The Republican blame game
This is one of those comments which deserves its own post, although I’m the one who left it.
Every so often I like to see what the other side is doing, so I go and catch up on Maryland Juice. Yes, David Moon is probably my mirror-image on the left, but I have to hand it to him because he writes quite well. Anyway, yesterday he wrote a piece bouncing off a Maryland Reporter post about the distribution of poverty in Maryland, and I responded with the comment below, which I will separate rather than blockquote myself.
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But how does one lift themselves out of poverty? The preferable method is a well-paying job, and I would argue that the state’s policies on development indeed constitute a “War on Rural Maryland.”
I live in Salisbury, and the problem we have is very simple: we have a good university which attracts students from across the region (including the western shore) but no well-paying jobs to keep them here. Incubators of jobs are discouraged from starting up in this part of Maryland because of the hostile business climate, manufacturing won’t come here because the infrastructure is sorely lacking, and all that seems to be left is a few state and institutional jobs here and there. I know the decline of the local building industry wiped my former job out, probably never to return.
On the other hand you live in Montgomery County, which benefits handsomely from its proximity to the federal seat of government. Businesses know they have to pay a premium to be near that population center so they grin and bear it, but guess what? What can work there doesn’t work out here.
Instead, the state seems to have a policy that rural land needs to be either purchased outright (taking it off local tax rolls) or have its usage restricted so much that it essentially becomes worthless. By doing that, farmers are put at a severe disadvantage because their chief asset is the value implicit in the possibility of development of their land. Selling an acre or two of frontage off a 80- or 160- acre parcel isn’t going to significantly affect an overall crop but it could make the difference between profit or loss for a farmer. But that soon won’t be allowed anymore in Martin O’Malley’s Maryland.
For all the talk about One Maryland from your side, the reality is there are at least three. The western panhandle could lift themselves up if the state government would get its head out of its rear end regarding fracking and our end of the state would do just fine if government realized the punitive policies which are fine for your end of Maryland aren’t helping when we have business-friendly Delaware just across the border. Let the counties figure out what’s best for them, and stop dictating what we do from Annapolis.
And I’m curious: if your contention that Republican are to blame for denser amounts of poverty in “their” areas of the state is correct, what does it say about Baltimore City – a Democratic stronghold for decades – being the absolute poorest?
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I think that about covers it. But there’s another point I’ll make here, too.
As it is measured for the purposes of the map, poverty is a relative term. Let’s say Person A makes a poverty-level income and lives in Wicomico County while person B lives in Anne Arundel County and makes twice as much. Person A could find it easier to scratch out a living in a rural area because of the lower cost of living than Person B living in a high-priced suburb. Yet on that map Wicomico is painted orange, implying it’s a poor county, while Anne Arundel is a bright blue.
And notice a rising tide lifts all boats. The counties which are in the best shape tend to be those with pockets of wealth, either through being bedroom suburbs to large urban areas (Anne Arundel, Calvert, Charles, Frederick, Howard) or hideaways for the vastly wealthy, which I would categorize Queen Anne’s and Talbot as. In fact, if you change the criteria to a concentration of population existing at less than 200% or 300% of poverty level, the two Eastern Shore counties regress slightly but the bedroom suburbs remain high on the list.
But the argument that Republican parts of the state are leeching off the other portions is a red herring anyway, because the state will keep on spending huge amounts of money to satisfy certain constituencies. If you doubt me, just remember the hue and cry put up when we were “only” going to spend $700 million more than we did in the last fiscal year. Until someone shows me a pattern of budgets with year-over-year declines and their effects of state residents I’m not going to believe that we can’t survive with less. Real, working Maryland families have had to.
The SEO blues
When I write, as I often do – some might consider me a serial writer, since I have a website closing in on 3,000 posts over 6 1/2 years – I do so for a number of reasons. First and foremost is my enjoyment of doing this, with a close second being the ability to educate on the benefits of conservatism.
