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U.S. Out Now! From Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and all U.S. bases around the world; End all U.S. Aid to Israel; Get the military out of our schools and our communities; Demand Equal Rights and Justice for ALL!
TAX THE RICH NOT THE POOR! MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT WAR!
Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
C. ARTICLES IN FULL
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A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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Urgent News
Hearing on Death Penalty June 30, Sacramento
Please: SIGN-UP TO ATTEND!
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1265/t/5820/signUp.jsp?key=4279
On May 1st, the State of California announced that it is moving forward with developing execution procedures in order to comply with a recent legal ruling and resume executions, which have been on hold for more than three years.
The State will be holding a hearing on Tuesday, June 30th from 9am to 3pm in Sacramento to hear public comments about the proposed execution procedures.
Death Penalty Focus, along with our allies, will be organizing a critical Day of Action to End the Death Penalty on June 30th.
What You Can Do to Help:
1. Please plan to attend the hearing on June 30th in Sacramento. We will be organizing buses from the SF Bay Area (more details to be announced very soon).
Please: SIGN-UP TO ATTEND!
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1265/t/5820/signUp.jsp?key=4279
We need to pack the room with more than 300 hundred supporters. More than one hundred individuals will be needed to give public comment. If they cannot accommodate everyone who signs up to speak, it is possible they will have to schedule another hearing.
After the hearing, we will head to the Capitol to share ours views with elected officials.
2. Please plan to submit a written comment to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). In just a few days we will be sending out suggestions for your comments and instructions on how to submit your comments. The CDCR is required by law to review and respond to every written comment. We need to generate thousands of comments from across the state, country and globe. We need to flood them with paperwork.
Please help us make this Day of Action a success!
Legislative Successes
Colorado
Colorado came very close to ending the death penalty this month when their State Senate voted 17-18 in favor of replacing the death penalty with life without parole and redirecting funding to solve murders. The State House has already passed the bill by a vote of 33-32.
Connecticut
On May 13, the Connecticut House voted 90-56 in favor of ending the death penalty. The bill now moves on to the Senate.
Several abolition bills are still active in other states, including New Hampshire, Illinois, Washington, and also in the U.S. Senate.
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Greetings! We wanted to thank you again for your on-going support, and let you know about 2 upcoming events:
Reinstatement Hearing [Ward Churchill]
Wed. July 1, 9:00 am
Courtroom 6 (Judge Naves)
1435 Bannock St., Denver 80202
www.wardchurchill.net
CU is attempting to completely ignore the jury's verdict in this case, pretending that there was no finding that it violated the Constitution by firing Ward, and arguing that the judge should refuse to reinstate Ward and refuse pay him (or his lawyers).
Its excuse is that Ward is not "collegial" enough because he refused to accept the conclusions of the investigative committees. An odd argument from an entity which is refusing to accept the verdict in this case.
The hearing is scheduled for all day, with both sides presenting witnesses and arguments. If you're in the Denver area, please come and show your support. More details at www.wardchurchill.net.
"Shouting Fire" - HBO documentary on the state of free speech in America, featuring Ward's case, will air on Monday June 29 at 9:00 pm ET. Directed by Liz Garbus, and also featuring her father, famed First Amendment attorney Martin Garbus.
Review from its Sundance Film Festival premiere is available at:
http://festival.sundance.org/2009/film_events/films/shouting_fire_stories_from_the_edge_of_free_speech
HBO schedule at:
http://www.hbo.com/apps/schedule/ScheduleServlet?ACTION_DETAIL=DETAIL&FOCUS_ID=573085
In struggle and solidarity,
Natsu
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ATTEND THE JULY 10 NATIONAL ASSEMBLY CONFERENCE IN PITTSBURGH!
REGISTER FOR THE CONFERENCE and DOWNLOAD PRINTABLE BROCHURE (8.5 X 14) at:
https://natassembly.org/Home_Page.html
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
On behalf of the National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations, we are writing to invite you and members of your organization to attend a national antiwar conference to be held July 10-12, 2009 at La Roche College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The purpose of this conference is to bring together antiwar and social justice activists from across the country to discuss and decide what we can do together to end the wars, occupations, bombing attacks, threats and interventions that are taking place in the Middle East and beyond, which the U.S. government is conducting and promoting.
We believe that such a conference will be welcomed by the peoples of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine and Iran, who are the victims of these policies. It will also be welcomed by victims of the depression-type conditions in this country, with tens of millions losing jobs, homes, health care coverage and pensions, while trillions of dollars are spent bailing out Wall Street and the banks, waging expansionist wars and occupations, and funding the Pentagon's insatiable appetite.
