Month: May 2008

Shorebird of the Week – May 22, 2008

Cole McCurry has a lot of fans on this day as he signs autographs.
Pictured during a game earlier this month, Cole McCurry tossed a gem earlier this week and won Shorebird of the Week honors by doing so.

In baseball, a good player puts a poor performance out of mind as soon as the game’s over. Obviously Cole McCurry did something a little different between starts, going from a dreadful performance down in Kannapolis (8 earned runs in 2 1/3 innings) to a gem against Greensboro in the space of one week. On Monday Cole dominated the Grasshoppers, allowing just two hits in seven innings of shutout ball while striking out ten.

Another of the many lower-round draft picks that dot this year’s Shorebird roster (in this case, the 43rd round), the 22 year old lefty still managed to skip a level at the tail end of last season. While he pitched in the lowest rookie level for the Orioles’ entry in the Gulf Coast League for most of 2007, he made two appearances with Delmarva at the end of the season and was relatively impressive, finishing 2-0 with a 1.80 ERA in 10 innings of work.

Although his 2008 numbers aren’t great as a whole (a 1-4 record and 5.75 ERA in 40 2/3 innings pitched), toss out the bad start in Kannapolis and the earned run average falls to a more respectable 4.26 mark. Another good indicator of his ability is having 39 strikeouts against just 9 walks, making his WHIP 1.30. He does have a surprisingly high number of hits given up (44) for being a good strikeout pitcher and also a tendency to give up a lot of fly ball outs.

So did this young man from Tennessee Wesleyan College find something to assist him in keeping the pitches down and off the opposing hitters’ bats with his dominating performance earlier this week? It’ll be something to keep an eye on as the season progresses.

A tribute to the fans

I was talking to Shorebirds GM Chris Bitters yesterday evening and asked him about attendance. Surprisingly, it’s running close to last year’s despite the generally poor weather our region has seemingly endured this spring.

Being the curious sort, I did a bit of research. Including last night, there have been 23 nights the Shorebirds have managed to play a home game (not counting the three games scrubbed due to rain or wet field conditions.) Out of those 23 calendar days, we failed to reach our average high for the date on 13 of them, including 7 of the 11 dates thus far in May. Also, on 10 of those days this season we’ve had measurable precipitation and it’s seemed that the majority of those days we had rain during the ballgame (including last night.) We have not played at home on a dry day where the temperature was above average since May 6th – only 6 home dates of the 23 have been like that this season.

In comparison, the days where the Shorebirds have been on the road have been the nice ones. 12 of the 23 days were above average in temperature and 10 of the 23 featured rain – however in April the Shorebirds were away on 7 straight days where we had above-average temperatures and no precipitation. (Included in the string were the weekends of Pork in the Park and the Salisbury Festival.)

Because of that, it’s a tribute to the fans that we’ve even come close to normal on attendance. For the 12 April dates, 31,239 fans braved the elements at Perdue Stadium, about 2,600 per opening. With some promotions and a couple decent evenings at the ballpark weatherwise, the total through last night has bumped up to 72,897 – an average of 3,169 per game. (Between the last two evenings though the average took a hit as less than 3,000 combined made it out on two raw, chilly nights. Monday night’s draw was a pathetic 1,013.)

True to form, the weatherman is predicting sunny weather and highs in the 80’s come Saturday when the Shorebirds hit the road for 8 games in 9 days. But the worm will have to turn sometime and June promises to be a good month as the Shorebirds wrap up the first half with a short homestand against division-leading Lake County then host Phillies affiliate Lakewood in mid-month. Also on the June docket is cross-state rival Hagerstown as Delmarva only has 10 home games scheduled for the month.

With 44 home dates left, Delmarva is on a pace to draw just over 212,000 fans for the season. It would be a slight dip from last year’s total but traditionally attendance has picked up once the kids are out of school and weeknights are no longer school nights. Still being this close to pace after all the rain and chill speaks well of fan loyalty. Hopefully the team can reward them with a stellar playoff run.

Whine about what you have and beg for more

That was the attitude I picked up in a recent article by Alec Appelbaum from the GreenSource magazine website:

When the feds pass a law to fight climate change, you would expect architects, builders, and facilities managers on the front lines. After all, buildings produce 40 percent of our nation’s greenhouse-gas emissions, and since more than half the buildings likely to be in use in 2030 don’t yet exist, more robust government regulation could help spur needed innovations. But effective lobbying by the homebuilders’ industry made the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, signed into law in December, more tentative about efficiency than green-building advocates had hoped.

