Around the Horn Friday

It has been a busy week in the Delaware blogosphere. For this post, I have a few criteria. For example, I do not include in this roundup any post that is not about local or Delaware politics. With that very restrictive criteria, I was still left with 89 posts from you very prolific writers. And it is not surprising, since the General Assembly is at the height of its legislative calendar, trying to get everything finished before June 30 (and of course, at least with respect to the budget, they are going to fail in that regard).

BEST POSTS OF THE WEEK

Dana Garrett reveals corruption and/or incompetence within the Violent Crimes Compensation Board. You will be absolutely disgusted. All these bastards and bitches on the Board must be fired immediately and investigated for fraud.

Brian Shields has a great idea! Think about it. We are all familiar with the Constitution of the United States, but how many of us have read the Constitution of the State of Delaware? I have, because I had to when studying for the Delaware Bar Exam (which I failed, which probably means I should read the Constitution again).

THE BUDGET
David Anderson reacts to the final Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Committee (DEFAC) Revenue Projections.

Resolute Determination blames Sen. Sokola for bloat in the Department of Education budget. Apparently Charlies thinks Sokola can travel through time. And he of course thinks that Republican Senator Bonini has the right budget plan.

Steve Newton on the alleged hypocrisy of Sen. Nancy Cook.

David Anderson on the Budget Crisis.

Dave Burris on the Budget Crisis.

RSmitty likes that both Cathcart and Markell are standing their ground in the budget showdown. I personally believe Cathcart is just like his national counterparts: the Party of No.

Brian Shields doesn’t like the alleged “slippery slope” that the Bottle Bill represents.

Brian also covers the Sussex County Budget Process. And in paying attention, he sees the Council lying about raising taxes (they say they didn’t when they did).
Brian calls the fact that the proposed 8% pay cut being reduced to 2.5% a Bamboozlement. I call it negotiation and the budget process. It is going on in the Healthcare Reform debate in Washington right now. You discuss the really horrible options so that other options become more palatable.

MJ had the same reaction I had to HB 99 and the General Assemblies’ legislative priorities.

Kavips looks at Michigan’s approach to balancing the budget in comparison to Delaware.

KAVIPS V. WALGREENS

It seems Happy Harry’s has a history of screwing over Delaware.

Who knew that the pharmaceutical business was just like the oil business.
The Free Market at work: Rite Aid is offering $25 discounts for prescriptions transferred from Walgreens.

HB 1 – OPEN GOVERNMENT
Matthews covers the signing ceremony. By the way, Matthews, at the end of the month, will shudder his blog and go to exclusively on Twitter. As annoying as Mike can be sometimes, his liveblogs are always excellent and he needs to keep the blog up and running if only to serve as an archive of his past, present and future liveblogs. Liveblogging on Twitter is fun, but, if I were to offer him advice, I would copy his livetweets on Twitter and paste them at Down With Absolutes. But that is just me.

Burris has a post up on the signing of the bill by Governor Markell. First, he was a little bitter about the alleged non-invitation of Republicans to the event. Indeed, he called it classless. When it was proved to him that everyone was invited, including Republicans, it was revealed that the Republicans were the ones who were classless by not showing up. But Burris is right about the Governor not signing the bill until the last possible moment, thus keeping secret the JFC’s initial deliberations.

KILROY DESERVES HIS OWN CATEGORY
Change in Delaware Charter School Laws coming?
Red Clay is Ass Backwards

He puts Red Clay on Notice. He also thinks our state legislators are clueless as to federal laws governing federally funded programs and the superintendent doesn’t care about those laws.
He loves HB 223 but hates HB 139, even after it was amended.
He writes a letter to the Red Clay School Board concerning Teach For America.
He thinks TFA is a bandaid that will not help us resolve the long term problem of bringing more new teachers to Delaware.
He has thoughts on Delaware Healthcare.
He suggests a rewrite to Sen. Sokola’s SB 151 and he announces his opposition to HB 139, which would allow parents who earn too much to qualify for SCHIP to purchase into the program to gain additional coverage for their kids.
He has a checklist on how to repair Delaware’s public education.
After the Red Clay Board meeting, Kilroy offers his thoughts to the conclusion to the L’Affair de TFA.
And with the election of the new school board and the new superintendent being installed, Kilroy shockingly bids us farewell…..or does he?

HB 5 / SB 121 – ANTI-DISCRIMINATION BILL (SEXUAL ORIENTATION)
Matthews livetweets the committee hearing.
Kavips reacts: Backwards Sussex Countians have lost their war.

MISC.
The Great Tommywonk reports on the Energy Bills heading to a vote in Dover and those that have already been passed.
Kavips updates his Kavipsian Theory of Economics.
Mike Matthews takes us down memory lane concerning New Castle County Council President Paul Clark.
Brian Shields goes to a meeting of the SCCOR and finds that they are not evil anti-American right wing extremist terrorists. They may be crazy, but at least they’re not planning a violent overthrow of the government. Whew.
WHYY ends the “Delaware Tonight” program.
Joanne Christian on HB117
I think this might be the last Mike Matthews Live Blog evar. He will still livetweet. But this post on the Red Clay school board meeting may be the last real live blog.
Nancy somehow thinks I was giving cover to Sen. Carper when I said he had not revealed his thinking on the public option in healthcare reform. I actually didn’t know, but to Nancy, that is a conspiracy where I shill for a Democrat. Nancy has Carper’s past statements on the public option. Kavips has more on who stands with the people and who stands with the insurance company.