Tehran Girl !

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A letter to the world:what will you do to sprouts germination?

It has been so many years that we are fighting for our basic rights.You detain and imprison us,torture and flog us.Execute and exile us but we still stand firm.
On the international women’s day we announced that women and men are equal and condemned any kind of sexual discrimination,but after all you executed your men partisan and medieval rules against women.On the first day of May(International worker’s day)we announced that we have to get paid and we announced that we are going the same way that workers are going in the whole world and we have same goals and asked you to put an end to the tyranny against immigrant workers.But you imprisoned us and kept us in the worst conditions ever and tortured us.You flogged workers because they participate in international worker’s day and charged them with the high fines.
On the international children’s day, we announced that children is first and you do not have the right to sexually and physically abuse them.You do not have the right to use them as a cheap silent work force but you still you took advantage of them in the streets and workshops.
On the student’s day( 16th of Azar),we announced that, do not execute, do not stone to death,put an end to the conquests(Shari’a)rules against humanity and let the university-as it implies from its name-be a place to study and produce human and science forces.But you attacked us and at night arrested our friends and send them blindfolded to the prisons.You starred and expelled us and positioned militia forces in the universities.we told you repeatedly that university is not a garrison(military area)and asked you to emit your forces out of universities but you attacked our class rooms and dormitories and injured students.Today is one of our friend’s funeral …yes,I am talking about Kianoush Asa, the one that you killed him in prison and under torture.

We cried(shouted) repeatedly and of the same voice along with the global movement against children execution and asked to stop it.But you executed our Delara and you keep take children with skimpy and wobbly legs to the gallows.
We announced that Iranian people are not militant and they do not want destruct any generation, race or color.Our slogan was”One identity,the human identity”and”one land,one man”.But you kept announcing your personal ideas and opinions in the name of the Iranian people.we repeatedly announced that we do not want Islamic government and you kept governing by medieval rules.

We have given you a warning and are fighting for years now.This movement which you call it dirt and brushwood is that student,woman,child and worker who you have disregarded his/her right for along time.

This is not a revolt movement of prosperous people.This is not a protest of loser voters.This is a cry of oppressed people of Iran who yell from the bottom of their hearts “death to dictator,Khamenei and Islamic republic.This cry is echo of the voices that you have heard all this years from the larynx of freedom partisans in the corner of your prison cells and pits.
Iranian people have found each other and know that your overthrow secret is in their solidarity. That is why they say “Do not be afraid! Do not be afraid!We are all together” Iranian people, men and women equal and of the one voice came to streets as they said and stood in front of your bullets.On the same day that you killed Neda,I saw another woman standing with open hands and yelling “Shoot, shoot, kill me too”.This is your overthrow movement that cries in the streets”I will kill who killed my brother”.
It will not be too late,history will repeat for you one more time and Freedom and Equality would be the Iranian message to the whole world.

But I am Saeed Valadbeygi ; The student worker who has been in your detentions and prisons so many times.The starred student ,you expelled him from university and the worker who spent the best years of his life in exile and prison.I am the cry (shout) of the common pain who has clenched his fists stronger in all these years to yell “death to DICTATOR” today and stronger than ever.Do not frighten me of death.It has been few days that you put my family under the sever pressure and attacked my place so many times but each and every time you have failed and been the looser.This pressure and creating the fear and panic atmosphere can not stop our friends and their families in the middle of their freedom road because we are aware that in our freedom way , we do not have anything to lose except for our chains.Your act might interrupt our activities,perhaps we lose our dearest ones and best moments of our lives in that way but your interruption will never be able to stop us.

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Last Updates…

Iran Media Caught Lying and Deceiving People Under torture…

• Bazaar merchants closed their businesses in Tabriz on Wednesday in protest to the introduction of new value added tax. The protest started from 11:00am in Bazaar sections allocated to jewelers and shoe sellers and soon spread to other parts.

• Relatives and friends of those killed in recent anti-government protests in Iran gathered on Thursday in Behesht-e-Zahra, Tehran’s main cemetery, to commemorate their loved ones.The participants, who were surrounded by large numbers of the Iranian regime’s State Security Forces and plainclothes agent, chanted slogans against the regime.The gatherings took place at sections 254, 256, 257, 259, 263 and 264 of the cemetery.

