20061024 Mozilla today released Firefox® 2

I have certainly come to prefer to use Mozilla Firefox as my Internet browser. Many of us geeks have been looking forward to the release of Firefox 2...

Read the press release pasted below.

Mozilla today released Firefox® 2

Mozilla Releases Major Update to Firefox and Raises the Bar for Online Experience

Enhancements to usability, security and customization make Firefox 2 a must-have upgrade for all Web users

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF. – Oct. 24, 2006 – - Mozilla today released Firefox® 2, a major update to its popular and acclaimed free, open source Web browser. Firefox is developed by an international community of contributors working together under the umbrella of the Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit, public-benefit organization dedicated to improving the Internet experience for people everywhere.

In less than two years, tens of millions of people worldwide have discovered the easier, faster and safer online experience that Firefox provides. Translated into more than 35 languages at its release, Firefox 2 is available in a native language version for more people around the world than any other Web browser.

Firefox 2 is immediately available for Windows, Mac or Linux operating systems as a free download from www.getfirefox.com.

“Firefox 2 delivers the best possible online experience for people today,” said Mitchell Baker, CEO, Mozilla. “The improvements Mozilla has made to the ease of use, performance, and security in Firefox 2 reflect our ongoing, singular focus on meeting the needs of Web users all over the world.”

What’s New in Firefox 2

Improvements to the user interface, security tools and options for customization, combine to deliver a rich, engaging, safer and more productive Web browsing experience for all.

Tabbed browsing. Firefox popularized tabbed browsing, enabling multiple Web sites to be viewed as separate tabs contained within a single browser window, and improving people’s efficiency by helping them better organize their desktops. In Firefox 2, tabbed browsing has been further improved with the addition of individual close buttons on each tab, enhanced tab navigation features, and a session restore system that automatically restores previously-open windows and tabs when a new browsing session is started.

Spell checking. Modern Web sites are increasingly complex with the rollout of new, rich Internet applications, such as word processors, spreadsheets and blogging tools. Inline spell checking in Firefox 2 automatically checks for spelling errors and suggests corrections as users interact with Web sites, bringing a common desktop feature to the Web.

Search. Search is one of the most frequently used features of the Web. With Firefox 2, Mozilla improves the browser’s integrated search capabilities, making it even easier for users to find the information they are looking for. The new Search Suggestions feature dynamically updates a drop-down list of suggested search terms as users enter text into the search bar for Google, Yahoo! or Answers.com search engines.

Web feeds. Firefox users can now take better advantage of the frequently updated content offered by Web sites, with increased options for handling Web feeds. Users now see a preview of the content being offered and are given the option to subscribe to a feed as a Live Bookmark, using a Web service such as Bloglines, My Yahoo!, or Google Reader, or with a desktop application.

Identity theft protection. In addition to its award-winning safeguards for blocking drive-by installation of spyware and unwanted pop-up windows, Firefox 2 helps protect users from identity theft by quickly informing them when they surf to a questionable Web site. To protect users’ privacy, Phishing Protection is active by default with a local blacklist that updates hourly, rather than sending information to an external online service. An enhanced mode is available where users may optionally elect to have Firefox check the validity of Web sites with a third-party Web service, such as Google, prior to loading the site. Phishing Protection provides warnings, advice and guidance when Firefox encounters a Web site that appears to be fraudulent or malicious.

Proven security model. Mozilla’s open and transparent community-driven security model helps ensure Firefox provides the safest possible online experience. Thousands of security experts and technical contributors from around the world examine and analyze the Firefox source code, uncover potential threats and vulnerabilities, and work together to quickly identify and address emerging threats. This open, distributed, innovative approach to security puts people’s interests first and delivers the safest Web experience possible.

Customization. No other browser can be customized like Firefox 2. With thousands of add-ons that enhance the browser’s functionality and features, Firefox lets users personalize their Web browsers to fit their interests and style.

For more information on Mozilla Firefox 2 and how it delivers an easier, faster and safer online experience, visit www.mozilla.com/firefox/features.html.

Mozilla Firefox 2 is available now as a free download from www.getfirefox.com.

About Mozilla Corporation

Mozilla is a global community dedicated to building free, open source products and technologies that improve the online experience for people everywhere. We work in the open with a highly disciplined, transparent and cooperative development process, under the umbrella of the non-profit Mozilla Foundation. As a wholly owned subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation organizes the development and marketing of Mozilla products on behalf of the Mozilla Foundation. This unique structure has enabled Mozilla to financially support and cultivate competitive, viable community innovation.

For more information, visit www.mozilla.com.

Mozilla Press Contact:

Judi Palmer650-762-2812jpalmer@ar-edelman.com
Alex Guerra650-762-2847guerra@ar-edelman.com

20061023 Washington Times endorsement of Ehrlich

Washington Times endorsement of Ehrlich

The Washington Times

www.washingtontimes.com

http://www.washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20061022-110539-5348r

---

Re-elect Gov. Robert Ehrlich

Published October 23, 2006

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On many occasions during the past four years, it has seemed like Gov. Robert Ehrlich has been one of the few leaders in Annapolis providing a measure of adult supervision over state government. In particular, we admire Mr. Ehrlich's willingness to challenge the class-warfare demagoguery and reflexive support for higher taxes that has long dominated Maryland politics.

Although we've disagreed with him from time to time, Mr. Ehrlich, who in 2003 became the first Republican elected governor of Maryland since Spiro Agnew's resignation 34 years earlier, deserves high praise for his willingness to stand up to Senate President Mike Miller, House Speaker Michael Busch and the rest of the liberal ideologues that dominate the state Democratic Party. Time and again, the governor has done the right (if sometimes politically unpopular) thing, vetoing bad legislation, only to see the General Assembly override him. This occurred on bills which included a punitive, discriminatory tax on Wal-Mart pushed by organized labor and Giant Food, a corporate rival; a minimum-wage increase; a bill firing members of the Maryland Public Service Commission; a "medical malpractice reform" bill that featured a new tax on health-maintenance organizations and an early-voting bill that raised serious concerns about electoral fraud.

