Archive for April, 2015
Vote Tracker For the Week of March 30-April 3, 2015
Last week the Delaware Senate passed again, as they did last year, the repeal of the Death Penalty. And as last year, the voting produced odd bipartisan ‘alliances,’ which demonstrates that on this issue, and perhaps only this issue, partisan considerations take a back seat to considerations of faith and conscience. Republican Senators Cloutier, Lopez and Republican Minority Leader Simpson all voted to repeal. Democratic Senators Hall-Long, Ennis, Marshall and Poore voted to keep the Death Penalty. Monsignor Lavelle, as El Som is fond of calling the Minority Whip, was absent, in today’s display of a lack of courage or conviction.
Senator Poore’s bill implementing the IEP Improvement Task Force Recommendations was rescued from the table and passed the Senate 20-1, with the sole No being Republican Gubernatorial candidate Colin Bonini.
Senator Townsend’s SB 47, which modernizes and reorganizes the Public Defendant’s Office in order to ensure that indigent people charged with crimes are well represented, passed the Senate 20-1. The sole NO vote? You guessed it. Republican Gubernatorial candidate Colin Bonini.
Rep. Lynn’s bill to require the use of helmets when bikers are riding their motorcycles on Delaware roads (HB 54) has met the anticipated opposition (wearing helmets = tyranny) and has been left in limbo in Committee. The Committee did not table it, nor did it vote it down or release it. It’s just hanging there in mid-air in suspended animation. Much like a biker is when time slows down after an accident has thrown him or her from their bike into air. It is during that moment in time that the biker realizes he or she is about to die, and probably really should have worn that helmet. Lucky for all of us, we no longer have to deal with the idiot opinions of that biker, because he or she will be dead.
![Monday Daily Delaware [4.6.15]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7597/16261155954_77d14476e5_c.jpg "Monday Daily Delaware [4.6.15]")
Sunday Open Thread [4.5.15]
![Sunday Open Thread [4.5.15]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Easter-240x180.png "Sunday Open Thread [4.5.15]")
Easter day is “so beautiful, and so ugly because of the rain,” Pope Francis said during his Sermon on Easter Day to a Roman crowd being drenched in rain. Thankfully, here in Delaware, it looks to be a sunny and relatively warm day. The Pope made his first public comments about the recent Iranian accord, and aimed at ensuring Iran doesn’t develop a nuclear weapon.
“In hope we entrust to the merciful Lord the framework recently agreed to in Lausanne, that it may be a definitive step toward a more secure and fraternal world.” Decrying the plentitude of weapons in the world in general, Francis said: “And we ask for peace for this world subjected to arms dealers, who earn their living with the blood of men and women.”
He denounced “absurd bloodshed and all barbarous acts of violence” in Libya, convulsed by fighting fueled by tribal and militia rivalries. He hoped “a common desire for peace” would prevail in Yemen, wracked by civil warfare. Francis prayed that the “roar of arms may cease” in Syria and Iraq, and that peace would come in Africa for Nigeria, South Sudan, Sudan and Congo.
He recalled the young people, many of them targeted because they were Christians, killed last week in a Kenyan university, and lamented kidnappings, by Islamic extremists, that have plagued parts of Africa, including Nigeria. He also cited bloodshed closer to home, in Ukraine, praying that the Eastern European nation would “rediscover peace and hope thanks to the commitment of all interested parties.” Government forces have been battling Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine, months after a cease-fire was proclaimed following international diplomatic efforts.
Sunday Daily Delawhere [4.5.15]
![Sunday Daily Delawhere [4.5.15]](http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8744/16835326278_c0e6097e53_c.jpg "Sunday Daily Delawhere [4.5.15]")
Trinity Episcopal Church, at Delaware Avenue and Adams Street in Wilmington’s Trinity Vicinity. The church was built in 1890, and is the descending congregation from Old Swedes Church. Happy Easter!
Saturday Open Thread [4.4.15]
![Saturday Open Thread [4.4.15]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Open.Thread-240x180.png "Saturday Open Thread [4.4.15]")
So much for the notion that President Obama has no foreign policy legacy. Ryan Grim noted some of the notable recent breakthroughs:
The deal with Iran comes two months after Obama announced a warming of relations with Cuba, another longtime U.S. foe. […] In November, Obama, during a trip to China, surprised observers with a bilateral climate change deal that puts China on a path to reduced emissions. American opponents of acting to stave off climate change have long used China as a reason not to act, arguing that whatever the U.S. does will be overshadowed by the coal-heavy nation.
Steve Benen elaborates on both the President’s success and setbacks in foreign policy….
