Weekends Are For Relaxing

In the spirit of Blue Girl's "daycation," here are two pictures I took today. Have you ever been to Baltimore? You should go there.



It's a great place to get a little maritime cheesecake.



--WS

Challenging the Conventional Wisdom

You can take this with a grain of salt, but it looks like a rising star in the Democratic Party is about to take ownership of the nuclear power issue and push for an expansion of it in Maryland:

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley voiced his support for the expansion of nuclear energy within the state yesterday at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, where construction of a new reactor could begin by the end of the year.

O'Malley (D), Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown (D) and other state officials toured the Lusby generating facility, where Constellation Energy, the plant's owner, wants to add a third reactor. The governor said the new reactor would help slow rate increases for electricity customers amid rising global demand for energy.

"It is a huge moral challenge and it is a moral imperative given what massive new burning of coal will do to the planet if we don't develop better and cleaner technology, including safer and cleaner nuclear, which is what is . . . planned and talked about in terms of the third reactor," O'Malley said.

Michael J. Wallace, vice chairman of Constellation, said the utility is working on "an aggressive schedule" that would allow the company to break ground on the third reactor by the end of the year. The project has been proposed by UniStar Nuclear Energy, a joint venture between Constellation and EDF, a European energy group.

"If we break ground in December of this year, by the end of 2015 or early 2016, we plan to have a unit online," Wallace said. "That would be the first" in the United States in about 30 years, he added.

We already know that anything that keeps a coal-burning plant from being built helps the environment. We already know there are tremendous risks from nuclear power and from the disposal of the spent fuel and fuel rods. Is a return to building and expanding the nuclear power industry the answer? I think the conventional wisdom on this is going to have to be challenged. Nuclear power is not the complete answer, but it could be a step towards energy independence if it was combined with rapid expansion of solar and wind generating power.

This is What We Mean By Better Democrats

Tough primary race in Maryland's 4th today:

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - One of the most watched races in Maryland outside the presidential primary is in the Fourth Congressional District, where Democratic U.S. Rep. Albert Wynn is trying to fend off another challenge from Donna Edwards.

After losing by just 3 percentage points in 2006, Edwards is back, hoping to achieve the rare feat of unseating an incumbent in a primary election. The eight-term incumbent defeated Edwards by a little more than 2,000 votes out of more than 82,000 voters, News4's Tracee Wilkins reported.

If Wynn loses, he would be the first incumbent to fall this primary season, though only one other state, Illinois, has included congressional races with its presidential primary elections so far.

We need to see more of these "Democrats" like Wynn either driven from the party or forced to reform their ways. I've seen video of his "supporters" assaulting people and this constitutes the best case against Wynn, as told by the Baltimore Sun:

To put it bluntly, Mr. Wynn, an eight-term congressman, is an embarrassment to his Prince George's County-based district, the state and the Democratic Party. And his past - his machine-style bossism, dirty politics and political bullying - is catching up with him.

In 2006, he sent out a flier implying he had won endorsements from some unions that hadn't endorsed him.

That same year, two of his supporters physically harassed one of Ms. Edwards' campaign volunteers.

This cycle, he filmed a political ad fashioned to look like a news reporter had caught him randomly on the street for an interview, when in fact the ad was staged by his campaign.

And then last week, Mr. Wynn, who is a lawyer, filed a completely bogus Federal Election Commission complaint that charges Ms. Edwards with violating election law. As The Sun has reported, the complaint is so slapdash that it doesn't even bother to cite specific election law provisions.

All of these electoral shenanigans are designed to mask Mr. Wynn's real problem: his voting record, which reflects contempt for voters in his district and the opinions of many Marylanders.

He voted in October 2002 for President Bush's Iraq war resolution. In 2004, Mr. Wynn voted for Vice President Dick Cheney's energy proposal, even though every other member of Maryland's House delegation, including both Republicans, voted nay.

He has accepted more than $200,000 in campaign contributions from banks and lending institutions, and, not surprisingly, voted in 2005 for a Bush administration-backed bankruptcy "reform" bill with punitive provisions for working-class borrowers.

