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Posts in the category Education

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Pay Me Now or Pay Me Later

By Mike Collins - Oct 11th, 2009 at 11:25 am EDT

Also listed in: Adams County | Broom Brigade | Veterans for Progress

Could $292,000 pay for a college or trade school education, room and board? Subsidize a young person until they could land a good job? With the change left over, could it pay to make high school more hospitable to the poor? For public works projects? For more teachers? Research and development? We ignore the needs of young people at a terrible cost. And yes, it does take a village. What are the economic effects of 1.2 million high school dropouts per year? At $7,300 per student, that amounts to $8.76 billion a year, year two adds another 1.2 million students and becomes $17.52 billion, ad infinitum. Can we solve the problem? Can we afford not to? What can you buy with $8.76 billion? How about 175,200 teachers at $50 K a pop, that's one teacher for every 7 dropouts. MC

"The report puts the collective cost to the nation over the working life of each high school dropout at $292,000. Mr. Sum said that figure took into account lost tax revenues, since dropouts earn less and therefore pay less in taxes than high school graduates. It also includes the costs of providing food stamps and other aid to dropouts and of incarcerating those who turn to crime."

October 9, 2009
Study Finds High Rate of Imprisonment Among Dropouts
By SAM DILLON
On any given day, about one in every 10 young male high school dropouts is in jail or juvenile detention, compared with one in 35 young male high school graduates, according to a new study of the effects of dropping out of school in an America where demand for low-skill workers is plunging.

The picture is even bleaker for African-Americans, with nearly one in four young black male dropouts incarcerated or otherwise institutionalized on an average day, the study said. That compares with about one in 14 young, male, white, Asian or Hispanic dropouts.
Researchers at Northeastern University used census and other government data to carry out the study, which tracks the employment, workplace, parenting and criminal justice experiences of young high school dropouts.
"We’re trying to show what it means to be a dropout in the 21st century United States," said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern, who headed a team of researchers that prepared the report. "It’s one of the country’s costliest problems. The unemployment, the incarceration rates — it’s scary."
A coalition of civil rights and public education advocacy groups and a network of alternative schools in Chicago commissioned the report as part of a push for new educational opportunities for the nation’s 6.2 million high school dropouts.
"The dropout rate is driving the nation’s increasing prison population, and it’s a drag on America’s economic competitiveness," said Marc H. Morial, the former New Orleans mayor who is president of the National Urban League, one of the groups in the coalition that commissioned the report. "This report makes it clear that every American pays a cost when a young person leaves school without a diploma."
The report puts the collective cost to the nation over the working life of each high school dropout at $292,000. Mr. Sum said that figure took into account lost tax revenues, since dropouts earn less and therefore pay less in taxes than high school graduates. It also includes the costs of providing food stamps and other aid to dropouts and of incarcerating those who turn to crime.

Continued at the: NY Times

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Igniting the Future

By Mike Collins - Oct 10th, 2009 at 7:30 pm EDT

Also listed in: Adams County | Broom Brigade | Veterans for Progress

From the Bob Herbert op/ed, "Igniting the Growth of Jobs"

NY Times

'40,000 teachers lost their jobs in the last year. 16 to 29 year olds, worst unemployment ever since national records have been kept. One in four black men in Illinois between the ages of 20 and 24 has a job.'

One of the regents of the University of Colorado, Michael Carrigan, told me that Colorado had a return on investment of 40 to 1 for each dollar invested in higher ed. The only figures I could find for Colorado was a 15.07 percent return. New Jersey leads the nation with 42.32 percent, followed by Massachusetts 39.16, New York 37.82, California 36.53 percent. All in all a substantial return on investment. The lowest in the nation, predictably, was Mississippi at 6.49 percent. Most surprisingly, Indiana is second from the bottom at 7.22 percent

Higher Ed Return on Investment for States

Most significantly, Herbert says this:

""The past," as William Faulkner told us, "is not dead. It’s not even past." The lessons of the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s are right in front of us, ready to be studied, analyzed, updated and applied to the present-day needs of the country."

