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Tag Archives: NYC Department of Education
No Money for Poor Children
Sorry Mr.Gingerbread Man, Pharaoh Bloomberg has rated you ineffective.
A freshman student of mine sheepishly walked into class last week holding a box over which she draped a sweater. It was obvious she was hiding something nefarious. I asked her what was in the box and she revealed one of those giant fundraiser packages of chocolate. Apparently, she was trying to raise money for some after school club in which she was involved.
Her efforts to raise money that day fell far short of her goal. This is because she was told that she could not sell chocolate in the school. Apparently, chocolate is too fattening to be sold in Pharaoh Bloomberg's Department of Education. This was the reason she was given at least.
However, a colleague in another school ran into a similar problem when they were trying to fundraise by selling bottles of water. The excuse given this time, which is the real reason why we cannot have fundraisers in our schools anymore, is that the water was not from a DOE-approved vendor.
This is the part of mayoral control that rarely gets spoken about. The school closings, co-locations and systematic harassment of teachers are only the most visible and disruptive manifestations of mayoral control of urban school systems. However, there are the countless day-to-day reminders that our system is under the sway of one man, a man who has never been in touch with those he is controlling. The banning of school fundraisers is one of the most insidious affects of mayoral control on our schools.
Bloomberg has turned our schools into little more than conduits of money for his corporate friends. When a Pharaoh/Mayor slashes funding to public schools every year, he leaves the schools with little choice but to fundraise to support the programs they need. Yet, since the products with which they fundraise, whether they be brand-name chocolates or homemade cookies, are not on the DOE's list of "corporate friends of Bloomberg", they cannot be sold on school property. This amounts to a corporate levy on poor people. The worst part about this levy is that it redirects money that the community would normally use to uplift itself into the pockets of billionaires. So children of NYC, you cannot have enrichment activities because the CEO of Pepsi needs your money to buy another few yachts.
Many years ago I was the senior advisor at my previous school. My job was to handle all of the senior activities: trips, prom, graduation and yearbook. Since the poverty rate of my seniors was exactly 100%, I made a vow that I would fundraise enough money so the kids would not have to pay for any of those things. I had worked up a good relationship with the owners of the bodega across the street. Throughout the year, they purchased all types of goodies for us at wholesale prices (for which we reimbursed them) and we made more money than I could have ever imagined.
I am not going to lie, what we were selling was horrible from a health standpoint. We sold cookies, airheads, jawbreakers, Sour Patches and even sugary sodas. This was back in the days before Bloomberg was trying to get NYC on a health kick. My principal had no problem with our operation. Then, one day, she came to me and said that our operation was cutting into the profits of the lunchroom staff who were selling cookies of their own. She asked me to work things out with the cafeteria's supervisor.
The only thing I needed to know about the cookies they were selling was whether the profits went into the staff's pockets. While I understood my seniors needed money, I also understood that it is tough to support a family working in a school cafeteria. When I was told that none of the money went into the pockets of the hardworking people in the lunchroom, I informed them that all bets were off. I was going to continue selling our goods. If the DOE wanted to make an issue out of poverty-stricken children trying to raise money for their senior year, I would ensure that every community group and civil rights organization would hear of it. Thankfully, nobody tried to bust up our operation and we had a tremendous year.
There is something wrong with the idea that we had to look over our shoulders while raising money. At times, I felt we were treated as if we were selling illegal drugs instead of junk food. There was a sense that the system did not want us to succeed. This was many years ago when the fundraising game was wide open. I cannot imagine what things are like now after Bloomberg's war on sugary drinks and his compiled list of corporate cronies.
If NYC had more principals like Carol Burris, the Long Island principal who has been standing up against the excessive testing of our children, they could make a concerted effort to stand against Bloomberg's ban on fundraising. If enough principals around the city openly defied Bloomberg's ban on homemade brownies and brand-name chocolates; if they looked into television cameras and said they are forced to do this due to budget cuts; if they frame it as an issue of doing what is right by the children in their school, there is no way that they could fail. Bloomberg certainly cannot arrest them, although administrators being led out of their schools in handcuffs for selling chocolate sadly seems like a plausible scenario in today's DOE. He cannot fire them all, even though he could certainly make things difficult for the defiant schools. At the end of the day, there would not be much that Bloomberg could do aside from watching his approval ratings plummet some more.
It might not be the right time for NYC principals to take a stand against the evaluations but it certainly is the right time for them to take a stand against the effective ban on fundraisers. A simple bake sale where parents and children bring all of the homemade sugary sweets they can concoct to school could turn into a real media event. It cannot lose. Bloomberg trying to shut down bake sales and fundraisers would make him look ridiculous and more heavy-handed than usual. If this can be done, it might fuel more acts of civil disobedience. It would be a fitting kick in the pants to Bloomberg on his way out of the door.
Unfortunately, this is all pie-in-the-sky talk. NYC principals by and large are all too eager to enforce every little mandate coming down from Tweed. That is the other part of mayoral control. The only way to survive and progress in the system is to support the Pharaoh's policies without question. There will not be any resistance to Danielson or MOSL or bans on innocuous fundraisers made necessary by budget cuts. It will continue to be a mindless bureaucracy until there is a changing of the guard at the top of the pyramid.
Posted in education reform, Politics, School
Tagged Banned School Fundraisers, Banned School Fundraisers NYC, Civil Disobedience, education, Education Reform's Corporate Agenda, Mayoral Control of NYC Schools, NYC Department of Education, Pharaoh Bloomberg, School Budget Cuts NYC
CHRISTINE QUINN'S OPPORTUNISM
Remember when Christine Quinn flipped out on the guy who called Bloomberg "pharaoh"? We should always remember that.
Christine Quinn is still the front-runner for the second toughest job in the United States according to a recent poll. Leading in the polls among the other Democratic candidates pretty much means leading in the polls overall here in NYC. The Republican Party will unlikely be a serious challenge for whomever the Democrats nominate and there are no Independents in the field with the type of name recognition Bloomberg had when he ran as one.
Make no mistake about it: Christine Quinn knows the game of politics. As City Council Speaker she paved the way for Pharaoh Bloomberg's (illegal) third term. Her reward thus far has been a free hand in running her campaign from City Hall without interference from the Bloomberg smear machine, a machine still working on railroading John Liu.
