April 2011 – Page 3

Harris: ‘We shouldn’t need a government shutdown’

In part, because the job was supposed to be done well beforehand. Here’s his statement on the matter:

“We shouldn’t need a government shutdown. At the same time, Marylanders sent me to Congress this year to end Washington’s spending spree in order to get the economy moving and build an environment for positive job growth.

Nearly 50 days ago, the House of Representatives passed a reasonable budget that would reduce the federal spending this year by a mere two percent. I believe those in charge, the Senate and the President, must work with the House of Representatives to control spending. The American people expect us to solve this problem, and we must deliver.”

If you listen to Senator Harry Reid – not that I really do – he pits the blame on Republicans who don’t want to fund Planned Parenthood. But why should we fund Planned Parenthood anyway? Of course, one could logically ask that about a lot of federal spending: we subsidize everyone from farmers to radio personalities to so-called starving artists. We get involved in a Libyan civil war, backed by the same people complained we were involved in an Iraqi civil war. (So why not Sudan or Iran? They have unrest as well.) The spending cuts proposed by the GOP weren’t all that large in the vast scheme of things, and the government employees affected by the slowdown will most likely be made whole when it’s all over.

But compare Harris’s statement to the declarations by District of Columbia Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton that the District should “(tell) the Congress to go straight to hell” and called the slowdown “the functional equivalent to bombing civilians” on local television station WTTG. As you can see below, yeah, that’s toning down the rhetoric.

Again, this problem should have been addressed this time last year, and there was no reason the Democrats couldn’t have passed the budget back then – they had ample majorities in both the House and Senate. Perhaps they were afraid of creating more potential Election Day losses but, then again, they pretty much had their collective asses handed to them anyway.

So Eleanor Holmes Norton is complaining about a problem she helped to create – let me repeat myself, the Democrats could have rammed through pretty much whatever they wanted, even with 59 votes in the Senate. They didn’t do their job, and now their favored constituency group will pay the consequences.

Me, I probably won’t miss them.

Shorebird of the Week – April 7, 2011

As my Shorebird of the Week feature enters its sixth season tonight, it’s without precedent that a player I selected as a Shorebird of the Year makes a return trip to Delmarva. But indeed Brian Conley is coming back.

I picked Brian as my SotY because he had a relatively good season of enough length to establish a body of work. He hit .270/6/29 for Delmarva last season in 98 games (for those new to Shorebird of the Week, the stat line is shorthand for batting average/home runs/runs batted in.) Brian also showed a discerning eye at the plate, walking and striking out an even 70 times apiece – normally the ratio at this level runs about 2 strikeouts per walk, or more. The performance from the 17th round 2008 Oriole draft selection out of Towson University was good enough to earn him a late-season promotion to Frederick.

Unfortunately, that Carolina League casting call wasn’t reflective of Brian’s Delmarva success. In 16 games and 45 at-bats Brian hit just .222 with a homer and 4 RBI. Perhaps that’s the reason he regressed to Delmarva this season, but he along with Kieron Pope will lend a veteran presence to a team which has its share of young stars. Since Brian turns 25 on May 7th, his role may have become one of mentor to several up-and-coming prospects rather than potentially joining Adam Jones and Nick Markakis in Camden Yards.

But the fan favorite will begin his third season at Perdue Stadium with a chance to help the team improve on last year’s 59-81 record. Look for Brian to hold down a corner outfield spot and be penciled into the lineup on a regular basis.

Open season

The political ascendancy of Laura Mitchell continues, apparently.

Laura finished in third, 122 votes behind first-place winner Terry Cohen, in the city’s March 1 primary but made up all that and more as she zipped by both Cohen and Tim Spies to win a four-year term on City Council. While it’s possible that absentees could push Terry Cohen into the top slot (13 votes separate Mitchell and second-place Cohen) the fact is that a woman who hadn’t even raised enough money to need a financial report in the primary beat out a field that was by and large comprised of previous candidates and well-financed challengers.

