Can Coons Conquer Da Castle?

Rumors were that New Castle County Executive Chris Coons was holed up in Delaware’s Democratic headquarters last night to plan his strategy for taking bead on Mike Castle… Delaware’s whiningest politician… (or is it winningest? idk)….

Both are running for the Senate seat to be vacated by Delaware’s most effective public servant ever to work in Washington…

Initial speculation was that Chris Coons will have a tough fight… (He is running against a well funded cardboard cutout...)

After all, Coons has been beat up a little in the tug of war between the people living, dying, and breathing in this county, versus the interests of the developers and labor unions…. But beat up politicians are the expected par for course when you decide to take someone who isn’t new to the process… And one good thing about politicians previously beaten up: they tend to have more longevity….

Fortunately for us, politicians evolve. But right now, if one were to ask me, the election would be between a rock and a piece of paper… The scissors would decide the outcome… Coons was vibrant his first race in 2000… But working in the dark of the New Castle County building can take a little life out of the man… He will need to revisit his youth and find the tone he once had… especially down in Sussex County… It would be nice to hear him guffaw once in awhile…

Mike Castle stands for ancient history… He will say he is experienced having served 18 years in Congress already… But experienced at what? What did he do to help our state over his entire term while he was in office… Word is… he will say he voted… That’s good. But anyone can vote…..

A Delaware Senator needs to get results. We are not a giant state.. We only have one Congressperson… Therefore our Senators must share a larger percent of the burden of getting Federal money NOT to go to another state, but to come here…. Each senator here has 33.3% of the responsibility of getting money into Delaware… That’s compared to the 3.2% of responsibility a Senator from New York has…

Mike Castle has not delivered 33.3%… We Delawareans are suffering because of it… If he didn’t deliver in the House… what makes one think as he gets older and older and older and older and older that he will deliver 33.3% in the Senate?

I’m sure in this fair state, there will be at least one knucklehead who will support Castle.. That’s acceptable. No one can be perfect and win unanimously.

The winner of this contest will be the one who can break out of his mold and convince voters of Delaware that he will bring change to both Congress and Delaware… Right now, change is a hard concept for Mike Castle to sell.. Against conventional wisdom at the moment, I’m telling you that according to the numbers not out yet, the ones forthcoming in October of 2010, Chris Coons will have the edge….

But he will need all the help he can get…… Now is the time for Jason330 to dust off Mike Castle’s record……… again..

The Mystery of Scott Spencer

He is running against Carney, you know the guy who went up against Markell? But not too many people know Scott Spencer…. They should..

Scott is the kind of guy who gets things done… Whether it is realistic or not, certain things like Sunday DART service, SEPTA rail to Newark, Fisker Electric Cars being built in Delaware, all have his fingerprints on them.

Single handedly, Scott Spencer has probably done more for transportation in this second smallest state, than any other person alive today… ( Joe Biden might be the exception for keeping Amtrack alive…. ) Scott goes as far back as pushing DART service past the 6:00 curfew that existed forever…. His efforts allowed banks and insurance companies to continue working past that early close up time…

In the future, we will see SEPTA go all the way to Aberdeen. There one can jump aboard a MARC and commute his way to DC… We will have commuter rail service from Philadelphia to Washington… Scott will have his fingerprints on that as well.. Soon (2011) 25,000 jobs will land in Aberdeen as the Army upgrades its operations there… With commuter rail, some of that money could find a home in New Castle County. At the same time, the demolition of the Chrysler plant and rebuilding of the University of Delaware’s Medical Center, will employ large numbers on this side of the state line.. It appears Newark will be booming soon. What a relief…. Of course, Democrats are the ones to thank… Use of government money to jump start an economy goes against every Republican tradition ever noted….

Scott has done more to bring jobs into Delaware than many of our state reps and state senators combined…

But is it enough.. Not only does he have to beat the person everyone thought was annointed to take over Biden’s Senate seat when he became VP, but if he can accomplish that unspeculated task, he will then have to take on the Republican challenger and take him out like one does that guy sitting on the toilet at the Rehoboth Beach Funland shooting arcade….

Most think that won’t happen.

