American History: Hurricane Katrina, Iraq and the Great Recession 计时1： STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember. This week in our series, we continue the story of the presidency of George W. Bush.
George W. Bush began his second term -- and fifth year in office -- in January two thousand five.
Early in his first term, terrorists had carried out the worst attacks in United States history. President Bush declared a war on terror and led the country into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In his second inaugural address, he promised to continue fighting to defeat terrorism and increase democracy around the world.
GEORGE W. BUSH: "So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world."
He also talked about his goals at home and what he called America's ideal of freedom.
GEORGE W. BUSH: "In America's ideal of freedom, citizens find the dignity and security of economic independence instead of laboring on the edge of subsistence. This is the broader definition of liberty that motivated the Homestead Act, the Social Security Act, and the GI Bill of Rights...
"We will widen the ownership of homes and businesses, retirement savings, and health insurance, preparing our people for the challenges of life in a free society. By making every citizen an agent of his or her own destiny, we will give our fellow Americans greater freedom from want and fear and make our society more prosperous and just and equal."
The United States Constitution limits presidents to two terms. Presidential historian Russell Riley at the University of Virginia's Miller Center says presidents traditionally use their first term to focus on their major goals for the country.
Second terms, he says, "tend to be unhappy times."
During his second term, Richard Nixon resigned over the attempt to hide political wrongdoing in the Watergate case. Bill Clinton faced a trial in the Senate over his attempt to hide a relationship with a young aide. 【349】 计时2 But the first major problem of George Bush's second term dropped from the sky.
(MUSIC)
SUSAN BENNETT: "You saw people on the rooftops. You saw people using claw hammers trying to break through their attic to get up onto their roof. That's why you had so many people who drowned."
In August of two thousand five, Susan Bennett received a phone call from her daughter, a television reporter in New Orleans, Louisiana.
SUSAN BENNETT: "She called, on a Friday, and said, 'I think you need to come pick up my son, because there's a really big storm coming.'"
(SOUND)
It was Hurricane Katrina -- one of the worst natural disasters in American history. Along the Gulf of Mexico the hardest hit states were Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Over one thousand eight hundred people died. Property damage totaled more than seventy-five billion dollars.
But Katrina will be remembered mostly because of what happened in New Orleans.
(STORM SOUND AND VOICE)
A day before the storm hit, officials had ordered everyone to leave the city. But thousands of people stayed. Some chose not to leave. Others were too poor, too old or too sick to go. Then, the levees broke.
(MUSIC AND FLOOD SOUNDS)
Those flood barriers were supposed to protect the city. Much of New Orleans was built on land that lies below sea level.
(SOUND)
As Katrina hit, more than eighty percent of the city flooded. In some areas, the water was six meters deep.
Many people who stayed were caught in the floods.
Officials struggled to get food, water and medicine to the survivors. The displaced included thousands of people who took shelter in the Superdome, a big sports arena.
Out on the streets, lawless acts fed a sense of disorder and helplessness.
WOMAN: "It's disgusting and frustrating. And we are human beings, and they're treating us like we're criminals."
GROUP OF PEOPLE SHOUTING: "We want help! We want help! Help us!"
Susan Bennett helped create an exhibit about Hurricane Katrina at the Newseum, a museum of news in Washington. 【341】 计时3 SUSAN BENNETT: "Not only in this country, but also in newspapers across the world, you saw the same headline. It ranged from 'Engulfed' to 'Our Tsunami.' 'Chaos.' And then it went to 'Anarchy,' 'National Disgrace.'"
Congress later found that officials at every level of government -- local, state and federal -- had failed in doing their jobs.
President Bush flew over New Orleans to inspect the damage. A photograph showed him looking out the window of Air Force One at the ground below. Russell Riley at the University of Virginia says the picture expressed what many people were thinking about the handling of the disaster. RUSSELL RILEY: "Because of the ineffectiveness of the government response at the time, that image communicated to the American people that the president was remote. That he wasn't on the ground. That the best he could do was just look out the window of a passing plane."
(MUSIC) In two thousand five a different kind of storm was hitting Iraq. American and Iraqi officials were struggling to create a democratic government. Local militias were on the rise and attacking coalition forces and other Iraqis.
