Frank Sinatra – Love is Here to Stay

I honestly can’t remember if I already posted that one. I’m pretty sure Sinatra’s already been on here, but if I actually did this one song before…well, I’m not sorry; it’s a really good song, maybe it wouldn’t hurt you to hear it more than once.

Anyway, I found a few interesting things in my perusing over the past few days. First of all, I discovered what I think is a feminist blog (there’s really no statement of any kind; the author just covers many feminist issues and links to a lot of other feminist reading, and I happen to like the presentation – very bare bones) a few months ago called Tiger Beatdown. I know this isn’t a new thing and I think it gets actually a ton of readers, since I found it from a much bigger site. I don’t know why any of what I just said is important at all, but what is important is the article posted today. It talks about the “ironic” racism and sexism and how it’s – what a shock – still racism and sexism. She singles out “hipster racism” too, which was a learning for me since I’ve spent the last several years trying to know as little about hipster-ism as possible. Anyway, I appreciate the author’s writing style because it’s pretty funny and what I imagine they sound like in person.

This is really old, but I found it interesting: Paul Eedle wrote a piece for the Guardian predicting the future of the Middle East – all the way down to the death of Osama bin Laden in North Korea! It’s so specific, I almost want to see if he’s a time traveler. Obviously, everyone is likely to find something to disagree with, but I think it’s an interesting read nonetheless.

Wow, Bill Clinton randomly showed up in North Korea and they released the two US reporters on the same day!? I don’t even know what to say about that. You really never know what to expect from those guys. Maybe Clinton got Kim Jong-Il out of some massive jam years ago and he was calling in the favor? Obama, if you’re reading this, I’d like to volunteer to go get those hikers out of Iran. Just give me a bouquet of flowers and some sweets, I know what those Iranians like.

Bad form, America: Apparently we’re leading the charge for fresh sanctions against Iran. Since the last sanctions worked so well, it actually makes a ton of sense to pile on new ones, right? They’re not in any particular need for airplane parts or anything so it should all be good. I know they’re being a little stubborn on the whole nuclear negotiation thing, but let’s not give them more reasons to retreat into their shell, at the same time giving Israel more justification for striking their nuclear facilities, which in turn will make the Iranians rush to build a nuclear weapon, if that is in fact what they’re doing. Ah, and to think things were looking up for a brief moment or tow.

Burka Band – Burka Blue

Now that you’re sufficiently weirded out, let’s start by covering that beloved topic of this blog, Iran. The fresh push for sanctions by Congress (and people who probably shouldn’t have any say in what Congress does in regards to Iran – I’m looking at you, AIPAC) is only going to get worse next month, apparently. According to this brilliant post on the NIAC blog, Congress hopes to blockade Iran’s foreign oil supplies. Why would this be bad, you ask? Doesn’t Iran already have tons of oil? Yes, but Iran has been in the unfortunate position of not necessarily having the refining capacity to deal with all of their own oil, so they’ve historically had to actually ship oil out to be refined, and then buy it back. Iran imports 40% of its refined petroleum, so it really would hurt them a lot.

Probably the most important point the post makes can be found here:

Next, even if the sanctions were effective in harming the Iranian economy, there isn’t a single historical example of economic sanctions translating into a desirable change in the Iranian government’s behavior.

Thank you! It’s true; there is no proof that these sanctions have ever worked and there is no reason to believe they will this time. I will apologize to everyone if they do, but that’s just how sure I am that they won’t.

And as the post points out (like so many others have before), the sanctions wouldn’t hurt the Supreme Leader, Ahmadinejad, or the mullahs (lots of them have turned on the Supreme Leader anyway, at this point), it would hurt the common people…the ones we were so vigorously supporting a few weeks ago.

So it’s people like Senator McCain, who has recently said this…

“The United States of America must, and this body must, affirm our support for fundamental human rights of the Iranian people who are being beaten and killed in the streets of Tehran and other cities around Iran. We are with them.”

…who are now pushing for “crippling sanctions” that will “bring the Iranian economy to its knees.” When asked whether or not he realized that the “Iranian people” he was referring to actually lived in Iran, Senator McCain fell asleep. Bad form, Senator McCain. Okay, I haven’t got the patience for this right now.

