Moussavi has declared that he’s ready to be martyred, and for good reason: The gloves have come off in the crackdowns, with “security” forces and Basijis (pro-regime paramilitary militias) firing into the crowds.

Basijis firing into the crowd

Basijis shooting a student on camera

Security forces firing machine guns at a crowd (BBC Persia)

Protester shot dead by police

Protesters shot by police

Ominous is the tone set by Ayatollah Khamenei when he, tiring of using both the carrot and the stick, stuck wholly with the stick, in reversing his position and insisting that there was no possible way they could have falsified a victory margin of 11 million votes in favor of Ahmadinejad over Moussavi.

That’s not rationality. That’s a refuge in audacity.

They didn’t manipulate election results; they fabricated them.

Coupled with the violent crackdowns of protestors, his words on what “democracy” is are particularly egregious in their doublespeak hypocrisy. This is no longer, as it was, an mere insult to the collective intelligence of the Iranian people. This is outright oppression.

Word has it that more than 32 have died in the protests in Iran now, with over 500 arrested – including journalists.

Also, the filmmaker of Persepolis claims that he has evidence that Moussavi won with 19 million votes – crushing Ahmadinejad, who came in third (!) with 5.5 million votes, or 12% of the vote.

Look, I know the rightwingoverse isn’t terribly versed in taste or tact, but this is just bad:

official news sources are being notoriously slow (or painfully equivocational; I’m looking at you, New York Times) on reports on what the fuck is going on, but through a series of independent sources (including twitter), Iranians are pointing out that there are more deaths from militia forces on the streets, that five students from Tehran university were killed by pro-Ahmadinejad paramilitary goons during a major raid, and that 150 professors have summarily quit to protest such heinous acts.

The Iranian election, which from all accounts has had an unprecedentedly strong showing with an amazing 70% filing in, is called by Ahmadinejad two hours after polls closed in a surprising landslide victory for Ahmadinejad – odd, because sometimes it helps to actually count the votes. The opposition’s offices are forcibly shut down, and Moussavi and his family are ‘detained’ under house arrest, Ahmadinejad claims, for a “traffic ticket.” The inevitable backlash from enraged citizens who have taken to the streets is quite literally beaten back with, as the NYTimes put it, “robocops on motorcycles.”

The NYTimes calls it a “tense situation.”

Yeah, if an election was stolen before your very eyes by the encumbant and legitimized under the batons of the riot police, it would be a little “tense,” wouldn’t it?

‘Course, while the NYTimes and other papers equivocate such an obvious breach, I’m really kinda concerned most about the Daily Show’s Jason Jones.