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