"Bomb,bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran". The retrurn of the Neocons.

While we take some time to enjoy this summer's Olympics, I hope that we are also paying attention to the candidates running for president of these divided states of America as well. One in particular has been letting loose with some troubling rhetoric and pronouncements of late.

Mitt Romney, while standing on foreign soil, has declared that if he becomes president he will take this country to war with Iran to stop them from furthering their nuclear capabilities. Take some time to think about that for a minute. This is after one of his aides declared that Mr. Romney would back an Israeli military strike on Iran to thwart their nuclear enrichment program. Of course the very right wing Prime Minister of Israel agrees with him.

"Earlier, Netanyahu welcomed Romney as 'a representative of the United States' and told the Republican that he agrees with his approach to the Iranian nuclear threat.

"'Mitt, I couldn't agree with you more,' Netanyahu said.

'We have to be honest and say that all the sanctions and diplomacy so far have not set back the Iranian program by one iota. And that's why I believe that we need a strong and credible military threat coupled with the sanctions to have a chance to change that situation,' Netanyahu said."  

Mr. Netanyahu spent a lot of time around these parts (Graduated from Cheltenham High) and I have heard from some folks that are familiar with Benjamin that he had some issues even back then. First of all Benjamin, Mitt is not a "representative of the United States", he is simply a wealthy private citizen trying to become our president. But I digress.

The problem with Chickenhawks like Mitt Romney is that they have no idea how dangerous this type of rhetoric can be to the stability of the world, and particularly in the Middle East. Mitt said he wouldn't campaign on foreign soil, but this all about getting Jewish votes in the upcoming election and showing a contrast in his foreign policy style with Obama. By saying that an "Iran strike is on the table" if he becomes president, he is trying to show us that Obama has been president for almost four years and hasn't struck Iran as yet. What is he waiting for?

Well Mitt, he is waiting for the diplomatic type solutions such as economic sanctions to work, and from all appearances -with all due respect to Mr. Netanyahu and the Neocons in this country- it appears that they have been working.  

What is sad about all of this is that Mitt could ultimately become our president, and, if he does, we might wish for the days of W. I am not going to rip his personality like my man Brooklyn Bad Boy over at Kos, but everything about Mitt Romney should bother you. (We could start with the fact that that Dan Senor is his foreign policy point person.) And it should really bother you if you have a male loved one who would be deemed eligible to go to war for this country.

*Pic from Getty images 

        

  

Independence, Freedom: I like it.

Independence is Good. I like it.

virtual capitol:   http://www.aoc.gov/index.cfm

architect of the capitol:   http://www.aoc.gov/cc/art/freedom_1.cfm

Heroes HERE

or, if you prefer you can look at what is happening in a

not free country, e.g., iran:

HERE  and HERE

Iranian Women Tortured and Raped; "Death Was Like A Desire" (PBS)

The sadism and nonchalance are embittering. "Thousands of Iranians took to the streets in 2009 as part of the Green Movement to protest a disputed presidential election. The government crackdown that followed included some women being imprisoned, tortured and raped. This report shares some of their stories. It is a co-production with The Center for Investigative Reporting"
from PBS HERE
A gut-wrenching series of interviews -- transcript below
I wish the Whole World was Watching.

Watch the full episode. See more PBS NewsHour.

This is worth watching in its entirety.

The world remembers the murder of Neda ALga Soltaini, but things just get worse.
(Lybia and Yemen, but ) No help in Iran, where intelligent modern women who want democracy are begging for help.

Harsh.

excerpt:

CORRESPONDENT: She said she was taken to a secret prison.

WOMAN (through translator): When the guard was shaving my hair, he was purposely shaving in a way that would cut my skin very painfully. And he left a little patch of hair in front just to bother me. I wasn't sitting in a chair as he was cutting my hair. He was holding me from behind and rubbing himself against me.

CORRESPONDENT: Next, she was blindfolded and gagged. Then, with her hands tied behind her back, she was dragged into an interrogation room. After being questioned for only a short time, Layla says her interrogator became physical with her.
WOMAN (through translator): I was scared to death. The first thing he did was lick my face with his tongue. Then, he started touching my bra and all over my body. I was crying, "Please, please don't. I am innocent. I'm a virgin."
He said, "No, you are not a virgin anymore."

Then he raped me. After he raped me, he urinated on me, on my whole body.
CORRESPONDENT: Layla said her torture didn't end there.

