Author Archives: cassandra_m

About cassandra_m

"You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas." -Shirley Chisholm

Zombie Casino Alert! Part IV (Studying Our Failures Episode)

The end of this legislative session finds Delaware taxpayers footing an $8M bill to help the local casinos pay the increased costs of their equipment providers who are apparently paid with a percentage of the casino’s profits. Casinos now pay those vendors 6% of the profits for equipment and machines and expect to pay 10% after these contracts are re-upped. In addition, Epilogue language provided for a new Lottery and Gaming Study Commission

to study the viability of the First State’s gambling industry, including the taxes the racinos pay the state to operate.

Think about that for a minute. We are “studying” the taxes the racinos pay, we are sending them $8M to cover their increased costs, we didn’t get a no layoffs promise in return for that money. This after we spent money on a study commissioned by the DE Sports and Video Lottery Commission to take a look at the competitive field if we added two more casinos, and then promptly rejected the conclusions of that study — which recommended adding two new venues. The Governor and the GA knew then (2010) that the casinos were facing serious challenges. And we knew that they were dead wrong then, and now that all of these new venues in PA and MD have come on line (and come online like gangbusters), the threat is suddenly here.

As the DE Sports and Video Lottery Commission signaled back in 2010, they won’t be concerned with the long-term viability and competitiveness of this industry — but they will be invested in making sure that the current crop of owners get paid. So as you look at this going forward, we are specifically looking at your government protecting the interests of a very few people. I’m amused to recall that in the aftermath of the Kinder Morgan leaving the state that the Governor accused the people who opposed this deal as not knowing much about business. Because a business that didn’t have the chance at taxpayer monies making their balance sheets whole, would have been investing in where they could be competitive and cutting the strings on those venues that had no long term viability.

Instead of working on better competition, the Governor and the GA are working out a path to decrease the taxes they earn from these operations. Notice that it is a given that the vendors whose take goes from 6% to 10% won’t be giving back anything. Layoffs from casinos are not off of the table. The state taking less money — and still not being able to give their own workers a raise — is the only solution that seems to be on the table.

These casinos have a much bigger problem than state taxes. They’re customer base has been eroded due to other venues in PA and MD, and I can’t figure out what they’ve done to try to cultivate a different customer base (much less energize their old customer base), but I can tell that they’ve spent alot of time persuading the Governor and the GA that they are Too Big to Fail. Maybe everyone is trying to stay in a holding pattern until Internet Gambling comes on line. Is online gambling a savior? I don’t know. But if they are waiting for that, they should condition any cut in taxes with an expectation that taxes go right back up when this comes online.

Zombie Casino Alert
Zombie Casino Alert, Part II
Zombie Casino Alert, Part III

QOTD — Will Harry Reid Invoke the Nuclear Option?

On Thursday, Harry Reid is expected to ask his caucus to weigh in about invoking the nuclear option to change the Senate rules to stop the ability of the Republicans to filibuster President Obama’s executive and judicial appointments.  This is after Reid agreed to a very weak fix to the filibuster rules with McConnell back in January, a weak fix that McConnell proceeded to regularly violate:

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, frustrated by a dysfunctional and unpopular Congress that has been unable to perform basic tasks such as agreeing on a federal budget, may soon seek an unprecedented rules change in the Senate.

The Nevada Democrat’s aim would be to strip Republicans of their ability to stop President Barack Obama’s judicial and executive branch nominees with procedural roadblocks known as filibusters, which also have been used to halt much of the president’s legislative agenda.

This would ONLY be for personnel nominations, the filibuster would stay for legislation. John McCain is quoted in this article as being very worried about this change, while being completely complicit in the filibusters that have kept the Senate as dysfunctional as it is. Mitch McConnell is on record elsewhere as feeling very victimized by this action and threatening to change the filibuster rules for everything if the GOP ever gets control of the Senate. Which seems fine to me. The Dems aren’t especially good at the obstruction part and quickly cave in when editorial pages start calling them to task over it.

