December 31, 2008
Obsession, the new fragrance from the elite media for 2009… As we await the dawn of a New Year, we look forward to many questions and challenges. However the subplot for 2009 has got to be how long the obsessive, passionate love affair between the press and President-elect Barack Obama will last.
Tomorrow we celebrate Christmas. The pageantry, art, decorations, traditions, and music of the season – especially the music – have all the ingredients for great family memories.
As I’ve grown older, the joy of the Christmas season has slowly but surely become overshadowed with pressure and chaos. Certainly not to be overlooked is the emphasis on the materialism and over-consumption that has insidiously eroded the joys of the season.
Last week I had all the pleasure and honor to be among the 120 million users of the social networking web site “Facebook” who were targeted by a computer virus known by the unusual name of “Koobface.”
It was serendipitous Monday evening, the day that President-elect Barack Obama unveiled his national security team, that I had the opportunity to hear Dr. Melvin A. Goodman, a former CIA analyst, discuss his latest book, The Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA, during the ninth annual Resnick Lecture at McDaniel College.
At high noon on Monday, amid cries of alarm that this is the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, President-elect Barack Obama rolled out his all-star economic team and a call for an economic stimulus package that could cost as much as $1 trillion.
Instead of tooling down the highway in the fast lane, two months after General Motors celebrated its 100th Birthday on September 16, it found itself huddled over at an intersection with fate, harassing passers-by with a tin pan in hand.
The ink is hardly dry on the “historic” election of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and already those with 20/20 hindsight are dissecting and revising the two-year ordeal, known as the 2008 presidential election, with the conviction of someone who has just seen a flying saucer land in the backyard.
When historians look back on the 670-day, $2.5 billion 2008 presidential campaign, the observations, analysis, second-guessing, and finger pointing will fill volumes. In the end, it was once again, “the economy, stupid” that ruled the day.
There are two constitutional questions on the ballot next Tuesday. I will be voting “NO” on both. Question 2 will amend the state constitution to allow slots. Question 1 would amend the Maryland Constitution to allow early voting in Maryland.
On Election Day November 4, there are two statewide questions on the ballot to amend the Maryland constitutional. I will be voting NO on both questions.
Election Day is less than two weeks away. On November 4, I will be voting for the Republican Party nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain and his vice presidential running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
One of the hottest subplots to the 2008 presidential campaign is how would the contest, the polls and the final outcome have looked if the “old – elite” media had not been so biased towards the Democratic Party in general and specifically the Democrat nominee, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.
The recent tragic crash of the Maryland State Police aviation command Medevac helicopter has unfortunately developed a subplot for those who wish to further a debate about the future of the vital air rescue service.
At 11 P.M., September 27, Maryland State Police Medevac helicopter Trooper 2 left its hangar at the Andrews Air Force Base to preserve the “Golden Hour” for two traffic crash victims in Waldorf.
On May 13, 2008, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama compared the current housing crisis in the U.S. to the Great Depression in a campaign stop in Missouri.
For several weeks the nation and the world have been watching the financial news emanating from Washington and Wall Street with that “deer in headlights” look as everyone holds their breath in disbelief and worries another shoe will drop.
In response to the increasing wrath of the American voter, the U.S. House of Representatives came to its senses on Monday and voted 288 to 205 to kill the rash and ill-conceived proposed $700 billion bailout of Wall Street.
I recently had a chance to attend the Taneytown business breakfast. I jumped at the opportunity to take a wonderful break from the drama of national politics and the byzantine intrigue over projected shortfalls in the Maryland state budget.
Just two long weeks ago, Republican presidential nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain, announced that he had chosen Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate.
It would be an understatement to suggest that the events of last week were quite different from the first Republican National Convention June 17 to 19, 1856.
Last week I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to tag along to the Republican National Convention with the Maryland delegation.
I made a concerted effort to arrive early on each of the four days of last week’s Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN.
Although I have been very fortunate to have had opportunities to travel a great deal over the years, I have never visited the great American west. I recently had a chance to spend a week in Salt Lake City, Utah. I was not disappointed.
Carroll County history is replete with colorful conflicts, many of operatic proportions, between the Carroll County Board of Commissioners, the Carroll County delegation to Annapolis, and the sheriff.
When you get past the age of 50 you may as well get the second half-century off to the correct start and begin by getting a colonoscopy. I finally did it and survived. Come a little closer and I’ll tell you all about it.
