Post-worthy comment #98740

I was thinking about writing a follow-up to President Obama’s speech last night but all that would’ve been was republishing the Maryland GOP’s response along with my thoughts, which mostly echo Jim Pelura’s sentiments anyway. It doesn’t help that the Maryland Democrats don’t see fit to trumpet their President’s accomplishments, or at least attempt to pin blame on Obama’s predecessor for everything that’s gone wrong for the last fifty years. They must know that I would have plenty of fun blowing all those straw men away.

Instead, I happened to moderate comments moments ago and stared at two of them, which for simplicity’s sake I’ll meld into one statement:

So what did you Reddies do to boost the real Rep(ublican) candidate in the Salisbury Mayoral contest — Bob Caldwell (not Della Penna)? Nothing, I presume!

First of all, neither Caldwell nor Mike Della Penna was present at our meeting Monday night.  (Both did have literature onsite, as did Jim Ireton. Now that takes a little chutzpah.) I presume that may have been because City Council meets at the same time; however, our meeting ran late enough that either or both could have made an appearance. Of the two, Mike has actually attended more GOP events over the recent past.

But both the Republican Club and the Central Committee have adopted a policy where we don’t support any candidate prior to the primary as a body. Certainly I’m sure both organizations have those who support one or the other, most likely more support Caldwell simply based on name recognition. Furthermore, the election only affects a small number of members – only one of the seven elected to the Central Committee actually lives inside Salisbury, although at least three others work within city limits. Likely this is true among the WCRC membership as well.

But, one may ask, why did we invite Pocomoke City mayor and General Assembly candidate Mike McDermott to our meeting? Well, he’s the first one to declare. We’ll be happy to entertain GOP candidates for the General Assembly as they decide to jump into the race – after all, we have 17 meetings – give or take – until the primary, assuming the state maintains a September 2010 schedule.

Without even knowing whether we’ll have a stake in the race, we’re co-sponsoring a Mayoral forum in Salisbury next month with the Wicomico County Democratic Club. One would like to think that one of the two Democrats contending for the post would be eliminated, although turnout will obviously be key. This is especially true when you consider District 2, where the vast majority of the city’s GOP stalwarts reside, does not have a contested City Council primary.

However, just because neither the Wicomico County Republican Club nor the party’s Central Committee have backed a candidate, my commentor (who went by the nom de plume “Bubba Buster” this time; this person comments regularly under a variety of names) should not assume that there’s no GOP interest in the race. We’re just allowing the party faithful the freedom to back whichever candidate they want.

Allow me to switch subjects. Since I actually grabbed a flyer from Jim Ireton, I do have a question about something he wrote. I know that several of those who read here inhabit the left side of the aisle and are likely Jim’s supporters (I’m not too unsure Jim himself doesn’t drop by from time to time), so here goes.

If, as you claim, you’ll have “the city checkbook open for all taxpayers to see”, does that count the deposits made by the state and federal governments and where all that spending goes? I think it would probably be quite an eye-opener to see how much our city (and county) receive from those entities. Perhaps the strings attached to the receipt of those funds can be placed in the public eye as well.

For many years, my biggest contention with the receipt of federal and/or state funds by a local governmental unit comes from the strings attached to it. The inverse is also true – witness the withholding of funds if some action is not done, such as holding back highway funding if certain DWI or seat belt laws aren’t passed.

As an example, Ireton’s “Wicomico River Project” (see October 14, 2008 release here) has as its “partners” the Maryland Department of the Enivironment, Army Corps of Engineers, city, county, “river stakeholders”, “environmental community”, “poultry industry”, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and “boating community”. A large dose of the money needed surely will come from the first two entities, so what will those two need to extract for their pound of flesh?

(By the way, whoever runs Ireton’s site really should separate those items out better.)

This isn’t to pick on Jim because this question should be asked of every candidate. He just made a campaign issue out of transparency as it appears his party’s standardbearer did last night (see, I tied this together well didn’t I?) But a closer look at what both said may reveal the number of caveats attached to their statements, and that’s why I bring up the question.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

12 thoughts on “Post-worthy comment #98740”

  1. Michael, so you know, Della Penna and Ireton didn’t show up for the Monday night City Council Meeting. Bob Caldwell was present.

    I’m a bit confused by your title. Are you trying to imply you have had 98,740 comments on this Blog?

    Considering you get 48 hits a week this year. That’s an average of let’s just say 2,500 hits a year. You’ve been at it for 3 years, give or take. Considering your increases over the years let’s just be fair and say you’ve had a total of 6,000 visits in three years, this couldn’t be your 98,740th comment, so what’s up with that?

