Rants, raves, and general stuff about me that’s not related to politics or sports.
My ex would know all about this.
Well, the Super Bowl is over, so you know what that means….
TEN DAYS UNTIL PITCHERS AND CATCHERS REPORT!!!!! Woohoo! Let the REAL season begin!!!!!
And…as a reminder of where the Shorebirds left off, in August I had my camera at the final home game and recorded the final out. (It’s a 6 meg .avi file, should play on Windows Media Player because it does on mine.) Color commentary by yours truly.
I actually wasn’t going to do this particular subject yet, but I received an e-mail at work yesterday that bothered me and I wanted to share my reaction. In turn, since I’d planned on doing a “50 year plan” post on the issue anyway, this was as good of time as any to do so.
Recently, partially at the behest of my company but moreso to keep my continuing education requirements straight (and maintain my architectural license) I rejoined the American Institute of Architects after a hiatus of about 5 years or so. So now I’m a member of AIA Chesapeake Bay instead of AIA Toledo, but the national song seemingly remains the same.
I figured out that my membership had gone through when I started receiving AIA e-mails at work, which I have zero problem with. But yesterday’s e-mail was a newsletter called The Angle, which documents their political lobbying efforts and other related items the AIA pursues. Part of this newsletter was soliciting input for an AIA position statement, as follows:
Proposed Position Statement 46 – Eminent Domain
The American Institute of Architects believes that eminent domain is a critical tool for revitalizing our cities and improving the quality of life in urban and suburban neighborhoods. State and local governments must ensure that eminent domain laws do not curtail smart growth efforts, brownfield cleanup, or otherwise limit new development and improvements to existing development.
Well, since they asked for my input, they got it…
I would feel much better about this if the statement read as follows:
“The American Institute of Architects believes that eminent domain is a critical tool for revitalizing our cities and improving the quality of life in urban and suburban neighborhoods. While the AIA acknowledges and agrees that private property rights are paramount in our free society, we also feel that state and local governments can and should balance the rights of existing property holders with eminent domain laws that do not curtail smart growth efforts, brownfield cleanup, or otherwise limit new development and improvements to existing development.”
As I read it, the AIA is taking a position of property holders be damned, we just want to develop sites regardless of who’s hurt in the process and all these damn libertarians who insist on actually following the “takings clause” in the Fifth Amendment are just meddling with our profession.
Many eminent domain proceedings in the last decade have stretched the term “public use” way beyond its intent. Personally, I do not believe in government using its power and taking one’s private property to benefit another person simply for additional tax revenue.
And so begins this portion of what I’ve come to call my “50 year plan.” It’s pretty simple, really. The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution reads, in part, as follows:
(N)or (shall a person) be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. (Emphasis mine.)
In 2005, the United States Supreme Court handed down what’s popularly known as the Kelo decision. In a 5-4 decision (Stevens, Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer the majority; O’Connor, Rehnquist, Scalia and Thomas found for Suzette Kelo) the Court held that, despite the fact that “the city is not planning to open the condemned land – at least not in its entirety – to use by the general public.” They noted, “this…Court long ago rejected any literal requirement that condemned property be put into use for the…public.”
You know, sometimes the Supreme Court gets it wrong. The idea behind eminent domain was to allow the taking of private property for a public use, such as a highway, airport, or a building that would be owned by the taxpayers rather than a private entity. But in the case of Suzette Kelo, her property would be used by a private developer – a developer who was planning on developing the land to boost the city’s tax base.
In the time since, many states have enacted laws to prohibit this practice. According to the Castle Coalition, 34 states either have a prohibition on this practice or strengthened its position on the law in 2006. Maryland is not one of them.
There is a fairly weak reform bill in the hopper in the Maryland Senate this session, SB3. A similar bill last session, also SB3 (along with HB1137), was referred back to committee once it was amended to change from a legislative matter to a Constitutional amendment by an amendment from Senator Allan Kittleman. (The House bill did not make it out of committee at all.)
