Our secret weapons are Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. No one is better at highlighting hypocrisy and double standards.

Stephen Colbert on the “Clinton Curse:”

Jon Stewart on Beck/Scheuer wishing for bin Laden to attack:

David Anderson on Roe v. Wade:

The gates of hell were opened that day in 1973 and our values seem to be sucked down to the pit. Child abuse soared, families collapsed, murder soared, rape climbed, schools became war zones, and America suffered humiliation in Viet Nam and a disgraced Presidency. The once great manufacturing giant loses jobs everyday. The social safety net of social security misses the very citizens who could save it. We have become confused on even the definition of marriage or even what is -is.

“Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!”
“Forty years of darkness, earthquakes, volcanoes!”
“The dead rising from the grave!”
“Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!”

David, thank you for sharing your insanity with us. You make blogging fun.

From Celia Cohen’s latest:

Ruth Ann Minner was still the governor when the new Delaware General Assembly began in January. The Senate was still refusing to believe that John Carney was not the next governor.

Jack Markell, the guy who was the new governor, was met by the Legislative Hall gang with the sort of smirks usually reserved for substitute teachers. Never mind that Markell and the majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives were Democrats.

How high school is this? As a writer for Delaware Liberal I am not one to criticize banality, gossip and all around juvenile content. Indeed, you will see all three on these pages on a daily basis, as we attempt to maintain a nice balance of the silly and the serious. But this is the very serious and very respected Delaware Grapevine, written by the very knowledgeable Celia Cohen, who had the whole political establishment so upset over her absence from blogging that they bankrolled her return to sycophancy.

Was the political establishment shocked at Markell’s close win over Carney last September? Sure. But does translate into the entire Senate, with all of its constituent 21 members, being so gobsmacked with disbelief that they remained in denial for five straight months? Are they all so petty as to treat a Governor who won with 62% of the vote over the very respected Bill Lee with smirks and snickers? In Celia Cohen’s world, yes. And perhaps in the real world too, there is some of the smugness that is displayed whenever an new kid at high school sits down at the lunchtable. Which brings us back to a recurring theme: high school. Cohen’s columns never left it.

The Democratic majority in the House was new and very raw. Rep. Bob Gilligan, the new speaker, was the only one who had ever served in the majority, back in the 1970s and early 1980s. Neither Gilligan nor Matt Denn, the new Democratic lieutenant governor, had any experience presiding over the floor action. Fortunately for both of them, the high-flung language that flows from their podiums is written down in a script.

So Gilligan has over thirty years of experience in the House, but he can’t handle legislative jargon unless it is written down in front of him? Matt Denn, a lawyer and former Insurance Commissioner, similarly cannot grasp Robert’s Rules of Order unless he reads from a script?

An open government measure empowered the constituency, once Sen. Karen Peterson, a Stanton Democrat, daringly forced a vote with a surprise motion to bring it before the chamber. It was as jarring to the Old Order as Rosa Parks refusing to move to the back of the bus.

Begin Seth Myer’s voice: Really? Comparing the old secretive Delaware Way to southern segregation in the 1950’s? Really? Well, maybe she has a point there. She does that once an a while.

Reading Celia’s high school take on the Delaware Way makes me wonder if she or the practitioners of the Delaware Way are still there. In high school.

Dave Bacon of The Quantum Pontiff writes:

Okay, I’m calling it. We have officially reached the top of the Bacon loving bubble. Why? The dress made of Bacon indicator has been tripped.

I guessing with a last name like Bacon, his opinion might mean something.

Jia Jem designed the bacon dress.

My husband just dumped a bunch of condoms in my 15 year old son’s drawer and told him, “Don’t be stupid, but if you are…”

(h/t Dominique)

*Still working on Sex Republican Style.

Did you know there was a teaparty in Delaware today? No? Neither did I. #Fail.

A flat tax above $60,000? Give me a break.

El Somnabulo got worked up about this, but every single Delawarean should be embarrassed, outraged and chagrined by our increasingly ridiculous income tax brackets.

Delaware’s flat-rate income tax structure made sense ten year ago, but with our increasing use of excise and consumption taxes our tax burden is becoming absurdly regressive.

Pass the popcorn, this is going to be good.

The Palin-McCain campaign feud is starting to spill out into the mainstream media now. Recently there was the Vanity Fair article about Palin, which featured criticism from her critics in Alaska as well as critics from the McCain campaign. Now, the feud is escalating. Someone has leaked emails to CBS detailing some internal campaign squabbles about Todd Palin’s membership in the Alaska Independence Party.