Scott has some novel ideas. One, is his insistence he will run an organic financed campaigh. That means all his money will come from consituents. None from the party, none from outside the state, none from special interest groups… Whereas that may sound idealistic, fact is… it is. Making such a stand means that just one mistake of accepting money from an entitiy outside the state, even if done on oversight, washes the entire campaign’s credibility away… Secondly, is that if he takes no money, and his opponent takes all, his opponent will win… Perhaps Scott thinks the people will rise up and vote for this distinctive funding plan… Perhaps…

Another plank in his platform is his plan to fix Afghanistan. He proposes to take the workable plan making headway in one district of that war torn nation, and importing it to all the other areas not working well at the moment. That plan uses local implementation of solving issues… That plan will put local people into deciding their own fate. On it’s surface that plan is well thought out, and even I would endorse it.

However, it is such a distant problem to most of Delaware’s current needs, that upon its reiteration and description, the eyes glaze over and the snores gain volume…

Scott’s third plank is to re-beat the drum on health care… Yes we need it.. but the issue is worn out… However, true to form, Scott has a great plan that is workable in theory if one takes human nature out of the equation.. Scott proposes an independent commission similar to that investigating military base closures, to devise the best plan and sell it to Congress on an up or down vote…. Remove politics from decisions requiring reaoning and science.. If only that was possible…

And that is the legacy of Scott Spencer… He has the right ideas that will resonate with both conservatives and progressives, but he does not seem grounded in what is obtainable. The name Don Quixiote gets whispered among many who listen to his plan….

And that is the delimina. Scott has planned this run for a long time… He is loathe to give it up… He is a great guy, and a good Democrat… But despite his own best intentions, there must be a better spot in our state where he can accomplish more good, than running another idealistic Beiner-esque campaign across three counties… Those of us connected, must do our part to find the proper slot for this focused, intense, concrete, sharp, and visionary young man…. There has to be a postion where he can do far more good for our state, than just lose to John Carney…

A Good Day After All….

Today there was a lot of discussion over the Democrats chances in future elections… Someone this morning on the Al Mascitti show, likened it to the Colts-Jets playoff game….

For a while, it looked like the Colts were outclassed… But somehow they regrouped and came back, passed the Jets, and never looked back….

The fear is that the Democrats instead will act like the Vikings… First poised to win, then create enough turnovers to allow a squeaker of a loss…. again.

The difference between the two scenarios, is attitude. The Colts, executed beautifully, and got things done… The Vikings didn’t.

Everyone agrees the election is the Democrats to lose. There is not a Republican out there who is a decent candidate… Some will run, but if they win, it is because the Democrats did not fight hard enough to stop them….

Here is why a Republican can’t win. Voters remember.

Republican policy caused our economic woes today. Republican policy took money from the middle class, and slid it upwards to the upper crust. Republican policy, rewarded the removal of our jobs overseas… Republican policy, made profits more important than people. Republican policy, moved our government from the Democrats pay as you go plan, to having our grandchildren go pay for our excesses. Republican policy allowed for deregulated derivatives. Republican policy allowed for AIG to pretend to insure investments, but instead spend the money on themselves… Republican policy, added the prescription plan to Medicare, without finding any way to pay for it… After we are dead, the bill comes due for our children and grandchildren.

Republicans will say that life was good during the Bush years… Hell, my life would be great too if I could spend whatever I wanted and have my children pay the bills…. But unlike Republicans, I know that is unrealistic… I know that sooner or later the bills come due.

We are fortunate that when they came due, a Democrat was in charge. We are fortunate that Democrats control both houses… We are unfortunate, however, that since the Republicans collapsed the hedging house of cards they built with our money, the money required to fix it must come from somewhere… We have none here now; we have to borrow it from our future. Today, Republicans want to cut all services which have no benefit to the wealthy, to pay for the excesses they spent on themselves when they controlled both houses..

When reminded of this, voters will remember… The Clinton Days are a fond distant memory… Back then we had peace, we had international respect, we had prosperity, and all of us were making far more money than we ever were before…

Nothing has changed: Democrats build. Republican tear down.

So we don’t need to be panicky over the news of one week. Yeah, some mistakes were made, but being panicky, as the Vikings found out, creates more… Better to say… “ho, hum… we can do this; it’s business as usual…” and continue to make life better for those who do vote, such as stimulate their economy, cut their health care costs, lower their energy costs, give them a job, lower their credit card charges, remover their bank fees, make it cheaper and easier to get their loan, drop their gasoline into the dollar range…. Those priorities are what they need to focus on….

They are our government. They can just do it. They don’t need anyone’s permission…. We elected Democrats to undo the Republican’s mess and make our lives more like the good years of the 90’s. They need to do it…. They don’t need to ask Republicans for permission.

