I don't know whether the election is over or not but I wish the Iranian people all the best in their struggle for more democracy.

Your pointing to Grand Ayatollah Montazeri as being a serious challenge to the existing heirarchy is simply silly. I recall reading several articles about him several years ago and after looking into it confirmed that he has been an outsider, even if revered, for quite some time.

As to nuclear negotiations; they probably should be delayed but I wouldn't expect any breakthrough with either candidate.

As always when Steve's argument is intellectually drowning he clutches at straws, this time on an "outsider" Ayatollah, as the above poster points out.

The latest from Robert Fisk:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/06/17/2600571.htm

Thank you for that link, Dan. Robert Fisk is one of the best.

The insults against Steve are starting to become entertaining. Trying to imagine him "grasping at straws as his argument drowns intellectually" gave me a good chuckle.

Outsider or not, what a grand ayatollah says matters, even if he's wrong. The dynamics at play here are the issue. What Dick Cheney says matters (unfortunately), even though he has a track record of getting nothing right except for government benefit$ for his bud$ and his ability to play the media.

David -- Kotz is one of the few harsh critics of mine that I really enjoy. He is smart and has flair....I don't think that this Ayatollah is silly or without consequence Dirk. All best, steve

Montazeri is a highly regarded senior ayatollah with serious revolutionary credentials. And his alliance with the Mousavi/Rafsanjani forces, the news today that Rafsanjani has convened the Council of Experts is consequential in this struggle. I appreciate your posts on this, Steve, and your perceptions are cautiously weighted.

Whatta suprize. A long time opponent of Khamenei declares the election a sham.

Declarations oozing forth from opposite sides of internal power struggles are predictable, not in their veracity, but in their inevitability.

But do such inevitable displays of political posturing serve to inform us? Of course not. Unless, of course, your own perceptions and opinions are easily swayed by bias, in which case it doesn't matter what positions the various ayatollahs assume, your mind is already made up.

"David -- Kotz is one of the few harsh critics of mine that I really enjoy"

What endears him to you?

Frankly, I find his red, white, and blue clown suit somewhat ridiculous. The fact that he wears it while attached to the hip of Dick Cheney is particularly surreal. But I have to admit, the bright colors of his costume certainly stand out next the dark black of Cheney's wardrobe.

Another lone voice describes what's at stake for Iranians (what a concept--real analysis!) It reveals why Western governments and their megaphones in the media actually care about this election when they never gave a whit about other fraudulent elections.
http://www.counterpunch.org/rattansi06162009.html

So what's at stake? Opening Iran to Western business profits, of course.

"On economic policy, an international financial crisis may not be the best time to engage in quasi-Thatcherite Reaganomics. The Expediency Council gets the drift of Mousavi’s business school mantras. He has a phalanx of middle class North Tehrani foreign-educated MBAs who are the last people who should navigate the future of Iran. The people of Iran recognize the corruption charge-sheet Mahmoud Ahmadinejad laid out during the fierce TV debates."
http://www.counterpunch.org/rattansi06162009.html

The people in the streets may think this is about freedom and democracy, but it's actually a clash between two powerful, ruthless elites who will put the people back in their place once all this is settled.

"Frankly, I find his red, white, and blue clown suit somewhat ridiculous."

I think he's Australian.

Meanwhile, as we are distracted by another media con-job about Iran, our own Grand Wizard of Political Flimflammery continues his unbroken chain of broken promises. What a dissappointment this posturing fraud is. Is he really still managing to fool anyone???

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/

Obama Admin Mimics Bush Again: White House Records Are Secret

By Zachary Roth - June 16, 2009, 10:03AM

Add another (perhaps more minor) entry to the list of ways in which the Obama administration is mimicking its predecessor on issues of transparency.

MSNBC.com reports that the Secret Service has denied the news outlet's request for the names of visitors to the White House since President Obama was sworn in. It also denied a narrower request by the good-government group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington for records of visits by coal executives.

continues....

"I think he's Australian"

Really? Man, that makes his costume all the more ridiculous.

I find the multiple descriptions of quiet of the very large crowds in the pro-Mousavi demonstrations to be impressive and telling. It is a greater demonstration of power and resolve than mass chants.

PissedOffAmerica said:

"your mind is already made up"

Oh god. The irony! ROFLMAO!

Anyway, all of you need to prepare yourselves for a war with Iran. It's coming, the ahmadinejad people are much for fanatical and irrational than the pragmatic ones and they just did a coup. They're probably also planning to change the constitution to enable the left's favorite dictator a third consecutive term. I don't think he'll make it that far, and if he does then I give him a year or maybe a bit more at most.

Bams is going to tear Iran's nuclear program to pieces and will get to work on the revolutionary guard. First though, gotta get out of work and start putting afghanistan on a path to stability.

^meant 'Iraq' not 'work'...