Doing the people's business....

This is Idiotic (H/T David Wissing):

The Bush administration may be taking some hits lately in the polls, but that doesn't mean it's going to let down its sartorial standards.

So signs have popped up at various White House entrances -- including the press entrance and the staff and visitors' entrance at the southwest gate -- along with e-mails to staff members, to remind everyone, particularly tour groups, that, even in these times of sinking poll numbers, proper attire is to be maintained.

The e-mail reminder was all in capital letters. It advised that there would be no jeans, sneakers, shorts, miniskirts, T-shirts, tank tops and -- with boldface added -- "NO FLIP FLOPS." (Which, of course, is good advice, if rarely followed in this town.)

These prohibitions would be in force "regardless of weather conditions."

Some visitors from the Reagan and Bush I days were taken aback by the rule postings. "We were plenty button-down," recalled a Reagan aide who saw one of the signs, but added: "Do they have nothing else to do" than fret about this?

Good job. Way to deal with the important people's business...

Why not, it's been a long month...

You are going to have this in your head for the rest of the day....sorry.


This actually took a lot of editing work in the days before non-linear editing...

What's the Downside?

Is this supposed to be a bad thing?

Maryland House Speaker Michael Busch says lawmakers may cut 1,000 state jobs to help balance the budget.

Busch says the possible cuts would be made next session after a serious examination by legislators.

He says lawmakers will try to make the cuts through mostly vacant positions.

So to recap: nobody loses their job, the current status of state services are not impacted, and it saves money off of the budget? What is supposed to be the downside?

And the better question is this: if these positions are able to be sacrificed in a budget crunch, like those nonessential services closed up north during the Pennsylvania budget crunch, why did they exist in the first place?

So....now what?

This is surprising in that both are happening virtually simultaneously:

Talk-radio hosts Chip Franklin and Rob Douglas are moving on from Baltimore's largest AM station, WBAL.

Franklin, a conservative commentator who has been at the station for more than seven years, is headed to a more lucrative radio job in San Diego, while Douglas is returning to his security consulting business full-time and his home near Denver.

"This is a tremendous, life-changing opportunity for me," Franklin said today by phone from his Montgomery County home, which he is in the process of selling. He leaves WBAL on Aug. 3...

...Douglas, who had an earlier stint at WBAL but who returned to its airwaves just four months ago "no longer desires to be a WBAL Radio talk host," Jeffrey J. Beauchamp, vice president and station manager of WBAL, wrote today in a memo to the staff. Douglas is on vacation and will not, apparently, resume his show.

Well....lord only knows what happens for WBAL from here. I think I was one of the few people who was happy when WBAL dropped Rush Limbaugh a few years back because nationally syndicated radio is kinda monotonous and I am much more inclined to listen to locally relevant programming as opposed to the same old crap being spewed day in and day out.

Perhaps Greg and I should get to work on Conservative Refuge radio......

I started Tuesday with two headlights....

Did not need this today...

.
I always wanted to spend a Tuesday afternoon standing along 16th Street NW...

Doing the right thing

I don't get to say this much, but a cheer for John Leopold:

County Executive John R. Leopold wants to amend ethics laws so police officers can moonlight at restaurants and bingo halls.

This morning, Mr. Leopold said he will initiate an emergency bill that effectively reverses a July 2 ruling that said officers violate the county's ethic code by working in places that serve alcohol.

"I felt that the ruling was not in the public interest," Mr. Leopold said, saying a cop on an off-duty security detail promotes public safety. The bill would continue to prohibit officers from working in bars and also would dissolve a lawsuit the police union filed against the county last week. The ethics ruling led Chief James Teare Sr. to forbid cops from taking jobs at places that serve alcohol.

It is not a perfect bill, because I see no reason for cops not to be able to moonlight at bars, but I am glad to see Leopold and the Council work to rectify this ridiculous decision quickly.

TPIR Rocks!

This is fantastic news:

Genial comic Drew Carey was tapped Monday to replace silver-haired legend Bob Barker on the CBS daytime game show "The Price is Right." The deal was set Monday afternoon shortly before a taping of CBS' "Late Show" with David Letterman, where he confirmed it.

"I realize what a big responsibility this is," he said. "It's only a game show, but it's the longest-running game show in American television and I plan to keep it that way."

The selection attracted more attention than usual for a daytime show because of the prospect of replacing Barker, 83. Barker retired after 35 years in the job last month following taping of his 6,586th episode.

This is fantastic news given some of the other names that were up, which trended from the good, to the bad, to the insane, so it is nice to see that the producers did not complete screw this up....and hiring a Republican doesn't hurt either.

Fighting Crime through stupidity

This is asinine:

Baltimore could become the first big city to publicize names, photographs and home addresses of people who are convicted of shootings or other gun-related crimes, the latest twist on a national crime prevention trend of exposing names of certain types of criminals.

