Long & Foster Realtor Valerie Coleman Took My Money

This is my account with what is defiantly the worst landlord, I have seen since I lived in America. Her name is Valerie Coleman. This to tell an account and opinion about Ms. Coleman who is a nice dresser, smooth talker, and a smart business woman. Among her weaknesses however is her open apatite for money and easy money. Good for her she is a Realtor, has a government job, owns property and rents and now she can add another title, deposit scam artis. I have lived in more than a dozen of places,  all my landlords have always given back their deposit after I did the cleaning of the unit upon departure.

She rented us a home through Long & Foster (May 2011 to Oct 2013), she had listed her property on 2216th 11th St NW Washington, DC 20001 for rent. We rented it for tow and half years. First year she would do maintenance, but occasionally she would ask us to pay--and then she would get angry. She never uses professionals, she uses a nice guy who tires to fix things but he cannot do much. So get ready for leaking and what's not.

And yes, she charges 50 dollars for water? Do you know a place where people pay fifty dollars for water? So she used to keep some change claiming to pay 50 dollars for each unit--it was 20 when we moved in and then she made it 50!

Then there's that little thing (it's not little, they are big) rats all over the building, I though we were the only apartment that had this problem, but my upstairs neighbors confirmed, they had to deal with rats as well. Valerie, made a habit of ignoring our requests, and I have written communications with her where I had to go buy rat traps and kill the poor creatures.

All because she refused to close cracks in the wall where the rats would get in. It was gross, I swear I took out four rats that I trapped. Even one of them was not dead and kept screaming. She did not want to do anything, and it was obvious she stopped caring about her own property. I should have called the DC inspections on her, where they would see her violations and slap her with fines--but I thought (wrong) she deserved better. She charged a good rent, but she just wanted to keep it all to herself and not invest in the property. She would say stuff like this "I'm losing money", "You should pay for that", "I will bill You" etc. At first, I thought maybe because we cook, the rats get attracted to our place, but then I check with the neighbors and they confirmed having whether confronted or heard rats in their units.

If I wanted to pay for such things, I would buy a home and deal with that, but she seems not understand that she should take care of her tenants. I think she showed little class when our check would be a day late because of the mail. Never have I sent her the rent late, Always sent it on time, and I have records--now in one occasion it took the post office two days to deliver the check to her--she wrote and was all (whinger cry baby bleater groaner) and it was not even the third of the month.

And on March 22, 2013 at 12:07 pm there is also an incident when she allowed herself unannounced into our home, without emergency or need, and then she wrote back after complaining about something obscure. I let her know that was not right and she seems not to care. We weren't there and she had no reason to get into the apartment.

Since we got sick and fed-up of her inaction, we put in our notice and she was kind to work with us until the day of the checkout came and she started nitpicking, and looking for tiny little things, and she started saying "would you live in a place like that?" No, Valeria you care so much that you left us with a huge crack in the wall and rats running around the building. Then right away she said, "I am deducting 200 dollars from your deposit for this...and that" Then when I said, "you will do no such thing", she responded "sue me" "and I will take pictures" and started all bullying me. She took her smartphone and started snapping pictures. She even dared to tell me the carped is not new! I did clean the place, but what seemed to me is her way of making more money. I did not think that was fair, she wanted us out and I left. And by the way she is litigious, she sued the next door people over some random issue, but she won.

Again I had a horrible experience with this lady and I would make tell people, to think twice before they rent or use her as a Realtor. This is opinion of Valeria Coleman and her likes. I think Long & Foster owes us an answer for hiring a greedy person who makes a comfortable living sucking the blood of hard- working people like me. I do not understand why Long and Foster a reputable company continues to employ someone with character flaws. I would warn you to rent from her and make sure you bring up these issues. I cannot imagine how messed up buying a house she is listing would be.

Let's hope she won't sue me for stating my opinion of the way she does business.

  

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Egypt's Jon Stewart Is No Hero

My latest post for the Hup Post
Bassem Youssef, the famous host of an Egyptian satire news show, is being sued. Bassem is no hero of mine, and there are countless others who share my view. Facebook is riddled with pages and groups who declare their lack of affection for Bassem Youssef. The former heart surgeon has been gaining fans and building an audience throughout the Arab world with his jokes and zingers. At the get-go, I loved his jokes and delivery. I thought he was the missing breeze of comedy the Arab world has been missing.

