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Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Exclusive Video Interview with Former Iranian Gov't Insider


A chilling insider's account of how the Iranian government works behind the scenes. In Part One of my interview with a woman we'll call Za-Za, because she fears retribution against her family still living in Tehran if her true identity were revealed, you'll hear what goes on behind the scenes in an ayatollah's realm.

The video is at OurLA.org, (<click) the new destination for deep-reporting in Los Angeles, founded by former Daily News editor Ron Kaye--not to be confused with Ron's blog RonKayeLA.com. This new site is a journalism-driven, multimedia website with all the bells and whistles. It promises to bring depth and weight to local online reporting. Thom Senzee and Repulbic Of L.A. are proud to be a small part of Ron's newest venture.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

They're Back!

Iranians have returned to the streets, not yet in as great of numbers as last week, but in the thousands.


Thursday, June 25, 2009

Axes. Chopping Young Iranians Down with Axes. Evil has a name: Khamenei

I don't care if you're a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, an Atheist, Agnostic or Bhudist. Watch this video, then pray, chant, speak encantations, meditate or scream at the top of your lungs: The Iranian People need a Miracle today.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Past Fervor Over Child Pornography may be Culprit if Iran Protests Fail

(photo (c) The Telegraph, UK)

It may sound like a grand leap, but it's really not. Here's why:

Last year, European telecom partners Nokia Group and Siemens AG, of Finland and Germany, respectively, sold the government in Tehran sophisticated Internet-traffic surveillance and control (and manipulation) equipment under the auspices of helping it combat child pornography.


Who's going to argue with that?

Trouble is, now the European systems are being used to block information from entering and exiting the country, and thereby supporting Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadenijad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.


In fact, as reported in the
Wall Street Journal, thanks to Nokia's and Siemens' multi-million-dollar contract to help Tehran protect its citizenry against kiddie-porn, Iran's Internet control-and-capture system can even intercept, read, and alter (for disinformation and other purposes) anyone's (and presumably everyone's) Facebook updates, blogs, and twitter postings as they go out into cyberspace, then neatly pack the data back up and send them on their way--all within a nano-second.

That's the reason for the parenthetic use of the word "manipulation" in one of the paragraphs above. That capability is why some experts are saying Iran's Nokia-Siemens technology puts China's much ballyhooed Great-Firewall-of-China censoring program to shame as an Internet quashing instrument.


By the way, check out this paragraph from Nokia's Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) 20-F filing, and note the acknowledgment of U.S. sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Of course, Nokia is a Finninsh firm, and is therefore not bound to adhere to U.S. sanctions. But at least (thanks to Franklin Roosevelt's 1934 financial regulations regime) because it does business in the United States and sells stock here, the company had to go on record acknowledging that the United States considers the Iranian government to be a sponsor of terrorism.

In Nokia's own words, from its SEC filing...

" Sales in sanctioned countries—Devices & Services,

NAVTEQ and Nokia Siemens Networks

...We are a global company and have sales in most countries of the world. We sold mobile devices and services through Devices & Services and network equipment through Nokia Siemens Networks to customers in Iran, Sudan and Syria in 2008. NAVTEQ did not have any sales to customers in these countries from the completion of our acquisition of NAVTEQ on July 10, 2008 to December 31, 2008. Our aggregate sales to customers in these countries in 2008 accounted for approximately 1.6% of Nokia’s total net sales, or EUR 791 million. Iran, Sudan and Syria are subject to US economic sanctions that are primarily designed to implement US foreign policy and the US government has designated these countries as 'state sponsors of terrorism.'" (Nokia's full 20-f filing is here)
A final Thought:

When multinational companies and governments team up to protect the public from pictures of child abuse, it's always good to examine the companies' quest for profits, and the governments' drive to stay in power, and ask what the respective parties' real motivations are, and what unintended outcomes might arise.

Consider too, when dictators win, every child is an abuse victim...and so are their parents.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Mainstream American Media are Missing Big Stories in Iran. Case in point: Aussie reporter sees presidential militia siding with Mousavi supporters.

(c) Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Shahram Sharif
Embarrassing. Pathetic. Anemic. Clueless.

That' s how I see the U.S. mainstream media's coverage of what is happening in Iran. While some of the network's cable-cast and digi-cast television news shows are better than their online coverage, or at least the presentation thereof, judging by their homepages, you would think we were still in the early post-election stage of the developments in Iran. But we're not. We're in potentially pre-revolutionary stages. While most American correspondents seem to be staying behind hotel and office doors at the order of the Iranian government, Iranians with camera phones are twittering messages and images to the outside world.
HOWEVER, check out what ABC reporter, Robert Fisk saw when he disregarded the forced sequestration. Oh, by the way, this ABC is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation:


excerpted from :(LINK)

There were about 10,000 Mousavi men and women on the streets, with approximately 500 Iranian special forces, trying to keep them apart.

