Posts in month: January, 2010

Political season is in full swing now.  How do we know?  Commercials.  Three candidates, Corey O’Brien, Chris Paige, and Malcolm Derk have commercials/web videos about themselves and their candidacies out on the Internet while one, Corey O’Brien, is up on TV.  We thought we would take a look at each.

Corey O’Brien is first.  The web video is six minutes long, and is slightly tedious, so we’ll go straight to the commercial.  We can look at it one of two ways:  in terms of politics and in terms of substance.

In terms of politics, the commercial is brilliant.  The production value is very high, the shots and choices of location and citizenry are excellent.  The audio quality is high and what Corey says is something everybody can get behind:  He wants the area to be a better place for his children, he wants to create jobs.  As an introduction to a candidate, I think this is a success, particularly since it’s out so early in the election cycle.  It’s only January and we’re seeing Corey on TV.

In terms of substance, the commercial is lacking.  That’s okay, since it’s meant to be an introduction, but, while we mentioned jobs as something people can get behind, there are no specifics about how Corey is going to make that happen.  That will be forgivable, though, if we get a lot of policy specifics later.  We shall see.

Next up is Chris Paige, our resident PA-11 blogger candidate.  As a hedge fund manager, Paige should have money to throw around.  Sadly, he did not do so on his introductory video on his website.  Kudos to him for losing weight recently, as his suit doesn’t fit, but between that, and the poor production value, the cheesy background, and the grainy appearance, the commercial is a failure.  Looking appropriate is important.  Hey, candidates should look like candidates, simple as that.  The other problem is the lack of substance.  Using abstract Republican buzzwords is very insubstantial.  This is amusing, as Paige criticized Corey O’Brien for lack of substance in his initial commercial.  Maybe so, but responding with a commercial that does the same, but with way less quality, isn’t really a smart move.

The same is true of Malcolm Derk.  Popping a cheap camera in front of a desk guarantees a cheap-looking commercial.  For all these Republican Mitt Romney wannabees, they aren’t really bringing anything to bear.  He looks frumpier than Paige, if that’s possible.  Often cited as an example of what to do and what not to do is the Kennedy/Nixon debate from way back.  Kennedy was done up and looked presidential, while Nixon was sweaty and a mess.

Looking the part is important.  It’s like a job interview.  If you walk into a job interview unshaven and wearing jeans, people aren’t going to take you seriously.  Same here.  Except this interview is being done by thousands upon thousands of voters.

Between the 10th and 11th Congressional Districts, it’s obvious that O’Brien knows this, and that Paige and Derk are clueless.

This past week, the Fireman’s Pension Board voted to freeze newly minted Councilman John Loscombe’s pension.

Due to the “no double-dipping” rule, which says that you cannot collect a pension and a work for the city, Loscombe immediately was presented with two choices:  Either resign or see your pension frozen.  The third option, refusing the pay Council members receive, is not available, because the stipulation involves working for the city, not collecting a paycheck.

Loscombe’s pension is obviously going to be more substantial than the Council salary.  Beyond that, he wouldn’t have been able to vote on issues related to city pensions, or the firefighter contract, due to conflicts of interest.

Rumors have already begun flying that Steve Bartnicki, who, as you may recall, was the name originally floated for Council, will be called in as a replacement.

If Loscombe does resign (and I wouldn’t blame him), then Evans will inevitably look bad.  It would mean that she didn’t think this through (it already looks like she didn’t).

No word on what Loscombe’s course of action will be.

At the PA Progressive Summit, which I expected to be eye-opening, has been, you guessed it, eye-opening!

Chris Doherty has gone up leaps and bounds in my book when, at the Summit, he said that he favors gay marriage.  Progressive candidate Joe Hoeffel also favors gay marriage.

The debate is only a religious one, as law is blatantly on the side of marriage.  Entrenched Christian values have stonewalled equality, which is shameful and further discredits an institutions with a two-millennia long history of bigotry and discrimination.  Law, particularly the Equal Protection clause in the Constitution (you know, that highest law in the land thing), says very clearly that everybody deserves equal rights.