The violence also included al-Qaida suicide bombings in Iraq, which angered many Iraqis. And there was international anger as the result of photos that showed American troops abusing Iraqi prisoners.
President Bush had declared the end of major combat operations on May first, two thousand three. That was less than two months after the invasion. But the numbers of civilian and military deaths were growing. And, in the United States, surveys were showing that a growing number of Americans thought going into Iraq was a mistake.
JUDITH YAPHE: "The bad news was we were uncomfortable with it, and we wanted to get out, and we could not understand how things could go so terribly wrong."
Judith Yaphe joined the National Defense University after twenty years as a Middle East expert at the Central Intelligence Agency.
JUDITH YAPHE: "That's where the lack of strategy and the mismanagement come in. But I think it's also true that, you know, Americans just wanted to say, 'Why are we in Iraq? Why are we in any of these places?' Because, historically speaking, it's not a role we've been comfortable with."
She says by President Bush's second term, few Iraqis wanted to cooperate with the Americans to make the country more secure. But President Bush said American troops could not leave until Iraqi forces replaced them. 【411】 计时4 In two thousand six, an Iraqi court sentenced the country's former leader to death. Saddam Hussein was hanged for crimes against humanity. But nothing else seemed to change -- violence and insurgent attacks continued.
Iraq seemed to be on the edge of being torn apart by civil war.
Early the next year, President Bush announced that he was sending more troops to Iraq. He thought it would help stop the violence. GEORGE W. BUSH: "These troops will work alongside Iraqi units and be embedded in their formations. Our troops will have a well-defined mission – to help Iraqis clear and secure neighborhoods, to help them protect the local population, and to help ensure that the Iraqi forces left behind are capable of providing the security that Baghdad needs."
The temporary increase of about thirty thousand troops came to be called "the surge."
In September of two thousand seven, the top commander in Iraq reported to Congress that the violence was decreasing. The surge may have helped create the conditions for this change but there were other reasons as well. Middle East expert Judith Yaphe says many Iraqis decided to work with the Americans to defeat the insurgency.
JUDITH YAPHE: "The real truth is – and it's a good news story – that the Iraqis themselves saw that this was a greater danger to them, that there was nothing to be gained, the Sunnis of Iraq in particular, saw that al-Qaida was hurting them, that it was a danger to them, that there was much more to be gained by aligning with the US forces."
By the time President Bush was finishing his second term, Iraqi and American officials had agreed on a withdrawal date to end the war. The last American forces would leave Iraq by the end of twenty-eleven.
Russell Riley at the University of Virginia says it is too soon to know how history will judge the United States' actions in Iraq.
RUSSELL RILEY: "If Iraq proves to be a policy success, then the surge will be a critical turning point and a terrific exercise of presidential leadership."
He also points out that the war is not the only measure by which the forty-third president will be judged.
Professor Riley put it this way: "The great debate among historians will not be whether Bush was a powerful president or consequential president, but whether he directed those powers in the most fruitful way that he could have." 【405】 计时5 So, what else was going on in the United States during this period? Millions of people were voting for which singer should get a recording contract on "American Idol." Year after year it was the most popular show on television.
SIMON COWELL: "Oh, Robert, I think you just killed my favorite song of all time."
ROBERT: "Killed in a good way or a bad way?"
SIMON: "Killing is never good. There's never a happy killing."
ROBERT: "I'm sorry to hear that."
SIMON: "No, that was first degree on that one."
(MUSIC)
But the biggest story in music was not what people were listening to, but how. Sales of CDs in stores fell as more and more people downloaded songs from the Internet. On iTunes, Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry" was the most downloaded song of two thousand seven.
(MUSIC)
For the first half of the decade, there seemed to be nothing to cry about in the American housing market.
(MUSIC)
Home prices were going up and up, which made sellers happy. And lenders were offering bigger and bigger loans at easy terms and low interest rates, which made buyers happy.
The government supported the easing of lending rules as a form of social policy, a way to help more people buy homes. Rates of home ownership -- a part of the American Dream -- reached record highs. In two thousand five nearly seven out of ten Americans owned their own home.
