ttown's right-wing conspiracy

Moving day

2005-12-01T21:13:00.000-05:00

As of tonight, my new website is up. So please repoint your browsers to http://monoblogue.us.

I'll leave this site here for awhile for the sake of redirection and archives, but I have HTML copies of all my posts available at the new site.

See you there!

Days off

2005-11-22T19:40:00.000-05:00

Because I'm going back to Ohio (hopefully my city will still be there) no blogging for a few days. So each and every one of you have a Happy Thanksgiving. Don't eat too much turkey, go Lions, and take a moment to actually give thanks.

In print again

2005-11-17T22:00:00.000-05:00

Back in the print media as the Daily Times published my letter today. Surprisingly, other than a couple of word choices and splitting paragraphs, they didn't butcher it up like at times prior. Now the fun begins as the flaming liberals here start slamming me and it will be interesting to see what reaction (if any) I get from the November WCRC crowd.

I still haven't gotten word from the Congressman yet, but the last time I got a letter in the mail from him. Either he's not that tech-savvy or doesn't assign a staffer to deal with e-mail.

You know, I find it interesting that a lot of hot air was expended over oil profits last week but gas is down under $2 a gallon in our region, at least according to a report I heard on WICO radio today. They said gas in Easton is $1.999 a gallon. So the Labor Day $3 a gallon gas is a bad memory for now. I certainly don't foresee a major hurricane when it's in the 20's here!

This is the slow part of the year for politics now because of the past election and impending holiday season. Same for baseball since most free agents don't sign until January. So not a lot for me to talk about these days, or at least in those areas I have steered this blogsite around.

I am slowly working on my new site, and plan on getting it started in the next couple weeks. That will take up more of my time, and with my upcoming trip back to Ohio, don't expect a whole lot of posts for the next couple weeks. Tonight's simply an early bedtime.

So....when does the civil war start?

2005-11-13T09:32:00.000-05:00

Now it's an attack on the Oreo story. Why is it when there's an attack on someone from the GOP, particularly a black Republican, that every fact is questioned? Even if it's only true that the cookies were passed out at the debate, was that a comment on the issues of that period or just the hate-mongering that the Democrats like to use in place of an factual argument?

How about this example from Delegate Peter Franchot:

"Do we take the high road, the Democratic road, the road of peace, prosperity and personal freedom? Or do we take the low road, the Republican road, the road of intolerance, inequity and injustice?"

And that's from a Democrat talking about another more moderate Democrat! Let me get this straight - any cooperation with a Republican on certain issues makes a Democrat "intolerant"? I'm sure passing out Oreos at a debate with a black Republican is just making sure all that are in the audience are well-fed.

Then, it's the question of ethics, where both sides cut corners. A lobbyist and party loyalist who's accused of skirting the law. A public official, sworn to uphold the fairness of the vote, now under a cloud of suspicion for absentee ballot fraud. All in the name of power for their chosen party.

Apologists from one side claim that our nation's worst terrorist attack was an "inside job." The other side says that the Flight 800 disaster was no accident and covered up by an administration desperate to remain in power.

Meanwhile, the public grows more apathetic. "Politics as usual," they shrug, while a threat grows from without.

Too many of those who seek power for themselves gravitate to government so they can use other people's money to enrich themselves. When the GOP is in charge you get a Jack Abramoff. When the Democrats are in charge you get a Henry Cisneros. Obviously, the same things go on at the state and local levels - I'm not Pollyannish enough to think that it can all go away if honest people were all that were in government. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and in a lot of cases, you don't have to be absolutely corrupt (or have absolute power.) A little goes a long way.

This may sound very simplistic, but in my opinion (and since it's my blog, you're entitled to it) the problem lies in the ignorance of one very succinct sentence enshrined in our founding document:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

It's my opinion that the federal government is far too large and takes up far too much of our money. And it's a damn shame that, even with the GOP controlling the levers of power, little is being done to stop this.

Somewhere in the dusty archives of the Congressional Record, somebody came up with the brilliant idea of having the federal government paying for a project that was ostensibly one that should have been handled at the state level. It led us to the "Bridge to Nowhere." Personally, I would have liked to see that pass to call Sen. Stevens' bluff.

The bridge is only a symptom of the disease.

To me, there are a whole lot fewer things the federal government needs to keep their hands in. And it's not that I necessarily want to see them go away. It's very noble that the people have decided that they want to assist the poor, but is that the responsibilty of the federal government? I think that falls under the "reserved to the states respectively, or to the people" portion of the Tenth Amendment. If you look at Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, there's really not much that Congress needs to do. It's the man who first came up with the brilliant scheme to raid the federal purse for his pet project that has led us to these pork-laden days.

There are a lot of us who are fed up with the shenanigans going on inside the Beltway. Someday that's all going to come to a head because the government as it stands now is unsustainable.

Thomas Jefferson spoke, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." We have many patriots shedding their blood in faroff lands to give those who live there a long-awaited breath of freedom. It may yet be in my lifetime that we see the blood of patriots and tyrants run on our fair land as the people rise against the powerful.

Pissed off

2005-11-10T22:07:00.000-05:00

I really should be going to bed because I'm under the weather, but I just had to write a little bit more. I fired off two letters tonight; one to my Congressman, Wayne Gilchrest, and one to my local paper.

Gilchrest's letter chewed him out for being a spineless squishy moderate and holding up the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 because he doesn't want ANWR drilling. Obviously he wants countries like Mexico, Venezuela, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia (4 of our top 5 suppliers) to control our energy policy. I say drill that sonofabitch dry, but in a nicer tone.

The Daily Times letter is a solicitation for a Gilchrest primary opponent in 2006. Since we have a RINO in the House, methinks it's time for a conservative to get in the ring. If Gilchrest is on the ballot for the GOP, it's going to be very tough for me to vote for anyone. Hopefully a Libertarian will run, I can at least help that party out a bit. I did it a couple times in Ohio for "safe" GOP races.

This matter pretty much finishes me as a Gilchrest supporter. The more I see how he represents this district in Congress, the less I like it. It's time for a change.

I apologize for the lack of hyperlinks, I just don't feel up to it now. Tomorrow I'll come back and edit those that are helpful into this post. Time for bed.

12:29 p.m. Friday: I added those two hyperlinks. Wish I could find newer oil supplier info than 2002, but it's roughly the same. No word from either Congressman Gilchrest or the Daily Times yet.

Let the spin begin

2005-11-09T21:16:00.000-05:00

Tonight I'll do an election wrapup from various areas of interest. Since I have no election here this year, I watched several from afar.

First of all, does America REALLY think that the Democrats retaining their governorships in New Jersey and Virginia is that big a deal for 2006? New Jersey's a "blue" state, and in Virginia, while it went for Bush in 2004, outgoing Governor Warner was very popular and all Tim Kaine did was hitch his wagon to that.

For example, the New Jersey race was actually closer this time than in 2001.

2005:

Jon Corzine (D) - 1,150,687 (52.6%)
Doug Forrester (R) - 956, 795 (43.8%)
Minor parties - 78,115 (3.6%)

2001:

Jim McGreevey (D) - 1,256,853 (56.4%)
Bret Schundler (R) - 928, 174 (41.7%)
Minor parties - 42,138 (1.9%)

A case can then be argued that this is a Republican win - we were closer to winning than the last time. It's the Paul Hackett argument.

In Virginia, the numbers from 2001 to 2005 barely moved, as both parties polled last night about 1% or so below where they did in 2001, each election about a 5 point win for the Democrat. So it's debatable whether Bush campaigning for Jerry Kilgore really had that great of an effect either way.

On the other hand, I don't really count the Bloomberg win in New York City as a large win for the GOP, as Michael Bloomberg is about as nominal as a Republican as one can find outside the United States Senate.

And each side can spin about state election results. I'm sure the Democrats are crowing about their defeat of several of "Governator" Schwarzenegger's ballot initiatives. That seemed to garner quite a bit of press. But notice in the same article the paragraph at the very end about Ohio, where the voters bitchslapped ballot initiatives by "Democrat-leaning" groups. That would be the unions, George Soros, and moveon.org. This is what the moveon.org website noted about their defeat:

Reform Ohio Now's powerful reforms unfortunately suffered a defeat on Election Day. Some voters reportedly were confused by the complex ballot language needed to make those changes, and there were problems with some Diebold electronic voting machines. In the end, Reform Ohio Now was outspent and outadvertised by their opponents, backed by the state GOP and funded by huge contributions like the $500,000 from billionaire Carl Lindner, while many Democratic officials remained silent. On the bright side, Democracy for America's recommended candidates for the Columbus City Council were all victorious.

So it wasn't the will of the Ohio people who decided that these so-called reforms were nothing but sour grapes for the 2004 defeat of John Kerry - it was the stupid voters and the rigged voting machines! Not to mention the "huge" $500,000 contribution. Moveon doesn't mention the vast percentage of money from out of state contributors that went on the RON side (such as over $600,000 from People For the American Way.) Funny how that works. It'll be interesting to see the followthemoney.org website when the figures clear next year.

One other note about the Ohio ballot initiatives. It's now truly apparent that my old hometown of Toledo is now the moonbat capital of Ohio. With the exception of the absentee ballot issue (Issue 2, which was the only one of the four the local Toledo Blade editorialized against) Lucas County had the highest percentage of any Ohio county in support of these ballot measures.

And finally, possibly the most interesting election saga of all goes on about an hour north of Toledo, where Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick scored a come-from-behind win to be re-elected mayor. Oddly enough, the exit poll showed a clear win for challenger Freeman Hendrix. And the FBI is holding 45,000 absentee ballots as part of a voter fraud investigation - more than Kilpatrick's victory margin of about 14,000 votes.

Seems to me, as I recall from my days of following elections, that absentee votes are counted last. Makes me wonder how that margin disappeared so suddenly.

Bottom line on Election 2005 - the status quo is holding. It's not the Democrat juggernaut the partisan media would have you believe it is. All they're doing is settting up what they want to report on come Election Day 2006, as they hope for a Democrat sweep. But the Democrats have to come up with some ideas first, not simply oppose everything Bush and the GOP do out of hand.

Idiocy. Just plain idiocy.

2005-11-04T23:13:00.000-05:00

It's all I can say about this. I've told people that I read the Maryland Democrats' website far more than the GOP's because it's more entertaining, although maybe I'm the kind that watches NASCAR for the 20 car pileups too.

Actually, I'm not really a NASCAR fan, which may surprise those like "crallspace" who associate me with the hayseed hicks who have the pickup with the full gun rack, the Confererate flag plate in the front, and the pinch between the cheek and gum - Wal-Mart shoppers all. (For the record, I have a Saturn sedan, the standard Maryland plate in front, and I don't smoke or chew tobacco. But I do shop at Wal-Mart weekly.)

Without further ado, here are my sources of entertainment and mirth for the day, both DNC press releases:

In the wake of last Friday's indictment of I. Lewis Libby on charges of perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements, the Democratic National Committee unveiled a new web video to remind President Bush of the standard that he himself set for conduct in his administration. DNC Chairman Howard Dean issued the following statement calling on President Bush to apologize for his Administration's actions, fire Karl Rove, and adhere to the ethical standards he professed during his campaign:

"Given the serious nature of the charges against Scooter Libby, and the significant questions that remain regarding the actions of Karl Rove and the White House Iraq Group, President Bush should take responsibility for this lapse in conduct. He should start with an apology to the American people for those in his Administration who acted on his behalf to manipulate intelligence to win support for the war in Iraq, smear opponents of that war, and cover up that smear campaign. President Bush must also keep his promise to fire anyone involved in the outing of Valerie Wilson by terminating Karl Rove and anyone else in the White House Iraq Group who participated in this conspiracy.

"During his campaign for president, Bush promised to hold himself and his aides to the highest ethical standards, promising to 'put conscience above what the lawyers tell us.' But, in handling the most serious national security decisions, the Bush White House has dramatically failed to meet the standard they set. Despite hosting numerous White House photo-ops vowing to uphold the highest ethical standards, the Bush White House has blatantly compromised our moral code by placing its political agenda ahead of America's national security. America deserves better than empty rhetoric and meaningless photo-ops. The President must hold himself and his administration accountable."

Hey, it's not the nature of the evidence in the indictment, it's the seriousness of the charge!

I'd like to see President Bush fire Robert Novak, as well as Vanity Fair-posing Joseph Wilson, and the members of the partisan media who called it "common knowledge" that Mrs. Wilson was a CIA agent (but not a covert one.) Oh yeah, guess he's not a dictator. And it's really interesting how you in the Democrat party change your tune regarding the Iraqi threat from 1998 or even 2003 to now.

Finally, since Karl Rove has not been indicted or even shown to be an unindicted co-conspirator, where's the reason to fire him? The only indictment I see is Libby's, and he resigned. So, do you apologize to Libby if he's found innocent of all charges?

Tell me again, besides the indicted Libby (indictment not necessarily meaning guilt,) who in the Bush administration has resigned due to criminality? I know, there's 15 other indictments out there, right?

Finally, has anyone definitively disproven the British intelligence on yellowcake in Niger, or that there are NO (zip, zero, nada) WMD's in Iraq? And did anyone take back the UN resolutions that dealt with Saddam?

So many questions, so few answers, so much rhetoric. That brings me to part two:

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean today issued the following statement on the nomination of Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court:

"President Bush shouldn't try to use the nomination of an extreme conservative to distract from the ethical problems his White House is facing. Three days after a top White House official was indicted, President Bush continued his troubling pattern of playing to his right-wing political base in times of political trouble. In an indication of his weakened political position, Bush has nominated Samuel Alito, a conservative activist judge, to replace Justice O' Connor, who has been a voice of moderation on the Court for a generation.

"A lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States is too important to be sacrificed on the altar of short-term political gain. President Bush's nomination of Alito is not leadership, it is capitulation.

"Alito's record suggests an activist judicial philosophy bent on rolling back the rights and freedoms that all Americans value. Alito has sought to limit the rights of women and people with disabilities in discrimination cases, demonstrated an open hostility to women's privacy rights even in basic reproductive health matters, has a record of hostility toward immigrants, and tried to immunize employers from employment discrimination cases. It is particularly troubling that President Bush would nominate a judge who would reverse American progress and make the Supreme Court look less like America on the same day that most Americans are honoring the life and legacy of Rosa Parks.

"Now, as Alito goes before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he must demonstrate that he will be a Supreme Court Justice who uses his position on the highest court in the land to protect and advance the fundamental rights and personal freedoms of all Americans. Alito must prove that he is not a captive of the radical right-wing, and the White House must provide the Senate with all the information it needs to thoroughly evaluate Alito's nomination."

Well....since there weren't any aspirin factories handy, I guess Bush just had to nominate a constructionist to the Supreme Court to divert the public's attention from these so-called ethics problems that no one outside the Beltway cares about except extreme political junkies like myself. Now, that last president managed to invent a whole new word for oral sex, so I think that the nation may have been paying rapt attention to that one.

Hey Howard, Alito IS a voice of moderation. It's only a Democrat who can see someone who reads the Constitution as written as an extremist. The rest of us like the idea of a set of rules that doesn't change with the whim of a judge who may have woke up on the wrong side of the bed and decided parents aren't the final authority on sex education.

The money phrase in all this comes at the end. It's up to the White House to provide the Senate with all the information it needs to evaluate Alito? I think all the Democrats need to do is get off their lazy asses and read his opinions. Do they use case law and relevant Constitutional precedent to state his reasoning for his rulings? Check. Then he should be confirmed forthwith before Justice O'Connor loses her husband - that was her reason for resigning.

She's already waited long enough. I don't understand why Alito has to wait for January, they could get him in by Thanksgiving if Arlen Specter showed any cajones. He was raring to go on Harriet Miers. Oh yeah, he's one of those RINO moderates, balls optional.

Interestingly enough, I got an e-mail back from Senator Sarbanes' office today regarding the Alito nomination. Thought I kept a copy of my original e-mail, but it's in the mist someplace. Basically, I noted that Alito was confirmed by Sen. Sarbanes as part of unanimous voice vote in 1990, so no reason not to now. His office wrote back:

Dear Mr. Swartz:

Thank you for contacting me to express your views about the nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to be an Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court. I appreciate having the benefit of your comments regarding Judge Alito.

As I am sure you are aware, the Constitution grants the President the authority to nominate and, "by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate," appoint Justices of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court stands at the head of the judiciary, the third independent and coequal branch of our Government. The Supreme Court has the responsibility to interpret the Constitution and protect our individual liberties guaranteed by, among other things, the Bill of Rights. The decisions made by the Supreme Court impact every American, and as a United States Senator I must carefully evaluate a nominee's experience, integrity, and intellectual responsibilities when the full Senate considers a judicial nomination.

President Bush announced the nomination of Judge Alito on October 31, 2005. The nomination has been referred to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, which will hold public hearings on Judge Alito's nomination. Although I am not a member of the Judiciary Committee, you may be certain that I will keep your views in mind if Judge Alito's nomination comes before the full Senate for consideration.

Again, thank you for taking the time to express your views to me on this important issue. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future with regard to this or other matters that may be of concern to you.

In the future please visit my web site at http://sarbanes.senate.gov rather than clicking reply.

With best regards,
Paul Sarbanes
United States Senator

Yeah, it was boilerplate. And if I thought you'd listen to me on other matters that would concern me, I'd write more often. I'll lay odds right now that he's a "no" vote.

Somehow I don't think I would have been a really welcome guest at your fundraiser/farewell dinner. But I did appreciate the fast reply.

I thought I sent a similar e-mail to Senator Mikulski as well but it may have gone into the vapors of cyberspace, or else she's going to ignore me.

And while I'm on the subject of ignorance, when are the Democrats going to come out with a vision of the future instead of rehashing the 2000 and 2004 elections? I thought Dean would be a little more forward-looking but all he seems to do is bash a President (and Vice-President) that are finished with their political careers after January 2009.

Meanwhile, they obstruct things that would be good for America like Social Security reform, spending cuts/tax relief, and thoughtful jurists who would enhance the courts and embrace the original intent of the Founders insofar as possible in this day and age of profligate government.

The new "blue" race

2005-11-02T20:52:00.000-05:00

So, to the Democrats all is fair in race and war? Apparently so, if you judge by this article.

My favorite quote is this by State Delegate Salima Siler Marriott, who represents Baltimore's District 40:

Delegate Salima Siler Marriott, a black Baltimore Democrat, said Mr. Steele invites comparisons to a slave who loves his cruel master or a cookie that is black on the outside and white inside because his conservative political philosophy is, in her view, anti-black.

"Because he is a conservative, he is different than most public blacks, and he is different than most people in our community," she said. "His politics are not in the best interest of the masses of black people."

During the 2002 campaign, Democratic supporters pelted Mr. Steele with Oreo cookies during a gubernatorial debate at Morgan State University in Baltimore.

In 2001, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. called Mr. Steele an "Uncle Tom," when Mr. Steele headed the state Republican Party. Mr. Miller, Prince George's County Democrat, later apologized for the remark.

"That's not racial. If they call him the "N' word, that's racial," Mrs. Marriott said. "Just because he's black, everything bad you say about him isn't racial." (emphasis mine.)

I wondered about this woman, and her background. I quote from the online Maryland archives some of the highlights of her career:

Secretary, National Rainbow Coalition, 1994-96. Chair, Park Heights Development Corporation, 1986-91; National Black Women's Health Project, 1993-94. Board member, Health Education Resource Organization (HERO), Inc. Member, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.; National Organization of Women; Woman Power. Co-Editor, U.S. Policy Toward Southern Africa (1984). Outstanding Teacher Award, Department of Social Work and Mental Health, Morgan State University, 1990. African-American Humanitarian Award, 1991. Senator Verda F. Welcome Political Award, 1992. Perseverance Award, Consortium of Doctors, 1992. Delegate of the Year, Middle Atlantic Division, American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, 1993. Sarah's Circle Award, College of Notre Dame of Maryland, 1994. National Legacy Award, Delta Sigma Theta, 1994. Labor Roundtable Award, National Black Caucus of State Legislators, 1999. Chairman's Meritorious Award, Maryland Legislative Black Caucus, 2000. Bold Dreamer Award, Quixote Center of Justice USA, 2002. Pacesetters Award, Women Legislators Lobby, 2003. Abolitionist of the Year Award, National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, 2003.

But I think it's time to salute this woman as a pioneer, the Rosa Parks of a new generation. For she has transcended the old boundries of simple pigmentation to create a new race, one that I dub the "blue" race after the states so many of them frequent.

It's a race that, regardless of skin color, will trample any of the old racial taboos in order to keep power. One is to be shunned and blacklisted if he or she is not "blue" enough for people in this race. And if this person is among those with a higher dose of skin pigmentation so as to appear brown or even black on the outside, that is an extra reason for scorn and disdain - particularly if they happen to be successful in the political or legal fields.

And within this race there is a caste system. Those who are on the lowest rung of the ladder tend to be those who aren't successful economically, perhaps because of their education (or lack thereof) in "blue" schools, where they are taught that those of authority in the "blue" race know what's best for you, and not to listen to the Others. They're also taught how to procreate, how to have tolerance for the various shades of other people in the "blue" race, and how the world is threatened because Others are in power, including the most evil one of all, a man about whom they can only spit out his name, like a snake, "Busssssssh."

They learn that those people at the highest levels of the "blue" race are the ones who will continue to bestow gifts upon them, as long as they go out on Election Day and select the candidate with the "D" next to their name. Do not pull the lever next to the person with the "R", for they are the Others, and they will take away all that the masters of the "blue" race have given unto you, only to give that ill-gotten gain to the Others who already have far too much. And be most wary of those evil "R"s who share the same skin color if you are brown or black on the outside.

But some manage to find a way to move up in the "blue" race. They are bestowed with lower-level government jobs, many of which are there to keep the lower classes of the "blue" race in line come election time. Eventually, like a pyramid, the number of people who have status in the "blue" race dwindle to a precious few by the highest levels. Despite having the image of being for those in the "blue" race, a good many of those who are the highest of the "blues" live their lives in wealth and privilege like the Others do.

Madam Delegate Marriott is one of those who resides near the top of the pyramid. Her job is to bestow the wealth lovingly given by some in the "blue" race (and forcibly confiscated from the Others, who complain about having too much taken from them rather than keeping it in their own greedy hands) a little at a time to the lower castes of the "blue" race. It's a struggle for her to give just enough to keep the lower class "blues" voting for her, but certainly not give them enough to let them rise up the pyramid too far.

However, in some circles the "blue" race is endangered so it behooves those like Delegate Marriott to take any action they can to save their kind. Many of the Others have began to spread the word that there is another way to those of the "blue" race. And, like I noted earlier, the ones who have the most pigment in their skin but think like the Others do are looked at as the biggest threat to this "blue" race.

It's quite odd, because a lot of what the "blue" race thinks about issues affecting them places them in agreement with the Others. They would like the option of selecting a school that is not "blue." They don't always agree with the those with the most power in the "blue" race that killing their own babies should be equated with just being a choice. They don't see that civil rights necessarily extend to those in the "blue" race who want to marry another of their sex. But they still feel they have to vote for their higher-ups in the "blue" race out of loyalty or fear of what would happen if one of the Others replaced a "blue."

I know from recent experience that some in the "blue" race think I'm greedy because I'm one of the Others. But I am a tolerant man, and I do read what those in the "blue" race say. Unfortunately, they seem to think of Dr. Martin Luther King in a sideways fashion, because they feel the content of their skin should decide the color of their character, and that color is blue.

Milestone post

2005-11-01T21:15:00.000-05:00

According to my Blogger Dashboard, this will be post number 100! Triple digits, baby!

There's just something about round numbers I like I guess.

Well, not to beat a dead horse but the Wal-Mart comments continue to trickle in. But one by "crallspace" I found fascinating. I guess you can see by his blog where he comes from.

I suppose the Cliff Notes version of his comments is that I'm a selfish right-winger sheep who follows whatever Fox News and Rush say blindly.

Well, Dan, sonny boy, have I got news for you. I was conservative when Fox was only a movie studio, and the only Rush on the radio was "Tom Sawyer", "Red Barchetta", or "Working Man." While you were toddling along in preschool I was voting in my first presidental election. And I voted to re-elect Ronald Reagan, of course. Come on, Walter Mondale was going to raise taxes. He deserved to get his ass kicked in 49 states.

I'll proudly say I listen to Rush Limbaugh, since he agrees with me on most everything. He's a good source of opinion, but not the only one I look at. Here's a partial list of news/opinion blogs that I read on a fairly regular basis:

National: Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, NewsBusters, Suitably Flip, WriteWingBlog.
Local: Delmarva Dealings, Duvafiles (aka "The Transchoptankia Gazette"), Fired Up! Maryland, Righting America, The Goldwater's Oracle.
Media: Baltimore Sun, (Salisbury) Daily Times, Washington Times.

I read both the Maryland GOP and Democrat websites - in fact, I read the Democrats' blog much more often. It's great blog material for me to comment on and set them straight. Same goes for Fired Up! Maryland (or as I call it, FU! Maryland.)

And, to keep my head on straight, I post frequently on the Detroit Tigers Fan Forum. I do agree with you on one thing Dan, the old red and blue White Sox uniforms were pretty cool. Glad to see a team that actually won its division (even though it was my Tigers' division) won a World Series.

Couple things for future reference. I'm doing some more serious checking into website hosts so soon I may be away from the clutches of Google.

And a post on FU! Maryland and a recent Maryland poll got me thinking about something. So I went and crunched a WHOLE LOT of numbers. It was fun, but I'm still trying to draw conclusions. Actually, I'm trying to figure out a way to write it without others' eyes glazing over. Stay tuned.

Time to move on

2005-10-31T22:42:00.000-05:00

I've left the Wal-Mart stuff up for long enough and got my share of comments about it. There's probably another post or two waiting to be written on related items, but for now I think it's time to go forward.

There's a few odds and ends out there, most notably the Alito nomination to the Supreme Court. Sounds like he's a very good choice, and a good point was brought up in several places that I read: he was confirmed to the federal bench in a unanimous vote in 1990, so even Democrats like Kennedy, Kerry, and our locals Sarbanes and Mikulski had no objection then - thus their opposition now would simply be partisan sniping. But what else would we expect? Looks like I need to bring up that point to our Senators, and see what happens.

Interesting note I found through Duvafiles and a succession of backlinks. Key quote from the source blog, TaxProfBlog: Since 1977, governments collected more than $1.34 trillion, after adjusting for inflation, in gasoline tax revenues—more than twice the amount of domestic profits earned by major U.S. oil companies during the same period.

So what is this that Democrats are whining about excessive profits? Tell government to look in the mirror and get off our back first, rather than try and stick their hand in the till even more! Oh, and gas was down near $2.25 the last time I went by the pump, so the market is doing what it does best.

And, speaking of government getting off our back: I support the Fiscal Watch Team Offset Package. Unlike my link above, this comes from the office of a REAL Senator. It's time to get that spending down like we did in the 1990's. The less money government sucks out of your pocket, the more money you have to spend at, say, Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart debate

2005-10-29T18:05:00.000-04:00

There was a comment on my blog yesterday that stirred up one helluva hornet's nest. Of course, it was about Wal-Mart and the upcoming hit piece of a movie - at least that's how it started.

I'll start with the comment that spawned all this. Bear in mind, the reason I deleted the comment was because it wasn't pertinent to the subject of the post (Michael Steele's trip to Salisbury.)

"Nice blog, have you heard about the new walmart movie that documents the high cost to low price? Check out the sample clip on my blog www.thoughtsoft.blogspot.com, or go to walmartmovie.org Thanks"

Here's his bio, from the website, so you have an idea of who started this:

Im a student at University of Missouri, Columbia. Majoring in history and philosophy. My blog brings to the viewer the best and most interesting websites and articles I can find that are important for the short term and long term survival of the environment and a healthy democracy.

Well, the comment piqued my interest so I decided to head over there and read the post. Basically it said that "The High Cost of Low Price" was a "MUST-SEE" movie. Don't think I'll do that, but I had to comment. This is what I wrote back:

As it turns out, I'm not sure if you commented on my blog out of the sheer attempt to spread the word about this so-called documentary, or if you actually happened to read my blog archives, where several posts actually happen to deal with my feelings about Wal-Mart. The particular comment that you made was one I decided to delete simply because it wasn't germaine to the post that it was linked to. But I did decide to stop by and look at the blog, which I suppose was the objective!

Just by reading two or three posts on your blog it's apparent that you buy hook, line, and sinker into the union's anti-Wal-Mart propaganda line. They are just so enraged that Wal-Mart is a successful corporation who chooses not to be unionized, and for good reason - it leads to higher prices!

Where I live we have several food stores, Wal-Mart being one. It turns out that I do the bulk (but not all) of my shopping there because they sell goods I desire at the lowest everyday prices. This isn't to say that they ALWAYS have the lowest prices, but that's the beauty of competition.

In my posting, over and over I have stressed that nobody is having a gun put to their head and being told, "you must work at Wal-Mart." People know coming in that in the retail field, you're not going to get rich working as a cashier. And the majority of those who work at Wal-Mart aren't doing it as the sole support to their families. There's a lot of senior citizens who work there for various reasons, as well as a huge number of working wives. This is something that the unions fail to mention when they bitch about how the health insurance is at Wal-Mart...many of their employees do not need it because they're covered under a spouse's plan or, if they're over 65, they're entitled to Medicare.

There are two other reasons that Wal-Mart is a passion of mine. And no, neither of them is having a family member working there or owning stock in the company. Number one, the Democrats in Maryland's General Assembly (our legislature) put together an absolutely dreadful piece of legislation called the "Fair Share Health Care Act." It was basically tailored to punish one successful company, I'm sure you can guess which one. All because they didn't pay enough in health care benefits in the opinion of the Democrats, the unions, and their main grocery store competitor in Maryland, who is unionized.

Because of this legislation, item number two came into play. A few months ago, plans were announced by Wal-Mart to build a regional distribution center a few miles south of here. The county where it would be located is one of Maryland's poorest and most rural counties, and the 1,000 jobs that would be provided would make it the county's largest employer. But, even though Wal-Mart owns the land, the plans for this center have been put on hold pending the disposition of the Fair Share bill, which was properly vetoed by our governor. Unfortunately, the veto is likely to be overriden since the Democrats have enough votes to do so.

I'm sure you're gung-ho to see this movie that slams Wal-Mart. And there are a few things that I don't like about them, such as their occasional abuse of eminent domain. But that's also a function of local government being greedy and seeing tax dollars - money brought in by payroll taxes on Wal-Mart employees.

However, on balance I think Wal-Mart is a good company, and this campaign by the unions is only out of fear that a large successful corporation that is not unionized will shrink their worker pool. More importantly to them, it shrinks the millions of dollars in the pot of union dues that they use to attempt to influence the political process in negative ways (a larger, more intrusive government.)

I look at it this way. The maker of this movie has every right to make it, that's what's great about our country. But I have every right to ignore it, and I want to maintain my right to shop where I please and look for the lowest price. Wanting the lowest possible price isn't "greed", as one of your commentors said, it's part of the beauty of the capitalist system. Another part of that beauty is the freedom to leave a workplace if the pay and conditions aren't suitable for a particular individual. But since more people are voting with their feet and wishing to be employed at Wal-Mart than those leaving, I'm left to assume that the people working at Wal-Mart of their own free will are happy with Wal-Mart's pay scale and benefits package.

So Thomas (the host) replied:

Michael Swartz,Your logic is fallacious... in no way can you conclude that "...the people working at Wal-Mart of their own free will are happy with Wal-Mart's pay scale and benefits package." There is no deductive validity to that statement, it is not even probable in an inductive argument. There only thing of merit in your comments is your stand fast approach to being a supporter of the consequences of capitalism and your obvious libertarian religion.

I take it, you missed the new memo... recently recovered by walmartwatch.org... and the story ran just about in every paper nation wide.

Then kleinpete wrote:

Tom, thanks for stopping by my blog. I can proudly say I have contributed less than $10 to WalMart.

But they aren't the only company screwing America.

If anyone in government or business really cares about national security,they can start by bringing manufacturing back into this country and paying living wages.

So I had to reply to both of them, kleinpete solely out of curiosity:

Thomas:

I sure can conclude that, "...the people working at Wal-Mart of their own free will are happy with Wal-Mart's pay scale and benefits package," because it's the truth. Here's another way to put it: if they didn't offer a wage/benefits package that a worker of a certain skill level thought was appropriate, they wouldn't work there. Wal-Mart is not the sole employer offering jobs out there.

I can give you a personal example. When I was laid off from my previous job, I looked in my old hometown but also expanded the search to other places to find a job that was appropriate to my skill level and salary demands and I found it here. I made a decision and moved with the incentive that my new company would defray some of my moving costs.

Since you are a UM student and I long ago graduated college, I would conclude that you haven't seen a lot of the "real" world quite yet. That's not a slam on you, age begets experience.

And kleinpete: Is it suitable for that business to be foreign-owned? I don't have the articles or writer names off the top of my head, but I've seen in a few sources in my reading that the U.S. is still a net insourcer of jobs. Ask people who work for the auto plants from Toyota, Mercedes, etc. that dot the south.

I would be more concerned as a national security issue that we stop the influx of illegal immigration, which also has some effect on depressing wages.

But then tahoma activist chimed in:

Swartz totally misses the point, probably because he hadn't bothered finding out exactly how utterly heinous and ruthless the Wal*Mart corporation's business practices are. The union (and I assume in this case he refers to the UFCW, who do most organizing of store clerks) is seeing a massive hemmoraging of good quality jobs to this massive beast that ruthless shuts down all attempts by workers to form a union, which is nothing more than a democratically-elected group of representatives and their agents whose sole purpose is to advocate for their members.

Seems to me that the union is doing the right thing, fighting for good jobs, working to protect communities from this Chinese-American company that has no allegiance to the Chinese or the American people. Multinational corporations, of which Wal*Mart is just the most egregious example, are choking the life out of this planet, and in every community where their wealth is used to determine the course of the citizens' lives and well-being.

If Swartz wants to whine and make long posts about how good of a shopper he is, he should get off his intellectual butt and read some of the actual science (which is by definition not propaganda) on what makes Wal*Mart so bad for its employees, its customers, and the planet. Go to www.wakeupwalmart.com to learn all about their heinous double-dealing and cruelty.

If you're interested in a brand new method of community organizing that puts the power right in the hands of the ordinary people, come check out the American Peoples Congress blog at www.apctahoma.blogspot.com

Tahoma is the name for our local region, but we can have a different APC chapter for every 30000 citizens in this country. Start your own branch today with the tools I've got available on the website.

Peace and good luck fighting the beast.

Jeff Richardson
Education Director
America in Solidarity
www.americasolidarity.com

So I took that as a challenge and I went to the anti-Wal-Mart website, which is sponsored by the UFCW union. (Not a surprise, it goes in with my initial argument.) There I found the so-called smoking gun memo that was cited by Thomas, and I read it. Afterward, I had this to say:

Rather than offend commentors with a long post, I'll attempt to be brief.

We're simply not going to agree on this, are we? I read the Wal-Mart memo (all 27 pages) and one passage stuck out at me:

"On both of these issues - affordability and public assistance - it is important to note that our offering and performance are on par with other retailers; Wal-Mart's critics, however, hold it to a 'large company' standard, not a retailer standard. Despite the difference in industy economics, critics believe we should behave more like a GM or a Microsoft than a Target or a Sears." To me, that is the heart of the issue. No one rags on similarly non-union Target or Sears/KMart.

