One of the benefits of being snowed in this week is that I’ve had a chance to catch up on some blog reading, and discovered that I had missed this really good video about missing the one year anniversary of the commitment to close Gitmo.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3l3CowWJWA[/youtube]
Still not too late to call all three of your Congresspeople to ask them to support closing this abomination. They could stand to hear this message multiple times.
These back to back blizzards have allowed me to catch up on my reading, and here is something from Kavips that I missed last week:
Scott is the kind of guy who gets things done… Whether it is realistic or not, certain things like Sunday DART service, SEPTA rail to Newark, Fisker Electric Cars being built in Delaware, all have his fingerprints on them.
Single handedly, Scott Spencer has probably done more for transportation in this second smallest state, than any other person alive today… ( Joe Biden might be the exception for keeping Amtrack alive…. ) Scott goes as far back as pushing DART service past the 6:00 curfew that existed forever…. His efforts allowed banks and insurance companies to continue working past that early close up time…
In the future, we will see SEPTA go all the way to Aberdeen. There one can jump aboard a MARC and commute his way to DC… We will have commuter rail service from Philadelphia to Washington… Scott will have his fingerprints on that as well.. Soon (2011) 25,000 jobs will land in Aberdeen as the Army upgrades its operations there… With commuter rail, some of that money could find a home in New Castle County. At the same time, the demolition of the Chrysler plant and rebuilding of the University of Delaware’s Medical Center, will employ large numbers on this side of the state line.. It appears Newark will be booming soon. What a relief…. Of course, Democrats are the ones to thank… Use of government money to jump start an economy goes against every Republican tradition ever noted….
Kavips continues to go through Spencer’s proposals on Afghanistan, healthcare, and campaign finance reform, and while liking what he sees, can’t get past what is nearly certain to be a fruitless and unsuccessful campaign against the more well known former Lt. Governor John Carney.
And that is the dilemma. Scott has planned this run for a long time… He is loathe to give it up… He is a great guy, and a good Democrat… But despite his own best intentions, there must be a better spot in our state where he can accomplish more good, than running another idealistic Beiner-esque campaign across three counties… Those of us connected, must do our part to find the proper slot for this focused, intense, concrete, sharp, and visionary young man…. There has to be a position where he can do far more good for our state, than just lose to John Carney…
And while I agree it is highly unlikely that no matter his good ideas and history of good works Scott Spencer is going to beat John Carney in the Democratic primary, I am loathe to ever discourage a primary. Indeed, Scott’s good ideas deserve an airing in a campaign before any backroom deal is made to avoid a primary and place Scott in a more successful endeavor in local or state government. We here at Delaware Liberal will be providing Scott that platform in the future to air his ideas, through candidate interviews and the like, and we certainly invite Mr. Spencer to comment here and offer a guest post should he so desire. I think that is the better idea than to shuffle Scott away in order to avoid him losing to Carney. Surely Scott Spencer knows it is likely he is going to lose anyway, and yet he is continuing to run, and that should be respected and even encouraged.
I am not attacking Kavips for his concern, I just think his concern is not appropriate, for it suggests that losing to Carney means that Scott has no future in politics or government. And that is not the case.
Reid announced Thursday that he would cut back on the jobs bill Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) introduced only hours earlier, essentially overruling the powerful chairman…. Baucus had stuffed the bill with many provisions that Democratic senators thought went beyond the goal of creating jobs, such as $31 billion in extensions to expiring tax provisions, including the research and development tax credit. That and other tax cuts were included to win GOP votes…. Democrats complained the bill did not focus enough on job creation.
“I would prefer a jobs bill that simply focused on job-creating initiatives, this bill has become something more than that,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), who led early negotiations to produce a jobs bill, said before the meeting. “Maybe that’s what has to be done in order to get some bipartisan support.” Reid said he decided to rewrite the legislation to send a clear message to people struggling financially in the midst of the biggest national recession since the Great Depression.
“The message is so watered-down with people wanting other things in this big package,” said Reid.
