With just four more days to the election, some of us might still be looking for help in making the decision on who to vote for in the presidential race. There have been a lot of accusations thrown around by both candidates and their campaigns. If you would like an objective opinion on which accusations are true, then check out the Campaign Truth-O-Meter at Politifact.com. From lipstick on a pig to equal pay, all of the topics are given the once over to determine the truth or the stretching of the truth. You can even see whose pants have been on fire the most.

Just in time for the upcoming election, a new site has popped up on the radar to expand the political debate. ArgueWithEveryone.com is a political discussion forum that should provide some heated debate in the mostly unmoderated forums. This kind of open discussion should attract both party loyalist and borderline crazy comments on a multitude of issues that AWE members are interested in.

SALISBURY, MD—When it comes to political analysis, few journalists have had more hands-on experience than Dotty Lynch.

The CBS News political analyst speaks at Salisbury University 7 p.m. Thursday, October 16, in the Wicomico Room of the Guerrieri University Center. “Election 2008—McCain vs. Obama: How Will the Voters Decide?” is the topic of her discussion.

The 2008 election marks Lynch’s 11th presidential campaign as a professional journalist and pollster. At CBS News, she covered five presidential campaigns, 10 national political conventions, 18 presidential and vice-presidential debates and five midterm elections. Read more…

Duvafiles has discussed a potential land deal between Wicomico County and an LLC for property on Crooked Oak Lane in Wicomico County. His posts correctly identify the size of the Crooked Oak Lane parcel owned by the LLC at 130 acres. An article in the Daily Times regarding the attempt by Wicomico County Parks and Recreation Department to acquire the property introduced the proposal as follows.

“Wicomico County is trying to buy 105 acres of farmland west of Salisbury to convert into its next sizable park”

There is a conflict here in the size of the acreage in question. If the DT story is correct, then the LLC will retain approximately 25 acres of the parcel. The first question that came to my mind is how the division of the property affects the owners ability to develop the land. Will the sale of the 105 acre portion allow the LLC to develop the remaining 25 acres in a different and possibly more profitable way? Obviously the LLC will already have a profit when they sell the 105 acres for more than they paid for the entire 130 acre parcel. The transaction also appears to be making the price of the land fit the budget of county’s Program Open Space fund by offering the total of the $3 million currently in the account. Rick Pollitt and the Wicomico County Council need to provide meaningful information and debate on this proposal before any further action is taken to ensure that the details of the transaction do not cast a shadow over the positive momentum that has been developing over the first half of 2007.

State Senator Andrew Harris is offering Republicans an alternative to current Congressman Wayne Gilchrest, who many conservatives consider to be too much of a centrist. Harris has been a member of the Maryland State Senate since 1999 representing Baltimore and Harford counties. He identifies himself as the only physician in the State Senate and claims a “unique perspective on how to provide access to quality healthcare for all of our citizens.”

Sen. Harris has had eight years to build up his resume for higher elected office. In an election year article from 2006, Harris answered several questions about important issues. One of the questions asked for his top three accomplishments while in office. Readers would hope to see what he has done to benefit his constituents, but instead we find:

“Rising to the rank of Senate Minority Whip in 2003, at the beginning of my second term, and helping the governor in that role.”

Harris considers becoming Minority Whip and helping the governor to be one of his three greatest accomplishments, rather than something that would benefit the people he represents. Like many politicians, Harris appears to value a position of power over the concerns of the voters. Of course the governor at that time was Republican Robert Ehrlich. Serving in the state senate is probably not as much fun for Republicans now that a Democrat holds the office.

Another of Harris’ great accomplishments:

“Bringing experience and knowledge of the health care industry to the State Senate.”

State Senator Harris might offer an alternative for Republican voters, but after eight years he appears to value his personal accomplishments and rise to power over the duties of public office.

In order to maintain the continuity of my original intent for this blog (the Delmarva Peninsula), I will be posting my thoughts on state and national politics on a new blog called ShoreIndie. There are a couple of posts up to get things started. To start things off, O’Malley has been governor for six months now, so how can the deficit (and its solutions) be his fault? Your visit to ShoreIndie would be appreciated.

