And Iraaaaan, Iraaaan Soooo Faarrr Awwwaaayyyy...

In case you haven't heard, the people of the Islamic Republic of Iran are currently in a crisis of potentially revolutionary proportions.

Right after the recent election held in Iran, which declared incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner with over 62% of the vote, questions of widespread voter fraud emerged.

While such accusations are quite common in political contests, it has been alleged that the violations of the process were so flagrant and biased towards Ahmadinejad that a recount and further review was demanded by his political opponent Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

This election drew 85% of the voting populace, which was inspired by high unemployment, a shaky economy and several polarizing factions who either vied to maintain the status quo or bring about sweeping reform to the government of Iran. Right after the election, several peaceful demonstrations were held in an attempt to bring about review of the election results.

After the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, certified the results of the election to be Allah's Divine Will in one day instead of the customary three, the demands for more in depth analysis became more fervent.

The Interior Ministry promised they would look into the results again and have updated information in seven to ten days, but stated that while the actual count might fluctuate a bit, Ahmadinejad was still the likely winner. Mousavi stated that there were upwards of ten million written ballots that were not certified correctly (meaning that the registration numbers on the ballots in question are not present and therefore cannot be tied to the individual voters who cast them) and that these ballots mysteriously appeared and were certified as valid before the actual non-write in ballots were.

Needless to say, friends, Iran is in a world of shit.

Since that time, demonstrations of the pro-reform / anti-Ahmadinejad voters have taken place in many areas of the country, specifically in Tehran where some demonstrations have numbered in the MILLIONS. Dubbed the "Green Revolution" in honor of both the traditional colors of Iran and for Mousavi's Obamaesque campaign supporting reform and change for the Iranian people, this situation appears to be the largest demonstration against the sitting government of Iran since the late 1970's when the Shah was removed from power.

It will be interesting to watch what develops. While it remains to be seen if a more democratically controlled government (that is likely to be still largely overseen and controlled in the background by the Islamic clergy) would be an improvement for the people of Iran as well as the rest of the world, I am hoping for the best...