2000

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…

Taxes and The Wealthy

Right click to open full image… Pictograph Courtesy of Viral..

So, can someone tell me again, why we shouldn’t tax the rich, and instead, balance the budget on the backs of everyone else?…….

I seem to be missing that little detail where that all makes sense……

Outside The Perimeter (@2X)

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…….

Outside the Perimeter: 2008 Election Stats

Courtesy of Department of Defense

Campaigns clean up; celebrations abound; and most of us scurry across the internet to savor this historic moment in time…. There is undeniable evidence that something changed last night… In my humble opinion, I believe that what we received was notice that in a lot of people’s heads… a polarity switch occurred… We’ve heard talk that it was coming, but in truth we have been hearing the same talk since 2000; last night we received confirmation of the exact number of individuals who felt that way.

Comparisons are already being made… the Kennedy’s….the Bushes….. the Clinton’s…. but I saw something different in Obama’s speech last night than I have from any other national leader in my lifetime upon their night of victory…. While standing among the masses in front of a giant television screen…. I was taken with how different it was from the Clinton’s win in ’92, and unlike their celebratory coming out of the governor’s mansion back in Little Rock… Obama came out weighed down with the seriousness to with which then approached his speech… It was as if already the heavy mantle of responsibility had collapsed upon his shoulders, and already bearing its brunt for what he had to do… he wasted no time and stepped up to the task of moving forward over 300 million people.

Someone next to me… a young first time voter…. said.. “maybe we can now start looking at the real problems facing this country….” Our eyes met and we both realized simultaneously just how bad those problems were. and exactly just how much Obama and Joe would be counting on our help….. our help.

Whether it’s money, time, sweat, love, hope, concern, self sacrifice; it might take all… But it would be far worse than that other option: the one we had seen the “in lack of fruit thereof”…. namely to trust ourselves to the fate of “doing nothing”….. After all, that is why we were all there……

But better… was the breadth of the victory… Across the entire scale of our nation, and especially within this state, politicians on both sides who put their campaigns to task, on winning one for the party…..“do it for the party” ….. failed abysmally…. America said NO to party politics… Those candidates who successfully made the argument that their personal traits could carry us forward during these trying times….. who were open minded apart from party ideology, for the most part…. won… irregardless of party affiliation….

Of course there were Democratic coattails… Just the number of new sign-ups alone carried a blue wave before it, still, in almost every district, a solid core of voters understood that party politics had to go away…. People were chosen on their attributes…. and those lacking them, with an R attached to their name, just could not be counted to make those necessary changes different in polarity from those previously made during the past eight years….

Last night, as tension built up toward Virginia’s inclusion into the blue state’s total…. and the realization that still, a lot of states of this nation hand intentionally chosen to go the wrong way…. it occurred to some of us that it is a fine, thin line that exists among the few of those who actually decide the fate of each election… It is that undefined, wispy thin fine line, that gives God the ability to steer this nation in the right… or occasionally…. in the wrong direction… But looking at the vast geographical area covered in red, I realized what a fine line it was…

And as citizens around the world celebrated America’s new future, it was clear that Obama and Joe really need to thank just two people for their victory last night…… Sarah Palin…. and George Bush….. Without either, we may have had a squeaker flipping in either direction…..

And I would be remiss not to mention my BIGGEST surprise of the evening…. After McCain finished his acceptance speech…I realized for the first time since 2004’s primaries…that he was not really a bad guy after all…. The spell of Republican philosophy from which he could not shake himself, was truly the biggest millstone placed around his neck, long before he was picked up and thrown into the squalid farm pond comprising America’s National Political race… As an individual after all, he was a pretty good guy. … Why he made the mistake of acknowledging his party’s base, will forever haunt him as “The Road Not Taken“ as he moves on at term’s end toward the oblivion of talk show “experts”, a position frequently held out to those who have nowhere else to go…..

So now with a glistening eye, we turn our attention to those brothers and sisters living in our “village” (did you like that Dominique) and how this historic event was played though their eyes……

First up is Kilroy…. Crow Pie…ummmmm… I am so jealous… It is a speciality of which I have never had the privilege to indulge…. I’m guessing that with today’s economy, and the porn business fading, that Crow Pie will soon be on the menu at the Bull’s Eye, since their prime customer, cannot go back to his house… For those other bloggers who stuck out their necks too far… Kilroy has provided all of us….a tasty recipe….

Kilroy, unfortunately has not posted Copeland’s pictures from the Twin Lake Days, but you can find one from the archives that may represent those fun times…. here…. But seriously, one of the best posts of the day, nails local politics to the tee…. and shows why our next Senator should be Senator John Carney….

I want to single out a newcomer… not really that new, for he as been a commenter for awhile and a contributor on Steve’s Delaware Libertarian. His first Blog, something about peppermints, morphed less then a couple of month ago into the Mourning Constitution…. He literally saved me hours by doing the lifting for the State Insurance Commissioners Race… I’m so thankful that I was able to cross that off my agenda and sleep one night instead…. Most commendable was his journey of self discovery… opening at thread and pursuing it to its end… changing his mind once, it not two times, as things suddenly did not appear the way they were portrayed…. And I want to point out that it again, proves the maximum…. THAT BEING OPEN IS THE BEST METHOD SO FAR for getting to the truth of a matter…..It’s especially difficult when those other around you have traded truth for a bribe of some type, to slither through the definitions of shades of different facts or fictions… Brian did that, and personally I want to thank him for making it clear for the rest of us…….

Palin Haters will love Brian’s take on Obama’s win….. and the GOP would be wise to take this admonishment that as dark as things appear now… they will eventually get better… With just swig of mother’s milk, a clean diaper, and the formation of a new party, even for Republicans, life may someday turn itself around…..

Everyone will be surprised by our local cheerleader Hube’s deadpanned take on the election… It Is, What It Is…. He further alludes to his secret passion for one of our female Republicans running for a state office, and a secret distaste for someone who once won the American Idol competition… Hmmmm, or was it the other way around….? But comics have again taken center stage until the next election cycle raises it head or the next News Journal publishes a stupid letter…..

At the time of this writing Duffy is around 24 million miles away… at least his brain is, as he confesses here.…
He sobered me up with what happens when you buy exotic pets listed in Hube’s old comic books for $13.95.. By the time this posts, he may have his post election thoughts together (from 25 million miles away). as here is his front page….

Delmar’s Dustpan, projects the rural aspect of voting in an election.. It is rather sobering to hear that some people are disappointed that McCain did not win… He has interesting analysis of the campaign results...as well as several helpful tips one can use with those campaign signs implanted in your yard…. He has looked through the Department of Election’s tabulations and being that his perspective is different, he provides some surprising finds…..

Joe M of Merit Bound Alley has some insight as to why Ramone was able to break the tide in his district… two words… constituent services… wait, he is not elected yet….. But we can see why there are no world class Japanese bands… Obama is beautiful day…. Joe is the only one so far who tempers his joy with a sadness that unfortunately passed in California….

As of her last posting, our favorite curmudgeon had not posted her thoughts on the results… We know from her previous writings, that the election did not go her way…. … … …. .. at all… Fortunately she made it to work on time: Tuesday November 4, 2008. What a nice employer (about 300 employees, heavily Democrat) who gives up two hour paid leave to those that vote. That’s called putting ones priorities in the right place.

Delaware Watch quietly posts the revelation that Obama has won, and uses Frederick Douglas’s early words to juxtapose against yesterdays event. Further down he carried Election Day’s Delaware’s Talk Radio’s schedule, in case you want to save it as a souvenir.

Nancy’s The Delaware Way opens with this two liner, and carries Jud Bennett’s celebratory dance over Joan Deaver’s election victory… The casual observer should note that the latter post crosses party lines.. No big thing here in Delaware… especially when ones quality of life, is on the line…

From Down State, Elbert With An E salvages this tiny bit of light out of the dark morass precipitated by the Obama induced landslide against everything Republican. The bright spot? Christine O’Donnell lost her bid for US Senate, she did win in a couple of representative districts. In the 38th, she topped Biden 7194 – 6239. In the 39th, she defeated Biden 3813 – 3791. In the 40th, my district, she bested Biden 4684 – 4154. At my polling place, my direct neighbors, she won 687 – 645. People just see things differently I guess… I also shows the incredible challenge that one Delaware Liberal commentator’s dream must face, if he want it to become reality….. It is also a reminder that Representatives Joe Booth, Gerald Hocker , Dan Short, and Cliff Lee, are not totally off their rockers.for no reason…. They have to live with their constituents too…..

Someone may be dropping LSD because no posts since the election have psychedelically materialized at this point… Congratulations on the strength of Markell’s vote in some of those same areas mentioned above in Elbert’s post… Your efforts appear to have been productive… Some of us are extremely interested in looking forward to your thoughts of just exactly what you found in your endeavors…being blue in red county of a blue state….post election……

From Sussex Red, to Blue, we somehow get Green… Land use if not in the public’s mind already, WILL become Sussex County’s new problem… Minner kowtowed to the same developers, Baker’s buddies, that caused her to veto the eminent domain bill.. Now a flawed land use plan has been thrust upon the Lower Third of this great state… Unquestionably, we are about to find that a private career offer, somewhat related to excessive Land Development, will soon be offered to our state’s First Lady…. But in a squeaker, plans were hampered when Joan Deaver squeaked by with a win over developer-toady Mark Baker. Minner’s executive action means Joan now will need strong support from our next administration…..But still… a win is a win is a win.

Mat Marshall (“Who?” for newcomers) just returned to Down With Absolutes… Welcome Back!…from all us “old hands”.
Do you need to undergo de-briefing? Or have you kept up with our shenanigans over your hiatus….?
Mike Matthews, who was hanging out at the winning party last night, has his bloggers extravaganza reporting covering New Castle County’s election scene… focused more upon the northern half…. Featuring the lovely Liz Allen as a supporter for the statewide Democrats only non-winner, the winsome Jack Markell who won BIG, and from the Ed Osbourne file...

But isn’t it funny, and perhaps it is only my impression, but as soon as the results are posted.. the intensity we lived leading up to that time, becomes historic. Relevancy moves forward with time… That is the impression I just got from traveling next to Matthews in his little car. Perhaps those vignettes can be used by historians to determine their effect upon our viewpoints…but at a little over twenty four hours they seem dated… But at the moment, man… at the moment…… More relevant I think is that with victory… and standing next to teary eyed black men, excited that they were seeing something impossibly dreamed of… so long, long ago… Mike has warmed up to the fact that really it will be ok to have Obama as our elected leader… His reading of this Newsweek article seems to have helped alleviate some apprehension…. The real question is when will Dominique succumb to his spell?

One of those things on my wish list this season was to post a photo of the Libertarian Political sign posted around our neck of the woods, and subtitle it with the “Long Arm of Steve Newton” who writes the Delaware Libertarian.…(it never happened because it was always dark and campaign signs show up terribly under flash photography)… But true to form Steve shows us the ubiquitous role of a third party… throwing the vote away from the expected winner…. In a role villanized by Perot in 92, Nader in 00, Barr comes through in two states North Carolina and Indiana.. to chop McCain’s lead enough to give those states to Obama….In Steve’s words: Third Parties do make a difference–whether or not it is always the difference they are looking for. If it weren’t for Steve, these details about third parties would simply be unknown… Further third party analysis of yesterday’s results, yield the number of votes for Libertarians (1.4 million) and the number of votes for Bob Barr… (477,000.) It looks like with his campaign debts that Bob Barr will be forced to eat meatloaf for a while whenever he is dying of Munger hunger. But somehow Steve’s premise does not stand up to a simple fact check….

Tommywonk covers his role in yesterdays victory and some insight into last nights celebration at the Doubletree… His candidate barely slipped past Libertarian in-fused Tyler Nixon in a very close race…(It WAS close to Tommy’s house; he lives in that district)..Equally humorous is the Doonesbury cartoon (people still read those?) he includes to celebrate Obama’s victory..(He’s half white you know..)