من دبير يکی از دبيرستان های نيويورک هستم، چند روز پيش يکی از دانش آموزان دبيرستان ما در اقدامی نادر بر سر موضوعی رودروی مدير ترسناک مدرسه ايستاد و وقتی نتوانست به خواسته اش برسد، يکی ديگر از دانش آموزان به او گفت “ let Iranian him.» و منظورش اين بود که بيا در مقابلش اعتراضی را سازماندهی کنيم. به همين سياق الان آنها هر چيزی را که قصد تغييرش را دارند «ايران»ش می کنند و کلمة «ايران کردن»- دست کم در اين گوشه از جهان- به معنی« ايستادگی در برابر قدرت» به عنوان يک فعل درآمده است. اين تحول برای من- به عنوان يک دبير- بسيار مثبت و اميدوارکننده است چرا که به سختی می توانم دانش آموزانم را وادار کنم که به آنچه در جاهای ديگر دنيا اتفاق می افتد توجّه کنند. نکته اينجاست که حتّی اين دانش آموزان که به خيلی کم اخبار را دنبال می کنند کلمة «ايرانی» را مترادف با شجاعت می دانند و من هم شخصاً با آنان موافقم و آرزو داشتم که از اين ميزان پايمردی برخوردار بودم و نهايت تحسين و احترام خود را نسبت به مردم ايران ابراز می کنم

Photos: http://www.theyesmen.org/blog/dow-runs-scared-from-water

London – A new, beautifully-designed line of bottled water – this time
not from the melting Alps, nor from faraway, clean-water-deprived Fiji,
but rather from the contaminated ground near the site of the 1984 Bhopal
catastrophe – scared Dow Chemical’s London management team into hiding
today.

Twenty Bhopal activists, including  Sathyu Sarangi of the Sambhavna
Clinic in Bhopal, showed up at Dow headquarters near London to find that
the entire building had been vacated.

Had they not fled, Dow employees could have read on the bottles’ elegant
labels:

B’eau-Pal: Our Story
The unique qualities of our water come from 25 years of slow-
leaching toxins at the site of the world’s  largest industrial
accident. To this day, Dow Chemical (who bought Union Carbide) has
refused to clean up, and whole new generations have been poisoned.
For more information, please visit http://www.bhopal.org.

The launch of “B’eau-Pal” water came as Bhopal prepares to mark the 25th
anniversary of the Bhopal catastrophe, and coincides with the release of
an official report by the Sambhavna Trust showing that local
groundwater, vegetables, and breast milk are contaminated by toxic
quantities of nickel, chromium, mercury, lead, and volatile organic
compounds. The report describes how a majority of children in one nearby
community are born with serious medical problems traceable to the
contamination.

The attractive yet toxic product, developed by the Bhopal Medical Appeal
and the Yes Men with pro-bono help from top London creative design firm
Kennedy Monk, highlights Dow’s continued refusal to take responsibility
for the disaster. (Five years ago, the Yes Men impersonated Dow Chemical
live on BBC World Television and announced that after 20 years, the
company was finally going to clean up its mess in Bhopal. That hoax,
which temporarily knocked two billion dollars off Dow’s share price, is
featured in the Yes Men’s new movie, The Yes Men Fix The World, which
opens in UK cinemas on August 11.)

Though Dow has consistently refused to clean up the mess in Bhopal, they
have taken numerous steps to clean up their image. In a recent press
release, for example, Andrew Liveris, Dow’s Chairman and CEO, noted that
“lack of clean water is the single largest cause of disease in the world
and more than 4,500 children die each day because of it.” He went on to
assert that “Dow is committed to creating safer, more sustainable water
supplies for communities around the world.”

The Yes Men met Liveris’ attempt to greenwash Dow’s environmental record
with a challenge.

“Since Liveris earns $16,182,544 per year, he could give each of the
children who die worldwide for lack of clean water $10 per day to buy
Evian, Fiji Water, or Perrier,” said Mike Bonanno of the Yes Men. “Or,
for vastly less money, he could build them clean-water pipelines, like
the ones that Bhopal so badly needs.”

