Delaware Dem's Latest Posts
Wednesday Open Thread [3.18.15]
![Wednesday Open Thread [3.18.15]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/DL.Open_.Thread.White_-240x180.png "Wednesday Open Thread [3.18.15]")
Josh Marshall: “The relationship between the Clintons and the press and the political class generally is codependent, toxic and frankly ridiculous on both sides – with extreme self-protection and legalism on one hand [The Clinton’s] and hyperbole, nonsense and wolf-crying penalties on the other [the press and pundits]. Like any perennial and bad relationship it is exhausting to watch and generally impossible to pick apart where one part ends and other starts. Which is a reaction to the other, which is first? I have no idea anymore. It hardly matters.”
The public doesn’t care. Despite the controversy over her use of private email while Secretary of State, a new CNN/ORC poll finds 57% of Americans say Hillary Clinton is someone they’d be proud to have as their president.
![Wednesday Daily Delawhere [3.18.15]](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3893/15337077652_c97848cbd5_c.jpg "Wednesday Daily Delawhere [3.18.15]")
Sheriff Lee Gets Constable Powers Because He is not an Insufferable Asshole
It turns out that former Sheriff Jeff Christopher lied repeatedly when he said he and his office were “relieved of arrest powers.” Why is this a lie? Well because the Sheriff’s office had the power to arrest before as part of their constable powers. But the Sheriff have to reapply for that power over a period of time to the State Board of Examiners of Constables. Jeff Christopher refused to reapply for constable powers for his office in January 2011, and then went on a tea party tirade. The new Sheriff Lee got back those constable powers simply by reapplying for them.
Tuesday Open Thread [3.17.15]
![Tuesday Open Thread [3.17.15]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/DL.Open_.Thread.Gray_-240x180.png "Tuesday Open Thread [3.17.15]")
Now that the General Aseembly is back in full swing, so is our political calendar. Come inside to learn about some important upcoming events.
First Read: “It’s unclear the exact impact that Netanyahu losing on Tuesday could have on U.S. domestic politics, especially when it comes to the Iran nuclear debate. But it wouldn’t be good news for hawks. Think about it: Netanyahu comes to the U.S. Congress to make his final argument — on Iran, against President Obama’s foreign policy — and his party loses what had seemed to be a winnable election? Right or wrong, Netanyahu getting involved in domestic U.S. politics would be blamed for the surprising loss. So [today] is going to be a big story.”
Meanwhile, Nancy LeTourneau of the Washington Monthly documents the numerous incidents of Republican failure to govern, noting that the Republican Party is in total disarray. And Fred Kaplan says “It is a useful thing when a political party reveals itself as utterly unsuited for national leadership.”
The Top 10 Paid Public Employees in Delaware
Here are the 10 highest-paid state / public employees from the calendar year of 2014. To be honest, with the exception of Orlando George, none of these seem out of step with their job duties and/or the employee’s degrees and status (i.e. a Doctor is going to make over 200k, sorry, but that’s the breaks). Even a superintendent making over 200k is not outrageous to me. That Markell is at the bottom of this list at #85 is amusing to me.
People always scream and cry about cutting the jobs and salaries of educational professionals in the school districts whenever education funding comes up. But looking at this list, it would seem to be that the real vacuum cleaner of state money are the State Police and Homeland Security jobs. I guess that comes with being a Police State.
Tuesday Daily Delawhere [3.17.15]
![Tuesday Daily Delawhere [3.17.15]](http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8649/16790625446_ed4433a701_z.jpg "Tuesday Daily Delawhere [3.17.15]")
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! An indoor view of my, and Delaware’s favorite beer, Dogfish Head. From Mike Mahaffie on Flickr.
Not Satire.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports that former Republican nominee and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney will be getting in the boxing ring and fighting Evander Holyfield in May as part of a charity fundraiser. I’m not making this up.
The Vote Tracker: Review the New Bills Introduced Last Week
Representative John Kowalko pre-filed a couple of bills last week that are worthy of mention. First, House Bill 42 calls for the University of Delaware and Delaware State University to be fully subject to the state Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). House Bill 43 adds appointed members of the Cash Management Policy Board to the definition of “public officers.” This designation would subject the appointed members of the Board to annual financial disclosure requirements. Think of this as former Treasurer Chip Flowers’ legacy.
House Bill 44 seeks to phase out the use of three controversial flame retardants in children’s products or furniture sold in Delaware.