Interestingly enough, the eminent domain power in Maryland has not been used much recently for “traditional” items such as highways, airports, government buildings, etc. The heaviest user of eminent domain in recent years has been the Maryland Stadium Authority, as they cleared out blocks of homes and businesses to build, among others, M&T Bank Stadium and Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
I like the idea of a Constitutional amendment at the state level, as long as the amendment clearly states that the power of eminent domain is to be used only for the public good and not to enrich one powerful private entity at the expense of a class of lesser entities as happened in New London, Connecticut. Theoretically, the federal level is already taken care of in the Fifth Amendment; all that needs is a Supreme Court which remembers that our laws are based solely on what the Founders wrote, not what they feel is in our best interest at the time or on incorrect precedents.
Because this eminent domain issue has a fairly simple solution and can be settled rather quickly, it’s one of the easiest planks to rectify in my 50 year plan. So I’m going to expand on the subject a little by talking about private property rights and other property issues.
Obviously in our nation one has some restrictions on property rights, which are mostly common-sense sorts of things. For example, it would not be a good idea if I built a rifle range in the midst of a residential area. If I had complete property rights theoretically I could do this, but most areas have some sort of zoning to prevent such incompatible uses from occurring on adjacent plots. Generally things like usage, setbacks, building area as a percentage of a lot, and building height are covered. These can also be waived if the property owner presents a compelling reason to do so in front of an elected or appointed local body.
However, I see a trend where government is restricting land usage by regulation. A recent example was embodied by the number of National Monuments established by President Clinton by his interpretation of the Antiquities Act of 1906. Whereas national parks need Congressional approval, in many cases national monuments do not. Clinton established a total of 19 national monuments, mostly in the final year or so of his term. While much of the land was already federally owned, this action also further restricted its usage. With the strokes of his pen Clinton placed over 5 million acres of land out of reach to mining and development. (That’s about 2/3 of the size of Maryland.) By comparison, President Bush has enacted just one land-based national monument of about 1/3 acre in New York City. A summary of concerns can also be found here.
While local zoning codes are generally fair, the scale of regulation of private property by the federal government is much less so – and much harder to combat. Another area of regulation that concerns me is hypersensitivity by people concerned with environmental issues such as endangered species. A number of projects have been thwarted nationwide because some so-called endangered species MIGHT have a nesting ground or habitat there. While there’s a case for preserving habitat, the balance is currently way too far in favor of militant environmentalism at the expense of economy.
Now I’ll shift my focus to a more local level.
In last year’s state election, Maryland voters unwisely placed the General Assembly in charge of the disposition of state land rather than retaining it under executive authority. This ballot issue arose from the proposed sale of state land in St. Mary’s County to a developer – something I personally had no problem with. Just like the argument in the Kelo case about the economic benefit to the city of New London, the land in question could have possibly benefitted the coffers and overall economy of St. Mary’s County. But in this case government took the opposite side.
Ideally to me governmental entities will own the least amount of land necessary to function. Further, land that is owned by the government should be as free of restrictions to private use as possible. While development would have limits, something where the public good outweighs the risks (such as drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) can be done if managed properly and carefully.
This portion of the 50 year plan will take much longer to implement than the eminent domain issue will because again it’s going to take a sea change in attitude by the powers that be. The more land they have, the more power. It’s going to take a forceful voice from the people to make government give back to the private sector what is rightfully theirs.
I came across an interesting website in the last couple days called Salisbury Mall Archive. It’s actually been around since October and is apparently one of those labors of love from a onetime resident who now lives in Wilmington.
Being in the profession that I am, old buildings hold a fascination to me. It’s interesting to think about a time when the now-decrepit mall was the hot new thing in Salisbury. Makes you wonder if that instantly became the teen hangout back then or if hanging out at the mall was something my generation began to do in the late ’70’s.
Anyway, this blog has a lot of interesting old and new photos of the site and I enjoyed working my way through it. What would really be cool to me though would be to get the set of blueprints the mall and its addition were built from.
But the SMA website got me to thinking about how things become obsolete so quickly. In essence, the Salisbury Mall had a two-decade lifespan from the time it was built to the day the Centre of Salisbury opened. Looking at it as an outsider who didn’t grow up with the mall, I would honestly have to wonder why it was placed in the location it was. To me, a better location would have been in the area that’s now bisected by the Northeast Collector. If the information I’ve gathered is correct, I believe the Ocean Gateway was built just prior to the Salisbury Mall. Instead of getting a large parcel of land along the busy highway, the old mall was placed on what amounts to a side street. Of course, the Ocean Gateway was later supplanted by the U.S. 13/50 bypass that originally terminated where the Centre of Salisbury stands now before the highway was extended to pick up U.S. 50.
