Jun 15, 2009

Iran like Chicago


Looking back to the Al Gore/George Bush contest I remember the chaos and bloodshed that followed. Now if you want to see how to steal an election badly I simply encourage you to look to Iran.

Today candidates and clerics requested an annulment of the election, but Mr. Ahmadinejad hinted that his challenger risks punishment for questioning the result.

Ah, the 'free' elections in 'democratic' Iran.

There is no actual transparency or accountability in Iran. However, if it looks like fraud, smells like fraud, well my guess is fraud. Transparency by default. And given the government’s even more than usually thuggish reaction, it certainly points to fraud. As long as you remember that the religious Mullahs run everything behind the curtain, you know that the election is meaningless, and is simply a fun activity to give the folks something to pretend means something. I'm getting pretty cynical, and I'm sure you're waiting for me to say that 'Hey, just like the States, right?' No, more like Chicago....

What Iran hasn't figured out is that they need to emulate Chicago - Don't get me wrong, they're extremely close. They have the first part down perfectly. Iran is close as they have the policy of giving back to one class of people and having them vote. It's the other class, the middle class who are having to deal with huge taxation and inflation because of those bribes - er - government assistance programs to the under served - and the middle class has no chance of relief.

So when they bring it up for a vote, there's a chance for 'Change'. But there isn't any real chance for opposition. Iran is Chicago.

But let's review what happened with the election...

Many Iranians found that impossible to believe. Mr. Moussavi had drawn hugely enthusiastic crowds to his campaign rallies, and opposition polls suggested that he, not Mr. Ahmadinejad, was the one with the commanding lead. Even more improbably, and cynically, authorities claimed that Mr. Ahmadinejad carried all of his opponents’ hometowns — including Mr. Moussavi’s — by large margins. My guess is that the polling data was incorrect. Imagine, for a second, if the Conservatives hadn't thrown in the towel and showed up to elect McCain. Impossible! Well, Mock-Mood Im'aDinnerJacket contends that's exactly what happened. Can you imagine how pissed the Obama crowd would have been?

When protesters took to the streets in the fiercest demonstrations in a decade, the police beat them with batons. The government also closed universities in Tehran, blocked cellphones and text messaging and cut access to Web sites. That's not totalitarian or draconian, is it? Again, imagine an Obama fanatic without their Facebook or Twitter for an hour, let alone a couple days?

As the protests continued, authorities detained more than 100 prominent opposition members and ordered some foreign journalists to leave the country. According to news reports, Mr. Moussavi remained in his home but was being closely watched. In a triumphalist press conference, Mr. Ahmadinejad seemed to threaten his rival, declaring that the former prime minister “ran a red light, and he got a traffic ticket.”

Look, if the election were truly “real and free” as Mr. Ahmadinejad insisted, the results would be accepted by the voters and the government would not have to resort to threats, detentions and baton wielding skull crushers.

So - they dropped the ball at the ballot box phase. What Richie and the Toddler know, is that you keep it closer, or just have no opponents. I am not suggesting the Richie and Todd would lock down the city or county and have Chicago police beating the hell out of the mobs of Republicans or folks who want to get rid of the 10.25% sales tax -- what I'm suggesting is that they won't ever have to.

Oh, and the best part, the Nation elected Chicago.

One final note - at least the Iranian people are standing up to their tyranny. I wish them a prayer and the best of luck.

4 comments:

RushSays said...

Obama has taken credit for "Robust Debate" in Iranian sham election.

Our media calls Ahmadinejad "conservative" while ignoring the fact that the mullahs run Iran. An NPR guest likens his supporters to evangelicals in GOP states.

Obama thinks his speech led to this election in Iran? He has an ego and a narcissistic complex that can only be described as unhealthy and dangerous.

Chewy said...

Saddam Hussain didn't technically rig elections, it was just that when you put your ballot in the box, the election official would first check to see if you had 'made any mistakes' - i.e., hadn't ticked the Saddam box. No-one was ever stupid enough to not tick the Saddam box.

In a sense, Saddam Hussain's elections were probably the most accurate and honest in the world: everyone knew the deal, you either voted Saddam or you died.

Rigging elections, is an entirely different story.

C Hitchens said...

Cap'n, don't call what happened in Iran an Election. It was a crudely stage-managed insult to everyone involved.

WaffleMan said...

How much would look different under a Moussavi presidency anyway?

he's credited for successfully navigating the Iranian economy as prime minister during the Iraq war but he is also a hard-liner described as a "firm radical."

Like most Iranians in power, he does not believe in the existence of Israel. He defended the taking of hostages at the U.S. Embassy in Iran in 1979.

He was part of a regime that regularly executed dissidents and backed the fatwa against Salman Rushdie.

In April, he opposed suspending the country's nuclear-enrichment program but said it would not be diverted to weapons use.

Right...

So, what change?