Completely cognizant of the unpopularity of mayoral control of the school system and Bloomberg-style education reform, Quinn recently shared a vision for NYC schools which seemed to distance herself from the Bloomberg approach. For example:
"Instead of treating school closing like a goal in and of itself, we should see it as an ultimate last resort when all else has failed," Ms. Quinn said, referring to Mr. Bloomberg's policy of closing low-performing schools and replacing them with new ones. "And we should make fixing schools not just the responsibility of the principal and the teacher, but of all of city government and the entire community."
Sounds good, especially if you're one of those New Yorkers associated with a school Bloomberg has closed or is threatening to close.
Even better is Quinn's promise to reduce the "emphasis on testing", although this does not mean the same thing as reducing the amount of exams our students currently take. She would not have the power to do much in this area anyway.
In her peroration Quinn described how she would use the resources of municipal government to make up for some of the disadvantages of our neediest students:
Saying that students need more than just a good teacher to be in a position to learn, Ms. Quinn proposed that New York City imitate a Cincinnati program that has used Medicaid funds to establish medical clinics and even an eye clinic in schools, so that students can be treated for various ailments or get glasses without leaving the building.
Adopting that model, she said, would require better communication among city agencies. To coordinate programs across agencies that work with children — running after-school programs, providing health care and food stamps — Ms. Quinn proposed appointing a deputy mayor who would be responsible for both education and children.
This is an interesting idea, one reminiscent of the free breakfast programs the Black Panther Party funded during the 1960s. Politically speaking, this might end up backfiring on Quinn. She will get hammered as a "liberal" or even a "socialist" from the white, blue-collar part of the electorate. From the other side, it does not speak to any of the criticisms the United Federation of Teachers has had of Bloomberg's school reform program. This just seems like a reallocation of Medicaid funds into a program where poor parents will physically see the benefits for their children.
Then there is her financially dubious proposal to save money by replacing textbooks with tablets. I smell a Bloomberg-esque no-bid contract in there somewhere.
Speaking of no-bid contracts:
The Council speaker also suggested finding savings in the $1.2 billion the department spends each year on consulting and contracts. (Her spokesman, Jamie McShane, pointed to computer services contracts, which he said in fiscal year 2013 will cost roughly $40 million, and contracts for infrastructure maintenance, which he said will cost nearly $60 million, as examples of areas where Ms. Quinn saw bloat.)
Any teacher will tell you that this is where the bulk of education funds end up going. However, the numbers her office cited barely make a dent in the overall education budget. These seem like symbolic gestures designed to placate critics of the increasing waste of Bloomberg-era education contracts.
Her stance on charter schools is that they are on a "good level" now, meaning that Bloomberg has opened a sufficient number over the past 10 years. Does this mean she promises a containment policy of sorts for charters?
So, when we take stock of what Christine Quinn is actually promising we see it is not a major divergence from Bloomberg at all. The tone of her words are certainly designed to put some distance between her and the unpopular mayor, not to mention to woo Mulgrew and the UFT, but the substance of it all is limited to say the least.
Today Quinn distanced herself even more from Bloomberg in a press conference where she touched upon the failure of the mayor and UFT to work out a new teacher evaluation deal:
"I don't have a problem with the idea of a sunset. Most pieces of significant legislation have a sunset in them."
The sunset clause was what sunk negotiations with the UFT last week. Michael Mulgrew was willing to agree to the longest-term evaluation deal in the entire state. This wasn't enough for Bloomberg who said any type of sunset clause would make the evaluations "a sham".
Smartly, Christine Quinn is verbally distancing herself from Bloomberg. However, there is little evidence that she would do much other than solidify most of Bloomberg's failed education programs.
Although critical of school closures she never promised to end them. Although aware of the need to support schools with better resources, no plan to do so was outlined other than a reallocation of Medicaid funds. Although aware of the waste and corruption of no-bid contracts, her changes in this regard would be largely cosmetic. Claiming that charter schools were at a "good level" right now is a start but allows her the loophole that charters might need to be increased in the future.
Not to mention that she accepts the assumptions of the wider movement of education reform and the quest to tie teacher evaluations to test scores. She has continuously said that the new evaluations are "too important" for our students (they are not) and the loss of funds will hurt our schools (which they shouldn't).
While obviously trying to pander, tepidly, to the UFT she is also attempting to pander to other elements by promising to keep Ray Kelly on as police commissioner. Kelly's NYPD "stop-and-frisk" policy has alienated minority communities, although it plays well to the white blue-collar bloc of New York City's electorate. Maybe Quinn is hoping to snatch the liberal bloc with education policy and the conservative bloc with law enforcement policy?
Candidates angling for public office should only be half-believed. By that equation, the half-measures she has proposed for the school system at this stage means an actual "change factor" of absolute zero if she gets elected.
Nobody can blame Quinn for playing the game. She wants power. She reads the polls. What she says and does over the next few months will be determined by these two factors.
A candidate we can believe in? Hardly.
A cookie-cutter political opportunist who embodies politics-as-usual in NYC? Absolutely.
Posted in An Embattled Career, education reform, Politics, School, teaching
Tagged Christine Quinn, Christine Quinn's Education Platform, education, News, NYC Department of Education, NYC Mayoral Elections 2013, Pharaoh Bloomberg, Politics, School, Teaching
@banalplay More women Ministers of Radioactive Water, now! 50 minutes ago


Kudos to Commissioners Court for holding a meeting on Spring Break, which is more than I can say for the city. They, of course, started their Spring Break early last week in D.C. It might be a slow news week considering the vacation most people are on right now.
More Rain To Come Tonight?
Gawd Help Me I Will Pull This Car Over!


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Kerala high-speed rail project to be on track soon
Press Trust of India Thiruvananthapuram | Updated on November 17, 2017 Published on July 03, 2012
It will enable travel from Thiruvananthapuram to the State's northern most point Kasaragod in 142 minutes, covering 526 km.
Billed as the biggest and most expensive infrastructure projects conceived by Kerala, a high-speed rail corridor for India's first bullet train is one of the mega projects the State plans to implement.
On completion, it will enable one travel from the State capital Thiruvananthapuram to the State's northern most point Kasaragod in 142 minutes, covering a distance of 526 km.
The project may sound unbelievable, especially in the case of Kerala lagging in industry and infrastructure development for decades.
Estimated to cost Rs 1,18,000 crore on completion, the first phase is expected to cost Rs 43,000 crore. It will also be showcased in 'Emerging Kerala Global Connect' at Kochi on September 12-14.
