UpTake Colorado

Denver Public Schools (DPS) have been troubled on and off for several years. This year they closed several elementary schools, and are locked in argument with the teachers union.

 
Two of the closed elementary schools, Wyman and Mitchell, will be merging into the old Cole Middle School building. It will become the Cole Arts and Sciences Academy, a pre K through 8 program.

Back on June 28th, a coalition of volunteers from Metro Volunteers, Democrats Work (a Democratic service organization), and members of the school's future staff got together to make the building welcoming for younger and older students alike.

David Sirota- An Election is not a Social Movement

By Corrine L. McDermid

Blogger, columnist, and author David Sirota stopped by the Colfax Tattered Cover (Denver’s local independent bookstore) on his long book tour for The Uprising.  He spoke to a packed crowd downstairs at the same store where he actually penned much of the book, answered question, and signed books before dropping by the local Drinking Liberally chapter for a pint or two. 

One of his central points is the difference between the electoral system and actual social movements.  If you couldn’t be there, take a look and listen as he talks about our focus on electoral politics anger in the nation. 

And FYI, I shot this piece on a lower end, direct to MP4 camcorder, and edited it in Quicktime Pro.  I was a little disappointed with the audio, and it’s hard to tell where I made cuts, but for those of you who’ve been holding back on putting up material like this, please get in touch.  I promise you don’t need to even learn what MP4 means. 
 

Context of a Gaffe; What Personal Responsibility and Faith Can't Do

By Corrine L. McDermid

Saturday, July 12th, the Reverend Jesse Jackson spoke at the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library in Denver in the wake of his remarks into a live microphone concerning Senator Obama.

He didn't wait to be asked about his gaffe, but expressed contrition and moved on to discussing the context of the conversation. The Reverend expressed frustration with a focus on Faith-Based initiatives and personal responsibility when there are some services that only the larger entity of government can provide.

Large scale disasters, economic and having to do with aging infrastructure, the Reverend stressed, can not be fixed by Church daycares and strong fathers. He particularly stressed the wide-spread impact of the sub-prime mortgage crisis, it's disproportionate impact on people of color, and infrastructure failures on the Mississippi from the bridge collapse in Minneapolis to the levee failures in Louisiana.

The John McCain Experience- Denver

By Corrine L. McDermid

Like any political event there was a lot that went underreported when John McCain came to Denver.  There's a reason.  Smushing actual policy and/or interaction with the candidate into the appropriate length inevitably leaves stuff out.  

So here's where I try to draw out some of the things you might not have seen.  When McCain came to Denver on July 7th, he gave an Economic Policy speech before his Town Hall Meeting.  Here are the policy statements I was able to pull from the rhetoric:

1. Make it easier for small businesses to grow and create jobs
2. Won't raise taxes-- will cut them where he can
3. Raising taxes in a bad economy eliminates jobs-- won't let that happen
4. Will double the child tax deduction from $3,500 to $7,000 for every dependent in every family
5. Will expand markets for goods and services, as with Crocs, the shoe company
6. Will reform unemployment insurance and retrain workers using community colleges-- will make up difference in wages between a worker's temporary job while they train for a better on and their old job
7. Do a stem to stern review of government, modernize how it does business, and save billions
8. Will veto bills with pork and shame those involved with them
9. Produce more of our own oil and gas to pressure market prices down
10. Create at least 45 new Nuclear Power plants, creating 700,000 jobs (including construction)
11. Develop clean coal technology, employing 30,000 in demonstration projects
12. Support gas free cars and create high tech jobs in the auto industry
13. Support wind and solar power development
14. Put the country ahead of personal and partisan interests

So there is the record on that.  But there are also other bits you won't see on the evening news.  This wasn't a Bush event... quite a few questions pushed the candidate on Vetran's Affairs, policy regarding people with disabilities, Articles of Impeachment, and FISA,  not to mention some voiciferous supporters.  Seriously voiciferous.  

Choose Your News, Canned Foods Section

It was a rare rainy Monday morning at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. I'm not on the Senator McCain's press list, so I found out that he was coming to town from a subscription to Progress Now Action's press release list.  

When I arrived, I started working on getting into the event despite my lack of membership in the Colorado Press Association.  It didn't take long for Progress Now Action to kick its action off. 

Some folks with signs (and peas) joined the line, along with Progress Now Action's Director, Michael Huttner, looking official in a suit.  And then there was a chap in a pea costume, with pictures of McCain and Bush as two of his 'peas in a pod'.  The message was apparent, and discourse in the line actually seemed cordial.   

The dogs were finishing up their venue-sniffing duties and the press was clumped together waiting to go through security when the police came and predictably asked the demonstrators to go, under threat of arrest, something something, private property, Secret Service says so, etc.  

Progress Now Action was waiting for this moment, with their camerawoman Jen Caltrider at the ready.  She shot the main encounter and an encounter with Librarian who got ticketed and escorted off the property, which was picked up on Kieth Olbermann's program.  In the time it took me to get out of the clump of media folk waiting to get in and back into to the clump in order to not miss my chance at getting in, I was able to shoot the exchange between the peaman, Mr. Huttner, and the police.

Then McCain's town hall happened, local Democrats responded up the street, and everyone went home, photo ops duly photographed, messages messaged for the cameras, signs displayed, read, and put away for next time, pea costume stashed, cops off to some other beat, and journalists with at least three canned stories to choose from.  Enjoy the tinned peas and I'll get out the Dems Beef Hash and McCain's Town Hall Chile as quick as I can.