It's not slowing down!

Neither are photoshopped, by the way, unlike some people's rallies!

To help you get the full picture!

Amazing

The reality in Iran is not going to change because of
the elections. The world and we already know [Iranian President
Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad. If the reformist candidate [Mir Hossein] Mousavi
had won, Israel would have had a more serious problem because it would
need to explain to the world the danger of the Iranian threat, since
Mousavi is perceived internationally arena as a moderate element … 

Nice..

Hey, jewish zionist conspiracy people, wanna circulate this please? Write it this way: Najad is the preferred Mossad candidate, says head of Mossad. Be useful for once!

Rumors are circulating of Hamas members used to crack down on protesters as well. Hmm…

About fuckin time!

If you don't already. I am mostly there!

How desperate.. How pathetic… No wonder they blocked the foreign Media from attending. BUSTED!

Well, that didn't take long:

The sense of threat against the opposition was growing. Reuters
reported that Mohammadreza Habibi, the senior prosecutor in the central
province of Isfahan, had warned demonstrators that they could be executed under Islamic law.

“We warn the few elements controlled by foreigners who try to disrupt
domestic security by inciting individuals to destroy and to commit
arson that the Islamic penal code for such individuals waging war
against God is execution,” Mr. Habibi said, according to the Fars news
agency. It was not clear if his warning applied only to Isfahan or the
country as a whole, Reuters said.

Do these look few to you?

A notion exists amongst leftist ideologues: If a revolution takes place that isn't started by the poorest elements of society, then it has no merit and shouldn't be supported. The concept behind such a notion is simple: Every society has more poor people, than rich people, therefore the poor are more the public than the rich or middle-class, and thus not a "People's revolution. This is, of course, utter bollocks. While being poor is not a negative, it's also not a virtue in itself, otherwise there wouldn't be so many movements to eradicate poverty. And there are good reasons for that: The poor tend to not have much chances for upward mobility, less access to quality education or health-care, and usually more susceptible to the sway of religious leaders, who provide them with hope that one day they won't suffer anymore, set above those who are richer or more affluent than them by a mighty and just God who will end their suffering. Also, do their economic condition, they are usually less engaged in most political discourse, due to their focus on putting food on the table, and are also more likely to lend their voices and political loyalty to whatever politician that would appear to help them or provide welfare or charity to them, no matter what his end-goal may be. I have seen this tactic being used by both the Egyptian government and the MB, so I kind of know what I am talking about.

This kind of vote-buying and political pandering are usually the hallmarks of socialist or Islamic regimes, and let's use two of my favorite examples: Venezuela and Iran. Or, better yet, Ahmedinjad and Chavez. Both were democratically elected on platforms of fighting corruption and change. Both used the state's resources in order to buy the support of the poorest segment of the population, by giving them handouts that won't sustain them for long and that make them dependable on the "dear leader" figure, on the expense of their country's economy and overall development. In such societies, you usually find the opposition to the country's program coming from the lower to upper middle-class, while the richest of the population usually finds ways to adapt and co-exist with the new elite of the country (i.e. the new president's men). Such regimes are also usually very anti- freedom of speech and criticisms, usually deploy thugs or security forces in plainclothed uniforms to beat protesters against them, and generally create the illusion that they are the protectors of the country and the people from a dangerous far-away enemy that aims for their destruction, and spend most of their time attacking said enemy in the press and in rallies. The enemy, as you all know, has been Bush's USA, which both leaders have repeatedly accused of trying to invade their countries and overthrow their government, which happend in neither country really. Anyway..

The point of all of this, is that the people most opposed to the programs of such leaders, are the middle-class, and the young student population. And in the opinion of such ideologues or orientalists, who usually are young or middle-class themselves (god forbid), that makes them invalid:

A sort of pernicious cliché has entered our discussion of Iranian
politics, namely that the Western press cannot be trusted because
American reporters are too lazy to leave North Tehran and too dazzled
by the appearance of a vocal minority of upper-class Iranians who are
congenial to our self-image. We believe Iran is overrun with people who
think like we do, the argument goes, because these are the people who
talk to us. It is true that the movements of American reporters in Iran
are controlled and curtailed to the point where Tehran is the main, if
not the only, point of access, apart from the hard-line holy city of
Qom. I cannot speak for all American journalists who report from Iran,
but I’m sure I’m not the only one who is acutely aware of, and
frustrated by, the lack of insight into the rural heartland this
affords us. The best that we can do is to familiarize ourselves with
the full spectrum of urban life, across class and cultural boundaries.
Most Iranians, after all, live in cities, of which Tehran is only the
most gigantic.

