Congressional Districts have New Shapes, New Threats of War

Minnesota's Congressional districts have changed for the 2012 election; every 10 years they are redistricting to suit population changes. The state tries to avoid gerrymandering but inevitable conflicts arise: I find myself now in the 4th Congressional district where 2 incumbents, Democrat Betty McCollum and Republican Michelle Bachmann will fight for the seat.
There are also 15 open seats for state & federal Congresspeople-- a sure sign of population growth, and new opportunities for new leadership. People have often told me I should run...
For now, my drive is just to meet with both Betty & Michelle, about the looming cloud of
war against Iran. Obviously the threat there isn't new, but the governments of the US & Israel are pushing for war anew.
I want anyone running for office to hear out these facts below. Take a stand against war with Iran-- after all we could be so close to peace with them instead! Peace takes effort but less effort & cost than war. I'm not the only one insisting on this-- I'll definitely be bringing friends with me. It always helps to have signatures & a good number of people with you to meet with your Congressperson.
---
see below: "5 year old Samar and her dazed brother after US military opened fire on their family car killing both her parents in 2005. Getty Photographer Chris Hondros

was himself later killed on the front lines in Misurata, Libya (see attached NYT story). There are over 16 million kids under the age of 14 who live in Iran

who don’t want to suffer like Samar’s family and hundreds of thousands of other Iraqis.

DON’T IRAQ IRAN

The Undersigned Urge Our U.S. Representative to Support:
Diplomacy, Not War, With Iran! Support HR 4173!

A bill supporting diplomacy, not war, with Iran, has recently been introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Barbara Lee. The bill, HR 4173, is entitled the Prevent Iran from Acquiring Nuclear Weapons and Stop War Through Diplomacy Act. We need as many Representatives as possible to co-sponsor this bill, since it is an important counterweight to Congressional pressure on President Obama to abandon diplomacy.

In addition to the diplomacy bill above, there are two ill-informed and ill-motivated bills in Congress that could bring us closer to a war with Iran: House Resolution 568, and Senate Resolution 380. Both of these resolutions pressure the Obama administration to abandon diplomacy with Iran and support Israel's red line for attacking Iran, which is nuclear weapons capability rather than actual possession of a nuclear weapon. Currently, President Obama's red line for attacking Iran is possession of a nuclear weapon, so these bills pressure him to take a more militaristic stance. Not only would this action bring us closer to war with Iran, it would also make enemies of numerous countries around the world who have nuclear weapons capability but have not manufactured a nuclear warhead.

Face That Screamed War’s Pain Looks Back, 6 Hard Years Later

MOSUL, Iraq — Until the past week, Samar Hassan had never glimpsed the photograph of her that millions had seen, never knew it had become one of the most famous images of the Iraq war.

“My brother was sick, and we were taking him to the hospital and on the way back, this happened,” Samar said. “We just heard bullets.

“My mother and father were killed, just like that.”

The image of Samar, then 5 years old, screaming and splattered in blood after American soldiers opened fire on her family’s car in the northern town of Tal Afar in January 2005, illuminated the horror of civilian casualties and has been one of the few images from this conflict to rise to the pantheon of classic war photography. The picture has gained renewed attention as part of a large body of work by Chris Hondros, the Getty Images photographer recently killed on the front lines in Misurata, Libya.

The photograph of Samar is frozen in history, but her life moved on, across a trajectory that is emblematic of what so many Iraqis have endured. In a country whose health care system has almost no ability to treat the psychological aspects of trauma, thousands of Iraqis are left alone with their torment.

Now a striking 12-year-old, Samar lives on the outskirts of Mosul in a two-story house with four other families, mostly relatives.

The household is a cramped bustle of activity as women cook and clean and children scramble about. Samar’s older sister, Intisar, and her husband, an unemployed former police officer, care for her. Two of his sons are policemen, and their salaries support the extended family.

The pains of war have been visited on thousands of Iraqis, but even here Samar’s story stands apart. Three years after her parents were killed, her brother Rakan died when an insurgent attack badly damaged the house where she lives now. Rakan had been seriously wounded in the shooting that killed their parents, and he was sent to Boston for treatment after Mr. Hondros’s photos were published. An American aid worker, Marla Ruzicka, who helped arrange for Rakan’s treatment, was herself later killed in a car bomb in Baghdad.

