Daily Archives: November 22, 2011

Only Fools and Clowns Believe Republican Ideology

Have mercy, there is one MORE, Republican debate tonite! I’m pretty sure that most of Delaware Liberal’s readers will be getting their houses ready for Thanksgiving dinner, baking pies, taste testing the wines, picking the activities to keep the kids busy on the drive to Grandma’s or in Zumba class and therefore too busy to watch the carnage. If you happen to be watching (I hope after successful taste tests of the wine!), use this thread to comment on the train wreck. But to get you in the mood, Paul Krugman tells you everything you need to know about the current form of the GOP —

Key points:

“I have a structural hypothesis here,” Krugman told ABC’s Christiane Amanpour Sunday. “You have a Republican ideology, which Mitt Romney obviously doesn’t believe in. He just oozes insincerity, that’s just so obvious. But all of the others are fools and clowns. And there is a question here, my hypothesis is that maybe this is an ideology that only fools and clowns can believe in. And that’s the Republican problem.”

Peggy Noonan (are you kidding?) defends Newtie and gets her butt handed back to her:

“We need a little on the pro-Newt side balance,” she remarked. “The base of the Republican Party knows that the establishment of the Republican Party doesn’t like Newt. That’s a big plus.”

“It was his time,” Krugman explained. “The Republican base does not want Romney and they keep on looking for an alternative. And Newt, although — somebody said, ‘He’s a stupid man’s idea of what a smart person sounds like.’ But he is more plausible than the other guys they’ve been pushing up.”

In other Gingrich news, there is some Christian group passing out flyers in Iowa questioning Newtie’s character via the number of marriages he has had.

Tuesday Open Thread [11.22.11]

Remember the NY-based foreclosure mill who had the Halloween Party where they dressed up to mock poor and homeless people? Well, they are closing their doors. Hold your schadenfreude long enough to get a load of who they are blaming for their closure — the reporter who published the story about their stupid party. Yes, it is GOP play No.1 — Be Victimized By Something Other Than Your Own Actions. How about some personal responsibility here? Or better — how about acknowledging that this is how free markets work? Your customers are sorta likely to change lawyers if you turn out to be a douchebag. But hey, it’s Tiny Violins Tuesday.

Jack Abramoff is calling out Newtie Gingrich for his “consulting” (nudge nudge, wink wink) for Fannie and Freddie:

Noting that Gingrich — who now claims to be a Washington outsider — is one of the many who “use their public service and their access to make money,” Abramoff told NBC host David Gregory that Gingrich is “engaging in the exact kind of corruption that America disdains.” When Gregory noted that that corruption is a “heavy charge,” Abramoff insisted that “it is corruption.”

I’m thinking that you’re definitely in trouble when Jack Abramoff says you’re in his club, right?

This company is trying to kill credit cards. Dwolla has a neat model that has been attracting a decent bit of venture capital. And the key thing here? Not *wanting* to make a killing. Basically, they are in the business of moving money from your account to a merchant’s account — no credit cards in the middle — and are currently charging .25/transaction to do it. A thing to watch, especially since they are pissing off credit card companies.

The Pepper-Spraying Cop has a tumblr page, with lots of crowd-sourced images of the pepper-spraying cop cracking down on famous scenes from history. Then there’s this:

Sussex County Smackdown – Round 3

Welcome to the latest episode of the feud between Sussex County Sheriff Jeff Christopher and the County Council. In today’s installment, Christopher has been ordered to stop all of his illegal actions.

County Administrator David B. Baker has ordered the sheriff to stop those activities immediately and warned that continuing them will be treated as insubordination on the part of his deputies.

If you recall, I posted a piece about these illegal activities back on October 5. Yeah, we broke the story that the News Journal finally caught up to.

So what has the sheriff and his chief deputy, Dennis Lineweaver, been doing?

Sussex County Sheriff Jeff Christopher has ordered his deputies to round up wanted criminals and make traffic stops and has formed a volunteer “posse,” county officials say.

» Deputies have been ordered by Christopher to stop vehicles for speeding, reckless driving or DUI, and to research outstanding warrants and take wanted people into custody.

» Christopher has named a volunteer “sheriff’s posse” and appointed special deputies, who all wear uniforms.

» Deputies have participated in public meetings and events in uniform and provided security and crowd control at events.

The public meetings have been either Sussex County GOP meetings or meetings of the 9/12 “Patriots.” Yeah, nothing political there. And it was Lineweaver who pulled over the motorist I referred to in my October 5th post.

Christopher, saying he was “perplexed over why County Council was setting policy and procedures for his” office, did not deny the accusations.

He neither responded to nor disputed the specific issues raised by Baker. “I believe that there is so much more the Sheriff’s Office can do for the people here,” his statement read. “Wondering why we elect and trust a person to run the office if that person has no discretion to make these decisions.

I’m not a toy sheriff.”

Not a toy, but an elected official who is out of control. Jeff, where is the money coming from to fund this posse and these special deputies? Who’s paying for their uniforms? Who’s paying for the pre-screening drug testing and background checks?

Seeing that Sheriff Christopher has been running a rogue operation out of his office, I call on Speaker Bob Gilligan and House Majority Leader Pete Schwartzkopf to immediately begin impeachment procedures against Sheriff Jeff Christopher for violating his oath of office, violating the Delaware Code, and violating the Constitution of the State of Delaware. The people of Sussex County deserve a sheriff that understands and obeys the law.