Failing the Loyalty Test

If you think Jane Brooks/Diane Evans et al. bailed out on their party, they have nothing on this guy:

Former Kansas Republican Party Chairman Mark Parkinson switched his party affiliation to Democrat on Tuesday, fueling speculation that he will be named Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' running mate.

That's right; a former state GOP Chairman switching parties to be a running mate for an incumbent Democratic governor. That's just plain unbelievable, particularly in a state like ours.

One Kansas Republican makes a very prescient point:

"To me, one of the most valuable traits that a person can have, particularly a person who find himself in a position of authority is loyalty," said (House Speaker Doug) Mays, R-Topeka. "I think he's being opportunistic on a personal basis. The Republican Party had been very good to Mark Parkinson."

Unfortunately, there are some people even in our own local party that need to take this to heart.

The Shocking Truth

Tonight's court ruling regarding the BGE rate hike is a win for the O'Malley Campaign, but a loss for the rest of us.

The O'Malley folks may get a political victory in regards to trying to have the rate increase struck down. But the fact of the matter is that, for better or for worse, a rate hike is coming. And on July 1, BGE customers get stuck with a 72% rate hike. It is going to be Martin O'Malley who is ultimately responsible for the gigantic hike in 32 days, as he and his political cronies decided that his gubernatorial campaign was more important to the people than a workable rate relief plan. Nobody can argue that BGE's rate hike is a good deal; that's why the Governor and the General Assembly all worked on a rate plan. But it was Team O'Malley that brought the rate hike down, and will be helping to impose the immediate increase on customers who can ill afford to pay it.

O'Malley won this round, but his victory will be pyrrhic.

The Sensenbrenner Conundrum

How can House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) be so right on illegal immigration:

"This will set up a very difficult House-Senate conference committee because the approaches taken by the House and Senate on this issue have been 180 degrees apart," said Rep. James Sensenbrenner, chairman of the Judiciary Committee and principal author of the more stringent House bill.

"Amnesty is wrong," he told a news conference.

Yet so wrong on the Jefferson investigation?

"I want to have Attorney General Gonzales and FBI Director Mueller up here to tell us how they reached the conclusion they did," said Sensenbrenner, one of President Bush's most loyal House allies. Sensenbrenner's hearings, which began Tuesday, are examining whether the May 20 raid violated the Constitution.

The Sensenbrenner Conundrum is a problem a lot of loyal Republicans have had recently; standing with the conservative House members when they stand up for immigration controls, standing against pork, etc., yet cringing when mistakes like this one are made.

No End in Sight.....

....and tounge firmly in cheek:

There were 28 shootings this past weekend in Milwaukee. After 175 years of occupation, we are seemingly unable to extract ourselves from the quagmire that apparently is Wisconsin. I say it is time America cut its losses and pulled out of Wisconsin NOW. We currently have over 7000 Army National Guard troops based there yet there seems to be no end to the carnage.

Please join me in writing to Rep. Jack Murtha to get this terrible situation the attention it deserves. 15 in Haditha is nothing compared to the horrors perpetrated month after month after month after month in Wisconsin. It's time we brought our people home.

Building Bridges (and Roads)

Good News: the Inter-County Connector has received its federal funding.

Now, if only some enterprising candidate for public office in District 31 can resolve to work on our traffic problems; it isn't like the incumbents have done anything to fix Route 100 or Mountain Road recently.

Pols Marching

We were fortunate enough to participate in the Lake Shore VFD Parade today, marching with the Bissett Brigade. Parades are always a great way to get in touch with the voters at a face-to-face level, something that the Bissett, Kipke, Schuh, Jacobs and Fischer campaigns took advantage of today, among others.

What was most noticeable to those of us in attendance and most unfortunately to the voters were the candidates who did not bother participating in the event: Don Dwyer, John Leopold, Dave Boschert, Dennis Callahan and Joan Cadden were among those who took a pass. What's really sad is that Dwyer, Leopold and Cadden, the three delegates who serve District 31, couldn't be bothered to come to a parade in their own backyard; an opportuntiy to connect with the people they have served for the last four, sixteen, or twenty-four years respectively as they look forward to their next campaigns.