This will be the National Assembly's second conference. The first was held in Cleveland last June and it was attended by over 400 people, including top leaders of the antiwar movement and activists from many states. After discussion and debate, attendees voted - on the basis of one person, one vote - to urge the movement to join together for united spring actions. The National Assembly endorsed and helped build the March actions in Washington D.C., San Francisco and Los Angeles, and the April actions in New York City.
We are all aware of the developments since our last conference - the election of a new administration in the U.S., the ongoing occupation of Iraq, the escalation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the horrific Israeli bombing of Gaza, and the extreme peril of an additional war in the Middle East, this time against Iran. Given all this, it is crystal clear that a strong, united, independent antiwar movement is needed now more than ever. We urge you to help build such a movement by attending the July conference and sharing your ideas and proposals with other attendees regarding where the antiwar movement goes from here.
For more information, please visit the National Assembly's website at natassembly.org, email us at natassembly@aol.com, or call 216-736-4704. We will be glad to send you upon request brochures announcing the July conference (a copy is attached) and you can also register for the conference online. [Please be aware that La Roche College is making available private rooms with baths at a very reasonable rate, but will only guarantee them if reserved by June 25.]
Yours for peace, justice and unity,
National Assembly Administrative Body
Zaineb Alani, Author of The Words of an Iraqi War Survivor & More; Colia Clark, Chair, Richard Wright Centennial Committee, Grandmothers for Mumia Abu-Jamal; Greg Coleridge, Coordinator, Northeast Ohio Anti-War Coalition (NOAC) and Economic Justice and Empowerment Program Director, Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee (AFSC); Alan Dale, Iraq Peace Action Coalition (MN); Donna Dewitt, President, South Carolina AFL-CIO; Mike Ferner, President, Veterans for Peace; Jerry Gordon, Former National Co-Coordinator of the Vietnam-Era National Peace Action Coalition (NPAC) and Member, U.S. Labor Against the War Steering Committee; Jonathan Hutto, Navy Petty Officer, Author of Anti-War Soldier; Co-Founder of Appeal for Redress; Marilyn Levin, Coordinating Committee, Greater Boston United for Justice with Peace, Middle East Crisis Coalition; Jeff Mackler, Founder, San Francisco Mobilization for Peace, Jobs and Justice; Fred Mason, President, Maryland State and District of Columbia AFL-CIO and Co-Convenor, U.S. Labor Against the War; Mary Nichols-Rhodes, Progressive Democrats of America/Ohio Branch; Lynne Stewart, Lynne Stewart Organization/Long Time Attorney and Defender of Constitutional Rights [Bay Area United Against War also was represented at the founding conference and will be there again this year. Carole Seligman and I initiated the motion to include adding opposition to the War in Afghanistan to the demands and title of the National Assembly.
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NATIONAL MARCH FOR EQUALITY
WASHINGTON, D.C. OCTOBER 10-11, 2009
Sign up here and spread the word:
http://www.nationalequalitymarch.com/
On October 10-11, 2009, we will gather in Washington DC from all across
America to let our elected leaders know that *now is the time for full equal
rights for LGBT people.* We will gather. We will march. And we will leave
energized and empowered to do the work that needs to be done in every
community across the nation.
This site will be updated as more information is available. We will organize
grassroots, from the bottom-up, and details will be shared on this website.
Our single demand:
Equal protection in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states.
Our philosophy:
As members of every race, class, faith, and community, we see the struggle
for LGBT equality as part of a larger movement for peace and social justice.
Our strategy:
Decentralized organizing for this march in every one of the 435
Congressional districts will build a network to continue organizing beyond
October.
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B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
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Petition to Free the Wrongfully Convicted Mississippi Scott Sisters
To whom it may concern:
For over 14 miserable years, these two falsely accused incarcerated sisters (Jamie and Gladys Scott) have languished in a gruesome Mississippi prison for a trumped up $11.00 dollars crime that neither of them committed, in which they both received DOUBLE LIFE! Neither of them had any previous criminal records, no one was hurt, and the entire judiciary process from start to finish was heavily tainted by racial malpractice, witness coercion, threats, and harassment.
This travesty of injustice began in 1993 in Scott County Mississippi. It is alleged that two county Sheriffs had a beef with the sisters' father over him refusing to pay cash payoffs to the Sheriffs, whereas the Sheriffs threatened to wreck havoc upon the entire family if payment did not continue. The father refused, and soon thereafter, the Sheriffs succeeded in carrying out their threat, as Jamie and Gladys were falsely charged with armed robbery and later subsequently convicted. During the trial however, there were numerous inconsistencies and contradictions, and to make matters worst, both of the sister's lawyers were at best incompetent in their legal representation. As of this writing, the State's three witnesses have all recanted their coerced statements implicating Jamie and Gladys by a signed affidavit, but no court has seen fit to either reopen their case or seriously consider the sister's request for a retrial.