"If all preparatory works progress on schedule and the project starts by April 2013 as planned, the first phase is expected to be completed in five years and the second in the following two years. The whole project should be complete by 2020," said Mr T. Balakrishnan, CMD, Kerala High Speed Rail Corporation Ltd (KHSRCL).
"Work of drawing up the Detailed Project Report is now on. Alignment study/survey has started; preparatory work on land acquisition has also begun. Recruitment of key personnel has begun," Mr Balakrishnan, a former bureaucrat, told PTI.
Nine stations are proposed initially – Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Kozhi- kode, Kannur Kasaragod and in the final stretch to Mangalore in Karnataka.
Three more at Chengannur, Tirur and Thalassery, will come up at a later stage.
The total corridor length (up to Mangalore) will be 571 km and it will have two parallel tracks each in standard gauge systems, independent of existing rail network in Kerala.
Nodal agency
The government has appointed Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation as the nodal agency for the project, which could transform lives and economy by facilitating hassle-free movement between cities and towns in 'God's own country.' "A public transport system of this dimension has so many advantages. Most important, it will help reduce traffic density and improve road safety," said the KSIDC managing director, Mr Alkesh Sharma.
"If you look at it as a purely financial project it may not sound viable since the financial rate of return is estimated at around 5.2 per cent. But it becomes viable and massively so, as an economic project. A high speed rail network covering India can boost economic growth rate by up to 1.5 per cent and then there will be incremental growth as distances come down," Mr Balakrishnan said.
Pre-feasibility study
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has prepared the pre-feasibility study and meeting at the PMO level has given the green signal to all departments concerned. An all-party meeting at the State level to form a consensus has been very positive.
"We have started discussing funding options with various agencies, including Japan's JICA and ADB. It's in the early stages and nothing has been finalized yet. However, during the Emerging Kerala event, we expect a lot of international companies and financing agencies to take part.The project will be discussed with them and more options may emerge from these discussions," Mr Balakrishnan said.
The DMRC recommended model in the feasibility report is a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) owned by the Centre and State government with Japanese participation. "But a final decision on this has not been taken yet and the government is keeping all options open, including PPP and hybrid models," he said.
On the technology, he said it was not an issue at all as that was already available worldwide.

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Below are three episodes from the ReasonTV program that spotlighted the incredible case CJ FORD PI worked tirelessly on for over 10 years, resulting in the release of an innocent man who was wrongly convicted of murder and on death row for almost 30 years. **WARNING - These videos contain graphic images that some may find disturbing**
ReasonTV: Episode 1
The beginning of the Kenneth Clair story...
When prosecutors withhold information, innocent people go to prison.... or worse!
Kenneth Clair speaks out in a live "Jail Interview" from Orange County Theo Lacy Jail.
Exonerate Kenneth Clair:
DNA Evidence Points To Someone Else
On November 15, 1984, 5-year-old Jerrod Hessling witnessed the beating, rape, and stabbing death of his babysitter. When asked to describe the killer, he said, without hesitation, that it was a white male. Another child present during the murder saw a white man's tattooed arm reach inside the house to open a sliding glass door.
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But that's not the biggest bombshell in this case -- in 2008, forensic testing revealed that DNA found on the murder victim did not match Clair's. DNA taken from a glove found at the scene also did not match. It matches another individual, but the Orange County District Attorney insists that "confidentiality is required" concerning this evidence, and for 7 years now, the identity of the person whose DNA does match the swab has remained a secret. The prosecution withheld exculpatory evidence, produced a witness to place Clair at the "crime scene" by extorting her. It was impossible for the prosecution's star witness to have been at the crime scene, due to the fact that she was still in rehab after brain surgery.
Starz Docuseries:
WRONG MAN, Season 2
Death row inmate Kenneth Clair who was convicted of the brutal torture and murder of a young babysitter named Linda Rodgers in 1984 in Santa Ana, California. The only eyewitness to the murder – a five-year-old child – told police officers "a white man did it." Kenneth Clair is black, and no forensic evidence ties him to the crime scene.
See his story featured in the recently released second season of WRONG MAN, a Starz Docuseries.
FreeKennethClair.org
to read the Times OC article written about CJ Ford PI and his desire to win back freedom for those unjustly condemned. The article was written by Ben Brazil and released December 2019.
to read the article in a special edition of O.C. Weekly Magazine - People 2015. The article honoring CJ Ford, praising him for his diligent work in the Clair case, was written by Scott Moxley.
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National Guard Magazine |
By John Goheen
In 1954, "SIN CITY, U.S.A." wasn't a sexy slogan for a burgeoning oasis in the Nevada desert. It was an apt description of Phenix City, Alabama, a place so evil the press dubbed it "America's Wickedest City." Gen. George S. Patton once threatened to flatten it with his tanks.
The town across the Chattahoochee River from Fort Benning, Georgia, offered every conceivable vice: gambling, prostitution, bootleg whiskey and drugs. Backroom abortions and baby selling were also part of the local trade. Phenix City even had a factory that produced loaded dice and marked cards and a school that taught safe cracking.
That all of these activities were illegal in Alabama meant nothing. Phenix City (1954 pop: 23,000) was a 20th-century Dodge City — a place without limits to the pursuit of pleasure and profits.
Other military towns and lonely outposts of the day may have tolerated some of the same depravity. But nowhere else did criminal interests have such a ruthless grip on the local political and law-enforcement hierarchy. In some cases, they were one and the same.
For several decades, homegrown mobsters and thugs ran the town and trampled the citizenry. Beatings and bombings were common. Unprotected young women were forced into prostitution. Elections were meaningless because the crooks counted the votes. And as they also controlled the courts, crime often went unpunished.
Young soldiers from Fort Benning were their favorite marks. The world's toughest fighting men were easy targets in Phenix City's bars and brothels. Lured by bright lights and big come-ons, many troops dropped entire paychecks in a single night. Most were simply fleeced by hookers and crooked dice. Others were slipped knockout drops and robbed. Those resisting were sent home battered as well as broke. A few wound up dead in the Chattahoochee River.
None of this was a secret outside the town. Newspapers across the river kept up a steady drumbeat of exposure. The place was notorious in military channels. State officials were also well aware of Phenix City's reputation, but they dismissed it as a "local matter." That's how the vice trade flourished. It might have thrived years longer if not for a tenacious Alabama adjutant general and a force of National Guard soldiers and airmen.
