America’s Ally: Iran (-ian students)

The United States’ best ally in the war against radical Islam is the one that the State Department either refuses to see or chooses to ignore: the people of Iran. Anti-mullah sentiment is widespread in the country, particularly among the women and the youth, who courageously stand up to the regime that can beat, jail, and torture them without fear of reprisal or punishment from the international community. Yet, even when facing the personification of evil, the Iranian people stand strong and are in search of allies in the West to broadcast their message.

The recent events at Amir Kabir University in Tehran serve as a testament to this fact. On February 21, students began a large sit-in, amounting to 500 protesters, according to the Iranian who sent me a report on the event. The photos and footage sent to me confirmed that large crowds were present. The protest was sparked by the regime’s detention of four student activists who had begun a hunger strike while in prison, the banning of five other students from the university’s premises, and the decision by the government to bury the coffins of soldiers from the Iran-Iraq war at the university. The regime has used this tactic in the past to suppress the freedom of movement in Iran, as it is illegal to “disrespect” these burial grounds by having large gatherings that don’t pay tribute to their sacrifice. It also gives the mullahs’ henchmen a reason to drop in without warning.

Chanting things like “Students will die but never bow down” and “Death to dictatorship,” the protesters clearly identified themselves to the regime’s spies. According to the report sent to me, 20 students were disciplined by the university and the families of some of the protesters received threatening phone calls.

Undeterred, the protesters continued their demonstrations into a second day and then into a third day. According to the Iranian who sent me the information, 60 student protesters were injured by the regime’s forces, of which 20 were in “very bad” condition, and 120 students, including 30 females, had been arrested.

Amil Imani, an Iranian democratic activist in the U.S., writes that the website of the university’s newsletter also reported on the clashes during the protest, describing how “chest-beating mourners brought the martyr coffins yesterday morning. Before the parade, security forces, Basiji campus police, Revolutionary Guards, plain-clothed intelligence officers, armed vigilantes known as Ansar-e Hezbollah (a violent Islamist organization under the unofficial sway of the supreme leader), and even the fire brigade gathered inside and around the university compounds.”

“The security forces and vigilantes used clubs, tear gas sprays, iron knuckles, knives, and other weapons in order to wound the protesting students. At least 25 have been arrested and nine hospitalized with knife wounds and other injuries so far, and the fighting continues as we speak. Another student slogan repeated on the website: Ansar commits the crime, the leader supports it,” Imani quotes the newsletter as saying.

The protests at Iranian universities stand in sharp contrast to the protests that occur at U.S. universities. While the Iranians put their lives at risk to demand freedom and democracy, American students protest the injustices of American and Western imperialism and oppressive capitalism. Often sporting Che Guevara shirts and chanting slogans asserting 9/11 was an inside job and that our leaders are war criminals in need of an international trial, American students are often seen challenging any decisive action meant to advance freedom and defeat those who would vanquish the right to publicly express disagreement — ironically, the same rights American students utilize in their very actions.

Students in the West need to learn something from their counterparts in Iran. Freedom is worth fighting for, and standing up for freedom is not an act of selfishness or imperialism; it’s an act of respect for those who struggle for air in the clamped palm of tyrants and a recognition that our security comes from advancing our principles, not abandoning them.

Those belonging to today’s non-interventionist and pacifist movement often proudly look at America’s so-called “isolation” from the rest of the world as vindication of their worldview. To them, each act of violence and hatred towards the U.S. is seen as evidence that they’re intellectually superior to our leaders, whose failure at objectivity leads them to foolishly believe that not all humans are rational and capable of holding hands in pursuit of common interests.

The protesters at Amir Kabir University serve as a reminder that our best allies in this struggle won’t always have government offices in capitols or votes at the United Nations. They are those who still have hope that America hasn’t forgotten her principles, and they simply want to be heard and politically supported. If the non-interventionists have their way, America may no longer feel isolated, but today’s Minutemen in Iran and around the world will be.

The photos below should tell all Americans whose side we should unashamedly be on.

protest

Build Your Own Stonehenge.

All Those iTunes Songs You Bought? Say Goodbye to them!

Apple has threatened to shut down the iTunes music store if an obscure three-person board appointed by the Librarian of Congress increase the royalties paid to publishers and songwriters by six cents per song.

The Copyright Royalty Board is scheduled to hand down its decision on these rates by Thursday. As part of their general muscle-flexing of late, music publishers asked the board to increase the royalties paid to publishers and songwriters for the sale of digital downloads from 9 cents to 15 cents per song.

