Archive for May, 2015
Wednesday Open Thread [5.6.15]
![Wednesday Open Thread [5.6.15]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/DL.Open_.Thread.Light_.Blue_-240x180.png "Wednesday Open Thread [5.6.15]")
Jay Bookman at The Atlanta Journal Constitution:
When Pamela Geller** and her allies organized an “art show” in Texas around the concept of anti-Mohammed cartoons, offering a $10,000 prize, they were hoping to provoke a reaction. They got it. […] But let’s be honest. The nut cases at either end of the spectrum are each other’s best allies, prodding and provoking each other in hopes of creating a maelstrom that sucks everybody else into their war. Because then they win. The more anger, fear and other thought-throttling emotions they can stir, the more recruits they will find for their own cause. And if it also generates recruits for the other side, that’s fine too. Because that too moves us closer to the religious war that they itch to foment.
Just Fix Them
Seriously, stop the high school hallway belligerence and just fix Wilmington’s cameras.
Today, Mayor Dennis Williams and Councilman Mike Brown decided to have an argument via WDEL about the amount of money spent on the city’s cameras currently monitored (in theory) by Downtown Visions. The Mayor says that Councilman’s Brown’s figure on the amount of money spent on the cameras is wrong and Brown provides some detail showing that the number he gave was rounded, but not far off from right. Both of them highlight a few of the City’s key problems in dealing with its safety issues:
Tuesday Open Thread [5.5.15]
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Ed Kilgore on why Hillary is pursuing a progressive campaign: It’s because she can’t reassemble the Clinton Coalition, so she is going to use the Obama Coalition instead:
So the thinking person’s empirically oriented conservative political analyst, Sean Trende of RealClearPolitics, has an interesting piece suggesting that the apparent decision of Hillary Clinton to run a progressive-leaning campaign is a sign not of any real confidence it’s the winning formula, but of the absence of any alternative.
Sean’s playing off a TNR column by Brian Beutler suggesting that HRC has reason to believe she can keep the “Obama coalition” together and that it will continue to be enough for victory in a presidential election. Trende points to some reasons he thinks that calculation may be wrong, but argues HRC’s probably making the best of a bad hand because the “Clinton coalition,” which included many blue-collar white voters, is gone forever.
I don’t want to put any words in Brian’s mouth, but I’d say Sean’s missing another possibility. Sure, the days are gone for good where any Democrat, even Bill Clinton’s wife, is going to try to appeal to white-working class voters on cultural grounds, as the 42d president famously did in 1992 and 1996. But appealing to some of them on a “populist” economic message, as HRC is showing every sign of doing, couldn’t do worse and might do better than the conventional Democratic pitch.
Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Week of May 5-7, 2015
“The budget is broken,” said Delaware Sen. Harris McDowell, a Wilmington Democrat who co-chairs the General Assembly’s budget-writing Joint Finance Committee. “The options to fix it are to recognize that we have gotten to the end of the line of tricks.”
That’s the truth. Some of the tricks upon which we relied to balance the state budget, ‘abandoned property’, gambling revenue, even our incorporation fees, have peaked, and will soon be in decline, if they’re not in free-fall already.
Of course, if you read the linked article by Jonathan Starkey, you have to wonder if the proposed solutions can or will in any way address the broken budget. I think there’s no chance in hell that they will. First off, whose bright idea was it to create a bipartisan committee with at least as many R’s as D’s, with some of those D’s being Markell appointees? Uh, they’re the same as R’s. Oh, it was Markell’s idea, executed in an Executive Order he issued back in January. I guess he wants to assure that his legacy of kowtowing to his wealthy Greenville buds is locked in for decades.
Here are some of the ”solutions’ this bipartisan committee is considering, according to Starkey’s article…..
DL GOP Fantasy Pool – Huckabee to announce today
Michael Dale “Mike” Huckabee (born August 24, 1955) is an American politician who did a plausible imitation of a sane person while serving as the 44th Governor of Arkansas (1996–2007). He was a candidate in the 2008 United States Republican presidential primaries, winning the 2008 Iowa Republican caucuses by throwing his reputation as a sane person under the bus and driving the bus over that reputation 30 to 40 times.
Rick Perry, it seems, is going to announce tomorrow.
Here are the revised standings:
Newton and Jason330 now have 3 of 4 picks running.