We are asking every person to sign this Free the Scott Sisters petition. Both Jamie and Gladys Scott need to be immediately exonerated and released. Your help is also needed and urged.
Thank you all.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-the-Scott-Sisters-Committee/
Sincerely,
The undersigned
Sign this petition!
Petition Author
CONTACT: Nathaniel x Vance, Jr.
Muskogee, Ok. 74401
Phone: 918-304-6017
E-Mail: broali4xx@suddenlink.net
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Keep the Arboretum Free
http://keeparboretumfree.org/
Write the mayor and supervisors:
http://keeparboretumfree.org/email-to-board-of-supervisors-budget-committee
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Troy Anthony Davis is an African American man who has spent the last 18 years on death row for a murder he did not commit. There is no physical evidence tying him to the crime and seven out of nine witnesses have recanted. New evidence and new testimony have been presented to the Georgia courts, but the justice system refuses to consider this evidence, which would prove Troy Davis' innocence once and for all.
Sign the petition and join the NAACP, Amnesty International USA, and other partners in demanding justice for Troy Davis!
http://www.iamtroy.com/
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Committee To Save Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 2012
New York, NY 10159-2012
New videos from April 24 Oakland Mumia event
http://abu-jamal-news.com/article?name=jlboak
Donations for Mumia's Legal Defense in the U.S. Our legal effort is the front line of the battle for Mumia's freedom and life. His legal defense needs help. The costs are substantial for our litigation in the U.S. Supreme Court and at the state level. To help, please make your checks payable to the National Lawyers Guild Foundation (indicate "Mumia" on the bottom left). All donations are tax deductible under the Internal Revenue Code, section 501(c)(3), and should be mailed to:
It is outrageous and a violation of human rights that Mumia remains in prison and on death row. His life hangs in the balance. My career has been marked by successfully representing people facing death in murder cases. I will not rest until we win Mumia's case. Justice requires no less.
With best wishes,
Robert R. Bryan
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
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IVAW Member Victor Agosto Refuses Deployment to Afghanistan
Sign our Petition in Support of Victor's Resistance Today:
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5966/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=383
Support Victor by making a donation to his legal defense fund:
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=27370
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Short Video About Al-Awda's Work
The following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's work since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown on Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l Al-Awda Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected over the past nine years.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial support to carry out its work.
To submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the simple instructions.
Thank you for your generosity!
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KEVIN COOPER IS INNOCENT!
FLASHPOINTS Interview with Innocent San Quentin Death Row Inmate
Kevin Cooper -- Aired Monday, May 18,2009
http://www.flashpoints.net/#GOOGLE_SEARCH_ENGINE
To learn more about Kevin Cooper go to:
savekevincooper.org
LINKS
San Francisco Chronicle article on the recent ruling:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/13/BAM517J8T3.DTL
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling and dissent:
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2009/05/11/05-99004o.pdf
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Don't let them kill Troy Davis
The case of Troy Davis highlights the need for criminal justice reform in the United States.
Please help us fight for the rights -- and life -- of Troy Davis today by signing the petition below, asking Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue to act on behalf of justice and commute Troy Davis's death sentence to ensure that Georgia does not put to death a man who may well be innocent.
Mr. Davis has a strong claim to innocence, but he could be executed without a court ever holding a hearing on his claims. Because of this, I urge you to act in the interests of justice and support clemency for Troy Davis. An execution without a proper hearing on significant evidence of innocence would compromise the integrity of Georgia's justice system.
As you may know, Mr. Davis was convicted of the 1989 murder of police officer Mark MacPhail, a conviction based solely on witness testimony. Seven of the nine non-police witnesses have recanted or contradicted their trial testimony.
The courts, citing procedural rules and time limits, have so far refused to hold an evidentiary hearing to examine these witnesses. Executive clemency exists, and executive action - and your leadership - is required to preserve justice when the protections afforded by our appeals process fail to do so.
Thank you for your attention.
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/2446/t/4676/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=369
See also:
In the Absence of Proof
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
May 23, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/23/opinion/23herbert.html?_r=1
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COURAGE TO RESIST!
Support the troops who refuse to fight!
