Might Start Too Many People Thinking

clipped from pajamasmedia.com ANN ALTHOUSE TRANSLATES: “Excuse me. If I may be so bold. I hate to trouble you but…. I don’t mean to impose… I’m not at interfering… Far be it from me to suggest anything that you might be able to characterize as meddling. I’m no meddler. Not at all. I’m just over here, modestly deploring violence.” MORE: Reader Michael Tubergen writes: “I can’t help but wonder why the President couldn’t just read from the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence. That pretty much says everything that needs to be said about the Iranian situation.” Might start too many people thinking.

The Three Rules Of Hope, Change And Plunder

clipped from www.qando.net Michale Barone, observing the Obama presidency as it unfolds, has penned his own “Three Rules of Obama”. Rule one: First, Obama likes to execute long-range strategies but suffers from cognitive dissonance when new facts render them inappropriate. Barone cites Obama’s long range strategy of conciliatory diplomacy with the likes of Iran and North Korea being “undercut by North Korea’s missile launches and demonstrations in Iran against the mullah regime’s apparent election fraud.” Second, he does not seem to care much about the details of policy. The “closing” of Guantanamo is perhaps the perfect example. Obviously politically satisfying at the time it was announced, its execution has been an absolute fiasco. None of the underlying problems of closing the prison had apparently been researched or considered when the promise was made. Third, he does business Chicago-style. “Transparency” and “openness” are now just a words Hope and change.

Good Luck With That

clipped from tigerhawk.blogspot.com Last week I stumbled across the following chart in a deck of slides from J.P. Morgan. It basically shows how much economic growth would be required to return the unemployment rate to "only" 6% -- recognizing that we had grown used to it being under 5% -- over the next one to three years, given a "starting" unemployment rate at the end of this year. It goes some distance to explaining in graphical terms why the Obama administration has thrown anything and everything into stimulating the current economy.

Man-cession

clipped from pajamasmedia.com A “man-cession.” That’s what some economists are starting to call it. Of the 5.7 million jobs Americans lost between December 2007 and May 2009, nearly 80 percent had been held by men. Mark Perry, an economist at the University of Michigan, characterizes the recession as a “downturn” for women but a “catastrophe” for men. Men are bearing the brunt of the current economic crisis because they predominate in manufacturing and construction, the hardest-hit sectors, which have lost more than 3 million jobs since December 2007. Women, by contrast, are a majority in recession-resistant fields such as education and health care, which gained 588,000 jobs during the same period. Rescuing hundreds of thousands of unemployed crane operators, welders, production line managers, and machine setters was never going to be easy. But the concerted opposition of several powerful women’s groups has made it all but impossible. . . .

I Had Waited Thirty Years For This

clipped from niacblog.wordpress.com People gather and stop him. He’s furious, ‘Why should I not? They beat tiny girls! They beat everyone! Bastard!’ I shout at him, ‘But we’re not beasts! We’re not like them!’ Somebody takes the Basiji away as people curse him. I think, ‘But the bastard deserves it. To come out of your house in the morning, just to beat up people you don’t even know.’ I don’t recognize myself and my feelings anymore. You can get in any car to go back home. People trust one another now. The woman in the back seat sitting next to me says, ‘It’s no longer about Mousavi or election results. We have suffered for thirty years. We didn’t live a life.’ An old man next to her offers me fresh bread. They tell jokes about the political figures and laugh out loud. They feel victorious. ‘I had waited thirty years for this. Now I feel relieved.’ She writes down my phone number to send me news. ‘Send it to The Guardian!’, she says. I will. I promise.

Another snip from this RTWT.

Damn Me!

clipped from niacblog.wordpress.com If we want to go forward we need to pass through tear gas. So we ask a car to give us a lift. Then there is an attack. They cannot tell enemy from other people although they want to show everything is fine and they’re only after trouble-makers. There is a woman who is being beaten. She’s horrified and hysterical but not as much as the anti-riot police officer facing her. She shrieks, ‘Where can I go? You tell me go down the street and you beat me. Then you come up from the other side and beat me again. Where can I go?’ In sheer desperation, the officer hits his helmet several times hard with his baton. ‘Damn me! Damn me! What the hell do I know!’ I ask myself, ‘how much longer can these officers tolerate stress? How many among them would be willing to give their lives for somebody like Ahmadinejhad?’