Tommy points out the most prevalent fact that yesterday’s race bodes for the future of the Republican Party, at least here in Delaware… “Concerns that Charlie Copeland might make it a close race for Matt Denn proved unfounded. Copeland managed only 38.7 percent—just three points higher than Christine O’Donnell won against Joe Biden. Hmmm. a real vote getter that one….. Hey, here’s an idea… Maybe it’s their ideas that turn 60% of the people off? Look like the Republicans will need to get a new leader now. Let’s see: their old one and his friends at FLS lost almost all the candidates they went to work for… Sorenson, I believe, was the only one who barely squeaked by, and that was solely because she was also an early supporter of wind… Charlie caused the loss of all the others, even in heavily loaded Republican districts! Delawareans tend to backlash against false and negative campaigning… (Isn’t that right, Jane Brady?) No question: Charlie just singly handed Delaware to the Democrats for years to come. Thanks to Charlie, this time Democrats will get to do the redistricting…. I’m starting to like the sound of the Blue Enigma Party… as the prime alternative to the Democrats in 2010… Unless Steve can get something together first to take advantage the Republican foundering ….

Delaware Politics.Net (FSP) has breaking news… Dave Burris, founder of that site, is starting a new blog... No doubt, he is looking for more freedom to express himself within his moderate views, and not willing to embarrass other members of DPN, who sometimes write stuff that only themselves can believe…..

Please visit and sign his petition (jumping the gun) to ask Jack Markell to create and sign Executive Order 1 to put all state spending on line. This is something we can do to change Legislative Hall immediately… Voter’s demand it… And Jack, don’t worry about those legislators who whoop and holler and threaten to stymie your plans… Just tell us who they are and we (the aroused public) now have the ability to make their lives more miserable than they can make your… (Isn’t that right, McDowell, Copeland?) Hat’s off to Burris… while Jason was calling him patsy names, he was building a website to actually do something…( starting cat fights is one of my specialties)..

Finally we get to Delaware Liberal… We held off for last for a reason… and it was due to the fact they have seven contributors… all of which are FIRED UP over last nights results, had I started this post as I had planned, most of the links would be on the third page by now….. ..

By contributor:

Deldem: Deldem jumps out of the gate with a series of headlines…as the news breaks… Deldem needs tissues. And Biden needs a haircut...(Amtrack loses out, but NCCo Airport gets upgrade) Literally. I am shocked that Copeland lost so horrifically. He is their future, and he barely beat out Karen Hartley Nagle’s vote total. Nevertheless, on the national scale, we will be in good hands… The Delaware GOP has been destroyed. Obliterated. Decimated. If you are a Delaware Republican, there is no hope. True conservatives in Delaware will be better off starting a new conservative party from scratch, for the GOP brand is so thoroughly discredited that it will be a generation or two before it can recover. Deldem is suing Burris, for misappropriating the name Delaware Politics, which could be the real reason Dave left to form his own blog… I hope Deldem has better luck than that which occurred when someone else threatened to sue over a picture of someone in a yellow shirt…. Threats of lawsuits that occur within our blogworld, tend not bode well on the one who dares to initiate the threat….. (That’s gotta be my vote for the best mud on the face accusation made in 2008). Oh gracious… I get hysterical every time I remember it…Next we have a story that, wait, get this: includes these three topics: sex, Mike Matthews, and a kitten. Deldem picks up on a question posed to Carney last night… I mean Senator Carney… On the day after,we see some footage of Chris Matthews from Hardball dancing ecstatically over Obama’s win….not know he was on camera….

Jason330: What most of us had called two days before, Jason calls at 9:42 pm. For once Jason is speechless…. Jason again illustrates why Liz Allen sometimes needs to just sit down and shut up.. Yes, we were all thinkin’ it… yet no one was sayin’ anything out of politeness… just keepin’ the decorum… then bam… Liz brings it on…. And poor tiny Karen gets caught in the crossfire… When you’re just 5815 votes up over Christine O’Donnell and you’re a blue in a blue state… THERE ARE NO EXCUSES. Basically if there is any issue that needs to be discussed, it is “why” KHN won the Democratic Primary, instead of someone poised to put Castle in the hot seat…. I hope that Jerry can fill us in on that topic in time to remedy that in two years… But if there was a “fix” done Liz, it was to put your candidate ahead in September, so we could watch the tumble in November…. Whatever. It’s over. More later. But first, Jason remembers a PPD meeting, where both parties are welcomed… if you are not a progressive when you come in… you will be one when you leave… it’s that simple… It’s not about party… It’s about a movement…. This one is great for the comments… Christmas it is… But speaking of holidays… Jason takes first crack at Thanksgiving, …. these turkeys are done…..

Donsquishy: Proves that listening to Queen/Kiss is infinitely better than performing for camera…(Get this guy outta’ here… I’m listening to music.) The countdown continues…. We also have a public service message about healthcare….

Cassandra: Cassandra weighs in on Wasilla Hillbilly’s Raid on Neiman Marcus…

Pandora: Woke up late… yawn…(is this New Hampshire again) and leads with Obama’s chief of staff announcement… Pandora lifts from Kos, the places to live if you want neighbors who don’t have a clue…. Is there a red dot where the 37th, 38th, and 39th all come together?

Liberalgeek: Perhaps this explains some of the losses incurred by the Republican Party this season.. Note to Republicans: NO ONE CARES. But we all care about Obama… our hero…. for good reason…. More about last nights victory party from Liberalgeek, as well as commentators who were there as well….

Nemski: Menski is the first to publish totals.. his choice is the End of Clatworthy race and the election of Dr. Katz… ( I really am fascinated that I’m still alive…)

And finally…. as the day after draws to a close… and bloggers tuck themselves for another busy day tomorrow…. we close with the national anthem, posted by Deldem from Delaware Liberal, that spontaneously occurred in Lafayette Park beside the White House… Through out our history, there may have been some sung with as much emotion…. The first, at the relief that the Baltimore bombardment had not done in the fort, at Normandy, at Iwo Jima, when the might of America, was realized on a global scale… and finally tonight… as hope, which has rarely been coupled with thoughts about our government…and history, which last night was realized the world over……..for once in our lifetimes….came together…. and …..rhymed…..

Still Wise Beyond His Years….Gorbachev

Mikhail Gorbachev, writing in The Washington Post on August 12, observed:

“What happened on the night of Aug. 7 is beyond comprehension. The Georgian military attacked the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali with multiple rocket launchers designed to devastate large areas. Russia had to respond. To accuse it of aggression against ‘small, defenseless Georgia’ is not just hypocritical but shows a lack of humanity. . . . The Georgian leadership could do this only with the perceived support and encouragement of a much more powerful force.”

So as Gorbachev implies, does this mean that Georgia’s invasion was a perhaps a “wag the dog” attempt to bolster the McCain campaign? Or was it solely a Georgian effort to embarrass Russia while Putin was at Beijing for the Olympic opening? Was it perhaps the “summer surprise” Karl Rove promised to a group of Dallas businessmen last winter?  Or was it the work of one of McCain’s chief campaign directors, who was previously a paid lobbyist for the nation of Georgia, responsible for planting the seed in Georgia’s president’s head, that the US would back Georgia in its attack against the country of Russia?…

Wouldn’t it be funny for any of the conspiracy theorists still floating around out there…. to put Karl Rove with Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia’s President, near Georgia just before the invasion? That would be just way too rich…..

Holy smokes… he WAS there ..

So why would Karl Rove be meeting with Georgian President Mikhаil Saakashvili who just happens to launch an unprovoked rocket attack on a sleeping civilian city just hours after declaring a cease fire with the South Ossetian separatist movement? And all this on the opening day of the Olympic Games. Hmmm.

Oh, Karl was on vacation… How convenient….

Remember that scene in the movie The Patriot where Bloody Tarleton burns down the church in which the villagers are hiding, with Keith Ledger’s girlfriend being one of the victims? Vesti radio, a Moscow station is reporting that McCain’s friends, the Georgians, did exactly that to a group of South Ossetians in the town of Tanara…

Remember that scene in the last Star War’s episode, as the Dark Lord takes power and one by one, the Jedi knights are assassinated by members of their own troops? That too took place.. Russian peacekeepers “were killed by their own [Georgian] partners in the peacekeeping forces. There is a Russian battalion, an Ossetian battalion, and a Georgian battalion… and all of a sudden the Georgians, Georgian peacekeepers, begin shooting dead their Russian colleagues.”

Those very hard questions are being asked among Georgians, right now… Why would their president do something bordering so close to the lines of lunacy?

The answer is, of course, that was confident he would be backed up by NATO, the European community, and the United States… But still, why on earth would he feel that we as a nation, bogged down in two wars already, would support his revenge war upon his province Ossetia, whom 99.99% of Americans had until he invaded, never heard of?

Because of the US, European, and believe it or not, Israel’s desire for the pipeline coming from the Caspian region of Central Asia, to connection traveling through Turkey, and not being diverted instead through the Russian conglomerate network… Obviously Putin prefers the latter.. Most of the sophisticated weapons used during the conflict, were supplied to the Georgians, by Israel…

Finally there is McCain’s foreign affairs adviser, whose partner received an $800,000 payment from the nation of Georgia just weeks ago… Obviously tied into the inner workings of Georgia’s president’s plans. McCain’s adviser, commonly known as “Mr I-Was-Always-Wrong- On- Iraq”  Randy Scheunemann, would be in a very credible position to have advanced knowledge of the Beijing Olympics attack, and to have coordinated McCain’s campaign with an event happening on the ground half a world away….

In a recent book, which just last week landed in the New Castle Library System, The Century of War, the case is made that if one of two opposing nuclear powers is able to first develop an credible, operational anti-missile defense, even primitive, that can dramatically weaken a potential counter-strike by the opposing side’s nuclear arsenal, the side with missile defense has “won” the nuclear war.

That is the strategy behind our placing of missiles in Poland… If you can remember well enough, Poland signed the missile deal immediately after Russia extended their reach into Georgia proper….Until then, they had always played coy and balked….

Hmmmm. So let’s see if we got this right….. We duped Georgia’s own neocon president, Mikhail Saakashvili, into launching a  surprise attack against an overwhelmingly powerful neighbor, in order to ultimately provided our nation a defense against whatever missiles the Russians could send our way, should we at some later date, choose to invade an area (Iran?) that was deemed by them to be in their strategic interests… And through out the whole process, we could help send McCain into the White House, by drumming up an imminent war against our old foe,  “The Communists”….  Bloggers over seventy, still high as a kite off their blood pressure medications,  could then get all wet and excited and swing the vote over to McCain-Palin 2008.

All joking aside, this new venture will by viewed by the Russians seriously.

Just as we would be highly concerned if say the Russians provide military support for the breakaway province of Sonora, Mexico… Whereas our influence in Georgia would block Russia’s strategic fist-grip over Caspian oil, the Russians in Sonora, would block our strategic access to undocumented workers…

Again all joking aside, this is no laughing matter… Because of the huge miscalculations being made across the board in this great mis-adventure, this international episode has Cheney’s handwriting all over it… It was poorly planned, poorly executed, and poorly argued…

Yep, it’s Cheney’s all right….

Here is the evidence…as compiled by Mike Whitney.

“The United States and Israel are both neck-deep in the “Great Game“; the ongoing war for vital petroleum and natural gas supplies in Central Asia and the Caspian Basin. So far, Putin appears to have the upper-hand because of his alliances with his regional allies–under the Commonwealth of Independent States—and because most of the natural gas from Eurasia is pumped through Russian pipelines.”

“As far as natural resources are concerned Russia’s hand is very strong: It holds 6.6 percent of the worlds proven oil reserves and 26 percent of the world’s gas reserves. In addition, it currently accounts for 12 percent of world oil and 21 of recent world gas production. In May 2007, Russia was the world’s largest oil and gas producer.”

