Iran, so far, in my nutshell.

First:




Second:

This guy below is, hmmm,.... uhhh... self promoting, but, quickly gives some info in video form for quick digestion.



Read: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/world/middleeast/18iran.html

"The powerful Revolutionary Guard said it had taken action against “deviant news sites” financed by American and Canadian companies. "

Third:


Irregularities in Ahmadinejad camp photo releases.
http://gizmodo.com/5293878/ahmadinejad-lying-again-with-photoshop

ummm... I assume this happens all the time everywhere. Is that a safe assumption? I wish not, but I assume so. Thoughts?

BoingBoing has more (a 'cyberguide').

An example of the rigged internet: http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=92841&page=74 (see poll, just in case you had doubts that this is 'wide-spread').

___

Fourth:

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/06/15/iran-tehran-election856.html

"Before leaving at about 4 a.m., the police took away memory cards and computer software material, Akbar said, adding that dozens of students were arrested.

One of Mousavi's websites said a student protester was killed early Monday during clashes with plainclothes hardliners in Shiraz, southern Iran. But there was no independent confirmation of the report. There also have been unconfirmed reports of unrest breaking out in other cities across Iran."

The other side, on CBC tv, for those that don't have tv. (there are commercials here as well, with no embedding option.)

Fifth:

More (pretty in-depth) here: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/06/ahmadinejads-rural-votes.html

A very detailed look at the previous Iranian presidential election by Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight.com, who is not at all convinced by the rural/urban divide story we’ve heard in recent days to explain Mr. Ahmadinejad’s reported election victory. Here’s how he starts ripping that notion apart:

You have probably heard it asserted that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad principal strength is in rural areas, whereas Mir-Hossein Mousavi did relatively better in Iran’s cities. However, it is not clear that this is true. Moreover, in 2005, it is demonstrably false. On the contrary, Ahmadinejad did much better in urban areas in that election.

Mr. Silver also adds that if Mr. Moussavi “only” had strong support in the country’s urban areas, he would have been in good shape: “Although Iran is a fairly large country, most of its population — about 68 percent — lives in cities.”

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/updates-on-irans-disputed-election/?apage=3

One final good article; off to some sort of sleep: If he did it.

Ahmadinejad appeared to pick up most of the vote from Mehdi Karroubi, who is routinely described as the most liberal of the candidates. This is in spite of the fact that Karroubi himself was on the ballot this year; he appeared to retain only about 5 percent of his own vote.

Renard already detected this pattern, so I am not really telling you anything new. But it seems to me to be the key to explaining the Iranian election -- whether it was legitimate or whether it was rigged.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this as well as any info I've missed.