At the direction of the governor, they took control of the town after the assassination of Albert Patterson, the presumptive Alabama attorney general-elect. A local attorney, he had vowed to clean up Phenix City if elected. In the wake of his death, the Alabama National Guard made good on that pledge.
Wickedest city in America.
—Secretary of War Henry Stimson
THE RIVER TOWN on the west bank of the Chattahoochee long had a reputation as a refuge for bootleggers and outlaws.
It just wasn't always known as Phenix City. In 1833, the village of Girard sat across from Columbus, Georgia, where the federal road crossed into Alabama. Girard, or "Sodom" as travelers knew it, was a frontier trading post where booze, gambling and prostitutes were plentiful, and differences were often settled with a knife. As the 19th century unfolded, the frontier moved west, but the village never shed its vigilante code. State officials periodically tried to crack the whip. As soon as the outsiders left; however, the violence and criminal activity invariably returned. Frustrated, authorities consolidated Girard with a newer and more civilized community nearby in 1923, eventually renaming the combined town Phenix City, which later became the new seat of Russell County.
The hope was that Girard's unruly population would gradually adopt the rest of the merged town's more law-abiding ways. Instead, the criminals began fouling Phenix City. They then sealed the town's fate by making local officials an offer they thought they couldn't refuse in a time of need.
Phenix City was largely a bedroom community for low-income textile workers who toiled in the mills across the river in Columbus. It had little tax base. When the Depression pushed the town to the brink of bankruptcy, city fathers compromised with the only industry in town, permitting otherwise illegal gambling for the payment of annual licensing fees.
"At first, it doesn't look so bad," John Patterson, Albert Patterson's son, told National Guard in 2004. "Phenix City mobsters contributed a lot of money to Little League ball teams and charity and paid mortgages on churches and things like that, and the people said, 'They're not bad guys.'"
They also employed hundreds of townspeople at a time when jobs were scarce. Their license fees funded schools and public services while keeping taxes low. The brothels and gambling houses catered to outsiders, he said, so it was easy for many locals to avert their eyes and let the ends justify the means.
But it was only a matter of time, Patterson said, before a growing criminal syndicate controlled the juries and the ballot boxes, either through payoffs, intimidation or fraud. Eventually, every local official and law-enforcement officer owed his job to what became known as the Phenix City machine.
Meanwhile, this veil of local legitimacy enabled the racketeers to grow their sordid businesses at a time when Fort Benning's World War II troop expansion increased demand for their products and services. It also allowed them to operate with near impunity.
No practice was out of bounds. Unconsumed beer was rebottled and re-sold. Drinks were spiked. Bar and brothel customers were rolled. Players faced marked cards, loaded dice, mechanically controlled roulette wheels and slot machines that returned less than five cents on a dollar. Pawnshops took the uniforms off soldiers' backs and the boots off their feet. And brass knuckles, chains and nightsticks awaited anyone who complained.
Fort Benning commanders knew what awaited their soldiers in Phenix City. They occasionally put the worst establishments off limits. In 1940, Secretary of War Henry Stimson, after reviewing the Army's classified record of the troops beaten, robbed and murdered in the town, declared it the "wickedest city in America." That's when Patton proposed his solution.
Danger, however, only seemed to fuel the lure. Fort Benning officials once estimated that 80% of their 80,000 personnel dropped more than half of their pay in the town. That helped push the combined take of all the rackets to about $100 million a year (the equivalent of more than $1.1 billion today).
AFTER WORLD WAR II, many Phenix City residents were growing weary of what their town had become and its impact on future generations. But it took courage to speak out, let alone openly fight the machine.
"If you didn't like [what the machine was doing], they would pressure you, they would threaten you," John Patterson said. "And if that didn't work, they would kill you."
The pressure didn't stop a small group of citizens from forming in 1951 the Russell Betterment Association, whose goal was to bring honest government back to Phenix City and Russell County. Hugh Bentley, a local merchant, and Albert Patterson, who fought in World War I with the Texas Guard's 36th Division, were among its founders.
The association "sent delegations to Montgomery to see the governor," Patterson says. "It always fell on deaf ears. Before you got out of the governor's office, somebody would be on the phone calling Phenix City and telling [the machine] who was there and what they said. And somebody would be waiting for you when you got home."
Bentley's home was bombed in 1952 while his family slept. Miraculously, no one was hurt. Later that year, Bentley and several of his friends and a Columbus Ledger reporter were beaten at a polling place, and the Patterson law office was set on fire.
Bruised and nearly out of other options, the RBA decided it could achieve its goals only with the strenuous support of the state's chief legal officer. In 1954, Albert Patterson turned his law practice over to his son and ran for attorney general.
The elder Patterson pledged to fight crime, especially the rackets in Phenix City. He easily won the three-candidate Democratic primary May 4 to earn a spot in automatic runoff June 1 with runner-up Lee Porter. The machine poured thousands of dollars into Porter's campaign, bought votes and intimidated voters. He also had the support of the outgoing Attorney General Silas Garrett.
Despite the formidable opposition, Patterson prevailed. But that hardly ended the controversy. Within days, Lamar Reid, the Jefferson County Democratic Committee chairman, testified before a grand jury that Garrett and Arch Ferrell, the Russell County District Attorney, had pressured him to change vote totals to help Porter.
Patterson had heard of similar activities involving Garrett and Ferrell elsewhere in the state. He promised to tell "all I know" to the same grand jury June 21. Patterson was also getting death threats. So many that he told a church group June 17 that his chances of taking office were less than "one in 100." It was an ominous prediction considering that winning the Democratic nomination in Alabama at that time was tantamount to be being elected.
On the evening of June 18, Patterson, after working late at his Phenix City office, was gunned down next to his car. He was struck three times: in the chest, in the arm and in the mouth — the local death-mark for informers.
News of the assassination quickly swept across Alabama. Gov. Gordon Persons knew the killing was akin to throwing a lit match on a powder keg and immediately ordered Maj. Gen. Walter J. "Crack" Hanna, the adjutant general of Alabama, and the Alabama Guard to Phenix City to prevent further bloodshed.
As serious as combat and the moral equivalent of war.
—Maj. Gen. Walter J. "Crack" Hanna
AT 5 FEET, 7 INCHES, Hanna, who earned his nickname on the rifle range, was built like a bulldog and renown as twice as pugnacious.
