COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Iran election fraud...continued...I smell revolution, maybe.


strike in Vanak SQ, Tehran, Iran...after huge curroption in election's result by the current goverment. people fighting with anti riot forces. they are shouting for freedom.
"I'm really surprised and happy that even conservatives in USA are supporting the left-wing liberal protestors in Iran.

May Allah bless the protestors and help them prevail against the conservative puppet Ahmadinejad!"

Anger on the streets of Tehran

Riding around Tehran in dozen-strong posses, the groups of black-clad public order police on motorbikes looked like a bunch of Hells Angels in search of trouble.

By Colin Freeman in Tehran Telegraph
Published: 6:20PM BST 13 Jun 2009

And on Saturday afternoon, on the wide, treelined boulevard of Vali-asr Avenue in the city centre, they found it in spades, as tens of thousands of protesters, furious at Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's questionable election victory, yelled a defiant cry in their faces: "Death to the dictator".

Vali-asr Ave stretches some 12 miles from the very north of Tehran to the very south, and is said to be the longest street in the Middle East. In the past week, however, it has also earned a different claim to fame – as the gathering point for supporters of Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the reformist challenger tipped to unseat Mr Ahmadinejad's in Friday's polls.

Yesterday, despite an official order banning demonstrations, it also became the venue for the biggest display of open defiance that the Iranian regime has seen in years. At midmorning, there were just a few hundred people there, with nervous-looking police dishing out beatings to any man or woman who attempted to loiter for any time.

But by lunchtime the crowds were growing, and by 4pm the streets were packed as far as the eye could see – mainly people in their 20s, but also their parents and even grandparents.

"People, come and support us," shouted the bolder groups, as the police started menacingly. Up went the cry, at first sporadic, but soon as a constant chant: "Marg Bar Dictator" (Death to the Dictator)
Then, as the protesters began to throw rocks, the police finally charged.

Yet as the Sunday Telegraph witnessed from the balcony of a nearby hotel, this was no ordinary public order exercise.

Having first badly beaten a few demonstrators who didn't escape in time, the riot squads went on a riot themselves, hurling rocks into the windows of nearby residential flats and smashing shop windows with their truncheons.

Joining them in their official vandalism were a number of civilians – believed to be basijis, the plain-clothes, pro-regime thugs that Iran's clerical regime deploys to both intimidate and mislead. Mousavi supporters who witnessed the destruction knew straightaway what tomorrow's Iranian newspaper headlines would be: "Reformists go on rampage."

"They were just vandalising everything and smashing windows, so that they could say publicly that it was the protesters' fault," said Abbas Mohammed, 26, watching in horror as the police laid into a woman protester. "This is their typical tactic."

By 6pm, as summer stormclouds gathered and lightning snaked down over the Alborz mountains that ring Tehran the crowds around Vali-asr Ave had dispersed. But in the distant streets, the sounds of further trouble could be heard, with demonstrators shouting and occasional bangs and crashes.

Palls of smoke rose up from side streets, while in shop entrances groups of demonstrators nursed people bleeding from truncheon wounds. Groups of basjis wandered around menacingly, clutching sticks of wood.

The police crackdown was chilling confirmation of last Wednesday's warning from a senior member of Iran's hardline Revolutionary that any attempt at a "Velvet Revolution" by Mr Mousavi's youthful supporters would be nipped firmly in the bud.

It was a sour end to a sour day, that had begun in the small hours of Saturday morning when Iran's interior ministry had announced that President Ahmadinejad had an unassailable lead in the vote. His victory came despite widespread predictions that he might head for a crashing defeat, amid widespread anger at his dismal economic policies and aggression towards the West.

Yet nobody in the reformist camp was that surprised at his 61.6 per cent showing. Why, they said, the authorities had simply rigged the vote again, just as they did in 2005, when Mr Ahmadinejad – then a virtual unknown – first came to power.

"There was a joke going around town that if there was no vote rigging, Mr Ahmadinejad would come fifth out of four candidates," said Mr Mohammed. "Now it doesn't seem so funny."

With no international observers present in Iran's elections, the supporters of Mr Mousavi know there is little chance that any alleged skulduggery will be revealed, never mind rectified. But as they chatted on the streets on Saturday, they noted all manner of suspicious things.

Why had Iran's text message system been switched off since Friday, the system they used to organise rallies? Why was the BBC Persian website blocked, along with a number of other reformist websites normally available? And most curious of all, why did Iran's official new agency announce early in the morning that Mr Ahmadinejad had already only won, when at that time, only 20 per cent of the vote had been counted?

Yet while the reformists might have lost the election on Saturday, the country's mullahs also seemed to have lost the confidence of their people.

