Banking : Independence and the Texas Patels

Posted on July 6, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

A rupee saved is a rupee earned.

In contrast to the frozen giants of global finance who drag us every day down closer to the next bottom… the Texas Patels are moving their Dallas banking enterprise into competition with billion-dollar Chicago houses, actually making finance possible for one of the toughest sectors of the 2009 depression.

By Greg Moses / The Rag Blog / July 6, 2009

Over the Fourth of July weekend 2009, Chandrakant “Chan” Patel became a Dallas banker. But if you’ve never been to a Dallas men’s club meeting it may be difficult for you to grasp what that means.

Born in India in 1945, Patel — according to his official bio — earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Engineering from Bombay University, then emigrated to the USA where he became a citizen in 1965. He earned masters degrees at Stanford and Johns Hopkins before embarking on a business career in 1976 as a hotel owner and operator.

By 1987 Patel’s ambitions had become cramped by Dallas-area bankers who seemed to understand neither the hotel business nor the Indian community, so he put together a bank with about $2 million of family money.

From the time Patel opened the State Bank of Texas (SBT) in late 1987, he has steadily grown the enterprise into three suburban locations in Irving, Garland, and Richardson.

Then, on July 2, with the acquisition of the short-lived Millennium Bank of Texas — which was closed by the FDIC and sold to Patel’s bank — the Indian-born entrepreneur finally put his banking footprint down inside the Dallas city limits.

Ironically enough, reports the Dallas Business Journal’s Chad Eric Watt, Patel will soon be losing his Irving bank headquarters. It will be razed by the Texas Department of Transportation in order to widen Airport Freeway.

With the closing of Georgia’s Haven Trust Bank in late 2008, Patel’s SBT became the third largest “Indian Bank” in the USA, behind two billion-dollar operations in Chicago: Mutual Bank and the legendary National Republic (see an excellent overview of the players by Lavina Melwani at Little India dot com.)

According to FDIC figures, SBT reported first quarter average assets of $589 million. The Millennium acquisition will add $118 million in assets, says the FDIC, bringing the value of Patel’s bank to over $700 million.

Patel’s Fourth of July gambit into Dallas banking says something doubly remarkable about his business skills and the role of immigrant entrepreneurs in the recovering economy of the USA.

On the matter of Patel’s business skills, the prudent observer will want to wait about two more years to see how he fares a widely predicted cyclone in commercial real estate and the hotel sector.

Just a day before the FDIC announced the transfer of Millennium’s assets to Patel, the entire hotel sector was downgraded from “Neutral” to “Negative” by Barclay Capital analyst Felicia Hendrix.

“While the industry declines should be less negative next year, we do not expect to see positive growth until at least 2011,” said Hendrix in a report filed by the AP.

A good example of Patel’s challenge can be found in a February dispatch out of Florida in which Patel’s bank was reported to be filing a foreclosure lawsuit against a $13 million dollar property east of the Tampa Convention Center.

The lawsuit was filed against Indian entrepreneurs who — like so many others those days — thought they were picking up property at bargain rates in 2006, before the real estate bubble burst.

The report from the Tampa Bay Business Journal implies that Patel has worked out a modified agreement with the Tampa entrepreneurs.

Another report from Chad Eric Watt of the Dallas Business Journal indicates that Patel is still scouring the hotel business for promising leads. In a June 26 story, Watt reports that the Texas Patels are being sued for unscrupulous bidding practices by the Georgia Patels — the same Georgia Patels who lost the Haven Trust Bank last year.

According to federal court documents, the Texas Patels outbid the Georgia Patels by $20,000 for a note on a property that the Georgia Patels owned and operated. But this was after the Texas Patels said they could not finance the lower bid that the Georgia Patels were planning to make. Federal Judge Robert L. Vining, Jr. has given the Texas Patels until July 22 to answer the charges.

It seems that the Texas Patels — who by the way are not without their J.R. — have never been too proud to earn money the old fashioned way. As Michael Davis of the Dallas Progressive Blog is fond of remembering, the Texas Patels have admitted to the Dallas Morning News that they sometimes charge hotel fees by the hour.

As I recall, it was a license plate study of Dallas motels back in the 1950’s that first revealed the hot data that most Dallas motel customers were in fact from the Dallas area. In attempting to verify my memory I checked a prestigious academic database for key words “sex, motel, Dallas” and only came up with one hi t– a plot summary for the Mike Judge classic, Beavis and Butthead Do America.

Which brings us back to the Fourth of July in all of its red, white, and blueness. Somehow a code is working itself out in the symbolic collision of Patel, Millennium, State Bank of Texas, and the Fourth of July. You see, it’s not Cowboys leading the charge for the New American Dream anymore, it’s the Indians.

