Republican Shutdown and Default Apocalypse Open Thread, Day 12

Here is the current state of negotiations as I understand it:
  • Obamacare is alive and no longer a hostage
  • The government is still shutdown and still a GOP hostage
  • The debt limit is still a GOP hostage
  • White House talks with the House are done or stalled -- it looks like the President is not negotiating  with the threat of shooting hostages on the table still
  • White House is talking with the GOP in the Senate who are trying to get a 6-month plan to open the government and and the borrowing limit extended through January.
Making Teajhadis Cry — Delaware Edition

Making Teajhadis Cry — Delaware Edition

Chris Coons leads Christine O'Donnell in a new poll for the upcoming U.S. Senate race -- 50-27.  50-27! That is the result of a poll recently (before the government shutdown) from University of Delaware’s Center for Political Communication:
The Center for Political Communications acting director Paul Brewer says often times early polling simply reflects candidate name recognition, but he does not believe that’s the case here after the well-publicized race between Coons and O’Donnell in 2010. “I know from other poll results that Coons and O’Donnell were equally familiar to the public,” said Brewer. “Coons does not have a substantial name recognition lead over O’Donnell. It’s more reflecting that views of him are more favorable than they are of O’Donnell.” Brewer adds the 50-27 spread in this poll is similar to the result in the 2010 race, which Coons won by 57-40 margin.
Looks like O'Donnell is going to have to cast quite the spell to make up this ground. AND it looks to me like Coons has plenty of room here to sign on to Mark Begich's Fix Social Security Bill. Which I still don't know why he hasn't.
Republican Shutdown and Default Apocalypse Open Thread, Day 11

Republican Shutdown and Default Apocalypse Open Thread, Day 11

Here is the current situation from what I can tell: Obamacare is alive and it is no longer a hostage. The Government is still shut down and the House is still trying to keep it as a hostage. The Debt Ceiling limit might be extended a few weeks (maybe a few months), but the GOP is still trying to keep it as a hostage. The GOP is really being beat up in the court of public opinion.
I Thought They Wanted to Talk!

I Thought They Wanted to Talk!

For all of the theater around the GOP claim that it is time to talk to get rid of this stalemate (even though the GOP have been dragging their feet on this for 6 months), it turns out that they don't want to talk, really. President Obama invited ALL Democrats and Republicans from both the Senate and the House to meet with him at the White House this week. Only 18 of the GOP members are going. Seriously. You whine and whine about talking with the President, the President invites ALL of y'all to meet with him in the White House and you can't bother to rouse your caucus. This isn't much better than not appointment members to a budget conference, really.
Paul Ryan Has a Plan to Save the Government — You Have to Give Up Your Social Security

Paul Ryan Has a Plan to Save the Government — You Have to Give Up Your Social Security

After being completely invisible over the past few weeks, Paul Ryan re-appears in today's WSJ to: 1) whine that the President is not negotiating with the House, 2) lie about previous debt-ceiling negotiations, 3) offer a trade of the sequester cuts for entitlement reform, 4) demand an opening of natural areas for more fossil fuel exploration, and 5) reform taxes.

Democrats Are Compromisers; Republicans Are Fanaticists

That seems to be the take away of a recent poll by YouGov for The Economist. Asking whether they wanted a member of Congress who "compromises to get things done" or one who "sticks to their principles no matter what", Democrats and Independents voted for compromise and the GOP favored sticking to principles. Which, observing this crew, is less about principles and more about sheer fanaticism. Although I note that there really is a good portion of the GOP who say they'd be interested in compromise too.

The 6th Most Dangerous State in America

That's Delaware's ranking in 24/7's most recent ranking of violent states based upon FBI's Uniform Crime Report (2012). They did this last year too, and we were 6th then. Even though violent crime has mostly been on the decline, that decline hasn't hit all areas of the US evenly. They use the FBI's definition of violent crime, which includes: violent crime includes murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. Both Maryland and Delaware make both lists, even though they both have relatively high educational attainment and relatively low poverty. What makes both states outliers is the violent crime that persists in sections of our biggest cities -- Baltimore in Maryland and Wilmington here in Delaware.
Can Chip Flowers Manage His Department’s Budget? All Signs Point to No

Can Chip Flowers Manage His Department’s Budget? All Signs Point to No

In a bold act of *disclosure* this past Friday afternoon, at 4:30pm, State Treasurer Chip Flowers released his so-called "definitive and final report" on the problems his Agency has had with one employee in using her credit card in accordance with State regulations. This is a great example of the Friday afternoon data dump -- in which you hope that members of the media won't pay much attention and print your spin on this item. The Treasurer's "report" was dumped so late on Friday afternoon, that the press release that came with this thing didn't even get posted to the website yet. But perhaps this report was rushed out in an attempt to counterweight the News Journal article today that provides a big window into how mismanaged the expenses on Ms. Erika Benner's state-issued credit card were.

Republican Shutdown Open Thread, Day 5

The internal GOP civil war continues, the Dems still hold firm and Americans are still getting screwed over by this. And Obamacare is enrolling people for insurance the entire time. Time Magazine may have the best cover depicting the current madness: