The Transpartisan Times

Charles Carroll of Carrollton - My Ancestor

noreply@blogger.com (sgb media group) — Sat, 11 Feb 2017 14:37:00 +0000

The prevailing academic theories that attempt to interpret the motivations of those American colonists who rebelled against British taxation of, and ultimately, British sovereignty over the Thirteen North American colonies during the American Revolutionary War tend to center their focus on one of two broad themes: either political ideology or economic self-interest. While proponents of one model pursue the rigorous examination of the ideological imperatives that they argue inspired American colonial resistance, those of the other, more jaded camp contend that colonial insurrection was more a matter of incentives than ideas, incited by the colonial elite to secure their personal interests. As this largely binary debate is waged amongst scholars, other alternative approaches to understanding the motivations of those who thought and fought the American Revolution are often lost. Although economic interests and ideological impulses may well have eclipsed the import of other provocations to revolution amongst the greater sum of American patriots, adopting only such limited vantage points risks obfuscating the myriad of individual perspectives harbored by those who constituted the Revolutionary movement, whose many reasons for participation compose a much more diverse mosaic of inspirations. Religious freedom and toleration, for example, hardly register as a serious raison d’être for the American Revolution. By and large, as a matter of fact, it was not, at least amongst the vast majority of patriots. Yet, in at least one important case, the struggle for the freedom to practice one’s faith without injury or oppression represented the foremost consideration of a prominent American revolutionary. Charles Carroll of Carrollton was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and one of the first two United States senators to represent the State of Maryland. He was a well-studied scholar of common law and the English Constitution, versed in the literature and tradition of liberty: an apparent disciple of the strain of political ideology most associated with the American Revolution. He was a wealthy, slave-holding tobacco planter who strongly identified with the interests of the Southern colonial elite, one of the richest men in North America. A conventional analysis of the Founding Fathers’ revolutionary motivations would fixate on these twin details of Carroll’s biography, which alone provide ample fodder for an exploration of those factors which most propelled such a man to take up the cause of American independence. Yet, these factors alone cannot and do not account for this founder’s conviction to the Revolutionary cause. The case of Daniel Dulany, a prominent Maryland contemporary of Carroll’s who shared with him a similar background as a scholar of law and pamphleteer for liberty, although likewise dedicated to the protection of his own considerable economic interests as an elite, offers an important contrast. Despite sharing the same ideological inclinations and economic reservations about the Revolution, Carroll emerged as a champion of independence while Dulany became a Loyalist. The cause of this divergence highlights the critical role of a third, not-to-be-neglected aspect of Carroll’s identity as an American founder. Charles Carroll of Carrollton was a devoted Roman Catholic, the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence during an era in which dissent from Protestantism represented a significant social and political handicap, accompanied by the denial of equal rights and status. Carroll’s public Catholicism in the Protestant British North America of the late eighteenth century colors his more complex motivations to join the American Revolution. In fact, Carroll’s experience as a religious minority and yearning for religious freedom was, regardless of the strength of his ideological bent or economic agenda, the single most important factor that compelled him to support and eventually take a leadership role in the American Revolution. The weight Charles Carroll placed on the various factors that ultimately led him to lend his support to the risky endeavor of the American Revolution can be seen by examining in detail his personal written correspondence, from his earliest letters to his final commitment to revolution. In this study, only those letters that were not published until after his death are considered, so as to eliminate any public sentiments that may be more rooted in the demands of political performance than his own sincere belief and draw closer to those private thoughts that were closest to his heart as he actively processed the imperial crisis to formulate his position. After analyzing the influences of both ideological inspiration and economic incentive on Carroll’s decision to participate in the Revolution, it is unclear which of the two wielded the stronger impact: while both informed Carroll’s revolutionary frame of mind, neither impulse can be deemed decisive on account of the other. However, with the introduction of a third consideration, Carroll’s identity as a Roman Catholic, it becomes clear that his fear of persecution and experience of exclusion from the full rights and liberties common to his neighbors were the decisive factors in his adoption of the Revolutionary cause, as he pursued and realized his long-held dream of religious toleration as an American founder. Sent abroad to Europe as a youth to study law and government, Charles Carroll of Carrollton was nonetheless instructed in his appreciation for liberty and justice by his father, Charles Carroll of Doughoregan, who instilled in him a commitment to these ideals. “Would not it be of infinite advantage … if every man of property … were a sound Lawyer and well acquainted with the Constitution?” the elder Carroll asked the younger as he endowed him with that mission, the pursuit of which would occupy the seventeen years of his life spent in study.