Because their days are numbered. Republicans don’t have a chance in hell… You can have the best well dressed candidate, who says the right things, who proclaims themselves to be one of the people, and all it takes to deflate their balloon, if for one single person to stand up at a town meeting, and say… ” Sir/ Madame: The policies you are advocating cost my mother in law half of her savings… She has half of what she would have had if your party hadn’t tinkered with a thing...”

Suddenly everyone realizes… “hey, I lost half my savings too….”

Republicans are dead in the water…. The only way they have a remote chance in hell of winning is if we’re panicky, and they’re not… My prediction is that with all the evidence on our side, and everyone (who didn’t listen to me) still wheeling from a loss of 50% of their retirement plan… it will be the Republicans who are panicky, and not everyone else…….

We just have to calm down and let that prediction come true on its own…..

Ancient History

I believe it was back when he was governor…. A late event had caused a delay and church had started before he arrived….

Stepping into the back door of the Presbyterian Church of New Castle, he saw his family and proceeded to make his way to them… Of course, the whispers began …. there’s the governor, That’s Him, That’s Tom.…. So much for entering quietly….

Not much he could do, so he continues to his family’s pew, and slides in to sit down with them….

In front of him a wide eyed youth is taking all this in… He looks up from his drawing on a card, and whispers very quietly…. “Are you somebody important?”

Mr. Carper nods solemnly, and says quietly: “Yes, I am…..”

Pointing to his own sons, …. “I’m their Dad.”

The timing seemed right to bring this story to light today.

Big Tits for Little Tats

Tit for Tat:

Anyone who reads this blog knows that comments are where the action is.. The best writing is usually below the canal, where smart minds give and take and dissect the others points of view… Having spent an inordinate amount of time on one such comment, I thought today’s epistle would be, something that in the olden days would have been titled: “Comment Rescue… ”

(Since I didn’t garnish another’s permission, I’m not naming him or her, but if they want to come forward on their own, they most certainly are welcome… They probably will, because their comment is not that hard to find.. But I thought the overall give and take was done well enough to showcase to others how all argument should take place on blogs, and use this as a measure upon which all other future commentary can be judged…)

“Bush is the person who fought a war in which Americans died for oil.” Where was Congress? I seem to remember they voted to send troops but that can’t possibly be so, can it?

There are two ways an administration can approach Congress… One is to say look at all the evidence and come to your own conclusion… The other is to say, take our word, we have the intelligence that says this will happen, we need your support as a fellow American… The latter was the path that was taken… Today, trying to pin Congress in on the instigation of the Iraq War, is nothing but a cowardly attempt to shift blame… Those of us who know human nature, chuckle at each such attempt, because we know that is done only by people who KNOW they are guilty… The act of blaming Congress actually drives home our point that Republicans were guilty and got caught! The proof is there. Cheney constructed the threat of Iraq and sold it… We found out too late it was nothing but a contrivance…

“Bush is the person who bankrupted our nation by spending every dollar of the surplus and then ran our nation on deficit spending for 8 years…Let our children pay for it!” So you’re a deficit hawk then. Great. Please direct me to the post where you go bananas when Obama takes a mere 143 days to surpass Bush’s 8 years of spending which included not one but two wars.

There are two kinds of deficits. one is flagrant spending of favors to bolster the Republican party’s power; the other is to borrow to save a nation… Deficit spending saved us during WWII… The deficit spending that was spent recently, is an investment that saved the entire financial global network. The government of the United States of America, absorbed the stupid Republican-caused collapse. We now own shares of the banks. When the economy grows, we can cash those shares in at a profit. Your deficit argument is like castigating a well-meaning American homeowner for going into debt for a house… After all, someone signing a $250,000 note while making $30,000 is scary. But it is a good thing for the rest of us, that a lot of homeowners have balls, isn’t it..

Republicans obviously don’t have balls or brains. … Their wimpy whinings are no more relevant than the naive advisor who says “don’t buy a house, rent… You don’t want to go in debt.” Bottom line, the deficit of saving a nation, worked.. or has so far. The previous administration’s deficit, of making the wealthier even wealthier, didn’t work. Instead it fucked up this nation….

“Bush is the person who pushed the Medicare Reform that first tripled the cost of pharmaceuticals and then reimbursed drug companies three times over what the drugs originally were worth.” Cite please. I agree that the program was ill conceived and even poorly executed but I’ve not seen anything approaching these numbers.

