As Iran hardline fundies prepare to end Democracy, will media ask Bush any

[papau]

thing about his plan to stop this - or are we going to wink-wink at the Terrorist funding hardliners in Iran and say - go ahead - take over the country?

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAE91EWNQD.html

Hundreds of Candidates Withdraw From Iran Elections in Support of Disqualified Contenders
By Ali Akbar Dareini
Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - More than 500 liberal-leaning candidates have withdrawn from legislative elections next week, the Interior Ministry said Saturday, apparently to protest the disqualification of thousands of reformist contenders by Iran's hard-line clerics.
The candidates, who are not affiliated with any party, join a boycott by reformist parties of the Friday elections in which nearly all of the 5,600 candidates are hard-liners certain to win amid expected low-voter turnout.

"So far, 550 candidates have withdrawn from the elections," the Islamic nation's ministry said in a statement posted on its Web site, without giving a reason for the withdrawals.

The election furor - Iran's worst political crisis in decades - began when the clerics of the Guardian Council banned more than 2,400 candidates, nearly of them supporters of efforts to expand Western-style democracy and loosen strict interpretations of Islamic codes in areas such as social activities and the media.<snip>

The council, lead by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reinstated about 1,100 candidates after sit-ins and protests by liberal politicians and backers. The rest remained blackballed - all leading reformists, including 80 sitting lawmakers.

That left only minor liberal contenders on the ballot, and many of them have since dropped out.
<snip>

In the absence of any rivals, conservatives are expected to easily win. The biggest challenge will likely be persuading apathetic and disillusioned citizens to vote in an election seen as flawed and undemocratic.

<snip>

[Baclava]

1. Since when was Iran a Democracy?

"The election furor - Iran's worst political crisis in decades - began when the clerics of the Guardian Council banned more than 2,400 candidates, nearly of them supporters of efforts to expand Western-style democracy and loosen strict interpretations of Islamic codes in areas such as social activities and the media."

It's not Irans time yet - maybe someday...

[papau]

2. they think they are a democracy -it will now fall all the way to democracy

or into a fundie dictatorship.

we are at a tipping point

will the US push for democracy - if so how?

if not why not?