Ron Paul who is the last remaining true Republican (Because the Libertarians are now closer to what Republicans once were than today's Republicans are) made the sole vote in opposition of meddling in the affairs of another sovereign nation.

The last thing we need is history repeating itself again.

Or re-repeating itself again.

That's odd... I don't have that forum listed. I can access it via the URL, but it doesn't appear on my forum page at all.

Iranian student at SMU: ‘I get bad news every day’
By Nolan Rosenkrans / nolan.rosenkrans@lee.net
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If Khashayar Zainali was home in Tehran, Iran, he would be in the streets, demanding his voice be heard and that violence against protesters stop. Instead, the Saint Mary’s University student is in the Twin Cities, taking summer courses in the university’s master’s program.

Hundreds of thousands of Zainali’s countrymen have flooded the streets of Tehran and other cities after the June 12 presidential elections. Supporters of challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi insist hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s landslide victory was a fraud.
Much of Zainali’s family is in Tehran, where many of the largest demonstrations have taken place, as have the most violent crackdowns. Foreign journalists are being arrested or blocked from reporting, so Zainali has been forced to find updates about his home through social media Web sites and family members.

“I am worried,” he said. “I’m always contacting (my family); I get bad news every day. Everybody is in danger, even ordinary people who don’t take place in the demonstrations.”

Zainali lived in Tehran for 13 years. He moved there from the western part of Iran to study and find work. He came to Winona in January 2008 to study international business.

Zainali didn’t vote this year. He rejects the whole Iranian political system, in which religious leaders hold ultimate power despite a democratically elected president. Zainali is Muslim, but he believes in separation between church and state. More than anything, he wants an end to the violence and oppression against those that speak out against what they see as a country run by a religious dictatorship.

“It’s beyond the election now,” he said. “It’s become a human rights issue.”

The danger to protesters are real. Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami, a ranking cleric in Iran, urged that protest leaders to be punished ``without mercy’’ and said some should be killed.

“Anyone who takes up arms to fight with the people, they are worthy of execution,’’ Khatami said in a nationally broadcast sermon at Tehran University.

Since the election, opposition protesters repeatedly have clashed with security forces who arrested hundreds of people, including journalists, academics and university students. At least 17 people have been killed, in addition to eight members of the pro-government Basij militia, officials have said.

After graduating from Saint Mary’s, Zainali plans to return home. He expects to be questioned by authorities, as Iranians who return from America are looked at with suspicion, he said. In the meantime, he would like to see the people and governments of democratic countries speak out against the violence. Foreign ministers of the Group of Eight countries called for an end to the violence Friday, and President Barack Obama called the Iranian government’s actions “outrageous.”

“We started fighting against dictators 100 years ago,” Zainali said. “We have always been looking for freedom and democracy.”
http://winonadailynews.com/articles/2009/06/27/news/00lead.txt

UW-L grad breaking the silence in Iran
By RYAN STOTTS | rstotts@lacrossetribune.com

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A University of Wisconsin-La Crosse graduate now living and working in Tehran is breaking through the government-imposed silence in Iran.

The communication crackdown has followed the violence and political unrest in the wake of Iran’s contentious June 12 presidential elections.
The silence, insiders claim, is an imposed one — the Internet is slower, e-mail and Facebook pages are rumored to be under the eye of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government. Paranoia abounds that Web traffic and phone calls are being monitored.

“Joe,” who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said blogging, posting videos of protests and beatings, taking part in and recruiting for protests are all considered illegal to Ahmadinejad — whose claim to victory over challenger Mir-Hossein Moussavi is hotly disputed.

The country is now in what he calls a “nonofficial police state.”

“(The) political climate is very difficult to figure out,” he said. “Censorship and government controlled media doesn’t help figuring out what is happening, but it does confirm that things are not good. And it is clear that there is a rift within the government factions which have always been pretty united since the 1978 revolution.”

In the first few days following the elections, Joe said, people were OK with a recount. But for two weeks the Interior Ministry held onto the ballot boxes unguarded.

“They have probably changed everything so a recount wouldn’t change anything,” he said.

Joe joined many others in the streets of Tehran, Iran’s capital and largest city, to protest the elections, and he said he’s been chased by police and shot at.

But it hasn’t all been violent.

