Friday Open Thread [5.10.13]

The Hill recounts the story about how Delaware's own Joe Biden forced the President's hand on gay marriage:
Last May, in the heat of President Obama's reelection efforts, Biden went on "Meet the Press" and said he was "comfortable" with same-sex marriage. Obama had not at that point announced his support for gay marriage, and the vice president's endorsement left the campaign lurching to clarify the administration's position. The following week, Obama acknowledged he had decided to make an announcement endorsing gay marriage before the election, but Biden's comments forced his hand early. Biden at the time said he apologized to the president for putting him in that position, but in the Rolling Stone interview, Biden said Obama couldn't have been happier. "I got blowback from everybody but the president," Biden said. “"I walked in that Monday, he had a big grin on his face, he put his arms around me and said, 'Well, Joe, God love you, you say what you think.'’ I knew he agreed with me. It wasn't like he was in a different place."”
Booman wonders if the "Biden Push" was and is the seminal moment for progress on marriage equality in America. Recall that ever since, the polls have shown nothing but majority approval for it, and momentum in the states passing gay marriage legislation has been brisk.

Pro Rassler Provides Sophisticated Analysis of Delaware Marriage Equality

From the Bible of Pro Wrestling, Wrestling Observer/Figure Four Weekly, comes the following:
--Jay Briscoe got himself into trouble, deleting his entire Twitter account over what he tweeted Wednesday:
"The Delaware Senate passed a bill yesterday that allows same sex couples to get married. If that makes you happy, then congratulations!!!"
"..try and teach my kids that there's nothing wrong with that and I'll fucking shoot you."
About 12 hours later, after realizing that was probably not the right thing to say, he wrote:
"I feel very strongly about who should teach kids about certain things but I showed poor judgment by using that analogy and I'm sorry."
A few hours after that, he deleted his entire account. ROH released this statement: "Ring of Honor Wrestling respects and appreciates every fan regardless of age, gender, race, religion or sexual preference. The recent post by Jay Briscoe does not represent the views or opinions of Ring of Honor Wrestling, its owners, management or employees." ROH has said Briscoe will both make a public apology for his remarks on Saturday's house show in Belle Vernon, PA, and he has agreed to donate his pay for the next two weekend to the Partners Against Hate charitable organization.

North Carolina House GOP Approves Child Murder Bill

Withholding treatment is murder, in my book. "Parents would have to give their teenagers permission before they could receive birth control or be treated for sexually transmitted diseases, substance abuse or mental illness, under a bill approved in a House committee on Tuesday." Heaven forbid they should get treated for life-threatening conditions without permission! Supporters say the aim of the bill is to restore parental control over teenagers lives. I say the aim is to kill teenagers who have sex or use drugs, and maybe if they're bullied and harassed for being gay, they can commit suicide rather than get counseling for depression. Remember, these same people want to make sure their teenagers have easy access to (and training with) their gun collections (or be able to buy them online if their hippie parents don't have any). The life of the child was never their concern.

PDD-DL Vote Tracker Update [5.9.13]

The Governor signed HB 35 into law yesterday, surrounded by a group of parents who lost their children in the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in Connecticut last December. The law extends mandatory background checks to most private gun sales this July. There are three other gun control measures that are part of the Governor’s gun control package: a bill establishing gun-free school zones (HB 67), a ban on high-capacity magazines (HB 58), and a requirement to report lost or stolen guns (SB 16). SB 16, the aforementioned bill that would require gun owners to report lost or stolen guns within 7 days after discovering the bill lost or stolen, has cleared the committee and is headed to the House floor for a vote. How anyone can oppose this bill is beyond me. Indeed, if you oppose this bill, you must be a terrorist or a criminal, or at least an enabler of the two. Represenative Kowalko’s HB 13 finally passed the House after six years of trying, 30-11. The bill bans lawmakers from becoming lobbyists after they leave the General Assembly for one year after leaving office. His previous bills called for 2 years. The Republicans have introduced that version of the bill in the Senate, and offered an Amendment was offered to increase the term to 2 years, but it was defeated. I am not sure why, but some Democrats in the House are really making themselves look like defenders of lobbyists by opposing this legislation. Some surprising names in the no column. And given that all the Republicans voted yes, it is obvious that they are using this and the double dipping issue to their advantage. And the Democrats voting no are dumb enough to let them. Come inside for the rest of the Vote Tracker....

Senator Chris Coons Calls Out Republicans for Not Getting to a Budget Deal

Recall that the Senate passed its budget in March, and the House passed its budget before that -- meaning that if we're finally following the "regular order" of budgeting, there should be a Senate and House Reconciliation Committee so that these two bodies can come to some agreement on a budget. That budget -- a policy document only, it appropriates no money -- is supposed to guide the appropriation process. Except that the GOP doesn't want to work on a budget until we are much closer to the debt ceiling problem. We were supposed to have faced the debt ceiling in march or April, but the Treasury figured out a way to postpone that until Fall. So the GOP is stuck with a pretty bad timeline -- blowing up the economy over the debt ceiling just before they start campaigning is very bad juju. And they have NO negotiating position unless the debt ceiling is imminent they think. So Senator Coons took to the Senate floor today to call to get back to the regular order of the budget process and to stop the effects of the sequester:

Darrell Issa yet to link Benghazi and mystery spike in sea lion deaths

Not that he isn't working on it.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Starving sea lion pups are washing up on Southern California beaches at a rate more than five times higher than usual, and scientists are scrambling to figure out why. Since the beginning of the year, 1,293 emaciated sea lions found stranded on beaches from San Diego to Santa Barbara have been treated at seven facilities in the state, Sarah Wilkin of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday during a conference call with reporters.

Wednesday Open Thread [5.8.13]

I wrote this last night about the fact that Ernie Lopez, Gerald Hocker and Greg Lavelle ending their statewide political futures with their votes against marriage equality yesterday and about the chances that Cathy Cloutier, on the other hand, had elevated her statewide future based on her yes vote:
The problem, though, is the Republican Party. When I say that the next Republican Governor of Delaware will support marriage equality, I say that because no one who doesn’t support marriage equality will ever win a statewide race going forward. They will barely crack 40% of the vote. So for a Republican to win, he or she will have to be for marriage equality. BUT… For the foreseeable future (at least until 2016), the Republican Party’s base is violently against marriage equality, and no Republican candidate can win the primary or get the nod at the state convention without being against marriage equality. Maybe the victory today will speed the death of the rabid bigots at the heart of the state GOP, and I hope it does. But assuming it doesn’t, the GOP is caught in a horrible catch-22: it can only nominate anti-gay candidates, and it can only win with pro-equality candidates.
And this, in response to how losing could be so addictive to our state GOP:
How can losing be so addictive? Easy. It allows these social conservatives to play a role they love so well: that of the victim. They love whining about how oppressed they are. And nothing proves their oppression more than defeat after defeat after defeat at the ballot box and in roll call votes in the General Assembly. And nothing brings in the dollars of retired old bigots more than hate and fear and victimhood.
Jonathan Bernstein agrees with me, or I guess I agree with him (depending on who wrote what first) in his latest article in the Washington Monthly.....

El Som is out in Indiana, so no Post Game Pre Game today

I will however be posting an update of the Vote Tracker, my own contribution to following the workings of the General Assembly, this afternoon, and in that update I will highlight what other very important bills passed the House yesterday while all focus was on the Senate. I will also provide info as to what is on the agenda for Thursday. In the meantime, enjoy some more photos from yesterday's victory by way of the Delaware House Democratic Caucus' Facebook page.