Some Republicans seem to think that they won the battle following the failure of the immigration bill’s supporters in their effort to limit debate on the measure. The real winners are the Democrats who can now say that they defeated an immigration reform bill that was headlined by a Republican President and a Republican Presidential candidate. The Democrats also have a list of fourteen Republican Senators who supported the effort to move the bill to a vote, while fifteen Democratic Senators were smart enough to kill the chances of a vote. This topic will be a boon for the campaign ad writers.

It looks like Mr. Duvafiles will have to find another topic to pester us with regarding Rick Pollitt and the Wicomico County Government. Soon he will no longer be able to complain about the open internal auditor position in the county government. The position has been advertised in the paper and on the county’s web site with the application process scheduled to close on July 9th.

The County Council has shown that it is willing to make fiscally responsible decisions following their installation on December 5, 2006. Proceedings in the first meeting of the new council included discussion on the Salisbury Mall TIF that had been tabled by the previous council. The new council made the correct decision and voted against the measure which means that citizens of the county are not financially haunted by the debacle that is the redevelopment of the old mall.

The County Council also made small steps during the recent budget process to remove spending items that were not seen as essential given the restrictions of the revenue cap. The initial funding for an area skate park was cut from the budget. If the council had allowed this commitment to be included, it would have led to even more costly obligations for matching grants and liability. The council also removed the funding of fees for facility rental for local high school proms. Rental rates at the Wicomico Civic Center have contributed to the relocation of these celebrations to other facilities. It is quite possible that the schools in question would still use other more attractive venues in place of the aging local arena even if this funding was available.

Some people in our community will never be satisfied with the efforts of our county government, but it seems clear by their initial actions that the new council takes their responsibility very seriously.

Check out the Saturday Cartoons. Some of the best editorial cartoons collected with permission by BobGeiger.com.

If you still believe that ethanol will make a meaningful difference in our nation’s dependence on foreign oil imports, then you need to read the latest report on the facts about this alternative fuel. The senate recently passed a bill mandating the production of 36 billion gallons of ethanol by the year 2022. The problem with this mandate is that even if we used all of the corn grown in the US for the production of ethanol, we would only get 28 billion gallons, and the technology to produce cellulosic ethanol is still years away. It took 13 years of government subsidies for corn ethanol to reach 1 billion gallons of production according to the Slate article. Congress is feeding us a continuous line of unrealistic expectations regarding the benefits of ethanol, but the corporations are not going to let go of the billions of dollars in subsidies that they have depended on for decades. Increased fuel efficiency standards, which were also part of the recent energy bill, and other alternative energy sources will likely make a bigger impact on our oil dependency than ethanol ever will.

The POTUS was on the radio again Saturday touting the Senate immigration reform bill. Does anybody listen to these radio addresses? Bush states that the Senate bill is tough on border enforcement.

As the Senate takes up this critical bill, I understand that many Americans have concerns about immigration reform — especially about the federal government’s ability to secure the border. So this bill puts the enforcement tools in place first. And it means more Border Patrol agents, more fencing, more infrared cameras and other technologies at the border.

The bill also makes the corporations happy as the job of verifying the legal status of immigrants will be paid for by taxpayers.

It also requires an employee-verification system based on government-issued, tamper-proof identification cards that will help employers ensure that the workers they hire are legal.

And continuing the government by the corporation, for the corporation line, Bush reverts back to the old jobs we won’t do argument.

With this program in place, employers will have a practical system to fill jobs Americans are not doing — and foreign workers will have a legal way to apply for them.

The best program for immigration reform is to enforce the laws that are already on the books and build the fence that has already been approved. This debate is just election year politics.

The former Social Security Building on Main Street in Salisbury was recently transferred to the Epilepsy Association when the facility was vacated by the feds. The taxpayers of Maryland are now funding $150,000 in the form of a grant to the Epilepsy Association for development or improvement of the facility. The original request was for $325,000 in SB460, but only $150,000 was funded in the bond bill. The grant is dependent on the association raising matching funds. I don’t have anything against the Epilepsy Association, but I question if the taxpayers should be paying for this. The Wicomico County Board of Education also competed for the award of the SS building, but they were not successful. The WCBOE currently uses 24 portable classroom buildings as an annex for the main office, and the SS building would have provided a great benefit to the Board of Ed. I guess the process of awarding government surplus property and state grants are two areas that are not meant to make sense. The State of Maryland is facing a large budget deficit next year, but the Epilepsy Association will get its money.

