An addition to the family

The Breitbart legacy is hitting close to home, or so it is claimed.

Now I’m not going to promise to the subject of this post that she will enjoy great fame or fortune like Andrew Breitbart did, but based on the first night of her website’s existence I can tell she does a lot of reading to get her information.

If you are a Facebook friend of mine and you read the regular updates where I pimp my most recent posts, you will oftentimes see immediately under them the phrase “JackieLynn Wellfonder likes this.” Everybody has their supporters and Jackie has been one of mine for many months, but last night she decided to step into the fray on her own. Naturally I have given her a few tips on how to handle things on the back end of her site (like me, she runs a WordPress platform) and she’s already populated her site with a few posts, including a repost of what I wrote last night.

But if all she does is repost the words of others, frankly I’d be disappointed. Even though local writers I respect like G.A. Harrison and Julie Brewington generally mix in others’ content to a greater extent than I choose to, they back it up with their own takes on local, state, and national news and politics. Given the involvement Jackie has with the Dan Bongino U.S. Senate campaign I would expect her insider perspective would be an asset to local readers, as would the learning experience and transformation she is undergoing in her life as she becomes politically involved. Perhaps those at her places of work and worship may not know about these recent moves but her website would be a place for her to address these people and any others she may come across.

As I said earlier I’d given Jackie some tips and frank advice: be diligent in adding content and develop a thick skin, because you’ll need it on occasion. Not every blogger in this town likes all the others; straight away I can think of two who won’t be singing Kumbaya together anytime soon. So you’ll probably make some enemies among bloggers and perhaps elected officials and other local leaders. Don’t take it personally.

But returning to the content advice: you’ll notice on my sidebar that I have about 90 links to local and national websites, including Jackie’s. These sites get there when they draw my attention but they stay there by posting regularly. Every so often I cull links because nothing gets my goat more than a website which isn’t kept up – usually if there’s no post newer than three months ago on the site I broom it. With literally millions of blogs out there, the competition is difficult so I demand some effort be put in – after all, I update this one at least once a day. So I would expect her to be a regular contributor on the local scene.

And it’s up to Jackie to establish an identity of her own (and market the daylights out of it.) Those who read my site regularly know I have featured some items not normally found on a typical political blog, but this is my site and I get tired of doing wall-to-wall politics. So I throw a few curveballs and changeups, like any good pitcher would. You keep coming back, don’t you? The same should apply to hers. Notice I don’t exclusively link to political sites, but I link to what I think are good sites (for the most part, anyway. See the second paragraph above.)

But this will be an opportunity that we rarely get to watch something grow. Oftentimes I stumble across a site once it has matured and been around for weeks or months, but in Jackie’s case I may be the first to link to hers. I think she’ll justify my faith in her as expressed by that quick link. And who knows – I may learn a thing or two as well.

Odds and ends number 41

Not that I necessarily keep track of these things, but this is my first look in 2012 at those items which are worth a paragraph or three, but not a full post. It helps me clean out my e-mail inbox.

I couldn’t figure out how to embed this “Made in America” video, but I found it interesting when I watched it. I’m generally in favor of free trade and against strict protectionism, but if the difference is as small as they claim then buying American is worth it. Perhaps the claim of using 5% more American products would create 220,000 jobs is a bit dubious, but I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt.

Our nation needs to take steps in regaining its onetime prominence as a leading manufacturer. But it’s interesting to note several of the companies prominently mentioned have at least one plant in a right-to-work state. I can’t ascertain whether these are all non-union shops, but chances are fairly good – given that only about 1/10 of the private-sector workforce is unionized – that these good, honest American jobs don’t come with the union label.

Not that Maryland is making any quick moves to join the ranks of Virginia and other right-to-work states – this year, HB91 hasn’t progressed beyond first reading. But the group New Day Maryland pointed out to me a couple other bills of interest in the General Assembly this term to keep an eye on, and I thought I’d pass along the word.

House Bill 23, the Dedicated State Funds Protection Act, would prohibit the fund-raiding Governor O’Malley is almost as well known for as his constant zeal to raise taxes. And House Bill 43 would allow appropriations bills to be subjected to the same referendum process as those bills not dealing with appropriations. (The last remaining legal straw opponents of the in-state tuition for illegal aliens referendum are grasping for is that the bill is an appropriations bill, although it’s not.)

