JUICE: Del. McIntosh & Sen. Kittleman for Legal Pot, MD for Utah LGBT Marriages, Fracking, Luiz Simmons Mail & More!

Below Maryland Juice provides a round-up of news tidbits of interest to politicos:

JUICE #1: POT LEGALIZATION ENDORSED BY DEM LEADER DEL. MAGGIE MCINTOSH & GOP SEN. ALLAN KITTLEMAN // PLUS HUGE REVENUE & NO PROBLEMS IN COLOARDO - The calls for marijuana legalization in Maryland have earned important allies in the state legislature. Delegate Maggie McIntosh, a top Democratic House leader, has endorsed proposals to tax and regulate pot like alcohol and to remove jail-time as a penalty for possession. Meanwhile, GOP State Senator Allan Kittleman, who is running for Howard County Executive, has co-sponsored marijuana legalization legislation. Del. McIntosh announced her support in the following email blast (excerpt below):

MAGGIE MCINTOSH: Last session, my colleague Curt Anderson introduced legislation that would have legalized marijuana use for adults. I supported Delegate Anderson’s bill because I believe our current drug prohibition laws are wasteful and counterproductive, taking resources away from combating drug violence and promoting treatment options for those suffering with addiction. Our current laws also overburden our judicial and prison systems, forcing many non-violent offenders into jail. Last session, the Maryland Senate also passed a bill that would have made possession of small amounts of marijuana a civil – rather than criminal – offense. This year, I fully expect both bills to be introduced again and plan to support either should they come to the House floor. The early reports on legalization efforts in Colorado and Oregon show that this approach can work.

The Washington Post's John Wagner reported on the new bi-partisan push for rolling back the failed War on Drugs in Maryland with the following article announcing support from GOP State Senator Allan Kittleman (excerpt below):

WASHINGTON POST: Sen. Allan H. Kittleman (R-Howard) said Friday that he will co-sponsor legislation that would allow regulated marijuana sales in Maryland, adding a bipartisan wrinkle to this year’s push in Annapolis. Kittleman, a Republican who is running for Howard County executive this year, said that he has agreed to work with Sen. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Montgomery) on a bill that will be unveiled next week....

Raskin’s legislation would allow sales under a similar framework that recently was set up in Colorado, with marijuana subject to state regulation and taxation. Sales would be limited to people age 21 and over, and there would be tough penalties for selling to minors.

While he has compiled a conservative record on fiscal issues in Annapolis, Kittleman supported two other high-profile liberal social policies in recent years: the legalization of same-sex marriage and the repeal of the death penalty.

“One thing most people know about me is I’m a civil libertarian,” Kittleman said. “This isn’t something I’m doing for politics. The current way we’re dealing with marijuana and the use of it by our citizens isn’t working....”

HUGE POT SALES IN COLORADO = MAJOR REVENUE BOOST: Indeed, all eyes have been on Washington and Colorado, where voters recently approved marijuana legalization at the ballot. The early reports from Colorado, where over-the-counter pot sales began last week are overwhelmingly encouraging. Denver's CBS affiliate reported on massive sales of recreational pot, indicating that the first state on the East Coast to end prohibition will face a revenue windfall (excerpt below):

CBS: The first week of legal pot salesin Colorado is over, and now some Colorado pot shops are already running out of product. In the past week, long lines of customers swamped the Colorado dispensaries that have been granted retail marijuana licenses and bought nearly $5 million worth of pot.... Many shops are limiting the amount of pot a customer can buy, and some have raised their rates....

“We are okay right now but if things go the way they are we might be also running very short,” [marijuana ship owner Moe Atieh] said. “We expected it to be very busy. Did we expect it to be this busy? No, I don’t think anybody did....”

POLICE IN COLORADO REPORT FEW PROBLEMS IN IMPLEMENTATION OF MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION - The Huffington Post reported this week that local law enforcement officials in Colorado report no real problems since marijuana sales begun this year (excerpt below):

HUFFINGTON POST: A week after Colorado dispensaries started selling recreational marijuana to adults, local law enforcers are not reporting any significant problems. In the state's largest city, there have been only four marijuana citations issued, according to the Denver Police Department. "Everything has gone relatively smooth," Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson told The Huffington Post. "We've written four citations for public consumption since Jan. 1, and that's relatively small considering the number of people consuming right now." A similar lack of trouble swept over other Colorado towns....

Consumer interest was so high the first week that many shop owners capped the amount of marijuana an individual could buy or raised prices to mitigate a possible legal weed shortage.... "Colorado is demonstrating to the rest of the world that regulating marijuana works," said Mason Tvert, communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project and a key backer of Amendment 64. He added, "The implementation process and smooth rollout of the system in Colorado is surely going to pique the interest of lawmakers and voters in other states who are also ready to move beyond prohibition and adopt more sensible policies...." The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the Department of Justice is drafting legal guidance for how banks can work with marijuana businesses in states like Colorado and Washington, which also legalized recreational marijuana for adults....

