Richard Korn to Run for State Auditor

Richard Korn has been a behind-the-scenes and in front of the curtain player in Democratic politics in Delaware for years, after moving here from Long Island. He has run for the General Assembly and for New Castle County Executive. In both Nassau County, NY and here in New Castle County, he has been successful in going to court to force both counties to better account for their cash reserves, as both counties at the time were employing questionable bookkeeping practices to produce budget surpluses. He hopes to parlay that background into a campaign for the State Auditorship.

Has The Death Of The Public Option Been Greatly Exaggerated?

Ezra Klein seems to think so.
As long as we’re talking strategy, it’s also worth saying a bit about how these pieces fit together in the legislative process. There are three distinct phases left to complete: First, the bills have to clear the House and the Senate. That means going through committees, overcoming a filibuster and [...]

Ugh, Brett Favre

Once again, the drama show that is Brett Favre announces his un-retirement.
Brett Favre, who only three weeks ago said he planned to remain retired, changed his mind yet again Tuesday, agreeing to join the Minnesota Vikings after all. It’s the second time in two years that Favre announced he was retired, only to reverse course [...]

Reflections On Netroots Nation

If you were following the blog last week, you probably know that I attended the Netroots Nation conference in Pittsburgh last week. Netroots Nation is a conference for bloggers from the left side of the blogosphere with opportunities for training, networking, self-congratulating, and, of course, partying. Here are the previous posts: Day 1, [...]

Maybe It Is 11-Dimensional Chess

There has certainly been a lot of garment-rending and gnashing of teeth lately about the health insurance reform bill and whether the public option will be included in the final bill. I think Obama is once again pursuing the long game – he’s allowing the Republicans to be seen as the ones who are [...]

The Graphinator Knows All, Sees All

The retail customer.

Crazy Eileen Must Never Have Been a Mother

I have been thinking about what you have to believe to be a birther. It must be hard to keep your head in it.

You have to believe that Obama’s Mother was crazy. You have to believe that she was quite pregnant and willingly flew to Kenya. She had to fly for something like two days on two or three different airlines. She had to fly like 3 segments on PanAm and 2 or 3 on East African Airways.

Yawn…Another Day, Another Armed Man Outside A Townhall Meeting

Things are getting crazy out there. For the third time in a week an armed citizen has been spotted outside a meeting where President Obama is going to speak on health care.
A man is carrying an assault rifle and a pistol outside the VFW Convention in Phoenix where President Obama will speak later today, [...]

Tom Kovach Shows How It’s Done–Any Candidates Paying Attention?

“All politics is local.”- ‘Tip’ O’Neill-former U. S. Speaker of the House
“90% of success is just showing up.” Woody Allen
Those are two quotes that any and every would-be candidate and elected official must not only memorize, but incorporate into their campaigns.
State Representative Tom Kovach (R-6th District) ‘just showed up’ on Saturday at the Miles for [...]

Chart of the Day

An excellent depiction of the current state of the Too Big to Fail showing their bonus payouts vs TARP holdings and current earnings or losses:

The Deep Roots of the Right Wing Crazy Tree

Rick Pearlstein wrote an amazing op-ed today, which shows how the wingnut crazy has been a persistent part of the political landscape throughout much of the 20th century. (I love the story about how the right thought of Truman and Roosevelt years as “20 years of treason”. Especially since the current expectation by their descendants is that history will rehabilitate BushCo in the way it rehabilitated Truman.) Pearlstein makes this point:

Youtube Videos of People Playing Brian Wilson Songs on The Ukulele are Proof That God Loves Us and Wants Us To Be Happy

“Here is YouTube ukulele star Julia Nunes doing a haunting but delightful version of “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys.”
- boing boing

What America Do The idiots want back?

We all know that many of the folks against health care seem to be saying that they want America Back.  My questions is what America do they want back?
Do they want the Vietname Era America Back?
The Nixon America?
The WWI and/or WWII America?
The Great Depression?
Any one of the dozen or so other Recessions?
Rationed gas?
Iran Contra America?
1920’s [...]