Ron Paul’s MN Support Crosses Political Boundaries

Hundreds of enthusiastic Ron Paul supporters jammed the meeting room at the AutoMotoPlex in Chanhassan Minnesota on Saturday to show their support for his Presidential bid. Video of his entire speech available here.

There was standing room only in the room and the garage bay doors were opened to handle the overflow crowd that almost circled the building.

“He was Tea Party before Tea Party was cool.” said one of his supporters who introduced the Republican Congressman from Texas.

The crowds choice in the 2008 election ran the gamut. Lots of Republicans – one had cast his first vote for Reagan – but also a number of 2008 Obama voters, Ron Paul write-ins plus votes for Libertarian and Constitution parties. A few claimed to be undecided, but most were very clear on their 2012 choice: Ron Paul— even if they had to write him in.

Video and photos: Ron Paul’s Minnesota supporters say why they back him. … Continue Reading

Netflix Facebook App Would Be Legal In US

Netflix’s top lawyer tries to convince a US Senate committee that laws need to be changed so it can offer a video sharing app on Facebook. Netflix General Counsel David Hyman told the Senate judiciary subcommittee on privacy that the 1988 Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) had “ambiguities” preventing it from offering a Facebook video sharing act.

“We have been offering our members outside the United States the opportunity to share and discover movies with their friends on the Facebook platform.” Hyman says there are more than a half-million Netflix subscribers outside of the United States that use their Facebook app.

Committee chair Senator Al Franken (DFL- Minnesota) asked University of Minnesota Law Professor William McGeveran if current US law prevents Netflix from having a Facebook app in the U.S. McGeveran said no.

“The statute requires (consumer) consent every time….that can be done simply by saying here’s a button to press when you play the movie, because presumably you have to press a button to play the movie, and right next to it here’s a button to both play and share. You can post, you just have to be asked every time you see a movie. Online that seems relatively easy to effectuate.”

Simpler for corporations not better for consumers says Senator Leahy … Continue Reading

Sen Ortman To Media: MN Doesn’t Need To Read About Senate Cuts

If you want to get a reporter interested in a story, just tell him or her that they shouldn’t print it.

Senate Deputy Majority Leader Julianne Ortman probably didn’t consider that adage when she told room of reporters “I’m not sure Minnesotans really need to hear and read all about this”.

She was commenting about cuts the majority party is making to the minority party’s legislative staff budget. Senator Ortman says the disagreement over the budget is “inside ball”.

Minority party saying Majority party using “misleading numbers” … Continue Reading

Iowa Caucus:A Look Behind The Scenes

The Iowa caucuses are held in hundreds of locations across the state, but there is one central location where the votes are tallied and the media gathers. That’s media filing center in Des Moines, Iowa. On caucus night the place was filled with congressmen, famous media people, and of course, The UpTake. Google was a major sponsor of the venue, hence the “Google Hangout”.

Occupy Forces Local News to Focus on Real Issues

The Occupy movement has successfully put the economic injustice plaguing the United States on televisions across America, says Tina Dupuy, a nationally syndicated op-ed columnist and managing editor of Crooks and Liars.

The reason that most Americans were unaware of these issues before the Occupy movement caught fire this fall is that 60 percent of us get our news exclusively from local news sources. Those 30-minute local news segments devote a full 10 minutes to commercials and two minutes to “teasers” of stories to come. That leaves very little time for real news about real issues. Dupuy says that newscasters too often fill the gap with trivial stories such as reports about “Dancing with the Stars” or news of a cat stuck in a tree in Germany.

“We don’t have a real broad knowledge of issues that affect us, like the housing bubble or about what our local and national government is doing,” says Dupuy. “But at least now the local news is showing protest signs of what economic injustice is. They’re being forced to cover these issues and cover the raids, arrests and encampments and have the protestors on television talking about these issues.”

“Now we’ve seen our local news talk about the homeless population, talk about people who aren’t able to find jobs, talk about students who are now sharecroppers to banks because they have $200,000 in student loan debt — debt they can’t renegotiate.”

The Forgotten Neighborhood

City Pages and The UpTake have teamed up for a special cover story about the tornado that hit north Minneapolis this year. As we’ve been reporting for the past six months, many people who need help still haven’t gotten it. It’s a good article by The UpTake’s Jacob Wheeler and videos from our intrepid crew.

“The tornado that ravaged north Minneapolis six months ago was cruelly selective as it followed its diagonal northeasterly path of destruction. While some buildings were destroyed, others next door were left nearly untouched. The wind uprooted trees, tore roofs off homes, killed two residents, made thousands homeless, and caused hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of damage.