And of course, there’s money involved too. I get a monthly stipend from one client, have another I have occasionally contributed to which pays me on a per-article basis, and there are other one-off deals as well as my Examiner page. I also sell advertising and have a tip jar here, so on rare occasions I find a little extra in my generally anemic bank account.
But I also know some who have a different style of writing based on the concept of search engine optimization, better known as SEO. Some do it rather well and some have a hackneyed approach, but all are after that elusive goal of standing atop Google when you do a search on a particular subject. Obviously my SEO is generally anemic as well – a quick look at my site analytics tells me that just 3% of my visits come from search engines. Yet my Alexa world rank hovers in the 280,000 range, which tells me people somehow find this site.
Where I’m going with this is that I had an interesting e-mail exchange with a person representing a company which “has leveraged the power of the Web to create a unique group of specialty e-commerce stores,” according to its website. I’d rather not divulge the company but if you Google the phrase (as I did) it naturally sits at the top.
Originally he wanted me to add guest content to my site, but when I told him that monoblogue works because it is in one voice (with a few rare exceptions) he changed his tactic. What he wanted me to do was to create a post which had three instances of a particular key phrase, one of which linked back to his site, and establish a permanent link back to his site on mine. In return I would get “a total donation of $150.”
That’s a nice chunk of change, but I told this gentleman that, for that amount, I could give him a prominent advertising link on my site as opposed to a post which would eventually both fade off the front page of my site and probably Google in a short amount of time. It seemed like a better solution for both of us, but this person wanted the post.
Could I have written it? Probably, and perhaps I could have made the content interesting and relevant with my point of view. But it’s one of those things where I believe the post would have come out flat and not up to my personal standards of integrity and excellence.
Moreover, does this really contribute to the quality of the internet as a whole? Obviously the World Wide Web has panned out to be a gold mine for certain types of e-commerce (just ask those who benefited from Facebook’s IPO) but it also has its seedy dark corners and people who try to use it for destructive purposes. I’m not naive enough to believe all is sweetness and light in this realm or that every writer of any sort of quality is entitled to riches and fame, but I often wonder if writing just for the purpose of being on top of a search engine – whether the content is really relevant or not – is contributing to the quality of the discourse or the internet as a whole. Search engines also have a way of pulling the rug out from under those who simply exist to take advantage of their system.
So I suspect this gentleman and I will part ways. I offered him the opportunity to advertise on my site and he turned it down, which is his right. I’m certain he will find a writer who will do his bidding – after all, $150 for maybe a half-hour’s worth of work is a pretty good deal, and souls have likely been sold for far less. But I like to sleep soundly at night and the quality of this website is under my control, so if I can’t do something to a satisfaction standard I can live with it’s just not worth doing for any price.
Resurrection
A couple years ago I spent several months moving back and forth between writing this site and working on two Examiner pages. But once I got a fairly regular gig at Pajamas Media (now PJ Media) I stopped working on the Examiner page – my last post there came in October, 2010. In the seven months the page was active I did about 90 posts, so about one every other day on the average.
Well, the Examiner folks have wanted me to come back and I think it’s time to do so. However, I am likely going to change from working on the Baltimore site to working on the Washington, D.C. site. It’s sort of a clunky title, but unless there’s a last minute change I don’t know about I will be the Eastern Maryland Political Buzz Examiner. (There was – it’s now Eastern Shore Political Buzz Examiner, which I like even better.) I look at it this way – to me, anything east of Washington, D.C. is fair game and Annapolis is east of our nation’s capital. (Technically, the title is based on where I live since Salisbury isn’t an Examiner base city.)
So why return now? Well, my audience is now larger and this gives me the opportunity to broaden my exposure still farther and hopefully make a little bit of coin while I’m at it. And since we have a number of great political races on this end of the state I think I can fill a political coverage need for those readers. Similarly to how I handle PJ Media stories, the initial headlines will be here.