But we went through this in January, when for a few days it looked like real structural changes would happen. Instead, Harry Reid expected to be able to abide by a handshake deal with McConnell. A thing many people noted at the time was incredibly stupid.

So what do you think? If the GOP filibuster the next couple of nominations (and that looks like it could be Gina McCarthy for the EPA, Thomas Perez for Secretary of the Labor Department and Richard Cordray as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, plus 3 possible spots on the NLRB), will Harry Reid invoke the nuclear option and change the filibuster rules?

Late Night Video — Even the Kids Know High Stakes Testing Isn’t Meant to Help Them

More evidence that the Kids Are Alright.  At least this one is, and he has a compelling message for the purveyors of high stakes tests — he wants an education, not a multiple choice test:

<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”//www.youtube.com/embed/C7TJ8KqOSyQ” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

HB 88 Fails to Pass the Senate After Overwhelming House Vote

HB88 is a bill that sought to better define (so it could actually be enforced) procedures by which dangerous mentally ill persons could be restricted from firearm ownership, but also creates a path to let those restricted demonstrate that they are no longer dangerous and able to manage their gun rights. This is a great bill — one that was worked hard by the House, to ensure that concerns of all sides were reasonably dealt with and it passed the House 40-1. A bipartisan victory by any stretch of the imagination — and it means that the House reached a remarkable consensus on this issue. This bill was sent to the Senate, who voted it down tonite 6 – 13, with 2 not voting. One of the not voting was Bryan Townsend (D-11), which surprised a great many people. Cathy Cloutier voted NO on this, even though she is reported as telling folks she would vote YES. Michael Barbieri is the bill’s primary sponsor, and I am told that he needs to get just one Senator who voted NO to bring it back to the floor.

To say that this defeat is a surprise is an understatement. It’s overwhelming majority in the House should have been an indication to the Senate of just how well this bill had been worked. In addition, the NRA was NEUTRAL on this bill — as good as it gets on a gun measure. How did it get defeated? Ever hear of a group called First State Liberty?

It is run by Eric Boye, who is plenty new here. And I understand that after HB88 passed in the House, a campaign of robocalling began to get people to contact Senators on this issue. As is often the case, the robocall was more about scaring people than actually informing them. This group is toxic enough that even the Delaware State Sportsmans Association has warned its membership about this group — saying that is is a counterfeit organization that is run by persons with their own interests at heart, rather than those of gun owners:

Two of these groups, the National Association for Gun Rights and First State Liberty, are not, I repeat NOT, representative of DSSA or NRA here in Delaware. The leaders of these two groups, Dudley Brown and Eric Boye, have their own personal agendas and do not have the best interests of Delaware’s law-abiding gun owners, hunters, sportsmen & women, and Delaware’s Second Amendment activists at heart. In fact, Mr. Brown, isn’t even a Delaware resident. All they want is your money!

Even more interesting is First State Liberty’s tale of how John Sigler (shooter of pigeons, GOP resigner) helped make sure that the GOP in the House voted for HB88. Why? The folks at First State Liberty allege that Sigler was using a bill to get guns out of the hands of the dangerously mentally ill to enrich the company that he works for, Psychotherapeutic Services. Got that? Sigler hung around long enough to get HB88 through the House so that his company could benefit, but then why would he resign before it got through the Senate? No one with a scheme like the one spun up by First State would actually leave the work undone — letting go all of these potential goodies just when they are in reach?

What is really amazing is that the Senate didn’t just talk to the House to make sure that their concerns were dealt with in this bill. And that the Senate wasn’t just reacting to the usual wingnut conspiracies. Because it sure looks like they did, rather than listening to the local organizations and groups who really do represent Delawareans. Delaware State News has some reaction by Beau Biden:

“This is the Aurora bill,” A.G. Biden said, referencing the July 2012 movie theater shooting in Aurora Colo., where James Eagan Holmes killed 12 people and injured 58 during a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises.” Holmes had met with mental health professionals prior to the mass shooting and had made homicidal statements, but action had not been taken.