Of course, maybe that says it all.

Enough Already

Can we all please get past the consternation about The DaVinci Code?

My biggest problem with the entire thing is not what the book says and doesn't say. It's the fact that Tom Hanks never made a believable Robert Langdon, no matter how much they messed with his hair.

The fact of the matter is that when I read The DaVinci Code, I did not find it in the 270's. It is a book of fiction, no matter what Dan Brown claims is or is not accurate. All of this hand-wringing about the factuality of the story and the concepts presented is, in all reality, besides the point. It is a work of fiction. Under this premise, Stranger in a Strange Land should be assailed for implying the existence of Martians that clearly do not exist. Those who chose to criticize the book would be better spent trying to do good works than to demonize Brown.

What is truly unfortunate is that the media has spent a great deal of time on the subject, and that more than likely is for purely political reasons. Is the book, or even Dan Brown for that matter, anti-Christian? Who knows, and at the end of the day it really does not matter. But thanks to this attention The DaVinci Code has, ironically, received the same treatment as another recent movie that dealt with themes of religion; The Passion of the Christ. The more people talked about it, the more people saw the movie and, in the case of The DaVinci Code, read the book. It does not matter if the subject matter is true or it is false. People talked about it, and people voted with their wallets to check it out. At the end of the day, it is a book, or a movie. A work of fiction, no different than X3, Bambi or Reservoir Dogs.

Brown's next book is supposeldy going to be about the Freemasons. Somehow, I don't think that it will come under nearly as much scrutiny.

A Sign from Above?

Looks like somebody had some fun with Barry Bonds' 715th home run:

The broadcast went dead at the worst of all moments, and thousands of Bay Area fans listening on radio missed Barry Bonds' 715th homer.

They could not hear the radio account Sunday because the microphone of play-by-play announcer Dave Flemming stopped working at precisely the wrong time.

Flemming had begun the call at the beginning of Bonds' fourth-inning at-bat before his hand-held mike quit during the broadcast on the Giants' flagship station, KNBR.

Maybe it's a sign from above that steroids aren't real popular up there either.

Technorati Tag: Barry Bonds

Less Than Zero

Q: What do me, Don Dwyer, the other four candidates for State Senate, and my cat have in common?

A: We all have sponsored he same number of bills that have been passed by the Maryland General Assembly: Zero

That may be the most frustrating aspect of the Maryland Republican Assembly's early endorsement of Dwyer. Senator Mooney said yesterday in the Gazette that their choice was because Dwyer was a known commodity. And while that is true, being the known commodity certainly is not always what you want to be, particularly in Dwyer's case where he has ignored the major issues facing District 31 in order to focus on issues that get his name in the paper.

We have a tremendous opportunity to elect a Republican Senator in 31. Let's make sure that we have a vigorous debate in our primary election process first.

Jumping Ship

As if bailing on President Bush in the 2004 Election weren't bad enough, now Don Dwyer can answer what he saw in Jane Brooks. Brooks, who received a lot of support from Dwyer and his supporters during her run for Congress against Dutch Ruppersburger in 2004, apparently jumped ship and is running this year as a Democrat just in order to try and get elected:

Asked why she switched to the Democratic Party last winter, Brooks, a former campaign worker for then-U.S. Rep. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., said “I have had Democrats support me in both of my campaigns, and others tell me, if I were a Democrat, they would vote for me. They told me the Democratic Party needed someone like me, that I was in line with them in so many areas.

A Ridiculous Idea

For $500, 000, the Baltimore Are Convention and Visitors Association got:

• A lame slogan that will resonate with nobody ("Get in on it?" Get in on what, exactly?);
  
• A logo that looks more like s children's coloring book;
  
• A television commercial that does not seem to promote the stupid slogan as much it promotes the concept "Baltimore: A City with No Rhythm"; and,
  
• Whatever the hell this is supposed to be.

