming a Former President
• The twenty most annoying liberals in the United States: The 2006 edition
• US Navy welcomes the USS Bill Clinton
• Has Jimmy Carter had a Brain Scan Lately?
• Jimmy Carter allowed surveillance in 1977
• Does Jimmy Carter Think Roses are Barns?
• Avoiding Conflict Creates Unavoidable Conflict
• Old Men and War

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Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Right Truth, DragonLady’s World, Leaning Straight Up, Pursuing Holiness, Adeline and Hazel, D equals S, Chuck’s Place, Pirate’s Cove, A Newt One- Coverage of Vets on the hill!, The Pink Flamingo, Celebrity Smack, A Newt One- Don’t miss this show!, A Newt One, Dumb Ox Daily News, Rant it Up, Right Voices, A Blog For All, 123beta, Adam’s Blog, Maggie’s Notebook, The Christian Nationalist, Cao’s Blog, Nuke Gingrich, Allie is Wired, McCain Blogs, The World According to Carl, Oblogatory Anecdotes - Photoshop Montage/Open Trackbacks, Beagle Scout, Tilting At Windmill Farms, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Pat Condell discusses the film Fitna, the islamic reaction to it, the threats of violence and the dhimmitude of the west under the treat of islamic violence.

You can DIGG this here.

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Disclaimer: trackbacks to this post do not necessarily represent the opinions or standards of the Blue Star Chronicles.

More great posts trackbacked below …

Palestine doesn’t feel that the United States has done enough to make Israel remove any barriers preventing them easier access to killing Israeli citizens. They are launching their own campaign in an attempt to influence the election in the U.S. and boost the candidacy of Barack Obama.

This helps to explain the trolls that hit every post about Obama and it might just help explain his record breaking internet fund raising. Really, where IS that money coming from?

Is this the CHANGE that Obama keeps promising? Are these the people he wants to bring HOPE to?

I don’t know. I’m just wondering.

ht: Little Green Footballs

This story has been around since last fall, but I just found it today and found it very disturbing. This is an example of the main stream medias ability to put a pretty face on an ugly, grotesque, horrific act.

The picture above is of a lovely young woman in her twenties who exudes a sense of serenity. Its actually a pleasant picture to look at. This is the picture that was used as the branding for a New York Times review of a film called ‘Hot House’. The movie was about the lives of palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. The film, of course, focused on the need to release prisoners from Israeli prisons.

As the lovely face above peers out at you, you read the article of how these people are being held in Israeli prisons. The imagery and verbiage are all geared to engender sympathy for the prisoners. The problem is, they leave out part of the story. Actually, they leave out the biggest part of the story …. like why this angelic looking youthful woman is in an Israeli prison to begin with.

She’s a mass murderer. And she has no remorse for her acts. She unequivocally states she would do it again.

The parents of one of her victims wrote a letter about this film:

[Last June] the New York Times carried a review of a film called “Hot House” that goes inside Israeli prisons and examines the lives of Palestinian prisoners. We’re not recommending the film or the review. But we do want to share our feelings with you about the beaming female face that adorns the article [above].

The film is produced by HBO. So it’s presumably HBO’s publicity department that was responsible for creating and distributing a glamor-style photograph of a smiling, contented-looking young woman in her twenties to promote the movie.

That female is our child’s murderer.

She was sentenced to sixteen life sentences or 320 years which she is serving in an Israeli jail. Fifteen people were killed and more than a hundred maimed and injured by the actions of this attractive person and her associates. The background is here.

Neither the New York Times nor HBO are likely to give even a moment’s attention to the victims of the barbarians who destroyed the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem and the lives of so many victims. So we would be grateful if you would pass along this link to some pictures of our daughter whose name was Malki. She was unable to reach her twenties — Hamas saw to that.

Though she was only fifteen years old when her life was stolen from her and from us, we think Malki was a beautiful young woman, living a beautiful life. We ask your help so that other people — far fewer than the number who will see the New York Times, of course — can know about her. Please ask your friends to look at the pictures — some of the very few we have — of our murdered daughter. They are here.

