In somewhat better news, it would seem that the crisis referenced here over the disallowing of reformist Iranian parliament members may not be over, after all: 117 Iranian lawmakers resign. Of interest is this:
Next week, [Parliament speaker Mehdi] Karroubi said each of the lawmakers will address parliament, explaining why he has resigned. Then, the legislature will vote on whether to accept or reject the resignations. The process is expected to take about a week.
If these addresses are made available to the public, and the resignations are accepted, then the Iranian regime has just signed on for a week of its dirty laundry being aired - which is still arguably better than the fallout of making these things closed sessions. The regime's best chance is to convince the Iranian parliament not to accept the resignations, which is going to be a trick, given that there's only 290 seats in Parliament to begin with. Yup, folks, this is a hardcore throwdown: almost half of the Parliament's essentially stating that there's no fragging point to being there anymore if the theocrats are going to keep diddling the elections. Is it going to be hardcore enough to start the long-looked for Second Revolution (which, a merciful God willing, will be a Velvet one)? I don't know, but I can feel the old triumph of hope over experience bubbling up again...
(Via Pejman, of course)
Moe
PS: Interesting timing on this, too. Probably just a coincidence, though.
If I might make a a writing suggestion: "referenced here" is bureaucrat-speak, common as it has become in recent years. "referred to here" is active, better writing.
Posted by: Gary Farber | February 02, 2004 at 09:42 PM