Author Archives: xstryker

About xstryker

X Stryker is also the proprietor of the currently-dormant poll analysis blog Election Inspection.

Outsourcing Santa

China built the world’s largest ice Santa.

Why does China love Santa? Because all the plastic toys purchased for Christmas are made in China. If you want to inject a little realism into your children’s life, tell them Santa’s elves are Chinese and live in Guangzhou (AKA Canton).

Fun facts – Guangzhou is larger (population-wise) than the entire Chicagoland region, and nearly twice the size of the entire Philly/Delaware Valley region. Harbin, where that Santa was made, is larger than the entire Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area, and Harbin’s metropolitan area is almost double Toronto’s.  But American geography classes have yet to figure out how to teach students that there are any cities in China besides Beijing and Shanghai.

Happy Chanukah from Delaware Liberal

Menorah, Day One

Have a happy Chanukah, one and all! During Chanukah, we remember how the Jews (led by the Maccabees) won their independence from King Antiochus IV of the Selucid Empire (a Hellenistic successor to Alexander the Great’s empire, stretching from Turkey to Pakistan), who outlawed their religious practices, sacked Jerusalem, and defiled their temple. Before the Maccabees’ revolt, Jews were forced to either hide in the countryside or asimilate and pay tribute to Zeus. When I see a menorah in a public display alongside the traditional Christmas displays, it reminds me that I live in a nation of fundamental freedoms where I don’t have to asimilate or pay tribute to the dominant religion. When Bill O’Reilly talks about the War On Christmas, what he’s really doing is waging war against Chanukah. In Billo’s mind, we Jews do not deserve recognition or inclusion – we should asimilate and participate in celebrating the birth of Jesus. So if your vision of America is exclusively Christian, then go ahead, wish me a very pointed “Merry Christmas” while I’m in the checkout line – go ahead and remind me that my people are not welcome in your store. And if you instead choose to wish me “Happy Holidays” at your place of business, then I thank you for sharing your holiday cheer with me. Christmas can be a very oppressive time for non-Christians.

We also celebrate the miracle of the oil. After the Maccabees recaptured the Temple, cleansed it, and reconsecrated it, they were only left with a single day’s worth of olive oil to keep the Temple’s eternal flame lit. Miraculously, the oil lasted for eight full days, enough time to prepare a new batch of olive oil. Imagine if you needed to drive out to Los Angeles, starting with a full tank of gasoline, but there was no gasoline anywhere in America to refill it; and you just kept on driving, and driving, and driving until your car finally sputtered out within walking distance of your destination. That would be a miracle, unless of course you were driving some kind of advanced solar-electric hybrid. Or imagine if the world’s oil supply lasted for 240 years instead of 30; unless we started drastically changing our consumption habits today, it would take a miracle for the supply of oil to outlive today’s children.

So my Chanukah message to you is, “be the miracle you wish to see in the world.” Don’t just pray that our supply of oil will last long enough to find efficient alternatives; do everything you can to conserve. Walk. Ride a bike. Take public transportation. Carpool. Move closer to the place where you work. Trade your gas-guzzler for a hybrid, a compact, a motorcycle/scooter or an electric. Own one car instead of two. Get your car a tune-up. Change the oil regularly. Use efficient air filters and change them regularly. Get your fuel injector cleaned. Use low-resistance tires, and keep them properly inflated. Remove racks when you’re not using them and anything else that increases the amount of weight your car is hauling. Avoid idling. Plan your trips out to make them as short and efficient as possible; using a GPS may help. Drive at a consistent speed (use cruise control if the road isn’t wet) and stay under 60mph. Park in the shade. Don’t tailgate. After a full stop, accelerte gradually. When driving under 40mph on a hot day, open the windows rather than use AC – but use AC instead when driving faster than that, because the open windows would create too much wind resistance. And support politicians who vote for energy efficiency and energy alternatives. Our future depends on it.

