The Giant Hole In Rodel’s “New” Plan

First off.  Any one can say anything.  I can say we should seriously colonize a  nearby class “M” planet.   I can find 40,000 reasons why the human race should do so.  But, if you were to ask me how we would get there,  I couldn’t tell you.  But I would try.

I would blame the bad people here.  I would say we need to get good people in positions of power. People with “vision”. I would say, we aren’t and haven’t been trying hard enough to allocate resources towards that.  I would say that if we just rewarded those who worked on it, we’d get there. I’d say that if we paid some of my fellow science friends to figure what we are doing wrong, my fellow science friends with your money, would surely lead the way….

But in the end, after all your money was spent, all we’d have left to show for it…  is an idea; that idea being that you know, that we should colonize a nearby class “M” planet….

Just in case you couldn’t see through the metaphor, this is what the Rodel Foundation has done….

I could go on and on with details, but it would be just copying  this person who already has.  Instead, I promised you a hole in their reasoning , didn’t I?  Well, that’s what I promised so let me deliver.

Let us assume you recruit the best.  You go after the trophy winners where ever they may be…   you excite them with your presentation, you optimism and you give them a pen to sign the contract….

They pause, and ask.  How much will I get paid?

A quick check of sources  shows Delaware’s starting wage is $39,099.  From the top that puts Delaware as  the 10th highest starting salary.   If you think a teacher with a portfolio of student loans more than owed on one’s house is not going to go to the highest bidder, you aren’t thinking correctly. Which means Delaware is already starting out of the gate with a handicap of 10.

So isn’t it silly, you tell me, to spend all the federal RTTT  funds on recruiting the “best” teachers or professionals and then, forget to pay them because we are strapped for cash the following year?   Can you say 8% pay cuts?  Exactly how long ago was that?

What makes anyone think that a really good teacher who has an inside track in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Wyoming, California,New Jersey, Maryland, New York and Alaska is going to give it up to come to Delaware for less?

If you want talent, you have to pay for it.  The idea of waving a magic wand and good teachers will come, is not grounded in reality.   We might as well be recruiting on a class “M” planet.

Truth In Libya Absolves Obama: Condemns Republicans

Issa’s hearing just got the lowdown on what happen that night Stevens died.

It is a very gripping tale of what went down. They were attacked. There was no warning. It was a 9/11 surprise that took everyone by surprise.

From the account of the attack, everything went according to plan. There were no glitches. There were no acts of cowardice. There were no mistakes made. Adequate and proper procedures were in place especially knowing the anniversary of 9/11 was intact. I was most impressed how the counsel of Turkey was walked out to the front gate by Stevens and they noticed the calmness of the city in the desert night. One hour later, Stevens would be dead.

Blaming the State Department for this incident is similar to blaming Rudy Giuliani for the 9/11 attack on New York, his city. It is stupid, arrogant, idiotic, and could only come from a Republican thug like Issa. He deserves to be deported.

There is something horribly sick in this Republican’s brain. Imagine blaming Giuliani for the loss of the twin towers. This Republican thug Issa deserves punched in the face, a thousand times. This Republican thug deserves to be outcast from the country he stole all his money from. America is too good for this thug Issa.

These guys who died were heroes. Stevens is a hero. Not some scum like Issa implies, who deserved to die for his cowardice. Just like if Giuliani had been a Democrat, this same thug Issa would have probably said it is a damn shame Rudy Giuliani didn’t die to rid ourselves of his disgusting caricature.

If someone had brought up that Giuliani was a hero, thug Issa would have dismissed that as poppycock. “He’s only acting that way to disguise his role in the tower’s collapse. He’s the mayor, he needs to die.”

Issa represents the soul of the Republican party at its darkest. That soul in hell would have no shame standing next to souls from parties such as the Nazis. Brown Shirts, or Red Communists, or the Spanish Inquisition. They would all be compatriots. Issa is simply in it for Issa. He is replaying Joe McCarthy’s role,… not of cleaning out communists from America, but making Joe McCarthy famous and important, and a household word. Issa is disgusting.

This attack and the real drama that ensued makes the State Department’s actions commendable. In offense and defense, truth is not a player. Obfuscation and distraction and fooling the other side, are as rightfully at home here, as they are on a football field. If the State department had announced the truth of the matter on the day Romney stepped forth and castigated in an embarrassing example of how he would lead in foreign affairs, then every Arab would see that every Embassy, every consulate was undermanned and an easy target.

All it took was forty men. You think you can’t find 40 disgruntled men in every country in which we have diplomatic relations? Hell, you can find 40 disgruntled men in Issa’s own district. Is he suggesting he now needs a bodyguard of 100 soldiers to now protect him?

The level of security to prevent this kind of surprise attack is unprecedented. In all honesty, we probably had sufficient security to repel such an attack in Baghdad. Other than that, every embassy, every consulate across the world was vulnerable to similar attacks.

It makes obvious sense that to protect American lives across this planet, especially those in areas where 40 disgruntled men having access to RPG’s can easily be found, one would not give out details that showed how easily every embassy, every consulate could now be attacked.

