Iranian Opposition Arrested

Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, first under house arrest, have been taken by security forces. Their wives were forced to accompany then, and none have been seen or heard from since. Their location of detainment has yet to be identified, but it is speculated that they have become the latest occupants of the Heshmatiyeh jail in Tehran.

Mir Hossein Mousavi was the key figure of opposition to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Though he is not by any means a liberal, his conservative views are not nearly as extreme as President Ahmadinejad. He went as far as to break with Iranian political tradition and be seen holding his wife's hand during campaigning. Through various interviews, Mousavi made it clear that he thought Iran was in horrible danger if Ahmadinejad received another term. That could be one of the reasons he and Mehdi Karroubi called for peaceful demonstrations.

Mehdi Karroubi, former conciliator and presidential candidate in the discredited 2009 Iranian election, has played a strong hand in continuing to encourage protesters to voice their opposition to the government. While Karroubi supported the protests that began with the demand for reform within the government, he has continued to play a role when the demand for reform changed for one of revolution.


With Mousavi and Karroubi under arrest, the Iranian government could find itself in a better position to deal with suppression without having to endure a voice for those who are silenced. There is no indication that the level of activity of security forces will be reduced, and the protesters are finding themselves united but without further guidance. The next protest is scheduled for Tuesday; but without a strong voice from a leader, their efforts have a greater risk of clashing with security.

Low Voter Turnout

Voter turnouts in American elections have been to say the least poor. To increase participation in elections groups have been started such as “Vote or die” but the turnout still remains low. Yet political parties are glad to have just about fifty percent of eligible voters come out to the polls.

The low voter turnout is not entirely the American citizen’s fault a good example of this is the voter id laws “Requiring voters to show a state or federal government-issued photo ID card at the polls” (Hershey, Marjorie. 145). People who can’t drive because of a disability or people who can’t afford a car are hurt by this law. The proponents of this law are usually Republican and “Contend that the laws are needed to limit vote fraud” (Hershey, Marjorie. 145). Voter fraud tends to happen very rarely and “Large number of poor, minority, and disabled people-groups that tend to support Democrats-might lose their chance to vote” (Hershey, Marjorie. 145). Is it worth to avoid voting fraud to suppress people the right to vote simply because they don’t have a license? Is this hurting the democratic process that is supposed to have representatives elected by the people?

Another issue is the states who do not allow Election Day registration. The states that use EDR “Tend to have higher turnout rates, because citizens can cast a ballot even if they do not get interested enough to take part until the last, most engaging campaign” (Hershey, Marjorie. 144). It seems that by not having EDR is instantly going to cut down the amount of voters who would come to the polls. A recent example was the 2008 election “One expert estimated that about 9 Million eligible people, many of whom are less educated, lower income, or residentially mobile, tried but were unable to register” (Hershey, Marjorie. 144). 9 million is a pretty big number that amount of voters could have possibly swayed the 2008 election one way or another and increased voter turnout. Political parties and organizations like “Vote of die” are telling the American public to go to the polls when in some cases it is out of their power to do so.

American political parties were established to educate their citizens and keep the public informed, but the parties are only informing there registered party voters. The informed stayed informed while the people who aren’t informed are left in the dark. To increase voter turnout rate political parties might have to get after the states that enforce the voting laws in order to increase voting in the United States.

Works Cited

Hershey, Marjorie Randon. Party Politics in America. New York: Pearson Longman, 2011. Print.

The Family

I first looked into the Wikipedia entry for this group, C Street House A.K.A The Family, and it looked like a standard religious cause for awhile, but matters got more interesting when it is mentioned that it was originally set up in opposition to The New Deal. I don’t quite see the religious zeal in opposition to such a thing, which is meant to help the poor generally. “Journalist Jeff Sharlet did intensive research in the Fellowship's archives, before they were closed to the public. He also spent a month in 2002 living in a Fellowship house near Washington, and wrote a magazine article describing his experiences. In his 2008 book about the Family, he criticized their theology as an "elite fundamentalism" that fetishizes political power and wealth, consistently opposes labor movements in the U.S. and abroad, and teaches that laissez-faire economic policy is "God's will." He criticized their theology of instant forgiveness for powerful men as providing a convenient excuse for elites who commit misdeeds or crimes, allowing them to avoid accepting responsibility or accountability for their actions.” This quote in particular was so superb at summing up theology of the group I couldn’t attempt to paraphrase it better. What is also disheartening is that it mentions that tons of current and past members of congress are members of these breakfast clubs. It is alarming to say the least.

