DFNYC Sends Letter to Major League Baseball Players' Association

Democracy for NYC members at Linkups decided to send this letter to the Major League Baseball Players' Association urging a vote among its members to boycott the 2011 All Star Game unless that game scheduled to be in Arizona is either moved or the discriminatory law (SB 1070) is rescinded.

DFNYC West Side Linkup members discussed Collateral Murder and the Afghan War Diary at a recent Linkup and decided we wanted to learn more and share information about both.

Pvt. Bradley Manning and Collateral Murder video

Pvt. Bradley Manning, the 22-year-old intelligence analyst suspected of passing videos and documents to Wikileaks is being held by the US military, charged with leaking the Collateral Murder video. There is press speculation that he will also be charged with leaking the Afghan War Diary, 2001-2010 . Manning is being held in pre-trial confinement at Quantico VA.  

On July 5, charges against Manning were filed the Army, accusing him of exceeding his access to SIPRnet to download and leak classified State Department diplomatic cables, and the classified gun-sight video of a 2007 Army Apache helicopter attack in Iraq that Wikileaks released in April under the heading “Collateral Murder.”

If convicted, he faces 52 years in prison. Congressman Mike Rogers has called for the death penalty.

Admiral Mullen said that those responsible for the leaks have blood on their hands. Others, including Cythis Benjamin, mother of an Iraq vet, is "grateful that someone out there was courageous enough to bring the powerful and dreadful truths about these wars into the light."

The Bradley Manning Support Network has been established to learn more about Bradley Manning's current situation and/or show support for him.

You can view the Collateral Murder video at http://www.collateralmurder.com/

You can read more about this at http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/manning-afghan/#ixzz0vkBaa1yi

WikiLeaks and Julian Assange

WikiLeaks is a nonprofit organization that publishes documents from governments and businesses. It was the source for both Collateral Murder and the Afghan War Diary, a compendium of over 91,000 reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010, 76,000 pages of which were simultaneously posted on the WikiLeaks website and given to The New York Times, Der Spiegel and The Guardian newspapers with the request that they review the documents before they were released.

The Pentagon has asked that WikiLeaks turn over all remaining pages.

Julian Assange is the founder of WikiLeaks and appears to be considered a person of interest by the Pentagon.  He has been advised not to travel to the United States where it is expected he would be detained. 

Speaking at a press conference in London on July 26, Assange said about the Afghan War Diary, "This material doesn't just reveal abuses, this material describes the past six years of war, every major attack that resulted in someone being detained or someone being killed."

In an interview with TIME magazine, Assange said "I have tried to create a system which solves the problem of censorship of the press and censorship of whistle-blowers across the whole world...."

...We have seen an increasing number of dissidents in the U.S. military during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is a divisive issue within the U.S. government and within the people on the ground who are seeing firsthand what is happening. Do those people have the right to express their dissent? We can say maybe or maybe not. Maybe they personally do not have the right ... The First Amendment is clear that publishers do have the right to tell the people what is going on."  — TIME Interview, Tuesday, July 27, 2010
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2006789,00.html#ixzz0vkAM1tYR

Afghan War Diary, 2004-2010 http://wikileaks.org/

Collateral Murder, April 5, 2010  http://www.collateralmurder.com/

Charter Schools - What's Your Opinion?  We have some answers.

Beginning in May, we asked you to let us know your thoughts about what has become a hotly debated issue: Charter schools.  To share your thoughts and resources about charter schools, click here to go to the survey. The following is an initial report from members This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  and This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it :

A vote to raise the state cap on the number of publicly funded charter schools permitted in NYS was rushed through the legislature and passed the Assembly on May 28, 2010 (A11310). The new legislation lifts the cap from 200 to 460 but adds more oversight and mandates that the new charters be set up as nonprofit entities. 

The rush was ostensibly an effort to keep NYS in the competition for President Obama's Race to the Top, his signature education program in which states compete for federal funding based on test scores and the schools’ progress. Many objectors to charter schools, including noted historian of American education, Diane Ravitch, oppose the dependence on test scores and accountability in determining success.  Ravitch writes "They [the Obama administration) also fail to recognize that the best predictor of low academic performance is poverty—not bad teachers.

"What we need is not a marketplace, but a coherent curriculum that prepares all students. And our government should commit to providing a good school in every neighborhood in the nation, just as we strive to provide a good fire company in every community."*

*March 9, 2010, Wall Street Journal

State Senator Bill Perkins, who chairs the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, held a public hearing in May inviting educators, parents, union members, charter school entrepreneurs, and other interested parties to offer testimony on the current state of charter schools in NYS. Senator Perkins plans to hold more hearings to continue to investigate and study how charter schools are performing.