Intisar’s husband, Nathir Bashir Ali, suspects his house was bombed by insurgents as retribution for sending Rakan to the United States. “When Rakan came back from America, everyone thought I was a spy,” he said.

Samar left school last year because she was too shy and not doing well, Mr. Ali said, although Samar said she would like to return and hoped to be a doctor when she grew up. She leaves the house only on infrequent family excursions and has two friends who visit to play with dolls and chat. She spends her days cleaning, listening to music on her purple MP3 player and watching episodes of her favorite television show, the Turkish soap opera “Forbidden Love,” about lovers named Mohanad and Samar.

“I am Samar,” she said, wearing a long red dress and sitting on the couch next to Mr. Ali. Two of her siblings, also in the car when their parents were killed, sat nearby.

“I’ve taken them many times to the hospital, where they get pills” for emotional problems, Mr. Ali said. “All of them take pills.”

He says Samar’s 8-year-old brother, Muhammad, talks to himself when he is alone. “When we go out and see a family, they get sad,” he said. Sometimes he finds the children in a room together, crying. “When they remember the accident, it’s like they just died.”

The photo of Samar had far-reaching impact, for it was visual testimony to a particular scourge of this war: the shooting of innocent civilians as they approached American checkpoints or foot patrols, killings made possible by liberal rules of engagement aiming to protect soldiers from suicide car bombers. The image was a point of discussion at the highest reaches of the Pentagon as it considered ways to reduce civilian casualties.

The Iraq war delivered few singular images for the popular imagination, partly because the country was too dangerous for photographers to move around freely, but also because in an age of saturated media coverage and short attention spans, it may be more difficult for news images to take root in the collective memory.

The military also set strict rules for embedded journalists that kept many graphic images from the public eye; the military asked Mr. Hondros to leave his embed assignment after he shot the pictures of Samar.

Liam Kennedy, a professor at University College Dublin, researches conflict photography and uses Mr. Hondros’s image of Samar in his class as one of the few photos from the Iraq war that could stand out in history, comparing it to the famous Vietnam image by the Associated Press photographer Nick Ut of a young girl running from a napalm attack.

“It really seems to say something of what’s going on at the time,” Professor Kennedy said. “All the arbitrariness of the violence that was going on at that time is summed up by that girl.”

Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North Africa division for Human Rights Watch, keeps a copy of the photo on a bulletin board in her office in New York. She remembers crying when she first saw the photo in a newspaper, and having to explain the image to her children.

“At the time, I thought it captured perfectly the horrors of the war that was not really understood by Americans,” she said. “Everything in that girl’s face symbolized what I felt all Iraqis must feel.”

She added, “I kept thinking, ‘I wonder what life will be like for this girl?’ ”

Mr. Hondros spoke about the photograph in a 2007 interview with the syndicated news program “Democracy Now.”

“I think one of the reasons the photo had this sort of resonance that it does is because it has a sort of empty feeling,” he said. “You know, the poor girl, all alone in the world now, just standing there in the dark.”

This week Samar, hugging a pillow to her chest, recalled: “He was taking pictures of me, I remember. Then he stopped, and they brought me a jacket and put me in the truck and treated the wound on my hand. And they gave me some toys.”

She had never seen the picture until this week, but she said she understood that it showed the world “the sad thing that is happening in Iraq.”

Near the end of the interview, she pointed to a family photograph on the wall. “I always dream about my father and mother and brother,” she said.

By Tim Arango, New York Times. Duraid Adnan contributed reporting.

Resolving the Iran situation peacefully

1. Economic Sanction is an act of war. The current sanctions on Iran are the strongest ever practiced on a nation. The victims of sanctions are people not their government.

2. Economic and military attacks on Iran threaten to cause an explosive regional conflict, disrupt the global economy, and undermine the efforts of the democratic opposition by strengthening the Iranian government which will be seen as “under foreign siege”.

3. Iran does not pose a military threat to the United States and, as our own intelligence community states, it is far from developing a nuclear weapon at this time.