I hate to say this, but we are a country of nepotism, in our unions, our military, in corporations, in government. Because of this "inbreeding" and counterproductive behavior, we must import the brightest minds/strongest work ethics from around the world to carry our water and be used as if indentured servants. It is all a vast pyramid scheme where the unqualified extinguish the flames of the most gifted and reap the rewards off the backs of the timid. Their only qualification? Being members of the lucky sperm club. Here's something the "conservative revision" Bible will surely leave out, "As you have done to the least of these......." The least very much includes the youthful poor, who have no say in the conditions they find themselves in and obviously don't have the attention of those that have the most. While we argue about war, healthcare, social justice, gay rights, Obama's Nobel Prize, etc., no one considers our most precious asset nor what should be our greatest legacy to them, "Liberty and Justice for all.." This is what is great about the idea of America, eloquently pronounced in the Preamble of the Constitution, not just to ourselves but to our Posterity, the word was capitalized unlike the word "ourselves":

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The "Right Wing" of the Democrat Party

By Mike Collins - Oct 3rd, 2009 at 2:58 pm EDT

Also listed in: Adams County | Broom Brigade | Veterans for Progress

I've been a little depressed lately, the Michael Moore movie seems to have intensified the despair. Much has been said to marginalize the so called "left wing" of the Democrat Party. In reality, the left wing is the "right" wing, meaning that it is the segment of the party that is mostly correct in it's philosophies and promotes academic, logical introspection and solutions. Most of all they are somewhat unselfishly devoted to truth, justice and the idea that America is duty-bound to strive for a more perfect union. That liberty and justice for all applies to our law and most certainly to economic equity. I am afraid that conservative/blue dog Democrat thought implies no room for improvement or reflection and a preference for a balance that is in their favor.

The Right Wing of the Democrat Party seems the most "Christian" in its opinions and deeds. However, they are less likely to belong to an organized religion, they carry within them the only law that matters when dealing with most human, animal and earthly interaction. The Golden Rule is at once logical and effortless, what else could qualify as "self-evident" if not the Golden Rule. Where are we as a nation? From the Declaration of Independence comes a profound clue, an indication that we are in fact sheep, the status quo is undemanding of social responsibility or activism:

"accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."

The Declaration of Independence
"When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed............................."

In the words of Ann Richards in answer to, "What must Democrats do in order to win" she answered, "You (All of us) must find the courage to talk to the people you don't know and tell them things they may not want to hear."

Michael Moore has that kind of courage. I wish I had asked Governor Richards if there was a cure for complacency. MC

CONFORMITY
We are discreet sheep; we wait to see how the drove is going, and then go with the drove.
- Mark Twain's Autobiography

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).
Mark Twain- Notebook, 1904

Conformity-the natural instinct to passively yield to that vague something recognized as authority.
Mark Twain- "Corn Pone Opinions"

TREACHERY
Gratitude and treachery are merely the two extremities of the same procession. You have seen all of it that is worth staying for when the band and the gaudy officials have gone by.
Mark Twain- Pudd'nhead Wilson

TRADITION
...scrap heap of unverifiable odds and ends which we call tradition.
Mark Twain- Speech, 5/25/1908

JUSTICE
The rain ...falls upon the just and the unjust alike; a thing which would not happen if I were superintending the rain's affairs. No, I would rain softly and sweetly on the just, but if I caught a sample of the unjust outdoors I would drown him.
- Mark Twain, a Biography

TRUTH

Familiarity breeds contempt. How accurate that is. The reason we hold truth in such respect is because we have so little opportunity to get familiar with it.
Mark Twain- Notebook, 1898

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Moore's Movie a Religious Experience

By Mike Collins - Oct 2nd, 2009 at 1:08 am EDT

Also listed in: Adams County | Broom Brigade | Veterans for Progress

I saw the movie tonight at a special showing at Chez Artiste. Mr. Moore has done it again, he has taken pure, unadulterated truth and made it an art form. Moore expressed a desire to be a priest in his early days, I think he became one for all intents and purposes. Bravo, Mr. Moore, you are a priest in every sense of the word.

