The Dish

HuffPo contributor Josh Shahryar has been a reliable source:

Status Update15: Rumors of Zahra Rahnavard attending protests in Tehran – can't be confirmed

Status Update14: No major reformist leader was present during the protests.

Status Update13: Clashes in Shiraz and Hamedan – many injuries in Hamedan

Status Update11: Outside Tehran, number of protesters in most cities in the hundreds and not more.

Status Update6: Number of protesters in Tehran between 5,000-10,000

Status Update2: Confirmed Protests in Tehran, Mashhad, Shiraz, Isfahan, Kerman, Kermanshah, Arak

ABC News' Lara Setrakian adds:

Speaking to students sunday, Rafsanjani called for a 'climate of freedom' in #Iran, accusing leadership of intolerance

Opposition supporters say yesterday's Rafsanjani speech was 'very, very important timing' ahead today's student rallies

Veteran twitterer Omid Habibinia is still going strong, and also live-blogging for France 24. Here he relays a dramatic account from an Iranian on the ground:

I'm stuck at the Talegani and Valiasr crossroads. The police and the Basij (the Iranian citizen militia) have closed both sides. The Basij are beating people with batons. There are a lot of people, certainly more than on previous student days.

They're coming! [She's starts running].

There are people at the Enghelab [Revolution] Square.

And there are clashes at the Talegani and Valiasr crossroads.

They're arresting a lot of people and leading them away, but people are trying to rescue them.

We've just stopped a Basiji and stolen his motorbike near to Enghelab square."

Scott Horton's interview with the author and chief researcher of the Seton Hall report contains this amazing interchange:

Q: One of the prisoners, Yassar Talal Al Zahrani, had been seized as a minor and survived the prison riot that occurred at the Qali Jangi Prison near Mazar-i-Sharif. When his body was turned over for burial, an independent medical examination was arranged which found that the heart, kidneys and throat had all been removed from his corpse. The medical examiner noted that the removal of the throat in particular was highly irregular, and made an independent assessment impossible. Do you have any sense why U.S. military pathologists removed his internal organs and throat? Is this discussed in the report?

A: No.

The medical examiner found that all three of the corpses had rags stuffed down their throats.

Some early analysis from Enduring America:

1) Is this only a Student Demonstration? The reports and news out so far from Tehran and other cities indicates protests, chants, and opposition activity almost entirely within university campuses. There appears to be little follow-up in the streets or little participation by ordinary people. We need more facts and evidence to prove this, but it appears as though 16 Azar did not turn into yet another day of widespread popular defiance of the regime, as seen during 13 Aban [4 November] or Quds Day [18 September].

2) Is Mir Hossein Mousavi still considered to be the Leader of the Green Wave? Another point to notice is the radicalisation of chants.

The chant considering Mousavi the figurehead of a much vaster struggle against the entire regime and the burning of posters of Imam Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei are telling signs of impatience within the student movement and willingness to go beyond Mousavi’s stale and unattractive gradualism and his refusal to take on the pillars of the regime — Khamenei especially — in a frank and direct way.

This doesn’t bode well for the reformists, as they could have to contend with a widening gap between themselves and rank-and-file greens in the months to come. Additionally, it could also lead to repression against Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi and other leaders, as they could be accused of leading a “counter-revolutionary” movement which aims to overthrow the sacred Islamic Republic, should the footage of Khamenei and Khomeini being burnt be paraded on national television.

Yes, I'm reading Merton's translations of Chuang Tzu. They're quite amazing. This little story for some reason reminded me of Obama's governing style. Not entirely of course. But there's something here that helps me understand better how he approaches things:

When we wear out our minds stubbornly clinging to our partial view of things, refusing to see a deeper agreement between this and its complementary opposite, we have what is called "three in the morning".

What is this three in the morning?

A monkey trainer went to his monkeys and told them:

"As regards your chestnuts: you're going to have three cups in the morning and four in the afternoon."