And that’s not to say I’m not looking at or for other opportunities. But the words I say about economic development also apply to a great extent in the writing business: if you don’t grow, you die. The idea in this world is to maximize exposure in order to build a brand audience. I’ve noticed in the last couple years that Facebook promotion helped my readership jump as did more frequent usage of Twitter. But these techniques can only go so far, and the great advantage of having a vast body of work on local and state politics is the opportunity to drive new readers to my archives by proper linking to my relevant content here on monoblogue. It can be a win-win for both readers and myself.
Like I said when I first started with Examiner, I have a hard time sometimes expressing gratitude to those who support me – certainly there are a few who have been fans of my writing since its humble beginnings. So thanks to everyone who has taken the time to drop by my corner of the blogosphere, and once I get re-established on Examiner you can bookmark the other page as well. But I’ll still be here, too.
New sponsor and new milestone
It’s an exciting day at monoblogue, made even moreso by the fact the presidential race came to Salisbury and I was there to cover the event. Yesterday I finalized a long-term sponsor to the site, so I encourage you to check out TEA Party Posters at rightposters.com. Welcome aboard John!
And late last night I found out that my site had finally broken through the 300,000 barrier in Alexa rank – when you figure this is somewhat of a regional website that’s pretty rarefied air. I’m just a little outside cracking the 50,000 rank for the first time insofar as U.S. rank goes as well. (Update: made it today!)
My rankings have been going down (like golf, lower is better) because people have been coming to my site of late. Readership has been surging with a number of well-read posts on Trayvon Martin, the Maryland presidential primary, and my U.S. Senate endorsement being just a few.
And look for more exciting stuff in the days to come!
A possible rethinking
A little over a month ago I wrote a post which challenged Ron Paul to prove there was caucus fraud or get out of the race. Well, at first I was criticized by rabid Paul supporters who questioned my assertions, stating it wasn’t the candidate himself making them, well, until he actually made that suggestion. Of course they ignored me then.
But after the debacle on Saturday in St. Charles County, Missouri (or as blogger Bob McCarty termed it, the “St. Patrick’s Day Massacre“) I’m reminded of another incident in the recent past. And I’ll get to that in a moment.
First, though, I want you to read a couple other accounts (The Other McCain and All-American Blogger) of the incidents, including the comments, and learn that Ron Paul supporters sometimes leave a lot to be desired in manners. All done? Good.
Now you can continue past the jump.
Odds and ends number 47
The occasional rundown of items I find interesting and deserving of a paragraph or two…begins now.
In the category of acting locally, thinking globally I’ll pass along the annual dog and pony show against the Wicomico County revenue cap called the Public Hearing for the county’s FY2013 operating budget, which will be held in the Flanders Room of the Wicomico County Youth and Civic Center this coming Thursday, March 22nd at 7 p.m.
Since the deadline for county departments to submit their budget requests only passed this week, we probably won’t see the county’s FY2013 budget proposal until it’s distributed at the meeting. The obvious sword of Damocles hanging over our fiscal head is the prospect of a shifting of teacher pensions to the county, and that hasn’t been resolved at the state level yet.
So there’s a lot of uncertainty in the Government Office Building these days.
‘I can’t lose this…I gave up everything’
On Wednesday evening I was fortunate enough to be invited to participate in a conference call with U.S. Senate candidate Dan Bongino, and I was joined by a handful of other political bloggers around the state. Insofar as I know (and I haven’t checked today, so I may now be incorrect on this assertion) no one else has written about this call, and that’s sort of a shame.
The call itself was timed just before Dan’s “20 on 20″ moneybomb, which turned out to be, in his words today, “an incredible success” which “surpassed our one-day goal.” But Dan lauded the support of the Maryland conservative blogosphere, which had been “absolutely invaluable” to his campaign, arguably moreso than the mainstream media’s. I’m not sure I would agree with that totally, but when you stop to consider the interests of our audience (which is more attuned to politics and forms the backbone of donors, volunteers, etc.) I can see his point. The mainstream is more valuable for building up name recognition, though.
