Patterico's Pontifications

You’re right. It’s an awesome combination of lyrics and photos, with a powerful ending of the stunning footage of the young woman (Neda?) who was killed.

DRJ (cdbef5) — 6/21/2009 @ 1:26 am

Pretty amazing stuff.

I’ve been praying for Neda’s family.

Vivian Louise (c0f830) — 6/21/2009 @ 3:54 am

I don’t understand the criticism of Obama for keeping quiet on Iran. What are his choices?

1) Heartfelt expression of support that gives ammunition to the opposition that the revolutionaries are American puppets?

2) Support with the threat of military intervention? Mir Hossein Mousavi still wants Iran to be a nuclear power. Is putting him in power worth threatening to use American military power?

I can’t stand Obama, but he’s playing this one just right.

GB FL (9ee562) — 6/21/2009 @ 5:54 am

Really?
You know Patterico….if all you have is hatin’ on Obama for those fabled conservative memes then I’m pretty sure you are going to get kerbstomped again in 2010. How do you think this is going to play out?
Eventually the greens are going are going to succeed. Khameini is in a box. If he orders Tianaman the Assembly will have him deposed. All the greens have to do is keep marching. Neda’s youtube has gone global viral……that really signifies the end of the of the regime. Vivian, Neda was a devout Shi’ia muslim…..she was wearing a chadoor. That is the power of the image, that the regime is killing muslims. That is the greatest sin in the Qu’ran.
Eventually the restistance will succeed. And Obama will be the Hero of MENA. He will go to Tehran to open an embassy, like he has said all along. And he WILL be greated with flowers. And how will you guys look? Bitter, petty and irrelevent.
Like usual.

wheeler's cat (0cf7e1) — 6/21/2009 @ 6:04 am

I allus thought of you as honest and fair, Patterico.
But you really seem to have drank the hatorade on Obama.
You might check out this balloon juice thread for an example of doing things that might help our brother and sister technodroids in Iran.
cya.

wheeler's cat (0cf7e1) — 6/21/2009 @ 6:22 am

Didn’t the orderlies catch nishi yet?

JD (6a02c8) — 6/21/2009 @ 6:36 am

Obama will be the hero of MENA.

The sycophantic Sufi will credit The One with anything.

JD (6a02c8) — 6/21/2009 @ 6:40 am

Yawn. So you want to change the subject from the cravenness of our Mister Softee president to … something else. Anything else. As long as we don’t criticize The One™.

steve miller (ec51d8) — 6/21/2009 @ 6:45 am

I think there are perfectly arguable criticisms to be made about this administration’s handling of the situation in Iran.

But with all respect, I think the ice cream thing is silly. It reminds me of attacks on Condi Rice for shoe shopping post-Katrina.

Ken (1fb5e2) — 6/21/2009 @ 7:04 am

“…hero of MENA…”

We’re celebrating drug-smugglers from Arkansas now?

AD - RtR/OS! (33c17b) — 6/21/2009 @ 7:13 am

JD#6: I think some paliperidone is indicated.

Eric Blair (5a226d) — 6/21/2009 @ 7:20 am

Yes, I mean, who honestly expected the POTUS to have a thought-out opinion, statements or procedures for a foreign policy event that the US has been waiting 25+ pears for, the vaunted Iranian youth/student uprising.

Let the man finish his waffle cone!

Techie (482700) — 6/21/2009 @ 7:48 am

I blame the media more for the Ice Cream thing. Of all the events going on in the world, THAT is the one that he and his producers felt is what we the public need to know about.

It also feeds into the story line for today, that The One Lightworker is the bestest dad evar!! Much more important than a potentially seminal event in Middle-Eastern geopolitics.

Techie (482700) — 6/21/2009 @ 7:54 am

“That is the greatest sin in the Qu’ran.”

Hasn’t stopped it yet though (in Iran, Iraq, ‘Palestine’, or any other ME country)

Lord Nazh (899dce) — 6/21/2009 @ 7:59 am

The significance of the ice cream story is that this is the White House’s standard Friday story. They choose to do this, just like the $500,000 “date” in New York. This is what they think is important for the public to see. The media didn’t create this story. The Obama promotion machine did. This is what they think is significant. People magazine couldn’t have done a better job of feeding his celebrity image. That’s what he is.

Now, back to the real world. Trolls notwithstanding.

Mike K (90939b) — 6/21/2009 @ 8:02 am

The NYTimes is reaching to see if they can give credit to Obama for the uprising.

Could there be something to all the talk of an Obama effect, after all? A stealth effect, perhaps?…

“If Tehran’s hardliners are incapable of making nice with an American president named Barack Hussein Obama who preaches mutual respect and wishes them a happy Nowruz, it’s pretty obvious the problem is in Tehran, not Washington,” Mr. Sadjadpour said.

