Adventures in Personal Responsibility — Or Being Mike Protack

I know that some of you are on Facebook and you've been a witness to weeks of insulting and trolling behavior from Mike Protack. Personally, I'm not friends with the guy, but some of my friends are, and the exchanges I've seen have been utterly unhinged. No matter the topic at hand, what emerges is the completely resentful Mike Protack -- blaming Democrats or unions for all of the worlds' ills; insulting the intelligence, the appearance, the ethnic background, the appearance of the *kids* of his interlocutors; making stuff up; and just generally lacking in the basic social graces that got him banned from this place. Whether he is talking about education or same sex marriage, all he's been capable of over on Facebook is anger, insults and ignorance. Yesterday, Esteban Parra documented the most recent incident -- one where Protack decided to get his inner racist on:

QOTD — Why Is the NJ Still Paying Attention To This Woman?

This question is courtesy of commenter AQC. And the woman in question is Lenore Matusiewicz, the wife of the man who shot their grandchildren's mother at the NCCo Courthouse. It looks from here that the NJ is basically a venue for pretty much every antic this woman is working on. Today's antic are claims that the the State of Delaware is withholding her husband's body from her and withholding the autopsy report. Insert eye rolls here.

Guest Post — Statement in Support of Senate Bill 19 by Stewart Dotts

Today the Senate is expected to debate and vote on Senate Bill 19, to abolish Delaware's death penalty. This Guest Post is by Mr. Stewart Dotts -- this was his testimony from last Tuesday's committee hearing. Mr. Dotts also served as a juror in the capital murder trial of James Cooke. After I read this, I was really sorry I couldn't have been at that hearing. This is powerful testimony. Mr. Dotts has given us permission to reprint his testimony in its entirety. And even though debate and vote is on Tuesday, there is still time to reach out and let your Senator know that you support REPEALING the death penalty in Delaware, and they should vote YES to repeal. Reach out to them here, from the Repeal Project website. Read Mr. Dotts first:

What Guest Worker Programs Look Like

Last week, there was a surprise strike at multiple McDonald's restaurants in Central PA -- of student guest workers from Asia and Latin America who are here on J-1 visas. First, though, I'm pretty stunned that these restaurants can't find workers closer to home. It isn't as though we don't have millions of people looking for work, but I'd love to know why it is so difficult to hire American fast food workers.

Monday Open Thread [3.11.2013]

Welcome to Monday, people. This is one of those Mondays where the list of stuff to get done when you left on Friday had magically trippled by 8:30AM. And don't get me started on the hour that Daylight Savings Time stole from me.

Kinder Morgan Deal is Dead Part III

Let's call this part The Secret of the Ooze. Today's NJ provides a front page followup to the Kinder Morgan aftermath. If you've been following this story, there's a few questions that are unanswered and the News Journal DOES NOT ask them, either. Let's start with Speaker Pete noting that the Port Director wants $156M over 10 years to keep the facilities in some competitive position:

Late Night Video — To This Day

To This Day is a poem by Shane Koyczan -- a man who understands bullying from the perspective of both the bullied kid and as the bullier. This poem explores the deep pain and dislocation of being bullied and being the bullier. And he has a message for those experiencing the same difficulties. This video is approx. 12 minutes long and I was in tears at the end:

Sunday Open Thread [3.10.2013]

It is a gorgeous Sunday, following a gorgeous Saturday. I'm even thinking about working on my yard this afternoon -- a thing I try to ignore until the very last minute. In any event, I hope you are enjoying this day!

Kinder Morgan Deal is Dead Part II

Or we could call it Kinder Morgan Deal is Dead -- The Fingerpointing. The NJ has another piece up this AM -- Port lease efforts on hold, which has a few more details on this story, but mostly it is additional reaction from some stakeholders. Aaron Nathans gets a key bit wrong -- there wasn't a $200M investment on the table, it was more like $41M. The rest was lease payments to the state. But the more I hear about this, the more I wonder about what we don't know about this deal. Was this lease payment meant to be funneled back to the Port for the automation upgrades talked about for the warehouses? Who knows. I have attached a copy of the letter so you can see it directly.