Entire Post Here

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On Jewish Christmas And Jet Lag

1. Jet lag is not too complicated to explain, it is exactly feels like when you watch a midday manatee movie, and once you step out of the theater, you realize "ops, there is still more to this day than you remember."
2. Why would a Jew wish a Muslim Merry Christmas?! Neither celebrate this day religiously  but both agree on one things--it's always great to have a good time. I wish people happy Easter, and Merry Christmas, because things do not always have to be about me.   

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American Visa, Green Card, And Citizenship!

America liked immigrants and have always liked food. Now think of the two at the same time. there are different stages to the American dream and I like to think of them in terms of food.

1. Having an American visa is like eating at a cafe! You can get many things, but there are limits
2. Having a Green card is like eating at an all you can eat buffet, dig in
3. Having an American citizenship is like owning the restaurant. You can eat, but at the end of the day it's you who has to pay the bill

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Living And Working In The District of Columbia

I am enjoying this time of the year in Washington, DC. It's kinda of lame to be living in a nice city where smart people supposedly live--those people shape the how the United States runs the country and the rest of the world. Do they always make good decisions? I doubt anyone would dispute the many decisions made by the elected officials working in Washington, DC.

New York, thinks they run the world--maybe the world of entertainment and fashion. Alright, they also got Wall Street. But no need to be snobby about it. But the truth, folks around the country cannot stand this city and all the laws they make--and the ones they don't. For a city, the District of Columbia has very thick skin. According to one Hollywood producer, "DC is Hollywood for ugly people" and he cracked a joke about C-Span. The officials here, get to levy taxes, take that taxes and do whatever the hell they want with it. Sometimes  they put back that money into the State through various programs. Do you ever hear about the good work that goes on this city? Almost never, and you have politics to credit for that.

I am willing to think that DC itself was not that popular at the time it was chosen to be the center of American governance. For the longest time, no one likes bureaucrats they learn tolerate them. This is way, may founding fathers wanted nothing to do with DC and chose to live away form it.

I have learned that during the war of 1812, the city and its leaders ran out of town when they heard the British were coming. And sure enough, the rag tag militia that was commissioned to protect the city were no match for the British forces, and the city fell in their hands. The troops burned down the first White House.

Compare that to the city of Baltimore when the city fought off the British invasion and held its ground--inspiring one man to write the American anthem as he witnessed the shelling of an America fortress. I think DC is rich in its unique history- it may not have been a historic place itself but because so many important people lived here and ruled over America--it has become a place with historic significance.

Come see the place, not the government. This is a great place to visit, so many awesome things to do and see here. It really embodies so many things about the American experience. So many school buses come to DC from around the country to learn about history and about their government. There's a certain pride in living in DC--even though resident of the city get so little perks in return.        

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Smell This! Dead Bodies, Feces, Raw Sewage

I am reading an interview with a smell guru working with a company with the name Scent Air, a company that develops smells for big companies  Not the kind you sell, but rather the kind the company pumps through their system to communicate their message to your nose. Some retailers even use the trick to get potential buyers to feel happy. This is about branding and making the customer feel something. I have heard about this before, but when he spoke about one of his clients, I had special interest: He was asked about his clients whom have also included entertainment and the military. What are some examples?

For training our troops, the government would ask for smells of things like dead bodies, burnt bodies, feces, raw sewage, gunpowder, cordite. They’d use these to in a way desensitize the troops, so if they walk into a war zone and they see these things, the training helped them to be better soldiers. We've also developed scents for flight simulators. Depending on the smell, the pilot knows it’s burning wires, or fuel. “Oh, I smell fuel: I have to do these things to keep myself alive.”

I think this is an interesting take on scents, using them to train people for combat, and unpleasant surrounding  Surprises suck and no one likes them, I am glad someone had the foresight to develop such stench. I think the use for pilots and the burning wires is something no one wants to live through.    

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Mom With Benefits vs. Friends With Benefits

You have heard the term friends with benefits before, they even have a movie with that title. This morning, I was at the gym thinking about some of the posts I have written about dating and marriage in the Arab/Muslim communities and realized many of those guys are always on a search for a girl to take home. Most--not all Arab men are good boys, they love their mothers and often times get spoiled by them.

