New York Observer: Mighty White of You, Senator Biden Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Joe Biden in an interview with the New York Observer on Senator Barack Obama's likely candidacy for President:

"I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," he said. "I mean, that’s a storybook, man."

But—and the "but" was clearly inevitable—he doubts whether American voters are going to elect "a one-term, a guy who has served for four years in the Senate," and added: "I don’t recall hearing a word from Barack about a plan or a tactic."

Translation of Biden into American English: "Most n%%%%rs can't talk, are stupid, don't wash and are ugly. This one - who suprisingly can talk, is not stupid, does wash and looks good - is a very rare miracle. But he surely cannot be President, are you kidding me?"

Reality: Black dialect is as "articulate" as any other dialect or language. Just as Jewish public officials have occasionally used Yiddish terms or other stylized speech on some occasions, and as Southern white politicians indulge in regional dialect largely unintelligible in Seattle, black and non-black candidates and non-candidates use a variety of speaking styles to achieve their goals. For black candidates, sometimes this involves the use of black dialect grammar, lexicon, style and intonation, to which speech patterns many white listeners are less familiar or less well-disposed. Speaking purely personally, I don't care for Southern white dialect(s) myself as an aesthetic or style matter, but my prejudices don't make their rhetorical use by Bill Clinton or Fred Thompson "inarticulate."

Reality: The pool of prior African-American candidates for President includes Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Shirley Chisholm and Alan Keyes. I will accept that Alan Keyes and Shirley Chisholm are not "mainstream" but arguably Keyes is as mainstream as Sharpton and Jackson. Keyes, Sharpton and Jackson are all extremely well known for their fiery oratorical gifts. Their policy prescriptions are controversial, but so are Sam Brownback's. Jackson and Sharpton are controversial figures for reasons unrelated to their campaigns, but no one would ever confuse them with Mushmouth.

Reality: The term "articulate" is infamous in the black community as a commonplace condescension by whites seeking to imply that a black speaker merely exceeds the (by implication) low speaking skills and standards of most black Americans.

Opinion: Obama is a less compelling speaker than Sharpton, Jackson or Keyes. While Obama is very good, he reminds me of the "honorable man" Brutus when the crowd is waiting for Marc Anthony.

Opinion: I don't know whether Biden is personally a racist who believes that most black Americans including black presidential candidates are ugly idiots who cannot speak well and won't bathe. My suspicion is that Biden is not such a racist, but is simply willing amorally to deal the "race card" early from the bottom of the deck, to quote attorney Robert Shapiro after the Orenthal Simpson trial. Biden has wanted to be president since his umbilical cord was cut, and he won't tolerate the threat of a charismatic young senator stepping ahead of him and his dream without a nasty fight. Biden has been willing to reach out to Southern revanchist throwbacks in South Carolina by reminding them warmly that his state Delaware was a slave state and therefore culturally southern. This is of course garbage; Wilmington is a suburb of Philadelphia and is connected by frequent subsidized commuter rail to that city. Wilmington's Little Italy lies 60 miles northeast up the Northeast Corridor from Baltimore's Little Italy, and lies barely north (and 2800 miles east) of San Francisco's Little Italy. Sad indeed that this Democrat's lust for power is so overwhelming that he will indulge racist revanchism, racist stereotypes of his opponent's ethnic community and his state's infamous complicity in slavery in order to win.

Opinion: Biden should be ashamed for providing attack language for the Republican nominee to use in September 08.

Opinion: Biden's campaign blog comments are saccharine to the point of hyperglycemic coma. Why have comments or even a blog at all if only the syrupy sweet comments get in; you are better off not using the blog structure at all, lest real bloggers mock your blog as a sockpuppet with the fingers sticking up through holes in the sockpupper's sock. Better off just having your deputy media guy write some copy and get rid of the whole blog charade. At this point, DKos and RedState would probably agree to a joint production to humiliate Biden's "blog" [sic].

Reality: A broadcast of the interview tape from the New York Observer article is available at the site above. Some have suggested that listening to the tape mitigates some, but not necessarily all, of the valid criticisms.

Opinion: Since I have not listened to the tape, I have no opinion about it yet. It's hard for me to see how any combination of pauses or verbal commas could salvage this piece of offensive. rhetoric stupidity from this aspirant Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy. But we shall see, er, hear.

UPDATE: Joe Biden:

"I deeply regret any offense my remark in the New York Observer might have caused anyone. That was not my intent and I expressed that to Senator Obama."

Barack Obama:

"I didn't take Senator Biden's comments personally, but obviously they are historically inaccurate. After all, we've had presidential candidates like Jesse Jackson, Shirley Chisholm, Carol Mosely Braun and Al Sharpton. They gave a voice to many important issues through their campaigns and no one would call them inarticulate."

