National

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).

John Sigler's email continues to make a fool of him -- this time the email (which I haven't seen) criticizes the Governor for his overseas trips. Really? Sigler clearly missed the fact that one of the real growth areas in American jobs is importing them from overseas. Still, it is a good bet that Sigler's email provides no clues as to the places in Delaware where the Governor should be visiting to help bring in new jobs. The man is clearly not supposed to be making sense -- just fine-tuning his manufactured outrage. The Governor provided a choice response though:

In searching for overheated rants about Karl Rove, I came across this bit of revisionist history from Red State's Eric Ericson:

In Delaware, many conservative, myself included, made the conscious decision that it would be far better to have the Democrat win than Mike Castle because of what Castle would do whispering in the ears of Republican leaders. Few of us thought she could win. But Sarah Palin and Jim DeMint get particular blame for their endorsements, which totally ignores that those endorsements came when it was clear O’Donnell was on a glide path to victory in the primary as Delaware Republicans were rejecting Mike Castle without much outside help from conservatives.

The original Constitution itself is silent on the right to vote. Indeed, in deferrence to the godforsaken "State's Rights" faction, the Constitution leaves the determination of voting qualifications to each individual state. So while the 15th Amendment referred for the first time to a "right to vote" and prohibited the states from denying or abridging that right to vote on account of race, states still had significant power to deny that right to vote through literacy tests, poll taxes, and other forms of intimidation. So the 15th Amendment, and all subsequent voting Amendments (i.e. 19th (women) and the 26th (age of 18), are better understood as not establishing a right to vote but instead telling the states that you cannot deny the privilege to vote on account of race, religion, sex, or age. States were free to deny the vote in any other way they saw fit. And many states have tried to make voting as difficult as possible. Long lines, lack of polling stations, shortened registration deadlines, prohibition on felons voting, and harsh residency requirements are all examples. So a Constitutional Amendment is required to not only explicitly spell out that right to vote, but to take away the ability of the states to deny the previous privilege to vote.