The Transpartisan Times

Center For Progressive Leadership 2011 Political Leaders Fellowship

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen G. Barr) — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 10:49:00 +0000

The Center for Progressive Leadership is extending the application deadline for the Arizona Political Leaders Fellowship. We have received great nominations and incredible applications, but we know that there are more determined, passionate progressive leaders out there who want to take their leadership to the next level. Maybe it’s you or someone you know.

Through training, coaching and projects, the program gives up-and-coming leaders the skills and networks they need to advance progressive political change in their communities. To find out more about the Fellowship, CLICK HERE. Take a few moments to nominate someone you believe is the kind of leader Arizona needs. If you are the kind of leader your community needs, apply now.

The new application deadline is Monday, December 13th.

Please let us know if you have any questions. Contact us at 602-254-1495 or Arizona@progressiveleaders.org.

CPL Newsletter

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen G. Barr) — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 22:05:00 +0000

State Director & Vice President of all State Operations Message

Dear Alum:

Since our last alumni newsletter, there have been a lot of happenings here in CPL-Arizona and in the other states we operate in as well.

The Wisconsin office opened in early July with the hiring of Tracy Williams-Maclin as state director. Tracy comes to CPL with a wealth of experience and expertise standing behind her. Some of her previous positions include serving as the Senior Program Officer for the Greater Milwaukee Foundation; Director of the Office of Multicultural Relations for Cardinal Stritch University; and Assistant Director & Program Manager of Education and Training for the Milwaukee Urban League. A past fellow and graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Executive Education Program, she most recently completed the NYU Women of Color Policy Network Fellowship. She earned her Bachelor's of Science from Northern Illinois University and her Master's of Science in business management from Cardinal Stritch University. In addition to being engaged in a number of projects and Boards dedicated to social justice, she serves as an adjunct professor at Concordia University. We are thrilled to have Tracy on-board and invite you to meet her if you're ever in Milwaukee.

Our recent graduating class of Fellows produced two very successful fundraising events in Phoenix and Tucson. Christine Pelosi, daughter of Nancy Pelosi, was an excellent keynote speaker on August 5th at the Wyndham in Phoenix, with over 100 people in the room. And Congressman Grijalva had some 60+ guests in Tucson sitting on the edge of their seats as he shared his views on the impact of the conservative right movement. All in all, our Fellows raised almost $20,000 that will be doubled by a matching grant and applied to our scholarship and sponsorship fund.
Approximately one-third of you, our alumni, showed your support with donations and encouraging Fellows to complete their PPLPs (remember those!). Thank you for not only supporting this fundraising project of our Fellows…but for supporting our Fellows!

As mentioned in the last newsletter, CPL implemented the first of its long-term tracking process which will be on-going. We began with two and five year graduates of the Political Leaders Fellowship in all of our states. Here are some of the highlights from the survey:

38% work full-time in progressive political, organizing, advocacy or policy work
Nearly 50% have been actively involved in electoral campaigns (federal, state legislature and local) as a volunteer
1/3 of the alumni who participated in the survey serve in either elected or appointed leadership positions
67% are considering running for an elected office in the near future and 25% have run for office since graduating
81% say that the Fellowship had a high or very high impact on their political and leadership skills

At present, we are recruiting for Class V of the Political Leaders Fellowship; upgrading curriculum for our Local Progressive Candidate Training Program; and developing new programs that we hope to introduce in 2011 - including advance training for graduate Fellows. We'll keep you posted.

As always, thank you all for your untiring support.

Phoenix Based SGB Media Group Announces Major Strategic Alliances During 2nd Quarter

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen G. Barr) — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 10:26:00 +0000

Email PDF Print

Phoenix, AZ (PRWEB) August 14, 2010
Phoenix based SGB Media Group's CEO and Group Publisher Stephen G. Barr announced today the formation of five new strategic business partnerships during the second quarter of 2010. Citing an avalanche of new business orders for social media marketing services and proprietary social network development.

"We've been at the social network development game now for ten years and used to have people say we were crazy and that Facebook, and Twitter were just passing fads but now we've had to outsource some of the specialty tasks to newly formed strategic alliance partners in order to keep up with demand." says Barr. Barr went on to say "Each of the new strategic alliance partners were carefully selected by myself personally as we now will be reflections of each other's brands and reputations within the business community which is something we take very seriously."

Strategic business partnerships we formed with the following entities:

talentPOD, LLC - Scottsdale, AZ - A social media marketing company that specializes in the development and ongoing administration of proprietary social networks for the nonprofit and community focused organization sectors utilizing the full capacity of cutting edge, emerging technologies benefiting local, state, national and international communities. Social relevance and impact are the cornerstones of our inspiration. Formed in 2008 by Bill Stalnaker, CEO and Joe Stalnaker, CTO and Barr now assuming the position of Chief Business Development Officer (CBDO). talentPOD, LLC has over 200 websites currently in development as well as several national accounts to be announced at the end of the third quarter.

The Prowess Group, LLC - Scottsdale, AZ - An e-commerce and venture capital group comprised of industry and community leaders with international associations for manufacturing and distribution of specialty and emerging technology products with special interest give to sustainable, environmentally friendly products. The group is aggressively seeking out "green brands" to develop and market via a state of the art shopping cart software which will also be marketed buy the group. They seek to open up new international product distribution channels to also further promote international economic recovery and cooperation. Barr is a partner and Social Media Director.

SelfSelfless, LLC - Scottsdale, AZ - Self Selfless is a channel designed to help you and your loved one enjoy a deeper level of intimacy through sexual exploration and the increased awareness, ability, and communication that sexual exploration offers. Our desire is to present you with sexual instruction and information in a respectful, sensitive, and serious manner. Think of Self Selfless as your virtual sex therapist, where your questions and concerns will be addressed with the privacy and understanding you expect and deserve. Self Selfless will provide instruction and information aimed at improving intimacy between couples as well as help you feel comfortable with yourself, your body, and your desire for physical and emotional pleasure. We want to empower you with the knowledge, confidence, and ability to engage in sexual self-pleasure and the pleasuring of another without fear or guilt, achieving a level of intimacy and passion that will resonate through all aspects of your life. Barr is a Sexpert, will host the interactive online forum as well as Social Media Director.

Dr. Alex Loyd's "The Healing Codes" - Naples, Fl - Author of the Amazon Bestseller "The Healing Codes".
The Healing Codes activate a physical function built into the body that consistently and predictably removes the #1 cause of illness and disease from the body . . . stress. A key point to remember is that our bodies are designed to maintain optimal health! Every time we have a health problem, we should be asking, “What stress is causing this and how can I eliminate it?”. Stanford University Medical School, and numerous health experts, say the number one killer on the planet is stress. Most physical and nonphysical health problems have long-term, physiological stress as their origin. The CDC also estimates that 80% of all health care dollars are spent on illnesses related to stress. Barr has assumed the position of Publicist and Social Media Director.

Webuildyoursocialmedia.com - Scottsdale, AZ - A full service social media marketing firm located in North Scottsdale. WBYSM provides live webinars and one-on-one coaching to help clients convert their prospects to loyal customers. People are choosing to work with people they are "connected" to.Their goal is to help the small business entrepreneur achieve measurable success in the Social Media era and part of their team is comprised of developers and designers. This gives them the unique ability to develop state of the art blogs, websites, Facebook applications, widgets and more. Barr will be Senior Business Development Officer.

# # #

via prweb.com

Posted via email from The Social Media Marketing Report

Journalist Running for U.S. Senate in Arizona - mediabistro.com: MediaJobsDaily

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen G. Barr) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 10:16:00 +0000

You often hear of journalists looking outside of media for new employment, but rarely do you hear of a writer looking to the electorate for a new job. But that's what John Dougherty has done.

Dougherty, an investigative reporter in Arizona, has decided to enter politics, running for Senate as a Democrat in the Grand Canyon State.

"I'll be 54 next month, and I felt that at this moment in time with the way the senate race was shaping up, that somebody with my background... in Arizona... would be a good candidate to run for the Senate right now," said Dougherty to the Yuma Sun newspaper.

A 25 year vet of the news industry that included stints at the Phoenix Gazette and the Phoenix New Times, Dougherty now works as a freelancer, writing for various organizations including the New York Times and the Washington Post. On Aug. 24, 2010, he'll face former Tuscon City Council member Rodney Glassman, former state Rep. Cathy Eden and attorney Randy Parraz in the Democratic primary.

One of the major issues in the 2010 AZ race will be immigration. Dougherty has actually investigated some of the state's major players on the front lines of immigration, including the controversial Maricopa County Sheriff, Joe Arpaio.

If he manages to pull off the upset in the Democratic primary, Dougherty will then face the winner of the Republican race, which pits Sen. John McCain and former Rep. and current radio talk show host J.D. Hayworth against each other.

Dougherty told Jilted Journalists that he will even hire investigative journalists if he wins the Senate, in order to uncover corruption within government.

However, Dougherty seems to understand his chances. "A politician has a Rolodex filled with people who owe him favors," said Dougherty to Jilted Journalists. "I have a Rolodex filled with people who are probably pissed off at me."

Will this hurt or help his career, if he fails to capture the Senate nod?

via mediabistro.com

Posted via email from The Transpartisan Times

Xbox Live Banking Billions on Virtual Goods, Twitter 'Mumbles' Big in Japan

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen G. Barr) — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 07:46:00 +0000

The latest buzzzzzzzzz
Amplify’d from www.switched.com
Highlights from this morning's other big tech headlines....

Nonexistent virtual goods produce obscene revenue for online services. The phenomenon, which even attracts criminal activity, is currently helping Microsoft stave off the effects of diminishing video game sales. Forbes estimates that Xbox Live earns the company more than $1 billion annually, primarily through various account upgrades, and from the sale of avatars, costumes, character attributes and other intangible items. [From: Forbes]
Stumped New York Times writers searching for alternate ways to describe "posted messages on Twitter," may have just found their "tweet" substitute -- by way of a Japanese translation. Now, 16.3-percent of Japanese Internet users "mumble" on Twitter, compared to the 9.8-percent of U.S. Web users. Japanese mumbles also impressively represent 12-percent of total worldwide tweets. [From: The Huffington Post]
WordPress experienced crippling outages earlier this month, but the millions of online pontificators temporarily left blogless may soon forget those past worries. The official WordPress 3.0 'Thelonious' upgrade, inspired by the jazz musician's "improvisational wizardry," apparently now provides subscribers with a variety of exciting features, including bulk updates, customizable style options and a more efficient and navigable interface. [From: Mashable]
Read more at www.switched.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/75xs

via Amplify.com

Posted via email from The Social Media Marketing Report

Horne: Andrew Thomas’ Abuse of Power

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen G. Barr) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 04:33:00 +0000

Horne: Andrew Thomas’ Abuse of Power
By
StateBrief Op-Ed Contributors
Published: June 9, 2010Posted in: Elections, StateTags: Andrew Thomas, Arizona AG, Attorney General, Maricopa County, Republican primary, Tom Horne
Comments [0]
Digg it!
Facebook

By Tom Horne

Recently, a court found that Andrew Thomas had prosecuted people for personal political advantage and for personal political retribution. (Court case CR2010-005423-001, February 24, 2010.) This is worst thing that you say about a prosecutor. The following provides some of the back ground for this finding.

