Why Isn’t John Carney Supporting H.R.1852, the Email Privacy Act?

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Since the Supremes pretty clearly told law enforcement that they needed to get a warrant to search your cell phone, there has been renewed attention on H.R.1852, the Email Privacy Act. Introduced by Representative Kevin Yoder [R-KS-3] in May 2013, this law would revise the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, requiring subpoenas to search emails, no matter how long they had been stored (they can now look at email stored for more then 180 days without a warrant) and allowing ISPs to communicate to the targets that their emails were requested by law enforcement. As of this writing (6.29.2014), John Carney has not joined the 220 Representatives (138 R, 82 D -- BIPARTISANSHIP!) who are looking to refine the due process around law enforcement looking at your emails.

The case for Chip Flowers

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There is no case for voting for Chip Flowers. However, I think there can be a case for voting against Sean Barney. For all his merits (and his merits are many) he is still a Carper man through and through. Do we really need anther mobbed up Carper guy on a glide path to the promised land of corporate back-scratch-a-palooza? I probably will not run against Carney. I don't have the guts or the time. If I don't run, I will not have any way to register my disgust with the corporatist Democrats who run Delaware. The one vanishingly small gesture I can make is to vote against Tom Carper's pick for treasurer.

Friday Open Thread [6.27.14]

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Even Fox News is now laughing at Michelle Bachmann. For those who cannot bear to watch Fox News or hear Bachmann's voice (I am with you... nails on a chalkboard), here is some quotes from Think Progress:
During an interview with Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Cavuto belittled the effort as "an enormous waste of effort" and "a political football," suggesting that President George W. Bush used similar executive authority. The segment devolved into a shouting match, with Cavuto laughing off Bachmann's indignation about Obama's use of executive powers. "It just seems to me like an enormous waste of effort," Cavuto said, at first gently, trying to chide Bachmann and her Tea Party Republican colleagues in Congress to do something, you know, governance-related for the American people. "It just seems to me there's so much wrong here, this finger-pointing—'We're gonna drag your ass to court, we're gonna do this'— just do something, you hear what I'm saying?" Bachmann: This is what we should do now. What we should do now is defund the executive branch when we have the option—I just ran across the street because we're voting on funding for the executive branch all summer long. Cut it. Make it hurt. Because if they don't have money, they don't have power... Cavuto: Think about what you're saying. Defund the executive branch? Congresswoman! If Democrats had said to you, 'We're going to defund President Bush,' you would laugh them out, and so you should have… I think the Democrats are in their right mind to laugh you out now. Defund them?! [shakes head] ...Oh man oh man oh man oh man. Rome's burning and you're filing!
Defunding? Is Michelle Bachmann aware that the President of the United States has to sign anything that the unified Congress (the House and the Senate) passes before it takes affect as law?
Supreme Court Strikes Down Massachusetts Buffer Zone From Inside Their Own Buffer Zone

Supreme Court Strikes Down Massachusetts Buffer Zone From Inside Their Own Buffer Zone

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Can we start making Supreme Court Justices go on field trips?  Because it's obvious they have never witnessed what goes on outside of an abortion clinic.  Perhaps we can simply demand that they look in a mirror, since the buffer zone around the Supreme Court (one of the most publicly owned areas in the country) is massive.  Why does that buffer zone exist?  Why do they afford themselves and the people who work in that building protection from sidewalk counselors?  Why shouldn't they be counseled when they arrive at work?  For that matter, why can't we have sidewalk counselors at polling sites?  At military funerals?  Why are these petitioners/sidewalk counselors considered harassers and a threat when "pro-lifers" - who have a history of harassment and violence are not?  Consistency, please.
Wednesday Open Thread [6.25.14]

Wednesday Open Thread [6.25.14]

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So the teabaggers were all whiny last night because their favorite Nazi candidate, Chris McDaniel, lost to Sen. Thad Cochran (R) in their Republican runoff in Mississippi. The outcome was something of a surprise, as polling of Republican likely voters, which I have posted here over the past weeks, showed McDaniel leading anywhere from 2 to 10 points. But that was the key: Republican likely voters. The conventional wisdom for the runoff was that if Cochran could somehow woo African American Democrats to vote for him in the runoff, he could win. It was a daunting proposition, since Cochran spent the last three decades doing everything he could to make life as difficult as possible on his African American constituents. And yet, that is precisely what happened.
Delaware casinos bailout

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., June 25, 2014

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We also know that the General Assembly will find some way to waste money on the casinos. Casinos that are in the shape they're in due to disastrous business decisions by its oligarch owners. Didja see the latest?   Read the article carefully and see if I come to the same conclusion you do.  Those supporting the latest casino bailout, including Jack Markell, are now proposing to use 'one-time' funds that were not used for their original purpose:
The casino aid proposal now offers $9.9 million to casinos by using $5 million left over from an $8 million bailout approved by the General Assembly last year (?). The proposal also uses $3.2 million set aside for the Kent County Sports Complex in the the Delaware Economic Development Office's job infrastructure fund and the remainder would come from other money available from that fund.
Got that? The "Delaware Economic Development Office's job infrastructure fund". And just what are these funds supposed to, um, fund?:
The infrastructure fund for economic development, established in 2012, provides assistance for renovation, construction, or other improvements to roads, utilities and infrastructure to attract new businesses to the state. It also can be used for the expansion of existing state businesses to create jobs, according to the fund's guidelines.
In other words, that Fund could (and I think should) help fund road and infrastructure improvements. Instead it's going to bail out the casinos. As to the 'expansion of existing state businesses to create jobs', we're not getting job expansion at the casinos.  In fact, I think Cassandra's right. The ink won't be dry on the Governor's signature before the alarm bells are once again sounded by the casinos. They are now essentially extorting money from the State. Our public officials are paying.