Should someone who has been convicted of a felony be allowed to vote after they finish their sentence and return home from prison?
The laws governing ex-felons voting rights vary from state to state, and many have changed in the last few years. Ex-felons can now vote in most states, now including Maryland as of this year.
It makes sense to me that someone deserves to have the choice to vote after they've finished a prison sentence, whatever their crime was. Any other argument aside for the moment, aren't prisons supposed to offer a chance for reform and rehabilitiation?
I've heard arguments otherwise, though, including on the show today. One caller suggested that offering ex-felons voting rights amounts to an attack on The Republican Party, based on his assumption that most ex-felons would vote Democrat.
Any thoughts?
-Justin
.
A rebroadcast of Marc's November 2006 interview with essayist, novelist, playwright, author and political critic Gore Vidal whose latest memoir is titled Point to Point Navigation.
Marcus
The past two months have seen a decline in military enlistment. Where the military was once seen as means of upward mobility and obtaining an education, concern over the possibility of being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan has led to a decline in military enlistment.
Guest host, Goucher College President, Sanford Ungar discussed the methods the military is using to attract more people to join the military with Curtis Gilroy Director of Accession Policy Director, Accession Policy for the Office of the Secretary of Defense and Anita Dancs Research Director National Priorities Project.
Marcus
In honor of his induction, this week into the Baseball Hall of Fame, we are rebroadcasting Marc's interview with Baltimore Oriole's legend Cal Ripken, Jr. He's known as the Iron Man for breaking Lou Gehrig's consecutive game streak in 1995. Ripkin played 21 seasons with the Orioles and and that time he was voted Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player twice.
Earlier this year, Cal Ripken received the ultimate honor of being voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame during his first year of eligibility. In April, Marc interviewed Cal about his book Get in the Game: Eight Elements of Perseverence that Make a Difference. In the book, Ripken shares stories about his career in baseball and insights on life and work.
The sports world has been rocked to its foundations in the last week or so, with allegations that an NBA referee bet on games, including some he worked. In addition, one of the NFL’s marquee players is facing federal charges that he operated a dog fighting operation on his property. Meanwhile, the greatest career accomplishment in baseball history is being pursued by a man that many believe used performance enhancing substances. Guest host Milton Kent of the Baltimore Sun, discussed these topics, as well as the enshrinement this weekend of Cal Ripken into the baseball Hall of Fame and the start of the Ravens’ training camp.
The popularity of television shows like Cold Case and CSI have proven to be ratings winners for networks and resulted in increased interest in detective work. But real life seldom mirrors television and the work of the police is not wrapped up in an hour with commercial breaks.
This hour Marc talked with Lieutenant Terry Mc Larney and Detective Homer Pennington of the Baltimore Police Department Homicide Unit. They're also cold case detectives who recently solved a 1989 Baltimore murder. We learned about the detective work that goes into solving years-old murder cases. Marc then talked with forensic psychologist Jim McGee about his work and the role profiling has played in police detection.
I'm not Jewish. When I told two friends who are Jewish about today's show with Tsvi Bisk, I said, "He basically says that Jews need to stop being so obsessed with the past." These two friends come from about as different political viewpoints as possible, but they each said, "He's right. Jews are obsessed with the past."
Now the interesting thing is that both of these friends are also young-in their twenties. And in his book called The Optimistic Jew, Tsvi Bisk says that Judaism will lose the attention and interest of these young people-the future- if it remains what he calls "a culture constantly in mourning," a culture obsessed with what happened in the past. He believes that the Jewish people need to turn their attention from the past to the future in order to become leaders in the 21st century.
Thoughts? What did you think when he said that Jews needed to stop obsessing over the Holocaust? Or when he said that Israel is not the goal-it is simply a tool, a means towards liberal democracy? I thought he said some pretty interesting and controversial stuff. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.
Today at noon we brought you a conversation with Gerald Winegrad. He is a former state senator who is now a professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. We invited him on because of a recent op-ed he wrote for the Baltimore Sun called What it will take to restore the Bay.
His op-ed paints a dismal scenario of how Bay restoration will fare if we keep continuing on as we are now. He talked with Marc about the tough political decisions that have to be made. He thinks that we are giving a free pass to agricultural polluters, and we need to demand that they stop polluting or take their land and return it to forestland. He says we have to let the state have more power over land-use decisions.
What do you think? Are chicken farmers given way too much leeway? Should counties and municipalities be able to do whatever they want with their land? What should we do?
Budgetary and environmental concerns over bottled water have led cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles and Ann ArborMichigan to prohibit the use of city funds for bottled water. In addition, restaurants nationwide are removing bottled waters from their menus. One of Marc's guests this hour was business writer Charles Fishman, who wrote about the bottled water industry for Fast Company Magazine. What he learned about the industry may change the way you think about, or purchase, bottled water.