What is it about Senators and Congressmen? Every piece of legislation, no matter the topic, is fertile ground to plant any unrelated giveaways, earmarks and tax breaks. Every single one. This jobs bill had the following contained within it: $31 billion in extensions to expiring tax provisions, including the research and development tax credit, a short-term extension of the USA PATRIOT Act, flood insurance provisions, Small Business Administration loan provisions, and a $1.5 billion package of agriculture disaster relief provisions. Now whether or not this things should be passed is not the issue. But except for the Small Business loan provisions, none of them are related to job creation. Why can’t we just pass a bill on its merits?
Reid did a good thing today in scrapping it, for when we pass a jobs bill, it should be focused on actual job creation. And I hope Harry Reid uses his new found courage and actually passes this bill without any giveaway to the Republicans. This is a budgetary bill and can be passed easily through reconciliation. All you need is 50 fucking votes. So Harry Reid, craft a fucking jobs bill, and fucking pass it already through reconciliation. Do it now. Do not negotiate with Republicans.
** I apologize in advance to Unstable Isotope for the clearly sexist term “Grow a set.” But no other title seemed appropriate.
Does anyone remember when Mandela was released from prison? I was in Salt Lake City that day and couldn’t get to a TV or radio until after the day’s work. Mandela’s speech was clear and strong — and it seemed clear that this was the day apartheid died its well deserved death. And the day that Mandela seemed to be speaking to everyone outside of South Africa to not back off just because he was free that day. The struggle was still on — until democracy had come to South Africa.
The BBC put up a video of part of their broadcast that day. (I don’t think this is embeddable, sorry.) It is worth look at this 10 minutes of monumental history.
The BBC also put up a slide show of images from the anti-apartheid struggle, itself a fascinating document.
Just click through and take a look. Both are worth every minute.
We have very little information so far. But President Clinton was hospitalized at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital this afternoon. It’s not clear whether it was on an emergency basis or not. But we have unconfirmed reports that it was for a heart related procedure.
Just heard this on MSNBC as well. Hope all is well.
I am interested by the juxtaposition of two stories during this blizzard. First, Sussex County has a budget surplus!
County officials plan to issue more than $100,000 in grants to local law enforcement agencies due to an unexpected budget surplus. According to County Administrator David Baker, $5,000 will be awarded to each municipality in Sussex County with a police force. The $105,000 total is still a 20 percent reduction from previous years, he said. […]
The County Council reduced several areas of its budget to make up for the estimated $8 million shortfall in fiscal year 2009. As a result, the county ended the year with a $1.9 million deficit, its third in as many years. But according to the mid-year budget report for 2010, the county is now in better shape. Since the beginning of the fiscal year, it has generated a $550,000 surplus.
I am very pleased that Sussex County is looking to restore surplus funding to areas it cut, like funding to local municipalities, rather than go the idiotic and typical Republican route of taking a surplus and giving it in tax cuts to the rich.
Second, despite the surplus, the county still made the appeal for volunteer farmers to use their own equipment to plow county roads, without any compensation from the county, I suppose.
Now, three cheers to Sussex County farmers for saving the day down south. And we should all take civic pride in that. But I find something here that is very interesting. Did we just not witness a form of socialism? Yeah, it was an appeal for volunteers but not an order from the government, but it was kind of an implied blackmail on the county’s part, since if the farmers did not volunteer and do the work themselves it would have been a race to see if the county ever got to the plowing before the snow melted in spring. It was sort of like saying “do it yourself or it will not be done at all.” And the farmers volunteered without compensation! That is surely not the free market capitalism. And if it is not capitalism….. then….
Chew on that, Sussex County conservatives.
Ezra Klein has written a column that I think perfectly capitalizes why the left is disappointed in Obama:
But the big news is that Barack Obama is finally threatening some recess appointments. Unlike on legislation, the president is not powerless before obstruction of his nominees. He, like most every president before him, can invoke his constitutional right to appoint during a congressional recess. By this point in his term, George W. Bush had recess appointed 10 nominees, including one to the National Labor Relations Board in August of his first year. We’re in February of Obama’s second, he has more than twice as many nominees held up as Bush did, and he’s only threatening his first recess appointment.