The first person who seriously criticized Thomas was Don Stapley. Stapley is a longtime Maricopa County Supervisor, who is known for fiscal conservatism. He criticized Thomas for financial irresponsibility. Thomas had raised the expenditures for the Maricopa County Attorney’s office for outside lawyers from $6 million a year to $16 million a year, almost all of which had gone to lawyers that served on a host committee for one of Thomas’ fundraisers. There was an appearance of repaying political favors with government money.

In addition, Stapley criticized Thomas for wasting $2 million of public money on advertising allegedly to tell people not to use drugs, but actually to promote Thomas’ name and picture. The Goldwater Institute would later make the same criticism, stating “Mr. Thomas’ massive and continuous promotion of his name and image through official publications and communications cannot possibly be seen as aimed at advancing any legitimate purpose.”

Almost immediately, an investigation started of Stapley, which resulted in his indictment on trumped-up charges, all of which were ultimately dismissed. But Stapley went through years of hell, spending over $1 million in attorneys’ fees, and having his health and his wife’s health damaged. The Arizona Republic editorialized that it could see no rational argument for Thomas’ action, other than “raw political payback,” and that “Andrew Thomas is usurping justice.” (Stapley dismissal followed, Court case No. CR2010-00543-001; Goldwater policy brief, May 12, 2009, p. 8; Editorial December 9, 2009.)

Simultaneously, Russ Jones, a legislator from Yuma, got crosswise with Thomas’ allies in the legislature. Jones also found himself indicted on trumped up charges, all of which were ultimately dismissed, but not before Jones had hundreds of thousands of dollars of attorneys’ fees as well. (Yuma Sun, May 21, 2010.)

All of this was a view to intimidation of critics, which worked. A number of legislators, asked to endorse Tom Horne, said they could not consider it until Thomas resigned, because they saw Jones being indicted and they didn’t want to be indicted.

Thomas then got into a conflict with all five members of the Board of Supervisors. Being fiscal conservatives, they had saved money for a badly needed new courthouse, so that it could be built without the county incurring any debt. Thomas wanted them to raid that fund for his budget, and they refused. This may have been a reasonable disagreement, but Thomas pursued it by investigating them with a view to indicting them.

A judge put a stop to it, stating that Thomas’ actions were unethical. The judge pointed out that the County Attorney represents the board of supervisors, and one cannot investigate or indict one’s clients, something that every first year law student knows. Three different judges, in three different cases, would find Thomas’ actions in different circumstances to be unethical. The judge in this case also stated that Thomas’ actions had “the appearance of evil.” (Court Case No. 422GJ350, February 6, 2009.)

The supervisors wanted separate counsel to represent them in civil cases, rather than be represented by someone who had been investigating them. Thomas contested their right to do so. A separate judge ruled in favor of the board of supervisors, finding that Thomas had acted unethically. He stated that when Thomas decided to act ethically, he could resume representing the board of supervisors, but not before. (Court Case No. CR CV2008-033194, August 21, 2009.)

Thomas was losing case after case of these political cases. He had to undermine the appearance of objectivity of the trial judges, so he started accusing the judges. He filed a racketeering case against all five members of the board of supervisors, their lawyers, county officials, and four separate judges who ruled against him in four separate cases. He accused the judges of bribery and extortion, but had not one iota of evidence that any judge had taken a penny in a bribe, or had committed extortion.

When the time came to argue the motion to dismiss, the gunslinger dropped his guns and ran away. He dropped the case. As a cover, he made up a story that the federal government had agreed to pursue the investigation, and that is all that he ever wanted. The next day the head of the Integrity Division of the U.S. Department of Justice said that he was dismayed at what had been stated, in that the federal government had agreed to no such thing. Thomas had made it up. (The Arizona Republic, March 14, 2010.)

Once all of the charges against Stapley had been dismissed, Thomas came up with a new set of charges. He referred these to Sheila Polk, County Attorney in Yavapai County. He chose her because she was a life-long conservative Republican, law-in-order prosecutor. In a brave statement, she stated that she could no longer remain silent, because her silence would implicate her in what she saw as wrongdoing by Thomas. Her words were that she could not longer remain silent in the face of “totalitarian tactics in Maricopa County.” (The Arizona Republic, December 22, 2009.)

The amount of money wasted on these campaigns against Thomas’ critics, all of which failed, has been calculated by The Arizona Republic to be in excess of $3 million, all taxpayers’ dollars, at a time when there has been talk about the possibility of laying off police officers. (The Arizona Republic, June 3, 2010.)

The following is a summary showing that Thomas has lost or dropped all of his political cases:

CASE DISPOSITION

1. Prosecution of Don Stapley Dismissed

2. Prosecution of Mary Rose Wilcox Dismissed

3. Prosecution of Judge Donohoe Dropped

4. Prosecution of Yuma State Legislator Russ Jones Dismissed

5. Racketeering case against County Supervisors, their lawyers, County officials, and four judges who ruled against Thomas in four different cases Dropped on eve of arguing Motion to Dismiss

6. Contesting County hiring its own lawyer because of Thomas’ unethical conduct Lost

7. Court Tower case Lost

8. Challenging Hispanic court Lost

9. Contest of Balanced Budget Act of 2008 Lost

10. Records request battle with County Lost

11. Prosecution of New Times newspaper Dropped

12. Prosecution of demonstrators Lost

Judges are vulnerable, because they have left their law practices, have no clients, and their reputations are everything to them. Judges have said that when they rule against the county attorney’s office, they worry about being personally investigated. If an out-of-control prosecutor can intimidate judges, then no one has any constitutional rights. The Constitution sets up an independent judiciary so that there will be somebody who can protect people’s constitutional rights from incursions by government officials.

Among legislation that has been sought by Thomas, is a bill that would provide that business records could be subpoenaed by county attorneys or the attorney general without the necessity of going to court. Business officials also could be subpoenaed to testify personally, without the necessity of going to court. One can imagine the amount of intimidation of critics that would be possible under those circumstances. As The Arizona Republic stated in an editorial: “But nothing…compares with the abuse of power Thomas is now perpetrating against the Board of Supervisors.” (The Arizona Republic, December 9, 2009.)

If an out-of-control prosecutor becomes attorney general, businesses will not want to move to Arizona, and Arizona will have no economic future.

Currently in his second term as State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Horne is seeking the Republican nomination for Attorney General. Horne served in the state legislature from 1996 till 2000. He practiced law for thirty years and was a judge pro tem in superior and appeals courts.

-->
Comments [0]
Digg it!
Facebook

About the Author
StateBrief's op-ed contributors include local and national opinion-makers, elected officials and candidates.

No Comments

Start the ball rolling by posting a comment on this article!

Leave a Reply

via statebrief.com

Posted via web from The Transpartisan Times

Terry Goddard for Governor - Arizona :: Meet Terry

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen G. Barr) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 08:50:00 +0000

Meet Terry

Over a lifetime of public service, Terry Goddard has fought to improve the lives of Arizonans.

Keeping Arizona Safe

Since taking the oath of office as Attorney General in 2003, Terry has compiled an unprecedented record of successful criminal prosecutions and civil settlements across a wide range of cases that includes border protection, consumer protection, leading the fight against methamphetamines, protecting Arizona’s environment and fighting mortgage fraud. Because of his strong belief in fiscal responsibility, Terry has directed his office in producing more than $267 million—last year alone—in settlements, restitution, penalties and other recoveries for Arizona.

Among his achievements, Terry successfully prosecuted complex fraud cases, including the one against the Baptist Foundation of Arizona, which cheated 11,000 investors out of more than $585 million. He has scored major victories for consumers, such as a $1 million settlement with WalMart, the state's and nation's largest retailer, for repeated price-posting violations. Terry continues to fight on the forefront against housing fraud. He recently joined together with federal and local law enforcement officials who will be getting an additional $1.7 million in federal funds this year to fight mortgage fraud in Arizona.

Delivering Results for Arizona

Highlights of Terry’s accomplishments as Attorney General are:

A $94 million settlement with Western Union that provides substantial new resources for law enforcement agencies in the four Southwest border states to combat illegal activity and criminal cartels along the entire U.S. Mexico border.

Sharply cutting the number of meth labs in the state and reducing meth use by more than 50 percent in many age groups.

Bringing in the largest environmental recovery in Arizona’s history—a $12 million settlement to resolve a lawsuit over the destruction of the state's natural and archeological resources.

Brokering a settlement to protect Luke Air Force Base from residential encroachment which strengthens Luke's bid for selection as a training base for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the next generation of U.S. Air Force jets.

Leadership on Law Enforcement, Housing, Water Conservation

Terry began his legal work when he was hired by the Arizona Attorney General's Office as a white-collar crime prosecutor. From 1995 to 2002, he served as Arizona Director for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In 2000, he was elected to the board of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District, which manages the Central Arizona Project.

From 1984 to 1990, Terry served as Mayor of Phoenix for four consecutive terms. Under his visionary leadership, Phoenix made significant strides in expanding and modernizing law enforcement and setting up nationally recognized programs in economic development, the arts and historic preservation. He was elected President of the National League of Cities in 1989 and was named “Municipal Leader of the Year” by City and County Magazine.

An Arizona Native and a Navy Veteran

Terry Goddard is an Arizona native, born and raised in Tucson. His father, Sam Goddard, served as Arizona’s Governor in the 1960s. Terry received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and his law degree from Arizona State University. He served an active duty tour in the U.S. Navy and retired as a Commander after 27 years in the Naval Reserves. In addition to his passion to protect Arizona citizens, Terry has a long-standing commitment to historic preservation. Terry, his wife, Monica, and their son live in Phoenix.

via terrygoddard.com

Posted via web from The Transpartisan Times

Arizona Capitol Times » Blog Archive » AP-Univision Poll: Immigration splits Americans

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen G. Barr) — Mon, 17 May 2010 06:40:00 +0000

AP-Univision Poll: Immigration splits Americans

By The Associated Press

Published: May 14, 2010 at 6:44 am

A group of protesters against Arizona's controversial immigration bill march on the State Capitol in Phoenix. A new telephone poll by the Pew Research Center shows that 59 percent of Americans approve of Arizona's new law cracking down on illegal immigrants while only 32 percent disapprove. The polll was conducted on May 6-9 and released Wednesday, May 12, 2010. (AP Photo/Paul Connors, File)
Illegal immigrants are a boon, not a burden to the country, a resounding majority of Hispanics say, according to an Associated Press-Univision Poll that underscores sharp contrasts between the views of Hispanics and others. Most non-Hispanics say illegal immigrants are a drain on society.
In addition, most Hispanics condemn Arizona’s strict new law targeting undocumented immigrants, while only 20 percent of non-Hispanics oppose it.

