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So the battle for hearts and minds in Iran is over whether or not Neda Soltan is a martyr. She was not an activist. Why does that matter? Her boyfriend says she wanted freedom. I don't claim to understand Islam, but I bet that boosts the martyr factor. Here she's called an unlikely martyr. Analysis of the role of clerics. Still flailing and searching for a scapegoat, Iranian officials accuse UN leader of meddling. Kangaroo courts are going to try to blame the west. These demonstrations have nothing to do with decades of repression and stealing an election. There's nothing to see here. Move along.

Boortz lampoons Obama's press secretary saying Obama has been moved by what's going on in Iran. Obama's afraid his tyrannical buddies might lose power. Then who can he charm? The Iranian government says no new election. Iranian President Ahmadinejad claims western elections are rigged. Our political process is far from free and our elections are certainly corrupt, but I don't think there's any equivalence to what just happened in Iran. This guy's sounding more like Kim Jung Il every day.

Iranian government expels British diplomats, and Britain returns the favor.

Text of Obama's speech about Iranian protests from Friday. Better late than never. Obama is finally, nearly a week after the fact, speaking more forcefully. I understand Obama didn't want to choose sides on the election issue, but he should have definitively sided with the Iranian people, their freedom of speech, freedom to assemble and freedom to chose their own government from the beginning. Calling the government murder of protesters a debate is ridiculous. I never found an Obama quote calling the violence in Iran a debate, only Gibbs's comment. I'm not the only person who thinks Obama doesn't want to see regime change in Iran. Ralph Peters blast of Obama reaches a new level.

"We now have a president with Jimmy Carter's naivete, Richard Nixon's distaste for laws, Lyndon Johnson's commitment to the wrong war, and Bill Clinton's moral fecklessness."

And that's just for starters.

Reason reminds us how bad the Iranian unrest might have been handled if McCain had been in office. McCain's comments are bellicose and incendiary, and his actions might have been destructive. But Obama and McCain aren't our only choices (though our bogus election system led us to that). There was a good way to respond - with firm and clear support for the right of the people of Iran to assemble, speak, select their own government and not be shot, arrested and disappeared for it.

Some more experts are finally realizing what Mises scholars have been telling us all along - another wave or foreclosures is on the way.

Obama lays down rules for counting workers employed by his stimulus boondoggle. He plans to use this to claim he saved or created these jobs, but that's not what it means at all. Obama is destroying jobs in the private sector to create these jobs, making us all poorer for it.

39 percent of voters now blame Obama for the economy. That's because his policies have made it worse. Look for this number to climb quickly.

Reason breaks down Obama's financial regulation proposal which will be ineffective because deregulation did not cause of the current economic crisis - government did.

The Onion takes a nostogic look back at jobs, paychecks and workplaces in America.

Obama is feuding with another government watchdog - this time the TARP overseer. Why don't these people understand that Great Pharaoh with in his divinity is all wise and all knowing and the law is just an impediment to his grand designs for turning America into a third world country? How about the White House calling firing the Inspector General who blew the whistle on fraud being conducted by a major Obama donor "political courage"? If you're going to lie, make it a big one. Obama will claim black is white all day long.

Either Obama is warning Inspector Generals not to cross him, or he's covering something up.

"Under such circumstances, the summary termination of an IG [Walpin] appears to any reasonable observer to be political revenge at best — and possibly worse, if it’s intended to prevent further investigation, cover up wrongdoing, or signal other would-be investigators to watch their backs. As is true with the Justice Department’s unexplained dismissal of the suit it had won against the New Black Panther Party for voter intimidation in Philadelphia, the administration’s silence is telling.

If a conservative were in the White House, this story would receive front-page coverage, with commentators and congressmen alike arguing that the White House’s actions amount to an admission of highly unethical conduct. Somehow we don’t think this kind of behavior is the “change” in Washington that voters were expecting. But we remain hopeful that the mainstream media will finally wake up and start holding Obama accountable for some of his questionable actions."

Absolutely. Walpin is calling for a Congressional hearing on his firing. I hope he isn't holding his breath.

Obama's tax and trade bill is a jobs killer. We already knew that, but Obama keeps lying about that too. Climate scientist whose research is supposed to be the basis for latest White House climate report claims Obama misrepresented his research.

"1. Over the long-term, U.S. hurricane landfalls have been declining.
2. Nationwide there have been no long-term increases in drought.
3. Despite increases in some measures of precipitation . . . there have not been corresponding increases in peak streamflows (high flows above 90th percentile).
4. There have been no observed changes in the occurrence of tornadoes or thunderstorms
5. There have been no long-term increases in strong East Coast winter storms (ECWS), called Nor’easters.
6. There are no long-term trends in either heat waves or cold spells, though there are trends within shorter time periods in the overall record."

