You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘History Is Facts’ category.
Trump has so smeared white people as racists to those of brown skin, that whites almost now have to denounce Trump publicly, in order to be viewed as not supporting him…
Being silent is acquiescence… it is like if someone comes into your house, shoots your spouse, and you say nothing, you wished for it somehow….
That is the plight at which all white people now find themselves… Trying to be polite, trying to bite your tongue so as not to “offend” your white neighbors, is being pro-racist…. not because of anything you think or harbor in your heart. but because of the immensity of the awfulness we are all faced with…. the actual rounding up of Afro Americans and Hispanics to be exterminated in concentration camps.
Bottom line… If you don’t say you hate Trump, you condone him. You ARE racist…. There can be no other excuse…..
Actually it was the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights act that brought this home… The Civil Rights Act among many other things enforced the role a Federal Government should have over the national character. Prior, if the South behaved in one way, that was acceptable. If the North behaved in another, that was acceptable…
The Civil Rights Act stated that some behaviors are indeed deemed not acceptable. It dealt with opposing local laws, opposing local enforcements of segregation, and opposing individual business practices perpetuated by the wishes of small handfuls of individual business owners who like Hobby Lobbyists, thought they could do what they liked….
The Civil Rights Act in no uncertain terms, said: No! We are a nation of principles embodied in our Constitution as well as our Declaration of Independence, and you cannot violate those principles in the name of “your” personal freedom….
Hobby Lobby sort of changes all that… The big fear is that it just opened a door so that corporations can freely do whatever they feel is best, and that any legislation voted and signed, now has no real impact upon them because they are after all: … corporations…. You have all read the slippery slope theories and so I won’t redo them. But slippery slopes have a tendency to sometimes be idle warnings…. A lot of people walk on slippery slopes; very few fall off… In part that may be due to warnings from others that they are on slippery slopes and to be be careful… Just like a road sign of a car with skid marks makes one say, “oh yeah, that’s right, it’s raining, I’d better take this curve slower.” and possibly affect the outcome of that turn….
But slippery slope or not, the Hobby Lobby decision does do this: it says that what a government says you have to do, you don’t have to do, provided you can find a reason that is valid for you not doing so…
And that is rather Libertarian.
It makes one sigh that history is a lost art. Because there were times in our history when Libertarianism indeed was the predominant philosophy…. So why was there never a Libertarian Party? After all, one would think that a dominant philosophy would have a Libertarian Party, correct?
How soon we forget….. The reason there was no libertarian party formed to compete against other parties is because during this time of Libertarianism, there was no structure of Government requiring organized parties…. Of course I am referring to the times under the Articles of Confederation…. When the idealism of throwing off the king of England, made the predominant meme that one of “not taking on a new authority to replace the role of the other”….
The reason we don’t have a Libertarian run government today, is because the reality turned out to be that it could not work. It’s own beliefs worked against its own existence… How can you have an effective government telling you what to do when your government was founded on its not being able to tell you what to do?….
So, America’s top citizens at that time scrapped the Confederation, established a Constitution, and today, we are still here…. Debating Libertarianism rampant in today’s court….
Just looking over the final stats, I did see that the percentage of cases in which this Supreme Court decided things 5-4 were only 13%. Yet, its 9-0 decisions marked 65% of this year’s final tally. So it is with a grain of salt that we should dismiss the entire court… In doing so we fail to see the wisdom behind having the third branch of government… It allows for the last look.
This year the average age of the Supreme Court is 68…. it’s average composite would have been born in 1946… would have gone through grade school in the 50’s while segregation was perfectly legal, would have been a high school senior the year Kennedy was shot, college would have structured by the military-industrial complex, being too soon they would have missed out on the protests of ’68 onward, would think Jersey Boys were the ultimate musical group ever, would never try drugs, would have been disappointed in the 70’s as that decade’s media ridiculed all the structure with which they grew up and made them iconoclasts inside their own world, would always fondly remember Mom at home and Dad always working to the bone, would be in their late 30’s when Reagan came into in office, and see in his grandfather qualities the fondness of the times they grew up, would be 45 when the Soviet Union imploded, 57 when we invaded Iraq, 62 when the Global Depression hit, and now stand at the cusp of 68…
Justice Kennedy. The swing. Appointed by a someone today dead 10 years, 27 days, elected 34 years ago this November…. Thirty four years… Ironically half a lifetime of a 68 year old. In some cultures, a grandparent. Who ironically, when that president was sworn in, the number one single was “Imagine”…..
