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My friends, we are gathered here today to celebrate one of life’s greatest moments, to give recognition to the worth and beauty of committed marital love, and to add our best wishes to the words which shall unite these two people in marriage. In the words of our Creator, what God hath brought together, let no one cut asunder.
The commitment that the two of you are about to make, is the most important commitment that two people can make; you are about to create something new, the marriage relationship, an entity that never ends.
As you stand here today, are you now prepared to begin this commitment to one another? (I am)
Have you come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in marriage? (I have)
I would ask that you both remember to treat yourself and each other with dignity and respect; to remind yourself often of what brought you together today. Give the highest priority to the tenderness, gentleness and kindness that your marriage deserves. When frustration and difficulty assail your marriage – as these do to every relationship at one time or another – focus on what still seems right between you, not only the part that seems wrong. This way, when clouds of trouble hide the sun in your lives and you lose sight of it for a moment, you can remember that the sun is still there. And if each of you will take responsibility for the quality of your life together, it will be marked by abundance and delight.
Will you have this person to be your wedded partner? (I will)
Will you love and comfort then, honor and keep them, in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others, keep yourself only unto them as long as you both shall live? (I will)
Will you have this person to be your wedded partner? (I will)
Will you love and comfort them, honor and keep them, in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others, keep yourself only unto them as long as you both shall live? (I will)
Since it is your intention to enter into marriage, join your right-hands, and declare your consent (before these witnesses) by repeating after me:
I, take you to be my partner, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, as long as we both shall live. Take this ring as a sign of my commitment and fidelity to you. …
I, take you to be my partner, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, as long as we both shall live. Take this ring as a sign of my commitment and fidelity to you.
In so much as the two of you have agreed to live together in Matrimony, have promised your commitment to each other by these vows, (and) the joining of your hands (and the giving of these rings), by the authority vested in me by the State of Delaware, I now pronounce you a married couple. Congratulations, you may now kiss as a married couple….
Ladies and Gentlemen here who are witnesses. May I present to you the world’s newest couple….
Awwwww. How can anyone vote against something as wonderful as that?
This is post number 2000.
The only real significance is it is 150 posts more than where Tommywonk stopped exactly one year and fifteen days ago…
If some future historian looks back, I can only guess they may kindly make some note of the quality of thought that underlies these efforts, but my guess, is no one will ever notice…
Irregardless, as long as the urge to put thoughts down for others continues, we will go on. As usual, with no goal, no direction, and no ulterior motive. Probably upon reflection, my biggest surprise, right here, right now … is that I still enjoy it so much, and can’t wait to jot my thoughts down, click the button, and send them off to where ever cyberspace and the vast internet ocean, lets them drift….
For each of you who have become regular over the years, … thank you friend…
Pondering over Steve’s return and the ramifications which came with it, (for example, I noticed the re-humanization of Dana Garrett), I was reminiscing why so many bloggers had fallen off the wagon…
Back in the glory days, there was a rather eclectic collection of men and women who put their thoughts down nightly or almost on a regular basis. A few are left today… But missing are Mike Matthews, Shirley Vandever, Tommywonk, Dave Burris, Dana Garrett, Duffy, Maria Evans, Joe M., Mat Marshall, …..
Most all of these posted their reasons for giving it up…. and they all sound the same. Tireless demands of time, no real feeling for posting anymore, realization that it was a lot of hoopla and little real substance.
And ironically the more successful you became the more time you felt you had to spend answering comments. And for the amount of time spent, the numbers of people actually reading them, were dwarfed by just the voting totals of Delaware alone.
But it is with Steve’s return that I think I finally was able to put my finger on just why the blog-world fell apart. It was because we had stopped becoming a community. It is rather interesting to read something someone posts that says: I think thus about this subject and here is why…. It is less interesting to have a blurb saying: “check this out” and then click a video and sit back waiting through the commercial….and then after watching, think: “that was a waste of time…”
Each person had a personality. Shirley tried portraying herself as a crusty curmudgeon but she was anything but…. Dave would bluster about, but then, without warning come through with brilliance. Mat, provided a odd twist from the enlightened eyes of a Cab Calloway student. Donviti was … well Donviti..and that’s a good thing. Hube could on the turn of a dime, surprise you by agreeing with what you said. Kilroy roasted Red Clay school district, no doubt causing them to cringe with his misspellings, and put New Castle’s school troubles on the map. Duffy always found the most eclectic random findings, and mainstreamed them for the rest of us. Nancy, with her sources, and emails, provided the bulletin board for all of us to snatch our next story from… Coupled with airplay on WVUD,WHYY, WMGD, Al Mascitti and Rick Jensen, actual influence over current events was projected… or at least it felt that way…
What we had was a community. And that peer group was who you wrote for. Sometimes you wrote evocative pieces just imagining Hube reading it and reddening his ears. Other times you could get Nancy’s gander up, just by praising Chris Coons. One out of this group, even considered running for Governor, and probably should have, considering the complete tanking of the campaign by that person who did run.
