Iran: Where is my Vote?

[Alluveal]

Here is a letter that was sent out to a non-Iranian media source (my journalist friend nabbed it.) It's from an Iranian comic she knows who does shows all over the Middle East. Pretty interesting stuff.

Dear Friends,

The recent events in Iran have had me glued to the TV, the internet and anything else that can give me updates on what is going on in the country of my birth. When I was 6 years old in Iran, the revolution of '78-'79 happened. I remember having to have our lights off by a certain time for curfew and how the police would drive by and flash their lights into our homes to make sure we weren't causing any trouble. I also remember one time running into our basement when we heard gunfire coming form a protest close to our home. At the time I was a kid and had no idea what was going on. I just thought it was cool to be hanging with my mom and family in the dark in the basement. For a 6 year old it was an adventure - like being in the Bat Cave.

30 years later I am being bombarded with images and clips from the protests in Iran that remind me of my youth. As someone who is not in the country and watching from overseas I must say that I am emboldened by what the people of Iran are doing these days. No proof has come out to show that the election was actually stolen, but the obvious signs do point to voter fraud. In breaking it down on some of my shows I've been saying that it seems in a country of 70 million people, Ahmadinejad got 75 million votes. Voter fraud? Divine intervention? You be the judge.

Anyway, I am writing this e-mail to express my solidarity with those within the country struggling to have their voices heard and their votes counted. It has been too long that the people of Iran have had to live like 5 year olds being monitored by "adults" who tell them what to wear, how to act and what they can and cannot do. The last time I was in Iran was just over 10 years ago and I remember leaving my mother country feeling depressed. I remember coming back to the US and making sure I appreciated the freedoms that we have here. I remember thinking that the people of the world should be guaranteed these basic freedoms which do not exist in Iran.



I hope that you will keep this struggle in your mind and support them in any way you can. I have changed the image on all my facebook and myspace accounts to the image attached here. Please do support by at least using this image on your facebook and myspace pages. I also know that many peaceful rallies are taking place around the world in support of this movement. If you have the time please do join in these marches.

Last, but not least here are a few links that I found interesting and helpful:

1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oM6l9PO6Yo

This one comes from Iran where at night the reformists are yelling "God is Great" in support of the movement. The woman speaking on the video breaks down towards the end and she keeps asking "where is this?" Responding to herself "This is my country Iran." It's actually very moving if you can have a farsi speaking friend translate.

2) http://therealnews.com/t/index.php?opti ... mival=3869

This one is a Brazilian expert on Iran who breaks the situation down very well.

3) http://www.myspace.com/revolutionofthemindhiphop

This last one is a song that a friend of mine put together. It has some explicit lyrics, but I hope you enjoy.


All the best,


Maz Jobrani

[Kulaf]

P.S. You're acting like a douche. Kulaf? We'll, he's always been.

Just trying to help......I know that sand in your vagina can't feel very nice.

[Fallakin Kuvari]

Looks like things are starting to turn more violent, unfortunately.

Twitter feed suggests that some police/army forces refuse to open fire on people, some are. "Hundreds of Causalities" being reported by Iranian Hospitals.

I think the most discomforting news is that of the Suicide bomber.

Things may be taking a swing for the worst over there, doubt Ayatollah shows his face out in public again until its stamped out.

[Kulaf]

The Ayatollah really has nothing to fear. No one is attempting to overthrow the notion of an islamic republic. Now Ahmadinejad might have something to fear.....however he is batshit crazy enough not to care.

[Alluveal]

I think the Ayatollah definitely has something to fear. The people want certain freedoms; they want fairness, etc. Didn't the Ayatollah basically tell them to all go back inside "or else?" Seems he's flexing his muscles a bit as well.

[Fallakin Kuvari]

Ayatollah absolutely has something to fear. He's flexing his muscles and telling the people to stop protesting or suffer the consequences.

[Harlowe]

I'd rather be a parrot on Lurker's shoulder than have my head lodged firmly up my ass.

Perhaps both Lurker and Harlowe need to widen their news reading if they really never heard of intimidation affecting voting in Iran?

Dd

We're talking about this election, not historically. Where have you heard it happening in THIS election is what I asked.

[Kulaf]

Ok when you said he wouldn't show his face in public I assumed you meant he would fear for his life.....i.e. assasination. Can I now assume that was just a poor choice of words?

[Kulaf]

I'd rather be a parrot on Lurker's shoulder than have my head lodged firmly up my ass.

Well lucky for you you can have your cake AND eat it too!

[Harlowe]

I'll stick with parrot, I wouldn't want to horn in on your area of expertise.

[Kulaf]

Since the election you've been the Political Rants equivilent of the big black guy from Trading Place.....

YEAH!

[Fallakin Kuvari]

Ok when you said he wouldn't show his face in public I assumed you meant he would fear for his life.....i.e. assasination. Can I now assume that was just a poor choice of words?

If they want to kill him, they will bum-rush him at his residence and perform a repeat of the French Revolution.

