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So why even vote?
For one, the county is what controls most of our lives, if you live outside any of the smaller city limits…
Two, you pay them enough in taxes (included in your escrows if paying-off a mortgage). or a painful separate check if the asset is fully yours.
Three. They establish and run almost all the things that impact your daily lives… When it comes down to “gee, how well do we like this place in which we live”, the country has probably 60%, the state 30%, and the Federal government 10% of that decision…
If you don’t believe me simply try living without a sewer for one year… You get tired digging holes in your back yard. But also add the perks that sprout up, those festivals in our county parks, that farm next door that never was developed into a section 8 housing unit, the police who not only protect us, but let our kids pet their Clydesdales, and you sort of get a general idea of how important our County actually is to us….
So what happens, when county government stops working? You get everybody fighting for themselves… sort of like New Jersey. You get no planning. You get results where anything goes. You get increased crime because either one can buy off cops who have no one watching over them, or because they were strictured through lack of funding. You get no perks, unless you want to pay a private citizen your out-of-pocket money to get them… And all the stuff you do have now, starts falling through the cracks out of neglect….
Bottom line: it is very important to have someone running the county who can do it well…
Which thrusts us sometimes into this bizarre choice. Is it better to have a person more concerned with morals and appearances who always seems to be deep in a moral struggle just to do their basic job?… Or is it better to be stuck with someone always having the whiff of corruption seeming to surround them, but who makes your own personal life SO MUCH BETTER and easier by his abilities and skill to get things done before you even get to worry about them…..?
This bizarre choice is what New Castle County faces this primary season when choosing its Executive. ….. …. …. Your vote will simply depend on which of the above traits YOU think is more important, either it being sanctimonious, or being successful; which YOU prefer to see embedded in your leader….
Delaware Liberal just came out in support of Matt Meyer. Interestingly that same writer penning that article was also a fervent supporter of Hillary, even to the point of being quite vicious towards Bernie who was performing a service like Matt, challenging the current leader on their principles, especially when it came to the appearance of impropriety over their past choices between ones constituents and ones cronies and corporate friends.. If we remember correctly, the writer’s response to such criticism boiled down to: she’s effective, she gets things done, her enemies naturally try to discredit her and having no substance, must use whisper campaigns and false accusations.
It is ironical that this one writer was all Hillary in the national, and is now all Matt in the local because in this race, Tom is the candidate being pilloried more like Hillary, the seasoned politician, whereas Matt as the new interloper gets a “buy” on using morality to launch a challenge…
Because like Hillary, Tom Gorden has had an amazing career. Granted some is timing. But also granted is that he is feared by this state’s developers, ever since he shocked them with a moratorium on all new development.. He implemented that necessary action which had been a political albatross, so much so that none of his predecessors had been willing to touch it before he arrived. Whereas you may not agree with the copious amounts of development you have seen being dug lately; the control over what has actually been approved for development, was far more consistent with the opinions of those living in those local neighborhoods during the split terms of Gordon, than what occurred during the interims of those holding the office during the split… Can you say: Barley Mills Plaza?
In what matters to our longterm happiness, Tom Gordon has done a better job. In that way, he is our Hillary, the workhorse who simply because he chooses to support the majority will of the people over the peculating wills of the elite, has special interests spend inordinate time digging for dirt and constantly slandering him , even haul him in as a criminal. Yet when actually investigated (Hillary 13 times, Tom 1) , though there may be some impropriety brought to light (on both Hillary and Tom) it is innocent shadiness; nothing near what the accusers tried to paint… In fact, if you notice the shaming in the Delaware Liberal article, the problem they try to paint on Tom is that he was “accused”; little mention that a judge who “actually” saw the “evidence offered”, said it was political bullshit and dropped the case. There really is no difference here between those “accusing” Hillary, indicting her in public because she was called in to account 13 times… (for no one gets called up 13 times unless they are an actual criminal, right) and those indicting Tom Gordon because of “similar” accusations. Yet in each of those times, the evidence overwhelmingly showed not only was there no actual wrongdoing, but we glimpsed how great she was at running things. The real evidence that comes out of each of her “hauling in’s”, is that she is an awesome human being… probably the best we’ll see in our lifetimes… And the same can be said about Tom.
