You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March 2009.
There is actually a very good reason that financial records should not be put on line.
That way you can’t see how they are spending your money.
Perhaps this is too obvious, but in 2007, Delaware blogosphere was rife with excitement on the first day of April with a rash of breaking stories.
But on that date in 2008, reading was very lame….
With at least this twenty-four hour reminder, Delaware should once again show its sense of humor by excelling in rich stories this Wednesday, the first day of April…
I may have said far too much already…
Many of you were too busy struggling to survive this past decade to watch one of our decades defining moment unfold on, of all places, the Sci Fi Channel.
It’s over now. But from the perspective of this season’s finale, when looking back, social historians will divide this decade into two phases… The Lord of the Rings phase, which influenced the first half of this decade, and the Battlestar Galactica, which will influence the first half of the next ten years…
There is a difference in the mediums… The cinema forces hoopla to be compressed into a tight schedule… The medium of television, allows the showings to have less influence upon their initial showings, but… continue playing over and over for a long period of time…
As an example, the series Star Trek II was not watched by large numbers of viewers during its initial showings, but accumulated fans by its late night showings of its reruns… But the social philosophy of the nineties decade, is remarkably similar to that which emanated out of the series: show tolerance, people are different, all can work together for a common goal, as well as it is our duty to make other’s lives better….
It is not that the series directly touched millions of viewers. It is that those viewers it touched, were influential enough so that what they then wrote, what they were able to accomplish, what they said, went on to mold part of our core as well..
Now looking back in retrospect, we can see how the Lord of the Rings trilogy gave us clues into humanity’s development of character…. Battlestar Galactica, illustrates our future.
If I could pinpoint the essence of both these works, I would have to say that both boil down to this premise: that there has to be some form of destiny at work in all things… That each independent individual action taking place in what looks like on the local scale, to be a random action, is in truth, some small part of some overall plan…
We are reminded of this in Lord of the Rings, where it is actually the odious Gollum who saves the universe, instead of our noble hero whose arduous burden we bore over three years, who at the bitter end succumbs to moral failure, and comes seconds away from eliminating “good” from the universe.
Suddenly all those moments throughout the three episodes involving that odious character, are seen in new light… A force, a destiny perhaps, that chain of events leading up to that surprising conclusion, instead of being a sideline to the main plot… are in truth the real story; and those of us blindly following the narrative, were fooled and simply did not know it…
Likewise in Battlestar Galactica, a strange series of events, signs, prophecies, unexplainables, conflict, death and destruction, all occur to one end… and that end … at least to those of us still inhabiting this warm planet, leads us to the most important thing in the universe.. ourselves..
How then could a song on a piano, taught by a loving dad to his little girl, change the course of destiny… Well, if you watched… you already know…
If you didn’t, or refuse to… you will eventually come around to understanding it, as the rest of us today who are now setting up society’s frames of thinking for the next ten years… begin espousing it.
For me, the final episode crystallizes ones life’s journey spent investigating the influence of external forces on internal matters… They came up with these words…
How do you know that God is on your side, doctor?
I don’t. God’s not on any one side. God’s a force of nature, beyond good and evil. Good and evil, we created those. Want to break the cycle? Break the cycle of birth, death, rebirth, destruction, escape, death. Well, that’s in our hands, and our hands only. It requires a leap of faith. It requires that we live in hope, not fear.
That last line boils down to why man needs God. And why there will always be God, as long as there is man…
The futileness of our lives, can be summed up in this simple phrase…”what difference do we make?”
Really, what difference do we make?
Personally as I look at my children, my spouse, my dear friends, my lovers in past lives (lol), and I can acknowledge I have made a rich, but small difference… In “It’s A Wonderful Life” we are ultimately reminded of how different the world would be were we not continually engaged in being ourselves…
But if I were not here, wouldn’t someone different have taken my place?
Wouldn’t the same events transfold, perhaps not on a small scale, but wouldn’t the larger picture remain the same?