Bush had this right. In his first year in office, he was using recess appointments and running major legislation through the reconciliation process. That normalized those moves for the rest of his administration. Using those tools wasn’t a story. The Obama White House, by contrast, is holding those moves in reserve, which has allowed Republicans to paint them as extraordinary measures. But they’re not extraordinary measures. They’re basic elements of governance in an era of polarization and procedural obstructionism, and the White House should treat them that way.
As Big Tent Democrat (formerly the infamous hotheaded Armando at Daily Kos) says: “Now he tells us.” Ezra is half right about recess appointments in that they have been used in the past in extraordinary circumstances (and unprecedented and baseless obstruction would be a requisite extraordinary circumstance), but he is wrong in suggesting recess appointments should become standard operating procedure now in our partisan polarized politics just because President Bush did.
But therein lies the problem. We liberals railed against Bush’s and his fellow congressional Republicans’ abuse of power during the last eight years, from Republicans suggesting the use of the nuclear option for killing the filibuster, to his using reconciliation, to pass his tax cuts to the GOP holding the prescription drug bill’s vote open for hours to make sure it passed against the rules of the House, to his recess appointments, to his signing statements on legislation he did not particularly like. But for conservatives, those same actions allowed a large portion of their agenda to be passed and allowed the overwhelming majority of their nominees to be confirmed.
And now, faced with the slow to nonexistent progress on Obama’s agenda, many liberals are upset that their agenda is not being passed with the same ease as Bush’s was. And now we are suggesting using the very same methods we railed against. It is irony and hypocrisy on our part, just as it is irony and hypocrisy on the GOP to be using the very same obstruction they almost went nuclear against in 2005.
And now some hypocrisy on my part….
Congress is broken, brought down not only by lobbyist and corporate influence but also by the obstruction of the Party of No. The supreme irony of our times is that only George W. Bush seems to be the savior, in that perhaps his methods described above are the only way to fix Washington.
How is that for bipartisanship?
The GOP has finally gotten us liberals to see Bush in a good light.
The Republicans are dropping like flies!!!!!! The 18th Republican Congressman calls it quits. You know, if the GOP was so confident of their coming majority in Congress after the midterms, then why are they quitting now. Like Palin, is quitting just in their nature?
Indeed, if things are so bad for Democrats everywhere, then why is a unabashed social liberal like Tom Perriello tied or ahead of his decidedly socially conservative opposition in his socially conservative district in Southern Virginia in recent polls?
Remember during President Obama’s televised QNA with the House Republican caucus, and several GOP members made a point to criticize the lack of transparency in the healthcare negotiations? Well, the President accepted responsibility for that and then called their bluff, inviting the GOP to a healthcare summit where the negotiations would be televised. And now the GOP is balking at that. Probably because they fear the same result as what happened at their meeting with Obama. So much for transparency, eh Republicans?
Sarah Palin is now considered by 70% of all Americans to be unqualified or unfit for the Presidency. So I guess the celebrity pundit teabaggin route was not a good idea after all. I think she will run for President, because she is so vain and narcissistic, and because it is the only way to keep the media and her followers interested in her. And the scary thing for the country is the diehard quarter of the population who find her qualified for the Presidency are enough to give her the GOP nomination.
Joe Biden stays classy too. This reveals what I think is a coordinated strategy on the part of the White House and it’s smart. Sarah Palin would like nothing better then have the White House get down and dirty with her, and on substantive issues they will, but on a personal level, they won’t.
And some mockery of the right wing from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert:
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| We’re Off to See the Blizzard | ||||
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| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Unusually Large Snowstorm | ||||
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What’s a good use of taxpayer dollars? It’s paying for prostitutes for Blackwater mercenaries, of course.