If you bought drugs over the counter and paid $40 dollars for your supply before the Medicare pharmaceutical supplements came to be passed by the Republicans, today those same drugs cost $120 dollars, and the government covers $80 of those dollars and you pay….. $40 dollars… What has changed for you? The pharma companies are now getting $120 dollars for the same drugs they once got $40 for…. you pay the same $40, and your children and grandchildren pay the $80, which assuming interest will accrue, could amount to about $240 dollars depending on how long we allow the debt to continue unchecked…… The sacrilege comes from the fact that the $80 dollars part, was added to the deficit, so the wealthiest 1% could receive a tax cut… We doubled the cost, while cutting the revenue stream in half…

Smart Republican policy… WE are all paying for our nations stupidity now, aren’t we? As for citation… go to you own bills or ask you parents… That is far better citation than I could ever give… Go look.

“Bush is the person who deregulated our finance industry, so it collapsed on his watch.”
Nope. Bush warned three times that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were headed for trouble and he was rebuffed three times. Misregulation was the cause not deregulation. The largely unregulated hedge fund industry (Cerebrus Capital notwithstanding)skated through while the very tightly regulated insurance and banking were devastated.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were not the problem although Bush was right to warn us of their unwieldiness… No, they were secondary symptoms caused by the main problem which was in Phil Gramm’s Commodities Act, a clause he inserted which allowed all derivatives to be unregulated. Insurance on these derivatives, was also unregulated… When the time came for AIG to cough up? There was no money! It had all been spent on bonuses… and when the Feds coughed money to save AIG, they tried again to spend it on their bonuses… such malfeasance among our corporate brethren, can only happen on a Republican’s watch… “do what you want… we Republicans won’t interfere.” The Democrats would have been all over that before a crises had occurred…

“Bush is the person who sent your manufacturing jobs overseas.” Really? Did he put them in boxes or…? Labor and regulatory costs sent them overseas. Blame our high standard of living.

No, our jobs went overseas because it was cheaper under the tax codes made up by Republicans to make something in another country and bring it back over… Under a better tax package this would not have occurred, we would not have had as deep of a deficit, and we would have had a much healthier economy. As pointed out in the Kavipsian theory of economics, the difference of only 5% in our top rate, is all we needed to keep our economy steaming forward as it did during the Clinton years.. Pure and Simple. It is the Republican financial philosophy that caused us to experience what earlier this week became official: 0 % real job growth over the entire Republican presidency… That is just plain sick.

“Bush is the person who tried to remove your social security.” If remove = privatize then yeah he made a half-assed attempt and then quit.

Facts are in: Had Social Security been privatized.. as of around somewhere in November 08… It would not have existed. I call that getting rid of Social Security.

“Bush is the person who tried to get rid of Medicare.” By increasing funding?

Medicare has always been on the Republican chopping block. Bush was nothing new at putting lip service into eradicating it… The increased funding you mention, was passed on to future generations… That shows real responsibility… “Here, spend as much as you can on your health… Don’t worry! Your children and grandchildren will foot the bill…”

“Bush is the person who came close to nuking Iran.” Define close.

As for defining usage of nuclear weapons upon Iraq, that is what all were saying… In fact, one ranking officer said he would refuse the order if given to bomb Iran… Everyone who wasn’t a neocon, received a sigh of relief…

“Bush is the person whose policy made the US hated around the world.” Really? How’s Barry’s Charm Offensive going? Poland hates us, he snubbed the King of Norway and the UK, our closest ally isn’t returning our calls. Bang up job there Barry. Oh, and Muslim terrorists are still trying to blow up our airplanes.

As for Barack, I haven’t seen the evidence you mention… I do know, however, that the entire globe breathed a sigh of relief to see the former president step down…

“Bush is the person who destroyed the economy…” Please keep it straight. Is he a dunce or an evil genius. He can’t be both. (I’ll give you a hint. Liberals typically make Bush the dunce and Cheney the Evil Genius.) YMMV.

So say what you will about Barack… He is no Bush and for that, every American can be thankful…..

Since taking office, he has saved this nation several times… Bush in eight years… with help from all Republicans, mind you… destroyed it… At the rate were are currently on, (knock on wood) we should be in good shape to remove the rest of Republicans from office by this November…

With lies about Barack circulating about, yes, we do have some work to do, but then again, everything wonderful that ever happened to this nation, has always had some work behind it….

