July 2004, the highest judicial body in the world, the International Court of Justice, ruled Israel has no title to any of the West Bank and any of Gaza. They have no title to Jerusalem. Arab East Jerusalem, according to the highest judicial body in the world, is occupied Palestinian territory. The International Court of Justice ruled all the settlements, all the settlements in the West Bank, are illegal under international law.
Forget your feelings about Obama and McCain. Forget that Columbus voters are among the most polarized in the nation. Forget swing states, vice presidential debates and the quickly approaching day of decision. That all comes later.
Remember, instead, the night Hurricane Ike blew through Columbus, tearing trees out by the roots and plunging much of the city into darkness for days.
Like many, Renee Barker spent that humid Sunday night without power. When sleep without air-conditioning proved futile, Barker and her fiancé packed their dogs in the car and went in search of batteries and candles. The neighborhood Giant Eagle was black. The only place Barker could find still operating with power was the United Dairy Farmers store on West Fifth Avenue near Grandview.
Barker walked into the store while her fiancé and their dogs waited in the car. After being told the store had no batteries, the clerk behind the counter, Mark Medina, offered up a curious request: “Can I tell you about my candidate, John McCain?” he asked her.
The comment caught Barker off-guard momentarily. She noticed he was looking at her chest. Then it clicked—she was wearing her Obama sweatshirt. “He picked the wrong girl on the wrong night,” said Barker.
She fired back, “I probably know more about John McCain than you do,” and says she told him, “If you’re really for McCain, I’ll take you down to the local recruiter myself so you can be all that you can be.”
“In the (store surveillance) video, you could see me pointing at my sweatshirt saying ‘Are you kidding me? You’re going to give me a hard time because I wore the wrong thing into your store?’” said Barker, a petite 36-year-old Victorian Village resident.
Barker admits she’s passionate about her politics and other social issues. A former Whole Foods employee who’s recuperating from recent surgery that left six pins in her back, she rescues thoroughbred horses in her spare time. She’s preparing to leave for Uganda in the spring to teach English.
She says she’s donated money to the Obama campaign and concedes she’s not afraid to engage in any challenge to her political beliefs. On this night, though, wearing her political beliefs on her sleeve created a situation that turned quickly from the absurd to the surreal.
She says what she thought would become little more than a political debate turned confrontational when another employee—who Barker describes as “a little hip-hop girl in big clothes”—emerged from the back. Medina told his employee that Barker was a “stupid loud-mouthed liberal,” according to Barker. After a few more words, Barker says she turned to leave as the female employee stepped toward her shouting, “get out of the store.”
Barker insists there was no physical contact, no property damage and, toward the end, only minimal profanity. “I asked him valid questions, and he just put his head down and started sweeping,” said Barker, “and I’m like, ‘You brought it up—you don’t do that to the consumer.’”
Barker’s fiancé watched the encounter from their car, puzzled. “I thought, you know, it might be politics, it might be the weather,” he said. Barker’s fiancé, who asked to go unnamed, said he didn’t think too much of the incident until Medina came to the front of the store as Barker emerged, phone in hand, and began copying down the couple’s license plate number.
At that point, Barker’s fiancé, a recent MBA graduate, who Barker describes as normally easy-going and reserved, approached Medina himself, asked him what he was doing and, when told he was filing an assault charge with police, grabbed the paper with their license number from him, tossed the store’s phone on the ground, left the store and drove home.
Medina called 911—at the same time the police were receiving a higher –than-usual volume of calls due to city-wide power outages—and reported that the couple, whom he described as a white woman and a Mexican (Barker’s fiancé is of Pakistani descent), were intoxicated and had assaulted him and his female coworker. Medina filed a criminal trespass report against Barker and her fiancé, stating they “became verbally aggressive and refused to leave” the store. (Barker denies refusing to leave.)
“He’s calling in 911 like it’s life or death,” said Barker, who heard a transcript of the call, “‘Some Mexican and drunk woman are raising hell.’ That’s why an officer had to show up in the middle of the blackout and take case of that BS.”
Barker and her fiancé went home and, after talking through the incident, decided to call police on their own and find out if, indeed, the UDF employees had filed some police report. When told a report had been filed, and that both she and her fiancé were described as intoxicated, Barker invited police to her Victorian Village home to test them, worried that a phony police report could wind up on their record. Police declined, and have not filed charges against the couple. Barker says when she explained to police what had happened; they advised her to contact United Dairy Farmer’s to get things straightened out. But things only got worse.
