Daily Archives: November 9, 2011

Convince Calistro

So today, a new Facebook page was put up by a grassroots movement to convince Wilmington’s Paul F. Calistro, Jr., the current Executive Director of West End Neighborhood House, to run for the Mayor of Wilmington in 2012 as a progressive alternative to the prospective candidates currently assembled. I am told that Calistro has a lot of support among he same progressive activists that supported Governor Markell in his primary race against John Carney in 2008.

To quote the as of yet unknown author of the Facebook page:

Paul Calistro is known throughout Wilmington as a strong community leader. Why? Because he gets people talking. He gets people thinking. He gets people together. His numerous accomplishments over the years as Executive Director of West End Neighborhood House speak volumes about his effectiveness and commitment to helping out his fellow citizens. Paul gets things done. He is constantly striving to meet new goals, from greening our community and making sure our streets are clean to improving the lives of our youth and supporting the endeavors of artists and small business owners.

Paul is one of the finest men I have ever known, and if he was to run for Mayor and win the office this City would continue to evolve for the better. If elected, he would inspire our city to even greater action. I want my City to be truly renowned as a place to be somebody, and I know that if Paul answers this call to service, we will all have the opportunity to be whomever we want to be–in a Wilmington that lives up to its full potential as a safe, welcoming, and livable community. […]

Paul Calistro is an inspirational force. Through the vehicles of Cornerstone West and West End Neighborhood House, he has led the revitalization of Wilmington’s West Side: through affordable housing (bringing over 100 new homeowners to our community), the Rodney Street Reservoir Community Garden (Winner at the DCH Garden Awards), and the Cool Spring Farmers Market. If what he has done for the West Side in any way parallels what he can accomplish for the entire city, Wilmington will truly become renowned as “A Place To Be Somebody”.

I don’t know much about Calistro, but I “liked” the page because I want to hear more. I am not endorsing him because how can you endorse someone who is not even running yet. But I want new and different candidates for the Mayorship of Wilmington. If you want that too, then do the same.

Personhood – The Wedge Issue that Could Swing 2012

A lot of people are cheering the defeat of the Mississippi Personhood amendment yesterday. Its defeat marked the 3rd time since 2008 that this type of amendment has gone down in flames (the other two were in Colorado).

But as Nick Baumann writes in Mother Jones, this is a grand plan by the GOP to continue fighting the culture wars.

Like the Mississippi measure, these [Congressional] bills, which are not constitutional amendments, would extend the rights of legal personhood—including equal protection under the law—to a zygote, the single cell formed when a human sperm fuses with an egg. The national measures are “designed to achieve the same end” as the Mississippi effort, says Sara Rosenbaum, a health law expert and professor at George Washington University who frequently testifies before Congress on reproductive rights issues. “The aim of the bills is to reclassify or to overturn…the fundamental constitutional fact on which Roe v. Wade rests,” she adds. Opponents of abortion rights agree with Rosenbaum’s analysis: The National Pro-Life Alliance, a group that backs all three bills, calls them “a frontal assault on Roe v. Wade” and sees them as a way of “legislatively overturning” the Supreme Court decision.

Also in Mother Jones, Kate Sheppard writes about how initiatives are being prepared for battleground states in 2012. The states being eyed are California, Oregon, Nevada, Montana, Ohio, and Florida. Obama carried all of those except for Montana in 2008. This effort is similar to the anti-equal marriage amendments that flooded the ballots in 2004 and was probably the reason Kerry lost Ohio.

I was a Kerry traveler in 2004 and spent the last week of the campaign in Columbus, OH, working the phones, going door-to-door, and working the polls on Election Day. The right-wing had geared up for battle and had people everywhere pushing Issue 1. Many of the people I spoke to on Election Day said they were coming out to vote in favor of Issue 1, which passed overwhelmingly. Voting for W was an afterthought. It had the backing of the GOP establishment (in fact, Ken Blackwell rode the success of Issue 1 to the GOP nomination for Governor in 2006).

And this is the problem with the initiative process. So-called local groups, whose funding is almost totally from outside the state, push to get these issues on the ballot, paying people to circulate petitions. I doubt that this is what those who originally championed the initiative process had in mind. You have groups like the Mormon Church bankrolling Proposition 8 in California and Personhood USA, based in Arvada, CO (Arvada is a shit hole of a suburb in the Denver area) which backed Amendment 26 in Mississippi and is pushing the initiatives for 2012. And if you had any doubt about this group’s beliefs, here’s an excerpt from their website:

What is Personhood?

Personhood is a movement working to respect the G-d-given right to life by recognizing all human beings as persons who are “created in the image of G-d” from the beginning of their biological development, without exceptions.

What is Personhood USA?

Personhood USA desires to glorify Jesus Christ in a way that creates a culture of life so that all innocent human lives are protected by love and by law.

Personhood USA serves the pro-life community by assisting local groups to initiate citizen, legislative, and political action focusing on the ultimate goal of the pro-life movement: personhood rights for all innocent humans.

We intend to build the support of at least two thirds of the states in an effort to reaffirm personhood within the U.S. Constitution.

Personhood USA opposes vigilante violence.

Personhood USA is a 501(c)(4) Christian ministry that welcomes those who believe in the G-d-given right to life.

Well, the last time we mixed politics and religion, people were burnt at the stake. We cannot allow this wedge issue to make the ballots next year. We must do whatever we can to help those in the 6 target states to fight Personhood USA in keeping these off next year’s ballot.

Wednesday Open Thread [11.9.11]

A longtime Pocomoke City, MD councilman has died from injuries sustained Tuesday in a two car crash following a round of golf. Tragic. But the kicker: Bob Hawkins was 92. So he was still in office and golfing at 92.