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/
Donate:
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/21/57/
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PETITION IN SUPPORT OF PAROLE OF LEONARD PELTIER
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/parole2008/
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C. ARTICLES IN FULL
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1) Older Recruits Challenge Army and Vice Versa
By JAMES DAO
June 18, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/us/18recruit.html?ref=us
2) Immigration Agents to Get Expanded Powers
By GINGER THOMPSON
June 18, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/us/politics/18brfs-003.html?ref=us
3) Major Military Academies Report Significant Rise in Applicants
By JAMES DAO
June 18, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/education/18academies.html?ref=education
4) Civic and political groups blast plans for ROTC in public schools
José Alvarado Vega - PR Daily Sun
June 17, 2009
http://www.independencia.net/noticias3/cp_JD_jrROTC_baseRRCeiba17jun09.html#ingles
5) Unparalleled and Denied
Editorial
June 19, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/opinion/19fri1.html
6) Judge tosses laws restricting recruiters
Matthew B. Stannard, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, June 19, 2009
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/19/BAC3189PQJ.DTL
7) Education Chief to Warn Advocates That Inferior Charter Schools Harm the Effort
By SAM DILLON
June 22, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/education/22duncan.html?ref=education
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1) Older Recruits Challenge Army and Vice Versa
By JAMES DAO
June 18, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/us/18recruit.html?ref=us
FORT SILL, Okla. - Pfc. Shane Dixon is known as Old Dix. Specialist Jason Ness goes by Gramps. Pfc. Christopher Batson's nom de boot camp is Pops. None of them are over 40, but to the 18-year-old soldiers in basic training here, they are as ancient as a first generation Xbox.
Yet in the three years since the Army raised its age limit for enlisting to 42, from 35, a steady stream of older recruits has joined the ranks, pushing creaky muscles through road training, learning to appreciate - or at least endure - Army chow and in some cases deploying to combat zones.
And while the number of such recruits, more than 3,800, is small by Army standards, the pace of over-35 enlistment jumped sharply in the first months of this year. Motives vary, from a yearning for midlife adventure to a desire to serve their country. But rising unemployment is also a major reason, say Army officials, recruiters and training officers.
"It's a guaranteed job, as long as you go to work every day," said Capt. Jared Auchey, company commander of the Army Experience Center in Philadelphia, who estimates that one in 10 of the enlistments at his high-tech marketing office are over 35. "There are no layoffs in the Army."
The Army recruits about 80,000 soldiers a year, and the older recruits are having an impact even on basic training, Army officers say. At classes here, as many as one in seven soldiers are over 35, and many drill sergeants now look to the older soldiers as mentors, or proxy disciplinarians.
Staff Sgt. Arron Barnes, Fort Sill's drill sergeant of the year in 2009, said the older recruits tended to bring technical skills and maturity, were easier to instruct and were often more committed than teenage soldiers.
"They contribute at a higher level because they have no other place to go," Sergeant Barnes, 26, said. "This is their life."
The older recruits are, however, injury prone. Rusty joints, forgotten injuries and slow-to-recover muscles cause the over-35 recruits to wash out of basic training at a somewhat higher rate than younger soldiers, said Lt. Col. Michael S. Patton, commander of a basic-training battalion here.
Specialist John D. Butts, 38, exemplifies the new breed. An aspiring writer who was a house painter outside Philadelphia for two decades, he lost his steady paycheck last November after the housing market crashed.
A part-time job at Blockbuster did not pay his rent, and when his landlord threatened to evict him, his girlfriend (now his wife) and her three teenage children, he decided radical action was required. He called an Army recruiter he had met recently and signed up for a three-year stint.
Despite years as a dedicated beer drinker and smoker, Specialist Butts made it through basic here at Fort Sill and is now training with an artillery unit that may head to South Korea this year. A tour in Afghanistan could be in the cards, he says.
Over the last two months, he has been yelled at by a 24-year-old drill sergeant, forced to inhale choking gas, done more push-ups than he cares to remember and patiently put up with wise-cracking 19-year-olds who forget to flush the toilet. So far, he has made the grade and is even considering a career in the military.
"I've just tried to keep my head down, keep my mouth shut and not wring necks," Specialist Butts said.
The sagging economy, of course, has bolstered military recruiting at all age levels. But the older recruits represent a new, and perhaps more challenging, opportunity for the Army, the only service that accepts recruits over 35. (The maximum age is 35 in the Navy, 28 in the Marine Corps and 27 in the Air Force.)
It is not clear yet how well older soldiers handle the rigors of combat. The Army says it does not segregate older recruits in basic training and does not consider age when deciding where to assign or deploy them. Of the nearly 5,000 military personnel killed in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, about 600 have been over 35, most of them career soldiers. The oldest was 60-year-old Steven Hutchison, who served in Vietnam and retired from the Army in 1988 only to re-enlist in 2007 under a special program for retirees. Major Hutchison was killed last month in a bombing in Iraq.
During a break in marksmanship training at Fort Sill last week, several older soldiers said the economy had not been their only motivation for enlisting. "I didn't want to be 75 and think back, 'I wish I had joined the Army,' " said Pvt. Mark O'Brien, 36, a corrections officer from Portsmouth, N.H. "There's nothing worse than regret."
But for Private Batson, 35, the threat of layoffs was the driving force behind his joining. A mechanical engineer from Utah with five children, he was spared when his company laid off workers last year, but the close call worried him. Deciding he needed a fall-back option, he turned to the National Guard.