At some point, one has to shut down the accusers… “You have no evidence”.
Matt has a nice resume full of “progressiveness” but is seems short on the executive skills needed to run a metropolitan county. There is no endorsement by others in his “creds” showing he has experience in leading huge numbers of people, often including among that number, those who are trying to see you fail. In his resume I didn’t see any past acclamations which told us how good he was with dealing over conflict. How strong will he stand up to the selfish interests of County Council? Whereas his resume tells us what kind of a person he is, it doesn’t tell us what kind of an Executive he will be. So instead of starting a stock exchange, will he insist on using that money to send Payless shoes to Africa? Point made.
And since Delaware Liberal made a big deal on ethics, one should wisely point out that Matt Meyer’s hit piece last sent out in the mail, uses the same kind of ethics both he and Delaware Liberal try to pretend he is above…
His photo has a bright picture with school kids; Tom’s is grainy yellow darkened to show all the weathered lines on his face… Is that on the up and up? Playing with what you are given, putting out something that is Foxnewsworthy?
Highlighting “Pleading guilty to two criminal charges” without mentioning they were minor misdemeanors, the felonious charges were dropped because they were politically crafted. Is that completely honest? Most of us plead guilty to criminal charges every time we mail in a check for a speeding ticket.
“He was elected in 1996. Since then, many of our largest corporations have downsized or left the state: GM, Chrysler, MBNA, Avon, Astra Zeneca and Dupont?” Oh, you went there? Lets refresh the record on those companies. Both GM and Chrysler were bailed out by the Feds. Did Gordon have anything to do with that? MBNA was bought out by Bank or America… Did Gordon have anything to do with that? Avon consolidated elsewhere due to a huge national sales drop, could Gordon have bought all its makeup and applied it to his grainy yellow weathered face (see above) just to keep them in business? Astra Zeneca, again bought out. Dupont split for liability reasons… None of these are Gordon’s Fault. So what is Matt trying to accomplish by making it look so? Make himself look immature and amateurish? In fact, it was Chris Coons and Paul Clark who were in the office when most of those took place…right?
So is Matt Meyer being fair here? In all truth, this was written probably by his hired consultant, who tells everyone “I’m his consultant; I’m running his campaign” but in reality just creates and mails those things you get in your mailbox, and Matt Meyer’s consultant’s literature is no different from Tony Deluca’s, Tom Sharp’s, or those creeps’ who attack John Kowalko every two years.
Bottom line, Tom had nothing to do with those business switches and losses. and starting in 1996 covers a lot of time, 20 years. Twenty years that between being up or down, things have been pretty good in New Castle County compared to anywhere else near or far.
Matt’s flyer says we gave him a second chance and got more crime and decreased job opportunities. Has crime increased? There is less in my neighborhood than was during Paul Clarks’s span, so naturally I had to look it up to see….
(Just in case some of Matt’s supporters can’t see too well)………..
Perhaps they mistakenly add Wilmington to the mix but really, is that fair to add Wilmington to New Castle County when the current executive has no police-fire-or ambulance jurisdiction within Wilmington’s city limits?
Within the county, crime has dropped 16.4% since we gave Gordon a second term.. I’ve seen its results with my own eyes….
There also was much ballyhoo made in Delaware Liberal’s comments about the drop in reserves… In your own personal life, if a tree falls in your back yard and you have money in savings to cover its removal, … do you keep that money in savings, and leave the tree to rot?
That is what those who bring up this ridiculous charge are advocating… we had needs, we had reserves, we used them…
They say” OH NO! YOU USED THE RESERVES! YOU ARE AN INCOMPETENT IDIOT “. Collectively the entire populace of New Castle County should respond in kind by giving the only person we have ever had who has actually increase our reserves, another opportunity to do it again… In that quiet way, we will all have the last laugh and say….”no, it looks like you are the idiot….”
You may remember… Only two states were accepted in the first Race to The Top Competition… Delaware..*yay* and Tennessee. Same agenda. Same connections to the Governor’s Association and Chiefs For Change… Same influences, etc…
Let me tell you where Tennessee is now…
In three weeks, they start their school year… yes, August 3rd. This past year they instituted a non-renewal policy that said if you’re scores were not above standard, your contract would not be renewed… AND you would be marked as ineligible for rehire.
