Photos via Dietrich's Flickr. The Enough Fear campaign has come to New York, and earlier today New Yorkers and Iranians were speaking to each other at City Hall on red vintage phones the organization set up. The project is part of an effort to connect citizens of both countries who "say no to war," and the goal is to create a "people to people diplomacy" link between the two countries. Nick Jehlen, the co-founder,......

...for being totally rude! It's actually not the kind of #1 ranking Bollinger would prefer, as it's for Time's Top 10 Awkward Moments of 2007 list. As Bwog points out, Bollinger deftly bypasses "David Hasselhoff, David Vitter, Rosie, Paris, Miss Teen South Carolina, Caroline Giuliani, and (wait for it) BRITNEY SPEARS" for his introduction of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last September, calling him a "petty and cruel dictator." Ahmadinejad earns the #2 spot on Time's......

Irene Boland, the co-author of Wind the World Over, works in the sustainability office of the EPA. Her office covers Region 2 (New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) helps people pursue green living through their built environment. You can find out more about her office at the EPA on their website. Irene resides in Brooklyn, "under the BQE." How did you and your co-author, Vanessa Kellogg come up with the......

Democrats Senator Charles Schumer and Senator Dianne Feinstein joined nine Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee and approved the nomination of Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey to go to the full Senate. The vote was 11-8, the eight opposing votes from the remaining Democrats on the committee. His confirmation is expected next week. Mukasey - and his supporters - has faced criticism after not declaring waterboarding illegal. Schumer has an op-ed in today's NY Times......

A look at some of this week's noteworthy television: Desperate Housewives (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., WABC 7) A homosexual male couple moves into Wisteria Lane and wackiness ensues. Masterpiece Theatre: The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., WNET 13) In this 6 part series, Jane Horrocks plays a British supermarket manager who is dissatisfied with the political hacks who are gunning to be Prime Minister and decides to mount her own campaign. BBC 1 aired it......

With a heavy heart, we say farewell to another wonderful film festival at Lincoln Center. The program closed with an animated movie, an adaptation of Marjane Satrapi's graphic novels about growing up in Iran called Persepolis. Using the voices of French actresses Catherine Deneuve as Marjane's mom and Deneuve's daughter with Marcello Mastrioanni, Chiara, as Marjane, the movie is a charming and evocative snapshot of life during the Islamic revolution and subsequent war with Iraq.......

Maroon 5 Not Terrible Anymore, Played MSG We're sure to take a bunch of flack about this, but bear with us for a sec. Maroon 5? Not so bad. In fact, at least judging by the first two singles off their latest album, they've moved past the tasteless soccer-mom rock into a legitimately perverted cocaine-sex territory (Exhibit 1: Their amazingly over the top video for 'Wake Up Call'). And that's a good thing. Combine that......

Volatile Dutch actor Youssef Sjoerd Idilbi did two things that are almost unheard of during a Sunday performance of the play Is.Man at St. Ann’s Warehouse. The first warms our heart: He stopped his performance to confront an audience member about a ringing cell phone. His second move brazenly defied the theatrical tradition of ‘the show must go on’. Technical problems with the sound board had caused the cancellation of the previous night's performance; when......

Are disputes between dry cleaners and their customers a new source of income for lawyers? The owner of an Upper East Side drycleaning business is suing a man for papering the neighborhood around his store with fliers that impeach the quality of his service. Todd Ofsink owns Todd Layne Cleaners on East 77th St. and is suing Evan Maloney for $100,000 for defamation. Maloney had some negative customer experiences at the store, so he set......

EVENTS: Both Open House NY and The New Yorker Festival are upon us. You can check out more of OHNY's event here, and The New Yorker Festival here. Some picks: The New Yorker Festival hosts a conversation with Errol Morris tonight. He'll be talking with staff writer Philip Gourevitch about Abu Ghraib, with clips shown from Standard Operating Procedure -- his new film is a study of the prison-abuse scandal. Friday // 8pm // Directors......

SNL is back! Not sure if the exclamation point is necessary, but their 33rd season kicked off this past weekend with some good stuff. LeBron James was host and Kanye West was the musical guest -- West actually showed up in a good sketch, though oddly enough not this musical one. The below is a ballad to the President of Iran called "Iran So Far" delivered by Andy Samberg and Maroon 5's Adam Levine. "You......

The NYPD's Hate Crime Unit is investigating numerous instances of anti-Semitic vandalism in Brooklyn Heights. Monday evening, swastikas were found painted on two synagogues, three buildings, and two cars, but by yesterday afternoon, over a dozen other markings were discovered (one brownstone also had an SS logo painted on it), as well as flyers with swastikas and slurs on cars' windshields. Remsen, Columbia, and Joralemon Streets, the Palmetto Playground and Sidney Place were vandalized. The......

Columbia University has weathered storm of criticism for inviting Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at its World Leader Forum yesterday. Columbia president Lee Bollinger had said that critical questions would be posed, and he wasn't kidding: Before Ahmadinejad spoke, Bollinger gave a lengthy speech that attacked the leader's positions and intelligence, said he exhibited "all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator," and called him ridiculous. You can read Bollinger's speech here, but......

This morning, President Bush is addressing the 62nd United Nations General Assembly. He is expected to discuss "global fight against terrorism, tyranny and poverty," as well as sanctions against Myanmar in support of the protest organized by Buddhist monks. However, he will only mention Iran briefly, and will opt to cover "broad themes." A White House spokesman said, "The president wanted this speech to focus on many other issues that are facing the world......

