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
QOD — Weigh In On the New Delawareonline Interface
Thanks to Steve Newton here, we have a new Question of the Day?
Does anybody else hate the new even-less-functional-than-before Delaware Online interface as badly as I do?
Valentine’s Day Open Thread [2.14.14]
![Valentine’s Day Open Thread [2.14.14]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/house-of-cards-netflix-240x180.jpg "Valentine’s Day Open Thread [2.14.14]")
This Open Thread *may* be late because DD decided to be early to his date with Frank Underwood and the House of Cards crew. Season 2 is on Netflix today and the early reviews strongly point to binge-watching. Apparently even President Obama is a fan, and tweeted a warning for No Spoilers:
If Progressives Show Up to Protest, Will Anyone Hear About It?
This past Sunday, 80K – 100K people from all over the US took to the streets in Raleigh, NC to protest the draconian policies that the GOP are implementing there. The protest, called the Moral March on Raleigh, was kick off of this year’s long Moral Mondays marches in Raleigh — marches that resulted in arrests of non-violent protesters last year.
The “Moral March on Raleigh,” organized by Historic Thousands on Jones Street (HKonJ) and the North Carolina NAACP, marched from Shaw University to the state capitol to push back against the “immoral and unconstitutional policies” of Republican Gov. Pat McCrory during the 2013 NC General Assembly session. Since North Carolina Republicans took over both legislative chambers in 2010, legislators have eliminated a host of programs and raised taxes on the bottom 80 percent, repealed a tax credit for 900,000 working families, enforced voter suppression efforts, blocked Medicaid coverage, cut pre-Kindergarten funding, cut federal unemployment benefits, and gave itself the authority to intervene in abortion lawsuits.
Sunday Open Thread [2.9.14]
VP Joe Biden tells CNN that he’ll make a firm decision about running for President Summer 2015:
Vice President Joe Biden joked this week that being able to drive his Corvette – is one good reason not to run. But, when asked to give another good reason not to run, Biden responded simply.
“I can’t.”
“There may be reasons I don’t run, but there’s no obvious reason for me why I think I should not run,” he said in the interview with Kate Bolduan on CNN’s “New Day.”
Biden went on to say he would make a decision “realistically, a year this summer.”
Is it me, or is this a little late? Realistically, there ought to be operations need to get stood up in Iowa and NH right around then right?
Saturday Open Thread [2.8.14]
In a bit of good news for freedom of speech, Beau Biden’s office has withdrawn its subpoena to find out who Peaceful Rioters for Wilmington, Delaware is. The relevant bit:
“They decided it wasn’t essential to the investigation and that’s a good thing,’’ MacRae said. “They have to be very discriminatory when they seek private information like that.’’
Joseph S. Grubb, the chief New Castle County prosecutor, said Biden’s top supervisors decided this week to withdraw the subpoena because the information would not further the criminal case – not because of criticism or opposition.
“The investigation kind of took a turn,’’ Grubb said. “It’s proven less likely there’s a relevant connection’’ between the creators of Peaceful Rioters and the Hockessin-area missives about top county officials.
Translation: We got caught in a fishing expedition and we’re trying to put a good face on our backing out of this strategy.
Chip Flowers and the Unraveling Details
Dan Gaffney had Chip Flowers on his program yesterday to talk about the press release that Chip sent out trumpting how much money the Treasury has made for the state. The conversation rapidly gets to other subjects, but it occurs to me that even Chip can no longer keep track of his own spin. You can listen to the interview here, it’s about 10 minutes long.
Thursday Open Thread [2.6.14]
PPP does some interesting polling in Alaska, finding that Hillary Clinton leads Sarah Palin in a matchup for President (44-43), with Palin still having pretty awful approval ratings (39% approve). Alaskans overwhelmingly approve of legalizing pot for medical purposes (74-22) and by a smaller, but still majority margin for recreational use (55-39). I’m especially interested in the polling for a referendum measure that looks to repeal Senate Bill 21, the Oil and Gas Production Tax which provided a big tax cut to carbon energy companies. This was a controversial thing and right now Alaskans say they will vote to repeal 43-31%. People do know when they are being screwed over for special interests and maybe if more of these had to be voted upon by taxpayers, there’d be fewer efforts to pad the pockets of the people paying for elections. The caveat, of course, is who knows what will happen with the special interests ramp up their fear and loathing campaigns.
Late Night Video — The Last Word on the Conservative Coke Ad Freakout
Co-signing this — there may be plenty of reasons to object to Coke and their products, but a well-executed commercial that highlights one of their longstanding branding ideas (DIVERSITY) ain’t one of them:
Superbowl Sunday Open Thread [2.2.14]
![Superbowl Sunday Open Thread [2.2.14]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/super-bowl-matchup-odds-240x180.jpg "Superbowl Sunday Open Thread [2.2.14]")
So are you ready? And who are you betting will win? Who is going to have the best ad? It is Superbowl Sunday (AKA for this matchup as the 420 Bowl), so use this thread to work out your trash talking and brag about your snacks.
Vote for Bike Delaware Now!
Bicycling magazine is conducting its annual survey of the best of local biking advocacy groups and our own Bike Delaware is on the list of nominees. They are nominated for ending the Share the Road idea — controversial, but highly ambiguous in noting exactly *who* was expected the Share the Road. Apparently motorists thought it was cyclists who were doing the sharing and cyclists thought it was motorists. Getting rid of that sign removes the ambiguity and was an idea that even DelDOT’s traffic engineers loved
Saturday Open Thread [2.1.14]
![Saturday Open Thread [2.1.14]](http://s3.amazonaws.com/dk-production/images/67468/large/ccFeb1.jpg?1391257568 "Saturday Open Thread [2.1.14]")
The NJ editorial this AM takes on the case of the subpoena to Peaceful Rioters (from Facebook). Frankly, I wished they would have called for all of the potential parties involved in this thing to cease and desist (I mean, who doesn’t see Setting’s claim of investigation the hateful material delivered to that Hokessin family as anything but a useful cover?). There are far too many Delaware Way hands who have their fingers in the pie here and I really hope that a judge gets to ask point blank exactly why Setting thinks there is a connection to Peaceful Rioters. Seriously, there are plenty of things for the AG to worry about — not the least of which is the illegal trafficking of guns to Delaware; an unfinished implementation of the Crime-Free Rental Housing Program or even the serious conflicts of interest present in Connections employees being on Wilmington City Council. Right?
Inequality for All is Showing Courtesy of Pacem in Terris
Inequality for All is a great documentary that gives Robert Reich an opportunity to explain in great detail how and why the most powerful middle-class on the planet is now shrinking and fighting for survival. I saw this in the fall and it is as entertaining as it is sobering. Pacem in Terris is sponsoring a showing of this film — so-sponsored with Common Cause Delaware — Tuesday, January 28th at 7pm at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Wilmington. The church is located at 1502 W 13th St, Wilmington, DE 19806. I think the showing is free (somebody confirm?), but they usually ask for a free will donation to help defray costs.
Governor Markell’s State of the State Address
We didn’t get to talk about this on Thursday when he delivered this address, but I hope you all had a chance to see it or to read it (there is a video of the address as well as a transcript of the speech at the link). The Governor choose the theme of Unleashing the Potential in Every Delawarean, which is certainly an excellent launching point to get to job, school, infrastructure investment as well as revitalization opportunities for Delaware downtowns. Here’s a summary of the major points from a recent press release from the Governor’s office:
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