Thursday Open Thread [7.31.14]

So conservatives who simply cannot live in the Reality Based Community created their own version of Facebook.  It is called Reaganbook -- the "Facebook for Patriots".  Somehow these conservatives feel that they are being censored and hounded off of Facebook and they need their own social network.  (There is nothing more appalling or more hysterical than conservatives who think they are being persecuted.) That site was recently pre-launched and that failed launch was subject to serious take-backs:
Brenda Mayrack Lures ‘Bulo Out of the Shadows

Brenda Mayrack Lures ‘Bulo Out of the Shadows

Other than doing door-to-door with Bryan Townsend and hosting Mitch Crane at the Arden Fair, I've not been out front in actively campaigning for political candidates since I took my leave of the Delaware General Assembly. Brenda Mayrack has changed that. To the extent that I'll be on her Host Committee for this upcoming event:
Darley House Meet & Greet Thursday, August 7, 2014 | 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Darley House (Corner of Philadelphia Pike & Darley Road) 3701 Philadelphia Pike | Claymont, DE 19703 Additional parking available next door at the Church of the Ascension. Buy your tickets now. Friend: $30 | Supporter: $75 | Host: $100
That's right. As a host, I'm ponying up $100. Why? Because, for all intents and purposes, we haven't had an auditor, let alone a competent auditor, for however long Tom "Suspendered Disbelief" Wagner has been in office. I've argued on this blog for years that we really need a competent auditor. A competent auditor can and will save the state lots of dollars. It's not even mostly about waste, fraud, and abuse, it's about working with agencies to save the state money while not cutting services.
The Wilmington City Council Clown Show, Part Whatever

The Wilmington City Council Clown Show, Part Whatever

The effort to start getting Wilmington’s long-term budget problem under control had a major setback last night when they failed to override the Mayor’s veto of an ordinance that defunded 8 vacant WFD positions. Sherry Dorsey-Walker, Trippi Congo, Bob Williams, Justin Wright and Sam Prado were cravenly joined at the last minute by Darius Brown, who apparently thought that since this vote might lose, he should get off of the reform train.
“Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game?”: Chapter, Oh, 1,000,000 and Something.

“Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game?”: Chapter, Oh, 1,000,000 and Something.

Wilmington City Council pays $1000 so that Councilman Mike Brown can fly back from Florida on the city's dime to cast the deciding vote to override the Mayor's veto of cuts to the Fire Department budget only to come up...TWO  VOTES SHORT. Oh, and for reasons that not even Mike Brown can explain, he lied about where he was vacationing. Why? I have no idea. Apparently, neither does he. From Amy Cherry's WDEL story (watch and listen)...
Tom Carper just made me LOL

Tom Carper just made me LOL

When I got to the last sentence I literally LOL'ed.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate voted Tuesday to keep federal highway money flowing to the states into December but only after rejecting the House's reliance on what lawmakers called a funding "gimmick" and moving to force a post-election debate on whether to raise gasoline taxes. The House could accept the Senate's changes or reject them and send the bill back to the Senate. Whichever outcome, a highway funding bill is still expected to clear Congress before lawmakers adjourn for the summer later this week. The Senate took up a $10.8 billion bill the House passed last week that would have kept the federal Highway Trust Fund solvent through next May and voted 66-31 to strip out controversial funding provisions, leaving $8.1 billion. That's enough to keep programs going only through Dec. 19. The amendment's sponsors — Democrats Tom Carper of Delaware and Barbara Boxer of California and Republican Bob Corker of Tennessee — said they want Congress to reach a long-term funding solution this year and they hope that will be easier after the November election when partisan tempers will presumably have cooled.

The Latest Performance from the DE GOP Clown Show

Remember in 2012 when Jeff Cragg and Sher Valenzuela perfected the technique of campaigning for a Delaware office someplace other than in Delaware? That was seriously awesome, even though I don't see those SE PA votes tallied anywhere on the Delaware Department of Elections site. But I digress. This cycle, Kevin Wade is taking that technique of campaigning for Delaware votes someplace else To A Whole New Level. Kevin Wade has gone to Israel:
on a week-long fact-finding mission in Israel, on the ground right now (July 29). Wade is researching the situation on the ground and interviewing many. Kevin Wade is also a co-host with the Conservative Commandos Radio Show. Wade will be posting interviews on YouTube from the war zone in Israel.

How the Left Took Over the Democratic Party

That's the title of a recent Politico (sorry) long piece that tries to make the case that the activist base of the Democratic Party have taken the party over. It is an interesting article and worth the read. Part of the motivation of this piece seems to be in making the point that Hillary Clinton won't have as much room to ignore the activist base as other Presidential candidates could. I'm not sure that's true -- largely because the activist base hasn't been able to translate its agenda to the Democrats in Congress (yes, there are some, but there isn't as much of a block as could influence White House policy). And because Democrats in Congress aren't nearly as beholden to their voting base as they are to their check-writing base. But we already knew that I'm a major cynic on that point.

Saturday Open Thread [7.26.14]

How much more proof do you need that these wingnuts are over their heads? This fool of a Congressman from Florida (GOP, naturally) thinks that the State Department and Commerce…