Khamenei to Iran: "No please, overthrow me too."

Some of the more positive movements within the Guardian Council, from clerics offering support to questioning the election to even the somewhat dubious offer to officially look into vote rigging claims, seemed to take a step back when ex-ZZ Top bassist and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei decided that if the government gets toppled, he'd like to be under it when it falls.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a stern warning to opponents today to stay off the streets as he denied claims that last week's elections had been rigged.

In an uncompromising address at Friday prayers, Khamenei claimed that the high turnout at the elections showed how much the Iranian people supported the regime, and blamed western powers for interfering in Iranian politics, singling out the UK as the "most treacherous".

In a thinly veiled warning to the reformist presidential challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, Khamenei said opposition leaders would be held responsible if they did not call for an end to the protests that have rocked Iran since last Friday's disputed election.

"Street challenge is not acceptable," he said. "This is challenging democracy after the elections."

Ouch. What kind of world do we live in when the Supreme Leader of Iran isn't singling the United States out as the "most treacherous" for meddling in Iranian affairs. That used to be our thing! The 1953 coup was our Sgt. Pepper. People listening live to the speech even chanted "Death to the UK!" What about us, Ali? What about the Jews? Don't either of us get any credit? I thought this was all about us! *sniff* I guess there's a new western Great Satan.

The big news out of the speech, other than Ali officially getting out the sensual oils and lube for Ahmadinejad, dismissing even the notion that vote rigging occurred, and fully supporting the election results, was that the government would do longer behanding out permits for protests and looked to have given police "the green light to security forces to violently handle protesters." I was under the impression that's what the security forces were already doing. They weren't?

I'm sure this will end well for you Ali and you will in no way regret rigging the election or loudly supporting it. Bitter old despots always win when pitted against millions of motivated and oppressed people. Enjoy your post-revolution public square meathooking.