It's only natural for them to look for what they know, someone like their own mother. I know ladies hate this idea, of guys shopping around for a mother they can have a different relationship with. It's not twisted or anything, and it's not limited to an ethnicity. Many guys love a woman that can cook, keeps the house tidy and is a fun person. And down the road to rare their child. On their mind, their own mothers come to mind. Hence, comes the term mom with benefit.

Feel free to disagree with me, but many of us realize that soon but only come to admit it later in life. You may not marry your friend with benefits  but you certainly will snag the mom with benefit on the earliest opportunisty you have. After-all  she cooked you dinner for a reason.   

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For The GOP, Being Arab Is Controversial

Ever since the embarrassing loss of the 2012 elections, the GOP is wondering how they can win over minority voters. I feel that they are genuine and well meaning in their quest to widen their base and attract those voters who have traditional sided with the Democrats.

Yet when the GOP and its loudmouth media has a chance, they insist on giving such communities the middle finger. I see this as I read the nutty reports in conservative publications. This week, right-wing media outlets aggressively harassed the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), a group I have worked for in the past, to release video footage of Chuck Hagel, President Obama's pick for Defense Secretary, speaking at their convention in 2008. ADC has changed offices (naturally they have storage space), gone through personal and leadership change since that date. The videotape in question was in the storage along with the archive.

It seems that reports for online publications like Free Beacon, Fox News, Breitbart.com, and The Weekly Standard have been waging their own war against a civil rights groups that was founded in the 1980s by a retired U.S. senator who wanted to combat discrimination. It appears as if those publications are giving themselves the right to be hostile toward ADC, and its employees, as they try to uncover yet another conspiracy they have cherished. The spokesperson on behalf of ADC, Abed Ayoub, told the press, "They came to our offices -- threatening us, demanding information, arguing with security. They got very abrasive, very aggressive.. IIn fact, the FBI was in here last week because of those type of threats."

When ADC found the video they placed it on their website, but the joke was on those right-wing extremists who found nothing controversial in the video. Instead, those seeking a scandal found Hagel having an intimate conversation with American voters who come from places like Michigan, New Jersey, California, Virginia, and other places who want to be informed about their government. His broad-themed speech emphasizes activism and the importance of America’s role in the world. ADC has worked with a number of US administrations where they have enjoyed cordial collaborative efforts with various government agencies who have come to appreciate the work ADC does on behalf of its constituents.

Perhaps these conservative voices are upset with former Senator Chuck Hagel because he was able to do something they have not figured out how to do: speak to people from a background different from their own. Senator Hagel has been attacked over and over merely for speaking to Arab Americans. Most GOP leaders invited by the Arab American groups do not bother to come, and I am certain Arab Americans are not the only minority the GOP bails out on. Frankly, this is a prime example of their exclusionary tendencies and the GOP needs to know this by now. The good senator from Nebraska was doing what the GOP, now four years later, is talking about doing: talk to every American.

Such ill-advised media campaigns, orchestrated by xenophobes, racists and misguided talking-heads, are aimed at bullying the Arab American community. What good does it do to label an American organization  as controversial? There are more than 3.5 million Arab Americans in the United States, and they vote just like any other American. Something tells me the GOP did not win any votes by insulting the community and its leading organizations that stand for the US constitution. I urge the GOP not to stand for such tactics if they really wanted to win a national election again. Whether the nomination of Senator Chuck Hagel goes through is another conversation to have, but the GOP is already derailing the American democratic process and they are certainly not winning any friends in the process.

As for ADC and the community it represents, they will be around as we move forward and as the GOP continues on its road to self-destruction. With a growing population of minority voters, they will make sure there will be fewer GOP politicians. The GOP will only have themselves to thank for that.    

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Immigrants: What to Expect When You're Expecting a Legal Status?

Click here for the full article

I can see how the issues of citizenship and immigration are often confused. I think we can be open to immigration, and that does not mean all immigrants become U.S. citizen merely by crossing the border. Obviously these are two different things. The process of naturalization is another thing entirely. Clearly, the Constitution gives Congress the power to establish uniform methods for naturalization. America is a vast country that can be the shining city on a hill, but it's also a land of law and order. Immigrants have built this country and are now one of the keys to combat the dropping American infertility rate. More people means a greater division of labor, and thus, more jobs. To move from being a permanent resident to becoming an American citizen will at least take five years, and to be frank America is worth the wait.

