But on Thursday, members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota showed up at McCollum’s St. Paul office to praise her efforts on the health-care front. In honor of the July Fourth holiday they brought a replica U.S. flag emblazoned with the stories of union members’ frustrating encounters with the current health-care system.

“It’s time to declare independence from the tyranny of living under a broken health-care system,” said Rick Varco, SEIU Healthcare Minnesota’s political director.

McCollum wasn’t on hand to accept the flag. That duty was left to Josh Straka, the lawmaker’s district director.

Varco believes the July Fourth holiday was a natural fit for highlighting the nation’s dysfunctional health-care system. “There’s that line in the Declaration of Independence about a ‘long train of abuses,’” he says. “That’s what the American people have suffered from this health-care system.”

The health-care debate is reaching a critical juncture in Washington. Committees in the House and Senate are in the midst of tough negotiations over the details of possible legislative action. President Obama has stated that he hopes to have a bill on his desk by October. In some instances, SEIU and other liberal interest groups have attacked Democratic legislators for being insufficiently committed to the cause.

But Varco insists McCollum doesn’t deserve such treatment. “We were out in Washington, D.C., last week meeting with members of Congress and Congresswoman McCollum was just on fire,” he said.

On Wednesday night, McCollum hosted a town-hall meeting at the Highland Park Pavilion on the topic of health-care reform. Roughly 100 people showed up to share their thoughts on the subject. Advocates of a single-payer system were well represented in the crowd.

When McCollum stated at the beginning of the event that a public option for health-care insurance is “not socialized medicine,” she received a tart response from one member of the crowd. “Yes it is,” he stated, “and it’s good.”

Varco is not troubled by McCollum’s failure to sign on to the single-payer bill, however, even though SEIU supports the legislation.

“We think that the president is right when he says Americans don’t want to be forced to give up their health-care plan,” he said. “Competition with a strong public plan is the best way to get us towards quality affordable health care for everyone.”

But no one was more offended than Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn. As the first Muslim in Congress, Ellison called the remarks “insulting.”

King’s remark, Ellison said, “cuts into the basis of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees all Americans freedom of their religion,” according to an interview with Arab News.

A spokesman for Ellison directed Minnesota Monitor to that interview for reaction.

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King is the ranking Republican in the House Homeland Security Committee. He made the statement during an interview with the website politico.com.

“There are too many people sympathetic to radical Islam,” King said. “We should be looking at them more carefully and finding out how we can infiltrate them.”

King also serves as the national security advisor to Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani. The campaign declined to comment, but Giuliani told the news media that he understands where King is coming from.

The DNC slammed King and urged Giuliani to fire him.

“Congressman King’s comments are deplorable and he should apologize immediately. This type of bigoted language has no place in public discourse,” the DNC said in a statement.

Also repudiating King is the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. “We call on Republican leaders and other people of conscience to repudiate Representative King’s bigoted remarks and to support the civil and religious rights of all Americans,” said Corey Saylor, national legislative director. “We also urge Rudy Giuliani to send a clear message that he will not tolerate Islamophobia or other types of fear-mongering by dropping King…from his campaign.”

Despite the mounting pressure, King refused to apologize. In a press statement, he said that he stands by everything he said, and that he meant to say that there are not enough leaders in the Muslim community cooperating with law enforcement agencies.

But to Ellison, King’s remarks undermine the national security and serve as a recruiting tool for terrorists.

“While we have some people in Congress who make offensive comments, it is important for us, as Muslims, to lift the level of debate, and demonstrate the true character of Islam,” Ellison was quoted as saying.
]]> http://minnesotaindependent.com/2479/ellison-blasts-kings-too-many-mosques-remarks/feed 0 http://minnesotaindependent.com/2428/in-fighting-hunger-ellison-goes-on-food-stamps-for-a-week http://minnesotaindependent.com/2428/in-fighting-hunger-ellison-goes-on-food-stamps-for-a-week#comments Tue, 18 Sep 2007 19:21:08 +0000 Abdi Aynte http://www.minnesotaindependent.com.php5-9.websitetestlink.com/?p=2428 To make a point about poverty and food stamps, U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison plans to live on $21 this week—the national average for food stamp benefits.

The Democratic freshman is joined Tuesday in Washington by Rabbi Steve Gutow, executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and other religious and civic officials.

“The goals of the [campaign] are to raise the minimum food stamp benefit, improve food stamp benefit adequacy, fully restore food stamp access to all lawfully present immigrants, raise and index asset eligibility limits, allow households to deduct child care expenses and exclude military pay when calculating eligibility,” said Ellison in a statement.

Participants in the “There Shall Be No Needy among You” campaign will live on $3 a day for a week.

The campaign coincides with Ramadan, Islam’s holy month, and Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur—two important Jewish holidays.

“I can think of no better way to celebrate Ramadan,” said Ellison. “And to do so with my brethren in the Jewish Community is especially fitting because it underscores poverty does not discriminate; it knows no age or gender; no religion or race.”

According to Ellison’s office, about 264,000 people in Minnesota are currently receiving food stamps, with another 200,000 eligible. Half of those are children.

