Delaware Dem's Latest Posts
Death Penalty Repeal Released from Committee, but may face defeat on the floor.
House Judiciary Committee chair Rep. Larry Mitchell announced today that he has taken action to release the bill to repeal the death penalty (Senate Bill 40) from the House Judiciary Committee, and allegedly, House Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf has committed to placing Senate Bill 40 on the House agenda for Thursday, January 28. I say allegedly only because, given actions to date, I will believe it when it happens, and if it happens, than a hearty thank you is due to the Speaker. But the cynic in me wonders if the Speaker is only doing this because he knows the bill is going to be defeated, and in fact, given his agreement to do this, I must say that that is the likeliest outcome here.
As you may know, SB 40 was debated in the House Judiciary Committee last year, but it failed to secure enough votes to be released from the committee. Rep. Sean Lynn, a prime sponsor of the bill along with Senator Karen Peterson, had stated that he would petition the bill out of committee at the start of the new session. To do that, he would need the signatures or votes of the majority of the chamber (or 21 votes). That he did not do that, and instead it was Committee Chair Larry Mitchell released it on his own accord with an unfavorable endorsement, tells me that maybe there are not enough yes votes for this to pass.
So we will see how this goes. If you want the death penalty repealed and you want your Democratic or Republican legislators to vote that way, you better contact them between now and next Thursday.
Governor Markell’s Final State of the State [Livestream here]
![Governor Markell’s Final State of the State [Livestream here]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/State.State_-240x180.png "Governor Markell’s Final State of the State [Livestream here]")
Governor Markell will deliver his 2016 State of the State Address today in the House Chamber in Legislative Hall at 2 pm. It will be his final address. Come inside to watch the address.
Criminal Justice Reform in Delaware
The Complexities of Color Coalition, the NAACP Delaware State Conference, the Interdenominational Ministers Action Council of Delaware, the Delaware Latino Restorative Justice Project, along with other organizations, will be holding a news conference on Wednesday January 27th at 12 pm in the House Chamber at Legislative Hall to address the racial inequities in Delaware’s criminal justice system.
Thursday Open Thread [1.21.2016]
![Thursday Open Thread [1.21.2016]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Blue.Open_.Thread-240x180.png "Thursday Open Thread [1.21.2016]")
The party may actually be deciding that Trump is a man it can do business with… Republicans really, really loathe Cruz. And not entirely without reason…
Cruz would not be the Establishment’s first or second choice to run atop its ticket, but he’s far from the disaster Trump would pose. He’s substantively a garden-variety right-winger. Cruz is the candidate who can harness cultural alienation, populist distrust of elites, and anti-immigration sentiment into safe channels — safe meaning something that could result in something less than the meltdown that would be a Trump nomination. If Republicans despise Cruz so much that they allow Trump to prevail, they are making a historic mistake and choosing the devil they don’t know over the one they do.
Wednesday Open Thread [1.20.2016]
![Wednesday Open Thread [1.20.2016]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Black.White_.Open_.Thread-240x180.png "Wednesday Open Thread [1.20.2016]")
Michael Gerson, another panicking Republican, says Ted Cruz “is actually more of a demagogue than an ideologue.”
“For Republicans, the only good outcome of Trump vs. Cruz is for both to lose. The future of the party as the carrier of a humane, inclusive conservatism now depends on some viable choice beyond them.”
Michael Gerson is either a liar or he is delusional. The Republican Party as it has stood for over a hundred years, has not a home to humane, inclusive conservatism. All these establishment types crying over the fact that the monster they have relied upon to win elections for over a hundred years has escaped his chains, torn the mask off his master, and torn the curtain down to reveal the true nature of the Party. If Gerson is crying, he is crying over the fact that he can no longer pretend to be respectable and a Republican at the same time.
Tuesday Open Thread [1.19.2016]
![Tuesday Open Thread [1.19.2016]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Gray.Open_.Thread-240x180.png "Tuesday Open Thread [1.19.2016]")
Steve Benen says Bernie and Hillary offer Dems a choice: revolution or evolution.
More so than at any point in recent memory, Hillary Clinton presented herself last night as the inheritor of President Obama’s mantle. [In press releases during the debate last night, the Clinton campaign said] “Hillary Clinton believes we must build on the progress achieved under President Obama and that, no matter what, we can’t go backwards,” the press release said. “Despite 70 consecutive months of private sector job growth and landmark legislation for universal health care and Wall Street reform, Senator Sanders has a troubling history of questioning President Obama and his achievements.” […] Clinton wants to build on Obama’s legacy, while Sanders supports a far-more progressive and ambitious platform that would replace some of what Obama has done.
If you’re a Democrat who believes the Obama era has been filled with important accomplishments, Clinton wants you to know she’ll fight to protect those policies from Republicans who would tear them down. If you’re a Democrat who believes Obama’s successes have been too moderate and incremental, Sanders offers a more revolutionary alternative.
In other words, Clinton wants the Democratic primary to be a referendum on the Obama presidency – and in her vision, pro-Obama Democrats should side with her.
That’s actually not a bad plan. As Politico’s Michael Grunwald explained this morning, “The politics of this warm embrace aren’t hard to understand. Obama’s approval rating has climbed to nearly 50 percent, and nearly 90 percent among Democrats; he’s especially popular among African-Americans, a big part of South Carolina’s primary electorate. With unemployment down by half on Obama’s watch, the deficit down three fourths, gas at $2, and the uninsured rate at historic lows, what’s harder to understand is why the Democratic candidates have taken this long to embrace him. They’re going to be accused of running for Obama’s third term no matter what they say; it can only help them to make a case for the first two.”
Monday Open Thread [1.18.2016]
![Monday Open Thread [1.18.2016]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Delaware.Open_.Thread-240x180.png "Monday Open Thread [1.18.2016]")
What’s it like to be a non-white person at a Trump Fascism Rally?
“So a person came up to me and said, ‘Aren’t you the wrong color to be here?’”
I’m white, so I never really had the experience of what it must be like to be a minority, any minority, let alone grow up with that experience as an everyday experience. Reading this article gives you an insight into how horrible that experience can be, and how evil it is reinforce that feeling through statements like that above. I really hate white people sometimes.
We can see the Mountaintop, but we are not there yet.
In honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., one of our best Americans, I present his last speech to the world. You might not have ever heard it. It is a long speech. And you’ve never heard it. Listen to the first five minutes and the last two. You owe it to yourself to listen to it, at least those 7 minutes. These are his last words to the world. The morning after this speech he is killed.
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