And remind them of what the woman in the Israeli prison — the woman smiling so happily in the New York Times — said last year. “I’m not sorry for what I did. We’ll become free from the occupation and then I will be free from prison.”

With so many voices demanding that Israel release its terrorist prisoners, small wonder she’s smiling.

With greetings from Jerusalem,
Frimet and Arnold Roth
On behalf of Keren Malki

Has anyone done a film on the kidnapped Israeli Soldiers that palestine refuses to give any accounting for? No? I didn’t think so.

h/t: Real Israel
also at Powerline with more info here.
Digg this story here.

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Trackposted to Rosemary’s Thoughts, Democrat = Socialist, The Beauty Stop, Right Truth, Adam’s Blog, A Newt One- MAF letter, Stuck On Stupid, Cao’s Blog, The Amboy Times, Conservative Cat, Adeline and Hazel, D equals S, Nuke Gingrich, third world county, McCain Blogs, DragonLady’s World, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Wolf Pangloss, , Rant It Up, Tilting At Windmill Farms, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

There’s just a big brouhaha going on because of the Geert Wilders film, Fitna. Obviously, a lot of people saw that coming and many people and groups tried to stop it from being released from the get-go.

I watched the film and saw acts of terrorism committed by islamic jihadists against the West and Western interest. The film didn’t exaggerate the atrocities and in fact barely scratched the surface of the outrageous behavior of the jihadists. So what’s the problem? The problem apparently is that we are not supposed to acknowledge that jihadists are jihadists. I guess we are supposed to pretend the are a loving group of people who are just badly misunderstood.

Or …. as a few commenters on my previous post have pointed out … we should all just admit that America is the big bad bully in the world and its all our fault for everything the Jihadists do around the world to anyone who does not submit to their will.

I don’t think I’ll do that, thank you very much. The jihadists have made no secret of their goal of destroying us and to pretend that is not true is akin to Chamberlain declaring that Hitler wasn’t so bad after all and there’d be peace in his time. He was wrong and the people who excuse the behavior of these evil doers are just as wrong and are part of the problem.

Its hard to blame the commenters and the ‘moderate muslims’ who refuse to condemn this behavior or who even defend the behavior. After all, look what happens to any muslims who DO speak out against jihadists in the name of islam … if they aren’t murdered they have to go into hiding. Just ask Ayaan Hirsi Ali what happens to muslims who speak out.

The jihadists are pulling out all the stops to intimidat the West into suppressing any information being distributed to the people that reminds them of the atrocities committed in the name of islam.

Its hard for me to believe how badly we are being played. On the one had they openly tell us they will destroy us and make no secret that they are developing the technology and weapons that can and will do just that. The examples of this are almost endless. And still we pretend that they are not a threat and would rather blame ourselves than name the enemy what he really is.

When did we become such cowards????? It is certainly not our heritage to be cowardly, yet we seem to have lost our will to protect our own interests. We tsk-tsk about beheadings, but then are outraged when someone reminds us that the ones doing the beheadings are islamic. Some even feel sorry for them when they are killed by our Troops!

Here’s a little bit of what’s going on now …..

I already posted that the courageous European Union has condemned the movie. They even went so far as to state the the whole concept of free speech is probably over-rated. Oh yeah? Tell our Founding Fathers that and every man who has died in every war defending our freedoms. COWARDS!

Muslim nations condemn Dutch Koran film

Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-immigration Freedom Party, launched his short video on the Internet on Thursday evening, prompting an al Qaeda-linked website to call for his death and increased attacks on Dutch soldiers in Afghanistan.

“The correct Sharia (Islamic law) response is to cut (off) his head and let him follow his predecessor, van Gogh, to hell,” a member of Al-Ekhlaas wrote on the al-Qaeda affiliated forum, according to the SITE Institute, a U.S.-based terrorism monitoring service.

