DelawareLiberal.Net

…I decline.

Here is the BBC report:

A car which was on fire has been driven at the main terminal building at Glasgow Airport.
Eyewitnesses have described a Jeep Cherokee being driven at speed towards the building with flames coming out from underneath.

They have also described seeing two Asian men, one of whom was on fire, who had been in the car.

Oh my. I guess I am supposed to be shitting myself because these retards are going to set up a “caliphate” that stretches from Asbury Park, NJ to Guam. Somehow I can’t work up that much terror. Sorry wingnuts!

I’m more worried about the fact that we have an imbecile in the White House – and I have to say, I spend a decent amount of time wondering why you are not worried about that as well.

Our beloved elected officials are putting the finishing touches on all of the laws that will screw us up for years to come. It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it.

Speaking of tough jobs, Kavips takes on a roundup of the bills pending for the last minute push of the legislative agenda. Among the more dramatic stories is the battle in the House for SB36 which threatened to tear the Republicans apart. Mike at DWA has a follow-on. It must be good news, since FSP is all pissy about it. Maybe Dave really will quit the party.

Another bit of drama is the anti-fusion bill. Nancy wants us all to get together in Dover Saturday night. Mike’s going. Dana went.  Joe is already there.  I’d go, but I have company all weekend…

His Wonkiness has a post on a subject near and dear to his heart, recycling. He has been all over it, but the outcome doesn’t look like it will be good. It’s too bad Tommy cannot just will it to happen. Keep at it Tommy.

There seems to be an incumbent push in Leg Hall this year. Anti-fusion, anti write-in and even Daniello suggesting that bloggers should be regulated. Joe at Merit Bound Alley has the best post that brings it all together.  A new edition to Around the Horn is Mat Marshall at The Soapbox.  Like me he is still searching to see if Daniello was doing anything but blowing hot air.

KarmicJay has a [non]review of the Daniel Pearl inspired movie A Mighty Heart.

Ryan Mc over at Liberal Delight has a Story about how Christie Todd Whitman was booed and heckled during testimony this week. If she survives the abuse, she is probably ready to be a blogger.

Pencader Days and Gazizza want us to know that they still don’t believe that we are causing global warming, if it even exists.

Hube is pissed that Liberals aren’t getting all worked up in a frenzy because of terrorism in London.  Guess what, the British military stationed in Iraq didn’t uncover this plot either…

Kilroy wants a moratorium on new charter schools in Red Clay.  Anyone want to propose it at the next board meeting?  Kilroy is going to miss the July meeting.

Finally, Ryan at JttR tells us that immigration reform is dead… again… no, really dead… pretty much.

It’s going to be a wonderful weekend.  So while you are out there enjoying it, remember that 66,807 Iraqi civilians have been killed since we invaded and it has cost America 3,578 lives and 439 billion dollars.  That is enough money to send over 21 million students to four years of college.  Wear sunscreen.

Thanks to one of my favorite commenters, Von Cracker, for the link to this Digby piece.  There are so many of these guys in the process here.  Some of these guys have no sense of history or what America really stands for.

Sorry for the delayed Around the Horn, I have been a blog slacker this week.  I will have this week’s edition out tomorrow.

PHILADELPHIA — The [insert proferssional sports team here] pulled off perhaps the first surprise of the [insert league here] draft, selecting [insert name of some unknown expected to be drafted 69th] with the __th pick tonight.

The [nickname of sports team] also had the choice of [insert name of some good payer expected to go in the first round], whom many expected the team to select, or [insert name of another good payer expected to go int he first round].

But the [nickname of sports team] went with [unknown], shocking and disappointing their fans. The [sports team]’s [Gen Manager/Coach] said, “[unknown] is going to be a big contributor. He has a lot of heart.”

WPRI-TV, Channel 12 reporter Jarrod Holbrook had his White House press pass snatched today after he shouted “Mr. President” twice as President Bush greeted Air and Army National Guardsmen gathered on the tarmac at Quonset airport in North Kingstown.

Holbrook said afterward that he just wanted to ask Bush how he enjoyed his visit to Rhode Island. Members of the media were not told they could not ask the president questions.