Speaking of volunteers, Dan assessed his campaign as “in great shape” as far as that goes; still he conceded “we need a little help” in fundraising – “but we’re doing okay.” Much of the fundraising would go toward media, and it’s no secret that whoever wins the GOP primary will have to contend with Cardin’s massive warchest, $1 million of which he’s purportedly spending on media buys in the runup to the primary. And while Cardin has a contested primary, with the main opponent being State Senator C. Anthony Muse of Prince George’s County, it’s probable that the lone question surrounding the April 3rd contest is the over-under on Cardin’s margin of victory. As others are finding out on a more limited scale, it’s difficult enough to run a campaign during the General Assembly session let alone attempt a statewide one as Muse is attempting. You can also factor in the tacit disapproval of state Democratic party brass as another hindrance to Muse’s upstart bid.
But Dan brought up a good point about Ben’s media buy – why is this necessary after 45 years in public office, particularly when he’s run for election 16 times? Granted, Ben hasn’t been on the ballot since 2006 but he’s obviously a familiar name in one of the state’s two leading media markets, and it’s not like he won’t get the covert backing of the state’s key media outlets either.
I asked a question of Dan regarding the Muse challenge and what it means to the minority vote: what percentage of the vote are you looking for? “All of them,” he replied. But to Dan that sphere of voters presents a “target-rich environment” where several conservative issues can resonate. There’s no doubt that Bongino is basing his campaign on kitchen-table issues – “I know what it’s like to be hungry,” he said, regarding his upbringing in a impoverished family – but there are other “wedge issues” out there like school choice, which “resonates strongly” in many areas, where the incumbent is working against the interests of minority voters. “We can do better” with them, assessed Dan.
Other issue-based questions dealt with the recent CBO re-estimate of Obamacare’s costs, which Dan remarked is “not realistic…not even close” to the true costs and what he felt were key issues: of course the economy and jobs topped the list. “Folks want to hear about putting Cheerios on the table right now,” said Bongino.
He was also pleased to get the endorsement from the Gazette website, which is based in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., along with additional coverage from Newsmax and the G. Gordon Liddy radio program. “Seven million eyeballs” saw the Newsmax piece, beamed Bongino.
All in all, the conference call, which lasted a few ticks short of a half-hour, was a valuable tool in gauging the strength of the Bongino campaign at this point. There’s no doubt he (or any other of the ten GOP aspirants for the nomination) will have an uphill battle this fall, but there are reasons to believe Democrats in general have cracks in their Maryland armor. Will the base turn out for Obama? And what about the two referenda which will most likely be on the ballot – will they drive conservative turnout?
I’m not sure how much Bongino or any of the other Republicans who will survive the primary will tie themselves to these issues, as we have a long way to go to find out whether the gay marriage question will even be on the ballot. Moreover, and quite frankly, gay marriage can be characterized as a side issue in a race for federal office. But these ballot issues will bring conservative voters out and we know Cardin is foursquare behind placing the support of same-sex marriage in the Democratic party’s platform so we don’t necessarily have to be strongly against gay marriage in federal races.
But I appreciated being included in the call, and know that the campaign begins in earnest once nominees are selected April 3.
It’s worth noting that, while Bongino doesn’t have a local event scheduled I’m aware of, two of his opponents will be in the Salisbury area on Monday, March 26th. Richard Douglas is the featured speaker for the Wicomico County Republican Club meeting at the Chamber of Commerce building in downtown Salisbury while fellow GOP officeseeker Robert Broadus will address the Wicomico Society of Patriots meeting at Adam’s Ribs in Fruitland.
Funding the resistance, redux
Back in January I posted about a New York blogger who was having financial difficulties as part of a longer riff on the state of conservative bloggers who are struggling financially because our side doesn’t have the set of patrons those on the left seem to.
Well, Marianne has averted the original financial trouble she encountered but now is fighting what she believes is late stage Lyme Disease. That’s something perhaps people in my sphere of influence can relate to as the Delmarva area is also prone to the spread of Lyme thanks to infected deer ticks.
