Zogby Urges Return to Iraq Study Group Recommendations

Dr. James Zogby, the president of the Arab American Institute in Washington, DC, believes that the war in Iraq is far from over - and may soon get worse. He says it could and should have been foreseen. All the warning signs were there. In Northern Iraq, the file of historical grievances of the Kurdish people has been opened and it won't close anytime soon.

Over the past decade, Iraq's Kurds have prospered under a US-protected umbrella. With the collapse of the regime in Baghdad, Kurdish hopes of expanding their autonomy grew, and with it, their ambition as well. The Kurdish Provisional Authority (KPA) has become, for all intents and purposes, a state within a failing state. With its own flag and military, and its own Washington representation, the KPA is moving inexorably towards independence.

When Dr. Zogby refers to the KPA's "own Washington representation," this story (from the WaPo) is a good part of what he's talking about. I have written [in 2005, in 2006, in 2007] about my deep concerns about the conflict of ethics and interest when well-paid K-Street lobbyists become de-facto U.S. diplomats in war-torn regions. It's akin to letting Blackwater fight our nation's wars. It's against every democratic principle intended by the Founding Fathers to keep our Republic from falling into a state of corruption and oligarchy.

Dr. Zogby revisits the Iraq Study Group recommendations, surely making neoconservatives shiver as he invokes the name of their Straussian devil known as the U.N. This idea acknowledges an interdependent world, but threatens the hijack-hold the neocons still have on U.S. foreign policy, thanks to the Presient's delusions of one-day historic greatness, and the intellectual shortcomings and raw partisan ambitions of the Bush administration and the U.S. Republican party:

With Turkey and Iran both bombing Kurdish positions within the KPA and threatening an even greater response if the insurgent groups are not controlled, the US sees the possibility that its one Iraqi success story may give way to the opening of a new front in what will become an even more complicated war.


This all should have been understood before the war began, but was not. And that is why one of the principal recommendations of the Iraq Study Group is as valid today as when it was written. And that is the necessity of creating a regional security pact to bring together all the component groups inside Iraq, along with Iraq's neighbours, under the auspices of the UN, so that problems of this sort are not tackled piece meal. Iraq's neighbours have a direct stake in the stability and unity of Iraq and are better made partners towards that goal than a collection of allies and rivals.

There is a new framework from which the UN could be instrumental in resolving the Kurdish question. Recently passed (without a 'YES' vote from the United States) was the Human Rights Council Resolution on the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples [pdf]. It's a declaration that could give indigenous peoples like the Kurds a valuable tool even though, still imperfect, the agreement’s non-binding nature leaves indigenous peoples to rely upon the political will of nation states as each respective state creates a framework for working with their indigenous populations. A great leader would take Dr. Zogby's advice and go back to the Iraq Study Group recommendations and implement the new UN Declaration framework in a way that would bring an end to U.S. occupationand bring peace to the region and fairness to the Kurds by involving and placing responsibility with all of Iraq's neighbors.

Gore Wins Nobel Prize - Bush Moves To Steal It!

Moments after the Nobel Peace Prize committee turned its sights on the battle against global warming by bestowing the 2007 award upon former US vice president Al Gore, George W. Bush moved in to steal it.

"I'm the disseminator," claimed Bush, followed by a weak, disbelieving laugh.

In a shocking turn of events, Mr. Bush's legal team filed papers to dispute the Norwegian Nobel committee's claims that Mr. Gore's efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change were sound reasons to give him (and the IPCC) the coveted prize instead of giving it to Mr. Bush.

Bush reiterated his position: "Al Gore may be the single individual who they say has done the most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted to combat climate change, but - heck, I'm the disseminator and I'm confident that history will cement in the minds of all future human peoples that I, George Dubya, and not Al Gore, deserved the Nobel prize."






Congratulations to Al Gore!

Syracuse: Soldiers Magnetize Thousands to Denounce Iraq War

I want to take an opportunity to show you the faces of soldiers who have served our nation in Iraq and who do not agree with the Bush administration's policy on Iraq. Nothing phony about these men and women. Nope. They're the real deal. Their courage was a virtual magnet that drew thousands to a September 29th march in Syracuse, N.Y. where soldiers and citizens denounced the Iraq War.