Fast with his fists, he took up boxing as a boy. At 15, he reportedly swung at a recruiting sergeant who denied him enlistment into the Marines. But he saved his best fighting for the South Pacific during World War II, compiling a historic ratio of enemy killed to unit losses as a regimental commander with the Alabama Guard's 31st "Dixie" Division. He returned home from the war with a Silver Star and, even more important to him, most of his men.
Phenix City was for Hanna another military objective, no less important than his World War II battles, and perhaps even more so because this fight was in Alabama. He felt he had two missions. The first was to keep the peace, which began when his troops arrived June 19.
The second mission was to help local authorities clean up Phenix City. The governor had warned locals that the "days of Sin City were over." The problem was that anybody of any authority in the town was part of the machine, and they had no interest in either cleaning up the town or finding Patterson's assassin. And Hanna initially didn't have the authority to take over law enforcement.
"It slowly became apparent that the crime and corruption were on a scale, and of a magnitude, that was almost beyond comprehension," Lt. Col. Jack Warren told National Guard in 1981. Warren, a Birmingham police officer in 1954, was one of Hanna's key subordinates. "If you were a burglar, you couldn't get caught. If you were a murderer, you'd get off. The whole place was involved, up to and including the court system."
Hanna had an even more colorful description of what he found: "It was a whole damn town of ill repute," he said in 1981. "We uncovered 28 murders that had taken place in the previous four years, without even an indictment, much less a conviction. Much of the time, it was cheaper—and safer — to kill people than to buy' em, because dead people stay dead."
Frustrated, Hanna went to the governor in early July 1954 and asked for more authority. Persons, hoping the Guard's continued presence alone would compel the local authorities to do the right thing, told Hanna to go back and just keep the peace.
Instead, the general, ever the battlefield tactician, returned and created his own plain-clothes intelligence cell. Often working at night, his sleuths conducted interviews with informants and found barns filled with gambling equipment waiting to be brought back when things cooled down.
Hanna went back to Montgomery two weeks later with what he had uncovered. This time he implored his boss to declare martial law so that the Guard could enforce the law without interference from the machine. Persons again balked, telling him one more time to return to his post and follow his orders.
Hanna then did something unthinkable for a soldier. According to accounts, he called the Jefferson County District Attorney and arranged to meet the editor of the Birmingham Post-Herald, bluntly filling in both on the obstacles to progress in Phenix City. Only then did Hanna return to his post.
The next day, the Post-Herald published an open letter to Persons noting the lack progress in Phenix City. The paper urged the governor to move swiftly. Later that same day, under a threat of immediate subpoena, Persons reluctantly appeared before the Jefferson County Grand Jury. He was none too pleased by the rebukes, which he knew were forcing his hand.
On July 22, after a quick trip to Washington, D.C., to consult with President Dwight D. Eisenhower, FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover and constitutional lawyers, Persons declared "limited martial rule" in Phenix City. The move, the first such declaration by any governor, enabled the Alabama Guard to fire the Phenix City police, the Russell County sheriffs and immediately take over law enforcement.
AFTER INSTIGATING the public criticism of Persons, Hanna had made sure that he was prepared — personally and operationally — for the governor's inevitable declaration.
On July 20, Hanna ordered his staff to screen the records of every Alabama Guardsman for lawyers, police officers and prison guards. He wanted a specialized force that could get to Phenix City on short notice and seamlessly assume law-enforcement duties. The ensuing task force totaled 60 men already on annual training. Other Guardsmen could then be called to relieve the initial force in the weeks that followed.
Persons announced his martial rule proclamation at 4:30 p.m. Hanna only had a few hours' notice, but it was sufficient time to deploy his handpicked force. As the governor read his order in Montgomery, the general and a small band of Guardsmen with fixed bayonets marched into Russell County Courthouse and fired the sheriff and his deputies. He then moved over to city hall and dispatched the mayor and the Phenix City Police Department.
When the takeover was complete, Hanna gathered his entire Phenix City force for a motivational session. He said the mission before them "is as serious as combat and is the moral equivalent of war." But he emphatically added that he wanted it accomplished "without so much as the firing of one shot."
Within hours, Hana's forces launched a series of around-the-clock raids on every establishment suspected of offering gambling or other illegal activities. They broke down doors when owners refused to cooperate and collected truckloads of gambling, bootlegging and drug paraphernalia, much of it found in secret rooms. They also apprehended dozens of people and began closing gambling houses and brothels.
The initial raids got the machine's attention. Several Guardsmen were threatened. Hanna received death threats and bribe offers that reached $250,000 (more than $2.5 million today). Undaunted, Guardsmen uncovered the full depth of Phenix City's activities. Meanwhile, hundreds of previously intimidated informants came forward. Their testimony coupled with a mountain of evidence led to 749 indictments against 152 people. The list read like a who's who of Phenix City and Russell County officials. Of these, all but two either pleaded guilty or were found guilty.
Among those indicted was Russell County's chief deputy sheriff, who provided legal protection to area houses of prostitution for a cut of up to half the profits. Albert Fuller also used his badge to force many young women into prostitution. He would keep an eye peeled for unaccompanied women looking for employment in Phenix City and arrest them on trumped-up charges. He then would arrange for brothel owners to bail the women out in exchange for "work."
When the Guard arrived, Phenix City had as many as 1,000 prostitutes. Many were regularly beaten and forced to steal. One brothel reportedly tattooed a mark under the lower lip of each of its women so others would know to whom they belonged.
Approximately 600 Alabama Guardsmen received the state's Phenix City Disturbance Medal for their participation in the operation, but no more than 150 served in Russell County at any one time during the cleanup. By the end of 1954, most were quietly withdrawn. Gone, too, was any semblance of the machine or the criminal activity. And they remain gone today.
PHENIX CITY'S VICE TRADE, the Patterson assassination and the resulting Guard cleanup under martial rule generated headlines across the nation, several books and a 1955 movie. They also dramatically altered Alabama politics. John Patterson, a man without previous aspirations for elected office, took his father's place on the ballot and ran unopposed in the November 1954 general election. After a term as attorney general, he became in 1959, at age 37, Alabama's youngest governor.
Three men with clear motive were eventually indicted for the elder Patterson's murder: Fuller; Ferrell, the Russell County district attorney; and Garrett, the attorney general. However, only Fuller was convicted.
In 2004, then-Alabama Gov. Bob Riley paid tribute to Albert Patterson, Hanna and Judge Walter Jones, who presided over the grand jury that ultimately crushed the machine. They were "leaders who did not allow Phenix City to be consumed," he said.