Presidential Advance Manual

Preparing for Demonstrators 

Rally Squads

These squads should be instructed always to look for demonstrators.  The rally squads task is to use their signs and banners as shields between the demonstrators and the main press platform.  If the demonstrators are yelling, rally squads can begin and lead supportive chants to drown out the protestors (USA!, USA!, USA!).  As a last resort, security should remove the demonstrators from the event site.  The rally squads can include, but are not limited to, college/young republican organizations, local athletic teams, and fraternities/sororities.”

 It is a PDF file so unfortunately I can’t cut and paste.  It is only 12 pages and it is so heavily redacted you can get the jist in 30 seconds

Head right to page 8 if you want to get a feel for the context of the “manual”

frightening….

This looks like it will be a good thing!

CA court rules T-Mobile contract terms unconscionable
(more…)

caught this over at Boing Boing and it is really something to think about.

Apple’s iPhone already has its first controversy. Why is AT&T the exclusive wireless carrier for the iPhone?

As it stands now, Act for Change sees iPhone users locked into a service contract with “a corporation whose practices seem to run counter to everything Apple stands for.” Their announcement included complaints directed specifically towards AT&T — including AT&T’s “warrantless wiretapping” controversy and their sharing of customer phone records with the National Security Agency.

The group even cited the chairman’s political contributions of AT&T’s chairman, and called it “the same AT&T that is doing its very best to destroy net neutrality and create a ’slow lane’ Internet for the rest of us.”

You know, it’s interesting how we have all forgotten about how AT&T is part of the Warrantless Wiretapping fiasco….

“For a GOPer controlled House, the fiscal conservatives were scant in the room tonight.” – - Nancy Willing

Which reminds me.  I have to get to the Hallmark store and get Dave Burris a condolence card.

My recent comments about how John Tobin helped launch the PDD’s endorsement process got me to thinking about how effective that operation has been.

For people who still don’t know about the PDD, like the Stonewall Dems and the Women’s Democratic Club we are a Recognized Club of the Delaware Democratic Party. Like the Stonewalls and the WDC we have an agenda, a special interest within the Party. Our interest is in pulling the party to the left from within. As Paul Wellstone famously put it, we represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party

As the entire nation swung hard to the right, the Democratic Party moved to the right as well. That was a huge mistake. Politcal Parties don’t exisit to chase voters, or they exisit (or should exisit) to arttract candidates to run for office based on some shared values.

Has the PDD helped do that? Absolutly it has. Just look at our track record.

Democratic candidate Bryon Short was victorious in the 7^th District Special Election this spring and PDD played a role in that victory. So far, Short is doing a nice job in Dover. No complaints here.

In the 25^th District PDDers worked hard for two cycles to elect John Kowalko. John is also doing a nice job, with a few toe-stubs that should be allowed for newly elected Representatives.

PDD has endorsed other good progressive candidates including, Senator Karen Peterson (who’s affiliation with us goes back to our Howard Dean campaign days), Treasurer Markell, and Insurance Commissioner Matt Denn. All three of these elected officials have sponsored and supported legislation and issues that PDD holds dear. Some of these are Wind Power for Delaware, FOIA for the General Assembly, and several insurance regulation reforms aimed at making insurance rates fairer for everyone in Delaware.

We don’t always win. In 2004 we endorsed Diana McWilliams, Steve Tanzer, Terry Schooley, John Kowalko, John McNeal and John Cartier. Only McWilliams, Schooley and Cartier won.

In 2006 we endorsed Charles Potter in the primary against Harris McDowell. Potter lost. We also endorsed Vincent White in the primary against Dennis Williams. White lost. Up in the 7^th District we endorsed Carl Colantuono against Boykin in the primary and Colantuono won the primary but lost the general to Wayne Smith.

Diane Clarke Streett was endorsed by PDD and won her race for Register of Wills. We also endorsed Michael Kozikowski for Recorder of Deeds. Other candidates who received PDD endorsements in 2006 include: Pat Morrison, Richard Korn, Mike Barbieri and Dennis Spivack.

We do not blanket endorse the Democratic slate. Candidates must file a questionnaire with our endorsement committee and those who meet the minimum progressive score are called in for an interview. The endorsement committee prepares a slate of approved candidates and the steering committee votes to approve or disapprove these candidates. A PDD endorsement carries support in the form of contributions and volunteer time. Staffers at the Delaware Democratic Party know that we will knock ourselves out for our endorsed candidates and welcome the help.

