Tuesday Open Thread [10.29.13]
So last night I attended the Delaware Democratic Party’s annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner. My thoughts:
1) Dem Party Chair John Daniello really hates the 21st Century. He hates the blogs. He hates social media. The venom that dripped off the word “blogs” as he said it was amazing. I looked across my table to a particular State Representative as he said and said “Boy does he hate me.” The Representative laughed. The point Daniello was making was that the people in that room are what is important, not blogs and Facebook or Twitter. I wonder if Daniello realized just how many bloggers and former bloggers and users of Twitter and Social Media were in that room.
2) Senator Carper needs to stop drinking caffeine around noon or so. The man spoke at warp speed and wandered around the stage with a microphone in his hand making jokes like he was Robin Williams. Too bad he wasn’t as funny as Robin Williams. Also, Tom, for the love of God, it is the DemocratIC Party. I know you just love love love your Republican friends (or should I say Republic friends), but you have been talking like them for far too long.
3) Senator Coons is excited for 2014. He is also on the Budget Conference Committee. Senator, if you want 2014 to turn out well and be exciting, the last thing you should do is cut in any way Social Security or Medicare. If you do, we Dems will stay home, and deliver another 60 seats to the GOP majority. And this time, I really don’t care if Christine O’Donnell beats you. Really, how much worse can Christine be in the Senate as compared to Ted Cruz?
4) Paul Begala does a great Bill Clinton impression. And he gave a good speech, though he said Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican candidate for Governor in Virginia that is about to lose pretty badly, is a good guy. Delaware Democrats and national Clintonista Democrats need to get away from saying Republicans like Cuccinelli are good guys who we just disagree with. If the disagreement was about tax issues, or economic policy, or even foreign policy, I suppose I could live with it. But not on matters of healthcare, personal and reproductive freedom, rape, women’s healthcare, marriage equality, discrimination, equal rights for gays and lesbians and transgender, etc. You are not a good person if you don’t want people to have access to affordable healthcare. You are not a good person if you approve of discrimination. And I could go on…
DemocratIC Party. ?!?! Jesus Christ!!
I was emphasizing the -ic at the end, for our wonderful Senator described the party as the Democrat Party last night. That is a mortal sin in my book, almost worthy of removal from office.
I know. I got that. I was pissing and moaning about Carper getting it WRONG. Tom, if you are going to be wrong on the big stuff – at least get the easy stuff right.
Dem Party Chair John Daniello really hates the 21st Century. He hates the blogs.
I’ve gotten hints of this from his office for awhile. It’s a remarkable attitude for someone who runs a Party that pretty much runs the board in this state. One thing that I’m clear about, is that the Party that is running the board can become hugely insular and way too comfy. If you want to keep running the board, then managing that insularity and comfort would be a priority — at least to me. Improvement in your offering is how you hang on to the Board — not in hunkering down and insisting on Absolute Loyalty.
I agree the republicans that oppose same sex marriage, talk about rape like its a good thing, villianize the less fortunate, and oppose healthcare for all, are not good people and should not be treated as so, good people do not do, what they want to do, to thier fellow citizens. We need to quit pretending they are!
C’mon, DelDem, we want RUMORS.
Well-founded or otherwise. Who is making noises about running for what? Was Beau there? What’s going on with him? Is Matt Denn really considering bypassing the Gov race (N-n-0000H!!)? Have they cloned Bob Venables?
Crumbs. All I’m askin’ for is crumbs…
Beau was on National Guard duty, so he was not there. Governor Markell was out of state on business. Matt Denn was there shaking every hand, so I doubt Denn is not running for something. Ohhhhh! I do have a story!
Karen Weldin Stewart massaged the neck and back of Sen. John Kowalko for an excessively long time.
Not kidding.
Infosys fined $34 million for visa fraud
CBS has the details and videos; it’s worth the read. I can’t paste in all the links, but follow the links for the previous related articles.
$34 milion on a $6B company. Remember, making this kind of shit more legal is part of “comprehensive immigration reform.”
Man oh man, I am loving the New Jersey congressional delegation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9owwg1LALxk
Rand Paul plagiarized the wikipedia entry for the movie Gattica in a speech for Ken Cuccinnelli .
Chris Coons and 39 senators sign letter opposing cuts to food stamps. Carper did not sign.
I wondered what the legislators in the room thought when they heard Daniello iterate that supporting a living wage for workers is a Democratic value.
It’s obvious why they didn’t cover this before the past election, but I’m curious as to why the lame stream media is all of a sudden focusing on the non response and subsequent cover up by Obama, the State Department and Hillary Clinton during the deadly terrorist attack on US diplomats in Libya last year.
I never knew Sarah Palin was writing under the pen name Fighting Blue Hen at our blog. What a dubious honor.
