Archive for May, 2015
UPDATE: When Bad Math Emerges from the Bunker
The Tuesday Town Hall meeting had a couple of handouts, apparently. I only got one that didn’t make much sense, but there was a packet that I missed that had some additional data not on my handout, ostensibly showing the percent decrease in Class A crimes in the city. One of folks attending this meeting was Clayton Stacey, a Cool Springs resident who was brutalized in a robbery about a month ago. Mr. Stacey got one of these other handouts and he took a good look at the stats presented. And then he checked the math:
Sunday Open Thread [5.24.15]
![Sunday Open Thread [5.24.15]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/DL.Open_.Thread.Gray_-240x180.png "Sunday Open Thread [5.24.15]")
I feel like a Kremlinologist. So there is this AP tidbit that Vice President and Dr. Biden are staying in Washington this weekend, which is rare since they usually go home to Delaware on the weekends. It goes unmentioned in the article, but obviously they are staying close to the Walter Reed Hospital, which is a quick trip up 16th Street from Massachusetts Avenue and the Vice President’s residence at the Naval Observatory. We have to assume that Beau Biden is still admitted to that hospital, since we have no information to the contrary. The highlight of the AP article is that the Vice President golfed yesterday afternoon with the President. So Beau’s condition is serious enough that it has kept the Bidens in DC and Beau still in the hospital after four days, but not critical enough that the Vice President can’t go play golf.
Saturday Open Thread [5.23.15]
![Saturday Open Thread [5.23.15]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/DL.Open_.Thread.White_-240x180.png "Saturday Open Thread [5.23.15]")
It looks like the heavily Catholic Ireland has just become the first country on the planet to enact marriage equality by popular vote rather than by legislation, judicial order or royal decree. Probably because Irish Catholics are more intelligent and in tune with that Jesus said about homosexuality (i.e. nothing) than the conservative heirarchy that likes to look to Old Testament’s Leviticus than anything Jesus Christ said.
Ireland appears to have voted heavily in favor of allowing same-sex marriage in a historic referendum that marks a dramatic social shift in the traditionally Catholic country, government ministers and opponents of the bill said on Saturday. Final results are not expected until later in the day in a vote that would make Ireland the first country to adopt same-sex marriage via a popular vote, just two decades after the country decriminalised homosexuality. State broadcaster RTE said the victory appeared to be overwhelming and government minister Kevin Humphreys predicted the margin would be two-to-one.
“I think it’s won,” Equality Minister Aodhan O’Riordain told Reuters at the main count center in Dublin. “The numbers of people who turned out to vote is unprecedented. This has really touched a nerve in Ireland today.”
Gay marriage is backed by all political parties, championed by big employers and endorsed by celebrities, all hoping it will mark a transformation in a country that was long regarded as one of the most socially conservative in Western Europe.
The Weekly Addresses
In this week’s address, the President commemorated Memorial Day by paying tribute to the men and women in uniform who have given their lives in service to our country.
In his weekly message, Governor Markell discusses a statewide effort to end homelessness among veterans in Delaware by the end of 2015.
House Majority Leader Valerie Longhurst discusses the infrastructure improvement funding bill the House passed. The proposed Division of Motor Vehicles fee increases would raise $23.9 million that would fund infrastructure projects throughout Delaware. Many of the fees identified have not been increased in more than 20 years.
JFC Cuts Markell’s Bloated Education Budget for Bureaucrats
Some real good news to start the Memorial Day weekend. Some of the cuts were to positions that had previously been funded by Race To The Top but are now transitioning to the state. They actually cut $3.75 mill in bloat:
The Joint Finance Committee voted to eliminate 10 controversial, high-paid positions in the Department of Education to find more than $1.5 million in savings as they continued to mark up Markell’s $3.9 billion budget proposal.
Lawmakers on the budget-writing committee also reduced funding for additional education initiatives, including teacher preparation programs, data analysis and recruitment efforts.
They almost did even more, as a proposal to cut an additional $2 mill in “additional funding related to Race to the Top failed by a 7-5 vote.”
Friday Open Thread [5.22.15]
![Friday Open Thread [5.22.15]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/DL.Open_.Thread.Yellow-240x180.png "Friday Open Thread [5.22.15]")
For the first time since polling began in 1999, Gallup found that there are more social liberals in the United States than social conservatives.
Gallup reported that the number of respondents who called themselves social liberals has increased to 31%, while the number of self-identified social conservatives has fallen to 30%. The number of Democrats who refer to themselves as social liberals jumped from 47% in 2014 to 53% in 2015. The number of Republicans who call themselves socially conservative has declined from 60% in 2014 to 53% in 2015.
Friday Daily Delawhere [5.22.15]
Some Mooring docks in Lewes, on a foggy morning. From Mike Mahaffie on Flickr.
A Requiem for the Wilmington City Council
The Wilmington City Council passed the budget for the next fiscal year — 7-6. Other than the 600K that Bud Freel made sure got added to deal with cameras and to be sure that the WPD could run an Academy if needed, this City Council passed a budget utterly free of any opportunity for asking for better accountability from the Williams Administration and utterly free from dealing with the big issues the city has: improved safety, accountability for programs and departments and a better reckoning of a projected surplus — $2M surplus even though this fiscal year will end with a $500K deficit.
Thursday Open Thread [5.21.15]
![Thursday Open Thread [5.21.15]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/DL.Open_.Thread.Blue_-240x180.png "Thursday Open Thread [5.21.15]")
The fifth most Republican and conservative state in the Union — NEBRASKA —- yes, freaking Nebraska, voted with the dirty hippies and voted to repeal the death penalty. Hey, Trey Paradee, explain that! No bother, the Republicans did for you:
Republicans offered a variety of reasons for supporting the death penalty’s end, from the high cost of administering executions to the surprisingly uncommon idea that it’s important to be consistent in support for human life. “I’m pro-life from conception until when God calls somebody home,” state Sen. Tommy Garrett told the World-Herald. “I’m not going to quibble over innocent life versus those who are guilty for what they have done. This is a matter of conscience.”
BREAKING: Ex-Legislator Rewarded For Burying Death Penalty Repeal Bill
Remember Rebecca Walker? She’s the former chair of the House Judiciary Committee who buried the death penalty repeal bill in her committee for most of 2013 and all of 2014.
Remember Rebecca Walker? She’s the former legislator who claimed she was running for reelection in 2014, had actually filed, waited until after the filing deadline, then withdrew her name, thus denying the Democratic voters in her district the right to choose her successor via primary. Remember why Rebecca Walker claimed she withdrew? She said that her work would not enable her to continue to serve. As if she just found that out right after the filing deadline.
Well, guess what ‘good fortune’ has been bestowed upon former State Rep. Rebecca Walker?
If you guessed a $96K state job that required no public posting and which reunites her with her police pals with whom she scuttled death penalty repeal, you would be correct.
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