VOTERS IN FOUR STATES PLUS WASHINGTON, DC MAY VOTE ON MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION IN 2014: While Maryland continues to piddle around on the wholly uncontroversial issue of medical marijuana, U.S. News & World Report writes that four other states (Alaska, Arizona, California & Oregon) plus neighboring Washington, DC may send the issue to voters on the 2014 ballot (excerpt below):

US NEWS: One week after the nation's first recreational marijuana stores opened in Colorado, Alaska activists submitted what appear to be enough signatures to put marijuana legalization before voters. The measure – which would go up for a vote Aug. 19 – is one of several 2014 efforts that could yield a good year for pot supporters, particularly in the West....

So far, voters have been at the vanguard of legalization, blowing past state legislatures. In November 2012, more than 55 percent of Colorado and Washington voters approved initiatives to legalize the drug and open state-licensed stores – and polls suggest those successes may be replicated elsewhere.

A CNN/Opinion Research poll released Monday found 55 percent of Americans believe marijuana should be legal, compared to 44 percent who do not. Support was highest in the West – where voter-driven initiatives often become law – and in the Northeast. An October poll released by Gallup put nationwide support for legalization at 58 percent....

Residents in the nation's capital also may get a chance to vote on legalization in November. D.C. Cannabis Campaign leaders plan to submit draft ballot language Friday with the city's elections board. The proposal would legalize possession of 2 ounces and six plants by adults over 21.... Although an April PPP survey put support for legalization at 63 percent in D.C., Eidinger says supporters "can't count out the opposition" and estimates a half-million dollar campaign is necessary to win..... In addition to voter-driven initiatives, legalization bills have been proposed in at least 13 state legislatures....

JUICE #2: ATTORNEY GENERAL DOUG GANSLER ISSUES OPINION ANNOUNCING MARYLAND WILL RESPECT UTAH'S SAME-SEX MARRIAGES - The Washington Blade reported yesterday that Maryland will recognize same-sex marriages issued in Utah, which are currently suspended as courts review their legality (excerpt below):

WASHINGTON BLADE: Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler on Friday said his state would recognize same-sex marriages performed in Utah.... Gansler told the Washington Blade his office on Thursday received a call from a gay Maryland couple who married in Utah about whether the state would recognize their union. Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin on the same day urged him and attorneys general in the 17 other states that have extended marriage rights to gays and lesbians to recognize the marriages of the more than 1,300 same-sex couples who exchanged vows after U.S. District Court Judge Robert Shelby struck down the Beehive State’s gay nuptials ban. The U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 6 blocked any future same-sex marriages from taking place in Utah until the case is resolved....

Attorney General Doug Gansler also issued a press release announcing the release of his opinion (excerpt below):

PRESS RELEASE

AG Gansler: Utah Same-sex Marriages are Valid in Maryland

2010 opinion on recognition of legal same-sex marriages performed in other states underpins view that Maryland would recognize Utah unions

Baltimore, MD (January 10, 2014) – In response to a request from the Human Right Campaign, Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler has expressed his view that recent same-sex marriages legally performed in Utah should and would be recognized in Maryland. This week the United States Supreme Court issued a stay on performing such unions in Utah after a court ruling there struck down a same-sex marriage ban. As a result of that decision, Utah determined same-sex marriages to be legal and, for 17 days, more than 1300 such marriage licenses were issued until the stay by the Supreme Court ended the practice.

“Maryland will continue to recognize valid out-of-state same-sex marriages as we continue to strengthen the Constitution’s promise of equal protection under the law,” said Attorney General Gansler. “It is an affront to the idea of basic human rights that the battle for full marriage equality in this country remains in headlines and courtrooms.”

The Obama administration today also issued a statement saying that the federal government would recognize same-sex unions performed in Utah despite the fact that the state government of Utah is refusing to do....

To see the Attorney General’s 2010 Opinion on same-sex marriage visit:
http://www.oag.state.md.us/Opinions/2010/95oag3.pdf 

# # #

JUICE #3: HEATHER MIZEUR SLAMS ANTHONY BROWN OVER FRACKING ISSUE - The Baltimore Sun reported this week that Delegate Heather Mizeur is criticizing Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown's environmental platform, particularly calling out his position on fracking (excerpt below):

BALTIMORE SUN: Seeking to highlight her green credentials in the race for governor, Del. Heather Mizeur took issue Friday with the environmental platform posted this week by the front-running ticket of Lt. Anthony Brown and Howard County Executive Ken Ulman.

Mizeur's campaign issued a statement accusing Brown and Ulman of glossing over the dangers of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas and making "vague statements" about how to exploit the energy deposits in western Maryland without harming the environment or people's health.

