Anne Oatman-Gardner tries to silence debate
The Colorado Springs Black/Latino Leadership Coalition is hosting a candidate debate for D11 recall candidates on November 21st at the Carnegie Room of the Penrose Library. The invitation is below:
Dear Friends,
The Colorado Springs Black/Latino Leadership Coalition
will sponsor a School District Eleven Recall Election and
School Board Candidates' Forum on Tuesday,
November 21, 2006, 6-8PM, Carnegie Room, Penrose
Library, 20 N. Cascade.
All candidates are invited, including those facing recall,
and those wishing to win election to the D-11 Board of
Education.
The format of the Forum will follow that of previous
Forums, with each candidate having a chance to
speak and give the reasons why he or she should stay
on the Board, or be elected to the Board. There will
be time for questions and answers and rebuttals.
In addition, there will be an opportunity for those who
wish to explain the reasons for the recall election to
present their views.
The Black/Latino Leadership Coalition is a non-partisan
group and is about educating the community on issues
affecting all of us. We do not take positions on issues
or endorse candidates. We wish to give all sides of contested
issues and elections the chance to present their views.
We invite all candidates, activists, community leaders, and
the public to our D-11 School Board Forum.
Sincerely,
Willie Breazell, Co-Chair,
Joe Barrera, Co-Chair,
Colorado Springs Black/Latino Leadership Coalition
Dear Friends,
The Colorado Springs Black/Latino Leadership Coalition
will sponsor a School District Eleven Recall Election and
School Board Candidates' Forum on Tuesday,
November 21, 2006, 6-8PM, Carnegie Room, Penrose
Library, 20 N. Cascade.
All candidates are invited, including those facing recall,
and those wishing to win election to the D-11 Board of
Education.
The format of the Forum will follow that of previous
Forums, with each candidate having a chance to
speak and give the reasons why he or she should stay
on the Board, or be elected to the Board. There will
be time for questions and answers and rebuttals.
In addition, there will be an opportunity for those who
wish to explain the reasons for the recall election to
present their views.
The Black/Latino Leadership Coalition is a non-partisan
group and is about educating the community on issues
affecting all of us. We do not take positions on issues
or endorse candidates. We wish to give all sides of contested
issues and elections the chance to present their views.
We invite all candidates, activists, community leaders, and
the public to our D-11 School Board Forum.
Sincerely,
Willie Breazell, Co-Chair,
Joe Barrera, Co-Chair,
Colorado Springs Black/Latino Leadership Coalition
According to Joe Barrera, recall propagandist Anne Oatman-Gardner was furious over the fact that the the targets of the recall, Eric Christen and Sandy Shakes, were also invited to participate. Oatman-Gardner demanded that the debate go forward without allowing Christen and Shakes to be heard.
The last thing that Oatman-Gardner wants is an honest and open debate. Her career working for liberal politicians and their pet causes has been based on her ability to lie about and destroy other people. She knows that her puppet candidates will not be able to hold their own in a debate based on facts.
Congratulations, Annie. Your true colors become more apparent each and every day.
posted by Craig Cox | 2:02 PM
8 Comments:
Last Sunday's front page Gazette article clearly shows why Christen and Shakes should be recalled, and it just as clearly shows why a "debate" with a pontificator like Christen wouldn't prove anything.
(And nobody should expect Shakes to show up any kind of debate or forum. She's managed to skip 60% of the board meetings this year, making people wonder why she's fighting to hold onto a seat that she leaves empty most of the time anyway.)
The problems with Christen go far beyond what can easily be described in a 45 second sound byte. The Gazette painstakingly recounted every detail of his personal agenda, and it took the better part of three newspaper pages to print it all.
Christen doesn't debate, he preaches, and he makes up facts as he goes along. When blindsided by Christen with "facts" that are totally fabricated, it's not surprising that it's so difficult to immediately respond. Qualified candidates should be prepared to address the issues and know the facts, but they can't be clairvoyent enough to accurately guess what made-up nonsense Christen will put forth as "fact".
One of his "classics" was claiming, at a school board meeting, that 78% of the population of the Cheyenne Mountain School District qualified for free and reduced lunch, a typical gauge of socioeconomic status. Everybody in the boardroom gasped, because the number was so obviously incorrect, but nobody knew the correct figure off the top of their head. A half hour later, someone had the chance to look it up, and the correct figure was 18%,not 78%,which is a universe of difference. Christen's reply? He had none. He just ignored it all.
