[cacophony]

i think if we were talking apples and apples, meaning the scale of the protests were the same and a minority of people were lighting things on fire and smashing things our gov't would send in the national guard behind beefed up police forces.

i also think that under GWB's watch protesters would have disappeared, charged with violations of the patriot act, which makes it legal for the gov't to hold you indefinitely and makes it illegal for you to discuss the terms of your detainment.

i'm just mulling it over in my head but it feels like we're very outraged at the iranian gov't and just a few years ago we lived with an administration that would have been happy to do the same.

on the other hand, i feel like the cantankerous nature of the legislative and judicial branches and that "checks and balances" concept makes it unlikely that the clamp-down would go unpunished. but then...... a lot of things went unpunished under GWB, and will likely never be made right.

i don't know. it's so hard to know how accurate any of the reporting is from iran. it's all anecdotal self-reporitng from those few people who can get footage out of the country. an analysis of the twitter "revolution" showed that it was actually just a handful of people tweeting about the situation and a lot of other people re-tweeting or talking about the original posts. it's hard to get a clear view of what exactly is going on. people can't even agree whether neda was a protestor, a bystander, if she was shot by cops, or by a sniper.