WOMAN (through translator): Then I heard the sound of the whip in the air, and then felt it on my body. Then he untied my hands and he started caressing my arm like a lover. I felt something burning me just for a second. I screamed and he slapped me. He put out his cigarette on my left hand.
He put out another cigarette on my knee. I was still lost in the first and second pain when I felt another cigarette on my chest, another cigarette on back of my feet, another, another, and another, a pack of 20 cigarettes put out on my body.
CORRESPONDENT: Layla showed me the scars from the cigarette burns, but was too afraid to let them be filmed.
As the protests continued in the streets of Tehran, Layla continued to be brutalized in the secret prison for nearly two months.

WOMAN (through translator): I don't know how many times a day I was raped. It wasn't just one person. There were different people. The whole time I was there, I was telling myself, be strong, be calm. The end of this is death, and death will only take a moment.

Death was like a desire for me. I wanted to die.
CORRESPONDENT: Layla was released on several hundred thousand dollars bail, a price so high, that her parents had to sell the family business. She was never formally charged with a crime, and the secret police continue to monitor her.
Layla was one of several women who have talked with me over the past year, even though all of us can face retribution from the regime for speaking out. According to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, "Rape was routinely practiced as a matter of policy to intimidate young ordinary people from ever coming out to protest again."

IRANIAN DIASPORA FILMS

From my comment in Facebook:

I think the Iranian diaspora films are very interesting. I totally agree with what Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke said: these directors don't have to make films in Iranian styles any more.

The Iranian diaspora films include:

1.BEFORE THE STORM (2000, Reza Parsa, Sweden, A+)

2.CERTIFIED COPY (2010, Abbas Kiarostami, Italy, A+)

3.FEAR OF HEIGHTS (1994, Houchang Allahyari, Austria, A+)

4.MANHATTAN BY NUMERS (1993, Amir Naderi, USA)

5.PARIS (2003, Ramin Niami, USA, C)

6.STILL LIFE (1974, Sohrab Shahid Saless, West Germany)
http://filmsick.exteen.com/20090426/still-life-sohrab-shahid-salles

7.ZOETROPE (2011, Rouzbeh Rashidi, Ireland, A+)

The photo below is from ZOETROPE.

REMINISCENCES OF YEARNING (2011, Rouzbeh Rashidi, Iran, 90 min, A+++++++++++++++)

Things I like very much in this film include:

1.Its uncompromising quality. The film doesn't try to make the audience understand it at all. The story goes anywhere it wants to go, with no boundaries. Yet it all makes sense and doesn't feel too random, because it tells the audience at the beginning that the film is dedicated to the filmmaker's friends and Maya Deren. So the audience is not surprised why the film looks very surreal and consists of many small stories or segments. I think each segment of the film deals with each particular friend or group of friends.

This kind of uncompromising quality and super-surreal quality makes me want to screen this film together with KALYI – AGE OF DARKNESS (1993, Fred Kelemen).

2.My favorite segment of the film is the segment which deal with a dilapidated building with flooded water and the wave crashing on the rocks in the minute 42-46. I think this segment doesn't try to emulate Maya Deren too much, and doesn't try too hard to be "haunting". I think this segment presents one of Rashidi's strong points—atmospheric scene which tells no stories. I'm glad Rashidi uses this strong point to the utmost degree in ZOETROPE (2011).

3.My second most favorite segment in the film is the one in which a guy walks up and down a street at night, smoking some cigarettes, going in and out of a house, lying on the floor, having a nightmare, and the segment ends by presenting a view from a rooftop. I love the cinematography in this segment. It is very dark, very blurred, very grainy. Extremely exquisite in my point of view. This scene also doesn't try too hard to be haunting.

4.The cinematography in this film is excellent. I think it is as beautiful as the one in BIPEDALITY (2010, Rouzbeh Rashidi), but in a totally opposite way. The cinematography in BIPEDALITY is very polished and colorful. The cinematography in this film is very rough-looking in some parts and in black-and-white. I also think you are successful in emulating the cinematographic style of Maya Deren and some old experimental films.

5.My most favorite image from the film may be the one in minute 33 when we suddenly see a bright light in rectangular shape covering up a man's face. What does this image mean? I don't know. But it gives me a thrill as much as the images in the film TAKE THE 5:10 TO DREAM LAND (1976, Bruce Conner), which also defy explanation.

6.I think it is interesting that Rashidi makes film about his friends in a surreal or experimental genre. Many filmmakers make films about their friends in a documentary genre. So this film stands apart from most films which deal with the filmmaker's own friends.