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John F. Kennedy Defines "Liberal"

By Mike Collins - Sep 12th, 2009 at 2:04 pm EDT

Also listed in: Adams County | Broom Brigade | Veterans for Progress

Sign me up, I'm a "Liberal" If your elected Democrat doesn't talk and think like this, you have a problem and perhaps you should encourage that "Centrist" to switch parties. I certainly wouldn't contribute my money or time to a person just because they use a "D" by their name. People who pretend to be liberal can get elected in Colorado, e.g. Ken Salazar, a liberal Hispanic, Bill Ritter, a liberal, law and order, Catholic kind of guy ("Law and Order" types scare me, they usually consider "prison building" a solution). Ben NightHorse Campbell, a liberal Native American. Liberals can get elected in Colorado, even if they are DINOs. MC

"What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label 'Liberal'? If by 'Liberal' they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer’s dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of 'Liberal'. But if by a 'Liberal' they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a 'Liberal', then I’m proud to say I’m a 'Liberal'." John F. Kennedy

Wikipedia

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Dobson, Spock and Dick Deadeye

By Doc Martin - Sep 9th, 2009 at 3:03 am EDT

Also listed in: Evergreen Progressives

For deliberate silliness, the behavior of the wing nuts around President Obama’s speech to school kids has no parallel since Gilbert and Sullivan wrote the immortal lines of Dick Deadeye in HMS Pinafore –The crew has been threatening him and objecting to his sensible and realistic observations about the reality of life in the British navy, and he says “From such a face and form as mine, the noblest sentiments ring forth like the mad utterances of a depraved imagination. It’s human nature; I’m resigned.” Once again, nature imitates art.

The whole reaction of the right wing strikes me as such childish and irrational tantrums, like you would see from a toddler in a grocery store, I think back to what I might once have said before child abuse became nothing to joke about – “Where you dropped on your head as a baby?” It now turns out that this may actually have some merit.

In his book Dare to Discipline, James Dobson advocated the spanking of children of up to eight years old when they misbehave and that the spanking should be of sufficient magnitude to cause the child to cry genuinely."[35]

In contrast, Dr. Spock influenced several generations of parents to be more flexible and affectionate with their children, and to treat them as individuals, and that it would not spoil babies by picking them up when they cried. Dobson pushed the “strict father” model, in contrast to Spock’s “nurturing family” model. Researchers have linked authoritarian “strict father” childrearing with children who withdraw, lack spontaneity, and have lesser evidence of conscience (Maccoby & Martin, 1983). Corporal punishment has been found to be consistently related to poor mental health; including depression, unhappiness, anxiety, and feelings of hopelessness in children and youth. Corporal punishment is a risk factor for relationship problems, including impairment of parent-child relationships, increased levels of aggression and anti-social behaviour in children, raised thresholds for defining an act as violent, and perpetration of violence as an adult, including abuse of one's family members. (Hart, Stuart N. et al, Eliminating Corporal Punishment. UNESCO Publishing).[3]

It’s probably true that many of the kids raised by Dobson’s principles probably had their brains rattled a few times, and it sure looks like some fell out. Certainly his views gave an “expert’s” permission for increased levels of physical violence against children.

I don’t know whether any of this would hold empirical water, but it sure explains a lot to me. Pathological deference to authority, refusal to negotiate, equation of tolerance with deviance, condemnation of alternative religious practices or lifestyles, willingness to kill to enforce “morality”, strict party discipline, unthinking acceptance of myths and lies emanating from authority figures, obdurate resistance to reasoned argument…these all seem to fit the model of children raised by the Dobson method.

The criticism of Spock’s approach (which began with Norman Vincent Peal and was taken up by such illuminati as Spiro Agnew), is that it led to generations of children who grew up with self-indulgence, moral relativism, and a lack of respect for the norms and institutions of patriotism, religion and even protection of life. The contrast was captured by George Lakoff, in his book Moral Politics: What Conservatives Know that Liberals Don't," published by the University of Chicago Press., 1996. Remember "Question Authority?" After Vietnam, Watergate, Iran-Contra, child molestation by priests, the Iraq invasion, murders of doctors, that sure seems like good advice to me. Thank you Dr, Spock.

So the next time you see a tea-bagger going into his “Whaaa!” tantrum, give him a hug; that’s what he really wants.

