Murder.
Street video above from Tehran source via LA source on demonstrators on July 2, and about one minute into the clip you are pointed bya red arrow to where the young man is murdered by a Basij rifleman. A headshot. The demonstrators run at first, then gather around the body. I do not see any police presence. The demos were throwing rocks, there is a shot, there is a body, and still no authorities. The video is handheld and very clear. It appears a general breakdown in order in Tehran, with the young demonstrators too numerous and nimble for the police, with the Basij militia given the power to murder at random. Ahmadinejad has lost control of the battlefield; he is a besieged stooge of the disgraced Supreme Leader and the frightened and cowardly mullahs. Iran is now ungovernable. The only rule is murder. The only credible future is more murder.
Neda's Grave.
Below find the first photo I have seen of Neda Soltan's grave in a routine plot in an industrial sized graveyard in the south of Tehran. The reports last week were that the authorities were chasing mourners away from Neda's grave, even her mother and family, and that the regime had launched an investigation into Neda's deliberate shooting by a British agent. Now we have a photo said to be Neda's flower strewn grave. The narrative is clearly on the side of the anti-regime martyrs. The Shia religion is built upon the stage piece of martyrdom. Neda satisfies all the needs of a spiritually damaged and desperate peoples. The fellow cut down by the Basij above died an anonymous and cruel death, but Neda died on a video seen round the world in hours and mentioned by POTUS within days. Neda was not looking to be the Madonna of the nation, yet now her grave rises.
The economy in free fall. Employment in free fall. Housing in free fall. Banking in free fall. Industry in free fall. Stocks in free fall. Consumer confidence in free fall. The dollar in free fall. Gee, I wonder where we'd be if Obama hadn't 'created and saved' all these green jobs he's been promising?
Neda is in her resting place; so is Michael Jackson. I wonder where we'll find a hole big enough to bury America after Obama is through with her? Happy Birthday America!!!
A clear-eyed (as opposed to misty-eyed, as in McCotter's absurd "Her name was Neda" speechifying) analysis of America's reaction toward the Iran situation comes from Steve Sailer:
>The Iranian election protests have apparently sputtered out, significantly faster than the Mexican election protests of 2006 that excited far less interest in the American press. Obviously, there are a lot of specific reasons for this disparity, but I think there's a general pattern emerging.
As English has become the world's dominant language, it has become easier for Americans to be influenced by foreigners who are fluent in English. For example, Americans follow political controversies in Iran by reading blogs by Iranians -- Iranians who like to write in English, of course, which is hardly a representative sample of Iranian opinion.
This means that the American press will tend to be biased toward political movements who represent the better educated, wealthier, more cosmopolitan, Internet-savvy, and more elitist elements in a foreign country (i.e., those likely to speak English well), while the American media will be less sympathetic toward parties comprised of the less educated, poorer, more xenophobic, offline, and more populist elements.
Thus, the American media was sympathetic toward Mousavi's complaints about vote-counting in Iran because because his supporters were good at communicating them to Americans, while the populist Ahmadinejad draws his support from uncool people who don't speak much English. In contrast, the complaints of Lopez-Obrador, the populist mayor of Mexico City, about vote-counting in Mexico were greeted with yawns in the U.S. press because his supporters are generally not very articulate in English, and his party's ideology is fairly anti-American and anti-globalist.
Being biased toward the better English speakers is not just a custom of convenience for the American media and the American government. There's a moral feeling as well that the better English speakers deserve to win because they are more like us. Of course, this is self-serving: promoting the triumph of English-proficient classes also promotes the global dominance of American media institutions.
This is hardly a new phenomenon, of course. FDR's Administration routinely overestimated Chiang Kai-shek's regime in part because it possessed a facade of charming English-speaking UCLA and Berkeley-educated officials, even though the real decisions were made in very Chinese ways that Washington never understood. Meanwhile, Mao's rebels had few English speakers, so FDR underestimated them.
Similarly, why did the U.S. side with Maliki's Iranian-aligned Shi-ites in Iraq, when it would have made more strategic sense to side with the anti-Iranian Iraqi nationalist Shi-ites of Muqtada al-Sadr? A big reason is that Maliki's gang, who had spent decades in Iran while their rivals were holed up in the slums of Iraq (such as Sadr City), were more cosmopolitan -- i.e., were better at speaking English.
http://isteve.blogspot.com/2009/07/medias-bias-toward-english-speaking.html
Frightening! There were lots of gunshots in this video. As Americans, we should appreciate the wisdom of our Founding Fathers.
Tyrannical rule by terrorism stands only if tyranny is allowed to stand by its citizenry. The longing for freedom and liberty can summon the courage of the ill oppressed who will muster and fight to the death, even with little of nothing in hand with which to defend themselves from the tyrants.
We were blessed with great thinkers of genius. In this alone, we could say we are a world apart from the chaos that has been and will be forthcoming in the streets of Iran. They were not that fortunate a short thirty years ago. It was tyranny from the beginning.
We, as Americans, have the means "being necessary to the security of a free State" to renounce "Prudence" and "when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism," we have the "right" and "duty" to "throw off" and "provide new guards."
Pray for them in that world which is truly a world away from us, however sufficient be your manner... it seems that something has altered their state of mind... *Courage great people. Liberty has Voice!!*
I don't believe I'll comment on Peter's vision of America, even though I would like to.
I will agree with saying *Thank you America. We solemnly recognize Your Independence Day*
*"Not he is great who can alter matter, but he who can alter my state of mind"* Emerson
I went to the web site listed in the video, http://www.ghthirdeye.com/ and found the date for the video is listed as June 20 (on the home page scroll down to 'more articles'). Murder, yes. But I think the date from your LA source might be incorrect. Hard to tell in the fog in any case.