Also read a short article about Costco and their company business model. They have found a way to succeed using higher wages and benefits, which is admirable.

Now, Mr. Richardson, I also want to "put power right in the hands of the ordinary people" as well. But looking at your website, I find links to those who want to take power away from the individual and entrust it to a larger and more intrusive federal government.

I appreciate the arguments and the fact they didn't sink to simple name-calling. I'm sure this debate will continue.

Thomas commented:

M Swartz, Watch the documentary, and talk to former Walmart workers, and develope empathy, thats right empathy, and the worm will turn for you too my friend.

So I'm continuing the debate here. I will admit that I'm troubled about 46% of children of Wal-Mart employees being on Medicaid or uninsured. But - I also want to know, how much of this is by the choice of the employee? And - how does that number compare to other retailers? I'd be a lot less troubled if I found out that Target has a number of 44%. We simply don't know.

And I do think that if Costco can do business effectively in the manner which they do and keep their prices on a level with Wal-Mart's, then if and when they come to Salisbury I'll shop there. I shop Giant on occasion, even though they're a union store and I probably wouldn't care to see their chosen politicians stay in office.

But I also believe that Wal-Mart has some good ideas in this memo. They could be a leader in putting health clinics in their stores, which would hopefully encourage employees to use those as a primary care outlet rather than the extremely expensive ER. And health savings accounts are a way to let the individual have more of a stake in their health care. Personally, I'd rather have one, that way I could go to whichever doctor, lab, or other provider I choose, not one that CareFirst happens to cover. All this while maintaining catastrophic health care coverage.

Who knows, I may need a laugh and go see the movie. I'm sure some group of moonbats will show the DVD around here.

Finally, one thing in reply to Jeff Richardson. I have no problem with collective bargaining although I negotiated my own wage, thank you. Even got a raise without asking for it.

You can put a union wherever you want and I'll support it wholeheartedly, when the following happen:

1. You support right-to-work laws in each state. If being in a union is such a great thing, why are there closed shops? Are you afraid of competition? Since I know there are union locals in Virginia, and it's a right-to-work state, obviously it can be done.

2. You allow the Beck decision to take effect fully, with no reprisals or blackballing for any employee who opts out of withholding that part of his union dues not used for purposes of organizing and negotiating future contracts. Besides, what does it cost to sit down and negotiate a contract? Seems like the unions have a lot of overhead going.

Speaking of which, this brings up another point that extends the portion of a post I did earlier about the I-912 controversy in Washington state. It was ruled that if a talk radio host speaks on the subject that it's considered an "in-kind" contribution to the proponents of I-912. So does this mean that all the union thugs who will be out supporting it have to log their volunteer time as an "in-kind" contribution too? Would the UAW, who's negotiated Election Day in even-numbered years as a paid holiday, have to log each employee's pay that day as a political contribution to the Democrat party? Opened up a can of worms, huh? That's what you get when courts dictate law from the bench.

You know, when I go do my grocery shopping tomorrow, as always my first stop will be Wal-Mart. I'll have to see if they have anyone out there pushing Halloween candy and ask them where they work. Might be an interesting debate after that.

Steele bridge to Salisbury

2005-10-28T23:09:00.000-04:00

I have pictures below in the next post. But you can read this post too!

Today Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele brought his newly-minted U.S. Senate campaign to Salisbury for what he billed as his "Eastern Shore" campaign announcement. I know in some ways we're a different state but it's nice to see that acknowlegement.

While a good part of his remarks were simply accolades for those who put the event together and for those Republicans he's worked with in Annapolis, he did make some general statements about things he'd like to accomplish if elected and sent down the street to Washington, D.C.

He noted the rancor and bitter relationships among the partisans in the federal government and vowed to work on ending that. Good luck with the olive branch, I'm thinking Harry Reid would be among the first to snatch it out of your hand and beat you with it. It has to work both ways and I don't see the Senate Democrats making much of a move to work with the GOP on solving problems.
The more important part of the speech to me was when he spoke of empowerment. It was along the lines of empowering people to accomplish what they want to do by letting the government step aside somewhat. I'm all in favor of that, maybe even more than he spoke of.

He seems like a reasonably nice man in person, I did get to shake his hand and speak to him briefly. I also was the College Republican photographer of the day, they got some nice shots which I'm sure will grace their website.

There were two things that concerned me a bit. I know this area is heavily dependent on agriculture, and that may have colored his remarks some. He made a good point in that where a farm is bought out and converted into a subdivision or strip mall, that farm is lost. No one ever buys out a subdivision or strip mall to convert it back into a farm. But there are those forces in local government who would love to take control of less productive private property and convert it into a cash cow for their tax rolls and a profitable venture for a chosen developer. I'm quite hopeful that Lt. Gov. Steele would be on the side of those who feel Kelo v. New London was a poor decision, allowing local governments to overstep their bounds.

The farm analogy is a good argument, but I hope it's not an indication that he would be too much on the side of the anti-development crowd that seems to be invading this area. It's almost like the last one in wants the region to stay the same as it was when they arrived and screw the new folks who are attracted for the same reason. Development means growth (and growing pains), but it also means jobs for people like me!

On the other issue raising my concern, Steele also remarked about working in the Senate to "save the Bay," which is all well and good but to me it's not necessarily a federal priority. In my view of government, that is best managed at the state level (or two states in this case, since both Maryland and Virginia border Chesapeake Bay. They can coordinate their efforts easily enough.)

Overall, I would have to say he's working to earn my support in the race. I'm sure I could count on him to do more for me, an average Free Stater, in terms of supporting a less intrusive federal government, in both regulation and my wallet, than I could any of his other Democrat opponents. Sure, there are things I know I disagree with him on (such as the death penalty) but I believe he would be amenable to listening to my arguments, assuming they're well thought out. (Aren't they usually?)

Pictures from the event are below. One thing I was disappointed about was that I saw neither of the TV stations here covering the event while the bulk of the crowd was there. I think one of them was showing up as I was leaving. That must have been WMDT Channel 47 because there's a story on their website. (Not sure why the photo of Rosa Parks.) Also looks like the Daily Times will have coverage tomorrow according to this on their website.

Steele bridge to Salisbury - the pictures

2005-10-28T22:54:00.000-04:00

This is a shot of some of the people who came down to watch and support Steele's announcement. I'd estimate there was about 60-75 people there, which is pretty good for a Friday afternoon on only a couple days' notice. Quite a few SU College Republicans, which was good to see.

Above, State Senator Lowell Stotzfus introduces U.S. Senate candidate, Lt. Gov. Michael Steele.

Below, Steele speaks to the crowd this afternoon in Salisbury.

Bills that come due

2005-10-23T00:46:00.000-04:00

It's been a tough week for UAW retirees. They found something out last week that many millions in the rest of the country will learn in the coming decades: when it comes to getting cradle-to-grave benefits, someday there's a bill that comes due.

In their case, GM and UAW worked out a deal that is supposed to reduce GM's healthcare liability by up to $3 billion a year. The automaker has found itself in an unsustainable situation as they pay the bulk of the heathcare expenses for 750,000 employees, dependents, and retirees. (According to the company website, GM actually employs 317,000 people.)

With that ratio, General Motors is getting production from fewer than half of the people they take care of. Even the UAW had to notice that the golden goose wasn't going to continue to lay eggs, and they stepped up to help out the company. As UAW members only pay 7% of their healthcare benefits (compared to 27% for salaried staff), there wasn't much room for the union to quibble.

Then today I came across a Baltimore Sun article that notes the state of Maryland could have a $20 billion liability in retiree healthcare.

"That is a huge number," said Sen. Ulysses E. Currie, the Prince George's County Democrat who chairs the Budget and Taxation Committee. "With Medicaid growing about seven or eight percent a year, K-12 education going up, higher education going up, the dollars are just not there for the state, and I don't believe for any state, to take on that."

No shit, Sherlock. But, here's our State Senate leader on the subject:

Miller said he and others would work to prevent the erosion of benefits. If anything, he said, they should be increased because state employees have been hit with increased health care costs in recent years.

"They are scary numbers," Miller said of the liability. "But this is not a state where you have a conservative Republican Senate and a conservative Republican House and a conservative Republican governor. In Idaho they might cut benefits, but that isn't going to happen in Maryland."

Maybe we all need to move to Idaho then. At least there's some sanity in the state government there. I'm sorry, but all options need to be on the table here. Right now, the state (that's you and I, assuming you're a resident of the so-called "Free State") pays $300 million a year to service 34,000 retirees, who pay as little as $21.05 a month for health insurance and $35.36 a month for prescription drug coverage. Obviously, I don't know how "gold-plated" their plan is as far as deductables and such, but my thinking is that it's comparable to GM's union retiree ratio of 7%.

One Democrat who wants to, among other things, put many more people on the state healthcare dole is Doug Duncan. He came down to Ocean City yesterday to kiss the collective ring of the teachers' union, promising to help the teachers as they attempt to raise their retirement pensions.

He also placed on his education docket a measure to award state contract preference to companies that "allow employees time off to be involved in their children's education." Now, I wonder if that would hold true, for example, if Dad wanted the afternoon off to spend time with Mom and their homeschooled kids to go to the zoo as a learning experience? I doubt it.

And the teachers, as expected, lapped it up, some waving Duncan campaign signs. Of course, Martin O'Malley, the other Democrat in the race, was also slated to address the teachers. Meanwhile, Governor Ehrlich was supposed to send an education official down rather than make the trip himself. While the teachers may feel snubbed, chances are they wouldn't welcome him with open arms anyway. And Ehrlich does have better things to do like run a state, not kowtow to a special interest.

Maybe I'll have to ask Dawn at WriteWingBlog if there's annual conventions for homeschooling "teachers, " and which politicians show up for those.

Too good to be true

2005-10-21T14:35:00.000-04:00

The radio news had me going there, but I should have known better.

They were talking about getting rid of the tollbooths on the Bay Bridge. Oddly enough, for those who don't know, you only pay to get INTO the Eastern Shore. On the way out, it's free. Not sure how that thinking came about.

Anyway, the plan proposed is to take out the tollbooths. BUT, and it's a big but, the bridge won't be toll-free. No, can't have that! Basically they will institute an overhead toll system. If you have an EZ-Pass, it will be scanned as you drive by, and if you don't, there will be an overhead camera that takes a picture of your license plate and sends the toll bill to the registered owner of the vehicle.

So, for somebody like me who may only go across the bridge a few times a year, the state of Maryland will have to send me a bill in the mail (at 30 cents or whatever bulk rate is a pop) to charge me the $2.50 toll. I'll have to spend 37 cents to send it back.

Something tells me that a mysterious "handling charge" is going to appear on these bills and the actual toll is going to be something like $5. It's a lot like buying tickets from $ticketma$ter, the $40 ticket is more like $50 with all the fees.

And all this for $183 million over 2 years, according to the news report. Hell, for that, we're a good part of the way to a new Bay Bridge, preferably one that connects closer to Salisbury.

Well, today is my turn to sit in our booth at ChamberFest. Nice day to sit inside, it's absolutely crappy outside. So we'll see how that goes.

Trying to be bipartisan

2005-10-20T21:56:00.000-04:00

The other day, I got a note in my e-mail box from the Maryland GOP regarding an amendment to the Maryland Constitution that would restrict eminent domain. As I've started getting news from the Castle Coalition, it's become a bit of a pet issue for me. Here's their press release:

REPUBLICAN LEGISLATORS SEEK TO PROTECT PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS

ANNAPOLIS—The Republican members of the state House of Delegates and Senate announced today their plan to introduce legislation to curb the use by local governments of eminent domain authority. The legislation proposes a constitutional amendment to the Maryland Constitution which would restrict the use of eminent domain powers. The amendment will close the loophole that allows blighted areas to be seized which has lead (sic) to the abuse of eminent domain powers at the local level.

Chairman John M. Kane released the following statement following the announcement: "The decision by the U.S. Supreme Court seriously imperils private property rights. Our country was founded on the notion of individualism and less government interference. The Court's ruling undermines fundamental American rights. Eminent domain should be restricted to allow government to seize property only for projects like roads, schools and infrastructure projects, not strip malls and McMansions. The Republican members of the House and Senate have taken a bold step towards restoring the rights of Marylanders and protecting their property from government abuse."

The U.S. Supreme Court decision Kelo v. The City of New London, Conn., ruled that government can seize private property and give it to private parties to generate tax revenue. The 5-4 decision broadly interpreted "public use" as "public benefit," effectively allowing government to take private property and give it to another private party. The U.S. Constitution's 5th Amendment allows government to seize private property for public use.

Well, as it stands, I happen to have two representatives. Not sure how that works, but they are both Democrats, Delegates Bennett Bozman and Norman Conway. Obviously they're likely against this, but you never know when they can steal a good idea and try to take credit for it. So, instead of writing a letter to my local DJ, I wrote the pair an e-mail that goes like this:

While my political leanings swing toward the conservative side of the spectrum, I'm also aware that the voters of this district spoke and elected both of you as my representatives. Since I moved into Salisbury late in 2004, I had no say in the matter either way.

But there are times, in my opinion, where liberal vs. conservative or Democrat vs. Republican can be overcome by the simple application of common sense, making both sides see that a particular side of an issue is best for the people. Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court threw common sense to the wind in the Kelo v. New London decision. It was a disastrous verdict that gave local and state governments the ability to pick and choose who and what may occupy a particular piece of private property, for the sole purpose of gaining additional tax revenue. In the Kelo case, homeowners who had held on to their modest homes, some for decades, were suddenly uprooted to make way for a multi-million dollar development by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. The local government turned over their eminent domain power to a private development company, so the result was using the overarching power of government to turn over property from one private entity to another.

It has come to my attention that a group of Republican lawmakers has proposed an amendment to the Maryland Constitution to restrict the use of eminent domain powers by "clos(ing) the loophole that allows blighted areas to be seized, which has led to the abuse of eminent domain powers at the local level."

I have been told that Maryland is not a state that allows citizen-initiated amendments to their Constitution (as states like California and Ohio do), thus it appears the only method of adding private property protection to the Maryland Constitution would rest with the General Assembly. While you inhabit the Democrat side of that aisle, it seems to me that this is an example of common sense over partisanship.

Thus, as a resident of your collective district, I'm making my voice heard and asking that you make this a bipartisan issue - please support this amendment to the Maryland Constitution.

I'll keep you posted on how that plays in Annapolis. These guys are probably going to be beating on my door for votes come next fall, and it will be interesting to see the reaction.

Tomorrow I'll be out at the Centre of Salisbury mall with the Wicomico County Republican Club as we get out in the community. We have a booth as part of the ChamberFest out there. I'm slated to work from 4 to 6 but I may go a little earlier (after Rush, of course!) Can't stay later though, since more important things (like bowling) call!

Too bad I can't be two places at once since Doug Duncan, Democrat candidate for governor, is going to blow through town tomorrow as well. If you believe his website, Montgomery County is the land of milk and honey, a palatial glen of a county where he, Doug Duncan, has singlehandedly raised the citizenry from wretched mass to enlightenment. What I don't see on there is where he REALLY got the money for a lot of these things. Something tells me that mean old President Bush and Governor Ehrlich had a hand in some of this stuff by providing the coin.

Starting to get interesting and we're still a year away. I'll have to watch the coverage of Michael Steele's announcement. Our friends at FU! Maryland pithily noted that Steele has to "BEG" for people to come out and see his announcement. Somehow I think he'll draw enough of a crowd. Remember, he doesn't have a big family and partisan hacks to fill space like Duncan did, plus we as conservatives normally WORK FOR A LIVING! Tough to be a "rent-a-mob" that way.

They told you so

2005-10-18T21:45:00.000-04:00

A night for blogging, no baseball tonight. Thankfully, there's a game tomorrow because of Albert Pujols. Boy did he crush that home run, it was a nice sight to see because the wild card is an abomination to the game of baseball. Hopefully the Cardinals take that series, it would be the first series between the teams with the best record in each league since 1999 (Atlanta vs. New York Yankees) and only the third since the present playoff format was adopted in 1995.

But the real subject tonight is history. With all the controversy about Harriet Miers and the "civil war" in the conservative movement, there were a few people who sounded the alarm way back before Bush took office in 2001.

First, I cite Michelle Malkin. This article is from September 10, 1999, "Will George W. work for a color-blind America?" To wit:

Although Bush claims to oppose racial quotas and preferences, he refuses to take a position on two landmark ballot measures that outlawed racial preferences by popular vote: California's Prop. 209 and Washington state's Initiative 200. More disturbing was Bush's failure to take a position on Prop. A, the 1997 Houston Civil Rights Initiative, which would have outlawed racial preferences in contracting by Houston city government.

If Bush cannot bring himself to support ballot initiatives that abolish government preferences, then his stated opposition to preferences is thin gruel.

Reading further:

If this is the voice of compassionate conservatism, Democrats have nothing to fear.

Bush's legislative record is depressing. This year he signed laws supporting minority contracting set-asides; directing electric utilities to develop diversity and set-aside plans; and creating race-targeted, scholarship-matching programs run by the state higher education coordinating board.

Some prominent conservatives – including Prop. 209 heroes Ward Connerly and Tom Wood of California – have endorsed Bush despite his reticence on racial preferences. Others, including Fred Barnes and Paul Gigot, focus on the anemic hope that Bush will appoint rigorous, conservative intellectuals to do the heavy lifting on the U.S. Supreme Court. (Emphasis mine.) California State University professor Glynn Custred, another Prop. 209 hero who casts a more skeptical eye toward Bush noted recently, "These tidbits, of course, tantalize conservatives, but they don't really tell us anything, and that's exactly the way George W. intends to keep it."

Unless, of course, grass-roots conservatives demand he unbutton his lips and use them to produce something more than poll-tested pablum.

Pretty stern stuff, written when the GOP field in 2000 was still somewhat open.

Then how about WorldNetDaily founder Joseph Farah, back on September 7, 2000. In an op-ed called "Consider yourself warned" he wrote:

I'm getting a lot of letters, these days, from people who say I'm being too tough on George W. Bush...What does George W. Bush stand for that is fundamentally different than Al Gore. To me the difference is like Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dumber. Wait until after the election? Oh, don't worry. There will be plenty of criticism left to go around after the election as well.

(L)et me give you one more concrete example of why, I believe, all those folks writing now pleading for mercy for Bush will be the same people writing to me complaining about him after Jan. 20 (2001).

One of the most frequently mentioned imperatives cited for supporting Bush over Gore is the selection of U.S. Supreme Court justices. I agree this is an important consideration for evaluating any presidential candidate...

(New York Times) Reporter Jim Yardley wrote: "Earlier this year, the Texas Supreme Court stunned social conservatives throughout the state by issuing a 6-to-3 ruling that allowed a 17-year-old high school senior to have an abortion without telling her parents.

"'It was shocking,' said Joe Kral, the legislative director for the Texas Right to Life Committee. It was, after all, appointees of Gov. George W. Bush who took the lead on the issue. ...

"(A) look at Mr. Bush's record in Texas shows that he has appointed justices who have had a moderating influence on the Texas Supreme Court, often regarded as among the most conservative and pro-business in the country. He has appointed four of the court's nine justices and has been a political patron for a fifth, Harriet O'Neill, who wrote the majority opinion in the parental notification case. ...

"Debbie D. Branson, president of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, a group that has been critical of the court and Mr. Bush over the years ... agreed that the Bush appointees had started the process of moving the court back to the center (again, emphasis mine). ...

"By the Supreme Court's 1998-99 term, the liberal judicial watchdog group Court Watch found that Mr. Bush's appointees were 'eliminating the excesses of the G.O.P. old guard.'" ...

I suggest you give serious thought to Bush's judicial record in Texas. If you are voting for George W. Bush because you think he will bring America a better U.S. Supreme Court, I suggest you are being misled.

Again, very strong and prescient words. But not all is President Bush's fault. Here is another WorldNetDaily article by David Limbaugh that I printed and kept around for several years, and by gosh he turned out to be pretty much right. It's called "The 4 Years War" and it was written on December 5, 2000, in the midst of the Florida fiasco.

While most of it dealt with the Florida aftermath, these two pieces have remained with me and turned out to be right on the money. First:

The New York Times reports that "an array of liberal groups have begun organizing for what could be a succession of quick, brutal battles on nominations, tax cuts, the budget and other issues." These groups are said to be "energized and ready to fight." A far cry from the usual liberal cries for bipartisanship, no?

The media is already beating the drums for Bush to make concessions by appointing Democrats to cabinet posts and diluting his agenda -- as if Bush has done something wrong for which he must seek atonement.

And here's another home run, almost as well hit as Pujols':

Bush, as the lawfully elected president, will likely assume the presidency in a war not of his making. While he should still reach out to Democrats in an effort to work with them, he should be prepared to govern over their planned obstruction and must not retreat from his programs.

The problem is that he hasn't governed over their obstructions. And now with the Miers nomination, he's fractured a large percentage of the conservatives from his base of support. This is from a much more recent article I received in my e-mail by David A. Keene of the American Conservative Union.

What is most troubling about this whole (Miers nomination) affair, however, is the way the administration has gone about trying to demonize conservatives who have raised questions about Ms. Miers. It began from day one to attack personally the motives, loyalty and judgment of anyone who questioned the wisdom of the nomination. Since then, the ad hominem attacks on Miers’s conservative critics have been unconscionably heavy-handed and will haunt the president regardless of how the nomination fight turns out.

Most conservatives have stood with Bush from the beginning. Those of us who know him like him. We’ve swallowed policies we might otherwise have objected to because we’ve believed that he and those around him are themselves conservatives trying to do the right thing against sometimes terrible odds. We’ve been there for him because we’ve considered ourselves part of his team.

No more.

From now on, this administration will find it difficult to muster support on the right without explaining why it should be forthcoming. The days of the blank check have ended because no thinking conservative really wants to be part of a team that requires marching in lock step without question or thought, even if it is headed by the president of the United States.

I'm not sure we have to wait until 2007 or 2008 to see this happen. A good indication of how things will be comes next year when the campaigns crank up. Will stalwart conservatives want to be seen with and campaigned for by President Bush, or will he be avoided like the plague - a fate that occurred with President Clinton, as many of the candidates he appeared with on the campaign trail lost because of the association.

To me, things can be repaired if Bush gets back on the straight and narrow and fights for issues he promised to - Social Security, tax cuts, continuing to build of the successes of the War on Terror, and streamlining government. A good start would be endorsing the initiatives in Operation Offset and renewing the aggressive fight to save Social Security which he started last spring.

But I'm going to take a "wait-and-see" approach. I still support the President, but if one were to ask, I'd say he's been quite the disappointment in 2005.

I owe you a bunch!

2005-10-15T23:45:00.000-04:00

Haven't been writing much lately. Of course, my evenings are more busy now since I'm glued to the TV. Not for the new season, but for the second season - it's playoff time! This means instead of reading my stuff and writing about it, I'm sitting slack-jawed watching Fox all night.

So I have a few things I wanted to touch on tonight since I have an opportunity. Kind of a catch-all if you will. Tomorrow I may get a chance to catch up on a couple days' worth of GOPUSA commentaries and stories.

First and foremost, I'm glad the Iraqi election seems to be going well. Actually, because I'm watching the Fox channel out of DC (that's the only one we have on our cable) I'm getting to see a little bit on the Virginia election as well. The polls have that one as really close, and it looks like the Republican Jerry Kilgore can't get off that mid-40's number while the Democrat Tim Kaine has pushed his way into the mid-40's. So the undecideds might be shifting blue. The two commercials I've sort of seen have been negative ads by Kilgore.

Obviously, if Kaine wins that one, you can bet your bottom dollar the partisan media will be all over that story as a "sign that the GOP majority is endangered for 2006." Hey, if they can spin a 4-point loss in Ohio into a win for the Democrats, imagine what they'll do with an actual victory, even if by 1% or less.

Another election story I was alerted to when I got my latest copy of Liberty & Law from the Institute for Justice originates from the state of Washington, home of "found" Democrat votes. The story goes this way:

Recently the state of Washington instituted a 9.5 cent per gallon tax increase on gasoline. It was quickly denounced by various citizens, including local Seattle talk radio hosts John Carlson and Kirby Wilbur. Their opposition led to the formation of a PAC that was set up to bring the matter to a statewide vote. As the petitions came in, it became obvious that there was enough sentiment to get this measure on the ballot, where the gas tax was likely to be repealed.

Enter a group called "Keep Washington Rolling." Rather than simply make their points on the merits of increasing the gas tax, they also decided to make an attempt to silence their opposition. That strategy was to hamstring the anti-taxers by claiming that the talk radio campaign was an "in-kind" political contribution and should be reported under Washington state election laws. Believe it or not, a judge agreed - so the anti-tax group now has to spend time and money documenting and valuing the discussions on the issue. Further, there's a conflict of interest between the members of the KWR group and the prosecutors of various counties who stand to benefit by getting highway projects completed.

The Institute for Justice has come in on the side of the radio hosts, which is the correct side. When the powers that be can use campaign finance laws (that are arguably unconstitutional in and of themselves) to hinder the voice of the voting public when they don't see things the way big government does, it thwarts the idea of a government both by and for the people.

And something VERY interesting. I was looking at the KWR website, and at the bottom is a small credit that says: "Powered by Blue Utopia." Well, Blue Utopia "provides technology and online expertise to Democratic political organizations." Just the name alone conjured that much. So what else is new? The Democrats are for higher taxes, in the name of more highway construction. Wonder what the moonbat environmentalist wackos out that way think of that?

Closer to home, another moonbat made it into the Daily Times yesterday. This is part of a letter to the editor from Joan B. Seiler that made it in Friday's edition:

Nestled in the No Child Left Behind Act is a quiet paragraph stating high schools must provide 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds' home addresses, phone numbers and Social Security numbers to military recruiters. If a school declines, it will be denied federal funding. The only exceptions are through notes from a parent forbidding the school to release any information on their child to any military recruiter. This note must be received by Oct. 15.

For those interested, there are many places to obtain information about enlisting. If you don't want your teenager subjected to pressure to "join up" or don't want your child's name, address, phone number and SSN handed out, write to your school stating this and send a copy to the school board. If possible, mail it certified, return receipt requested, or hand deliver it and request a signed receipt. That way, no one can say they didn't know.

Teens in high school are aggressively targeted, more so now that recruitment has plummeted.

The military needs its "cannon fodder" and promises college, job training, health care and the ability to "be all you can be." Of course, that's if you don't get blown away in Iraq or Afghanistan or, worse, survive minus a few limbs.

Among the most vocal fans of the ill-advised war are Bush supporters who know that without a draft, their child has no chance of being placed in harm's way. With a draft, you would see the same campus rebellions that took place during Vietnam. Then, everyone was at risk. That's the way it should be now, too.

The government claims girls 16, 17 and 18 aren't mature enough to go to Planned Parenthood without parental permission --but they can enlist to carry a gun and be shot without anyone's permission. How about that for a "culture of life?"

The military has been selective about the schools it visits, preferring those in areas with a heavy dose of minorities and lower economic base. That's because military does offer a way out with a chance for education and job training. But the military is not a prep school, it's the military. Its job is to fight and, if necessary, to die. The first thing they give you after a haircut is a gun.

Way to blow through all those talking points, Mrs. Seiler. I especially liked the part about the Bush supporters and the draft. Something tells me that, if you asked the parents of the soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan who they voted for in the last election, the name "Kerry" wouldn't come up a lot.

Then, to top it off, the Daily Times writes an editorial agreeing with her! In the editorial they cite a website called Leave My Child Alone. Among the co-sponsors of this website are serious moonbats like Code Pink and True Majority, along with ACORN.

Of course, what's not noted is that once these kids turn 18, they have to send in a card to Selective Service anyway. So the database that LMCA is worried about will be there regardless.

To me, if the military wants to have their shot at recruiting a child in high school, more power to them. It's like the volume of college info that many students receive, but with benefits like job training and lifetime medical care from the VA. Granted, there's a risk of death or disability in Iraq or Afghanistan, but I honestly think kids are smart enough to realize this - if not, the parents will likely remind them. Especially with all the partisan media gleefully covering every last American death in Iraq, it's obvious to any 16 to 18 year old that joining the military has risks.

One final thing. I never served in the military, simply because I didn't have to. There was no draft during my youth, most of which was spent on the campus of Miami University trying to figure out how to get through classes while finding time to hang with the "buds" and drinking plenty of beer. In the Reagan era, it was "peace through strength" and the worst military death toll occurred in Lebanon. But the military recruited then as well. Then, as now, the military was a volunteer organization, and some elected to serve - but most didn't.

Today, though, I have two of the little magnetic "ribbons" on my front door, one that says, "Support Our Troops" and the other, "Freedom Isn't Free." And this afternoon I took a moment to thank a veteran for his service (he had a Korean War veteran hat on.)

One can call me a "chicken hawk" because I have this attitude now that I can't be drafted. But I've come to realize that it's a good thing that our nation remains proud enough and keeps a number of young folks who care enough to sign up to defend it, knowing they risk life and limb in the process.

Parents, you may beseech your children all you want about not joining the military. But with freedom comes responsibility, and the Daily Times opinion piece is a shirking of theirs.

Stoltzfus picnic

2005-10-09T01:23:00.000-04:00

This is a review of sorts. I went to the State Sen. J. Lowell Stoltzfus "Picnic in the Park" this afternoon. Luckily they had a big tent (appropriate for the GOP) so we all stayed dry. It was fortunate that it wasn't chilly out, quite comfy tempwise. Oddly enough, I believe the park in question is outside his district, but this end of the state is so gerrymandered that I don't know which way is up. He has all of Somerset and Worchester counties, but the D's put as little of the populated area of Wicomico County in it as they could to keep the districts even. I almost live right on the line sitting here in the eastern outskirts of Salisbury.

The picnic was the first political event I've made it to down here. And it was a pretty well-run one, but since the guy's been in office since 1991, it's no surprise that they have this thing pretty much down pat.

The food was pretty good, although I have to say he grows some pretty potent cabbage. At least I assume the sauerkraut was made from his stock. But sauerkraut on a dog is a winner at any picnic I go to. He had a nice little 3 piece old-time music band, and a few of his GOP cohorts in the General Assembly were there as well. I know Page Elmore was there from the House and another lady whose name I don't recall.

One thing that stuck out was the number of door prizes he had, I'd say he had about 20 or so. Didn't win any, the guy sitting next to me did. But he also had a live auction for a bunch of various items.

Now I'd say there were probably 200 or so people there - at $25 a ticket, that's $5,000. But the auction probably made another $2,000 or so. Lot of items that went in the $100 to $250 range. And he got himself on TV (I assume, since I didn't catch channel 47's news.) The other guy who got TV face time was Brian Kilgore, who's running for our County Executive post that the voters created in 2004. He's already got his shirts, the whole Kilgore clan had them on. He's got a family built for TV/video, cute wife and kid.

So Page Elmore handled the MC duties, and there were two speakers, one that served as a speaker and introducer for Sen. Stoltzfus. That guy was a gentleman named Luis Luna, who is an assistant administrator in the national EPA. Basically, his position there is to run the actual administration process, with human resources and facilities management among his duties. But it's a post high enough where he had to be confirmed by the Senate.

Luna spoke about maintaining a good balance between the concerns of the environmentalists on one side, and the economy on the other. He saw President Bush's EPA as being fair to both, whereas previous administrations listened too much to the extreme green wackos (my words, not his.) He also touched on the change in the approach to agricultural issues in the Ehrlich administration as opposed to the Democrat governors who preceded him. It's a much more cooperative arena in Annapolis now for the farmers.

That led him into his introduction to Sen. Stoltzfus. Lowell was more brief, giving out the normal kudos to the help, and also speaking about working with the Ehrlich administration against the special interests of the Democrats. He had particular problems with the Wal-Mart bill and also the investigation by partisan Democrats into the hiring and firing practices of Governor Ehrlich. Basically, it's a scheme to embarrass the governor before the election.

(By the way, sometime ago I noted that I sent the Senator an e-mail on the subject after his comments in the Daily Times. I'm happy to say he did send a short note back agreeing with me on my view of a partisan witch hunt. I did talk to him about that today when we met to jog his memory.)

I wish I'd stuck around to hear what he thought of President Bush. Someone in the back shouted out about that during Lowell's remarks. He said he'd talk to that guy later.

But I enjoyed the time there, and I certainly didn't mind the $25, it goes to a good cause. I'm sure there will be a Democrat running against him, and since rumor has it that all the General Assembly Democrats were supposed to pony up $20,000 apiece to build a war chest for Democrat incumbents in swing districts, the extra money will be helpful. Maybe next year the rain will stay away so a few more folks may come. That will be in the midst of the campaign next year in a key season for Free State politics.

Discouragement

2005-10-05T23:10:00.000-04:00

This will be a fairly quick post tonight. I can tell you're all cheering that one.

One item I read and one I heard are in the spotlight. Yesterday I read a commentary piece by Chuck Muth that basically shows that the GOP infighting continues. So much for the "big tent."

Actually, I'm on Tancredo's side in this one. It is long, long past time to crack down on illegals. Actually it's long, long past time to do a lot of things like cut spending, work on getting ourselves weaned off foreign oil by producing our own, and putting judges on the court who let the legislators do their job. Sometime I'll comment on Harriet Miers, but I really would like to hear the woman speak rather than everyone else assuming she's good/bad for the Supreme Court.

On one side you have the GOP establishment who is in her corner, and on the other you have good conservatives like Michelle Malkin, George Will, and Ann Coulter saying she's a horrible pick. If you follow the Malkin link, there's an audio link to an interview Coulter did with Denver radio host Mike Rosen.

Now that was interesting for two reasons. Ann certainly has some venom stored up for President Bush in her column today. And on this radio interview, she let out the "I" word I was expecting the moonbat left to carry through from the War on Terror and WMD's, yes, "impeach." That, to me, is a bit extreme. Even though there's 45 surefire Democrat votes for it in the Senate, that's not going to happen.

But she did say another thing I thought was very perceptive. As conservatives, we generally see the people we like as candidates shunned by the "establishment" GOP because they're not "electable". "Electable" candidates included Bob Dole in 1996 and George H. W. Bush in 1988-92. On those we batted .333 - great for the bigs, lousy for elections. But the "unelectable" Ronald Reagan went 2 for 2 and only won 49 states when he was reelected (including all of Delmarva.)

So, basically, we need to stick to our guns and not listen to what the establishment would have us believe would be an electable candidate who is a compromise choice. Running hard to the right is the winning way.

I commented on this at theGoldwater's blog a couple weeks back, he had an excellent post called "A Warning to Elected Republicans" that I noted then.

Excellent post. Unfortunately, we conservatives face a problem that is usually the result of the state/local GOP "annointing" a candidate before the primary, hence, before the voters would get their say.

Generally when that is done, the GOP brass goes with the candidate who they feel is more "electable" (read: moderate.)

I can give you an example from my home state of Ohio. There were two candidates for governor in 1998: Bob Taft and Ken Blackwell. Rather than have a primary fight between the two, the Ohio GOP threw their weight behind Bob Taft, the moderate, and nicely asked the conservative Blackwell to fill a vacant spot on the ballot and bide his time as Secretary of State (he was the state treasurer before, but the state GOP had found someone to run there.)

So what happened? Taft succeeded another moderate in George Voinovich, Ohio kept spending money like a drunken sailor, and let onetime surpluses became deficits.

Then 2002 came around, and a guy like me has a choice: re-elect the RINO, or, even worse, put a Democrat in the governor's office. So I held my nose and voted for Taft.

