Monthly Archives: May 2011

Andrew Staton expected to run for new Senate seat.

Andrew Staton, a Rehoboth Beach realtor and chairman of the 14th District Democratic Committee, announced today on his Facebook page that he is “considering a run for the new State Senate Seat covering Dewey, Rehoboth, Lewes, and Milton.” Joan Deaver and Pete Schwartzkopf have decided to skip the race and remain in their current respective positions, and have given Staton the nod to go ahead with his own campaign.

For those upstate that don’t know Andy, he arrived in Delaware in 2003 to pursue his real estate career, and co-founded the Beach to Bay Real Estate Center. Prior to relocating to Delaware, Station was a management consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton in Washington, D.C., and was an assistant to then-Delegate (now Supreme Court Justice) William C. Mims in Virginia. He received his Bachelors degree in Political Science from Longwood University and a Masters degree in Business and Technology Management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and is a certified real estate auctioneer. He also serves on the Delaware Real Estate Commission, the Sussex County Association of Realtors Government Affairs Committee, the Beebe Medical Center Advisory Board, and the Sussex County YMCA Board of Governors. Most recently, he was appointed by Governor Markell to the Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council (DEFAC).

He is also a fitness and weight loss advocate, and has recently established a Foundation to fund training and education programs that focus on the prevention of childhood obesity. The fight against obesity is a personal one for Staton, as Staton himself has lost approximately 150 pounds after having once weighed over 300. Staton’s weight loss and fitness story has been featured a number of media outlets, including the News Journal, Men’s Health magazine, Ironman.com, Genre Magazine, Men’s Health Book: Men’s Guide to Fitness, Health, Weight Loss, and Nutrition, and the Cape Gazette.

What remains to be seen is whether Senator David McBride (D-13th), a resident of the newly created 6th district, will switch districts so that he actually represents the district in which he lives.

Once he declares his campain, we look forward to sit down with Staton to discuss the issues.

The Responsibilities of the Democratic Electorate

Hardly a week goes by without someone at Delaware Liberal taking a well-deserved shot at an elected Democrat. This puts the lie to screams of partisanship at us.  But further, the Democratic party has tried to be the police of their own excesses. Over the past few cycles, the Democrats have been able to put real effort into primaries with serious discussions, debates and finally elections.  Recently, a New Castle County sheriff of 30 years and a Treasurer of 2 years were sent packing in September. In 2008, the anointed Gubernatorial candidate was derailed by a politician that successfully utilized voting blocs that hadn’t voted in Dem primaries before.

Sure, these battles opened wounds that haven’t healed in some (and are even festering in others), but Delaware is better off as a result of this process of self-cleansing.  It reinforces the feeling that Dems are the adults in the room here in Delaware.

The need to purge our party of people that don’t take their responsibilities to the people of Delaware is an unending job and it takes a concentrated effort.  We have to often choose our battles so that we can win a few rather than lose a bunch of them.  In 2012, we will again be in a target-rich environment.  It is coming close to the time that we have to start picking our battles.

Up this time will be Tom Carper, Paul Clark and Tony Deluca.  I doubt that we can get all three (especially since we don’t have any obvious opponents yet), but I wonder who you think we should target to clean our own house of the stench of incompetence?

If We Can’t Have the Records, He Can’t Have Two Jobs.

Plain and simple.

While Jason tackled this story lightheartedly on Sunday, the announcement from the State Attorney General’s office that they cannot release information and/or records as to when Senate Majority Leader Anthony DeLuca shows up to work at his two state jobs deserves more serious attention.

In recent months, colleagues, including DeLuca’s fellow Democrats, have begun questioning how he balances what amounts to the responsibilities of two full-time jobs as president pro tem of the Senate and an administrator at the Department of Labor. A state law prohibits lawmakers from charging the General Assembly and a state agency for working at the same exact time, a practice known as double dipping.

There is no doubt in my mind that Tony DeLuca is double dipping. If he were innocent, he would release those records to prove it. That he has somehow gotten Attorney General Biden and his office to cover for him, when there is a precedent for releasing the information, speaks volumes.

Citing an anti-terrorism statute, the Department of Labor, Capitol Police and Chief Deputy Attorney General Charlie Butler denied the newspaper access to information showing when DeLuca enters state offices and Legislative Hall. The Department of Labor argued that disclosing DeLuca’s attendance and building entrance records “would show a pattern” of his daily movements and when he takes vacation each year, possibly leaving his home vulnerable to burglars.

