Monthly Archives: September 2007

“John Daniello Needs to Shut Up.” – Del Dem

I would only add one thing to what Del Dem says in this post.

As Delaware trends more blue the Democratic primary is going to become more and more important. This year’s Governor and Lt. Gov. races are just the begining of what will be a long series of races that are settled in the Democratic primary.

What Daniello needs to do is stop fretting about primaries and work to make the process as transparent as possible. Voters will the see Al Levin type hot house flowers picked by the Republican star chamber matched up against a rough and ready Democrats and it could be a generation or two befor we see another Republican Governor.

http://www.daily-delaware.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=21

Can you guess what these Poor states all have in common?

Maryland knocked New Jersey out of the top spot this year, while Mississippi and West Virginia were the poorest states in the Union.Maryland is now the wealthiest state in the union, as measured by median household income, according to the latest stats from the Census Bureau.Delaware, down 2.9 percent, took the biggest dip, [in income growth for the nation] Top 10 wealthiest statesHere’s where the median household income is highest

State Income
Maryland $65,144
New Jersey $64,470
Connecticut $63,422
Hawaii $61,160
Massachusetts $59,963
New Hampshire $59,683
Alaska $59,393
California $56,645
Virginia $56,277
Minnesota $54,023

Source: U.S. Census BureauThe 10 poorest statesThe states with the lowest median household income

State Income
Montana $40,627
Tennessee $40,315
Kentucky $39,372
Louisiana $39,337
Alabama $38,783
Oklahoma $38,770
Arkansas $36,599
West Virginia $35,059
Mississippi $34,473

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

h/t to Von Cracker for this special guest post. 

This is how bush supports his troops….

There just is really, really something sickening about this administration. How in the world they have been able to spin the facts to get the public to think that dems don’t support the troops and that this administration does is mind boggling when you actually read what they aren’t doing.

Even as President Bush and Pentagon officials reassured troops and their families that they were doing all they could, memos and other documents obtained by USA TODAY show that the military cut or underfunded several programs and moved so slowly and grudgingly that members of Congress took extraordinary measures

It is just purely shameful to find out that the Pentagon needs to be pressured to get things done at a time of war for God’s sake. Think about that for a second, we are at war, half of our troops have died b/c of IED’s and we still don’t have the proper armor for the troops. Some still don’t have the proper body armor and CONGRESS has to tell them to get it, not the other way around. I’m not sure if you are aware of this but in the Pentagon MILITARY PEOPLE WALK THE HALLS EVERYDAY. You would fucking think, they would be doing more to save thier own people’s lives and limbs wouldn’t you?

Former Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld “and many top administration officials believed the war would end quickly,” so in their view, there was “surely no need to spend large amounts of money for equipment,” says Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del. “The cost of ignoring the facts on the ground … has been the lives and limbs of our sons and daughters.”

Mike Castle rolls out his re-election strategy

First of all props to homegirl Maria Evans at WGMD for getting Castle’s Iraq views on the record. In this short audio clip (h/t Kavips, Nancy Willing DelDem) you can hear Mike Castle speaking directly to the voters and get a glimpse of his re-election strategy.

It is a simple strategy and one taken directly from the Rove playbook: Lie.

Mike Castle plans to lie about his record.

Mike Castle plans to lie about people who point out the lies about his record and,

That’s it. It is pure Rovian politics.

Listen to the lies here

Notice how he lies about the aims of the protesters? Notice how he lies about his record?

He started rolling this out earlier in the month when he brazenly lied abouthis record saying that he voted with the Democrats on Iraq “more often than not.” That might have been a slip if not for less impromptu lies he allowed Maria Even to record.

My sense is that he feels (in light of his record) he has no other option than to just lie his ass off. Knowing that the Drew Volturo, Celia Cohen, and the News Journal’s Doug Williams will never ever, ever, ever call him out on his actual record – why not just say “fuck it” and lie?

The only question that now needs to be settled on election day is – Can Castle lie with impunity. He is clearly betting that he can.

Spivack makes the right call

UPDATE: Read DelDem’s take on Spivack here.

As much as I like him, bowing out is the right thing to do.

“I want to run, but I don’t think I can run if I don’t get the backing of the DCCC. I don’t have any other personal funds that I can put into the campaign. I wouldn’t want to run at half speed. You can only beat someone like the current congressman if you can run full time. I can’t rebuild my [law] practice and campaign full time and make it work,” Spivack said Friday.

Who ever ends up running against Castle owes Spivack a debt of gratitude for showing that “Mr. 70%” is beatable.

Wasn’t the war in Iraq

supposed to suck in the terrorists and kill them all over there and not over here in our own country?

Over the past six weeks the Taliban have driven government forces out of roughly half of a strategic area in southern Afghanistan that American and NATO officials declared a success story last fall in their campaign to clear out insurgents and make way for development programs, Afghan officials

So if I understand the way the Bush Administration set things up, this would be a failure of our foreign policy no?

In other War News: The Brits say “F*ck This BS!!”

The pullout came as two of Britain’s most influential generals during the Iraq war delivered scathing attacks on the Americans for their handling of the campaign after Saddam’s defeat. Major-General Tim Cross, who supervised reconstruction projects alongside his American counterparts in 2003, joined General Sir Mike Jackson [see Meteor Blades’ post], former head of the Army, in criticising the US for ignoring British advice. General Cross, a Royal Engineer, is retired but he was a hugely respected figure in the Army and had unrivalled experience in dealing with postwar nation-building. He revealed that he gave advice to Donald Rumsfeld, the former US Defence Secretary, about the size of the force needed to tackle the challenges after Saddam’s downfall, but was ignored.

According to Dr. Jim Soles, (a perfectly objective and not at all biased source) this will have no impact on Mike Castle WHAT-SO-EVER. “So stop asking me!” added the very respected and totally objective Dr. Soles.