Remember The Real Traitors

The health care legislation is about to go through… It will be the first time that Insurance Companies come under government control. That is worthy of celebration.

There are some real improvements over what we had… There are also some disappointments over what could have been… True, we will be paying more than we could have, because of the removal of the Public Option…. But, no longer will we be dropped because of a medical condition… “Oh you’re sick now? Good bye… Thanks for all your previous payments…”

There are some Democrats who will have to answer accusations of being sold out…. Maybe one of our own?

But, what is done is done… Just as the Cowboys whipped ass on Philadelphia last Sunday, we can’t change it.. All we can do is look forward to seeing the tables turned this week, when it counts…. or not…

But, what is done is done… Applying pressure on Tom Carper was good when it counted. Applying that same pressure now, is nothing more than a late hit, and should be called as such by the officials. After the whistle gets blown, it is universally considered wrong to tackle a player… No matter how mad you are at him….

We need to come together… So wrapped up are we in our own battles between Progressives and Blue Dogs, that we forget the real enemy who desires to destroy America is hiding in the trees and working their way around the fort..

That is the Republicans… They are the ones who destroyed America, and Democrats are the ones who fought them every step of the way. We can never forget what they did to every American’s life…. This vile vermin that infests our media today, is manifest in spreading its vision of disease and decay.

Wait a second… they’re not vile… Mike Castle is a nice guy!

He may be a nice guy… but he is still a Republican…. He voted 65% with Bush…

Bush? Bush who?

Bush is the person who fought a war in which Americans died for oil.
Bush is the person who bankrupted our nation by spending every dollar of the surplus and then ran our nation on deficit spending for 8 years…Let our children pay for it!
Bush is the person who pushed the Medicare Reform that first tripled the cost of pharmaceuticals and then reimbursed drug companies three times over what the drugs originally were worth.
Bush is the person who deregulated our finance industry, so it collapsed on his watch.
Bush is the person who sent your manufacturing jobs overseas.
Bush is the person who tried to remove your social security.
Bush is the person who tried to get rid of Medicare.
Bush is the person who came close to nuking Iran.
Bush is the person whose policy made the US hated around the world.
Bush is the person who destroyed the economy…

And Mike Castle was behind him every step of the way…

Sure Mike Castle is a nice man… but he is still a Republican… Which means he will not be voting for you…

As mentioned earlier, he voted 65% with Bush… Since the Republicans got thrown out, he has voted 85% with those few Republicans left… Yes, he’s one of those same guys who destroyed this country once… and insists on destroying it again… Republicans are the vilest of vermin and he votes with them…

Delaware: you have a choice. You can vote for a nice guy who made your quarters interesting. Or you can vote for a Democrat who by taking on the insurance, pharmaceutical, medical, petroleum, natural gas, coal, and power companies, can put another $160 bucks a month into your pocket…..

Only a Democrat can do that… Even one that has not been elected before.. Because of what Republicans have done to America, any Democrat is better than a republican ever could be, when it comes to Congress…

WE, the People, can never forget what those traitors did to our country…..

Never…. They are cowards when it comes to facing down the wealthy… They are soft when it comes to corporate crime… They are useless when it comes to making our lives better…

We can never forget that. Never. Not only is it our prerogative, but it is our duty, … to never shut up about what they did.

Polls and The Delaware Way

During break I had a chance to browse the changed landscape of the Delaware blogosphere in depth.

There are two blogs that now carry the weight. Delaware Liberal and Delaware Way. Each are different in their own way. Delaware Liberal is an institution of fine writers, but is primarily dominated by two: Delaware Dem and El Somnambulo.

Delaware Way is where one goes to get news in the raw; for Nancy publishes everything… which is good since that is the only place one can go to find it.

Each of these provide a function… Delaware Liberal is where one can go to skim the headlines. Due to their updated format, if you missed a couple of days, it is hard to catch up… Being tied up, that has made following the news through them a little difficult. Nancy’s blog, although panned by Hube for it’s outdated format, is structured so one can follow it in consecutive order… Sort of like a facebook feed where one can drop back continuously until they reach where they last dropped off…

Other than that, there is nowhere else to look… That may be good for non- thinkers. But those of us who plan and run this state, are running blind… A scary thought as we approach the election year…

It seems like the old days mimicked the foundation of this nation. Whereas they argued over pints of ale; we argued over electronic wires… In our exchanges we tampered our views into an amalgamation of something that included the best of both worlds, and for that reason, the policies we forged, could pass the test of time… The only test it couldn’t pass, was us getting old and tired…

What is at stake, with the upcoming election… is a lack of depth. The brilliant group assembled under the general grouping “Delaware blogosphere”, was able to uncover all types of shenanigans; most of which had been going on under the cloak of looking the other way for most of our lifetimes… One, or even two blogs, cannot do the research being done independently by those of ALL political persuasions….