“This is to fill that gap,” A.G. Biden said of individuals who have been voluntarily committed for treatment, but could still potentially purchase a firearm.

The NJ reports that that AG Biden’s expert providing testimony on the bill may have confused some:

Dr. Neil Kaye, a Hockessin psychiatrist tapped by Biden’s office for support, appeared to create some confusion on the Senate floor by saying the gun bill would only apply to those committed to an institution to receive treatment for a mental illness. The bill, in fact, could have been applied to anyone believed to be dangerous by a mental health professional.

As of this writing, I don’t have the final vote tally, but will post when I can get it. But it looks like Senators Townsend and Poore sat this one out and Senator Peterson actually voted No. (CORRECTION: Senator Peterson voted YES according to the tally posted today.) The entire situation is pretty remarkable, since there’s been an insistence that guns are not the problem, but mental illness is. Yet here is a pretty good bill that narrowly defines how a limited group of those who might be dangerous could be kept away from guns, and we have the Delaware State Senate running away from it.

ADDING — the Vote Tally (thanx Pluribus):

Blevins                  Y

Hall-Long             Y

Henry                    Y

McDowell            Y

Peterson             Y

Sokola                   Y

Bonini                   N

Bushweller         N

Cloutier                N

Ennis                     N

Hocker                  N

Lavelle                  N

Lawson                 N

Lopez                    N

Marshall               N

McBride               N

Pettyjohn            N

Simpson               N

Venables             N

Poore                    X

Townsend           X

Late Night Video — Same Old Party

That’s the name of this new video from the DNC — which appeared shortly after I was wondering whether the Dems can capitalize on the GOP’s failed rebranding. This is *quite* good! More like this please (and get your members to say this stuff in front of cameras) (approx. 2.25 minutes long):

Supreme Court DOMA and Prop 8 Watching Thread

DOMA is Unconstitutional:

The Supreme Court ruled 5-to-4 on Wednesday that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstituional. Roberts dissents. Scalia dissents. DOMA is unconstitutional as a deprivation of the equal liberty of persons that is protected by the Fifth Amendment.

From the decision: “DOMA singles out a class of persons deemed by a State entitled ot recognition and protection to enhance their own liberty.”

Update on the Prop 8 case: The court does not reach the merits of this case, instead ruling that the Petitioners (the private citizens seeking to enforce Prop 8 after the State of California refuses to appeal the District Court’s ruling to the 9th Circuit) lacked standing to bring their appeal. That means that the District Court’s ruling that Prop 8 is unconstitutional is upheld, and that means same sex marriage is now once again legal in California.

It’s Amateur Hour for Wilmington City Government — Again

Last Thursday, the Wilmington City Council introduced a bill to make the first amendment to the newly approved City Budget. This new amendment would restore the $300K that was eliminated from the Mayor’s Contingency Fund and adds back $80K for a position in the Finance Department, and:

The amendment also would restore $89,000 to the Human Resources Department and $18,000 to the Planning Department. A $250,000 allocation for an enhanced trash and recycling program will be reappropriated, while $142,000 earmarked for small business development will be reduced to $50,000.

Should the amendment pass, next year’s budget will increase by about $487,000 to $145.6 million and leave Wilmington with a surplus of $108,141.

Got that? After a process where the Wilmington City Council actually looked like they were serious about some budget discipline (with the exception of their own $250K contingency fund), and serious about their role as a co-equal branch of the government — someone over there decided that they needed to replay a poker hand that they decidedly won. And decidedly won mostly on the merits. And this deal isn’t a compromise, either. They are simply replaying a hand to capitulate — and to get nothing for that capitulation. They certainly aren’t helping out taxpayers here, they are blowing off their co-equal bonafides and have signaled to an awful lot of people in the City that we’re pretty much on our own here. I don’t know what the vote on this will be at the next Council Meeting, but I think that it is a good bet that most of these folks will vote for additional budget expenditures that accomplish nothing. It’s a shame, really, but Amateur Hour isn’t a new place for City Council and I guess we have 3 and a half years to live with a group of people who will be paying close attention to constituent service ( a few exceptions to this expectation), but who aren’t going to be strong partners in governing. Council President Gregory is calling this move a “compromise”, but City Council gets nothing out of this deal — other than a black mark for failed leadership.

