ITEM: The Iranian Red Crescent and Ministry of Health have rejected foreign donations of cash and material for earthquake victims, saying that Iranian agencies are self-sufficient. An exception has been made for limited help from Turkey because of Iran's aid to the Turks after the Van earthquake in 2011.
ITEM: A representative of State television IRIB, appearing at an emergency Parliamentary session on Saturday's earthquakes, has apologised for the decision to broadcast a comedy programme on an IRIB channel rather than covering the disaster.
"INCYPRUS" DESCRIBES THE ATTITUDE OF IRAN'S SUPREME OPPRESSOR (ASSAD's IDENTICAL TWIN)
Is there anything that khamenei does in his daily routine that, you can say, you can count, or see the positive effect of it on people of Iran. ...I'm talking about actual things. i.e. khamenei ordered assistance to the poor in city of X, khamenei oversaw a provision to build home for the homeless in city Y, khamenei cared about "anything" that mattered to ordinary Iranians in a tangible way?
We hear a lot of things from khamenei, but they all serve his circle. People don't exist for this man
By comparison, in democratic countries, leaders say a lot of things, some are empty promises, and some are actions actually delivered. In most cases, this is enough for people to re-elect those leaders or dump their sorry ass if they have been bad.
What does khamenei and this regime actually deliver to Iranians other than this measurable life?
Iran has all the means to be on top of world, so to speak. Iran has resources and talent, this is all you need. Instead, people are worry about where to get chicken, onion, potatoes, and cooking oil. And, not to land themselves in prison in process of living this simple life
FG SAYS: CONSIDER THIS
Remember 1979 just before religious fanatics stole what was to be a democratic revolution. Iran had the fastest growing economy in the world. By comparis, where were oilless Turkey and resource impoverished South Korea? Where was China back then as Nixon made his visit then? Where are they now? How do the Iranian people compare after 33 years of mullah rule? Of course those questions are unfair because foreigners are to blame (as Ayatoilet and Amir might agree).
Everyone knows the truth: the mullahs would have turned Iran into a paradise if the West and most of Iran's neighbors had not spent three decades "picking on a world admired role model and perfect innocent for no good reason at all." At the same time it treated the three who have long surpasssed the IRI economically as like loving children.
LOOK AT HOW A MUCH LOVED SUPREME TYRANT IS DOING SO MUCH TO MAKE LIFE BETTER
In circumstances like this a good "solution" is to continue the usual policies of picking on minorities (Kurds, Arabs, Bahai, Azeris) and women. Opposition website Rah-e Sabz claims police have banned Sunnis from holding prayer ceremonies for Eid al-Fatr, the ceremony marking the end of Ramadan, in Tehran. Bahais and Kurds are hung while women are banned from 77 university majors and classes are gender segregated. Making the best out of persecution, Khamenei has even turned it into a "money raiser," as he levels huge fines on political prisoners and requires immense bail.
Khamenei led off the current economic crisis by increased social policing but seems to have backed off temporarily. The moment there is a glimpse of sunshine (if ever) these equally beloved creeps will be given their usual free reign to harass his oppressed and brutalized subjects.
ITEM: Ayatollah Dastgheib has sent a message to Basij militia, Revolutionary Guards, and other security forces: "Beating people to death cannot be labeled as unintended murder."
As a sophisticated reader might say, "What a bunch of XXXX-ups!"
