Pajamas Media

The organization soon to be formerly known as Pajamas Media has an information site, for all those who are interested in the power of citizen journalism. With the moribund New York Times, Dan Rather's (C)BS News, and Newsweek "America Is Dead" magazine digging their own graves, this is a good time to get in tune with journalism's future.

Don't get stuck on stupid!

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Clashes rock Ahwaz, southwest Iran, early this week. SMCCDI reports:

Sep 19, 2005 - Fresh clashes rocked, yesterday night, the several areas of the southwestern and oil rich City of Ahwaz. The most violent actions took place in the Shelang-Abad and Malachieh areas. Angry crowd retaliated to militiamen's brutal attacks by throwing stones and incendiary devices resulting in several damages made to several public buildings and security patrol cars. Slogans against the Islamic regime and its leaders were shouted by Iranian-Arabs and Iranian-Persians living in the region. Tens of protesters have been injured or arrested. The residents intended to make a peaceful protest in order to request justice and better conditions. The situation is very tense in this city which was scene of deadly riots in August.

Mass crackdown in Tehran. Iran Focus (hat tip: "Kentucky Dan" Kauffman in Comments) reports:

Tehran, Iran, Sep. 18 – Close to 1,600 persons have been arrested in Tehran over the past 10 days as part of a nationwide crackdown, the state-owned hard-line daily Jomhouri Islami reported on Sunday. “Ten days after the plan to increase national security was put into effect, 829 criminal records have been created and 1,588 people have been arrested”, the office of the Tehran Prosecutor announced. The detainees are generally branded as “trouble-makers” or “miscreants”. The prosecutor’s office added that 170 “trouble-makers” had been sent to prison since the launch of the 20-day crackdown in the Iranian capital. Iranian officials have said that similar crackdowns will begin across other towns and cities after the initial 20-day phase.

RSF publishes cyber-activism handbook. Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontières) has published a downloadable manual for bloggers and internet dissidents.

Blogs get people excited. Or else they disturb and worry them. Some people distrust them. Others see them as the vanguard of a new information revolution. Because they allow and encourage ordinary people to speak up, they’re tremendous tools of freedom of expression.
Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure. Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest.
Reporters Without Borders has produced this handbook to help them, with handy tips and technical advice on how to to remain anonymous and to get round censorship, by choosing the most suitable method for each situation. It also explains how to set up and make the most of a blog, to publicise it (getting it picked up efficiently by search-engines) and to establish its credibility through observing basic ethical and journalistic principles.

Available in PDF at the link.

Afghan Report

MEMRI: Taliban messages to operatives. MEMRI presents the following excerpts from video messages at the Taliban website:

Speaker: "Oh, people of 'There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is Allah's Prophet' – 'Rank hatred has already appeared from the mouths of your enemy, but what their hearts conceal is worse still.' You all heard what the American general Boykin said, when he was speaking at a certain church. He said: 'This war is a war of faith between Satan and Christianity.' Who is this Crusader describing as Satan? Is it not God Almighty who ordered His believers: 'Fight them until there is no more discord, and the religion is held wholly for the sake of Allah?'"

Go to the link for the full rant. (MEMRI)

Winds of Change: The torture place. Cicero at Winds of Change presents a five-year-old piece on Abhaseen Barikzy, an Afghan communist who was tortured at the hands of the Taliban. Go to the link to read Barikzy's harrowing story in his own words. Cicro says: 'I really don't have much to add to Barikzy's story. It speaks for itself. I was struck by the commander who said, "I want to kill a very bad pagan among the prisoners to receive more blessing from Allah." I think his reasoning is emblematic of what we're up against with respect to Islamic fascism. We in the West desperately want to believe that we can find common, rational ground and negotiate with Islamic fascists. The Commander exemplifies why negotiation, in the end, is folly.' (Winds of Change)

Afghan parliamentary elections. Afghan Lord posts some pictures from the parliamentary elections in Afghanistan, including US Ambassador Ronald Neumann's visit to the Ministry of Women's Affairs, and several photographs of women voting - and a woman candidate's billboard ads. However, the elections - and the participation of women in them - were not an unqualified success. Sohrab Kabuli writes:

A large number of women in Zabul, Nangarhar, Khost and other provinces failed to vote in Afghanistan's first parliamentary elections in more than three decades. In remote villages of the southeastern Khost province, eligible female voters were avoided to go in polling station to vote for their destiny. Thus no women voted. Not even a single woman could exercise her begging rights. As women candidates was very less comparing to men but presence of women in polling stations were not much. Many of them has disappointed with the last presence in the presidential election last year. Afghan woman still suffer from injustice and pains from their men.

