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Friday, September 17, 2010

The Movie Business

If I were not a Third World guy who felt an obligation to save the world - for me the word is not change, it is save, think malnutrition, think infant mortality - I think I might have gone into the movie business. I really like movies. But instead I have put time into politics, which I am really, really good at, and I have put some time into tech. When I have not had the option for tech entrepreneurship - like now - I have focused on tech blogging. Even tech for me has always been politics by other means. I have consistently talked of internet access as the voting right for this 21st century.

I keep having this thought that I want to befriend someone like Matt Damon and say, look, buddy, I don't have the time on my hands to do what you do, but I need you to insert me in your movies, about a minute per movie. That way I can have my cake and eat it too. I can be in the movies while still primarily trying to save the world.

I kid you not, in the Fall of 2007, I spent some considerable time wanting to cut a video clip of me reenacting that early scene in Scarface where Tony is being interrogated. I went ahead and bought the DVDs for study purposes. I should have either not had the strong, recurring thought, or I should have gone ahead and made the video clip and avoided myself a whole lot of hassle eight months later.

In the scene I had in mind, I had Hillary people interrogating me. I had the Obama 08 sticker on my cheek, and that was my scar. I had the DVDs, I had a few Obama 08 stickers in stock just for the purpose. I had my video camera.

“Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”

I won a best actor award in middle school.




How My Grandfather Became Mayor The First Time

One thing I do hope to do a bunch of down the line is video blogging. Vlogging, for short.
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Newt Gingrich: Monkeyface


If the creationists in the Deep South needed proof that we did indeed descend from the apes, well, Newt Gingrich just opened his mouth.
New York Times: G.O.P. Uses Obama ‘Otherness’ As Campaign Tactic: Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, who this week accused Mr. Obama, whose father was a Kenyan economist and spoke out against the occupying force in his country, of exhibiting “Kenyan, anticolonial behavior.”
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Thursday, September 16, 2010

Prominent Iranian Americans

Academia/Science
Arts/Entertainment
Business/Technology
  • Habib Zargarpour, the famous Iranian-American computer operator that has been candidate for Oscar 2 times
  • Anousheh Ansari, first female space tourist, leading telecommunication entrepreneur, and namesake of the X Prize
  • Ali Asghar Abdullah Zadeh Nsrabady (EXPERT ccie cissp Head of Institute of Technology(PERSIAN DATA) WINNER Olympiad ACM
  • Hamid Akhavan, CEO of T-Mobile International.
  • Shahram Dabiri, video game producer, lead producer of World of Warcraft
  • Ben Fathi, Senior Vice President at Cisco, formerly, Corporate Vice President of Development, Windows, Microsoft.
  • Vartan Gregorian, President of The Carnegie Corporation of New York.
  • Omid Kordestani, Senior Vice President of Google
  • Salar Kamangar, vice president of Google's web applications
  • Taraneh Razavi, Doctor of Google headquarters in Mountain View,
  • Reza Behforooz, Software engineer at Google
  • Mike Jazayeri, Google Product Manager
  • Shirin Oskooi, Associate Product Manager at Google
  • Shamim Samadi, Product Manager at Google
  • Maryam Kamvar, Ph.D. in Computer Science and currently a research scientist at Google.
  • Francis Najafi, chief executive of Phoenix-based real estate developer and investor Pivotal Group
  • Pedram Keyani, The engineering manager for the site integrity team at Facebook.
  • Isaac Larian, CEO of MGA Entertainment, manufacturer of Bratz dolls
  • Manny Mashouf, founder and Chairman of bebe stores
  • David Merage, co-founder of Chef America Inc., manufacturer of Hot Pockets
  • Paul Merage, co-founder of Chef America Inc., manufacturer of Hot Pockets
  • Sam Nazarian, CEO of the SBE Entertaintment Group
  • Farzad Nazem, former CTO of Yahoo!
  • Reza Mirkhani, President, & CEO of Pervasive Semiconductor Systems
  • Houman Haghighi, Senior Manager of Qualcomm
  • Mansour Jabalameli, Senior Network Designer Telecom
  • Mehrdad Nikoonahad, founder & CEO, Nikoo Technology, Inc.
  • Pierre Omidyar, founder of e-Bay (born to Iranian parents).
  • Sina Tamaddon, Senior Vice President of Applications for Apple Computer.
  • Ramin Rostami, CEO & founder, Technocel. CEO, Sensotech. CEO & founder, American Investment Group
  • Mostafa A. Aghazadeh, Vice President, Technology and Manufacturing Group Director, Chandler Assembly Technology Development
  • Mohsen Alavi, Vice President, Technology and Manufacturing Group Director, Product Quality and Reliability
  • Nasser Bozorg-Grayeli, Vice President, Technology and Manufacturing Group Director, Corporate Quality Network
  • Babak Sabi, Vice President, Technology and Manufacturing Group Director, Assembly Test and Technology Development
Law/Legal
  • Banafsheh Akhlaghi, Former Western Regional Director of Amnesty International
  • Susan Irene Etezadi, San Mateo County Superior Court Judge
  • Babak Hoghooghi, Former Executive Director for the Public Affairs Alliance for Iranian Americans
  • Tamila Ebrahimi Ipema, San Diego County Superior Court Judge
  • Cyrus Mehri, One of Washington's Ten Most Feared Lawyers
  • Nema Milaninia, 2008-2010 President of the Iranian American Bar Association
  • John Tehranian, Professor of Law at Chapman University School of Law
Literature
Media/Journalism
Music
Politics
Sports
Miscellaneous
  • Farhad Rostampour, The first Iranian-born pilot to complete a record setting flight around the world

