CNN's Fareed Zakaria says the US should recognize the Libyan provisional government being formed by anti-Gadhafi forces.

Professor Mohammad Marandi of Tehran University says the current Iranian regime is very different from Gadhafi's Libya.

Click here to read our compelling OFF-SET interview with Marandi, exclusive to the In The Arena blog!

ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today's seven OFF-SET questions is Seyed Mohammad Marandi, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literature at the University of Tehran and head of Department of North American Studies.

Marandi's father was imprisoned for nearly half a year during the Shah's regime–prior to the 1979 revolution-and was about to be arrested again for criticizing Pahlavi's rule. He fled Iran and Mohammad was born in Richmond, Virginia. The family then moved to Dayton, Ohio. When Mohammad was 13, the family moved back to Iran and he volunteered in the Iran-Iraq war. In that fighting, Marandi experienced two major chemical attacks and blames the US and its European allies for providing them to Saddam Hussein.

Marandi’s main interests are American Literature, Colonial and Postcolonial Studies, as well as Middle East-US relations.

Marandi appeared In the Arena on Monday, Feb. 28, 2011.

When people in the West look at what's happening in Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain and other Middle East countries, some think: could this happen in Iran? How do most Iranians view the current turmoil in the Middle East?

Iranians are very pleased with what they see as an awakening interlinked with Islamic values in the Middle East and North Africa. They believe these countries are all controlled by Western-backed corrupt and despotic regimes that do not reflect the will of their own population or the people in the region at large.

Iranians believe that as a result the balance of power is rapidly tilting away from the United States and that this will significantly strengthen Iran's position as well as the position of other countries and actors critical of current US and EU policies.

Contrary what is being said in many circles in the United States, there is no chance that these events will be repeated in Iran, since the current political order in the Islamic Republic has firm popular support.

President Ahmadinejad, whom I didn't vote for, has a high job approval rating throughout the country and he won the presidential election by a landslide. FULL POST

Businessman Herman Cain, who won a Tea Party presidential straw poll on Sunday, says restructure entitlements.

Libya's deputy UN ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi says the Libyan resistance movement is forming a provisional government.

CNN's Nic Robertson says the anti-Gadhafi movement is losing momentum in Tripoli, but desire for change remains strong.

"Inside Job" won the 2011 Academy Award for Best Documentary on Sunday night.

Charles Ferguson, the film's director, used his acceptance speech to excoriate Wall Street and the financial industry. “Forgive me, I must start by pointing out that three years after our horrific financial crisis caused by financial fraud, not a single financial executive has gone to jail, and that's wrong," Ferguson said 

Eliot was once served at New York's attorney general, and he makes a brief appearance in the documentary.

CLICK HERE to watch this CNNMoney interview, in which he says regulators could do more to prosecute those involved in the financial crisis.

ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today’s five OFF-SET questions is Mahlon Mitchell, a firefighter for 13 years with the Madison Fire Department and president of the Professional Firefighters of Wisconsin. (http://pffw.org/)

The Wisconsin Assembly has passed a Republican bill that would strip most state workers of the bulk of their collective-bargaining rights. Among other things, the measure would require workers - with the exception of police and firefighters - to cover more of their health care premiums and pension contributions. Collective bargaining would be limited to wages, though any pay increases beyond the inflation rate would be subject to voter approval.

The fight over the Wisconsin bill appears far from over. It still must clear the Wisconsin Senate, a step that is likely to prove far more contentious. Since the beginning firefighters have been showing their support of other state workers.

Are the state workers and Governor Scott Walker–along with Republican state lawmakers–any closer to resolving the situation?

Currently, no. Right now, Governor Walker is being somewhat unreasonable—we haven’t been able to sit down with the governor and come to a conclusion. We’d like to do that. I mean, the labor leaders have reached out to the governor’s office to reach a compromsie—with no avail. We haven’t had any luck with that.

Fourteen Democratic state senators fled to neighboring Illinois to prevent a quorum from voting on the issue. Do you have any idea how long they will stay away? 

I think they will stay until the job is done and the people’s voices are heard. FULL POST

Monday night at the 92nd Street Y in New York City, writers Reza Aslan, Azar Nafisi and Nathan Englander will take part in a panel, “Literature and Revolution in the Middle East” – on how poetry and novels have been used to fight for revolution throughout the Middle East—from Israel to Iran to Egypt.

ONLY ON THE BLOG: Answering today’s five OFF-SET questions is one of those panelists, Dr. Aslan, a contributing editor at the Daily Beast, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of “No God but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam and How to Win a Cosmic War” and editor of Tablet & Pen: Literary Landscapes from the Modern Middle East.”

By now we’ve heard that protesters in various Middle East countries are using Twitter and Facebook to coordinate anti-regime activities. But are you saying that demonstrators, including the many young people who have been protesting, are being informed by literature—by poems and novels?

What I am saying is that their very identity is being formed by the literature that is so much a part of the cultural awareness of the peoples of the Middle East. They are using social media to communicate and organize, but using poetry to define who they are.

What countries are you talking about–and tell us more how the poetry is being used.

So for instance, during the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia, the great Tunisian poet Abu al-Qasim al–Shabbi—his verses were being transformed in slogans and chants by the protesters. FULL POST

GADHAFI REMAINS DEFIANT – As relentless unrest enters a 14th day Monday, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi remained defiant and gave no indication of stepping down - even though a Libyan official said doing so would be in the the interest of the country. Abdullah Alzubedi, the Libyan ambassador to South Africa, told journalists Monday that Gadhafi "should take the ultimate decision to step down in the interest of Libya."

The Telegraph reports that The European Union has agreed to slap an assets freeze and travel ban on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and 25 members of his family and inner circle. FULL POST