Tag: Featured
The 62 Project: #’s 30, 31, 32
We begin the ranking of the 62 legislators smack dab in the middle. As a listaholic, the thought of doing a double countdown, both up to the top and down to the dregs, is close to orgasmic. And, um, the foreplay is just starting.
I laid out my criteria here. I’ll let the articles speak for themselves. In addition to expressing opinions on the rankings, please let me know how you’d like to see this countdown improved. I’m sure there will be subtle format changes as this moves forward.
To me, here’s the lede of today’s rankings: Being in the middle of the rankings does not mean ‘meeting expectations’. As it turns out, all three of the legislators profiled here should be better and should be ranked higher, making their performances so far disappointing, at least to me.
Vet to Cruz: Keep Your Slimy Hands Off My Memorials
Ted Cruz, you dishonor your title, Senator. You do not deserve it. You dishonor all U.S. military veterans and the monuments built to honor us.
Announcing the 62 Project
I am El Somnambulo, and I’m a listaholic.
Today I announce The 62 Project, which will ultimately yield my rankings of legislators from 1 to 62.
However, I intend for it to be much more than just a list. I will write a selective bio, some brief, some lengthy, on each state legislator. I want to give people who don’t really know the legislators that well the opportunity to know them better. For better or worse.
I also don’t want this to be just a snarkfest, although, to put it mildly, THERE WILL BE SNARK. Lots of it. Hey, can’t help myself.
So, how have I ranked the legislators?
Why is the Delaware NAACP Bullying Councilwoman Lisa Diller?
This past Tuesday, the NCCo County Council met for usual business, but ended with an extraordinary bit of public commentary directing actual threats at Councilwoman Lisa Diller. We talked about the original incident here. But the NAACP President, Richard Smith, read a letter into the record that you can hear via the County’s audio of the meeting. The full meeting is about 30 minutes long, but if you go to about the 26 minute mark you can hear from Mr. Smith and Mr. Roosevelt Nichols (not sure I heard the name correctly) who read the letter sent to Ms. Diller.
The letter recommends that Ms. Diller take Diversity Training and Anger Management Training. It also says that “…we will monitor your future County Council behavior from now on.” (my transcription of the audio). Mr. Smith then takes the mike to also recommend Diversity Training and ask for a meeting with Ms. Diller. And if that doesn’t happen, “We’ll do what we have to do — you can take that any way you want to.” ‘Refuse to take the black community for granted” and he’d have 14-18 NAACP states here to protest or something.
Got that? The Delaware NAACP suits up in County Council to defend the indefensible behavior of Bernard Pepukayi — that behavior being an inept dodge of a valid request from a Council Member for a briefing on a the status of an appeal of a recent court decision in the Pike Creek Golf Course case.
Let Me Count The Ways The Tea Party Loves Us
35 by my count. Maybe you can add to the list. Not satisfied that there are thousands of varieties of teas they can throw overboard, they have voiced at least 35 issues they want the President to “have a conversation” about to end the shutdown and/or the debt ceiling crisis.
Can Chip Flowers Manage His Department’s Budget? All Signs Point to No
In a bold act of *disclosure* this past Friday afternoon, at 4:30pm, State Treasurer Chip Flowers released his so-called “definitive and final report” on the problems his Agency has had with one employee in using her credit card in accordance with State regulations. This is a great example of the Friday afternoon data dump — in which you hope that members of the media won’t pay much attention and print your spin on this item. The Treasurer’s “report” was dumped so late on Friday afternoon, that the press release that came with this thing didn’t even get posted to the website yet. But perhaps this report was rushed out in an attempt to counterweight the News Journal article today that provides a big window into how mismanaged the expenses on Ms. Erika Benner’s state-issued credit card were.
Michael Lind Provides Understanding On The Crisis Makers
I don’t normally repost other’s content, but I want my fellow progressives to appreciate the insights offered by Michael Lind in this article which appears in Salon.com. Understanding the opposition empowers us progressives to counter with effective strategies to salvage what is left of our democracy. He writes:
Comment Rescue — What Should Be Done To Make Wilmington a Healthy and Thriving City?
That is the core of this comment that Paul Calistro posted in the Daily Delaware thread. It is a good set of questions by someone who thinks about what is going on the city alot and by someone who cares a great deal about what happens here. Add your comments below and I hope Paul will check in and engage in a conversation here:
Something I Hadn’t Noticed Until Now…
… but, where is Vice President Biden? He had been central to prior negotiations in 2011 with the Republican Default Crisis and with the 2012 Fiscal Cliff. In those deals, he was the peacemaker and dealmaker. He is being kept off canvas now, but not for the obvious reason: so that he could be brought in for another dealmaking opportunity. No, there is another reason….
Explaining the DC Crisis in Black and White Language
Tom Hayden has a brilliant analysis of the stakes in the upcoming elections for Democrats and Progressives. He says:
Foxtail Highlights Wilmington’s Ethics Problem
Monday night’s marathon hearing of the City Council Joint Committees turned out to be the longest Council Meeting ever. You’ll recall that this meeting was convened to probe how it happened that the City paid for WPD, WFD and Public Works resources used at the Foxtail Festival. I was there until about 10PM, so missed some of the later testimony. It was demoralizing sitting through this — between the deflection attempts by Velda Jones-Potter, the disregard of the City’s Ethics policy by pretty much everyone including members of City Council and the clear lack of command and control within the Administration. The meeting room was standing room only and many of them came sporting safety orange shirts. Not sure what the shirts were meant to do — for a minute it looked like I had stumbled into a convention of the traffic safety folks that wave you through traffic at construction zones.
For America to Survive, the Republican Party must Die.
Sullivan goes on to quote from a letter from our 14th President, a man who our current President has a lot of admiration and a lot in common with, and such commonalities do not end with them both being elected to the Presidency from Illinois. Abraham Lincoln was describing his political situation and opposition, and my God, tell me he is not talking about what our 44th President is facing today:
What is our present condition? We have just carried an election on principles fairly stated to the people. Now we are told in advance, the government shall be broken up, unless we surrender to those we have beaten, before we take the offices. In this they are either attempting to play upon us, or they are in dead earnest. Either way, if we surrender, it is the end of us, and of the government. They will repeat the experiment upon us ad libitum
My Mother’s Story
She just posted this on Facebook. I thought I’d share it here:
So… Listening to all the bullshit today. It comes down to one issue – affordable healthcare. At the root of this is money, of course. The Republicans are on the side, always have been, of big business and there is no bigger business than healthcare. I have a very personal stake in all of this – I am one if those people who falls through the cracks. I have a pre-existing condition. I was diagnosed in 2004 with multiple myeloma but it turned out that I did not have that, but a neoplasm of unknown origin. This tumor ate through three vertebrae of my neck – C5, C6, C7 – As it strangled my spinal cord and started to restrict my lower limb mobility. I found a great neurosurgeon who removed 80% of the tumor and stabilized my neck with titanium rods and screws. I am supposed to have a MRI every three months for the rest if my life. Problem is, I lost my job in 2008. I was without healthcare for two months. So I had a gap in coverage, and now no one will cover any costs due to my neck. If I get the tests I need each year, the out of pocket expenses would be $7000+. So while everyone is fighting about why it is fair or not to cover people like me, I sit here and listen to the bullshit. And believe me, that is all it is.
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