The 1967 border map has always been my second favorite Israel.
The ’47 UN partition plan map is my favorite.
Monthly Archives: May 2011
House Redistricting Plans Are Up!
I’m posting the link to these without having an opportunity to look at them myself (and won’t until work is done) AND –more crucially — without Bulo’s analysis. He’ll likely be here later to do that in another post.
But in the meantime, take a look at the House’s Proposed Redistricing Plan and tell us what you think.
(h/t and Thanks to anonymous tipster!)
Kowalko to Joint Finance Committee, Proposed Medicaid Cuts “Unconscionable” in View of Surplus
Dear JFC members,
Please take a moment to consider the consequences of increasing medicaid expenses for those receiving this benefit. These numbers have grown, through no fault of their own, due to job losses and the recession. This state has been blessed with a $350 million “surplus” and to even consider moving forward with the DHSS/Administration proposal to burden these most vulnerable with $5 million in additional costs goes beyond the realm of unconscionable. If you feel the need to move money to plug that hole (as OMB suggests would be necessary) than you might consider lessening the $13 million proposed for “Stars” tiered reimbursement or cancel the .2% PIT restoration. Both items are well over the $5 million target to reject medicaid cuts. I sincerely hope you will be mindful of the impact on those medicaid recipients and consider the reality that limiting or making unaffordable their medical visits will result in more serious illnesses and exponentially higher costs to the system.
Thank you for your consideration,
Representative John Kowalko
Thursday Open Thread
Welcome to your Thursday open thread. I’m busy, so I’m counting on you to tell me what’s going on.
Just stopping in to say hello but Buzzfeed published “50 Reasons Why The World Is Definitely Ending On Saturday.” This made the list at #1.
While we’re waiting for the World to End, here is a very cool thing to piss off the teajadis in your office:
The *Long Form Mug* or a Tee Shirt! hahahahahaha
Climate Change Denialists vs. SCIENCE — Science Wins!
Again.
One of the keystones of the climate change denier’s arguments is that whacky “hockey stick” graph (and accompanying report) commissioned by Congressional Republicans (Joe Barton in particular — the one who thinks he can go toe to toe with a Nobel-prize winning physicist) that tried to accuse climate change scientists in the field of working together too closely which biases their findings in this area (and apparently ONLY in this area — the remediation for this problem was that climate change scientists were told they should ONLY co-author papers with their students. Yes, I know.). The author of this report — one Edward Wegman of George Mason University — used these “findings” to question the existence of global warming and to give ammunition to the Congressional Climate Change Denier’s Caucus who used this info to try to derail cap and trade and other carbon control actions.
Wegman’s report was published is the very serious journal Computational Statistics and Data Analysis (CSDA), where the good folks at the indispensable Deep Climate blog started to document the problems in this paper — the most aggregious one being plagiarism. After alot of slow-walking and spinning from all parties on this, the journal finally retracted the article this week, citing the plagiarism and the lack of peer review as several of the problems. Wegman is denying plagiarism charges and is blaming a student for the problems.
A new report on Climate Change from the National Academy of Sciences and this retraction even roused the Washington Post Editorial Board to tell folks that climate change denial is an unsupportable position:
Climate-change deniers, in other words, are willfully ignorant, lost in wishful thinking, cynical or some combination of the three. And their recalcitrance is dangerous, the report makes clear, because the longer the nation waits to respond to climate change, the more catastrophic the planetary damage is likely to be — and the more drastic the needed response.
You got that right.
Plagiarism is a Very Serious Offence in the academic community — an offence that not only can damage a reputation, but can result in firing, loss of funding, loss of a career and can taint the people who were your research team for a long time. George Mason U is under alot of pressure to sanction Wegman, but the real take away here is that Science is a serious business, and those who want to recraft it for political uses will get spanked for that eventually. Because the process itself is biased for information that you can measure, check, recreate and the politically motivated will always fail these tests. Because the politically motivated is not SCIENCE.
Barton and Wegman’s bamboozlement on Climate Change got a very great deal of breathless press when it was presented — oooh look! Climate Change Denials with graphs and color and stuff! Not so much press on the retraction on this paper by a fairly prestigious journal. Which means that the narrative that there is some genuine scientific disagreement about Climate Change unfortunately remains in place. Which is a shame — because the thing that the denialists know is that if you can keep the media focused on a fake “debate”, they’ll never get to either the data or the policy.