[1] Carroll’s father implored him to pay special attention to the constitutional qualities that underlay governments, urging him on his departure that “it is necessary to obtain a pretty good insight into ye Constitution of France” and later making similar exhortations that he should familiarize himself in depth with that of England.[2] Beyond simply requesting that his son conduct his own inquiries into the nature of government, Charles Carroll of Doughoregan, as a follower of the English “country” Commonwealth tradition of political thought, cultivated his son to internalize that same set of principles which guided him politically, suggesting early in his son’s education that he adopt that theoretical framework. In one lesson, Charles Carroll of Doughoregan expounded to his son the basic creed, at the heart of his school of thought, that “corruption and freedom cannot long subsist together.”[3] In the strong words of yet another letter, the young Charles Carroll of Carrollton was taught that “if government cannot be carried on without corruption, there is an end of ye Constitution.”[4] Such lessons would soon assume a grimmer undertone as the elder Carroll infused his notes on political theory with interpretations of current events. By 1762, Charles Carroll of Doughoregan had sounded the alarm bell to his son, conveying to him in despair that “virtue has abandoned us and liberty is gone with it.”[5] For his part, a young Charles Carroll of Carrollton was soon convinced that, towards the latter part of his stay in London, he was himself an eyewitness to the startling decay of virtue and subsequently, of liberty. In a letter to his concerned father, Carroll insisted that “whoever presides in the Treasury can command in Parliament,” signaling the long-feared fall to corruption of England’s once virtuous government, while also painting a picture of a vile citizenry that “seems to be tending hastily to Anarchy.”[6] In a letter to his friend and peer, Bradshaw, Carroll expressed his gloomy confidence in his apocalyptic vision of England’s inevitable political fate: “the English Constitution seems hastening to its final period of dissolution,” he wrote, “and the symptoms of a general decay are but too visible.”[7] Such beliefs reflect Carroll’s familiarity with contemporary political theory focused on the vulnerability of liberty, which he came in contact with during his years of study at the Temple in England. His views regarding the inevitable decay of constitutions as virtue diminishes amongst a population speak to his understanding of Robert Molesworth’s central thesis in An Account of Denmark, which recounts the decline of liberty in that kingdom along a similar trajectory to that which the young Carroll projected upon England during his own time. Molesworth’s fear of “a sickly Constitution” which “mortifies … Liberty and Freedom” was emulated by his student, Carroll, who feared that the experience of Denmark, where “at one instant the whole Face of Affairs was changed so … not the least remnant of Liberty remains to the Subject and the very name of Liberty is quite forgotten,” may well have been repeating itself in his own country.[8] Aside from Molesworth, the young Charles Carroll of Carrollton counted amongst his teachers “the books of Livy, Cicero, Horace, Virgil, and Caesar,” purchased for him by his father, which would have illustrated for him yet another example of the precipitous decline and fall of liberty that must accompany the wane of virtue, as infamously occurred in ancient Rome.[9] Amongst other ideological inspirations, Carroll counted Voltaire, who he esteemed as possessed of a “sarcastic wit and humour so peculiar and original that ye easily distinguish his works,” and Jonathan Swift, whose satires he professed to love.[10] Even upon his return to the Maryland, Carroll had grown so entranced with Europe’s literature of liberty, that, in one letter, he begs his English friend Henry Graves to “continue to send [him] the most interesting Pamphlets” upon his departure.[11] Upon his return to Maryland, Carroll not only continued to engage with such literature, but also to carry out a vigorous correspondence with the friends in England with whom he had studied law, in which he debated points of liberty and constitutionality as they applied to current events confronting them, most notably the episodes surrounding the passage and repeal of the Stamp Act. In these debates, Carroll formulated arguments of the sort that mark a lawyer’s interest in the philosophy of jurisprudence and the nature of liberty, displaying sincerity in his commitments to such moral and intellectual pursuits as he engaged in them out of genuine passion. “There are certain known fundamental laws essential to and interwoven with ye English constitution which even a Parliament itself cannot abrogate: such I take to be that invaluable privilege from birth Englishmen [enjoy] of being taxed with their own consent,” Carroll wrote to his friend Edmund Jennings in 1765.[12] His private arguments remain consistent over time and across audiences. That same year, Carroll engaged another English friend, Henry Graves, on the same matter, writing “by law, ye most favourable to liberty, we claim the invaluable privilege, that distinguishing Characteristick of ye English constitution, of being taxed by our own representatives; to say that we are virtually represented is only adding to ye oppression ye cruel mockery of our understandings.”[13] Conjuring such eloquent private appeals to political philosophy for friends an ocean away, Carroll evinces a commitment to ideology that can only be assumed to have generated some part of his decision to support the American Revolution. “If [American] freedom and [English] power are res dissociabiles, incompatible, I am sorry for it, but let us retain our liberty whatever becomes of honor,” Carrollton wrote to Graves.