Dow’s greenwashing comes while Bhopal is experiencing an extremely rare
drought (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/12/india-water-supply-bhopal),
just three years after facing its greatest floods ever. “Even though
people are already dying by the hundreds of thousands, and we know that
climate change will kill many more, companies like Dow are not being
forced to cut back on emissions,” said the Sambhavna Clinic’s Sathyu
Sarangi. “Bhopal should be a lesson to the world – one we must learn
before it’s too late for all of us.”

* B’eau-Pal water: http://www.bhopalwater.com

]]> http://www.eyeranians.com/archives/434/feed 0 http://www.eyeranians.com/archives/415 http://www.eyeranians.com/archives/415#comments Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:08:40 +0000 persiancowboy http://www.eyeranians.com/?p=415 Continue reading →]]> 700 people gathered at the Pfluger pedestrian bridge in Austin, Texas on July 23 to mourn those killed or injured in Iran.

Here is a poem writen by Ed Seymour, an Austin local who participated in last night’s vigil:

Silence

Seems golden
Seems to have been noticed
Seems to have spoken
Without speaking

For hundreds
To have gathered
Without speaking
Speaks volumes

How they tied their tongues
Without strings attached
And maintained
Complete lack of words, is amazing

The resulting quiet
Was found
By TV
And broadcast

Perhaps
The reason
Was this is so unique
To find quiet, in the middle of city

With such
Lack
Of Noise
The message was loud

Ed Seymour
06/23/09

The Chatham House analysis, while wonky and full of detailed charts, provides the clearest evidence yet that Ahmadinejad and Co. rigged the vote.

It shows, for instance, that in at least ten provinces — in order to have amassed the vote totals given to him — Ahmadinejad would have had to have won all the voters who backed him in 2005, all of the voters who, last time voted for the centrist candidacy of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, all of the voters who, last time, sat out the election and didn’t vote at all, and — on top of that — up to 44 percent of the voters who, in 2005, backed the reformist slate!

Example: Ahmadinejad won 765,000 votes in Hamedan province. In 2005, he received 195,000. To win the additional 570,000 votes, Ahmadinejad would have to have won all 218,000 voters who didn’t vote in 2005, all 175,000 Rafsanjani voters, and nearly a quarter of the 322,000 voters who cast their ballots for the reformists. Keep in mind that most, if not all, of the non-voters in 2005 would be people disgusted with and cynical about voting at all, the vast majority of whom would probably have cast their ballots for Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, or Mohsen Rezai this time, if they voted at all.

In province after province, the data hold.

The Chatham House data also show, conclusively, that rural voters do not support Ahmadinejad, contrary to the oft-repeated myth in the media and among many analysts. In 2005, for instance, the report shows a perfect correlation: The more rural the province, the lower Ahmadinejad’s vote in 2005. Why? “Much of Iran’s rural population is comprised of ethnic minorities: Lors, Baluch, Kurdish, and Arab amongst others. These ethnic minorities have a history of voting Reformist,” says the report. In 2005, they voters overwhelmingly for Karroubi and for Mostafa Moin, not Ahmadinejad. The report, backed by detailed statistical analysis, shows that to have won the support he claims to have achieved in rural areas, Ahmadinejad would have to have won fully half of the reformist vote, and notion that the report calls “highly implausible.”

It also notes, wryly, that “in two conservative provinces, –Mazandaran and Yazd — a turnout of more than 100 percent was recorded.”

Rather stunningly, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani — a fiercely conservative partisan who, nonetheless, was a backer of Ahmadinejad’s conservative opponent in the June 12 election, Mohsen Rezai — has declared that the vote may be suspect. Here’s what he said:

“The Guardian Council should use every possible means to build trust and convince the protestors that their complaints will be thoroughly looked into. A majority of people are of the opinion that the actual election result is different from what was officially announced. The opinion should be respected and a line should be drawn between them and the rioters and miscreants. … Although the Guardian Council is made up of religious individuals, I wish certain members would not side with a certain presidential candidate.”