Cincinnati-based United Dairy Farmers was founded and owned by the Lindner family, who are no less shy about their politics than Barker herself. Patriarch Carl Lindner Jr., a self-made billionaire and former CEO of the Cincinnati Reds, is a major financial backer of the Republican Party on local and national levels.
The family ranked 205th on this year’s Forbes’ “400 Richest Americans” list. In 2004, Lindner was named by the National Republican Committee as one of George Bush’s 62 “Super Rangers,” the highest fundraising designations for donating in excess of $300,000 to the GOP. In December, the Washington Post reported Lindner was the national co-chair of Mitt Romney’s run for the GOP presidential nomination, while his son, Carl Lindner III, backed Mike Huckabee.
When asked if they allowed political canvassing in any of their stores, consumer relations representatives in the Cincinnati corporate offices responded, “No, we do not,” before declining to give a name or further comment.
Numerous other calls to UDF store and corporate personnel were not returned or declined for comment.
Immediately following the Sunday night incident, which occurred around midnight, Barker called UDF’s corporate offices. Monday evening, she received a call from Medina’s supervisor, which registered as a blocked number on her phone records.
“She was sweet as sugar, told me she’d get back to me,” said Barker. Another day passed. “Once I realized they were doing nothing,” Barker said, she followed the advice of the police dispatcher and called the store for the contact information of a higher supervisor.
Though it was 4:21 Tuesday afternoon, Barker said Medina answered her call and refused to give the supervisor’s number. She called the corporate office again, and was connected, not with a supervisor, but with the senior security specialist for the Columbus UDF zone, Carl Rankin.
“They (were) doing nothing about it, they (were) basically like giving me the finger, especially the head of security was very threatening,” said Barker. “He never listened to my side. I told him I was just trying to reach a manager and he’s like, ‘look Miss Renee. . .’”
Barker hung up with Rankin unsatisfied. An hour after her call to the Fifth Avenue store, Barker’s phone records show she received a blocked call, which she says was a threat. She called police.
According to the Columbus Police report of the incident, Barker stated that the caller told her, “Watch your back, I’m watching you,” and “I know where you live,” then asked her how her pets were doing and that the caller had seen them at UDF the night of the blackout.
“It does not take a brain surgeon to figure out that my number popped up on the UDF phone,” Barker said. “I call to ask for a supervisor and an hour later I get a threatening phone call?” As of Wednesday, police had issued a second round of subpoenas for the identity of the blocked caller.
Later that evening, Barker called the corporate offices once again and reported the threat. “He told me it was not a UDF issue, but that he’d try to give me a call in a couple of days,” Barker said.
A few days later, on Sept. 22, Barker received a letter from Rankin, UDF’s district head of security. The letter cited a “situation” she was involved in at the Fifth Avenue store along with “harassing phone calls to Corporate offices” between September 14-16.
It stated further: “You are being advised that you may not enter any United Dairy Farmers store or property,” and that “several police reports have been made as a result of your actions.”
Neither the Columbus Police nor the city prosecutor’s office have record of the harassment reports Rankin referenced, nor has she received any official notification that charges and/or formal complaints have been filed against her.
“Just because you receive a threatening letter from the corporate office doesn’t mean (everything). They can come down here and attempt to pursue charges, but (even if they do) that doesn’t mean they automatically get them,” said assistant city prosecutor Bill Hedrick.
Barker’s phone records indicate she made 15 calls in all, to the Cincinnati corporate offices, the Lewis Center district offices and Grandview store between early in the morning September 15 through the evening of September 17. Phone records indicate that seven of those calls were spent in transfer or on hold between customer service representatives.
It should come as no surprise that things are so heated on the ground in Columbus this election year. CNN’s broadcast of the first presidential debate last week featured correspondent Soledad O’Brien’s live polling of a focus group in Columbus because it consistently polls as being split by a narrow margin in favor of the Democratic Party. Political analyst for CNN John King noted Franklin County’s prominence on the Ohio map as the only blue county in a sea of red.
“She’s in a central area and a persuadable area,” King said of his colleague in Columbus, “a swing area of a very critical state…in this election and in every election.”
It might be easy to dismiss the whole chain of incidents as personal politics boiling over on a stormy night in total darkness, smack in the middle of a city completely polarized in its electoral politics.
But Barker is no longer amused when that political passion becomes a police incident. “I’m not a patient person, I admit flat out, and I do not like being threatened,” Barker said. “There are a lot of uninformed shoppers who run into UDF stores across the country—a lot of Democrats—and this is where it all began. Now it’s a safety thing for me.”
