While most of the attention is on the ongoing protests in Iran, and the blogospheric coverage it is receiving, there are other stories that deserve to be covered and followed.

The Real Cost of Health Care Reform

It is consistently sold under the guise of saving “us” money, but in fact the costs would be staggering. How staggering? How about $4 Trillion dollars. Thats $4,000,000,000,000.00!

Yesterday, the CBO estimated that the current Democratic Senate health care bill would increase the defict by $1 trillion over 10 years while leaving 30 million uninsured, forcing the White House to distance itself from the legislation. While liberals have tried to emphasize that the CBO provided only a partial analysis of the draft legislation from Ted Kennedy’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, a more comprehensive analysis of the legislation will only serve to drive the bill’s ultimate cost higher. For instance, because it was only working with a draft of the bill that had holes in it, the CBO did not estimate the costs associated with increasing Medicaid elgibility to 150 percent of the poverty level, or the full cost of providing subsidies to individuals with incomes at up to 500 percent of the poverty level to purchase insurance through state-run exchanges. Once this is taken into account, liberals are right that the final CBO estimate will reflect more people being insured, but the cost of the legislation will go up as well.

Related to that, but with a disturbingly different twist, is the sales job the Obama administration is doing on health care with the uncritical support of the MSM.

Obama’s ABC Infomercial

This story has many on the right re-naming ABC as the All Barack Channel. It fits.

First the story as reported on Drudge:

On the night of June 24, the media and government become one, when ABC turns its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push government run health care — a move that has ignited an ethical firestorm!

Highlights on the agenda:

ABCNEWS anchor Charlie Gibson will deliver WORLD NEWS from the Blue Room of the White House.

The network plans a primetime special — ‘Prescription for America’ — originating from the East Room, exclude opposing voices on the debate.

The Director of Communications at the White House Office of Health Reform is Linda Douglass, who worked as a reporter for ABC News from 1998-2006.

Michael Laprarie writing at Wizbang comments:

It seems that the Obama Administration is prepared to bias the debate about single-payer health care not only with disinformation, but by working with the mainstream media in order to deliberately block efforts to present alternative solutions to our health care problems. Perhaps this is a lesson learned from the Clinton White House, which welcomed the debate over HillaryCare because they thought they would easily win it.

One missing element in all of this is any sort of opposing view, as Gaius points out.

They are apparently calling this a “debate”. But when only one side is presented, it is not a debate, it is a lecture. Or worse, propaganda.

This is also some very, very expensive free airtime for Obama. ABC is giving away the air time – and its credibility as a news organization.

[...]

They are not even trying to disguise that they are completely in Obama’s pocket anymore. That’s more than a bit worrisome.

Indeed it is. Michelle Malkin says, “ABC News should be required to register as a federal lobbyist.”

AllahPundit makes this point:

I’m honestly surprised, although it makes a certain sort of ruthless sense: If, as many righties have speculated, The One’s trying to ram through as many Great Society programs as he can before the political pendulum swings back to the center, the media might as well drop all pretense of objectivity and go for broke too.

There is much more on this story, but I’ll leave you with this link to a lighter look at the Sneak Preview of ABC’s Infomercial for Socialized Medicine from Doug Ross.

There’s one other story that deserves mention, but I’ve run out of time this morning. That is the firing of IG Gerald Walpin. This story deserves a lot of attention, something I’ll have to take care of when I return this afternoon.

Some suggestions for helping and not hurting Iranian bloggers and tweeters:

The purpose of this guide is to help you participate constructively in the Iranian election protests through Twitter.

1. Do NOT publicise proxy IP’s over twitter, and especially not using the #iranelection hashtag. Security forces are monitoring this hashtag, and the moment they identify a proxy IP they will block it in Iran. If you are creating new proxies for the Iranian bloggers, DM them to @stopAhmadi or @iran09 and they will distributed them discretely to bloggers in Iran.

2. Hashtags, the only two legitimate hashtags being used by bloggers in Iran are #iranelection and #gr88, other hashtag ideas run the risk of diluting the conversation.

3. Keep you bull$hit filter up! Security forces are now setting up twitter accounts to spread disinformation by posing as Iranian protesters. Please don’t retweet impetuosly, try to confirm information with reliable sources before retweeting. The legitimate sources are not hard to find and follow.

4. Help cover the bloggers: change your twitter settings so that your location is TEHRAN and your time zone is GMT +3.30. Security forces are hunting for bloggers using location and timezone searches. If we all become ‘Iranians’ it becomes much harder to find them.

5. Don’t blow their cover! If you discover a genuine source, please don’t publicise their name or location on a website. These bloggers are in REAL danger. Spread the word discretely through your own networks but don’t signpost them to the security forces. People are dying there, for real, please keep that in mind…

From Mere Rhetoric via The Jawa Report

Here are some links to posts about the aftermath of the Iranian elections. Please add other links in the comments and I will port them to the front.