4. Lately Israeli officials have admitted that Iran does not pose a nuclear threat to its security either, but that the real issue is a change in the regional balance of power if Iran should develop nuclear weapons capability.

5. Iran feels threatened already by US presence in the region: The US military in Afghanistan and Iraq barricades Iran. The US also has military bases in Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirate, Kuwait and Bahrain, effectively surrounding Iran. Bahrain also hosts the U.S. 5th fleet. In fact, the Persian Gulf currently hosts 2 US Carrier Groups, and a third is on the way for ‘special ops’.

6. Instead of military threats and crippling sanctions that cause collective suffering among the people of Iran, the US needs to engage in diplomatic negotiations with Iran without pre-conditions. Pre-conditions are based on inequality of the parties in a negotiation. They are a coercive measure that undermines negotiations by assuming that the party on whom they fall is unworthy, and in many cases, by putting the desired result ahead of the negotiation process.

7. Now that Iran and Afghanistan have signed a mutual support treaty, the US can benefit from Iranian help with regional negotiations to end the war in Afghanistan. Iran is also well positioned to extend diplomatic support to help stabilize Iraq.

8. We believe there is a policy alternative concerning development of nuclear weapons. It is in the interest of the US, Iran, and Israel to create a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone in the Middle East. A regional ban on all nuclear weapons — Not only weapons that Iran or other nations might develop in the future, but also the nuclear weapons already held by Israel. We believe the US should promote this option, which is already favored by majorities of Israeli Jews, and of Iranians.

Fact Sheet

Fact: Iran does not possess a nuclear weapon.

Fact: Iran has the right, according to international law, to develop nuclear energy for civilian use.

Fact: Iran’s nuclear energy program is regularly monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Fact: In past 200 years Iran has never started a war.

Fact: The United States possesses 10,600 nuclear warheads in its stockpile, 7,982 of which are deployed and 2,700 of which are in a contingency stockpile. The total number of nuclear warheads that have been built from 1951 to present is 67,500.

Fact: The United States is the only country to have ever used nuclear weapons. It did so when it incinerated hundreds of thousands of Japanese people living in the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Neither city had any military significance.

Fact: The United States has spent $7 trillion on nuclear weapons. The U.S. military budget for 2012alone is about equal to Iran’s entire Gross National Product.

Fact: Israel, the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid (about $3 billion in 2011), unlike Iran, possesses hundreds of nuclear weapons.

Fact: Israel, unlike Iran, refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) into Israel to monitor its nuclear program.

Fact: There is active discussion in the Israeli media about whether Israel will carry out military strikes against Iran’s nuclear energy facilities. Israel bombed similar nuclear civilian energy facilities in Iraq in 1981 (“Operation Babylon”) and in Syria in 2007 (“Operation Orchard”).

Fact: The United States and Britain used severe economic sanctions and CIA covert operatives to overthrow the democratically elected government of Iran led by Dr. MohammadMosaddegh in 1953. The Iranian government under Mosaddegh had nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), which became known as British Petroleum (BP), in a campaign to use oil profits to eradicate widespread poverty within Iran. The successful CIA and British Intelligence coup d’état put the Shah of Iran (King) back in power.

Fact: The United States broke diplomatic relations with Iran and has pursued a policy of economic sanctions against the country since the Revolution of 1979.

Fact: Iran’s oil reserves are the fourth largest in the world—it has 12.7 percent of the world’s known oil reserves. That makes Iran’s oil reserves second only to Saudi Arabia in the Middle East, greater than those of Iraq.

Fact: The new economic sanctions against Iran include a ban on the import, sale and trade of Iranian oil, which constitutes half of Iran’s Gross National Product. It forbids any company in the world that does any business with Iran or its Central Bank from having any trade or economic transaction with a U.S. bank or corporation.

Fact: The economic sanctions are an effort to create economic suffering in Iran and to deprive the country of the goods and services to sustain life. According to international law, these economic sanctions constitute a blockade or an act of war against Iran even though Iran poses no threat to the people of the United States or Europe."