Perhaps the main ingredient in her success was her independence. It was no secret that Terry Cohen and Tim Spies were running as a Camden tag team, with several joint appearances and fundraisers. On the other hand, Muir Boda and Orville Dryden had a number of common financial backers and while they weren’t overtly running as a slate those allied with Cohen and Spies created the perception that Boda and Dryden were. Mitchell seemed as though she was the compromise candidate between the two camps, although as I revealed in my look at the last financial reports Laura had some prominent Democratic elected officials bankrolling her.

Still, Laura overcame some rumors dogging her and a campaign that was a little bit short on specifics to win a seat on City Council as the lone political newcomer. Tim Spies was successful in his second try at the brass ring and Terry Cohen won another four-year term.

So the Council appears set for two years, and the Camden neighborhood will be calling the tune. Look for a renewed push to get Mayor Ireton’s neighborhood housing initiative passed and an all-out war on the $96 million business of rentals to begin, along with a deterioration in town-gown relations with Salisbury University. The question now becomes this: is this the end of the 3-2 Council? I think it is, but that doesn’t bode well for the City of Salisbury.

Tales from the voting booth

A quick update…

First, I can almost guarantee that I won’t have the results from Salisbury’s election first tonight because I have a job to do. It pays better than this site, although if the advertisers from another somewhat disgraced site wished to invest in mine this enterprise may make me more coin than my job.

Anyway, I voted today around 3:00. There were two items I found worth mentioning.

First, I asked about turnout at my polling place (Wicomico Presbyterian) and I was the 375th voter. If this is relatively accurate then I think turnout isn’t going to be much greater than 15 to 17 percent, and that doesn’t bode (no pun intended) well for the challengers. It’s the faithful voters who showed up in the primary who are voting in this election, too – so the results will likely be similar. Had there been 500 voters at the precinct I believe the challengers had more of a chance. Let’s hope I’m wrong on that one for Muir Boda’s sake.

If it were up to people who read monoblogue and Two Sentz, though, Muir would be a shoo-in. Here’s the results of our joint poll:

Muir Boda, 34 votes (38.2%)
Laura Mitchell, 22 votes (24.7%)
Terry Cohen, 14 votes (15.7%)
Orville Dryden, 13 votes (14.6%)
Tim Spies, 5 votes (5.6%)
Bruce Ford, 1 vote (1.1%)

Of course, I think the influence of having an ad for Muir Boda on my site and Laura Mitchell on Two Sentz just might influence the poll. If nothing else, I suppose that proves blog advertising works (see first paragraph above.)

Finally, I had a nice complement from the young lady who’s running Laura Mitchell’s campaign, or at least I presume she does. She thanked me for my fair coverage of the race, and not jumping into the rumor mill about Laura’s living arrangement.

Now maybe there was something to the rumor, but since the protagonist seemed to backtrack from it I doubt it. And hers wasn’t all that important of an issue, just like who Jim Ireton sleeps with was but a sidebar to the real issues surrounding the mayoral race two years ago. It hasn’t affected his job performance, although I was pretty skeptical about that anyway.

So after tonight’s count we will probably have an idea of who will be representing District 2 for the next 4 1/2 years, since the next time these seats will be contested will be the fall of 2015. Unless it’s close enough to require an absentee count and we end up in a tie, I think the top three in the primary will prove to remain in those positions.

If so, beware – it’s open season on landlords and other small businessmen in Salisbury.

The market basket 2011

It’s the return of a monoblogue tradition, but with a slightly new twist.

I was inspired by a recent report regarding New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley and comments he made about the rate of inflation. Inflation, he said, is measured by a number of factors but doesn’t include food and energy costs. When an observer asked about this, Dudley reminded the questioner that the price of an iPad 2 is the same as the iPad 1 when it came out – “you have to look at the prices of all things.”