Today, people under 20 years of age make up over a quarter of the U.S. population (27.3%), and people age 65 and over make up one-eighth (12.8%)…The national median age is 36.8 years…
So to say the Supreme Court is representative of all of America is bolderdash… Nothing could be further from the truth… But perhaps that was exactly the point in how the Supreme Court came to have as much power as it does, now checking the other two branches?
Originally the Supreme Court was an appendage organ of the Constitution. It’s power was sharpened only 30 years after the Constitution was founded when changes were being made by Congress and the Executive Branch, that woke up the Supreme Court and stirred it into saying,… “Hey, no! That is not what the Constitution meant. We were there! We know…” It was kind of hard to refute that argument back then… If you walked and talked with Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton, you probably had a better grasp on the Constitution than some thirty year punk still green behind their ears….
It is a global common tendency of youth to dismiss the wisdom of their elders… “You don’t know because you don’t live in our world now”, is a very common expression in most households of teenagers no matter what upbringing those old children have had. I fondly remember my frustration with my own parent’s conservatism, thinking they were incapable of thinking anything different what they had been told to think. My children made me realize otherwise. In fact, once I was seasoned I was surprised to learn that my parents thought they were the rebels dismissing the conservative attitudes their parents had bestowed, and were proud they were the cutting edge of liberal child-raising in their day… Furthermore, in candid discussions with my grandparents, I was quite surprise to hear how they threw out the patterns of THEIR parents and raised their children using the cutting liberalism of child raising in THEIR day… Bottom line, my great grandparents must have been REALLY conservative… And now, according to my children… I’m just like they were….
No one would let a child run a family. No one should let a 30 year old run a business. No one should have a 40 year old run a nation… But we do. Rarely does it work….
Point is: the Supreme Court will always play it’s role… That role is to look at fundamental changes and decide how they stack up to the Constitution… As a periphery example of what could happen without this type of check, just review what happened to our own economy since the Bush tax cuts went into effect. With a new crowd taking over our economy since 2000, dismissing the old tried and true policies, we have seen how destructive new untested fads can be… Imagine if an economic court of New Dealers had been present to say “NO, this is the 1920’s all over?” Our national debt could be zero now. The same is true in government. Were Congress to become completely bought out, and sell our votes for arbitration, and there were no check? The end of the world as we know it.
Will old geezers always be right? No.
But if they are wrong, natural forces congeal and work harder to overturn the well-intentioned but error-filled decisions. Slavery took a war. Segregation took television beatings of a proud race to show us that intimidation would not work; beatings wouldn’t stop “being right” from moving forward.
But if the geezers are right, it stops bad right then and there….
Not to absolve the Supreme Court but their primary function isn’t to distinguish between “right” or “wrong”. Their job specifically, is to see how our system of laws stacks up to our Constitution… by looking at one challenged law at a time. Sometimes when they do, it comes up right…. and sometimes when they do, it doesn’t….
If you think the Court was wrong, and if you think it is out of touch, YOU HAVE AN OBLIGATION to vote Democratic in 2014, and to express to all others, both Republican and Democrat the importance of THEIR voting democratic as well in 2014 to send this signal, and we will see, just how wrong this court is…. If you can’t get out the vote… then gee, maybe the court was right after all.
Which… as the framers of the Constitution intended, in the end, puts us, the American people…. firmly in charge of our government….
