Iron-fisted Dictatorship Turns Out to be Home to Thriving Democracy

[Kwahati]

There has been a huge turnout for Iran's closely-fought election as incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seeks a second term in office.

"Voter turnout has been unprecedented," election commission chief Kamran Daneshjoo said, as long queues were reported at polling stations.

Polling has been extended by three hours to 2100 local time (1630 GMT).

Mr Ahmadinejad faces a strong challenge from former PM Mir Hossein Mousavi in a campaign dominated by the economy.

Full Article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8096411.stm

Gotta give the Iranians credit: they have their elections on Jome (Friday) which is a day off every week (they call it a tateele which literally translates to "holiday") so, naturally, they are seeing an estimated 80% voter turnout which blows the US's 57% in 2008 (our highest turnout since 1968) right out of the water.

Note: sorry for messy transliterations. There's no agreed upon way to transliterate Farsi into the roman alphabet and I doubt that SGT is set up to deal with the Farsi alefbeh.

[Kwahati]

My roommate is at work. He is a Farsi Linguist (as I used to be). Presently, he has very little to do at work so he is doing "language study time". Iranian movies universally suck, so he's watching the news in Farsi. Of course, the only thing that's on Iranian news (or any news in Farsi) right now is election coverage. The following is a series of text messages between him and myself.

Roommate: You know what they are missing from Iranian election coverage?

Me: Results that aren't rigged?

Roommate: No...a big touch screen. I'd find waiting for results much more entertaining with speculation using a tv

Roommate: Seriously: Three a$$holes that are sitting around a desk makes me want to punch kittens. Didn't they learn that election coverage technology has advanced?

[Big Wallaby]

That he would ever want to punch kittens kinda scares me.

Give the kitten to me. Or felinefan.

[felinefan]

If you want to punch something that needs to be punched, besides SGs, try punching the lights out of backyard breeders, puppy and kitten mill owners, animal hoarders, people who stage and attend dog and rooster fights, as well as landlords who refuse to allow pets. Read my blog for more info.

Recently one of my cyberbuddies on another board was forced to surrender his dog and cat, because one of his neighbors complained. This guy has had the dog for a number of years, the cat he personally rescued after it was thrown from a car into a ravine. He managed to rehome the cat with a friend, but he'd been trying to find a home for the dog, but apparently in his small town nobody had a heart big enough to take in a deaf dog. He was forced to call animal control, and I got a PM today that the dog was put down a day after it was taken to the shelter. :mad: He's on disability, and can't afford to move.
What really gets me is, this neighbor of his apparently decided to complain because my buddy was allowed to keep a dog and cat, and he wasn't. As I said, he'd had the dog for some time, and the guy decides to complain now? Some people.... Why didn't he complain earlier? Apparently the complex is officially no-pets, but the landlord allowed him to keep the dog because he was trying to find a new home for it; I don't know if the dog was a rescue or not. But that was totally unnecessary. I think there might have been something else going on with that neighbor, but I don't have the info. I sent my condolences to my buddy.

[turkeyham]

Out here, we can now have cats and dogs at our condo. ;)