Obama should be commended. His state department acted very professionally in this crises. One can assume now that this has become public knowledge, sufficient security at a very large expense, including A10’s are now stationed to be at any hotspot within 5 minutes.

If you are going to castigate the Commander in Chief for Libya, you had better throw Rudy Giuliani in jail right now too. This Republican sham is easily seen. Republicans are the true enemy of Mohamed. Not the America Public.

Issa should be zip stripped and gagged, and kicked out of a car in Freedom Square in Cairo, with a sign, Ugly American, pinned to his back.

I’m joking, but they are not. It is time all Republican scum be humiliated, and exposed for the ugly frauds they are in public. Romney, Ryan, Issa, Boulton, Dan Senor, Cofer Black, Christopher Burnham, Michael Chertoff, Eliot Cohen, Norm Coleman, John Danilovich, Paula J. Dobriansky, Eric Edelman, Michael Hayden, Kerry Healey, Kim Holmes, Robert Joseph, Robert Kagan, John Lehman, Andrew Natsios, Meghan O’Sullivan, Walid Phares, Pierre Prosper, Mitchell Reiss, Jim Talent, Vin Weber, Richard Williamson, Dov Zakheim.

Romney/Ryan excluded, these people are the ones responsible for $1.5 trillion dollars of the national debt categorized under Iraq and Afghanistan. $1.5 trillion that future generations of American children will have to pay, out of which we simply got nothing, nothing at all. Not respect, not financial gain, not even a simple “thank you.” We’ve have exited Iraq, (Romney says we need to go back in) We are exiting Afghanistan in 2014 (Romney says we need to stay there indefinitely)

This new truth that came to light, really shows that President Obama was willing to take political heat just before an election which he could still lose, in order that American lives could be protected and made safe, before the truth came out. An America that can still elect a thug like Republican Issa, really doesn’t deserve as great of a self-sacrificing man as we currently have as Commander in Chief of the United States of America, a man who would put American lives above his own career. This nation is truly blessed to count such a man among its citizens.

Briefly Put: The Argument

When you have an impasse. it is time for war. War is a large term that can mean anything. It is not just killing people, but often in human history, that is how things eventually get settled.

War, (and as usual, between Steve and I , we’ll spin it into it’s really core definition,) is simply the all out pursuit of a target, until something is decided….

A cantankerous divorce situation = all out war.
A drug dependent child = all out war.
Fighting City Hall = all out war.
Fighting crime in Gotham City = all out war.
WWII = all out war.

So how do we address the political stalemate we preside over today.

One side has to win overwhelmingly so we all can see that rebuttal is pointless and we can move on.

So, we need either to vote all Democratic. Or all Republican.

Now here’s what we forget. Democrats and Republicans are just people like us, who are just doing jobs they are told to do. Which sort of explains how we can scream and vicariously hate either a Republican or Democratic Speaker of the House, yet sit down a social function with members of the opposite party, and love the human beings they are when politics are completely out of the universe of the occasion. Wow, what an awesome person we think. We’ll have to have dinner again.

This explains why we can work with our local governing officials, who are as removed from the viscousness of party politics as they are from the governmental policies of Tajikistan. We go to them, saying “here is my problem; can you help me” and they say ” I think so; how about if we do this” and we say “yes, that will work” and things get done….

They’re great guys.

Why does this not happen on a national scale?

Did you ever have a mother in law?

Mother in laws can break up a relationship meant to last forever. They know each one well. So when one person does something the other person would accept as one of those tiny differences they just have to accept and live with, the mother in law rephrases that, approaches the other party with the news piece, then demands to them, so what are you going to do about that?

She then takes that piece of info, to the other party, starts out with a “did you know….” and eventually builds to the crescendo of “so, what are you going to do about that?” She skillfully drives the wedge and eventually, discord, hate, vitriol, and murder and death.

That fuckin’ mother in law… is money. Everyone fears it. The press does it’s bidding… (they need readers). The Democrats can ill afford to affront their money. Nor can the Republicans.

So, all three have to play the part, of contentious politics upon the national stage.

Occasionally, occasionally (and this is the proof of this theory), this affects local politics. When someone with a lot of money gets affected by local decisions, the partisans come out in force. Without the influence of money, they never leave the shadows… Local school board elections being a recent example.

So, if the root of all political evil is money, what do we do about it?

Money is a universal force. Even I, am subject to its pull. You are too. There are certain things in your day that you have to do, and don’t really like spending the time doing them, because of money….

It just is.

So just what is the right balance?

I’ll argue that you can’t wipe out all corporate or business influence. For if you do, then you have a population that may enjoy all the protections they’ve bestowed upon themselves, but have no capital with which to grow.