Nor is the presence of women candicates on the ballot necessarily reassuring to women voters: a woman interviewed by Sohrab Kabuli protested that she found no acceptable candidate - man or woman - on the ticket, and that women, too, are capable of injustice.
Meanwhile, Afghan Warrior has this report:

Afghanistan's first parliamentary election will be remembered as one of the most important days in the history of Afghanistan. Despite threats from the enemies for the last few months, millions of Afghans rushed towards polling stations to elect their representatives for the parliament. Women equally with men cast their vote. During the Election Day there were separate
polling stations for men and women in capital Kabul and other provinces. But unfortunately most women were not able to vote in Helmand and Zabul provinces even though they were registered, especially in Helmand province because the JEMB did not establish any separate polling stations for the women in 12 districts, but the JEMB officials in Helmand province claim there were no registered women voters so there was no need for establishing the separate polling stations.

Some people did not vote even though they were registered. On the election day I talked with a taxi driver and I asked him if he had voted. He said "not yet". I asked him if he was going to vote. He said "no, because during the presidential election I voted for president Karzai but he did not do anything for poor people we still suffer from the lack of power and drinking water". Some people that didn't vote said most candidates were former commanders and warlords so they don't want to elect them because of their bad past and they said we can not trust the new candidates because we don't know them very well. ...

Read the full posts at the links. (Afghan Warrior, Afghan Lord)

Morning Report: September 23, 2005

Debka: Sharon likely to step down. Citing "sources", Debka states that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is about to retire. 'DEBKAfile Reveals Exclusively: Ariel Sharon is on the point of stepping down. Barring a last-minute change of heart, the Israeli prime minister plans to retire to his Sycamore Ranch. DEBKAfile’s political sources report that private opinion polls conducted by his team indicated that all critical Likud votes would go against him. Monday, the central committee will decide to bring forward the leadership primary from April to December, as demanded by his rivals Netanyahu and Landau. He is not expected to fight this decision or respond by setting up a new party alliance. Our Washington sources add that President Bush has been informed of Sharon’s plan to retire.' (Debka)

Why Iraq? Taking stock of the political developments around the Iraqi constitution, The Belmont Club writes: 'But perhaps the strategic rationale for choosing Iraq versus Saudi Arabia consisted in that Iraq lay along a major fault line in the Muslim world, not simply with respect to religion, but in the case of the Kurds, ethnicity as well. It was the one place where America was guaranteed to find local allies whichever way it turned; it was the last place where the population could easily put aside their differences to oppose the United States. And if the objective were to set the region on its ears, here was the pillar in temple of Dagon around which everything could be sent crashing down.' Full analysis at link. (Belmont Club)

Treasury Department's FinCEN e-mail list hacked. The Counterterrorism Blog reports: 'The e-mail list used by the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to send announcements was hacked and abused by an outsider this morning. The outsider sent the following message to the FinCEN e-mail list:
go away from iraq
takeback your monsters (army)
you killed my father and mother
what you want???
i know (oil)
and followed the text with two pictures supposedly from Iraq. FinCEN quickly sent a new message to its e-mail list to disregard the first message and that it is investigating the origin of the bad e-mail. As of this writing, the FinCEN site for subscribing to e-mail announcements is closed.' (CTB)

