Archive for March, 2013

Monday Daily Delawhere [3.18.13]

Filed in Delaware by Delaware Dem on March 18, 2013 • 3 Comments

Sunday Open Thread [3.17.13]

Filed in Open Thread by Delaware Dem on March 17, 2013 • 22 Comments

John Dickerson‘s Slate post, “Is Obama Setting a Trap for Republicans?” probes white house strategy in the budget negotiations. Sure, the president would like a grand bargain on the budget, and he has to try for one, knowing full-well that the Republicans could string him along for a while, then sink the negotiations at any time. In that event, Obama has the cover he needs to hang tough and reveal, once again, that the Republicans can’t govern because they won’t compromise — not a bad meme for 2014.

BREAKING: Steubenville Rape Trial Verdict – Guilty

Filed in National by pandora on March 17, 2013 • 58 Comments

Via CBS:

The accuser in the rape trial of two Ohio high school football players testified Saturday as the trial neared an end that she recalled drinking at a party last summer but could not remember what had happened when she awoke the next day naked in a strange house.

Testimony in the four-day nonjury trial against Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond ended after the judge heard from the 16-old West Virginia girl and others in the juvenile court case. Judge Thomas Lipps said he would announce a decision Sunday.

If found delinquent — the juvenile court equivalent of guilty — the two defendants could be held in juvenile jail until they turn 21, when they would be released.

(If you click on the link above, be sure to read the comments. Steubenville isn’t our only problem.)

For those of you not familiar with this case, I wrote about it here.

St. Patrick’s Day Daily Delawhere [3.17.13]

Filed in Delaware by Delaware Dem on March 17, 2013 • 1 Comment

Most Irish immigrants worked at the mills lining the Brandywine River and some tributaries. Many worked at Eleutherian Mills near Henry Clay Village, where the DuPont company produced gunpowder. One of the jobs at the powder yard was to grind the saltpeter for production, which was done with this grinding wheel.

The Polling Report [3.16.13]

Filed in National by Delaware Dem on March 16, 2013 • 5 Comments

NATIONAL–PRESIDENT–2016–Quinnipiac: Former Sec. of State Hillary Clinton (D) 45, Governor Chris Christie (R) 37; Clinton (D) 50, Representative Paul Ryan (R) 38; Clinton (D) 50, Senator Marco Rubio (R) 34

With Chris Christie the only GOP candidate polled making it a race against Clinton, it really is a shame that he has as much chance of winning the Republican nomination as I do.

NATIONAL–PRESIDENT–2016–Quinnipiac: Christie (R) 43, Vice President Joe Biden (D) 40; Biden (D) 45, Rubio (R) 38; Biden (D) 45, Ryan (R) 42

NATIONAL–MARRIAGE EQUALITY–Quinnipiac: Support for same-sex marriage is inching up and now stands at 47% to 43%, including 54% to 38% among Catholic voters.

Said pollster Peter Brown on the surprising and ironic finding about Catholics: “Catholic voters are leading American voters toward support for same-sex marriage. Among all voters, there is almost no gender gap, but a big age gap. Voters 18 to 34 years old support same sex marriage 62% to 30%; voters 35 to 54 years old are divided 48% to 45% and voters over 55 are opposed 50% to 39%.”

And we have much more on the Pennsylvania and Michigan gubernatorial races and other Senate races inside…

Saturday Open Thread [3.16.13]

Filed in Open Thread by Delaware Dem on March 16, 2013 • 0 Comments

Roll Call points out that Paul Ryan is required by law and all that is holy to get down on his knees and praise President Obama and his policies, for without him and them, his budget plan would be nothing.

Ryan’s budget eliminates the deficit in 2023 not because of large new spending cuts relative to his past budgets, but because he’s keeping hundreds of billions of dollars a year of President Barack Obama’s own budget policies in place.

Ryan’s claim to a balanced budget rests entirely on the 2010 health care law, known in GOP circles as “Obamacare.” Ryan’s budget keeps the tax revenue from the health care law, as well as its $700 billion-plus Medicare trims and other cuts. Ryan included those Medicare cuts in his previous budget blueprints but campaigned against them when he joined Mitt Romney’s GOP presidential ticket last year.