Apocalypse imminent: Donviti supports Obama again.

PPP for Daily Kos & SEIU:.

Q: Do you think the Republicans are intentionally stalling efforts to jump start the economy to insure that Barack Obama is not reelected or not?

Yes: 50
No: 41
Unsure: 10

Watch out George Will. You’re making some sense. Are you feverish?

“What is the candidates’ objection to Obama implementing the status-of-forces agreement that his predecessor signed in 2008? The candidates should answer three questions: How many troops would they leave in Iraq? For how long? And for what purpose? If eight years, 4,485 lives and $800 billion are not enough, how many more of each are they prepared to invest there? And spare us the conventional dodge about “listening to” the “commanders in the field.” Each candidate is aspiring to be commander in chief in a nation in which civilians set policy for officers to execute.”

A time-lapse taken from the front of the International Space Station as it orbits our planet.

Common Cause Forum Tonight on Citizens United

Common Cause of Delaware is holding a for a special forum on the future of Delaware politics tonight at 6 pm in the post-Citizens United age of secret, unlimited political spending. Will Delaware’s tradition of civility in its politics endure now that special interests can spend unlimited amounts on our elections? Is last year’s U.S. Senate race in Delaware, which set a record for money coming from out of state and for total money spent, a harbinger of things to come?

The forum will be held in the Banquet Hall at the back of the Iron Hill Brewery Restaurant on Main Street in Newark. It starts at 6 pm. Find out how Common Cause and other groups are working to make political spending in Delaware more transparent and make it easier to hold our elected officials and our political candidates accountable. Common Cause is Delaware’s nonpartisan watchdog and is working to bring together groups across the political spectrum who want to see a greater degree of transparency in our government.

RSVP: http://www.commoncause.org/DE/AnnualMeeting

Sen. Carper to “fight” for Clean Air. UPDATE

Senator Tom Carper supports the EPA’s Clean Air Good Neighbor Rule which would demand that the EPA better regulate air pollution. Senator Rand Paul hates clean air and wants to end the EPA. Senator Rand Paul has introduced Senate Joint Resolution, which disapproves of the rule and would prevent it from being enacted. Carper says he will fight for the rule…… in a debate on the Senate floor.

Pardon my French, Senator Carper, but fuck that. I fully expect you to filibuster Sen. Paul’s resolution, and I fully expect you make sure this rule never makes it to a full vote. If votes on creating American jobs are to be subject to cloture votes and blocked by your Republican friends, I expect you to return the favor.

This is the new normal, since you Senate Democrats were too cowardly to change the Senate Rules in January 2010. If you oppose a thing, you filibuster it to death. If you want to pass something, you must get 60 votes to even debate it. Make Rand Paul find 60 votes.

UPDATE from the News Journal:

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is bypassing the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and forcing a floor vote on his measure under a fast-track procedure.

Paul’s proposal will require a 51-vote majority to pass rather than the 60 votes required to overcome filibusters in the Senate. The House, which already has passed legislation to delay the EPA rule, also would have to pass the resolution.

The measure isn’t expected to pass the Senate. If it did, President Barack Obama probably would veto it.

So Carper cannot filibuster this. How convenient that Republicans get to have their resolutions fast tracked and not subject to the filibuster. Hey Democrats, how about using this fast track procedure for all of our legislation? Like creating jobs?

A Good Night

Ohio decisively rejected the evil Republican anti-worker anti-union law on Tuesday night, repealing Republican Governor John Kasich’s signature legislation in a referendum that could reverberate into 2012. Indeed, more on Ohio and 2012 in a minute. 63% of voters opted to restore bargaining rights for the state’s 350,000 unionized public employees. The margin of victory was even larger than the rout projected by several recent polls.

Mississippi rejected an anti-choice, anti-woman and anti-birth control constitutional amendment known as the “Personhood amendment,” which would have imposed the stiffest restrictions on abortion of any state. The amendment sought to define life as beginning at the point of fertilization, banned all abortions — including those to pregnancies caused by rape or incest — as well the morning-after pill. 57% of voters opposed the initiative.

Democrats also captured five of six statewide races in conservative Kentucky, including the battle for the governor’s mansion, where Democratic incumbent Steve Beshear coasted to a second term. In Arizona, Russell Pearce, the architect of the state’s fascist SB 1070, the anti-brown people law, became the first sitting senator to be recalled in the state’s history.

Maine voters approved a ballot initiative that restored same-day voter registration in Maine after the state’s teabagger fat Governor sought to take voting rights away since he took office. A Democrat won a special election for the state legislature in Iowa. A teabagger state legislator was recalled in Michigan.

Virginia seems to be the only negative spot, where Republicans took control of the State House and possibly the State Senate.

Meanwhile, as I alluded to earlier, good news regarding Ohio from the PPP poll done over the weekend:

Obama led all of his Republican opponents in the state by margins ranging from 9-17 points. After a very tough year for Democrats in Ohio in 2010, things are looking up.

Obama led Mitt Romney 50-41 on our poll. He was up 11 points on Herman Cain at 50-39, 13 on Newt Gingrich at 51-38, 14 on Ron Paul at 50-36, 14 on Michele Bachmann at 51-37 and a whooping 17 points on Rick Perry at 53-36. […]

The biggest thing Obama has going for him right now is an extremely unified Democratic base. Obama gets 88-92% of his party’s vote against the six Republican candidates. What makes that particularly notable is that his approval rating with Democratic voters is actually only 73%. But these numbers suggest that when election time comes around the party base will get around Obama whether they’re totally thrilled with him or not, and that’s a very good sign for his reelection prospects.