Carnival of Maryland #10

Dear readers,
What follows is a post listing articles that have been submitted to what we in the blogosphere call a Carnival. It is a way of sharing posts from around the Maryland blogosphere. Assuming you are reading this because my blog is in your "favorites" ...sigh...or is a link on another of your favorite blogs, then you would not only get my usual humorous generalizations about unions and politicians, you would also get blog posts from other perspectives.

Whether those bloggers will want to associate themselves with me remains to be seen. So if you see any links below, give them a read!

Blog Carnival #10 posts:

#1. Wade Crodhil presents Baltimore City Election 2007 Candidates posted at Politics, Hon.

#2. Michael Swartz from the Eastern Shore is checking up on the doings of his representatives in Congress.

#3. Attila (aka The Pillage Idiot) presents World's most trivial con man posted at Pillage Idiot.

#4. The Ridger presents Un Connect-a-Ride posted at The Greenbelt.

#5. The Ridger presents Red Admiral and friends posted at The Greenbelt.

#6. Zinzindor presents Out of Comptrol posted at Leviathan Montgomery.

WSJ and Susan Sarandon

Feedback Letter to the WSJ:

Until this afternoon's lunch I had been for decades enjoying reading the Wall Street Journal, even putting up with its open borders fanaticism and occasionally running across reporting that is blatantly slanted leftward. Recent changes to style and format have turned a once respectable broadsheet daily into a tabloid, however, leaving me cold.

But what caused me to toss my pre-packaged tuna-fish sandwich was the site on the back page of section A of actress Susan Sarandon, featuring the just-crawled-out-of a-clothes-hamper look, head cocked to the right and a not-quite-vacant expression as though she is struggling to put a coherent thought together. This is the page I and, I suspect millions of people who still use two hands to turn to the editorial pages, see first.

I expected to read how she and her batty cohort are trying to stop conservative Republicans from committing this or that atrocity against her and her batty cohort. No. How she is starring in Michale Moore's latest movie "Whacko." No. Raising money to help the poor Islamic freedom fighters of Hezbollah and Hamas purchase better quality plastic explosives, nails and detonators. No. This time she is helping to sell the Wall Street Journal. Something called Journey. "Every Journey needs a Journal" goes the ad; a long stem rose angled up marks time and events in her career or "journey." How clever. How sickening.

I liked the Journal because it was top-notch in everything it did. Even in the liberally slanted news reporting. It covered everything. Everything you could ever want to know about the world was there. Now it lies there, folded on its back page so I don't have to look at her. I want to read Dorothy Rabinowitz's column on the Nifong-Fitzgerald similarities. But I can't! It's not just her. It's the thought of who's next in this silly Journey campaign? Michael Moore? Jane Fonda? Arlen Spector?

Just tell me who's next on which days so I can avoid running across Sen. Ted Stevens' "journey" by accident and really making a mess of things.

Thank you,
Mike Netherland
Severna Park, MD.

Sometimes I Hate Being Right

Well It appears that the Kapital's latest press release from the Anne Arundel County Public Schools system served to confirm my last message regarding the "unscientific" poll run by the Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County (TAAAC): that the poll would be fed to the Union hacks being passed off as "reporters" to further its agenda of getting more and more money. Even though we were assured by the Kapital editorial board last spring that "we have seen the last of the annual squabbles" over more money for the "education" black hole. I couldn't write; "Fat chance" fast enough and I received anonymous letters claiming I was misinformed and heartless.

You know if I were the author of the press-release-published-as-news-story, I would be shouting about plagiarism! But then again, perhaps I take a bit too much pride in my work as a professional. However, as I said, the poll, as unscientific as is repeatedly disclaimed, was used as I had expected it would. I wonder what other "unscientific polls" the Kapital is willing to prominently feature?

Maybe this "mean-spirited" letter will inspire the Union Tools at the Kapital to ask the simple questions they can't or won't bring themselves to ask. I say again: Fat chance. Nonetheless, I offer myself as a source, or a source of sources, to the professional journalists in TAAAC newsroom, if there are any. I ask nothing in return, except to read one day how a Union hack actually had to answer a few questions.

School Board Petition - Sad News?

Folks,
From the Chairman:

Friends,
We have received the news we dreaded from the State Board of Elections. It appears that after the counting and validation of the petition signatures turned in for May we have come up short by 275 signatures. We are seeking more information and exploring our options but it would appear that our petition drive has fallen painfully short. Our volunteers did a concientious job in collecting signatures
and the rejection rate was about half of the typical average for these efforts. However, it appears that signatures which were invalidated for technical reasons were the difference. You will be reading about this in the paper today and I wanted to give you a head's up.

I also wanted to thank all of you for the hard work you have given to our effort. Given that the effort was completely grassroots and all volunteer, what you accomplished is nothing short of amazing. Time, not any lack of support, was the enemy.

Thousands of our neighbors joined us in sending a message that our voice should not be silenced in the school board selection process. While the focus of our efforts may now shift, I hope we can continue to work together to give power to the people and not the politicians.

Thank you again for all your hard work and make sure everyone who helped us gets this message.
Greg Kline
Chairman, Citizens for an Elected School Board

For what it's worth, 275 short, on technicalities, is amazing. What was the minimum? Something like 20,000? This should send a BIG message to Anne Arundel County politicians!

Mike N.

"The Way I see It"

Fred Thompson for President article by a fellow blogger out west:

http://coloradoansforthompson.blogspot.com/2007/06/way-i-see-it.html

Check it out. Let me know what you think!

Mike Netherland