Those same staffers, and the party hierarchy, know that there are some Democratic candidates that we won’t touch. No money, no volunteers for these folks. No need to list them here – those who need to know, know, including the candidates. We’ve sent a clear message. We can do that because we choose to work within the party.

Do we work behind the scenes?. You betcha!

Are we non – or bipartisan? Hell no!

That does not mean that Green Party members have not helped out and some even count themselves as members. It simply means that we have limited resources and we choose to apply them where we think they will do the most strategic good for progressive Democratic causes in Delaware.

Finally, we strongly believe that the people who do the work set the agenda. PDDers who turn out their pockets and volunteer their time get to say how the organization operates and determine the tactics we follow to achieve our ends. You can be certain that publicly chastising us will have no effect on our course. If you want to have some influence, join us and work with us toward a better Delaware.

I’m hearing that Daniello (in spite of the fact that he hates blogs and bloggErs) paid bloggers a backhanded compliment by sarcasticly commenting “if this thing doesn’t pass (HB177 ?), bloggers should have to register as lobbyists.” It was a kind of acknowledgment that blogs are having some impact.

Mike Says:

“Yes, John Daniello is off the fucking reservation in his claim he’ll try and get someone to introduce a bill to require bloggers to register as lobbyists!”

WTF? Anybody know anything?

Here is the link to my post on Kos

These days it is popular to bash the “two party system.” Nothing about Republicans or Democrats appears in the Constitution and when and when you look at the frauds and losers who currently comprise the leadership of the two dominate party here in Delaware it is not hard to fall into the trap that the system is broken. But is it?

While the detractors are correct, the phrase two party system does appear in the constitution, it a does appear in American history from the days just after Cornwallis surrendered in Yorktown.

The two party system is part of our political DNA because it is derived from the British legal system. The British system in which a prosecutor faces off against a defendant through argumentation, the bringing of witness and answering clearly proscribed questions of law through open debate is a two part system. Even the vocabulary of the courts underscores their belief that the arguments of two opposing parties can uncover the “truth” in a legal sense.

Imagine a clearly innocent man on trial. Would the truth be able to battle its way out of a courtroom contained one prosecutor and four unaffiliated attorneys working for his defense? What if those defense attorneys all had a slightly different approach to proving the innocence of their client. Wouldn’t an unscrupulous prosecutor be able to exploit those minor differences to his own ends?

Of course he would – and he has. That prosecutor is the GOP and they have exploited the minor differences among liberals. They have gamed the court of public opinion and sold the country on going to war foolishly, allowed rich people to escape paying their fair share for the country’s upkeep and allowed the President to accrue kinglike powers.

If the two party system is sick the cure is not more parties. The cure is better and more debate – and by debate I mean primaries. I’ll get more into what liberals should be doing in lieu of wasting their time and energy in third parties in a follow up post.

Good Afternoon Congressman, 

I am a Brandywine Hundred resident that stays pretty up on the news in Delaware and around the country.  I try to read the papers as much as I can to stay informed of Delaware’s elected officials opinions regarding local and national events and it is possible that I have missed your opinion on some very weighty issues being played out in Washington these days.  If I have I apologize.  I would just like to know where it is you stand on some pretty important issues going on in our country right now.  I have a few bullets I was hoping you could address in some fashion. 

1.      Can you give me an idea of how you feel the “Surge in Iraq” is working?

2.      Can you give me your opinion of Alberto Gonzalez?

3.      Can you give me your opinions on the White House’s recent subpoena from Sen. Patrick Leahy regarding the warrantless wiretapping?  As well as the other multiple subpoena’s that seem to occur on a daily basis…

I will be posting your reply on Delawareliberal.net as soon as they are received.

Thank you for your time,

THE Donviti

The fact that nit wits like Chris continue to support the President is understandable – but Mike Castle is supposed to be smart. What does he gain from sticking with this nut job when it comes to Iraq?

Mike Castle has not uttered a word about Iraq in six months. (Which I guess is no big deal since nobody really cares about Iraq anymore anyway.)

Mike Castle could have shot down the HB177 – Fusion Bill with a sideways glance – but left his third party buddies hanging out to dry.

Mike Castle has no opinion whatsoever on the malfeasance of Alberto Gonzales and his out of control justice department.

I would have to conclude that he has had another stroke, except for his love of Delaware Bay Oysters.