GOP Mad-Libs: Response to Scandal

The investigation continues regarding [name of person], who [is from the same state as / served on a committee with / once played basketball with] Obama. Obama is not implicated in the investigation, nor has he been accused of any wrongdoing; he stated that he was unaware of what [name of person] had been up to. However, the GOP was quick to grasp at straws pounce nonetheless.

“The serious nature of the crimes listed by federal prosecutors raises questions about the interaction with [name of person], President-elect Obama and other high ranking officials who will be working for the future president,” said Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the new GOP House whip.

As to what questions it raised, Cantor hadn’t the foggiest, but he was really hoping he would come up with some.

Added Robert M. “Mike” Duncan, chairman of the Republican National Committee, “President-elect Barack Obama‘s comments on the matter are insufficient at best.”

 Duncan also noted that, as RNC chair, he felt that all of Obama’s comments regarding any situation were “insufficient at best”, and suggested any future comments would also be regarded as, at best, insufficient.

Illinois Governor Blagojevich Arrested

U.S. Attorney’s office spokesman Randall Samborn says both Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris were arrested Tuesday. Authorities aren’t yet releasing details about those charges. However, a federal law enforcement official tells The Associated Press the governor is accused of corruption charges. The official says the charges stem from the selection process of a successor to Obama.

No details have been released. One thing’s for sure, the Justice Department moves very quickly and efficiently when members of the opposing party are being investigated. Certainly a lot faster than they nab crooked private contractors in Iraq. KBR’s still being allowed to betray our soldiers and defraud our government.

UPDATE: Now I know why justice was swift! Superstar US Attorney Patrick FItzgerald is on the case.  I wish we had someone as stellar as him going after the contractors in Iraq. Not Fitzgerald himself, though – Illinois needs him to clean house.

Weekend Elections Update

Here are the big election/campaign stories of the weekend:

  • LA-02: Corrupt douchebag incumbent William Jefferson (D-New Orleans) lost in a surprise upset to Joseph Cao (R), an immigration lawyer who will become the first Vietnamese-American to serve in congress. Cao’s website is very short on details – he’s for clean ethics, hurricane recovery, good education, and public safety. He wants to reform healthcare and cut wasteful spending. In other words, he wants everything that every politician from every party claims to support. More interesting is his action item to “Preserve our wetlands and expand coastal restoration for hurricane protection”, which is a phenomenally good idea, but it remains to be seen whether or not he’d really stand up to oil companies and developers to make this happen. As an immigration lawyer, I imagine he’ll be sympathetic to the idea of expanding legal immigration, and given his history (his father was tortured by the Viet Cong), I imagine he’d be sympathetic to the plight of refugees in third world countries. No one really knows what kind of politician he will be (he’s never held elected office), but this seat is certain to be a top priority for the DCCC, as it is by far the most Democratic-leaning seat held by a Republican (PVI D+28 – compare to Mike Castle, PVI D+5. or Walt Minnick, the Democrat in ID-01 which is R+19).
  • LA-04: With all regular votes counted, Republican John Fleming leads Democrat Paul Carmouche by 356 votes in this Republican open seat, and Carmouche is not conceding as there are still many provisional ballots outstanding. If you don’t think provisional ballots could end up giving Carmouche a win, you need to read the next bullet point. (h/t SSP)
  • OH-15: Now that the provisional ballots have been counted, Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy has beaten Republican Steve Stivers for this Republican Open Seat by a 2,311 vote margin, which is over threshold needed to avert an automatic recount. Before provisional ballots were counted, Stivers lef by 146 votes. In 2006, Kilroy lost to incumbent Deborah Pryce by 1,062 votes. Democrats have so far gained a total of 21 seats this cycle, for a 79 seat margin of 257 to 178, or 59% of the House.
  • MN-Sen: Speaking of 59%, the Franken (D) campaign claims that they are ahead by 4 votes, if the opinions of local election officials on challenged ballots hold. That would give Democrats 59 seats in the Senate, one shy of a filibuster-proof majority – meaning it would only take one Republican to come down with a case of principles (plus Democratic and Lieberman unity) in order to stop any procedural shenanigans by the GOP. In any case, the counting continues, and no one’s quite sure who’ll win this one.
  • PA-Sen: Chris Matthews just signed a long-term contract with MSNBC, so he’s unlikely to run against Arlen Specter (R) for Senate in Pennsylvania in 2010. This is good news – Matthews (AKA Tweety) is a pompous blowhard and would almost certainly have been an embarassment to us even if he won. Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA-07) is out as well. Speculation runs high around the possibilty that Reps. Patrick Murphy (D-PA-08) or Allyson Schwartz (D-PA-13) may run, or State House Deputy Speaker Josh Shapiro. Wingnut Pat Toomey, president of the Club for Growth (and also a client), may seek to challenge Specter in the primary, as he did in 2004. A Toomey win in the primary would likely put this seat in Democratic hands, as long as our candidate ran a good, scandal-free race. (h/t SSP)
  • KS-Sen: Governor Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS) has taken herself out of consideration for cabinet posts in the Obama administration so that she can concentrate her efforts on solving Kansas current fiscal woes. Sebelius, twice voted one of America’s best governors, had been considered a shoo-in for a cabinet job if she had wanted one. Sebelius is term-limited, which would make her the ideal candidate to run for Senate in 2010, with Republican incumbent Sam Brownback having said he will be retiring. Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson would likely be the Democratic candidate for Governor in 2010. (h/t TPM)

