To the Editor:

 The Cooperative Community Organization, which I represent, has been struggling to bring the problems of co-ops to the attention of our elected officials. Two years ago, we organized a protest rally in front of the Manhattan office of then-State Attorney General Elliot Spitzer.

“I’ve never been more delighted to be completely wrong”

I sincerely apologize for impugning the integrity of Bay Currents {in the last issue]. It was unjustified and intemperate on my part. The letter was written in a pique of anger [against Mayor Bloomberg] – I wrongfully displaced my frustration and exacerbation onto you.

Given the fact that Bay Currents has been an exemplary messenger of a just, equitable and progressive world view, it was particularly unjustified. You most effectively dispelled any notion that “you sold out, Bro!”

The fact that I. Friedin’s column, “I was mugged by Bloomberg” appeared in the same issue [of the Publisher’s Notebook listing some accomplishments of Bloomberg] validates the integrity of Bay Currents.

“You sold out, bro!”

You have accused others in the past of being invertebrates. Let’s see if you have the backbone to respond to these questions:

Does your endorsement of {Mayor] Bloomberg have any connection to the full-page ads you’ve run Was the ad contingent on your endorsement? Do you really believe that Bloomberg has shown “perhaps a little favoritism to fellow businessmen and to developers”? [emphasis added] Goldman-Sachs, Bank of America, etc. get billions while most New Yorkers get crushed by 12 ½ percent increases in sales tax, 15-16 percent increases in sewer rates, 18-49 percent increases in real estate taxes, 50-100 percent increases in parking ticket and homeowner environmental summonses. If you are a liberal or progressive, why aren’t you calling for a 12 ½ percent increase in the taxes on bonuses for financial-services millionaires? I agree that mostly poor minorities have been the beneficiaries of Bloomberg’s crime and education initiatives. But why isn’t Bloomberg getting the money to rightfully help the poor from his wealthy confederates rather than taking it from working-class taxpayers, one-family homeowners and retired people on fixed incomes? When you silence I. Friedin’s brilliant, righteous, decent, socially just and truthful voice, do you think your readers won’t notice or care?

As they said in the ’60s, “You sold out, Bro!”

Joseph McCoppin
Sheepshead Bay

To:
H.E. Sergey Lavrov
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Russian Federation
119200, Moscow G-200,

Dear Minister Lavrov:

First, I would like to note that although foreign relations is not a part of my job description as a member of the  New York State Assembly, I found it impossible to ignore an event that has seriously concerned more than ten thousand of my constituents - natives of the former USSR.

I write to you in regards to the recent vote at the United Nations Human Rights Council.  Russia has voted in favor of endorsing the conclusions of former South African Judge Richard Goldstone’s commission.  The report states that antiterrorist operations in Gaza in January 2009 by Israel should be considered as war crimes and deliberate destruction of civilian population.   The Goldstone Report mentions some anonymous armed groups, but it says nothing about eight years of the daily firing of rockets at civilians in the south of Israel by HAMAS and other terrorists.

I consider the decision of the Russian Government to endorse the Goldstone Report at the UN Human Rights Council deeply troubling.  This decision is directed not only against Israel; it significantly reduces Israel’s ability to protect its citizens, including the thousands of Russian citizens living today in Israel.

To the Editor:

President Obama is trying to decide our military strategy in Afghanistan. He is mulling over input from his civilian and military advisers, and members of Congress, but he cannot make a timely decision because of his lack of military and national security experience. His community organizing background is not very helpful in this situation.

It appears he will follow a path of political compromise similar to the policies that handcuffed our military in Vietnam. Obama is attempting to stifle his generals and turn them into Obama puppets, which will kill initiative and inhibit candid assessments of the war. This is a recipe for disaster in Afghanistan and could produce another war dominated by unsound military decisions made by politicians.

Predator drones, air power, missiles and mechanized armies cannot defeat the Taliban and al Qaida because of the extremely rugged terrain that is home to these fighters.

General McChrystal should receive the additional ground combat troops he requested, including special operations forces; and we need to speed up the training of the Afghan army.

We need a decisive military strategy for Afghanistan, not the indecision exhibited by the Obama Administration, which could lead to a debacle. If Afghanistan goes, Pakistan could follow.

Donald A. Moskowitz
Londonderry, New Hampshire