Daily Archives: February 16, 2010

A Note to the Media (and Comment Rescue)

a. price (one of our favorite commenters) points us to a link over at CBS News, where we find a journalist named Stephanie Condon who seems to be actually trolling freakin’ FACEBOOK to have something exciting to report about the Quitta from Wasilla, Sarah Palin.

Facebook, people. This is what our highly paid news media now finds to be News. On Facebook, where if you are part of this community, you can get her daily ravings about whatever she can string together some words for if you choose to.

Once again, during one of the many hand-wringing sessions you journalists have about your increasing irrelevance — you need to put this up on the board as one of the Top 5 Reasons Why. Stalking the Quitta from Wasilla on Facebook for something to say about her is lazy and stupid. And why does anyone need you for lazy and stupid? We can do that for free.

And BTW — Seth MacFarlane has more brains AND has more money than the Quitta is ever going to see.

Mike Castle Flip Flops on Stimulus Funds

Rob Tornoe

Flip Flop. Anybody remember when you couldn’t fire up the news without hearing this about John Kerry? And even though that charge was mostly untrue about Kerry, Flip Flop is a good description of Mike Castle’s position towards Delaware stimulus projects. He votes against them, then shows up to take credit for them.

He put out a press release back in January announcing the award of $495,297 in federal funds for food and shelter programs in Delaware and another $4.7 million for homeless assistance programs in New Castle and Wilmington. And when asked about this (the NJ article seems to be behind their archive wall now), Castle sent out his spokesperson to re-write the provenance of those appropriations — claiming that these funds came out of the regular appropriations process.

That is, of course, untrue. HUD notes that the Continuum of Care funding comes from ARRA monies, while the Emergency Food and Shelter grant comes from FEMA ARRA monies.

So maybe in honor of the Olympics, Mike Castle has invented a new flip flop move — vote against a program, take credit for the benefits of the program, then pretend that all of these new benefits are from the normal appropriations. Maybe you guys can help me give this new move a name.

And let’s remember last week’s NJ article on Castle’s flip flop on the wastewater project that he is delightfully posing with the stunt check for:

Voting against the money but taking credit for getting the projects funded is a real Flip Flop.

And I’m hoping that someone starts asking Mike Castle how effective he thinks he can be if he goes to the Senate to say one thing and come back here to tell us something else all together.

(Many Thanks to Rob Tornoe who gave me permission to post up his excellent cartoon here. He is the Best Cartoonist in Delaware and his work appears weekly in all of the Dover Post Papers locally, including the Community News.)

Tuesday Open Thread

Welcome to another snow day Tuesday! Even though we only got a dusting last night, it was enough to make the commute a nightmare this morning. So, what’s on your mind? Let’s get started.

One story that has been fascinating me lately is the story of Amy Bishop, the Harvard-trained Ph.D. biologists who shot 6 faculty members after a tenure hearing. I guess it hits home for me because both my brother and sister-in-law are biology professors and my husband is a chemistry lecturer. It’s just part of that “small world” feeling you get in academia. The more her story comes out, the more you see the big blinking warning signs all over the place that were ignored or covered up by others. One big warning sign, the “accidental” killing of her own brother in 1986:

To bring you up to speed, the accounts of those who were on the scene shortly after crime or familiar with incidents surrounding it hold that Bishop discharged the gun in her bedroom, then fired the fatal shot into her brother in the kitchen, then discharged the gun again in the house as she fled the residence. She then ran with the gun down the street apparently looking for a getaway car. In that search she reportedly threatened two others — one in an attempt to get him to stop his vehicle (presumably so she could take it) and another at an auto repair shop where she was rifling through a collection of keys trying to steal a car.

…

Hours later, as Bishop was being booked, the booking officer received a call from the then-Chief of Police, or someone calling on his behalf, instructing him to release Bishop into the custody of her mother, who at the time sat on the town Board of Personnel.