This film also stands apart from other experimental films with haunting quality. The atmosphere in this film may remind me of BEGOTTEN (1991, E. Elias Merhige) and some films by David Lynch and Nina Menkes, because their films are also experimental and haunting, but their films seem to have some sinister power in them, because their films may explore the dark side of human beings. Since REMINISCENCES OF YEARNING is about the filmmaker's dear friends, the film is not overwhelmed by the sinister power or the evil buried deep down in our psychology. Thus the film is different from other experimental films with haunting quality that I have seen.

7.I like the structure of this film. This film begins in a very surreal, old-styled mode. Then it gradually shifts into a documentary and home movie mode: the dilapidated building segment, the campfire segment, the house segment. Then it becomes surreal again with the segment presenting a guy who opens about ten doors successively. Then it ends like a home movie.

I like the mixing between the surreal genre and the home movie genre in this film. I wish I could screen this film together with RESIST (2009, Teeranit Siangsanoh, 54 min, Thailand, A+++++++++++++++), because RESIST also mixes these two genres. RESIST begins as a documentary about Teeranit's friends, but the film shifts into a surreal mode in the second half of the film.

8.The sudden shift of the look of the film in the woodcutting scene, from more polished look to more grainy look. I feel as if that moment in minute 41 is the division line, because the scenes before it are in surreal mode, and the scenes after it are in home movie mode.

9.The shaking of the images in minute 36. It looks as if the images come from an old videotape.

10.The sound effects near the end of the film is very interesting. We can hear at least four overlapping sounds: the birds, the water, the chants, and a looping sound of something unidentifiable. I think the sounds of the birds and the water are recurring motifs in Rashidi's films.

11.There is also a very personal reason why I like REMINISCENCES OF YEARNING. After watching this film, I find that this film is what I wish I could do, but can't. It reminds me of my old friends from high school. We share many "imaginative worlds" together. This film makes me realize that if I could make a film about my own friends, maybe it should not be a pure documentary, maybe it should be a film which explore both our real lives and our imaginative lives.

You can watch many short films by Rouzbeh Rashidi in his Vimeo channel: http://vimeo.com/rouzbehrashidi/videos

LIGHT AND QUIET (2008, Rouzbeh Rashidi, Iran, 67 min, A+)

Among the five feature films of Rashidi I've seen, I like this one the least, but I still like it very much. Things I like in this film include:

1. The mysteries. I think what makes this film very different from many Hollywood or American independent films is the mysteries. If this film was made by an American independent director, the film might have told its story straightforwardly. But LIGHT AND QUIET seems to hide a lot of information from the audience. This is a very brave act, because a lot of audience may not like it, but the filmmaker still chooses to do it.

After seeing this film, there are a lot of questions left on my mind: What does the protagonist do for a living? What does he do that makes him get severely criticized? What is the protagonist looking at, or photographing, in minute 38? Why does the guy in minute 43 become upset when the protagonist shows up at his home? Who is the guy in the opening scene? What does the ending scene mean? Does this film say something about the filmmaking or the censorship in Iran?

By not giving the answers to the audience, LIGHT AND QUIET becomes special and very different from both mainstream films and some independent films. The audience has to think for himself and has to pay attention to other things in the film apart from the story, such as the gestures of the characters and the composition of the image.

The mysteries, the withholding of information, or the sense that there are some stories happening "outside" the film is one of Rashidi's "signatures". It reminds me of the old portraits of women in some of Rashidi's short films, such as NIGHTFALL (2008), and DAMP AND MISTY (2008). These old portraits seem to be important and have some special meanings to the protagonists in the films, but the special meanings are never explained. The stories about these portraits are left outside the films.

http://vimeo.com/6963179

http://vimeo.com/6849266

2.The sound in this film. In LIGHT AND QUIET, we don't hear the characters talking. I think only 30 % of what the characters talk is transcribed into texts. The other 70 % of the talking is lost, and this causes the mysteries in the film.

Instead of the dialogue, what we hear is the sound of car moving, and some sound which feels like it comes from the streets. This characteristic makes LIGHT AND QUIET unique. It is more radical than NEWS FROM HOME (1976, Chantal Akerman), in which the sound of the streets overwhelms the voiceover from time to time.