• As news of an anti-government protest by merchants in Tehran’s Bazaar spread on Thursday, plainclothes agents of the Iranian regime prevented them from closing down their shops.The agents were heavily present to forcefully prevent merchants from going on strike.

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Iran Uprising Blogging (Friday July 3)

I’m liveblogging the latest Iran election fallout. on Twitter. Send me instant messages at nico.pitney@gmail.com or njpitney on AIM. Scroll down for news related to the front-page headlines. Local Iran time is 8 1/2 hours ahead of Eastern time. You can support this post on Digg here.

6:55 PM ET — U2 goes Green. Via reader Jashar, U2 performed last night in Barcelona and played their hit “Sunday Bloody Sunday” — about British troops who shot and killed civil rights marchers in Ireland — as green light covered the stage and Farsi lyrics ran across the screens.

A commenter on U2’s website described the scene:

First up, the previous song outros with a beautiful lilting vocal piece by (we discover) Iranian-born singer Sussan Deyhim. Then as the rhythmic opening bars of ‘Sunday’ arrive, the overhead spherical screens turn a luminous shade of green as farsi script script scrolls into sight.

1:27 PM ET — The Nation’s cover story: “Iran’s Green Wave.” It is absolutely worth going over and reading Robert Dreyfuss’ complete cover story in this week’s Nation magazine. He was in Iran for the election and its aftermath, and has a wealth of interesting details. Here’s a taste:

[T]here was the Obama factor. Countless Iranians watched his June 4 Cairo speech, and its transcript was parsed word by word. By offering to respect Iran rather than locating it in the “axis of evil,” Obama appealed to secular nationalists, activists seeking greater individual freedom and businessmen hungering for an end to the sanctions strangling Iran’s economy. Nearly everyone I spoke with during the ten days I was in Iran brought up Obama, whether I asked or not. At a frenzied Moussavi rally in the city of Karaj, west of the capital, I met a campaign organizer, Hojatolislam Akbar Hamidi, 48, a distinguished cleric who’s known Moussavi for more than twenty years. “I listened to Obama’s speech, and it made me very happy,” he told me. “But we’re afraid that some Iranian authorities do not understand the positive message of Obama.” In interviews at polling places on election day, dozens of voters praised Obama’s opening to Iran. At a Tehran mosque where hundreds of people were lined up to vote, several dozen crowded around as I asked an older woman why she supported Moussavi. When I suggested, “Perhaps Moussavi and Obama might meet someday soon?” the crowd, translating for one another, erupted in cheers, laughter and thumbs-up signs.

More prosaically, many plugged-in Iranians told me that nearly the entirety of Iran’s business class is fed up with Ahmadinejad’s bellicose rhetoric, and they want to put an end to sanctions. Saeed Laylaz, an economist and former official at the Ministry of Industry, said that as a result of sanctions critical sectors of the economy–including computers and information technology, oil and natural gas, and civil aviation–are suffering badly. “Ahmadinejad’s is the first right-wing government since the revolution, and it has been a catastrophe,” he said. “You cannot run the government with populism. You need experts. You need technocrats. You need planners.” (Laylaz was arrested days after the election; he’s still in detention.) To get a sense of what the business community thinks, during election week I attended a forum packed with executives at the offices of Etelaat, a liberal newspaper, where eight former ministers of oil, industry and mining slammed the government over its incompetence. Later, at Moussavi’s campaign office, one of them, Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, who was minister of industry under Khatami, told me that he’d put his business on hold to travel across the country working for Moussavi. “I’m a businessman, and I’ve been reluctant to get into politics,” he told me over several cups of tea. “It’s the desire of most of us in the business community to rebuild relations with the United States,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that we have to give up our independence or our dignity.”

