October 2011 – Page 2

Autumn Wine Festival 2011 in pictures and text

I realize I’m a couple days late with this post, but you know I have things to do. Besides, this post is like fine wine and will get better with age. Okay, maybe not.

But like the previous weekend, I spent a lot of time at Pemberton Park and this is what I came up with.

Just as in the Good Beer Festival, a number of local dignitaries got together for the ribbon-cutting. However, the list was a little shorter than last week – in part that was because the memorial service for the late Bob Caldwell was later that day. So just three County Council members were present (Gail Bartkovich, Stevie Prettyman, and Bob Culver) with Bartkovich assisting in the opening.

In truth, I think the Wine Festival could stand to open later in the afternoon like the GBF does. The crowd was still kind of sparse at 1:30 on Saturday.

Now compare this to about the same time on Sunday, shot from roughly the same location.

The big difference seemed to be later in the day. The next two shots were taken about 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, with the third one a Sunday picture at about 3 p.m.

So it’s obvious the peak time came in mid-afternoon Saturday. But there was a big difference in the setup as well, since there was only one musical stage at the Autumn Wine Festival and it was set near the center of the event. Conversely, our location was near the back end where the stage for the Good Beer Festival was located, and that may have made the crowd seem smaller.

One other story on Saturday was the wind. This is what happened to our neighboring tent, which was Laura Moore Designs.

Her tent was actually damaged beyond repair, so she went tentless for most of the event. Fortunately, the loss to her artwork was very limited – one piece was broken. It could have been a lot worse.

The next tent down was this one.

What I couldn’t figure out was whether there was a deal to get in for participants in the Seagull Century or whether the tent was just for them. There really was never a large number of people there insofar as I could tell.

Another intriguing presence at this event was this car.

It was the first time I’d seen a Chevy Volt up close, since Lord knows no one is buying them. Would you pay $45,000 for that?

Well, maybe these guys would – after all, they are part owners of the company.

There was an inside joke as to how I took the picture because I believe they think of all of us as their ATM, not just that lonely taxpayer. By the way, I didn’t know until Saturday that Salisbury City Council member Laura Mitchell was on their Central Committee – when I last checked her status at election time she was still unaffiliated. Not anymore. She was there working on Sunday (with her husband) when I took the picture.

Meanwhile, we were right by the cash machine. But I like the message implied with our shot.

Got cash? Well, maybe that’s because of us. And the reason the Harris sign is obscured was that I placed a sign advertising our straw poll. (That’s a story for another day.)

Now the rest of these shots may not be newsworthy, but the big difference between the Good Beer Festival and Autumn Wine Festival is in the photographic opportunities for still life shots – like these bottles shining in the sun.

I didn’t realize they were herb bottles until the next day! That was because I was hustling to the front to take my ribbon cutting pictures and didn’t look at the sign above.

These below are wine bottles from a fairly local vintner, Layton’s Chance.

Yet I had not heard about Joe – frankly, I still haven’t. Then again I’m not a wine drinker.

But if I were a wine connoisseur I’m not sure I’d want one called “Jealous Mistress.” Maybe it’s good, though.

The winery is called Knob Hall Winery, and the Jealous Mistress in question is third from the right. This was my favorite bottle shot because of the sun and colors.

Unfortunately, though, compressing these pictures to fit my website means they lose a lot of detail. But this shot of Cove Point Winery’s wares still has a nice symmetry to it.

Yet as the sun set on another Autumn Wine Festival the diehard fans were still after that last taste.

That’s a good place to end the story of the 2011 Autumn Wine Festival.

The struggle within

It’s been a week since Salisbury City Council approved a City Charter amendment to place the city attorney under the supervision of the council rather than under the mayor. That vote stemmed from a June incident when Mayor Jim Ireton advised the city attorney not to attend a closed session of City Council because insufficient public notice was given beforehand. The charter amendment was approved by a group of three Council members who have become the new majority in a run of 3-2 votes; interestingly enough all three hail from the same Camden neighborhood.

Continue reading “The struggle within”

A few programming notes

I have some interesting items to discuss this week, but they’re not quite ready to go yet. It was an atypical evening in this household, so we had dinner late. Meanwhile, I went through exactly 200 ballots cast in our Wicomico County Republican Party Straw Poll over the last two weekends at both the Good Beer Festival and Autumn Wine Festival. Later this week I’ll tell you who the winners were and some other surprises as well.

