Saturday Open Thread [3.22.2014]

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How about that Dianne Feinstein? Looks like she and her husband are making bank on the closing of some Post Offices. Coincidence? Probably not -- her husband's firms made a good deal of money during the BushCo too:
Between 2001 and 2005, Feinstein vetted and approved $1.5 billion in defense contracts for Perini Corp and URS Corporation – both owned by her husband, Richard Blum. In 2009, Feinstein successfully introduced a bill that routed an additional $25 billion to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), some of it for the purpose of marketing foreclosed property owned by banks that had gone under with the housing and markets crash. In a curious twist, CBRE later received a $108 million FDIC contract to market foreclosed property.
Delaware Political Weekly: March 15-21, 2014

Delaware Political Weekly: March 15-21, 2014

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Ken Simpler Files as R Candidate for Treasurer. And he's the prototypical Republican candidate--circa 1980. St. Andrews grad. Princeton undergrad. MBA and JD from the University of Chicago. Owner and CFO of Seaboard Hotels. Previously Managing Director at Citadel Investment Group. He and his wife are restoring a 200-acre farm near Newark. Other than being born and raised in Rehoboth rather than Greenville, this is your traditional Republican candidate for office. Should Chip Flowers survive a Democratic primary, I just might vote for him. Simpler, I mean.
“I don’t have to enforce any pretended legislation.” Jeff Christopher’s nuttiness unadorned

“I don’t have to enforce any pretended legislation.” Jeff Christopher’s nuttiness unadorned

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Because he is a fascinating crackpot, and because someone might want a handy reference at some point, I've taken Christopher's quotes directly from the WND article linked to previously. “Right now the threat to individual Americans from al-Qaida and other groups is nowhere near the threat we face from officials in our own country who are working at taking away our liberties,” Delaware Sheriff Jeff Christopher told WND. “The battle of liberty is never over. We are attempting to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot overturning the law stripping us of our arrest authority.” “I believe the intent of taking away the authority of the sheriff,” Christopher said, “is to set up a situation where the state police have the power to enforce unconstitutional legislation while preventing the sheriff from being able to stand against them.”
This Annexation Is An Outrage: Let’s Go To War

This Annexation Is An Outrage: Let’s Go To War

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Oh, wait. They're talking about Crimea, not Texas. Nor Hawaii, or Midway, American Samoa, Wake Island and half dozen other pacific islands we annexed, from what I can see, without money changing hands. And there are a dozen other annexations the good old U.S. of A. pulled off where we actually paid the owner while we held a gun to their head. Such as Puerto Rico and Guam, not to mention the Panama Canal zone.
Delaware casinos bailout

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thursday, March 20, 2014

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I was heartened to see legislators expressing skepticism on a proposal to give $20 million this year to ease financial burdens on casinos. As Rep. Dennis E. Williams pointed out, the casinos will keep coming back year after year. Which raises the question, why should taxpayers bail out a wheeler dealer like Denis McGlynn for making bad business decisions:
Denis McGlynn, president and CEO of Dover Downs Gaming and Entertainment and Dover Motorsports Inc., said not receiving any money from the state would spell disaster for casinos, leading to potential layoffs, shutdowns of certain operations and a cutback on marketing. Layoffs, loss of gaming options and a cutback in marketing ultimately would cost the state much more in lost revenue than what they would be shelling out in the current proposal, he said. The casino's bank loan expires on June 17, and the bank is watching the state's decision, he said. If the bank loan is not renewed, McGlynn said they'd have to shop around with other banks, something that probably won't work out in the casino's favor given its finances, he said.
We gave McGlynn and his, wait for it, ilk, every break in the book. And now we've gotta bail his ass out because his loan is under water? Hey, Denis, how about moving some of your other assets around to cover this? The Delaware General Assembly should simply stop giving away money to these blackmailers. Which is what and who they are.  
Obama’s explicit rejection of the Coons Doctrine

Obama’s explicit rejection of the Coons Doctrine

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Grandstanding blowhard Senators and DC talking heads who think that America's best interest are served by having under-planned, emotional, military excursion in order to constantly prove that we are manly men had a bad day yesterday.
President Obama, who has threatened Moscow with additional sanctions, said Wednesday that nobody wants to "trigger an actual war with Russia" because that would serve no one's interests. "We are not going to be getting into a military excursion in Ukraine," Obama told KNSD-TV. "What we are going to do is mobilize all of our diplomatic resources to make sure that we've got a strong international coalition that sends a clear message."

Jeff Christopher wants to go to war with the United States government on behalf of the residents of Sussex County

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Not Breaking - Jeff Christopher is nuts.
The office of sheriff was created to address worries exactly like the rampant militarization of police forces in America, claim two sheriffs who have challenged elected officials in their states over what they believe are unconstitutional abuses of power. “Right now the threat to individual Americans from al-Qaida and other groups is nowhere near the threat we face from officials in our own country who are working at taking away our liberties,” Delaware Sheriff Jeff Christopher told WND. Christopher has firsthand knowledge of the desire of government officials to usurp authority over local law-enforcement agencies. wnd.com