And that board meeting to scourge the district of that invidious threat to society, Planned Parenthood? Christen read from what he claimed were materials distributed by Planned Parenthood in D-11 high school health classes. In reality, after just a little research, it was clear that what he was reading was a teenage blog that was a part of the Planned Parenthood website -- but it wasn't in any of the materials used in the classroom, nor would it be.
Christen gets free air time to pontificate at board meetings every two weeks, and nobody can shut him up (unless, of course, he speaks without having the floor, which he often does). Why does he think he deserves even more?
So far, she has been successful at keeping her comarades out of the public limelight by failing to participate in at lease two forums/debates. One that was held a few months back by the Citizen's Education Network, and one just a few weeks ago on KVOR. Why isn't she held to the same level of accountability as that of others in the political fray? It's time for all of us to demand real accountability of her activities. After all it was she who said at a early meeting of the recall supporters that if the media continued to be non-supportive, she would and could use "gorilla tactics." I wonder what she meant by that disgraceful comment.
To “Anonymous,”
Thank you for writing (pick your favorite hater)(Anne Oatman-Gardner; Mary Ellen McNally; John Gudvangen; Lois Fornander; Tami Hasling; Tom or Lori Watson). Your invective proves my point.
First of all, your hero John Gudvangen (by the way, if Anonymous IS Gudvangen, then the descriptor remains the same. He fancies himself quite the hero) says that there is “not one truth.” He has commented that, “There is more than one truth;” “Thank you for not falling for the trap that there is only one truth.” The problem that this philosophy presents to those of you who lack integrity is that you can never accuse someone of “fabricating facts,” can you? Your “classic” claim that Christen said that D12 had a 78% free and reduced lunch rate is simply false. In fact, YOU fabricated an event that never happened. Maybe you were sleeping or reading the paper instead of paying attention. Your version of the truth is not true at all, but as I said, your side is proficient at manufacturing stories.
As for the Gazette article, maybe you grabbed a copy of the Independent instead of the Gazette. All I saw was that McNally admitted that the whole recall is simply about politics, period. She felt that she was not in control of the board and she threw a hissy-fit. Maybe you are talking about the personal emails that your people collect? If the liberals on the board aren’t strong enough to handle emails, how can they be strong enough to run a ½ billion dollar school district? I feel embarrassed for your side on that one. This shows again that this effort and its accompanying waste of $300,000 is over nothing more than a few Progressives having their feelings hurt.
Your Planned Parenthood complaint confirms that this is a political issue. You and the PP ladies are mad that you are no longer given easy access to little girls. Pretty pathetic.
The real “classic” at a D11 board meeting was when Karen “I only lost by 37% this time” Teja had her little goon friend David Thiebault come into the board meeting and announce that he (falsely) discovered that Christen had a felony in Oregon. Did you ever have this clown come back and apologize for that fabrication? How about when Hasling wrote a statement for the Christen reprimand claiming that Christen hit her, when later she admitted to the Gazette that she had struck him? Does that fabrication upset you, or is that just an appropriate alternative truth? How about your 2005 campaign, when you smeared the conservative candidates for months, claiming that they were hell-bent on destroying public schools? Can’t get much more “classic” than that, can we?
I have heard the complaint before that Christen is unfair because he ambushes people with facts. The problem is that your side knows nothing about this school district. Your side spent over $1 million to buy seats for 3 people who would simply sit and read their little scripts and oppose everything that we try to do to improve this district. The fact that you are opposed to allowing facts to be discussed in board meetings or debates shows just how damaging your side has been to this district.
The reason that you don’t want Christen and Shakes in the debate is because your candidates don’t know the D11 facts and they won’t be able to have anyone write scripts for them before they have to answer questions. The facts show that the status quo is not good enough. The facts show that this district has not adequately served its students and parents and that doing nothing, as Gudvangen and Tanner propose, is simply not OK.
You don’t like accountability, you don’t want accountability in D11, and you have lied about each of us who were elected in 2003 for 3 years running. Oh wait, let me correct myself. Shakes was your hero when you thought that she was effectively opposing reform. Now she is a skunk because you don’t control her. By the way, I don’t agree with board members missing numerous meetings, either. How many did Dave Linebaugh miss during his tenor and what did you do about it?
I will ask a question that always causes your type to run back to your shadows. What has your side proposed that will make D11 a district of excellence and what have any of us from the 2003 election done to prevent you from implementing those ideas?
And maybe we'll start answering your questions when you quit avoiding the issues we raise.
If anyone was asleep or reading a newspaper, it must have been you, Mr. Cox, because you were sitting right next to Christen on the dais when he made those comments. To pretend like it never happened or to pretend the issue is about Planned Parenthood not having access to "little girls" shows where your head is at.