RTWT.

The Triple Oxymoron

clipped from www.davidwarrenonline.com As Amir Taheri has put it, the opposition candidate who lost the rigged election, Mir Hossein Mousavi, is just "a balloon that a section of the Iranian middle class inflated to show its anger not only at Ahmadinejad but also at the entire Khomeinist regime." They want "regime change." They do not want an amelioration, but an end, to the morality laws, the thugs who enforce them, the secret prisons, the international brinkmanship, the terror networks, and the rest of the regime's infrastructure of power. They explicitly want an end to the "Islamic Republic of Iran," which, as Taheri and others have long been explaining, is a triple oxymoron (it isn't Islamic in any orthodox sense, it isn't a Republic in any political sense, and it does not recognize Iran as a nation). President Reagan, who extracted more concessions from Soviet tyrants than all previous presidents combined, did not do so by making nice to them.

Cartoon Of The Day

clipped from gatewaypundit.blogspot.com

No Papers?

clipped from www.transterrestrial.com Complaints to Homeland Security higher ups about these “routine checks” were answered by spokeswoman Kelly Ivahnenko with a statement that said, and I accurately paraphrase, “we maintain we have this power and authority, you can expect we will continue to do it whenever and wherever we wish, and there is no requirement that we justify ourselves or explain our reasons.” This answer itself is, in my opinion, even more frightening than screaming gun-wielding agents. Capt. Vasili Borodin: I will live in Montana. And I will marry a round American woman and raise rabbits, and she will cook them for me. And I will have a pickup truck… maybe even a “recreational vehicle.” And drive from state to state. Do they let you do that? Captain Ramius: I suppose. Capt. Vasili Borodin: No papers? Captain Ramius: No papers.

An Ad

clipped from blogs.knoxnews.com

What witless fools the left have become. The Iranian protesters have strong socialist inclinations and the left won't even get out and hold a sign to support them.

What we have here are basically misogynistic, pimple-faced boy thugs brutalizing women. And all the left can think about is keeping their options open to make sure they can have nukes.

And I am so tired of this garbage about not giving the pimply beasts any ammunition to label the protesters as U.S. puppets. A-jad and Khamenei have been saying that for a long time already. This is all about the narcissistic left valuing their own good feelings over reality on the ground. The "reality-based" community indeed.

Long Enough

clipped from www.nytimes.com Later, we moved north, tentatively, watching the police lash out from time to time, reaching Victory Square where a pitched battle was in progress. Young men were breaking bricks and stones to a size for hurling. Crowds gathered on overpasses, filming and cheering the protesters. A car burst into flames. Back and forth the crowd surged, confronted by less-than-convincing police units. I looked up through the smoke and saw a poster of the stern visage of Khomeini above the words, “Islam is the religion of freedom.” Later, as night fell over the tumultuous capital, gunfire could be heard in the distance. And from rooftops across the city, the defiant sound of “Allah-u-Akbar” — “God is Great” — went up yet again, as it has every night since the fraudulent election. But on Saturday it seemed stronger. The same cry was heard in 1979, only for one form of absolutism to yield to another. Iran has waited long enough to be free.

Women In The Vanguard

clipped from www.nytimes.com I don’t know where this uprising is leading. I do know some police units are wavering. That commander talking about his family was not alone. There were other policemen complaining about the unruly Basijis. Some security forces just stood and watched. “All together, all together, don’t be scared,” the crowd shouted. I also know that Iran’s women stand in the vanguard. For days now, I’ve seen them urging less courageous men on. I’ve seen them get beaten and return to the fray. “Why are you sitting there?” one shouted at a couple of men perched on the sidewalk on Saturday. “Get up! Get up!” Another green-eyed woman, Mahin, aged 52, staggered into an alley clutching her face and in tears. Then, against the urging of those around her, she limped back into the crowd moving west toward Freedom Square. Cries of “Death to the dictator!” and “We want liberty!” accompanied her. There were people of all ages. Unlike the student revolts of 2003 and 1999, this movement is broad.