Because of that, I’ve placed a badge in the “public service announcement” area of my site which notes that conservative bloggers are supporting conservative bloggers. Marianne’s not looking for a government handout, but after noting the paucity of “Lyme literate” doctors who deal with late stage Lyme Disease she also has this to write:
There will likely be more doctors in many different fields going “off the grid” as Obamacare draws near and the noose of bureaucratic micromanaging tightens on healthcare providers who fail to do what they are told by a panel of pencil pushers rather than do what is best for their patients. When I am feeling a little better, I plan to do some investigative blogging about this phenomenon.
And there’s nothing like a conservative woman, in pain, scorned – I have no doubt that she’ll latch onto this like a bulldog.
Now some may ask why Marianne would put herself out like this and make her pain public for all to see. Well, back in the old days we asked for help through institutions like family, churches, and communities. I have no idea what sort of familial support she has (aside from being married with children) or where she goes to church, but I do know that in this day and age the idea of community goes far beyond the boundaries of whatever place we live in.
Last night when I actually wrote this, right after I put up the widget in my sidebar, I took a moment to consider something I hadn’t really thought about. I link to about 80 other websites, and while most are local or Maryland-based, they are spread out all over the country. (By the way, Maryanne has me stomped insofar as links goes.) But I have only met the purveyors of maybe a dozen and a half in person, and communicated with perhaps a dozen others on a personal basis as opposed to leaving a comment. Yet I have this connection to them through the internet. The same goes for a surprisingly large number of my Facebook friends and Twitter followers.
So even if it’s not all that likely that one particular reader can be of assistance, there’s a fighting chance that someone who runs across this website can help “Zilla” out. And if not, that simply means you’re destined to be of assistance in some other fashion to someone else. Later this week I’ll revisit something I wrote about last month as part 2 happened over last weekend. A lot of people came to help out a perfect stranger most haven’t met.
And I’ll guarantee you that not all of them shared my political views, or most likely had that much in common with the family in need. But most of us are instilled with some desire to serve our fellow man and fortunately the rampant increase in government handouts passed around in this day and age hasn’t dampened our enthusiasm to help a person in need ourselves.
Odds and ends number 46
This morning most of my usual rundown of items that, as always, don’t merit a full post but perhaps 1-3 paragraphs, concern the goings-on here in the great state of Maryland. (Note: additional update at bottom.)
I’ve heard so much over the last week about the gas tax: first it was off the table in favor of an income tax hike, and now it’s just being backed up to the end of the General Assembly session. The Senate Republican slate is still pressing the anti-gas tax website, though, also making the point that the Transportation Trust Fund is about the least trustworthy option for placing extra revenue.
And gas prices aren’t just a state issue. The Republican Study Committee, a group of conservative Congressional Republicans, raises a valid argument:
Oil production on private and state-owned land – land beyond the federal government’s grip – grew 14% last year. At the exact same time, production on federal land fell 11%. Gas prices have nearly doubled since Obama’s inauguration, and energy analysts predict that more Americans than ever before will pay $5.00 per gallon this year.
The President’s response to soaring gas prices is to shrug his shoulders and say, “There’s not much we can do.” And his Secretary of Energy Steven Chu has actually called for raising gas prices to European levels. Italians currently pay about $9.00 per gallon!
This isn’t the energy policy Americans deserve. Aggressively increasing our energy production will help lower gas prices and create more jobs. To do it, we must unlock more areas for exploration, cut through the red tape that slows production, and green light common sense projects like the Keystone XL pipeline.
The smart and responsible path to American energy security is clear, and the Republican Study Committee’s Jobs Through Growth Act shows the way. We quite literally cannot afford to wait. (Emphasis mine.)
Read that first sentence again – oil exploration on private land grew, but public lands waned. And the Democrats’ response? They want to once again raid the Strategic Petroleum Reserve rather than admitting their culpability in holding up production for a decade or more – oil which could have already been on the market.