Source: Wikipedia
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White Supremacy: Unsustainable


White supremacy is like fossil fuels: ultimately unsustainable. There is no going back. The idea of a black president is no longer revolutionary, it was in 2008, but not anymore. The idea of a nonwhite president is ordinary like milkshake.
New York Times: G.O.P. Uses Obama ‘Otherness’ As Campaign Tactic: Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, who this week accused Mr. Obama, whose father was a Kenyan economist and spoke out against the occupying force in his country, of exhibiting “Kenyan, anticolonial behavior.” ..... Dinesh D’Souza, who, in exploring Mr. Obama’s attitudes toward business, settled on the theory that Mr. Obama was taking directions from the anticorporate apparition of his long-departed father. (That Mr. Obama never really knew his father is apparently beside the point.) ..... these attacks seem to be having little influence on the general electorate ..... only about 28 percent of voters said their vote this November would be a vote against Mr. Obama ..... “The mosque is an interesting point, but tell me how you’re going to get jobs and fix the economy.” .... three distinct factions: the champions of free enterprise, the foreign policy types often described as neoconservatives, and the social conservatives who became the spine of the party’s grass-roots campaign apparatus. ...... If Ronald Reagan was the party’s Great Communicator, then Republicans seem to be hoping that Mr. Obama is its Great Galvanizer. The assault on Mr. Obama’s cultural affinity, the clear implication that he is neither suitably Christian nor American in his values, adds a sinister subtext to the argument against his economic agenda. ...... Mr. Obama’s alleged sympathy for so-called Muslim extremists who would desecrate the World Trade Center site, his socialist African ancestry and his early years in Indonesia — all of this creates a shadowy archetype that every conservative enclave (fiscal, foreign policy and religious) can find a reason to fear...... the constant innuendo about Mr. Obama’s allegiances may be doing exactly what Republicans need it to do.
If the War On Terror is like the Cold War, we are perhaps 20% done. The War On Terror does not have to last as long as the Cold War, and it does not have to end in America getting trounced. America can still win. But racism is not how you get there.

China has done many things right. It is right now taking the lead on clean tech. It is not playing catch up to America on clean tech. If China could somehow get to multi-party democracy without losing the total campaign finance reform it already has, and if China could become better at handling immigration, welcoming, pragmatic, and proactive, then America is yesterday's power faster than the Tea Party can say tea. Languages can be learned.

Or perhaps India will do total campaign finance reform. It already has plenty of democracy and immigration. India is a more diverse country than America. It can sometimes feel like a billion people speaking a billion languages.