In contrast to the frozen giants of global finance who drag us every day down closer to the next bottom rather than up to the next top, the Texas Patels are moving their Dallas banking enterprise into competition with billion-dollar Chicago houses, actually making finance possible for one of the toughest sectors of the 2009 depression.

By the light of the Patel example we have a right to ask: how many more immigrant entrepreneurs are out there who only need a respectful certificate of citizenship to begin hauling this country up again by its own financial bootstraps? The spirit of independence, remember?

[Greg Moses is editor of the Texas Worker and the Texas Civil Rights Review, where this article also appears. Greg is a regular contributor to The Rag Blog. He can be reached at gmosesx@gmail.com .]

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Treatment of Homeless Kids : Texas is DEAD LAST

Posted on July 6, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

This map shows state rankings on the issue of homeless children. Click on image to enlarge. For an interactive version, go here.

In the grand tradition:
Texas is dead last in its treatment of homeless children

By Roger Baker / The Rag Blog / July 6, 2009

Texas is one of those states like Mississippi that tends to rank up near the top in things that are bad, and way near the bottom in things that are are good, especially concerning things that take money to fix. Texas has a governor, Rick Perry, who is now leading a crusade against taxes to get reelected, with predictable results on the neediest citizens.

Now Texas has done it again by ranking DEAD LAST among all fifty states in how Texas treats its homeless children. Children cost money to house and feed, and of course they can’t vote. Go here to see the report card explaining how all the states rank:

To get the details for Texas, go here for either an executive summary or a more detailed report:

Here are some lowlights of the report on child homelessness in Texas:

Minimum wage: $6.55
Average wage for renters: $14.94
Hourly wage needed to rent a 2 bedroom apartment: $15.02

High school graduation rate for homeless children — 25%

under 6 years of age = 141,584
Grades K-8, enrolled = 164,086
Grades 9-12, enrolled = 31,484
Total = 337,105

Total housing units available for homeless families. 3,694
Extent of child homelessness. Rank: # 49
Child well-being. Rank: # 44
Risk for child homelessness # 50
State policy and planning: Inadequate
Overall rank. #50 (50 is worst)

Percent of uninsured children: 21.8%
Funds allocated to schools for education of homeless children: $16

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If It Can Happen in Port Angeles, Washington, It Can Happen Anywhere, USA

Posted on July 6, 2009 by RagBlog


July 4th demonstrator’s cry: Health care now!
By Tim Wheeler / July 5, 2009

PORT ANGELES, WA. — Thousands of onlookers stood and applauded along the July 4 parade route in this paper-mill town as marchers walked by with banners demanding health-care reform and chanting “48 million uninsured. SHAME!” and “Health Care Now!”

There were the obligatory floats with the royalty of the Clallam County Fair and the Sequim Lavender Festival waving at the crowd. There were many gleaming fire engines and antique cars and tractors. An honor guard of the U.S. Coast Guard at the Ediz Hook Station led the way. Candidates for City Council were also out in force. The Victoria, B.C. Police Department came by ferry across the Strait of Juan de Fuca with their bagpipers who piped “Amazing Grace” as they marched in their tartan kilts.

But by far the biggest hit was two contingents marching for national health care, the League of Women Voters and Reform Health Care Now, a coalition that includes the Clallam County Democratic Party, the Green Party, Veterans for Peace, and other progressive organizations on the Olympic Peninsula.

Dottie Nicassio, a retiree from Sequim stole the show. She marched dressed in a hospital gown open at the rear with comically large plastic buttocks flashing in the bright sun. Her placard read, “Inadequate Coverage.” Walking arm-in-arm with her was Lou Templeton, leader of the League of Women Voters, modestly attired and wearing a placard, “I’m fully covered with singlepayer Medicare.”

Another placard proclaimed, “72 Percent Support Public Option.”

A U.S. Army veteran dressed in combat fatigues, marched with her little boy behind the banner of Veterans for Peace. Her stroller was decorated with signs that said, “Health Care Not Warfare,” and “Support the Troops, Bring them Home.”

The march here echoed a message from the White House. In his Fourth of July broadcast, President Obama hailed patriots in the War of Independence who did not “wilt or cower” in the face of tyranny. He called on the people to end the nation’s “unsustainable health care system that is imposing crushing costs on families…. No more talk, no more delay. Health care reform must happen this year.”

Health Care for America Now initiated a petition, “Declare Your Independence from the Insurance Industry” demanding “real health care reform in 2009, with coverage I can afford, benefits that I can count on, a public health insurance option to give me choice, and equal access to quality care.”

Earlier, many of of the same crowd marched about 50 miles west in the “Old Time Fourth of July Parade” in Forks, WA, “Logging Capital of the World.”

