persian new year. [applause] that my great words of wisdom. we appreciate. now, i would like to introduce the coast of this event. a man who in our community does not need any introduction. he has been loved and supported by our community. he is of a ready and heritage, and he has been an ardent supporter of the iranian american and iranian american causes. he is also one of the hardest working people i have ever known. so with no further ado, i would like you to welcome supervisor ross mirkarimi. supervisor mirkarimi: how cool is this where the people meet city hall government with unfettered access to celebrate diversity? we have been doing this here in city hall for six years now, and i cannot tell you how proud i am of our community, of mayor lee for helping co-host this event, or the many people working with her, a staff of the mayor's office who really helped us put this on. my colleagues who are here today from the board of supervisors. i see the director from dpw here. there are commissioners,

this is persian new year.fferent new year, the beginning of spring when everything blooms. the flower carts bloom, the earth becomes fresh, it refreshes itself. -- the flowers and birds abloom. he said, jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way." i said, not to that kind of new year. our new year has a different song. [singing] [singing] he said, ok, bye. because he was my older brother, i let him go. i said, i will see you in nine months. persia in new year is the beginning of the spring, everything refreshes. we also refresh just like the earth. we refresh our friendship even with our enemies. we forget our sorrows and we look to the new year with bright eyes and full of hope, full of hope. let me see what i have in this bag. ah-ha! my brothers, he forgot. in the persian new years, we put seven items on the table. we start with the letter "s," which represents the goodness of the earth. everything that comes from the earth. we celebrate, we celebrate these blessings, we love these blessings so we repres

to have a shot at making the persian gulf threats to america, u.s.leaders must be made to abandon their half-century binge of interventionism and begin to rebuild the politically cohesive financially solvent american republic to replace washington already collapsing bid at an empire. how to retrieve the blank check commitment u.s. leaders have given to foreigners. let me suggest several ways of proceeding. first, america must accelerate conversion to alternative energy, expand nuclear power, and further exploit fossil fuel reserves. in america nothing should be allowed to deter the ingenuity from securing greater energy self-sufficiency. fear is induced by the bp oil leak should not keep telling halted. and demands for protection, the gulf of mexico, or the sun the oil-rich pacific waters off california at the cost of dead soldiers and marines should be ignored. beyond oil, america has no national interests in the persian gulf, eyre peninsula region. save the freedom of navigation which the u.s. navy can assure. as our dependence on foreign energy de

as long as we still have the house of south controlling the persian gulf next week over reagan day off you know this is a reactionary seven century rejean allied with washington and western powers in nothing substantial cheesed. you know we're bouncing around imagining a lot of countries actually all those countries you are talking about of china let's focus back in on china or the source of the melting pot here and china's international policy you know today has been rather neutral did you expect to become more vocal on the international arena as these things develop but you're talking about you know careful you know because chinese diplomats see it's. it's a game of chinese this is very sophisticated it's fascinating it's a steady we in from the outside because you know you. see christian faith you know if a subtle manner they don't antagonize specially the hyper power of us at the moment i was c.p.r. playing on wheat and see to see what's going to happen especially in libya that's going to happen in the persian gulf so you really get to call the king live with that because it's stil

this man is invited for persian celebrations in march. at some point, and this probably happened as a direct consequence of what the arab world experienced in the uprising particularly after the arab support, pro-u.s. arab states supporting the crackdown by the family in bahrain. it became unatepidble, and suddenly representing ahmadinejad said the visit has been canceled. the point about this is that you have a fundamental -- it seems to me a disagreement between one man, mr. ahmadinejad, the president, the elected man, who is pushing constantly the supreme leader and wants more and more and more power, and this is just one example of this power struggle. we are all so focused on the green opposition movement, but frankly, the green opposition movement is in the defensive position now. they are not sitting their tepider now. the most important dynamics is the fite between ahmadinejad and hammani. now, the same jordan is now being touted by the gcc states as a country that could join the gcc because jordan brings with it 7 million citizen

and this launches the greco-persian war. so here's this woman -- i'm literally quoting from history, the moment in history when the face of persia turns from the eastern face to the western face because of this illness that she had. this launches the early hoyt -- earl -- early history of persia, and its turning to the western border. so we now, 500 pages later, return back. recall the persian queen, who likely had breast cancer. and imagine her traveling through time. she is cancer's dorian gray. her tumor remains the same. the case allows us to recap puttpit ulate. what happens to her later. firs, toss is backwardses to 2,500bc. a name for the illness that we cannot pronounce. it provides a diagnosis but know treatment. and then it's described the most primitive form of mastectomy. and later it's identified as a c rcinos and that's the derivation of the name cancer. they imagine cancer as a crab buried under the skin and the blood vessels spread out like a crab under the skin. and a thousand years flash buy, otosss' tumor

saddam as long as saddam was in favor of the mujahideen were not coming out of south asia in the persian gulf toward the violence so why has the u.s. so quickly turned on him is that oil more important now then i sure if it's spoil i think we have the last four presidents we've had the united states have really seen the world that they want and they want to go on a credit peaceful humanitarian world which is a great aspiration but not they don't have many points with reality the democratic peaceful world it doesn't seem like that's the goal that the united states is trying to accomplish in libya at it's it's hard to see what we're trying to accomplish in libya because we're supporting. if the if the men who are in the resistance in libya were in afghanistan they would be the taliban so we're supporting basically we're providing air cover for people who are may not be al qaeda but are fighting for the same reasons you know in two thousand and nine but are those reasons the reasons are to dumb khadafi and to establish a government that is an islamic government and which will fight against