Ah… the unsolvable argument…. Bottom line? We never, ever get the chance to know…
And that is why we have this deeply ingrained need to believe lives matter.. And some of us, yes, will obstinately persist to think otherwise. But were they to do so, the irony still exists that somewhere in their progeny, again this same thought or belief will be reborn… for to us, …our lives matter very much indeed… Believing they are part of a greater purpose, does just that.
Others may say that this theory actually disproves God’s existence.. They argue that if we believe in him, simply because WE need to, then he doesn’t exist at all, we are in essence just creating him. They argue our weakness is what brings us to that conclusion; that with purity of thought, all argument disproves his existence entirely…
To statements like this, I smile… They mean little.. Purity of thought. Who cares?
For what actually happens is that over the long existence of mankind’s history, we always return to God.. We may stray for centuries, but no matter what random forces batter or impact us, eventually we return… Our need for religion is not our weakness. It is our nature…
And that is where this phrase plays big… God is not good or bad. He is a force of nature…
For as long as there is one person alive who believes and creates the argument that God exists, that our actions are part of a larger purpose, …. like it or not, God is playing a role in our thought processes, and by extension, therefore our lives…
And if he is playing a role in our lives… how then can he not exist?
Far too much chatter today was about the surprise calling upon a blogger to solicit the president with a question..
As to why the president would choose a blogger over a major news carrier, to ask a question, and get answered, to me is a no brainier…
If you want to get the truth out; well, you can’t do it through the mainstream media….
Yesterday the kavipsian stock index, jumped 24%… It’s my one day record so far, so I feel a little giddy… Those who didn’t bother reading…. well,…. what can I say…
Sorry. I rarely gloat.. but having yesterday going according to plan, compensates for my March madness bracket showing this year… 
(by a factor of 20,000 to one)! LOL.
Courtesy of Department of Defense
“By the first light of the third day, look to the East!”
Everyone knows that living starts on the weekend… That makes Monday the third day… It is my sincere hope to return this feature back to its original time-slot so those starting their week, have something worthy to follow… Of course that leaves “Around the Horn” to synopsize on Friday, so between the two of us, we have full weekly coverage….
I apologize to Deldem of Delaware Liberal if this first return edition bashes up against his on vacation version of what went down this week…
So what happened this weekend?
Shirley opens with a story of what being an American is all about. The teary eye part made me proud that America still recognizes its heroes, and goes out of their way to make sure they know it… All of us can learn a lesson from this post…. When was the last time you went out of your way to make a member of our armed services feel welcomed?
She carries another idea that I will be stealing shortly.. It’s from down under. and it certainly is worthy of the read, if you haven’t caught it earlier…. it’s just another way of self expression….
Aside from seven videos of varying topics, one an hour and twenty-six minutes long, and four quotes, the memorable posts on Delaware Liberals this weekend are the following… (We only covered the full first two pages, lol)… Their best was this one, The Morning After….. which describes the cuts to the state budget… “The Morning After” in this case does not refer to contraception, but is instead, related to the budgetary announcement made by Jack Markell on Thursday…. It begins with….
March 19, 2009 will forever be remembered as the date that Delaware’s Gilded Age officially ended. An age that was literally ‘built on a house of (credit) cards’ is no more.
The interesting point is that ultimately, it is the responsibility of the wealthy to carry the weight of the rest of us. Pandora follows the same theme with “What’s In The Water At CNBC”: apparently someone argued on that show that Wall Street couldn’t be run by anyone making under $250,000…… the unsaid premise is that the wealthy, who are overpaid for their results, need to make sacrifices so those making less, do not have to…
However the most uplifting piece of the entire weekend, was on this blog and had nothing to do with the economy… or the wealthy… It is about race, and in a spirited fashion on the weekend that Battlestar Galactica ended its 6 year run, Cassandra puts this vignette forward… I’m impressed she saw it, since she admits she doesn’t watch the best show on television this decade. Next to Obama’s Philadelphia campaign speech on the reality of “race”, this is as good as it gets….
