Wednesday Morning Temporary Open Thread

Maybe we have something to chat about other than Chipman Flowers? GOP shot caller and DC assignment desk editor, Matt Drudge, says that today is a sad day for conservatives: "McAuliffe, De Blasio and Christie: Triple feature in a Republican's nightmare. Hug a conservative today." I'm not so sure. Christie is a conservative with the ability to trick the media into thinking that he is not a conservative - eg THE WORST KIND! McAuliffe only wounded conservatism in Virginia, so that zombie will be shambling around doing some damage, and New York is liberal, so it should have a liberal Mayor.
At War With The Surveillance State: Electronic Frontier Foundation

At War With The Surveillance State: Electronic Frontier Foundation

NSA overreach revelations just keep coming and yet Sen. Feinstein's Intelligence Committee, created to provide oversight to protect our privacy rights are trying to expand the reach of surveillance and data collection by our government. Google's CEO's critique in the last days is an example, as the surveillance net entraps our data held by his company.
Monday Open Thread [11.4.13]

Monday Open Thread [11.4.13]

Rand Paul has a Joe Biden problem. Last week, he was busted by Rachel Maddow for plagiarizing a Wikipedia entry for the movie Gattaca, then busted by BuzzFeed's Andrew Kaczynski both for plagiarizing a Wikipedia entry for the movie Stand and Deliver and for plagiarizing a Heritage Foundation study in his book Government Bullies. The man is a serial plagiarizer. Instead of being concrite and apologetic, Paul on Sunday threatened to murder any one who dared question or criticize him. Seriously.
“I take it as an insult, and I will not lie down and say people can call me dishonest, misleading or misrepresenting,” he said, dismissing his critics as “hacks and haters.” Presumably in jest, Mr. Paul added: “If dueling were legal in Kentucky, if they keep it up, it’d be a duel challenge.”
I do not give Mr. Paul the benefit of the doubt, so I am not going to presume he was kidding. I am going to presume that Mr. Paul would challenge Mr. Kaczynski and Ms. Maddow to a duel, if such were legal, where he would attempt to shoot both of them before they shot him. That is his response to being caught in the act. He wants to murder them.
Sunday Open Thread [11.3.13]

Sunday Open Thread [11.3.13]

Jonathan Cohn finds the Republian criticism this week about the 3% of health insurance policies being cancelled (so that the insured could be enrolled in better policies that comply with the law) very disingenuous, and hypocritical.
With Obamacare, a small number of people lose their current insurance but they end up with alternative, typically stronger coverage. Under the plans Republicans have endorsed, a larger number of people would lose their current insurance, as people migrated to a more volatile and less secure marketplace. Under Obamacare, the number of Americans without health insurance at all will come down, eventually by 30 or 40 million. Under most of the Republican plans, the number of Americans without insurance would rise. Honest Republicans would justify their policies by arguing that Medicaid is a wasteful, inefficient program not worth keeping—and their changes, overall, would reduce health care spending while maximizing liberty. In other words, forcing people to give up their coverage is worth it. I don’t agree with those arguments, but they are honest. But they should stop pretending that it’s possible to address the problems of American health care without disrupting at least some people’s insurance arrangements—because, after all, they want to do the very same thing.
Jonathan Chait agrees, and thinks this is why there never was any "Replace" bill in the Republicans' "Repeal and Replace" strategy over the last three years.
What does 3rd party status actual mean for the DEGOP?

What does 3rd party status actual mean for the DEGOP?

Perhaps is was Christine O'Donnell, or it might have been the government shutdown.  But a recent The University of Delaware’s Center for Political Communication poll shows that the two largest parties in the State of Delaware are the Democrats (40%) and Independents (34%), with the GOP bringing up the rear at 22%. Independents, Other Party, Don't Know Party lean Democratic 33%, Republican 30% - so even among the I's the Democratic Party is the party of choice. That is polling data. In other words, a mere 22% percent of Delaware voters admit to being republicans.   The actual voter registration numbers are lagging behind voter sentiment, but are nearly as bad: 303,157 Delaware voters are Dems (48%),  180,041 are Republicans (28%)  A den margin of  123,116. In 2002 the margin was 48,800. Basically, the GOP in Delaware is hemorrhaging members. If another 6,000 people make their preference official, the GOP will be a third party. Can anyone help me out with this? Will the GOP be handicapped if they lose another 6,000 defectors?
Yeah, He Lied

Yeah, He Lied

Any better conclusions than that? Seriously, after the huffing and puffing and bluster that the News Journal and his critics were trying to mislead people or trying to hurt him or trying to delegitimize his function in office -- Treasurer Chip Flowers finally meets with the News Journal and what we find out is that he really is that incompetent. And we find out that records requested are conveniently missing. From this morning's NJ, where Flowers admits that there are financial records missing from his office: