“Racism” raises its ugly head. I’m beheading it.

As my faithful readers know, I was on the radio this morning. I’ll come back to that subject a little later, but the main point of my post this evening occurred after seeing a Daily Times piece that “Cato” showed to me as he was reading his copy. It seems that Salisbury City Councilperson Shanie Shields and Wicomico NAACP head Mary Ashanti are a little miffed at the makeup of the Wicomico Neighborhood Congress, and then the Daily Times piled on by noting that no one living west of Hebron is in the group. So already the group is backtracking and trying to be more “inclusive.”

This raises several questions in my mind. First and foremost, where does “inclusion” end? Are there any Hispanics or Asians on the commitee, or does it even stop at race? Are we going to hear next from the GLBT crowd if we find that all of the steering committee members are straight?

To me, the people to ask about this lack of “people of color” on the committee are Shanie and Mary. Because Shanie Shields is now the membership director, I can throw the question back at her and Mary Ashanti – what have you done to encourage participation from that community? (Complaining to the Daily Times doesn’t count.) Perhaps they’ll say a few words about it on March 29th because District 1 County Councilperson Sheree Sample-Hughes is starting her promised quarterly meetings on that night.

Personally I heard about the Wicomico Neighborhood Congress through news coverage but I recall there were several radio ads on WICO-AM, and I’d guess on their sister stations as well. Between news/talk, midtempo rock, country, and smooth jazz, they should’ve covered a good chunk of the demographics.

Some of you may know this and some may not, but I’m one of those 50 or so volunteers who asked about joining. So I have a vested interest in the WNC, and I didn’t join this outfit because I was looking for “diversity”. Each area of Wicomico County and each community is free to participate as it wishes. And it may be that the fine folks in places like Mardela Springs, Bivalve, and Tyaskin are taking a “wait and see” approach as they warily eye our group. So I participated in the vote, and while I had up to 10 choices I selected just four because they were people I knew and had a good impression about. Unfortunately, I’ve not been able to attend these steering committee meetings because I have another commitment on Tuesday nights; however, I’ll be able to get my input in after April 10th.

Lost in all the hubbub is the simple fact that this body is only being organized at the moment – the purpose of the steering committee is to set rules, bylaws, and guidelines that the WNC will go by. I don’t believe the actual group will get down to business until May. And, while I’d like plenty of participation, a group the size of that discussed in the Daily Times today (up to 400) would, in my estimation, be far too unwieldy to be any good.

My intention in joining the WNC was to represent the neighborhood in which I bought my house. Part of that will actually be attempting to form our own neighborhood group since as far as I know, none exists. To that end, I’m going to represent everyone regardless of race, creed, color, religion…they’re my neighbors. So I wish the minority communities would get over their attitude about someone not of their race representing them. It’s counterproductive and takes away from the work that’s being started.

All right, a few words about my radio time this morning. I’m not as sure I was as on my game today as I could’ve been. At times I find it much easier to write the correct words and string together coherent thoughts than to say them, and this morning was one of those times. Fortunately, my friend G.A. (“Cato”) doesn’t have that problem as much as I do so we did all right. But I could’ve done better, I got a bit off track on my one thought and lost my opportunity to tie it back to where I wanted to go with it.

I still like the thought of a portion of the old mall becoming a business incubator if the building is structurally sound enough and can be refurbished at a reasonable cost. I know it may be far too late for that, but at least I’ve made the effort and placed the idea in the hopper. I also know the old Station 16 firehouse was discussed today by John Robinson and Terry Cohen, and I know my blogging cohort Joe Albero has a cash offer for the building on the table. What I’d like to see is his plan, as well as any other ones for the building. I’m led to assume that it’s reasonably sound structurally, so it’s not a likely candidate for the wrecking ball like the old mall is.

As I noted this morning, my job depends on investment from people with a dream. Since I like this area and have adopted it as home, I’d like to stay here. Dealing with petty squabbles about racial makeup of a steering committee detracts from the goal we should all have, one of making this community a better one for people like me to adopt.

My impressions on the FOP/CFF Salisbury City Council forum

Editor’s note: at noon today, the firefighters announced they’re endorsing Terry Cohen, Tim Spies, and Louise Smith for the City Council race. It’ll be interesting to see how the Daily Times plays this and who they’ll endorse here in a couple weeks.

In talking to “Cato” of Delmarva Dealings and Joe Albero of Salisbury News after tonight’s forum, it appears they’re going to leave the field to me for comment for the time being. (As he rubs his hands in glee…) So here goes. Besides, I’m sure Cato will have something to say to me on this tomorrow morning.

Just like last time, I’m scoring the candidates on a scale from 1-10 for their remarks, but there are a couple exceptions which I’ll go into when they occur. I also like it better when candidates do and say things that to me represent out-of-the-box thinking, so that scores higher with me. So, without further ado, I’ll begin with the…

Opening statement: No one got off to a really clear advantage here. As usual, most of the candidates went into the items in their background which they thought gave them an advantage in seeking the seat. Terry Cohen did mention that she was the “luckiest woman alive” because of her experience so far, and Louise Smith noted that, despite the fact she’s running for City Council, she really isn’t crazy. (It brought a chuckle from the audience.) Don Ewalt billed himself as efficient and effective.

But Tim Spies got out of the gate quicker than the rest, producing a pledge that he bade all of the other candidates sign to maintain what so far has been a reasonably clean campaign (with the possible exception of “Leadership for Salisbury’s Future“). It was a bit of grandstanding, but the message of keeping the campaign positive and on issue appealed to me best. Ewalt 6, Smith 6, Atkins 5, Comegys 5, Spies 7, Cohen 6.

