Kinder Morgan Deal Is Dead

In today's Open Thread, SussexWatcher points us to the news. Both the NJ and WDEL have reports up providing a summary of what was in the Kinder Morgan letter and some local reaction. EDIT -- WDDE has put up their report with some additional detail on why KM walked away. It looks like the deal is off of the table, although the NJ discussion with KM seems to leave a slim bit of wiggle room for everybody.

Late Night Video –What If You Rammed Every Car That Cut You Off

Ever been cutoff by a clueless driver? Where you had to accomplish the feat of standing on your brakes while also spewing forth every curse you've ever known? Me too. So what if you didn't hit your brakes and just hit the offender's car? That is what the maker of these videos has done -- Alexei Volkov, a bus driver in Zelenograd, Russia not only just hit the cars that cut him off, but he videotaped them. This video (approx. 1 min, 30 secs) is a compilation of some of these events. It is funnier than it should be and I do not endorse this, but damnit, I sure do understand why he did it!

Sunday Open Thread [3/3/2013]

The end of the weekend Open Thread -- I went to the Home Show yesterday and had the chance to meet the great Jim Westhoff, who we liked ALOT for the DE House a few years back. Just the kind of candidate we need more of IMO, and he is a great guy, to boot. Today I'm thinking about all of the cool stuff we saw at the Home Show yesterday, and wondering if I should go buy myself a house with a proper yard so I can put a hot tub out there.

Late Night Video — A Serious Cause for Mourning

So sad (and I'm not especially a fan of the stuff) --
The night shift at a Chivas Brothers distillery screwed up this week and accidentally flushed about 6,000 gallons of Scotch whisky down the drain, according to reports from Scotland. The 80-proof goof happened early Tuesday at a bottling plant in Dumbarton, where workers were cleaning equipment. Instead of purging the wastewater, they instead expelled 18,000 liters of bulk whisky into the local sewage system. "It was like someone turned on a tap, and it just ran straight down the plughole," an "insider" told The Scottish Sun.

City Council Hearing on the Port of Wilmington

Yesterday evening there was a Wilmington City Council joint committee hearing -- the Economic Development Committee and the Public Works Committee -- to gather viewpoints and input on the proposed privatization of the Port of Wilmington to be run by Kinder Morgan. While invited, no one from the Governor's office spoke on this project, but there were a number of businesses from outside of the Port fence who did speak on the potential conflicts and downside that this deal presents for them. I think that this may have been the first public forum that provided these businessmen (as well as the ILA) a chance to make their concerns heard. Senator Bobby Marshall was also in the audience, but did not speak.

Democrats — This Is How You Treat Fox News!

Rep. Keith Ellison called out Sean Hannity in an interview yesterday that was supposed to be about the sequester. Ellison starts after watching a lead in that plays stupid scary music over a mashup video intended to show President Obama in a bad (not objective! not both sides do it!) light:
"I mean, you know, quite frankly, you are the worst excuse for a journalist I've ever seen. Quite frankly, you are the worst excuse for a journalist I’ve ever seen. …What you just displayed was not journalism. It was yellow journalism. It wasn’t anything close to try to tell the American people what’s really going on. I mean it’s just shocking. …Every journalistic ethic I have ever heard of was just violated by you. …You are a shill for the Republican party. …You alibi them 100% of the time."

Today is the Port of Wilmington Bond Bill Hearing

It started at 10AM in Dover and it doesn't look like it is being live streamed anywhere -- which is a pity. I'm hoping to hear from those of you who did go in the comments below. But in the meantime, I want to repeat what I think is one of the two most compelling reasons why the port shouldn't be privatized -- having over a monopoly for the running for the ONLY port shipping terminal that Delaware has to a private entity is not a business decision that is in the best interests of taxpayers.