The people in our Upstate New York communities support these (very real) servicemen and women. I want to take an opportunity to show you some (very real) photos of (very real) citizens from diverse walks of (very real) community life in Syracuse and Upstate New York who took a Saturday afternoon on a halcyon September day to tell George W. Bush what they think of his administration's (all-too real and disastrous) Iraq policy.


The Bring the Troops Home Now rally in Syracuse was a booming success for those diverse community groups who'd worked hard to organize it. Three thousand people filled the plaza behind the Everson Museum in downtown Syracuse where they rallied and filled the streets as far as the eye could see, marching together over a mile to Walnut park near the Syracuse University area.




They were there to support Iraq vets who are conscientiously courageous enough to face their communties and tell the citizens back home why they think this war is morally and legally wrong. Bringing about a pivotal moment - a tipping point for campus/community-protest of the Iraq war, there was, for the first time, active-duty military presence from Fort Drum (near Watertown, N.Y.) in the Syracuse march.




The day's events culminated in a gathering for a discussion panel/Q & A at Hendricks Chapel on the Syracuse University campus with Scott Ritter (Former Marine and UN Weapons Inspector), Jimmy Massey (IVAW), and Dahlia Wasfi (an anti-war activist who was born in Iraq and has visited her native country twice since the invasion). I'll blog more about what took place during the Discussion Panel in other diaries.






3000 people. For a city the size of Syracuse, that was a remarkable turnout. Signs everywhere.






The sounds of chanting, rallying, drumming, and music.




There were skateboarders for peace.




There were poets for peace. (This poet is Arthur Flowers, Syracuse University professor).




There were musicians and citizens of faith for peace. (Singer Colleen Kattau of Truxton, N.Y. and activist Magda Bayoumi of Syracuse).





Citizens for peace.
(The woman in the black t-shirt on the end (right) is a Gold Star mother, Lorene Davey, who lost her son Cpl Seamus Davey in Iraq. Onstage at the post-march rally in Walnut Park, Seamus' father Derek Davey, who wore a T-shirt that said "Honor the Warrior - Not the War", watched his wife with a palpable and heart-wrenching sense of love and pride as she read a poem she'd written in honor of their own fallen warrior:

My Baby Boy

They told him,"Freedom isn’t free"
He said, "Mom, it’s up to me.
I want the opportunity
For them to share our liberty."

He didn’t see the things we saw:
The lust for oil, disdain for law,
Abuse of youth, so green, so raw,
Absurdity of "shock and awe".

The idealism in his eyes
Could not comprehend the lies
So evident to the old and wise.
This is why a warrior dies.

He couldn’t tell me what he’d do,
Couldn’t share what he’d view.
"It’s awful, Mom." He knew I knew.
"I love you, Boy, and God does, too."
That was the last time that we spoke,
Except the night that I awoke
To his strong voice. I got to stroke
His hair, and share one final joke.

"I love you ,Mom, and I’m alright,
But I have to go back tonight."
He swung me round, embrace so tight,
His smile so wide, his eyes so bright.

Then came my friend in his dress blues
Bringing me the dreaded news.
I should have recognized the clues
But, we believe the things we choose.

A hero you say, he always was
And honor is as honor does
And I will speak the truth because
He was my baby boy



Lorene Davey
Copyright 2006 All Rights Reserved

When I took the photo of the parents of Cpl Seamus Davey, I could barely see them through the lens but for the tears that were flowing from my eyes.









I'd say this was a healing form of comic relief if this whole (very real) disaster wasn't so damned shameful for our nation.










There was certainly no shortage of citizens of faith at this rally. It's great to see representatives of our community churches speaking out.






The college campuses were also well-represented. Here are just a few of the schools whose students were speaking publicly against the war:




Hamilton College



Syracuse University




RIT (with the amazing Andriano on the bullhorn).






Labor had a solid presence at the rally. Here are some SEIU-1199 members with their message (Healthcare / Not Warfare):










One rally-theme that rang out for me was the suffering of our own domestic front for the hundreds of billions of dollars misspent on the Iraq War.






When I saw our veterans and active-duty troops passing rundown homes, the message hit me as it never did before.