Although it is too complex to delineate here, after crunching numbers and possibilities there is dominant weight towards the idea that more Russian intrusions are planned for Ukraine…
In the terms of pure power, a language Russia understands, sanctions will not do the trick…Sanctions didn’t work on Saddam. Sanctions didn’t work on Syria. Both were under Russian influence. Therefore in language they understand, we will need boots on the ground in Ukraine.
- It is time to pull the A-10’s back out of retirement and put them in place inside of Ukraine.
- As soldiers return from Afghanistan, we will need to extend their tours a little longer and put them in Ukraine.
- We need to be clear our armies are defensive and not offensive. We can do that thorough our logistics which they can read.
- We need Americans on the ground inside those Russian territories most prone to invasion, and they will need to be on their best behavior to win friends and influence people…. Since they will no longer have to abide by Shari Law , I don’t think that will be a problem…
If the orders or plans have not yet been drawn, they need to be done ASAP.
This should be seen as a non aggressive force, but a deciding one. Sort of like how bouncers gather around a shouting match in numbers to help convince both parties that they really, really, really, really, don’t want to come to blows….
But if left alone as two voices in a vacuum, the fight will break out and it becomes much harder to then establish the peace.. Which is why , right now, we need boots on the ground somewhere in Ukraine’s Russian Territories… It is past time to realize the verbal assurances we have been given simply could be a stall for time… That is usually how it is done when you hear words but fail to see the actions accompanying them, in this case, the backing down of troops along the border.
As with a bar fight, the fastest and quickest way to ensure a lasting peace, is to have a solid physical threat close at hand, very visible to the perpetrators, so the fallout from their actions is readily assessed both scaring them and giving them the will to back down…Bringing in the Chinese would again, be the smartest thing. It is time for China to become a world player and with their future economic status briefly on shaky ground, I imagine they would appreciate the gesture and opportunity….
Plus it would take their eye off the China Sea for a while as well.
Finally, we can use this as a reason to ram higher taxes past the Republicans, by appealing to the patriotism of the American people, they won’t pay, the top 1% will… We earmark the tax increase to the military, and we paint all those Republicans who balk as being weak and unpatriotic Americans, willing to squander our troops in the face of a Russian threat…. If we play our cards correctly, we can pass that high rate of taxation, by calling it a war tax, sunset it after 10 years, and slip in marginal rates as high as up to 90 or 100%… We did the last big war… Tell America that this time, they won’t have to fight a war on a deficit. Our wealthy will happily pay our way in advance….
Domestically we should see great economic movement as we race to restaff defense plants, and get those contracts passed and rolling to upgrade our defense force, perhaps before October of this year…
But it all starts with boots on the ground in Ukraine… This we must do quickly.
I was just challenged by the owner of a gun blog to illustrate how well gun control works.
Challenge Accepted.
US = no gun control == 14078 gun homicides==0.00446% of the population==. 4.69 per 100000
Somalia = no gun control== 138 gun homicides==0.0000138% of the population==1.38 per 100,000
Yeman = no gun control== 990 homicides (by any means)==0.0000413% = 4.304 per 100,000 (this total includes deaths by swords, stonings, long curved knives and guns).
==============
Japan = good gun control == 11 gun homicides== 0.00000866% of population == 0 per 100,000
S. Korea = good gun control ==14 gun homicides == 0.0000290% of population == 0 per 100,000
Spain = good gun control == 67 gun homicides == 0.0000565% of population == 0 per 100,000
Finally, Australia. a single country on both sides of the spectrum! One that had no gun control, then passed legislation which controlled guns. In similar terms out of 100,000, it went from a high ratio of 4.71 to 1.06…. Gun control where you make it illegal to own a military grade weapon works deliciously well…
Now, Mike W. Prove how homicides go down when you give everyone a gun … Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha…
The stupid NRA has their head wedged so far up their butt, I bet it hurts bad when they try to sit down…
I missed this on Sunday.
Despite what Republicans say: man-made global warming is here. The birds are telling us. No wonder the Delaware head of the Republican Party, John Sigler is shooting pigeons in boxes….
Although the year is barely out, we do have our first nomination for the spot to be announced in December 2013. With the Kinder Morgan Deal now on hold semi-permanently, even they are pointing to our hero of the year as the man most responsible for allowing the port to remain state owned….
