Income Inequality

Income Inequality

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You know income inequality is getting to be a big topic when even Joe Scarborough of Morning Joe talks about it fervently this morning. Of course, he falls back on the tried and true conservative position that we can't raise taxes ever on anything, and the expert guest agreed. Um, why can't we? New data from the IRS shows that the wealthiest Americans have seen their share of taxes decline rather significantly under Obama.
Festivus Open Thread [12.23.13]

Festivus Open Thread [12.23.13]

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Governor Jack Markell is Kavip's Delawarean of the Year. He did some good things, like this:
He proposed and pushed through requiring background checks for all gun sales. He proposed and was able to get mandated reporting of lost or stolen firearms. He signed the Gay Marriage Bill. He signed transgender equality into law.
But he also did some inexplicable things, for a Democrat:
He tried to give away the Port of Wilmington to an oil company. He killed Minimum Wage in 2013. He rammed through SB51 which permanently weakens teacher education programs. He created an Illegal Star Chamber to draw up HB 165 charter school beneficial legislation, in secret without public input. He rammed through HG 165 which gives private for profit charter schools access to public school capital financing. He tried to lower taxes for the top 1%. And not for anyone else.
2013: The Good, The Bad, the Ridiculous

2013: The Good, The Bad, the Ridiculous

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I am El Somnambulo, and I'm a listaholic. Today, one of my faves, my Delaware year-end review. I went back to January, and chronologically went through our Delaware Liberal archives. Man, our bloggers were en fuego this year. Incredible work from all corners. Cassandra on Wilmington and loads of other stuff, Pandora on education, Jason330 on the suckitude that is our congressional delegation, our beloved leader DelDem liveblogging from the Hall and covering national politics like no other, great Rob Tornoe cartoons. And, next year, ProgressivePopulist will have loads of great entries. Anyway, y'all could do a lot worse than to go back to January and enjoy the journey like I did. You can just click on 'archives' at the bottom of the page, and enjoy the journey. Would it surprise you to learn that I considered only 12 possible entries for the Good? Didn't think so. I had lots more to choose from in the other two categories, but I'm kind-of a negative person.  So, here we go, have at it!
In Which Sheriff Christopher Pretends He’s Real Law Enforcement Again

In Which Sheriff Christopher Pretends He’s Real Law Enforcement Again

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The ever hapless but ever blustering Sheriff Christopher has signed on to an effort to not enforce President Obama's gun control laws -- whatever they might be. If you look at this list of associations and Sheriff's who have signed on to this idiocy, you can definitely tell that the completely non-law enforcement Christopher is hoping that no one will notice that he is not wearing the grownup's long pants at this table. He can't enforce anything, so here he is pretending he really does belong at the grownup table. But the other thing that is funny about this bit of wingnuttery is that there are new gun control laws right in his own backyard that he can't be bothered to claim to not be enforcing. Maybe he won't enforce these laws in where ever it is that he is supposed to be moving to after being smacked down by the state courts.