Crablaw failed to recall Senator Carol Mosely Braun's campaign for President and regrets the oversight.

Soccer Dad: Laura Vozzella Enjoys a Little Schadenfreude? Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Check out this piece by Soccer Dad about Laura Vozzella's coverage of local blog and severe critic of the Baltimore Sun The Sun Lies. The Sun Lies - a blogospheric institution onto itself - appears to have gone dark, and Vozzella speculated about possible sockpuppetry by The Sun Lies for Governor Ehrlich's reelection campaign. As Soccer Dad noted, however, The Sun Lies had caught Laura Vozzella herself in a few embarrassing gaffes last year in its relentless Sun coverage, a personal stake in the story that Vozzella did not disclose in her coverage of this development.

Check out the Baltimore Reporter's sharp coverage of this matter as well.

In general, I often find the Sun's coverage of local news sloppy and its editorials self-righteous and condescending in tone. But I don't generally agree with the "lie" theory of the Sun. Others followed the Olesker and Nitkin debacles last year more intently than did I. In general, when I pick up the Sun, I really wish I were reading a local blog instead, even a local blog that makes my blood boil. I do respect its sports coverage, but I read the Sun primarily to keep up on purely local events on page B1. I don't even read the movie listings any more, because who has time or money for movies with two toddlers and babysitters understandably charging substantial sums? Plus the listings are just as good from Moviefone.com.

I have no fundamental axe to grind against the Sun. But I am not convinced that The Sun Lies no longer lives. Like Elvis and like the Godfather after taking six shots in the back, I think he's still alive. So I have created the .gif up above, which I would invite all Maryland Bloggers Alliance members who are so inclined to place on their website as a memorial logo for the dear departed The Sun Lies who, like Elvis, will return.

American Mike Gallagher Wishes For More Dead Americans Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Mike Gallagher of National Review Town Hall, January 30, 2007:

Seeing Jane Fonda Saturday was enough to make me wish the unthinkable: it will take another terror attack on American soil in order to render these left-leaning crazies irrelevant again. Remember how quiet they were after 9/11? No one dared take them seriously. It was the United States against the terrorist world, just like it should be.

It's time to stand tall, speak loudly and defend America against these enemies like Hanoi Jane.

She's back. Are we going to let her get away with it....again????

Translation: I hate Americans who oppose the Iraq War more than I hate the mass-murdering military, insurgent and terrorist enemies of the United States, and I just wish that the latter actually succeed in some mass murder of Americans here so the former will suffer an embarrassing political defeat. Sincerely, Mike Gallagher.

Unlike you, Gallagher, I don't "wish" any American to get killed, except maybe a few convicted sex crime murderers on death row. But those who call for terrorist mass murder or condone should get their asses kicked. That's a far worse anti-American act than defiling an American flag with human waste, an act that will get your ass kicked in probably 95% of U.S. zip codes. I suggest you get up in the face of a 9/11 widow and recite that garbage. I suggest you come to Ellicott City, Maryland, where at least one attorney/9/11 widow acquaintance of mine works, and get up in her face and call for more mass murder because you hate Jane Fonda. If my acquaintance scratched your #$&@#@%! eyeballs out I would buy her lunch.

I dislike Jane Fonda very intensely as the son of a Vietnam Vet, but at least she has shown some pro forma, very imperfect contrition. We need not forgive Fonda or consider her selection as a speaker at a 2007 anti-Iraq war march wise to oppose this bastard seed of a war, to hold in contempt those slothful Democrats who failed to exercise oversight over the executive branch and who sadly went along with its fraudulent WMD scratch-and-sniff disaster, or to consider you an unspeakable anti-American embarrassment.

Get up in the faces of the families whose dads and husbands have boots on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq and spout that garbage. Say it to their sons, their fathers. Say it in Brooklyn, Mike, I'll buy you the subway fare across the East River. Go to Walter Reed and tell it to a corporal who is learning in Physical Therapy how to balance himself while relieving himself in a urinal, standing on a newly-fitted titanium leg. You want this war so bad that you literally cannot get enough killing; daily bombings of Americans and Iraqis alike in Baghdad must make you jealous, Gallagher, and inspire you to this "wish" that the more decent part of you describes as "unthinkable." Unfortunately, the decent shred of you that called mass murder "unthinkable" wasn't doing the "thinking" here.

