Yeah I heard presidential election and the office of president in Iran is pretty much a formality for show. The real decisions are apparently made by the religious leaders...(Mullahs?).
I actually heard a story that Ahmadinejad wanted to allow girls to attend soccer (football) games with men's teams and the (Mullahs?) denied it based upon religious tradition. It made him sound essentially powerless to me.
Yes and no. The president doesn't sign bills into law - the supreme leader does this. Supreme leader = pope in shia Islam. The president does yield power to talk (we saw this with Ahmadinejad, the most vocal president since the revolution) AND he controls the police force in many key jurisdictions. He's also a secretary of state in some ways.
If it was a really powerless position, you wouldn't have seen this election grow into such a fever as it did.
I respected Ahmadinejad's position during this election because this new "Iran loves the world, really, we're great and you should love us" was a fake asshole who has stolen MILLIONS. Ahmadinejad is a colleague of the guy's wife, and he called them out on this numerous times.
He questioned her credentials because she used her husbands connections after the revolution to get a PhD. Ahmadinejad's PhD (engineering) IS NOT based on these connections.
In plain terms, Ahmadinejad is like Sarah Palin. He's a wing nut, but the provincial people like him because they HAVE benefitted from his policies, and they should. That's what the Islamic Republic promised at the revolution.
Anyway, I also respect M.A. because at the debate, he turned to this guy Mousavi, who is a blood soaked bastard, and said "you are a thief. you killed people after the revolution, and now you're here to say that we need change? Who the hell are you?"
HE IS RIGHT. It's like Bush telling the Conservative movement they need to become more conservative. This is what Ahmadinejad means by corruption, by the way.
FINALLY, there is a fat creepy man by the name of Rafsanjani. He is no different than Tony Soprano, but on a bigger scale I think. He backed this guy mousavi and it's because he wants the supreme leadership.
What has happened in Iran is very good, actually. But the American/British/Israeli media are too stupid to get it. Also, the supreme leader would never attack Israel, and he is the one in charge of such an act.
Israel and Iran have had ties for a long time, though they have been secret. It's all smoke and mirrors. I'm totally happy with this outcome and I'm proud of Iranians for seeing what's really going on with Mousavi.
