Mahmoud Ahmadinejad News Blog @newzblogz.com

LOS ANGELES ? Only four months ago, Jeff Carr traveled to Iran to meet President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ? and got grilled about it by Fox News after his return.

Carr, an evangelical minister who drew national attention as part of a liberal Christian advocacy group, hopes to make waves beyond Southern California after being selected by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as Los Angeles' first ?gang czar.?

Officials have talked for years about creating a single post to oversee anti-gang efforts. If it works, it could become a model for other regions.

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Iran is in the throes of one of its most ferocious crackdowns on dissent in years, with the government focusing on labor leaders, universities, the press, women's rights advocates, a former nuclear negotiator and Iranian-Americans, three of whom have been in prison for more than six weeks.

The shift is occurring against the backdrop of an economy so stressed that although Iran is the world's second-largest oil exporter, it is on the verge of rationing gasoline. At the same time, the nuclear standoff with the West threatens to bring new sanctions.

The hard-line administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, analysts say, faces pressure for failing to deliver on promises of greater prosperity from soaring oil revenue. It has been using U.S. support for a change in government as well as a possible military attack as the pretext to hound his opposition and its sympathizers.

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RANDOM WALK Comments on a June shower of happenings in the news . . .

Presidential aspirants are engaging in a series of candidate forums that make a mockery of the word debate. For the Democrats, John Edwards (of $400 haircut fame) objects heatedly to "global war on terror" -- terming it a bumper-sticker phrase. Hillary Clinton insists she can solve both health care and education -- the former with tax voodoo and the latter with tax-paid pre-K. (It now seems, according to a new Clinton biography, that years ago she flunked the piece-o'-cake D.C. bar exam, a datum...

Over on the Republican side, just about every candidate with a pulse is thumping the president. And at one forum nearly everyone piled on John McCain for having the temerity to think the immigration bill might accomplish something. Rudy Giuliani was quoted as saying Osama bin Laden "comes from one of the richest families in the world," and Mohammed Atta of 9/11 fame "was well-educated" -- thus disputing the "liberal mindset" that terrorism is caused by poverty and insufficient exposure to New Ma...

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During the Cold War, Moscow had two major newspapers. Propaganda-wary Russians joked bitterly that “There is no Pravda in Izvestia, and no Izvestia in Pravda” (”There is no truth in News, and no news in Truth.”) People didn't so much read the press as attempt to decode it. Who wants me to believe what, and why?We're not there yet, but we're definitely headed that way. When The New York Times and Washington Post feature same-day, front...

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Iran is in the throes of one of its most ferocious crackdowns on dissent in years, with the government focusing on labor leaders, universities, the press, women?s rights advocates, a former nuclear negotiator and Iranian-Americans, three of whom have been in prison for more than six weeks.

The shift is occurring against the backdrop of an economy so stressed that although Iran is the world?s second-largest oil exporter, it is on the verge of rationing gasoline. At the same time, the nuclear standoff with the West threatens to bring new sanctions.

The hard-line administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, analysts say, faces rising pressure for failing to deliver on promises of greater prosperity from soaring oil revenue. It has been using American support for a change in government as well as a possible military attack as a pretext to hound his opposition and its sympathizers.

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