I can say it was Julius Cephas who was behind almost every move to combat the loss of good jobs at our port. He is being pointed out as the villain by the capitalists at Kinder Morgan. In Delaware’s eyes, that elevates his hero’s stature even more…
In truth, he is no villain and knowing him, he will probably shun the acclimations being made by us common folk as being our hero. In his eyes, he was just doing what needed to be done because no one else was there at that very moment to do it, and as that task swelled, it took a lot out of him….
Capitalists always need a villian. But it was the “truth” which actually is what killed this deal. Kinder Morgan WAS going to cut back on jobs, and their change of heart and blaming Julius instead of others, points exactly to the core of their problem with our port… …
People in Texas, do not understand unions. They simply can’t fathom or understand how there can be an actual law that lets people strike and shut you down, whenever you try to pay them less.. In their eyes, you work for what they want to give you and if it is too little, ..humph. go elsewhere….
The second culprit (after the “truth”), was our office of economic development. We gave Kinder Morgan too many “eager” signals that set us up as being seen as an easy pick. They truly thought they could waltz in, pick up a top notch East Coast Port for a song, and we would eagerly give it up… Again, that was because everything was done in secret. Had a meeting been forthcoming in the very beginning, Kinder Morgan might have moved on earlier when it became readily apparent, that southern Texas practices do not bode well in the Northeast…
Of course, being a corporation, they will blame the whistle blower. (Ironic since the whistle blower of Enron works for them).. Of course. It is not like they find anything immoral in taking a state asset for a song, in firing those skilled dock workers, and replace them with some Spanish speaking Texans who never even heard of a union….
And Julius did blow that whistle. . Like Rose on the Titanic, he took the whistle off of Jack (pun intended), and blew softly at first, then harder, and harder. Gradually the sound registered on others ears….
Without Julius, Bob Marshall would not have pushed through Senate Bill 3. Without Julius, most of the links showing up in everyone’s blog, would have not been found. Without Julius, the case for protecting workers would not have even made the rounds of the Norman Oliver show….
There were many helpers. Bob Marshall, Nancy Willing, Norman Oliver, Norinda, Helene Keeley, Al Mascitti, Liz Allen, John Kowalko, and (an other blogger too shy to be mentioned here). When one looks back through all of them one sees from everywhere, there in the center of the universe, stands a normal human being just like us, known to most … as Julius.
There will come a time when a better deal will arrive. Could even be this year. There will come a time when a suitor who does care about Delaware, who does care about unions, about human beings, about those businesses on the outside, and who will want to upgrade the port for everyone’s interest, not just their own… And that suitor in this day and age, could even come from abroad. Germany is very committed to union labor, to the environment, to being a good neighbor…. There are a great many possibilities out there that are immeasurable…. We definitely dodged a Texas bullet with this one….
When that suitor arrives… Julius’s stature will be set in cement…. For he did nothing really Herculean, except argue the truth… He didn’t lie. He didn’t connive, He didn’t threaten….
That was done by our office of economic development. Instead and unlike them, Julius told the truth. He told the truth to anyone who would listen. He told the truth enough, so many “did” listen….
And that is why, he deserves this nomination as Delaware’s Man of the Year. I know it is early into 2013, but great things just do not wait!!….
You will hear smears that Julius tubed the deal… I saw the letter and it is already out on WDEL and the Delawareonline’s News Journal… But as an impartial blogger, I can tell you exactly what killed this deal.
It was “the truth”. The truth of what this deal would cost us Delawareans….. is what turned the tide and caused the outcry that rose up against it….
If Kinder Morgan really wanted this deal, they could have easily said… “we are expanding and putting 5 new berths out into the river. We are buying the port for the bargain price of $5 billion. We need those businesses outside the fence because the jobs we get, will soon be too big, we can’t do it ourselves. We will keep the union just as it is; Wilmington needs good jobs and we are going to do our part…. We are also going to contribute into an emergency fund to be used for any spill or environmental accident that takes place under our tenure….