Michael Totten, as well, voices his disdain to such notions:

I will never forget the similar line peddled about Lebanese in March
and April of 2005. I was there when the “March 14” revolution was in
full swing, and I heard from even some Western expats who lived in Beirut that the demonstrators were mostly liberal and “bourgeois” Christians from the “Gucci” class.

It was wrong, and it was contemptible. What ignited that revolution
was the assassination of a Sunni prime minister. Around a million
people – more than a fourth of the entire country – demonstrated in
Martyr’s Square and demanded the ouster of the occupying Syrian
military dictatorship. There aren’t a million liberal “bourgeois”
Christians in all of Lebanon. In any case, the Christians as a
community have proven themselves far less reliably anti-Syrian and
anti-Hezbollah than the Sunnis.

But why do such third-worldist orientalist think this way?

The Westerners I’ve met personally who believe and write this sort
of thing suffer from a condescending Third Worldism and a barely
concealed contempt for Middle Eastern people whom they don’t think are
“authentic.” Arabs and Muslims (and presumably now Persians) aren’t
supposed to hate terrorists or yearn for democracy like Americans do.
They’re supposed to be in thrall to “resistance” and every other
morally and politically bankrupt ideology that attracted the afflicted
expats to the region in the first place.

My experience has also been similar. Too many people, who in their heart of hearts hate US-backed regimes for their "tyranny", "undemocratic ways" and let's not forget "torture", immediately change their tone the moment an anti-US regime does the same. Using such logic, Egypt is a dictatorship controlled by a brutal security apparatus that oppresses the people and has fake support rallies by usually by forced government workers, and Iran is a democracy where the government has to stand against a minority of US-friendly bourgeois and has authentic rallies of support that the poor attend out of their love for the elected president.This way Saudi is a fanatic theocratic terrorist sponsoring country where no human rights are respected, but Iran, ehh, they support the resistance, so we can't call them for doing the exact same thing. That would be, ehh, counter-revolutionary.

Needless to say, they can't publicly say that. So instead they will talk about anti-Iran bias, or western media propaganda, or how this is the will of the people. Ignoring, for example, that without an openly democratic society, where all points of views are debated, and where there is freedom of the press and political expression, then the people really have no will to speak of. Fuck, candidates can't run if the regime doesn't like them: how much is their will respected under such a regime? They will start yelling at people that the election was fairly won (as fairly as one can win an election when one controls the media, the state resources, and let's not forget appoints the head of the government body that monitors and counts the ballots) and that protesters are unrepresentative minority of the population whose views should be dismissed, nevermind that they include (that we know of and can prove under a complete media blackout) students, regular iranian people, clerics, garbage collectors and, now, doctors and nurses. And needless to say, those people represent all classes of society, not just the poor, and thus makes them actually more representative of whatever person the government bussed in and promised a bag of potatoes and rice for their support. But of course, they won't admit to that, because that level of intellectual honesty contradicts their goals and beliefs, and we can't have that. So they will continue looking and searching for whatever random (and god knows there are like 5 only) article that proves their point, and they will repeat verbatim the talking points of the Iranian government propaganda apparatuses, hoping in their heart of hearts that the green revolution gets crushed under the boots of brutes and government thugs, so that their intellectual dishonesty gets validated, no matter what the price.

Now, it's impossible to prove either side right or wrong, especially with the absence of election monitors, a blockage of all communication methods the eviction of international media, and the brutal crackdown that the government conducted (and that not a single one of those subhuman third worldists has condemned so far) on the student population. But, there is one thing that I will leave you with, and please think about it: There is not a government in the world, that has conducted a fair election, and then followed it with a communication blackout and the institution of martial law. Not one!

Think about it!

Kinda explains his complicated relationship with technology!

Just got this e-mail from a friend in Tehran, whom I asked to brief me on what's going on. The friend sent it from the French Research center, and was abruptly disrupted because the french embassy forced everyone to evacuate due to the Basij now attacking the center. Here is the text:

So this is freaky Teheran right now,

People (the reformist opposition!!)
shouting „Allahu Akbar“ from the rooftops every night but they also
shout “Marg bar dictator” (death to the dictator), a strange feeling
of solidarity which is growing by the day and huge demonstrations.