The survey also found some remarkably similar views between Hispanics and non-Hispanics on the complex, emotional issue of immigration, which has gained prominence this election year. About two-thirds of both groups consider illegal immigration a serious problem, only a quarter of each think the Arizona law will ease the state’s troubles and the largest portion of both populations think current limits on legal immigration should be left alone.

Even so, much of the poll — which questioned 901 Hispanic adults and was compared to a separate survey of the general population — reads as if soundings were taken of two distinct worlds, an impression fortified by follow-up interviews.

“People are not coming to this country to do bad things, people are coming to make money for their families,” said Javier Zurita, 43, a factory worker in Garfield, N.J., a U.S. citizen from Ecuador. “These people love this country, they’ve had sons and daughters in this country.”

William Ryan, 38, a contractor from Elkridge, Md., sees things differently.

“It seems like every working illegal immigrant has four family members who don’t work. And we’re paying for all of them,” said Ryan, who is white and non-Hispanic.

According to the poll, 74 percent of Hispanics said the country’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants mostly contribute to society. Just 35 percent of non-Hispanics agreed, with 60 percent saying illegal immigrants are largely a drain.

Some 67 percent of Hispanics said they oppose the Arizona statute. Just 20 percent of non-Hispanics oppose it, with 45 percent favoring it and 30 percent neutral. The law allows local police to demand citizenship papers from people they suspect of being here illegally and to detain them if they can’t produce the documents.

“If I go to the convenience store for a gallon of milk, I don’t carry those kinds of things,” said Martin Ortiz, 37, a U.S.-born citizen and maintenance worker from San Diego. “I just slap on a pair of shorts. And a police officer notices me? Why should I get detained?”

Countering that viewpoint was Michael Doucet, 25, a technician from Houston who is white and non-Hispanic. He wants existing laws enforced and backs the new Arizona statute.

“Illegals are illegal,” said Doucet. “It’s not a problem with discrimination, it’s not a problem with whites hating Hispanics, it is what it is. Most illegals are Hispanic.”

Underlining the divergent reactions to the Arizona law, seven in 10 Hispanics hope their states don’t enact similar statutes, more than double the non-Hispanics who feel that way.

Nearly nine in 10 Hispanics said a way should be found to help illegal immigrants already in this country become citizens, an idea that wins support from just over half of non-Hispanics. Some 62 percent of non-Hispanics — compared with just 24 percent of Hispanics — think being in the U.S. illegally should be considered a serious crime.

By 73 percent to 46 percent, more Hispanics than others said police crackdowns on illegal immigrants are likely to target Hispanics unfairly. About three quarters of Hispanics said they would consider it a big problem if Arizona police questioned a Hispanic who turned out to be here legally, more than double the non-Hispanics who said so.

“It’s not one of these things where the Left would have you believe the Gestapo will be out there stomping down doors,” said John Wagner, 60, a manager with the Department of Homeland Security from Las Cruces, N.M.

But Jackie Gallegos, 18, a high school student from El Paso, Texas, said she resented intrusions the Arizona law would allow.

“People are living here, working here, why shouldn’t they have rights?” she said.

While both groups agree that illegal immigration is a serious problem, 83 percent of non-Hispanics think the federal government should be doing more about it, while 52 percent of Hispanics voice that view.

Hispanics trust Democrats more than Republicans to handle immigration, while it’s the other way around for non-Hispanics. Still, only 45 percent of Hispanics approve of how President Barack Obama is dealing with the issue — one of the few national issues where they rate his performance relatively poorly.

In other findings:

— Almost nine in 10 Hispanics say illegal immigrants take jobs Americans don’t want, compared with six in 10 non-Hispanics.

— More than a quarter of Hispanics say they would not have had documentation proving their status had they been stopped by police the day they answered the poll, about double the rate for non-Hispanics.

— Most Hispanics say only the federal government should enforce immigration laws, while a majority of non-Hispanics want local police involved.

The AP-Univision Poll was conducted from May 7-12 by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media. It involved landline and cell phone interviews with 901 Hispanic adults and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5.3 percentage points.

The findings were compared to a separate poll of 1,002 people from the general population, also by GfK Roper. It involved cell and landline interviews conducted from May 7-11, and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.

___

Associated Press Polling Director Trevor Tompson, AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius and AP writers Suzanne Gamboa and Christine Simmons contributed to this report.

http://azcapitoltimes.com/blog/2010/05/14/ap-univision-poll-immigration-split..." title="Save to Twitter" rel="nofollow">
More »

More »
-->

< McCain to hold town hall meetings this weekend

Austin officials vote to boycott Arizona >

via azcapitoltimes.com

Posted via web from The Transpartisan Times

Center For Progressive Leadership - State Offices

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen G. Barr) — Mon, 17 May 2010 06:10:00 +0000

Stephen Barr

Group Publisher, SGB Media Group

"I wish to help support and promote progressive candidates, campaigns and initiatives through the use of social networking, media relations and good old fashioned door knocking!"

Steve is the owner and Group Publisher at Phoenix based SGB Media Group, which was formed in 2006 as the administrative arm of a consortium of smaller internet based companies serving narrowly defined, demographically targeted market segments via several business models. This includes affiliate marketing fundraising initiatives, niche social network development & administration, blogs, discussion forums and eZines focusing in the nonprofit, political and fine arts communities.
Prior to forming SGB Media Group he was in the music and commercial real estate industries in New York, Los Angeles, Palm Springs and San Francisco Bay areas. He also serves as the Director of Social Media at GiveClicks.com, The Icehouse Arts Museum and Alwun House Foundation and is the Executive Director of Code Bule Arizona, The Modern Progressive Network, Rehab Arts Studio and Dad Found Not Lost nonprofit organizations.
Meet the other 2009 Arizona Fellows

via s216300718.onlinehome.us

Posted via web from The Transpartisan Times

Politicians join social networks

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen G. Barr) — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 09:03:00 +0000

Politicians join social networks
Saturday, March 20, 2010
By PATRICK JOHNSON
pjohnson@repub.com
AMHERST - Not long after her April 2008 election to the School Committee, Catherine A. Sanderson thought she'd create a simple, little blog to keep voters informed about what the committee was doing and to gain voter feedback.
"Those were my noble goals," she said of the origin of her blog,
myschoolcommitteeblog. blogspot.com

Advertisement

In a matter of months, her simple, little blog grew and grew to the point of becoming neither simple nor little.

Her two to three posts per month grew to as many as 20, the monthly visitors tally reached as high as 10,000, and individual posts could generate as many as 150 reader comments.

Sanderson says the blog has more than accomplished its original purpose. "I ran on a platform of more communication and more transparency," she said. "It's hard to not communicate and not be transparent when you're on a blog telling people, 'Here is how I am going to vote and why.'"

Sanderson is one of many politicians at the local, state and federal levels who are realizing the importance of using simple blogging platforms, such as Wordpress or Google's Blogger, and social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, to connect with the voters.

"There's no filter," said Westfield Mayor Daniel Knapik, who maintains Facebook and Twitter accounts. "People can get their message out to people exactly as they intend without it being altered, shortened or taken out of context."

State Rep. Donald F. Humason Jr., R-Westfield, uses Facebook to keep in touch with friends and constituents. "Hopefully, they are doing the same thing," he said.

The ease of conveying information to your own personal network of friends, fans and followers makes Facebook and Twitter a natural among politicians at all levels of government and on both sides of the aisle.

CONTINUED 1 | 2 | 3 Next

via masslive.com

Posted via web from The Transpartisan Times

Committee to Elect Jason Williams 2010 | Platform

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen G. Barr) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:39:00 +0000