Drastic cuts to funding for the Disabled in Minnesota

On July 1st, funding for disabled people's heath was slashed yet again by Statute 256B.0659 subdivision 11, signed into law by Governor Dayton. In the last year, after PCA hours had been limited, assessments by agencies like AXIS health care had been done, and hours had been cut, PCA services were again attacked, partly because the common assumption is that PCAs are petty and the field is full of fraud.
On September 1st, the state of Minnesota was set to save money by cutting pay rates for PCAs across the board by 1.5%. Some PCA agencies, like Custom Care and People Enhancing People, have not cut wages but have absorbed the loss of reimbursement from the state. All agencies have to deal with additional funding cuts, making it especially hard for nonprofits like PEP.
On October 1st, the reduced pay rate for PCAs related to their clients went into effect. An additional 20% pay cut, which some agencies have not been able to absorb into their budgets because they lack the reimbursement from the state & from matching Medicaid funds to stay afloat.

According to the Minnesota Disability Law Center,
"persons who live in rural areas, immigrant/refugee families whose first language
is not English, other minority communities will be particularly hurt by this harsh
cut. The 20% cut will reduce the modest earnings of many family members,
including many women in their 50’s and 60’s who care for their adult sons and
daughters with significant disabilities for many hours beyond those authorized to
be paid as PCA services. Families who have cared for a loved one with total and
permanent disabilities have all slid down the economic ladder, sacrificed
personally and economically, and provided reliable, loving care at a much lower
rate and higher quality than would otherwise be available. This cut saves the state
about $23 million and results in a PCA service cut of $46 million due to the loss
of federal Medicaid matching funds."
There has been no word as to WHY the people who likely work the most, beyond billable hours, and care the most about their clients are the hardest hit. The dollar amount is significant to the state, but what about families that will struggle to work other jobs, raise their income, and bring in new staff who might not care as much?
PEP's role in selecting and training PCAs becomes ever more important.
The 1.5% provider rate cut will change in 2 years, when the state expects to have the money to pay PCAs only
1% less than usual. It's still less than they deserve for hard work that is now more rushed than ever. Many disabled people were reassessed & found to have only one ADL that they need help with, alotted only half an hour per day to get help, and forced to ask their staff to work very, very part-time for low pay. That does not attract or motivate high-quality staff.
"Another cut of 1.67% is slated to begin July 1, 2012 if
DHS is not allowed to implement tightened criteria for nursing facility eligibility,"
states the Minnesota Disability Law Center.
The public comment period on these changes continues and it's not too late to call your state legislator and demand better funding! A bill regarding these same topics was introduced but not voted on this year, meaning that next year these issues will come up again for vote & consideration. The state must get its priorities straight, or more costs and poorer health overall will result.

Health Care Reform needs another push-- and another.

This week in March, Americans note that federal health care reform has been in the works for a whole year.
Bills have been written and amended; support has been promised and at times withdrawn.
As time went on, progressives pushed again and again for a strong single-payer health care system to emerge from federal law or their state legislatures. As time went on, a resurgence of conservative activists grew more fearful and vocal about the dangers of such change. President Obama started out the year speaking on the bright shining idea of a public option, or state-funded insurance plan that could cover any citizen who chooses it. The President's stance grew weaker and more beholden to private insurance companies as the debates dragged on, from summer to fall.
We lost Senator Ted Kennedy in this last fateful year, and still his long fight for reform, including meaningful health care reform, is impressed upon us. But what will actually be done?

Can Americans get beyond the scary rumors, spun out by lobbyists and paid provocateurs, that pit us against each other? Can members of Congress stop the filibusters and see the truth of the thousands of lobbyist-written pages in the bills on their docket?

If a health care reform bill is passed this year, with the help of petitions and protests and citizen-funded ad campaigns, will it be enough to dig us out of our hole of debt and poor health? Or will new laws be enacted to restrict consumers as well as health care industries, to make abortions more costly than ever, and to tax the people at rates higher than inflation?
It's hard to tell, when no single person has the time to even read the grossly lengthy bills written in legal-ese.
Still, progressives keep on pushing for what they want: single-payer health care for all, not a weak public option, not a government take-over of medicine.

IndyMedia volunteers recently released a compilation of the actions and advice of the local health care reform movement. The Health Care Reform Movement: Rumors and Facts includes the expert analysis of Dr. Joel Albers, active with the Universal Health Care Action Network of Minnesota, and Dr. Lisa Nilles, active with the Minnesota Universal Health Care Coalition.