Putin has proven to be as adept at geopolitics as he is at “deal-making”. He has 1) collaborated with the Austrian government on a huge natural gas depot in Austria which will facilitate the transport of gas to southern Europe. He has 2) joined forces with German industry to build an underwater pipeline through the Baltic to Germany (which could provide 80% of Germany’s gas requirements) He has 3) selected France’s Total to assist Gazprom in the development of the massive Shtokman gas field. And he is 4) setting up pipeline corridors to provide gas to Turkey and the Balkans.

“Putin has very deliberately spread Russia’s influence evenly throughout Europe with the intention of severing the Transatlantic Alliance and, eventually, loosening America’s vice-like grip on the continent. Putin’s overtures to Germany’s Merkel and France’s Sarkozy are calculated to weaken the resolve of Bush’s neocon allies in the EU and put them in Russia’s corner.”

Putin is also attracting considerable foreign investment to Russian markets and has adopted “a ‘new model of cooperation’ in the energy sector that would ‘allow foreign partners to share in the economic benefits of the project, share the management, and take on a share of the industrial, commercial and financial risks’”. (M K Bhadrakumar “Russia plays the Shtokman card”, Asia Times) All of these are intended to strengthen ties between Europe and Russia and make it harder for the Bush administration to isolate Moscow.

Putin has played his cards very wisely, which makes it look like the fighting in South Ossetia may be Washington’s way of trying to win through military force what they could not achieve via the free market.

Clearly, no one, especially Cheney, was expecting Russia to react as quickly or as forcefully as they did. In a matter of hours Russian tanks and armored vehicles were streaming over the border while warplanes bombed targets throughout the south. The Bush-Saakashvili strategy unraveled in a matter of hours.

Poor Cheney. This past week he tried to drum up support for WWIII.
Cheney’s week-long trip to the Caucasus was organized with two objectives in mind; to isolate Russia from its allies in Europe and speed up NATO membership for Georgia and Ukraine. He has failed on both counts.

Again Michael Whitney:

“The ashen-faced Veep flew from Baku to Kiev, from Kiev to Tiblisi, from Tiblisi to Cernobbio; rattling his saber and railing in typical Cold War style to anyone who would listen, but his efforts amounted to nothing. No one in Europe wants a confrontation with Russia or another decades-long year nuclear standoff. Besides, Putin has spent the last eight years building partnerships and creating an expansive energy network that provides vast amounts of oil and natural gas to European homes and industries. Europe depends on Russia now and wants to maintain friendly relations.”

Sometimes prose is pure poetry. Ashen-face….how perfectly done.

Here my Republican friends, is how it happened. Cheney got bogged down in Iraq; Putin got Europe to see Russia as a better business partner. My Republican friends read the papers but can’t connect the dots. While Cheney was in the Caucasus trying to drum up war… French President Nicolas Sarkozy was communicating to all parties and providing the solution.

The solution?   Keep stupid-ass, bumbling America out of the region entirely. This is the great Bush/Cheney/McCain legacy. The once powerful America, previously respected the world over during the Clinton era, has now been reduced to its mere shadow, a frenetic pool of celebrity struck gaga-girly-girls, chasing after any tidbit it can find involving a hot-looking 44 year old governor in a state with fewer people than Delaware…. That is the legacy of the Bush/Cheney/McCain administration.  Oh course my Republican friends can pretend like… it isn’t so.. Of course my Republican friends can still  pretend like their party still has some self respect… But, as they will eventually find out…..sometimes truth hurts,.. sometimes you look inside your checkbook and realize that hey,… you are flat broke…No amount of blame-throwing, pretension, or ignorance will change that fact…. It’s there .. It’s a fact… and it hurts…

It’s a fact that today no foreign power takes us seriously. Under the revolving leadership of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the EU hammered out a deal with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev to replace Russian soldiers in South Ossetia with 200 EU observers who are scheduled to arrive by October 1. In exchange, Georgia agreed to Russia’s demands not to use force against the two breakaway republics, Abkahzia and South Ossetia.

This went on despite Cheney’s being in the area in an attempt to derail it… “Go home old man” the Caucasus region told him…. “Go home”… A once proud nation, the same nation that fought across two oceans.. the same nation that stood up against the seemingly unstoppable Soviet Union at Berlin, the same nation to which the whole world turned for guidance, and hope, and inspiration when the Soviet Union fell….has just been dismissed like a bitter, old fool, ranting and raving at a town meeting about a tiny crack in his stupid sidewalk…..

Russia has not only scored an important diplomatic victory; it has driven a wedge between Europe and the United States. And that wedge was not brilliantly orchestrated by an ex KGB officer who just happened to be elected President of Russia….. No,  it was undone by an American Vice President who picked himself for that position, and like Hitler before him, appointed himself to become his nation’s Messiah of foreign relations.. Respect for our nation  was undone by the Cheney/Bush/McCain war in Iraq… It was undone by a Cheney/Bush/McCain attempted war with Iran. It was undone by the Cheney/ Bush/McCain miscalculation over Georgia…. It was undone by Cheney/ Bush/ McCain disdainful treatment of all foreign governments.. it was undone by a total disregard for any nations interest other than our own….Because of Cheney/Bush/ McCain, the beloved world respect for this nation which we had under Bill Clinton, is now gone forever…. Because of Cheney/Bush/McCain’s malfeasance, this has become the manifestation of our new world order,.. one first declared by Putin in Munich two years ago, and just reiterated recently by Russia’s new president Dmitry Medvedev.

“The world must be multi-polar. Single polarity is unacceptable. Russia cannot accept a world order, in which any decisions will be made by a sole nation, even such a serious one as the United States. Such a world order will be unstable and fraught with conflicts.”

Because of Cheney/Bush/McCain…… today the rest of the big players in the global economy agree… The world must be multi-polar….

Because of our nations Republican philosophy’s lack of vision, the future of America will be darker than its past… We are in grave danger of being marginalized as was the once all=powerful Britain during the past century…

Again Michael Whitney:

Russia’s ties with Europe threaten to shatter the increasingly fragile Atlantic Alliance which is lashed together by G-7 banking cartel. If Europe sees a continuation of the same belligerent Bush unilateralism under the next US president, the popular backlash in Europe is likely to sever the Alliance once and for all plunging the United States into forced isolation. Reasonable people should want to avoid that possibility.

Back to Cheney. Cheney’s Caucasus gambit is a desperate attempt to stir up trouble while making a last ditch effort for the oil and natural gas of the resource-rich Caspian Basin. So far, he and his colleagues in Big Oil have nothing to show for their 20 years of labor in this region, except a few under-performing puppets in Ukraine and Georgia.

Cheney is more disliked in Central Asia than he is in the USA. In fact, when Cheney arrived in Azerbaijan, neither President Ilkham Aliyev nor Prime Minister, Artur Rasizade, even bothered to meet him at the airport. Politicians everywhere know that its is political suicide to even be seen with him.

Since most of you probably don’t pay attention to anything outside of Alaska these days, here is Cheney’s current track record, vis a vis the Soviet Union…..

A. Iran declared it opposes any underwater Caspian Sea pipeline for ecological reasons, thereby stopping the Central Asian bypass of Russian control.

B. Moscow has clinched a new pipeline that will carry natural gas from Turkmenistan to Russia and signed a contract that will give it virtual control over Turkmenistan’s gas exports.

C. Russia has also put out feelers for the establishment of a global gas cartel, an idea that it has discussed with Venezuela, and which is certain to put cartel members on a collision course with the White House.

D. Venezuela has also invited three prominent Russian companies to take over from their American counterparts, ExxonMobil and Conoco Philips.

E. Russia has agreed with Beijing on an energy initiative that would involve Russian oil and gas heading away from Europe toward Asia.

F. The Kommersant newspaper reports that Cheney was very annoyed by the results of the meeting with President Aliyev and even refused to attend a ceremonial supper in his own honor. Big Baby.

G The political progress the Bush administration felt they had made by fomenting the so called “Orange Revolution“, now hangs by a thread. Popular sentiment is increasingly supportive of Moscow over Washington.

H. A major setback for Cheney and his friends at the far-right Washington think tanks who believed they were well on their way to encircling Russia and achieving their territorial ambitions. Ukraine will not be joining Nato anytime soon.

G. The Bush administration’s aggressive lobbying hasn’t persuaded any of the main players in the EU to support punitive measures or sanctions against Russia. The EU prefers diplomacy over belligerence.

H. As for the EU, there’s simply no interest in provoking Russia and risking the cutting off cutting off vital resources to energy-dependent European countries. Common sense has prevailed over Bush’s “freedom agenda.

I. And finally to wrap up his trip in Italy, Cheney was forced to the conclusion that his dreams have failed miserably. His tactics have backfired. His anger all this time has been misdirected… It should have been aimed directly at himself… In his own words, he echos the criticism the world throws back in his face…

“They (Russia) cannot presume to gather up all the benefits of commerce, consultation and global prestige, while engaging in brute force, threats or other forms of intimidation against sovereign countries…No part of this continent should leave itself vulnerable to a single country’s efforts to corner supplies or control the distribution system”

Facts don’t lie… Sometimes the truth hurts….

It is understandable that Cheney would be upset over Moscow’s success in securing crucial hydrocarbons and pipeline corridors via the free market while the US has languished in Iraq and Afghanistan with nothing to show for its efforts except one million dead Iraqis, 4 million refugees, and a legacy of disgrace.

I’m sorry, I can’t remember… can someone please help me again…What was it we wasted over 4000 American solder’s lives for and are putting 140,000 American lives at risk for ….every day?

Americans will one day wake up and realize they have been duped by quite a few people, really…Republicans, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, Gannet News Services, New York Times, Washington Post, FOX News, Los Angeles Times, The awakening is inevitable…it has already started outside our sphere of influence… Eventually it has to happen here sometime… Facts are what they are… Eventually the sand hiding them blows away, and there they are….looking back right at us, plain as day.

The whole world watches us to see whether we wake up before the election,… or afterwards…

Meanwhile we are in the middle of our exotically spicy wet dream…. ummm Sarah…..

How come this country can’t come up with someone of Gorbachev’s stature when we most desperately need one?

If there was ever a time for a new direction based on expert advice and not on “a gut feeling”…. it is now.

There are less than 50 days left to save America…

McCain and Palin just won’t cut it… Times aren’t la-de-da fun and games anymore.. One man in control over all his minions, including the elected president of the United States of America, has collapsed in the cockpit, and forced this nation into a death spiral at full throttle… To save ourselves we have to first pull the body out of the seat, then pull back on the stick, and hope we do it before the ground races up to obliterate us…

It’s not fun and games this year.  We can’t sit back, wring our hands, and do nothing.  It is up to Biden and Obama to save us now… Americans, this time, have a duty to give us our version of a Gorbachev, a real hero….

Outside The Perimeter: "…And the Winner is…"

Courtesy of Department of Defense

Today is August 1st. For fifteen days the best of Delaware’s first-half have been posted on this site for the academy and world to peruse and cast their votes. Today, we celebrate those chosen by you, to represent to the world, the best that Delaware has to offer.

The voting was on line. The results can be checked for accuracy. ( I’m actually proud of that).

Beginning with the first category:

Delaware Wind and Energy

And the nominees are:
Buying Power by Tommywonk:

Economics may be a dismal science, but evidence still matters, and the evidence has not confirmed the theory behind deregulation. Electric power generation is not a consumer driven business. The local market for electricity features one dominant buyer, several smaller buyers (large industrial users, one co-op and several municipalities) and the rest of us. Delmarva Power serves some hundreds of thousands of households, a small fraction of which have opted for alternate energy generation. The company’s buying power is five orders of magnitude greater than mine. Delmarva Power can influence the market for power generation by using its buying power; I can’t.

The Answer is Still Blowin’ In the Wind… by Dave Burris formerly at Delaware Politics.Net……..

A week ago, one prominent Delawarean told me that the project was dead, the deal had been cut, that all of the players, including Senate leadership and the Governor candidates, were involved. It was over. DP&L was one of the good old boys and BWW was not and that was it.

