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"We have frequently printed the word Democracy. Yet I cannot too often repeat, that it is a word the real gist of which still sleeps, quite unawakened," wrote Walt Whitman in Democratic Vistas. "It is a great word, whose history, I suppose, remains unwritten, because that history has yet to be enacted."
Whitman penned his essay on the American experiment in 1871. And there has been much progress since. Yet, there is much history yet to be enacted.
So why not make 2014 historic?
Why not assert a progressive politics that is more vital and determined than what has been known to this point?
Why not stop reacting and start asserting a real reform agenda?
Here are five steps in that direction:
1. Demand a Right to Vote for all Americans.
The last decade has seen a steady assault on voting rights in the United States, with restrictive Voter ID laws, changes in early-voting and same-day registration rules and, in 2013, a US Supreme Court ruling that Congressman John Lewis, D-Georgia, said "stuck a dagger into the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 1965." The Department of Justice and key members of the House and Senate have taken steps to counter the assault at the federal level, and state-based efforts such as North Carolina's "Moral Monday" movement are pushing back. These efforts are vital.
But voting rights are too precious to be left to chance. They need to be defined and defended permanently. That's why Congressmen Keith Ellison, D-Minnesota, and Mark Pocan, D-Wisconsin, have proposed a constitutional amendment to explicitly guarantee that every American has a right to vote and a right to have that vote counted. "The right to vote is too important to be left unprotected," says Pocan.
Groups such as Color of Change and FairVote agree. They're campaigning to get co-sponsors for the proposal by Ellison and Pocan. So far, 20 members have joined their effort. In 2014, it's important to pressure sitting members of Congress to sign on, and to make candidates for Congress take a stand on whether they believe Americans have a right to vote.
2. Get More States on Record for Real Reform of Elections.
Sixteen states have formally petitioned Congress to enact a constitutional amendment to overturn the US Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling—which frees corporations to spend as much as they choose to influence elections, and which continued a process of striking down federal, state and local campaign-finance reforms. These states have formally recognized that votes should define the electoral process, not dollars. Groups such as Free Speech for People, Move to Amend, Public Citizen, Common Cause and People for the American Way have made tremendous progress at the local and state levels—working with limited resources and shamefully scant media coverage. They've won support from Democrats, Republicans and independents in state legislatures across the country, and they've organized and won statewide and local referendum votes. "In just three years since the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, we have come one third of the way to amending the US Constitution to reclaim our democracy and to ensure that people, not corporations, shall govern in America," says John Bonifaz, co-founder and executive director of Free Speech For People.
But there is still much work to do. The real "critical mass" moment will not come until current numbers double and the movement is in range of the number of states that would be required to approve an amendment: thirty-eight. Roughly 100 House members have sponsored or cosponsored amendment proposals, as have key senators such as Vermont independent Bernie Sanders and Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown. Getting more states to formally demand action will cause more congressional buy-in for this necessary reform.
"Amending our country's constitution should be difficult," says Marge Baker, executive vice president of People For the American Way. "But this isn't the first time Americans have encountered a serious problem that needs a serious solution. Citizens United and other cases that paved the way for big money to flood our elections have given us one of those moments. As more states and elected officials go on record in support of an amendment, the clearer it becomes that the American people will not stand to have their voices overpowered by wealthy special interests."
3. Vote for a Raise
Senator Bernie Sanders is right when he says of the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, "Most people understand that is a starvation wage. Individuals can't live on it, families can't live on it." Working with the ranking Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee, California Democrat George Miller, and Senate Education, Health, Labor and Pensions Committee chair Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, Sanders is pushing for Congress to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour and index future increases to the rate of inflation. That's a good start, but it's a tall order in the face of determined opposition in the Republican-controlled US House.
But the circumstances of millions of American workers can be improved even if Congress fails to act in 2014. In November 2013, New Jersey voters hiked that state's minimum wage to $9 an hour and indexed future increases to the inflation rate. And in Sea-Tac, Washington, voters took the local minimum wage to $15 an hour. With the election of Kshama Sawant, a socialist who ran on the $15 wage issue, to the Seattle city council, there is now a major push in that city for a significant wage hike. If Seattle votes on a $15-an-hour wage referendum this fall, it will be as part of a pattern of critical state and local initiatives—from Alaska to Arkansas to New Mexico to South Dakota—that are designed to allow Americans to vote themselves a raise.
4. Vote for Equal Rights
The Equal Rights Amendment struggle of the 1970s and early 1980s was an intense, inspiring and heartbreaking fight to finally guarantee equal rights for women. A massive right-wing pushback prevented the project from succeeding at the time—although it opened up debates that would lead to significant progress on a number of legislative fronts. In recent years, there has been something of an ERA renaissance. Three years ago, on the 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day, then-Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin, proposed legislation to eliminate the congressionally imposed deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. And in February 2013, the New Mexico state House of Representatives formally asked Congress to lift the deadline for ERA ratification. At the same time, new versions of the amendment have been introduced.
Beyond Washington, twenty-one state constitutions embrace ERA-like equal rights provisions And the state of Oregon is likely to see a test in 2014. Late in December, the group VoteERA.org won approval to start gathering 116,284 valid signatures to place a state ERA proposal on the November ballot. "Shouldn't women be explicitly equal in every Constitution?" Leanne Littrell DiLorenzo, the president of VoteERA.org, told reporters. "To me, the answer is an absolute 'Yes, of course.'"
5. Work to Make Every Election Matter.
America has woefully low voter turnout, as compared with other major democracies around the world. Restrictive laws get some of the blame. So, too, does a money-drenched process that makes elections a spectator sport. But there is also the reality that this country's electoral systems have too many structural flaws that make it hard to vote. That needs to change. The Brennan Center has a "How to Fix the Voting System" plan that it's pushing in states across the country: 1. Modernize Voter Registration, 2. Expand Early Voting, 3. Improve Polling Place Resource Management, 4. Simplify Ballots and Voting Machines. And Brennan Center Democracy Program director Wendy Weiser notes that, amid all the frustrating talk about restrictions and suppression in 2013, "many states expanded voting access. In 2014, there is a real opportunity to find common ground and enact vital fixes to modernize our outdated election system."
Common Cause and other groups are working in states across the country to end the absurd practice of gerrymandering local, state and federal election districts—which makes too many elections for too many important offices uncompetitive. The Working Families Party in New York and Connecticut, the Vermont Progressive Party and other third-party and independent groupings are drawing the rough outlines of multi-party and ideologically diverse politics from New England to the Northwest. And Fair Vote: The Center for Voting and Democracy is pushing for a wide range of reforms, while noting successes in communities that have adopted more democratic models for voting. For instance, FairVote notes, "Minneapolis uses ranked choice voting, so voters were able to express not only which candidate was their favorite, but also which second-choice and third-choice candidates they thought should win if their first choice did not qualify for an instant runoff. Ranked choice voting meant that candidates competed seriously but also positively, and Minneapolis ultimately elected a candidate who reflected a broad consensus—Betsy Hodges skipped spending money on television ads in favor of grassroots campaigning. She broke from the field by earning more than a third of first-choice rankings and more than 60% among voters who expressed a preference for either her or her strongest opponent. Altogether, she was the first, second or third choice of two-thirds of the voters."
The Minneapolis election results provided an example of what happens when democracy is awakened. Americans need to explore this country's democratic vistas in 2014, breaking beyond narrow partisan and ideological lines of division to develop the vibrant politics that realizes the promise Whitman imagined when he wrote that he considered the American experiment "far less important for what it has done, or what it is, than for results to come."
Read Next: John Nichols' picks for the 2013 Progressive Honor Roll.
When initially discussed as a rude repercussion of a bungled budget deal, the prospect that 1.3 million Americans would lose long-term unemployment benefits just days after Christmas was bad enough.
Now that the day has come, however, it stands as a stark reminder of the extent to which the United States has regressed from the days when Franklin Delano Roosevelt greeted the holiday season with a celebration of the fact that "today neighborliness no longer can be confined to one's little neighborhood. Life has become too complex for that. In our country neighborliness has gradually spread its boundaries—from town, to county, to State and now at last to the whole Nation."
Imagine a country that during the week between Christmas and New Year's Day abandons those hit hardest by economic turbulence, and you have a sense of what the United States has become under the cruel hand of House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan—who refused to agree to any budget deal that included an extension of benefits—and those members of Congress, Republicans and Democrats, who compromised with the failed Republican vice presidential candidate's austerity agenda.
Because Congress accepted Ryan's crude calculus, 1.3 million jobless Americans were abandoned on December 28 by a government that could, and should, have assisted them. And if Ryan continues to get his way, unemployment benefits will end in coming months for an additional 1.9 million Americans.
"It is not only immoral to cut off help for workers struggling to find jobs, it is also bad economics," argues Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. "At a time when long-term unemployment is near a record level, cutting benefits will hurt the rest of the economy and cause even more jobs to disappear."
Ryan claimed that extending jobless benefits "would have blown a hole in our deficits" and "prolonged unemployment."
He is off the mark, morally and economically.
Sanders correctly points out that there is no sound economic argument for adopting the Ryan approach. A continuing refusal by Congress to extend benefits has the potential, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, to cause a $25 billion blow to the economy in 2014. The CBO projects a 0.2 percent drop in the nation's gross domestic product—and the loss of 200,000 additional jobs—unless the benefits are extended.
In other words, this is cruelty for the sake of cruelty.
That's what adds a decidedly Dickensian twist to the bipartisan budget deal that National Nurses United correctly characterized as "an endorsement of austerity at the expense of all of us."
