bahmani

to Mary

You go girl! As another true blue red-blooded American and also from the South... the REAL South (Carolina), I resent his implications BIG TIME.  As for the " I know there are a few good Iranians out there and most of them have already become Americanized and assimilated well into the American culture.

But for the rest of the folks from Iran, they are useless and frankly consuming too much oxygen and polluting the earth by exhaling too much Co2." comment... what the hell are you thinking??????  Assimilated into the American culture?  You insult every Iranian who has chosen to live in the US... for whatever reason... political or economic.  They don't have to become "assimilated".  And the rest of your comment is frankly too disturbing to even respond to.  The Persians that I know (and I've met many many many) are extremely curteous... justifiably proud... and are extremely intelligent.   And under conditions that are increasingly hostile.  No... I prefer to think your comment was written tongue-in-cheek in which case I'll just say you used poor judgement.

Technically I'm both

Reply to Shagh Keer. I can criticize both. I know that the concept may seem confused, and I am sure the world would be a better place if loyalties and thanks and gratitude for being one or the other are as black and white as you suggest. But as I can, I am in fact highly dissatisfied with both countries at the moment! Sorry!

Playing Democrat At Columbia

Ahmadinejad's agenda, though, differs from that of the traditional autocrat. His goal is not merely to hold power in Iran through sheer force, or even through a standard 20th-century personality cult:

His goal is to undermine the American and Western democracy rhetoric that poses an ideological threat to the Iranian regime.

Last winter, when he invited a host of dubious Holocaust-deniers to discuss the Holocaust in Tehran, he claimed that it was in order to provide shelter for the West's "dissidents" -- that is, for Western thinkers "who cannot express their views freely in Europe about the Holocaust."
This week, he declared that his visit to New York would help the American people, who have "suffered in diverse ways and have been deprived of access to accurate information." Thus the speech at Columbia: Here he is, the allegedly undemocratic Ahmadinejad, taking questions from students! At an American university! Look who's the real democrat now!

This sort of game is both irritating and dangerous, particularly when it is being played by a man whose regime locks up academics for the " crime" of organizing academic conferences and regularly arrests the Iranian equivalent of the students who listened to him speak yesterday. Iran is experiencing an unprecedented wave of political executions and death sentences -- more than 300 since January, according to the Boroumand Foundation -- and there is renewed pressure on the media.

In that atmosphere, it was deeply naive to imagine that the Iranian president would enter into a "vigorous debate" with students who were deploying their "powers of dialogue and reason," as Columbia University President Lee Bollinger stated before the event, or that he would answer the appropriately aggressive questions Bollinger put to him -- which of course he didn't. (To a question about persecution of gays, Ahmadinejad responded: "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals like in your country.") All things being equal, Columbia would have done better to ignore him, instead of feeding the media circus that serves his purposes. It's not as if he is deprived of a platform in this country: Only last week, he ducked and dodged his way through a long interview on "60 Minutes," and his pronouncements regularly appear in media of all kinds.
Nevertheless, it would have been wrong, once he'd been invited, to ban Ahmadinejad from speaking: To do so would have granted him far more significance than he deserves and played right into his I'm-the-real-democrat-here rhetoric.

Instead, the university should have demanded genuine reciprocity. If the president and dean of Columbia truly believed in an open exchange of ideas, they should have presented a debate between Ahmadinejad and an Iranian dissident or human rights activist -- someone from his own culture who could argue with him in his own language -- instead of allowing him to be filmed on a podium with important-looking Americans. Perhaps Columbia could even have insisted on an appropriate exchange: Ahmadinejad speaks in New York; Columbia sends a leading Western atheist -- Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens or, better still, Ayaan Hirsi Ali -- to Qom, the Shiite holy city, to debate the mullahs on their own ground.

I realize that isn't likely. But neither is it likely that this past week's free-speech-vs.-nasty-dictator debate, complete with sputtering New York politicians and puffed-up university professors, achieved much either. On the contrary, it focused attention in the wrong place.
Instead of debating freedom of speech in Iran, here we are once again talking about freedom of speech in America, a subject we know a lot more about. Which is exactly what Ahmadinejad wanted.

