A new year of new knowledge

Happy New Year! As we rest this winter and build up momentum for 2011, it's a great time to learn.

In January a new semester of free college-level classes begins here in the Twin Cities of Minnesota:

check out the ever-changing Experimental College's website:

www.excotc.org

for a long list of all the diverse community-based offerings coming up in spring. I'm planning further discussion groups in the Ex.Co. format, and an educational retreat to Wisconsin concerning sustainable design! More info. soon!

In summer, students of life and facilitators of free knowledge gathered for an Ex.Co. party in Powderhorn Park. It was a great time had by all, full of music and cross-cultural meetings, and now we finally have a video to show you what it was like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqKNcXQMW7s

Please see the above hip, fun video to get an overview of Ex.Co. enthusiasm and class summary presentations-- among them was my skit about requesting files from the FBI through the Freedom of Information Act, exemplifying the class content of last spring's IndyMedia classes which I co-taught.

For a more in-depth explanation of Ex.Co, take a listen to co-founder David Boehnke's talk here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLRZRfNfSZg&feature=related

Reminiscent of the TED Talks, this brief presentation shares the revolutionary dynamic tenet of Ex.Co. with the Solutions Conference Volume 3:

"Anyone can take or teach a class, & all classes are free."

Still more Ex.Co. class videos are online at www.excotc.blip.tv

Stolen Lives Ceremony, One Month Later

Every October 22, concerned citizens across America march against police brutality & remember the many lives stolen by police shootings, tasers, & chemical weaponry over the years.
Nationally, there have been well over 2000 Stolen Lives in the last 10 years.
This year, Communities United Against Police Brutality led a large group down to the Fifth Precinct Police station in Minneapolis, Minnesota, gaining the support of everyone who drove by and honked, & who stopped and listened as all the names of the Minnesota dead were read aloud.
Victims of fatal police brutality were honored by having their names & life dates placed on the police station steps, like rows of tombstones. Regrettably, several of them were nameless, unidentified homeless people who police killed without documenting them or giving much thought.
The officers inside watched & did nothing; the officers outside watched from their cars and cautiously followed the march of Minneapolitans along blocks parallel to their route.
Since the march last month, the nights have gotten longer, colder and lonelier in Minnesota. Minneapolis police have not responded in any way to the demands of the people-- probably they have their hands full now that the False Reporting on Police Brutality statute has been overturned, & lawsuits are being brought against them by black cops over racism and abuse, as well as by citizens demanding that Police Chief Dolan follow the law and punish abusive officers.
To see the list of those we remember, the victims we speak out for:
See this List & Memorial.

Complicit in Torture: University of St. Thomas defends its star Law Professor

Law students headed to class Monday morning at the University of St. Thomas School of Torture-- so called by anti-torture activists waiting outside.

At 10:30 am on August 30, Professor Robert Delahunty taught his first class of the school year at the School of Law, but not without facing the protesters on his way to work. An activist group called Tackling Torture at the Top was there to educate the public about Delahunty's role in the Bush administration, paving the way for CIA and military torture as a tool against terrorists.

See video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_rwq6-Pc8Y

Delahunty, as a member of the Office of Legal Counsel, wrote legal memos supporting presidential war powers under the Constitution is a higher law than any treaty, intimating that the president can use his Constitutional war powers to override treaties.
"As the Nation's representative in foreign affairs, the President has a variety of constitutional powers with respect to treaties, including the powers to suspend them, withhold performance of them, contravene them or terminate them."

-Yoo and Delahunty, Application of Treaties and Laws to al Qaeda and Taliban Detainees.

His legal opinion denies that the Geneva Conventions apply to non-state actors or enemy combatants. His legal memos built upon other legal decisions and memos, and they in turn were expanded upon by the John Yoo/Jay Bybee legal memos. Those explicitly permitted torture and water-boarding by redefining torture as anything that pushes the body to organ failure or death.

For a physical act to constitute torture, "It must be of an intensity akin to that which accompanies serious physical injury such as death or organ failure."
-Bybee, Standards of Conduct for Interrogation under 18 USC SS 2340-2340A
After the Obama administration released the "torture memos" for the world to see in April 2009, anti-torture activists and law students alike read them in horror. Thousands of Americans pressed Attorney General Eric Holder to prosecute the officials who allowed for torture, through petitions, calls and demonstrations. However, the Obama administration would not go forward with prosecutions, claiming that they had to "look forward" and not back.

As the T3 activists waved their flags outside the law school, they talked to several passers-by who expressed their familiarity with the torture memos.

The activists have brought their concerns to Delahunty as well as to the University of St. Thomas' Law School Dean Mengler and its Board of Governors.

Delahunty went by without comment, today as usual, but the Board of Governors did respond to the group's complaints and letters and protests of the past few years. Last week, the Chair of the University Law School's Board of Governors, Laurence Fl LeJeune, wrote to the group with full awareness of the controversy around Delahunty, and in full support of him as a law professor at this Catholic, ethics-centered University.

Mr. LeJeune noted that they have been very well advised by Dean Dr. Mengler and others of the facts about Delahunty and they are very satisfied with him as an employee. As has been noted by Dean Mengler, they feel that Delahunty has served "four presidential administrations, and other institutions with distinction. His impressive academic and professional record can be found on the School of Law website.” He noted too how "the graduating class of 2010 selected Professor Delahunty as its Professor of the Year - for his excellence as a teacher and scholar, and for the many ways in which he works with and supports our students."

Individuals on the Law School Board of Trustees have also been contacted. Neither the Board of Governors nor the Board of Trustees will meet with T3. These individuals influence not only the University but the larger community and economy as well: among the highest paid CEO's in Minnesota in 2008 were two UST Board of Trustees members. The Star Tribune then listed Stephen Hemsley of United Health Group as 5th highest paid, and George Buckley of 3M as 13th highest paid.

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