Month: July 2009

Mattress dominoes!

(Hat tip: P.O.V.)

NIAC again:

According to Mowj Camp, about 2000 people protested in the city of Rasht in northern Iran (Gilan Province).  People gathered in Rasht’s city park and honored the memory of those killed during recent events.

This gathering started at around 6:30pm and continued peacefully until the plainclothes agents turned it violent by attacking people at 7pm.  “These forces were equipped with all kinds of arms including batons, knives, daggers, colts…and were beating people.  They would also run into the crowd with motorcycles which severely injured several people.”

Go to our video round-up to see dramatic footage from Isfahan, a city in central Iran. A scene from the southern city of Shiraz is after the jump:

And the city of Rasht, north of Tehran:

Goldblog points out some highlights from the David Frum and Daniel Levy debate from last week. Levy:

Obama has never, repeat never, publicly referred to Israel’s nuclear arsenal directly, though he has on numerous occasions bluntly expressed his opposition to any Iranian acquisition of a nuclear weapons capacity. … here is a partial list of the strict sanctions regime the United States imposes on Iran, unilaterally (in addition to US-led international sanctions): No electronics or machinery (including spare parts for Iranian civilian aircrafts), no investing or lending of any kind (which applies to any bank that has any business in Iran, not just Iranian banks), and no goods with a value greater than $100, with only minor exceptions. Here is the comprehensive list of US support and assistance to Iran: zero.

Here is the comprehensive list of the sanctions regime that the US imposes on Israel: zero.

Here is a very partial list of US support and assistance to Israel under Mr Obama: implementation of the US-Israel MoU, $2.775 billion in assistance, initiation of a new strategic working group, funnily enough on Iran, as requested by Israel, $550m paid to Israel six months early as part of the financial-year 2009 supplemental appropriation (thereby incurring a cost in interest to the US treasury and benefits to the Israeli treasury), support for immigration resettlement to the tune of $25m and it goes on.

NIAC notes an unsettling detail from today:

Normally, when demonstrators gather in the city, they can run away from the security forces relatively easily. Normally the Basij don’t even run after the protesters in the streets of Tehran because they can lead them into alley and ambush them.

But such was not the case today. As a protester on the ground described the situation:

“Because we were in an open space, the security forces were merciless and they ran full speed ahead after us.“

This appears to be another consequence of the lack of leadership for the opposition movement. While it is not a justification for the abuse being carried out by the security forces, it is possible that better planning for today’s rallies could have helped prevent some of the day’s brutality.

(AP photo via The Lede)

Dreher says he's "not trying to start a fight" and that he "really wants to know what people think" when he compares transgender people to those who want to needlessly have limbs amputated to feel "whole." Sigh.

Below are the various videos that leaked out of Iran today. First, one of the clearest clips of demonstrations at Neda’s cemetery: A dramatic shot of solidarity in the streets:

The Lede’s Robert Mackey – an essential source for the Dish – writes of the following clip:

shot in Tehran today, near the prayer venue the authorities denied opposition leader permission to use:

A cacophony of car-honking (a similar clip in a tunnel here):

Traffic is completely backed up with chanting Iranians:

A reader translates:

People are chanting “esteghlal, azadi, jomhoorie Irani”) Independence, Freedom, IRANIAN republic) as a play on one of the most popular slogans of the 1979 revolution: “esteghlal, azadi, jomhoorie eslami” (Independence, Freedom, ISLAMIC republic)

In this clip, notice the number of defiant women:

Protesting on the subway bus:

A twitterer translates:

Ppl chant: dead to rusia & china / allaho akbar (big god) / in mettro

Nico provided some great context to these chants a few weeks ago:

The chants against Russia and China — whose governments have both recognized Ahmadinejad’s election victory — were widely used today. As noted below by a reader, the strategic benefit here seems to be associating the Iran’s government with a foreign power, just as the government is trying to do to tar the reformists.

From the distant city of Isfahan:

In many ways this clip (also from Isfahan) is the most powerful one from today:

Reading Palin's tweets.

A graphic artist’s CV:

street tests from Najork on Vimeo.

I've been too sour and too Beltway lately. This reader is right:

While I appreciate and share your sour mood, especially given the present administration’s present willingness to legitimize the crimes of the former one, you really do need to lay off the “late imperial”-Spenglerian decline-world-historical-fate stuff.

Three reasons: First, it’s probably not true that US society has entered into some kind of end-stage moral decrepitude. The political elite has been more corrupt, the people at large more hateful, our foreign entanglements uglier (consider the 1890s, or 1920s), and we have bounced back. We have been freer than we are, less free, and less free after being freer.

Second, embracing the kind of theories in which each society flourishes, grows decadent, and then falls apart is not in keeping with your usual healthy skepticism in the political sphere. If we cannot count on every people to embrace liberal democracy when their GDP hits a certain level, then how can we expect the predictable decline of a country as complicated as the US based on some very general similarities to, I don’t know, the Ottomans?

But really, the main reason to put aside fatalism is the role such thinking plays in hastening the evils it predicts. Why should your readers demand accountability for the architects of the torture regime if the impunity of a cruel ruling clique is but a symptom of our inevitable demise? If all that is needed for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing, don’t describe the situation in a way that encourages one to do nothing.

Looking at the long-term fiscal crisis and then watching Washington carry on as normal can provoke cynicism and depression. It shouldn't. Obama is steering this very big ocean liner in a very rough gale inch by inch in a more positive direction. It's not my job to cheer-lead this; but nor is it my role to constantly deride it for its limitations and failures. Criticize? Yes. Deride? No. I'm still with him. I want him to succeed.

A reader notes:

Schepping someone's nachas sounds pretty gay to me. So I'm in! What I meant, I think, is that it's a blessing, a mitzvah from God.