Legislation that Mayor Sheila Dixon introduced in the City Council last week would direct the Police Department to create a database for gun offenders that is similar to the existing online statewide sex offender list. She said she would like the names to be public, and offenders would have to register with the department, in person, every six months or face a misdemeanor charge and possible jail time.

Other cities - including Chicago, San Francisco and Boston - that have seen increases in gun violence in the past few years are considering similar measures for gun offenses, and the International Association of Chiefs of Police endorsed the concept at its annual conference in Boston last fall. New York City began a registry this year, but it is not open to the public.

"This will help inform the community about some of the activities taking place in their neighborhood and hopefully will act as a deterrent to people not to get involved with illegal gun activity," Dixon said in an e-mailed statement. "I am hoping people will just think twice about picking up a gun because of the risk of the registry and the long-term stigma attached to being placed on it." She expects a hearing on the bill Aug. 8.

This reminds me of a line spoken by Lt. Kaffee in A Few Good Men:

Thank you for playing "Now Should We or Should We Not Follow the Advice of the Galactically Stupid".

The naïveté of Mayor Dixon's plan is so mind-numbingly amazing that it is astounding that she has ever been elected to City-wide office. Is Dixon so out of touch that she really believes that a "long-term stigma" is really going to stop a repeat offender in a city like Baltimore? Where 300 people are brutally murdered every year? Is Dixon so out of her mind that she really believes a gun registry is going to stop violent crime on the streets of Baltimore.

It is complete lunacy like this that is the reason that big city streets, except in rare instances such as Giuliani-era New York, see dramatic decreases in violent crime. Instead of dealing with real solutions to reduce crime, such as increasing police or using tough crime fighting strategies, cockamamie ideas such as this are proposed instead. It is mind-numbing to consider that city leadership would rather reduce crime through stigmatization and computers than by actually arresting criminals, prosecuting criminals to the fullest extent of the law, and getting them off the streets.

More proof that it doesn't really matter who wins this upcoming Mayoral election...

The Bad Old Days

Hey, I've seen this movie:

It was like the first day of summer camp at this lakeside resort, but the scrubbed young campers in T-shirts and casual clothes had more than beadwork and canoeing on their minds.

Ten thousand young "commissars" — a title borrowed from the Communist Party leaders of the Soviet era — came here to learn to be Russia's next generation of tycoons and political leaders. Equally important, they came to prepare to stamp out any challenge from opposition groups to President Vladimir Putin's government.

All were summoned by Nashi, a pro-Kremlin organization that pays homage to Mr. Putin and seeks to promote Russia's resurrection as a superpower capable of frustrating what leaders call Western "imperialism."

We know that Putin's love affair with all things Soviet knows no bounds, but even this seems extreme:

Clad in red T-shirts, the commissars ran to classes in groups wearing name badges with electronic chips that monitored attendance. Skipping lectures was punishable by expulsion — as was drinking alcohol, cursing and unsanctioned fraternization.

Uh...yeah.

Cult of personality? Check. Vibrant use of socialist colors? Check. Use of education camps in order to indoctrinate youth? Check. This does not look like anything that is going to end well for a free Russian society...

Signs, Sign Waving, and the First Amendment

This story out of Baltimore County is particularly interesting:

A federal judge struck down yesterday Baltimore County regulations on political campaign signs in yards, saying the law violated the right to freedom of speech.

The ruling could affect laws in other parts of the Baltimore region, where many local governments have restrictions similar to those passed by the Baltimore County Council in December.

U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake sided with the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, which filed a lawsuit against Baltimore County after council members passed a law restricting when official campaign signs can be displayed on residential properties.

"I'm not suggesting that Baltimore County is attempting to restrict a certain viewpoint," Blake said during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. But she found that the county's law violated free-speech rights because it is based on the content of a sign.

The law applies only to signs of officially filed political campaigns.

"A political sign is an important method of expressing support for a candidate," said Blake, adding that there was significant visual effect gained by seeing "rows and rows" of signs in people's yards for one candidate or another.

Now that the Federal courts have weighed in on the side of Free Speech, how will this impact the recently signed law, led by hypocritical Sign Waver John Leopold, that prohibits sign waving along the side of roadways in Anne Arundel County? Does this mean that free speech will be upheld and that sign waving, the only reason that Leopold has ever been elected to office, will remain a Constitutionally protected component of politicking in Anne Arundel County?

Bromwell takes a deal

Official Annapolis just clenched a little...

Former state Sen. Thomas L. Bromwell Sr., the ex-tavern owner who became one of Annapolis' most prominent politicians, agreed Friday to plead guilty to accepting payoffs from a Baltimore construction company executive in return for securing publicly funded contracts, defense lawyers said.

The result of weeks of negotiations, the plea agreement came almost two years after federal prosecutors hit the Baltimore County Democrat and his wife, Mary Patricia, with an 80-page federal racketeering indictment in October 2005.