O Emily Update

clipped from michellemalkin.com Another “neeeeever mind” from President Obama, via Mike Gonzalez at Heritage: Less than 24 hours after Heritage Foundation President Ed Feulner questioned the veracity of President Obama’s persistent claim that, under his health care proposals, “if you like your insurance package you can keep it”, the White House has begun to walk the President’s claim back. Turns out he didn’t really mean it. According to the Associated Press, “White House officials suggest the president’s rhetoric shouldn’t be taken literally: What Obama really means is that government isn’t about to barge in and force people to change insurance.” How’s that for change you can believe in?

The Iron Hand

clipped from andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com There is sobbing of the strong, And a pall upon the land; But the People in their weeping Bare the iron hand: Beware the People weeping When they bare the iron hand.

15

clipped from andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com You couldn't imagin what I saw tonight, I walked down many streets(Vali asr, keshavars, amir abad, Fatemi, Shademan, Satarkhan, Khosro), and I was injured by tears gas, but the main thing : The big killer group, called "Basij", weared our special military service group -"Sepah"- dresses and they were all armed , I saw by myself one of them had only around 15 years old!!!! and he had the shot order! I saw a girl injured by gon shot (in Amir abad St.)! and there weren't enough ambulances . I walked through Shademan St. they start shooting , a young boy in front of my eyes murdered , and 3 other people were injured , there were also a big fight between people and Basij at Tohid Sq. 7 people was murdered there, I walked from my company to my home , It was taken 4 hours and I couldn't be able to make a video , cause I was in the middle of war!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Death To Khamenei

clipped from andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com The chants of death to Khamenei are true...I witnessed peoples fear of the Basij dissapear, an 80 year old chadori woman with rocks in her hands calling for the exacution of khamenei and all Basij...A group of Basij were surrounded and forced in to a building, the front was blocked with garbage and set on fire, They (basij) opened fire on the crowd with what I assume were blanks, the crowed disspersed for a moment the came back with a fury...thats when the molotov cocktails came out. When I moved on the building was on fire...an hour later when I passed by again there wasn't much of a building left. There was full blown war...there was a young man who had taken all of a basij's things including their teargas rifle. for 15 minutes of it we were passing intermitently though Basij and protesters fires placed to displace the teargas... might I add the 3 hours that we walked through fire we didn't see one shop or car that had been damaged by protesters..

The Women

clipped from andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com Girls are extremely active in all these rallies (a little less in night riots where patches of young men are more visible). They courageously charge anti-riot police, chant slogans in front of them, lead the crowd, etc., but they are equally beaten too. The police seem to have no limit in the use of force. They are disproportionately violent. They don't use fire weapons, but they don't go easy on you with their clubs. They literally beat up protesters to death if they don't get rescued by fellow protesters or somehow break away and run. The level of brutality is exceptional, but it is amazing to see how people stand up to them. I heard from many witnesses that thugs were brought by bus from smaller cities to assist police in the crackdown...

Is Now Being?

clipped from andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com They're afraid of murdering too many protesters all at once.  Eventually the protesters will come to understand how to work around this. They can't open their telecomm pipes, because the minute they do 3 million people will know how and where to gather, and the world will get to see thousands of videos showing horrific instances of state violence against its subjects. They have to open their telecomm pipes, because their economy cannot function without telecomm. They can't repress too much, because the cleric support base will tip against them. Rafsanjani is waiting to find out who'll keep his financial empire running.  He's going to come to conclude the current leadership's promises cannot be trusted; the country is now being run by a Fascist Islamic Mafia. And Iran's negotiations on their nuclear program?  Suspended indefinitely due to lack of credibility; nobody will believe anything they say now. TICK, TOCK, MOTHERFUCKERS...

Umm, has been for 30 years. And BTW, even if the protesters succeed, don't count on a tremendous improvement.

Although, at the rate O Duce is going I may still want to emigrate there.

OFinally OSupport

clipped from www.politico.com The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights. As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion. Martin Luther King once said - “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples’ belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness.