There is little debate that Ryan defined the scope and character of the budget negotiations that played out in November and early December. Yes, he would have gone further if Senate Budget Committee chair Patty Murray (D-WA) and other Democrats had not been in positions to constrain his ambitions. But Ryan bragged that the deal reflected his bottom line: no new taxes on the extraordinarily wealthy, no closing of loopholes for corporations, no economic stimulus, continuation of many of the worst of the sequester cuts and an austerity calculus that unburdened billionaires.
Though Murray and many of the leading lights of the Republican and Democratic caucuses in the House and Senate were involved in the budget negotiations, Ryan was the definitional player. And he shaped a plan that embraces his fiscal ethic of erring consistently on the side of Wall Street speculators, "golden parachute" CEOs and million-dollar campaign donors.
When Ryan is done delivering for his core constituencies, there's little left for working Americans—and even less for out-of-work Americans.
Explaining his opposition to the budget deal, Congressman Mark Pocan (D-WI) said: "At the end of the day, the bill abandons 1.3 million Americans who desperately need unemployment insurance, and does nothing to promote economic growth or job creation. Furthermore, the legislation is paid for on the backs of the middle class and military families, while not touching the wealthiest amongst us and allowing corporations to continue to benefit from tax loopholes."
Pocan, a former co-chair of the Wisconsin Legislature's powerful Joint Finance Committee and a member with Ryan of the House Budget Committee, is recognizing reality.
The budget deal fails to demand that the primary beneficiaries of the federal policies that Ryan has helped shape for more than a decade—bailed-out banks, border-hopping multinational corporations and billionaires seeking tax shelters—do anything more to reduce deficits and debts. Instead, it shifts the burden to federal workers and military personnel, who were hit with a demand that they pay more for basic benefits.
That's how Ryan's austerity works: CEOs get to keep their golden parachutes because the government is making the clerks and park rangers and soldiers and sailors do all the sacrificing. It's the redistribution of wealth upward, in the grand tradition of the Charles Dickens character Ebenezer Scrooge, who griped that his clerk's request for a Christmas holiday was "a poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every 25th of December."
The cruelest calculus comes now, after December 25, as 1.3 million Americans are denied assistance that they need to pay for shelter, food and the transportation they use in searching for jobs that in many parts of the country just aren't available. Roughly 28,000 Wisconsin families, including many residing in Janesville, Ryan's hard-hit hometown, are among those slated to lose benefits.
Paul Ryan and Patty Murray had every opportunity to include an extension in the agreement. Democrats were angling for it, and Republicans were unlikely to balk at a proposal to help the needy in the holiday season. Yet when the plan was presented, no provision was made for the long-term unemployed. Despite Democratic objections prior to the House and Senate votes, the measure advanced with overwhelming support from compromise-prone members of both parties. And it was signed by the president on December 26.
Then they hightailed it home for the holidays.
So it was that a Congress that could easily have cared for the poor took actions that resembled those of old Scrooge, who replied to a request for a donation for the destitute, with a growl of "It's not my business."
Politicians are rarely so crass in their language. Yet the budget deal Paul Ryan did so much to shape, and that too many Republicans and Democrats endorsed, contains precisely nothing for those whose want is keenly felt.
The question now is whether Congress will be shamed sufficiently to act.
There are certainly those who are ready to respond.
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On January 6, when the Senate reconvenes, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) says the first measure up for consideration will be a plan to restore long-term unemployment benefits. The measure is backed by Nevada Republican Dean Heller and twenty-one members of the Senate Democratic Caucus.
Give Heller credit. He is doing the right thing—for his constituents and for the national economy—by breaking with Ryan and the austerity agenda.
But there must be a bigger break—in the Senate and, especially, in the Republican-controlled House. As Sanders says, "The critical question is how many Republicans are prepared to stand with unemployed workers."
Put another way: How many Republicans will join Heller in recognizing that the circumstance of the long-term jobless is their business? Indeed, it is all of our business.
Read Next: Katrina vanden Heuvel on the flawed budget deal.
Postal workers are giving it their all this holiday season, as cards and packages and returns must be collected and delivered amidst ice storms, snowstorms and wild temperature drops.
They deserve our thanks in 2013.
And our support in 2014.
Postal workers are still under assault from political slackers in Washington—like House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Darrell Issa, R-California, and the wrecking crew he has assembled to diminish the United States Postal Service to such an extent that it can be bartered off to the highest bidder.
That assault has made this holiday season even tougher. Under pressure from USPS executives and privatization-prone members of Congress, the service has implemented closures and forced reductions in hours. That's led to delays in some regions. "Much of the delayed mail is in areas where plants and post offices have been consolidated or closed or where hours at post offices have been reduced," explains Debby Szeredy, the executive vice president of the American Postal Workers Union.
True, the Postal Service had a significantly better Holiday season than FedEx and UPS, both of which were on the naughty list amid reports on how "packages that were supposed to be delivered in time for Christmas didn't make it to their destinations."
But the Postal Service can't maintain universal, high quality service if closures, consolidations and cuts continue.
The assault on this Constitutionally-mandated service service must end in 2014.
It is true that the Postal Service faces challenges. But is wrong—and, frankly, absurd—to suggest that the only fix is downsizing. That's precisely the wrong route. Schemes to cut services and sell off parts of the service begin with the false premise that its current financial challenges are evidence of fundamental flaws.
In fact, the Postal Service reported an operating profit of $600 million for the 2013 fiscal year.
Unfortunately, despite the operating profit, the Postal Service balance sheet showed a $5 billion "loss" for the 2013 fiscal year.
Why? "Only because of an unprecedented and onerous requirement imposed by Congress that it pre-fund 75 years of future retiree health benefits in just 10 years," as Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders notes. "No other business or government agency is burdened with this mandate."
Ending the mandate and requiring the Postal Service to operate along the lines of the most responsible private businesses would make the USPS viable.
Indeed, the service could thrive if members of the House and Senate were to embrace the proposals of Sanders and Congressman Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon.
Sanders recognizes what the rest of Congress should: "The way to save the Postal Service is not to dismantle it piece by piece, but to allow it to generate more revenue by offering new and innovative products and services that the American people want."
Those reforms embrace many of the proposals advanced by National Association of Letter Carriers President Fredric Rolando in a July letter to Congressman Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the Government Oversight and Reform Committee. In it, Rolando writes that comprehensive postal reform must:
1. Stabilize the Postal Service's finances by reforming or eliminating unwise and unfair pension and retiree health financing policies that have crippled the Postal Service's finances since 2006.
2. Strengthen and protect the Postal Service's invaluable first-mile and last-mile networks that together comprise a crucial part of the nation's infrastructure.
3. Overhaul the basic governance structure of the agency to attract first-class executive talent and a private-sector style board of directors with the demonstrated business expertise needed to implement a strategy that will allow the Postal Service to innovate and take advantage of growth opportunities even as it adjusts to declining traditional mail volume.
4. Free the Postal Service to meet the evolving needs of the American economy and to set its prices in a way that reflects the cost structure of the delivery industry while assuring affordable universal service and protecting against anti-competitive abuses.
There is a future for the United States Postal Service. And for the letter carriers and other postal workers who are hustling to deliver cards and packages this week.
In this holiday season, thank a postal worker. In 2014, tell Congress that it is not just possible but necessary for the United States to have a strong Postal Service.
Each Christmas Eve in the 1930s and 1940s, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt would deliver a radio address to the people of the United States.
For the thirty-second president, it was an opportunity to mark the holiday. But Roosevelt also used these addresses to speak about the advance of economic and social justice. This, he argued, was cause for celebration, and for a renewed commitment to do even more in the year to come.
Roosevelt often read to his listeners from the Bible and newspaper columns and, invariably, "A Christmas Carol." In the social commentary of Charles Dickens on the London of a century earlier, the president found a call to contemporary action.
"A Christmas rite for me is always to reread that immortal little story by Charles Dickens, 'A Christmas Carol.' Reading between the lines and thinking as I always do of Bob Cratchit's humble home as a counterpart of millions of our own American homes, the story takes on a stirring significance to me," Roosevelt recalled in his 1939 address. "Old Scrooge found that Christmas wasn't a humbug. He took to himself the spirit of neighborliness. But today neighborliness no longer can be confined to one's little neighborhood. Life has become too complex for that. In our country neighborliness has gradually spread its boundaries—from town, to county, to state and now at last to the whole nation.
"For instance," Roosevelt marveled, as he spoke just days before the first Social Security checks would be dispatched, "who a generation ago would have thought that a week from tomorrow—January 1, 1940—tens of thousands of elderly men and women in every state and every county and every city of the nation would begin to receive checks every month for old age retirement insurance—and not only that but that there would be also insurance benefits for the wife, the widow, the orphan children and even dependent parents? Who would have thought a generation ago that people who lost their jobs would, for an appreciable period, receive unemployment insurance—that the needy, the blind and the crippled children would receive some measure of protection which will reach down to the millions of Bob Cratchits, the Marthas and the Tiny Tims of our own 'four-room homes'?"
Today, with Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid under threat not just from House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, but from Democrats who would compromise with Ryan, with food stamps being slashed, with Congress refusing to extend unemployment insurance, we have drifted far from the moorings Roosevelt provided for America.
But not too far.
Each year brings an opportunity to recognize that poverty did not end with Dickens, or Roosevelt. There is still a need for "some measure of protection which will reach down to the millions of Bob Cratchits, the Marthas and the Tiny Tims of our own 'four-room homes.' " And we can still muster the energy and resources to meet it—just as we did in the days when a generous nation listened to FDR on the radio.
