Month: July 2009

More reports of a united front among the Iranian resistance parties.

Ta-Nehisi is unimpressed by Obama talking about homophobia in black churches:

Follow up here. A. Serwer adds:

[Obama is] popular–and while he's popular throughout the country, he's still on another level when it comes to support from black voters…There's a reason why, despite Obama's silence/dismissiveness to questions about the specific problems black folks are facing, you haven't seen any black civil rights organizations criticize him. Maybe they should. But there's a reason they aren't.

Is marriage equality just another bargaining chip for the administration to advance other elements of its agenda? Maybe, but there's no evidence black people are the reason for that–seriously, we can't even get Obama to answer a direct question about what he's doing to address problems in the black community, let alone dictate to him what he should do when. The downside of being this consistently loyal to the Democratic Party is that they don't have to care what you think–and that was true even before Obama. Politicians are beholden to the people whose support they are seeking, not those whose support they already have.

Jack Shafer's latest is a must-read. I share his enthusiasm. And I don't think it is that terrible a thing if most journalists start earning less money. I wrote this blog daily for years for nothing because I love what I do. I've been really, really lucky to have landed at the Atlantic but the dirty secret is that I'd do this because I want to know more about the world and bring that information to as many people as possible, to advance those causes I believe are just and expose those lies that I think need exposing. And to have a great time. That this opportunity is now available for countless more people than ever before does indeed make this period not one of media decline but of media renaissance. From the tweets of revolutionaries to the testimonies of women who have had late term abortions, the potential for understanding more and deeper and better is real.

So why all the long faces and wrung hands? All change is wrenching and I know that many are struggling. But struggle is life. And this is America. Go for it.

Iranian pop star Andranik “Andy” Madadian and Jon Bon Jovi sing “Stand By Me” – for the Iranian people at this hour of their need:

Many readers have made this point about that amazing Palin beauty-queen photo here:

Here's an online guide to flag etiquette which Palin clearly violates. But in one of her recent calendars, she is literally draped in it like a shawl. I'm not a stickler for this kind of thing, and don't think it's that big a deal, but many are, especially Palinites. And my reader is right. If Obama had done this, it would be non-stop on Fox.

Fort Worth cops raid a gay bar and put one customer in intensive care. Seven men were arrested. The police chief says that the violence of the cops was because – wait for it – the cops were hit on:

This is simply incredible. Does anyone honestly believe that a bunch of cops entering a gay bar armed with plastic cuffs to check for drunkenness would be cruised and hit on by the customers? I mean: seriously. Only a pathological homophobe would think such a thing – and the police chief needs to withdraw this absurd statement, which is denied by all the eye-witnesses. Dan Savage has the best summary of this blast from the brutal past:

One of the customers is in intensive care with a blood clot in the brain from the assault by the cops. The cops claim he fell later outside the bar and hit his head. They have subsequently conceded that his injuries occurred under police custody. But there are eye-witness accounts and cell-phone photos that say something different:

"[Gibson] was taken down hard," said Camp, with "four or five" officers wrestling him to the floor inside the club. Cellphone photos shot by patrons and posted to blogs show a person being held facedown by officers in a short hallway inside the club, then show a dent in the wall where his head was apparently banged.

Another eye-witness:

Another:

And another:

Gibson may die from his injuries or suffer permanent brain damage. Pray that he makes a full recovery which is still possible. He is 26 years old, and weighs 160 pounds. It took four or five officers to take him down because he allegedly groped them and yet he was never charged with assault.

We should call this what it is: a violent, homophobic raid to persecute and physically assault gay men, with some witnesses saying that they targeted the smaller and more effeminate men. We need a full investigation and in the meantime the police chief and all those cops who launched this raid need to be suspended until this is cleared up. No police chief should remain in his position after offering the gay panic defense for brutal beatings by cops.