This blog has taken on new life with the economic crises swirling around us… In an amazing piece, Steve Newton (in real time) breaks down the implication of Markell’s budget cuts and other attempts to balance the budget, and illustrates how those cuts will affect our employees… I can proudly say, it as good, or better than that other Delaware blogger who is prone to such analysis…… Again the same theme comes out…..
But the reality doesn’t work that way. If you eliminate one unnecessary management position making $120K, then you have saved enough money to keep thirty employees at the $40K and below level from having to take a hit.
Again the message is simple: Cut off the top to save those on the bottom, holding everything up… The shocking truth of what happens when citizens are preoccupied with other matters than their government, showed up in this comment…. “a vacant position in my agency, one that had been vacant for 1 1/2 years got filled by someone on Minner’s staff. Let me reiterate. WE DID WITHOUT THIS POSITION FOR 1 1/2 YEARS. AND NOW WE FILL IT? Luckily it is not a merit position, so it’s possible that the position gets vacated anyhow. But this is one of those 120k positions. “
Again the message: cut the top to save the bottom….
Delaware Politics begins with their take on Markell’s budget… One noticeable trend has been the life recently pumped back into conservative blogs. I have not yet commented upon it, but…. they were pretty shoddy all election season and up until the inauguration…. But with the Democrats now in the driver’s seats, the conversation among the back seat drivers, has again become interesting to listen to… At least one can feel they are getting pumped up, perhaps stealing the energy leaking away from those liberal blogs, who are now getting tired, and starting to wind down in their ardor and intensity…
Dave Burris does his take on Markell’s budget… Most notably he notices the lack of cuts in services…
“But when the rubber hit the road, not only did they fail to cut an agency, they didn’t cut ANYTHING. That is a massive failure to lead. We got such a large deficit (I don’t believe the numbers, but maybe you do) because we grew our government at a rate of 2.5 times inflation during the Queen Worthless administration. If we don’t address that, we will continue to have this problem as more and more of the economy is eaten up by the government.”
I noticed there was no mention that the failure of the Bush economy has drastically reduced ALL sources of revenue pouring into state coffers on which our government used to thrive during the last 8 years… But he does agree with Markell on across the board cuts: “I agree with the administration that cutting pay across-the-board is better than across-the-board layoffs in this environment, because layoffs would cost the state unemployment money,”
Interestingly, being conservative in a time of crises, leads to some silly conclusions… This one for example: “the gain from the Gross Receipts Tax increase is a pittance compared to what the state would get if they would just get out of the way and let these small business owners grow the economy”. Really? Currently we have 7.5 % unemployed, and our largest employer, the state, is taking an 8% across the board pay cut? And paying more for medical? And more in taxes? Where is all that money going to come from to allow these small businesses to grow the economy? You can give them a zero tax rate, but it no one spends in their business, they don’t pay taxes anyway… Nope, you need to make people spend, before any type of business aid makes sense…. Small businesses aren’t going to grow… They are just trying to hang on and stay solvent! Screw growth!!!!! lol.
In another attempt at silliness the lovely Marie Evans is proposing the Greenville Casino… The land is available… Three casinos, she points out in a state 96 miles long, with some creative placing, puts one every 16 miles…( as I said: creative placing… lol).. Unfortunately since Greenville is too close to the northern edge, were one to go in up there, her 16 mile theory would be impossible…
Likewise the Special Olympians apology to our and their president, does crack a faint smile….
And I’m outraged, outraged that there is no mention of the Democratic Party in each of these instances.
And the DSEA? They also are outraged, outraged that while arguing for higher taxes on all other people, under Markell’s budget…. THEY WILL HAVE TO PAY HIGHER TAXES TOO… OUTRAGEOUS!!! lol….
Welcome back to the fight guys!