The Washington Times is proud to endorse Mr. Ehrlich's re-election, with an addendum: It is no less important to elect more moderate and conservative Republicans and Democrats to the General Assembly in order to help the governor sustain his necessary vetoes and go on the political offense as well. Six months ago, Mr. Ehrlich demonstrated how the latter could work, as he successfully pressed Mr. Busch to allow legislation increasing penalties for sex offenders to become law.

In three instances this year, the General Assembly's overrides of Mr. Ehrlich's vetoes were struck down in court -- the Public Service Commission and early-voting bills by state courts (mostly by judges who were appointed by previous Democratic governors of Maryland) and the Wal-Mart bill by a federal judge. But Marylanders should not have to be dependent on the courts to rein in an irresponsible General Assembly time and again. Instead of relying upon the judiciary to clean up the mess made by Messrs. Busch and Miller's minions, they need to elect a higher-caliber General Assembly.

One of the many reasons we oppose Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley's election as governor is his cozy relationship with the liberals who run the legislature. Whether the issue is Wal-Mart, tax increases, drivers licenses or in-state tuition for illegal aliens or questionable early-voting scheme, Mr. O'Malley and Messrs. Busch and Miller and the overwhelming majority of General Assembly Democrats have routinely lined up against Mr. Ehrlich. (We also commend the governor's work for money to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, and his effort to persuade the legislature to approve legislation putting slot machines at race tracks. Unfortunately, this effort to come up with another revenue source was blocked by Mr. Busch, who prefers higher taxes.)

The disgraceful episode involving the state takeover of 11 failing Baltimore public schools that took place earlier this year illustrates the perverse relationship between Mr. O'Malley and the liberal Democratic Party leadership in Maryland. Last year, the Maryland Board of Education moved to take control of the schools, which had been on a state "watch list" since 1997. One of the schools was Baltimore's Douglass High, where just 3 percent of students managed to pass a geometry proficiency test and just one percent passed a similar biology test. But in order to spare Mr. O'Malley the indignity of a state takeover, the General Assembly this year overrode Mr. Ehrlich's veto of legislation keeping Douglass High and the other failing schools under the mayor's control. Mr. Ehrlich has spent much of the last four years fighting in essence to minimize the damage that such irresponsible politicians have been doing. But if Mr. O'Malley wins on Nov. 7, it means that Messrs. Miller, Busch and the teachers unions that are heavily invested in the status quo will have more opportunities for such mischief.

Marylanders deserve better. That's why The Washington Times strongly endorses Gov. Robert Ehrlich for re-election -- along with the election of a more responsible, conservative General Assembly.

Copyright © 2006 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

20061022 Delegate Rick Weldon falls breaks arm

Delegate Rick Weldon falls breaks arm

Weldon Jr., Richard B., (R), District 3B, Frederick & Washington Cos.

Rick fell in the Windsor Knolls subdivision in Frederick County while campaigning for re-election as a Delegate in District 3-B on Saturday morning, October 21^st, 2006 and broke his left arm at the elbow.

Rick wrote, “The combination of a steep driveway and soapy water resulted in a broken arm. For George and Tony's sake, I finished distributing flyers before I went to FMH urgent care. Talk about working for every vote. Since it's my left arm, and I'm left handed, I'm going to work with my voice recognition software this week.”

Rick is opposed by Democrat Paul Gilligan in the general election November 7^th, 2006.

Delegate Weldon’s Maryland General Assembly web site bio says Rick has been a “Member of House of Delegates since January 8, 2003. Member, Health and Government Operations Committee, 2003- (government operations subcommittee, 2003-; health occupations subcommittee, 2003-04; public health subcommittee, 2003-04; pharmaceuticals subcommittee, 2005-). Vice-Chair, Frederick County Delegation, 2003-. Parliamentarian, and Chair, Rules Committee, Republican House Caucus, 2003-. Member, Maryland Rural Caucus, 2003-; Maryland Legislative Sportsmen's Caucus, 2003-; Maryland Veterans Caucus, 2005-.

City administrator, City of Brunswick, 1994-99. Chief operations officer, City of Frederick, 1999-2001. Member, Board of County Commissioners, Frederick County, 2001-02. Board liaison, Tourism Council of Frederick County, 2001-02; Board of Trustees, Frederick Community College, 2001-02. Member, Forvm for Rural Maryland, 2003; Task Force to Study Efficiency in Procurement, 2003.

Born in Wilmington, Delaware, September 26, 1958. Served in U.S. Navy (submarine service), 1976-80. Civilian employee, Navy Department, 1982-94. Attended University of Maryland (part time, public administration), 1989-91. Board member, Brunswick Medical Center, 1994-; Frederick County Business Development Advisory Council, 2001-02. Member, Steering Committee for Potomac River American Heritage River Nomination, 1996-98. Member, U.S. Submarine Veterans, Inc., TriState Base, 1999-. Member, Cancer Coalition of Frederick County, 2000-02. Board member, Weinberg Center for the Performing Arts, 2001-02. Member, Republican Clubs of Frederick and Washington Counties; National Rifle Association. Valedictorian, Leadership Frederick County Class of 1998-99.

####

20061021 A warm welcome is extended to The New Windsor Word

A warm welcome is extended to The New Windsor Word

A big hearty welcome to Carroll County’s virtual world is extended to The New Windsor Word.

Why not take a quick look, the next chance ya get?

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA. E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org www.thetentacle.com Westminster Eagle Opinion and Winchester Report www.thewestminstereagle.com www.kevindayhoff.com has moved to http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/

20061020 32 Maryland municipal officials endorse Michael Steele

October 20, 2006

32 Maryland Mayors and Municipal

Leaders Endorse Michael Steele

ANNAPOLIS, MD – Today, 32 Maryland mayors and municipal leaders presented Michael Steele with a letter of endorsement for his campaign for U.S. Senate.

Michael Steele said, “I have worked hand in hand with mayors and municipal leaders all across this state to produce real results for their towns and municipalities, and I will take this same commitment to getting something done with me to the United States Senate.”