Let’s set a couple things straight here. First of all, the federal government can pass all the laws they want about climate change and it would mean diddly-squat as far as actually changing the earth’s atmospheric temperature. (Passing all those regulations, though, would mean much more in terms of destroying a once-robust economy.) The climate was warmer in the 1930’s than it is today and no one blamed those inefficient and polluting Ford Model A’s for the long hot spell of a decade – it was just Mother Nature doing her thing.

More troubling to me is the advocacy of more “robust” (read: oppressive) government regulation to spur needed innovations. A far better method of innovation is called the marketplace, unfortunately those who feel as Appelbaum does that the government can actually make a dent in our climate (and notice it’s not about “global warming” now because the evidence of the last decade that the planet is cooling put the kibosh on that term) have no concept of what constitutes a free market.

Of course, my fellows in the American Institute of Architects lead the way in being suckered by the hype:

Along with five industry organizations, (the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) founded a group called the Commercial Buildings Initiative (CBI) in 2006. The CBI coalition includes the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the U.S. Green Building Council, the Alliance to Save Energy (ASE), the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers. This group plans to support the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to help carry out the mission of the federal net-zero initiative. “A collaborative could span near-term deployment and long-term R&D,” Selkowitz says. “We’re advocating a system of real-time reporting that owners can compare to [performance] targets.”

Aside from ASHRAE, none of these groups truly represent the building industry. In fact, the thrust of Appelbaum’s moaning is that the home builders’ lobby watered down the so-called Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (it provides neither) to insulate themselves from expensive regulation. With that industry already in the tank because of financial problems, an increase in the price of new homes because of overzealous government regulation would have further depressed the sector.

In looking at the idea of energy efficiency, I’m certainly for it IF it’s cost-effective (e.g. a fairly short payback period – my yardstick is generally 5 years or less.) Unfortunately, many in the green movement cannot justify their schemes to save energy with such a short payback so they turn to an entity well known for butting into markets and making unproven technologies “cost-effective” with taxpayer money. Yes, it’s called taxpayer subsidy. Why work to make a product more competitive when the government pays an owner to install it?

But don’t worry, Mr. Appelbaum, I’m certain that once the election has passed that there will be many legislators tucked firmly in the pocket of the radical green organizations who will seek to “improve” the EISA with even tighter restrictions and possibly even funding courtesy of those greedy oil companies. I’d bet the bottom dollar that’s going into my gas tank because of onerous restrictions on oil exploration and subsidies to agribusiness for ethanol creation on it.

A pair of updates

I may not get to your comments too quickly this evening. Because of a rainout last week in Kannapolis, the South Atlantic League has opted to make that game up here in Salisbury as part of a doubleheader beginning at 5:05 p.m. this afternoon. And it just so happens that I’d signed up way back in April to work the Shorebirds Fan Club table this evening – so I may not get to monoblogue until late tonight because I’ll need to rush over to the stadium to get set up. Come by and see me, we’ll have lots of good merch for sale plus the opportunity to join fellow Shorebirds fans for a bus trip to Norfolk in August to see the Orioles’ AAA farm team in action.

It’s two seven-inning games, the second one will begin 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first one. The homestand then continues with games Thursday and Friday before a stretch that sees the Shorebirds away for 16 of the next 19 days.

As always, tomorrow will feature the Shorebird of the Week so stay tuned.

Pushing my analysis farther

I was happy to see that G.A. Harrison of Delmarva Dealings is paying attention and put together an excellent look into his crystal ball to see what would happen if Frank Kratovil were elected to represent the First District in November. He actually puts some of the points I’ve been making all along into a nicely tied set of paragraphs. Honestly, we really don’t know what Frank stands for, just who he stands against.

Actually, it gives me a chance to point out that I caught Frank in a case of doublespeak the other day and didn’t realize it until yesterday.