Some Worthy Items Up at TownSquareDelaware.com
Al Mascitti has a good piece on Delaware’s School Boards.
One class of elected public servants, though, more than earns its keep – members of the state’s school boards, who earn nothing for their service.
I agree with him down the line.
Tom Noyes on the “costs” of renewable energy. Why does he have to keep the drum beat going?
Last week, opponents of renewable energy lobbied hard for a bill to end Delaware’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The Caesar Rodney Institute and the 9/12 Delaware Patriots jammed a House hearing room arguing that RGGI cost too much and infringed on the rights of citizens.
Happily some well-prepared environmental advocates were on hand to set the record straight on the program’s costs and benefits. It turns out that RGGI, which opponent called “a threat to freedom and liberty,” costs the average household about 38 cents a month—about 0.285 percent of household electricity bills.
Corporate lackeys like “Doctor” Stapleford and “9/12 Delaware Patriots” are relentless with the bullshit.
Lucy O’Donnell gives the low down on taking (real) action on teen sexual activity. News Flash: Delaware teens are having sex, and run a very high risk of pregnancy due to our stupid approach to sex education.
Please Note: None of these decent posts mitigate the fact that Stapleford is a joke and the CRI is a think tank in the same way that Fox News is a news channel.
SC GOP Committed To A Policy of No Impact on Statewide Elections
I’m not sure what it means to Sussex County’s Republicans that Urquhart is running unopposed to be the SC GOP’s Head Nutbag.
Does this take him out of play vs. Carper? Who knows? Does it continue to signal that the SC GOP really isn’t that into winning statewide? Of course.
The Guy Who Lost To Imbecilic Christine O’Donnell To Give Graduation Speech
Before anybody gets all nostalgic for the “centrist” bullshit of Michael Newbold Castle, please recall that his wishy-washy-pansy-ass inability to utter one single word of criticism of the Bush administration helped usher the Teabagz onto the national stage.
The University of Delaware’s 162nd Commencement ceremony will be held at 9 a.m., Saturday, May 28, in Delaware Stadium. This year’s Commencement speaker will be Michael N. Castle, one of Delaware’s longest serving and most respected political leaders. His political career includes two terms as Delaware governor and nine terms as the state’s sole member in the U.S. House of Representatives The Commencement ceremony, which is held rain or shine, is open to the public; tickets are not required. Early arrival is recommended to avoid traffic congestion.
Rethug Redistricting Plan Violates Federal Voting Rights Act?
All signs point to yes. There are currently four minority-majority House districts in Delaware, where minorities make up the majority of a district’s population, if not voter registration.
Under the Rethugs’ plan, there would be only two.
One of the minority-majority districts (3rd RD) disappears entirely, while a second (16th) goes from a minority-majority district to a white majority district.
Helene Keeley’s 3rd RD is perhaps the most racially- and ethnically-diverse district in Delaware. In addition to having a significant black population, the district includes the Latin American Community Center and the communities that the LACC primarily serves. Rather than eliminating Gerald Brady’s far less diverse district, the Rethugs have opted to do away with Keeley’s. In so doing, they have created a ‘new’ 3rd RD in western rural Kent County. And the white registration in this ‘new’ district replacing a minority-majority district? 81.31%. That’ll keep them ‘nigrahs’ and ‘furriners’ in line.
Paging Pompous Bloviator Greg Lavelle: Defend this, please. Explain how you hope to avoid a lawsuit and/or how this makes sense on legal or moral grounds.
Uh, don’t go away just yet, Greg.
You have also turned what heretofore was a minority-majority district south of Wilmington into a white majority district. The 16th RD, currently represented by J. J. Johnson, and excellent legislator and a minority, would have a white majority of 50.23%. In order to make this a white majority district, you really had to go out of your way to make those numbers work. And you did it by putting most everything east of New Castle Avenue into Stephanie Bolden’s district. Areas with an overwhelmingly minority population. And you’re putting them into a district that already has an overwhelming minority population while changing the key racial component of the 16th, totally unnecessarily.
I can go on here. But my point is that either Rethugs are so incompetent that they inadvertently did away with two minority-majority districts, or they did it deliberately, and replaced one of those districts with an overwhelmingly white rural district in Kent County. We both know which one it is. Greg, care to come on Al’s show with me next week and discuss your plan? Or do you just want to wait for a court challenge?
