Call Congress on war funding and SOA amendment

Here's two reasons to get on the phone to Washington--the Congressional switchboard number is 202-224-3121, and a song by Benny Skyn to get you inspired.



First, the Senate will be voting as early as today, May 21, on a $169 billion bill, which will extend the war and occupation in Iraq until next summer. Last week, the House unexpectedly voted down the war funding bill, and it's hoped that with pressure from constituents, the Senate will do right at last and end funding this disaster.

Meanwhile SOA Watch reports that Congress will vote on an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would require that the School of the Americas/WHINSEC release the names, ranks, country of origin, courses and dates attended of students and instructors at the institute. The amendment will be offered by Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA), Representative Joe Sestak (D-PA) and Representative Sanford Bishop (D-GA) and a vote is expected Thursday, May 22.

For the past few years, despite the WHINSEC PR machine proclaiming an open and transparent school, the WHINSEC has been unwilling to provide information about the students and instructors. Freedom of Information Act requests for FY 2005, 2006 and 2007 have all been denied, proof of WHINSEC's unwillingness to submit to oversight from the public whose tax-payer dollars help fund the school.

Access to information regarding SOA/WHINSEC graduates of previous years has been a valuable asset to human rights organizations who have been able to identify Latin American military officers and police that have committed human rights abuses or engaged in criminal activity in their home countries after attending the school as instructors or students. SOA Watch supports the release of this important information at all U.S. military training facilities in the spirit of openness, transparency, and the public's "right to know".

SOA Watch asks you contact your Representative today, Wednesday May 21, and tomorrow, Thursday, May 22. More information is available at their website.

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Allies in Texas with a "web-primer" on democracy and liberalism

The Texas group Liberty and Democracy Alliance recently introduced itself to AfD--they're developing an online resource for material and media on liberal democracy, and their site includes not only links to progressive groups and commentary, but also the Declaration of Indpendence, the Constitution, and links to classics like Thoreau's Civil Disobedience, the Constitution of the Iroquois Confederacy, and Thomas Paine's Common Sense.

The've been organizing the site since 2006, and see themselves as providing "continuing education" in progressive liberalism in the face of the extreme right neocon movement, and its "gospel of world domination, narrow religious bigotry, and class warfare; undermining the very foundations of International Order and World Peace."

You can check out the site here.

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Our letter to DOJ on collecting DNA

Yesterday the Alliance for Democracy National Council sent a letter to the Justice Department to protest proposed changes to the DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005--specifically a change to require collection of DNA from anyone detained by the federal government, including protesters.

Here's the letter:

May 19, 2008
David J. Karp
Senior Counsel, Office of Legal Policy
Room 4509, Main Justice Building
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW.
Washington, DC 20530

Re: OAG Docket No. 119

Gentlemen,

The Alliance for Democracy national council is extremely concerned about the Justice Department’s proposed changes for implementation of the DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005.

In 2000, the Alliance for Democracy organized the Democracy Brigades—peaceful civil disobedience, exercising our First Amendment rights, in the Capitol Rotunda to call attention to the influence which corporate campaign donors had over policy development in several areas critical to the wellbeing of American citizens. We were proud to take a stand even when doing so meant being arrested, and risking imprisonment or fines. More recently, we have supported members and organizations who have risked similar arrest in order to protest the Iraq war and inaction on climate change.

We believe that harvesting DNA samples from every person arrested is an unnecessary and unwarranted intrusion on civil liberties and personal privacy, designed more to deter individuals from acting on conscience than to protect the public. This proposed change turns the presumption of innocence—a cornerstone of human rights—on its head by presuming that every citizen arrested, for whatever reason, is likely to be guilty of a crime in the future.

We also object to rule changes that will allow DNA to be collected and information stored by private contractors. This will increase the possibilities of loss of, or abuse of, sensitive private information. It will also decrease transparency and accountability. DNA is not just a fingerprint. It is medical information, and should be treated with the same care and confidentiality.

