Anne O’Malia, formerly of Fix Red Clay, has started a new blog called Delaware Children Today. Check it out! Knowing Anne, it should be interesting and provocative!
Monthly Archives: January 2010
Wednesday Open Thread
It’s Wednesday so let’s get this open thread started. What’s on your mind?
Haiti has another big aftershock, magnitude 6.1.
The most powerful aftershock yet struck Haiti on Wednesday, shaking more rubble from damaged buildings and sending screaming people running into the streets eight days after the country’s capital was devastated by an apocalyptic quake.
The magnitude-6.1 temblor was the largest of more than 40 significant aftershocks that have followed the Jan. 12 quake. The extent of additional damage or injuries was not immediately clear.
Wails of terror rose from frightened survivors as the earth shuddered at 6:03 a.m. U.S. soldiers and tent city refugees alike raced for open ground, and clouds of dust rose in the capital.
The U.S. Geological Survey said Wednesday’s quake was centered about 35 miles (60 kilometers) northwest of Port-au-Prince and 6.2 miles (9.9 kilometers) below the surface – a little further from the capital than last week’s epicenter was.
Things are still chaotic there, I heard on the radio this morning that Doctors Without Borders had a plane carrying medical supplies turned back 5 times yesterday.
Legislative Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show-Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Post-Game Wrap-Up
A complete record of yesterday’s activity is here.
The House of Representatives, with the notable exception of Rep. Earl Jaques, had no problem putting a registered lobbyist on a medical advisory board, and approved HB 3, discussed here in detail yesterday. Any member of the House is welcome to come here and explain why this is a good thing. I won’t hold my breath. This kind of casual path-of-least-resistance legislating is but a small illustration of the Delaware Way in action. Easy to rationalize, especially when one is drawn to the allure of the Delaware Way and the campaign checks it generates.
Sen. Sokola’s bill requiring fast food restaurants to prominently display nutritional information was tabled in the Senate. This generally means one, or more, of the following: (1) it’s running into more roadblocks than expected during floor debate; (2) amendments will be needed to address issues raised on the floor; and/or (3) the legislators want to go home. The bill likely will be back. It can be removed from the table at the sponsor’s request, assuming there are no objections.
As an informational point for those new to the process, you will note that two bills were ‘stricken’ yesterday at the sponsors’ request. This does not mean that the issue addressed in the bill is dead, but rather that there were likely some technical defects in the bill that were not fixable by amendment. I would expect substitute bills to be introduced.
Pre-Game Show
Governor Markell will preview his upcoming State of the State address this afternoon. The Governor’s Office promises that the address will focus on “a new economic development policy to attract and expand jobs for Delaware”. The ‘rollout’, or preview, takes place at 1:30 this afternoon. The actual address takes place tomorrow at 2 p.m. No doubt, this will be the most discussed development of the day.
For the House, it’s once again Committees R Us Day. Here is the complete list of scheduled House committee meetings. You can click on each committee listing to find the committee agenda.
Here are some of today’s items that I find interesting:
HB 310 (Schwartzkopf)-Provides for legalization of table games in Delaware. House Gaming & Parimutuels Committee.
HB 303 (Keeley)-Seeks to curtail predatory lending practices, including ‘payday loans’. House Economic Development/Banking/Insurance/Commerce Committee.
HB 300 (Bennett)-Requires state agencies to respond to FOIA requests within 10 business days. House Administration Committee.
Usual Disclaimer: Check out any and all committee meetings you find of interest because YMMV.
As is the typical House practice on Wednesdays, there will be no working of legislation on the floor today.
The Senate has both an agenda and a committee meeting schedule.
A couple more notes for newbies. Just because a body may have an agenda, that is neither a guarantee nor a promise that said agenda will be worked on a given day. Rather, it means that, the next time a body takes up legislation, it will mostly be in the order as listed on the agenda. Although there are exceptions. Aren’t there always?
Second, when you see a meeting notice for a ‘joint’ meeting, that means that both the respective House and Senate committees are meeting together. This is usually the case when someone, usually a cabinet secretary, is making a presentation.
OK, on to the Senate committee items that I find interesting:
SB 189 (McDowell)-While I’ll need Tommywonk to make sure that I haven’t screwed up yet again, I think this bill clarifies that any state obligations to pay contractors for savings realized from making buildings more energy-efficient comes directly from the savings and not from other state sources. One of the coolest features of these state sustainable/green energy initiatives is that the savings are so good that contractors are delighted to be remunerated out of cost savings. The more energy-efficient the job, the more everyone benefits. Am I right, Mr. Wonk? Senate Energy & Transit Committee.
