Post-Mortem Long Reads

Post-Mortem Long Reads

Lots of interesting ink has been spilled about the National election and it seems to be converging on the idea that Democratic Congressional candidates simply could not provide voters with a real reason to get out and vote for them. They couldn't beat a GOP candidate in Staten Island who is under indictment, threatened to throw a reporter off of a balcony in the Capitol building and was otherwise just clueless. I'm going to provide some links to the better pieces I've read so far, but we'll start with Bill Maher's assessment (from his Facebook page):
I feel bad for the people Democrats are supposed to represent, not the Democratic candidates. They remind me of the Iraqi Army - running when they should fight.
Sign This Petition — Rep. Smyk Should Apologize

Sign This Petition — Rep. Smyk Should Apologize

Sexual assault is serious and traumatic for its survivors -- and there is no comparison to paying taxes. Insisting on that comparison is certainly callous and certainly stupid. Two things that may, in fact, be habit with Rep. Smyk. He needs to apologize (and stop chasing down people he thinks are responsible for circulating this) and he needs to apologize now. Please sign this petition that calls upon Smyk to apologize for his stupid and offensive use of the word "rape" in trying to defend corporate interests. Then, make sure you go vote for Marie Mayor, who will certainly respect and represent her constituents better than this.
Is This What’s Happening at the News Journal?

Is This What’s Happening at the News Journal?

We all know that the NJ is working on the lastest Gannett revenue extraction scheme -- the Newsroom of the Future -- that mainly looks like a way to implement a staff reduction while re-orienting their attention to their website, rather than the paper. This article from the Nashville Scene provides some details of what is going on at The Tenneseean (another Gannett property going through the same thing):
Rep. Smyk Thinks Delaware Casinos are Being Raped

Rep. Smyk Thinks Delaware Casinos are Being Raped

So he says in this recording of a debate answer defending his vote for bailing out casinos. Smyk is -- surprise -- an ex-cop and the district he represents is the area where Bradley committed his crimes against children. And this career cop wants you to believe that the taxes paid by casinos are the equivalent of rape. A comment that completely diminishes the violence of real rape and completely devalues the real trauma endured by its victims. To be sure, plenty of Ds voted for this bailout too -- but none of them would tell you they were somehow in the rape prevention business. His opponent, Marie Mayor, has a great response -- that the revenues from casinos ought to be in use the fix Delaware infrastructure, which is exactly right. So the choice is between the R who wants to reduce the casino taxes vs the D who wants to help get our roads and bridges fixed. There's no point in re-electing Smyk if the only people he plans to represent are a handful of casino owners. Come inside for the video....

Sheriff Christopher Screws Up and Cost Sussex County $7,426,461

It is all laid out for you in this Delaware Right Guest Post by Georgetown lawyer John Sandy. Sandy took a look at the recent bid documents reprocuring process serving services in the County. The Constitutional Sheriff couldn't bring himself to follow the requirements of the RFP and lost the contract. A contract that should have added about $7M to Sussex County coffers. Seriously -- go read the whole thing. Mr. Sandy provides documentation to back this up and also takes a look at how Christoper paid for his lawsuit via a non-refundable retainer with one of the law firms that represents the County. He claims that since it was a non-refundable retainer, that his lawsuit where multiple courts told him his view of the constitution wasn't even worthy of a fiction award, that the taxpayers paid no money for his defense. Sussex doesn't operate on a retainer basis and Sandy provides a summary of the invoices presented to the County to defend his boondoggle. Seriously folks, go read the whole thing. Not only is Christoper a bad constitutional scholar (?), he's been an incompetent administrator of the office, losing a major revenue stream. And he is a liar. Sussex County citizens should send him to jail.
Debate Night!

Debate Night!

There's a debate for Attorney General Candidates (I don't know if this includes all of the ballot-qualified candidates) at Widener tonight, starting at 6pm, conducted by WDEL. You can listen on WDEL or go over to Widener to see it in person. Delaware Public Media and the University of Delaware Center for Political Communication sponsor debates with the major party candidates for U.S. House and U.S. Senate tonight at Mitchell Hall. This website provides the times (House starts at 7 and the Senate starts at 8), and there are rules for the debates there as well. Not sure if you can still attend in person, but that is likely there at the website. You can also watch a live stream (I think!) of the House and Senate debate.

Wednesday Open Thread [10.15.14]

South Carolina Prosecutors Say Stand Your Ground Doesn’t Apply To Victims Of Domestic Violence. Well, of course not! Stand Your Ground is for white men who want to shoot people with impunity! So silly to think that an expansion of 2nd Amendment rights would apply to you women and colored people:
In the cases of women who claim they feared for their lives when confronted with violent intimate abusers, prosecutors say the Stand Your Ground law shouldn’t apply. “(The Legislature’s) intent … was to provide law-abiding citizens greater protections from external threats in the form of intruders and attackers,” prosecutor Culver Kidd told the Post and Courier. “We believe that applying the statute so that its reach into our homes and personal relationships is inconsistent with (its) wording and intent.”
Brenda Mayrack is Wiping the Floor with Tom Wagner

Brenda Mayrack is Wiping the Floor with Tom Wagner

I've been listening to this debate on WDEL and Brenda Mayrack is really crushing it here. Wagner is crouching behind a story that his is a technical and complex job, which is why he isn't doing accountability and watchdog roles -- even though he thinks he should be re-elected to do accountability and watchdog work. He sounded *very* condescending to her and she bypassed that BS to stay on her message. Wagner spent a great deal of his time explaining how the real work of accountability belongs to agency management and the legislature. Basically, Wagner wants you to know that:

Monday Open Thread [10.13.14]

This ought to be the talk of everyone today -- with the Texas Ebola problem, we are seeing how the US Public Health system has been deliberately broken: That chart is from a great piece in the Scientific American, showing how Public Health spending has been on the decline. The author, Judy Stone, provides some context for how Public Health considerations have been undermined over the past few years. Read the entire thing, then take a look at some of the material she provides in the links at the end of the article:
QOD — How Can An Accountability Testing Scheme Produce Such Low SAT Scores?

QOD — How Can An Accountability Testing Scheme Produce Such Low SAT Scores?

We found out this week that approximately 25% of Delaware's High school students are college-ready, in terms of their SAT scores. Leaving aside that SAT scoring is not the most reliable measure of college-readiness, what is the correlation between the SATs and the DCAS testing regime in Delaware's schools? It seems to me that if DCAS measures what a kid is learning (yes, I know that is a BIG IF), and the kids are taking a curriculum that makes them ready for college, how can the SAT scores be so out of line with all of this testing? It is pretty remarkable to me that DCAS is used as an accountability test, but that it apparently all of that learning it measures doesn't translate to better SAT scores.