Archive for February, 2013

T-Gor announces “No More Pam Scotts Rule”

Filed in National by jason330 on February 21, 2013 • 21 Comments

The NJ reports…

New Castle County Executive Tom Gordon will announce “a comprehensive ethics reform package” today that he said has the sharpest focus to regain control over the government’s land-use process.

Top county officials would have to disclose more information about their and their families’ outside businesses interests, vendors would have to disclose campaign contributions and private attorneys who help author legislation would have to be identified.

I mean, yeah..but.. It wasn’t like Paul Clark’s relationship WITH HIS WIFE was undisclosed, was it? It wasn’t as if HIS WIFE’S CLIENTS were a mystery to anyone.

Thursday Open Thread [2.21.13]

Filed in Open Thread by Delaware Dem on February 21, 2013 • 10 Comments

There was this Star Trek: The Next Generation episode that had the Enterprise caught up in a stampede of these one dimensional interstellar beings who were heading towards a Quasar or a Pulsar of some such thing that would immediately destroy them, and the Enterprise. The valiant crew of the Enterprise tried throughout the episode to make these beings realize that, if they continued on their current course, they would destroyed upon collision with the Quasar thingy. And yet, in the end, it was revealed that the Quasar is the one place in the universe that these beings wanted to go, even if it meant their destruction. Much like a moth to a flame, or a bug to a bug zapper, or lemmings to a cliff, sometimes beings have instincts to force them to take an action that will result in their death.

Republicans have spent decades, generations even, ranting on and on about cutting government spending. So now matter how politically damaging the coming Sequester Cuts are going to be for these Republicans, no matter how economically damaging they are going to be for the rest of us, they don’t care. It is instinctive. The Sequester Spending Cuts are the Republican’s long dreamed of destination: massive spending cuts at last. Sure, they may complaint about the cuts in military spending, or that this is Obama’s Sequester, but if the Republicans really really wanted to avoid the sequester it is within their power to pass legistlation today repealing it. The Senate will pass that repeal and the President would sign it. So the only reason they don’t repeal it is because the Sequester is the one place in the universe where these beings we call Republicans want to be.

Republicans Love Living In Their Bubble

Filed in National by pandora on February 21, 2013 • 6 Comments

Steve Benen looks at the latest polls, and – surprise! – Americans still aren’t buying what Republicans are selling.

This poll suggests the GOP isn’t just wrong, its understanding of public attitudes is the exact opposite of reality. The public is prepared to hold Republicans responsible for this self-inflicted wound that will undermine the economy, the military, and public needs. The one thing the GOP is counting on — avoiding blame at all costs — is already failing miserably.

Indeed, looking ahead, voters were asked, “What should be the focus of steps to reduce the deficit?” A whopping 76% majority said there should be a combination of spending cuts and new revenue. Only 19% of the public — fewer than one in five — agrees with the Republicans cuts-only approach. Given the number of Americans who self-identify as members of the GOP, this suggests the Republican Party has failed to even persuade some of its own voters.

Wait, it gets even worse for Republicans (and better for Democrats).

On specific issues, the same poll found that Americans side with President Obama over the GOP on who has the better approach to reducing the deficit, who’s right on reducing gun violence, who has the better plan to deal with immigration, and by a huge margin, who’s better on the climate crisis.

What’s the good news for Republicans in these new national polls? There is no good news for Republicans in these new national polls.

Meanwhile, the Koch brothers are scratching their heads in confusion.

Budget Crisis Fatigue

Filed in National by jason330 on February 21, 2013 • 3 Comments

The worst thing in the world is about to happen. Seriously. Everybody freak out because this shit is horrible. It is beyond horrible. It is Clusterf@cktastic!! We’ll probably revert to the stone age. And it is going to happen all in a few short days. Hours…. Minutes… All the crazy preppers are about be vindicated. Your highspeed internet will be medium speed at best.

Unless…. unless… unless…

Thursday Daily Delaware [2.21.13]

Filed in Delaware by Delaware Dem on February 21, 2013 • 0 Comments

Houses on 5th Street in Quaker Hill, Wilmington.

Wednesday Open Thread [2.20.13]

Filed in Open Thread by Delaware Dem on February 20, 2013 • 33 Comments

Speaker John Boehner is doing everything he can to portray the Sequester as Obama’s idea and sole responsibility, I suppose because he knows that the affects of the massive draconian spending cuts will be felt immediately and everywhere, but that they will cost a million jobs and send the country into a recession, and thus the cuts will ultimately be politically unpopular to the point that if a candidate voted for the Budget Control Act of 2011, that candidate will be defeated in 2014, which will mean that the Democrats will retake the House (since contrary to Boehner’s revisionist history, it was mostly Republicans who voted for the BCA, including Boehner himself). Tomasky agrees:

[I]t sure isn’t going to be looking very responsible to people, as the March 1 sequestration deadline approaches, for Republicans to be going before the cameras and saying that the cuts are unfortunate but necessary medicine, or whatever formulation they come up with. They’ve wanted these spending reductions for two years. It hardly matters much who invented the mechanism for the cuts. What matters, as the Republicans will find out, is that the people don’t want them.