Butler also upheld the Department of Labor’s resistance to release DeLuca’s attendance records, which would show whether his pay is docked for being absent to attend to legislative matters in his 11th District and his Legislative Hall office.

Butler’s opinion comes five years after the Attorney General’s Office ordered the Capital School District to release attendance records for then-Rep. Nancy Wagner, contending disclosure would not violate the teacher’s privacy.

“Just as the public has a right to know the salary paid to public employees, the public also has a right to know when their public employees are and are not performing the duties for which they are paid,” Deputy Attorney General W. Michael Tupman wrote. Five years later, Butler says DeLuca’s attendance records for his second state job at the Department of Labor are off limits to public disclosure because of DeLuca’s status as a protected merit system employee.

This is simply unacceptable. As Deputy Attorney General Michael Tupman said, the public has a right to know if we are being robbed by Tony DeLuca. We have a right to know if he is being paid for two jobs while only doing one. We have the right to know how the other 10 state legislators who also have secondary state jobs with state agencies spend their time. We have this right because we, as a public, need to know if our elected representatives are performing their duties on our behalf ethically. We need to know that nothing is influencing their votes. And as state residents, we also need to know that we are getting our money’s worth from state employees we pay. The people, Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, need this information to determine whether or not their employees are in fact doing their jobs.

There is no security threat to anyone in providing that information. Quite simply, and to be frank, no international terrorist is going to target an obscure state lawmaker. You all in Dover are not THAT important. And while there is always a risk that some deranged freak is going to take a gun to a state building and gun down someone, that risk cannot be hidden behind to excuse denying the people access to their information. There is also no basis for denying their right to that information because DeLuca is a merit system employee. That is really a distinction without a difference.

Without this information, I am forced to assume that Tony DeLuca, and anyone similarly situated (Helene Keeley, John Viola, etc.) is in fact stealing money. I, and I believe all of my fellow contributors at Delaware Liberal, demand that they voluntarily release that information, and waive the supposed protections a merit based employee receives under the law.

Failing that, I demand their resignation. From their legislative posts, preferrably. Because, quite simply, if we can’t have the records, Delaware’s legislators must be prohibited from having two state jobs.

It is the lack of trust that fuels this demand. Assuming the Attorney General’s office is acting in good faith here, it is their lack of trust in the people, assuming that some will use this information for their criminal purposes, that motivates the refusal to release this information. And that leads us to demand that all legislators be prohibited from holding two state jobs. You don’t trust us, we will not trust you.

Monday Open Thread

Another monster tornado kills hundreds, leveling a city. Yeah, climate change is just a myth. A myth that keeps on killing.

Harold Camping is flabbergasted that the world did not end Saturday. I am flabberglasted that he is flabbergasted.

Tim Pawlenty officially announced for President, saying his campaign will be one of truth. Well, I guess we can count in out as a potential nominee, since the GOP base does not accept truth, reality or facts from its candidates.

Speaking of the GOP 2012 primary, Michael Grunwald argues, and I agree, that if the Republican Party nominates Romney or Huntsman and either goes on to lose to Obama (which they will), then the GOP will lose its mind:

Remember, after its crushing defeat in 2008, the party faithful concluded that John McCain lost the election because he wasn’t conservative enough—and that George W. Bush lost his popularity because of his big spending. So the party moved even farther toward its right-wing base, casting away moderates like Arlen Specter, Charlie Crist and Michael Bloomberg. And its comeback victory in 2010 seemed to validate that strategy. A Huntsman or Romney defeat would just prove to the party that electoral salvation lies in ideological purity and rigid obstructionism, the kind of conclusion that already appeals to Tea Party activists who consider Obama some kind of tyrannical socialist usurper.

Which is why I believe the GOP Establishment will allow a Teabagger (Bachmann, Cain, Palin, Gingrich, etc). to win the nomination so that they will lose 40 states and 400 electoral votes. Just so that the Establishment can regain control of the party.

No Promo Homo in Tennessee – Updated

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the “No Say Gay” bill wending it’s way through the Tennessee legislature.

Well, George Takei, better known to those of us of a certain age as Mr. Sulu from the original Star Trek series, is taking on the homophobes and giving people a way around the bill, if it should become law.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRkIWB3HIEs&feature=share[/youtube]

Set a course for equality, Mr. Sulu, Warp 10!

