That always works.

Are you asking us to wear green? When, where? We need a movement leader to call for a demonstration of solidarity across the globe.

Look, I'm willing to set aside whatever disappointment I have with my own country--for a few minutes-- and support somebody else's movement for justice. Just tell me when to show up.

Whether the Iranian vote was actually rigged or not, the current regime is repulsive, because it's a theocracy. I find the US right-wing protestations of the Iranian elections results repulsive and outrageously hypocritical because the GOP instigated the stealing of the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 and has been trying to establish a "Christian" theocracy in the USA, in direct defiance of our basic laws and values. The American right-wing is a complete stranger to democracy and democratic values, and has no right to preach those to others, not even the mullahs.

The degenerated workers' states in Eastern Europe fell peacefully because the states were based on that class - and when the class withdrew its support, the regimes and armies collapsed.

That is not the case in Iran, which is dominated by mullahs allied to a wing of capital in that country - the bazaar, the military, and some big capital. Iran is not a government or state based on the majority of people - it is a theocracy behind which large rug merchants can bleed the people. So they don't give a damn if the 'people' oppose them. Obama was correct in pointing out that Mousavi himself is not a democrat - other readers point out his role in the Iran/Iraq war. Have the Iranian people taken to defending him? Yes, but after this is over, he'll still be there, now with 'reformer' credentials. Actually, more dangerous.

Where is the working class in these protests? I assume they support them, because the Amadinejad government hates labor rights. However, you cannot threaten a bloodthirsty government like this without being able to shut production and bring something other than students into the mix.

Well that's all you need to know about him then -- just another western-educated privileged Iranian-born western-centric pundit.

The breathtaking hypocrisy of the US media, political class, liberals and conservatives alike, embracing a "reformist" like Mousavi has been amusing to witness these last two weeks.

As president in 1981-89, Mousavi imprisoned, tortured and murdered literally THOUSANDS of dissidents, far far more than AHMADINEJAD has. Mousavi also helped to found Hizbullah and, in his campaign, urged for the need "to go back to the ideals of Khomeinii."

Oh, but I forgot. Mousavi doesn't deny the Holocaust.

So you can murder as many people as you want, just don't deny the Holocaust.

That makes you acceptable to the West.

Lest we forget, some of the most oppressive, tyrannical, and fearsome regimes in world history were toppled in the late 80s-early 90s by the peaceful resistance of ordinary people across Eastern Europe. While certainly not a perfect analogue, what we're seeing in Iran now looks a lot like the peaceful protests and candle-light marches that took place in East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and elsewhere. One can only hope that like those brave and persistent Eastern Europeans, the Iranian protesters will maintain their position and continue to demonstrate that the ayatollahs can no longer govern without the consent of the people. Let's hope that the oppressive bunch in Tehran is thrown onto the scrap heap of history along with the dictators of Eastern Europe.

I agree that the Khomeini purge was worse than the current affair, but this thing ain't over yet and I fear it's gonna get worse.

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/earticle/7025/

There's no doubt that the 2004 US presidential election was stolen. Differences between exit polls and the "official" results were resolved by news organizations by either changing the exit poll results to conform with the "official" tallies, or they simply ignored them and shoved the exit poll results down the memory hole -- where they remain to this day.

When Republicans pontificate against Iran's stolen election I want to puke. The only difference between Iranian election fixers and Republican election fixers is that the Iranians are willing to fight for their democracy.

Because in the early years of the revolution of 79, Khomeni had more than 350,000 men and women summarily executed for being too closely allied with the Shah. In fact THE leading cause of their miserable failures in the Iran Iraq war was that they had executed virtually their entire officer corp leaving them poorly lead, poorly trained. This ended in Khomeni declaring that human wave attacks with unarmed teenaged boys would be the military tactic of choice. More than a million perished and now you can see the Fountain of the Martyrs in Tehran which is engineered to flow with RED water symbolizing the blood of a million children killed by their own parents.

Unprecedented? Well in the sense that only 30 or 40 people have been cut down, it's unprecedented. These guys today are pikers. No balls at all to do what needs to get done.

We have a campaign-finance corrupted congress and White House. Independents and third party candidates in the US have far less chance of attention than Mousavi in Iran. Our Supreme Leaders (Wall Street, defense industry, insurance, pharma) are just smarter in their tyranny than Khoumeni.