[14] In an honor society like that of eighteenth century British North America, willingness to sacrifice one’s own honor for anything was a statement of incredible significance: if Carroll was willing to submit his honor to what he considered to be the higher value of liberty, the idea must have held inestimable importance to him. Yet, Carroll’s interest in protecting his liberty cannot be fully distilled from his interest in preserving his own wealth in the face of Parliamentary overreach and tyrannical taxation. In one letter to Graves, Carroll writes: “Americans will never depart from the essential right of internal taxation, without which our property would be at ye mercy of every rapacious minister.”[15] While in that same letter he goes on to imply that affronts to general rights and liberties by Parliament are of paramount concern to him – scribbling that “the Stamp Act has taken away in part ye trial by Juries: has curtailed ye liberty of ye Press: petitions, altho’ the subject has an undoubted right to petition, were rejected with scorn on ye frivolous pretense” – it is ultimately the threat to property that caps his climactic construction as his chief concern, earning it the position of greatest emphasis.[16] Carroll ends his discourse on the Stamp Act by asking, as if in summary: “what security remains for our property?”[17] Just as Charles Carroll of Doughoregan had instilled his son with his political ideology, he also impressed upon him at a young age a sense of status and station that came as a result of their material wealth, teaching him that by virtue of his affluence, he occupied a unique niche in society. As Carroll’s descendants remember in their family notes on their ancestors, “in these days it is said Maryland evinced some signs of aptitude for reproducing the manners and ways of the English nobility: Annapolis was a center of fashion where luxury abounded.”[18] Having grown wealthy “on the sale of ye Tobacco,” as Charles Carroll of Carrollton himself wrote, the whole family was employed in the effort to affect the air of nobility and condescension expected to attend those of their fortune and social graces. When Charles Carroll of Carrollton was newly arrived in France, his father would chide him from across the sea to see that his son represented the family well and impressed on locals the prestige of their name. “Since it is the Fashion, you should wear worked Ruffles,” the elder Carroll reminded his son.[19] Under such pressure to flaunt one’s wealth and, consequently, secure one’s social superiority, modesty was no virtue. “I understand you dress plainly,” Charles Carroll of Doughoregan wrote to his son while he was studying law in England, “I commend you for it, but I think you should have Clothes suitable to occasions.”[20] Throughout his childhood, Charles Carroll of Carrollton was made to feel that wealth bestowed on him a unique position in society, a space above it more than part of it, an exception to the rules that bind the commons. Certainly, Carroll was aware of the superior social station his considerable wealth granted him and internalized his role as a genteel country patrician as one both social and political. He considered acting in his economic self interest a social service to those around him, writing “in these times of necessity and oppression it is a duty every man of fortune owes his country to set an example of frugality and industry to ye common people.”[21] Though the simple unconstitutionality of the Stamp Act was itself an injustice, that injustice could be magnified by its causation of economic distress. “It would be more oppressive than ye Stamp Act itself … to pay extravagant prices for the advantage of Great Britain,” he admitted.[22] To Carroll, the financial difficulty the Act imposed compounded its evil by orders of magnitude. An ideological purist would not care the slightest whether an illegal tax separated him from a penny or a pound: more than stealing his wealth, the tax stole his liberty. For an ideological purist of the country Commonwealth tradition, deprivation would have been the far more injurious – and far more important. Carroll himself was aware of that distinction, remarking to his English friend Jennings that “an American might say, if my money is to be taken from me without my consent, it is immaterial to me in what manner this is effected.”[23] By recognizing that that typical “American” response was not his own, Carroll separated and isolated himself from his countrymen in Maryland by virtue of his economic position. Carroll was also flexible in his opposition to legislation on the grounds of its unconstitutionality alone and was willing to accept laws that overstepped the bounds of a strict interpretation of parliamentary power if it served a worthy end. Pertaining to an “embargo laid on wheat,” Carroll reasoned that “if [it] was on creation of the prerogative not strictly legal, yet the measure was confessedly necessary … no stretch of ye prerogative for ye general good will ever endanger our constitution.”[24] The economic effect of illegal legislation seemed to be of greater consequence than the mere fact of its illegality. Writing to Daniel Barrington, Carroll wondered with frustration: “Will ye solid advantages of a most profitable, extensive trade, be given up to an empty point of honour?”[25] Many of Carroll’s fellow patriots would likely be insulted by reference to the Stamp Act, that most abominable instrument of tyranny, as little more than an impediment to the lucrative export of tobacco across the Atlantic. But if the mass of American patriots had reason to be critical of Carroll’s self-interested economic motivations to revolution, so too did he often express dissatisfaction with their actions, which he often considered inappropriate simply on account of the social standing of those who participated in them. Carroll was critical of the acts of resistance undertaken and executed by the masses. In at least one instance, Carroll’s privilege pitted him against the bulk of his fellow patriots: the fracture along class lines was not lost on him. “Men of some property were too sensible to carry [the masses’ plans] into execution,” he wrote to Daniel Barrington, exempting himself from a popularly anticipated political exercise on account of his class, alongside others of similar standing.