Tag Archives: Beau Biden

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thurs., Jan. 16, 2014

Well, one day in, and already one of my predictions has gone down in flames. (Or is it ‘up in flames’?) Thought it would be easy for the Senate to resurrect HB 88(Barbieri),   which would establish procedures to try and keep guns out of the hands of the dangerously mentally-ill. We weren’t talking about passing the bill, we were just talking about restoring the bill to the Senate calendar. However, this signature initiative of Attorney General Beau Biden went nowhere on Tuesday, likely prompted by the notable absence of Beau Biden.  From the News-Journal story:

Senate Minority Leader Gary Simpson, R-Milford, said he expected Biden to be in Legislative Hall to make his case.

 “If this bill is that important, I would think the attorney general would be present to debate it,” Simpson said. “He should be on the job and seen and heard from, rather than his staff speaking in his name.”

Biden’s chief of staff, Timothy Mullaney, said Biden spent his day in meetings to discuss violence in Wilmington. Biden was not available for interviews to discuss a new Wilmington crime plan announced by Mayor Dennis Williams. Joe Rogalsky, who leads legislative efforts for Biden, said the attorney general would not give up on the gun-control issue.

Simpson’s right, you know. Perhaps a little cruel, but right. Were Biden up to the task, he would have been in Legislative Hall. It’s not a long drive from Wilmington. However, it proved to be a Route Too Far to revive his signature bill. You do the math.

Here’s the complete Tuesday session activity report. Basically, no activity.

Here’s the complete Wednesday session activity report.   The Senate unanimously passed a couple of bills dealing with trusts and fiduciary responsibilities. I have no idea what they do, but because Sen. Townsend sponsored them, I’m guessing they’re not too bad.

BTW, I’m likely to just two post-game/pre-game shows  per week this year. At least until June. One on Tuesday and another on Thursday. Since Wednesday is primarily reserved for committee meetings, I’ll reference important bills in committee on Tuesday, and will highlight what came out of committee on Thursday.  There are only so many hours, especially in an election year.

Thursday affords me yet another opportunity for a bold prediction. To no one’s surprise, SB 151(Blevins) ,  the Chip Flowers Plain English Bill, will be considered by the Senate. Sen. Blevins has placed an amendment with the bill that would ‘remove(s) the Cash Management Policy Board’s exemption from the Administrative Procedure Act’.  I hope and fully expect that the bill will pass with the amendment added. Over/under on senators voting no: 0.5. Who wants the over? Here’s the Senate Agenda for today.

The House has some serious unfinished business  on its agenda.  Most notably, mathematicians in the House apparently figured out that the easiest compromise between 0 and 2 is 1. Which is the number of voices that state employees will have on the State Employee Benefit Committee should SB 21(Henry) pass with an expected amendment.  I find it interesting that this amendment adds the Lieutenant Governor to the Committee. Anyone know why?

The House is also scheduled to consider SB 55(Townsend)  today. The bill would subject members of the Public Service Commission to financial public disclosure. Any no votes would be a surprise and a disappointment.

Man, these early-in-the-year reports are clean and easy.

I’m done early today. Feel a nap coming on before work…

Time To Level With Us, Beau

Beau Biden apparently wants to have it both ways. According to this article at WDEL.com,   Biden states that he plans to run for reelection in 2014, but refuses to give any update on his health. Although the ‘…long, curving scar stretching from his left ear to the top of his head’ provides a clue. However, Biden “is still refusing to discuss details about a recent health scare that sent him to a Texas cancer center.” This in the same interview where he says he’ll run for reelection.

This is not acceptable. If you want to talk about running for reelection, you owe the public the information it needs to determine whether you are fit to hold office.

Any claim to privacy is no longer operative while openly discussing plans to run for reelection.

We’re grownups. Stop playing these games. Level with us.

Carper to Homeland Security, Beau to Senate??

Major tip o’ the sombrero to one of my compadres for passing along this juicy rumor:

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2013/07/12/napolitano_will_resign_as_homeland_security_secretary.html

Carper as a possibility to replace Napolitano as Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Beaudhisattva to the Senate. Major upgrade for our delegation, major downgrade to the Cabinet.

Although, as a doddering fool, Carper would be ideally suited to cast a blank stare and blind eye towards our uber-spying apparatus.

Roll Call item on Beau Biden throws a curve ball

This Abby Livingston Roll Call item on Beau Biden unfolds pretty much as expected. The “local operatives” were probably a couple of people at Dem HQ. Maybe Ed Freel, touting the ‘new’ Tom Carper (still a ‘pup’ after close to 40 years on the public dole). Perhaps the Chamber of Commerce lackey Rich Heffron or Celia Cohen touting the timeless beauty of the status quo. You know, the usual. Then suddenly the needle scratches a new groove.