And indeed, there were many logging trucks loaded with big logs bound for the Allen Logging Company saw mill just outside Forks. One truck was groaning under the weight of huge old-growth Douglas fir driven up from Springfield, Oregon to join the parade. Lance Slyter was driving a trucks that idled along highway 101 through Forks. Asked if the economic recession has affected production he told the World, “We’re down to one shift. We used to have two, so yes, it’s the slow-down.” Unemployment means millions are losing their employer-based health insurance.

Forks is trying to capitalize on the “Twilight” best-selling novels by Stephanie Meyers featuring a family of vampires that settles in the rain-soaked town in the west-end of Clallam County.

Four local teenagers stepped forward as the march was assembling to ask if they could carry signs in the parade. Willie Hatch, a member of the Quileute tribe, from Lapush, held up a sign that read, “Medicare Para Todos! (Medicare for All).” Nehemiah Tejano walked with a sign, “Stop Drug Company Ripoffs!”

But Alvaro Ortiz, a 6th grader, drew the most laughter and applause holding a hand-lettered red sign, “Vampires Need Healthcare Too!”

Retired teacher, Bill Kildall, coordinator of the Reform Health Care Now Coalition, was over the moon on the positive feedback from the crowd. “There are plenty of people in Clallam County, people right here in Forks, who have no health insurance,” he told the World as he marched. “We aren’t going to be marginalized by the insurance companies and the rightwingers. Health Care is a human right, not a privilege.”

Source / People’s Weekly World

Thanks to Diane Stirling-Stevens / The Rag Blog

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Barack Obama’s Encouragement of Our Activism

Posted on July 6, 2009 by RagBlog


President Obama, My Response To Your Fourth of July Letter
By Linda Milazzo / July 5, 2009

Yesterday morning I received the following letter from President Barack Obama:

“Linda —

This weekend, our family will join millions of others in celebrating America. We will enjoy the glow of fireworks, the taste of barbeque, and the company of good friends. As we all celebrate this weekend, let’s also remember the remarkable story that led to this day.

Two hundred and thirty-three years ago, our nation was born when a courageous group of patriots pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to the proposition that all of us were created equal.

Our country began as a unique experiment in liberty — a bold, evolving quest to achieve a more perfect union. And in every generation, another courageous group of patriots has taken us one step closer to fully realizing the dream our founders enshrined on that great day.

Today, all Americans have a hard-fought birthright to a freedom which enables each of us, no matter our views or background, to help set our nation’s course. America’s greatness has always depended on her citizens embracing that freedom — and fulfilling the duty that comes with it.

As free people, we must each take the challenges and opportunities that face this nation as our own. As long as some Americans still must struggle, none of us can be fully content. And as America comes ever closer to achieving the perfect Union our founders dreamed, that triumph — that pride — belongs to all of us.

So today is a day to reflect on our independence, and the sacrifice of our troops standing in harm’s way to preserve and protect it. It is a day to celebrate all that America is. And today is a time to aspire toward all we can still become.

With very best wishes,

President Barack Obama

July 4th, 2009

P.S. — Our nation’s birthday is also an ideal time to consider serving in your local community. You can find many great ideas for service opportunities near you at http://www.serve.gov.”

One part in particular screamed out at me:

“As free people, we must each take the challenges and opportunities that face this nation as our own. As long as some Americans still must struggle, none of us can be fully content.”

As an active participant in our democracy who works to lessen the burdens of the oppressed, I take the President’s challenge seriously – and personally. I view it as his encouragement of my activism. In return, I request that the President provide we who participate in our democracy every protection granted by our Constitution to challenge those policies with which we disagree.

I also ask the President to stand with us to end our government’s collusion with war profiteers who create weapons of destruction and fill their coffers with our money. I ask the President to replace the obscenity of war with the audacity of peace. I ask the President to stand with us to put public interest above corporate greed, and to put our health above all else.

Mr. President, on this Fourth of July when you write to Americans and ask us to “take the challenges and opportunities that face this nation as our own,” I remind you of a quote by Thomas Jefferson:

“Liberty is to the collective body, what health is to every individual body. Without health no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society.”

Mr. President, without health, Americans can’t enjoy their liberty. Without health, our teachers can’t teach and our learners can’t learn. Without health, our parents can’t parent. Without health, our builders can’t build. Without health, our health practitioners can’t practice. Without health, our society can’t thrive.

Mr. President, since your primary responsibility is to protect the American people, as President you must be aware that private insurers place money values above human values. Our government has long sanctioned this practice, which Mr. President, should not be the American way. Private insurers and self-interested pharmaceutical companies are more a danger to Americans than the foreign governments and individuals our military engage. Americans who can’t seek medical treatment because of lack of insurance battle the war of untended illness. Many die. This, Sir, should not be the American way.

Thomas Jefferson also said:

“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.”