But the granddaddy of them all, the bill that will bring down an Administration’s education agenda, House Bill 50. This bill would give parents or guardians the right to opt their children out of the Smarter Balanced Assessment System.
Clean Water Petition
The Clean Water Campaign is a statewide effort to educate people about Delaware’s water quality and to secure support for dedicated funding. Clean water is critical to our economy, environment, wildlife, food source, and public health. So please consider signing a petition to the General Assembly to provide funding for Clean Water for Delaware. Come inside to learn more.
Monday Open Thread [3.16.15]
![Monday Open Thread [3.16.15]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/McConnell-240x180.jpg "Monday Open Thread [3.16.15]")
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN that he plans to hold hostage the nomination of Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch until such time as Democrats capitulate on the Human Trafficking Bill.
Said McConnell: “This will have an impact on the timing of considering a new attorney general. I had hoped to turn to her next week, but if we can’t finish the trafficking bill, she will be put off again.”
“Democrats are now holding up the trafficking bill, which glided through the judiciary committee, after they noticed an abortion provision embedded in the bill that would prevent victims of human trafficking from using restitution funds to pay for an abortion.”
Fine. All business in the Senate will now end until such time as the Republicans remove this anti-choice poison pill amendment from the bill. No other business can be considered. Eric Holder has no problems staying on as Attorney General, so that is not a concern.
Yes, Mitch, we just shot your fucking hostage and took one of our own: your entire Senate. And go fuck yourself.
![Monday Daily Delawhere [3.16.15]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7025/6717250829_7ca228fa83_z.jpg "Monday Daily Delawhere [3.16.15]")
Begun, the Education Wars Have.
Today’s News Journal Dialogue Delaware section dovetails nicely with the post I wrote on Friday. I’ve been told by multiple people, in and out of the education field, that it has the best headline ever. Sometimes cutting through the bullshit calling bullshit bullshit is the best way to garner attention to an important truth: all standardized testing is bullshit. At least in relation to the stated goal of helping students learn and gauging their learning progress.
Representative Sean Matthews, himself a teacher, has penned a wonderful op-ed in the above Dialogue Delaware section, and he uses more polite language to make the same point.
There are many ways to talk about the role standardized testing plays in our public schools, but there’s one question that we have to answer before we can debate the issue: Do these tests make our students smarter, more capable and more prepared to lead successful lives?
After decades of testing at all levels, with different standards, methods, benchmarks and outcomes, the answer to that question is not what we thought it would be. Overwhelming numbers of scholars, parents, statisticians and legislators are starting to realize, with evidence, that standardized testing and the policies that flow from testing are doing more harm than good.
Over the next three months, students in Delaware’s charter and traditional community schools will be asked to take a standardized test called the Smarter Balanced Assessment. The stated goal of this test is to pinpoint strengths and weaknesses in our educational system.
But that’s not the whole story.
Most standardized tests are designed by for-profit companies that market their materials to states, which are required by federal law to test public school students in return for federal funding. Under this business relationship, the best interests of the testing firm are not aligned with the best interests of students, teachers and schools. Instead, there is great incentive to make students and their educators look like they’re “failing” so that these same firms can offer their own branded “reforms” and “solutions” to states and districts, for a worthy fee.
Sunday Open Thread [3.15.15]
![Sunday Open Thread [3.15.15]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7484/15457615324_0272ed329e_z.jpg "Sunday Open Thread [3.15.15]")
Jonathan Chait on why there is no Republican Plan B for replacing Obamacare: “All the Republican predictions have failed. Just this week, the Congressional Budget Office once again revised down its cost projections for the law, which is now projected to cost 20 percent less than originally estimated. Given conservative certainty that the opposite would occur, you might expect some revision. But conservatives have not abandoned or even reduced their fervent opposition to Obamacare. This is because the right’s specific, measurable predictions about the law are subordinate to deeper, philosophical beliefs.”
“They oppose the law’s methods (more taxes, spending, and regulation) on principle. They believe those methods will fail to achieve their stated goals, but even if they succeed, they oppose them anyway. Republicans cannot design a partywide health-care alternative because they cannot reconcile the specific things most Americans want from the health-care system (access to affordable insurance, protection from discrimination against preexisting conditions) with their ideological commitments.”
And that is why I have always said the Republican Plan for Healthcare is exactly the situation Obamacare was passed to address: Republicans believe only those who can afford it should get healthcare, as it is a privilege in their eyes and not a right. And if you have a preexisting condition, or if you have met your illness or lifetime cap on insurance payments, or if you are a woman, tough shit.
Recent Comments