Apple — which has mightily resisted tampering in any way with its 99 cent price point for tracks — said that if the rate hike goes through and the labels refuse to absorb the entire resulting increase, the iTunes music store will become unprofitable.

And, Apple says, it likes making money.

“If the [iTunes music store] was forced to absorb any increase in the… royalty rate, the result would be to significantly increase the likelihood of the store operating at a financial loss — which is no alternative at all,” wrote Apple iTunes vice president Eddy Cue in a statement filed with the board last year, according to Fortune. “Apple has repeatedly made it clear that it is in this business to make money, and most likely would not continue to operate [the iTunes music store] if it were no longer possible to do so profitably.”

Out of each 99 cent song, Apple currently pays artists and labels an estimated 65 to 70 cents per song, 9 cents of which they currently pass on to publishers. According to Apple, the 66 percent increase in publishing royalties to 15 cents per song requested by the National Association of Music Publishers (NMPA) is too much for the company to bear.

Of course, Apple could simply tack the extra six cents onto the price of each song in its store and make up the difference that way. But part of iTunes’ longstanding allure is that every track costs 99 cents (with the exception of DRM-free tracks in the iTunes Plus previous to October ‘07).

Steve Jobs is unlikely to raise the standard track price on iTunes to $1.05, although that would probably be just fine with the labels, which have been pressuring Apple to budge on its 99 cents per track policy for years by allowing Amazon to sell DRM-free albums that they insist be wrapped in DRM when iTunes sells them, among other things. Despite this pressure, Jobs has refused to relent, continuing to insist on the 99 cent flat pricing structure. It’s hard to believe that Apple would close iTunes rather than raise prices, but that’s exactly what iTunes vice president Cue threatened to do.

Prospects for the record labels absorbing the entire increase are dim. They’re not trying to do Apple any favors when it comes to keeping the price of songs at 99 cents, and a 15 cents per song publishing royalty would gobble over 20 percent of their per-song revenue. Apple will almost certainly have to pony up some of any additional fees, meaning that it’ll either have to raise prices, run the store at a loss or stop selling music altogether. According to Cue’s statement to the board, Apple prefers the third option.

Apple and the NMPA had no comment.

The Copyright Royalty Board, pictured above, is set to announce its ruling on digital publishing royalties for the first time ever by Thursday. Previously, digital downloads had operated under the same rate that governed the sale of physical albums. In addition, the board will set new publishing royalty rates for physical albums and ringtones. The new rates will be in effect for the next five years. The previous rate of nine cents per track has been in effect since ‘96 (updated) — one reason publishers say it’s high time for an increase.

Update: I’m at a conference, but Threat Level posted a follow-up story about the CRB’s decision to leave the publishing royalty rates unchanged — much (we assume) to Apple’s relief. In addition, the board set the ringtone publishing royalty at 24 cents, meaning that songwriters and publishers will earn nearly three times as much for selling ringtones as by selling full-length songs.

Headshot…..Adsense Now In Video Games.

Casual gamers in the middle of a hot and heavy game of Word Challenge will have to wait for a word from the sponsor before they can continue. A 15-second spot from Esurance rolls while the gamer waits and then play resumes.

This is just one of the scenarios Google is presenting to marketers as part of its expanded AdSense for Games beta test. Google’s in-game advertising network for video, text and display ads launched on a limited basis last November, however beginning today the search  giant is formally inviting marketers and game publishers to jump onboard.

This step forward is an important one for the in-game advertising industry, said Shar VanBoskirk, analyst for Forrester Research, Cambridge, Mass. “It’s been kind of an untapped medium for years. It hasn’t caught on with as much intensity as people thought it would. This might counter that.”

U.S. in-game advertising is currently at the $360 million mark, per Forrester. It was projected to hit $865 million by 2012. However, VanBoskirk said she would consider upping her forecast based on the announcement given Google’s history for simplifying interactive ad buys. “It provides an easier way to leverage an underutilized channel,” she said.

In a 90-second teaser spot at Google’s AdSense blog, the in-game network is touted as the “No. 1 emerging media” reaching a “wide ranging audience” that comprise “billions of minutes of play per month.” It also cites comScore data stating that 25% of Web users play online games every week, representing more than 200 million users.

“We see this as adding more tools to the advertiser tool kit,” said Google rep Daniel Rubin. “It extends Google’s cross-platform branding solution and gives game developers the ability to monetize their online games, which we hope will fuel the development of high quality gaming content–a good thing for users.”

