While doing my final round of blog-reading for the night (thanks, Dana, for the awesome summary of the Vaughn resignation, by the way!), I stumbled upon Rick Jensen’s blog via the WDEL website. Apparently, someone wants me to co-host the show with Rick.
Where’s Mike Matthews when you need him? I wanna laugh when listening to the radio, too. Get Mike!
Fat chance, my anonymous friend. Private talks with certain individuals have led me to believe that I am not WDEL guest-co-host material. I’ll leave it at that.
But Rick DOES know how to reach me! On a side note, good luck to my friends Dana Garrett and Tyler Nixon. I respect both of them immensely and I know they’ll do wonderful jobs in filling the void left behind when Gerry Fulcher resigned last week.
Posted by Mike Matthews in First State Filth at 11:28 PM PDT
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Common Cause held its monthly meeting tonight and elected new officers, some temporary:
Mike Dore — elected temporary president
Coralie Pryde — elected temporary vice-president
Maryann McGonegal and Dot Reeder — elected secretaries
Liz Allen — elected temporary treasurer
Posted by Mike Matthews in First State Filth at 10:01 PM PDT
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David Anderson over at Delaware Liberal today made an odd comment bad-mouthing Insurance Commissioner Matt Denn, saying he’s “done a lousy job ensuring the people of this state have the best and most up-to-date products to serve their needs.” Anderson shows just how much of a wingnut crackpot conservative he really is. If we are to believe Denn has done nothing to make sure Delaware residents are knowledgeable regarding new products and such, then we would be forced to ignore some of the awesome programs and consumer-protection Denn has championed. Methinks David Anderson just has a problem with the big “D” that appears next to most print and media references to Denn.
But on to better news…Denn on Friday beat the shit out of CIGNA Healthcare. If you remember, several months ago Denn fined CIGNA Healthcare $25,000 for overcharging its customers and contracted clients for prescription co-pays. Well, it seems CIGNA Healthcare still hasn’t complied; Denn fined the healthcare conglom another $125,000 for not changing its practices and for not refunding effected customers who were overcharged.
Check Denn’s press release here. More actions like this, Mr. Denn, and you’ll breeze into the lieutenant governor’s seat!
Posted by Mike Matthews in First State Filth at 9:55 PM PDT
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Several weeks back I posted a mysterious teaser regarding an investigative matter I’ve undertaken these past several months. I will be following up very soon with the first piece in a series that may last several months. With dozens of hours spent poring over countless court documents and testimony, I feel I’m finally able to share with you, my readers, something that could very well blow the top off of one of the most controversial institutions in our state — the Family Court of Delaware.
Have patience. I hope to have the first post up within the next 24 hours. With more entries to follow every couple of days.
Posted by Mike Matthews in First State Filth at 3:10 PM PDT
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If there’s one good thing out of the trainwreck that is WGMD, it’s Maria Evans. She’s got the scoop on crazed downstate Realtor Joe Connor and his plea bargain in the matter of him almost running folk off the road last May in a drunken fit of rage. Connor, who many recall played a huge part in badmouthing former Rep. John Atkins earlier in the year, seemed himself to have issues with the bottle. He could have faced a maximum of 50 to 60 years in prison, but he likely did the smart thing by pleading guilty and accepting a term of 60 days in prison for the DUI and 365 days in prison for other charges stemming from the incident.
It should also be noted that as recent as several months ago, Connor was on the Governor’s Council on Alcohol Abuse and Mental Health. What a deluded fop.
Hat-tip to Maria Evans for the above.
Posted by Mike Matthews in First State Filth at 7:04 PM PDT
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I’m thinking I should start subscribing to Delaware Today. As long as staff writer and editor Matt Amis (THE Matt Amis who profiled 10 Delaware blogs this past December) keeps bringing the goodness, that is. Ryan Cormier from The News Journal co-opts my crude photographic riff on Douchebag Gaffney for his own blog entry. Dan Gaffney has filed his humorless report here.
Here’s hoping Coastal Conservative Network god Jud Bennett makes good on his promise to start his own station in Sussex to wipe Gaffney and his ship of fools from the map.
Posted by Mike Matthews in First State Filth at 4:59 PM PDT
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Check it. A Republican scheme to split California’s 55 Electoral votes could spell disaster for Democrats in 2008. These GOP terrorists are craftier than some give them credit for. Republicans loved touting “it’s the rules” during the 2000 election in which Gore beat Bush by more than 500,000 popular votes. Of course, “the rules” in this situation meant the “Electoral College.” Now the GOP in California doesn’t exactly like how the institution and its rules work, so they want to fiddle around with it to assist in their own personal gain.