Iraqi security forces kill five terrorists in Baghdad. Al-Sabah reports: 'Baghdad, Sept. 22 p1 - Security forces managed in killing five terrorists holding Sudanese nationality when the forces stormed a house near the UAE embassy in Mansour district Wednesday.News reports described the raid as a battle thanks to fierce resistance of the terrorists who were keeping medium and heavy weapons and hand grenades.The battle started when a police patrol found a survivor hijacked as he fled the terrorists and led the police patrol to the position.The terrorists replied with grenades a matter needed to special forces interference, who have used heavy weapons before they lost three casualties between dead and injuries.' Sabah also notes that citizens have complained of increased terrorist activity in Samarra (about 125 km north of Baghdad), where the security situation is at its worst in several weeks. (Sabah)

Europe Backs Down

Reuters via Regime Change Iran:

The European Union's three main powers have dropped a demand that the U.N. nuclear watchdog report Iran to the Security Council over its atomic plans due to opposition from Russia and China, diplomats said on Thursday.

Moscow and Beijing have warned the United States, France, Britain and Germany against stepping up the nuclear standoff with Iran, potentially blocking their drive to haul Tehran before the U.N.'s highest body for possible sanctions. ...

AP via Free Iran:

Iran gained a reprieve in the standoff over its nuclear program Wednesday, with diplomats saying the
European Union had decided to postpone its push to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council.

The decision to delay a vote until a later board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency instead of demanding one this week appeared driven by concerns about strong opposition. More than a dozen of the 35 IAEA board member nations meeting in Vienna — including Security Council members Russia and China — are against the idea.

Update

The next step. For the first sixteen months, I didn't spend a dime on promoting Dreams Into Lightning, with the single exception of a few dollars I contributed to the (now defunct) Blog Machine. That changed this month, when I took advantage of SiteMeter's partner service, Site Toolbox, which offers site promotion packages in a variety of sizes and budgets. They offer search engine submissions, tips on SEO (Search Engine Optimization), a handy little doohickey that generates tags for you, and a banner ad service. (Possibly you've already seen some of my catchy slogans for this blog.) And I am definitely seeing an increase in traffic, so I know it's working.

Liveblogging from One Way Coffee House. Formerly "Portland Coffee House, Trinity" it's now known simply as Coffee House, or alternatively as One Way Coffee House because of the juxtaposition of the storefront with a "one way" traffic sign. It's still the best coffee shop in the neighborhood - I'm tempted to say the best in Portland. One Way Coffee House is still independently owned and boasts a dedicated, knowledgeable, and friendly crew - and it's still open into the wee hours for you late-nighters. That location again? It's at the corner of West Burnside and Trinity Place, right across Burnside from Blockbuster.

School's in. Yup, I'm starting classes on Monday. I don't intend to stop posting, or even slow down; it just means I'm going to have to manage my time. Morning Reports will probably be short and to-the-point. I am planning to return to the topical posting schedule I attempted earlier, and abandoned almost immediately; I'll probably cut out a few of the more ambitious features so I don't feel intimidated by the project. Thursday is "Arts and Letters" day; I'm putting together a few thoughts on a certain play (think Denmark) for next week.

Morning Report: September 22, 2005

Iraqi political scene. Iraq the Model carries a roundup of Iraqi politics. 'The political scene in Iraq these days is full of events with the parties feeling that time for starting campaigning is approaching. However these campaigns took the form of exchanged attacks and accusations without presenting programs or platforms for development and reform which are much needed. Perhaps the only player who preferred to act quietly is Allawi who stayed away from the lights while making continuous tours to gather support from as many parties and trends as possible to form a mid-liberal trend with no sectarian or ethnic identity. ... Maybe what's going to assist Allawi this time is that he didn't join the cabinet although encouraged to do so by the Sheat and the Kurdish blocs; this together with the poor performance of the current government when compared to Allawi's made Allawi seen as a better alternative by many Iraqis especially that a new alliance backed by the clergy is not likely to appear anymore after the intense differences that emerged between the major players in the present alliance namely the SCIRI, the Da'wa, Fadheela Party and the Sadrists and the differences reached the degree of armed clashes in some cases after which the Sadrists said they will be entering the next elections alone. Chalabi being the founding father of the alliance sensed the critical situation which made him make an announcement saying "I made the alliance and I can form a stronger one..." this announcement reflects the depth of the problems this alliance is going through, in the first time Chalabi remained silent while he built the alliance and he tried to stay away from the media but now I think he's facing a tough situation that pushed him to adopt this daring attitude and stop being silent. ... In such atmospheres critical of the governmental performance, the governing parties found themselves surrounded in a weak position and took a decision to respond by releasing a controversial report accusing Allawi's cabinet of massive corruption. This report which took a lot of attention and coverage in the past few days took the political battle to the lands of the opposition represented by the Iraqi bloc of Allawi and the former defense minister Hazim Sha'lan who's joining Allawi's alliance now after he formed his own movement. Everyone here know how dangerous corruption is and we said it more than once that it is just as dangerous as terrorism so attempts to fight corruption are welcome but the latest report was lacking a mechanism for a solution or even the precursors for a plan and was more like a shot taken to weaken the position of the political opponents.' Read the full report at the link. (ITM)