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Harsanyi's "My Pet Goat" Moment

By Mike Collins - Sep 4th, 2009 at 6:33 pm EDT

Also listed in: Adams County | Broom Brigade | Veterans for Progress

Obama speaking/inspiring/reaching out to school children is worse in what way than Bush pretending to read an upside down "My Pet Goat" while the country is under attack? Regarding this quote from Mr. Harsanyi, "and that daddies will often hope the president fails. I may even help them with their homework" makes one think he is delusional and unimaginably anti-American. When the president fails we all fail, look no farther than the George W. Bush administration for recent proof. MC

opinion
Harsanyi: How can I help, Mr. President?
By David Harsanyi

Excerpt from Harsanyi's screed in the Denver Post:

".........Example: Dear Madison, How can I help President Obama save the world from global warming when my Daddy is a meanie who hates poor babies and thinks a Prius is emasculating?

My initial reaction to the news, naturally, was to visualize the violent (organic and fair-trade only!) java-induced pitch-forked insurrection that would have exploded in my well-heeled crunchy peace-loving neighborhood had George W. Bush lectured local kids on anything. And predictably, Obama's speech has generated a similar reaction from some demonstrably unpatriotic parents across the country — and it seems gratuitous.

To begin with, even if the president delivered an openly politicized speech, which he won't, your kids would survive the unpleasant experience. Most of our children have not yet been transformed into complete idiots by public education.
......."

"..........Honestly, if I'm going to be badgered and browbeat by the president every day, kids should suffer a bit as well. The president has been treating the American people like schoolchildren for more than seven months — with another "major address" on health care coming right after he talks to the kids.

When my own brood comes home next week, I'll explain that in this remarkable nation, anyone can become president — though, hopefully, they'll choose something more constructive — and that daddies will often hope the president fails. I may even help them with their homework:

Q: "What do you think the president wants us to do?" Nationalize health care?

Q: "Does the speech make you want to do anything?" Write a column.

Q: "Are we able to do what President Obama is asking of us?" God, I hope not.

Continued Denver Post:

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_13265236

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Robinson: A Prince's Fate

By Mike Collins - Aug 28th, 2009 at 6:54 pm EDT

Also listed in: Broom Brigade | Veterans for Progress

Who doesn't have flaws? Eugene Robinson sums up the triumph and tragedy of THE champion of the less fortunate. MC

A Prince's Fate
Ted Kennedy Played a Role to Near-Perfection
By Eugene Robinson
Friday, August 28, 2009

That the nation is so moved by the passing of Edward Moore Kennedy testifies to his skill, grace and determination at playing a role that must have been infinitely more difficult than it sounds: a prince fated never to be king.

Ted Kennedy was the youngest of nine children in a family whose ruthless patriarch was intent on building an American dynasty. The old man, business titan Joseph Kennedy, was a king. Ted's older brother Jack, the handsome young president, was a king. The other two brothers, Joe and Robert, were slated for the throne but died too soon. Ted made a run for president, but with the air of someone who didn't really believe he was meant to win. He was the baby brother, the eternal prince.

Princes often have lives that are difficult, even within a context of wealth and privilege. They have to find ways to keep from being eaten alive by ambition that can never be requited. Some become sage counselors in the affairs of state; some become wastrels who lose themselves in women and booze; some fade away and become hobbyists who go off and pilot sailboats or collect butterflies or something. It's fair to say that at various points in his life, Ted Kennedy tried all of these identities.

The hardest task for an eternal prince is to construct an original identity of which he can be proud -- an identity that allows him to live a life of purpose, meaning and impact. Ted Kennedy accomplished this feat by becoming the greatest senator of our age and serving as the liberal conscience of the nation.

Every once in a while, the conventional wisdom is basically right. The generally agreed-upon story line is that Kennedy found himself through the experience of defeat. The consensus view is that he ran for president in 1980 largely out of a sense of obligation, that he ran such a disorganized and almost desultory campaign that it almost looked like self-sabotage, and that when he lost the Democratic nomination to incumbent Jimmy Carter he became a free man, able for the first time to find his own voice and chart his own path. Read More »

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Senator Kennedy 1980 DNC Speech

By Mike Collins - Aug 27th, 2009 at 5:26 pm EDT

Also listed in: Broom Brigade | Veterans for Progress

"I say again, as I have before, if health insurance is good enough for the President, the Vice President and the Congress of the United States, then it is good enough for you and every family in America."

Senator Edward Kennedy-Democrat National Convention August 12, 1980

Well, things worked out a little different from the way I thought, but let me tell you, I still love New York.

