So… We Are Rating the University of Delaware By Common Core

The educational department of the University of Delaware is ranked 31st in the nation... That is at least out of 5000 accredited teaching schools…

Not only that, they are 31st in the top ranked educational teacher training country in the entire world… Apparently there is no educational crises in America when it comes to teachers receiving top notch training.

Overall, the top 10 countries in rank order are the United States, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Australia, Singapore and the United Kingdom….

What just passed last Thursday in Delaware, now requires the University of Delaware, again now ranked 31st in the top educator nation in the world, to be judged solely on how its teachers administer Common Core when they go out into the field…

Common Core?

Just how good is this Common Core we are talking about?

New Attack on Common Core From Pennsylvania Democrats

Common Core Standards attacked by Republicans

‘Common Core’ Standards Come Under Attack By Lucas Johnson, Associated Press

Nation at Risk Anniversary, Common Core Under Attack

Common Core Conundrum

Common Core State Standards Under Attack

The RNC’s Attack on Common Standards

The War Against the Common Core

911: Common Core Under Attack

Rotten to the Core: Conservatives spearhead drive at RNC meeting to stop Common Core

Weingarten Calls For A Moratorium on the Implementation of the Common Core: A “Save Harmless” Year for Planning That Includes Parents, Teachers and Principals.

Washington Post: Common Core is in Trouble

Common Core Standards Facing Increased Opposition

Common Core – Language

Common Core Makes Waves

Indiana Among States Acting to Oppose Common Core Standards

Lisa Nielsen: Is the Common Core an Attack on Progressive Education?

Common Core: Education Without Representation

The Common Core: The Good, the Bad, the Possible

Your Children Need a Néw Brain for Common Core

Kentuckians Against Common Core Standards

Toynbee Predicted Privatization

One would think someone in Legislative Hall would have at least looked into Common Core before mandating that the 31st best teaching institution in the best ranked nation for turning out good teachers, would have to be judged on its effectiveness by the results of a program everyone is having so much trouble with.

Progressives are against it. Tea Party Advocates are against it. Democrats are against it. Republicans are against it.. Red States are against it. Blue States are against it. How could this be? Could it be possible they all have children?

In fact, it appears there is no one who is in favor of common core, across this entire great nation we are so fortunate to live in… No one except 59 Delaware legislators, who apparently didn’t get the memo…..

“Go Ahead, Do Your Driveby, Little Girl…..”

…. said Rick Jensen as Liz Allen finished and hung up the phone before Rick could answer….

I usually drive in silence but I laughed out loud when I heard that. Seriously glad I was not drinking coffee that very second…

To set the background, Rick was trying to pin the blame on unions like would a normal corporate shill and Liz called in and was objecting…

Basically her argument was that there were a lot of things wrong with this Kinder Morgan Deal.  Most of you know, I’ve outlined many.  Al Mascitti has outlined some. Nancy Willing outlined some. Norinda outlined some.  Bobby Marshall has outlined some.  John Kowalko has outlined some. The News Journal writers  and editorialists  have outlined some.  Even Alan Levin truthfully  outlined some…. And of course, Liz Allen was Delaware’s voice.  She outlined many…. And don’t even  mention that the entire House of the General Assembly, both Democrats and Republicans unanimously voted for General Assembly oversight on this strange thing happening, despite the Governor and Alan Lavin saying…”shouldn’t do that!!!”

THE  ENTIRE  HOUSE  OF  THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY  VOTED  FOR  SENATE  BILL  3  YET  KINDER  MORGAN  IS  SINGLING  OUT  A  LABOR LEADER,  JULIUS  CEPHAS? ? ?

All of these people are more to blame for swaying public opinion than Julius Cephas.  However, truth be told, without Julius, none of these people would be swaying public opinion….  He didn’t harangue, he didn’t bash, he’d didn’t twist arms…

All Julius did to persuade this wave against Kinder Morgan, was speak the “truth”.  The letter paints Julius as a feisty uncooperative fiery personality…  Anyone who’s sat on a panel with Julius finds that hard to believe.  That is not how Julius handles adversity.  He digs down and works.

Of course as we all age we come to realize that anything is possible.  But if we are going to allow ourselves to consider even the most outrageous items,  what I find far more possible, and far more probable, was that Kinder Morgan was seriously planning on cutting jobs.  Furthermore, it probably had it’s eye on the DRBA portion of the state pension fund… Speaking strictly as a vulture capitalist here… who wouldn’t?

Apparently Julius Cephas was in the way…  We all owe him a thank you.

I know Texas gas firms.  This deal is not off.  What we have here is a lighter being held up  to Delaware’s foot.  To scare us a little, try to get us to move things up, to get us to concede… They sharply deduced that to have a successful operation here, they need to do away with the union.  Hence, instead of excoriating Bob Marshall’s leadership, which they would have done if they truly were to pick up and go, …knowing they might need him later instead they chose to focus on Julius Cephas…

Can they turn the state into an out-roar against Julius and the Longshoreman’s union, so much so that we offer them a counter-offer with “the union”  completely eclipsed out of it?