They could have paid me a lot less than half-a-million bucks to come up with something a little less ridiculous.

Pick Your Poison

There are some unfortunate things going on with the Party at the national level. The question is, which of these is worse?

Is it the fact that members of Congress, led by Speaker Hastert, attacking the FBI for investigating Congressman Jefferson's crimes? Never mind the fact that Congress investigates and subpoenas the Executive Branch regularly, or the fact that Nancy Pelosi is even trying to show Jefferson the door. Let us also not forget what the first plank of the Contract with America was: FIRST, require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress.

Or is it the new immigration bill, which will among other things provide amnesty, allow illegal immigrants to receive Social Security benefits for their time as illegals, or greatly expand existing prevailing wage laws? The Senate has nothing to be proud of in passing this legislation. Hopefully, some tenable will come out of the Conference Committee, but should we be depending on the Conference to fix it in the first place?

Both instances are a sad state of affairs, both for the Republican Party and for Congress as an institution.

Big Surprise

Don Dwyer was endorsed in the September 12th primary by the Maryland Republican Assembly. Boy, is that a surprise since Dwyer is one of the group's founding members and none of the other candidates are elected officials. My guess is that the MRA leadership glossed over the fact that this is a contested primary, and probably didn't bother even inviting or discussing issues or positions with Messrs. Holland, Jacbos, Robison and Simonaire to participate in their endorsement process.

Of course, as far as the Republican aspect goes of a Republican caucus endorsing in a Republican primary, I suppose that they glossed over this too.

Weak

For all of the fuss about how allegedly wonderful our Democratic Senators and Congressmen are, they sure aren't that effective or powerful according to these ratings. Both Barbara Mikulski and Paul Sarbanes are less effective than two-thirds of the US Senate, Dutch Ruppersburger is less effective than all but 22 members of both Houses combined, and four of our eight Congressman are less powerful than the non-voting Delegate from the District of Columbia. Only Steny Hoyer (#15) ranks as anything special.

So why do we keep them around?

Another Reason to Elect the School Board

Once the convention is over and the delegates make their choice, the jockeying begins:

Three weeks after the county nominating convention chose a White House attorney from Millersville to join the eight-member board, the runner-up from Crofton is saying he's a better fit because he has children who graduated from public schools and he lives in a rapidly changing area of the county that needs a representative....

Supporters of Mr. Frank are lobbying. State Sen. Janet Greenip, and County Councilman Ed Reilly, both Crofton Republicans, have sent letters to Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. endorsing Mr. Frank.

Letters and e-mails are circulating to county elected officials.

Unfortunately, this has become a byproduct of the current selection process. Don't get me wrong; I too have sent letters to the Governor supporting the appointment of particular candidates (Tricia Johnson in 2003 and Mike Leahy in 2004). And that is not to say, given the dynamics of the current system, that this kind of activity is a bad thing. But with the exception of occasional stories like this one in the Capital, nobody ever talks too much about all of the letters and lobbying that goes on in support of candidates for the seat.

The only way to truly bring the politicking for School Board seats out into the open is to have a truly elected school board.

Walking the Plank

The O'Malley campaign threw Campaign Manager Jonathan Epstein overboard last night, in what is an interesting move.

Then there is this quote:

"We're doing this from a position of strength, not a position of weakness," O'Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said last night.

Which means that it was, in fact, done from a position of weakness. You don't fire the Coach when the team is going to the playoffs.

Of course, the O'Malley campaign is much weaker than it was six weeks ago. Team O'Malley is not taking on water, but they are not nearly the juggernaut that they were. Doug Duncan has received the endorsement of Progressive Maryland, and came pretty close to winning the endorsement of the Teacher's Union. His campaign has been battering O'Malley with TV ads for a few weeks now.

David Wissing notes:

Very curious and makes you wonder if there is some panic inside of the O’Malley campaign over what seems to be Duncan gaining some traction against O’Malley in the latest news cycles. It does make you wonder if there was an internal poll showing O’Malley sinking against Duncan that prompted this change or if this has anything to do with Doug Duncan getting a majority vote among the Maryland Teacher’s Union over the weekend.

