Open Left

I second that

some amazing video on the Huff Post blog.

People should check it out.  

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by: glacierpeaks @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 10:27:31 AM CDT

I'm riveted

I can't imagine what must be going through the minds of people living throughout the entire region.

If you're a sheikh watching this on TV...can you really win? If the government succeeds in its crackdown, then you have a strongman in Iran to deal with. If the reformists win-via the street no less-than you have your own street to deal with.

What's this going to spark in Egypt & elsewhere?

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by: glacierpeaks @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 10:32:08 AM CDT

What I am most amazed at: the courage.

The beatings the arrests the random violence the twittered rumours that gun emplacements shad been set up, yet despite all this, despite decades of autocratic rule, the people came into the streets.

Hundreds of thousands to millions of people are demanding to be heard.

I am moved by their determination. Not to put to fine a point on it, but America is still cowed by its ayatollahs, and dont mean the obvious religious right, but the moneyed interests who have stopped Obama before he starts, who joke about needing more police for people who merely want to be allowed to talk about single payer healthcare, the ayatollahs who tell us how to reform wall street, how to stop carbon emissions.

I am impressed by the people in Tehran demanding that their voice be heard.  

Change
"We must break up the banks and never again let them get so big that they distort our politics and take down the economy.

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by: HousesofProgress @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 10:41:11 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Totally agree with you on the Ayatollahs of Greed

of course, some Westeners (like Cohen and Sullivan) who are cheerleading the reformists now, will then turn to touting neo-liberalsim as the Iranian's next logical step towards freedom. These dottering old fools never change.

But we'll leave that aside for now.

And leave aside the question of who actually won the election (who knows?!)

A good chunk of Iranian society poured into the street in direct defiance of a dictatorial power grab, and they have the baton marks as a red badge of courage. Yah, they put us to shame...  

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by: glacierpeaks @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 11:17:23 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

iran is among the most democratic countries in the region

it is autocratic, yes, but the iranian revolution was both theocratic AND democratic.  The former aspect won out, but there are aspects of the democratic still there (as you can see from that there was an election that they had to fix after the fact).  It probably speaks to a much longer tradition of democratic activism in Iran (including a feminist strand that goes back over 100 years) but I don't know enough of the history to say.

However, your point is well taken - American ayatollahs (i think we call them Media barons, SC Justices, and Presidents) manage their populace better than Iran's.  We should be so brave - meaning, we should!  Let's call our government as often as possible and tell them to make our government democratic! :)  Starting with single-payer health care.

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by: dr anonymous @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 11:38:53 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

No -- I dont mean President or Supreme Court Justices, I mean the people paying the corruption money to control congress and the media.

Change
"We must break up the banks and never again let them get so big that they distort our politics and take down the economy.

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by: HousesofProgress @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 15:10:27 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Somebody should have told them that Nate Silver doesn't think the election was rigged.

Not.

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by: Paul Goodman @ Mon Jun 15, 2009 at 17:05:07 PM CDT

Did he? Interesting.

Thanks for the info. Gonna check 538 now.

Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested, we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back, nor did we falter

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by: Gray @ Tue Jun 16, 2009 at 07:58:15 AM CDT

[ Parent ]