Inauguration Day, Iran Style

Ahmadinejad was sworn in today, but 180 members of the Iranian parliament decided to be no-shows. That's pretty ballsy given that Ahmadinejad and his thugs in the Basij arne't above murdering Iranians who stand up against Ahmadinejad and the regime which stole their votes and the election from Mirhussein Mousavi.

More than 180 Iranian MPs appear to have snubbed an invitation to celebrate President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s election win, local press reports say.

All 290 MPs were invited to the victory party on Wednesday night, but only 105 turned up, the reports say.

A BBC correspondent says the move is a sign of the deep split at the top of Iran after disputed presidential polls.

The Parliament is a mullah approved gaggle of politicians, so if they've decided in overwhelming numbers to snub Ahmadinejad, that is a pretty strong rebuff.

The problem is that the legislature may be next up for reprisal by Ahmadinejad. By stealing the election, there's every indication that Ahmadinejad isn't going to be constrained by Iranian law and will use the Supreme Ayatollah to sanction further actions that undermine what's left of the facade of Iranian "democracy" and push Iran fully into a totalitarian dictatorship. Ed at Hot Air also notes the importance of this action.

Mousavi isn't backing down either, although the street demonstrations are sporadic and some have been cancelled.


Where's the UN in all this? Given that all they could probably muster was a weakly worded letter of rebuke, their presence wouldn't exactly be noticed.

Ahmadinejad has called out President Obama for what he calls interfering in Iranian affairs. Well, that was a given regardless of whatever President Obama said. The US and the rest of the world, particularly the British and Israelis are bogeymen for Ahmadinejad and his cronies to pull out when the going gets tough and their designs to turn the Islamic Republic of Iran into the Islamic State become so blatant and overwhelming that Iranians can't help but notice that their votes have disappeared into the night.

One of Iran's ambassadors is taking to calling the protesters a minority, but the fact that 180+ members of the Iranian parliament snubbed Ahmadinejad shows that it's far more than just a minority. You could even argue that it's an overwhelming majority of Iranians.

The protests continue (screen cap from 6/24/2009). The police are present in large numbers, to head off potential demonstrations.

This video purports to show the damage done by police who act as little more than thugs to intimidate the locals into acquiescence.

This video shows the police gathering to quell demonstrations in Tehran:


Meanwhile, as riding the PATH train this morning a gentleman had a button on the lapel of his jacket which asked "Where is my Vote?" The words were laid out in the colors of the Iranian flag (green/white/red).

That's indeed the question that many Iranians are asking - where are their votes?