Two former employees of Blackwater Worldwide have accused the private security contractor of defrauding the government for years with phony billing, including charging for a prostitute, alcohol and spa trips.
In newly unsealed court records, a husband and wife who once worked for Blackwater said they had personal knowledge of the company falsifying invoices, double-billing federal agencies and charging the government for personal and inappropriate items whose real purpose was hidden. They said they witnessed “systematic” fraud on the company’s security contracts with the State Department in Iraq and Afghanistan, and with the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina.
…
The Davises assert that Blackwater officials kept a Filipino prostitute on the company payroll for a State Department contract in Afghanistan, and billed the government for her time working for Blackwater male employees in Kabul. The alleged prostitute’s salary was categorized as part of the company’s “Morale Welfare Recreation” expenses, they said.
So, I expect we’ll see outraged conservatives rushing to stop Xe’s (Blackwater’s new name) funding right? After all, they were outraged by the hypothetical prostitution-enabling of ACORN.
I hope you all enjoyed your unplanned time off yesterday. Today the state should start getting back to normal today. So what’s on your mind today?
Excellent timing! David Broder’s column says Sarah Palin must be taken “seriously” and places her in the company of other successful “populist” presidential candidates — on the same day that new WaPo polling finds 71% say she’s unqualified for presidency.
I believe the last time we talked about the inexplicably influential David Broder on this blog was when he wrote a column about the possible Castle-Biden matchup using Mike Castle press releases.
Is this the New York Governor David Paterson scandal?
The latest news: Federal prosecutors are investigating the governors awarding of a state contract to develop the dilapidated Aqueduct horse race track in Queens to a politically connected group, reports local station WPIX. Separately, the losing bidders are considering a lawsuit, the NY Post reported Tuesday.
Mr. Paterson looked over heavyweight gaming companies like Penn National Gaming and MGM Mirage and instead chose the Aqueduct Entertainment Group that has close ties to Floyd Flake, an influential Queens preacher and former congressman. Critics have blasted the choice as politically motivated. Mr. Flake had said some positive things indicating that he might throw his support behind the state’s attorney general Andrew Cuomo should he decide to run for governor. Some contend that the contract award was a way for Mr. Paterson to squash that support. A charge both men deny.
Paterson has fought back saying that the NYT is trying to ruin his reputation and he’s not leaving:
But at a Tuesday press conference, Paterson said he’s written to the NY Times suggesting he’s being slandered–and that he won’t be resigning his post as governor any time soon.
“The only way I’m not gonna be governor next year is at the ballot box, and the only way that I’ll be leaving office before is in a box,” Paterson said.
This is true, he’s likely to lose in a primary to NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, but I doubt the scandal will go away. However, if the NYT has a blockbuster, they should go ahead and publish it. I wonder what’s holding them back?
When I was in high school and faced with an essay question I couldn’t begin to answer my standard response was to fill up the paper with enough nonsense in the hope that I’d accidentally hit upon some point that would save me. It rarely worked. That said, take a look at this exchange between Palin and Wallace and tell me what she is saying. Extra points for attempting to diagram these sentences – and I use that word loosely.
WALLACE: What do you think of Barack Obama’s presidency so far?
PALIN: He has some misguided decisions that he is making that he is expecting us to just kind of sit down and shut up and accept, and many of us are not going to sit down and shut up. We’re going to say no, we do not like this…
WALLACE: Wait, wait, where’s he saying sit down and shut up?
PALIN: In a general just kind of general persona I think that he has when he’s up there at, I’ll call it a lectern. When he is up there and he is telling us basically, I know best, my people here in the White House know best, and we are going to tell you that yes, you do want this essentially nationalized health care system and we’re saying, no, we don’t. And the messages are not being received by Barack Obama. So I think instead of lecturing, he needs to stop and he needs to listen on health care issues. On national security, this perceived lackadaisical approach that he has to dealing with the terrorists. We’re saying that concerns us and we’re going to speak up about it and please don’t allow this persona to continue where you do try to make us feel like we need to just sit down, shut up and accept what you’re doing to us.