It was interesting that the special forces - who normally take the side of Ahmadinejad's Basij militia - were there with clubs and sticks in their camouflage trousers and their purity white shirts and on this occasion the Iranian military kept them away from Mousavi's men and women.

In fact at one point, Mousavi's supporters were shouting 'thank you, thank you' to the soldiers.

One woman went up to the special forces men, who normally are very brutal with Mr Mousavi's supporters, and said 'can you protect us from the Basij?' He said 'with God's help'.

It was quite extraordinary because it looked as if the military authorities in Tehran have either taken a decision not to go on supporting the very brutal militia - which is always associated with the presidency here - or individual soldiers have made up their own mind that they're tired of being associated with the kind of brutality that left seven dead yesterday - buried, by the way secretly by the police - and indeed the seven or eight students who were killed on the university campus 24 hours earlier.

Quite a lot of policeman are beginning to smile towards the demonstrators of Mr Mousavi, who are insisting there must be a new election because Mr Ahmadinejad wasn't really elected. Quite an extraordinary scene.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

New York's, San Francisco's Mayors Address the Media Ten Times More Than L.A.'s

Three Cities;
Three Mayors;
Two Frequent Communicators;
One 'Shy' Guy





Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has been known as being very visible, but suddenly the guy who has been dubbed by some 'Mayor Photoraigosa' hasn't much to say.

N
ew York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and San Francisco's Gavin Newsom have issued at least one press release for every regular business day of June this year, yet the mayor of America's second-largest city, Los Angeles, Ca. has only--get this--found not one issue of enough import to formally address the press with a news release. That's not to say there have been no statements or comments from the mayor in June, but nothing official--not even a press conference.

At the same time, Mayors Newsom and Bloomberg have been churning out news about issues facing their cities' residents. On one day in June alone, Newsom's office issued press releases in which the mayor chimed in on New Hampshire's legalization of gay marriage, commented on Princess Cruises' marking of its 40th anniversary by setting sail from San Francisco, made a fuss over the city's Sunday Streets program--and, announced the addition of KaiserPermanente to the menu of coverage choices in the City by the Bay's universal healthcare system.

For his part, Mayor Bloomberg issued no fewer than five press releases on a single June day, and like Newsom, has had something to say every day this month. Among the issues addressed: World Trade Center talks, restarting stalled construction projects in the city, National Peurto Rican Day Parade; mitigation of Canadian Geese (remember the Hudson, but don't hurt the geese --ed.); and helping New Yorkers in foreclosure.

To be fair to Antonio Villaraigosa, the other two big city mayors are facing election campaigns, and so need as much exposure as they can get. Newsom wants to be the next governor of California, and Bloomberg wants to remain Mayor Bloomberg.

Also, Chicago's and Dallas' mayors each have released only slightly more press releases than L.A.'s mayor. But it does seem that we should at least have more going on than Dallas, and really, even Chicago.





Thursday, June 11, 2009

Republic of L.A. gets City to Reconsider Parking Tickets


Republic Of L.A. got a lot of feedback on the Monday, June 8 post about ambiguous parking signage and what effectively turned out to be a parking-ticket trap near West Hollywood Park. I emailed all of the WeHo City Council Members a link to the post and got a prompt response from Council Member Jeffrey Prang's deputy, Jake Stevens. Addressing the subject line I included with my email to his boss, which referred to the situation as seeming to be a "sham" Stevens assured me in his initial email that a) there was no scam, and b) he would research the issue and get back to Republic Of L.A. with more information. He did get back to ROLA with some really valuable information, and a reiteration of there being no scam at play (it may seem like minutia, but it's important from my perspective to note that I used the word "sham," not "scam." The difference being, in my mind at least, that you can end up with an unintended sham, but a scam is always planned from the outset.) Here is the response we got from Prang's office via Mr. Stevens:

As part of Phase I of the West Hollywood Park Master Plan (which includes the construction of the new 44,000 square foot, state-of-the-art library, public meeting rooms, Friends of the Library space, a municipal parking garage with over 300 parking spaces, a 91-space parking garage and new tennis courts), the 20 parking meters in the Melrose alley are being eliminated for safety reasons since construction is going on in close proximity and to maintain a fire lane for the Fire Department.