By using the sound of the streets, LIGHT AND QUIET is also different from silent films. I think LIGHT AND QUIET is special, because it is partly similar to silent films, and partly different from them at the same time. It is partly similar to silent films, because we don't hear the characters talking, and we must try to follow the story by watching the gestures and movements of the characters and reading the texts. It is partly different from silent films, because we hear the ambient soundtrack, and the film looks contemporary. Its style is not like the one employed in old silent films or neo-silent films, such as TALES FROM THE GIMLI HOSPITAL (1988, Guy Maddin) or JUHA (1999, Aki Kaurismäki).

I think the ambient soundtrack is one of Rashidi's "signatures". In later films of Rashidi, the ambient soundtrack is very important.

3.The strange composition of the image. In an early scene, a guy comes to visit the protagonist to give him a job, but the visiting guy seems to be cut off from the frame. We only see a glimpse of his face for several seconds. In the middle of the film, we see in close up the lower torso of the cigar man, and it looks very strange. There are also a few scenes in which the real action happens in the background, instead of the foreground. These include the scene in which the protagonist and a guy quarrel on a sofa in the background, while we see the chessboard in the foreground, and the scene in which the protagonist quarrels with another man near a gate in the background, while we see a car in the foreground.

This strange composition is employed again in a scene in REMINISCENCES OF YEARNING (2011, Rouzbeh Rashidi), in which we see some family members moving about in the background, while some unidentifiable objects are put in the foreground.

4.The abrupt cut in a few scenes, such as in minute 26 after the cigar man leaves the scene. This abrupt cut is quite startling because it is unexpected.

5.The chain of oppression. The cigar man seems to oppress a guy. That guy oppresses the protagonist. The protagonist oppresses the servant. That makes a scene near the end of the film very touching. It is the scene in which we have the first chance to see the face of the servant clearly. In that scene, I feel as if the protagonist begins to understand the oppressed feeling of the servant, and it is very moving for me.

6.The ending, which is a pure delight. I'm not sure why the ending gives me a very pleasant feeling. Maybe it is because the ending, in which we see blurred lights from moving cars for five minutes, is not as claustrophobic as other scenes.

I think the ending scene of this film is very atmospheric, and the sudden shift to atmospheric scenes reminds me of the ending of THE ECLIPSE (1962, Michelangelo Antonioni). I'm glad that atmospheric scenes are becoming more and more important in later films of Rashidi.

I also think Rashidi use blurred images very interestingly. Apart from the ending of the film, the blurred images also occur at the end of a quarrelling scene in the middle of the film, and occur before a powerful guy talks to the hero near the end of the film. I'm glad that blurred images in various kinds are employed beautifully in later films of Rashidi.

You can watch many short films by Rouzbeh Rashidi in his Vimeo channel: http://vimeo.com/rouzbehrashidi/videos

Letter from an Iranian to the People of Egypt: Learn from Our Mistakes! Updates

Quick update: ElBaradei-to-US: Take-Egypt's Mubarak-off-life-support

post: "Revolution in Iran did not end well". Here is a letter from an Iranian just written to the people of Egypt.
Right here: http://www.iranian.com/main/2011/jan/learn-our-mistakes, a very thought provoking piece.
Click and read the whole thing.
Excerpt

egyptians in revolt

Here is the second part of the post: (the first is in my previous post today..)

"But our lessons:

-- Don't bring religion to government. We Iranian people unfortunately did, and the results are far worse than what we had. Fortunately, you do not have a powerful character like Khomanee who said one thing, before reaching power, and the opposite after. But still, avoid those who provide their strict religious belief as the solution, for complex problems that faces us today. Our problems today, require collective cooperation and rational thinking, and the freedom to do so. Do not let political-Islam to make you envy even these dark days of Mobark, 30 years later!
--Don't just focus on removal of that brutal, ignorant dictator Mobark, but also focus on visionary Egyptions that are NOT power hungry, focused on solving the issues, and are not hateful in their speeches.
--When the tyrant Mobarak finally agrees to step down, don't try to destroy your government and start from zero. That would only take you back another 30 years like it has done so for Iran. Every system, has bad but also very good individual that serves it.
--Don't execute or torture anyone, even those who tortured you or executed your loved ones. That's the only way to insure, execution and torture will be eradicated.

--Destruction of headquarters of Mobarks party is valid reaction to his despotic rule, but do not destroy banks, theaters. Those all belong to Egypt not Mobark.
--When you are rewriting you constitution, do not trust closed door sessions. Read every page of the documents and understand their ramifications. It is better to take the time to come up with a great document, than to hurry this process and have to redo it again in 30 years!
--Here's one we should have chanted from day 1 and we did not, Iran for all Iranian. Say, Egypt for all Egyptians! Moslem or Christian, northerner or southerners. Be aware of anyone who tries to do otherwise.