Scott Walker will never be accused of displaying a high regard for the First Amendment.
The Wisconsin governor who tried to close the state Capitol to mass protests against his anti-labor policies, and who then engineered a rewrite of rules so that veterans, grandmothers, teachers and firefighters were arrested for singing, has offered ample evidence of his disregard for the rights to speak freely, to assemble, to petition for the redress of grievances
So it came as a surprise when Walker suddenly announced that First Amendment concerns had led him to sign a new Wisconsin law that makes it significantly harder to get schools to drop Indian logos, mascots and team names that Native Americans, educators and community members have identified as objectionable. Indeed, Walker has adopted a position that reinterprets the US Constitution's free speech protection in a far more adventurous way than the folks who are currently arguing about the controversial statements of Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson.
Walker readily admits that many Wisconsinites view the school nicknames as "seriously offensive." And he says he personally supports "moving away" from the use of them.
In a letter to Wisconsin's tribal leaders, the governor wrote: "I share many of your concerns about some of the mascots and nicknames used in Wisconsin and across America. If it were up to me personally, I would seek viable alternatives that were not offensive to Native Americans."
So why didn't Walker veto the measure—which Wisconsin Indian Education Association spokeswoman Barbara Munson decried as "institutionalized racism"—and just let existing law stand?
Walker says it has something to do with the First Amendment.
"If the state bans speech that is offensive to some, where does it stop?" asked Walker. "A person or persons' right to speak does not end just because what they say or how they say it is offensive."
But a school district is not a person, like Duck Dynasty's Robertson, who was suspended from the A&E program after making statements that drew loud objections from civil rights groups. Robertson's supporters have countered criticisms from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Human Rights Campaign, among others, by arguing that, as an individual citizen, Robertson has every right to say what he thinks.
Nor is a school district a private enterprise, like A&E, which has faced threats of boycotts from Americans who are uncomfortable with Robertson's statements.
A school district is a public entity, which is supposed to serve all the people in a community.
"School districts are creatures of the state, bound to abide by state standards," Milwaukee attorney Brian Pierson. who had helped defend the existing state law in court, explained to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel."A school district doesn't have a First Amendment right to adopt an Indian mascot any more than it has a First Amendment right to adopt the swastika as school symbol or 'white supremacy' as school slogan
The issue never was—and is not now— "a person or persons' right to speak."
In fact, when Walker signaled he would make a First Amendment argument for his decision to sign the legislation, the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin objected.
"This is a bogus appropriation of the First Amendment," explained executive director Chris Ahmuty. "The governor apparently does not understand that the First Amendment protects citizens from government censorship. Government programs are not allowed to offend, harm or otherwise discriminate against citizens on the basis of the First Amendment. The First Amendment simply doesn't apply when it's the government taking action."
Noting that "school team names, mascots, logos and all that go along with them are the responsibility of the public school district," Ahmuty explained that it was entirely appropriate for a public school district or the state Department of Public Instruction to take steps to address offensive names.
"Why would a public school district want to harm some of its students?" asked Ahmuty, who added, "Free speech is no justification."
Voter fraud is quite uncommon. In fact, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's School of law, which has conducted an ongoing examination of voter fraud claims, refers to the supposed "problem" as a "myth."
However, if we employ the standard of those who claim that there really is a voter fraud crisis in America, then there is a case that is worthy of note. And it involves Liz Cheney's husband.
Liz Cheney is running for the US Senate in a 2014 Republican primary. But she is not running in her long-time home state, Virginia.
Rather, she is running in distant Wyoming—which her father, permanent Washington fixture Dick Cheney, used as a political redoubt for congressional service to the Reagan administration in the 1980s.
The Wyoming run has been an inconvenient one for Liz Cheney. She has been forced to uproot herself from a comfortable life in suburban Washington, and to buy an expensive new home in the one reliably Democratic county in Wyoming. She has struggled to figure out how to obtain a fishing license, after initially overstating her history in the state—and paying a fine for "[failing] to meet residency requirements as required." And she has had to declare her opposition to her sister's right to marry.
But it hasn't just been tough on Liz Cheney.
Her husband, Philip Perry, who practices law with a major Washington firm, has had to claim that he, too, is a resident of Wyoming.
In March, he obtained a driver's license. And he has gone so far as to register to vote there
Unfortunately, he is also registered to vote in McLean, Virginia, where he voted in 2012.
When Perry registered to vote in Wyoming's Teton County, he did not indicate that he was on the voter roll elsewhere. Indeed, says Teton County Clerk Sherry Daigle, "He signed an oath saying he was not currently registered anywhere else."
So we have a glaring case of double registration.
Sound the alarm!
Or not.
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Perry can fix the problem by asking Virginia to remove him from the rolls in the Old Dominion. Officials generally allow for such clarifications, recognizing that mistakes are made. Despite the headline in the local paper—"Cheney Husband in False Oath Kerfuffle"—it is unlikely that the double-registration mess will result in anything more than a slight case of embarrassment for a prominent lawyer.
So this does not appear to be a particularly big deal—just like most cases of supposed "voter fraud."
Indeed, as the Brennan Center reminds us, "Voter fraud is very rare, voter impersonation is nearly non-existent and much of the problems associated with alleged fraud in elections relates to unintentional mistakes by voters or election administrators."
Read Next: George Zornick on Senator Tom Harkin.
This week marks the 100th anniversary of Willy Brandt's birth.
Born December 18, 1913, on the cusp of World War I, Brandt lived to see the fall of the Berlin Wall before his death in 1992. He left a legacy of seeking to steer his twentieth-century world away from war and division and that still has the potential—as was his ardent hope—to define the twenty-first century as a time of response to global poverty and injustice.
In Germany, Brandt continues to be celebrated as the Social Democratic battler against Nazi totalitarianism, the courageous mayor of a divided Berlin, the chancellor who began a process of East-West reconciliation that anticipated the day when "what belongs together will grow together" and the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for dialing down the tensions of the Cold War.
But another lasting legacy of Willy Brandt that must never be forgotten—in Europe or internationally—is that of the Brandt Reports. The product of an Independent Commission on International Development initially chaired by Brandt in the late 1970s and early 1980s, those reports challenged world leaders to think anew about the underdevelopment and neglect of the Global South.
The Brandt Reports considered inequality on a global scale, and argued that it threatened the future stability of the planet. Radical in their analysis and vision, the pair of reports—North-South (1980) and Common Crisis (1983)—sought to address the long-term challenges of what Brandt described as "a world in which poverty and hunger still prevail in many huge regions; in which resources are squandered without consideration of their renewal; in which more armaments are made and sold than ever before; and where a destructive capacity has been accumulated to blow up our planet several times over."
A 2002 report from the Brandt 21 Forum noted, "The Brandt Commission made a set of bold recommendations to change all that. In a sweeping series of measures addressed to the global public, governments, and international agencies, the Brandt Reports called for a full-scale restructuring of the global economy, along with a new approach to the problems of development, including an emergency program to end poverty in developing nations."
The grand vision, celebrated and embraced by some but certainly not all countries, remains unrealized.
The grip of poverty and hunger has not been released. The chasm of inequality is still exceptionally wide. Economic and environmental injustice continue to create crises.
Yet, the understandings that Brandt and his colleagues helped to develop remain influential.
And a new generation of leaders seeks to open a serious discussion about global poverty—and the possible responses to it.
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Congressman Keith Ellison, D-Minnesota, has for many years urged the United States to embrace the concept of a "Global Marshall Plan"—based on the principles of post–World War II international development programs. Earlier this month, Ellison asked Congress to resolve that
1. The elimination of poverty and hunger should remain key foreign and domestic policy goals for the United States;
2. A Global Marshall Plan holds the potential to transform development assistance in a manner that would significantly reduce poverty; and
3. The President should implement a Global Marshall Plan to increase United States assistance towards the elimination of poverty.
That's a proposal that is equal in its ambition and optimism—especially in a time of divided government that has tended towards austerity economics.
But it is right to aim high. And to recall the ambition and optimism of the Brandt Reports, and of the former German chancellor who declared,
A new century nears, and with it the prospects of a new civilization.
Could we not begin to lay the basis for that new community with reasonable relations among all people and nations, and to build a world in which sharing, justice, freedom and peace might prevail?
Read Next: Mychal Denzel Smith on Santa Claus and white racial panic.
Civil liberties advocates on the left and the right have argued for many years—but especially in the aftermath of revelations this year by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden—that spying by the National Security Agency disregards privacy protections outlined in the Fourth Amendment and is surely unconstitutional. Indeed, as the American Civil Liberties Union has argued, the NSA's "unconstitutional surveillance" represents "a grave danger to American democracy."
Now, a federal judge has recognized the constitutional concerns.
"I cannot imagine a more 'indiscriminate' and 'arbitrary invasion' than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying it and analyzing it without judicial approval," wrote US District Judge Richard Leon.
Judge Leon's decision, which will surely be appealed, focuses attention on legal challenges to the spying program. But it also serves as a reminder that Congress can and should act to defend privacy rights.
"The ruling underscores what I have argued for years: The bulk collection of Americans' phone records conflicts with Americans' privacy rights under the U.S. Constitution and has failed to make us safer," says Senator Mark Udall, D-Colorado, a supporter of legislation to end the bulk collection program. "We can protect our national security without trampling our constitutional liberties."
