Delaware Politics

The folks at Delaware Liberal were concerned with our choice to put Michael Steele’s image in the masthead. So I have replaced Mr. Steele with the true hero of DelawarePolitics.net for a few days.

Crossroads - Cream Live 1968

Standin’ at the Crossroads.

Everyone has a solution to my Party. Those at the switch for many years saw nothing wrong, yet here they are today, telling me what’s wrong with the party, and they crow that it’s not enough of them. When did T.O. come in (We need me a little more of me)?

Standin’ at the Crossroads.

As I dare to care to make change, here I am once again, being told that I am not far-right enough to belong. Do I continue to fight, as my instinct and innate being tell me to do, or do I step off and let the whole thing complete it’s impending implosion, as my logical reasoning is screaming to my brain?

Standin’ at the Crossroads.

I really do need a break. It’s politics, a mere game played chess-master wannabees that never seem to be able to find that final check-mate move (not the politicians, but the puppet masters and the puppets bound by the strings of loyalty). Keep attacking with your pawns, fellas, the ultimate stale-mate is fast approaching and the board will be annihilated.

Tags: Delaware GOP, National GOP, Republicanism

From Citibank.
From JPMorgan and Chase, Co.

I am now officially in fear. What will I try to do now? Start a business. I kid you not. Can’t be any worse than being (potentially) unemployed.

Freaking economy.

Tags: economy, layoffs, unemployment

What in the name of kissing sisters was that mess yesterday?

Sad thing is, in spite of the awful play calling of Andy Reid (58 passes against 17 running plays…in an OT game), McNabb is taking big heat for this debacle.

Excuse me!

Sorry you haters, McNabb isn’t the problem, at least not to the extent many claim he is. 75 plays, 58 are passing plays…WT-freaking-F?

I was for a long a time a Reid defender, but how can anyone be that anymore? He bring a good talent-evaluation ability in his large frame, but beyond that, I can’t say he has anything else anymore. Face it, Andy, on-field coaching appears to have passed you by and like my GOP, you have done nothing to adapt to the times.

75 plays, 58/17 passes/runs (psst…Andy…that is at 77.33% rate of passing plays).

Ever hear of Brian Westbrook? We know you have. Ever hear of Correll Buckhalter? We know you have. How about Lorenzo Booker? You traded for him!

Andy, please…step down, or step up(stairs), just step the hell out of the way. Do what you do best: take all of the blame. This time, take the responsibility and consequences, too.

Tags: Andy Reid, Football, NFL, Philadelphia Eagles

So much for a fundamental realignment, the GOP is within 2 points of the Dems on the generic ballot. Freed from the shadow of President Bush, the GOP is rising in the polls. That bodes well for the Chamblis race.  This just proves that with good leadership, we will have a resurgence.  It is not a given, but a realistic opportunity.  In other polling, 78% of Republicans believe the next President will be one of them.

I propose that we get behind a leader who knows how to build a party in the blue states.  We need our own 50 state strategy.  I endorse Lt. Gov. Michael Steele for RNC chairman.  Please sign the petition at http://www.draftmichaelsteele.com/ or read more about him.

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Democrats call for counting every vote even when they have to divine the voter’s intent as in FL 2000 or pull them out of a trunk as in MN.  Yet, they seem to have little interest in insuring that the 31st district vote is right.  The Democrats are silent even though the odds are in their favor.  The Dept. of Elections found that in some districts in Kent County the absentee ballot was not counted accurately because of a design flaw which threw off the scanner.  A hand count in the 29th district changed the result of the election.

The 31st district race is about a couple hundred votes apart and there are nearly 800 absentee ballots.  The GOP asked for a recount.  It should be given because their is a mathematical possibility of changing the result  combined with a proven problem with the count.  It would not take unreasonable manpower nor time.  It could be done in an hour with staff and  volunteers watching from both parties. 

I think the end result would be the same, but until it is done I don’t know that it will be the same.  Senator Connie Mack won because he had a disproportionate victory in absentee ballots some years ago.  It happens.