In their minds they think they can.   They’re Texans…  Look at Governor Perry.  (Hope you weren’t drinking hot coffee right there… )

What they don’t realize is that to convince Delaware to come aboard, they have to accomplish all these four things…

A.  Convince us first  on the concept of privatization; Trust us, our state is completely against it.

B.  Give us $5 billion for 50 years.

C.  Promise us the Longshoreman’s Union will be around forever .

D.  Expand business so the outside businesses will grow….. 

I think this is more money than they want to bear right now….  But if they are willing to agree to these propositions,   send us an offer….

Us Delawareans are a little stronger negotiators, with a little more backbone,  than is Alan Levin….  I’m sorry from a honesty point of view, if his actions sort of misled you.

There are two ways to do business.  One is do what is best for the business by being selfish..  The second is to do what is best for the customer and community, which in our view, turns out to be what is best for the business.

Delawareans (minus Rich Heffron)  subscribe to the latter…..

 

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Levin and Marshall Head to Head On Port Of Wilmington

Most of you missed this, but Alan Levin and Senator Bob Marshall stopped by coincidentally at the same time to visit Rick Jensen of WDEL, and smooth as he was, Rick convinced both to sit down for an hour and go head to head over the topic of  privatizing the Port of Wilmington….

First Alan Levin;  Delaware Economic Development Office….

a.  Delaware river will be dredged to 45 feet.

b.  Panama canal will open to new big ships from the Pacific, which will be coming up the Delaware River.

c.. Ships if not coming here, may go to ports north to Philly, Paulsboro, Newark NJ, Norfolk.

d.  If we don’t accommodate these larger ships, jobs will go elsewhere taking 3000 jobs. By 2016 we should start seeing them.

e. Was not a sweetheart deal. Competing bids were proffered.  Local  ILA (International Longshoreman) even asked the state to search out new private/public partnership bids back in Sept 09

f. Turns out that the  Bank of Montreal was advisor for port transactions, the division was located in San Francisco. It’s job is to  just finance ports.  Sent out 70 inquiries  17 expressed inquiries for further information,   4 actually made bids.  2 were called non responsive.  leaving 2 good. Kinder Morgan and one private equity group financed by local individuals.

g. Of the two bids received, the Kinder Morgan bid secured workforce. The other group said they would rob workforce pension and union bust to squeeze their profit out of efficiencies.

h. Kinder Morgan bid grants a three year guaranteed security, to the  ILA, to the  teamsters, to the businesses outside..  What other business gives you a three year guarantee?

i.  Kinder Morgan would grow profits by increasing tonnage.  They want to add 3 additional warehouses  200,000 square feet each, and 28 additional jobs.  The other bidder, made up of local cutthroats, would cut the workforce to squeeze out its profit.

j. Kinder has the ability to bring in additional volume, to negotiate and bring other companies in.  The other bid doesn’t.  Improvement costs are substantial.  $12 million per crane. It costs between $60-70 million to replace berth 5 and 6, just the repair of which will cost $8-10 million. We need the long term lease. Companies want return over time.  they won’t do it for 5, they won’t do it for 10. That’s why it is a 50 year lease.  The people of Delaware want commitment as well.  They don’t want someone saying “we’re outta here” after 5 years.

k. BDO did an independent audit.  As does the State Senate  they also show a $ 3 million yearly loss.  Reports are posted in their auditor’s office.  BDO is independent and won’t jeopardize  their reputation by lying about the port of Wilmington.  It is bottom line business.  Net profit in the end, is minus $3 million dollars.  The General Assembly is putting in $10 million a year for improvements.  That $10 million doesn’t get us past where we are. It doesn’t get us out to the large ships.  We need to get out into the Delaware  and that will cost $100′s of millions of dollars.  Kinder Morgan has considered expanding the Delaware River auto berth, built 20 years ago to accommodate Volkswagon.  The berth goes southward. Kinder would go northbound, and put two berths, with two cranes which will service the 3 warehouses being built.l.

l. LNG is off the table,  that has been committed to in the General Assembly and will also be in the lease. Can Wilmington accommodate LNG tankers?  No!  The port of Wilmington is not big enough to do LNG.  And two, they will not increase coal over today’s level; our same level of 100,000 tons of coal is stipulated for the next 50 years.

m. Protests against the port are  having negative effect. Both Mr. Kinder and Mr. Foster came with the understanding we were the ones seeking and they were not expecting negativity. They understand the ebb and flow, but were not prepared for this huge outcry. it was us. We invited them to the party. Had they come to us as a hostle takeover, the outcry could be right and proper… So far we’ve done  what we thought was right.  We got to find a way to stop the annual spending of the $10 million because the $10 million won’t get us out to the river. Kinder proposed and promised and has done it elsewhere.

n. Kinder Morgan if they have a customer who needs to get to the river, they then will build to go to the river; they can make the extension at that time.  But Kinder (like any successful business) does not promise or commit to anything except what it is prepared to do today.

o. If deal falters, the future of port will be tenuous.  It will continue to have great management, and a great workforce, but won’t have the proper resources to go to river.

p.  If deal collapses, no,  the port won’t go bankrupt.  but collapsing the deal  is not responsible.  Being responsible is doing something to stop the $10 million  bleeding.