I'm sure the lefty loons will now come out and condemn O Duce for getting involved in an "internal matter".

Just kidding. They'll be supporting anything he does. Completely uncritically with possibly the exception that makes the rule of Glenn Greenwald. (Disclaimer: Greenwald is a Sullivanesque loon on Iran, its just that he's actually been critical of O Duce on something regardless of whether it was an appropriate criticism.)

Where Is This Place?

clipped from niacblog.wordpress.com Where is this place? Where is this place that all paths are closed? All doors are shut? Where is this place that no one helps us? Where is this place that we shout out our words with only silence? Where is this place? Where is this place that its people’s only call is to God? Where is this place that its cry of Allah-o Akbar ["God is Great"] Grows louder and louder every minute? Every day I wait to see if at night The cries of “God is Great” grows louder or not. I tremble as I hear them getting louder and louder. I do not know if God trembles too or not. Where is this place that we the innocents are stuck in [imprisoned]? Where is this place that no one can help us? where is this place that we are only shouting out our words with silence? Where is this place that the youth are killed and people stand in the street and pray? They stand in the blood and pray. Where is this place that people are called [vagrants] trouble makers? Where is this place?

Of Price Controls And Tax Codes

clipped from www.forbes.com Since the end of the Second World War, Friedman explained, medical care in the U.S. has displayed three features: technological advances, increases in spending and rising dissatisfaction. Yet the two final features proved unique to health care. While we were paying less and getting more when buying food or computers, in health care the opposite was happening. Why? Because, Friedman saw, most payments for medical care are made not by the patients who receive the care but by third parties, typically employers. Since, in Friedman's phrase, "nobody spends somebody else's money as wisely as he spends his own," this third-payer system by its very nature introduces inefficiencies throughout the health care system. The reason for this wasteful third-party system? The tax code. The policy mistake that produced this illogical mess took place during World War II, when the government imposed wage controls. Unable to compete for workers by paying them more, employers began providing medical care

The Cure

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com

Maybe O Duce Will Help His Bud Amedinnerjacket And Throw ProtesterHelp In Jail

clipped from yro.slashdot.org "electronicmaji is reporting on the Daily Kos that the individual known as ProtesterHelp (also to be found on twitter) was attacked in Ohio for providing network security for Twitterers in Iran, setting up private networks to provide secure proxies, calling for media networks to remove the Iranians Twitterers information from their broadcast, and providing counter-intelligence services (including Basiji and Army Locations) within the Twitter community. ProtesterHelp was allegedly attacked by a group of men while walking to class in Ohio. The men, who appeared to ProtesterHelp to be either Iranian or Lebanese, drove up besides him and threw rocks at him while shouting, 'Mousavi Fraud.' ProtesterHelp further reported that his personal information has been leaked, and is currently being spread both online and inside of Iran amongst the government."

I wouldn't put it past him.

The Solution Is Always More Government. Uggh.

clipped from www.youtube.com

Just About Iran?

clipped from www.weeklystandard.com In any case, the spokesman for Mousavi, the man at the center of those streets protests of these last days, says it it not just about Iran, but the world. Iran is a very important country in the region, and the changes in Iran could have an influence everywhere. So as a result, it's not only an internal matter -- it's an international problem. If Iran could be a democratic Islamic country, that would be a pattern, a role model, for other Islamic countries. And even if Iran has a terrorist image [today], it would be a model for other countries [in the future]. Perhaps the most interesting comments from Makhmalbaf came when he was asked what he told Europeans on a recent trip to the European Parliament. "I asked the European Parliament to listen to the voice of the people of Iran who are in the streets. They don't want Ahmadinejad. They don't want nuclear bombs. They don't want atomic bombs. They want peace in the world and democracy in Iran."

Intolerable

clipped from ace.mu.nu But, but Obama said he didn't care! He'd be happy with either guy, just as long as someone with a nifty Iranian accent would talk to him! Iran accused the United States on Wednesday of "intolerable" meddling in its internal affairs, alleging for the first time that Washington has fueled a bitter postelection dispute. Opposition supporters marched in Tehran's streets for a third straight day to protest the outcome of the balloting. The Iranian government summoned the Swiss ambassador, who represents U.S. interests in Iran, to complain about American interference, state-run Press TV reported. The English-language channel quoted the government as calling Western interference "intolerable." Gee, who couldn't have seen that coming?