Dana carries the AFSCME demostration over the cutbacks… They want the rainy day fund tapped out so they have their jobs… The only question, besides that is must be repayed every year., is that once spent, then what gets done next year…
Nancy covers the controversy over whether pensions should be capped at higher rates, than those just years away from retirement….
Mike Matthews has a job interview today… GOOD LUCK from all of Delaware’s Blogosphere…
The same theme brought to you by Markell’s budget cuts appears in Byron Short is Wrong (IMO)
In short, the most disappointing thing about Gov. Markell’s proposal is he’s shifting too much burden on the poor, lower-middle class and, in reality, isn’t asking much of those state employees (cabinet heads, directors, etc.) who could stand a tightening of the belt. Or a complete axing of their positions.
Knock something off the top, to save the foundations supporting the bottom…. Where have I heard that before?…
Already two proposals are in state legislature that work to mitigate the effects of the cuts… One doesn’t allow retirees to have the lower wages be used as a determinant of their pension size, and the other, gives two state employee’s married to each other, less cuts than two single state employees sharing an apartment, would get… These bring up questions of fairness.. One can sense in both these proposals that these employees are “entitled” to earning more money.. It’s a valid point.. They are lucky to have jobs… and if they get a “by” or a “pass”, who is it then who gets hit with the charge for allowing them not to carry the load everyone else is being dealt… If they really wanted to have done something constructive… they could have worked for Kerry…. But nooooo, they didn’t.. and now they are paying the price…. We all are.
Where have we heard that sentiment before? I don’t know… but it sounds vaguely familiar…
And some wise words to AFSCME union wannabe’s who wish to increase their power within their organization… “Suck it up and be thankful you still have a job because others will be glad to take it.”
Mike Mahaffie went to the last of the Markell meetings before this budget proposal came out… What is interesting is how the theoretical side of the equation seems dreamlike when compared to the reality all all the posts following the Thursday budgetary announcement… But although Markell was unable to attend due to the death of his father, Mahaffie does capture many of the sentiments “flickering” around the room…. One that stands out, was this gem:
As things wrapped up, Senator Simpson and Representative Carey, both Republicans, made a point of praising Governor Markell, a Democrat, for his bipartisan approach to the budget problem and openness to working together. They pointed out that Sec. Kee is one of several republicans in the Markell cabinet.
“On my count… all hands pull on the ropes…. Heave!”
One of those heaving is Brian from the Mourning Constitution. He tackles sports betting from the revenue side, and argues income beats job cuts….. Bringing money into the state, by making us the Vegas on the east coast, could keep some people some jobs…
For some facing job cutbacks, some good advice on how to survive a panic attack, can be seen here… This lesson might come in handy…. and then again, if you start foreseeing your own death.………
As for the current vacancies at the Delaware DOC – just a month ago at a meeting of the Corrections hearing before the Joint Finance Committee, there were 33 vacancies in order to assure MINIMUM staffing – while in actuality there are over 330 vacancies that need to be filled to assure smooth, safe, and efficient operation of Delaware’s prisons.
Redwaterlily shows us what is occurring across the state simultaneously. Everyone is questioning their department, and wondering how they can afford any more cutbacks… Every department has needs… Every department has hard working employees who are not making the money they deserve… But as El Somnambulo points out above, by law,any extra money is spent in one sector, must be cut from another one…. The total amount is to remain the same… So each time one says they must keep their department open…. They are dooming another department somewhere in the State of Delaware, to double the amount of cuts….
Although quite prolific lately, this was a quiet weekend for the Colassus of Rhody… amounting to this list of what was NOT said by Obama on Jay Leno’s show….
Tommwonk’s weekend contribution deals with: Jack Markell’s budget…. Tommy focuses on how this budget will be perceived by the staff budget meetings…
We are open to discuss other ideas to meet our financial challenges, and in fact encourage your ideas, because the $750M [deficit] we face now may be our best-case scenario, if the fundamentals of the national economy do not improve.
