The Top Eleven Delaware Liberal Posts of 2011 [National Stories]

The year is drawing to a close, and what a horrible year it was. We had to endure the new Republican majority in the House and their childish temper tantrums at anything and everything, resulting in numerous examples of hostage taking, creating crises and panics and treasonously attempting to sabotage the national economy. If that wasn’t enough, we had a horrific earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the subsequent nuclear meltdown in Fukushima. We had the attempted assassination of a Congresswoman in Arizona, and a murder of brave county cops here at home. We also had to endure the ramp up of the Republican presidential primary, what with all the lies and the downright bigotry espoused to capture the support of equally ignorant and bigoted and yet fickle Republican voters.

So I thought it would be fun, and painful, to relive it all if the form of revisiting of checking out what where the top eleven posts on Delaware Liberal in 2011. In this installment, we will concentrate only on national stories and politics. Later this morning, I will post the top ten Delaware posts of 2011. The only criteria determining what is and is not the top ten in both cases is page views. There is no substantive or editorial comment at work here, but usually, only good posts get the page views in the first place.

That said, sometimes good stories don’t get the views they deserve. Tomorrow, we will look at those posts, and also get your predictions for the coming year 2012.

1. “The Marriage Vow: A Declaration of Dependence upon MARRIAGE and FAMILY,” by Pandora

There’s a new pledge in Republicanville, “The Marriage Vow: A Declaration of Dependence upon MARRIAGE and FAMILY” (emphasis in the original), and Michele Bachmann is the first to sign! Most of the pledge is typical Christian-Conservative, but this part is both crazy and offensive:

Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.

Wow! Never mind that slave families were routinely broken up and sold off – and murdered, raped, and abused. This statement is beyond offensive.

2. “Gay Men Still Cannot Give Blood,” by Delaware Dem

Back in the early 1980’s, the wonderous Reagan Administration, and society as a whole, did a bang up job in reacting to the AIDS outbreak. One of the reactionary responses was to prohibit gay men who had sex after 1977 from donating blood. Would it shock you to learn that that ban remains alive and well today, in the 21st century? […]

Brian Moulton, chief legislative counsel for the Human Rights Campaign,the nation’s largest gay rights group, said they are hopeful that the policy, last reviewed in 2006, will change under President Barack Obama, “who is interested in looking at all the policies that have a discriminatory effect.” The goal, he said, is “to have policies in place that are based on the science” rather than “any discriminatory idea about our community.”

So, wait a minute. What the FUCK! It would be one thing if this policy had not been reviewed since its enactment since 1983, although I would wonder why the Clinton Administration did not review it, since we knew in the 1990’s how to test for HIV. But the policy was reviewed in 2006 during the Bush Administration, and those sick fucks decided to keep the ban in place!!??!!

3. “Video and Transcript of President Obama’s Speech Today (April 13, 2011)” by Cassandra

4. “BREAKING: Democratic Congresswoman Giffords Shot in Arizona,” by Delaware Dem

Horribly self explanatory.

5. “UPDATED II: DelawareLiberal Occupy Wall Street Action MONDAY 10/10,” by Jason330

The DL community is going to fill an SUV with donated sleeping bags and/or blankets, yoga mats and tarps* and drive up to New York where we will deliver them on behalf of everyone in Delaware who thinks that the corporate takeover of our democracy requires a response.

Editor’s note here: The Occupy Wall Street movement was a national story, so even though this post was about collecting supplies in Delaware, it was to aid the protestors in New York. Thus, I am classifying this a national story.

6. “Banning Kids from Restaurants,” by Cassandra

The owner of McDain’s Restaurant and Golf Center in Monroeville, Pa (outside of Pittsburgh) has decided that kids under the age of 6 are banned from dining at his restaurant.

7. “Hurricane Irene [Important Information],” by Delaware Dem

Again, while Irene hit Delaware, and was a local story, it was also a national story, and indeed, damaged New Jersey and Vermont much more severely than Delaware. This post provided links to important sources of emergency information, and served as an open thread while we all were riding out the storm.

8. “Scott Walker is a Kock Whore,” by Jason330

To quote George Takei, “Ohhhhhh Myyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.”

9. “Wisconsin’s Financial Crisis Caused By Scott Walker,” by Unstable Isotope

There seems to be a lot of misunderstanding about the cause of the problems in Wisconsin. The new governor, Scott Walker, is proposing a new budget to close a budget gap. In the proposed legislation he’s proposing big cuts to state workers salaries, but he’s also trying to remove all bargaining rights from the unions. Now it turns out that this fiscal crisis is brand new, he actually inherited a surplus.

10. “So, this “Occupy Wall Street” thing is happening,” by Jason330

It’s neat to read a post about a coming event, long after that event has occurred. That coming event was Occupy Wall Street. Even Jason330 was a little dismissive at first.

11. “Dithering,” by Unstable Isotope

This post is about an ignorant Rick Jensen quote saying President Obama was dithering in taking out Osama Bin Laden, because we knew since August 2010 that Bin Laden was there. UI takes down the idiot Jensen in her usual reality based style

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