But many home buyers had been given mortgage loans that they could not afford to pay back. And that was not the only problem. Banks had been selling those loans as securities to investors around the world. Everyone thought they were getting a good deal -- the banks, the borrowers, the investors.
But then the price bubble burst and the housing market collapsed.
(MUSIC)
Many borrowers lost their homes because they were unable to make their monthly loan payments. That was the situation Karen Lucas and her husband, of Cleveland, Ohio, found themselves in.
KAREN LUCAS: "I've done my crying. I've made my peace, and I put it in God's hands."
As home values fell, many people found themselves "underwater," meaning they owed more on their mortgage than their house was worth.
Suddenly there was a lot to cry about. By the end of two thousand seven, the economy was sliding into the Great Recession. That -- and the election of two thousand eight -- will be our story next week.
(MUSIC)
You can find our series online with transcripts, MP3s, podcasts and pictures at 51voa.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. I'm Steve Ember, inviting you to join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. 【464】
越障 THE COLLAPSE OF AMERICAN CRIMINAL JUSTICE. By William J. Stuntz. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. 2011. Pp. viii, 413. $35.00.
The cruelly early death of Professor William Stuntz cost us our deepest thinker about criminal law. I use the term “thinker” because the clichéd term “scholar” would miss the point. Law professors speak of each other as scholars in part as a default. Given the vocabulary of the profession, it makes no sense to call ourselves “lawyers” in the way our colleagues can call themselves economists, historians, philosophers, or chemists. But the term “scholar” summons up an image of classical and historical erudition, an image that corresponds poorly to the analytic commentary that many legal academics write; more importantly, it would mischaracterize Stuntz’s contribution. Stuntz was surely erudite in all the venerable ways, and his sensitivity to historical perspective was exquisite, but his writing does not depend on reference to esoteric knowledge, primary materials, or archival sources — nor on any methodological breakthroughs of empirical science. His materials were the legal doctrines, manifest institutional structures, and empirical data available to all of us. His contribution, fully realized in this grand valedictory book, was to teach us to think creatively and critically about how we design the technology of government and to accept responsibility for its means and its products.
In The Collapse of American Criminal Justice, Stuntz demonstrates that American criminal justice is a disaster. It is a horrendous mess of mismatched means and ends, of legal protections thwarted and misguided, of political demagoguery imposing brutal penalties on the undeserving, and of willful inefficiencies in the institutions created to protect both public safety and the public fisc. Moreover, in his most declamatory message, Stuntz joins the large contemporary chorus that has denounced the state of incarceration in America for both its embarrassing magnitude and its ugly disproportionalities. But the title suggests that the system has collapsed from something — that at times our criminal justice system has done things right such that it can point us down a righteous path. We can put things in terms of Stuntz’s bad (current) world and good (to some extent past, and possibly future) world.
Here are some key features of the world that Stuntz laments that we now inhabit: In the state criminal courts, which do most of the work in our system, we see high-volume, bureaucratic justice dominated by plea bargains (p. 7); much of the litigation we do see is about peripheral procedural matters (p. 196); jury trials almost never happen in part because trials almost never happen (p. 39); we skimp on and dither about police budgets, while prison populations swing widely with political winds and turn upward even at a time of lowering or flat crime rates (p. 5); and prosecutorial discretion often takes the cynical, even sadistic, form of strategically choosing from a menu of highly technical criminal laws with rigid mens rea requirements and strict and severe sentencing schemes such that there is little left for a trial judge — or any honest jury — to do (p. 4). At the federal level, we see a hyper-regulatory criminal law that not only is harsh and rigid itself, but also perversely interacts with state law by offering a backup threat for local district attorneys to deploy in securing guilty pleas (p. 66). At both levels, crimes are often pretextual or contrived to help prosecutors finesse the proof problems that they would face in proving conventional wrongful intent (pp. 300–01).
