Hi-ho Choppers. Do you know what today is? Of course you do. There’s a dateline right under the title of this post. Today is August 14. which means it’s pretty much the exact dead-on middle of August. Which means there’s nothing much at all going on politically with all of congress back in their districts doing the whole town-hall State-Fair ‘I’m okay but you should see these bastards I gotta deal with’ circuit.
But be that as it may Baltimore’s Drinking Liberals have not absconded from Our Fair City. Drinking Liberally will meet as usual tonight at 8 at Liam Flynn’s Ale House to talk about all the nothing that’s happening over a few pints of Crispin, because after all August is National Hard Cider Month. And so by the rules of blogdom we are bound to a solemn duty to roundup what little news there is. Like to hear it? Here it go…
The Harbor Point TIF has gained preliminary approval. We don’t have much more to say about that since we already laid out 16 Reasons Why Harbor Point is a Bad Deal for Baltimore. For the record, here’s an excerpt from the Sun on who it’s okay to vote for in the next election: “Council members Carl Stokes, Sharon Green Middleton and Bill Henry voted against the deal. Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke abstained, citing her husband’s business relationship with the developer, Michael S. Beatty.”
In kinda-sorta-related news Otakon is leaving Baltimore. We say it’s probably best to let them go. While it’s probably true that the Convention Center hasn’t aged well and is in need of updates, it’s also true that Otakon continues to grow, and was basically forced to give the city the old ‘It’s not you, it’s me.’ line. Believe it or not, it is possible to do some modernization and updating, and even adding space, without it being a billion dollar publicly financed boondoggle that includes brand new hotels and a new arena. The BACVA should get its shit together and modernize in a general way, forgetting about Otakon for the time being. If they want to come back eventually then they’ll be welcome. If not; Suck it, nerds.
North Carolina has just enacted a new racist, restrictive voter ID law. Same old Song and dance the GOP has been trying to get away with for the last 6 years or so all over the country. Unfortunately we haven’t seen the last of this. Far from it.
In a bit of good news, the Justice Department wants to throw out and replace sentencing guidelines for non-violent drug offenders. It’ll save a fair amount of money and be a long-awaited step in chipping away at institutional racism. Hats off to ya.
Finally, John McCain took a break from handing out free unsolicited advice to the Egyptian army to turn up at an Orioles game in Arizona. His saggy old face brought bad juju for the O’s, but he still wasn’t the biggest bull-headed blowhard in the stadium Monday night. That honor goes to 3B umpire Alfonso Marquez.