Then, we have the clusterf*** for a West Center City event that has been going on annually for 3 years. Instead of advising the group involved of new rules and/or requirements and working with them to get them satisfied, they mostly dragged their feet, provided inscrutable answers and definitively told the group NO 3 hours before the event. Amateur Hour here revolves around City Departments not understanding that they are responsible for some transition too — if rules, requirements, partnerships change, then it is up to these departments to work to communicate these to their constituents ASAP and do what they can to work with those constituents to acclimate to the new deal. This is a customer service failure from top to bottom and this event was in the works long enough that any potential issues could have been ironed out cleanly. Then, a Parks and Rec employee who also works with this group gets fired after she attends the event. As a volunteer and participant in this group — not as a city representative. At City Council on Thursday, Council President Theo Gregory hinted that the Administration may be working at being more responsive to Council Members who voted against the override of the budget. No one knows if this is exactly true, but there are Councilpeople who are wondering if things are happening or not happening based on their votes. I have no idea if this is the case, but even letting service get to a point where people can wonder about this seems to be one more failure of client service.

Because at bottom, the people being ill-served by all of this are the people who pay taxes in the city — the people they most need to keep.

Sunday Open Thread [6.23.13]

Here are some long reads for Sunday:

Bloomberg Businessweek takes a look at the business of private consultants working in the US spy business, by taking a look at Booz Allen. Big Government spending indeed:

Even so, spending can spin way out of control. According to the ODNI, a typical contractor employee costs $207,000 a year, while a government counterpart costs $125,000, including benefits and pension.

A U.S. Department of Homeland Security computer systems contract awarded to Booz Allen around the same time had similar issues. Over the course of three years, costs exploded from the original $2 million to $124 million, in large part, auditors at the Government Accountability Office would later report, because of poor planning and oversight. But even when the problems came to light, as the Washington Post reported, DHS continued to renew the contract and even give Booz Allen new ones, because the agency determined it couldn’t build, or even run, the system on its own.

Anyone seen any of these small government teajadis screaming about this misuse of taxpayer funds? Didn’t think so. I’ll make this point again — there is a great deal of Big Government that is housed in the buildings you see around the DC Beltway. And they are doing incredibly sensitive work actually running huge bits of the Federal government, while government employees are the ones held up as overpaid and incompetent. While Federal government employees haven’t had raises for awhile — you can bet that their contractors are getting raises AND the government is paying every bit of it. And that doesn’t even get into the question as to whether or not spying ought to be done by contractors.

One of the decisions we are waiting for from the SUpreme Court this week is the so-called affirmative action case that Abigal Fisher brought to rectify her non-admission to UT Austin (one of the most selective state insitutions in the country). ProPublica did a deep look at the details of this case back in March — A Colorblind Constitution: What Abigail Fisher’s Affirmative Action Case Is Really About:

Race probably had nothing to do with the University of Texas’s decision to deny admission to Abigail Fisher.

In 2008, the year Fisher sent in her application, competition to get into the crown jewel of the Texas university system was stiff. Students entering through the university’s Top 10 program — a mechanism that granted automatic admission to any teen who graduated in the upper 10 percent of his or her high school class — claimed 92 percent of the in-state spots.

Fisher said in news reports that she hoped for the day universities selected students “solely based on their merit and if they work hard for it.” But Fisher failed to graduate in the top 10 percent of her class, meaning she had to compete for the limited number of spaces up for grabs.