My fellow Democrats and my fellow Americans, I have come here tonight not to argue as a candidate but to affirm a cause. I'm asking you--I am asking you to renew the commitment of the Democratic Party to economic justice.

I am asking you to renew our commitment to a fair and lasting prosperity that can put America back to work.

This is the cause that brought me into the campaign and that sustained me for nine months across 100,000 miles in 40 different states. We had our losses, but the pain of our defeats is far, far less than the pain of the people that I have met.

We have learned that it is important to take issues seriously, but never to take ourselves too seriously.

The serious issue before us tonight is the cause for which the Democratic Party has stood in its finest hours, the cause that keeps our Party young and makes it, in the second century of its age, the largest political party in this republic and the longest lasting political party on this planet. Read More »

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Kennedy, Liberals, Message and Morality

By Mike Collins - Aug 27th, 2009 at 2:22 pm EDT

Also listed in: Broom Brigade | Veterans for Progress

"Liberals are not so quick to invoke morality..........On cable television and in town halls, conservatives rail against health care reform as an unconscionable infringement on liberty--an effort, literally, to snuff out the sick, the elderly, and the veterans of foreign wars

Liberals have countered with numbers, legislative histories--in short, we've made appeals to logic. But appeals to morality? They've been few and far between. We've approached health care reform as a problem to solve--which, surely, it is. We've not approached it as an obligation to fulfill--which, surely, it is as well.
Kennedy rarely made that mistake. When he looked at America, he saw a country full of people made vulnerable--by circumstance of birth, economic misfortune, illness, or injury. Some were middle-class; some were poor.............Like FDR, Kennedy was not afraid to talk about values, to talk about right and wrong."

Liberalism’s Torch Bearer
--Jonathan Cohn

The New Republic

The elder statesman. The dynastic icon. The man of personal excess. The man of a thousand legislative accomplishments. As the tributes and obituaries attest, Ted Kennedy was all of these things, at one time or another--for better and, yes, sometimes for worse. Like he famously said of his slain brother, Robert, Ted Kennedy "need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life."

But Ted Kennedy was something else, too. He was a crusader. He was--again, to quote his fraternal eulogy--somebody "who saw wrong and tried to right it." He possessed not just a clarity of purpose, but a certainty that his purpose had moral grounding. And that made Kennedy somewhat unusual, or at least quaint, in the part of the ideological universe he inhabited. Read More »

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Washington Post: The Gangs of D.C.

By Mike Collins - Aug 9th, 2009 at 11:30 am EDT

Colorado has a House power ratio of .016 (7 members of 435) a Senate power ratio of .04, equal to all the other 49 states. Seemingly insignificant unless you look at Wyoming's House power ratio of .002. Getting rid of the filibuster might be a giant step in the right direction. If majority rule works in the house, surely it should be applied in the senate.

"Add the rise of the filibuster and the fact that small-state senators tend to stick around longer, gaining powerful chairmanships under the seniority system, and you've got today's change-resistant Senate." MC

The Gangs of D.C.
In the Senate, Small States Wield Outsize Power. Is This What the Founders Had in Mind?

By Alec MacGillis
Sunday, August 9, 2009

Wonder why President Obama is having a hard time enacting his agenda after sweeping to victory and with large congressional majorities on his side?

Look to the Senate, the chamber designed to thwart popular will.

There is much grousing on the left about the filibuster, the threat of which has taken such hold that routine bills now need 60 votes. Getting less attention is the undemocratic character of the Senate itself.

Why, for example, have even Democratic senators been resistant on health-care reform? It might be because so many of the key players represent so few of the voters who carried Obama to victory -- and so few of the nation's uninsured. The Senate Finance Committee's "Gang of Six" that is drafting health-care legislation that may shape the final deal -- without a public insurance option -- represents six states that are among the least populous in the country: Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, Maine, New Mexico and Iowa.

Between them, those six states hold 8.4 million people -- less than New Jersey -- and represent 3 percent of the U.S. population. North Dakota and Wyoming each have fewer than 80,000 uninsured people, in a country where about 47 million lack insurance. In the House, those six states have 13 seats out of 435, 3 percent of the whole. In the Senate, those six members are crafting what may well be the blueprint for reform.