While Google’s entrance took longer than expected (it purchased Adscape in February 2007 for $23 million to offer such an opportunity to marketers), it is still “a significant development,” said Paul Verna, senior analyst at eMarketer, New York. “There’s every reason to be optimistic that this will only be good for the online game advertising industry.”

Casual computer games are more natural place for advertisers than say Microsoft’s Xbox 360 or Nintendo’s Wii. They reach a wider audience and given that they are free, “most surveys say players are willing to accept some level of advertising,” said Verna.

Casual games typically last about six minutes and “aren’t as deeply immersive as traditional console games where you wouldn’t want to interrupt them,” said Verna. Plus “the audience is very addicted.”

However, Verna cautions Google AdSense for Games won’t become an overnight sensation given the economy and potential growing pains. eMarketer projects in-game ad spending to hit $650 million by 2012. Google’s chief competitors already offer similar technologies. Microsoft bought Massive in 2006 while Yahoo! also offers ad-supported games.

Evocations Fluctuations

The American Election Fraud Is Finally Being Exposed

 

“Electronic Elections: Vote Fraud in the 21st Century” is a short-format viral video designed to draw attention to one of the many urgent problems surrounding our modern voting system – the clear and present danger of electronic vote fraud.

Intended as both an introduction to the subject and a call to action, “Electronic Elections” contains clip from the following:

 You should also watch these other documentaries:

Uncounted

http://uncountedthemovie.com/

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2053171972904749134

 

Hacking Democracy

http://www.hackingdemocracy.com/

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4463776866669054201

 

American Blackout

http://www.americanblackout.org/

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5965670944815984616

 

Invisible Ballots

http://invisibleballots.com/

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3875476549496397083

 

America: Freedom to Fascism

http://www.freedomtofascism.com/

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1656880303867390173

 

 

 ’Stinking Evidence’ of Possible Election Fraud Found in Florida

by Thom Hartmann

 

There was something odd about the poll tapes.

A “poll tape” is the phrase used to describe a printout from an optical scan voting machine made the evening of an election, after the machine has read all the ballots and crunched the numbers on its internal computer. It shows the total results of the election in that location. The printout is signed by the polling officials present in that precinct/location, and then submitted to the county elections office as the official record of how the people in that particular precinct had voted. (Usually each location has only one single optical scanner/reader, and thus produces only one poll tape.)

Bev Harris of www.blackboxvoting.org, the erstwhile investigator of electronic voting machines, along with people from Florida Fair Elections, showed up at Florida’s Volusia County Elections Office on the afternoon of Tuesday, November 16, 2004, and asked to see, under a public records request, each of the poll tapes for the 100+ optical scanners in the precincts in that county. The elections workers – having been notified in advance of her request – handed her a set of printouts, oddly dated November 15 and lacking signatures.

Bev pointed out that the printouts given her were not the original poll tapes and had no signatures, and thus were not what she’d requested. Obligingly, they told her that the originals were held in another location, the Elections Office’s Warehouse, and that since it was the end of the day they should meet Bev the following morning to show them to her.

Bev showed up bright and early the morning of Wednesday the 17th – well before the scheduled meeting – and discovered three of the elections officials in the Elections Warehouse standing over a table covered with what looked like poll tapes. When they saw Bev and her friends, Bev told me in a telephone interview less than an hour later, “They immediately shoved us out and slammed the door.”

In a way, that was a blessing, because it led to the stinking evidence.

“On the porch was a garbage bag,” Bev said, “and so I looked in it and, and lo and behold, there were public record tapes.”

Thrown away. Discarded. Waiting to be hauled off.

“It was technically stinking, in fact,” Bev added, “because what they had done was to have thrown some of their polling tapes, which are the official records of the election, into the garbage. These were the ones signed by the poll workers. These are something we had done an official public records request for.”

When the elections officials inside realized that the people outside were going through the trash, they called the police and one came out to challenge Bev.

Kathleen Wynne, a www.blackboxvoting.org investigator, was there.

“We caught the whole thing on videotape,” she said. “I don’t think you’ll ever see anything like this – Bev Harris having a tug of war with an election worker over a bag of garbage, and he held onto it and she pulled on it, and it split right open, spilling out those poll tapes. They were throwing away our democracy, and Bev wasn’t going to let them do it.”

As I was interviewing Bev just moments after the tussle, she had to get off the phone, because, “Two police cars just showed up.”

She told me later in the day, in an on-air interview, that when the police arrived, “We all had a vigorous debate on the merits of my public records request.”

The outcome of that debate was that they all went from the Elections Warehouse back to the Elections Office, to compare the original, November 2 dated and signed poll tapes with the November 15 printouts the Elections Office had submitted to the Secretary of State. A camera crew from www.votergate.tv met them there, as well.

