Oh Boy

Asking For It: The 'Candies and Walnuts' Instalment
Iran is rejecting the European Union's compromise plan.
Stop your 'Heavy Water Uranium Enrichment' and we'll give you a light water nuclear reactor. Predicatbly, Iran rejected the offer.

Britain, France and Germany, the European Union's three biggest powers, plan to offer Iran a light-water reactor as part of a package to induce Tehran to freeze a uranium enrichment program that the West suspects has military dimensions.

"They say we want to give Iranians incentives but they think they are dealing with a four-year-old, telling him they will give him candies or walnuts and take gold from him in return," Ahmadinejad told a crowd in the central city of Arak.

Arak is the site of a heavy-water nuclear reactor that Iran is building despite opposition from Western countries concerned that the plant's plutonium by-product could be used in warheads.

"Iran will not accept any suspension or freeze (of nuclear work)," he added in a speech broadcast live on state television.

The EU seeks an end to Iran's nuclear fuel activities as the only credible guarantee that it is not making atomic weapons. Tehran insists it needs the fuel only for power stations.

"We trusted you three years ago and accepted suspension but unfortunately this proved to be a bitter experience in Iranian history. We will not be bitten by the same snake twice," Ahmadinejad declared.

Iran suspended uranium enrichment work in 2003 as a goodwill gesture while it tried to forge a diplomatic solution to the stand-off in talks with France, Germany and Britain.

Well, there you go. Iran is going to behave like a 4 year old and then deny it's doing so. This should get messy. Wasn't there a B-52s song where they sing "We'll give you candy!"? The banality of the whole exchange is a bit scary.
Anyway, here's the WaPo take on it.

European nations have weighed adding a light-water reactor to a package of incentives meant to persuade Tehran to permanently give up uranium enrichment _ or face the threat of U.N. Security Council sanctions.

Senior diplomats and EU government officials said Tuesday that the tentative plans were being discussed among France, Britain and Germany as part of a possible package to be presented to representatives of the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany at a meeting in London. All spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidential nature of the information.

The London talks were postponed Wednesday until next week to allow more time for phone discussions of what should be included in the package of incentives and penalties to be offered to Tehran, said a diplomat, requesting anonymity for the same reason.

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack declined to say Tuesday whether a light-water reactor would be offered in the package. But he insisted that Iran would be required to halt its program of enriching and reprocessing uranium on Iranian soil, saying the United States and others "do not want the Iranian regime to have the ability to master those critical pathways to a nuclear weapon."

Of course Ahmedinejad is saying nothing's going to stop Iran and keeps spewing forth his fiery rhetoric; that's pretty disconcerting and discouraging for any prospect for a peaceful resolution.

The only conclusion to be drawn from this is that Iran does want to have a nuclear programmein order to produce nuclear weapons. In other words, they failed the litmus test of its sincerity on its so-called claim fo wanting nuclear reactors for peaceful purposes only. So if the bombs do start falling, you can mark this down as they day we found out Iran was really asking for it.

Yankees Win 14-13

I wrote earlier today that Shawn Chacon was throwing the game away. Well, he firmly put the Yankees in a 9-0 hole. Amazingly, the Yankees came back to win it 14-13 in one of the biggest comebacks in their history. It's only the fourth time in their 103 year history that they've done that.

The Yankees won despite trailing, 9-0, in the second inning, matching the biggest deficit they have overcome. They have done it three other times, in 1950, 1953 and 1987.

Posada, who was batting cleanup in the Yankees' injury-ravaged lineup, drove in five runs. His performance made up for the pitching of Shawn Chacon, who lasted only an inning and a third, matching the shortest start of his career.

"I'll be the first to admit, I didn't think it would happen," Chacon said of the comeback. "But these guys surprise me."

The Yankees took an 11-10 lead in the sixth on a two-run single by Miguel Cairo. Scott Proctor lost the lead in the seventh on a four-pitch walk and a homer by Brad Wilkerson, but Posada's sacrifice fly tied it in the bottom of the inning.

Called on in the ninth to keep the score tied, Mariano Rivera allowed a run on two broken-bat hits. Kevin Mench led off with a blooper to center, and after a sacrifice bunt and a walk, Rod Barajas grounded a double down the third-base line to score the pinch-runner Adrian Brown.

From there, Rivera recovered. Robinson Canó made a nifty stop at second base with a drawn-in infield for the second out, and Michael Young grounded to Canó for the last out, with Rivera covering the bag. Before the bottom of the ninth, Manager Joe Torre gave the players a message in the dugout. "This game is yours," Posada said Torre told them. "You've fought too hard to lose it."

Well, the score line sure looks full of ineresting innings.