Few local operatives have any idea when or how the Democrat can ascend in such a small state already dominated by his own party. Meanwhile, Republicans remain deeply divided in Delaware as their voter registration count lags behind Democrats. Operatives from both parties did not expect the GOP to pick up either of the state’s two Senate seats or single at-large House seat soon.
“Obviously, we hope we don’t have to replace anybody federally for a long, long time,” said Delaware Democratic Party Executive Director Joe Aronson.
The First State’s congressional delegation is relatively new to Capitol Hill. Sen. Thomas R. Carper, a 66-year-old Democrat, just won a third term in November after serving a decade in the House. His fellow Democrats, Sen. Chris Coons, 49, and Rep. John Carney, 56, were both elected in 2010.

As a result, any vacancy in the near future would shock Delaware politics.

Biden shied away from running for his father’s seat in 2010, but he remains the first name most plugged-in operatives mention. If Biden forgoes another bid for higher office, many other local Democrats are eager to take his place in the political hierarchy. Democrats suggest Carney might run for the Senate eventually.

Other talented Democrats on the party’s radar include Gov. Jack Markell, Lt. Gov. Matt Denn, state Treasurer Chip Flowers and state Sen. Bethany Hall-Long.

Wait… what!? Some local operative is trying to bid up BH-L’s stock? Who would be doing that (other than BH-L?) and why? BH-L is ambitious as the day is long, but does she really merit a top spot on the depth chart. I mean I haven’t been really tuned in this term, but has she done something? If so, fill me in.

What do “local operatives” see in BH-L that they don’t see in Rep. Daryl Scott who I’ve heard mentioned for Auditor? And I could actually see Townsend mentioned on that list. If Beau opts out of another run for AG, seems like a great next step for him.

Common-sense gun control laws? Not for Delaware

Mental-Health-Guns600

During the Aurora massacre, a mentally-unbalanced individual entered a movie theater with a small arsenal of firearms during the premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises” and proceeded to kill 12 people, and injure 70 more.

Of note about the tragic incident was the fact that James Holmes, the shooter, saw at least three mental health professionals at the University of Colorado before the shooting, and even threatened and intimidated a psychiatrist he had been seeing. But because of loose laws in Colorado (which have since been fixed), he was never put on a list and was able to purchase a small army’s worth of firearms.

Continue reading at Newsworks…

Beau Biden on ABC This Week

AG Biden was on a Sunday Yack Show — ABC This Week — to talk about his father’s performance at the debate. He did a great job, I think (this is a little over 4 minutes long):

First off — I think that Jake Tapper should be ashamed of himself for asking if VP Biden smiled too much during the debate. That silly question presupposes that the only thing of any importance that happened Thursday night was Joe Biden smiling. There was some content in this that deserved more attention than the smiling. But I think that Beau is right — if smiling is what they are focused on, then they know Joe Biden won it. They did talk about Afghanistan and the embassy security questions but it would have been great to also talk about the vaporware that is the Romney/Ryan budget instead of the smiling.

Why Would FOIA Not Apply to the Wilmington Mayor’s Office?

DelCOG (and John Flaherty) informs us of something pretty alarming — that AG Biden’s office officially thinks that the Office of the Wilmington Mayor is *not* covered by FOIA. How can that be, you ask? According to the DelCOG letter, the AGs office has issued an opinion at the Wilmington Mayor’s office is not subject to FOIA because the Mayor’s office is a 1 person agency. To be fair, I have not seen the actual decision (it isn’t posted on their website that I can find), but John Flaherty is normally a very reality-based person, so I’m inclined to trust his take on this.

I can’t even begin to imagine why they’d look at the Mayor’s Office as a one person agency — except to note that if they can make this fly, they can exempt from FOIA the offices of lots of elected officials, since technically (under this criteria it seems to me) they are one person agencies. And why would a one person agency be exempt from FOIA anyway? It seems to me that the criteria for FOIA ought to be whether or not the office is doing the work of the public — not how many people the office has.

A note on the circumstances of this — while the African American Heritage Center is still tilting at windmills here (IMO), since they responded to an official RFP, it seems to me that they would want to pursue some action regarding the procurement itself if their story on the presentations is correct. But that might interfere with tilting at windmills.

Contact the AGs office and John Flaherty if you think that this is the wrong position on the applicability of FOIA to the Mayor’s office. And I’ve reposted the entire letter here:

April 12, 2012
The Honorable Joseph R. Biden, III
Delaware Attorney General
820 French St.
Wilmington, DE 19802

Dear Attorney General Biden:

We are writing to urge you to reconsider the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) opinion issued by Deputy Attorney General Kent Walker who stated that the Office of the Mayor of Wilmington is not a public body under FOIA because it has only one member, the Mayor himself.

