Archive for June, 2016
Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tues., June 28, 2016.
Final three days for this General Assembly. Here’s what HAS to happen: Pass Budget Bill, Pass Bond Bill, Pass Grant-In-Aid Bill. (Actually, they don’t have to pass a grant-in-aid bill, but who wants to tell the local volunteer fire companies and senior centers that they didn’t pass the bill?)
The budget is a done deal. The bill has been introduced and has been laid on the table, aka DeLuca’d, in the Senate. It can be lifted any time via a motion. I expect the bill to reach the Governor’s desk before Thursday. The final DEFAC numbers are causing some issues with the Bond and Grant-In-Aid bills, but nothing that some kick-the-can-down-the-road fiscal legerdemain can’t solve.
Before we examine today’s agendas, let’s look at a last-minute bill that made me go ‘Hmmm’.
DL community steps up to help Don Peterson challenge Schwartzkopf in the 14th
The DL community contributed $534.12 to help Don Peterson take on the execrable Pete Schwartzkopf. $534.12 might not seem like a huge haul, but Don Peterson is treading a long and difficult path in taking on an incumbent who also happens to be the Speaker, so it is important to take a long view of projects like this.
Since I’ve been paying attention to Delaware politics, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an incumbent beaten on the first attempt. It seems to always take an election for a challenger to get his campaign footing. It is my hope that this support and future support from the DL community, small though it may be, helps Don Peterson fix his vision on the horizon and settle on the long term goal of beating Pete Schwartzkopf if not this primary, then next. If not that primary, then the next.
AG Matt Denn’s Statement on Supreme Court Abortion Decision
Here is a statement from Attorney General Matt Denn regarding the Supreme Court’s Decision today in the case of Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, Commissioner, Texas Department of State Health Services that struck down Texas’ regulations of clinics performing abortions that forced many to close.
”In January, I joined 14 other state Attorneys General in urging the United States Supreme Court to invalidate provisions of a new Texas law that unduly burdened the rights of women to choose whether to have an otherwise legal abortion. I was pleased today to see that the Supreme Court – not just by a divided plurality decision, but by a clearly articulated majority decision – invalidated the Texas restrictions that were challenged. In so doing, the Court gave renewed confidence to those who believe in a woman’s right to choose that the Court would fairly and impartially apply its own precedents regarding state imposed restrictions of that right.”
It is nice to have a progressive Attorney General. Denn for Governor!!
BREAKING NEWS: US Supreme Court Strikes Down Texas Anti-Abortion Law!
Here’s the skinny from the New York Times:
The Supreme Court on Monday struck down parts of a restrictive Texas law that could have reduced the number of abortion clinics in the state to about 10 from what was once a high of roughly 40.
One part of the law requires all clinics in the state to meet the standards for ambulatory surgical centers, including regulations concerning buildings, equipment and staffing. The other requires doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.
“We conclude,” Justice Breyer wrote, “that neither of these provisions offers medical benefits sufficient to justify the burdens upon access that each imposes. Each places a substantial obstacle in the path of women seeking a previability abortion, each constitutes an undue burden on abortion access, and each violates the Federal Constitution.”
Well, things are certainly looking up when it comes to the Supreme Court.
Monday Open Thread [6.27.16]
![Monday Open Thread [6.27.16]](http://delawareliberal.net//wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Divider.png "Monday Open Thread [6.27.16]")
The Huffington Posts’s Earl Ofari Hutchinson makes a strong case for Clinton picking Elizabeth Warren for her running mate: “Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren is Hillary’s best bet for VP. Why? Despite the relentless lampooning, ridiculing and name-calling of Trump, and the smug writing of his political obituary, the election will be a close run up. The big GOP donors and handlers, the hate driven passion to beat Hillary, Trump’s skilled fear mongering and pander to bigotry, the never-ending media fawn over him, and GOP dominance in the majority of the state’s legislatures and state houses will insure that…The fatal mistake is to assume that simply painting and then writing off Trump as a kook will be enough to scare millions to storm the polls to defeat him. Clinton’s campaign is a political textbook study in business like organization, precision, and professionalism. But it’s not a campaign of passion…Its passion that pushes people, especially young people, and minorities, out the door and to the polls on Election Day. These voters made the White House a wrap for Obama in 2008 and 2012. But Clinton is not Obama, and in the handful of swing states that will decide the election, the numbers and turnout will mean everything.”
Sunday Open Thread [6.26.16]
Longtime columnist George Will has officially left the Republican Party, he told a group of conservatives on Friday. Will, a conservative columnist for the Washington Post, confirmed to PJ Media that he switched his Maryland party registration from GOP to unaffiliated.
At a meeting of the Federalist Society Friday in D.C., Will told the group it’s worth refusing to back Trump even if it hands the election to Democrat Hillary Clinton. “This is not my party,” he told the group. “Make sure he loses. Grit their teeth for four years and win the White House.”
Saturday Open Thread [6.25.16]
![Saturday Open Thread [6.25.16]](http://delawareliberal.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Delaware-Flag-US-State-Wood-XL-240x180.jpg "Saturday Open Thread [6.25.16]")
The Brexit vote, as is Trump support, is a primarily a generational divide. The older Silent and Baby Boom generations are extending a giant middle finger to the X and Millenial Generations, a one last Fuck You. Jack Lennard:
Let’s look at the voter demographics. The “Leave” vote was overwhelmingly carried by those over the age of 65, whereas according to pre-vote polling, 72 percent of those who were aged 18 to 24 favored “Remain.” […]
Despite young people having to live with the decision of the referendum for an average of 69 years, it has been decided for them by people who will only have to live with it for an average of 16 years. Put simply: The long-term effects of Brexit will not be felt by those who overwhelmingly voted for it. Because they will be dead.
This is a final middle-fingered salute to the young from the baby boomer generation. Not content with racking up insurmountable debt, not content with destroying any hopes of sustainable property prices or stable career paths, not content with enjoying the benefits of free education and generous pension schemes before burning down the ladder they climbed up, the baby boomers have given one last turd on the doorstep of the younger generation.
My generation will not enjoy the free movement to 27 different countries and the workers’ rights that rescued Britain from the “sick man of Europe” era of the 1970s. For us, there will be no golden age of economic hope and glory. UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage’s sickening elation at “independence day for the United Kingdom” (surely a joke, given the context of violent colonialism that Britain herself exported to the world over the last centuries, yet sadly deadly serious) heralds nothing but a grim forecast of turmoil.
Where the Greatest Generation of the Depression era and World War II was the best generation, the Silent and Baby Boom Generations have been among the worst ever to walk on this Earth.
The Weekly Addresses
On Friday, June 24, President Obama designated the Stonewall National Monument – the first national monument dedicated to telling the story of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community’s struggle for equal rights.
In his weekly message, Governor Markell highlights the efforts of the state to give all Delaware families access to high-quality early learning programs.
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