A proper stand

By Michael Swartz | 10/06/08

I know we have a major national election in 29 days; however, right on its heels will come the 90 days of terror most call the General Assembly session here in Maryland. It's never too early to think about the fiscal welfare of Free State citizens and I'm standing (more or less) four-square behind this thinking by the Republicans in our House of Delegates as they formally as a body came out against the Constitutional Amendment for video slot... read more »

Wicomico County McCain/Palin rally

By Michael Swartz | 10/05/08

My post on my home site of monoblogue features photos of this event as well. Yesterday Salisbury's City Park became a political venue as hundreds celebrated the Republican ticket of John McCain, Sarah Palin, and Andy Harris. While this annual event is hosted by State Senator Lowell Stoltzfus, this year he decided to bring the focus to the national ticket. But Stoltzfus, who was described in his introduction as one "who speaks from truth and... read more »

Fact checking 'Record'

By Michael Swartz | 10/02/08

Yesterday the Frank Kratovil for Congress campaign decided to go negative, just as I figured they did it first. Here's the ad they dubbed "Record": What interested me the most was the so-called poor environmental record they tagged Andy Harris with, citing a number of votes he'd taken since 1999. I took the opportunity to look up some of these bills and found out one of them made it into my monoblogue Legislative Scorecard for this season. The... read more »

Is profit the next entitlement?

By Michael Swartz | 10/01/08

As I finally sit down to write this evening, the Senate moments ago passed their version of the $700 billion bailout bill, with the House now slated to vote on Friday. Assuming the House opposition crumbles in the wake of electiontime politics, it soon may be the law of the land that profits are privatized and risk is socialized. Isn't that known as fascism? Maybe it doesn't meet the true definition of the term but this takes a trend of... read more »

Maryland First Congressional District debate at Salisbury University

By Michael Swartz | 10/01/08

Last night three of the contenders on the ballot for the seat participated in a debate held at Salisbury University. I've slightly modified this repost (taking out the images) from the original at my home site, monoblogue.Tonight our part of the district was able to listen to a "dialogue about the pressing issues of our time" courtesy of Salisbury University and their PACE (Institute for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement) group. Three of... read more »

The cap and trade redistribution begins

By Michael Swartz | 09/30/08

Last Thursday Maryland utilities were among those bidding to pay for the privilege of creating and/or supplying electricity and natural gas. The first Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative auction netted a total of $38,575,783 to be divided by the six states offering these allowances. Man, you talk about suckers.On the other hand, perhaps I'm being too hard on the utilities and other bidders because the sole reason this auction occurred is because... read more »

Black gold and natural gas from an industry point of view

By Michael Swartz | 09/29/08

On Friday last I was fortunate enough to be invited to participate in a conference call with the nice folks at the American Petroleum Institute (thanks to Jane Van Ryan for setting me up) along with thirteen other bloggers from across the country. And while I took reasonably copious notes, fortunately I don't have to replicate the chickenscratchings that my notes tend to turn into when I'm writing quickly; instead the API folks were kind enough... read more »

Outdoing each other in the wrong way

By Michael Swartz | 09/29/08

Editor's note: I noticed one of my cohorts here addressed the NTU release late last week so this may be old news to some of you. This is a springboard to more discussion I'll do on this general topic later in the week.On Thursday I received an interesting release from the National Taxpayers Union. I'm pleased that it's a private entity figuring this stuff out, I guess those who donate to the group are paying for the staffer... read more »

Wal-Mart to the rescue

By Michael Swartz | 09/26/08

At the risk of stepping on the toes of my Virginia-based cohorts, I saw this over the week and found it interesting. Wal-Mart has been a political football in Maryland because of the so-called Fair Share Health Care Act, which our General Assembly both passed in 2005 and overrode Governor Bob Ehrlich's veto in 2006.Considering we're talking about a geographically challenged Democrat governor this could fall under the heading of "blind squirrel"... read more »

California beat us on this one...

By Michael Swartz | 09/25/08

Having talked about the concept of "smart growth" last week, it's time for me to bring up something which was buried a little bit in my e-mail box, but works right in with the theme I was establishing then. Certainly the Green Workplace blog where I noticed this was pleased with this development. At the tail end of August, the California Assembly passed SB375, which will help achieve the state's air pollution goals by essentially dictating to... read more »