Here's the lead story in today's electronic NY Times, the first multi- dimensional picture of Iran's president I've seen in the mass media. I can't vouch for it, of course, but it provides something to measure the events to follow, which can also modify the outline below.
I produced several of Joan's concerts in So. Cal. during the 1960s and was a friend, though closer to sister Mimi. She once told me I was more political than she, but here she is, in the tree. The least I can do is visit, which I'm going to do today. please join us. Ed * The Farm is at Alameda and 41st St, one mile S of the SM(10) frwy Number Of Iraqi Civilians Slaughtered In America's War? As Many As 250,000 http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11674.htm Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In Bush's War 2464 http://icasualties.org/oif/ The War in Iraq Costs $283,944,713,065 See the cost in your community http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/28/world/middleeast/28iran.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin Iran Chief Eclipses Clerics as He Consolidates Power By MICHAEL SLACKMAN NY Times: May 28, 2006 TEHRAN, May 27 - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is trying to consolidate power in the office of the presidency in a way never before seen in the 27-year history of the Islamic Republic, apparently with the tacit approval of Iran's supreme leader, according to government officials and political analysts here. That rare unity of elected and religious leadership at the highest levels offers the United States an opportunity to talk to a government, however combative, that has often spoken with multiple voices. But if Washington, which severed relations with Iran after the 1979 revolution, opened such a dialogue, it could lift the prestige of the Iranian president, who has pushed toward confrontation with the West. Political analysts and people close to the government here say Mr. Ahmadinejad and his allies are trying to buttress a system of conservative clerical rule that has lost credibility with the public. Their strategy hinges on trying to win concessions from the West on Iran's nuclear program and opening direct, high-level talks with the United States, while easing social restrictions, cracking down on political dissent and building a new political class from outside the clergy. Mr. Ahmadinejad is pressing far beyond the boundaries set by other presidents. For the first time since the revolution, a president has overshadowed the nation's chief cleric, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on both domestic and international affairs. He has evicted the former president, Mohammad Khatami, from his offices, taken control of a crucial research organization away from another former president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, challenged high-ranking clerics on the treatment of women and forced prominent academics out of the university system. "Parliament and government should fight against wealthy officials," Mr. Ahmadinejad said in a speech before Parliament on Saturday that again appeared aimed at upending pillars of the status quo. "Wealthy people should not have influence over senior officials because of their wealth. They should not impose their demands on the needs of the poor people." In this theocratic system, where appointed religious leaders hold ultimate power, the presidency is a relatively weak position. In the multiple layers of power that obscure the governance of Iran, no one knows for certain where the ultimate decisions are being made. But many of those watching in near disbelief at the speed and aggression with which the president is seeking to accumulate power assume that he is operating with the full support of Ayatollah Khamenei. "Usually the supreme leader would be the front-runner in all internal and external issues," said Hamidreza Taraghi, the political director of the strongly conservative Islamic Coalition Party. "Here we have the president out front on all these issues, and the supreme leader is supporting him." Mr. Ahmadinejad is pursuing a risky strategy that could offer him a shot at long-term influence over the direction of the country - or ruin. He appears motivated at least in part by a recognition that relying on clerics to serve as the public face of the government has undermined the credibility of both, analysts here said. The changing nature of Iran's domestic political landscape has potentially far-reaching implications for the United States. While Iran has adopted a confrontational approach toward the West, it has also signaled - however clumsily - a desire to mend relations. Though the content of Mr. Ahmadinejad's letter to President Bush was widely mocked here and in Washington for its religious focus and preachy tone, it played well to Iran's most conservative religious leaders. Analysts here said it represented both Mr. Ahmadinejad's independence and his position as a messenger for the system, and that the very act of reaching out was significant. "If the U.S. had relations with Iran under the reform government, it would not have been a complete relationship," said Alireza Akhari, a retired general with the Revolutionary Guard and former deputy defense minister, referring to Mr. Khatami's administration. "But if there can be a détente now, that means the whole country is behind relations with the West." Mr. Ahmadinejad is trying to outpace the challenges buffeting Iran, ones that could undermine his presidency and conservative control. The economy is in shambles, unemployment is soaring, and the new president has failed to deliver on his promise of economic relief for the poor. Ethnic tensions are rising around the country, with protests and terrorist strikes in the north and the south, and students have been staging protests at universities around the country. Mr. Ahmadinejad's critics - and there are many - say that the public will turn on him if he does not improve their lives, and soon. It may ultimately prove impossible to surmount these problems while building a new political elite, many people here said. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been less successful in the economic realm than in the political arena. "The real issue here is we now have a government with no experience running a country and dealing with foreign policy," said Nasser Hadian, a political science professor at Tehran University and childhood friend of the president. Mr. Ahmadinejad, who was elected last June, has adopted an ideologically flexible strategy. He has called for restoring the conservative values of the Islamic Revolution, yet at the same time has relaxed enforcement of strict Islamic social codes on the street. During the spring, when the warm weather sets in, young women are often harassed by the volunteer vigilantes known as the Basiji for their dress, but not this year. More music seems to be available in stores than in the past - small but telling changes, people here say. If there is one consistent theme to his actions, it is the concept of seeking justice, reflecting a central characteristic of Shiite Islam. In more temporal terms, his strategy appears to be two-pronged: to reinforce his support among hard-liners with sharp attacks on Israel and the West, for example, while moving to appease a society weary of the social and economic challenges of life in the Islamic republic. "He is reshaping the identity of the elite," said a political science professor in Tehran who asked not to be identified so as not to affect his relations with government officials. "Being against Jews and Zionists is an essential part of this new identity." Mr. Ahmadinejad has been far freer to maneuver than his predecessor, Mr. Khatami, whose movement for change frightened religious leaders. Instead of having to prove his fealty to the system, Mr. Ahmadinejad has been given - or has taken - the opportunity to try to calm the streets. Perhaps most surprising, the man who was rumored to want to segregate men and women on elevators and even sidewalks has emerged as a proponent of women's rights, challenging some of the nation's most powerful religious leaders. "I believe Ahmadinejad's government will be the most secular we have had since the start of the revolution," said Mahmoud Shamsolvaezin, a journalist and political analyst. "The government is not a secular one with secular thought. Ahmadinejad is a very religious man. But the government recognizes it has no choice, this is what the public demands." Mr. Ahmadinejad called for allowing women into stadiums, in an attempt to reverse a post-revolution ban when religious leaders decreed that sports arenas were not the proper environment for women. Four grand ayatollahs objected to his decision, but he backed down only when the supreme leader stepped in. Even then, Mr. Ahmadinejad said he was suspending the decision, not canceling it. Most significant, during the discussion of the stadium issue, the president defended women in a way that put him outside the mainstream of conservative Islamic discourse, even beyond Iran's borders. "Unfortunately, whenever there is talk of social corruption, fingers are pointed at women," Mr. Ahmadinejad said, in comments that for a leader in this society were groundbreaking. "Shouldn't men be blamed for the problems, too?" The president's strategy is also aimed at limiting political challenges to the system. While political arrests are down, and the government has not moved to close privately held newspapers, it has staged a few crucial arrests - sending a chill through intellectual and academic circles - and it has pressured newspapers to be silent on certain topics, like opposition to the nuclear program. He also has struck back at those who would undermine or mock him. The local press reported that the president became so incensed with jokes about his personal hygiene that were being exchanged via text messages on cellphones, that he had the messages stopped and people at the top of the cellphone system punished. Mr. Ahmadinejad offered voters change and promises to improve the lives of the poor, who make up the majority of this country. But he has been unable to push through economic changes by personal fiat, as he has done in the political realm. He ordered the banks, for example, to lower interest rates, and was rebuffed by the head of the central bank. He offered to give inexpensive housing loans to the poor - but with only 300,000 available, more than 2 million people applied. The program will cost the government more than $3 billion. He has traveled around the country, promising to dole out development projects the government can hardly afford. In the last year, the cost of construction materials has jumped 30 to 50 percent, and prices of dairy products have increased by more than 15 percent. Many people