The old people here haven´t seen these crowds since the revolution. Since ever then a mass mobilization like
this hasn´t been possible. The rally of Achmadinejad´s supporters
at Vali Asr square the other day has been neglectable to the manifestation
led by the opposition champ yesterday. By the way it has been the same
path from the Revolutionary to the Freedom Square like the demonstration
which brought the Shahs Regime finally down 30 years ago. And still
the old ones seemed to be sure there are a lot more people on the streets
now, of course population figures have been growing. 70 Percent of the
population are under 30 have been forced to live in this system. The
80ies war generation is grown up now. They have now work now perspectives
but they are reasonably well educated and in all of the cases I know
fed up with the system. Achmadinejad still finds its supporters by playing
Robin Hood and distributing oil money on the country side and the urban
proletariat, where he recruits his armed volunteers. But even in the
provinces distributing oil money doesn´t seem to be enough anymore.
Most of the linguistic and religious minorities have their own reasons
for supporting the opposition. In Ahvaz (Khuzestan prozince – Sunni
minority) people are apparently armed on the streets. Isfahan, Shiraz,
Busher, Mashad, Tabriz, Kerman and Qazvin have all seen big protests
yesterday.

Yesterday was a turning point for the reform movement. In Teheran it always seemed to be a battle rich against
poor, north against south, old against young. This was definitely no
exclusive march for young rich guys from the north. Rumors that police
would open fire have turned out to be wrong. When most of the crowds
have left militias (Basijis) have opened fire. After the selection defeat
the reformists managed to reorganize themselves fast and are about
to take over the battlefield. Today Achmadinejad supporters (armed?)
meet on 3pm at Vali Asr Square where the Reformists will arrive two
hours later.

Shit we get evacuated right now!!!!
The Basijis are probably attacking us (IFRI – French Research Center Teheran)

Der Spidgel just confirmed the rumors, that many of the guys that are cracking down on the demonstrators in the streets are lebanese hezbollah members. According to them, there are 5000 Hezbollah members in Iran that are part of the crackdown on the students. This is a big mistake. You don't bring an arab to beat down a Persian, unless you want the Persians to get really and I mean really pissed off. The hatred that Persians have for arabs are the stuff of legend, and if the regime has to use arabs to crack down on its people, then it maybe weaker than we ever though.

Andrew Sullivan went Green for his support of the revolution, so did Instapundit. Someone called John Cole doesn't like it, but who the fuck is John Cole anyway? As for this blogger, those who read me know I've always been green, baby!

You can see them in this video. I guess it's no longer a Calvin Klein revolution, huh?

To Russia. On an official visit. Wouldn't it be cool if the country he left isn't there for him to come back to?

What living in Iran these days is like!

 A small tidbit I missed the first time around

A young cleric from the Shiite holy city of Qom addressed the crowd. "I
have come to bring you a message from Qom," he said. "Without a doubt,
all clerical scholars are against the current situation. The only
person acceptable to them is Mr. Mousavi, they have rejected Mr.
Ahmadinejad's request to meet them in the past two days."

Little by little!

So far, the dead count for yesterday's events is reported as follows:

According to the WSJ student websites, 5 get shot yesterday..

According to the Guardian, 12 got killed in the clashes..

And according to Radio Payam, 7 people got killed near Tahran..

God knows what the real casualty number is!

*Scroll down for updates*

Ok, so no, I wasn't hiding under a rock for the past few days, and I wasn't ignoring the Iranian election either. I was simply overwhelmed by it. I mean, here i was, 2 days ago, watching A.J. giving his victory speech, and thinking"this is totaly what the democrats must have felt when W. was elected to a second term", when the Iranians decided to not take this shit anymore. For two days I was glued to TV and twitter, and following everything I could find on what's happening, with a little song in my heart. Hope had started to show its shiny little head, and i awaited reality to kick it in the testicles, but so far, no kicking. This is still going on. I am amazed.

So, just so u know, I am mostly posting on my twitter account. So, please go there and u will find the majority of the tweets. I will also update here constantly as well.

Update: Pictures of the Pro Mousavi rally. Estimated attendance between the high hundreds of thousands and a million. And this is despite the crackdown.

Update: Video of the rally. It's quite breathtaking!