During his radio interview Friday Frank alluded that while he wouldn’t vote straight down the Democrat line on a number of issues, Andy Harris would vote strictly Republican. It was meant to imply that he would be anti-worker and pro-big business, contrary to the populist that Kratovil is attempting to portray himself as. But then Frank chastised Andy for voting against his Republican governor on the “flush tax”; meanwhile Andy has spoken of not voting for Governor Ehrlich’s final budget because it was too large. Obviously these are two examples where Harris voted more as a conservative than a Republican.

As I attempt to do, in his post G.A. is using his observations guided by years of experience to predict what may happen if Frank Kratovil is elected. Have you ever noticed that, while John McCain is a “maverick” Republican because he works with Democrats on some issues, there’s not really a “maverick” Democrat? Sure, you could cite Senator Lieberman as an example but remember the Democrats in Connecticut drummed him out of the party and he won his last election as an Independent. Former Senator Zell Miller from Georgia is another example.

The truth is that 99% of the time people are loyal to their party allegiance, so what elections tend to boil down to is whose party platform you favor. Given the Democrats’ tendency to tax more, spend more, restrict more, and stick up for America on foreign soil less, the better candidate is the conservative one.

The First District has a choice. They can vote for talking the conservative talk or for walking the conservative walk. As some conservative commentators have warned Republicans, given a choice between liberal and faux-liberal those on the left of center will go for the real thing. Those of us in our conservative area should also go for the real thing, not just one who talks about it.

By the way, I notice that G.A. didn’t crosspost this to Salisbury News. Wonder whose decision that was?

Show me a Supreme decision, I’ll show you good voting law

Legislators in Missouri took two steps in the right direction by working to adopt election reform requiring voters to present voter ID at the polling place and those who register to vote to supply proof of citizenship. Both of these are steps Maryland should take as well, but we all know who’s blocking this common-sense legislation. (Hint: their party name starts with a D, and they’re famous for having a lot of deceased voters in cities like Chicago.)

Of course, naysayers called these measures too onerous despite the fact that the state of Missouri would provide the photo identification in question to those who can’t afford the nominal cost to receive one. According to a New York Times story by Ian Urbina, Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan estimated that 240,000 Missourians would be disenfranchised; however it’s not clear she arrived at this figure, which would represent about 6% of Missouri’s 4 million registered voters if her estimates were true. Most residents of Missouri would qualify simply by holding a driver’s license which also showed proof of citizenship.

Much like Maryland, Missouri’s legislative session is not full-time and time ran out on the voter ID proposal when their session ended last Friday. While the Missouri House of Representatives passed the voter ID bill, the Missouri Senate did not take the time to consider it as minority Democrats threatened to filibuster the bill and hold up other priority items for Republicans, including Governor Matt Blunt.

So common sense is thwarted again as Democrats fight tooth and nail to protect their voter base of illegal immigrants and cemetery residents.

Posting under the influence

I touched on this last night, but at the time I simply wanted to respond to what was e-mailed to me and hadn’t read what was said about monoblogue in the post in question. Having read it, it didn’t change my mind about what I originally wrote but it did lead me to think that perhaps I need to give a refresher course on the purposes for my website.

Like most people who take the time to type out their thoughts and opinions on a regular basis, I’m looking to change hearts and minds. When I began writing in this format, there were a number of goals I had in mind and in truth the model I envisioned was not a blog, but a radio show. If you measured influence on my website, you’d see that Rush Limbaugh is probably number one. (I’ve been a dittohead for about 12 years, and October 5, 2007 was a red-letter day for me.) Much as he does his show on “what interests me, because if I wasn’t interested it would be boring” that’s the way I write. It’s why you don’t get wall-to-wall politics because I get tired of it after awhile.

Certainly I think I do my share of the political posts, and as one may guess I see things politically from the right side of the spectrum. The first President I ever voted for was Ronald Reagan and I’m hoping that in whatever time I have remaining I see another President who compares favorably to him. But that President, whoever he or she is, will have a lot to do in attempting to restore a philosophy of limited government based on the model created by our Founding Fathers and embodied in our Constitution. Unfortunately, it’s been noted that a democracy only lasts until voters figure out how to vote themselves money from the national treasury (attributed incorrectly to Scottish writer Alexander Tytler) and my friends, we have a republic where both parties are guilty of this malfeasance. I’m a Republican simply because there’s less work involved in straightening out this party than with our counterparts across the aisle, plus they tend to win elections on a vastly larger scale than the Libertarians or Constitution Party.