Platform
As the first person in my family to attend college, I have long recognized the importance of a high quality education. Our society has been built on the premise that education is the avenue to personal and economic advancement; with the solid foundation of a high-quality public education, each person has the potential to achieve his or her dreams. This belief has certainly played out in my life, and my own experiences have made me committed to ensuring every child has the opportunities I did: to have an excellent education which prepared me to pursue my academic and career goals and to have access to greater opportunities than previous generations in my family. Because of this commitment, I taught in a high-needs school and have dedicated my career to working in education.
We know education largely determines a child’s chances in life; however, I often see students working very hard but not getting the opportunity for the excellent public education they deserve. We must change this trend. We must, as a state, say we will no longer allow students’ life prospects to suffer because of our own inability or unwillingness to provide an excellent system of public education. Our students do not have to fail; the question remains though: will we fail them? As Superintendent of Public Instruction, my responsibility, and the focus that will always be central in everything I do, will be to ensure every student in this state has access to an excellent public school, through which they will have the opportunity to pursue greater life prospects and reach their full potential.
Arizona is at a unique place in history. We are facing a significant financial crisis, the effects of which will continue to impact the state dramatically. Education, too, is at a crossroads. People have become frustrated with trying the same solutions, hoping for different results. The confluence of these two conditions provides the opportunity to be bold and innovative. We must find solutions to the challenges of an insufficient number of excellent schools and laggard student achievement. We have to recognize there is no silver bullet to improve our education system. We also have to be willing to try new ideas, evaluate programs honestly, and commit to discarding what does not work while expanding that which does.
Especially during times of uncertainty, it is imperative that leaders operate with a foundation of core principles to guide their decisions. My core beliefs, developed through my experience in public education and from which I will always operate, are:
All children can succeed academically.
We have a moral imperative to give all students a chance to achieve.
Building excellent schools must be a community effort and a community priority.
Based on these core beliefs, I have developed a framework for guiding all policy and programmatic decisions. As Superintendent, I will make each of my decisions based on what is best for Arizona’s students, ensuring all of the Arizona Department of Education’s actions are fair, innovative, and accountable.
During these turbulent times, the citizens of Arizona need to understand the values guiding their leaders and trust leaders will act in accordance with those values. Fairness, innovation, and accountability are my three guideposts, and they will ensure we are moving forward, toward an excellent public school system.
Fairness
Every student in Arizona has the tremendous potential to learn and to succeed academically. It is only fair to ensure every student has access to at least the basic resources, to provide them with the tools needed to thrive. We must set our students and our schools up for success. As Superintendent, I will do everything within my power to ensure schools have the basic resources to move students forward; however, the challenge is larger than resource allocation. The current generation of students is the first generation to have lower life prospects than their parents;ⁱ this reality is not a part of the American Dream. I will actively seek out as many partnerships, innovative programs, and resources to make certain our schools are providing each student with a fair opportunity to excel.
We have learned that human capital is the most important resource schools have. The impact of a highly effective teacher or principal cannot be underestimated, especially in a high-needs school. In fact, an excellent teacher can counteract many of the challenges students in low-income communities face.ⁱⁱ We must build a talent pipeline of excellent teachers to teach in all of our schools. We should also encourage highly effective teachers to consider teaching in low-income schools. We know financial incentives can help attract effective teachers to high-needs schools and subjects, but these monetary incentives are not always the best option nor the most motivating for teachers. ⁱⁱⁱ Therefore, I will work with teachers, administrators, and the Legislature to develop a broad-based incentive system to attract high-performing teachers and school leaders to work in our highest-needs schools.
The values of democracy require that we not only focus our attention on providing opportunities for all students, but we also commit to moving all students forward. In the era of No Child Left Behind, focus turned to the percentage of “proficient” students. This law had positives: schools and districts could no longer mask low-performing students behind a good overall average. However, in too many cases, schools focused disproportionately on the “bubble students” – those who were just within reach of proficiency. Certainly, students who are within reach of proficiency need the extra attention and guidance to get them to performing on grade level, but this intense focus left both the very high-achieving and the very low-performing students behind.^iv It is just as great of a loss to let a high-achieving student settle for mediocrity as to let a low-performing student slip through the cracks. We must move all students forward, pushing them to reach their own individual potential, which is why I believe we should hold ourselves accountable for each student’s growth.
Innovation
The challenges facing our public schools will not be solved overnight, but they can be solved. Innovative programs and policies are necessary to adapt to our changing environment. As Superintendent, I will continually search for the most promising innovations other states and school districts are using, while also closely following research into new solutions.
Several areas of focus for innovative programs and policies will include:
Assessment – Changes need to be made to the current AIMS testing program. We must realistically acknowledge that continually lowering the standards for AIMS has watered it down so much it is no longer useful.^v Does it matter if AIMS scores are rising, if passing the test does not indicate a student is college or career-ready?^vi We need to raise the bar on the level of difficulty for our state assessments, making them measures of college and career-readiness, but we also need to ensure we are capturing a full understanding of what a student knows and can do. No singular test can ever measure fully students’ skills and knowledge. We need to have multiple indicators to determine students’ readiness for graduation.^vii These other measures can include real-life applications of knowledge, interdisciplinary projects assessed by teams of teachers with a standard rubric, or portfolios of classroom assignments to demonstrate subject mastery. Because of the importance of assessment in our schools, redesigning our state assessment system will be my first priority in office. I believe teachers need to be intimately involved in this process, because they have the first-hand knowledge of how students demonstrate mastery. In my first year in office, I will convene a group of teachers, administrators, and other stakeholders to develop a new system of assessment based on multiple mastery indicators. By bringing the right people to the table, I will ensure Arizona creates a world-class assessment system.
Student Growth - We should incorporate measures of growth to determine student progress. The first critical step is to collect baseline data from which to build a valid, reliable system of assessing growth. Ambitious models for measuring growth already exist.^viii Many states and the federal government are adapting and implementing growth models for a more comprehensive understanding of student achievement. Arizona will be a leader in this effort.
School Management – We need to reaffirm the role of principals as true instructional leaders.^ix Principals need access to talented teachers, around whom they can build a highly effective team. Then, principals must be responsible for providing the necessary support to lead their team to excellence, including counseling out those staff members who are underperforming. Empowering principals will also demand significant accountability; if principals are given the responsibility of being the instructional leaders of their school, then they will be held accountable for their schools’ results.
Rewarding Results – The challenges of teacher compensation are well documented. Given their critical importance to student learning, teachers need a higher level of compensation. Teachers also need to be recognized for excellence. For this reason, I support a performance-based pay system for our educators. There are high-quality examples of performance-based compensation systems across the country,^x some as close as the Alhambra School District in Maricopa County.^xi A performance-based compensation plan would be connected to the new accountability system, using multiple indicators of both student achievement and professional growth. Designing a performance pay system needs to include all of the stakeholders, especially the teachers. It is critical for us to build a successful system. In Arizona, we already have a foundation for performance-based pay in Proposition 301. Despite its lofty intentions, Prop 301 has not been a true reward for excellence.^xii I will work with teachers, districts, the Performance Based Compensation Task Force, and the Arizona Legislature to reform the implementation of Prop 301 and make it a true performance-based compensation system. We also have the Career Ladder program in some of Arizona’s school districts, which is a starting point for building the professional trajectory for classroom teachers. I will support the continued use of Career Ladder and explore options for expanding it to the rest of the state.
Partnerships – I have had the privilege of working with many nonprofit organizations here in Arizona, and I have seen the tremendous impact they have on schools. We must harness the potential of these partnerships and increase their impact, particularly for under-resourced schools. Many nonprofits are much more efficient and effective than the government; by building strong working partnerships, nonprofits can meet the needs of students when schools do not have the capacity to do so. In order to promote this collaboration, I will assemble a nonprofit council, made up of representatives of nonprofit organizations who are having a significant impact on the schools. This council will work hand-in-hand with the Arizona Department of Education to identify and understand student needs and develop innovative ways for addressing those needs.
Local Support – Arizona has a vibrant history of local control of schools, and this commitment to local control enables schools and districts to adapt to the unique needs of the community. As long as a program promotes greater student achievement, and is fair, innovative, and accountable, the Arizona Department of Education will honor the goals of school districts and provide them with technical assistance, when possible, to implement their community-based reforms. The Arizona Department of Education should serve as a resource to help school districts attain federal grants; it should also facilitate conversations among superintendents to find areas of collaboration. The role of the Arizona Department of Education will be to encourage innovation, not to stifle it.
Accountability
Too often in our schools today, the word “accountability” is just a catchphrase. Because educational outcomes are so aligned with our state’s economic strength, we must have real accountability in our schools.
Honesty - Real accountability first demands honesty. We must honestly assess where our students stand, set goals for growth, and then expect to be held accountable for reaching those goals. The days of having 70% of students pass the AIMS while only a quarter can pass the NAEP,^xiii the national assessment most commonly used as a benchmark for state performance, must end. Arizona is currently participating in the Common Core consortium, which has been tasked with developing internationally-benchmarked, college and career-ready standards and assessments. Under my leadership, we will assess the quality of standards and assessments this initiative produces and then, if they meet our requirements of rigor, implement these aggressive standards. If students are not performing adequately, we need to assess what teacher, school, district, and state actions are leading to that result.
Gateway Years - We must also recognize that we are not holding ourselves accountable for student achievement if students are promoted without attaining proficiency and grade-level performance. I will implement three “gateway years” – 3rd grade, 8th grade, and 12th grade – at which point students who are not performing proficiently will not be promoted. But we cannot implement these gateway years without also providing sufficient interventions in order to help each student reach proficiency by the end of these grades.^xiv By using assessment data and teacher evaluations, each school will identify which students are at risk of not meeting the level of proficiency needed to advance, ideally at least two years prior to the gateway year. Each school will then have to implement interventions, such as summer school, referring the student to a nonprofit-based tutoring program, or developing student action plans to help prepare the student to demonstrate grade-level proficiency.
Transparency - Every teacher should be held responsible for moving all of his or her students forward every year. Some classrooms have students performing well below grade level, while others have students performing proficiently. In either case, a student’s academic stagnation is unacceptable. Teachers have the responsibility for ensuring students make at least a year’s worth of progress during the school year. As a state, we need to implement a growth model in which teachers are held accountable and rewarded for the progress students make in their classroom during the school year. If a student comes into a 4th grade classroom reading on a 5th grade level and finishes the year still reading on a 5th grade level, is that progress? I do not believe it is. Designing and implementing this growth model will go hand-in-hand with the changes in teacher compensation and assessments. Teachers, principals, districts, and the Arizona Department of Education will work together to develop a transparent and fair process to determine what represents an ambitious yet achievable goal for students’ academic growth. Arizona already has some programs, such as the ECAP program, which can be adapted to align with this student growth model.
Collaboration - Teachers cannot do the work of educating students alone. Students and parents need to be fully invested in education. Accountability means we, as a state, need to have high expectations for everyone involved in education, especially students. We need to prepare students to be empowered to drive their own learning, and we must expect them to do so. Parents must be full partners with schools in their students’ education, and schools need to make a concerted effort to be an inclusive, collaborative environment for parents.^xv Community members have a part to play as well: our schools should be true community centers, harnessing the talents of everyone in the community in the effort to provide an excellent education for all students. To make these changes in our public schools, Arizona must take an “all hands on deck” approach. We must proactively identify and tap into the resources already existing in our community, including human resources. Our schools need the talents and dedication of each person, and each person in our communities needs to feel a sense of ownership in our public schools. The changes I will make are sustainable, driven by the commitment of talented people, finding innovative ways to move toward excellence. We cannot continue to make excuses for lowering our expectations for anyone, whether they are principals, teachers, students, parents, or community members. High expectations for everyone will be a center-point of the Arizona Department of Education under my direction.
The Direction We Must Go
The elections of 2010 will have a significant impact on Arizona’s trajectory. As a state, we need to dramatically increase human capital and aggressively recruit talent to the public schools. We also need to implement innovative solutions to persistent problems and hold people and programs accountable for delivering on their promises of student achievement. We need to be honest about the current state of our schools, and we need to truthfully evaluate programs to ensure money is being spent in an efficient and effective way. Being Superintendent of Public Instruction will require making many hard decisions. I will always make these decisions based on my core beliefs and values. Arizonans can be assured all programs and policies will be fair, innovative, and accountable. Together, we can make Arizona’s public schools excellent and ensure all of our students have the opportunity to reach their potential. I ask for your support and your vote in order to reach these goals. Thank you for your commitment to the students and the future of Arizona.
ⁱ Life prospects as a function of educational attainment; see: Luzer, Daniel, “Education Rates in US Decline”, Washington Monthly, December 8, 2009, http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/blog/education_rate_in_us_declines.php.
ⁱⁱ See Rivkin, S., E. Hanushek, and J. Kain “Teachers, Schools, and Academic Achievement,” Econometrica 73(2), 2005, 417-458, or Rockoff, J. E., “The Impact of Individual Teachers on Students’ Achievement: Evidence from Panel Data,” American Economic Review 94(2), 2004, 247-252.
ⁱⁱⁱ Goldhaber, D., “Addressing the Teacher Qualification Gap: Exploring the Use and Efficacy of Incentives to Reward Teachers with Tough Assignments,” Center for American Progress, November 2008, http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/11/teacher_qualification_gap.html.
^iv Choi, K., P. Goldschmidt, and K. Yamashiro, “Exploring Models of School Performance: From Theory to Practice”, National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST), University of California, Los Angeles, March 2006, http://www.cse.ucla.edu/products/reports/r673.pdf.
^v For example, see: Kossan, P., “Educators Seek Answers Beyond AIMS”, Arizona Republic, March 15, 2009, http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/03/15/20090315aims0315.html
^vi See: Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, 2005, Public High School Graduation and College-Readiness Rates: 1991–2002 or Arizona State Report Card, Quality Counts 2010, Education Week, January 14, 2010 in which Arizona rates a D- for College Readiness: http://www.edweek.org/ew/qc/2010/17src.h29.html.
^vii Chappuis, S., J. Chappuis, and R. Stiggins, “The Quest for Quality” Educational Leadership 67(3), November 2009, 14-19. See also: Brookhart, S. “The Many Meanings of ‘Mulitple Measures’”. Educational Leadership 67(3), November 2009, 6-12.
^viii See: http://my.dpsk12.org/objectives/default.aspx.
^ix Fink, E., & Resnick, L. B. “Developing principals as instructional leaders,” Phi Delta Kappan, 82, 2001, 598-606.
^x For example: Sarrio, J., “Knox County Schools are Success Story for Teacher Pay Plan,” January 16, 2010, http://www.tennessean.com/article/20100116/NEWS04/1160336/1970, and http://denverprocomp.dpsk12.org/about/.
^xi Arizona Performance Based Compensation Taskforce data.
^xii See: Aportela, A., “Performance Pay in Arizona as a Result of Proposition 301″ Consortium for Policy Research in Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Arizona Chamber Policy Brief, “Recruiting the Best and the Brightest,” June 16, 2008, http://www.azchamber.com/news/view_article.cfm?ID=62.
^xiii See 2008-2009 Arizona State Report Card: http://www.ade.state.az.us/srcs/statereportcards/.
^xiv McCombs, J., S. Kirby, and L. Mariano, eds, Ending Social Promotion without Leaving Children Behind: The Case of New York City, RAND Corporation, 2009.
^xv Viadero, D., “Scholars Identify Five Keys To Urban School Success” January 26, 2010, http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/01/27/19ccsr.h29.html?qs=chicago.