She and other applicants who did not make the cut were evaluated based on two scores. One allotted points for grades and test scores. The other, called a personal achievement index, awarded points for two required essays, leadership, activities, service and “special circumstances.” Those included socioeconomic status of the student or the student’s school, coming from a home with a single parent or one where English wasn’t spoken. And race.

Those two scores, combined, determine admission.

Even among those students, Fisher did not particularly stand out. Court records show her grade point average (3.59) and SAT scores (1180 out of 1600) were good but not great for the highly selective flagship university. The school’s rejection rate that year for the remaining 841 openings was higher than the turn-down rate for students trying to get into Harvard.

As a result, university officials claim in court filings that even if Fisher received points for her race and every other personal achievement factor, the letter she received in the mail still would have said no.

Sandal of the Week!

The US Navy says that Cap’n Crunch is not really a Captain!

The Cap’n was unmasked on June 14 by a food blogger, who noticed the uniform he wears on cereal boxes had the stripes of a commander, not a captain. That is: A captain has four stripes on his sleeve, while a commander has three.

As the story spread, the Navy confirmed what you might be fearing: Cap’n Crunch is a fraud, tricking innocent children since his introduction in 1963.

What interests you today?

Saturday Open Thread [6.22.13]

It is *really* fun to have Delaware music events — Firefly and the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival — at the forefront of what people are talking about this weekend. I’m off to the Jazz Festival later today.

Republicans are responsible for the majority of voter fraud in the US. Interesting, if true. And I’ll note that none of it would have been stopped by Voter ID, either:

This past Tuesday, Adam Ward of Bassett County Virginia pleaded guilty to 36 counts of voter fraud and perjury in connection with an attempt to help Newt Gingrich reach the number of signatures required to appear on last year’s Virginia presidential primary ballot. Ward collected over 11,000 signatures on behalf of Gingrich, over 4,000 of which, according to investigators, could not be verified. According to RawStory, the Virginia campaign of Texas governor Rick Perry faced a similar dilemma, with almost half the 11,900 signatures collected on his behalf failing verification. No Perry supporters are currently facing criminal charges.

The NYT takes a look at What Else Could a $30 Billion ‘Border Surge’ Buy?

Regardless of where it’s going, $30 billion is a staggering figure. But Republicans want to use the money to almost double the size of an already robust Border Patrol, to 40,000 agents from 21,000. They want to add 700 miles of fencing. And for good measure, they plan to throw in some infrared ground sensors and thermal imaging cameras, along with a fleet of drones.

Given that these are not exactly boom times, recent investment in other projects of major national consequence has been seriously inadequate. Infrastructure spending, for example, is now at its lowest point in 20 years. Excruciatingly expensive trains can barely make their way at anemic paces along the northeast corridor without breaking down, and we’ve all but abandoned talk of expanding to real high-speed trains. In the past month alone two bridges collapsed — in Washington State and Minnesota — and countless others desperately need repairs. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave this country’s bridges a C+ rating for 2013.

You can argue that the ASCE’s rating is self-serving, but there is no doubt that American infrastructure is deteriorating and not being upgraded to meet increased demands. This is largely about safety, and making sure that people and goods can get to where they need to go in an efficient manner. But we apparently have the funds to build the Berlin Wall on our southern border, but not to ensure the safety of families driving over our bridges.

Edward Snowden is charged with espionage. Espionage? That seems an odd charge for basic whistle-blowing.

What interests you today?

QOTW — What to Read This Summer?

QOTW = Question of the Weekend. So it is officially summer and I know some folks will try to catch up on their reading while the world slows down a little. Sometimes the reading is in taking up a challenge (like the Infinite Summer group reading Infinite Jest, or last summer’s OccupyGaddis group) or just moving something long intended to the top of the stack or some new summer blockbuster (there’s a new Dan Brown out) or escaping to some spy or romance world. So do we have any summer readers here?

