MichaelMoore.com : Board certifies recount results with Franken on top

January 5th, 2009 4:22 pm
International silence on Gaza draws local rage

Protests continue across country

By Dalila Mahdawi / Daily Star

BEIRUT: Palestinian refugees and Lebanese angered by Arab and international silence over Israel's military assault in Gaza continued to voice their discontent over the weekend.

At the entrance of Bourj al-Barajneh camp in Beirut, young men in keffiyehs waved Palestinian flags near a collection box into which almost every passing car dropped money. Gathering the donations was Bourj al-Barajneh resident Said, who told The Daily Star the money would be sent to organizations in the Gaza Strip to purchase medical equipment and food.

"Egypt is behind all this," he said, calling President Hosni Mubarak an Israeli collaborator. "The people of Gaza must have patience and remain steadfast," Said remarked as he handed out stickers emblazoned with the Palestinian flag and the words, "Gaza is a symbol of pride."

Further along, a solidarity tent with open phone lines to Gaza had been hastily erected. According to representatives of the Emergency Forum for Relief, comprising 16 local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the tent will remain in place for as long as Israel's onslaught on Gaza continues. Not many of Bourj al-Barajneh's residents came from Gaza, youth project coordinator of the Palestinian NGO Women's Humanitarian Organization, Zeina Salhani said, but some had lost relatives in the Israeli bombardments and all were angered by the events. "This tent is a way for them to express that anger," she said.

In the tent, dozens of children with painted faces were pinning up drawings made for their counterparts in Gaza. One picture showed a shoe being thrown at the Israeli flag, in reference to the recent "shoeing" of US President George W. Bush by Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi. "We are asking all the Arabs to help Gaza and to restore their human rights," said 11-year-old Alaa, who had "Gaza" written on his face. "The Arabs should join hands to liberate Palestine."

A mock funeral was held at the tent on Friday for the "consciences of the Arab regimes who have failed to respond to the calls of their own people" to condemn the Israeli aggression, said organizer Suha. "People are depressed by the silence of the Arabs and the world, it's as if there is no justice," Salhani added. "People want action."

Bourj al-Barajneh resident Hossam spoke angrily about his family trapped in the Zeitoun area of Gaza under heavy bombardment. "I spoke to them yesterday - there are many explosions and the children are of course terrified, but they're used to it. They understand the mentality of the Israeli Occupation."

Elsewhere in Beirut, protesters gathered outside the Arab University to condemn the Israeli ground operations which began Saturday. Activists in Hamra placed black coffins outside the Medina Theater, scribbling onto them such messages as "We are all Gaza," "Solidarity with the Palestinians" and "Freedom for Palestine."

Social Affairs Minister Mario Aoun, Minister of State Khaled Qabbani and Health Minister Mohammad Khalifa, meanwhile, traveled on Sunday to Jordan to meet with Palestinian representatives and discuss Lebanon's assistance to Gaza.

On Saturday, student members of the March 14 alliance visited the Bourj al-Barajneh camp and presented the Palestinian Red Crescent in Beirut with a $50,000 donation from MP Walid Jumblatt.

January 5th, 2009 4:10 pm
Ashlanders 'Shoe Bush' at Navickas' new art gallery

By Hannah Guzik / Ashland Daily Tidings

Marjorie Mather leaned her 91-year-old frame back, clutched the shoe with all her strength and then let it fly, hitting "President Bush" smack in the cheek and splattering paint across his visage.

"Wow, I didn't know that was going to be so much fun!" she said, throwing up her hands in victory.

"Before, I said, 'I can't do it. I'm not happy with Bush, but I can't throw a shoe at him.' But then you get into the spirit of the thing and you say, 'Why not?'" Mather said Friday night, at MAda Shell Gallery's opening exhibit downtown.

The Shoe Bush installation invited locals to slingshot shoes at an eight foot square painting of the president's face. City Councilor Eric Navickas — who opened the gallery with his partner Amy Godard — used a paint roller to slather a thick layer of red on the soles of the sneakers, boots and Birkenstocks before people fired them at the image of Bush. Each shot cost $1 and the funds collected will go toward future gallery exhibits.

"Nothing feels better," Navickas said after making a solid shot. "I can't even believe how exhilarating this is."