• Fausta’s Blog – With Video
• GM Ropper – Email from Iran includes:
  

  Street protests seem to be growing , into an expression of ”a national cause or honor”. The slogans are very political and strong like “Iranians would rather die than accept this humiliation”.

• Gateway Pundit – Madness! Obama Administration Silent As Iranian Students Are Slaughtered in Streets– Announce They Will Negotiate with Fraudulent Regime
• Sadly No – “At the end of the day, this is about the Iranians and not about us. But I would like my country to do whatever will best help the opposition succeed.”
• Pajamas Media (Jennifer Rubin) – “The Iranian election has given the world a jolt of reality. For those confused about the nature of the Iranian regime, its true colors are now revealed.”
• Blogs for Victory

There is much more out there, and I am sure much more will be added today. I will update this later.

Iranian President Imanutjob’s desires are more than clear.

The state of Israel will cease to exist with or without the involvement of Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday.

“This will happen whether we are involved in it or not,” the Iranian leader told a news conference at a U.N. food summit in Rome, when asked to explain his statement on Monday that the Jewish state would soon disappear from the map.

To ignore him would be dangerous.

A Rasmussen poll, conducted after the release of the NIE this week, shows that only 18% of those surveyed believe that Iran has stopped their nuke program.

Just 18% of American voters believe that Iran has halted its nuclear weapons program. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 66% disagree and say Iran has not stopped its nuclear weapons program.

[...]

The Rasmussen Reports survey also found that 67% of American voters believe that Iran remains a threat to the national security of the United States. Only 19% disagree while 14% are not sure.

Fifty-nine percent (59%) believe that the United States should continue sanctions against Iran. Twenty percent (20%) disagree and 21% are not sure.

Forty-seven percent (47%) believe it is Very Likely that Iran will develop nuclear weapons in the future and another 34% believe Iran is Somewhat Likely to do so.

Amazingly enough, even the left has trouble swallowing this idea.

Twenty-nine percent (29%) of liberal voters believe that Iran has stopped its weapons program but 54% disagree.

After nearly three months of being out of the blogging mix, President Tom has “persuaded” Chad Evans to jump back in to things with this post at In The Bullpen. Here’s a taste of what you’ll see when you read the whole thing:

The blunder by Columbia University is not in trying to open dialogue, but rather believing it would serve the purpose they wished it to. Beaming across Iranian state-run television is Ahmadinejad explaining his solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict and the oblivious audience cheering as they did not recognize the slight of hand. Today was a victory for both Ahmadinejad and Islamism, given to them by Columbia University and dirtied in the blood of American and allied soldiers, innocent Iraqis, Israelis, Turks and, perhaps most unfortunate, innocent Iranians.

Welcome back, Chad. Don’t be a stranger.

Help me fix the car and get back on the road!

Warning: file_get_contents(http://www.brightandearlyblog.com/car.txt) [function.file-get-contents]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
in /hermes/web07/b2554/as.brightan/public_html/wp-content/plugins/exec-php/includes/runtime.php(42) : eval()’d code on line 26
fine folks have donated a total of $. $ is still needed. Thanks!

I just found this at The Jawa Report:

Prompted by the following action alert from GDG contributor Kenneth Timmerman, I discovered that Iranian president Ahmadinejad still plans to visit ‘ground zero’, despite the NYPD’s refusal to allow it for “security reasons”.

In response to this outrage, many have begun organizing to repel or protest this incursion into one of America’s most hallowed memorials. Please read the following action alert, and participate if you are able:

Dear Friends of Freedom,

The Foundation for Democracy in Iran, in coordination with Citizens United and other groups, is calling on all Americans, regardless of their origin or political beliefs, to come to New York on Monday to defend Ground Zero from desecration by the terrorist president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

We will be chartering buses from the Washington, DC area. Please watch our website, www.iran.org, for more details and for rendezvous points.

Stay tuned!

Best regards,

Kenneth R. Timmerman
President and CEO
Foundation for Democracy in Iran
www.iran.org

For more information about this, please visit Michelle Malkin’s blog.

Just Wow. Just heard this, linked on Drudge.

In a move that has stunned New York, the Bloomberg administration is in discussions to escort the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to ground zero during his visit to New York next week, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said today.

The Iranian mission to the U.N. made the request to the New York City Police Department and the Secret Service, who will jointly oversee security during the president’s two-day visit.

Un-be-lieveable.

UPDATE: DENIED!

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly caused considerable confusion earlier today when he suggested that the request was still pending. In fact, police officials said later, the request — made at a meeting that included the Secret Service and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey — was denied for reasons of security and safety. They added that Mr. Ahmadinejad’s aides had asked that he be allowed into the pit, where construction is taking place.

You know, now that I think about it they should allow him into the pit.

They just shouldn’t let him back out.

