Monday Open Thread [8.4.14]

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Larry Sabato looks at his Crystal Ball:
"2014 is no 2006. The [2006] electorate had turned off to George W. Bush and would never again turn on. The Iraq War and Hurricane Katrina were two principal reasons. The full Democratic wave emerged in the fall, after some GOP congressional scandals, but even at this point in 2006, we were just debating how high the Democratic tide would rise." "2014 is also no 2010. All of the energy was on the Republican side four years ago, as Obamacare bombed, the Tea Party arose, and the poor economy that helped elect Obama lingered. The building GOP wave was so impressive that the Crystal Ball was able to predict a House switch from Democratic to Republican control by Labor Day even though Democrats held about a 75-seat majority at that time."
No, 2014 will be most like 1998, where the incumbent White House party upends conventional wisdom and picks up seats in one or both Houses of Congress, mostly due to the overreach of the opposition party. And if the GOP goes full bore on impeachment, I am ready to predict that the Democrats will retake the House.
How to Handle the Walking Dead — or, The Casinos Are Coming for Your Tax Dollars

How to Handle the Walking Dead — or, The Casinos Are Coming for Your Tax Dollars

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In the stuff I missed over the past couple of travel weeks, was this notice from the NJ that Delaware's zombie casinos are still hanging around looking for more bailout effort from Delaware's taxpayers:
One casino executive is hopeful lawmakers will provide relief for the state's ailing casinos when they return to Legislative Hall in January. But don't call it a bailout, says Dover Downs Hotel & Casino president Ed Sutor. Talks about potential long-term fixes to keep the casinos competitive are set to begin by mid-September. "They (the state) like the jobs created and the revenue," Sutor said Tuesday afternoon during a quarterly meeting between casino stakeholders, industry professionals and state department of finance. "They know that if something isn't done, some of that is in jeopardy," he said.
Is This What Jesus Would Do?

Is This What Jesus Would Do?

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The CNN Belief Blog ran an article over the weekend about U.S. Archbishops living lives of grandeur in huge, million $ plus estates whilst their flocks struggle to put food on the family table.
Liz Cheney has no idea what the word “disgrace” means

Liz Cheney has no idea what the word “disgrace” means

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The Cheney family is a pestilence. A curse on America.
Liz Cheney bashed President Obama Friday night for the way he characterized CIA interrogation practices after Sept. 11, 2001 as “torture.” “Even before I came into office, I was very clear that in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, we did some things that were wrong. We did a whole lot of things that were right, but we tortured some folks,” Obama said during a Friday press conference. We did some things that were contrary to our values.” Cheney said this was unacceptable.
Governor Markell on NPR Talking About Common Core

Governor Markell on NPR Talking About Common Core

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Yesterday morning, I heard the Governor on NPR in a quick (4 minutes) interview on Common Core and the fact that there is some movement in a few states to disown the curriculum/process/name. I can't really tell what is being walked away from really. But it looks like Governor Markell is not expecting the standards to go away entirely, just the name:
SIMON: So if a lot of states pull out of the Common Core, is there really a Common Core? MARKELL: Well, it depends what they replace it with. I mean, I think a lot of states, you know, who are talking about getting rid of the Common Core are quite likely to replace it with something that looks quite similar. If they call it something else, that's up to them. If they want to, you know, tweak the standards somewhat, that's up to them as well. I can tell you, in Delaware we're going forward because we really think it makes the most sense for our students.
Weekend Open Thread [8.3.14]

Weekend Open Thread [8.3.14]

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Dana Milbank on the logic of the House Republicans, such as it is:
After conservatives on Thursday brought down House Speaker John Boehner’s bill to address the border crisis, the new House Republican leadership team issued a joint statement declaring that President Obama should fix the problem himself. “There are numerous steps the president can and should be taking right now, without the need for congressional action,” the leadership quartet proclaimed, “to secure our borders and ensure these children are returned swiftly and safely to their countries.” Just the day before, House Republicans had voted to sue Obama for using his executive authority. They called him lawless, a usurper, a monarch, a tyrant — all for postponing deadlines in the implementation of Obamacare. Now they were begging him to take executive action to compensate for their own inability to act — even though, in this case, accelerating the deportation of thousands of unaccompanied children coming from Central America would likely require Obama to ignore a 2008 law.
I personally guarantee that whatever Obama does in his executive authority with respect to immigration will be the basis for impeachment. It is just so fracking predictable.
Flowers winning the twitter primary?

Flowers winning the twitter primary?

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From reformed GOPer, Mike Stafford's FB Page:
Is the size of a candidate's Twitter following a good gauge of their electability? If so, as of right now Flowers has more than 800, Barney just passed 400, and Ken Simpler, well, at 73 I'm not really feeling the whole populist groundswell thing. Meanwhile, Sher Valenzuela's Twitter strategy is to be invisible- I guess that makes her the stealth candidate.
Obviously an incumbent is going to have a built in twitter base. So this isn't exactly scientific, but primaries are all about turnout, so if a candidate is having trouble attracting people to their twitter account, how much harder will it be to attract them to the polls?