More at the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/07/AR2009080702045.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

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In Last Decade, a Lack of Job Growth in the Private Sector

By Mike Collins - Aug 7th, 2009 at 4:13 pm EDT

The war on unions, factory workers, construction workers, American labor in general, public education is going to affect the lucky sperm club in ways they never dreamed of. An economy based on everyone selling hamburgers can only sustain so many. While we import cheap labor by means of H1B visas, the negative job gains are apparent. It's all really a bad dream. E pluribus unum, the biggest joke of all. MC

NY Times
August 8, 2009
Off the Charts
In Last Decade, a Lack of Job Growth in the Private Sector
By FLOYD NORRIS
"For the first time since the Depression, the American economy has added virtually no jobs in the private sector over a 10-year period. The total number of jobs has grown a bit, but that is only because of government hiring.

The accompanying charts show the job performance from July 1999, when the economy was booming and companies were complaining about how hard it was to find workers, through July of this year, when the economy was mired in the deepest and longest recession since World War II. For the decade, there was a net gain of 121,000 private sector jobs, according to the survey of employers conducted each month by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In an economy with 109 million such jobs, that indicated an annual growth rate for the 10 years of 0.01 percent."

Continued:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/08/business/economy/08charts.html?hpw

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Frank Rich: Small Beer, Big Hangover

By Mike Collins - Aug 2nd, 2009 at 10:56 am EDT

We really, really need a white Attorney General with shark's teeth (Russ Feingold) to go after all these wing nuts coming out from under the rocks they hide under. I'm afraid that Eric Holder will be way too timid and restrained. To the most morally challenged among us, Hispanics, Native Americans, East Indians, Arabs, Asians, Africans, Irish Catholics, Jews, Italians, Cubans, Gays, Lesbians, Transexuals, Women, etc. will always be the easy targets for the sorry excuse that is their pitiful lives. Without those targets, the real villains of this world might gain some much needed attention.

"An expert in the law tested Jesus with this question, "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?" Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like unto it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:35-40) MC Read More »

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LeadvilleLifestyle.com

By kenny - Jul 29th, 2009 at 3:17 pm EDT

Feel Free to post any info and promote yourself and organization. we are already getting 500 unique visits a day!
LeadvilleLifestyle is a 100% interactive website, you can upload videos/pics and blog. free classifieds,free forums and free business pages, also interacts with facebook and twitter!
launching coloradomountainlifestyle.com soon which will hopefully free the media in eagle/summit/lake counties and the central mtns of Colorado!

the user drives the content of the site! any questions just ask.

we encourage folks to get active and post video/pics or blogs!!! Free The Media!!! Stand Up!
http://www.leadvillelifestyle.com
http://www.coloradomountainmedia.com

coming soon coloradomountainlifestyle.com 100% Interactive websites!

I hope ProgressNow will use this to help communicate with citizens of colorado and the co mtns!!!

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And That’s Not the Way It Is

By Mike Collins - Jul 26th, 2009 at 10:45 am EDT

Also listed in: Veterans for Progress

The problem is not and never has been a "liberal" media, it is, was and ever shall be, the lack of a "liberal" media. "Liberal" meaning "open-minded" and "truthful". "Conservative" meaning "narrow-minded" and "clandestine"

OPENED-MINDED:
Synonyms: unbiased, progressive, unprejudiced, liberal, flexible, tolerant, easygoing, impartial, broad-minded

TRUTH:
Synonyms: reality, fact, accuracy, genuineness, precision, exactness, legitimacy, veracity, truthfulness.

An antonym for "Liberal" is "narrow-minded":

NARROW-MINDED:
Synonyms: bigoted, prejudiced, biased, insular, intolerant, reactionary, blinkered, parochial, provincial, pigheaded

CLANDESTINE:
Synonyms: secret, underground, covert, concealed, stealthy, furtive, undercover, surreptitious, illegal, sneaky, sly, underhanded, shifty

Good read from Frank Rich regarding the prostitutes that dominate the 4th Estate. MC Read More »

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David Brooks: In Search of Dignity

By Mike Collins - Jul 8th, 2009 at 1:15 pm EDT

Also listed in: Veterans for Progress

"The dignity code........It also commanded its followers to be dispassionate — to distrust rashness, zealotry, fury and political enthusiasm."

