A New Revolution?

As soon as the Iranians started voting on Friday, I was anxious, you could feel that this election, wasn't like any other. And, folks, it hasn't been. It has been hard to even put a blog post together, because the different news reports were bringing in conflicting information, and new reports were coming in all the time. At first, many thought Moussavi was being held under house arrest, but this morning (picture above) he arrived among his supporters. I was excited!

I really believe the Elections were rigged. I do. When Christiane Amanpour from CNN was doing some "unofficial election polls" last week, it seemed obvious that Moussavi had won, and that Ahmadinejad was defeated. Then, they both announced their victories? And then no one saw Moussavi the entire weekend. Today, it is being reported that he has met with Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and that the Ayatollah ordered an investigation into the fraud claims. But we all know the Ayatollah's record, so I'll believe it when I see it.

Ashton Kutcher (aplusk) through Twitter has compared it to when Al Gore won against George Bush, and the country went a little nuts. I think that that is true, and a good way for us Americans to identify with the problem. (I was one of those people going nuts in 2000). But , I know it sounds trisk but our country is free.. their country is a country where the Iranian bloggers sites are shut down for days at a time, and where during the elections cell phone use was cut off, the supporters of Moussavi (and the other challengers) were not able to use general means for their campaigns, they could not use TV ads and such, instead they used a cell phone network, a-la-President Obama's campaign. Twitter and Facebook also have been down, and then put back up. So yes, Ashton, its similiar, but at least Mr. Gore had the right to fight for his "hanging chads" but does Mr. Moussavi have that same right? Without being killed? I sure hope so..



This is from Sunday's New York Times..

She was in tears like many women on the streets of Iran’s battered capital. “Throw away your pen and paper and come to our aid,” she said, pointing to my notebook. “There is no freedom here.”

Ugh. So sad.

I've been following the Huffington Posts Iran Updates blog this weekend, click here to see the information as it comes in.

It felt ironically strange to be reading my new book, Reading Lolita in Tehran, which tells a story in post(crazy)revolution Iran, and to be watching CNN's footage about the protests this weekend.

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Dear Jack..

Jack Gray that is. I think you're awesome. I truly do. I hadn't ever really realized just how cool you were until about a month ago. That was when my favorite newsboy Anderson Cooper tweeted a recommendation to follow you, Jack Gray, on Twitter {click here to do just that}. So I did. Because, let's just say that I have a lot of trust in Anderson. A LOT. Some would say it could be unhealthy, but I {not surprisingly} disagree.


I then realized, that I had been laughing at you for years {yes, I said years!} now, on the AC360Blog. Without even realizing who I was laughing at, I mean, I just read the AC360 Writer /Producer note under your name, took it as just that, and then mosied down the list of blog posts to find Mr. Cooper's posts. But I still laughed at you.. and now that I get your hilarious tweets, I am laughing even harder.

Click here for a funny recent AC360 Blog Post by Jack. I love it.

These tweets are a few of my favorites:

• Beautiful, cheerful day in NYC. So cheerful, in fact, that I almost gave those tourists the correct directions to Magnolia Bakery. Almost.

• Bummed I missed Gossip Girl...will have to wait til the episode is on iTunes. Don't tell me what happened or I'll have to break up with you.

• I'm excited to read Larry King's new book.I hope he included a chapter about the time I saved his life in a make-up room fracas w/ Dr. Phil.

• The cashier at CVS did not seem to enjoy me singing Rhianna's Take a Bow.

• Greenwich Village is alive with the Sound of Music. Except Sound=Smell and Music=Hashish. And the Von Trapps look like drag queens.

* click here to follow me, yes me, on Twitter. ;)
* picture from Jack Gray's twitter profile: http://twitter.com/jackgraycnn

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Do you Tweet?

I have heard people talk about twitter, more and more the past few months. They've even gotten on board at CNN, Rick Sanchez checks his Twitter board every afternoon throughout his show (along with facebook, and myspace). I had looked at it before and thought it was kind of lame. However, yesterday I buckled to the pressure - and now I am on twitter too! Follow me at nicoleelkington. I wanted to do "Laugh Outloud" as my username, but nooooooooo, someone else already took it. Don't they know that that's the name of my blog? Damn.

Anyway, are y'all on twitter? Hit me up if you are ;) and if you have any pointers, like a twitter for dummies , I'm all ears.

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