Click here for the full article

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Come To Nashville, Music City

I took a trip to Nashville TN, the birthplace of country music and the place where rock star and other musicians go to get inspired. Country music is a lifestyle in this city and most of their bars feature country music live bands every night. Tennessee is an interesting state--a very long state to drive in. But through it all, the trip is worth taking. The music is something you do not see or hear in places like New York. Country music still tried to find better stories to tell about us.  

You walk down Broadway in downtown Nashville, and you will feel it right away. People dig this music thing, the Western life and the hat and boots. Stores in that area also can sell you an awesome guitar and cross the street you can pick up a pair of boots. The city has a great feel and tourists from around the world visit. I have indulged in some awesome meals and sweets the city celebrates life with.

To be candid, I felt place gets a bad name from the civil war era and various stereotypes about people down there. I was astonishing how graceful the people are and how mixed and diverse the cities are. The North preaches getting along, but in reality they do not practice it--maybe they do not have too. In the American South, I felt people people get along just fine and it looks beautiful. There people out there who believe in America and cherish it. I know, I was always pleased to see sings made in the USA next to a product I want or love. Roa was able to tell the difference and point to how charming people are down there.    

The best thing about the trip is the people of the South, they are nice courteous and fun loving. Big portion is the way to go. Big trucks, big parking spaces, big dinner briskets. Elvis is King of that land, people know his history and his must by heart. I did also mange to go to Memphis, I felt Nashville did a better job claiming the music scene. Memphis is where Graceland is and great BBQ. I do not think, we have a city like Nashville in the Middle East. I feel Iraq in its glory days (1920s to 1950s) had that kind of vibe. Beirut may come close.

good music, good people and great food, take me to Nashville place.  

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I Would Never Buy A Gun, But The Right Is Sacred

After the news broke of the mass shooting in a school in Connecticut, it seems it has become in style to attack gun owners and advocate of American's right to carry firearms. Adam Lanza did a horrible thing and he had clear mental issues, those close to him should have seen it coming. The innocent who have been murdered are not the first and I hope they would be the last. Many Americans do not ask for much, they know however, that the second amendment is on of the rights they cherish the most.

I tend to find myself a purist when it comes to the US constitution, it's a sacred document for many and has worked and been working for a long time. My concern is if you start getting into intentions behind the law and what the founders had on mind, you start getting into muddy water.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. 

Freedom of speech could be on the line. Those who want guns will get them--the Oregon Mall shooter stole his, the guy in Norway bough his online from America. I think the issue is mental state of Americans. I understand the fear of guns, but people living in the cities do not understand the value in rural America where hunters live and making a living. They have the right to feel protected, and by owning a firearm, they are saving tax payers money.  There is a reason why America works, too many laws that mock the US constitution are no needed.

Look no further, than Israel. People there have so many guns, but you do not see many of them engaging in mass shooting--the do that in Gaza and the West Bank. But in their cities, they do not have many incidents like the ones we do in America. I also think that most Americans are not violent by nature, many American homes where loving families dwell own firearms. I know those people are not heartless, and they feel for the victims of mass shootings. The solution is not in arming everyone and certainly not in disarming everyone.

I hope they would not make any dumb laws that would infringe on the American right to bear arms, and I see eye to eye with justice Scalia "I take that to be any weapon you can carry." I hope American politicians won't instate knee jerk solutions for a problem that would only cure the symptoms but not the real disease--mental illness.

And for conservatives, do not cut any more funding for metal illness programs--otherwise, you would have to deal with people like Adam, Holmes, and Virginia Tech massacre guy.    

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On A Scale Of 1 to 10 Middle Fingers

Ever since I started driving the quality of my day has been affected by the sheer number of middle fingers I bring upon myself from those impatient drivers. So, if you drove in the DC area for the past four months, and have given someone the middle finger more than once--chances are I have ran into you on the road.

When you do not give me a middle finger, how else can I tell if I did something wrong? Your middle finger is like a tip, on how not to do things. So when you are nice to me, I might make the same mistake again. So the quality of my day would be nice if the I keep the middle fingers per day ratio to under two.