At this they all became angry. So he said: "All right, in that case I will give you four in the morning and three in the afternoon." This time they were satisfied.

The two arrangements were the same in that the number of chestnuts did not change. But in one case the animals were displeased and in the other they were satisfied. The keeper had been willing to change his personal arrrangement in order to meet objective conditions. He lost nothing by it!

The truly wise man, considering both sides of the question without partiality, sees them both in the light of Tao.

This is called following two courses at once.

The indefatigable Veronique de Rugy notes the compounding problem of paying interest on the debt:

Based on Congressional Budget Office data, it represents the interest the government paid on the federal debt as a percentage of GDP between 1962 and today and the projected debt service payments up until 2082. The projections are illustrated under the current CBO baseline and under the CBO alternative, more realistic, scenario. For comparison, the graph also shows CBO’s projections for the cost of Medicare and Social Security as a percentage of GDP. Notice that under either of CBO’s scenarios, the net interest payments, or the costs of the debt, rival the cost of two of our nation’s most expensive

social programs.

The CBO baseline assumes that the projected 2009 spending level will stay the same as a share of GDP indefinitely, minus stimulus and related spending—it represents “CBO’s best judgment of how economic and other factors would affect federal revenues and spending if current laws and policies did not change,” CBO explains. The more likely “alternative” scenario factors in policy changes “that are widely expected to occur and that policy makers have regularly made in the past.”

The CBO alternative assumes that excise taxes and estate taxes remain constant as a share of GDP over the long term (instead of changing as scheduled under current law). It also assumes that tax provisions in the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 and the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003—the so-called “Bush tax cuts”—would be extended, and that the Alternative Minimum Tax would be indexed to inflation.

The Dish primarily focused on Palin fallout.  Andrew catalogued an odd lie based on her "birther" interview, NRO neglected to call out her comments, Barney Frank was confounded by her words at the Gridiron dinner, Slate held a contest mimicking her writing style, Ilya Somin tried to compare her to Eisenhower, Palin supporter John Mark Reynolds slammed Harper Collins for its condescending treatment of the truth, a commenter analyzed her supporters' worship, a Dish reader chimed in, and Andrew reiterated the real reason he goes after Palin. He also linked to a sound dissent.

In other coverage, Matt Bai examined the blurred line between politicians and talking heads, Johann Hari put a spotlight on the dark side of Dubai, Nicholas Ciarelli showed how Wikipedia isn't that open after all, Matt Sigl summed up a decade of marriage equality, Gwendolyn Bounds profiled urbanites escaping to the countryside, and Julian Sanchez contemplated the self.  We also rounded up some troubling rhetoric here, here, and here. Complete coverage of the Tiger Woods scandal here and some great footage of breakdancing Iranians here.

In his column this week, Andrew discussed the increased isolationism of the US after a decade of decline.

— C.B.

You may recall the somewhat bizarre response of the Pentagon to the news in June 2006 that three prisoners at Gitmo had somehow managed to hang themselves simultaneously in one of the most watched, patrolled and monitored prison sites in the world. The facts were bizarre: prisoners somehow had been hanging for two hours with rigor mortis when they were discovered; and their bodies were found to have a rag stuffed deep down their throats. But the strangeness and pathos of this event was only matched by the virulent anger of the Pentagon which immediately accused these defenseless and dead prisoners of "asymmetrical warfare" against the US.

Seton Hall University School of Law has now completed an exhaustive study of the entire affair. Much more disturbing than the actual deaths was the response of the authorities. Something is very awry here:

The original military press releases did not report that the detainees had been dead for more than two hours when they were discovered, nor that rigor mortis had set in by the time of discovery.

There is no explanation of how three bodies could have hung in cells for at least two hours while the cells were under constant supervision, both by video camera and by guards continually walking the corridors guarding only 28 detainees.

