This is a note originally posted at Facebook describing some recent political events in Delaware:

Thurman Adams and Joe Biden weren’t likely political soul mates. Adams was a gentlemanly old style Southern Democrat. A social conservative vexing the liberals in the northern reaches of Delaware, the powerful State Senator died last week. Biden offered a eulogy at Saturday’s funeral. I didn’t go. It isn’t personal. The redhead’s grass hadn’t been mowed in almost two weeks because of our unexpected monsoon season and I only met Adams on one occasion. No disrespect intended and I offered my respects to the man’s family during my radio show.

An acquaintance did attend and Tuesday telephoned me with news of what he labels a gaffe. Biden was reminiscing during his eulogy. The American born Biden explained it wasn’t easy as an Irish-Catholic to get elected to the U.S. Senate from Delaware in 1972. Biden often works to portray Delaware as Philadelphia, Mississippi in 1964 and ignores the fact political power is actually concentrated in New Castle County, Delaware, which is a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Biden then looked at the Adams family and said it’s like running for office as a “black convert Jew”.

My acquaintance was seated with friends. He is roughly the color of President Obama. He voted for the Obama-Biden ticket. He wasn’t pleased by what he views as a condescending, stupid and racist remark. Recently elected to his local school board, my acquaintance is growing very disillusioned with the rampant socialization of his country.

You know, I may have learned about this earlier but I had a rare three day weekend from work. None of which was spent on rest and relaxation. Yard work Saturday and a shopping trip Sunday and Monday I went to New Castle County, where I was a guest of a local Republican club being built on new internet technology. I came home late, went to bed after 12:30 A.M. Tuesday and by 10:00 A.M. was showered, shaved and dressed to meet an old Castle. Cap and Tax Castle, Republican Representative Mike Castle is one of the 8 members of his party jumping ship last week on a plan to put the final coffin nail into my country’s economy.

He was holding a town meeting and I carried two signs with me. “China thanks Mike Castle” read one and the other “Malevolent Mike”. He saw only the first and asked if I was representing China. Then he dashed into the meeting to see more than 200 people waiting for him. About 6 were there asking him to support socialized medicine. The rest to suggest he retire. Mr. Castle may run next year in a special election to fill the last four years of Mr. Biden’s U.S. Senate term.

I’ve now heard GOP reaction to Mr. Castle’s vote on both ends of my state. He may no longer have much support. His most recent vote isn’t an aberration.

Castle still has a few friends. There are people who moved here from Annapolis and Washington to open pottery shops, however. Firing pottery requires a great deal of generated energy. Here’s a suggestion, put down the clay, pick up a sign and join me in the effort to retire the guy.

Some of you listening Tuesday heard me describe the pumpkin patch photograph.  My 14-year-old daughter took this shot and hours later saw the unusual image.  I’ve had a fellow at Quinnipiac University tell me there isn’t a flaw in the lens.  It was just before noon with the sun above us and it was a very, very dry day. 

Our Lady of the Pumpkin Patch?  The Great Pumpkin?  The ghost of a country bumpkin?  Offer theories (science) or your thoughts on faith.  Would welcome the comments!

Joe Biden, champion of common folks, shops at Home Depot.  Guess the little guy who owns the local hardware store doesn’t get “Uncle Joe’s” business.  Mrs. Palin could’ve pounced on this one Thursday had she not been under strict instructions to follow her script.  How about Joe Danko?  I’m not sure I’m spelling the guy’s name the right way but in my notes it’s how it appears.  He’s the man “Uncle Joe” talks with at the gas station.  When Biden goes to fill up his 350 he talks with Joe Danko and asks how much it costs to fill up the Danko truck.  Danko doesn’t know because he has never been able to afford a fill-up.  Guess “Uncle Joe” could always recommend the train but it probably doesn’t pass near the Danko home or business.  Palin should have pounced at that point.  It was early in the debate and she could’ve replied Danko could afford gasoline if Biden would get on board with offshore drilling.

