Showing posts with label Iranian protests. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iranian protests. Show all posts

6/22/09

Neocons Are Clueless About Iran

Peacenik hoped that by the time Peacenik got back from the wilderness Iran would have a new regime. But the situation is still muddled. The protests continue. And Peacenik continues to think there is a chance there will be a positive outcome. A new regime.

Peacenik sees Punditman has a new poll. Before Peacenik's trip to the wilderness Peacenik probably would have selected number two. Peacenik was feeling upbeat. But Peacenik discovered something frightening while Peacenik was harvesting mushrooms and leeks. The bottom of the food chain has disappeared. That's right there were no mosquitoes in the wilderness. Peacenik has rarely sensed a more ominous development. Peacenik never used to worry about the food chain. Now Peacenik is very worried and it feels this morning like number 4 is the only choice for Peacenik in Punditman's poll.

By Leslie Savan, The Nation. Posted June 22, 2009.

The Iran protests have thrown Republican ideologues into such a tizzy of circular logic that they're stepping on their own propaganda.

The democracy movement in Iran has thrown Republican ideologues into such a tizzy of circular logic that they're stepping on their own dicta.

Neocons and hardliners may be as eager as ever to bomb-bomb-bomb, bomb bomb Iran, but are restrained this time out by the feeling that they must support Iran's courageous protesters. After all, the Twittering Green Revolutionaries, as the rightwing brain sees it, are marching in the name of George W. Bush's own vision of a "democratic Middle East," the same vision that led him to occupy Iran's next-door neighbor. ("That's not meddling at all," says conservative conventional wisdom poobah Fred Barnes. "That's supporting the people who see America as a model that they like to emulate.") Yet at the same time, the GOP worries about the meaning of an eventual Mousavi victory in the streets -- neocons in particular have openly hoped for Ahmadinejad's survival, for fear that a more reasonable face on the Islamic Revolution might preclude future opportunities for either us or Israel to bomb Iran back to the 7th Century (where Ahmadinejad would like to take his country anyway).

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6/17/09

Bracing for New Protests, Iran Issues Media Warning

Does anyone think that world governments aren't watching and taking notes about how the Iranian protests play out. The Internet and cell phones are playing a huge role in keeping the protests going.

Peacenik thinks this bodes very badly for the future of an open Internet. Twitter has become a revolutionary tool. As has texting. Controlling and shutting down Twitter and texting will be part of supressing the protests. How free is the Internet? How easy would it be to shut it down? How secure is it? Peacenik thinks the days of access to things like Twitter and texting may be numbered. And not just in Iran. Peacenik is reading up on smoke signals and carrier pigeons.

Bracing for New Protests, Iran Issues Media Warning

By NAZILA FATHI and ALAN COWELL
Published: June 17, 2009

TEHRAN — In face of a growing official campaign to disrupt channels of dissent with arrests and restrictions, Tehran braced for a third day of defiance by opposition supporters on Wednesday after Iran’s leaders failed to halt huge demonstrations against last week’s disputed election results.

Placed on the defensive by the biggest demonstrations since the Islamic revolution in 1979, the authorities on Tuesday offered a concession to the sustained rage here, saying they would allow a limited recount of the vote — an offer that was resoundingly rejected.

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