Which of course, means it will be easier to fool all the people some of the time… As long as they stay fooled until the votes are cast….. it doesn’t matter what happens later…

It is time each of the old bloggers look into their hearts, and review what they accomplished… It is time they look through what is written now and compare it to the days of yore…. It is time they return to the fight… the fight for truth… the fight for knowledge… the fight for justice.

It is time they realize they mattered and that like it or not, they were important to the everyday flow of politics… They made this past election happen. They changed the political landscape. They are what made local politics an issue….

We can go back to the pre-blog days of 2006… or we can continue exposing, inspecting, digressing, and scooping each other and the News Journal with information, that if left in the dark, would cost us each our money going into someone else’s pocket…

Delaware needs us. And you can’t escape that fact… It needs us.

Nancy has an example as to why….

On that page is a link to this Rasmussan Report.

VOTERS AGREE ONLY ON TAXING THE RICH TO PAY FOR HEALTH CARE PLAN.

Now anyone who knows me, knows I don’t take any stock in polls. I am smart enough to twist them into whatever I want, and so I can assume others out there are smart enough to do as well…

But over the past election, this group was the one closest to actual results throughout the primaries, as well as the general… So even though they were made up figures, I guess I’m saying, they still were closer than anyone else’s made up figures….

So the fact that a majority of Americans, all smart people mind you, believe that the rich should pay for our nation’s deficits… you know, the ones their party caused…. is rather telling. It implies that all the talk of no new taxes is baloney. New taxes on the rich are what Americans want. We want it sooner instead of later…

It boils down to ethics. Shouldn’t the wealthy take care of those who made them rich, now that times are hard? It reflects this nation’s battle with slavery 150 years ago.. Shouldn’t plantation owners take care of their slaves, like feed them? like give them a place to sleep? like allow them to get a drink of water?

If we had laws in place 150 years ago to cover the welfare of slaves, why then, can’t today’s wealthy and rich assist and help out law abiding citizens who have no jobs, who have no homes, who have no food… but still have their freedoms?

They can and it’s called paying their fair share of taxes… Americans who work, eat, live and die in our towns are saying the rich need to pay their fair share… Not get soaked mind you… BUT PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE…. Every American knows deep down that it is true… Every American knows that during WWII almost every family gave up someone to the war effort, because it was needed to save our nation… Yet today, we have the speaker of the House, A DEMOCRAT MIND YOU, saying there will be no new taxes on the table?

That goes even against the Rasmussen Report linked to above… Which plainly states: THAT THE ONLY THING AMERICANS ACROSS THE BOARD CAN AGREE TO, IS THAT THE RICH PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE….

And as proven in the post below, taxing the wealthy is super good for the economy. It fueled the Clinton boom. It drove the post second world war economy to new highs. Every time we had higher taxes, each person’s welfare, including the wealthy, just kept getting better….

Gilligan needs to get into the real world. and out of the pockets of wimpy land… (Everyone knows I love Gilligan but I get yelled at when I make mistakes and so should he). We are not on Gilligan’s Island. ( I fought the urge and succumbed). We are in a real world with real problems and one of those problems is that we are running out of money….

As one notorious bank robber responded when asked as to why he robbed banks responded: because that’s where the money is….

… so does our legislative need to solve it’s monetary needs by going to where the money is… the state’s wealthy….

It is such common sense and America knows it…. And the only reason we know America knows it…. is because Nancy published it in Delaware Way.

We need more like her…

Flat Tax for Delaware

There already is a flat tax for Delaware that begins above $60,000 dollars… Some, like El at Delaware Liberal, ask for a progressive rate to continue into the higher elevations of income levels.. The more you make, the more you pay…

This may sound unfair to some… and at face value it is… By face value I mean as the words themselves are written. For what is actually happening in a progressive tax, is this:

The more you make over what you can possibly spend in your wildest dreams, the higher percentage you pay of all that excess back the government that made your extravagant wealth possible….