(h/t for the update: Sister(Wench)Toldjah and Pirate’s Cove)

Thank you for your coffee, seignor. I shall miss that when we leave Casablanca. ~ Ingrid Bergman (Casablanca)

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) Now Sit Back And Let Peace Roll Across The Globe

I don’t think that talking with the Iranians does much harm, except to the extent that it sends a bad signal to the democracy activists within its borders. By focusing the talks exclusively on Iraqi security concerns, it helps to keep the talks from appearing to endorse the reign of the mullahs. Those pushing to end that reign from within might note the subtleties of the diplomatic dance and not conclude that the US has resigned itself to dealing with the theocrats currently oppressing the Iranian people.

Don Surber American bankruptcy

Here is an assignment for the 18 people who decided to start the 2008 presidential race about a year before it should: Just what the hell are you going to do about this unfunded liability?

Hyscience (Richard) Jack Murtha’s Friends And The Infrastructure Of Corruption

Clearly, corruption in Washington is bipartisan. Just as clear is that the Democrats pre-election promises to end it have proven to be, as Robert Novak suggests – hallow, and that’s almost sugar-coating it. Take for example Rep. John “our troops raped and murdered innocent civilians” Murtha, who quietly slipped two earmarks costing taxpayers $5.5 million into the Intelligence authorization bill . The beneficiary was a contractor headquartered in Murtha’s hometown of Johnstown, Pa., whose executives have been generous political contributors to Murtha:

The coffee is prepared in such a way that it makes those who drink it witty: at least there is not a single soul who, on quitting the house, does not believe himself four times wittier that when he entered it. ~ Charles de Secondat Montesquieu

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) Was McCain Right?

Does this make Baghdad safe? No, but it makes it safer, and the momentum appears on the side of the Iraqi government. The remarkable change has come even with half of the surge troops yet to arrive. What’s the difference? Strategy and rules of engagement. General David Petraeus has made a big difference already, and given enough time, could leave us with a stable and functional Iraq.

Blue Crab Boulevard (Gaius) Iran To Free British Hostages

Well, hopefully the Iranians won’t renege on their promise, anyway. Mad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced he was “pardoning” the captured British sailors and marines and would allow them to leave Iran. Damned nice of him to grant them a pardon for Iran’s piracy, isn’t it. But hopefully, they are going home soon.

Sister Toldjah The Pelosi Syria visit and the three Republicans’ Syria visit: The differences and why they matter

Nancy Pelosi is there to represent the Democratic party’s interests – and her own interests, which are, in no particular order, power, power, and power – thrown in with a mixture of defiance and callous indifference to how the actions of her and her “delegation” may affect US/Syrian relations (which are already strained as it is).

Stix Blog (Stix) The War on Terror is over

So now the GWOT is a no-no. Maybe we should just bend over and drop our drawers for Islamists. How about we have all females wear the Hijab and never go to school again. This is what our enemy wants, and will stop at nothing to bring about a global Umma.

Give a frontiersman coffee and tobacco, and he will endure any privation, suffer any hardship, but let him be without these two necessaries of the woods, and he becomes irresolute and murmuring. ~ U.S. Army Lt. William Whiting, 1849

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) Democrats To Propose Largest Tax Hike In History

NOTE: Ed will be talking with Jim Dyke from the Rudy Giuliani team and the John McCain campaign’s New Media coordinator, Patrick Hynes, on CQ Radio tonight at 9:00pm central time.

Right Wing News (John Hawkins) Putting Illegal Alien Hiring Executives On Trial

You go after the executives hard and most of them won’t hire illegals. If businesses won’t hire illegals, then most of them will go home and tell their friends not to bother with going to America because they won’t be able to get jobs. So, once the job magnet is taken out of commission, the biggest part of the problem will be fixed. That’s why prosecutions like this one should be so commonplace that they don’t even merit being written about. If we ever get to that point, the illegal immigrant problem will be almost solved.

Gina Cobb Iranian Menace and Western Passivity

Iran has had enough time by now to act as a reasonable nation would and release the British sailors it took hostage without making an international spectacle of their seizure. But apparently an international spectacle is just what Iran wants.

Good communication is just as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after. ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Outside The Beltway (James Joyner) Clinton Would Keep Troops in Iraq if Elected

Reihl World View (Dan Reihl) Okay, So Hillary Is Just Plain Stupid

Hillary has decided to be more “nuanced” when it comes to what she would do with Iraq as President. This is rich. While her party is attempting to pass legislation to micro-manage the war, Hillary would instead rely on the advice of the military commanders. Huh? And it gets better. The urban war is a “loser.” However, she would obviously have plenty of troops in Iraq to protect our “remaining vital national security interests in Iraq”.

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) Clinton: I’ll Ignore Genocide

This statement shows a complete lack of strategic and tactical thinking on the part of someone who want to assume the role of Commander in Chief. The key to stabilizing Iraq and beating the terrorists who have nested in Anbar is restoring order to its capital. If the central government falls, the other goals she mentions — deterring Iran, protecting the Kurds, and so on — will go right out the window. If Baghdad falls into utter chaos and ethnic cleansing, the rest of the nation will follow suit in short order, and Anbar will be the least of our problems.