Besides reformists, students, women and businessmen, Khamenei and Ahmadinejad are losing their core constituency: the clergy. And given that Iran is a state run by the priestly class, that might prove their undoing. I spoke to a dozen or so clerics, from low- to mid-ranking mullahs to a few who’d attained the rank of hojatolislam, just below ayatollah. There are hundreds of thousands of mullahs in Iran, perhaps a hundred or more who have attained the rank of ayatollah, and just two dozen or so who have developed sufficient reputation and following to be called grand ayatollah. And more and more of them, including many grand ayatollahs, have joined the opposition. “After the television debates with Ahmadinejad, a large number of mullahs who’d been undecided went over to Moussavi,” one hojatolislam told me. They were offended, he said, by Ahmadinejad’s insulting attitude toward Moussavi–particularly his rhetorical assault on his wife, Rahnavard, whom he accused of falsifying her academic credentials–and his accusations against Rafsanjani and Khatami. “A president should be polite,” the cleric told me. “Impolite behavior and ugliness cannot be accepted.”

1:21 PM ET — Friday prayers. Some images from today.

Iran’s head of the Guardian Council Ahmad Janati delivers his speech at the weekly Friday prayers sermon in Tehran University on June 3, 2009. The powerful Iranian cleric said that some local British embassy staff will be put on trial for allegedly stoking post-election unrest, a move set to plunge already strained ties to a new low.

1:11 PM ET — New video. Via reader Jenny, this video was uploaded today, but the date of the events is unclear. Given the smaller crowd sizes, it seems very likely to have been filmed at least a few days after the massive demonstration on Saturday.

What’s curious is that this video was apparently aired by Iran’s state media (notice the PressTV logo). Also, throughout much of the footage, one can hear what sounds to be a photo camera clicking — perhaps someone capturing images of the people in the streets.

(Warning: some intense images, including a militiaman trying to run over a demonstrator with his motorcycle.)

1:08 PM ET — Report: U.S. to block Iran sanctions at G8. “The United States is opposed to enacting a new set of financial sanctions against Iran that are due to be discussed in the G8 summit next week, diplomatic officials in New York reported Friday. According to officials, sanctions against Iran are expected to top the G8’s agenda. Sources are also predicting a pointed debate between the heads of the industrialized nations over an appropriate response to Iranian authorities’ suppression of reformist demonstrations in Iran led by Mir Hossein Mousavi and other Iranian opposition leaders. “

12:49 PM ET — Iran views: Quiet but not normal. The BBC publishes three first-person accounts from Iranians. One describes being beaten at the hands of Basij paramilitaries and the climate of fear around Internet use. Another offers this observation:

Most of the shouting from the rooftops at night has been coming from the rich and middle class areas of Tehran. There’s much less, if any, from the poor areas.

On Monday I was in Niavaran Park, a very expensive area. I heard people shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ as you wouldn’t believe!

Afterwards I wondered if it’s because the rich have satellites and can watch foreign TV, so they are influenced by that. But the poor don’t have satellites and just watch the normal government TV.

12:47 PM ET — Dalton on Iran. The tireless Steve Clemons posts an interview he conducted with Sir Richard Dalton, the UK ambassador to Iran from 2002-06.

Clemons writes, “Despite Dalton’s clear concerns about the unprecedented eruption we have seen recently in Iran, he believes that engagement with Iran’s regime should be a top priority.”

12:42 PM ET — New UN watchdog: no hard evidence Iran seeking nukes. Some provocative comments from the new IAEA chief: “The incoming head of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog said Friday he did not see any hard evidence that Iran was trying to gain the ability to develop nuclear weapons. ‘I don’t see any evidence in IAEA official documents about this,’ Yukiya Amano told Reuters in his first direct comment on Iran’s nuclear program since his election, when asked whether he believed Iran was seeking a nuclear weapons capability.”

12:11 PM ET — EU summons all Iranian ambassadors in coordinated protest. Tensions are definitely rising.

The EU decided today to summon all Iranian ambassadors in capitals across Europe in a co-ordinated protest over the detention of UK embassy staff. The move came after a senior cleric said some of the staff accused of inciting protests following last month’s disputed presidential election would be put on trial.

The head of Iran’s guardian council, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, said the detained staff members had “made confessions” in connection with the unrest.

The surprise move by the council, Iran’s top legislative body, will cause relations between London and Tehran to deteriorate further after tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions last week.