The 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) said: “The film is solely intended to incite and provoke unrest and intolerance among people of different religious beliefs and to jeopardize world peace and stability.” [If they didn't blow up people, fly planes into buildings, behead people and kill anyone who disagrees with them they wouldn't be subjected to films about what they do. They are who jeopardize world peace and stability, not a film about what they do.]

Of course the UN had to weight in ….

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the film as “offensively anti-Islamic” and U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said it was “hateful.”

Its not surprise that Iran disapproves …

Iran called the film heinous, blasphemous and anti-Islamic, and Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation and a former Dutch colony, said it was an “insult to Islam, hidden under the cover of freedom of expression.”

Network Solutions suspended the website that Geert Wilders had reserved to publish his film.

An American network provider Sunday said it had suspended a website that Dutch MP Geert Wilders had reserved to post his anti-Islamic film, which has sparked wide condemnation and fears of a backlash.

LiveLeak removed the video because of threats to their staff. Their statement is here. Gates of Vienna has a list of sites on which you can still see the video. You can view it at Jawa, LGF, Pat Dollard, Atlas Shrugs and Menorah Blog.

Dutch Leftists Apologize to Islam. They have their problems there too.

PoliGazette has two reviews of Fitna.

Others posting: Fausta’s Blog, Phyllis Chesler, The Psychotic Core, Wake Up America!, Sister Toldjah, Michelle Malkin, Powerline, Flopping Aces, Eddie Bear, The Spanish Pundit

More at Tailrank and memeorandum

Following the release of Geert Wilders’ film Fitna, the European Union is quick to reassure the Islamic world that the whole idea of “free speech” is probably overrated: EU condemns Dutch anti-Islam film……….>>

read more | digg story

AP

JERUSALEM—- With Iranian backing, Hezbollah guerrillas have dramatically increased their rocket range and can now threaten most of Israel, senior Israeli defense officials said Thursday.

The Lebanese group has acquired new Iranian rockets with a range of about 185 miles, the officials said. That means the guerrillas can hit anywhere in Israel’s heavily populated center and reach as far south as Dimona, where Israel’s nuclear reactor is located.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge the confidential intelligence assessment to the media.

When Israel and Hezbollah fought a monthlong war in 2006, Hezbollah fired nearly 4,000 rockets into Israel. The longest-range rockets fired, which Israel said were Iranian-made, hit some 45 miles inside Israel.

Although Israel’s air force managed to take out most of the group’s long-range rockets, the military failed throughout the war to halt the short-range rocket fire that paralyzed northern Israel and killed 40 Israeli civilians.

After the war, the U.N. dispatched a peacekeeping force to distance Hezbollah from the border and prevent the group from rearming. But Israel says Hezbollah’s Iranian and Syrian patrons have steadily provided the group with large amounts of rockets since then, many of them capable of hitting central Israel. However, it has not revealed the evidence for its claims.

Hezbollah and U.N. peacekeeping officials were not immediately available for comment.

The defense officials did not say how many of the new rockets Hezbollah has obtained. However, Israelis have said previously that overall, Hezbollah now has many more rockets in its arsenal than the 14,000 it had before the conflict — likely more than double that number.

In early March, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reported Israeli claims that Hezbollah’s arsenal includes 10,000 long-range rockets and 20,000 short-range rockets in southern Lebanon.

Israel also faces near-daily rocket barrages in the south from Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, ruled by the Islamic group Hamas. The rockets from Gaza, mainly crude short-range projectiles, have killed 13 Israelis since 2001. Like Hezbollah, Hamas has strong ties to Iran.

Its always interesting to me that people keep saying that Israel needs to quit doing whatever it is that people think they are doing to stop Lebanon and Palestine from bombing them. I don’t get it. Its like saying women are at fault for getting raped because they walk down the street. Apparently, Israel is at fault for getting bombed because it exists.

Its also interesting that the U.N. peacekeeping force has to resort to keeping Hezbollah far enough form the border with Israel so that they can’t bomb them. Apparently, using any kind of reason or peace negotiations just isn’t an option. I submit its not an option because they don’t want peace. They only want to destroy Israel. Period.