The Family has indoctrinated the members with a firm belief that Jesus is here-and-now and is a “man’s man”. These beliefs have carried over into the realities for this group, and have also come up during the National Prayer Breakfast. The Family started this tradition in 1953 and every U.S. President has attended since its creation. The National Prayer Breakfast is the groups only publicized event, and it is believed that backroom deals take place while the chosen people who attend get to meet key members of Congress and potentially the President. The

The extramarital affairs information on Wikipedia wasn’t that extensive or that exciting because I am frankly not surprised that people with power are cheating on their wives. This seems to be a relatively common theme for most elite, and it always puts a smile on my face when someone who is holier-than-thou is caught doing something one would think is not quite so holy. Of a more interesting note the tax exemption and legality of it seems common for front groups posing as religious. The fact that other churches are speaking out against C Street shows something about how they are perceived. The other key piece was the death for gays bill in Uganda. I am again not surprised that the same group that allows known murders or those who support the practice would be intolerant to the minorities. The gays don’t have power and the torturing generals do, power is their game, go figure.

Libya Rising

Riots and looting have been going on for the past few days in Libya. There have been reports of at least 300 - 1,000 dead. The protestors have been calling for the ouster of the entire Qaddafi family, although one of the sons of Muammer el-Qaddafi, Seif el-Qaddafi had been known as a good candidate for control of the country before the recent events. Seif el-Qaddafi stated that the country needed to get behind his father or there would be a bloody civil war. The other sons have been known as spending their large amounts of oil money on pointless expenses like having famous singers such as Beyonce, Usher, and Mariah Carey sing at their parties. The riots against their empire have led to hundreds if not thousands of deaths from the leader’s mercenaries.

The mercenaries that are employed by Muammer el-Qaddafi are likely veterans of wars in Africa. These loosely bound bands of thugs have been the ones committing the murders of hundreds for the most part. The military and air force have been declining to shoot upon civilians against the orders of Muammer el-Qaddafi. Some branches have even started to help the protestors, partially because the branches are set upon tribal lines and the tribes that have helped have been against the ruling tribe. The defections and massive riots are leading up to a scheduled protest on Friday February 25^th, not to mention that several cities have already fallen to the rebels.

Many nations around the world have started to evacuate their citizens from Libya. Turkey has been doing the most work in this regard because it has already evacuated over 5,000 people. The U.S. has a ferry that is stuck in Tripoli and has been trying to evacuate its citizens as well as offering assistance to Brazil. The high winds have made the oceans currently impossible to navigate for the U.S.’s ferry though. Obama also issued a statement condemning the use of violence in Libya and stating that there should be a united decision on what to do. Hillary Clinton also mentioned that “everything will be on the table”. For now Qaddafi has bunkered down in the capital and has started to have tanks roll in. Only time will tell how this all ends up, but it may very well be the third revolution in months.

It's Worse than We Thought!

Take a look at the 11 Charts  presented in this Mother Jones article.  Although Mother Jones is a progressive independent publication, statistics used are from reputable sources.  The middle class barely exists anymore.  The average income of the lowest 90% of Americans is less than $32,000. a year! 

The first chart shows just how few people make enormous amounts of money.  Even within the top 10%, the average salary is $164,647 (the approximate salary of Members of Congress).  The gap between the bottom 90% and the top 10% then is $133,403.  The gap between the wealthiest one-hundredth of one percent and the bottom 90% is a whopping $27,310,968.  This doesn't even begin to account for amassed wealth at the top levels....  The amounts are mind boggling. 

Household incomes for most of us have been stagnant for the past 30 years--we are getting nowhere.  The wealthy though have done very well.  The story is even bleaker when we look at after tax income.  Most of us get less, the wealthy on the other hand have increased their share of the nation's wealthy by over 120%.

CEOs are now averaging income at the rate of 185 times that of the average worker!  Other estimates put it at 263 times that of the average worker.  This has fallen from 500 times in 2000.  But, to put this in perspective, in 1980 executives made 42 times more than the average worker. You can see trends here.  