In a global era an Indian in America is no minority person. The Americans might elect the President Of The United States, but by now that office is very much a global office. Face it.
New York Times: Rebel Republican Marching On, With Baggage: became quickly known to Americans as the woman who once made dire warnings about the negative impact of masturbation. ..... Ms. O’Donnell’s decisive victory over one of the state’s most popular and longest-serving Republicans ...... she has reported earnings of only $5,800 between most of this year and last and she has defaulted on her mortgage — and fudged her educational background ...... her role in an abstinence organization in the 1990s that denounced masturbation as a form of adultery ...... denounced by Karl Rove as unelectable, untruthful and “nutty” moments after her victory ...... (the state Republican Party’s Web site did not even acknowledge her victory) ..... a state that a month ago looked solidly in Republican hands ..... “a major chapter in the civil war among Republicans” ...... “Republican, but not a Delaware Republican.” ..... evolution is soft science .... She feels she is following biblical principles.” ...... Ms. O’Donnell, an avid cook, was disappointed that she had not married and had children ...... A file in a 2007 Federal Election Commission dossier features a note she wrote by hand pleading, “We are not professionals and for many of us, this was our first campaign!” ...... “As O’Donnell’s manager, I found out she was living on campaign donations — using them for rent and personal expenses.” ..... while she participated in the cap-and-gown ceremony nearly two decades ago, she was unable to formally graduate because of unpaid tuition.
Poll Suggests Opportunities For Both Parties: while voters rate the performance of Democrats negatively, they view Republicans as even worse ..... one-third of those in the coalition that elected Mr. Obama, now say he does not have a clear plan to solve the nation’s problems or create jobs ..... far more people still blame Wall Street and the Bush administration .... 63 percent disapproving of Democrats and 73 percent disapproving of Republicans .... the federal budget deficit barely registers as a topic of concern ...... Voters do not perceive Republicans as having better ideas and disagree with them on the biggest economic issue of the campaign — whether to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy ..... Nearly half of voters say they are undecided or have not heard enough about the Tea Party to form an opinion ..... 30 percent of independent voters have an unfavorable view of the Tea Party, with 18 percent holding a favorable view ...... 45 percent of voters said Mr. Obama would not be a factor in their vote in November .... the public has an increasingly negative opinion of Sarah Palin ..... Two-thirds of Americans think that Ms. Palin’s primary motivation is staying in the public eye, rather than helping conservative candidates get elected. ..... “whether it be or financial purposes or in order to run for something again.”
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Wednesday, September 15, 2010

The Two Old Hags


When it comes to these two old hags, I am completely color blind.
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Competing With Hillary Now

Democracy index according to The Economist, 20...Image via WikipediaHillary has no stated goal of a Nobel. She does not need the money. Her net worth is north of $100 million, thanks to Bill Clinton's (and her) book writing, speech making, and lobbying foreign governments. She does not need the name recognition. She is one of the most famous people on earth as is, and has been for two decades now. But there's just something about the Nobel, it is not the money, it is not fame. It is something else. And when you connect the dots of the work Hillary has embarked upon, it leads to a Nobel if she is successful. She has decided to tackle the thorniest issue in global politics. (Hillary's Peace Efforts In The Mideast)

I have a stated goal of a Nobel. I feel like I am owed one for my Nepal work. I am reminding the committee in Stockholm through my Iran work that I am owed one. I don't much care for name recognition except when it helps with work. But I do need the money, like Russell Crowe says in a movie. (110 Knocks)

I have been talking in terms of Iran for a while now. Hillary's seriousness towards Mideast is more recent. So it is not like I am getting into Iran to spite her. It is just the stars have so aligned that now I find myself competing with Hillary. 2008 was Barack's turn to compete. Now it is my turn. No more proxy battles. Let's go head on.

This is, of course, friendly battle. I am going to erupt with joy should Hillary succeed. And this is nothing to do with 2008. For me the Democratic primary of 2008 never ended. It is going to end after Charlie Rangel is no longer in the public eye, and I have personally wiped out DL21C from the face of this city. I have reduced it to irrelevance. But that is another topic. That is a New York thing. All I need is for political winds to keep blowing like they always do. And me. I don't need any help.

My only point of contention with Hillary is this. She possibly could repeat the mistake of people who tried to do the same work before. The mistake has been to think that if only the Israel guy and the Palestine guy could sit down and learn to love each other, or at least not hate each other, then there would be peace. That is why peacemakers have organized meetings and picnics and what have you. That is such an unscientific approach to take.

I don't see the Mideast mess as people from different religious, cultural backgrounds disliking each other. It is more a clash of political systems. The lone democracy ends up having to tussle with an entire neighborhood of non-democracies. Turning Iran into a full fledged democracy, not trying to bomb Iran's military installations, is the way to get rid of the existential threat Israel claims to feel from Iran. The threat is nothing to do with weapons. The threat is political. And the primary solution is political.

It is the nature of a non-democratic state to find a perennial external threat. The Soviet Union needed an America to hate. North Korea needs South Korea. It needs America even more. The more massive the object of hatred, easier the dictator's task. The Arab states need their people to hate Israel. It serves their political purpose.

A neighborhood of democracies will no longer be angling to push Israel into the sea. But if the Arab countries don't become democratic, they will never stop trying. It is not about succeeding, it is about keeping at it. Actually it is important to not succeed. If they manage to push Israel into the sea, that particular external threat will disappear. And why would you want that? A threat that no longer exists is no longer useful. So it is not true the Arab countries really, truly want to push Israel into the sea, metaphorically speaking.