And one final note, Obama has named retired General Eric Shinseki for Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Shinseki is noted for having predicted in 2003 that the number of troops sent into Iraq would be inadequate to establish security. Shinseki, the first Japanese-American four-star general, is the first Asian named to Obama’s cabinet, and the first Asian to hold this post. Veteran’s groups greeted the selection with considerable enthusiasm.

QOTD: Sundays in Wilmington

I live in downtown Wilmington, where almost everything is closed on Sundays. Things I know that are open:

  1. The Exchange
  2. Washington St. Ale House
  3. McDonald’s on 4th
  4. Dunkin’ Donuts (but only until like 2pm)

Also, for the month of December only, the Happy Harry’s on Market will be open. We went there today and we were the only ones in the store. People just aren’t used to the idea of having anything to do on a Sunday around here, I guess.

So help me (and our downtown readers) out – what else in downtown Wilmington do you of that’s open on Sundays? Note: Trolley Square and 202 do not count as “downtown”.

Appoint Castle to the US Mint

Aw shucks, that sweet old Representative Castle ain’t so bad. Why, he’s a swell, moderate, bipartisan kind of fellow. Since Obama wants well-qualified individuals, including Republicans, who can work for the good of the country in the spirit of bipartisanship, how about he gives nice old Mr. Castle a cushy, fun job that rewards Castle for his true passion. As Director of the United States Mint, Castle could spend all day designing neat little portraits to put on coins and bills. He could invite his buddy Tom Carper to Fort Knox for games of Solid Gold Shuffleboard, play Monopoly with real bills, or draw funny hats and mustaches on uncirculated Andrew Jacksons.

What a much more pleasant way for Castle to end his career than as a powerless nobody from the minority party in the mean-nasty-ugly House of Representatives!

Besides, he’s got to be more qualified than the current Director, Edmund Moy, who until his 2006 appointment to the Mint made all the recommendations to President Bush for cronies and henchmen political appointees to “eleven Cabinet Departments and Cabinet-Rank Agencies in the human services, natural resources, legal, and national security arenas” and “senior political appointments for thirty-two independent federal agencies” (presumably including Michael “heckuva” Brown of FEMA). Yes, he was such an expert on unqualified political cronies that he became one himself. I imagine that makes the Mint position the most plum of all, since he apparently picked himself for it.

