For this blogging carnival I actually didn’t get a large number of submissions so I took a little bit of editorial license and did some searching amongst the best Maryland blogging has to offer to supplement what I did receive. I know that posting falls off somewhat when the weather gets nicer so we’ll let those who may have sent something along slide – it’s not like I can’t find good material.

Besides, this also gave me a chance to read and look at some good items from blogs I enjoy.

Let’s begin with the political. Tim at Gunpowder Chronicle is never afraid to share what he thinks about the doings in Annapolis and a recent article compared the state’s budget process to being hooked on crack. Then again, Bernie Hayden at Maryland On My Mind thinks the whole General Assembly is useless after a session spent on “distractions and trivia.”

And then there are others who look at the attitude exhibited by those we vote into office and wonder if they’re the new elite class. As in the Orwell novel Animal Farm, Soccer Dad posits that some of us are more equal than others.

Naturally I chimed in on the political arena, as my site’s bread and butter comes from talking politics. I scanned the scene at Salisbury’s Tax Day Tea Party last week in a pictorial post.

One debatable aspect of the role of government is exhibited in the prospect of a new Montgomery County stadium for the DC United professional soccer team. While Marc Korman at Maryland Politics Watch thinks the idea isn’t sound from a financial standpoint, Going to the Mat’s Matt Johnston points out that DC United is one of the few consistently successful sports franchises in Maryland and without a stadium the prospect of relocation is real.

A Maryland team that’s probably not going anywhere is the Orioles and in the last couple weeks the team opened on a good note. Oriole Post was there and has the scoop. So far they’re still hanging in with a .500 record after tangling with some tough AL East opponents.

Spring is also the time for a more natural rebirth, and one of the Carnival’s most frequent contributors checks in to close things out. The Ridger shows Maryland at its natural best with Blossom on the Bough, Dark-eyed Juncos, and more birds of a feather, all originally posted on her blog The Greenbelt.

At the moment I’m not certain where Carnival of Maryland 58 will be held; however, the schedule says it will be there on May 3rd.