If straight people can get married, and, under the law, gay people and straight people are equal, then gay people should be allowed to get married.  That’s the long and short of it.

Not only that, but it’s actually an economic boon.  Massachusetts has actually seen an economic boost from gay weddings, which average in the tens of thousands (this is no joke, believe it or not).  Not only that, but gay marriage affects nobody but people that want gay marriages.  Legalization of gay marriage will not force Christian guys to marry Christian guys.  I know that’s what they all fear (or in the case of some, secretly desire — hey, the lady doth protest too much).

Kudos to Doherty and Hoeffel for believing in what’s only right.

Kevin Haggerty has challenged Bob Lesh and Ken Smith to four debates in the 112th district.  No word yet from the other camps on whether or not they have or will accept.

The debates, if they happen, will inevitably be exciting and informative.  I certainly hope the other candidates agree.

They may end up not agreeing, or not agreeing to all, though, as this will be Haggerty’s strong suit.  He’s a good speaker, and in fact teaches public speaking.

Here are excerpts from his publicly issued challenge:

The 112^th spreads far and wide, and it is important that we hold debates in following areas: Moscow, South Scranton, Dunmore and E. Mountain/or the Hill section of Scranton. Other locations can certainly be discussed, but to be fair to the people of the district, we must not hold less than four of these debates. The people of this district deserve to have their concerns surrounding state government addressed, and the citizens of the 112^th deserve a forum that takes place in their own backyards.

We propose the following:

-Candidates will meet on the last Thursday of every month starting on February 25^th at 7pm.

-The last debate will be held on Thursday May 13^th, exactly five days before the Primary Election.

-Location dates can be determined by each campaign.

-A list of moderators from the local media and/or community will be available for candidates to choose from.

Dictating the regions (good choices, but still dictating) and the date of the late debate might not be looked upon kindly by the other campaigns, but the proposal is a good one, and fair.  Moscow, Dunmore, South Scranton, and then East Mountain/the Hill are all the major areas of the district, and it’s fair to bring debates to the constituents these men are hoping to serve (or in Ken Smith’s case, not serving except in the case of keeping heroin addicts ON the streets).

More to follow when/if the other campaigns agree.

We’ve been hitting Paul Kanjorski pretty hard lately over his campaign contributions and yesterday, the O’Brien Campaign did the same.  For Corey, it’s good politics to smash Kanjorski over his banker/insurance company sponsored money-horde.  For me, well, if you’ve been reading, I’m not a fan of corporate domination of just about everything.  America may as well be a corporate oligarchy (or a corporatocracy, I can’t decide), especially after the Citizens United SCOTUS decision giving them free reign to buy politicians.  But even before that decision, PACs were there to give money.  So AIG has one, Liberty Mutual has one, and on and on.  And all of them give lots and lots of money to Paul Kanjorski.

Kanjorski cannot be their enemy.  Who gets lots of money from their enemies?  Naturally, I’m concerned.  The O’Brien camp sent out this e-mail which says it all.  I really enjoy OpenSecrets and all of the following is totally legit, and completely scary.

Enjoy:

Congratulations are in order — Wall Street has officially endorsed Paul Kanjorski over Corey O’Brien in the Democratic Primary for Pennsylvania’s 11th Congressional District.

Our opponent said that Corey has gone after “low hanging fruit” for our fundraising — referring to individuals in the 11th Congressional District. Our opponent only received FOUR contributions from individuals in the district last quarter, but it is clear that he has found low hanging fruit of his own — on Wall Street.