The governor also commended the work of the Alabama Guard in the ceremony for the 50th Anniversary of the Restoration of Law and Order in Phenix City. "We must not forget what the Alabama National Guard did 50 years ago when they liberated the Alabama citizens in Phenix City from the corruption and crime that imprisoned the city," Riley said.
Today, one of the few reminders of Phenix City's past is a life-size bronze statue of Albert Patterson across the street from where he took his last breath. Dedicated last year, he is depicted as he looked in 1954 relaxing on a park bench.
It's likely something he couldn't do very often there in the final years of his life.
John Goheen is the NGAUS director of communications. He can be reached at [email protected].
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It is that time of year again! We will be holding our Growing Naturalists Summer Camp again this year. The dates are June 12-15 for 3rd-5th graders and June19-22 for K-2nd graders, with an Environmental Summit for all grades on the 22nd.
This camp is free to all WCPS students in grades K-5. Please share this great opportunity with anyone that would be interested. Applications must be turned in by Friday, May 19th.


The talk among Lions coaches that Ziggy Ansah could approach 20 sacks this season is not out of the question.
His run defense certainly leaves something to be desired, but there's little doubt that Ansah is a dominant edge player after finishing third in the league in 2015 with 14.5 sacks. He had very little in the way of a supporting cast in the front seven after Ndamukong Suh left in free agency and DeAndre Levy suffered a season-ending injury, and Ansah still had a career year. He's also still learning the game, so the talk among Lions coaches that Ansah could approach 20 sacks this season is not out of the question. Personally, we'd rather see him improve against the run.


Issues related to mental health can leave military families unsure of where to turn. Military Family Services (MFS) is providing a good starting place for information and support with its newest resource: a webpage listing the top 10 online mental health resources for Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) families.
Whether you're looking for information for kids, youth, or adults, the links included on this list may help. MFS has pulled together resources recommended by our clinical partners in mental health, and listed them in an easy to use format with direct links. Some links are military-family centric; others provide information for the general public. We've also tried to balance resources that are designed to provide information and clarification, and resources that provide more interactive methods of support.
Canada's largest mental health and addiction teaching hospital. CAMH combines clinical care, research, education, policy development and health promotion to help transform the lives of people affected by mental health and addiction issues. Their website includes various links, such as, popular issues and topics, new research, how to get help, information for families, local events and so on.
Bereavement Services is a 24-hour, 1-800 bilingual telephone service, available 365 days a year to a parent, a spouse, children and step children, a fiancé(e), and any other person of significance to CAF personnel who died while serving.
Military Family Services' FIL counsellors provide supportive counselling seven days a week, 24 hours a day. By calling the FIL, you will be connected to friendly, experienced professionals who are well-versed on CAF communities and services.
Are you struggling with drug use? Is someone you care about having a problem? Help is available, whether you need it for yourself, a friend or a family member. Many resources are available to answer your questions, offer advice or give hands-on help.
This page was created by the Canadian Mental Health Association to help people who are feeling overwhelmed due to a mental health illness, an accident or an emotional crisis.
Canada's only toll-free, 24-hour, bilingual and anonymous phone counselling, referral and Internet service for children and youth. Every day, professional counsellors provide immediate, caring support to young people in urban and rural communities across the country.
Contains three separate entrances for students; teachers and school staff; and parent. The purpose of the website is to explore issues related to being a teen experiencing mental health problems and mental illness, as well as, to provide tools for teachers, counselors and parents.
An explanation of various aspects of mental illness and the effects on the family.
My Life – It's Cool to Talk about it!
For those experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and for their support system of family, friends and fellow workers.
R2MR is mental health resilience education and training designed and offered by the CAF for CAF members and their families. Designed by the CAF, the overall objective of R2MR is to improve mental health outcomes of military members and families by preparing you pre-deployment, and supporting you post-deployment.
All of the information in the Guide for Military Personnel, plus more information specific to a variety of family members. While referral information relevant only to US Military, much of general information may be useful to CAF Members and their families.
Information and guidance to improve your mental health.
Learn about the early signs of mental health issues. Identifying mental health at early stages can help provide early intervention and potentially decrease the severity of a mental illness. In some cases, it may be possible to delay or prevent a major mental illness altogether.


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I have to put in Yes 5 No 0. This review is for a company called: Told them via email that I wanted to speak to a writer first before one key was pressed to create a new resume. I wanted to provide addtional Yes 2 No 0. This business does not do not do what it advertises and it provides shoddy resume writing services. This is your money so spend it wisely. I recommend that you find another resume writing service and research any potential company Yes 3 No 2. Where do I begin, this company is not a company, it is a one man show Isn't that right Bryce.
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What EL SHADDAI meant for me and my family this year.
All-sufficiency for Us - Nothing is too hard for our God. He who sent manna from heaven every day to feed a hungry nation for forty years can feed us. He who caused water to gush out of a rock in the desert can refresh us. He who caused a pair of shoes to walk thousands of miles for forty years and remain new, and caused a coat to last all that time without the least wear, can clothe us. He who caused an ax to swim can keep us afloat. He who redeemed and restored Job can give us double portion of all what the evil one has stolen from us.
He Pours Out in our lives- El Shaddai also means, "God who pours out." He not only nourishes us, supplying everything we need to sustain us and keep us, but He also pours out upon us all the blessings of His grace. Our God is a fountain overflowing and gushing out with grace that flows to us with constant fullness, like a mighty river from the throne of God.
The name of our God is The Almighty God, El Shaddai, blessed be His name forever, He is able to make sinners like you and me perfect. As we close the year remember; You are not alone; for God is with you, you are not defenseless; for God is your protector, you are not inadequate; for God is your sufficiency, you are not useless; for God has a purpose for your life, you are not worthless; for God sent His son to die for you, you are not without hope; for God has a place prepared for you, you are not unloved; for God loves you with an everlasting love.
Our dear Heavenly Father my family together with our dear reader humbly says "thank you El Shaddai for your healing this year. Thank you for remaining faithful, perfect and all sufficient for us till the year has come to an end" Amen.


text:
Q: Submodules of tensor representations Let $V$ be a finite dimensional vector space over a field and $T$ the tensor algebra $T=\bigoplus_{n\geq 0} T_n,$ where $T_n=V^{\otimes n}$. It's easy to see that $T$ can be viewed as a $GL(V)$-module, as $V$ is the natural module for $GL(V)$. Moreover, each $T_n$ is a $GL(V)$-submodule of $T$. This is called the $n^{th}$ tensor representation.