So what happened? Ohio's economy pretty much finished going in the tank, and I'm sitting here in Maryland. And, of course, the mainstream media in most of Ohio will savage a GOP politician no matter how conservative.

And, of course, all the scandal and RINOs moving to the center has Ohio fed up with the GOP just in time for Ken Blackwell to finally have a shot at the governor's office.

So the solution, to me, is to work in the local GOP to let the voters decide who's best for the party. 9 times out of 10 they pick the best (most conservative) person if given a choice.

The other time was keeping Senator Specter in Pennsylvania.

(By the way, don't stop reading at just that article, his blog is generally quite good.)

This is the reason that my blog is the "right-wing" conspiracy, not the "GOP" conspiracy. While I've been a registered Republican since 1986 (and was only a registered Democrat in 1984 to ensure Reagan would get the weakest opponent possible,) I've been known to vote Libertarian and Reform as well. But I feel the best way to get the party to move is from within.

There's more people like me than the "establishment" thinks, and it's very possible 2006 or 2008 will be the time they find that out as it bites them in the ass. When we stay home or withhold our vote for the "electable" candidate, they'll regret blowing the conservative Americans off.

Pickin' and grinnin'

2005-10-03T22:38:00.000-04:00

Through my connection with the Maryland GOP, I got wind of a letter from the Maryland Dems. I love reading the lies and bullshit, it's really fun. Beats talking about the James Stockdale of SCOTUS nominees, Harriet Miers.

So here goes nothing, that's about what the letter is worth. Now my commentary is pretty good.

Dear xxx,

Fall is here and campaign season is revving up. We have less than one year left before our Democratic primary (September 12, 2006) and just over a year before the General Election of 2006 (November 7, 2006).

That and the phone numbers at the end might be the only two true facts in the letter, and I'm not sure about the phone number.

The Maryland Democratic Party is on a roll…and I want to keep you updated on some of things that are happening!

On a roll, right down the hill. Don't look now, but the growth areas in Maryland are turning Republican if they're not already there.

Just this week we surpassed the $1 million mark in fundraising for the year – that's almost twice the amount we raised by this point in 2003, our last `off year' -- and we still have significant activity planned for the final three months of 2005.

Come on. In 2003 you didn't have a governor's race to worry about the next year and all the money was going national. How about a comparison to 2001? I noticed through followthemoney.org that, while your contributions to the governors' race between 1998 and 2002 stayed relatively constant, the GOP gained close to $4 million and outspent you. And you'll likely get outspent again because now you'll have the challenger.

Our largest event during the fourth quarter will be a rousing Maryland Tribute to Paul Sarbanes. The dinner tribute will take place at the Wyndham Hotel in Baltimore on the evening of Tuesday, November 1, 2005. More details are available at www.mddems.org. We hope that you will be among the many Marylanders who will join us that night to honor a true Maryland public servant.

If by "public servant" you mean backbencher and toadie to the liberal special interests, then you hit it right on the head. What exactly has he done in 30 years again?

The newly-formed Maryland Democratic Business Council is poised to kick off a year-long series of local business forums later this year. The Council is co-chaired by:

* Discovery Communications CEO Judith McHale;
* Weldon Latham of Davis, Wright and Tremaine; and
* Former software executive and Talbot County Democratic activist Carl Widell

Their "business" council has McHale, a CEO of a company that runs generally liberal programming on cable - think "Animal Planet." They also do Discovery Channel, TLC, BBC America, and oddly enough, the Military Channel.

Latham works for a law firm, with this being an interesting case in their docket. He is part of what they call the "corporate diversity counseling group." Guess shaking down corporate America is good practice for this job.

Then you have a "former" software executive and activist. Why is he a former executive?

So none of this lot are small businessmen.

The Maryland Democratic Party team has added several expert staff in the last few months. We have brought on three regional field directors – Jocelyn Bogdan, Monique Hall, and Bill Kottmeyer – to build relationships with communities, organizations and individuals across the State, and to coordinate aggressive voter contact operations. With the aid of state-of-the-art voter data, our three Democratic Party organizers will be able to target, talk to, and turnout Democratic voters this November for the city elections in Annapolis and Frederick, and next November for the statewide elections.

Wow, they have a computer now. That former software executive is really paying dividends. And I should get on their e-mail list just to see how "aggressive" their voter contact operations are. They'll not forget calling me.

I'm pleased to announce that Joseline Pena-Melynk, former Secretary of the Maryland Democratic Party, has joined the Party as our Community Coordinator. Pena-Melynk, who serves on the College Park City Council, will serve as primary liaison to community, ethnic, and labor organizations throughout the state. We have also added Melissa Campbell to our fundraising team. She is a veteran of several political campaigns and joins us from the fast-paced world of Capitol Hill.

Sounds like they sent Campbell back to the minors. It's not like the D's are having a field day getting contributions nationally either.

The Maryland Democratic Party is putting in overtime to spread the word about Democratic priorities. During the next 14 months your Party leaders will be criss-crossing the state to talk about how Democrats are working hard to:

* Lower the cost of health care and prescription drugs; (Soak the drug companies and screw the market up so drugs become less readily available.)
* Make college more affordable; (That would be taxing the rich.)
* Provide more resources to our counties for school construction; (Rollback of the property tax freeze.)
* Increase the minimum wage; and (Read: drive small business out of Maryland.)
* Promote groundbreaking stem cell research (Killing babies for questionable results at best.)

Democrats are standing up for Maryland, not for the misguided policies of the Bush administration and the national Republicans.

Which have pulled the economy out of the recession that started when your guy Clinton was in office, fought back against terrorists instead of simply attempting to criminalize them, and began to restore the courts to their Constitutional mandate rather than judicial activism.

We will be touching voters across the state early and often to talk about their day-to-day needs and to demonstrate how the Ehrlich-Steele Administration does not reflect or represent Maryland values.

In other words, we'll lie about Ehrlich/Steele since they pulled the state out of the deficit the Democrats put them in and shown leadership in promoting Maryland as a business-friendly state.

I hope we can count on your continued support and involvement in the Maryland Democratic Party. You can reach the Party at 410-269-8818 or 301-858-8818, or via e-mail at democrat@mddems.org. Please keep in touch!

Oh, I plan to. It's your party that is out of touch with the values of mainstream Maryland, and, by extension, mainstream America.

Sincerely,

Terry Lierman
Chair
Maryland Democratic Party

PS: If you haven't done so already, please visit www.mddems.org to sign up for our email list – and please forward this letter to five of our friends, family or neighbors, and encourage them to do the same! Thank you very, very much!

I plan to, because I like to see what the enemy is up to. And I think I just forwarded the letter for you. Of course, my commentary makes the letter far more truthful.

Paid for by the Maryland Democratic Party and not authorized by any federal candidate or candidate's committee. By authority of Oz Bengur, Treasurer.

And how much is e-mail these days? Maybe that's why Widell is a "former" software executive.

Sounds to me like the Democrats are running a bit scared in Maryland. It's not as blue of a state as one might think.

Taking the quiz

2005-10-02T20:40:00.000-04:00

I'm not going to change the name of the blog quite yet. But I actually helped out theGoldwater today by clicking on his Google ad. I know, sacrilege. But it was an ad for the Libertarian running for Ohio governor, a guy by the name of Bill Peirce. Actually, I agree with practically everything on his stated platform. But I don't always agree with the Libetarians as a whole.

Or do I? I actually had taken what they call the "World's Smallest Political Quiz" before. At the time I registered right on the line between conservative and libertarian, at the outside of the box. But now my position is only a few steps right of the top corner as seen on the quiz, more solidly libertarian. I think a couple of my positions have moved some on the "personal issues score." It's now 70 on personal issues and 100 on economic issues. I think it's because my view on the "war on drugs" has softened a little bit.

It's odd because I also fit the given definition of "conservative" as well: "Conservatives tend to favor economic freedom, but frequently support laws to restrict personal behavior that violates "traditional values." They oppose excessive government control of business, while endorsing government action to defend morality and the traditional family structure. Conservatives usually support a strong military, oppose bureaucracy and high taxes, favor a free-market economy, and endorse strong law enforcement."

With the possible exception of "government action to defend morality", it's pretty close to my view. We tried to legislate morality with the 18th Amendment, and it didn't work.

So I'm wondering where others who read this fall along the quiz lines. I'm betting half or better register as libertarians, and most of the rest as conservatives. But it's nice to have an idea. Take the quiz!

My turn to be politically incorrect

2005-10-01T23:40:00.000-04:00

I kind of jumped on this a little late, but better late than never.

In a nutshell, Bill Bennett got in trouble for saying that if all black babies were aborted, the crime rate in the country would be reduced. Now, honestly - would anyone short of the most rabid, absolutist white supremacist be serious in saying a thing like this? I don't think Bennett fits that category. Compulsive gambler, yes. Racist, no.

And lost (or at least buried) in the coverage is that Bennett was citing another's work. The book Freakonomics theorized that part of the drop in crime in the 1990's was due to Roe v. Wade. Abortions were performed on poorer women in a number that was greater than their proportion to society as a whole. Since poorer children are more likely to commit crime because of their economic circumstance, it stands to reason that crimes drop when there's fewer of them.

Further, the coverage ignores the context of the remark. From www.gopusa.com, here's the transcript of the conversation between Bennett and a caller to his radio show:

CALLER: I noticed the national media, you know, they talk a lot about the loss of revenue, or the inability of the government to fund Social Security, and I was curious, and I've read articles in recent months here, that the abortions that have happened since Roe v. Wade, the lost revenue from the people who have been aborted in the last 30-something years, could fund Social Security as we know it today. And the media just doesn't - never touches this at all.

BENNETT: Assuming they're all productive citizens?

CALLER: Assuming that they are. Even if only a portion of them were, it would be an enormous amount of revenue.

BENNETT: Maybe, maybe, but we don't know what the costs would be, too. I think as - abortion disproportionately occur among single women? No.

CALLER: I don't know the exact statistics, but quite a bit are, yeah.

BENNETT: All right, well, I mean, I just don't know. I would not argue for the pro-life position based on this, because you don't know. I mean, it cuts both - you know, one of the arguments in this book Freakonomics that they make is that the declining crime rate, you know, they deal with this hypothesis, that one of the reasons crime is down is that abortion is up. Well -

CALLER: Well, I don't think that statistic is accurate.

BENNETT: Well, I don't think it is either, I don't think it is either, because first of all, there is just too much that you don't know. But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could - if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky.

Seems to me that Bennett is using the stated fact that, according to the Bureau of Justice statistics, "In 1997, about 9% of the black population in the U.S. was under some form of correctional supervision compared to 2% of the white population and over 1% of other races."

So, in a theoretical sense at least, the statement is correct. Does it make me racist to say this and support what he said as an argument for the point he was trying to make? You know, free speech and all?

I'm sure it abhors Bill Bennett that abortions are performed at all, let alone the eugenics of killing only black babies. Leave that to lefty heroes like Margaret Sanger.

WCRC September meeting

2005-09-27T22:47:00.000-04:00

Just a few comments on the Wicomico County Republican Club meeting I was at last night.

Now, I've been in a Republican club for the better part of 10 years; in fact, it was just about this time in 1995 that I joined the Toledo Metro Young Republican Club. The pet peeve I have about this group that I didn't have with others is that the meeting's supposed to start at 7:00 - but doesn't until 7:30 at the earliest. I understand there's a social aspect but come on, I like to get my other stuff done too (like work on this blog.) I had trouble when I ran the TMAYRC with latecomers, but more trouble with no-shows.

Anyway, aside from that, it went well. Our club has a pretty good bank balance that's 15% higher than this time last year (because the Crab Feast went really well.) The attendance was very good, better than 30 people there.

Our speaker was Dr. John Bartkovich. He's quite passionate to say the least, which is good. One thing that he's stressing is getting new voters. To paraphrase, it's using the strategy that worked in Ohio to make Maryland a red state. You know, it was in 1984, it can be again.

But we did go through a list prepared by the Maryland state GOP and decided that some of the strategies outlined wouldn't work so well here, at least this far in advance. However, one thing we can do is be out in the community, and we'll put effort there. I'm going to take my turn at our booth at the mall in a couple weeks. (It's a Chamber of Commerce function, the name escapes me.)

Also, there's a couple events I'm likely going to. Senator Stoltzfus has a "Picnic in the Park" a week from Saturday that I'm going to get a ticket for. I applaud his stance on the "Fair Share" fiasco and also think that the investigation into Governor Ehrlich's hiring and firing practice is a partisan witch hunt just to embarass him. And, he answers his e-mails.

Honestly, as gerrymandered as the districts are here, I'm not even sure he's my state senator, but he seems like a good conservative politician, so I encourage the support.

It was noted that it's a busy week ahead, as Congressman Gilchrest is here Monday for two townhall meetings, Lt. Gov. Steele is here on Wednesday for two events, and an announcement by Brian Kilgore next Friday. Might have to wander over there. Plus the Stoltzfus picnic.

So my homework assignment is to register a voter and tell them how I did it. I may have to cozy up to the newbies in the complex to do it.

Well, the next meeting is October 24, 7:00. Guess I'll not worry so much about being prompt, as such I can get my workout in.

Liberals are funny sometimes...

2005-09-27T22:12:00.000-04:00

A couple funny things happened on my way to this forum.

As usual, I take a look at a couple left websites. On my Favorites list...What the enemy is up to (MD Dems) and Fired Up! Maryland (news from the dark side.)

The enemy: Take a look at this gem. First of all, "dumping" millions of dollars in stock he likely paid millions for? I get it! Selling stock from a blind trust and making profit is bad, but making many times your money on the cattle futures market is ok.

Besides, the D's should be really happy Frist made that profit since there is a capital gains tax on it. Guess they'd rather see him lose money, since he's a nasty mean rich Republican. Yeah, make him live like the little guy! Wonder how Jon Corzine likes that deal? Didn't he make his money from the stock market?

News from the dark side: And then there's this on a Washington Post article. Now, obviously I've not met Roy Temple (FU! Maryland is his blog) but he's really scraping the bottom of the barrel these days. Pity that the state's actually being run well despite the best efforts of the D's in the General Assembly to pass asinine laws and screw it up.

Not only did I happen to comment on the article by showing him another one on the corruption in Montgomery County (read: Doug Duncan) but today there was another article in the online Sun (of all places,) "More Maryland Surpluses Forecast". I don't agree with the spending priorities spoken of by William Donald Schaefer, but I'm glad that the state has some cushion. So give it back!

And I guess even old Peter Angelos had something to say the other day. From the Washington Times:

With Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley on the verge of announcing he will run for governor, the Baltimore Orioles ran a full-page color advertisement in the Baltimore Sun yesterday with a large photograph of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican, wearing an Orioles jacket.

An orange headline above a photograph read: "Thank you! Governor Ehrlich."

Democrats questioned the reasons for the advertisement and the tribute to Mr. Ehrlich that the Orioles have planned before today's game with the New York Yankees.

"It's a thinly disguised campaign ad," said Derek Walker, spokesman for the Maryland Democratic Party. "It certainly amounts to a significant in-kind contribution to the governor's campaign."

But Bill Stetka, spokesman for the Orioles, said the purpose is to thank Mr. Ehrlich for standing behind the Orioles "when no one else would, with regard to putting a team in Washington and the impact it would have on Baltimore and the ball club."

"It's strictly to thank the governor for taking a stand when no one else would, including the mayor of Baltimore city," he said.

Mr. Stetka said Orioles majority owner Peter Angelos will host a pre-game reception for the governor today. He said Mr. Ehrlich also will be honored in a pre-game ceremonies and will take batting practice and throw out the first ball, the Associated Press reports.

(I didn't link it since it was 1/3 of an article of other unrelated items.)

But politics makes strange bedfellows as the D's will be more than happy to cash the frequent Angelos contribution checks - as long as it's Doug Duncan who wins the Democratic primary.

Hat tips and hot tips

2005-09-25T20:36:00.000-04:00

Well, maybe it's not such a hot tip. But I did see an article in the Daily Times today regarding the 2006 County Executive race. It's going to be interesting next year since that's a new office.

Instead of a body of seven elected officials representing various areas on Wicomico County, now one person, most likely from Salisbury or a close suburb, will make all the decisions, including budget submission. Obviously, both parties want their person in charge, and having the county executive be from the majority party (even if the County Council is split 4-3 in their favor) would give that party a hammerlock on county government.

So it's a bit surprising that no one has stepped forward to say officially, "I'm running." Perhaps the acrimony currently gripping the County Council over the Rewastico Road horse park fiasco has made potential candidates hesitate to take the slings and arrows certain to come from the opposition party.

Now the hat tips. This is from TheGoldwater's blog, the article today entitled, "A Warning to Elected Republicans":

If you think that you can run and win in 2006 by endorsing the "moderate" position of abandoning the tax cuts, restricting funding to operations in Iraq, abandoning our efforts to remove the death tax from our national burden, and increasing fees on the citizens of the United States-- thing (sic) again.

Conservatives will burn you-- in effigy, in the polls, in the voting booth, on the Sunday morning news shows-- wherever, whenever, and however we can. Now is not the time to go wobbly in furthering the Reagan Revolution. We need more tax cuts, more budget cuts, and more restraints on spending.

I would add that we also need to keep getting judges who realize that the be-all and end-all of American law is the United States Constitution.

Not the UN Charter.

Not a court in Great Britain, Nigeria, Japan, India, Canada, or anywhere else except here.

Not in the judge's gray matter that says life is unfair for the woman, minority, gay/lesbian, illegal immigrant, terrorist, or whoever is not a WASP male and he/she has to do something from the bench to fix it.

Now that we have that straight...

Hat tip number two goes to Duvafiles for today, for pointing out articles in Fortune Magazine regarding the contributions for Katrina relief made by Home Depot and lefty whipping boy Wal-Mart. Plus I liked the comments there about the differences between Democrats, Republicans, and southern Democrats.

As always, the private sector goes about doing its business in ways a bloated bureaucracy that looks out for the best ways to cover its ass cannot.

It goes in with my comments yesterday about divesting unneeded federal land. A large part and benefit of capitalism is that land eventually gravitates to its highest and best use. For all the complaints about urban sprawl and running out of room, I challenge you to take a drive around the lower Eastern Shore. I drove out Route 349 to Waterside and back along Route 352 and Pemberton Drive. There's a LOT of empty scrub land there that's not even farmed.

So the lot of the Eastern Shore is a mix of agriculture and tourism - agriculture being raising chickens and poultry in areas where the soil's not good for grain farming. Where I'm from in Ohio, the opposite occurs - miles and miles of cornfields and soybean plots. The land determines its best use. Places where water is plentiful underground and not at the surface become housing plots. Locations where water is plentiful at the surface become great grounds for fishing and hunting.

But tying into this and paramount above all else is the right to private property. Not the right to damage and destroy others' property values from misuse of your property, but also the freedom to keep your property until such time as you decide to dispose of it; or, for a PUBLIC good (not just additional tax revenue,) be fairly compensated for waiving your right to it.

So I close right back at my comment about judges. We need a judge that will take into account, "nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation." It's called the Fifth Amendment, and that, to me, is the ultimate stare decisis, not Kelo v. New London. And I can only count on a conservative to appoint a judge who sees things that way.

Don't pork chops sound good?

2005-09-24T22:04:00.000-04:00

Hurricane Katrina is going to cost the taxpayers over $100 billion when it's all said and done. Hurricane Rita didn't strike in as populated of an area as it hit the mostly rural Arklatex region, so damage will be minimized. Also the death toll should be far less, which is also good. In that case, we lucked out in that Rita didn't run right up the waterway from Galveston to Houston.

But regardless, I was encouraged to see some thought given to not simply printing more money. A group of Congressman led by Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) has a very viable solution called "Operation Offset." Basically, it comes down to repealing or slowing the implementation of new spending programs. The recommendations in Title I alone would save $70 billion in 2006, $193 billion by 2010, and $526 billion by 2015. It's money that WOULD NOT come from the pockets of you and I.

And if you dig deeper into the report, you'll see where even more cuts can be made, cuts that add up in total to almost $1 trillion (even some military spending cuts.) Some of it is the kind of stuff the "Contract With America" was based on but the Gingrich-era Republicans lost their stomach for after the 1995 budget battle and government shutdown. Amazingly, we all survived it, huh?

The problem is that there's only 100 or so Congressmen ( a group called the Republican Study Committee) behind this. There's too many squishy moderates who don't want to see their favorite pork project go away. Our own Congressman, Wayne Gilchrest, is a Republican who is not a member of the RSC. He's also got a lot of highway bill projects that he brought home listed on his website. Here's a few samples of piggish stuff IMHO:

The Crisfield Ferry project would receive $800,000, to be used for the planning, design, and possible acquisition of land for the purposes of a ferry terminal.

If you're going to link up the Eastern Shore with the rest of the state, I think it would be far better to build a bridge in the Dorchester County area. A ferry can only serve a limited number of vehicles and is subject to weather conditions to a far larger degree than a bridge.

The bill also includes funding for several scenic trails in the 1st District. In Centreville, $305,600 was earmarked for design and engineering of the Queen Anne’s County Cross Island Trail, which will be a bicycle and pedestrian trail on a converted rail line.

In Chestertown, $240,000 was set aside for planning the Chestertown Trail, which will be a bike and pedestrian trail linking Wilmer Park to Worton.

In Anne Arundel County, the bill includes $1.2 million for the Broadneck Trail, a component of the American Discovery Trail. This funding would pay for part of the construction of the 3 ¼ mile segment from Sandy Point State Park to Green Holly Drive and College Parkway.

It also includes $800,000 to construct the South Shore Trail from Annapolis to Odenton and another $800,000 to build the trail from Maryland Route 3 at Millersville Road to I-97 at Woorbury.

Wouldn't all of these projects more properly fall under the purview of the state government? I know, it's "only" $3,345,600, but that's money out of our pockets to satisfy a very small portion of the population that actually uses these trails. Now figure all 435 Congressmen have a similar list and you can see where the dollars add up.

(Meanwhile, Rep. Gilchrest is attempting to raise the price of your automobile by supporting a stricter CAFE standard for cars, from 25 MPG to 33 MPG over 10 years. This is more government interference in the free market, trying to force people into less safe smaller cars.)

You know, I didn't want to make this into a Gilchrest bashing post, but doesn't it seem that he's become a RINO with all the pork, the support for CAFE standards, and favoring a repeal of "don't ask don't tell"? I may just have to go to his "town meeting" on October 3rd in Hebron, 6 p.m., at the Rockawalkin Community Hall, 6772 Rockawalkin Road. (Is Rockawalkin a cool name or what?)

I'll go and take notes and I'm betting a blog post is in the offing - once I call my daughter and wish her a happy birthday that night!

So it may be a couple busy Monday nights in a row for me as I have a WCRC meeting this coming Monday night as well. But that's quite all right since I don't really follow Monday Night Football until baseball season is over anyway.

Support our troops!

2005-09-22T22:49:00.000-04:00

The sign says it all. Hopefully there's a lot of folks in D.C. to have it out with the whiner Cindy Sheehan and and her far-left Communist-sponsored posse.

Just wish people would understand that we're not doing the War on Terror because we like seeing young men and women die. We're not doing it to get more oil or make Halliburton rich or because the neo-cons think that we can prop up Israel by doing so.

We're doing it because we'd rather kill a lot of bad people over there in Iraq and Afghanistan than let them kill us over here (remember 9/11?) The Wahabbists (hopefully I spelled that right) aren't going to stop until they're sent en masse to see their 72 virgins.

Granted, we can do more on our own borders to stop their infiltration but that's a matter that can be solved if the government would quit covering their ass and let private groups like the Minutemen do some of the work of patrolling the border. It worked in Arizona.

But when it comes to killing people and breaking things, it's a job for the military. And they do that job well, with remarkably few civilian casualties. I'd posit that the ratio of enemy combatants to civilians killed by our military is inverse of that proportion of slaughter incurred when the terrorists strike. A homicide bomb might kill one or two of our soldiers but take along 50 to 100 innocent bystanders.

There's only one way that we can deal with fanatics who aren't afraid of death, and that's hasten their journey to it on our terms rather than on theirs. It's the way we're doing it in Iraq, and it is a shame when good people like Spc. Casey Sheehan have to die because of it.

But it's more of a shame when his mother besmirches the good name of all his fallen comrades to pursue what would be a hollow and short-lived truce with the enemy, for the only peace that will occur in this war will take place when one side or the other is vanquished. And I'm strongly of the opinion that our side must prevail or the world becomes plunged in a new Dark Age.

Joy in Mudhenville!, part 2

2005-09-18T03:42:00.000-04:00

On Thursday night, there was finally joy in Mudhenville. After a 38 year drought that saw all 13 other franchises in the league win at least one Governors’ Cup, the Toledo team at last got its opportunity to sip from it. It’s a story that parallels the Boston Red Sox of 2004 in a lot of respects. They broke the "curse of the Bambino", and the Mud Hens broke the "karma of Terry Felton." But more on that later.

I was born in 1964, which was the last year without baseball in Toledo. After having a series of American Association franchises from the late 19th century into the 1950's, Toledo was left high and dry baseballwise after the 1955 season, when that version of the Toledo Mud Hens (also known in that era as the Toledo "Sox" or "Glass Sox") relocated to Wichita. It was truly the end of an era, as even the Mud Hens stadium, Swayne Field, would be leveled to build a shopping center, the first large-scale shopping outside the immediate area of downtown Toledo. (Part of the old outfield wall remains behind what is still called the Swayne Field shopping center.)

But eventually the call was heard for Toledo to get a baseball team back. And, through the efforts of a county commissioner, Ned Skeldon, Lucas County (which Toledo is the seat of) assisted in forming a corporation that bought the former Richmond franchise in the International League. A stadium was needed and what originally was a horse racing track at the Lucas County Fairgrounds in suburban Maumee was renovated in time for the April 1965 debut of the rechristened Toledo Mud Hens.

It was a halcyon time for the city of Toledo. The city was rapidly growing as they annexed many of the former suburban areas of central Lucas County, reaching an all-time high of over 380,000 residents by 1970. Jobs were plentiful as the auto industry was booming in the era of powerful muscle cars. It was a time where prosperous middle-class factory workers could afford the family entertainment of a ballgame, and tens of thousands took advantage of watching the team out at the Rec Center, as the stadium became known. Surrounding the stadium was a host of ballfields (a few of which I played on as a 10-year-old) and a swimming pool complex, as well as the actual fairgrounds. It was a parklike setting for the team, which settled into its suburban home well.

In 1967, this team became affiliated with the nearby Detroit Tigers. That affiliation paid immediate dividends as a pitching staff featuring future big leaguers like Jim Rooker, Mike Marshall, John Hiller, Dick Drago, and Pat Dobson helped lead Toledo to the IL pennant. Many of the same players remained in 1968 as the parent Tigers were also loaded enough to win the AL flag. The 1968 version of the Mud Hens won the regular season but were surprised in the playoffs.

That would be the end of the brief playoff era for Toledo. Eventually the affiliation with the Tigers went sour because of discord between the Mud Hens management and Detroit’s. After a six year relationship with the Tigers ended, Toledo became an affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies in 1974.

Meanwhile, Toledo was starting to show signs of becoming a member of the "Rust Belt." The auto industry that lined the pockets of its workers with extra spending money became more stingy as cheaper cars imported from Japan slowly began to gain market share. One by one, some of Toledo’s largest employers closed up shop. DeVilbiss, Champion Spark Plug, Toledo Scale, and others bolted the city, leaving behind shuttered factories in deteriorating urban neighborhoods.

As the Seventies dragged on, the fortunes of both Toledo and the Mud Hens ebbed. The Phillies tenure as parent team was brief, as the Cleveland Indians followed them in two years later. The Tribe proved to be short-termers as well, as they abandoned the Mud Hens as well after two forgettable seasons. In all, the Mud Hens failed to reach the upper division of the International League for 11 straight seasons beginning with the 1969 campaign and following through to 1979.

It’s not that there weren’t bright spots. One was getting a guy who would make Cal Ripken, Jr. envious. Starting in 1975, Jim Weber has been the Mud Hen radio broadcaster in every aired game. That would be over 3,800 - the number only being fewer than the 4,200 or so games the Mud Hens have actually played by the simple fact that radio broadcasts were only part-time in his early days. It wasn’t until 1983 that all games were broadcast.

And the city of Toledo would get one of its most famous boosters, a guy who indirectly helped the Mud Hens get on the map. Weekly on the TV series M*A*S*H, Jamie Farr’s character of Klinger reminded people of his old hometown of Toledo, Ohio. And someplace along the line, he appeared on the show in a vintage Mud Hens jersey. America did eventually find out that the Mud Hens were real and not made up by a Hollywood scriptwriter. Since then, the Mud Hens have always been one of the better souvenir sellers in the minor leagues, and Jamie Farr became the namesake of an annual LPGA golf tournament held just outside Toledo.

That was also the time I made it to my first Mud Hen games. Back when I played Little League at the age of 11 and 12, my team would make a pilgrimage to see the Mud Hens. Two things stick out from those games. In 1976, the Mud Hens had a player named Jim Norris, which just so happened to be the name of our assistant coach. I found that to be pretty cool. The 1977 game was one where I actually got a program and had it autographed by a couple players. That game also had a home run by a Mud Hen named Dave Hilton. I liked him because on his baseball card he was pictured wearing glasses like I did (and still do.) Still think of the guy as "Home Run" Hilton because of that game.

Better times were ahead for the Mud Hens and the city. A new affiliation with the Minnesota Twins brought better players in, players that enabled the Mud Hens to break a long postseason dry spell in 1980. The team made it through the first round of the IL playoffs before succumbing to instate rival Columbus in the final. Again in 1984 Toledo would see playoff baseball, as well as a short Mud Hen tenure by future Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett, who played in Toledo for about half the season before being called up to the Twins and never looking back. But the 1984 Hens were swept out of the playoffs. That would be the playoff memory for some time.

This brings me to the karma of Terry Felton. Felton was the #2 draft choice of the Twins in 1976, and rapidly ascended through their minor league system until he got to Toledo. As it turned out, he became the team’s modern-era leader in victories with 33, a record that stood until 2004. It’s not that Felton never made it to the Show...but when he did make it, he lost. And lost. And kept losing. His 0-13 record in 1983 closed the books on what was a 0-16 big league career for the Twins.

But what he did on a frustrating night in 1980 changed the feel of the Rec Center. After being pulled from a rough start, Felton took a spare bat and proceeded to smash his steel locker to an unrecognizable mass of metal about 3 feet high. That locker became replaced by a wooden locker that became a poetry board of sorts.

By this time, the Rec Center, and by extension, the Mud Hens, was becoming known as "the morgue," a place where careers came to die. It was a stadium that had seen better days as a racetrack. There was time and effort put into a renovation in 1988 that helped matters along for awhile, but still the park was annually thought of as the worst in the International League. (As part of the 1988 renovation, the stadium was renamed for Ned Skeldon to honor his efforts at returning baseball to Toledo.)

The city of Toledo was also trying to find its way in a post-manufacturing world. While Jeeps and GM transmissions were still being cranked out, the remainder of the manufacturing jobs and population continued fleeing the city. The population of Toledo fell over 10% in a 20 year period, although the bulk of that loss simply spread out to the rapidly growing suburbs. One ballyhooed idea was the Portside Festival Marketplace, a retail and entertainment center fronting the Maumee River. Opened with great fanfare in 1984, it barely survived its first winter and closed for good by 1990. The building did eventually become a tourist attraction with the opening years later of COSI, a hands-on science museum. But Portside was an embarrassing flop and a punch in the gut to Toledo’s pride.

Meanwhile, I was off in Oxford, Ohio, at college. Since my playing days were long over by then (I played through my sophomore year in high school, although most of the time I was a benchwarmer) I was simply a fan and made it to a lot of Miami University baseball games. So I lost touch with my hometown team for a few years. But once I graduated I had more time on my hands, and my dad’s company had season passes to the games. Naturally I became a big fan again, attending about 25 games in my first year back from school. They just gave me the season passes by the end.

This was right before the 1988 renovation, but even that didn’t do a lot for the amenities of the ballpark. The only thing that was good for the fans (but the players hated) was a separation between the dugouts and clubhouse. To get from one to the other, a player had to run a gauntlet of 20 to 30 yards between the field and the clubhouse. (And some guys literally did run it.) It was just a prime place to get autographs. Around that time I also got back into collecting baseball cards, so I took advantage of the concourse to get quite a few cards signed. In this timeframe, starting with the 1987 season, the Mud Hens once again became the Detroit Tigers AAA affiliate, which continues to this day.

While it was a good marketing tool to have the future Tigers in Toledo, the results on the field continued to suffer. In the space of time that the Tigers kept their AAA team elsewhere, that was when the great Tiger players of the 1980's - guys like Lou Whitaker, Alan Trammell, Jack Morris, Lance Parrish, and Kirk Gibson - played in the Tigers system. These guys were replaced in the Detroit minor leagues by the likes of Billy Bean, Scott Livingstone, and Steve Searcy. None of these guys became household names.

But things were slowly changing in the International League. Starting with Richmond in 1985, teams began to build new stadiums or franchises moved to locations with new parks. Even some of the older parks had serious renovations to a much larger degree than Toledo’s.

It was in the early 1990's that rumors began to spread of the Hens’ eventual demise because of the poor facilities at Skeldon Stadium. While the county continued to make a profit from the club, attendance was stagnant if not slowly sinking. The rumblings were generally of the county selling the Mud Hens franchise to a private owner who would move the club. Other talk had the Mud Hens remaining in their location, but the International League and Midwest League would switch franchises...the Toledo team becoming a class A Tiger affiliate while West Michigan became a AAA team.

But the city wasn’t in a position of strength economically. The recession of the early 1990's hit the city hard, including a young man working in the architectural field. I lost my job the very day that my wife and I were slated to move into our house. While I did get my job back eventually, the city of Toledo suffered through a long period of job losses. Complaints about the state of the Mud Hens continued to mount from the league and the local newspaper, who wanted to end the Tigers affiliation as they saw the success of Cleveland’s farm system.

By 1998, Lucas County decided to act in an attempt to quell the rumors and save the Mud Hens. They proposed a temporary 35 month sales tax increase to pay for a new downtown stadium as well as a new water park at the Recreation Center site that would be vacated by the team. The issue went to the voters in November of that year and, led by resistance from Maumee residents bitter about losing their ballpark, the ballot issue was soundly defeated. I didn’t vote for it myself. It wasn’t that I was enamored with Skeldon Stadium, but I thought the water park was a waste of money.

After the voters rejected the measure, the future looked bleak for the Mud Hens. Enter Ray Kest, the Lucas County treasurer. He proposed a different method of funding that did not need nearly as much taxpayer money, as things like stadium naming rights and commemorative bricks would defray the cost, as well as leveraged money from the State of Ohio. The final piece of the financing puzzle would be completed the next year when it was announced Fifth Third Bank had bought the new stadium naming rights.

This would begin a new and exciting era for the Mud Hens and the city of Toledo. After over 40 years without baseball being played in the city, construction of the new Fifth Third Field ensured that Toledo baseball would be played inside the city starting in 2002.

I attended the final game at Skeldon Stadium on September 3, 2001. The Mud Hens, as usual, lost the game to the Columbus Clippers 12-11. Over the winter the anticipation began to build in earnest as Fifth Third Field was evolving into the newest IL ballpark. Additionally, a long-moribund part of downtown slowly began to come back to life as a few eateries and nightspots began opening around the stadium area in anticipation.