Senator Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, said: "Judge Leon's ruling hits the nail on the head. It makes clear that bulk phone records collection is intrusive digital surveillance and not simply inoffensive data collection as some have said. The court noted that this metadata can be used for 'repetitive, surreptitious surveillance of a citizen's private goings on,' that creates a mosaic of personal information and is likely unconstitutional. This ruling dismisses the use of an outdated Supreme Court decision affecting rotary phones as a defense for the technologically advanced collection of millions of Americans' records. It clearly underscores the need to adopt meaningful surveillance reforms that prohibit the bulk collection of Americans' records."
The senators had reason to be enthusiastic about Judge Leon determination that legal challenges to the massive surveillance program are valid. So valid, in fact, that he issued a preliminary injunction against the program. The judge suspended the order, however, in order to allow a Justice Department appeal.
But Judge Leon was blunt regarding the strength of the challenge that was brought after Snowden revealed details of the agency's spying in The Guardian.
"I have little doubt that the author of our Constitution, James Madison... would be aghast," the judge wrote with regard to the NSA program for surveillance of cell phone records,
"The court concludes that plaintiffs have standing to challenge the constitutionality of the government's bulk collection and querying of phone record metadata, that they have demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of their Fourth Amendment claim and that they will suffer irreparable harm absent…relief," Judge Leon wrote in response to a lawsuit brought by Larry Klayman, a former Reagan administration lawyer who now leads the conservative Freedom Watch group.
The case is one of several that have been working their way through the federal courts since Snowden disclosed details of the NSA program.
Legal challenges to NSA spying are not new, and they have failed in the past.
Challenging the FISA Amendments Act (FAA)—the law that permits the government to wiretap US citizens communicating with people overseas—Amnesty International and other human rights advocates, lawyers and journalists fought a case all the way to the US Supreme Court in 2012. In February 2013, however, the Justices ruled 5-4 that the challengers lacked standing because they could not prove they had been the victims of wiretapping and other privacy violations.
The Justice Department has continued to argue that plaintiffs in lawsuits against the spying program lack standing because they cannot prove their records were examined. But Judge Leon suggested that the old calculus that afforded police agencies great leeway when it came to monitoring communications has clearly changed.
Suggesting that the NSA has relied on "almost-Orwellian technology," wrote Judge Leon, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia bench. "The relationship between the police and the phone company (as imagined by the courts decades ago)…is nothing compared to the relationship that has apparently evolved over the last seven years between the government and telecom companies."
The judge concluded, "It's one thing to say that people expect phone companies to occasionally provide information to law enforcement; it is quite another to suggest that our citizens expect all phone companies to operate what is effectively a joint intelligence-gathering operation with the government."
This case will continue in the courts, as will others.
But it is also in Congress. A left-right coalition that extends from Congressmen Justin Amash, a libertarian-leaning Republican, to Congressman John Conyers, a progressive Democrat, has raised repeated challenges to the NSA spying regimen.
Now, Congress needs to step up to what Congressman Alan Grayson, D-Florida, refers to as "the spying-industrial complex."
A number of members are ready. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders responded to Judge Leon's ruling by saying: "In my view, the NSA is out of control and operating in an unconstitutional manner. Today's ruling is an important first step toward reining in this agency but we must go further. I will be working as hard as I can to pass the strongest legislation possible to end the abuses by the NSA and other intelligence agencies."
The outlines for legislative action have already been presented by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups that work on privacy issues.
"Congress should not be indifferent to the government's accumulation of vast quantities of sensitive information about American's lives," Jameel Jaffer, the ACLU's deputy legal counsel told the House Judiciary Committee in July. "This Committee in particular has a crucial role to play in ensuring that the government's efforts to protect the country do not compromise the freedoms that make the country worth protecting."
Jaffer told the committee,
Because the problem Congress confronts today has many roots, there is no single solution to it. But there are a number of things that Congress should do right away:
• It should amend Sections 215 and 702 to expressly prohibit suspicionless or "dragnet" monitoring or tracking of Americans' communications.
• It should require the executive to release basic information about the government's use of foreign-intelligence-surveillance authorities, including those relating to pen registers and national security letters. The executive should be required to disclose, for each year: how many times each of these provisions was used, how many individuals' privacy was implicated by the government's use of each provision, and, with respect to any dragnet, generalized, or bulk surveillance program, the types of information that were collected.
• Congress should also require the publication of FISA court opinions that evaluate the meaning, scope, or constitutionality of the foreign-intelligence laws. The ACLU recently filed a motion before the FISA court arguing that the publication of these opinions is required by the First Amendment, but Congress need not wait for the FISA court to act. Congress has the authority and the obligation to ensure that Americans are not governed by a system of secret law.
• Finally, Congress—and this Committee in particular—should hold additional hearings to consider further amendments to FISA, including amendments to make FISC proceedings more transparent.
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Members of Congress, conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats, have moved on a number of these fronts. Now it is time for concerted action.
The Congress does not have to wait for the legal wrangling to be resolved. It can, and should, act in defense of civil liberties.
Read Next: Greg Mitchell on 60 Minutes's NSA whitewashing.
Most members of Congress were pleased with themselves Thursday.
They agreed to agree—crossing lines of partisanship and ideology—on an austerity budget that, as Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio has noted, "won't create jobs, get the economy back on track, or meaningfully cut the deficit."
That's not the worst of it.
"At the end of the day, the bill abandons 1.3 million Americans who desperately need unemployment insurance, and does nothing to promote economic growth or job creation," Congressman Mark Pocan, D-Wisconsin, explained Thursday. "Furthermore, the legislation is paid for on the backs of the middle class and military families, while not touching the wealthiest amongst us and allowing corporations to continue to benefit from tax loopholes."
Pocan and DeFazio could not bring themselves to back the deal.
But they were outliers, two of the thirty-two Democrats who voted no, along with sixty-two Republicans.
The vast majority of House members—from both parties—backed the deal, which prevailed on a 332-94 vote.
So where does that leave America?
Let's turn to National Nurses United, a union that parts company with both major parties on questions of public welfare, for a diagnosis.
"There is no reason to cheer an agreement that requires unwarranted pension cuts for federal workers, including VA nurses who earned that pension, underfunds nutrition programs and fails to extend assistance for the long-term unemployed," says union co-president Jean Ross, RN.
NNU refused to get on board for the bipartisan deal that takes the worst ideas of Wall Street–aligned Republicans and puts a Democratic stamp of approval on them.
Why? Because they understand the agreement—which was developed by a conference committee on which House Budget Committee chair Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, played a defining role—as an expression of the austerity agenda that has stalled economic recovery and job growth in the United States and abroad.
"Austerity budgeting, reflected in this latest deal, continues the disturbing focus by politicians in both parties in Washington, who should be fighting for jobs at living wages, restoration of the disgraceful cuts in food stamps, healthcare for all, housing assistance, and other human needs, not simply how to please Wall Street and the banks," says NNU's Ross. "For our patients and our communities, it is past time to replace cuts for workers with revenues from Wall Street to revive Main Street."
There was a time when austerity budgeting was accepted as valid—or, at least, necessary—to addressing the circumstance of countries where deindustrialization and economic setbacks have caused revenue shortfalls. But, in recent years, The Economist, the Financial Timesand the International Monetary Fund have recognized that austerity agendas based on in budget cuts and a failure to invest in infrastructure and development tend to lock in patterns of high unemployment and slow growth.
Countries fall into dysfunctional patterns, making cuts that lead to more cuts, and this stalls job creation, reduces labor-force participation and makes recovery more difficult. It is, as economist Paul Krugman suggests, an "awesomely destructive" pattern.
Congress should get this by now. Unfortunately, as an analysis from the budget analysts at the Campaign for America's Future notes, "Somehow Washington has failed to get the message. This deal doesn't end the cutting; it only reduces its severity. It doesn't generate jobs; it only cuts fewer of them. It doesn't help the economy; it only reduces the harm to it. Surely we can do better than that."
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The nurses have an idea for how to do better. The union wants a Robin Hood Tax on high-stakes Wall Street trading—particularly speculation in stocks, bonds, derivatives and currencies. This tax is outlined in legislation developed by Congressman Keith Ellison, D-Minnesota, who proposes "a small tax on Wall Street transactions to meet the needs of our nation."
Ellison voted against the budget deal Thursday, saying: "The budget deal passed today is a compromise—it compromises the financial security of federal employees, the long-term unemployed and working families…. This is a case where 'compromise' in Washington means asking Americans to sacrifice more."
The nurses agree.
"The sham of the present debate in Washington, DC, is that real fiscal solutions to slow growth and high unemployment, hunger, disease and poverty exist, but have been taken off the table by lobbyists for Wall Street," says Ross. "It's time Congress proves to the American people that Wall Street doesn't run our government."
Read Next: John Nichols lays out what makes this a "cruel, irresponsible" budget deal.
The trouble with making "functional" government the great aspiration of the American experiment – as so many pundits and politicians now do – is that a smoothly operating Congress is not necessarily moral, humane or even economically smart.
It is important to remember this disconnect as we consider the budget deal announced late Tuesday by House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, and Senate Budget Committee chairman Patty Murray, D-Washington.
"This agreement breaks through the recent dysfunction to prevent another government shutdown and roll back sequestration's cuts to defense and domestic investments in a balanced way," said Murray. "It's a good step in the right direction that can hopefully rebuild some trust and serve as a foundation for continued bipartisan work."
