Archive for September, 2013
Markell data center/power plant post
For the record, I’m not at all swayed by the “if this had been a Republican Governor” appeal below. The fact is I don’t know much about this issue, but trust the DL community to bring the pertinent facts to light.
This is not so much of a tip as it is as a request for DL to air the issues of The Data Centers, LLC. that is proposing to build a 248MW power plant at the old Chrysler site in Newark. I feel that if this had been Ruth Ann Minner or a Republican governor, the governor’s support for this project at this early stage would have been addressed on this site. Plus, Markell is supporting something with such a specious premise: TDC can’t make enough money running a data center so they also want to be a power plant? Huh? And without PSC review (and public process) because its a cogen facility. Nice.
What I think needs to be aired are the real issues behind why TDC is building the power plant. Its not because they need the power (there are 3 high voltage transmission lines that serve the site), but because they are depending on revenue from power sales. Yet Markell tries to sell the proposal as “necessary” for the data center. All in the name of jobs. Same arguments he trotted out to reopen the Delaware City Refinery Corp (PBF). Unsurprising considering that TDC is being represented by Markell’s former Deputy Chief of Staff who was point person on PBF. Its a bad plan for Newark and its hard to understand why there doesn’t seem to be much on this site about it. Thanks for considering.
The Moderate Republicans are finally revolting.
A collection of centrist House Republicans are threatening to torpedo Boehner’s plan to send the Senate a third continuing resolution that attacks Obamacare, National Review reports.
Peter King, a leader of the group:
“If Obamacare is as bad as we say it’s going to be, then we should pick up a lot of seats in the next election and we should win the presidency in 2016,” King said Monday. “This idea of going through the side door to take something you lost through the front door—to me, it’s wrong.”
No fucking shit. But the reason why Speaker Joe McCarthy, er ah, I mean Calgary, no I mean Texas Senator Ted Cruz and all his teabag radicals have been freaking out this past year since they lost the 2012 election in a relative landslide is because they know Obamacare is going to work, and they know once it works, it will never be repealed, just like Medicare, just like Social Security. And that is the way our democracy is supposed to work. A party proposes something, wins a national election, enacts their policies that they were elected to enact through the proper constitutional process, and then faces the people gain for their verdict. Guess what? That election was held. Guess what the verdict was. A reelected President with over 330 electoral votes, with over 51% of the vote. Democrats in the Senate gained two seats. Democrats in the House gained 10 seats, and won the popular vote in all House Districts by 2 million votes. So, Obamacare will go into affect tomorrow and nothing will stop it. Nothing. If it fails, then Peter King is right. The Republicans will have their issue to run on in 2014 and 2016. And they might win those elections. And that is the way this is supposed to work.
Boehner threatens to poke himself in the eye with a sharp stick unless the ACA is delayed for two weeks
That’s going to be the headline on Politico in two hours if things continue on the track that they are on now.
WASHINGTON — House Republicans will soon present a third proposal to keep the federal government funded, but it seems all but certain to be rejected by the Senate, just like the two that came before it.
With just hours to go before the government shuts down, the office of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) confirmed that it will put together a new continuing resolution with amendments attached to it that will delay Obamacare’s individual mandate for one year and end the employer healthcare contribution for members of Congress and their staff.
Monday Open Thread [9.30.13]
![Monday Open Thread [9.30.13]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Boehner-192x180.png "Monday Open Thread [9.30.13]")
The National Review on Speaker Boehner’s dilemma:
“That aura of Republican infighting will create an interesting dynamic if Tuesday morning comes without an accord. While Boehner and other leaders will be defending the GOP’s position in front of the cameras, there may be a subtle effort to use the episode — and what many expect to be its disastrous political results — as a means of discrediting the hardliners who give the speaker headaches. Conservatives, meanwhile, will try to show that the tactic is helping focus public attention on Obamacare.”
Said one veteran House Republican: “It may have to shut down. Until people feel the political pain, I doubt we can come together on anything. Boehner knows that, probably more than anyone.”
If Boehner does not allow the Senate’s clean CR to get a vote today, he and his Republican Representatives will be directly and solely responsible for the government shutdown and every single consequence resulting from it. As a result, if those consequences are negative, the Republicans may lose the House in 2014. But at the same time, if Boehner allows the clean CR to come to the floor for a vote, then the only way it passes is with a majority of Democrats and sane Republicans. Boehner has done this before, on the Hurricane Sandy Aid and on the Fiscal Cliff Deal. But if he does it this time, he will lose his Speakership.
