Wednesday Open Thread [12.18.13]

Wednesday Open Thread [12.18.13]

A new poll from the ABC News and the Washington Post shows that approval of Obamacare has rebounded from the worse of the flawed rollout and broken website media hysteria in late October and November. Now that the website is working, the approval numbers are back to where they were before:
46 percent of Americans support it, with 49 percent opposed. Opposition is down from a record 57 percent last month amid the new system’s troubled rollout.
Greg Sargent dives deeper into these new numbers...
Eliz. Warren Gets It Right On Credit Score Bullies

Eliz. Warren Gets It Right On Credit Score Bullies

I read with interest that Sen. Elizabeth Warren is submitting legislation to regulate and rein in consumer credit scoring companies on their abuse of our citizens. This warms my populist heart. It mainly aims at employer's use of this unreliable and often inaccurate information but at least it is a start for us consumers/job applicants.
2013: The Good, The Bad, the Ridiculous

2013: The Good, The Bad, the Ridiculous

I am El Somnambulo, and I'm a listaholic. Today, one of my faves, my Delaware year-end review. I went back to January, and chronologically went through our Delaware Liberal archives. Man, our bloggers were en fuego this year. Incredible work from all corners. Cassandra on Wilmington and loads of other stuff, Pandora on education, Jason330 on the suckitude that is our congressional delegation, our beloved leader DelDem liveblogging from the Hall and covering national politics like no other, great Rob Tornoe cartoons. And, next year, ProgressivePopulist will have loads of great entries. Anyway, y'all could do a lot worse than to go back to January and enjoy the journey like I did. You can just click on 'archives' at the bottom of the page, and enjoy the journey. Would it surprise you to learn that I considered only 12 possible entries for the Good? Didn't think so. I had lots more to choose from in the other two categories, but I'm kind-of a negative person.  So, here we go, have at it!
Don’t Miss Today’s Al Show!

Don’t Miss Today’s Al Show!

At 10 am, the annual The Good, The Bad, The Ridiculous list will be unveiled unveiled right here on Delaware Liberal. Follow along on the DL blog as Al Mascitti and I count down the list on today's Al Show. WDEL 1150-AM from 10 -12 noon. You can stream live at wdel.com. 
Tuesday Open Thread [12.17.13]

Tuesday Open Thread [12.17.13]

The Governor is about to show us whose side he is on? The rich or the poor.
Gov. Jack Markell, who will present a new budget to the General Assembly next month, will not have a significant boost in new tax revenue to cover mandatory cost increases in health care and education, according to new revenue estimates out Monday.[...] “Even though revenues ultimately are still going to be up from last year, they’re not going to be up enough to cover the automatic growth in Medicaid and the automatic growth in schools,” said Rep. Melanie George Smith, D-Bear, co-chair of the budget writing Joint FinanceCommittee. “That’s the real issue.”
Senate Minority Leader Gary Simpson offers the standard Republican prescription for anything involving fiscal matters: tax cuts and more tax cuts. Even though history has shown all tax cuts do is raise the budget deficit, something the Governor and the General Assembly is trying to close. I assume Mr. Markell will not go down the tax cut course, for if he does, he should just join the Republican Party right now. But what I do seem him doing is trying to cut spending on social services to avoid in any way raising a dime in taxes on his friends in the corporate world.
In Which Sheriff Christopher Pretends He’s Real Law Enforcement Again

In Which Sheriff Christopher Pretends He’s Real Law Enforcement Again

The ever hapless but ever blustering Sheriff Christopher has signed on to an effort to not enforce President Obama's gun control laws -- whatever they might be. If you look at this list of associations and Sheriff's who have signed on to this idiocy, you can definitely tell that the completely non-law enforcement Christopher is hoping that no one will notice that he is not wearing the grownup's long pants at this table. He can't enforce anything, so here he is pretending he really does belong at the grownup table. But the other thing that is funny about this bit of wingnuttery is that there are new gun control laws right in his own backyard that he can't be bothered to claim to not be enforcing. Maybe he won't enforce these laws in where ever it is that he is supposed to be moving to after being smacked down by the state courts.

Cookie Hooky Day!

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm really far behind this holiday season!  Today I took my daughter out of school for a cookie hooky day.  Chocolate chips, peanut…