The other misfortune befalling the old Salisbury Mall was having a series of uncaring owners. Perhaps the building could have been converted into another non-retail use. Former large retail spaces serve as college campuses, government buildings, call centers – the list goes on. Sadly, the building has gone without even basic repairs for so long that the elements have taken their toll and there’s little choice anymore but to level the structure. With the building being open to the elements, our humid climate, and plenty of material to feed on, the mold alone would render the building unsafe to inhabit. (You wonder if the homeless man recently found dead in the woods near the old mall was a person who regularly slept in that building and was sickened by the extreme mold exposure.)
When I first came to Salisbury, I happened to drive by the old mall as I wandered about town getting my bearings. (Wow – two malls, I thought to myself.) I remember driving by there during the evening and wondering why no one was at the mall, not realizing that it was all but abandoned by then. (This would’ve been about the time the final store that was left there closed up shop.) It was also when it struck me that the mall sure seemed like it was off the beaten path.
Of course, right across the street from the old mall is the Civic Center. Again, this is a case where a building seems to have a short-term useful life as Wicomico County is seeking millions to refurbish the place just to get a few more years out of it. I suppose what makes me feel old is that the Civic Center was built when I was a sophomore in high school and it’s almost functionally obsolete. At some point, there will have to be a decision made whether to pull the plug on the building as a concert and entertainment venue.
Personally I don’t think it’s a bad concert venue at all; however, given the dearth of acts that put Salisbury on their touring schedule it may be time to start planning for a successor arena. Obviously there’s not the capacity necessary to bring large national acts in, but we’re not even getting good second-tier groups. The last rock band I recall being at the WYCC was the Journey show I attended in November of 2005.
Along Civic Avenue we already have one white elephant. Unfortunately, the Civic Center isn’t going to be a top spending priority for the county anytime soon and I have yet to see anyone willing to put private capital into building a new arena here like is possible up in Laurel. So in the years to come we may have two white elephants reminding us of what Salisbury once was.
After a bit of a hiatus over the holidays, the local music scene is cranking up again.
This coming weekend there’s four good bands in three different area venues (that I’m aware of.) In Salisbury, the Cactus Club has Barking Crickets on Friday night and Halflink on Saturday night, plus Island Way features All Down But Nine on Saturday. Up in Seaford at Coyote’s it’s Semiblind playing the tunes. (I’ve linked to all of these bands under “Local band links.” Pretty smart, huh?) I think I know which one I’ll go to, but all would be good choices.
Then the following weekend Halflink is up the road in Delmar at a club called Memories. (That’s one club I haven’t made it to yet, at least I know where it’s at – right on old Route 13.) But Brew River is hosting the DelmarvaNightLife.com 2nd Anniversary party with 10 bands on 2 stages and that starts at 9:00.
At the Main Bar it will be Nate Clendenen, Barking Crickets, The Making, Lower Class Citizens, and Hot Box. On the River side the order goes Lime Green, Another Vicious Circle, Project Sideways, Falling From Failure, and Hard$ell.
I think I’m going to add the local venues to my band links as well, because having a website is a damn good way to get the word out on who’s playing – IF someone keeps up the website! Cactus Club does a good job on that, and the main DNL site is decent.
I do have to commend our local clubs though. For a city the size of Salisbury, they have quite a few places to see good bands. Where I’m from a lot of the bars preferred to have cover bands or DJ’s and not many places hosted original music. That also extends to a couple of the local radio stations that play a lot of local music as well – X106.9 and Ocean 98 both do quite a bit to promote these local bands. It beats the hell out of playing Nickelback for the 3 millionth time. (I like Nickelback as much as the next guy, but they do get overplayed!)
So I’m looking forward to enjoying some of the local talent over the next couple weekends. Hope the monoblogue readers will join me!
I’ve heard the name before and it’s obvious he reads monoblogue, but Isaac Smith of The Old Line took offense to my criticism of newly-minted Senator Cardin the other day.
In particular, he sniffed:
Our Army and Marine Corps is on the point of breaking just in Iraq and Afghanistan. How the hell does Swartz think they can up and depose the Iranian regime, the Syrian regime, the Lebanese regime, etc. without drafting every able-bodied male, including me and him, into a war that would last decades? Swartz may be willing to gamble with other people’s lives, but I am not, and neither is the majority of Americans. Oh, and the troops Swartz claims understand the danger of his “Long War”? They’re against the war too.