If so, what are you reading and recommending this summer? I started the summer reading The Patrick Melrose Novels: Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, and Mother’s Milk, with the last of the cycle, At Last, up next. If you are a fan of Downton Abbey, this is the anti-Downton. British upper class without much to do, losing their money, their influence and their way of life — vividly (even savagely) written — brilliantly keeping you involved with a bunch of characters you’d probably never have lunch with. St. Aubyn is a brilliant writer.

Tell us in the comments what you are reading this summer!

Friday Open Thread [6.21.13]

Senator Chris Coons has been appointed to the Senate Appropriations Committee. This is a big deal for Senator Coons — the last time a Delawarean was on this committee was in 1973, when Caleb Boggs was last on the committee. We congratulate him on this appointment:

“The Appropriations Committee offers a unique opportunity to make a difference for Delawareans on an extraordinary range of issues, and to ensure that the federal government is making the wisest, most efficient investments in our future,” Senator Coons said. “My priorities on Appropriations will be consistent with my work in the Senate so far — helping businesses grow and create jobs; supporting innovative research; giving law enforcement the tools to keep our communities safe; and building a circle of protection around the most vulnerable in our society. I am excited to join Chairwoman Mikulski and Vice Chairman Shelby on the committee, and grateful to Leader Reid for his confidence in my ability to make a difference here.”

I wish that he had made a commitment to making sure that Social Security was preserved for everyone, but perhaps Senator Coons knows something about the importance to Delawareans that I don’t.

Thw Washington Monthly profiles one of my favorite Governors — Martin O’Malley.

The truth is, what makes O’Malley stand out is not his experience, his gravitas, nor his familiarity to voters (Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden crush him in those regards). Nor is it exactly his policies or speeches (New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, both rumored presidential aspirants, have cultivated similar CVs). Nor is it that he plays in a band. Nor is it even the Atlantic’s breathless claim last year that he has “the best abs” in politics. (Beneath a photo of the fit governor participating in the Maryland Special Olympics’ annual Polar Bear Plunge, the author gushed, “What are they putting in the water in Maryland?”) Instead, what makes O’Malley unique as a politician is precisely the skill that was on display in that windowless conference room in downtown Annapolis: he is arguably the best manager working in government today.

Tales of GOP Outreach — this is from a County GOP Chair, talking about a GOP African-American candidate:

“Rodney Davis will win and the love child of the D.N.C. will be back in Shitcago by May of 2014 working for some law firm that needs to meet their quota for minority hires,” he wrote. “… Now, miss queen is being used like a street walker and her pimps are the DEMOCRAT PARTY and RINO REPUBLICANS.”

You can see the whole email here. This guy has since resigned, but seriously, people. Keep up the good work in reaching out to women and minorities.

Great reading — How Republicans stopped worrying and learned to love big government The GOP is trying to baseline budget projections over 30 years rather than 10, since the 30 year projections are way scarier than the (recent) 10-year projections. Plus, it seems that with the massive increase in Border Security and the new discussion on spying on Americans, the GOP is AOK with *this* Big Government. It is too bad that Democrats are complicit here — because this is one more bit of GOP hypocrisy that they never get called on.

Two more days of the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival and Saturday looks like an amazing lineup (Wednesday was fantastic), so grab your chairs and some wine and munchies and head down to Rodney Square.

What interests you today?

QOTD — Howard Dean Running for President in 2016

Netroots Nation is underway and Howard Dean made some news early on — he’d consider running for President again. Particularly if he thinks the field needs to be pushed towards more popular positions:

“I am not driven by my own ambition,” Dean told CNN in an interview at the Netroots Nation conference, an annual gathering of left-leaning political activists. “What I am driven by is pushing the country in a direction that it desperately needs to be pushed; pushing other politicians who aren’t quite as frank as I am who need to be more candid with the American people about what needs to happen. I am not trying to hedge, it’s a hard job running. It’s really tough. I am doing a lot of things I really enjoy. But you should never say never in this business.”

And yet, he admits it is unlikely that he would run.

So what do you think? Should Howard suit up and run again? And would you support him if he did?