The sequence of events is that Salon published an article about Todd Palin’s membership in the Alaska Independence Party from 1995-2002. Palin was asked questions by Salon as well as a few protestors. She wanted to respond but McCain’s campaign thought it was a minor issue that would go away, but Palin was unhappy so she crafted her own talking points.

“That’s not part of their platform and he was only a ‘member’ bc independent alaskans too often check that ‘Alaska Independent’ box on voter registrations thinking it just means non partisan,” Palin wrote. “He caught his error when changing our address and checked the right box. I still want it fixed.”

Palin was attempting to bend the facts ever so slightly to fit neatly into her version of events. In truth, the box that Alaskans have the option of checking when registering to vote states the full name of the party, “Alaskan Independence Party,” not “Alaska Independent,” which would make an error by uncommitted voters more plausible.

Oh, snap! I do believe she’s being called a liar. So, Schmidt responded to her email:

Clearly irritated by what he saw as Palin’s attempt to mislead her own campaign and apparently determined to demonstrate that the ultimate authority rested with him, Schmidt put the matter to rest once and for all with a longer response to everyone in the e-mail chain.

“Secession,” he wrote. “It is their entire reason for existence. A cursory examination of the website shows that the party exists for the purpose of seceding from the union. That is the stated goal on the front page of the web site. Our records indicate that todd was a member for seven years. If this is incorrect then we need to understand the discrepancy. The statement you are suggesting be released would be innaccurate [sic]. The innaccuracy [sic] would bring greater media attention to this matter and be a distraction. According to your staff there have been no media inquiries into this and you received no questions about it during your interviews. If you are asked about it you should smile and say many alaskans who love their country join the party because it speeks to a tradition of political independence. Todd loves his country

We will not put out a statement and inflame this and create a situation where john has to adress this.”

Ooooo, burn! I do believe he just called her a liar.

I think we know now about how Sarah Palin is thin-skinned and doesn’t ignore or laugh off criticism. How many feuds has she engaged in since the election? Levi Johnson, David Letterman…

Big story broken by Politico today. The Washington Post is offering lobbyists access to the powerful (for a small fee, of course):

For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to “those powerful few” — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper’s own reporters and editors.

The astonishing offer is detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he feels it’s a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff.”

The offer — which essentially turns a news organization into a facilitator for private lobbyist-official encounters — is a new sign of the lengths to which news organizations will go to find revenue at a time when most newspapers are struggling for survival.

And it’s a turn of the times that a lobbyist is scolding The Washington Post for its ethical practices.

How, exactly, is the Washington Post promising access to administration officials and members of Congress? Are they planning on disguising lobbyists as reporters or something? As you might expect, this is raising more than a few eyebrows.

The WaPo news division responds to the Washington Independent:

A flyer was distributed this week offering an “underwriting opportunity” for a dinner on health-care reform, in which the news department had been asked to participate.

The language in the flyer and the description of the event preclude our participation.

We will not participate in events where promises are made that in exchange for money The Post will offer access to newsroom personnel or will refrain from confrontational questioning. Our independence from advertisers or sponsors is inviolable.

There is a long tradition of news organizations hosting conferences and events, and we believe The Post, including the newsroom, can do these things in ways that are consistent with our values.

Quick: someone call a blogger ethics conference!

Rich people work hard

I’m missing it, but I hear Al is covering this recent legislative session.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

My computer speakers are fixed:

Selander on now making the case for the Admin fairly well.

After the break Al is going to say why the choice “Booze or Schools” was bogus and (I hope Selander will tell why they framed it like that).

Today Governor Markell will sign SB 121, the bill banning discrimination in employment, housing, contracts and insurance on the basis of sexual orientation.

It’s time to celebrate! If anyone is going to the signing and wants to report back or send pictures, we’ll post them. Stay tuned!

I know you’ve heard it all. It’s the only thing on TV this week and it will probably continue to be the lead story for another 50 weeks. I’ve been meaning to put down my thoughts on this event since I first heard the news of Malden’s death on Monday afternoon. To read my take, check below the fold. [Read more →]

Runner’s World provides some porn for our conservative readers. For the rest of you, stay away it might burn your eyes. BTW, the treatment of the US flag violates US Flag Code.