But there’s still a lot of work to do. And my aim is to inspire thought among those who read my political writings about the larger points of limiting government and enhancing individual freedom, including pet issues of mine like property rights and nanny statism like seat belt or motorcycle helmet laws. (Yes, I do wear my seat belt but I don’t believe that not wearing one is a primary traffic offense.) In particular, what gets my goat are situations when federal regulations dictate withholding federal money if states don’t comply with particular items desired by the federal government, like seat belt laws.

I also figured that not everyone would come to read a strictly political website. Moreover, I wanted to appeal to an audience that’s skewed toward a younger generation and also promote the area that I have adopted as my own – the first place I’ve ever lived by choice and not because of family ties. Thus, I added three of my other life interests – baseball, where I devote a seasonal post for each Thursday’s Shorebird of the Week and add in other Shorebird-related topics; and secondly music, as evidenced by the occasional posts known as “Weekend of local rock.” I’ve always been into music even though I can’t play or sing, but I found out quickly upon my arrival that Delmarva is blessed with a lot of talented musicians. I can keep plenty entertained with the area rock bands but I’m sure others can vouch for the local musicians of other stripes too.

The third interest is photography, which I put to use a lot. I like to share my pictures and I think that blogging doesn’t have to be just a written medium so I add photos to help tell my stories. It also gives those who visit my site from other areas a visual perspective of some of what makes Delmarva interesting.

I feel all this brings me appeal from a wide-ranging audience, and I figure if they like one of the non-political topics I delve into they may start with that and eventually begin reading some of the other more important and weighty things I have to say as well. Just as Rush uses humor as a hook, I use these other topics to broaden the audience.

One thing I did figure out early on is that I can’t generally be a primary local news source, simply because I have a full-time job that I do during most of my waking hours. This website is simply my hobby/obsession and it can be a challenge to write so much and cover news too. While another local news-related blogger likes to brag he covers more stories than the local newspaper and its 200 employees, he should keep in mind that the vast majority of those people aren’t field reporters. If you count the number of co-contributors this particular blogger uses then the comparison of his forces against the number of reporters the paper employs is far more even.

And to be quite honest, I think having too much of a local emphasis limits my audience. I can get away with it for the non-political items because they don’t comprise the bulk of my work, but I’m looking for a readership that probably doesn’t care about what’s going on in the city government of Salisbury, Maryland. I can make the argument that state events are important when our General Assembly is a canary in the coal mine of rampant liberalism but on a local level that model doesn’t hold true. We have others locally who do get into those trenches and I tip my hat because they care enough to do so. I’m simply more interested in a bigger picture so I only do selected local items.

I occasionally do become a primary news source for local events I’m a participant or observer in such as political forums or meetings. At times there will be other media there but normally I’m it so someone has to tell the story. A picture or two doesn’t always do justice to the event so I do my reporting in an effort to inform and fill in the gaps by recounting that which was said. Am I biased? Of course I am. But when I’m outed by the moderator at a Democrat forum yet praised for the quality of my website I guess I’m doing something right – Lord knows I take a lot of shots at those on the left side of the aisle. (Needless to say, most of them are deserved!) No one’s told me I’ve misquoted them yet; it’s not my fault they say the things that give me the rope to hang them with.

Finally, in doing this for almost 2 1/2 years and closing in on 1,000 posts, I’ve figured out what works and what doesn’t. Granted, some will read the first two paragraphs of my various posts and lose interest but I’m not here to write on a sixth-grade level to someone who lives and dies by who advances on “American Idol.” There have been features I’ve done for awhile and dropped like the standings reports I used to do during baseball season or the Congressional legislative checkups. Unfortunately, those are time-consuming and frankly I found that I was simply duplicating efforts that are better done by other news sources. Some may recall the Ten Questions I did, which I thought was a great idea but didn’t get cooperation from the candidates who I asked. On those sorts of things it takes two to tango and I was dancing with myself.

I don’t know what measuring stick the folks at BlogNetNews use to determine “political influence” or if that’s just a catch phrase they use to keep folks interested. I do know that by my efforts I’m actually a small part of the political world as an elected official, a contributor to the Red Maryland website, and occasional pseudononymous writer for the Patriot Post website. So I do a small part in changing the minds of thousands through those outlets, and with the possible exception of crossposting on Red Maryland none of it influences my BNN rating. In fact, I wonder if the crossposts cannibalize this site’s readership slightly and prove to be counterproductive in the rankings.