Retorted the questioner, “I can’t eat an iPad.” And it seems to me that a lot of food and energy prices have surged over the last two years. Fortunately, I had done my ‘market basket’ series from 2006 to 2009 so I had a handy reference guide to see just how prices have progressed. Instead of its original purpose, which was to track Walmart’s prices in the wake of the ill-fated ‘Fair Share’ Act Maryland passed in 2005, I used these comparisons as a general consumer guide to local grocery prices.

In the wake of Dudley’s remarks I decided to see just how rampant inflation was, since I got the same perception from my frequent grocery shopping trips. But instead of comparing all four local stores I opted to just compare Walmart year-over-year. Here‘s what I found.

Overall, I was surprised that inflation among all items was just over 4 percent, particularly with that 75% surge in gasoline costs. But a lot of the key elements bringing down the rate aren’t necessarily grocery staples – the surge in chicken prices more than counteracts the drop in beef prices. Bread may be a little cheaper but milk has gone up quite a bit. Among the few declining items are non-grocery items like detergent and soda pop, which not all shoppers need every week.

And it’s gotten quite a bit more expensive to get to the grocery store with that huge spike in gasoline prices. I didn’t begin tracking them until 2008 but we’re closing in on the $3.419 that my April, 2008 survey found, with prices usually not peaking until around Memorial Day. $4 a gallon isn’t outside the realm of possibility, particularly for those who drive trucks and need diesel fuel. They’re generally the people who deliver groceries to the stores.

So it’s not your imagination, when 12 of the 20 items sampled have gone up in price. That’s 60% of the items surveyed.

And, finally, if you live in the city of Salisbury and haven’t voted yet – what are you waiting for? There’s quality candidates who need your support (and lesser ones who need to be told to hit the bricks!)

Zero for 2012

Even though there were a few naysayers who thought Barack Obama “would rather be a really good one-term President than a mediocre two-term President,” we’ll get to see his re-election bid before our very eyes.

In an e-mail to supporters (and detractors such as me) he noted:

Today, we are filing papers to launch our 2012 campaign.

We’re doing this now because the politics we believe in does not start with expensive TV ads or extravaganzas, but with you — with people organizing block-by-block, talking to neighbors, co-workers, and friends. And that kind of campaign takes time to build.

So even though I’m focused on the job you elected me to do, and the race may not reach full speed for a year or more, the work of laying the foundation for our campaign must start today.

We’ve always known that lasting change wouldn’t come quickly or easily. It never does. But as my administration and folks across the country fight to protect the progress we’ve made — and make more — we also need to begin mobilizing for 2012, long before the time comes for me to begin campaigning in earnest.

(snip)

In the coming days, supporters like you will begin forging a new organization that we’ll build together in cities and towns across the country. And I’ll need you to help shape our plan as we create a campaign that’s farther reaching, more focused, and more innovative than anything we’ve built before.

We’ll start by doing something unprecedented: coordinating millions of one-on-one conversations between supporters across every single state, reconnecting old friends, inspiring new ones to join the cause, and readying ourselves for next year’s fight.

This will be my final campaign, at least as a candidate. But the cause of making a lasting difference for our families, our communities, and our country has never been about one person. And it will succeed only if we work together.

Do you see the push to repeal the 22nd amendment beginning in 2013 or 2014 if he’s re-elected? Last campaign my ass – he’s essentially been non-stop campaigning since about 2007. We’re not seeing a lot of governing here.

In their writeup of the story, Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post makes the following statement:

The formation of a reelection committee will allow Obama to begin collecting cash for what is expected to be the most expensive campaign in political history. Obama raised $750 million in 2008 and is widely expected to meet or exceed that total in 2012.

Already Obama campaign manager Jim Messina has been touring the country to meet with major donors; he has asked 400 major donors to each collect $350,000 in 2011, a target that, if met, would mean that Obama would end the year with $140 million raised — before a single vote was cast in the race for Republican presidential nomination.