Mizeur, D-Montgomery, has pushed unsuccessfully for years for a moratorium on "fracking" until its safety has been thoroughly studied and adequate safeguards are in place.  Though the legislation has not passed, Gov. Martin O'Malley has frozen drilling for past three years while an advisory commission on which Mizeur sits reviews the issues....

Heather Mizeur issued the following press release highlighting this difference of opinion:

PRESS RELEASE

Mizeur-Coates Campaign on Brown-Ulman’s “Environmental Values”

SILVER SPRING, Maryland — Yesterday, the Brown-Ulman campaign failed to address the significant dangers of shale gas hydraulic fracturing in their “Environmental Values.”

The Mizeur-Coates campaign released the following statement:

"In the same week the Brown-Ulman campaign released their 'environmental values,' which glossed over the dangers of fracking with vague statements about finding a path forward, the Associated Press published an investigation in which four states, including two of Maryland’s neighbors, confirmed the contamination of drinking water for families as a result of hydraulic fracturing.

Heather Mizeur is a vocal advocate for a more cautious approach. Under her leadership, the state has operated under a de facto drilling moratorium while we conduct independent analysis of the environmental and public health safety threats of this controversial practice. Delegate Mizeur is teaming up with Frederick Senator Ron Young to introduce a bill this session that provides for an 18-month legislative review period guaranteeing the General Assembly a chance to act on the policy recommendations from the safety study’s commission report.

This is our last chance to keep Maryland from unregulated shale gas drilling. The current state study—which so far lacks adequate funding and appropriate risk analysis—is due out later this year. We know the moment the study concludes there will be enormous pressure on the Administration to drill. The Shale Gas Drilling Safety Review Act will give us more confidence that science and the public interest—not special interest politics—will prevail in Maryland. If clean water is truly non-negotiable, then we must act on this now.”

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JUICE #4: ATTEND A MARYLAND GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATES DEBATE IN MOCO ON THU, JAN 30 - Leisure World Democratic activist Paul Bessel sent Maryland Juice the following announcement of a gubernatorial candidates debate at MoCo's largest retirement community (details below):

EVENT FLYER: MD Gubernatorial Debate THU 1/30/14

JUICE #5: DISTRICT 17 SENATE RACE HEATS UP AS DEL. LUIZ SIMMONS SENDS DIRECT MAIL HIGHLIGHTING CHERYL KAGAN "MUDSLINGING" - Though many political observers believe it is very early in the election cycle to be spending resources on direct mail, Delegate Luiz Simmons has come out of the gates swinging with the following piece criticizing rival candidate Cheryl Kagan:

JUICE #6: CASEY ANDERSON DECIDES AGAINST RUNNING FOR MOCO COUNCIL DISTRICT 5  //  PLUS: MOCO PLANNING BOARD CHAIR FRANCOISE CARRIER RETIRING - Montgomery County Planning Board member Casey Anderson has indicated to Maryland Juice that he's decided not to run in the Democratic Primary for Valerie Ervin's District 5 Council seat. He will instead be seeking to Chair the Planning Board, given that the current Chair Francoise Carrier has announced she will not seek another four-year term. Patch.com reported on the development (excerpt below):

PATCH: Montgomery County Planning Board Chair Françoise Carrier announced Friday that she will not seek a second term as chair, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission reported in a news release.

In a Thursday evening email to Montgomery County Planning and Parks Department staff, Carrier wrote that: "It is with mixed feelings that I write to tell you I have decided not to seek a second term as Planning Board Chair. It has been wonderful working with such fine people, and I will always love this agency, but for me, one term feels right."

Carrier was appointed in 2010 by the Montgomery County Council, and her time as board chair "has been marked as one of the busiest and most productive terms during the [Planning] Board’s history, with the approval of Master Plans such as: Chevy Chase Lake, Takoma/Langley, Glenmont, Countywide Transit Corridors Functional Plan and Long Branch," the news release stated....

JUICE #7: TODAY IS THE ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF MY FRIEND AARON SWARTZ  //  TAKE A MOMENT TO UNDERSTAND HIS IMPACT - One year ago today, Aaron Swartz, my friend and colleague at Demand Progress committed suicide. He was a brilliant activist and technologist who co-founded reddit.com, Demand Progress, and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC). He was also involved in development of open information technologies like RSS 1.0 and Creative Commons, and it should be noted that flunkeys in the Obama administration including DOJ Chief Eric Holder and U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz brought trumped up felony criminal charges against him, threatening him with over 35 years in prison and erasing the money the 26-year-old had amassed through his entrepreneurial endeavors. I finally broke my silence about all of these horrifying incidents in a lengthy piece I wrote last July called "Hacking Politics."