What I do know is that I have a number of folks who read and enjoy my site because they like my writing and point of view. Of course I’d like to see that number rise to rival some of the national sites I link to but for doing this on a very part-time basis as a solo operation I can’t say I’m doing too badly.

I’ll leave you with this. Architect Daniel Burnham once said:

“Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency.”

There’s nothing that says I don’t have a big break coming that I haven’t foreseen yet, so I’ll keep plugging away and doing my part to change a nation.

Bad influence?

This post will be relatively brief because I decided this weekend to have a life away from the computer – thus I really didn’t have something in mind to write for tonight.

Apparently the gentleman who has the sole website ahead of me in this week’s BNN influence ratings decided that the number of comments he gets from his site against the number of comments I get from mine makes me far less influential than the ratings show. (Don’t ask me, I haven’t read his site today – the info came in an e-mail.)

I think I’ve said before that I like comments which advance the post, even if they disagree with my opinion. Lately “ShoreThings” has placed a number of comments on my posts which argue for his point of view, and that’s perfectly fine with me. It makes for a livelier discussion.

The point is that I don’t have to throw out comments because they’re personal attacks or the like. Maybe not being a very controversial figure hurts me in the categories of readership and comments, but I continue to maintain I have the best comments of any local website because they’re generally thoughtful, not incendiary. And the readership’s not too bad either.

Anyway, I’ll just allow him to have his opinion, it’s not really worth too much in the big picture aside from idle discussion fodder. While I derive a lot of satisfaction from this thing I call monoblogue, I try not to make it all-consuming because one can burn out quickly on doing a blog. Thus the dearth of posting this weekend and maybe for the rest of the month it’ll be more like one a day rather than two most days. I’ll just take a bit of a breather since the political world is pretty slow anyway and allow things to sort out.

If I fall to #3 in the rankings or even out of the top ten, I’m not going to worry too much. But I owe it to those who read here that when I do a post it’s the best I can do.

Courageous Christopher 5K

Today I participated in another walk for charity and just wanted to share some of my photos from the event with my readers. Besides, it’s Saturday and I’m (mostly) not in a political mood.

The line on the registration tent started pretty early. They had about 100 register today, bringing the total number of participants to over 400.

We began the race under the American flag thanks to our local firefighters. Yes, it was a little breezy.

I took both of the above photos prior to the race getting started. It’s worthy of note that they ran low on runner numbers so as a walker I didn’t take one. I’ll tell you how I did after the next group of pictures.

As if the kids didn't burn up enough energy walking or running, they had these inflatable attractions too.

If nothing else, the amount of food we could get was more than enough to satisfy even the hungriest runner - especially having the pig roast.

A number of folks stuck around to eat and enjoy the band in the background. You'll see who that was shortly.

I actually knew my time when I finished, I walked the 5K in 40:58. It was a bit disappointing because I thought I could put up a sub-40 time but when I needed that extra gear in the last half-mile it wasn’t there. I thought I was doing a pretty good pace because I was 26:13 at two miles. Oh well, maybe next time.

And while I have the 5K race winners in the second photo down from here, the real winner is in the next photo.

The purpose of this fundraiser was to help the young man in his mom's arms playing with the hat - Christopher Mull.

Here the Mull family is posed with the two overall winners - Nick Loffer for the men and Josie Brown for the women.

Both winners are interesting in their own right – Nick Loffer is a contributor to the Salisbury News blog and a member of the Lower Shore YR’s, while Josie Brown was seriously injured in a pedestrian accident a couple years back and told she’d never run again. I guess that doctor was proven wrong.

The next picture is called foreshadowing an upcoming post:

Red No Blue was the band who played for the postrace picnic. They'll be part of the upcoming Weekend of local rock volume 15 post. You've been warned.

To close, I want to make a few observations.