The candidates played for a tie.  Apparently the instructions were to be as cautious as possible in a still relatively close race.  McCain needed a knockout punch.  Palin had the opportunities.  It makes me wonder if Bobby Jindal would’ve followed instructions or vamped when the opportunity arrived.  If nothing changes from now until November Obama will be in The White House and Americans will be buffeted by the storm.  Then, again, McCain is proving he isn’t the tonic.  Most of this year’s GOP candidates didn’t have much more to offer. 

So where do we go from here?  Start storing the canned goods and dried beans but most importantly keep your powder dry.  I believe the positive is the military will side with Middle America.  It mirrors our values.  This isn’t the end.  Jefferson offered a blueprint.  “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants” he not only warned but also suggested.  Jefferson’s modern counterpart was an earlier Arizonan.  ” I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!” spoke Barry Goldwater.  McCain may be missing his mentor’s words but I haven’t. 

My parents weren’t the easiest people to live with when I was growing up.  It always appeared they were making things more difficult for us than need be.  At a young age I was handling firearms and fishing poles and no one ever offered a “time out” when I wasn’t a good boy.  The approach helped me survive some very lean years as a young broadcaster making 200 dollars a week while paying rent and a student loan. 

There are a great many people sending me tips about survival.  Yes, I agree debt loads should be reduced and I agree we need an ample supply of non-perishable foods but mostly survival requires wit and grit. 

I’m fully confident the nation will come out of the tumult with a restoration of traditional virtues as well as an original sense of liberty.  The folks who never heard the word no, experienced a paddling or who don’t have the brains to head for higher ground during a flood won’t have a clue.  God help them. 

A Big Black Snake was found slithering in the back of the WGMD Studios yesterday… Can You identify this serpent?

JMX

From Jim Lanard, Director of Strategic Planning and Communications for Bluewater Wind:

Bluewater Wind’s offshore wind park is an investment in Delaware’s future by improving Delaware’s environment, providing much needed electric generation reliability and creating hundreds of “green collar” jobs for Delawareans.  While it may be that the out-of-state wind bids Delmarva Power has solicited cost less, they will not provide these same benefits for Delaware.  Replacing Bluewater Wind’s instate wind park with wind generated in Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, western Pennsylvania and Maryland will not create jobs for Delaware, will not enhance reliability and will not have the same environmental benefits for Delaware.

For months now, Delmarva Power has promised to reveal out-of-state wind bids by the end of March, but they now say the new release date won’t be before June 1st.  Delmarva has used the ever-lengthening release date as an effective way to prevent a decision from being made. Bluewater Wind offers the following facts to put Delmarva Power’s apples to oranges comparison into proper perspective.

Delmarva Power’s out-of-state wind energy plan will result in: 

• Lost Jobs.  Bluewater Wind’s instate wind park will generate 400 – 500 construction jobs and 80 – 100 operations and maintenance jobs for the life of the 25 year contract.  Delmarva Power’s plan will not generate any jobs for Delaware.

• Lost Economic Hub.  Bluewater Wind will establish Delaware as the economic hub to support the construction of offshore wind parks in the region, if Delaware becomes the first state to approve an offshore wind park.  This economic hub will position Delaware as a national leader in the new clean energy economy attracting other “green collar” jobs — purchasing wind energy from out-of-state will not.
• Lost Teaching and Training Facility.  Bluewater Wind has committed to supporting a teaching and training program in Delaware, to be launched with a $150,000 grant, so that Delaware can be the training center for workers learning how to build, operate and maintain wind parks.
• Lost Environmental Benefits.  Bluewater Wind’s offshore wind park will reduce polluting fossil fuel emissions in the Delmarva Peninsula; out-of-state wind won’t.  The National Renewable Energy Labs reports that, “according to the chief operating officer of the PJM  Regional Transmission Organization, wind energy displaced coal-fired generation about 70% of the time in this power market in 2006.”  In addition, offshore turbine foundations become artificial reefs and will benefit coastal aquatic life.
• Lost reliability.  According to experts hired by the State, the offshore wind park, coupled with the proposed backup facility, will enhance electric reliability in Delaware.  This will help avoid future “brownouts” of the type Delaware endured a few summers ago. Purchasing out-of-state wind energy will not enhance reliability.
• Hidden costs.  Delmarva Power’s out-of-state wind bid allows bidders to enter the PJM grid at any point on the system, which will likely expose ratepayers to transmission risks and higher costs than advertised due to inefficiency.  In addition, the contract Bluewater Wind negotiated with Delmarva Power guarantees liquidated damages and termination fees if Bluewater Wind does not perform its contractual obligations; the RFP for the out-of-state wind bidders does not require these protections.