She’s awaiting the results of the telephone subpoenas and intends to file criminal charges against the caller.
Barker says she’s also considering a civil action against UDF. “Civil litigation is not to be entered into lightly,” she said.
The Top News source of the Forgotten People, The American Workforce
The Ultra-Conservative Movement
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The Proletarian-Republicanism: Ultra-Conservative Movement
Governor Palin has a proven track record of balancing budgets. Her opponents have a history of runaway spending which destroys Wall Street ability to obtain international capital needed for job creation. With our national debt at 12 trillion dollars we do need a Probama administration to eradicate the American Standard of Living.
Mr. Obama is a symbol of the American Welfare State. His pledge to pass out 50 billion dollars in stimulus (welfare) checks is reflective of his inability to management a budget. Americans want to work first, handouts second. This is the mentality of the welfare state. Mr. Obama, where is a hand draft version of your economy plan for the United States of America. Sir, talk is cheap, so too, the Welfare State.
The Proletarian Review
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Hmmm...maybe he saw the bikini pics and can't think...you know what? You go ahead and rip on this guy...I'm done.
Actually...it's a rather iconic pose...and my bud Travis Kelly has vouched as to the authenticity of this photo.
Update: According to Snopes, the photos ar BOGUS...but they have served their purpose...to cement VP nominee Sarah Palin as a "babe".
Many of you have called and emailed regarding the Georgia/S.Ossetia/Russia debacle. We've followed the happenings day and night - at times over a hundred emails a day arrived from analysts and experts on Russia. These events occurred right after I arrived from Russia, so this is the first time I've had to write - though I hope you have checked our blog, www.russiaotherpointsofview.com for analyses of NYT, WP, and other articles on these issues.
This following piece is unforgivably long. If you have little time to read, please just scan the following bullets.
UNDENIABLE FACTS REGARDING THE GEORGIAN/S. OSSETIAN/RUSSIAN CRISIS:
* Georgia made an unprovoked military attack on S. Ossetia on August 7 - a fact which is virtually ignored by U.S. media - most reference it as the "invasion by Russia into Georgian territory." This tells us something. Why is the invading country not being faulted? Bush/Rice have castigated Russia for a "disproportionate" response. Can you think of a response to any invasion which has been "proportionate"? * Russia counter attacked on August 8 after 1400 civilians and Russian peace keepers had been killed. The city was in shambles, with refugees streaming toward Russia to seek refuge. * Since Georgia became a free state in 1991, S. Ossetia has had de facto independence and have operated as an autonomous area. Our media reports as though these facts don't matter. * Josef Stalin drew the dividing lines between the two Ossetian communities and placed half of the Ossetians in Georgia, and the other half in Russia. It made no sense. What need is there today to honor Stalin's whim about carving up ethnic groups. * Ossetians are a totally different ethnic group, they are not Georgian. Many Ossetians are Russians - and many hold Russian passports. * Ossetians despise and distrust Georgians and want nothing to do with them. * The South Ossetians fought a vicious war with Georgia in 1991-93 after first Georgian President Gamsakhurdia, a rabid nationalist, stripped them of their autonomy and sent militia in to establish Georgian dominance. The Ossetians finally won and since then have governed themselves with a president and a constitution. * Russia to date has insured their autonomy for which South Ossetians are grateful. * Russia has kept a "peace force" in Ossetia for years which was originally approved by Georgia, the US and others, to keep peace in the micro-region where tempers flare frequently. * Ossetia's autonomy was approved in 1993 by presidents Yeltsin and by Shevardnadze, the then head of state of Georgia. Nothing about this fact has changed since. * There has been continuous low-level sniping and firing between both Ossetian and Georgian villagers for decades. * It would be impossible for Georgia to manage a successful takeover of the Ossetians. They would have to raze Ossetia to the ground to beat them into submission. * U.S. and Israeli military have been stationed in Georgia, providing military hardware and training Georgians in battlefield tactics for some time now.
Despite US media coverage, this situation is not about a "big bad nation" (Russia) beating up on an "innocent little nation" (Georgia). Georgia initiated this all-out war, which they and US advisors could have predicted would turn ugly in a hurry.
~~~~~~~~~~
The question is: why would Georgia's president Saakashvili invade a sworn enemy which has a Russian peace keeping force stationed there to defend Ossetia's autonomy? It would appear to be a suicide mission.
