cassandra_m
"You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas." -Shirley Chisholm
cassandra_m's Latest Posts
Hijacking a Comment to Create an Open Thread [9.14.14]
Stealing this from Geezer in the Sunday Daily Delawhere thread:
I’ll treat this as the open thread so I can post this link to Thomas Frank’s piece from Salon, which is the best thing I’ve read so far this morning.
John Manifold responds Geezer’s post of the Frank article with this:
Thomas Frank : Ezra Klein
Rousseau : Voltaire
Thursday Open Thread [9.11.14]
![Thursday Open Thread [9.11.14]](http://webmedia.newseum.org/newseum-multimedia/tfp_archive/2001-09-12/lg/DE_NJ.jpg "Thursday Open Thread [9.11.14]")
It’s the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and there are memorials and remembrances everywhere. You can see the front pages of newspapers worldwide as printed on 9/12 from the Newseum. Here’s the NJ front page from that day:
Ken Simpler Thinks That Seniors Are Stealing From You
He argues in this piece over at Town Square Delaware that seniors who are taking advantage of Medicare Part D subsidies and co-pays are stealing. To be fair, the analogies and even the basic metaphor here are incredibly tortured. Starting with trying to make the hold up a bunch of convenience stores somehow the equivalent of presenting an insurance card to get a discount on medications, then moving on to claim that savings from the Medicare Part D aren’t savings, then working at trying to wrap around all of it around no free lunches, government taking, the NJ needing to report better and Astra Zeneca laying people off. (This was sent to be by a GOP pal, who noted in his email to me “You will have a field day with this!”)
Liveblog President Obama Speech on ISIL
The President interrupts your Prime Time at 9PM EDT to tell the nation about his plan to deal with ISIL. The Guardian has a good overview of what to expect from tonight’s speech, because apparently the American outlets are occupied with 1) the optics, 2) the horserace, 3) the appetite of Americans for bloodshed and 4) President Obama’s poll numbers. Sheesh.
Wednesday Open Thread [9.10.14]
You’ll find spinning wheels at the top of Netflix, Etsy, Foursquare and other top sites today, as they take part in Internet Slowdown Day. While sites won’t slow down for real, participating Internet companies will be covered with the symbolic loading icons “to remind everyone what an Internet without net neutrality would look like,” the organizers write on their website.
It’s all part of a push to get the Federal Communications Commission to enact stronger protections for net neutrality. “We’re going to reach millions and millions of people who have never heard the words “net neutrality” before,” writes Fight for the Future’s Evan Greer. The group advocates for tougher net neutrality protections.
Interesting, I haven’t noticed the slowdown yet — have you?
The Polls Are Closed! Primary Election Results Thread
The real news of the day is that turnout seemed to have been abysmally light all over. Even the NCC DOE took to Facebook to say how light the turnout was and to urge people to vote. But the polls are closed now and candidates should be getting the final numbers of the day. Are you working on a campaign today? What was it like out there?
Delaware Liberal Primary Endorsements
Took long enough, right? We’re ready with our endorsements, after a simple vote. We did not require a unanimous decision to endorse, but I think we pretty nearly were unanimous on these. This is who your charming and knowledgeable Editors endorse for tomorrow’s primary:
Monday Open Thread [9.8.14]
As states restrict the ability of women to get legal abortions, there will be more stories like this:
A Pennsylvania woman has been sentenced to up to 18 months in prison for obtaining so-called abortion pills online and providing them to her teenage daughter to end her pregnancy.
Jennifer Ann Whalen, 39, of Washingtonville, a single mother who works as a nursing home aide, pleaded guilty in August to obtaining the miscarriage-inducing pills from an online site in Europe for her daughter, 16, who did not want to have the child.
Whalen was sentenced on Friday by Montour County Court of Common Pleas Judge Gary Norton to serve 12 months to 18 months in prison for violating a state law that requires abortions to be performed by physicians.[…]
Whalen told authorities there was no local clinic available to perform an abortion and her daughter did not have health insurance to cover a hospital abortion, the Press Enterprise newspaper of Bloomsburg reported.
And this is what the War on Women looks like — criminalizing what shouldn’t even be the state’s business.
Sunday Open Thread [9.7.14]
It’s been GOTV weekend here in Delaware and there are still races that are worth talking about — witness Mike Protack running against Janet Kilpatrick for NCCo Council proudly waving the flag for Metropolitan government (joining the governments of Wilmington and NCCo):
If elected, Protack said he would push for a metropolitan government in which the county would take over most functions from the city of Wilmington, which he called “a giant anchor” for New Castle County. He claimed without county intervention the government would be bankrupt, like Detroit, within five years.
“It could be a shining diamond, so it’s really a shame,” he said. “We need to save it from itself.”
Oh my.
Delaware ADA Makes Their Endorsements
This is actually Round 2 of the ADA endorsements — and their complete list (from their Press Release) is listed below. This list (mostly) doesn’t surprise me:
Late Night Video — The List of Rules for Women
The incomparable Jay Smooth works in this new video (about 2 and a half minutes long) at trying to round up the current set of rules for women so that women can get their humanity respected. After trying to grapple with the ever changing rules that (mostly) men prescribe for women to be able to make their way unassaulted in the world for awhile, he does note that it might be easier to provide a list for men:”Hello, Asshole. Women are human beings.” BAM! Still, let the mansplaining begin.
Tuesday Open Thread [9.2.14]
![Tuesday Open Thread [9.2.14]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/black-children-240x180.jpg "Tuesday Open Thread [9.2.14]")
The Washington Post published Five things to know about Delaware’s election, noting that there are no Bidens on the ballot and noting that Beau Biden has gotten large contributions from Peter Angelos and the Buccini Brothers. They also note that Brenda Mayrack seems to be cruising in this primary and that Kevin Wade might be tilting at windmills. Smink has a COD endorsement? Yikes.
It’s Labor Day and Someone Forgot About Winning Hearts and Minds
Today was the Labor Day Parade in Downtown Wilmington — a long-standing tradition of organized labor, their families and supporters and (during an election year) politicians who want to be seen supporting labor marching down King St. This year, the union rat was also on parade courtesy of the Building Trades (I’m told — I was not at the parade this year) and this year, they put the face of John Kowalko on it — in protest of his not supporting the Newark Data Center. Pretty despicable behavior — especially towards someone who is routinely supportive of labor issues in Dover. Even more delusional when you factor in the fact that Rep. Kowalko was actually representing his *constituents* in the Data Center matter. Even union members can get that sometimes the people that actually vote in an area are pretty important to hear — and in the long run, it isn’t as though they’d be able to replace him with someone who is more committed to labor issues. I’ll also point out that these folks taking the cowards’ route in criticizing Kowalko today haven’t been able to find anyone who could credibly run against him — and seriously labor folks, if you think you can get someone more supportive of your agenda AND make those residents happy, then man up and get that person to run against Kowalko. Otherwise, what you did today was not worthy of what today is supposed to represent and it was just basic bullshit. A picture (thanks to my anonymous source) of today’s labor bullshit is here:
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