The Daily Times correctly stated Rick Pollitt’s position on the revenue cap in the paper today. In a previous story about a similar speech to the Rotary Club, the DT misrepresented the county executive’s position on the cap, saying that the CE wanted to completely remove the revenue cap. This mistake by the paper was mentioned by County Councilman McCain during a radio interview. Restrictions on the county budget have already caused a delay in the completion of the Bennett High School project. Several of Maryland’s larger jurisdictions are already discussing how they will be affected by the looming $1.5 billion budget deficit facing our state next year. It is almost inevitable that state funds to counties will begin to decrease in the near future. Wicomico is one of only four counties in the state with a tax or revenue cap, which means that these governments would not have the option to raise property taxes to offset state cuts. County Executive Pollitt is obviously aware of the future budget struggles, and it makes much more sense to plan ahead rather than wait for a budget crisis. Pollitt needs to move on to the next step in his campaign and lay out the facts on how the council and citizens can begin the process to modify the revenue cap. Members of the county council who share Pollitt’s concern over the financial condition of Wicomico County need to begin to voice their support as well, so that the vocal minority of opponents will not dominate the conversation. If the changes are going to require a referendum vote, the planning must start now.

Press Release

Gilchrest Opposes Senate Immigration Compromise
Amnesty for Illegals Sends Wrong Message

“As Congress begins the process of debating immigration reform, I have serious concerns about the current immigration bill under consideration in the Senate. In fact, I would oppose the current approach as it now stands.

Granting blanket amnesty for illegal immigrants does nothing to discourage future illegal immigration and the organized crime associated with it, and sends the wrong message to those seeking to become US citizens through the established legal process.

I believe we are better suited by taking incremental steps with a strong emphasis in the beginning on border security. Until we can satisfy the American people that our government is serious about securing our borders, we cannot responsibly address the illegal aliens that are already here.

I supported tough enforcement measures in the House last year and unfortunately, those bills died in the Senate. Many of those proposals can be addressed and should be debated individually on their own merits. We need to make sure that our employers have the best technology to ensure that they are hiring legal workers, and we need a tightly enforced but workable guest worker program to protect those local agricultural industries that depend on these programs.

As a nation of immigrants, this is a difficult and emotional issue with far-reaching and historical implications. But as we approach the issue of immigration, we must make the safety of our nation and the confidence of the American public in our security our top priority.”

On June 11, horseshoe crabs made the front page of the Wall Street Journal. These prehistoric looking creatures have been the subject of discussions between conservationists and watermen on the Delaware Bay for several years. Horseshoe crabs use the beaches of the Delaware Bay as the prime location for laying their eggs in the spring. A migratory bird called the Red Knot uses this same area as a stopover to feast on the eggs which sustain them on their annual journey between the Arctic and the southern tip of South America. Add in the dollars from the increasing industry of ecotourism, and things become quite contentious.

The horseshoe crab has become an increasingly sought after form of bait for fishermen who use the creature to lure another sea dweller called the whelk into watermen’s traps. The crab is also used for bait to attract several species of fish as well. The controversy surrounds the fact that as the horseshoe crab population has decreased due to the harvest by about 60 watermen in the business, the number of Red Knots counted around the bay has also decreased by an alarming rate, from 90,000 in 1989 to 13,000 in 2006 according to the WSJ story.

The result of this decline was a moratorium imposed by the states of Delaware and New Jersey on the harvest of horseshoe crabs in the Delaware Bay which was challenged in court. The Delaware moratorium was recently overturned by the state court, so the debate is renewed once again to find a balance between man and nature. One possible solution is to allow the harvesting of only male crabs which is a reasonable suggestion due to the fact that female crabs take ten years to reach egg laying maturity. The creation of a crab sanctuary off the coast and harvest limits will lessen the chances of overfishing the horseshoe crab, but a permanent long term solution is the ultimate goal to protect all of the interests involved in this debate.