During the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression, Wall Street isn’t just collecting record bonuses — it’s helping Paul Kanjorski set records of his own:

Rank: 1  –  Percentage of contributions received from financial, insurance and real estate industries, 2009 (54%)

Rank: 1  –  Percentage of contributions received from financial, insurance and real estate industries, career (44%)

Rank: 1  –  Contributions from Credit & Finance industry, career ($339,896)

Rank: 1  –  “Industry Favorite” — Mortgage bankers and brokers, 2009

Rank: 2  –  “Industry Favorite” — Insurance, 2009

Rank: 3  –  “Industry Favorite” — Credit Unions, 2009

Rank: 4  –  Contributions from Wall Street, career ($3,963,741)

Rank: 4  –  Contributions from Insurance industry, career ($995,186)

Rank: 7  –  Contributions from Securities & Investment industry, career ($814,618)

Rank: 8  –  Contributions from Commercial Banking industry, career ($353,920)

Rank: 11 –  Contributions from Real Estate industry, career ($660,634)

Source: The Center for Responsive Politics, www.OpenSecrets.org/capital_eye/finance.php, January 28, 2010. Ranking is among Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

With the release of campaign finance reports, we can get a glimpse into who got what money from whom. Well, as we posted the other day, Kanjorski, who’d already gotten a ton of money from financial PACs, has gotten even more!

Why are they donating so heavily to him? They want him to stay there. Why would they want him to stay there? He must be doing something for them.

Ed Mitchell argues that the money Kanjo receives from the financial sector doesn’t influence his vote. I’m ready to call it. Are you? Yup. Bullshit. Total bullshit. Nobody gives money to somebody who won’t help them. Who invests in a stock that they know for a fact will lose money? Nobody. To say that Kanjo’s decisions aren’t influenced by these people, the Liberty Mutual and AIG PACs, is just farcical.

I’ve scanned his finance reports and donors on fec.gov. It’s scary. And now I’m starting to seriously question Paul Kanjorski’s motives, especially after his disastrous debate with Ron Paul.

Corey O’Brien has barely received PAC money, and the money he has received, came from unions. That’s just about the only acceptable PAC out there. At least their interests are to protect workers, not exploit them. He has received a lot of donations from the Costanzo family, who have gotten contracts from Lackawanna County. So nobody’s squeaky clean here, but Kanjo is absolutely covered in corporate dirt here. It’s obvious that he is owned by Wall Street and his campaign hasn’t successfully, or even remotely, refuted this.

The Library Authority battle continues, boys and girls! Aside from the impending veto from Mayor Doherty of the dissolution resolution (take that Al Sharpton!), the Authority now has control of the deeds of the three city library properties. This is going to make it much harder to disband the Authority. Despite the case cited by Council backing up their view, the law clearly states that the Authority has to be the entity acceding to the dissolution.

Council’s next move can’t come until Doherty vetos the Council resolution, and then Council moves ahead by utilizing its Supermajority status. Then Doherty just points to the law and, boom, it’s over with. No recourse.

Despite this, this is still a fight worth fighting. I’ll say it again, half of the members of this board aren’t even from Scranton. It is totally wrong that non-Scranton residents get to determine the fate of our assets, and how our money is spent (the Authority will inevitably be taking out a loan to build a library in South Scranton).

Arlen Specter has been going up in my book, frankly. And yesterday, he went up some more. He voted against the confirmation of Ben Bernanke, the corporate drone who oversaw this financial crisis. Bernanke does not deserve to be there, whatever Obama says. Get Paul Volker or Paul Krugman or somebody who understands that the economy doesn’t have to be subservient to the will of the reckless financial sector. Sorry, Wall Street only gives a shit about Wall Street. Why feed the beast more money?

Some welcome news for Specter though, is an analysis today that came out on fivethirtyeight.com, the website by brilliant statistician Nate Silver. Silver looks at the Franklin & Marshall poll that puts Specter far behind Toomey, and puts Sestak even further behind. His conclusion is basically that the poll is either an outlier, or the samples they use are wrong. Only 40% of those surveyed were likely voters, which is very low, so the likely voter sample, which represents enthusiastic voters, is creating an odd poll result. F&M also doesn’t release their voter screens, so we have no idea who they are even asking.

Specter shouldn’t rest easy, but at least things aren’t quite as dire as they appeared.

Toomey is to the right of Santorum, who equated gays with people who have sex with animals. I’m sure Specter will have no problem beating this guy if he were to win the primary.