Through no fault of their own, the Mull family faced a serious dilemma because their son Christopher was diagnosed with a condition called Dravet Syndrome – actually to them it was a relief to finally have a name for what was wrong with their son. While I don’t know the Mulls personally I would wager that the stress level in their home between having two older boys who weren’t even in school yet and another child born during the long quest for a diagnosis for Christopher was nearly unbearable. And then to find out that securing an assistance animal to help Christopher would run about $11,000? Most families would have given up or looked to public avenues for assistance.

Instead, the Mulls rolled up their sleeves, enlisted an army of volunteers and sponsors to help with the effort, and with all their help put together an event that not only raised the $11,000…oh no, prior to today’s 100 or so race entries (at $30 apiece) they were at $26,000. Because of the generosity of one small city – Salisbury, Maryland, my adopted hometown – this troubled child who’s had some of the innocent joy of being a toddler robbed by a disease few have heard of, much less understood, not only will courageous Christopher be able to get his assistance dog later this fall but another deserving family or two can be helped as well.

To me, this proves that misfortune doesn’t necessarily need to be addressed by a government program. For all I know the Mulls may be on the complete opposite side of the political spectrum as I, but hopefully this effort can be a lesson to everyone who reads this post. Remember, there’s an entrepreneur who saw a need for assistance dogs for those who suffer from epilepsy-related conditions and went into the business to help. It’s not a government program, providing and training these dogs is someone’s livelihood.

And is this not what America is truly about?

Some guidance from Frank

The Frank in question is Democratic Congressional aspirant Frank Kratovil, and this morning he did a short telephone interview with local AM Salisbury host Bill Reddish. This post begins with the notes I took on the interview, with commentary coming afterward.

To open the interview, Reddish remarked about the length of the campaign because of the early primary, and Kratovil noted that the length made it “difficult” to balance family, career (as Queen Anne’s County State’s Attorney), and campaign. But he was succeeding.

After briefly bringing up the issue of illegal immigration, the topic was changed over to campaign finance. Kratovil came across as questioning the system, in particular carping about the amount of contributions Republican hopeful State Senator Andy Harris received from out-of-state sources, in particular the Club For Growth. Saying that the Club For Growth was “target(ing) moderate Republicans”, Frank saw this as “a problem in the system” and further rebuffed “ridiculous” accusations by his opponent that he would vote the “straight party line”; meanwhile Kratovil projected Harris to be a “partisan.” On the other hand, Kratovil claimed that he was getting “90 to 92 percent” of his campaign contributions from inside the state, comparing it to a figure he claimed of 35% out-of-state contributions to the Harris campaign.

Frank also had an issue with being dubbed a left-winger, saying “no one calls me liberal.” In fact, he claimed his views on illegal immigration and the War on Terror were “conservative.” But he also chastised Andy Harris for supporting beach replenishment in Ocean City, noting that Harris may support beach replenishment but not the clean water beyond the beach – Kratovil blasted Andy for a “terrible” environmental record, including a vote against the “flush tax.”

**********

Let’s begin with campaign finance. According to FEC records through March 31 (latest available), there were 1,501 individual contributors to Andy Harris’s campaign, about 440 of which were bundled through the Club For Growth. That accounts for the bulk of out-of-state contributions Kratovil was critical of. However, since Kratovil had just over 700 individual contributors, even without the Club For Growth more people have contributed to Harris’s effort than to Kratovil’s. Meanwhile, both candidates accepted a roughly equal proportion of PAC money (Harris about 13%, Kratovil about 17%) and as one may expect much of Harris’s support comes from the medical field while Kratovil has mined the ranks of Maryland’s attorneys.

What hasn’t shown up yet and probably won’t for some time is the huge cash supply that Big Labor will put behind Frank Kratovil – a pool of money that is coerced from the pockets of nameless workers who mainly live outside the district. While Kratovil maligns the Club For Growth as too radically conservative, I’d counter that the agenda of Big Labor is way too far to the left for our nation’s good. Yet I doubt Frank will complain too much when that union PAC money comes in. 

Now, about partisanship. Personally I want a partisan legislator who is closely allied with my point of view. And try as he might to deny that he’ll vote straight party line, Frank would certainly be bucking a trend if he didn’t agree with Nancy Pelosi voting-wise at least 70% of the time. And I’m not the one saying this, there was a CQpolitics.com survey done last summer which noted the least loyal Democrat indeed voted about 70% of the time with his or her party position – most were 80% and higher. So yes, I will call you “liberal” Frank because it’s an educated guess based on observations over time that you will be.