Put that way…. that’s fair. That’s damn fair…

Most of us don’t have enough money. Most of us don’t pay much in taxes. That’s fair. But those with too much money over what they can spend? Don’t they have a duty too?

They’re the ones benefiting the most from the American dream. Shouldn’t they be the ones contributing the most to make it happen for others? Don’t they have the most to lose if all stability ruptures and violence, rioting and revolution begin eating away at all they have gained?

Obviously yes… and when people are starving next to you, it inhumane not to want to give up some of that money THAT YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY SPEND IN YOUR WILDEST DREAMS so they can get one bite of food and live.

So we need a flat tax in Delaware… One that is fair. Republicans like flat taxes; they say they are fair. But somehow I don’t think they will like this one…

This upcoming year we have a budget deficit of $300 to $400 million ….. again…

WE the people, can make it go away if we invoke a flat tax based on percentages.

If you make $100 million over what you can possibly spend…. we tax it at !00%….
If you make $ 99 million over what you can possibly spend,….we tax it at 99%….
If you make $ 90 million over what you can possibly spend….. we tax it at 90%…
If you make $ 50 million over what you can possibly spend….. we tax it at 50%…

We follow the same pattern all the way down… fair is fair…

If you make $ 20 million over what you can possibly spend….. we tax it at 20%…
If you make $ 10 million over what you can possibly spend….. we tax it at 10%…
If you make $ 5 million over what you can possibly spend….. we tax it at 5%…
If you make $ 1 million over what you can possibly spend….. we tax it at 1%…

Under $1 million the tax code can stay the same… The budget crises had been solved…

Under this arrangement, those in the high end may grumble… “Why should we support a government that allowed us to prosper?” But if any of you are making near the low end, you see this arrangement causes you to pay far less taxes than you do now… Imagine… having more money…

Ironically this plan benefits those who the Republican leadership is always saying needs the help: those new millionaires…. Of course some tweaking will be done… It is not fair that someone would pay more taxes at $999,999 still under the old plan than they would at $1,000,001 under the new.. But we can fix that.

Some may say the top earner will leave Delaware.. He should. He’s not paying state taxes anyway, so his loss means nothing to us as far as revenue goes… But that is a threat, we have to take into account.

But just the top ten percent of left-over-income earners would clear our deficit.. Boom… Gone… Goodbye.

And the economy would get back into shape as Delaware got back to work….

It is rather obvious we must raise taxes on the top earners of this state, no matter what one’s political persuasion may be.. It is not about politics; it is about money….

Everyone else has sacrificed as much as they can possibly stand. It is time those spoiled ones at the top, who have no idea of what sacrifice entails, step up and contribute their fair share… After all, it’s only money they can’t possibly spend anyway…..

So the next time someone says they won’t raise taxes in Delaware ask them why?

Say why won’t you raise taxes on those who can’t possibly spend the money they’re earning anyway? Why should they get to keep their money, while everyone else in the state has to lose theirs?

When, but for just a few people, taxing them fairly under a flat tax based on percentages, would improve the lives of many?

It makes just way too much sense. We need $400 million? We take it from the top.

Some Back-up For “El”

Unstable Isotope sprang the story first. Recently El took it and ran…

Democrat Speaker of the House, Bob Gilligan, told some of Delaware’s brightest and most compassionate people, that increased taxes were off the table.

Instead we would lay off copious amounts of workers, close large numbers of schools, not repair any of our state’s roads, trim down government workers pay again, and … strip funding to police, fire, and ambulance corps..

Fortunately for all us, legislative salaries would be spared and would continued to be paid for at the rate of their last voted increase amount…

All of this is necessary in order to prevent one more tax dollar from being collected…

But wait a second. What’s wrong with one more tax dollar being collected?

Nothing. In fact, raising taxes has been proved to generate thriving economies.

“No way I’m giving another fuckin’ penny to the damn government! I’ll just buy a brand, spanking new truck with the money I’d be giving them! I’ll show those bastards. I’ll just make 0 dollars income this year…“

A truck, that would never would have gotten bought, does… Taxes are paid by the manufacturer, distributor, sales person, bank or loan officers, and not to mention… by everyone else from who those people decide to spend the money they made upon the sale of that truck…

So you see, as this one tiny example shows you, taxes are good for the economy. Not so much the paying of them, mind you, but… the threat of taxes and a way out so anyone can get out of paying them… does wonders for any economy… It causes people to spend their money instead of hoarding it.

