General Assembly Post-Game Show/Pre-Game Report: Wed., June 23, 2010

The bullies were out in full force in Dover yesterday. And the ‘Honorables’ responded in less than Profiles in Courage fashion. AKA, a ‘Dog Bites Man’ story.

The armed thugs who are the NRA and the Delaware Sportsmen’s Association, aided and abetted by ‘law-abiding citizen’ John Atkins, forced their bill through the House to turn housing projects into armed camps. Take a look at the roll call to see how your representative voted. Suffice it to say that if their names were not Barbieri, Brady, J. J. Johnson, Keeley, Kowalko, Mitchell, Schooley, D. E. Williams, or D. P. Williams, then they voted the wrong way. Take a close look at the purported D’s from New Castle County who voted for this brutal joke of a bill: Carson, George, Jaques, Q. Johnson, Longhurst, Mulrooney, B. Short, Viola, and Speaker Gilligan. You might just want to let them know how you feel about their (a) ignorance and/or (b) cowardice.

Organized labor also pushed through the laughable HJR 10, which would basically enable a group of labor ‘leaders’ to create a ‘fair and unbiased’ history of organized labor curriculum to be taught in Delaware’s public schools. For those who support this: Don’t come over here and cry about Texas rewriting their textbooks in a ‘fair and impartial manner’ to herald the invaluable contributions of Newt Gingrich and Phyllis Schlafly and/or to teach Creation Science as a science. Curricula should be left to educators, not to legislators with reelection on their minds and/or union leaders with intimidation on their minds. And/or, in this case,  retiring Rep. Bill Oberle, with mischief on his mind. Just watch this become an issue in the 24th RD primary.

Some less unsavory developments took place yesterday as well. The Budget Bill was introduced. However, as near as I can tell, you can’t read it online. I tried, but only got the first page. Computer geeks? Help!

Sen. Peterson’s FOIA bill passed unanimously. I want to be Karen Peterson when I grow up. More of the Bradley package passed in each House. by now, virtually all of the bills that originated in the Senate have passed and gone to the House, and the bills that originated in the House have passed and gone to the Senate. The lone exception is HB 456, which may need to have some logistical issues ironed out. The News-Journal’s Ginger Gibson provides a progress report here. The ban on using cellphones while driving passed in the House and goes to the Governor for his signature. This is likely to be the, pardon the expression, ‘signature’ accomplishment of this General Assembly, and it’s long overdue.

And congrats to the House for unanimously passing HB 481(Kowalko), which will significantly improve, IMHO, the practice of both dentistry and dental hygiene in the State of Delaware to the benefit of those who require such services. And it’s also at least one more symbolic rejection of ‘the Delaware Way’.

It should be a very busy day in Dover on this Dog Day Afternoon. The Senate Agenda is chock full of interesting bills. A few highlights:

SB 227 renames the Georgetown State Service Center in honor of former President Pro-Tem Thurman Adams. Not 100% sure, but I believe that gays will be permitted there.

The Presidential Popular Vote bill is once again on the agenda. Legislation requiring the online posting of nursing home inspection reports by the Division of Long-Term Care Residents’ Protection will be considered. The fact that Vince Meconi and his lackey Carol Ellis resolutely refused to do this tells you all you need to know about the ‘Bulldog’s tenacity.

Senate committee highlights today:

One of the few remaining nominees for Worst Bill of the Year will be considered in the Senate Education Committee today. Sen. Venables’ (D-Mars) SB 293, co-sponsored by Rep. Gerald Brady (D-Catholic Diocese of Wilmington), would ‘require schools to notify parents of information being taught to their children relating to human sexuality issues, sexual acts, profanity, violence, drugs and/or alcohol. Such policy would ensure parent/guardian notification no less than 48 hours prior to introduction or instructional use. Such policy would afford parents or guardians the flexibility to exempt their children from any portion of said curriculum or materials through notification to the school principal.’ As churches have argued for centuries, ‘Ignorance is the best protection.’ Worked for the pedophile priests.

Uh, that’s pretty much the only Senate committee highlight for the day. The Senate Executive Committee is holding nomination hearings today and tomorrow, but, of course, no further information, i. e. names, is forthcoming from Sen. DeLuca’s office. He’s decided that you don’t have the right to know. And, if you don’t bitch about it, he’s right.

Let’s skip across the lobby to the House. And, yes, the House has an agenda, actually two, on the next-to-last Wednesday of session. Highlights:

Perfect for this Dog Day Afternoon is HB 466(George), which seeks to improve the humane handling and care of dogs.

The administrative reorganization of DNREC would be accomplished by passage of this bill. This is an administation initiative. I will leave discussion of the particulars to Tommywonk. After all you can’t have Tommy w/o the ‘Wonk’.

I’m sure there’s lots of other stuff that you’d find interesting. So peruse the agendas and comment upon them.

Just because Wednesdays will no longer be Committee Days through the end of session, House committees will still meet, as needed. And, there are some notable bills being considered today:

The House Appropriations Committee will consider HB 414(D. Short), which would provide an additional $4 million in Municipal Street Aid, to help compensate municipalities for lost funds last Fiscal Year. This has broad bipartisan support, and appears likely to pass. Just a comment on Rep. Dan Short. While I disagree with him on some of his parochial (i. e. Sussex- centric) votes, he is, IMHO, a skilled and constructive legislator. The bills he has introduced this session by and large reflect a thoughtful and serious approach to legislating. And more than a hint of what I consider the good type of populism. As someone might have written recently on this blog, ‘substance over sound bites’.

The House Energy Committee considers three laudable green initiatives, SS1/SB 119, SB 266, and SB 267. Sen. McDowell and Rep. Kowalko have found a ready and willing co-conspirator in DNREC Secretary Collin O’Mara. To quote rock critic Robert Christgau on Bruce Springsteen circa ‘Born to Run’:

He may not be God yet, but his sleeveless T-shirt is in the ring.

O’Mara has been a wonderful gift to Delaware. I only wonder how long we can keep him here. Maybe we should get him a dog.

“If there are no dogs in Heaven,

then when I die I want to go

where they went.”

Will Rogers, 1897-1935