Libyan leader Gaddafi files motion to partition Switzerland at UN

[Sheilbh]

That's because Mossadeq never joined a political party.  He formed his coalitions with other parties but was never a member of one, far less a leader.

I don't follow.  Either Iran had a popular vote for PM back in the 50s or they didn't.

No country has popular vote for PM, to my knowledge

[Admiral Yi]

No country has popular vote for PM, to my knowledge

Then what was the significance of your last post?

[Sheilbh]

No country has popular vote for PM, to my knowledge

Then what was the significance of your last post?

Most countries vote for parties, or individual MPs representing a party.  Then the majority party forms the government.  Mossadeq is very unusual in that he was an independent MP all through his career, even when PM.

[The Brain]

Please answer the question, Sheilbh.

[Barrister]

That's because Mossadeq never joined a political party.  He formed his coalitions with other parties but was never a member of one, far less a leader.

I don't follow.  Either Iran had a popular vote for PM back in the 50s or they didn't.

No country has popular vote for PM, to my knowledge

Israel does.  Always sounded like a silly system.

[The Brain]

That's because Mossadeq never joined a political party.  He formed his coalitions with other parties but was never a member of one, far less a leader.

I don't follow.  Either Iran had a popular vote for PM back in the 50s or they didn't.

No country has popular vote for PM, to my knowledge

Israel does.  Always sounded like a silly system.

Fucking Ukrainian Nazis.

[grumbler]

I think that's what I've said.  He's colourful and stridently anti-American so more interesting, but not any more important or egregiously tyrannical. 

No, what you said was that you "find weird" the "American focus on Chavez" which you "just don't understand."  I have explained that it isn't a focus on Chavez, and therefor isn't weird, and is easy to understand.  He knows how to get into the news a lot even in the absence of any "weird" American "focus."

[grumbler]

Every politician is a populist.

[grumbler]

Fine.  Just don't use populist incorrectly.  It's annoying!

Took the words right out of my mouth! 

"Every politician is a populist" is the classic misuse of the term.

[grumbler]

Consider the motives. Sweden was a small country, surrounded by mighty enemies, that saw it's Nordic neighbours be conquered. Try to think yourself into the Swedish position - what would you have done? Commit the hostile act of embargoing Nazi Germany? Can you really tell me, with a straight face, that you would have done that? I'm not saying we tried to preserve our independence for anything other than selfish reasons, but it did allow us to harbour the jews of Denmark and Norway, and even political enemies of Nazi germany (including my grandmother, though most of her family was not so lucky as to escape).

I find this excuse-making for the Swedish murder of six million Jews pathetic.  And the use of the euphemism "harbor" for "genocide" is reprehensible.

[grumbler]

Most countries vote for parties, or individual MPs representing a party.  Then the majority party forms the government.  Mossadeq is very unusual in that he was an independent MP all through his career, even when PM.

I think that Yi is saying that he didn't know this (at least in Iran's case).  A lot of people also don't know that Mossadeq abolished Parliament, which was the immediate step which led to his overthrow (after the US/British-backed coup attempt had failed).  Mossadeq would have survived in power if he hadn't over-reacted to the coup attempt, IMO.

[Viking]

That's because Mossadeq never joined a political party.  He formed his coalitions with other parties but was never a member of one, far less a leader.

I don't follow.  Either Iran had a popular vote for PM back in the 50s or they didn't.

No country has popular vote for PM, to my knowledge

Israel did

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_prime_ministerial_election,_1999

[Jaron]

That's because Mossadeq never joined a political party.  He formed his coalitions with other parties but was never a member of one, far less a leader.

I don't follow.  Either Iran had a popular vote for PM back in the 50s or they didn't.

No country has popular vote for PM, to my knowledge

Israel did

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_prime_ministerial_election,_1999

And


:grumbler:

[Sheilbh]

Mossadeq would have survived in power if he hadn't over-reacted to the coup attempt, IMO.

I don't think that's fair.  The British and Americans had worked to destabilise Mossadeq for a while.  They'd bribed a number of important figures and recruited others, there'd been a propaganda campaign, they'd supported bombings from agents provocateurs within the Iranian Communist Party (which was, of course, far weaker than was believed) and had reluctantly brought the Shah on board.  Those Iranians had taken the initiative a few times and, for example, spoken to some Ayatollahs to try and drum up the existing anti-Mossadeq feeling in Qom.

What happened in the coup was that everything the British and Americans wanted to happen, didn't happen or went disastrously wrong and that the Iranian elements they'd already recruited took matters into their own hands, with good reason.  The CIA was thinking of evacuating and the repurcussions for Iranians would be even worse.  I don't know that after the work done prior to the coup whether it could really have not happened, especially because funds were nowhere near exhausted.  Roosevelt arrived with one million and only spent one hundred thousand dollars, the CIA spent a further five million after the coup to help stabilise things.  I think the CIA operation prior to the coup, which destabilised the country, could have continued and was so successful that something had to happen.

[Razgovory]

Fine.  Just don't use populist incorrectly.  It's annoying!

Took the words right out of my mouth! 

"Every politician is a populist" is the classic misuse of the term.

What ever.  Clearly we have different definitions of the word.  I seem funny to you because I simply have the right one.