TIF/infrastructure: Let me state once again for the record that I thought the TIF was a bad idea, and to some extent rewards a developer who behaved badly by allowing his property to become decrepit. This affects my point scale. Also, with each question all the participants had an opportunity to rebut statements made or add to their point, so candidates who took advantage got extra points on a scale from 1 to 5.

On the side of the TIF it was Ewalt, Atkins, and Comegys. Of the three, Don Ewalt made the most compelling pro-TIF argument, noting that the mall property collects $40,000 in taxes now but the development would lead to 4,000 construction jobs. (Thinking about that, was that a misstatement?) But Ewalt called the Old Mall project “smart growth” and noted that you have to spend money to make money. Of those speaking against the TIF, Terry Cohen made the best point when she noted that private property should be financed with private money. Tim Spies chimed in that the city needed to be responsible to see that the Old Mall building was down, and that the developer paid the freight. Ewalt 4, Smith 8, Atkins 2, Comegys 2, Spies 10, Cohen 10.

On rebuttal, Louise Smith did call for the five acres at the southwest corner of the site to be reserved for Civic Center parking. John Atkins claimed that the TIF was financing, much like one would finance a business. For his part, Gary Comegys claimed that the TIF was an “investment in the community” and would bring in $400,000 in revenue in five years’ time. And while Tim Spies thought that TIF’s were only appropriate for commercial entities (as opposed to residential), Terry Cohen mentioned the fact that the site had an approved redevelopment plan (with no TIF) as far back as 1998. Outstanding detective work. Don Ewalt made no rebuttal, thus no points. Ewalt 0, Smith 3, Atkins 2, Comegys 2, Spies 2, Cohen 3.

Pay parity: This was a question I expected, and the first of several that covered a lot of the same ground. Obviously, all of the candidates were in favor of paying cops and firefighters more. Don Ewalt noted that “some candidates” would raise taxes, but also wondered if the pay parity would have to be extended to all city employees. Louise Smith suggested (for the first of three different times) the possibility of attaining state or federal grants. John Atkins stated an obvious fact that turnover cost the city a lot of money, while Gary Comegys did a Clintonesque finger wagging in stating he’d “never voted against the fire service.” Terry Cohen did bring up the aspect of impact fees, but Tim Spies actually had numbers – stating a first-year Ocean City police officer made $20.54 an hour for a 48 hour week, or over $50,000 a year compared to an SPD rookie making $32,000 per year. He wanted to find the money where it could be found. Ewalt 6, Smith 7, Atkins 5, Comegys 4, Spies 6, Cohen 5.

Only Gary Comegys, Tim Spies, and Terry Cohen took advantage of the rebuttal in this case. Comegys noted that a balance was required because tax increases would hurt those on fixed incomes. On the other hand, Tim Spies made the point that a tax increase was all but promised for next year anyway. But he wanted to work harder at increasing the tax base through commercial and industrial development. And for her part, Terry Cohen went with a true rebuttal, saying that she wanted to “stop the distortions” and state clearly that to her a tax increase was a “last resort.” Ewalt 0, Smith 0, Atkins 0, Comegys 2, Spies 5, Cohen 3.

Police attrition: This question dealt with an interesting statistic. Salisbury’s police department has had a 58% turnover rate in the last few years, whereas the national average is 8%. Once again, no one accepts this rate, but what to do about it was mixed. Don Ewalt wanted to add more officers and bring the force up from 88 to even 100. He also advocated more patrols, expanding block watch programs, and keeping the substations open 24/7. I just wasn’t quite sure how that answered the question. Louise Smith brought up the specter of collective bargaining because the department was so frustrated with their situation, and Terry Cohen talked about this affecting the quality of life. On the other hand, John Atkins thought that pay wasn’t the only issue and input was needed from the public safety rank and file.

Looking back at his record, Gary Comegys stated that police starting salaries had increased 22% since he took office, along with better retirement benefits. He warned not to promise what couldn’t be delivered. But I thought Tim Spies had a good answer, tying it into pay increases created by additional commercial development, but also looking into things like housing incentives, which I believe already exist in other places. Ewalt 4, Smith 6, Atkins 4, Comegys 4, Spies 8, Cohen 5.

Again, not all candidates took the opportunity to expand their remarks in rebuttal. Louise Smith went back to mentioning the idea of exploring federal grants to supplement public safety pay (none went to Salisbury last year), and Gary Comegys restated that the public safety employees got a larger increment raise last year than other city employees. This was noted after Terry Cohen spoke about the 2% increase for senior officers, a charge that had Comegys shaking his head in disagreement before he had a shot at rebutting. Ewalt 0, Smith 2, Atkins 0, Comegys 1, Spies 0, Cohen 2.

Singer study: This was the final “prepared” question and definitely the weakest among them. The city spent $40,000 on a study relating to pay parity among city employees, and only Gary Comegys had seen it. In fact, no one even rebutted the question after it was answered, and the only piece of information not rehashed from before that came out of it was when Gary Comegys said that, to give each police officer a $10,000 raise, it would cost the city over $800,000 – that translated into a 6% tax increase for everyone. So I’ll give him 2 bonus points for putting a number to this. Ewalt 0, Smith 0, Atkins 0, Comegys 2, Spies 0, Cohen 0.

After a break, there were five questions from the audience and selected by the public safety folks who were in attendance. Frankly, none were great and some were really bad so I only scored three of the five.

