Iran... the world's first country

[fund razor]

What do you think? Will the internet and ridiculous social controls lead to a free Iran?

Kind of strange when elections go funky in Iran and 750,000 Iranians protest.... in Los Angeles.

[TCEd]

Some brave people in Iran these days.
ed

[Ratickle]

I don't think so. Too much control by the Ayatollah's.

Iran's an interesting study though. Had a prosperous period under a strict King/dictator.

Had a mess under a backwards religeous zealot.

Has a phony/trying to be real democracy under a goofy experiment to appease the masses. Now the masses are asking questions.

And next??????


Our official response has been somewhat less than measured, almost chicken. Even at that, they say we are meddling with the results.

[Ratickle]

Some brave people in Iran these days.
ed

Yep, but there were some in China a few years ago too. We also abandoned them and stood up for their government.

[Chris]

Too bad the dems convinced the mass of apolitical "what's-in-it-for-me's" to force the only people with the will to support something like this out of office. I suspect Obama will be calling Khameni and apologizing for our western influence causing upset in his country.

This is strangely reminiscent of Tianamen Square. While the uprising was put down, the seeds planted during that event certainly led to many reforms inside China. Iran is an example of a theocratic minority smothering the majority of the population that are democratically-minded. Too bad we don't have anyone in office that can help them get there.

[redhotsommer]

Yep, but there were some in China a few years ago too. We also abandoned them and stood up for their government.

And look how well THAT worked out for us...China is now buying us up from the inside AND threatening us on the outside.

Time for that third party, boys and girls. Oh...and TERM LIMITS.

[cigdaze]

It's apparent that The U.S. is losing its superpower status, and becoming an apologetic, spectator nation. The world complains when we say buy American, so we say sorry allow a huge deficit. China does the same thing yesterday, "Buy Chinese," and we we say good for you, with a pat on the back. U.N. fools cry climate change hysteria, and we say sorry and ruin our economy under the guise of eco-friendliness. Russia and China say F.U. and pollute more. Iran holds a mock election, and we cheer them on for their Democracy. Terrorists attack us, the world decries our "torture," so we let them go with an apology, and let them go.

[phragle]

My thoughts are a bit different I guess than most.

1. we are a sovereign nation, we need to worry about whats inside our borders.
2. I really don't care what goes on inside someone else's borders, if another country has a problem and ASKS for help, we have a process in place to vote to bail them out or not.
3. I nor my parents, nor my grandparents ever remember voting on a proposition to make the US the world's police dept.
4. we have one hell of a military, if we get out of their way. If you phuck with us, your country should pay the price. (unfortunately, a bunch of whiny do good soft azzed bleeding heart puzzies f'd this up)
.. the best example I can give is that after 9/11 we should have said to Afghanistan " you have one week to give us AL queda's top five heads on a stick. If not, on midnight of the 7th day, we carpet bomb your country into non-existence. no smart bombs, no targets of military importance.. we level it all, by the second week, there won't even be a sheep twitching. You really think anybody would be phucking with us after that?

We became a superpower, because we had the power to say "if you mess with us you DIE", we ceased to be a superpower when we said "if you mess with us, we might, at worst, give you a laser guided limp wristed ***** slap" or "gee whiz, we are at war, lets send the troops in to make make soccer fields and rec centers so you love us"

[Wobble]

What do you think? Will the internet and ridiculous social controls lead to a free Iran?

Kind of strange when elections go funky in Iran and 750,000 Iranians protest.... in Los Angeles.

I read that there was about 1 million(correction) in the country. Iran was avery cool place to visit and work before the revolution.

I hope things work out for the moderate majority.

[Chris]

Isolationism is a wonderful concept. Trouble is, without the imported oil and the billions of global customers for your products, our country plunges back to the mid-ninteenth century. We can feed ourselves and care for ourselves, but we're now back to doing those things- growing or raising our food and finding shelter. And alot of people are going to die from disease and starvation in the conversion process. So if we want to keep our cars, cellphones, laptops, grocery stores, doctors and so on, we have to worry about people upsetting the global flow of critical commodities (oil and a long list of other things) and we have to make sure the people that are or could be customers for our products are out there.

We're not dancing with China because we're so fond of them. We just don't want to fight a multi-trillion dollar cold war with them- a cold war that could turn hot and cripple the global economy for decades. We got lucky with the Soviets. And when it was done, we still hadn't grown anything other than a defense industry that we no longer needed. We don't particularly love S Korea. But the North upsets regional stability and that costs us money. We truly don't care about Iraq. But if we continually push back these Muslim fundamentalist governments, we bring stability to our "associates" in the region that sell us the oil that keeps everything rolling.

[TCEd]

I worked near Washington D.C. in 1979 and remember seeing the demonstrators in front of the White House with their "Down with the Shah" signs and paper face masks to hide their identity.
Unfortunatly that took a bad turn.
ed

[fund razor]

If memory serves, their sitting pres was one of the embassy hostage takers back then.

[TCEd]

If memory serves, their sitting pres was one of the embassy hostage takers back then.

Yup.
and H.Ross Perot got his EDS employees out of there. EDS was working the software for Iranian gov't. healthcare system ( may be off here) at the time.

Then there was the failed rescue when the copters went down in a dust storm.

and
the following Iran vs Iraq war which was brutal and we supported Iraq and one Sadam Hussien.
Funny world.
ed

[phragle]

this new guy they want to win..look him up..he is NOT the happy little reformist everyone thinks he is...

[Chris]

the following Iran vs Iraq war which was brutal and we supported Iraq and one Sadam Hussien.
Funny world.
ed

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Saddam sent a whole $hitload of Iranian kids and old men off to meet Allah.

[fund razor]

this new guy they want to win..look him up..he is NOT the happy little reformist everyone thinks he is...

The enemy of my enemy.... at work again? I got the impression that they objected to the process more than the candidate(s).

"Change"

[Dude! Sweet!]

Time for that third party, boys and girls. Oh...and TERM LIMITS.

Agree 100% with this... and hard, rational limits on campaign funding.

[Chris]

Time for that third party, boys and girls. Oh...and TERM LIMITS.

A third party would be great- if it weren't for that part in the Constitution that established the representative form of government and the Electoral College. All a legitimate third party can ever expect to do is split the College and send the election to the House to decide. Personally, I'd rather take one random Powerball winner every four years and give them the presidency than letting the House of Representatives choose the person. Remember, we're talking about the same group that chose Nancy Pelosi as their leader and third in line for the presidency.

And term limits? We have that on every elected office in the country- it's called vote them out. While term limits sound good on the surface, in some cases it does more harm than good. States without them end up getting the powerful Senators and Representatives that hold key positions and wield great influence- often to the benefit of their state.

[Dude! Sweet!]

C'mon Chis... Pelosi and Boxer are both professional politicians that do little to benefit anyone but themselves.

Are you really saying that term limits wouldn't push out the hyper wealthly professionals and afford an opportunity to people that more accurately represent the sectrum of the constituancy?

[Dude! Sweet!]

I mean don't get me wrong. I'm drunk as f u c k right now, but I'm guessing that the founders (of our country) didn't anticipate a national/global media that can spin anything and turn the govenance of our country into a televised popularity face-off between what turns into a propped up choice between the lesser of two evils...

Can't wait to see how this reads tomorrow.