Well, I’m very glad the Chair reinterated the issue of a living wage- I believe there are only 42 legislative days in the upcoming session- this is a Blue State – and unless there is substantial legislative advancements this session in the area of economic – , living wage, economic empowerment, etc- it will come back to haunt the Party and the Democrats in Dover – There was plenty of political capital spent on social issues last year- we will see how much actual REAL capital is spent on working men and women THIS YEAR-
He was probably talking about Prevailing Wage, which is one of the few issues that state Republicans, the Chambers and the CRI types are relentless on.
Sarah Palin? Oh right, because I said “lame stream media” right?
Hey, don’t kill the messenger. It’s a fact that certain media outlets that are, for lack of a better phrase,”in the tank” for the Democratic Party are now inquiring and delving into the facts of the Libyan terrorist attack/debacle.
PS, I purposely didn’t use the word “Benghazi” because I’ve come to realize that in specific sectors of our society, certain key words automatically induce a conditioned negative response.
“Benghazi”
Republicans have no idea why 74 percent of Americans disapprove of the GOP. I can tell you Mrs. Palin, it is exactly this kind of transparently partisan bullshit.
A living wage, really? DD is holding out on us. Did you get the impression that this was a Daniello wish list item or something on the D agenda for the year?
I honestly don’t remember if Daniello talked about a living wage. His speech was mostly an “eye roll” moment for me. Shame on me for not paying attention to him after he dissed all forms of communication technology and media. LOL.
As for Mrs. Palin up thread, we know all we are ever going to know about Benghazi. There is nothing more to discover. There was no cover up. Terrorists attacked our compound. At the time, some in the CIA and the NSA and the State Department and the Defense Department and the White House thought it was connected to the protests in Cairo. And that impression lingered for a week or so until we discovered, through further investigation and intelligence, that it was a planned attack. Case fucking closed.
Yes, the compound was not adequately defended. We know that. Guess whose fault that was? The Congressional Republicans, who over the previous two years cut the State Department’s budget for embassy defense.
So, Fighting Blue Hen, go fuck yourself. How fucking dare you use a tragedy to score political points.
Damn, Pavlov was right. Ding, ding.
FBH If you read the WSJ hardly a liberal organization the stories generally agree with so called liberal media outlets. The editorial page is a different story. Blaming the media is a strategy that dates back to the Nixon administration. Calls of liberal bias disappear when the stories favor conservatives. Terms like “lame stream media” are an attempt to deflect the facts. If the facts are on your side, you can make a good argument. If not blame the messenger.
Sarah, I’m probably going to regret this but, would you care to link to a legitimate media source recently “delving” into Benghazi? And a report on some back bench Republican claiming some wild bullshit conspiracy doesn’t count.
p.washingtontimes.com/…/msnbc-chris-matthews-blasts-obama-on-beng…
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57609479/60-minutes-benghazi/
In the 60 minutes transcript I don’t see any mention of a cover up. SO your link disproves your original premise.
However, I also don’t see any reporting of the fact that AQ used the unrest in the region as cover for the attack, OR any mention of the fact that AQ’s effectiveness has been multiplied many times over by America’s domestic enemies in congress.
So, fairly sloppy reporting overall. C-
Did someone who doesn’t trust responsible media, direct us to the Washington Times the Moonie rag?
Yeah. I didn’t even bother with that one since there is no way even Mrs. Palin could be include it with among media ”in the tank” for the Democratic Party.
The comment (October 30, 2013 at 7:44 am) is just a huge ball of wingnut fail.
“Did someone who doesn’t trust responsible media, direct us to the Washington Times the Moonie rag?”
I just grabbed the first Chris Mathews video on the subject I saw.
He was inquiring as to why there was a lack of action taken to save lives.
“He was inquiring as to why there was a lack of action taken to save lives.”
I find it curious that some people want a full-blown investigation into why we weren’t protecting a supposedly secret black site, resulting in four deaths. Yet those same people have been entirely incurious about how we wallowed into a foreign invasion and occupation that cost more than 4,000 lives, not to mention $1 trillion.
It’s not that I don’t give a shit about what went wrong in Benghazi. It’s just that I think a much more expensive, monumental fuck-up that killed, literally, 1,000 times as many people, ought to take priority.
Oh, what’s that? Republicans never have to answer for anything? Oops, forget about that part. Carry on with your partisan bullshit.
Geezer, Your observation on Bengahzi dovetails with all of the GOP’s Obamacare carping. They really have no standing to press a case against this administration. Even if there was some merit in some Republican attack, they have no credibility. Everything they bring up clearly flows from rank partisanship. Hence the sub-30 approval ratings.
Daniello has worked wonders in getting the D’s in Delaware out of the basement, but his efforts to hold the “big tent party” slogan are becoming more than a little detrimental. I would complain about the lack of a DDP platform months after the convention, if the DDP ever did anything to hold Democrats accountable to it. When is it time to start the next chapter?