I’ll also argue the opposite, that you can’t have corporate or businesses as the only influence, for then you have a business class with plenty of privileges, but not enough human economic capital to sustain the economy. It would be as if the South couldn’t export cotton in the early 1800’s. You’d have a profitable slave economy, with cotton just sitting on the docks. Who would buy it? But had the slaves been paid living wages, they, could in turn buy that cotton to make their own clothes or start a textile factory that could sell to themselves…

If you study the build up to the American Civil War, and instead of focusing on whether the issue of human slavery as morally wrong, then focus on whether the employees (slaves) at that time should be paid living wages for their work, you see that issue is the same we have right now. From this historical example, shouldn’t workers be paid sufficient wages, so they not only cover their bare minimal living expenses, but also have enough disposable income with which to make choice purchases, thereby driving the economy forward?

Now substitute the word “workers” with “middle class”… and bingo, you are right where we are today.

(The North won, btw, so if you are looking for an indication on which way we should go)…

So we need not to pull money from politics, but manage money in politics.

A complicated formula that might correct today’s aberration, might be to restrict campaign spending depending on ones income level. If you are a member of the top one percent, all of you together can only be responsible for one percent of the campaign expenses. The bottom 99% then shares the burden for the rest.

Obviously the bottom 10% cannot afford to pay anything. So that drops spending by 10%. The influence of that 1% at the top is then enhanced by that margin that has been zero’d out from the bottom. So it reflects real life, where the top one percent actually has more influence, and since they own the money, they should have their representation of that money, represented…

Ahhh, but that is getting far too complicated.

The easiest way to do that is to limit donations to actual people. I’m sorry, it is so simple that it works. If you want to give $1 million to a campaign, you have to find a 1000 people willing to cough up $1000 each to the candidate you want to move forward. In this day and age, that can’t be hard to do. But, if for some reason you can’t, perhaps because of something creepy in your platform, then the problem takes care of itself. The money represents the feelings of real people. Not the overwhelming feelings of one misanthropornagraphic person.

So, getting rid of all outside money is a start.
Limiting all contributions to $1000 per person is a finish.

It is where we need to go, to get people talking to each other as human being to human being, and not cardboard cutout to cardboard cutout….

Stimulate This

Now that the major primaries have passed, now that the issues have been settled, we can all move on since the rest of the primaries are only to determine the actual people who will be running……..

Therefore, starting today, the stimulus spending bill has come under debate…

As well as it should… It was a big bill…. It was definitely voted on through a leap of faith. If successful, it completely wipes one major party off the face of the planet! If it fails, it offers the only justification for that pathetic party to have ever existed in the first place…

And so, … it should be debated…

Now with debates, anyone can say anything… If you can open your mouth, if you can form words with your tongue, if you know the rudimentary rules of the English language, you can say anything… There is no limit…

It is up to us, to determine whether what is being said, ..is fact… or fiction.. It is up to us to use our intellectual processes, our years of experiences, or natural born instincts, to analyze the sound waves emitting from a speaker’s mouth, and to make a judgment on whether what is being said… is fact, …. or …fiction.

Sometimes we need help…

So let us turn to Republicans to help us determine whether the stimulus package was a good thing after all…

As everyone knows, the passage of the Stimulus Package was essentially a Democratic undertaking. Every Republican member of the House and all but three Republican members of the Senate voted against it.

( Mike Castle is in the House; Mike Castle is a Republican )

Obviously they think the Stimulus Package is bad. They’re right…. It’s bad for Republicans… Every elected Republican’s job is in jeopardy, .. if the Stimulus Bill turns out to be successful…

As for the rest of us, …all the evidence out there now, shows it is helping.. All the evidence out there now, shows it has made a difference… All the evidence out there now, shows that America sorely needed the Stimulus Bill, and the American economy today, is alive only because this Bill got passed over the outrageous objections of all Republicans but three …

Three economic analyst firms, IHS Global Insight, Macroeconomic Advisers and Moody’s Economy.com. have estimated that between 1.6 million and 1.8 million jobs have been created so far. The White House offered a much broader range, between 1.5 and 2 million jobs.

Yes, as Rick Jensen pointed out on WDEL this afternoon, some jobs are not high priced or long term… The actual percentage of those he mentioned as having no merit, roughly a thousand out of the 2 million figure quoted by the White House, is exactly 0.0005 of one percent. So we can assume, thanks to Rick Jensen, that this bill, which Mike Castle voted against, has been 99.9995% successful at creating new jobs…

So what are these Republicans objecting too? $ 288 billion in tax cuts.
Mike Castle voted against $288 Billion in tax cuts… That is the same thing as raising your taxes… Do you know why the upcoming Christiana District Referendum is now necessary? It is because for 8 years, Mike Castle voted to streamline government. He voted for tax cuts, so his wealthy friends, who used to support our schools with their taxes, didn’t have to anymore. Keep your money he told them. We’ll cut jobs and expenses… Now, in a bad economy, every homeowner will have to cough up more to keep our schools open… All because Mike interfered with what was working beautifully, and screwed things up…

And now,… when we need jobs, Mike Castle votes against $288 billion in tax cuts? Is he nuts? or is he worried those tax cuts might be successful and he will lose his job come November 2010?

You don’t have to be a scientist to figure that one out..

But the Republicans biggest opposition to the Stimulus Package was that it created jobs….

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele laid down the party line on CNN: “Let’s get this notion out of our heads that the government create jobs. Not in the history of mankind has the government ever created a job.”