So I read the short articles he cited in this passage. One thing that stood out among the two polls he cited was this passage from the AP poll:
Just 35 percent think it was right for the United States to go to war, a new low in AP polling and a reversal from two years ago, when two-thirds of Americans thought it was the correct move.
All this tells me is that the constant beatdown by the partisan media has borne fruit and turned Americans against the War on Terror. As I noted before, back on September 12, 2001 we couldn’t wait to turn our guns on whoever knocked over the Twin Towers. But Americans now seem to be cursed with a short attention span and the enemy is smart enough to see how the steady drumbeat of criticism is yielding results much as the antiwar slant in the media eventually doomed South Viet Nam to a Communist takeover.
The other poll Isaac Smith cites is a Military Times mail poll that states 35% of military members approve of the way President Bush is handing the war while 42% disapprove. Also it claims that “in this year’s poll only 41 percent of the military said the U.S. should have gone to war in Iraq in the first place.”
But then we have this disclaimer:
The results should not be read as representative of the military as a whole; the survey’s respondents are on average older, more experienced, more likely to be officers and more career-oriented than the overall military population.
And I liked this passage:
But (those surveyed) are convinced the media hate them — only 39 percent of military respondents said they think the media have a favorable view of the troops.
That’s interesting since it’s “the media” that did this poll: the Military Times is a subsidiary of Gannett, Inc. (the folks who publish everything from USA Today to our local Daily Times.)
And there’s another item I’d like to address before I finish this tonight.
If I had my preference, we wouldn’t have to see young men and women die in some foreign land. Unfortunately, I don’t think we had much of a choice given the series of attacks that have occurred to America and its interests for nearly 30 years in the Middle East and elsewhere which can be traced to radical Islam. (There. Is that a better description than Islamofascist?)
Honestly, Isaac, do you think that if America had done nothing in response to 9/11, that we wouldn’t have had another similar attack?
I have a philosophy that government should be proactive rather than reactive when used in its proper context. Because of that, I see the logic of the methods (if not necessarily the means) by which we are fighting this war. We are using people who have volunteered to fight the war knowing full well what they are signing up for and taking the battle to the original instigators on what is essentially their turf.
I’ll close with some of what President Bush said on September 20, 2001. It sounds like Isaac and his cohorts on the left may need a refresher course.
Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have ever seen. It may include dramatic strikes, visible on TV, and covert operations, secret even in success. We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime…the only way to defeat terrorism as a threat to our way of life is to stop it, eliminate it, and destroy it where it grows.
(…)
The civilized world is rallying to America’s side. They understand that if this terror goes unpunished, their own cities, their own citizens may be next. Terror, unanswered, can not only bring down buildings, it can threaten the stability of legitimate governments. And you know what — we’re not going to allow it.
(…)
Great harm has been done to us. We have suffered great loss. And in our grief and anger we have found our mission and our moment. Freedom and fear are at war. The advance of human freedom — the great achievement of our time, and the great hope of every time — now depends on us. Our nation — this generation — will lift a dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail.
It is my hope that in the months and years ahead, life will return almost to normal. We’ll go back to our lives and routines, and that is good. Even grief recedes with time and grace. But our resolve must not pass…I will not forget this wound to our country or those who inflicted it. I will not yield; I will not rest; I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people.
Nor will I.
Tonight it’s time to get sort of philosophical. I’ve spent a couple days between posts thinking about a number of things and how best to express them.
To start out, the reason I got into the political world was that I saw it as a way to make a difference. Back then I was younger and more idealistic but unfortunately had not a clue how to accomplish what I wanted to do. As I got older, I learned much more about things which are my strengths and those that are my weaknesses, and I tried as much as possible to manage my life to bypass those areas that aren’t my main strengths. One thing I found out rather quickly is that I’m not the prototypical politician by any means. I don’t have the gift of gab and the part about raising money and sucking up to people for votes just doesn’t appeal to me very well either, at least in a large-scale sense. I just deal better with small groups.