It takes a lot of call for you, Gallagher, to complain that the Democrats did not oppose Bush in 2001 and are doing so now. Apparently the country has forgiven them for that oversight, with a new vigorous Democratic Congress and massive majorities supporting regime change in the White House post haste, and opposing the continuation, let alone expansion, of the Iraq War. I don't blame you for wanting to blame the Democrats for what Bush did; metaphorically speaking, Bush looked sober in 2001 but wasn't, and the Democrats hallucinated that he could actually drive. Every drunk has his witting and unwitting enablers. Now we know he's in no condition; be damned if he gets to hold the keys to the Buick any longer. But take your shots on the Democrats for being optimistic enough to trust and believe George W. Bush. They will try not to do it again, I guarantee.

To call for the mass murder of Americans is anti-American; to do so even in jest or as hyperbole is beyond tasteless. People of good faith disagree about the Iraq war. People of good faith disagree about a lot of things. Had Jane Fonda announced her wish for the mass murder of Americans, Gallagher, you would not have gone a-puking but would have called for her criminal prosecution. A pox on both your houses, on hers from her anti-American activities in the 1970s and on yours now.

Senator Obama Decides on a Campaign Poster Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Priceless, on multiple levels.

Sullivan: Hillary Clinton Has "Cootie Vibes" Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Leading conservative, er, liberal, er, ? pundit Andrew Sullivan discussing Senator Hillary Clinton on the Chris Matthews Show:

MITCHELL: Bottom line. We put it to the "Matthews Meter," 12 of our regular panelists. "Can the Clintons stop Obama before the primaries?" This one is not even close. By 11 to 1, the panel says Obama cannot be stopped. Andrew, that's the bottom line for you as well?

SULLIVAN: Well, I just think as a candidate, he's so fresher than Hillary, that she harkens back to the '90s. I think she's been a very sensible senator. I think, in fact, it's hard to disagree with her on the war. But when I see her again, all my -- all the cootie vibes --

[laughter]

SULLIVAN: -- sort of resurrect themselves.

FINEMAN: That's a technical term, by the way.

SULLIVAN: I just -- I'm sorry I must --

FINEMAN: We in politics --

SULLIVAN: -- represent a lot of people. I actually find her positions appealing in many ways. I just can't stand her. I'm sorry about that.

According to Wikipedia, Andrew Sullivan is in fact 43 years old.

I can think of nothing more than to urge Mr. Sullivan as I have urged my 4 year-old: Andrew, please use your words. There are words to describe Hillary Clinton: elitist, patronizing, aristocratic, power-hungry for power's sake, Platonic in her governance model. Her Democratic opponents may share some or all of those traits, and it is possible that my impression of her is unfair or misguided.

I won't say that females don't sometimes emit "cootie vibes" - when both the observer and the female are in the third grade. Surely the former editor-in-chief of the once great The New Republic can find words out of the 10th or 11th grade lexicon to describe his antipathy towards Senator Clinton.

Maryland Conservative Bloggers on a Hot Streak of Late Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Since I have been a little weak on production of late due to family and related concerns, here's a little light shed on the performance of other local bloggers right of center, offered as a change of pace and a rotation of intellectual tires for Crablaw readers.

Maryland Conservatarian has two posts up that should be read twice carefully. Jane %$^&#$@ Fonda pillories the whitewashing of Jane Fonda in the Washington Post's coverage of the January 27 anti -Iraq War march in D.C., at which Fonda was a featured speaker. A Feminist Case for Getting the Women to Vote...for Hillary defends women against the accusation of irrational, personality-driven and impulsive voting behavior, said accusation levelled not by Andrew Dice Clay or James Dobson, but by feminist author Linda Hirshman.

Attila of Pillage Idiot manages to unite condescension, climate change and (of course) flatulence in another photoblog of infamy, "Hillary Begins a Conversation."

On a more serious note, Soccer Dad comments on the antipathy towards Israel exhibited of late by former president Jimmy Carter and its possible roots in his experiences as a candidate for reelection in 1980.

Kevin Dayhoff offers an omnibus summary of Maryland legislative developments this General Assembly session during the beginning of the first year in office for Governor Martin O'Malley. Some have suggested that this session is off to a slow start but Kevin's spotlight on the activity in Annapolis is a most worthy compilation from multiple sources.

There are other worthy posts on other local blogs, no doubt; please feel free to use this post as an open thread to discuss other local blogging posts or issues, non-local blogging or any other topic that strikes your interest.

