I don't know what a Chief of Staff does. (Gives out raises to insiders?) I know Dave from the early days of blogging, and I will say this much - I like him. He is a nice guy. Good family man, upright citizen who wants the best for his community. A throw back. Of course he has a head full of nonsense regarding "right to work" and eliminating the estate tax being beneficial for society - but I could chalk that up to his being raised by people with heads full of nonsense. My point is that this feels like a step in the right direction for the DE GOP. Burris doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would put defunding Planned Parenthood on a list of priorities.

Get a load of Copeland's response to the recent NJ editorial in the city of Wilmington. It would be funny if the stakes were not so high.

GOP Reaction to News Journal Editorial

Newark, DE -- The Chairman of the Delaware Republican Party, Charlie Copeland, released the following statement this afternoon after reading today's News Journal editorial "Wilmington, our broken city, must be saved": "The News Journal has hit the nail on the head, and I commend them for their editorial this morning. I was particularly struck by the line, 'We must work to improve access to high-quality education in the city. We must work to ensure our young people have employment opportunities and the resources to succeed. We must stem the tide of guns flowing onto our streets'. "Republicans have not held a significant seat at the table in the City of Wilmington in over 40 years, and we have not controlled the Governor's Office in 24 years. This has left the City in the hands of one party control, and the results of that have been devastating. Our Party is well aware of this fact, and we have begun to reengage in the City to offer residents a real choice when they go to the ballot box. "Republicans feel strongly that our party has real solutions to the very real problems that face the City of Wilmington. We are prepared to meet with the Mayor, and others who have an interest in saving Wilmington, to work in a bi-partisan way to make things better.

So...What are they, these solutions? Why the secrecy? Can it be because the GOP's "solutions" amount to a handful of tax cuts for the businesses and individuals that are already getting a pretty good deal? Maybe we've taken tax cuts as far as they can go, and now Charlie is going to propose direct subsidies to our wealthiest businesses and individuals. I wouldn't put it past him.

I've been stewing about what is wrong with Democrats and the Democratic Party for a long time. What's I've arrived as is a pretty simple realization. The American left, and…

Last March the US Department of Education’s civil rights survey examined all 97,000 public schools in the US, representing 49 million students. They study found that...

Black students accounted for 18 percent of the country’s pre-K enrollment, but made up 48 percent of preschoolers with multiple out-of-school suspensions. Black students were expelled at three times the rate of white students. Black girls were suspended at higher rates than all other girls and most boys. Black students were more than three times as likely to attend schools where fewer than 60 percent of teachers meet all state certification and licensure requirements.

That's only 4 of the study's 14 key findings, and that is only looking at race and justice through the lens of public education. What does that say about us as a country? What does it mean for the lives of these young people who get caught in the gears of a criminal justice system so early in their lives? The town hall meeting on November 17th is set to address these and other pressing questions raised by the glaring racial inequities of our criminal justice system.

The virulence of the anti-gay hate on the right is now officially out of control. If you can stomach it, click on this video and skip to minute 6 to listen to the "Christian" "Pastor" who organized the Gay Hate Fest in Iowa attended by Ted Cruz. Merely being within 500 yards of this guy should disqualify a person from becoming the GOP nominee, but Ted Cruz ACTUALLY SPOKE AT HIS CONFERENCE. Cruz, naturally, used the conference to get his victimhood on:

“These threats are not imagined,” Cruz said. “There is a war on faith in America today. In our lifetimes, did we ever imagine that in the land of the free and home of the brave we would be witnessing our government persecute its citizens for their faith?”

Persecution of Christians apparently means making them bake cakes for gay weddings. Meanwhile, and unironically, the "Pastor" hosting the event demands the "religious liberty" to kill homosexuals in accordance with the teachings of the book of Leviticus.

Based on the polling, Secretary Clinton should crush Ted Cruz. But polls don't vote, people do. And right now, the Cruz voters are fired up - and the Clinton voters aren't. But that isn't surprising. Democrats have spent 25 years honing a simple, yet wholly uninspiring message - "We are a little less crappy than them!" IT IS A HORRIBLE MESSAGE THAT HAS FAILED, AND FAILED, AND FAILED. Yet, with that terrible track record, the Beltway geniuses who run the Democratic Party are about to run that play one more time.

the Democrats’ problem is social capital

Posted on November 9, 2015 by Peter

This is the latest in a series of on again off again ICarly style podcasts I'm doing with Donviti. This iteration is going to keep to under 30 minutes and is going to deal with, being 50, Eagles Football, some politics and Game of Thrones (if that show ever comes back on. [Note to my fellow DL contributors - I'm only putting it here for now, so don't worry.]

This is a discussion thread for the current poll. My view is that, taken as a whole, Democratic Party does a pretty shit ass job articulating the core values of the Democratic Party, because whatever "core values" the party once had have been raped, stabbed and left in for dead in a dumpster somewhere.

There are some common sense things we should be doing. Markell's Secretary of Finance can't be bothered with them unless they shift more of the tax burden onto the middle class.

America the exceptional. God bless it.

(CNN)Three people were killed in downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Saturday morning before city police officers shot and killed a suspect, said the sheriff's office of El Paso County. CNN affiliate KRDO reported that a heavily armed man shot and killed a bicyclist and two women. Witnesses said the man set the second floor of a residence on fire, KDRO reported.

I'm sure we'll soon learn that the bicyclists, and two women were at fault for not being armed.