The parking meters in the Melrose alley were removed and the curb painted red last Friday, June 5, 2009. Removing the signs was part of the work order but all the work could not be completed on Friday. The current signs are scheduled to be removed on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 and replaced with new signs that alert drivers that no parking in the alley is allowed.
The situation you reported is not the result of any deliberate attempt to mislead the public, but rather a delay in getting all the work completed in the alley as requested.

We will evaluate any requests submitted by individuals cited at this location during this time and will take appropriate action if we find that the citation resulted because drivers were confused by signs. In order to mitigate the loss of parking in the area during the library construction project, the City recently built a 113 space parking lot just north of the Public Library and a short walk from the Melrose Alley that is open to the public from 6:00 AM to 2:30 AM seven days per week.


Without wanting to diminish the response, which was comprehensive and detailed, not to mention promptly delivered--and all but promises to forgive any tickets that were wrongly issued during the weekend in question if the drivers ask for a review--it left out the one thing that seemed most important: Parking Enforcement's wanton combativeness with the public.

As you may recall or may want to re-read here, a central point of the post was the fact that the shift supervisor ended up hanging up on me after saying the signs didn't matter all that mattered was the freshly painted red curb. "If they parked in a red zone, they will be ticketed," were his exact words.

I asked Council Member Prang's deputy if it seemed proper to him for Parking Enforcement to dismiss a sincere phone call about an issue that was clearly unfair to citizens of and visitors to the city (especially during the Great Recession). His response to that final question was a real eyeopener.

It turns out that those little white Prius's with "City of West Hollywood Parking Enforcement" emblazoned on the side are operated by a private company: Serco Inc., a global parking and traffic enforcement contractor.

This brings up a whole new discussion and ripe fodder for future blog posts: Is West Hollywood or are similar cities really well served by these contractors that allow them to avoid building their own police forces, parking enforcement divisions, housing programs and many other services?

The military has fired Haliburton after that contractor reamed the taxpayers for untold billions after promising to do the job of supporting the troops on the battlefield "better, faster and cheaper."

But here's a better comparison: the City of Los Angeles Department of Water & Power charges its customers considerably less than Edison charges its customers. During the rolling blackouts of the early 2000s, DWP managed to keep the power on for everybody.

But don't take my word for it. Ask a Realtor how much value is added to a property simply by virtue of being in DWP service area. The reason is because buyers know they will pay smaller electric and water bills, even with recent rate hikes. Besides, when the power executives' bosses are elected officials, i.e., city council members, it's fairly easy to keep up pressure to keep rates down.

Note: The city also promised to consider doing more to communicate with more signage the availability of temporary parking north of Melrose Alley.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009


LAPD's Chopper Force Moving to Van Nuys Airport

Flight operations of the Piper Tech Hooper Heliport, LAPD's base of air operations, will temporarily relocate from its sprawling rooftop pads downtown to Van Nuys Airport. The move is part of construction happening at the downtown site.

Residents living in nearby Lake Balboa, Van Nuys, Encino, Northridge and Sherman Oaks neighborhoods have long battled against helicopter traffic originating from Van Nuys Airport (VNY); it will be interesting to see how they respond to the two- to three-month relocation of all LAPD operations to their backyard skies.

While LAPD is often said to have the largest non-military "air force" in the nation (and there is little reason to doubt it), I was surprised to learn, when I wrote a piece about cops' claim that they needed an air unit dedicated to supporting Valley-based operations, there is never more than one LAPD chopper patrolling the city from the air at any given time. That claim, of course, does not include emergency, or crime-scene situations, just general patrols.

Republic Of L.A. is waiting to hear back from the National Helicopter Noise Coalition, based in Encino, as well as Los Angeles World Airports, which runs VNY.

For its part the airport is offering this number for concerns from residents: 818-909-3529, as well as an 800 number for noise-specific complaints: 800-560-0010