I’m a strong believer in the concept of “highest and best use” when it comes to land, although I adapt it somewhat to consider the resource value. Furthermore, I feel that recreational usage, preservation, and energy extraction need not be mutually exclusive over large tracts of land. It wouldn’t be any worse to see an oil well or fracking operation than to have a wind turbine hovering hundreds of feet in the air, either offshore or land-based, or a field full of solar panels.
As an example of how energy is becoming a national campaign issue, even in local races, I can direct you to Second District Congressional candidate Larry Smith, who both put forth his energy plan and challenged opponent Dutch Ruppersberger to” support the Keystone XL pipeline” and “stand up to President Obama and the special interest groups in Washington. It is time for him to fight for the people of his district and begin taking constructive measures to help end the pain at the pump.”
It’s good that Smith is another Maryland Republican who is taking the fight to the Democrat rather than his primary opponents. We can leave that for the other side, even when they’re correct in pointing it out.
Another race where this is occurring is the U.S. Senate race, where both the leading contenders are hammering the opponent. Dan Bongino recently called Ben Cardin the “milquetoast senator.” Bongino continued, “I like to say that Maryland is missing two senators because they just vote the party line. No reason for Maryland to get any national interest because there is no diversity of political thought.”
Richard Douglas called Maryland “desperate for leaders” and blasted the state’s junior Senator for being out of touch:
For most Americans, longevity brings wisdom. In Congress, longevity brings isolation. Isolation from the people invites tyranny. Such isolation is visible in Baghdad’s fortified ‘Green Zone,’ whose original architect was Saddam Hussein, not the American soldier. America must not tolerate creation of a Green Zone around Congress by politicians-for-life. A Senate leader who is truly concerned about the interests of his state and nation knows this. Like General Washington, he understands the critical value to the nation of a Farewell Address. He leaves on a warhorse, not a gurney.
Ben Cardin has held elected office since 1967. His time is up.
Indeed, it is time for a change, and these two gentlemen lead a group which would do a far better job representing the true interests of Marylanders.
And Free Staters could be well served without the need for tax increases, simply by adopting a more austere budget than the one proposed by Governor O’Malley. But it certainly wouldn’t be bare-bones, says Delegate Justin Ready.
Negotiations are taking place to avoid what liberal interest groups are calling a doomsday budget – one that would reduce approximately $500 million from Governor O’Malley’s proposed $36 Billion budget. A reduction of 1.4% out of the largest projected budget in Maryland history does not sound like doomsday to me, it sounds like a very good idea to get our state’s finances back on track.
It’s important to note that a cut of $500-$700 million out of Gov. O’Malley’s proposed FY2013 budget would still leave Maryland’s state government spending more than in last year’s budget. That’s not an unreasonable request to make of our government in a time when families have seen their budgets reduced dramatically.
So we would STILL spend more, but that’s not good enough for Annapolis liberals. They seem to want the whole enchilada, middle class (and everyone else not on the government teat) be damned.
But before I get to my new links, I wanted to add a quick news update: Mitt Romney won the Washington caucuses, although in truth it doesn’t mean much because the hard work of picking delegates to the national convention comes later on. Of course, I’m waiting for the Ron Paul cult to tell me that he’ll end up with all the delegates despite the fact he finished a distant second.
But there’s a simple truth at play: even if Paul got EVERY delegate from EVERY caucus, he would still be far short of the number needed for nomination. And getting 10 percent of the primary vote in a particular state isn’t going to get it.
I have one new link to share. She’s a California-based conservative who is most famous for the message below.
She’s also spoken about the Sandra Fluke imbroglio in this classic, no-holds-barred style. Her name is Kira Davis, and her website is quite interesting, so check it out.
And to close, another sad note of passing. Fellow Maryland blogger T.J. Grogg (The Grogg Report) passed away last week. She was 68.
Update: I had to add this in because Robert Stacy McCain just destroys Sandra Fluke and her $3,000 for birth control argument.