10:01 AM ET — Iran cleric says British embassy staff to stand trial. The New York Times reports:

Brushing aside British and European efforts to seek the release of local British Embassy staff members held in Tehran, the Iranian authorities indicated Friday that they plannedto put some of them on trial — a move that deepened a diplomatic crisis and could provoke the withdrawal of ambassadors.

In London, the Foreign Office said it was urgently checking reports that the Iranian authorities planned to put two of its local employees on trial. Nine staff members were seized after the unrest sparked by Iran’s disputed presidential elections on June 12.

Hours after the Iranian threat, the European Union seemed to hold back from an out-and-out showdown, resolving to summon Iranian ambassadors in all 27 countries to send “a strong message of protest against the detention of British Embassy local staff and to demand their immediate release,” a European diplomat said, speaking in return for anonymity.

Other measures — such as a ban on issuing visas to Iranian travelers and a pullout of European ambassadors — would be considered depending on how the crisis unfolded, the diplomat said.

9:35 AM ET — “In possible signal to Iran, Israel sends sub through Suez canal.” The Jerusalem Post, which tends towards sensationalism, offers this report:

After a long hiatus, the Israeli Navy has returned to sailing through the Suez Canal, recently sending one of its advanced Dolphin-class submarines through the waterway to participate in naval maneuvers off the Eilat coast in the Red Sea.

IDF sources said the decision to allow navy vessels to sail through the canal was made recently and was a definite “change of policy” within the service. In 2005, then OC Navy Adm. David Ben-Bashat decided to stop sending Israeli ships through the canal due to growing threats in the area.

In the run-up to Iran’s election, there was ample reporting that the Netanyahu-led government in Israel saw an Ahmadinejad victory as the optimal scenario — he was a better bogeyman to use to rally international support. Since the Green uprising, the commentary from Israeli analysts has been far more divided (many now see Mousavi as a far better option), and there have been demonstrations by ordinary Israelis in support of Iran’s reformists.

Yet the rhetoric from Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman continues to seemingly be aimed at injecting Israel into the debate in Iran (both Israeli leaders have, for instance, openly endorsed Mousavi). These are displays of support that only serve to strengthen Ahmadinejad’s hand domestically.

UPDATE: Here’s Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren discussing Iran with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg yesterday at the Aspen Ideas Festival (Iran section starts at 3:00):

9:31 AM ET — Blogger who claimed Ahmadinejad had Jewish roots reportedly arrested. “The Iranian blogger who claimed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has Jewish roots is being detained by the authorities after he was arrested along with 150 university students earlier this week, according to sources in Teheran. Dr. Mehdi Khazali, who reportedly participated in several recent opposition demonstrations, was reportedly summoned to a special court convened for religious figures, detained and transferred to an unknown location.”

3:51 AM ET — Jordan shuts down Press TV? Sara writes, “According to BBC Persian, Al-Alam has written to the network news offices in Amman ordering the state offices of the English-language Iranian television network of Press TV to be shut down.” More Press TV discussion below.

3:43 AM ET — Ahmadinejad ‘facing diplomatic isolation.’ The Los Angeles Times’ term — “diplomatic isolation” — may be too strong for what we’ve seen thus far. A dozen or so countries have recognized Ahmadinejad’d victory, and even the U.S. provided visas to Iranian officials who visited the UN in New York last week. But as the Times notes today, Ahmadinejad’s diplomatic treatment has certainly undergone a significant change since his tainted “victory” in last month’s election:

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev publicly greeted Ahmadinejad at a recent meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, but did not grant him a private meeting as he had the leaders of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In Belarus, the Iranian leader was met not by President Alexander Lukashenko, but by the speaker of the upper house of parliament.

A similar pattern has emerged in the Middle East, where Arab regimes have long been wary of Iran’s ambitions. Authorities in Jordan withdrew licenses for two Iranian news organizations this week and the sultan of Oman reportedly canceled a trip to Tehran following the unrest after Iran’s June 12 election.

