Disappearing Questions

When surfing about for updates on the Iranian electoral crisis, I found an article in IRNA that had an astounding paragraph in it. The article, "Iran's Parliament suspends reforming electoral law", was published this morning and, regarding the electoral law amendment that the Guardian Council vetoed before the ink was dry, it included the statement:

"The amendment included addition of two clauses to the electoral law as countermeasure to the supervisory Guardians Council's rejection of many parliamentary aspirants on the ground that they lacked faith in Islam and the Islamic establishment. One clause envisaged that a candidate, whose record is in question, can run in the contests if his or her qualification is endorsed by at least 10 local confidants, including city and village councilors as well as Friday prayer leaders. The other clause stated that any candidate whose qualification has been approved once cannot be barred unless there is a criminal evidence against him or her."

Nothing truly provocative there on first read except that implicit in its publication is the Iranian media asking "Why?" That's pretty remarkable. For [sarcasm]some[/sarcasm] reason, IRNA had removed the article less than one hour later. It was picked up by this Persiphile site, however, before it was removed. The internet is powerful, indeed.

In more "Iranian media wars" news, IRIB, [grossoversimplification]their Fox network compared to IRNA being like our NPR[/grossoversimplification], is forwarding its patrons' agenda. President Khatami is complaining about his speeches being edited out-of-context and a popular sitcom is portraying Parliamentarians as nothing but career politicians only concerned with their own welfare. Sound familiar?

On a funnier note regarding US - Iran comaprisons, Khatami included this gem in a recent interview (no permalinks in IRNA, unfortunately):

"President Khatami, unlike a group which has put itself on a collision course with the supervisory electoral boards, has stuck to his typical moderate line and appealed to all political groups to stay calm. He described the elections as `manifestation of democracy`, which he pledged, will be maintained firmly and strongly. "Democratic movement in Iran is serious and we are trying to make
this movement enduring despite all the existing problems," Khatami said. Democracy is an objective of the Islamic Republic and a historical demand of the Iranian people, he said, adding no internal or external obstacle can halt it. "Whatever the results of the elections may be, they will definitely be better than America`s presidential elections, where doubts about the choice of (George W.) Bush were resolved in court," Khatami said. Froz: Emphasis mine. Hee hee.

The latest:
Khatami has not accepted the resignations submitted by protesting Majlis.
Khameini has pressured the GC to nix the disqualification of 500 more candidates.
And students are organizing.