[26] On other occasions, his opinions of revolutionary activity dipped yet lower, as he associated the lower classes with contemptible qualities. In another letter to Barrington, Carrollton dismissed the whole revolutionary affair as the ill-founded work of the mob: “the clamour of the People,” he alleged, “proceeds from their ignorance, prejudice, and passion.”[27] At times, it seems, Carrollton’s interests as an elite compelled him to oppose the Revolution, though such instances were more the exception than the rule. Given the findings of the previous analysis of Charles Carroll of Carrollton’s ideological and economic motivations to support the American Revolution, neither of the two aforementioned impetuses clearly overpowers the other, especially as they overlap and contradict each other. Not only do neither ideology nor self-interest step forward as an obvious primary reason for Carroll to have supported the Revolution, but neither are sufficient to explain his support of the Revolution at all. The example of Daniel Dulany, who shared Carroll’s ideological leanings and economic standing, highlights this important contingency. As a youth in London, Carroll had studied law in the company of Lloyd Dulany, the son of Maryland Governor Daniel Dulany.[28] Daniel Dulany, like Carroll, appeared deeply dedicated to both the ideological ideals of liberty and his own economic interest, both of which pitted him against the English government. When Dulany published a pamphlet assaulting the Stamp Act as both unjust and imprudent, titled Considerations on the Propriety of Imposing Taxes in the British Colonies, Carroll was enamored. The pamphlet expressed both ideological convictions and economic concerns that Carroll recognized as his own, identifying Dulany’s words as the most cogent and complete encapsulation of his views on the imperial crisis. “If you are any ways serious or desirous to enter into ye merits of a cause, the most important, interesting, and of ye utmost consequence to the British Empire, I must recommend to you a Pamphlet lately published in this province entitled ‘Ye Claim of the colonies or an exemption of taxes all considered’,” he gushed to his friend Bradshaw.[29] Just two days later, he exhorted Jennings: “if you have a mind to see the claims of the Colonies for an exemption of taxes laid by Authority of Parliament, fairly stated, fully discussed, and asserted with great solidity and strength of argument, I must refer you to a Pamphlet of Dulany’s bearing much such a title.”[30] Given the profound deference and admiration with which Carroll revered Dulany, it may be surprising that the former would make his name locked in a heated newspaper war with the latter, his former hero. Under the pseudonyms of “First Citizen” and “Antillon,” respectively, the two battled one another in column after column, as Carroll embraced American patriotism and Dulany became a leading Loyalist. If Dulany, who so closely resembled the outlook and pocketbook of Carroll, was to remain a Loyalist while expressing the same ideas and feeling the same financial anxieties, what accounts for the divergence of allegiance between the two men who in most every fashion so closely resembled one another? That responsible factor which, in turn, must be that which most compelled Carroll to commit to the Revolutionary cause, was Carroll’s Catholicism. While neither philosophical sympathy nor the interests of wealth could drive Dulany – or presumably Carroll, for that matter – to revolt against British colonial rule, Carroll’s identity as an oppressed religious minority in the Protestant colony of Maryland made all the difference in assuring that he would support the Revolution, when he saw in it the opportunity to improve his plight and that of his co-religionists. Like so much else, Carroll inherited his devotion to Catholicism from his father, who himself inherited it from his. The Carrolls traced their origins to Ireland, where they were known as the O’Carrolls. Despite trying circumstances, they had remained proudly and publicly Catholic in the New World. Charles Carroll of Carrolton was sent to Catholic institutions at Rheims and the Temple to spend his childhood and adolescence in the company of his co-religionists. As the Carrolls remember in their family history, “it remained a traditional custom with the English student of the Catholic faith to frequent the foreign colleges his fathers had sought before him.”[31] The young Carroll demonstrated a sincere commitment to serve his faith dutifully, causing his father to praise him for “entering into ye world fully instructed as to your Duty to God and with a sincere disposition to comply with it.”