Now… state senator Bobbie Marshall…author of Senate Bill 3 signed by Jack Markell, overseeing the lease of port….

a. Big problem is… we do not have details of Kinder Morgan.  No written proposal,

b.Expansion is something we all favor. but deal  receded into one of ” no expansion”, but we will now have to turn over the entire port. including the 300 acres owned by Delaware citizens, managed by Diamond State Port Authority to someone we don’t know.

c. Port is actually  a profit making entity if you remove the depreciation yearly. Actual operation is profitable.

d. Port could grow jobs within the  interior 250 acres if port grows and expands, and with new money, more employment opportunity exists if expansion occurs…

e. Point out that Julius Cephus (ILA) has rallied people, businesses, and elected officials, and has pointed out that this may not be beneficial in long term.

f. Preliminary proposal at this time, the due diligence will be present by end of month which will allow presentation to bond bill and bond bill will hold hearings on the proposal… Senate Bill 3 requires review by bond committee.

g. Members of legislature representing the state of Delaware, passed bill in 1994 to allow Diamond State to operate the day to day operations, but never was it place  in the code, to give either Diamond State or the governor sale and total control of 300 acres of port property.  General Assembly and its citizens are the tenant. Diamond State Port is the renter.

h. Port of Wilmington Directors are responsible to exercise “all function” of port….including the leasing of lands to companies…. That is different from” selling” the land of the taxpayers out from under them.  The state taxpayer keeps ownership but leases to Kinder Morgan.

i.  All  interested parties, need to read Miami Herald and how expansion of Panama Canal will affect the ports of the east coast. We need to invest the Delaware river side of the port and that is not happening with Kinder Morgan.

j.  This is a lease, this is not a sale to Kinder Morgan. The Diamond State board can do leases….  Alan’s understanding is if the bond bill committee approves Kinder Morgan deal, it goes to the House and Senate for up or down vote with no debate.  But Marshall say debate will be impossible to quench.

k. Any one can appear before the bond bill committee… Alan will appear. Senators can appear. Kinder Morgan will be given total control of port. Diamond State Board will still be in place, will still have oversight, but not its running on a day to day basis.  They make sure agreement is in force, and if not, they will take appropriate action.

l. Worried about control  People getting laid off?  Kinder Morgan will automate and cut employees down to one.  Low skilled people will get shut out,  Has happened all over the country.  Failed private ports run by Kinder Morgan, cut people.  (Which ones ask Jensen.)

m. Kinder Morgan is interested in the fruit business, Kinder Morgan is paying premium for fruit; they want to build three warehouses. Already they are seeking  long term contracts with Dole, Chiquita, and the Chilean Pacific Seaways in order to get their fruit.  They have to have to be given the chance.

n.  (Jensen) Depreciation needs to be on the form to comply with IRS. Depreciation is where the loss of the port is coming from. Without it, the port is profitable according to Marshall.

o. Kinder Morgan is a bulk and liquid bulk company. (John Vitale):  Concerned this deal will cost him money; his business is on the outside of the port.  Container experience is limited to one 10 acre container port in Florida. Taht is all the experience they have.  Products generating most jobs in ports are containers, breakable containers as in fruit, and automobiles. Handling bulk products are the least job creators.   The outside area around the port has grown because the conscious decision not to handle bulk, because they didn’t mix with fruit and automobiles… .

p.   Ok, (John Vitale) With Kinder Morgan switching to bulk, we could end up out on the river, but we still would have 20 percent of today’s  jobs.

q.  Flat out,(John Vitale)  bulk products are far more profitable and will drive out costlier containers which are labor intensive, forcing the outside businesses to go out of business. High number of jobs at the port are there because of fruit, these will be lost by not sticking to containers…. A for-profit company will not be in the best interest of the  existing port.

r.  Ferrous alloys, fertilizer, liquids are not competitive with the outside businesses. (Alan).  We can promise this:  employees will last three years, we will get an income stream to the people of Delaware, and that capital improvements will happen.  Check out Vancouver where Kinder Morgan has spent in last two years, $140 million spent on improvements for cargo bulk containers, something they didn’t anticipate when they leased it two years ago. …They are  willing to pay a premium for our expertise. They think fruit is good business.