Governor Rendell, now wising up on the natural gas drilling issue, has announced the hiring of new Department of Environmental Protection inspectors. This will be a good supplemental force for the vigilantes that drillers were so upset about (who have been successful in finding negligence). This announcement comes on the heels of a new tip line that the DEP set up to report suspected violations. I wonder if drillers are getting nervous. They certainly should.

Notice the letters-to-the-editor today. We have an apologist from a “Fellow” at the Commonwealth Foundation. “Fellow” just means “paid to have opinions that support our agenda” in case you didn’t know. The opinion that this woman was paid to have basically says that same old conservative Republican lie: Raising taxes will ruin the world! Sorry, taxing gas drillers won’t put thousands out of work.
Remember way back when I did my table games tax formula? Basically, not having table games means no tax revenue or casino revenue. So, taxing the table games at 30% instead of 16% (which the General Assembly ended up doing anyway, the dolts) is still better than having no table games and making no money whatsoever for either the state or the casinos.

Same with the natural gas drilling industry (plus the pollution and environmental damage, of course). No drilling means no money for companies. Drilling means money for companies. Drilling while taxed means money for companies, but the people who reside on the land they are raping actually get some benefit from it.
You tell me what’s better.

Sorry, Corporate Apologists from the Commonwealth Foundation, the world won’t end, the industry won’t collapse, and jobs won’t be lost. All of your buddies in the drilling industry will still make money destroying our environment, rest easy.

The President’s State of the Union Address was certainly a welcome assessment of the goings on of America, as well as a great platform to push some solid, new ideas.

My expectations going in were very low. Obama has not done much of anything with his power, his Democratic majority, or his promises. This infuriates me pretty regularly. I decided what I wanted more than anything was for him to admit that he has no spine and that he would commit to growing one immediately.

While I didn’t quite get that, I actually was happy for the most part.

Obama proved that his rhetoric can still be meaningful – he made me believe that he was going to push for what he talked about when I really didn’t want to — but now the challenge is to get it done. There I remain skeptical. But the one thing that the speech reinforced was that Republicans are worthless.

They sat stone-faced for half of the proposals and statements Obama made, while Democrats cheered. Part of the SOTU is showing support or disagreement through this standing and cheering. Okay, Republicans have philosophical disagreements, I don’t expect them to stand. But they didn’t bother standing when Obama said that we need to stop rewarding companies that ship jobs overseas and start rewarding companies that create jobs here. So, that tells me that Republicans are completely for rewarding companies that move jobs to India and China, and punishing companies that create jobs here.

I’m glad Republicans had the guts to admit that they are owned, body and soul, by corporations and foreigners. The recent Supreme Court decision to allow unlimited corporate political donations (foreign or domestic) was certainly evidence enough. The SOTU reaction was icing on the cake.

Even better (icing on top of the icing, if you will), the Republican response was patently absurd. We have the best health care system in the world, the new Virginia Governor said (in the Virginia House of Delegates, interestingly enough). Yup, 44,000 people per year die due to lack of health care, and we’re the best! Insurance coverage dropped if you get cancer, and we’re the best! Tons of unnecessary tests, partial coverage, and on and on, and we’re the best! Sorry. Most European nations are way ahead of us in terms of quality of care. Wake up. Well, wait, Republicans are only interested in perpetuating myths that reinforce their political base. They are awake, they are just deceptive liars.

It’s fitting that they chose to give their rebuttal from the former capitol of the Confederacy.

Of course, the Republican response entailed the usual fix-all for the economy: TAX CUTS! Yup, because the wealthy have suffered inexorably during this crisis. Boo-hoo.

What a joke.

Anyway, to Obama.

The biggest problem I had, aside from my skepticism about Obama’s willingness to get his hands dirty, is that he wants to reward schools that succeed and stop rewarding schools that fail. That sounds good, but is actually one of the dumbest ideas out there, and it shows that Obama does not understand education. When a school does poorly, take their funding away? What? How will that make anything better? Common sense.

