Ben Sarlin and The Daily Beast Could Not Be More Wrong.

The Original article from the Beast is here: http://bit.ly/1KMRo

Let us do a little deconstruction here. The quoted source is Michael Rubin. He is identified as a Bushie and “scholar” at the AEI. That is two strikes against him from the get go. Your political antenni should be vibrating right around the range of microwave radiation (.3 to 300 Ghz or three hundred million to three hundred billion times per second.)
But it get worse gentle reader. Rubin continues with an unproven and facile notion that the mullahs went easy on the protesters because Western Media was watching. As if the Mad Mullahs of Iran ever gave a holler in Hades before what the rest of the world thought of them.
But it gets better, or should I say even more slip-shod and poorly reasoned. The big progressive gun they pull out is Spencer Ackerman. Google that guy up and you find that he once was a ink-stained wretch for the New Republic, the flagship of “respectable” NeoCons. The New Republic ran cover for the run up to the Iraq debacle by being a “liberal” and “progressive” cheerleader for the overthrow of the Baathist regime. This is the big “progressive” gun the article pulls out? You’re kidding, right?
From there the sourcing gets even more ridiculous. The International Campaign for Human Rights? It is a pressure group working against the present government of Iran. Just look at the bleeding homepage : http://www.iranhumanrights.org/ Telling us that they are concerned that Jackson’s death may eclipse their issue is like telling me water is wet. No. Freaking. Duh.
I have no idea who Benjamin Sarlin is before this article came out but if this is an example of his work it is no wonder why Talking Points Memo and him parted company.
Note to Ben, it really, really,really is not about us and our obsessions. The Mullahs were savagely breaking heads before either Jacko or Sanford. The rest of world could care less about Sanford and the maudlin nonsense following Jackson’s death would blow over in an instant if we have another Nadia Suliman moment. Besides the Iranian opposition is in it for the long haul as are the Mullahs. It is going to take more than a pop-culture reverse burp like the death of Michael Jackson to change the dynamics of Iranian Politics.