I marvel at the courage of those in Iran who protest under great threat.

[NRaleighLiberal]

It makes me wonder why American were (are?) so placid with the thefts of the elections in 2000 and 2004. Too few people with skin the game; too many with too much, I suspect.

And no matter who is in power, it continues now - the banking disaster, continuing the war in Iraq, prop 8 - pick the issue, it seems to be mostly corporate/$$ power/control.

Still naive at 53, I suppose.

[MnFats]

1. Iran's government is off the scale; torture, repression

Those people have had a taste of a repressive and heavy-handed government run by a bunch of crazy old clerics.

keep in mind, though, that we helped give them a taste of same when we colluded with the Brits to overthrow their democratically elected Mossedegh government in order to install one that couldn't wait to start shipping their oil to the west at an aastonishingly cheap price.

then the Shah returned, as cruel a dictator as there ever has been.
and with him Savak, the secret police agency that tortured for fun and disappeared many dissidents.

maybe today they know what the stakes are. maybe they see what their future could be like.

maybe they've just plain had enough.

[MnFats]

2. xxx

xxx

[Tangerine LaBamba]

3. The Iranians have shamed us .......

I'm watching in stunned admiration and fear for all of them.

Meanwhile, our "Democrats" are as weakwilled and impotent as anything I've ever seen, and I'm older than you are.

We're doomed, that's what I think. Not a spine among us.....................

[AnnInLa]

4. Boy, that is the understatement of the day!

The Iranians HAVE shamed us indeed.

[applegrove]

5. Yes they are very brave. Vibes to them all.

[Kaleko]

6. Americans have been brainwashed for decades

by masters in the arts of deceit. They're fat and drugged and spoiled. If they belong to the class of wage-slave cows, they're lost in the stupor of being chronically overworked.

The young Iranians we see on the streets are lean, mean, hungry enough to die for the most basic human rights we take for granted here.

Listen to them shout as they march into the night,

"Down with the Dictator... I will fight, I will Die... I will get my stolen vote back..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm7UWhjPBDU&feature=email