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LGBT

SPLC: ‘Black Folks, NOM Wants To Use You’

By Zack Ford on Mar 28, 2012 at 9:33 am

The Southern Poverty Law Center was quick to add its voice to those decrying the National Organization for Marriage’s confidential memos that recommend creating racial divisions to fight marriage equality, but directed its message directly at its black constituents:

Black folks, this is a message for you: The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the country’s preeminent group fighting against same-sex marriage, really, really likes you. They even want to make some of you famous!

Have NOM’s principal leaders, former president Maggie Gallagher and current leader Brian S. Brown, stood up for African Americans before? Well, not so much. But it turns out that they’ve decided that you’re actually very important.

It turns out that the SPLC had already planned to publish a separate post yesterday exposing how NOM avoids taking responsibility for its anti-gay messaging by simply linking to others’ antagonistic content on its blog:

Maggie Gallagher and Brian Brown have repeatedly claimed that they are simply trying to protect marriage, that they bear no animus toward LGBT people or their sexual orientations. But again and again, signs of such animus have crept into the material issued by NOM: scary warnings about pedophilia, “addictive behavior,” “jihads” against Christians and so on. Now, as pressure ratchets up on opponents of same-sex marriage — Maryland this year became the eighth state to approve such unions, even as a federal judge found the anti-same-sex-marriage Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional — it remains to be seen whether NOM can avoid following other religious-right groups into a world of untrammeled hate.

What the confidential documents show is that NOM’s public relations are spun to sound innocent, but anti-gay animus is clearly the intent behind its race-wedging, parent-scaring tactics, just like it is for all of its conservative partners in crime. As Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) said in his response, “Our nation was founded on the principle of liberty and justice for all people—regardless of race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. NOM is clearly opposed to these basic ideals that so many Americans hold dear.” In the past, diverse communities may have been fooled by NOM’s malicious ideas, but now is the time to unite for the equality and fair treatment of all people.

Economy

Occupiers Help Minneapolis Woman Stave Off Freddie Mac Foreclosure Proceedings

By Travis Waldron on Mar 5, 2012 at 6:15 pm

Occupy Homes MN and a coalition of faith leaders and community organizations are claiming a small victory in Minneapolis today after helping local resident Monique White stay in her home, despite attempts from Freddie Mac and U.S. Bank to evict her during foreclosure proceedings. Freddie Mac had previously defied the state attorney general’s order to halt foreclosure proceedings and pursued an eviction, which would have taken place today.

But after a meeting between White’s attorneys, local officials, and Freddie Mac representatives, a hearing on the foreclosure has been moved to Friday, according to a press release from Occupy Our Homes MN.

White, like millions of American homeowners, fell behind on her mortgage and had applied for a loan modification with U.S. Bank, the original servicer of her loan. The modification was denied, however, and Freddie Mac took control of the loan and initiated court proceedings to foreclose on the home. Occupy Homes MN, the attorney general’s office, and White’s attorneys are now investigating the case to see if White’s mortgage and modification applications were mishandled by either U.S. Bank or Freddie Mac, a spokesperson for Occupy Homes MN told ThinkProgress.

“We’re looking to find evidence of mishandling of the foreclosure practices by Freddie Mac or U.S. Bank,” the spokesperson, Anthony Newby, said. “We believe they did not negotiate in good faith. It’s unclear why she was turned down (for the modification), when she was turned down. All of that is up in the air.”

According to Newby, White currently works two retail jobs and lives with a relative who is also willing to make payments toward the mortgage if it gets a modification. White has lived in the house in north Minneapolis since 2003, but sought the modification after losing an earlier job as a counselor helping troubled teens.

Her case has also received support from Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), who represents the district in which she lives. Citing privacy reasons, Ellison’s office declined to comment on action he had taken on behalf of White, but he released a statement today, saying, “I encourage US Bank and Freddie Mac to act in good faith and negotiate a solution that works well for all parties and allows Monique and her children to keep their home.”

North Minneapolis is among the worst hit areas in the state for foreclosures. According to Newby, 56 percent of North Minneapolis homes are facing foreclosure, and 40 percent of the Minneapolis’s foreclosures occurred there. White, who is black, is also facing a dilemma many minority homeowners have faced. According to a report by the Center on Responsible Lending, black and Latino homeowners were twice as likely to have been affected by the housing crisis as white borrowers.