I accept your challenge, Mr. President, to participate in my democracy and to be as Mr. Jefferson said, a “safe depository” for our democracy. I will work hard to bring about much needed change and I expect the same of you.

If you stand with me, Mr. President, I will gladly stand with you. If you stand with our corporate oppressors — then, Sir, you must be challenged.

[Linda Milazzo (pimbalina@mac.com) is a Los Angeles based writer, educator and activist.]

Source / Common Dreams

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Study : Coffee a Cure for Alzheimer’s?

Posted on July 6, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

Drink coffee: Don’t forget.

Researchers at the University of Florida believe there may be an incredibly simple solution to the Alzheimer’s problem — coffee.

By Ted McLaughlin / The Rag Blog / July 5, 2009

According to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (AFA), “Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, degenerative disorder that attacks the brain’s nerve cells, or neurons, resulting in loss of memory, thinking and language skills, and behavioral changes.” They go on to say, “Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia, or loss of intellectual function, among people aged 65 and older.”

It is believed that the disease is caused by “two types of abnormal lesions clog the brains of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease: Beta-amyloid plaques -— sticky clumps of protein fragments and cellular material that form outside and around neurons; and neurofibrillary tangles — insoluble twisted fibers composed largely of the protein tau that build up inside nerve cells.”

Currently, there is no cure for Alzheimer’s. AFA estimates that between 2.4 and 4.5 million Americans now have the disease. With the large number of “Baby Boomers” now starting to reach retirement age, it is expected the disease will mushroom. As many as 16 million Americans could have the disease by the middle of this century.

That is a terrifying vision, especially since there is no cure. But there may be a bit of light at the end of the tunnel. Researchers at the University of Florida believe there may be an incredibly simple solution to the Alzheimer’s problem — coffee (caffeine).

The Florida researchers have been doing tests on mice bred to have Alzheimer’s. According to the BBC, “First the researchers used behavioural tests to confirm the mice were exhibiting signs of memory impairment when they were aged 18 to 19 months, the equivalent to humans being about 70. Then they gave half the mice caffeine in their drinking water. The rest were given plain water. The mice were given the equivalent of five 8 oz (227 grams) cups of coffee a day — about 500 milligrams of caffeine.”

“When the mice were tested again after two months, those who were given the caffeine performed much better on tests measuring their memory and thinking skills and performed as well as mice of the same age without dementia. Those drinking plain water continued to do poorly on the tests.”

The mice that had received the caffeine also showed a 50% reduction in beta-amyloid plaques. The researchers believe the caffeine actually inhibits the production of the two enzymes needed to produce beta-amyloid.

And there was even better news. It seems the caffeine may actually act as sort of a vaccine against Alzheimer’s. Other tests done by these researchers showed that “younger mice, who had also been bred to develop Alzheimer’s but who were given caffeine in their early adulthood, were protected against the onset of memory problems.”

Could the solution to Alzheimer’s really be that simple? Could five cups of coffee a day (or 14 cups of tea or 20 carbonated soft drinks) really prevent Alzheimer’s, or improve performance in those who already have the disease?

Dr. Gary Arendash, who led the research, says it is exciting and important “because caffeine is a safe drug for most people, it easily enters the brain, and it appears to directly affect the disease process.”

But we must be careful about making too much of this research. So far, the study has only been done on mice. It might or might not work with humans. We’ll just have to wait and see what the caffeine does for humans when studied.

As Rebecca Wood of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust says, “In this study on mice with symptoms of Alzheimer’s, researchers found that caffeine boosted their memory. We need to do more research to find out whether this effect will be seen in people. It is too early to say whether drinking coffee or taking caffeine supplements will help people with Alzheimer’s.”

Even so, for us “Baby Boomers,” this is a welcome ray of hope.

[Ted McLaughlin, who contributes regularly to The Rag Blog, also posts at jobsanger, an excellent Texas political blog.]

Source /

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Mairead Maguire Interviewed by Al Jazeera

Posted on July 5, 2009 by RagBlog

Mairead Corrigan-Maguire talks to Al Jazeera from Israeli jail – July 4, 2009

Mary Maguire Speaks from Israeli Jail
By Juan Cole / July 5, 2009

Aljazeera English reports on the activists abducted by Israel as they attempted to deliver food and other civilian aid to Gaza, which is under a debilitating blockade by Israel.

This site explains the dire character of the Palestinians’ straits.

A reader asked what would happen if someone tried to get food aid to Cuba. That person unwittingly underlined how extreme Israel’s policies are, since Russia and others routinely ship food aid to Cuba despite the US embargo.

Source / Informed Comment

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Singin’ on Sunday – Topaz McGarrigle and Mudphonic

Posted on July 5, 2009 by RagBlog

Topaz @ the Granada Theater

July 5, 2009

Evolution. Applying the term to Topaz McGarrigle’s career as a professional musician provides a fascinating case study with more twists and turns than a Colorado River water moccasin. And its end result is more satisfying than a heaping plate of Texas barbecue washed down by an ice cold beer.