During the Autumn Wine Festival I also spoke at some length with Laura Mitchell, who’s trying to do the nearly impossible – at least in recent city history. More on that tomorrow.

Of course there’s a Special Session this week to consider Governor’s latest redistricting map, which, to put it oh-so-bluntly, may be the most gerrymandered piece of shit I’ve ever seen. Just look at the Second and Third Districts, which obviously are connected through bodies of water. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see some other noxious stuff come out of that Special Session.

Unfortunately, one thing I have to miss is the protest in Annapolis on Tuesday, which should be a hoot. So I’ll hope that some of my blogging cohorts will get some coverage both in Lawyers Mall and behind the scenes.

Meanwhile, I have a post to do to wrap up the Autumn Wine Festival as well as a Weekend of local rock post of the same. But I also have a really busy week of work coming up and a little R-and-R this weekend, so there’s a lot of ground to cover in a short time frame. You’ll have to read fast.

Weekend of local rock volume 42

One thing about the Good Beer Festival is that they also have good music. On Monday I reviewed the event as a whole, now it’s time to talk about the music. Here’s a handy-dandy guide to what’s coming up:

One admission I had to make: with a couple exceptions, I couldn’t stay and hear every musical act. For the most part, acts on the bar stage were lost in the crowd noise but I could hear those playing on the main stage pretty well.

Continue reading “Weekend of local rock volume 42”

Cain surges in polls: is he the anti-Romney?

According to a new Rasmussen Poll, Herman Cain and Mitt Romney are now virtually tied on the top of the Republican presidential heap as both garnered 29% in the sampling. And the new number three is Newt Gingrich, who gets 10 percent while former frontrunner Rick Perry has slipped all the way back to fourth, at nine percent.

It’s interesting to note the history of how this race has gone. Mitt Romney has always seemed to have his 20 to 30 percent support and that number doesn’t seem to waver regardless of who’s in the race; it’s enough to keep him on top or a close second in most polls.

But the role of portraying that “other” contender seems to change on a cycle of about a month or two.

Continue reading “Cain surges in polls: is he the anti-Romney?”

1 vs. 100

Well, okay, it’s not quite on the scale of the game show but one has to snicker at the thought of covering a protest in front of Andy Harris’s office that draws 20 people. Shoot, the TEA Party got more than that to go to former Congressman Frank Kratovil’s office, brought a noose, and still couldn’t get any local media attention besides local bloggers like me. Never mind that we’d get 300 or 400 for a nice local gathering, whether in the bright sunshine or pouring rain.

Continue reading “1 vs. 100”

Bongino newest poll champion

You know, I have so much fun with these occasional polls I do.

As I said in June when I did the last Senate one, I obviously know the polls are manipulated. But in making the assumption that those who would manipulate a poll exist in the same general proportion as supporters in the population at large, I can at least gather a trend. At least in this sort of instance it’s doubtful anyone would lie to a pollster.

These results, though, show a trend which may only be occurring within Republican circles until we know for sure if other key contenders are getting into the party. Here’s how the poll went:

Daniel Bongino – 3,425 votes (75.66%)
Eric Wargotz – 1,068 votes (23.59%)
Robert Broadus – 23 votes (0.51%)
William Capps – 5 votes (0.11%)
Rich Douglas – 2 votes (0.04%)
Rick Hoover – 2 votes (0.04%)
Pat McDonough – 1 vote (0.02%)
Corrogan Vaughn – 1 vote (0.02%)

Having said that a trend may exist, I need to caution those reading into the results that there’s little chance Dan Bongino will get 76% of the vote – I don’t care if the Constitutional Conservatives Fund of Senator Mike Lee has endorsed Dan or not, he’s not getting 75 percent of the GOP vote. In 2006 Michael Steele didn’t even get 90 percent and he was the sitting lieutenant governor, had plenty of name recognition, and basically controlled the whole Maryland GOP apparatus. I can see something in the 40’s for Bongino if all goes right but a lot depends on who else gets into the race and we won’t have a couple possible entrants with statewide name recognition make a formal announcement on their status until later this month.