So we are going to learn today whether Boehner is a opportunistic coward or a self sacrificing patriot.
Comment Rescue – What will be the next act for the Consevative States of America ?
Whatever happens in congress over the next 24-48 hours, it is clear that we’ve entered a new phase of American democracy. In this phase, the notion that we can have rational debates and honest policy disagreements that are settled reasonably has flown out the window. Instead we have one party that is determined to fuck shit up in order to cleanse the country by fire. That means they should lose elections, but they have billions on their side, a willingness to flat out lie, and a committed core of ovine followers, so they are competitive in every election in spite of themselves.
All that raises the question, What next? Think 123 does a great job imagining what life will be like before it gets any better:
In a way, New Age Conservative extremism is no different than the Old Age Communist extremism. It’s based on absolute self-certitude centered around a manifesto. It took the USSR seventy years to finally prove that manifestos and theories are not a fit way to govern.
A few years of Ayn Rand manifesto based government, dismantling the safety nets, destroying Federal agencies, America will see the folly of trying to govern by ideology. Communism died by it’s own hand. Aynrandism might have to find that way to the ash heap of history too.
I get Walt, and I’m not proud of why
When Walt confessed to Skylar that he wasn’t doing it for his family, but for himself he was confessing for all of us middle aged guys with daily secret Walter Mitty fantasies of wealth, power and a life free of the bourgeoisie clutter that comes along with a life lived according to expectations.
Many marriages end because someone in the relationship can’t continue to suck it up looking at that ceramic crying clown on the sideboard, and not flake out. Walt flaked out on a grand scale and in doing so brought guys like myself along to glimpse the “what if” possibilities of just saying “fuck it” and letting our Id take the wheel. In the end Walt paid dearly for his folly and most of us know that the price for letting go is far too high.
But that doesn’t stop us from imagining what different choices would mean to us on a daily basis. Science says that the difference between humans and animals is that we are tool users. If that is true the tool that defines us is our imagination. Animals are locked into a practical day to day existence that never dwells on the past or imagines a different future. We, as humans, do both.
Was the misery and death Walt left in his wake worth his few moments of “feeling alive” and being on top? By any objective measure it was not. And yet, he seemed to die with a gleam in his eye. He had lived a horribly, destructive, selfish life. But in the end he killed Nazis and freed Jesse. Not bad for a chemistry teacher.
![Monday Daily Delawhere [9.30.13]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7361/9916193214_e0c494aa41_z.jpg "Monday Daily Delawhere [9.30.13]")
![Sunday Daily Delawhere [9.29.13]](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3744/9916192734_7b6007cfbd_z.jpg "Sunday Daily Delawhere [9.29.13]")
![Saturday Daily Delawhere [9.28.13]](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3667/9916144536_036c3de681_z.jpg "Saturday Daily Delawhere [9.28.13]")
Will The Tea Party Burn The House Down ?
My former Texas Senator, John Cornyn, with whom I’ve never agreed, told Ted Cruz words to the effect that you don’t burn the house down to kill the rats. But I wonder. is Cruz crazy enough to try to do just that? I read he is now collaborating with House teabaggers to create a coup against their own elected leader, John Boehner to take the country to the brink of default on the debt ceiling issue.
I saw these people up close and personal in my Texas life and I can tell you that while they give lip service to the Constitution, they do not recognize the rules laid down therein. They do not recognize the results of democratic elections when they lose and in fact, do all kinds of nefarious things to break rules which do not serve their interests. These people are rabid revolutionaries. They are not incrementalists by any definition. Burning the house down for them is the easiest way they can achieve their white bread theocracy. They are smart enough to understand that they have to first inhabit the house in order to get to the oven to light it and burn baby burn.
Friday Open Thread
Are you watching the circular firing squad that is the GOP right now? Of course, all of this depends upon the Democrats holding firm and not seeing themselves as hostages here. A tall order. But so far, so good. Yesterday, Harry Reid tried to speed up the votes so that the Senate could be done that evening to send the CR back to the House with some time to spare. Carnival Cruz and his sidekick Lee were having none of that, so they worked pretty hard to make sure that the bill was delayed — sparking this great smack back by Senator Bob Corker telling Cruz he was confused:
![Friday Daily Delawhere [9.27.13]](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3820/9916112685_d59a093cf8_z.jpg "Friday Daily Delawhere [9.27.13]")
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