s. Concern that we are putting too much faith in hope. Kinder Morgan is a Wall Street for-profit stockholder company.  Delaware’s General Assembly’s support is contingent on growing business to the river. Legislators are very worried about the external  businesses existing outside the port.  i

t.  Bonds $7 million owed to the city (Roger Roy) ..  In 1994, we made two deals with Wilmington: one to pay them over time, and the other was to take over  the bonds they owed,  which is to pay off their bonds which they currently have.  State still owes city close to$7 million..

u. (Kowalko).  We will debate the bill on the floor. … Alan is saying the Bond Bill Committee will debate the pre proposal proposal… not the proposal because at this time, there is  no proposal.  Issue is not about Kinder. …  The bond bill was to discuss t he ethics of privatization of the port, not the deal itself.  Therefore when it goes on the floors, that will be the only time to debate the actual Kinder Morgan proposal.

v. (Liz Allen)  Vancouver contract shows Kinder Morgan is not liable or loss for any cargo, not liable for any delay, strikes, fires explosions, or acts of god, and Kinder Morgan is indemnified from all losses…. Both (Alan and Rick) spoke up that sounded like a standard hold-harmless contract, one required for all business.  So who is responsible if there is an explosion (Liz)?   Responsibility goes to Kinder Morgan, they have the liability(Alan), their insurance covers that, and we are not absolving them of liability.  All obligations go to the person leasing the deal, not the lessor…

w. (Rick)  Emotion doesn’t make sense. Why so much negative  emotion?. (Bob Marshall)  Those interested and raising concerns are those who work in the port, work in businesses  around the port.  Kinder Morgan is a profit making company, former operator working as Enron officials, that raised a red flag. Rick asks:  is everyone at Enron a criminal?   No.

x. (Alan) Trepidation is about change to what we know.  We have tried to mitigate  that concern on everyones issue.  Bottom line is people of Delaware can no longer afford putting $10 million a year to upgrade the port.

y. (Alan)we take money away from everyone else in the state to bolster the port. We have an obligation to the port of Wilmington, but we can’t take anything away from Seaford, and Laural, and education and public safety….

It Is The Presses’ Fault; Speaking Of The Sequester

We’ve all dealt with duplicity.  Where someone will complain loudly behind their bosses back and as soon as he pops into the room, they flip and lavish praise, sometimes to the point of criticizing others in the same room….

Today I listened to WDEL’s two talk show hosts, and Allan Loudell during his two news broadcasts.

Of the three, Al Mascitti was the most honest, Allan the second, and Rick Jensen …. not even plausible.  Let me explain.

Al Mascitti laid out the facts.  The sequester was small compared to the overall budget, but the people it hurt, were the ones who not only had no safety net but nowhere else to go.   The sequester could have been, and would have been prevented if the Republicans had not filibustered the Senate bill to raise the revenue from those who could easily have afforded: the top one percent.

Allan Loudell was neutral and baited both sides.  I believe I counted four times he asked leading questions that would suggest it was both side’s fault that this bad sequester bill was passed.  I believe I counted three of the four who all laid the blame solidly on the Republicans.  However,  why was this even brought up? Any impartial observer like a journalist from another nation, can easily see off of any newscast that the Democrats are running around the country trying to avert the sequester and warn America ahead of time about its effects, while the Republicans are doing nothing!  In fact, they are gloating over how they pulled the sequester off ……   It is disingenuous to even pretend this is not completely a Republican debacle;  one forced upon the nation by their party and their party alone, and forced in such a way, that Democrats were powerless to prevent it from being fulfilled…..

Rick Jensen, … oh my.  His time was spent trying to pin the sequester on Jack Lew, because Jack Lew was the person Bernstein said originally brought it up…  Therefore only in his mind, is it a Democratic machination.   There was no mention of course, that it was a Republican filibuster that prevented the solid alternative from reaching a vote.  There was no mention that it was all the Republicans who agreed upon the sequester, and voted for it.  There was no mention that a budget act without the sequester attached, was vetoed by every single Republican when it came up for a vote, and that the sequester was only passed, because the Republicans all piled on to push it through….

And here is how he tried to explain all the press reports to the contrary.  ”Oh, the press is part of Obama’s team.  They are all lying and twisting things to make it look like it’s the Republicans are the ones who made this sequester happen….. ”  

Upon hearing this misstatement, one must readily ask themselves, hey, wait a minute! Since the press is rather hostile to Obama, perhaps reality IS that they are indeed telling the truth, (and nothing but the truth), and perhaps Rick Jensen is dismissing that truth, and all the facts supporting it, because it makes his side look really bad….

Most people will probably accept the latter before the former. After all, only 24% of voters today will admit grudgingly that they were once Republican.