Ryan was equally self-congratulatory, declaring that – after a fall the saw a government shutdown, nasty wrangling over the historically uncontroversial task of raising the debt ceiling and general congressional dysfunction – he and Murray had achieved "a clear improvement on the status quo."
"This agreement makes sure that we don't have a government shutdown scenario in January," he added. "It makes sure we don't have another government shutdown scenario in October. It makes sure that we don't lurch from crisis to crisis."
Murray and Ryan are excited that they had stopped fighting for long enough to agree to $63 billion in "sequester relief" – as opposed to an actual end to sequestration – and $23 billion in net deficit reduction. They're also glad that they have set the discretionary spending level for fiscal year 2014 at $1.012 trillion, while setting the level at $1.014 trillion for fiscal year 2015. That apparently qualifies – in the eyes of the budget negotiators – as a sufficient alternative to lurching from crisis to crisis.
But the agreement does not address the crises that matter. "This plan won't create jobs, get the economy back on track, or meaningfully cut the deficit," explains Congressman Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon.
And that's not the worst of it.
What of the 1.3 million jobless Americans who – with a fully Dickensian twist – now stand to lose Federal unemployment benefits three days after Christmas?
The budget agreement does not look like a "step in the right direction" for them. And unless Democrats succeed in renewing benefits in a distinct piece of legislation that apparently must pass this week – as Congress is moving rapidly toward recess – many of the most economically vulnerable Americans will be "lurching from crisis to crisis" very soon.
Their crisis is our crisis. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, extending benefits for the long-term unemployed would boost a still slow economy by two-tenths of a percent in the coming year – creating 200,000 needed jobs. As the CBO explains: "Recipients of the additional benefits would increase their spending on consumer goods and services. That increase in aggregate demand would encourage businesses to boost production and hire more workers than they otherwise would, particularly given the expected slack in the capital and labor markets."
Without providing for the extension, something that easily and appropriately could have been done in the budget agreement, Ryan and Murray failed in their most basic humanitarian and economic duties.
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And what of the federal workers and members of the military who will be required to take what is effectively a pay cut in order to pay more for their retirement benefits?
"Federal workers have sacrificed over $113 billion for deficit reduction since 2011, including a three-year pay freeze and increased pension contributions for newly hired employees. This figure does not include the up to eight furlough days caused by sequestration this summer and a 16-day shutdown in October which resulted in financial hardship and profound anxiety for half the government's workforce and their families," noted unions that represent federal employees. "Given these contributions, we are dismayed to learn that increasing the pension contributions and/or changing the retirement formula for current federal employees is on the table. This is simply unacceptable."
This is, also, absurd.
Despite Murray's prodding, the House and Senate budget chairs did not close a single tax loophole. But they did come up with a scheme to take money away from public employees and people serving in the military – effectively reducing what millions of Americans will have to spend on Main Street.
Members of House and Senate who are paid $174,000 annually, collect generous benefits and – thanks to redistricting and an incumbent-rewarding campaign finance system – enjoy no small measure of job security, can pat themselves on the back for breaking through "the recent dysfunction." But forcing others to lurch from crisis to crisis so that you can tell yourself you have taken "a step in the right direction" is socially and economically dysfunctional. Not to mention cruel, and irresponsible.
Read Next: Jessica Weisberg explains how inequality has been woven into the fabric of American society.


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Mary Burke continues to struggle to win over the liberal base in her quest to become the Democratic nominee to challenge Governor Scott Walker in 2014. Her non-committal answers to big policy questions have left the base unimpressed. Then there is the matter of her family business, Trek bicycle, being non-union. The base is now going after her because Trek "outsourced" jobs to China.
I have to admit, there is so much to indulge here; a liberal talk show host who no one listens to is finally getting attention...by ripping a democrat
Suddenly dems understand the need for outsourcing, a DPW lieutenant pointing out that Trek would have gone the way of Schwinn if they hadn't outsourced.
So, let me see if I've got this; When Walmart is non union, Walmart bad. Trek non-union: well, you know, it's not a perfect fit for everyone.
A company moves jobs to China: bad. A democrat's company moves jobs to China: business necessity.
Glad they cleared that up.

subset: commoncrawl


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a comprehensive resource on criminal informants: legal developments, legislation, news stories, cultural reactions, commentary and more....
« September 2009 | Main | November 2009 »
Yesterday's New York Times, "Unyielding in His Innocence, Now a Free Man," reports on the exoneration of Dewey Bozella. Mr. Bozella spent 26 years in prison for a murder charge that the state now says it has insuffient evidence to prove. From the Times:
The prosecution relied almost entirely on the testimony of two men with criminal histories, both of whom repeatedly changed their stories and both of whom got favorable treatment in their own cases in exchange for their testimony.
There was no physical evidence linking Mr. Bozella to the killing. Instead, there was the fingerprint of another man, Donald Wise, who was later convicted of committing a nearly identical murder of another elderly woman in the same neighborhood.
Filed in InnocencePermalink
A vice president of a multimillion dollar company turns informant to avoid liability, surreptitiously taping his high-level colleagues who are eventually charged with corporate fraud. If this sounds like the plot of the movie "The Informant" (reviewed here), it is. But it is also the plot of this news story about the theft of $2 million worth of fuel from the Mexican oil company Petroleos Mexicanos: "Ex-Bush aide tied to stolen oil case." Here's an excerpt:
Josh Crescenzi of Houston, former vice president for Continental Fuels of San Antonio, has been cooperating with agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for several months, helping them secretly record conversations that have resulted in the conviction of a Houston oil industry executive, another one from San Antonio and the president of a small oil and gas company in Edinburg.
When lower-status drug dealers and users or prostitutes were the main targets [of covert operations,] the tactic tended to be ignored, but when congressmen and business executives who can afford the best legal counsel became targets, congressional inquiries and editorials urging caution appeared.
Filed in News Stories, White CollarPermalink
The Associated Press reports that the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency is having the same sorts of informant problems that its FBI and DEA counterparts have long struggled against. Here's an excerpt from the story:
One immigration agent was accused of running an Internet pornography business and enjoying an improper relationship with an informant. Another let an informant smuggle in a group of illegal immigrants. And in a third case, an agent was investigated for soliciting sex from a witness in a marriage fraud case.
These troubling misdeeds are a sampling of misconduct by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel as the agency seeks to carve out a bigger role in the deadly border war against Mexican drug gangs.
According to documents obtained by The Associated Press under the Freedom of Information Act, ICE agents have blundered badly in their dealings with informants and other sources, covering up crimes and even interfering in a police investigation into whether one informant killed another.
Filed in Dynamics of Snitching, News StoriesPermalink
"Wall Street Meets the 'Wire,'" is a post from earlier this week on White Collar Crime Prof Blog, discussing the criminal case against billionaire hedge-fund manager Raj Rajaratnam for insider-trading. Here's a link to the news story on Bloomberg. The post focuses on the unusually aggressive use of wiretaps in the investigation, and asks whether the government was authorized under the federal wiretap statute to do so given the availability of cooperating informants. As the post explains:
Title 18 U.S.C. § 2518(3)(c) provides that a court issuing a wiretap authorization order must determine whether normal investigative procedures have been tried and have failed or reasonably appear to be unlikely to succeed if tried or to be too dangerous. This "necessity requirement" obligates the government to set forth a full and complete statement of specific circumstances explaining why traditional investigative techniques were insufficient or the application must be denied. In determining the sufficiency of an affidavit, a reviewing court must ensure that the issuing court properly performed [its] function and did not 'serve merely as a rubber stamp for the police'. The government is not under an obligation to exhaust all alternative means of investigation in satisfying the necessity requirement but, neither should it be able to ignore avenues of investigation that appear both fruitful and cost-effective.
Given that the government had three co-conspirators, including one as early as January 2006, acting as informants and cooperating witnesses, and that these individuals had unfettered access to Rajaratnam and others involved in the alleged conspiracies, the question arises whether the government deliberately stalled this investigation and actively resisted utilizing normal investigative techniques, hoping to induce the court into believing that only a wiretap could succeed.
This story illustrates the intimate legal relationship between informants and other forms of surveillance. The law privileges informant use, forcing the government to justify its use of wiretaps if informants are available--note that the post refers to snitching as a "normal investigative technique." Moreover, the law permits the government to circumvent the courts entirely and avoid asking for permission to record conversations if it can find an informant who will agree to the surveillance. The usual explanation for this hierarchy is that electronic surveillance is one of the most intrusive forms of investigation and therefore should be a means of last resort. Wiretapping is of course supremely invasive, but this fact obscures the fact that informant use can be similarly intrusive, i.e. when the government threatens friends and colleagues with criminal charges to get them to report on and record people they know. For those who are interested, Chapter Two of the book discusses informant law in detail.
White collar informing shares important characteristics with its street counterpart. Both confer a vast amount of discretionary, unreviewable authority on law enforcement. Both exacerbate power inequalities among potential offenders, as well as between vulnerable offenders and the government. In both arenas, the decision to permit cooperation means that the government is tolerating and forgiving crime, and sometimes even creating an atmosphere in which crime may flourish. And both deprive courts, and thus the public, of significant amounts of power over and information about the operations of the executive.
