Which is the greater burden on our society, an unwanted child or an abortion?

McCain will just bore our enemies into unconsciousness.  

Wow, that was the worst acceptance speech given by a nominee in my memory.  People say it was the worst since Jimmy Carter in 1980.  Well, I don’t remember that speech since I was only 4 years old.  But I will go with that. 

Here are some reactions:

Joe Klein: “More a valedictory than an acceptance speech — more the end of a career than the beginning of a presidency.”

Andrew Sullivan: “Quite a deflation after the drama of last night with the sportscaster-governor. It made me realize how much I am still fond of this guy. And also clearer about why this is not his moment. The specifics were very vague, and the entire presentation based on biography, nostalgia and a kind of strained, exhausted mildness. His performance at Saddleback was much, much better. He seemed very tired to me.”

Jonathan Martin: “McCain hit all his message targets, eschewing partisan red meat to cast himself as a man who will work across party lines to reform a broken capital. But his delivery, especially in the first portion when he was discussing policy issues, was uninspired and did little to captivate the audience.”

Michael Crowley: “…this is a very underwhelming speech. Familiar points explained in pedestrian terms. No overarching themes–right now it’s sounding like a State of the Union laundry list. Even the crowd in the hall isn’t jazzed. This is the sort of reception Tom Ridge got.”

David Corn: “He offered an unexciting mix of GOP orthodoxy and declarations of personal maverickness–which was capped by yet one more long and detailed recounting of his POW days of forty years ago. Enough already.” 

John McCain was not specific in the least last night, a charge he often levels at Obama, who was specific about the details of the change he would bring to Washington in his speech last week.  Thus, McCain’s embrace of the “change” mantle is hallow and false.   And it was obvious for all to see.  What change would he bring?   It seems to me that McCain’s change would be reaching across the partisan divide to enact a radical right agenda.   Uh, that is not change.  We have done that for eight long years.   

Indeed, Bush also promised to be a change agent.  Bush promised to work across the aisle.  He promised to be a uniter, and not a divider.    And what did we get: the most right wing conservative Presidency in the history of the United States.  Yes, even more conservative than Reagan’s. 

And McCain is promising exactly the same thing, especially now that he has Sarah Fucking Palin as his running mate.   Indeed, all McCain brings to the table is an empty vassal.   A McCain presidency seems to be mostly about his character and his experience as a POW.   The policy specifics will be filled in by a radical reich Vice President. 

Jesus Christ, doesn’t that sound familiar? 

Last night I attended the public meeting in Odessa to discuss “Workforce Housing” plans for the Vance Neck Rd. area.  Workforce Housing is a concept that encourages builders to create affordable housing, by waiving fees and loosening regulations and increasing density.  The ordinance that enabled this process was approved by New Castle County Council on Feb. 26th of this year.

What it has allowed developers to do is resubmit plans for developments already on the books, and double the density of the land.  All of this with almost no further review by the county or any other entity.  No additional reviews are required by DNREC for storm water.  No additional reviews are required by DelDOT to assess whether or not the roads can support the additional traffic. No one checks with the school district to see what capacity problems this might cause.  And any of these things that need to be done after the fact, will be borne by the state, county and school district, not the developer.

This is a huge win for developers.  The housing market has tanked.  They can no longer sell their $450,000 McMansions, so they can save money on fees, open space requirements, infrastructure reviews and sell twice as many homes at half the cost.  What we really are doing is bailing out speculators.  They bought the land hoping to sell it at a tidy profit, but when the market went south they needed a better way to off-load this land.

There were some pretty frustrated people at the meeting last night.  To his credit, Penrose Hollins showed up, since he was the sponsor of the Workforce Housing ordinance.  Unfortunately, he essentially accused the people at the meeting of never showing up at the County meetings and voicing their opinions.  At some point in his speech last night, he realized that he wasn’t going to convince anyone in that room of anything and he handed the mic back and walked out of the room.  Stupidly, he went out the main entrance and ended up getting into a bunch of small verbal confrontations with the people in the overflow area.  He ended up having to call the police to come ensure his safety.

I’ll have more on this later, but here’s what you can do today.  Call Chris Coons.  Call him this morning.  Call him now.  Ask him to put a hold on all workforce housing projects until County Council meets to address the issues of southern NCC.  His number is (302) 395-5101.  There needs to be some planning around workforce housing and there hasn’t been any.

how bout them phils