Weekend Open Thread
Welcome to the weekend edition of your open thread. It looks like we’ll have some nice weather on this last weekend before school starts. Yes, I’m dreading the return of school traffic on Monday. Enjoy this last weekend of freedom!
Have you been following this story out of New Jersey? New Jersey just missed out on the Race to the Top education money ($400M for the state). There was one clerical error that was enough to put them out of the money. Chris Christie blamed his Education Commissioner Brent Schundler, but Schundler has emails proving Christie is a liar:
Former New Jersey Education Commissioner Bret Schundler, who was fired today by Gov. Chris Christie (R) amid accusations that he’d lied to the governor about an error in the state’s application for federal Race to the Top money, is now saying that he did not mislead the governor at all.
The state lost out on $400 million in funds as a result of an error in its application, which provided budget numbers for the wrong years, causing New Jersey to lose enough points to miss out on the money. On Wednesday, Christie held a press conference in which he strongly blamed the Obama administration for the loss of federal funding, saying that Schundler had tried to fix an error in the state’s application during his presentation to federal education officials, but they would not let him.
Then on Thursday, the federal Education Department released a video of the presentation itself, showing the officials pointing out the error to Schundler, who was unable to correct it. As a result, Schundler was fired for seemingly misleading the administration about what had happened.
But now he says he did not mislead them at all.
Schundler showed the AP several emails supporting his story -and that Christie knew this all along. Schundler’s is also claiming that Christie fired him so that Schundler could collect unemployment benefits. I’m really not sure what’s going on here but Schundler and Christie appear to have a real feud. Pass the popcorn!
I don’t know how many you are fans of P.Z. Myers. He had a recent cardiac scare and had several stents put in his heart. He should be fine a few weeks and he’s doing a real public service right now, discussing his symptoms and his decision to get a check-up:
This whole hospitalization mess started a few weeks ago, when I was on my daily walk, and I’d gone a little farther and longer than I usually do. I was on my way home, and I felt a dull ache in my chest — nothing severe, nothing acute, just a soreness that spread into my left arm. And I stopped on the sidewalk, and looked ahead, where I was only a couple of blocks from home, and I looked to my right, where the hospital was located only a couple of blocks away. And the ache immediately receded, and I had a little internal debate between the nice angel on my left shoulder, and the dickish devil on my right.
And the angel said, “Oh, look, it’s just a little soreness and it’s going away already. Go home, have a cup of tea, lie down for a bit, and then you can get back to work, no worries. You’ll feel fine.”
And the devil replied with the potent one-two punch of reason and abuse: “You teach human physiology, you moron — you know this is one of the warning signs of heart disease. You’d have to be incredibly stupid to ignore this and hope it goes away…until a heart attack comes along to blow your heart up. Jerk. This isn’t even a choice.”
I thought about it a bit and realized that the remote prospect of dying (it was a very mild ache, and I had no feeling of imminent doom) was nowhere near as persuasive as the thought that I’d feel like an idiot if the iron spike of an infarct did nail my left ventricle at some time in the future, and I’d neglected a portent and hadn’t done the best thing for my health. So I turned right, even though I also felt a bit of a whiner for showing up at a hospital with such a small complaint.
They don’t call heart disease the silent killer for nothing. You can go many years without suffering from symptoms. My dad had a similar incident to P.Z.’s about a decade ago – same symptoms. He decided to get checked out and ended up having quintuple-bypass surgery. As I tell my friends – don’t be a health care martyr!
Tags: Open Thread
The Delaware GOP just called COD a liar, according to Jud Bennett. He forwarded this statement from the party —
Why is Christine O’Donnell Lying to Delaware?
O’Donnell Avoids Local Press While Campaigning at Non-Political Rally in Washington
WILMINGTON – As Christine O’Donnell makes her way around the Glenn Beck rally in Washington this weekend, she continues to seek out national press coverage with whom she has a history of spinning half truths and lies. As Politico reported yesterday, O’Donnell is planning to shoot a political ad for her campaign at the “Restoring Honor” rally at the Lincoln Memorial, while the stated purpose of the rally is to honor America’s troops.
Back in Delaware, O’Donnell has been cited repeatedly lying to voters and manipulating her own political history. Recently, O’Donnell has claimed that she won two out of three counties in Delaware in her 2008 race against then-Senator Joe Biden. Election results show that Biden won overwhelmingly against O’Donnell and that she did not win any counties in the state of Delaware. In addition to this blatant spin on reality, O’Donnell yesterday told Politico that she had not sought the endorsement of the Constitution Party of Delaware. But last week, The News Journal reported that O’Donnell had pushed to be on the November ballot for the election, quoting Constitution Party Chairman Pell Sherman.
“O’Donnell is hoping that voters have a short-term memory and ignore her record in Delaware,” said Tom Ross, Delaware GOP Chairman. “Sadly, Christine continues to avoid the tough questions and will spin her own reality with the hope that the national press won’t catch on.” He went on to note how O’Donnell is seldom seen in Delaware and never misses an opportunity to seek endorsements and coverage outside the state.
Her campaign appears to be getting desperate as the Republican primary is only two weeks away. The most recent Rasmussen poll has shown her support drop by five points in only a month to 36 percent – robbing her of the talking point that she would beat Democrat Chris Coons in November.
Sorry, double post. Didn’t think that was possible with this software.