via williamsforarizona.com

I endorse Jason Williams campaign!

Posted via web from The Transpartisan Times

SGB Media Group Transitioning Blogs from Google Blogger to Posterous

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen G. Barr) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 19:06:00 +0000

Effective February 5, 2010 Phoenix based SGB Media Group, LLC has begun transitioning the majority of it's published blogs from the Google Blogger platform to the Posterous tumbleblog platform in an effort to continue to use the latest cutting edge technologies in it's creative digital publishing and social media marketing business. This transition will include the seamless integration of SGB Media Group's other web properties on other networks/platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. The first transition is now complete with The Affiliate Marketing Publisher's Report which SGB Media Group, LLC began publishing in 2006 with others tto follow during the month of February, 2010.

Posted via web from SGB Media Group, LLC

Arizona Prison Watch

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen G. Barr) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 05:05:00 +0000

via arizonaprisonwatch.blogspot.com

Posted via web from SGB Media Group, LLC

Transpartisan Shift - Transpartisan Alliance

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen G. Barr) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 06:33:00 +0000

The mission of the Transpartisan Alliance is:
To motivate and inspire Americans to work together across divides
To unite America by practicing and teaching the principles of transpartisanship and
To provide a Transpartisan Forum (be a Neutral Convener) where unlikely connections, cooperation and partnerships happen.

The Primary Goal of the Transpartisan Alliance is:
To catalyze a shift away from the dysfunctional, divide-and-conquer political game and toward a more respectful, accountable, cooperative and productive political game using proven methods of dialogue, deliberation and conflict resolution. Our primary focus is fostering authentic citizen empowerment where ALL points of view are valued and where citizens from all sides take responsibility for cooperating to create win-win policy options that 80% of people can say "Yes!" to.

The Situation
In the face of uncertainty, cooperation is our call to action.

The American democratic republic is faced with a choice. We as individuals, and collectively as a country, are yearning to return to the values our nation was built on: a culture of courage, faith, love, trust, respect, inclusiveness, security, freedom, communication and cooperation.

The competition for 51 percent to win power and control, has divided the political field in two. Our winner-take-all, two-party political system and the significant influence of narrow interests, is largely responsible for the state of our union today. That is why it is important to shift our political culture away from compromise solutions that favor insiders, and towards common ground solutions that tap the wisdom and serve the well-being of the whole.

A growing number of citizens are less inclined to identify with, or be defined by, red and blue boxes. The current breakdowns that are featured every day in headline news reveal the complexity of our economic and social systems. People are talking about these challenges and more of us are recognizing the need to find common ground and better ways to politically collaborate. We are developing a greater appreciation for our differences, not as something that divides us but rather as different windows on the whole we are all trying to understand. The nation is at a tipping point, it is yearning for a new way of connecting to get things done.

Now is the time to unite America one conversation at a time.
The Transpartisan Alliance will connect and empower citizens to work in partnership, to transform our politics and to awaken the genuine spirit of government of the people, by the people, for the people. We will do this by:

• facilitating a shift in the political culture – beginning at the smallest scale – from competition to cooperation in which every point of view is valued;
• amplifying the voice of the people for the general interest by providing them with the tools and means to bridge divides and collaborate;
• engaging the passion, brilliance and creativity of average citizens and leaders to deliver generative, innovative solutions as alternative ways to solve our most pressing challenges;
• reconnecting Americans to the sense of ownership inherent in responsible citizenship.

Citizenship in ancient Rome was a privileged social status afforded to a few. The American evolution of the term offers this status to all human beings willing to be accountable for, and committed to, the well being of the whole. A citizen is one who takes ownership in, and responsibility for, the future of their community and nation. The Transpartisan Alliance is a facilitator of healthy, empowered citizenship.

A Plan of Action: The Role for Empowered Citizenship
In the spring of 2005, Ashland Oregon’s city charter was up for review. A charter is a constitution and a new version was being proposed which would have made Ashland’s government less transparent and accountable. In response, a handful of citizens decided it was important to have a high quality, communitywide dialogue about the question, How do we choose to govern ourselves in Ashland? So, they went out and knocked on a couple hundred upper, middle and lower class doors, inviting a microcosm of the community to an “Ashland Constitution Dialogue.” A serious six month discourse of weekly facilitated library and café conversations sprang from that initial grassroots effort. What the citizens of Ashland discovered was that all sides of the community shared a core set of values and principles for governance including, openness and transparency, protecting the commons, high citizen involvement, checks & balances and accountability.

On July 4, 2005, the participants self-published a printed newspaper with their findings entitled “By the People.” It was distributed from the people who took part in the dialogue, to the people of the community and rapidly seeped into the public conscience as the accepted way to govern the city. While it took two years for the official charter changes to make it onto the ballot, when they did, 77% of the citizens voted them down in favor of the values and principles that emerged from the dialogue.

What happened in this city could have happened anywhere in America. The important thing to take away from this story is that this dialogue was transpartisan. It included homeless people as well as people who live in the wealthiest part of town. It was not a lobbying effort from the people to the officials or special interests; it was an inclusive, expanding community conversation about what the people were for, not what they were against. It was a trust building public conversation based in listening, respect and honoring of difference that catalyzed subsequent dialogue efforts that now serve as a resource for creative options for local decision makers.

via network.transpartisan.net

Posted via web from The Transpartisan Times

Walt Roberts Explores…Transpartisan Politics

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen G. Barr) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:05:00 +0000

Transpartisan Movement and pro-democracy reform in the news. Katrina vanden Heuvel is on it.
Posted by Walt Roberts on 01/22/2010
Katrina vanden Heuvel seems to have a handle on the need for pro-democracy reforms and the conditions being right for a transpartisan uprising; “There is fertile ground on which to rally people in a transpartisan political reform movement.” I’m keeping my eye on Katrina. Enjoy. Walt
The Massachusetts Lesson: Go Populist Now
posted by Katrina vanden Heuvel on 01/19/2010 @ 10:11pm
Click here for the article
(Excerpt)
….Leadership on pro-democracy reforms are also desperately needed to end the corruption of our politics and to stanch the corporate money flooding and deforming of our democracy. Connect the dots for people: explain how needed reforms are gutted when both parties succumb to the pervasive corruption of our money politics. If the GOP’s obstructionism has a silver lining, it is in exposing how an anti-democratic, super-majority filibuster has essentially made our system dysfunctional. There is fertile ground on which to rally people in a transpartisan political reform movement…….
Click here for the article
Katrina vanden Heuvel
“Thoughts on politics, current affairs, riffs and reflections on what’s in the news and what’s not–but should be.”
Katrina vanden Heuvel has been The Nation’s editor since 1995 and publisher since 2005.
She is the co-editor of Taking Back America–And Taking Down The Radical Right (NationBooks, 2004) and, most recently, editor of The Dictionary of Republicanisms, (NationBooks, 2005)
She is also co-editor (with Stephen F. Cohen) of Voices of Glasnost: Interviews with Gorbachev’s Reformers (Norton, 1989) and editor of The Nation: 1865-1990, and the collection A Just Response: The Nation on Terrorism, Democracy and September 11, 2001.
She is a frequent commentator on American and international politics on MSNBC, CNN and PBS. Her articles have appeared in The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and The Boston Globe.
Posted in Transpartisan | Leave a Comment »

via waltsearch.wordpress.com

Posted via web from The Transpartisan Times

Vince Rabago for Attorney General

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen G. Barr) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 20:47:00 +0000

1.20.2010 -- Kristi Rabago introducing Vince at his announcement press conference at the State Capitol in Phoenix, Arizona.
In press conferences in Phoenix and Tucson surrounded by family and friends, former Assistant Attorney General Vince Rabago announced that he is a candidate for the office of Arizona Attorney General. With a 16-year career as a prosecutor, Rabago cited his experience in taking on payday lenders, mortgage fraudsters, deceptive student loan practitioners and enforcing Arizona’s open meetings law.
“In this time of severe economic crisis, the Attorney General’s Office needs a leader who is a proven fighter and who can hit the ground running,” Rabago said in a prepared statement.
Rabago is an Arizona native, born and raised in Cochise County. He attended the University of Arizona and received his law degree from the University of San Diego School of Law in 1993.
Rabago began his career as a prosecutor in San Diego for the California Attorney General. In 2002, he became an Assistant Attorney General in Arizona. On January 15, 2010, Rabago stepped down from that position to run for Attorney General.
1.20.2010 -- Vince Rabago making a point during his announcement press conference at the State Capitol in Phoenix, Arizona.
As a prosecutor, Rabago worked on criminal, civil and constitutional matters at all levels, including the Arizona and California Supreme Courts, District Court, the Ninth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Rabago, 42, is married to Kristie Rabago and has two children, Maya, 6, and Vincent Patrick, 5.
1.20.2010 -- Vince with the attendees at his announcement press conference.
Rabago will be a participating candidate in Arizona’s Clean Elections system. “I believe in taking the corrupting influence of money out of politics,” Rabago said. “I have decided to stand with Arizona voters who overwhelmingly voted to have Clean Elections.”

via vince4az.com

I support Vince's run for AZ Attorney General from the 14th CD!