I’m going to finish my commentary with some thoughts about environmentalism. First of all, regardless of what Frank may think about Republicans, personally I’m tired of being cast as for “dirty water” if I don’t roll over and allow my freedoms to be violated and my wallet to be vacuumed every time someone has a program or new restriction they think can save Chesapeake Bay or our Atlantic coastline. Somehow we never seem to see the desired results with these programs, but instead of trying a different approach we seem to get even more mandates and restrictions. Also, being against a targeted tax like the “flush tax” to me seems consistent with the wallet-friendly philosophy Harris has shown during his time in the State Senate.

The question then becomes whether, in becoming a “leader on environmental issues” as Kratovil claims in his literature he would if elected, Frank Kratovil would side with radical environmentalists like those who have dictated to Marylanders everything from the amount of phosphates in their detergent to the setback their development must have to a body of water to the amount of permissible emissions the car you purchase can put out – a group that continually puts poultry farmers in their sights; or, will he be more farmer-friendly and alienate those environmental groups who certainly will devote time and a little money to support him come November. We know what talks and what walks in this political day and age, so I think that’s the answer to my question.

If Frank was trying to sell a little snake oil this morning, I’m still not buying it.

Crossposted on Red Maryland.

Shorebird of the Week – May 15, 2008

I'm not sure if this is Matt Tucker's drink of choice, but he is raking thus far in 2008.
Matt Tucker at the plate in an April game against the Lakewood BlueClaws.

This week’s SotW has put together a nice first month-plus of the season and ranks among the team leaders in several offensive categories. Matt Tucker has taken advantage of the extra playing time he received when Pedro Florimon went down to injury and solidified the shortstop spot for the Shorebirds.

It’s no surprise that Tucker has done well as he’s no stranger to honors – he was picked as an Appalachian League All-Star with Bluefield in 2007 despite playing nearly half his games with the Aberdeen IronBirds after a callup. While he wasn’t picked until round 31 last year by the Orioles, thus far Matt’s taken advantage of his opportunities in the system and the soon-to-be 24 year old could catch up to the level one would expect a player his age to progress if he continues the solid play.

A native of Texas, the product of Dallas Baptist University is sporting an OPS of .810, which means he’s both getting on base and hitting with power (an average OPS is about .700, the stat stands for on-base percentage plus slugging percentage, defined as total bases divided by at-bats.) A look at the more regular stat sheet shows Matt is hitting .294 with a home run and 9 RBI in 102 at-bats thus far this season. While the RBI total may seem low, Matt generally hits second in the lineup, which cuts down his RBI chances. With just 21 strikeouts in 102 at-bats, Matt generally does his job of moving usual leadoff hitter Matt Angle up along the basepaths when Angle gets on.

As the Shorebirds attempt to stay in the hunt for the first-half SAL title, they’ll be counting on Matt to continue doing what he’s been doing. It’s good enough to be honored as this week’s Shorebird of the Week.

Looking for 8 in 2008

Lately in this time slot (Thursday afternoon) I’ve been putting Shorebirds news on monoblogue, but today we’ll return to politics. This came across my desk thanks to Dave Parker:

Kratovil and Dougherty Catching Democratic Wave

The “Rules” Have Changed: Democrats Take Back 3rd “Safe” GOP Seat

Democrats Win Special Elections in the Midwest, the Deep South; Maryland is Next

Mississippi’s 1st Congressional District is now back in Democratic hands after yet another special election to fill a so-called “safe” Republican House seat. The latest shockwave to rip through the political landscape follows Democratic congressional victories in Illinois and Louisiana. All three elections took place in districts long held by Republicans (IL 14th – 69 years, LA 6th – 33 years, MS 1st – 12 years) and where George Bush held impressive margins of victory in 2004 (IL 14th – 55%, LA 6th – 59%, MS – 62%).

A statement from Michael Cryor, Chair of the Maryland Democratic Party:

“Throw out the rules of political conventionality. There are very few safe Republican seats in America anymore; not in the Midwest, not in the deep South and certainly not in a blue Mid-Atlantic state such as Maryland. It doesn’t matter how long a Republican has held the seat. It doesn’t matter how many votes George Bush got in 2004, America is voting for change in 2008. America is voting Democratic.