On Deficits and Debts; or Don’t Believe the Entitlements Hype

The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities continues its yeoman work on documenting where the federal Government’s deficits AND Debts come from.  Even though most of the readers here likely get this story, it has yet to make much of a dent in the media narrative, which continues to flog the business about entitlement spending being the thing that is running our fiscal futures off of the rails.  They released this analysis and accompanying chart of where our deficits continue to be derived from:

Stop and take a good look at that chart.  Because this tells you in no uncertain terms that the major drivers of current *deficits* (debt discussion coming up) are — Bush-era (now also Obama-era) tax cuts and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the biggest drivers of our current deficit problems.  The usefulness of this chart is being able to point out in no uncertain terms that ending or even changing Social Security or Medicare does noting to change the genuine drivers of the current deficits.  Take another good look at this chart.  Congressional Republicans (and some of their enabling Democrats) are looking not just to extend the Bush tax cuts, but to add more.  And what will happen to the deficit spending chart above?  There will be *greater* deficits, because not even changing entitlement spending (which does not now contribute to deficit spending)  is going to decrease the magnitude of the hole in the budget due to tax cuts.

As for the Federal debt,  the CBPP analyzed the drivers of that and also provide a similar chart:

Key point from the analysis:

“simply letting the Bush tax cuts expire on schedule (or paying for any portions that policymakers decide to extend) would stabilize the debt-to-GDP ratio for the next decade.   While we’d have to do much more to keep the debt stable over the longer run, that would be a huge accomplishment.”

So that the real low-hanging fruit in trying to get our long-term debt under control is actually letting the tax cuts simply expire.  The second-best low-hanging fruit is to get the economy really moving again, so that citizens and businesses can actually pay their taxes, meaning that Job Creation of some kind is the order of the day as a debt-reduction measure.

It *is* too much to expect, I know, but when the debate is largely numbers-based, it can’t be too hard for our media (AND our Democrats) to seriously challenge the idea that Social Security and Medicare (and Medicaid) are the real drivers of our financial problems.  All three have their long-term stability problems, but the numbers tell a very different story.  A story that ought to be told instead of just letting the usual suspects whinge on about the crisis of entitlement spending.  Because the real crisis is letting people with agendas against Social Security and Medicare suck all of the air out of the room working at deflecting the conversation away from the real issues here.  Time for that to stop — and when you see or hear media-types brainlessly blathering away about the “crisis in Social Security and Medicare” driving our long term deficit and debt issues, smack them back with data.  Real data.

More NJ Truthiness Watch — Hypocritical Finger Wagging at the Obama Campaign

The NJ Editorial writers have decided to wag their confused (and often hypocritical) finger at the Obama re-election campaign for poking fun at the whole “birther” business and raising money from that amusement. This is what they are having a snit over:

Birthers’ ideological differences exposed them for their extreme paranoia about this country’s first black president.

But team Obama is being petty by wading into the same kind of mean-spirited carnival barking the president accused Trump of.

The problem, of course, is that the NJ itself is partially responsible for some of the carnival here. They certainly ran their fair share of stories on the local carnival barkers touting this birther business, even taking up a small bit of paper real estate asking people to help them *find* Ground Zero of the Delaware Birther Carnival Barkers — Crazy Eileen.

But apparently now that there isn’t a wingnut food fight that they can try to sell papers on, the NJ has decided that everyone else should stop laughing at the carnival barkers who are hugely supported by (and partially a creation of) the media. Because covering the food fight is so much more fun (and so much easier!) than covering the policy. And wagging your wizened finger at the Obama campaign for mocking the wingnut carnival barkers is no substitute for more care in how your own paper helps to create and sustain the carnival.

Anyone want to give me odds on how often the NJ will be calling out other campaigns for raising money on silliness?

Top Four Anthony DeLuca Security Protocols

To keep the pack of Yakuza hit men that out are to get Anthony Deluca off the trail, the state of Delaware has instituted an extreme set of security protocols to protect our most important resident.

This is merely the tip of the DeLuca Security Iceberg.

4. There are no fewer than FIVE DeLuca look a likes that take turns going out for groceries and picking up the dry cleaning.
3. All pizza deliveries are passed through a steel locker, the outside facing and inside facing doors of which cannot be opened at the same time.
2. From perches on his neighbors rooftops, a Blackwater Private Security Detail (BPSD) continuously sweep the streets when Deluca walks his dog.
1. Undisclosed arrival and departure times from his two state jobs.

Chad Livengood provides the details.