Both these bills have a hearing scheduled for 2 p.m. on January 31. I presume written testimony is acceptable, too.

Continue reading “Odds and ends number 41”

And the winner is…

Someone finally uncrowned Ridgely Griffith and afterthegoldrush.

Until late Sunday afternoon it looked like the music-based website would cruise to its third straight title in my Best Local Blog contest. But supporters of Delmarva Progressive dropped well over a half-thousand votes on the poll and enabled that site to snatch away the victory.

With a record 1,001 votes cast, the results came in as follows:

  1. Delmarva Progressive, 788 votes (78.7%)
  2. afterthegoldrush, 205 votes (20.5%)
  3. Chesapeake Journal, 8 votes (0.8%)

Chalk it up as a rare liberal victory about these parts. In fact, the 1,001 votes ended up as a figure just a few tallies higher than the total of all nine preceding rounds (six first-round battles and three semifinals.) It’s a definite surprise given the fact Delmarva Progressive only picked up 10 votes in its semifinal – but it is what it is.

So congratulations to the crew over there for winning the contest, and moreso thanks to all who voted.

Drawing the curtain on this year’s contest does allow me to share a couple other thoughts, though.

First of all, the other day I was speaking to a blogging friend of mine from another part of the state who commented on the lack of websites in her area, particularly in comparison to the number of websites in this region. Obviously many of us deal with politics here but there are a number of other interests represented as well – just look at the contenders I had as evidence. If I were to classify the eighteen websites I selected this year, seven deal mainly with local news, three cover politics, and three could be described as personal journals. There were also blogs which covered sports, local history, music, food, and a fairly miscellaneous site as well. And I’m sure I don’t link to every single local website – there may be another couple hundred out there I don’t know about or just don’t get updated frequently enough for me to link to.

As for the contest itself, I based the original concept on the Mobbies, which is a similar popularity contest among Maryland-based blogs conducted by the Baltimore Sun. For the first two years of the contest’s now-three year run this site was among those nominated in the political category. (The political category disappeared in 2011, swallowed up into the formerly-separated news category.) For a site based on the Eastern Shore, I thought I placed rather respectively when I competed.

In my opinion we have a thriving local blogosphere, but one where civility and useful information is on the endangered list. Maybe a local media outlet needs to step up to the plate and have a contest similar to the Mobbies but concentrating on the Delmarva area. It would be a way to reward worthy websites and encourage the general public to visit them, and perhaps it would be an incentive for others to clean up their act.

Like it or not, the blogosphere is here to stay, and it’s up to all of us to determine its direction. Needless to say, I had my own personal favorites among the eighteen I featured but I left it up to the voters to decide who moved on. There’s a logical next step which should be taken, though, and it should feature those sites Delmarva can be proud of.

Blog poll finals set (and other good news)

Yes, this isn’t a serious, weighty topic, but those of you who are interested will be lapping this up.

For the third year in a row I’ve done a ‘best local blog’ competition for fun and as a way to get a few additional readers during a generally slow news period. Sometimes I get a lot of votes and sometimes just a few make the decision.

Anyway, the winners of my three semi-finals have been determined and will advance to the finals with a winner to be announced on Monday – obviously if you follow the final poll it will be self-evident. But here’s how the three semi-finals went.

My first one was somewhat of a surprise, but not really:

  1. afterthegoldrush (#5 seed) – 53 votes (71.6%)
  2. Delmarva Shorebirds Blog (#9 seed) – 20 votes (27.0%)
  3. Delmar DustPan (#1 seed) – 1 vote (1.4%)

It was a surprise that my #1 seed – which had 367 votes in the first round – only got one vote in the semi-final. But I think I know why it did, because it had a particular website as its opposition. I figured afterthegoldrush would do well, though, since it’s won the first two editions of my contest in 2010 and 2011. And Delmarva Shorebirds Blog was only a #9 seed because it was a wild card – in reality it had the fourth-highest vote total in the first round.

