The C

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This brilliance is brought to you by Mat Marshall on Facebook....
BREAKING: Sen. Carper seen flashing gang signs en route to chair a Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee hearing. Carper is reported to have poured out a half-empty Colt 45 for retired Senator Joe Lieberman shortly before throwing up three fingers on each hand, representing Delaware's "Three 'C's," chicken, credit, and chemicals. Experts also note that the symbolism of the letter "C" extends to refer to Carper, Sen. Chris Coons, Congressman John Carney, and former Congressman Mike Castle, as well as Chrysler, the manufacturer of Carper's iconic minivan, seen here. Capitol Police declined to comment on the prevalence of gangs on Capitol Hill, but stress that Hill Gangs have ranged in size from Gangs of Six to Gangs of Fourteen in the past.
In reality, this photo was from Senator Carper's Facebook account, and the "gang signs" are really Carper and his staff showing that his trusty old minivan has just hit 333,000 miles, which is impressive for the state's longest traveled political prop.

Late Night Video — Unions Are Needed

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Awesome rant by this MSNBC commentator (with the cringeworthy name of) Krystal Ball. She reminds us that one of the things not touched on in President Obama's inaugural speech was the health of unions, and reminds us that the war on unions coincides with the stagnation of American wages. This video is about 1.5 minutes long:

Next Up — Immigration Reform

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This week will be very interesting on this front -- as a bipartisan group of 8 Senators will release a plan to address issues with illegal immigration today and President Obama will release a plan tomorrow in Las Vegas. This comes after an election where Hispanics decisively voted for Barack Obama and the GOP spent a great deal of time demonizing them. While fixing the undocumented immigrant problem is indeed important, keep in mind that Democrats want to solidify their relationship to Hispanics and the GOP wants to start one. This deal would cover border security, a path to citizenship for approx. 10M people, and work visas for high tech workers. From the LA Times:

Six Degress of Sissy Harris

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I am going to quote you some choice opening paragraphs in the News Journal story on the Tigani scandal today...
Wealthy Wilmington lawyer Jack Harris and his wife are among those who gave political contributions to candidates that prosecutors say were later reimbursed, a scheme that became part of a criminal case against liquor executive Christopher Tigani and now threatens to cause professional problems for Harris. [...] Harris, 42 and the co-founder of the Wilmington law firm of Berger Harris, gave the $1,200 maximum allowed by law to Carney’s campaign, according to court and election records. His wife, a du Pont family member who co-owns the upscale Peter Kate boutique in Greenville, contributed the same amount, the indictment and election records show. Sissy Harris, 41, is the cousin of Hallie Biden, the wife of Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden.
Sometimes this state is so goddamn incestuous.

Interesting.

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Governor Markell's approval rating is below water according to our very non-scientific non-random voluntary internet poll with a small sample size. Here are the results:
Do you approve or disapprove of Governor Markell's job performance? 48% Disapprove 35% Approve 17% Neutral 6% Don't know
So, take it with a grain of salt, or not. Is it conservative unhappiness over the budget, progressive unhappiness over the budget, or progressive unhappiness over the Port of Wilmington, or something else.

Essential Reading on the Deficit/Debt Issue

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Since we are to be treated to multiple staged crises by the GOP in order to dismantle entitlement programs so that there is more money to funnel to wealthy people, I thought it would be useful to collect some of the better pieces trying to assess where we (and the US Budget) really are. The coming months will be filled with more of the usual he say/she say fake objectivity from the media, who won't do much to give you any context much less any real numbers. In other words, they'll be participating in the fear factory that will be generated in order to create a better opportunity to cut back on entitlements. Several of these pieces will be longish and some will be fairly data-rich (we want that), so you might need a little time to read through them. But a good deal of the story is that we've gotten in a good deal of deficit cuts and we're pretty close to the number needed for long term sustainability. This is good ammunition for talking to our Congressional delegation who seem hell bent on helping the GOP to cut Social Security and Medicare. Because what we should be focusing on is fixing these two -- not in asking seniors to cut back. I'm sure there will be other good work coming down the pike and I'll add that to this list, but am not sure yet how to revive the thread. In the meantime, you can bookmark this as a place to find smarter journalism (or just plain wonkishness) on the budget issues.