Friday, August 25, 2006

Friday Round Up: Birthday Edition

No, not my birthday, and not my wife’s, either. We’ve both had too many to make a big deal out them. Who am I kidding? I still make a big deal out of my birthday. But this isn’t about me.

Instead, we today celebrate the birth of Mr. Finch, the perfect embodiment of the old cliché about dogs and men. While he’s not intensely loyal like a Lab or protective like a German Shepard, his intelligence, personality, sensitivity and wit (yes, wit) more than make up for his lack of subservience. Also, he’s freaking adorable.

As a baby:

And today, waiting for the blogging to end.


Although he strangely wanted one of these for his birthday, a new squeaky toy, a whole slice of cheese and a hiking/swimming trip tomorrow will have to suffice.

Anyway, enough about the Husky. Here’s a quick Round Up to keep you occupied until Sunday.

The action-packed primary battle for the Republican nominations in District 9 is profiled in this piece. For those who don’t know, there are two seats in this almost-guaranteed-Republican district and the current incumbents, Gail Bates and Warren Miller, are running as a slate and are being opposed by Melissa Ridgely Covolesky, a relative newcomer to the political scene.

The whole story is worth a read, but I want to highlight just one piece of it.

"I don't have anything personally against Melissa," [Senator Allan] Kittleman said. "She just came out of nowhere. In a Republican primary, people are going to want to see what you have done for the party and the community. She's a very nice person. She should have run for the central committee."

This mindset is, put simply, stupid. The idea that you need to pay your dues to a party before you can run for office is a horrible way of finding the best person for the job. The most loyal, perhaps, but is that what we really need? More politicians who are loyal to their party above all?

Needless to say, party loyalists agree with Kittleman.

For purely superficial reasons, I’d vote (if I could) for Covolesky. I mean, her birthday’s the day after mine, she has a Siberian Husky, and she likes chestnut trees, a trifecta!

The managed deer hunts taking place on public land in Howard County are expanding. Why?

The deer population at these parks has exceeded the ideal capacity of 15 deer per square mile, Norman said. In a survey of the land last winter, officials found an average of 75 deer per square mile.
Wowser, and you thought the county was crowded for people. Imagine being a deer.

It sounds like the first meeting of the BRAC task force was largely about the committee and the process. Which is good – I didn’t miss much.

I’m heartened to see in this article that the chair of the task force is emphasizing citizen involvement. I’m also a little surprised to read this:
Donna Thewes, a candidate for County Council seat in District 3 who attended the meeting, said the county should be aggressively courting businesses that may relocate to support Fort Meade.

“We are in a prime location,” she said. “The question really should be, what are we doing on the commercial end.”
Politicians and others seem to think that commercial developments are unmitigated goods: tax returns from them greatly outweigh tax expenditures. But this is a false supposition. Commercial and residential development cannot be separated. One without the other leads to all sorts of problems, just as too much overall development does, as well.

Moreover, many of the problems of growth in general – traffic, taxed infrastructure – are found regardless of whether you’re building homes or offices. To see a politician at this time ostensibly supporting more aggressive growth is, well, a little jarring.

That’s all for now!

4 comments:

alison said...

Happy Birthday Husky!!

Love,
Your family in Montana
Ali, Matt, Doc, Avi, Quinn, and Flakey

hocoblog said...

Personally, I don't think it is stupid.

I think it means we want people who are prepared to take office in terms of experience and organizations.

It doesn't mean party loyalists. Steve Adler was by no means a party loyalist. For that matter Kittleman doesn't tow the party line either. You are reading into his statement opinions that are not there.

Tony Salazar? Gina Ellrich? David Hlass? Wayne Livesay? Kittleman wouldn't make the same comments, nor would I, if she were running for County Council or Central Committee.

However, she is running for House of Delegates. Different animal altogether. Leave the military, graduate from law school and challenge an incumbent who has done a great job? That is not the way to introduce yourself to the voters. How often does that work? Seriously, it hardly ever works because primary and general election voters know what they have in their current representatives. I think 2 seats turn over every 2 years based on a challenge from a new comer. I don't think one turned over 4 years ago in the General Assembly. There is a reason for that. You can call it money and incumbancy if you want - I would disagree.

Melissa's issue is not so much that she hasn't done any work in the party it is that she hasn't done any work in the party that would garnish her the grassroots support and name recognition she needs to win.

hocoblog said...

Thewes and development? So mpre commercial development will lead to increased traffic. Where are these people going to go to work and to live. They are going to put traffic on the roads if the live in HC or not. They are going to put traffic on HC roads be virtue of traveling to, from or through HC. By all means ship the tax revenue to AA, PG, BC or MC the traffic will remain here regardless. Thewes is addressing the reality of the situation. We will have the traffic regardless and not the revenue to pay for the increased stress on the infrastructure. Doesn't make sense.

hocoblog said...

Thewes and development? So mpre commercial development will lead to increased traffic. Where are these people going to go to work and to live. They are going to put traffic on the roads if the live in HC or not. They are going to put traffic on HC roads be virtue of traveling to, from or through HC. By all means ship the tax revenue to AA, PG, BC or MC the traffic will remain here regardless. Thewes is addressing the reality of the situation. We will have the traffic regardless and not the revenue to pay for the increased stress on the infrastructure. Doesn't make sense.