UK pulls forces from Basra streets. British forces are being removed from patrols in Basra, southern Iraq, in the wake of recent Iraqi/British clashes. Fox reports: 'British troops in the tense southern city of Basra greatly reduced their presence in the streets Thursday, apparently responding to a call from the provincial governor to sever cooperation until London apologized for storming a police station to free two of its soldiers. For the second day, no British forces were seen with accompanying Iraqi police on patrols of Basra, as they routinely had in the past. Elsewhere, a roadside bomb hit a U.S. convoy in southern Baghdad, killing one soldier and wounding six others Wednesday. Suspected insurgents gunned down at least eight Iraqis in four separate attacks Thursday, officials said. In an interview with Associated Press Television News in Baghdad Thursday, Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie called Monday's attack by British forces on a police station in Basra "a flagrant violation of Iraqi sovereignty." At least five Iraqis were killed during a day of clashes between British forces and Iraqi police and demonstrators on Monday. British armor crashed into a jail to free the two soldiers who had been arrested by Iraqi police and militiamen. Earlier, a crowd attacked British troops with stones and Molotov cocktails.' (Fox)

Missing Iraqi defense funds. The Belmont Club offers a preliminary analysis of reports of massive embezzlement from the Iraqi defense budget. Wretchard notes that irrespective of whatever funds may have gone missing, the Iraqi army has successfully procured a formidable arsenal. '... in the light of the equipment that is physically in evidence, at least in training and operations, the Independent's depiction of the absence of Iraqi equipment seems something of a stretch.' Full post at link. (Belmont Club)

Manuscript fragment ends. Also from the indispensable Wretchard, a historian looks back at Tal Afar: 'Two groups of men fought in a place called Tal-Afar about 3,532 years ago. One group of men, called 'insurgents', soundly defeated another group called Americans, and their allies the Kurds, but for reasons unclear in the manuscript fragments, the insurgents evacuated the battlefield although they could hardly be pressed by the Americans, who were apparently a people who frequently cursed, yelled and ran from place to place in fear.' Such would be the account if based on Michael Ware's article at Time magazine, which is long on atmospherics and short on 'the who, what, where, when of the narrative.' Further complicating matters for this historian is the competing narrative offered by another fragment. Read the full post at the link. (Belmont Club)

Simon Wiesenthal, 1908-2005. Simon Wiesenthal, the famous Nazi Hunter has died in Vienna at the age of 96, the Simon Wiesenthal Center announced today (September 20th). "Simon Wiesenthal was the conscience of the Holocaust," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the International Human Rights NGO named in Mr. Wiesenthal’s honor, adding, "When the Holocaust ended in 1945 and the whole world went home to forget, he alone remained behind to remember. He did not forget. He became the permanent representative of the victims, determined to bring the perpetrators of the history’s greatest crime to justice. There was no press conference and no president or Prime Minister or world leader announced his appointment. He just took the job. It was a job no one else wanted. The task was overwhelming. The cause had few friends. The Allies were already focused on the Cold War, the survivors were rebuilding their shattered lives and Simon Wiesenthal was all alone, combining the role of both prosecutor and detective at the same time." Overcoming the world’s indifference and apathy, Simon Wiesenthal helped bring over 1,100 Nazi War Criminals before the Bar of Justice. There will be a news conference at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Tuesday, September 20th at 10 am.' (Simon Wiesenthal Center)

New from Winds

Judith of Kesher Talk is also posting at Winds of Change. She's welcoming the entry of a Texas Jewboy into Lone Star politics. She's also posted a round-up of Iranian activism - and was kind enough to link here. Thanks!