Mr. Walker contends the Office of the Wilmington Mayor is a 1 person agency not covered by FOIA.

A google search for the Office of Wilmington Mayor, comes up with an office consisting of 12 smiling individuals that make up the staff for the Mayor’s Office.

I have attached the staff directory for the Office of the Mayor for your review.

As you are aware, under the Freedom of Information Act, the jurisdiction of the Attorney General is limited to the determination of whether a citizen has been denied access to public records or to meetings that were in fact conducted but either not properly noticed or not conducted in an open manner as required by Delaware law.

In a complaint submitted to the Attorney General’s Office on March 8, 2012, by the ‘African American Heritage Center of Delaware’, the Center alleged that they were denied access to a public hearing involving the Delaware Historical Society when the topic of the meeting was the spending of thousands of dollars of public monies by the Society on the establishment of a African-American museum.

It is not the purpose of this letter to take sides in a dispute between groups as to who is best positioned to operate an African-American Heritage Museum.

Rather, it is the purpose of this letter to reiterate and demand that the public has a right, under FOIA, to expect that when a public meeting is held and the agenda is the spending of thousands of dollars of tax payers monies, that meeting should be conducted in an open manner as required by Delaware law. That did not happen in this case.

We urge your personal involvement to reconsider this matter and to issue an opinion that conforms to Delaware’s Open meeting law and not an opinion based on conjecture and misunderstanding.

Sincerely,
John D. Flaherty,
President
Delaware Coalition for Open Government
712 W. 26th St.
Wilmington, DE 19802
email jdf0000@aol.com
cell 302-319-1213

It’s Getting Mighty Deep in Sussex

Seems as though Sussex County Sheriff Jeff Christopher repeats his lies about his ongoing battle to become the county’s super cop so much that he’s beginning to believe them as truth.

In the latest edition of the American Free Press, Jeffy-pooh claims that Attorney General Beau Biden has stripped him of his powers of arrest.

“Now my deputies and I have been relieved of all arrest powers and can’t even make a traffic stop,” he said.

Jeff, you never had them in the first place.

Sheriff Jeff Christopher of Sussex County, Delaware, when he was elected to the office in 2010, thought he was handpicked by the people to represent them as the highest-ranking law officer in the county. Instead, he has found himself in the middle of a fight for the future of American law enforcement as a result of a nationwide effort to abolish the sheriff’s office altogether.

No you didn’t Jeff. If you did, then you are not only lying to the people of Sussex County, but you’re lying to yourself. Funny how you didn’t mention being the “highest-ranking law officer in the county” on any of your campaign material.

During an interview at the Las Vegas Sheriffs Conference in January, Christopher told AFP that the impotence of his office was brought home to him when he was hit in the eye and kicked by County Councilman Vance Phillips but was unable to arrest him.

Um, this was not a sheriffs conference. This was a group of over-zealous boys with guns who more than likely used taxpayer money to attend a meeting organized by the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association. This is not a recognized group of law enforcement officials by anyone other than Sheriff Mack (the founder of CSPOA) and the attendees. And Jeff, you lied about what happened during that “altercation” with Vance Phillips. Hell, even the two witnesses wouldn’t back up your claims about being kicked and stomped on.

So what about this news story. The AFP is the bastard child of the The Spotlight, and was founded by Willis Carto, who was the founder of the Liberty Lobby. Let’s see what this group was all about, shall we?

Liberty Lobby was the subject of much criticism from all quarters of the political spectrum from the first day of its founding. Liberty Lobby described itself as a conservative political organization, but its founder, Willis Carto, was known to hold strongly antisemitic views, and to be a devotee of the writings of Francis Parker Yockey, who was one of a handful of esoteric post-World War II writers who revered Adolf Hitler. Yockey, writing under the pseudonym of Ulick Varange, wrote a book entitled Imperium: The Philosophy of History and Politics, which Willis Carto adopted as his own guiding ideology.

Many critics, including disgruntled former Carto associates as well as the Anti-Defamation League (a group that fights antisemitism and Holocaust denial), have noted that Willis Carto, more than anybody else, was responsible for keeping organized antisemitism alive as a viable political movement during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, when it was otherwise completely discredited.