Kinder Morgan could have done any of those things, … and didn’t…. The blame doesn’t lie with Julius after all…. Especially when you consider the following…
This Economic Council erred on Fisker Automotive. Then it erred on Bloom Energy. Then it tried to Kinder Morgan us out of our port….. Someone rushed in with a save to make sure that last one didn’t happen.
That person is now hereby nominated for Delaware’s Person of the Year…….
Photo Courtesy of Port of Wilmington.com
Delaware is poised to give Kinder Morgan, our port for free. Well not exactly but on a percentage scale to Kinder Morgan, that is what it would come to.
This could easily have been done, if our government handled everything in secret. Pay a few people off, sign the contract; the yellow smoke appears, and Delaware fades into oblivion (Shrek Forever After image).
But, Delaware is a government of the People, for the People, and of the People. We found out.
There is a reason you have presidents of stockholders. Because naturally every one has a certain slant of opinions and one has to listen to a lot of hot air by listening to everyone’ parents complain. Having a chief executive cuts that process out and gives us simplicity required to get things done in a timely fashion. If people differ then they can take it up with the chairman and organize a revolt if necessary…
Hence in Delaware we have reached the point where we have a chief executive making the decisions and a lot of revolt steaming underneath.
So up to now, the unanswered question has been: how much should we charge? Just using the simple criteria of buying a house as an example, we can come up with a minimum figure.
When you sell a house you ask for:
- Down payment: 5 percent
- Interest rate: 3.26 percent
Next step is to figure out exactly what our port is worth to us.
If we just take the cumulative $250 million the state has made off the port in tariffs since taking ownership and providing records since 1996, we have a minimum guideline. In tax revenues alone over 50 years, to maintain the status quo, we need the minimum of a $781 (250/16 X 50) million asking price.
Using the criteria above, we should then require 5% or 39 million down payment, and run the existing remainder through the standard mortgage calculation at 3.26%…
(Remember we are not figuring out the best deal, but the best worst deal for which we can afford to give up our beautiful port)
So financing the remainder $742 million over 50 years at 3.26% we should be asking directly for $$1,505,000.000 (billion) spread over 600 payments on top of that 5% down…. Even this paltry price would bring into the state a monthly income of $2.5 million (that is monthly!)..
As an aside, the equivalent of interest we would be receiving over time, would be $706 million. Not much over 50 years but a lot better than a loss.
As we have heard from many, giving the port up for free (as is being proposed by the secret deal of Alan Levine with Jack Markell’s blessing), hurts very many people…
So being realistic, if we have hurt on one hand, and benefit on the other, we need to make sure the overall benefit we get at least matches the hurt we are about to cause,… in order to simply break even. Since breaking even is not a really the best business decision, we should be looking at doing a little or a lot better than breaking even…
Our lowest minimum price can be $1,544,000,000 (billion) meaning we lose out on anything less.
How much is the Kinder Morgan Deal? $200.5 million. Just 13% of the minimum price we will need to require for purchase… .
Courtesy of Fine Art America; by Ed Welker
Robert Bianco’s poem enlisted and spoken at the inauguration was probably the high point, eclipsing the inauguration speech, and both the singing of Beyonce, and Carrie Underwood.
it was a poem of understatement. A simple description of the sun rising and shining over this nation on one day of its life. Bonding us all in the unity of experience we all undergo. No matter the differences of our upbringing, the differences of your heritage, the differences of our finances, we all wake up to one sun….
East or West, North, or South, one sun shines down on this country….
We are all Americans, based on the geography of where we live. Divisions do not becomes us. We all bask in the same sun.
New York and San Antonio, Miami and Seattle. All live and bask under the same sun. Different to be sure. But all Americans. All sharing the heat and warmth from the one sun, as the world turns underneath…..
It was the most emotional moment of the celebration. As camera’s panned the crowd one could see the emotion being experienced was not just inside ones self but in commoners and the elite as well…. Like it or not, we are all American. We have so much in common we probably take it too much for granted….