On that Schundler thing — most of the stories I’d read claimed that Schundler asked Christie for the firing, so that he could collect unemployment. Wonder when someone calls *him* lazy?
But here’s a crazy story — Convicted right wing domestic terrorist is suing the government for better food. So apparently there are government services they DO want…..
So let me get this straight – Christie fires Schundler for NOT getting Federal school money? I thought that was a Tenth Amendment violation or something. Where do the teabaggers stand on this?
Republicans keep saying government doesn’t work, and they keep proving it.
Big waves and beer fu%# politics. “Be seeing you.”
If you’re FIRED you must FIGHT to get unemployment benefits.You don’t qualify as one would for being “laid off”.
It must be nice for the high flying posters here who are ignorant of that fact,to breathe the rarefied air of those lucky enough to have never suffered this indignity.
The News Journal’s Jeff Montgomery has a fantastic story detailing the clusterf*cks with the Indian River Inlet Bridge problems:
The flaws extend up to 10 1/2 inches into the surface. They were discovered in 82-by-106-foot slabs on either side of the inlet when workers noticed uneven patterns of drying rainwater, formed by extra moisture trapped in the tiny gaps. Investigators cut samples of concrete from various spots around the deck to gauge the problem.
—-> Alas, the story never explains exactly what the basic problem is. Did some contractor use shoddy, substandard concrete?
“I’d like to say that we had no issues,” said Jay Erwin Jr., project engineer for Skanska USA, “but things do happen.”
…
“If we didn’t address it, it could have durability or long-evity consequences,” Erwin said.
—-> Is that what you call a bridge collapsing? Nice.
Questions about settling rates of the bridge and support pylons continue to surface, [DelDOT engineer Douglass] Robb said. “I’m a little surprised by the response and the reaction,” he said.
—-> Surprised? Really? You stupid idiot. People are really worried about whether DelDOT is competent enough to build this damn bridge after the major problems so far. Those of us in Sussex County rely on this bridge daily. I know it’s not as important to you jackholes in Wilmington whose southern journeys only go as far as Rehoboth in the summer, but it’s pretty damn crucial to our economy. And you guys can’t build it right!
Full story is here: http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100829/NEWS02/8290369/Troubles-pile-up-for-inlet-bridge
Ron Williams’ column actually has an interesting bit of gossip in it today.
One of those not-so-rare Delaware political moments occurred recently at the viewing for Corrections Commissioner Carl Danberg’s father near Newark.
It was also the same night as the viewing for former Gov. Sherman Tribbitt, which was in Odessa.
The vice president of the United States was at the Danberg affair, standing in line.
A member of the funeral party asked Joe Biden if he would like to be escorted to the front of the line to avoid the 90-minute wait. Mr. Biden graciously refused the offer.
But then Delaware’s senior senator, who took over that title from Biden, was asked and immediately went to the front of the line. Sen. Tom Carper presumably got to the Tribbitt viewing before Biden.
Biden: Classy.
Carper: ?
He also has some stuff about Velda.
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100829/OPINION05/8290317/Races-for-treasurer-sheriff-put-an-interesting-spin-on-election-season
…. aaaaaand it looks like the News Journal completely ignored the local Democratic Jamboree, while blowing out coverage of the national Tea Party shindig a few hours away. Great sense of priorities.
So, did everyone have fun on the canvass? How are we doing?
Delaware gets some AP press. Carney is a “bright spot” for Dems:
No mention of Coons, even though Castle also has a far right challenger (but so far Castle isn’t taking the bait, unlike Rollins).
Urq/Rollins gets a mention, but not O’Donnell.
Carney:
I guess he is striking the right note here, but where does that leave him on banking regulation?
I agree Carney struck the right note given the mood of the electorate this year. It is a generic statement anyway. If you asked even Senator Durbin the same question he would say he would oppose Obama too when he believed Obama is wrong. However, a meaningless generic statement like that helps a candidate with independent voters so Carney was wise to make it.
Received a “research” call earlier today–interviewer asked the usual “are you a registered voter—the age/sex demographic….and then…a new one….”do you read or post regularly to any political blogs?”. Interview over…with a “thank you very much”. How about that? Guess they prefer to talk to mushrooms–but which party? They never asked my affiliation, prior to the hurried ending of discovering a blogging groupie.
Joanne, nice to have BBQ’d with you last Saturday at D’Viti’s. Did you get my email?
That’s really interesting, Joanne. Were they just trying to find out how many people reads blogs? I’d love to see those numbers. I suspect it’s rather small.
Nancy–I’ve been home all of 16 hours from situating child #3 in college out West. I have yet to see e-mail–my focus is laundry right now–and tomorrow I re-entry to work, e-mail, and the “business” to do list. I’m not a social e-mailer, so tend to handle most e-mail only at work. Sorry!! I’ll get to it!!! And not to worry–I have not forgotten my “September” calendar!!!! 🙂
That’s just it UI–it was such a “quick” exit when I said I do read/comment on blogs–that I think I went to their “exit” script of the interview–as if they did not want to talk to bloggers (one of the other questions was if I or a member of my family was involved/employed in advertising, media, or journalism). Again, I think it probably WOULD have been some push poll for some issue or candidate who wasn’t at least minimally aware of our country’s political scene–and those were the screening questions. It makes all these “other” polls now rather suspect now to me heh?
Yes, that’s interesting Joanne. We’ll have to watch poll releases for Delaware in the next week or so.