Recently by FG | Comments | Date |
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MORSI’S “KHOUMEINI ACT” MAY SAVE SYRIANS FROM AN IRAN-STYLE FATE | 1 | Dec 02, 2012 |
Dec. 1st roundup: Turkey-IRI tensions grow/ Assad's troubles mount | 4 | Dec 01, 2012 |
EA analyst: REGIME'S FALL COULD BE IMMINENT!" | 5 | Nov 29, 2012 |
Person | About | Day |
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نسرین ستوده: زندانی روز | Dec 04 | |
Saeed Malekpour: Prisoner of the day | Lawyer says death sentence suspended | Dec 03 |
Majid Tavakoli: Prisoner of the day | Iterview with mother | Dec 02 |
احسان نراقی: جامعه شناس و نویسنده ۱۳۰۵-۱۳۹۱ | Dec 02 | |
Nasrin Sotoudeh: Prisoner of the day | 46 days on hunger strike | Dec 01 |
Nasrin Sotoudeh: Graffiti | In Barcelona | Nov 30 |
گوهر عشقی: مادر ستار بهشتی | Nov 30 | |
Abdollah Momeni: Prisoner of the day | Activist denied leave and family visits for 1.5 years | Nov 30 |
محمد کلالی: یکی از حمله کنندگان به سفارت ایران در برلین | Nov 29 | |
Habibollah Golparipour: Prisoner of the day | Kurdish Activist on Death Row | Nov 28 |
Iran's clerics aren't the only ones to live like Big Shots
by FG on Tue Aug 14, 2012 02:55 PM PDT//www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/9475031/Russian-Orthodox-priest-crashes-car-with-diplomatic-plates.html
Borgias anyone? Can you recall the Bad Popes? Have you seen those millionaire TV evangelists? What a racket!
Religion can pay big time which is exactly why the clerical class gradually excluded non-clerics from any real say in Islam and developed unquestionable doctrines supporting their quest for power and wealth.
How many of Iran's ruling clerics avail themselves of those temporary marriages while posing as a spokesmen for morality and imposing the hajib on women to protect their modesty?
Is there anyone more immoral in Iran today that the Supreme Dictator, a people beating, election rigging, murderous scumbag surrounded by mullahs who share his character in every respect?
Iranians are not unique in despising Islamist rule
by FG on Tue Aug 14, 2012 02:57 PM PDTArmed uprising against Taliban forces insurgents from 50 Afghan villages
An uprising against the Taliban has evicted the gunmen from 50 villages in eastern Afghanistan, according to local leaders, beginning a revolt that Kabul hopes will spread across insurgent-held territory. //www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afg...
EXCERPT Their armed campaign began in protest at insurgent edicts closing schools and bazaars, as well as resentment that the Taliban were outsiders taking orders from Pakistan.... Mohammad Nazir, a 42-year-old father of four, said the Taliban had initially been welcomed in Andar, but had grown tyrannical. "We were helpless in many things," he said. "The schools were closed, the shops were closed, my sons were not able to go to school. We had talked about what to do many times in the past, but we decided to rise up in the spring."
OBSERVATION This story reminds me of a similar development in Mali, where disgusted locals have formed anti-Islamist militias. The media seem to put too much emphasis on the death of Bin Laden and other top Al Queda figures as the main setback for the extreme Islamist fringe worldwide. I think it is more than that. Whether Shia or Sunni, Muslims who once believed "Islam is the Solution" suffer extreme revulsion when they get a first hand taste of such doctrines when put into actual practice. One Kurd, freed from rule by Ansar al-Islam in northern Iraq after Saddam's fall, said it was "like escaping from hell." Iranians seem to feel the same about Islamist rule today. Even in northwest Pakistan, extreme Islamist parties have done miserably in free elections which may explain why they find real democracy with real unvetted elections "anti-Islamic." Of couse Mohammed could not have condemned democracy in the Koran because in did not exist in 7th century Mecca and Medina.
Did Assad's brother lose both legs in the Damascus bombing?
by FG on Tue Aug 14, 2012 12:24 PM PDTThe Saudi paper al-Watan claims that Russia's deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov revealed the injuries in an interview.
I mentioned this in a lead post today which seems to have disappeared, possibly because site administrators preferred it here rather than in a new post.
FACT OR DISINFORMATION?
If the story is disinformation, it will continue to circulate until Bashir's brother appears in public, rolls up his pants and shows he still has the genuine articles. Otherwise it will continue to inflict damage for the reason as Romney's concealed tax returns. When rebuttal is so easy, why would one resist doing so?
Did the interview with the Russian actually occur? If that can be established, one must ask, "Why would a high Russian official make up a story?"
