Natural Order

I've been watching the news coming from the Middle East with a mixture of awe, wonder, and trepdiation. Iran has now been fully unmasked. Any pretense of it being an Islamic republic has been washed away. It is, as it really has been for years, just another authoritarian dictatorship.

What the people are doing there is worth noting, praising, and praying for. Openly defying the Supreme Leader in Iran is not the same as it is here. Here, one could rant and rave about the crushing of dissent in a Barnes and Noble in front of an entire section of anti-Bush books, all while Olberman droned on on the cafe's flatscreen.

Given a choice, it has been shown again, and again, that people will choose self-determination. A democratic process is not necessarily incongruent with Islam. Syria was recently handed down a stunning defeat in Lebanon at the ballot box. Iraq has had several elections with high turnouts. Iran has had an election rigged, the people are protesting, and the White House Press Secretary referred to the "vigorous debate".

Shooting protesters is not a vigorous debate, any more than rolling tanks through Tiannemen Square was. This president has the potential to be JFK. Why the fuck is he acting like Jimmy Carter?