Iranian LGBT's Face Death

It's as simple as the title of this post. When religious men completely control a government and impose their fairytale-based beliefs on a country, minorities inevitably suffer. Two Iranians likely face death if they are returned to Iran.

The case of Mehdi Kazemi:

A gay teenager who sought sanctuary in Britain when his boyfriend was executed in Iran is battling authorities who want to return him to his home country.

Mehdi Kazemi, 19, came to London to study English in 2005 but later discovered that his boyfriend had been arrested by the Iranian police, charged with sodomy and hanged.

The case of Pegah Emambakhsh:

An Iranian lesbian who fled to Britain after her girlfriend was arrested and sentenced to death faces being forcibly returned after losing the latest round in her battle to be granted asylum.

Comic Wednesday

It's Halloween and new comic release day. Not surprisingly, Marvel is taking its sweet time wrapping up World War Hulk (WWH). Issue five doesn't come out until November 14th. I'm pretty close to giving the storyline a big yawn. Civil War ended with a messy splat; if issue four is any indicator, WWH will follow suit and end in green goo.

Back in the real world, it turns out the we (Americans) are a bloodthirsty bunch. I'd love to know how Iran, as described in this graphic, is more of a threat to our mcMansion lifestyle than predatory lenders.

Oh, and here's a puppy:

Surgery In Iran

The Bush administration is pushing hard for an attack on Iran. Their latest ploy involves selling the attack by highlighting the use of surgical strikes against purported terror targets. Sadly, the idea is apparently gaining support in the Pentagon. Ooh, and John Bolton sees "no alternative" to a preemptive strike against Iran (although he needs to get on message with the surgery sell).

Of course you won't be hearing about any of this on your teevees until FoxNews runs the awesome "Operation Terrorectomy" highlights.

Onto Iran, Ugh

The Kyl-Lieberman Amendment passed today (h/t Jonathan) with minimal changes from the version that shut down the vote yesterday (ThinkProgress has many posts on the lead up to the impending attack on Iran).

Sadly, both of my senators, Schumer and Clinton, voted for it.

The Bush crime family will take any reason, no matter how legally flimsy, to further their agenda; they've shown us that with their warrantless surveillance, murder of habeas corpus, and extraordinary rendition.

Iranian President Ahmadinejad On Gay People

The penalty for two men having sex in Iran is death (warning: some violent pictures). LGBT face death or imprisonment in many places. Some of these include Bush allies such as Saudi Arabia and economic hot spots like the UAE (Dubai).

Still, none of this is suitable pre-text for invading Iran. We're worlds away from from even minimal international sanctions on places that torture, imprison, or kill LGBT people and other minorities. If "human rights" is included in the list of reasons for a Bush-led attack on Iran... Sadly, there is no "then" to that "if." It will simply be another grand lie in a march to another war for profit.

The sequel (Or is it part three or four, I can't count anymore?) to "Git yer war on" is being advertised on the teevee (also here, and here). I'm sure there's a sizable portion portion of our country ready for blood (see Bush's twenty-percenters) and another sizable portion of moderate males (see undecided voters, independents, libertarians, daddy-clingers, etc.) who will reluctantly embrace action against what their media tells them is a great threat (it's not).

Thirsting For Iran

Rawstory reports that Cheney is busy writing pretext for a strike against Iran while an elite air force strike unit is reassembled for just that purpose. This is scary stuff and I'm not as optimistic as Jonathan that $8/gallon gas will move Americans to do much other than complain. The upper-middle-class white guys who form the core of the "get your war on" party will clamor for the blood of the brown regardless of cost.