//www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic...

And what exactly has Alabama

And what exactly has Alabama done for the world lately? Frankly I'm shocked you even knew what CO2 is.

Morons like you make me embarrassed to be an American and a fellow Southerner.

Hey, double-edged dick (read

Hey, double-edged dick (read dickhead), if you have a doubled-edged dick, doesn't it mean that at least one end is firmly, deeply up your ass?

With all due respect to the real Iranians....!?

I am a blue-blooded American from southern Alabama.
I know there are a few good Iranians out there and most of them have already become Americanized and assimilated well into the American culture.

But for the rest of the folks from Iran, they are useless and frankly consuming too much oxygen and polluting the earth by exhaling too much Co2.

For the sake of the world to live in peace and tranquility, America should make a one flat parking lot out of the Islamic Republic centers of power then take over the oil fields and build a permanent base in Iran until the entire society assimilate to the American way of life.

God Bless America

fascinating

I don't get it, all the wing nuts think that just listening to Ahmadinejad means you are smitten by him. Now lets examine
facts 1- us and Israel have OVER WHELMING nuclear superiority. They even have a second strike capability. Despite
their claims any move by Iran to hurt either will be suicide for
Iran, 2- Iran is facing major economic problems, This can/Will cause problems for the existing government. I know you will say
never these guys, but it was said so for Shah too.

Disagree with you

Ahmadinejad comes from revolutionary guard (RG). the RG today controls all aspect of Iranian society from economy to political and social control. RG does not need mullah's including supreme leader to dictate things to them. Oh yes they are all khar mazhabi and they need some one on the top to fool some of the stupid illiterate masses out there. Let’s face it RG can easily remove this olagh supreme leader and replace him with another olagh. How hard is it for RG to get rid of Khamaeni, not that hard (poising him, car accident, etc..) 

If any thing as time passes, RG acquires more power and control. So I wouldn’t be surprised if the so called supreme leader is actually becoming a ceremonial post.

Having said all that since IRI decided to send him as thier representive and he has accepted the responsibility, then all is a fair game.

He is the only one offered from this clan

He may not have power, but he represents Islamic Republic of Iran. For US with intention of exposing and ridiculing their non-democratic regime or paving the dialogue road or may be for both, he is the only one offered from this clan.

So, power of his presidency is not the issue. I find calling these people stupid not intellegent.

Nice article, couldn't agree

Nice article, couldn't agree more.

To Shagh Keer, I made up my mind

I made up my mind, you can fuck yourself on the American side.

Let me see !!!! hmmm, he is

Let me see !!!! hmmm, he is not an Arab, he is not a Jewish, he is not a Christian, he is not an Afghan, he is not a Chinese, he is not European or American, then could it be that he is Iranian, but we are too ashamed to relate to him????

vaghe-bin bashid

Is Bahmani..?

a US citizen or an Iranian citizen?

Why can't Iranians make up their mind to where and to whole their loyalty is for? To US or to Iran?

To Iran or to Islam? For how many years Iranians want both Khar and Khorma? For how many years Iranians refuse to declare whether they are Shotor or Morgh?

For how many years Iranians are going to enjoy America and insult it at the same time? It's time for Iranians to make up their bloody mind! They are either on this side of the fence or on that side of the fence!?

You are so wrong!!

This is exactly where you are gravely mistaken. Ahmadinejad may not be YOUR president, but unfortunately, he is still technically the President of our unfortunate country. It is only by giving him a forum at an international level such as Columbia, that the whole world will be made aware of his idiotic ideas, arrogance, bigotry and utter ignorance. He is truly shameless, but still, he made a mockery of himself and that Fascist clerical government in front of the whole world.

MUST READ ARTICLE: Long but

MUST READ ARTICLE: Long but be patient.

//www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/23/asia/iran.5...

Please watch this and

Please watch this and weep:

//youtube.com/watch?v=9cIrymEv8xI