Senate Executive Committee-Nominations from the Governor. Tsk, tsk, bad form, Sen. DeLuca. As did Uncle Thurm, the new President Pro-Tem fails to give public notice as to which nominees will be considered. There is no justification for keeping the public in the dark like this. I would hope that this would change, and that members of the Senate would demand that it change.
See ya tomorrow for State of the State Day.
Ask Dr. Liberal: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Biden
Dear Dr. Liberal,
Since Tiger Woods seems to be on the cusp of declaring himself to be a sex addict, do you think that means he would have sex with me?
Signed,
Ready for Wood(s)
Dear Ready,
Years ago we had a name for guys with Tiger’s type of sex addiction. We called it being horny. Please note that I am not disparaging actual sex addicts. I’m just saying that Tiger is probably not one. If he is addicted to anything, he is addicted to making hundreds of millions of dollars and “sex addiction” helps him return to making
hundreds of millions of dollars.
That said, I am relived that Tiger has chosen “sex addiction” as his route back to public acceptance rather than conversion to “Christianity.’ To me, crying and hugging Brit Hume while confessing his sins on Fox News seems a lot less dignified to me than crying and hugging Bob Costas while cursing his dread disease on ESPN.
So, no. Tiger Woods would not have sex with you.
Next!
Dear Dr. Liberal,
Does the Scott Brown win in Massachusetts have any impact on the Delaware Senate race. Or, to be more specific, is it more likely now that Beau Biden will sit out the Senate race this year?
Curious in Camden
Dear Curious,
Beau? I’m wondering about Joe Biden? What does he do now that the Obama Presidency is as over as Madonna’s marriage to Guy Ritchie? Does Joe run against Obama in a primary? [Aside: Just kidding. Untwist thy panties Sir Nemski.]
But seriously Curious, your question is astute. The fact is that the Democrats loss of Ted Kennedy’s seat to a nudist with Republican devil horns clearly visible under his receding hairline, spells bad news for Beau boosters.
Since Democrats stand for nothing, what could Beau’s platform possibly be? “Hi, I’m Beau Biden?” While that is enough to get elected to Delaware AG, it seems thin to me for a Senate race.
Corrections:
Since I once again have nothing from last week to correct (SUCK IT MEDIOCRITY! ), I will use this space to revise and extend my remarks on Beau Biden.
The very act of thinking about what Beau Biden might do reminds me of how much we are like Plato’s cave dweller’s when it comes to discerning political reality. We can see shadows dance against the wall and imagine that they mean something, but if ever we broke our chains and climbed into the light of day and glimpsed the actual reality of Mike Castle getting a backrub from Misty Seamans – our bafflement and gobsmackedness would cause us to suddenly melt into rancid puddles of sea water.
The Doctor is out.
Darwin Trumps You, Mr. Freshwater
Meet John Freshwater, an eighth-grade school science teacher from Ohio who likes to play loose with the facts, use the Bible as a scientific resource, and, yes, torture children with electricity.
The New York Times reports that the school district started the procedure to fire Freshwater back on June 2008 because he burned crosses into the skin of two students with a Tesla coil and taught creationism in class. Freshwater says that the creationism accusation is “fabricated” because he failed to remove a Bible from his desk. He said the Bible in question was his “workplace bible, not his devotional bible”. Freshwater’s pastor said, “If he had ‘Origin of Species’ on his desk, they would celebrate that.” If by they, he means East Coast liberals like me, then he’d be correct.
Regarding the charge of teaching creationism (aka Intelligent Design), Freshwater used Legos to illustrate how difficult it would be to randomly put them together to build a Lego car or a Lego house . . . you know, “proving” that there was a hand behind evolution guiding it through its intricacies. When cross-examined the other day, Freshwater said that he did recall the exercise and that maybe his students initiated it reported The Columbus Dispatch. The school district lawyer also played a tape recording of Freshwater appearing on a radio show back in April discussing the Lego exercise:
If you mixed up the blocks for years, the likelihood that they would become something tangible is improbable, Freshwater told the show’s host, Dr. Patrick Johnson of Rightremedy.org. He compared the blocks to human cells and said that the chances that a random combination of cells could become an eyeball are “slim to none.”
