What is good about partisanship, what does it produce as a net positive for society?
Then answer the following.
Why is our system set up to foster and proliferate it at all levels of our society and government?
This is the blog post where you do all the work!
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Friday, May 9, 2008
Bond issue passes
This week residents across the county not only supported their schools, but cast a ballot indicating that they understand what the future demands.
It's time that we make the value of a high school education greater than it has ever been before by being competitive with international schools, because every single job worth having today is on an internatinal bargaining table right now.
The "classroom of tomorrow" idea is a step in the right direction. Investment in other areas will also be greatly beneficial.
The first districts to raise the bar will be in great demand, thus drawing people to move to communities within the boundaries of quality school districts, and subsequently businesses.
It's time that we make the value of a high school education greater than it has ever been before by being competitive with international schools, because every single job worth having today is on an internatinal bargaining table right now.
The "classroom of tomorrow" idea is a step in the right direction. Investment in other areas will also be greatly beneficial.
The first districts to raise the bar will be in great demand, thus drawing people to move to communities within the boundaries of quality school districts, and subsequently businesses.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Cutting teeth, knocking them out.
You can't help but get swept up in politics in this business.
C-SPAN seems absolutely action packed, after a couple years of covering "local LOCAL" meetings - that parenthetical phrase being something I coined in promoting the kind of community journalism we do, since most people I know consider Detroit or Ann Arbor "local."
Not to say that village meetings, township politics and school board discussions are boring. No, no. This job would be impossible if I didn't enjoy them more than some of the high school football games I've seen (not that THOSE are boring).
Gosh ... this water is hot!
My point is that the 2008 journey for a pair of presidential nominees is my Superbowl.
Which brings me to what I want to talk about - the baseball of this whole process thus far. Setting aside the merits of each candidate or their policies, I think people need to look at and understand what is happening here, and give credit and scorn where it is due.
Hillary Clinton is probably turning me off more than any other actor on the political stage. Perhaps I have a unique, cynical view as a Michigan Democrat, but making a play for our delegates yesterday is just the latest in a slew of sleazy political maneuvering.
What happened to the official line coming out of her campaign weeks ago that her name being on the ballot was just an oversight? Apparently she was just "too busy" to sign the paperwork.
A little revisionist history later, and Hillary Clinton is supposed to be the white knight here to save this state's political legitimacy in the primaries (long, long gone) and re-enfranchise the legions of disenfranchised voting Michiganders.
Right.
Shame on Carl Levin and Jennifer Granholm too. Levin supported this whole forced primary, as far back as last October, and now he is supporting this move, even helping to paint it as an altruistic. Granholm is beating the same drum.
To say that Barack Obama and John Edwards can just pick up delegates from the uncommitted votes later, as Levin did, is insultingly disingenuous. What is an election, if not an experiment to gauge the will of a people - y'know ... Democracy?
Is the experiment worthwhile if it is incomplete? Only one of the three major players were on the ballot, even though none of them campaigned. But let's be honest here, the Clinton brand, the connections between Michigan's Democrats and the Clinton machine and her supporters being encouraged by being able to at least cast a ballot for her name are huge advantages, and have rendered our Democratic primary numbers meaningless. This goes far beyond the natural limitations of weak policy, poor debate showings and personality problems that could sink any candidate. It goes beyond one candidate raising more money than another. The Michigan contest is irreparably tainted by party politics.
You can't conduct a survey by asking half of the questions. You can't posit a hypothesis without complete data, unless you're trying to move towards a predetermined outcome.
After all, I often hear Democracy referred to as a "noble experiment." If that is what it truly is, then we owe it to ourselves to discard the results of our Democratic primary, even if it means sacrificing our voice and swallowing our pride, which are no good to our nation if they pollute the overall process with a skewed representation of our state's political will.
I'll probably post something else later after the South Carolina results are in. I could go on about the Clinton campaign, but they're not the only recipient of my ire. Not by a long shot.
C-SPAN seems absolutely action packed, after a couple years of covering "local LOCAL" meetings - that parenthetical phrase being something I coined in promoting the kind of community journalism we do, since most people I know consider Detroit or Ann Arbor "local."
Not to say that village meetings, township politics and school board discussions are boring. No, no. This job would be impossible if I didn't enjoy them more than some of the high school football games I've seen (not that THOSE are boring).
Gosh ... this water is hot!
My point is that the 2008 journey for a pair of presidential nominees is my Superbowl.
Which brings me to what I want to talk about - the baseball of this whole process thus far. Setting aside the merits of each candidate or their policies, I think people need to look at and understand what is happening here, and give credit and scorn where it is due.
Hillary Clinton is probably turning me off more than any other actor on the political stage. Perhaps I have a unique, cynical view as a Michigan Democrat, but making a play for our delegates yesterday is just the latest in a slew of sleazy political maneuvering.
What happened to the official line coming out of her campaign weeks ago that her name being on the ballot was just an oversight? Apparently she was just "too busy" to sign the paperwork.
A little revisionist history later, and Hillary Clinton is supposed to be the white knight here to save this state's political legitimacy in the primaries (long, long gone) and re-enfranchise the legions of disenfranchised voting Michiganders.
Right.
Shame on Carl Levin and Jennifer Granholm too. Levin supported this whole forced primary, as far back as last October, and now he is supporting this move, even helping to paint it as an altruistic. Granholm is beating the same drum.
To say that Barack Obama and John Edwards can just pick up delegates from the uncommitted votes later, as Levin did, is insultingly disingenuous. What is an election, if not an experiment to gauge the will of a people - y'know ... Democracy?
Is the experiment worthwhile if it is incomplete? Only one of the three major players were on the ballot, even though none of them campaigned. But let's be honest here, the Clinton brand, the connections between Michigan's Democrats and the Clinton machine and her supporters being encouraged by being able to at least cast a ballot for her name are huge advantages, and have rendered our Democratic primary numbers meaningless. This goes far beyond the natural limitations of weak policy, poor debate showings and personality problems that could sink any candidate. It goes beyond one candidate raising more money than another. The Michigan contest is irreparably tainted by party politics.
You can't conduct a survey by asking half of the questions. You can't posit a hypothesis without complete data, unless you're trying to move towards a predetermined outcome.
After all, I often hear Democracy referred to as a "noble experiment." If that is what it truly is, then we owe it to ourselves to discard the results of our Democratic primary, even if it means sacrificing our voice and swallowing our pride, which are no good to our nation if they pollute the overall process with a skewed representation of our state's political will.
I'll probably post something else later after the South Carolina results are in. I could go on about the Clinton campaign, but they're not the only recipient of my ire. Not by a long shot.
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