Thursday, June 18, 2009

IRANIANS HIT THE STREET BY THE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS

*UPDATE* I had a video posted from a protest in Iran from YouTube, I don't know what happened to it. If I can get it back, I'll repost it...Peace*

Good morning, Searchers, I woke up to MSNBC this morning, the lead story I caught was about the alleged election fraud in Iran.

People have been demonstrating against the totalitarian government since June 12, when the Presidential election was held.

Searchers, this is huge. As I heard a commentator say yesterday, it may not be like Tiananman Square, but certainly may be similar to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Some of you remember neither, but when I saw the people standing on the Wall shouting triumphantly, and hitting the wall with sledgehammers, it sent shivers down my spine.
Equally so with the lone Chinese man facing down the tanks.
















These were people that were fed up with a regime that kept them down, and in the case of China, they had had it with the government "reforms" that destroyed their wage base, stripped them of jobs, and forced millions into abject poverty, so the Chinese gov't could switch to a capitalist economy. Read 'The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein, it is a remarkable eye opener.

So the Iranaian people are protesting the outcome of the Presidential election. Let me put this in perspective: The Iranian Government hand counted millions of ballots, I read somewhere that the turnout was 65% of the population, here in the U.S., we're lucky to get 40% turnout, and after 3 hours of HAND COUNTING, the government declared the landslide victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinajad over his opponent, Mir Hossein Mousavi.

In the United States, it took a solid month, courtroom drama, and ultimately the Supreme Court to decide the election of 2000, that brought Bush into the White House. We all know how that turned out, perhaps we need the Iranian ultra smart state of the art ballot counting machine: the hand.

Seriously, I believe the Iranian election was hi-jacked by the Supreme Leader and the government. Ahmedinajad won by landslide numbers even in Mousavi's hometown where he polled in very high numbers. Mousavi is a reform candidate, and it appears the Iranian people want reform.


It is our duty as Americans to support their desire for an open, democratic government. That does not necessarily mean military intervention, so put away your guns and your ding-dongs, Americans, not everything has to be solved with force. The display of solidarity by the Iranians in the face of execution for demonstrating may be enough to topple the current regime, and if not totally topple, at least start putting chinks in the armour of the State. We can learn from this, and we need to revisit our own history and study again Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s manner of protest. Ditto with Ghandi.

It is time for a systemic change in the United States. It will come, albeit slowly, cause we are, after all, fat, dumb, and happy.

Peace-

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