Hoover Dam, TVA, WWII, every military contract ever signed, Kellogg & Root, every bulldozer operator on every Federal Highway, every Congressional staffer, every state employee, every public school teacher, etc., does not exist according to the republican party. They are simply not there… This is the doctrine Mike Castle subscribes to?

Contrary to Steele’s assertion, in the history of mankind, the government has in fact created many, many jobs (including the one he held for a few years: lieutenant governor of Maryland) (and they wonder why people have no confidence in Republicans.. Ha!)

Equally peculiar, was the rush by these same Republicans who said government never created any new jobs, to claim credit even though they voted against it, for the new jobs their Federal Government was bringing to their district….

Which leaves the third leg. Entitlements. Much of the spending in this area has been on Medicaid—an effort to help state governments, run by Democrats and Republicans alike, cope with the rising costs of residents left uninsured or under-insured by the economic downturn. It would be hard to find any Republican who would commit that we need to let seniors die a wretched and painful death, with no medical care because the Federal Government didn’t want to spend some extra dollars… But that is exactly what Mike Castle voted to do, when he voted against the Stimulus Bill… It’s a dammed good thing he was in the minority…

So Mike Castle voted here and here to kill the Stimulus Plan.

The question is simply put….. Was this the best decision for Delaware?

He voted against the creation of 1.6 to 1.8 million jobs.
He voted against $288 billion in tax cuts during an economic crises.
He voted against emergency money to keep seniors from dying painful and wretched deaths when state funding ran out…

Does he know he made a mistake?

You tell me.

Answer To Hube (Too Good To Bury In Comments)

Hube…

If government entities were all supposed to allow guns on their premises, then why do we spend so much money at every governmental building to insure that no firearms enter that very building?

Because those inside do not want to get shot… 🙂

If that is good enough for the General Assembly located in Legislative Hall, it is good enough for residents of Public Housing.

A Tale of Two Meetings

Two workforce housing meetings occurred this week. The first on Tuesday was at the Cornerstone Church off 896, and the second one took place with the New County Council in the Gillian building just off New Castle Commons…

The first meeting was put on by the new found work-group..Stay Out Of My Pocket. This group coalesced out of the early September meeting off Vance Neck Road…. Apparently citizens did not like what the County told them there…. (You can refresh your memory here to find out why…) Since that time research was done and an action and plan of attack has been determined…

The tone between this meeting and the last, was different as East Delaware is from West Delaware…(lol) Whereas the star of the last meeting was a map, this meeting was owned by a power point. In fact walking in ones’ first impression was “wow… this is a nice church..” complete with cafeteria, hotel informational desk, and gift shop. The inner sanctum gave new meaning to echo chamber, since only those who used a mike, could be understood, unless one was quite near the speaker…

But with little contention worth mentioning, here is the scoop from the meeting… Work force housing is a done deal. Stays can be executed but we can never go back and undo the bids that were placed before and between the first and last meeting… However, legislation can be passed in the General Assembly and signed by Jack Markell which can be retroactive before the bids were placed, and that can undo the damage… An arduous process to be sure. But a lawsuit in Chancery Court can stop it cold…

There are several reasons for following through with Chancery Court… First, the Chancery Court revolves around “equity”. And the current workforce housings provisions provide developers, as well as county government, some prime plums to be picked… But.. it penalizes every other citizen and homeowner in the county by doing so… It is not equal and therefore the Chancery Court is where it needs to be heard…

Furthermore, William Chandler III stated that our current rate of development will DESTROY DELAWARE FOR GENERATIONS TO COME…

The unions sent some representatives, not wanting to be blindsided as the were by the Vance Neck meeting, where in September they figured that workforce housing was a done deal, so why bother… They did get anxious and their blood pressure soared during the part where “slowing down the process” was discussed, either by filing historical claims, environmental claims, or more or less using every law on the books, to slow down the development until the court case could be heard… was mentioned…

That then is the way to start…

Most importantly was the implicit implication to Sussex and Kent Counties… Mark Baker, who is running for Sussex County District 3, himself on Maria Evan’s show stated that workforce housing, if he was elected, was to be Sussex Counties next big priority…..

Equally chilling was a video, made by developers in America’s most royalist state, Virginia, which told other developers how to game the local system in order to put up workforce housing.. To paraphrase…”having trouble with getting a project passed through County Council?…Just mention workforce housing (formerly known as low income housing) and poof, it gets passed”…  Equally telling was that Hawaii had shut down workforce housing in that state… because the outcome was so horribly different from what they had been promised…So it is possible.  Success can be accomplished…

As an aside, Cathcart and Lofink both stated emphatically that they were against the work force ordinance changing forever the quality of New Castle County.  Steve Amick (retired) also was against the plan.. Bethany Hall-Long, no doubt due to an acknowledgment towards the union,  hemmed and hawed until rousing discontent from the audience made her too see the light… (If she was ever to be elected…..) she too came out against the ordinance..  Earl Jacques stood up in back and said he too was against the ordinance… Four for four against was the call made by the moderator…

Again more can be found on their site:  Stay out of my pocket.