are asking how this can happen when the price of oil is so high. Without a strong grasp of economics, and an economy that is almost entirely in the hands of the government, Mr. Ahmadinejad has grappled with ways to inject oil revenue into the system without causing inflation to soar. At the same time, the volatile political situation has caused capital flight and limited foreign investment as the needs of the public continue to grow alongside the president's promises. In politics, the president by turns ignores and confronts those who have opposed him from the start, whether conservative or liberal, all the while playing to the masses. "Ahmadinejad knows there is a big gap between the intellectual elite and the masses, and he knows how it serves his interest," said Emadedin Baghi, director of a prisoners' rights group. "He is playing to the masses and trying to widen this gap." He has managed to sideline opponents like Mr. Rafsanjani, either through his own initiative or with the back-channel support of Mr. Khamenei, the supreme leader. Mr. Rafsanjani, a midlevel cleric whom Mr. Ahmadinejad defeated in a runoff for the presidency, "has been undermined, he's not a powerful person anymore," said Muhammad Atrianfar, a close ally of Mr. Rafsanjani and publisher of the daily newspaper Shargh. He said Mr. Rafsanjani had tried to get the supreme leader to rein the president in, but was unable to convince him. Mr. Rafsanjani is representative of the class of people - wealthy and influential from the first generation of the revolution - that the president is trying to displace, said the retired general, Mr. Akhari. *** The Independent - May 26, 2006 http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article601333.ece A new protest song: Joan Baez - she shall overcome A veteran of 40 years of demonstrations, the American folk singer's latest campaign involves camping in a tree to save a 14-acre farm from the developers. by Andrew Buncombe If the words of the song came easily to Joan Baez it was because she has been singing them most of her life. Standing in front of an ageing walnut tree threatened - along with the land on which it stood - by developers in Los Angeles, the veteran folk singer jammed her hands in the front pockets of her jeans and sang: "No, no, no nos moveran. No, no, no nos moveran." For the mainly Hispanic farmers and gardeners hoping to prevent the 14-acre site known as South Central Farm from being sold to developers, the presence this week of the silver-haired Baez and her Spanish rendition of the protest anthem "We Shall Not be Moved" has boosted their efforts to save their community garden. For Baez, now aged 65, it is just the latest protest in a lifetime of demonstration and campaigning. "At the moment it is absolutely extraordinary. It's one of those things that just take off," Baez yesterday told The Independent by telephone. "Two days ago it was very iffy - there were just a couple of people [here]. I thought it would either fizzle out or else take off and it's taken off. It's such a morale-booster - everybody is bustling to work." Baez's twin-track career as a folk singer and outspoken campaigner has seen her involved in issues ranging from everything from civil rights, the Vietnam War, equal rights for gay and lesbians through to landmines and Live Aid. More recently, she has been involved in demonstrations against the ongoing war in Iraq, last year getting out her guitar and singing songs of protest at the peace camp established outside of President George Bush's Texas ranch by anti-war campaigner Cindy Sheehan. In this, her latest protest, Baez and other campaigners have converged on the urban farm in an effort to save land that has been used for more than 10 years by around 350 farmers to grow fruit, herbs, cactus and vegetables. The farmers had failed in their efforts to raise sufficient funds to buy the land and on Wednesday night a judge approved an eviction order that will allow the authorities to remove the protesters - Baez included. The job of removing the demonstrators will not be easy. Among those vowing to remain at the site with Baez are Julia "Butterfly" Hill and John Quigley - two veteran campaigners who specialise in establishing protest sites high in the branches of trees located on threatened sites. In 2002 Mr Quigley spent 71 days in a tree in the Santa Clarita valley while the Arkansas-born Ms Hill, 25, is famous for having spent 738 days between 1997 and 1999 living in a 180ft, 600-year-old Californian Redwood north of San Francisco that the Pacific Lumber Company wanted to chop down. On Tuesday night, Baez herself slept in the walnut tree, having been hoisted more than 50 feet up into its branches. She is hoping that the Hollywood actress Daryl Hannah, who has joined the campaigners along with musician Ben Harper, will also try to climb the tree. The only thing preventing her is her fear of heights. "It was wonderful to be up there and away from everybody, looking at the stars through the leaves," Baez continued. "The freight trains [that pass nearby] are so loud but I did not hear them ... For me it was a wonderful experience." Baez's career started in the late 1950s when she started singing and playing in the folk clubs of Boston, where she was a student. Her parents were Quakers and her father, a physicist who moved the family to New England when he took up a position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), reportedly