Mitch Daniels will not run for President

Hahahaha. This is getting pretty pathetic for Republicans, and more hilarious for Democrats.

Gov. Mitch Daniels, R-Ind., said Sunday he won’t run for president because of family concerns, narrowing the field but making a wide-open race even hazier. “In the end, I was able to resolve every competing consideration but one,” said the former Bush White House budget chief, disclosing his decision in a middle-of-the-night e-mail to supporters. “The interests and wishes of my family, is the most important consideration of all. If I have disappointed you, I will always be sorry.”

A two-term Midwestern governor, Daniels had considered a bid for months and was pressured by many in the Republican establishment who longed for a conservative with a strong fiscal record to run.

Strong fiscal record? He was Bush’s budget director, and he was directly responsible for turning a $200 billion surplus into $800 billion deficit. Attention corporate media and their Republican friends, that is not a strong fiscal record. That is an amazingly weak fiscal record. Indeed, it is fiscal recklessness.

But there is no need for such reality from me, since Daniels hid behind his family as the reason he did not want to run rather than the fact that it will be very difficult to defeat the President. Indeed, a lot of more viable Republican candidates have bowed out.

Daniels’ close friend, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, surprised much of the GOP when he pulled the plug on a candidacy in April, and. Barbour privately encouraged Daniels to run. A week ago, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, the 2008 Iowa caucus winner, bowed out, followed quickly by celebrity real estate developer Donald Trump.

Add to that Chris Christie and John Thune, who both ran screaming from the prospect. And we are left with a GOP presidential field that the base of its own party is not happy with. Mitt Romney, Michelle Bachmann, Herman Cain, Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich, and Jon Huntsman. Which leads to me to return to my long held prediction: Sarah Palin will run for and win the GOP nomination.

Sarah Palin was asked on Fox News why she hasn’t made a decision about a presidential bid and whether she has the necessary drive to run.

“Oh, that’s a great question. I think my problem is that I do have the fire in my belly. I am so adamantly supportive of the good, traditional things about America and our free enterprise system, and I want to make sure that America is put back on the right track, and we only do that by defeating Obama in 2012. I have that fire in my belly.”

“It’s a matter for me of some kind of practical, pragmatic decisions that have to be made. One is, with a large family, understanding the huge amount of scrutiny and the sacrifices that have to be made on my children’s part in order to see their mama run for president. But yes, the fire in the belly? It’s there!”

Oh she wants to run. And I bet you her insane family wants her to win. It’s everyone else on the planet who doesn’t want her to run. But she will. Because she will see that it will be easy to win the nomination as the Anti-Romney candidate. She has no other competition, except Bachmann really.

So it’s 6 pm, and you’re still here…

… now it could mean that the Rapture happened and you were left behind. If you are Pat Robertson, I am sure you are very upset right now.

Or it could mean that this was all bullshit to begin with. Of course it was. There was never any doubt to that. Sure, we hyped it up sarcastically and irreverently, but that is because we liberals are often sarcastic and irreverent.

So what now? What if you one of this idiots who spent their life savings on this viral non-event? Gawker provides you with some options:

Act Casual–Now that the Rapture hasn’t happened, the best way for believers to save face is to just play off the whole thing like it wasn’t a big deal in the first place: “I mean, I am pretty surprised God didn’t descend from the sky and call up His faithful to heaven yesterday. But I really thought the Pistons would make the playoffs, too.”

Fake It–If you don’t think you can face your family and friends after years of harping on about a Rapture that didn’t happen, you could make your own Rapture. Hide in the attic and pretend you got raptured. If anyone tries to get you to come down just be like, “Na na na, can’t hearrrrrr you ’cause I’m in heaven partying with the angels!” Live the rest of your life in the attic. […]

Push It Back–The rapture has been delayed more than the opening of the Spider-Man musical. The guy who started this thing, 89-year-old Family Radio Worldwide founder Harold Camping, first predicted the Rapture would happen in 1994, but then revised it in light of new “research.” Now that the Rapture didn’t happen again, it’s just a matter of a few minutes of Googling to figure out the real date of the Rapture. Tip: Pick May 21st, 2111 so you only have to change one number on all your signs.

Beat Up The Guy Who Told You There Would Be a Rapture–Show up early because there’s going to be a line. Harold Camping’s church has amassed a net worth of $72 million with this end-of-the-world scam, and he’s not offering refunds.

Stop Believing In Fake Bullshit–This will never happen, of course.