Sure, I didn't get royalties or even mentioned by name, but I am stoked that the story is getting out.
Here is my piece about David Harmer from Tuesday morning. I spent quite some time researching the diary, finding the link in the archives of SFGate.com.
Some 34 hours later, Mother Jones posted this about David Harmer, using the very same reference:
http://motherjones.com/...
Then, another 18 or so hours later, Ed Schultz went off on David "Abolish Public Schools" Harmer
It was fun to watch.
Video below the fold.
David "Abolish Public Schools" Harmer gets hammered on The Ed Show
From the Mother Jones piece:
...Harmer's views on education—he's referred to public schools as "socialism in education"—are far from mainstream. They don't align with those of his own party's gubernatorial candidate: In her final debate against former Gov. Jerry Brown, Meg Whitman advocated strengthening California's public schools.
That's the opposite position from the that Harmer took in 2000, when he published a lengthy op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle titled, "Abolish the Public Schools." In that Chronicle piece, Harmer argues that "government should exit the business of running and funding schools."
Minorities and the poor often had a lot of trouble getting schooling in early America, even in the North. "We're talking about going back to times when very, very limited numbers of people in the society had access to education, access to power, or access to elevating themselves in society," says Heather Andrea Williams, a professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill who has written a book about African-American education in early America.
Now who knows if my DKos diary was seen by the people at Mother Jones? It didn't even make the rec list. Maybe they happened to be Googling some of the same stuff aboutDavid Harmer I was just a couple days after I did.
And it's not really the reason I am posting this diary.
I am glad to see the word is spreading about this TEAhadi extremist who it trying to use his Wall Street pals' money to buy a Congressional seat in the Bay Area.
I did the research and posted the diary to get the word out.
Maybe it helped a little but.
The important thing is that today, just 3 days later, perhaps millions more people know who David Harmer is, and the fact that he espouses some of the most extreme and absurd views of any candidate in the nation.
We have to defend solid Democrats who sit in Republican leaning districts.
Rep. Jerry McNerney, on the other hand, has been a strong advocate for public eduction, and has been supported by teachers in the region as a result. From his website:
We must make a national commitment to education by strengthening our schools; making sure our teachers are qualified, rewarded and supported; reducing class size; modernizing our classrooms; and providing vocational and technical educational opportunities.
McNerney has a proven track record of strengthening our public schools, supporting our troops, investing in clean energy, and cracking down on corporate outsourcing.
Seldom is the choice between 2 candidates clearer.
Help this solid Dem earn re-election against the most dishonest and extreme wing of the 2010 TGOP.
If we can defend seats in PVI R+1 districts like this, the color orange will be reserved for this website, not the Speaker of the House.
http://www.jerrymcnerney.org/
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[Updated by LaughingPlanet, Fri Oct 15, 2010 at 9:24 AM PDT]:
Title changed per request by jotter, my hero.
And a few links tweaked h/t Lorikeet
The diary remains essentially unchanged, for the record.
Thanks for the recs and for sending love to Jerry.
He is deserving of your support.