Frank Kratovil and Jennifer Dougherty are the right candidates to shatter the notion that Maryland’s 1st and 6th Districts belong to the GOP. That’s a false assumption that no longer applies, especially as we challenge two extremist Republicans who have voted for and endorsed the Bush agenda on the war, the economy and the environment.

With Frank and Jennifer – two exceptional public servants and very strong candidates – the Maryland Democratic Party will ‘Make it 8 in ’08’ as we continue to build our grassroots effort and organize in the east and the west like never before.

The challenges are great. Bush took Maryland 1st District with 62 percent of the vote and the 6th with 60 percent. But the rules have changed and this is the year and these are the candidates who will “Make it Eight in ’08” for Maryland.”

Yes, I’m bringing you Democrat propaganda. Hopefully you didn’t lose your lunch.

There are some differences though between the three races Cryor’s press release cites and the two contests for remaining Republican seats here in Maryland.

First of all, while both Frank Kratovil in the First District and Jennifer Dougherty in the Sixth District may have some positions in common with their GOP opponents they both depart in important and troubling ways as well. Both favor diplomacy over victory in Iraq and placing the federal government in charge of health care coverage, making coverage mandatory and eliminating choices you may wish to make. Meanwhile, neither of the duo seem willing to extend the Bush tax cuts but both claim to want “fiscal responsibility”, thus I’m led to assume that they’d favor both spending and taxes increasing if they were elected to Congress – after all, universal health coverage, like any other entitlement program, will not come cheaply and the cost will dig into everyone’s pocket.

While Cryor may have a point regarding change in Maryland’s Sixth District because the 81-year-old incumbent Rep. Roscoe Bartlett managed to win his primary, First District GOP voters sent a different message of change by selecting a much more conservative Republican in Andy Harris. Moreover, while Frank Kratovil attempts to run to the center and is getting cover from a few disgruntled employees and supporters of deposed Congressman Wayne Gilchrest, the truth is we really don’t know much about Frank on a number of issues and, given the vacuum, a good politician and his supporters will define Frank before he can define himself. He has no voting record to dissect so it’s only his word that he’ll be strong on issues that the First District cares about.

The Maryland Democrat Party also seems to forget that they’re holding the governor’s chair right now, and sitting in that chair is one of the more despised political figures that the average voter in Congressional Districts 1 and 6 have seen, Martin O’Malley. Yes, he of the huge tax and spending increases, rubberstamped by the Democrats in the General Assembly over the objections of many of the Delegates and Senators that these two Congressional districts have sent to Annapolis. If O’Malley was such a great guy, why would Frank Kratovil take down all of the pictures his website once featured of him and the Governor – along with O’Malley’s endorsement? Andy Harris has no such fear of being associated with the much more popular former Governor Ehrlich.

Lastly, a special election with a tiny turnout is a far cry from what promises to be a November election with a lot of controversy. Two Constitutional Amendments are on the ballot and both should bring a number of conservative voters to the polls, even if they’re not terribly excited about the GOP’s standard-bearer. And if all the Democrats have to throw at John McCain is to claim he’s a third term of President Bush, presumptive nominee Barack Obama is not doing much to excite the voters in the middle, either.

I will grant Cryor one point, his party will probably win the next special election in Maryland’s Fourth District. That’s going to be the last area to come to its senses and vote for conservative leadership.

So don’t let Cryor’s May enthusiasm disspirit Republicans, because we have a long way to go and a lot is yet to be revealed about the Democrat contenders. Besides, if we really want to bring about change, there’s a party in Maryland who owns six Congressional seats, part of a majority in Congress that has seen the economy go into the tank on its watch and has done nothing to bring down the prices of gasoline and groceries. Of course, that may be because the benefits of free-market economics, maintaining a low tax rate, and cutting the size and scope of government are lost on them – while the Republicans eventually lost their way as the majority because they forgot these lessons, at least they were learned at one time.

As for my usual Thursday afternoon subject, the Shorebirds begin an eight-game homestand against Greensboro and Kannapolis tomorrow night, hoping to pick up ground on division-leading Lake County in the process. I will have a Shorebird of the Week later this evening.

Rick Moran at American Thinker also weighed in on the three GOP defeats, so you get bonus commentary from him too.