I expect he won't show his face, not for the fear of his life, but things are unraveling and its much wiser for him to stay in and take extra precautions.

[Ddrak]

Then you'll have no problem providing stories about massive amounts of people who voted for Ahmadinejad or failed to vote for the opposition because of a fear of reprisal. You're confusing the fear of reprisal from the hardliners over the protests with a fear of reprisal during the election.

There's some out there, but I'd hardly expect them to be that interesting to the pulp fiction US media just now when there's "zomg protests, zomg violence" making much bigger headlines. Listening to the callers on Radio Free Europe is showing at least one in five giving stories of voting for Ahmadinejad and changing their mind post-election given his behavior since then. I advise you to tune in sometime.

Simple fact is I made the statement that a recount is very likely to show the exact same thing as the first counting.

If there was ballot box stuffing then obviously so. What that has to do with Hussein getting elected, or Bush getting elected in 2004 because Americans were afraid, or fear of reprisal from the army during the election which wasn't a noticible factor this election - the examples you used... no clue.

My position has always been that a recount won't achieve anything. Are you suggesting a recount would have made a difference in Iraq or the US, because that's the limit of my examples? Of course there's very limited parallels between Iran and Iraq, but in the specific case I'm talking about the analogy stands: a recount wouldn't achieve a damn thing (and Khamenei knows it so expect him to relent and allow one).

On the vote count and turnout percentages, as you said there are many ways to tamper with peoples voting. It's possible ballots were swapped instead of added. It's possible only the percentage going to each candidate was altered and not the totals. All reporting during the election indicated that turnout was huge this year and that reporting wasn't relying on the final counts.

60-70% is a huge turnout for Iran (for any nation actually). 85% is just stupid - almost the only way you get numbers that high in any nation is coercion.

You do realize that news reporting from Iran is heavily filtered, right?

You do realize that there's a lot of unfiltered information pouring out of Iran, right? And that someone in the opposition would have mentioned that the election was pushed to Ahmadinejad through the use of fear and intimidation if that's what had happened, right? The allegations were made in 2005 but not this year, and people were watching for it.

There's a lot of unfiltered information but the mass media isn't picking up the nuances because it's not sexy enough. There's plenty of allegations of pressure from the hardliners in attempts to affect the vote - I'm not sure what else you'd call the beatings of Mousavi's supporters prior to the election. Friendly rivalry perhaps?

I still read Nate. He's awesome, but his "hunch" about intimidation causing people to abstain from voting (based on non-responders to a poll a month before the election) is hardly proof. He's admitted he knows nothing about Iran and is leaving everything but statistical analysis to the experts.

Except he sourced his "hunch" just fine. I wasn't posting "proof" anyway - I was countering the ignorant statement that there had been no reports of any intimidation or fear based politics in Iran prior to the election.

You're acting like a douche.

Uh, only because you started it. I make a statement about recounts not changing the result, giving a perfectly good example of another situation where recounts wouldn't have changed anything. You knew damn well I was right and launched into a tirade about me making analogies where they didn't fit and then tried to say I was making the same analogy over and over where I clearly wasn't. The analogy fit perfectly where I used it and when asked to back up claims that fear was a motivator in the election I did so. Now you roll into trying to say I said fear was the *only* motivator and then call me a "douche" for no particular reason? Sorry, sir, but the douchery in this is all on your side.

If you quit trying to read things into my posts that aren't there, then attacking me on those fabrications then perhaps I won't "act like a douche" to you any more?

Dd

[Lurker]

My position has always been that a recount won't achieve anything.

Well, if you had said that at the start we could have avoided an argument because we agree. I thought your position was that fear won the election for Ahmadinejad because you used three 'fear' examples when I asked what you meant.

I called you a douche because you took what was a civil discussion and turned it into... well... I guess you used typical language and tone for the boards, so nevermind. Heh.

Now go have a nice first Father's Day, douche.

[Ddrak]

I thought your position was that fear won the election for Ahmadinejad because you used three 'fear' examples when I asked what you meant.

I was surprised on further investigation just how rigged the voting appears to be. I mean seriously...

Now go have a nice first Father's Day, douche.

Sadly, not until September. Australia is weird and does it differently.

Dd

[Select]

Kinda like how the toilets flush the other way...

[Mukik]

Select,

I hate to dissapoint you but their toilets dont 'swirl' its like a straight down or in flush move. Quite dissappointing , really . to travel so far and not see it. New Zealand was the same way :\
http://www.squidoo.com/toiletflushdirection

[Select]

I wondered if it was a myth. Ah, well.

[Ddrak]

Given we don't fill our toilets up with more than a few inches of water here, it's a moot point anyway.

Dd

[Garrdor]

I fill my toilet up with a foot of water, to accomodate the 3 1/2 pounds of fecal I produce from my asshole.

GOD I LOVE BEING AN AMERICAN (brb Big Mac attack... BOYEEEEEEEEEEEEEE)