Frankly, I was shocked that the State Dept. seems to have actually asked Twitter to skip scheduled maintenance. Must have been some low level grunt not getting the memo.

Man Of The Cities

clipped from www.fivethirtyeight.com Now, let's compare that to the percentage of the vote that Ahmadinejad received in each province in the first round of the 2005 election: This is, obviously, a rather strong correlation. In 2005, Ahmadinejad was a man of the cities.

Snowball

clipped from www.commentarymagazine.com What’s really fascinating about what’s happening right now in 2009 is that it looks a lot like what was happening in 1979. And there’s a very simple reason for that. The same people are in charge — I mean, Mousavi, Rafsanjani, Khatami, Medhi Karroubi, the other reformist candidate — these were all the original revolutionaries who brought down the Shah to begin with, so they know how to do this right. And so what you’re going to see tomorrow is something that was pulled exactly out of the playbook of 1979, which is that you have these massive mourning rallies, where you mourn the deaths of those who were martyred in the cause of freedom. And these things tend to get a little bit out of control, they often result in even more violence by the security forces and even more deaths, which then requires another mourning rally which is even larger, which then requires more violence from the government, and this just becomes an ongoing snowball that can’t be stopped.

Umm, Actually, Yes It Would

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com The new transcripts provide some limited new insight into the interaction between the CIA and its prisoners. [Khalid Sheik] Mohammed. . .appears to have invoked the U.S. Constitution to protest his treatment. He described the response he received: "You are not American, and you are not on American soil. So you cannot ask about the Constitution." Mohammed also said he lied in response to questions about bin Laden's location. "Where is he? I don't know," Mohammed said. "Then he torture me. Then I said yes, he is in this area." The Post's claim that this transcript sheds "insight into the interaction between the CIA and its prisions" assumes that the testimony of the bloodthirsty terrorist is truthful. If his testimony is false, it sheds no insight, "limited" or otherwise; it is mere disinformation. The Post, I trust, would not assume the veracity of an ordinary criminal's testimony about his guilt or innocence or about his interaction with the police.

A Witness

clipped from washingtontimes.com By all accounts, the May 20 meeting was contentious Our witness, a staff member, said the board was hostile and rude. He said the board repeatedly interrupted Mr. Walpin and peppered him with questions on multiple issues. He fully confirmed Mr. Walpin's account that the board excused Mr. Walpin for 15 minutes and that when Mr. Walpin returned to find his notepapers out of order, the board refused to give him time to get them straight. Mr. Walpin says he had been working around the clock and was becoming ill at the meeting. Still, any confusion, the witness said, stemmed at least as much from the board's hectoring behavior as from Mr. Walpin's own doing. Either way, a charge that "disorientation" is enough to "question" an independent official's "capacity to serve" should rest on more than one incident. Nobody has claimed that Mr. Walpin has shown any confusion, not the slightest bit, before or since that meeting.

3 And Counting...

clipped from www.riehlworldview.com The dispute comes as Grassley, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, is looking into the abrupt firings within the last week of two other inspectors general one of whom was fired by the White House and the other by the chair of the International Trade Commission.  Both inspectors general had investigated sensitive subjects at the time of their firings. Grassley is now concerned about whether a pattern is emerging in which the independence of the government's top watchdogs -- whose jobs were authorized by Congress to look out for waste, fraud and abuse -- is being put at risk. One of the other IGs is Neil Barofsky, tasked with watching over the financial stimulus spending. The article raises questions as to whether or not the Obama administration is trying to stymie an investigation with dubious claims of attorney-client privilege.

