NYC Mayor Race Count Down: Day 5 - Jo Coskie Independence Party Rally for Adolfo Carrion - Teachers for Carrion!

Queens Executive Member of the NYC Independence Party, retired teacher, Jo Coskie speaks about her organizing Teachers for Carrion.

"Mr. Carrion is passionate about improving our schools, recognizes the need to empower teachers, and has a visionary plan. Last month at a press conference on the steps of City Hall, he unveiled a bold comprehensive policy to transform our schools. Adolfo would place our schools at the center of the community to maximize their use. In addition, recognizing that after school development is a key to unlocking our young people's potential, Adolfo has made it a central component of his plan. I could go on. He has the best educational platform of any candidate. It's no wonder Bill de Blasio doesn't want to debate him!"

[Video by Coco Cheung]

Independent voters say 54 - 40 percent the United States should not be in Afghanistan.

INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• November 18, 2010 - American Voters Say Ban Cell Phones While Driving, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Support For War In Afghanistan Collapses --  Independent voters say 54 - 40 percent the United States should not be in Afghanistan.

OPEN PRIMARIES

• Open primaries in case of democracy (By Rosa Scarcelli, Bangor Daily News) There’s a clear choice missing among those wishing to advocate change to Maine’s election system. Missing is discussion of a reform that would be easy and inexpensive to implement as well as effective in increasing voter participation and reducing the negative campaign tactics associated with the political fringes. The change I’m talking about is open primaries.
• Guest opinion: First, look in the mirror (GREG CUSACK, Des Moines Register) Abolish the caucus system, moving either to open primaries or to a ranking primary election in which the two or three candidates garnering the most votes proceed to the general election. Only in this way will we eliminate the steady march to the ideological extremes that characterize our times.
• Quinn lobbies for "open" primary legislation (by Sean Crawford, WBEZ 91.5)

ELECTION REFORM

• Drawing will choose Calif. redistricting finalists (By JULIET WILLIAMS Associated Press, Mercury News) The General Assembly will likely shelve Quinn's changes as party leaders use primaries as a way to keep tabs on who is voting and  target them  for campaign donations.

BLOOMBERG 2012

• Michael Bloomberg: An Independent Presidential Candidate Can't Win in 2012 (Posted by Stephanie Condon, CBS News)

COLORADO

• Wilson declared victor in HD 61 race - 'Undervotes' up Curry's tally, but not by enough (Gunnison Country Times)

NEW YORK

• Independence Expenditures - Echoes of Bloomberg's own CFB rebuttal and Nora Anderson in the Haggerty case (By Chris Bragg, City Hall News)

EDUCATION REFORM

• Sharpton: Obama, Congress must act on failing education to stop a national crisis of black and white (BY REV. AL SHARPTON, SPECIAL TO THE DAILY NEWS)
• We Know How to Teach Black Kids (By: John McWhorter, The Root)

The Hankster Recommends: Hysterical Blindness

Please check out this blog by a talented young writer, Scott Pewenofkit. And read his recent post Zero Tolerance For Stupidity, a sharp critique of the popular public school policy aimed at reducing violence in schools.

Hysterical Blindness is now on The Hankster sidebar.