On the other hand, I do seem to have an ability to put words to paper (or onto a computer screen) that can become a good argument for the position I’m advocating. And political movements have room for people like myself, so I’ve been graced with attracting notice from various people and getting opportunities that not just anyone can take advantage of. Years ago I helped with the newsletter for our Young Republican club and would write the occasional letter to the editor of our local rag. But this political phase began with my being accepted to write on an occasional basis for the Patriot Post, continued with my original Blogger site, and evolved into monoblogue. And this site continues to grow – this week will be my first 1,000 visitor week according to my Site Meter. Part of that is being in the Maryland Bloggers Alliance and some of that comes from being featured on BlogNetNews Maryland. However, I think there’s more to this modest but blossoming success and I’m led to believe that it’s because I put together a website that doesn’t go into the personal attack mode like some others do. Further, when I write about a problem, more often than not I have some thoughts or suggestions for a solution to this issue.
And this in turn brings me to what I’m going to attempt to begin today.
When I ran for my current post on the Wicomico County Republican Central Committee, the main goal of mine was to make Wicomico County a county where Republicans outnumber Democrats. Part of achieving this in my mind was to get the younger people in Wicomico County to become Republicans because of my belief that it’s in their best interest to follow conservative Republican principles, and that American society will be more successful in the long run if they do. I have no idea of the demographics of my readership but I’m betting the average age is less than 40.
Last year I devoted a lot of time and post space to the Maryland election cycle, which gave me an opportunity to see issues from many different sides. In District 37B there was a candidate named Jim Adkins who, while I didn’t agree with his stance on a number of issues, couched them on the premise of looking at their impact 20 or 30 years into the future. Obviously, parents want what’s best for their kids and I believe that may have been a part of his thinking, but there’s a LOT of politicians on both sides who look only 2-4 years ahead and think solely about maintaining their position of power.
I noted earlier that I was not born to be a politician because my skill set isn’t the same as, say, a Jim Mathias. In some ways this is a bummer because I think I have a lot of good ideas.
But, on the other hand, this is liberating as well. Because I’m not a legislator or seeking an executive-type post, I don’t have to deliver a lot of hollow promises. In fact, my political philosophy may turn some types of people off because I’m the sort who doesn’t believe that government in and of itself should enrich people nor do I think it’s a proper vehicle for wealth transfer. Unfortunately, it’s been noted that “a democracy…can only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse out of the public treasury.” Since I’m opposed to that concept, there’s no way in hell I could be truthful about my beliefs and ever reach a high enough office to put these plans into action.
In my small way, by beginning these writings I’d like to help begin a movement much as the Federalists did at our nation’s birth. More recently, at least parts of this goal have been accomplished by leaders like Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich. Unfortunately, President Reagan is no longer with us to lead but Gingrich continues to write and speak with a similar eye on the future of America. Like me, he’s not currently shackled by having to pander to an electorate which frees him to state his case for a movement. Whether or not you agreed with the concepts, the Gingrich vision embodied in the 1994 “Contract With America” changed politics in our country.
And therein lies the reason I term this as a fifty year plan. In my eyes, it’s going to take five decades and a dedicated generation to turn back the tide of government that’s not for the people, but for only some of the people and taken from others – particularly taken from those who achieve financial success. Indeed, it’s possible I may not live to see that day come, and there’s always the threats from without that could doom our society as we have come to know it.
For my generation (I’m on the cusp between Boomer and Gen X’er), it may be too late to make a significant change in America. Our hope for change lies in the Millennial Generation, those born after 1980. It’s a group that came of age with Bill Clinton and 9/11, and it’s the one who’s bearing the brunt of the sacrifices in Afghanistan and Iraq. It’s for them that I begin this series of writings, which will be on an occasional basis and focus on one particular area that I’d like to see the next generation improve our nation in.
Something tells me that they’ll be more than willing to meet the challenges we face.
On January 2nd I put a post on monoblogue called Pumpin’ and Dumpin‘. In essence it was a study of how the stock picks which come unsolicited to the place of business I work at actually performed and also who’s really making the money off these stocks. This was a post that didn’t necessarily deal with Delmarva in particular, but something I have an interest in because I do invest in the stock market (just not in those particular shares.)