A giant lost
My “interesting news” I was planning on running today just doesn’t seem as interesting anymore.
Instead, I’m going to write about a man I didn’t know, had never met personally, and whose website I rarely link to and don’t visit all that often. Yet it’s that larger-than-life personality he had which merits this post.
There’s no question Andrew Breitbart was very brash in his assessment of liberals. I don’t know if he would have called himself the Rush Limbaugh of internet news – perhaps he may have called Rush the Andrew Breitbart of talk radio – but there are some similarities in style between the two. Like Rush, Breitbart infuriated critics because not only was he right, he seemed so damn self-assured about being so.
It’s interesting that I wasn’t really on top of this because I didn’t get a chance to read my e-mail this morning. I had what I thought would be a long day and my laptop has been acting up, so I took a cursory glance at what was on my cel phone’s e-mail list and went about my outside job. It wasn’t until I returned home that I found out the news.
In reading the story, I didn’t realize Breitbart was as young as he was – I was already a lad of 4 1/2 when Andrew came into the world. So the news is doubly sad because he had young children. That’s not to say that his death is anymore tragic than those of other men who had families with mouths to feed, but it points out something often missed about people in the public eye – many are parents and when their father dies at a young age it leaves just as much of a void in the lives of the children. Celebrity doesn’t discriminate in that respect.
Odd and ends number 45
Thanks to Dan Bongino, who I spoke to the other night at our Lincoln Day Dinner. As he reminded me, I am now on number 45 in this occasional series of short items I grace with a paragraph or three.
So how about I start with an item involving him?
You probably don’t know the name Mia Love, but perhaps you should. The Utah Congressional candidate endorsed Dan with this statement:
“I first learned about Dan when he was being covered for a segment on Fox News. I was amazed by his story and the passion he has for the state of Maryland,” said Mia Love. “If we are going to change the way Washington operates, we need to start by electing folks like Dan Bongino.”
So I’m sure you’re thinking, well, that’s nice. But take a look at her website and read this piece of her life she shares therein:
On the day of Mia’s college orientation, her father said something to her that would become the ethos for her life:
“Mia, your mother and I never took a handout. You will not be a burden to society. You will give back.”
Consider that she’s born of Haitian parents and is a minority conservative Republican with a sound track record in her home state, and the strategy of this endorsement makes much more sense.
But there’s other endorsement news out there as well. This particular one shakes up the Sixth District race a bit, as former Senatorial hopeful Jim Rutledge eschewed endorsing one of the better-known candidates in the race and instead backs the underdog Robert Coblentz, calling him “a concrete conservative who understands the core principles and values that make America great.”
Perhaps that’s not a complete surprise, though, as Coblentz was the coordinator of Jim’s campaign in Washington County in 2010. Still, it gives him a little bit of gravitas in his uphill battle against more well-known candidates, and politicians have to start somewhere.
Returning to the Senate race, candidate Rich Douglas has been scoring media points with a couple appearances over in western Maryland. He called out Ben Cardin for not taking a stance on the gas tax during Alex Mooney’s WFMD-AM radio show Sunday evening, saying “I haven’t heard a peep from Ben Cardin (on the gas tax). There’s one simple way he can make his position known – go to a microphone and say what it is.” It also gave Mooney a free shot at Rob “Gas Tax” Garagiola, who’s changed his stance on the issue since he decided to run for Congress in the Sixth District. “These politicians all look out for each other,” added Douglas.
Rich was also featured in a Cumberland Times-News story by Matthew Bieniek on Friday where he echoed some of his job creation arguments presented Saturday at our Lincoln Day Dinner:
Job growth is Douglas’ priority and he doesn’t think the current administration in Washington, and U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, are doing enough to bring new jobs to Maryland and the nation.
“The unfavorable business climate is a major factor. … Congress has a duty to remove obstacles to success,” Douglas said. A senator should be out there promoting Maryland as a business destination, he said.
A strategic, comprehensive vision for the nation’s economic future is needed, he said. The current “salami slice approach” isn’t working, Douglas said.
