Sunday Open Thread [6.29.14]

5 Comments
I had a great time last night and it was great to see everyone! Hope we'll do another DL get-together soon. Here are two long reads for this great Sunday Morning -- this piece (in Politico, but may be the best thing they've ever published) is from Nick Hanauer -- firmly ensconced in the 1% -- talking about the trainwreck to come if income inequality isn't dealt with. This is a brilliant -- and scathing -- piece. He reminds us that this kind of income inbalance is at the fulcrum of alot of painful upheaval, that supply-side economics isn't working, and that those business interests who continue to agitate for supply-side policy are arguing for long-term failure.
But the problem isn’t that we have inequality. Some inequality is intrinsic to any high-functioning capitalist economy. The problem is that inequality is at historically high levels and getting worse every day. Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society. Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution. [...]

The case for Chip Flowers

48 Comments
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]

11 Comments
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

43 Comments
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.
Delaware Political Weekly: June 21-27, 2014

Delaware Political Weekly: June 21-27, 2014

9 Comments
Yes, Chris Coons has a Republican challenger. His name is <strong>Carl Smink</strong>. Here's what I know. He's filed, but hasn't announced.  He's from Milton. His website is under construction.  He has written a few op-eds, or maybe letters to the editor, for the Cape Gazette, none of which are readily available unless you're a subscriber. He <strong>IS, </strong>however,  a "Drill, Baby, Drill" kinda guy who hates socialism. Ok. Two Kent County state reps may not even make it to November, and I must say I'm surprised. Both <strong>Harold Peterman (33rd RD) </strong>and <strong>Don Blakey (34th RD) </strong>are being challenged. Peterman's opponent is <strong>Charles Postles</strong>, who appears to be the chair of...the <strong>33rd Republican RD Committee. </strong> Blakey's challenger is <strong>Lyndon Yearick</strong>,  who doesn't fit a Tea Party profile, at least not on the surface. Active in the United Way, mentoring programs,  and also the Chair of the 34th RD, Yearick looks like the kind of candidate R's looking to restore credibility to their Party would seek out. He's currently the Maryland/Delaware Campus Director for Kaplan Test Prep. He has an MBA from Penn State (OK, now <strong>that's </strong>a cult).  <a href="http://www.yatedo.com/p/Lyndon+Yearick/normal/a5ff349a0ada08c4fdcb0cf7b1c61be8">By far, one of the more  interesting candidate profiles I've come across. </a> My question is this: Why would two RD chairs primary sitting state legslators? Usually, the legislators themselves have a huge say in who the RD chair is. <strong>Is it possible that Peterman and/or Blakey are retiring even though they've filed?</strong> One would think so. C'mon Kent County, help me out here.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., June 26, 2014

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., June 26, 2014

34 Comments
The Senate approved a new Supreme Court Justice, Karen Valihura, and David Small as DNREC Secretary. I can’t let this go without a comment about Justice Carolyn Berger‘s resignation from the Delaware Supreme Court and her seemingly ‘injudicious’ comments. I don’t know it she’s right on the specifics of Markell not taking her seriously, but she’s right on point when it comes to, well, I guess the operative word is ‘paternalism’, when it comes to women appointees to judgeships. When I first started working in Dover, the operative word was ‘chauvinism’. I’ll leave it to others to decide whether paternalism is a step up from chauvinism. To me, it’s ‘same old wine in a brand new bottle’. From Philadelphia Business Journal:
Berger’s situation outlines a concern in some quarters in Delaware that women do not have enough of a role on the judicial branch. Berger said women have advanced on the state’s family court, superior court and court of common pleas. She is also the only female to serve on the Court of Chancery, which deals with business litigation. “Family court is the only court ever to have a woman chief judge,” Berger said. “The court of chancery has had no women judges for the past 20 years, despite the fact that several well-qualified women have applied in the past. And I’ve been the only woman on the supreme court. Many other states have more than one woman justice, and in several jurisdictions, women justices outnumber male justices.”
Maybe it’s the same menfolk arguing that Delaware’s courts are the nation’s most prestigious who, in their own paternalistic minds, don’t want the wimmenfolk messing with that reputation. Perhaps the wimmenfolk who are assuming the leadership role in the State Senate just might have something to say about this moving forward. I hope so. But, I digress. You can as well. In the comments section.