Anything more than four middle fingers and my day is not going so well. However, as time passes by, I get better at this driving thing and naturally the middle fingers start coming from me--not yet though. 

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Drinking Beer In Mecca!

On my trip to Raleigh, I visited the downtown area and spotted a neon sign for a restaurant called Mecca. I was cool, this looks like an interesting establishment to visit. My first thought this is some Arabic food place, that serves Halal meat or something of that nature.

We walked around and then looked for a place to grab some food, we were back close to the restaurant and there we go, their menu is at the door. I looked and then came the surprise. This was no Halal place, not even close. This is a 1930 establishment that is still standing till now.

It's a diner where they actually serve tons of wines and beers. I was confused and not sure how the name came about  It might not be an insult for Islam's holy city, but I do not know why Mecca came to be a place for a drinking. I am aware that in the pre-Islam era, alcohol was the cool thing to do in that Mecca. But Mecca is neither known for its food nor for its drinks. This is like having an accounting/auditing firm with the name Washington, DC in the title. It does not really add up.     

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Thankful to Be Alive In Gaza: My Family's Story of Survival

To read the article on the Huffington Post click here

My two-year-old nephew Omar had been confined to a small apartment with six other screaming children and their families since Israel began its bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Shortly after a cease-fire was announced on Wednesday, he and his parents returned to our family home in Bait Lahia. My mother, who I spoke to over the phone, said that the first thing that Omar did was rush up the stairs in search of his most prized possession: his bike.

 To read the article on the Huffington Post click here

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Arab- American, American Football and Pumpkin Pie

I spend my thanksgiving in Raleigh North Carolina, and I loved it. For Thanksgiving, the downtown area was a zombie town--no one as much as walking down the streets. I guess people down there take family values seriously.

But I was invited to a nice home for a retired Palestinian American doctor (they live in Durham) where they were two dozens of people mostly Palestinian Americans. What was interesting  the family had the turkey and had hummus too. They had rice and salad too. But when it came to desert they went all American with Pumpkin pie and cheese cake. What I learned.

Despite embracing American life to the fullest, most Arab immigrants I know, resent pumpkin pie. They we were surprised I loved it so much--I had plenty o it. I mean the boys in the room were watching the Dallas Cowboys vs. The Washington Red Skins, but still no love for this traditional treat.

And students who go to Duke, talk about it as if it was some religion. Which is pretty cool if you go or work in that great institution. We met a Yemeni and Egyptian girls who go there, and boy they were talking up that school more than they were talking about their families.

The malls down there were a lot of fun, people are naturally all about serving, smiling and getting since they were born so customer service feels great. Why people take time to talk to you and go above and beyond to be helpful. I like that.  

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My Conversations With My Mom In Gaza

My mom is the Matriarch of our family. She is the family’s central bank and the great mother and a grandmother you would want for your own kids. While Israel was waging its war on the civilians in Gaza, my mother Fatema was busy keeping her 30 grandchildren entertained. They have been losing power often -- more often than they are used to -- due to constant shelling and interference by the Israeli army.

“Tonight, I will wear an extra pair of pants, to be ready. In case anything happens to us at night, I will be decent as I am being transported to a local hospital or morgue. I want to look good even if I have left this earth.” As I felt a chill up my spine, she went on to tell me about our next door neighbour Essam; the 19-year old was bombed on his motorcycle near our Beit Lahia home.

She told me that my cousin Rabah also suffered some injuries from the same attack. Rabah is the kind of Palestinian entrepreneur that Wall Street would love. He came from humble origins and grew up to own one of the largest textile businesses in Gaza. At one point he was even a main business partner with Israel jeans producers. My mom has always liked Rabah because she says he has a good head on his shoulders. She told me that at the crowded hospital he was given a band-aid and told to go home and return once the military assault is over for surgery.

My mother mentioned the other day that the Israeli attacks have brought her closer to her favorite grandson, though she would never admit it. She is very protective of him and every time my family home shakes, she races for Omar and holds him tight. She is not obsessive, but she was the images of recent dead Gaza infants.Little Omar is her new life and she will do everything to keep him safe.     