The one report that still exists is that of the State Police who did a subsequent investigation, apparently at the behest of the District Attorney’s office, with interviews conducted some time later. The key was that Bishop’s mother claimed to have witnessed the shooting. And she insisted that it was accidental.

The investigative report of the incident no longer exists, but the police insist there’s no cover-up.

Cheney’s chest-thumping aside, Obama’s cooperative foreign policy initiatives appear to be brining success. A joint Pakistan/U.S. military operation captured the #2 Taliban figure in Pakistan.

The Taliban’s top military commander was captured several days ago in Karachi, Pakistan, in a secret joint operation by Pakistani and American intelligence forces, according to American government officials.

The commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, is an Afghan described by American officials as the most significant Taliban figure to be detained since the American-led war in Afghanistan started more than eight years ago. He ranks second in influence only to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban’s founder and a close associate of Osama bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mullah Baradar has been in Pakistani custody for several days, with American and Pakistani intelligence officials both taking part in interrogations, according to the officials.

Free Advice For Chris Coons, Part 2

Like we discussed yesterday, we at Delaware Liberal are offering absolutely free advice to Chris Coons in his Senate run against Mike Castle. Unlike a lot of people, I believe Castle is beatable. In fact, I think Coons could be in a great position if he plays his cards right. Castle is the de facto incumbent in an anti-incumbent year. Coons can run as a Washington outsider and as a man who understands the needs of Delaware. It should be simple to paint Castle as a long-time Washington insider who votes with his party above his state and who doesn’t understand the issues facing Delaware.

I know there’s a lot of concern about Coons turning off independents by looking too partisan. However the problem I see is that a significant portion of Castle’s support comes from Democrats. Coons is going to have to woo back and excite Democrats if he wants to win. So, how will he do that?

First I think he needs an energized base. As we discussed yesterday, the netroots is a subset of the base, but with high influence. In my opinion, Coons should try to energize the netroots, then energize the base and then appeal to independents. The base is where you get the volunteers you need to win the election. So, what issues excite the base?

Health Care Reform

Coons should have a clearly articulated position on health care reform. In fact, I think there is absolutely no penalty on Coons to come out in favor a public option and Medicare buy-in. Both programs are very popular with the public at large and even though Coons won’t be voting on the package now, hopefully Democrats will pass some kind of reform. Coons can discuss how he would fix the reform for the better.

Senate Dysfunction

This is a fairly new issue but is a hot topic in most of the netroots right now. The Senate is completely dysfunctional because even with a 19-seat majority, Democrats can hardly get any legislation through Congress. A bill sponsored by Senator Harkin has been proposed to kill the filibuster. So, although I doubt this bill would ever be enacted Coons should come out in favor of filibuster reform and should be able to discuss this issue. It’s an important issue because Mike Castle would become part of the do-nothing Republican voting bloc.

Bipartisanship

I’ll admit that I want to spit every time I hear this term. It seems to be a religion among conservaDems and Washington pundits. I do know that the vague concept of “bipartisan” is something that appeals to swing voters and independents but it is not something that will excite the base. Coons needs to find a way to reassure the base that bipartisanship for its own sake is his goal, but that he’s not driven completely by ideology. One formulation I’ve seen of this dilemma is one the Obama uses – he’s open to anyone with ideas that work.

Iraq/Afghanistan

Among most of the U.S. the popular position is to end our involvement in those conflicts as soon as we can, while keeping our national security as the first consideration.

One issue that I don’t think appeals to the base is debt and deficit, although it is an important issue to right-leaning swing voters and independents. Again, I think there is a fine line to walk to reassure the base you’re not going with the Republican talking points of cut taxes for the rich and cut Social Security and Medicare. The way to formulate this, IMO, is that modest fixes are needed for Social Security (removing the income cap from the payroll tax) and that the best way to fix Medicare is to fix health care in America. The best way to deal with the deficit is to improve the economy and yes, use PAYGO rules for new programs (including defense spending).

The floor is yours. What issues should Chris Coons focus on to excite the base? What issues are full of traps?

