The protests continue in the streets of Tehran, and Washington speaks up days too late as the Iranian government builds a case that any challenge to Friday's presidential election results would be a threat to national security. 

A democratic veneer and a tyrannical, panicked government (panicked because why else would a government raid student dorms and take to the streets to beat opposition members with nightsticks be called?) have combined to create yet another appalling situation in a part of the world fraught with such things.  Stateside, we sit removed and wondering how these things happen - despite our political disparity, we are largely united in support for those who wish to have their voices heard and taken seriously. 

The shock and awe of the first few days is wearing off, but the reportedly stolen Iranian election is still the hottest trending topic on Twitter, and social media experts and amateurs are furiously trying to explain how all this came to be.  It's quite simple, though.  Big Brother has his fingers in every pie - he can tap your phone, trace your IP address, and come banging down your door before you can say Orwell, but he can't track down and terrorize every person who picks up your story and runs with it.  That's what has happened in Iran and around the world these last several days.  Messages from the underground reached Twitter, were re-Tweeted, and then blogged about and chatted about until not a connected soul could escape them. 

Now, of course, the mainstream media has realized their grave mistake in failing to report on the violence simply on the basis that the White House was silent on the matter, and now they're catching up.  Meanwhile, Obama drones from behind his teleprompter about his financial system overhaul and far-overreaching health care plan, dissidents in Iran who oppose Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and his regime continue to take to the streets.  Despite enormous and frightening crackdowns from the Iranian government, the protests live on.  The world is so tuned in to this that Mir Hossein Moussavi, Ahmedinejad's opponent and the figure whose electoral loss triggered these protests, has been able to appear in public with his family.  Undoubtedly, the traditional tyrannical attempt to take out the opposition leader (I've thought many times of Ukraine's Orange revolution four years ago) has been quelled thanks to the constant reports and growing worldwide outrage at the Iranian government's audacity.

The Iranian government has ceased their violence for the time being, as well, though dissidents have sent the message through Twitter and other means that the government may simply be taking a breather, waiting for the world's attention to be drawn elsewhere.  The opposition is calling for a new and fair election - one after which the ballots will actually be counted - and the Guardian Council in Iran has agreed to a partial recount for now. 

But people are dead.  More people are missing.  Countless are physically injured.  All because the people of Iran have demanded fairness and have demanded that their government derive its power from no one but the people themselves.  Amnesty International has stated that students are particular targets of the totalitarian regime's wrath.  At least 17 people have been arrested and taken to "undisclosed locations" - the imagination allows little hope for these souls.

In the time it took to write this post, over 1051 new Tweets were posted with the hashtag #iranelection (I've no doubt that number will double in the time it takes you to read it).  Prayers, requests, news, and re-tweets of the same are flowing without deference to tyrants.  As the Guardian Council deliberates and the Ayatollah Khamenei issues his declarations, the world waits...and watches.