But since then, those of us who knew and worked with Aaron have not given up on advancing his vision, which included challenging corporate power, tackling mass incarceration, and ensuring the Internet remains a place for dialogue free from censorship and undue surveillance. In fact, we're doubling down on fighting the excesses and overreach of the powered and money interests dominating society today. Wired magazine published an article about Aaron's legacy today (excerpt below):

WIRED: Internet activist Aaron Swartz took his own life one year ago today. He was 26 years old and facing federal hacking and fraud charges for downloading millions of academic articles using MIT’s network. Before his passing, he was on outspoken advocate for freedom of information and a founder of Demand Progress, the nonprofit that invigorated a successful grassroots effort to fight the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in 2012.

Swartz was, as WIRED’s Kevin Poulsen wrote a “coder with a conscience,” and in a clip premiering today on WIRED from director Brian Knappenberger’s forthcoming documentary The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz, more than a few web visionaries remember him for the important work he did and the legacy he created.

“I think Aaron was trying to make the world work – he was trying to fix it,” says World Wide Web founder Tim Berners-Lee. “So he was a bit ahead of his time....”

Swartz’s fight for rights online has only been brought more intensely into focus in the year since his death, largely due to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. To see him talk about government spying in this documentary at a time before the Snowden leaks is especially chilling now. But thanks to Knappenberger’s documentary – and other actions being taken to remember the internet activist – the conversation he started can continue....

Indeed, Maryland Juice will be heading to the Sundance Film Festival next week for the premiere of "The Internet's Own Boy," a documentary which promises to further embolden those of us involved in organizing for social justice and Internet Freedom. You can watch the trailer for the film, along with a special selection of interviews below:

Members of Congress have also not forgotten the unjust prosecution of Aaron Swartz (who incidentally faced more jail time than typically given to rapists and molesters). Techdirt reports that elected officials are calling on Eric Holder for real answers to their questions, instead of the same vague and defensive explanations they've provided for their overzealous prosecution (excerpt below):

TECHDIRT: Tomorrow is the anniversary of the unfortunate passing of Aaron Swartz. Senators John Cornyn and Al Franken, along with Rep. Darryl Issa, have now sent Attorney General Eric Holder yet another request for an explanation concerning the investigation and prosecution of Swartz. This follows on a similar request from last year, but these elected officials note both that the DOJ's response was inadequate, and that it was also contradicted by the eventual report on the prosecution that came out of MIT....
 

The MIT Report indicates that Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Heymann considered other factors in advance of the return of the superseding indictment. He told MIT that "the straw that broke the camel's back" was an internet webpage soliciting signatures on Mr. Swartz's behalf by Demand Progress, an activist group founded by Mr. Swartz.

In other words, despite the claims from Holder that the charges against Aaron were not based on Swartz exercising his right to free speech, Stephen Heymann has since admitted that, in fact, Swartz's friends speaking out on his behalf were what made him decide to try to throw the book at Swartz....

Indeed, those of us at Demand Progress did attempt to fight the DOJ's ridiculous prosecution of Aaron Swartz, and Eric Holder's minions responded by adding more trumped up charges against my friend. This has been an unpleasant reminder that those of us fighting for the common good must prioritize justice over party politics. But in the meantime, please:
 

#OccupyLife

HACKING POLITICS: The Death of Aaron Swartz, The Birth of Maryland Juice & State Senator David Brinkley // Read My Book

MYSTERIES OF MARYLAND JUICE REVEALED

Dear Maryland Juice Reader:

Maryland Juice's alter-ego (David Moon) has just co-authored a new book called "Hacking Politics" [Paperback available now & eBook available on a "Pay What You Want" basis for a limited time]. The collection of writings from myself and numerous figures in tech policy and online organizing chronicles the 2012 battle to defeat Internet censorship legislation called SOPA/PIPA. But rather than post some self-congratulatory and shameless plug for the project, I thought it would be better to break my silence on a few matters in the fairly lengthy piece below. 

What does it mean to actually "be the change?"

INTRODUCTION: I thought it was about time for me to provide a little bit of context surrounding the circumstances of this blog's formation and explain why I volunteer my spare time to expose the inner workings of Maryland's political system. Along the way, you'll read some hints about my future plans, and you'll also hear a few untold stories about how my work on Maryland Juice relates to the late Internet activist Aaron Swartz and (oddly) to Maryland State Senator David Brinkley. The collective of political hackers called Anonymous even makes a cameo appearance (kind of). 

I've been steadily working on this piece over the course of the last few months but always found myself lacking the mental energy (and the time) to finish the job. In recent weeks, however, several incidents have pushed this persistent "almost-article" into the front of my mind.

It's been great meeting so many wonderful people around the area over the last year and discovering that they are readers of Maryland Juice. I am truly honored that you've chosen to spend time reading about Free State politics through this progressive civil libertarian's lens. But I've also heard from a few detractors who say my blog is biased, sometimes snarky, and might even have an agenda. Let me be clear: I think that's exactly the point.