But mostly, we wrote for each other… If other’s wanted to read they were welcome. I think some who tried to fly too close to the sun, and write like they were the News Journal, got burnt out, and dropped by the wayside.
It is interesting to see the change in both Hube’s and Delaware Liberal’s format, comparing todays with yesteryears. Today, everything is bite sized. Before, we had the extended version.
The difference is like eating crackers off the table in back of the meeting room, or, breaking for dinner. Taking a break for dinner, is much more enjoyable.
All great moments pass. It is fact that we look back on them in admiration, that makes them great. So, I guess, though the characters are still alive, and a few still active, we cannot return to those times, long ago and far away.
I can only hope that a new generation, may someday read this, and happen to come across something like this, and find inspiration within themselves to do it again….
I think it is safe to say, we “pulled it off big time”. We really did something, which in it’s time was unheard of, and what we did, still has lasting ramifications rippling through our state government today…
I think most of the problems we dealt with, got fixed. Although no one can point to us and say we did it, that we influenced the changes, they certainly can’t deny. After all, each and every one of those problems haunted legislature for a quite a long, long time, and.. they are gone now. We exposed them for what they were…
With that said and done, … it’s pretty cool.
Katie Hanson; Miss Delaware USA (photo’s courtesy of Miss USA Pagent
I really don’t know why it gets to me,… but it does… My state, the first state to enter the Union, the second smallest but still, the one state with the fewest counties, my state, the one our nation’s Vice President calls home…… My state, the one poised to be the first state in the union to have an offshore wind farm…. has, never… not recently, not even in ancient history, … ever won a title in a national beauty pageant….
Just as we are the only state without a National Park; we are also the only state that has never won a national title… Wikipedia almost gloatingly points out, “The least successful states are Delaware, the only state that has never placed;”
How come? Did any of you know this?
It’s obviously not because of our women! We have some amazing women here… Why is Delaware the ONLY STATE TO HAVE NEVER PLACED IN A NATIONAL COMPETITION?
To be honest, it’s because we don’t care. until of course, we happen to catch a glimpse on TV of our stunning candidate, and say wow, they really do look better than the competition…. By then, it’s too late.
No matter how you feel about beauty competitions… they do represent your state.
and Delawareans should begin getting mad that we are always left out…
When the Miss USA of Texas gets crowned, she is given a line of prizes a mile long.
Usually the family of the Delawarean contestant must pay out of pocket for the privilege to fly out and compete…. One would think, someone here in Delaware, would want provide some help to sponsor her? In return for advertising, if nothing else?
Is there anything we can do?
Yes, there is… For the first time in history, citizens of Delaware can go online here and vote 10 times a day for the candidate of their choice… Of course with our few citizens, compared to the numbers of New York and California, only a ambush will give us any chance… But ambushes are the American way.. Look at the Battle of Trenton, and Princeton!… We have a shot…to change history, at least get Delaware into the semi finalists, if everyone reading this votes, and votes often….
Why?
Primarily because we are a small state, one with few sport’s hall of famers… Often the butt of national jokes, we usually simply have no choice but to dismiss them… Now, before us is an opportunity to brag a little if we can pull this off.. Do we have a great candidate? Yes!.. Look at the competition on the site above..
We have a contender….
Delaware has never placed… Let’s do something about it?
What if we all petitioned David Letterman, to negotiate with Donald Trump, ( the owner of the Miss USA pagent) live on air, to give Miss Delaware a fair shot at righting this dubious distinction? Of course, Delaware will have to take some pings in the process ( that’s what comedy is all about) but to see one of our own as a finalist, would still send chills up our spines, irregardless of what we normally profess to think of beauty pageants.
It’s Delaware we’re talking about…
A brief note should turn the tide; something like this:
Dear Dave: Often you make Delaware the butt of your jokes. That is probably because we deserve it. But did you know, Delaware is the only state that has never placed in a national beauty pageant? Now, we know you are good friends with Donald Trump and he runs the Miss USA pageant. Could you do our humble state a favor and introduce Miss Delaware USA to Donald Trump on your show? We are not expecting miracles… but she IS beautiful…. and we could use some extra publicity so the world knows it… After all we are the only state that has never, ever placed… even Wikipedia makes fun of us…
If you can help us, thanks…
Here is the site for the David Letterman show... please include any jokes their writers might enjoy…. The email address is: lswdl@aol.com
5 or 10 won’t do it; I figure the minimum to be noticed is around 30,000… It will take some enthusiasm, some selling, and some enthusiastic supporters to make a dent in a contest that is obviously stacked against us, like a Republican Congress is stacked against John Carney!…
If you can spread the word, please do… and vote… and yes, vote often…. It’s our state pride that’s on the line here…..