Security

Rep. Ellison: It’s ‘Impossible To Not Hear The Drumbeat Of War With Iran’

By Ben Armbruster on Feb 17, 2012 at 11:23 am

While Senate hawks are pushing a resolution that some have interpreted as “creeping toward an authorization of military force against Iran,” lawmakers in the House are starting a campaign to promote a diplomatic solution to prevent the Islamic Republic from acquiring nuclear weapons. Reps. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Walter Jones (R-NC) are asking House members to sign on to a letter urging Presidnet Obama not to start a war with Iran.

In an impassioned speech on the House floor yesterday, Ellison quoted Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, former Israeli intelligence chief Meir Dagan, and retired General Anthony Zinni all warning of the consequences of attacking Iran. “It would be unwise for the United States to enter into a new war just as we’re ending two others,” he said:

If you listen to the rhetoric around Washington and the Nation, Mr. Speaker, it is literally impossible to not hear the drumbeat of war with Iran. The rhetoric in Washington about the military strike against Iran leads me to think that we may be sliding into a new war yet. … [W]henever you speak against a war, your patriotism is challenged and your courage is challenged until they find out that you were right. [...]

But the heated rhetoric we hear around our city and the events on the world stage are deeply troubling, Mr. Speaker. News headlines read, “The Coming Attack on Iran.” Pundits discuss the possibility with shocking casualness, and I am alarmed by this.

America, we have seen this movie before, and, Mr. Speaker, it doesn’t end well. Two months after leaving Iraq, we have already forgotten the consequences of war it appears. If you need a reminder, talk to a veteran or a veteran’s widow.

Watch the speech:

As Ellison noted in his speech, Iran with nuclear weapons threatens regional security and international nonproliferation norms. But the Minnesota congressman is right. The drumbeat for war with Iran is getting louder and longer, particularly on Capitol Hill and out on the GOP presidential campaign trail.

But, just like the prelude to war in Iraq, it’s also made its way into the mainstream media. “Haven’t we seen this movie before?” the Huffington Post’s Michael Calderone asks in a story today. “It sure feels like 2002 for anyone who was around then and is now scanning newspaper headlines or watching TV talking-heads discuss a possible Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities — an act which could pull the U.S. into another thorny Middle East military conflict.”

While the IAEA has expressed serious concern about military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper during Senate testimony yesterday repeated his position that Iran has not yet decided whether to develop a nuclear weapon. (HT: Lara Friedman)

NEWS FLASH

Co-Chairs Of Congressional Progressive Caucus Support Adding Marriage Equality To Democratic Platform | Momentum continues to grow for including marriage equality in this year’s Democratic Party platform, as the co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus add their support. Reps. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Keith Ellison (D-MN) have joined Freedom to Marry’s “Democrats: Say, I Do!” campaign in a letter today, calling upon the Democratic Party to “respect all families in the party platform”:

 

Security

Rep. Keith Ellison Urges Congress To Continue Funding Palestinian Sesame Street

By Eli Clifton on Jan 24, 2012 at 4:56 pm

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) today appealed to House members to unfreeze Palestinian aid and continue funding for Palestinian Sesame Street. Ellison, in remarks delivered on the House floor, spoke of the benefits of funding Palestinian Sesame Street and the dangerous television shows competing for children’s attention in the West Bank and Gaza.

Holding an Elmo doll, Ellison argued for continuing U.S. funding of the popular children’s show:

This guy taught us our 123’s, but he also taught us tolerance and understanding.

For the past several years, he’s been doing the same for children in the Palestinian Territories. Because of Sesame Street in Palestine, Palestinian kids grow up with the same positive role models that we did.

But with the freeze on Palestinian aid funds, Sesame Street went off the air and Hamas children’s programming faces less competition. Ellison warned:

Now, Palestinian kids are left watching Farfour – this mouse – who is the main character on a Hamas TV show for children. Instead of tolerance and understanding, Farfour promotes violence and anti-Semitism.

Watch it:

Since October, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) has held up $190 million in Palestinian aid. The decision to freeze aid came after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sought U.N. recognition for an independent Palestinian state. “By providing the Palestinians with $2.5 billion over the last 5 years, the U.S. has only rewarded and reinforced their bad behavior,” Ros-Lehtinen said.

J Street, the “Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace” organization, supports unfreezing Palestinian aid, issued a statement last week calling on Ros-Lehtinen to “Lift the remaining holds on Palestinian aid — don’t punish Palestinian children with political posturing.”