Marc's guest this hour was former Montgomery County Delegate now Maryland State Comptroller Peter Franchot. Franchot has been in the news of late for his clashes with Governor Martin O’Malley over the state budget, slots and a Queen Anne County land deal.
Critics of Franchot feel his attempts to raise the profile of the Comptroller’s office unmasks his ambition to someday occupy the governor’s office. In addition observers believe the Comptroller is venturing into areas such as budget balancing, economic development and environmental policy which have traditionally been the governor’s domain.
First off today, Iraqi-born, Maryland-residing professor Adil Shamoo joins us to discuss where he would like to see US foreign policy in Iraq go from here. Here's his July 16 editorial from The Sun: "America Should Leave Iraq, But For the Right Reasons."
Lastly, anyone been to The Walters Museum lately and seen The Gee's Bend exhibit? Tune in to hear an interview with Louisiana Bendolph and Mary Lee Bendolph, two of the quilters from Gee's Bend, as well as Linda Day Clark, whose photographs from Gee's Bend make up an accompanying exhibit.
At noon we'll have our monthly installment of open phones. If you want to get your ideas for discussion in early, comment here and we'll see what you have to say before we go on the air!
Then at one, we'll join in the frenzy of anticipation for the new Harry Potter book, which is going to be out at midnight on Friday. I learned all about how closely guarded a secret this book is being kept until then when I looked into getting an advance review copy. Turns out there's no such thing; I guess they don't need to worry about a lack of publicity. So, it leaves us to speculate about what is going to happen in the last book. We'll also hear some ideas about what you and your kids can read once you've exhausted the Harry Potter collection.
At noon tomorrow we will be discussing something we try to return to often: Iraq War veterans issues.
First, an update from Joshua Kors. You might remember we've had him on twice to discuss the work he did investigating the personality disorder scandal. That is when soldiers wounded in active duty in Iraq were being discharged under Chapter 5-13, a personality disorder. But personality disorder is a pre-existing condition, and that meant the Army was not responsible for providing disability or medical benefits. Kors' investigative work showed that men who were very clearly wounded DURING their service were being cheated of benefits they rightfully deserved by this classification. His work has attracted the attention of senators who have petitioned Defense Secretary Robert Gates to investigate and who have also introduced an amendment that would temporarily suspend Chapter 5-13 until an investigation can be had. You can learn more at the website for ABC World News with Charles Gibson, where Bob Woodruff has been working with Kors to continue reporting the story.
And then...more new shocking investigative work from The Nation. The Nation has spent the past several months interviewing 50 combat veterans of the Iraq War and these interviews have uncovered what the Nation says is a brutal side of the war and a shocking record of disturbing behavior by American troops. You can read the report here. We are going to be joined by the reports authors and by some of the veterans who were interviewed. Join us for this important show.
I've had people tell me that Dr. Andrey Bundley is the kind of guy whose candidacy should get a lot more press and attention than it does-that he should be a candidate that attracts attention, but his campaign has seemed to ride under the radar.
I have to admit I am kind of disappointed by the Baltimore mayoral election so far. When we were working hard on shows about the senatorial and congressional campaigns, I remember thinking, "Wow, I cannot wait to see how exciting the Mayoral campaign is!" But it's been sort of quiet and....okay...boring.
Have people just sort of decided that the interim mayor and thus incumbent Sheila Dixon is going to win?
Well I haven't--forget that! Come on people, let's have a race here! Let's get serious! Let's get excited! Let's pay some attention! Let's call and write in and ask Andrey Bundley important questions!!!!
I am counting on all of you to restore my flagging civic enthusiasm!
Five people were shot this weekend. Two people were fatally stabbed last week. One of the victims was a 15 year old girl. A witness in a murder case was shot, and police have charged a 15 year old boy with the crime.
The murder toll has hit 180.
Do you think the police and the Mayor are doing enough?
We're going to talk today with Marcie Jones of the Baltimore Crime Blog,Ser Greene of the Ashburton Area Association, and Brian Dale, President of the Ridgely's Delight Neighborhood Association.
Bring your comments and thoughts to the table....
-Jessica
Our discussion of Citizens on Crime in Baltimore began with a conversation with Anna whose husband Zach was attacked in front on his home on June 1st. The attack on Zach shows how vulnerable we all are to crime in our city. As a show of solidarity and an attempt to reclaim our streets from violence friends and family of Zach are organizing a Neighbors’ Night Out on Sunday, August 5th from 2 – 8pm. For more information on this event go to: www.zachsowers.com/neighbors-night-out.php
I read on CNN.COM today that they have discovered hominid fossils in Ethiopia that date from a time period for which the history of human evolution is poorly understood: 3.5-3.8 million years ago.