And then things got even odder.

“We were sitting there comparing the real [signed, original] tapes with the [later printout] ones that were given us,” Bev said, “and finding things missing and finding things not matching, when one of the elections employees took a bin full of things that looked like garbage – that looked like polling tapes, actually – and passed by and disappeared out the back of the building.”

This provoked investigator Ellen Brodsky to walk outside and check the garbage of the Elections Office itself. Sure enough – more original, signed poll tapes, freshly trashed.

“And I must tell you,” Bev said, “that whatever they had taken out [the back door] just came right back in the front door and we said, ‘What are these polling place tapes doing in your dumpster?’”

A November 18 call to the Volusia County Elections Office found that Elections Supervisor Deanie Lowe was unavailable and nobody was willing to speak on the record with an out-of-state reporter. However, The Daytona Beach News (in Volusia County), in a November 17th article by staff writer Christine Girardin, noted, “Harris went to the Department of Elections’ warehouse on State Road 44 in DeLand on Tuesday to inspect original Nov. 2 polling place tapes, after being given a set of reprints dated Nov. 15. While there, Harris saw Nov. 2 polling place tapes in a garbage bag, heightening her concern about the integrity of voting records.”

The Daytona Beach News further noted that, “[Elections Supervisor] Lowe confirmed Wednesday some backup copies of tapes from the Nov. 2 election were destined for the shredder,” but pointed out that, according to Lowe, that was simply because there were two sets of tapes produced on election night, each signed. “One tape is delivered in one car along with the ballots and a memory card,” the News reported. “The backup tape is delivered to the elections office in a second car.”

Suggesting that duplicates don’t need to be kept, Lowe claims that Harris didn’t want to hear an explanation of why some signed poll tapes would be in the garbage. “She’s not wanting to listen to an explanation,” Lowe told the News of Harris. “She has her own ideas.”

But the Ollie North action in two locations on two days was only half of the surprise that awaited Bev and her associates. When they compared the discarded, signed, original tapes with the recent printouts submitted to the state and used to tabulate the Florida election winners, Harris says a disturbing pattern emerged.

“The difference was hundreds of votes in each of the different places we examined,” said Bev, “and most of those were in minority areas.”

When I asked Bev if the errors they were finding in precinct after precinct were random, as one would expect from technical, clerical, or computer errors, she became uncomfortable.

“You have to understand that we are non-partisan,” she said. “We’re not trying to change the outcome of an election, just to find out if there was any voting fraud.”

That said, Bev added: “The pattern was very clear. The anomalies favored George W. Bush. Every single time.”

Of course finding possible voting “anomalies” in one Florida county doesn’t mean they’ll show up in all counties. It’s even conceivable there are innocent explanations for both the mismatched counts and trashed original records; this story undoubtedly will continue to play out. And, unless further investigation demonstrates a pervasive and statewide trend toward “anomalous” election results in many of Florida’s counties, odds are none of this will change the outcome of the election (which exit polls showed John Kerry winning in Florida).

Nonetheless, Bev and her merry band are off to hit another county.

As she told me on her cell phone while driving toward their next destination, “We just put Volusia County and their lawyers on notice that they need to continue to keep a number of documents under seal, including all of the memory cards to the ballot boxes, and all of the signed poll tapes.”

Why?

“Simple,” she said. “Because we found anomalies indicative of fraud.”

Thom Hartmann (thom at thomhartmann.com) is a Project Censored Award-winning best-selling author and host of a nationally syndicated daily progressive talk show. www.thomhartmann.com His most recent books are “The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight,” “Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights,” “We The People: A Call To Take Back America,” and “What Would Jefferson Do?: A Return To Democracy.”

Tags: election, fraud, american

Top Secret: Hand Signals

Hillary Castro

Hilary Castro.jpg (JPEG Image, 625×480 pixels)

The Drawings Of Leonardo

“The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.” – Leonardo

read more | digg story

Zen and The Art of Slack

by James "Kibo" Parry

My mantra is "mantra, dammit".
    As I sit here on my zafu (that's a Zen meditation pillow stuffed
with tofu), I reach satori even though I live downstairs from the
demolition derby rink.
    I feel a oneness with the itch in my first chakra. I feel a oneness
with the Pet Rock I used to own. I feel a twoness with myself.
    I realize that everything is either something or a hole in
something. Or, perhaps, everything is one big hole and the somethings
are holes within the hole. I shift my weight imperceptibly and the zafu
makes a fart noise.
    Upstairs, two old Trans Ams, surplus from "Knight Rider", collide.
    I can hear the sound of my blood moving through my inner ears. I
realize that everything which exists is made up of little dots arranged
in diagonal rows. A cockroach runs across the floor and into my zafu.
    I realize that "Bob"'s teeth are clenched and his Pipe is not
between them. The teeth are joined and the Pipe ends in front of them.
His nose casts a shadow on the Pipe and the Pipe casts a shadow on his
chin but they do not touch. I have reached enfuckinglightenment!
    As I nearly fall off my zafu, it farts again, blowing the cockroach
into the next room.

