I can’t figure out what the Washington Post was afraid of – diversity of thought? But they wouldn’t publish this, so it’s up to you to decide whether it was my mistake for submitting this there or theirs for not running it. I kept it right on their self-imposed 800 word limit.
Last [...]
Just so you know, I’m taking a couple days off from writing but there will be posts tomorrow and Sunday. Sunday brings the usual reprint of my latest released Liberty Features Syndicate article, but Saturday is a special treat – an op-ed the Washington Post was afraid to publish. (Hey, I [...]
Because of the ability for me to prewrite posts, I’m sitting here yesterday doing my Thanksgiving message for today. This way I get a day off to visit friends and share in their Thanksgiving.
Given the fact that I lost the job I moved here to take a year ago and [...]
We’re coming into a slow news period, so it’s time for some thought provocation as we glide into the Thanksgiving holiday (not to mention Christmas and New Years’ Day right on its heels.)Â A lot of people are writing off the remainder of 2009 as a lost cause and looking forward [...]
Well, they have a candidate now at least:
On November 21, 2009 the Central Committee of the Libertarian Party of Maryland selected Susan Gaztañaga as their candidate for Governor and Doug McNeil as their candidate for Lieutenant Governor.
In a speech on November 21st, Susan Gaztañaga stated, “A Gaztañaga administration will be [...]
At the next RNC annual meeting in January there could be a resolution introduced to address the Scozzafava problem, defined as throwing party support behind a candidate better suited to be a Democrat philosophically.
According to the Washington Post, James Bopp, Jr. of Indiana is introducing this draft resolution, the “Proposed RNC Resolution [...]
This month’s WCRC meeting featured a speaker well known to most of those attending, State Senator Richard Colburn.
But first we had to take care of the usual business, and for the most part it went as normal (our secretary was again missing, and he had the copy of the minutes.) [...]
Here’s an easy one, but you need to start someplace. It may anger the voters in Maryland’s 18th Congressional District but that’s the price paid for speaking out. Oh wait, Maryland has only 8 Congressional districts? Well then, carry on Jim:
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jim Rutledge today called for a [...]
Since the Maryland GOP made mention of various local chapters of Americans for Prosperity in their convention reports last week, this may perk up their ears when they find out what’s going on locally.
On Thursday the Wicomico AFP chapter met with about 40 people in attendance. They had a jam-packed [...]
For decades, the AARP (formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons; now they simply go by the acronym) has advocated for the interest of senior citizens. In the process they’ve become known both as a fearsome lobbying group for older Americans and as a marketing brand whose imprimatur [...]
Earlier this week I found this in my e-mail box. I’ll let the guy speak his piece but reserve the right of criticism.
Last weekend, the House of Representatives voted on comprehensive health care reform legislation. I believe that many of the measures included in this bill can play a part in [...]
You know, for someone who the loony left dares the Republicans to nominate in 2012 because she’s perceived to be the weakest candidate, they sure are running scared of Sarah Palin! This comes from Mitch Stewart at Organizing Against America, the Obama/DNC front group:
Right now, Sarah Palin is on a [...]
Yes, I survived the Friday the 13th episode 13 that ran 31:13. I make no predictions about this episode aside from it being enjoyable for me to put together and (hopefully) for you to watch.
I’m going to start with this one, which is even set to music – shades of [...]
If there was ever a good blackmail picture for Salisbury Mayor Jim Ireton, holding a stuffed reindeer and coming out of Santa’s Workshop may take the prize. To wit:
Now, mind you, I don’t have any problem with the concept of “Third Friday”, which is why I posted the video now as [...]
Since he can’t get in to measure the drapes in Martin O’Malley’s office, I guess this will have to do for Pat McDonough as an announcement he’s in the race. Perhaps I missed the formal affair where he threw his hat in the ring for Governor?
Anyway, it’s good to know [...]
As most of my faithful readers know, last weekend marked the occurrence of our most recent state convention. During that convention, the state party adopted a “compromise” voting system solely for this convention and elected a new state chairman, Audrey Scott. Oddly enough, Wicomico County’s delegation had the distinction [...]