(Someone thought the threat of firing would cause scores to rise.)
One of their larger districts is undergoing some pain right now…
The Metro- Nashville Public School system is experiencing a teacher shortage…
- So far, 320 new teachers have been hired- 42 are TFA ( which is the maxamim limit of them which MNPS is allowed to hire)
- The average # of new teachers hired each year (based upon the last 5 years) is 574
- 19% of schools will have new principals
- Currently, MNPS needs to hire 189 new teachers before school starts in three weeks
- MNPS still needs to hire 7 principals.
- There are 74 (out of 153) schools with major teacher vacancies
- The top needs are: Exceptional Ed (22), Math (19), English Learners (10) and Spanish (9)
- Just 21 (15 working) days to the start of school.
Obviously the strict discipline enforced on teachers has made the upcoming year to be one of survival; not excellence…. Just keeping open the doors will be a challenge, heaven help the test scores of 2017…
Also keep in mind that many of those teachers whose contracts were not renewed, were once considered excellent teachers before we started using Common Core’s tests. from the district’s website:
- Sixty-one percent of MNPS teachers hold a master’s degree or higher and 99.75 percent are highly qualified in at least one subject area
That 0.25 % not qualified matches up with the TFA candidates…..
Which proves as all have said, the folly of putting all education’s blame on teachers… Now, you have no teachers so what are you going to do?
Well the MNPS plans to contract out to a computer teaching service for its classes having no bodies in front of it… as well as wave all certification requirements for anyone willing to stand up in front of a class.
Yes.
NOW FOR THE GREAT NEWS…………………………………………………………………………..
This isn’t happening in Delaware.
Why?
Mostly because of you, who objected to insanity and would not be silenced… Though corporate money could buy out Earl Jacques, corporate money could buy out Dave Sokola, it could not buy out parents, it could not buy out teachers, and it could not tamper with the communication system set up between them…..
As a historian I am prone to look for those important moments and speculate had they gone differently, what the new outcome would be… I know that is a weakness of mine. But saying so, if one were to ask this historian where Delaware avoided the train wreak its sister is now going through, I would have to point to the pivot as being John Young of Christina’s Board of Education…
Keep in mind we are a small state. The Metro-Nashville school district alone has 80,000 students. That is two thirds the size of our entire state school system and they are but one district. Therefore each citizen here has a larger percentage of a voice in their government than do almost everyone else.
We also do not have a television station all turn to for local news. There is a definite knowledge gap which most smart people have found is best adequately filled through the blogosphere. Our blogosphere has more investigative reporters then the entire state’s news conglomeration of radio stations and newspapers combined…
As a result of all of this, here it was hard to only give “one side” of the story (though Dave Sokola certainly tried). The other story got out, sometimes too late to change legislation, but not to late to now hold those perpetrators who pushed it, accountable for the damage they have caused Delaware’s children in lost opportunities…
(Remember how our educational measurements soared, up until they hit the Common Core legislation these crooks pushed through?)
With all those kept in mind, it was John Young who pointed the direction long before anyone else publicly, that corporate schemes were behind this new “push” for improving education… I confess, I remember glossing over Kilroy’s exclamations of Markell’s Wall Street connections with glazed eye before John passed on an illuminating tidbit on what was wrong with American education…
What struck me in that video was how on a map, it was very obvious that the diagnosis of ADHD in children starts in Oklahoma and grows exponentially as it heads to the east Coast. Pretty much mirroring the graph for average amounts of extra disposable income after necessary expenses have been met on a state by state basis….
That and the failure Common Core was having among children who were in the test classes for it… Failures as high as 85% in those test classes, which the DOE still as yet has not divulged. These failures included some of the previous years’ top students… Something was seriously wrong.
Bottom line, Delaware did not go down the path as did Tennessee because the people exerted enough pressure here to slow the process and force the inclusion of parents, teachers, and “active” administrators in the formulation of policy….
No, we still do not have a perfect solution… we still need to fight on… But in all glaring truth, we also do not have Tennessee…..