So I was among the thousands jammed into Fifth Third Field April 9, 2002 to watch Toledo make its return downtown. Despite an opening 1-4 roadtrip, spirits were high as the Hens took on the Norfolk Tides. They won that game 7-5, swept the four game series, and continued to win. Part of the reason was solid players who were acquired as six-year free agents, attracted by the chance to play in a brand spanking new ballpark. The other part of the equation was good pitching by guys like Mike Maroth and Andy Van Hekken, both of whom ended the season in Detroit.

It looked in late August, though, like the Mud Hens had run out of gas. With 12 games to go, they trailed division leader Louisville by 2 ½ games. But a 10-2 late season surge that included 5-1 marks against Louisville and archrival Columbus enabled Toledo to pass Louisville and net their first ever West Division title, and first playoff berth in 18 years.

Sadly, the Mud Hens disappointed two straight sellout crowds (yes, I went to the playoff opener) by dropping the games to the Durham Bulls. They would lose the third game in front of a half-empty stadium in Durham to be swept out of the playoffs. The playoff losing streak would roll on.

But the signs of life in downtown also continued. It was a minor improvement, but an improvement nonetheless. Trouble was, the effort that was put together to build Fifth Third Field couldn’t or wouldn’t be duplicated for other places in need of facelifts or all-out renovation like the old Steam Plant or SeaGate Centre. Plans for each were made but never followed through as marketing failed. While some of the Mud Hen fans remained downtown to sample the nightlife, most went back to the suburbs. I was a person who did that as I bolted Toledo for the suburbs in 2002.

Toledo did get one honor from the 2002 season, as Fifth Third Field was selected by Newsweek as the best new ballpark in the country. Compared to old Skeldon Stadium, it was a baseball paradise with great sightlines and the Toledo skyline as a backdrop.

But the Mud Hens simply continued to lose in 2003 and 2004, they just did it in front of larger crowds at Fifth Third. 2003's version of the Mud Hens started out with promise, but half the team ended up playing in Detroit by season’s close for the hapless Tigers. The 2004 season ended with a thud, as the loss that day put them in last place in the entire league. It was a season that stood out for a memorable August collapse, as the first place Mud Hens who were confident enough to start selling playoff tickets at the end of July absolutely butchered the month of August, a 5-24 house of horrors.

I was at the final game of the 2004 season on Labor Day, a gorgeous sunny afternoon. I recall thinking it was a long way until April of 2005, but I was looking forward to coming back.

But at last the Toledo economy, stagnant for most of the last 20 years as politicians came and went without solving the city’s problems, took its toll on me. The Friday after Labor Day, I was asked to come into my supervisor’s office and informed that it would be my last day. There was no more work for me to do.

So the 2005 version of the Mud Hens started without me being there. Being far away, I really didn’t notice how well they were doing. They did win the two games I managed to attend, one of them Memorial Day weekend in Toledo against Columbus, the other in Norfolk in July. By that time I had seen the Mud Hens were leading their division and having an awesome year.

The skeptic in me, while hoping they’d continue to win, kept waiting for the collapse that was sure to occur, right? Well, the 2005 Mud Hens didn’t collapse. They got stronger as the season wore on and on a magical Saturday night in front of their fans, they clinched a playoff berth. Two nights later I watched online as they won the division title and had their second champagne celebration in three days.

So step one was complete. They would face Norfolk in the first round of the Governors’ Cup playoffs. And in Game 4, they played a seesaw battle as I watched from afar. That night my skeptical side saw Gookie Dawkins blow a sure out, the error allowing Norfolk to take the lead. Then the fan in me saw the horrendous ending, the phantom tag at second ending what should have been a tied game.

Game 5 was nerve-wracking, although the Hens got an early lead. I’d seen too many games like that to be comfortable. But they ousted Norfolk 5-3 and got their date to face the surprising Indianapolis Indians, who won 3 straight at Buffalo to advance after losing the first 2 games at home.

We know how that series came out. Game 3 was a case of chasing away the bad karma, the black cloud that had enveloped a star-crossed team for those many years. Each hit pounded on the hex like Terry Felton’s blows to his locker, smashing it to oblivion. Each home run took away the thoughts of a thousand blowout losses that Jim Weber still had to broadcast and keep interesting, allowing him to watch a team he had devoted over half his life to finally grab the elusive brass ring. The Hens celebration erased my disgust of watching everyone else get yet another win over the league’s doormat. For the first time in my adult life, I could say that my hometown team was a champion.

Whether this success will translate to a transformation to the city it calls home is yet to be seen. While championships feel great, the city goes about its business as usual day after day. It’s good to see that we will be the reigning IL champions when the AAA All-Star Game makes its first appearance in Toledo next July, but what will the visitors and television viewers think of the city where it’s played?

Toledo can be a championship city in more ways than just sports. But it needs two things it seems to lack: a cohesive plan to take advantage of the natural asset of its location, and leadership to put together a plan and implement it. It is a city where 90% of the time the "we’ve always done it this way" method of thinking rules its actions.

The Mud Hens had "always done it this way" for 38 years. Once they got a plan to take advantage of their natural asset (a great ballpark to play in) and leadership to implement it (in this case superb team chemistry), they cast away an entire mindset of losing and placed themselves into consideration as possibly the best Mud Hen team of all time.

I was born in Toledo. It was a bit sad, but I made the choice to leave because the city didn’t meet my needs. And it’s pretty likely I won’t return except to visit on occasion. But I still care about my old hometown enough to root for its team. And I care enough about a lot of the people I left behind to hope that someone will think about how the Mud Hens escaped their resignation to losing and apply that to what could be a great city, one that is worthy of hosting a great team.

Joy in Mudhenville!

2005-09-16T00:30:00.000-04:00

We did it! After 38 long seasons, the Toledo Mud Hens are champions of the International League and can sip from the Governors Cup.

My God, I have so much to say - I just want to scream out in ecstasy! Expect a long post soon, perhaps this weekend when I have time to write it all.

More interesting stuff

2005-09-15T23:31:00.000-04:00

Tonight I'm still going through the potpourri of news items and finding a few interesting tidbits here and there.

I've been interested in the AFL-CIO split since the friction started earlier this year. The renegade "Change To Win Coalition" took a fourth scalp from the beleaguered AFL-CIO this week when UNITE HERE, an umbrella of unions in the apparel and hospitality industries, decided to formally leave the AFL-CIO. The tally now stands at 8 million for the AFL-CIO, with the yet unnamed labor insurgency now up to 5 million workers; split between the Teamsters, SEIU (service employees), UFCW (grocery/retail workers), UNITE HERE, and a few smaller unions. This labor movement will adopt a name on September 27, when they meet in St. Louis for their first convention.

To me, the interesting thing is whether these unions will cut back on political spending and actually spend more money on their stated goal of organizing workers. The rift in the labor movement started for that reason, as the CTWC unions complained about the amount of political contributions made by the AFL-CIO at the expense of attempting to grow their unions. With the percentage of unionized labor at a historic low, these CTWC unions know that their spigot of coerced union dues is being shut off by a lack of workers to pay those dues. I'm sure many workers in the unions are paying dues to support politicians they do not agree with. In the 2004 election, Bush held his own in union households despite the heavy public support by the unionistas for John Kerry. In the privacy of the voting booth, Bush garnered a lot of closet union votes.

Speaking of elections, I found a Democrat I could vote for (but probably won't have to.) William Donald Schaefer is hinting at running again for his state comptroller post. The outspoken octogenarian may only have a primary opponent, though. It's hinted that the GOP may not even run anyone against him.

If anything, I have to give the guy credit for having a pair and not being politically correct. He ranted about a McDonald's worker's poor command of English, irritating immigant advocates. He's also been known to aggressively question why state contract bids weren't lower. Hey, I'm for that.

But the best one was his questioning when the state's Minority Business Enterprise program would end. And it's because there's a fair and valid question.

At what point do we say, ok, the field is now level? I've been advocating the sunsetting of set-asides and similar programs for a long time. Affirmative action has become a crutch of quotas for the chosen few. I don't doubt that it was a useful tool in getting minorities into the mainstream of business 30 years ago, but now it's time for the free market to resume and give all, regardless of race and gender, an equal chance at success. It's only in Orwell novels that some should be more equal than others.

This race issue provides me a nice segue into my final chapter for tonight. My old hometown's mayoral primary was on Tuesday. Now, if there was EVER a match between Tweedledum and Tweedledee, this is it. (Note to readers: this may be the ONE time I agree with this columnist.)

In the blue corner: The current mayor, "Sleepy" Jack Ford, who finished second in the primary. He's best known for sleeping on the job in the Ohio Legislature when he was a member of the Ohio House. He's also been asleep at the wheel in Toledo for the last four years as growth and progress has stagnated. (Obviously, since I'm sitting here thanks to a lack of business in the northwest Ohio area for architects.) However, Ford, who is black, got enough of "his people" to turn out to guarantee him a spot in the November election. Higher than normal turnout in the black wards is credited for his second place finish over a charging Keith Wilkowski, a onetime county commissioner and fellow Democrat.

In the purple corner: This corner was red when it was convenient to him 3 decades ago in his bids for Congress, but now the nominally independent former two-term mayor Carty Finkbeiner is in the November mayoral election. He's on his third political comeback now after being term-limited out of office in 2001. Carty (no last name necessary in Toledo, he's a household name) is best known for one thing: he's the guy who seriously suggested moving deaf people out to the airport. Yes, the Trivial Pursuit question's answer is Carty Finkbeiner.

I have met this man on several occasions and he's come across to me as phony as a $3 bill. People, I voted for a guy barely to the right of communist to keep Carty out of the mayor's office in 1993.

The sad thing about the Toledo election is that the GOP candidate, city councilman Rob Ludeman, finished a dismal fourth with only about 12% of the vote. A lot of his GOP votes went to Carty, which shows what's wrong with the city of Toledo in a nutshell. Ludeman didn't win any wards in his council district - all went to Carty.

So I'm glad I don't live in Toledo anymore. There's very few races I don't cast a vote on, but this would be one of them. Come to think of it, I did vote in 2004. When I was downsized out of my job, I voted with my feet and came here. It's not surprising that I've had a lot of company in the last two decades as these choices show what the Democrat machine has done to an otherwise-fine city.

Grist for the mill

2005-09-14T23:34:00.000-04:00

A few odds and ends that I've found in my news wanderings:

Only in the mind of a union thug is it all right to pay workers $6 an hour and send them out for a day shift in 104 degree weather without much of a hint of shade. To top it off, they're picketing a place where the starting salary is 25% or more higher than the $6 per hour (no benefits) that these workers are making.

But this is happening in Las Vegas, where the local UFCW union is sending day laborers to picket one of the new Wal-Mart "Neighborhood Markets." (Hat tip goes to Suitably Flip for this one.)

It's not a new tactic. Being from one of the top 5 union markets per capita I've seen my share of picketers, mostly Teamsters or UAW since Toledo is heavily a manufacturing center (think of Jeeps.) But most of the labor unrest there in the last decade has come from the UFCW as various grocery chains have moved into town and some other non-union retailers expanded into the grocery business.

The first dust-up was when Michigan-based Meijer, a "superstore" that featured both general merchandise and groceries, moved into the area in the early 1990's. The local UFCW union struck them in the late 1990's when Meijer's management wouldn't raise wages quickly enough to "catch up" to the other more established chains. They also had a showdown with Kroger a couple years later where a strike was narrowly averted.

But the fangs came out when Giant Eagle moved to town. This chain expanded westward from Cleveland and remained non-union. Oddly enough, I think their northeast Ohio stores are unionized but the stores in the Toledo area have remained non-union. And almost every nice weekend I would drive by Giant Eagle to see the picketers out imploring shoppers not to patronize the non-union store. Of course, I drove by them and shopped there anyway...a nice store with decent prices on their loss leaders and good service. But I found it funny when I'd drive by and see their "workers" sitting around, or, the best one who I saw sleeping in his truck with the sign hanging out the window. Wish I could make $8 an hour for sleeping.

The picketers at Giant Eagle disappeared though when Wal-Mart came to town. Apparently UFCW Local 911 had bigger fish to fry. There were pickets, radio ads (even during Rush), newspaper ads...they pulled out all the stops. Even the city of Toledo bent over backwards for the union. Wal-Mart stores were approved for the city of Toledo proper IF they didn't carry groceries.

So union thuggery is nothing new to Wal-Mart. But back to these workers baking in the hot Las Vegas sun. As I stated, the union pays these people $6 an hour, with two 15-minute breaks allowed in their 5 hour shift - potty breaks at the service station washroom across the street. The union transports them back and forth, except on weekends, where these folks have to find their own way to work.

All this because the UFCW claims that Wal-Mart shortchanges their workers, who make more than the picketers do and can get health insurance through the company for as little as $141 a month for a basic family policy (or $35 a month for individuals.) Obviously picketing is now a job that the Vegas unionistas turn up their nose at - must be too hot to sleep in the truck.

Reading an item from TheGoldwater tonight (props to him for digging this up) regarding Charity Hospital in NOLA. It's a hospital that stayed open as long as it could during the crisis but ran out of generator power only a few hours after the lights went out. Sadly, this proved too much for many patients who died as a result.

His take is sort of a Jim Crow-revisited tale with an almost conspiritorical tone. Charity Hospital is in one of the poorest areas of New Orleans. With decrepit facilities and not a lot of money coming in, this sad situation was pretty much foreseeable.

But I wanted to use this story as a parable of another sort. Along the same vein, many of the hospitals in southern California have shuttered their ERs or closed entirely because of an influx of people who they have to treat by federal mandate but who cannot pay. I do not have a problem with the treatment mandate, although it could be handled more properly at state levels (an argument for another time) - but this is what happens when business and government clash.

In a nutshell, services that Charity Hospital provided were becoming more and more costly, but the payments they received for doing them became less and less. So Charity had to scrimp someplace - in their case, they gambled that their facilities would hold together just enough to pass muster with JCAHO and other hospital regulators. Which they did.

But much like what would happen if you plugged a leaking dike with chewing gum, at some point things are going to break and it won't be pretty. In this case, it was tragic and needlessly so.

There's a big problem with the system as it is. The trouble is that the health care market is way out of whack. Part of that is the redundancy that is built in so doctors aren't accused of malpractice. So each prodding, poking, and test is a "out" in case the doctor is off on his diagnosis. But these cost money. Of course, "you" don't pay for it, the insurer does. And that's great until the premiums and co-pays go up. To turn a phrase, health care insurers ain't in it for their health. They need to make money, otherwise they go out of business!

Then we have the people who extract big money from the Medicare program. If you watch TV for any length of time, you'll likely see a commercial aimed at the older folk for mobility chairs. They seem to be the latest rage in getting Medicare to pay for a big-ticket item that may or may not be necessary. But hey, it's not money out of "their" pocket - until the government has to raise the Medicare premiums. Then it's hissy fit time at the AARP!

It's time for a look at reforming the system. Eventually we have to ease the government out of it. Newt Gingrich was right - Medicare should eventually "wither on the vine," replaced by a fairer privatized system that benefits the patient but doesn't spoil them with extras unless the patient is willing to pay extra.

Finally tonight, I was perusing the FU! Maryland site and they were posting about the MSTA teachers' union complaining about the Steele Report on Maryland's schools. (Note: I didn't read the report, it's 57 pages long.) The gist of the MSTA's complaints were almost all money based - pensions and starting salary. Meanwhile, they were also up in arms about any sort of accountability. No teacher testing for them!

Makes you wonder why homeschooling continues to grow, huh?

Lest we forget...

2005-09-13T00:02:00.000-04:00

Wish I had seen this late Saturday night when I was typing, but better late than never. (hat tip: Flip at...Suitably Flip. Thanks dude!)

Four years ago

2005-09-11T02:57:00.000-04:00

This is the remainder of what I started writing about earlier, that post will appear below this one.

Oddly enough, with Katrina's aftermath, we're not thinking about what this date signifies. In some ways that's good because life does need to get back to normal. But we shouldn't forget either. In about 6 hours, we'll be four years removed from that terrible hour.

When I first heard about 9/11, I was at work in Toledo when my boss called from his home. He was about to take his kids to school when he called and told me something about a plane hitting the WTC. I just assumed it was a small plane at first and an accident, but then word started spreading about what was going on and we all became glued to our radios.

That was a scary day. I know we had a regular staff meeting that day and we were supposed to finish up a presentation for a new synagogue that night. But that presentation wouldn't occur as it became apparent things wouldn't be normal for awhile. And I feel sorry for poor Rob Brunk. 9/11 happened to be his first day at work for us. Rob's a nice guy who I worked with at a firm before Hobbs + Black (my former employer) so I was glad to see him come aboard. But not on a day like that.

One of the people I feel the most for now that time has passed is my stepdaughter. By then, she was living with her mom in Elyria, Ohio, where they moved after our divorce. But the events of 9/11 put a damper on what was supposed to be a fun senior year for her.

I recall going to a scheduled marching band event the Saturday afterward. Her band, being the host, was the last band to perform. But instead of a rousing sendoff number, her band simply left the field to a single drum cadence. Obviously it reflected the solemnity of the moment, but I felt cheated for her. Being in the class of 2002, she's always going to have that stain on the memory of her senior year of high school.

To this day, we still occasionally get the healing wound torn open. The latest controversy surrounds the Flight 93 Memorial in Pennsylvania. It gives architects a bad name in my opinion. And architects are an interesting lot. While the "name" architects you see in the trade mags and in academia (and who run the AIA) seem to be flaming liberals, almost all of them I've worked with have been moderate to right-wing. The gentleman in question earlier (my old boss) who called about the WTC disaster was probably the most leftist and even he agreed with me on some things.

But I'm glad that we're starting to again view this day as somewhat normal. It'll never be quite like the way 9/11/01 started out (a glorious late summer day in both NYC and Toledo) but sometime the pain will wear off and be replaced by a legacy - a legacy of freedom for many of the world's most oppressed people that came out of that horrible day's events.

Totally unrelated edit: As of this post, I've had to turn word verification on for comments. I hadn't posted my last post 10 minutes and I had two comment spammers, neither of which was germaine to the subject. So my friends at places like WriteWingBlog and the league:revisited will have to type one more word. I apologize for the inconvenience but I'm the only one allowed to mess up my blog with "inappropriate" comments!

Championing the private sector

2005-09-11T02:36:00.000-04:00

Since I can't sleep (stuffy nose) I'm perusing some of my background websites that I check occasionally. And I found this article about what the private sector is doing to help out Katrina victims.

As always, leave it to the market to adapt its know-how to the situation. I have a related anecdote to share. As I was doing my shopping in Wal-Mart last Sunday, there was a sign back in their water section that stated their brand of bottled water would be temporarily unavailable because it had been diverted to the Katrina-hit areas (but they had some other brands available.) So somebody at Wal-Mart cleaned out a bunch of stores of various supplies and shipped them south.

Speaking of hurricanes, I'm watching Ophelia with some interest as Delmarva is within the "cone" of its possible path. If there's a silver lining to this, if it went over us, Ophelia's projected path would swing it over a great deal of land mass first and likely weaken it to tropical depression strength or less. But I'm thinking it may be best to place my car in the other parking lot midweek, otherwise it may be sitting in a foot or two of water.

This is where I'll end my first post. As I was writing part two, I decided that the subject was such it deserved its own entry.

I have to laugh!

2005-09-10T11:30:00.000-04:00

Generally I just link to posts, but this press release by the Maryland Democrats is too funny to simply link to. This will be fun to pick on!

DELAY VISIT TO MARYLAND HIGHLIGHTS EHRLICH/STEELE TIES TO PRESIDENT BUSH AND THE NATIONAL REPUBLICAN AGENDA

Let's see...strong economy, lower taxes, support for our military. Sounds like a good agenda to me - what's wrong with that?

Embattled House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is coming to Carroll County, Maryland tonight, raising money for local Republicans and further highlighting the deep connections between the Ehrlich/Steele administration and the Bush administration and DeLay’s allies in Congress.

All right, DeLay is "embattled" because he has a friend who did no good. Show me the criminal charge against Tom DeLay (that's not part of a partisan witchhunt.) Democrats hate DeLay because he's very effective.

“It’s alarming how far Maryland Republicans will go to raise money for Bob Ehrlich and Michael Steele,” said Maryland Democratic Party Chair Terry Lierman. “The George Bush/Tom DeLay agenda -- mismanaging the war in Iraq, privatizing Social Security, making health care and the cost of living more expensive, and destroying the environment – has no place in the state of Maryland.”

Again, trying to tie that name in. Point by point:

Mismanaging the war in Iraq? We're losing 2-3 troops per day - too many for my liking, but the last two "wars" the Democrats managed were the loss in Viet Nam (with double-digit troop loss per day) and the 15,000 foot war (that's where the bombs dropped from) Clinton had in Serbia.

Privatizing Social Security? All for it. At least us younger folk can get a return on investment. And if that's good enough for government employees, it should be good enough for us.

Making health care and the cost of living more expensive? Only due to the inefficiencies of government interference in free markets and the ever-expanding mandates, mainly pushed by Democrats.

Destroying the environment? The Democrats' answer to that is placing more and more land off-limits to development (which also adds to the cost of living.) Notice that the areas in the world that are the worst environmental disasters are areas where socialism/communism have held sway for generations.

These things only have no place in the state of Maryland because the obstructionist Democrats crave political power more than letting our state truly be the "Free State."

Lierman added that DeLay’s appearance is not surprising, considering that Governor Ehrlich “was DeLay’s understudy in Congress and has brought the same mean spirited, partisan tone to Annapolis.”

I know, it sucks when Democrats actually have to think of and sell ideas to the opposition instead of just doing what they feel in a state with one-party rule. It takes two to tango and have a "partisan tone."

DeLay spent the summer fighting off serious ethics charges, many stemming from his ties to indicted Republican super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who DeLay has called “one of my closest and dearest friends.” Abramoff has also been a major financial backer of Governor Robert Ehrlich.

Notice that's "indicted" lobbyist. President Clinton was indicted as well. And he was campaigning for Kathleen Kennedy Townsend in the 2002 election. I'm not defending Abramoff, but crooks infest both parties.

DeLay’s recent behavior has been deplorable. One week after the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, DeLay pointed fingers at local officials for the poor disaster response, then canceled House hearings on Katrina. At the same time, DeLay praised Republican Governors Haley Barbour (MS) and Bob Riley (AL) while criticizing Louisiana’s Democratic Governor Kathleen Blanco.

As he should. The job Blanco did has been worse than horrible, mismanagement all the way by state and local government. While I concede the damage in New Orleans is of a different and more persistent nature (flooding) than the damage in Mississippi and Alabama (mostly due to storm surge and hurricane winds), steps taken by the Alabama and Mississippi governors have put their states on a course toward normalcy much faster than Louisiana's. Instead of waiting on FEMA to bail out their states and blaming President Bush for all ills, Alabamans and Mississippians rolled up their sleeves and got to work.

And doesn't the House have better things to do than hold hearings on Katrina? We know what will happen anyway: the Democrats will finagle a hearing room, invite a few carefully chosen victims of the storm, pat themselves on the back, and make FEMA (and by extension, Bush) the scapegoat.

“This much is clear: Maryland Democrats put Maryland first – Bob Ehrlich and Michael Steele put George Bush and the national Republicans first,” said Lierman.

Don't let them fool you. Maryland Democrats put political power over our lives first. All the GOP is doing is trying to slow down the rate of progress.

Also, a hat tip to a Free State blogger I've recently been introduced to for an interesting idea that has merit. TheGoldwater had the thought of putting an oil terminal/refinery in Crisfield. On the surface, it does have its good points: hundreds of good paying jobs for Somerset County and it's close to a major gasoline market in the Northeast. I know the environmentalists and NIMBYs would pitch a bitch, but it shows thought about a private-sector answer rather than just another government "solution" like Hawaii has proposed.

Speaking of gas prices and government solutions, the Sun made Governor Ehrlich sound clueless again. Seems to be their job. But it was hidden in the article that stations in the Baltimore-Washington corridor use a special blend of gasoline unique to that area. Maybe it explains why prices there are above the national average while prices here on the Maryland part of the Eastern Shore are right about or slightly below that mark.

Once again, a government "solution" via forced mandate comes back to bite Joe Q. Public in the ass and empty his wallet at the same time.

Wrong-way Miller

2005-09-10T02:36:00.000-04:00

Was looking at this article in the Sun today. I know prices at the pump were as high as I've ever seen over the Labor Day weekend (over $3 is new to me.)

But Mike Miller's idea is just plain wrong. All a price cap would do is create a shortage of gasoline. Why should oil companies lose money sending gasoline someplace they won't make a profit? I can imagine how bad it'll be for Hawaii since everything is shipped there. But it's the price you pay for not living near a supply of gasoline. About the only thing cheap there is pineapple.

Luckily Maryland is a small state so it's not much more than a gallon or two of gas to get someplace with a supply of gasoline should this hare-brained Miller scheme pan out. If my choice is to pay 15 cents more in Delaware or have no gas supply, guess what I do?

What irks me is that in this time of high prices that hurt consumers, Governor Ehrlich has flatly denied an opportunity for relief by saying no to suspending Maryland's 23.5 cent per gallon state gasoline tax, citing its contribution to maintaining highways.

Now I will agree that Maryland has a pretty good set of highways, save in the immediate Baltimore area (I-695 is pretty dreadful.) However, we were told that the state has a surplus of about $1 billion. According to the state, it collected roughly $750 million in gas taxes last year. So a 90 day suspension in the gas tax (to allow time for the market to stabilize) should cost the state about $190 million - an amount easily replaced by our surplus!

Generally I think Governor Ehrlich does a good job, but in this case he's thinking too much like a government employee. He needs to remember that the people do not serve government, the government is supposed to serve the people. In times where people have to do without because of circumstances not of their making, it behooves government to do the same.

But it never seems that government does without. It's always that tax cuts will "cost" government. Well, maybe if you in the bureaucracy took a look at what you really spend the money on, you'll notice that it's something that the private sector does a better job at more cheaply.

As regular readers know, I'm from Toledo, Ohio. It's a city that has collected a "temporary" 3/4% income tax since 1982. (It was $383 out of my last full year's wages there, really bad since I didn't live in the city by then.) This levy, by law, must go to the voters every 4-5 years. And every 4-5 years the city of Toledo threatens to cut police, fire, and garbage collection if it doesn't pass. This is because the "temporary" tax has now become 1/3 of the city's revenue.

Anyway, I seem to recall a study was done that showed it would be cheaper for the city to privatize garbage collection. Of course, the AFSCME union screamed bloody murder about what they termed a flawed study. So, of course, garbage collection is still unionized and now the threat is semi-weekly collection.

In this day and age, it never seems to be in government's interest to figure out ways to shrink itself. Rather than let the more efficient private sector do things and collect money, big government simply can't do without. It's illustrated by Governor Ehrlich's shortsighted refusal to suspend the gas tax in Maryland. Rather than give a little bit of freedom to the Free State, the governor tightens the screws on all our residents.

Cleaning up the blog

2005-09-08T23:25:00.000-04:00

Just a few little odds and ends before I go to bed:

Flip over at Suitably Flip has a timely post regarding something you knew was going to happen: scams tied to Katrina. He did a bit of digging into the subject, and there's some shady folks out there looking to cash in. So far I've put in about $25 to the kitty...

At our office, I gave $20 to the office collection. When my boss matches all of ours, it should come out well over $500. Not bad for 18 people.
Last night's Shorebird playoff game had $1 of each ticket go to relief. That would be over $2200 since that was the paid attendance. Added to that is another $1700 when they passed the hat during the 7th inning stretch. That's more impressive since probably 1/3 to 1/2 the crowd had left (we were up 12-3 at the time.)
Also, during my weekend trip to Atlantic City, a group of firefighters were "filling the boot" for Katrina relief. I'm sure they did well.

And that doesn't count my $200 of so slice of the $60 billion and counting in promised aid from the federal government. (Reading the story, I see President Bush waived the prevailing wage law on these related government contracts. Good for him!)

Earlier I was looking for some info on my old hometown's mayoral race when I came across this gem. While some of the provisions make sense, it's quite interesting that this comes up while the Republicans are in charge in Columbus. Where was this in 1980 when the rural area I grew up in after age 11 became part of the Congressional district mostly populated by the city of Toledo? I just think it's funny that 92% of the money to fund the petition drive (and apparently some of the petitioners) are from outside Ohio. Think the Democrats are worried about Secretary of State Ken Blackwell (a black conservative)? Part of the petition is to strip that office of election duty.

I must say, one thing I don't like about Maryland is that the off-year elections are held in the spring. I like fall elections, probably just because it's what I'm used to. When I was a volunteer in the trenches for those many years living in Toledo, Election Day was like my Super Bowl.

On Election Day, I would get up at 4 a.m. for "dawn patrol", when we went out and plastered all the polling places with campaign signs. I'd have 5-7 places to go and a trunk full of signs to plant. Then at 6:30 I would go vote in my precinct and for several years in a row, I was the campaign worker for my precinct. So I would spend most of the next 13 hours trying to get those last-minute decisions for my candidate.

Then 7:30 p.m. would roll around and I'd run home for a quick shower and then to wherever the party was having it's post-election party. Unfortunately, a lot of the time it was more like a wake, but we had our occasional victories.

And, if you're wondering, I took a personal day off work to do this. No UAW contract mandating Election Day off for me. So I used to have good back-and-forth with the union thugs who spent a couple hours at my polling place.

I guess I'll have to get my fix next November (2006) as Maryland cranks up some major races.

Speaking of Maryland, this is not a good sign for public education.

I got my coupon-laden blue junk mail envelope a few days back, and among the stuff in it was something for UMES (for the non-natives, that's University of Maryland Eastern Shore.) To quote Dave Barry, I swear I'm not making this up - it was the "Arts & Entertainment CALENDER OF EVENTS." So, No! UMES is not my "Education Destination."

Katrina's legacy

2005-09-05T23:19:00.000-04:00

There's a lot of bloggers who are commenting on all the finger-pointing going on between the local authorities in Louisiana and the federal government. Go to any news-oriented website and one can get their fill of infighting.

But, my question is: what if it happens here?

I did a quick Mapquest check and the distance between Covington, Louisiana (which is roughly as far west as New Orleans but on the north side of Lake Ponchatrain) and Mobile, Alabama is 138 miles. So figure Katrina did a number on about 120 miles of Gulf Coast when you account for twists and turns in Interstates 10 and 12.

Now imagine a Category 5 hurricane blasting into the Eastern Shore someplace. If the eye struck right at the Maryland/Virginia line, Ocean City and most likely my home in Salisbury would be devastated and the damage may well extend north to Cape May, NJ. A strike farther south may wipe out a vast swath of the narrow Virginia Eastern Shore and just push it right into Chesapeake Bay.

I'm sure that there are disaster plans in place for most of the counties and states. But how much of that deals with terrorism, and can that plan be reworked in some manner to one for a natural disaster like Katrina was? I've seen the signs leading out of Ocean City that say "Evacuation Route" but is it really possible to evacuate tens of thousands of residents and tourists, many of whom aren't really familiar with the area save the route that brought them in (U.S. 50)?

It is fortunate that we don't have some problems unique to New Orleans itself - our land does rise gradually from the ocean so a storm surge would eventually drain away. But there needs to be an action plan in place and it needs to be followed. Red state or blue is only sitting on one side of a line or the other here. I drive down into Virginia or up into Delaware and it looks the same except the state route signs are round. We're all residents of the Eastern Shore and it makes us unique in that way.

So a good idea may be for the governments of the three Eastern Shore states to get together in a low-key manner and just hash out some rules of engagement if a Katrina-style hurricane does strike. Hopefully we've elected leaders and not self-serving wannabes if that all comes down.

And for goodness sakes, be prepared (!) either to evacuate or ride the storm out. Whichever choice you make, think long and hard about it, and be ready to do either at short notice. Being from the Midwest, I have no desire to ride a Category 5 out so I'll head northwest (but keep some essentials around just in case I can't.) I live pretty simply so it's easy for me - others need to think things through.

Labor Day quote

2005-09-05T14:34:00.000-04:00

Back from a couple days away. While I was gone, Delmarva won twice and Lexington lost last night, so the second half SAL North title is ours! Bring on Hagerstown for the "Battle of Maryland!"

This is the quote of the day, taken from a person who stayed in New Orleans and has somehow gotten back online to blog.

Anyway, I'm sure there's been human error in this catastrophe. How could there not be? But what I'm saying is that I've come to expect poor decision making and a total lack of initiative from government. They can't even balance a budget, at the federal, state, or local levels. I could balance my checkbook and spend within my means when I was a teenager. But I'm not gonna point fingers and get into the blame game. If you want me to blame something besides the storm herself, I blame the nature of government in the first place. It's too big, it's too slow, it's too inefficient, it's too bloated, and it's too intiative-stifling to be effective in normal circumstances, much less in a disaster. It's a systemic issue, more than an issue of individual people in government.

[Hat tip to Duvafiles. The Transchoptankia Gazette (named after our local Choptank River) is one of my daily reads, he's a local resident.]

I'm going to say something quickly about the passing of Chief Justice Rehnquist. Obviously I didn't know the guy, but he did a lot to stem the tide of judicial activism by his rulings. Unfortunately, by and large his was a minority view. The timing is unfortunate in that now the left-wing fringe has a solid working majority on the court (Souter, Ginsberg, Stevens, and Breyer) - so expect the obstructionist Democrats to try and slow the confirmation process as much as they can. Not sure I agree with elevating Roberts to Chief Justice right away but I can see President Bush's logic. His other choice was probably Justice Thomas and it's possible he may not have wanted the job. (Justice Scalia, at 69, is probably too old now.)

But it'll be interesting to see now that Rehnquist is no longer among us, whether the death watch starts on John Paul Stevens, who's the oldest of the justices at 85. I know every time Rehnquist had a cold it was big news - now let's see how the media treats that coming story.

Delmarva Shorebird update

2005-09-02T11:31:00.000-04:00

As of last night, the Shorebirds lost again to West Virginia while Lexington beat Lake County. So the Shorebird lead is now down to 2 games over the Legends.

According to Patrick Heavner, who works for the SAL, if the teams are tied after the regular season there would be a one-game playoff to determine the winner. Based on an earlier coin flip, that game would be at Lexington. Both teams finish the season on the road, but Delmarva is at a further disadvantage since their last series is at Lakewood (a long 11 hour trip) while Lexington closes at Hagerstown (about 7 hours.)

Further, if Delmarva does win the one-game playoff, they then face a second 11 hour or so trip back to Salisbury to face Hagerstown before hitting the road again to finish up the series there after an off day. I actually drove this stretch (Lexington to Salisbury) coming back from my vacation; it's a long, tiring trip.

So the Shorebirds need to go into New Jersey and kick some ass to save themselves a lot of trouble. If they go 3-1 in Lakewood, Lexington could sweep and still miss out.

Let's go Shorebirds! I want to see 3 more home games this season.

Open letter to the league: reassembled

2005-09-01T22:38:00.000-04:00

I started this as a comment response, but felt it was too good to bury in a comments section.

Here's the original comment, from the league: reassembled. This is regarding my post, "Bet you thought I forgot...":

At one point you rant against individual rights (you would rather have the impersonal corporation that is WalMart keep a few extra bucks than allow individual families the adequate health care they deserve; you would sacrifice the liberty of individuals to enter into civil marriage for some mis-informed concept of "One man, one woman") but then end the post by implying that you support "the power of the individual." It seems to us you are more than willing to disregard the power, rights and liberties of the individual for the gain of corporations and the anti-gay movement.