Cathy Young on Antisemitism and Jimmy Carter Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Blogger Cathy Young of the Y Files, January 26, 2007:

I don't think Carter is an anti-Semite. However, I think that his book is a very skewed treatment of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that some of his rhetoric is disturbing -- such as a passage that draws a parallel between the Pharisees of the New Testament and modern-day Israeli authorities. And I agree with historian Deborah Lipstadt's charge that in defending his book, "Carter has repeatedly fallen back -- possibly unconsciously -- on traditional anti-Semitic canards"; for instance, he has equated criticism from Jewish commentators who write for mainstream publications such as The New Yorker or The New York Times with criticism from "Jewish organizations."

I think that Young hit the tone correctly here.

Crooked Timber: Academic Blogs List Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

This multi-disciplinary list of academic blogs from Crooked Timber will be occupying a substantial part of my continuing non-professional education in the coming weeks and months. There might be 150 blogs listed on topics from linguistics to history to economics to law. While Crooked Timber is probably left of center, the list includes links to a number of notable moderates, libertarians and conservatives that I can recognize (e.g. Instapundit.)

Maryland Bloggers Page on Crabopedia Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

If you have a blog that deals with Maryland, or if you blog about any topic from where you live, work or study in Maryland, please feel free to add your blog to this Maryland blog page on Crabopedia and, if you wish, create a page about your blog itself there.

If your blog does not fit into the categories listed on the blog page, please feel free to add the appropriate category according to your judgment. Feel free to get creative and wild.

Matt Yglesias on the Peretz-erdaemmerung Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Yglesias, January 25, 2007:

New Republic editor in chief Martin Peretz manages simultaneously demonstrate ignorance of widely known historical facts and achieve the impressive feat of making Tom Friedman look smart:

Poor Tom Friedman. He is looking for a Muslim Martin Luther King. There is none, Tom. If one were living on earth, they'd break his windows. Imprison him. Or kill him. Finished.

Imagine that! A society where a figure like King could be imprisoned or even killed! Those Muslims sure are vicious and evil.

The New Republic is a magazine which reasonable, sober people may very safely ignore. But Peretz is wonderful for bloggers like me, the gift that keeps on giving, it seems.

HAT TIP to Kos.

Daily Record: Maryland General Assembly to Consider Comparative Negligence - Again Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

The Daily Record, January 25, 2007:

After a multi-year respite with a Republican in the State House, lobbyists and legislators are reassembling their forces for a battle over comparative fault in tort litigation.

Del. Luiz R. S. Simmons, D-Montgomery, introduced a bill in the General Assembly on Wednesday that would permit partial damages for plaintiffs whose own negligence contributed to their injuries.

...

A lawyer himself, Simmons and like-minded supporters claim House Bill 110 is a matter of fairness. Rather than keep Maryland in the minority of states with an “all-or-nothing” contributory negligence standard, it would give plaintiffs just compensation for harm against them, they say.

Governor O'Malley is a former trial lawyer, and the overwhelming majority of states have gone to one or another comparative fault standard under which a plaintiff whose negligence contributed in part to his own injuries may make a partial recovery, rather than suffer an absolute bar.

You may follow this bill's procedural posture and progress at this HB 110 Maryland BillHop page.

A Straunge, Desperaat and Terribil Tryal in Ba'alt-Ymoor Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog, Vendredi, Janvier 5, 2007:

In the seson of Cristemasse, thys pore creatur and caytyf did fynd herself in a straunge launde. For sche had maad passage to Ba'alt-Ymoor, the which citee she thoghte was yn the launde of the Sarazines ner the citee of Jerusalem. And she had gret compuncion and wepynge for the synfulness of her ignorance of geographie, for Ba'alt-Ymoor was in no wyse close to tho placez wher ower Lorde dyed on cross, but was in sted across a gret see and ytself was a place of passinge foulness wher ffolke did etyn only of the crabbes that walked on the floor of the bay Chesupyk and did watch the filmes of Johannes des Eaux (Pink Flamingoes did frighten her gretly). And thys creatur was sore afreyd of the synneres of that place and so sche went forth northewardes on the heighway XCV.

Baltimore Sun: Maryland General Assembly Members Struggle Not to Leer, Grope, Molest Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Baltimore Sun, January 25, 2007:

Baltimore County Del. Jon S. Cardin had an epiphany of sensitivity this week after attending a sexual-harassment prevention training seminar for Annapolis lawmakers.

Cardin, a 37-year-old Democrat, realized he is "kind of a touchy person" and that it's best he keep his hands to himself - even if his friendly shoulder grasp wasn't at all meant to convey romantic interest.

...

Annapolis - testosterone-charged since some of the nation's Founding Fathers strolled the State House halls more than three centuries ago - is a bastion of boys no more. Women make up more than a third of the House and a quarter of the state Senate, and are, of course, as capable as men of sexual impropriety.

...

"Repeated requests for dates: 'No' means 'no.'"