The first item of business is to thank all of the commenters who have taken a few minutes of their day to add their input. When I make comments on other blogs (here are a number of examples) generally I’m trying to add to the conversation by either making a point in agreement with the blogger, adding to the post through relating experiences I’ve had, or making a cohesive counterargument to his/her point. On the Pumpin’ and Dumpin’ post I’ve had 21 comments (which is the record for monoblogue’s 300+ posts so far) and they’re apparently people who found the post because they were frustrated by spam faxes and were led here by a Yahoo search (or other search engine.) Best of all, they’ve added to the conversation, which in a local blogosphere that sometimes sees comments stoop to simple personal attacks is extremely refreshing.
While going through the regional media the other day, an idea struck me. (Fortunately it didn’t hurt.) I was reading an article about Doug Gansler, Maryland’s newly sworn-in Attorney General, and how he’s promising to crack down on polluters and modeling himself after former New York AG (and now Governor) Eliot Spitzer.
Think about this. How many hundreds of trees are killed in a week to provide the reams of paper that these faxes waste? And, while it so happens our fax machine sits right over our recycling bin and makes recycling our waste paper easier to achieve, how much landfill space is needlessly wasted promoting stocks that plummet the moment the folks at Gemini News sell out? Doesn’t that toner eventually separate from the paper and find its way to Chesapeake Bay?
But seriously, this did get me thinking further about the problem of these junk faxes.
A couple years back, there was a bill passed by Congress called the “Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2005.” Unfortunately, it seems to have had the opposite effect as businesses are allowed a loophole based on an “established business relationship.” Apparently, having a semi-public fax number (ours is on my business card for example) is good enough to consider an “established business relationship.” Proponents of the bill were legitimate businesses (realtors were one prime example) who do depend on faxes to get information to and from clients but were technically violating previous rules. But the EBR loophole’s big enough to drive a Mack truck through so the federal government was no help. Big surprise there.
Also, here’s part of a short article I found on the MSNBC website:
First, you need to figure out where the call is coming from. If you don’t have caller ID, you can use the *57 call trace service (there is a small charge for this). You may be able to use your phone company’s “call rejection” service to block the call.
If not, you’ll need to contact your local phone company. Most have a call annoyance or unlawful call center. They can help identify where the call is coming from and may be able to figure out a fix.
If you get the runaround from the phone company, contact your state’s utility commission. They may be able to help.
The problems I see with this are twofold. Spam faxers tend to have more than one number in a lot of cases – block one, the person just uses another number. The other problem is anecdotally I’ve found that many of these come from Canada or overseas. It’s not clear whether the phone company can block those numbers, but even if so that just leads back to problem #1.
I guess I did a service in some respects though by tracking their performance. If the word gets out that these stocks are about to become absolute dogs, then maybe the companies recommending them will be shunned.
By the way, with the Dow hitting another record close, thus far this year 3 of the 7 stocks are up, 2 are even, and 2 down. If I readjusted my imaginary portfolio to the end of 2006 numbers, that $7,000 would be $8,318.53 (mostly because HSFI has gone from 4 cents a share to 9 cents a share.) Apparently the dumping is complete but don’t be surprised if we see these and other over-the-counter stocks pushed on a fax coming soon to your machine.
I know my fellow blogger Joe Albero at Salisbury News seems to have a large issue with graffiti, illegally parked cars, and trash on Salisbury’s downtown plaza. But as far as trash goes, that’s not the only place people just wantonly dump their trash.
This bag of garbage is just sitting along Old Ocean City Road. What’s ironic is that not 200 yards away is this:
Even more brazen is this photo:
In case you can’t read the sign in the photo, it reads “Do Not Throw Litter – $1000 Fine”. That’s a really expensive old TV set, and it’s one that’s been sitting there for at least three months since I’ve moved in over there. This is the underpass where Old Ocean City Road goes under Route 13. There’s much more than that old TV there, it just seems to be a garbage dump for anyone who wants to toss out the trash from their car driving by. I’d bet that if Mike Lewis ran a speed trap of sorts there some Saturday night, there would be several thousand dollars in revenue for the county.
It’s about pride of ownership. I attempt to do the best I can in taking care of my yard along the street, so if I see some litter there I’ll pick it up. But I’m not in the trash picking business. Maybe the state needs to bring a few ECI inmates up here to clean up the mess along this state highway. However, where people’s yards abut the highway they should get out and make an effort to pick this up as well.