Division 1
Pandora: Walker, Paul* (30), Rubio (24), and Santorum | 54
Jason330: Huckabee (1), Christie, Cruz* (45),Carson (2) | 48
AQCL: Jindal, Bush, Fiorina (2), Ehrlich | 2
Division 1A
Newton: Paul* (30), Rubio (24),Carson (2), Santorum | 56
Prop Joe: Cruz* (45), Jindahl, Walker, Perry | 45
Del Dem: Bush, Christie, Huckabee (1), Graham | 1
Here are the Candidates with points: Cruz – 45 points (March 23rd), Paul – 30 points (April 7th), Rubio – 24 points (April 13), Carson – 2 points (May 4th), Fiorina – 2 point2 (May 4th), Huckbee – 1 point (May 5th)
(*) Indicates candidates who think we need to be worried that President Obama may be plotting to take over Texas with US military special operations forces.
Let me know if I miss an announcement, and good luck.
Vote Tracker Update — How are they voting?
Bryan Townsend is the busiest legislator in Dover. The man’s name is so omnipresent, as a lead or additional sponsor, on legislation of significance that I have to imagine either that he is running for higher office, or that he is just the best damn legislator period. The cynic and politician in me wants the former. The good government romantic in me wants the latter. Kim Williams is a close runner up too.
So here is the updated Vote Tracker as of today, May 4, 2015. My focus on these vote trackers is to follow legislation of progressive significance, whether they be pro-progressive or anti-progressive. For example, we are following the Right to Work bill and the Estate Tax Repeal bill, not because we want them to pass, rather we want them to fail, and we are going to take note of any Democrat who votes for them so that we can work to replace them in the next election.
I have reorganized the Vote Tracker this month. It’s just one document now, and legislation with actual votes recorded is list at the top, followed by legislation that has been released by their relevant committees and are due for votes in one chamber of the General Assembly or the other. For the specific details of legislation that is being considered in committee, and also the whens, wheres, whys and wherefores, I encourage you to follow El Somnambulo’s Pre-Game Post-Game series.
Hillary Clinton Watch Over… Beau Biden Watch Begins
Well, we finally know that Hillary Clinton is running for President. Now we need to find out if Beau Biden is running for Governor. It is the central question in Delaware politics, and really, no one knows the exact answer to it, just like no one really knows what medical condition the former Attorney General suffered back in August 2013. But we finally got some Beau Biden news on Friday that may shed some light on some answers.
Monday Open Thread [5.4.15]
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Republicans love to call themselves Christians and denounce anyone who doesn’t vote for or follow them as un-American non-Christians, but the truth is it is all projection:
Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) was criticized by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) for “hiding behind Jesus to expand Medicaid” according to a report in The Atlantic.
The two Republican governors confronted Kasich at a donor forum hosted by the Koch brothers in Palm Springs.
A source at the event told The Atlantic, “It got heated.”
If Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley were Christians they would actually follow Jesus Christ and care for the poor, sick, elderly and the needy. Instead, they are fellating their rich benefactors and criticizing those who are following Christ’s example. I hope they both go straight to Hell.
Time for a Separation
And by that I mean, a separation of Delaware’s Democrats in the General Assembly from Governor Jack Markell (D). On Friday, the Governor went on Rick Jensen’s show on WDEL and stated that he would veto House Bill 50 (the opt-out bill) if it passed the House and Senate. HB 50 would allow parents to opt their child or children out of state standardized testing. The bill cleared the House Education Committee last week and it awaits a vote by the full House, which may come this week.
“I never say what I’m going to do to a bill in advance, but I can say I absolutely do not support that bill,” Markell said. Markell said it’s his job to do what’s best for Delaware kids, and he said opting out of the Smarter Balanced assessment isn’t the way.
“Civil rights communities across the country, the NAACP, the urban leagues have been very, very focused on not allowing opt out because they’re concerned that if the kids are allowed to opt out they’ll fall through the cracks,” he said. Markell also stood behind Delaware’s adoption of the Common Core standards.
They are falling through the cracks now because they are not learning. They spend all their time trying to prepare for an impossible test. But I digress.
These standardized tests are very unpopular with parents across the country and here in Delaware. They are very unpopular with teachers, and educators. They are only popular with those who want to “reform” education so as to either 1) privatize it, or 2) enrich themselves or their benefactors, or 3) both. So General Assembly Democrats have a decision to make.
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