OVERTURNING ELECTION RESULTS WHILE BRUTALLY SUPPRESSING DISSENT ... TAKING A QUESTION FROM THE HUFFINGTON POST ... YEAH, THEY'RE MORE OR LESS THE SAME THING

At least they are according to Carl Cannon of AOL's Politics Daily, who goes Dana Milbank one better:

In Iran, the freedoms that have been stamped out by unelected, violence-prone clerics run the whole gamut: No freedom of worship, no freedom of speech, no freedom of assembly, no right to a fair trial, no freedom to field candidates of your choice, no right to have your votes actually counted, and, of course, no freedom of the press.Although we journalists are taught to believe this last right may be the most important, the truth is that they are all important. It's also true that dictators often display a special fear of open communication, and in cracking down on the protests that greeted their latest fraudulent election, Iran's mullahs have tried mightily to jam the e-mailing- and Internet-based communications that has kept ordinary Iranians in touch with each other, and with the horrifying events taking place in their nation.

The tyrants met their match with Twitter, however, at least for awhile -- earning the New Media a place in the history of democracy. Unfortunately for both the Iranian people and New Media practitioners, however, a well-intentioned but clumsy little stunt pulled by President Obama and his communications team this week served as a reminder that the urge to manipulate the news runs deep, even among small 'd" democrats -- and large 'D' Democrats (and Republicans), too....

Here was Obama, in a press conference in which he finally found his voice on Iran, using the kind of ham-handed methods at media manipulation that leaders use in nations without a free press....

Congratulations. Carl -- you've written a column premised on pure Hoekstraism. I had to sit through a question from a reporter the president planned in advance to call on -- it was almost like having all communications critical of the government brutally suppressed under the threat of extreme violence!