Here are some key features of the world Stuntz would prefer: At the state level, the ruling penal code would be mostly about the core malum in se crimes against person and property and would be written in transparent lay prose (pp. 303–04); prosecutors would be comfortable bringing large numbers of winnable cases to trial and would accept a certain number of acquittals as a reasonable outcome of the system (pp. 302–05); they would face neither voters’ wrath nor loss of professional ego if they lost cases, because the jury system would be simple and efficient enough to make trials common and timely (p. 302); the jurors would be defendants’ true peers and neighbors (p. 304); they would recognize in the jury instructions not just technical elements of crimes but normative principles of wrongfulness (pp. 303–04); they would administer a healthy dose of rational jury nullification, because their ethical sense would enable them to recognize the mercy-deserving frailties of some defendants (p. 304); and defense lawyers would have resources, especially for investigation (pp. 299–300). In this world, juries might even get to decide issues of law as well as fact, thereby minimizing any role for appellate courts to micromanage the criminal law definitions that might constrain juries’ ethical judgments. More broadly, this would be a world where most of the investment in criminal justice would be up front — in density of policing, rather than in imprisonment (pp. 30–31, 138–42). Federal statutory law would cover core crimes for which federal jurisdiction is a provable practical necessity, not a constitutional contrivance (pp. 305–07). And federal constitutional law, abetted by congressional power under the Fourteenth Amendment, would serve primarily as a check on state criminal law to advance the values of equal protection and proportionality (p. 291).
Ultimately, Stuntz’s diagnosis and call for transformation of the system might be said to revolve around three principles. First, criminal justice should be decentralized, and the costs and benefits of the operation of the system should be internalized: the more local the system is, the better (pp. 311–12). Second, the system should always favor substance over procedure. By substance he means fairer definitions of crimes, and measurement of sentences and adjudication that focuses chiefly on determining guilt or innocence and not on fine-tuning investigative and adjudicative rules (p. 196). Finally, federal law, on its own terms and as a model for state law, should eschew hypertechnical regulatory crimes in favor of core criminal offenses and, through constitutional decisions and implementing legislation, provide a check on state law, to prevent unequal application of criminal law and irrationally severe punishment (pp. 305–07).
Like most of Stuntz’s work, Collapse is a profoundly thoughtful achievement of systems analysis. The breadth and scope of its policy proposals tempt us to read it as a blueprint of major design components needed for programmatic reform. But we should resist that temptation. This Review will argue that when we hold these principles to the standard of structural design guidelines, they prove less reliable, less clear, and less grounded in pragmatic political science than such a standard demands. Rather, we should read Collapse as an exhortation to, and model of, a way of thinking about criminal justice. This way of thinking requires astute analytic rigor in identifying the decisive choices in the building of legal institutions and a proper respect for the human frailty — individual, collective, and institutional — that produces the frequently awful unintended consequences of these choices.
Underscoring our legacy of slavery as historical admonition, Stuntz presents the moral predicate that punishment is a very bad thing, and we should view it as a tragic necessity, not a moral imperative or value. Thus, he believes that relentless self-criticism is the only hope for creating a criminal justice system that is stable, humane, and efficient. The noble risk Stuntz undertakes is to draw lines between good moral vision and bad moral reactiveness, between sensible institutional reform and quixotic, possibly destructive social engineering. Stuntz may well intend — and clearly we should infer — that this risk is one taken in the form of the relentlessly self-critical and morally chastened process of worrying about criminal punishment, not in the form of optimistic programmatic reform. The practical result might prove to be marginal, incremental, and experimental improvements in our system, motivated by a kind of national embarrassment about the condition we have fallen into. Indeed, Stuntz might object to drastic overhaul, even if it were possible, precisely because he fears what human fallibility wreaks when it attempts categorical institutional change. 【1338】作者: 呓语 时间: 2012-5-6 21:50
又赶上沙发了。。 1‘53 1’51 2‘16 2’30 2‘44 越障 明天吧。。。今天看英语都看头大了。。作者: 猫咪团团 时间: 2012-5-6 21:50
啊啊啊！又没坐上沙发！
9'26作者: CCcarol 时间: 2012-5-6 22:39
速度： 1‘53 It talks about the goal during George W. Bush's terms and other presdients's during their terms. 1'39 The first major problem of George Bush's second term is the Hurricane. People in New Orleans need to help. 1'48 What Presdient Bush did after Katrina hit disappointed to the New Orleans eople. Most people thought going into Iraq was a mistake. 2'15 President Bush announced that he was sending more troops to Iraq to help them to stop the violence. Some people doubt that whether it is a fruitful way that he could have. 2'08 It talks about the top music show in the United State and recession real estate industry.