Likely reasons: Either Saakashvili was totally deluded, and/or he gambled that Russia would not stand behind their word to the Ossetians, and/or he believed that the U.S. would support him and Georgia in a war against S. Ossetia and possibly Russia.
POLITICAL REALITIES WHICH COMPLICATE THIS PICTURE:
Since the implosion of the USSR in 1990, elements in Washington have encouraged and financially supported the independent states of the former USSR, to align with the the U.S. and Europe, and to forego their former relations with Russia. Some states welcomed this support, since they bristled under USSR rule (Baltic states, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and Georgia). Others, part of the Russian Empire, weren't interested in breaking relations. Russia provided incentives to these states and they remain in good political and trade relations.
Why has the U.S. been interested in dividing Russia's neighboring states from Russia? To: 1) to insure that collectively they wouldn't get strong again and become a threat; 2) to help bolster America's hegemony and dominance in the world; and 3) to insure America's energy future - oil and gas supplies along with the pipelines that carry it out to the west. Georgia, one part of this strategy, doesn't have oil or gas, but they do have pipelines, rails and ports and are considered strategically located.
A CURSORY RUNDOWN OF RUSSIA'S RESPONSES TO THIS POLITICAL REALITY:
1. In the 1990's when Russia underwent their debilitating transition to a private economy, the country was in massive debt to international lending institutions, and had no choice but to tolerate whatever major powers did, including the beginning of the bitterly resented NATO expansion. Russian leaders and citizens suffered this fate at the time, but not gladly. 2. After 2001 when Putin emerged as Russia's new leader, Russia became stronger by the year, paid off her debts, essentially nationalized the oil and gas industry and became more active in rebuilding Russia's economic interests. 3. By 2003 Putin's power was felt in internal politics and nation rebuilding. Khodorkovsky was imprisoned on tax evasion, but more because of his anti-Putin political ambitions. His incarceration helped rein in other oligarchs. Elements in Washington and US media were hyper critical and into actions seeming to Russia to destabilize her internal interests. U.S. money supported "opposition" politics in Russia and other states of the former USSR, which bristled the Russians. They began to push back. 4. By 2004/5, Georgia's Rose Revolution and Ukraine's Orange Revolution occurred (due to support from American NGOs and exiled oligarchs) which galled Russians since they were increasingly 'encircled by unfriendly nations.' 5. Russia became predictably reactive, clamped down on media, visas and in other spheres. They stopped subsidizing oil and gas to former USSR republics who joined the west, turned their 'portion' off when they refused to pay market prices. Ukrainians pilfered gas for themselves from the pipelines - but cut off contents destined for Europe. This created a squall of "oil politics." 6. By 2007, Putin, at a Munich meeting of heads of states, unveiled Russia's position on the U.S.' unipolar role in global politics - and made Russia's case for a multipolar world. This was a turning point in US-Russia relations - it alerted Washington that Russia no longer accepted their concept of sole superpower status (geopolitically, not militarily). Elements in DC next initiated the effort to put missile systems and monitoring devices on Russia's borders in Poland and the Czech Republic. This was the next-to-last straw for Russia. 7. August 7, 2008 Georgia attacked S. Ossetia's capital with full force. This was the last straw. Russian military responded to the attack within 15 hours, quickly moved down into Georgia proper to destroy military caches, cut off bridges and interrupt transit routes - to the shock of western media.
Ignoring who started the war, who was behind it, the devastation that occurred in S. Ossetia, and the history between the two ethnic groups, western media has spun a story line that looked convincing at first, but doesn't hold water once the facts are known.
Unfortunately, it is clear now that a resurgent Russia is back - and that they will do what is in Russia's best interests in the future - as any country in control of its destiny would.
IT DIDN'T HAVE TO HAPPEN THIS WAY
In the 1990s and even up to 2007, Russia and Russians, more than anything, wanted to be friends with America and to be accepted into the trans-Atlantic world community. As a country, we missed thousands of opportunities by being amazingly arrogant, pushy, resistant and totally insensitive to Russia's plight as it dug out of communism and tried to form a new nation. We at CCI were on the scene ad intimately involved with these years. We watched every little detail and rankled at the behaviors and attitudes we were observing.
The second Cold War really started years ago. In 2001 I began a folder of US newspaper articles which was labeled "The Rebuilding the Cold War" - articles that were demeaning to Russia, forcing them into situations that were "salt in the wounds." Why???? I asked myself, why would we go there again? Surely, we wouldn't! But we did.
It appears that elements of U.S. foreign policy makers and the U.S. media, were never able to let go of 'cold war mentality' and instinctively distorted any situation related to Russia - and often used standards to which they didn't hold other countries and trading partners around the world.