Last Saturday I took a two-hour break from total Olympics immersion therapy to watch Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Civil Forum on the presidency.
In Prince Georges County on the evening of July 30, the home of the Berwyn Heights’ Mayor Cheye Calvo was the scene of a home invasion.
Recently the Carroll County Chapter of the Maryland Municipal League has been the focus of some unwanted and undesirable attention.
With less than 100 days to go before the November presidential election, both presumptive candidates for the Oval Office continue to look for a key – knock-out – issue that will put them over the top.
Every third Wednesday in July the Maryland State Capital, if not the center of the Maryland political universe, moves from Annapolis to Crisfield for the annual J. Millard Tawes Crab and Clam Bake.
Last Saturday former White House press secretary, Fox News commentator and well-known columnist, Tony Snow, died of cancer at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington. He was but 53 years old.
Hidden away in plain sight, in a storybook setting in northern Frederick County’s Catoctin Mountains, sits Eyler’s Valley Chapel, like a silent stone tribute to a Ralph Waldo Emerson essay.
Happy 4th of July. One of the main reasons we sought our independence from England was taxes. The only thing is – that this long after we won our independence – we are still fighting over taxes.
The annual Maryland Municipal League summer convention in Ocean City wraps up four days of seminars and meetings at the Ocean City Convention Center today.
Tim Russert, “a giant in journalism and in politics” passed away unexpectedly last Friday. It followed by less than a week the death of ABC’s Jim McKay.
Yesterday morning the spotlight of the sports world was focused on the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore as people came together to pay their last respects to Maryland’s own Jim McKay.
For those who have desperately clung to a concept of civility and a respect for the office of the president, May was truly the month of full-employment for gossips, political pundits, and the ghoulish goblins of social maladjustment.
Newspaper junkies learned last week that Mary Katherine Ham is joining The Washington Examiner as the online editor of “the publication’s forthcoming new web site.”
Last Friday, Westminster Common Councilmember, and Democratic National Convention superdelegate, Greg Pecoraro endorsed Senator Barack Obama. His endorsement comes as the Democratic primaries draw to a close and presidential historians are looking to a very busy summer.
On May 7, the Humane Society of the United States held a press conference in which it showed the results of an “undercover investigation” of stockyards and livestock auctions in Texas, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and at the Westminster Livestock Auction in Carroll County.
In last week’s episode of “Democolypse Now,” the continuing saga of the deconstruction of America by the 2008 presidential campaign, we find Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton proposing a summer suspension of the federal taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel.
The discussion and debate over speed and red light cameras continues to reverberate. It is one of a number of headaches lingering in the aftermath of the recent and unusual session of the Maryland General Assembly.
On April 12, Gov. Martin O’Malley announced his administration’s opposition to the construction of wind power generators on public lands under the jurisdiction of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
Tomorrow the Carroll County Board of Commissioners will deliberate in open session and – hopefully – make a decision regarding the offer from Frederick County to join forces to make 1,100 tons of trash a day go away.
People were delighted to see former Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., last Friday when he came to Frederick County in support of Mount Airy Councilwoman Wendi Wagner Peter’s re-election bid.
Speculation persists as to who presumptive Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain will choose as a running mate. This upcoming decision has sparked a growing debate among many political pundits for a number of reasons.
As April 7, the final day of the 2008 Maryland General Assembly session, looms on the horizon, a great deal of conversation is focused on the fate of many of the “social initiatives” of the administration of Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley.
On Monday, New York Gov. Eliot “Mr. Clean” Spitzer’s resignation took affect. To be sure, the country has been in a deep funk ever since the fall 2006 elections, but the last 10 days was not good for the weak-kneed political observer.
…With all apologies to Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.; but today is being dubbed as “tax day” in the Maryland General Assembly.
The February 26th joint meeting between Frederick and Carroll County over how to make trash go away came after two years of discussions and deliberations resulting from the Frederick County commissioners’ adoption of Resolution 06-05, on February 16, 2006.
On February 26, the Frederick and Carroll County commissioners met to discuss how to make a combined 1,100 tons of trash-a-day go away.
Last weekend the nation’s governors met in Washington for the 100th annual National Governors Association 2008 winter meeting. They had lots to talk about; but it was the faltering economy that eventually stole the show.
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