This short documentary should clarify the issues and propel us to pass meaningful reform. It can be viewed online:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc8aMQi6H6E

Small Foundation plans to take on World

Kalpulli Turtle Island Multiversity:
A small land restoration foundation prepares to expand and take on its share of land and community restoration in the world.

Because of the persistence of Ray Tricomo and other board members of a growing organization called Kalpulli, vegetables are growing at a SPROUTS community garden in St. Paul and 100 new trees are being planted at Nature Conservancy sites along the Amazon River. Between SPROUTS, a Hamline University club, the Nature Conservancy, and the donations that made these projects possible, are the expanding webs of activist support and education spun by the little Kalpulli network. It intends to reach and support like-minded people across all the Americas, or Turtle Island, as natives have called this land mass for centuries, hence the organization's title.
For years, Green Party expatriate Ray Tricomo has been pulling together people and ideas to form a new learning center and support system called Kalpulli Turtle Island Multiversity. After a failed run for office and many efforts to reach out to the people of the Twin Cities by teaching free college-level classes, Tricomo is pouring his abundant energy into working as Kalpulli's founder, rather than as a politician or part-time professor.
Kalpulli, an Aztec word meaning community, should become a household word among everyone seeking real community support and not the distanced, passive-aggressive, Minnesota nice 'community' that we're used to in our loosely supportive but highly structured society. The Kalpulli Board of Directors doesn't pretend that the typical role of 501(c)3 non-profit is going to cut it, when people of the Americas are facing species depletion, droughts, warming oceans, hyper-security states, hyper-surveillance, 'free' market economic coercion, and possible currency collapses.
Rather, they're trying to build a foundation that can connect and economically support the work of volunteers working for real change in real sustainable ways, like teaching people to garden and feed themselves and their neighbors, or like learning college-level skills for free through the Twin Cities Experimental College. Eventually they'll find the money to support low-power radio and stream relevant news on Radio Kalpulli, open a Kalpulli alternative library, and address the United Nations to support fundamental changes. Everyone in this foundation can have a unique yet equal, governing role, so everyone has a stake in its success. There is always room for more Board members, or Kalpullistas.
One of Tricomo's mottos is, "If Mr. and Mrs. Indigenous aren't at the table, I'm not at the table." The importance of indigenous people's voices to Kalpulli, and to anything aiming for sustainability, is paramount. Everyone, indigenous or not, is welcome to come brainstorm at monthly meetings, the next one being in St. Paul on Wednesday December 16.
www.kalpulli.net

Condoleezza Rice speaks about Iraq, Iran, Israel at Beth El Synagogue

Former Sec. of State speaks to high-paying audience in St. Louis Park, MN
(see video : http://twincities.indymedia.org/2009/nov/condi-chat-beth-el-brings-secret-permit-first-amendment-area-dissing-goldstone-anti-torture)
On Sunday night, November 8, Beth El Synagogue in St. Louis Park hosted Condoleezza Rice as this year's speaker in its National Speaker Series. She was National Security Adviser and then Secretary of State to the Bush administration, and was notably the first White House official to approve the torture, or 'harsh interrogation,' of 'enemy combatants' in 2002.
Anti-torture activists and dismayed Beth El congregants gathered on the sidewalk for a candle-lit vigil, remembering the victims of U.S.-sponsored torture. They chanted "Shame on Condi," waved anti-war signs and called for Condoleezza Rice's arrest for violating federal laws against torture. FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley was there to hand out the letters calling for Rice's arrest or questioning by the FBI. She tried to deliver this petition for arrest to local police who were monitoring protests, but they wouldn't take it.
Inside, Don Shelby, local news anchor, introduced Ms. Rice, drawing on his recent experience as a WCCO reporter embedded with the 34th Infantry Red Bull Division of the Minnesota National Guard. He spent 12 days in Iraq and kept an online blog for readers back at home. At the Beth El podium, he said that just 50 hours ago he was standing at the place where Abraham was born. He acknowledged Iraq as a holy place as well as the cradle of civilization, worth protecting-- militarily.
He then brought Ms. Rice to the stage facing a standing ovation in the packed sanctuary.
Ms. Rice said a special hello to "her friend" Norm Coleman, sitting in the third row, in the acknowledgment part of her speech. Coleman, a Republican who narrowly lost the race for U.S. Senator, was there with his wife, answering questions for the student press before the event began.
High school students from St. Louis Park, Minneapolis and the private Benilde-St. Margaret's schools filled two rows in the student section in the back. Best Buy's @15 program paid for their seats, as Elliot Badzin announced at the very beginning of the event.