Umm – avoiding the issues? I believe that this is a blog that you are responding to. Not only am I publicly addressing the issues, I actually post opposing viewpoints, unlike your little fictional D11 Watch site.
Why are you so adamant about allowing Planned Parenthood in our schools? That is a private organization, is it not? I thought that you were all against privatization. Private companies are bad, aren’t they?
What has your side done or proposed to “address the issues” and how have we obstructed your proposals? Other than “Eric Christen is mean,” what are your issues? You really haven’t proposed any ideas, have you?
The good news for you is that public meetings are public, and minutes are kept. Isearched but could not find any record of Christen claiming that D12 has a 78% free and reduced lunch population. Please forward me those minutes and I will post them.
Mr. Cox, don't get your undies in a bunch over comments like those from anonymous. It is the classic ploy of smoke and mirrors.
The facts are the facts. You and your collegues elected in 03 promised transparency, real accountability and changes for the better for our students.
For anyone connected with the Old Guard, if you four were successful, their legacies would have been exposed as those of long eras of rubber stamping and mediocrity, they simply cannot allow you to make improvements. At the expense of our community and children.
The McNally Marionettes have no plan, never did. They stole from your campaigns, the words this community wants to hear. Unfortunately, people didn't key in on Gudvangen's claim that he couldn't think of anything that needed changing. Nothing. No comment about raising student achievement, involving more parents and community in the processes, etc. Why? Because he really and truly believes he and his small band of chaos igniters are the sharpest tools in all the sheds in the land and they should have the ONLY voice in those committees and processes.
Look over the archival information on the D-11 web pages and you will see the same 10-12 names over and over and over. And for more than a decade. Wonder why we're stagnant? I don't, I know the answer.
Anxious to watch the debate on Tuesday the 21st. Anxious to hear why Christen and Shakes feel they shouldn't be recalled and why Tanner and Bobbit think they are better people for those seats.
I suspect it is because they are annointed by the chaos elite and will do whatever their string puller says.
Which is nothing - do nothing. The money keeps coming in, that's all they're concerned with, the fact that we have approximately 10,000 kids in our boundary that don't attend our schools isn't troubling to them, the left behinds generate enough money.....for now.
If that trend continues, and I assure you it will, there will eventually not be enough money for all at the trough, and then, maybe, they'll turn on each other and start telling the world who ISN'T worth it.
In the meantime, keep posting the facts. We out here in cyberland appreciate seeing what your board chair won't allow into public record (like Thomas' stuff). That was quite enlightening.
To "Juststoppingby," your point about holding Annie accountable is right on the mark. After all, she and Mary Ellen McNally are using nearly $300,000 taxpayer dollars for this recall, They need to be held accountable. Like I said, they prefer the shadows.
"Friendlier," nobody will argue the fact that these people do not have ideas. I ask over and over for anyone to tell me what they have proposed that will move D11 forward. Silence. I ask again and again what our side has done to prevent their side from moving forward. Silence. They specialize in stirring up hatred and discontent, then they point the finger elsewhere.
Anonymous claimed that the Gazette article exposed Christen's agenda. All I saw was that Christen kept thinking that this was about kids, while the other side kept saying that this is about adults (Tami & John had their feelings hurt over some emails). Remind me again who is not focused on the D11 mission.
Wow these poor folks (John, Tom?)look for facts that I have "missed" and they come up with ones they pulled out of Wonderland (claiming D12 had 78% FRL!) and one that is built around a strawman (Planned Parenthood). Regarding the former it was just simply never said. Unlike the educartel I do know the facts and would never cite something so obviously wrong. (BTW, You claim D-12's FRL is at 18% when it is in fact 8%, again showing just how ignorant you are of everything.)
In fact I have NEVER cited D12's FRL, ever. You guys just make stuff up as you go, it's scary. I HAVE cited CMCA and the fact that it has almost a 20% FRL while it outperforms all of our schools with lower FRL figures.
Regarding Planned Parenthood (funny what these lunatics on the left obsess with. It's not our dismal graduation rates, or literacy rates, no, it's let's get the racist, pro-eugenics Planned Parenthood into the classroom!)I once again NEVER claimed what I read (by the by did you have a problem with that trash?)was "passed out in classrooms" but that it was simply what was on their website directed at teens. Of course to any rational person that would be a distinction without a differece as PP clearly directs kids to their website created for them; but let's not get technical. The fact remains they wrote it, I pointed it out, nobody could defend it, and they are gone.
While I realize that most on the left never allow facts to get in the way of their pre-conceived notions, you should start because it is increasingly embarassing to correct you all the time, almost as embarassing as you not wanting to (for good reason) debate me.
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