The U.N. has named Iran to the Commission on the Status of Women. How much does Iran (or the U.N.) care about women? This much:

Wired has an interesting interview with a solider who explains what happened from his perspective in the recently released Wikileaks video.

Lewis Black isn’t trying to be funny in this interview with the WSJ, but his comments are funny. He complains about Sarah Palin making stuff up and then on the next question he answer makes stuff up. Specifically, he says that people don’t pay taxes any more. That is an absolutely ignorant comment. It is especially ignorant because he’s complaining about the tea party people. Tea partiers make more money than average, which means they are more likely to be in the 53 percent of people that actually pay federal income taxes.

It is difficult to take these comments as anything other than comedy, since obviously he hasn’t listened to the complaints from the tea party people. For example, he complains about people advocating for smaller government and says that those advocates have to explain what they mean.  If Black listened to the tea partier’s complaints, he would know. Instead, he is hypocritically claims that the advocates of smaller government are talking about cutting the police, firefighters, or clean water. Obviously a few people talk about that, but the reason that so many people turn out to the tea party protests is not because they are ticked off about money spent on firefighters or clean water.  People are ticked off at the federal government giving billions to politically-connected corporations. They are ticked off about Congress and the President not listening to the American people on health care and the Obama Administration’s demonstrating that as bad as George Bush was at balancing the budget, they are far worse. If Lewis Black would listen, instead of creating a strawman to argue against, he might realize this—if he is honest.

It’s not every day you read something truly dumb from a political beat reporter. But Eamon Javers servers up a steaming plate of knuckleheadedness in this choice article.

Bob Bennett is facing a tough primary battle in Utah from the right. He is taking heat for supporting the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the Medicare Modernization Act (which introduced a new prescription-drug entitlement, known as Medicare Part D). Also, the free market Club for Growth has spent roughly $120,000 to defeat Bennett this primary season. 

And yet, Eamon Javers thinks that Bennett might support Obama’s financial regulation bill “but only if it plays well on the ground in Utah.” But there isn’t a chance of one of Obama’s initiative “playing well on the ground in Utah.”

Back in December, before the health care bill, only 2% of Utah Republicans “strongly” believed that Obama was doing a good job and 58% “strongly disapproved” of the job he was doing. Now Obama’s approval rating is surely lower, especially among the people who will vote in Republican primaries.