While we squandered the world's trust and blew through so much national treasure (not to mention the staggering and unnecessary loss of life we've brought about in Iraq), the people on my own city's streets have been suffering....waiting..wondering why their country abandoned them.





What's happened to the America where the People were represented by their government? When did it become acceptable for the government to ignore the will of the People?




The answer is that it has never..and will never... become acceptable for the U.S. government to ignore the will of the People!








The older generation's will must be heard.






The younger generation's will must be heard.





Every generation was represented at the Syracuse rally and march.






Most every faith..every ethnicity...






Artists....




Musicians....




Dancers...




Actors...




Soldiers....





Soldiers' mothers and fathers....







A perfect relection of what the majority of America is feeling like at this very moment in time. The familiar rally-chant rings out:

"Show me what democracy looks like."

"This is what democracy looks like!"

The harmonious face of our entire community was shown to us... beautifully vocal...one in purpose.








I want to commend the Syracuse Police Department for keeping marchers safe and doing their part to extend the spirit of mutual respect and cooperation at the rally.







Here's Iraq vet Matt Howard (IVAW) enjoying the Mother McCrees at Walnut Park after the march.





Activist Dahlia Wasfi said that, up intil now, her most memorable moment in her own personal history of anti-war activism was standing up onstage with those IVAW soldiers. She hopes to take them back as part of a peace delegation to her native Iraq someday, people-to-people, to heal some of the the resulting wounds of a failed U.S. policy.





Walk On.......





All photographs in this diary are the copyrighted product and property of Jude Nagurney Camwell, all rights reserved.

The ONLY Way: Bush Must Change Course in Iraq

Immediately following George W. Bush's speech tonight, tune in to MSNBC.

John Edwards has something to say that he thinks is so important for you to hear that his campaign has purchased air time on MSNBC to say it.


From TPM Election Central:

John Edwards isn't going to use the usual method — a dry press release, followed by speeches at campaign rallies the next day — to rebut President Bush's speech tonight about Iraq. Instead, Edwards will run a two-minute ad tonight on MSNBC, set to air right after Bush's speech.

"Unfortunately, the president is pressing on with the only strategy he's ever had — more time, more troops, and more war," Edwards says in the ad, regarding Bush's expected plan to withdraw 30,000 troops from Iraq, conditioned on progress in the country.

"Tell Congress you know the truth," Edwards says. "They have the power to end this war and you expect them to use it. When the president asks for more money and more time, Congress needs to tell him he only gets one choice — a firm timeline for withdrawal."

Here's a preview of what Senator Edwards will say this evening (tip of the hat to TPM):



Listen at MSNBC directly after the President's speech tonight to hear John Edwards' message in its entirety.

MoveOn Ad Controversy=Right-Wing Diversion

The question of the propriety of the "Petraeus or Betray Us" MoveOn.org ad is a red herring for the Republican attack machine in what seems to be these days a campaign against an enemy more dangerous to Republicans than al Qaeda - - the Democratic party.

General Petraeus is a career military man who understands what he must say on behalf of the Commander in Chief, lest he lose his career. Alas, there may be no saving his reputation in the long run. The problem is, General Petraeus' job is no easier nor clear-cut than the strategy for the Iraq war itself. Think of General Colin Powell, the good soldier and the loyal cabinet member who likely destroyed his own future political career by having willingly gone to the United Nations to complete a big sale with loose and cherry-picked data about WMD. How sorry we now know he is that he did that as he looks back today.

George W. Bush is the kind of leader who, most unfortunately, has a unique way of destroying anyone who works loyally on his behalf. The president, in the case of the Petraeus report, is the one who is betraying our trust, as he'[s done throughout his presidency.

General Petraeus is doing his tapdance for a President who would just as soon throw him to the wolves if he spoke any hard truth to that disastrous power.

U.S. Congressman James Moran said something recently about a trip to Iraq that has me concerned about General Petraeus. Read the folling statement from Rep. Moran and ask yourself how much you think you can trust a General of Petraeus' rank who's creating the illusion of a situation where we, as a nation, are precluded from being able to withdraw from Iraq in any reasonable period of time because he "doesn't know how.."