The mayors signed a letter stating, “As a municipal official, I have seen first hand Michael Steele’s commitment to our state’s 157 municipalities. As Lieutenant Governor, he has visited our towns and municipalities, bringing state government resources directly to local government. To date, Michael Steele has visited 110 municipalities, and kept his promises to local officials.”

Mayors and Municipal Leaders Supporting Michael Steele:

Carroll County elected officials – Elected officials with which I have worked with in the past.

Some Carroll County officials who are not on the list really jumps out…

This is a fairly significant list as it contains a number of critical opinion makers and more than a few folks who have crossed party lines.

John Bunnell – Cecilton; Judith Cox – Rising Sun; Ellen Cutsail – Union Bridge; Theresa Hartman – Aberdeen; Dave Yensan – Aberdeen; Jay Jacobs – Rock Hall; Jim Eberhardt – Perryville; Frank White – Princess Anne; Harry Piscapia – Galena; Jay Parker – Princess Anne; George Mayer – Federalsburg; Robert Willey – Easton; Jackie Ebersole – Rosemont; Betty Ballas – Federalsburg; Bob Bruchey – Hagerstown; Terence Hanley – Bel Air; Don Bradley – Hurlock; Robert Flickinger – Taneytown; Shanice Shields – Salisbury; Wendi Peters – Mount Airy; Randy Rudy – Aberdeen; Steve Farkas – New Windsor; Sam Pierce – New Windsor; Allan Imhoff – Frederick; Brad Jewitt – Berwyn Heights; Gary Nelson – Mt. Airy; Joe Fisona – Elkton; Steve Goldston – Princess Anne; Paul Chamberlain – Taneytown; Garland Hayward – Princess Anne; Cheye N. Calvo – Berwyn Heights; W. Jeff Holtzinger – Frederick

20061021 CNN’s Anderson Cooper, a spotter for enemy snipers

CNN’s Anderson Cooper, a spotter for enemy snipers

October 21^st, 2006

(Image: http://men.style.com/images/gq/talkback/120105/GQopenLetterh.jpg)

The Saturday, October 21, 2006 web page for WBAL TV in Baltimore is carrying an Associated Press story that “[s]ome members of Congress are asking the Pentagon to remove CNN reporters embedded with U.S. combat troops.”

This after "Anderson Cooper 360" broadcast “a video showing insurgent snipers targeting U.S. soldiers.”

Well duh?

Oh, you know Anderson Cooper. Look up “cult of personality” and you’ll see a picture of Mr. Cooper.

For quite some time, there are many of us who just figured that CNN is a subsidiary of “Al Jazeera.”

When a friend of a family member got back from a tour of duty in Iraq; he once commented that many of America’s sons and daughters in uniform have grown disillusioned with CNN’s reporting of the war.

All too frequently, when they would see an operation, in which they participated, covered by CNN, they did not recognize the operation for which they just completed as it was being reported - - and that CNN had a demoralizing affect on our troops as it consistently reported only the negative.

When news programming on cable was in its infancy, it was news-junkie’s nirvana. I was personally thrilled to have CNN available. As the years unfolded, I have arrived at a point in which I assiduously avoid CNN as I have learned that I do not get a complete picture and in some instances in the past, I have concluded that the information that I received from CNN could not be relied upon to give me a complete and accurate overview of the news.

Can someone explain to me just why in the world would an American news-outlet feature enemy troops in a position to kill one of America’s sons or daughters in uniform? How would Mr. Cooper feel if it were to be his child, uncle or some other family member – or neighbor – or colleague, whatever; in the sights of the enemy sniper?

In my personal experience, I have heard the "unvarnished truth" line before and it has been my experience that when I hear that line, my pants-legs feel wet as in someone peeing on my leg and telling it is raining.

The article on the WBAL web site is pasted below. Read it and be disgusted.

_____

TheWBALChannel.com

http://www.thewbalchannel.com/news/10127376/detail.html

Pentagon Urged To Remove Embedded CNN Reporters

POSTED: 8:30 am EDT October 21, 2006

UPDATED: 8:38 am EDT October 21, 2006

SAN DIEGO -- Some members of Congress are asking the Pentagon to remove CNN reporters embedded with U.S. combat troops.

The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and two Republican colleagues are denouncing the network's broadcast of a video showing insurgent snipers targeting U.S. soldiers. They said it's tantamount to airing an enemy propaganda film.

The tape came to the network through contact with an insurgent leader. It aired Wednesday on the program "Anderson Cooper 360" and was repeated Thursday.

In the letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, committee chairman Duncan Hunter writes that "CNN has now served as the publicist for an enemy propaganda film featuring the killing of an American soldier."

CNN producer David Doss wrote in a Web log Thursday that the network televised the footage in an effort to present the "unvarnished truth" about the Iraq war.

####

20061021 Two eggs corned beef hash grits and MOM

Two eggs, corned-beef hash, grits and Mayor O’Malley

Saturday, October 21^st, 2006 by Kevin Dayhoff

Caroline and I were having breakfast in Ocean City, MD this morning when in through the door walks Mayor Martin O’Malley. He came right over and sat with us for awhile. Mayor O’Malley and I worked together on many municipal issues of common interest when I was the Mayor of Westminster and I thoroughly enjoyed working with him.

We talked a little about the gubernatorial contest, but not much. We both know what it is like to be in the middle of a campaign and get “campaigned-out” and “peopled-out.” He was by himself and dressed very causally and obviously not in campaign mode.

We’re both in the “Mayor’s Club,” which bears a mutual understanding and respect for each other for the often existential, if not Quixotic difficulties of running a city, politics and governance.

I wrote a preface in the Fall of 2005: “20050620 Baltimore strength liability for O’Malley:”

I have a huge amount of respect and admiration for Mayor O’Malley.

On June 20^th, 2005, Baltimore Sun writer, David Nitkin wrote a soft-ball fluff piece for the Mayor O’Malley campaign called: “Baltimore a strength and liability for O'Malley - - Mayor focuses on recent positive news after FBI report of more violent crime; Statistics could hurt expected run for governor.”