Could a powerful bomb go off in a single room where all of the regime's highest security officials were meeting to discuss strategy, kill four or five Big Shots and not inflict a single major injury on other VIPs, who would likely have included the Assad Brothers? We've seen Bashir since but not his brother.
If the serious injury occur, why didn't the recently defected Prime Minister not tell the world about the injury after defecting. On the other hand, there would be plenty of obvious reasons to conceal the news from even top regime insiders (but not necessarily from Putin) given the major damage already inflicted on that day. Consider how Vice President Truman only learned of the atomic bomb after FDR's death.
Anyone can make up such a story. When they do, I'm inclined to ask, "Where's the proof?" However when the accused should then have in his possession strong and irrefutable proof the charges are false yet fails to do so, what can one think?
To Haas--re: NOT SO!
by FG on Tue Aug 14, 2012 10:26 AM PDTThe regime has been forced by public pressure to reverse it's original position on aid. The last thing it needs is for the earthquake crisis and its initial position to make further enemies. The regime is tremendously unpopular.
NOT SO
by hass on Tue Aug 14, 2012 07:29 AM PDT//news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-08/14/c_123578581.htm
..................
by yolanda on Mon Aug 13, 2012 01:25 PM PDTIf IRI lets foreign groups enter Iran to help with the rescue mission, the outside groups will witness the poverty 1st hand. We can tell from the photos that poor regions are hardest hit. It is obvious that those people live in poverty and in make-shift homes. Their homes are very primitive and made of loose rocks glued together with mud!
IRI is also afraid that outside groups may interact with Iranians and hear the gripes from Iranians about their uncaring regime!
IRI has never put Iranian people's interests 1st, they are only concerned with their own survival and image!
These earthquake victims definitely need a lot of help, but IRI has made a decision not to let outside groups help them!
Very sad and frustrating!
On a side note I agree with Faramarz ...
by Darius Kadivar on Mon Aug 13, 2012 01:27 PM PDTIt is more useful to urge the Regime to allow the humanitarian help into Iran and to the victims than the politically-motivated grandstanding by NIAC, trying to address a non-existent problem (food and medicine shipment to Iran).
I'm 70, married and we full time in a recreational vehicle
by FG on Mon Aug 13, 2012 01:24 PM PDTThe slogan of Escapees is "Home is Where You Park it" and it's a really satisfying life. If you want to stay put for a few months you can. You move when you feel like it.
I feel sorry for some of the folks back east who spend every day on their front porch of the house where they've lived for decades or inside watching TV. This lifestyle keeps you active and avoids the boredom and time-flying psychology that comes with too much routine Best decision we ever made, even though friends and relatives said, "You're crazy." We think they are the crazy ones. People have no idea what they are missing.
We're spending the winter in northern Arizona near Prescott, Sedona, Cottonwood, Jerome, Flagstaff (70s to low 80s F in hottest time of day) and Williams. Travel time to most of these places is 25 minutes to maybe 1 1/2 hours. Phoenix which can get close to 120 F is about 1 1/2 hours to our South. Lots of nutty Tea Party and hate Obama types here, as easterners discover quickly. Some folks buy a park home or mobile (inexpensive) in a resort-style RV park (swimming pool, activities) to go with their RV and use it for half the year, rving the other half.
Great dry climate in the high altitude locations, not like Phoenix. In winter you can change environments and temperatures by 20 degrees or more with a relatively short drive, though we may head off to the Texas Hill Country (superb livew music, quaint towns, scenic country) and then hit Gettysburg in early July for the 150th anniversary of that battle. We'll be surrounded by Union and Confederate re-enactors including horse calvary, civil war bands and field artillery units.
Thanks FG Jan can I now ask you how old you are ?
by Darius Kadivar on Mon Aug 13, 2012 01:04 PM PDTI need it Just for my personal Statistics ...
To my knowledge If you were a Genuine Democrat in those days you wouldn't advocate Revolution but Reform ...
pictory:(FOR REFERENDUM BASHERS) Women Punched in Face by Revolutionaries
HISTORY OF VIOLENCE: Man Chased by Anti Shah Protestors During Shah's US Visit (1977)
But Your Far fetched "theory" is interesting though ...