Topaz, a native Texan, took up saxophone at an early age and was classically trained in jazz principles while attending the Duke Ellington School for the Arts in Washington D.C. Armed with a vast set of skills at a young age. Topaz further honed his chops on the horn with a move to New York City and landed a record deal with the Velour label in the mid 1990s. In the Big City. Topaz enjoyed a decade of remarkable success as a jazz saxophonist – performing on national networks such as BET, and sharing stages with internationally known artists including Norah Jones, TV on the Radio, and Widespread Panic.

As time progressed, the need to do more, to grow – to evolve – burned deep inside the musician. Often the first step toward eventual maturity in any spirit is a return to roots, and that’s where Topaz headed with a return to his hometown of Austin. Reconnecting with Austin’s free-flowing organism of sound, Topaz felt compelled to explore and add more to his traditional jazz/funk sax-only repertoire.

Vocals came first, and – despite initial anxiety – taking the mic felt right. Next harmonica, and eventually guitar were incorporated into his musical persona. With these new sets of developing skills came a new accompanying sound that brought out new emotions and gave the listener an experience that felt more … raw… dirty… real.

In the pursuit of band mates to add layers of sound and depth, Topaz first began talking to Alex Marrero about starting a new project. Marrero, lead singer of the alternative Latin group Ghandaia, had perfected his front-man charisma and vocal skills and was experiencing his own musical evolution by moving to the drums. He was the foundation for this roots-oriented vision.

Marrero introduced Topaz to a key ingredient of what would become a most intoxicating brew. Guitarist John Branch, much like Topaz, had left behind a jazz background in the Bay Area to return home to Texas. Branch had recently turned his considerable skills toward perfecting sweet southern-drenched bottleneck guitar licks.

They then met Greg Rhoades at a downtown punk club where they were experimenting with the new sound. They were immediately blown away by his funky Jack Bruce influenced bass lines – a wonderful and mesmerizing way to tie this foursome together to form one dynamic, succinct unit.

Thus was born Mudphonic.

A new, sweaty, dance-your-ass off sound that fuses gritty blues and groove with the collective band history of jazz and Latin sounds. After a month spent recording in a barn on the river, Mudphonic has emerged with their debut album ‘Music for Dorothy.’

This band that describes itself as “Big Beat Texadelic Swamp” will be playing on July 25, 2009 at 10:00 pm at Antone’s in Austin, Texas.

Mudphonic MySpace page.

The Official Mudphonic Web site was the source of the biographical information above.

Thanks to Thomas McGarrigle / The Rag Blog

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The Sky Is Falling, the Sky Is Falling !!

Posted on July 4, 2009 by RagBlog

These Israeli myth mongers have to be the most cynical lot on Earth. I, for one, am so tired of hearing this drivel from them that I could just scream. These guys are perfectly content massacring hundreds of Palestinians at a crack, while they fear a nuclear attack from a country that, by all known facts, has no nuclear weapons, no nuclear weapons development program, and no nuclear aspirations. And the Israelis know it. Cynical …

Richard Jehn / The Rag Blog


THE MYTH

‘Iran nuke could wipe Israel off map in seconds’
By Haaretz Service / July 1, 2009

Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, on Friday warned that an Iranian atomic bomb could “wipe Israel off the map in a matter of seconds,” and that the Iranians could “accomplish in a matter of seconds what they denied Hitler did, and kill 6 million Jews, literally.”

Oren made his comments in a conversation with journalist Jeffrey Goldberg at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado.

The newly appointed ambassador warned, “There are clocks ticking all around,” with regard to the Iranian nuclear issue. “One of those clocks is the uranium enrichment clock, which will show that by a certain date the Iranians will have sufficient, highly enriched uranium materials to create a bomb that could literally wipe Israel off the map in a matter of seconds.”

Oren said the world must remain vigilant about what happens in Iran during the country’s tumultuous post-election period.

“It’s very important that we watch carefully what happens in Iran – the events in Iran have unmasked to the world the true nature of this regime,” said Oren. “This is a regime that’s willing to kill its own citizens; it will certainly have no compunctions killing other people in the region, Jews and Sunni Arabs alike.”

Oren added that he would not “second-guess” the Obama administration’s next move in dealing with Tehran’s nuclear aspirations, and added that he was certain Obama had “the best interests of the U.S. and the interest of Israel at heart.” Israel, he said, was concerned mainly about the “timing and timeline” of dealing with Iran.

Oren also addressed the issue of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which have stoked tensions in recent weeks between Israel and its close ally.

“I never said settlements are not an issue, but they’re not the issue,” he said.