Semifinal #2 was fairly disappointing with the lack of participation. I think it’s because that was conducted over last weekend, when a lot of people were not paying attention because the NFL playoffs were on and the weather was nice:

  1. Chesapeake Journal (#7 seed) – 7 votes (63.6%)
  2. Right Coast Conservative (#2 seed) – 4 votes (36.4%)
  3. Random Thoughts of a Citymouse (#6 seed) – no votes

Honestly, I thought Right Coast Conservative would mop up the competition because it had a first-round vote total far higher than the others. Instead the St. Michael’s-based website moves on to the finals.

The last semifinal was, at least, a little interesting. And it featured yet another (mild) upset:

  1. Delmarva Progressive (#4 seed) – 10 votes (58.8%)
  2. The Other Salisbury News (#8 seed) – 4 votes (23.5%)
  3. Sussex County Angel (#3 seed) – 3 votes (17.7%)

It’s intriguing to me that a left-wing blog won on my right-leaning website, but stranger things have happened.

So on we go to the finals, which will be put up shortly and, because I’ve found weekend polls don’t work so well, will get a few extra days for more opportunities to vote.

Now, the other good news: monoblogue has yet another local sponsor. I’d like to thank local attorney Charles Jannace for jumping on board, and encourage more to do the same. As my readership grows, you may find blog advertising to be an affordable yet effective tool in bringing in business. And only a few spots are left because I’m limiting the number of ads sold here. (Less clutter that way.)

So patronize all my local sponsors and tell others they can help too. As you can see, my rates are very affordable.

Pruning and polling

It’s spring cleaning a couple months early. Actually, we got outside to enjoy the nice weather and took down the tree and Christmas decorations.

You might notice I’ve taken down a few links. I have a (somewhat flexible) policy of linking to sites which are regularly updated, but after they go about three months without a post I delete the link. I figure it doesn’t do either of us good to link to what is essentially a dead site. But if you have a site you think I should link to, let me know and I’ll review it to see which category it will fit into. Who knows, maybe I’ll make up a few new ones while I’m at it.

The other update I wanted to add this afternoon was that I’ll begin the semifinal rounds of my Best Local Blog poll sometime this evening. I actually had a tie in one round so I decided to add two wildcards; those two were the highest second-place finishers. So the seeding for the semifinals is set:

  1. Delmar DustPan (367 votes, won round 4)
  2. Right Coast Conservative (143 votes, won round 1)
  3. Sussex County Angel (23 votes, won round 3)
  4. Delmarva Progressive (20 votes, won round 6)
  5. afterthegoldrush (15 votes, won round 2)
  6. A Chesapeake Journal (4 votes, tied for win in round 5)
  7. Random Thoughts of a Citymouse (4 votes, tied for win in round 5)
  8. The Other Salisbury News (162 votes, second in round 4)
  9. Delmarva Shorebirds Blog (66 votes, second in round 1)

So I have the matchups set to be as evenly seeded as possible; as I said they’ll commence later tonight or tomorrow. As it lays out one of these battles will feature a rematch of the opening round with a new opponent tossed in.

And this time it will be win or go home, as each of the three winners advances. So bloggers better round up their troops and make sure to enlist their support!

Another poll update

I’m working on some other writing today but I wanted to take a moment and catch you up on some results from my best local blog poll.

The fourth matchup was a doozy. At first Delmar DustPan took a modest advantage, but then The Other Salisbury News surged over a short period of time to take a significant lead. But it wasn’t enough as Delmar DustPan stormed back to take the round and advance.

In percentage terms, Delmar DustPan ran away with 69 percent of the vote, while The Other Salisbury News rounded up to 31 percent. Salisbury Soapbox picked up less than 1 percent.

Opening round match number 5 is also an interesting battle between a number of somewhat similar sites from around the region, so we’ll see how that turns out.

Catching up

In case you missed it the last few days, my best local blog contest continues in a relatively subdued fashion after the wild first matchup.

In the second first-round contest between three local sites, defending champion afterthegoldrush advanced with an overwhelming 71.4% of the vote, besting Lower Eastern Shore News (19.1%) and Atomic Donkey Brewing, which garnered 9.5 percent. It’s the only poll where all three competitors received votes.