And that, is a victory for truth, justice, and the will of the American people…. We should be proud of ourselves for what we stopped…. and we should tip our hats to John Young in congratulatory thanks for first sounding the alarm which mobilized us into action….
In a great measure due to him, we are much better than Tennessee.
If there is anything a numbers person admires or appreciates, it is someone who does state budgets 7 years in a row. Yours was a herculean task. Like Clark Kent, laymen will never understand the super powers that lay therein, but rest assured, some of us do know.
You are a credit to our kind…..
Welcome home, soldier…….
Courtesy of The O Zone
You hear the handle turn, you here the wheels start to grind.. and then the sound.. the awful sound begins to screech… “Your taxes are going up; we can’t pay more money… Vote NO. It’s outrageous to pay more in taxes… Cut Administrators.. Blah, blah, blah”…and then the sound gets softer and softer and fades quieter and quieter into silence until the next person turns the handle and …”Your taxes are going up… we can’t…..”
And it’s a very small tiny ridiculously low amount of people who believe this crap. .. but they are highly motivated to vote.. Why? Because they get $15 dollars a hour to hand out pamphlets, call radio stations, and write letters to the editor… They are hired by large landowners, the developers…
The developers own thousands of acres. Just $200 an acre costs them a minimum of $200,000 dollars a year.. But, they are making hundreds of million each single year so that much money is still like losing a penny to us… But they still pay people to squawk.
The estimated average is that the increase will be around $237 a year… That means that half of the people who can afford to, will pay higher than that amount and half those who are living on tight incomes, will pay less….
Most houses sell for $240, 000 but they are assessed at 1974 levels.. Which means $60,000 for the above if an older house.. At $60,000 assessment, the current tax is $852 per year. (Go to that site if you know your assessed value), Your new tax will be roughly $180 dollars more… Divide that by month, it is $15.00 more you will find added to your escrow when you pay your mortgage…
If your house is at $100,000, and the 1974 assessment is $30,000, the current tax is $426 and the increase will be $90 more per year or $7.50 per month…
If you rent, this referendum costs you absolutely nothing..
If you are on the high end and have a house assessed at $500,000, your current assessment is $7,100… Your new assessment will be $8,600 ($1,500 more). That huge (cough, cough) jump puts you at an increase of $125 a month. Which it you own a $500,000 house, your cost increase is less than normal utility fluctations… Big deal.
So all the screaming is not from little people owning house, unless they got whipped up by someone with big money… The screaming is by the huge landowners who lease property…
But local real-estate experts insist that good schools DO lead to higher property values, and several studies done in other cities have found strong correlations between highly performing schools and higher house prices.
So defeating the referendum can cost your home to plummet in value by $120,000 balanced against voting “no” you saving your pocketbook $15.00 a month…
It is past time to raise revenue for schools. Many have gone years with no increase, yet costs increase every year. Just as your costs have increased, so have those of all schools. All districts must continue having referenda as often as possible until a “yes” vote occurs, simply because they are out of money. Referenda are the only way districts can increase revenues. Christina for example this year cut 90 teachers and raised.class sizes from 20 to 30 per class. That does not bode well for better learning. it does not bode well for your children….
That makes this a no-brainer. Vote Yes for the referendum…
I forgot to tell you something… Even though at the top I said these “NO” voters were a small sliver of the population,… they all vote. And even though parents of school children can easily overwhelm them 1,000 to one, they don’t every referendum because only 5000 of those 50,000 parents supporting children even bother to go out and vote… Just 6000 “NO” votes were able to derail the last referendum, because only 5000 yes votes bothered to show up…
If you don’t vote, the no’s win… That simple. Everybody who cares about Delaware, needs to vote to make Christina District a better place for all.
Bottom line, this extra tax is not a burden and you have so much benefit to gain for your yes vote. Don’t be dissuaded from voting in YOUR best interest by some fly-by-election-night outfit that is paid for, owned, and controlled by the wealthy landed class of citizens who can easily afford to give up billions for our schools, but cry over giving up 30 additional cents per $100 dollars of assessed value… For a nice $200,000 home, you pay $15.00 a month more for the privilege of living in a district with great schools…
People lie, lie, lie… Math never does.