Monday, June 8, 2009

Ambigous Parking Signage in WeHo Looks Like a Ticket Trap


There is an alley just north of Melrose Avenue between San Vicente Drive and Robertson Drive in West Hollywood. The alley is located behind several design showrooms and West Hollywood Park. What makes this alley special and beloved by locals (no, not that alley), is that it boasts a line of that most invaluable of Southern California's urban commodities--parking spaces.
Saturday, June 6, some friends and I drove to WeHo for an event near Robertson and Melrose. I found a single parking spot open in the Melrose-adjacent alley and parked.
But one of my passengers noticed something new. The curb had recently been painted red. There was no indication other than the brand-new, red-painted curb that anything else had changed in the alley.
Admittedly, a red curb might be enough to signal parking was no longer allowed. However, the were still dozens of signs--both signs mounted on tall poles over the alley, and smaller signs mounted on poles where there had once been meters--that indicated a four-hour time limit for parking.
Further complicating the matter was the fact that there were temporary plastic signs, many of which had fallen to the ground, that read "temporary: no parking 6/5/09." This was the 6th. The signs said "temporary no parking" for the previous day.
In addition, there were about three dozen or more cars parked in the alley without tickets.
Keep in mind, this is an area dense with restaurants, bars, a civic auditorium, a busy urban park, several community meeting facilities, and the largest design center west of the Mississippi. Needless to say, finding parking can be a nightmare.
Nevertheless, I left the parking spot and found another--four blocks south on Robertson in Beverly Hills, another city altogether--because I really don't like getting parking tickets. (I know, who does?)
It would have been a $70 ticket. I know because we saw one unfortunate driver's SUV sporting a "parking in a red zone" citation on his or her window.
Safely parked, I wanted to know if the situation was an oversight, and if informed, would the authorities do something to remedy the confusion.
I went to the Sheriff's station across the street and got a very snippy, sarcastic non-answer from a volunteer at the counter. Begrudgingly, I was given the after-hours phone number to West Hollywood Parking Enforcement. The shift supervisor on duty when I called at 6:55 p.m. listened to my description of the situation, which I delivered in much the same way via phone as I have here.
I asked if he planned to enforce the red zone on all of the drivers who had obviously been confused by the ambiguous signage, or wait to start ticketing after the incorrect signs were removed.
He said (and this is a quote): "If they're in a red zone, they will be cited."
But, I insisted, obviously there was confusion, and to penalize people who, during the Great Recession, were dining out and contributing to the local economy in other ways, and had parked in a place known to be legal for years, smacked of revenue-motivated entrapment.
I then informed him that I was no longer speaking as a concerned citizen, but now as a journalist. I asked the parking-encorcement shift supervisor if I could have his name, and if it was Parking Enforcement's intention to disregard the information I had provided about the confusing, new no-parking policy at Melrose Alley (click the play arrow at the bottom of the video image above to see what I mean about confusing signs and the red curb), and ticket everyone parked there anyway.
His answer: "I'm the shift supervisor; that's all you need to know. I'm not authorized to talk to the media." With that Mr. Supervisor hung up the phone. I called back, but my call went directly to voicemail. I left a message, but have yet to get a call back.
By my arithmetic, there were about $2500-$3000 in potential parking citations at the time I decided to move my car. If citations were being issued all night and day--all weekend in fact--the City of West Hollywood may have raked in many thousands of dollars--perhaps more than $10,000--courtesy of Parking Enforcement and their dubious citation policies.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

L.A. City Services to be Unavailable Every Other Friday


The AP is reporting that some city-government departments will shutter once every two weeks. Funny how these Band Aids are the best this generation can come up with. The savings will total about $100 million.

But really, how much will be lost by the lost spending power of the furloughed workers? I hear so many complaints about businesses being taxed too much, and thus not hiring people, but what about the fact that the city has about a quarter of a billion dollars owed in unpaid taxes. The Mayor has announced an amnesty program through June 30, and promised there will be an aggressive effort to collect on that money. Yet, the effort will only yield about $10 million.

This is one more rendition of the ongoing Baby Boomer shell game, which is actually so much more expensive--probably immeasurably more expensive--than just having been paying for a slightly higher straightforward tax regime. Or, maybe even a substantially lower, across-the-board flat tax with ZERO exceptions.

I know my conservative friends will say, liberals (like me) never met a tax they don't like. To that I say: At long last, let's just pay the friggin' taxes we need to pay as we go along; aren't we really paying more this way, anyway.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

L.A. Reporters Jailed in N. Korea Need Support of all Angelenos

There was no doubt in my mind today, as I sought to remedy my day-late (I don't post on weekends) posting to Republic Of L.A. with a meaningful new blog post: I would link to LA Observed. Why? Kevin Roderick has today's most important issue for the Los Angeles journalism community (and, in my humble opinion, that of the entire nation) front-and-center on his home page.
I'm speaking of the plight of two L.A. journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee. The two Current TV reporters are being held in North Korea and will face what will surely be a kangaroo court soon. Wednesday, there will be vigils, and I implore everyone to come out show strong support for these two.

The thing about a kangaroo court is it can be manipulated for good. If the Koreans see any potential gain in letting these innocent journalists go free, the court may "pardon" them for their "crimes."

Visit LAObserved for details on the vigils: http://www.laobserved.com/ Remember, if you show up for someone else's cause (hint, hint gay community), they will show up for yours.