I'm really curious to see if it'll turn into a full fledged revolution. But it's really too bad that there's needless bloodshed.

For freedom blood will always need to be spilled. Too bad the protest are cooling down and when they do start the riot police just disbanded before it starts.

Fuck no, why should blood be spilled because somebody automatically granted authority over a fuckload of people and decided to oppress them for one reason or another? If anything, the only blood that should be spilled here is either Ahmadinejad's and/or Khameni's(preferably Khameni's since he is behind this entire authoritarian system).

wow that post is not only self refuting, it is also pretty hateful and retarded

nah fuck them their heads should be on pikes in the town square

yeah if it wasnt already obvious it is clear now that khameni is a corrupt tyrannical motherfucker and it doesnt really matter who the president is in iran because khameni will bend them over backwards and assfuck them until they literally act as a vocal piece for the announcement and implementation his more controversial policies that hed rather not have associated directly with himself

in other words hes a pig but I'm gonna leave it at that because I'm not an expert on political science and I cant really comment on how he has perverted the mechanisms of the islamic republic in any too specific way

oh also heres a sweet news story

http://thesportsbizblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/protesting-iranian-soccer-players.html

captain of team melli banned for life, I dont think thats gonna go over well

yep this is gonna snowball

it looks like they just don't care at this point and are doing purposefully retarded shit left and right

well I dont know, the situation is still very murky

for instance, Mousavi and Karroubi called for a big protest outside of the Majles today and it didnt happen because the riotpolice were so successful in dispersing the demonstrators and as far as I can tell there were actually no deaths today, though the insane amount of arrests has continued. so if the police and the army succesfully manage to keep large groups of people from forming without killing people, the opposition is going to have a hard time getting anything done heh

and also I'm not sure whats going down yet but Mousavi openly criticized Rafsanjani and Larijani in parliament today, but I couldnt really tell what about exactly, fuckin islamic republic newspeak is impossibly dense and full of archaic terms that arent in my dictionary

    I have actually been quite surprised at the restraint shown by the government.  Granted, the news has been somewhat difficult to interpret, but interesting nonetheless. (somewhat reminiscent of the Shah's reaction to mass protests, of course with a completely different military situation)  Does it imply that Khameni (and his supporters) believe that the protesters are a threat, or just the opposite?  Furthermore it most assuredly means that there has been a great deal of dealing behind the scenes.  (in other words, everything has not been just decided, like Khameni wants everyone to believe)  In my view, the protests are somewhat insignifigant. (from an immediate political perspective)  What I really want to know is Rafsanjani's angle, since he appears to be the key man in all of this. 

well I'm not all too surprised by the governments actions to be honest, they are all either children or builders of the islamic revolution and especially for the current ones in charge, I'm sure the lessons of that upheaval have not been forgotten. this is why you have not seen anything that could be considered a massacre yet. I'm pretty sure that Khameni only sees the protestors as a threat in that they are just a nuisance and that they will have to be dealt with carefully but in his perfect scenario I'm sure hed put the opposition down ruthlessly, but since theres you know foreign pressure and the current diplomatic stance that iran currently has found itself in to be taken into account and of course the unpredictable nature of the backlash to that sort of thing as well. so I'd say he probably doesnt find much of a threat in large organized but peaceful demonstrations, but I'd say they certainly aggravate him and represent a kind of stumbling block. however he doesnt want the protests to become too large or become violent certainly, because then it would be impossible not to have to deal with them heavy handedly

but yeah, I dont think anyone other than rafsanjani and the people hes been talking to know much at all about what hes been up to.

its also worth mentioning I think that it doesnt seem that the people in Iran outside the cities have much of an idea whats going on at all really. It seems that outside of Tehran, Mashhad, Tabriz and Esfahan (the major centers of unrest) the focal point of demonstrations are at universities, which tend to be concentrated in the cities, and so there hasnt been much of anything going on in the countryside other than maybe people going to the cities, but given the news blackout and all the restrictions on satellite tv and the internet, I'd imagine that even the people in the cities dont know whats going on in other cities for the most part, so the whole situation is really all over the place because theres a real bottleneck on communication. however, those who do have internet access, which seems to be a shitload of people in tehran still, they know whats up and thats how we get all those videos on youtube and all the twitter and shit obviously, but its interesting to note that more or less all the videos and tweets and other info we're getting here in the west is coming almost exclusively from tehran heh

so who knows... but I will say this, today was a very quiet day as far as demonstrations are concerned. each day brings a new twist though, so maybe what happened in the majles today will come to light tomorrow I have no idea lol