Actually, it is another example of excellent writing by a very talented Mr. Nitkin, except for one problem; it may have been a nice column, but it was not “straight-down-the-middle news. It was a white paper analysis for the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and dangers that lay ahead for a Mayor O’Malley gubernatorial bid.

It is a wonderful example of everything for which the Baltimore Sun deserves the highest of criticism.

The Baltimore Sun does not use permalinks, so I cannot link you to the article. Since it is an excellent subjective analytical piece on the challenges of running for higher office after serving as a mayor of a city, I will post it on the blog and link you to the post. Go here and read it. It is a must read. And it will give you some insight as to why I respect Mayor O’Malley so much and enjoy his company and look forward to working with him in the future after Governor Ehrlich wins a second term as governor.

Not everyone is cut out to be governor and not everyone is cut out to be a mayor. There is no leadership depth in the City of Baltimore. We need Mayor O’Malley where he is and Governor Ehrlich where he is.

Mayor O’Malley’s idea of running the state and Governor Ehrlich’s vision are different. Period. I reject the zero-sum game paradigm or the concept that one must be a bad elected official or a bad person in order for the other to be good.

It is business and everyone needs to make a decision as to who’s ideas and vision are best for you and I and thousands of other Marylanders.

Who can protect you and your family from crime and violence? Who can best facilitate the education of your children? Who will do best to bring jobs, business and a positive economic climate to our state and our communities? Who can keep our taxes as low as possible?

There is plenty of room for debate, discussion, dialogue and disagreement. Leave the personal stuff out of it.

Right now, Saturday morning, Oct. 21^st, 2006, we’re traveling up the road on Rte 50, but I remember a post just recently when I mentioned how nice it is to have friends who have a life other than politics and issues. I won’t be able to find the hyperlink to the post until I find my next Wi-Fi connection. (It’s: “20061002 Drinking the Kool-Aid.”)

Sooo, Mayor O’Malley, Caroline and I really avoided talking about politics and talked about kids, family and friends. It was nice to see him, outside of the political arena.

Caroline and I were in Ocean City for an employee event put on by the company with which she works. We left Westminster yesterday in the early afternoon and arrived just in time for the event. The trip to Ocean City was relatively uneventful, except for a relatively long back-up at the Bay Bridge.

The weather in Ocean City this morning is gorgeous so we decided to not hurry home and have a late breakfast. Of course I wanted a place that served grits. We found such a place at the corner of Philadelphia – Coastal Highway and 16^th Street – Layton’s.

I tried to catch up with Delegate Jim Mathias – the former Mayor of Ocean City. We also enjoyed working with him in our previous life. I did talk on the phone briefly with Salisbury Mayor Barrie Tilghman.

In order to find Delegate Mathias’ phone number, as the numbers I had in the cell phone did not reach him, I needed to go on the web. I had my laptop up in the car and we ended up cruisin’ Ocean City looking for a Wi-Fi connection in order to get my e-mails and go to www.jimmathias.com.

I felt like the computer-geek that I am. “Okay, found a connection. Pull in that parking space. No back up a couple feet. Yep, that’s it. Don’t move.”

Pray for my wife.

Speaking of Wi-Fi and being a geek, as we were traveling through Salisbury, I wanted a cup of coffee. So, we searched-out looking for“Panera Bread,” or something like that, that would have Wi-Fi.

Which we found. While I was eating my chiabatta bread and drinking my coffee, Caroline and I were surfing the web and checking our e-mails. Too cool.

When is Westminster, MD going to get Wi-Fi?

Talk with you later. It’s my turn to do a little of the driving.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA. E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org www.thetentacle.com Westminster Eagle Opinion and Winchester Report www.thewestminstereagle.com www.kevindayhoff.com has moved to http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/

N. Gregory Mankiw - The Pigou Club Manifesto: Raise the Gas Tax

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/10/pigou-club-manifesto.html

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2006

The Pigou Club Manifesto

In today's Wall Street Journal, I offer a manifesto for the Pigou Club, the elite group of pundits and policy wonks with the good sense to advocate higher Pigovian taxes. (Click here for a partial membership list.)

Raise the Gas Tax By N. Gregory Mankiw

With the midterm election around the corner, here's a wacky idea you won't often hear from our elected leaders: We should raise the tax on gasoline. Not quickly, but substantially. I would like to see Congress increase the gas tax by $1 per gallon, phased in gradually by 10 cents per year over the next decade. Campaign consultants aren't fond of this kind of proposal, but policy wonks keep pushing for it. Here's why: .... http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/10/pigou-club-manifesto.html

*****

Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack: http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/ = http://www.kevindayhoff.net/ Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://kevindayhoffart.blogspot.com/ or http://kevindayhoffart.com/ = http://www.kevindayhoff.com/ Kevin Dayhoff Westminster: http://kevindayhoffwestgov-net.blogspot.com/ or http://www.westgov.net/ = www.kevindayhoff.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevindayhoff Twitpic: http://twitpic.com/photos/kevindayhoff Kevin Dayhoff's The New Bedford Herald: http://kbetrue.livejournal.com/ = www.newbedfordherald.net Explore Carroll: www.explorecarroll.com The Tentacle: www.thetentacle.com

20061019 The Honda Video

The Honda Video

October 19, 2006

As many folks are aware, I really like television commercials – well, at least the unique and artistic commercials, such as the “20060619 The Zurich Television Commercials.”

Recently I was e-mailed the link to the Rube Goldberg-like Honda video. Please find that commercial here.

Hat Tip: “Mayor Zoom” And thanks a bunch!

The e-mail states: “There are no computer graphics or digital tricks in the film. Everything you see really happened in real time exactly as you see it. The film took 606 takes. On the first 605 takes, something, usually very minor, didn't work.

They would then have to set the whole thing up again. The crew spent weeks shooting night and day. By the time it was over, they were ready to change professions. The film cost six million dollars and took three months to complete including full engineering of the sequence.