But, even after hearing his own radio interview, Freshwater could not recall the exercise.
Freshwater also passed out handouts that said that the giraffe and the woodpecker could not have possible evolved reported The Columbus Dispatch. The students were not allowed to take the handouts out of class, because Freshwater said he was conserving paper.
In another round of questioning regarding a survey in which Freshwater allegedly asked incoming students about the importance of religion in their life, Freshwater said that he had never surveyed his students reported The Columbus Dispatch. The school district lawyer then presented Freshwater with two completed student surveys.
. . . he [Freshwater] studied them closely and, after a long pause, replied, “It appears like you have gone through my room and taken some stuff out.”
Apparently so, Mr. Freshwater, apparently so.
After Freshwater is finally fired, I hope that he enjoys teaching pseudo-science at some Christian private school at half the salary.
Stars and Bars
Close to 150 years ago, the United States quelled a rebellion which cost the lives of 500,000 men and boys but which also led to the freedom of some 4,000,000 African Americans from the shackles of slavery. (Note that the number of slaves does not include the generations of African Americans who died in slavery’s grasp.) But as the years have gone by, Southern people have cried out that their illegal rebellion was one defending states’ rights, ignoring the hatred and racism that fueled their war and even their way of life, antebellum and today.
Well, some people in southern Delaware seem eager to continue propagating this outrageous lie of Southern honor in a recent celebration of Lee and Jackson reports The News Journal.
Confederate soldiers who returned to their native state [Delaware] sometimes faced hostility, and today there are many who see Confederate flags as a symbol of slavery and racism.
But members of the Delaware Grays say they’re only honoring their ancestors, men who fought for a cause in which they believed.
“We’re not here representing hatred,” Eldreth said. “That flag is a symbol of our heritage.”
Yes, that flag is a symbol of your heritage, if your heritage is slavery and racism.
Josh Marshall: It’s Meta Politics
I’m just sharing today what some pundits are saying about the Massachusetts Senate race and Obama’s path forward. Josh Marshall from Talking Points Memo weighs in:
The central problem the president is laboring under is the fact that the economy remains in a shambles. And unemployment remains at a toxic 10%. Beyond that though the Democrats are suffering because they have shown voters an image of fecklessness and inability to deliver results at a moment of great public anxiety and suffering. Big changes provoke great anxiety, especially in such a divided society. But Democrats are not just having dealing with the ideological divisions in the country — which is what the Tea Party movement is about. They’re also losing a big swathe of the population that is losing faith that the Democrats can govern, that they can even deliver on the reforms and policies they say are necessary for the national good. As I wrote earlier, this is about meta-politics. If the Democrats, either from the left or the right, walk away from reform, they will get slaughtered in November. They’ll get it from the people who want reform, from the people who never wanted reform and from sensible people all over who just think they can’t get anything done.
What the Democrats — and a lot of this is on the White House — have done is get so deep into the inside game of legislative maneuvering, this and that ‘gang’ of senators and a lot of other nonsense that they’ve let themselves out of sync with the public mood and the people’s needs.
The president needs to find way to say, we’ve heard you. We’ve gotten so focused on working the Washington channels to get this thing done and we need to be more focused on the public’s mood and urgency. Well, we’ve heard you. We’re going to stop playing around and get this thing done. And then we’re going to work on getting Americans back to work. We know the urgency of the moment and we know you expect results.
I’ve written this quickly. I would not consider it a polished version of anything the president should say. But I think the gist is right. This is the biggest testing time the president has yet faced. It could be a key turning point in his presidency. Over the next forty-eight hours the president is going to come under withering pressure to walk away from reform. It’ll come from the left and the right, and in various different flavors. It will come from shocking directions. The president is going to have to find a way to say, No. We’re doing this. He’ll need to stand down a lot of cowardly and foolish people in his own party. He’ll have to stand down the vast and formless force of establishment punditry and just say, No. We’re going to do this. And he’s going to have to make the case to the public, not necessarily convince all those who have doubts about health care reform but make clear that he thinks this is the right direction for the country and because he thinks it’s the right thing to do that he’s going to make it happen.
I hope Obama is listening to people like Joah Marshall instead of the usual media gasbags. Stopping his agenda now would be a disaster for him.