Bromwell was accused of using his political power to help Baltimore-based Poole and Kent in exchange for more than $200,000 in cash, bogus salary and discounted home-improvement materials.

Except, and this is truly bizarre, everybody else may get off free and clear:

Notably, and somewhat unexpectedly, Bromwell's agreement does not require him to provide any details to authorities about other possible crimes that might implicate public officials. Bromwell's original attorneys told The Sun more than two years ago that prosecutors indicated they would accept a guilty plea from the former senator only if he in turn provided incriminating information about other officials.

Had the case gone to trial, prosecutors were expected to air excerpts from secret FBI tapes in which Bromwell used crude language to lambaste fellow politicians and boast of his ability to make lucrative deals happen.

Potential witnesses included a state legislator, one of the city's wealthiest developers and several former state Cabinet secretaries, court papers show.

Now this is truly surprising. The fact of the matter is that if anybody was in a position of strength to bring down a ton of people in the General Assembly, it was Bromwell. The fact that prosecutors did not go for the home run and try to use Bromwell in an effort to bring these other officials down is particularly peculiar, especially given the language that Bromwell used in reference to other members of the General Assembly.

It was no secret that other members of the Senate Finance Committee and Senate leadership were incredibly nervous about Bromwell's position and the information that Bromwell knew. I wonder if all of these officials are breathing a sigh of relief. Or should we be considering the fact that maybe, just maybe,further investigations and more indictments are coming down the track.

One thing is for certain. For the first time in a long time a member of the General Assembly has actually taken the fall for being on the take. It is one of Annapolis's worse kept secrets that he is not the only one. How long will it take before the truth sees the light of day?

When does it end?

Go to the Anne Arundel County website, and you will now see this banner with a smiling picture of Publicity Seeker at-large County Executive John Leopold.

I find it humorous that after Leopold made such a production about removing the name of the County Executive from the large brick signs along roadways as you enter Anne Arundel County, he has gone about slapping his name on everything he could possibly think of. He is turning into what this guy would be if he were bald and untalented...

Flat Tax in a Nutshell

David Mitchell from Cato wrote this detailed essay describing the benefits of implementing a Flat Tax, particularly to the many nations around the world who already have flat taxes in place. (H/T Pejman Yousefzadeh /RedState)

Now, if we could only get such a sensible system here in these parts...

An Odd Comment

This series of statements from this morning's Sun is just odd:

Mayor Sheila Dixon said yesterday that she replaced her unpopular police commissioner because she "wasn't feeling that drive like I wanted to" and said she was impressed with the way his interim replacement, Frederick H. Bealefeld III, peppered colleagues with engaging and challenging questions during crime meetings.

In an interview hours after she formally announced she had asked Leonard D. Hamm to resign amid plunging support and soaring numbers of homicides and shootings, Dixon confirmed long-standing claims from officers and their union that Bealefeld has effectively been running the department for months.

For this reason, the mayor said Bealefeld's appointment would not signal a change in the strategy to fight crime. But his style could reinvigorate a department struggling with what Dixon called an "out-of-control" murder rate.

So in an effort to turn around crime in the city, Mayor Dixon is appointing the guy who has been running the show while things were going to hell in a handbasket? Is that really the kind of admission that any Executive wants to make? That their department head has been an absentee manager and was replaced due to performance while simultaneously promoting the guy who was in charge while performance was poor?

That's no way to run the Rotary Club, much less a city with a skyrocketing murder rate...

If Only I had known...

....I could've gotten a card:

Over at Open Left and other activist blogs, they're celebrating the fourth annual Blogosphere Day, in which the left blogosphere rallies to support some progressive campaign that isn't getting the support it deserves. In 2004, it was Ginny Schrader; in 2005, it was Paul Hackett; in 2006, it was Ned Lamont; and this year, it's progressive PAC ActBlue:

Just remember:

2004: Ginny Schrader: LOST
2005: Paul Hackett: LOST
2006: Ned Lamont: LOST

Good luck to ActBlue, for being given the official left-wing kiss of death for 2007...

Slots, and Taxes, and Appointments

The tangled web of slots and taxes passing the General Assembly in 2008 is almost certainly going to have to come to a head soon. Let's face it, the O'Malley Administration is not particularly keen on further reducing spending, as we have seen by their parsimonious budget cutting in order to save "needed" programs.

And everybody also knows that Mike Miller is not going to allow a tax increase without the passage of a slots bill. Miller has too much riding on the passage of a slots bill to cave.

And everybody knows that Mike Busch is fundamentally opposed to slots, but does support tax increases.

Somebody is going to have to give at some point. Either Busch and O'Malley allow slots to pass with taxes, or Miller allows taxes to pass without slots. And scenario one is much, much more likely than scenario two.

