There are a lot of interesting stories on the wires today, and here’s our roundup of some of the more interesting headlines today.

In Iran, the three hikers who were arrested over the summer for wandering over the border between Iraq and Iran have now been charged with espionage. Secretary of State Clinton, currently in Germany for the anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s collapse, has renewed US calls for release. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he hopes the U.S. can persuade his judiciary to let them go. Why he doesn’t try to persuade his own judiciary on our behalf is unclear.

The Wall Street Journal carries a pair of great pieces today. The first, titled Confessions of an ObamaCare Backer, highlights a New Yorker piece that comes clean about what the liberals are really attempting to do with the controversial government takeover of health care.

Mr. Cassidy is more honest than the politicians whose dishonesty he supports. “The U.S. government is making a costly and open-ended commitment,” he writes. “Let’s not pretend that it isn’t a big deal, or that it will be self-financing, or that it will work out exactly as planned. It won’t. What is really unfolding, I suspect, is the scenario that many conservatives feared. The Obama Administration . . . is creating a new entitlement program, which, once established, will be virtually impossible to rescind.”

The second WSJ piece, titled The Man Who Made Pelosi Cry Uncle, tells the story of one principled Democrat who stood firm in the face of Nancy Pelosi to make the Saturday vote to bar federal funding of abortions in the health care bill happen. With a relentless push for an up or down vote on federal funding, Michigan’s own Bart Stupak forced Pelosi’s hand and brought Democrats and Republicans together on the vote (which the WSJ calls one of the only actual incidents of bipartisanship in this entire process.)

In other news government reform news, Sen. Chris Dodd is circulating a bill that would strip the Federal Reserve of its power to regulate banks and instead create a new regulatory regime (including three new agencies) for that purpose.

And finally, in perhaps the most important news of the day, The Rolling Stones Get Your Ya-Yas Out has been remastered and reissued to celebrate the 40th anniversary of one of the all-time great live albums.

The remastered original album takes up the first of three CDs, with the second comprising unreleased tracks from the MSG shows, including acoustic run-throughs of “Prodigal Son” and “You Gotta Move.” The final CD includes previously unreleased performances by opening acts B.B. King and Ike & Tina Turner. Rounding out both the box sets is a DVD containing concert and behind-the-scenes footage.

The super deluxe version includes all this plus vinyl versions of the CDs.

Friday, July 24, 2009
by Frank Beckmann in the Detroit News

On Monday, President Barack Obama hailed that Apollo 11 mission that landed on the moon for sparking “innovation, the drive, the entrepreneurship, the creativity, back here on Earth.”

How right he was. Our space program led to technological advancements like breast cancer detection, digital imaging, ocular screening for young children, laser angioplasty, ultrasound scanning, arteriosclerosis detection, portable X-ray devices, MRIs and bone analyzers.

From the Associated Press, 3:06 PM PDT, July 16, 2009

WASHINGTON — Democrats’ healthcare bills won’t meet President Barack Obama’s goal of slowing the ruinous rise of medical costs, Congress’ budget umpire warned today, giving weight to critics who say the legislation could break the bank.

Today, Representative Thaddeus McCotter stood on the House floor and gave the following statement regarding his NO vote on the proposed Cap and Tax bill. Rep. McCotter said, “Today we consider a bill that claims that government can control the weather by raising your taxes, taking your job and dictating your life. In my state of Michigan, with a 15% unemployment rate, we know we cannot afford this cap and tax bill. Others, however, disagree.”

Her name was Neda. In Farsi, it means “the voice.” True to her name, she loved music; sought freedom; and she’s dead – shot down in the streets by the Iranian regime’s state sanctioned murderers. She must not have died in vain.

In my youth, there was a phrase people used to express the where, in an oft too brutal world, a human being was the most secure:

“You are as safe as in your mother’s womb.”

Today, in our coarsened culture, we no longer hear the phrase.