MEDIA - HYPE AND THE LACK OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM - an example:
On Sunday I watched CNN reporting on the Georgian/S. Ossetia crisis. They did a terrific piece on CCI in 2007 when we brought 100 Russians to DC to talk with Congress members re the US-Russia policy. But this morning I was stunned and disappointed to see how CNN sidestepped the evidence surrounding the Georgia/S.Ossetia/Russia events in subtle nuanced ways the audience would not normally register. For instance:
1. CNN chose only on-ground reporters sitting in the capital of Georgia - none sitting in South Ossetia - where on-ground newscasters reported the worst damage to have occurred. Footage of grim Georgian victims were shown, but no Ossetian tragedies mentioned. Would Russians have let CNN into S. Ossetia's capital city? With pleasure, to show the damage sustained there.
2. CNN chose Zbigniew Brzezinski as the hour's lead foreign policy specialist. This anti-Russia, Polish-American foreign policy specialist can be safely predicted to produce negatively-skewed opinions on anything Russian. Other similar choices of interviewees followed throughout the hour. There are dozens of equally or better-known Russian experts which could have been chosen for interview had facts and balance been of interest (Ambassadors to Russia, National Security Advisors on Russia, high-level academicians).
3. CNN chose for their last interview, Richard Holbrooke, who always has a one-sided view against Russia. He has been used extensively by the networks over the past ten days. At this point I turned off the television.
~~~~~~~~~
Friends, it seems not long ago that I wrote thousands of you during the build up to the Iraq War. I warned that the hype we were hearing day and night was based more on fiction and lies than reality. In January of 2001, I went to Washington to try to get an open ear. Options to war were offered, such as sending neutral Rotary or other American delegations to Iraq to learn if there were ways we could deal with them, rather than war. It was useless - the momentum for war, on both sides of the aisle, was too great by that time. The media bombardment, truthful or not, had been overly successful. For my efforts and strange thinking, I was labeled "unpatriotic." Months and now years have passed. We have slowly faced the truth about how we were taken into that war. And again in 2008, I am registering panic that we are going in that same dangerous direction again.
I fear the underlying intentions of this current situation are all about oil and gas, global dominance and hegemony - which means a show-down for any who might get in the way. Russia is in the way.
Unfortunately for us, Russia will no longer back down - like she was forced to in the 90s. Today she will go toe-to-toe if pushed; and will probably "over react" due to years of having had NATO shoved up to her borders; neighboring states turned against her; missiles and hi-tech invasive monitoring placed on her periphery; years of having been refused Jackson Vanik trade advantages; living with the endless info-war leveled at her; on and on and on.
The specter today is extraordinarily dangerous. Russia still has thousands of nuclear weapons. With cowboy mentality and brinksmanship in vogue in international politics, it's not inconceivable that WWIII could be launched over such an insignificant little place on earth as South Ossetia.
The only light in this tunnel is that there will be new leadership in Washington in a few short months. Let us hope and pray that which ever candidate wins, they will assess the ominous writing on the wall and create a radically new type of American foreign policy - that they will realize that we are in a totally new 'world-in-the-making' - and that the warring politics of the 20th century won't work in the 21st century - and that we face either change... or extinction.
~~~~~~~~~~
I will greatly appreciate your comments on the above. If you are comfortable this point of view, I urge you to send this message to your e-lists.
All the best, --
PS: If you know a local newspaper editor, please ask them if they will print an OpEd on the Georgia/Ossetia/Russia crisis. If so, let me know quickly - I will send one.
PS: Do check our blog, www.russiaotherpointsofview.com for the latest in analyses of NYT, WP and other major papers on the Georgia/Ossetia/Russia issues. You will see the full articles as they appeared in our key newspapers, the criteria by which the contents are judged, and the factual information behind often slanted comments or paragraphs.'
*** Excuse rough writing, no editors are present....
I am going to destroy you bloody neoCONS! I think that about sums it up.
If I am ever "suicided", please KNOW THAT I WAS MURDERED by the BCFCE (Bush/Clinton Family Crime Empire)!
Other "sucides" include Deborah Jeane Palfrey, Danny Casolaro, John F. Kennedy, Jr., Dorothy Kilgallen, James Hatfield, Gary Webb, Don Wiley, James Forrestal, David Kelly, Paul Wellstone, J. Clifford Baxter, David Kellermann, Benazir Bhutto and Vincent Foster, to name a few.
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