This guy has the right idea

We have to start treating the American South, with their open carry and voter suppression like a pariah nation, similar to South Africa in the 1980's and 1990's. If they want "open carry" and voter suppression, fine. They just don't get that stuff and also get to be treated like grownups.
Daniel Hamermesh, an economics professor emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin, plans to withdraw from the university because of his concerns about the campus carry law that will go into effect in Texas in August 2016. According to a Tuesday report from the university's student newspaper, The Daily Texan, Hamermesh will teach at University of Sydney next fall.
Today’s Word Is: Petulant

Today’s Word Is: Petulant

Petulant.   pet·u·lant ˈpeCHələnt/ adjective (of a person or their manner) childishly sulky or bad-tempered. Imagine this. You’re attending or employed by a large land grant university that receives a measly…
Thursday Open Thread [10.8.2015]

Thursday Open Thread [10.8.2015]

Sen. Bernie Sanders “is uninterested in going through the motions of typical debate practice,” Politico reports.
“While CNN is billing the event as a showdown, Sanders’ team sees the first Democratic debate as a chance to introduce a fairly niche candidate to a national audience. So his team intends to let him do what he’s been doing. Far from preparing lines to deploy against Clinton — let alone O’Malley, Lincoln Chafee, or Jim Webb — Sanders plans to dish policy details, learned through a handful of briefings with experts brought in by his campaign.”
I think that would be a good thing. A detailed filled debate. No personal attacks. Quite a contrast to the GOP.
Lie of the Year. Perhaps of the Decade.

Lie of the Year. Perhaps of the Decade.

In a dog-bites-man story, the despicable House Majority Leader Valerie Longhurst, aka 'Pete's Enforcer', sought to essentially narc out someone who had the temerity to question the raises that D House leadership bestowed upon its staff.  Longhurst did it by leaking an e-mail exchange and issuing a veiled threat to the constituent's employer.  This News-Journal story captures the essence of Longhurst as well as anything I've read. Please read the story. You'll see that Longhurst is first utterly disingenuous in somehow claiming that she HAD NO IDEA whether the e-mail in question reflected the official position of the University of Delaware.  Her intent was clear: To get the employee in trouble, and to underline that the General Assembly, due to its infinite charity, provides funds to the University of Delaware and, gee, wouldn't it be a shame if that relationship was threatened by this e-mail? And, now, to the Lie of the Year.  In Delaware, this is almost certainly the Lie of the Decade:
“I was just asking a question,” Longhurst said. “I’ve never bullied anybody. If that’s the perception, that’s the perception." “How is it intimidating?” she told The News Journal. “I just raised a question.”
McCarthy’s Benghazi Committee Truth Gaffe is an Indictment of the DC Press Corps

McCarthy’s Benghazi Committee Truth Gaffe is an Indictment of the DC Press Corps

Josh Marshall makes an important point.
The only thing amazing about this is how it took a momentary remark by McCarthy to suddenly make what everyone knows into an acceptable point of public discussion: namely, that the Benghazi Committee was not only a transparently political exercise (that's hardly unprecedented) but just a complete crock by every definition. Without McCarthy's clumsy remark, DC's establishment press apparently didn't realize this was the case or didn't think it was an acceptable point of discussion. That's amazing.
Your "liberal media" everybody... Fair and balanced!
Bethany Hall-Long to run for Lt. Governor.

Bethany Hall-Long to run for Lt. Governor.

Not that it was much of a secret, since she attended the Jamboree in Sussex County (it is pretty rare for upstate politicians to do that unless you are running for something) and it has been rumored that she would run for some time. But now there is official paperwork. The News Journal says this will shake up the Lt. Governor race. I say it ends it. But DD, there are now six candidates!?! How can you say it is over? Well.....
Wednesday Open Thread [10.7.2015]

Wednesday Open Thread [10.7.2015]

Nate Cohn: “Vice President Joe Biden has less support in the polls than Bernie Sanders and hasn’t raised a single dollar for a presidential campaign. Yet if Mr. Biden does decide to seek the presidency, he will pose a greater challenge to Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.” I agree. Sanders draws big crowds, and he polls well in New Hampshire, a state he might win. But Sanders is polling behind Biden in every later contest (see polling inside). Biden seems to have the better electability argument on his side, at least in Florida (see polling inside).
The father should be charged and tried as an adult

The father should be charged and tried as an adult

Early Saturday evening, an 11 year-old boy from Jefferson County, Tennessee, took his father’s unlocked shotgun and shot and killed, with premeditation, his 8 year-old neighbor, McKayla Dyer, from inside his house – because she wouldn’t show him her puppy. According to the local news station WKRN-TV (video below), the boy had a history of bullying the little girl. Her mother, Latasha Dyer said: “He was making fun of her, calling her names — just being mean to her…I had to go the principal about him, and he quit for a while, and then all of a sudden yesterday he shot her.” The boy, whose name is being withheld by authorities, has been charged with first degree murder, but a judge is to decide in the coming days whether or not to transfer the case to adult court.
We need to stop calling these incidents accidents.