Can we do something analogous conversely, where we can view any $GL(V)$-module as a submodule of some $T^n$? This is surely not true for $GL(V)$ as a whole, but what about if we place certain restrictions, that is, for a finite subgroup $G\subset GL(V)$, can we say any simple $k[G]$-module is a submodule of some $T_n$?

A: This is not true for $\text{GL}(V)$, but there is a salvage. As a $\text{GL}(V)$-representation, the decomposition of $V^{\otimes n}$ is described by Schur-Weyl duality, and in particular it is a direct sum of Schur functors $S^{\lambda}(V)$. The Schur functors applied to $V$ describe all polynomial $\text{GL}(V)$-representations (those on which $M \in \text{GL}(V)$ acts by matrices with entries polynomial in the entries of $M$). (I need some assumptions on the underlying field; I think characteristic zero suffices?)
Non-polynomial representations include, for example, $M \mapsto |\det(M)|^r$ for real $r$ if the base field is $\mathbb{R}$ or $\mathbb{C}$; these can never occur as a subrepresentation of $V^{\otimes n}$. In other words, we really want to think about $\text{GL}(V)$ as an algebraic group here.
For finite groups we have the following classical exercise.
Theorem: Let $G$ be a finite group and $V$ a faithful complex representation of $G$. Then every irreducible representation of $G$ occurs as a subrepresentation of $V^{\otimes n}$ for some $n$.
See, for example, this MO question. The result generalizes to an algebraically closed base field of characteristic zero and this can probably be weakened. For compact groups the above generalizes as follows.
Theorem: Let $G$ be a compact group and $V$ a faithful complex representation of $G$ (so $G$ is a Lie group). Then every irreducible representation of $G$ occurs as a subrepresentation of $V^{\otimes n} \otimes V^{\ast \otimes m}$ for some $n, m$.
See, for example, this MO question. Note also that if the image of $G$ lies in $\text{SL}(V)$, then $\Lambda^{\dim V - 1}(V) \cong V^{\ast}$ (exercise), so $V^{\ast}$ is contained in a tensor power of $V$ and we get the same result as before, with no need to take the dual.

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Don't forget that you have to clear all guards in this level. firs clmb the ladder and seek for patroling guards.Use silenced gun to take out the walking guard take clothes hide bodies.Always take out the lonely guys hanging around first. be carefull with the guards at the roof of the buildings. Kill the guards waiting at the doors.Be sure that door guards are the last two left in that area after shooting guys with silenced gun don't forget to re-arm your MP5 for safety and for not taking any attention.While you came up to ship be patient. go to the back of the building in front of the ship where you'll find thw white limo. hang there for a while to take out 3 guards there. drag the dead bodies and hide them to the back of the car. look around carefully two guards must be patroling around kill them and attact the ship guards with MP5. don't climb up wait for the main target to arrive.He wants to escape so he has to pass the way that you hold.kill him. enter the ship. Kill everything that has 2 legs.go to the lover deck to cargo. Seek for the bomb. Dis arm it. search for the the guards that has left. Kill them start the engine of the ship from machine room.
First of all, i got through this mission killing only 9 guards, all with them not seeing me or firing back. Heres how. All i bought was the kevlar vest, binoculars, knife, silenced beretta, silenced MP5. Forget the sniper rifle you dont need it. When you start, sneak up and knife the guard with his back to you, steal his clohes and kill the other patroling guard who comes that way. You dont need thier weapons. Run North to the fence line where a guard will be walking, follow him along here up to the gates. When the gates open walk casually through. Reapeat this with the next two gates. If you run to each gate after it opens you can do this section in around 3 minutes.
When on the central dock, run to the southern most building, and wait for the patroling guard to turn around the Sth East corner, knife him and drag him to the wall,(because these guards carry weapons they dont care what weapon you holding, includes the knife.) Wait for the second guard to round the corner and see the dead guy, keep close and directly behind and knife him. Walking back to the limo, approach the limo guard from the north, he tell you to get stuffed, but he continues to look in that direction. Sneak up and knife him from the opposite direction, drag the body to the wall. When the first guard turns the corner and sees the body, knife him, and repeat with the second patrol.
Approaching the ship now, there are three casual guards posted. Sneak up behind the Southern most guard, knife him and steal his clothes. Walk in the ship. From here you want to kill another casual guard, so that he gets seen, but gives you enough time to get off the ship. As soon as you kill the guard run back to the limo outside and wait for Boris and a body guard, kill them both with your silenced MP5. Because Boris armed the nuke you will find that there are no longer any guard on the ship, go straight to the engine room with your gun out, (sometimes theres the stragler here and there), disarm the nuke. Go to the bridge and start up the engines, mission accomplished.
There is a car bomb on this level so there is no need to wait for Boris. If you pull up your map on the far right there is a gold box on the map screen I think it is east of your position anyway when you get there you will see a parked Truck in the back is a car bomb, sniper rifle, and a silenced mp5. Just install the bomb in Boris's car and thats that. No more Boris.


Circular Sounds is the fourth LP from San Francisco's home recording auteur Kelley Stoltz. Its 14 songs are a stereophonic advance on the lo-fidelity psych-fuzz of Antique Glow (Beautiful Happiness, 2004) and the mid-fi piano-rock of Below the Branches (Sub Pop, 2006): two modest masterpieces which, by a curious coincidence, both made #24 in MOJO magazine's "Best Albums" list for their respective years. Kelley has also been praised by such esteemed publications as Uncut , Rolling Stone , Q , The New York Times , Entertainment Weekly , Time Out London , The Independent , and Ptolemaic Terrascope . In Australia he is a bona fide cult sensation, having scored a radio hit with "Underwater's Where the Action Is" (off Antique Glow ), while "Birdies Singing" (off Below the Branches ) established him in Sweden after it was used to soundtrack a TV commercial for Volvo.


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Home | Wire | Populism Worked for the Pro-Freedom Party in the Past. Can It Work Again?
Populism Worked for the Pro-Freedom Party in the Past. Can It Work Again?
10/29/2020Ryan McMaken
Listen to the Audio Mises Wire version of this article.