Shout out to El Som who dutifully does what in the other 49 states would be the News Journal’s duty, just so we too can be an informed public… Many thanks from those of us who use this valuable resource….
You probably know by now from the “other” sources that Valerie Longhurst is gutting $70 million from fixing our roads and bridges despite the disaster on 495!
You probably right now are smacking your forehead with your hand, and saying “What the fuck is she thinking?” I have to sit in traffic an extra hour because of her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You would be right. But, apparently she is not alone. The majority of the Legislature is still living in the 00’s and is too timid to increase revenues… any revenues… There is very tiny fringe of people cheering that… and that tiny fringe are the only ones who have their ear…
So the rest of us have to suffer more gridlock because of Valerie Longhurst… and more, and more, and more, more, more, more, more, …,
Collectively in 2 years we will all scream!!!!!!!!!!!!!! “Why doesn’t someone do something!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”….
Instead of passing a gas tax which will hurt only those speculators investing in gasoline….and will be 60% financed by out of state travelers….. she is cutting, (this is not about growing any bigger) but she is “cutting” infrastructure improvements…..
Well, we gotta cut something……
NO! YOU DON’T…….
There are unlimited resources for raising revenue… The gas tax is one… And taxing our wealthy is a goldmine… Recently it was determined that our wealthy could adquetely fund up to $1.3 billion yearly each single year…. to bring them up to the level counting for inflation to where they were taxed back in the 50’s… They survived then; they’ll survive now…. No billionaire has ever died impoverished…..
So with an untapped $1.3 billion at our disposal…. Valerie Longhurst is cutting back on rebuilding bridges and roads!… Just think… if that inspector who luckily got in his car that Monday morning to look under that bridge, … had been laid off. Just think, if all of them had been laid off! Exactly! That is where Valerie is taking us….
We’d not have fixed the bridge in time… We still be pulling bodies out the river….
This is where Valerie Longhurst is leading us… This is just plain fucking stupid. Anyone can see it is plain fucking stupid….
The problem is not really in the number of brain cells these legislators have…. They, I trust, have pretty close to the same number as the rest of us… The real problem…. IS THAT THEY… DON’T…. HEAR… YOU !!! (They hear the tiny few from ALEC 40 times a day)… You must make them HEAR you… You must…
Call or more effectively…. email…. today….
Say: RAISE THE GAS TAX AND TAX THE TOP ONE PERCENT….. BUT, whatever you do…. don’t EVER cut the transportation fund and make me wait in my car ONE MORE SINGLE MINUTE because you were too cheap to fix a bridge before it goes out!!!
And if you don’t know who they are…….
The problem with government these days is that they just don’t hear anymore from people with plain Common Sense…. Change that! Today!
(Sung to the tune of the National Anthem…..)
Oh, say, can you see?
By the pale florescent light.
What once was so proudly was hailed,
As the reason for Sussex’s being…..
Whose broad girths and wide ties.
Led Conservative battles galore…
Illegal prayers and hot sexed lies….
Made them more desire… a Conservator…..
As county sheriffs, with posse’s in arms…..
Or as popes whose morals were in great harm….
They kept the brown skinned down,
So only those who were white… could farm….
Oh say, doth… those… fallen… bigots,
From last century in rural Sussex’s Way……..
Represent the best, that Sussex can ever be-eee?
Or like the Georgetown hatchet? Should be buried after election day……..
.
Ken Grant, formerly with the Caesar Rodney Institute, a Koch Brothers’ mouthpiece, is now spokesperson for the TDC (The “Data” Center)… Granted, one would think also a former employee of AnalTech, would be technically more anal about throwing around facts. At least one would expect a lot less bluster…
Here is his take in the News Journal….
If you should choose to read it, you will find it to be mostly a lambasting of Newarks’ citizens and very little defense of the Data Center… Very little. Reminds one of when Caesar Rodney declared global warming was a hoax. It would attack all the scientific knowledge in the world, because it found one glacier out of 400,000 that was growing…. Of course in the readers head would pop this question… But what about the other 399,999? But the Caesar Rodney Institute was simply too unconcerned with 399,999 other pieces of evidence to even care…
Anyway… back to what he said….
