Tag: Featured
Please Sign The Petition – Let’s Make Priority Schools A Real PRIORITY
Via Exceptional Delaware:
A group of like-minded individuals who are against the priority schools initiative has created an iPetition to give to Governor Markell, Delaware Secretary of Education Mark Murphy and the Delaware Department of Education. Please take a minute or two during the busy holiday season and make a difference! The timing is crucial on this petition.
If you agree… please sign the petition then help spread the word by sharing the petition with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, email, etc..
I’m counting on my DL community – you guys haven’t let me down before. Let’s knock this out of the park! Come inside for the Petition Link.
Let’s Celebrate Cuban Music !
President Obama has pulled another one out of his hat ! Thawing of our relations with the Cuban people. Great work, Mr. President.
The 2014 MVP Awards! And the winner is…. Mike Matthews.
Granted, it wasn’t a great year for progressives in Delaware, to put it mildly. A business uber alles governor, a congressional delegation that aids and comforts the enemy, more shenanigans from narcissistic elected officials, and a refusal by the General Assembly to address financial shortfalls that will soon impact Delaware’s infrastructure.
However…we began to see the emergence of coalitions that may well have a profound and positive impact on our future. We also saw some elected officials step up their game. And we saw members of the public lead in challenging some of the most wrong-headed assumptions of our elected officials.
So, here they are: The 2014 Bob Stachnik Memorial MVP Awards. Dedicated to a man who epitomized the spirit of those who created this very blog. A man who, literally and figuratively, sought to ‘re-twinkle the stars’.
Red Clay’s Latest Idea Will Create More Hardship For City Parents, Or… Red Clay Demonstrates, once again, how Clueless They Are
I had heard whispers about this for months. Kilroy spells it out: Red Clay’s (RCCD) plan for two of its Priority Schools is to turn one (Shortlidge) into a K – 2 and the other one (Warner) into a 3 – 5 school. And while I’m no fan of the Neighborhood Schools Act (NSA), Kilroy points out that this move violates the NSA.
Bulletin: U.S. Exempts Itself Against Torture Law
With the release of the long awaited report on the use of torture during the Bush/Cheney reign of terror following 9-11, public statements by current elected federal officials and many serving with Bush/Cheney, the United States of America appears to have exempted itself from all domestic and international law prohibiting torture.
Jack Markell Offers Another Phony Choice. Just In Time for Christmas: Coal for the Laborers.
OK, kids, take some time and read this article. It’s not long. I’ll wait.
Markell sets up a completely phony choice as the supposed upcoming battle for the ‘soul of the Democratic Party’. According to Markell, the choice is middle-class jobs vs. ‘income redistribution’, aka a living wage:
Markell said Democrats should pursue an “agenda around growth rather than an agenda around redistribution,” saying that “there aren’t a lot of people with middle class jobs who are aspiring to an increase in the minimum wage.”
So, on behalf of this state’s economic overlords, our putative Democratic governor wants to set up a battle of the middle class vs. those who need a living wage. Uh, by the way, in such a battle, neither the middle class nor those in need of a minimum wage wins. The economic overlords do. BTW, Jack, there’s no reason whatsoever why you can’t or shouldn’t pursue an agenda that promotes both growth for the middle class and a living wage. Geez, some of those people earning a living wage could become, dare I say it, middle class.
Murdertown, USA
That’s the title of Newsweek’s article looking at the crime problem in Wilmington. I thought that this article mostly tried to leverage off of articles like this one, that rank the safety of small cities using FBI crime stats and articles from the News Journal also reporting on Wilmington’s crime issues. The author mentions a “tale of two cities” quality to the city (that’s true) but doesn’t really do this theme justice, which might have told us more about the problem. And if you google “Murdertown”, you see places like Flint, MI, Chicago, IL, various towns in Texas and Youngstown, OH, tagged with it, so the title to this article is even a little worn. Still:
This year, there have been 27 homicides in Wilmington, tying its record 27 murders in 2010, and 135 people have been shot. Twenty-two of them died. With a population of just over 71,000, Wilmington had a violent-crime rate of 1,625 per 100,000 people last year, according to the FBI’s 2013 Uniform Crime Report (that crime rate measures murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, rape, robbery and aggravated assault). The national average was 368 per 100,000 people. Wilmington ranks third for violence among 450 cities of comparable size, behind the Michigan towns of Saginaw and Flint, according to a Wilmington News Journal report.
The stats are bad, but if the number of murders could be cut by one third or so, Wilmington would fall right off of those top 10 lists. The city would be a little safer for the folks who live in the neighborhoods where the guns seem drawn all of the time, but would the problem be resolved? Probably not, because:
When you ask people in Wilmington about the root causes of the city’s crime epidemic, their answers read like the devil’s Christmas list: poverty, racism, lack of economic opportunities, drug and alcohol abuse, gun violence, high dropout rates, teenage pregnancy, stressed families and more.