Maryland Juice was formed in August 2011, a few months after I started working for an Internet activist group called Demand Progress. I had decided to take a pause from campaign work after several years of back-to-back election cycles on the trail for a range of candidates including State Senators Jamie Raskin & Rich Madaleno; Delegates Al Carr, Ana Sol Gutierrez & Jeff Waldstricher; MoCo Councilmembers Nancy Navarro & Hans Riemer; and the Maryland Democratic ticket in 2010. After that election cycle, I even applied for a job trying to bring my electoral reform experience (built up while working at a group called FairVote), to try and setup an election monitoring system in Tunisia. I needed to be working on something different.

But instead I ended up at Demand Progress, and the work I was doing there very quickly began to influence the way I approached how to use my blog. Remember that nationally Democrats had just gone through the bruising Tea Party cycle of 2010. So somewhere between the models of the Maryland Politics Watch blog and the aggressive activist tactics of The Tea Party, Occupy, Susan G. Komen protests, and more -- I started developing a new theory of change for progressive politics. I had already tried affecting change on the campaign trail, in nonprofits, through ballot measures, with a law degree, with a PAC, in primaries, in generals, and even from within the government itself. But weaponizing information (especially information that might go viral) was something new to me.

Naturally, Maryland Juice began coopting some of the tactics I saw providing some measure of success for online organizers and conservative activists. For example, when the political shaming strategies of Rupert Murdoch's rightwing NewsCorp were revealed to the world, I paid close attention. The curation of Maryland Juice is an experiment in learning from some of the aforementioned tactics -- but unlike some other pratictioners, I've been trying to use these strategies to promote social and economic justice. And during much of the time I've been writing the blog, I've had an entirely parallel activist life that I haven't talked about much on Maryland Juice -- until now.

The tragic events described below have made me impatient for change and determined to shock the conscience of voters into awakening. As a result, the blog itself has over time evolved into an aggressive attempt to hack politics. You and I are participating in an experiment in state-based progressive activism that I call Maryland Juice, and among the central theories driving this project are the ideas that to create change we must insist that decorum and inertia yield to justice, and that we must stop "waiting for Superman" to fix politics.

DECORUM MUST YIELD TO JUSTICE: This point was never so clear to me as it was last January, when my friend and colleague Aaron Swartz hung himself with a belt from the window of his Brooklyn, New York apartment. He was only 26 years old. 

Aaron co-founded and helped develop numerous cutting-edge sites and online information-sharing technologies including reddit.com, RSS 1.0, Creative Commons, and (as we discovered after his death) the New Yorker's online system for receiving anonymous news tips. His high-profile pursuits were noted as early as age 14, marking the arrival of one of the most interesting child prodigies of our time. This August Aaron is posthumously being inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame alongside titans like Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and a documentary film is being made about his life (watch the trailer). Lastly, in response to Aaron's high-profile death, last month a bill called "Aaron's Law" was introduced in Congress to prevent future tragedies. 

You see, the U.S. Department of Justice (under Eric Holder's leadership) decided to try and make a criminal out of Aaron and threatened him with thirty-five years in prison for unbelievably trumped up felony "hacking" charges. In truth, if Aaron had been convicted, he would've been a political prisoner. I explain why down below.

---

"Be curious. Read widely. Try new things. I think a lot of what people call intelligence just boils down to curiosity."

 - Aaron Swartz 1986-2013

---

Practically the entire time I knew Aaron and worked with him, he was living under the cloud of a menacing prosecution. But he was intensely private about the whole affair and refused to do more than shrug his shoulders when I asked him about it. I would later come to discover that Aaron's friends were being dragged before federal officials to testify against him. All the while, Aaron kept his head high and continued his activist work and projects. He never stopped thinking about ways to make positive change on complex issues of justice. But in some ways I feel I may have let him down, as there would come to be signs that the prosecution was taking a personal toll on him.

MAY 2012: AARON SWARTZ FOR NY MAYOR? - One of the last times I saw Aaron alive, he had come to Silver Spring, Maryland (near where I live) to give the keynote speech at the annual Freedom to Connect conference. I didn't arrive at the AFI Silver Theatre in time to hear his remarks, though the YouTube replay has now been viewed by over 400,000 people. Sadly, I couldn't have known then that this would be one of Aaron's final public addresses. Nevertheless, after his speech Aaron wanted a ride to Union Station so that he could catch the next train back to New York. And as soon as we got in my car, he asked plainly, "what's on your mind these days?" Aaron was always curious to hear more about what others were working on.

I described to him my frustrations with the lack of political courage on criminal justice reforms that would end the mass incarceration of Americans for non-violent offenses (who, by the way, are disproportionately poor and of color). I ranted about the fact that across the nation, Democrats had all but given up on challenging corporate power in our political system. And I also told Aaron I had been thinking about running for public office in Maryland.

Given Aaron's interest in open information, I tried to tickle his interest in experiments with activist legislating for the cause. In particular, I described to him some possible things an elected official could do to force complacent legislative leaders to grant the public access to information about what their government is doing. Maryland, for example, had only recently started publishing committee votes online. But why couldn't a diligent lawmaker simply have gotten some staff or interns to systematically scan and publicly upload all of the committee votes themselves? And just like that, we started gaming out different ways of going rogue to create disclosure of government proceedings that the public ought to be able to see.