So, yes. The rallying cry is always "better Democrats, please." Nobody around here is blind, you know.

UPDATE I - PALE RIDER

Unbelievable--good government seems to be making a comeback:

U.S. House - District 4 - Dem Primary
Maryland - 68 of 173 Precincts Reporting - 39%
Name Party Votes Vote %
Edwards , Donna Dem 19,810 59%
Wynn , Al (i) Dem 12,161 36%

Let's hope this holds...Wynn's defeat would be huge for Congressional politics.

UPDATE II - PALE RIDER

Victory for the progressive movement--Wynn goes down in flaming defeat. Hoyer and Pelosi get a wake-up call.

Climate Change has Nothing to do With Today's Weather

A blurb of a story here in my neck of the woods:

It snowed, but they still came. A heavy snowfall blanketed a global warming protest outside the State House in Annapolis this morning, but it did not dampen the shouts of about 400 activists who urged lawmakers to pass the nation's toughest greenhouse gas control law.

As supporters waved signs, chanted and banged drums, 18 legislators walked down a symbolic green carpet to sign up as co-sponsors to a bill that would mandate that all businesses in Maryland cut emissions of global warming pollution by 25 percent by 2020 and 90 percent by 2050.

"We are going to pass this bill this year," said State Sen. Paul Pinsky, a Democrat from Prince George's County and chairman of the senate's environmental matters subcommittee. "We are not going to rest, we are not going to stop....We are going to keep going until we pass this
bill."

Does this need to be pointed out? Weather and Climate Change have virtually nothing to do with each other. The weather is what's outside right now. The weather forecast covers the next few days. Usually, we get it right.

Climate change is completely separate--our climate is still changing and the average highs and lows are changing and the amount of ice on the ice caps on both ends of the planet are changing and the size and volume of the glaciers are changing. You don't "feel" climate change because climate change evolves slowly, over time. You feel weather, because weather is what's hitting you in the face.

Here are the usual comments from the story, and these are the people who likely found the story at Drudge:

Dr. Cindy Parker is mistaken if she really believes that "global warming is a health issue. Warmth and temperance in weather terms accounts for good health and less compromised patient base with terminal or chronic illnesses. I know that in every locale I have lived in, deaths because of the weather were elevated more in winter than summer. In fact, I found that many of my clients in AZ moved there to have the more temperate climate even if having to brave the summer heat because it was so hard to get warm in winter but a cool bath or a fan could cool in summer. Please end the hystronics and lets discuss the cycling of weather in a real time appropriate and historically correct way. Remember, Greenland was named that for its beautiful green valley and its lush flora (National Geographic' IMAX movie-"The Vikings")
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The consensus has spoken! The world is flat and is coming to an end! Beware Maryland! More filth then China! More filth than India. It’s Maryland that is to blame! The 7 of us have a consensus. 6 to 1 Maryland will end the world as we know it! Vote Democratic to save the world from Maryland!! Dopey thinks we are wrong! He said Maryland climate change is natural! The Dope!
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These folks look really brain dead...biggest scam on the planet propped up by politicians looking for YOUR money. Reminds me of Nick Berg. Nick was a peacenick who felt we, the USA misjudged the terrorists..lol...until the brutally sawed his head off on tv!!! Wake up you guys are these politicians rubes...I hope you didnt freeze your butts off toomuch during your global warming protest...you were probably wishing for a little global warmin in that weather...which is exactly what most of us would like anyway...a bit warmer temperatures...LOL!
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The morons in my state never cease to amaze me. It's almost like they want to create a Michigan-esque one-state recession by driving all the jobs out of the state. These people are extremists. They are like jihadists in this religion they've embraced on the faith they call "scientific 'consensus.'" When all is said and done, we are going to be living under the despotism of environmentalism and the truly fascist policies that are presented to the American people as being for a cause that is beyond reproach. ...Insallah, right?
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And so on and so forth.

It kind of makes you wish you lived in a smarter country, doesn't it?