The third opening round affair concluded last night with an upset: Sussex County Angel pounded its competition with 82.1% of the vote, with Delmarva Observer getting the other 17.9 percent. Salisbury News was shut out this time around.

So the blogs advancing to the semifinals so far are Right Coast Conservative, afterthegoldrush, and Sussex County Angel. The fourth draw is quite interesting to me, so I’ll be excited to see how it comes out when the poll ends.

Seedings for the semifinalists will be determined once polling is complete for the first round. I’ll take a holiday break from polling after my six opening rounds are complete, so the contest will then return after Christmas.

Taxes and Keystone

So, President Obama wants to extend the payroll tax cut. Okay, said House Republicans, but we’re going to create a whole bunch of jobs with it by giving the green light to the Keystone XL pipeline.

I’ll let Andy Harris pick things up from here:

“Americans need the truly ‘shovel-ready’ jobs and economic investment that the Keystone XL Pipeline will provide,” said Rep. Andy Harris (MD-01). “The plan that the House majority has introduced is an excellent compromise that will extend tax cuts to the middle class, create tens of thousands of jobs, and will help secure America’s energy future. I am deeply disappointed that President Obama has promised to veto this bill to extend tax relief to our citizens over the Keystone pipeline provision that actually creates jobs without spending a dime of taxpayer money while lowering the price of gasoline and diesel as well.”

Yes, President Obama is threatening to veto the measure. So much for compromise.

Either one of the two points below would then be true. Come to think about it, maybe both are:

  • President Obama doesn’t really want to create jobs. Well, perhaps he doesn’t unless they happen to be either government jobs or positions in an industry he favors. But I have news for the President: there aren’t any green jobs; shoot, right now there aren’t many jobs period. Or:
  • President Obama really has no desire to cut taxes. To be honest, this tax cut he gave out was relatively insignificant to working families. But he certainly wants to lower the boom on more successful working families by increasing the taxes for couples that make over $200,000.

I’ll grant that the Keystone XL pipeline probably won’t do a whole lot for our local economy since it will run through several states in the Midwest. But the additional oil supply will help us in the long run by stabilizing gasoline prices, as Congressman Harris points out.

But if we do elect a new President next year, I hope Congressman Harris – assuming he’s re-elected, for which he’s an odds-on favorite at the moment – will begin to advocate solutions for our tax code which are more permanent and will begin the process of weaning the government off an income-based tax collection. Ramping up a consumption-based tax, as Herman Cain proposed with his economic plan, would serve this purpose.

Electing conservatives isn’t enough – we need to elect those who have the courage to act. Whether you like President Obama or despise his policies as much as I do, the one thing you can say is that he acted in trying to get his agenda done. We may only have four years to undo the damage he did, although I suspect that if a true conservative succeeds Obama he (or she) will have a full eight years to make a difference. But we’ll all have to roll up our sleeves and get to work – something sorely lacking with the Obama regime.

And now for something completely different:

The first of six opening round tilts in my best local blog poll is over, and the first semi-finalist will be Right Coast Conservative.

After a strong start, Julie Brewington’s site saw a rally from the Shorebirds’ blog which placed it ahead for a time. But much like their team’s performance in 2011, the Shorebirds site couldn’t hang on in the late innings as a strong push from RCC readers carried Julie’s site in the end. Right Coast Conservative received 143 votes and moves on, while the Delmarva Shorebirds Blog gathered 66. The Pocomoke Public Eye did not receive a vote.

The second round is up now, and it has an interesting draw to be sure.

Best local blog: the return

This will be the third year that I provide the opportunity to secure bragging rights as the best local blog around, as determined by my readers. For the last two years, the music-based blog afterthegoldrush has come away victorious thanks to Ridgely Griffith’s loyal following, and he’ll get the chance to defend his title this time around as well.

But things will be a little different this year. Last year I had 24 contenders, but it seems that a number of them have fallen by the wayside over the last 12 months. There are 13 which didn’t return because they stopped posting on a regular basis, and I probably could have eliminated another few which are getting updated rather infrequently – but then I would have been back down to a dozen as I was two years ago. Still, I cobbled together a list of 18 contenders – but if you want to nominate another that’s not on the list feel free to comment and I’ll check it out. But there are some guidelines: the blog must be updated regularly (ideally at least once a week), it must be locally based (essentially within the lower Delmarva area), and it can’t be a personality-based website. Those I have so far are all sites I link to, so there are likely others I’m unaware of.