REP JIM MORAN: Now, to talk about strategy: I’m going to recommend that Mr. Murtha reject the 50 billion entirely, take the 14 billion, and use it solely for withdrawal purposes. I asked Gen. Petraeus in Iraq whether he had made plans for withdrawal, and he said "No! There are no contingency plans for withdrawal." He said: "I don’t know how to do it. It takes six months just to close down one military base, and you can’t do many simultaneously." You can check on how many military bases we have all over Iraq. So basically they’re created a situation that they think precludes any ability to withdraw from that country in any reasonable period of time. I hope that we are going to recommend that the money that the President is requesting for Iraq be used solely for withdrawing our troops, weapons, and facilities.

Democrats have refused to repudiate MoveOn.org's ad questioning General Petraeus' character and role in this decidedly bogus hyperfocus on one component of a disastrous overall policy that's failing at every other step of the way.

Jeffrey Feldman describes how even the mainstream is easily suckered into the right-wing misframing of the essence of U.S. citizens' message questioning President Bush's policy in Iraq. The right-wing wishes to silence that message and various right-wing sources have coordinated accusations that critics of the war seek to harm the country, this time by slandering the U.S. military.

This is how unjust wars are perpetuated by those who allow pumped-up controversy to throw them off course.

Meanwhile, a young man or woman will likely die today in Iraq while serving an attention-deficit nation.

Union Leader (NH) Editors - You MUST Be Joking!

I could hardly believe that the slanted screwballs at the Union Leader in Manchester, N.H. had the guts to actually say:

Here's the truth: John Edwards is spouting populist nonsense to try to scare people into voting for him.

Here's the real truth, people. These dorks endorsed George W. Bush in 2004. Yes, the Union Leader endorsed the biggest fear-mongerer of them all (except perhaps Rudy "Everything's 9/11-Connected and You're All Gonna Die Unless I'm Elected" Giuliani].... and the Union Leader tried to scare YOU into voting for the misleading "decider" Bush who not only regularly scared the heck out of you to get you to vote for him, but the inept mule messed his war up royally (the deliberate monarchical reference has deeper meaning).

The Union Leader is just an awful and loose-talking mess of a newspaper, endorsing Pat Buchanan in '96...then Bush in '04. Who do these chuckleheads think they're kidding?

Here you go, Union Leader. Listen, watch, and weep. Part of the change we Americans all need - reagrdless of party affiliation or ideology - is to see newspaper owners and editors in our communities called out for their blatant errors in good professional judgement.

You're one of the worst, Union Leader. You may think it's maverick, but I see your blatant bias as rash irresponsibility to your readers.

What we've lost in the course of two generations

From a post where Open Left's Chris Bowers worries because he says that the Clinton camp has "twice, in the last week, inaccurately gauged public opinion on a topic as being further to the right than it actually is":

Perhaps I would feel differently if I was from a different generation, but my formative political experiences have largely been about the failure of Democratic and progressive elites in stopping the conservative movement from continuing to rise. We never seem to win, even when we are in elected office. As such, one of the things I am looking for in the Democratic primaries is not only a candidate who can win, but who can reverse that pattern of defeat in governance.

I am from a generation that saw the rise of prominent social figures and political luminaries such as JFK, Rev.MLK Jr., and Bobby Kennedy. And I saw what happened to them and how far their idealism carried them in a hateful, divided nation. Later, I watched my mother as she exuberantly supported Hubert H. Humphrey and how she cried when he lost to Nixon. Still too young to join them, I saw the intelligence, the heart, and the nerve of the flower children in their generation's cause to end another unjust war. I saw college students at Kent State gunned down by our own countrymen for their idealism. I remember the awful images of Vietnam in black and white on my parents' television screen. I remember watching the Watergate hearings with my grandfather during the summer I was about to become a senior in high school and how he, while disgusted yet too intrigued to turn his head away, took the time to explain what was happening to me. In 1976, at the age of 18, I voted for Jimmy Carter in my first election. I saw Ronald Reagan come to power with a new Conservative movement with misled neo-idealists and their leaders who kissed, corrupted, and co-opted Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority.

