Poem for Iran

NPR: Iran's National Poet Speaks Out On Recent Events In Her Country & Recites 2 Poems

June 28, Video from Iran

June 28 Iranians rally at Ghoba Mosque (also spelled Qoba) on Shariati Street, Tehran

Dust in Your Eyes (Song for Iran)

The Day in 100 Seconds

It is Thursday, Are we backing off our coverage from Iran?, No we are not., Iran again, the big story, the rallies continue, the story continues, uprising in Iran, absolutely crucial day, day of mourning, tens of thousands, dressed in black, mourning and marching, marching and grieving, huge numbers, still turning out, wearing black, Iranians have become the news and the journalists, led by the people, our eyes and ears on the ground, twitter, eyes and ears, twitter is getting a lot of attention, digital Davids fighting the theocratic Goliath (gotta love Diane Sawyer), twitter revolution, twitter sphere, tweets, frivolity, I like my corn flakes, brown sugar, life or death, why does twitter work, various servers, tweet via text message, harder to block, whack-a-mole, the shahs and these clerics, relatively older, social media, government trying to use technology, propaganda by tweets, fake tweets, incredible Jim, earthquake shaking this country, larger, embolden, no longer about an election, way beyond, cutting across all the traditional boundaries, rich, poor, religious, secular, conservative, reformist, legitimacy of the state is at stake, not just an election

Silent March: More protests in Iran

Yesterday in 100 Seconds

It is Tuesday, turns guns on the growing sea of protesters, Did President Obama's response go far enough?, He has to do this dance, walk this tightrope, President's tone, just right, deep concerns, very concerned, striking the perfect tone, greater openness, greater democracy, for the Iranian people to decide, Is that enough?, free and fair elections, Has he gone far enough?, Are you satisfied with what he said?, I'm really not, cause of freedom, American cannot be neutral, stand strongly, universal principle, people's voices should be heard, not suppressed, more forcefully denounce, quite forceful, violence, descent, being suppressed, Has he not done enough?, What more should he do?, given the history of U.S./Iranian relations, U.S. President meddling in Iranian elections, speak out, corrupt, flawed, sham of an election, it's not a good idea to meddle, election was a joke, fraud, shouldn't be silent, allow the Iranians to work out their situation, popular revolutions, from the people, opportunity to have an enemy, interfere, regime change, associate with President Bush, backfire, empathetic, show interest, don't interfere

Video: President Obama on Iran's election: '...people's voices should be heard, and not surpressed.'

Video: Iranian election aftermath, Richard Lugar and John McCain

Lugar v McCain? I pick Lugar.

He's my Senator and he's a reasonable, rational, thoughtful Republican. Lugar knows foreign policy. He's smart and wise.

The world needs a lot more Republicans of the caliber of Senator Dick Lugar (R-Indiana).

John McCain? Well. He's still a Senator you see. Nuff said.

From Think Progress:

HARRY SMITH: Beyond watching…beyond supporting the idea that these disputed votes should be recounted, is there anything the United States can do?

LUGAR: No. I think for the moment our position is to allow the Iranians to work out their situation. When popular revolutions occur, they come really from the people. They’re generated by people power within the country. For us to become heavily involved in the election at this point is to give the clergy an opportunity to have an enemy…and to use us, really, to retain their power.

Also, from Think Progress:

CARLSON: Senator, let me ask you this, because you said it’s important how we react. And to me that’s the most important part of this story today. How will the Obama administration react to this? Will they come out directly and say that this is unconscionable, that this can go on when they claim to be a democracy, or will they take an easier tact (sic) on it?

MCCAIN: Well, initial reports by, quote, administration officials, are that they say that they’re not going to change their policy of dialogue, et cetera, et cetera. I think they should be condemned, and it’s obvious that this was a rigged election and depriving the people of their democratic rights. We are for human rights all over the world.

Video: Riot Police Caught In Crowd Of Protesters

The kindness shown to the officer at the end of the video is quite touching.

