The Open Thread for Friday, August 9, 2013

The Open Thread for Friday, August 9, 2013

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Byron York is right: "In 2012, he won 11 primaries and caucuses, making him the solid second-place finisher in a party that has a long history of nominating the candidate who finished second the last time around. (See Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole, John McCain, and Mitt Romney.) And yet now, no one -- no one -- is suggesting Santorum will be the frontrunner in 2016, should he choose to run. As far as the political handicapping goes, Santorum's 2012 victories don't seem to count for much." You know the reason why? Because even they know that Santorum is insane. As Jason noted in a posted last night, there is now polling evidence that senior citizens have turned against the GOP by such margins that former Speaker Pelosi could soon be future Speaker PelosiL
—In 2010, seniors voted for Republicans by a 21 point margin (38 percent to 59 percent). Among seniors likely to vote in 2014, the Republican candidate leads by just 5 points (41 percent to 46 percent.) —When Republicans took control of the House of Representatives at the beginning of 2011, 43 percent of seniors gave the Republican Party a favorable rating. Last month, just 28 percent of seniors rated the GOP favorably. This is not an equal-opportunity rejection of parties or government — over the same period, the Democratic Party’s favorable rating among seniors has increased 3 points, from 37 percent favorable to 40 percent favorable.
Booman notes that Republicans in several states have done a great job at gerrymandering the House districts to such an extent that even though the Democrats won the majority of the popular votes for Congress in 2012, the GOP maintained their House majority by 20+ seats. And that fact is not going to change in 2020, assuming that the demographic groups vote in the same way as they did in 2010 and 2012.
If these numbers are real, a lot of supposedly safe seats are not really safe. DCCC Chairman Steve Israel needs to get busy recruiting candidates, because it looks like a strong well-funded candidate can compete much better than we thought in a lot of House districts.
Around the Horn for August 2-8, 2013

Around the Horn for August 2-8, 2013

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Steve Newton at Delaware Libertarian has begun a must read series about whether Karen Weldin Stewart's favorite company Highmark is trying to build a monopoly for MedExpress in Delaware:
[T]he current incestuous relationship between Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield and MexExpress urgent care clinics is a classic example of government utterly failing at "regulating" a market. To begin with, let's go back and recall that Senator Patti Blevins and Insurance Commissioner Karin Weldin Stewart teamed up to exempt Highmark from the Attorney General's authority to require the insurance company to set aside $175 million in reserves for a foundation to benefit taxpayers. This was Highmark's condition for entering the Delaware market--$175 million plus multiple other exemptions and exceptions to existing insurance law. If you bother to go look at either Blevins' or Stewart's campaign donation pages at the Delaware Commissioner of Elections page, and you take the 2-3 hours necessary to trace down the bewildering array of PACs and healthcare related donations that each woman received in 2012, you will discover that they were well compensated for screwing Delaware taxpayers out of $175 million. Next, you need to recognize that Highmark holds a $51+ million stake in MedExpress urgent care clinics. To put it as clearly as open sources allow: Highmark holds at least a 10% ownership stake in MedExpress, probably more. So it was no surprise that, as in Pennsylvania, when Highmark came to Delaware, MedExpress quickly followed behind. In the past year, MedExpress has dumped FOUR new clinics into New Castle County, and is (or has) added four more in Kent and Sussex. These new clinics arrived with tens of thousands of dollars worth of smaltzy advertising about "your new neighbor." Here are the harsh realities: the arrival of MedExpress is only the FIRST STEP in a tried and true Highmark business model for vertical integration. Basically, the plan involves four steps...
Go to Delaware Libertarian and read on. Great work, Steve. Come inside to check what other Delaware bloggers have been blogging about this past week.
The Open Thread for Wednesday, August 7, 2013

The Open Thread for Wednesday, August 7, 2013

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The National Journal says the GOP is worried the gender gap could grow because of incidents like this:
"When the House Judiciary Committee passed a late-term abortion ban in June, Republican leaders scrambled to find a female, media-savvy legislator to bring the legislation to the floor. Their biggest problem: Not a single Republican woman was represented among the committee's 23 Republican members. They eventually settled on Tennessee Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who isn't on the Judiciary Committee." "The episode underscored a growing problem that is worrying Republicans: Women are badly underrepresented within their party in the Congress. Only eight percent of House Republicans are women, and there are only four female Republican senators. Of the long list of potential 2016 GOP presidential contenders, there's not a single woman."
Well, women tend to get turned off by Republican policies and attitudes towards women, and then there is the picture on the left. Come inside and find out what it is,
QOD — Should the US Boycott the Sochi Olympics?

QOD — Should the US Boycott the Sochi Olympics?

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George Takei has a provocative blog post arguing that It's Time to Move the Olympics:
It’s been bubbling for some time, but the controversy over Russia’s draconian “gay propaganda” law has now boiled over.Last week, Russia’s Sports Minister confirmed that the country intends to enforce its laws against visiting LGBT athletes, trainers and fans, meaning anyone even so much as waving a rainbow flag (and I presume many men enthusiastically watching and dramatically commenting on figure skating) would be arrested, held for weeks and then deported.Given this position, the IOC must do the right thing, protect its athletes and the fans, and move the 2014 Winter Olympics out of Russia.

Tuesday Open Thread [8.6.2013]

The School District of Philadelphia is reviewing their options in suing some Wall Street banks for illegally manipulating an index that underlies the derivatives that the District invested in and lost money on.  The Philadelphia City Paper is reporting:
The School District took out swaps with Wachovia (purchased by Wells Fargo in 2008), Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. But a lawsuit could name more banks as defendants. Philadelphia's lawsuit names banks that were direct counterparties and also those that are accused of rigging Libor, including Citi, JPMorgan, RBC, Bank of America, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, RBS and UBS.
How Progressive Priorities fared in the General Assembly – The Updated and Revised Vote Tracker

How Progressive Priorities fared in the General Assembly – The Updated and Revised Vote Tracker

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I finally got already to going through all the bills that were plowed through by our General Assembly on June 30. Yes, it took over a month. No, not really, I've been enjoying the summer too. This time, the Vote Tracker is downloadable in PDF form, rather than the Excel spreadsheet. Further, the Tracker, or rather, the legislation we are tracking, is organized into the following categories: 1) Passed and Signed Bills, 2) Passed One House, But Not the Other, 3) Waiting for Votes, either in Committee or on the floor, and 4) Defeated and Tabled Bills. Now, remember, this Tracker only keeps track of legislation that is of a priority or of concern to those of us on the liberal and progressive side of the aisle. Indeed, the Tracker is a joint effort between Delaware Liberal and the Progressive Democrats for Delaware (PDD). The PDD announced their legislative priorities earlier this year, and it was and is a pretty good, and long, list (in no order of priority):
Minimum Wage Increase Opposing Cuts to Medicaid Marriage Equality Death Penalty Repeal Gun Control Legislation Progressive Tax Rates Single Payer Healthcare Lobbying Disclosure Reform Independent Redistricting Reform Amending the Anti-Discrimination Law to Include Transgendered Persons Charter School Reform No Excuse Absentee Voting Manufactured Home Rent Justification
So it is best to view the Vote Tracker in terms of the above priorities. That's 13 priorities. How many were achieved? How many were defeated? And how many are a work in progress? Come inside to see.