One, today.
One sun rose on us today,
Kindled over our shores,
Peeking over the Smokies,
Greeting the faces of the Great Lakes,
Spreading a simple truth across the Great Plains,
And Charging across the Rockies,
One Light.
Waking up rooftops,
Under each one a story,
Told by our silent gestures
Moving across windows,
My face,
Your face.
Millions of faces in morning’s mirrors.
Each one yawning to life,
Crescendoing into our day,
The pencil yellow school buses,
The rhythm of traffic lights,
Fruit stands: apples, limes, and oranges,
Arrayed like rainbows, begging our praise.
Silver trucks, heavy with oil or paper, bricks or milk,
Teeming over highways
Along side us,
On our way,
To clean tables,
Read ledgers,
Or save lives,
To teach geometry,
Or ring up groceries,
As my mother did
For twenty years,
So I could write this poem for all us,
Today.
All of us,
As vital as the one light we move through,
The same light on blackboards with lessons for the
Day.
Equations to solve,
History to question,
Or atoms imagined.
The “I have a Dream”
We all keep dreaming,
The impossible vocabulary of sorrow,
That won’t explain the empty desks,
Of twenty children marked absent,
Today,
And forever.
Many prayers,
But one light,
Breathing color into stained glass windows,
Life into the faces of bronze statues,
Warmth onto the steps of our museums,
And park benches
As mothers watch children,
Slide
Into the
Day.
One ground,
Our ground.
Rooting us to every stalk of corn,
Every head of wheat,
Sown by sweat and hands,
Hands gleaning coal,
Or planting windmills,
In deserts and hilltops that keep us warm,
Hands digging trenches,
Routing pipes, and cables.
Hands,
As worn as my father’s,
Cutting sugarcane,
So my brother and I could have books,
And shoes.
The dust of farms and deserts,
Cities and plains,
Mingled by one wind,
Our breath.
Breathe.
Hear it through the days gorgeous din
Of honking cabs,
Buses launching down avenues,
The symphony of footsteps, guitars,
And screeching subways.
The unexpected songbird
On your clothesline.
Hear squeaky playground swings,
Trains whistling,
Or whispers across cafe tables.
Hear the doors we open,
Each day for each other.
Saying hello,
Shalom,
Bonjour-no,
Howdy,
Na me state,
Or, buenos dias
In the language my mother taught me,
In every language
Spoken into one wind,
Carrying our lives without prejudice,
As these words break from my lips.
One sky.
Since the Appalachians and Sierras claimed their majesty,
And the Mississippi and Colorado
Worked their way to the sea.
Thank the work of our hands,
Weaving steel into bridges,
Finishing one more report for the boss,
On time,
Stitching another wound, or uniform.
The first brush stroke on a portrait,
Or the last floor on the Freedom Tower,
Jutting into the sky,
That yields to our resilience.
One sky,
Toward which we sometimes lift our eyes,
Tired from work,
Some days guessing at the weather
Of our lives,
Some days giving thanks for a love,
That loves you back.
Sometimes praising a mother who knew how to give,
Or forgiving a father, who couldn’t give what you wanted.
We head
Home,
Through the gloss of rain,
Or weight of snow.
Or the plum-blush of dusk,
But always,
Always
Home.
Always under one sky,
Our sky.
And always one moon,
Like a silent drum,
Tapping on every rooftop,
Of every window of one country,
All of us
Facing the stars,
Hope:
A new constellation,
Waiting for us to map it,
Waiting for us to name it,
Together.
Courtesy of Wikipedia
Is the economic model being used to evaluate the impact of privatizing the Port of Wilmington, the exact same one used to determine the economic benefit from both Fisker and Bloom Energy?
Delawarean’s probably ought to know.
If yes, might it be possible that here could be some flaws inside that formula?
Yawn. We are so used to it by now.