Where Bobby Kennedy and MLK Jr. were remembered for their risk-filled fight for equality and civil rights of all Men and Women, Ronald Reagan is remembered for smaller government... being at the helm at the end of crumbling communism (with JFK, Carter, and others who set up the whole fall getting little to no credit). Sitting in the Oval Office on a Sunday morning, October 23, 1983 when 241 Americans, most of them U.S. Marines, were killed by a terrorist truck bomb. Still President when Pan Am flight 103 went down because of a terrorist's bomb over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, killing 35 Syracuse University students whose families never saw justice for the deaths of their children - and later were horrified to see George W. Bush make nice with devious Lybian leader Moammer Gahdafhi.


For all of this they wanted to put Reagan's likeness on the American dime.
Go figure.


You know the story from the post-Reagan years. Not too many brilliant profiles in courage-in-leadership, especially not from the Right. I think idealism and vision - the kind of vision that brings real, lasting, and necessary progress and not the kind lobbyists prefer to make - began to die off when they (whoever they may have been if you're a conspiracy theorist) began to literally kill off our most promising visionaries in this nation.


What passed for greatness after that was far from the vision of inspired men and women of the 60s Liberal era. What happened to the vision? Did it die with the murder-tainted innocence of a hopeful era? Do we teach our children to assimilate and not rock the boat because we're afraid for their well-being - - perhaps their very lives?

We think division in this country's something new, but it's not. I just think it's a lot more apparent today because of the expanded news media and the blogosphere.

What I think is particularly damaging is the people who complain about partisanship and label it as the disease that ails America. I believe the pattern of defeat in the Democratic party (pre 2006) was the tendency of Democrats to fall into the false framing of bipartisanship, traditional collegiality, and MSM-pleasing "centrism" (in parentheses because the media hasn't been shooting toward true American center on Iraq if you believe the polls). I use Senator Joe Lieberman's rise, thanks to being voted in by a majority of Connecticut Republicans and who now pushes the Iraq surge and gives lip service to a war in Iran that the majority of Americans say they do not want, as an example of how bipartisanship, by name alone, can be assigned a totally false value over common sense. I regret to see that our leaders (and the MSM who cover the horserace) seem to be regressing after winning a promising 2006 election. They have been far less than visionary and generally get a poor grade on action on ways they've chosen to try to end the Iraq war. "Going right", the direction that Glen Greenwald has caught Hillary Clinton's camp going (and they're not the only ones), is not going to help us bloggers, when MSM gets a hold of it, to convince anyone that our position is not heading toward the left fringe. This gives mouthpieces for the Right like Bill O'Reilly an opportunity to take so many undue potshots at us.

Hunter at Daily Kos can hardly wrap his mind around the audacity of O'Reilly and Fox News calling themselves a news network. I believe that the failure of our own Democrats to be strong in their vision these past five years have emboldened the owners of this new breed of media to think they can "destroy" real people out here on the blogs (like me):

Can you imagine any other news network mounting a multi-pundit jihad against a group of grassroots Americans, merely because they have the audacity to not support the Republicans? Can you imagine any other news network getting themselves into a bitter televised fight with a political community website?

Of course not. Because Fox News isn't "news" at all, and this is yet another example of why they should not be considered a legitimate news network, or even an "opinionated" news network. Actual news networks do not fabricate stories -- Fox News does. Actual news networks do not send pundits out in attempts to punish and/or sabotage grassroots political events of the opposing party -- it would be absurd. Only at Fox News, where a spectacular lack of ethics is after all the cornerstone of the efforts to manipulate the very news itself in order to prop up Republicans, would such things not get you immediately fired.

- Hunter

Nothing will change until our leaders change the tone and stop worrying about MSM's version of "partisanship" and "division".

In this country, it seems that we've always been divided on the things that matter. We're supposed to be a country that can withstand division and diversity of opinion and, out of it, create something that's actually healthy for our democracy. All we've seen these past twenty years are toxic results, a decided lack of vision, and unsatisfactory progress.

I came from a different generation, the one just before Chris Bowers' generation. After all I've seen, I have to ask many of our leaders: Why are we afraid of idealism and leading with bold vision these days? Why is our media money-jaded and controlled by private owners to the point where investigation is cut off in the editors' service of political bedfellows? Why are we made to see so often that they're working against us bloggers? Why do our leaders seem to be afraid? Who are they afraid of? What are they afraid of losing? An election? For all my eyes have seen, I'm afraid the country's losing its very soul.