He said: there are 4000 CHP’s scattered across the US… Here is the data sheet he pulled up to write his piece….. (pdf)
Here are his 4000 units. Here is what he doesn’t show…
Any little business that has a generator that also produces heat is included in his file. Even the original presentation made to the Newark zoning commission, that the data center would need an auxiliary power source like one might find on an IKEA, is included on the map…. I think it would be safe to assume that were such a small power plant going in at the Data Center, there would be no controversy as we speak…
The problem is the size… Ken Grant in his op-ed makes no mention of his size… The difference in size is like you took the penises of 5 horses, sewed them together and then attached that to a person… Saying he has a penis, so does every male… is disingenuous and dishonest… You are technically correct he has a penis… But …. who would want him in an arranged marriage with their daughter?
It may be true there are 8 people in Manhattan with penises. Bet none of them spew 10 horse testicle’s full of discharge, do they?
The one he touts in Austin is 52-75 MW. The award winning Texas A and M, is a paltry 60MW. Delaware will host a 248 MW generator.
Size does matter….
Let us talk water….. At minimum, the Christina River flows 6 cubic feet per second. The data center will use ~34.7 gallons per second (~3 million gal/day). There are 7.48 gallons per cubic foot. Rounding out the conversion, the data center will use 4.64 cubic feet per second of water flow out of the 6 cubic feet per second one usually finds every August. Obviously 1.36 cubic feet are left to fulfill all the needs downstream… The flow levels back in 2003 would leave dry river bed.
That is just not right. And Ken Grant (of course) makes no mention of that….
Let us talk air quality. Currently there is no radon in the air over Newark and Northern Delaware. There will be a lot. Radon as you know, kills. Currently there are no particles raining down on Newark Proper. These particles cause cancer… There will be a lot.. So these people that Ken Grant dismisses will be wheezing, coughing, hacking, and spitting up blood.
It is estimated that now after facts have matriculated into the community of Newark proper, that 98% of its residents are against the power plant. One is certain, that as these health facts get matriculated as well, that would be a guaranteed total…. For who wants to die a needless painful death?
So when Ken Grant calls 98% of Newark’s citizens who are sincerely worried about dying prematurely, ” a small group of very sincere but very wrong people”, perhaps he is correct in his assumption but just needs to turn that designation… the other way around…..
It is very tiny minority of the the Koch Brothers’ minions who deserve the ridicule and derision, not normal hard working Americans, who loved Newark so much, they bought a home here…..
One of my nightly escapades found me in a local Delaware Bar… I was brought here because the clientèle is political savvy even though most are not into politics… There this happened.
Bartender: “Attention everyone we are doing a spontaneous survey and afterwards when I tell you you can all down your drink.”..
Grumbling turns to mumbling which turns to silence…
Bartender: “Are you ready? First question…. How many of you out there believe everything you hear on Fox News.”….
(no one raised their hands, though talk afterwards said one did obviously for a joke and quickly put it down)
Bartender: “Ok, 2nd question… There will be 6…. 2nd question: How many of you believe everything you see on ABC news.”..
(no one raised their hands…)
Bartender “Ok, 3rd question: How many of you believe everything you see on CBS?”
(no one raised their hands)
Bartender: “Ok, Number 4. How many of you believe everything you see on CNN…..?’
(no one raised their hands)
Bartender: “Ok everyone only 2 more and we can get back to drinking… How many of you believe everything you see on…. ESPN!
(Laughter, exclamations, hands up, probably close to half… almost all male)
Bartender: “Better, Ok… one more… How many of you believe everything you see on John Stewart’s Daily Show on Domedy Central?”
(Lots of laughter, cheers, and a unanimous hand raising… Some ESPN males raising both hands…. )
I came away from the experience thinking that America is indeed in good hands… The “Bullsh\t” is completely missing the target….. The real stuff is getting through.
First Connecticut and New York raised their heat allowance from $1 dollar to $20 dollars in order to qualify millions for SNAP food stamps, who would otherwise get cut off.
Today, in a very surprising move, PA, did the same…
Where is Delaware? Every dollar spent puts $4-7 thousand back into our economy! It’s the fastest way to grow our economy!
kavips 