Some members appeared miffed by that latter point.

"The prevailing concern among members in the room was if they were never allowed to ask someone for a date twice, most of us would be single for a lifetime," said freshman Del. Steve Schuh, an Anne Arundel County Republican.

Sadly for Schuh's colleagues, persistence isn't always smiled upon - especially if it's directed at the pretty 20-something brunette who answers the front-office phones. Whistling, leering, sexual jokes, brushing against someone's body, commenting about that someone's body and displaying sexually suggestive pictures - or objects - are also discouraged.

The dumbass tag is for the fact that this seminar is necessary, not for its delivery in time of apparent need.

These are supposed to be the best trustees for the public business, men and women of some community prominence, yet they need to have a seminar on how not to put sexual pressure on a subordinate? Here is a condensed, much faster and more efficient version of what they should all have already known.

Memo: it's sexual harassment if you are causing sexual discomfort, pressure or embarrassment upon someone at your job. Don't do it once.

Gentlemen: if a lady turns you down for a date, she does not say "perhaps another time...?" or "ask me again sometime..." and she works in your building, she is out of play. Period. There are roughly 140,000 Marylanders in every legislative district. Of them, at least 5,000 are going to be single women of suitable age, however defined. There are within 12 miles of Annapolis probably 12-15,000 single women of suitable age, maybe a lot more than that. Most members of the General Assembly claim to be oh-so-religious or attend some house of worship; go meet a nice lady at services, Mass, Kingdom worship, shul, or other appropriate services or community activities etc. You are into religion? Go with that.

Gentlemen: do not ask your subordinate to start wearing hiked-up skirts. They are not appropriate for work and the request is not appropriate to a subordinate in your line of work. You work in a historic building Annapolis, not in a fashion studio in New York or a nightclub in Vegas.

Name of Lewinsky mean anything to you? How about Foley? You gotta be a ladies' man? Fine. Just make the lady the owner of a hair salon in Greenbelt or a real estate agent from Parkville, not some poor 24 year-old staffer down the hall trying to keep her paycheck without putting up with your aggravating surplus crap over and above the ordinary crap of her 9 to 5.

Gentlemen: try pretending that you actually like women, want women to feel comfortable and unstressed at work. You are in politics, you have feigned emotions before; put this on the list of important things to fake well, right alongside concern for your constituents' general welfare. Putting up with your crap is stress, and making subordinates do so is illegal. Congressmen and U.S. Senators are mostly immune from sexual harassment lawsuits but you are not.

Ladies: while this is not statistically a major problem for women in office, do thou likewise per above (by analogy, as appropriate) to maintain professional standards. You want a social life? Excellent; many fine men - more than are reported, fortunately - are available outside the payroll lists of the General Assembly for you to get to know throughout this fine state. Gentlemen who prefer gentlemen and ladies who prefer ladies: ditto all of the above, by analogy to your circumstances.

There. You did not have to meet all day; you could have read this column, hopefully confirmed it as the common sense you learned early in life, and saved hours of your lives. My consulting fee is waived pro bono publico. Now that your sexual conduct is back under confirmed civilized regulation, please get back to work at your day jobs; there are roads and rails to build, teachers and police to pay, crime to fight.

CNN: Microsoft Payola to Tech Blogger on Wikipedia Backfires Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

CNN.com, January 25, 2007:

Microsoft Corp. has landed in the Wikipedia doghouse after it offered to pay a blogger to change technical articles on the community-produced Web encyclopedia site.

While Wikipedia is known as the encyclopedia that anyone can tweak, founder Jimmy Wales and his cadre of volunteer editors, writers and moderators have blocked public-relations firms, campaign workers and anyone else perceived as having a conflict of interest from posting fluff or slanting entries. So paying for Wikipedia copy is considered a definite no-no.

...

Microsoft acknowledged it had approached the writer and offered to pay him for the time it would take to correct what the company was sure were inaccuracies in Wikipedia articles on an open-source document standard and a rival format put forward by Microsoft.

Spokeswoman Catherine Brooker said she believed the articles were heavily written by people at IBM Corp., which is a big supporter of the open-source standard. IBM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

...

Wales said the proper course would have been for Microsoft to write or commission a "white paper" on the subject with its interpretation of the facts, post it to an outside Web site and then link to it in the Wikipedia articles' discussion forums.

Payola is lawful in tech writing and promotions, but it merits scorn if received for posting in blogs and quasi-blogging community online content fora. It violates the unwritten rules of good faith and fair dealing, which are part of the "human capital" that makes them work.