The only way that Miller can be forced to accept taxes without slots currently revolves around the soon to be vacant Senate seat in District 39. Republican-turned-Democratic Senator P.J. Hogan is leaving the Senate to work for the University System of Maryland. Hogan was a major Miller supporter and a supporter of slots. Potential replacements, mainly the District's three Delegates (Charles Barkley, Nancy King and S. Saqib Ali) and a former Delegate (Gene Counihan) are either not as supportive or outright hostile towards slots. That makes Miller's position all that much more tenable.

With the drumbeat for a "tax code overhaul" once again firing up, the taxpayers of Maryland could be in deep deep trouble.

I Can Relate

Erick Erickson recounts on RedState had Jim Whitehead, major frontrunner for election to Congress in the special election in George, went down in flames yesterday.

It's a story that I can relate to...

Fried Clam

The Tawes Clam Bake was this afternoon and let's just say that it was hot. Pavement and heat means sunburn, and real good.

The temperature really was the only heat this year. It was not exactly a political bonanza this year, as only the candidates in the 1st Congressional District really posted, and evidence of the 2008 Presidential race was virtually nonexistent save for a few Romney signs and one guy with a Clinton button.

The Clam Bake will certainly be more interesting the closer we get to 2010...

Thought du Jour

How come every time the Sun redesigns their website, its gets worse than the design before?

Coming Tomorrow....

I'll be at the 31st Annual J. Millard Tawes Clambake tomorrow in Crisfield, and I'll bring back a full report on Maryland's annual political event of the year...

What did they know, and when did they know it

The disclosure of the arrest of Budget Secretary Eloise Foster is no laughing matter, but this is once again another issue that brings forth the issue of trusting the media.

Here is a snipped from this morning's Sun story in Metro Notes:

"Secretary Foster immediately disclosed the incident," O'Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said in a statement. "She has been treated like any other state employee and has the governor's full confidence as the legal process continues."

And that's fine. This isn't about the Administration.

This is about the press. How in the world do Sun reporters not find out about a six-week old incident until the Examiner reports it and it is disclosed by the administration? Is there any doubt that had this been an Ehrlich appointee or a prominent Republican that it would have been splashed on Page 1A the next morning, not buried in the Maryland section weeks after the fact?

What did the Sun know, and when did they know it?

A Credibility Problem

There are ways to credibly try to combat global issues. This is not it:

Nelson Mandela celebrates his 89th birthday tomorrow, launching a humanitarian campaign along with former President Jimmy Carter, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and other "elders" of the global village. The initiative stems from an idea by British entrepreneur Richard Branson and musician Peter Gabriel to create a world council of elders to tackle issues such as conflict, AIDS and global warming. Branson and Gabriel, who founded an international human rights organization and championed the anti-apartheid cause, were expected to attend tomorrow's event, part of a week of festivities for Mandela's birthday.

I think everybody is OK with Mandela's inclusion. It's the inclusion of the kelptocrat and the antisemitic peanut farmer that makes this seem to have little capability honestly and forthrightly dealing with issues.

And if these are the "elders" of the "global village", we need to create a better village....

Told Ya So

I expected to see something like this:

Braves Interested in Franco
He has hit .200 with one homer in 50 at-bats this season, but the Braves believe 48-year-old Julio Franco might be able to help them return to the playoffs.

The oldest player in baseball was designated for assignment Thursday by the New York Mets, and the Braves will consider making an offer.

"We had the benefit of having him here, watching him produce, seeing his impact," general manager John Schuerholz said. "You can't forget those things."

I'm just hoping at this point that the Orioles management don't get any funny ideas....

An Article with everything

Space travel? Colonizing Mars (apparently we only have 46 years left to colonize Mars or humanity is doomed)? Evolution? Copernican theory? Human civilization has 5,100 years to live? It's all in today's article by John Tierney from the New York Times.

Read the whole thing....

Well wasn't that an interesting little dandy

Greg Kline tipped me off that he was going to have an interview of interest to me on the Conservative Refuge Podcast, and I was right in assuming that Jay Breitenbach was his special guest.

Breitenbach's comments were...let's just go with interesting:

• Breitenbach had no idea what the role of Central Committee was before applying.
• John Leopold's reception thanking people for helping with his campaign had 35 people on it.
• To his credit, Breitenbach said he did not believe that candidates should receive support from the party prior to the primary.
• Public discussion of potential candidacies of Alan Rzepkowski and Gary Middlebrooks.
• And he noted that he enjoys the podcasts but, without stepping up and calling me out, disagrees with some of the things I say about John Leopold.

And to his credit too, he is the first member of the Central Committee to participate in the podcasts.

Memo to MDGOP Leadership

Watch this and learn, please, what our brethren are doing in Michigan:


This is the future. (H/T: Bluey from RedState and TechRepublican)

Too, Too Blatant

I have satellite TV, so I don't get the Anne Arundel County Government Channel 98. But I did get to see it at someone else's house tonight and was completely appalled when I saw this:



Are there any lengths at all that John Leopold will not stoop to use government resources for blatant political purposes? Because when you use the same font that you use on your campaign paraphernalia you aren't even trying to hide it at that point.

