Republican's Lie, Lie, Lie

This is why I love Daily Kos. Simply put, they do some research before making accusations. A simple google search could have told any of the critics how dumb the accusation was. But the modus operandi of the conservative, sorry, the neo-conservative wing of the Republican party is to spread whatever message you think is effective, regardless of whether or not it is true.

Nightly Rooftop Chants

Under the cover of darkness, screams of protest erupt from Iranians and bounce from roof to roof. These rooftop chants have become a staple of the protests taking place in Iran, a response to the crackdown on dissent by Iranian security officials.

At the beginning of the summer, just after the election in Iran, our country could not take our eyes off the protests. Demonstrations broke out all across the U.S. as Americans hit the streets to stand in solidarity with the people of Iran. Many of us believed the vote counting in Iran's election had been rigged. Profile pictures on twitter turned green, and tweetdecks across the country filled with #IranElection posts. We filmed a demonstration in DC, back on June 20th, 2009:


Since then, things have barely changed, other then the increase of force used by Iranian security officials. Protests continue, and the Iranian government continues to try to squash dissent. While we celebrated with family and loved ones over the winter break, Iranian civilians were being shot, beaten, arrested, and run over by cars, as part of efforts to practice free speech and the right to assemble.

The videos below are shocking to say the least. The first is video that apparently shows Seyyed Ali Mousavi, the nephew of the former Presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, just after he was shot.


Mousavi's supporters are accusing Iranian security officials of murdering Seyyed Ali, and Iranian officials claim the man was murdered by protesters as some kind of PR stunt. This happened during protests that took place during the Shiite holy day of Ashura, a holiday connected to martyrdom.

This next video shows an Iranian official driving a security vehicle over a person:


In this video, we see peaceful demonstrators coming under heavy attack by Iranian security:


In response to the unrest, UPI.com is reporting that Iranian government has issued a call for the general public to provide information on opposition organizers, showing pictures of 32 people involved in the demonstrations.

This is why they chant from the rooftops at night.

Training Tuesday: Translating Community Organizing to Online Space

Today's session of Training Tuesday is from the panel, 'Organizing Theory and Practice: Translating Community Organizing to Online Space'. Our panelists are Charles Lenchner, the Online Organizing Director of the Working Families Party, Joan Minieri the Cofounder of Community Voices Heard and the author of "Tools for Radical Democracy", Kristi Barnes, the Communications Director of New York Jobs with Justice, and Talia Schank, the Grassroots Fundraising and Communications Director of Community Voices Heard.

We were not only blessed with expert panelists, our audience was made up of experts too. This shows how far from "established" online organizing is, the experts are absolutely still students.

What occurred, was a somewhat unique discussion about the successes, struggles, and future potential of using new media in coordination with well-established, person-to-person organizing. In the progressive blogosphere, we have a tendency to revel in the successes. What our panelists focused on in this session was the disconnect between many of the entrenched community organizers, the ones knocking on doors and building relationships one home at a time, with the rather new community of online organizers.

First things first, if you are completely oblivious to the ancient art of community organizing, and it is very ancient, Joan Minieri began the panel with a fantastic five minute synopsis:



One of the major factors the keeps many progressive organizations from more fully incorporating online tools is that many of us are working with the poor, the disenfranchised, and the disconnected communities. Their constituents may not have the most consistent access to the series of tubes that is the internet. This last clip is an example of one theme that emerged throughout the conversation: the internet can be used to amplify the voice of your constituents, regardless of their connectedness.

Remeber This?

I'm sure this video has absolutely nothing to do with recent chest thumping out of our conservative friends.

Just keep this in mind, Republicans have been waiting, praying rather, for terrorist attacks so they could unleash a political argument to keep brown people out of the country. Keep in mind that none of them were rushing to news cameras to talk about how we had to strengthen security at reproductive health clinics after the terrorist, Scott Roeder, assassinated Dr. George Tiller outside his place of worship.

Flavor Trip DC: A Taste Psychedelic

Are you ready for a Berry to blow your mind (well your mouth). The get ready for Flavor Tripping, a new craze that began last month at EFN Lounge in Washington DC and will continue to be held on the second Friday of every month, also at EFN Lounge (the next event is Friday, Jan 8th. Click Here for tickets). I'll quote from the Flavor Trip DC website (www.FlavorTripDC.com) to explain the berry that makes it all possible.

Synsepalum Dulcificum, or trippy fruit, temporarily re-wires taste receptors on the tongue for about an hour, transforming acidic and sour food into sweet and enjoyable treats.

Once the tongue starts tripping, lemon wedges become candy canes, hot sauce becomes donut glaze, goat cheese becomes cheesecake, bottom-shelf tequila becomes Patron, and Guinness Beer becomes a chocolate milkshake.