By “certain presidential candidate,” of course, Larijani means Ahmadinejad. Mousavi himself isn’t pulling punches. He said that “disgusting measures” were used to fix the election, adding, in a letter to the mullahs of the Guardian Council:

“All these counts of irregularities plus many others that were mentioned in previous letters . . . are reasons to cancel the election nationwide. … The result was reversed. … The number of mobile ballot boxes was increased significantly, and there were no monitors present at those stations. Our representatives were not allowed to be present at the mobile ballot boxes during transportation. Considering the fact that there were 14,000 of those, that gave them the ability to carry out any violation of any sort. The ballot boxes were sealed before we could verify that they were not filled up before election day.

“There were 45.2 million eligible voters, and 59.6 million voting slips with serial numbers were printed. A day before the elections, there were millions more printed without serial numbers. The fact that there were so many extra voting slips itself is questionable. There is no way we could have run out of voting slips so early into the elections.”

The next step is the Guardian Council’s.

More News coverage:

“Iran’s Political Crisis Fuels Expatriates’ Fears, Hopes” – Wall Street Journal

Austin American-Statesman

Austin American-Statesman Pictures

The Daily Texan

News8Austin

Public Radio International’s “To The Point” interviews a member of IPJ.

“Iranians in US watch presidential election” – PRI’s The World

————————————————————————

If you took pictures and are willing to share them, please email it to persiancowboy@gmail.com

Picture Gallery by Pouya R

Picture Gallery by Betsy GM

The song comes from leftist group the Fedaii Guerrillas, who fought against the Shah’s regime. Now Mousavi himself is accused of being one of the main perpetrators in suppressing the far-left opposition in the 1980s, so by using this song the Mousavi supporters caused a great deal of anger on Facebook.

h/t observers

Haddadi’s defence lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaei, wrote in a letter that Mohammadreza Haddadi’s execution, which was scheduled to take place this morning, was halted after an order from the Iranian judiciary.

No further details have been provided.

]]> http://www.eyeranians.com/archives/374/feed 0 http://www.eyeranians.com/archives/358 http://www.eyeranians.com/archives/358#comments Thu, 14 May 2009 16:51:56 +0000 persiancowboy http://www.eyeranians.com/?p=358 Continue reading →]]>

Senator Dick Durbin said last week that the banks own Congress.

That’s true.

But they don’t come close to the hammerlock their brothers in the health insurance and drug companies have over the place.

The drug companies and health insurance companies control every nook and cranny on the Hill. If you doubt it, look no further than the events of the past two weeks at the Senate Finance Committee. Committee chair Senator Max Baucus called a full 28 witnesses for two hearings on health care reform. Senator Baucus called on the Business Roundtable. He called on the Heritage Foundation. He called on the lobby known as America’s Health Insurance Plans. But not one of the 28 witnesses called by Baucus supported what the majority of the American people want. And what the majority of doctors, nurses and health economists want.

Single payer, full Medicare for all, everybody in, nobody out, free choice of doctor and hospital health care.

And so, Single Payer Action decided to act.

Last week, eight citizens – including three doctors – led by Single Payer Action – simply demanded that Baucus add a seat at the table for a single payer advocate.

Instead of adding a seat at the table, Baucus called for the police.

The eight were arrested, handcuffed, and charged with so-called “disruption of Congress.” The police left behind undisturbed the horde of corporate lobbyists accustomed to “the purchase of Congress.”

This week, two doctors, two nurses, and a citizen from Maine – inspired by the actions of the Baucus 8 – rose and simply demanded that Baucus add a single payer advocate to the witness list.

Again, Baucus refused.
And again, Baucus called for the police.
Now it’s the Baucus 13.

Single Payer Action will not rest until America gets what every other Western industrialized country has – universal, not-for-profit, health care – everybody in, nobody out.

More efficient. And more humane.

The launch of Single Payer Action is one of the more successful launches of a citizen action organization in recent memory. Single Payer Action has gained widespread publicity – on National Public Radio, Democracy Now, in Politico, the Associated Press, and the National Journal. Go to singlepayeraction.org and Join the Campaign.