It was at this time that Aaron told me he had recently plotted out a hypothetical run for New York mayor in his head, as he wanted to see what it would take to mount a serious bid. Though it didn't seem he was actually talking about running, it was clear to me that this was a continuation of a conversation we had the first time I met Aaron only one and a half years earlier.

DECEMBER 2010: HACKING POLITICS - In September 2010 Aaron co-founded the online activist organization Demand Progress with my high school friend, former Rhode Island State Rep. and congressional candidate David Segal (who grew up in Montgomery County). Aaron and David brought me in to serve as Demand Progress' "Washington Guy" a few months after launching the organization. Though Aaron is not able to see what's become of his work with us, I think he would be pleased to know that we now amplify the voices of 1.5 million members in the aggressive defense of civil liberties, progressive causes and Internet freedom.

At the time, Aaron was most widely known as an open information advocate, who happened to believe that access to taxpayer funded academic research should not be a luxury reserved for wealthy nations and institutions. He was also a wildly creative and idealistic activist who looked for opportunities to make real change. When PACER (the U.S. court system's database of federal court documents) announced a pilot project to provide free access to public records at some libraries, Aaron found a way to download millions of the court documents and upload them into the cloud. Like a modern-day Robin Hood, Aaron made the files publicly available and was investigated by the FBI for his activism. At the time, PACER charged users 8 cents per page for public records and allegedly ran a surplus of nearly $150 million. 

Though Aaron's PACER stunt was discussed in the mainstream media, I didn't know about the law enforcement distaste for his tactics when I first started working for Demand Progress. A passage from my new book Hacking Politics describes the first time I met Aaron Swartz, and it also details the beginning of a running dialogue we had about how to get justice-minded candidates to seek public office (excerpt below):

DAVID MOON (VIA HACKING POLITICS) - [Demand Progress'] primary function is to mobilize the public to advance civil liberties and progressive causes. We do so primarily during key moments in the public dialogue, when the actions of a few can be leveraged into results for many more.... Our work to stop SOPA/PIPA ... fits the paradigm for activism today: harnessing grassroots disruption to advance social change....  The Arab Spring protests, Occupy, the Tea Party, and Anonymous have all illuminated this paradigm shift.

My involvement with Demand Progress began on December 20, 2010, when I met the young Internet activist Aaron Swartz for coffee in Washington, D.C.'s Dupont Circle. I had never heard of Aaron or his work -- but over time, I quickly saw that he was trying to trigger many of the same policy changes I sought to advance....

But my first meeting with Aaron wasn't even really about [Internet censorship legislation called] COICA or Demand Progress. Instead, I asked Aaron to describe his broad vision of what he hoped Demand Progress might achieve. Aaron expressed immense frustration with the political process and stated that his dream was to see well-meaning grassroots candidates running for office in every district in the nation. Privately, I thought the idea sounded a bit grandiose (at least in the context of trying to create a short-term strategic plan for an organization), but that was mostly beside the point: it was clear that I shared Aaron's sense of impatience with a broken political system and his desire to go big....

FEBRUARY 2012: A CAMEO BY ANONYMOUS (KIND OF) - By February 2012, Demand Progress was reveling in the glow of the unexpected defeat of the SOPA/PIPA legislation. That month I spoke on a panel at DC Social Media week titled, "Who was Really Behind the Internet Blackout Day? A SOPA & PIPA Case Study." It was a great event and a community celebration for Internet freedom fighters, but after the event I was approached by a gentleman who handed me a business card that had no text on it and simply displayed a bizarre pattern of shapes. When I gave him a puzzled look, he stated, "I'm anonymous. But I may be in touch." I don't know if those were his exact words, but you get the idea. Given recent high-profile news coverage of hacktivism, I assumed my mysterious new acquaintance was affiliated with the Anonymous (eg: the one with a capital "A"). As it would turn out, I never heard from him again, but the run-in would cause some confusion weeks later.

Indeed, soon after speaking at DC Social Media Week, and I can't remember exactly when, I received a USB flash drive in an unmarked manilla envelope in the mail. When I opened the unmarked package and saw the disk drive with no accompanying note, I immediately gulped, as I conjured up all sorts of crazy stories about what was on the drive or what might happen if I inserted it into my computer. By this time, I was already aware of the federal charges facing Aaron, so I thought it best to explore the mystery of the flash drive at a later date. With that decision made, I took the envelope and flash drive and threw them into the trunk of my car -- where they sat for months. Life and work, as is normal, diverted my attention from extracurricular activities such as this new mystery.