I am fine with winning or losing, but I am not fine with not having confidence in the actual count.  There is no reason to avoid counting the ballots.  It will take less time and expense than going to court.  More importantly, it will insure the public does not lose confidence in there vote counting.  It also raises federal voting rights questions, it is a minority district and potentially votes are being diluted.

Kent County Department of Elections, please count every vote.  Don’t hide behind technicalities.

Is the DE GOP in Crisis? Back in Feb. I wrote this on firststatepolitics.net. Unfortunately, most of the suggestions and observations for the future are still valid. This post is in the top 3 hits on the old blog for the last week so I thought I would bring it back, including the insightful comments. The predictions came to pass and the suggestions are still out there. Is anyone listening.

It seems like the party’s best efforts have fallen apart. If it were the result of lousy leadership that would be a comfort because then we could just change the guys at the top and everything would be all right. Sadly, the problem is more fundamental. Our leadership is dedicated, energetic, and open to new ideas. The problem is that the party no longer has any real connection with the majority of the state. Thus many candidates who are strong are hesitant to run.Republicans complain rightfully so about the Minner/Carney administration mismanaging our money, but then our legislative leadership joins with the administration in allowing it. The recent changes dealing with prevailing wage means that some workers who are supposed to benefit, won’t have a job. Schools have to wait to be built. Roads stay on the drawing board. Taxpayers pay the same amount for less benefit from government. It is a lose, lose, lose proposal. They did not demand fundamental reform before giving hundreds of millions in new fees and tolls to the transportation trust fund. We could have at least plugged the hole before pouring more money in. It is an illusion like thinking the bucket is okay because you are pouring water in faster and it looks like it is filling up. You are still wasting water. We are still wasting money and with this change the hole has just gotten larger. We need to rediscover our identity.

We need to take a page from the Canadian Alliance, which is the conservative government in our neighbor to the north. The Progressive Conservative Party was so devastated by changing trends and poor leadership that it collapsed into oblivion. It went from over 200 seats to 2 in one election. The truth is that the collapse had been under way for years. The opposition was just not ready for prime time. Stephen Harper had a vision to rebuild a Conservative movement. Understanding what he did is important enough that I will write a post or series of posts on this….

7:51pm — The voting has concluded.

Speaker Bob Gilligan

Majority Leader Pete Schwartzkopf

Majority Whip Valerie Longhurst

The Gay movement and the Christian right seem in perpetual conflict.  I wonder if that is necessary. 

I am a Conservative Christian.  I believe the Bible is the Revealed Word of God and the rule for faith and life.  I find that as debatable as the fact that the sun shines on cloudless days.  God is real and I know Him in a personally.  You may as well tell me my mother doesn’t exist and I will take it as seriously as you telling me God doesn’t.  Liberals trying to debate those points and trying to say the Bible really doesn’t mean what it says is a useless exercise.

Gay activists believe that they are only playing the cards dealt them at birth.  They are understandably offended that people would say they are freaks and should be shoved in a corner as some embarrassment. (Don’t go off saying that is my opinion–you all know people with that point of view.)  After generations of legal harassment (and even the assassination of a leader), they have come into their own.  They take a strident approach that those with the other point of view really just want to find another way to deprive them of their rights.

What I was always more interested in is discovering what do gays really need from the rest of us.  Not being harassed by the law for whom they choose to love always seemed like a good start.  I never saw the right of government to be involved when other people are not hurt.   I always believed that people had a right to share bank accounts, home ownership, inheritance, that we should move to household based insurance, and people should be able to choose who represents them in critical decisions such as health care.  If I marry someone, I can make that choice almost by default unless I have another choice.  If I do not, it is a cumbersome process. 

 I can understand why Gays would feel second class, but they are far from the only people affected by our regulatory society.  If that person is your sibling or best friend, you still have an issue.  Many gays think marriage for them is the solution, but beside the fact that marriage is much more, doesn’t changing marriage still leave the larger problem?  Is not the larger problem one of an intrusive government? 