Video: President Obama speaks on Iran while meeting with PM Berlusconi

From The White House Blog:

Q Mr. President, on Iran, does the disputed election results affect -- there's been violence in the street -- in any way change your willingness to meet with Mr. Ahmadinejad without preconditions? And also, do you have anything to say, any message to send to people who are on the streets protesting, who believe their votes were stolen and who are being attacked violently?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Obviously all of us have been watching the news from Iran. And I want to start off by being very clear that it is up to Iranians to make decisions about who Iran's leaders will be; that we respect Iranian sovereignty and want to avoid the United States being the issue inside of Iran, which sometimes the United States can be a handy political football -- or discussions with the United States.

Having said all that, I am deeply troubled by the violence that I've been seeing on television. I think that the democratic process -- free speech, the ability of people to peacefully dissent -- all those are universal values and need to be respected. And whenever I see violence perpetrated on people who are peacefully dissenting, and whenever the American people see that, I think they're, rightfully, troubled.

My understanding is, is that the Iranian government says that they are going to look into irregularities that have taken place. We weren’t on the ground, we did not have observers there, we did not have international observers on hand, so I can't state definitively one way or another what happened with respect to the election. But what I can say is that there appears to be a sense on the part of people who were so hopeful and so engaged and so committed to democracy who now feel betrayed. And I think it's important that, moving forward, whatever investigations take place are done in a way that is not resulting in bloodshed and is not resulting in people being stifled in expressing their views.

Now, with respect to the United States and our interactions with Iran, I've always believed that as odious as I consider some of President Ahmadinejad's statements, as deep as the differences that exist between the United States and Iran on a range of core issues, that the use of tough, hard-headed diplomacy -- diplomacy with no illusions about Iran and the nature of the differences between our two countries -- is critical when it comes to pursuing a core set of our national security interests, specifically, making sure that we are not seeing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East triggered by Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon; making sure that Iran is not exporting terrorist activity. Those are core interests not just to the United States but I think to a peaceful world in general.

We will continue to pursue a tough, direct dialogue between our two countries, and we'll see where it takes us. But even as we do so, I think it would be wrong for me to be silent about what we've seen on the television over the last few days. And what I would say to those people who put so much hope and energy and optimism into the political process, I would say to them that the world is watching and inspired by their participation, regardless of what the ultimate outcome of the election was. And they should know that the world is watching.

And particularly to the youth of Iran, I want them to know that we in the United States do not want to make any decisions for the Iranians, but we do believe that the Iranian people and their voices should be heard and respected.

The Day in 100 Seconds

It is Monday, Was the Iran election a fraud?, Protests in Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's big win, Surprise! Surprise!, not about the voting, about the counting, fraud, cooked the outcome, Iranian Democracy, peculiar exercise, disquieting, it's really a sham, massive rally, look at this crowd, Mousavi, Hossein Mousavi, there he is, the man of the hour, supreme leader, investigation, allegations of fraud, that's big, slow-moving military coup, gradual militarization, revolutionary guard, mullahs in the background, pulling the strings, gun shots, a protester is dead, Tehran, protests more violent, out of hand, moderates not being willing to 'go away', not going to give up, whatever it takes to stay in power

Video: Shooting during Iranian Protests

source: TPM

This video shows one of those wounded during today's demonstrations in Iran at Freedom Square, according to McClatchy.

Mousavi addresses a crowd of his supporters in Tehran on June 15.

Iran's 'Michelle Obama': Iranian President Ahmadinejad may have stiff competition

Pretty interesting, encouraging and inspiring. Ahmadinejad's challenger in the Iranian presidential race has seen his wife become extremely popular, being named Iran's 'Michelle Obama'.

TEHRAN — Campaigning alongside her husband in the presidential elections, Zahra Rahnavard, the wife of Hossein Mousavi, is seen by many Iranians as the local version of Michelle, the wife of US President Barack Obama.

"We look at her and we say, 'we want to be like her in the future,' " Shakiba Shakerhosseie, one of 12,000 people who recently packed Tehran's Azadi (Freedom) stadium to hear Rahnavard, told CNN on Sunday, May 24.

Since her husband unveiled his presidential bid, the mother of three has attended most of his rallies. source: IslamOnline.Net