So Boehner is panicking, since he knows he can do nothing to prevent the Sequester because his crazy ass party won’t let him do anything. In fact his crazy ass party loves, and I mean LOVES, the cuts that are coming. Don’t believe me, listen to the crazy ass Republicans themselves:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY): “It’s pretty clear to me that the sequester is going to go into effect…Read my lips: I’m not interested in an 11th-hour negotiation.” [Washington Post, 2/12/13]

Republican Congressman Mike Pompeo (R-KS): “It’s going to be a homerun…I am very optimistic that on March 2nd, we’ll all wake up and America will have tremendous respect for what its House of Representatives led and what it’s federal government was able to accomplish.” [Politico, 2/13/13]

Republican Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis (R-WY): “Sequestration will take place…I am excited. It will be the first time since I’ve been in Congress that we really have significant cuts.” [Billings Gazette, 2/11/13]

Republican Congressman Paul Broun (R-GA): “I want to see it go into place.” [Cherokee Tribune, 2/9/13]

Republican Congressman John Shimkus (R-IL): “He [President Obama] can announce all he wants. Sequestration is coming.” [Politico, 2/5/13]

Republican Congressman Scott DesJarlais (R-TN): “Sequestration needs to happen…Bottom line, it needs to happen and that’s the deal we struck to raise the debt limit.” [Cleveland Daily Banner, 2/1/13]

Republican Congressman Steve Scalise (R-LA): “The consensus is we want the sequester numbers to come in and to finally see spending reduced in Washington.” [Dow Jones Business News, 2/8/13]

Republican Congressman Mick Mulvaney (R-SC): “We want to keep the sequester in place and take the cuts we can get.” [Dow Jones Business News, 2/8/13]

Republican Congressman Tim Huelskamp (R-KS): “The majority of the caucus agrees that at the minimum, the spending cuts we have already agreed on, must happen.” [U.S. News, 2/6/13]

Republican Congressman Tom Cole (R-OK): “We would rather see those cuts happen…I can assure you that there will not be a political blink on this. These cuts will occur.” [U.S. News, 2/6/13]

Republican Congressman Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA): “We’re willing to let it go through till they (Democrats) respond to us.” [McClatchy, 2/6/13]

Republican Congressman Jim Lankford (R-OK): “We’d rather do it another way. But if the only way it can be done is sequestration, then it has to be done.” [Politico, 2/5/13]

Republican Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH): “The only thing that’s worse than cutting national defense is not having any scheduled cuts at all.” [Roll Call, 10/12/12]

Republican Senator John Barrasso (R-WY): “Let me be very clear – and I’d say this to the president as I say it to you – these spending cuts are going to go through on March 1.” [CNN, 2/17/13]

Republican Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK): “I think sequester’s going to happen…I think people want it to happen.” [NYT, 1/31/13]

GOP’s Racist Frankenstein turns on John McCain

Filed in National by jason330 on February 20, 2013 • 7 Comments

In this case is was McCain, but it could have been any Republican speaking to any Republican audience seething with the racism that the GOP’s deep thinkers once thought they could control.

I happen to love the part at the end in which McCain impotently holds up a crucifix. What must McCain have been thinking? It keeps vampires away? I’m out of silver bullets? Oh shit?

Give WDDE the $50.00 you would have given the DL if we asked you for it

Filed in National by jason330 on February 20, 2013 • 5 Comments

Since DelawareLiberal offers you up all this wonderful snarky goodness for FREE day in and day out, take the $50.00 (or $100) you know you would give DL if we asked, and help out Delaware’s community supported public radio station.

WDDE.org/donate

Do it, and mention DelawareLiberal in the notes section.

Wednesday Daily Delaware [2.20.13]

Filed in Delaware by Delaware Dem on February 20, 2013 • 2 Comments

A skinny building on Market Street in Wilmington.

Tantrum at Tiger Beat on the Potomac

Filed in National by cassandra_m on February 19, 2013 • 9 Comments

If you don’t know that reference, that is the name that Charlie Pierce has given to the execrable Politico. And it also means that you aren’t reading Charlie Pierce on the regular, which you really must start doing. Anyway, they are having a snit about the access that the Obama Administration does not give to the White House Press Corps. This after the same Press Corps has been whinging about not being able to cover the President while he golfs with Tiger Woods. All of this without getting the irony that they are spending more energy in complaining about the President not hanging around to joke with them than they are in explaining any sequester replacement plans. Or maybe climate change policy.

Tuesday Open Thread [2.19.13]

Filed in Open Thread by Delaware Dem on February 19, 2013 • 10 Comments

Three major labor unions in Delaware, the AFL-CIO, the Delaware Building and Construction Trades Counsel and the Delaware Public Employees Council 81-AFSCME, have endorsed marriage equality and are lobbying the General Assembly to pass the bill this session.

Kavips gets all “Day After Tomorrow” on us.

So the chief achievement of Senator Tom Carper’s entire lengthy career in politics, the establishment of a National Park in Delaware, is nigh. That this is his chief achievement, and that I am still confused as to what will constitute this so-called “National Park” speaks volumes.

I Got Nothing

Filed in Delaware, National by pandora on February 19, 2013 • 9 Comments

I’ve spent a good part of the morning looking for something to write about, and I got nothing. Have I become immune to Republican crazy? There’s enough of it out there, but it’s the same old, same old. Seriously, I feel numb. I can’t even muster up outrage for all the stupid. Perhaps I’m not […]