National

John Sigler's useless clownishness is on full display in this Doug Dennison blurb about the Lunatic Party's Lincoln Day Dinner. They had Sigler himself unveiling this year's vapid bumper sticker.... drum roll please... “Renew, grow and win!" You can just imagine the assembled faithful leaping to their feet to lustily ratify that stirring bit of PR hackery by acclamation, can't you? No...? Don't worry, it gets worse. Much worse.

So we in Delaware missed out on Blizzard Nemo. Oh well. I didn't feel like shoveling today anyway. Lt. Gov. Matt Denn on WHYY talking about preventing teen suicides. We also have Governor Markell's weekly message, President Obama's weekly address, and the West Wing Week inside...

Hillary Clinton wins Kentucky in 2016. Kentucky. Delaware is the 5th most liberal state in the nation. The hunting state of Pennsylvania overwhelmingly wants gun control, and they hate, and I mean HATE, their Republican Governor. Americans like President Obama's immigration plan. PBS is the nation's most trusted network. And Iowa would really like a Democrat as their next Senator.

Consider, for a second, the possibility that our sober, "bi-partisan" politicians and various media boosters of "centrist" politics aren't interested in finding solutions to our problems. Imagine that the people seeking "the middle" are motivated to do just enough to keep getting re-elected and keep the money spigot open - with no thought for the long and short term outcomes. If you've entertained these dark thoughts, here is a longer think piece for your Saturday morning ruminations. The premise is that democracy is broken. There's "a hidden failure mode, we've landed in it, and we probably won't be able to vote ourselves out of it."

I'm so glad that our upright centrist Democrats hopped on the GOP's economic bullshit train.

The federal deficit will drop to less than $1 trillion for the first time in five years, but massive spending cuts that have improved the budget outlook are also slowing the economy, according to a report released Tuesday by the Congressional Budget office.

Here is a bad song.

Idaho state Sen. John Goedde (R), chairman of the the state Senate Education Committee, introduced legislation to require every Idaho high school student to read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and pass a test on it to graduate from high school, the Spokane Spokesman-Review reports. The reason for this is reading the book made Goedde's son a Republican, so he wants all of Idaho's school children to be Republicans. If a Democrat did this (although I cannot think of a comparable book or author that singularly informs the liberal mind if only because we liberals tend to be more intelligent and we read many books, not just one), can you imagine the outrage? Fox News would self immolate.

I get why New Jersians like the fat blustery guy routine. In an age of stiff, over-programmed, cyborgs like John Carney and Tom Carper moving stiffly and guardedly across the public stage, the fat blustery guy is a breath of fresh air. Like a bowl of chocolate chip mint ice-cream after nothing but white bread toast and saltines. Nevertheless, you can't bluster away facts. The fat man is more likely to have a stroke. The fat man is more likely to drop dead of a heart attack. The fat man is driving up your health insurance rates with his undisciplined, devil-may-care approach to the buffet table. Just as we know that "cutting taxes on business" has never helped the economy - the fat bluster guy should never be mistaken for a healthy person. Facts are facts.

The fight back against overdevelopment continues. Six bipartisan Newark area lawmakers have signed a letter urging the County Council not to rezone the Stoprya tract of land on the north side of Kirkwood Highway. And when I think of a stretch of New Castle County that cannot handle any more development, I think of Kirkwood Highway. Come inside for more details...

First Karl Rove says they need to tone down the crazy, now FastCompany has jumped into to try and save the Republican Party from itself with some comprehensive branding advice (that I hope nobody listens to).

Here is the second update to the PDD-DL Vote Tracker. The General Assembly is in recess right now as the Joint Finance Committee works on the Governor's Budget, so this vote tracker summarizes the last week of action of the GA, which includes the passage of the amended Port Bill (SB 3).