“I’m in a learning mode like everyone else,” Ellison told the Jerusalem Post. “Until you reach a certain level of competence, it is not responsible to tell the world what you will do. I need to learn the dynamics of the region and understand some of the issues and personalities better.”

The 18-member Democratic Congressional delegation met both the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his Palestinian counterpart Salaam Fayad. The trip was sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation, an independent, nonprofit organization affiliated with the America Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC.

During his tough campaign, Ellison pledged to visit Israel during his freshman year. This was his second visit there since he was elected last November.

In a toxic political environment like the one in the Middle East, Ellison managed to stay away from controversy.

“I need to build up some knowledge and expertise,” he responded to a question asking if he brought a different perspective to the area, cognizant that he’s the only Muslim in the Congress.

Ellison lambasted what he characterized as “crazies” who read the same Qur’an as he reads everyday and issue themselves a license to murder.

“The murderers and the extremists are into something I don’t know about. I don’t know how they read what they read and come out with what they do. They wouldn’t consider me a Muslim because I’m American, because I believe in the unity of people and that we are all on the planet to work together.

“The people who did 9/11 are hostile to everyone, and in fact if you are not the type of Muslim they want you to be, they would be happy to kill you, too. I am not a Muslim in their eyes because I am for tolerance and inclusion, and they don’t want an Islam that is inclusive.”

“I am honored to join the Congressional Anti-Semitism Task Force because it embodies the ideals and principles that have guided and shaped my life,” said the freshman Democrat from Minnesota.

The task force doesn’t have a legislative role. Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., founded the group earlier in the summer.

The only Muslim in Congress, Ellison was until recently in Israel for his second visit in the Middle East since he was elected last fall.

“I’m a firm believer that dialogue never hurt anybody – the cost of dialogue is very low,” he was quoted as saying. “It’s the best way to solve a problem.”

House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-M.D., will be leading Ellison’s second trip to Israel. The delegation is slated to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmer and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Asked if the “dialogue” should include Hamas, which took control of Gaza few weeks ago, Ellison told the Associated Press that he wouldn’t get into that controversial subject.

The trip is sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation, which is affiliated with the powerful America Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby group.

Ellison just got back from his first trip to Iraq, where he met with religious and tribal leaders. In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Wednesday, Ellison said he thought the leaders he met with were doing a better job than Iraq’s central government.

Some people say the attempt to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney isn’t anything more than a charade by far-left Democrats.

That’s not the case for U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, who gets animated about the subject. The freshman Democrat from Minneapolis has joined a dozen or so lawmakers as co-sponsors of a bill to impeach Cheney for “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

The alleged crimes are yet to be spelled out by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, who sponsored the bill late last month. But Ellison accuses Cheney of “abusing his power…and abstracting information.”

Ellison cites two instances in which Cheney classified his role differently each time.

In 2001, Cheney fended off a congressional inquiry into the inner workings of his energy task force, claiming that doing so “would unconstitutionally interfere with the functioning of the executive branch.”

This year, the vice president, dubbed by some as the most powerful in U.S. history, refused to file national security documents with the national archive, saying that his office is not an “entity within the executive branch.”

“If that’s not abuse of power,” said Ellison in an interview with Minnesota Monitor, “I don’t know what is.”

Asked if an impeachment effort is practical and worth his energy, Ellison said: “I didn’t sign on to it for reasons of practicality. It’s about principles and holding [Cheney] accountable for his actions.”

Still, few expect the impeachment effort to gain enough traction. 

“I understand how unpopular [Cheney] has become, but that’s no basis for impeachment,” said Michael J. Gerhardt, professor of law at North Carolina State University who testified before Congress as an expert witness on impeachment. “You have to make both political and constitutional calculations. Even the political calculations are not right now in favor of moving forward on it. I don’t think there’s much taste for it in Congress.”

President Bush’s recent decision to commute the sentence of Scooter Libby, Cheney’s former chief of staff, “broke the camel’s back for me,” said Ellison. “Cheney had everything to do with that decision.”

Asked why not impeach President Bush then, Ellison said, “I haven’t ruled that out, though I haven’t ruled it in either. I just haven’t addressed it yet.”

Eric Black contributed to this story

The Washington-based American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, or ADC, will recognize Ellison, a Minneapolis Democrat, with the “Trailblazer Award

“If we fold our arms and turn our backs and say people have to meet conditions before we meet with them, things are going to get worse,” Ellison told the Star Tribune on Saturday.

Ellison was part of a high-profile congressional delegation that went to several countries in the Middle East, including Israel, Palestinian territories, Syria, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. Ellison said he was “impressed

Two officers who declined to be named told the Star Tribune that Lt. Bob Kroll made the comments during a police ethics training this week.

Ellison is the first Muslim elected to Congress. He  represents the  5th District, which includes Minneapolis.

Kroll allegedly said we are “at war with Islamic terrorists” and that “one was elected to Congress,” according to the Star Tribune.

Kroll, who is also vice president of the Police Federation, denied making such comments, saying he’s smarter than that.

Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan issued a public apology to Ellison. In an e-mail sent to all employees, he called Kroll’s remarks unacceptable. Mayor R. T. Rybak  denounced Kroll’s remarks as “shockingly ignorant.