John Leopold must think the people of Anne Arundel County are stupid....

Hitting the nail on the head

Kenny Burns:

Franchot is More Show than Action
It’s easy to see why NOT to like Peter Franchot (D) as a politician. In the seven months that he has been in office, he has done more talking in regards to issues effecting the land of pleasant living than actually doing his job. Speaking of which, when it comes to doing what he said as far as scrutinizing contracts, he has…mostly after the fact and then tries to butch up to show that he is doing something.

Read the whole thing.

So....why did John Leopold hire Miss Maryland?

And no this is not going where you think it's going. Check out this quote from today's Capital on the hiring of former Miss Maryland Marina Harrison:

Ms. Harrison, Miss Maryland 2003 and a former spokesman for the Maryland secretary of state, began work this week as Mr. Leopold's special assistant.

She'll represent him in the community, work with the media and help to set policy, as well as produce the county's weekly public access television show, "Week in Review," for a $70,000 salary.

The Severn native said she'll be "making sure that every person in Anne Arundel County knows who John Leopold is," and that people understand the depth of his commitment to improving the county.

Mr. Leopold called her "an exciting addition to my staff" in a release announcing the appointment.

It appears that John Leopold has hired a special assistant whose thinks her sole job is, not to help promote Anne Arundel County, expand business development, encourage people to come to the county to live, work, and recreate, not to assist Leopold with his duties, but to politic on County time. How in the world could anybody brazenly say that their job was solely to promote their boss in a position of public trust unless it was explicitly made clear to them that was what was expected of them?

No amount of political jujitsu can justify this. This all sounds like what you would expect from Leopold: a tremendous waste of taxpayer dollars.

All of this begs the question: is the first hire of John Leopold's 2010 campaign for Governor being funded on the County payroll?

Redefining Ugly

Who would think this was good looking? Who else....

Could you resist a logo like this? County Executive John R. Leopold hopes not.

He picked this design from about 44 others submitted in a countywide contest for Anne Arundel's new recruitment logo. The insignia by Bob Brenton of Pasadena is supposed to entice potential employees into taking a job in county government, where there are about 285 vacancies in the county's 4,284-person workforce.

Mr. Brenton received a plaque and free passes to county parks for his efforts. During an unveiling at the Arundel Center this morning, Mr. Leopold said the orange design and slogan "Heart of Maryland, Soul of the Cheaspeake" reflected his appreciation of simplicity and his view of Anne Arundel's importance in the state.

How a guy who started life as an abstract oil painter and lives off of his trust fund can appreciate "simplicity" is anyone's guess....

And now....

....I will be cross posting some material (and maybe do some different stuff, too) over at Maryland Politics, too.

An Oasis

Jim Caple wrote a highly fascinating article for ESPN about the emerging sports paradise located in.....Dubai.

Yes, that Dubai. A sample:

After all, the mercury might routinely climb halfway to the boiling point in summer, but Ski Dubai, a snow park inside the vast Mall of the Emirates, is open year round. It has ice sculptures, snowmen and a short bobsled run. There is even the St. Moritz restaurant modeled after a Swiss ski lodge, complete with a flame roaring in a stone fireplace where men in snow-white robes and women in black abayas sit close by, dipping forks into a fondue pot. For an equally ludicrous contradiction to a ski slope in the Arabian desert, Minnesota's Mall of America would have to have a midwinter sand dune park with camels and oil wells.

Read the whole thing....

Gimme Gimme Gimme

I want one (H/T: Instapundit)

A 75 year old woman from Karlstad in central Sweden has been thrust into the IT history books - with the world's fastest internet connection.

Sigbritt Löthberg's home has been supplied with a blistering 40 Gigabits per second connection, many thousands of times faster than the average residential link and the first time ever that a home user has experienced such a high speed....

....Sigbritt will now be able to enjoy 1,500 high definition HDTV channels simultaneously. Or, if there is nothing worth watching there, she will be able to download a full high definition DVD in just two seconds.

The secret behind Sigbritt's ultra-fast connection is a new modulation technique which allows data to be transferred directly between two routers up to 2,000 kilometres apart, with no intermediary transponders.

According to Karlstad Stadsnät the distance is, in theory, unlimited - there is no data loss as long as the fibre is in place.

Mind you, I don't know what possible use I would have for a 40 Gig per second connection......

The End of the Line

Did time finally run out on Methuselah?:

Julio Franco may have finally run out of at-bats.

The New York Mets cut the 48-year-old utilityman Thursday, opting to give 22-year-old outfielder Lastings Milledge another chance in the majors.

The NL East leaders announced the move before starting the second half with a game against Cincinnati.

Franco hit only .200 in 50 at-bats with one home run and eight RBIs. Mostly a pinch-hitter, he also played a bit at first base and third base this season.