Posted via web from SGB Media Group, LLC

Arizona Capitol Times

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen G. Barr) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 05:21:00 +0000

2010 CANDIDATES
Eyes on the Legislature
Weekly-updated list of potential legislative candidates for this year, compiled by our reporters.

via azcapitoltimes.com

Things are getting interesting...I love the smell of politics in the morning!

Posted via web from The Transpartisan Times

SGB Media Group LLC - Social Media Marketing, Affiliate Marketing Consulting & Public Relations

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen G. Barr) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:13:00 +0000

via sgbmedia.ning.com

Posted via web from SGB Media Group, LLC

WashingtonExaminer.com : Mark Tapscott: America needs a transpartisan citizens political movement

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen G. Barr) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:42:00 +0000

By Mark Tapscott |
Neither Democrats versus Republicans nor liberals versus conservatives will define 21st-century politics. Citizen legislators versus career politicians will. The citizen legislators will win by embracing the Internet and the wisdom of crowds.
Politicians in both major parties who repeatedly seek re-election to keep "bringing home the bacon" while feathering their own nests are careerists. Candidates in both parties who bring the real world to Washingtonto clean it up — and who can’t wait to return home — are citizen legislators.
Careerists thrive on the power, perks and prestige that come with being insiders. Until now, their power stemmed from a monopoly on information, which they selectively shared with the rest of us. Theirs is the world of old media, big impersonal institutions and spinning "experts."
By contrast, citizen legislators thrive on the power of principle and the liberating independence that comes with being outsiders. Their power stems from their cultivation of information to the widest possible audience and the accountability that comes with such transparency. Theirs is the world of Internet-based new media and the collaborative networking that thrives there.
As long as the careerists remain in power, they will continue aggrandizing themselves, while making government bigger, more costly and less able to deal with emergencies like Hurricane Katrina and the coming entitlement crisis.
It doesn’t make much difference anymore which party has the congressional majority. The Senate’s Water Resources Development bill, for instance, has 446 earmarks, the House version 692. (Earmarks are measures giving members of Congress exclusive control over the spending of federal tax dollars on a project they favor.)
Those figures exceed the then-unprecedented total for the 2006 GOP version of the same bill, despite Democrats’ promises last year to clean up the Republicans’ culture of corruption epitomized by the explosion of earmarks between 1996 and 2006.
And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s defense of Rep. John Murtha’s angry spittle-laced tirade of threats last week to forever cut off a GOP representative from getting earmarks for his district confirms that the new boss is pretty much the same old boss, just a different party label.
What’s needed is a massive and continuing infusion of new blood — citizen legislators — in Congress. The careerists will never agree to that, of course, so it will have to be imposed from the outside. That’s where the Internet, the wisdom of crowds, term limits and a potential new post-partisan political movement converge.
The evidence of this percolating movement is seen in the successful campaign last year to win passage of the Federal Financial Accountability and Transparency Act spearheaded by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.
Coburn-Obama directs the Office of Management and Budget to create a searchable, Google-like Internet database of most federal spending by 2009. Bloggers and Internet-savvy advocacy groups from across the old political spectrum made the critical difference in getting the bill passed. Backers believe the new database will rally public support for more effective controls on federal spending.
Many elements of the same transpartisan coalition of bloggers and advocacy groups came together again this year in the OpenHouse Project led by the Sunlight Foundation to create a lengthy list of Internet-based recommendations for opening up the House of Representatives to greater citizen access.
But these two measures only hint of what could be if the transpartisan coalition coalesces into a genuine movement. Using the Internet to transform government by making it far more transparent and enabling vastly greater citizen participation can unite people across the ideological spectrum.
What if their energies are focused on breaking the career politicians’ stranglehold? Coburn-Obama and the OpenHouse Project encourage change at the margins. Term limiting Congress would fundamentally shift power back to the people.
It can be done because the Constitution allows states to propose amendments. Three-fourths of the public supported term limits before the Republican congressional leadership killed it in 1995. There is no reason not to think the same or even more support would come forth today.
Using the Internet and trusting the wisdom of crowds is the way to force that infusion of new blood and radically change American politics and government.
Mark Tapscott is editorial page editor of The Washington Examiner and proprietor of Tapscott’s Copy Desk blog.

via m.washingtonexaminer.com

Posted via web from The Transpartisan Times

Health Care Reform, Toward a Transpartisan Approach | DailySok

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen G. Barr) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:29:00 +0000

Health Care Reform, Toward a Transpartisan Approach | DailySok

Posted using ShareThis

Arizona Lefty Blogs (Links)

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen G. Barr) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 01:20:00 +0000

local only
all posts
archives
add a blog
blogroll
Arizona
The Arizona feed currently indexes 20 blogs.
blog posts last refresh added to leftyblogs
http://www.ydaz.org/blog">Young Democrats of Arizona Blog 40 5:08 p.m. Jun 14
http://wactivist.com">Wactivist 5:08 p.m. Jun 14
http://thedataport.blogspot.com">The Data Port 5:08 p.m. Jun 14
http://tejascubbie.blogspot.com">Tejascubbie 23 5:08 p.m. Jun 14
http://x4mr.blogspot.com">Sustainability, Equity, Development 77 5:08 p.m. Jun 14
http://www.rumromanismrebellion.net">Rum, Romanism and Rebellion 308 5:08 p.m. Jun 14
http://cpmazrandommusings.blogspot.com">Random Musings 277 5:08 p.m. Jun 14
http://maneegee.blogspot.com">Man Eegee Latino Politico 5:08 p.m. Jun 14
http://makedemocracywork.org">Make Democracy Work 6 5:08 p.m. Jun 14
http://dfamc.com">DFA-MC 14 5:08 p.m. Jun 14
http://democraticdiva.com/">Democratic Diva 113 5:08 p.m. Jun 14
http://dpatterson.blogspot.com">Daniel's News & Views 107 5:08 p.m. Jun 14
http://www.dailykos.com/tag/arizona">DailyKos (Arizona) 86 5:08 p.m. Jun 14
http://arizona.typepad.com">Blog For Arizona 1489 5:08 p.m. Jun 14
http://www.aznetroots.com">AZNetroots 53 5:08 p.m. Jun 14
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/azgreenday">AZ Green Day 5:08 p.m. Jun 14
http://www.azcongresswatch.com">AZ Congress Watch 5:08 p.m. Jun 14
http://az05.blogspot.com">Arizona's Fifth District 5:08 p.m. Jun 14
http://www.azdem.org/blog">Arizona Democratic Party 2 5:08 p.m. Jun 14
http://ademlament.blogspot.com">A Democrat's Lament 5:08 p.m. Jun 14

via leftyblogs.com

Posted via web from The Transpartisan Times

World Netizens' Day // Bloggers Unite

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen G. Barr) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 07:00:00 +0000

World Netizens' Day
www.net1zen.com
January 20, 2010
Objective:
Global recognition of Netizens and netizenship
Researching ethical dimension of internet and internet as not-for-profit society. Stepping towards information ecology and ecology of mind.
Is there some content which is clear or subtle political, ideological, economical abuse of mind (propaganda)? Is it posssible to shape information sphere without waste of mind processing time on religious, political or commercial idolatry?
netizen
netizenship
information ecology
ecology of mind

via bloggersunite.org

Posted via web from SGB Media Group, LLC

Are You Sick Of The Partisan Crap Yet? « Revolutionary Independent

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen G. Barr) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:24:00 +0000

Are You Sick Of The Partisan Crap Yet?

with 2 comments

Do you consider yourself a moderate? Or maybe an independent? Are you happy with the actions of the US Congress?

We have been a witness to the partisan crap in Washington since the early 90’s….we have seen just how pathetic the political system is today……and we are ready for the change that has been promised to us for a decade or more….but as the old saying goes, “crap in one hand and hope in the other and see which one fills up first”……

If Americans are truly fed up with the partisan BS being played in Washington, then why not look for an alternative?

First, why not try the Tea Party, the real ones…the ones that are more Libertarian than whack job…..they have gotten a bad name and are the butt of many jokes, but the original Tea Party folks we dedicated to change in Washington, but unfortunately the whackos from the Far Right have tried to hijack the brand…..

Second there is the Transpartisan Alliance:

Goal: Motivate and inspire Americans to work together across divides by practicing and teaching the principles of transpartisanship

Principles and Values:
* Respect other points of view
* Value other points of view
* Open-minded to others
* Listen well to others
* Suspend judgment of others
* Build bridges with others
* Give others benefit of doubt
* Value cooperation

And third there is the Modern Whig Party:

I. Principles

The reality is these are critical to the welfare of the country and the Party. These principles bind us as moderates, unify us as Americans, and also serve to exclude extremes.

·         FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY – Any action of the government must respect principles of fiscal responsibility and public accountability.

·         ENERGY INDEPENDENCE – Develop practical domestic energy sources to reduce dependence on foreign energy sources.

·         STATE’S RESPONSIBILITY – Each state can generally determine its course of action based on local values and unique needs.

·         SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE – When the government is compelled to legislate morality, every citizen should be considered as equal.

·         EDUCATION AND SCIENTIFIC ADVANCEMENT – Increase public and private emphasis on math and science to promote American innovation to compete in the global economy.

·         VETERANS AFFAIRS – Vigilant advocacy relating to the medical, financial, and overall well-being of our military families and veterans.

II. Structural Structural Principles are the most important to the Party. Our structure is what makes us fundamentally different, non-ideological, non-partisan, and not confined by the political spectrum.

·         DEVELOP REAL LEADERS – This central tenet of the Party is to help leaders both grow and to exhibit good citizenship through leadership.

·         SELF DISCOVERY – As a Whig it is important to always be learning and growing. This means it is the Party’s responsibility to pull information together and to help members discover for themselves their stance on any social topic.

III. Perceptual

We have become a reactive society. While there is little we can do about the underlying problem, as a Party we must always consider many perspectives, including a long term perspective.

·         FOCUS ON LONG TERM PROBLEM SOLVING – We have developed into a reactive nation. The only issues being seriously considered are those who make the top of each media hour, however it is important to be talking about and solving issues that are foreseeable before they are major issues.

These are just a few of the options open to independent…….these are more on the moderate side…of course there are the left and right fringe parties that have NO hope of succeeding….the ones listed above are good alternatives with good principles…if any American is looking for a party or organization of principles then they could do NO better than the ones listed….

So people do NOT be a coward…if you truly want to change the crap in Washington then do something about it….talk is cheap….actions are the only answer to ending the partisan crap we now live with daily…..Just do it!

Written by lobotero

5 January 2010 at 0851

Posted in Government, Moderates, Politics

Tagged with Independent, Moderate, Modern Whigs, Partisanship, Polarization, Political Anger, Political Theory, Politicians, Transpartisan, US Congress

« Money Well Spent

2 Responses

Subscribe to comments with RSS.