I have less of a problem with payola for comments as opposed to articles, for the simple reason that comments on most blogs have adopted a pretty much "anything goes that doesn't get you banned" ethos or culture. Plus the purpose of comment sections is often for every reader to rant or riff responsively, and so I think it's more assumed that anyone, including a shill, will get his riff. Plus, since comments are responsive, the general subject matter of the discussion will usually have to stay responsive to the post, or be deleted/ridiculed as non sequiturs; a payola "plan" cannot be meaningfully hatched and executed through mere comments.

In wikis, a new commentator can outright erase old content and replace it, yielding a potential conflict and potential deterioration of the quality of the wiki as a whole. This is as true for Crabopedia (or as one Annapolis staffer called it in an email to ne before apologizing, CraPopedia ;-) ) as for any other typical wiki. The eraser power is of greater concern to me than the power to add content.

Spitting on Vietnam Vets: the Follow-Up Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

I posted a diary on MyDD.com about my very brief research into the experiences of Vietnam veterans upon return after service, including reports of being spat upon by anti-war activists or others.

Annapolis Capital: Sunset Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

A nice looking sunset photograph of Annapolis from the Annapolis Capital.

Baltimore Sun: BRAC Development Concerns Facing Governor, Gen'l Assembly, Community Groups Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Baltimore Sun, January 24, 2007:

Gov. Martin O'Malley and General Assembly leaders have turned their attention to the roads, schools and other needs created by a looming influx of tens of thousands of military-related jobs, but are in search of a way to pay for them.

This week, O'Malley gave Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown his first major assignment: Get a handle on the challenges created by the 40,000 to 60,000 jobs expected to be created in Maryland by the Base Realignment and Closure process, or BRAC.

And today, a panel of lawmakers will hear from planning and business development experts on the challenges that lie ahead. Legislators are considering initiatives that - among other things - would allow the speedy construction of projects related to military job growth.

...

Dan Pontious, regional policy director for the Citizens Planning and Housing Association, said local officials need the state's help in preparing for BRAC-related growth, especially in dealing with the increased traffic it will generate.

"As our highways become more clogged, people are going to be looking for other ways to get to work," Pontious said. The state must invest in enhancing MARC commuter rail lines, he said, which can transport more workers to Aberdeen Proving Ground and Fort Meade while serving the needs of other Maryland commuters.

The Baltimore-based Goldseker Foundation issued a report last fall urging prompt action to enhance the region's transportation network, including highways and transit. The report outlined options for financing costly transportation projects at a time of budget constraints, including dedicating a portion of corporate income or property tax proceeds or borrowing against expected tax revenue from BRAC-related jobs

.Fort Meade is pretty close to the Odenton rail station and reasonably close to the Savage and Dorsey stations. Local bus service already serves the Patuxent region near Laurel, Odenton and Arundel Mills, between which three points Fort Meade sits, but that service is quite infrequent.

Odenton's parking lot is already an extended monstrosity and not fully disabled accessible; while the station itself is an solid example of accessibility, half of the parking lot is stuck north of Route 170 and accessible only by steps. If they drop an office complex upon that parking area, as is planned, it will be a zoo. A radical expansion of bus service out of and within that new de facto downtown to Laurel, Dorsey, Savage, Severn, Glen Burnie, Arundel Mills (in need of its own transit upgrade), Annapolis, Crofton and Bowie may be needed.

Part of the challenge with high speed rail is that it needs to be grade-separated from road traffic. So either bridges and tunnels and possibly elevators may be required. The ideal might be to widen 170 dramatically above Odenton station and allow bus stops on sidings with elevators and steps to the platforms below. No fundamental reason why such could not be used for "kiss and ride" commuters as well. This way, the buses don't lose precious minutes winding through side streets to the rail stations, allowing for easier "through routes" and reducing crowding at the station itself.

A much more expensive solution would be dedicated bus or light rail transit but it is inconceivable how that would be in the realm of the possible. This state once had excellent local rail service to Annapolis from both Washington and Baltimore, joining not far from Odenton station. One can see the remnants of one of those lines about 3/8 mile east of and parallel with West Street in residential Annapolis, and in the right of way for part of the northern Anne Arundel County section of the Baltimore Light Rail and the WB&A trail down the Severn River through Severna Park. Pity.

As for Aberdeen, much of the same applies but population and traffic densities are lower, making transit expansion less critical. Still, it would be great to see MARC expand to the Delaware line at Elkton, meeting a conceivable western expansion of the SEPTA R2 commuter rail line through Newark and Wilmington to Philadelphia.