It is fast becoming the most downloaded advertisement in Internet history. Honda executives figure the ad will soon pay for itself simply in "free viewings" (Honda isn't paying a dime to have you watch this commercial!). When the ad was pitched to senior executives, they signed off on it immediately without any hesitation - including the costs.

Everything you see in the film (aside from the walls, floor, ramp, and complete Honda Accord) is parts from those two cars. The voiceover is Garrison Keillor.

Oh. and about those funky windshield wipers. On the new Accords, the windshield wipers have water sensors and are designed to start doing their thing automatically as soon as they become wet. It looks a bit weird in the commercial.”

Please enjoy this way-cool video.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA. E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org http://www.thetentacle.com/ Westminster Eagle Opinion and Winchester Report http://www.thewestminstereagle.com/ www.kevindayhoff.com has moved to http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/

20061020 A nice quick profile of First Mariner’s Ed Hale

A nice quick profile of First Mariner’s Ed Hale

Hale keeps his focus on achieving success

October 20, 2006 – Read more on “Soundtrack” here: Business Banking

1^st Mariner Bank

Kelly Carson, of The Examiner has a nice quick-read profile of Ed Hale. For those who have followed his career, he’s the little engine that could… And everyone’s working class hero.

BALTIMORE - Edwin Hale Sr. has tunnel vision.

He focuses on success.

As chairman and chief executive officer of Baltimore’s 1st Mariner Bank, owner of the Baltimore Blast indoor soccer team

[…]

“I went from being a trucking guy to being a banker overnight,” Hale said. “It was a religious experience.”

One thing led to another during the turbulent banking days of the 1990s, and the Bank of Baltimore eventually melded into today’s Wachovia Bank.

“It was not a happy day,” Hale said of the day when the Bank of Baltimore was sold to the first of a few corporate interests. But part of the deal to sell the bank was that Hale not be prevented from starting another bank, which he did 11 years ago.

“I felt comfortable being chairman of a bank,” Hale said. “And I knew doing a local bank would work.”

Read he rest here: Hale keeps his focus on achieving success

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20061019 Residential Household Hazardous Waste Drop Off Event

Residential Household Hazardous Waste Drop Off Event
October 19th, 2006

Carroll County will host a “Residential Household Hazardous Waste Drop Off Event,” this coming Saturday, October 21st, 2006 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

It will NOT be at the landfill. The drop-off will take place at the Carroll County Vehicle Maintenance facility at 1250 Old Meadow Branch Road.

Please be sure to look over what is acceptable and what is not acceptable pasted above. [Updated: the image is too hard to read…

Acceptable:
Gasoline, Gas/Oil Mix; Oil base paints and thinners; Solvents; Stains; Sealants; Pesticides, Insecticides and herbicides; Photographic chemicals; Pool chemicals; Household Batteries; and household cleaners.

NOT acceptable: Latex paint - - latex paint can be disposed with regular trash. It must be solidified by using an absorbent agent, which can include cat litter, sand, mulch or whatever. Also not acceptable is Medical waste; explosives and ammunition; radioactive materials; compressed gas tanks and cylinders; rechargeable and vehicle batteries; asbestos and “Business (Commercial, Industrial, Farm.)” I’m sure Ms. Legge means that you can’t bring business, commercial or farm waste to the drop-off event and not that you can dispose of your business or farm…]

If you need additional information – call Aunt Vinnie Legge, Chief, Bureau of Solid Waste at: (410) 386-2633.

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20061019 10 Most Read Articles on NYTimes from the past two weeks

10 Most Read Articles on NYTimes.com from the past two weeks

@TIMES - Inside NYTimes.com
Thursday, October 19, 2006
-----------------------------------------

Here are the 10 Most Read Articles on NYTimes.com from the past two weeks (as of 9 a.m. ET, October 19).


1) Yankee Dies in Plane Crash, Official Says By MARIA NEWMAN and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM, Published: October 11, 2006 Cory Lidle, a pitcher for the New York Yankees, was killed today when a plane crashed into a residential high-rise building on New York City's Upper East Side, a city official confirmed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/nyregion/12crashcnd.html?ex=1176609600&en=795e29d8531a1b74&ei=5087&excamp=mkt_at1

2) To Be Married Means to Be Outnumbered By SAM ROBERTS, Published: October 15, 2006 Married couples, whose share of American households has been declining for decades, have slipped into a minority.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/us/15census.html?ex=1176609600&en=99c95d1dd848dcb2&ei=5087&excamp=mkt_at2

3) Evangelicals Fear the Loss of Their Teenagers By LAURIE GOODSTEIN, Published: October 6, 2006 Evangelical Christian leaders are warning one another that their teenagers are abandoning the faith in droves.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/06/us/06evangelical.html?ex=1176609600&en=b29752956653649f&ei=5087&excamp=mkt_at3

4) Seduced by Snacks? No, Not You
By KIM SEVERSON, Published: October 11, 2006 According to Prof. Brian Wansink's research, people make over 200 food decisions a day -- and are outwitted at every turn.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/dining/11snac.html?ex=1176609600&en=dceeac04bfda2b2e&ei=5087&excamp=mkt_at4

5) Old but Not Frail: A Matter of Heart and Head By GINA KOLATA, Published: October 5, 2006 A central issue only now being systematically addressed is why some people age well and others do not.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/05/health/05age.html?ex=1176609600&en=12e93a3c6d843c52&ei=5087&excamp=mkt_at5

6) An Elephant Crackup?
By CHARLES SIEBERT, Published: October 8, 2006 Attacks by elephants on villages, people and other animals are on the rise. Some researchers are pointing to a species-wide trauma and the fraying of the fabric of pachyderm society.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/magazine/08elephant.html?ex=1176609600&en=c3e89a06bff6d039&ei=5087&excamp=mkt_at6

7) A History of Sex With Students, Unchallenged By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI, Published: October 10, 2006 A N.J. school district is being sued for failing to stop a woman with an appetite for under-age boys.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/10/nyregion/10teacher.html?ex=1176609600&en=d2d193fb08657bb5&ei=5087&excamp=mkt_at7