The following day County Council met to hear the public’s view.. In fairness to all, it should be disclosed that your humble reporter chose to spend the evening behind third base at a certain athletic event that took place that evening… So I apologize for any inconsistencies and if notified, will correct them… (Fifteen years… man…) But from what I heard, the following is what took place…

To begin we had a presentation describing work force housing….. put on by the county.. You can see that display here….

Then came the citizenry up to the open mike…

Bill Williams blamed Democrats and organized labor that goes “whoop, whoop” at county meetings.
Next Mark from Caravel Farms had questions to be answered later..
Then a fisherman’s daughter from Seattle stepped up in support of Work Force Housing…
Appoquinimink School Board President said at $30 million per school, and 1000 new kids being the thresh-hold for a new school, and a net gain of 500 students over this past summer, schools could not be built fast enough if work force housing goes into effect… He stressed he was unaware that plans had been changed regarding density levels. Next a resident complained of traffic on his road, and wondered if Deldot could ever be counted upon to fix it.. Then a rep from Stay Out Of My Pocket asked three questions to be answered in full, later… We did find out that $4200 is assessed per household for educational needs, but costs could be much higher, with the difference impinging upon taxpayers.. A visitor from the State Education stood up an said he had pertinent information, if he could speak… He jumped the line and spoke.. He was in charge of determining the assessment fees for developments across the state… His formula was simple.. take the cost of building a school..divide it by the number of houses…. for Appoquinimink…around $4200 per unit.. (someone verify that formula?)  The formula is determined by state law…that finger point was repeated a lot… so today,even as commodities rise, the cost is mandated at that low level meaning that is all the developers pay… the rest is paid by your taxes…

Then Chuck Mulholland, head of Southern New Castle County Alliance, gave his opinion that work force housing was a costly endeavor… for nothing.. There are 300 properties in Claymont sitting empty… put the workforce into those houses, before moving them down to Boyd’s Corner… an idea that makes sense…  Brandywine school district is cutting back due to lack of students, and Appoquinimink can’t build schools fast enough…

Several other speakers spoke as well.

On resident of Denny Road decried the condition of his highway in front of his house, and that with several new developments, no work was anticipated to widen the road… “The shoulder is crumbling away”, said this resident. “Deldot’s answer was to zig-zag the white line edging the holes already formed on the highway’s edge… Boggles the mind… and density rates were doubled?

Jim Spencer, running against Earl Jacques in the twenty seventh,  who is well acquainted with Deldot… said he lives on Porter Road… It takes ten minutes for him to leave his driveway because of all the traffic… Deldot is broke… they just paid 20 million for a pile of sand at Indian River… Don’t count on Deldot to do anything to alleviate your congestion, he said.. they can’t… and density rates were doubled?

One resident of Rose Hill, (always reminds me of that scene in the Wizard of Oz… oh,.. that was poppies.) had some good questions.. Forgetting what they were, perhaps they will show up later…

Several citizens said they were raised in the city, and left on their own…  They agreed with the principal of work force housing, but not with the method which it was sprung upon them in their new developments…

Several plants were called in support of the principal of work force housing, creating a controversy over whether workforce housing was for fireman and policeman, or was for slum lords and riff raff..  One wife of a policeman contested workforce housing was necessary for them by stating “the families of policemen, don’t need workforce housing… we can find housing on our own”.  One lawyer from New Jersey spoke until the audience began challenging her, then walked off…. but not before giving Penrose Hollins a hug….XOXOXO

A couple of liberal types spoke on the “egalitarian principles” of why we need work force housing, thereby giving liberalism a bad name…

Andy Taylor, a lawyer for the County, who occasionally shows up in the comment sections of these blogs, said he lives in Claymont, where the density level is higher than what is being proposed in and around MOT. And he is a happy person. Great.

Joann Christian, Asst. Appoquinimink Superintendent, spoke a little about how the plan had blindside them within the school district… One of the criteria for work force housing was that it be pre-approved by the school board.. Not quite… A call comes to the school board… Can you accept “X” number of new students?”  “uh… no.”  “Ok, we’ll assess the fee then…”  and the houses are built anyway, with part of the fee assessed upon the developers, and the children get dumped on overcrowded schools…

After seeing his former opponent speak, State Senator Bruce Ennis signed in and stepped up to the mike… Upon opening his folder, he knocked the red, yellow, and green time clock on the floor, prompting county officials to holla’  “send him the bill.”….  Bruce discussed how he was unaware that the laws for development had been changed.  He cited statistics showing that of all the new plans brought before the state… those in New Castle County were in single digits… That was because a circular had been circulated saying that the county ordinance overrode the state law, which had been changed to be subordinate to county law, by the same group of Democratic Senators who backed Minner’s veto on eminent domain… led, of course, by Tony DeLuca… (no wonder he is against open government).