Evidence for the antisemitic stance of Liberty Lobby began to mount when numerous letters by Carto excoriating the Jews (and blaming them for world miseries) began to surface. “How could the West [have] been so blind. It was the Jews and their lies that blinded the West as to what Germany was doing. Hitler’s defeat was the defeat of Europe and America.” Carto’s letters eventually became the subject of a federal civil lawsuit (LIBERTY LOBBY, INC., et al., Appellants, v. Drew PEARSON et al., Appellees. No. 20690. United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit provides an accurate account of the case – bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/390/390.F2d.489.20690_1.html.) Liberty Lobby ultimately lost in the United States Supreme Court with a denial of certiorari.

Other cited evidence of the group’s antisemitic views includes the charge that the group’s file cabinets contained extensive pro-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan literature. In 1969, True magazine ran a story by Joe Trento entitled “How Nazi Nut Power Has Invaded Capitol Hill”.

But wait, there’s more!

Starting in October 1966 two American journalists, Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson, published a series of stories under “The Washington Merry-go-round” that recounted the findings of a former employee, Jeremy Horne.[4] Horne said he had discovered a box of correspondence between Carto and numerous government officials establishing the Joint Council of Repatriation (JCR), a forerunner organization to the Liberty Lobby. The JCR stated that their fundamental purpose was to “repatriate” blacks “back to Africa”. Ex-Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Tom Brady and various members of the White Citizens’ Councils who had worked to established the JCR, also contributed to the founding of Liberty Lobby. Other correspondence referred to U.S. Congressional support for the emerging Liberty Lobby, such as from South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond (Dixiecrat presidential candidate in 1948) and California U.S. Representative James B. Utt.

So not only does Jeff Christopher associate with people who view the Federal government as terrorists, he gives interviews to on-line “newspapers” that have a history of both anti-Semitism and wanting to send all of the country’s Blacks back to Africa.

Really nice, Jeff. Looks like you got some ‘splainin’ to do.

Biden Joins NY Investigation into Validity of Mortgage Paperwork

Attorney General Beau Biden is joining the investigation started by NY AG Eric Schneiderman in looking at mortgage Trustee Banks Bank of New York Mellon and Deutsche Bank. These Trustee Banks did not originate or service loans, but were supposed to make sure that paperwork for mortgages was in order.

From Yves Smith:

As we have indicated in previous posts, trustee have potential major, current liability. While the statue of limitations has passed for securities fraud on pretty much all RMBS (the limit is usually three years; parties can sue for breach of contract, but the standards for proving fraud as opposed to a mere breach are much higher), that is NOT the case for trustees. They are required under the pooling and servicing agreement to provide annual certifications that they hold the trust assets in good order (this is the concept rather than the actual language). Clearly that is untrue if the notes are not in their possession or they never bothered to confirm, as they once did, that all the notes had been endorsed properly. Trustees can get that requirement waived if a deal has fewer than 50 investors, but even so, most trustees filed at least one annual certification in addition to the one at closing before applying for a waiver, and it seems likely that most deals had more than 50 investors.

The question of proper conveyance of mortgage paper has been a big question for some time. For awhile, it looked like the Iowa AG might get to the bottom of this AND possibly stop some of the foreclosure madness based on the sloppy way that mortgages were conveyed. As of now, the Iowa AG and his group of AGs look like they will settle this business for a few billion and let it get covered up rather than upend the apple cart. Focusing on Trustee Banks might provide an end run around the settlement. This investigation largely focuses on how the mortgages were securitized, a process that has rules about making sure that loan files are complete. And we know that many loan files were not.

The NYT article notes that Biden has joined for the Trustee Banks investigation, while the Yves Smith article (linking back to a Huff Post article) says that the NY AG is also looking at Bank of America. Don’t know if Biden is looking at BofA too. It may be that Biden is just looking at the Trustee Banks incorporated here, but I can’t be certain based on this info.

Maybe this will result in some perp walks or maybe these banks will need to be finally liable for the mess they created. I’m not holding my breath for this, but there is another way that the banks are being backed off part of the mortgage fraud — and that is by local Register of Deeds telling MERS that they will no longer accept robo-signed documents. There’s just a few counties that have invoked this — and apparently there are others looking to sue MERS for missed revenue from recording fees. Wonder if any of our local Register of Deeds offices are looking into any of these actions?

February 3 — Call Beau Biden to Demand Tougher Penalties for Mortgage Fraud (EDIT)

If you’ve been following the foreclosure mess, you know that last year all 50 AGs teamed up for an investigation in to the entire Fraudclosure business, with promises by some AGs that people would go to jail. That effort into large scale investigations seems to be dead in the water, while banks remain free to continue their bad practices.

