Elections Central

Five days after the Iranian election and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better in Tehran. The one thing you have to like though is hundreds of thousands of people taking to the street protesting which is obviously a pillar of free-speech and democracy. Of course the Tiananmen Square government response is much more a pillar of a repressive anti-democratic society.

What is the most disturbing about the process is obviously that although there were supposed to be ‘free elections’ all candidates had to be approved by the Grand Ayatolla. Just imagine the uproar you would have in the USA if you a group of self-centered judges make decisions on who can run in a competition like American Idol or worse yet imagine executives at MTV would decide in secret who the candidates would be to have a chance to win a little Spaceman statue for ‘best kiss’. We would be protesting in the street, turning over cars and burning children cause this is America and we get freedom you can’t find in a truck commercial or a Mellencamp song.

But we are talking about a secretive regime like Iran and we are going to have guys counting hanging chads for the next three months in a disputed election as their government starts hiding from the media and it wouldn’t be surprised if the conservative candidate doesn’t take this as he’s got the supreme leader courted. Then I could see him invading a middle-east country under false pretenses like securing his country, and maybe even add some interrogation techniques to get some dissidents to talk and then have a strong reaction when Hamas wins in a Palestinian’s election. He will probably infuriate a number of Arab Muslim’s in what will be seen as a way to try to secure land and oil in the Middle East. You can see his support in his own country start to dwindle and start to match that of the rest of the word as he will continue to implement domestic policy with signing statements that contradict the law as written but be defended by the right-wing media which will be in his pocket

The only good news is that in 8 years maybe a voice will come out with a name like John Smith who everybody will accuse of being a secret American who will win an improbably victory against a host of party establishments including the wife of Moussavi who he will then make Secretary of Fashion

Then we can all watch Groundhog Day in Farsi