Laura Brown, who is running against Bill Bell, the council person responsible for putting lower New Castle County in this predicament, spoke out that she was against work force housing moving into that region, and would fight to limit its extent…  Bill Bell WILL have developers and union support.. It will take everyone in District 12 who is not union or a developer, to vote for Laura Brown if Bell is to be unseated… Remember, it was Bell who sat quietly in Hooters, sipping beers while looking out the window at the scenery (yeah right), while this controversy was brewing… He talked to no one about it before it blew up… It was his seat which was hottest during the August meeting… “psssss”.

Bill Dunn, hero extraordinaire, had a couple of questions…. Almost more important than what he said, was the reaction of one Paul Clark, who leaned against the wall… As Bill spoke, Paul Clark snickered, hardly unable to contain his glee… If he is ever put in jail, he not only would be a Clark bar, but a Snicker’s bar as well.  As Paul turned his head, one could see where Pam had pulled a hair for each time he had failed to do what she wanted….

Attending but not speaking, were candidates Rebecca Walker, and Bethany Hall-Long who could be overheard at the end, “where can I get a program”….

This is probably Delaware’s next big battle: citizens against the developers.. affecting Sussex and Kent Counties, as well as New Castle County…  It is time everyone begin to acquaint themselves with just how bad work force housing will affect them personally, and then “get themselves a program…”

Again the best start would be with Stay Out Of My Pocket.

It’s Hartley-Nagle, not Nagel….

Across the state voters are wondering who is Karen Hartley-Nagle?

If they are Republican they are pursuing the angle of how Mike Castle stacks up to her across the board…

If they are Democratic, they are wondering who did I just vote for?

Here is her website: Here is criticism from the other side….

No matter who you are or which party you represent, the “elephant” in the room is this: Has Mike Castle outlived his usefulness?

Now I am loathe to throw an old man out on the street… I mean this is America… We take care of our veterans, and our corporate executives who have lost their jobs… We are not one to turn a blind eye to those in need…

However, for one example, one has to understand why we impose strict testing on our state’s driver’s licenses, as one grows older… It is not out of disrespect, although those old may resent being told what needs done by a “young-un”. Such requirements are necessary to insure the lives of others on the road… Sometimes our rights do need curtailed when we can no longer control our own actions…

As with a driver’s license, age should not be the determining factor… It should be ability… A sharp ninety-two year old who still functions better than a sixty-five year old, should certainly not have their rights taken a way….

So from here on out, whenever the local political conversation turns to Mike Castle’s age, be it understood, by all readers everywhere, that we are discussing his ability… Age is just a typing shortcut to describe whether he has the ability to best lead Delaware during the next term… Two years….

Now age is a relative factor… I saw someone sixty two finish a marathon in relatively good time….. That person is better qualified to run than I am… The proof is there…

So as the campaign heats up it would be foolish for all to ignore the elephant in the room, which is why I am posting this so “it is now out of the bag.” You know, the usual talk about how he was a good governor, how he came to speak to your club, about how nice and polite he was in treating everyone around the room, about the letters someone in his office personally sent, and he of course signed….. Those are distractions… This is not a vote for a “Lifetime Achievement” Award… it is a vote for who will best represent us. That in plain talk, means who will best translate our voices into legislation that get’s done….

Karen Hartley-Nagle has to fill big shoes… She has a powerful voice to do just that…. but there is no doubt, that her diminutive little feet would not fit into Mike Castle’s glass slipper…. She needs to shatter that glass slipper and create a new one… one her size…

Delawareans need to open their eyes and watch the details of this race very closely… They need to make the determination of whether an “old fogey” or an upstart “whippersnapper”, can better represent those citizens who are forgotten as one voice out of 435 others in the House of Representative… 1/435.

It is a vote for a voice that we need to remember… During the lackadaisical past 8 years, just as our state government did much about nothing, so has our lone Congressmen…

Delawareans only have 54 days to make up their mind….

As with Carney, sometimes when you know what you are going to get, you have to take a chance on getting something better… It’s a chance, but you have to take it….

You have to.

Refreshingly So….

The news is out, meanwhile the delegates are on their way to Denver, and the 08 campaign now turns a page into a new chapter….

This morning’s announcement puts Delaware (is that a state?) on the map, due to one of our state’s longest serving 1961 Archmere Academy’s alumni…

Some of us are not surprised, and our record shows it.  The bedrock for this decision was laid as far back as January 3, 2008…..  Those who followed Biden through out Iowa, knew as far back as then, that Barack’s people were very interested in him….  Most particularly because of Biden’s final stand, when  the Obama campaign reached out to Biden with a deal, that if any of their excess delegates were not needed in a certain caucus, they would vote first for Biden, if then afterward all of Biden’s supporters would then go stand with Obama.

Biden, to his credit (as well as the credit of all America), said he appreciated the offer but would have no part in such a deal….. ( They next went to Richardson  who said sure why not… the difference between them was 1%)  But it was Biden’s principaled refusal which pricked up the ears of the Obama organizers…

Today as the conventions approach, even before the announcement, the most skeptical gradually have come to the conslusion that there could be no other viable alternative:  It had to be Biden.

So what does this choice bring to America?   It brings real hope that America will turn itself around over the next four years…

Competency, the ingredient thoroughly lacking over the last eight years, will again be in charge….