Two leading 2008 Democratic presidential candidates — backed by the chairman of the Democratic National Committee — Wednesday lambasted the proposed “Presidential Election Reform Act” as a new GOP effort to “steal” the 2008 presidential election by hijacking electoral college votes in California.
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton called on California voters to reject the effort — crafted by Republican operatives — that would change the Democratic-leaning state’s “winner take all” electoral college presidential election system. Currently, all states except two — Nebraska and Maine, with a combined nine electoral votes — have the same winner-take-all system as California.
The statements from the presidential hopefuls come at the start of a statewide GOP effort to collect signatures to put the measure on the ballot. Leading Democratic officials, including Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean gathered in San Francisco to condemn the measure, which would count California’s electoral vote based on results congressional district by congressional district.
These Republicans are just filled with shits ‘n’ giggles, aren’t they? You all know where I stand on the matter: abolish the Electoral College. There will come a day when Republicans win the popular vote and Democrats take the Electoral College. I’ll be bitching just as much about the injustice and lack of “one person, one vote” in that instance, as well.
Sadly, there is precedent to suggest this ridiculous bullshit could continue on via a California referendum: Nebraska and Maine split their Electoral College votes by allowing Congressional districts to award their vote to the candidate who wins in that respective district.
Methinks the Republicans know the Democrats are going to beat their ass in 2008. They’re just getting a bit scared and are looking to bite off as much as they can for their side come Election Day. But have they bitten off more than they can chew?
(Of course, these are the same Republicans who touted the red-blue map from 2004 as proof showing huge amounts of land-area in “red” territory as if the cuddly teddy bears in Yellowstone and the whales of Glacier Bay actually have a goddamned vote. This cartogram is a much more accurate representation of US voters.)
It should be noted that Democrats attempted this type of treachery in Colorado during the 2004 election. A ballot measure was defeated that would have given George Bush five of the state’s nine Electoral College votes while John Kerry would have received four. It failed because, likely, Colorado voters smelled a rat. Check out this cogent analysis by Steven Hill of the Political Reform Program at the New America Foundation
More on this story:
Proposal for California’s Electoral Vote Could Benefit GOP (CNS News)
California Electoral Split Proposed (Washington Times)
Posted by Mike Matthews in Political Landscape at 7:39 PM PDT
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Rep. Helene Keeley makes it look so good — and so easy!! She makes this photo ALMOST tolerable what with the disgusting messes to our right and her left. John Carney’s number one fan…who wouldn’t like to lobby the gorgeous represenative? Love ya, my Rep. Keeley!
Posted by Mike Matthews in First State Filth at 6:53 PM PDT
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There is a school of thought in psychology that believes various forms of insanity are learned behavior. The cure is a rather invasive treatment involving electricity that regresses the patients’ memory back to a time before the insane behavior was learned. Basically, memory is burned out by electricity in order to achieve the desired regression. At this point, ‘proper’ behavioral lessons are offered in order to achieve a functioning adult.
I think Bush has adopted this theory. He went into Iraq and bombed infrastructure to a point where the Iraq government was ‘regressed’ back to anarchy. He then allowed some riots to occur in order that the wrongness of anarchy could be driven home by experience (nothing like a good gang-rape to clear a few minds). The Iraqi people were then given a ‘cure’ for anarchy by the same people who caused the anarchy. The cure offered was religious-right democracy. All they had to do was hold elections (to a standard at least as good as Florida), practice abstinence (which they already professed), kill homosexuals (which they already did), avoid alcohol (hold on now, let’s not get ridiculous, after all, a little drink while out hunting and ending up shooting your buddy isn’t a major crime), become good Christians, and everyone would be happy.
In short, by causing needless misery and then offering the only allowable cure, we hoped to convert a people to Christianity and democracy whom have held to their own social customs for over 2,000 years. I wonder what went wrong?
Posted by Discourse in General at 2:45 PM PDT
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Gerry Fulcher has “resigned” from WDEL, a source tells me. More to follow as this story develops…
Posted by Mike Matthews in First State Filth at 6:51 PM PDT
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We read today that the Delaware River and Bay Authority lost millions last year.
I can’t help thinking that under Mike Harkins, the DRBA put millions of dollars of profit into the Delaware coffers. However, Mr. Harkins liked that high-life so much that he gave himself an unauthorized raise by illegally using DRBA resources for his own portly creature comforts.
After Harkins was deposed, Governor Minner replaced him, and other DRBA Commissioners, with people she felt comfortable with. Perhaps one of the comfortable aspects of these new appointees was the fact that they would remain scrupulously honest. Unfortunately for Delaware taxpayers, another comfort aspect was the fact that these new appointees were too incompetent at running a business to threaten the Governor’s competence. These new appointees would not outshine her. This fact is proved today by the news of the State cash cow, the DRBA, becoming yet another money pit into which our tax dollars will disappear.