Our best case scenario.. In this sobering piece,
..
The actual budget proposal made by Markell is here…
Looking at our problems…. it is easy to get overwhelmed.. sometimes it helps to realize through out history greater problems have befallen greater numbers of human beings…. But somehow we muddled through… We will muddle throughout this time, ….
And to give us a greater perspective, as always, Duffy weighs in with two sentences… Sentence One….. and Sentence Two….
Remember how this opened? It was a celebration of an American hero… Like them, today we need our wealthy to contribute more to the nation that gave them opportunity. Today we need our wealthy stepping up and heeding the call of their country. Like our young boys who are on foreign soil, they too must suffer the sacrifice, and without grumbling, willingly pay more to the state to cover those expenses incurred assisting those less fortunate than themselves…
With the depression upon us one has to modify his calorie intake… Attempts to save money mean less choices around the house to vary one’s meal plan, so innovation becomes the mother of necessity…
Below are some cheap tips that make for good eating…
Sandwiches:
The possibilities are relatively endless. Usually one buys these accessories and they sit for eons before using a second time… The common denominator is bread, $1 a loaf at Safeway… (and as an aside, I am not recommending anything I haven’t thoroughly enjoyed myself between pages of this blog)..
Bacon Bit Sandwiches…
Two slices of bread, two tablespoons of textured Soy Bacon Bits, and one Tablespoon of mustard… Apply the mustard first, sprinkle the Bacon Bits second, close the sandwich, and presto, you have a Bacon Sandwich… rather good actually…. McCormick Bacon bits can be found in dollar stores for that price… $1… Tastes like real bacon… (7 g protein)
Mustard Sandwiches….
Two slices of bread, two tablespoons of mustard… Apply mustard first, close the sandwich, and presto, you have an amazing sandwich that will carry you over until your next big meal… Is really good if you have gourmet mustards left over from vacation in Vermont… (4 g of protein)
BBQ Sandwiches….
Two slices of bread, two tablespoons of BBQ sauce… Apply BBQ sauce over one slice of bread, close sandwich and you have a sandwich so good that you are guaranteed to want a second one… And why not? It won’t clog your arterial system…
Ketchup Sandwiches… If you eat ketchup on your fries, you will love this one… Two slices of bread, 2 Tablespoons of Ketchup, close sandwich and eat… Yummm…
Molasses Sandwiches… This one is for the cultured among you… If growing up, or as a parent, you enjoyed eating that molasses confectionery known as Mary Janes after trick or treating…. you may be able to swallow this one… Again, two slices of bread, two tablespoons of molasses, fold, and eat…..
Beans…. Canned beans are usually under 50 cents and heating up one can make an evening go by on a full stomach… Unfortunately the next day you spend farting. Remember, it beats starving.. Kidney beans of Cuban black beans are recommended for less farting…. On the other hand, Pork and Beans or Navy beans are the worst species for passing gas…
Vitamin pills… If you still have money now, get stocked on these… They will assist you during hard times and keep you healthy all during your starvation diets…. Taking one a day, keeps one from worrying about developing either scury or richets….
Your refrigerator has many good ideas, sitting on the shelfs right now… Hopefully this little piece has opened your eyes to the potential of mixing and matching combinations, that were there, but just not thought of before….
lol
Perhaps it was Rick Jensen’s (WDEL) sneering vocals, but his discussion about the Obama comment turned me off.
He was using the Jay Leno comment to portray Obama as being callous and insensitive…
Anyone who heard the live exchange knows Obama made the comment being deprecating to himself; they were talking about how Obama could not bowl…. The remark was made on a comedy show and was funny at the time… It was about Obama. Not as some would rant, making fun of retarded kids.