这篇越障的细节好多，基本都跳读了，没记得什么作者: harryhenry 时间: 2012-5-7 20:56
楼上的好强大 速度 1‘59 2’07 2‘26 2’26 2‘42 越障 9’01 主要是说S的一本书，作者认为S不仅仅是一个学者更是一个thinker然后一堆说S这个人特厉害特好的话 S认为美国刑法不好，具体举了几个例子说明怎么个不好法 S给了一些具有可行性的建议，具体什么建议竟然忘了。。。 S评判刑法好坏的原则 S这本书还是这种做法的意义。。。（为什么月会议越觉得抽象） 最后是S的一个什么观点 具体也不记得了 好混乱。。。作者: qiaozhichen 时间: 2012-5-7 20:58
1.2`27`` The passage explains the reasons for B to make wars with A and I.And the passage mentions the president N about the watergate and RN. 2.2`11``This atrical tell us a kind of things about BN. 3.2`48``The author describes about B by two pictures. And tell us a man named NY,who oppose A. 4.2`24``The author describes that B holds the attitude about I. B said that by increase the troops to decrease the violences in A. 5.2`00``I can not finish it . Just about a content of a song about the sadness.
Cross the Trouble.9`49`` The professer S made some contribuations and he points out the politices about the jail. And describes the ideal model about the jail. And tell us the consequence.作者: pigwang1127 时间: 2012-5-7 21:55
速度 1:35 1:36 1:50 1:32 1:40 越障 10:00 1.ws的死讓大家思考犯罪的法律 2.S說美國法律是災難 3.S提出證據證明 4.提到S喜愛的點 5.提到S要考慮的點 6.舉例就像Coll... 7.作者認為S的觀點是不好的作者: 猫咪团团 时间: 2012-5-7 21:56
惨了...忘了自己已经占过座了...作者: peill 时间: 2012-5-7 22:25
1)2'35 2)+3)4'46 4)2'32 5)2'35
越障10‘34
Looks like an abstact for Professor S's book. 1. Professor S is not only a scholor, but also a thinker. He propose a kind of criminal justice system, with which we can have a better criminal justice in the future. 2. List the current situation of criminal justice system 3. Compared to the Pamagraph2, list the futher version. 4. Illustrate the three principles Professor S proposes. 5. But we should not just follow the 3 principle, but use the way S thinks. 6. Mention some drawbacks of the book.作者: bank11 时间: 2012-5-8 16:04
1. 1'57 2. 1'40 3. 2'00 4. 1'50 5. 1'57 越障： MI: A "thinker" and his view about criminal law 1. Who is the "thinker", and why call him a "thinker" 2. Basic opinions that the "thinker" held -decentrilize justice power -substence is more important than apperence -impoison is not a good choice for criminals 3. inside regulation is more important than outside punishment.作者: linkey815 时间: 2012-5-8 20:40
2:00 1:45 2:00 2:18 2:03 越障7:02.............看不下去了...对长文生词完全hold不住。。。。。。。TT作者: befine 时间: 2012-5-8 21:37
2’23 2’25 2’47 2’26 2’53 9’54
1. 审视 criminal law， S 各种好和对； 2. 当前的几个特征； 3. S prefer的 4. S 的三个principal 5. unishment < self morale 评价。作者: dwindwin1106 时间: 2012-5-10 14:42
2’10” 2’00” 2’26” 2’25” 2’50”
Bush took 2 terms. In the first term, most president conduct their main goals and the 2nd term they experienced harsh time. In Bush's 1 term, US was attacked by terrorists and Bush led US to recover and won the next presidency. During the 2 term, Bush led a war in middle Asia (mentioned Iraq,but I remembered that Bush just led a war in Afhan...), but most US people did not like the war. Also, during the second time, US experienced a recession from housing market.
At the end, VOA mentioned something about music... Seems nothing about US history.
越障：A book written by S
A book written by S demonstrated that US criminal justice was break down. S was a NB and the book introduced something about US criminal justice system.
