Time fer sum quote boxin'!
Yes, the numbers look fishy, but as I said that is not the same thing as fucking proof.
It isn't just the numbers presented, but how they were presented. Overseas ballots weren't flown out before the results were reported, Karroubi lost his home province, Rezaee's vote count went
down during counting, and the count itself was twice as fast as 2005.
It was like saying "No worries, we counted the votes before election day!"
The numbers mostly don't add up to Mousavi supporters, who are angry, angry, angry that their guy didn't win.
... And had their faces beaten in for saying otherwise. The immediate shutdown of communications, presence of force, and blocking of foreign journalists was amateur hour for the leadership.
Populations around the world have their candidates lose all the time. They don't, however, have such a terrifying collection of absurdities and abuses thrust on them in such quick succession. A response such as we have seen appears more logical by the hour.
But not one of them can provide actual evidence of what they claim.
Funnily enough, neither can the government.
And it also comes down to a bunch of western media outlets trying to control a narrative
The Western media, over the weekend, had done a damned fine job of ignoring the dispute, and even today labels one the winner and one the loser, despite mass pleas from Iranians to temper their conclusions.
Ahmadinejad was popular.
More so than this week, to say the least. The articles also happen to clash with one another. The foreign phone poll in the first article doesn't match up with the domestic phone poll in the last article, which is dismissed due to calls being 'difficult in the country'. Cute. The sample time from the first, from May 11th to May 20th, is also not conclusive, as the surge in support (and crowds) for Mousavi's campaign came in the last month. They also claim that polling by the government can never be trusted, and yet backup the alleged vote count.
The second article is a fun collection half-truths. It laments on and on about 'Iran experts', and yet immediately asks of the reader to trust the authors, who admit to there being vote tampering all over the country. Then it boasts Ahmadinejad's 'final' victory in 2005 as proof he has been popular. Final victory, you ask? You see, in 2005, then mayor of Tehran Ahmadinejad wasn't
that popular. He had two opponents leading him, and during the runoff election, he pulled ahead due to the opponents of one voting for him to spite the other. The poll from the first article is referenced, and then voting trends from Mousavi's district are thrown out, claiming that an expected win there was 'not grounded in reality'. Oh, OK.
Further, the article claims that in comparison to the clustertastrophe that was the 2000 United States Election, this one looks good. Super. Glad they have the hard numbers to backup such an assessment, because the collateral damage looks far worse. Lastly, the authors attempt a wrap-up by claiming that Obama should 'get serious' with Iran. Ooooook, good to know.
The third article is fine, but could be speaking for the minority.
it's not like the Iranians would have been voting in a sham election for a relatively powerless figurehead in the first place.
They would have been. Now? The blowback has gone further than the leadership contemplated. Calls for Khamenei to step down are circulating, which is in itself some crazy shit, mang.
Good for Westerners, who are all clearly quite versed on Iranian culture and politics.
Well, yes. The talking heads brought out have either been born in Iran, lived in Iran, studied Iran, or worked against Iran. The country isn't exactly a cypher. We have 750,000 of its former residents living in our own country.
One million, Arc? You want to back that up? Nearly every source I'm reading says that 100,000 marched in Tehran.
Police were reporting to journalists even higher numbers, and I see now every headline carries 'hundreds of thousands' in the title. Outside of the highly planned inauguration, our own President never attracted such a large gathering. That's power that doesn't just slump away and disappear.
Ahmadinejad has 'fled' the country, Khamenei has backpedaled and called for an investigation, and a bullshit recount has been enacted while further crackdowns on the media ramp up. Fun in the sun.