Oh, BTW, you read the quotes of heroic martyr Greg Lavelle saying that he’s supposedly making a sacrifice by facing a possible contest with Dennis E Williams? Betcha he didn’t tell you that the ‘new’ 10th goes from a district with a D plurality of about 2,000 registrants to one with an R plurality of about 600, now did he? Something tells me though that he won’t be able to fix the game this time around as he and Wayne Smith did last time.
Which means that minorities can at least breathe easier. And that Greg Lavelle is part of an endangered political minority.
Wednesday Open Thread
Welcome to your Wednesday open thread. I’m busy, so I’m counting on you to tell me what’s going on.
Just popping my head in here but hahahahaha Newt Gingrich. Also, I weep for humanity, Ben Stein edition.
AND, more hahahahahahahaha Newt Gingrich:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8OZsJokBB0[/youtube]
Love this guy who steps up to make his (great) point in such an unforgettable way. The whacko who escorted him out was seriously creepy though — “You never see *us* disrupting your events”….WTF? History is filled with his kind of people disrupting gay and gay-friendly events! Hope that this becomes a trend — every time Newtie shows up, throw glitter!
HA!
In a stunning development one day after the release of Where’s the Birth Certificate? The Case that Barack Obama is not Eligible to be President, by Dr. Jerome Corsi, World Net Daily Editor and Chief Executive Officer Joseph Farah has announced plans to recall and pulp the entire 200,000 first printing run of the book, as well as announcing an offer to refund the purchase price to anyone who has already bought either a hard copy or electronic download of the book.
Who could have known that no one wants to be associated with a book full of dubious research?
Republican Senators Help Dem Challengers by Closing Ranks Around Continuing Oil Subsidies
Republicans senators, some of whom had signaled that they would vote to end the absurd tax subsidies for profitable oil companies, voted Tuesday night with their party leadership to keep those subsidies in place.
It is nice to see that Democrats are finally using straightforward votes to put the Republicans in hard to defend election day positions.
House R Redistricting Plan Not A Serious Plan
OK, kids, let’s see if you can answer this question. Where was the largest proportion of population growth during the past decade? If you said lower NCC, you’d be correct. The area around Middletown and its environs have exploded.
No serious redistricting plan could avoid this development, yet somehow the House Rethug redistricting plan manages to reapportion without even providing one new district in this area, let alone the two that the population shift calls for.
Your one-stop shop for this circus can be found here.
How do they do this? They only merge twice throughout the state. Under the Rethug plan, Helene Keeley loses her seat (3rd RD) and is put in a district with Dennis P. Williams (1st RD, ain’t happening), and Lavelle (11) puts himself in a district with Dennis E. Williams (10) by adding the most R portion of Williams’ district to Lavelle’s most R portion. None of the R’s isolated along the northwest corner of the state are cut. Repeat, none. Got that? One D district gone, 1 D district likely gone. Oh, and for Lavelle to get his numbers, he has to go east of Concord Pike. Oh, and if gerrymandering is your concern, just look at the contortions required for Debbie Hudson to get her district. Click on RD 12 E and RD 12 W. A district so big it takes two maps to show it.
Where do the new districts go? One, as you would expect, goes along coastal Sussex. That makes sense. The other is a newly-created district in, wait for it, rural western Kent County. Really. From the Rethug press release:
The 3rd Representative District, currently represented by State Rep. Helene Keeley (D-Wilmington South), would be moved to western rural Kent County, running from Cheswold, south and west, to an area near Felton.
That is not a serious proposal. Southern New Castle County gets no new districts, but western Kent County does? Please. Does Sigler live there?
One element is notable for its absence from the R plan. An element that Wayne Smith notoriously exploited to the R’s advantage in 2000. Go here, scroll down, and click on ‘Demographic Data for All Districts’. Wouldn’t you consider the actual population of each district to be at least of teensy-weensy importance? As I’ve written about redistricting numerous times, there’s a big difference between the minimum population required, and the maximum population allowable, for each district. Wonder why the House R’s chose not to share this portion of the data. You actually have to make a point of excluding it, and that’s what they did.
This may be about the best that pious bloviator Greg Lavelle and his henchpersons can construct to minimize damage to the R’s. As an exercise, his caucus may have found it useful.
As a serious plan…take one last look at District 12 and then get back to me.
It’s a joke.