Always near the last week of September before an election cycle, Republican State Auditor Thomas Wagner, releases some audit that somehow gets stretched to cover something both corrupt and Democratic, and Republican Greg LaVelle jumps all over it like a ho on coke to prove he is Delaware’s champion for righteousness and might. It’s like we get nothing of value for two years solid years, then right before an election, bam, we have a grave crisis, handcrafted for one politician: Greg LaVelle. Republican for Senate.
They tried to waltz in on the Work Release program. That fizzled. Isn’t it ironical that it was only those two Republicans who were redistricted into contentious races who were being the ones who creating the crisis, fanning the flames, leading the charge, and advertise that it was they who are calling on the US Attorney’s office to investigate what turns out to be a petty and extremely minor occurrence…. They were fortunate they had Rick Jensen to give them one day of airplay, otherwise it would have flopped dreadfully. Rick Jensen failed. It flopped dreadfully anyways.
“Oh, it’s terrible, it’s typical. It is a sacrilege”… anytime one hears that in politics it immediately sends up a red flag that someone is in trouble, that a) it is not terrible unless one has a very low threshold of what “terrible” is; b) it is not typical, unless one has no idea of what is typical and what is not; c) it is not a sacrilege; unless something like breaking a fingernail is also considered to be a sacrilege….
And so Rick Jensen wastes an hour, the News Journal wastes a page of print, and we all waste an awful lot of time…. which could be spent doing something far better…..
You see, the Democratic Governor, the Democratic Senate, and the Democratic House have done such an exemplary job of running this state, that there are no crises to divert voters attention away from the fact that Republicans have really done nothing since being elected into their seats. Nada……
They NEED a crises to appear important…. And so they called their buddy, Tom Wagner, the only Republican in a statewide office.
“Tom, Tom, save us, save us. You gotta help us old buddy. Do something. Do something”
Instead of doing the right thing and saying….” I stick my neck out for nobody,” …. Tom says “ok, let me see what I can dust off in my files…..”
“Oh, here is one… Let’s give this a shot… (dials number)… “hello? Hello? Oh, yes. Say, is this Doug? Which Doug? Uhh, this is the News Journal, isn’t it? Doug …. Denison. Heh, heh… Yeah, I remembered his last name finally. Tell you, old age doesn’t make one as sharp as he use to be… heh, heh, heh…. Hi, Doug… this is Tom Wagner, state auditor. Hey I got something you might be interested in….. We need some help here if you could do us a favor….”
And so the story comes out…. Political Hands in Pact With Non-Profit. ” An ‘ongoing’ investigation by the state auditor questions why a Wilmington nonprofit received more than $880,000 in contracts after an earlier review determined there was no way of proving the state money was used properly and salaries paid were justified. ”
Greg calls up Tom Wagner…. ” Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”
But, soon the other side begins to come out. Apparently this was a secret audit done which non of the perpetrators even knew existed. Apparently no collaboration of the actual charges were ever made. Apparently this was created mysteriously in the dark of night, and none of the responsible parties were asked to provide any documentation… Apparently there was a good reason for that. If they had been asked to provide documentation and did, then there would not be a crises.
They only mileage that can be ginned from this, is simply saying “there’s trouble in River City.” When poking around, one finds there really is no trouble at all…..
If you look at the report, simplified, it states that this nonprofit was audited before, and holy crap, we are still giving money to it.
Is that bad? You tell me. If a nonprofit corrects its deficiencies and functions as it is supposed to, shouldn’t it be allowed to continue? Of course. But Republicans can’t win if that’s the case. They have no positives and can only win by saying Democrats are corrupt, and are equivalent to that abysmal boil on the underside of your rump. But, when evidence proves otherwise, that Democrats are pretty cool and certainly more trustworthy, Republicans lose big.
So Doug Denison gets slammed for faulty journalism, and so goes poking around to vindicate his name… Here is what he finds.
A) The State Auditor Tom Wagner was not comprehensive or thorough in his review. (How much are we paying him?)
B) Concerns addressed in the previous audit were fixed in 2009.
C) Tom’s report inaccurately states that the contract was terminated and reinstated. It never was terminated.