The whole world is watching and we hope you set a better example than our revolution did. We hope we can learn from you..."
more HERE is the writer's blog.
looks like interesting post titles.



Egypt: more from me HERE.



Neda, we will not forget.

FREEDOM and the media.

Egypt's Government Releases Criminals, Rapists, Murderers to Increase Chaos?

(video below) ABC news and other outlets this morning  interviewed non-government leaders in Egypt who declare that the Hosni Mubarak government has deliberately released violent criminals in order to "show" protesters what the country would be like without his strict rule.    Update HERE and here thousands of convicts flee prison
Yahoo news http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ml_egypt_protest  reports that   


You Go Girl news sources say thousands pour out of prison

   "After days of escalating chaos, gangs of armed men attacked at least four jails across Egypt before dawn, helping to free hundreds of Muslim militants and thousands of other inmates. Gangs of young men with guns and large sticks smashed cars and robbed people in Cairo."

See how things are not always as they seem? We do not really know what is real.
What is the truth? Were the jails so weak that inmates easily "escaped"? Or does the Mubarak government see a benefit in releasing violent men into the streets so the people will say, "oops--sorry, make us safe again."



How much freedom do you give up to be Safe?

 In this country we are giving up freedoms at a quick pace; how much is actually necessary?

How strongly should our American government, Our Leaders, speak
 For The People in countries where there is oppression?
 How much KISSING UP do Our Leaders do in the name of "slow progress"
versus giving those who
ARE LOSING THEIR LIVES trying to live free
 the United States of America's Imprimatur to act for freedom?
Are there worse folks hoping to move into power,
behind the revolution??
waiting for the instability of the revolution?
Battles for Freedom:
abandoning iran
burmas-mad-men
afghanistan-native-folk
sharia-law-muslim brotherhood
american rape

By the way, Mubarak has kept Egypt under "emergency rule" for 30 years!
what is the Muslim Brotherhood?

More Info and Photo galleries:
jim lehrer interviews Biden


Is Janet Jackson in Egypt?

 Can anyone say Shah?

Here
http://www.iranian.com/main/2011/jan/learn-our-mistakes
  is a letter from and Iraninan to the Egyptians:
Excerpt: "29-Jan-2011
The world is watching the heroic uprising of the brave Egyptian people, and their just demand for political freedom, government accountability and a better living standard. Over 32 years ago, Iranian people did the same against the oppressive regime of the then Shah of Iran, for the same reasons.
My dear Egyptian brothers and sisters,
When we look back in our own lives, sometimes there are situations we wish we handled differently, had we KNOWN more, or had we been wiser. Life of a nation is no different. So I am writing to you, to share our experience, in the hope, the people of Egypt can do better than people of Iran, in dealing with their dictator, and build a better Egypt.
32 years ago, as the emotions of our nation were focused on the immediate removal of the Shah, our mind was not looking forward as to what to replace that old bankrupt system with? Today, not only are Iranian people no closer to a more accountable government nor better living standards, our social freedom along with our political freedom has been taken away from us as well.
Egyptian brothers and sisters,
Today in Iran, we don't have basic political freedom to assemble, as the Islamic Regime of Iran, does not allow freedom of assembly. Today, the Islamic Regime of Iran, does not even allow a candidate that passed its filtering process, and according to their own statistics received over 13 million votes, to hold a simple rally. How much freedom do you think an Iranian have today? Today, we do not have political parties. Even political factions are not tolerated within the Islamic regime.

My dear Egyptian brothers and sisters,
In spite of Iran's vast natural resources, many in Iran live in poverty and those who ask for accountability, are persecuted. So to flee Iran, appears to be the main option. As a result, some of the best and brightest talents of Iran, lives outside Iran, contributing to the host country who sheltered them instead of their own! MORE

Pictures from above link Lehrer intervews Biden

Neda Soltani We will not forget!

Neda Soltan Angel of Iran

The Media and World Struggle

U.N.?

US media parties with the Prez while Egypt Burns?

(gripe grype. what were you doing, writing concerned notes to your congressperson?)

i hope our government is  well on top of this lil egypt thingy

I liked the way Hillary Clinton did not let the press put words into her mouth this morning. (Yes i watched the stagecrap today as i needed the sleep)

more HERE