Obama can talk all he wants about creating an “innovative” campaign or “reconnecting old friends,” but Cillizza’s remark is the real story here – it’s all about the Benjamins. Remember, Obama decided not to accept public financing (and its arbitrary spending limits) last time around. That meant he could swamp a woefully underfunded John McCain, even without the free campaign advertising provided by a fawning press.

Heck, we already have the first Obama campaign commercial:

Oh wait, that commerical came from the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Still, it’s a lot more truthful than the bilge that Obama ~~For~~ Against America will be putting out. All he’ll do is blame Bush, Republicans in the House, and racist Americans (not necessarily in that order) for creating the problems he’s had to deal with. There will also be those spots where he finds shiny, happy Americans only too willing to depend on government largesse for their prosperity.

All I know is that this upcoming campaign will likely be the most negative in American history, simply because any attempt to point out President Obama’s sorry record on the economy, foreign affairs, or response to crisis will be considered an attack by the fawning media – which will also be declaring open season on the GOP nominee, whoever he or she is. So it will be negative, and I guess I’m starting the ball rolling already with nineteen months to election day.

A final pitch

Today Muir Boda, candidate for Salisbury City Council, released his last argument for convincing voters to touch the screen for him Tuesday. It’s most important to Muir as he finished fourth in the primary and needs to leapfrog one other contender to grab one of the three available District 2 seats.

In December when I filed to run for Salisbury City Council I began this campaign with the following message and I feel it is only appropriate to make this my last message before Election Day.

Our campaign has been about ideas, solutions and action.

For too long our city has been embroiled in the politics of personal destruction and the clash of personalities. This has caused much embarrassment for the City of Salisbury and the wonderful people, who live, work and play here.

Meanwhile, businesses are struggling, crime has steadily risen, property rights are under attack and in the end our quality of life deteriorates. We must put aside our differences and come together to address the many issues we face.

I believe in having everyone at the table. All are stakeholders in this city whether you are a homeowner or business owner, landlord or renter, employer or employee, you have a right to be heard. We all have a stake in this community and passing it on to the next generation better than we received it is not just the right thing to do, it is our duty.

Join me as we bring forth a positive message of healing, reaching out to our neighborhoods that are disenfranchised and opening up our doors for business. We have so much work to do and it is going to take all of us putting aside our differences to do what is best for Salisbury.

It seems like a benign enough sort of message, but one problem Muir has faced is the public perception he’s in the pocket of landlords who play a significant role in city politics. Certainly Boda has a number of backers from the realty industry but as I noted last week he’s beginning to diversify his support base while other contenders remain neatly joined at the hip.

I noticed the dig at “neighborhoods that are disenfranchised,” which is an obvious reference to the fact the Camden neighborhood could have three Council members while large swaths of Salisbury are unrepresented, including the Doverdale area where Boda lives. Certainly many problems occur citywide, but it seems the biggest push for cracking down on perceived rental abuses and those who blame Salisbury University students for the city’s decline come from those live in Camden. Never mind that we’re talking about a $96 million industry (according to one of Boda’s opponents who lives in Camden) and an economic force of 8,000 students, most of whom live off-campus, who have plenty of other college choices both in and out of Maryland.

Meanwhile, many in the rest of the city make their living from the rental industry and college students, and we want to welcome both with open arms. After all, there’s a number of entrepreneurs who own just one or two houses in order to create a little extra income for themselves – only a small portion can be considered ‘slumlords.’

We need people on City Council who aren’t antagonistic to these important groups, and Muir Boda fits that bill. Camden would be more than adequately represented with Debbie Campbell and Terry Cohen on City Council, so let’s give the rest of the city a voice as well. Remember, there is life in Salisbury east of Division Street, even though none who are on City Council currently hail from there. We can help correct that oversight on Tuesday by electing Muir Boda.