KBR: Pure Evil

Is there any company that better personifies pure evil than KBR, the largest and most nefarious defense contractor in Iraq? Some might suggest Monsanto, Exxon, Altria (Phillip Morris), or Wal-Mart. And those are all good choices, but KBR (which stands for Kellogg, Brown & Root) wins the prize in my book. How evil is KBR? Too evil for Halliburton – they sold off their stake in former subsidiary KBR in late 2006/early 2007. Think about that – Halliburton was embarassed to be associated with them. Halliburton was ashamed to have owned them. Halliburton! That’s like Pauly Shore saying, “Oh, dude, I don’t wanna do a movie with Carrot Top. That guy is an unfunny, talentless moron.” Sorry, every time I try to think of a metaphor for pure evil, I immediately think of Carrot Top. He looks like Pennywise the Clown.

Sorry, where was I? Oh yes, KBR. Time for one of my patented numbered lists of facts.

  1. This week, we learn that KBR is being sued by American soldiers (of the Indiana National Guard) for knowingly exposing them to notorious carcinogen sodium dichromate – and that’s not the curable kind of cancer. When they began experiencing “chrome nose” (nasal bleeding), the telltale sign of sodium dichromate exposure, KBR told them that it must be the “dry desert air” and that they were “allergic to sand” despite knowing that civilian workers had already been testing positive for elevated chromium levels in their blood.
  2. Another American soldier from Georgia is suing KBR this week for serving the largest US base in Iraq (30,000 people including both soldiers and civilians) spoiled food and contaminated water, while burning medical waste in an open-air burn pit, filling the base with noxious fumes. They shipped ice in mortuary trucks that “still had traces of body fluids and putrefied remains in them when they were loaded with ice. This ice was served to U.S. forces.” They gave soldiers salmonella poisoning by giving them food that was over a year past its expiration date, even after they complained about the expiration to KBR management. “On one occasion, he witnessed a wild dog running around base with a human arm in its mouth. The human arm had been dumped on the open air burn pit by KBR.”
  3. Also this week, we learn that a KBR subcontractor has been confining 1000 Asian men in a dirty, windowless warehouse for three months without money or a place to work. These men paid over $2,000 to be transported to Iraq, and were promised big salaries to send back home to their wives and children; instead, they have nothing to send, and their families are impoverished. “The conditions in which the men have been held appear to violate guidelines the US military handed down in 2006 that urged contractors to deter human trafficking to the war zone by shunning recruiters that charged excessive fees. ” The quarters violate US military guidelines on “minimum acceptable” living spaces. After being exposed, the company promised to send the men home and pay them back salaries, which will most certainly be charged to the American taxpayer even though the men were not given the opportunity to do any work whatsoever during their three months.

And that’s just this week’s news. What else is there? How about electrocuting American soldiers via faulty wiring (after ignoring repeated warnings), human trafficking, gang rape, and tax evasion via offshore shell companies in the Cayman Islands?

And we’re still giving them contracts.

Marriage Equality and Civil Unions

First, the facts

  1. Massachusetts and Connecticut license same-sex marriages. California did until prop. 8 narrowly passed.
  2. New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Vermont license Civil Unions.
  3. Maine, DC, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Maryland, and California offer gay couples “some” legal protections via Domestic Partnership.
  4. New York recognizes same-sex marriages performed legally in other states.’
  5. New York and Rhode Island are currently debating same-sex marriage legislation. Illinois is considering Civil Union legislation, while New Mexico is debating Domestic Partnership legislation.
  6. Same-Sex marriage is offered in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Canada, South Africa, and Norway. Based on a recent court ruling, Nepal soon will as well.
  7. Civil Unions/Registered Partnerships are offered in Denmark, New Zealand, Uruguay, the United Kingdom, Andorra, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Sweden, and Switzerland.
  8. Some form of legal recognition is provided to same-sex couples in parts of Argentina, Mexico, Austrailia, and Brazil.
  9. The protection of Unregistered Cohabitation (ie Common-Law Marriage) is extended to both same-sex and opposite-sex couples in Australia, Israel, Colombia, Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Ecuador, and Austria.
  10. Foreign gay marriages are recognized in Israel and France.
  11. Civil Union legislation is currently being debated in Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ireland, and Liechtenstein. Domestic Partnership legislation is being debated in Estonia and Unregistered Cohabitation for same-sex couples is being debated in Italy.
  12. A majority of Americans support either Same-Sex Marriage or Civil Unions: Quinnipiac 7/8-7/13: 65%; Newsweek 6/18-6/19: 57%; CBS 5/30-6/3: 58%
  13. Democrats now control the Delaware State House of Representatives, which has previously passed HB99 to establish Civil Unions (which was terminally stalled in the Senate). Republican William Oberle has long been a supporter of equal rights for gays.
  14. Democrats now have a 16-5 majority on the Senate. John Still and Charlie Copeland were replaced by Democrats.
  15. Jack Markell and Matt Denn support Civil Unions.
  16. Establishing Civil Unions or Gay Marriages in Delaware could bring in out-of-state revenue from Pennsylvania and Maryland.
  17. Domestic Partnership benefits are offered by several of Delaware’s largest employers, including DuPont, AstraZeneca, Happy Harry’s, and all the big banks.