I say that’s bullshit. I have two kids that have to breathe in Eastern Sussex County for the next 80 years, God willing. It’s only dead if YOU let it die. If you refuse to allow the “Delaware Way” to bury our energy future, all you need to do is make two phone calls today:

* Sen. Thurman Adams – 302-744-4318
* Sen. Anthony DeLuca – 302-744-4165

Wind Power is the Ethical Choice by Jason Scott at Delaware Liberal.Net……

It seems that every generation is presented with a stark ethical choice to make. Creating off-shore wind power is our ethical test. And make no mistake; the eyes of the world are upon us. Once again little Delaware can do so much for so many with if we pass this test.

Just as Caesar Rodney made his way to Philadelphia on July 2nd of 1776 to break a deadlock on the question of independence, we must make our way to the halls of power to break with the unethical and corrupt practices of the past. It is Delaware’s destiny to push the country forward once again.

Time To Invest In Delaware First by Maria Evans at WGMD 97:

Let’s face it, I’m not that green. I’m a global warming skeptic. I drive a car that’s less than stellar on gas mileage. I would march a billion rats into a laboratory for testing to ensure I’d have one less wrinkle a decade or two down the road. But I’m in favor of the wind farm proposed to sit off the coast of Rehoboth Beach. Â Â Â Â

The wind farm construction, according to Bluewater Wind, will bring in around “400 – 500 construction jobs and 80 -100 operations and maintenance jobs for the life of the 25 year contract.” Along with that, a regional shipping hub would be established at the Port of Wilmington and there’s a commitment to a teaching and training program for wind farm technicians.

For Sussex County, I can imagine opportunities beyond what Bluewater Wind is offering the state.

The State Senate to Hold Hearings on Doing Something Else by Tommywonk.

As for Mr. Yingling’s concern for ratepayers, I have pointed out that it is the State of Delaware, not Delmarva Power, that represents my interests.
The Public Service Commission staff report summarizes the findings of the yearlong process and recommends approval of the agreement with Bluewater Wind. Any legislative hearing that doesn’t open by placing that report on the record as its first order of business should be viewed as a stalling tactic or worse.
The attitude of Harris McDowell and Delmarva Power seems to be: We’re for renewable energy, just not here and now.
Not here means not in Delaware. Not now means let’s scrap the agreement produced by the negotiations and start the whole process over without the requirement that Delmarva actually make a long term commitment to buy renewable energy.

(drumroll) And the winner is :

Tommywonk in Buying Power (Applause)

.

.

The second category is titled:

Delaware’s General Assembly and/or Governor

And the nominee’s are:

Never Have So Few Done So Much To Thwart The Will Of So Many by Maria Evans at WGMD 97:

The lawyer’s name is Randall Speck, he’s a Harvard Law School graduate, and according to sources at Legislative Hall, he’s worked on “all sides” of the energy debate. My immediate thought was, “What side is he on today?”

That question was clearly answered by the smiles shooting around the chamber between energy company representatives as Speck questioned the Public Service Commission about their decision to choose a wind farm with a gas plant back up as the new, price stable, energy source for the State. I’m sure after the hearing there was a room somewhere in Dover filled with energy company employees desperately trying to muster up the coordination to successfully execute a few high-fives.

Report from the SEU Meeting by Liberal Geek at Delaware Liberal.Net:

Byrne got himself in hot water when he referred to the board as a public non-profit. When pressed for what the hell a public non-profit was, McDowell asked that the question be submitted in writing and would be reviewed by counsel. He then threw out a statement that the board gets many conflicting requests, and that they cannot all be acted upon.

Someone suggested that all submitted questions and their answers be posted on the website, to which McDowell responded that as a volunteer organization, their time was limited. One of the people in attendance asked why there were no provisions in the bylaws that would cover removal of sitting board members. She specifically said “the head of the board.” McDowell kept coming back to transparency. The money quote is “I have never been involved in an organization that had as much transparency in my 30 years in the Senate.” Having seen how the Senate operates, I believe it. He also said that he doesn’t want to burden “this new baby” with a lot of rules that bog it down. Gotta love that in an oversight board.

Harris McDowell is using public office for personal gain – The Smoking Gun by Jason Scott of Delaware Liberal.Net

Actually, one person did notice McDowell’s greedy machinations and that person did seem to mind. The story of that knowing and acting on the knowledge provides another layer to the sedimentary history of McDowell’s serial abuse of the public trust. In fact, it is a glittery and interesting layer of that dank history because Harris McDowell was rebuked for his greed and indiscretion in no uncertain terms.

It was a rebuke so stinging that a person with a conscience would have had to resign from public office in shame. (McDowell has no shame however, so the normal rules of decent behavior seem to be lost on him.)

So who was this person who saw through McDowell’s “green energy” champion act? You’ll never guess so I’ll tell you.

It was Ruth Ann Minner. Or at least the office of the Governor.

UPDATED: DNREC’s Blatant Disregard For People, Aquatic Life And The Environment Leaves ME Speechless by Maria Evans at WGMD 97:

Did I even mention yet that the permit the Indian River Power Plant has been operating under expired 16 years ago and has been extended “administratively” ever since? Or how DNREC judges the fish kills to be acceptable by comparing them to the number of fish in the entire Atlantic fishery? Or the huge amounts of heavy metals released in the discharge?

And let me just add this: Sussex Countians endure the Indian River Power Plant polluting our air, water, land and the fish and shellfish we eat, while NRG Energy sells the power generated by the Plant into the grid. On top of that, DNREC, the state agency that is supposed to be protecting the fine people of the State of Delaware, doles out permits to the plant that are so permissive that NRG Energy can basically do anything and still be in compliance. But don’t you ever catch and keep a fish that’s one inch too short or you can be fined and/or arrested.

How To Buy A State Contract by Mike Matthews of Down with Absolutes.

Why, that would be Regulatory Insurance Services, Inc. (RIS); a family-friendly corporation that has made millions from auditing Delaware insurance companies for the Department of Insurance. The Insurance Commissioner awards this contract, and what better way to ‘help’ your chances than by paying for an elected official. The well-funded Insurance Commissioner candidate is none other than Gene Reed, Jr. Mr. Reed’s much touted campaign fund is a direct result of the friends and families and related corporations of Regulatory Insurance Services, Inc. in pursuit of the multi-million dollar contract awarded by the Insurance Commissioner. What’s a couple hundred thousand in campaign donations compared to a contract worth millions?

Sounds to me like a recipe ripe for foam-at-the-mouth profit-mongers more interested in installing a candidate who will serve their interests as opposed to those of the citizens of Delaware. But let’s not rely merely on rhetoric and conspiracy theory-like claims. Could Gene Reed be a Donna Lee Williams-lite; the kind of Insurance Commissioner who doesn’t give a damn about the consumer and who lives to serve the corporate behemoths who so richly line his campaign war chest?

(drumroll) And this category’s winner is:….

Maria Evans in   UPDATED: DNREC’s Blatant Disregard For People, Aquatic Life And The Environment Leaves ME Speechless (Applause)

.

.

One of the areas not often covered in Delaware’s blogosphere, is the field of science. Obviously none of what we do could be done, had not technology advanced so far within our lifetimes…. This next category seeks to highlight those who have given us insight into this brave new world……

Delaware’s “Science Prophet”

And the nominees are:

The Environmental Impact of Meat again by Tommywonk.

No this isn’t another number crunching analysis of the food chain from Michael Pollan. It’s by food writer Mark Bittman, who writes the popular “Minimalist” column in the Times. His piece, called “Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler,” compares eating beef to driving an inefficient car:

To put the energy-using demand of meat production into easy-to-understand terms, Gidon Eshel, a geophysicist at the Bard Center, and Pamela A. Martin, an assistant professor of geophysics at the University of Chicago, calculated that if Americans were to reduce meat consumption by just 20 percent it would be as if we all switched from a standard sedan — a Camry, say — to the ultra-efficient Prius

UMC on Intelligent Design by Joe M of Merit Bound Alley

I have to say that I am surprised and delighted to read that the United Methodist Church has proposed and adopted this petition on ID. Here is the text:

Submitted Text

Evolution and Intelligent Design (80839-C1-R9999)

Add a new resolution as follows:

WHEREAS, the United Methodist Church has for many years supported the separation of church and State (paragraph 164, Book of Discipline, 2004, p. 119),

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the General Conference of the United Methodist Church go on record as opposing the introduction of any faith-based theories such as Creationism or Intelligent Design into the science curriculum of our public schools.

Rationale

Creationism and Intelligent Design are appropriate topics in public education classes such as comparative religion, literature, or philosophy since scientific method incorporates critical thinking processes. All truth is God’s truth. The promotion of religion or any particular religion in the public schools is contrary to the First Amendment.

Unfortunately, not quite in time for Giordano Bruno. . . .by Steve Newton at Delaware Libertarian….:

Bruno, among other little intellectual peccadillos (like disbelieving in virgin birth), was found guilty in 1600 of believing in the existence of other worlds:

His trial was overseen by the inquisitor Cardinal Bellarmine, who demanded a full recantation, which Bruno eventually refused. Instead he appealed in vain to Pope Clement VIII, hoping to save his life through a partial recantation. The Pope expressed himself in favor of a guilty verdict. Consequently, Bruno was declared a heretic, handed over to secular authorities on February 8 1600. At his trial he listened to the verdict on his knees, then stood up and said: “Perhaps you, my judges, pronounce this sentence against me with greater fear than I receive it.”

Pat Gearity Writes: by Nancy Willing at The Delaware Way:

ABOUT ARSENIC FROM NRG’S INDIAN RIVER POWER PLANT:
According to the EPA’s 2006 Toxic Release Inventory, the NRG Indian River coal plant released 31,000 pounds of arsenic into the plant’s landfill in 2006. The landfill leaches arsenic compounds and other chemicals into the underlying aquifer, which flows into Indian Creek and ultimately into the Indian River Inlet area. The coal plant also released 1000 pounds of arsenic into the air in 2006. According to the TRI report, the NRG coal plant is the only industrial facility in eastern Sussex County which emits arsenic and arsenic compounds.
The total toxic releases from the IRPP in 2006 were 3,722,456 pounds, according to the 2006 TRI. The NRG coal plant is the largest industrial polluter in Delaware, followed by Premcor Refining in Delaware City, and the Edgemoor/Hay Road power plant in Wilmington. WHAT DID THE LATEST DNREC FISH CONSUMPTION ADVISORY SAY ABOUT ARSENIC?
Nothing.
DNREC issued a Fish Consumption Advisory on May 17, 2007, for the Delaware Atlantic Coastal Waters including the Delaware Inland Bays for PCBs and mercury contamination of bluefish only. DNREC did not mention arsenic contamination as a contaminant of concern. DNREC did not warn against ingesting local species in the Indian River area such as weakfish, flounder and striped bass.

The Night Sky again by Joe M of Merit Bound Alley:

Just past the first quarter, the moon casts silver light on the Earth. We were there. Humans threw people out of the atmosphere and we walked on an alien world. People stepped out of a metal ship, watched as dust flew from their footprints in a perfect parabola and settled onto the ground. We planted the Stars and Stripes, and gathering rocks for scientific inquiry, jetted those brave men back home. There are men alive today who walked on another world!

Brilliant orange, Mars creeps it’s way farther and farther from Pollux and Castor on the 2D map of the sky. If you look at that rusty dot, you are seeing robots that men and women hurled across thousands of miles to orbit or land, and send us amazing photos of that alien terrain. Soon, yet another robot will land on the ice caps and send us data about water on Mars!

Look far to the left and you will see Saturn, honey-gold and hanging in Leo, fighting the lion for brilliance and beauty! We sent another robot over one million kilometers away to orbit this ringed giant! This satellite, Cassini, landed a probe on one of the moons of Saturn, a completely different plantary system! We have video of the Huygens probe landing on the Saturnian moon of Titan, a world of thick yellow atmosphere and oceans of ammonia! If you look at that tiny golden dot in the sky, you can know that there is a human artifact out there, gathering data about other planets.

