Democracy Now! January 11, 1999

(6 Minutes) Essay on Impeachment, the Senate and the Supreme Court, Amy Goodman (8 Minutes)The Klan Rallies on Martin Luther King Day A federal judge ruled that the Ku Klux Klan will be allowed to hold a rally at the State Capitol in Madison, WI on Jan. 16, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The ruling was the result of a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Wisconsin on behalf of the Klan, which challenged WI governor Tommy Thomson's decision barring the group from demonstrating. U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb blocked the governor's denial of the permit, ruling that the state had violated the Klan's constitutional right to free speech. Civil rights activists are planing to hold a counter-rally at the Capitol on the same date, as well as their traditional MLK parade whose route includes the State Capitol. The ACLU maintains that in defending Klan members' right to rally, it is also guaranteeing the protecting the freedom of speech and press for all Americans. Others say that with its violent history, the Klan no longer merits free speech protection. GUEST: James Cameron, survivor of 1930 Klan lynching, is the founder and president of America's Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaulkee, WI. GUEST: Phil Wilayto, Coordinator of Jobs Are a Right Campaign and author of the report "The Feeding Troth: The Bradley Fondation, the Bell Curve and the Real Story Behind w-2, WI's National Model for Welfare Reform." GUEST: Chris Ahmuty, Executive Director of the WI Chapter of the ACLU. (17 Minutes) Cruelty and Neglect in Russian Orphanages As Russians suffer through another winter of economic and political turmoil, today we look at its most vulnerable population: orphaned and abandoned children. A new report by Human Rights Watch says that thousands of Russian children abandoned to state orphanages are exposed to appalling levels of cruelty and neglect. The report concludes that children in state custodial institutitons are deprived of basic human rights at every stage of their lives, beginning at infancy. GUEST: Kathleen Hunt, researcher for Human Rights Watch and author of the report.