“And the storm couldn’t have chosen a more unfortunate place to wreak its havoc. North Minneapolis was already home to the city’s most depressed and dangerous neighborhoods. In this largely African-American pocket, 31 percent of the 60,000 residents live in poverty, and nearly 80 percent receive assistance from Hennepin County.”

More at City Pages

Minnesota 9/11 Truth Shares Capitol With Remembrance Celebration

Minnesota 9/11 Truth rallied in the rotunda of the Minnesota State Capitol as the larger remembrance celebration proceeded on the main steps. The 9/11 Truth Movement is a growing collection of architects, engineers, pilots, other technical people and some conspiracy theorists who question many of the conclusions reached by the government’s 9/11 investigation committee. Critics, including the mainstream media, dismiss their claims as unsubstantiated conspiracy theories. But a number of groups, with varying degrees of veracity, continue to call for the reopening of the 9/11 Commission investigation.

… Continue Reading

“They’re Trying to Make us Homeless!”

North Minneapolis resident DeWayne refuses to leave his home on Logan Avenue, which was damaged during the May 22 tornado, but which is still structurally sound and safe. The City of Minneapolis condemned the house and urged DeWayne and his children to go to a shelter. But with the city’s shelters overwhelmed by approximately 5,000 residents made homeless by the tornado, DeWayne refuses to go. To him, temporary shelters for the displaced is hardly a long-term solution to housing problems in North Minneapolis.

North Minneapolis is a neighborhood in need of solutions. Poverty, lack of jobs, and a housing crisis are longstanding systemic problems that were only magnified by this spring’s devastating tornado. Faced with these serious needs, creativity and innovation solution-makers are stepping forward. The UpTake’s Northside Project, with support from the Bush Foundation, is seeking out the individuals and organizations who are making inspired positive change in North Minneapolis.

But before we can illuminate the solutions, we need to understand the wide range of needs. The UpTake is collaborating with MplsTornado.info to find Northside residents still suffering from the impacts of the tornado, thus amplifying the “storm before the storm” of economic disparity. We hope these “Stories of Need” will connect residents with people and organizations who can directly solve their needs.

To support this series documenting people in need in North Minneapolis, visit: http://mplstornado.info/

Featured on CitizenTube

Produced by The UpTake, in collaboration www.MplsTornado.info.

What Do 7,700 Millionaires Think About A MN Income Tax Hike?

In the final hours before Minnesota’s government shutdown, Governor Mark Dayton offered to limit an income tax increase to just the top 1% of earners in Minnesota. That’s about 7,700 people making more than a million dollars a year. Republicans rejected the proposal saying it would kill jobs.

Is there a way to find out what those 7,700 people think? There could be if you help us go after the story.

What if we could interview those 7,700 millionaires and billionaires to find out if indeed they would end up cutting jobs if they saw their personal income tax go up – or, what they would personally think about such an increase. Wouldn’t you like to know what this relatively small, but powerful group of people think?

Having reliable information about this issue could help both Democrats and Republicans to make good decisions and end Minnesota’s government shutdown. But we can’t do it without your support. We have volunteers willing to do the work, but they need the guidance of professionals to take on a project of this magnitude. We’ve had to lay off our staff that was supporting our volunteers and we won’t be able to bring them back unless we have a solid financial commitment.

Would you like to see this story reported in the credible, transparent way that only The UpTake can do? If so, we need your donation and we need it soon.

We’re moving towards our goal of $10,000 needed to continue our coverage of the shutdown. If you’ve already given, we thank you for your generosity and ask that you forward this message on to someone else who can help us out. If you haven’t donated, please consider doing so soon. Transparency is desperately needed during the government shutdown and we want to be there for you.

Thank you for your support!

Stories You Would Not Have Seen Without The UpTake’s Coverage

… Continue Reading

“The Walls Are Closing in on Democracy”, Warns Keith Olbermann

Keith Olbermann, whose show “Countdown” will be reborn tonight on Al Gore’s progressive news station Current TV, addressed Netroots Nation on Thursday via video. Olbermann will deliver the keynote speech at Netroots 2012 in Providence, Rhode Island. “Countdown” was unceremoniously pulled off MSNBC, sending the unapologetic leftist commentator Olbermann to the West Coast. “The walls are closing in, not just on journalism, but on democracy. The walls, like anything else, are owned by huge corporations,” said Olbermann.