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Liars Figure
On Friday, Ayatollah Khamenei as the NYT says, "mocked the idea that the huge margin attributed to Mr. Ahmadinejad could have been won through fraud."
Yesterday, the spokesman for the Guardian Council admitted to discrepancies in the vote count that "could be over 3 million."
Let's see. Three million votes miscounted--sounds like a lot. But funny thing, it would still leave the claimed election margin at 11 million, and the result unchanged. The spokesman himself made the point that the errors he copped to "would not noticably (sic) affect the outcome of the election."
The new style of lying: Admit to inconsequential error.
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Inconsequential error? Perfect depiction of the myriad of numbers (and unmentioned numbers) being tossed out in support of a health-care system run by big insurance and against a single-payer system - which 72%of Americans favor.
Wasn't 'taxation without representation' a leading argument for a Revolution in 1776?
June 22, 2009 1:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Admit to some of the fraud but say it wouldn't have changed the outcome. I think it'll make matters worse for the government. They are safe for now as the government goon squads still remain loyal. But this is the beginning of the end for the current regime in Tehran. Their credibility has been irreparably damaged and the Iranians will not forget...it is only a matter of time.
June 22, 2009 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't assume it's fraud. It's an anomaly at this point. It might be explainable reasonably without fraud or error in the original vote (if people may vote in either of two places, for instance - but then there should be exactly comparable net large undercounts in those other areas).
If it was fraud, then the 3M might just be the tip of the iceberg of the fraud or problems. And if so, then 11M is hardly an obstacle.
Does anyone know how many voters were supposed to be on the rolls in the admitted 50 cities which combined to produce a 3M overcount? That is, what fraction is that?
Khamenei was clearly wrong about 11M if a secret consolidated process exists in the vote count system. If it did, a very small cabal could easily have tampered with voting records or vote subtotals in some dark room.
June 22, 2009 5:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
It isn't important whether I, you or anybody else outside of Iran feel it was fraud. The Iranian people seem to think it was fraud and with over 100% turnout in at least 50 cities who can blame them for thinking that.
The regime's days are numbered be it a week, a month, a year or however long they will be toppled.
June 22, 2009 9:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Admitting to a 3 million vote "discrepancy" could me a gambit to an election redo. One can at least hope.
June 22, 2009 4:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
I believe the term of art is "modified limited hangout".
A quick google check reveals that it has been used in recent years to refer to, among other things: the Papal (JPII) position on the sexual abuse of minors scandal; A-Rod; The NY Times on Judith Miller (by RWers, but still a lot of ostensible progressives practiced studied obtuseness on the 1st Amendment issues involved); Maureen Dowd; W F Buckley on gay marriage (another usage from the 'RWer than thou' camp); the CBS memo flap (again, the same phenomenon);
the NRO on Obama and Geithner (ditto); Alexandra Robbins on the Skull & Bones society; and so much more
Like political correctness, authentic progressivism is at the end of a long line for ladling out what was, after all, in legitimate substance always largely a progressive issue
June 22, 2009 6:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think this really shows that Iran is a PARTIAL democracy.
There is actually some review process, and the participants are not as cynical as our SCOTUS on a bad day. But will they go for a PARTIAL mockery of their own laws?
I also have mixed feelings about the reasoning that it is hard to see how good counting would make Ahmedinejad loose elections. Many points seem compelling. Yet, it reminds me this reasoning:
if even 1/4 of what we are being told of Saddam's WMDs is true, we have to attack
... but the actual percentage was zero. I would not suggest that NOBODY voted for Ahmedinejad, but once you sail away from cold and inhospitable shores of Reality, what is the limit how far can you go?
June 22, 2009 8:18 PM | Reply | Permalink