    You could argue that the protesters themselves lack direction and specific goals, (its a rather sizable chunk of the "urban" population, one would expect diffuse and vague views from such a large group) but the leaders behind the scenes seem to be aiming for more subtle results.  Many of the leaders are powerful men in their own right and have their own bases to challenge Khameni from.  Rafsanjani in particular is very wealthy, very well connected, and has a lot at stake, although I assume his immediate goals are to be found in unspoken arrangements.  (Mousavi is harder to gauge, but in many ways less important to the current situation, at least in my own, somewhat clouded, view)

hooooooooooooooooly shit.... this mornings headline:

میرحسین موسوی در حبس خانگی است

"Mir Hossein Mousavi under house arrest"

lots of news stories flashing through when I got up this morning, and judging by the content of their headlines and meta-tags today is going to be a crazy day lol

    Yea thats pretty crazy, but not totally unexpected.  Mousavi has put himself out there and I would not be surprised if he is sacrificed in the making of a deal.  (of course, he could be "rehabilitated"  or  he could be being held "hostage,"  either way, the protesters will not be consulted in any meaningful way)

    Yea thats pretty crazy, but not totally unexpected.  Mousavi has put himself out there and I would not be surprised if he is sacrificed in the making of a deal.  (of course, he could be "rehabilitated"  or  he could be being held "hostage,"  either way, the protesters will not be consulted in any meaningful way)

the official reason given is that 'its for his protection' and hes still giving statements, today he released his 7th manifesto or declaration or whatever you want to call them

but you raise an interesting point on the motives for such action, and it is entirely possible that it is part of a secret deal that hasnt come to light yet heh. I'm about to start actually reading the articles (I dont translate anything too big until I've had breakfast and a joint otherwise I get a headache real bad lol)

    Yea, I'm not going to translate anything like that today.  It just depresses me. (its a lot of work, just to get depressed)  If I want to translate something I will stick to Bal'ami or Sa'di or something like that.  (at least for today)

ah

فارسی بلد هستید؟

also russia has cut off its support of irans nuclear power plant saying that 'the security situation and amount of civil political unrest in iran is not favourable to the construction/establishment of a nuclear power program and we are withdrawing our support until the situation stabilizes'

.کمی بلد باشم. حتما فارسیم از عربیم بهتر است

    Yea thats kind of interesting, (could easily get much more interesting in the coming weeks) but it's probably just some more political maneuvering.  Everyone is always trying to get some sort of advantage, especially if there are going to be some realignments in the Islamic Republic. 

yeah, one thing I find rather disconcerting actually is that ahmadinejad has been criticizing obama, telling him not to meddle in irans affairs and saying that if he continues making statements like those that he has been making, the people in iran will see him no differently than bush. I get a couple things out of this: 1) ahmadinejad is off his rocker,  2) he knows something I dont, 3) the cia is more involved than anyone is letting on

of those, the most likely is the first lol because obama has actually handled the situation very well in my opinion other than the comment that mousavi and ahmadinejad aren't too dissimilar but yeah, minor shit. I think Ahmadinejad is reacting to obama's comments on the violent supression of protests that happened last week, but honestly I like Obamas approach so far, the distance he is keeping is appropriate

از کجا فارسی را یاد گرفتید؟

 معمولا من ایرانی نیستم اما برای سالی در دانشگاه ایالت اوهایو فارسی را خوانده ام

    In general, I like the way Obama has handled the situation.  But, the American presidency has been avenue of easy and pretty much free support for Ahmedinezhad he cannot turn away from it now, just because the president has changed, heh.  Moreover, the CIA is probably involved at some level and even if they aren’t it would be extremely easy to convince most people that they are; for Ahmedinezhad’s purposes, that perception is more important. 

 .به دانشگاۀ رتگرس و دانشگاۀ نیو جرسی وکمی دانشگاۀ پرینستن درس خوانده ام
(it was a weird inter-university program that turned out to be awesome, yea I very much considered Ohio State for grad school, but it fell through on the money end of things and now I’m headed to the University of Chicago)