For the third time this fiscal year (which only started July 1st, so we’re 4 1/2 months in), the state of Maryland has been forced to make budget cuts. This $360 million in budget actions brings the total to over $1 billion.
Doing his best to make lemonade out of the [...]
Yesterday I posted on the gerrymandering “silver spring” of the Swing State Project proposed to wipe away the GOP from Maryland’s Congressional delegation. He (or she) also did the same for Maryland’s General Assembly.
At the moment the composition of the House of Delegates is 104 Democrats, 36 Republicans, and [...]
While I briefly covered what former governor Bob Ehrlich said on Saturday during his introduction of Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, Ehrlich mentioned what he termed the “10-0 project”. It’s an effort to place Democrats completely in charge of the Maryland Congressional delegation by owning all eight Congressional seats along with [...]
I’ve held this in my back pocket for a few days but since the second-to-last post featured GOP candidate for Governor Larry Hogan and the subject isn’t exactly stale, I’ll run it now. Hey, it even ties in with what I said at the county’s budget meeting last week. So [...]
In a policy reversal reminiscent of a tinhorn regime, the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) distributed a memorandum last week subjecting certain political appointees to retroactive rules regarding OPM approval before taking a civil service job. While the policy has always been in place during election years [...]
Over the weekend Republicans in Maryland got together to conduct a little bit of business, enjoy each other’s company in a social setting, and elect a new Chairman. This is a first-person account of the proceedings.
[...]
The recent history of stimulus programs suggests that at least two ideas thought at first to be surefire winners left a lot to be desired once the results came in.
We all know that the nearly $800 billion package of government spending which was supposed to keep unemployment under 8 percent [...]
Having the 13th installment of this series on Friday the 13th might just be pressing my luck. That and taking a week away gives me a larger number of videos to feature. Maybe I’ll feature 13? You’ll just have to see.
Let’s start with the inspirational. Earlier this week we celebrated [...]
Tonight and tomorrow I’ll be attending the Fall Convention of the Maryland Republican Party. This morning I finally received the video of the second announced contender for the Chair slot being vacated by Dr. Jim Pelura.
So we have a video smackdown between Audrey Scott and Daniel Vovak – these are [...]
I got this the other day in praise of Senator Jim DeMint’s introduction of legislation calling for Congressional term limits. If there can be a limit on presidential terms (22nd Amendment) I think this ought to be the 28th. From U.S. Term Limits:
U.S. Term Limits President Philip Blumel today praised [...]
This post is just for a little bit of fun.
There’s another blogger in town who likes to think of himself as a prime source of news and touts his Alexa rating – once he gets down under 100,000 he’ll be in the “big leagues” with the likes of Fox News, [...]
Haven’t heard much lately from the Institute for Justice, but earlier this week they weighed in on a case of irony:
Pfizer, Inc., announced today that the company will be closing its former research and development headquarters in New London, Conn. This was a project that involved massive corporate welfare and [...]
Last night a packed house in the Midway Room of the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center made their case to create or save budget cuts for a county which finds itself millions short on revenue needed to fund the budget they intended when it was passed over the summer. Well over 200 [...]
I came across an interesting article in yesterday’s Washington Post regarding some of the media buys which have occurred over the last couple days.
The piece by Aaron C. Davis and Ben Pershing features a number of House Democrats who voted on both sides of the bill. Obviously groups like [...]
Sometimes one can go through a number of days having time to tend to personal affairs because the opportunity to engage officials isn’t particularly urgent – at least not in a public venue, anyway. Those of you who took a few minutes out of your day to contact Congressman Kratovil [...]
As one may guess, my e-mail has plenty of feedback on last night’s passage of Pelosicare. Here are three sample reactions, first from the desk of President Obama:
(Last)Â evening, at 11:15 p.m., the House of Representatives voted to pass their health insurance reform bill. Despite countless attempts over nearly a century, [...]