8) Study Links Extinction Cycles to Changes in Earth's Orbit and Tilt By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, Published: October 12, 2006 Scientists say periodic changes in Earth's orbit may account for the apparent regularity with which new species of mammals emerge and then go extinct.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/12/science/earth/12extinct.html?ex=1176609600&en=9fc4a5a53674ca70&ei=5087&excamp=mkt_at8

9) As Exemptions Grow, Religion Outweighs Regulation By DIANA B. HENRIQUES, Published: October 8, 2006 Religious organizations enjoy an abundance of exemptions from regulations and taxes. And the number is multiplying rapidly.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/business/08religious.html?ex=1176609600&en=a72b34791f8cf28a&ei=5087&excamp=mkt_at9

10) With YouTube, Student Hits Jackpot Again By MIGUEL HELFT, Published: October 12, 2006 Jawed Karim, one of YouTube's three founders, hit the equivalent of the Powerball when Google bought the site.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/12/technology/12tube.html?ex=1176868800&en=70ce5340ae85d3c3&ei=5087&excamp=mkt_at10

20061018 Workforce Housing in Carroll County

20061018 Workforce Housing in Carroll County

Workforce Housing Issues in Carroll County
October 18th, 2006

Kelsey Volkmann of the Baltimore Examiner wrote a piece the other day on the challenges of a dwindling inventory of workforce housing in Carroll County.

This issue has been much discussed in the last number of years.

I’ve always felt that one of the major impediments to developing additional workforce housing in Carroll County was government red-tape and zoning. I still feel that way. Often workforce housing requires a higher density in a given development and zoning laws and, to get real about it, much of the Carroll County public is in no mood for higher densities.

The key issue not covered by the article is that Carrollinians have no interest in any housing in Carroll County these days. To be certain, I have no doubt that there is a bias in Carroll County against workforce housing. But to be candid, many of the folks that are moving into many of these half-million dollar mansions in Carroll County are presenting as quite “elitist.”

One of the latest cutting edge models is a mixed use overlay that allows for housing to be included in a commercial development. The idea, which, to the best of my knowledge, has not been discussed, is to put housing above the stores in retail and commercial developments, read: shopping centers.

The beauty of it is that facilitates home ownership, albeit a condo-type housing, but it is nevertheless, home ownership, where the jobs are and the commercial portion of the development helps bring down the construction costs and makes the housing more affordable.

Of course, the challenge in Carroll County is the knee-jerk reaction to ANY development in Carroll County, residential, commercial, employment-base or whatever.

And actually, unless a developer brings overwhelming return for the community, in terms of additional water, open space and recreation, school pad sites or some such infrastructure improvement, I guess I’m not interested in the houses either.

Now commercial tax base and employment opportunities, that’s a different story…

Anyway, Ms. Volkmann’s story can be found here.

It begins: “Both the waiting list for housing vouchers and the demand for affordable housing continues to grow in Carroll County, but stereotypes about work force housing will have to be shattered before it is embraced, housing advocates say.

People “visualize ... 70-year-old black women who are going to come in from Baltimore and shoot up the neighborhood with AK-47s,” said James Upchurch, president of Interfaith Housing Alliance Inc., a nonprofit that has built affordable housing in Westminster, Hampstead, Union Bridge and Taneytown. “But the typical person is more likely to be their Aunt Milly.””

One of the key paragraphs, for me, was: “The key to work force housing is making zoning “inclusionary” — where developers are encouraged to build a certain percentage of affordable housing in each development — a model first adopted in Montgomery County 30 years ago, [James Upchurch, president of Interfaith Housing Alliance Inc.,] said.”

Read the rest of “Affordable housing faces hurdle of bias;” it is well worth the time.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA. E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org http://www.thetentacle.com/ Westminster Eagle Opinion and Winchester Report http://www.thewestminstereagle.com/ www.kevindayhoff.com has moved to http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/

20061010 John J. Rush Sr. Obituary October 10, 2006

John J. Rush Sr. 81, of Westminster

Mr. Rush’s obituary appeared in Oct. 18, 2006 Westminster Eagle… (The first obit is for Peggy Martin; Mr. Rush is the third obit.)

John Jay Rush Sr., 81, of Westminster died Oct. 10, 2006, at the Continuum Care Nursing Home in Sykesville.

Born Jan. 27, 1925, in Trenton, N.J., he was the son of the late Milton and Clara Bainbridge Rush. He was the husband of Bebe Rush, his wife of 53 years, whom he married Dec. 28, 1952.

He was a graduate of Hamilton High School and a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia with a degree in business administration. He was transferred to Westminster in 1957 while working with Southern States Cooperative, and later took a position with General Cooper and Brass Co. of Philadelphia as a salesman until his retirement in 1992 after 30 years of service. He also was a Realtor with Century 21 Charles J. Plunkert Inc. for several years.

He became active in the Boy Scouts of America when he joined a troop in Trenton, N.J., in 1937 at the age of 12. His time in that troop, led by "Pops" Skeleton, developed an interest in scouting that lasted 66 years. While a scout in this troop, he went to Philmont Scout Ranch for the first time, and traveled there several times during his long career in scouting. After service in the Army Air Corps during World War II and starting his family, he returned to Scouting as Cub Master of Cub Pack 381 in Westminster in 1963. He then stepped in as "temporary" Scoutmaster of Scout Troop 381 in 1961, retiring 34 years later as Scoutmaster Emeritus in 2003, after seeing more than 100 boys attain the coveted award of Eagle Scout under his leadership. He received numerous scouting awards, including the Silver Beaver, the God and Country Award, the Distinguished Scoutmaster Award, the Frontier District Award of Merit, Scout of the Year, and was named a James E. West Fellow.

He was member of the American Legion Post 31, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 467, and a charter member of the First United Presbyterian Church. He was the recipient of the Rotary Club Outstanding Citizen of the Year in 1990. He was an avid train collector.