And here is the problem for the rest of us.  If the press can’t straight up tell the truth, how can the American people ever know?  If the press tries very hard to contort reality into making this appear an even handed event when it certainly is not, they are doing the public a disservice by not informing the public of the reality taking place before their faces….

So, why are we not being informed Republicans filibustered that piece of legislation that would have prevented the sequester?  That alone, makes them the culprits.  You cannot filibuster a bill that will prevent something, and then say… It wasn’t us; it’s the other sides fault.

So, why is only Al Mascitti telling the truth, and nothing but the truth at WDEL these days?

There absolutely, unequivocally, irresolutely is no way Democrats are culpable to the sequestration…  This is absolutely, unequivocally, and irresolutely the Republican’s mismanagement that put us into this predicament…. Pure and simple.

If you don’t know that.  You are not reading news.  You are reading make-believe….. The most frustrating part of the latest frame of the budget war has been that the media’s fetish for evenhandedness prevents us from seeing the simplest truth…..

Sorry Schellenberger! Trix R 4 Kids

On Saturday March 2nd, Thomas Shellenberger wrote a piece that the News Journal despite it’s better judgment, allowed to be published…. The headline was the boring and is so common lately, it is usually panned: Disarming the law abiding is not sound gun control.… Why is this inane?

Because it is not even part of the equation. To put it into proper perspective, it was as if the proper answer to preventing  Newtown’s shooting, was that we needed machines emitting secret rays that make guns jam up as soon as they are brought on premises; it is that far out there…. This opinion piece is simply aimed at pandering fear over having imaginary entities football-tackle gun owners and steal their guns; and nothing else. And by now three months after Dec. 14th, no one believes it anymore.

I can remember when people believed aliens were dissected at Roswell. (And for all I know they very well could be). But,…. whether they were or not, it has not impacted my life one way or another… Likewise, the giant controversy that swept up Mike Castle in its eddy (whether Obama was born in Kenya), was nothing but a giant distraction designed to gin up ignorant people to hold out the unrealistic hope that such could be true and a non-black would then become President… Again, it had nothing to to with any practical purpose and only had one effect: to make every one its believers appears as the stupidest, most ridiculous, idiotic, imbecilic, deranged, dumb-ass, and incompetent human beings ever to exist on this planet. Shellenberger seems to be pushing the same kind of argument.   Here is why.

• No one cares about law abiding citizens; get this: they are not even a part of the equation.
• The criminal justice system of Delaware had nothing to do with the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut.
• No law abiding citizen will be disarmed by the anticipated plans soon to be put in place by Biden and Markell.
• Having a No-gun rule around young children is extremely good common sense.
• If the police want new sales of assault weapons banned, who are you to want otherwise, .. a criminal?
• Evidence supports the ’94 assault weapons ban could possibly have had a positive effect on decreasing mass killings.

Those tired arguments put to rest, here is exactly why we do need more regulations upon guns.

• There is not enough regulation at the moment.
• It is too easy for the wrong people to get their hands on a gun.
• The NRA has purposefully made tracking guns as difficult as possible to enable criminals to shoot people with impunity.
• There is now less level of responsibility involved with owning a gun, than having a 16 year old driving a car.

Then there is this very tired old line…. yawn….

“until we fix the criminal justice system so the laws already on the books are enforced and provide a meaningful deterrent, passage of any new laws only interfere with law abiding citizens….”

oh, oh… I must have dozed off there a second…

That is exactly the problem.  There are not enough laws…  Granted, there are enough laws in some places, but right next to those places, are spots where there are no laws against purchasing any weapons at all.   Chicago has a store across its county line that sells 10% of all confiscated guns acquired by Chicago law enforcement.  Everyone of those is sold legally.  California has Nevada, where a very high rate of confiscated weapons come from. Mississippi has no laws.  There is an Iron Pipeline it is called that funnels guns bought in Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia right up 95 into New York City…   EVERYONE OF THESE GUNS WAS BOUGHT LEGALLY…..

So how can you enforce laws on the books when there are no laws on the books?  Duh.

Crash. (The argument of the NRA and Schellenberger just shattered on the floor….)

Here is what we do need… Simply put, and no legal person has to worry about a thing…..

• A national background check  that pinpoints every known gun, to an owner who is responsible for that weapon.
• Requirement that stolen guns get reported ASAP or owner is charged with conspiracy in crime he was accomplice to.
• As requested by police,  a ban on the sales of new assault rifles.
• A ban on high capacity clips.
• Liability insurance up to $1 million on every gun owned.  The insurance conglomerates can figure out the price and deductions.

Obviously any sane gun owner has nothing to fear.  So why are gun owners so frightened?  Are all the weapons in their possession bought at shows and are formerly stolen and they don’t want anyone looking at the registration number to find out?

Yes. Of most of the gun owners I know, yes, they are very worried about this.  That is exactly why they are so kooky over this common sense legislation that will both protect their 2nd Amendment rights and our right to live without fear of gun nuts on the loose….