Update: While western media-with the exception of the BBC- are completely ignoring this story, and with AlJazeera doing it's best not to report it on both AlJazeera arabic and international, twitter is the way to know what's going on in Iran right now.Use the #Iranelection for updates, and check out Persiankiwi . He has the best updates so far!

Update: I really doubt Ahmedinajad will back down on this one. This is what he said yesterday:

Asked about speculation that in his second term he would take a more
moderate line, he smirked, “It’s not true. I’m going to be more and
more solid.”

[...]

Mr. Moussavi said he was being “closely monitored” in his home, but hoped to speak at a rally on Monday.“He ran a red light, and he got a traffic ticket,” Mr. Ahmadinejad quipped when asked about his rival. 

Nice…

Update: Wanna do something to help the Iranians? Join the cyberwar! Ok, maybe this is not the smartest idea. nevermind!

Update: Government militia open fire on the peacefull protestors, killing at least 3. Pictures are available on the bottom here of the dead bodies . Reports of a Basij base getting burned down in retaliation.

Update: Regarding the OP-ed in the washington post today by the very suspicious sounding Terror-Free Tomorrow, about how the polling was fair and square and representitive. Ok, nevermind that their poll is based on 3 weeks old data (which anybody who followed this knows was pre the meteoric rise in popularity for mousavi) and gets rebuttled here and here . Also, some of the anomolies regarding the election available here.

Update: Hmm…

What is interesting about the announcement of the electoral results
that the Iranians are calling into question is that this came from the
Interior Ministry, the same Interior Ministry whose former head was
convicted of using a forged PhD from a British University.

What? Not saying anything…

Update: The people who are urging Obama to get involved are idiots and should be ignored. Any words of support from Israel or the US to the protestors will lead to the Najad camp claiming that they are agents for the imperialist conspiracy. So, please, USA, shut the fuck up and wait this one out. Ok?

Update: Just think, if this follows through and becomes a counter-revolution, it won;t end with Khameni calling for a second election..it will end with Khameni and his entire system getting deposed. No more islamic Iran. No more support for Shia nmilitias in Iraq..No more Hezbollah… No more support for Hamas..no more need for US bases in the Gulf… ahh..life would be so peacefull around here!

Update: Time magazine provides 5 reasons why the election outcome is highly suspicious. Read it!

Update: If the revolution goes through, then Obama is officially the luckiest bastard alive. It's one thing to have the worst financial crisis- that ur oponent's party is associated with- happen one month before the election, but to have Iran fall apart on its own and thus resolving ur biggest middle-east problem? That's fuckin luck!

Update: Even Juan Cole counters the WP Terror Free Tomorrow poll piece . Me and Juan agreeing on something. Amazing!

Update: People in the streets are batteling the militia in Karaj, and Mousavi is calling for a nation-wide strike tomorrow. Allrighty!

Update: Ehh..where are the 20 something million that voted for A.J.? Where are his 63%? Anybody know?

Update: Obama is rumored to address Iran . Can someone tell him to..ehh…not?

Update: Tehran University faculty resign en masse and reports of Tahran coming to a halt. This is not ending soon!

Update: This picture was taken at a support A.J. rally, and by rally i mean 20 people. The interesting thing about this picture is that in arabic it says " our war will be over when we liberate Palestine", but in english it says "our war will be over when we take-over palestine". Interesting distinction, don't u think?

Update: The attack by the people on the Basij base:

Don't fuck with the persians!

Update: Iranians in the diaspora start protests everywhere! Sweet!

Update: Obama spoke on Iran. Managed to seem like he said something while saying nothing. Thank God. For the first time I actually like this about you, Mr. President!

Update: Twitter has delayed its maintenance after getting twepressured by the tweeple. On a separate note, Twitter speak is retarded!

Update: Good video compilation. Tehran in Blood. Watch.

Update: AP just noticed how suspicious the timespan it took to count the result s of the election. Awww, AP, welcome to the party.We have been waiting!

Update: ON, final update for the night: It all hinges on tomorrow. If the protests continue in the same intensity tomorrow, and the government fails to crush it, this really could end up being the revolution we all have been waiting for. But of they crush it tomorrow, then it's over. Everything hinges on Tomorrow. Hmm..

Now, leaving you on a lighter note, here is CNN'c Rick Sanchez trying to defend CNN's dismal coverage of what was happening in Iran. It's a sad day for CNN when it can no longer compete with Twitter. TWITTER! Ted Turner, go kill yourself! Honestly!