Snubs and slights in the diplomatic world are common, sometimes almost imperceptible. But as long as Ahmadinejad remains in power, with the support of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, there are concerns about how the messy fallout over his reelection will influence diplomacy regarding Iran’s nuclear program, regional stature and relations with the U.S. and Europe.

3:40 AM ET — “Your breath smells of Allah-o Akbar.” A great cartoon via Tehran Bureau, which reports on Iranians’ daily battles to keep their satellite dishes.

Basij militiaman to driver: “Your breath smells of Allah o Akbar.” The chant of Allah o Akbar, which helped bring down the Shah 30 years ago, is now being chanted every night in protest of the current government.

3:32 AM ET — Don’t negotiate. There has been a notable swing in the pendulum among centrist and progressive Iran analysts — Trita Parsi (in the call mentioned below), NYT columnist Roger Cohen, and Fareed Zakaria all now advocate a relative freeze in negotiations with Iran. Zakaria explained his position in a new interview with CNN:

CNN: Is this from a position of weakness, because the West has so few options?

Zakaria: Not really, because while it might seem like the West has few options, in reality, Iran has fewer. Its economy is doing badly, the regime is facing its greatest challenge since its founding, and its proxies in Lebanon, Iraq and elsewhere are all faring worse than it had expected. Let the supreme leader and President Ahmadinejad figure out what they should do first. Time might not be on their side.

3:30 AM ET — Digg. I try to post these Digg solicitations fairly regularly, and readers have been so supportive. Having Iran news featured on social networks really helps remind people that the uprising continues and still needs their attention. If you’d like to support this post, click here. Thanks.

3:28 AM ET — Trita Parsi on the Iranian opposition: Nothing is over. Spencer Ackerman reviews a press call that keen Iran analyst Trita Parsi held today:

Parsi further explained, in response to Matt Duss of the Center for American Progress, that the critical constituency would be conservative clerics who feel threatened by Ahmadinejad’s consolidation of power. In an irony from the perspective of the American debate about Iran — which conflates reformism with secularism — the clerics see Ahmadinejad “as a dangerous element, quite correctly, who tries to undermine the clergy as a whole.” That might compel some of them to resist Ahmadinejad, or to place pressure on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to find some compromise with the opposition.

But if a compromise can’t be found, then the opposition enters a new phase, having to face a choice between accepting Ahmadinejad and moving to a more radical position. “There are people loyal to the system, who don’t want to bring the system down but at the same time believe the system is quite imperfect [and wish to] ensure the system changes through peaceful means,” Parsi said. If they fail, “then we face a significantly more radical movement in Iran, with more bloodshed than we’ve seen.”

3:17 AM ET — Some bad news, and some great news. First the bad: Freegate, an organization formed to help Chinese get around web censors, has cut Iran’s access by 75 percent due to the high costs.

The much better news: the excellent Tor Project is still seeing major growth in Iran connections — but as they explain, the project is always in need of donations.

Meanwhile, there are multiple efforts around the world right now to establish serious funding to help ordinary Iranians break through the government’s Internet wall. I’ll post details here as soon as they’re available.

3:14 AM ET — Swedish PM speaks on Iran. As readers know, Sweden assumed the presidency of the EU on Wednesday. Video via reader Heather:

3:02 AM ET — Press TV rep claims network is “impartial.” Via reader Heather, the BBC aired a debate on Wednesday between a senior staffer of Iran’s state-backed network Press TV and British journalist Martin Bright. At the onset, the BBC noted that Britain’s communication department is reviewing Press TV’s broadcasting license.

To be honest, the debate is a bit unsatisfying, since neither the BBC host nor Bright seemed to do much research before the segment. But the fact that this propaganda outlet is increasingly coming under scrutiny is certainly good news.

2:45 AM ET — Charges sought for Mousavi carry 10 year prison sentence. “Iran’s embattled opposition leader, Mirhossein Mousavi, faces a new threat after the Basiji militia accused him of ‘offences against the state’ and ‘disturbing the nation’s security’, charges which carry a sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment.”

2:40 AM ET — Imprisoning an innocent, severely disabled man. Tehran Broadcast publishes an emotional plea for the release of Saeed Hajarian, “a prominent reformist theorist, [who] survived an attempted assassination in March 2000, at the peak of the conflicts between conservatives and reformists in Iran, and has subsequently become severely disabled.”