A coalition of consumer groups is asking consumers to call their AG on February 3, 2011 (Thursday) to demand tough penalties for the bad actors in this business. Crime Shouldn’t Pay is their website, providing a way to find out contact information for AGs (Delaware AG Beau Biden: (302) 577-8338) with a suggested phone script and a petition to sign.

The AGs Office does show a Mortgage Fraud Taskforce, but I don’t know what they’ve been doing to address the massive lawlessness around foreclosures. It is probably time for the AG to let us all know what progress is being made. While we wait for that, make sure you call and let the AG know that big banks need serious penalties for their misbehavior and that there are homeowners out there in need of the protection of the law. And spread the word! Post the website on your Facebook page, send it out over Twitter and certainly email your friends the link to the Crime Shouldn’t Pay site.

After you’ve called, drop back here and let us know how it went. (Or just go back to the Crime Doesn’t Pay site and give them an update on your call.) Please take a few minutes to fight back today — it works to the banks’ favor to let this issue die down.

EDIT: Via Rortybomb:

Dylan Ratigan and the Huffington Post are highlighting the real issues with Fraudclosure all this week, in a series they are calling No Way To Live. He is posting up the TV segments he is doing all week. This is good stuff.

The Huffington Post is hosting foreclosure meetups across the country on February 8th. The idea is to get people going through this to talk to each other — to compare notes and make sure they know that they aren’t being singled out for this behavior. As Mike Konzcal notes: “This is another space for people to be able to gather and talk about what they are going through. The exhaustion, isolation and powerlessness is part of their strategy – spread the word to those in need.”

The Huffington Post takes a long look at one Michigan family utterly screwed over by the HAMP program.

It really is stunning that no one seems to be on a path for sanctions, trials or jail time for any of this. Which, really, is one more subsidy or bailout for these bankers. Time to stop it — please be sure to call.

(MORE, if you’ve time to read.) Mike Konzcal from Rortybom put together a series called Foreclosure Fraud for Dummies back in the fall that is the only thing you need to read about this mess: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5. You won’t be sorry you spent time with this.

A Picture’s Worth A Thousand Words

Too, too funny!   Thanks, Mr. Knuckles, for the picture and the text!



I find that this picture from Return Day sums up the whole Senate campaign in DE. The self congratulatory look on O’Donnell’s face (voice in her head = “I have the upper hand”). Chris Coons calmly assessing the situation (voice in head = “All I have to do is let go, step back, and watch her decapitate herself”). And Beau Biden in the corner thinking of what could have been.

(h/t Jason330)

Volunteer Opportunity This Sunday

If you have been just dying to get out there to meet the Democratic candidates and do something to help get them elected, I have an opportunity for you.

The 9th District Democratic committee is sponsoring an event on Sunday, October 3rd starting at noon at 200 Cleaver Farm Rd.  There will be a small rally to give everyone a chance to see the Democratic candidates all the way up and down the ticket.  The following candidates are expected to speak (I promise they’ll keep it short and sweet):

  • Chris Coons
  • John Carney
  • Beau Biden
  • Chip Flowers
  • Richard Korn
  • Trinidad Navarro
  • Ciro Poppiti
  • Bruce Ennis
  • Quinn Johnson
  • Rebecca Walker
  • Bill Powers

At 1PM, we will do the work that will get these candidates elected.  We will be canvassing the Middletown area preparing to get out the vote. And we should have you home in time to watch the Eagles beat the Redskins.

This is an excellent opportunity to see the stars of the Delaware Democratic Party and give them a hand in making Delaware a better place.

For more information or to RSVP, call either 9th District Chair,  Stephanie Hansen at (302) 376-9033 or the 9th District Treasurer, Dave Woodside at (302) 834-4421.

Beau Biden Released From Hospital

Beau Biden was released from the hospital today, according to press reports. The Delaware Department of Justice released this statement:

Attorney General Beau Biden returned home this afternoon from Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience, Department of Justice spokesman Jason Miller said.

Biden’s doctor, Dr. Robert Rosenwasser of Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience, made the following statement upon the Attorney General’s discharge:

“On the morning of Tuesday May 11, Attorney General Beau Biden suffered a minor stroke. Due to rapid triage, diagnosis, and institution of appropriate medical therapy, he is leaving Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience of Thomas Jefferson University neurologically normal.”

“I am pleased to report that the results of his final discharge general and neurological exam find his neurological status perfect in all arenas including motor skills, language function, and cognitive assessment. I am extremely pleased about his status as of discharge and have released him to assume full responsibilities as Attorney General after a brief period of rest at home.”

We wish him well in his recovery. Biden was hospitalized on Tuesday, May 11, so he’s spent 6 days in the hospital. Hopefully we’ll learn more now that Biden is out of the hospital.