Illicit Drugs: Half of America Belongs in Prison
According to research by The Drug Policy Alliance, half of Americans have been in possession of illegal drugs at least once in their lifetime.
DL Exclusive: Rep. Bryon Short Considering Run for State Insurance Commissioner
State Rep. Bryon Short (D-Highland Woods) today told Delaware Liberal that he is considering a run for State Insurance Commissioner.
While he has not made a decision on the race, he told me that it’s important that the IC’s office does an effective job of ‘setting the marketplace’ to ensure competition and consumer choices, and to ‘effectively address the concerns and problems facing consumers’. He also said that the work of the office ‘is very important, but unfortunately people aren’t made aware as to just how important it is, and how it impacts them’.
Short has attended the last two NAIC (National Association of Insurance Commissioners) meetings in order to extend his knowledge for both his House committee work and to possibly prepare for a statewide run.
The 62 Project: Not Better Late Than Never. But It’s Finished. Just In Time To Change It.
I was planning to finish this in time for…well, some time before now. However, sloth and other events intervened. So here we have it, 1-62, for each and every member of the 147th Delaware General Assembly, based on their careers, not just the past session. For those I previously profiled, you can click on the links. For the rest, the floor is open for questions and vitriol.
1. Sen. Karen Peterson: A fierce negotiator/advocate who successfully leverages her bargaining power to pass progressive legislation. Imagine that. Accruing power not for personal ambition, but to pass a progressive agenda. An easy choice for #1.
2. Rep. Mike Barbieri: Quietly does outstanding work on kids’ issues, and has helped turn back the neanderthal mandatory sentencing excesses of the Sharp/Smith/Vaughn/Brady years. He’s impressed me from Day 1. A thinker and a doer. We need more social workers in the General Assembly.
3. Sen. Bob Marshall: Has gotten better and more effective as he’s gotten older. He serves as perhaps the leading Democrat from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party in challenging Jack Markell’s DINO-ism. He’s got at least one more minimum wage increase in him.
4. Rep. Melanie George Smith: Her work, along with Barbieri and others, on sentencing reform, was legislating at its best. It wasn’t easy, it required a tremendous attention to detail, plus political smarts. Forget her political roots, focus on her legislative skills.
5. Sen. Dave Sokola: Anyone who thinks it was easy for a legislator from the Pike Creek/Hockessin area to support progressive reform wasn’t around when he got elected. That’s what he did and that’s what he does. And, while he gets criticism from some of our education people, he stood up to the ‘forced busing’ bashers, including his own Pro-Tem, Tom Sharp. His sponsorship of civil unions reflects the kind of person he is.
With All Eyes On Ferguson, Oil Gushes In The Caliph
Reports from such sources as Pepe Escobar, Asian Times, tell us that the new Caliph is raking in $2million a day from their stolen refineries in Syria and Iraq. The bucks are being generated still on an oil black market run mostly from our ally Turkey.
The Darren Wilson Interview
I’ve watched the interview with Darren Wilson and George Stephanopoulos and all I got out of it was anger. During the interview all I kept thinking was… Liar. And while I get why he lied (Hello? Ongoing Federal Investigation), what I don’t understand is why he gave the interview so soon. Why not wait? Did ABC pay him? Payment is the only excuse I can think of for doing this interview so quickly.
Here’s why I think he’s lying in the interview. I also think he lied to the Grand Jury, and I’ll get to that later. Okay, here’s the big lie….
I’m Thankful for You F*ckers
Happy Thanksgiving and peace out for a while from your buddy Jason330. Blogging is 50% commenting, so we wouldn’t be here without you guys. Even though I’ve been pretty pissed off this year, you all are keeping the spark of liberalism alive in your own way. When we are at our best, our comments and posts are poignant, thought provoking and well argued. When we are at our worst, we are basically full of it.
And yet, it is always heartfelt, so thank you (in no particular order) Andy, puck, SussexAnon, All you Anonymous SOBs, LeBay, Unintended Consequences, Tom Hawk,bamboozer, teddy, ben, Another Mike, Geezer, Dorian Gray, Bane, Pine View Farm, rustydils, Aint’s Taking it Any More, AQC, Nuttingham, Walt, John Manifold, Plexing, Russ, Dave, Tom Kline. Republican David, stan merriman, fightingbluehen, Joanne Christian, Steve Newton auntiedem, Kavips, and MikeM2784.
Also, all you regular lurkers who read everyday, but don’t jump in. We see you in the stats and it is meaningful to us that you stop by. Thank you. Have a great Holiday. Fight with your crazy racist father-in-law and GO EAGLES!
Recent Comments