First Nancy’s question: What do you think of the controversy over party leadership?
From Delaware Watch:
“Brian is particularly fond of the Sen. Paul Wellstone way of grass roots political organizing“
My answer:
Obvious.
I don’t want to take away from the job Danello has done. There is no Republican Party in Delaware. His achievement will be forever noted by history.
But as one can see, we must prepare for the future, not the past. Loyalty is great, until it starts to drag us down. It is time we move on.
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…
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…..
Courtesy of Department of Defense
Since the election was over, the Delawarean blogosphere has been searching for its identity. So much of our time was focused on a certain result up to November 4th, that after it was over, no one really knew what to do with themselves…
Since then, there has been some focus on the economy. Likewise, there has been some chatter on the selection of the cabinets. But on the other hand, more importantly, there has been a lot of self absorption. I guess that is to be expected. As readership dips everyone who takes blogging seriously scrambles around to calls of “look at me… look at me…”
But while we were doing so…. there were issues that got ignored. Events that have great importance in how things will progress over the next two, if not four years probably got less discussion here in the Delaware blogosphere, than actually occurred at the bottom of a Delaware-on-Line article…
And that is what this edition will seek to uncover… All that which was not said on the Delaware blogosphere since election day…
I will start with Delaware Liberal. Having at least 5 of 10 of Delaware’s most active bloggers (subjective of course), they of course would be the canary in the coal mine. I might as well share with you the trigger, that caused me to take this problem up a step, exposing it to see whether or not it had implications across three counties of readers…..
With a name like Delaware Liberal, one would expect that entity to be aware of liberal happenings in the state of Delaware. Naturally that would be the assumption one would get based on that blog’s official name……. So imagine my surprise when I saw these words…….
Bottom line, the seat did go to Republicans by 73 votes…. which since the state Constitution requires a super-majority to raise taxes, just one Republican vote can now shut down “the change we need”.
Not only was the issue not vetted nor discussed prior to the election, but they appeared surprised that it was even taking place. Only one blogger out of the eight on that staff seemed even slightly concerned. (Liberal Geek (so that he feels honored)).
The analysis (courtesy of John Tobin) showed…”the numbers are clear that in the five districts where Kovach won, turnout was 25.5% and the seven districts where Migliore won, turnout was 13.5%. Districtwide turnout was 18.1 %, but turnout was not evenly distributed which benefited Kovach.”
Obviously the other side was ready. “We will be at the total mercy of the Democrats who will have very little when it is a choice between their pet projects and your wallet. No excuses, just take 15 minutes out of your day and vote. Turnout appears low. Your vote is vital.”
But Delaware Liberal was preoccupied that day as well as the week leading up to Saturday’s vote with a video clip from “The Office“, a chimpanzee banging on a manual typewriter, and Mike Castle’s apology to Chrysler workers…. as well as an eloquent rating of DV’s posts that day of December…..
Point is not to take anything away from their humor and levity, but instead, to refocus all of our attention again back to “what is really important…”
So since November, what other issues have slipped past the watchdogs of the media? While we’ve been sleeping, you know the enemy has not… ( The enemy being corruption, misuse of power, and insubordination to public authority.)
Workforce Housing was stayed for a couple of weeks (Check out the upcoming January 13th meeting). Continuance of that proposal will turn lower New Castle County, into a Wilmington suburb, with overcrowded roads, over crowded schools, over extended police services, and tons of shit dumped into the water supply because sewers are not developed in those areas… It was sneaked through once. The same players will sneak it through again… Only Nancy at Delaware Way has published anything on the topic.
Which makes these words somewhat ironic, when they were uttered on Delaware Liberal recently, considering that the largest issue impacting our state locally over the next 15 years… has been met largely with silence except by her…..
Other issues not mentioned across Delaware’s blogosphere… The upcoming SEU finagle that Harris McDowell set up last session so that it could slip by unnoticed, just as soon as the new legislature takes effect, which is I believe…. just nineteen days from now…
Equally quiet was the election of the leadership of the Democratic Assembly… There were three weeks between the election and the Senate leadership. Due to the vacuum of silence, the same group is running the Senate. Perhaps if enough noise had been made beforehand…….
