John F. Kerry

so once again our rosy predictions of a velvet revolution in iran have resulted in nothing more than ahmadinejad "winning" with a kim jong il style 90% OF THE VOTES... or whatever it is.

discuss

Legen...dary!

Yeah "wins" is what I thought when I saw the title.

Sad news

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Canuck Wisdom

Is there evidence for a lack of legitimacy in Iranian elections?

I know about the Ayatohlah(sp?) and stuff, I just mean elections.

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ProfessorMurder

All that new voter participation and public celebrating was just one big giant psych out.

Like the Chinese at the 2008 olympics.

World Class Prank

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"No contaban con mi astucia!"

stoneric

I read 66% but whatever. It reminds me of bush vs. kerry in '04 when exit polls showed kerry winning easily. I don't see the end of the world as a result of this election. I think we should be more concerned about the recent israeli elections. And it would be nice if the staunch allied countries(saudi arabia and egypt) obama just recently visited would have elections that even compared to Iran's.

ProfessorMurder

All those people getting hit in the head and arrested...

Don't Fall For It!

They work for Ahmadinejad.

It's the old Uzbekistani Persian Double Bluff.

Untill I see waves of children charging machine gun nests,
I don't consider it a true Iranian Protest.

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"No contaban con mi astucia!"

John F. Kerry

the one good thing about this, is that it makes some things become more clear.

like for example, the bulshit about iran being a "democratic" country is shown for the joke that it is....the idea that it shouldnt be 'lumped in' because of its 'democracy' popularized by such left wing people as chris matthews and such movies as W. is now pretty obviously dispelled.

everything in iran is fake- their missle launches are photoshopped, their elections are rigged, their society is in chains....


so maybe now everyone will give up trying to "accomodate" our not-quite-so-democratic-as-you-thought iranian neighbor and get them to stand in the fucking line like everyone else.

al-Mu'akhkhir

I ask you to give an example of a country where this ISN'T happening... Welcome to politics. Nothing really is as it appears to be.


Seriously where do you live? America?

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Being

Remember, the Ayatollah is really the one in power anyways, so its not a Democracy and can't be until that part is taken out.

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badgoalie85

here is my take on the whole thing:

firstly, regarding the legitimacy of the election: i sincerely doubt that ahmadinejad won by the margin they say. it's very possible that he would have received a plurality of the votes but 66%??? really? there should have at least been a second round of voting between the two front runners.

it seems possible to me that mousavi could have won a plurality because from what i'd been reading/hearing on the radio, the people in the cities are just crazy about him. however, i also know that in the countryside in iran ahmadinejad is much more popular, and it's possible that he may have had much more support than we with our biased media were led to believe. like i said though, i don't believe for a second that he actually got 66% of the vote. in addition, in the crowded city polling places, there were not enough ballot papers to go around meaning many of mousavi's likely supporters did not get a chance to vote. on top of that, the poll watchers mousavi had sent to different polling places to see how shit went down were turned away by the state-run security forces.

secondly, regarding the implications of the result: on one hand it's terrible that ahmadinead "won" because he's pretty pro-war and anti-everything else and is bad for the world in the same way bush was. on the other hand the fact that he "won" might turn out to be good because it might nudge the iranian people further towards a revolution of sorts which has the possibility of leading to the creation of the first true, functional democratic republic in the middle east. the younger generations in iran are well educated, boisterous, and ready for a change. things are getting better i believe but it's going to be at it's worst right before the big change happens.

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al-Mu'akhkhir

You see, the funny thing is that the entire idea of democracy is a fallacy anyways.. I think that a fair generalization of the human race is the notion that everyone is "in it for themselves", looking out only for their own interests and making the decisions that will have the best outcome for them.

So, if we can agree that this is true, it becomes painfully apparent that the entire political system is made up of people masquerading as "champions of the people", politicians could be seen as simply playing the "political game" to further their own successes in life etc.

Furthermore, even if there were politicians that were legitimately in it for the people whom they represent, it is a statistical impossibility for them to even represent 1% or 2% of the "public interest" (another fallacy, if the original assumption is true) if everyone is only interested in themselves.

So... I mean... really... Government is a completely flawed concept.

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Geeno

Did you go to Iran college?

Cause it sounds like you're making stuff up.

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John F. Kerry

if colonel gadhafi can cease to be an international pariah , and be welcomed as a friend in Italy then anyone can

a free iran would be so much better for iran and for the world its not even funny. its tragic that they let dictators stifle their potential in the false name of islam

Canuck Wisdom

I dont know how legitimate the Iranian political system is, but my understanding is that the society is pretty well educated and progressive. I'd rather visit Iran than most mid-east countries.

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Geeno

Italy's leader Berlusconi or whatever has faced a lot of corruption accusations.

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stoneric

Dictators are acceptable as long as they're compliant with our agenda.

stoneric

Why isn't a free egypt or saudi arabia or jordan as important as a free Iran?

al-Mu'akhkhir

SERIOUSLY MAN. Do you really think America is free? Do you really think anyone is free?

The only proof I need to present to you is the case of marijuana. Who is "the man" to say that we cannot grow or consume certain plants? We are all of this earth, this earth is here for all of us. And yet we have somehow let people dictate (key word here..) what we can and cannot do. Clearly there has to be some limit as to what we can do without repercussion, however the extension of state power into every aspect of a man's life and thought is a gross abuse of authority, the destroyer of freedom, and the enemy of real peace.

No country will truly ever be free, so long as we have it in our heads that a political democracy is the most ideal form of government.

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John F. Kerry

i recommend you go visit iran and lemme know whatchu think

Waves

you know nothing about iran, i think you should be the one visiting

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