Which just makes our show for Tuesday so perfect!
A few months ago Marc came in all excited about an article he had read about a book called The Last Human: A Guide to Twenty-Two Species of Extinct Humans. He asked me to get a review copy of the book and to try and get the authors on.
Today you will be hearing from paleoartist Viktor Deak and Richard Milner, a historian of science, editor of Natural History Magazine, and author of the Encyclopedia of Evolution and Darwin's Universe.
So obviously humans are the sole surviving hominid lifeform. That seems normal to us. But in fact it is very strange; for most of their history, it seems that various types of humans and prehumans coexisted together. That's so interesting to me, and I think a lot of other people too; why else would we like the Geico caveman commercials so much that the ABC network thinks it is a good idea to turn it into a television pilot? We like the idea of a world where various Homo species live together. I think we like the way something really similiar to us but not just like us tells us things about ourselves. We're obsessed with twins and triplets and stories about long-lost siblings for the same reason.
But talking about this book isn't enough. It's power comes from the dozens and dozens of arresting, amazingly lifelike images created by paleoartist Viktor Deak. I knew you needed to see them to really understand how cool this book is. So...just for you...because I care...Here is a slideshow of some images from the book.
Get started!
Last month marked the thirty-fifth anniversary of the Watergate break-in. In 1977, three years after he resigned, Richard Nixon agreed to a series of interviews with David Frost for which he was paid $600,000. Those interviews are currently being recreated on Broadway in the Tony award-winning play Frost/Nixon.At the time of the interviews David Frost was viewed as a lightweight celebrity interviewer who didn’t have the gravitas to go toe to toe with Richard Nixon. Today, Marc interviewed James Reston, Jr., who was hired as David Frost’s advisor to help him prepare for the interviews. In his new book, The Conviction of Richard Nixon: the Untold Story of the Frost/Nixon Interviews, Reston provides a behind-the-scenes account of the twelve days over which the interviews took place.These interviews gripped the attention of the country. What are your memories of them and the Watergate era?
In August 2006, the Department of Public Works of Elkton, Maryland went to the woods where some homeless people were living, pushed their belongings into a pile, and then carted it all off to a dump. The town also passed legislation this May that made illegal certain types of loitering.
Now, the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland is suing to protest the legislation and what took place in August 2006.
We invited the police, Mayor, and Commissioners of Elkton to come on. No one took us up on our offer.
So we'll talk this half hour about this court case, and the larger issue of rural homelesses in Maryland. More than 38 thousand people are turned away from shelters each year in Maryland because there simply are not enough beds or enough money to help them. The town of Elkton has a men's shelter on Main Street had 18 beds total last summer. 48 men were on the waiting list to get in.
So what are the resources or strategies that small municipalities can use to deal with the issue of rural or small-town homelessness? How can we balance the concerns of business owners who say the homeless population causes problems for them with the needs of the homeless themselves? We'll discuss that this half hour.
And please feel free to share with us your own experiences with homelessness or your encounters with the homeless, whether you live in a city or a small town.
We're back! Sorry about the break in blogging. Normal operations to resume.
Didja hear our interview with Ralph Nader today? What do you think? Crusader? Spoiler? Well, today we had him on as an author. The book is The Seventeen Traditions. In this book he takes a look back at the values that shaped his own life and childhood, values such as listening, charity, and patriotism. An overly sentimental look back, or does this book hold lessons for how we can reinvigorate our civic involvement?
Do you want to meet Ralph Nader? He will be in Baltimore this weekend at an event sponsored by Red Emma's. It will be at St. John's Church at 2640 Saint Paul Street in Charles Village this Saturday at 1 pm.
We've got a fantastic show for you at one o'clock today. Folk music legends Doc Watson and Jean Ritchie are giving us their first joint interview in decades.
You can see them this month at the Common Ground on the Hill Roots Music Festival.
The show is prerecorded, so we cannot take any calls, but you can leave comments, memories, and questions here.
Enjoy!
I hope you will join guest host Jim O'Leary today at Noon for a look at some of the most recent and exciting developments in space exploration.
There are several robotic missions that are about to or just begun. We'll talk about the New Horizons mission. Since January 2006 this space probe has been traveling to Pluto. It won't arrive until 2015, but will send back information about atmospheric escape, which will teach us about Earth's atmospheric evolution. That's just the tip of the iceberg for this mission. The Messenger spacecraft has been en route to Mercury since August 2004. It will orbit Mercury-the first spacecraft to do so-and will send back the first new information in 30 years about that planet.
And in just a few days, the Dawn spacecraft will be launched. This spacecraft will be exploring the asteroid belt.
So join us this hour as we discuss these exciting developments in space exploration!
