SALENA ZITO: Walpin’s Firing Reflects Money’s Role in Politics.

In the political patronage system, if big-time donors think they are being harassed – which may simply mean they have run afoul of the law or of reporting requirements – they are too-often forgiven, depending on the seriousness of the offense and how likely it is to be publicly reported or prosecuted.

The press could help keep things honest, but we all know that the press is working with fewer resources and fewer readers – and Walpin’s firing is not a YouTube sort of story.

Well, that and they’re doing their best to protect Obama from any bad news. (Link was wrong before. Fixed now. Sorry!)

GOOGLE: High Tech Censor.

MARKDOWNS on exercise and fitness gear.

IRANIAN UNIONS ready to strike?

SOME MORE Iran protest video.

HEH: White House Says Obama Health Care Promises Should Not Be Taken Literally.

AN IRANIAN REVOLUTION UPDATE, at The Berman Post.

THE CAPRICIA MARSHALL TAX STORY makes TaxProf. Also Skippy, who observes: “Apparently this woman is clueless on the protocol we working slobs of the country have to adhere to. If one of us ‘non wealthy, non connected’ americans didn’t file tax returns for 2 years, we’d have the irs breathing down our neck threatening to take everything we have.”

Plus, from The Tax Lawyer: “I was going to add up how many Obama appointees/employees have tax problems when it dawned on me that I could save time by counting the ones who don’t.”

And since some readers questioned whether this story amounted to much, I emailed actual tax professor Paul Caron of TaxProf, and he responded:

I think it is important because (1) it fits the narrative of the Obama Administration’s ardor to raise taxes on everyone else when they themselves disdain their obligations, and only pay their taxes/file their returns when outed in the nomination process; (2) her job is protocol for goodness sense — one would think attention to detail is job requirement #1; (3) her explanation — blaming the rich cardiologist husband and the post office — is especially lame; (4) we’ll see if the tax refund storyline is really true — are they really that rich that they didn’t notice or care about the supposed $37k in tax refunds; (5) even if it is, the size of the fine for noncompliance does not excuse the failure to follow the law; if you’re stopped for DUI, it’s no defense to say that you didn’t kill anybody; and (6) the class distinction (as you note) is especially striking — for lower income folks, the “innocent spouse” defense is very hard to win, and often results in shackling the non-represented wife with the tax obligations of the crooked husband who has fled; here, the rich lady’s defense of blaming the rich husband is more acceptable in elite circles.

Point #4 reminds me of the great scene in Caddyshack with Chevy Chase:

Here’s an uncashed check for $10,000.

Keep it.

There’s a bunch of them! And a summons.

It’s yours.

Pretty pathetic, Ty.

Pathetic? Maybe for you, Lacey.

For me, there’s a subtle perfection in everything I do.

Well, I feel that way myself.

ANXIETY ABOUT THE DOLLAR hits a new high.

I wonder what’s got people so nervous?

SEE, THEY CAN KEEP SECRETS: Journalism and “professional courtesy.” “We are increasingly living in a society that plays by Ottoman rules; meaning that what the rules are depend – of course – on who you are. That’s not something we will survive for long, and simply put, it needs to be exposed and stamped out anywhere we see it.”

ED DRISCOLL: Let the man finish his ice cream!

Plus, tone deaf?

AT CAR LUST, authors reminisce about dads and their cars.

UPDATE: More from Rand Simberg.

THE LAST WORD ON LETTERMAN (and Playboy), from Sonja Schmidt.

THOUGHTS ON a free society.

KANGAROO COURT UPDATE: The Calgary Herald denounces Canada’s despotic “human rights” commissions. “In these despotic forums, the vehicle of choice for those who wish to silence those whose opinions they don’t like, what is conventionally called a human rights complaint is less accusation, than old-style Soviet denunciation. Not surprisingly, with no right to plead truth or fair comment, and with no obligation upon the prosecution to prove intent or follow rules of evidence–circumstantial evidence and hearsay is accepted in human-rights cases — defendants hardly ever emerge victorious from these proceedings.” Should these be established in the United States, it would be ground for revolution, or at least some “out of doors political activity” of the tar-and-feathers variety.

THOUGHTS ON politicians and father issues.

IMAGES FROM THE JAPANESE Kaguya Lunar Probe.

TRYING TO HIDE THE TRUTH IN IRAN. Not working so well.

Plus, “Her name was Neda.”

UPDATE: A martyr?

A BUNCH OF interesting food links.

WANT TO LIVE LONGER? Consider being “slightly chubby.” “People who are a little overweight at age 40 live six to seven years longer than very thin people, whose average life expectancy was shorter by some five years than that of obese people, the study found.”

RASMUSSEN: Obama approval index goes negative for the first time. “The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 32% of the nation’s voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-four percent (34%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -2. That’s the President’s lowest rating to date and the first time the Presidential Approval Index has fallen below zero for Obama.”

GOOD ADVICE FROM JEFFREY GOLDBERG: “The overarching goal is to see the birth of a democratic Iran, not to make ourselves feel good, or get in the way.”

HMM: Arrests of Rafsanjani kin show Iran clerics split. “Iran’s government said Sunday it arrested the daughter and four other relatives of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of the country’s most powerful men, in a move that exposed a rift among the ruling Islamic clerics over the disputed presidential election.” That’s not a move that suggests confidence in their position.

GETTING MOSQUITOES to poison their own larvae. Works for me. Every time a mosquito dies, the world becomes a slightly better place.

UPDATE: Reader Duke DeLand emails: “Watch out, Glenn, the PETA folks will be after you for trying to commit ‘Xenocide’ on mosquitoes!”

I’m more worried about the PETI folks.

NEWSWEEK: Obama Closes Doors on Openness. “For a president who said he was going to bring unprecedented transparency to government, you would certainly expect more than the recycling of old Bush secrecy policies.”

Hope and Change! Same!