Although he was a scholar with degrees in mathematics and economics, Murray Rothbard was very much a fan of the American layman. Indeed, he was a populist both in temperament and in his political views. In a 1992 column outlining his populist strategy, Rothbard noted the importance of reaching out to the general public and especially to those groups that were most negatively impacted by state power:
This two-pronged strategy is (a) to build up a cadre of our own libertarians, minimal-government opinion-molders, based on correct ideas; and (b) to tap the masses directly, to short-circuit the dominant media and intellectual elites, to rouse the masses of people against the elites that are looting them, and confusing them, and oppressing them, both socially and economically. But this strategy must fuse the abstract and the concrete; it must not simply attack elites in the abstract, but must focus specifically on the existing statist system, on those who right now constitute the ruling classes.
Libertarians have long been puzzled about whom, about which groups, to reach out to. The simple answer: everyone, is not enough, because to be relevant politically, we must concentrate strategically on those groups who are most oppressed and who also have the most social leverage.
The reality of the current system is that it constitutes an unholy alliance of "corporate liberal" Big Business and media elites, who, through big government, have privileged and caused to rise up a parasitic Underclass, who, among them all, are looting and oppressing the bulk of the middle and working classes in America. Therefore, the proper strategy of libertarians and paleos is a strategy of "right-wing populism," that is: to expose and denounce this unholy alliance, and to call for getting this preppie-underclass-liberal media alliance off the backs of the rest of us: the middle and working classes.
Rothbard consistently recognized that the larger battle was an ideological one in which advocates for laissez-faire must communicate to the masses the true nature of the ruling classes and their efforts to impoverish and exercise control over everyday business owners, taxpayers, and workers.
But Rothbard also understood that within the context of a political system with nearly universal adult suffrage, the educational and ideological program needed to also manifest itself in terms of a voting public that opposed the plans of the ruling elite.
It Worked in the Nineteenth Century
Has a populist assault against a minority ruling class ever actually worked? Rothbard, with his intimate knowledge of American political history, knew that, at least in the past, it could be a winning strategy.
For example, Rothbard's description of the American ruling class as "an unholy alliance of 'corporate liberal' Big Business" would have been quite recognizable to the Democrats of the late nineteenth century. The Democrats of that era were (relatively speaking) the party of sound money, low taxes, decentralization, and laissez-faire. This was in contrast to the Republicans of the time, who were for high tariffs, high government spending, inflationary money, and concentrated federal power.
This wasn't just an accident, but was ideological in origin. The Democrats of the nineteenth century employed a historical narrative that held that the freedoms of Americans were endangered by a small ruling elite which sought to use federal powers to enrich itself and its cronies.
This narrative wove itself through the ideology of the Democrats of the time, from the Jeffersonians of the founding era through the Jacksonians and into the era of a resurgent Democratic Party under Grover Cleveland.
In his description of the Jacksonians, historian Marvin Meyers described the narrative this way:
What gives the fierce tone to Jacksonian politics is the sense that extraneous forces within society, powerless on their own to prosper and persuade, conspire to seize the government and convert it to an engine of despotism, theft and corruption.
Historian Robert Kelley adds that the Jacksonians "saw around them a conspiracy of clever men who lived by their wits, profiting from the toil of those who lived by the sweat of their brow."
Largely, these "clever" men who had not earned their riches by their own merits were the financial elites—especially central bankers—and other recipients of government largesse who benefited from government spending, protective tariffs, and inflationary schemes.
But this ideology did not end with the implosion of the Democratic Party in the 1860s. The party was revived in the late nineteenth century, and they managed to take control of the US Senate through much of the 1870s and 1880s. Moreover, the Democrats won the popular vote in the presidential elections of 1876, 1884, 1888, and 1892.
Indeed, as Rothbard notes in his essay "The Democratic Triumph of 1892," the Democrats won a decisive victory with a platform which defended hard money, a low tariff, and a relatively restrained foreign policy. It only came crashing down with the end of the Third Party System and the defection of many Democrats to the easy money position under William Jennings Bryan.
But the experience showed there is no inherent incompatibility between a populist strategy and a political agenda that favors laissez-faire.
Also significant was the fact the Democratic Party sought in many ways to expand the vote. It was the Democrats which defended the voting rights of new immigrants and Catholics, many of whom were among the ranks of the hated Irish. It was Cleveland who vetoed a bill to impose literacy tests on new immigrants. And, of course, like all parties of the time, the Democrats of the Cleveland era engaged in vigorous get-out-the-vote efforts to maximize the party's impact.1
This was all done, it was believed, to counter the corrupt elites who were supported by the Republicans. Or, as one observer of the time put it: "The Democrats were the party of the masses while the Republicans were the party of the classes."
Thus, it is not difficult to see how Rothbard recognized in this era a historical example of political alignments and party politics that could indeed be used to support, at least to an extent, a faction of laissez-faire against a faction of privilege and centralized state power. His historical writings regularly demonstrate an enthusiasm for the anti-elite narrative handed down by the Jeffersonians, the Jacksonians, and their heirs. He saw in them a vibrant political tradition which was often successful in blocking the worst excesses of the American regime.
Could Populism Work in the Twenty-First Century?
As late as 1992, at least, Rothbard believed that a populist strategy could work by harnessing the electoral power of certain groups whom Rothbard believed would be at least favorably disposed to laissez-faire. Whether or not this could be done right now is an empirical question. Is it still possible to "rouse the masses of people against the elites that are looting them" in effective numbers? The impressive reach of the Ron Paul campaigns of 2008 and 2012 suggests there is still some life yet in the laissez-faire alliances of old. But that may not be enough.
On this Rothbard was not naïve. He understood that if the numbers at any given time do not support the idea of an effective party for laissez-faire, then the answer lies in reaching the public through media and education "to tap the masses directly, to short-circuit the dominant media and intellectual elites." How long it would take to accomplish this goal depends on how successful these government, media, and business elites have been in turning the voters in their favor. To reverse the trend could take decades. But if that's the case, it would hardly discourage Rothbard, who always took a long-term and optimistic view. If the task before us is to begin a long road of intellectual, educational, and political agitation geared toward exposing the malevolence of the regime, then the right time to start is right now.
1. Like all political parties and regimes, the Democrats sought to limit the vote for groups that did not favor them. As the Republicans sought to expand the franchise for free blacks while limiting the vote for many immigrants, the Democrats did the opposite. This example nonetheless illustrates that expanding the franchise is not a problem per se for a party that pushes a laissez-faire ideology.
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