Let me counter both arguments:

You say that "the impersonal corporation that is Wal-Mart" is keeping families from getting health care. However, the dirty little secret is there are thousands and thousands of Wal-Mart employees who do have health care coverage through them.

But more importantly, it is not the mission of Wal-Mart to provide health care for their employees. Like it or not, and I know that lefties don't like it, Wal-Mart is in business for one purpose and one purpose only: make a profit for their shareholders. (Full disclosure: I'm not one of them.) In fact, 99.9% of businesses are in it for the profit, and the other 0.1% won't be in business much longer if they keep that poor attitude up.

And nobody is coercing the workers who continue to apply to Wal-Mart for work to do so. With all the negative publicity surrounding Wal-Mart that's mostly stirred up by the unionistas, it's likely that people applying to work there are aware that they're not going to get gold-plated benefits. Also, many of the company's workers are the "working spouses" or retirees who are already covered under another company's health plan or Medicare.

It's one thing that an individual can consider when choosing to work for Wal-Mart. With thousands of jobs out there, one does not have to work there, I choose not to. I applied myself and got a college degree and professional registration so I could choose from among better paying jobs. I do shop at Wal-Mart because they have good grocery prices, but that doesn't mean I stay completely away from a union store like Giant. I just don't shop at Giant as much, since they made the choice to put themselves at a competitive disadvantage by having a union shop.

Of course, what bugs me is Giant trying to strongarm the legislature into artificially leveling the playing field (so to speak) by taxing Wal-Mart. Basically that's what "Fair Share" amounted to. However, I also do not like Wal-Mart (or any other private entity) when they convince local governments to use eminent domain power to steal land from a rightful owner to build a store.

Now, as for my views on marriage: believe me, I know all about ceding liberty there! That's probably why I'm single again.

But seriously, again this is a choice made. While I've benefitted in some ways from liberalized divorce laws, it doesn't mean I was in the right for doing so. Western civilization has benefitted for two thousand years with the morality of one man, one woman. It's only within the last 40 years or so that other "arrangements" have been made more commonplace, and it coincides with a general decline in morality.

If I were a gay man, and I had a partner I was in love with, I would have a choice to make. Now it's easier than ever to be accepted as a couple. But I also know that the relationship would only progress to a certain level because we could not be "married." Maybe it would be a sad reality, but that's the way it is. And in the end it's the way it should be for society's sake.

Assume we cross the line in the sand, as Massachusetts has. Do we now allow a man and boy to be married? If it's all right for two men to be married, why have an arbitrary age limit? Age is only a number. Hey, it works in some Islamic societies, they marry boys and girls off before puberty in some cases.

I don't have the most logical argument against gay marriage; philosophically it does run against the grain of my libertarian streak. But there does have to be a set of rules of some sort, lest morality dissolve into anarchy. It's a concern when behavior becomes the basis for civil rights. This paper does a nice job of presenting the argument of gays comparing their civil rights struggle to blacks in the 1960's.

My final argument is this. Actually, it's not so much an argument as a question.

We all know what sort of chaos the area around New Orleans has descended into since the floods of Katrina. I read Michelle Malkin's blog as a quick news gauge - and the news is now rapes, robberies, shootings, and the like are rampant. Basically, it is truly the strong surviving there. Those that are armed are bullying those who are not, and there's no compunction about breaking into a store and looting the contents. Yes, it can be argued that some simply need the food and water in the store to survive. But nobody needs a TV or electronics when the power is out.

I seem to recall reading that about 40 years ago, New Orleans was in a somewhat similar situation. What I'd like to know, and it'll probably take someone who's an oldtimer familiar with the area to answer this, is whether there was the looting or lawlessness in that flood that there is today?

My theory is that this sort of mob rule did not happen, but with the decline in morals over the last couple generations, we have now seen in New Orleans what happens when people are totally free to do as they wish - when the guardrails are taken down, as it were. It's not a pretty sight.

So yes, I do believe in individual liberty, but I also believe that there is a moral code that needs to be followed to enhance this liberty.

Short post

2005-08-31T23:25:00.000-04:00

Just a few odds and ends tonight...

At work, we're well on our way (hopefully) to making a donation to the relief effort. My co-worker George gets the fastest finger award, he had an e-mail regarding this to us before 8:00 this morning. So I made a donation, and apparently Keith (the owner) is going to match what we put in. It's the least we can do.

Katrina's Wrath is a blog you should check out. The writer is Mike Bayham, whose columns are regularly on the www.gopusa.com page. He's from the New Orleans area, but fortunately he got out in time. Possibly less fortunate are in-laws of a friend of mine, who live in Biloxi. My friend's not heard from them since this came down.

Sadly, I think I'm going to be right on the thousands figure of killed that I came up with. Also sounds like the Big Easy has become the Big Mean Streets, as looting is rampant. Check out the video.

But people are already pitching in, there's a figure cited of over $45 million in private aid so far, and I'm still convinced we'll have $1 billion in this before it's all over. Not sure if this counts "in-kind" aid.

Well, I went back and actually signed up for the Fired Up! Maryland blog. Basically just want to tweak them a bit and ask the tough questions. They're in cackle mode because they think Gov. Ehrlich's going to be busted on his firing practices. But my simple question, and I really want to know this: what law did he break? Methinks this is a "seriousness of the charge" investigation. Maybe I'll drop an e-mail to Sen. Stoltzfus, who's on this investigating committee (one of 4 R's vs. 8 D's) and see if I get an answer. I doubt I'll get anything of use from the FU! Maryland folks. (Hey I like that acronym, it's perfect!)

Wonder how the bloggers relief effort will go tomorrow. I'm interested both in how they do moneywise and how much coverage the partisan media gives them.

Katrina relief efforts

2005-08-30T22:06:00.000-04:00

Unless you've been under a rock for the last couple days, you know that Hurricane Katrina simply laid waste to the Gulf Coast in an area from New Orleans on the west to Mobile, Alabama on the east. If not, this should tell the tale. I think when it's all told in weeks (not days) we're going to find out about hundreds, if not thousands, dead. (And how much do you want to bet that if the number is remotely close, someone will compare it to the number of dead in the War on Terror?)

I actually sent a resume to a company in Mobile when I was looking for a job, so I was interested in the storm. On top of that, one of the nicest couples I've met here was a traveling nurse and her househusband, natives of New Orleans. Hopefully her assignment kept her away from their home on this occasion.

Very sad, and the impact isn't through yet as heavy rains spread over the Ohio Valley up into the Great Lakes region...even tornadoes this evening across the bay in eastern Virginia. Delmarva is given a slight risk of that activity tomorrow as the remnants of Katrina pass to our north.

People are already stepping up, including favorite leftist whipping boy Wal-Mart, who's already announced a million dollar donation to the Salvation Army. They're also collecting at their stores for additional funds.

It's been suggested that Thursday be a blogger's relief day (thank Hugh Hewitt for the idea.) I think it's a good idea, and I'm sure the idea will spread. I'm getting out in front a little bit since I'm not always the best poster.

Two organizations I know will be down there helping out:

American Red Cross: www.redcross.org or 1-800-HELP-NOW
Salvation Army: www.salvationarmyusa.org or 1-800-SAL-ARMY

Plus like I said, Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores will be accepting donations, as I'm sure other entities will be too. Basically they'll put out the tsunami relief jugs with "Katrina" relief instead. It was noted that right now the best things to donate are money and time (if you can get there to help out through these organizations,) at the moment household goods and clothes are secondary in need.

Remember, the dollar you give to an efficient private charity is one less dollar an inefficient government needs to spend. And somehow I know America will dig deep in its pockets and come up with billions.

Bet you thought I forgot!

2005-08-29T12:12:00.000-04:00

Sorry about the long break between posts. Going to ballgames the last four nights (as Delmarva closed out its home regular season schedule) will play havoc with regular posting.

Was reading another blog tonight called Fired Up! Maryland. Seems to me all they are fired up about is how bad Governor Ehrlich supposedly is. Their latest rant is about how Ehrlich is supposedly putting politics into the electoral process. Seems the way it was always run when the Democrats were in the governor's chair suddenly isn't fair when the GOP has a crack at it.

Now, I'm no expert on this because, hey, I'm just a dumb Buckeye who moved to the so-called Free State, but the way I read it is that Ehrlich appointed a Democrat who supported his election to one of the Democrat seats. (Then the law was changed by the General Assembly so they could make the pick.) Well, given that Maryland is probably a 55-45 Democrat state and also given Ehrlich won the governor's race by getting a majority vote, it stands to reason that SOME Democrats liked him enough to vote for him. Hell, I've crossed party lines a few times in my life, why not 10-15% of the Maryland electorate?

Another rant is about Ehrlich spending his time on WBAL rather than with other media. Let me see, anything he says will get a negative spin from the Baltimore Sun...so go someplace where he can get his words out in an unvarnished way? Makes sense to me.

But, the lefties can write their blogs too I suppose. I just know mine's right.

Then I followed some of their links and came across this beauty. I really liked this line:

The Republicans will most likely not gain a majority in the General Assembly, but that is not their goal. If Ehrlich is reelected, the Republicans only need to gain enough seats in the Senate and the House to keep the Democrats from overriding Ehrlich's vetoes. If this is the case, we can kiss goodbye to all improvement in our state.

Let's see, improvement being legislatively targeting Wal-Mart, a successful business and major employer, for not spending a certain arbitrary percentage of revenue on health care? That would improve the business at the unemployment office when they cut jobs out, including hundreds in Somerset County.

Improvement like special rights for gays/lesbians? It's very simple - I don't care what you do in the bedroom, love whoever you want. But don't expect me to roll out the red carpet (or should it be lavender?) and pretend you're married. One man, one woman. It's worked for thousands of years.

Voting reform? First you whine because we don't have touch-screen voting. Then you whine because there's no "paper trail." Ever hear of counterfeiters? Who's to say that in some close statewide election, a "paper trail" is found in Baltimore City and it magically puts the Democrat over the top in a close race? Seems to me that happened in Seattle. Gee, a majority Democrat area and they "find" a "missing" box of votes.

Tell you what - I may grant a "paper trail" if you grant showing photo ID at the polling place with the ability to cross-check. Absentee ballots can be handled in a similar manner to registration, with photo ID. Paper trail has a unique identifier number that matches up with the number on the presented ID. Any duplicates or numbers linked to those ineligible to vote (felons) can be thrown out.

Right now it's the Democrats who are working on destroying a state, a nation-state called Iraq, by encouraging the terrorists (with some help from RINOs sucking up to the press. Yes, you, Senator Hagel.) I think Maryland can be prosperous for years to come by putting good conservative Republicans (and Zell Miller Democrats) in the General Assembly and the governor's chair.

I'm sort of an impartial observer in a way; not being from here, I'm not clued in on history. But it's obvious that after 30 years of Democrats in the governor's chair, they did something to piss off the voters. Seems to me the GOP is making positive steps to attract business and maintain a solid revenue stream, anti-business Democrats notwithstanding. The Eastern Shore is doing quite well.

All it would take is about a 10% shift in voting from the "blue" counties in Maryland and this state would be red. Same probably goes for New Castle County in Delaware...small shift to the right and suddenly Delaware's red as well.

If Reagan can win 49 states by being unabashedly conservative, it proves that America can be a conservative country now. It took 20 years for the country to go from a landslide victory for LBJ (and you wonder how many votes were for the Kennedy legacy in that race) to a conservative tide sweeping Reagan to re-election. Since that time, the D's have lost both the House and Senate, and their only president won with pluralities of the vote by running as a centrist.

Maybe Maryland is a little behind the curve statewide, but which party has the positive agenda for the state? And which party can only snipe at the sitting governor, get its way by only being negative, and blame all ills on an opposition President who they claim is illegitimate?

What are the Democrats for anyway? I can say without hesitation that they're not for the power of the individual.

I'm back from vacation. Now tell the GOP to end its vacation from its principles!

2005-08-21T15:17:00.000-04:00

And not a moment too soon...

First off, I had a pretty good time on my vacation, save for a number of idiot drivers out there. For some reason, Kentuckians top the list. Love it when a guy changes his mind literally at the last second on an exit ramp and cuts in front of me. Happened twice - once in Indianapolis and once in Lexington, both Kentucky drivers.

Anyway, I did make it to 4 ballgames in 4 cities (here in Salisbury Monday night; Chillicothe, Ohio Tuesday night; St. Louis on Wednesday night; and Cincinnati on Friday night) in 5 days and got to see my aunt's branch of the family for a couple days, so it was good. Home teams even sent the fans home happy in all three of my travel games. Plus got to meet a couple nice folks from the baseball boards I partake of in Cincinnati. All in all a nice trip, just need a better car next time.

And, a short standings report: while I was gone, the Tigers helped themselves out a bit by winning 3 of 4 over Boston and Toronto, so they're going into today's game at 59-62, still 15 1/2 out in the AL Central, but sneaking back to 8 1/2 out in the wild card.

Meanwhile, Toledo has cut its magic number for the IL playoffs to 7 and the IL West division title magic number to 10. Their 78-49 record gives them a 6 game bulge in the division over Indianapolis. Should they hold on, it will give them a date for a series with Norfolk, who's already won the IL South.

Delmarva has cut its magic number to clinch the second half in the SAL North to 13 over Lexington as they lead with a SAL-best 33-19 record. Their margin over the Legends is now 5 games. If Delmarva does win it, they'll get one home game against Hagerstown (first half winner) then have to travel cross-state to face the Suns in games 2 and 3 for the North Division crown.

Now, on to more weighty stuff. While I was gone, it seems that Ohio's Governor Taft has found a lot more trouble - trouble that could lead him to resign in disgrace, or at the very least, cripple him for the remaining 16 months of his term. And it looks right now that the golden goose that has enabled the GOP to win an unprecedented 4 consecutive terms in the governor's chair has laid its last egg. That egg may end up on the face of Ken Blackwell, which is unfortunate because I think he'd be an excellent governor for Ohio (and I thought so in 1998 as well, but the GOP brass didn't want a contested primary so they convinced Blackwell to run downticket.)

Taft pled guilty to 4 counts of ethics violations stemming from unreported golf outings and gifts. I think he should plead guilty to screwing up what was once a great state with reasonable taxation and a good business climate. By playing moderate, he's combined the worst facets of the Democrats (tax and spend) with the public perception that all politicians are crooks and slapped the Ohio GOP with both monikers. While they're not blameless, the state GOP is still going to pay bigtime for all these transgressions.

In 2006, I think the next governor of Ohio will be a black man. But it won't be the right black man for the job. I don't see Michael Coleman doing anything but trying to grow the government and kowtowing further to Ohio's union thugs. The scary thing is that there's a chance at least one of Ohio's legislative bodies goes Democrat, more likely the House. It only takes a flip of 11 seats to erase the Ohio GOP's 60-39 edge in the House, with all 99 seats up for grabs and some House members term-limited out. It's a lot less likely in the Ohio Senate, where the GOP has a 22-11 edge, but 8 of the 11 Democrats have to defend seats in 2006...so the D's would have to go 13-4 in 2006 to get control (keep their 8 seats and flip 5 of 9 Republican ones.)

This leads me to a gripe I've been having for awhile. It was echoed in this commentary by Jeff Crouere. Simply put, I'm getting tired of the party that stood for less government as recently as the Contract with America now simply going along to get along.

Whatever happened to eliminating the Department of Education? Now we've federalized education with "No Child Left Behind." While federal standards may be a good thing, whatever happened to state's rights? For contributing less than 10% of the education money in America, the feds sure have a lot of say! As far as I'm concerned, the more kids that are homeschooled, the better - it's where tomorrow's leaders are going to come from. The public schools are simply becoming madrasas in manner - teaching the secular religion of politically correct left-leaning bilge that's given the government stamp of approval as long as they meet some artificial standard of rote memorization. Kids need to learn how to think for themselves, but instead they're force-fed the latest NEA/AFT propaganda (like these AFT "hot topics".)

If we had the cajones we'd started with in 1995, federal support for the arts and public broadcasting would be eliminated, helping to let the market decide what's good art and good television. If the state of Maryland wants to sponsor public TV and "art" like "Piss Christ" then that's their proper perogative (although I'd still object to state funding as well.)

Reagan was blamed for massive deficits that happened during the 1980's even though federal revenues actually came close to doubling during his tenure. But Tip O'Neill would annually declare his budget "D.O.A." and throw on as much pork as he could. Reagan would get his military spending, but the guns came with a lot of butter and a ton of deficit. The opposite happened in the 1990's when Clinton's big-spending ways were tempered by the Gingrich Republican Congress, a body that made a big deal of deficit spending and worked to slow its growth. Meanwhile, unfettered growth in certain segments of the economy managed to increase federal revenues despite all the steps the Clintonistas took to screw it up by raising taxes. Once that bubble burst at the decade's turn, the deficits came again and the economic dip enhanced by 9/11 didn't help.

But now we have GOP control of both Houses and the Oval Office. Yet we can't turn a surplus, in fact, our last four budgets have been the nation's four largest. I'll grant Homeland Security has been a budget-buster, but no one has the guts to cut spending in nonessential areas (like public broadcasting and the arts!) And, if we dropped a copy of the highway bill on a Islamic jihadist, not only would it kill him, but he wouldn't see his 72 virgins because he was unclean - all the pork in the bill would ensure that!

Sometime this war on terror will end, stupid comments like this one by Senator Hagel notwithstanding. At that point, it's my hope that we've taken care of some of these monetary issues. There is a place for federal spending, but a lot of it we have now is so unnecessary, and no one seems to take a stand and scream, "Enough!" Or if they do, they're savaged by the partisan media as a "bomb-thrower", and, "women and minorities will be hardest hit."

I know I'd never win a political office because I'd have the meat-cleaver ready to cut spending. My opponent would simply tell the people the pork would keep coming under him and they could continue to suck at the government nipple. For now, the job is just to stem the tide as best we can and try to work on the next generation. The liberals know this too, which is why they spend so much time and resources trying to brainwash the next generation through the public schools and through the mass media.

Bush needs to be a leader in this fight to cut government, but unfortunately he's not always in the right camp. While he does create somewhat of a legacy for the GOP candidate in 2008 to follow, it's sometimes surprising that he's got as high of a job rating as he does with the beating he takes from the partisan media.

Lots of work needs to be done between now and...well, perpetually. As Benjamin Franklin noted, we have a republic, if we can keep it. The trick is keeping this a republic and not a democracy, which in history has always turned to tyranny.

Westward ho!

2005-08-16T00:11:00.000-04:00

One last post for the week until I get back here from the great Midwest.

Had a great night tonight at the ballgame (except for us losing.) Two things stick out as you'll see by the pix. The top picture is the ball I purchased to help out the Ripken Foundation. For $10 I had a chance to get a ball autographed by a member of the Shorebirds, by Billy Ripken (who was at the game signing), or Cal Ripken, Jr. There were 360 balls and I know Junior only signed a few. Just happened to pick right, then had Billy sign the ball as well.

What I didn't get signed was anything by Governor Ehrlich, who had some words for the crowd (bottom picture) then threw out the first pitch (along with Billy Ripken.) A very popular guy, he had a good ovation when he was introduced. Probably could have gotten an autograph from him if I wanted it since he walked up my aisle to get to his seat but chose not to. I wasn't really there to talk politics, I was there to enjoy the game!

I save the politics for this space, which means for the next few days that the only people who will be privy to my political leanings will be my relatives, who should be interesting since they lean the same as me, maybe even more libertarian.

But when I get back, I'll catch up on reading and be ready for the routine again.

Coming to Dawn's defense

2005-08-14T23:35:00.000-04:00

My research is causing trouble with left-wingers. Oh well.

But the Bloggers News Network (of which WriteWingNut is a part) seems to have a lot of readers of that persuasion - and they didn't like her allegations. So I had to defend her honor, even though we've not met:

I guess I stirred up a bit of trouble here. I'm the guy who did the research into Google ads in the first place, and Dawn was kind enough to help me with my theory.

I don't doubt Dawn's sincerity in believing it was a sign from above that Google contacted her and terminated her service.

Furthermore, it seems to me that many of the ads sponsored by Google may be of questionable taste to the blogger who spends time and effort in sharing a piece of their world with others. I know Google has a filter to shut out ads the blogger would not want but at times the header could be misleading or questionable - therefore it may have to be clicked to find out what it's all about.

In the interest of full disclosure, my blog only has one (non-paying) ad on it so all I know about Google ads is what I've gleaned from research. But this research did find that over 98% of the money donated by Google employees went to liberal and/or Democrat causes and candidates.

This, in turn, is fairly close to the proportion that the Beltway media voted for John Kerry vs. George W. Bush. And we see what kind of bias and worldview they have in coverage and story selection.

We all have our preferences and prejudices, press included. There's no way one can convince me that having a particular worldview doesn't cloud one's actions. Thus, a Bush hater in the press would have some incentive to paint things done by the Bush administration in a bad light, much like the few conservatives in the media did to a number of Bill Clinton's failings.

Carrying that further, would the employees of Google not have some sort of bias against a conservative blogger because they don't agree with them? Is it possible an offense like Dawn's would have slid just a wee bit more if she were a pro-choice blogger? Yes, there may be a computer that noted the self-clicking, but somebody in Google's sales department has to have the final say in such matters. Computers are useful tools but the end decision in the matter is certainly human.

I don't doubt that Google attempts to run their company in an ethical matter, but this is kind of a gray area where gut instinct and feelings do play a part. And if Google's employees choose to be diligent contributors to left-wing causes, we on the right can in turn decide to take our business elsewhere. That's what my original post encouraged as a reaction.

Now another subject. I was actually going to save this for next week when I came back since it's not particularly time-sensitive, but since I already have the post going, why not?

There's an article in the Daily Times today regarding business opportunities filled, it's great. Actually, it was something I could find useful in the future.

About a year or so ago, US Air (who is the sole carrier out of Salisbury's airport) decided to stop flying over to BWI Airport, deciding instead to fly daily flights to Philadelphia and Charlotte. Great if you have deep pockets and don't mind the stop and plane change.

But many people here opt to fly out of BWI on Southwest or other carriers to take advantage of the low fares. To fill this market, two separate shuttle services were born - one ground-based and one airline (flying out of Ocean City, great for the weekenders!)

Surprisingly, it's been found that some folks just like to simply save the hassle of driving up to Baltimore, opting instead to use the express shuttle service. It's a great idea - competition and entrepreneurship at its best. I applaud it! Hopefully it remains in business when I decide to head out west to the Left Coast someday, it certainly makes the idea of flying out of BWI more doable. I can already see it possibly saving me a two-day drive back and forth to Florida come the holidays (assuming my parents are settled in there.) So a definite thanks to them for sticking their neck out and I'm betting they succeed.

A quick hat tip

2005-08-14T02:07:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to put out a shout to Dawn at WriteWingBlog...she cited my research into Google that I did back in July. (Look in the archives for the post of mine in question, the post is called "For a few dollars more...") She was kind enough to help me in my research.

And an entertainment tip for those of you on the Eastern Shore...went to Delaware International Speedway tonight and enjoyed the racing. It's a good way to spend a Saturday night - if you don't mind loud (!) cars. Just bring a cushion for the bleachers. Makes me smile to think how the environmentalist wackos would absolutely hate the needless fuel consumption and the thousands of gallons of water "wasted" on the track (since it's a 1/2 mile clay oval, the watering keeps the dust down.) One of those things I'd always wanted to do, and it's done.

Last week was a good week for me in the Patriot, got a quote from the SEIU head in there and they also used my short article on Karl Rove's fundraiser here in Maryland. Maybe more this coming week; however, I may not find out until next weekend, because...

...after Monday night, I'm going on vacation for the rest of the week. Going out to Missouri to see family I haven't seen in about 3 years and haven't been to their homes since 1994. So I'm looking forward to the trip and catching the Cards at the soon-to-be-replaced Busch Stadium.

Thus, most likely a post Monday night and a week or so off. Then I'm making some exciting changes, I spoke to someone last week about doing this and it sounds doable. But it'll wait until after I come back.

Err America/Go home Cindy!

2005-08-11T22:42:00.000-04:00

Much like trying to decide whether I want pumpkin pie or apple pie, I'll just take a slice of both!

Lots of pixels lately about the Air America scandal (mostly from blogs like Radio Equalizer and Michelle Malkin's blog.) On the other hand, Cindy Sheehan's Crawford vigil has gotten a huge amount of ink and airtime from the partisan media. To carry the food analogy a little farther, the Air America troubles appear to the partisan media like that heartburn-inducing half-eaten container of chili that's sat in the fridge for two months and has now gotten fur, while Cindy Sheehan's protest is like freshly cooked filet mignon.

Wonder if the wheels of justice are going to turn on Al Franken's so-called employer. (Thought he was working for free.) I look at it this way - much like trying to steal elections, the libs are trying to steal listeners and revenue. As always, liberalism loses in a free exchange of ideas and in this case, they're losing in people who are willing to listen. (Of course, I can't even do that if I really wanted to, there's no AA affiliates nearby. Compare that list to, say, Rush Limbaugh's.)

Sleazy seems to be the word for Air America. And sleaze is what you get with the fawning coverage of Cindy Sheehan. Ok, the woman lost her son in the War on Terror. I'll grant that.

But let's look at a few hard facts here. Number one, Casey Sheehan volunteered for military duty and knew the risks.

Number two, there's about 1800 other parental units out there that feel the loss of their loved on on the battlefield. Last week, 14 Marines were killed from a unit from Brook Park, Ohio. Their loved ones feel pain, too.

Number three, President Bush has already spoken to her, as well as 900 other relatives of 272 troops who died in the War on Terror. She just didn't get the answers she thought she wanted, and her quest for another turn has been glommed upon by every wacko lefty group out there.

Remember, the partisan media only deigns to highlight those who are bitter and turn into doves once their son or daughter is tragically lost in Iraq, Afghanistan, or the fall of the Twin Towers (remember that?) Never mind the heroes who rarely see the ink they deserve. A creative spin was put on this by an August 7th New York Times editorial:

"...the military, the White House and the culture at large have not publicized (the War on Terror troops') actions with the zeal that was lavished on the heroes of World War I and World War II."

Hey, New York Times, maybe if you spend a minute or two less trashing Bush, glamourizing Hillary, and tying crooked lobbyists to Tom DeLay, then you could talk a bit about the schools and infrastructure we're building in Iraq. Instead, they're trying for Viet Nam redux. But just try and spit on a returning soldier in MY presence.

Cindy Sheehan, your time as a "useful idiot" to the kooky left is just about over. When Bush goes back to Washington, the moonbats will find another spokesperson to mouth their anti-America sentiment (they're working on Hollywood now with a bunch of antiwar movies in production.) So, please go home and try to get on with your post-Casey life.

Here we go again!

2005-08-10T22:27:00.000-04:00

And we continue to pick on America's most successful retailer. Today I read a CNSNews article about the NEA and AFT urging back-to-school shoppers not to patronize Wal-Mart. (The NEA's stand is here, and the AFT whines here.)

Interestingly enough, I saw a lot of people in Wal-Mart Sunday. And a good number of them were shopping for school supplies. And I'd love to see somebody "adopt" a local Wal-Mart and protest - they'd get a face full of me.

In local Wal-Mart news, the company is buying a small portion of the 200 acres they were slated to buy for their Somerset County distribution center. In a move to enhance development in the area, the land will be turned over to the Somerset County Sanitary District for building a new water tower and drilling new water wells. Currently, development in the Princess Anne area is on hold due to lack of a good water supply, so these new wells will allow a 90-home development to commence, for starters.

But there's no guarantee that the remainder of the 200 acres will be purchased as the decision has been put off until January - just in time to see if the Maryland General Assembly overrides Governor Ehrlich's veto of the Fair Share bill that targets Wal-Mart for insufficient employee health insurance coverage.

Speaking of private property, I noted in a post right after the Kelo decision that I had put my name on the Castle Coalition mailing list. Well, today in my mailbox there laid a copy of Liberty & Law, the newsletter of their parent organization, the Institute for Justice. Some interesting reading on school choice, freeing hair braiders from state cosmetology licensing, and other privacy rights topics. But I think the majority of it can be found on their website...my suggestion is to have an snail mail opt-out clause like I do for my credit statements. They can send me the magazine as an e-mail much more cheaply than sending me the paper copy that I'll read and most likely toss out. (No offense to them, I'm a recovering pack rat.)

At the end of the post, a standings report of sorts:

As of tonight, my Tigers are 53-60, a season low 7 games under the .500 mark. Their "tragic number" for division elimination is 29 and for playoff elimination is 39.

The Toledo Mud Hens are a bearer of much happier news, they're 71-46. The magic number for them to clinch a playoff spot is 21, and 20 to clinch their 2nd International League West Division title in 4 years.

Delmarva's hanging on to first in the South Atlantic League's North Division at 29-15. They have a magic number of 24 to win their first division half since 2002. They had a 5 1/2 game lead a week ago, now it's down to 3 games as they are on their final southern swing of the season (barring playoffs.) We're trying to set up an all-Maryland battle for the SAL North title as Hagerstown won the first half.

Stolen stuff

2005-08-08T23:31:00.000-04:00

Had to laugh about the civil rights march in Atlanta Saturday. The moonbats (I like that word, wonder who coined the term?) had some of their best out:

Judge Greg Mathis: "They (meaning Bush, et. al.) all need to be locked up because they are all criminals and they are all thieves." And you face a lot of those on your TV show. I'll give him props for actually having been a judge in Detroit, but I think this lefty culture thing and hanging out with Jesse and "San Fran Nan" Pelosi has really gotten to him.

Harry Belafonte, entertainer, called black conservatives "black tyrants." Obviously, racial preference stops when it's against the liberal orthodoxy.

My favorite, from Rep. Barbara Lee (also known as the only House member voting against fighting back after 9-11:) "The last two elections were stolen. They were stolen and so we will not rest until we reclaim our democracy and this is what today is all about."

And you know what? She's absolutely right!

Yes, the 2004 race for governor in the state of Washington (Rossi vs. Gregoire) was stolen by "found" votes after the fact in heavily Democrat King County.

And the 2000 Missouri Senate vote (Carnahan vs. Ashcroft) was stolen when polls in St. Louis were ordered held open for extra time in that heavily Democrat city. Thus, a dead man won a Senate seat (Carnahan and his son were among those killed in an October plane crash.)

So, those last two elections were stolen. Now I think she's incorrectly referring to Bush vs. Gore (no Florida recount, even those press-sponsored, went for Gore; and the Constitution provides that electors, not voters, elect the President) and Bush vs. Kerry (because of rigged exit polling.)

But we know how those turned out. And no word from her about New Jersey illegally substituting Frank Lautenberg for Bob Torricelli when the scandal-ridden Torricelli was tanking in the polls. Guess that was ok since it was after the primary election.

Anyway, nothing like a civil rights meeting for having a pot call the kettle black. Bet none of those elected officials there have ever gotten under 70% of the vote in the districts they call home, and it's all because of "us vs. them" rhetoric like this rather than a tangible result of doing positive things for their respective districts.

More random thoughts on my part

2005-08-07T23:25:00.000-04:00

Thomas Sowell occasionally starts a column with the phrase, "Random thoughts on the passing scene." One I particularly liked the other day: "As a result of "evolving standards" and "nuanced" judicial decisions, we no longer have clear-cut rights. We have a ticket to a crapshoot in a courtroom. That ticket is worth a lot more to those with slick lawyers than to ordinary citizens."

Some of mine for tonight, since I caught up on my gopusa.com news roundups:

Here's a shocker headline - Report: More Democrat than Republican Operatives Involved in Voter Fraud. This story details electoral fraud in a number of states and cited the five worst cities: Philadelphia, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Seattle, and Cleveland.

Just from my memory, Philadelphia had some irregularities in its last mayoral election based on an FBI investigation of the incumbent mayor John Street (some claimed it was a smear by the Bush administration,) Milwaukee was the home of the Democrat operatives that slashed the tires on GOP-hired vans Election Day eve, St. Louis (polls held open for extra time in 2000, perhaps costing John Ashcroft a Senate seat and placing in his place a dead guy,) Seattle was the epicenter of the Rossi v. Gregoire "found votes" snafu, and Cleveland is in Ohio. Enough said.

Notice all of these counties are "blue"? If they can't steal it at the ballot box, they get judges who will let them I guess.

Speaking of blue voting, there was a statement by Robert Novak where he claimed the GOP is in trouble, shown by the close vote in Ohio's 2nd Congressional District. Novak's clain was that the struggles we're having in the War on Terror will come back to hurt the GOP in 2006. My beef with that opinion is twofold. Number one, Novak is known to be against our Iraqi involvement, whereas I'm a supporter of the mission; and secondly, the Ohio GOP is in a world of hurt right now because of the Coingate scandal and the horrid approval numbers of the three main Republicans: Gov. Bob Taft and Sens. Mike DeWine and George Voinovich.

The problem in Ohio, then, has nothing to do with the War on Terror, but more to do with the moderate state government. They have no problem with giving us back money when there's a surplus (a good idea) but the problem is that they don't know how not to spend money. So, when the economy got tough, they had to raise taxes to cover the spending they thought was affordable a couple years before. They even raised the sales tax for a couple years - surprisingly it wasn't made permanent, like my old hometown Toledo's "temporary" 3/4% income tax that has been in effect since 1982.

There's a full blog post someplace in my brain regarding how the GOP has lost its way on fiscal conservatism, so I'd rather do that as a full post and not go into it now.

Well, we don't have to worry about Chinese controlling one of our oil companies, the CNOOC bid to take over Unocal was rejected. There's a free-trader argument that can be made that objections to the takeover based on national security were outweighed by the true capitalism of highest bidder wins, but I'm not into letting a company unencumbered by competition at home and propped up by a totalitarian government have a piece of our free industrial society.

Finally, this article last Wednesday regarding our border security. I can't say I'm surprised, heaven knows I disagree with President Bush on his handling of the borders. But I'm more disappointed that this was withheld as secret. I suppose the excuse would be that it would be used in the election against Bush, but Kerry was already the master of the flip-flop. I'm doubtful Kerry's border solution would have been any better.

It does beg the question whether the border problem will hurt the GOP in 2006. While I can still argue for now that there's a big difference between the parties, it's unfortunate that the powers-that-be in the GOP sometimes seem to want to drift the party leftward when the mood of the electorate is moving right. It's almost like that once they got power in D.C. (or Columbus) they saw that providing goodies was the key to staying in power, rather than following the principles that enticed voters to put them there in the first place.

So the electorate becomes more frustrated and loses interest in voting. This gives the extremists a disproportionate hold on power, and there's more extremists who want government to have a bigger role (after all, they know voting for larger government keeps their bread buttered) than there are extremists who want government to be checked back to the Founders' intent.

Hopefully we will learn from the history that shows that governments tend to become more totalitarian as they go on.

Feeling lonely

2005-07-31T23:37:00.000-04:00

I feel pretty lonely tonight. If you look to the right on the blog, I attached the little blog map from feedmap.net. Cute idea. But apparently I'm the ONLY blogger here?

Actually, I know that there's another one around that I read regularly called Duvafiles. It's kind of the flip side to our paper, the Daily Times. But I suppose he doesn't want to map his out. I just figured it shows the bonafides, yes I do live on the Eastern Shore. (The Crossroads of Delmarva.)

Did start looking into a couple changes for the site, hopefully the Feedmap will carry over when I do make them.

I have a quick take on something I read on the Daily Times website. Actually it goes with a companion article as well. I have no problems with people coming to this country to work if it's done in a legal fashion.