I wonder if conservatives and liberals, gays and Christians could collaborate to discover a real solution instead of fighting intractable fights.  Unfortunately, the Gay activists in California are saying no.  They are taking extremist positions even when given full civil unions, the right to remake curriculum, and constitutional protections.  Maybe Delaware could discover the third way.  One which would satisfy the 90%.  We can respect everyone without remaking the culture.

Tags: culture wars

Open government does not exist in the shadowy world of the Federal Reserve Bank. The Federal Reserve is a quasi private bank. It is independent and not under Freedom of Information and open government rules. Now that it has spent 2 trillion dollars and is potentially inflating the money supply, Congress has decided to ask some questions.

“During the bipartisan negotiations between Congress and the administration, members of both parties made clear that Congress must have meaningful oversight over the use of taxpayer dollars,” Boehner said. “Transparency is even more important now, given that the program appears to have been implemented in some ways that were given little to no discussion as Congress was being urged to pass the rescue plan.”

Senator John Cornyn of Texas, a member of the Republican leadership, said the lack of disclosure “should trouble taxpayers and policymakers alike.”

“There cannot be accountability in government and in our financial institutions without transparency,” he said. “Many of the financial problems we are facing today are the direct result of too much secrecy and too little accountability.”

Representative Scott Garrett, a New Jersey Republican who serves on both the Financial Services and Banking committees, said “it’s impossible to get to the bottom of where we are because we don’t have transparency.”

Too bad no one thought of that before.  I am more concerned with the fact that they just came up with the money out of no where.  Calculations are indicating that they have tripled our money supply by printing 2 trillion dollars.  Where it goes should be less on our leader’s minds then where did it come from.  I think I will just buy a small wheel barrel now.

Marriage started as an institution to bond the sexes. A renegade court tried to change it and in spite of bullies and politically correct mobs, the voters stood strong. Some extremists would like to turn CA into third world mobocracy. The mob leaders form an enemies list and instead of accepting defeat, they target those with a different point of view. They issue threats against the churches. They disparage members. They attempt to pit one group of citizens against another. Hispanics are ignorant. Mormons are called every name in the book and told they had no right to free expression. Evangelicals are bigots. The Catholic Church is disparaged. Blacks are even called the “N” word.

All of these examples come from the left who would teach the rest of us tolerance. I can respect those who disagree with me on issues. I can not respect people who act like third world leftists when they lose an election. I will not give quarter to those who would subvert democracy for their pet issue. I will condemn those actions vigorously. They attempted to use a renegade court and when the people called them on it, they decided come out when it came to the disregard which they hold the rest of us. As I stated earlier in the year, this battle is even beyond the protection of marriage, the method it is being addressed is about the integrity of the Republican form of government.

Tags: gay marriage, hard left extremists, liberal bigotry

  Randy Evans, a close personal friend of former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that if a majority of the National Republican Committee decided that he was the man for the job he would be willing to take on the challenges of the position.

  Mr. Gingrich who has experience in leading conservative movements is not interested in leading the party to the center or left says Mr. Evans.

  Mr. Gingrich has close ties with talk radio heavy weights Rush Limbaugh , Sean Hannity and Neal Boortz and could expect strong support from them for his candidacy . Mr Gingrich also is very popular among the party base for his stand on issues such as smaller government and lower taxes.

 I imagine that Mr. Gingrich can expect a lot of resistance from those within the party looking to move the party to the center even more and who feel the way to win is to kick the base out and invite even more leftist ideas into the party.

Sign the petition.

In this election cycle, a little-known first-term Senator from Illinois challenged his party’s establishment candidate. And won.

In this election cycle, a statewide elected official decided it was “his time,” and took on the Democratic establishment. And won.

Barack Obama and Jack Markell proved that the status quo doesn’t have to be so. And in the process, a lot of people have been empowered to make change.

Now’s your chance. We have seven weeks to change Delaware forever: by ending the desk-drawer veto.