I am currently buried by $90,000 worth of student loan debt (add a mortgage and car payment and huzzah!) and it isn’t cakewalk getting by (if anybody wants to purchase ad space to help me pay it down, e-mail me!), but I’m not the exception. In order to get anywhere, most people need to spend a fortune to go to college, then get saddled with years and years of epic debt. How is that for a social system? I should’ve been a plumber. I would be making more money and would have no student loan debt. So Obama’s proposal to cap payments at 10% of income (mine exceed that) and grant forgiveness sounds beautiful to me. I hope he enacts it.

Obama was right in saying Democrats shouldn’t give up on health care. I know Republicans now have a 41-person majority in the Senate, but there are enough legislative options available (like reconciliation, which Bush often used) to get things done. Obama also scolded Republicans for being lock-step in opposition to everything. They are not leaders, they are whiners and nay-sayers. Their idea of bi-partisanship is to get everything they want, and vote against the Democrats anyway. Despite their win in MA, the Republican Party remains ideologically bankrupt. I’ll say it again: I love how they refused to stand when the President said we need to stop rewarding companies that ship jobs overseas. That says it all.

The State of the Union struck a hopeful tone, and dealt with many issues that were necessary for Obama to deal with. But speech is one thing, and action another. I’m crossing my fingers for some action.

Paul Kanjorski, in a recent debate with Ron Paul, fell absolutely flat. Ron Paul, a Republican whose libertarian leanings makes some of what he says tolerable, has teamed up with Alan Grayson, the most insane and intense Democratic liberal in Congress (after Pete Stark, maybe), to push a bill that would require that the Federal Reserve be audited.

Kanjorski really didn’t stand up very well, or even make a coherent argument as to why he’s against this audit. Kanjo said it sends the wrong message to audit the Fed. What? The Fed can currently use its money any way it wants without scrutiny. As in, we don’t really know what company got what amount of money from the bailout. We can’t get specifics. Why not? We should. Watch the YouTube videos of Alan Grayson schooling Fed Chair Ben Bernanke, who can’t even answer basic questions.

The Fed is a public/private entity that prints our money, and loans it to the government at interest. Its existence makes no sense. First off, private interests should NEVER have anything to do with the creation of our currency. Second, loaning it? If I make a dollar for you, then give you a dollar that you have to pay me a buck fifty for in the long term, then debt will never go away.

The O’Brien campaign responded by saying they absolutely support auditing the Fed. This is a huge point in their favor. The money Kanjo has received in donations from the financial industry must be addling his brain.

In the ongoing battle between the Lackawanna County Commissioners and the Controller, an interesting new development popped up: it was all a misunderstanding! One of the employees in the Controller’s office had the wrong title. Woops! Let’s change the title and restore the position, then all will be better! Aww, hugs all around.
Sorry. That’s very, very shallow reasoning. Come on. McDowell has legal standing. His office needs to do its job, and if it can’t, then there’s a problem. The lawsuit will drain County resources unless his office gets what it needs. Pretending that the name of the job was the problem just doesn’t make sense.

It’s okay to admit a mistake was made and give McDowell his workers back. There’s no need to hide behind something so superficial.

In an exciting bit of news, or discovery in my case, one of the Democratic candidates for Governor, Joe Hoeffel, is a liberal and very, very progressive! From marriage equality (yes, gays deserve equal rights with straight people) to coming down hard on Marcellus Shale, this guy’s positions impress me.

The word “liberal” scares a lot of people, but I suggest people go to his site, joehoeffel2010.com, and check out his positions. He wants to close corporate tax loopholes (which cost the state millions and millions), make sure every Pennsylvanian has access to health care (if the Federal government fails, then PA can step up for itself!), and make sure to treat farmers fairly (and not the corporate kind of farm).

I love everything I read. Doherty may be beneficial to the Scranton area, but Hoeffel is far more progressive, and would help the little guy, far more than Doherty’s plans (as listed on his site, anyway).