        There once was a novice monk named Bho Zho who asked the master,
    "Does a house burn up or burn down?"
        The master set fire to the novice's house, after taking all his
    money. As the house burned both up and down, the novice was
    enlightened.

    I bow to the Sacred Halftone Print of "Bob" to thank him for the
enlightenment. As I do so, "Bob"'s face shimmers and blurs before my
face. All I see is the Dots but not the Smile. All I see is the Smile
without the Dots. I see both. I see neither. I see the hair of Desi
Arnaz, the eyes and mouth of Pee-wee Herman, the jaw of Jay Leno all
combined in a blender: "Bob".
    "Bob" is before me and I am "Bob" and yesterday is tomorrow and I
am the walrus mama dada googoo chihuahuahuahua ommmmmmmmm
    "Yo! Yo! Stop with the satoiri already!" "Bob" steps out of the
picture, slaps me, and pours himself a Dr Pepper. He sits on my zafu,
which makes a sound like a tuba. I sit on a tatami which is beginning
to sprout. "Bob" looks me in the eye.
    "Cool it with the meditation, guy, it's dull. It's `Bosom Buddies'
without the laughtrack. It's the sound of one lip chapping. It's a
bicycle riding a fish, a steamroller being run over by a birthday cake.
It just doesn't compare to the fun stuff, especially sex."
    I avoid meeting "Bob"'s gaze as I whisper, "He who claims someone
does not have Buddha-nature has no Buddha-nature."
    "Hey, it's easier to say `Slack' than `Buddha-nature', you know. Or
`swellness'. They're all the same thing. You're on a true path to
enlightenment, but true paths have true dirt and true mosquitoes... false
paths are much better. Give me your money now."
    "I have no money, just one zafu, one tatami, my oryoki, this setsu
stick, an inflatable Buddha, a tofu log, all three "Sweatin' to the
Oldies" tapes,  a disposable zabuton, a pile of bulk miso, my
Zen-to-English dictionary..."
    "AND A PARTRIDGE IN A PEAR TREE!" "Bob" waggles his eyebrows and
smiles. "But seriously, pal, I'll take it all and pretend it's cash
equivalent.  Hey, after I take your zafu, I'll even give you a receipt.
Get it? Re-seat!"
    "Bob" packs all my worldly possessions into his seemingly
bottomless pockets and he leads me out of the monastery. Milliseconds
later, a black Trans Am falls through the ceiling, crashing right where
we had been sitting. It yells insults at us as we walk to the pebble
garden.

        "This eggplant in my pocket is like an elephant," said Bhoddyohdor.
        "Yet this elephant in my pocket is like a pair of wax lips,"
    replied Tai Dhee Bhoul.
        Just then, Master Rhais Ahroni strolled past. "Tell us," begged
    Bhoddyohdor and Tai Dhee Bhoul, "Is the eggplant like the elephant
    which is like the wax lips, or should we just go watch sitcoms all
    day?"
        The master ate the eggplant, shot the elephant, and got germs on
    the wax lips. The novices were not enlightened. The master laughed.

    "Bob" is using my rake to draw Snoopy in my pebble garden. "So,
Kibo, why the heck do you have all these pebbles filling up a perfectly
good wading pool?"
    "Raking the pebbles is a task which accomplishes nothing. The goal
is to clear the mind by doing nothing."
    "Um, hey, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't `doing nothing' doing
something? So by doing nothing, you're doing something, therefore
you're not accomplishing the nothing in the first place! You can't not
do anything."
    He is clearly suffering from Buddha called dhiarrhea of the mouth.
I say, "You have Bozo-nature."
    "Of course. Because if I said I were not a bozo, I would be proving
myself to be a bozo! Now, are you a bozo?"
    At that moment, the enlightenment clears from my mind and I devolve
to a lower plane of being. "Bob" congratulates me by giving me a wig
like his. We go out for a beer.
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Tags: shnarf