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| R. George, This past Sunday, the New York Times Magazine featured Marco on its cover, highlighting how his message of limited government, free enterprise, traditional values and individual freedom is energizing Floridians in this U.S. Senate race. The cover story is a lengthy one, but it's worth a read. Here are some notable excerpts: Rubio, a self-styled "movement conservative" whose parents were exiled from Castro's Cuba, is a great hope to a party that has suffered an exodus of Hispanic voters in recent elections. He made the cover of National Review, won the endorsement of the Club for Growth, a conservative imprimatur and A.T.M., and has drawn big love from George Will, Karl Rove and Rush Limbaugh, the Palm Beach resident. Sarah Palin has not spoken publicly about the race, but Rubio supporters who met her during book stops in Florida say she spoke glowingly of Rubio, and it would surprise no one if she endorsed him. Crist has all along been the establishment candidate, whose blessings from entities like John McCain, the Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, John Cornyn, are seen by many conservatives as proof that Crist is the same-old vintage of Republican from the party's 2006 and 2008 debacles. "Conservatives don't need to be served these cookie-cutter candidates like Charlie Crist," the conservative blogger Michelle Malkin said in a speech to conservative women, which I attended last summer in Nashville. "Otherwise we're just going to keep getting the same results." The room exploded in applause. It was the first time I had heard of Marco Rubio. Everyone else in that room of hard-core activists seemed to know exactly who he was. … He speaks fast, off the cuff and with great self-assurance, reminiscent of a not-yet-humbled dot-com entrepreneur from the late 1990s. He tells the story of his father, who emigrated from Cuba and worked 16-hour days into his 70s as a banquet bartender to support his wife and four children. "My father stood behind rollaway bars, just like this one, so I could stand behind this podium talking to you," he said. His mother worked as a hotel maid and a stock clerk at Kmart. Even when standing in one place, Rubio is a quivering bundle, his right leg shaking behind the lectern. He jackhammers his message about America's exceptional status in the world. "This is the only society in history where your future is not determined by where you were born," he said. "I believe that the United States of America is the greatest society in the history of humanity." America is unique for its belief in limited government, he says, not because it is anointed. "Does God love us more than Belgium?" he asked. "No." … The centerpiece of his speech is a sweeping homage to conservative principle. "We are not debating stimulus bills or tax codes," he said. "We are debating the essence of what government should be and what role it should play." … Thanks for your support, | |
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| "I'm not a fan of personality-based politics," Rubio said. "Very third worldish." People who pin their trust and faith in a person are bound to be disappointed, he said. "I'm just a messenger for a set of ideas." | |
Top Story: An a rare criticism of a senior government official, an Iranian parliamentary panel has accused former Tehran Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi, an ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, of complicity in the beating deaths of three opposition protesters last summer.
According to the report, Mortazavi ordered that 147 protesters be sent to Kahrizak prison near Tehran and insisted on "keeping them for four days in a space of 750 square feet, without ventilation in the heat of summer, lack of hygienic standards, food and water, in addition to beating and intimidation by prison guards." One of the protesters killed was the son of a senior member of the Revolutionary Guards. The report also dismissed Mortazavi's claim that the prisoners were killed in an outbreak of meningitis.
Mortazavi, who was well known for his crackdowns on opposition media and the jailing of journalists, was promoted to deputy state prosecutor in August. His arrest is likely an effort to pacify the opposition. Many Iranians were outraged when reports of prisoner abuse emerged last Summer. "Mortazavi is the highest official the parliament could accuse without getting in trouble," Abbas Abdi, a former journalist whose papers were closed by Mortazavi told the Washington Post.
Corruption: Thousands of Chinese officials have fled overseas with more than $50 billion in state funds, a new investigation finds.
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By Joshua Keating |  |
ABOLFAZLE SALMANZADEH/AFP/Getty Images
An a rare criticism of a senior government official, an Iranian parliamentary panel 
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