The man in this video, John Edwards, has the kind of courage and vision I saw in JFK's time and the media is being complicit in framing him as a rich phony with only power in mind.

He says he won't let them shut him up.

I say good!

It's time for courage again.

Is this a returning breed?

Have we finally seen enough of the worthlessness from the empty promise of new conservatism from fat-faced hate-talk radio blatherers..and are we so sick of its vacuous political nature that we are returning to leaders who are looking well past the trees to see what could be possible beyond the forest?

This week at Daily Kos, my Idea Consultant colleague and fellow Spiritual Progressive David Beckwith said it well:

John Edwards is not promising you the world...he is delivering it. What needs being done...he is doing it. People in need cannot wait for him to be president, they need his help right now. And he is getting it to them.

I know of no one who is more deserving of the presidency, since we know he is not serving up empty promises. He is doing the heavy uplifting, and getting many other good and caring souls to help with this Herculean task.

We need an exemplar...especially after punishing the world with Bushworld Inc. Obama and Hillary are great and good people, but John is leading by example, and should be commended, not pejorated and smeared.

It has been said that when someone cares for another person, God cares for them too. Both of them. The caregiver and the recipient. I think most Americans realize that something of the sort is at play, and that caritas is indeed one of the sweetest and noblest acts a person can do.

There are people suffering today...this minute. We cannot wait for an election. Help us help John help people who need it.

Edwards' Poverty Initiative

A re-posting of John Edwards' recent trip focusing on his Poverty initiative:

Concert with Dr. Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys
Roanoke, Virginia

Dr. Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys join with John Edwards and perform during a free concert in Roanoke, Va. Photos by Rachel Feierman.



(Man, am I sad that I didn't get to attend that concert! Dr. Ralph Stanley is one of my favorites.)

Wise, Virginia

Smitty said the impoverished Appalachian region is a hotbed of heart disease, lung cancer and black lung.

However, the group said it didn't want Edwards' poverty tour to reinforce negative stereotypes of the region.

"These challenges don't define the people of this area," Edwards responded. "Their strength and defiance and courage define them..." - AP

A perfect example of that strength and courage the story that John heard from James Lowe, a 51-year old coal miner who had lived with a cleft palate, unable to speak for the first 50 years of his life because he could not afford the $3,000 operation to treat the problem. Last year a volunteer orthodontist with RAM performed the operation. Traveling with Senator Edwards, Mark Kornblau described the encounter, remarking that rather than being angry or complaining, Lowe was grateful. "It was remarkable humility," he said. He said Lowe reminded John of the men who worked at the mill with his father in South Carolina. He wrote, "Senator Edwards was enraged that James and people like him are often invisible to George W. Bush."

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

After Cleveland, the Road to One America tour moved on to Youngstown, then Pittsburgh, PA. Pittsburgh was the last stop of the day. John ended the day in Pittsburgh by visiting the Hill House community center.

Over the past four decades, it is estimated that the Hill House has provided care and support for more than 500,000 children, adults and seniors living in an urban environment. In 2004, more than 70,000 individuals participated in Hill House programs and outreach.

Today, John visited one of their "Mission Discovery" classrooms, an award winning after-school program that brings real-world science and technology experiences to Hill District middle school students. "John met some incredible kids here," John Davis writes from the road

During the speech, John was onstage stage with a diverse group of community members. The audience applauded when John pointed out how unjust it is that "we don't just have racial segregation, we have economic segregation in our schools. We all know it."

Youngstown, Ohio

He began at Beatitude House, which provides housing and support to homeless women with children in the Youngstown area. Beatitude House opened in 1991 to "offer housing and support to any woman dreaming of better opportunities for herself and her children."

The founder of Beatitude House, Sister Margaret Scheetz, saw a too-prevalent problem in Youngstown - a cycle of poverty and homelessness that many women and their children were caught up in. Believing that education was the best way out of poverty she sought to offer these women an opportunity....

... John went from meeting with women just getting on their feet at Beatitude House to meeting with business leaders at the Youngstown Business Incubator. It's a very different setting, but an organization working to do a very similar thing as Beatitude House - which is to create opportunity where there is none. Although it was once home to a thriving steel industry, the decline of Youngstown Sheet and Tube in the late 1970s was the start of economic challenges. In the past few years, the Youngstown Business Incubator has been instrumental in helping to turn the economy of this former steel town around, by creating high-tech, information age jobs in a city that was stuck in the industrial age and quickly deteriorating as a result....