One point of the above is that the Harkinses of this world are a bit underhanded. Another is that perhaps being slick, even underhanded, is necessary in order to make money. However, let us leave this aside in order to investigate the reason for appointment of idiots to run what used to be a significant revenue generator for the State of Delaware.
We’ve all worked for bosses, at one time or another, whom we suspected were idiots. We watched with chagrin while these idiots promoted other idiots above brilliant persons such as ourselves. Why do idiots prefer other idiots? The obvious reason is that surrounding oneself with complete idiots ensures that, by comparison, the head idiot looks good. It’s like hanging out with really fat people if you want to look skinnier without dieting or exercise. And, for some reason, this plan seems to find its home among politicians who do not have to earn a profit; they just have to avoid appearing as the most idiotic idiot.
This theory is lent weight by what has happened at the DRBA, as well as by what has happened at the Delaware Psychiatric Center, and the prison, and DelDot, and [insert various state agencies headed by idiot-appointees here].
How do we avoid this scenario of idiots breeding more idiots? The most obvious plan is by not electing idiots with the power to appoint other idiots. This theory has important implications in the upcoming Democratic primary. Do we elect a man like Jack Markell, who has become wildly successful in the private sector and would be hard-pressed to appoint others more capable than himself because of his own hard-earned success, or do we elect a man like Lt. Gov. John Carney, who is a career politician and will be tempted to protect his lack of proven competence by appointing even more idiots? The answer is obvious. Let’s get rid of the idiots. Let’s support those who will not allow fear for their own egos to govern important State staffing decisions. Let’s elect proven successes, rather than clever buck-passers. C’mon, people. We’re losing ground here so fast we could end up paying NJ taxes by 2012. Things are pretty bad when even Harkins is laughing up his sleeve at the current State government.
Posted by Mike Matthews in First State Filth at 10:44 AM PDT
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By all accounts imaginable, tonight’s House hearing questioning the leadership of the Delaware Psychiatric Center (as well as Delaware Health and Human Services leadership) was a complete and utter train wreck. And I loved every minute of it!
Several intelligent questions were posed by some state reps. Several engaging responses and suggested plans of action were provided by witnesses. All, in all, though, this was a big mess and does nothing to help clarify the situation. It’s my guess another meeting with Sec. Vince Meconi will take place since we were scooted out of the building at 11 pm tonight.
More to come tomorrow. This shit was hot!
Posted by Mike Matthews in First State Filth at 11:39 PM PDT
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Apparently, there’s a need for more male teachers in elementary classrooms. The News Journal reports the obvious in today’s edition:
Chris Saltalamacchio had all female teachers at his Long Island, N.Y., elementary school until he reached the fifth grade.
“I was kind of freaked out about the idea of having a male teacher,” he remembers.
So Saltalamacchio could understand why one of his first-graders at Cecil Manor Elementary School in Elkton, Md., had her mom call the school office this summer after she saw his name on her class assignment. By the end of an open house, though, he knew he had won her over.
“She told me, ‘I was really worried when I saw that I had a boy as a teacher, but this is a lot better than I thought it was going to be,’ ” said Saltalamacchio, a University of Delaware graduate in his first year of teaching.
The girl had reason to be surprised at the “Mr.” in front of his name. In elementary schools, men are a rarity.
Nationally, about 16 percent of public elementary school teachers are men, according to 2004 figures from the National Center for Education Statistics.
The shortage is even greater in Delaware, where the most recent state data put Delaware’s figure at about 10 percent. In public schools, female teachers outnumbered their male peers 3,611 to 415 in elementary grades in 2006.
As he hires new teachers, Thomas Edison Charter School Principal Charles Hughes pays attention to the makeup of his Wilmington school’s staff. Perhaps that is why 35 percent of the K-8 school’s teachers are men.
“That’s another piece to build a school that’s diverse in all aspects,” he said.
No research has shown students learn better from male or female teachers, but some argue having a more equitable male representation in schools benefits children, especially those without good male role models at home. “You as a teacher may be the most consistent thing in a child’s life, you might be the most consistent father figure,” Saltalamacchio said.
With applications into most every district above the canal, some below, and even Cecil County, don’t blame me for not trying. It’s Monday morning and I’m sitting here sipping coffee, eating strumpets, and reclining my feet while others are educating your children.
Enjoy your day!
Posted by Mike Matthews in Personal at 8:01 AM PDT
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