For the uninitiated, the “desk-drawer veto” is the power of a committee chairperson in the state Senate to take a bill and deny any action on it. The bill goes into a desk drawer, never to be seen again. It is that extraordinary power that has been the cause of death for bills as varied as tax cuts and spending increases, marriage protection amendments and gay rights legislation, labor-friendly wage hikes and business-friendly tax credits. I guarantee that there’s a bill that you support that has died a slow, painful death in a Senate desk drawer.

But it doesn’t have to be so. In a few short weeks, the Delaware Legislature will convene again, and the first order of business for the Senate will be to pass the rules which will govern the body for the legislative session. In that vote lies the future of the desk-drawer veto. The rules can be changed this year to reflect the rules already in operation in the House of Representatives that say that any bill must have action taken in committee within 10 legislative days.

But it will not happen without the most severe pressure. We need calls and letters sent to elected officials. Preferably calls.

We have created an online petition to kick things off. Go to http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/no-more-desk-drawer-veto/ and add your name. Remember in 2007, we got a re-vote and changed the fate of House Bill 4 in the House with just 1,000 signatures on an online petition.

This election has seen many people buck the system and win. Let us be the next who say “Yes, we can.”

Sign the petition.

Call your Senator.

And when you talk to your Senator, don’t just voice your opinion. Ask the question. “Will you vote for the Senate rules if the desk drawer veto is allowed to continue as a sanctioned practice?” Get an answer. Get them on record with a definitive answer.

    I have heard many people in the “KNOW” talk about why the government bail out of the financial sector was needed. I even had the chance to speak directly to Rep. Mike Castle on this topic, who voted in favor of the plan, but who now has concerns about the direction it has taken.

   Most of the people involved in the process list reasons such as we needed to free up credit and to put liquidity back into the market. Both of these are attempts to restart the economy by making it possible for small businesses and individuals to be able to attain loans and to make purchases.

  It would seem that on both sides of the isle in congress we had agreement that what was needed was for people to be able to buy things , be it homes , cars, or TV’s. The decision to do this by having the government hand out hundreds of billions of dollars to lenders either through direct cash advances or through buying up the stock of faltering companies was deemed to be the best plan. I happen to disagree with the idea of government nationalizing private industries as the best plan but was told that allowing the free market to find it’s own level would take too long.

  So instead we decided to print hundreds of billions of dollars we don’t have , which will end up being loans from nations that don’t like us and will add to the national deficit. I believe that this bail out demonstrates exactly where the Federal Government has gone fundamentally wrong in it’s thinking on fiscal planning.

  Instead of funneling money into these lenders who have proven to be unsound , just to free up credit and by doing so creating more Federal debt but also more individual debt. What should have been done and could have been done was for the Federal Government to put a freeze on the national income tax for at least six months , maybe a year. This would have put money directly in the hands of the people who would have done one of two things. First they would have made purchases , second they would have invested or put into savings. Either way money would have been put into circulation.Of course without spending cuts to go along with the freeze the deficit would still sky rocket.

Now I know this goes against everything that big government liberals believe, which is that the government must control all aspects of our lives. They think that it would be unfair for only tax payers to benefit from the tax freeze. But the nation would benefit because as the tax savings were spent it would spark new investment , and as products were sold they would need to be replaced and would create jobs.

  The government keeps coming out with new stimulus packages that include checks to none tax payers which means we are giving back to those who never gave in in the first place, this is wrong headed and only leads to larger problems. All of the plans are aimed at putting money into the hands of the people so they will buy products but only after the government has decided how much we get to spend and with the bail out they decided we needed to go to lenders and borrow it and pay interest on the tax dollars that came from us in the first place. Which means I get to go to work , earn money have it taken away in taxes , given to some lender who may not be the best business model, ask them for it back and pay 6%  interest on it if I’m lucky to use the money that was mine in the first place?SHUT UP !!!!

   So it would seem that most would agree that the way to stimulate the economy is to have people spend money, so why not cut the middle men (government and lenders) and let the people who earn the money keep the money?

Check out my new post: “The Rebirth of the Republican Party” over at DaveBurris.com.