Aa ticket buys you a berry and unlimited access to their unusual buffet of food. Most of the food itself is not unusual and can be found in any grocery store. Alternatively it is the quantities and arrangement of the spread itself that is bizarre. For example, how many parties serve lemons, on their own? Or offer shots of vinegar, mustard, and/or tabasco sauce, on their own? Again, I'll let the site explain some of the theory behind this bizarre eating extravaganza.

After beginning the trip, guests will enjoy food from the Tripeteria, a cafeteria with an all-you-can-trip buffet full of all the sour nasties usually consumed in moderation. In this conceptual flavor laboratory, lemon wedges become candy canes, hot sauce becomes donut glaze, goat cheese becomes cheesecake, bottom-shelf tequila becomes Patron, and Guinness Beer becomes a chocolate milkshake.

The menu was designed by a team of experienced flavor trippers and evolves for each party. Selections include sour candy, cheese from Dean & Deluca, pickles, sauces, sour fruits, sugarless cupcakes, and much more. You can suggest menu items when you purchase your ticket. EFN will also hold taste-testings of shots and cocktails designed for flavor tripping enthusiasts.

Though the berry doesn't work on every food or for every taster, it is definitely worth trying, at least once. Don't forget the next event is this Friday the 8th of January. For tickets and more info, go to www.FlavorTripDC.com.

Please check out the video above for more reactions from the crowd and the video below for more info and ideas from the organizers.

The Restoration of Rights for Former Felons in Virginia

Virginia and Kentucky are the only two states in the country that do not have a clear path to restore basic rights to former felons after they have completed their sentence. This puts a plethora of problems and restrictions on former felons, many of whom were convicted of non-violent crimes decades ago but continue have their basic rights, such as the right to vote in elections, the right to drive, and the right to hold office, restricted. The governor has the authority to restore rights to individual felons, but only a small percentage of them apply for restoration (often because the process is unclear) and even fewer are actually approved to have their rights restored. The 48 other states have some sort of provision to automatically restore rights, two states never revoke them in the first place, so we, and many others, feel that it time to change the situation.

This next two weeks are very important for doing just because that is all the time left Virginia has with Democratic Governor Tim Kaine, who will be replaced in two weeks when he leaves office to become the chair of the DNC by Republican Bob MacDonnell. Gov Kaine has personally restored the rights to more former felons than any of his predecessors, but he has the ability to, by executive order, to instantly restore rights to the tens of thousands of former felons who currently do not have them and establish such a system to automatically restore these rights in the future. There is a large population who know the struggles of rights restrictions all too well and a growing population who feels that this is unjust needs to be changed who are all calling on Gov Kaine to step up and take action.

As a result, a coalition headed by the Virginia Organizing Project (VOP) has taken several actions persuade the Governor to take action on behalf of his struggling citizens. One of the steps was to hold an event in Petersburg, VA, to assist felons who want to have their rights restored and to pressure the Governor to take the politically tenuous but personally important step to automatically restore the rights of felons across the state. We were at the event and spoke with both former felons, for whom this has been a major issue, and community leaders, who are fighting on behalf of their neighbors. I edited together a piece from each of these groups. The first is from a few former felons who were gracious enough to share their struggles with us and the second is compiled of interviews from activists and community leaders who everyday are helping to improve the lives of their neighbors.

I encourage you also to please take action yourself and call Governor Kaine and tell him to restore the rights to former felons in Virginia. The number is (804) 785- 2211.

Again, please call Governor Kaine on behalf of these former felons and tell him to restore their rights. The number is (804) 786- 2211.

For additional coverage and more videos, go to www.SumofChange.com

Music Monday: Dizzy and Satchmo Together

Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie were greats from two very different eras of Jazz history. Armstrong, considered the father of Jazz, helped create and popularize the style in 1920s New Orleans and was known for being a genius entertainer. Gillespie, one of the founders of Bebop in post World War II New York City and was known as an entertaining genius. However for one song, and one song only, they performed side by side together on the same stage and were recorded on video doing so. The performance was part of the fourth and final 'Timex Jazz All Star' specials. The shows were always had the best bands but usually were overbooked, leaving the viewer overwhelmed with star names but underwhelmed with star performances. However, There are several gems in the shows and this is certainly one of them.

A couple years ago, I interviewed Dan Morgenstern as part of my senior project in college, a documentary on Jazz Television shows (check in for more info on this topic in later Music Monday segments). Mr Morgenstern, currently the Director of the Institute for Jazz Studies at Rutgers University, is the former Chief Editor of Downbeat Magazine and a 6 time Grammy Award winner for album notes (among many other accomplishments). However early in his career, he attended this tremendous event in Jazz history and was able to offer me some on-hand insight on his experience during our interview, which I am proud to share with you.

Please enjoy both videos. Feel free to enjoy them in any order, but I suggest you watch the interview first to get some insight and background on the event, then watch the performance and enjoy!!!





Please check back next Monday for our next installment of 'Music Monday'

To see our old 'Music Monday' posts, go to www.SumofChange.com/musicmonday