Fresh Loaf

Rank of Atlanta rapper Soulja Boy Tell ’Em’s Twitter page on a list of “businesses” with the highest number of Twitter followers: 9

Rank of CNN: 1

Total number of Twitterers following Soulja Boy: 892,491

Total number of “tweets” the rapper — or his handlers — have posted on his Twitter site: 4,412

Estimated number of tweets worldwide that were related to the Iran protests, following the country’s June 12 election: 79,000

Estimated percentage of tweets that referenced Michael Jackson in the two hours following the king of pop’s death: 30

Total number of Twitter members worldwide: 37 million

Number of other major social-networking sites that have grown faster than Twitter over the past year: 0

Number of jobs that MySpace was forced to cut following stiff competition from Twitter and Facebook: 300

Sources: Twibs.com, twitter.com/souljaboytellem, WashingtonPost.com, ColumbusDispatch.com, Mashable.com, NYTimes.com

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Residents will return to the streets of Atlanta all this weekend to voice their support for Iranian democracy.

Locations for this weekend’s protests, which are supported by Amnesty International and the American Friends Service Committee:

Friday (today), June 26, 6:30 p.m.
Lenox Mall on Peachtree Street

Saturday, June 27, 6 p.m.
Roswell Rd. NE & Johnson Ferry Rd. NE, Sandy Springs

Sunday, June 28, 4 p.m.
CNN Center, Marietta Street at Centennial Park Drive

Last Saturday, nearly 200 residents gathered at the CNN Center in dowtown Atlanta to voice outrage over the violent crackdown on Iranians who contested the controversial re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. CL captured photos and video of the rally.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Organized hastily, primarily via Facebook, hundreds gathered over the weekend in front of the CNN center to express their displeasure with the Iranian government’s violent reactions to demonstrators protesting the results of the recent Iranian elections.

The AJC, while calling attention to burnings of the Iranian flag and photos of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, provided a basic profile of the organizers and attendees:

Most of the crowd consisted of Iranians living in the U.S. Many carried signs and placards reading “Where is my vote,” “Free Iran” and “Stop the violence,” the Associated Press reported.

The rally was organized by a group of Iranian students living in Atlanta, the Associated Press reported. The organizers said they do not support any candidate or political party in the Iranian elction and that the rally was endorsed by Amnesty International.

CL staff photographer Joeff Davis was at Saturday’s demonstration. And his shots show a mixed crowd, with assorted aims and inspirations.

(more…)

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Iranians have got a lot going on.

A typical day for an Iranian consists of: waking up; being oppressed by a fanatical, corrupt, incompetent regime; going to work (if they’re lucky enough to have a job); getting oppressed; spending time with family; running some errands; enjoying an “Ugly Betty” rerun; and maybe some more oppression before bed.

On June 12, the nation collectively carved time out of this hectic schedule to cast votes in a presidential election.

Don’t be mistaken: Iran is not a democracy. It’s a theocracy with many democratic characteristics.
The country’s real ruler is “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He runs an unelected religious gang called the Guardian Council. They’re the government’s highest decision-making body. Among the Guardian Council’s powers: choosing who is allowed to run for public office.

It’s as if a committee consisting of a priest, a rabbi, a Protestant minister, an imam and David Copperfield had the power to strike U.S. political candidates from any ballot.

In other words, Iran’s election was fixed before the ballots were even printed. Fixed. Broken. Same thing.

But that’s not to say Iran’s elections are meaningless. As long as no one questions the primacy of the hats-n-beards on the Guardian Council, Iran actually allows free-ish political debate. Iran’s public political discourse is significantly more open than in the other large thugocracies of the Muslim Middle East, Egypt and Saudi Arabia (both of which are U.S. allies, by the way).

Massive pre-election rallies, as well as very long lines at polling places, strongly suggest the Iranian public is in the mood for change.

Any change will do at this point: change they need, change they can believe in, regime change, whatever. At this point, I’m sure a lot of them would settle for change for a dollar.

Why are so many Iranians eager to turn and face the strange ch-ch-changes?

Because by any objective measure, their current government is a disaster.

(more…)

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Metro Atlantans on Saturday will protest the recent Iranian election and its aftermath.

The event, which has been endorsed by Amnesty International and the American Friends Service Committee, begins at 5 p.m. outside the CNN Center at the intersection of Centennial Park Drive and Marietta Street

From a press release about the event:

“The demonstrations in Iran over the presidential elections have shown the potential for a fully democratic Iran,” said Peter Tadeo, a law student at Georgia State University. “Not only Iranians around the world, but many Westerners as well, have seen the blatant corruption in the so-called elections. I believe citizens of Atlanta should add their voices to the massive dissent in Iran to increase the pressure on the Iranian government.”

“The line has been clearly drawn,” added Ali Parman. “The current regime has murdered its own people because they disagreed with the government. A government which silences its own people with deadly force is no longer a democracy; it is now a dictatorship.”

Organizers of the rally say they are not supporting any candidate or political party in the Iranian election. “This is not for Ahmadi, not for Mousavi. It is for freedom,” said Ladan Mohkami, an Atlanta medical school graduate. “Freedom to vote, freedom of press – a true democracy.”

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