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June 30, 2009
Links June 30 09

Please add your links, views and news in the comments.

Posted by b on June 30, 2009 at 06:07 UTC | Permalink
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A random re-count of 10 percent of votes cast in Iran’s June 12 elections results in a slight increase of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s votes in some cities.

PressTV

Posted by: hans | Jun 30 2009 7:43 utc | 1

Ousted leader announces bid to return to Honduras…. I’m hoping Washington has been made to feel exposed and the rest of the OAS is forcing Obama to call this off or lose his good-guy gloss.

Posted by: 99 | Jun 30 2009 8:59 utc | 2

The Scientific American article (The Science of Economic Bubbles and Busts) was of great interest to me. The role that the nucleus accumbens plays in the manifestation of greed was unknown to me. As we learn more about the neurobiology of mindless consumerism, we come closer to a cure.
I am usually opposed to vivisection in the name of science, but if they were only using laboratory-grade daytraders, I might be convinced to look the other way on this occasion.

Posted by: Monolycus | Jun 30 2009 20:54 utc | 3

Re: Honduras–
seen several blog accounts of the assassination of Cesar Ham, presidential candidate and the head of Honduras’ only registered leftist political party, the Democratic Unification of Honduras. Another report says he is under arrest.
Does anyone here have any other information?

Posted by: jawbone | Jun 30 2009 23:38 utc | 4

jawbone
it is not clear – i’ve read both accounts – i hope these murderous thugs have not touched Ham

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jun 30 2009 23:57 utc | 5

r’giap — I came across a comment about NarcoNews: Cesar Ham reportedly is neither dead nor being held by the putschists; he is, however, in hiding.
Link. Dated 6/28, 5:38PM — and it did not come up in searches, I swear.

Posted by: jawbone | Jul 1 2009 21:27 utc | 6

The surge is ebbing:

President Barack Obama’s top security adviser has told U.S. military commanders there are no plans to send more troops to Afghanistan for now and that the focus instead will be on economic development and reconstruction, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
…
“This will not be won by the military alone,” Jones told the Post during his trip. “We tried that for six years.”

Reuters

Posted by: Sam | Jul 1 2009 22:15 utc | 7

ESAM AL-AMIN puts some meat on the bones of our suspicions about Iranians being manipulated by USuk, using information he has acquired by assiduous study of the ‘straight press”.
Did you know:

the CIA was allowed to supply “communications equipment which would enable opposition groups in Iran to work together and bypass Internet censorship” by the regime. The use of this equipment has surfaced prominently in the recent standoff between the government and the opposition in Iran. It should be noted though that this destabilization program by the CIA is totally separate from the State Department’s $400 million program, and is being funded through the CIA budget. Thus, since 2006, the total figure for Iran’s destabilization program could have easily exceeded $1 billion.

OR

The biased performance of the mainstream media in reporting the Iranian elections can be illustrated through the coverage of the over-votes. . .
Had media outlets consulted any experts on Iranian elections, they would have discovered the simple explanation. In Iran, there is no requirement to vote in a designated district. People do not carry a voter registration card like American citizens. Each voter has a voting book allowing him or her to vote anywhere in the country. After voting, the book is stamped and the index finger is inked to ensure that no one can vote more than once. This fact was not unique to this election. In many previous elections, many districts had a high turnout when compared to the number of registered voters in that district because many Iranians had voted there while traveling or during their summer vacations.

OR

Opposition groups have relied on Internet communication technology such as text messaging, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and political blogs during their protests. In fact, Secretary Clinton took the unusual step in asking Twitter to change its maintenance schedule to accommodate Iran’s time zone and allow opposition groups the ability to utilize it. . .
. . .a study by the website, http://www.chartingstocks.net, concluded that during three days after the election, the overwhelming majority of Tweets (over 30,000), were manipulated through a handful of accounts; all created within one day of the elections on June 13. It is interesting to note that only 0.6 percent of Twitter accounts are used by Iranians (as compared to 44 percent by Americans).

Posted by: Debs is dead | Jul 2 2009 11:31 utc | 8

I know everyone is justifiably more concerned with the closure of MoA than anything else, but here below is simply the best article written, EVER, on the Iranian election and, more importantly, on its background and aftermath. It is written by a Jewish columnist, the last major international columnist to report directly from Iran, and who has been lambasting Israel while defending Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah in approx 15 different Op-Eds directly preceding the Iran election, so it’s difficult for anyone to accuse him of bias:

Roger Cohen: Globalist: “Let the Usurpers Writhe”

Posted by: Parviz | Jul 2 2009 11:45 utc | 9

Debs_IS_Dead, what happened in Iran was a hardliner coup d’etat bearing all its hallmarks:
1. SMSs were discontinued 24 hours BEFORE the election, suggesting the regime suddenly feared the result;
2. The official result was announced with unseemly haste;
3. Demonstrations were allowed, then banned as their size became embarrassing (“over 3 million” in Tehran alone acc. to the hardline Tehran City Mayor);
4. Mobile phone communications were cut off;

Posted by: Parviz | Jul 2 2009 12:04 utc | 10

5. The internet was slowed to a crawl to prevent uploading of videos;
6. The Baseej ‘dogs’ were let loose to create fear;
7. 150 domestic and foreign journalists were arrested;
8. Any newspaper not towing the official line was closed down or heavily censored before publication;
9. The organization accused of ‘fixing’ the vote (the GC) was tasked with judging whether the vote was fixed or not (!?!);
10. The regime refused Moussavi’s repeated requests for a cross-check of reported ballots against actual IDs, since 15 million extra ballots were printed without explanation;
11. The uprising was blamed entirely on foreigner spy networks;
12. No foreign organizations, such as Amnesty International, are allowed inside the country to assess human rights violations.
A great bunch of Leftists we had here, almost all defending a brutal, hardline Theocracy and ‘Loyally’ repeating ITS version of events.

Posted by: Parviz | Jul 2 2009 12:04 utc | 11

parviz, it’s apparent you simply cannot help yourself. your inability to recognize how your tone has affected your argument is quite astounding. you are like the energizer bunny, incessantly repeating the tired accusations that undermined your failed attempt to persuade us your interpretation of events in iran is the unassailable truth.
and bringing your bullshit to the farewell thread is beyond bad taste. for pissing on our grief, i’ll issue the last comment i will ever address to you: FUCK OFF.

Posted by: Lizard | Jul 2 2009 15:30 utc | 12

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