RedState: "Has Anyone Seen The Jew Amy Leibowitz Since She Took Those Pictures of [Senator Obama]?" Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

"Has Anyone Seen The Jew Amy Leibowitz Since She Took Those Pictures of Him?" shouts the subheading of a recent post at conservative community blog RedState, discussing the "madrassa" canard regarding Barack Obama's brief sojourn in elementary school in Indonesia, a largely moderate, increasingly modern society with the world's largest Muslim population. Go see for yourself.

In related news, Mel Gibson has been nominated to head the Heritage Foundation and Borat Sagdiyev will serve as chair of the Republican National Committee.

Baltimore Examiner: Black Mayoral Candidates to Unite to Prevent White Mayor? Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Baltimore Examiner, January 23, 2007:

Several black mayoral hopefuls responded on Monday to a widely circulated letter asking some of them to get out of the race to prevent a white candidate from winning.

The letter, sent by defense attorney Warren Brown, said the six black candidates already running could split the black vote. The letter asked the candidates to “coalesce around one” to prevent “the ridiculous scenario of five or more African-American candidates undermining each other while a white candidate is elected.”

But the candidates said the campaign for the city’s top job is about issues, not race.

Several issues:

1. Is Brown really pushing for one candidate here, or is he acting as a "disinterested observer" to prevent the "ridiculous scenario" of a white mayor?

2. How morally justified is it for white, black or other voters to vote by "race"? I am not asking how likely, how morally justified? Is it ever/always bad faith to do so?

3. How much of a slap is this letter at outgoing mayor Martin O'Malley - controversial inter alia for his prosecution of nuisance crimes and for multiple police embarrassments on his watch - from the preeminent defense attorney Brown?

Crab's List is LIVE With DC and Maryland Law Jobs for Your Law Job Hunt Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Crab Media has set up at Crab's List a self-updating list of LAW JOBS in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. Our source - our most prized trade secret of all - is a deep, deep industry insider that you would never have heard of. Certainly you could not possibly guess has name. Not in a million years.

Crab Media has screened out (probably not perfectly but pretty well) from our "double plus secret" source most non-attorney positions, but it is possible that an oddly worded paralegal position would slip in, or that some strangely worded attorney job might not get caught.

Majikthise on Roe and Blog for Choice Day Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Lindsay Beyerstein aka Majikthise, January 22, 2007:

One of the themes of Blog For Choice Day is to explain why you're pro-choice. Initially, I resisted because I didn't feel any explanation should be necessary. To me, it's just obvious that fetuses aren't people and that real-live people who have become hosts to unwanted pre-people should be able to take the necessary steps not to become the parents of actual people. Who the hell gave anyone the idea that this choice is a view that needs defending, as opposed to common sense? I don't write posts explaining that you shouldn't torture your dog, or steal from your employer. Shouldn't it be obvious that you shouldn't consign an innocent person to incubate a hunk of protoplasm until it becomes a baby?

I hold Beyerstein and her blog in high regard, as regular readers of Crablaw have undoubtedly noted of late. Blog for Choice is, as the name suggests, an effort of pro-choice bloggers who explain why they support individual freedom of choice with respect to abortion, specifically today, the 33rd anniversary of the famous and extremely controversial Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade which effectively legalized most abortions in most states where they were not already legal.

I must admit my surprise, however, not that Beyerstein is proudly pro-choice, but that she as the holder of a master's degree in philosophy from Tufts University would stand in wonderment that abortion should be morally controversial to much of the world's population.

Most of the world rejects the liberal model of individual choice on a broad variety of issues, as did (and, to some extent, does) Western Civilization until very recently. Uniting much of the right and much of the left in the United States is the common belief that some things are too important to be left to individual choice, whether it is sexual and reproductive health, economic choices, or you name it. Even in the U.S., the libertarian position is, generally, a minority position and extreme libertarians are an extreme minority.

One can probably understand how some people find cruelty to animals morally objectionable. I know people who will literally will not kill a fly. They will walk a mosquito or housefly to the door in a napkin, rather than smash it (which would be my choice.) The purpose of an abortion is to kill the fetus; until the fetus is dead, the abortion is not complete. Is it so surprising that this killing will raise moral objections from some, since a fetus has some traits of a born human whom we would ordinarily not kill (though certainly not all traits, and very arguably not the most important ones?)

Some will say that one cannot legislate morality. This is garbage, of course; we legislate morality every day, indeed legislating is one of the most important things that we do with morality. The prisons fill with convicts, felons, criminals convicted of immoral acts, whether stealing, dealing drugs, violence, etc. At a much smaller scale, the town jail will hold the drunk, the disorderly, the streaker, the pugilist and the candy bar thief, at least long enough to process an arrest. It should not surprise anyone that morality will lead to legislation.