Well, we tried as best we could but the bad guys prevailed 220-215.
Not that I didn’t expect Pelosicare to pass, but what pisses me off is they got the fig leaf of bipartisanship because of one Republican voting “yes” – Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao of Louisiana, a freshman who replaced [...]
I knew I would have a long pictorial post yesterday so I omitted a lot of the quotes I thought were notable.
In opening the program, Rep. Tom Price of Georgia (who also spoke at the 9-12 rally) called H.R. 3962 “legislative malpractice.”
The program began after Price, serving as master of [...]
Yesterday I was in Washington, D.C. because Michele Bachmann asked me to be. But I wasn’t the only one there.
Luckily it was a pleasant November' [...]
I was asked by the editors of Red County to speak to the freshman Congressman from the Keystone State yesterday. So while I’m away (quite possibly to speak with him again in person) I’ll bring this interview to you.
Yesterday morning I had the pleasure of speaking to the Pennsylvania Congressman, [...]
Well, chalk another one up to manmade climate change hysteria. From the U.S. Chamber of Commerce:
November 3, 2009
The Honorable Barbara Boxer
Chairman
Committee on Environment and Public Works
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable James Inhofe
Ranking Member
Committee on Environment and Public Works
United States Senate
Washington, [...]
Late this afternoon Mike Pappas dropped his nearly yearlong bid to become Maryland’s next Governor and threw his support behind fellow Republican Larry Hogan.
In his announcement, Pappas noted, “(a)fter considering all the challenges ahead and my personal requirements at home and in my law practice, I have determined that the [...]
There are four elections drawing nationwide attention today.
I put my 2 cents in on NY-23 yesterday as part of a longer post by selected Red County editors, which is found here. It’s interesting, though, that this race would simply replace a Republican with a somewhat more conservative Republican should [...]
This is a post I wrote for the Red County National page and was their featured article earlier this afternoon. It’s a reversal because generally my RC pieces start here and then go to that site. But I was asked to take on more reporterly assignments for the RC site and [...]
Normally I like to put up selected videos on my Friday Night Videos feature, but this one is both inspiring and time-sensitive.
The key in this fight is going to be Blue Dog Democrats. We need to make sure they realize that a vote for Obamacare comes at their electoral peril. [...]
A few weeks ago, the Washington Post decided to sponsor a contest to find “America’s Next Great Pundit.” Being one who likes to compare himself with others in his field and who likes to write anyway, I submitted an entry like about 4,800 other people did.
After reading the winning entries [...]
It was just over a year ago that Congress allowed a ban on offshore oil exploration to expire. In the wake of a summer featuring $4 a gallon gasoline and an angry public demanding we “drill here, drill now, and pay less” the time was ripe for increasing domestic exploration [...]
This just in from Americans for Prosperity…
Congressman Frank Kratovil will be at a Berlin Health Care Townhall sponsored by the NAACP on Monday, November 2 at 4 PM. If you’d like further info, or to make arrangements to attend with other public option opponents, contact Dennis Evans by clicking on the link. [...]
Here we are again. Think I’ll be talking about health care this time? You betcha!
But I wanted to start with a dedication to my friends over at Progressive Delmarva who like to put this facetious argument about my belief in limited government. This guy helps to put the lefties in [...]
An organized campaign to stop Waxman-Markey? Say it isn’t so!
Well, in order to stop what they termed “Fraudulent Letters Opposing Clean Energy Legislation” the Congressional Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming held a hearing this morning, It was to investigate what they considered fraudulent letters sent by a [...]
Usually I don’t pay a lot of attention to those who teach the “dismal science”, but this morning’s testimony provided by Russell Roberts, a Professor of Economics at George Mason University, at a House hearing on executive compensation makes for interesting reading.
For example, check this passage out:
The executives at [...]
This evening Maryland First Vice-Chair Chris Cavey announced he was dropping out of the race to succeed Dr. Jim Pelura as state party chairman:
Over the past month I have traveled across Maryland speaking to Central Committees and Republican activists about the potential our party has in 2010. Most folks agree [...]
