IRAN...MAYBE, BUT ONLY MAYBE – AT 10:50 A.M. ET:  Dissenters in Iran asked for a permit to hold a mass demonstration on Monday.  The application was turned down, but there are some signs that the protesters may defy the state.  We stress that nothing here can be absolutely confirmed.  We'll have to wait until tomorrow:

As the popular uprising in Egypt draws to a successful conclusion, several other Arab and Muslim nations appear poised to become the next hotbeds of anti-regime demonstrations in the region.

Demonstrations are scheduled to take place on Monday against the regimes in Bahrain and Iran.

Calls made by the Iranian opposition over the Internet urging supporters to take to the streets in support of the Egyptian revolution, have garnered thousands of responses from supporters.

In a statement published on Kaleme.com on Sunday, the opposition renewed its supporters to rally on Monday in central Tehran and accused the government of hypocrisy by voicing support for the Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings while refusing to allow Iranian political activists to stage a peaceful demonstration.

Several human rights groups in Iran have reported that the Islamist regime there has embarked on mass arrests of its opponents and ordered that two leaders of the opposition, Mehdi Karrubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, remain under house arrest.

That, of course, can kill the demonstrations before they start.  We eagerly await some comment by the president of the United States and mascot of the Chicago Bears.  We aren't hearing much.

Meanwhile, the Bahraini ruler announced Saturday a special payment of $2,650 to each Bahraini family, a measure designed to counter opposition demands.

I wonder how they arrived at that figure.  I guess it's a Mideast stimulus package.  Or anti-stimulus.

Thousands took to the street in Algiers, the capital of Algeria, on Saturday to protest the regime of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, clashing with local security forces who tried to disperse them.

The protest in Algeria appeared to have lost some of its steam in recent days, but following the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Friday, demonstrators gathered once again in the streets, demanding economic measures to combat high levels of unemployment, poverty and poor housing. In response, the regime in Algeria has restricted civil liberties and the country is being run like a dictatorship.

By the way, have you noticed something?  How many times have you been told by "experts," especially the ones with tenured positions in Middle East studies departments of our universities, that the Arab-Israeli conflict is at the heart of all Mideast problems?  Why, solve that and peace will come to Earth, the weather will get better, and the common cold will be cured. 

Please notice that the demonstrators in the boiling Arab countries haven't mentioned Israel once.  Kind of tells you about the experts, right?  I wonder how many federal dollars pour into developing that "expertise" each year.  I don't want to know.

February 12, 2011