[...] the rest here: Week in the News | WBUR and NPR – On Point with Tom Ashbrook Tags: behind-the, bluetooth, edge, for-federal, headlines, heat, his-life, iran-, News, nfc, [...]

The seeds broadcast in Iran’s hopeful moment now lay patiently below the soil.

The coming days will show what the Iranian dictatorship must do to preserve Iran as they wish it to be for themselves.

Though Islam may have been born in blood steel and ambition, the hopeful future of Islam will learn to find virtue and fraternity in humankind.

The Starbucks-Going crowd in Tehran is well-off, somewhat ethnicly polarized crowd. Most of them have been to overseas and/or are under the influence of underground holywood fanfare. While the rest of the country has been suffering with drenching effects of decades of sanctions. They are doing anything and everything to provoke the security forces: hitting them so that they can capture pictures and video-clips. They are burning anything in site and destroying property. If we were to do this in this country, our butts would be in a sling within minutes.

Elections in Iran

3 weeks before the election, Mussavi was not known well. The other candidates were not any factors. Ahmedinejad was literally guaranteed to win; with well over 60% and 20% undecided.

Since that poll, Ahmedinejad worked in rural areas to solidify his lead to capture more undecided, by giving away truckloads of food and some cash money, just to show the voters that he is on their side.

Right before the elections, the western media started with Mussavi’s Wife = Michelle Obama campaign and elevated Mussavi to “popular”. We all know, within two weeks before the election, half of the voters do not go in opposite direction, if the leading candidate screws up big time.

Mussavi’s backers were in power before. Though they were “reformists”, Ahmedinejad was elected just because the Reformists were “corrupt”.

Before an establishment does hocus-pocus with elections to protect their power, they first have a pattern of corruption. “Money” is always the first sign of corruption. However, there has not been a single accusation of financial corruption with Ahmedinejad government. Example: One of his top officials has cheated on the Education part of his background, Ahmedinejad fired him within minutes.

If you ignore what you have been fed by the media, right-wing and comedians, Iranians have voted and elected Ahmedinejad fair and square. This guy is a straight-shooter, has never ever had a single corruption in his political life. He has always been on the side of the poor and non-elite in a country which is on the target board of “international” hit list for years, for no logical reason.

dianna g your making some sweeping statements here.
What facts are they based on? Are you there now?
Are you a supporter of Ahmadinejad?
How is that sanctions to the entire country of Iran only effect one segment of society.

Also how do you know who these people are?

Same for you brianna how do you know that Ahmedinejad was elected fair and square?

I have to assume your getting the same information the rest of us outside of Iran are getting.
What are you basing your statements on?

I don’t know who one this election and from what it seems to me it does not matter as Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the one who calls the shots anyway.

Ahmedinejad has done a lot of damage to Iran in the international sphere and he has not helped the poor as you say. Inflation in Iran is out of control and it seems to me that the economy is a mess.

It is interesting that two women, I am assuming you both are women would support a man who tried to make a laws to repress women even more.

Obama’s poll numbers for his presidency and for his policies are starting to fall significantly (according to several polls),the best news of the week by far!

Thank you Iran! Wonderful Riots, the Demonstrators in Tehran! Great Job, The Media! Keep up the Good Work, Pundits!

We don’t have to discuss our illegal occuptions, anymore. Let’s just talk about Iran.

Where is Afghanistan? What is Iraq? Gaza, who? Is Gitmo edible? Which Palestine? Never heard of the word “torture”.

We lost the Agenda, again!!!

Ahmedinejad Israel
Israel = Putney
Therefore … Putney Ahmedinejad

Putney, Putney, Putney

You have a vested interest in the Regime Change in Iran, as if any of the Demonstrator’s in the Streets of Tehran is in Love with your little problem Country in the Middle East.

Israel hates Ahmedinejad
Putney loves Israel
Therefore … Putney hates Ahmedinejad

Is it possible that both sides are right? That even without the vote rigging Mr. Ahmadinejad would have won the election in his own.

Lilya your nuts. Are you aware that you sound like a 9 year old child.

It is clear that your not capable of rational debate or critical thinking.

Obama’s not a centrist? Because he’s building up the size of the federal government? That might be a coherent point of view were it not for the fact that so-called conservatives have done just as much to increase the size of the government over the past two decades as so-called Democrats have.