And I see something of a parallel to Salisbury’s graffiti situation. What tends to happen is that if a wall has graffiti applied to it and it’s not cleaned up, the next guy’s going to think that the owner doesn’t care and it’s fair game. Someone’s junked their old TV under the bridge so the next guy will throw his bag full of garbage out.
So it’s not just the Salisbury downtown plaza that’s in need of attention. If someone wants an old non-functional television, I can tell you where to pick one up. If someone wants a cleaner and more vigilant city, it’s going to be up to all of us.
Capitalism fascinates me. Not necessarily the accumulating wealth part, but the process where a business grows and begins to need additional capital, so it takes itself public. Quite often a company has what they call an IPO, or initial public offering. As an example Google started out in its IPO at $85 per share as I recall and now it’s 5 times that. But for every Google you have to assume there’s 100 companies out there that simply tank because of a poor business plan or a harebrained product. Eventually these companies flame out to such a point that their stocks aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. It seems like that’s the point where some “investment guru” decides to send out thousands of junk faxes (with names such as “Hot Stocks On The Street”, “On The Move Stock Alert”, “Green Stock Alert”, “Wall Street Insider”, or “Uptrend Finder”) to pump up the stock price so they can recoup their investments.
At our business we’re saddled with a number of these faxes a week. So just for fun I kept a few of these and decided to do an imaginary portfolio – $1,000 each at the price they’re listed at the day we received the fax, and track their performance through Friday’s close (the final trading day of 2006.) All of these are “OTC” stocks so they’re very thinly traded.
Allied Energy Group (AGGI) – close at fax date (12-12) was $0.53, closed Friday at $0.40.
Environmental Control Corporation (EVCC) – close at fax date (9-11) was $1.19, closed Friday at $1.39.
Global Beverage Solutions, Inc. (GBVS) – close at fax date (8-30) was $0.89, closed Friday at $0.42.
Homeland Security International (aka Sniffex, Inc.) (HSFI) – close at fax date (10-23) was $0.18, closed Friday at $0.04.
Hybrid Technologies, Inc. (HYBT) – close at fax date (10-20) was $6.80, closed Friday at $3.52.
Syngas International Corp. (SYNI) – close at fax date (9-18) was $0.40, closed Friday at $0.33.
TAO Minerals Ltd. (TAOL) – close at fax date (9-27) was $0.15, closed Friday at $0.10.
So the mythical $1,000 investments in each fared thusly:
AGGI would be worth $754.71.
EVCC would be worth $1,168.07.
GBVS would be worth $471.91.
HSFI would be worth $222.22.
HYBT would be worth $517.64.
SYNI would be worth $825.00.
TAOL would be worth $666.67.
The total “portfolio” would only be worth $4626.22 – off 33.9% from when it was bought scant months ago. Meanwhile, the overall stock markets gained double-digits in 2006 as a whole. There was one gainer out of seven but just randomly picking seven stocks on the NYSE or NASDAQ would probably get me more than one gainer.
So who’s making the money on these? Well, if you read the fine print at the bottom there’s a disclosure that the company which distributed the flyer was compensated for doing so. Here’s a list of the companies that distributed each and their renumeration.
AGGI – “OTM Stock Alerts…was compensated seventy three thousand five hundred dollars by a third party, who is not affiliated with AGGI.”
EVCC – “Sonora Associates Inc. has received one hundred twenty thousand dollars from a third party for the production and distribution of this newsletter.” (This was the “Green Stock Alert”.)
GBVS – “Pathfinder (Marketing) was paid $150,000 for the distribution of this report.”
HSFI – “Cyber (Communications Services) was paid $200,000 for the distribution of this report.”
HYBT – “UTF (Newsletter) has been hired by a third party and is expected to receive $18,000 for the publication and circulation of this report.”
SYNI – Pathfinder (Marketing) was paid $80,000 for the distribution of this report.”
TAOL – “Sonora Associates has accepted compensation in the amount of $120,000 for the distribution of this information.”
Folks, that’s a LOT of stock shares. And I’d have to say that UTF is really selling themselves short since their fee was much less than the others. Something tells me it’s probably pretty easy money because I’m thinking all you need is a nice word processor and a program that can broadcast faxes to thousands of numbers from your computer.
Which leads to the $761,500 question – who’s paying for all this?