(Drumroll)….and the winner of the category of Delaware’s Science Prophet goes to:……..

Ouch!  We have a tie between Tommywonk’s  The Environmental Impact of Meat and Nancy’s Pat Gearity Writes. (Applause)

.

.

As usual during any awards ceremony although all of the awards are well intentioned, the human mind just gets restless… so we have provided a compilation of jokes to enliven matters and hopefully after the breather, allow you to stay focused a little more strongly. This selection is entitled: Delaware’s Jokes: What’s Really Funny About Delaware”…..

“Thurman Adams, Charlie Copeland, Harris McDowell, and Ruth Ann Minner…..”

We now return you to our original programing……

Our next category voted upon by the Academy captures the good and bad of whats transpired these past six months. Highlighting something that only Delawareans would comprehend or appreciate are the next five nominees in the category which is titled….

Delaware’s Life and Hardships

And the nominees are:

4,000 Commas by Liberalgeek at Delaware Liberal.Net

I had a plan for a post that would have a comma for each of our soldiers that have perished as a result of George Bush’s adventurism and need to overcome his fathers’ inadequacies.

So please click below to see the 4,000 comma’s that symbolize the soldiers sacrificed for this BS war
.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

The Ever Duplicitous Senator Thurman Adams by Dana Garrett at Delaware Watch.

Surprise! Senator Thurman Adams recently announced that he would not keep his promise to Senator Peterson. The reason is juvenile. According to a source who allegedly heard it from his own lips, Senator Adams has decided not to let Senator Peterson’s FOIA bill come up for a vote because–now get this–it would then appear he had caved in to media pressure regarding it.

Imagine that. Instead of being embarrassed and conscience-stricken for being exposed as the person who keeps Delaware’s legislative branch closed to the taxpayers, Senator Adams views the prospect of the bill being voted upon as a personal attack on his fragile ego.

Thurman Adams is a 79-year-old baby. He is so thoroughly compromised and unprincipled, he cannot even be trusted to keep his own word.

Again: P-A-R-E-N-T-I-N-G by Hube at The Collossus of Rhodey….

Then, the kid walks up to me and starts tossing the plane directly towards my head.

Where is the parent, you may ask? Sitting right there — with a big smile on her face. Yep, there was mom, not saying a word to the kid like “Don’t throw that at anyone,” or “Get over here and sit down,” or even grabbing the airplane and telling the kid to occupy himself with something else.

The kid kept saying to me, “Look! Look!” and then would proceed to launch the plane right at my face. (Good thing I wear glasses or I might’ve lost my cool.) I glanced over at “mom,” with a scowl on my face which clearly indicated “Get your kid away from me NOW.” No dice. I walked over to look at some photos on the wall, my back turned to the kid and mom. The kid persists: “Hey! Hey! Hey!” I don’t turn around. The mom says, with a clear tone of condescension, “He might not want to play with yooouu …” Play? PLAY??!! Mercifully, my daughter came out then. We left quickly. There were two other waiting parents sitting down in the room, both of which had “oh my God” looks on their faces.

I sincerely hope I never have that kid in my classroom in however many years. I’ve a feeling I’ll be sending him out of class quite often. No thanks to his “mom.”

The History of the Delaware GOP’s Broken Promise on Senate Bill 4 by Dana Garrett of Delaware Watch:

Did I ever have the wool pulled over my eyes. And it was not as though I hadn’t been warned by many of my Democratic friends. “When it comes down to the moment of really doing what it takes to extend Delaware’s Freedom of Information Act to the Delaware Legislature,” they said, “the promises made by the Delaware Republicans in the State Legislature will vanish.”

But I didn’t listen to my friends. I praised the Republicans repeatedly for sponsoring open and good government bills, and I scolded Democrats for not following their lead. And now that Senator Karen Peterson (D) is once more forced to seek to petition her FOIA bill (SB 4) out of Senate Pro Tem Thurman “Slick and Slippery” Adams’ desk drawer, the promises made by the GOP Senators so far (except Sen. Colin Bonini) have vanished.

Sen. F. Gary Simpson (R) won’t sign the petition and the Senate Minority Leader Charles Copeland (R) appears to be against signing it as well:

Christine’s Lesson in Insignificance yet again by Dana Garrett at Delaware Watch:

What civil rights give her justification to sue a former employer, except for breach of contract, as a conservative? She isn’t a proprietor of ICI. Doesn’t she believe that proprietorship gives an employer the right to hire and fire for any reason whatsoever?

Or does the sensible intuition lurk in the recesses of O’Donnell’s pretty head that since, for most people, our society is structured to require employment for survival and to thrive that no employer should have the right to threaten one’s survival or capacity to thrive without a compelling reason to do so?

Hopefully, O’Donnell will develop her intuition further and realize that when working individuals can’t afford the expense of justice through lawsuits, they naturally join forces and form unions. It’s the only way in our society that most of the “little people” in the workplace can make themselves significant.

(drumroll) And this category’s winner is………

Hube with Again: P-A-R-E-N-T-I-N-G (Applause)

.

.

Being wonkish we tend to measure our self-worth in wonkish categories. We flip out our wonks and measure them side by side to see who has one that is bigger and better…. We forget sometimes that we are frail humans too. This category is one which shows us just how strong we can be when faced with adversity that is not of wonkish persuasion. This category is titled…..

Delaware: The Human Equation

The nominees are:

So….the autism thing by Duffy at Pencader Days:

Things you need to know about autistic people and parents of autistic people.

1. No, my son is not Rain Man. He cannot count cards, play piano or whatever. I appreciate you trying to put some sort of positive spin on this but you sound like an ass.

2. My 7 year old son may have a meltdown in the grocery store for reasons unknown (even to me). Staring at me like I’m a hapless parent is bad but I’ll ignore you. Open your mouth and I’m giving you both barrels for your ignorance and lack of compassion.

3. Don’t patronize him. He’s not stupid and he understands what you’re saying. Talk to him, he may surprise you, he may not. Give him the benefit of the doubt.

4. Caveat to above. Set expectations accordingly and know his limits. Don’t set him up for failure. I do not bring him into areas with large crowds. He’d have a full blown meltdown that would probably have any nearby priests attempting an exorcism.

5. Don’t pity me. Having a disabled child is not ennobling or heroic. It just is. I didn’t choose this, it was chosen for me.

6. Caveat to above. It has made me a better person. I am far more patient and compassionate than I have ever been and perhaps why this was chosen for me.

Different Kind o Memory of Martin Luther King by Shirley Vandever at Delaware Curmudgeon….:

The traffic then wasn’t like it it now. We could do that.

Push ’em Back ! Shove ’em Back ! Waaaaaaaay Back !

Wellll, we all had a “sneak out” planned and I snuck through all the sleeping young’uns, down to the basement and up the cellar stairs, and don’t you know I heard my father’s voice, “C’mon outta there, Charlie”. He didn’t know it was me, assumed it was some intruder. I was busted.

Oh boy was I in deep shit. In my 14-year-old mind I wasn’t doing anything bad. Just sneakin’ out to have some fun with my girlfriends. Parents were called, punishments were meted out. I think I may still be technically grounded.

There was one small problem, of which I was oblivious. The month was April. The year was 1968. Martin Luther King had been assassinated, and there were riots in Wilmington. The National Guard was occupying the city (it lasted for 10 months). All this was going on around me, and I didn’t have a clue.

“C’mon outta there, Charlie !”

It was only years later that I heard and understood the fear in my father’s voice.

Congratulations, Lady Ravens by Mike Mahaffie at Mike’s Musings…

They were augmented by a group of girls, including Colleen (my eldest), who had been part of a lacrosse club last year and had some stick and ball-handling skills, but lacked game experience. They featured lots of sprinting towards the goal and plenty of shots, but little passing and strategy. Good teams beat them easily.

By the end of the season, though, the team had come together and found a nice balance. They still had a breakaway threat, but as often as not these girls made skillful passes, set-up plays, and manufactured goals with a touch of finesse. In their second-to-last game, they fought Caesar Rodney, one of the best teams in the league, down to the wire in a see-saw game that they lost only by one, last-minute goal.

So, congratulations, Lady Ravens. I’m looking forward to next year.

This is very strange … by Duffy at Pencader Days:

“Open it.”
“What? Me? Why don’t you open it when you get home?”
“What, you think this is a bomb or something? Who would want to blow me up?”
“Anyone who knows you really?”
“Very nice. Just open it.”
“There’s no note.”
“What’s in it?”
“Sam Adams Triple Bock.”
“Hmmm…Complete strangers sending me rare and expensive beer unsolicited. My reputation reaches far and wide. I’m hoping this is the beginning of a new trend. People will send me beer for free. That would be awesome.”
“Don’t you find this very strange?”
“Of course I do. But free beer in the mail is a good kind of strange. Body parts in the mail is the bad kind of strange.”

I can tell from her voice she’s unnerved by this.

Their Milkshake is Better Than Yours by Joe M at Merit Bound Alley

There are some things that are absolutely great about living in Delaware: the one-degree of separation we all experience, Deerhead Hot Dogs, Deer Park, the beach, but most importantly to me is the annual rite of spring when The Dairy Palace reopens.

On Thursday, March 27th, The Dairy Palace takes the plywood off its windows and starts making the best damn milkshake in Delaware for 51 years running. If you haven’t experience the soft ice cream milkshake plain or mixed with a candy of your choosing, you have not lived. Seriously, you haven’t.

This Thursday, after lunch, I will journey down to Basin Road in New Castle, mosey up to the counter and order my usual, a medium vanilla milkshake. I can’t wait. See you there.

Update

What the hell? Last night after dinner, I took the wife and boy down from North Wilmington to New Castle for a milkshake and the windows were still shuttered at The Dairy Palace.

And the winner of “Delaware: The Human Equation” category is……:

Another tie: Between Duffy for So….the autism thing and Shirley Vandever for A Different Kind o Memory of Martin Luther King (Applause)

.

.

The next category is titled Delaware’s Best Original Blog Photo. Some of the genius behind blogging is to take an item discovered either over the internet or within our daily lives and give that object a story and a purpose… The object may not be originally created by author, but had it not been for the author pasting the image in their blog, none of us would have had the opportunity to view it….

Delaware’s Best Original Blog Photo

In this category, the nominees are: Another Tie:  this time between Duffy for

Tombstone on the Florida Interstate posted by Nancy Willing of The Delaware Way…:

Live Red Clay Board Cam by Kilroy of Delaware

Uselessness by Delaware Liberal.Net

99,999 … and …100,000 by Mike Mahaffie at Mike’s Musings.


Germans Poking Fun at US Pols by Nancy Willing of The Delaware Way……

(it’s the expression on Hillary’s face)

(drumroll)…. and the Best Delaware Blog Photo is………..

Our Last Tie……… between Delaware Liberal’s  Uselessness and Mike Mahaffie’s 99,999 … and …100,000 (Applause)

.

.

One of Delaware’s most pressing opportunities lies within our state educational system. There are among our state several experts who have exercised considerable effort to better the lives of our children. The next category is titled:

Delaware’s Educational Opportunities

And the nominees are:

Red Clay Object Codes Now On Line by Kilroy of Delaware….

The Reason I quit the Red Clay Consoildated School District Community Finanical Review Committee was because, I was led to believe the report couldn’t be E-mailed as a pdf. file and couldn’t be posted on the district’s webpage as a stand alone file to maintain security of the finanical data base. It didn’t take a fucking PhD to figure it out and took a half-whit like me with a GED and pocket full of college credits to presents this to you. A certain school board member claims it would be a major investment and finanical hardship to provide such service to the community. Well, it didn’t cost a dam penny!

In my opinion, certian members of district and a certain board member seem to want to keep the community in the dark like mushrooms covered in shit.

Elementary-aged Girls (GASP) Like Math And Science Best by Nancy Willing at the Delaware Way…..