[32] As Roman Catholics, the Carroll family faced immense hardship on account of their religious identity that not even their great tobacco wealth could overcome. Though Maryland was originally founded as a proprietary colony to serve as a safe haven for England’s persecuted Catholics, the demographics of the colony quickly came to be dominated by Protestants, who deprived its Catholic proprietors of their control following Coode’s “Protestant Rebellion” of 1689, at which point they declared Catholicism illegal in the colony. The famous Maryland Toleration Act of 1649 was repealed. By the time Charles Carroll of Doughoregan was born, the O’Carrolls had dropped the telltale O’ from their surname, presumably to avoid the prejudice that came with the presentation of Irish heritage, a clear indication of Catholic predisposition. Even though the family was permitted to continue its tobacco plantation despite their open Catholicism, the Carroll family nonetheless faced penal laws in Maryland that subjected them and other adherents of their faith to numerous obstacles and degradations. Laws demanded they pay a church tax, as well as twice the land tax levied on Protestant Marylanders. Meanwhile, as Catholics, the Carrolls were disenfranchised from voting and prohibited from holding any kind of public office in the colony. Despite his civic-mindedness and considerable wealth, Charles Carroll of Doughoregan was, much to his chagrin, forbidden from ever casting a ballot or pursuing a government position. Until the American Revolution, Charles Carroll of Carrollton was forced into this plight as well, lacking any reason to expect a change. As he studied law with no hope of ever becoming a lawyer, it should come as no surprise that the young Charles Carroll of Carrollton became frustrated not only by the apparently fruitless endeavor of his education, but with his position in society as a Catholic. Carroll’s angst earned him his father’s sympathetic chiding, as they shared “the talk” via written correspondence. “It is true,” Charles Carroll of Doughoregan admitted to his son, “as things now stand, you are shut out from ye Bar.”[33] While attempting to reassure his son of his self-worth, the elder Carroll was careful not to indulge him with any illusions. “I find you begin to think that neither Maryland or any of ye British Dominions are desirable Residence for a Roman Catholic; without a change in ye Scene, they certainly are not so,” he conceded.[34] The predicament of Catholics in Maryland was miserable even in the elder Carroll’s descriptions of it, as he slowly prepared his son to brace for the difficulties he would face upon returning from Europe to his home. “Laws which Double tax us oppress us,” [35] he complained in one letter, before turning his focus from economic inequities to the systematic injustices Catholics faced in the justice system, where “a Roman Catholic stands but a poor Chance for Justice, with our Juries in particular.”[36] So precarious was the predicament of Roman Catholics, Charles Carroll of Doughoregan insisted, that “if our House of Commons could have their way, such is their Malice that they would not only deprive us of our property, but our Lives.”[37] As a frightened Charles Carroll of Carrollton feared for his undervalued life while preparing to return to his birthplace, his father still refused to sugarcoat their situation: “Maryland [is] no desirable residence for a Roman Catholic,” he wrote, issuing a final warning as he implored him to consider settling elsewhere.[38] Yet, as a young adult, Charles Carroll of Carrollton must have known that his options for a “somewhere else” were limited, as all over the world, including in Catholic nations like France, those of his faith seemed threatened with constant conspiracies, or so his father’s writing would imply. Charles Carroll of Doughoregan obsessed over the numerous blood libels and smears leveled against Roman Catholics, especially Jesuits. In particular, he fixated on what he considered a global conspiracy to tarnish the good name and snuff out the virtue of the Society of Jesus. “What has been ye real occasion of ye shocking Executions at Lisbon?” he asked his son, “ye lugging ye Jesuits into ye Plot makes me disbelieve what I see in our Papers. I know ye Envy of their superior Merit draws on them; they are not only too virtuous, but too wise to engage in Assassinations, however illy treated.”[39] In the Carrolls’ eyes, it was their virtue that targeted Jesuits for persecution, just as it must have caused the targeting of their family in Maryland. “I say it as my Sentiment, [the Jesuits’] eminent Merit and Virtue has provoked this persecution,” the elder Carroll argued.[40] Convinced of this, Charles Carroll of Carrollton would go on to associate closely with the Society of Jesus for the rest of his life, even when doing so in Maryland was illegal. The documentation of his marriage dispensation survives, indicating that he was married by a Jesuit, the Reverend John Lewis, in spite of the vicious claims leveled against the order by his countrymen.[41] Not that vicious claims were not deployed against Catholics in Maryland with alarming frequency: when Charles Carroll of Carrollton returned home, he was forced to accustom himself to being the subject of conspiracy, an inevitable circumstance of life as a religious minority he learned to tackle with humor. For example, when a prominent English Protestant died at sea on Carroll’s second wedding day, rumors spread in Maryland that he had been assassinated as part of a Papist conspiracy. Writing to his friend Edmund Jennings of his marriage, Carroll joked, “No wonder that a bloody minded Papist should chuse for feasting and merriment a day which had like (if you believe ye story) to have proved so fatal to a Protestant.”[42] Here, Carroll demonstrated that he internalized his precarious position as “the Other.” Blood libel and rumors of the most egregious scandal were his lot in life as a Catholic in a formally Protestant society. Yet, rarely, Carroll would offer glimpses into the mode by which he perceived himself and actualized his role as the despised “Papist” in his society, a struggle that, although he rarely expressed in writing, he must have grappled with often as it informed his thinking on the whole range of issues he confronted. “Having mentioned Protestants and Papists, I could wish … that ye unhappy differences and disputes on speculative points of Theology had been confined to divines,” he lamented: “the savage wars, ye cruel massacres, ye deliberate murders committed by law, under ye sanction of Religion, have not reformed ye morals of men.”