Apparently, immigrants are victims of crime out of proportion to their numbers. And I can vouch for them carrying a lot of cash - many's the time I'm behind them in line at Wal-Mart and they'll roll out a large wad of bills to pay. And they shop in groups, so there's generally a large order in front of me.

Guess the problem is that the police will neither crack down on the criminals who steal from these folks or the fact that the victims may also be here illegally. We need a little of both. If someone wants to come here and work, let them do it the right way. Might make employment a little tight around here for a short time, but a free market will make the necessary corrections.

Caveat emptor

2005-07-30T22:33:00.000-04:00

Being a person who owned a home and owns a few credit cards, I get a bunch of junk mail on a weekly basis. Most of it gets shredded. But I kept a piece of one out to serve as a reminder for this post. Warning: my memory will have to serve on some of the details. That's not always a reliable source.

A few days ago, I got a credit card solicitation from an outfit called "Upfront Rewards." In this case, the reward was a Dell desktop computer. Not top of the line, but upgrades were available for an additional price. When I get all these offers, I like to look at the fine print. Here's how this particular offer works.

Let's say you want this computer as a reward. What you have to do is transfer a balance of at least $3,500 to their credit card account. That seems like a reasonable request. But here's where it gets interesting. In the next year, you cannot let the balance on your account fall below a certain threshold (which I seem to recall was $2,500.) Otherwise, they will place a $600 charge on your account!

So you get the computer, but this bank will either stick it to you on interest or stick you with a fee - either of which is sufficient to pay for the "free" computer. I think through Dell a comparable computer would run you about $500. Obviously this bank gets a volume discount, so their price is likely closer to $350. Seem to recall the lowest interest rate (it was variable based on creditworthiness) was 13.9%. So 13.9% of $2,500 = $347.50.

Ain't that just a ripoff? Ok, it's an innovative way to make a profit. This bank has got to be laughing all the way to the...oh, you know.

Needless to say, my 4 month old Dell (actually similar to the one they're "giving away") isn't going to be replaced. I actually got mad reading that, thus the germ of a blog post was born and I put it in my back pocket for future use (I'm sure there's still people getting that mailing.)

I find junk mail rather funny. Most of them still think I own my own home, but that was the last state. I get credit card solicitations and I laugh at either a) the annual fee they want me to pay or b) the interest rate they want to charge me. Or both.

Guess everyone wants to make money. I know I do, although I'd be happy with enough to retire on before I become a drooling idiot. (I'm sure some readers swear I'm already there.) But the key to me has always been to try and live within your means.

Wish the feds would figure that out! Then I could have an easier time keeping MY money.

Late edits and updates: In last Sunday's post, "Vive le Lance", I talked about the smoking hulk the baseball card industry has become. Well, last night at the Toledo-Norfolk game, my seat was front row, just past the Toledo dugout. When I went to my seat, there were no fewer than four men waiting with multiple cards to sign. At least they don't send the kids out anymore. As soon as they players retreated to their dugouts, *poof* they were gone. But I got some good pics, and there were a few kids, like this:

The signer is Mud Hen pitcher Rob Henkel. Somehow I don't think the kids will sell their gloves on E-Bay.

In "Growing into a RINO" from July 21, I noted that I thought the abortive London bombings, part 2, were possibly the work of copycats. Hey, how was I to know that al-Qaeda can mess up too? (Of course, shoe bomber Richard Reid was a Brit too.) But I am glad that it appears they are catching the scum that made this attempt at mayhem. Ship them to Club Gitmo!

Fallout

2005-07-29T10:55:00.000-04:00

Doing some cleanup this morning...finish the week strong. Took the day off work today and I'm going down to Norfolk tonight to see my Mud Hens there (hope the weather holds!)

First of all, I've gotten good comments on my last post so far (from those who've said stuff.) Made them think, that's the idea. This one may not have quite the same effect, but I'm likely taking the weekend off. Supposed to be a rainy weekend here and I do have to catch up on some reading (not to mention mundane stuff like cleaning my place.)

One thing I follow fairly closely is the union movement. My dad was a Teamster for almost 40 years and his comment (or parting shot, if you will) was that "unions are for the lazy man." To an extent it's true. I negotiate my own wage or at least accept a job where I think the pay and benefits are fair, rather than let someone else dictate my wage.

So the split of the AFL-CIO piqued my interest. I'm a bit confused though. On the Change to Win Coalition website they list 7 member unions, but so far I've only seen confirmation of a couple (Teamsters and SEIU) dropping out of the AFL-CIO. All in good time, I guess. I don't see the United Food and Commercial Workers in there yet, but they've threatened to join. They're my favorites, since I saw their propaganda for several years when my first ex worked at a grocery store.

A few days ago I commented on a fundraiser by Karl Rove for Lt. Gov. Michael Steele's possible Senate campaign. (He needs a campaign website!) Here's a story from the Baltimore Sun. I did see that the number of protestors changed from 40 to 30. Maybe the National Park Service did the count.

I did notice the Sun reporter spent a few words describing Rove's car, "a blue-gray Jaguar," and noting Steele arrived in a state vehicle. A state vehicle? Fodder for later controversy? For Rove's car - code message for "someone please run Rove off the road, he's killing us"? Naaaah. Wouldn't do them much good anyway, I'm sure the number of blue-gray Jaguars per capita is pretty high in D.C.

Finally, nice to see some ink on the Captain's Cove project on Virginia's Eastern Shore, a little history included. Actually, I do have a vested interest in that one, as my employer worked on the clubhouse project, including a few details by yours truly. It should be a cool thing for the area once they finish.

Speaking of Virginia, a drive south awaits, so enough for now.

For a few dollars more...

2005-07-28T22:57:00.000-04:00

After a lot of research and sitting at my computer for hours, this is the post I promised. Actually, I enjoyed looking into this and I think my point will be proven correct.

But first, I have quite a few people to thank. Part of my research was contacting over 40 blogs affiliated with mine via GOPBloggers.org. I ended up getting responses from almost half, and it provided me a good sample to work from as well as some quotable tidbits.

For those of you who didn’t get contacted by me and are reading this, I looked into blog advertising, in particular the "Ads by Goooogle" that reside on a lot of blogsites. What I did was track down affiliated bloggers that use this advertising tool and ask them three simple questions, as follows:

1. On a monthly basis, do you earn any revenue form Google ads?
2. How long have you carried these ads?
3. Are you aware that some of these advertisements may be for products you may not endorse or agree with?

I learned a lot about this portion of the blogging business from the replies I received. I’ll admit, I was pretty ignorant about how the blogging business worked (as far as a business. I know how to write.) I had idle thoughts that someday this could be a minor income producer but making money sounds like tough sledding. Luckily, it’s also fun for me because I just plain like getting my point of view out and the papers here won’t print my letters to the editor daily!

So some of the reason for questions #1 and #2 was curiosity, but also I needed some kind of baseline to start from and see if my assumptions were correct. I suspected people weren’t making a ton off their blog ads, but I was surprised it was so little.

Question #3 occurred to me as I was going through a lot of the blogs and seeing a plethora of anti-Bush items for sale. It occurred to me that, like happens when you use Google the search engine, the keywords in the blog trigger what items are advertised. This was borne out in a response sent to me by Barry at Palmetto Pundit:

"A good example (of triggering keywords) is that around the middle of June I had one post that dealt with a faulty washing machine. I was trying to write something funny...They posted washing machine service and parts ads for about two weeks afterward. It was completely absurd. I had been posting about politics for 3 months prior and one post about washing machines caused them to think I had a washing machine blog. Go figure!"

So what did I find out? That if we took all the money that was being made from Google ads in a month from my subjects, maybe after a year we can buy one share of Google. Or, in the words of J.E. Park at the JEP Report, "I would expect that crack addiction would probably be more profitable." Most of my subjects haven’t made the threshold for getting a check from Google, even if they’ve carried the ads for awhile (the average time was 6-12 months as participants.)

The other question, number 3, was more varied in its response. Some people took the view that having liberal ads wasn’t such a bad thing. As Timmer White of Righting America wrote: "...I try to maintain a venue that attracts political discourse from all sides (so) I don’t mind that some ads are not in keeping with my own conservatism...(I)t fits my blogging philosophy to include them, as I have also included links to some other blogs that I definitely do not agree with."

On the other hand, Dawn at WriteWingBlog commented, "I am aware that some of the ads (in her instance, pro-abortion) I may not endorse or agree with...I always immediately go into my account and put those ads I dislike into the filter."

As I said, I had a lot of responses, and in truth, it was pretty much as I figured. But the reason I titled this post, "For A Few Dollars More..." was because the pittance we receive is nothing compared to what Google makes. Anyone familiar with their $290 a share (after being under $100 in its IPO) stock price knows this. (On $3.40 earnings per share, that’s one hell of a P/E ratio! Waiting for that bubble to burst.) And bless their heart, they’re exploiting capitalism in all its glory, by having a product that they can sell.

So what do Google employees do with their newly created wealth? This is where the other part of my research comes in. Opensecrets.org (aka The Center for Responsive Politics) is one wonderful website. I’ll try not to make your eyes glaze over with numbers, but here goes:
There are 207 records of people listing their employer as "Google". Of these 207, a total of $296,694 was given. Here are some of the top recipients:

1. DNC Services $106,625
2. Sen. John Kerry (D- MA) $41,000
2. DCCC (House Democrats) $41,000
4. Various state/local Democrat parties $23,750
5. Various state/local Democrat candidates $14,150
6. Moveon.org $13,665
7. Various PAC’s $8,929
8. Americans Coming Together (PAC) $8,050
9. Emily’s List (PAC) $6,525
10. Rep. Anna Eshoo (D - CA 14) $6,000
11. Act Blue (PAC) $5,000
12. Citizen Soldier Fund (PAC) $5,000
13. Howard Dean $4,200
14. Rep. Edward J. Markey (D - MA 7) $4,000
15. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D- WA) $3,100

Green Party and independents got $450 as well.

Let me point out there were three brave souls at Google who donated to President Bush, for a total of $3,250, plus one donation (by a member of this trio) for $2,000 to Rep. Dennis Hastert. But a staggering 98.2% of donations went to Democrats - that’s approaching the AFSCME union’s partisan territory.

While I am aware that Google plays host to some of these fine blogsites and has services that they use (for example, many of my blogger subjects have Gmail addresses), I wonder if we as conservatives really want to play in what is likely unfriendly territory. I even looked up Yahoo! as a donator, and their small corporate donations were strictly divided 50/50 between Republicans and Democrats. Another heavy advertiser, Amazon.com, had no recorded corporate donations.

Personally, I rarely use Google as a search engine, I prefer Yahoo’s partially because I already have a Yahoo Messenger account I use at times and their toolbar is on my screen. But in the back of my mind I was aware that their founder was quite the donor to liberal causes (borne out by the research.) It’s the same reason I would never insure myself through Progressive Insurance, since Peter Lewis is a huge liberal 527 donor.

Obviously, sometimes one has to make a deal with the devil, and in this case some of my fellow bloggers do. While Google allows you to filter out ads you don’t like, you can’t filter where their individual employees send their money; nor should we, it’s still a free country despite their best efforts.

As conservatives and bloggers who are at the forefront of this "new media" - or ones who just want to make their opinion heard, like me - isn’t it time we put our collective heads together and figure out a way to both make our blogs more profitable and support those who support our beliefs? In the near future, I’ll be looking for a website host (yes, I’m making the leap off Blogspot sometime soon), and I can guarantee you that despite their services, it won’t be hosted by Google. Not to be a shill for the company, but Amazon.com’s Associate program has some interest to me as a revenue supplier because I can select the items I advertise. It may be a further outlet for those so inclined to have money makers for their blog. As noted by Matt Lewis (Matt Lewis and the News) in his response, "A lot of people don’t like ads. Ironically, I put them up because it made my site (which is new) look more full and professional."

I know having a professional feel is one of my goals in blogging. Part of achieving that aim is maintaining a blog that is relatively serious and well-researched (but with its share of fun.)

As my tagline says, "I’m just a guy trying to push this country in the ‘right’ direction." To me, using Ads by Google pulls us the wrong way.

Postscript: there were some bloggers out there who also allowed me to quote them but they just didn’t happen to fit into today's post. So here’s the hat tips to Darnell at Hidden Nook, Adam at Government Cheese, Brian at Radio Equalizer, J. at Americans for Freedom, Aaron at Pardon My English, and the person at Slant Point whose name I didn’t get. Fine folks all!

Vive le Lance

2005-07-24T22:58:00.000-04:00

Lance Armstrong makes it seven straight. Great job! And the best part is that now the Tour de France can go back to its rightful place in obscurity.

I won't argue that Lance Armstrong isn't a superb athlete and a role model as a cancer survivor. And he has decided to retire on top, which should be an example for pro athletes (are you listening, Jerry Rice?)

But really, it's a bike race. Talk about not spectator-friendly. You see them go by and that's it for the most part. At least with NASCAR, yeah, they go fast, but they go by 100 to 200 times.

Doing some reading while I was looking for a link to Lance, and found this article on the woeful state of the baseball card industry. It's not surprising to me, that "industry" saw its day 15 years ago. I know I sold my cards about 2 or 3 years too late and the value tanked in the interim. Anymore you can find all the baseball stats you'd ever want on the Internet.

But I recall the first packs of baseball cards I ever bought, back in 1973 (think the top cards in the packs were Phillies pitcher Dick Selma and White Sox pitcher Jim Geddes.) I want to say they were 15 cents for 12, not $3 for 6 like they are now. That's what killed the industry.

I used to buy the sets in the late 1980's and take those cards of players who were in the IL to Mud Hen games to get the cards signed. But I got tired of kids getting 2 and 3 cards of each player signed so they could give them to dad for him to sell. Now I just go to the Shorebirds games with my digital camera and take my own action shots.

And, as for my topic of last night, I continue to get responses and I appreciate the insight. The information is really helpful and I think it's going to prove my point. Think I'll sit down Thursday night and write the blog post in question.

Also thinking about some changes to the blog, but that's more medium-term. Things will remain as they are at least until my vacation in August.

Researchees please note!

2005-07-23T23:12:00.000-04:00

If I were you I'd be checking out my site too.

A couple things I didn't post in my short note. One is that I apologize for making it sound like a form letter - but I wrote to 46 bloggers and I'm not writing each note individually. I do like sleeping occasionally! Hopefully most will be cooperative in answering my questions. Unless you specifically give me permission, you're all anonymous.

Secondly, I did actually read some of the blogs as I was there but couldn't peruse them all. One thing I'll have to do on my site is sign up for Blogroll. I've been doing links the old-fashioned way, but with hundreds of good blogs out there, we have one heckuva conservative community going!

So if you are new and checking me out because you heard from me, welcome aboard!

I do have an item of import tonight. As always on Saturdays, I got my e-mail update from the Maryland GOP. Now, since I've only been here a short time, I'm not familiar with the Glendening administration, but the claim in this e-mail was that Governor Ehrlich turned a $4 billion shortfall when he took office to a $1 billion surplus. Me, I think a lot of it had to do with a great economy in general. Hard to push through a lot of spending cuts with Dems controlling the General Assembly. But we'll take the surplus. In fact - $1 billion divided by 5 million is $200 a person. I've been here 9 months, I'll just take $150.

This also from the GOP e-mail:

The Maryland Business Climate Survey, prepared quarterly by the University’s Jacob France Institute, reported that 65 percent of the 250 Maryland businesses surveyed view the State as business-friendly, compared to 53 percent of businesses surveyed in the first quarter of 2005. “The Ehrlich Administration has made it a top priority to improve Maryland’s business climate. This survey is further validation that we are accomplishing our mission of listening to businesses and giving them the tools and resources they need to grow and succeed,” said Secretary Aris Melissaratos. “Maryland has tremendous strengths – our world-class workforce, our diverse knowledge economy and our low unemployment – and we will continue to build on those and other strengths to make Maryland the most business friendly state to locate a business.” In spite of anti-business, anti-job creation measures proposed by liberal Democrats (read: the Fair Share Health Care Act), the Ehrlich/Steele Administration continues to give the business community confidence in the state.

In all seriousness, the reason I'm in Maryland is because it's ran a whole lot better than Ohio is right now (at least the Eastern Shore is.) Imagine what it would be like if the GOP controlled the General Assembly too. The Eastern Shore would be Florida north.

Oh, as far as the "enemy" (that being the Maryland Democrats,) they're just so happy that they've raised over $700,000 in the first six months of 2005. They better lock and load up, because the national GOP's going to be gunning for the Sarbanes seat. I'm ready to kick ass and take names.

"Growing" into a RINO

2005-07-21T23:25:00.000-04:00

Saw an interesting article in the Daily Times today regarding Congressman Gilchrest's growth. No, nothing medical, but I'm sure in the liberal punditry opinion, he's "grown" because he's become a "maverick" against his party by supporting the joint resolution (H. J. Res. 55) for pulling our troops out of Iraq on a date certain. Now he's in with the likes of Rep. Dennis Kucinich (he of the "Department of Peace") and Rep. Barbara Lee of California (lone vote against defending ourselves after 9-11 - more on her here.)

While he's been re-elected pretty easily here, I haven't seen much to recommend Gilchrest to the rank-and-file GOP member on the Eastern Shore. This announcement comes right after his support for repealing "don't ask, don't tell" in the military. Two controversies in two months, not good for a guy from what probably isn't the safest GOP district.

Also noticed that the big Crisfield Crab and Clam Bake drew politicians like flies, with two large omissions: Governor Ehrlich and Lt. Governor Steele. I hope that this is just because it's an off-year and they don't want to burn their people out arranging a trip.

One thing I find interesting about some events down here: they do a lot of these events on weekday afternoons. Logically, if Crisfield wanted to draw a crowd, to me this would be a Saturday event. But, if you want it to not be as "touristy" I suppose a Wednesday makes sense. Guess it's my background being from an area not as tourist-dependent (good or bad.)

Now, to toss my two cents in about John Roberts (the judge, not the CBS News anchor.) He sounds like a good choice - must be because the Dems are already trying to fry him. The pollitorial is already out - Americans "say" he should answer on whether he'd overturn Roe v. Wade. (Ok, the poll question was "state his position on abortion", but we know that code word.) This will be fun, because the same poll had a plurality of 36% strongly agreeing the Senate should confirm him, basically sight unseen.

And yet another attempted bombing in London. No major injuries, but a shaken city gets more nervous. Wouldn't be surprised if this were a copycat myself, but one has to wonder about how much Londoners can take. It's going to have an impact on tourism if these bus bombings continue. Not that I'll be doing it in the near future, but London always seemed like it would be a cool city to visit for me...I'm sure millions of Americans feel the same. But why take a chance?

I needed a good laugh, here it is

2005-07-14T22:46:00.000-04:00

Out trolling the Web tonight, and checked in on what the "enemy" (the Maryland Democrats) was up to. I liked this letter regarding suspending Karl Rove's security clearance, particularly the part about, "The American people must not tolerate anyone who plays politics with vital national security secrets." Have you heard of a guy named Sandy Berger, aka "Sandy Burglar"?

This case has had three stages:

1. "Karl Rove should be sent to jail". But he's done nothing illegal.

2. "Ok, Karl Rove should be fired." On what cause? The grand jury has not indicted him on anything.

3. "Well, then, get rid of his security clearance!" If anyone should lose a security clearance, it would be Joe Wilson.

I'm waiting on stage 4. "Well, Karl Rove deserves a stern lecture. And don't you dare send him to fundraise for Michael Steele." All right, the Stage 4 has already started.

Wonder how much extra they'll raise now? Thanks for the publicity guys, if you hadn't said anything about it, I would have never known. Not that I'll go, it's probably far too rich for my blood, but it's good to see Steele getting an early start on the millions needed to win the 2006 Senate race.

Honestly, the Democrats are making the leftmost 5% of the country ecstatic with all this, but I see them losing the middle 50% where elections are won. That demographic just sees Bush doing what he's said he would (on the rare occasions he gets help from Congress) and slowly drifts rightward. But that's ok, the farther right the "center" goes, the easier it is to make some of the drastic changes necessary to restore freedom to America.

Standings report, part 2

2005-07-13T23:21:00.000-04:00

I know, it ain't politics. But like I said before, baseball is my other passion.

In the second half South Atlantic League North Division standings, Delmarva is in the lead with a 13-6 record, up by 1 1/2 games over Hickory. Their 8 game overall and home winning streaks came to an end tonight when they lost a 1-0 pitchers duel to Lexington. It was a good game, met some nice folks. Just couldn't put together hits...still we've given up just one run in the series - although having Eric Bedard down from the Orioles on a rehab start really helped.

In the International League's West division, my old hometown Toledo Mud Hens are tearing it up with the best record in the IL. At their All-Star break, Toledo is 57-32 and leads the West by 4 1/2 over Indianapolis. They have the best record by the same margin, because Indianapolis would be leading either of the other divisions. Hopefully they avoid the August meltdown (5-24) that killed their 2004 playoff hopes.

And my All-Star host Detroit Tigers are 42-44 at the break, 15 back of Chicago in 4th place in the AL Central. But a 5-3 roadtrip before the break helped. They were one bad Troy Percival pitch from 6-2 on the trip and a .500 mark.

I did an analysis on the Detroit Tigers forum of AL schedules for the second half...who's easiest and who's got the toughest. Here's what I wrote.

This is an analysis of remaining schedules for the AL teams - who has an easy path to the playoffs and who’s really going to have to work. Teams are listed in standings order, as of Sunday night. That’s the order I list opponents as well.

A plus number (like +100) indicates aggregate games better than even .500, a minus indicates games under .500. Schedule rank is 1st place hardest, 14th place easiest.)

1. Chicago (57-29), 1st in AL Central by 9 over Minnesota.

Remaining games: 76 (40 away, 36 home.)
Opponents: Los Angeles 3, Boston 7, Minnesota 13, Baltimore 4, New York 6, Texas 4, Cleveland 10, Toronto 3, Detroit 11, Seattle 6, Kansas City 9.
Finished with: Oakland, Tampa Bay.

Strength of schedule, all opponents: +84 (8th)
September opponents: -24 (10th)
Final two weeks (Cle, Min, at Det, at Cle): +68 (5th)

Critical stretch: The White Sox finish with 13 games on the road with all other ALC opponents sandwiched around 7 home games with closest pursuers Cleveland and Minnesota.

2. Los Angeles (52-36), 1st in AL West by 5 over Texas.

Remaining games: 74 (38 away, 36 home.)
Opponents: Chicago 3, Boston 7, Minnesota 4, Baltimore 6, New York 7, Texas 6, Oakland 13, Toronto 6, Detroit 4, Seattle 9, Tampa Bay 9.
Finished with: Cleveland, Kansas City.

Strength of schedule, all opponents: -52 (11th)
September opponents: -4 (8th)
Final two weeks (Tex, TB, at Oak, at Tex): -59 (13th)

Critical stretch: September roadtrip to Boston, Chicago, and Seattle can win them the West with a successful run and give them a look at two possible postseason opponents.

3. Boston (49-38), 1st in AL East by 2 over Baltimore.

Remaining games: 75 (32 away, 43 home.)
Opponents: Chicago 7, Los Angeles 7, Minnesota 6, Baltimore 6, New York 10, Texas 3, Oakland 4, Toronto 7, Detroit 6, Kansas City 6, Tampa Bay 13.
Finished with: Cleveland, Seattle.

Strength of schedule, all opponents: -111 (12th)
September opponents: +31 (7th)
Final two weeks (at TB, at Bal, Tor, NY): -60 (14th)

Critical stretch: They can bury the rest of the East with a successful long August/September homestand featuring Detroit, Tampa Bay, Baltimore, and Los Angeles.

4. Minnesota (48-38), 2nd in AL Central by 2 over Cleveland, leads wild card by 1 ½ over Baltimore.

Remaining games: 76 (39 away, 37 home.)
Opponents: Chicago 13, Los Angeles 4, Boston 6, Baltimore 3, New York 3, Texas 6, Cleveland 6, Oakland 10, Detroit 11, Seattle 7, Kansas City 7.
Finished with: Toronto, Tampa Bay.

Strength of schedule, all opponents: +341 (3rd)
September opponents: +133 (6th)
Final two weeks (at Oak, at Chi, KC, Det): +1 (9th)

Critical stretch: If they are to challenge Chicago, they need to do well on a late July roadtrip to Detroit, New York, and Boston. Detroit’s series is a 5 game series due to an early snowout.

5. Baltimore (47-40), 2nd in AL East by ½ over New York.

Remaining games: 75 (41 away, 34 home.)
Opponents: Chicago 4, Los Angeles 6, Boston 6, Minnesota 3, New York 8, Texas 10, Cleveland 3, Oakland 7, Toronto 9, Seattle 7, Tampa Bay 12.
Finished with: Detroit, Kansas City.

Strength of schedule, all opponents: -22 (10th)
September opponents: -93 (13th)
Final two weeks (at NY, Bos, NY, at TB): -18 (10th)

Critical stretch: The Orioles have been in a freefall since June. They must do well on a post-All Star game cross-country trip to Seattle, Minnesota, and Tampa Bay. They have three other west coast trips in this half (LA/Tex, Oak/Cle, Sea/Tex). Less than .500 on these and Baltimore’s hopes are about done.

6. New York (46-40), 3rd in AL East by 3 over Toronto.

Remaining games: 76 (43 away, 33 home.)
Opponents: Chicago 6, Los Angeles 7, Boston 10, Minnesota 3, Baltimore 8, Texas 7, Cleveland 3, Oakland 3, Toronto 13, Seattle 4, Kansas City 3, Tampa Bay 9.
Finished with: Detroit.

Strength of schedule, all opponents: +125 (7th)
September opponents: -73 (12th)
Final two weeks (Bal, Tor, at Bal, at Bos): +89 (2nd)

Critical stretch: The Yankees play their last 26 games within their division. They also have a big trip west (to Texas and LA) after the Boston series at Fenway coming out of the All-Star break.

7. Texas (46-40), 2nd in AL West by 2 ½ over Oakland.

Remaining games: 76 (40 away, 36 home.)
Opponents: Chicago 4, Los Angeles 6, Boston 3, Minnesota 6, Baltimore 10, New York 7, Cleveland 3, Oakland 14, Toronto 3, Seattle 10, Kansas City 4, Tampa Bay 6.
Finished with: Detroit.

Strength of schedule, all opponents: +49 (9th)
September opponents: -18 (9th)
Final two weeks (at LA, at Oak, at Sea, LA): +72 (4th)

Critical stretch: Two - roadtrip in August to Boston, New York, Cleveland, and Tampa Bay; and the final roadtrip facing their other 3 AL West opponents. The August roadtrip is against several wild card competitors.

8. Cleveland (47-41), 3rd in AL Central by 4 over Detroit.

Remaining games: 74 (33 away, 41 home.)
Opponents: Chicago 10, Minnesota 6, Baltimore 3, New York 3, Texas 3, Oakland 6, Toronto 3, Detroit 9, Seattle 7, Kansas City 14, Tampa Bay 10.
Finished with: Los Angeles, Boston.

Strength of schedule, all opponents: -386 (14th)
September opponents: -63 (11th)
Final two weeks (at Chi, at KC, TB, Chi): -39 (11th)

Critical stretch: With 43 games remaining (of the 74) against the 5 teams with records .500 or below, the only critical thing is avoiding injuries.

9. Oakland (44-43), 3rd in AL West by 5 over Seattle.

Remaining games: 75 (37 away, 38 home.)
Opponents: Los Angeles 13, Boston 4, Minnesota 10, Baltimore 7, New York 3, Texas 14, Cleveland 6, Detroit 6, Seattle 6, Kansas City 6.
Finished with: Chicago, Toronto, Tampa Bay.

Strength of schedule, all opponents: +311 (5th)
September opponents: +156 (5th)
Final two weeks (Min, Tex, LA, at Sea): +85 (3rd)

Critical stretch: 33 games against division opponents and two long eastern swings (Detroit, Baltimore, and Los Angeles in August; and Texas, Cleveland, and Boston in September.)

10. Toronto (44-44), 4th in AL East by 16 ½ over Tampa Bay.

Remaining games: 74 (32 away, 42 home.)
Opponents: Chicago 3, Los Angeles 6, Boston 7, Baltimore 9, New York 13, Texas 3, Cleveland 3, Detroit 7, Seattle 7, Kansas City 6, Tampa Bay 10.
Finished with: Minnesota, Oakland.

Strength of schedule, all opponents: -135 (13th)
September opponents: -181 (14th)
Final two weeks (Sea, at NY, at Bos, KC): -55 (12th)

Critical stretch: They need to put the hammer down with 20 of 26 games coming out of the All-Star break at home. If not, they have to survive a fearsome travel trip in August to Baltimore, Los Angeles, back east to Detroit, then New York. But they get cake in September.

11. DETROIT (41-44), 4th in AL Central by 12 ½ over Kansas City.

Remaining games: 76 (36 away, 40 home.)
Opponents: Chicago 11, Los Angeles 4, Boston 6, Minnesota 11, Cleveland 9, Oakland 6, Toronto 7, Seattle 9, Kansas City 13.
Finished with: Baltimore, New York, Texas, Tampa Bay.

Strength of schedule, all opponents: +186 (6th)
September opponents: +177 (T - 2nd)
Final two weeks (at KC, Sea, Chi, at Min): +34 (7th)

Critical stretch: I dunno, seems like we’re chugging uphill the whole way. No chances to make up ground directly with Baltimore, New York, or Texas anymore.

12. Seattle (39-48), 4th in AL West.

Remaining games: 75 (36 away, 39 home.)
Opponents: Chicago 6, Los Angeles 9, Minnesota 7, Baltimore 7, New York 4, Texas 10, Cleveland 7, Oakland 6, Toronto 7, Detroit 9, Kansas City 3.
Finished with: Boston, Tampa Bay.

Strength of schedule, all opponents: +464 (1st)
September opponents: +159 (4th)
Final two weeks (at Tor, at Det, Tex, Oak): +15 (8th)

Critical stretch: All but the last 2 ½ weeks, when they finally get some mediocre teams to play.

13. Kansas City (30-57), 5th in AL Central.

Remaining games: 75 (40 away, 35 home.)
Opponents: Chicago 9, Boston 6, Minnesota 7, New York 3, Texas 4, Cleveland 14, Oakland 6, Toronto 6, Detroit 13, Seattle 3, Tampa Bay 4.
Finished with: Los Angeles, Baltimore.

Strength of schedule, all opponents: +335 (4th)
September opponents: +262 (1st)
Final two weeks (Det, Cle, at Min, at Tor) +58 (6th)

Critical stretch: To avoid 100 losses, being close to .500 in the 21 games after the All-Star break would be a help. 2-4 against Chicago and Boston is acceptable, the other opponents being Cleveland, Detroit, Toronto, and Tampa Bay.

14. Tampa Bay (28-61), 5th in AL East. Worst record in baseball, 3 games behind Kansas City.

Remaining games: 73 (38 away, 35 home.)
Opponents: Los Angeles 9, Boston 13, Baltimore 12, New York 9, Texas 6, Cleveland 10, Toronto 10, Kansas City 4.
Finished with: Chicago, Minnesota, Oakland, Detroit, Seattle.

Strength of schedule, all opponents: +440 (2nd)
September opponents: +177 (T- 2nd)
Final two weeks: (Bos, at LA, at Cle, Bal) +120 (1st)

Critical stretch: Pity the poor Devil Rays. After August 1, when Kansas City leaves town, they don’t see another team currently under .500 the rest of the season. In fact, that 4 game series with Kansas City is all they see of bottom-feeders. An 11-62 finish isn’t so unlikely.

To be fair to the NL readers, I also did a quick run on their reamining games. In order from most difficult to easiest NL schedules:

1. Florida: 76 games, +149 (aggregate games from .500)
2. New York: 74 games, +94
3. Houston: 75 games, +61
4. Philadelphia: 73 games, +10
5. Washington: 74 games, -22
6. Cincinnati: 74 games, -32
7. Milwaukee: 74 games, -49
8. Atlanta: 73 games, -88
9. Chicago: 75 games, -91
10. Colorado: 75 games, -150
11. San Francisco: 75 games, -159
12. St. Louis: 74 games, -176
13. Pittsburgh: 75 games, -199
14. Arizona: 72 games, -234
15. Los Angeles: 74 games, -298
16. San Diego: 73 games, -310

Easy to see that playing a lot of games against the pitiful NL West buries your schedule ranking. One would have to say that the schedule favors Atlanta to reel in Washington in the NL East, St. Louis in an NL Central cakewalk, and San Diego maintaining the NL West lead. And the wild card may come from out there if a second team can manhandle that division - it appears the NL East and Central will beat each other up quite a bit.

Now, next time, it's back to the right-wing conspiracy. Needed a break but there's issues out there to address. It was my little All-Star break, now it'll be back to "work."

I have a law suggestion

2005-07-06T23:21:00.000-04:00

Today I was listening to the radio and they was a brief news item about an essay contest called "There Ought To Be A Law." The story was that the winning essay's subject was introduced in the state's legislature. What confuses me is that I thought the state this bill was introduced into was Pennsylvania but it appears the winning essay in question was from Ohio. Basically, this law was to require dogs be restrained in cars. The essay was written by a girl named Rachel Stevenson, a home-schooled student from Fairlawn, Ohio. Score one for non-public education.

Given that most kids are not wise in the ways of government, I'm sure Rachel thinks that a law like that is a good thing to make pets safer. And it would do just that. It's obvious she's seen the effect mandatory seat belt laws have on people.

But, here's my problem with the idea of the essay contest (sponsored, naturally, by the Ohio Bar Association.) I think there should be equal weight given to the proposition that an existing law should be repealed. For example, growing up in Ohio, I remember that all the time I was growing up the legal drinking age was 18 - until a month before my 18th birthday, when they raised it to 19. (No, I was not happy about that!) Now, my recollection on this is a bit hazy, but either there was a statewide vote for establishing 19 as the drinking age or against making it 21. Whichever way it worked, less than a year later the Ohio Legislature was forced by the federal government to raise the drinking age to 21 or lose their federal highway funds.

Those are the kind of laws that should be repealed, especially when they are contradictory to the expressed will of the people at the ballot box. Immediately they should repeal seat belt laws, motorcycle helmet laws, and and other laws granted solely to ensure continued receipt of federal funds (including No Child Left Behind.) Obviously a companion bill in Congress would have to put an end to mandates like these or it should be handled in the budget somehow.

Then if Maryland wants to continue being a nanny state after the withdrawal of the stick of losing federal funds, it's the fault of the liberals in Annapolis and they can't point to DC and tell us that the (so-called) Free State's hands were tied.

Much like Orwell's "Newspeak", I'd like to see the number of laws shrink as time goes on, devolving back to principles found in the Constitution. Fewer laws = greater individual freedom.

The "vacancy" sign goes up

2005-07-05T23:36:00.000-04:00

After years of "no room at the inn", the VACANCY sign goes up at the Supreme Court as Justice Sandra Day O'Connor retires after 24 years. And people like Linda Chavez thought the actions of the "Sellout Seven" were a good thing. I can guarantee you that the no-filibuster agreement is as good as gone now. If it were Rehnquist retiring, maybe. But a supporter of Roe v. Wade leaves and the long knives come out.

I can also tell you that I'm certain to be real frustrated this summer about this. I know I'm going to wish I could see the day when some GOP senator gets fed up with Dick Durbin and slugs him in his traitorous mouth, dropping him like a bad habit. Then for good measure he can give Harry Reid a serious beatdown too. (For Ted Kennedy, just take away his Scotch.)

