Seize the Day Initiative Weekly Update

June 24, 2009

The following are recent updates from OSPC and OSI on operational activities related to
the Seize the Day initiative.

OPEN SOCIETY POLICY CENTER Updates

Advancing the Hardest Issues: National Security and Human Rights

The Republican campaign against President Obama’s commitment to close the
Guantanamo detention facility continues to frighten congressional Democrats and is
already producing bad legislation. On Thursday, the House defeated by a single vote a
Republican amendment to prohibit the Justice Department from taking any actions to
implement the President’s January 22 Executive Order closing the facility in one year’s
time. Thirty-nine Democrats supported the Republican amendment, which was only
defeated because Ron Paul broke ranks with the Republicans to oppose it. US Programs
and OSPC are in emergency consultations with a number of key partners about the
requirements of an emergency campaign to push back against the Republican onslaught.
Such a campaign would rely heavily on organizing bipartisan groups of “validators” –
prosecutors, law enforcement and prison officials, state and local elected leaders,
homeland security experts, interrogators, retired military officers – and engaging the
broader progressive community on this issue. It would likely require a major new
infusion of funding, including substantial c4 funding, because the Republican campaign
is being waged nationally, at a high profile level, and clearly represents a strategic
Republican decision that Guantanamo, detention and interrogation issues represent a
genuine vulnerability for Obama and the Democrats. The Republican campaign has
major implications for virtually all of OSI’s US counterterrorism policy priorities.

Also, last week there were a host of negative signs indicating that the Obama
Administration plans to proceed not only with using military commissions to try some
Guantanamo detainees but also intends to work with Congress on indefinite detention
legislation. Attorney General Holder was explicit in saying that the Administration
wanted to work with Congress on a legislated framework for determining who could be
held indefinitely without charge and on a process for periodic review of such detentions.
The Armed Services Committees are also reportedly planning to include legislation on
military commissions – and possibly indefinite detentions – in the Defense authorization
legislation which the Senate will begin marking up next week. Various reports from
meetings with the Administration’s Detention Task Force also lend support for the
expectation that it will recommend some form of indefinite detention regime. It remains
a possibility that the Administration will apply any indefinite detention regime only to
persons already detained at Guantanamo – the “mess” that Obama “inherited.” But we
and our allies are in agreement that if the Congress legislates in this area the outcome is
almost certainly to include the authority to detain new prisoners and hold them “for the
duration of the conflict” or words to that effect. (Steve Rickard Director, OSPC; Nancy
Chang, Campaign Manager, National Security and Human Rights Campaign)

1
Federal Nominations
After a flurry of initial attacks on Justice Sonia Sotomayor following her nomination,
opposition seems to be dying down at least until confirmation hearings begin on July
13th. Grantee-advocates have been working very well together – an impressive feat that
is due to advance planning and clear division of labor amongst organizations. The
Coalition for Constitutional Values has effectively coordinated with the Common
Purpose Project to counter attacks and define the terms of debate about the nominee.
Despite igniting controversy over some of Judge Sotomayor’s past statements, it appears
that conservatives are not finding success in rallying opposition (or raising funds) and
Senate Republicans appear increasingly resigned to a confirmation vote in August.

On June 19, the White House nominated Joseph Greenaway to the Third Circuit and
Beverly Martin to the Eleventh Circuit. The backgrounds of these nominees suggest that
while Obama will diversify the judiciary in some ways (Greenaway, is African
American; Martin, is a woman). In doing so, he continues the Clinton tradition of
naming people already on the bench who have worked as U.S. Attorneys.

This Monday, Senate leadership filed for cloture on the nomination of Harold Koh to
serve as Legal Adviser to the State Department. The 65-31 cloture vote revealed
bipartisan support for Koh, drawing eight Republican votes (Alexander, Collins, Gregg,
Hatch, Lugar, Martinez, Snowe, and Voinovich) with all 57 Democrats who were
present. The nomination of Dawn Johnsen to head the Office of Legal Counsel remains
held up in the Senate with leadership still working to pull together sufficient votes for
cloture (particularly challenging due to the absence of Senators Byrd and Kennedy, both
of whom are rumored to be unlikely to return to the Senate again). (Tom Hilbink,
Program Officer, Transparency and Integrity Fund) *

OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE Updates

Ensuring Transparency, Equity, and Accountability in the Economic Recovery

Among the invited participants at President Obama’s June 17th financial regulatory
reform press conference included leaders from the PICO National Network (PICO) and
National Training and Information Center/ National People’s Action (NTIC), large
grassroots organizing networks that have recently received Seize the Day Initiative and
Democracy and Power Fund grants. The organizing networks work in low- and
moderate-income congregations and neighborhoods across the nation and are currently
engaged in a collaborative campaign to ensure that the needs of ordinary people are
addressed as the nation’s financial regulatory system is overhauled. The groups support
the President’s initial steps forward but are pushing the White House to prioritize
strengthening the Community Reinvestment (CRA) and Home Mortgage Disclosure Acts
(HMDA), saying that must be a core part of the financial reform plan.

As has been noted in a prior update, NTIC and PICO will be leading efforts to recruit
community members to a series of ten Federal Reserve community meetings in hard hit
communities across the nation. The focus of the meetings will be on modernizing the

2
CRA and HMDA and the first was held in Richmond, California, drawing several
hundred participants from a community where ten percent of homes have been
foreclosed. (Patricia Jerido, Program Officer, Democracy and Power Fund) *

Taking Senator Dick Durbin’s comments about the banks being the most powerful lobby
on Capitol Hill (he added “Frankly, they own the place.”) at face value, an emerging
national advocacy coalition, Americans for Financial Reform, launched on June 16th. Jim
Carr of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Dr. Rob Johnson, now with the
Roosevelt Institute, and George Goehl, NTIC, led the press conference and the new
coalition includes a broad array of financial experts and advocates who have joined
together to block big banks from winning the debate in Washington on oversight of Wall
Street and protection for consumers. Nearly 200 national, state, and local consumer,
employee, investor, community, and civil rights organizations have already joined the
campaign and OSI staff is closely monitoring the developing coalition and will report
more on its activities in future updates. (Bill Vandenberg, Program Director, Democracy
and Power Fund) *

This past Friday the Center for Social Inclusion, OMB Watch, Jobs with Justice, and
Open the Government.org convened a day long meeting on “Promoting Equity Metrics in
the Recovery.” The event grew out of the panel discussion held at the May 21st U.S.
Programs Board meeting and was made possible by Seize the Day funds. The discussion
included transparency advocates and equity groups from around the nation in what was a
much needed coming together of two distinct fields. The results of the day’s panels and
discussions will be used to push both federal and state governments to include equity
related data in reporting on the use and impact of economic stimulus programs. In the
long-term, the hope is that this meeting will mark the start of increased collaboration
between these historically unaligned fields. (Tom Hilbink, Program Officer,
Transparency and Integrity Fund)

In May 2009, a Seize the Day Initiative grant was made to enable Transparency and
Integrity Fund grantee New America Media (NAM) to develop an Economic Stimulus
Package Newsbeat to increase the ethnic media sector’s capacity to inform ethnic
minority and immigrant audiences about the impact of stimulus funding on their
communities. NAM serves 3,000 ethnic media outlets, reaching more than 51 million
people. NAM has begun reaching out to its ethnic media partners, beginning with
Sacramento's African American paper, the Observer, which recently ran a front page
story called "Where's Our Stimulus." NAM has also begun to partner with Investigative
Reporters and Editors (IRE) to conduct trainings for ethnic media outlets. NAM staff
recently reported that California will lose a significant share of stimulus funds as a result
of the state's budget crisis: http://tiny.cc/6g4AX

NAM has identified several stories that will be reported in coming weeks by staff or
ethnic media partners:
 Undocumented immigrants who must pay taxes but are ineligible for stimulus
money;
 Homeless people who can't get SSDI stimulus checks without an address;

3
  Instances where business interests that are included in discussions of stimulus
fund distribution, but community groups are not invited; and
 Social services are being cut even as stimulus money comes into communities.
(Lori McGlinchey, Senior Program Officer, Transparency and Integrity Fund)

* OSI and Seize the Day Initiative funded organizations are explicitly prohibited from
using OSI funding for lobbying on legislation.

This week’s update was compiled by Bill Vandenberg and reviewed by Ann Beeson and
Kay Murray.