Now, if he is laid off and cannot find work, he figures he can go full time with the National Guard or the regular Army. In exchange for that job security, he says there is a good chance he will do a tour in Afghanistan.
"My natural priority is my family," Private Batson said. "I'll do anything I have to do to take care of them."
Along with the rigors of basic training, the older soldiers say the hardest thing is being away from their families for nine weeks. The second hardest thing, they say, is coping with undisciplined, couch-potato soft, video-game-obsessed teenage recruits who are, technically, their peers.
Private Dixon, 38, builds log houses in the Boise area but recently joined the Idaho National Guard in part because he wanted to change careers, perhaps to become a medic. He said he had been chewed out for chewing out youngsters in his platoon for what he considered slacker behavior. He was so tough on one for tromping across a newly waxed floor in his boots that the teenager broke down in tears.
"I should have taken into consideration that it was a 17-year-old kid," Private Dixon said. "It's not a man, not somebody that I could hold to a level of accountability. My son's 17."
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2) Immigration Agents to Get Expanded Powers
By GINGER THOMPSON
June 18, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/us/politics/18brfs-003.html?ref=us
In an expansion of its crackdown on drug cartels, the Obama administration plans to announce Thursday that it will give Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents the authority to investigate drug crimes. Justice Department officials refused to divulge details of their plans, saying they did not want to pre-empt the news conference. But officials familiar with the plan said it would settle a long-running turf battle between the immigration agency and the Drug Enforcement Administration that has seriously undermined the efforts of both. The decision came amid drug-related violence that left more than 6,000 people dead in Mexico last year. Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, called the Justice Department's decision "welcome news," saying, "The cartels that smuggle drugs and illegal immigrants have integrated their activities, and now the federal agencies will have a better integrated response."
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3) Major Military Academies Report Significant Rise in Applicants
By JAMES DAO
June 18, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/education/18academies.html?ref=education
The nation's three major military academies said Wednesday that applications for the incoming Class of 2013 were up significantly from previous years, citing aggressive marketing, declining casualties in Iraq and the economic downturn as factors.
The rise in applications was most notable at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., where applications reached their highest level since 1988, 15,342, up 40 percent from the class of 2012. About 1,240 are expected to enroll.
Applications were also up at the Military Academy at West Point, where 11,106 people applied for about 1,320 places in the incoming class, an increase of 9.6 percent. And at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, 9,890 people applied for about 1,350 places, an increase of just under 10 percent.
In a year when layoffs and shrinking paychecks dominated many families' thoughts about college, officials at the military academies acknowledged that the recession might have encouraged some students to apply. Not only are tuition and room and board completely covered at the academies, but students also receive stipends that total thousands of dollars a year.
But those officials also said that students tended to have very personal reasons for applying to the military academies - patriotism, an abiding interest in the military as a profession or a desire to follow a parent's footsteps among them - and that therefore the economy alone could not explain the upswing in applications.
"You find in most of the people who apply, this is a process that starts several years in advance," said Cmdr. Joe Carpenter, a spokesman for the Naval Academy. "The process itself is much more involved and lengthy, and often involves a Congressional nomination, which is not something you do on a whim."
Commander Carpenter and officials from the other academies pointed to intensified marketing campaigns in recent years that they say played a major role in increasing the application pool.
The Military Academy, for instance, for the first time bought billboard space at airports in Los Angeles, Dallas-Forth Worth and Atlanta and Dulles airport near Washington during the holiday season last year, said Col. Deborah McDonald, director of admissions.
Colonel McDonald said her office had also expanded its efforts to stay in touch with potential candidates via letters and e-mail messages, and worked more closely with members of Congress to help them with the process of nominating applicants.
Commander Carpenter said that the Naval Academy began expanding its recruiting in urban areas, including New York, two years ago, and that the effort had begun to pay off, not only in more applicants from those areas, but also more minority applicants. Applications from minority students were up by 57 percent this year over last, he said.
The number of applicants to West Point was the highest in at least several years, but was slightly lower than the period immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when interest in all the military academies surged. In those years, applications to West Point rose over 12,000. But while the numbers have crept back down in the last four years, they remain higher than before the attacks, she said.
At the Air Force Academy, applications were at their highest point in five years, said John Van Winkle, the deputy chief of media relations for the academy.
The recession has also clearly benefited military recruiting this year, including for the Army, which had struggled to meet its quotas in some recent years.
The rise in applications at the military academies, which was reported this week by The Associated Press, is similar to the trend at many well-known public colleges, reflecting perhaps their lower cost. The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and the University of Virginia, Charlottesville; all reported higher application numbers this year. But so did a number of elite colleges, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Dartmouth and Brown.