In a general just kind of general persona I think that he has when he’s up there at, I’ll call it a lectern. WTF is that?
The woman has diarrhea of the mouth. She just throws sh*t at the wall and hopes it sticks. She is a joke – a dangerous joke – who has been elevated by a lazy media to heights she doesn’t deserve. Personally, I’m sick to death of her, but ignoring her isn’t an option. Her appeal, imo, is that she makes people comfortable with their own ignorance. Dangerous stuff, indeed.
On Joy Behar’s CNN show, she had a round table to discuss Sarah Palin’s speech at the Tea Party Nation convention. On the panel were Stephanie Miller, Ron Reagan and an unhinged rightwing nutcase Pamela Geller (Atlas Shrugs). Geller is completely unhinged claiming that Palin didn’t quit her job as governor, she answered the call from the lower 48; that Ronald Reagan would have loved Sarah Palin and when Ron Reagan disagreed said that Ron Reagan had never met his own father.
Behar: Ronald, let me ask Ron — why do we pay attention to this woman? She has a point.
Reagan: Well, indeed, and I think we do have to pay attention to her, unfortunately — it’s sad that we have to pay attention to her, because she’s totally unqualified for high office. Yet —
Geller: Your father would love her. Your father would love her.
Miller: First of all, his father didn’t quit halfway through the term.
Geller: Neither did she. Neither did she. She did not quit. The Lower 48 needed her, and she heeded the call. She did not take the easy way out.
Reagan: No, she quit. No, Pam, she quit. When you leave the governorship halfway through your first term, it’s called quitting. She quit.
Geller: She came to lead the next revolution.
Reagan: Quit. Quit.
Behar: Ron, Ron — no, I want to hear from Ron. Why would your father not like this woman?
Reagan: Because she doesn’t have a thought in her head. That’s why.
Geller: That’s what they said about your father.
Reagan: My father knew what he stood for, you can agree with it or disagree with it, he knew how — what he stood for, he could explain what he stood for. He was conversant in domestic and foreign policy — she’s neither! She can’t explain where she stands on anything!
Geller: Your father would love her, and frankly I don’t think you can speak for your father, because you — you don’t even espouse —
Reagan: No, Pam, actually, have you ever met my father, Pam? Pam, did you ever meet my father?
Geller: Did you ever meet the Founding Father. I’ve read everything he said. I’ve read everything he said.
Reagan: Did you ever meet my father? I’m asking you a simple question. You can’t answer that because the answer is no. So why don’t you rely on someone who knew him very well to tell you what he would think of Sarah Palin.
Behar: It’s really hard for you to argue with the offspring of the guy and claim you know more than he does.
Geller: He’s nothing like the father! He doesn’t share the epistemology of the father. He doesn’t have the nature of his father, the knowledge — he has nothing in common with the father. Look —
Behar: He knows what his father would think rather than you.
[Crosstalk]
Reagan: Is Pam still blathering about me and my father? Oh, you are. You still haven’t met him, though, right? You still didn’t know him, so you’re just sort of making things up as you go along, right?
Geller: You never met him either. You know, you never met him either. Do you think you’re making your father proud? Do you really think you’re making your father proud?
FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is paid for using U.S. taxpayer money. It exists to give aid to the victims of disasters, which are things that aren’t predictable. In any given year we know there will probably be unforseen events like hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and blizzards but we don’t know where or when. Agencies like FEMA exist to give help when these disasters strike.
The Heritage Foundation, who supported the unfunded Iraq War, thinks the federal deficit is too high to help Delaware with snow removal. We should just suck it up:
Given the federal budget deficits, FEMA can’t afford to cover 75% of the costs of state snow removal either. It is high time for this federalization of routine events to come to a halt and for states to plan and budget for what are known events every year.
Heritage repeats the Republican mantra that wars and defense spending is free but helping the American people costs too much money. When I see Republicans talk about cutting defense spending and paying for war spending then maybe I’ll believe that they aren’t just Budget Peacocks.