That’s a really nice gig. Obama caused it, if it’s positive. Obama had nothing to do with and was able to do nothing about it if things go sour.

Wait, Obama’s middle name is Hussein??!!? Isn’t that hate speech or something?

Techie (482700) — 6/21/2009 @ 8:03 am

The hirgabi are killing muslims. The act of killing a muslim excludes them from the muslim faith.
Obama is going to get credit for this, and you know it. Piss and moan all you want, but there will be an orgy of press coverage when we open our embassy in Iran, and the new regime will thank Obama, and he will get all the credit.
And there will be flowers, like the symbolic rose Mousavi’s wife held in her hand.
And it will all be amazing.
😉
You guyz just don’t understand how much Bush is despised in MENA. Bush made democracy a dirty word in the middle east.

wheeler's cat (0cf7e1) — 6/21/2009 @ 8:24 am

I’m sure Patterio is beside himself having disappointed you, nishibot.

Techie (482700) — 6/21/2009 @ 8:26 am

The music and most of the photos are INSPIRING! Otherwise, it’s the spawn of Michael Moore and the a–hole lefties who cheered Fahrenheit 911.

Ira (28a423) — 6/21/2009 @ 8:56 am

I do give Obama some credit for what is happening in Iran. The students saw him sucking up to Ahmadinejad and knew they were on their own. No Bush was there to help them free themselves from a hated tyranny so they knew they had to do something. I give them tremendous credit. Just imagine if the Czechs had refused to agree to the Munich pact in 1938. The German generals later admitted that they did not think they could have defeated the Czechs. Millions would have survived the 40s if the Czechs had ignored Chamberlain.

The Iranian students may be saving millions of lives if they can overthrow the regime or even wound it severely. An Israeli-Iran war would have killed 28 million Iranians according to the CSIS report.

Mike K (90939b) — 6/21/2009 @ 9:17 am

CNN: What should the United States do?

Zakaria: I would say continue what we have been doing. By reaching out to Iran, publicly and repeatedly, President Obama has made it extremely difficult for the Iranian regime to claim that they are battling an aggressive America bent on attacking Iran. In his inaugural address, his New Year greetings, and his Cairo speech, there is a consistent effort to convey respect and friendship for Iranians. That is why Khamenei reacted so angrily to the New Year greeting. It undermined the image of the Great Satan that he routinely paints in his sermons. In his Friday sermon, Khamenei said that the United States, Israel, and especially the United Kingdom were behind the street protests, an accusation that will surely sound ridiculous to most Iranians. The fact that Obama has been cautious in his reaction makes it all the harder for Khamenei and Ahmadinejad to wrap themselves in a nationalist flag.

wheeler's cat (0cf7e1) — 6/21/2009 @ 9:22 am

I don’t understand the criticism of Obama for keeping quiet on Iran. What are his choices?

1) Heartfelt expression of support that gives ammunition to the opposition that the revolutionaries are American puppets?

2) Support with the threat of military intervention? Mir Hossein Mousavi still wants Iran to be a nuclear power. Is putting him in power worth threatening to use American military power?

I can’t stand Obama, but he’s playing this one just right.

Looks like Axelrod’s Ministry of Information was able to pay its astroturfers this week. The trolls are cutting and pasting the same comments from yesterday.

That’s okay, puppets, we know where you really stand.

Another Chris (a3bb8f) — 6/21/2009 @ 9:29 am

I suppose then that Obama should be ordering air strikes against Iranian leadership instead of ordering ice cream?

Adam Stanhope (4a3eca) — 6/21/2009 @ 9:38 am

Earlier this year Obama sent a video message to “the Iranian people and their leaders” in which he heaped effusive praise on Persian civilization, referring constantly to the “Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Now Persian civilization is in agony, and he’s out spooning with the media. It’s damned thoughtless.

Glen Wishard (02562c) — 6/21/2009 @ 9:39 am

Nishi is on a roll today.

Iran, and the new regime will thank Obama, and he will get all the credit.
And there will be flowers, like the symbolic rose Mousavi’s wife held in her hand.
And it will all be amazing.
😉

About the only thing I can think of regarding this is “LOL”.

Yes, flowers of gratitude, I’m sure. And if the current regime mows the opposition in the streets down and retains power, then what, O wise Sufi?

Kinda making the greatest embassy opening evar!!! a hollow point, wouldn’t you think?

Techie (482700) — 6/21/2009 @ 9:40 am

Adam Stanhope – You are just a drive-by, but in case you can actually read better than the Sufi, are you so dense as to think eating ice cream and bombing Iran are the only options?

