Archive for June, 2014
New Jersey — Where Corporate Subsidies Aren’t Improving the Economy
Interesting. A NJ think tank — New Jersey Policy Perspective — has a report out the shows that while subsidies to NJ businesses have surged under Governor Christie’s administration (subsidies that are billed as economy boosting), NJ’s economy has remained pretty sluggish. According to this report, $4bn worth of subsidies had been awarded to businesses in the past four and a half years by state authorities under Christie – more than three times the $1.2bn in subsidies that were given out in the prior 10 years. Got that? That’s $4 billion dollars worth of corporate subsides for this result:
![Monday Daily Delawhere [6.16.14]](http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5272/14381775694_80806eb1e3_c.jpg "Monday Daily Delawhere [6.16.14]")
Sunday Open Thread [6.15.14]
![Sunday Open Thread [6.15.14]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Fathers.Day_-240x180.png "Sunday Open Thread [6.15.14]")
This Sunday’s NJ has a great series on the heroin problem in Delaware which is the perfect study in how the community most affected by an addiction changes the terms of the discussion of that drug. I read that series (and I don’t have a critique of it) and wondered all the way through how this would be addressed if they were talking about crack cocaine. The thing that is important to know is that our drug problem — all of them — is primarily a public health problem and we should be working at this level of sympathy and concern for community for all drug problems, not just heroin.
![Sunday Daily Delawhere [6.15.14]](http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5534/14382743485_4f599cb45d_c.jpg "Sunday Daily Delawhere [6.15.14]")
Late Night Video — Cantor Was Defeated By Voters Afraid of Obama and His Negro Army
This is Bill Maher and his panel going to town on the Cantor defeat. There’s alot of good stuff here, including Richard Clarke’s great comeback:
Carol Leifer: “Vote, and get a free bobblehead!”
Richard Clarke: “We do!”
Saturday Open Thread [6.14.14]
![Saturday Open Thread [6.14.14]](http://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/t31.0-8/10365557_10153208917926393_7704278554543671037_o.jpg "Saturday Open Thread [6.14.14]")
Two more days to go to the St. Anthony’s festival! They haven’t had the best weather this week, but today seems to be perfect — who’s going?
![Saturday Daily Delawhere [6.14.14]](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3838/14382743575_05b49bcf5a_c.jpg "Saturday Daily Delawhere [6.14.14]")
Delaware Political Weekly: June 7-13, 2014
2. Chip Flowers Creates Yet Another Issue For Himself
So, let’s see if I’ve got this straight. In order to ‘save the state money’, Delaware’s Most Ethical State Employee has cut deals with seven banks, all of whom manage state $$’s, to pay for his travel expenses and those of his staff. $5K per bank, times 7. $35,000 in travel expenses. Which is a lot of travel expenses. I would call this extortion were Flowers not so ethical. He, of course, is once again changing the subject. This issue isn’t/wasn’t that he traveled, it is/was that he was unable to account for how much he spent and who paid for it. If a treasurer can’t account for his own expenses, how can he account for the state’s finances?
3. I’m Not Loving Sean Barney’s Campaign
I got an e-blast from him yesterday. He’s been endorsed by a buncha lawyers. I like some of those lawyers. I don’t give two bleeps that they’ve endorsed him. He used some of the same boilerplate that I can’t stand when it comes to our Corporate Bar:
Our legal community in Delaware inspires trust and confidence the world over because of its reputation for upholding the highest standards of professional responsibility. Moreover, Delaware’s bar is exceptional in the manner in which it pairs the highest expectations of competence with the highest expectations of collegiality.
Computer-generated boilerplate.
I have people telling me on the QT that Sean Barney is really one of us. As in progressive. But he is running a risk-averse campaign where all we learn about him is about his military service, his high school schools initiative, and the fact that he’s been endorsed by a lot of the usual suspects. Haven’t even heard a dog-whistle from him to create any enthusiasm.
Iraq Is Burning
Again. Or, really, it never stopped burning and now there is gas on the fire. You already know that Iraq is under siege, this time by a group called ISIS, which seems to be a coalition of Sunni forces, Baathists, remnants of Al Queda in Iraq, Syrian and other foreign fighters. ISIS has been capturing territory with some ease, and the Kurds are using the chaos to grab back some land they’ve been claiming. Back home, this has been one more occasion for the GOP to rattle their sabers — calling for action in a country who has had plenty of US action. President Obama has said the usual “all options are on the table” except right now it doesn’t look like boots on the ground is an option.
![Friday Daily Delawhere [6.13.14]](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3842/14196149218_dd429731d0_c.jpg "Friday Daily Delawhere [6.13.14]")
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., June 12, 2014
So, the I-495 bridge repair is gonna cost $20 million or so. About 60,000 vehicles, a lot of them trucks, are now grinding other Delaware roads, further degrading those road surfaces. Not so much as a peep out of the General Assembly as to how they’re gonna fund the $70 mill hole in the road/infrastructure funding. Which may now be $90 mill. Rethug signs still litter New Castle County, proclaiming ‘No New Gas Taxes’. Is anybody gonna do anything?
Thursday Open Thread [6.12.14]
![Thursday Open Thread [6.12.14]](http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--gJqffSsL--/yhud0pbbsc3rpwaboimf.png "Thursday Open Thread [6.12.14]")
A tea party House candidate in Oklahoma has endorsed stoning gays to death. Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) compared homosexuality to alcoholism during a visit to California.
The Texas Republican Party this month adopted a platform supporting access to ‘reparative therapy’ for gays and lesbians, a widely discredited process intended to change sexual orientation. In response to an audience question about it Wednesday night, Perry said he did not know whether the therapy worked.
Said Perry: “Whether or not you feel compelled to follow a particular lifestyle or not, you have the ability to decide not to do that. I may have the genetic coding that I’m inclined to be an alcoholic, but I have the desire not to do that, and I look at the homosexual issue the same way.”
That rebranding continues apace.
![Thursday Daily Delawhere [6.12.14]](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3854/14191528718_8b02b67128_c.jpg "Thursday Daily Delawhere [6.12.14]")
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