Bill McKenzie is nothing more than a right wing hack.
I would like to remind Mr. McKenzie that the bulk of the deficit is Bush’s shoulders. His government was in charge when all this went down. It was Bush who wasted billions in Iraq and the tax cuts.

On the subject of Obama’s new regulatory proposal: Wonderful Jack Beatty is on the money (pardon the pun) once again. Until Obama manages to get free of the stranglehold Wall Street has on the Democratic Party, these will have at best a band aid effect. Perhaps, like Lincoln and McClellan, Obama needs evidence that the Old Order can’t be brought back to life. He needs to wait for this papering over approach to fail in order be able to move toward a more thoroughgoing set of policies. Let’s hope he has the time.

Thanks too, Jack for beating back this nonsense about too much government spending.

Trudy, too, is right on about the shadow banking.

THESE IDEAS MUST BE MORE WIDELY HEARD TO BEAT BACK THE OLD TIRED PROPAGANDA ABOUT TOO MUCH GOVERNMENT, FEAR OF THE DEFICIT, etc.

We need an “ignore” button in the comments section. I’m sure many apologists for Democrats would find it useful for my comments, and I’d definitely use it for Lilya and her illogical statements.

Rats! you stopped me. I was just starting to log in to make my yearly contribution to WBUR, in the web, when I heard the inconsiderate way in which the On-Point panel dismissed the Iranian caller this morning. There was not the smallest attempt to understand the pride of the caller while speaking about the country of his birth, or neither tolerance for opinions rooted in his faith (if that’s what moved him to call). In short: I felt that the On-Point panel reacted as King George III on July 4, 1776.
Regarding my contribution, I will log in again when I feel better about WBUR again.

Lilya should re-read this.
We welcome comments from all of our listeners. Please stay on topic, be civil, and be brief.

Look at the Signs that are used in protest marches in Tehran.

Count the ones in English vs. the ones in Farsi.

English ones are more in numbers – 3 to 1.

This enthusiastic sour-grapes stuff is designed for the Western Media. We are feeding into it.

Those protesters in Iran, just don’t understand Democracy!!!!

Don’t they know that in a “Democracy” elections are decided by the Supreme Court!!!Uhm…sorry, by the Supreme Leader!

We are witnessing the collective amnesia of a self-righteous media or is-it a deliberate exercise of public intoxication?

Look at the Signs that are used in protest marches in Tehran.

This enthusiastic sour-grapes stuff is designed for the Western Media. We are feeding into it.

Your kidding, right? Your analysis is based on how many signs are in English. I rest my case.

By the way Lilya are you aware that Israel wants Ahmadinejad to win, it gives them villain, a figure head of extremism.

To Bill McKenzie: Yes, Single Payer will cost money – trillions. In fact, we spend 2.6 trillion every year, mostly on fee for service (incentivizing more procedures) to over 1300 for profit insurance entities. You seem to be one of many who would prefer to pay hundreds, or more likely thousands more per year to a private company than cough up a smaller sum in new taxes- and get universal coverage in the bargain.

I have a friend who pay about $800 per month for health insurance he does not use. Why because the deductible is $2500. He say he has the insurance for emergencies, which if he read the fine print on his policy probably wont cover much.

He has been sick recently with flu like symptoms and has not been to the doctor because he can’t afford the $100 or more it would cost him. From what he has told he might have bronchitis. So here’s my question to all you people who are for keeping the status quo. Why? Why do we put up with this blatant robbery?
This poor man is paying this company $800 per month and has been doing so for years. There robbing him and offer no services. I should add that he is self employed and this is the best he could get fro what he could afford.

This kind of crap has to stop. If the insurance companies want to sell us policies then they need to be fair and regulated. they should not be allowed to bankrupt people who get sick. There are millions of people in this country like my friend, I’m lucky I have pretty good coverage but it’s expensive. We all should have it and it should not cost more than 2% to 5% of annual income.

Bill McKenzie is a joke, his and most of the leadership of the repubican party have no answers for health-care,and quite frankly do not wish to help the uninsured or any social benefits.

again no answer from the repubs? no surprise,i wish obama well though i wish for a public option but understand the politics of it. and listening to mccains comment on iran im happy he is not our pres that was both silly and foolish statments he made.

I hope the dems can stand up and help push a plan, not like MA. health-care that only covers most in name only

also jane c is a very sad sub for Tom A. they must be someone else who could fill in for him

Has no one at NPR figured out that Jane Clayson has about as much personality as a puddle of melted vanilla ice cream?

