| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Reza Aslan | ||||
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H/T Dambala.
A reminder of what the batshit insane neocons were saying just a few weeks ago:
IRAN: Stop nukes by bombing oil wells, neocons suggest. SUICIDAL FUCKING MANIACS! In Aslan's words, how important was November's election? If McCain/Palin were in charge, there would be a messy, bloody war by now.
Here's a sample on Five Thirty Eight of their excellent analysis of the electoral returns.
What's happening in Iran is far more about them than us, but there might be something solid you can do to help the "Iranian Greenies." Wired's Threat Level and the Wall Street Journal are reporting that Siemens (Germany) and Nokia (Finland) are assisting in the suppression of internet communications. Boycott Nokia and Siemens. They have far more business in the West than in Iran and should be punished for making such a stupid business decision (plus morally abhorrent, of course).
Also:
Meet the Authors:
Reza Aslan and Moira Crone
July 1, 6 to 8 p. m.
The Cabildo
The Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society and the Louisiana State Museum will cohost a reception July 1 for Reza Aslan, author of the international bestseller, No God But God, and the new book How to Win A Cosmic War. Reza, an Iranian-American who lived in New Orleans for a while, is a respected scholar and teacher in the field of religious studies and Middle East politics. He is a regular commentator on the Middle East for CBS and he also has regular guest appearances on such news/talk shows as MSNBC's Rachel
Maddow Show, most recently tonight, his third appearance in a week. Reza will discuss terrorism, Islam, and the current uprising in Iran at the event.
5 comments:
If I could clone myself to go, I would. That's right when my son has a ball game.
8-S
Re: Iran and internet communications.
I found this bit helpful.
How are you getting most of your news? From family? Are you following Twitter?
I'm not following Twitter so much. I get reports from people I trust and the media to the extent they are covering it. The rest is all from family and friends in Tehran. They tell me what they feel and what they know, as much as they can. People have to be careful with phones given since many phones are tapped now. I speak to Tehran at least once a day.
What about the influence of Twitter?
It really isn't the Twitter revolution. I can't remember the numbers but I think it's like 30,000 registered Twitter users in Iran.
I think it might be even lower, like 19,000.
It's minuscule. More people have access to the Internet in Iran than other Middle Eastern countries but often it's dial-up, it's slow, they don't do it like we do all day long. There is no BlackBerry. There are iPhones but they don't work because there's no data plan. The depiction of the Internet revolution isn't quite accurate. We're putting our own image onto Iran. Of course there are people Twittering from the demonstrations; they're just not representative of the vast majority of Iranians. What was so heartwarming about this whole thing is that the Iranian people stood up in mass and said you can't take this away from us. You can't take away our vote. We believed you when you said we have an Islamic democracy. We came out and voted. Now that you've said we could have change you've taken it away from us. That's what people are angry about.
The entire "Social media is making a difference" narrative is a nauseating sack of crap perpetuated by Americans who confuse changing their Twitter avatars green with... you know... being important.
Nokia recently provided the Iranian regime with a "monitoring center" that enables security forces to tap cell phones, read e-mails, scramble text-messages, and interrupt calls. Nokia's new surveillance system has enhanced the regime's ability to crack down on dissent during recent protests. The monitoring technology is being deployed on a massive scale, with hundreds arrested thanks to Nokia's technology.
Nokia has a responsibility to ensure its technology is used in an ethical manner. Take a minute to pressure Nokia to stop immediately its contract with the Iranian regime, disable its monitoring center, and explain how Iranians can circumvent the monitoring system. Tell the company you will boycott its products and urge your mobile carriers to stop selling Nokia until it stops aiding the crackdown.
Visit campaigns.aicongress.org/nokia or nokiano.com to send a protest letter to Nokia.
I liked how he said that Iranians know how to do 2 things really well: Eat and Mourn. Looks like they aren't half bad at 2nd lines either, in their own way.
Thanks youz,
Editilla
ps~Your "Word Verification Thingy" (WVT) today for this comment is "topphoss".
Hmmmm... what'zit meme?
One important thing to note: not all the computer stuff is bullshit. Tor, an open-source, packet-anonymizing service originally written for the Navy, is critical for getting photos and video out of Iran.
The other thing is basic little proxy servers. A proxy is incredibly easy to set up and while it's easy for the government to block one, it's a game of whack a mole where the government is perpetually behind the curve.
Yay for hackers.
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