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
Helping Progressives in Kent County!
Assignment time — there is a solid effort by Kent County Progressives to network and share ideas and they have a spanking new Facebook Page here.
Late Night Video — Gov. Chris Christie Traffic Jam
This has been just everyplace, but just in case, this fun parody of Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen and Jimmy Fallon is posted for your amusement:
Sunday Open Thread [1.12.14]
![Sunday Open Thread [1.12.14]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/DL.Thumbnail.png "Sunday Open Thread [1.12.14]")
The News Journal this Sunday morning prints a long piece that purports to look at the “pay for play” culture in Delaware politics. It is interesting, since they don’t really get much into real instances of pay for play, with the exception of the possibility of the Stolz project. Also interesting since one of the people who has been convicted for improper political donations was frustrated enough by the process to scream at his judge that he never got anything for his contributions (Zimmerman). Most of this looks at the charges being thrown at Veasey that he was too light on the people he looked at — pretty much coming down on the side that there wasn’t much there for Veasey to work with. This seems to be the place that any reform effort needs to point towards:
The problem Veasey faced is that the state’s election law is a “Mickey Mouse statute,” Hurley said. “It’s poorly drafted and full of holes.”
Wednesday Open Thread [1.8.14]
Dana Milbank wants to know where the outrage is from Democrats over the cuts to unemployment benefits. He notes that this kind of thing used to be real red meat for OG Democrats to beat up the GOP over. And I agree with him — you can’t effectively launch an effort to critique income inequality in the US without starting to wrap the problem around the GOP’s neck. Even though there is plenty of Democratic policy that has been complicit in this. But the GOP has been wringing its hands over paying for these extended benefits, so where are the Dems offering to eliminate the subsidies to oil companies as a way to pay for this?
Monday Open Thread [1.6.14]
![Monday Open Thread [1.6.14]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Congress-240x180.jpg "Monday Open Thread [1.6.14]")
Harry Reid was on Face the Nation yesterday and he is not ruling out eliminating filibusters:
BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, let me just ask you this: I mean listening to you this morning if the Republicans continue to throw up the kind of opposition you’ve been receiving, you say you’ve been receiving, do you have plans to extend this ban on filibusters? Right now you’ve– you’ve worked out this rule which they vehemently oppose that– so they– it’s very difficult for him to filibuster nominations. Would you be willing to just go to a Senate where just majority rules and that’s it?
SENATOR HARRY REID: Well, Bob, I think it’s something that we have to understand.
BOB SCHIEFFER: So you’re thinking about that?
Finance Committee Hearing on the Bonds for the MBNA Charters on Monday
We talked about this here, when this item first came onto the City Council calendar. Monday — January 6, 2014 — at 5:00 is the Finance Committee hearing that will explore this proposal in some detail. You can see the agenda for the meeting here — this is the only item on the schedule. The meeting is open to the public, and is going to be held in the 1st Floor Council Workshop room (next to the Council Chambers) in the Redding Bldg. Pass this info along to anyone you think will be interested in what happens here.
Saturday Open Thread [1.4.14]
![Saturday Open Thread [1.4.14]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/13624-thumb-240x180.jpg "Saturday Open Thread [1.4.14]")
Pope Francis has been in the business of afflicting the comfortable recently and one of the comfortable has issues — noting that the Pope doesn’t understand American rich people and that donations by rich American Catholics might now be at risk:
At issue is an effort to raise $180 million for the restoration of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York being spearheaded by billionaire Ken Langone, the investor known for founding Home Depot, among other things.
Langone told CNBC that one potential seven-figure donor is concerned about statements from the pope criticizing market economies as “exclusionary,” urging the rich to give more to the poor and criticizing a “culture of prosperity” that leads some to become “incapable of feeling compassion for the poor.”
Corrupt Politics, But No Charges
That is the title of the NJ article that tries to summarize the investigation that resulted in the recent report from special prosecutor E. Norman Veasey. If you are interested, you can also read the entire 101 pages of the report here (pdf). I haven’t finished reading the whole of the document, but here are a few thoughts:
Friday Open Thread [12.27.13]
![Friday Open Thread [12.27.13]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Wilmington-240x180.jpg "Friday Open Thread [12.27.13]")
How to Legalize Cannibis — Please. Get this done soon — Mark Kleinman is looking for some good discussion in how to do it well:
The initiative process may be the only way of accomplishing legalization in some states, but the ordinary process of legislation, where feasible, is likely to yield better outcomes.
The bulk of the revenue of a legal cannabis industry, like the bulk of the revenue of the beer industry, will come from people with substance abuse disorder. Thus the commercial interest will be opposed to the public interest in minimizing the growth of the clinically impaired population.
In the face of the lobbying power of the cannabis industry, it will be difficult to maintain high taxes or tight regulation. A state-monopoly system at retail might be preferable. The doctrine of “commercial free speech” makes the regulatory problem harder; one advantage of a state monopoly would be better consumer information. But the state lotteries demonstrate that a revenue-driven state monopoly can be just as ruthless as any private enterprise.
The Year End Chip Flowers Fingerpointing
This is a comment rescue, from a piece that John Manifold linked to for us from Delaware State News, where Chip Flowers is still trying to avoid taking responsibility for the basic management of his office. This time, he wants you to know that the OMB is responsible for terminating an exempt employee that he hired. And “politics” is at fault for the OMB leaving him with the Personnel bag, as it were, even though the employee has already resigned and is done with her medical leave:
Late Night Video — The Needy vs The Greedy
Seriously, people, this is not what the spirit of giving is supposed to look like.
Saturday Open Thread [12.21.13]
![Saturday Open Thread [12.21.13]](http://imgick.nj.com/home/njo-media/width620/img/gloucestercounty_impact/photo/13958015-mmmain.jpeg "Saturday Open Thread [12.21.13]")
As pointed out in the open thread last night, the Deputy State Treasurer has been denied her request to return to a Merit job following her medical leave and resignation from the Department of the Treasury. So we have an employee of the Treasury who resigned her office, but took a medical leave to deal with an unnamed situation, who is back in the office now (doing what?) and is now told by OMB that she will not be allowed to return to the merit system. And of course, Chip Flowers is still pointing fingers (at the OMB) and is now threatening them:
“I am very concerned that the OMB continues to publicly talk about personnel matters, which clearly violates the state’s privacy and confidentiality policies,” Flowers said. “While I recognize that Director Visalli and the staff of OMB, if the state gets sued, would not have to write a personal check, I think it’s egregious they’re willing to put taxpayers on the hook for a large lawsuit just to cover their you-know-whats in public.”
In Which Sheriff Christopher Pretends He’s Real Law Enforcement Again
The ever hapless but ever blustering Sheriff Christopher has signed on to an effort to not enforce President Obama’s gun control laws — whatever they might be. If you look at this list of associations and Sheriff’s who have signed on to this idiocy, you can definitely tell that the completely non-law enforcement Christopher is hoping that no one will notice that he is not wearing the grownup’s long pants at this table. He can’t enforce anything, so here he is pretending he really does belong at the grownup table. But the other thing that is funny about this bit of wingnuttery is that there are new gun control laws right in his own backyard that he can’t be bothered to claim to not be enforcing. Maybe he won’t enforce these laws in where ever it is that he is supposed to be moving to after being smacked down by the state courts.
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