The GOP is going to have to take a stand here and ramrod their nominee through. And the measures to enforce party loyalty should really be more severe. It sickened me to see both President Bush and Senator Santorum campaign for Arlen Specter last year, when Patrick Toomey, a more true conservative, campaigned for the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate seat. Bush should have talked to his GOP senators like he does terrorist-supporting states: you're either with us or against us. If you don't support the nominees I send up, forget seeing me for a fundraiser - I just might support a primary opponent.

But he has another big chance now, don't blow it. President Bush, I want a Scalia, not a Souter like your dad picked. I want someone who throws precedent to the wind when it contradicts the ultimate precedent - the Constitution. A justice who looks at foreign law as interesting light reading, then takes his guide from a short, 27 amendment document; in particular interested in Amendments 2, 5, and 10, which have taken a real beating of late. A justice not afraid of letting the people decide things in the particular states when it's in their best interest.

In short, let the people run this representative republic, not nine unelected lifetime appointees. (In reality, it's five unelected appointees - Thomas, Scalia, and Rehnquist fall into the category of letting the people decide in most cases.)

And now for something completely different...

You know, I'm proud to say I didn't watch a moment of Live 8. Besides the major acts of McCartney, U2, and Elton John, who was there? Oh, I guess Green Day was in on that too, that's typical given their leftist drivel. The other song right now that annoys the piss out of me is "BYOB" by System of a Down. It's a nice riff but the lyrics are asinine. Try writing and singing that one someplace like Iran or China, guys, see how you do there!

Wish there'd come a group with patriotic lyrics like in a lot of country songs but playing hard rock. Closest to come to that would likely be Ted Nugent. Loved his comments at the NRA convention, wish I was there. I have seen him in concert 4 times and enjoyed them all.

Maybe he's free to be a Supreme Court judge, I think they aren't in session during part of hunting season. A no bullshit attitude would be nice in D.C.

Off the cuff message

2005-07-02T02:03:00.000-04:00

I just visited americasupportsyou.mil for the first time. It's cool to know that we can do something with some immediacy to support our troops, if only a note of support. Here's mine:

Keep up the good fight. On our upcoming Independence Day, we think of you as you support fledgling causes for independence from the former tyrannies in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I know you don't get a lot of good news over there, but trust that America does support you more than you know. Some of us are trying to get the good news out about what's really happening there.

We hope and pray your job will be done sooner rather than later, but I know we intend to do the job right as Americans are known to do.

take care and best wishes,

M.S.

It's an excellent website. Truly something that I don't mind a few dollars of my tax money going to, as opposed to something like PBS. (Their whining makes me puke, at least figuratively.)

It's that tired old theme

2005-06-28T23:23:00.000-04:00

President Bush made a speech tonight. He said we're staying in Iraq until the job is done. That doesn't surprise me. Nor am I watching the cable channels or reading the postmortem because I know what I'll hear, "Despite the polls showing declining support for the war in Iraq, President Bush said we'll keep our troops there, blah blah blah." But I will get my flag out for the Fourth and I'll see what else is on www.americasupportsyou.mil. I supported the War on Terror at the start (and it's not just Iraq as events in Afghanistan tragically proved today), and I'm going to follow through on it. I think I understand what's at stake.

However, I wonder sometimes if we're spending too much time and energy as conservatives worrying about fighting tyranny from without when we are losing our freedoms from within, given the Kelo v. New London decision. After tonight I do feel somewhat more assured about our staying to finish the Iraqi job, at least until early 2009. Anything less would be betrayal and probably spell doom for the GOP for a generation.

A follow-up on my Michael Steele post a few days back. Got to listen to him on the local radio this morning in an interview, and while he was coy enough to not say he's running for the Senate, you got to admit the signs are pointing that way. Given he got an important first endorsement from the Baltimore FOP, that's a segment of the public asking him to run. He was looking for that kind of assurance, and of course to see what kind of money he could raise. Talk to me, I'm willing to slip a Bennie or two in the campaign if you run. Like I said before, I like golf fundraisers.

Here's a news item that has me worried. I can just see the D's playing politics with this if we ever get in more trouble with China. (Seems like we're in enough considering they have missiles that use technology stolen from us pointed in our direction.) It's intriguing that the CNOOC (the ChiComm oil company looking to buy Unocal) hired TWO PR firms, including one linked to the Bush/Chaney campaign. Of course, for their part, CNOOC noted that Unocal's oil and gas production is less than 1% of America's total and that "substantially all" of Unocal's US-based workers would retain their jobs, the others being replaced by ChiComms specializing in industrial espionage. (Ok, I added the last part, but why would it not be true?)

That's one reason I attempt to steer away from Chinese-made goods when I can. It's hard to do, though. A good friend of mine works for a company in the wheelchair industry, and she's done the math regarding moving production of one of their products to China. Even with the cost of importing, they just can't do it domestically with the price of labor. So 120 U.S. workers, albeit mostly temporary, will be out of work, and somewhere in China they'll add another shift.

Additionally, the price of oil continues to climb in part because of Chinese demand. (Remember, the $60/barrel price of oil is that of the futures market, and their demand's slated to rise again).

To sum up: once we finish with the War on Terror, we may have another one on our hands. We may have a bunch of allies when it comes to Iraq, but if China invades Taiwan, not a lot of countries may be willing to join us on the front lines - if we go. Like 1984, once the war with Eurasia is over, we'll go to war with Eastasia.

Second daily dose

2005-06-26T00:40:00.000-04:00

By six minutes (at least when I start this entry) you get a second dose today.

I did more reading and research this evening. One item that interested me while reading RealClearPolitics was a small article that was actually on Neal Boortz's website. I occasionally listen to his show here since he follows Rush in this market. He's definitely libertarian in his worldview, so generally I agree with him but not always. In this case, he was very much opposed to Thursday's Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. New London, as was I.

One of the links in the story on his website was to the Castle Coalition, which is an advocacy organization dedicated to private property rights and the abuse of eminent domain. I added this link to my favorites and signed up to become a member (it's free, basically you get on the e-mail list and I'm sure they'll ask me for contributions every so often. I can handle that.) Actually, I had heard of them before, but they got pushed back in the old memory files for important stuff like whether the Polanco for Urbina trade with the Phillies was a good one for the Tigers (so far so good.)

But the eminent domain subject interests me because I'm thinking of getting into the real estate investment game. Actually, my uncle's family has done that rather successfully. Just need to decide whether I want to invest in raw land or something like a duplex.

But all of it could be for naught if the Supreme Court decision is allowed to stand in Maryland or Delaware. It was left up to states to pass legislation to prohibit the use of eminent domain for private entities (like in New London.) Of course, the developers will spend big coin to fight it tooth and nail, as will entities such as Wal-Mart and Costco - "big box" retailers.

Being originally from Toledo, I'm familiar with one case that wiped out an entire middle-class neighborhood of 80 or so houses and a few businesses. When the Toledo North assembly plant was built for DaimlerChrysler to build Jeeps, they took out this neighborhood at the southwest corner of the site. Now, having seen the building as built, it's a good 300 yards at least from that building to where this neighborhood was. Apparently, this edge of the site is used as a truck entrance because it's close to I-75. But to me, it's a shame they knocked all that down; in fact, the final business left there was demolished last year even before they finally lost their court fight. The Jeep issue is still part of the undercurrent of Toledo politics, particularly again since the mayor at the time is considering running again after a four year hiatus (he was term-limited.) I remember questioning him about the Jeep deal and its cost to the city in a mayoral forum back in 1997. (He dodged my question adeptly.)

Now, I work in a business that is fueled by private development. But I want there to be a clear definition of what is public use. And, while we should strive for land's "highest and best use", there is a right for someone who happens to have made a lot of work and effort to have a piece of the American Dream to say, "no, I'm not interested in selling this to you simply because you as a government can make more revenue on what is MINE." There's a "reverse Robin Hood" element to the Kelo case; most of the reason the developer wanted the parcels was for their ocean view. I know it smacks of class envy, but the rich shouldn't be the only ones who get an ocean view. These people in New London were there first and earned it.

Progress is a good thing. But so is the sanctity of private property.

Back in ink

2005-06-25T12:24:00.000-04:00

What do you know, the Daily Times published my response to their June 19 editorial yesterday. And they managed not to butcher it, just changing a couple phrases around and reformatting paragraphs. Editor's discretion there, I write like I talk. The meaning is still there.

Interesting that my response comes in the same paper as a military-related editorial. Our Congressman (Wayne Gilchrest, Republican, MD-1) has decided to add his support to a bill allowing homosexuals to serve in the military. (Interestingly enough, I linked to the editorial rather than his website.)

Strange, the Daily Times makes a bigger deal of it than he does, probably for two reasons. Number one, he's likely aware that a majority of his constituents are against gays in the military, and number two, it's an instance where, to the editorial writer, a member of the GOP has "grown" and is an "independent thinker" because he doesn't hew to the party line. (Full disclosure: I haven't been down here long enough to see the DT's reaction to where a Democrat strays from the party's voting pattern on an issue. Maybe that's because it almost never happens!)

I'm just not comfortable with openly gay people in the military. In an environment where privacy is at a premium and most living circumstances are gender-only, it's likely to be somewhat of a distraction to have a situation where two guys (or ladies) are having a relationship. I know it happens between guys and girls in the military, but there's supposed to be rules against fraternization. (However, I've never served in the military, perhaps a reader can set me straight on regulations and how they're followed in reality.)

The military has its own set of regulations and separate justice system for a reason - it's a place where by necessity, the well-being of the group trumps individual rights. Discipline and rigid regulation are necessary for success on the battlefield. One has to know that all members of the team are pulling in the same direction. As Rush Limbaugh likes to say, "the military exists to kill people and break things."

It's no problem in civilian life for an "Adam and Steve" or "Annie and Eve" relationship to occur as the parties know the ramifications and generally those are brought only upon themselves. But gays and lesbians in the military create an unneeded distraction from the mission of a unit. While we may lose good soldiers from time to time, the "don't ask, don't tell" policy is a much better fallback position than letting soldiers serve openly.

As for my letter, no flames today in the Grapevine section or on anyone else's letter. However, I know these things run a few days behind, so I'll be looking for peacenik whining tomorrow or most likely next week. Maybe they're saving any of that for Tuesday, which is "independence day" in Iraq. June 28, 2004 was the date of the Iraqi government's birth, occurring two days early to foil any terrorist plans for disruption.

It will be intriguing to see reaction to what President Bush will have to say on Tuesday regarding this. He needs his "bully pulpit" now as much as ever.

Pea soup

2005-06-23T12:35:00.000-04:00

Today's blog named because it's a mish-mash without a lot of clear direction. Tonight was the night I picked to catch up on some reading. So a couple items jumped out at me.

News item: Bush to Consider Social Security Plan That Does Not Include Private Accounts. Then why bother reforming it? Wasn't the whole idea of an "Ownership Society" to have ownership?!? The thing to do here is tell the GOP to grow some gonads and get this thing passed. Unfortunately, I don't happen to have millions to counter the lies and bullshit spread by the D's and the 527 groups. (I liked the photo on the website I picked out, an inflatable monkey flanked by what has got to be union stooges being paid to stand there and hold signs. Come to think of it, a lot of union work is standing around.) I want TRUE reform, not another Band-Aid.

In the "Sometimes Maryland Gets It Right" Department: A federal district court ruled today that a Ten Commandments display in a park in Frederick is constitutional. Wish the article had said how the court ruled, interested to know how the judges ruled individually vis-a-vis Bush/Reagan appointees vs. Clinton/Carter appointees.

Speaking of courts, I find it interesting that the Washington Times doesn't have anything on today's terrible Supreme Court decision but the Baltimore Sun does. So, now it's all right for a local government entity to go ahead and take MY property (speaking in a figurative sense since I live in an apartment right now) and put what THEY consider a "better" use on it, at my loss (since it wasn't at a fair value to me), and to enrich someone else's personal pocket. Roger Hedgecock was all over that today. But I can see the Sun wanting to trumpet that since it was their liberal buddies on the court that were the majority. (In fact, in reading this, I see the city of Baltimore filed a "friend of the court" brief in the case on the side of New London, Connecticut against the homeowners.) More than ever, it's time for the representatives in our legislative branch to rein in this judiciary.

Finally, the Wal-Mart saga hit the news again...sort of. Using the company liberals love to hate as their target, Ted Kennedy saw fit to introduce the so-called "Health Care Accountability Act." (Gee, a nice picture of still MORE union thugs standing around.) This extra batch of red tape would mandate states to generate a report each year to show where companies have 50 employees or more on government-funded health care. Generally this targets Wal-Mart, where a large number of employees are older (think of the "greeter" for example) and are most likely on Medicare. It's not hard then to imagine that Wal-Mart, having a high number of "golden agers" as employees, would rank high up on the scale of employees getting government-funded health care. If you're over 65, you get Medicare, need it or not. But it counts (in the unions' eyes) as ripping off the government.

So today, the pea soup was flowing and things get muddier in the country by the day. We'll see what bombshells fall tomorrow.

Ok, now I'm pissed

2005-06-21T23:44:00.000-04:00

I got annoyed with the whining tone of this editorial in the Daily Times yesterday. Surprisingly, I thought my reply was pretty civil and not as snarky as I thought I'd be. This is what I wrote back:

Re: "Positive news needed from Iraq", June 19

William Tecumseh Sherman reminded us that "war is hell." We should have known that fighting the War on Terror would not be a pleasant duty, but a duty we needed to undertake after we were brutally attacked on 9-11.

The tides of battle ebb and flow. Right now, it may appear to the casual observer that we are losing. Sadly, even some in Congress have fallen into that trap of thinking we're in the throes of defeat. Part of the reason is the drumbeat of negative news that we're subjected to, including some in the subject editorial. Yes, we've lost 1,700 brave men and women who volunteered to fight for freedom and democracy.

But polls that become the news - are they really polls or editorial comments disguised as polls and slickly packaged? After a torrent of negativity, it's obvious that opinion would shift to the desired negative result. If you only read and listen to the "mainstream media" you would suspect we are not winning the war. Never mind that we take out many more of the terrorists in Iraq (many of whom are Iranian and Saudi nationals) than we lose, and we have rebuilt Iraq's schools and electrical infrastructure to a point where most of the country outside Baghdad enjoys a better standard of living than they had under Saddam Hussein.

It was noted that "Republican members of Congress are beginning to voice concerns." There are three noted in the editorial. Out of almost 300 Republicans in Congress, the vast majority who support the war and its aims, the mainstream media found three who are wavering in their support and trumpeted it. No quote from a Republican who still thinks we're winning - and far be it for the media to search for a pro-war Democrat. (There has to be at least one! It would be bigger news than finding a squishy moderate on the GOP side.)

Here is a quote from another local Republican: "America, be patient, and believe in our goal: to spread freedom, decency, and the principles that made our country great to places in the world that haven't yet experienced the God-given right to live freely and unencumbered by tyranny." That Republican is me, and if the Associated Press decides to call my number I will tell them that yes! I support the War on Terror and our troops. We won't take a step forward every day, and we might get knocked on our heels every so often, but the only thing that stops us is our will to win. If we don't want another Viet Nam, believe in our troops and our mission.

Damn straight. Publish this letter. I want to see somebody rag on this - oh please, I want to see just how many wussy appeaser peaceniks live in my area. I could tell them if you want peace, move to Canada...besides, didn't half the D's vow to move to that or another socialist paradise like France anyway? Yes, you Alec Baldwin.

Aaaaaahhhhh...I feel better. Now I'll just wait for the call that confirms I wrote the letter and hopefully they'll have the smarts to print it.

Letter from the guv

2005-06-21T23:38:00.000-04:00

This will be the first of two posts tonight. Since the subjects are different and deserve special mention, I'll do two for the price of one.

Got a letter from Governor Ehrlich today and it was very interesting. If you look back and read my April 15 entry (named, appropriately, "Letter to the guv"), you'll find that I wrote Governor Ehrlich regarding two things: urging a veto of the Fair Share Health Act and a veto of a bill raising the minimum wage. I also made a comment about state lands, but wasn't expecting any comment on that.

Well, I got it back and it was solely about the minimum wage. Guess I should have expected a form letter, think that's what I got:

Dear Mr. Swartz:

Thank you for contacting me regarding my veto of House Bill 391 - Labor and Employment - Minimum Wage - Increase. I appreciate the opportunity to respond to you regarding this important matter.

First, raising the minimum wage in Maryland without raising the federal minimum wage is a bad decision that elevates politics over economics and ultimately hurts the people it claims to help. Raising the minimum wage harms most severely those government should help the most - the least skilled and least educated in our workforce. In fact, more than half of minimum wage workers nationally are of high school or college age, and minimum wage jobs for them are a means by which to enter the labor market and acquire skills necessary for career advancement.

Employers have few options to recover the increased costs imposed by government. They can either pass along these new costs to consumers or they can cut their costs by firing their employees. Given our close proximity to Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia, all of which still follow the federal wage rate, the State of Maryland would be at a competitive disadvantage when competing to attract and retain businesses. Likewise, Maryland employers would have higher labor costs than neighboring states and would be at a significant competitive disadvantage when competing for new business.

This may most adversely affect small businesses, which often can only afford to pay their employees the minimum wage (or slightly above it) in order to stay in business. These Maryland small businesses do not have the resources to absorb yet another government mandate, and since their customers would be free to choose products from cheaper competitors located in neighboring states they will most likely have to fire employees to stay afloat.

Second, for the first time in Maryland history, the Legislative Branch is seeking to sever Maryland's minimum wage from the federal minimum wage. This action sets a dangerous precedent that disrupts the marketplace as businesses face the uncertainty of whether Congress, the Maryland General Assembly, or both will enact the next wage increase, or tackle any other business issue, such as mandating minimum spending on health care.

I believe that each working person deserves an appropriate wage that reflects his or her work, skill level, and productivity. Accordingly, I believe employment and education provide the necessary foundation for future success in life. Raising the minimum wage reduces employment opportunities for those who need it most, thereby limiting an individual's training, experience, and skills.

Thank you again for your letter. If I may be of further assistance on this or any other matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Very truly yours,

Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr.
Governor

Actually, when I reread it again (as I type it), he (or whoever actually wrote the letter) made some pretty compelling (if standard) arguments. I did like the dig at "mandating minimum spending on health care."

The thing that I would point out to Governor Ehrlich is that, since you don't want "yet another government mandate", let's propose that we eliminate more of them! I can think of one that annoys me every time I go to a ballgame: somebody's bright idea to spend money on a billboard, buttons on the employees, and a program ad to "strike out tobacco." Now I don't smoke and I have asthma. If they don't allow smoking, that's cool. But why spend that money to discourage smoking, especially since it's the sale of tobacco that helps tax revenues in Maryland?

Anyway, I appreciate that he wrote me back. Nice to know they take a moment to listen to the citzens.

The other passion (standings report)

2005-06-20T22:08:00.000-04:00

Well, today is as good as any for a standings update for my teams:

The Delmarva Shorebirds (my hometown team, low-A Orioles affiliate) finished their first half with a 30-40 record, 12 games out in the South Atlantic League's Northern Division.

Toledo (my old hometown team, AAA team of the Tigers) is 40-28 in the International League's West Division, 2 1/2 games out but they lead the IL wildcard race by .002 over the hated Columbus Clippers. Tonight they're beating Ottawa 10-2 late, Columbus is up 3-2 on Scranton in the 9th as well.

And the Tigers enjoy an off day at 33-33, 12 games back of the White Sox but only 4 1/2 back of Minnesota for the wild card. This is the latest they have been at .500 since September of 2000. That was when what I call the "curse of Al Gore" started.

On September 6, 2000, the Tigers were possibly the hottest team in the big leagues. After being left for dead in early August with a 52-60 record, they went on an 18-7 surge to put themselves 5 games back in the wild card hunt, picking up 4 1/2 games in the stretch.

It was that day that Al Gore came to pitch batting practice at the invitation of fellow Tennesseean Phil Garner, the Tigers manager at the time.

That night, they lost to the Anaheim Angels 1-0, managing only 2 hits in the process. It was the start of a 6 game losing streak that eventually stretched to losing 9 of 10 - after that, their playoff hopes and chance to get a .500 season for the first time since 1993 were about expired. They would finish 79-83 in 2000, slumping to 66-96, 55-106, and that horrible 43-119 season over the next three years.

Much as Al Gore in 2000, the Tigers just kept finding ways to lose when it counted.

Now, I'm not sure how manager Alan Trammell leans politically, but I'm hoping that the longer President Bush is in office, the less this curse remains in effect. Tiger owner (and pizza magnate) Mike Ilitch is definitely a switch-hitter politically, although maybe it's a question of whether free pizza is a political contribution. (He has some interesting contribution amounts on opensecrets.org.)

All I hope is that my Tigers can keep up their good work this season. The Olde English "D" is basically about the only "D" I want to succeed, the ones on the ballot can be losers like Al Gore.

Late edit: baseball history courtesy of retrosheet.org - one of my favorite non-political websites!

Birth control (of a nation)

2005-06-19T00:51:00.000-04:00

Sometimes inspiration comes from the strangest sources. I was at work today, placing nose firmly to the grindstone, when I heard my boss talking to somebody today about Iraq and the proposal to pull our troops out. He had a good point that I agree with - since we were in Germany and Japan first, shouldn't we pull out of there? The threat from the Nazis and the Chrysanthemum Throne has long since passed. It took us almost a decade to withdraw from Serbia, and that was a country harboring no threat to us, simply the UN's desire to stop "ethnic cleansing." (I noticed that occurred with VERY little fanfare, since I thought we were still there!)

So why the hurry to get out of Iraq? Now, maybe Bush can pull a Clinton and say that the troops will be home by Christmas, just not specify which year. But I look for a continued U.S. presence in Iraq, simply because it's the place close to our biggest threat. After World War 2, we left a forward guard in Germany and other places scattered around Europe because the Soviet Union was our biggest threat. I remember John Kerry didn't want those troops pulled out last year when it was an issue. But I'll bet he's right there wanting a date certain for our withdrawal from Iraq.

If we give a date to pull out early, it's just common sense that the enemy will lay low unless we have defeated them thoroughly. In WW2, we stuck around after the enemy was defeated and are still there. In Korea, we still are there because the enemy wasn't defeated, it's only a truce. So the enemy still sits and awaits the day we leave, and they rattle a saber once in awhile.

In Viet Nam, we turned tail and months later the enemy won. Fortunately, the domino effect didn't occur like we feared, but Viet Nam is still a Communist nation and millions were slaughtered in Cambodia in the decade after we left.

When we defeat the enemy totally, we can leave. We had successes in the 1980's ousting Marxists in Grenada and Nicaragua, and extracting Manuel Noriega from Panama. We do not sit in any of those countries now, and they're no threat anymore. A success in anyone's book.

Thus, it follows given these examples that it's in our best interest to stay the course in Iraq and Afghanistan. If for no other logical reason, is it not better to fight and kill the enemy someplace else rather than here? They are now the ones bringing the fight to us over there in Iraq. When they are defeated, the Islamic jihadists will have given their lives in vain defending an archaic system and fanatical subsect of an otherwise respectable religion.

On the other hand, if we do leave Iraq like we did Southeast Asia, the fledgling Republic of Iraq will be overrun by a sea of militants from Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, and either we'll be thrown back in again to save them or they will perish into an Iranian-style tyranny. The Iraqi nation, reborn under our wing, will be aborted.

Come to think of it, since the Democrats are pro-choice, their Iraq position now makes perfect sense.

Opposition research

2005-06-18T00:25:00.000-04:00

Couple of things tonight. Got to thinking about the old hometown so I decided to see how Coingate was percolating. And thanks to the Toledo Blade and its incessant coverage of the story, it continues to bubble away. If only they looked into Toledo's generally corrupt city government (run by their Demo buddies) the same way. By my count, it's up to 119 Coingate articles in the 85 days since they broke the story. The only day they skipped a Coingate story since May 10 was June 6th. I think they desperately want to assure themselves another Pulitzer by bringing down at least the state GOP and possibly even a president.

And then I looked back here, just to see what the D's were whining about now. Seems that Gov. Ehrlich has decided to basically zero out the budget of the agency that enforces some of the wage laws, including the so-called "prevailing wage" (which is a fiction created for the construction unions during the Depression.) As they should, the Associated Building Contractors are all for this, to wit (from the Baltimore Sun Thursday):

Michael Henderson, president of the Baltimore-area chapter of Associated Building Contractors, praised Ehrlich's decision to shut down the prevailing wage office.

Skilled construction workers are in demand, he said, and they don't need the wage protections afforded by the law. But because of the unions' influence in the legislature, the governor could never succeed in getting the law repealed, he said.

Not enforcing the law is the next best thing, Henderson said. "When we first heard about it, it was, 'Wow.' It really took us by surprise. It was brilliant," Henderson said. "If he's able to do this, the state is going to get a lot more bang for its construction dollar and without hurting construction workers in the slightest."

And he's absolutely right. It works with Ohio schools as well (Ohio Revised Code 4115.04 exempts school construction from prevailing wage laws, saving the state millions in what has been nearly $1 billion in school construction over the last decade.)

To play nitpicker, I think Andrew Green (Sun writer and author of the article) needs to get out a basic thesaurus and find synonyms for "said" like stated, remarked, commented, exclaimed, etc. He used the word "said" four times in the quote! I'm just a blogger and I try not to use the same terms over and over again.

But this is what our not-so-loyal opposition (hello, Senator Durbin) is up to.

Will he or won't he?

2005-06-15T22:45:00.000-04:00

According to a Baltimore Sun article, it sounds like Lieutenant Governor Steele is going to throw his hat in the ring for the United States Senate seat vacated by the retirement of Senator (and Eastern Shore native) Paul Sarbanes. I guess the question is - if not him, then who? I would guess the distant #2 is State Sen. E.J. Pipkin, who lost to Barb Mikulski in 2004.

I liked this comment though:

"Steele is more conservative on social and moral issues than Ehrlich and many Marylanders. He opposes the death penalty, as well as abortion rights."

Interesting juxtaposition since most conservatives I know support the death penalty, although I can buy the argument for one to be both anti-capital punishment and pro-life. I'm not sure what that will get him in the U.S. Senate, though. Maybe a better place to affect change on those issues would be the judicial system, at least in this day and age. Now if he can start to rein in the judiciary as is the proper role of the legislative branch (as outlined in the Constitution) from a Senate seat, that may be newsworthy. And I notice it's "many" Marylanders, but not a majority, otherwise I'm sure the liberal powers-that-be at the Sun would have stated so.

Guess I better get the checkbook out, I need to put myself on the rolls of opensecrets.org. I'm already in followthemoney.org for contributions I made in Ohio (to Ohio Supreme Court candidate Terrence O'Donnell in 2000.) I'm sure there's going to be a fundraiser of some sort in Wicomico County. (I'm partial to golf scrambles.)

I tell you, like bees to a field full of blooming flowers, open seats attract a lot of politicians. I also heard about a race in Ohio that could be a harbinger of events in 2006. Ohio's 2nd Congressional district had a primary yesterday to replace outgoing Rep. Rob Portman. In what is probably a pretty safe Republican district, Mike DeWine's son Pat (a Hamilton County commissioner, Hamilton County predominantly being the city of Cincinnati) lost bigtime, coming in 4th of 11 candidates. Can you say an initial payback for being one of the "Sellout Seven" and caving to the D's? That's an interesting contest now, with a GOP woman being matched up against a Iraq war veteran Democrat.

But if Steele wants to join Mike DeWine in the Senate ranks (assuming DeWine's reelected in 2006), it is high time to get the campaign going. Even with his office, he'll need all of the $15 million it's projected he needs to raise to get name recognition and something to counter all the mud slung at him by the D's. They've already started on that if you believe one of my previous posts regarding his book endorsement. And that's not all they'll do. If there's one thing I've seen in politics, it's that Democrats play pretty dirty.

I like this point of view

2005-06-14T22:56:00.000-04:00

I'll try to keep this one short. I have some stuff tonight and I'm also keeping an eye on my Tigers, they lead San Diego in the 8th inning - following them through the Detroit Tigers Fan Forum.

While perusing some of my reading tonight, I came across an op-ed by Jon E. Dougherty. He's an author and journalist by trade, and a writer I became familiar with by reading WorldNetDaily. While it's not a true blog, WND is owed a debt by bloggers because it was one of the first independent online news sites and has managed to become a fairly trusted news roundup source.

Anyhow, Dougherty wrote a column advocating the newest military branch - the Border Guard. Basically, it would be a land equivalent of the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard is a civilian branch of the military, currently under the Department of Homeland Security (previously it was a part of the Department of Transportation.) While in wartime it answers to the U.S. Navy (and has much the same protocol), the Coast Guard is entrusted with a variety of civilian duties including law enforcement.

To me, it's an intriguing idea, because while the Border Patrol does a good job with limited resources, having an "Army lite" on the border would certainly help with homeland security. It may help the recruitment for the military as a whole, given the option of truly defending the homeland. And, if we do find that someday La Raza goes to paramilitary mode or even an "overseas" terrorist network such as Hezbollah is stirring up trouble, we can put the Border Guard under the command of the U.S. Army.

I think it's a fine compromise between security on the one hand and using the true military for law enforcement (which violates the Posse Comitatus Act.)

If you are reading this as a repeat offender, first of all thanks. Second of all, I was informed of an interesting blog called "Suitably Flip" by the author, a conservative who's also something of a financial expert (moreso than I, anyway.) So I appreciate him checking me out and give him a shout.

And yes, the Tigers won it 8-4. Shades of the last time San Diego played in Detroit, the clinching game 5 of the 1984 World Series was decided by the same score.

Who's afraid of Michael Steele?

2005-06-11T23:41:00.000-04:00

Perusing the papers today, I came across this in the Baltimore Sun. It seems the D's have their panties in a bunch over a book endorsement by Lt. Governor Steele. Normally that's not a big deal, people endorse books all the time. But when you are a black conservative, and the book takes a look at the racial history of the Republican Party in glowing terms (in other words, the truth) then the gauntlet has to be thrown down. Can't let these things get out for fear of losing more blacks from the Democrat plantation.

The book is called Back to Basics for the Republican Party, by Michael Zak. Actually, prior to this story, I'd never heard of the book. But it seems to be a well-liked book based on the Amazon.com reviews I read. (By the way, there's only 5 left in stock.) The gist of the problem that the D's have with the book is that it points out a lot of truth in history. For example, until the New Deal and for some period beyond, blacks in the country were predominantly GOP, including Dr. Martin Luther King. This was because the Republicans were originally cast as an anti-slavery party, and it was the Republicans who enacted the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. These were the original civil rights acts. It wasn't until Reconstruction ended and Democrats again took over in the South that the so-called "Jim Crow" laws were passed.

Later, in the 1960's, it was the GOP helping northern Democrats to pass civil rights legislation. It's a fact that as a percentage, the GOP vote in the Senate was higher than the Democrat voting for civil rights passage.

Obviously, the Democrats have managed to gloss over some of their record on race by promising economic goodies to inner-city blacks, in essence buying their votes. Seriously unethical and stinks to high heaven, but it works to where over 90% of blacks vote Democrat in the presidential elections and Baltimore city votes (mostly minority) keep the Democrats in power in the state of Maryland.

This is where Michael Steele comes in. He is black, and he is conservative. To Democrats, he's their biggest threat to the near-monopoly on the black vote. To try and damage Steele in the minority community you get comments like, "Michael Steele has failed an important test of character by aligning himself with Michael Zak's dangerous, deceptive and racially divisive commentary." So to the Democrats, pointing out obscure historical facts is dangerous and deceptive. Well, I happen to think that a lot of comments made by black Democrat icons like, for example, the Rev. Jesse Jackson are dangerous, deceptive, and racially divisive too.

(And I'll bet Democrats think that articles like this one written by Mychal Massie, a black man, are divisive as well.)

I held my nose and visited the Maryland Democratic website, and sure enough, this flap with Steele is front page news there. It's not quite the scream like on the Ohio Dems' website about Ken Blackwell (another black conservative who leads the governors' race in 2006), but they certainly don't like someone they consider "theirs" because of his race getting away from the Democrat fold. The same can be said about newly confirmed appellate judge Janice Rogers Brown, a black woman who threatens the left as a believer in judicial restraint. The left certainly doesn't appreciate her opinions on civil rights.

Needless to say, I didn't sign the petition on the Maryland Democrat website asking Steele to repudiate his endorsement of the book. Now, if there's a petition necessary to put Michael Steele on the U.S. Senate primary ballot, I'd be happy to sign that one. (Not sure how Maryland works, you do have to be petitioned onto the ballot in Ohio.)

And, speaking of Maryland Republican politics, today I sent in an application to join the Wicomico County Republican Club. I think it's time to start working toward change with all that's going on in the state right now. Luckily we don't have full-year legislative sessions, but there's a lot of damage done in the time the Democrats hold sway in Annapolis. It will be tough, but what needs to be done is to outflank the left in this county. The key is to get the influx of newcomers on our side. Let the market straighten out the housing situation and this area will really boom, possibly enough to start outweighing the Baltimore area. That's what I want to work for.

Throw this baby out with the bathwater

2005-06-10T22:18:00.000-04:00

A very interesting quote in today's Federalist Patriot that could be a headache for me and thousands of other bloggers:

...the full effects of McCain-Feingold are just about to hit. As it reads, the 2002 law regulates political advertising in coordination with a candidate's campaign appearing on "any broadcast, cable or satellite communication, newspaper, magazine, outdoor advertising facility, mass mailing or telephone bank to the general public, or any other form of general-public political advertising." At the law's inception, the FEC wisely reasoned that the wording of this particular statute did not apply to the Internet -- references to the Internet and the World Wide Web were included elsewhere in the law, so Congress must have intentionally omitted it here.

Then the reformers struck again. The boondoggling duo of McCain and Feingold sued the FEC, insisting that regulations on political speech did in fact apply to the Internet and to e-mail. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly agreed: "The commission's exclusion of Internet communications from the coordinated-communications regulation severely undermines" the purpose of the campaign-finance law. The Commission's three Republicans couldn't convince any of the three Democrats to appeal the ruling, with the net result being that Big Brother is on his way to policing the cybersphere.

Under the law, which the FEC will have to enforce if Congress does not intervene, even a link to a candidate's website will be considered a political contribution. While the value of such a "contribution" remains uncertain, Bradley Smith, one of the FEC's three Republican commissioners, warns that FEC regulatory precedents don't bode well for the blogosphere.

"Corporations aren't allowed to donate to campaigns," notes Smith. "Suppose a corporation devotes 20 minutes of a secretary's time and $30 in postage to sending out letters for an executive. As a result, the campaign raises $35,000. Do we value the violation on the amount of corporate resources actually spent, maybe $40, or the $35,000 actually raised? The commission has usually taken the view that we value it by the amount raised. It's still going to be difficult to value the link, but the value of the link will go up very quickly."
Sound bad? That's not all, warns Smith. "The judge's decision is in no way limited to ads. She says that any coordinated activity over the Internet would need to be regulated, as a minimum. The problem with coordinated activity over the Internet is that it will strike, as a minimum, Internet reporting services."

Under current law, however, "press exemption" is limited to a "broadcasting station, newspaper, magazine or other periodical publication." This would bring the status of Internet-based publications -- such as The Federalist Patriot -- into serious question. So warns Commissioner Smith: "[Internet reporting services are] exempt from regulation only because of the press exemption. But people have been arguing that the Internet doesn't fit under the press exemption. It becomes a really complex issue that would strike deep into the heart of the Internet and the bloggers who are writing out there today."