Oversight: This question was one regarding oversight of department heads by City Council. To me, the proper answer was that City Council had no direct oversight (being the legislative branch) but could act in an advisory capacity – if the people had problems with a particular department, the people would let the Council know and they could advise the Mayor. The best answer of the six was Terry Cohen’s, as she stressed a need for “diligent” oversight and used the late audit as an example of when Council needed to speak up. Don Ewalt did ponder the idea of expanding City Council, which didn’t really answer the question but bears study as Salisbury grows. Ewalt 5, Smith 5, Atkins 5, Comegys 5, Spies 5, Cohen 7. No one rebutted the question so no extra points.

Non-police crime solutions: Because the question specifically excluded the salary aspect, it was the best question of the audience group. Don Ewalt tied crime to growth, and repeated his call for more officers, along with a Police Athletic League or something along that line to engage the youth. Louise Smith touched on her five-point plan for fighting crime, which included the PAL idea and neighborhood watch, along with a community police coordinator and more patrols at hot spots.

But John Atkins and Gary Comegys tied the problems more to a general decline in values; Comegys in particular saw a need to invest more in the children. And while Terry Cohen also treaded that same path (speaking about those who had no father figure), she also added the element of strengthening neighborhoods. That part was heavily emphasized by Tim Spies, who brought the issue of affordable housing into the discussion. This had some good answers. Ewalt 3, Smith 8, Atkins 6, Comegys 5, Spies 6, Cohen 6.

Only Tim Spies didn’t take advantage of the rebuttal time. Both Don Ewalt and John Atkins expanded on Spies’ point by adding a mention of the Habitat for Humanity program, and Louise Smith hammered on the grant idea again. I have one disagreement with her, though – grants are taxpayer dollars, just shared by a wider range of people. We may not pay for a federal grant to Salisbury directly, but we might be paying for one to Bozeman, Montana our of our pocket. Gary Comegys thought we were an attraction to crime as we’re a business attraction for the Delmarva region. But Terry Cohen claimed that she “didn’t accept” the theory that growth creates crime. It’s a matter of managing resources as we grow, she noted. Ewalt 3, Smith 2, Atkins 4, Comegys 2, Spies 0, Cohen 4.

Now, the next two questions that were asked, I just thought they were awful. One regarded a study as to why officers leave the SPD, and the other was simply asking whether the Council candidates thought they could live on the SPD starting salary of $32,000 a year. The best answer to the former question was given by Terry Cohen, who wondered what the “real story” was behind the turnover. But no one answered the latter question as I would have.

If one is serious about being a police officer, they have to know that the pay rate for a rookie officer in a small city is not going to be particularly high. That’s one sacrifice they make in pursuing a career in public service, and it’s a factor a young person needs to weigh. On the other hand, most officers are eligible for a full retirement at a relatively young age (Sheriff Lewis being one example.) Indeed, their job is fraught with potential danger – after all, we read often about a traffic stop turned fatal or a officer killed in the line of duty pursuing a suspect. But in many respects our military earns a much smaller salary for work that’s at times much more dangerous and deadly. I drove by a reminder of that on the way to the forum. In other words, to become a cop is a trade-off and no one going in has any excuse to be unaware of the circumstances under which they will toil.

Audit: The final question regarded the city’s tardy audit. And once again, there is a proper answer to the question, which is that the audit is the sole responsibility of the executive branch. Because Tim Spies was first to answer the question exactly that way, he got the most points. (He went second in the rotation, it was Terry Cohen’s weakest answer of the night that went first.) And by saying what he did, Spies placed everyone else in the position where they had to agree with him. The rest did with varying results. Ewalt 6, Smith 7, Atkins 6, Comegys 7, Spies 10, Cohen 4.

Only Ewalt, Smith, and Cohen took time to rebut, and all added a valid point or two. Don Ewalt observed that the timing for additional auditing help is bad – although on second thought, he’s not that correct because the audit’s actually due in November, not over the winter when accountants are busy preparing taxes. Louise Smith did correctly state that a late audit affects the budgetary process, while Terry Cohen indirectly made a nod to the blogs by saying the people can make their voice heard on the subject as well. Ewalt 1, Smith 2, Atkins 0, Comegys 0, Spies 0, Cohen 2.

Finally, we got to the closing statements. In a nutshell:

Don Ewalt: His experience sets him apart from the field. He’s “concerned” about the tone of current City Council meetings and wanted more respect and civility. Also, he wanted to reinterate his support of “smart growth.”

Louise Smith: Simply, end the contention and bring integrity to City Council.

John Atkins: Citing a number of community leaders from the past, he stated a need for that sort of leadership, but you also have to work with the people that you currently have.

Gary Comegys: There are certain things in the community that reflect well on us, and he was “excited about the opportunity” to serve again.

Tim Spies: He drew the first closing statement, so he exhorted those in attendance and eventually watching the taped rebroadcast to “tell others what you’ve learned” as a result of the debate.

Terry Cohen: Relating recent events in her personal life, she called public safety forces an “integral part of life” and told the gathering that her run had been a good experience for her. Leaders learn by listening, she concluded.

Closing: Ewalt 6, Smith 4, Atkins 5, Comegys 4, Spies 5, Cohen 5. No one had a dynamite closing statement, but it was evident the crowd was restless too.

So who do I think won the debate? Let’s total them up…

Ewalt 44, Smith 60, Atkins 44, Comegys 45, Spies 64, Cohen 62.