I'm having trouble finding balance, even though we have been blatantly provoked by charlatans in positions of trust MC

NY Times
July 7, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
In Search of Dignity
By DAVID BROOKS
When George Washington was a young man, he copied out a list of 110 “Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation.” Some of the rules in his list dealt with the niceties of going to a dinner party or meeting somebody on the street.

“Lean not upon anyone,” was one of the rules. “Read no letter, books or papers in company,” was another. “If any one come to speak to you while you are sitting, stand up,” was a third.

But, as the biographer Richard Brookhiser has noted, these rules, which Washington derived from a 16th-century guidebook, were not just etiquette tips. They were designed to improve inner morals by shaping the outward man. Washington took them very seriously. He worked hard to follow them. Throughout his life, he remained acutely conscious of his own rectitude.

Continued:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/opinion/07brooks.html?em

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Adult harassment of transchild by proxy-

By Ghanima Corrino - Jul 2nd, 2009 at 5:49 am EDT

something I pointed out in a news report that was mentioned but not addressed, and a relevant concern.

http://scorrino.wordpress.com/

if you go there thank you for reading.

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URGENT: Quick action needed on legislation to protect higher ed

By Alan Franklin - May 3rd, 2009 at 4:20 pm EDT

Also listed in: Statewide Student Progress

If you've followed the news lately about higher education in Colorado, you already know our colleges and universities face many challenges. What our universities need are strong, experienced academic leaders that everyone--from legislators to students and parents--can trust to make the right decisions in good times and bad.

The most important thing we can do to ensure we get the best leaders for Colorado's public higher education system is to ensure a selection process that is fair and open to everyone in the community. Unfortunately that hasn't always happened in past selections, and there are many stakeholders who share growing concerns about the secretive process underway right now to choose the next leader of Colorado State University.

Leadership in the Colorado House and Senate has introduced a bill to standardize and open up to community participation the process of selecting Colorado university executives. There are only a few days left before the legislature adjourns, and we need your help right now to pass this important bill.

Click below to send a message instantly to your state representative and senator-tell them to vote "yes" on House Bill 1369:

http://progressnowcolorado.org/higheredtransparency

Don't wait--the bill is moving quickly through the legislature and will see critical votes as early as Monday morning. It only takes a minute to send your representatives a quick message, but the long-term benefits of passing this bill will be great for our public colleges and universities. Thanks for taking action on such short notice.

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Big jobs

By Ken - Mar 24th, 2009 at 8:23 am EDT

Also listed in: Denver County | Progressive Jobwire

The Roosevelt Institution is currently seeking applicants for the following full-time staff positions in Washington D.C.:
Director
Communications Director
Policy Director

About the Roosevelt Institution
Click here for a full listing of these and other Opportunities with Roosevelt

Director of the Roosevelt Institution Campus Network
Position classification: Full-Time

The Roosevelt network is in a period of rapid growth and requires a Director who can strengthen and sustain chapter operations while building network-wide policy capacity and leadership development programs. The Director will report to and work closely with the President of the Roosevelt Institute. The Institute, with offices in Hyde Park, NY, New York, NY, and Washington, DC, is itself in a period of significant expansion and will become more active in progressive idea development and national policy debates in 2009 and beyond.
The director will oversee and advance the broad programmatic and chapter-building goals of the Roosevelt campus network by:

* Managing a small full-time staff of recent graduates in Washington and part-time student staff distributed around the country;
* Further developing its national leadership and career development programs;
* Serving as a public figure for the campus network;
* Representing the network in - and bringing student voices into - the progressive youth and policy sectors in Washington and beyond;
* Communicating on behalf of the network and the campus chapters with stakeholders (policy makers, opinion leaders, and strategic partners within the progressive movement) and bringing student voices into stakeholder conversations;
* Working with student leaders, including members of the Roosevelt Student Advisory Board, to ensure high levels of student participation in governance of the network;
* Working with the Roosevelt alumni network to encourage alumni participation in ongoing programs;
* Working with the Institute President to meet the campus network's funding needs and on the larger Institute's overall growth and direction.

We encourage applications from candidates with experience in public policy research and advocacy, as well as from candidates with work experience in - and preferably management experience with - a chapter-based organization. Experiences in organizing, budgeting, and fundraising are also desirable. The position is based in Washington, D.C.