Obviously Douglas is covering the state quite well, and the strategy of using local media may pay off come April.
My role as a ‘journalist’
From time to time, there is a discussion about the role people like me play and a post from last Friday by Melissa Clouthier talks about a recent court case in Oregon where a blogger was sued for libel and lost in part because she was denied the media shield protection a “regular” journalist receives. As Clouthier writes:
This case disturbs me as a blogger. I’ve had sources feed me stories – nearly every blogger has sources. There should be shield law protection. Period.
She also notes:
Right now, bloggers are exposed. If a big corporation, a rich/important individual, the government or someone in power wants to harass a blogger, he simply has to sue them into compliance. Even if the powerful has no case, the lawsuit itself can put an independent journalist out of business.
Melissa also links to an old acquaintance of mine from my days in Toledo, Maggie Thurber. Maggie adds a little bit of context to the discussion regarding this public service that bloggers do:
We have several local examples of people doing their part, including (one woman) who attends Toledo City Council Meetings, takes notes and then shares them with us here on this blog.
It doesn’t take much, since many are already attending meetings across the county – and anyone who share their meeting notes here is welcome to do so.
As we’ve found out, much to our chagrin at times, the mainstream media can’t be everywhere and even when they are present they don’t always cover the event well. For example, I have been at probably fifty Wicomico County Republican Club meetings over the last several years, where public officials utter statements which can be newsworthy. I believe there has been one instance where print media was present, but to be honest I forget who it was for. And while Salisbury City Council and Wicomico County Council have received regular coverage, the press tends to ignore smaller communities, political forums, and the like where news can be made, too.
Unfortunately, I’ve also found that the role of self-appointed journalist doesn’t always suit some people, and perhaps that’s the reason we haven’t earned that First Amendment protection. (There are a few plaintiffs locally who may agree with that initial statement, considering their dealings with another local blogger.)
While we don’t have the rights that “mainstream” journalists have, to be good at what we do and to legitimize what’s still a maturing news resource we still have the responsibility to be accurate and honest in both our reporting and the disclosure of our point of view. There’s no question I come with a conservative slant to what I write, and I don’t deny it. But that doesn’t relieve me of the responsibility to be as accurate as possible when I put on my reporter’s hat.
Certainly, though, there is one part of the statement which Melissa brings up and I allude to a couple paragraphs above. If someone with money or power is “wronged” by a blogger, they certainly have the means to destroy that blogger even if he or she is in the right. It’s sort of the inverse to the scenario where a company settles out of court with a plaintiff to avoid the prospect of losing a much bigger settlement at trial.
The Crystal Cox case is illustrative of what can happen to a blogger. Based on one post out of several regarding the plaintiff, a federal judge ruled against her defense that she was entitled to her state’s media shield law. U.S. District Judge Marco Hernandez wrote:
(T)he record fails to show that she is affiliated with any newspaper, magazine, periodical, book, pamphlet, news service, wire service, news or feature syndicate, broadcast station or network, or cable television system. Thus, she is not entitled to the protections of the law.
In the interest of disclosure, Hernandez was slated to be a Bush appointee, but he was held out by the end of Bush’s term and renominated by President Obama last year.
Now I have written before about the difficulties some bloggers have with financial support, but this is another potential landmine we all face. Not only could we use some financial assistance from those who could find us useful to advance a political agenda, but the possibility of more rulings like Judge Hernandez spewed forth means we need to find a way to legitimize ourselves in the eyes of the public.
Unfortunately, it was one post out of hundreds Cox wrote which did her in, and there’s the possibility that anyone who says something which gravely offends someone in a position of power can be in the same boat. That possibility is one which chills the national discourse, and shield laws should expand to allow those who blog the same rights as any other freelance journalist who toils for the print media. Of course we shouldn’t be able to get away with libel, but those bloggers who can prove themselves to be responsible at their craft despite their independence shouldn’t be penalized, either.
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