Berkeley Forum

The UCLA police department taser gunned a student several times, inside a library on the UCLA campus. These questionable tactics, recorded on a video-ready cell phone, have angered many Iranian Americas and UC students. The officers shocked Mostafa Tabatabienejad with several thousand volts of electricity many times to coherce him into cooperation. You can read the LA Times article Here.

Watch the entire video Here.

# posted by Berkeley Forum : 3:00 PM  25 comments

Award-winning journalist Ted Koppel was allowed three weeks of rare access to examine the roots of 27 years of distrust between Americans and Iranians. In KOPPEL ON DISCOVERY: IRAN - THE MOST DANGEROUS NATION, Koppel talks to Iranians in all parts of the country about the harsh rhetoric of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and about his determination to pursue nuclear technology. The two-hour world premiere special airs Sunday, November 19 at 8 PM (ET/PT) on Discovery Channel.

Koppel was able to travel outside Tehran to the holy city of Qom, the old capital Isfahan, to the busy border with Iraq, and into the rural areas that are a significant base of support for President Ahmadinejad. In so doing, he conveys the deep sense of Persian pride in their 2,700-year history and rich culture.

# posted by Berkeley Forum : 11:30 PM  0 comments

Arash- "Having frightened us, having bullied us, having lied to us, having ignored and rewritten the Constitution under our noses, having stayed the course, having denied you’ve stayed the course, having belittled us about "timelines" but instead extolled "benchmarks," you’ve now resorted, sir, to this?"

Those are the words of Keith Olbermann, the host of MSNBC's Countdown, on the eve of the 2006 midterm elections. Olbermann is one of the few, if not the only, liberal newscasters who openly criticizes the Bush administration. You can watch the entire video here.

# posted by Berkeley Forum : 11:05 PM  1 comments

ARASH-The Weekly Standard claims that “the Canadians of American politics are finally back.” I voted Democratic this time to protest the many wrongdoings of the GOP leaders and the Bush administration. I believe in balanced budgets, reducing the deficit, better education for our children and a small government. The Republicans failed me and many other voters on all those counts. When they took power in 1994, the GOP promised change, but Washington changed the GOP. Corruption became the motto of the party and they became involved in some of the most bizarre scandals of modern politics. They lost their credibility not only with the moderate voters but with the conservative base as well.

The Republican defeat of Tuesday was no surprise. The Republican Party abandoned its conservative ideals, small government was chief among them. Over the past 6 years the GOP has been responsible for the expansion of the bureaucracy to an intolerable level. The eavesdropping on American citizens and invading their privacy, voting to legalize torture and the mistreatment of detainees lead many Americans to believe that the GOP does not represent their values. The GOP – Grand Old Party – must change its name to the GOG – Grand Old Government-.

In 1994, after the Republican take over of the House after nearly 50 years of Democratic control, many Democrats justified their Republican votes by saying this: We didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left us. Today many conservatries have a similar justification for their upset votes: We never left the GOP but the GOP left us!

# posted by Berkeley Forum : 6:37 PM  0 comments