Source / Ha’aretz

THE FACT

New IAEA chief sees no proof Iran developing nuclear weapons
July 3, 2009

The incoming head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says he knows of no hard evidence that Iran is trying to gain the ability to develop nuclear weapons.

Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano told the Reuters newsagency he has seen no such evidence in IAEA official documents.

Outgoing IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said last month it was his “gut feeling” that Iran wants the ability to build atomic weapons. He said Iran’s ultimate aim is to be known as a major power in the Middle East.

Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA (Ali Asghar Soltanieh) said at the time ElBaradei is wrong and that Iran has no intention of ever having a nuclear weapon.

The United States and its Western allies believe Iran’s nuclear program may have a military component.

Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is intended to produce electricity.

Iran has been hit with three sets of U.N. sanctions for its refusal to stop enriching uranium, a process that can be used to develop nuclear weapons.

Amano, who on Thursday was elected director-general of the IAEA, will succeed ElBaradei later this year. ElBaradei has served for 12 years as head of the U.N. nuclear agency.

Source / Big News Network

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Cynthia McKinney : Letter From an Israeli Jail

Posted on July 4, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

Former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney is now imprisoned in an Israeli jail after the Israeli stopped a boat with humanitarian supplies bound for Gaza.

Letter from an Israeli jail

I am being held in this prison because I had a dream that Gaza’s children could color and paint, that Gaza’s wounded could be healed, and that Gaza’s bombed-out houses could be rebuilt.

By Cynthia McKinney / July 4, 2009

This is Cynthia McKinney and I’m speaking from an Israeli prison cellblock in Ramle. [I am one of] the Free Gaza 21, human rights activists currently imprisoned for trying to take medical supplies to Gaza, building supplies — and even crayons for children; I had a suitcase full of crayons for children.

While we were on our way to Gaza the Israelis threatened to fire on our boat, but we did not turn around. The Israelis hijacked and arrested us because we wanted to give crayons to the children in Gaza. We have been detained, and we want the people of the world to see how we have been treated just because we wanted to deliver humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza.

At the outbreak of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead [in December 2008], I boarded a Free Gaza boat with one day’s notice and tried, as the U.S. representative in a multinational delegation, to deliver three tons of medical supplies to an already besieged and ravaged Gaza.

During Operation Cast Lead, U.S.-supplied F-16s rained hellfire on a trapped people. Ethnic cleansing became full-scale, outright genocide. U.S.-supplied white phosphorus, depleted uranium, robotic technology, DIME weapons, and cluster bombs — new weapons [created] injuries never treated before by Jordanian and Norwegian doctors. I was later told by doctors who were there in Gaza during Israel’s onslaught that Gaza had become Israel’s veritable weapons-testing laboratory, people used to test and improve the kill ratio of their weapons.

The world saw Israel’s despicable violence thanks to Al-Jazeera Arabic and Press TV that broadcast in English. I saw those broadcasts live and around the clock, not from the USA but from Lebanon, where my first attempt to get into Gaza had ended because the Israeli military rammed the boat I was on in international water[s]… It’s a miracle that I’m even here to write about my second encounter with the Israeli military, again a humanitarian mission aborted by the Israeli military.

The Israeli authorities have tried to get us to confess that we committed a crime… I am now known as Israeli prisoner number 88794. How can I be in prison for collecting crayons [for] kids?

Zionism has surely run out of its last legitimacy if this is what it does to people who believe so deeply in human rights for all that they put their own lives on the line for someone else’s children. Israel is the fullest expression of Zionism, but if Israel fears for its security because Gaza’s children have crayons then not only has Israel lost its last shred of legitimacy, but Israel must be declared a failed state.

I am facing deportation from the state that brought me here at gunpoint after commandeering our boat. I was brought to Israel against my will. I am being held in this prison because I had a dream that Gaza’s children could color and paint, that Gaza’s wounded could be healed, and that Gaza’s bombed-out houses could be rebuilt.

The aid ship Spirit of Humanity as it left for Gaza, before being seized by the Israelis.

But I’ve learned an interesting thing by being inside this prison. First of all, it’s incredibly black, populated mostly by Ethiopians who also had a dream… like my cellmates, one who is pregnant. They are all are in their 20s. They thought they were coming to the Holy Land. They had a dream that their lives would be better… The once proud, never-colonized Ethiopia [has been thrown into] the back pocket of the United States, and become a place of torture, rendition, and occupation. Ethiopians must free their country because superpower politics [have] become more important than human rights and self-determination.

