Month: July 2015

Governor Markell announced today that he vetoed House Bill 50, the Opt-Out bill, which would allow for any student to be opted-out of any state or district assessment. He tried to soften that blow, and prevent an override vote, with some nonsense about signing a Senate Joint Resolution that seeks to get recommendations from various groups and school districts and boards. I have a better idea. Let's override that veto. HB50 passed the House twice by two-thirds margins, 36-3 and 31-5. And it passed the Senate twice by two-thirds margins, 14-7 and 15-6. Both chambers can vote again. Let's force them. Sign the Petition.

In its unanimous opinion, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit today affirmed the constitutionality of the Delaware Elections Disclosure Act, which was proposed and signed by Governor Markell in 2012. The act requires third-party groups and individuals to disclose their donors to the state elections commissioner if they publish advertisements or other communications that refer to a candidate in an upcoming election. Previously, only groups that directly advocated for or against a candidate were required to disclose their donors. "Delaware Strong Families," a group that sought to distribute voter guides in the 2014 elections, challenged the law because they thought disclosure of their funders would make them weak I suppose. Actually, they said the regulations were "burdensome" and it would "chill" its right to free speech. And they got an Federal District Court judge to agree with them, hence the appeal to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

Commissar Obama, this is Comrade Delaware Dem at the Houston Front. Operation Jade Helm 15 has succeeded. Donald Trump, the Iran Deal and Planned Parenthood video were perfect diversions to distract patriotic conservatives at the last minute. The Texan homeland was undefended!

Thanks to DC based Democrats and other Democratic chickenshits like John Carney, Chris Coons and Tom Carper, I have to read stuff like this:

Greg Sargent says that Republican shrieking over the Iran deal increase the likelihood that 2016 will be the rare elections in which foreign policy is a reasonably big deal. But he suggests that’s a debate Democrats should “lean into” rather than running scared like little cowards like they did in the 80's, 90's and early 2000's.

[T]he argument that develops around the agreement may also take shape around the virtues and risks of international engagement. And this could join other issues to feed into a broader contrast, in which Republicans are opposing international engagement on multiple fronts — including Cuba and climate change (on which we may have an accord later this year). Meanwhile, Clinton may well embrace international engagement on multiple fronts, and use this contrast to cast the GOP as too inward looking and trapped in the past to confront the challenges of the future.

Steve Benen pauses to take stock in the generational and historical scope of this day and this agreement:

At the start of the process, the smart money said these talks would fail. The hurdles were simply too great. Indeed, plenty of very credible observers feared that the attempted diplomacy itself might be a mistake – failure would leave the world in an even more precarious position than before the talks began. President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry recognized the challenges and risks, and they took it on anyway. Their success will likely put a stop to Iran’s nuclear-weapons program, but it also marks one of the most dramatic diplomatic accomplishments in generations. I’ve seen some suggestions about this being Obama’s “Nixon goes to China” breakthrough, but the comparison is imprecise – the Obama administration’s task was far more difficult. I’m reminded of this piece from the Washington Post’s Steven Mufson, published in March.

…Obama is not Nixon, and Iran is not China, and the comparison – made in newspaper columns and by some foreign policy experts – is illuminating largely because of important differences it exposes. Nixon’s visit to China was a powerful symbol – a longtime anti-Communist president strolling along the Great Wall and dining with senior party leaders. Unlike Nixon, Obama lacked a political record that would shield him from criticism for reaching out to a longtime foe. China also welcomed Nixon’s visit, whereas Iranian leaders still harbor suspicion of the United States.

[T]he nuclear agreement with Iran is arguably a greater diplomatic accomplishment than anything we’ve seen in modern American history.

As Andrew Sullivan often said... Meep Meep Motherf*ckers. Barack Obama will go down as the greatest President since Franklin Roosevelt.

For years, the 18th Representative District was represented by the Republican Speaker of the House of Representative, Terry Spence. Spence was first elected in 1980, and he was reelected over Democrat Ronald Queen with 62.5% of the vote in 1982. Spence won two other easy reelections in 1984 and 1986, and then ran unopposed in seven of his thirteen reelection campaigns. Even though his district was becoming increasingly Democratic. Until 2006. The district, by then, was 49% registered Democratic, with only 26% registered Republican. So the Democrats finally decided to actually run a credible candidate, and they found Mike Barbieri, a behavioral health professional Mike Barbieri to run against Spence. Barbieri came close, but he lost by 12 points. In 2008, Barbieri defeated Spence 52% to 48%. In a rematch in 2010, Barbieri won 53% to 47%. And he has been unopposed ever since, save for a quixotic primary by Christopher Piecuch. Piecuch is a young man, the owner of Owner of PQ's Landscaping LLC. He garnered 18% of the vote against Barbieri's 82%. In real votes, due to a low turnout primary, the votes were actually 577 to 123. Christopher Piecuch is running again, having already announced on Twitter...

I was trying to think of what the wingnut headlines will be for this historic agreement with Iran. VIENNA (AP) — After 18 days of intense and often fractious negotiation,…