You can investigate even more statistical analysis of wealth concentration in America by looking at G. William Domhoff's article, Power in America: Wealth, Income, and Power, from the University of California at Santa Cruz.  Domhoff even compares the United States to other countries.  The concentration of both wealth and income in the US is very high in comparison to other industrialized democracies.

Even Corporations, always whining about taxes now account for hardly any federal tax revenue--less than 8%.  Is anyone mad yet?

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The Family

I first looked into the Wikipedia entry for this group, and it looked like a standard religious cause for awhile, but matters got more interesting when it is mentioned that it was originally set up in opposition to The New Deal. I don’t quite see the religious zeal in opposition to such a thing, which is meant to help the poor generally. “Journalist Jeff Sharlet did intensive research in the Fellowship's archives, before they were closed to the public. He also spent a month in 2002 living in a Fellowship house near Washington, and wrote a magazine article describing his experiences. In his 2008 book about the Family, he criticized their theology as an "elite fundamentalism" that fetishizes political power and wealth, consistently opposes labor movements in the U.S. and abroad, and teaches that laissez-faire economic policy is "God's will." He criticized their theology of instant forgiveness for powerful men as providing a convenient excuse for elites who commit misdeeds or crimes, allowing them to avoid accepting responsibility or accountability for their actions.” This quote in particular was so superb at summing up theology of the group I couldn’t attempt to paraphrase it better. What is also disheartening is that it mentions that tons of current and past members of congress are members of these breakfast clubs. It is alarming to say the least.

The Family has indoctrinated the members with a firm belief that Jesus is here-and-now and is a “man’s man”. These beliefs have carried over into the realities for this group, and have also come up during the National Prayer Breakfast. The Family started this tradition in 1953 and every U.S. President has attended since its creation. The National Prayer Breakfast is the groups only publicized event, and it is believed that backroom deals take place while the chosen people who attend get to meet key members of Congress and potentially the President.

The extramarital affairs information on Wikipedia wasn’t that extensive or that exciting because I am frankly not surprised that people with power are cheating on their wives. This seems to be a relatively common theme for most elite, and it always puts a smile on my face when someone who is holier-than-thou is caught doing something one would think is not quite so holy. Of a more interesting note the tax exemption and legality of it seems common for front groups posing as religious. The fact that other churches are speaking out against C Street shows something about how they are perceived. The other key piece was the death for gays bill in Uganda. I am again not surprised that the same group that allows known murders or those who support the practice would be intolerant to the minorities. The gays don’t have power and the torturing generals do, power is their game, go figure.

Libya, A World In Decay

Riots and looting have been going on for the past few days in Libya. There have been reports of at least 300 - 1,000 dead. The protestors have been calling for the ouster of the entire Qaddafi family, although one of the sons of Muammer el-Qaddafi, Seif el-Qaddafi had been known as a good candidate for control of the country before the recent events. Seif el-Qaddafi stated that the country needed to get behind his father or there would be a bloody civil war. The other sons have been known as spending their large amounts of oil money on pointless expenses like having famous singers such as Beyonce, Usher, and Mariah Carey sing at their parties. The riots against their empire have led to hundreds if not thousands of deaths from the leader’s mercenaries.

The mercenaries that are employed by Muammer el-Qaddafi are likely veterans of wars in Africa. These loosely bound bands of thugs have been the ones committing the murders of hundreds for the most part. The military and air force have been declining to shoot upon civilians against the orders of Muammer el-Qaddafi. Some branches have even started to help the protestors, partially because the branches are set upon tribal lines and the tribes that have helped have been against the ruling tribe. The defections and massive riots are leading up to a scheduled protest on Friday February 25^th, not to mention that several cities have already fallen to the rebels.

Many nations around the world have started to evacuate their citizens from Libya. Turkey has been doing the most work in this regard because it has already evacuated over 5,000 people. The U.S. has a ferry that is stuck in Tripoli and has been trying to evacuate its citizens as well as offering assistance to Brazil. The high winds have made the oceans currently impossible to navigate for the U.S.’s ferry though. Obama also issued a statement condemning the use of violence in Libya and stating that there should be a united decision on what to do. Hillary Clinton also mentioned that “everything will be on the table”. For now Qaddafi has bunkered down in the capital and has started to have tanks roll in. Only time will tell how this all ends up, but it may very well be the third revolution in months.