the revolution will be ... denied.

the news out of iran of late is… no news is … no news.

our ‘twitterspys’ (live, actual twitters on the ground in iran) are pretty much underground, out of reach… silenced.  sporadic reports do occur, but for the most part it’s a lot of rehashing by those interested in #iranelection.  The posting (and immediate RT’s) of any news/article concerning iran.  lots of cross chatter among those that have become connected thru twitter via #iranelection.  We moan over the incredibly weak coverage of this serious issue … decrying the mass coverage of michael jackson in it’s stead.  but, in our heart of hearts, we know that it’s not really the media’s fault here.  it’s the iranian regime’s crackdown on any journalistic coverage that has stiffled any news.  but still, we want them to cover iran more.  and damn it, they should!

we can plainly tell the propaganda being spewed over there is just that… propaganda.  lies.  and still the jackboots patrol the streets. intimidating the populace.  this is a war against their own people, and we outsiders realize that this is a war they have to settle among themselves.  and we know that they will.  in time.  but we know that we may be wrong and the strength of the basij may be stronger than they can overcome.  we cannot help them, they are locked behind the ayatollah curtain.  it’s up to them to break the chains of their oppressors.  we pray they will.  we know they will.  but we don’t, not really.

meanwhile it’s all america’s fault.  or rather, america’s little brother, britain.  you have to have a good scapegoat to explain away your crimes and apparently britain is the bad guy (since the leaders really want to negotiate with obama, they aren’t going after the usa this time around).  there’s speeches by mad mullahs that some british agents in the embassy (that are actually iranian) are going to be tried (and hanged).  there’s strong indications that the european union is going to withdraw all their ambassadors.  that’s all of the eu.  that’s a lot of ambassadors.  and it is at least something we can do in protest to what is seen as a pure theft of the election process.  this is selection, not election.

meanwhile, we wait for the next morsel of hope from mossavi.  his position is very fragile.  to the point that some hardliner clerics are calling him a spy and demanding his head in a noose, along with the 20 or so that we’ve heard have suffered such a fate in evin prison (although that’s unconfirmed heresay, a function of the information crackdown… rumors run rampant and cannot be vetted).

our ‘view’ of the situation continues to dim.  our reliable sources have become fewer and fewer.  we fear for their well being.  we ‘know’ some are in prison.  we hear of the beatings and the ‘confessionals’ and we wonder… how long? how long will this insanity continue?  will it become the order of the day there? will it become commonplace?

and so it goes.  and so it goes.

the revolution will be bludgeoned...

it’s ‘official’.  ahmadi (ahmadinejad) has been formally declared the winner by the guardian council via their 10 percent recount.  assuming they actually even bothered to do any counting, they actually found 1 town that had even more votes for ahmadi.  yeah… right.

the dust up between the uk and tehran over diplomatic personnel has settled into a mexican (honduran?) standoff.  the eu (european union) is threatening to do a massive pull of the countries ambassadors en masse.

the twitter stream #iranelection got hammered by the great celeb death binge.  first farrah fawcett goes into that great love story deathbed in the sky … then the king of pop (yes, that king of pop) decides to forego the final concert and go straight to the top of the charts, the obit charts that is.  the resulting twitspike will be used as a comparative peak statistical value for … ever. the jacko value will be whispered among twitanalysts and twitarcheologists as a mystical, seismic data point, once in a lifetime, never to be equalled moment.  it took out google for god’s sake! google! Apparently the news media couldn’t handle the overload of walking and chewing gum (i.e. covering iran and jacko ‘at the same time’).  spooky how all news outlets dried up at once.  late to the party, billy mays here… well, no longer here actually. going to be a bit wierd seeing billy yelling at me late nights…  lately, i see dead celebs!

meanwhile, back in crazy-ville, err, tehran… the good twitters (@change_for_iran and @persiankiwi) were having difficult moments.  rumors ran rampant that @persiankiwi had been taken into custody, later reliable (?) sources say that no, he/she is fine, just without intranets.  reports of great howling anger from the tops of roofs (aluhu akbar!), a human chain of protesters getting roughed up for … being a human chain of protesters.  tehran’s central jail, evin prison, filled to the brim - and reports that 2 soccer (excuse me, football) stadiums being used as temporary prisons.

the major news outlets (cnn, fox, network news, pbs) have all gone into quiet mode on iran.  a few blurbs a day basically.  sad, really.  sad.

the net provides some interesting ‘human interest’ tales and a few reporters are doing their summations (roger cohen in particular).  even youtube has ‘dried up’.  you know it’s over when youtube dries up.

now it looks like its settling into grudging ‘acceptance’ by the green movement.  a retrenchment.  the hardliners may have forced their will upon the people, but … in the long run… this … rape of iran… will not stand.  it will be resented, resisted in ‘small’ ways.  quiet ways.  strikes and that sort of thing.  passive resistance.  at least that is what seems to be the ‘end game’.  the situation is still volatile and therefor any long term strategy analysis is, to say the least, ‘iffy’.  insert fog-of-war here.

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Iran Election vs. Michael Jackson Smackdown!

a microzen talking point...

there’s a LOT of folks complaining on twitter (and elsewhere, including the US Congressional Hallway Newsbite Forum) that Obama is ‘not doing enough’, that he is being ‘cowardly’ (NOT helping McCain!)

i’m here to defend our president’s actions (or inaction in this case).  there’s a time to be actively involved against your enemy (war), a time to be diplomatic against your enemy (near war) and a time to let the people of your enemy do the ‘talking’ (now).

“The World is Watching” Obama said originally. Just now (Saturday) the White House released this: “We call on the Iranian Government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The univeral rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.”

Of course, I have no doubt that even this strong statement will be percieved by the #tcot faction to be ‘not enough’.  hell, i get the impression that until we launch cruise missles (with or without nukes) into downtown Tehran it won’t be enough for the #tcots.  Seriously!

* (twitter translation: #tcot = hashtag for Top Conservatives on Twitter)

** (zenshadow translation: #tcot = hashtag for Top Conspiracist on Twitter)

Interesting Piece from Al Jazeera English (AJE) on "Citizen Journalists in Iran"