Competency?  You might well ask.  How so?

Three areas:  all areas in which a Vice Presidency needs to be effective, if America is to continue to be effective.

One.  Knowledge of the Constitution:  Simply knowing what is right….and what is wrong.  Biden has stood on the side of, and fought for the Constitution each time it has come under attack.  As member of the Senate Judicial Committee he has both approved and disapproved Court judges, always voting with the Constitution against Republican attempts to water it down.

Two.  Respect among foreign leaders.  Most recently he has just returned from Georgia. At other times Biden has sat across the table from certain Communist premieres,  Balkan war criminals, and persecuted refugees.  Today his Balkan plan is working, compared to an Iraqi plan that may work one day ( a hundred years from now), but currently isn’t.  Most telling of Biden’s international respect, occurred late last fall, when riots erupted in the streets of Pakistan, both opposition leaders, Bhutto and Musharraf, placed calls to Joe Biden for advice; not to Bush, Cheney, Rice or anyone in the State Department.   That last fact is priceless.  Both sides upon asking themselves, just who out there can give me the best advice….. turned to Joe Biden.  Meanwhile the rest of the world daily continues to turn away from the current Republican leadership.

Finally, most importantly, knowledge of how to move bills through Congress… Joe biden has deep long term connections on both sides….  If there is anyone in America who can get both sides to work together, it is Joe Biden….

But only if the anti America bloc of 30 + Republican Senators can be diminished to 29.

And this is where we come in.   Obama-Biden cannot be expected to be able to make the change alone.  They  must have a Congress that will support them. 30 Senate Republicans have held up government for two long years.  Therefore it is not a big stretch to say that every sane American’s duty is to elect far less Republicans to Congress in November, no matter for which House they are running for. In Delaware, this specifically means we need to replace Mike Castle….

For Delaware (and the rest of America as well), this specifically means we need to replace Mike Castle.

“For if you always do what you always did, you will always get, what you always got….”

Dem’s Got Race; Republican’s Got Religion

Naturally one should expect the two most divisive divisions of America to surface during a heated campaign. What is fascinating is that these virulent battles are taking place within the parties, and not between them.

Race as sometimes been a public issue, such as when John McCain first ran in South Carolina, but rarely has it grabbed headlines like it has this week. Likewise religious controversies have been a constant source of friction between the far right and far left, but never within the confines of the Republican party. Republicans were supposed to protect religion against everything Satanic.

WTF is going on?

Has America finally come to its senses and decided to tackle race and religion, the last two divisive issues facing us, that up to this point and since the beginning of man have never been completely reconciled? Have we therefore already resolved the issues that predominated the last election cycle: what was it…….gays and marriage? Or the cycle before that back in 2000,….. morality versus competence? Since we are on this topic now, it must have come to pass that we solved those problems then, although I confess I must have been preoccupied, since I seem to have missed all the hoopla and fanfare that came with their resolution…………………

Just to give one an idea of how this has exploded, I used to have a spot on page 2 if one dared google Obama Hillary. In less than one week it has been pushed back to I-don’t-know-where…….I couldn’t find it…….Such is the explosion of commentary that this controversy has spawned.

What caused it?

Nothing really. Hillary was trying to maintain her lead among black women, who feel she has the best shot at winning, by stating that Martin Luther King talked, but it was Lyndon Johnson who did the walk. If any of you have heard Jack Valenti‘s reminiscences of those days in the Johnson White House, Johnson twisted a lot of arms to make that happen. Yes, it may not have happened had MLK not been outspoken, but it definitely would not have happened if someone other than Johnson, a backwoods white Southerner, been in office instead. It was Johnson’s persuasion coming from inside the mentality of the Bible belt, that provided enough votes to make the law.

So Hillary is innocent…….Let’s move on.

Obama, who due to the color of his skin, obviously got some heat from his supporters who only heard, or thought they heard, or heard it from someone who thought they heard, that Hillary had put down MLK. And Obama casually made the statement that Hillary’s comment had offended some people.

Of course it did. The fault lies not with Hillary. It lies with those people who were too lazy to find out what was actually said and took someone else’s assessment and embellished to the point that their adrenalin kicked in! I could have made the same statement as Obama, because I know people like that, regardless of skin color.

Should Obama have kept silent then, and not brought it up?

No! He is in the middle of a campaign. His job, his goal, is to try to splinter some of the oppositions supporters over to his side. If he lies, to do so, that is an unpardonable sin. But to tell a truthhood, ….well……like it or not, that is what politics is!

Next Hillary on Meet the Press accuses Obama of using her comment to drive Blacks from her campaign. Should she have kept quiet?

No, she too is in the middle of a campaign. Long-term supporters are leaving camp and she needs to console them to stay. Shedding light on why and what is happening, is the best way to stem the damage. Again, if she lies, that is abominable. But to be maligned for telling the truth……..that is politics, and her job is to win.

Last I heard…..Obama had called a truce…..Hopefully to focus on more important issues.

So why did this happen?

It can be explained by a theme common in small towns that played itself out from the beginning of man. Shakespeare as well as 60’s and 70’s television shoes used the same plot line.