However, once that line was taken up by the press, and repeated ad nauseum for thirty six hours, it does become offensive… And not by Obama… but by the press and bloggers who use that to score political points…
The whole point of even echoing this story is to cut Obama down… There is no other reason for even mentioning it.. There is no other reason…
What these media sluts and blogging bores are doing, is far worse on any moral scale, than the self deprecating remark made by the president… It is far more damaging for a young child to hear his class stigmatized in the press over and over and over and over and over and over, than to miss the accidental exchange being made on one late night program.
The press has the responsibility to make sure that their comments do not cause trauma to children who might be called “special”.. They failed.
If Rick Jensen really wants to build his listenership, he could do no better than go over the kavipsian Economic Plan step by step… Agree, or disagree.. if he wants… But cover something substantial for a change… After all, your listeners who choose out of the million ways to spend their afternoon, choose … to listen to you, deserve something substantial for a change….
As any parent of a special child will tell you… the act was nothing… However, the using of that act to score political points against a president they lost to overwhelmingly, is an embarrassment to human dignity. We can do better…
The press has lost it. They cannot be trusted. They are not what they once were…
WDEL’s Al Mascitti lead off this morning discussing the Vince Meconi hiring by the Markell administration. The controversy is in that if Markell fired Meconi once, then why is he rehiring him back? Especially to manage money?
You may remember how Meconi was vilified by Senate Republicans for the shoddy conditions that occurred in Delaware’s psychiatric facility… For that failure he was fired two weeks ago.
But what various pundits fail to realize, is that when in charge, “what looks right” has to take a back seat to “what must to get done”. Sometime one has to take what one has, and make the best of it…
People don’t know government.. They do know sports. None of us would criticize a coach for not recruiting someone off the street and putting them in the game… It just does not make sense… Imagine if at being down at the half, a coach walks up and down the steps of the stadium looking for someone to suit up who will pull victory out of the second half? Can you imagine the ballsy stupidity of someone criticizing Andy Reid after a loss, by castigating him for not even looking for a replacement when the stadium was full of people! Ridiculous?
Likewise are the claims that no one else in the state could count money?
Of course…. there are people who can count money….
But….
Were they available?
And….
Do they know how the funding process for state government works?
And…
Do they know who to call in order to grease the wheels if a glitch occurs?
Of all those writing, talking, phoning in complaining, about the travesty of choosing someone once fired for this position… none could do as good as job on this as Vince Meconi… I have been praised up and down for my cognitive insight and abilities… But even I would be dwarfed by the challenges facing me were I even considered for this position….
I would not want it… And in today’s economy, I certainly would not want to give up a regular job, to take on 3 months of work… for a measly $18,000? No way…
So the question that had to be asked, was this: out of who is available, ……… who can do the best job…
Obviously several candidates had their applications laid down on the governor’s desk… Obviously a comparison was made between those few available… Obviously a choice had to be made…
As someone who has made such choices, I commend the Markell administration for using common sense and not letting the screech of political wannabees dissuade him from making a simple practical decision… We don’t always have a dream candidate at our beck and call… That is especially true in today’s economy… Our job then is to pick the best we have…. suit them up, and give them the best playbook we can come up with….
We then have to turn our attention to other problems…..
El Somnambulo on Delaware Liberal announces that Bob Venables and others are preparing to propose a Marriage Protection Act: SB 27… This will limit marriage to a relationship between a man and a women..
Once again, Bob and his group are more worried about protecting their own assholes, than they are about the needs of their constituents…
Their priorities are ass backwards… When you can show me protection all children abused in heterosexual marriages, when you can show me protection for all women beaten on a regular bases in heterosexual messages, when you can show me a plummeting divorce rate especially in heterosexual marriages, then heterosexual marriage might sound like an institution worthy of protection…
But it until then, in their twisted moralism, they are serving to protect child abuse, wife beating, and painful divorce ….
Living in their cultist enclaves may make them unaware of how the rest of the world lives.. We think it is time they stop worrying about other people’s vaginas and assholes and instead focus ….. on helping people.
lol.