Franco wants to play until he's 50, and he still needs only 424 hits to reach 3,000. He is certainly better than players on a lot of team's rosters, I just wonder if he'll actually catch on with another team somewhere for the stretch drive. Wouldn't it make sense for a team like the D-Backs or Padres have his bat and experience coming off the bench?

A Disgusting Act of Cronyism

The District 31 Central Committee vacancy was filled tonight. And I could not think of an individual less qualified, less deserving, and less appropriate for the appointment than Jay Breitenbach.

Breitenbach is a long time supporter of one John Leopold. He is also the "former Delegate" whom Leopold convinced the Central Committee to appoint to the vacancy created by his resignation.

After the selection, all hell broke loose on the Central Commtittee too. Several resignations were threatened right after the Breitenbach selection, including one member who stated that "the best man did not get the job."

Now, Breitenbach is on the Central Committee. He could be the greatest guy on earth for all I know, but has no practical experience in local Republican politics. He is certainly no conservative activist. And he certainly does not have the experience or institutional knowledge of local Republican politics as other applicants such as Kevin Reigrut, or other potential applicants who withdrew their applications (such as Joan Harris and Victor Henderson) or people who did not apply at all (me).

John Leopold was the guy who said he was going to stand up to cronyism in politics. And, given his track record on keeping promises, who is surprised with his administration's engineering of this development.

And the Verdict is.....

...No. I will not apply for the vacancy.

The fact of the matter is that I do not believe it wise to interject myself into an appointment process that I have no chance of being selected for. It seems to me that the priorities I would have as a member of the Central Committee are not in line with the principles of the current composition of the Committee.

I want to make sure that we elect principled Republicans to office. I want to ensure that the party does not support ideas that are antithetical to the party's first principles, such as John Leopold's proposed tax hikes.

I want to expand the party's presence on the web. The design of the party's website is dated and lacks appeal and usability. I am not saying my web design skills are top notch, but it is hard to think the site is appealing as it is to marginal voters and independents.

I want to ensure that the party itself and the party apparatus takes no sides in primary elections.

Unfortunately, I do not think that those goals themselves and my record of service to the party and to candidates running under the party's banner are enough to get me appointed to that seat...

Door's Open

Remember how back in June I spoke about the Central Committee vacancy in District 31, and I said that I had no plans to apply for the vacancy? Greg Kline commented:

Not exactly "Not no, but hell no"...Sounds like the door is still open a bit.

Needless to say, I have received some more encouragement in the last couple of days to file for the seat, and for some very good reasons. So for that reason, I will say that I am considering applying for the vacancy.

Watch this space tomorrow....

Seeing the Future

This is coming south I'm sure:

Gov. Ed Rendell shut down the Pennsylvania government late Sunday over a budget stalemate with the Legislature that partly hinges on his energy plan for the state.

"I sincerely hope that this will be a one-day furlough, and I have reason for optimism," Rendell said at a news conference Sunday night, though he declined to be more specific.

Monday morning, the shutdown set in as the partisan battle of wills between the Democratic governor and Republicans who control the Senate entered the ninth day of the new fiscal year. Lacking an approved state budget, the state has lost the authority to spend money on nonessential services.

With Rendell's order, state workers deemed not critical to health or safety were furloughed without pay.

Pennsylvanians discovered they couldn't take driver's license tests. Highway maintenance and a range of permitting and licensing functions were stopped or severely curtailed. Even the lights that normally illuminate the Capitol dome are off, and state tourist attractions aren't open. Only critical services such as health care for the poor, state police and prisons remain in operation.

Unless Governor O'Malley and the General Assembly can get together on spending cuts, I wonder if the O'Malley Camp may wind up required to take such a draconian measure some time during 2008....

One question I always have to ask in times like these, though. If the services are so nonessential, why do governments have them at all?

Broken Record

If this were Governor Ehrlich, I'm sure that Nelson Reichert would be hailed by Democrats as a hero. Let's see what happens since this is what happened:

A longtime state employee was fired the day after he was quoted in The Sun suggesting that the state did not follow normal procedures when it agreed to pay more than the highest appraised price for a piece of Eastern Shore preservation land.

Nelson Reichart, who had worked for the state for nearly 29 years and served for the last four as the Department of General Services assistant secretary for real estate, confirmed today that he was fired on Friday, June 29.

A day before, he was quoted in The Sun as saying that he had approved two appraisals for a 270-acre tract that the state was considering purchasing through Program Open Space in Queen Anne's County. One appraisal valued the land at $3.6 million and the other at $4.6 million. The state and Queen Anne's County together paid $5 million for it.

In the June 28 Sun, Reichart said that in such a situation, the state would typically pay the average of the two appraisals, which in this case would have been $4.1 million.

Reichart said today that his attorney had advised him not to comment on the circumstances of his firing. He said he is considering his legal options.