Ms. Rice said that, now that she's out of office, she likes to pick up the paper every day and not have to worry about doing something about the headlines. She said we all need to pay attention to work that's important, not just urgent. She said we need to consider history's judgments more than the latest headlines.
She admitted historic mistakes that the US has made in the Middle East, pushing for stability in the Middle East instead of democracy-- and the world saw neither develop in the Middle East. She referred to Saddam Hussein, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Muslim radicals in her condemnation of tyrants around the world who make the world less secure. She said that countries could not hate on Hussein while hugging Hezbollah, which she regarded an illegitimate, though democratically elected, government of Lebanon. She expressed faith that Hezbollah will lose in coming elections, as will any regime that doesn't deliver for its people. I couldn't help drawing parallels to our own American regime...
Ms. Rice called the U.S.A. the greatest and most compassionate nation of all time, unique for its fairness to immigrants, melting pot, and social mobility, and said how fortunate it is that it's also the most powerful nation. She told of travels to countries that don't like the U.S.; how those that resented its wealth were later glad for that wealth when people were hungry and AIDS needed fighting; how those that resented its military were later glad for protection from the 'bad guys.' It was strange to hear the term 'bad guys' in the middle of such intelligent, confident rhetoric. When Rice asked "What if the bad guys win an election?" she was being no more specific than Bush when he defined 'terrorists' as anyone using violence for political means.
She talked about right and wrong being cut and dry in regards to the violent tragedies of terrorism. Later she talked about the military's work in Afghanistan as shifting between war and peacework: "war and peace are a continuum."

She demonstrated an awareness of Palestinian, Israeli, Iraqi and Afghan people who do want to live in peace and cooperation. She addressed old stereotypes that have kept U.S. policy from encouraging democracy abroad, saying that there was a time when Latin America was deemed not yet ready for democracy-- as if the people preferred juntas. She said there was a time when Africa was considered not ready for democracy, because its people were 'too tribal,' and there was a time when black Americans weren't considered ready for democracy, because they were 'too childlike.' She came across as pro-democracy when she declared such stances condescending, but didn't recognize how condescending it is for the U.S. to make such foreign policy decisions about which people are ready for what.
She rallied the applauding audience around her idea of a 'step up' that has happened in Iraq: a multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian government on the horizon for the new Parliament that even includes four women. She described U.S. troops' work as reinforcing Iraq's security forces, fostering opportunities for governance, and building bridges and roads, as Mr. Shelby had described the Army National Guard unit he observed as humanitarians.

She spoke out against human rights abuses, yet she said that there is no place in the civilized world for suicidal terrorists. This was consistent with the former Bush administration's treatment of terrorists as 'enemy combatants,' a separate sort of people, sub-human, worth imprisoning and torturing and abusing after taking away their human rights.
She said that Iran does have nuclear ambitions beyond nuclear power, for acquiring the nuclear bomb option. She also said that it's important for the U.S. to keep all options on the table, including its own nuclear program.

She called Israel America's most important ally, appeasing the audience of AIPAC members and others who view Israel as religiously important and vindicated. Ms. Rice noted that visiting Israel as an official had felt like going home to a place she'd never been. Clearly, her relevance to the Synagogue was in her expertise in Middle East policy and politics, which directly impacts Jewish people who live there and their families here.
Ushers passed out note cards to the rows of audience members, and accepted a few of them as questions to present to Ms. Rice.
The first question that Don Shelby, the moderator, read was that of whether or not war on Iraq was really part of the war on terror initiated by September 11 terrorist attacks. She quickly dived into her defense of targeting Iraq as the source of hate that fueled organized terrorist attacks, and her condemnation of Hussein as the main problem with Iraq. She said that she regretted that no WMDs were easily or quickly found there, as expected.
Other questions were just as pointed: Did she believe in the Human Rights Council's report on Israel's genocidal tactics, or was that report just another slam against Israel? ("I don't believe in anything the Human Rights Council does.") Did she think that China would eclipse America as an economic power? (No, but America "might eclipse itself.")