E.J. Dionne: Find Your Inner Reagan
Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne gave excellent pre-emptive advice to Democrats regarding the outcome of the Massachusetts Senate race. His advice is simply really, communicate. It seems like strange advice for a man with such great communication skills, but it is still needed. The message is just not getting through.
But the success of the conservative narrative ought to trouble liberals and the Obama administration. The president has had to “own” the economic catastrophe much earlier than he should have. Most Americans understand that the mess we are in started before Obama got to the White House. Yet many, especially political independents, are upset that the government has had to spend so much and that things have not turned around as fast as they had hoped.
It’s also striking that most conservatives, through a method that might be called the audacity of audacity, have acted as if absolutely nothing went wrong with their economic theories. They speak and act as if they had nothing to do with the large deficits they now bemoan and say we will all be saved if only we return to the very policies that should already be discredited.
The reason conservatives have gotten away with this is because the media repeats their talking points unchallenged.
Yet the truth that liberals and Obama must grapple with is that they have failed so far to dent the right’s narrative, especially among those moderates and independents with no strong commitments to either side in this fight.
The president’s supporters comfort themselves that Obama’s numbers will improve as the economy gets better. This is a form of intellectual complacency. Ronald Reagan’s numbers went down during a slump, too. But even when he was in the doldrums, Reagan was laying the groundwork for a critique of liberalism that held sway in American politics long after he left office.
The Great Recession is the culmination of the Reagan era of slashing taxes for the wealthy and lax regulation. However, his ideology still holds strong with many people. Obama and the Democrats need to forcefully sell a counter-narrative if he wants to succeed. A lot of people want change. They know they want it but they need to understand why it’s needed. Change is always harder than the status quo but history tilts towards progress.
Lessons For Democrats
The biggest lesson for Democrats in this race?
Don’t take your base for granted.
If you run on change, deliver it.
As many have been saying, it’s hard to sell the idea that we must have 60 votes if it means Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson control the outcome of every vote.
Democrats, prove you can govern. “We only have 59” is no excuse. Figure it out. Instead of these polite gentleman’s filibuster, have a real filibuster. Make ’em read the phone book.
Democrats, learn to use wedge issues. Make Republicans get up and speak against money for a jobs bill, against financial regulation and against health care for Americans. Wrap it around their necks.
For some reason, Democrats chose the hardest path. Trying bipartisanship with an opposition committed to failure and without telling the American people what was happening.
As far as health care reform goes, I’m with Josh Marshall. Working for a year on health care and then killing it is absolutely the worst option. It won’t help Blue Dogs or progressives. Pass the Senate bill and shove the rest through reconciliation. At least TRY. Show us you care about the issues.
OK, rant off.
Late Night Music Video: Dig For Fire, by The Pixies
They weren’t really fans of making music videos, so they always made sure to put in as little effort as possible. They are, however, the inspiration for nearly every band that followed them.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2dBsBW9yjY[/youtube]
are you looking for the mother lode? huh? no.
no, my child, this is not my desire.
Might As Well Start A Coakley vs. Brown Thread
I have no idea how this is going to turn out. That said, Greg Sargent finally has hard turnout numbers from the Massachusetts Secretary of State…
… and they confirm anecdotal evidence that turnout is running much higher than expected in Boston — a boon to Martha Coakley, perhaps, though who knows if it’s enough.
As of 3 PM today, 81,882 people had voted in Boston, according to Brian McNiff, the spokesman for the Secretary of State’s office. That’s more than a fifth of the city’s 358,953 registered voters.
For comparison, by the same time on election day 2006, only slightly more — 87,000 — had voted. And that was during elections for Senate, governor, and multiple lower offices. This single special election has generated nearly the same turnout as all those elections did, at least in Boston — and many think Coakley’s only chance to win is if turnout is disproportionately high there.
Make of that what you will. And I thought I’d share this info, given that all the talking heads on TV have pretty much already called it for Brown. I’d suggest caution is the best course of action… for both sides.
*Know what would make me happier than Coakley winning? Watching every one of these pundits forced to eat their words.
Tuesday Open Thread
It’s Tuesday and it’s open thread time. Let’s go!
It’s election day in Massachusetts and they’re set to send teabagging, birther and nude model Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate. Congrats, Massachusetts, that’ll really show those Democrats who’s boss! Nate Silver rates Brown as a 3:1 favorite based on poll results.
Be sure to listen to Joanne Christian discuss her experience treating Haitian earthquake victims in the Dominican Republic today on WDEL at 4:35 PM. You go Joanne!