It’s sort of odd, because the difference on the TIF question set the two groups of three apart but not to this extent. I’m sort of surprised at Smith’s total since I thought she was a little bit behind Cohen and Spies, but she took advantage of her rebuttals.

By this debate, I think the top three all solidified their position and put the heat on Gary Comegys more. His presentation was much better than previous forums, though, so he remains a formidable candidate and may end up squeaking through on name recognition. Between the two debates I scored, both Cohen and Spies placed themselves above the other four. But if Comegys gets back in and Louise Smith doesn’t fall far from her primary win, it’ll be a shame that one of these two leaders on the issues is locked out of a seat on the City Council.

Well, my work is done here, and the Salisbury blogosphere is sated for another day. “See” you on the radio in, oh, about 7 1/2 hours.

Radio days volume 2

Apparently someone thinks I’m a political expert. I already know I have a face for radio (and a voice for the print media); nevertheless, I’ll be back on WICO tomorrow morning at 7:40 a.m. discussing tonight’s political forum with host Bill Reddish. It’ll be a double treat for Salisbury political junkies as my fellow blogger “Cato” from Delmarva Dealings will be joining us.

So I may or may not post on the forum tonight – most likely I will but if it’s just more of the same I’ve heard at the three others I’ve seen on TV or live I might choose to combine a forum post with my thoughts on radio day #2 either tomorrow night or Wednesday.

There’s your heads-up for tomorrow, be listening! It should be a good twenty minutes if not more.

Pumpin’ and dumpin’ – an update

Just wanted to update on what’s become the most commented-on post I’ve ever done. I STILL get comments every so often on a post that’s 2 1/2 months old. I guess it comes up pretty high on the search engines for the phrase “junk faxes”.

Just for funsies, I’m updating the prices on these stocks while I do this. Prices on the original “p and d” stocks as of the close Friday were:

AGGI (Allied Energy Group) – 0.11 (0.53 when fax was received)

EVCC (Environmental Control Corporation) – 2.45 (1.19 when fax was received)

GBVS (Global Beverage Solutions) – 0.22 (0.89 when fax was received)

HSFI (Homeland Security International) – 0.05 (0.18 when fax was received)

HYBT (Hybrid Technologies, Inc.) – 4.31 (6.80 when fax was received)

SYNI (Syngas International Corp.) – 0.37 (0.40 when fax was received)

TAOL (TAO Minerals Ltd.) – 0.09 (0.15 when fax was received)

Doubling my money on EVCC would be cool, but the others have been stagnant to horrible over the 4-6 month period I’ve occasionally tracked them. It’s still easier for me to throw darts at a stock list and make money investing that way than to go by what these so-called experts suggest I purchase.

For whatever reason, the tidal wave of these faxes the company I work for got last fall has slowed way down; either that or someone’s beating me to the fax machine in the morning. Either way, I only have one new contender in the last 3 months, a company called Terra Nostra Resources Corporation (TNRO). This came as an “Asian Investment Alert!” on March 5th.

It’s an interesting case. On the fax, it quoted the price of $2.10 on February 16. By the time we got this fax, the stock had come off a late February peak at about $3.20 and was back in the $2.60 range. Put out this fax and voila! the next couple days the price shot back up over $3.00 again (on a volume of about 300,000 shares) before settling back to $2.88 as of Friday’s close. In looking at a 3-month chart of Terra Nostra it’s intriguing to note that it was lightly traded (no more than 100,000 shares daily and normally far less) before February 15 or so.

A classic case of pumpin’ and dumpin’. As it states on the document, Cyber Communications made $250,000 on the blast fax, and of course the people at Gemini Market News, Inc. who paid Cyber, intended to sell their shares and I’m sure they got their $250,000 back and then some.

Of course, we all know how I feel about Chinese firms to begin with, so having these junk faxes hit our office doesn’t help my attitude any.

I also did a quick THOMAS search to see if there was any legislation pending to amend or correct the Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2005, and right now nothing is sitting in the 110th Congress pertaining to junk faxes.

So there is your update on “Pumpin’ and dumpin'”. I’ll keep on this and occasionally update progress. As always, investigate before you invest. If we can stop being the people P.T. Barnum warned us about, the market for these junk faxes will eventually dry up on its own and a thousand forests will be saved.

A couple milestones

While writing my post about the RedHawks loss, I looked and saw that I’m closing in on the 400 post mark. Now the consecutive numbering system that my pages go by has passed the 400 mark (this one will be number 404) but there’s been a few test posts and such along the line as well as “pages” which get a number but aren’t in order and link categories which also get a number. (And sometimes I go out of order as I do drafts for future post publication.) I had many category names for the last election that are no longer on monoblogue, which accounts for the bulk of the difference. I’m also close to 500 saved comments, although my Akismet program has shelved over 20,000 spam messages. Fortunately for my sanity, I’ve made sure that all but a handful have been vaporized into the ether. (It’s only made three mistakes so far but I always check just to make sure.)

And over the weekend I should get my 30,000th visitor according to my Site Meter. It may not seem like a whole lot but when I looked it also showed me that the last 7 days should be a new record week as I close in on 1,500 for the week. I was quite pleased that I had over 1,000 visitors that actually registered as reading my site last week, particularly when I was down for 29 hours and that outage covered one of my prime readership periods twice. This is not just a hit counter, it’s actual visitors.