[...] On Point: Week in the News [...]

Liyla :I am really impressed that you’re spending all your time on the streets in Tehran to calculate the ratio of Farsi/English signs! I wish for one moment we put away any other agenda rather than Iran itself when we talk about what is going on INSIDE Iran!Yes we have heard of word torture,we live ,study,work under those rules,being punished for just letting one word out not even criticizing the Supreme leader…We have seen all.
To people who respect “justice and democracy”:those signs written in English for the first time to let “people” all over the world be able to read them! Sorry Liyla! right now nothing can bring Iranian will down,not Basij,not supreme leader’s treats ,not any mocking noises..need help to read Farsi signs? I’d happily help you unless you have your own sources!!And talking about corruption -free Ahmadinejad ?FYI there are some other kinds of corruption : all the bloody oil money is flushed down to their own militia,overseas “brothers ” and paying cash for elections to vote for him! Don’t believe it? ask your reliable resources reporting there is no poor among the protesters!! they might have watched the presidential debates,right?
to their own militia,overseas “brothers ” and paying cash for elections to vote for him! Don’t believe it? ask your reliable resources reporting there is no poor among the protestors!!

Thank you Tom ,On Point and NPR,keep up the good work on Iran!

20 June
Day 1 and counting.

” It will be a long hot summer, ”

for our Iranian sisters and brothers who risk all in the name of dignity and justice.

While we are talking about Iran, elections, etc….poor Egyptians are saying: What about us?

You are relentless dear Lilya. Trust me, they are not forgotten, I for one, could never forget them.

I feel Tom Ashbrook is a contemporary national treasure. And I’ve assumed that he hand-picked his guest host Jane Clayson with the same intelligence that he brings Jack Beatty to the weekly discussion. Jack is consistently a breath of fresh air to the punditry of popular news media. To me, Jane epitomizes the phrase “On Point.” You who criticize – don’t confuse a lack of “Personality” with astuteness and professional grace. I relish her shows just because of her differences from Tom.
Thank you WBUR!

Year 2003 We were marching in Washington DC, hundreds of thousands of us.

According to the polls, 72% of American People were against the illegal occupation of Iraq.

We were about to graduate from high-shcool back then, during the march. Capitol Police on horses deliberately charged towards us, around Lafayette Square at the back of the White House. For absolutely no reason. Just to scare us violently.

Where was CNN? Where were the talk shows?

Courage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWiSlVddLH8&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fandrewsullivan%2Etheatlantic%2Ecom%2Fthe%5Fdaily%5Fdish%2F&feature=player_embedded

Mousavi: I Am Ready For Death.

Lilya your busted. You just wrote that you were in high school in 2003. Which would make you 17 or 18 if you were a senior. You recently stated you were 26. It’s 2009 the math is not adding up here. What month was that again?

You need to get your stories right.

I don’t believe you were in Washington. I think you make all this up because your a fake. You crave attention and fro some reason it is this forum is your target.

Courage is a lot of things. Courage is not sitting here typing in bromides.

I dread the Kennedy bill for medical insurance. That Senator has never crafted a long lasting bill that ever fixed a problem. He was the one that created HMO’s and looked how that turned out. Toss in No Child Left Behind, (Kennedy wrote it), Medicare Drug Plan (broke the taxpayer’s bank),etc…can’t that guy just retire.

Constructive criticism of Clayson – she seems to too often not keep up with the conversation, instead paying attention to her outline or whatever direction she wanted to steer the conversation. You have a caller or a guest say something slightly divergent, and Clayson proceeds to say whatever she had prepared in her mind before the caller/guest started talking, usually with a “hmm”. She just needs to get better at anticipating potential tangents, and running with them. Ashbrook gets caught offguard too sometimes. It’s probably just something you get better at with practice. I know I am not that good in conversations to follow both my own train of thought, and the novel points brought up by who I am talking to.

Putney, the Sherlock Holmes of this board

I lost two years because none of the high-schools here accepted direct transfer of courses from my original country in Eastern Europe.

The subject was the protests in Washington DC and why they were not covered while we were freezing, before the occupation of Iraq was in full force.

Not, my personal life. Please grow up, and stop personalizing the postings, OK?