There is no explanation of how each of the detainees, much less all three, could have done the following: braided a noose by tearing up his sheets and/or clothing, made a mannequin of himself so it would appear to the guards he was asleep in his cell, hung sheets to block vision into the cell—a violation of Standard Operating Procedures, tied his feet together, tied his hands together, hung the noose from the metal mesh of ii the cell wall and/or ceiling, climbed up on to the sink, put the noose around his neck and released his weight to result in death by strangulation, hanged until dead and hung for at least two hours completely unnoticed by guards.

There is no indication that the medics observed anything unusual on the cell block at the time that the detainees were hanging dead in their cells.

The initial military press releases did not report that, when the detainees‘ bodies arrived at the clinic, it was determined that each had a rag obstructing his throat.

There is no explanation of how the supposed acts of ―asymmetrical warfare‖ could have been coordinated by the three detainees, who had been on the same cell block fewer than 72 hours with occupied and unoccupied cells between them and under constant supervision.

There is no explanation of why the Alpha Block guards were advised that they were suspected of making false statements or failing to obey direct orders. 

There is no explanation of why the guards were ordered not to provide sworn statements about what happened that night.

There is no explanation of why the government seemed to be unable to determine which guards were on duty that night in Alpha Block.

There is no explanation of why the guards who brought the bodies to the medics did not tell the medics what had happened to cause the deaths and why the medics never asked how the deaths had occurred.

There is no explanation of why no one was disciplined for acts or failures to act that night.

There is no explanation of why the guards on duty in the cell block were not systematically interviewed about the events of the night; why the medics who visited the cell block before the hangings were not interviewed; or why the tower guards, who had the responsibility and ability to observe all activity in the camp, were not interviewed.

This is interesting:

As reported in a March 29, 2008 story from the AllAfrica.com news service, in March 2008 Rick Warren attended a conference of Ugandan Anglican Bishops who were protesting the Church of England’s tolerance for homosexuality. AllAfrica, reporting on his appearance, summarized Warren’s quotes as homosexuality is not a natural way of life and thus not a human right, and directly quoted Warren as stating, “We shall not tolerate this aspect at all.”

The key involvement of Martin Ssempa in the bill, a close ally of Warren’s (who has now distanced himself), is already known. I didn’t realize that another key mover of the bill is Rick Warren’s own mentor and dissertation adviser:

To little notice, a charismatic network overseen by Warren’s doctoral dissertation advisor, C. Peter Wagner, has played a major role in politically organizing and inspiring the Ugandan legislators who have spearheaded the anti-gay bill. Both Wagner and Warren have designed elaborate infrastructures for blurring the lines between church and state. Wagner describes his movement as the “New Apostolic Reformation” and openly espouses his goals of reorganizing and mobilizing the church to take Christian “dominion” over government and society. Warren’s movement is described as a “second reformation” in the form of his P.E.A.C.E. plan, but his goals of rapid “expansion of the kingdom” in Uganda and elsewhere closely parallel those of Wagner’s.

… another loser:

The Iditarod plans to test mushers for drugs and alcohol in March, a change many mushers have no problem with — but one that three-time champion Lance Mackey scoffs at.

"I think it's a little bit ridiculous," Mackey said Wednesday night from his home near Fairbanks after a training run. "It is a dog race, not a human race. It (using a drug) doesn't affect the outcome of the race."

Mackey, a throat cancer survivor who has a medical marijuana card, admits to using marijuana on the trail and thinks his success has made some of his competitors jealous.

The LA Times' Borzou Daragahi reports. An Enduring America correspondent has more:

The chants are ‘Down with the Demagogues’, ‘Mahmoud the traitor, You have destroyed us and the soil of this country, You have killed the country’s youth, God is Great, God is Great…’

There are clashes between students and guards standing outside of the university at Vali-Asr. Some photographers and cameraman are taking pictures and filming in order to identify the students. According to the news, there are buses parked at the Somaie Park Street to transfer the arrested students.