My website’s server also tracks monoblogue visitors and for some reason that portion was down for 14 days at the end of February and into March (probably related to my server outage which occurred at the end of that time.) Since coming back, that counter is telling me I have an average for the month of about 850 visitors a day (who seem to leave spam messages!) and that’s a record high, as is my daily hit rate of over 3,700. If I went by the “valid” figures and added even a conservative average for the 14 day outage, I should’ve gotten my 150,000th visitor recently.

But I also needed an excuse to work in a welcome to the two newest members of the Maryland Blogger Alliance. We’ve added Snail’s Tales out of Germantown, where Aydin places a heavy emphasis on the world of science (much like The Voltage Gate), and we also added The Greenbelt which is written out of Laurel, MD. “The Ridger”, as she is known, writes from a perspective of “language, liberalism, freethinking”. I’d place her sort of along the lines of Stephanie of Jousting for Justice.

I mentioned The Greenbelt last because it segues into my next point. She will be hosting the upcoming Carnival of Maryland #3 (not this coming Sunday, but Sunday the 25th) and we’ll see if I can get something into three in a row here. In case you missed it (and if you did, shame on you!) here are Carnival #1 (hosted by Crablaw) and Carnival #2 courtesy of Pillage Idiot. Both feature a monoblogue submission as well as many other good ones. And please note that you don’t have to be in the Maryland Bloggers Alliance to be posted.

So that brings you up to speed on both the local scene and the MBA. I’m actually going to postdate this post by about 24 hours so I can take some time on monoblogue this weekend and do non-writing things like update the links list, see about putting a Carnival of Maryland box on my sidebar, and work on a couple rather lengthy future posts. I’ve gotten a bit smarter in the almost two years (my blogiversary of my original blog – yet another milestone – is April 1st) that I’ve done this writing and one thing I’ve learned is spacing your posts out is good practice. This way readers get “fresh red meat” and a reason to come back often!

Editor’s note: At 11:23 a.m. this morning, someone hopped out of Delmarva Dealings and became my 30,000th visitor. Then they went to carbonfootprint.com. It was a local person because I believe the 71.200.xxx.xxx “exchange” is exclusively on Delmarva via Comcast (it’s my IP address too.)

Thoughts on global warming

Moments ago I got back from one of my walks around my neighborhood. To place this post in perspective I just went to weather.com and looked up the averages for Salisbury for March 17th. Our normal high for today is 56 degrees and normally the low is 36.

It’s 34 degrees out right now, with a 20 mph wind out of the northwest. Twenty miles per hour my ass! It was spitting out snow flurries here and as I walked up a rise on one of the back streets in my neighborhood I was walking into the teeth of a gale-force gust I swear was imported directly from upper Siberia. I thought to myself that if humans in general (and Americans in particular) are the creators of global warming, we’re sure doing a piss poor job of it this weekend.

So let’s just tell Al Gore (he of the energy hog mansion in Tennessee) that we’ll believe man causes global warming when we get 70 degrees for a high for the whole month of March, instead of one day this week.

Oh, just had thought #2. A couple weeks ago I went to a website called carbonfootprint.com. Someone in the UK has figured out how to calculate one’s so-called carbon footprint. Sadly to say, my carbon footprint is only 13,443 kG while the U.K. average is 10,963 kG. I guess I have a little more work to do don’t I? These nutcases say that my carbon footprint “should” only be 2500 kG. Well, I have news for them – my house will stay at 70 degrees all winter and 76 degrees this summer, and I’m going to continue to drive MY car its 12,500 miles yearly. If that makes too big of a carbon footprint for you, well that’s too damn bad. I’m just an average American who wants to enjoy life and it’s not for you to say how I should live it.

Al Gore used over 220,000 kWh of electricity last year, while the American average is 10,656. (In 12 months between my apartment and here I used 8,486 kWh of electricity so I’m even below the norm for Americans – still my “carbon footprint” is too high for these U.K. clowns.)

How’s this post for an inconvenient truth?

 

Well damn!

As bad luck would have it, my Miami University RedHawks were given the “odd” slot in the NCAA tournament (one site out west plays a game in the slot between the 2:30 p.m. starts and the 7 p.m. starts.) So not a whole lot of people got to see our game and it’s a double bummer – one because we lost 58-56 and the other because we fought it to the bitter end only to come up short. We didn’t get the late 3-pointer to fall this time. And I didn’t get to see it because the East doesn’t see that particular game (plus I bowl on Fridays, so I didn’t see the score until just now.)

Miami is one team where, if you love hard-nosed defensive basketball, you’ll get it. They ended up 18-15 but were the ONLY team in the country not to give up more than 70 points in a game this year. (They gave up 69 points to arch-rival Ohio University in a 72-69 win and 68 points on four other occasions.) If they can recruit a really good scorer who can keep up with that D they’ll be unstoppable in the MAC and beyond. Does Ron Harper (a classmate of mine and five-time NBA champ with the Bulls and Lakers) have a son by chance?

So far (with three lower seeds yet to play as of this writing) the biggest “upset” if you can call it that is where two #11 seeds have won over #6 seeds. There’s really not been a bracket-buster so far although Miami gave it a shot – too bad because we would’ve gotten one of those #11 seeds in the second round.

Oh well. Baseball season begins in 2 1/2 weeks and the Shorebirds’ home opener is 4 weeks from tonight. Meanwhile, Charlie Coles (Miami’s head coach, class of ’65) has some work to do about finding a go-to scorer. If we can get away from 9-minute scoring droughts we’ll own the MAC and our NCAA story won’t be one-and-done.