And today’s Daily Times agrees with my original thoughts on the matter – for the most part, anyway – including their own endorsement of Muir Boda.

Two future inductees

The Shorebird of the Week Hall of Fame will have a multi-player induction class in 2011.

Tomorrow Zach Britton will take the ball for the Orioles as they wrap up their opening series in Tampa. His fate was the subject of much debate amongst fans because of a rule which allowed the Orioles an extra year of control over him if he had stayed in the minors beyond April 21. But when Brian Matusz cut short a throwing workout yesterday, it was learned he had strained his intercostal muscle and will require a trip to the disabled list, so the Britton era in Baltimore will begin tomorrow.

Britton was my Shorebird of the Week back on August 7, 2008. He’s the first 2008 season honoree to make the jump to the Show, but not the first to make it this season.

It may have been little noticed except to hardcore baseball fans, but a couple former Oriole farmhands were lost to the Rule 5 Draft over the winter – a special draft where players who have played in the minor leagues a certain amount of time but not placed on the team’s 40 man roster have an opportunity to be scooped up by another team in return for a cash consideration. The stipulation is that the player must remain on a team’s roster for the full season or be returned to the original team for half the price paid.

While pitcher Pat Egan was returned by the Milwaukee Brewers after a stint in their camp, the other major league Rule 5 pick from the Orioles indeed made his team. Pedro Beato pitched yesterday evening for the Mets, thus becoming SotWHoF member number four and the initial member of the Class of 2011. He was a Shorebird of the Week on May 10, 2007 and is the third player honored that season to crack a big league roster. Pedro is also the first to debut as a non-Orioles player, although fellow SotWHoF member David Hernandez is now property of the Arizona Diamondbacks after the Mark Reynolds trade.

In the meantime, I’ll begin working on the 2011 crop of Shorebird of the Week honorees on Thursday. It will be a bit more difficult because of my work schedule, but I’m working on making the posts better than ever.

Friday night videos – episode 62

Welcome to the new-look Friday Night Videos as I take it back to the roots of video – it’s all music, baby.

Let’s start with one of my favorite local groups, Not My Own. The song is ‘Crucify.’

I recorded the next video at Skip Dixxon’s Spring Luau last month – this is Monkee Paw covering the Steve Miller classic ‘Rock’n Me.”

I have a number of videos from the show that I can use for future episodes.

Another video I recorded awhile back comes around just in time for the upcoming Pork in the Park, which will feature this band on Saturday afternoon.

Yep, Smokin’ Gunnz will be back. Unfortunately, the battle of the bands goes away as a rock show. It’s gone country, but I haven’t. Nor will I.

Well, maybe I did. Try this track by Semiblind as they rocked the Gretchen Wilson song ‘Here for the Party.’

A solid local band returns to Flavors Italian Grille on April 15 – appropriate since this video called ‘Big Yank’ was recorded there awhile back. Permilla Project is back after a bit of a hiatus.

Another outlet promoting local music (and which also has a Skip Dixxon influence) is Ocean 98, which does its regular segment featuring local and regional bands called Live Lixx. Recently the Baltimore-based band Sweet Leda made their appearance at the Ocean 98 studios and this was the result.

This is a ‘professional’ video featuring another Baltimore-based band that’s a rising star in the music world. Lately they’ve toured in support of The Dirty Heads and they’re working on a new release, but Ballyhoo! did their track ‘The Quest’ in this studio in January.

So I hope you enjoyed this all-music edition of FNV, suitable for rockin’ into the weekend. If you’re a local band looking for exposure, send a note along as a comment!

Whither the truth?

Update: this whole sordid affair has now drawn the attention of the Baltimore Sun. Talk about an ego stroke.

I wasn’t necessarily planning on writing this today, but recent developments have made me consider saying my piece about them. It’s sort of unfortunate that I have to write this on April Fool’s Day, when a number of internet-based practical jokes are pulled, but as usual I’m serious here.