An excerpt from the piece, directed at Hajarian’s interrogators:

What did you tell Saeed? How did you ask him to talk? Saeed?

He can’t talk. I have seen Saeed. When he wants to talk he has to concentrate all his afflicted and sick body to utter a word. Don’t tell him to talk; he can’t talk. When he was able to talk, he wasn’t talking either. Outside the prison, when he met his friends, he was barely talking. Now what do you expect from him? Him who hardly can speak and even forcing himself is still not able to utter a word.

You have been putting your one hand on his afflicted shoulder and have been pressuring his weak body and have been telling him, “Tell me you were trying to do ‘Green Revolution,’ Tell me…” Meanwhile, you have been making a fist with the other hand to punch his face. Move away your hand. HE CANNOT TALK!

I had visited Saeed Hajarian when he was at “City Council”. With numerous surgeries they had kept him alive and he was still not able to have control over his face and his hands. With great effort, he said,” Seyed, I read your piece and I laughed. It’s been a while since I’ve laughed.” I was glad I was able to give a smile to his afflicted heart, but I was upset that this smile might have made him suffer more pain in his body. A body which suffered for freedom and was injured for knowing.

2:28 AM ET — Programming note. I’ll be on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal this morning at 8AM ET.

2:25 AM ET — Doctor who tried to save Neda responds to Iran propaganda. A reader helpfully sent along this link to the blog of Arash Hejazi, the doctor who attempted to save Neda’s life, subsequently fled to London, and now is being attacked in state media by Iranian officials. The reader provided a nearly full translation of the blog post:

After my interview on June 25th, 2009, regarding my personal account of the brutal killing of Neda Agha Soltan, I read the news of my arrest warrant by the government of Iran.

As I mentioned in the interview, I was expecting such as action from a government, which is founded on lies and deceit. I was expecting them to deny my statements. This government, instead of bringing justice to the murders of this innocent girl and others and accepting their responsibilities, tries to blame individuals and organizations, which have done nothing wrong.

They have put pressure on my friends and family who have done nothing. They have harassed my father who is 70 years and a university professor.

I did what every human would have done in my situation. I tried to save a victim. When the government tried to cover up the details, I testified what I witnessed.

I have lived my life so that I would have no regret. I was one of the first physicians who went to Bam after the earthquake so that I could be near the victims who had no hope. However this time, this victim was not the victim of a natural disaster.

I am a writer and from my essays and stories, you will realize that I have always been a human rights advocate and I have paid the price.

I have always tired to live honestly and do not betray my principles.

I believe what I did regarding Neda was the right things. I believe that if I have to pay the price, so be it, but I reserve the right to defend my honor.

God is my witness that I told the truth.

This lie questions the entire principles of this government. A government which questions the events of WWII, claims that there is freedom of speech in Iran, claims that there is no censorship, states that there are no political prisoners and that each individual enjoys full rights including regarding their sex, religion and race.

In the past 20 days, the world has come to realize that these are false claims. I know that the world will not believe these new lies and know that this physician has do nothing except following his principles and coming to the help of people who need help and stating the truth.

Neda was not the only victim. Are all the other victims the result of Western conspiracy?

I am only a witness. Why are they pursuing the witness and not the killers? Is there enough bloodshed? Should I have been silent regarding this horrible crime? Is this the message that we want to send to the future generations?

I believe that all the citizens of the world will support me and thousands of other Iranians who have been beaten, murdered and imprisoned, in order to achieve freedom and join the rest of the free people.

I am proud of myself for being a part of this movement. I have done something that every honest human being would have done. This is my crime and this is why they are threatening me.

CLICK HERE FOR LIVE-BLOGGING ARCHIVES

Useful Resources

Translations: TehranBroadcast.com | Translate4Iran
Helping Iranians use the web: Tor Project (English & Farsi)IranHelp.org (Farsi)
Demonstrations: Facebook | WhyWeProtest
Activism: Avaaz.org | National Iranian American Council

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Sanford Will Now Disclose Schedule

In the wake of reports that South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) regularly shed his security detail, he “will begin making his schedule available to the public and the media… a marked departure from the way the office has operated the past 6 1/2 years,” according to The State.