A 50 year plan: Border security and immigration

This post should be right up Crabbin‘s alley. For those of you not familiar with the Eastern Shore blogging scene (and those who are but don’t know his blog), D.D. Crabb (pen name of the writer) spends quite a bit of his time looking at the issue of illegal immigration. This chapter of my 50 year plan is going to deal with his pet issue.

Some have estimated that there are 20 million illegal immigrants in America. Most are from Mexico and Central America, but a few come from other places around the globe, including countries that are on America’s terrorist watch list. The impact is obvious – just look at the bilingual store signage that many national merchants now feature. Even in our position over 1,000 miles from the Mexican border we have Spanish-language radio stations in our area. All of this was unheard of in most parts of America even 10 years ago. But this immigration spigot along our southern border had been dripping for most of the last fifty years. It’s become a rushing torrent in the last decade though as Mexican and Central American economies stagnated while America’s abundant thirst for cheap labor combined with easy access to free health care and the chance for children of these undocumented workers to become American citizens by virtue solely of being born within our borders enabled this problem to become a hot-button issue. It’s so hot that a heretofore obscure Congressman from Colorado, Tom Tancredo, made a name for himself as a border hawk and is now one of the second-tier GOP candidates for President in 2008.

For most of the late 19th and early 20th century, America was the land of opportunity for immigrants of all stripes. Wave after wave of Germans, Poles, Irishmen, Italians, Greeks, Asians, and others from all points of the globe converged on America and filled up this land from sea to shining sea. My ancestors, mostly from Germany but a few Poles mixed in, were in that group. All of them had to deal with the language barrier and some amount of discrimination (as in the mid-19th century “No Irish Need Apply” signs) but if they didn’t adapt, their children surely did because they wanted to become Americans. Most cities of the era had enclaves where these immigrants eventually settled to be with those they shared language and culture with. But even moreso than the fun poked at rural Americans today, people from the “old country” were looked down upon by the next generation and those children who were born or raised in America grew somewhat ashamed of their cultural roots, leaving these old-world enclaves to live out their American dreams.

Eventually the pendulum started swinging the other way and in the last half-century or so many Americans have reembraced their ancestry through vacations to the homeland, ethnic festivals, and the like. In my old hometown of Toledo summers were punctuated by weekend gatherings celebrating Irish, Polish, German, Hungarian, and Greek food, dance, and culture. (And those were some good eating, let me tell you – particularly the Polish Festival. Now there’s where you can get REAL kielbasa.)

But the large majority of immigrants in the modern era have played the role in reverse, wishing America to adopt their culture and language instead of having the desire to become Americans like immigrants of yore. With the foreigners’ economic impact and the desire of major corporations to be politically correct (lest they offend some legal organization someplace enough to incite a lawsuit) they’re bending over backwards in an effort to appease the undocumented folks streaming in across our southern border. Bank of America recently made headlines by adopting a pilot program in California that eliminated the requirement of a Social Security number for applicants to receive a credit card. And right now a big fight amongst the Republicans pits the Chamber of Commerce types who like the idea of a cheap labor pool against the border and security hawks who see danger in the flood of humans crossing the border knowing that there are some among them who wish our nation ill.

In choosing sides, I stand with the border and security hawks. But the solutions of putting up a stronger security fence and enabling our Border Patrol to become a quasi-military outfit in order to fight against the heavily armed drug and human smugglers who operate along what’s best described as a lawless Mexican border is just a small bite out of the whole enchilada.

We also need to crack down on the employers. Obviously this is going to piss off the Chamber of Commerce types but there’s millions of people out there who knowingly or unknowingly have had their Social Security numbers hijacked by someone who’s using it to work here illegally. It’s unfortunate that the Mexican economy has put itself in such a bad state that emigration by a large chunk of their young male population is necessary, but with all of the oil they sell to us one has to wonder how they cannot support their own people with decent jobs. This phenomenon isn’t lost on the new Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who’s even questioned whether his relatives are working in the United States legally. Speaking to the immigration issue from Mexico’s perspective, he’s quoted in the Washington Times today, “We want (those who emigrated to the U.S.) to come back; we want them to find jobs here in Mexico.” Continued President Calderon, “We miss them. These are our best people. These are bold people, they’re young, they’re strong, they’re talented.”

So these are three legs of the stool: tighter physical security at the border, a stronger show of force against drug and human trafficking, and a crackdown on employers who don’t show due diligence in checking whether a worker has the proper status to be in the country.

But there are other needs which have to be addressed. Another simple one is to make English our official language of government. Additionally, it’s my belief that bilingual education needs to be scrapped. Just like the immigrants in the days of old, the adults may feel more comfortable to converse in their native tongue, but in order for children to advance in our society they need to learn English as their first language. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being bilingual but in America the vast majority of people speak English as their first and only language. If one were to move to Japan it would be expected that this individual learn enough of the language to get by and if they were to have children those children would be taught Japanese as their first language. So it is with America.

If America is to survive and have a chance to enact the entirety of my 50 year plan, among other things it has to disdain this slide into multiculturalism. Abraham Lincoln noted (paraphrasing Sam Houston) that “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” By Balkanizing our culture in the way we have over the last quarter-century, we’re isolating pockets in our country that do not speak the language and have no desire to become Americans with the exception of the dollars we place in their pockets. We’ve turned the heat off from under our melting pot and the results are far from the ideals we once shared in common.

Robinson on the radio

I thought it would be good to briefly touch on this and congratulate John on his first show. 