"You can put two and two (together)," he said.

A spokesman for Gov. Martin O'Malley referred questions about Reichart to the Department of General Services, but officials in that agency could not be reached today.

Just wondering what the Democrats who defend O'Malley's partisan firings will have to say about this, too....

The Ugly Truth

Yes folks, while promoting the cause of saving the environment, Live Earth and its participants are...well....killing the planet:

The Live Earth event is, in the words of one commentator: "a massive, hypocritical fraud".

For while the organisers' commitment to save the planet is genuine, the very process of putting on such a vast event, with more than 150 performers jetting around the world to appear in concerts from Tokyo to Hamburg, is surely an exercise in hypocrisy on a grand scale.

Matt Bellamy, front man of the rock band Muse, has dubbed it 'private jets for climate change'.

A Daily Mail investigation has revealed that far from saving the planet, the extravaganza will generate a huge fuel bill, acres of garbage, thousands of tonnes of carbon emissions, and a mileage total equal to the movement of an army.

The most conservative assessment of the flights being taken by its superstars is that they are flying an extraordinary 222,623.63 miles between them to get to the various concerts - nearly nine times the circumference of the world. The true environmental cost, as they transport their technicians, dancers and support staff, is likely to be far higher.

The total carbon footprint of the event, taking into account the artists' and spectators' travel to the concert, and the energy consumption on the day, is likely to be at least 31,500 tonnes of carbon emissions, according to John Buckley of Carbonfootprint.com, who specialises in such calculations.

Throw in the television audience and it comes to a staggering 74,500 tonnes. In comparison, the average Briton produces ten tonnes in a year.

The concert will also generate some 1,025 tonnes of waste at the concert stadiums - much of which will go directly into landfill sites.....

....Let us start with some facts. Worldwide, an audience of around 1,268,500 is expected to attend the concerts - making it one of the largest global events in history.

Dr Andrea Collins, an expert in sustainability from Cardiff University, has researched the impact of such mass gatherings on the environment.

"An event of this size at Wembley - which holds 65,000 at a rock concert, will generate around 59 tonnes of waste," she says. "That is largely composed of the rubbish from food and drink consumption."

She found that a Wembley-sized football match generated an 'ecological footprint' of 3,000 global hectares - an area the size of 4,166 football pitches. This is the amount of bioproductive land required to absorb the C02 emissions produced by such an event.

Here is the most relevant quote:

But Dr Barrett says: "It would be far better for these celebrities to stay at home. Holding large concerts to highlight environmental concerns and cut carbon emissions just seems ridiculous. What planet do these people live on?"

And it is 100% true. The Guardian, Times of London, and Investor's Business Daily also pile on, while some wonder if Global Warming has Jumped the Shark.

While trying to do what they do best and tell us how to live, Live Earth participants are being exposed as hypocrites, much like their hypocrite-in-chief. Nobody is saying that these celebrities are not entitled to live the "rock and roll lifestyle" because they have for the most part earned their station in life. But for God's sake, don't stand there and become part of this massive global event to preaching climate change to the proles while living your carbon-emitting life of luxury.

And it is no wonder that Gore has had to go on the defensive against the charges of hypocrisy leveled by some musicians, including Live Aid/Live8 organizer and former Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof, British band Arctic Monkeys, and The Who frontman Roger Daltrey.

If these rock stars were truly serious about combating climate change, they would not fly around the world on private jets to concerts designed to fight the pollution they just dumped into the atmosphere. They would be better off starting a charity or an interest group than by doing what they are doing. And if Al Gore were functionally capable of toning down the rhetoric, toning down the hypocrisy, and occasionally tell the truth, maybe some of us would be a little less skeptical of not only his message that global warming is the end of us all, but what his motives actually were....

EDIT: Take that (H/T Instapundit:)

Tomorrow’s Live Earth concerts all over the world are part of Al Gore’s plan to save, well, the Earth. But they could end up generating more carbon dioxide than was produced by all of Afghanistan in 2006.

Hmmm...

Remember the McCain Inevitability Factor everybody was trying to create? Well..... (H/T, Erick Erickson)

Though often regarded as a longshot candidate for president, Republican Ron Paul tells ABC News that he has an impressive $2.4 million in cash on hand after raising an equal amount during the second quarter, putting him ahead of one-time Republican frontrunner John McCain, who reported this week he has only $2 million in the bank.

I think it's safe to say that the new McCain Inevitability Factor has nothing to do with McCain coming anywhere close to the Republican nomination...

Here comes the blitz...

Sound the alarms, Katie bar the door, and somebody sharpen the pitchforks because the state is talking about higher in-state tuition rates at Maryland's public universities by five percent!

Oh, wait a minute. It's the Democrats talking about sticking it to Maryland families. Weren't the Democrats the ones urging the public to basically hang Governor Ehrlich in effigy for the same thing? So this may be the first, last, and only time this story sees the light of day for a while.