NIAC publishes some blistering excerpts from a speech delivered by conservative mullah Haddi Ghaffari against the Supreme Leader:

"Khamenei, your recent actions and behavior has brought shame to us clerics. Our image in the streets and bazaars has been tarnished as everyone is placing us in the same category as Ahmadinejad.” “Khamenei, you are wrong, your actions are wrong. I believe in the velayat e fagih more than you.”

“I’m not preaching these messages so that I could be associated with the West. I loathe the West and will fight to the last drop of my blood before I or my land succumbs to the West. On the contrary, I’m preaching these messages on the count that the respect for our profession is gone.” “Young people are not praying anymore, whose fault is that? It is your fault Mr. Khamenei, it’s your fault for placing us in the same line as that lunatic Ahmadinejad.”

NIAC adds:

Muhammad Sahimi has more on the growing rifts between conservative clerics. I believe in my gut that this revolution has just started.

(Wiki: Former president Khatami visits a Tehran Jewish center.)

The roughly 25,000 Jewish people living in Iran constitute the second highest population in the Middle East (after Israel, of course). Two mini-documentaries can be found here and here. Another report for CBC by my friend Bahman Kalbasi, who now works for the BBC Farsi service, is here. (I should add that Bahman has been a wonderful resource for this blog during the revolution, and has also helped me understand the resistance long before the election uprising. My thanks to him). One of them states:

The fiercely Islamic Republic of Iran, is perhaps the last place you would expect to find a large Jewish community. But despite political use of anti-semitic, anti-Israeli slogans, Iran's Jews appear remarkably free. "Anti-semitism has never been the general policy of the Iranian government" explains Maurice Mottamed, the country's sole Jewish MP. There are of course "glaring differences" in treatment between the majority Muslim population and religious minorities. But remarkably most of the time Iranian Jews are "comfortably doing everything they want to do here. We can perform all our religious celebrations." This is an image very much at odds with fashionable Western opinion.

Among those "glaring differences" are what Richard Chesnoff pointed out:

The Jewish community is under constant surveillance, where teaching Hebrew is prohibited, where Jewish women are forced to follow the same modesty laws their Muslim sisters do, where Jews are barred from certain jobs and some imprisoned or hung on trumped up charges of contact with "Zionists".

Goldblog also wisely warns against mistaking Muslim hospitality for real toleration. Roger Cohen's response is here. It seems to me that the Iranian regime has murdered Jews in Buenos Aires, is infected with pathological anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, its proxies Hamas and Hezbollah murder Jews, and its Jewish citizens are relegated to second-class status – but Iran is not Nazi Germany and less dangerous for Jews who live there than, say, Iraq or Saudi Arabia. It is a bewildering mix of sophistication and vibrancy governed increasingly by moronic, theo-fascist, torture-loving thugs. But what has happened recently vindicates Roger Cohen's sense that these two Irans are real and that the other Iran has been making strides – even if we have now reached a critical moment in which the two cannot co-exist without vicious oppression, brutality and illegitimacy.

Steve Coll finds out at long last that the 9/11 mastermind visited the US, in 1979. It's detailed in a forthcoming book by Osama’s first wife, Najwa Bin Laden, and his son Omar Bin Laden. An excerpt:

I came to believe that Americans were gentle and nice, people easy to deal with. As far as the country itself goes, my husband and I did not hate America, yet we did not love it.

There was one incident that reminded me that some Americans are unaware of other cultures. When the time came for us to leave America, Osama and I, along with our two boys, waited for our departure at the airport in Indiana. I was sitting quietly in my chair, relaxing, grateful that our boys were quiet….

I saw an American man gawking at me. I knew without asking that his unwelcome attention had been snagged by my black Saudi costume…

I took a side glance at Osama and saw that he was intently studying the curious man. I knew that my husband would never allow the man to approach me…

When my husband and I discussed the incident, we were both more amused than offended. That man gave us a good laugh, as it was clear he had no knowledge of veiled women…

We returned to Saudi Arabia none the worse for our experiences.