The drawdown of American forces in Iraq, combined with fewer casualties there, may have also contributed to easing some parents' concerns about having their children attend West Point, Colonel McDonald said. The Army has sustained by far the most casualties in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But Commander Carpenter noted that interest in the Marine Corps among Naval Academy students has been on the rise in recent years, even though Marines represent the second-largest group of casualties in those wars.
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4) Civic and political groups blast plans for ROTC in public schools
José Alvarado Vega - PR Daily Sun
June 17, 2009
http://www.independencia.net/noticias3/cp_JD_jrROTC_baseRRCeiba17jun09.html#ingles
Civic and political groups denounced plans Wednes- day by the Fortupo administration to establish Army Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps programs in at least eight local public high schools, and vowed to organize campaigns to discourage their implementation.
Veterans Advocate Jorge Mas Marrero disclosed Monday that his office is pushing for Junior ROTC programs in public schools, saying the initiative aims to discourage students from dropping out of school, impart discipline, develop leadership and encourage the learning of English.
While denying the initiative seeks to increase recruitment of students into the U.S. armed forces or "militarize" schools, Mas Marrero acknowledged the Junior ROTC programs aims to sign up 10 percent of high school students.
Mas Marrero, a former military sciences professor at the University of Puerto Rico 's ROTC program, said Junior ROTC programs would only be established in schools with more than 800 students and which have backing from communities and parents. Education Secretary Carlos Chardon said Tuesday he has no qualms with including the program in public schools, but he noted it must be requested by school boards.
Puerto Rico Independence Party General Secretary Juan Dalmau said Wednesday that Mas Marrero's justification that the program seeks to avoid school dropouts is "an insult to the intelligence of this country [sic] and a lie."
"I call on the governor to stop hiding behind the Veterans Advocate and tell us if he believes in a culture of peace and education for our students, or if his mission is to transform our public schools into centers for military recruitment, so that our youth can serve as cannon fodder in American wars," said Dalmau during a press conference at PIP headquarters in Puerto Nuevo.
Dalmau, who rejected the notion that the program benefits the Education Department by bringing in more federal funding, said the push for Junior ROTC programs is part of an "agenda to indoctrinate the youth with a pro-American and pro-war vision."
Dalmau said the party will include a campaign against Junior ROTC presence in public schools in its periodic talks to public school students on how they can deny giving their personal information to military recruiters. He called on parents to discourage their children from joining the program.
"The reality is you don't solve the school dropout problem by dressing up our youth in military drag and encouraging a militarist vision," said Dalmau, who noted that the problem can only be addressed by providing schools with needed psychologists and social workers, designing "modern" and "dynamic" school curricula, and providing teachers with "the tools they need to do their work."
Dalmau said ROTC officials are targeting schools with large student populations from low-income families, which he said are the most vulnerable to the "pipe dreams" offered by military recruiters.
The head of the National Union of Educators and Education Workers, or Unete by its Spanish acronym, said that having Junior ROTC programs in public schools would turn them into "centers of military recruitment" .
"Schools exist to promote the principles of peace, justice, service and other values and principles that make us better citizens. Schools don't exist to promote war and militarism," Unete President Emilio Nieves said in a press release, in which he called on Chardon to "assume a firm position in defense of the mission of public schools."
Militarization through the kitchen
Mothers Against War spokeswoman Sonia Santiago said the initiative was an attempt by the Fortune administration to sneak military curricula "through the kitchen." She also criticized the commonwealth Environmental Quality Board's recent authorization of construction of training facilities to be used by the U.S. armed forces and the Homeland Security Department at the former Roosevelt Roads Naval Base in Ceiba and in a Mayagiiez facility.
"We call on parents not to sign any document authorizing military officials to teach their children, because maternity is life and war is the anti-thesis of maternity," said Santiago, a clinical psychologist whose son was injured in the U.S. invasion of Iraq. "We also denounce the building of military training centers on the island, where yoga exercises are not going to be taught but strategies on how to exterminate fellow men and women."
Santiago said Mas Marrero should desist from becoming a military recruiter and stick to his job defending veterans, who, she said, are being mistreated despite their service. She cited news reports in which the Department of Veterans Affairs acknowledges the huge backlog of unfinished disability claims. This situation has led veterans to wait an average of six months to receive disability benefits and as long as four years for their appeals to be heard in cases where their benefits were denied.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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5) Unparalleled and Denied
Editorial
June 19, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/opinion/19fri1.html
In an appalling 5-to-4 ruling on Thursday, the Supreme Court's conservative majority tossed aside compelling due process claims, the demands of justice and a considered decision by a lower federal appeals court to deny the right of prisoners to obtain post-conviction DNA testing that might prove their innocence.
The inmate at the center of the case, William G. Osborne, is in prison in Alaska after a 1994 rape conviction based in part on a DNA test of semen from a condom recovered at the scene.