Navickas and Godard, who are both mixed-media artists, decided to open the art space after the avant-guard Nuwandart Gallery closed last summer, Navickas said.

"We felt that too much of the art in Ashland had just became an embellishment for a wealthy class. We're trying to bring art into the dialogue for political and social interaction."

The gallery, which will undergo renovations this month and officially open in February, will be a space for emerging artwork and anti-art — work that focuses more on political and social justice than aesthetic beauty, said Navickas.

Although laughter accompanied the sound of each shoe smacking the Bush portrait, the message behind the installation was serious, Godard added.

The exhibit was "statement of solidarity" for Muntadhar al-Zaidi, the Iraqi journalist who hurled two shoes at the president last month, she said.

"He was tortured for it and he's still in prison. We're calling for his release," she said.

Kathleen Meagher, an Ashland poet, was one of several to stamp a footprint on the Bush painting — she hit him in the nose — and also expressed support for the gallery's vision, she said.

"I think art should be involved in social and political issues. I think it's a very effective way for an artist to speak to the world," she said.

Mather may have been the oldest to "Shoe Bush" at the First Friday event, but 13-year-old Luke VanCampen was among the youngest.

He primed himself for the shot, leaning on his back foot and flexing his arm muscles — before he smacked the presidential portrait in the chin.

"I think it's a funny idea and I guess it's a good way to collect extra money for the gallery," he said. "Everybody wants to shoe Bush — well, almost everybody."

January 5th, 2009 4:04 pm
Board certifies recount results with Franken on top

By Pat Doyle / Star Tribune

The state Canvassing Board certified the results of the U.S. Senate recount this afternoon, showing Democrat Al Franken with a 225-vote advantage over incumbent Republican Norm Coleman.

The action came hours after the Minnesota Supreme Court rejected a bid by Coleman to have hundreds of rejected absentee ballots considered in the recount, prompting the Coleman campaign to say that an election contest, or lawsuit, "is now inevitable."

The Supreme Court did not issue an opinion on the merits of Coleman's claim that the ballots, from mostly Republican-leaning areas, may have been wrongly rejected, saying he could later pursue an "election contest," or lawsuit, to make his case. Coleman recount attorney Fritz Knaak said the campaign would take that path. "Given our campaign's unwavering commitment to ensuring that the vote of no Minnesotan is disenfranchised, today's ruling by the Minnesota Supreme Court is both disappointing and disheartening," Knaak said in a statement.

He also said: "Today's ruling, which effectively disregards the votes of hundreds of Minnesotans, ensures that an election contest is now inevitable. The Coleman campaign has consistently and continually fought to have every validly cast vote counted, and for the integrity of Minnesota's election system, we will not stop now."

An election contest must be filed within seven days. It would be presided over by a three-judge panel appointed by Minnesota Chief Justice Eric Magnuson. An election certificate could not be issued before a contest is completed.

Such a legal showdown could take weeks to resolve. In addition to the Coleman campaign's request to have the absentee ballots reconsidered, a lawsuit also include claims by Coleman that some votes in Democratic-leaning areas were counted twice.

Coleman had asked the Supreme Court to order counties to send all rejected absentee ballots to the Secretary of State, who would review them along with the two campaigns to decide which might be included in the election recount.

The Coleman campaign in particular wanted the recount process to reconsider 654 absentee ballots that local officials have maintained were correctly rejected because of errors. Local officials and the two campaigns had agreed to include 933 other absentee ballots that the counties said were improperly rejected, and when those ballots were counted over the weekend, Franken's lead rose from 49 to the current 225 votes.

But the court, in an opinion written by Justice Alan Page, noted there is no agreement between the two campaigns over including additional ballots. The court had earlier required such unanimity.

"The record before us demonstrates that local election officials have acted diligently. ... The Coleman campaign contends there are 654 ballots, in addition to those identified by local elections officials, that should be examined, but the Franken campaign disagrees," the opinion said.

"The Franken campaign has itself identified additional ballots that it contends may have been rejected in error, but the Coleman campaign disagrees."

"We take no position on the merits of either campaign's contentions ... the merits of the dispute (and any other disputes with respect to absentee ballots) are the proper subjects of an election [court] contest."

The Franken campaign cheered the court ruling.

"Today, the Supreme Court once again affirmed the validity of the rules under which this recount was conducted," said Franken recount lawyer Marc Elias.

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