…and then there’s always the possibility of armed insurrection – everyone else in the world seems to be going for that option…

Quin

5 January 2010 at 1034

Reply

More seriously, I get the point. But, being 150 years old (on a bad day), I’ve come to the conclusion that NO political party o politician should EVER seek to legislate on maral issues. We need to be defended effectively (because without defence there won’t BE a country); we need the economy to be managed effectively for the benefit of ALL who DO work and those who CAN’T work due to illness etc. and let everyone else go hang; we need all basic services to be provided such as healthcare, policing, education, etc; and DAMN ALL ELSE!

Religious leaders have a right to preach (and I have a right not to listen) and politicians do NOT! There should be a TOTAL BAN on moral and social engineering of ALL KINDS by governments and other authorities. How ordinary people choose to live their lives and what values they hold beyond basic respect for others is NONE OF THEIR GODDAMN BUSINESS!

Quin

5 January 2010 at 1117

Reply

Leave a Reply

Click here to cancel reply.

via revolutionaryindependent.wordpress.com

Posted via web from The Transpartisan Times

Transpartisan Letter Against the Insurance Mandate

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen G. Barr) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:57:00 +0000

The following letter was sent to the US Senate by a coalition opposing the mandate forcing citizens to buy health insurance

Dear Senator,

On behalf of our organizations and the millions of people we represent, we strongly encourage you to oppose the “individual mandate” in the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009.” Our groups and members may disagree on what are the best solutions to our health care problems, but this unprecedented coalition of organizations from across the political spectrum agrees that forcing individuals to buy insurance from private companies under the threat of fines or jail is not the reform we need.

The “individual mandate” is a section of the bill that requires every single American to buy health insurance—whether or not they want it or feel they can afford it—or break the law and face penalties and fines. Consequently, the bill does not actually “cover” 30 million more Americans—instead it makes them criminals if they do not buy insurance from private companies. We hope you agree that it is unconscionable to force people to buy a product from a private insurer. This would effectively be a tax—and a huge one—paid directly to a private industry.

Enacting this mandate would be a major victory for the insurance companies at the expense of the American people. It should be no surprise they support the government forcing everyone to buy their product. Imagine how the hamburger industry would respond if the government forced everyone to have hamburgers for lunch or pay fines?

According to the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, the average annual premium for single coverage is $4,321. If the 46 million uninsured are forced to purchase private health insurance at that price, then the insurance industry stands to bring in up to $200 billion in new insurance premiums per year. The Senate bill also includes an estimated $630 billion in corporate welfare for private insurance companies in the form of subsidies over the next 10 years, creating even less incentive than currently exists for private insurance premiums to be lowered.

To make matters worse, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimates that 19 million Americans would not buy insurance and as a result would be forced to pay $29 billion in taxes/fines. The Joint Committee on Taxation has made it clear that failure to pay these fines could result in jail time.

Given these fact, it is not surprising that a recent NBC News poll finds 57 percent of Americans do not want the government to create “a law that requires everyone to have health insurance coverage” and that only 38% of Americans favor the mandate, making it the least popular part of the bill.

The American people stand in firm opposition to the individual mandate. We stand with them. We hope you will, too.

Sincerely,

Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquist, President
Democrats.com, Bob Fertik, President
Healthcare-NOW!, Katie Robbins, National Organizer
Matt Kibbe, President and CEO, FreedomWorks
Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), Tim Carpenter, Director
Campaign for liberty, John Tate, President
60 Plus Association, Jim Martin, President
Liberty Tree Foundation, Ben Manski, Executive Director
National Taxpayers Union, Duane Parde, President,
National Coalition of Organized Women, Consuela Sylvester, Ohio Director
Citizens for Health, Jim Turner, Chairman,
Competitive Enterprise Institute, Gregory Conko, Senior Fellow
American Association of Small Property Owners, F. Patricia Callahan, President
U.S. Bill of Rights Foundation, Dane vonBreichenruchardt, President
Institute for Liberty, Andrew Langer, President
Santa Monicans for Safe Drinking Water Coalition, Gene Burke, Founder, Director
Alliance for Natural Health USA, Gretchen DuBeau, Executive Director
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Jane M Orient, MD, Executive Director,
Fairfax County Privacy Council, Mike Stollenwerk, Chairman
The Rutherford Institute, John W. Whitehead, President
Pain Relief Network, Siobhan Reynolds, Executive Director
American Policy Center, Tom DeWeese, President
Justice Through Music, Brett Kimberlin, Director
Velvet Revolution, Brad Friedman, Co-Founder
After Downing Street, David Swanson, Co-Founder
Project Vote Count, Mark A. Adams, Founder,
Democracy in Action (DIA), Dorothy Reilly, Organizer
Squadron13.com, Gordon Sturrock, Founder
Democracy for America - Tucson chapter, Richard Kaiser, Co-chair
DownWithTyranny.com, Howie Klein, Publisher
Center for Financial Privacy and Human Rights, J. Bradley Jansen, Director
DownsizeDC.org, Inc., Jim Babka, President
Cyber Privacy Project, Richard Sobel, Director
Citizens For Legitimate Government, Lori R. Price, Managing Editor
Georgia Peace & Justice Coalition, Mike Hearington, Steering Committee
Doctor Patient Medical Association, Kathryn Serkes, Chair

FDL Action » Right & Left Agree: Mandates are the Road to Neofeudalism

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen G. Barr) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:10:00 +0000

« The Public Option Is Not Symbolic; It Is Foundational

Thank Dennis Kucinich For Launching Fannie/Freddie Investigation »

Right & Left Agree: Mandates are the Road to Neofeudalism
By: Jane Hamsher Wednesday December 30, 2009 10:08 am

There is tremendous fear rising on both the right and the left that the announced intention of Congress — to force every American to pay tribute to private corporations, with no government alternative — sets a dangerous and frightening precedent with implications far outside the scope of health care.

If the health care bill written by the Senate is passed, middle class Americans will be mandated to pay almost as much to private insurance companies as they do to the federal government in taxes, with the IRS acting as a collection agency for penalties of 2% of your annual income for refusing to comply.

This is just one of many recent measures that has brought liberal progressives and conservative libertarians together to join forces in opposition:

Democrat Alan Grayson worked successfully this year with Republican Ron Paul to pass legislation to audit the Federal Reserve, with 317 cosponsors as diverse as Dennis Kucinich and Michelle Bachmann.

On December 3, the liberal Campaign for America’s Future wrote a letter to the Senate opposing the reconfirmation of Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke until such an audit has been conducted. The letter was signed by James Galbraith, Robert Weisman, Chris Bowers and myself on the left, and Grover Norquist, Phillis Schlafly, and Larry Greenley on the right. Financial blogger Tyler Durden and young organizer Tiffiniy Cheng joined them.

Also on December 3, conservative Jim Bunning joined liberal Bernie Sanders in placing a hold on the Bernanke nomination until the Fed had been audited.

On December 15, CAF again sent a letter to the Senate Banking Committee, asking them to delay the vote on the Bernanke confirmation until Audit the Fed received a stand alone vote in the Senate. It was signed by Matt KIbbe of Freedomworks, John Tate of the Campaign for Liberty, and Grover Norquist on the right, and David Swanson of AfterDowiningStreet, Dean Baker and Robert Borosage on the left.

On December 21, a letter was written opposing the mandate in the health care bill. It was signed by Bob Fertik of Democrats.com, Howie Klein of DownWithTyranny, Brad Friedman of Velvet Revolution, Tim Carpenter of Progressive Democrats of America on the left and Grover Norquist, Jim Martin of 60 Plus Association, Duane Parde of the National Taxpayers Union on the right.

On December 23, Grover Norquist and I sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder calling for an investigation into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s conflicts of interest before the White House could lift the cap on the commitment to them from $400 billion to $800 billion with no Inspector General in place.

The individuals on both sides of the political spectrum who signed these letters agree on very little, but they do share both a tremendous concern for the corporatist control of government that politicians in both parties seem hell-bent on achieving.

In 2003, the Democrats railed in opposition when the Republicans passed Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage that didn’t allow for negotiated drug prices. And in 2006 when Democrats took over Congress, one of the hallmarks of their first hundred days was passing legislation allowing Medicare to do so, supported by both Rahm Emanuel and Barack Obama. Of course, it had no chance of passing with George Bush in the White House.

Candidate Barack Obama said the ability to negotiate for drug prices would save $30 billion a year in medical costs. Yet when President Obama got to the White House, one of the first things he did was negotiate a secret deal with PhRMA that prevented drug price negotiations in exchange for $150 million in political advertising to help vulnerable Democrats in the House and in support of the health care bill.

In the Senate, Tom Carper said that because PhRMA had paid for the deal with political advertising, they were obligated to abide by it.

Jeff Sessions railed against the corrupt PhRMA deal that didn’t allow for prescription drug price negotiation. He didn’t mention that he voted for the 2000 bill without it, and when he had the chance to vote for it in the Senate in 2006, he voted “no” himself. Both parties are equally blameworthy — the only difference is who is in power and taking PhRMA’s money.

The PhRMA deal is one of many negotiated by the White House this last summer which formed the underpinnings of the health care bill. From then on, it just became a matter of which member was going to extract what deals for their votes, and who was going to take the blame for cutting popular elements from the legislation that the corporate “stakeholders” didn’t want.

As FDL’s Jon Walker wrote recently, if the ability to cut health care costs hadn’t been auctioned off to private corporations in exchange for political patronage, there would have been no government subsidy necessary to make insurance coverage affordable.

We are ceding control of the government to private corporations, not figuratively but literally. When the Senate Finance Committee bill was released earlier this year, the “author” was a former VP of Wellpoint. Liberals, conservatives and independents alike are all justifiably alarmed at what this represents.

It is tragic that health care for the poor is being held hostage to the corporatist agenda, a fig leaf to buy public support and disguise this bill for what it is. As blogger Marcy Wheeler noted in a piece called Health Care and the Road to Neo-Feudalism:

I understand the temptation to offer 30 million people health care. What I don’t understand is the nonchalance with which we’re about to fundamentally shift the relationships of governance in doing so.

Just as those on the libertarian right were demonized by the Republican establishment for opposing the Iraq war during the Bush years, so progressives on the left are being pilloried for “damaging the cause” by joining with Republicans to oppose these extreme measures. It’s ironic that the most virulent supporters of a President who ran on “bipartisanship” should reject it so vehemently when it becomes critical of the policies pursued by his White House.

This “right-left wraparound” is happening because politicians in both parties have become so unresponsive to popular sentiment: public support for stifling investigation of the bank bailouts just to protect the President are infinitesimally small, and fortunately Dennis Kucinich announced today that he would commence an investigation into the Fannie/Freddie bailout. But it’s a testament to the extreme nature of what is happening to our government that such traditional political foes could find common cause in opposing it.

It’s foolish to say that only those who agree with you on every issue are allowed to share your opinion when it comes to opposing something like the mandated bailout of Aetna — it isn’t necessary to achieve health care reform. As Jon Walker notes, removing the mandate would reduce the CBO score and its inclusion in the health care bill with no government alternative is unacceptable for moral, political and policy reasons.