As the debate continues, we encourage you to add your comments here . As of this posting, all comments that have been submitted are opposed to charter schools in general and were against raising the cap in New York State.  Here are some excerpts from your responses and links submitted by one of the responders:

"...I was originally in favor of a few innovative charter schools which might try out innovative teaching methods and curriculum which could serve to stimulate improvements in the public school system, by example. That is still possible but not on the scale that this expansion has produced and is being forced upon the states by Arne Duncan/Obama and the bribes of federal financing...."
— Sheila Geist

http://www.classsizematters.org/

Framework of principles developed with the NY Charter Parents association here: http://www.classsizematters.org/common_principles_v3.pdf

Democracy for NYC Joins Civil and Immigrants’ Rights Advocates to Urge NYPD Commissioner to Condemn Arizona’s Anti-immigrant Law

A press release dated June 10, 2010, announces a letter sent to NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly urging him to publicly condemn SB1070, Arizon's anti-immigrant law. A group of 55 New York-based immigrants’ rights, civil rights and social justice organizations, including Democracy for NYC, the New York Civil Liberties Union, New York Immigration Coalition, the NAACP New York State Conference, Amnesty International USA and the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, today asking Kelly to break his silence.

The press release continues: "Unlike many police chiefs, prosecutors and law enforcement experts nationwide, Kelly has not publicly criticized the discriminatory Arizona law, which was enacted in April and requires police to demand papers from people they stop proving citizenship or immigration status whenever there is a “reasonable suspicion” that an individual is in the country unlawfully.
 
On May 26, eight police chiefs from major U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, Houston and Philadelphia, met with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and expressed concern that laws like Arizona’s will harm public safety by driving a wedge between immigrant communities and law enforcement. New York City was not represented in the meeting.
 
'Commissioner Kelly’s silence regarding this disastrous law is deeply disappointing,' said NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman. 'As head of the nation’s largest police force in a city that has long embraced and defended the rights of immigrants, he should be a powerful voice against discriminatory law enforcement policies like Arizona’s. New Yorkers need assurance that he opposes all laws that endorse racial profiling.'

Kelly’s silence contrasts with the reactions of New York City’s top elected officials. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Public Advocate Bill De Blasio, Comptroller John Liu, and the New York City Council have been outspoken in their opposition to SB1070.
 
'Immigrants in New York City rely on the NYPD to protect our communities, and we need to be able to trust police officers to help us,' said Angela Fernandez, executive director of the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrants’ Rights. 'We urge Commissioner Kelly to preserve that trust by condemning Arizona’s unjust, discriminatory law.' "
The following organizations signed the letter:
 
American Friends Service Committee Immigrant Rights Program
American Immigration Lawyers Association - New York
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee New York
Amnesty International USA
Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)
Association of Latin American Students, Medgar Evers College, CUNY
Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, UAW Local 2325
Bill of Rights Defense Committee
Black Institute
Breakthrough
Cabrini Immigrant Services
Center for Constitutional Rights
Center for Family Life in Sunset Park
Chinese Progressive Association
Churches United to Save and Heal
Council on American-Islamic Relations - New York
Democracy For New York City
Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM)
Drum Major Institute for Public Policy
El Centro del Imigrante
Families for Freedom
Good Shepherd Services
Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition
Haitian Americans United for Progress
Harlem Tenants Council, Inc.
Human Services Consortium of East Harlem
Judson Memorial Church
La Fuente: NYCPP & LICPP
La Union de La Comunidad Latina
Latino & Latin American Students' Association/Asociación de Estudiantes Latinos y Latinoamericanos (AELLA), Graduate Center, CUNY
LULAC - Syracuse Chapter
Metropolitan Russian American Parent Association
MinKwon Center for Community Action
NAACP New York State Conference
National Lawyers Guild NYC Chapter
New Sanctuary Coalition of New York City
New York Civil Liberties Union
New York Democratic Socialists of America
New York Immigration Coalition
New York Law School Racial Justice Project
New York State Youth Leadership Council
NICE New Immigrant Community Empowerment
Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights
Out4immigration.org
Professional Staff Congress, CUNY
Public Science Project, Graduate Center, CUNY
Queens Community House
Riverside Language Program
Rockland Immigration Coalition
SCAN New York
Sikh Coalition
Urban Justice Center
Wind of the Spirit Immigrant Resource Center
Working Families Party
 
To read the letter sent to Commissioner Kelly, click here .