Correction: For Rick Jensen on WDEL

I won’t be able to call in so here is a notice to Rick that he is misstating something in regards to taxes on the wealthy.

He said to Chris Coons that removing tax loopholes and deductions would generate $749 billion versus raising the marginal tax rate. He has repeated it on air, and I think I heard it has become his new Rick Jensen plug…

He gave his source on the air last Friday to a caller, and it had to be looked up…

That source is a CNN Money article written by Jeanne Sahadi.

Under the heading of “Let the Bush Tax Cuts Expire For Incomes Under $250,000″ the total stated earned is $1 trillion over ten years. That is more than the $749 billion that removal of tax credit would net.

The paragraph Jensen refers to is this one…….

If no one could claim more than $50,000 in itemized deductions, that could raise roughly $749 billion over a decade, the Tax Policy Center estimates. And nearly 90% of that revenue would come from households making more than $200,000.

The mistake Jensen made was to scroll up and see this statement………

The bill was estimated by the Joint Committee on Taxation to raise an estimated $47 billion over a decade if all the Bush tax cuts expire. .

So his statement that capping deductions at $50,000 yields $749 billion, and raising the rates to the Clinton years will only generate $47 billion is based on this misreading….

For “The Bill” raising only $47 billion, was not the removal of the entire Bush Tax Cuts. It was a separate bill, called the Warren Buffet Rule, that sets a minimum tax rate on millionaires. If this gets passed, all those making $1 million will have to pay 30% in taxes. No more will Romney be able to use “carrying interest” loopholes to keep his rate down to 13%. He and all others over $1 million will pay 30%; it will be the new minimum…

It is this bill that will net $47 billion….

So alas the promo is wrong; his radio show is wrong, and his comment to US Senator Chris Coons’s is wrong….

In his defense, the article is tricksy. I had to read it three times to figure out what the author was trying to say. From other sources I knew that such a statement couldn’t be correct. From Chris’s reaction, I really don’t think Chris Coons knew that though…

If he changes the promo to say the “Buffet rule of adding a surtax”, instead of saying raising the top marginal rates, then his promos and further utterances on his show will be correct….

Delaware is fortunate where if an opposing side messes up, we tease them about it .. This is good natured, and amounts to no more than a “psst, you may want to change that”, and comes with the realization that we all make mistakes… I wish I could have called in to let him know instead of having to post it here, but unfortunately I won’t be around during his show…

Because the mistake is so prominent, to have one such mis-truth continue, becomes embarrassing each time it gets reprocessed…

We are very lucky to have a station of this caliber in our diamond of a state, so any correction forthcoming must be taken as being made because of state pride…. “Our” station is correct on everything else; this should be fixed quickly and quietly.

Properly Reducing Taxes On The Top One Percent is Good for the Economy

The next time someone complains that increasing taxes on the top one percent is unfair, especially if the bottom half is not getting penalized too, agree with them….

Tell them we can take one half of their money, give it to the middle class, then the middle class can pay taxes on it… instead of the top one percent.

Sounds fair to me.

The top 1% would finally pay less in taxes.

Poor Rick Jensen: He Still Doesn’t Get It.

If you listened to Rick roll over the increase taxes argument on yesterday’s show on WDEL, you heard his exasperation. Why are we raising marginal rates instead of closing loopholes?

We can do both but here is the argument why changing the top marginal rates must be done. If you want to soak the rich, i don’t think they will mind if you can also cap their deductions at 17,000. But if you keep the marginal rates low, then we have the same squalid economy we’ve had since 2000…

But this isn’t about soaking the rich. THIS IS ABOUT GROWING THE ECONOMY.

First one must realize, there is a very good reason why 47% of the people pay no taxes….. They make too little money…
So who is left to tax? The 53% who do have money.

That sounds so simple: I can’t understand why Rick Jensen can’t grasp that concept….

Here is why marginal rates are important, instead of deductions. If I have a cap on $17,000 of deductions, then I pay everything over that amount that my deductions were in the previous year. If I had $100,000 in deductions, I would get hit with $83,000 in additional taxes…. If this rate applied to $100,000 of income, ie. because before I was paying no taxes because I had 100% deductions, I seriously would be making only $17,000.. All the rest of my money would go to taxes… If this rate applied to $500,000, then with the deduction piece I would lose $83,000, but, I would be keeping $417,000. If this rate applied to $1 million, I would still lose the same $83,000 but I would still be keeping $917,000…. IF this rate applied to 100 million, i would still lose the same $83,000 but I would still be keeping $99,917,000…. if this rate applied to a billion, I would still lose the same $83,000 but I would still be keeping $999,917,000…. and we’ll stop at $100 billion: $99,999,917,000 still in MY pocket….

Now since that was so long, let me must show the marginal rate change on that top number only….