That is where a busy body, listening in to conversations to obtain gossip, mishears something and creates a victim by telling that person what they thought they heard. The victim, naturally angry, fires back a salvo which this person then takes to the innocent perpetrator, who in turn becomes angry thinking he has become the victim of an unprovoked attack.

Our thirty minutes of entertainment are taken up by stringing us along on how the reconciliation will eventually occur.

Today, the busybody is our press. Our press is not content to report the news. They feel that they should make the news.

Words are duplicitous instruments. They can sometimes have two nuances of meaning. And when one then strings several of these words together, those nuances can pile up and and give different interpretations of meaning. As one example, the word “clean” has a good meaning……and now we know, a bad meaning….

Because of something called the “speed of light”, something said in Los Angeles, can be seen in New York before a breath is taken after the end of the original sentence. Bottom line? The media acting as Ms. Busybody has people looking for anything to create a fight!

“Hello, this is Brian in New York. Hillary just said “Blah, blah.” This is good. Get your camera man, we need his reaction in real time, can you get to him in two minutes?”

Two minutes later.

Got it….here it comes…..it should work, can you fire it back on Hillary…….

And so on.

Meanwhile the deficit clock speeds up out of control. Meanwhile a cell phone sets off an IED under a Humvee, killing 9. Meanwhile, enough fresh water to supply greater Los Angeles for a day, flows out of just one of the hundred thousand little lakes scattered across Greenland’s ice cap, and plunges into the sea.

And all our entire press can talk about, is “He said, She said…..” Now can you get a glimmer of understanding as to why the rest of the world doesn’t really like America, not the one of old, but the one that stands today?

As once proud Americans, it should disgust us. Really!

As for salvation, all I can say is thank heavens for the blogs. Everything I have learned this past year has come from them.

Today I am disgusted to the point where the opposition now looks rosier than the roster of our own party. And we are at the point where only two states have voted so far…………

But then, those Republicans…….they’re undergoing the exact same problem with religion……

Quotes are taken out of context. Reactions make the news, instead of whatever was actually was said. Our screens are filled with no-names analysing the controversy, instead of the clips showing the full context of the speech itself.

Thank heavens for C Span. The camera is turned on and left running. If one watches these incidents on C Span, every one of these controversies becomes debunked. They don’t exist in real life. They are digital fabrications…………

What can you do? Boycott the media (C Span does not count). If a controversy piques your interest, at least on the ‘net’ you can for yourself determine that it is “much ado about nothing.”

This shows that a serendipity primary battle, is impossible. Many look at our state’s gubernatorial races and assume repairs can be made in 7 weeks. All it takes is one misinterpreted ambiguous comment, and the deal is off……

Why Blacks Like Hillary Over Obama

Bill Clinton led his send-off speech at the Dem 2000 convention for Al Gore, with the fact that under the second term of his administration, blacks saw a higher growth of income than whites…..

During the Bush Years, they gave it all back………

Therefore to the average Afro American, this election is extremely important, from purely an economic reason…..African Americans fared well under the first Clinton. They put their faith, if not their fervor into Al Gore, and look where we are today….Bottom line, they feel they need to back someone who will win with white voters….

Of course they are proud of Obama. Even more, they are proud of his high poll standings and his ability to earn money…….equal almost to that of Hillary Clinton herself…..

But when it comes to keeping track of how many promising Black candidates actually win…..their memories are better at keeping score than most whites…..Likewise they are sharper because of their struggles, on who is capable and not capable of delivering upon their campaign promises……

Bill did…and that leads a lot of credence that his wife will do the same…..Her experience is slightly more prodigious than her husband’s. She seems to have the Rights’ nod to the presidency, implying at best the Republicans will try to mount a Dole sized Campaign to keep from acquiescing entirely.

Obama on the other hand, was a state senator, and then a freshman Senator, until he started taking time off to campaign…How will he be able to effectively work Capitol Hill better than Hillary, when what is necessary will be the reversal of all things Bush, and a return to the tax policy, environmental policy, social policy that proved to raise ALL RACES AND ECONOMIC STRATAS at the same time……something no one else has ever been able to do.

They do not need another candidate to stumble out of the gate. Therefore though they like Obama, as for right now, the money is on Hillary……

But that could change after Iowa…where currently Obama is in the lead…..If Obama can show the curse is lifted and in a state where there are very few African Americans to be found…that a black can beat the wife of the most popular president ever,……those allegiances can shift…..But Obama must win in Iowa, sort of the same way Kennedy had to win in West Virginia, (proving once and for all back in 1960 that a Catholic did have a shot at the presidency.Boy have we come a long way…..)

Black voters, argues Jim Clyburn, House Majority Whip, are aware that they make up a minority of the population in the United States and that to win the White House in 2008 the Democratic candidate must be able to demonstrate considerable appeal among white voters

if Iowa goes Obama, then Blacks may see him as capable of making it all the way. If that vision becomes reality, then their support will switch to that candidate who can win the White House in 2008……even if he is black…….

Oh! Do You Have Hemorrhoids Too?