And that is why it is so very important to turn Iran into a democracy. It is also important because you are not having to do the Iraq thing or the Afghanistan thing. In Iran's case it is not about a superpower spending trillions of dollars it does not have.

Long story short, I am competing with Hillary. I want to get the Nobel before she does. I want to be able to tell Barack I too beat Hillary.

The First Time I Heard The Obama Name
How My Grandfather Became Mayor The First Time
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Contents 2010 (2)

Iran Re-Revolution: Victory In 2011
The United Nations Conundrum
Time To Attempt A New Tone In Washington
Bobby Jindal: Streamliner
The Importance Of The Private Sector
Happy Diwali
Hope Lives On In Iran
Telling Ads
Precisely The Time For Progressive Fervor
The Tea Party Is Getting America Talibanized
Getting There
U2 Sings For Iran
Happy Birthday Amitabh Bachchan
Is America In Decline? Is It Rome Or FDR?
Reshma Saujani Is Back
Finally A Small Jobs Program
Israel, India, Palestine, Kashmir: Parallels
Health Care For FDR, Iran For Lincoln
Criminals Do Not Get To Organize Political Parties
The Global Netroots/Grassroots Has To Fill In For The President
The Shah Is For Secular Democracy, Not Monarchy
Towards More Robust Iranian Diaspora Organizations
Sarah Palin: Palin 2012: Rogue
Protest Rally At The UN
Barack Obama: Big Deal
Selling 5% Of Nobel For 50K
My Man Barack Is FDR, Not Carter
September 23 Iran Democracy Protests NYC
Shout Allah O Akbar From The Rooftops Every Night 10-10:30 PM
To: The Ayatollah
Pelosi Should Pass Election Reform To Keep Job
Claiming A Netroots/Grassroots Leadership Role With Iran Democracy Movement
Democracy Success In Iran Could Be A 1989 Repeat
Hillary's Latest On Iran
States Will Interact With Each Other
Iran Protest: 9/23
Twitter For Fundraising
The Ayatollah: Guilty Of Blasphemy
The Movie Business
Newt Gingrich: Monkeyface
Prominent Iranian Americans
White Supremacy: Unsustainable
The Two Old Hags
Competing With Hillary Now
Iran Democracy Activist, Tech Blogger, New Yorker
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Iran Democracy Activist, Tech Blogger, New Yorker

Iran Democracy


My new tag line on Twitter and Facebook: Iran Democracy Activist, Tech Blogger, New Yorker.

My old intro both places: Tech Entrepreneur. Advocating Inventor. Third World Guy. Netizen. Global Citizen. New Yorker. Googleable. Global South Advocate. Overall Nice Guy. Bossmanperson. Subway Comrade. Inspiration. Visionary. Troublemaker.

I am not right now a tech entrepreneur, thanks to my immigration mess. I fear I might get sued if I keep calling myself a tech entrepreneur. I have enemies in town. I will revisit that in about a year. For now tech blogging is my tech thing to do.

But my primary push is for Iran democracy. My immediate push is to do some fundraising for the work.

I want to do the Iran democracy thing while I wait to have the option to do the tech entrepreneur thing. I am very much in mood to do the tech entrepreneur thing. Tech blogging is a prelude to that. Learn from Fred Wilson the value of having a daily updated blog for someone who wants to stay active in tech.

My Iran democracy work is going to be social media intensive. I am presenting myself as a digital ninja/commando. It is as much politics as it is tech. I like the intensity of revolutionary work.

This is the crowd I am targeting to raise 150K plus: Prominent Iranian Americans. 100K pays for my work for 12-15 months. 50K is bonus upon task completion. Task completion is regime change leading to an interim government mandated with holding elections to a constituent assembly. If I raise more than 150K, the extra money I spend on the same cause in ways I choose.




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Reshma 2010: A Post Mortem

Image representing YouTube as depicted in Crun...Image via CrunchBaseI very much stand by this blog post: Positivity, Excellence, Dark Matter.

There are three departments - money, message, organization - and Reshma Saujani is excellent at all three. Reshma 2010 was an amazing operation. I marveled at all the details that Reshma 2010 worked on day in and day out. I marveled at the long hours the Reshma 2010 team put in and still stayed in good spirits. It was an amazing effort.

Maloney won because there is power in incumbency, there is power in raising three million dollars for a primary, there is power in getting endorsed by a former president and two sitting Senators. And a sitting president. And the entire congressional delegation in the state. Maloney is mediocre, not exactly headed for greatness, but she has consistently voted the party line. Party leaders like that. She has been reliable.