Saturday Daily Delawhere [4.4.15]
![Saturday Daily Delawhere [4.4.15]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7615/16267948643_9d96324be3_c.jpg "Saturday Daily Delawhere [4.4.15]")
An often flooded road to Prime Hook Beach in Milton, DE. Photo by Mike Mahaffie on Flickr.
The Weekly Addresses
President Obama address the Iranian Nuclear Agreement between the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and Iran that will prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and will make our country, our allies, and our world safer.
Governor Markell explains the importance of global trade and the state’s Strategic Export Plan in his weekly message.
Here is this week’s Legislative Update features a bipartisan group of women lawmakers from the House and Senate unveiling a package of bills this week that address issues facing women across Delaware.
Friday Open Thread [4.3.15]
![Friday Open Thread [4.3.15]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/DL.Open_.Thread.Blue_-240x180.png "Friday Open Thread [4.3.15]")
[C]onservatives have little choice but to accept legal and political setbacks over marriage equality, but they’re making it as clear as ever that given the opportunity they’d reverse those trends, ban gay marriage all over again and probably bring back the sodomy laws to boot. Look at the huge field of Republican proto-candidates for president. Do any of them actually support marriage equality? Sure, they’ll not talk about it or mumble about it being a state matter or engage in various other evasions, but they’re a long way from “surrendering.” And that’s even more obvious on the abortion issue where (a) the only meaningful difference among 99% of Republican politicians is about whether 99% or 100% of abortions should be banned; (b) Republican controlled state governments are beavering away at new restrictions that strike mainly at the availability of any abortion services; and (c) the right to choose hangs by a thread in a Supreme Court that any Republican President would be lynched for failing to tilt with his or her next appointment into a reversal of Roe v. Wade.
All this weepy talk of being attacked while trying to surrender also misses the even more obvious point that conservatives are hardly impotent politically; they do sorta control Congress and a majority of states.
So no, there’s no real “surrender” going on here, and Lord knows conservatives aren’t withdrawing from political combat[.] What they are doing is better understood as a strategic retreat: unable to outlaw or (increasingly) even to stigmatize gay behavior as a matter of law, they’re working to protect private discrimination. It’s what a big part of their constituency expects of them, and it’s the obvious next front—not some sort of Appomattox—in the culture wars.
That is why we progressives must be relentless in destroying anyone and everyone we find to be a bigot. There must be no mercy.
![Friday Daily Delawhere [4.3.15]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7373/16372025558_d5d8dec055_c.jpg "Friday Daily Delawhere [4.3.15]")
Death penalty repeal passed by DE Senate 11-9
The bill passes 11-9 and moves onto the the House. According to the NJ, the bill survived attempts by Pete Schwartzkopf to undo the repeal bill and add a weighted scale of death significance, with police deaths rated as the most significant.
Thursday Open Thread [4.2.15]
![Thursday Open Thread [4.2.15]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/453973647-240x180.jpg "Thursday Open Thread [4.2.15]")
NATIONAL–PRESIDENT–REPUBLICAN PRIMARY–Washington Post-ABC News: Bush 20, Cruz 13, Walker 12, Paul 9, Huckabee 8, Carson 7, Rubio 7, Christie 6, Perry 2, Santorum 2, Fiorina 1, Graham 1, Jindal 1, Kasich 1
CRUZMENTUM!!!! Another poll from PPP also finds Cruz skyrocketing into the high teens at 16%.
NATIONAL–PRESIDENT–Washington Post-ABC News: Clinton 54, Bush 40; Clinton 58, Cruz 37; Clinton 55, Walker 38; Clinton 55, Rubio 38
Those are 49 state numbers right there.
Thursday Daily Delawhere [4.2.15]
![Thursday Daily Delawhere [4.2.15]](http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8703/16895833005_f356bcc7c3_c.jpg "Thursday Daily Delawhere [4.2.15]")
Houses on Shallcross Avenue in Wilmington’s Forty Acres neighborhood, the city’s historically Irish section. Photo by xzmattzx.
Governor Markell to Hold Open Auditions for Lt. Governor Vacancy
From the Press Release:
Dover, DE – Recognizing the obvious void felt following the departure of former Lieutenant Governor Matt Denn who was recently sworn in as Attorney General, and his anxiety about a possible Jeff Bullock term as Governor, Governor Markell announced today he would be holding open auditions to fill the Lt. Governor vacancy. Candidates must be Delaware natives, have a 5th grade reading level or a degree from Yale Law School and children more photogenic than the officeholder.
“During his tenure as Lt. Governor, Matt spent a majority of his time at elementary schools or attending events I was ‘too busy’ to attend,” said Governor Markell. “One of his most endearing qualities was his ability to blend in with the crowd – whether it was a bunch of 3rd graders or a knitting club in Long Neck. Any respectable candidate should embody that same quality.”
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