Delaware casinos bailout

Gambling News Not ALL Bad For Delaware

7 Comments
We're attracting lots of degenerates from NJ and PA who just have to get their fill of betting on NFL games: From the Philly Inquirer:
The total wagered on NFL games in Delaware _ with barely one-tenth the population of New Jersey _ was $31.5 million last year, more than triple the mark set in 2009, according to Vernon Kirk, the director of the Delaware Lottery. Kirk added that the state's share was $5.2 million, with casinos and the state's horsemen also getting a portion of the net revenues after expenses.

Comment Rescue: Liberalgeek on taking over the Demcoratic Party

14 Comments
I'll offer my thoughts under the fold. Here is the comment:
I guess the plan is to win hearts and minds with an air war. Sounds reasonable. If you are clamoring for the Democratic Party to move to the left, but are unwilling to actively participate in politics outside of election day, you will be left with exactly what you already have. The only reason that there are any progressive voices around here is due to the Dean campaign. The beauty in his campaign was the ability to get people involved in the campaign. There were meetups, blogs were started (this one included) and people stepped up to join committees and start organizations (like PDD). A decade has passed since then. Some of us are still involved, some have settled in for armchair bitching and some have dropped out of politics altogether. But if you don’t think that the Howard Dean message was “Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work”, you weren’t paying attention.

Election Day Open Thread [11.4.14]

3 Comments
The thing about election days for me is boredom. You see, I vote first thing in the morning. So now I have nothing to do but wait for the next 13+ hours (besides working at my real job, of course). So here are some good political documentaries for your viewing pleasure to pass the time... Primary--about the primary race between Senators Kennedy and Humphrey in the 1960 Wisconsin Primary The War Room--about the 1992 Clinton campaign Journeys with George--about George W. Bush.
My Green Votes

My Green Votes

26 Comments
At the moment of truth, it was tough. I'm a Democrat and I want Democrats to win, so it took a lot for me to punch the button for the Green Party candidates for Congress. But neither John Carney or Chris Coons gave me any reason to vote for them. Since they are both going to win by miles, the old scare tactics, and the "lesser of two evils" arguments don't seem to apply. They are such prohibitive favorites that I doubt they will even notice this impotent protest, but I feel better. When they return to Congress and vote along with the Republicans to prove their bipartisanship bone fides on the next heinous trade agreement, or more tax cuts for "job creators" I'll be able to say, "I didn't vote for that."

Monday Open Thread [11.3.14] — MY PREDICTIONS for tomorrow.

41 Comments
If you had told Republicans a couple of months ago that they would win Montana, South Dakota, West Virginia, Louisiana and Arkansas, all the while defending Kentucky, which at the time was the only competitive GOP-held seat, they would have been ecstatic. All they would need is just one more seat to win the majority of 51 from the following Democratic competitive seats: Alaska, Iowa, Colorado or North Carolina. The GOP would bet that they would win at least one of them, most likely Alaska. I predict that the GOP will win none of them. And they will lose two of their own seats: Georgia and Kansas. That means, in the end, the Democrats will have 52 seats (51 without the Independent Orman) and the GOP will have 48. I could be completely wrong, and the GOP could win 8 seats. But I am not sensing the deep malaise and depression amongst the Democratic electorate that preceded the 2010 blowout.
Saturday Open Thread [11.1.14]

Saturday Open Thread [11.1.14]

Good news on the real Ebola outbreak in West Africa from NPR:
If you want the inside scoop about what's happening with the Ebola outbreak, then just hangout at the Mamba Point Hotel in Monrovia. It's packed with scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, international reporters and a bunch of guys and gals in camouflage from the U.S. Army. They all like to hang out at the bar during lunch time. That's where I met Joel Montgomery, a top epidemiologist at the CDC. We head off to a quiet side room, and he starts telling me about all of his trips to Monrovia. "When I was here in August, not to sound like, making this too colorful but, I mean there were ... literally dead people on the streets," Montgomery says. "And the burial teams were picking up 50 to 60 bodies a day." At that point, the country had been on a devastating path. Clinics were stretched way past capacity. And even getting an Ebola test could take days, or weeks if you lived in the jungle. Samples had to be sent by a series of canoes and motorcycles to the only lab in the country. The epidemic was doubling every few weeks. Some computational biologists were predicting more than 20,000 cases by the end of October. But officials are seeing a very different situation on the ground now. The country has had about 6,500 cases. New cases are on a decline, dropping off by about a 100 a week, on average, since early October.
The American response prompted by President Obama is succeeding. It will be a true American success story.

Kevin Wade’s Ebola Ad: A New Low for Delaware

11 Comments
Really, this is just... First off, Chris Coons never said or tweeted "Stop freaking out about America's single Ebola death." It was the title of an article he linked to. But deception and lies are to be expected when we are dealing with Republicans. Second, even if he did say it or tweet it, Chris Coons is right, which is why is linked to that article. There is no outbreak of Ebola in the United States, no matter how much fear mongering the media and the Republicans engage in. Indeed, this ad is an hysterical attempt to make you scared of something, and then blame Chris Coons for it. Hence the allegation that being a chairman of a sub-committee on Africa in the Senate gives Senator Coons the power to stop Ebola! That is just rich, coming from a Republican such as Kevin Wade. Let's pretend for a moment that being a chairman of a sub-committee on Africa did empower a Senator with God-like powers to stop a virus in its tracks. Kevin Wade, as a Republican, would not have any interest in using that power to help the people of Africa. He would cut funding for scientific research the first chance he got. Hell, he would not even consider sitting on a sub-committee on Africa. But really, I am spending too much rebutting this fearmonger of an ad, and what we should be doing is condemning Kevin Wade. I call on Charlie Copeland and John Fluharty to condemn their candidate's fearmongering and see to it that Mr. Wade apologizes to the people of Delaware for it.
Halloween Open Thread [10.31.14]

Halloween Open Thread [10.31.14]

1 Comment
"Democratic efforts to turn out the young and nonwhite voters who sat out the 2010 midterm elections appear to be paying off in several Senate battleground states. More than 20 percent of the nearly three million votes already tabulated in Georgia, North Carolina, Colorado and Iowa have come from people who did not vote in the last midterm election," according to an analysis of early-voting data by The Upshot. I have felt all along that this election was not going to play out according to the normal media's Republican Landslide/Obama/Democrats Repudiated narrative. The reason why is 1) the Democrats were going to do a presidential level GOTV operation to make up for the embarrassing loss in 2010, and 2) like in 1998, I felt like there was going to be GOP overreach and a pushback from the public. In 1998, the result of that was the Dems breaking even in the Senate and winning 5 seats in the House. In 2014, it will be the Dems holding onto the Senate. I will be releasing my full predictions of how the Dems will do that on Monday. Come inside for more polls...