Unforgiven

clipped from gatewaypundit.blogspot.com In this video Kianoosh Sanjari reveals: ** Ayatollah Khomenei's grand-daughter was arrested during a recent demonstration. ** Former President Rafsanjari's daugher marched in the protest tonight in Tehran. ** On the night of the election after his vote Rafsanjari called on the people to demonstrate. ** There is a great split between the two factions of hardliners and moderates. It is reminescent of the 1979 revolution. ** The people of Iran will not forgive Barack Obama for siding with the evil regime. ** The protesters are communicating anyway they can. The regime has been trying to shut down communications. At the rally each day the protesters carry signs that announce the next rally. This is how they are communicating. ** Thousands of doctors and nurses in their uniforms were protesting in the street yesterday. ** There is a cyber-war going on in Iran today between the moderates and the hardliners. Each group is trying to take down the other groups websites.

Distracting

clipped from iowahawk.typepad.com And so I encourage both sides in this exciting contest to "keep it cool," and "play within yourself." Whether you are a "shirt" or a "skin," let's all respect the game. Are you a member of the Revolutionary Guards who just laid out a student demonstrator with a vicious, bone-jarring hit? Instead of taunting him, offer your hand to help him back to his feet. This will be a polite sign of mutual competitive respect before your next vicious, bone-jarring hit. Are you the student demonstrator? After collecting your teeth, congratulate the Guard on his his awesome hit. This will let the Guard know that you are a good sport, and committed to continue your dialogue without preconditions. At the end of the day, we need to leave our differences on the court and start focusing on the dangerous enemy who threatens all of us: Dick Cheney. The most important thing is that you get this distracting sudden death shootout over with, because it's really screwing with my legislative agenda.

The Moment To Stand!

clipped from www.davidwarrenonline.com The broad picture of Saddam Hussein going down -- available even to the audiences of tightly-regulated State media -- remains, indelible. Precedent is the cutting edge in politics and life; the breaching of taboos. Nothing is possible until it is shown to be possible. Barack Obama deserves some credit, too. If nothing else, his Cairo speech persuaded those who want an end to tyranny in Iran, as elsewhere in the region, that they are now on their own. The U.S. isn't going to help them. Instead, as Obama said, the U.S. is going to negotiate in "good faith" -- with just such despicable regimes as that of the ayatollahs in Iran. Quite possibly, in the grander scheme of things, Bush, followed by Obama, will prove a good thing. But if it ends badly, it will end very badly, in Islamist triumph, and perhaps nuclear war. But, cherchez la femme! What made Mousavi the fuse for an explosive force was not himself, but his wife, Zahra Rahnavard. "This is the moment to stand!"

Photoshopping The Coup

clipped from www.hurryupharry.org However, here’s a clue. If you need to photoshop supporters into a picture of a rally, you probably have problems.

Bubble, Krubble, Toil And Trouble

clipped from pajamasmedia.com SO DID WE GET THE HOUSING BUBBLE BECAUSE BERNANKE LISTENED TO THIS IN 2002 FROM PAUL KRUGMAN? To fight this recession the Fed needs more than a snapback; it needs soaring household spending to offset moribund business investment. And to do that, as Paul McCulley of Pimco put it, Alan Greenspan needs to create a housing bubble to replace the Nasdaq bubble. Well, we got the housing bubble, anyway.

The Bright Line

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com Here's a bright line standard: when your policemen wear ski masks, it's time for a new regime.

COTD: State Within A State

clipped from pajamasmedia.com However it is highly appropriate to see the Iranian theocracy through the prism of western totalitarism, e.g. Nazism. The historical parallels between Ahmadinejad’s IRGC and Hitler’s (or rather Heinrich Himmler’s) SS are very striking. The SS was also a “state within a state” and represented a separate branch of the German military that was directly loyal to the Nazi Party. Hitler and his crew originally used the SS as their own private army as a counter to Ernst Roehm’s SA (Sturm Abteilung). The SA was naturally Ernst Roehm’s own private army. During the “Night of the Long Knives”, the SA and SS slugged it out with the SS becoming victorious thus propelling Hitler into undisputed power. There has been some indications that the IRGC is loyal directly to Ahmadinejad and NOT to the mullahs. In some ways this recent Iranian election can be seen as a historical parallel to the Nazi party’s election to the Reichstag on 31 July 1932.

And someone was getting too close to Americorps so he had to be removed.