The free and good-natured street campaigning last week generated a huge expectation that Iran was finally on the brink of a new era, with many comparing the vast pre-election crowds to those who greeted Ayatollah Khomeini when he arrived in Tehran to start the Islamic revolution in 1979.

But just as the optimism of that time quickly faded, so now has the optimism of last week. "I cannot see anybody wanting to participate in any kind of politics after this," said Mitra Khorshidi, 26, a government worker who attended last week's cheerful pro-Mousavi rallies. "But it has also been a defeat for the mullahs. They had a chance to regain the trust of the people and they lost it."

By 7pm, as trouble flared up yet again in Vali-asr Ave, and riot police laid into another female onlooker, word spread on the streets of another dubious official statement from the interior ministry. It declared that there had been "no post-election violence" in Tehran.

_______________

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States said Saturday it was monitoring reports of irregularities in Iran's hotly contested presidential race, in which hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared winner.
"Like the rest of the world, we were impressed by the vigorous debate and enthusiasm that this election generated, particularly among young Iranians," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a two-sentence statement.
"We continue to monitor the entire situation closely, including reports of irregularities."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed hope the Iranian presidential vote would reflect voters' will.
"We hope that the outcome reflects the genuine will and desire of the Iranian people," the top US diplomat told reporters during a visit to Niagara Falls, Canada.

FOR SOME BACKGROUND:





13 comments:

  1. The two videos at the bottom of the post are worthy of watching, putting into perspective where Iran is today. The energy for revolution exists in Iran but I doubt it has a voice. If it does, the mullahs are in deep shit. Without a voice and a face, talk and hope of a new revolution goes down as a false start.

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  2. According to this edited report from the Financial Times, the fix is in and sticking:

    "Ahmadi-Nejad win sparks violent clashes
    By Najmeh Bozorgmehr and Anna Fifield in Tehran

    Violent clashes erupted across Tehran on Saturday night and continued well into Sunday morning, as thousands of angry young Iranians protested against the landslide victory of Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, who was declared the winner of the presidential elections.

    Large crowds of young people gathered in squares and on street corners throughout Tehran to vent their anger at an election that Mir-Hosssein Moussavi, who was challenging Mr Ahmadi-Nejad, called a “dangerous charade”.

    EIntermittently shouting “Down with the dictator” and “I want my vote back”, they threw rocks at police and set fire to rubbish skips in the middle of the road, giving the city a taste of burning plastic. Charred remains of motorbikes lay on the side of the roads, while cars and a bus were set alight near the interior ministry.

    Groups of riot police on motorbikes were seen arriving at crowded intersections and indiscriminately hitting people, including women, with batons. They also used tear gas to try to disperse the crowds, which formed even though authorities had blocked mobile phone networks and the Facebook site, cutting off an important tool for organising demonstrations

    Large, well-organised groups of plainclothes basij, the reservist force of the Revolutionary Guards, were also on the streets, blocking roads to stop crowds getting bigger and helping the police to contain the protesters.

    [...]
    As the government escalated its crackdown, dozens of reformist political leaders were arrested on Saturday night, including Mohammad Reza Khatami, the brother of former reformist president Mohammad Khatami, reformists said.

    Also arrested were Mohsen Mirdamadi, leader of the Iran Islamic Participation Front, the largest reformist party; Zahra Mojaradi, his wife; Saeed Shariati, a member of the party; Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, spokesman in the previous reformist government; and Ahmad Zaidabadi, a senior reformist journalist.

    Mostafa Tajzadeh and Behzad Nabavi of the Islamic Revolution Mojahedin Organisation, another reformist party, were also taken into custody.

    “The government clearly wants to blame these people for the street riots,” one prominent reformist said.

    [...]

    Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, made it clear that the contest was over.

    “More than 80 per cent turnout and more than 20m votes for the president-elect is a real cause for celebration,” the supreme leader said in a statement on Saturday afternoon, calling the election “a startling and unique event”.

    [...]
    In his speech, Mr Ahmadi-Nejad did not address the rigging claims by his rivals and on-going unrest in the streets, but said his policies would continue “at a higher level and double speed and motivation”.

    [...]
    Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said Washington was “monitoring the situation as it unfolds in Iran”.

    “But we, like the rest of the world, are waiting and watching to see what the Iranian people decide...We obviously hope that the outcome reflects the genuine will and desire of the Iranian people,” she said from Canada.

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  3. Well, of course, we all know what is going on.

    The mullahs rule, and they are making bombs.

    Ron Paul, and Rat, and Potato Head Ash, seem to think this is just great.

    The United States, having elected a muzzie, is not going to do anything.

    It's up to Israel.

    A Jew hater like Rat, hopes for the worst, for Israel.

    Rat is illiterate, I can tell he's never read the beginning word of the writings, much less finished them, or thought about them .