Snow Days

I drove my daughter to school this morning and the entire time I was thinking… why are schools open?  For while the main roads are clear the side roads are a rutted mess of ice which turned my normally 10 minute round-trip into a harrowing 35 minute keep-my-wits-about-me experience.

There’s no doubt about it.  The side roads are dangerous, and the fresh coating of snow – already laying on the clear roads – doesn’t bode well.

While it isn’t my favorite thing to do, I don’t mind driving in snow.  But this morning’s commute wasn’t about snow.  It was about what happens to snow on roads that haven’t seen a plow.  It’s about two lane roads that turn into one.  It’s about so much snow piled up on street corners that school children’s only choice in getting around these mountains is walking in the streets – streets with drivers who realize that if they stop they probably won’t move again.

It also occurred to me that if school hadn’t been canceled last week it would have been canceled today.  Which makes me question where safety ranked in the decision to open schools.  After my morning drive I’m thinking safety wasn’t #1 on the list.  My guess is that it ranked third, after the dilemma of making up snow days and the upcoming DSTP.  Think I’m over-reacting?  Then ask yourself if last weeks snow storm had been our first and only storm would school be open today?

I’m guessing… no.

Health Care Summit: Make ‘Em Put Up Or Shut Up

The Obama administration may finally be learning how to deal with Congress. Obama has proposed a bipartisan health care summit for February 25, basically answering the critics who have said the process has not been transparent enough. Jonathan Cohn and others noticed some interesting passages in the invitation:

It came when President Obama issued his formal invitation to the bipartisan meeting on February 25. The invitation sketched out the who (Congressional leaders and ranking committee members from each party, plus a few guests), the where (Blair House), and the what (opening remarks followed by discussion about key policy questions.)

But the letter’s most important passage was this one:

Since this meeting will be most productive if information is widely available before the meeting, we will post online the text of a proposed health insurance reform package. This legislation would put a stop to insurance company abuses, extend coverage to millions of Americans, get control of skyrocketing premiums and out-of-pocket costs, and reduce the deficit.

That passage caused some confusion. Was the Obama administration going to introduce its own health care bill? Ezra Klein followed up with the White House and confirmed that the package will be the deal between the House and the Senate (Senate bill + reconciliation sidecar). The White House also says that the bill will be posted to the internet 72 hours before the summit.

Obama is challenging the Republicans – we’ll post our bill and discuss and you post your bill and we’ll discuss it. Obama knows this is an argument that he can win. The Republicans don’t have a comprehensive bill, and the one they did propose covered only 3 million additional uninsured people. Obama has called the Republicans’ bluff. Republicans have argued that the bill was not posted online, the process was not transparent and that they haven’t been consulted. Well, now the Republicans have the opportunity, live, on national TV. They’ve now been trapped in a cage of their own making. As Ezra points out, the Republicans are now in a state of confusion:

That’s not necessarily surprising: The two chambers were pretty close to agreement on a compromise package before Scott Brown’s election threw everything into chaos. Presumably, that’ll be dusted off for this meeting. The Republican response to this is that they’re demanding that the House and Senate refrain from coming up with any unified plan before the summit, which is sort of an odd argument. In essence, the Republican position is that a free and frank exchange of ideas sounds great as long as the Democrats don’t bring their ideas.

The fact that Republicans are making bizarre requests to change the rules of the summit rather than just ignoring the gambit altogether suggests they’ve not figured out how to deal with the event. This is the first time since the Massachusetts election, in fact, that’s it’s been them, rather than the Democrats, who’ve seemed confused. The White House deserves some credit for that, and we’ll see if they can keep congressional Democrats in line long enough to press the advantage.

The stakes are high for this summit. Polls have shown that more than 60% of Americans want Congress to keep working on health care reform and I think the White House has finally gotten the message – do it right. Obama has also learned that despite the fact that Congress is full of able-bodied adults, they need a lot of hand-holding. America will be watching. Democrats – don’t screw this up.