2002-2008 We cannot show burial ceremonies of the troops on TV
2009-…. We can show, but the media will not

What’s the difference

Lilya your the one who personalizes everything.
You call me names, you insult people how don’t agree with your agenda. Your the one who posts personal information about you life, not me. Your the one who seems to have some kind of mental or emotional problems.
You rant and you post insults and then you dismiss people who question your BS.

Now you say your from Eastern Europe, which is interesting because you have been ranting about Eastern European Jews in a lot of your posts.

Here’s a little clip for you that sums up the main differences between your little high school protest in Washington and what is going on in Iran.

The more you post the more you come across as a very confused person who is reacting and not using any rational or critical thinking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g7Gln6hxfQ

Lilya you make awful comments about the Holocaust and seem to support Ahmadinejad because it lines up with your agenda on Israel. You use insults and name calling and now tell me not to make it personal. You act like a spoiled child. You make these outrageous comments and expect to get away with it. You think your on the side of what is “right” and that I’m wrong. However you never deal with nuance or the complexities of the politics and the levels of complexity some of the issues you right about demand. Instead you look for simple slogans and try to change the subject.

It is clear to me that Ahmadinejadis is a despot.
I don’t have enough information to form a good opinion on Mousavi. From what I am seeing however does inform me that something major is going on in Iran. It also seems that what is happening there is out of Mousavi’s hands.
It seems to me that he was caught by surprise by the events after the election.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/13/iran-demonstrations-viole_n_215189.html

Yes, Putney

A poor Girl in Tehran was shot dead. Nobody knows how accidental it was and what the circumstances are.

Therefore, it is OK for some countries to bomb some other people from the air and kill hundreds of them every day.

So, what is your point for bringing up such a tragady and abusing it to further your agenda?

Every country goes thru its internal struggles. But no other country has been meddled from the outside as much as the countries in the Middle East – except “1″, of course.

AIPAC’s phone lines in Washington must be very busy these days with outgoing calls to the Congress about Iran.

I don’t have an agenda. Except to point out that your arguments all seem flawed. Your consistent alt least in this area.
A poor Girl in Tehran was shot dead. Nobody knows how accidental it was and what the circumstances are.
An amazing statement, I’m sure if this happened in Gaza you would be the first to say that she was murdered by the Israelis. You support the Palestinian cause and yet here is an example of a segment of the Iranian population doing very much the same thing as the Palestinians are doing in context to their political situation and yet you are supporting a regime that would shoot an unarmed woman.

Your intire political ideology is flawed and based on some absurd warped notion of history and geopolitics.

You keep posting these absurd diatribes.
You use generalities and comments such as this chestnut;Therefore, it is OK for some countries to bomb some other people from the air and kill hundreds of them every day. This comment has no baring on anything I have said. I don’t support the wars in Iran or Afghanistan and never have. So what’s your point here.
What’s your thesis? I have to ask because the only one you advocate is anti-Israeli in some form or another.

You keep posting, you keep digging this huge whole for yourself.

I don’t have an agenda. Except to point out that your arguments all seem flawed. Your consistent alt least in this area.
A poor Girl in Tehran was shot dead. Nobody knows how accidental it was and what the circumstances are.
An amazing statement which says more about you than you think. I’m sure if this happened in Gaza you would be the first to say that she was murdered by the Israelis. You support the Palestinian cause and yet here is an example of a segment of the Iranian population doing very much the same thing as the Palestinians are doing in context to their political situation and yet you are supporting a regime that would shoot an unarmed woman.

Sorry typo…

Your entire political ideology is flawed and based on some absurd warped notion of history and geopolitics.

You keep posting these absurd diatribes.
You use generalities and comments such as this chestnut; Therefore, it is OK for some countries to bomb some other people from the air and kill hundreds of them every day.

This comment has no baring on anything I have said. I don’t support the wars in Iran or Afghanistan and never have. So what’s your point here.
What’s your thesis? I have to ask because the only one you advocate is anti-Israeli in some form or another.

You keep posting, you keep digging this huge hole.

Lilya Lopekha are you an apologist for the current Iranian government? Seems like it.

A poor Girl in Tehran was shot dead. Nobody knows how accidental it was and what the circumstances are.

As I read this comment it is clear that your trying to degrade this persons death, as you do other tragedies, because they do not serve your agenda. Nobody knows if it was accidental? You can’t be serious, someone just happened to set off a high caliber rifle in the middle of the street and it happened to hit her in the head.
That’s what your saying here. Your a real piece of work.

