I saw on tumblr that the Senate voted to increase Iran sanctions today with a 94-0 vote. Six Senators abstained from voting and, although I’ve already written-off Bad Guy Rand Paul, I was hoping that he was one of those six that actually had a brain. 

Well, he wasn’t. 

Rand Paul voted in favor of increasing Iranian sanctions.

So, today, November 30th, 2012, Rand Paul has voted for increasing sanctions on Iran for the second time (yup, he voted for them the first time, too) and he’s also sponsored Feinstein’s amendment to retain Authorized Use of Military Force and Indefinite Detention in the NDAA. 

The Iran sanctions are doing nothing more than starving and hurting the people of Iran, and our government is proud of it. 

More on the sanctions from Reuters: 

The new package builds on existing U.S. sanctions but keeps exemptions for countries that have made significant cuts to their purchases of Iranian crude oil. Senators voted 94-0 to make the new sanctions part of an annual defense policy bill.

Iran’s currency has plunged this year as its oil exports were slashed by U.S. and European sanctions aimed at pressuring the country’s leadership to stop pursuing nuclear weapons. 

Iransays its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. The United Nations’ nuclear chief said on Thursday his agency has made no progress in its year-long push to investigate whether Iran has worked on developing an atomic bomb.

“We must be clear to the Iranians that toughing it out and waiting it out is not an option, that it will only get worse,” Democratic Senator Robert Menendez said.

[…]

The new sanctions also include measures aimed at stopping the flow of gold from Turkey to Iran.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful pro-Israel lobby group, endorsed the measures, which they said would close a loophole in existing laws.

“In an effort to circumvent international sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran, some purchasers of Iranian oil and natural gas have been using gold and other precious metals to pay for petroleum products,” AIPAC leaders said in a letter to senators ahead of the vote, urging support for the bill.

Whether an expansion of sanctions can actually slow or stop Tehran’s nuclear program is uncertain.