Today the Daily Times ran a story written by Sharahn Boykin on Roberta Wechsler’s Tuesday “rant” against Joe Albero. I had my own reaction to the piece, which I’ll share here as a slightly cleaned up version:

Perhaps it’s a sorry state of affairs that, with an election upcoming that could help decide the fate of Salisbury and the surrounding area over the next two years, this post has drawn the most comments. But I believe I have something to add to the discussion.

As it so happens I’ve been involved in the blogging business for about the same amount of time as Joe (his site came online in July 2006, mine in December 2005) – suffice to say, we’ve both spent a significant amount of time on our respective endeavors. Obviously we have our different styles and areas of interest, and for what he has accomplished Joe deserves a certain amount of respect.

But as time goes on it’s more apparent that he’s built a Potemkin village, dealing less and less with the investigative journalism with which he made his name and more on personally attacking those he doesn’t like. Look at it this way – I don’t like the effects of Leftist politics on my nation, state, and local government yet I get along with most who would be enemies politically. Maybe not being such a polarizing figure means I have fewer readers because of it, but I sleep well at night too.

Certainly I don’t agree with much of what the Daily Times writes, but look how they built this story: using the premise of Mrs. Wechsler’s remarks they interviewed a number of people affected on both sides of the issue. Moreover, they are accepting most of the feedback which springs from the article (with some exceptions, presumably those which violate terms of service.) There’s a few Albero haters here and some who support him within this comment thread. From many reports, that’s a fairness that Albero lacks on his own site, which has devolved to a simple news aggregator.

It’s interesting to note that many local bloggers have some experience with Joe Albero as current or former contributors, for better or worse. One needs to ask just why most of them backed away?

I had that chance too but I relish my independence.

Ironically, today the Daily Times website is featuring a USA Today story about the Modesto Bee pulling the plug on its blogger site, citing the “chaotic free-for-all of vitriolic name-calling, finger-pointing and mud-slinging.” So it’s not just us, Salisbury.

I’m not naive enough to believe there aren’t people who will bend the truth to suit their needs; unfortunately our political world is infested with them. When I put my own opinion out there it’s indeed an opinion no matter how much I wish it may not be so. I can’t claim to have every single fact on my side but I believe I have a pretty good preponderance of the evidence based on where we have been and where I think we could be going.

As to the local blogging scene, human nature being what it is I suspect things might get worse before they get better – hopefully I’m wrong on that one. Now we hear about boycotting this, making fun of that, and other character assassination that makes me wonder where the truth is being served? As I note, we have an election in four days yet public interest is more riveted on this story of personalities.

Indeed, this is why I don’t write about politics all the time because it’s a cesspool which can suck you in if you’re not careful. I like having an outsider’s view looking in.

It’s also why I believe that many of our ills could be cured if money and power were removed from the comparatively small enclave of Washington, D.C. and restored to the broader base of our state capitals and county seats. At least that way if someone is too power-hungry for their own britches we have a natural check and balance; unfortunately we are missing that here.

But that’s just me. In many respects what we have lost over my lifetime and perhaps a generation or two prior is our character. Sure, there are some who still carry themselves with honor in their lives but over time too many are corrupted by the siren song of instant gratification, wealth, and fame. I think this is what happened in the Albero case, although many debate whether he ever had that character to begin with. One has to wonder what made him so vindictive toward certain people, enough so to smear them all over his website. On the other hand, one also has to ponder the character of those who let his actions affect them to the point where they obsess over every move Joe makes. It’s a vicious circle, much like water swirling down the drain.

Maybe I don’t do as good of a job as I should of staying above the fray, but there are times I feel my reputation is threatened by the actions of this group. I can choose my friends but I can’t always choose my associates, and there are many good bloggers out there who get hurt by the bad apples.

It’s for them I say this piece, too. May they all rise above the bilge that has lately been spewed out on the local blogosphere and bring the level of conversation to one befitting our society.