MJ Hegar for President!

Mario Cuomo - In Memorium

HT to CB for this find.

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Jason Carter For Governor!

Not the way it used to be.

Scandal in Colorado!

Secretary of State for Colorado, Scott Gessler.

Scott Gessler is a one-man sleeper-cell for the GOP in Colorado. Very quietly in 2010 he amassed vast sums of money from the Republican Party to ensure his victory as the Secretary of State in Colorado. When Michael Steele, then chairman of the Republican Party visited Fort Collins in 2010 I attended his rally at the GOP headquarters inside an out-of-business blockbuster video on College Avenue. During the rally I noticed particular attention being paid to Gesslar by Steele. Gessler was the only politician to position himself in close physical proximity to Steele who was a controversial figure at the time.

Why all the love and attention?  This was all part of a quiet campaign by Steele to Gerrymander congressional districts across the country in favor of the Republican Party.  If you are not familiar with what Gerrymandering  is let me tell you. It is the process by which a political group manipulates geographical boundaries of certain voting districts to favor their group overall.

This is precisely what has happened in Northern Colorado in 2012. To understand this you need to know about the liberal/conservative distribution in the State of Colorado. Though there are pockets of liberals in the western mountains there are just as many conservative families up there as well. Neither group really have the numbers to make a big difference in the congressional districts. Looking down on the front-range, Boulder Colorado has historically been a liberal hub. But, over the last decade there has been some spill over as intra-national transplants have discovered the other cool parts of Colorado. 

As with any liberalization of an area the seeds started growing from the the centers of higher learning.  In Colorado this is partly true but there is a bit of a catch.  Denver and Boulder are chocked full of University students and have traditionally voted more to the left. Whereas Colorado Springs to the south, does not have such a liberal contingent.  though there are some private Universities there The Air Force Academy, Focus on the Family and more mega-churches than you can shake a stick at pretty much dominate the political climate in those parts. Now we come to my town - Fort Collins the jewel of Northern Colorado. Smack between Denver and Laramie Wyoming, Fort Collins is balanced town with just as many patchouli-drenched organic farmers as there are wrangler wearing country folk. Home to Colorado State University it is not uncommon to see someone donning Carhartts and cashmere.

I have called Fort Collins home for seven years and have watched as droves of bicycle-riding artists and musicians have taken up residence in this high flat sunny place.  The scales of reason have tipped gradually toward the left since I moved here.  Alas, my new home has now been tainted by the schemes of the Secretary of State, Scott Gessler.  Before 2010 it used to be that Fort Collins was the only large University town in its congressional district. I thought this was great as it pulled our representatives more to the center as they had to compromise with the ranchers and farmers of the high plains for a balanced approach to taxes and government programs for the area. But now the congressional districts have been redrawn and Fort Collins is now in the same geographical voting-bloc as Boulder. The powers that be have corralled  all the liberal folks into one big pen. By doing so they have minimized the liberal voice in Colorado. Instead of two slots for potentially liberal congress men or women there is just one.

See for yourself below.       The 2010 districts...

And here are the 2012 congressional districts!!!

Conclusion? Gerrymandering! In my opinion this is unconstitutional discrimination. The repercussions of this redistricting don't just affect Colorado but the entire nation as the new batch of Federal congress people will not be representing a fair cross-section of the American people. Redistricting in order to confine either side of the political spectrum to one geographical area only feeds the negative feedback cycle of political polarization rampant in America these days.

I do not care that the one person, one vote dogma is being followed. The spirit of the constitution is being violated!!!

Charter Schools - Opinion

By Kristopher Hite

When I say I do not like charter schools I mean it. I mean it because I see their proliferation as a shift towards privatization in general. I perceive privatization as an all-encompassing ideological philosophy of many politicians; Margaret Spellings, George W. Bush, and Donald Rumsfeld to name a few. I agree with the Democrats who were outraged at W for slipping in "school vouchers" to his last re-signings of No Child Left Behind (NCLB).

From the Washington Post -

"Democrats in Congress assailed the plan -- which also would allow low-performing schools to override union contracts or become charter schools despite state laws limiting their creation -- and expressed concern that the politically charged proposals could delay the reauthorization, which is scheduled for this year." ~ from July 2007. 

I see school vouchers as a more extreme version of charter schools - a move away from public schooling as traditionally understood. While reading about NCLB I came across several provisions of the act leading to increased number of charter schools.

"A fifth year of failure results in planning to restructure the entire school; the plan is implemented if the school fails to hit its AYP targets for the sixth year in a row. Common options include closing the school, turning the school into a charter school, hiring a private company to run the school, or asking the state office of education to run the school directly."

It seems as though all roads out of NCLB lead to a privatized world which upsets me. To me, many of the most powerful Republicans somehow swoon over the teachings of a man with whom I vehemently disagree - Milton Friedman.

From the school voucher wiki -

 "Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman argued for the modern concept of vouchers in the 1950s, stating that competition would improve schools and cost efficiency. The view further gained popularity with the 1980 TV broadcast of Friedman's series Free to Choose for which volume 6 was devoted entirely to promoting "educational freedom" through programs like school vouchers. In some Southern states during the 1960s, school vouchers were used as a method of perpetuating segregation. In a few instances, public schools were closed outright and vouchers were issued to parents. The vouchers, in many cases, were only good at privately segregated schools, known as segregation academies. Today, all modern voucher programs prohibit racial discrimination."

This brings me full circle to my stance on charter schools vouchers and NCLB in general. I perceive NCLB as a well intentioned act of congress carrying a Trojan horse filled with little pro-privatization Milton Friedman time-bombs. I see these privatization ideals as detrimental to communities throughout our educated democracy.

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