Whereas the eighties were often defined by the image of Kirk Douglas standing in front of stockholders, arguing that “greed was good”, … history and analysis will define the future 2000-teens by this adage: taxes are good.

After all, that adage explains why the Clinton years were wonderful, and the Bush years sucked. Unless of course you were in the top 1%. And even for you top one per-centers, even the Clinton years were pretty damn good!

So why would Bob Gilligan say taxes are off the table? Because he has sat in a Republican controlled House most of his life and that is all he’s heard? All laughing aside, yes, he and almost everyone else who doesn’t think for themselves…

And you can’t blame him… Based on the facts…if I were in his shoes, I would do the exact same thing… A man needs to get re-elected. And if the population is illiterate and unknowing of all the details, then you had better follow the money if you want to continue to hold power…. And that is what he is doing…

In 1999, 6180 people earned over $200,000 in income. (2.1%) Almost all of those individuals contributed to fund Delaware’s election the following year. Logically, House Speaker Bob Gilligan, along with his compatriot in the Senate, Tony De Luca, knows most of those 6180 people by face and probably half by name. He knows them far better than he knows his constituents living up and down the second street behind his home…

Were I in his shoes, I too would support my friends who got me elected… I too would have to say “no” to taxes in 2010, and trust that my constituents living two blocks behind me, would follow my lead… After all, they never read anything but the News Journal anyway, so my bet on their continued ignorance, is a pretty safe one….

So what has to happen is that the playing field must change. Bob Gilligan and Tony De Luca have to worry more over those people who are living in their neighborhoods, than they do over those making over $200,000 dollars a year…. Which means … we really need to start squawking…

Unstable and El have begun… The rest of us need to follow…

Afghanistan

Afghanistan has defied every conqueror but one… That was Great Britain.

And Great Britain tamed them, by not conquering them…

What the Brits did, was push back the insurgents into the highlands where they could do no damage, and then left them alone… If and when they came down in their attempts to inflict damage upon the civilized, they got whipped. Eventually they learned to kept to their own…

If the U.S. has dreams of someday making all of Afghanistan into a modern country, they should abandon them … If the U.S. has dreams of making Kabul into a modern city, then we should look at options that might make that happen…

The U.S. cannot win the hearts and minds of indigenous people if we establish ourselves as the polar opposite of their religion. Pissing people off can happen if we start insisting they put all their women into schools, especially in the heartland of the Push-tan region of which Kandahar lies in the center…

After all, in our own country we too would have fought communist indoctrination if it were to insert itself to the vast rural segment of our population… To those in our cities, however, some of it’s values might resonate…

The same is true with them. Our ideas and ideals might have converts in an urban environment, but do not expect the rural segment to embrace them… They are just too different from what those people have always known…

Therefore the “practical solution” is the approach to take; not the ideological one… and not an approach designed to make money, especially at their expense….

So here are the best ideas out there so far..

Make Kabul the modern city… There needs to be at least one moderate muslim metropolis in order for some form of economic miracle to take place.. As mentioned above, women don’t need to go to school in every village, but there still needs to be a place that is accessible, where they can migrate to, if that is what their family wants… The option is there, but not forced into ones neighborhood.

Make Kandahar a Muslim Shrine or holy city. Use our resources to make it happen. Driving a wedge between the U. S. and it’s perception as the Great Satan, goes a long way to establishing a bond of trust between our people and theirs… The only reason we are there in the first place is because 9/11… If we create an environment where 9/11 cannot occur, than we have accomplished our mission.

Buy their opium crop until we find another money maker for them… Of course we will need to process it, and then sell it below marked prices. This drives the illegal dealers on our shores out of business. Imagine if you could get heroin at Wal*mart, way cheaper than you get on the streets today, the illicit drug trade would dry up overnight. Suddenly it couldn’t even pay off it’s own people…

But if we are their biggest purchaser, their economic lifeline, think they will create terror against us? Oh, perhaps their most ideological will demand it, but all those earning a livelihood, will certainly work to make sure it doesn’t happen… So contrary to how we think today, if we could buy their product instead of spraying it to death, we would have a head start to stabilizing that nation…

Bottom line: the British did… and that should be the book we take our page from, now that it is our turn to play that geopolitical game over the centuries….. called Afghanistan.