Candidate Obama himself opposed the mandate. Keith Olberman and Howard Dean concur.

As Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos said, “remove the mandate or kill this bill.” We’ve opened a “war room” at Firedoglake with information about calling your member of Congress to demand that this provision to bail out the insurance industry be removed from the health care bill before they agree to cast their vote in favor of it.

And nobody needs to pass an ideological purity test before they can use it.

Join us to oppose the mandate. Enter the war room.

12 Comments
Spotlight

12 Responses to “Right & Left Agree: Mandates are the Road to Neofeudalism”

Leen December 30th, 2009 at 10:34 am

1

During campaign Obama said NO MANDATES, Hell that was the main difference between Obama and Hillary on health care

Reply

OldFatGuy December 30th, 2009 at 10:48 am

2

Just a question, cause this is the second time I’ve seen the year 2000 being described as the year Medicare Part D passed. I’m pretty sure the Medicare Part D passed when George W. Bush was President. And George W. Bush didn’t even become President until Jan. 2001. I thought Medicare Part D passed in like 2003 or 2004.

Reply

bigbrother December 30th, 2009 at 10:58 am

3

“Freedom is a word a rarely use when I’m thinking” Bob Dylan. Well under all the snow jobs K street is putting out to the moneyed players is an Oligarchy that has grow quietly to global proportions. Until that dragon is slain we are the new fuedal society.

Reply

bigbrother December 30th, 2009 at 11:04 am

4

In response to Leen @ 1

Leen making excellent support statements for Obama/Rhama criticisms Jane and many of us have made. We do want the president to suceed not sell us out to the Oligarchical interests. The corporate masses has gobbled up small businesses, the heart of American business, for 5 decades. That voice has been silenced and in place a powerful conglomerate that was the target of the old anti trust laws. We have like Jacob been sold.

Reply

DanRockridge December 30th, 2009 at 11:14 am

5

Is “No mandate” the flip-side of the public option fight, or should we infer that those 8-16 house progressives aren’t going to fight for the PO?

Reply

mostrolenk December 30th, 2009 at 11:18 am

6

another great blog Jane… as your new right wing friend, I appreciate your continued support for various transpartisan activities.

I think a lot of people would be surprised to learn about the many left/right coalitions that have been working these many years, many of which were formed during the Bush years.

Although liberals, progressives, libertarians and conservatives might not always agree (or agree much), there are a lot of common ground issues that we can ALL come together on including against corporate/state collusion. And when we come together, we get the chance to humanize the political process which can lead to even more cooperation, better debates (real debates on real issues) and perhaps new ways of thinking about issues.

It is the latter which in the end interests me the most. Politically, I favor a libertarian perspective since I think by maximizing liberty, we create more room for innovation, experimentation and even more fun (and less violence as the foundation for human relationships which is the cornerstone of libertarian philosophy i.e. voluntary cooperation and not violence or threat of violence) . But I will admit, that the libertarian frame work as its now popularly conceived has its limits and can benefit from other perspectives. The progressive critique of corporate power is one such perspective that I think needs to be integrated into a larger understanding of power dynamics. Yes, the state is a problem (its basis is force) and yes, large corporate institutions are problematic and yes, there are other institutions which also need to be addressed in terms of their negative effect on individuals, families and community life. As folks on the right would benefit from the ideas and perspectives from those on the left, I think the opposite is true as well.

Reply

bigbrother December 30th, 2009 at 11:25 am

7

Marcy wheeler and BMAZ have to know that a huge body of law has been created supporting the Oligarchy enabling it to do business Enron style. What that means is off the books debt can be hidden along with other financial tools to give investor the impression equity that does not exist is in fact real and supporting the equities that are traded globally. It is part of the corporate culture.
There is a huge debt in the capital markets that is surpressing growth. The fear that is causing on the hill is that more commitments are not doable.
It is more about who is getting the biggest slice of the pie. We are not players and get a shrinking share of the production. Americans produce more per hour each decade the percentage of the population that is employed is shrinking. Haves are getting smaller have nots are growing Homelessness and poverty have risen.
Isn’t who gets medical attention affected by these concerns?

Reply

Ann in AZ December 30th, 2009 at 11:28 am

8

In response to bigbrother @ 3

Amen, brother.

Reply

marcos December 30th, 2009 at 12:02 pm

9

We need to take the credit function away from Wall Street and create public credit. That’ll put an end to their feudalist designs right quick.

Reply

mostrolenk December 30th, 2009 at 12:06 pm

10

Marcos, why limit your thinking to either public credit or Wall Street based credit? Are there not a dozen other possible options? If not, let’s create them.

Reply

marcos December 30th, 2009 at 12:10 pm

11

In response to mostrolenk @ 10

Whatever, so long as they can in effect print money and achieve 30-40% ROI on credit products, that will suck capital from the productive economy.

There needs to be a public option or nonprofit option for credit and a requirement that public debt at the state and local level be issued as public credit.

The details of that need not be ironed out here.

Reply

Knoxville December 30th, 2009 at 12:50 pm

12

Re, Neofeudalism: I admit that the term has caught on and makes the point, but I think “Neo-Serfdom” would be more accurate.

Jane, thank you for recognizing the need to capitalize on a “tactical convergence” between all populists, left and right, in opposition to mandates and a wide variety of other bad policies that are designed to work against the interests of the American people, as well as against their rights and their privacy.

Watching you on tv with a libertarian right now discussing marriage. RIGHT ON!

Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment. If you don't have an account, then please feel free to register for one.

« The Public Option Is Not Symbolic; It Is Foundational

Thank Dennis Kucinich For Launching Fannie/Freddie Investigation »

via fdlaction.firedoglake.com

Posted via web from The Transpartisan Times

	CASE	DISPOSITION
1.	Prosecution of Don Stapley	Dismissed
2.	Prosecution of Mary Rose Wilcox	Dismissed
3.	Prosecution of Judge Donohoe	Dropped
4.	Prosecution of Yuma State Legislator Russ Jones	Dismissed
5.	Racketeering case against County Supervisors, their lawyers, County officials, and four judges who ruled against Thomas in four different cases	Dropped on eve of arguing Motion to Dismiss
6.	Contesting County hiring its own lawyer because of Thomas’ unethical conduct	Lost
7.	Court Tower case	Lost
8.	Challenging Hispanic court	Lost
9.	Contest of Balanced Budget Act of 2008	Lost
10.	Records request battle with County	Lost
11.	Prosecution of New Times newspaper	Dropped
12.	Prosecution of demonstrators	Lost

blog	posts	last refresh	added to leftyblogs
http://www.ydaz.org/blog">Young Democrats of Arizona Blog	40	5:08 p.m.	Jun 14
http://wactivist.com">Wactivist		5:08 p.m.	Jun 14
http://thedataport.blogspot.com">The Data Port		5:08 p.m.	Jun 14
http://tejascubbie.blogspot.com">Tejascubbie	23	5:08 p.m.	Jun 14
http://x4mr.blogspot.com">Sustainability, Equity, Development	77	5:08 p.m.	Jun 14
http://www.rumromanismrebellion.net">Rum, Romanism and Rebellion	308	5:08 p.m.	Jun 14
http://cpmazrandommusings.blogspot.com">Random Musings	277	5:08 p.m.	Jun 14
http://maneegee.blogspot.com">Man Eegee Latino Politico		5:08 p.m.	Jun 14
http://makedemocracywork.org">Make Democracy Work	6	5:08 p.m.	Jun 14
http://dfamc.com">DFA-MC	14	5:08 p.m.	Jun 14
http://democraticdiva.com/">Democratic Diva	113	5:08 p.m.	Jun 14
http://dpatterson.blogspot.com">Daniel's News & Views	107	5:08 p.m.	Jun 14
http://www.dailykos.com/tag/arizona">DailyKos (Arizona)	86	5:08 p.m.	Jun 14
http://arizona.typepad.com">Blog For Arizona	1489	5:08 p.m.	Jun 14
http://www.aznetroots.com">AZNetroots	53	5:08 p.m.	Jun 14
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/azgreenday">AZ Green Day		5:08 p.m.	Jun 14
http://www.azcongresswatch.com">AZ Congress Watch		5:08 p.m.	Jun 14
http://az05.blogspot.com">Arizona's Fifth District		5:08 p.m.	Jun 14
http://www.azdem.org/blog">Arizona Democratic Party	2	5:08 p.m.	Jun 14
http://ademlament.blogspot.com">A Democrat's Lament		5:08 p.m.	Jun 14

The Transpartisan Times

Center For Progressive Leadership 2011 Political Leaders Fellowship

CPL Newsletter

Phoenix Based SGB Media Group Announces Major Strategic Alliances During 2nd Quarter

Journalist Running for U.S. Senate in Arizona - mediabistro.com: MediaJobsDaily

Xbox Live Banking Billions on Virtual Goods, Twitter 'Mumbles' Big in Japan

Horne: Andrew Thomas’ Abuse of Power

Horne: Andrew Thomas’ Abuse of Power

About the Author

No Comments

Leave a Reply

Terry Goddard for Governor - Arizona :: Meet Terry

Meet Terry

Over a lifetime of public service, Terry Goddard has fought to improve the lives of Arizonans.

Arizona Capitol Times » Blog Archive » AP-Univision Poll: Immigration splits Americans

AP-Univision Poll: Immigration splits Americans

Center For Progressive Leadership - State Offices

Politicians join social networks

Politicians join social networks

Committee to Elect Jason Williams 2010 | Platform

Platform

Fairness

Innovation

Accountability

The Direction We Must Go

SGB Media Group Transitioning Blogs from Google Blogger to Posterous

Arizona Prison Watch

Transpartisan Shift - Transpartisan Alliance

Walt Roberts Explores…Transpartisan Politics

Transpartisan Movement and pro-democracy reform in the news. Katrina vanden Heuvel is on it.

The Massachusetts Lesson: Go Populist Now

posted by Katrina vanden Heuvel on 01/19/2010 @ 10:11pm

Vince Rabago for Attorney General

Arizona Capitol Times

2010 CANDIDATES

Eyes on the Legislature

SGB Media Group LLC - Social Media Marketing, Affiliate Marketing Consulting & Public Relations

WashingtonExaminer.com : Mark Tapscott: America needs a transpartisan citizens political movement

Health Care Reform, Toward a Transpartisan Approach | DailySok

Arizona Lefty Blogs (Links)

Arizona

World Netizens' Day // Bloggers Unite

World Netizens' Day

Are You Sick Of The Partisan Crap Yet? « Revolutionary Independent

Are You Sick Of The Partisan Crap Yet?

2 Responses

Leave a Reply

Transpartisan Letter Against the Insurance Mandate

FDL Action » Right & Left Agree: Mandates are the Road to Neofeudalism

Right & Left Agree: Mandates are the Road to Neofeudalism

12 Responses to “Right & Left Agree: Mandates are the Road to Neofeudalism”