JD (4e3101) — 6/21/2009 @ 9:49 am

Reporters Without Borders identifies Iran as one of the world’s largest champions in the fine art of information repression.

The Islamic Republic of Iran now ranks alongside China as the world’s biggest prison for journalists. The crackdown has been intensified yet again following Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s endorsement of the result of the 12 June presidential election and the opposition’s decision to call another demonstration on 20 June.

Iran now has a total of 33 journalists and cyber-dissidents in its jails, while journalists who could not be located at their homes have been summoned by telephone by Tehran prosecutor general Said Mortazavi.

“The force of the demonstrations in Tehran is increasing fears that more Iranian journalists could be arrested and more foreign journalists could be expelled,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The regime has been visibly shaken by its own population and does not want to let this perception endure. That is why the media have become a priority target.”

The press freedom organization added: “The international community cannot continue to ignore the situation. It must have a clear and unanimous reaction that is proportionate to the gravity of these events. And there will never be any question of recognizing the results of the 12 June election.”

Link to Reporters Sans Frontieres

Techie (482700) — 6/21/2009 @ 9:55 am

“I don’t understand the criticism of Obama for keeping quiet on Iran. What are his choices?”

Cancel all federal entitlement programs, ramp up the military, then using bases in Iraq, attack and destroy the regime of the mad mullahs…take no prisoners.

Repeat in Lebanon.

Dave Surls (f94dc0) — 6/21/2009 @ 10:04 am

Also, comments are acting weird again.

Techie (482700) — 6/21/2009 @ 10:11 am

The profound ignorance of the Trolls never fails to amaze – “oooh, what are we to do, whatever can Dear Leader say that will make you negative Nancy’s happy?” He’s the freakin’ leader of the Free World; time to start acting like it for once, instead of bowing and scraping to Dictators with the verbal flatulence of apologies.

Dmac (f7884d) — 6/21/2009 @ 10:25 am

I think Obama should send Medea Benjamin and Code Pink back over there ASAP to calm things down. She’s a great Obama spokesperson.

daleyrocks (718861) — 6/21/2009 @ 11:01 am

“Cancel all federal entitlement programs, ramp up the military, then using bases in Iraq, attack and destroy the regime of the mad mullahs…take no prisoners.”

Now who needs pundits?

francis (cccb92) — 6/21/2009 @ 11:04 am

A much better video.

wheeler's cat (0cf7e1) — 6/21/2009 @ 11:34 am

I refer you all back to JD’s First Rule of Trolls. Better evidence has never been provided.

JD (00531d) — 6/21/2009 @ 11:39 am

hai, Big Angry Dog Glen Wishard.
This another of my alts….you would membah me best as playahgrrl from when I was a was an eyass from Charles’ nest.
I have grown up.

Khameini is in a box. If he calls Tianaman the Assembly of Experts will remove him immediately. If he doesn’t the resistance will grind him to a nub, and the Assembly will remove him anyways.
Neda Soltani lying in her chadoor and pool of blood has killed the regime with her death.

wheeler's cat (0cf7e1) — 6/21/2009 @ 11:48 am

“I have grown up”

There is a complete and total lack of evidence for this assertion.

JD (00531d) — 6/21/2009 @ 11:55 am

I’ve spent a good deal of time this weekend following events in Iran on the Internet. Yesterday, of course, it was impossible to miss the horrifying video of Neda’s last moments and the torment of her father as her life slipped away.

I thought of Neda and her father as I talked a little about events in Iran with my own daughter. I did not show her the video– she is only 12. I did talk some about other great historical events I’ve seen in the course of my lifetime — the “Prague Spring,” the Shah’s overthrow, “People Power” in the Philippines, the “Annus Mirabilis” of 1989. Tiananmen, Yeltsin at the Kremlin gates. I shared with her that the outcomes for all these cases were hard to predict, that sometimes they ended triumphantly and other times horribly.

I said they all made me appreciate our freedom here, despite America’s imperfections. We talked a little bit about Obama’s statement Saturday, including his invocation of Martin Luther King.

Later that afternoon, when I saw reports that the President had taken his daughters on a Fathers Day weekend outing, I thought to myself, “Good for him. Spend as much time with them as you can, give them as much attention as possible now, while you can.”

My hunch is, Neda’s father would agree.

I’m about to go on an outing with my daughter right now. I don’t know if we’ll have ice cream — but we might.

Tim McGarry (9fe080) — 6/21/2009 @ 5:43 pm

We had ice cream after all. Vanilla. It was delicious.

Tim McGarry (9fe080) — 6/22/2009 @ 12:04 pm

6/21/2009

Video: Today in Iran

38 Responses to “Video: Today in Iran”

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