He’s not a Senator from Maryland (sucks to be us), but Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) came back on my radar screen last week when he promised to introduce a Constitutional amendment to establish Congressional term limits. Here, from his Senate website blog, he further explains his reasoning.
The people of South Carolina [...]
You may recall about a month ago I covered a drive to solicit comments on America’s oil drilling policy and allowing exploration in more offshore areas. Well, it seems the public comments didn’t go the Obama administration’s way so they’re less than forthcoming with the results. This from American [...]
We didn’t have our anticipated speaker, who had to bail out at the last minute due to unforseen circumstances, but two fill-in speakers backed up with a fill-in secretary (me) made this month’s WCRC meeting work nonetheless.
As usual we had the Lord’s Prayer, Pledge of Allegiance, and various reports. Club [...]
A little-noticed aspect of Washington’s health care reform is the impact it will have on state spending. In this era where states find themselves behind the budgetary 8-ball because revenues constantly fall short of expectations, governors worry that assuming their share of the cost for an expanded Medicaid program could [...]
Just got home late this Saturday evening and was catching up with my pile of e-mail from today.
I have a lot of stuff about the NY-23 race, where the Republicans picked Dede Scozzafava (a liberal who would be the dictionary definition of Republican In Name Only), but a number of [...]
Yep, it’s back. And this time it goes to eleven.
I’m going to start with one of my favorite Congressmen, Mike Pence of Indiana. Here in a “one minute speech” he points out the folly of ignoring conservative commentary:
For all of the liberals attempting to demean “Faux News” they sure seem [...]
On Wednesday I received a message in my e-mail from Jake Brewer at the Sunlight Foundation, breathlessly telling me:
Exciting news.
At 11:30 this morning, we’re going to march up to Capitol Hill and hand over the signatures of more than 21,000 of you who have signed our Read the Bill petition.
For [...]
I’ve said this for a long time, but Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina wants to make it a reality. From today’s edition of his “Freedomcast” (h/t NetRightNation):
Hello again. I’m Senator Jim DeMint, and this is Freedomcast for October 22, 2009.
You know, the longer I stay in Washington, the more [...]
Got this the other day from the fine folks who run my county government.
County Executive Richard M. Pollitt, Jr. announced (Tuesday) that the county has received $407,928 in grant monies from the Neighborhood Conservation Initiative. The funds are for buyers of foreclosed properties to make down payments, cover closing costs and [...]
Reading my online update of the Washington Times this morning, they had a story by Amanda DeBard about a new group using the new media to get their word out. Happy to oblige.
The piece details the Cost of Energy Information Project, whose website features a calculator which will predict [...]
Thanks to an alert Facebook user, I found out that Eastern Shore Delegate Michael Smigiel blasted Delmarva Power for scheduling three public hearings without letting the public know the hearings were for a proposed rate increase. He noted his surprise that the TEA Partiers and other groups clamoring for [...]
While I’m often critical of U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Eric Wargotz this time he makes a great point.
Dr. Eric Wargotz, candidate for the U. S. Senate, criticized Senator Barbara Mikulski for derailing a proposal to require that the substance and cost of Democratic healthcare reform legislation be posted on the [...]
Over the weekend I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time amongst the wine connoisseurs and spectators doing my political duties at the Autumn Wine Festival. Needless to say, with [...]
Just moments after publisher HarperCollins announced Sarah Palin’s upcoming book would have its release moved up from next spring to November 17, the book’s presale numbers rocketed Going Rogue to number 1 on Amazon’s bestseller list.
The overnight success of Palin’s upcoming tome continued a trend where books by conservative authors [...]
Today (and tomorrow too) you can find me for part of the day at our Autumn Wine Festival, coordinating the Republican cause and probably freezing my you-know-whats off. It’s going to be like being at an early-season Shorebirds game so when you come out dress in that manner.
Still, I hope to [...]