as long as the united states and its allies are dependent on persian gulf oil we're going to be fighting in that region so until the united states breaks the oil habit we're we're stuck there and we're going to have to fight and that's not likely to happen you know and that's where the next war is going to come the next we're going to come in bahrain and you think the united states is fighting a proxy war there right now utilizing saudi arabia against iran i think just the opposite really i think what's the i think the obama administration is frightened to death about what's happening in bahrain the saudis and their partners the sunni governments in the gulf cooperation council have decided they're not going to permit a shia government on the peninsula which would which would happen in bahrain if if people were given a choice the saudis in their their partners will kill as many shias as it's as is necessary to maintain the sunni monarchy in bahrain the question will come down to . as though she is are being killed what will the iranians do will they stand back and let that slaughter occu

the president had experienced a precipitous drop in his popularity and the height of the persian gulf war his ratings for in the high eighties by the time of the 92 campaign probably around the 40's and 1992 did not begin well this is also another great berber bush story, they had gone to japan to talk to the japanese surrender of very much our in our minds right now about trade agreements. the afternoon they were there just as a socially venture get together, the president and our american ambassador had played tennis with the crown prince of japan and the emperor. they were badly beaten. there was a state dinner in honor of the bush family and mr. bush on the way over said i am not feeling very well and she said you think we should go back? he said no. i think i can do it. they got there and he got on the receiving line and said i really don't feel good they sat down and he was sitting down to than japanese prime minister and the commented in the man's lap and passed out. he'd had of bad intestinal flu. he was taken now by the doctors who said he will be fine. it is nothing serious

. >> alan: in the persian gulf, yemen's president has agreed to resign after weeks of violent blow tests against his regime. this weekend, security forces opened fire on antigovernment protesters. the deal was announced today by a senior government official and mandates that the president leave office within 30 days and handover power to his deputies. he previously insetted on serving out his term not 2013. the afremont provides him with complete immunity and also members of his rental -- regime. >> here in san francisco, several hundred people rallied in support of the people ofem man. the rally was endorsed by amnesty international. >> a big earth day celebration today at san francisco's civic center plaza. and this year's earth day festival brought multicultural musics and sustainable living activists to the city. they're encouraging people to look for green solutions and integrate those practices into their everyday lives. vendors set up showcases like the clean air zone, with biodiesel vehicles and state of the art bikes. they also had yoga classes and cooking classes. >>> germany i

i'm iranian american, persians, and throughout my -- [applause] throughout my life, my family had always had very close relationships with the arab and arab-american community. i spent a fair amount of time working in the middle east in jordan and iraq and traveling through loud the milk -- throughout the middle eastern areas, so i feel very much at home, and it is important that feeling is well represented in city hall. i look at the flags that are well illustrated year. it amplifies the need that much more that san franciscans, californians should understand and become more acquainted with the arab-american culture. if the census proves me right, when the numbers come out next year officially, we will see a significant growth of the arab- american population in the san francisco bay area but also throughout the state of california. that is critical because it means that much more that arab- americans have the right and the reason to want to make sure that their interests are being well represented in local government and city government, and, of course, in federal government. i continu

it was brokered by persian gulf nations. >> near san francisco, hundreds rallied at u.n. plaza to show their solidarity with the people of yemen. demonstrators called for democracy andity for the citizens and a peaceful transdiscussion of power. members from all over california marched to demand an to end the united states military aid to the regime. >> people of yemen are being killed for nothing more than standing up and speaking out against injustice. we demands the u.s. end any military aid. >> alan: the rally was endorsed by amnesty international, and some other local groups. >>> wal-mart is testing out a new grocery delivery service in san jose. the service is called, wal-mart to go. customers can order groceries, health and beauty products, medicines and household spies from the web site, and wal-mart will drive the goods to your home at the time of your choisms -- of your choice. there's no word yet if and when it will broaden into other areas. >> united continental is doing away with the discount for passengers who planned ahead. travelers used to get 2 to $3 off

all the music that represented the western culture and persian music became illegal overnight. after thousands of years, dancing and listening to music became something you could only do in the privacy of your own home. as the pressure of the government group against the youth, they took a different direction. i went back two years ago and saw what was going on behind doors with the youth. believe it or not, the party's over there are so extreme and over the top. that is the result of pressure and oppression. large gatherings with music and dance are part of human culture. let me repeat that. it is part of human culture and should not be banned for any reason. some lawmakers used the words of drugs and death as a justification to ban the gatherings. the same people will send the youth as our military to die in wars and will feed and drugs to their kids were having too much energy. i wish i could keep on going. [applause] commissioner lacroix: i would like to call the next names. monica salazar, diana haris, claire stephenson, sandra mayez. >> thank you for the opportunity to sp

neighborhood services, and it is with great pleasure that we welcome you here tonight to celebrate the persianew year here in the rotunda of city hall. it is with great pleasure that i intruc