With the race down Knox, Hoeffel should get a boost, as he’s from the Philly area, so maybe he’ll still be in the game. He also ran for Senate against Specter six years ago. He probably has an organization to access. It’s time for wait and see, but I certainly hope he’s viable.

The Library Authority authorization has been rescinded by Council, thankfully. I know it’s tough for me to agree with Janet Evans, but I’m handling it, thanks for asking.

The question is whether or not it will hold. The Council solicitor has found past precedent, so maybe it will. But the law says that the Authority has to vote to disband itself first, then Council has to authorize it, so I don’t see that happening. Expect a showdown between Doherty and Evans over this one.

The Authority hasn’t done damage yet, which lends credence to Council’s position. It hasn’t spent money, or really done anything, so there are no debt obligations and there is no harm to undo. Hopefully we find that their legislation sticks and this mistake of an Authority is gone for good.

The Mayor will certainly, at the least, veto the Council’s legislation, forcing them to re-vote, super-majority style, and kill it again. It’s in his best interests to slow down the disbanding process while he finds legal standing.

In the 10th Congressional District, we find ourselves with another Republican jumping in. Former US AG Tom Marino will be competing with Ted Yale from Pike and Malcolm Derk from Snyder. While his lawyering will likely give him both an advantage in appeal and fundraising, he’s already got some people upset with him.

Truthaboutmarino.blogspot.com is a blog dedicated to exposing sordid (and fun!) facts about Marino, so I would suggest anybody interested in him check it out. If half of what’s on there is true, Marino is shady as hell. But Republicans love that kind of thing, so he’s probably got a good shot!

The three-way in PA’s 112th may soon get more exciting! John Keeler, soon-to-be-former banker and resident South Side Irishman, is considering making the race a four-way. In an e-mail to friends regarding his upcoming retirement, he informed them of his potential political aspirations.

His entry into the race would make it far more competitive, as South Side is Lesh territory and Keeler would be encroaching. Lesh’s numbers were weak in the Nativity section, where Keeler is strongest, so, if Keeler jumps in, Lesh will have to work even harder to consolidate his base and prevent Keeler from making inroads.

Lucky for him, Keeler isn’t so cut and dry. Firstly, Keeler is a banker. Why the hell would anybody, given the economic collapse at the hand of bankers, want to elect him? So he can perpetuate the disaster? It’s highly doubtful that he would use his position in the General Assembly to do anything harmful to the industry that gave him a hefty salary and a nice retirement. Secondly, his son, Dan Keeler, has tried and failed repeatedly to win office. But not only has he failed, he’s failed miserably. Sure, the son is not the father, but the family name is out there and it’s fallen flat time and time again.
Lesh shouldn’t have too much trouble handling him. But the little trouble Keeler can cause will hurt Lesh in South Side, which is only beneficial to Haggerty and Smith, who will inevitably be competing for their mutual base in Dunmore. But if the race will be decided in the North Pocono area, then Lesh has the advantage, as he’s worked there for years.

I’m not ready to do an un-endorsement (a la Ken Smith), but the financial industry does not need any more representation in any form of government. Keeler does not strike me as a supporter of the working man.

Congressman Chris Carney, while a Blue Dog, is still progressive on many issues that matter. For example, I’m relatively certain he’ll vote for health care even if anti-abortionists (or Pro-Coathangerers, as I like to call them now) protest the bill for not being strong enough against a woman’s right to choose.

Of course, people who want women to perform abortions on themselves in back alleys (ask any cop or EMT working before Roe v Wade, you’ll hear horror stories) aren’t happy that Carney is a reasonable man and would vote for health care, so they are going to be commissioning anti-abortion trucks to ride around the district.

Let me tell you what this means.
If you’re eating lunch in Carney’s district, don’t look outside. These trucks are going to have pictures of aborted fetuses on the side. Obviously the classy choice of protest.
Republicans (particularly their politicians and activists) are relatively insane. Come on, the Republicans can choose between a Racist or a Teabagging, Global Warming Denier. What kind of choice is that? Yes, a competition for who is more crazy and unstable. While I can’t wait to see who wins, it’s these kind of antics that make their party look unstable and remind me why, even though I’m upset that Obama hasn’t found his backbone, the Democratic Party is infinitely better than the Republican Party any day.