Constitutionalist's Rebuttal of Republican Assessment that Revolution was "Highjacked"Syrian media caught in IRI-style whopper re: MIG shootdown
by FG on Mon Aug 13, 2012 12:39 PM PDTExcerpts from a report in The Guardian:
Syria's state news agency, Sana, said the jet had suffered a technical failure on a training mission and the pilot had ejected. The rebels said they had shot the MiG down using a heavy machine gun and captured the pilot, Colonel Mufeed Muhammed Salman, who appears in the video....
MY RESPONSE: The video speaks for itself.
"We prepared an ambush for these planes by using anti-aircraft guns loaded on cars, but they changed their movements. They used to target places where they suspected FSA men were gathering, but they stopped doing that.
MY RESPONSE: So if the regime is not targeting the FSA (so-called "terroristrs" and "jihadis") that raises the question, "Who are they targeting?" The only possible answer is that their bombs and machine guns are targeting the Syrian people in a Khamenei-style intimidation effort.
//www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/13/syrian-rebels-shoot-down-jet
A More Urgent Petition!
by Faramarz on Mon Aug 13, 2012 12:32 PM PDTIt is more useful to urge the Regime to allow the humanitarian help into Iran and to the victims than the politically-motivated grandstanding by NIAC, trying to address a non-existent problem (food and medicine shipment to Iran).
To Darius K re: democratic elements in 1979
by FG on Mon Aug 13, 2012 12:30 PM PDTThey were present. The revolution was based on a broad front consisting of both democratic and anti-democratic factions.
Khoumenei was clever enough to sucker the former element (and outsiders) by emphasizing the regime's crimes and talking about freedom and justice. Iranians got neither as Khoumenei played down his real intentions.
Clerics in Islam haver a long tradition of lying to outsiders (including muslims as well as non-muslims) in order to advance their goals. They always come up with some religious excuse to justify it morally. The mullahs conned Iranians and foreigners alike via such trickery.
Maybe So But Still don't recall your "democratic revolution" ...
by Darius Kadivar on Mon Aug 13, 2012 12:20 PM PDTCould you please refresh my memory ? ...
pictory: Bakhtiar Denounces Bazargan's Provisionary Government in exile (1979)
VOCAL MINORITY: Pro Shah and Pro Bakhtiar Demos amidst 1979 Revolution
Pride is the crutch of the insecure
by asadabad on Mon Aug 13, 2012 12:14 PM PDTThe lowly, murderous shiite regime ruling Iran has an inferiority complex. They would never want to accept aid because that would further validate/expose their inferior status to the rest of the world.
The result is that many iranian people will unnecessarily die of exposure, hunger, and disease thanks to the ego of the losers in Tehran.
Sorry Still don't recall your "democratic revolution" ...
by Darius Kadivar on Mon Aug 13, 2012 11:55 AM PDTCould you please refresh my memory ? ...
pictory: Bakhtiar Denounces Bazargan's Provisionary Government in exile (1979)
VOCAL MINORITY: Pro Shah and Pro Bakhtiar Demos amidst 1979 Revolution
FSA interviews downed Mig pilot
by FG on Mon Aug 13, 2012 11:52 AM PDTThe video and a translation into English can be found in the Enduring American roundup on Syria today.
//www.enduringamerica.com/home/2012/8/13/syria-and-beyond-live-coverage-a-no-fly-zone.html
TWO QUESTIONS
1. When will the Sam missiles arrive?
This pilot was shot down by an FSA soldier firing an AA gun. It's a moral boost for the Good Guys and another bummer for Assad.
2. Should the pilot eventually be charged with genocidal crimes or can he use the "I only followed orders" offense?
Note that he could easily have defected but chose to bomb civilians and their property day after day indiscriminately. Thus, the Eichan defense (I only followed orders") seems totally inapplicable. News that he could have to stand trial for genocidal crimes may affect defections among pilots.