Very intriguing, since it was only a few weeks ago that rumors swirled that Scott Arceneaux, Duncan's campaign manager, would be ousted.

Zero Tolerance Means Zero Tolerance

But do we need Zero Tolerance for ketchup?

Kirk Alvers has done the math: He's being charged $3 for a gallon of gas but $18 for 36 ounces of ketchup.

Alvers and other Basha High students are seeing red over a school policy that charges them 25 cents for two half-ounce packets of ketchup at lunch. The policy was enacted recently to limit waste and messiness in the school's lunch area.

Three free ketchup packets come with the purchase of a burger and fries, but students are charged for any extras. There is no charge for other condiments.

"If you have unrestricted access to things that explode, things will happen," said Kristine Marchiando, the school's principal. She said students were twisting ketchup packets and stomping on them, requiring an outdoor lunch area to be steam-cleaned regularly.

Students opting to bring their own ketchup bottles to school have had them confiscated by security. They have been told the bottles are considered open food containers and represent a health-code violation. Students have been threatened with suspension if they persist.

At least Alvers has a sense of humor:

Alvers, a senior, said that some students wore "Free Heinz" T-shirts to school last Friday and put up posters with a similar message.

Who needs to educate kids when there is kethcup to confiscate...

Was I Wrong About Nagin?

WizBang suggested back in April that, given Mitch Landrieu's political connections as a member of a connected family, that Ray Nagin was the better choice to lead New Orleans. Not only better for the city, but also because it jeopardizes his Mary Landrieu's seat in the U.S. Senate.

Then Drudge reported that DNC leadership, on the decision of Howard Dean, worked against Nagin to ensure that Landrieu won, a story that got Dean and the DNC's attorneys hot and bothered before Drudge sort of retracted the story.

With all of this behind-the-scenes intrigue, it begs the question: was this election ever about the people of New Orleans?

Let's See this Spin

I am waiting for the Democratic Party apparatus to blame Republicans for this one:

A congressman under investigation for bribery was caught on videotape accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from an FBI informant whose conversations with the lawmaker also were recorded, according to a court document released Sunday. Agents later found the cash hidden in his freezer.

At one audiotaped meeting, Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., chuckles about writing in code to keep secret what the government contends was his corrupt role in getting his children a cut of a communications company's deal for work in Africa.

As Jefferson and the informant passed notes about what percentage the lawmaker's family might receive, the congressman "began laughing and said, 'All these damn notes we're writing to each other as if we're talking, as if the FBI is watching,'" according to the affidavit.

This will actually be a great benefit to his constituents, as maybe the residents of the Ninth Ward of New Orleans will have a Representative in Congress who cares; remember, this is the guy who got the National Guard to help him go get his stuff. Guess he did not want his money to thaw...

Orioles Thoughts

I am not sure which aspect of the Orioles game is more frustrating right now as a fan; the fact that the pitchers can't find the strike zone or the fact that the team can continuously put themselves in potentially productive situations at the plate and continue to not deliver. As I write this, the top of the 5th just ended against Washington; an inning where the Orioles loaded the bases with none done and scored one run (though, typical of the Orioles luck recently, RF Marlon Byrd trapped a ball and got away with it by being called an out).

At least Chris Britton is pitching well, even if does have some of the physical characteristics of Rocky Coppinger.

Something is going to have to get going for the Birds if they are going to have a respectable season this year.

The Sun is at it again

The Sun is at it again this morning, with three items sure with a, shall we say, different perspective.

First, is this headline: "Ehrlich Eased PSC Rules." Of course, you have to read the story to understand that the law had nothing to do with power rates, but everything to do with the time period that PSC employees had to wait before taking a job in an industry regulated by the PSC. The bill, naturally, implies that since the Governor was the sole sponsor of the legislation in 1993 (while he was a Delegate), that the Governor wants a cozy relationship between the PSC and the utilities. Of course, what the headline does not imply is that the bill was overwhelmingly supported by a Democratic General Assembly and signed into law by a Democratic Governor.

