MARCH 2012 $10/year

THE NAYSAYER Box 18026; Denver 80218

24:9 WN 285

The Naysayer of the Month

The Democrats and the Banksters

eth McCann is the personification of country club Democrats. A former prosecutor and unsuccessful candidate for district attorney, she represents an affluent district stretching from the Seventh Avenue Parkway to Park Hill. In office, more than anything, she has abused her constituents with obnoxious robocalls. Now she has seemingly acted to redress the past dirty deeds of the Democrats in the home foreclosure crisis. Banks do not issue mortgages to help those needing a place to stay. Rather, they do so in the name of making money. The field is so profitable that, beginning in the Bill Clinton administration, the government did everything it could to induce people to buy homes. Included was the destruction of housing projects. Instead of meaning decent, quality places where everyday people could rent, affordable housing meant buying condominiums and townhouses. Nobody did more to make this official governmental policy locally than Wellington Webb. While the politicians were so acting to replace traditional housing projects with developments where renters were encouraged to buy units, banks came up with numerous schemes to increase their profits from generating and serving mortgages. In particular, they treated mortgages as highly speculative commodities. Before long, there was such a convoluted paper trail of mortgage obligations that nobody could keep track of them. The collapse of this house of cards was a prime trigger of the current financial imbroglio. Even as they have received massive bailouts from Washington, the banks have wanted more, readily foreclosing on delinquent loans. When challenged, however, they have often had a hard time proving their right to seize the propertiestheir financial mechanisms have been so complicated and confusing that they essentially destroyed the legitimacy of their claims. In 2006, the Democratic General Assembly acted to make it easier for the banksters to pull their scams. It adopted legislation, signed by Democratic Governor Bill Ritter, vastly expanding the ability of mortgage-holders simply to assert their right to grab peoples homes. Not surprisingly, this was when the Democrats had made it no secret that they were openly beholden to big money, especially the combined might of Jared Polis, Rutt Bridges, Pat Stryker, and Tim Gill, the four wealthy donors who helped the Democrats win the legislature in 2004. Having said nothing about the Democrats filthy responsibility for the mortgage mess, McCann has leaped to the rescue. Far from pointing out how the entire mortgage crisis is reflective of thoroughly failed policies, she has introduced legislation forcing lenders to prove their title to the houses they wish to foreclose. Given the craven support of the Democrats for the financial establishment, this is a startling breakthrough. McCanns action is especially noteworthy because, rather than seeking a mass popular mobilization against the banks and the total subservience of the government to Wall Street, the Democrats have increasingly relied on the politics of manipulation as their means of maintaining power. Already in the 1970s, led by the AFL-CIO, the Democrats introduced what they promised were virtually miraculous schemes to expand voter registration and participation. The more they did so through such measures as motor voter, the more everyday workers saw less relevance in elections while the Republicans
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espite endless city settlements of suits stemming from police brutality, the Denver district attorneys office has been missing in action. Carol Chambers, the reactionary Arapahoe County district attorney, in contrast, has at least referred a highly questionable Aurora police shooting to a grand jury. At the most, the Denver district attorneys office has convicted an animalcontrol officer of treating cruelly two dogs she picked upa former deputy district attorney who has since gone to work for the Animal Legal Defense Fund pushed the case. It shows the priorities of the system in defending animals over people. For its rare action against a public official, the Denver district attorneys office is the Naysayer of the Month. In 1997, the city replaced Denver General Hospital with Denver Health. The purpose, proclaimed Mayor Wellington Webb and hospital administrator Patricia Gabow, was so the facility would operate more like a business. In other words, rather than being the primary safety net for the citizenry in need of health care, like a business, it was to focus on the bottom line. The establishment has since raved about Gabows achievements. Additions to the complex have been constant. So have financial troubles. Recently, Denver Health agreed to pay $6.3 million to settle a fraud case. It admitted it operated like a business in overcharging the state and federal governments while dismissing an auditor who exposed its scam. For so showing what it means to operate like a business, Denver Health is the associate Naysayer of the Month.

Educational Reformers and Hypocrites

esar Chavez fought California growers through organizing the United Farm Workers, a union representing mostly Hispanos who worked in the fields. In the process, he energized a generation that was appalled by the pro-corporate policies of the AFL-CIO. This and his social message have mostly been forgotten as the establishment seeks to canonize him. No place is this better seen than in the Cesar Chavez Public Charter Schools. This is a hideously cynical educational corporation that has encountered severe turbulence in running a network of semi-private schools designed to shape tomorrows Latino Babbitts. For the most part, it has been hot air and dubious performance. Nobody has more celebrated such smoke and mirrors than those who accept allowing foundations to shape public policy in the name of charity and social concern. With the assistance of the corporate leadership of the Democratic Party, the result has been endless promises to reform the schools. The more groups like the Cesar Chavez Public Charter Schools have done so, the less advocates have reflected on why, despite all the reform, the performance of the schools is as abysmal as ever. Particularly missing is any reflection that schools are not bold, neutral agencies earnestly educating the next generation; rather, they are reflections of the values and power of the status quo. More than anything, they reflect the inequities and skewered values of different classes. Seen in this light, it is anything but surprising that the schools for the rich perform better than those seeking to regiment and discipline the children of the poor. At the very best, the latter promise
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The Naysayers next meet on Saturday, March 3, Enzos Pizza, 3424 Colfax (between Cook and Madison) 5:30 PM