Feh, how often do cultural ‘norms’ create ‘abnormal’ effects? (link):

Girls like writing and reading; boys like math and science. At least that’s the stereotype. But a new survey shows that girls in elementary school actually like math and science better than language arts.
Researchers at the University of Miami in Ohio surveyed nearly 2,000 girls in grades 4 through 8 at public and parochial schools and had them rate their enjoyment of four subjects, science, math, language arts and social studies, on a scale of 1 (strongly dislike) to 5 (really like).
Fourth-grade girls clearly liked science the best; their average enjoyment levels were:
4.11 for science
3.85 for math
3.5 for language arts
3.49 for social studies
As girls get older though, they seem to like science and math less, with science’s average likeability score falling to 3.29 for girls in 8th grade.
But these subjects aren’t alone, as girls seemed to lose a little interest in every subject.

Fixing High Poverty Schools ?????? by John Allison of Kilroy’s Delaware:

Go in and check the profiles and you will notice Red Clay has many schools with very high poverty levels…. Red Clay sucks! I need to rethink this! Do you think maybe the poverty level is rising because Red Clay charter Schools, Charter School of Wilmington 3% poverty, Delaware Military Academy 11.2% and Odyssey (0% , can’t be right but it’s online) are pulling many students that are not high poverty out of the Red Clay Schools causing the % of poverty to go up

The First Debate: Education by Cassandra at Delaware Liberal.Net…..:

Attendees of the debate tonight between Democratic gubernatorial Jack Markell and John Carney on Education pretty much filled the lower space of the Grand and there were some folks who ventured up to the (cordoned off) area upstairs. Markell supporters were very visible – ranging from the kids outside with signs and cheers (having some fun with folks going into the building, I might add) to a fair number of attendees wearing their Markell pins. If I am judging reaction to applause lines correctly, though, there were plenty of Carney supporters in the house.

It was a very civilized event – the candidates certainly were friendly and gracious to each other. The format was very focused (I really liked this), the moderators kept it all moving (and the candidates themselves were good about sticking to the rules) and the audience was polite and engaged. This was the first time that I’ve seen either of these candidates in person and both did well in this format – although I kept getting the impression that Markell might have been happier moving around on the stage.

Paid To Study by Shirley Vandever at Delaware Curmudgeon….:

Paid to study? I find something inherently wrong with this. Maybe I’m just an old fogie, but I always thought that education was something to be worked at not only for the simple idea of self-improvement but for the hope of better long-term opportunities.

The program is privately-funded (thank goodness), oddly enough by the Learn and Earn initiative, conceived by former House speaker Newt Gingrich.

“The hope is that the bribes will boost students’ motivation to learn, attend class and get better grades.”

Would that this program had been in effect when I was attending Concord High School in the early 70’s ! It sure would have beat slinging burgers and Cherry Cokes at Grady’s Bowling Alley. Although I did have the added benefit of learning how to play a pretty mean game of pool, it would have been alot easier to get paid to do what I already was doing on my own time (more money, as well).

(drumroll):  And the winner of the best blog post on education goes to…

Cassandra for The First Debate: Education (Applause)

.

.

Next category in line is:

Delaware’s Funniest “Humor Posting”

And the nominees are:

Father/daughter blogging the Markell-Carney Education Debate by Steve Newton at Delaware Libertarian

My daughter liked Markell: sez the same thing as the other guy but at least he keeps me awake.

She’s not so hot on Carney: he’s kinda robotic and (kinda mean) but also a sissy.

Hey, I don’t write her material.

On schools that “feel like family” (a Markell quote): maybe in Canada, but at [school name deleted] we detest our teachers.

On where they’re going to find the money to pay for all this: they are going to steal it from New Jersey

On year round schools: take away my summer? You aren’t planning to vote for them, are you?

…..My daughter’s comment: when can we leave? all they do is promise everything to everybody and you know they won’t do it.

It is probably obvious now that the wrong member of my family is in charge of this blog.

C.R.A.M by Frank Knotts of First State Politics (before changeover)….:

Some will say that I am giving the election to the Democrats, I would say that the Republican Party leadership did that when they chose this path, and if we continue down it , they will destroy the party and in my view this great nation.

We must not give in to the temptation of the easy way, we must fight for what we believe , and we must fight to win, but not just to win elections but to win this ideological battle. We can not win that battle by conceding control of the party to the liberals.

So if the only weapon left to the conservatives of the Republican Party is to cast no vote then so be it, “LEAVE THE BOX EMPTY”!!!!!!!!! And tell the liberals in this party to

C.R.A.M. it!!!!

CASTLE RECEIVES HIGH HONOR FROM ROCKFORD PARK DOG by Jason Scott of Delaware Liberal.Net.

Wilmington, DE – Delaware Congressman Mike Castle received unrestrained and boisterous affection from one of his neighbor’s dogs in Rockford Park this afternoon. The canine wagged his tail furiously and nuzzled Congressman Castle’s outstretched hand, at times licking it.

Rep. Castle has worked to build positive relations with of all manner of non-threatening dogs and has been a leader in the House advocating for the scratching of dogs behind their ears and saying things which dog’s seem to like such as, “Hey boy. That’s a good boy” and “Howzit going today Champ?”

In his remarks upon receiving the honor, Castle highlighted the need for a robust friendship with dogs. “I have the highest regard for all animal companions, however, as far as treating you like you are the best thing since sliced bread, there is nothing better than a dog.”

If ABC Had Moderated the Lincoln-Douglas Debates by Tommywonk:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Excuse me, did an Elijah H. Johnson attend your church?
LINCOLN: When I was a boy in Illinois forty years ago, yes. I think he was a deacon.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Are you aware that he regularly called Kentucky “a land of swine and whores”?
LINCOLN: Sounds right — his ex-wife was from Kentucky.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Why did you remain in the church after hearing those statements?
LINCOLN: I was eight.
DOUGLAS: This is an important question George — it’s an issue that certainly will be raised in the fall.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you denounce him?
LINCOLN: I’d like to get back to the divided house if I may.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you denounce and reject him?
LINCOLN: If it will make you shut up, yes, I denounce and reject him.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you denounce and reject him with sugar on top?

In the midst of this nonsense, Senator Douglas did find time to insert an important point:

DOUGLAS: When I was 11, my grandpappy and I chopped wood and shot bears.

It’s true that in the mid 19th century, journalism was, in many ways, much rougher than today. But it’s hard to imagine it could have been much dumber.

Bloggers Continue to Get Choice Political Posts by Liberalgeek of Delaware Liberal.Net….:

April 1st, 2008 by liberalgeek · 17 Comments

Last week we were all elated by the appointment of Mat Marshall to the post of Communications Director. If these things come in threes, there is only one to go.

Mike Protack has named activist/poet/blogger Dana Garrett as his campaign manager.

“My first foe in this battle to become Governor will be the Republican party itself. Dana has shown an ability to battle some of my biggest detractors, such as Dave Burris” said Protack.

“Once I have wrapped up the Republican nomination, I will need someone that can battle my Democratic opponent, whether that person is Carney or Markell, I know that Dana will be willing and able to excoriate them at every turn. He has been doing it for years.”

This is really unbelievable. Congratulations, Dana. I am sure you will be a formidable opponent.

And the winner of Delaware’s Funniest Humor Posting Is……..”

Tommywonk for  If ABC Had Moderated the Lincoln-Douglas Debates (applause)

.

.

And after a long night, we come to the last category of the evening… This category recognizes that a lot of blogging uses other peoples work. Much of our lives would be cantankerous if it were not for the tools called “cut” and “paste”.. but creativity can take many forms. One of the forms used primarily in the past, is called “making things up.” Today we have a high sounding name for this thought process and tend to call it “most original content.” Even then, technology in the form of links, youtube, and images cannot be silenced…. This last category is…..

Delaware’s Most Original (Any Category)

And the nominees are:

10 Things I Love About Drinking Liberally again by Jason Scott of Delaware Liberal.Net……:

6) Meeting blog fans. Especially fans who have jobs which prevent me from naming names. (you know who you are.)

5) Getting the inside skinny. (Does anyone say that…”skinny” anymore?) Anyway, some things just can’t be emailed.

4) Meeting the awesome, charming attractive wives of bloggers. Let’s face it when people see you two together that think, “What is she doing with him?”

3) The fact that there is no “Drinking Conservatively.” So IN YOUR FACE CONSERVATIVES!!

2) The creativity & the strategizing. Some creative SOB is always throwing out some great idea.

1) Did I mention the drinking?

WPVI-TV’s 6 ABC Action News On Mat Marshall by Nancy Willing of The Delaware Way…..

This Delaware teenager is pretty savvy when it comes to technology – and politics. That’s why Mat Marshal is the new communications director for a congressional candidate. In the classroom Mat Marshall is used to listening to his teacher at the Cab Calloway School of the Arts. And among his peers, fellow students often take in his ideas. Video clips and sound bites are about to become a big part of this 16-year-old’s life now that he’s been named the new communications director for Karen Hartley-Nagle, a Democrat who plans to challenge Delaware Republican Congressman Mike Castle.

Delaware Blogging in 2007 by Tommywonk….:

If blogging were just about typing deep thoughts into a computer and posting them online, then this recognition wouldn’t mean all that much. But Delaware bloggers have made their voices heard in ways that might have seemed improbable when I started TommyWonk in February, 2005. It’s not unusual to hear bloggers like Dana Garrett of Delaware Watch and Mike Matthews of DWA doing stints as guest hosts on WDEL talk shows. Dana appears on roundtable segments on Channel 12’s Delaware Tonight, long a bastion of the usual suspects offering the usual opinions. Dave Burris of First State Politics has emerged as a force for change within the Delaware GOP. In short, bloggers are finding their voices as proponents of change in the wider public sphere.

Observations on Iowa by Duffy at Pencader Days…..:

Huckabee and Obama represent a different type of candidate. The Thoughtful Candidate. The gulf between the two groups is so glaring it’s hard to unsee it once you’ve seen it.

Leaving Huckabee aside for a moment, I have to comment on Obama. Initially I wrote him off as a lightweight with little experience and little to offer. If you’ll pardon a pun, the darkest of dark horses. But I noticed something. Whenever someone asked him a question, he got a peculiar look on his face that was absent on the faces of this competitors. He looked…pensive. Studying the other faces in the Democrat debates I could see they weren’t listening so much as waiting to talk.

Quarantine 2008 has ended again by Duffy at Pencader Days….

I get to the office and my cell phone rings. Not good. My wife informs me that now all the kids are sick. Sick as in, simultaneously throwing up. Oh boy. I realize that I have to do what I have to do and get the hell back home ASAFP. In an hour and a half I’m done with the necessary stuff and I’m heading south fast. I do not feel well. Really bad. I’m burning up and my stomach hurts so much I can’t stand up straight. Back in the car and down 95. Just before the Sandbox, I have to pull over. All of southbound 95 gets to watch me puke my guts out on a Monday morning. Morning everyone!

I get home and all seems to have calmed down. Baby is playing quietly with a noise making book. #1 is asleep on the floor (!). This is the kid with a sleeping disorder that requires medication to help him sleep and any kind of noise would ordinarily wake him. That he’s sleeping in the middle of the living room does not bode well. The other two are on the couch tucked under a blanket watching something or other. My wife seems me and says “You are as white as a sheet. You didn’t make it did you?” I shake my head and she ushers me off to bed (God I love this woman)

(drumroll) … And the winner is:

Duffy for  Quarantine 2008 has ended (Applause)

.

.

Finally, this was unannounced. But as the voting progressed it became apparent that we had multiple winners in each category but no one post or winner stood out entirely over the blogger’s field.
Remembering that it is just a honor to be nominated, I thought that would be sufficient. But as posts came in, I thought of an arbitrary solution, removed from all subjectivity, which might garnish a post that stands out above the rest…

And so….

The post receiving the most individual singular votes, will be that one….. and for the last time……

(drumroll).… and the winner is…..

.