My cellmates came to the Holy Land so they could be free from the exigencies of superpower politics. They committed no crime except to have a dream. They came to Israel because they thought that Israel held promise for them. Their journey to Israel through Sudan and Egypt was arduous. I can only imagine what it must have been like for them. And it wasn’t cheap. Many of them represent their family’s best collective efforts for self-fulfillment. They made their way to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. They got their yellow paper of identification. They got their certificate for police protection. They are refugees from tragedy, and they made it to Israel, only after they arrived Israel told them, “There is no UN in Israel.”

The police here have license to pick them up and suck them into the black hole of a farce for a justice system. These beautiful, industrious and proud women represent the hopes of entire families. The idea of Israel tricked them and the rest of us. In a widely propagandized slick marketing campaign, Israel represented itself as a place of refuge and safety for the world’s first Jews and Christians. I too believed that marketing and failed to look deeper.

The truth is that Israel lied to the world. Israel lied to the families of these young women. Israel lied to the women themselves who are now trapped in Ramle’s detention facility. And what are we to do? One of my cellmates cried today. She has been here for six months. As an American, crying with them is not enough. The policy of the United States must be better, and while we watch President Obama give 12.8 trillion dollars to the financial elite of the United States it ought now be clear that hope, change, and “yes we can” were powerfully presented images of dignity and self-fulfillment, individually and nationally, that besieged people everywhere truly believed in…

It was a slick marketing campaign as slickly put to the world and to the voters of America as was Israel’s marketing to the world. It tricked all of us but, more tragically, these young women.

We must cast an informed vote about better candidates seeking to represent us. I have read and re-read Dr Martin Luther King, Jr’s letter from a Birmingham jail. Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever imagined that I too would one day have to [write one]. It is clear that taxpayers in Europe and the US have a lot to atone for, for what they’ve done to others around the world.

The Israeli navy is shown stopping “The Spirit of Humanity,” the activists’ boat, off the coast of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. Photo from AFP.

What an irony! My son begins his law school program without me because I am in prison, in my own way trying to do my best, again, for other people’s children. Forgive me, my son. I guess I’m experiencing the harsh reality which is why people need dreams. [But] I’m lucky. I will leave this place. Has Israel become the place where dreams die?

Ask the people of Palestine. Ask the stream of black and Asian men whom I see being processed at Ramle. Ask the women on my cellblock. [Ask yourself:] What are you willing to do?

Let’s change the world together and reclaim what we all need as human beings: Dignity. I appeal to the United Nations to get these women of Ramle, who have done nothing wrong other than to believe in Israel as the guardian of the Holy Land, resettled in safe homes. I appeal to the United State’s Department of State to include the plight of detained UNHCR-certified refugees in the Israel country report in its annual human rights report. I appeal once again to President Obama to go to Gaza: send your special envoy, George Mitchell there, and to engage Hamas as the elected choice of the Palestinian people.

I dedicate this message to those who struggle to achieve a free Palestine, and to the women I’ve met at Ramle. This is Cynthia McKinney, July 2nd 2009, also known as Ramle prisoner number 88794.

[Cynthia McKinney is a former Democratic US congresswoman, Green Party presidential candidate, and an outspoken advocate for human rights and social justice. The first African-American woman to represent the state of Georgia, McKinney served six terms in the US House of Representatives, from 1993-2003, and from 2005-2007. McKinney’s remarks were transcribed here from a telephone call received and broadcasted by WBAIX.org.]

Source / Ma’an News Agency

Thanks to Mike Klonsky / The Rag Blog

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Star Spangled Banner : Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock

Posted on July 4, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

Jimi Hendrix plays the national anthem

The Rag Blog

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Sarah Palin Reads Vanity Fair, Resigns as Governor

Posted on July 4, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

Illustration by Risko for Vanity Fair.

Even the woman in the red dress who told candidate McCain at a town hall campaign gathering in 2008 she thought Obama ‘was an Arab’ should be able see past Palin’s lip gloss, if she reads the VF article.

By Larry Ray / The Rag Blog / July 3, 2009

Sarah Louise Palin, erratic governor of Alaska and the G.O.P.’s 2008 Vice Presidential candidate, must have felt more than just the heat that is melting the glaciers in her state. She announced her resignation one day before all the real Fourth of July fireworks, from her Wasilla, Alaska home.

I read Todd S. Purdum’s tell-all article, “It Came From Wasilla” just two days ago in the August 2009 issue of Vanity Fair. Purdum’s article was more than telling. It was prophetic. The title could now be “It Never Really Left Wasilla.”

The article carefully documents Palin from all sides, including inside stories now being told by top McCain campaign staff about Palin’s petulant meltdown as a serious candidate. She dazzled the eager conservative base like a master magician during her brief stage appearances, but a look behind the curtain discloses a small town, clueless lightweight former beauty queen whose life, Purdum notes, “has sometimes played out like an unholy amalgam of Desperate Housewives and Northern Exposure.”