Given those parameters, here are the 18 which will be contending. An asterisk (*) means they are new this year.

  • afterthegoldrush
  • Atomic Donkey Brewing*
  • Chesapeake Journal*
  • Crisfield News
  • Delmar DustPan
  • Delmarva Observer (formerly Delmarva Dealings)
  • Delmarva Progressive*
  • Delmarva Shorebirds Blog
  • Lower Eastern Shore News (formerly The Salisbury Grinch)
  • Random Thoughts of a Citymouse
  • Reflections on Delmarva’s Past*
  • Right Coast Conservative (formerly Right Coast Girl or just Right Coast)
  • Salisbury News
  • Salisbury Soapbox
  • Sussex County Angel*
  • The Other Salisbury News*
  • The Pocomoke Public Eye
  • Twirling, Twirling, Twirling Towards Freedom

If others are included, I’ll work these into the schedule somehow in order to maintain groupings of three, with wildcards added as necessary.

The first poll will be Monday, so blog owners need to let their supporters know this holiday tradition is back!

Tired of the argument?

You know, once in awhile I have to take my fellows to task.

Perhaps it’s because I have such convincing arguments or maybe I have scared all the liberals away, but I don’t get a high number of comments on my website. (Well, I get a lot of comments but 99% are of the spam variety, which Akismet takes care of.)

So once in awhile I feel I have to give feedback to others. Included in this was a comment I sent in to the newly rechristened Lower Eastern Shore News regarding Jonathan Taylor’s criticism of the two dissenting voters in a recent County Council vote to allow overtime for building inspectors and other county employees in order to approve work on the rolling 4 1/2 day ‘Extreme Makeover‘ project.

My comment addressed three premises in playing devil’s advocate:

  1. The idea that the county’s FY2012 budget is approved, and a general query as to where he would suggest cutting to make up this expense.
  2. What sort of lasting impact this national exposure would have, as in if someone could name other cities which have had ‘Extreme Makeover’ homes without Googling it. (I don’t watch the show, so I wouldn’t know.)
  3. The hypocricy of Taylor complaining about a $10,000 annual expense to the city to provide health insurance for part-time employees but feeling just fine about spending this $7,000 of county money.

I placed none of the seven words which cannot be said on television in the comment, and thought I had legitimate questions. Yet Taylor rejected it, saying he was “tired of having the argument…when you get on this Republican high horse is when you lose reason.”

But I think Culver and Holloway have a legitimate reason for voting their way – citing the fact ‘Extreme Makeover’ is a for-profit enterprise while the county denies taxpayer funds to non-profits – while the other five had their reasons for voting yes, primarily as a boost to the local economy and tourism. (That may be a stretch.) In the end, Taylor got his wish and I said as much. Personally, I would have tried to take the money from somewhere else to make it a zero-sum game so I’m not going to criticize Culver and Holloway for their vote. Nor do I think the other five are off base, since there’s a simple difference of opinion here and we may find the $7,000 is well-spent. Or we may not.

Ultimately Jonathan can run his website as he sees fit, and if rejecting comments because he’s “tired of the argument” is his best defense, well, I suppose I don’t have recourse there. I’d reprint the comment I sent in here on my site but it’s vanished into the ether of the internet like the thousands of spam comments I’ve sent packing have been. (There’s still 4,815 comments here, so that’s plenty of feedback over the years.)

The point is, though, had I been someone who didn’t have his own bully pulpit and decided to use it you would have never known the gist of what I said. I’m not saying I accept every comment I get, because obviously I don’t or there wouldn’t be 375,529 spam comments to my site now vanished.

Instead, my policy has always been that good comments help move the narrative along, so I reject as few as possible. In fact I like the ones which disagree with me because then I have to sharpen my arguments. So if you think Taylor was right, by all means tell me why.

My contention is that if you truly want to add to the discourse, you don’t get tired of the argument. Just ask yourself what else is missing when comments which are otherwise legitimate don’t get through.