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Is the Kindle DX Worth the Money?

An anonymous reader writes “Now that some little time has passed, and the hype has died down a bit, I’m wondering if anyone has taken the $500 plunge and gotten a Kindle DX. From the academic-paper-reading-geek perspective, is it worth the money? How well does it work with PDFs, and is it easy to get them on and off? I haven’t been able to find any good reviews on the interweb that address its usability as I would like to use it.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Same-gender sex no longer a crime in India’s capital city

The Times of India is calling it “India’s Gay Day.” A ruling on Thursday overturned a colonial law nearly 150 years old that describes sex acts between two persons of the same gender in India’s capital city as an “unnatural offense.”

Homosexual acts were punishable by a 10-year prison sentence.
Many people in India regard same-sex relationships as illegitimate. Rights groups have long argued that the law contravened human rights.

A clarification from an earlier iteration of this blog post: The ruling only applies to India’s capital city of Delhi. Sex acts between two men or two women is, if I’m reading this right, still a crime in the rest of India.

India media hails gay sex ruling (BBC). See also: Mumbai gays’ long fight for recognition (BBC). Below: image from WAtoday: “A eunuch kisses another member of the transgender, gay and lesbian communities as they celebrate the Indian court decision.” (thanks, Antinous!)

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John Ziegler Exposes How Palin Derangement Syndrome Works

Although almost eight months have passed since last year’s elections, Palin Derangement Syndrome continues to manifest itself throughout America’s press.

As NewsBusters’ Mike Sargent reported Tuesday, Vanity Fair’s Todd Purdum is gravely afflicted with the illness, and needs to see a team of doctors quickly if he ever wants to be taken seriously by anyone other than the extreme Left.

With that in mind, Palin documentarian John Ziegler had a fascinating radio interview with Politico’s Mike Allen Wednesday that shed some light on how PDS works and why it’s so pernicious.

To set this up, Allen was on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" earlier in the day, and defended Purdum’s piece (15 minute audio available here):

MIKE ALLEN, POLITICO: Nobody can agree on what exactly went wrong with that disastrous campaign. Todd has a great phrase in there where he refers to it as "A Bermuda Triangle of a campaign." [...]

I know that she was advised after the campaign to disappear, to study, to learn foreign policy, to learn economics, learn some of these issues and come back in two years when she was ready. She didn’t do it, instead she did a series of stupid interviews that just dug her deeper…" [...]

Sure, she has incredible star power as you point out. She’s wanted for fundraisers. We all cover her. But Joe, I don’t think she’s taken seriously as a policy person. I don’t think that that’s the sort of circus act the Republicans are looking for. I think she’ll get tons of coverage. It’s hard to see her at this point being taken as a serious person. 

After playing these audio segments, Ziegler asked Allen: "Which really stupid interviews that Sarah Palin did were you referring to specifically?"

Reasonable question, correct? Yet, no matter how many times Ziegler asked it, Allen never gave one example of Palin giving a stupid interview despite telling MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough earlier in the day, "she did a series of stupid interviews that just dug her deeper…"

And therein lies the heart of Palin Derangement Syndrome: making totally false statements about the Alaska governor without being able to back them up.

Sadly, as this is what most media outlets want — dirt about Palin irrespective of veracity — the mudslingers not only easily get away with it, but are revered for doing so.

Fortunately, Ziegler was having none of it, and pointed out the hypocrisy to his guest:

You made a very serious allegation that you seem to be backing off of that you can’t substantiate, and I’m just. You’re a very good reporter. You’re not a lefty that I can tell. But I was disappointed that you would make an allegation like that on MSNBC where you’re obviously, you know, that’s what the audience wants to hear, and then you’re not willing to back it up. You’re a good reporter, Mike. I would think that you would have some substance behind an allegation like that. [...]

You’re saying that there’s a perception that’s out there. You’re presuming that perception is reality, and then you’re not, you’re making allegations based upon that perception that you have no substance behind. As a reporter, don’t you find that at all troubling? If someone else did that, wouldn’t you criticize that kind of reporting?   

