election in iran

[cacophony]

p.s. here's a very graphic video of a 20 year old girl in iran, shot to death by police for daring to participate in a protest. let me repeat, it's graphic. use your own discretion.



is this like the US in 2004, john?

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

You're cross-culture referencing. In America, we just use humane tazers on people we want to shut up. Or bean pellets(ooooh! the irony on that one!) on peaceful protestors.

I never said identical. I have no problem you cannot relate to the similarities(sp?, just looks wrong). Others are getting it. Oh well.

[Sean]

Originally Posted by cured

C'mon Sean, what do you think of the "investigation"?

Here's the problems with that:

1) Ballots were most likely destroyed, if not stored elsewhere
2) Who would conduct the recount, if there is one? Surely the same people who counted them in the first place, right?
3) Who does it serve if the investigation/recount turned up a different winner? There'd be widespread chaos. At worst, Ahmedinejad would lose a chunk of percentage points but remain comfortably over 50%.

I believe Khamenei has really misjudged this situation and is flailing at focusing the blame elsewhere. By directing some of it on the protesters, it only serves to prove, in their minds, that what they're doing is right and they need to push on.

If Khamenei wants to survive this process, he'll have to make a lot of concessions, but at this point I don't think he can do enough to reverse his stature, based on his last 2 speeches.

I was only commenting on the strategy of Khamenei's sudden proclamation that it was a "definitive victory" for Ahmadinejad only days after he called for an investigation into the election results. As for the investigation itself and how fruitful/effective/legitimate it would be, who really knows? The level of corruption involved in Iran (as in most places) is pretty insurmountable, so I doubt it would lead to any honest, constructive conclusions. I basically agree with everything you've said here.

[cacophony]

Originally Posted by jOHN rODRIGUEZ

You're cross-culture referencing. In America, we just use humane tazers on people we want to shut up. Or bean pellets(ooooh! the irony on that one!) on peaceful protestors.

I never said identical. I have no problem you cannot relate to the similarities(sp?, just looks wrong). Others are getting it. Oh well.

i simply find it as distasteful as the GOP rep who said what the folks in iran are experiencing is like the GOP having to struggle as a minority party.

it trivializes what, for many many people, is literally life and death.

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

I'd make a joke here, as I do to keep discussions from raging into something they're not, but I'll maintain.

I still stand by all I've said.

[Sean]

Originally Posted by jOHN rODRIGUEZ

I'd make a joke here, as I do to keep discussions from raging into something they're not, but I'll maintain.

I still stand by all I've said.

Yeah....I remember when stuff like this CNN video was happening in the US in 2004. Oh wait, no I don't.

But this sounds like a description of the US in 2004...

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Security forces wielding clubs and firing weapons beat back demonstrators who flocked to a Tehran square Wednesday to continue protests, with one witness saying security forces beat people like "animals."

At least two sources described wild and violent conditions at a part of Tehran where protesters had planned to demonstrate.

"They were waiting for us," the source said. "They all have guns and riot uniforms. It was like a mouse trap."

"I see many people with broken arms, legs, heads -- blood everywhere -- pepper gas like war," the source said.

About "500 thugs" with clubs came out of a mosque and attacked people in the square, another source said.

The security forces were "beating women madly" and "killing people like hell," the source said.

"They beat up a woman so bad, she was all bloody," the source said in a description that underscores the growing and central role of women in the uprising.

Oh wait, no it doesn't.

What's going on in Iran, to me, looks to be headed towards flat-out revolution. The horrifically violent crackdowns don't seem to be doing anything to stop protests, only solidifying opposition. I'd be posting more in this thread, but all I can seem to do is just sit and try to soak in everything that's happening there. It's absolute craziness. As I mentioned before, I just wonder how much of this police state behavior would have been hidden to the world had it happened just a few years ago, before it was so easy for individuals to spread videos, photos and messages around the planet.

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

Do you remember a boy getting his head taken off with a machette whilste(oooops, spelt that wrong) on bus ride to Canada?

No, you voted Republican and it keeps coming back to everyone that many who did vote that route, do not remember (or recall) much.

Lots more reminders, when needed.

[myrrh]

It certainly is interesting what is happening there.

I really have no opinion, other than violence against the protesters is wrong.

I am against protesting, as I view it as really just a lesser form of terrorism. Nor do I think that protesting is a right or anything like that. So with this in mind, the government there can just say that protesting is illegal, since it is their country, and then do whatever they want to end the protesting.

I am not really for the current regime, but even Time said that he most likely won the election, it was just that it would have been close enough to have a run-off, which then his opponents would have teamed up against him, and he may have lost.

[dubman]

"and heeere come the pretzels..."

[jOHN rODRIGUEZ]

(enters FodderFiddler)


"Always the poet, you are."


That "i" word again: http://www.usingenglish.com/referenc...+elephant.html