“Delaware Judge enshrines unequal outcomes for child rapists based on wealth” continues to be a national story

“Delaware Judge enshrines unequal outcomes for child rapists based on wealth” continues to be a national story

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Of course, this type of unequal justice has been the norm forever. However, the egregiousness of the crime has finally pulled back the curtain. The son of the Vice President of the United States is involved, and a Delaware judge laid it all out in plain language - the rich get special treatment. The botched prosecution by the AG's office and Jurden's resulting sentence wasn't simply bad, it was so bad that it amounts to an attack on the courts. It spits on the idea that poor people can get a fair shake in our legal system. Resignations and firings must ensue. They will not ensue. Nobody will be fired and everyone will go back to pretending that justice is blind in a few months (weeks?...days?). The courts will survive this, but they will be diminished in authority and legitimacy. We will have taken one step closer to the ledge. This is one step away from the ideals expounded on in the Declaration of Independence and one step toward another run of the mill plutocracy. In the end we will be another footnote. A historical curiosity that showed a possible other path to the world for a few brief centuries, then got tired of the rigorous effort required to maintain equality and justice.

Monday Open Thread [3.31.14]

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Obamacare looks to be working and is on target, with 6.7 million previously uninsured people signed up for private insurance plans as of today's deadline.
Americans are signing up for the Affordable Care Act. And they appear to be doing so in really big numbers. As of the latest official update, last week, more than 6 million people had selected a private insurance plan through one of Obamacare’s new state marketplaces. But that was before a weekend of huge traffic to healthcare.gov and state-run websites, record call volume to telephone help centers, and queues outside outreach offices in California and even Texas. Charles Gaba, the Michigan-based analyst who runs the website ACASignups.net, now projects that 6.72 million people will sign up for private insurance by the time open enrollment ends.
In fact, Gaba now projects that we will officially hit the 7 million mark, as the law and the Congressional Budget Office originally projected. Indeed, the law itself has now covered between 13.1 and 16.8 million previously uninsured people in total, through Medicaid Expansion, the Private Insurance Exchanges (both state exchanges and Healthcare.gov), and allowing those under 26 years of age to remain covered under their parent's policies.
Multimillionaire du Pont family heir was spared jail for raping his three-year-old daughter because judge decided he would ‘not fare well’ behind bars

Multimillionaire du Pont family heir was spared jail for raping his three-year-old daughter because judge decided he would ‘not fare well’ behind bars

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The headline above is from the UK's Dail Mail The News Journal's own headline (Judge said du Pont heir 'will not fare well' in prison) also does a good job laying out the brutal facts of the case. The wealthy literally have a different set of rules. They have judges like Jurden and an entire criminal justice system devoted to keeping the screws on the middle and lower classes while ensuring that the well connected 1-per-centers don't need to feel the slightest discomfort regardless of the egregiousness of their crimes.
Are “attracted” voters really worth more than “chased” voters?

Are “attracted” voters really worth more than “chased” voters?

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The thesis at the heart of all my recent posts has been that "attracted" voters are inherently more valuable to a campaign than "chased" voters. I look at recent history and see the lackluster performance of Democrats during midterm elections, and mentally discount a chased voter to some fraction of a voter while I mentally add a premium to attracted voters. So, let's say each voter that the DNC manages to frighten into thinking about voting is worth .95 eventual votes and every teabag that is inspired by the teabag nonsense is worth 1.05 future votes. On election day a vote is a vote, but over the course of a campaign the marginal difference between the chased and the attracted must add up. Right? ...

Thursday Open Thread [3.27.14]

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Look at the graphic on the left there. Those are results from the latest Kaiser Family Foundation poll on Obamacare. 59% who want to either keep the law as is or keep it and improve it. Only 29% want it repealed. With such a number, and their entire midterm campaign based on repeal of Obamacare, the GOP has to hope that only those 29% turn out to vote. Which, given the typical midterm demographics, is not that bad of a bet.
Obama’s desire to cut Social Security looms large in midterms

Obama’s desire to cut Social Security looms large in midterms

Old people vote in midterms at a higher rate than young people. But until recently old people were solid Democrats. So, how did the GOP get a lock on the old people vote? Well, he is black and old people are notorious racists. (Yes, I'm looking at you Grampa Heinrich.) And the Democratic Party has recently been seen as the party of the gays, and old folks are nervous about that. But there is a much bigger reason the old folks a going R.
Wednesday Open Thread [3.26.14] – The DL Common Core Edition

Wednesday Open Thread [3.26.14] – The DL Common Core Edition

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I have mostly been ignoring the debate over Common Core education standards, pretty much because the opponents and proponents are all speaking in a language that is foreign to me. I don't have kids so I have not been confronted by these issues. So I have left education blogging to DL's expert, Pandora, and to Delaware's best education bloggers, Kavips and Kilroy, as well as Mike Matthews anbd John Young and others focusing on specific school districts like Christina and Red Clay. It is fair to say that I myself have ignored the debate because it did not concern me. That thinking is wrong but it is what has happened. And because of that, DL has gotten a reputation of being pro-Common Core or pro-Markell in this education debate, because we were less outspoken on the issue than Kavips or Kilroy or Nancy Willing. I don't that is a fair characterization. A more fair one is that we have been ignorant. So, I have a few questions....

Tuesday Open Thread [3.25.14]

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“At times we are able to humiliate our worst enemy. Inevitably, his weak moments come and we are able to thrust in his side the spear of defeat. But this we must not do. Every word and deed must contribute to an understanding with the enemy and release those vast reservoirs of goodwill which have been blocked by impenetrable walls of hate,” – Martin Luther King, Jr., Dexter Avenue Baptist Church; Montgomery, Alabama, Christmas Sermon, 1957.
This is the single hardest thing to do in life, whether in politics or no. I admit that I often succumb to schadenfreude, known as the joy in the suffering of one's enemies, especially political enemies. And yet, it is the Christian thing to do. That is why being a true Christian is supposed to be difficult. And that is why it is both wonderful and ironic to see a lesson in Christian forgiveness being given to the Westboro Baptist Church, as shown in the above picture. Another example is the Catholic bigot Bill Donahue's failed attempts to set up one of his signature "Outrage" moments where his Catholic beliefs were being discriminated against.