Archive for January, 2015
A: I can’t believe I lost to that dumbf*ck
Q: What is Brenda Mayrack thinking right now?
I hope she runs again. I chalk the loss up to Tom Carper and John Carney undermining the Democratic brand and thereby giving no support to down-ticket Dem challengers with less name recognition.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up: Week of January 13-15, 2015
Talk about your soft openings. When the most urgent piece of legislation appears to be one that would allow smaller eateries to serve beer and wine, then you get a pretty good sense that it could be a slow January.
The other bill on the fast track is a banking bill, and it passed the House unanimously. The sponsors of the bill don’t fill me full of confidence that this is simply an innocuous piece of legislation. It strikes me as a special interest bill, and the interests are those of the banks, not of the consumers. Could someone please give us some background on the gestation and urgency of this bill? And, um, talk me down?
Wilmington City Council Votes To Not Let In More Charter Schools
Yes, this is symbolic, but we’ve come a long way.
The Wilmington City Council sent a request to state leaders Thursday night: Don’t allow any more charter schools to open in the city for the time being, and give the city more say over which schools get approved.
Council approved 9-3, with President Theo Gregory absent, a resolution urging the Department of Education not to consider any new charter applications in the city to “allow elected officials and community representatives time to assess the impact of charter schools in Wilmington and throughout the State.”
Impact is the key word and one of the biggest problem with charters – their impact on surrounding neighborhoods and schools isn’t really considered – and even though the new charter law pays lip service to impact, impact alone isn’t enough to stop a charter from entering a community. Try building an addition to your house without community approval. Maybe labeling the addition as a charter school would be the way to go!
Whether or not a community wants a charter in their neighborhood doesn’t matter. As long as a charter follows state law they can pretty much go where they want. Westgate Farms fought against Odyssey Charter moving in. They eventually won by focusing on the historic location. Good thing a cemetery was located there. Otherwise, Odyssey could have moved in – no matter what the surrounding community thought or wanted.
![Friday Daily Delawhere [1.16.15]](http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1400/5170806894_e2b9676fa7_b.jpg "Friday Daily Delawhere [1.16.15]")
John Carney on why he voted to weaken Dodd-Frank (annotated)
I found this early draft of Carney’s HR 37 statement on line.
“Many of you have asked me why I voted for H.R. 37, featured in the News Journal this morning. Dodd-Frank was passed before I came to Congress, but I support its goal of reining in Wall Street and protecting taxpayers.[Please note that “support” should be enclosed in quotation marks]
Kowalko v Schwartzkopf continues
John Kowalko isn’t shutting up, and for good reason. It isn’t Pete Schwartzkopf’s business to decide if someone can be an activist and a legislator. That’s Kowalko’s constituent’s job, and Kowalko’s constituents expressly hired him to be an activist and a legislator.
Schwartzkopf may not remember, but John Kowalko sat in an Leg Hall energy committee meeting with a gag in his mouth in protest, and that was prior to being hired by his constituents. They knew what they were getting into.
Which raises the question – does Schwartzkopf know what he is getting into by elevating Kowlako’s status to that of a martyr for a transparent democracy? I sort of doubt it.
![Thursday Daily Delawhere [1.15.15]](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3082/3169678759_61e1b0502a_o.jpg "Thursday Daily Delawhere [1.15.15]")
GOP Congress Signals Big Social Security Reforms (Cuts) On the Way
There is no mystery anymore. We all know how this is going to play out. Republican austerity zealots are going to get 99% of what they want, and be able to pillory Democrats for gutting social security because “Democrats” like John Carney and Tom Carper suck outright and make the whole party look like a bunch of sniveling idiots and/or craven douche-bags.
The new House Budget Committee chairman hinted Monday that he had big plans for Social Security reform in the next two years, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Christina Fights Back – Delay Granted, But The End Game Remains The Same
So… last night this happened:
The Christina School Board again delayed a final decision on its three Priority Schools on Tuesday night, saying they wanted to give the school communities time to study a new compromise proposal worked out between district and state officials.
[…]
Originally, the state had said the state and district needed to work out an agreement by last week or Gov. Jack Markell would
shut the schools down orhand them over to charters or other outside operators. Some board members originally believed they had to vote Tuesday night or that takeover would occur.But Sen. Bryan Townsend, whose district includes Christina, said he called Markell’s office during the board meeting and the governor’s staff said they were willing to further extend the deadline.
The strike through words are my doing, and it would be refreshing if someone asked how closing these schools would actually work. Until that question is asked and answered I’ll file “closure” under meaningless threat. Unless someone thinks redrawing attendance zones that bus these children out to suburban schools is actually on the table. No? Well, neither do I.
Wednesday Daily Delaware [1.14.15]
![Wednesday Daily Delaware [1.14.15]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7553/15668498123_22229e61de_o.jpg "Wednesday Daily Delaware [1.14.15]")
The south portico of Memorial Hall, at the University of Delaware in Newark. Memorial Hall was built in 1924 as a way to connect the men’s campus to the north with the women’s campus to the south. Photo from xzmattzx.
Schwartzkopf names Cape Henlopen Senior Center a “Priority” Senior Center
The Delaware Speaker of the House says that a low performing Senior Center in Lewes is failing, and the way to fix it is to make the board reapply for their jobs – and to replace the center’s membership with seniors who are not such pains in the ass.
Speaker of the House Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf says it’s necessary for board members to reapply for their jobs, and for the membership to turn over to ensure that every Senior Center member has the commitment to “not calling his office over this bullshit.”
“These Seniors are just a huge pains in the ass,” Pete Schwartzkopf said. “I envision a Charter Senior Center that can select the best Seniors from this area to come here and play cards or do whatever it is they do.”
The center’s board faces the cancellation of its liability insurance at the end of the month and a looming threat from the state to withhold the center’s quarterly grant-in-aid check unless significant changes are made.
For more than two hours, Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth Beach, entertained questions from the 60 members in attendance and laid bare the severity of the situation facing the Rehoboth Beach center and the center’s board.
The board’s actions haven’t yet driven the center off the cliff, but it’s getting close, Schwartzkopf said, pushing a piece of paper to the edge of a table as he spoke.
While most of the information wasn’t new to the people in attendance, some found their complaints validated when the speaker of the House went through the center’s by-laws one by one, pointing out how, in his view, the board is violating the by-laws now or has violated them in the recent past.
The by-laws are not there as a suggestion, said Schwartzkopf. They’re there to be followed, he said.
[Note: this is tagged as satire, but whoever reads tags? Not me. When liability insurance is mentioned, it becomes a straight pickup from this Chris Flood story in the Cape Gazette.]
Celia (Tom Carper) Cohen writes words, sentences and stuff
If you were wondering how many times Celia Cohen could name check Tom Carper in a 960 word piece on Matt Denn, you don’t have to wonder anymore. Six times appears to be the limit.
Jeff Christopher supporters now in full control of SCGOP
Frank Knotts’ summary of Sussex County Republican Committee elections is an obituary and a mea culpa from a reformed tea bagger. [Warning: The picture Knotts uses to illustrate his disgust is NSFL (not safe for lunch).]
Here is an excerpt of the text, but the whole sad thing is worth a read.
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