geez, no need to be sensationalist hiponion (rather ironic when you're paying out commercial news coverage). when would have seven lead with such a story?

anyhow, twitter's all over it.

still, regardless of your source, it's hard to tell what the deal is? are the rioters in tehran just a noisy bloc within society (ala PAD and UDD in thailand) or were the votes really rigged.

how could they get away with rigging a thirty percent victory? i dunno.

there's an awful large population of young 'uns in iran though. good to see them sticking it to the persian 'boomers.

I think President Bartlett should listen to Nancy McNally. Especially since Fitzwallace died. Leo is just getting worked up because he is an alcoholic.

Poor Iran. I read the graphic novel Persopolis recently. It was very bleak.

Fuck headscarves and rapists.

Fuck headscarves and rapists.

outstanding. should i question your bigoted generalization or the irony of fucking rapists as vengeance.

here's a timeline, it's looking dodgy. via

On the basis of what we know so far, here is the sequence of events starting on the afternoon of election day, Friday, June 12.

Near closing time of the polls, mobile text messaging was turned off nationwide
Security forces poured out into the streets in large numbers

The Ministry of Interior (election headquarters) was surrounded by concrete barriers and armed men

National television began broadcasting pre-recorded messages calling for everyone to unite behind the winner

The Mousavi campaign was informed officially that they had won the election, which perhaps served to temporarily lull them into complacency

But then the Ministry of Interior announced a landslide victory for Ahmadinejad

Unlike previous elections, there was no breakdown of the vote by province, which would have provided a way of judging its credibility

The voting patterns announced by the government were identical in all parts of the country, an impossibility (also see the comments of Juan Cole at the title link)

Less than 24 hours later, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamene`i publicly announced his congratulations to the winner, apparently confirming that the process was complete and irrevocable, contrary to constitutional requirements

Shortly thereafter, all mobile phones, Facebook, and other social networks were blocked, as well as major foreign news sources.

All of this had the appearance of a well orchestrated strike intended to take its opponents by surprise – the classic definition of a coup.

Don't question my irony basil seal.

done.

saw some footage of a jubilant crowd cheering on mousavi. i am now convinced that iran > sweden when it comes to gorgeous chicas.

it does sound bad and shows how citizens are regaining a voice via new media and twitters spray at how the traditional media were not working over the weekend

well, someone's going back to being a little cog in the islamic republic's wheel after this poor effort of vote rigging.

this is a plot of the relationship between Ahmadinejad's and Mousavi's votes. it's almost perfect linear. that is, for every 100 votes Ahmadinejad has, Mousavi has 52.

perfectly even.

well, you learn something new. that evidence isn't extraordinary after all

from here

Andrew Sullivan's blog has a lot of information and footage about all this, some of which is truly disturbing. But fascinating...

hiponion said 1 day ago or at 4:51PM on Sunday, June 14 2009.

Mousavi's under house arrest. The internet and mobile networks have been shut down for the whole country. Rioting throughout the country, particularly in Tehran and Shiraz. And no news networks are covering it... does the Ayatollah have a controlling stake in our media now?

oh god you're an idiot

i hate iran.

Strange, police brutality appears to be something the west and the 'muslim world' have in common. Perhaps there is something to Obama's search for 'common ground' after all.

Personally I think it's plausible Ahmadenijad won the election with the percentage that's been reported -- the limited preliminary polling, whilst notoriously unreliable in Iran, showed a comparable margin. More broadly, Iran needs complete constitutional reform, not just a 'moderate' President. And there's significant domestic support for that. But like anywhere, those holding the reins of power squeeze as tight as a motherbitch to that shit.

Anyway, Robert Fisk is there, he's reporting for the Independent and writing some scintillating stuff, as always, because he's a fucking superstar. And Juan Cole is also an outstanding source for all things Middle East-related.

Personally I think it's plausible Ahmadenijad won the election with the percentage that's been reported

this is the uncertainty that's keeping me glued to twitter searches and the bbc. is this another version of what occurs in thailand? it's plausible but i doubt it, the balance of probabilities lies in the answer being a stolen/rigged election.

moreover, i want them to succeed. i'm quite ignorant on the iranian political system and on mousavi, but i'd like the reforms to occur. i think it's the fight against the boomers.

and that robert fisk is pretty good, i'll bookmark him.

thanks hillsonghoods and red_beard. I reckon what's happening in Iran is very worth watching. So the 'social network' campaign is now turning into action - e.g. strike. People power indeed. What is the Iranian military doing or going to do?

What red_beard said.

it sux that the utegate thread is going off but this one is dead...

I'm going to bump, because I agree, but I really don't have much to contribute.

it sux that the utegate thread is going off but this one is dead...

what can we do, it's so far away? if only there was some great big nuclear super power that would meddle in other countries' affairs and tell the world how to behave.

By the way, the reaction of people around the world is ''doing something''.

it's maybe geeing up the protesters a little bit.

some of the news footage looks like the Tiananmen Square footage. the Iran leadership will send the tanks in, every country will condemn the mass slaughter, trade blockades, iran says fuck you, 20 years later the world will be doing business with them like nothing happened. is that too negative a view to take?

some of the news footage looks like the Tiananmen Square footage. the Iran leadership will send the tanks in, every country will condemn the mass slaughter, trade blockades, iran says fuck you, 20 years later the world will be doing business with them like nothing happened. is that too negative a view to take?

Yes, that's too negative - all of the conditions for a revolution are in place in Iran, see the post on my random articles and blogs thread.

yes I don't think people should be blase about this. I too was thinking like email this morning - what do people watching do? Possible answer - crowdsource in some way.

Also interested in what role, if any, Al Quaeda/Taliban are taking in this, or intend to take.

Also interested in what role, if any, Al Quaeda/Taliban are taking in this, or intend to take.

Al Qaeda/Taliban are Sunni, Iran is Shia. Not much love lost there.

and Al Qaeda in the past have made threats against Iran

the government is now picking the football team

''Foreign Correspondent'' is good tonight.

Boo - missed it. Highlights?

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - Jewboy?

Is Ahmadinejad going to resign?

Fucking bizarre.

HOLY FUCK!

have been accused of using supernatural powers to further his policies

SUPERNATURAL POWERS!!!

Ayandeh, an Iranian news website, described one of the arrested men, Abbas Ghaffari, as ''a man with special skills in metaphysics and connections with the unknown worlds''.

Fucking wizards are ruining Iranian government.

Will we see some kinda Salem witch trial thing? People possessed speaking in tongues on the witness stand?

weirdest story ever.