Filed in Dynamics of Snitching, Informant LawPermalink
While this blog is primarily devoted to the policy of using criminal informants, the significance of snitching is deeply connected to drug enforcement. It is largely because drug offenses constitute so much of our criminal system--around 30 percent of state felony convictions among other things--that snitching is such a pervasive phenomenon. Accordingly, big shifts in drug enforcement are big snitching news. The U.S. Department of Justice announced yesterday that it will no longer prosecute medical marijuana users and distributors in the 14 states that have legalized medical marijuana, as long as those users/producers obey state law. New York Times story here. This step represents an important repudiation of the punitive, enforcement-by-any-means-and-at-all costs rhetoric of the past twenty years of federal drug enforcement. Over the summer, writer/journalist Sasha Abramsky predicted in an article in the Nation that "the nation may soon see a gradual backpedaling from the criminal justice policies that have led to wholesale incarceration in recent decades." Monday's announcement might be evidence of just such backpedaling.
Filed in General Criminal JusticePermalink
The Washington Post reports today on the sentencing of Bush White House official David Safavian, former chief of staff at the General Services Administration. Safavian was convicted of lying to federal investigators about thousands of dollars worth of perks and benefits he received from corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff. I think it is useful to follow the ripples left by the Abramoff affair because he is the paradigmatic example of what is both great and problematic about snitching. The great version: a bad guy cuts a deal with the government that exposes even worse guys, or "bigger fish," and heightens public awareness of flaws in the system. This is the best argument for offering lenience to serious offenders--on balance it can create a greater public good, and indeed Abramoff's conviction and cooperation has led to numerous other convictions and stronger ethics rules. The problematic version: Abramoff received a four-year sentence for his massive and ongoing corruption, not to mention a lesser sentence on a totally unrelated fraud charge in Florida. Had Abramoff sold a tablespoon of crack cocaine he would have gotten more prison time. Moreover, his cooperation has resulted in convictions of just a few "big fish": Congressman Bob Ney, Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles, as well as today's Safavian. While there have been other related convictions, they have mostly been of aides, other lobbyists, or players less powerful and culpable than Abramoff himself. Were these convictions worth letting the poster-child for corrupt lobbying off so lightly? This is the perennial dilemma with snitches: it is very hard to know whether we are actually getting more security and justice by letting them off the hook, or whether we too easily forgive serious wrongdoing in the name of cooperation.
Filed in Dynamics of SnitchingPermalink
Journalism professor and author John Fountain weighs in on the "stop snitching" phenomenon in the Chicago Tribune. He describes urban neighborhoods permeated with fear and insecurity, and takes issue with criticism of residents who are unwilling to talk to police. He writes:
In my experience growing up in an impoverished Chicago community like those under siege, it boils down to an issue of trust. And many who live in the city's most murderous neighborhoods -- who have also witnessed police and political corruption and a trail of broken promises -- simply don't trust the authorities enough to come forward. By doing so, they could be laying their lives on the line. It isn't that people don't want to tell. They do. And it isn't that they aren't concerned about their neighborhoods. They are. But to come forward is to risk everything, even in a world where "safety" is always relative.
Filed in Police, Stop Snitching, Witness IntimidationPermalink
Today's Huffington Post reports on the recent death row exonerations of Yancy Douglas and Paris Powell--both men were convicted based solely on in-custody or "jailhouse" snitch testimony. The post was written by John Terzano, president of the Washington D.C.-based Justice Project, which has produced a report on jailhouse snitch use and policy recommendations. Here's an excerpt from the post:
These exonerations highlight the power prosecutors have in securing convictions by utilizing in-custody informant testimony, even when no physical evidence links a defendant to the crime. Testimony by in-custody informants or "jailhouse snitches" as they are often referred, is a leading cause of wrongful convictions. With little to lose, jailhouse snitches have great incentives to provide false information to prosecutors in exchange for leniency or other forms of compensation. Deals that are made between prosecutors and jailhouse snitches do not often come to light when a jury has to weigh the evidence is a case.
Filed in Innocence, Jailhouse Informants, News StoriesPermalink
Two british rappers have been convicted of obstructing justice for putting an anti-snitching rap song on YouTube. Story here. The two men had been arrested but not prosecuted in connection with a shooting murder last year. While the defendants claimed the song was just gangsta rap, the government argued that "the video had but one purpose--to threaten any witness to this incident to frighten them to such an extent that they would refuse to cooperate with the police."
The U.S. has First Amendment protections for art and speech that the U.K. lacks, which would make it significantly more difficult to prosecute such cases. Here, the government would have a heavy burden to show that the rap song represented a true threat aimed at a particular person and not a more general expression of anti-snitch sentiment. Although I am unaware of any such prosecutions to date, it is only a matter of time. A recent note in the Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts entitled "Can't Stop Snitchin': Criminalizing Threats Made in 'Stop Snitching' Media under the True Threats Exception to the First Amendment," addresses the legal standard. The piece argues that with sufficient specificity, some "stop snitching" songs might lose their First Amendment protection and qualify as threats, although it would be rare. As author Jacob Honigman puts it:
It might be theoretically possible--by recording a song that references a particular person or crime in a manner sufficiently serious enough to indicate that the artist actually intends to commit an act of violence, or by performing a song threatening snitches in front of a courthouse as a trial is scheduled to begin--for a hip-hop artist to cross the true threat line. But I am not aware of any such instance. This, combined with the tradition of affording all forms of music, including rap, full First Amendment protection, make it extremely unlikely that such a statement could be criminalized.
More generally, the First Amendment has not prevented rap lyrics from being used against their authors as criminal evidence. Rap songs have been admitted as evidence to show a defendant's intent or knowledge or as confessions of past criminal acts. Law Professor Andrea Dennis wrote an article on the phenomenon entitled "Poetic (In)Justice? Rap Music Lyrics as Art, Life, and Criminal Evidence," in which she argues that courts misapprehend the artistic significance of rap lyrics when they treat them as simple admissions of guilt or factual descriptions of a rapper's life.
Filed in Informant Law, News StoriesPermalink
Yesterday on CNN, Anderson Cooper reported on the terrible story of 16-year-old Derrion Albert who was beaten to death by four other teenagers in Chicago. The beating was captured on videotape--story here. Four people have been charged so far. Police Superintendant Jody Weis told Cooper that no one has come forward to identify three other potential perpetrators, even though numerous people witnessed the event. Weis stated, "We are literally getting killed by this code of silence, this no-snitching rule. We've worked hard to overcome it." Cooper responded as follows:
This is something we focused on a lot on this program over the years. I did a piece on 60 Minutes about it as well. This whole stop snitching effort, rappers are telling people don't be a snitch. And now the definition of a snitch is not just somebody who is involved in a crime and tries to rat out someone else they were involved with. Now there's this horrible definition of being a snitch is anybody who comes forward and talks about a crime they've seen. That's just the mentality that cannot be tolerated.
The "stop snitching" phenomenon turns out to be complex, deep-seated, and long-standing. It did not begin with a DVD or a rap song, nor will it end when ["stop snitching"] t-shirts go out of style. It is simultaneously a criminal code of the street, a reflection of widespread communal distrust of police, as well as, more recently, a tool of intimidation against civilian witnesses. While the phenomenon was born in the penal system, it has spread beyond its criminal roots, a product of the multifaceted challenges of urban crime, gang violence, race, drugs, and policing through criminal informants.
Filed in Dynamics of Snitching, News Stories, PolicePermalink
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Boiled Wool Hooded Coat 10 10
Fabulous Coat Love this coat! Fit is great, incredibly soft, gorgeous soft teal color. Perfect for sping and fall. April 18, 2014
unexpected delight I purchased this coat on a whim, as I liked the style, and the sale price. Before I had it out of the box, the minute I touched it, I knew I was going to love it. Soft and warm and stylish. I'm so pleased I bought it, and it will be my favorite, I'm sure, for years to come. March 22, 2014
Cozy warm and cute! Really like to coat, but just be aware that the color geranium is PINK not red, as it looks like on the model. I am just not a wearer of pink, but otherwise recommend it highly. February 21, 2014
Wool coat Beautiful color! Fits wonderfully and so warm and comfortable! January 5, 2014
Love it! So glad I spent the money and bought this coat. It looks so cute on and is warm, comfortable & stylish. The only minor drawback is the one belt loop in the back, but then again I will always wear it tied. December 26, 2013
Excellent quality! This is a beautiful coat! Very well made and classy! It is a great weight and the material is top quality. The blue is beautiful color! I am very impressed with this coat....and extremely pleased once again with Garnet Hill products. They are always top quality. December 21, 2013
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(From left) The 2013 Florida GNCC am podium was comprised of Can-Am 4x4 ATV racers Bo Jones, Robert Smith and Bryan Buckhannon.
Valcourt, Québec, March 15, 2013 – Five Can-Am® 4×4 ATV racers won their class at the opening round of the 2013 AMSOIL Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) series in River Ranch, Fla. Robert Smith, who won the U2 class aboard his Can-Am Renegade® 4×4, was the top finishing Can-Am racer and also took second overall on the morning podium. Reigning 4×4 Open class champion Bryan Buckhannon notched a victory on his Outlander™ 800R. XC1 ATV Pro class racer Jarrod McClure earned fifth in his first GNCC race competing on his Can-Am DS 450™ ATV.
"We had a good opening round of GNCC racing, earning five class victories, a top five in the Pro class and having Can-Am racers Robert Smith and Bryan Buckhannon reach the overall morning podium," said Jimmie O'Dell, Race Manager, Can-Am. "We're excited to be back racing in the GNCC series and are already looking ahead to this weekend in Georgia. Not only will be looking to notch more victories with Can-am ATVs, but we will debut the exceptional Can-Am Maverick™1000R in GNCC side-by-side action."
