Tag: Featured
President Obama’s Election Reform Commission-Small Ideas
Last week the President’s election reform Commission published its report with their ideas on reforming our election systems. The ideas seemed to be to improved voter participation, particularly in national elections. Because it was intended to provide a bi-partisan answer to our obvious electoral deficiencies, the solutions proposed, while mostly helpful, were incremental and did not offer answers to our long-standing crisis in our so-called participatory republican democracy.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., Jan. 28, 2014
Well. That was quite an ambitious, and welcome, State of the State Address from Governor Markell last Thursday. There is no surer way to jump-start our state’s economy and, not coincidentally, address long-postponed infrastructure deficiencies, than by proposing a massive capital upgrade. Our roads and bridges need it. So do our workers. I suspect that we will hear this week how Gov. Markell intends to pay for the proposed $500 million program. No doubt an increase in the gas tax will be one of the proposed revenue generators.
I, for one, strongly support such an increase. People have choices as to what kinds of vehicles they drive. If they want to drive massive gas-inhalers, that’s their choice. If they opt to downsize, that’s their choice. The fewer massive gas-inhalers out there, the less pollution gets emitted. Those with mass transit and/or car pool options would be more likely to consider them should gas prices rise. There would be fewer unnecessary trips if people really were concerned about higher gas prices. Less traffic, smaller vehicles, less pollution. Why not raise the gas tax to help pay for this engine of economic recovery? There no doubt will be other revenue sources. I, of course want to see some equity restored to our tax code. But I’m completely on board with this proposal.
Lotsa other good stuff in there as well, including specific job skills training for high school students, and an intense campaign to clean Delaware’s waterways. The question is, will D’s respond favorably to one of the best and only Democratic proposals from our D governor. Here are two early reactions….
Tiny Facebook Page Critical of NCC Government Subpoenaed by AG’s Office
This tiny facebook page with only 312 likes (as of yesterday afternoon) has someone mighty stirred up. Whoever is behind the page had apparently been doing some intriguing and often inflammatory writing about some Wilmington and NCCo fixtures until it seemed to have run out of steam. The recent lack of momentum may be associated with the fact that they went off the deep end, throwing around unsubstantiated rumors of affairs. Or it may be because they felt the heat coming on.
Either way, this subpoena is intriguing. Who could induce Beau Biden to get involved with this small potatoes BS? What are they after? It appears Biden is asking for the names behind the page, but to what end? And why did someone think it was a good idea to employ the Barbara Streisand effect on this?
Well, PRW has a theory…
Governor Markell’s State of the State Address
We didn’t get to talk about this on Thursday when he delivered this address, but I hope you all had a chance to see it or to read it (there is a video of the address as well as a transcript of the speech at the link). The Governor choose the theme of Unleashing the Potential in Every Delawarean, which is certainly an excellent launching point to get to job, school, infrastructure investment as well as revitalization opportunities for Delaware downtowns. Here’s a summary of the major points from a recent press release from the Governor’s office:
Delaware Political Weekly: Jan. 18-24, 2014
Marie Mayor has filed to run for the 20th RD seat currently held by the odious ex-state cop Steve Smyk. You may recall that Mayor ran a superb campaign, handily won a primary for the seat, and was poised to win until…a two-week blitz of fear and hatred stirred up the local yokels.
Meanwhile, in the absence of any other breaking political news this week, I’d like you to predict what comes next politically for the following Delaware figures, especially considering that Gov. Markell is term-limited…
Those Republican Classes On How To Woo Women Aren’t Working
After the 2012 election, Republicans announced that they would be changing their ways. Call it outreach, sensitivity training, whatever, they knew they had female problems. They also have minority problems, immigration problems, LGBT problems, 47% problems, but I’m going to focus on their female problems for this post. Let’s start with their latest example. Mike Huckabee.
New Analysis Of U.S. Misjudgement on Sarin Gas Source
Robert Parry, of ConsotiumNews and noted investigative reporter has just published an investigative report on the August 21 Sarin Gas attack in Syria. The report is entitled “The Mistaken Guns of Last August” and can be seen at ConsortiumNews.com. He cites the work of Richard Lloyd of Tesla Labs and Theodore A. Postol, science professor at MIT. Parry says:
“A new report by two American weapons specialists, entitled “Possible Implications of Faulty US Technical Intelligence in the Damascus Nerve Agent Attack,” makes clear that the case presented by Kerry and the Obama administration was scientifically impossible because the range of the key rocket carrying Sarin was less than a third of what the U.S. government was claiming.
NSA/Surveillance: A First Step In Reining It In
The President’s speech on Friday, pre-empting the final report he commissioned on NSA restraints, is a good first step. So, we applaud a beginning in rolling back the Surveillance State aimed at the American people.
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.
Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tues., January 14, 2014
The 2nd Session of the 147th General Assembly begins today. For newbies, or for those who forget easily, here’s what you need to know. Each legislative term lasts two years, from election to election. The 147th General Assembly runs until Election Day. Since this is the second year of the Assembly, all legislation that was in play on July 1, 2013 remains in play today. Of course, that doesn’t even consider new bills, new nominees, new controversy and, of course, new snark from Yours Truly.
The General Assembly meets for three weeks in January, breaks for six weeks for Joint Finance Committee hearings until mid-March, meets until Easter, breaks for two weeks, meets until around Memorial Day, breaks for two weeks (this is usually when the fiscal bills are finalized), and then meets until the early hours of July 1. But that’s getting ahead of ourselves.
This can and should be a busy and productive January session. It WILL be a contentious session. Here’s just some of the stuff that likely will be considered during January….:
Delaware Political Weekly: Jan. 4-10, 2014
The first full week of an election year=The Return of Delaware Political Weekly.
As a special bonus at no added cost, I’ll even include stuff that happened before this week, including all current filings.
Let’s Go!
The 62 Project: #’s 22 & 40
Ennis took the time-honored (or dishonored) route to the General Assembly. Retired state trooper straight to Leg Hall. His temperament, though, is different than others who have made the same trek. He’s not aggressive, he’s very friendly, does his homework, and maintains close ties to his constituents. He is in his Dover office almost every day, and he’s always meeting with constituents. Not those with the most money, I might point out. You might not think he’s all that smart when you first meet him, but he uses that to his advantage. He’s a lot smarter, and more politically canny, than he seems.
Meanwhile, Stephanie Bolden isn’t terrible, but she appears disinterested in, you know, legislating. One would hope that a district like hers would be served by someone more interested in their constituents’ problems than her own resume. She generally votes the ‘right’ way, but then so would anybody who represents this overwhelmingly Democratic and under-served district. I’d normally say that the district deserves better. But the voters sent the Plants back to Dover for something like 33 years. So maybe the 2nd RD deserves Stephanie Bolden.
Dems: Time For Radical Economic Solutions
I’m throwing this out there after much thought, but also just before leaving town for a week. So I won’t be able to respond right away. The economic incrementalism we Democrats are doing with supposed economic solutions to a broken capitalistic system isn’t working. Jim Hightower and many other fellow populists told you they wouldn’t work and he was right. It is time for radical solutions on behalf of the people.
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