D) The services provided by this organization are vital (life and death) and abruptly terminating this contract would have a life or death impact upon the elderly clients this non profit serves.
E) Considering the gravity of such termination, Tom’s report deems the decision to continue using this service as “inappropriate”. (WTF? Inappropriate based on whose standards, Greg Lavelle’s?)
F) The auditor was unaware that a team had audited the facility and found no wrong doing. The DHSS was never asked. The evidence from that internal audit would have eliminate this issue completely.. (But… that wouldn’t have given Greg Lavelle a platform to scream from).
G) After the 2009 issue, a system was put in place of which the auditor (who simply dusted off an old report) was completely unaware, which monitored and assisted the organization in keeping their finances in good standing and compliant. It’s like if your daughter bounces a check in her first checking account, you the parent, periodically look over it, teaching her how to balance it correctly. It never happens again.
H) The report implies that the only reason this nonprofit received any funding at all, is because Tony DeLuca, Patty Blevins, and Bob Gilligan, (all Democrats) overruled official policy and said… “they’re with me… just give them ‘da’ money…” Tom states: “the agency had learned that a few phone calls would absolve their responsibility to comply with the state contract..” The DHSS, was dumbfounded. “There were no threats, intimidation, suggestions of reprisals or anything that equates to “political pressure”, as the report mistakenly concludes.
I) Auditors did not interview anyone from the non profit agency about allegations of political pressure. It made them all up.
J) The head of the organization told Doug Denison, the News Journal reporter, that since 2009 the organization has never failed to meet the expectations of the DHSS. “They always say they have everything they’ve asked for.”
K) Non profits undergo a yearly audit by outside auditors, and not one of those accountants raised any concern. Neither has anyone from the DHSS.
Overall this claim by Lavelle and Tom Wagner and all other Republicans, is outrageous. That this is even an issue, and especially that it conveniently gets trotted out to help Greg Lavelle who is already predicted to lose, and now must rely on some type of “hail mary” or something if he is to win his seat.
Now we all know that this is politics. But here is the apparent tragedy. WE, THE PEOPLE of the state of Deloaware, pay $101,600 to our State Auditor, who over two years, earns a combined total of $203,200 and issues one report or two just before election time to save one or two Republican’s seat.
That money one should think, could be better utilized. If the Republican Party wants to do a “hit” audit, they can use Party funds for it. Not the hard earned tax payer dollars just to help keep Greg Lavelle from losing so embarrassingly.
The audit appears to never have been updated. It appears that all evidence comes from the previous 2009 audit. It appears that when the Correctional Work Force didn’t generate outrage, something else had to be created quick. This was the something else. It appears that all areas are compliant with all laws….
And this is exactly why we cannot have any Republicans in office. Ever. They do absolutely nothing except cry wolf. They did in 1992. They did in 1996. They did in 2000. They did in 2004. They did in 2006. They did in 2008. They did in 2010… And yep… here we go again. It is time to throw all these imposters out of office. These people, who earn our money just being lazy, watching tv, socializing, drinking expensive scotch, and don’t do a damn productive thing for society, think they are entitled to their office…. Except at election time of course, that is when they finally stand up and point their finger and shriek at the top of their lungs…. “You, you, Monster”…
Get rid of Greg Lavelle and all Republicans. This state is too good to have even just one of them stinking up the works… They have done nothing but push us backwards. They have done not one decent thing for this state. They have stalled all progress and cost Delaware thousands of jobs. All they do is scream… it is time to vote either Democrat or third party… Someone who will actually do work for us…. Republicans? Screw them…
I’ll change my tune if anyone, anyone, anyone, can name just one thing, one thing positive, that any Republican has done that no Democrat can do better!!!!! I’ve been searching Republican blogs for years as well as listen to Rick Jensen over the same time period. And I can attest that there IS NOT ONE SINGLE BENEFIT THAT ANY REPUBLICAN HAS DONE FOR THIS STATE THAT IS DOCUMENTED ANYWHERE .
But there IS a lot of screaming. An… awful… lot… of… screaming….
kavips 