The state used an old method, known as DQ-alpha testing, that could not identify, with great specificity, the person to whom the DNA belonged. The high court sided with Alaska in its refusal to grant Mr. Osborne access to the physical evidence, the semen. His intent was to obtain a more advanced DNA test that was not available at the time of his trial and that prosecutors agreed could almost definitively prove his guilt or innocence.
Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. noted the "unparalleled ability" to prove guilt or innocence using DNA evidence. But he treated that breakthrough more as an irritant than an opportunity.
The availability of conclusive DNA testing, he wrote, "cannot mean that every criminal conviction, or even every criminal conviction involving biological evidence, is suddenly in doubt."
The chief justice further worried that establishing a "freestanding and far-reaching constitutional right of access" to DNA evidence would short-circuit efforts underway by federal and state governments to develop rules to control access to such evidence. Yet Alaska is one of four states that does not have laws giving prisoners access to DNA evidence that could establish their innocence - a dismal reality underscoring the need for Supreme Court intervention.
Of course, there is a value to finality of verdicts and not allowing prisoners to endlessly challenge their convictions. But the chief justice and his concurring colleagues have their priorities all wrong.
Much as the four dissenters - Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer and David H. Souter - saw, Alaska was wrong to block testing when DNA technology is available that may prove someone is unjustly being kept behind bars. Overturning Alaska's denial of due process should have been an easy call.
As Justice Stevens noted in his dissent, "There is no reason to deny access to the evidence and there are many reasons to provide it."
We are also puzzled and disturbed by the Obama administration's decision to side with Alaska in this case - continuing the Bush administration's opposition to recognizing a right to access physical evidence for post-conviction DNA testing.
Thursday's ruling will inevitably allow some innocent people to languish in prison without having the chance to definitively prove their innocence and with the state never being completely certain of their guilt.
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6) Judge tosses laws restricting recruiters
Matthew B. Stannard, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, June 19, 2009
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/19/BAC3189PQJ.DTL
(06-18) 18:44 PDT -- Without fanfare, a federal judge in Oakland on Thursday threw out voter-approved laws in two Northern California cities barring military recruiters from contacting minors.
U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong ruled that laws passed in the Humboldt County cities of Arcata and Eureka in November were unconstitutional and invalid.
The finding was not unexpected by proponents of the laws, which passed with 73 percent of the vote in Arcata and 57 percent in Eureka. The federal government quickly sued to overturn the laws, which have been stayed ever since.
But Dave Meserve, the former Arcata councilman behind the laws, said he was disappointed that the judge ruled without hearing arguments on the case. Armstrong ruled on filed pleadings after a hearing scheduled this month was canceled.
"She doesn't respond to any of our arguments in any way," he said. "The order reads like a restatement of the government's case."
Department of Justice spokesman Charles Miller said "We are pleased with the court's ruling."
Eileen Lainez, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, declined tocomment on the suit but said, "It is important for recruiters to provide information to youth and their parents."
The Arcata and Eureka laws join a long list of failed attempts to restrict military recruiting.
Opponents of recruiting have tried to keep recruiters off college campuses nationwide. Berkeley issued and then rescinded a letter calling Marine recruiters "unwelcome intruders."
And the San Francisco school board in 2006 killed the local Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps, which some members saw as a recruiting tool, launching a three-year battle that ended last month with JROTC back in place.
The Arcata and Eureka laws represented a new tactic that experts said appeared to have been the first of its kind in America: a counter-recruitment law passed not by a handful of elected activists, but by a plurality of voters.
Many voters in Arcata and Eureka who supported the measures saw the laws not as anti-military, but as an expression of a community's right to set its own rules - particularly relating to children.
Opponents said the laws were unpatriotic, pointlessly quixotic, and imposed a government regulation on a domain that would be better handled by parents.
The laws made it illegal to contact anyone under the age of 18 to recruit that person into the military or promote future enlistment. Minors could still initiate contact with recruiters if they chose.
"The judge said that the question of military recruitment is a subject which must be regulated by the federal government and may not be regulated by states and localities," said Stanford Law School Senior Lecturer Allen Weiner, who read the opinion but did not take part in the case.
Under the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, federal laws trump state laws on issues the federal government is responsible for, like foreign affairs and national defense.
The cities tried to head off that finding by arguing that the United States is party to international treaties prohibiting the recruiting of children under 17. The treaties, the cities argue, hold equal standing to the supremacy clause, so recruitment aimed at children under 17 - such as posters or recruiter calls - is unconstitutional.
Armstrong did not address that argument. Brad Yamauchi, a San Francisco attorney who represented Arcata pro bono, said the reason she didn't may have been because the treaty addresses recruitment of children under age 17, but the laws in Arcata and Eureka barred recruiting anybody under 18.
Recruits must be 18 to enlist in the U.S. military, or 17 with parental permission, although contact with recruiters may begin earlier.
