Friday, June 12, 2009

Iranian elections and illegal poker money

Today, the people of Iran will select their president. Ahmedinejad is running for re-election and apparently the election experts tell us that the race will be close. Yeah, right. I just heard someone on the radio talking about this. He was formerly with the Israeli foreign ministry and was able to shed some light on Iran’s election process.

When the people in Iran vote they don’t have a ballot like we would think. There are no circles to fill in, or holes to punch, or fancy electronic machines that help through the entire process. No, the people in Iran have to go into the polling station and write down the name of the candidate, fill-in-the-blank style, whom they want to vote for. The problem is that 20% of Iran’s citizenry is illiterate. So the government provides election volunteers to “help” these people cast their vote. They ask the voter who they want to vote for and then write that person’s name down on the paper – or so it seems.

And somehow we’re supposed to believe that this will be a fair election, and that when Ahmedinejad wins he will have been legitimately elected?

And since I’m writing about government corruption, I think it’s appropriate to include this link regarding the federal government’s recent action to freeze winnings from online poker sites. The fed has ordered banks to stop paying winnings to private citizens, and since these banks are effectively owned by the government they must comply with the order. This is not company money, it does not belong to the individual website, it belongs to individual people – and it was obtained legally. I thought the Constitution forbade the seizure of private property without due process, but then again when has the Constitution ever stopped the government from fulfilling its own agenda? Once again, liberty has suffered a little bit more. Perhaps the next step will be voting with fill-in-the-blank ballots.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey - I'm with you on this whole GOV thing It's crazy.. - but I wish people would take a harder look at the outcomes we keep seeing in ONLINE poker hands.. I mean.. when small blind and big blind hands ALWAYS have a hand to play - suspect. when hands are pitted against each other suspect - when "50" known quality players (from live games) that I've known for years - "NEVER WIN online) Suspect.

maybe these BANKS are doing some of us a favour..

Want to talk more about it? Prove it/ knock it down? xfilespoker.com (forum)

Nice blog.

Anonymous said...

John,

My jury is out on this issue. Is on-line poker a violation of federal law? If so, the accounts were frozen, which is different from seized, legally.

I am keeping an eye on the Iranian election. One report I read stated that 85% of eligible voters went to the polls. As I write this it appears that Ahmadinejad won but it also seems that something is rotten in the state of Persia.

TLGK

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