The series has reached double-digits, so I suppose one could call it established. Of course I delve into the political, but my opening video from filmmaker Evan Coyne Maloney lends a new meaning (if you hail from the Midwest as I do) to asking about “pop” culture.
You see, the joke [...]
Yesterday I was invited to participate in a blogger conference call with at least four other bloggers who asked questions and two members of Congress: Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state and John Shadegg of Arizona.
You can find the call here. I come in about the 17-minute [...]
Tonight the Salisbury University College Republicans played host to a special guest, state Republican Party Chair Dr. Jim Pelura. I was pleased to have attended and to bring you this report on the proceedings.
Jim was introduced and welcomed by local county GOP head Dr. John Bartkovich.
[...]
I didn’t make a big deal out of this with last night’s post but yesterday I added a new feature to my site.
I’m going to start asking poll questions on a variety of topics, changing the question on a weekly basis (perhaps each Tuesday.) My plugin is pretty simple and [...]
I didn’t make a big deal out of this with last night’s post but yesterday I added a new feature to my site.
I’m going to start asking poll questions on a variety of topics, changing the question on a weekly basis (perhaps each Tuesday.) My plugin is pretty simple and [...]
I got an interesting e-mail today from the office of our plurality Congressman, talking about health care and the factors he was weighing before making a final voting decision. I’m not going to reprint the whole thing as one excerpt should suffice:
In order to get my vote, any health care [...]
Often I hear and see political observers make the comment, “there isn’t a dime’s worth of difference between the two parties.” Alas, many is the time they are correct – as an example the federal government has grown under administrations from both parties at an ever-increasing pace, to the detriment [...]
This was held out for an extra-long time by LFS, but my tenth article originally posted October 1st.
Since his election last November, even before taking office in January, Barack Obama has reshaped the office of the Presidency into the image he envisioned when beginning his quest for the Oval Office.
But [...]
I know a couple people were following my quest for a Mobbie award for Maryland’s Outstanding Blogs (hence MOBbie), and as it turns out only one of my op-eds cleared this week so I needed a Saturday post anyway. I like to keep this thing going on a daily basis, [...]
Back to the political since I didn’t record any concerts this week. I know you’re crushed.
I’ll start with something I neglected to put in two weeks ago. Perhaps you remember that American Solutions was looking for public comment on offshore drilling. Well, they got plenty – over 90,000 to be [...]
Folks, the Maryland Republican Party has had its share of ink over the last several months and not a lot of it has been good publicity. (Of course, any bad news out of Free State Republicans merits ink by the barrel for the state’s newspapers, with television, radio, and the [...]
I received this release a couple days ago from U.S. Senate candidate Eric Wargotz. While he uses it to hammer his opponent, the longtime entrenched Democrat Senator Barbara Mikulski, there’s more to the Sun story by Paul West that Eric cites.
“The Baltimore Sun reported that Maryland’s senior U. S. senator [...]
Like this is going to happen. I admire Newt Gingrich and he makes great compare and contrast points but if that abomination passes Congress the die is cast. Anyway, here’s what Newt had to say:
With the Senate Finance Committee poised to pass health care legislation, the final contours of the [...]
When I went to the County Council meeting today, I was sort of expecting the County Council to approve having one meeting per month in the evening. Unfortunately, the body decided on a half-hearted compromise of just one evening meeting per quarter, a move which is bound to be more [...]
A passing shower Saturday afternoon didn’t deter a large crowd from coming to Snow Hill and kicking off the campaign for Mike McDermott’s District 38B House of Delegates campaign.
Mike greeted each newcomer [...]
All right, the concert didn’t actually occur on a weekend, but who really likes working on Friday anyway?
After the apparent demise of Cowboyz Saloon in Ocean City, the (Save the…) Breast Fest had to reschedule and find a new venue. On Thursday night the event was held at the Purple [...]
Op-ed number nine for Liberty Features Syndicate, this cleared back on September 23rd.
Long a subject of derision from conservatives, the National Endowment for the Arts ran into more trouble earlier this month when it was revealed NEA funding was granted to artists for creating works of art designed to promote [...]