Allen didn’t answer those questions either demonstrating how the state of America’s media is such that so-called journalists don’t have to substantiate negative allegations concerning Republicans. They can say or write whatever they want about politicians they don’t like — irrespective of facts — with total impunity.

And therein lies a very serious problem.

Bravo, John. Bravo.

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Squeezing a Wikipedia Snapshot Onto an 8GB iPhone

blackbearnh writes with this excerpt from O’Reilly Radar “Think about Wikipedia, what some consider the most complete general survey of human knowledge we have at the moment. Now imagine squeezing it down to fit comfortably on an 8GB iPhone. Sound daunting? Well, that’s just what Patrick Collison’s Encyclopedia iPhone application does. App Store purchasers of Collison’s open source application can browse and search the full text of Wikipedia when stuck in a plane, or trapped in the middle of nowhere (or, as defined by AT&T coverage…)”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Open Thread

For general discussion and debate. Possible talking point: Will N. Korea or won’t N. Korea?

 U.S. missile defenses are prepared to try to knock down the last stage of a Taepodong-2 missile that North Korea is expected soon to launch if sensors detect the weapon threatens U.S. territory, the commander of the U.S. Northern Command told The Washington Times. "The nation has a very, very credible ballistic-missile defense capability. Our ground-based interceptors in Alaska and California, I’m very comfortable, give me a capability that if we really are threatened by a long-range ICBM that I’ve got high confidence that I could interdict that flight before it caused huge damage to any U.S. territory," said Air Force Gen. Victor E. "Gene" Renuart, Northcom commander.

Thoughts?

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Awesome pixel-art in cross-stitch form

Cross-Stitch Ninja’s Flickr stream is a bottomless well of pixellated delights. Shown here, the CCTV cameras worked into the border of the “You Are Not Alone” sampler, and there’s plenty of other lovelies, like the Super Mario maps, grammar puns, religio-vegetarian humor and loads more.

Cross-stitch ninja’s photostream

(via Craft, thanks, Alice!)

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Sigma updates Photo Pro software

Sigma has released an update to its Photo Pro image-editing software. Version 3.5.2 for Windows and v3.3 for Mac claim to improve processing of highlight areas in RAW images and now offer the ‘ProPhoto RGB’ color space. Exposure warning is also displayed for RGB channels in the histogram in the Windows version.

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Video of Walt Disney World’s Obamabot

The Obamabot 3000 is ready to be unveiled at Walt Disney World’s Hall of Presidents, along with the Mark II George Washingtron (”Now with real talking action!”) and a Gettysburg-complete Lincolnbot.

No word on whether the Obamabot will allow release of the photos of the waterbotting on Pleasure Island, a no-go zone for civilians for several years now.

We’re just sorting out our Christmas at Disney World plans — our first WDW trip with the baby — and I’m looking forward to this. There is something eerily cool and compelling about all those hyper-detailed robots nodding and twitching at you from out of the uncanny valley while Maya Angelou tells you about the War Between the States.

A remarkably lifelike Audio-Animatronics figure of President Barack Obama enters the spotlight in a revised and refreshed Hall of Presidents show when it reopens July 4 in Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort. The addition of the countrys 44th chief executive is just part of the most significant update to this classic attraction since its 1971 debut in the parks Liberty Square.

Pulitzer-Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin helped develop the show with Disney Imagineers. In this video they talk about the Hall of Presidents: A Celebration of Libertys Leaders.

Barack Obama Joins Hall of Presidents at Disney’s Magic Kingdom

(Thanks, Patricio!)

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Emulated PC Enables Linux Desktop In Your Browser

Ianopolous writes “Classic DOOM and DSL Linux Desktop inside your Java-enabled browser! The latest JPC, the fast 100% Java x86 PC emulator, is now available with online demos and downloads. JPC is open source and is the most secure way of running x86 software ever — 2 layers (applet sandbox, JPC sandbox) of independently validated security make it the world’s most secure means of isolating x86 software. Visit the website to try out some classic games and play around with Linux all within your web browser. Refresh = reboot!”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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