Cleveland, Ohio

The Road to One America tour continued today, moving up into Ohio and starting the day off with a visit to the home of Mariah Crenshaw in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio.

Cleveland has suffered a wave of home foreclosures in recent months as a result of a combination of job losses, predatory lenders and falling home prices. Predatory lenders and mortgage brokers have targeted the Mount Pleasant neighborhood, like many other working-class and predominantly African-American neighborhoods across the country.

While subprime loans can be valuable to families without other credit opportunities, African-American and Latino borrowers are three times more likely to receive subprime loans than white borrowers with similar credit scores. Mariah is fighting to keep her family home of 30 years after a coercive and deceptive mortgage process.

In Cleveland--a city with more than 13,000 foreclosures a year--ACORN is helping citizens like Mariah and organizing residents of economically distressed neighborhoods like Mount Pleasant.

John Edwards knows that homeownership is the foundation of the American dream and fighting these predatory lenders must be part of the solution to moving people into the middle-class. He has presented a plan to fight these lending practices and help protect homeowners.

In addition to meeting with Mariah, John toured the Mount Pleasant neighborhood with Mariah and organizers from ACORN.

Pictures from Marks, Mississippi

Marks, Mississippi

This afternoon John and the One America tour moved on to Marks, Mississippi. You don't have to tell anyone in Marks that poverty is still a problem in America--1 out of every 3 people here live below the poverty line. In fact, the people of Marks have a great deal to tell the rest of the country about their struggle for economic fairness, and they have been fighting to be heard for decades.

Martin Luther King came to this town in 1968 to launch his Poor People's March. Though Dr. King was assassinated before the march could reach Washington, over 7,000 people continued all the way to the capital.
And now a new generation is ready to sound the call to justice from these same streets in Marks, Mississippi--ready to continue the great journey towards justice that Martin Luther King began.

Here's the report from John Davis, traveling with the group down historic Cotton Street:

In Marks, MS we had one of the most moving moments of the tour. On our walk down Cotton Street we stopped at the home of Mrs. Sammie Henley. Mrs. Henley told Senator Edwards about hosting students during Freedom Summer in 1964. She also talked about the flood that came in 1968, and how Dr. King rowed a boat up to the house at the start of the Poor People's March when he famously described the situation as "an island of poverty" surrounded by an ocean of American wealth.

Today John also spoke with Sam McCray, another long time local activist who participated in the Poor People's March in 1968. He met with Sonya Murphy, who led 40 members of ACORN from Jackson on a 3 hour drive to join the One America tour. He was introduced at a small gathering by Steve Simmons, who spoke powerfully about his struggles as a low-wage hospital worker without health insurance.

It's important to know that the story of Marks is about so much more than the ravages of poverty--it's about some of the most daring and innovate work to fight poverty going on anywhere in the country.

Canton, Mississippi

In New Orleans, John met with community leaders who were working to create opportunities - through rebuilding and recovery programs in the 9th Ward, providing early childhood education and offering at-risk teenagers a choice between destructive behaviors and violence or constructive set of life skills and a career path. These organizations are working at the local level to create the opportunity for those who were struggling to get ahead.

In Canton, John talked about the second part of this equation - rewarding work. Anyone who works hard should have the chance to get ahead. Yet, many industries routinely break basic labor laws, making getting ahead impossible.

To address this problem, John Edwards will revive the Department of Labor and create a new task force to target the industries with the worst abuses of minimum wage and overtime laws. He will also stop the misclassifying of employees as independent contractors, and make workplaces safer by boosting funding for OSHA inspectors and extending OSHA protections to all workers.

In addition, to make sure workers can take care of their families and themselves, John Edwards will make sure that all workers have at least seven paid sick days a year. Nearly half of all private-sector workers, and nearly 80 percent of low-wage workers, must forgo pay to miss even a single day when they get sick or have to take of a family member who is.

These new initiatives are part of the Edwards agenda to reward work with a higher minimum wage, stronger unions, new protections for home health workers, universal health care, Stepping Stone jobs and smart trade policies that work for workers as well as corporations.