JUNE 2012: DARK DAYS FOR AARON SWARTZ - In June 2012, I was invited to speak on a panel at the annual Netroots Nation conference (the topic was SOPA/PIPA organizing again). I remembered that the USB flash drive was still sitting in my car and decided I would bring it to the gathering in Providence, Rhode Island. I was finally ready to explore its contents. 

At this point in time, Demand Progress was still trying to steady its fundraising operations, so I was trying to find other activists to share my hotel room with me. I ended up bunking with Aaron and his girlfriend Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman. Taren and I were both speaking on panels at the conference, and Aaron's attendance was actually a last minute decision. As the story goes, Taren had boarded a train to Providence, and Aaron was feeling down and wanted to be with her. He happened to be near New York Penn Station when talking to her on the phone and realized that the next train to arrive would be the one that Taren was aboard. So Aaron jumped on Taren's train and joined us in Providence.

Admittedly, I found the living arrangements a bit awkward, as I wanted to give Taren and Aaron some personal space. Our first night together was fine, as we were mostly all tired upon arrival, and the next morning Taren and I woke up and departed to our various panels. Aaron, however, stayed behind in the room. When I returned sometime after lunch, he was alone in the room with the shades drawn shut in total darkness. When I asked if he was going to come out with me, he stated that he wasn't yet ready to partake in the conference. I didn't think much of this. 

But I returned yet again in the early evening as the famous Netroots Nation happy hours and parties were about to begin and demanded he come out to socialize with some of our activist friends. Aaron promised he would meet up with me at one of the parties being sponsored by this or that progressive organization, and then he disappeared back into the darkness of the cave he had created for himself. Today I wonder whether this was a sign of the mental toll the federal prosecution was taking on him.

For whatever reason, this situation didn't seem so bizarre to me at the time, as I knew Aaron to be a bit eccentric and often not interested in mindless socializing. In fact, he was staying with me once on my birthday, and during my party he shut himself in my guest room as soon as people started singing to Journey. "What's going on down there?" he asked like a father might. That weekend, he enjoyed himself much more in my company when others were not around. I introduced him to the HBO television show Bored to Death and the rock band The Black Keys, and that seemed more his speed. In any case, with that experience in mind, I decided to give Aaron and Taren some space during the rest of the conference. Rather than continuing to intrude on their time together, I slept on the spare bed in the hotel room of one of my friends and former colleagues (Vermont State Rep. Chris Pearson of the Progressive Party -- a disruptive catalyst for change in his own right).

FLASH DRIVE MYSTERY SOLVED BY SEN. DAVID BRINKLEY - The morning after I was exposed to Aaron's dark day of solitude in our hotel room, I went back to our shared quarters to fetch some things. It was around lunchtime and Aaron was sitting in bed clacking away on his laptop. This time he allowed sunlight to penetrate the room.

I told Aaron that I brought a mysterious disk drive with me to the conference, and I disclosed to him the story about the man with the wordless business card. He immediately jumped out of bed and insisted we go down to the business center to explore the contents of the device. Aaron's face lit up with curiosity, and he was alive like I hadn't seen him during the rest of the conference. This was, in fact, the first time I had succeeded in getting him out of the hotel room.

So Aaron and I marched down to the business center at the conference to borrow one of their desktop computers. After all, I had refused to open the flash drive on my own computer. Hilariously, I had my own laptop in my hand, and the clerk at the business center inquired why we needed to use his computer when we had our own. I hadn't considered that one might wonder about this, and I stammered some garbled words in response. I thought the jig was up. But I quickly recovered and stated something about needing to print documents from their machine, and we proceeded to rent one of their computers.

When I finally loaded the USB drive into the computer, my excitement turned into disappointment. There were exactly two files on the drive, and they were both labeled something like "David Brinkley 911 Call." It turned out that the mysterious package had nothing to do with hacktivsm or Anonymous at all. The real story behind the anonymous mailing was that Maryland Republicans were embroiled in a heated primary race for the 6th Congressional seat held by GOP Rep. Roscoe Bartlett at the time. A State Senator named David Brinkley was challenging Bartlett in the primary, and someone had sent me copies of 911 audio recordings relating to a domestic disturbance at Brinkley's house. Obviously, they were hoping I would post the tapes on my blog Maryland Juice. At the time, I had decided to start writing about and weighing in on the horserace aspects of the GOP primary battle, since the mainstream media was seemingly not doing too much in-depth coverage of the race. 

The primary was held during April 2012, but I was so terrified of the unmarked package that whoever sent it to me probably had no idea I wouldn't even look at the contents until well after the election was over. As a result, the anonymous sender was later forced to post the 911 call tapes on YouTube and send them to me by email. Though the resulting Maryland Juice story caused quite a stir in state politics, I didn't even bother to tell Aaron what was on the flash drive. Instead, when he asked what the files were, I didn't think he'd be interested in the story. So I just told him that the fiiles were related to my blog. But now I wish I told him the full story, as I think he would've been amused. Oh well.