Odds and ends number 32

Yes, it’s another edition of those items which deserve a paragraph or three but maybe not a full post.

Let’s begin with a rescheduled event. Originally scheduled for last month, Andy Harris will hold his “healthcare discussion” fundraiser on Wednesday, August 24 at 6 p.m. at the original location. It’s still $50 and you can still contact Cathy Keim at (443) 880-5912 for details.

That may be the last time you have a spare $50 in your pocket, though, since the Maryland General Assembly is spending their summer trying to figure out just how they can squeeze more revenue out of the citizenry. Take this report done by the Maryland Department of Legislative Services.

There’s a couple not-so-obvious things which jumped out at me and were buried in the report. One is the idea of considering those who are online affiliates to a company such as Amazon.com as a presence in the state, necessitating the collection of sales tax. As a website owner who indeed acts as an Amazon.com affiliate (and makes a few pennies off the website in that manner) the last thing I really want to do is collect sales tax. Amazon doesn’t have affiliates in states with such laws, and for good reason.

But notice what South Carolina did – in order to create jobs they waived their requirement, and Tennessee is considering the same. Yes, they would lose sales tax revenue but would presumably make that up and more with increased economic activity. Maryland? Well, I guess they seem to believe that making more taxes will make the state more attractive. Not.

In fact, the Republican Caucus in the House of Delegates continues to point out this fatal flaw:

For years, the House Republican Caucus has offered plan after plan to bring Maryland’s spending in line with revenues and ultimately lower taxes; knowing that real spending cuts, not fantastical numbers games, would ultimately protect the taxpayers of Maryland from another mugging by their government.  We have warned repeatedly against the reliance on federal funds. Real, meaningful spending reductions have not occurred; in fact the budget has grown year after year.  Rather than listening to sound fiscal advice, the Democratic monopoly has chosen instead to demonize anyone who suggests true spending reductions and terrorize the public with tales of apocalyptic calamity should true reductions in government spending happen.

The only “apocalyptic calamity” seems to be the job creation numbers in Maryland, which are dismal to say the least.

But there’s no calamity in the ozone layer, as the EPA fortunately has held off on new, tougher job-killing ozone standards so stringent that even Yellowstone National Park couldn’t qualify. Perhaps a reason why is that Fedzilla couldn’t hide their cooking of the books nor justify the benefits versus the costs.

It’s foolish, though, to believe that this was ever about costs or even public health. It’s about control, and something tells me that well-connected companies could make sweetheart deals with regulators to carve out an exemption or two. In Washington these days you have to pay to play, and the sale of regulations favoring the highest political contributor seems to be in vogue more than ever.

Then again, drug cartels have a lot of money. And in the wake of a deepening protection scandal involving the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico, maybe Gary Johnson and his libertarian ilk is right on this one:

While I certainly disagree with several parts of Gary’s platform, I do believe perhaps it’s time we considered the legalization option. Granted, the cartels may still operate because there are a lot of other illegal substances out there but I’m not so sure the benefits of the War on Drugs outweigh the costs. It’s a little surprising that Barack Obama hasn’t pushed for this himself given past history – in theory, the act of drug possession could have landed him in jail in some jurisdictions.

Imagine how things may have turned out had that happened. (Oh wait, I’m undercutting my own argument!)

I must say, though, that Gary is perhaps the most blogger-friendly candidate out there. If only Herman Cain or Michele Bachmann were as accomodating… *sigh*

By the way, I didn’t forget that I’m still in the midst of grading candidates. I’ve just been a little busy lately and now I have an issue with the laptop where all those text files are, so it’s temporarily out of commission.

And now for something completely different.

I was asked by a nice lady to include her website as one of my links.

Now this sort of thing happens on occasion as spam e-mail and this particular message was in that folder as well. A lot of the time it’s one of those “we should trade links” sort of things to cover as an advertisement for a poker or porn website. But I checked out the site in question and it’s definitely legit – and it’s striking in the amount of photography used, along with the fact that Kathy covers an area that I don’t often get to for this gig – up around St. Michaels (also known as “the town that fooled the British.”) So dig in and enjoy.

Whither the truth?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I had that chance too but I relish my independence.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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