In a few cases, it’s noted in the fine print. Sonora Associates “may own a non-controlling share of (Environmental Control Corporation) and reserves the right to sell their shares at any time without prior notice.” Uptrend Finder notes that “UTF and its insiders may from time to time buy or sell (Hybrid Technologies) common shares in the open market without notice.”
Both Pathfinder Marketing and Cyber Communications Services (responsible for the “Hot Stocks On The Street” newsletter) were paid by an outfit called Gemini Market News, Inc. And wouldn’t you know it – “Gemini Market News, Inc.’s affiliates, officers, directors, or employees may own shares of the companies described herein and in that event intend to sell such shares.” Can you say bingo? Seems to me they transfer money from one corporation they own to another (so no loss to them) and they pump up the price to dump the stock (hence, “pump and dump.”) Imagine my surprise when I looked up the stocks through my brokerage account and noticed that there was a spike in volume just after the faxes went out. Yeah, it could be a coincidence, but let’s be real here.
Legally, these fax distribution companies have to provide an “opt-out” number but from accounts I’ve read it’s perpetually busy. And what this also does is verify that you have a “good” fax number so their sister company starts pounding away with junk faxes. I chuckled during my reading on this as one person described how they made a loop of black construction paper and faxed one of these numbers back over a weekend. But if it’s done off a computer there’s no way to get back the faxer in this manner.
Before I finish, I don’t want to make this a vendetta against the companies who offered their shares on the OTC market. They can’t always help who’s bought their stock and the efforts to make a profit (or at least cut their losses) on those shares. Allied Energy Group, et. al. are apparently legitimate companies and who knows, it’s possible they may turn the corner and be successful. Unfortunately, with these penny stocks sometimes the odds are better of hitting the lottery than getting rich off the stock.
Friends, fellow bloggers, and countrymen:
May 2007 be the best year of your life and the worst year of the rest of your life!
Michael Swartz
www.monoblogue.us
Stay tuned for a post next year (or to be more precise tomorrow.) Ten Questions return with a few new wrinkles.
Nice tease, huh?
This bounces off a post made by Joe Albero on Salisbury News a couple days ago. He was frustrated at the dearth of postings made at certain blog sites, and I can see his point to some extent. Sometimes it’s frustrating to me to check out a blog site and find it’s the same old thing up for several days (or weeks.) However, there is a way to work around that.
If you’ll look on the left-hand column, I have a box under the posting calendar that says “other”. Inside that box is a link for RSS 2.0, which if I understand this correctly, one can place within their home page a link that automatically updates with each posting. In my example, my Yahoo page will update if any of several blogs post anew. This will save me a bit of time, but it’s only good for about 1/3 of the blogs I read regularly. Most “Blogspot” blogs don’t have a syndication setup that I’m aware of unless it’s added by the blogger. Fellow MBA bloggers Pillage Idiot and The Voltage Gate have done this with Blogspot sites through Feedburner.
With an RSS link people can see when I add items to monoblogue, which is on a regular (if not daily) basis. Since I work outside the home and don’t access my blog from my work computer I’m not going to spend large amounts of time posting during the day.
But for other blogs I can just go to my personal “My Yahoo” page and see if any new posts have been made in the blogs I syndicate now. Obviously Joe’s Salisbury News blog is good for new content but some others I can skip now in looking at daily unless I see something new there.
Adding to my comments, I just glanced through the blogs of my 14 fellow MBA brethren and these are the last updated posts:
4 last updated yesterday (Saturday the 30th)
3 last updated Friday the 29th
2 last updated Thursday the 28th
1 last updated Wednesday the 27th
The other four are last updated on the 26th (I think that’s when Stephanie wrote in hers, no date’s shown on the post), 21st, 14th, and September 12th – I’m not sure what the story is on the “Not-So-Free State” blog. The point is that with the MBA you’ll get fresher posts with a variety of perspectives about Maryland. My fellow MBA member Crablaw pointed out a few Eastern Shore blogs he liked the other day in this post.
As a side note, I have a few post ideas up my sleeve so if my schedule allows it, there will be more frequent monoblogue posts in the next few weeks as life goes from post-election and holiday mode back to “normal”. And they’re not playoff updates either, which I’m certain drove many people nuts. But I can’t help being a sports fan and I write about things I’m interested in. Anyway, I’m back to politics after this weekend.