The news that Hezbollah, with the assistance of Iran and Syria, has had a dramatic increase in their fire power and the range of their rockets is alarming. The leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas have never made a secret that their intention is to destroy Israel. The leaders of Iran have never made a secret that their goal is to destroy Israel. They say what they intend to do. They work diligently towards that goal and are obviously making serious progress. All the while we don’t listen. Is it that we don’t believe them? Are we so afraid of them that we just stick our heads in the sand and hope they won’t be able to produce the technology to do it? Why don’t we listen? Why don’t we believe them?

I wonder what our presidential candidates intend to do about Iran.

All in all. This is very alarming news.

This is the long anticipated movie about islam from Dutch MP Geert Wilder. The movie depicts recent acts of terrorism against Western society by islamic jihadists as related to verses from the Koran. We have been ‘protected’ from the images that so shockingly illustrate the acts of the jihadists against us. The images are graphic, bloody and hard to look at. Its the ugliness of islam and its impact on our society.

Islamofascists have tried to keep this film from being published. They are upset that the West might see them for what they really are. They will and do claim this isn’t islam. They claim this is racist and prejudicial. They claim it will give islam a bad name. I submit that if islam doesn’t want to be seen this way they should take control of their own society. I islam doesn’t like being depicted as violent and cruel bloody savages who are intent on conquering the world, then they should stop acting like violent and cruel bloody savages who are intent on conquering the world.

These acts are their acts, not ours. These are things done in the name of islam. When will we quit pretending we are somehow responsible for what they do?

**Warning** - Graphic acts of violence and the results of those acts. Some of this video is very difficult to watch. - **Warning**

Fitna in English

Previous:

• Wilders Film To Air, Dutch Government Terrified
• Geert Wilders and the Islamization of Europe

The Saudis are trying to reign in their more militant Imams by disseminating a more moderate form of Islam. Its sorta like a re-education program. Its a program they started a few years ago when it became apparent that security measures alone would not save them from militant islamists.

That sounds great. I wonder how its working ……

Saudi clerics have long been accused of encouraging Saudi youth to join global jihad and of inciting hatred of non-Muslims.

Nearly 1,000 imams have already been sacked over the past few years.

The Saudi royal family has come under increasing pressure - mainly from Washington - to change religious textbooks and to rein in militant clerics.

But critics are sceptical about whether such initiatives would work as long as the powerful, and ultraconservative, religious establishment in Saudi Arabia continues to exert enormous influence over society.

Only last week, a prominent cleric called for the beheading of two liberal writers who had questioned the orthodox view that Muslims can not change their religion.

It sounds like they’ve got a ways to go with this yet.

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Trackposted to The Virtuous Republic, Rosemary’s Thoughts, A Blog For All, The Beauty Stop, 123beta, Adam’s Blog, Right Truth, Oblogatory Anecdotes, Stuck On Stupid, Cao’s Blog, Big Dog’s Weblog, Conservative Cat, Pursuing Holiness, Allie is Wired, Nuke Gingrich, Faultline USA, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, McCain Blogs, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, , Wolf Pangloss, , Right Voices, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

The Danes are getting really tired of their flag getting burned. The website called Stop Islamisation Of Europe (SIOE) has a report on a demonstration that was held in Denmark.

Just across the street autonomes and muslims were gathering. They were seperated from us by a line of riot police. The autonomes and muslims began to shout at us in a way that we are used of them. Meanwhile the number of people on the square was growing. Anders was doing lots of interviews for lots of press. The autonomes and muslims across the street, maybe a 100 to 130 became more agressive.

One Danish muslim completely freaked out and had to be pushed back by three policemen. The autonomes were shouting to us and were calling us racists, nazists and fascists like a bunch of idiots. They also constantly gave us the finger.

The muslims shouted something about Satan and kept on repeating it. They also shouted something in Arabic, we have no idea what they were shouting at us but we don’t think it was anything nice. A young muslim, he looked like an imam, was really screaming and yelling through a megaphone. He constantly repeated the name mohammed. Both autonomes and muslims were going completely mental and were very agressive.