The Vanity Fair article is, well, fair. It definitely is not a superficial whack job. It is so on target, and so well documented that one has to wonder if it is more than coincidence that she decided to fold up her political tent. After Vanity Fair, she can expect a steady barrage of even deeper investigative reporting if she decides to run for anything other than head of her church’s glossolalia discussion committee.

Will she leave politics, or will she run for a U.S. Senate seat or the Presidency? Cable TV is having a field day. Interestingly, Palin’s timing in announcing her resignation evidences her utter lack of understanding of the fine points of making political news. Millions of Americans are traveling, taking holiday vacations to visit family and friends. And after the nonstop weekend news coverage of fireworks, parades and celebration of American Independence, constant news coverage immediately shifts to the Michael Jackson memorial free for all in Los Angeles through the end of the following week.

Palin has reportedly gotten a sizeable advance for a book contract. She has chosen a senior writer for conservative Christian World magazine as her co-author. But if you can’t wait for her book to come out, I suggest you grab a copy of Vanity Fair for a more sober look at the real Sarah Louise Palin.

Vanity Fair also has strong presence on the web where you may also read the article.

Even the woman in the red dress who told candidate McCain at a town hall campaign gathering in 2008 she thought Obama “was an Arab” should be able see past Palin’s lip gloss, if she reads the VF article.

[Retired journalist Larry Ray is a Texas native and former Austin television news anchor. He also posts at The iHandbill.]

The Rag Blog

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California Homeless : Hundreds March For a Legal Place to Sleep

Posted on July 3, 2009 by Thorne Dreyer

John Kraintz (top), who is homeless, was part of the procession that began at Loaves & Fishes in Sacramento. Photo by Lezlie Sterling / Sacramento Bee. Karen Hersh (below), a homeless woman, carries her belongings at the tent city in Sacramento. She and hundreds of other residents living in the tent city along the American River were issued notices of eviction by Sacramento police. Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images.

Hundreds of California homeless march for land rights

“We’re supposed to be the eyesore, but actually we’re citizens and we’re human beings. We’re supposed to have rights like everybody else; it don’t matter what we have in our pockets.” — Philip Grice, Homeless, 45

By Richard Gonzales / July 3, 2009

It has been about three months since city officials shut down a large “tent city” occupied by Sacramento’s homeless people.

Now, some of the tent city’s residents say they feel like refugees, with no place to go. They staged a loud demonstration Wednesday, in hopes of pressuring Sacramento officials to find them a new place to camp.

‘Where Am I Supposed To Live?’

Philip Grice, 45, has been on the move ever since the tent city closed.

“When we moved out, we moved over to a private area two fields over. They wanted us off of there too. Just like shuttling cattle, that’s all it is,” said Grice, a carpenter by trade, who wears a T-shirt that reads, “Where am I supposed to live?” “We’re supposed to be the eyesore, but actually we’re citizens and we’re human beings. We’re supposed to have rights like everybody else; it don’t matter what we have in our pockets.”

Grice joined about 250 other homeless people and their supporters for a march through the northern end of Sacramento.

Their action coincided with the closure this week of a temporary shelter where many of the tent city residents had found a roof for the winter. Now these individuals say they need a year-round legal camp on what they call “safe ground.”

Rodney Frazier, 43, a single father and disabled brick mason, participated in the march.

“A lot of these people are brick masons, they are tile setters, they are dentists, they had some very nice jobs,” said Frazier. “They contribute to the world, to society, and they had a downfall in life. They need help getting up.”

No Legal Place To Sleep

The march ended up in a hot and dusty city-owned lot next to a police station, where organizers set up a symbolic occupation. Val Jon Farris, founder of a group called iCare America, set up a tent on the lot.

“There is no legal place for people to live unless they own, rent or lease a home. So if you’re homeless it’s illegal to exist. You can’t even lay your head anywhere without getting arrested, prosecuted or criminalized,” said Farris. “So this is a demonstration in order to create a civil liberty that ought to already exist, which is [that] people have the right to be, to live without the threat of being incarcerated in their own country.”

Sacramento police officer Mark Zoulas, who has served on the homeless beat for the past decade, said a legal campground makes sense to him.

“You need something for that immediate need,” said Zoulas. “I like the winter shelter. I’m not saying that’s the best answer in the world necessarily. But at least it gives you a choice. And that’s now closed and everyone using it is out. And that leaves, for the minute, nothing, and nothing is never the answer.”

The idea of a safe ground for homeless campers divides officials in city hall. The mayor, Kevin Johnson, has been receptive, but others, including the city manager, Ray Kerridge, is not. There is also a disagreement over how much it will cost at a time when the city and county are already slashing basic services.

What is not in dispute is that this week Sacramento has 200 more people with no place to sleep.

Source / All Things Considered / NPR / July 2, 2009

Thanks to Jeffrey Segal / The Rag Blog

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