Ouch… What?  (Whisper, whisper)  Really? ..Oh my!  This is a letdown, but…. there was a four way tie for the post having the most votes.  After thinking of run off otpions, the academy has decided that there is no way anyone could realistically designate any one of these entries to be better than its brethern.  Therefore since there does not have to be one….. there will be no clear cut winner of the “Golden Hummer Award”.  We will have to wait until Delaware Liberal’s Oscars at year end to make that determination.  In the meantime congratulations to all of the nominees.  It is truly a pleasure to be considered among your number……

Outside The Perimeter: Fragments…

Courtesy of Department of Defense

If there is any correlating theme coming from this past week, would have to lie deep within the meaning of this word: fragments.

Whereas before, the blogging community seemed to be one amorphous blob, with all of its patrons joined together in a fight for survival against the study of the illogical (illogogy)…. it almost seems that with the passing of the Bluewater Wind controversy and the closing of Legislative Hall for another 6 months, that without a common enemy, the blogging world is running all over the place, like a week’s worth of wind-up McDonald’s toys set loose at the same time.

It was different last summer. The evil Stockbridge was the ogre of that time. (Copeland and McDowell surfaced as the insidious ones later in the fall)… During those lazy, hazy days, one could always on a slow day count on someone posting something about Mitt Romney. Others could be counted on to praise Obama, or damn Mike Castle, and many Ron Paul supporters were just beginning to get the wind beneath their wings. Giuliani even had a supporter or two, and one Sussex County person, was anticipating the great Fred Thompson’s march all the way into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue…. Last summer bred some exciting times. It was a great time to be a blogger…..

This week, each blog is on its own agenda. Even one fascinated with blogs as myself sometimes skims and clicks out if nothing jumps out like a fanged dog at me….That never happened last year… Did we overwork ourselves with all of our successful endeavors?

One difference between the two summers, lies in the march of events. Events have increased their frequency this summer. Every day destiny provides us with a fait accompli before we even get a chance to comment upon it.  We will have a presidential campaign soon upon us with two conventions. We will have the Olympics starting on the ominous day of 8/8/8. We are hanging by just a thread from collapsing into the abyss of bank closures, unemployment, with a broke federal government unable to guarantee any other bailout. We will have a good Phillies’ team for once.

But for whatever reason each of us are starbursting, which is management speak for just bouncing around, making a scene, yet accomplishing little in the long term because of a lack of any follow-through…

Everyone is on their own agenda….. If you were new to Delaware’s blog scene and just happened to visit us for the first time this week, you might think Delaware Liberal was misnamed. Although they smatter their posts with some liberal content, most of their time within posts and comments was tied up on the global significance of the Thursday election of Delaware’s hottest blogger. Fortunately Donvitti provides pictorial relief from his blatant lobbying attempt to keep the title coming to himself….. This is worth the visit just to see what some rather famous names look like…..There are also some nice photo’s of some trees…..and portable chairs….. On a serious note, mark your calendars for the Thursday July 31st fundraiser for Tommy….. Voting will be done on site…..

One controversy stirring among Delaware’s elite, is over the use, or misuse of Democratic party funds to fund one candidate over its challenger.

In a detached way it almost seems like we are sifting too hard, forcing out controversies in otherwise everyday occurrences, then fanning the flames, just because we have too little to argue about… (and more like the main stream media than we would like to think)…… to draw attention to ourselves.. We are, after all, human beings too…. But when all is said and done, it still is the party’s money to spend as they see fit. But in judging it’s overall importance, after  looking over each blog’s links,  this giant controversy also covered by our main stream media,  is mentioned in only two blogs, both of which lean towards Markell.  Is it then really such a big deal if it is only being mentioned by just one side?  Just asking…

Now, moving on……..

Delaware Watch jumps around between the national political scene and controversies occurring on the home front. Taking on the fickle Lee turnabout, it appears that the sentiments of the actual Republican Gubernatorial candidate, do not fall in line completely with his handlers. We in a glimpse see that their party’s flagship candidate, who until he was restrained by his programmers, actually had a moment of courage and credibility. With his reversal, we see we are now exposed to just another hologram, a human face put on some shady backroom dealings….He is truly just following his handler’s directions…… On the national front, Delaware Watch covers the real reason McCain reversed himself and went with offshore drilling…. It wasn’t for America’s interests……it was done in the interest of his campaign treasury… With his reversal…. his campaign treasury swelled with oil man’s money. No doubt this was noticed by Christine O’Donnell who thought she could get free money as well……  Continuing…..

Delaware Way has dived down deep into New Castle County Politics. While struggling to protect The Grange’s historical significance from the Scott- aided developers who are just itching to bulldoze that remarkable historical site under….. her commentary is long and full of information…. Truly this is corruption in its highest form. It is the local equivalent of Iraqi oil. We’ll take it because we can, thank you very much….. As one nation under God, we fought against this concept of entitled royalty during our Revolution War. No wonder Clark-Scott want to remove any local traces of that rebellion from Delaware’s future collective memory…. They are establishing themselves as the nouveau caste of elitists…. it’s Capano and the Highway Radisson all over again………

On a side, this controversy reminds me that for one week in late summer of 1777, thirty thousand troops were camped in New Castle County. (To get a visual of that amount, climb to the top of St. Francis Hospital’s parking garage and look out over all of Wilmington. Half of all you see, represents the number of troops, both British and American, being bivouacked here). Even more historic, is the fact that the war could have been settled here in the British’s favor, had the British capitalized on one of Washington’s errors….. They didn’t. Clark-Scott want it covered up…. $$$$$$$ Shall we let them?

Oddly since mentioning Scott and Clark in the same sentence makes one want to throw up, the local blogosphere, perhaps in a subtle tribute to Al Mascitti, has decided to go the route of food critic. DWA’s Dominique recommends juicy hamburgers, and Jason330 issues accolades for a tuna pineapple appetizer…. And for those who salivate at visual images…….

Next, getting to the spirit of political fundraising, we are shown two opposite approaches. Delaware Politics. Net has this article of one union shaking down its members to meet an arbitrary goal. Just when unions finally have an election season going for them, one of their members pulls a stunt like this…. Down With Absolutes has a tongue in cheek posting in similar vein. Apparently to facilitat their solicitation for donations, they need a mechanism that responds to sexual favors (see comments).

Meanwhile our favorite Curmudgeon is standing guard over our rights,… (naturally including our right give and receive sexual favors).(lol) Most particularly important to her, is the right to pursue our own form of happiness. That July 4th right is under attack by two local towns. A giant controversy, covered nowhere else, has its silence broken by Shirley. Apparently they do not have sex in Middletown. or at least certain elements of that city want to pretend that they don’t…. Banishing Waters and dropping Bernhardt seems like much ado over nothing. Surprisingly this has not gotten airplay from anywhere else… But such controversies will forever haunt the human condition. It is what happens when you let stupid people into government….. Personally I’m looking forward to the response to Newark’s singling out motorcycles for their noise abatement enforcement. I’ve never seen a million motorcycles before. I wonder if they could get that many to show? They have the mailing lists, and most bikers I know would drive at least 500 miles to an event like this….

On a side, I wonder how long it would take a million bikes to pass down Newark’s Main Street? Taking the average of 5 feet per bike and going with a tight 4 bike abreast formation with twenty feet separating each row…. To pass by one point, the answer is 79 hours; from noon on a Friday until 7 pm Monday evening. Now that would be an event worth seeing. I don’t think any other locality would dare venture so far as to single out motorcycles in the future, were bikers able to pull something like this off…….

The Colossus is starbursting from the other side… Now a movie critic they cover the The Great Debaters and The Dark Knight.. The latter was more of a Ms. Manners’ commentary on the behavior of those watching with him. (No wonder boot-legs sell well on the black market.) (lol) But to test your brainpower acumen, check out the trivia question included near the bottom of The Dark Knight... I wonder whether sight unseen if you can guess the winner? If you guessed “Mr. Trivia”, Allan Loudell, you are close….. almost.

Starbursting from the other side…. the staff of Colossus has decided to rule the Isle of Lost Causes and scours the media outlets for anything to throw at Obama. Most of them don’t stick….but the theme picture is worth commenting upon. Here is pitch one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, etc…. and a couple of small arms fire, one and two, aimed at Protack. Perhaps I’m nuts, but the only thing missing in this exhaustive anti-Obama coverage, is any substantial argument as to why someone in their right mind would ever want to vote for Obama’s opponent? Darn, after such extensive reading, I forgot his name…….

Third parties often are manned by well meaning dolts. One ducks and dodges them in any public event…..or fails to return their phone calls because of their tendency to focus on one narrow issue that appears to most, to be relatively unimportant. But,…. when a third party is manned by someone of superior intelligence, they offer a view of the other political parties unseen by those confined within…. Browsing through Delaware Libertarian recently, I was pleasantly surprised to find a rather good description of the Democratic Party…..

Using Delaware Liberal as a template, Steve Newton dissects the Democratic Party with a surgeon’s precision. As his discussion evolves it becomes self-evident that perhaps Progressives of all parties need to unite and elect intelligent candidates for a change, instead of the usual ones put up by parties whose sole appeal lies in the fact that they obey orders….. His proposal for an amalgamated Progressive Party made of many parts (smart Dem’s, smart Repub’s, and smart Indi’s), is a thinking man’s proposal for finding a way out of our cardboard maze we have chosen to place ourselves inside. It is proposal worth pursuing…..For both Steve, Shirley, and myself are pulling for one Republican: Tyler Nixon. Common Sense may need a little help in this race.

In my pick for the best post of the week, we have the breakdown of our Medicare System. By breakdown, I mean totally….broken…..down….. Our medicare system is busted and in this post we actually feel a father’s anguish of a daughter caught up in a bureaucracy-gone-wild under the current Republican unfunded mandates….. Read at your own discretion… It made me angry…. Just be prepared to laugh out loud when Copeland, Lee, Castle, and McCain say their administration has trimmed costs by reducing the rolls of those on Medicare. Be prepared to laugh them all the way down below 10%…. The post is truly non- partisan, but I guarantee your anger after reading it….will be partisan…..no matter what party you hail from…..

But be careful of what you say….. not.. Obviously Delaware Libertarian has been compromised by the Fed’s searching for information on face it, this and other local deviants, who they fear more than any blah-blah propagandist. For they have no defense against facts. Facts pertaining to what they have done wrong , facts showing they care not for their constituents, facts that will anger a population so much that their power base will shift to another…. They must find those who prevent their story line from being seriously taken at face value and take them out….

Commendation must be given to the Delaware Libertarian for following the letter of the law, but posting the warning for all to see is genius. I had not yet thought of that form of civil disobedience which is perfectly legal, ( I checked) since it is a blanket warning and is not one expressly tipping off the person that their records are being culled. I encourage all others receiving such notification to follow this defiant act. At this early stage, searching through the records of one blogger (obviously not a threat to this or any other nation, but equally obviously a threat to an already very dead political movement within this nation), may be legal, but is very hard to justify politically. Now is the time to push back, and not wait until after Israel bombs Iran and we go into Emergency Powers……

But running scared is the opposite of what we bloggers do. If you have ever trained as a United States Marine, you know that when you hear enemy fire, you race hell bent towards it… So that is what we are doing…. Causalities are a cost of doing battle with evil… To this poor soul, violating the laws of the Constitution of the United States, is about as close to treason and evil as anyone can get…..

Thanks Steve for finding that solution… Of course if it was done as a “punk”, it worked well enough so that we have acquired a defense against a Department of Homeland Security staffed only by sick Republicans….. if everyone posts a similar notice we can show the world that within our own country, our freedom is under attack…..

Joe M of Merit Bound Alley comes out of his two month sabbatical, no doubt, because of the hostility given to his view posted in Delaware Liberal‘s comment section regarding the pope. He applies scientific principals to the Catholic position, and proves that the church’s stand on this issue, is, if not completely unsound, still rather controversial.