JANUARY 2013: THE DEATHS OF AARON SWARTZ & NORM GLEICHMAN - Around 2:30 am on Saturday, January 12, 2013, I received a Google news alert informing me that my friend and colleague Aaron Swartz had committed suicide just hours earlier. Given our work together on Demand Progress, in pro forma fashion, I had subscribed to news alerts mentioning Aaron. I was out of the house the night of Aaron's death and didn't know that the multiple missed calls were attempts to reach me about the shocking news. But when I got home and realized what was going on, I quickly made a late-night phone call to my tired sounding Demand Progress colleague David Segal. After confirming that the news alert was in fact true, I went to bed stunned and emotionally numb.

After just a few hours of uneasy rest, I bolted awake the next morning and quickly grabbed my smartphone to read any email messages that may have come through while I was sleeping. Though I was seeking more information about Aaron's death, I was instead astonished to read a Facebook message from a friend in Takoma Park informing me that our mutual friend Norm Gleichman died suddenly and unexpectedly while on vacation with his family. I first met Norm, a senior attorney in SEIU's national office, while managing Jamie Raskin's insurgent campaign for State Senate in 2006, and though we both mingled in some overlapping political circles, I actually knew Norm mostly in a non-political context. I had been over to his house a few times to have dinner with his family and also saw him shine as a thespian taking on the lead role in the Greenbelt Arts Center's 2009 production of the play "Amadeus." One of my friends briefly dated Norm's daughter and yet another had been working with Norm in SEIU's legal department for the past couple years. So when my wife Melinda and I moved close to Norm and his wife Marie's house in Takoma Park last year, we were excited to reconnect with them and have them over to our house for dinner. We've finally completed a year of mayhem living in a house undergoing renovations and are ready to entertain, but alas we will now miss the company of Norm, too.

Aaron Swartz and Norm Gleichman died on the same day under wildly divergent circumstances, and attending the two funerals in quick succession left me with a lasting psychic scar. But somehow Aaron's voluntary taking of his own life rattled me more than perhaps I've been able to comprehend. I had only weeks earlier met up with him at the December 2012 RootsCamp organizing conference in Washington, DC. That was the last time I ever saw Aaron in-person, but in our final conversation together, we caught up on our discussion about my potential run for office and Aaron followed-up by connecting me via email to an academic he knew who was working on the issue of mass incarceration in America. We also talked about maybe getting together later that weekend, but again I got too busy to actually meet up with Aaron. That would've been my last opportunity to chat with him about anything.

Aaron did, however, contact me on Twitter ten days before his death with a warning to protect one of my own accounts, which was probably spamming him with nonsense. His final message to me (though helpful at the time) now means something more to me than its ordinary tone would suggest. With all that must have been going on in his head, I can't even believe that he spent a nano-second writing this message to me:

CONCLUSION: Aaron and I never had the opportunity to finish our ongoing conversation, let alone even continue it. And so now I am continuing this dialogue directly with you instead. Maryland Juice is obviously not a mainstream media outlet, nor are we just another news blog or online political column. This operation is yet another experiment in Hacking Politics ... one reader at a time. Much, much more on the next steps soon. In the meantime:

#OccupyLife

MORE DETAILS ON MY BOOK: HACKING POLITICS -  Hacking Politics chronicles the 2012 battle to defeat Internet censorship legislation called SOPA/PIPA. I co-authored the book with former Rhode Island Rep. David Segal, and former George W. Bush webmaster Patrick Ruffini. The strategies and work style reflected in the chapters I wrote are a window into the ethos of Maryland Juice. Though the book widely concerns a policy battle over Internet Freedom, I hope it is a useful case study for thinking about organizing more broadly. Our coalition's efforts culminated in a dramatic Internet-wide blackout of websites including Google, Wikipedia, Craigslist, and Mozilla. Along the way, our ragtag coalition came to include technologists, Tea Partiers, progressives, businesses, civil libertarians, and literally millions of ordinary Internet users around the nation. We went up against a massive coalition of industry interests including giants in the pharmaceutical industry, Hollywood, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce -- and we prevailed. 

Hacking Politics details how it all went down from the perspective of numerous key participants, and in doing so shines the light on the massive influence of special interests in Congress -- and how to fight back guerilla-style. The book includes colorful stories and insightful commentary from Aaron Swartz, lawmakers including Ron Paul and Rep. Zoe Lofgren, musicians like Erin McKeown and Jonny 5 of the Flobots, as well as advocates from a range of websites including Google, reddit, Megaupload, Cheezburger, Suicide Girls, and more. I hope you might check it out at: http://www.orbooks.com/catalog/hacking-politics-2

You can also watch a crude trailer I previously made for the book below:



NOTE: I am doubtful that simply mentioning my interest in public office in a single article on a blog that predates the creation of my committee requires an authority line, but just in case, this particular article alone may be considered: By Authority: Friends of David Moon. Treasurer: Usman Ahmed.