She just called me a few hours ago to let me know that they no longer live at home and that the entire family has moved to my brother’s small apartment 15 minutes away. When I saw her number on my caller ID, my heart began racing, expecting the worst. Then I started to calm when I reminded myself I have not read any more names that I know. “I worried that you would call us at home, and get no answer, so I did not want you to worry for us. There are many Israeli shellings in our area, so we evacuated and took the kids.” She added that it seem the Israeli military wants to bomb the Abu El Mezza home, right next door to ours. Abu El Mezza is a large family that already lost their 19-year old son Essam on the first day of the attacks.

In most cases, Israelis do attempt to target specific homes, but nobody can predict the damage of those airplane bombs. Take for example, the home of the Abu Alfool family in Beit Lahia. It was first targeted with a warning shot and an hour later the real bombs were dropped. As a result, at least seven homes saw major damage from those bombs. Not only is this collective punishment, but it’s also inhuman. Fifteen bystanders walking the streets were taken the hospitals with mild to serious injuries. The home where my family has taken shelter is three blocks away and as a result of the bombs dropped, the indoor glass shattered all over the property. Luckily none of our family members have been hurt, which is something I am incredibly grateful for. 

Now my family is crammed in a small apartment trying to convince themselves that they will be safer when they know this to be untrue. During the Israel’s Cast Lead Operation in 2008-09 they also moved toward the city center when my cousin Hope was shot in the kitchen as she made mint tea. My mother says that even though it’s very cold outside, they have to keep all the windows open because the constant shelling and rocket noises shatter the glass. “This way the windows won’t be shattered and do us harm.”

While people are scared for their lives because certain death is incredibly close. My little sister-in-law Raghad who is on third grade has taken up poetry as a mechanisms of coping with the madness and fury the Israeli army has unleashed on Gaza. She read us her latest poem about her hopes for her favorite holiday coming back for the sake of the children she said.   

Meanwhile, pro-Israel activists in the U.S. have been mocking Palestinian deaths -- even the cold blooded murder of babies in their cribs. These desensitized feelings are troubling even to observers in Israel. Only people who have never seen a real war can be this naive about true human suffering as a result of these conflicts. Many of these bigoted commentators are confusing popular war games with full blown wars; these are real people, not avatars. For the sake of my family in Gaza and all families in the region, I hope this madness ends soon.        

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Netanyahu’s political pandering leads to more Palestinian bloodshed

Time and again when the actions of a Palestinian group result in as much as scratching an Israeli citizen, the Israeli military retaliates. Using the logic of ‘might makes right,’ which plays itself out in cycles of bloodshed, Palestinians have to die. This is the logic of extremes, devoid of dignity, signaling little respect for human rights and the autonomy of democracies. The logic paves a path to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office and overlays that path with Palestinian blood. The motivation behind Netanyahu’s call to arms is the inexorable political pandering to his right-wing coalition, and the lives of Palestinians should not get in his way.

The horror sewn by Israeli might is tragic. Blood soaked boxes of Palestinian body parts are the evidence of the loss of innocent civilians. These boxes, collected by paramedics after the Israeli assault and visible in film footage, may set into motion a counter logic among the Gaza militia to target Israeli civilians. Like in ancient Greek tragedies, an unstoppable cycle of revenge might escalate.

Where are the voices of reason sickened by random rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and bombings of Palestinians? “Let’s send the people of Gaza to heaven”, said one Israeli politician as his country’s army was shelling people living less than 20 minutes away from their headquarters.   

While people of Gaza have seen a lot of suffering and God knows what the top Israeli war generals have in store for them, I have spotted grown men crying at the scene of the blood and the ambulance. I fear for my family who have been made refugees in Gaza for 64 years now. Sixty Years ago, they fled for safety in Gaza. Now they are being bombarded again by the descendants of those who have made them refugees in the first place.

Cruelty upon cruelty is the only way to describe the plight of the Palestinians who have been under siege since 2007. My family closed their businesses early and went into hiding in different places to increase the odds of their survival. Their  neighborhood in Beit Lahia has already been targeted by the Israeli Airforce. Children in these areas are unsure what to make of the strange times they have yet to understand.

The Israeli government will tell you that they are running surgical operations in Gaza and expect you to cheer them on. But by their actions, this Israeli government has only taken Hamas seriously and has never bothered to talk to the peace-minded Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. President Abbas is waiting for a phone call and all he gets is mockery and insults from various government officials in this Israeli coalition. Netanyahu’s government has marginalized both the Palestinian peace movement and his own. In essence, they have empowered the hawks at home and in Gaza.     