[43] Carroll at times found himself unable to affect the façade of humor with which he otherwise strove to address the vulnerability that accompanied his “Other-ness.” One such case was in August 1767, when he could not hold back from expressing his extreme alarm by “ye Bishop of London’s shutting up some of ye Roman Catholic Chapels.”[44] The victim of constant religious oppression, Carroll possessed a unique appreciation for the futility of religious conflict and the legal posturing of one faith over another: he wished the iniquities arising from the interplay of religion and politics to a hasty end. In perhaps his most candid confession, Carroll wrote to his friend Jennings: “I am of the opinion, were an unlimited toleration allowed and men of all sects were to converse freely with each other, their aversion from a difference of religious principles would soon wear away.”[45] He must long have harbored hope that he might one day be free to put such a theory to real trial by experiment. By necessity, Carroll developed a philosophy to mitigate his futile desires to gain public office, offering an explanation into his failure to publicly discuss either his Catholic faith or hopeless political ambitions prior to the American Revolution. “If none but those who professed ye established religion were admitted to posts of profit and trusts, and ye exclusion of all others made ye punishment of their dissenting from ye established mode of faith,” he wrote, describing the conditions that he himself faced as a dissenter in Maryland, “those against whom it is employed are apt to conclude that their opinions can not be confuted by other arguments.”[46] Regardless of his profound hopes, Carroll managed to persuade himself that those who barred him from public life were beyond persuasion. Yet, the American Revolution would offer him the opportunity to circumvent the statues, and many of the people, determined to keep him from realizing his dream. When the Revolution began to brew and Carroll found himself emerging as one of its leaders in his native colony of Maryland, his hope that religious toleration for himself and his community might indeed be possible must have been powerfully triggered. As the American Revolution stirred resistance against colonial authorities, its participants, including its leaders, were often drawn from the ranks of those outside political authority. When Carroll created a name for himself in the Revolutionary movement, originally as “First Citizen” during his disputes with Daniel Dulany’s “Antillon,” he rose to prominence in a new, as-yet undefined power structure that developed free from the strictures and prejudices that had infested the structure of the colonial government. If the laws of the Royal Colony of Maryland had forbid the Catholic Carroll from fulfilling his aspiration to join Maryland’s royal government, no such regulations forbid him from serving on a shadow government created to organize against it. Charles Carroll of Carrollton did exactly that. In 1774, he was elected to sit as a representative on Maryland’s revolutionary Committee of Correspondence. Thereafter, the Maryland legislature could not stop him – or any other of the newly elected American patriots, for that matter – from taking a seat in Maryland’s actual colonial legislature. Breaking the law to rebel in the name of liberty for American independence, Carroll simultaneously broke the law to exercise his natural political rights in spite of his Roman Catholicism. When he was elected to represent Maryland as a delegate to the illegal Second Continental Congress, no established legal code could bar him from participating as a Catholic. By virtue of his presence, he would make sure that no such law would ever exist. As a founding father of a new, independent American nation, Carroll was able to finally execute – and what’s more, experience – his dream of religious toleration, which was finally officially enshrined in the Constitution of the new United States of America in 1789.[47] When Carroll was a child, his father imputed on to him a lofty task, writing “I shall leave you to dispute many things of Consequence which ye present Injustice of ye times will not permit me in prudence to contest.”[48] While Carroll’s father certainly valued the ideology of liberty and the economic standing of his family and implored his son to pursue each of these goals, without doubt, chief in consequence amongst the injustices the Carrolls faced was their oppression as Roman Catholics. By the time he was selected by the legislature, which once refused to grant him and other Catholics basic political rights, to be one of its first two United States Senators, he had achieved the advancement his father had only dreamed of, finally reconciling his family’s political status with its economic one while holding fast to his ideology of liberty. Even though Carroll would be required to continue his pursuit of genuine religious toleration as a Senator – fighting, for example, against a statue passed by the Maryland legislature that prohibited Catholic couples from adopting orphan children – his support and participation in the American Revolution had earned him unprecedented success in the pursuit closest to heart.[49] Thus, in spite of the undoubtedly significant roles that ideology and economics played in motivating the American Revolution, for at least one founding father, above those common causes was one exalted principle: religious toleration. His name, though lacking it’s O’, can be found on the bottom of that piece of parchment that became America’s Declaration of Independence: Maryland’s Charles Carroll of Carrollton. [1] Charles Carroll of Doughoregan to Charles Carroll of Carrollton, December 29, 1762, in Thomas Meagher Field, comp., The Unpublished Letters of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, and of His Father, Charles Carroll of Doughoregan (New York, NY: United States Catholic Historical Society, 1902). All further letters are from this source unless otherwise noted.