One reporter tried to do an interview with them and she was called a hooker and the muslims spit on the street, only because she tried to hear their side of the story.

The next demonstration will be in Copenhagen on May 31st.

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Trackposted to The Virtuous Republic, Rosemary’s Thoughts, A Blog For All, The Beauty Stop, 123beta, Adam’s Blog, Right Truth, Oblogatory Anecdotes, Stuck On Stupid, Cao’s Blog, Big Dog’s Weblog, Conservative Cat, Pursuing Holiness, Allie is Wired, Nuke Gingrich, Faultline USA, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, McCain Blogs, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, , Wolf Pangloss, , Right Voices, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

In a bid to continue to give the illusion that he remains relevant, bin Laden and/or his al-Qaeda surrogates are releasing a new tape to threaten us all on the anniversary of the first day of the Battle of Iraq.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is expected to release a new message, the U.S.-based terrorism monitoring service SITE Institute said on Wednesday.

The message is entitled, “The Response Will Be What You See, Not What You Hear,” SITE said in a release.

It said an announcement of the pending message was posted on Wednesday, the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, by the administrator of the al Qaeda-affiliated Al-Ekhlaas Internet forum.

The message would appear to the first by bin Laden since November 29, 2007, when he urged European countries to end military participation with U.S. forces in the Afghan conflict.

One of John McCain’s strengths is his strong grasp on the conflicts that our country is currently faced with and his understanding of how to deal with conflict. He certainly knows that pretending conflict is not there doesn’t make it go away.

While John McCain has been touring the Middle East this week he has visited King Abdullah II of Jordan and Israel. He has voiced his support of Israel as well as hope for peace in the Middle East as a whole.

The Jerusalem Post

“If Hamas/Hizbullah succeeds here, they are going to succeed everywhere, not only in the Middle East, but everywhere. Israel isn’t the only enemy,” Arizona Sen. McCain said, in the only interview he is giving to the Israeli media during his visit here.

“They are dedicated to the extinction of everything that the US, Israel and the West believe and stand for. So America does have an interest in what happens here, far above and beyond our alliance with the State of Israel.”

McCain calls Israel a partner, not a client. He says as partners it is not our place to tell Israel how to handle the conflicts they have with their neighbors. While he would not recommend that Israel not talk to Hamas he said that he is personally against it.

“Someone is going to have to answer me the question of how you are going to negotiate with an organization that is dedicated to your extinction,” McCain said in a lounge in Jerusalem’s David Citadel Hotel, as Lieberman and Graham listened.

~ clip ~

“I really think that we should understand that the US and Israel are partners. Israel is not a client of the United States,” he said. “If you are partners, then you don’t dictate what you think the terms of the survival of a nation should be.”

Asked whether Israel was using the right tactics in trying to quell the rocket fire on Sderot and the western Negev, McCain praised Defense Minister Ehud Barak - terming him “one of the great military people” he has met - and added, “I can’t give you a good answer as to how you respond to these rocket attacks.”

But, he then said dryly, “I can tell you that I believe that if rocket attacks came across the border of the United States of America, that the American people would probably demand pretty vigorous actions in response. I think I know my constituency in the state of Arizona, and they would be pretty exercised if rockets came across our southern border.”

And what did he have to say about Iran ….

“I think Iran is a threat to the region,” McCain said, adding that not only were the Iranians “obviously pursuing nuclear weapons,” they were also arming and training extremists to send into Iraq, supporting Hizbullah and influencing Syria.

“At the end of the day, we can still not afford to have Iran with nuclear weapons,” he said. “We know they have ambitions that are not just aimed at the State of Israel.”

These ambitions included “destabilization of the entire region upon which the United States’ national security interests rest,” he said.

McCain is in the region with his close friends, fellow Senators, Joe Lieberman and Lesley Graham. Here are some photos from their trip. You can click on the photos to make them larger.