I haven’t looked at any of the other blogs yet tonight for their reaction, but I listened to the new John Robinson radio show this afternoon. Quite honestly, it was obvious that this was his first effort so I’m going to defer judgment on whether he does a good job as a broadcaster or not for a week or so, I’ll let him get a few shows under his belt.

I think he was easy on the mayor but in some respects that’s not so bad. At least now the mayor can’t say she didn’t have an opportunity to speak out on the issues.

But John did well enough that I’ll listen tomorrow to what he and Rick Pollitt have to say and that’s the overall goal of his program. Not everyone agrees with how I do monoblogue either but I have a style and a way I feel comfortable doing it and I’m not looking to change either one anytime soon.

And it’s good that WICO is making these changes although I actually found out I was incorrect on one thing. They’re not dropping Laura Ingraham entirely, just shunting her off to a 9-10 p.m. time slot. Personally I think they could have dropped Michael Savage to put her full show in but that’s just my two cents.

Made in the U.S.A.

Tonight I was looking for some shoes, since my old ones were getting pretty worn out. Now I have two issues when I buy shoes. Number one, I have duck feet, so called because I wear a size 9 1/2 EEE shoe. So it’s tough for me to find comfy shoes. The other issue is that, as a rule, I try not to buy anything that’s made in China if I can help it.

So you know, I’m certainly not a Buchanan-style protectionist; in fact, I’m all for free and fair trade. I just have issues with buying items from a country that points missiles at us.

Because I had one other item I was planning on getting at Wal-Mart anyhow, I stopped there first and looked for shoes. I think every single shoe I looked at was made in China. Now the tea I did get there (the actual purpose of my Wal-Mart stop) may have been made in China too but I have no idea. (Actually, where do we get our tea from?)

So I left there and eventually found my way to Vernon Powell, where I’d bought the pair of shoes I was replacing. As luck would have it, they had a pair on sale that both fit my wide feet and was at least assembled here in the good old U.S.A. They’re almost the same as my last pair and are known as New Balance 575’s. So I supported American workers in some factory someplace.

But it got me to thinking about this on the drive home. It seems like almost anything you buy at a discount retailer (and many more upscale ones too) is made in China. Now I realize that by having about 20% of the world population just sheer chance would dictate that a lot of things are made there but why China and not India (close behind China with about 1/6 or so of world population)? At least India is less hostile to our interests than China is.

Of course, the even bigger preference to me is having items made right here in the U.S.A. I can’t say I strictly apply this rule (after all I bought a Japanese car) but at least I had the option of considering American cars at the time I made the purchase. This doesn’t seem to apply nearly as much in many other areas, particularly electronics. And it’s sort of a shame when how many thousands of American workers have been tossed out of a job because a company moves production overseas – I have a friend whose company did just that and let go hundreds of workers in Ohio. Now she complains regularly about having to deal with the Chinese and the crappy product they send over here. But it’s cheaper for the company!

I suppose this all goes back to the comment that’s made when advocates of illegal immigrants are questioned about why those people are hired. They always say that the illegals do the jobs Americans won’t do. Surely that’s not always the case, but it just makes me wonder how it’s possible that, even with the much lower cost of labor in China, American ingenuity can’t figure out how to make products that are price-competitive. Has America really gotten that lazy and ignorant?

Quite honestly, if China said tomorrow that, “ok, America, either we get to reinstate our rightful rule in Taiwan or we stop selling you our exports” they would have us over a barrel. (Never mind all the Treasury bonds they hold.) But what troubles me is that a huge number of Americans would say, “phfft! It’s only Taiwan, who cares?” and bitch because the news break is interrupting “American Idol.” Slowly but surely, China is building toward a time when they can put a proverbial gun to our head and it’s a little scary.

Back in the 1980’s, one of the socially-correct items for multinational businesses to do was to divest themselves from South Africa to protect their policy of apartheid. Maybe it’s time for American businesses to do a new divestiture out of China and back into more friendly countries, even our very own.

 

More on Michigan vs. Maryland

Nope, it’s not the NCAA draw. This is in response to the comment on my last post as I refine and extend my arguments. I started this as a comment and decided it was long enough to warrant a second post.

I used government as a growth “industry” because it’s truly an industry that can perpetuate itself like no other. Every new regulation, every new program, every new department means additional workers that work on the public dime. Maryland has the fortune of being close to the seat of federal government and benefits from many of the additional federal jobs that are created – it’s no coincidence that Maryland’s two largest counties populationwise abut the District of Columbia.

In turn, these two counties (Prince George’s and Montgomery) which are home to almost 1/3 of Maryland’s population vote reliably Democrat, and it seems like they feel the farther left Democrat the better. With the voting bloc just these two counties command in the General Assembly, combined with the large numbers in Baltimore City/County (which also are pretty heavily Democrat voters), they allow rule by a party that is known for being much more conducive to the interests of labor unions than the employers which make those unions possible – with the exception of employers that are governmental entities. In America today, the largest percentage of unionized labor is now in the government sector.

On the other hand, Michigan is far away from the seat of government so it depends on private sector employment for the most part, and its policies are chasing business away at a time when that state needs to be more business-friendly. Indeed, they also have a heavy union influence because of the UAW, and it was those Big Labor votes that placed Governor Granholm back in her chair. But by being so militant, the unions in Michigan are biting the hand that feeds them in a time when business of any sort needs to be welcome there.

The economy in much of the Midwest is struggling right now because of the heavy union influence. (That poor economy is the prime reason I live in Maryland now.) While workers should have the right to organize, they need to keep in mind that their employers also have to stay competitive in a global economy.