This Blog has Moved to Wordpress with New Name & Focus

noreply@blogger.com (sgb media group) — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 07:09:00 +0000

It's rather evident that even though 3rd political party free of bias on critical topics and issues is sorely needed the Transpartisan Party is not yet ready to mature into a viable 3rd political party. The Independant (in Arizona) is growing in membership. I personally will remain a registered AZ Democrat and list myself as a "Progressive Democrat". With this in mind I have resurrected my "AZ Code Blue" initiative which calls out the AZ Democratic Party to push forward enough to gain a majority in the AZ House of Representatives for a change. I will leave this blog up so people who have it linked elseswhere will not get a broken link notice and hopefully will follow the discussion over at: https://azcodeblue.wordpress.com/
All older postings have beenm exported to the new site so there will remain for perpatuity and context in the future.

Arizona House approves 204-percent ‘flex’ loans – AZ Code Blue!

noreply@blogger.com (sgb media group) — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 14:25:00 +0000

Arizona House approves 204-percent ‘flex’ loans – AZ Code Blue!

Romney, McCain: Trump a danger for America's future

noreply@blogger.com (sgb media group) — Thu, 03 Mar 2016 23:40:00 +0000

English: Governor Mitt Romney of MA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — In an extraordinary display of Republican chaos, the party's most recent presidential nominees, Mitt Romney and John McCain, lambasted current front-runner Donald Trump on Thursday, calling him unfit for office and a danger for the nation and the GOP.

"His is not the temperament of a stable, thoughtful leader," Romney declared. He called Trump "a phony" who is "playing the American public for suckers," a man whose "imagination must not be married to real power."

Hours later, Trump lashed back, calling Romney "a choke artist" who lost to Barack Obama four years ago only because he was such a poor candidate.

The vicious feud marked a near-unprecedented scenario pitting the Republican Party's most prominent leaders, past and present, against each other as Democrats begin to unite around Hillary Clinton.

Romney, McCain: Trump a danger for America's future

Transpartisanship and the Conversion of Political Conflict

noreply@blogger.com (sgb media group) — Sat, 27 Feb 2016 14:51:00 +0000

The current presidential campaign exposes extreme partisanship as our political normality. Reminiscent of the classic "boiling frog" metaphor, what once seemed deplorable has gradually (and gravely) become our standard practice. As revealed by the Pew Research Center ("Political Polarization in the American Public: How Increasing Ideological Uniformity and Partisan Antipathy Affect Politics, Compromise and Everyday Life"), our civic temperature is methodically rising, perhaps beyond the boiling point, and the consequences are both serious and several. The study states:

"The overall share of Americans who express consistently conservative or consistently liberal opinions has doubled over the past two decades from 10% to 21%. [As a result], the center has gotten smaller: 39% of Americans currently take a roughly equal number of liberal and conservative positions, down from 49% in surveys conducted in 1994 and 2004."

In addition to the steady and significant growth in gross ideological polarization, the research also reveals a growing and alarming disdain for those with opposing political views. The findings assert:

"Partisan animosity has increased substantially... In each party, the share with a highly negative view of the opposing party has more than doubled since 1994. Most of these intense partisans believe the opposing party's policies 'are so misguided that they threaten the nation's well-being'."

As indicated by research (and frequently revealed in practice), it appears that far too many citizens have learned to accept such political polarization - and the personal loathing that accompanies it - as our destructive domestic custom. Our most accepted tactics to counter such dysfunction - known as "bipartisanship" and "non-partisanship" - have also proven to be mostly ineffective, thus leaving those in the center (both literally and politically) both distant and disengaged. The temperature of our hostile conflict continues to increase, and thus it increasingly appears that bipartisanship and non-partisanship have proven to be unsuccessful community coolants.

Transpartisanship and the Conversion of Political Conflict

Progressive Victories in 2013

noreply@blogger.com (sgb media group) — Thu, 06 Feb 2014 09:57:00 +0000

Moyer preaches to the choir (Photo credit: Clyde Bentley)

15 Wins for the Progressive Movement in 2013 (via Moyers & Company)

In politics, as in sports, you can’t win ‘em all. With a divided government and a House of Representatives firmly in the control of tea partiers, it was a tough year for progressives in Washington – one marked by the painful cuts of sequestration…

Georgia Asks Employers to Rat Out Job Seekers Who Fail Drug Tests

noreply@blogger.com (sgb media group) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 11:43:00 +0000

Master Sgt. Urbano Sosa demonstrates the job of an observer for a UPL collection exercise. As observer, maintaining a direct line of sight with a specimen bottle at all time helps to ensure a proper chain of custody and prevents tampering or altering of a specimen. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The state of Georgia has publicized a rule asking employers to tattle on unemployed job seekers who test positive for drug use when applying for work. The Georgia Department of Labor rule is the latest in a flurry of state programs that impose drug tests on safety net applicants and sanctions on those who fail the tests. The Georgia rule was prominently featured on the state’s Department of Labor’s website last week.*

As I wrote last month, the problem of jobless folks abusing drugs is a concocted one that works to stigmatize the safety net programs so that they can be undercut. In an interview with Colorlines.com, the Georgia Department of Labor said it did not collect data on the number of people who have previously been booted off the jobless rolls for drug use.

Drug testing policies have been all the rage among conservative legislators since the start of the recession. At least 30 states considered bills in the last year that would have had unemployment or welfare applicants peeing in a cup.