Doesn't this researcher understand that Great Pharaoh is smarter and more knowledgeable than him?

Arizona hasn't had this many days under 100 degrees in a row in June since 1913. Funny how that climate change always turns out to be like a previous climate. It's like it's cyclical or something.

Unions using environmental laws as a club against non-union companies.

Rhode Island legislature overrides veto by Republican governor and legalizes medical marijuana. Good for them.

The reparations crowd achieved another victory in march toward reparations by getting an apology for slavery from the Senate. I want to know which Senators were keeping slaves and why they aren't in prison.

How government has shut down public swimming pools.

Armed robbers target college students knowing they won't be armed. Government loves to turn citizens into victims.

School officials cheat for students on tests to make it look like their school is teaching kids better than it really is. Government in action.

Why don't states bill the Federal government for any service rendered to illegal immigrants, including prosecution and imprisonment?

33 percent of Americans strongly disapprove and strongly approve of Obama's actions as president. Put me in the former. He's dropping like a rock.

New York Times and CBS intentionally over-sample Obama voters to produce fraudulent poll that makes it appear that Americans support Obama's take over of health care. The White House can't name any countries where government health care programs work well, but they want to force it on us here.

Obama to go on campaign trail for health care and use his "yes we can" slogan to brainwash supporters. Why not? He doesn't do any governing. He has 40 million czars for that.

Obama claims he wants any health care solution to keep down costs. But, as anybody with half a brain already knows, government is the worst organization in the world at controlling costs, so giving government control over our health care can only increase costs, and increase them dramatically. A recent study shows that costs of Medicare and Medicaid have increased 34 percent higher per patient than the cost of private health care.

George Will applies just a tiny bit of logic and shows unequivocally that Obama's public health care option is a trojan horse for socialized medicine.

"The party of government aims to make Americans more equal by making them equally dependent on government for more and more things."

Nice summary, but let's not forget that Republicans are the other party of government.

In an essay explaining how Obama's public plan will destroy private health insurance, Reason also explains one reason why our private health care costs are rising that I wasn't aware of:

"Medicare hasn't controlled costs by discovering some wonder drug to deliver new efficiencies that the private sector doesn't have. In fact, the Government Accountability Office lists Medicare as a "high-risk" program, thanks to its long-term financial problems and its vulnerability to fraud. Rather, Medicare has cut costs by deploying the economic equivalent of leech-therapy: slashing payments to providers. The only reason providers haven't been bled out of existence is because they have offset these cuts by raising prices charged to private insurance plans. In effect, then, the good performance of Medicare that Obama and Co. tout has been purchased by beggaring the private plans that they deride.
...
A study last December by Milliman Inc., an independent consulting firm, commissioned by America's Health Insurance Plans, found that underpayment by Medicare and Medicaid accounted for nearly an 11% increase in the health care costs of private plans. This means that on average a privately insured family is forced to pick up about $1,800 extra every year of the government's slack. Private plans, all in all, are subsidizing government programs to the tune of $90 billion annually."

Ouch. That's another way, besides direct subsidies, that government is driving up the price of private health care.

Michael Barone's a pretty apolitical guy, and his analysis of Obama is dead on. What's funny is Obama is just like many of us predicted. Obama is who we thought he was, and we're all paying the price.

I want a voucher for a nice house. This reminds me of the subprime fiasco. Mortgage companies sliced and diced their subprime mortgages and repackaged them with regular mortgages then sold them to diffuse risk through the entire financial industry. How'd that work out for us? Imagine how having a crime infested welfare house in every neighborhood is going to work out for us.

Brit Hume says Obama's press conference today marked a shift in the press - the beginning of the end of the honeymoon.

When has Obama ever explained his policies and had it make sense? FDR's New Deal didn't make any sense either. Great Explainer is the wrong term. Great Misleader or Great Liar is more accurate.

Teachers unions trying to ruin charter schools.

French President Sarkozy says burqas are not welcome in France. What if a woman wants to wear one? Not that I understand why one would, but I'm not Muslim. It seems to me that freedom is the best policy. I don't think that women doing certain activities, like testifying in court, should wear the face cover. Facial expressions are too important for communication.

Democrats in state legislatures are pushing for laws forcing employers to allow workers more time off. Naturally, that will make businesses and America less productive and therefore poorer. Government needs to stay out of the contract between employer and employee. Voluntary exchange is always superior to government force. But there are more employees than employers, and Democrats are using this ploy to buy votes.

Iraq to auction off oil contracts.