The Second Story headline: "Teacher's Endorsement Falls Short." The Maryland State Teachers Association requires 58-percent of the votes cast in order to issue and endorsement. Neither Martin O'Malley or Doug Duncan received that percentage of the vote yesterday. Of course, what the Sun tries to gloss over is that Duncan came pretty close to hitting that number, receiving 55-percent of the vote. Is the Sun once again trying to cover for the hometown mayor.

The third story is not journalism, but Dan Rodricks' column. He calls for the reinstitution of the draft. Not just a military draft, but a "Public Service Draft," which could ship 18-year olds into military service, domestic service, humanitarian service. Of course, there are more than a few problems with Rodricks' hair-brained idea:

• Mandatory Volunteerism does not work: we have had for years in Maryland public schools mandatory volunteerism as a graduation requirement. Not only were students (including this student) resentful that the government was telling them that they had to volunteer, it was not exactly encouragement for them to continue volunteering on their own merits.
  
  
• The Army Doesn't Want them: Given modern military technology, conscripted troops have little use in today's armed forces. By the time conscripted troops get trained, their time of conscription will be over given the current legal constraints of the Selective Service. If DoD leadership thought that conscription would be that constructive, we probably would have already seen it reintroduced.
  
  
• We have laws against that: Involuntary servitude was pretty explicitly outlawed by the 13th Amendment.
  

Just another Sunday in the Sun...

The Big Easy's Big Mistake

Never mind the buses left behind to rot in the water, instead of being used to evacuate city residents. Never mind the rants. Never mind the fact that he tried to pass the buck to anybody and everybody rather than take responsibility for his failures. Never mind the thousands that died due to his incompetence.

Despite all of that, Ray Nagin was re-elected Mayor of New Orleans Saturday. And I have a hard time understanding why.

The fact of the matter is that this election was not about race. It was not about Democrat or Republican, Conservative or Liberal. Ray Nagin's incompetence cost lives. It is understandable that lives are going to be lost in a major storm; it is an unfortunate fact. However, when you do not use the resources you have available to you, when you make poor decisions, and when you act out instead of lead, you do not deserve to be re-elected by the people.

That is not to say that Mitch Landrieu's leadership would have been any better. The last thing that the city needed was a Liberal Democrat at the helm, particularly from one of Louisiana's connected political families.

It will be interesting to see, from here on out, if Nagin can actually grow from his catastrophic failure as a leader and make sure that these mistakes do not happen again.

Faith in Primary Voters

My faith in the primary election process was restored today.

For those of you who don't know, last year the Pennsylvania legislature overwhelmingly tried to sneak through a pay increase for themselves. They used some pretty underhanded tactics and passed a pay increase in the middle of the night.

Tonight, State Senator Chip Brightbill, Pennsylvania's majority leader, was overwhelmingly defeated in the Republican primary by a challenger who challenged him on his support and vote for the pay hike.

I think this makes a pretty good statement about the sophistication of our party's primary voters. They understand when a Republican goes off the reservation, and either fails to support Republican policies or carries himself in a manner that is detrimental to the party and detrimental to the cause of Republicanism. In the case of Pennsylvania, the voters did the right thing and threw those who disgraced the party out and who disgraced their legislature out on their ear. I can only hope that the voters here will do the same on September 12th...

Not Much of an Argument

"Our strongest argument is: We ain't them."
- Congressman Steny Hoyer at the Anne Arundel County Democratic Jefferson-Jackson dinner last night.

If that is the best argument Democratic leadership can come up with this year, then the Republicans hold on to Congress and Govenor Ehrlich will be re-elected. It's that simple. You can't beat something with nothing, and so far the Democratic Party has nothing for a message.

Thoughts on the Speech

I found it interesting that the administration found a way to deploy military troops to the border area without infringing upon the Posse Comitatus Act.