In April, Georgia passed a law requiring all welfare applicants to take a drug test. A similar law passed by the Florida legislature last year was struck down as unconstitutional in a federal court, but Georgia lawmakers refused to heed the warnings and passed the law anyway. The welfare law will go into effect on July 1

Read More

SB 1070: High court has already decided, but process maintains suspense

noreply@blogger.com (sgb media group) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 11:34:00 +0000

Minneapolis protest against Arizona immigrant law SB 1070 (Photo credit: Fibonacci Blue)

The U.S. Supreme Court might issue its opinion on Arizona's controversial immigration law, Senate Bill 1070, as early as Monday. Or next Thursday. Or, heck, maybe sometime in July.

Despite what you may have heard, nobody knows for sure.

So, as they have for weeks, folks with a stake or keen interest in the ruling -- politicians, immigration advocates and, yes, journalists -- will fire up their computers at exactly 7 a.m. Arizona time to see if today's the day.

So what's the holdup?But here's the thing: The Supreme Court already has decided the case, and they likely did so two months ago.

There's plenty of politics involved in writing, negotiating and tweaking that opinion. And while nobody -- or at least nobody willing to talk openly -- knows what's happening with the SB 1070 case behind the Supreme Court's closed doors, we do have a general understanding of the justices' process.

SEIU Launches Largest Field Campaign In Union's History For 2012 Election

noreply@blogger.com (sgb media group) — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 23:32:00 +0000

SEIU Members and Volunteers Will Target Communities of Color, Working Families and Union Households to Win Presidential and Down-Ballot Races

Stern & Burger join union members in ABA march (Photo credit: SEIU International)

Washington, DC--(ENEWSPF)--June 19, 2012. The Service Employee's International Union (SEIU), the nation's fastest growing union with 2.1 million members, today is launching the largest and most-targeted political field campaign in the union's 91-year history to re-elect President Obama and win other key elections in eight battleground states.

The union will be targeting union and non-union members--with an emphasis on African American and Latino communities, younger voters, union households and other working people--on an unprecedented scale. By Election Day, the SEIU field campaign intends to connect with voters by making 13 million phone calls, knocking on more than 3 million doors and holding more than 1 million conversations across the country, with the majority of the work focused in Colorado, Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.

"Our boots-on-the-ground effort will be bold and targeted," said Eliseo Medina, SEIU International Secretary Treasurer. "Far too much is at stake this election cycle. We are using our human and capital resources to stand by candidates who will stand up for working people and not return the country to failed policies of the past. We know our communities can make a difference when they go to the polls."

The field campaign is part of SEIU's broad political program, which includes aggressive paid and volunteer GOTV efforts; large-scale civic engagement initiatives with community partners in the African American and Latino communities; major paid media campaigns; and coordinated voter education and voter protection programs to inform people of their rights. The political program's goal is to elect candidates who support working people and the 99% agenda: create good jobs here at home, rebuild an economy where everyone pays their fair share, invest in healthcare and other services for those in need and create a fair pathway to citizenship for every immigrant worker.

The launch of the SEIU field program comes on the heels of a joint SEIU/Priorities USA Action $4 million Spanish-language TV and radio ad campaign in Colorado, Florida and Nevada. An ad released yesterday as part of that campaign features Mitt Romney's hostile immigrant rhetoric while a round of ads released last week highlights Latinos' reactions to Romney's own words on jobs and other key issues.

To view ads launched Monday, visit: http://action.seiu.org/page/content/06152012/
To view ads launched last week, visit: http://action.seiu.org/page/content/06092012/

Center For Progressive Leadership 2011 Political Leaders Fellowship

noreply@blogger.com (sgb media group) — 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 (sgb media group) — 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 (sgb media group) — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 10:26:00 +0000

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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 (sgb media group) — 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 (sgb media group) — 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 (sgb media group) — 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
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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.

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Posted via web from The Transpartisan Times

Terry Goddard for Governor - Arizona :: Meet Terry

noreply@blogger.com (sgb media group) — 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 (sgb media group) — 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.

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Center For Progressive Leadership - State Offices

noreply@blogger.com (sgb media group) — 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

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Politicians join social networks

noreply@blogger.com (sgb media group) — 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

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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

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Committee to Elect Jason Williams 2010 | Platform

noreply@blogger.com (sgb media group) — 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.

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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 (sgb media group) — 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.

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Arizona Prison Watch

noreply@blogger.com (sgb media group) — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 05:05:00 +0000

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Transpartisan Shift - Transpartisan Alliance

noreply@blogger.com (sgb media group) — 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

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Walt Roberts Explores…Transpartisan Politics

noreply@blogger.com (sgb media group) — 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.
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Vince Rabago for Attorney General

noreply@blogger.com (sgb media group) — 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

	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

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Vince Rabago for Attorney General