Iran warns it will 'punch' the West on Islamic revolution anniversaryAyatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, has said that the country was set to deliver a "punch" that will stun world powers during this week's 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Photo: REUTERS "The Iranian nation, with its unity and God's grace, will punch the arrogance (Western powers) on the 22nd of Bahman (February 11) in a way that will leave them stunned," Khamenei, who is also Iran's commander-in-chief, told a gathering of air force personnel.The country's top cleric was marking the occasion when Iran's air force gave its support to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a key event which led to the toppling of the US-backed shah on February 11, 1979.His comments came as Iran said it would begin to produce higher enriched uranium from Tuesday, in defiance of Western powers trying to ensure the country's nuclear drive is peaceful.This year's anniversary is expected to become a flashpoint between security forces and supporters of opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who charge that the June re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was rigged.Opposition supporters are expected to stage anti-government protests on Thursday when the traditional regime-sponsored marches to mark the revolution take place across the country.Mousavi renewed his call for demonstrations on the February 11 anniversary.Just over a week ago, he and Karroubi had implicitly called for a gathering of their supporters."The 22nd of Bahman is upon us, truly it should be called the day of gathering," Mousavi said on his Kaleme.org website."I feel we have to participate while maintaining the collective spirit as well as our identity and leave an impression," Mousavi said.  

    Who's Smiling and Who's Frowning About the Palin News
By Chris Cillizza
Monday, July 6, 2009
    Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's decision to resign at the end of this month is one of the most surprising, perplexing and just plain fascinating moves from a national politician in recent memory. As such, it produces any number of consequences -- intended and otherwise -- in the political world. (Like it or not, Palin is a prime mover on the national scene; she acts and others react.) In the wake of Palin's announcement Friday, the Fix reached out to a handful of senior-level strategists in both parties for their assessment of who won and, more deliciously, who lost as a result of the Palin bombshell.   Winners
Mark Sanford: Just when it looked as if the South Carolina governor was headed -- whether he liked it or not -- toward a resignation announcement, a fellow Republican chief executive swooped in and diverted the attention of every political reporter in the country. Timing is everything in politics, and Sanford benefited from a very fortunate bit of it. Can he survive? Perhaps -- unless he decides to conduct another confessional interview with a news outlet. Mitt Romney: The Republican Party establishment worries openly about the prospect of a matchup between Palin and President Obama, believing that such a showdown would result in a reelection landslide for the Democrat. That fear could well rally institutional support behind the former Massachusetts governor, who, despite what he says, is running for the nomination in 2012. Don Young: The ascension of Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell to the governorship removes a potential primary challenger to the embattled Republican House member. Young defeated Parnell by 152 votes in the 2008 GOP primary, and Parnell was considering another run. With Parnell now ensconced as governor, Young is likely to face an easier path to reelection, despite the constant swirl of ethics trouble around him. Fred Malek: Malek, a major player in Republican money circles, has emerged as Palin's most prominent supporter and defender in recent weeks. Malek has also been working with the soon-to-be-former Alaska governor to introduce her to the smart set in Washington; he recently organized a foreign-policy-themed lunch at Palin's request in which the guests included former secretary of defense Frank Carlucci and former deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott.     Losers
Mike Huckabee: With Palin now looking more and more like a 2012 candidate, there is no obvious slot in the field for the former Arkansas governor. Huckabee and Palin share a base among social conservatives, but she is the more beloved figure among that crowd and will probably gobble up all the oxygen among that wing of the party. Huckabee, however, has repeatedly rebuffed national Republicans' attempts at recruiting him for a Senate bid over the past few…

 Chelsea set to join the Clinton family business As Chelsea Clinton prepares for her wedding, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt that she is also being groomed for an even bigger role.  Read Article   

    Schwarzenegger's Failure in California By Kevin O'Leary / Los Angeles Time magazine
 In a letter to the Wall Street Journal, the financier Warren Buffett spoke of three houses he owns, two in Laguna Beach in southern California and one in Omaha, Nebraska. He bought his first Laguna Beach property in the early 1970s. In 2003, it had a market value of about $4 million, and because of the limitation of Proposition 13, carried taxes of only $2,264. The second Laguna house, located just in back of the first one, was purchased in the mid-1990s and its market value in 2003 was approximately $2 million. The second house, Buffett wrote, "simply because I bought it later than the first, carried taxes of $12,002 in 2003 ... these figures mean that the tax rate on the second house — same neighborhood, same owner, same ability to pay — is roughly 10 times the rate on the first house." The famed financer said his Omaha house, worth about $500,000, had a property tax bill of $14,401. Buffett's point: "residential property taxes in California are wildly capricious, tied as they are to the date of the purchase rather than the value of the property." Exactly.  Article     

  James Buckmaster, the chief executive of Craigslist, said, “Misuse of Craigslist for criminal purposes is utterly unacceptable.”  "Last week, in the latest example, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested 14 members of the Gambino crime family on charges of, among other things, selling the sexual services of girls ages 15 to 19 on Craigslist." Read Article