Wind farming is now on the back burner… Only Tommywonk has written anything regarding Delaware’s economic lifeboat.
Healthcare for Delaware. Not much has been written. Where do we go from here… We have a new governor, we have a Democratic majority in both houses, and we have a depression slamming into us with gale force winds and the health insurance industry just raised their rates in January by another 19%.
Sussex County overdevelopment. You know developers are not sleeping. That was a hot topic down South this past election season. But since the election… silence? Again it is only Nancy who has been the conduit of that information northward….
So when one looks at all that which important to us locally, our General Assembly, our utility bills, our health care, our quality of life, our neighborhoods, we see nothing but a black hole… Something that sucks in everything relevant and lets nothing out to be aired or discussed… As we discovered with wind, the airing and discussion is really the driving force that gets conversations going where people discuss the outcomes… As we have discovered since…. when there is lack of discussion, weird things can get passed, simply because only far too few individuals are allowed the clue to what is really going on… If we persist dancing around these black holes we encounter, we are no better than the New Journal was this entire millennium!
There is a telling parallel between the dying MSM and today’s Delaware blogosphere…. Commercialism… Mike Matthews is different from when he first began his blog… Some may say better, but it is hard to say which is better or worse, but I think even he will agree, he is different now… Some things are taboo if one is interested in promoting oneself.. The internal struggles of Delaware Liberal have sort of shown that same propensity… Keep it safe..
I am calling it as I see it, for I remember well having discussions prior with Jason330, regarding the News Journal’s failure stemming from its inability to print what people really wanted to hear… the news… Like… what is going on around here today…. That local interest is what carried papers through most of the 20th Century. Today, it’s all about advertising.
So I raise a question. Can one be an dirt digging blogger and still create a commercially viable blog? Or does one have to sell out so others are comfortable placing bets on their blog, expecting that that those ads will reach others? Once attributed to selling out, your audience leaves to go elsewhere.
I believe one builds ratings doing what they are there to do. If an advertiser signs on, it is because he is guaranteed readership… not because he wants to control the programing.
Finally our conversation brings us around to the biggest black hole imaginable… the one that occurred to fellow bloggers Mat Marshall and Dominique…. Each time I think… I sigh, and just can’t imagine… But reading through the comments was like reading a who’s who of Delaware bloggers.. We do have a community after all, between the commentators, and bloggers themselves and as each of us realized the scope of the loss, our differences became quite small. We are, after all, 99.9% alike… And something on this scope…really drives it home that we all do need to work together; sharing the tremendous amount we have in common, working for something we can all agree on, instead of squabbling over the tiniest of differences we have among us…
It’s getting hard to write through tears. I must end it now.
Courtesy of Department of Defense
So here is what is going on across Delaware’s blogosphere….
The Colossus of Rhodey is bemoaning some publication’s or journalistic attempt to describe the left side of the Supreme Court as being moderate… Like Jane Fonda’s hell he says…. He also revisits John Edwards (remember him) sending a campaign staffer to by a Wal*Mart Playstation 3, while slamming Wal*Mart in his campaign speeches… The seventeenth of November was a light day for him, …but then Battlestar Galactica came on that evening… as his review on the eighteenth brings that episode back to life….
Duffy has a post covering open ended gaming... it’s worth it visiting to see his reminiscence of his reaction to playing on a 2600…. I didn’t know that Americans spend more on games than movies? He also finished an extensive piece on religion and science.. Instead of debating between science and religion…we should include science in the classification of religion… I was intrigued by this statement….and after turning it over, I would have to say it is true… “There are many points of contention and conflict between Arab Islam and the West, but the chief religious contention between Islamists and the West is not really between Islam and Christianity but between Islam and Western scientific-materialism.” And to show you that Republicans never learn... Trent Lott is again appointed to the Number 2 spot….. Wow.
Delmar’s Dustpan covers a cover girl, a beauty of Delmar fame… Another Delmar, beauty, this architectural wonder, was once owned by the William Freihofer Baking company. But with new news of a priestly scandal, Delmar’s Dustpan makes a surprising find about the difference between two Delmarva newspapers… The News Journal and the Daily (Salisbury) Times….. If one’s blood has not boiled once yet today, they should view his catch (same link) of the FBI knowingly sending 4 men to jail to protect the identities of their informants… Two died.