But I have to admire how Dan is laying the groundwork for his campaign, including people passionate enough to drive internet poll numbers over 75 percent.

Let’s compare this to June numbers, for example. The number of votes cast was nearly the same (4,716 in June vs. 4,527 now) but the results were somewhat different:

Eric Wargotz – 44.87%
Daniel Bongino – 36.28%
William Capps – 17.62%
Corrogan Vaughn – 0.81%
Robert Broadus – 0.23%
Rick Hoover – 0.19%

Since I didn’t figure Capps ever really had 18 percent, the idea of a two-man race at the time had merit. But if Eric decides not to run – and remember, he had not made a final decision as of a couple weeks ago – that only leaves Pat McDonough as a possible major opponent. (I wouldn’t completely discount Rich Douglas either, given his background.)

This election is a little bit different than the last cycle, where the primary was late – so late, in fact, that federal law precludes us from having a September primary again. (Too bad, because I liked that compressed season.) Now there’s less than six months remaining until election day and truly we won’t be really paying attention until after the holidays anyway. It’s possible we could have a post-holiday bid, sort of like Bob Ehrlich’s coyness about his 2010 try for governor, but like Ehrlich it would have to be someone with some name recognition already because the filing deadline is January 11.

In any case it won’t be as easy as voting in a monoblogue poll.

Dropouts 4 Romney

This is something I found interesting.

Having followed the Republican presidential nominating process for 2012 for some time, it’s telling to me that three candidates who have either bowed out or said they were never in the race have endorsed Mitt Romney. The latter category was filled yesterday by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, with both Tim Pawlenty and Thad McCotter also choosing Romney after exiting the race.

Of course, that’s not to say that many other politicians haven’t endorsed Mitt Romney – heck, Maryland has its own list of Republicans who back him. I just don’t happen to be one of them.

Continue reading “Dropouts 4 Romney”

Wicomico County loses a fighter

Wicomico County Council District 4 member Bob Caldwell passed away this morning. He was 70.

Caldwell leaves behind a grieving family and community, since he touched the lives of thousands from his term as a Salisbury City Councilman from 1992-96 and his participation in other charitable works around Salisbury as a community leader. After a political hiatus of over a decade – spanning the time he was first diagnosed with cancer – Caldwell ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Salisbury in 2009, finishing third in a four-person primary.

But Bob won his County Council seat in 2010, enduring one of the most closely-fought elections and recounts in memory as he prevailed over incumbent Democrat David MacLeod by just two votes out of over 4,000 cast.

Continue reading “Wicomico County loses a fighter”

In print: Don’t put politics above security

This is a column I submitted to the Daily Times. A slightly longer version was submitted to another Maryland outlet.

In the 2011 session of the Maryland General Assembly, members of the House of Delegates tried and failed to get the Marcellus Shale Safe Drilling Act of 2011 through the legislature. Undaunted by that legislative defeat, in early June Gov. Martin O’Malley signed an executive order to study an oil and natural gas-field process called hydraulic fracturing, with a final report not required until August 2014. It’s a demand to study a process used in more than one million U.S. wells during the past 60 years.

In layman’s terms, “fracking,” as the procedure is better known, uses a solution forced into hard underground rock formations to create tiny fissures. The fissures allow energy resources — in Maryland’s case, natural gas — to be released and extracted.

(Continued at delmarvanow.com…)

2011 Good Beer Festival in pictures and text

Fair warning: this post is heavy on the pictures, as I have 27 loaded up and ready to go. Here’s the first:

Of course, there’s much, much more after the jump.

Continue reading “2011 Good Beer Festival in pictures and text”

Roemer: I will occupy Wall Street

A quick Facebook note I spied:

Throughout our great Nation’s history, its citizens have risen and joined together to fight against many injustices. Today, the Occupy Wall St. Movement stands up to fight against the corruption and greed that has taken over our political sytstem (sic) and financial system. I will proudly join them on Tuesday in NYC.

This came from Buddy Roemer, who is on perhaps the lowest tier of known GOP Presidential candidates. Well, if he’s looking for votes or sympathy he’s not going to find a lot of it there, nor will he attract all that much attention. He’ll just be a sideshow to the freak show that’s going on there.

Continue reading “Roemer: I will occupy Wall Street”