The Internet is the ultimate frontier of truly free speech. Its ubiquity has made it a powerful tool for the spread of ideas and democracy around the globe. While the unparalleled access to information offered by the Internet certainly has its moral and legal pitfalls, its benefits far outweigh all negatives. If, however, "reform" is allowed to have its way and Congress fails to ensure the Internet's continued independence by repealing those parts of McCain-Feingold that impinge upon free speech, the future of this column, and others like it, is anything but certain.

Luckily, it does sound like somebody else has noticed this if you believe this Washington Times article. However, what any of this does not do is get rid of these unconstitutional restrictions on political speech.

This is the way I look at it, as a timeline.

Spring 2000: John McCain is buried in the South Carolina primary after some impressive early wins. As other conservatives drop out of the running, George W. Bush gathers enough momentum and raises enough money to wipe out McCain for the GOP presidential nod.

November 2000: In one of the closest and most bitter elections in our history, George W. Bush wins the electoral vote despite losing the popular vote by less than 1%. Democrats immediately cry foul in Florida, putting the result in doubt for weeks and earning Bush perpetual emnity of most Democrats (including, by definition, Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin.)

January 2001: You have the two Senators above joined together to create the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform package.

June 2001: In the House, Democrat Martin Meehan of Massachusetts and RINO Christopher Shays of Connecticut put together the House version of campaign finance reform.

March 27, 2002: Having been combined and smoothed out of the petty House and Senate differences, the so-called campaign finance reform is signed by President Bush, who expresses reservations about its Constitutionality.

2004: Hundreds of "527" committees spend millions on advertising, the majority of which is supportive of John Kerry. However, George W. Bush wins reelection by a majority of both electoral and popular votes.

Here is a short summary of the bill and court fight from opensecrets.com.

What really irked me when all this came out was that there was a dependence on the Supreme Court to clean this up and sort out what was Constitutional and what was not. I think President Bush was as shocked as anyone that the Court found it compliant. But I wasn't.

Currently we have a court that is split into two camps...unfortunately, the judicial activist camp is the majority. That would be Stevens, Ginsburg, Souter, Breyer, and generally either one or both of Kennedy and O'Connor. The constructionists tend to be Scalia, Thomas, and Rehnquist. In the CFR case, the 5-4 split was the four activists joined by O'Connor.

I'm a believer in free speech. I write this blog because I want as many people to see my opinions and arguments to back them up as possible. That's why it's "news and views from Maryland's Eastern Shore." And dammit, if I ever got enough money to where I could dump millions into a campaign or candidate I believe in, then that is my RIGHT as an American, terrible Supreme Court decision be damned. Someone else has the perfect right to do the opposite. George Soros does it now.

I would like to see someone in Congress do more than Rep. Ney is doing with half-measures to soften the ill effects of CFR. Someone just needs to introduce a bill repealing all limits on campaign finance. Right now, the advantage in CFR goes to the media, who can report what they want as "news" without the target having an opportunity to defend himself. I want to truly level the playing field. Even one George Soros isn't a match for millions contributing in a small way.

Time for some new words

2005-06-09T00:35:00.000-04:00

I knew it would happen. I guess I need to get a laptop and wireless connection because I'm sure not going to sit in here and do this every night when the warm summer evenings beckon. But I did some reading and came across some interesting items online. Meanwhile, my outdoor reading of choice the last few days was a reread of Rush's The Way Things Ought To Be...interesting to see how things have changed 13 years hence.

The big national news tonight is the Senate confirming Janice Rogers Brown and moving on William Pryor's nomination to the bench. I believe he is the last of the three "sacrificial" nominees the D's caved on in their dirty deal with the Sellout Seven. So, after this, look for the long knives of extreme circumstance to come out. Please, Senator Frist, throw one of the abandoned nominees out. I want to see the carnage.

But I ran across an op-ed by David Horowitz I had some thoughts on. It got me to thinking about school days...not all my own, but flashbacks to my ex-wife's second college career (she graduated from the University of Toledo in 1998 after attending Ohio University in the early 1980's. That stopped when she had my stepdaughter.)

She majored in social work at UT, and was told she was "too conservative to be a good social worker" by faculty there. Now, I remember one thing about a woman I was married to for 11 1/2 years, and that's the fact she's nowhere near as right-wing as I am. I would place her maybe a little left of center, moreso now since she works for a quasi-governmental agency. But after just a few trips into her classroom building, I found out just how loony left her instructors were. Even in the era of Clinton, they thought he was way too right-wing. Mention Bush or Reagan and you were an extremist.

Now, I went to Miami University back in the mid-'80's. It was (and is to an extent) considered one of the more conservative places to get an education. I had a roommate who was a College Republican and ROTC...that was not frowned upon at MU during that time.

But, a lot of my classes (and my home for the first 2 years) were over at the old Western College, where MU has its School of Interdisciplinary Studies. This was the former Western College that was annexed into Miami in the early 1970's. And it was widely acknowleged on campus during this Reagan era that "over there at Western is where all the tree-huggers hang out." Trust me, they were right.

Since then, though, when I get the alumni magazine, I find those tree-huggers have spread throughout campus. "Diversity" seems to be the watchword there. Miami's proud of being the top recycling school in the country. I'm more proud of being defending MAC East champions in football, basketball, AND baseball, plus winning the MAC all-sports trophy for the 23rd time since 1958. It may not be relevant to anyone else, but neither is recycling to me.

What's important to me is that they did a reasonable job educating me, or at least taught me how to learn for myself to an extent. The idea behind a good university is not to teach one about multiculturalism or diversity or whatever the academic fad of the time is - the idea is to teach one to teach himself by enhancing their critical thinking skills.

I will say that MU did all right at that, even with their professors being mostly left-wing. But there were some attempts at showing the right side back then. Now any conservative idea is dismissed as "extremist" on a typical college campus. Ask Ann Coulter about her general reception on college campuses. Same goes for onetime leftist David Horowitz. So much for a diversity of thought.

The part that I dislike most about college c. 2005 is that on the one hand they whine and complain that the government doesn't support them enough (here's one typical example from Michigan) which makes costs continue to skyrocket. What they don't tell you is that a large portion of the student's cost is paid by other government programs that saddle the student with debt for years. So colleges still get their money to pay for large administrative salaries, Taj Mahal-like student centers, and bringing radical lefties to graduations like these speakers from 2004.

On the other hand, many of the students they attract and put deep into debt need to take remedial courses to get to a basic freshman level. While some of this is by state mandate, colleges rarely reject applicants meeting a minimum state standard whether they are ready for college or not. To State U., it's all good because the tuition and fees still spend whether the student was in National Honor Society and a 4.0+ student in school or barely passed the SAT after a 2.5 high school career.

What I would like to see is college become tough again, basically something that is earned through hard work and scholarship. Of course, this may discourage the radical leftists because those who work hard for academic success may already have critical thinking skills and reject the propaganda espoused by academia, or at least give it an honest challenge. If it means college enrollment drops in half, so be it. I think many are better suited for something along the lines of a community college or technical school; not that they are dumb, but perhaps a vocational line of education better suits their career goals.

Then we can eliminate the deadwood in the ivory towers, get a more balanced educational system, and save the taxpayers who pay for all the extra bells and whistles found at most universities.

A controversial view? Yes. Do I come across as elitist for denying some an opportunity I had? Probably. But, it is "higher" education. That implies that a higher standard be the norm. Besides, there's no rule that says a college education equates to success. I mentioned at the beginning reading Rush Limbaugh's book - he was a college dropout who made his fortune through hard work and dedication, not by a diploma on the wall. The hard work is what generally leads to success.

I think if we go back to making a college education meaningful, the academic branch of the left wing will be subdued. Until then, the average college has become no more than an indoctrination camp.

One fun annual meeting

2005-06-04T00:30:00.000-04:00

Generally, I would venture to guess that annual meetings of stockholders are staid affairs, where a hotel meeting room is filled with a few people interested enough to hear what the CEO has to say about the company's prospects for the next year. Could be real fun times, I don't know...I have owned stock in several companies over the last 5 years or so, but I've just sent in my proxy and voted my shares that way.

(As an aside, I have a good method for picking people for the boards of directors of the company. I look up who they donate political contributions to - if they donate to Democrats they are O-U-T as far as my vote!)

Anyway, the Wal-Mart annual meeting has got to be a doozy if I believe this Washington Times article. Remember, it only takes one share and you can go to their meeting. So I'm betting every anti-Wal-Mart creep in the country held their nose and bought one share just to go to the stockholder meeting. Interesting how the union thugs got in...obviously their pension fund decided to invest there, or they now own a piece of their non-union competitor.

So the UFCW wants Wal-Mart to "sacrifice profits to help ensure its workers live above the poverty line." Obviously Paul Blank, the leader for the group "Wake Up Wal-Mart" has never run a business. I'm guessing he's got some cushy UFCW job and is a union lifer. That has to be true, because Mr. Blank doesn't understand that the aim for a business is not to employ people at the living wage du jour, but to make a profit for the owner; and if the business is large enough, dividends for the shareholders. Profit is made by selling goods and services at a higher income than the cost of producing or supplying those goods and services...thus it's to the advantage of business to hold labor costs down as they can.

However, that becomes a balancing act - if the wages are too high, then the company has to raise prices and lose market share, which eventually leads to employee dismissal. If wages are set too low, the company may make more money short-term, but sooner or later they lose good employees because they are underpaid. (A simplistic picture because of myriad other factors, but that's the gist of the argument.)

It's obvious Wal-Mart has found a balance there because they have a lot of employees , presumably the vast majority of whom are happy because they continue to work there, and the corporation makes a lot of money - all without the hindrance of unions. And because unions are a business too, and they've seen their market share declining as they price themselves out of labor markets nationwide, Big Labor screams and cries and tries to get their liberal allies in government to slant the playing field toward their side. In the case of Wal-Mart, you get "Fair Share" in Maryland, a bill the unions see as a model for adoption in all the other states.

I suppose if I was only a blogger and didn't have a real job (no, I can't sit here in my pj's all day) I'd go to Arkansas in 2006 after buying one share of Wal-Mart and enjoy the spectacle, maybe argue with some union thugs while I'm there. Gee, it would be like old times, working the polls on Election Day in Toledo, Ohio with my friendly neighborhood Teamster/UAW Jeep goon. And as a bonus, I could see Martha Burk in person and ask her whether she can get Tiger Woods's autograph for me next time she goes to Augusta and harasses a perfectly fine golf club. Yes, she's there too because she thinks women and minorities get screwed on stock options.

But since I do work for a living, I suppose I'll just have to stay around here. Maybe I can buy a share of Perdue (the poultry company, headquarted right here in Salisbury) and find out if all the animal rights wackos come here for the shareholder meetings. That could be fun too!

So I have a suggestion for the companies who are involved in some controversy or another: open up your shareholder meetings and sell spectator tickets! That could be a nice revenue stream once "World Wrestling Entertainment" finishes its plummet out of the public eye.

Also, on a totally unrelated subject: there's another blog linked for your reading pleasure called Regime Change Iran. I added it a few days ago, check it out. We can always use another Middle East ally, particularly one that sits on a crapload of oil.

Three liberal wishes

2005-06-02T23:56:00.000-04:00

Guess I've had my fill of Ohio politics for now, there's not the spark yet on the national scene from Coingate. Of course, it took "Fair Share" here in Maryland a little while to become prominent as well.

So today was a fun day in DC. Actually, any day that Howard Dean is at a microphone is a fun day. I still remember the primal scream in Iowa and thinking, "Boy, Rush is going to have a field day with that tomorrow." Not only did he, it was the end of the Deaniacs in 2004.

But Dean and the liberals today stated they had three goals, well, those besides denying Bush everything from Social Security reform to judge nominees to UN ambassadors.

The first goal is to make pensions portable from job to job. This seems like a good idea on the surface, except that makes for a transfer of one company's assets to another. I actually have a small pension from one of my old employers that I am partially vested in. Would my new employer want to go through the hassle of taking care of a fund that I'm only getting $66 a month from when I turn 65?

Seems to me it's aimed at two constituencies: nervous union members who see their pension funds raided all the time because companies mismanage them (then try to get the government to cover the costs), and squishy moderates who pine for a lite version of Social Security reform without actually privatizing it. It's sad that some people lose their pensions, but to me it's not the government's job to replace them. Unfortunately, from time to time big companies do cease to exist or go bankrupt, and placing your money in their hands is a risk. This was why the 401.(k) plans started in the first place, and why I save my own money and dictate where it goes. In fact, my old company phased out contributing to their pension fund while I was there.

If the liberals want to make pensions portable, why then are they against private Social Security accounts, which would achieve much the same purpose? Could it be because they can't raise business taxes to punish achievers while bailing out mismanagement?

Goal number two is much simpler, and is already in effect in some circles: making Election Day a national holiday, or changing it to a weekend day. The dirty little secret is that it already IS a paid holiday for union members, particularly those in the UAW. Yes, every even-numbered year you can count on Detroit to take time off from building cars to pimp for Democrat candidates. Obviously it works in Michigan, since they voted for Kerry in 2004 after ending a 12 year GOP run in the governors' office in 2002 and defeating GOP incumbent Senator Spence Abraham in 2000. To make it nationwide assures a base of union thugs ready to vote early and often for the D's.

Honestly, how long does it take to vote? I have voted in every election except two since I registered as a 17-year old in 1982. The ones I skipped were because I sent my absentee ballot application to the wrong address while I was in college and the other was a primary in the city I was about to move away from. And it's not like there's not been Democrats working the polls against me when I did. (That was always fun, arguing politics with them...both of us convinced we're right.)

And the third idea about a "paper trail" after electronic balloting is actually a good one - but it should be left to the states as is proper rather than by federal government mandate. Besides, we all know what happens with paper ballots in places like, say, Florida.

I guess what I would like to see is actual ideas of substance, but unfortunately, these ideas seem to be hard to come by at a liberal gathering. There was a time and place for many of the programs and ideas that were done by Democrats, but the problem is now that they're bloated big-government programs that are outmoded and need to be replaced.

So we have one more day of Dean and his friends flapping their jaws, trashing President Bush, and generally creating more hot air. Meanwhile, those of us who work and pay taxes will continue living our lives despite their not-so-bright ideas.

Coingate - not worth the change

2005-06-02T00:23:00.000-04:00

Wow, did I run into a firestorm back in Ohio. Front page news every day I was there, and it continues today. The Blade even gives credit to the blogs following the story - of course, I checked them out too and they are all left-leaning. I may be one of the few right-wingers who wants to touch this.

The lefties in Ohio are just about having a collective orgasm over all this, even moreso than "Deep Throat." That seems to still be the big story in the partisan media, here's one example. I suppose it's good fortune for the GOP that Coingate was buried by the "Deep Throat" revelation, but they'll need all the time they can get to work on some spin. Ok, leftists, you caught one of ours playing dirty. Score one for you guys. Now, when you find money from China coming in to our party like happened under Clinton, then you'll have something. (Note: I had a link but questioned the source...however, it did happen in the 1990's. Trust me.)

So what do I think happens from here? Well, there's two things that work in the GOP's favor to some extent in Ohio. One is that there's 18 months between now and Election Day 2006 and at some point other issues such as pocketbook issues will take hold. The second is that the leading GOP candidate for governor, Ken Blackwell, has taken the smallest donation amount of the three leading candidates for the governor's seat (Blackwell will most likely be facing either: Betty Montgomery, currently Ohio's attorney general; or Jim Petro, the current Ohio state auditor.) It can also be argued that either or both Montgomery and Petro were asleep at the switch while this all occurred, since Montgomery's main job is law enforcement and Petro's main job is making sure all the state accounts are in order. And trust me, the Democrats are most scared of Blackwell - shrilly screaming "Help Ohio Democrats Stop Ken Blackwell!" on the front page of their website.

But, on the other hand, it's arguable as well that the timing is similar to the Home State scandal that swept Democrats out of office in 1990. Luckily, Ohio's everyday life is not as impacted by this as it was by banks closing up shop. It is a blow to Ohio's investment income, but $12 million is a small figure compared to the whole pie. This is assuming that the $12 million figure is correct and a total loss. Whatever assets are seized and sold defray the amount of loss.

What the D's are whining about most is all the campaign finance money that Noe came up with. They are calling for its return, to which I say not now. If there are convictions, yes. The only court Tom Noe has been tried in yet is the court of public opinion, egged on by the leftist rag sold on the streets of Toledo. If the Noes are found to have benefitted improperly from their unauthorized use of state money (in other words, if they stole it to buy their houses and such), then yes, I will be the first to admit they're no better than the guy who steals your wallet or breaks into your car.

However, the officeholders and candidates involved are not crooked. When they took the Noes' money, does one honestly think they knew where it came from? The man has (or maybe had by now) a legitimate coin business and has done so for several years, with his wife being a local attorney and coming from a respected family herself (the Restivo family boasts at least one local judge that I recall.) There was nothing in their past that would send up a red flag to the people they gave money to.

So right now I advise all to chill and let the investigation take its course. And, if the Blade wants to get their news from bloggers, perhaps they should make a note to look at blogs from both sides and report when Democrats are crooked as well.

Just a blog before I go

2005-05-28T23:42:00.000-04:00

Since I'm trying to clean up and catch up with stuff before I spend my Memorial Day with my parents in Ohio, I'll get a blog entry in before I head northwest back to the Buckeye State.

Seems to me this week that just because Maryland has taken a break from legislative news, it didn't mean that government among the several states did. On Thursday, the news out of Tennessee was that four legislators were arrested in Knoxville for their involvement with an FBI sting operation. They accepted money to sponsor legislation from a phony electronics recycling operation (dubbed by the FBI "Operation Tennessee Waltz",) so Thursday they were led out of their building in handcuffs. The three Democrats and one Republican included the uncle of Congressman Harold Ford, a Tennessee Democrat who just announced a 2006 Senate bid. Nice way to start the campaign. That's going to be developed a lot further by Bill Hobbs in Tennessee, he's got an excellent blog dealing with those local issues. I'd like to pattern my blog after his to an extent.

Then today I was talking to ex-wife #1 (the one I still get along with) and she pointed me to a story in my old backyard of Toledo, Ohio. Seems the Ohio Workers Compensation fund lost millions in a rare coin investment gone sour. At this point, the WC director in Ohio has resigned and the Democrats are blaming a "culture of cronyism" in Columbus. Sad thing is, they're right, but it's a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Toledo and Lucas County have their share of corruption in the Democratic circles, but it's kept down by the local paper which is an extreme leftist rag. (The Blade is the link for the story above.)

The coin dealer in question is a guy named Tom Noe. I'm trying to think if I ever met him, because we did run in the same circles vis-a-vis the Lucas County GOP. His wife, Bernadette, was the chair of the LCRP for one term a couple years ago (after I had moved to adjacent Wood County.) So I know the names, anyway. Of course, both of them ran to Florida to a new home just recently...the sticky web even includes a former Republican state senator who's buying their old condo. (That deal seems to be on the up-and-up, though.)

The bad news for the GOP is twofold. Tom and Bernadette Noe contributed thousands to local, state, and national candidates and PAC's. I just linked to the federal site, right there is over $50,000 for just the last 3 cycles. Add it the state candidates with over $100,000 (searched from followthemoney.org) and the tenticles reach to almost every northwest Ohio Republican candidate.

Secondly, this comes on the heels of an already fed-up electorate. The Ohio GOP needs this like a hole in the head, and The Blade is only too happy to blast one into them. Ohio has a lame-duck GOP governor (really Bob Taft is a RINO, but the "R" is still by his name) limping along with a 34% approval rating, with 2006 being an election year. The conservatives in the state also have to be fed up with both Senators DeWine and Voinovich; DeWine for being one of the "sell-out seven", and Voinovich for slowing John Bolton's confirmation as UN ambassador. Meanwhile, the Ohio Democratic Party has to be dancing in the streets. They smell a chance to regain power since all of the major state offices from governor on down come up for election again in 2006. I fear that they may take advantage of a dissatisfied electorate.

It's amazing what happens when you leave "home" for seven months. I had no inkling about this until I talked to my ex, who lives in the Cleveland area. But looking at the Sun website doing the search for the Voinovich link, there's an AP story about the ODWC resignation, so I may have seen it before too long anyway. Lord knows I'll hear nothing but stuff about it once I get back to northwest Ohio.

So, for those of you who have started following me, I will be away until Tuesday. Being that it's summer and I'm a person who likes to be outside, blogging will be somewhat sporadic for awhile but as things heat up for 2006, I'll probably be daily. Just a heads-up. Of course, that's all relative because I like writing, so maybe I'll just open the window and sit here anyway.

And yet more passion

2005-05-25T23:11:00.000-04:00

Awwwww mannnnn...after I write nice things about Linda Chavez she has to go and write this drivel. Linda, I hate to break it to you, but when the day comes and the liberals connive the country into letting them take over again, there will be no such thing as minority rights, and they sure as hell ain't going to fool around like the GOP does.

Assuming all seven of the Democrat "moderates" are still in the Senate then, there's no way on God's green earth that they'll step outside what the party wants of them. The Dems will ramrod every one of those nominees through and if the GOP tries to stop it, the McCainiacs will nip that probability in the bud yesterday.

It's funny, I don't ever recall any pressing for "minority rights" until, gee, the last 10 years.

Oh well, it's late and I don't want to write all night, us productive Americans on the right who really make this country the great nation it still is need to get our rest.

I am adding a few links to my growing list, cool sites all.

No deal!

2005-05-23T23:39:00.000-04:00

I don't care what the Democrats say about all this...you know as well as I do that "extraordinary circumstances" will mean any potential judge who is pro-life, and if not, certainly any judge who is a minority that Bush tries to appoint.

Reading the late story in the Baltimore Sun as I speak... Bush damn well better not "consult" with any Democrats, we know what judges they'll want - the same crappy ones who pollute the Ninth Circuit, for example.

And now I know the 7 RINOs who are in my "Hall of Shame" for this effort to destroy our majority rights:

Lincoln Chaffee of Rhode Island...already knew he was a RINO.
Susan Collins of Maine...see above.
Mike DeWine of Ohio...I'm ashamed I went to his ice cream social in 2000. Of course, as I recall I did vote for the Libertarian that year; frankly it was because I knew he had the election in the bag. But he's really turned into a mushy moderate in term #2. I'll have to get off his mailing list.
Lindsey Graham of South Carolina...he used to be pretty good, I think he's lost his spine in his time in DC.
John McCain of Arizona...now that's a surprise :::as he drips with sarcasm::: . Anything to make Bush look bad and get himself some ink. The Democrats' "maverick" hero. He's really lucky he has 5 years to make Arizona voters forget this.
Olympia Snowe of Maine...see her Northeast liberal RINO friends above.
John Warner of Virginia...that one surprises me some, and boy does he look bad compared to his fellow Virginian George Allen. I don't think Allen would do this deal, he has some backbone still.

I look at this and wonder why the hell we worked to get a majority. Sure, we may get Pricilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown on a couple appellate court seats, but if Bush nominates any of these folks to the Supreme Court, the bloodbath will reoccur. And I doubt the Democrats who run against any of those "Spineless Seven" on the ballot in 2006 or 2008 will bring up the fact that they voted for compromise, only that they are evil, nasty, right-wing extremist Republicans.

My early prediction is that Mike DeWine just signed his political death warrant by agreeing to this. This isn't going to be forgotten by Ohio voters in 2006. Graham and Warner may have enough time to repair the damage since they're not up until 2008. The others are either from blue states or want to run for President.

I guess I hope that the D's overplay their hand. Please, President Bush, nominate somebody like Roy Moore to the appellate court! Then we can see the D's for the lying sacks of shit they are.

Higher stakes

2005-05-21T23:53:00.000-04:00

Being a new Maryland resident and being encouraged to do so from my Maryland GOP e-mail update, I turned on my TV and watched the Preakness go down at Pimlico. Speaking of going down, that was some riding by Jeremy Rose aboard Afleet Alex to save the horse from falling (as well as himself.) That could have been fatal to horse or jockey. But they recovered and finished in the money, denying a Triple Crown yet again. I think the last time it was achieved was in 1978, somewhere in that era.

What perked my interest during the prerace buildup was one of the commentators making a long editorial about Maryland's not having slots yet (as opposed to several neighboring states) and it's impact on the racing industry here. She even darkly intoned that the Preakness could be moved from Pimlico eventually and the track closed if no new money comes in.

I was trying to think about this over the last few hours. As far as I can reckon, the Preakness is Maryland's sole major single sporting event. The only other thing I can think of is the McDonald's LPGA tournament held in Havre de Grace, which is considered a major on the LPGA circuit...but women's golf doesn't have a large following per se. I know we have the Terps, Orioles and Ravens, but those are multi-session seasons rather than one event. But Maryland has no NASCAR track or other single-purpose venue that hosts a particular sport.

So is this a real threat or just bluster? It does seem that horse racing as an industry has seen better days. Back in the 60's, that was about the only game in town if you were one who wanted to gamble. But with the advent of state lotteries and eventually their scratch-off tickets and twice-daily number drawings, one didn't have to wait long nor hang out with the seedy people at the track to get a gambling fix. When slots came to Delaware in the mid-90's, that was even a bigger pull for those who wanted to wager. Delaware was smart enough to tie their slot barns to the existing racetracks; thus, Harrington and Dover became prime destinations for Maryland gamblers.

I have some experience with all this, being from a state that has turned down legalizing slots twice in the 1990's. Ohio still complains that a lot of its money goes across to most of its neighboring states who all have legalized slots and/or table games. And yes, I'll raise my hand on that, I made 3-4 trips a year up to the casinos in Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. The Buckeye State actually has many of the same problems as far as failing horse racetracks go, what they don't have is a Triple Crown jewel.

I'm starting to grudgingly warm to the idea of slot machines in Maryland. I didn't vote for them either time in Ohio, but it seems to me that things are run well in Harrington. My fear is that coming into the gambling market so late will leave a shortfall in revenue from what is expected and as always the taxpayers will have their pockets picked again. Plus we'll get the sob stories from people in Baltimore who lose their homes and such and expect the government to help them out because, after all, it was their casinos' fault that these folks lost their possessions.

But, if we are to get casino gambling in Maryland, leave the Eastern Shore out. I like having to actually drive 40 miles to lose money. To be honest, last time I went I left after only about an hour because I lost my desire to throw money in the slots...actually I was about break-even at the time. So I drove 45 minutes each way to spend an hour there.

If the people of Maryland want to keep their one slice of American sporting pie, they'll go cheerfully lose their money at the Pimlico slot barn. That's fine, just don't expect me to join in.

Adding the links

2005-05-19T23:33:00.000-04:00

A quick note...I added some other Maryland-related links I looked over tonight. You'll notice "One Big Dog" to your right, along with the "Hedgehog Report" and "Righting America."

I like to know what others have to say about our Free State. Sounds like Mayor O'Malley in Baltimore has some infidelity issues? Check out these other blogs and see, I'll let them follow it for now.

Big brother IS watching

2005-05-19T21:38:00.000-04:00

After reading this story in the Baltimore Sun I'm humming to myself the song "Electric Eye", a 1982 release by the metal group Judas Priest. That wasn't too far from 1984 and neither is this.

The quote I found most amazing was that "(c)ity officials argue that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy on a public street. The cameras, they say, do not see anything more than a police officer could see." That is, if a police officer can follow a car or a person unnoticed anywhere within a 40 square block area of West Baltimore.

And it's certainly not that I'm soft on crime. If a person wants to ring his private property with surveillance cameras and have someone watch every move made on what is theirs, hey, more power to them. And I would expect such things at banks or in stores as a shoplifting deterrent. While there is possibly a use for this as a crime deterrent (it's noted in the story that studies are mixed on the effectiveness of cameras as a tool), there's also the fact that it is an invasion of my privacy to have Big Brother following me down the street. And actually, if I'm walking or driving down the street minding my own business, I DO have an expectation of privacy.

Besides, much like the cameras that catch you at red lights, these cameras are only successful after the fact. Where Baltimore officials see this as an extension of the police, this only can be useful after the fact. If they reduce police presence on the street because X number of cameras cover the area, that doesn't help the poor soul who gets his brains blown out in a street robbery. You may get a nice picture of the perp but if the people who are supposed to be watching miss out, there's a good chance the robber gets away. He could be in Virginia by the time the word gets out to the media.

I also find it interesting that Homeland Security money was used for this. We can't pay for another several thousand Border Patrol agents and actual bodies on the street, which work best for fighting crime and terrorism, but we can hand off a couple million to Baltimore to scope out mostly petty street crimes. I suppose it is the drawback of giving money to the states to see as they do fit with it, sometimes it's spent in a foolish manner.

There was some good news on the Wal-Mart front today, but it's tempered by a late announcement. As I had hoped, Governor Ehrlich vetoed the so-called Fair Share Health Care Act at a public ceremony in Princess Anne today. That community is the seat of Somerset County, one of the most rural Maryland counties and one who's expectant of hundreds of jobs from a proposed Wal-Mart distribution center. (I live just a few miles from the county, it's on the southern border of Wicomico County where I live.) But the announcement that the opening of this center has been pushed back to 2008 or 2009 put a late damper on the news. (That news actually came on the Sun website as I was writing this. In fact, they changed the headline from being about Ehrlich's veto to the distribution center delay.) While it was not expressed directly, the feeling is that Wal-Mart's going to wait and see about whether this veto is overridden.

So I have some work to do, I'll need to fire up my letter-writing talents and see what other action there is for me to take before we kick a politically incorrect company out of Maryland.

Like sausage, links!

2005-05-16T22:53:00.000-04:00

Tonight's blog will be mercifully short, I want to get to bed at a decent time!

Did finally get to peruse some of the e-mail that piles up in my box (lots of baseball this weekend, so I didn't have a lot of reading time.)

Found some good commentaries from Thomas Sowell and Linda Chavez about topics I've recently expounded upon. Nice to know I'm agreed with for the most part. I really like Dr. Sowell and it's always nice to hear from him when Walter E. Williams ("black by popular demand") guest-hosts on Rush. Linda Chavez is a good labor columnist, although I do disagree with her on the subject of guest workers.

And my favorite Ohio politician got a write-up in Sunday's Cincinnati Enquirer. There's times I wish I was back in Ohio to support Ken Blackwell, and it's not a surprise to me he has a double-digit lead in early 2006 election polls (Ohio elects a new governor, Bob Taft is term-limited out.) I think Ohioans are sick to death of Governor Taft. I just hope they realize that electing a Democrat won't help any, most likely it would preserve the status quo. I remember back in 1998 I was already in Blackwell's camp, but the GOP hierarchy back then was solidly behind Taft and got Blackwell to take his current Secretary of State post. That was upsetting - I believe in contested primaries, may the best person win.

Another intriguing story occurred last Wednesday. See, I knew the creeps were out last week - just in time for Friday the 13th, George Soros came to Baltimore. He's looking for a $20 million match (to his $10 million) from Baltimore residents and friends to keep the Baltimore branch of the Open Society Institute open. And, knowing how liberal Baltimore is and how much slobbering the left does over anyone who hates Bush, he may get it...probably with some help from unsuspecting Maryland taxpayers.

Actually I found this out reading an unrelated story about USAID and needle exchange programs in Central Asia. You probably know that Soros is a drug legalizer from way back, so that wouldn't surprise me.

It's just more insanity in government. What else is new?

Another swing and a miss

2005-05-15T22:47:00.000-04:00

In the continuing saga of the "partisan" media making up items and hoping they stick to the wall, Newsweek joins CBS News in getting a story wrong. This time, after claiming that our interrogators took pages from the Quran down at Gitmo and flushed them down a toilet, they backed off the story today.

What I find interesting is that Newsweek never seems to take the time and energy to go over to Iraq or Afghanistan and talk about all the good happening. If nothing else, the rape rooms are gone and metal shredders are being used for their appointed purposes instead of becoming killing devices as they were under Saddam. Just seems like anyone who whispers anything bad about conservatives and/or the U.S. military will have his story believed.

Speaking of the military, I saw a story about the howls of protest regarding base closings, including a statement from Wesley Clark today. Add that to the Congressmen and states lining up against the closings and it's a wonder any cut of government is even possible. I'm shocked that the liberals aren't speaking out in favor of this - after all, it is a cut in the military. When Clinton was President, wasn't that where most of the government job cuts came from? One thing I did like about the idea behind the closure was the consolidation aspect - putting separate branches of the military together at installations makes sense to me.

I especially thought it apt when I saw a picture of a protest at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard closing - wonder what those guys think of their union now? Now, I know it's going to be tough on those communities but to me it shows what happens when towns put their economic eggs in one basket. And what government can give, government can taketh away.

Little noticed in all this was a idea by President Bush to build oil refineries on closed military bases. While it's not the panacea to every large base and installation closure, think Groton or Portsmouth (both within the energy-hungry Northeast) would turn up their nose at these jobs given the choice? Yeah, they are both in blue states, I bet they would. Ship and submarine building is such clean work, we don't want those dirty oil refineries here. Better to blame Bush for hard times because he picked their base for closure.

Ever notice that Congress is now too gutless to do this base closure thing themselves? They have to pick a commission to do it, that way they all go back to their districts and can say, "hey, it wasn't my fault that the government closed Fort (fill in the blank)."

Now my question: what actually happens when these places close? Does the government keep the land? This ties in with my comments about Maryland selling off state land. I'm all for putting it back in the private sector!

One final note before I call it a night, on one of my favorite subjects. Today in the Daily Times there was a letter from my state senator, J. Lowell Stoltzfus, regarding his opposition to the "Fair Share Health Care Act" (aka the "Wal-Mart bill"). It was a well-written letter and I e-mailed him a short note of appreciation:

Dear Senator Stoltzfus:

Right on! I emphatically agree with the sentiments you shared in the letter regarding Wal-Mart. I have myself contributed to the Daily Times "Grapevine" on the subject (regarding and agreeing with their editorial in April) and also sent a letter to Governor Ehrlich imploring him to veto the "Fair Share Health Care Act" despite the likelihood of an override.

Your letter nicely ties together a lot of the pro-business arguments that fell on deaf ears among those on the left side of the aisle in Annapolis. It certainly is a reminder that government at the behest of special interests provides little to the average Free Stater.

And, something you may not know: far from being a minimum wage employer, Wal-Mart's wages are relatively decent. I was shopping in the Fruitland store today and they were advertising in-store for new cashiers, paying from $7.15 to $9.15 an hour (based on experience). So it's not just the Somerset distribution center that will pay a fairly decent wage for the work and skills required.

I shudder to think what would happen to the local and state economy if Wal-Mart suddenly decided to pull out of Maryland. Hopefully the business savvy that has led them to succeed this long (despite fierce union opposition in a lot of markets) will continue even with this possible setback.

Again, kudos for having your voice of reason heard today in the Daily Times.

Sincerely,

Michael Swartz

I honestly think that this issue will not go away quietly. With the anti-business slant of the Maryland General Assembly quite apparent now, I see this as a possible 2006 issue. We just need a strong leader on it, but sadly I'm not sure Governor Ehrlich has enough pull on it, nor is he going to get any help from the partisan media (Baltimore Sun - "Light for All, unless it makes us liberals look bad!") Tough to deal with this from such a position of weakness. In Maryland, I sometimes feel like I do when I lived in the city of Toledo - sitting in my Alamo while the overwhelming force of liberalism shoots cannon at the walls of common sense and limited government. In both cases, liberals and their union allies are manning the guns.