NEWS FLASH

YouTube Pulls ‘Shocking and Disgusting’ Anti-Islamic Ad Against Rep. Keith Ellison | Last week, Gary Boisclair, a challenger to Islamic Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), posted a deeply bigoted anti-Islamic ad which juxtaposes heavily edited quotes from the Qur’an alongside graphic images of mass atrocities, and falsely claims that Islam’s holy text calls for Christians to “have their hands and feet cut off” or to be “crucified and killed.” Shortly after the ad went up, however, YouTube pulled it from its site for violating its “policy on shocking and disgusting content.” The ad, which concludes by attacking Ellison for “swearing an oath on a Qur’an, a book that undermines our Constitution and says that you should be killed” can be viewed here:

Justice

Rep. Keith Ellison Shows A Way Forward On Voting Rights

By Ian Millhiser on Nov 7, 2011 at 1:10 pm

In state after state, conservative officials are waging a war on voting by enacting laws that serve no purpose other than to make it harder for people to participate in our democracy. These include everything from “voter ID” laws that disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of student, minority and low-income voters, to laws attacking early voting, to laws making it harder to register to vote, to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett’s (R) shockingly audacious plan to rig the Electoral College to prevent President Obama from winning in 2012.

This war on voting has not gone unchallenged — 196 House members, for example, wrote to state elections officials last week urging them to “put partisan considerations aside and serve as advocates for enfranchisement” — but merely fighting to block the most audacious vote suppressing effort since Jim Crow is not enough. If Americans who actually believe in democracy do nothing more than play defense, the inevitable trend will be towards greater and greater disenfranchisement.

Which is why two bills introduced by Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) last week are so important. The first, dubbed the “Voter Access Protection Act of 2011,” provides that “a State or local election official may not…require an individual to present a photo identification…as a condition of obtaining or casting a ballot in an election for Federal office,” thus restoring voting rights to the many thousands of people disenfranchised by voter ID laws. The second bill, the ‘‘Same Day Registration Act’’ does exactly what the name of the bill would suggest:

[E]ach State shall permit any eligible individual on the day of a Federal election and on any day when voting, including early voting, is permitted for a Federal election—

(A) to register to vote in such election at the polling place using a form that meets the requirements under section 9(b) of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993; and

(B) to cast a vote in such election.

It is unlikely that these bills will pass given the Congress’ current makeup, but Ellison still deserves a great deal of praise for introducing them. They send an important message that democracy cannot be defended simply by pushing back against laws that would thwart it — it must be aggressively expanded by laws that make it easier for American’s to participate in elections. Moreover, while these bills are likely to die in the federal legislature during the 112th Congress, there is no reason why states cannot follow Ellison’s lead by enacting same-day registration on their own and by passing state constitutional amendments protecting the right to vote.

NEWS FLASH

VIDEO: Rep. Keith Ellison Explains Why The 99 Percent Are Protesting | The 99 Percent Movement, which in many ways has few parallels in American history, has puzzled pundits and politicians alike. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, uploaded a video to YouTube to explain where the movement comes from. “Americans all across this country, they’re not mad because some people are rich,” says Ellison. “They’re mad because they got ripped off.” Watch it:

By Zaid Jilani on Nov 7, 2011 at 12:15 pm

NEWS FLASH

Reps. Ellison, Carson Press Hamas To Release Israeli Soldier | Reps. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Andre Carson (D-IN) joined with fellow American-Muslims in a letter to Hamas leader Khaled Mashal urging the release of an Israeli soldier captured five years ago. “[W]e urge you to act upon our higher calling to charity and compassion by releasing Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit,” wrote the group, appealing to the Muslim tradition of compassion during the holy month of Ramadan. Shalit is believed to be alive and kept in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas holds de facto authority since a 2007 counter-coup.

NEWS FLASH

Rep. Peter King Denies Rep. Keith Ellison’s Request To Testify At Radicalization Hearing | Today, Rep. Peter King (R-NY) will hold another in a series of hearings looking at Muslim radicalization. Despite the fact that today’s hearing focuses on Somali-Americans joining Al Shabab, a Somalia-based militant group, King denied Rep. Keith Ellison’s (D-MN) request to testify before the committee. Ellison represents Minneapolis, Minnesota, which has a major Somali-American population. Ellison’s powerful and effective testimony before King’s first hearing about Muslim radicalization may be part of the reason he was turned down to testify before this one.

By Zaid Jilani on Jul 27, 2011 at 9:30 am

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