PDD-DL Vote Tracker Update for May 22, 2013

PDD-DL Vote Tracker Update for May 22, 2013

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Not much new this week, since the Assembly is out of session for the next two weeks as the Joint Finance Committee finishes the budget. Still there was some action on the bills we are following, and there have been two new bills that I have added to the Trackers as they seem interesting. The first is Rep. Rebecca Walker's House Bill 131, or the Gestational Carrier Agreement Bill. At first, I thought the term "Gestational Carrier" was an overly technical and political correct replacement for Surrogate Mother. But it turns out that I was wrong. There are two kinds of Surrogacy. One is where the surrogate mother is genetically related to the child she is carrying, or in other words, the surrogate mother used her own egg and had it artificially inseminated by the intended father. This is called traditional surrogacy. If the surrogate mother carries an fertilized egg to term and she is not genetically related to it, that is gestational surrogacy, and Representaive Walker's legislation establishes the legal rights of all involved in a gestational surrogacy. Titles and labels aside, the bill is a good idea, as it establishes into law the notion that these agreements between a couple and a surrogate mother are binding legal contracts. According to the legislation, after the child is born, the intended parent becomes the legal parent of the child and the gestational carrier would have no parental rights. In New Jersey, Governor Christie vetoed a similar law, and his official reason is that it could radically change the traditional notion of the family. Please. This bill allows more families to be created, which I thought was a good thing. The other bill (Senator Hocker's Senate Bill 74) features an unholy alliance of Progressive and Arch Conserative sponsors, all agreeing on transparency and open government. See Democratic Leadership, the GOP is really going after you on transparency. It is a potent issue, and you ignore it at your peril.
A story to keep an eye on…

A story to keep an eye on…

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From the News Journal:
A 58-year-old New Castle man was critically injured this morning after opening an ammunition box left by a neighbor in the Van Dyke Village neighborhood for a special trash pick up, officials said. Explosive experts from Dover Air Force Base have been called to help after officials believe they found more explosives. According to Chionchio, a woman on Van Dyke Drive put several items out for a special trash pickup today. This included an ammo box that belonged to her husband. She did not know there were explosives in the box, Chionchio said. The man, a neighbor from across the street, asked if he could have the box. After getting her permission he took it across the street and placed it on a pickup truck tailgate. As he opened the box, Chionchio said, a mortar shell went off, covering him in shrapnel.
When I first read this story as it was breaking this morning, it sounded like a man was building a bomb and it exploded on him. Now it appears that the husband of the woman who put out the explosives in the trash unknowingly, and that the injured man was an innocent victim. Still, the question remains why the husband had the explosives in the first place, and how many more explosives does he have. Before our Second Amendment fetishists get their britches in knots, please note that there is no right to bear explosives. It is quite illegal. And it is quite Constitutional for them to be illegal.
Weakening Dodd-Frank — John Carney Edition

Weakening Dodd-Frank — John Carney Edition

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According to this Saturday's NJ, John Carney is lending some bi-partisan credibility to one of (there's a package of bills out there trying to weaken an already weak legislation) the bills meant to loosen restrictions on banks who are trading in derivatives from their foreign operations:
Welcome to Delaware Liberal 5.0

Welcome to Delaware Liberal 5.0

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Come inside for a trip down memory lane to Delaware Liberal 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 as we welcome Delaware Liberal 5.0. We were long past due for an upgrade to site. And so we have redesigned the site, reaching back into our past a little bit to add back in some black and white flavor to our logo and appearance, while embrace a new theme. Now, not much is different. Come inside to see what is new and improved...

Delaware Liberal Upgrade and Redesign

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This afternoon LiberalGeek and I are playing around with the plumbing of Delaware Liberal, giving the site a much need WordPress upgrade and uploading a new design for Delaware Liberal 4.0 (I think we are at 4.0 now). So if there are any downtimes or other malfunctions with the site, that is why.
What The… I Love Game Of Thrones

What The… I Love Game Of Thrones

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This is nonsense:
Game of Thrones ranks somewhere on the Girl Dislike scale between NASCAR and that National Geographic show where the guy sticks his hand in a catfish’s mouth. But why does she throw so much shade? If you just can’t understand why we’re intent on harshing your medieval buzz, here are some telltale clues.
  • We hate gross things. Know what’s gross? Screwing your sibling.
  • It’s hard to follow. Brilliantly developed storylines are great, but whipping out a dry erase board and Venn diagrams to figure it all out isn’t our idea of a good time. Unless we’re talking about soap operas. Those are perfectly fine.
  • It reminds us of the kids that used to play magic cards in the cafeteria. And people who go to Renaissance festivals. Eating a giant drumstick and drinking out of a goblet is cool, just not every Sunday night for three months straight.
  • It’s all naked chicks. In addition to the actual ladies of the night on the show, there seem to be a lot of...unofficial ladies of the night on the show. This is why guys love it, we get it, but we can do without seeing topless wenches in loin cloths.
  • Dudes get their hands chopped off. And their nipples. And their balls. Really? How is it that you guys like this again?
Okay, confession time... I was the one who wanted to watch GoT.  Mr. Pandora was kinda meh.  Know how I got him to watch it?  I told him people were complaining about the gratuitous sex.  My bad, but it worked!  I do love that man!  He's so easy! One of my initial complaints of GoT was that the first few episodes introduced so many characters that it became confusing.  My advice is to watch the first three episodes before throwing up your hands and walking away.  It's so worth it.