After an hour the speech and questions were over, the audience headed out to the parking lot, past chanting protesters, and VIP guests filed into the ballroom for private dinner with Ms. Rice.

Eviction on September 11

The Minneapolis Five and the Eviction on September 11
- by Becca and Lynette -

In the midst of the home foreclosure crisis, many homeowners succumb to feelings of guilt and inadequacy when they can't make mortgage payments, allowing banks to take back houses. The frequency of these land grabs by America's banks is a sign of deepening economic depression.
Still, some homeowners are fighting back. The Minneapolis Five have bravely emerged from the confusion of their foreclosures in the past year, and are publicly fighting to keep their homes.
They are long-term homeowners, unwilling to pick up and move in the middle of their lives, sick of being singled out either for being black or being women.
They are five middle-aged single women from metropolitan Minnesota, and, until September 11, they were all wondering if and when they'd be kicked out of their homes by sheriffs or police.
On September 11, 2009, beneath the hubbub of news surrounding the anniversary of New York terrorist attacks and a local policeman's death, the loud and proud Rosemary Williams was evicted from her house by police. She had made headlines twice before with the bold occupation of her foreclosed home, with family and local activists' support. Now she is the first of the Five to be escorted out of her house with all her belongings while police cover her windows and doors with sheet metal.
Rosemary Williams, 60, grew up on the Clinton Avenue block where her home was purchased 23 years ago. She lived there with her mother until she passed away 6 years ago, and Rosemary refinanced the home with an ARM so her siblings could
receive their portion of the estate. She became unemployed, found work again, and now continues her work and activism though homeless. She made a point of telling her story to the press, to nonprofits that purport to help people in foreclosure, to the unresponsive Mayor R. T. Rybak, and to First Lady Michelle Obama. When her home had already been once paid for, there was no reason for her to be kicked out over an ARM-- but GMAC, the mortgage company, seems to prefer its customers homeless and its assets revolving like musical chairs.
Rosemary's occupied house had become a hub of community gatherings, neighborhood watches, and activist press conferences. It was where the Five gathered to tell their stories to IndyMedia.

Linda Norenberg, also 60, lives on a Robbinsdale property that has been in her family since 1938. Linda's father built the home in 1944 on top of a basement where the family had been living for two years. Always a pillar of her community, she currently is employed and the grandmother of three, great-grandmother of three.

Linda refinanced once with a fixed rate mortgage. But the mortgagor kept calling: "Wouldn't you like to lower your rate?" So she refinanced to an ARM, not realizing until later that her minimum payment was not paying down the principal. After being laid off from her full-time job, she refinanced again in 2003 but was unable to obtain sufficient employment and began falling behind in payments. She received the foreclosure notice in November, 2007 and began looking for assistance right away.

She thought that the sheriff's sale had taken place Dec. 10 the of '08, but in fact it did not take place until Jan. 30, '09. Chase Bank didn't call back to to tell her this until February.she was told that their bank had put a freeze on foreclosures for the month of December. Linda's daughter Katie and her 3 kids ended up losing her apartment, so they all moved in at Christmas. Now three generations depend on this property that could be taken back at any moment.

Leslie Parks, 45, is resisting on behalf of her mother, Tecora. They both work full time. Leslie has lived in the upper level of her mother's duplex for 23 years. Tecora took out an ARM to cover upgrades to the windows in Leslie's duplex because the city ordered the improvements.
One night last winter well after dark, an employee of the bank who perhaps after knocking on the front door, went around to the back and threw rocks at her lighted window, shouting out "THIS BUILDING IS IN FORECLOSURE."
The experience threw Leslie into a high blood-pressure emergency. As she was coping, one night in May, before the sheriff's sale, she came home from work to find an illegal
lockbox on the door. She could not enter her own place even to feed her cats. She paid for a locksmith to break in and install new locks. PPEHRC paid filing fees so that she could press charges against Indy-MAC whose hired inspector made a big mistake, concluding that the property was vacant! The redemption period ends in late November and they are desperately in need of a pro-bono lawyer.