My own view is that the effects of criminalizing abortion are horrid, but abortion is itself the deliberate killing of a non-aggressor human. Roe itself is a farce, a jurisprudential travesty really, a work of fiction derived from a constitution that this country never wrote, adopted, ratified. Constitutional provisions don't have "penumbras"; they draw architectural lines - fine ones at times, but lines. The Constitution does not discuss sex, parenthood, gender except with respect to suffrage, abortion or contraception. I would support statutes that wrote into law the substantive provisions of Roe, but Roe as constitutional jurisprudence is an embarrassment.

In 1992, I had a quiet falling out with a friend who was (and is) very religious. She and I casually discussed on the phone the then extant Question 6, a referendum which effectively affirmed a statutory right to an abortion in Maryland. I told her that I thought using criminal justice to fight abortion was a terrible idea and that I supported Question 6. She was polite but obviously displeased, and sent me shortly thereafter a handwritten note with a large supply of biblical verses in support of her position. (For the record, this is the wrong way to score rhetorical points with a Jesuit-educated Catholic, lapsed or not.) She and I did not speak for about a year, as I just was not interested in hearing a barrage of biblical quotes. But I called her, and we thawed the ice.

She and her husband - about my age - now have seven children, six girls and a baby boy. He's a sheriff's deputy in Harford County, she a full-time home-schooling mom. How they do it is beyond my comprehension and, I suspect, beyond theirs. They are very active in their church community, and their eldest, I think 9 or 10 now, cheekily interrogates me from time to time about why I do not go to church.

I have the feeling that blogger Majikthise and my evangelical friends have little common ground or common frame of reference through which to communicate meaningfully. Unfortunate, since they could probably learn a lot from each other.

David Lublin on Franchot and Mike Miller Banging Heads Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

David Lublin of Maryland Politics Watch has the opening act of a 1461-day drama between the jawbone heard across the Patuxent Comptroller Peter Franchot and world heavyweight champion backroom dealer Senate President Thomas "Mike" Miller. We will get four years of this Clash of the Testicles.

Crab Media's only hope is that both men stay in good health, avoid laryngitis and maintain their personalities and political outlooks.

Enemy of the State: Mayberry Edition Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

HAT TIP to fellow subversive Andrew Kujan.

Maryland Conservatarian on the Gaithersburg Day Laborer Center Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Maryland Conservatarian has (not surprisingly) a piece worth reading on the Gaithersburg day labor center.

My perspective differs from his on the matter generally, but I cite it as solid food for thought. I think having a center is a good idea for the same reason a red light district is a good idea; better to have the regulated and suspected illegal conduct confined to a set place. Some of the people who are illegal are capable of becoming legal; others have been granted de facto residency at sufferance by the federal government's refusal to deport them (which would cost enormous sums in taxes for the construction of the facilities to make that deportation happen.) And others are lawful permanent residents who work day labor, or in some cases citizens.

In Reisterstown where I live, there is a growing Hispanic community. The citizenship/residency status of those new residents - what proportions of citizens, LPRs, work vissa, overstays, illegal entrants - is not known to me (and they don't know mine.) But I would prefer a day labor center in my ZIP Code over seeing workers using a parking lot or hanging out on the street waiting for a pickup from some landscaping company or dry wall contractor. But read the Conservatarian; his point about the tony Georgetown set is well-taken with this Crab.

Baltimore Sun: Bad Maryland Drivers, Bad Maryland MTA? Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Check out this piece on Maryland drivers by Michael Dresser. We are known, I am told, for being both too polite and too rude as drivers. I remain convinced that the best reason for public transit is local: the fewer Marylander attempting to drive, the better.

90% of American men supposedly consider themselves above-average drivers. I am in the honest 10%; admitting this is no shame for me, my manhood, my patriotism, etc. (I don't think I am in the bottom 10%, just don't claim to be particularly skilled.) But I try harder because I know that driving is the most dangerous thing I do daily, and that the roads are filled with Marylanders.

Then, when you have had your fill of that one, check out this story of the embarrassment that is the MVA Customer Service Center at Mondawmin. Part of the problem is that the facility is too small for the population density it serves. Part of it is, obviously, miserable management. I have never had trouble at Glen Burnie or Annapolis, or at the two MVA facilites in Prince George's County at Greenbelt and Largo, where I have done business either for myself or for clients.

Raleigh News-Observer: High Profile Replacement for Duke Lacrosse Player Prosecutor Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

I recommend this article on Jim Coman, the special prosecutor selected to replace Mike Nifong in the high-profile Duke lacrosse player case. Difficult to summarize in three paragraphs but worth reading.