Now on a lighter note… much needed I think after that…… Ok…we had our food critics….we had a movie critic…. and now, (drumroll please) from lower Delaware, we get our automotive critic. Mike Mahaffie has left the hybrid community. “What? No more mileage posts?” Gone is the Prius. Mike’s Musing‘s author has settled on a new Scion as his next best thing…..Being familiar with anime artistry, I laughed at his quote….”The styling is sharp; a colleague described the front view today as like a Japanese anime character. I can see that.” if needing a good game of golf to relax, you can find it here…. But making vehicle changes is not the only change his blog has undergone… the blog itself has received some major housekeeping….

Last but not least, as he prepares for Thursday’s Drinking Liberally accompanied by the sideshow of choosing Delaware’s Hottest Blogger, Tommywonk is getting his writing ready for the big time of national politics in Denver…. His three posts about Obama, naturally are sandwiched between three posts about energy…… Obviously Christine’s illogogy has gotten his dander up a little, as she did mine….. To paraphrase Dusty’s admonition to Bill, the tornado chaser in the 90’s thriller...Twister…. “(She)’s gonna rue the day (she) goes up against “The Extreme.” Better give it up Christine O’Donnel, challenger to Joe Biden’s Senate seat,…. By going against Tommywonk, you are simply competing out of your league………..

So you see…. we are all fragments… our blogosphere has lost its cohesiveness…. A vast pit of randomness is what we have become, disconnected, diverse, looking away from each other and chasing our own rainbows…

Which reminds me to take off my hat and give David Anderson a deep bow of respect for deciding to make a difference by running for office... Watching David’s writing change over the last two years, has been a pleasure. It’s been a while now, since he has started writing from his own heart, instead of his party’s standard talking points. I’m thankful for the insights which his view has provided, some of which have grounded my own views with a deeper truth… I know he ran before. But based solely on his writing, this time in my heart, I believe he is ready to do what is needed for his constituents, and not follow what is asked of by his party’s higher up’s. Thumbs up, David. You represent us all. Make us proud……

So fragments we collectively are.. and you know… as I processed all this information, I realize that being fragmented so is not all that bad, as you too can now see by this rather lengthy, exhaustive post…

Unless, of course, the economy has dealt you a blow. Unless, of course, you are desperately trying to make ends meet with no steady stream of finances. Unless, of course, by this time all you have left is fragments…. and it shows up in your writing style…. because that is how your life………………… is.

Outside The Perimeter: Reminder

Courtesy of Department of Defense

The kavipsian award open-voting closes at midnight July 31st. The winner will be announced August 1st. I highly recommend that all peruse this selection since these are the best of the best of Delaware’s blogosphere. To miss it is like driving by the Louvre and not stopping in.

To navigate there easily, I have installed a page at the top of my blog. Click on the link contained within, and you will be there…

I’m surprised that some votes are in already, since the list is rather ponderous. But careful reading should be encouraged since this represents the best of what Delaware is…

Remember to post your votes in the comment section in this format: b,e,d,a,c,b,a,e,b, and to use the name anon. And yes, of course it is cool to vote for yourself….

So who is winning on the back stretch?

a,c,d,b,b,tie,d,tie,tie

Just five days left.

Outside the Perimeter: Summer Begins Edition

Courtesy of Department of Defense

At this time last year, Tommywonk, Curmudgeon, Delaware Liberal, FSP, Delaware Watch, Down with Absolutes, The Delaware Way, The Colossus of Rhodey, Pencader Days, Mike’s Musings, and others, were on fire…

Perhaps I’m nostalgic, but last year it seemed like the Delaware blogosphere was a bit more personal. There seemed to be more posts, and more personality coming through the blogs, than we see today in our selections.

There could be a myriad of reasons. One, the election season, extended version, could have taken a lot out of us. Two, several blogs switched servers, making my finding the archives a little difficult…..Three, viewing all the blogs from near this time last year, they all seemed written in a simpler in style; This year many are covered by a number of widgets…..and some with advertising……Last year most blogs were written by just one person; DelawareLiberal was the only “super” blog on line at the time. FSP was in the process of acquiring a bigger team. Since this time last year, three major Delaware blogs have become an “editorial board”, and not the “editor in chief”…..Delaware Watch, Delaware Libertarian, and Down With Absolutes have grown contributors since last Memorial Day……….

Perhaps we were more passionate last summer, because almost each of us had a different presidential candidate in mind for the Denver or St. Paul conventions…Each of us had something serious to argue about….Just mentioning the list of candidates today brings a lot of local names to mind…..Romney, Thompson, Giulliani, Biden, Gravell, Dodd, Richardson, and of course…..Ron Paul. Destiny has reduced us to three candidates, and conversations within the blogosphere, have become somewhat “canned.”

Some of the “greats” have left us…..Dave Burris……Mike Matthews…….Matt Marshall……but their shoes have been filled by David Anderson……Frank Knotts……..John Feroce…….Dominique………and the blogs go on…..

Perusing through some of the archives, much more original research was placed on line in the form of links. Now, it seems as if one browses another blog or newspaper site, pastes a byline, and moves on. Another difference, perhaps also due to the popularity of the personalities involved, is that there appears to be a lot more self advertising in the form of the announcement of other speaking engagements; local talk radio in particular……..Not that it’s a bad thing of course…..A wider audience is the sole effort all of us have to contribute to if we are to give politics another outlet of getting their words out to the public, other than the News Journal……….

It appears that local stories dominated last years news, at least as summer began. Of course in an election year, one should expect a presidential election to take precedence…..

And last but not least, we were a lot fresher last year….Blogging takes a little out of a person each time, does it not my friends?

Exceptions to what I just said. Hube seems to be on fire this year…..writing rather prolifically as well as providing eclectic, interesting tidbits about himself during the process….. His 100 top movies, and his videos in Spanish….prove that “personality” should not be pruned when writing, but rather cultivated instead….(It also proves life is bigger than just reading blogs). He still busts letter writers who errantly violate good sense in their News Journal letters to the Editor, he still posts the Watcher of Weasel’s results, some of which are first class writings…..Of course some of us think he could polish up his comments better, if he chose to become a first class writer, but……(lol)…….he wouldn’t be Hube, now, would he?

Whereas Hube has stepped up, Alan Coffey, who once was everywhere across the blogosphere, has tapered off a bit. Beset with tragedy earlier this year, that is understandable. However his prolific wisdom in the comment section, often through the back and forth between himself and other writers, often uncovers the details of a viable national policy that should be followed for years to come… And then he occasionally picks up something the rest of us have missed…..

Shirley at Curmudgeon, has written with less political passion since Ron Paul has stopped being news…One should pause to consider the milestones Ron accomplished in the area of raising money…..He may not have gotten the votes, but he is one candidate who does not need to beg for us to show him the money……..Obama and Ron Paul: Ticket for Change….. But if your are ever interested in some Weed.….

Mike Mahaffie is probably the best at showing all of us what being a Delawarean is all about….It’s about teams, its about eggs, its about one’s hometown….Forever the photographer, we see in his blog, the better part of Delaware we sometimes rush pass on our way to meetings that we tell ourselves are “more Important.” Mike, thank heavens, shows all of us,….. that is not so…….(Why do I get a spooky feeling I’m about to witness a 111,111…..?_)

Duffy at Pencader Days seems to be on his hiatus right now…I hope it is for good, not bad, reasons. Reading Duffy’s blog one senses the humanism required to face up to challenge, after challenge, after challenge. Sharing with the rest of us his triumphs and antagonistic sessions, we cannot help but appreciate that life is a series of challenges. The easy challenges do not really stretch us into adulthood. It’s the really big challenges that make us men and women, out of boys and girls…I find his personal accounts uplifting for the simple premise that if Duffy can face his challenges as he does, there is no excuse for the rest of us to face our own obstacles, with as much drive, determination, and grit…..

Merit Bound Alley has been on line, then off, then on, then off and is now on line again. I am trying to keep him as our science guru, scanning the science wires and posting the newest and greatest discoveries rocking the scientific world……..As politics heat up, it is nice to have a reminder that no matter how significant we tend to think ourselves to be……that we and an ant are in a statistical dead heat, when one compares each of our respective atoms to those of the universe as a whole……

Every community needs someone to keep the others in touch. Someone like the telephone operator in Andy Griffith’s Mayberry who kept all informed of everyone’s business. The community was closer that way…We have Nancy Willing and Delaware Liberal who serve that purpose well. Scanning the wires, copy and pasting, they provide the fodder for the rest of us to look at, dissect, and rebutt……The prodigious amount of what they cover, is the key.

Delaware Way, for example covers these local events, all of which are big in their respective neighborhoods, whether its Mr. Valahura,, The Middletown 301 Project, the SEU’s . Delaware Liberal keeps us posted on bloggers emotional events,….like kissing and making up…. as well as acknowledging the greater world out there….

But DelawareLiberal.Net. has taken on some serious investigative journalism. Jason did original research into the formation of the SEU and its continuance despite the fact hat its charter states that it should have closed down. LiberalGeek has the latests on their most recent meeting, here….It was obvious to me that something was different about this meeting which was missing from the last. Should I say more of a serious, or “get something done” attitude was present this time? Could we be seeing the fruits of Geeks reporting of his first foray into the lions den of General Assembly committee hearings?

DelawarePolitics.Net marches on without Dave….For an example of how unexciting it is without Dave’s boastful exaggerations, check out the mild tone of Smitty, reminding one of Ben Stein‘s character on the “Wonder Years.” David Anderson tries to get up into Sharon Stone and her karma…Just don’t forget what happened to Michael Douglas when he tried to do the same……..

Delaware Libertarian, has been preoccupied with the Libertarian National Convention, coming up with this visual aid to assist those wondering if Libertarians may make a mark this year………I was just speaking of this post the other day, telling someone that I thought it would have great relevance to our lives beginning after the stock market crash next fall…..

Meanwhile Tommywonk continues to doggedly pursue the Wind story, both on line and on the air….. As his post suggests, crunch time is here to persuade Senators to vote in favor of the best new opportunity Delaware will have for a long time…..The same arguments being used today, were used against the Banking Act, which just barely squeaked though the General Assembly.That bill did a lot of good for Delaware……

Dominique has breathed new life into Down With Absolutes….All the guys who use to give Mike Matthews a hard time, are enamored with her…..The best comments now come from Liz Allen and Nancy Willing…..Go figure….. But lately a series which invites a reader to tell whatever dirt they know about a candidate, is creating a rather good tutorial that our citizens can use in both the primary and general elections….Trolling for comments, and keeping it personal….Dominique carries Matthew’s good work forward…..

Delaware Watch took a break from blasting McCain to have some fun….Apparently out with his camera he caught this riding around our first state…..But if you ever wanted to blow a national presidential campaign completely out of the water, but just did not no how…..then this site is for you….

So I may concede that collectively we are not as good as we were last year…..But because of us, the News Journal is doing a better job. Because of us, talk radio is actually interesting again. Because of us, we are 3 Senators and one desk drawer shy of passing a Bluewater Wind deal over the objections of one Delmarva Power company….

Who would have ever thought something like that might come to pass?

Who Is This?

This is a guessing game. It’s supposed to be fun. You do the guessing. I’ll reveal the answer at some point in the future. Bottom line, I am interested in how this plays out. (To keep answers out of moderation, no links please.) You may use the categories above for some helpful hints, but knowing me, don’t expect to find the answer that easily.) 🙂

1) Foreign policy/defense: I want American imperialism rolled back and American interventionism halted, as the same time we begin to pull free from the military/industrial complex by slashing the budgets for defense and homeland security to reasonable levels.

2) Civil libertarian issues: I want to see gay marriage legalized; drugs decriminalized; Real ID abolished; the Patriot Act gutted; and immigrants viewed as human beings. I want intrusive government the hell out of my life.

3) Fiscal sanity: I want a government that stops growing and taking an ever-expanding bite out of my paycheck; I want to see wasteful programs cut, and to have Congress faced with the same sort of imperative the Delaware General Assembly had to face this year: balancing the budget.