Also via Winds, Cicero has a magnificent meditation on his dreams for his daughter's future at Donklephant, where there's also news of a refreshing example of good sense from the other Portland.

Remembering Commodore Levy

Neo-Neocon has written a post on the life and times of Commodore Uriah Levy, occasioned by a reference to the inclusion of motifs from Monticello in the US Naval Academy's new Jewish chapel. To learn the connection between the Jefferson estate and this American Naval officer - and many other surprising facts about Levy's colorful career - go read Neo's post at the link.

Division by Zero

From Paula Gaon's blog:

When I look at pictures of Einstein, the depth that one sees in his eyes has always struck me. Always got the feeling that he wasn't looking at anything. Rather, he absorbed and processed--trying to understand of the mysteries, synthesis, and synergies of creation. He must have been a very spiritual and creative man. Hum, while I was typing this Blog, something my father (also an accomplished scientist), of blessed memory used to say popped into my head: "All of Nature is based on the mathematical number e, (i.e. growth curves, etc), except death itself. It must be division by 0 and undefined in this world as we know it."

Go read the whole post on time, relativity, art, and astrology at the link. Don't forget to hit Paula's homepage too.

Morning Report: September 18, 2005

Afghan elections undisrupted. Stratfor (subscription service) reports that 'Polls for Afghanistan's first parliamentary elections in over 30 years closed Sept. 18 with no significant attempt to disrupt the elections by the Taliban or al Qaeda', despite sporadic violence. Dean Esmay comments on some ironies, and links to Publius Pundit who's keeping a running update on the Afghan parliamentary elections. (Stratfor, Dean Esmay, Publius Pundit)

Iran bracing for confrontation? Amir Taheri writes: 'Incredible though it may sound there are signs that Tehran may be preparing for a military confrontation with the United States, and has convinced itself that it could win. The first sign came last June with the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president of the Islamic Republic, an event that completed the conquest of all levers of power by the most radical elements of the establishment. Since then, the revolutionary factions have conducted a little publicized purge of the military, the security, the civil service, and state-owned corporations and media. The most significant purges have affected the military high command. ...' Full post at the link. (Amir Taheri)

New Orleans Residents Blame Nagin, Praise Bush

NOLA evacuees from Hurricane Katrina refused to follow the script, much to the disappointment of ABC News. NewsBusters has the whole story; here's the transcript of the interviews:

Reynolds elicited reaction from the group sitting in chairs: “I'd like to get the reaction of Connie London who spent several horrible hours at the Superdome. You heard the President say retpeaedly that you are not alone, that the country stands beside you. Do you believe him?”

Connie London: “Yeah, I believe him, because here in Texas, they have truly been good to us. I mean-”

Reynolds: “Did you get a sense of hope that you could return to your home one day in New Orleans?”

London: “Yes, I did. I did.”

Reynolds: “Did you harbor any anger toward the President because of the slow federal response?”

London: “No, none whatsoever, because I feel like our city and our state government should have been there before the federal government was called in. They should have been on their jobs.”

Reynolds: “And they weren't?”

London: “No, no, no, no. Lord, they wasn't. I mean, they had RTA buses, Greyhound buses, school buses, that was just sitting there going under water when they could have been evacuating people.” ...

Read the whole thing. Meanwhile, NewsMax reports that Governor Kathleen Blanco admitted she should have called the military:

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco's abrupt decision Wednesday night to take responsibility for her state's inadequate response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster followed an inadvertent confession that was caught on camera where Blanco admitted she blew it.

"I really should have called for the military," Blanco said, while chatting with her press secretary in between TV interviews. "I really should have started that in the first call."

Unbeknownst to Blanco, her bombshell acknowledgment was recorded on a network satellite feed, and by Tuesday the clip was getting wide exposure in Louisiana news broadcasts.