While many militants have been murdered by the Israeli military campaign on Gaza, some civilians have also been killed. Take four year old girl Anan Arafat, who has just been pulled out of the rubbles of her family home in Gaza. How the Israelis find themselves threatened by a four year old is a mystery to me.  If killing Palestinians gives some Israelis short-term peace of mind and comfort, I hate to think what any future peace agreements with such characters would look like.

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From Russia Today With Love

They did not tell me it will be on camera, I thought I was on the phone, and the camera looked not on. sorry for not looking to the camera.

Let's pray for Gaza

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The GOP and The OMG Moment

So the Republican party is not having a great time at the moment, they are as toxic as they come. I honestly think much of the blame goes to the vocal firebrand politicians from the Tea Party. I do not think the new Americans are a lock for the DNC, they are not and they can move if they feel like it. It's just they have not been pandered to.

These folks had to call themselves patriots upfront. But what they say or do have little to do with patriotism. At first they scared the black voters and got them rallied up to bring them down. They called Hispanics name and wanted to dance on their graves. They insulted every and each Muslim and Arab and immigrants in this country and expected them to vote for them.

While there is a great majority of the Republican party who really make sense and appeal to the mainstream  those ones have gone into hiding due to the 2010 election results. The crazy ones would now come out of the dark and spread their poison. There's no reason why Senator Bob Bennett is not back in the US Senate, but they buried the poor guy.

And yes one more thing, the crazy wing of the party scared the hell out of each women on this country and made is sound like being raped as something to look forward to. Call this gross does not quite cut it anymore. And worse, the reasonable voices of the party were shy from criticizing those voices. So one insult after another, everyone who had an issue with the Tea Party stood in lines to help bring them down and they did.

Part of the Romney's strategy was the following, some people will not go to vote--not as excited about Obama this time around. He was right, but they were voting against the GOP and its crazy sounding politicians. Those voters, do not want stuff, they wan freedom, they came here for this freedom. While the tea party talks about freedom, the immigrants value it most--they know what it feels like to be denied it.

I do not think white people are a minority, they are not, but the crazy ones are so. While, America is changing, the white voters are still the bread and butter of every politician out there. The challenge for the GOP was not to scare people. On one front the GOP was not attracting new voters, and on the other hey were shedding so many of them so fast--young people and women combined with the minorities helped push the Obama ticket all the way to the top.

Romney had a lot of mistakes on his operation, but it's not that he was a weak candidate, he could have won, but those extremist GOP voices have undermined his chances. I have said this before even before this election, It's not that I do not agree with the Republican party--because I do on many issues, but it's that they do not make me feel welcome. So yes, I am glad to see the ten Tea Party congress members and senators out the door. Maybe they would help empower the voices of reason withing the Grand Old Party.

Myself and a lot of immigrants care about issues the GOP once led on, but giving that they just have lost the foreign policy argument, it's hard to see them owning the next White House. I know the GOP does not have to compromise its values, but if they do not figure out a way--they will soon be unable to win an national election. Many immigrants do not like abortion and they may not approve of gay marriage. But they also remember having to leave such places where others pushed their beliefs on them. To me, America is about both Freedom and Justice. Not one and not the other.  

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The Gaza Crocodile Is In My Hometown

Folks in my town of Beit Lahia--north of the Gaza Strip have finally arrested one wild crocodile that manged to sneak into the local sewer. the local sewer is a huge one and it feeds from the various pipelines in the area. A friend of mine Ashraf Qahaman was one of the people who trapped the crocodile.

I am certain this poor animal was smuggled from Egypt, put in a zoo and then found its way to the Sewer system. But it could also be that its owner got sick of feeding it so, he or she got rid of it.

The local government that Hamas runs made a big deal out of this and trapped the crocodile, and manged to got the local and international press involved. I like how they wore gloves since the crocodile has been swimming in the sewer   

"The crocodile, which was 1.7 meters (5.5 feet) long, was captured alive after intense and difficult attempts following complaints from residents that their lives were in danger," it added.

An official in the area said the crocodile was transferred to the Gaza Zoo.

It's nice to hear one's town in the news, my town usually gets in the news if someone dies or some house gets demolished  A crocodile is happy news for most of us.

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