Legislative Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show-Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010
The entire record of the previous legislative session (Thursday, January 14) can be found here.
Key legislation that was passed, most of it previously discussed here, included:
HB 202 (Rep. B. Short)-Designed to protect policyholders when a health or life insurance company is liquidated. Pretty sure that this bill was a Matt Denn proposal from his time as IC. Passed by both houses, will go to Governor.
HB 30 (Jaques)-Increases assessments on developers to reflect current school construction costs. Was sponsored primarily by the Middletown-area legislators to try to get a grip on exploding development. Passed House and goes to Senate. Vigorously opposed by homebuilders’ lobby. 13 Rethugs voted no. Here’s the roll call.
HB 294 (Bennett)-Passed the House w/o a dissenting vote, but will bear watching in the Senate. The bill basically eliminates some elective row office jobs in Kent County and transfers the functions to the Kent County Department of Finance. Good government bill, eliminates some political hackery in county government. So why, El Somnambulo, does this bill bear watching in the Senate?
Glad’ja asked. Because Her Royal High Potentate Nancy Cook has decreed this bill as anathema to building a career for up-and-coming political talent, and she still throws her not insubstantial avoirdupois around in the Senate. It will be interesting to see what committee is assigned this bill. As to her argument about political talent, I have two words for her: Mike and Kozakowski. I rest my case.
The Session Report for January 14 also lists some newly-introduced bills. I will not generally discuss them here as I usually leave that for my committee meeting previews and wrapups.
Today’s Preview:
Not many bills on the agenda, but a few interesting ones, including a seemingly-innocuous bill that, in fact, is a window into the Delaware Way:
Only bill on the agenda is nevertheless an intriguing one:
SB 81 (Sokola)-Would require chain restaurants to provide labels with complete and accurate nutritional information. There would also be an educational outreach by the Division of Public Health on obesity.
While I admire the intent of this bill, (a) the cynic in me believes that people who go to fast food places already know that the food is laden with all kinds of bad things, and they don’t care; and (b) if you’re gonna do this, why limit it to fast food places? I love Italian food, but I’ve always got a cardiologist on speed-dial when I go to an Italian restaurant. Should make for an interesting floor debate.
Now, kids, sidle up closer to your computer screen as I e-whisper you some nasty facts about the Delaware Way. But, first, I’ve got an audience participation assignment for you. Read this bill, which is on today’s House Agenda:
HB 3 (Hudson)-Would add a representative from the Delaware Health Care Facilities Association to the Hospital Infection Advisory Board.
First, here is the section of the Code delineating the current members of this Board:
(c)(1) The Secretary of the Department shall appoint an Advisory Committee, which shall include 1 infection control professional who has responsibility for infection control programs from each hospital or health care system in Delaware, 4 infection disease physicians with expertise in infection control, and 1 representative from the State Division of Public Health and the Public Health Hospital Infections Specialist responsible for collating and reporting data. The Secretary shall also appoint 7 other members of the Committee including representatives from direct care nursing staff, academic researchers, consumer organizations, health insurers, health maintenance organizations, organized labor and purchasers of health insurance, such as employers. The Advisory Committee shall have the authority to engage personnel with appropriate training and/or certification in infection prevention and control for the purposes of collecting data.
To that list of 7, this bill would add a lobbyist. The Delaware Health Care Facilities Association primarily lobbies for the nursing home industry. Its Executive Director, Yrene Waldron, led the fight on behalf of the nursing home industry to thwart nursing home reform in Delaware. With Vince Meconi as Secretary of DHSS, she largely succeeded. Nursing homes are notorious for doing a poor job with infections. When they get bad enough, the patients are sent to the Emergency Room where the blame game between hospitals and nursing homes as to who was responsible, ensues. And, DHCFA’s director has led the fight to keep accurate nursing home infection information from the public.
While it may indeed make sense to have a front-line nursing home provider on this board, the public is in no way served by having a hired lobbyist on this board, especially one who has proven hostile to even the most minimal of reform efforts.
We hear talk all the time about ‘special interest’ legislation. Generally, by Rethugs who call anything helping the poor or working families as benefiting the special interests. However, HB 3 is true special interest legislation. If they are serious about changing the Delaware Way, the House of Representatives will shoot this worthless, and possibly damaging, piece of legislation down today.
Back tomorrow, with bold opinions and boldface in tow.