The eighth of the continuing series of op-eds I’ve done for LFS, this originally cleared September 21st.
Back in August civil liberty activists were appalled to find that the Obama Administration was openly encouraging supporters of the Democrats’ health care plan to report items they thought inaccurate to an e-mail address [...]
Welcome to a very special edition of FNV. Hopefully I’m not jumping the shark by doing a “very special episode” but this is special because it debuts the monoblogue YouTube channel.
Rather than a bunch of political stuff this week, I’m choosing to showcase a few of the female-fronted bands who [...]
As a guy who likes transparency in government but seems to be greeted with an ever-increasing amount of sleight-of-hand, it’s not surprising that the discharge petition for H. Res 554 has pretty much stalled out at 181 members, including just one member of Maryland’s delegation (Roscoe Bartlett of the [...]
As I often do from Organizing Against America (formerly known as Obama for America), I got an e-mail plugging their version of health care reform. In it, Obama mouthpiece and OFA Director Mitch Stewart claims,
The cavalry is here — and they’re in white coats and scrubs: More than a half a [...]
Last week I found out I’ve been nominated for a “Mobbie” Award. Apparently the Baltimore Sun is sponsoring a competition to determine Maryland’s Outstanding Blogs and I’m nominated in two categories: politics (natch) and the catch-all category called “misfits”.
So I checked into this and the awards are basically a [...]
It’s a Wicomico County Republican Club twofer today.
This month’s meeting seemed to have a little different vibe. Part of it was the absence of WCRC president Marc Kilmer for family reasons, but some of it was the fact many of us had just seen each other over the weekend. However, [...]
It was (almost) all about this on Saturday.
And we had a lot of people to enjoy those crabs and many other delectable delights.
[...]
The seventh in my op-ed series for Liberty Features Syndicate, this cleared September 17th.
If you ask Americans about campaign finance reform, most likely they’ll answer something about the need for it because “there’s too much money in politics,” not realizing that to many the freedom to donate to the political [...]
The sixth in my series of op-eds for Liberty Features Syndicate, this cleared back on September 11th.
Ten-year-old Amanda Kurowski was probably pretty nervous last week, as most girls that age are when faced with the prospect of starting at a new school. While she joined thousands of school-age children in [...]
There’s plenty out there to make this edition interesting, so let’s get cracking shall we?
If you’re not familiar with the name Lee Doren, that’s not unusual. But what Lee does is take those videos which are chock full of liberal lies and mistruths and debunks them. It’s the “How The [...]
It was one year ago Tuesday that I ran my first Ten Questions with today’s subject, and the reason I caught up with her again was to get her reflections on the TEA Party Express tour she participated in which crossed the country leading up to the 9-12 TEA Party [...]
Sometimes I follow the news and sometimes the news follows me. On a perfectly innocent trip to our nation’s capital to take in the sights (and the ballgames) what should I wander into but this affair, dubbed the “Scrubs Delivery Rally”:
[...]
Did you know today is World Car-Free Day? I saw something about it on my trip to D.C. (naturally) but didn’t realize this was a worldwide effort.
Because I’m actually in my car living life today I’ll let the Competitive Enterprise Institute pick things up from here. They can even shill [...]
The subject today is a recent announcement from U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Eric Wargotz that he’s signing the Americans for Tax Reform pledge, vowing not to raise taxes. That part is good, but if you read through you’ll see where the announcement raises more questions for me than it answers.
Dr. Eric [...]
This is the fifth in my series of op-eds for Liberty Features Syndicate, which cleared September 14th. I’m told it was picked up by at least one newspaper so I guess I could have added this to my “in print” series.
When over a million people gather in one place to speak [...]
Well, you can do this Monday too but it is time-sensitive!
On Monday the public comment period for the Five-Year Program by the U.S. Minerals Management Service for offshore drilling comes to a close, and your comments can help keep those options open. I wrote a comment to Renee Orr this [...]