How does a 5% increase sound? Like from 35% up to 40%? We know the economy can prosper under that tax level, because that is the level that fueled the longest period of continuous growth ever in our nation…..

(Remember we got $83,000 from decreasing deductions). 5% of $100 billion is……(drumroll and rimshot)….. $5 billion… Instead of $83,000, we got $5 billion…..

That is why John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Grover Norquist and Rick Jensen are banging their heads against the wall to hold the line on marginal tax rates….

Just for the record, if that money $5 billion were applied solely to reduce the deficit? That amount of interest alone which would not then appear on our balance sheet the next year, would be….$250 million dollars….

So cutting deductions gains us $83,000. Raising the top marginal rate a teensey, teensey bit…. gains us $5 billion, and the future savings of $250,000,000 in interest savings every single year thereafter, …. as far as the eye can see…….

Please, call up Rick (302=478-9335) between the hours of 1:10 and 3:50 this afternoon, and tell him to read this article… He is such a valuable state resource, it would be a shame for him to lose credibility among his audience, when help is only a mouse click away…..

Please Make Them Go Away!!

Tomorrow, is the day… like a wedding, can’t wait for it to finally be over so life can go on again…. But there is one last thing to do.

Look at the Republican Party. The only reason Romney is doing well, is because he pivoted in the first debate, and became a liberal. His past track record had almost pushed him to the point of no return, until he reinvented himself upon that first debate stage. In other words, Romney is now the more liberal candidate, if one just looks at what he has said since October 4th.

However the old message is still prevalent in Delaware’s Republican exoskeleton. Kovach who once was considered a decent person, is now a compromised decent person. Kevin Wade, is nothing more than a word to rhyme with suede. Jeff Craig wants us to believe that if you can run a 16 X 40 foot retail outlet buried in the middle of a Fairfax strip mall, you can run the entire state’s government. Greg Lavelle believes that if you trash your opponent hard enough, you will get elected. Cathy Cloutier believes that no one gives enough of a hoot, making it so simple that she can be endorsed by the pro choice and pro life movements in the same election. Evan Quietsch believes the United Nations has set up a secret outpost somewhere in the woods of the 11th District, and that his challenger is the Manchurian Candidate who is actually from Manchuria. Rick Jensen has to ignore 99% of a story to make his case in support of any Republican who shows up on his show. Dori Conner, is running “Go, Go William Penn” down in Cavalier Country. NCCE Blake has to put stickers on his campaign signs, that say “I’m not Tom Gordan.” Then there is DelawarePolitics.Net, which although it has great people, they all get their orders from Homer Simpson. There is Brian Pettyjohn who, whenever his name gets mentioned, reminds one of the Lollypop Guild soliciting a hooker on the side of the Yellow Brick Road… And then, there was Two Timing Booth, kicked out for…. oh my. Don’t even get me started on Bodenweiser…. And above all this mess, flies the green faced witch on her magic broom, saying 2014, 2014…..

What happened? Siegler, is this what happens when you put the NRA actually in charge of something?

From top to bottom this party is (I’ll bend over backwards and be very nice here)…. dysfunctional… It is time for it to go away….

I heard a caller put it very well on Al Masciti this morning. Business needs representation. With this party they don’t have it. What they do have is Jack Markell, Chip Flowers, and Beau Biden, working with them as well as representing “we the people” who simultaneously do the necessary work for these businesses as well as us who depend on their health to live well ourselves…..

Delaware works better as a single party state than as a two party one…. Why? Simply put, everyone is an individual again. There is no reason NOT to work with someone who’s viewpoint is different from yours… It is called “compromise” and with today’s Republican Party from the top down, that compromise gene is simply not in their chromosomes……

Now here is my argument… Any vote for any Republican, weakens our state. I’m guessing we need an 85/15 democratic majority to permanently make this party go away…. I’m worried that many in Delaware may not vote this time because our national election is a foregone conclusion, and really, there is no reason to suspect or worry that any Republican will win….

Here is why you must… Your vote against the Republican Party, is needed to make it be gone forever….. We need single party government now more than ever… WE need cooperation between workers and businesses, and only one party, the Democratic one, can provide that.

Some say we need another voice to balance out one party rule… We will have them. 21 separate voices in the Senate, and 45 separate ones in the House, but only if they are all Democrat … Every person is an individual, and every person has to represent their district. There are some conservative districts, there are some progressive districts. but it still will take a majority to get anything passed.

At least if there is only one party, they will get things done the old fashioned way. The conservatives will express their needs, the progressives will express their needs, and some type of compromise all can live with, will get hammered out….

That can’t happen if there are Republicans anywhere in government to mess things up…..

So do your civic duty… Vote Democratic or Libertarian, or any another candidate…. Just make Republicans go away…. I used to like watching cartoons on Saturday… Now, that I have to watch them 365 days at 24/7, it is too much…. (Now, where’s that Advil?)