To apply, please send by e-mail a cover letter explaining your interest, a resume, a writing sample (not to exceed five pages), and the names and contact information of three references to Rooseveltjob@feri.org, to the attention of:

Andrew Rich

President and CEO
The Roosevelt Institute

Applications should be received by Friday, April 3 to be considered fully. We hope that the successful candidate will be available to start work in June or early July 2009. The Roosevelt Institute is an EEO/AA/ADA/IRCA Employer. We especially encourage applications from women and people from diverse backgrounds. The Roosevelt Institute's website is www.feri.org. The campus network's website is www.rooseveltinstitution.org.

National Director of Communications
Position classification: Full-Time

Summary

The Roosevelt Institution has an opening for the National Director of Communications. The director will be responsible for maintaining internal and external communications for Roosevelt, developing its online and print narrative, creating and maintaining relationships with media outlets, writing press releases and amplifying Roosevelt's work, and organizing and supervising national and regional journal development, web and print material. The principal focus of work will include facilitating web communications and supervising policy journal creation.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

* Supervise and manage regional and national policy journals
* Manage website and web communications (including monthly newsletter)
* Write press releases for Roosevelt events and achievements
* Facilitate blog, articles and op-eds written by students
* Build relationships with and work in coalition with media outlets
* Attend/represent Roosevelt at conferences and events
* Some travel required

Requirements:

o Proven management experience
o Excellent research, analytical, and written communication skills
o Excellent web and computer skills

+ Proficiency in Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator preferred
o Ability to lead under pressure/tight deadlines in a fast-paced environment
o Ability to multi-task and prioritize
o Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work on a team

To apply, please email a cover letter and resume to applications@rooseveltinstitution.org.
No phone calls please.

National Policy Director

Staff reporting to this position: National Policy Strategy team
Position classification: Full-Time
Summary

The Roosevelt Institution has an opening for the National Policy Director. The director will be responsible for planning, developing, and facilitating Roosevelt's policy work at chapters across the country. The principal focus of work will include leading the national policy team and guiding our policy priorities, developing relationships with legislators, policy makers and other partners, and speaking as a a voice for Roosevelt on a national level.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

o Supervise and manage National Policy staff
o Supervise and support policy creation at chapters
o Prepare articles and op-eds
o Speak at panels, symposia, and other discussion events
o Build relationships with and work in coalition with other organizations
o Some travel required

Requirements:

o Proven management experience
o Experience working with and managing students
o Policy experience
o Excellent research, analytical, and written communication skills
o Ability to lead under pressure/tight deadlines in a fast-paced environment
o Ability to multi-task and prioritize
o Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work on a team

To apply, please email a cover letter and resume to applications@rooseveltinstitution.org. No phone calls please.

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Lessons from Salon.com and Dick Wadhams

By Ralph T - Mar 18th, 2009 at 1:18 pm EDT

The past few months have provided a dizzying series of messages in the blogosphere praising or persecuting the new President of the United States (POTUS). Thankfully, Salon.com produced an “over the nation” report on the Republican Party today that deserves more attention, and a more in-depth analysis (from yours truly, naturally).

Here’s the Salon.com link - The state (by state) of the GOP

Once again, Dick Wadhams’ penchant for media attention provides the clue for how to defeat him and continue the GOP decline:

"This notion that Colorado has suddenly become a Democratic state is preposterous. I think Democrats who have a grip on reality know that." -- State GOP chairman Dick Wadhams

The lesson from Dick is a hard and true fact of politically strategy from today to 2012, and unfortunately, too many high level Democratic leaders are positively oblivious to the concept. While basking in the glory of Barack Obama’s victory, I am seeing too many messages ignoring recent losses and weaknesses going into future ballots. This kind of complacency and false posturing is a formula for a disaster in the 2010 General Election.

Salon.com is absolutely correct by highlighting the dominance of the GOP at the county and community level. Even in Larimer County, the Democratic Party leadership is mute on the loss of a seat on the Board of County Commissioners. Reveling in the glory of former Democratic Party Chair Betsy Markey defeating Marilyn Musgrave is apparently too intoxicating to take a clear look at the dangers of the political landscape.

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