I found it curious that it took nearly five years after the September 11th attacks to actual detain illegal immigrants caught by law enforcement. Catch and release is a great policy for wildlife conservation; it's not as great for border enforcement.

I think the President's biggest problem at the moment with his immigration policy is that no matter how you slice it, allowing illegal immigrants to stay in the United States by paying a hefty fine still looks like amnesty to a lot of people.

The more important question from here on is whether or not Congress will send a sensible immigration reform plan to the White House for the President's signature, or if we are going to continue to get shenanigans from both sides of the aisle trying to provide amnesty to illegal immigrants while desperately trying to call it anything but amnesty.

Online Games

Would it have killed Jeff Horseman to mention my site by name?

All kidding aside, his story is absolutely correct that the web is having a tremendous impact on local politics. Need proof? Check out the links section of the Anne Arundel Young Republicans website (disclaimer: I am the YR's webmaster) and see how many state and local candidates have websites for this year's election.

O'Malley's Capital Sunday

Martin O'Malley was on Capital Sunday on DC's Channel 7 this morning. His appearance was rather telling.

O'Malley spent most of his appearance focused on Governor Ehrlich, and often criticized him by name. When the anchors tried to compare O'Malley to Doug Duncan, he refused to acknowledge Duncan as anything other than "my distinguished colleague from Montgomery County." It is interesting, however, to note that O'Malley showed up on Sunday morning Washington television days after Doug Duncan launched a new series of ads aimed at both O'Malley and the Governor.

As usual, O'Malley's hypocrisy shined through; he lambasted the Ehrlich Administration for what he perceived as being nasty, attack politics while simultaneous attacking the Governor's character and making seemingly personal attacks on him and his administration. At the same time, he also took credit for his supposed advances he made in crime prevention and education while simultaneously blaming the Governor for Baltimore's problems with crime prevention and education.

O'Malley's appearance was more of the same disappointing blame game rhetoric we expect from him and his campaign.

Only in Baseball

Only Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association could create this problem:

Major league players can scrap the sport's toughened drug rules if they don't have a new labor contract by August, a provision drawing attention from congressmen who pushed for the strengthened policy.

If players and owners don't agree to a new labor contract by Aug. 1, the union has until Aug. 15 to unilaterally end the new drug policy as of Dec. 19, when the current collective bargaining agreement expires.

If players terminate the new policy and the sides play 2007 without a labor contract, the 2005 drug rules would be in effect.

Let's hope that a new labor deal is worked out, not only for the sake of averting a strike or a lockout, but also to ensure that a drug testing policy remains in place.

Meanwhile, I understand the sentiment, but there is something just absolutely wrong with pink bats.

Ouch!

As if there were not enough reason to opposed government-run health care, dentist shortage has created do-it-yourself dentistry in the UK.

No thanks.

Taking No Sides

"You have to ask, if he were lucky enough to be elected governor, would he sign or veto legislation or write an essay about it?”-
- Craig Simpson, Executive Director of Progressive Maryland, on Martin O'Malley's inability to answer yes/no questions with a yes or a no.

Uh-Oh

This bit of news won't make Maryland sleep easy this summer:

"The Northeast is staring down the barrel of a gun," said Joe Bastardi, Chief Forecaster of the AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center. "The Northeast coast is long overdue for a powerful hurricane, and with the weather patterns and hydrology we're seeing in the oceans, the likelihood of a major hurricane making landfall in the Northeast is not a question of if but when."

AccuWeather.com Hurricane Center research meteorologists have identified weather cycles that indicate which U.S. coastal areas are most susceptible to landfalls. "If you examine past weather cycles that have occurred in the Atlantic, you will see patterns of storms," added Ken Reeves, Expert Senior Meteorologist and Director of Forecasting Operations at AccuWeather.com. "Determination of where we are in the cycle has enabled AccuWeather.com meteorologists to accurately predict hurricane activity in Florida in 2004 and along the Gulf Coast last year. There are indications that the Northeast will experience a hurricane larger and more powerful than anything that region has seen in a long time."