Surviving, in addition to his wife, are sons and daughters-in-law Randy L. and Sherry Rush of Cumberland, John J. Jr. and Cindy Rush of Herndon, Va.; grandchildren Peter, Alan, Jessica, Beth, Courtney and Tracey; brother Robert Rush of Knoxville, Tenn.; nephew and spouse Barry and Sally Rush of Seaside Park, N.J.; and mother-in-law Evelyn Gobble of Abingdon, Va.

He was predeceased by brother and sister-in-law Horace and Gloria Rush.

A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 4, at the First Presbyterian Church, 65 Washington Road, Westminster, with the Rev. Frederick Eckhardt officiating.

There will be no public viewing.

Memorial contributions may be made to the John J. Rush Sr. Scout Memorial Fund for Deserving Scouts, P.O. Box 381, Westminster, MD 21158.

Arrangements are by Pritts Funeral Home & Chapel, 412 Washington Road, Westminster.

20061017 MSNBC list Political Blogs Maryland

MSNBC’s October 17^th, 2006 list of Maryland Blogs about key Maryland political races:

20061017 MSNBC list Political Blogs Maryland

MSNBC’s Political Blogs Maryland

“Who is Talking About Me Now?”

Hat Tip: Stephanie Dray’s Jousting for Justice, “Who is Talking About Me Now?”

October 17^th, 2006 post

http://www.joustingforjustice.com/?q=node/121

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15287637/

Read what bloggers are saying about key races.

• Maryland Moment

• Maryland Politics Watch

• Maryland Politics Now

• Crablaw’s Maryland Weekly

• monoblogue

• Olliver Willis: Like Kryptonite to Stupid

• Free State Politics

• Political Yak

• The League Reassembled

• Jousting for Justice

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Anna Politkovskaya killed October 7, 2006

Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya interviewed in the Guardian by James Meek on October 15, 2004

Anna Politkovskaya killed October 7, 2006

Anna Politkovskaya murdered in Moscow

http://www.moredevastation.com/actualite/2006/10/7/anna-politkovskaya-murdered-in-moscow.html

Special reports
Chechnya
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Interactive guides

Russia's offensive in Chechnya
1994-96 war

From the Guardian archive

31.08.1996: 31.08.1996: Chechen war is over, says triumphant Lebed
18.12.1994: 18.12.1994: Yeltsin begins to lose war of words over Chechnya
12.12.1994: 12.12.1994: Russian forces steamroll into breakaway republic

World news guide
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Putin's Russia by Anna Politkovskaya is published by Harvill. To order a copy for £8.99 with free UK p&p, call the Guardian Book Service on 0870 836 0875, or go to www.guardian.co.uk/bookshop.

The murder of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya is an irremediably great tragedy. The conflicting rights Anna Politkovskaya, r.i.p. and perspectives involved in the Chechen situation notwithstanding, Russia is now so much less than she has been
_____

Dispatches from a savage war
http://www.guardian.co.uk/women/story/0,,1327791,00.html

Poison and death threats won't stop Anna Politkovskaya from reporting the truth about Chechnya. She talks to James Meek

Friday October 15, 2004

The Guardian

Anna Politkovskaya was born into Soviet high society; the kind of privileged, metropolitan elite that knew abroad better than it knew the factories of the Urals, and whose children were guaranteed comfortable jobs in the rambling bureaucracies of Moscow.

Half a life later, in her 40s and a mother of two children, Politkovskaya found herself alone at night in the Chechen hills, fleeing through the darkness. She was running from the Russian security service, the FSB, which wanted to arrest her, but out there in the highlands of a lawless region steeped in bloodshed, she could have fallen victim to anyone or anything; Chechen bandits, Russian or Chechen government death squads, a broken neck. It was Europe, in 2002.

"I walked the whole night," she says. "I wanted to stay alive! It was terrifying. I reached the [Chechen] village of Stary Atagi at dawn. I stayed there for a day and a night, keeping my head down ..." She talks about it for a while, then seems to check herself, feeling perhaps that telling a stranger about one of the numerous occasions in her career as a journalist that she faced a threat of imprisonment or serious harm is irrelevant to the serious business of reporting. "These are just details," she says, finally.

In the bland setting of a publisher's London flat, you can see in Politkovskaya, one of the bravest of Russia's many brave journalists, the different ages of her life, and her looking serious in each of them: the bookish student of the 1970s, the earnest, curious young Soviet reporter, the journalist who embraced the freedoms of perestroika in the late 1980s, the veteran of Russia's recent conflicts who returns time and again to Chechnya to enrage the Kremlin leadership as it seeks to make of Vladimir Putin an infallible khan.

Her seriousness is not just her frown, her severe glasses and full head of grey hair. It's the tension, anger and impatience in her whole body, making clear that her sense of the continual injustice being perpetrated in her homeland never leaves her, that she can't shut it out in a way almost all British journalists, even the campaigning, radical kind, can.

It's a surprise, then, to see her start to laugh and make fun of the Guardian's photographer when he gets her to pose for him. "Photographers always do that," she says, in her hesitant English. "They get people to do things they don't normally do." The photographer gets quite annoyed and you realise that Politkovskaya is still young (she's 46). And still hopeful. The author picture on the back of her new book, Putin's Russia, is so self-consciously tragic, and its subject matter so bleak, that I ask her whether she thinks it might take generations for her country to become truly free.

"I wouldn't ever want to say it would take generations," she says. "I want to be able to live the life of a human being, where every individual is respected, in my lifetime."

Politkovskaya was born in New York, where her Soviet Ukrainian parents were UN diplomats, in 1958, five years after the death of Stalin. She was sent back home to be educated and after school entered one of the most prestigious university departments in the USSR, the journalism faculty of Moscow State University. Among its other advantages, her parents' diplomatic status enabled them to smuggle banned books into the country for her, and she was able to write her dissertation about a normally forbidden poet, the emigre Marina Tsvetayeva.