Of course, maybe if our public schools spent more time educating these students for the world and less time wasting money on climate protocols, there would be a few more bucks to go around...

Just Because: July 5th

Because I'm having the same day/week/month/year Tribbey is having here...

Two Stories, Two Headlines

I'll let the headlines do the talking here:

- Daily Record (UK): Hero Cabbie: I Kicked Burning Terrorist So Hard In Balls That I Tore a Tendon

- The Politico: Obama wows Iowa transcendental meditators

Where's the Investigation?

How come there are no calls for an investigation into the use of performance enhancing drugs in...well...hot dog eating? I got to thinking about this after reading about today's major upset:

In a gut-busting showdown that combined drama, daring and indigestion, Joey Chestnut emerged Wednesday as the world's hot dog eating champion, knocking off six-time winner Takeru Kobayashi in a rousing yet repulsive triumph.

Chestnut, the great red, white and blue hope in the annual Fourth of July competition, broke his own world record by inhaling 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes -- a staggering one every 10.9 seconds before a screaming crowd in Coney Island.

"If I needed to eat another one right now, I could," the 23-year-old Californian said after receiving the mustard yellow belt emblematic of hot dog eating supremacy.

Kobayashi, the Japanese eating machine, recently had a wisdom tooth extracted and received chiropractic treatment due to a sore jaw. But the winner of every Nathan's hot dog competition from 2001 to 2006 showed no ill effects as he stayed with Chestnut frank-for-frank until the very end of the 12-minute competition.

Kobayashi finished with 63 HDBs -- hot dogs and buns eaten -- in his best performance ever. His previous high in the annual competition was 53½. The all-time record before Wednesday's remarkable contest was Chestnut's 59½, set just last month.

That got me thinking about past results and world record holders in this, uh, sport. Just note that 15 years ago, the world record was 21.5 HBDs. As of today, the world record is 66. Think about that for a second; mathematically that would be like Roger Maris' home run record being eclipsed and held today by somebody who hit 187 home runs in one year.

So why are there no calls for congressional investigations into the training habits of competitive eaters?

Seriously?

I didn't know this about the Metro:

Metro's new general manager wants to get rid of the carpet in trains, brighten the lighting in stations and increase advertising in stations, trains and buses.

In many places, such mundane changes would be met with a shrug.

But this is the Washington area Metro, which has long prided itself on a dignified ambiance that is supposed to make it better than the average commuter system.

Which is all news to me, because I have mentioned before how the Washington Metro is absolutely terrible compared to most systems.

"Dignified ambiance?" Who are they trying to kid? Metro has about all of the ambiance of Soviet-era brutalist architecture. Except even the Moskovsky Metro in Moscow is more aesthetically appealing than anything on this system.

Place Your Bets

The McCain '08 campaign death watch can commence:

Republican John McCain reorganized his campaign Monday, cutting staff in every department as he raised just $11.2 million in the last three months and reported an abysmal $2 million cash on hand for his presidential bid.

We confronted reality and we dealt with it in the best way that we could so that we could move forward," Terry Nelson, McCain's campaign manager, said.

Once considered the front-runner for the GOP nomination, McCain trails top Republican rivals in money and polls.

Some 50 staffers or more are being let go, and senior aides will be subject to pay cuts as the Arizona senator bows to six months of subpar fundraising, according to officials with knowledge of the details of the shake up.

There are only two reasons you make drastic cuts or changes to staff and key personnel like this:
1. You don't know what the hell you're doing; or,
2. You need to change things in a hurry as the ship is starting to sink.

I think # 2 clearly is at play here. The McCain people completely failed it establishing his inevitability as the 2008 nominee. Not that it's their fault necessarily. Just that John McCain is far, far outside the Republican mainstream right now and his complete failure as a 2008 candidate as compared to his 2000 campaign shows that clearly.

Who drops out first: McCain, Brownback, or Tommy Thompson?

Amzazingly Few Complains

When I heard that Brian Roberts was the lone Orioles all-star representative, and that Erik Bedard and Jeremy Guthrie had been passed over, I was somewhat skeptical. I was waiting to see which undeserving pitcher made the roster.

But take a look at the team:

Josh Beckett, Boston
Dan Haren, Oakland
Bobby Jenks, Chicago White Sox
John Lackey, L.A. Angels
Gil Meche, Kansas City
Jonathan Papelbon Boston
J.J. Putz, Seattle
Francisco Rodriguez, L.A. Angels
C.C. Sabathia, Cleveland
Johan Santana, Minnesota
Justin Verlander, Detroit

You really can't argue with any of those selections. So maybe there is no actual reason to complain that the two pitchers, both deserving of all-star game selections, got left off. And while Guthrie certainly ptitched better than a guy like Gil Meche...well, somebody had to go from the Royals.

Now the selection of Angels RHP Kelvim Escobar over the two for the final vote selection...that's another story.