Dummore has a problem. It takes in less money than it spends, so, as per the paper today, the borough has a choice: either raise taxes, or try to combine fire departments with Scranton.

Sorry Dunmore, Scranton isn’t (or shouldn’t be) interested. As NEPArtisan wrote yesterday, the most major problem with null is fairness. Dunmore can’t afford to support their own fire department, so, what, Scranton should pay for it? We already have a 3.4% wage tax to support our fire department, and, while our budget may not be perfect, we can fund public safety without a problem.

It’s presumptuous to even think that option is available. Scranton should cancel its reciprocal agreement because it isn’t fair to begin with, and now Dunmore wants to tip the scales even more in their favor.
Dunmore should get its house in order and not hope Scranton will bail it out.

Take a look at opensecrets.org and search out Paul Kanjorski.  Then, take a look at where his campaign cash comes from.  Then grab a bucket and empty your insides.  Then get angry.

Kanjorski has gotten 68% of his money from PACs for this election and 70% of those are business PACs.  This is scary.  Isn’t he supposed to be crafting legislation regulating these kinds of things?  Isn’t he supposed to be punishing these people?  Since when do companies donate loads of money to Congressmen that plan on screwing them over?  They don’t.

This is dangerous.

Take a look at this info from opensecrets.org detailing where Kanjo’s money comes from:

I have a problem with this.

I e-mailed the O’Brien campaign to ask if they would be refusing PAC money.  They will not.  But only abut 5% of the money O’Brien has pulled in came from PACs.  That’s a little different than Kanjo’s 68%.  And Corey hasn’t gotten over $100k from insurance companies.

I say it often, and I’ll say it again, publicly financed campaigns are essential for democracy to remain representative of people.  Given the recent SCOTUS decision giving corporations permission to buy politicians, our democracy is even more threatened.

I have a hard time believing in the purity of the motives of a Congressman who takes this much money from the groups he’s supposed to oversee.

The Keystone Exams, despite my apathetic “meh” in the title of this post, are not inherently a bad idea.  Frankly, their success depends on a lot of factors.

Student achievement is a pathetic thing in the United States these days, because of laws like No Child Left Behind, and the strange American ideal that everybody is special and everybody can succeed.  Sorry, they are not, and not everybody can.  That’s not the fault of the child, and it’s not even a bad thing.  But our system doesn’t function that way.  Because of NCLB, students are passed and passed when they should not be, because of threats of the loss of federal funding.  Johnny reads at a 5th grade level, is in 10th grade, and is failing.  Pass him, quick!  Or we’ll lose out on federal funds!

The issue is far more complicated than that, with things like IEPs (which I don’t feel like explaining just now) and reinforced mediocrity and all of that.  But the important thing to note is that many people can get out of high school without having basic skills necessary to function in the real world.  It isn’t the fault of parents, teachers, or students.  It is the fault of the system.

This is why the Keystone Exams can be good.  Establishing an actual objective standard for graduation means that every student will need to have a certain set of skills and knowledge in order to get out.  But the Keystone Exams don’t really do that, the Exam will count for a percentage of a student’s final grade.  That means they can fail the Exams, not have the skills, and get out of school anyway.

Another benefit is the excision of the PSSA Exams.  Standardized testing is a necessary evil, but still very, very evil.  The Keystone Exams obviously fall under this category, but my hope is that they will somehow measure and test realistic knowledge and skill.  This remains to be seen.

The PSSA and SAT are disasters and not necessarily reflective of actual student ability.  Spending time teaching students how to perform well on a standardized test, like the PSSA, is a sad waste of time and a disservice.  Time that could be spent studying literature and writing organic essays goes to composing five-paragraph essays (a horribly mindless formula) and memorizing vocabulary.  It is wasteful and does not help students.

Hopefully, the Keystone Exams won’t fall into that category, hence my “meh.”