The BBC reports Iran goes to polls to elect new president

Iranians have begun to cast their votes in the country’s closely fought presidential election.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is battling to retain his job in the face of a spirited challenge from former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Mohsen Razai and Mehdi Karroubi have also fought in the campaign, dominated by the economy.

If one candidate fails to win a 50% majority, there will be a run-off between the two front-runners.

It is already Friday in Iran and they will probably close the polls before the call to evening prayers. The initial reporting won’t include much of Ahmadinejad’s base in the rural districts, so no one should start celebrating an early lead. Mousavi, an ethnic Azeri like Ayatollah Khamenei, has been looking good in the campaign, but his label as a moderate is generally by comparison to Ahmadinejad.

The real issues are internal, like the economy, and the President doesn’t actually have much real power to make changes. At this point Ahmadinejad might be better off losing, given the number of enemies he has made in the real power centers by his comments during the campaign. Apparently before making sweeping statements about leading the first corruption free government he forgot who some of the earlier leaders of the government were, and what positions they currently hold.

While everyone is probably aware of Dr. Tiller and now the murder of Stephan T. Johns at the Holocaust Memorial in Washington, many are not aware of the many other deaths associated with other rightwing terrorists.

Locally there was was the murder of two Chileans and the wounding of three more by Danny Baker in February of this year. Mr. Baker didn’t like non-whites.

Then there was the murder of two of our deputy sheriffs by Joshua Cartwright in April. Mr. Cartwright was concerned with having his guns taken away. This occurred just after the ambush of three Pittsburgh police officers.

The death toll is much higher than people are being led to believe.

The 2003 case of William Krar with a store house of weapons, including a poison gas bomb should have alerted people to the problem of ignoring the domestic terrorists, but it didn’t.

They are out there, and they are becoming active. Ignoring warnings, like the DHS report on rightwing terrorists, doesn’t make them disappear, or any of us safer.

Once again – there are no gun bills currently active in the US Congress, so there is no reason for these people to claim that the current administration is coming to get their guns. The rumors about this are irresponsible attempts at funding raising by certain groups.

The ABC reports that WHO declares swine flu pandemic

The World Health Organisation has declared its first influenza pandemic in 40 years after an emergency meeting of scientific experts on the swine flu outbreak which has hit 74 countries.

The declaration comes amid growing evidence that the virus, which originated in Mexico two months ago, is now being widely transmitted between humans in Asia and Europe as well as the Americas.

Under WHO guidelines, one key criteria for declaring a pandemic is established community spread in a country outside the first region the disease was reported.

WHO chief Margaret Chan says the pandemic is in its early stages.

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