    Just curious?????????

  2. It’s a fair question (and as you know, I am certainly not Jim Ireton so I cannot speak directly for him). I do believe the plan is to put EVERYTHING up for people to see. I know people here are skeptical of this, with good reason (Louise Smith’s campaign was based on “transparency,” which she immediately tossed aside the first day she sat down at the council seat). To me, it’s a no-brainer: put everything out in the open, let the citizens have a genuine discussion based on facts rather than rumor, and then explain your decision-making process so that even those who disagree with your decision see where it came from. I truly believe that is Ireton’s goal. I hope he gets the chance to try it, and I hope he follows through if elected.

  3. It’s actually one of the better parts of his platform. Jim’s a good guy, I just don’t think he’s the right guy. Then again I have little say in the matter.

  4. For whatever reason, WordPress counts all of the spam comments I get too. Generally Akismet traps about 50 to 100 per day that I get from bots and spam comment programs. I just title the comment reply pieces this way so I don’t have two articles with the same title – the same reason I have “Odds and ends number 17” or “Weekend of local rock volume 21”. In actuality I’ve had just under 3,000 comments I’ve approved in the 39 month history of this site (and I think Final Frontier has submitted about 1,000 of them – just kidding!)

    Bob Caldwell is generally present at Council meetings as I understand, so he doesn’t always make it to our meetings. Perhaps he knows our membership pretty well and realizes there’s not a ton of votes there – but there are potential volunteers. If he survives the primary, he should show up at the next LSYR meeting on March 12th if there’s no conflict with a forum as there was this month.

    Now, let’s talk about readership. Anyone can read my Site Meter and know I get roughly 100 visits per day, give or take. That’s backed up by the other stat counter I use that I don’t make public. Because of various events in my life though, it’s not nearly as important or time-consuming that I have 10,000 readers a week. I’ve come to realize that my audience has a built-in limitation based on the number of posts I can do in a week given other demands on my time – some of which make blogging seem much more fun and others which completely make me forget about it because they’re quite wonderful.

    If I write things which I think make a valid argument in a manner which is interesting and that makes sense for 100 people to read, to me that is infinitely more satisfying personally than writing absolute crap that’s not worth putting my good name on to be read by millions. That’s not to say I wouldn’t want a much larger readership for monoblogue but I have other outlets where I do achieve that goal.

  5. Clear something up for me, do you win some big cash prize if your site gets the most hits is there some gold plated trophy? I mean everytime Joe comments here he mentions how many “hits” you get or he gets blah blah blah blah blah. I just want to know why it is any of his concern. Thanks

  6. I have tried for years, beginning when I was on Council, to get the RC to change their meeting to anything other than the 4th Monday. Very seldom is the Council meeting over in time to make the RC meeting. I feel certain there are others who may get more involved in the club if they could attend a meeting without forfeit attending a Council meeting.

  7. If there were a big cash prize for most hits, Joe wouldn’t be anywhere near it either.

    I’ve grown to look at the situation as National Enquirer vs. National Review. One gets readers and the other gets respect.

  8. William F. Buckley v. Larry Flynt?

    Clint Eastwood v. Don Knotts?

    Eric Clapton v. Wierd Al Yankovic?

    Billy Graham v. Jim Bakker?

    George Carlin v. Andrew Dice Clay?

    Marlon Brando v. Joe Pesci?

    I could go on and on . . .

    Substance trumps sensationalist drivel every time . . .

    I don’t often agree with you, Michael, but I respect what you do and what you bring to the table . . .

    Your blog is reflection of your character . . .

    Keep doing what you’re doing . . .

  9. Thanks for the kind words, but don’t rag on Weird Al Yankovic – the man has made a career out of a unique brand of creativity, not to mention he trained to be an architect so we have somewhat of a kinship.

    If you don’t often agree with me, that means I still have work to do *sigh*.

  10. Similarly, Joe brings a certain unique creativity to SBN . . . but Wierd Al’s no Clapton, either . . . and SBN is no Monoblogue . . . it’s all good, though . . . both have their place in the mix . . .

    As for our respective perspectives, I think we intersect occasionally in the libertarian realm . . .

    Politics used to matter a whole lot more to me back in the day . . . but it used to stir me up and divide me from others . . . today I try to see the good in everyone, and the little bit of truth emanating from every perspective . . .

    Lot of good people out there all over the spectrum, trying to make a difference . . .

    I try to make my difference in each moment, as it develops before me . . . that, I’ve found, is where I can do the most good . . .

    Peace . . .

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