Well, given that some people are dealing with the aftereffects of Isabel, there are a lot of people who are not going to be thrilled by this acknowledgement. This neat chart explains it all.

If any of these storms are anything like Isabel, Hazel, or the Great Hurricane of 1938, we can all be in trouble.

Astroturfing the Primary

Astroturfing is a political phenomenon where one gives the impression that coordinated support is actually spontaneous, grassroots support. But I think Dennis Callahan took it litererally:

Dennis Callahan, a Democratic candidate for county executive, will promise tomorrow to install high-tech playing turf at all 12 high school athletic fields if elected.

Mr. Callahan, who will step down later this month from his job as county recreation and parks director, plans to announce his proposal between the boys' and girls' lacrosse games at Broadneck High. He estimated the cost at $2.1 million.

"Some of life's most important lessons are learned on the playing field," said Mr. Callahan. "(The turf is) out there for safety and it's out there for community use."

As I said before, I can imagine that the money that Callahan proposes to spend on the FieldTurf would be better spent on teachers, construction, or classroom-related projects instead of this turf. I understand the safety and maintenance concerns, but this expense seems unseemly given that we have other, more crucial issues to deal with in our schools.

It's About Responsibility

I do not understand all of the recent hub-hub over junk food, the need for a Maryland Nutrition and Physical Activity Plan, the necessity of taking sodas out of schools, or for treating food producers in the same heavy-handed manner in the tobacco companies. I just don't get it. The health and weight of individuals are the responsibilities of the individuals. Nobody is force-feeding anybody anything. And I am pretty sure that people understand what happens when you eat too much and exercise too little. This is not rocket science.

What is especially unfortunate here is the extensive time spent trying to force sodas out of school. When I was in high school, the soda machines were (generally) turned off during the day, and then available for use for extracurricular students and others after the school day ended. Which is pretty much the exact scenario you are going to wind up with now. How many people will leave Chesapeake High School and stop at Pop's on the way home for a soda? Or will go home and have a Coke? Probably the same number of students who are already doing this.

Instead of trying to force soda out of schools, or initiating litigation, how about we remind people of the virtues of personal responsibility instead?

You Can't Do That While Rioting

The New Scientist reports that scientists in Texas are developing a "riot slimer." What a cool invetion, and a pretty cool looking mock-up that looks like a Wagner painter on steroids.

Certainly beats beanbag guns, though I can imagine the envrionmental folks getting worked up over slime runoff...

Numbers Game

61 College Players have declared for the NBA Draft early. 30 international players have declared early. That's 91 players who have declared early.

There are only 60 players taken in the draft, and that includes Seniors.

Doesn't seem like the odds are in favor of a lot of these kids who declare for the draft primarily because somebody tells them they will be a first round pick.

Gut Feelings

I have no inside information on either candidate (since I don't get along with either man) but I think that John Leopold and Don Dwyer will both announce their runs for the State Senate.

The Senate race is a way for Leopold to gracefully exit a County Executive primary he would have a difficult time winning under perfect cirucmstances.

Dwyer, depsite all of his "citizen-politican" rhetoric, is a politician looking for upward mobility. I'm sure the chance to filibuster is certainy an attractive benefit to his seeking a Senate seat.

Ultimately, I think they both run. And I think that most of the other four candidates in the race will stick it out as well.

And who is to say that there aren't other Republican residents of District 31 who might be thinking about running for the State Senate as well,

McCain Should Stay Out of the Race

Nobody is officially running for President at the moment, but I think that it is time for Senator John McCain to stay out of the race. The irony of that, of course, is that John McCain is the candidate with the most established campaign organization for the 2008 campaign.

McCain's recent comments that he would rather have clean government than First Amendment protections are embarrassing for the party, and actually an embarrasment to the United States Senate. What good is clean government if you don't have the freedom to express yourself about it?

McCain's rhetoric on free speech is bad news for our country and bad news for our party.