No, No, The Net

Michael C. Moynihan | March 3, 2008

According to reports in the Iranian press, the Ahmadinejad government is considering a mass Internet outage preceding the general legislative elections in March:

"Shutting down the Internet service will depend on security plans and on the Ministry of Telecommunication," said Mostafa Pourmohammadi, the interior minister, according to Etemad Melli, a daily.

At the same time, a senior election official, Muhammad Javad Mahmoudi, said a shutdown would help ensure that the government had unimpeded Internet service for the election, even though the governments' Internet lines had been upgraded, according to ISNA.

Iran has placed many restrictions on the Internet, but it has never shut down the Internet on such a scale. Several million Iranians follow political news on the Internet, and political parties have their own active Web sites.

I previously blogged about the Iranian crackdown on heavy metal here. Incidentally, Radar Magazine blogged the same item the following day, employing, ummm, very familiar language.

Comments

|3.3.08 @ 4:40PM|#

MCM - I got the reference on the title of this thread. We did that horrible HORRIBLE musical my freshman year of high school. Shame on you for bringing back the barftastic songs to my mind!

Taktix®|3.3.08 @ 4:41PM|#

I love the bullshit excuses totalitarian regimes give to explain the latest rights shrinkage.

To "ensure that the government had unimpeded Internet service?"

Come on. If you're going to be a dictator, at least have the balls to be honest.

thoreau|3.3.08 @ 4:45PM|#

Come on. If you're going to be a dictator, at least have the balls to be honest.

Hey, maybe Ahmadinejad needs the bandwidth for some heavy downloading. But he can't admit what he's really doing because he's scared that the copyright owners might come after him.

|3.3.08 @ 4:46PM|#

No No Nanette was the show that Babe Ruth's contract was sold to fund.

How COULD you, Michael? You're from Concord!

|3.3.08 @ 4:47PM|#

Nah, the truth is that Ahmadinejad has discovered pr0n.

thoreau|3.3.08 @ 4:49PM|#

You're saying Ahmadinejad is only 13?

|3.3.08 @ 4:50PM|#

In Western terms, yes. We develop faster due to our greater access to Twinkies.

Episiarch|3.3.08 @ 4:53PM|#

That's one big Twinkie.

BakedPenguin|3.3.08 @ 4:53PM|#

Damn it. Went to preview and saw Pro Lib had beat me to the porno joke.

joe - 2004, 2007. It's not "too soon" anymore. And I say that as someone who watched Bucky Dent in 1978, Buckner in 1986.

|3.3.08 @ 4:58PM|#

I find it interesting that this post is right above one about campaign finance "reform" right here in the good ol' U.S of A.

Look for McAngrypants to push this "reform" in the coming years. Especially if he loses.

robc|3.3.08 @ 4:59PM|#

No No Nanette was the show that Babe Ruth's contract was sold to fund.

Myth.

|3.3.08 @ 4:59PM|#

So the two people that will get the title are hard-core baseball or musical theater fans.

|3.3.08 @ 5:00PM|#

Joe,
I am indeed a Concordian and a Sox fan. I know...I shouldn't have brought it up, but the curse has, of course, passed. Apparently the No, No, Nanette story is apocryphal. I need to do some googling to confirm that, but I recall hearing it somewhere.

robc|3.3.08 @ 5:01PM|#

Michael Moynihan,

Apparently the No, No, Nanette story is apocryphal. I need to do some googling to confirm that, but I recall hearing it somewhere.

Maybe from me, at 4:59. :)

|3.3.08 @ 5:05PM|#

Radar cribs from me, I crib from Robc. All is even in the end...

|3.3.08 @ 5:05PM|#

According to Wikipedia*, No, No Nanette opened 5 years after the Bambino was sold. The interpretation of this is that it is unlikely that he was sold to finance a play 5 years from opening.

* I know, I know.

|3.3.08 @ 5:15PM|#

That's one big Twinkie.

WIN

|3.3.08 @ 5:19PM|#

Big Twinkies in film for those scratching their heads.

|3.3.08 @ 5:36PM|#

That's one big Twinkie.

Are those two gentlemen smoking at work in NY?

|3.3.08 @ 5:44PM|#

OK, that's a relief.

Taktix&#174|3.3.08 @ 5:46PM|#

Ernie Hudson 08'!!!

|3.3.08 @ 6:13PM|#

Hmm. Shortly after the "mysterious" severing of the main datalinks with Iran, we discover that the Iranian government is planning to shut down internet service.

|3.3.08 @ 7:13PM|#

You Bostonians really need to shaddup about the curse. How many World Series have you won in the last four years? How many Super Bowls have you won in the last decade? You're as bad as Yankee fans, except at least they don't whine about curses.

Fellow Cubs and Indians fans, you get what I'm saying, right?!

|3.3.08 @ 7:19PM|#

OK, Chris, in THIS case - and only this case - I'll grant that culture plays a larger role than material circumstances.

|3.3.08 @ 9:31PM|#

So is that a twinkie in your pocket or are you glad to see me?

|3.3.08 @ 9:54PM|#

Fellow Cubs and Indians fans, you get what I'm saying, right?!

Well, at least Chicago had the Bulls dynasty of the 90's. Cleveland, on the other hand...

robc|3.3.08 @ 10:22PM|#

Cleveland, on the other hand...

Between 1946 and 1964 the Browns won 8 championships.

TallDave|3.4.08 @ 12:11AM|#

Inshallah, Metallica.

|3.4.08 @ 1:11PM|#

Fellow Cubs and Indians fans, you get what I'm saying, right?!

Well, at least Chicago had the Bulls dynasty of the 90's. Cleveland, on the other hand...

STFU! The Detroit Lions have won a playoff game in the last fifty years. That is 1, one, singular, sole, only, ONE damned playoff game in 50 yeras (and counting).

|3.4.08 @ 1:34PM|#

And you say they're managed by the same people as Ford Motor Company?

No kidding.