Make them go away.

Senate 4: It’s A Real Katz Fight Up There….

“yeeeaaaaoooowww”

Delaware’s most expensive race this season, has gotten catty.  Meow…  Republican Greg Lavelle in typical Republican fashion started  and attacked Democrat Mike Katz for missing committee meetings…   In typical Republican fashion, the charge went like this…. “You’re a no good, two timing, scheming, lazy, and unfit for office, because you missed a few meetings this year!!! How can you even dare run for office when you missed meetings like that!”

It was quickly pointed out on the Rick Jensen show, that Greg Lavelle has missed quite a few meetings over his career too… Since it is a longer career, he’s probably missed a lot more meetings… But charges like that are what one expects from Republicans, especially those in northern New Castle County… I can remember another one like that… I think his name was Clatworthy?  Am I right?  And another one who’d pull charges out of thin air…. I think the ran for Lt. Governor in 2008 and only got like 17% of the vote or something?

Delawareans don’t like  bomb throwers…..  Don’t take my word for it.   Just ask Janet C. Rzewnicki…..

The Ms Katz takes to the airwaves and levels the Lavelle campaign.  It is over.  She tells of how she got the call that Mike Katz  was about to die and so were his two girls, when the ski lift collapsed and they slammed into the ground.  She tells how the paramedic put the phone up to his lips, so they could say the last goodbyes…  And Greg Lavelle would use that, to blame Mike Katz for not showing up for meetings?

(Of course he would; how to do it is listed in page 3 of the Republican ethics manual.)

Greg, like the bully in trouble runs to Rick Jensen and says that he was talking about meetings in 2012, and the accident was in 2010.  He pulls out a stolen email from the Katz campaign that says Mike has worn out a pair of sneakers going door to door, campaigning since January.

(He also admitted it was common policy to have staffers present at the meetings and that most of the work can be done a lot more efficiently from home.  He does it himself quite often.)

Both were in WDEL’s studio this past Friday.  Katz responded that he has ongoing medical concerns… (like a broken back) and sometimes, it is impossible to move.  As any chiropractor will tell anyone who thinks to ask, often the real pain comes  years later, as the cartilage settles and wears thinner…  Therapy takes a long time…

For those who live in the Fourth, here is the real deal… Dr. Katz has done more for your district than anyone in recent memory.  Prior to Katz, you had a prima-donna who was too busy pursuing Republican Party Rings, to take care of constituent needs.  Mike has done more.  Mike has fixed the Beaver Dam Road.  Mike has gotten things done…

On the other hand, Greg Lavelle has done very little.. Like the predecessor before Dr. Katz, he is more concerned with pursuing Republican rings, than he is in helping Delaware grow.  Although all knew there is no way it would pass, he still ( like every Republican) wastes everyone’s time with his proposals for anti-woman legislation, his proposals for anti-marriage legislation,  proposals for gigantic, impossible-to-execute tax cuts for the top !% ( so he gets campaign funding from them in return); and bills meant to keep innocent people behind bars who have served their sentence, to stay even longer…..  Greg Lavelle is far more concerned about what ALEC seems to think, instead of the people of Delaware.

In fact, the running joke in Dover about Lavelle, is:  How do you know when Delaware’s elections season starts?  ANSWER:  Greg Lavelle is featured  in the News Journal, screaming about something wrong with Delaware’s prison system.. LOL.  I believe he wanted Danberg fired or something?  Danberg?  Really?  Of all people?  True to form, this September,  just after Labor Day…. he begins screaming… first to the News Journal, then to Rick Jensen… “We gotta do something; we gotta do something; outrageous; travesty.” Yeah. yeah. yeah.

So residents in the Fourth.  Do you want a doer as you have in Mike Katz?  Or do you want a screamer, who has been doing it for 12 years… No track record until … Uh oh, it’s election year…  Time to scream:  ”Fire that guy”.. (he has no power to fire or hire the replacement, he has no responsibility so screaming is his easy way out.”…

It is time to definitely retire Greg Lavelle…  Listen to his voice.  Does his voice tones  sound like he is lying to you too?

Delaware does not need 2000 year Dick Cheney style politics clogging up our getting things done…  In fact: this democratic General Assembly has accomplished getting 900% more done than the previously two party divided General Assembly… A big part of that proficiency came from Dr. Katz…  Another part or that productivity was that as a Republican, Greg Lavelle was sidelined to where he could do very little damage….

There is no reason to hire Greg Lavelle, a person who is little more than a Copeland clone.  Dr. Katz has done much, much more.

In the next four years, Delaware will need to figure out where we go with Obamacare.  Without  a doctor like Dr. Katz in the General Assembly, we’d be making that foray into the future while..  blind…. 

This is one clear case of good versus bad.   We need the good now more than ever.