Robert Smith finished second overall on the morning GNCC podium and won the U2 class on his Can-Am Renegade ATV.
The Florida course lived up to its reputation as being one of the most difficult races of the season, as the extremely dusty 10.5-mile track was very rough, sandy and full of palmetto tree roots and stumps. In morning action, Smith not only won the competitive U2 class aboard his Can-AM Renegade, but also surprised himself in the process. Smith, who overcame a somewhat serious arm injury suffered a month prior to the race, outran every 4×4 in the field to earn second overall in the morning session. Renegade ATV racers Jordan Phillips and Corry Savage rounded out the U2 class podium.
"It's big to win the opening round. I never thought it would happen because I've been off the quad for a month. To go out there and get a win was unbelievable," said Smith. "The track was rough with lots of roots and rough edges. It was a lot of fun to be on a four-wheel drive Renegade and stay on top of everything."
Bryan Buckhannon won the 4x4 Open class on his Can-Am Outlander 800R ATV.
ATV Parts Plus / Can-Am X-Team racer Buckhannon won the 4×4 Open class by more than two minutes and stood on the overall morning podium (third) and the 4×4 podium (second). It was his second straight year winning the 4×4 Open class at the Florida opener. Earning his first GNCC podium finish, Bo Jones rode his Can-Am Outlander to second place in the 4×4 Open class, followed closely by JB Racing / Can-Am pilot Sam Williams.
"It got a little bit tough at the end of the day, but I was able to pull off the class win," said Buckhannon. "All I want to do it have fun and try to win my class this year."
Can-Am Outlander racer Forrest Whorton won the 4x4 Senior (40+) class at the AMSOIL GNCC opener in Florida.
In the 4×4 Lites class, Michael Edwards raced his Can-Am Outlander 500 to his first GNCC class victory. Defending class champion Kevin Trantham took second aboard his Outlander 500.
Other Can-Am 4×4 racers who earned wins in Florida were defending 4×4 Senior (40+) class champion Forrest Whorton and Jeff Marinko, who rode his Can-Am ATV to an impressive class victory In the 4×4 Novice class.
McClure (JB Racing / Can-Am) earned a top five finish in the afternoon XC1 Pro ATV race. He came out of the first turn in seventh, but was already up to fourth by the end of the first lap. He later lost a position when he had to stop to fix a damaged oil line and change his gloves due to blisters on his hands. Once the repairs were made, McClure rejoined the race without losing a spot. He ended his inaugural Can-Am DS 450 GNCC race with a top five finish, more than 3 minutes ahead of sixth.
JB Racing / Can-Am ATV Pro Jarrod McClure finished fifth in the XC1 ATV class in his first GNCC riding the Can-Am DS 450 ATV.
"I am happy to get Florida behind me and come out with a top five finish," said McClure. "I am really looking forward to Georgia. My pit crew was great. The DS has a lot more power than I am used to, so it was awesome in the sand. I think we'll have a good year.
For more information on Can-Am racing, the Maverick 1000R side-by-side vehicle, the entire 2013 schedule, the '13 contingency program and Can-Am DS 450 ATV amateur racer support program, please visit www.can-amxteam.com.
BRP (TSX:DOO) is a global leader in the design, development, manufacturing, distribution and marketing of powersports vehicles. Distributed in 105 countries, its portfolio of brands and products includes Ski-Doo and Lynx snowmobiles, Sea-Doo watercraft, Can-Am all-terrain and side-by-side vehicles, Spyder roadsters, Evinrude outboard engines, as well as Rotax propulsion systems. BRP employs approximately 6,800 people worldwide.
Sea-Doo, Ski-Doo, Lynx, Evinrude, Can-Am, Spyder, Rotax and the BRP logo are trademarks of Bombardier Recreational Products Inc. or its affiliates.


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On what law is the first law of thermodynamics based? Explain the sign conventions in the equation
ΔU= q + w
Access this solution and millions more, plus ask our experts questions 24/7
Chegg is one of the leading providers of homework help for college and high school students. Get homework help and answers to your toughest questions in math, calculus, algebra, physics, chemistry, science, accounting, English and more. Master your homework assignments with our step-by-step solutions to more than 3000 textbooks. If we don't support your textbook, don't worry! You can ask a homework question and get an answer in as little as two hours. With Chegg, homework help is just a few clicks away.


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A popular ride at Kings Island reached a big milestone on Sunday. The Beast roller coaster officially turned 35 years old.
The ride was first introduced to the public in April of 1979, on Friday the 13th.
Hundreds of media outlets from across the United States and Great Britain flocked to the park for the chance to ride aboard The Beast. Many reporters mounted cameras onto the front car to capture the thrilling moments.
To date, The Beast has given 48,882,975 rides. The record year was 1980, when 2,150,353 park visitors experienced what's become known as the world's longest wooden roller coaster.
In 2004, The Beast was awarded the Coaster Landmark Award by the American Coaster Enthusiasts, which recognizes coasters of historical significance.
Kings Island opens for the 2014 season on Friday, April 18.
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Marc Huebner, Enhanced Home Systems
Home: 4,000-square-foot, two story with a walk-out basement, Minneapolis
Family: Married with 11- and 9-year-old daughters
High-Tech Profile: Likes to entertain while cooking in the kitchen
"I'm like the shoemaker's wife," laughs Marc Huebner of Enhanced Home Systems in Eden Prairie, Minn. "I'm immersed so much in technology every day that I'd rather come home and do something completely different, like cook."
Indeed, over the past few years Huebner focused most of his time and money on the kitchen.
"Last summer we dumped out the dining room by 10 feet to make the kitchen 10 feet longer, and added new appliances, cabinets, countertops, the works."
That's not to say Huebner has completely ignored the high-tech facets of his late-90s home. No piece of equipment is older than four years, and just last summer new TVs, speakers and remote controls were added to the upstairs. The most tricked out space in his home is the basement, which has been converted into a theater.
The 300-square-foot area features:
The space is complete with a Blu-ray player and high-def cable receiver, but most viewing happens on the 26-inch Sharp LCD TV in the kitchen.
"We might have as many as 25 people over and everyone still likes to hang out here while I cook up a meal," he says.
A 55-inch Fujitsu flat screen in the adjacent family room is another nearby viewing option, and both TVs can be controlled via RTI remote (identical to the one in the theater). Huebner can direct video from an Apple TV media server, cable box or a DVD player to either TV, or have music distributed from a CD player, AM/FM tuner, Apple TV and a good 'ol turntable to several Sonance Visual Performance speakers that are recessed into the ceiling.
The kitchen
The theater
Swann is looking to combine security, home automation, energy management, and more.
An awkward room gets remodeled into a custom theater with automated lighting and 4 subwoofers.
Lamps are for heating up fast food, not for high-performance home cinemas.


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French Connection
Cora Devore Halter Maxi Dress
Maxi dress by FRENCH CONNECTION. Rounded neckline and open section to reverse with hook and eye fastening at the back of neck. Defined waist and slightly flare skirt. Concealed zipper to reverse. Lined from top to thighs. Dry cleaning recommended.
Made of 54% Viscose and 46% Polyamide. Lining of 100% Acetate.
Model is 170 cm tall and is wearing a size X-Small.
Item no.: 117458-0014
Colour: Black
Size reviewsSmall in size
Complete the look
More about the brandFrench Connection is a brand that offers dresses, tops, coats, watches, bags, shoes and much more. The brand was founded in 1972 by Stephen Marks. The goal is to create well-designed, fashionable clothing that appeals to a wide market. Check out French Connection here at Nelly.com.
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Willpower is a Muscle: Monday Motivation
If you don't go to the gym, you can't expect to raw squat 600 lbs. So why do people think they can persevere in a tough situation if they never put themselves in one?
insight combined with intel, fuse, and dynamite
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I will give you 1,000 acres of land on Planet Orgy for your people if you aid us in this military conflict.
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by Carrnevil9 » Mon Feb 04, 2008 6:35 pm
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Warhead wrote:my head burns with War.
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Software Map
Tag cloud | Project Tree | Project List
Project tree
Now limiting view to projects in the following categories:
Environment :: No Input/Output (Daemon) [Remove This Filter]
Intended Audience :: Application Developers [Remove This Filter]
License :: OSI Approved :: BSD License [Remove This Filter]
Operating System > POSIX
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4 projects in result set.
|0. PL/LOLCODE - LOLCODE implementation suitable for use as a procedural language. Although as a language itself this isn't necessarily particularly useful, it is simple enough that it should become an effective tutorial on how to write a procedural language.
|Activity Percentile: 37.60
Activity Ranking: 79.00
Registered: 2007-06-21 02:30
|1. dblink-ldap - dblink functions to access an LDAP directory as a table/view in PostgreSQL.
|Activity Percentile: 22.40
Activity Ranking: 98.00
Registered: 2005-08-26 14:22
|2. Arbitrary size integer type - An arbitrary-precision integer datatype for PostgreSQL
|Activity Percentile: 0.00
Activity Ranking: 0.00
Registered: 2008-08-28 07:13
|3. Postgres-R - Postgres-R is an extension to the relational database system PostgreSQL providing efficient, fast and consistent database replication.
|Activity Percentile: 0.00
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Registered: 2006-07-17 07:15


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MINERAL WELLS, Texas (AP) - A medical examiner has ruled that a Texas woman who was found by her son dead in a freezer died after taking methamphetamine and other drugs. The Dallas County Medical Examiner's report released Thursday says 38-year-old Shannon Herrin Huddleston apparently grabbed a coat before crawling into the freezer in her garage on Aug. 8. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that a few hours later Herrin's teenage son opened the freezer looking for food, and discovered his mother dead inside. The report says Herrin died of the toxic effects of methamphetamine. It says hypothermia also contributed to Herrin's death. Her death has been ruled accidental. (Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
Daniele Watts said she was detained by police on Thursday because they thought she was a prostitute.
