Iran's Supreme Leader is calling for an investigation into fraud, which he may or may not be in on. This is a hell of a lot more than the US Supreme Court did in FLA 2000. What our SC did was say, yeah Gore got more votes, but we want Bush to be president. The American Neocons benefitted then too. And for the same reason.
Posted by T2 at June 15, 2009 09:51 AMI would guess that recent developments have Khamenei more concerned about either the depth of unrest or the extent of Ahmadinejad's power grab (or both) than he was immediately following the election.
those in power don't give it up without a fight, and even more so when the power is derived from "divine right". WItness our GOP.
They may wear robes and have long beards (not ZZ Top) but those Iranian Supreme Leaders know you can't put the Genie back in the bottle when it comes to freedom (unless the Genie is dead), so when millions take to the streets, they notice and start figuring out how to save their hides. The one who needs to worry most is Ahmadinejad.
The proper procedures for certifying the "election" weren't followed this time, and Khamanei "approved" the results of a (massive turnout breaking) election immediately. There is no conceivable way all these millions of paper, handcounted ballots were examined when they announced the "winner" Fri night (in an inconceivable landslide). They feared the will of the Iranian people.
And Khamanei made no secret of his support for Ahmadinejad. So, yeah, he's in on the rigging---even making some quick reference to the "divine" election, allah akbar!
The actual reformist ballots have likely been destroyed by now, and there's no body of integrity to conduct an "investigation" of the returns anyway---the interior ministry was ground zero of the fraud!
The Iranians are facing a conservative coup by panicked clerics and old guard "revolutionaries". Some revolutionaries---sclerotic old anti-modernist religious nutballs. Lord knows where the military is.
Posted by euzoius at June 15, 2009 11:53 AMBut for the fact that brave Iranians have now died for demanding some form of democracy for Iran, this whole thing would be comic.
The "conservatives" put forward a idiot clown figure for re-election (an Iranian Bush), loved by the most backward and stupid, viewed as a joke by the youth, middle class and intelligentsia---hell, many clerics thought Ahmaddinejad was an out of his depth fool.
No way in hell this clown figure could POSSIBLY get 51% in the first round against 3 reasonable opponents in this climate of change and culture of modernisation. The most Team Khamanei should have pulled was having reformist Mousavi "just miss" the run-off, and make the clown figure run against the old head of the revolutionary guard in the second round.
Who knows if that more limited fraud would have "worked" (i.e. been accepted). But no, the cleric doofuses have to decree a "landslide" for the clown figure in the first round! They must have thought if the world believed it for Bush they'll CERTAINLY believe it for their clown figure!
This is amateur hour.....can't they even rig an election? They'll never get the bomb!
Posted by euzoius at June 15, 2009 12:11 PMIMHO, Khamenei senses his military will not step in and crush a democracy movement....Iran's majority population is under 25 years of age and it is doubtful that a massacre will take place...there will be some sort of power sharing mechanism put in place to attempt to calm the waters...the genie is out of the bottle it appears, and despite the wishes of the neo-con f**ktards of the American Enterprise Institute, Heritage Foundation , Daniel Pipes, Frank Gaffney et al, Iran will become a democracy faster than Iraq without our meddling, chalk up another one for the Internets!!
Posted by Goyo at June 15, 2009 03:25 PMThe sport coat may have come in third! There's a poll out there with 66% saying our president isn't doing enough about Iran. My friend Goyo has it wrong, and Euz always does. Iraq is becoming the example of Islamic democracies. Our former president had the forethought in getting this started. He was tough on Iran. Yahoo/AP has a poll of these voters in Iran. Amusingly, they liked W more by a full 5% over Obama(34% for W's America vs 29% for Obama's America).
Our president has been silent a little too long here. That 3AM phone call has come a full three days ago. Where's the action? Where's SOS Clinton? Why did Ross get reassigned? Bad timing for sure.
Petey: Your diaper is on backwards ...Iraq is a shithole 7 plus years after the US tromped all over it....and hey, Iran was the Middle East's first democracy, before the US tromped all over it.
Posted by Goyo at June 15, 2009 09:18 PMshit brain pete, these "polls" are more of the delusions in your head...
Remember pete.....the voices in your skull aren't real...stop listening to them
Yessir, a (supposed) poll of what American pinheads think should be "done" about civil conflict in a nation 90% of them couldn't find on a map, now that's a reason for "action"! Obama should just declare who won Iran's election---that'll really help the brave protesters in Iran!
This is why you manage the lunch shift at Burger Shed, peter. And that's above your actual skill level.....
Yes, I'm sure America's repudiation of Cheneyism in 2008 didn't have anywhere near the influence on Friday's election that the endless credible stories of Cheney's desire to bomb Iran had! The Iranians were afraid of American Cheneyism so they voted for reform out of fear!
Allahu akbar, you are stupid, peter. The great thing about you is that you keep evolving into an ever more stupid and ignorant fool week after week. It's really quite amazing.
How stupid can ph peter get? Tune into TLC every day to find out!
Posted by euzoius at June 16, 2009 09:59 AMThats our very own shit-fer-brains pete making friends and impressing everyone, every where he goes...
congrats on your "people" skills shit brains and please, keep up the good work....
Posted by headxray at June 16, 2009 11:15 AM