Let me take a moment and talk about the Eastern Shore in particular since you addressed us in your comment. Our three largest industries are poultry, agriculture, and tourism. In many ways, the interests of those Democrats who hail from PG/Montgomery are greatly at odds with the farmers who till the land and raise the chickens here, particularly regarding what effect the farms have on Chesapeake Bay. By many accounts, our previous Democrat governor treated Maryland’s farmers as a (barely) necessary evil.

Additionally, we have one fairly large tourism haven in Ocean City. The majority Democrats in Maryland have no problem advocating two items that will certainly hurt that portion of our local economy – a 50% jump in the gas tax and a 20% hike in the sales tax, with an expansion in its current scope already in the General Assembly hopper. (No bill to raise the sales tax is under consideration, at least for the moment.) Raising the gas tax might lead to a smaller number of trips across the Bay Bridge to our end of the state. The only compelling interest Eastern Shore residents might have with the additional bite each time we fill up is whether we can get another bay crossing to help alleviate weekend congestion. But it’s more likely that the extra money will either go into the general fund or pay for more mass transit around Baltimore and DC that’s not likely to be utilized anymore than it already isn’t. And jacking the sales tax up when we already have sales-tax free Delaware competing with our businesses is going to compel even more businesses to flee our part of the Eastern Shore. Drive up Route 13 into Delaware and see just how many big-ticket retailers like furniture stores and car dealers set up shop just across the line.

If I were to have a magic wand and suddenly have the power to make economic decisions that would assist the Eastern Shore economy I would first eliminate the sales tax entirely for the nine counties of the Eastern Shore. The hit on the state budget shouldn’t be that large since we’re only about 10% of the population and it’s still not going to be easy to drive over here from the Western Shore. The second thing I would do is work on a way to make our region a little more accessible to other parts of the country by improving Delmarva’s main north-south highway (U.S. 13) to expressway grade. It would make things easier for transportation and can provide an impetus for manufacturing and transport jobs to come to the Eastern Shore.

Obviously there’s a lot more that’s necessary than just these two items to create a thriving local economy but they’re two good-sized pieces of the puzzle if you ask me.

Talking about an amazingly “blue” state

Duvafiles made mention of this OpinionJournal.com editorial this morning. Originally I was going to make this a comment to his post but as I kept writing I saw it as an opportunity to expand my thoughts into a complete post. I have a soft spot for the state of Michigan, partially as an Ohioan who roots for “that team up north” (I’m even wearing my UM sweatshirt this morning) and Detroit sports teams in general. Plus they have a great pair of bloggers I link to.

The main similarity between Maryland and Michigan is that their economy essentially depends on one industry. But that one industry makes all the difference between the states.

It’s been said that when the Big Three sneezes, Michigan (and my native northern Ohio) catches a cold. Since the auto industry is struggling it’s put Michigan’s economy in the dumper – unfortunately the poor in the Detroit area put Jenny Granholm back in office last November and she’s going to continue her anti-business policies. So look for lots of traffic southbound on I-75 as both retirees and jobseekers head out of the state. It’s a shame but the Big Three put themselves in a less competitive position by allowing themselves to be cowed by Big Labor – after all, how many industries pay people who don’t work?

And the union seems entrenched with this idea. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger was quoted thus back in Walt’s Auto World, July 1, 2003:

“To be sure, the cost of the pensions and retiree health care is a significant issue for UAW employees,” he tells journalists, adding the union views legacy costs as “a legacy of fairness, a legacy of cooperation between labor and management.

It’s a legacy that was given to us by the generations of auto workers who founded this union…and we intend to defend it.”

Even with the numerous plant closings since this quote was uttered, the UAW is likely not going to change its bulldog stance when the next round of labor contracts with the Big Three are negotiated this year.

On the other hand, Maryland seems to have a dependence on a growth industry, that “industry” being government. Unless the nation comes to its collective senses, that particular industry shows no signs of ceasing growth, especially on the federal level.

The problem with this is that growth isn’t equal throughout the state. Growth in government is great for the Baltimore/DC corridor but making the state less business-friendly hurts Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore big time. Business can grit its teeth and deal with these policies along the I-95 corridor because there’s a lot of people with a lot of disposable income to make up for the regulations and loss of profit stemming from the red tape, but where income is in shorter supply and a competing, more business-friendly state is available in close proximity (true at each end of the state, not so much in the center) Maryland is hurt almost as badly as Michigan.

Unfortunately, the solution to both problems isn’t likely to be seen in either case for quite awhile as both states are locked into four more years of Democrat governance, Maryland moreso than Michigan. As Duvafiles points out, at least one legislative body is Michigan is still GOP-controlled and will do its best to fight Granholm’s tax and spend policies. Sadly for Maryland our “Politburo” is rarely more than a rubber stamp for far-left policies, and the places in Maryland that benefit most from all of the make-work government jobs are the places which roll up huge majorities for the Democrats at the polls. The Maryland GOP serves as the Washington Generals for this game – hapless foils for the antics of Martin O’Malley and the General Assembly.

I’m still fighting the rear-guard, guerrilla battle to change this though! One small step in this fight is to make sure HB448 and HB1022 don’t pass – the House holds a hearing on both on Wednesday at 1 p.m. Just take a read of these and see how many services they want to expand the sales tax (and associated business red tape) to cover. No one has made a move to raise the overall sales tax yet but I know that’s on the table too.

It’s time for the folks in Annapolis to wake up and realize that they may yet have two large sections of their state that become economic basket cases like Michigan, just with a better climate.