He really is a space cadet.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he’s volunteering to be blasted into space to test his nation’s ability to place a human in orbit around the Earth.
“I’m ready to be the first Iranian to sacrifice myself for our country’s scientists,” the madman said, according to the official IRNA news agency.
It’s a case of Ahmadinejad see, Ahmadinejad do.
Last week, Iran boasted that it had launched a monkey in a rocket 75 miles above Earth and returned it safely.
Yesterday, Ahmadinejad’s presidential Web site showed photos of him with what it said was the space monkey, named Pishgam, which means “pioneer” in Farsi.
Ahmadinejad, known for his anti-Semitic, paranoid rants at the United Nations, isn’t claiming to be a rocket scientist. But he told aerospace engineers in Tehran yesterday that he’s willing to “auction” himself to go on the mission, with the proceeds going to Iran’s space program.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) joked on Twitter about Ahmadinejad’s latest spacey comments.
“So Ahmadinejad wants to be first Iranian in space – wasn’t he just there last week?” he tweeted, along with a link to an article headlined “Iran launches monkey into space.”
But McCain’s crack wasn’t funny to Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), who tweeted in reply, “Maybe you should wisen up & not make racist jokes.”
McCain tweeted back, “Re: Iran space tweet – lighten up folks, can’t everyone take a joke?”
Ahmadinejad wouldn’t be the first Iranian in space. Iranian-American entrepreneur Anousheh Ansari made the trip in 2006 in a Russian-made Soyuz capsule after paying a reported $20 million.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration said Iran may have pulled the old monkey switcheroo.
Iranian state media ran images of a small monkey fitted into a seat before the supposed flight, then photos of him in a silk tuxedo on his return.
But US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said there are doubts that the photos are of the same monkey or that the one shot into space survived.
“The Iranians said they sent a monkey,” she said. “But the monkey that they showed later seemed to have different facial features.”
“He was missing a little wart,” she explained.
But Tehran blamed the photo discrepancy on a mix-up, saying the initial pictures were actually of one of the project’s backup monkeys.
Backup monkeys?