Ten Years Ago Today

Ten years ago today, President George W. Bush commenced the U.S. invasion of Iraq, to "disarm" the country, "free its people," and transform it into a "united, stable and free country," all the while knowing that his sole basis for justifying the war (that Iraq had WMD) was a complete and total lie. It seems quite appropriate that the Iraqis celebrated this anniversary today with a dozen car bombs that killed 50 people. Yea, Freedom!

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., March 19, 2013

Go ahead. Pick a hot-button issue. Any hot-button issue. This year's General Assembly is considering it. Can't remember this many controversial issues under consideration. Gun control? Check. Gay marriage? Check. Death penalty? Check. Minimum wage? Check. I'm not sure if there's enough time/political capital to go around. So. Please allow me to prioritize. To me, there are no excuses for the Delaware General Assembly not passing gun control and minimum wage legislation this year. The votes are there for minimum wage. Only the Governor's (a) unwillingness to get on board, and/or (b) the Governor's opposition to minimum wage stand in the way. Last year, it was (b), and friendly house leadership buried the bill in an unfriendly House committee. This year, the Governor has stated that he's excited about the debate (Truthometer says? BZZZT), but won't take a position. Only with Jack Markell could that be considered as progress. Let's be practical here. Markell's best chance to stop the bill, and it's not good, is in the Senate. But, the Senate voted for minimum wage last year and, other than Sen. Venables, I think it's unlikely that any other D's will vote no. The margin of support for minimum wage is even larger in the House, so Markell's only chance there is to get the bill buried in committee.

Monday Open Thread [3.19.13]

You want proof that Hillary will run in 2016? Well, she just released a video announcing her support for marriage equality, which was not a surprise, but since she had to steer clear of making any political statements while Secretary of State, Hillary has been silent on the issue since the 2008 campaign. In my opinion, if she were just a private citizen enjoying her retirement, I don't think such a video would be released.

AZ Job cuts demonstrate the weakness of conventional “economic development”

It sucks that AZ is leaving. And it is probably too tender right now for "lessons learned," but here it goes... You can look like a hero for a few years by throwing a bunch of money at a large corporation to get them to locate in Delaware, as Tom Carper did with AstraZeneca. Or you can be more like Portland and Seattle and do the harder work of trying to invest in building infrastructure for new ventures and make the public investments in of quality of life factors that entrepreneurs look for when building companies. Both methods cost money, but I think the Seattle model beats the shit out of the Tom Carper model.

Sunday Open Thread [3.17.13]

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

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]

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]

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]

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

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.