“Monday, June 15, was probably one of the most peaceful protests I have ever seen or heard,” Joe said.

During the “quiet walk” from Enghelab (Revolution) Square to Azadi (Freedom) Square — almost 5 miles — protesters included infants carried by their parents to the elderly who could hardly walk. They simply held up their hands and green ribbons, the signature color of protest, he said.

It’s unclear the number of people killed and incarcerated during the protests, he said, but the son of one of Joe’s friends was arrested and went missing for at least five days. When he was finally released, Joe said, he had been beaten.

“Beating and mistreating him,” Joe said. “All because he went out to the street and asked for what is his right.”

Joe found himself supporting Moussavi because of his disillusionment with Ahmadinejad.

“Back when he came to office my family businesses had 250 employees,” Joe said. “Now we are down to 110 and everybody I know in industrial or agricultural work has gone through similar or worse job cuts.”

Joe also opposed Ahmadinejad’s “fascist comments and lack of manners and ridiculous comments.”

In the two or three weeks leading up to the elections, Joe said, Moussavi began to look like “something more than just a way to get rid of Ahmadinejad.”

“One of my reasons to decide that I wanted to vote for Mr. Moussavi was the fact that he had handled the country before in its biggest crisis and worst time, while we were at war and (had) serious embargoes,” Joe said. “He is also a very honest man and nobody has ever been able to even relate him to any corruption.”

The future is uncertain, Joe said, but he’s risked talking because he wants people to know the “truth” about Iranians.

“This election and the fact that people finally expressed their disapproval should let them know that we are not happy with (Ahmadinejad’s) policies and we are not what the stereotype media usually reflects by showing Mr. Ahmadinejad or his comments,” he said.

Joe returned to Iran because he felt he could be useful.

“I never wanted to become one of those Iranians abroad who complain about the regime but never do anything real to make a change here or help improve the situation.”
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http://lacrossetribune.com/articles/2009/06/27/news/00lead.txt

America and the western powers must keep their hands away with what is going on Iran. Iran has been long used and abused by the west and that's why Iranians were forced to break all the contacts with the western world.

As long as, Iran is not attacking any country and as long as it has no plans to bomb any country, America should back off.

President Obama will be better off focusing on the American economy than what the hell is going on in Iran.

America and the western powers must keep their hands away with what is going on Iran. Iran has been long used and abused by the west and that's why Iranians were forced to break all the contacts with the western world.

As long as, Iran is not attacking any country and as long as it has no plans to bomb any country, America should back off.

I personally think this is great. It is clear the younger generation of Iran (note the median age is 27) is fed up with the theocratic bullshit that Khamenei and the mullahs have been forcing down their throats for thirty years. Mousavi isn't perfect, but I think we can all agree he is a better alternative than Ahmadinejad

No matter how the votes were counted, this could never have been deemed a fair election.
This election (like all Iranian elections) was a complete sham before it began as the mullahs picked the candidates who could run.

It is quite possible that Ahmadinejad could have won a fair election. However, it is damn near impossible he won with the 62% of the vote that the Iran's state run media claims.

Ahmadinejad winning is certainly plausible, but the results given sure as hell aren't.

Funding for the Iran survey was provided by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. TFT’s surveys have been cited by President Barack Obama, former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, in the US Congress (on the Senate Floor, by key Senators and Congressmen, and in both House and Senate testimony), at the United Nations, and by the US Department of State and Department of Defense, as well as prominent leading think-tanks such as the new America Foundation, the Heritage Foundation, the Brookings Institution, the Nixon Center, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Council on Foreign Relations, the Carnegie Endowment and the Clinton Global Initiative. TFT is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative.

The states is currently attempting to destabilize yet another government. The media show we are seeing about their elections is just a facet of that strategy.

When is Canada and the US gonna realize the same thing goes on here?

When is Canada and the US gonna realize the same thing goes on here?


Can you provide some video or photos of people being killed in the streets because they were dissatisfied with U.S. or Canadian elections? Have professional journalists been expelled from the country or forbidden to cover activity in the streets here?

Seems like some people in the West take their freedoms so much for granted that they lose a realistic perspective on those who wish they had the same.

The media is biased toward Iran, misquoting the president and now focusing so highly and so negatively on his government.