Kevin Fleming is a world class photographer, and now a world class First State blogger.  Kevin is working on his latest book, “Wild Delaware”.  Once a day for an entire year, (365 days) Kevin will trudge out into the wilderness of Delaware and capture on camera local wildlife in it’s natural environment.  The photo’s from the days shoot appear daily on his blog, http://www.wilddelaware.com

 

For a real treat scroll back in time on his site and see the insect close-up’s and a great shot of a fox gazing into the morning sun.

Upon doing preperation for today’s broadcast (”How Safe is the Indian River Inlet Bridge?) I came across an interesting article on Poynter. According to Poynter, The Minnesota bridge was deemed “structurally deficient.”  Apparently, there are hundreds of bridges across the nation that fit that same high standard for construction.

from Poynter: Hundreds of thousands of bridges nationwide, probably some near you, are also on that list… To get you started looking at the condition of your state’s bridges, try this Web site. It is part of the federal bridge-inventory list. You can find out which bridges in your state are structurally deficient, functionally obsolete or both…. Click here to see how many old bridges you have in your state. It is a national bridge inventory sorted by construction year.

Did you ever see that cinematic Dick Gear masterpiece, The Mothman Prophecies? The Minnesota Bridge collapse video posted online by CNN reminds one of that key scene from the movie.

In thinking about Minnesota, we turn an eye back towards ourselves and our own ailing Indian River Inlet Bridge. Could a similar fate be in store for us? Well, the standing traffic volume is not quite the same on Delmarva as it would be in some of the nation’s larger metropolitan eras… That Minnesota bridge was a main artery in and out of the city of Minneapolis. (I hope Prince is okay.)

According to Mr. Tidal Erosion over at Delmarvanow.com, appox. 14,000 vehicles travel the Indian River Span every day during the off-season, and during the summer it more than doubles. How safe is IR? According to the state.. it’s our “most troubled bridge.”

today’s article from Gannett: The state Department of Transportation and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have concluded the bridge must be replaced because tidal action has gouged deep holes in the inlet floor, undermining the bridge’s piers and exposing steel supports to saltwater corrosion.

Should this be something for us to worry about? Well, it would seem a more worthy project than swimming the icey depths of the Indian River Inlet. Study this security video posted online by CNN of the Minnesota bridge collapse… and pray that it doesn’t happen here. Seacrest Out.

Security Camera Footage of the Bridge Collapse.

I’m sitting here listening during the 9-12 spot this morning and hear John Mixon wax eloquent on cigarette smokers.  Now, in part, I agree that tossing a cigarette butt out of a car window is an annoyance, a fire hazard, even an injury waiting to happen to the occupants in the car behind but to say that all cigarette smokers are just “inconsiderate” is wrong.  Okay…John first said “99.1%”, talked about the militant smoke’s web-site being ”something of a dichotomy” but then continued his harangue that all smokers were considerate. 