Merit Bound Alley tells us of Joe’s plan to hook up with Tyler Nixon for a seminar of alternative energy, featuring a symposium of solar, wind, and bio fuels.. Someone named William Kempton is speaking on wind. Joe M is still in the process of trying to find out how many Karen Peterson votes were written in during the election just passed… but the Department of Elections does not plan on releasing them until the next year… He also gives a head shout to another blogger who made his predictions for the next race… two years away…. titled appropriately… “True Addiction“… Equally fascinating was Joe M’s personal vignette covering the problems being hidden within the Wilmington Catholic Diocese.
Delaware Watch recommends visiting Merit Bound Alley as well. (I didn’t check out the audio…) Dana Garrett takes on the Republican Party’s blame game among themselves and their propensity NOT to blame those who made the decisions …but underlings of those who made the decisions…. no matter what the economic status is within their families…. He also notes that Liberals have outed the Conservatives among our neighbor to the North… Apparently across the board, the term Conservative is equatable to Creationism, which was another once firmly held belief, despite the total absence of fact to back it up…. Dana also pokes holes in capitalist theory… Guess who’s gross domestic product — a measure of all the goods and services in the economy — rose 10.2 percent from July to September compared to the same three-month period during the previous year? Did anyone say Chavez? “It’s ironic, this revolution. The rich are even richer now.” Dana also uncovers a little know legislative attorney who defends Rep Wagner’s little past double dipping episode: charging in front of a judge, that anyone who wanted to sue against collecting from the state twice…. “had no standing to do so.” Aye! Protecting the little guy, huh?
Nancy’s The Delaware Way has a piece attributing the Democrat’s win to Dean and moderate conservatives who left the Republican Party… Even she admits she is reeling from the events of this past week with her pictorial representation she posts here…. She appears to be going through a light phase… going back a week is her celebration that Andy Reid accepts that his play calling sucks….
From Down State, Mikes Musings, starring a blogger still remarkably self absorbed since 1962, shares with us one of his life changing moments….. But more important for us, is the changing of Delaware’s status away from being the first state… nay, even being a state at all! But solutions are the real reason Mahaffie is happy. Using technology to bring back the best of olden times, is what technology is all about….
Tommywonk has his thing on Purple America…. He also celebrates another blogger’s bump to the home page of Daily Kos… He takes time to eulogize an economist responsible for uttering these profound words of wisdom: What George W. Bush has done has been to shift taxes from the present to the future–and also made future taxes uncertain, random, and thus extra-costly from a standard public finance view. So no matter how high our taxes go… Democrats cannot be blamed….
This person is wondering what the difference is between a Republican and a Democrat… Do we see seeds of a future post? Perhaps… But nevertheless, he has picked a new chairperson for the Republican Party.. One who has combed through all evidence and knows their weaknesses inside and out… The name of their new chair, may surprise you….. And this, will make you want to hug your kids forever.
Dave Burris, quotes an article from TIME, outcrying that Republicans were only 77,611 votes shy of taking control of the House of Representatives, and that just a shift of 2847 votes in Montana, could have kept them in control of the Senate…. In fact, instead of drowning his sorrows for the Republicans faulty showing, he is crowing that in a bad year, where they should have been squelched, they weathered the storm rather well… “In a year that was supposed to be a big, blue wave where Democrats dominated from sea to shining sea, it almost wasn’t that at all. I can’t imagine conditions that would favor the Dems more, so this will probably be the best they can do.” he boasts.
Delaware Liberal, along with Tommywonk, and FSP, praise Joe M. for his work in pursuing the missing write in vote… a vote whose total was to be suppressed until after the choices were made for Senate leadership…. Also Jason goes out on the early line in his predictions for two years hence… I wonder how prognosticatable he will be? One of the interesting aspects of our blogosphere is the interaction between right and left… This interesting exchange covers Bush’s handling of the Iraqi war…I hope no one eats their words…. He comments on FSP’s head scratching over what was going on with the National Republican Leadership.. Dave Burris with this quote: “I spoke to the Sussex County Republican Women’s Club on Wednesday, and one portion of my message to them was that I was certain that our leaders in Washington had gotten the message that voters sent on Election Day.
Now, I’m not so sure.” And we have breaking News that Mike Castle has filed again…One must check out the link provided… We also have the traditional rant over the “liberal media” which is not so liberal after all.…. then proves it with this worthy piece about the News Journal burying an environmentally sensitive piece that might offend the entrenched powerful….even though not publishing it could kill someone over time….. That Delaware blogger had better slow down… He just might burn himself out….. lol
At least I’m glad to see he his taking a break… on this post election weekend….
Oh! And as if we needed another one……….From the ranks of our regular commentators, a new Delaware blog is now on the boards as of 11/17……Welcome. Here is its opening post…..We shall see if it makes any difference… Most likely, due to “the fix” that’s in ….. this blog too will matter very little…….
kavips 