inspired her political activism by his refusal to take up lucrative defence industry jobs at the height of the Cold War. Baez says she was also inspired to speak out when, as a 10-year-old living in Baghdad - where her father's job had previously taken the family for work - she read The Diary of Anne Frank. "I was so inspired and moved. I know I cried a lot and read it again. There was a serious [connection] with the 12-year-old [Frank]." Whatever it was that inspired her, before the age of 20 Baez had recorded her first, eponymous album, made up of traditional ballads and laments including "Fare Thee Well (10,000 Miles)" which includes the lines: "Oh, fare thee well, I must be gone/ And leave you for awhile, Wherever I go, I will return/If I go ten thousand miles." Her follow-up album, recorded in 1961, went gold and in the early 1960s Baez was one of several singers at the forefront of the American folk and roots revival. Among the up-and-coming musicians that Baez knew at the time was Bob Dylan. She had first met him at Gerde's Folk City in Greenwich Village, New York, in 1961 and she and Dylan had a three-year relationship. The two performed together live and on several recordings. In early 1965 they toured the US together, though by that point their relationship was coming to an end. Around that time, with Dylan about to break from the traditional folk mode and start experimenting with electric instruments, Baez was becoming increasingly known as a campaigner against the war in Vietnam and for civil rights for African Americans. She had famously joined Martin Luther King's March on Washington two years earlier where she performed folk singer Pete Seeger's seminal protest song, "We Shall Overcome". Throughout the remainder of the 1960s and the 1970s she continued to campaign on various issues and was arrested several times. Whatever she did, she always urged non violence, stating: "Non-violence is a flop. The only bigger flop is violence." In 1985 she performed at Live Aid's concert in Philadelphia telling the audience: "Children of the Eighties. This is your Woodstock." She was also involved in famine relief for Africa. More recently Baez has been protesting against the war in Iraq. She has said that in some ways the polarising effect of the Bush administration makes it easier to speak out, despite the allegations of being "unpatriotic" which are often aimed at those, such as the Dixie Chicks, who dare to criticise the war. "In a way, at this very moment, when you find a way to do it, it is easy because there is so much pent-up frustration and angst ... the sense that we don't seem to be getting anywhere," she said. "When there is something - such as [campaigns by] Michael Moore or Cindy Sheehan, and... those generals who spoke out, things like that give a start." Baez and her fellow celebrities became involved in the effort to save South Central Farm after the tree-climbing Ms Hill learned that the farmers were trying to save the land, which had been leased to the Los Angeles Regional Food Banks organisation after the city's 1992 riots. A local businessman, Ralph Horowitz, bought the land from the city three years ago and in recent months he has been trying to sell it. When Ms Hill learned that the farmers were struggling to raise sufficient money to buy the land, she turned to Baez, whom she had met in 1998 when the singer Bonnie Raitt was hoisted high into the Californian Redwood that the young activist was trying to save. That battle concluded with a happy ending when the logging company agreed to preserve the tree in exchange for $50,000 that Ms Hill and other activists had raised. Mr Horowitz has not commented on the demonstration at the site but in a previous interview with the Los Angeles Times he said he had agreed to sell the land to a non-profit-making group. He had wanted $16.35m and the group was $4m short. "They agreed to turn it into a public-use property, to change it around from the way it's being run now," said Mr Horowitz. Campaigners at the site say they are determined not to leave and they agree that the presence of Baez and others has boosted their cause. Fernando Flores, an organiser with the South Central Farms Support Coalition, said: "We have mobilised our supporters onto the farm. Supporters have been bringing supplies and holding vigils." Of Baez's involvement, he said: "It's great. She really puts this onto the worldwide level. It's really put us in the spotlight." In the meantime, Baez declared she is determined to see the current protest through. She said she was often asked where she got the energy to carry on campaigning - it was a question she sometimes asked herself - and had concluded that it may have been partly genetic, "something I was born with". And for those who believe taking part in such protests is ultimately pointless and will achieve nothing, the woman who has spent her life campaigning had a ready response. "I would just say that in my life, what gave my life meaning and where I was always the most complete... [it did not] come through money or fame, it was always when I was... standing with those whose voice was not heard and I was able to do something about that." * The Farm is at Alameda and 41st St, about a mile S of the SM(10) frwy. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Home is just a click away. 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