A poor Girl in Tehran was shot dead. Nobody knows how accidental it was and what the circumstances are.
– Lilya Lopekha

Her name was Nadar and she was shot in the chest by an Iranian security man from a roof.

The whole world knows now Lilya.
You have some smart answer now?

A poor Girl in Tehran was shot dead. Nobody knows how accidental it was and what the circumstances are.
– Lilya Lopekha

apologies to Neda I misspelled her name the first time.

Her name was Neda and she was shot in the chest by an Iranian security man from a roof.

The whole world knows now Lilya.
You have some smart answer now?

lilya is a politically correct nut ….Now that the tide is turning in Iran ….see how fast she is going to change her tune because she is the kind of person who align herself with power …Since Jews are easy to scapegoat that’s her target .when power changes she turns to the next ….She is a phony …..

Yes, I do have a smart answer

http://palestinian.ning.com/photo/photo/slideshow?feed_url=http%3A%2F%2Fpalestinian.ning.com%2Fphoto%2Fphoto%2FslideshowFeed%3Fsort%3D%26screenName%3D%26id%3D%26tag%3D%26useTags%3D1%26fullscreen%3Dtrue%26x%3DJ5vQ895hVXw3xkDcsTaT1mwWG71EjcUd

Not impressed. I know what is happening in Gaza.
It’s pretty bad, but your tactic of changing the subject is the issue. This is not a smart answer or a “smart” ass answer. If you think your being clever with a cute slide show your not.

Putney,
Why don’t you to a protest march in your city, and tap Police Officer on the should, just to say “Hi”.

Before you know it, the entire squad will pile on top of you and beat you up before you say “H”.

Look at the pictures from Iran, how many of them show that the Police is attacked with sticks, rocks and fire bombs. How many of them have destroying property, flames and violance by the protesters.

Apply these images to your own country or any country in Europe. How do you think the police would react.

Stop dreaming and chasing lies in different venues to justify your position in the Mother of All Venues of where the problem is.

Lilya are you familiar with the expression too dumb for words…

Dear Putney Swope,

There is a phrase, ‘you should never argue with a crazy man.’ (Billy Joel)

Do yourself a favor; if you see a post from a known nut, just ignore it. I do. Their words are their own worst enemy.

It’s bad enough having to scroll past Lilya Lopekha (propagandist/unconstructive/personality disorder), mike (propagandist/cutter & paster), aj (Lilya-who else would agree with her?), and all the non-contributing members of the site. There is no need to contribute to it.

Frederic your right, I should stop enabling her.

It’s time to make the comparison between Tiananmen Square and Tehran. There is no difference – China and Iran are one and the same – a dictatorship. While the mullahs and the communist party members consider themselves to be benevolent, a dictatorship is a dictatorship. They are in truth foul and evil as ever there was.

aww Putney,

u should have started with frederic

Oh dear.

My apologies to Mike.

I looked back at the past year’s archive and I could not find an long passages of quoted material from Mike. All of Mike’s comments appear original and thoughtful.

I should have taken the time to verify who I’m thinking about before writing. I am sorry. I will presume that was offensive and unfair. I will also look back to see why I may have developed a negative bias towards Mike.

btw who was cutting and pasting massive blocks of text?

This was funny.

British Police trainees showing how to use guns to grandmothers in Afghanistan who inspire to be Police Officers.

Every candidate is sitting down on the floor, with their burka, and “police boots” and a complete set of an hand gun set in a box in front of them.

Training through a translator, they are learning how to use their “free” guns. They say: when they see a Taliban, they will kill them.

How can we royally screw up a society again, that was being screwed for hundreds of years. Pit poor Afghanis against each other, and then collect your paycheck with Overseas Service Bonus, and call it a day.

Don’t the western/profit powers have any conscience?

Don’t the western/profit powers have any conscience?

I saw this video and when I read your post I thought it was relevant. Different era, same American Hegemony killing civilians. But like the courageous protestors against 03 Iraq invasion there were protesters against Vietnam too, and in time, they too would be on the right side of history. If you have time/energy enough, check it out (5 min).

P.S. Don’t forget to turn your volume all the way down before you play it, then adjust volume as necessary. I hate when I forget to do that.

http://worldfocus.org/blog/2009/01/15/agent-orange-devastates-generations-of-vietnamese/3625/