But I felt victory was possible. And getting 6,000 votes when you could have won at 16,000, I am calling it close.

Now that the race is over, I am in a small mood to do a slight post mortem. Could we have done a few things differently? I hope this does not come across as Monday morning quarterbacking, that is why I started with words of heartfelt praise.

Social Media, YouTube

I never understood why there was no prominent, direct link from the main Reshma2010.com page to the Reshma For Congress YouTube channel, and why the Reshma bio video was not prominently displayed on the front page itself. Perhaps on the sidebar. We did want TV debates and we were not too happy we got a radio debate, but we did not make enough use of YouTube in the same spirit. I put in a request. Give me YouTube versions of all of Reshma's HuffPo articles. I did not go anywhere with that request. We should have attempted to go viral on Facebook with those videos. Forget Maloney, we should have debated the voters.

Volunteers

Reshma 2010 stayed staff centric. It burned the midnight oil like a tech startup, but it also stayed staff centric like a tech startup. It might have hired perhaps two fewer people and had a much larger budget for volunteer barbecues.

The New Woman Push

Barack Obama did not talk much about race. Reshma Saujani did not talk much about gender. But perhaps she should have. There was a South Asian push, but there was not a similar New Woman push.
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Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday

Queensboro Plaza (New York City Subway)Image via WikipediaI think I knocked on close to 350 doors the final four days of the campaign, 110 on Saturday, and more than that on Tuesday. I must have handed out about 400 flyers on moving trains: Panhandling For Reshma.

Sunday I got to put in three fewer hours than I had planned. I went to a Nepali event in Jackson Heights that started late, and it kept me stuck for more than an hour instead of the "10 minutes" I was promised. Time is different in different cultures. In the Nepali culture, it stretches.

Monday I ran out of flyers about 10 blocks from the office, and it also started raining. I also went to the Hudson Terrace party Monday evening. That might, or might not have been a good idea, but I thought I would give about three hours to Manhattan when I was giving more than 30 to Queens. After that party Reshma invited people to overnight flyering all across Queens. Did I hear "illgal flyering?" I thought. They could deport me on that small technicality, why give them the benefit of doubt? It is not like I ever stopped calling Rangel a monkeyface. I am not yet completely out of my immigration mess. I still have a court date in June 2011.

Tuesday was really something. I woke up at two. I could not go back to sleep again. I guess I was excited. I ran Tuesday on three hours of sleep. And for the most part I was okay. The first few hours were handing out flyers on the subway. I was assigned a subway stop, instead I was working the train, from the Ditmars Blvd to Queensboro Plaza and back.

Then it was knocking on doors for the next few hours. Then lunch. Then I did the subway thing again for a few hours. Then it was back to knocking on doors all the way to 9 PM.

Some of Reshma's staunchest supporters were Muslims. Her Cordoba stand had really percolated. It was touching to me to witness all these Muslim families that were out in force for Reshma. There is nothing fake about a political campaign. You are impacting real lives.

Field Director Megan's mother was in town. She gave me a ride from the Astoria office to where the election watch party was: 932 Second Avenue, The Pressbox. When they called it for Maloney, I protested. I am waiting for my Queens bump, I said. Everybody I talked to who said they will vote for Reshma did vote for Reshma. But maybe we did not get to talk to enough people still.

On to 2012. There's no stopping this train.

Four Interactions
110 Knocks (2)
110 Knocks
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6,000 To 16,000 Votes


Do you think Reshma Saujani could move from 6,000 votes in 2010 to 16,000 votes in 2012? I very much think so. I can't wait for the rematch.

Charlie Rangel: Monkeyface
Carolyn Maloney: Radioface

New York Observer
Primary Night: Reshma Keeps Them Waiting, Wondering
Diana Taylor Stumps For Reshma Saujani on The Upper East Side Taylor admitted that it is "very unusual" for her to support a challenger to an entrenched office holder, but said she was immediately taken with Saujani, because "she knows what it is to work," which seemed to be a shot at Maloney, who has spent most of her career in public service. ....... She's smart, she's young, she works really hard and she has opinions about things. We tend to agree on a lot of things— jobs, the economy. She's actually had a job and she knows how jobs are created, she knows what it is to work. She is passionate about education, she is passionate about the economy. And quite frankly at this point the biggest issue we have facing us is jobs and she is really good on that issue. ....... Knowing that Taylor was making this stop with Saujani, Maloney's campaign flooded the area with supporters of their own, making for a crowded sidewalk and some grumbling among harried commuters. ..... "All politicians are fucking liars," shouted one man at Taylor as she tried to hand him a palm card for Saujani. ....."Except for this one," said Taylor.


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