OTHER INTERESTING ITEMS FROM EA
FSA WINS A SIGNIFICANT VICTORY IN DAARA
We've often spoken about how the Free Syrian Army has had troubles establishing a foothold in Daraa province, largely because of the massive military presence there. But today, for the first time in recent memories, there is evidence of a fairly significant FSA victory.
In Tafas, a town just north of Daraa on the road to Damascus (map), a regime convoy stormed the town and reportedly met heavy resistance. At least one armored vehicle was captured: (EA provides a video of that)
It's too early to see if this is the beginning of a trend, but Daraa, the birthplace of the revolution, is strategically located near the border with Jordan, and is a relatively short distance to the capital, Damascus.
QUESTION: Will the regime have to divert troops from elsewhere as it faces supply problems and the death of a thousand cuts? Reliable units like the 5th Armored can't be everywhere at once.
FSA MOVE TO SIEZE HOMS PROVINCE HAS NICE START
For weeks the Free Syrian Army has been on the offense in Homs province, and particularly over the last week or so the FSA has been launching successful ambushes, destroying armored vehicles and tanks, and killing and capturing Assad soldiers.
Now, a brigade of the FSA has announced that the campaign to retake Homs is underway:
QUESTION: Same as above.
A SAMPLE OF THE REGIME'S VINDICTIVENESS
Zabadani, northwest of Damascus is under heavy bombardment, and has been for several hours. The city has been shelled for weeks on end, and last week the LCCs declared the city a disaster area. Fares Mohamed has previously stated that he believes there is no military reason for the military to shell the city, but it is an opportunity for the military to get revenge for the FSA's recent gains.
Fares reports that today the situation is growing quite urgent. He passes along several videos reportedly showing today's shelling, and its effects on the city.
Sorry don't recall your "democratic revolution" ...
by Darius Kadivar on Mon Aug 13, 2012 11:31 AM PDTAll your other observations aside in this blog but ...
FG SAYS: CONSIDER THIS
Remember 1979 just before religious fanatics stole what was to be a democratic revolution.
Could you please refresh my memory ? ...
pictory: Bakhtiar Denounces Bazargan's Provisionary Government in exile (1979)
VOCAL MINORITY: Pro Shah and Pro Bakhtiar Demos amidst 1979 Revolution
Recall the political consequences of Chernobyl
by FG on Mon Aug 13, 2012 11:22 AM PDTUnlike earthquakes Chernobyl was an avoidable catastrophe. However, what killed hundreds and is still doing so was the usual attitude of "conceal everything, act slowly and reassure nearbyu residents there is no danger." I suppose the Soviets figured they could get away with it and keep it a secret. Chernonyl and its aftermath was a big nail in the regime's coffin, though not the only one. In terms of capacity to run a modern economic that puts citizens first, the naturally endowned Soviet Union was just as corrupt and incompetent as the despised Mullocracy.
Two other national disasters with political consequences hit democratic governments who were also slow to act: Katrina and the Japanese super-earthquake. In both cases, the governments also suffered criticism for failure to take preventive action. The government's deep unpopularity caused by rigged elections,police state behavior and total economic incompetence make Iran's situation far worse and more enduring politically.
The Japanese government was overwhelmed and could have acted a bit more quickly, though in fairness it was hampered more by an initial lack of information than by a totalitarian penchant for secrecy or by total incompetence.
In event of future disasters in America, natural or otherwise the Tea Party-led Republicans enriched by coal and oil millionaires like the Koch Brothrers, will have contributed mightily. Got a huge deficit? Cut taxes, reduce revenue and borrow more. Infrastructure is crumbling (risking a bridge collapse like that in Minnesota) and jobs are needed? Kill any bill that might help because Omama could benefit. Global Warming? Like evolution it's a myth promoted by the Democratics who control the 98% of scientists who agree. One should rely on Creations and Koch brother scientists for the truth. A huge BP oil spill wrecks the economy of Mississippi and Alabama? Forget it and focus on all those oil country adds with soft music and smiling faces telling you how the oil companies are as benevolent as Santa Clausand the Tooth Fairy.