Ryan’s budget also would not balance without the $600 billion-plus increase in taxes extracted by the president in the fiscal cliff deal.

What Ryan would repeal is the $1.8 trillion in new spending on the health care law, which primarily subsidizes the purchase of private insurance. That includes $263 billion in spending on the law in 2023 alone.

The Weekly Addresses

Filed in Delaware, National by Delaware Dem on March 16, 2013 • 4 Comments

The weekly addresses from President Obama and Governor Markell (who hands it off to Secretary O’Mara this week), as well as the West Wing Week video about this past week at the White House. And we also have a video of the Governor playing a charity ping pong game. I am not sure why he is shorts and a t-shirt for a ping pong game.

Empathy, or why liberals are better than conservatives.

Filed in National by Delaware Dem on March 16, 2013 • 16 Comments

There is a saying that a liberal is a conservative who has not been mugged yet, or has not paid taxes yet. You can really adapt it to whatever policy position you want. And now we liberals can modify it once more: A conservative is a liberal who has not been affected by what he opposes yet.

Yes, I am talking about Senator Rob Portman and his announcement yesterday that 1) his son his gay, 2) and because his son is gay, he has changed his mind about gay marriage.

Saturday Daily Delawhere [3.16.13]

Filed in Delaware by Delaware Dem on March 16, 2013 • 1 Comment

Friday Open Thread [3.15.13]

Filed in Open Thread by Delaware Dem on March 15, 2013 • 36 Comments

This art installation went live last week on the San Francisco Bay Bridge between San Francisco and Oakland. This is supposed to remain up for 2 years, but I think it should be permanent.

Let’s Check in with Sheriff Jeff Christopher, shall we?

Filed in National by Delaware Dem on March 15, 2013 • 23 Comments

Sheriff Christopher really wants to be a real law enforcement officer. And yet, he wants the criminals armed with illegal weapons, I guess because Sheriff Christopher wants to be the underdog.

NRA Chooses Greg Lavelle and Ernie Lopez to Scuttle Criminal Background Checks.

Filed in National by El Somnambulo on March 15, 2013 • 15 Comments

Any doubts that the Delaware Republican Party is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Rifle Association should now be laid to rest. Former NRA Executive Director (and State Rethug Chair) John Sigler has anointed his serial bloviator and vice-chair Sen. Greg Lavelle as the person best-suited to kill mandatory criminal background checks on firearms transactions. With an assist from self-styled ‘moderate’ Sen. Ernie Lopez.

Lavelle’s tortured explanation as to what his newly-proposed legislation would do goes like this. According to the News-Journal quote, his bill:

“…doesn’t mandate background checks. It doesn’t create a registration. It allows people to make smart decisions for themselves.“

Great. Because people always make smart decisions for themselves. Especially when it comes to deadly weapons that they’re unloading for cash. And, if they don’t, they could be in trouble once the bodies are scraped off the bloody sidewalk.

Lavelle’s attempt to scuttle criminal background checks would make ‘it a crime to sell a firearm to someone prohibited from possessing guns’. Got that? It would be up to the seller to conduct a criminal background check on a prospective purchaser. (Or, perhaps, to look soulfully into their eyes.) Except, of course, any seller would not have access to any sort of data base. And Ernie Lopez, marching in lockstep, has proposed a bill to increase penalties for those who ‘knowingly’ sell firearms to someone prohibited.

Even by NRA standards, this is pathetic. Without background checks, the gun sales addressed by HB 35 would be ‘unaddressed’ by the Lavelle and Lopez proposals. After all, under their proposals, ignorance is a deliberate defense. ‘I didn’t know that this guy was a three-time loser.’ All righty then.

Let’s call this for what it is: An attempt to muddy the waters just enough to deep-six common-sense legislation.

It’s up to you to let your legislators know that you will not stand for this.

And for you Brandywine Hundred/Greenville denizens who supported Greg Lavelle and, for that matter, Ernesto Lopez last time? They’re both up for reelection in 2014.