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  4. Why do I say Rat is an illiterate Jew hater?

    Because in all these discussions he has never once shown a glimmer of appreciation for great literature.

    And he has never once, not once, shown a glimmer of compassion for a truly great people.

    That's why.

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  5. Rather he pisses his time away, moaning about the Homestead Act, and dreaming of some conspiracy theory or other, and congratulating himself on being alive, as Rat.

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  6. Not once does Rat ever talk about women, or their rights. Not once does he ever mention literature. Not once is there ever a breath of fresh air about farming, or fishing or hiking, or the landscapes there in Arizona. Not once is there ever a mention of the Bible, or our old old common spirituality from long ago. Or our true native American literature, which goes very deep. From the very beginning. Or our ancestral writers in old England, Or Europe as a whole.

    Not once.

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  7. Because women have their rights, here, bobbie. and everywhere else, bobbie, is just entertainemnt, a show.

    Not really my affair, except to back the play of the US Government.
    What ever that play may be.

    Further more, I don't hate anyone, but welfare cheats and folks that complain about their taxes. Those that claim capital gains on the sale of Federal grant lands, are to high.

    I hate folks that call for the abortion of little black babies, bobbie, when their candidate loses an election, to a black man.
    Eugenics supporters.
    Takers of innocent lives for domestic politcal reasons.
    Like you, bobbie.

    I'm not real fond of sunshine patriots that embrace wars of foreign domination, and the deaths of US soldiers that those wars entail, but never served the Republic in uniform, themselves, not even a single day.
    Then bitch about the taxes required to fund those foreign adventures.

    I hate, well find extreme disfavor with, psuedo intellectuals, folks that are untraveled and over read. Men with few life experiences of their own, those living vivacious lives of quiet but fanciful desperation through the imaginings of others.

    So, bobbie, I hate you, and most of the self-serving ignorance you represent, not the Jews, because YOU are an unappreciative American bigot.
    Hypercritical and hateful.

    I don't have time to hate foreigners that have not attacked me and mine. But do hate those citizens that that subvert the American Government, here at home. Bitching about America, delcaring its' President to be a usurper and Federal capital gains taxes theft.

    The tax issue is exceptioally galling when the bitchers entire fortune was a gift from the people of the United States and a payback of 15% is claimed to be to great a burden, a tax on time.
    What a fuckin' joke you are, bobbie.

    Fuck you, too, you sunshine patriot, one that did not even bother to be a summertime soldier.

    You say, bobbie, like your hero, Dick '5 deferment' Cheney, that you had "better things to do".

    A little secret for you, bobbie, if you have to ask folk if you are a racist bigot, or not, that pretty much guarentees that are you are.
    Or you'd not have had to ask if it showed.

    Have a nice day, bobbie.

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  8. Economic sanctions lead to urban deprivation, which leads to regime change. Team43's game plan

    Will we stay the course?

    With Obama, most likely not.

    But will what we do matter, in Iran?
    It has not, much, to date.

    But then there was a turning of the page, here.

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  9. I think your observation about personifying a revolution is on target, duece.

    We did it, using George Washington.
    South Africa with Rev Tutu and the ANC icon, Mandela.

    I always hoped that Shah Jr would fill that spot, in Iran, but he seems to have washed out. Still the role needs to be filled, by someone.

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  10. I think both of you have made your points.

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  11. Well I've got Rat going now. But, for the record, I never called for the abortion of black babies. You Rat, as I recall, brought the subject up, saying something along the lines of since most abortions occur in black neighborhoods freedom to have abortion might be eugenic.

    I'm against all abortion, I think it's a very sad thing. I think Roe v Wade was wrongly decided, it should be up to the individual states, and it's not going away.

    I recall a little black kid, that my wife, and another social worker, and a Catholic priest, buried. After my wife and the other social worker had done the best they could for him, for months. He'd been in the system for years. He was in extremely bad shape, there wasn't much to be done for him, other than comfort. And the burial at the last, and a Catholic prayer.

    His life was miserable from the start. Basically just a brain stem. If anyone might have benefited from being aborted, I quess it would have been him. But I remember him, smiling once in a while, too.

    His skin color makes no difference. I've seen my wife work with white kids, almost as bad off.

    There are some very sad things in life.

    So, we all serve Rat, in our own way.

    What will happen in Iran now?

    I haven't a clue.

    Ahmadinejad wins, it looks like. Even though he didn't.

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  12. I do remember saying that a white like me ought to be able to walk through any black neighborhood in America, without fear, just like the blacks can walk through this neighborhood without fear, and that they ought to clean up their acts in their own neighborhoods so that becomes possible. And, I'd stick with a statement like that.

    ReplyDelete