Monday, June 15, 2009
Police invasion on people tehran vanak Sq 13 June 2009
From persianlover2007 on YouTube - This is how Iranian government supports democracy, this happened after presidential election when people protest for cheating on their vote.
Rivals Both Claim Victory in Iran's Election
From the AP: Iran's Interior Ministry claimed hard-line incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was heading for a landslide victory in the country's presidential elections. But his pro-reform rival countered that he was the clear victor. (June 13)
Lakers Win! Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson gain redemption
More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget!
YouTube, Yahoo, MySpace, Metacafe, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, StupidVideos, Sclipo and Viddler
After a long time without a ring, a seven year drought that saw a number of unfortunate events for LA Lakers star guard Kobe Bryant, he and "the zen master" , his coach Phil Jackson, who had to wonder if he's ever see the winning side of an NBA Finals contest, won the NBA Championship in fine fashion, defeating the Orlando Magic in five games, winning the last one tonight 99-86. It's the Lakers' 15th NBA title, Jackson's 10th, and Bryant's fourth, and certainly the sweetest.
Kobe gets his ring!
First, hats off to the Magic, who made it thrilling with two overtime games and heroic play down the stretch from center Dwight Howard, but in the end, the Lakers will was too much for the Magic to overcome.
The Lakers, and indeed, Bryant and Jackson, wanted to erase all of the bad feelings from the total beat-down the Boston Celtics gave to them last year and from the equally abusive talk aimed at Bryant from former teammate Shaq O'Neal, who left the Lakers and almost immediately won a title with the Miami Heat, then rubbed it in Bryant's face, almost on an annual basis.
No more.
Bryant played with a scowl on his face and something to prove. And he did. That he's a complete player. A mature person. A father. A community leader. And a nice person. That he did it with Phil Jackson as his coach comes as no surprise, but for a time it seemed Jackson was to be religated to the "used to" bin, as in, "he used to be a great coach." Hey, let's give credit to Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchek for the acquisition of Pau Gasol who filled in the missing piece as "enforcer" and for adding Derek Fisher, who's clutch "threes" were the difference in two finals games, but Jackson put them all together then stepped back and let them play.
Fisher said it best about Jackson after the last game on ABC: "He let's players play." Jackson doesn't try to control his players, he treats them as men and as talented athletes. He gives them an open canvas on which to paint, and his players created a masterpiece of a win. It's for that reason Jackson's the greatest coach in NBA history.
The zen master is back.
UPDATE: on his (verified) Twitter account twitter.com/THE_REAL_SHAQ, Shaq O'Neal was active to be sure. After the Lakers won he posted this:
O'Neal also tweeted that he's not leaving the Phoenix Suns for Cleveland and Le Bron James.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Iran Elections: Iranian Culture to blame for a rigged outcome
More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget!
YouTube, Yahoo, MySpace, Metacafe, Blip.tv, Sclipo and Viddler
Iran held its national election process to select its next president on Friday, June 12th. With all the televised demonstrations and Internet buzz it was logical to believe Iran's current leader, the not-well-liked President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad , would be beaten by his progressive challenger Mr. Hossein Mousavi. Indeed, late on Friday in America, some reports were that Mousavi was on pace to upset Ahmadinejad considering the vote count. But by Saturday that was not to be; the Iranian Elections Commission annouced that Ahmadinejad was the winner with 62.6 percent of the popular vote compared to 33.75 percent for Mousavi.
Did he really win?
The outcome upset many who believed it was rigged and caused violent street protests that are still going on as of this writing on Sunday (Twitter is the best place to keep up with the developments). The belief that Ahmadinejad's victory may have been engineered is one commmunicated in modern fashion by text message and the Internet, but has its roots in a set of very real considerations borne of Iranian culture:
1) Any unbiased reporting of the election process is improbable because Iran punishes investigative journalists, as happened to Roxana Saberi, the woman who was recently held in detention for over three months for being a "spy" when all the student reporter had done was write about real life in Iran and Islam including pro-American groups, whereas the government sends videos of constant pockets of anti-American demonstrations. She was released on May 10th, just one month before election day. In Iran, journalists are imprisoned, threatened, and alledgedly killed.
2) Researcher Muhammad Sahimi looked at the election data from Iran's Interior Ministry and determined that there's a perfect linear relationship between the votes that Ahmadinejad received and those that Mousavi got, such that Mousavi's votes are perfectly one-half of Ahmadinejad's for the data set analyzed and the correlation coefficient is .9995 - almost one, which means almost perfect. That's weird, folks. There should be a non-linear vote count - in other words, one for you, two for me; one for you, none for me; and so on.
3) Juan Cole, a Mid East observer of the Global American Institute, holds that Mousavi is a Azeri from the Azerbajan province, of which Tabriz is the capital, yet Ahmadinejad won that city with 57 percent of the vote. In other words, Mousavi failed to carry his home region's capital city which many are questioning given the common election rule that a campaigner generally wins the vote in their home region, even in a loss. (Cole and Sahimi did not share information as of this writing and I'm not even sure they know of each other.)
4) Given Mousavi's reportedly poor relations with top Iranian leaders, Cole charges that the country's electoral commission was told to falsify the vote count.
All of this gurantees that the election was "rigged" to some degree. But just by how much is known only to those who did the rigging. The fact this idea is now commonly accepted by many, perhaps millions, should be of concern to President Ahmadinejad, who can't say he has a true mandate to run Iran as he sees fit. He has to "open the government" if only to quell future massive uprisings. He can't matain the practices he established entering the election; his true enemy, the Internet, will prevent that.
Still no plea deal: Burress lawyer says gun case to be delayed until Septembe
Still no plea deal: Burress lawyer says gun case to be delayed until September
By Associated Press
4:40 PM EDT, June 12, 2009
NEW YORK (AP) — Former New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress will have to wait a while longer before he knows the legal consequences of accidentally shooting himself with an unlicensed pistol.
Defense lawyer Benjamin Brafman said Burress will appear in court Monday for a brief hearing. Brafman said Burress and prosecutors have yet to agree on a plea deal and the case will be adjourned until September.
Burress shot himself in the thigh on Nov. 29 in a Manhattan nightclub. He was charged with criminal possession of a weapon and faces up to 3½ years in prison. Burress has pleaded not guilty and is free on $100,000 bail.
Burress caught the game-winning touchdown for the Giants in the 2008 Super Bowl. He is a free agent after the team released him on April 3.
By Associated Press
4:40 PM EDT, June 12, 2009
NEW YORK (AP) — Former New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress will have to wait a while longer before he knows the legal consequences of accidentally shooting himself with an unlicensed pistol.
Defense lawyer Benjamin Brafman said Burress will appear in court Monday for a brief hearing. Brafman said Burress and prosecutors have yet to agree on a plea deal and the case will be adjourned until September.
Burress shot himself in the thigh on Nov. 29 in a Manhattan nightclub. He was charged with criminal possession of a weapon and faces up to 3½ years in prison. Burress has pleaded not guilty and is free on $100,000 bail.
Burress caught the game-winning touchdown for the Giants in the 2008 Super Bowl. He is a free agent after the team released him on April 3.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)