Barbara Byrd, 50, is a working woman whose duplex in Brooklyn Park was financed through EMC. The Bear Stearns Companies, LLC and its subsidiary, EMC Mortgage Corporation, recently agreed to pay $28 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they engaged in unlawful "predatory lending" practices in servicing consumers' home mortgage loans.

Barbara is to appear in Hennepin County district court Sept.16th to appeal her eviction. In March 2009 when Barbara lost her tennent and fell behind in her ever-rising payments, EMC made notary date-errors in the foreclosure documentation. During her June eviction hearing in housing court, the judge had assured her that should would not have to move. Still a 24-hour eviction was posted on her door July 6th, and Barbara spent sleepless nights for fear of being thrown out. Because she works nights, she isn't at home to witness when inspectors come peeking by to determine whether or not the property is vacant. She has to keep sticking her head out the window to prove that she is living there.

Ann Patterson, 40, is a mother of five. She worked for 19 years at the same hospital. She's never missed a payment on their house of 12 years. Looking ahead to see that six months down the road her ARM will balloon and they will not be able to make the payments, she has made several attempts to remodify with Wells Fargo without results. Any other programs including Habitat for Humanity turned her down because she is not yet in default. Scammers have approached her, and lawyers have demanded Two ( or more ) Thousand dollars up-front to aid her struggle for remodification to an affordable rate. The house supposedly is worth $169,000. The paperwork for each application is a burden, and clerks often lose some of the documents or claim that they never rececived them. The emotional toll of worry for her is heavy and she is losing hope.
http://www.youtube.com/user/glassbeadian#p/u/10/YGZCXaXSbbA

Representative Ellison's Record

What does it mean to vote 'Present?'
It's got to be better for a Congressman to vote 'Present' than to ditch work, or to submit themselves as 'Not Voting' because of emotional attachment or other concerns.
But isn't it better to take a stand on something than just to vote 'Present?'
My representative in the U.S. House was faced with a Resolution about Israel and Palestine early this year, and he chose not to take a stand.
On January 9, 390 Representatives passed this Congressional position saying that Israel has a right to defend itself against attacks from the Gaza Strip-- implying that this ally should send rockets back at the impoverished, sanctioned people trapped in the Strip-- and Rep. Ellison from Minnesota merely said 'Present.'
As the only Muslim in the House, why could he not say NO to the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people for their religion, their ethnicity, and their claim to the land? Is our well-armed ally, Israel, really so threatened by bottle rockets from little reservations, shooting over the 20-foot wall that separates these peoples?

A young woman at my workplace shared her insight about Rep. Ellison, as one of his former Muslim Minneapolitan campaign workers. She and fellow ex-campaigners visited Ellison at his office in the Minneapolis Urban League, asking simple questions about policy towards Palestine-- he yelled at them in response and ended their meeting. According to this angry young woman, he yelled, "DON'T PUT WORDS IN MY MOUTH! DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO SAY!"

He's our representative in the government, and that's all we can hope to do.

I also hoped to visit Rep. Ellison at his local office, concerning funding for green jobs. Along with some very concerned constituents and both MoveOn.org & H.I.R.E. organizers, we filed into his office in February and gave our petition to a staff member. She heard us out, but the Representative was not 'present.'

Perhaps when the numbers of dead and displaced in Palestine match the numbers killed and displaced in Darfur by Sudan, Ellison will step forward. In the middle of April, Ellison was arrested for protesting for the first time-- outside the Sudanese embassy in D.C. He and four other Congressmen and women thought that genocide in Darfur was worth crossing a police line and paying a $100 fine for.
According to WCCO:

"I have never done this before and its not the kind of thing I plan on doing in the near future. But given the gravity of the situation, the massive numbers of people whose lives were at risk, I thought it necessary to take this action," said Ellison after his release.

http://wcco.com/national/keith.ellison.arrested.2.995458.html