Lastly, this rule, as written, will swell the government’s DNA database with an estimated one million additional samples per year, increasing the chances of mismatches, especially in the case of migrants and minority citizens, who are more likely to be arrested and detained than whites.

The proposed changes are a threat to privacy and civil liberties and will
disproportionately impact minorities and the right to dissent. They should not be implemented.

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Oklahoma member works on community radio

Members of the South Puget Sound Alliance for Democracy are not the only AfD’ers who took advantage of changes in FCC regulations to allow community organizations to seek FM radio licenses. Longtime Alliance member Mary Francis is chairing a group in her home state of Oklahoma to bring non-commercial community radio to the Norman area. Voice of Reason Radio has filed a license application with the FCC and is working on building financial and community support. Mary recently spoke on the project at the Oklahoma Sustainability Network Conference, and the group continues to add names to its mailing and supporter lists, with many local organizations promoting the application.

Voice of Reason’s goal is to “provide a local, progressive message that will encourage civic involvement and increase participation and unified efforts by a wide variety of local organizations interested in public policy dialogue and action.” With the local airwaves heavy with ultra-conservative evangelism, Voice of Reason values secular and spiritual freedom, free speech, and the separation of church and state.” They hope to provide lively public affairs programming, as well as art, poetry, and music shows and educational programming.

For more information, email Mary at mfrancis1@earthlink.net.

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Tell the Justice Department to leave your DNA alone!

Let’s say you participate in peaceful civil disobedience on federal property and you’re arrested. If the Justice Department has its way, you won’t just be fingerprinted—you’ll have to give a cheek-swab's worth of DNA to a national database, currently limited to those convicted of crimes, but which the Justice Department would like to expand to include the DNA of anyone arrested or detained by federal authorities (including peaceful protesters).

If you’re found innocent you’ll have to request that the sample be removed, which could be difficult, according to Jesselyn McCurdy, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. The rules change also allows private contractors to collect DNA samples.

Comments on the regulatory change are being taken now at the Justice Department website, but the deadline is Monday, May 19 at 4 p.m. Follow this link to comment (click on either the html or pdf icon to read the proposed changes).

Here’s some points you may want to add to your comment:

• Innocent people do not belong in a criminal DNA database
• DNA is not a mere fingerprint – it contains sensitive medical information that should not be recklessly collected and stored by the government.
• Allowing the collection of DNA samples by third-parties will drastically increase the incidence of errors and outright abuse of private genetic information.

More information and links are available here at Defending Dissent.

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Mass. Globalization Impact Bill to Rules Committee

The Massachusetts Globalization Impact Bill has a new committee assignment and number. It’s now H 4705, and will be considered by the legislature's Committee on Rules. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Byron Rushing, sits on the committee, along with at least one co-sponsor. Massachusetts’ two active chapters, North Bridge Alliance for Democracy and Boston/Cambridge Alliance, will be working on organizing tools to get the bill out of committee and passed, including model letters to editors and op-eds. Keep an eye on the chapters’ website for info on the bill’s progress and for educational material on SPP.

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Local Democracy Bubbling in Tucson Thanks to “Sourdough Starters”

The "Sourdough Starters", an informal Democracy-loving group in Tucson, Arizona, hosted a Daniel Pennock Democracy School April 25-27 for 18 attendees who had interests in issues relating to water rights, mining, immigration, land use, peace & justice, and others.

Participants were unanimously grateful for the history and insights they gained and heartened by new feelings of hope engendered by the concept of rights-based organizing as it could be applied to their various issues.

They've met since the school to continue on the democracy organizing path together and to begin a process of studying and possibly changing Tucson's charter to make it a more grass-roots document, a possibility in a home-rule state like Arizona. Sourdough Starters C.J. Jones and Susan Willis are also AfD Southwest Regional Repsentatives. There is currently no AfD chapter established in Tucson but Susan and CJ will be working to establish one.

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Ruth Caplan featured in Free Speech Radio story on SPP summit

Following up on the New Orleans SPP and People's Summit, here's a story that aired on Free Speech Radio News featuring AfD's Ruth Caplan, speaking in DC. Follow this link for the story.

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