A Little Of The Old In And Out



In: Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Could Mir-Hossein Mousavi win the Iranian elections? At post time the answer was unclear (it may take a day to untangel the results), but it is not inconceivable. Right now both Ahmadinejad and Mousavi have declared victory. According to The Guardian, "Mousavi supporters (were) being urged to cast their votes in schools rather than mosques for fear of vote rigging." Even if Mousavi loses -- and we really hope he doesn't -- if he falls within the 5 million vote cushion it may be added momentum to set up a victory by more democratic forces four years from now. From Time magazine:

"He also criticized, as he did during the campaign, Ahmadinejad's incendiary rhetoric on international issues like Israel and the Holocaust: 'In our foreign policy we have confused fundamental issues ... that are in our national interest with sensationalism that is more of domestic use.' Mousavi was unexpectedly candid about his willingness to negotiate the nature of Iran's nuclear program. He said there were two issues: peaceful nuclear uses, which was Iran's right under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and possible weaponization. 'Personally, I view this second part, which is both technical and political, as negotiable,' he said. '[But] we will not accept our country being deprived of the right to [peaceful] nuclear energy.'

"As President, Mousavi wouldn't have nearly the power that the Supreme Leader, Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, does, especially in the areas of foreign and national-security policy. But he did express a belief that the remarkable street demonstrations of the past week would basically change the nature of the power structure — in effect, forcing the Supreme Leader to pay more attention to public opinion. We asked what would happen if he lost. 'Change has already started," he said. "Only part of this change is about winning in the elections. The other part will continue, and there is no going back.'"

But if Mousavi actually wins, it will be a definite reset between US and Iran. When was the last time you paid attention to an iranian election? And when was the last time Iran extended the vote close three times due to voter interest?



Out: Digital TV Luddites. Who among us hasn't taken care of their analogue issues as of yet? Who among us has been "Media Left Behind." For about a year this is all we've had to endure -- and it was already postponed several months! From The New York Times:

"On Friday morning, some stations were already indicating that some viewers had been caught off-guard. WAFB, the CBS affiliate in Baton Rouge, switched at 7 a.m. Central time, and an hour later the station reported on Twitter that its call center was 'going crazy.'

"'Believe it or not, a lot of people saying they didn’t know anything about the switch,' the station said."

One wonders what percentage of these late-adopters voted for the McCain-Palin ticket.