After graduation, Politkovskaya worked for the daily Izvestiya, then moved to the in-house paper of the state airline monopoly Aeroflot. "Every journalist got a free ticket all year round; you could go on any plane and fly wherever you wanted. Thanks to this I saw the whole of our huge country. I was a girl from a diplomatic family, a reader, a bit of a swot; I didn't know life at all."

With the coming of perestroika, Politkovskaya switched to the independent press which began to emerge and flourish: first Obshchaya Gazeta, then Novaya Gazeta (New Newspaper). None of the terrible things that have happened in Russia since the coming to power of the reformer Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985 have persuaded Politkovskaya that it would have been better to preserve the USSR.

"From an economic point of view, life became very difficult," she says, "but politically it wasn't shocking at all. It was simple happiness, that you could read and think and write whatever you wanted. It was a joy. You need to endure a great deal in the way of economic hardship for the sake of freedom."

Hardly had the new countries of the former Soviet Union begun to stand on their feet, however, than a series of internal wars broke out. The most savage of them, continuing to this day, involves various attempts by Russian government troops to regain control over the small region of Chechnya. Politkovskaya became one of the most dogged reporters of that conflict.

Russians speak of two Chechen wars: the first, under Yeltsin, from 1994 to 1996, ended with a peace deal and troop withdrawal under pressure from the media and public. When Putin invaded for a second time, in 1999, he took steps to ensure that the media would not embarrass him with reports about the reality of Russia's brutality in Chechnya. If, as Politkovskaya believes, stopping the first Chechen war was the Russian media's greatest achievement in the relatively free Yeltsin years, the second Chechen war has been its greatest disaster. Once an independent voice among many, Novaya Gazeta is now among the few Russian media outlets which have not yet been intimidated into toeing the Kremlin line.

The second Chechen war began by costing Politkovskaya her marriage. She returned home to Moscow one day in 1999, fresh from reporting on a long-range Russian rocket attack in Grozny which had hit a market and a maternity hospital, killing scores of people, including women and children, to hear her husband tell her: "I can't take this any more." Recently, it almost cost her her life, when, on her way to Beslan in the early hours of the school hostage crisis, she was slipped poison in a cup of tea. In between, she has experienced countless death threats from Russian troops, Chechen fighters and the other, more shadowy armed groups operating in the margins of the war. The kidnappings, extrajudicial killings, disappearances, rapes and tortures she has reported on in Chechnya have left her convinced that Putin's policies are engendering the terrorists they are supposed to eliminate.

"To this day there's torture in any FSB branch in Chechnya, like the so-called 'telephone', where they pass an electric current through a person's body. I've seen hundreds of people who've been through this torture. Some have been tortured in such an intricate way that it's hard for me to believe that it was done by people who went to the same sort of schools that I did, who read the same textbooks."

Politkovskaya has no regrets about the times she has stepped outside the role of reporter in recent Chechen terrorist attacks - as a negotiator in the Moscow theatre siege, and as a would-be negotiator at Beslan, before she was poisoned. "Yes, I went beyond my journalistic role," she says. "But it would be quite wrong to say that doing so was a bad move from a journalistic point of view. By setting aside my role as journalist I learned so much that I would never have found out being just a plain journalist, who stands in the crowd along with everyone else."

She has harsh words for what she sees as the west's kid-glove treatment of Putin and Russia. "Most of the time they forget the word Chechnya. They only remember it when there's a terrorist act. And then it's, 'Oh!' And they start their full coverage up again. But virtually nobody reports on what is really going on in that zone, in Chechnya, and the growth of terrorism. The truth is that the methods employed in Putin's anti-terrorist operation are generating a wave of terrorism the like of which we have never experienced."

The Bush-Blair "war on terror" has been of enormous help to Putin, Politkovskaya says. Many people in Russia gained perverse comfort from the pictures of US abuses in Abu Ghraib prison. "I've heard it many times. In Russia you hear people talking about it with pride: that, 'We treated the blacks like this before the Americans did, and we were right, because they are international terrorists.'

"Putin's begun to try to prove on the world stage that he's also fighting international terrorists, that he's just a part of this fashionable war. And he's been successful. He was Blair's best friend for a while. When, after Beslan, he began to state that we were seeing virtually the hand of Bin Laden, it was appalling. What's Bin Laden got to do with it? The Russian government created these beasts, brought them up, and they came to Beslan and behaved like beasts."

The only way for the west to regain moral authority, Politkovskaya argues, would be for it to treat Putin as it treats Alexander Lukashenko, the autocratic, bullying president of Russia's neighbour Belarus - not sanctions, but a more personal, tailored form of ostracism. "It's impossible to talk on the one hand about the monstrous scale of victims in Chechnya and the spawning of terrorism and then lay out the red carpet, embrace Putin and tell him: 'We're with you, you're the best.' That shouldn't be happening. I understand, our country's a big market, it's very attractive. I understand it very well. But we're not second-class people, we're people like you, and we want to live."

20041015 Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya
20061007 Anna Politkovskaya killed
20061017 SDOSM
Journalists Politkovskaya-Anna

Kevin Dayhoff www.kevindayhoff.net http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/

20061016 Secretary Kris Cox to visit Carroll County

Secretary Kris Cox to visit Carroll County Wed. October 18th, 2006
Posted October 16th, 2006

A volunteer with the Ehrlich – Cox leadership team e-mailed me earlier in the day to say that Secretary Kris Cox will be visiting Carroll County this Wednesday, October 18th, 2006.

She is to be the featured speaker at the Republican Women’s Club of Taneytown that evening.

She has scheduled some free time prior to the event and would like to have a meet-and-greet with the Republican leaders in Carroll County.

All of the Republican candidates on the November ballot, members of the Central Committee, representatives of the Ehrlich and Steele statewide campaigns and Zac Moffett of the Victory campaign have been invited to attend.

Senator Haines has reserved a room at Maria’s at the Westminster Inn for this get-together and the event will begin at 4 p.m.

We have been informed that Secretary Cox will offer comments about her personal background and her experiences on the campaign trail. Each of the campaigns will have an opportunity to describe the current political environment and GOTV strategies as we head into the home stretch of the campaign.

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