Hey…I’m a smoker, been one for thirty-one years and, frankly, find myself to be more considerate in my “bad” habit than most who believe themselves to have no bad habits…particularly of the sort which would irritate others.  But I’m curious about one thing…how is it that all smokers were lumped together as inconsiderate nincompoops (that last my word, not the host’s although the implication was there) yet when a caller moved over to beer (or even soda) drinkers tossing their cans out car windows into roadways and fields, it was passed off as juvenile misbehaviour?  Not so!  Here’s another one for you…diaper chucking.  And those disposable diapers are as non-biodegradable as a cigarette filter.  Take a drive along any tree-lined road in the county and try to count the plastic grocery bags hanging on the underbrush, waving from tree limbs or snagged on long grass.  Bet you can’t! (Count them, I mean)

Look, inconsiderate factions effectively removed smoker’s enjoyment of an evening out dining, enjoying an after dinner drink…even though most places had already segregated the beautiful from the ugly in seperate areas.  We get the rude, inconsiderate sneers and comments even when we smoke outdoors…where smoking is NOT banned, YET.  At a certain hospital in the area you canot smoke on their campus..you can’t even smoke in your own car, in their parking lot so, if…God forbid…you have a loved one going through surgery or very ill you can’t go destress to take a couple of puffs in the privacy of your own vehicle unless you drive somewhere else and if, hallelujah, you are a new Dad forget the celebratory cigar on the birth of your son or daughter until you get home. 

I think throwing anything from a car window is repulsive and wrong;  I think dumping one’s ashtray in the corner of a parking lot is disgusting and wrong; blowing smoke in someone’s face is rude and wrong but if we are going to talk about “inconsiderate” let’s not lump every smoker in there.  You know what…as considerate and deferential a smoker as I am and always have been I’m more and more tempted to push those natural tendencies aside and join the rest who “just blow smoke” with or without a cigarette in their hand…or mouth.   

Well, it all got very complicated this afternoon on my show. It started calmly enough when Jim Lanard, Director of Strategic Planning for Bluewater Wind, joined me to discuss the wind project.

But later in the day, Delmarva Power threatened to litigate to stop the Public Service Commission staff preliminary recommendations. Seems they would lose market share in this deal and would not be able to control profits as easily if there were more than one game in town. Word, too, that Delmarva Power and NRG, the dirty little plant in our backyard and the big loser in this recommendation, are putting pressure on the Comptroller General Russ Larson, to abstain from voting which would derail the process.

Do you wonder what the real problem is here? NRG bought that plant from Delmarva Power. There would be no problem if NRG got the bid over wind and there would be no litigation. But this recommendation is the beginning of the end to the incestuous relationship between NRG and Delmarva Power. Then, consider that Conectiv owns Delmarva Power. These three companies are, and always have been, in bed together. They wield enormous political power. The good ole boys need to make sure that the only outsider in this process, Bluewater wind, doesn’t provide clean, renewable energy that saves billions of dollars in health and environmental costs not picked up by fossil fuel energy providers. Wind would take money out of their pockets. It’s big energy controlling big money at the public expense. And there’s a lot at stake. After all, what does this mean for their buddy NRG? What’s NRG’s future now? Cleaning up?

I hear legislators are scurrying about up at Leg Hall worried about their money supply from NRG and Delmarva Power. All you need to do is look at the campaign finance reports of every elected official in Delaware and you will find substantial “contributions” from the officers, directors and key employees of NRG and Delmarva Power. Think about it, other than developers, what other source of campaign money is there? So don’t expect your elected officials to act in your interests. There’s no cash in that.

They say 92% of incumbents get reelected in Delaware. Want to see that number drop? Just watch what happens if wind doesn’t come to Delaware.

Now the politicians in the pass-the-buck state are good at finding ways to keep their hands clean…but not this time. This could get ugly. And expensive. Maybe Governor Minner should follow the example of the governor of Rhode Island and bypass the process and just put the wind farm in. Oh wait, that would require guts and action. That won’t happen. So we may be looking at the possibility of a major overhaul of our political leaders…even right here in Sussex County. Now that’s real democracy.

Listen to Jim Lanard from Blue Water Wind, Merrie Street from Delmarva Power & Light, and Bill Yingling from Conectiv HERE.

Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge manager Jonathan Schafler continues his crusade against cigarette butts in Delaware, by posting these signs in areas where smokers drop a lot of butts.  (That’s everywhere if you start looking around!)

Click for large version.

Jonathan tells me, he is developing a character that will accompany the slogan. I like his idea of a 5 cent deposit on cigarette butts.