越障~ 9'19 今天越障好难啊。。。速度的还好作者: yyjfantasy 时间: 2012-5-19 06:22
2'53 Bush's second term.He tried in some ideal for America. 2'49 the day of Hurricane Katrina. 2'54 American troops in Iraq. 2'00 2'12 people cried for a lot of things that Bush's goverment had done .
越障 9:57作者: ame 时间: 2012-7-23 10:24
越障:11:16 今天越障好难啊········作者: krddlyj 时间: 2012-7-24 00:17
6/7.22 差3行 差2行 差6行 差4行 差6行 越障 8’16 It is about reformation of US law system. All of this paper state a professor S’s statement. Firstly, it said the key features of recent law system. Secondly, which key features the professor S prefers. Third is that how to change those disadvantage by S’s opinion. First, the more local law, the better; second we need to build the law by both moral and another thing. It keeps a balance. Third we need a fair law for all country.作者: wanggang0411 时间: 2012-7-24 15:28
1 2:05 2 1:56 3 2:21 4 2:07 5 2:22 8:57 there are too many legal terms that I dont' know. I will make it up after I memorize all these words作者: wanggang0411 时间: 2012-7-25 21:59
补上 这篇很有挑战性, 要多读: Express who is WZ and What he had contributed in Law area. WZ demostrates that American criminal justic is a disaster. The key featurs of the world that Stuntz laments that we now inhabit. The key fearture of the world that Stuntz prefers. The three principal of S's diagnosis and call for transformation of the system. The agreement on S'work. The benefit of S'work for our instituional system.作者: jeffery2541 时间: 2012-7-26 09:36
真晕啦，又出现了昨天网页出现的那个情况了，速度部分的内容又白费了。。。
9‘20 S’ s dead ---make “thinker” think about criminal law S’s principal idea : the American justice collapse 2 world S said : a bad one( now) a good one( future) Introduction what the above 2 worlds like 最后两段没看懂。。。Punishment is tragide and very bad
重看了一边： author's opinion to S 's Collapse : not components to reform but a way to think justice to punishment: is tragic necessity作者: lolo噜噜 时间: 2012-7-28 22:05
1‘26 布什第二期任职 坚决打击恐怖主义和提高民主 1’31 新奥尔良一场飓风造成的毁灭性灾难 2‘00 美国人民抱怨政府没有采取有效的措施 尤其是布什那张照片 战争给伊拉克造成的灾难 伊和美的态度 美军不撤兵 2’13 布什像伊拉克增兵 称是保卫伊 布什卸任美军从伊拉克撤兵 R对布什评价 2‘15 美国偶像 美国房价一片大好 买卖双方都很高兴 但随之无力还贷使美经济萧条 越障 7’36 S的死亡印方对美国刑事法的看法作者: Freewill2012 时间: 2012-8-26 08:52
1.1'04" 2.1'02" 3.50" 4.42" 5.1'03"
越障部分内容回忆 It's a introduction of a book written by Stuntz which is about American criminal justice. The author of the book is convinced that the existing American criminal justice is problematic and offers his own opinions in the book.作者: wensd1111 时间: 2012-10-24 08:19
1 A 02:33 2 A 02:11 3 A 02:28 4 A 02:35 5 A 02:15 6 A 10:09
.list a difference between a scholar and a perfessor, and make us know that the S is one of the most notelbe figuer in american legistation history,and now he died. 2. the normal version of us law 3.the S acted in what different way to recognize the present us law system 4.sum up the S's major ideas.a. the system might cause mistake if it was put in a wide range, b, the,c,the 5. other points of S on how to make legislation accurately 6 7.作者: xohe赵 时间: 2012-12-11 09:03
02'21'' 02'24'' 02'33'' 02'37'' 02'41''
越障 果断悲剧看不懂 下来再继续看作者: wensd1111 时间: 2014-5-8 22:05
1 A 01:25
2 A 01:42
3 A 02:08
4 A 01:59
5 A 01:59
6 A 08:11
the achievements of a scholar in criminal.the idea that the professor disputes,like kkkk, the act he prise ,such as, the summury of his works, how to constructed justice society.three points. finnally, the weak point in the works. 作者: xman2009c 时间: 2014-8-17 00:57
2,13
1,56
2,16
2,07
2,13
eople.
读不下去了……
）