You can read more details on his plan for rewarding work, here.

Kingsley House and Cafe Reconcile

Kingsley House was founded in 1896. Since that time it has been a safe haven for the children and families of New Orleans.

Since 2005, Kingsley House has stepped up as a saving grace to thousands of families who were victim to the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. After sustaining $3.5 million in damage to their buildings and grounds from the hurricane, Kingsley House rebuilt and became even more focused on their mission of "educating children, strengthening families, building community." Kingsley House now serves as an essential resettlement and recovery center for thousands in Southeastern Louisiana.

Yet despite the selfless efforts of Kingsley House and dozens of other relief organizations, large areas of the city still remain deserted and government services taken for granted in most American cities have become a luxury in post-Katrina New Orleans.

John Davis writes in from the road:

Over and over we have heard stories of folks getting caught up in red tape. Much of the city looks exactly as it did immediately following Katrina. The level of frustration among the residents is incredible but the commitment to the community is amazing.

That commitment was demonstrated by the staff of Kingsley House, including, Dr. Keith Liederman, their executive director who led John and Elizabeth on a tour through the facilities.....

......Following their visit to Kingsley House, John and Elizabeth stopped at Café Reconcile where they met with dozens of young people who are part of their training program for at-risk youth.

From the Café Reconcile describes their mission:

In 1996, under the leadership of the late Rev. Harry Tompson, S.J., a group of concerned people of faith gathered together to began a course of prayer, study, research, observation and dialogue regarding the witnessed challenges facing out-of-school youth in New Orleans. The newspapers, police reports, television news, research and personal experiences all pointed to a multitude of young lives spiraling into destructive and violent behaviors.

In an effort to stem that tide, to effect a glimmer of hope in the near-downtown community of Central City, this group of concerned and motivated people began the planning and research necessary to establish a safe and supportive place where at-risk youth could have the option of receiving the life, work and educational skills necessary to turn their lives on a productive path toward thriving and complete citizens of this city.....

Behind the Scenes: The GMA Town Hall

Video: The Lower 9th Ward

Walking in the Lower Ninth Ward

8:37 p.m. - New Orleans, Louisiana

We are walking around the Lower Ninth Ward, one of the areas hit hardest by Katrina. I have to say, this area is still devastated. It's hard to imagine that it's been almost two years since the storm hit. It really makes you realize how incredibly insufficient our government's response to the storm was and how many people's lives were ruined as a result.

We just met a man named Henry Phipps. He's been living in a FEMA trailer for the last 2 years. These trailers are not big by any means - they could easily fit in your average driveway. Tomorrow he is putting in the baseboard at his home - almost two years later. He told us he has received no help getting back on his feet.

9:31 p.m. - New Orleans, Louisiana

We just finished a tour of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Charter School for Science and Technology in the Lower 9th Ward. This school is a testament to the dedication of this community. It was their effort that built this school and community center. The dedication of these teachers to the students and their community is heroic......

Rebuilding New Orleans Starts in New Orleans

In New Orleans, Senator Edwards will unveil his three-point plan to rebuild the city. The plan seeks to address the question of recovery with a focus on rebuilding infrastructure, creating jobs and keeping the city safe from future storms and rising crime.

Rebuild: The rebuilding of infrastructure in New Orleans is stalled. The city needs new hospitals, clinics, schools and roads. John Edwards will call for building a new Veterans' hospital downtown, call on the VA to stop delaying site selection and choose downtown New Orleans, and then fast-track the design process so construction can begin. He will also propose building a 21st century infrastructure, integrating new housing, and preserving livable housing.

Create: Edwards believes we need to create good jobs in New Orleans. He will propose hiring 50,000 Gulf Coast residents to fill stepping stone jobs dedicated to rebuilding infrastructure that will help local and returning residents gain skills and experience. He will also protect workers from contractor exploitation.

Protect: Finally, Edwards believes we need to protect the city and the region from weather and crime. As president, Edwards will do whatever is necessary to ensure that Katrina never happens again, including building stronger levees and restoring coastal wetlands. Following Katrina, New Orleans has experienced an epidemic in violence. Edwards will strengthen public safety to end the epidemic of crime and violence.