If the cities choose to appeal or draft a new law, Yamauchi said, they might focus on the 17-and-under crowd. But they would still need to solve other constitutional concerns raised by Armstrong - a task he said will be difficult at best.
But Yamauchi said an appeal might still be worth pursuing.
"Everything has to be done to put this pressure (on policymakers), and having an appeal could be part of that pressure," he said. Arcata City Attorney Nancy Diamond said the city has made no decision on whether to pursue an appeal.
But Meserve said that no matter what, the effort was worthwhile.
"Whatever the outcome, I think it's been very positive," he said. "It has opened people's eyes across the country to the fact that recruiters target kids."
E-mail Matthew B. Stannard at mstannard@sfchronicle.com.
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7) Education Chief to Warn Advocates That Inferior Charter Schools Harm the Effort
By SAM DILLON
June 22, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/education/22duncan.html?ref=education
The Obama administration has made opening more charter schools a big part of its plans for improving the nation's education system, but Education Secretary Arne Duncan will warn advocates of the schools on Monday that low-quality institutions are giving their movement a black eye.
"The charter movement is putting itself at risk by allowing too many second-rate and third-rate schools to exist," Mr. Duncan says in prepared remarks that he is scheduled to deliver in Washington at the annual gathering of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
In an interview, Mr. Duncan said he would use the address to praise innovations made by high-quality charter schools, urge charter leaders to become more active in weeding out bad apples in their movement and invite the leaders to help out in the administration's broad effort to remake several thousand of the nation's worst public schools.
Since 1991, when educators founded the first charter school in Minnesota, 4,600 have opened; they now educate some 1.4 million of the nation's 50 million public school students, according to Education Department figures. The schools are financed with taxpayer money but operate free of many curricular requirements and other regulations that apply to traditional public schools.
Mr. Duncan's speech will come at a pivotal moment for the charter school movement. The Obama administration has been working to persuade state legislatures to lift caps on the number of charter schools.
At the same time, the movement is smarting from the release last week of a report by Stanford University researchers that found that although some charter schools were doing an excellent job, many students in charter schools were not faring as well as students in traditional public schools.
"The charter movement is one of the most profound changes in American education, bringing tremendous new options to underserved communities," Mr. Duncan is to say in the speech, the text of which was provided to The New York Times by his advisers.
But, the speech says, states should scrutinize plans for new charter schools to allow only high-quality ones to open. In exchange for the autonomy that states extend to charter schools, states should demand "absolute, unequivocal accountability," the speech says, and close charter schools that fail to lift student achievement.
Mr. Duncan's speech calls the Stanford report - which singles out Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio and Texas as states that have done little to hold poorly run charter schools accountable - "a wake-up call."
"Charter authorizers need to do a better job of holding schools accountable," the speech says. (Mr. Duncan is to note exceptions like the California Charter Schools Association, which last week announced a plan to establish and enforce academic performance standards for charter schools.)
The Stanford study, by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes, used student achievement data from 15 states and the District of Columbia to gauge whether students who attended charter schools had fared better than they would if they had attended a traditional public school.
"The study reveals that a decent fraction of charter schools, 17 percent, provide superior education opportunities for their students," the report says. "Nearly half of the charter schools nationwide have results that are no different from the local public school options, and over a third, 37 percent, deliver learning results that are significantly worse than their students would have realized had they remained in traditional public schools."
Reports on charter schools often arouse impassioned debates, because charter schools in some cities have drawn millions of dollars in taxpayer money away from traditional public schools, and because many operate with nonunion teachers. The Stanford study was no exception; some charter school advocates asserted that it was slanted to favor traditional public schools.
Nelson Smith, president of the charter school alliance, said that the authors of the Stanford study could have phrased their findings more positively, with no loss of accuracy, but that he considered the center a "very credible outfit" and its director, Margaret Raymond, "an esteemed researcher."
Mr. Smith praised the administration's efforts to increase financing for charter school startups.
"To a remarkable extent, they are walking the walk," he said. "They've been very clear on the need to stimulate the growth of quality charters."
Mr. Duncan has been working to build a national effort to restructure 5,000 chronically failing public schools, which turn out middle school students who cannot read and most of the nation's high school dropouts. In his speech, he will urge states, school districts, nonprofit groups, teachers' unions and charter organizations "to get in the business of turning around our lowest-performing schools."
"Over the coming years," the speech says, "America needs to find 5,000 high-energy, hero principals to take over these struggling schools, and a quarter of a million great teachers who are willing to do the toughest work in public education."
Mr. Smith said he believed that some charter school operators would react favorably to Mr. Duncan's call, but only if they were given flexibility over hiring and firing teachers, structuring student learning time and other issues.
"They have to be able to maintain the integrity of the charter model," Mr. Smith said.
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