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke today, giving a speech and sort of answers some of questions posed by Columbia University President Lee Bollinger and School of International and Public Affairs Dean John Coatsworth. We're sure video and transcripts will come shortly, but in the meant time, The Bwog, New York, and City Room have been liveblogging the speech. Here's a sample of questions posed, via the City Room:In response to a question about the treatment......

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad headed to New York today, but not telling Iranian state-run TV, "The United States is a big and important country with a population of 300 million. Due to certain issues, the American people in the past years have been denied correct and clear information about global developments and are eager to hear different opinions." He added that the U.N. General Assembly was an "important podium" for Iran's views to be......

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to New York is sure going to be a doozey. He may have decided not to visit Ground Zero anymore, but his appearance at Columbia University, to participate in a World Leaders Forum, has many people upset. The Daily News takes on the story on the front cover again ("Access of Evil") and has an excoriating editorial: "By extending an invitation to Ahmadinejad, the leaders of Columbia's School of......

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is getting a lot of ink in our newspapers today after it was revealed that (A) he had requested a visit to Ground Zero - to lay a wreath, no less - and then shortly later that (B) the city had denied the request. Way to work fast, city agencies! Iranian mission to the United Nations says that Ahmadinejad still wants to go to Ground Zero, but the Daily News sends......

In honor of the 250th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's birthday, the city of Vienna commissioned a special festival of visual art, music, dance, architecture, and film called New Crowned Hope. The name refers to the Masonic lodge Mozart co–founded, a venue in which he made his last public appearance. Beginning this weekend, the Brooklyn Academy of Music will host screenings of six films made for the festival by some of the most exciting directors......

Thanks to nearly four inches of rain from former tropical storm Barry, rainfall in Central Park has already surpassed the average amount for June. On the other side of the world, Cyclone Gonu, also currently known as Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Gonu, or more prosaically, 02A, has become the strongest cyclone ever recorded over the Arabian Sea. Gonu has become the first tropical storm known to make landfall in Oman, prompting the evacuation of tens......

The first debate amongst Republican presidential candidates was held last night at the Ronald Reagan Library. With former first lady Nancy Reagan sitting in the first row, Rudy Giuliani, as well as other candidates, mentioned the Gipper many times (partially due to the setting and prompting of moderators). For instance, when explaining how he'd deal with Iran's president over nuclear weapons, Giuliani said, "He cannot have nuclear weapons. And he has to look at an......

THEATER: It’s “go time” for The Butane’s Group’s Operation Ajax, which ingenuously sets the CIA’s 1953 overthrow of Iran’s first democratically-elected government in the context of a casino. “Constructed from no less than 25 text sources (memoirs, documentaries, plays, poetry, novels, films, reality tv shows), the densely-layered performance explores how the addiction to risk and gambling has become a potent metaphor for U.S. foreign policy.” (For an enhanced theater experience, explore the show’s thorough bibliography,......

Taking a break from Anna Nicole Smith coverage, Larry King interviewed former mayor Rudy Giuliani who finally admitted that he's running for president. In fact, King asked Giuliani three times if he's running (we don't know if that's because King's so old, he's hard of hearing and forgets). During the interview, Giuliani actually criticized the Bush administration, and gave what his strategy would have been to go into Iraq. From the NY Times:His comments more......

Baby, it's cold outside—go see a movie, why dontcha? Werewolves, comic books and hot girls who prowl the streets of Bucharest in high heel boots should be the stuff of great geek cinema. Unfortunately, Blood and Chocolate, a new movie starring Agnes Bruckner as a werewolf girl trying to get along with the pack is utterly laughable. And not even in a good, kitchy, throw popcorn at the screen and giggle with your friends sort......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a suspicious fire in Brooklyn Heights, an armed robbery on West Broadway, and a "fatal person struck by train" on the 6 line. Somehow a nurse in the Bronx made $93,581 in overtime pay in 2006, on a base salary of $50,187. That makes her the "overtime queen of state government." The dolphins that were happily frolicking off the Hamptons last week are in danger of dying if they......

A few days after Saddam Hussein was hanged, he became the subject of an art exhibit. And who does Hussein share the canvas with? None other than Donald Rumsfeld. Back when Rumsfeld was Special Envoy to the Middle East under the Regan Administration, he and Hussein met to discuss the Iran-Iraq War. Oh yeah, and oil (see sections 18-19 on pages 15-17 of this then-confidential report). Two years ago, Jonathan Podwil began a series......

Early this morning in Baghdad, Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator whose reign in Iraq led to horrible violence, was hanged for "crimes against humanity", specifically the 1982 killing of 148 men and boys in Dujail. The Daily News compared him to a gangster ("tyrant who ruled Iraq like a Mafia don, slaughtered his fellow citizens and led his country into two disastrous wars with the United States") and the Post noted that his death......

Oh no. Someone jumped in front of the F train at West 4th Street. Expect delays as service has been rerouted - from the MTA: Due to a Police investigation at the West 4th Street-Washington Square Station, the Brooklyn bound F train is running express from the 34th Street-Herald Square Station to the West 4th Street-Washington Square Station. The V train is running on the E line from the 5th Avenue-53rd Street Station to......

Congressman Charles Rangel is in the news again, but this time he's not upsetting Southern states - he's scaring the bejesus out of young Americans! He told CBS's Face the Nation that he will will propose legislation to bring back the draft. Why? Because it might act as a war-deterrent, as well as fulfill the need for more troops. There's no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a high-rise fire on 31st and Broadway, a pedestrian struck by car on Hester and Bowery, and a "missing prisoner" (!) in the West Village. Charlie Rangel wants to reinstate the draft: "he sees his idea as a way to deter politicians from launching wars and to bolster U.S. troop levels insufficient to cover potential future action in Iran, North Korea and Iraq." Yikes! Two Long Island pilots are......