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Debate rewind: A look at our past recall-related ratings
The final recall debate between Republican Gov. Scott Walker and Democratic challenger Tom Barrett covered some familiar ground. Here's a round up of some of the repeat claims and how we rated them the first time they came around.
By Dave Umhoefer :: Published on Thursday, May 31st, 2012 at 11:27 p.m.
Our roundup of recent Wisconsin recall ratings
The partisan passion on both sides of Wisconsin's gubernatorial recall as taken a toll on truth-telling. We take a look at recent ratings, as the June 5 election approaches.
By Dave Umhoefer :: Published on Tuesday, May 29th, 2012 at 9:51 a.m.
Behind the Rhetoric: School budgets in the years ahead
In our fourth "Behind the Rhetoric" article, we look at how school districts are situated for the coming academic year after the cuts made in the state budget.
By Dave Umhoefer :: Published on Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012 at 8:00 p.m.
Behind the rhetoric: The in-state, out-of-state campaign money debate
Both sides say the other is relying on out-of-state contributions in the 2012 gubernatorial recall. We dig into the numbers in the third in our series of background stories on key questions in the race.
By Tom Kertscher :: Published on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012 at 6:00 p.m.
Behind the rhetoric: The WEA Trust and school health care costs
In the second of our-pre-recall backgrounders, we look at the WEA Trust and health care costs for school districts.
By Tom Kertscher :: Published on Monday, May 21st, 2012 at 5:25 p.m.
Behind the rhetoric: How Walker's union limits affected school budgets
Education funding is a major battleground in the 2012 Wisconsin gubernatorial recall election. We take an in-depth tour of Milwaukee-area school districts to see how they fared under Gov. Scott Walker's budget cuts and the limits he put on collective bargaining.
By Dave Umhoefer :: Published on Saturday, May 19th, 2012 at 6:00 p.m.
Right to Work: A look at its impact in other states
Gov. Scott Walker's view on extending right-to-work laws to private sector unions in Wisconsin has emerged as a major issue in the June 5 gubernatorial recall election. Here's a quick look at right-to-work's impact in other states, based on Truth-O-Meter rulings past.
By Dave Umhoefer :: Published on Friday, May 11th, 2012 at 8:54 p.m.
Behind the rhetoric: Why Scott Walker was able to raise unlimited funds
Democrats and their recall allies decry the law that has helped Gov. Scott Walker out-raise his opponents combined by $11 million dollars without regard to normal campaign contribution limits. We take a look at how the provision came about. The answers may surprise you.
By Dave Umhoefer :: Published on Monday, May 7th, 2012 at 6:00 a.m.
We want to hear your suggestions and comments. Email the Wisconsin Truth-O-Meter with feedback and with claims you'd like to see checked. If you send us a comment, we'll assume you don't mind us publishing it unless you tell us otherwise.


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JT the Brick 1:00 AM - 5:00 AM
On Air Now.
On Air Now.
Two strangers weren't supposed to meet and fall in love but after catching a glimpse of each other on a train bound for Paris, they ...Read More »
A couple of MIT students who are into hacking wake up one day in captivity, having no idea why. We find out that they are part of a...Read More »
The movie is based on the best selling book series and this is the first installment. A group of individuals have no memories of th...Read More »
A group of kids go on an adventure after their cellphones go a bit nuts and reveal a map. What they find turns out to be not of thi...Read More »
If you've been waiting with great anticipation over the last four months for a new X-Men: Days of Future Past trailer? Wait no long...Read More »
The Muppets and Divergent are the biggies this weekend. Muppets Most Wanted is getting much better reviews than Divergent , but th...Read More »
Meryl Streep, Jeff Bridges, Katie Holmes and Alexander Skarsgard star in the film adaptation of Lois Lowry's 1993 dystopian novel, T...Read More »
Charlie Brown and Snoopy are coming back...... My only complaint so far, why does everything have to be in 3D????!!!!! I wouldn't...Read More »


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10 Reasons Why Cats Are Badasses
Watch A Girl Grow From Zero To 14 In Four Minutes
Dream Job Alert: Panda Nannies Wanted In China
Think She's Cute? Just You Wait!
Timing Is Everything: Hilarious Accidental Photos
30 Convenient Ideas You Never Knew You Wanted
How Did She Lose Weight So Easily?
16 People Fortunately Saved from Their Horrible Tattoos
The 25 Worst Spray Tans You'll Ever See
Doctors Remove 36 Year-Old Skeleton Found Inside Woman
The 25 Funniest Baby Faces Ever Photographed
46 Perfectly Timed Photos You'll Have to Look Twice to Understand.
What If You Saw Someone Doing This at the Airport?
This Guy is On a Mission to Ruin Your Dates
Woman Grows Fingernails Instead of Hair
Why Weird People Are Often More Creative
The 6-Inch Alien's Checkered Past
The 50 Funniest Photos of 2014... So Far
21 Plastic Surgery Disasters
The Men and Women Who Live Off The Grid
Bear Lives for a Month with Bucket Stuck on Head
Zombie Syndrome: A Real (Creepy) Psychological Condition
15 Facts You Didn't Know About SpongeBob SquarePants
27 Russian Dating Site Members You Don't Want to Mail Order
This Boy's Hands Weigh More Than 28 Pounds Due to a Rare Condition
25 Cats Sleeping In The Most Ridiculous Positions
Celebrities Before and After Photoshop
12 Incredibly Beautiful Women (Who Were Actually Born as Men)
The Most Angelic Performance You'll Ever See
Feline Freaks When He Realizes He's a CAT!


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The Corcoran College of Art + Design faculty is committed to direct and intensely creative education. As they teach and mentor the next generation of artists, Corcoran faculty draw upon diverse backgrounds and experiences in a range of fields in and out of academia. Instruction at the Corcoran is fully integrated into the collection, exhibitions, and programs of the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
Faculty in Focus
Clare Brown, Chair of Exhibition Design
There are only a handful of famous permanent exhibitions that visitors to the D.C. area are willing to build their itinerary around. The Corcoran College of Art and Design's very own, Clare Brown, has designed a few of them. Before becoming Chair of the Masters program in Exhibition Design, Ms. Brown worked for six years as an exhibition designer for the National Museum of American History. During her time at the Smithsonian, she designed two exhibitions of the First Ladies Gowns collection (2009, 2011), the new installation of Julia Child's kitchen, and the associated exhibition titled Food: Transforming the American Table, 1950-2000 (2012). In fact, she has worked as an exhibition and graphic designer in Washington, D.C, New York City, and Massachusetts for over 15 years. An innovator in exhibition design, Ms. Brown has taken her blending of professional expertise and academic leadership at the Corcoran one step further with the establishment of DesignCorps, a student collective dedicated to working with professional clients to design multi-media experiences, installations, interiors, and exhibitions. To read more about it and to submit a proposal, click here.
When not teaching courses in exhibition design and leading DesignCorps, Ms. Brown is providing project management, exhibition design, and graphic design services to clients such as Cultural Tourism DC, the Museum of the City of New York, and the Brooklyn Children's Museum as principal of Clare Brown Designs.
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Start learning with our library of video tutorials taught by experts. Get started
Get started using Office 365, the Microsoft hosted collaboration and productivity suite that allows businesses and teams to email, collaborate on documents, and share calendars.
"My biggest problem is figuring out what I want to watch next. Just when I think I'm all set, I find something ELSE that is fascinating." —John O.
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A witch's cottage in the woods, a magic spell and a prince, striking out to discover the world. The beginning of Engelbert Humperdinck´s »Königskinder« reads like a sequel to his popular opera »Hansel and Gretel«. Yet what begins as a fairy tale soon turns into quite the opposite. Far from civilization and society, a young goose girl grows up under the watchful eye of a witch. The young girl longs for freedom, but only the wise minstrel is able to instill her with enough self-confidence to break the spell and follow her beloved prince. At noon, she finds herself at the gates of Hellastadt with the prince, where the townspeople are awaiting their new royal couple. The people of Hellastadt do not, however, recognize the true royal couple in their tattered clothes and chase them away, thus depriving themselves of the possibility of a golden future. Humperdinck´s opera »Königskinder« uses lyrical and touching music to describe an incorrigible and frigid society, which defeats even true love.
Fairy tale opera in three acts
Performed in German with surtitles
Premiere 19 Dec 2014
Musical Director: Lothar Koenigs
Staging: Jetske Mijnssen
Set Design & Costume Design: Christian Schmidt
Choreinstudierung: Wolfram Tetzner
Kinderchor: N.N.
Dramaturgy: Valeska Stern
Der Königssohn: Tomislav Mužek
Die Gänsemagd: Barbara Senator
Der Spielmann: Christoph Pohl
Die Hexe: Tichina Vaughn
Der Holzhacker: Michael Eder
Der Besenbinder: Tom Martinsen
Der Wirt: Alexander Hajek
Die Wirtstochter: Christina Bock
Der Schneider: Gerald Hupach
Die Stallmagd: Rebecca Raffell
Der Ratsälteste: Matthias Henneberg
1. Torwächter: Pavol Kubán
2. Torwächter: Julian Arsenault