With these facts in mind, I propose that we make 2009 the year that Delaware recognizes the rights of same-sex couples. I support Same-Sex Marriage, but I don’t think we have enough votes for that yet. Civil Unions, however, are widely popular, and I think we have enough support to make such unions legally equal to marriage. We need to turn our legislative victories into progressive action. We can’t allow the likes of Thurman Adams and the conservative members of both parties to stand in the way of civil rights.

So who’s with me? This is an issue supported by many Delawarean bloggers; not only liberals, but also Greens, Libertarians, and many Independents and Republicans. Watch this space for more on this issue as it develops.

Gates to remain at Defense

ABC reports that Robert Gates will stay on as Secretary of Defense. This is likely to be a short-term run to help ease the transition in a time of war.

Also, Gates isn’t as much of a douchebag as Rumsfeld was.

I expect Richard Danzig will be named as his understudy, although a Hagel placement remains a possibility (one that I am not keen on). And yes, for the record, I’ve now gotten 4 right and 6 wrong from my predictions – and 4 out of 8 actual cabinet secretaries. Go ahead and link me to someone who got more right then me – and don’t give me anyone who gave a list of several different possibilities for the same post.

Earn It

I’ve met John Carney. I like John Carney. Carney’s going to get my support (speaking for myself only) for any office that he runs for. And this is Delaware, so I’m betting that Carney’s not going to run against the Biden name, even though I hope he will (assuming that Beau indeed runs for Senate as I expect).

So, assuming Beau runs, and doesn’t face Carney (or Kowalko, who would also get my endorsement), I hope he faces a primary. I want to know what Beau is made of, and without a good primary, we probably won’t find out. I don’t want another goddamned Tom Carper selling us out. I don’t want another vote supporting torture. I don’t want another Democratic Senator holding hands with Spineless Mike Castle with a big smile in joint photo ops and shooing away potential challengers from Ol’ Coinage McGee because he’s just so goshdarn moderate and beloved and incumbent! Who are you, Beau? What do you stand for? Are you going to be a fighter or a sell-out?

If you think we’re going to give you a free pass just because your name is Biden, you’re wrong. We’ll be watching, Beau; you’re going to have to prove yourself. We want progressive change, and so far, we’ve seen little of it in the Attorney General’s office. When you get back from Iraq, you’re going to have to accomplish a lot in a very short period of time. You barely beat Ferris Wharton last time, so you’d better not take anything for granted. And if you think the blogosphere isn’t an important ally to have, just ask Jack Markell and Barack Obama.

And Ted Kaufman, who the hell are you? No, seriously, where do you stand on the issues? You’ve got a lot of angry Carney supporters to answer to and we’d like to know exactly what kind of deal we just got stuck with. Delaware had an outspoken voice in Joe Biden, and Tom Carper cannot fill those shoes. Neither can you in two short years, but if you don’t make your voice heard, you will tarnish the Democratic brand for your successor. Don’t make that mistake. Speak up, speak out, fight for the common good, and take this responsibility seriously. Delaware is a small state, and you’re going to want to be able to look us in the eye when you bump into us in the supermarket.