Capital News Service

TAMPA, Fla. – Mitt Romney accepted the Republican nomination for president Thursday night in a speech here that scolded President Barack Obama for delivering “disappointment and division” instead of “hope and change,” and called for disillusioned voters to unite under a Republican banner of American exceptionalism.

Maryland’s delegates to the convention joined the thousands gathered in the Tampa Bay Times Forum in applauding, cheering, shouting, whistling, Tweeting and posting on Facebook as Romney spoke. Delegates reacted throughout Romney’s speech, breaking into chants and waving signs in the air.

“He knocked it out of the ballpark,” said Ellen Sauerbrey, a former member of the House of Delegates who ran twice for Maryland governor. “I think he did just what he needed to do. The emphasis on jobs, families, freedom – it was a lot of things I wanted to hear and I heard them loud and clear.”

Under the heading “We Believe in America,” Romney expanded upon the vision of limited government described Wednesday by his running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan. Romney promised tax cuts and lighter regulations for small businesses, which he praised both in personal anecdotes and policy proposals as “America’s engine of job growth.”

Ryan rougher on Obama

“It was Paul Ryan’s job to be rougher on Obama, and Romney’s job tonight was to create a vision for the future, and he laid it out in very simple terms,” said Maryland National Committeeman Louis Pope.

Thursday, Romney used the hype surrounding Obama’s candidacy in 2008 to portray himself as a pragmatic leader.

“You know there’s something wrong with the kind of job he’s done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him,” Romney said. “President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet. My promise is to help you and your family.”

Romney devoted part of his speech to courting women voters, highlighting female Republican governors, as well as his hiring of women in the public and private sectors.

Romney’s most assertive moments came when he defended Bain Capital, the company he co-founded in 1984, as “a great American success story.” The Romney campaign initially touted it as a selling point for their candidate, but Obama and his surrogates have used Romney’s time at the company to paint him as a heartless capitalist who shuttered businesses and outsourced jobs for personal gain.

Romney pointed to Obama’s lack of private sector experience, which he called a basic qualification for the presidency.

“In America, we celebrate success. We don’t apologize for success,” Romney said.

Delegate Kelly Schulz, a Frederick County Republican, described the speech as “inspirational and motivational.”

“It’s certainly going to make people work harder in these 68 days we have left,” she said.

– CNS Staff Writer Caitlin Johnston contributed to this report.

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By Matt McNab

Capital News Service

TAMPA, Fla. – Several prominent Democrats, led by Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, made unexpected appearances in Tampa this week, prompting Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus to respond that Republicans aren’t fazed.

“They can do what they want, but whatever they do we can do 10 times over,” Priebus said Thursday. “What goes around comes around.”

Led by two Maryland politicians — O’Malley and U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Montgomery — a contingent of Democrats have slammed Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan in Tampa. Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, also made an appearance at the convention Thursday.

Vice President Joe Biden was scheduled to be here earlier in the week, but cancelled because of Hurricane Isaac.

Todd Eberly, a political scientist at St. Mary’s College, said the 24-hour news cycle and the current, closely contested presidential race have contributed to the decision to show up at the normally off-limits conventions.

Parties can’t cede time or message

“The parties have decided they can’t cede any time to one another,” he said. “It’s going to continue to escalate as time goes by. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the conventions happening over the same four days, so that they can instantly refute any claims the other party makes.”

Eberly pointed to one example from the last election cycle.

“Barack Obama accepting the Democratic presidential nomination was a huge speech and was going to provide a big boost,” he said. “The day after, John McCain announced his running mate and stepped all over any bump or poll increase Obama got.”

Maryland Republican delegates quickly put together a press conference Tuesday to criticize O’Malley’s appearance the same day, but were surprised to hear of Van Hollen’s Wednesday trip to Tampa.

No more convention courtesy

Harford County Executive David Craig said the Democrats’ appearance around Tampa would mean a Republican surrogate in Charlotte for the Democratic National Convention next week.

“I find it interesting, because there’s supposedly been a protocol or a courtesy in the past, that when one party had their convention, the other party just sort of took the week off,” he said. “But they’re not doing that, so if we did that next week, which we may do, they’re going to get angry with us and say, ‘wait a minute, you shouldn’t be doing that.’

“But they’re the ones that are starting it. If that’s the way they’re going to be, it’s going to be that way from now on.”

University of Richmond political scientist Daniel Palazzolo said more of a presence by the opposing party at future conventions could become the new norm.

“They are not going to handle it in the traditional, hands off style,” he said. “In this polarized, partisan political environment, with such a narrow margin involved, I’m not surprised.”

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What’s the plot? Some bad guy, whose name is literally Vilain with one “L,” stole some plutonium. To make bombs? To make super soldiers? To make the world’s largest Easy-Bake Oven? The writers know that you don’t really care so they don’t tell you. Or maybe they did and I just didn’t care.

What I did care about was the biggest collection of zinger-dropping henchman-killing brow-furrowers that the world has ever seen. You only have to wait about 90 seconds for the craziness to start and from then onward it’s a non-stop schlockfest of everything you love about generic action movies.

Terry Crews’ character, Hale Caesar, wields a shotgun that is larger than me.

Which interestingly makes this film anything but generic. Both it and the first movie actually have a subtle poignancy to them that comes out in little ways. None of these actors look as good as they used to (except perhaps Terry Crews who is in unreasonable shape) but as Mickey Rourke pointed out in the first film: they’re still worth something. They can still kick ass. They can still bring swift justice to ambiguously European baddies.

The cast is once again led by Sylvester Stallone (Rocky, Rambo) who looks every bit as intimidating as he ever did, even if he isn’t as pretty. The other main action stars are Jason Statham (The Transporter), Dolph Lundgren (Rocky IV), and Terry Crews (Gamer). As if that weren’t enough, the film also features extended cameos from Jet Li (Kiss of the Dragon), Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator), Bruce Willis (Die Hard), and even Chuck Norris (Delta Force).

The story goes that Norris didn’t want to do the first film due to some of the R-rated language. And he was iffy on the second film too. It’s perfectly OK for him to blast away hordes of human beings with a machine gun of course, but as per his wishes: Expendables 2 is F-bomb free. Whatever the reason for his role in the movie being fairly small (along with Willis and Schwarzenegger): it was the right move. Better to use them sparingly and have them be awesome.

Chuck Norris isn’t in this movie. This movie is in Chuck Norris.

When you think about it, these actors have been at war for their entire lives. Their lives have never been in any serious danger (aside from some especially intense stunts here and there) but getting up early for months at a time and then engaging in mock battles while carrying around heavy weaponry will take it out of you. Just yelling all day takes it out of you. These guys are tough!

So even though this film consists almost entirely of stock characters and action set pieces, it’s kind of brilliant in its own way. Each of the actors is essentially playing themselves. They’re bringing with them every character they’ve ever played. You know Stallone is going to destroy everyone because you’ve seen him do it in 4 Rambo movies. You know Schwarzenegger is going to pop up just when he’s needed because he’s always “back” when the time is right.

What could just be another action movie that consists of has-beens trying to feel important becomes a movie about guys who know that they’re past their prime, but want to show you that they can still provide an enjoyable and exciting movie experience for you. Its self-awareness makes you root for them instead of lamenting how much slower they are than they used to be.

The Terminator, Rambo, and John McClane teaming up for the first time.

The movie is also really funny. Legitimately laugh-out-loud funny. Much of this comes from the usual array of one-liners that you’d expect from all of the actors involved. However, the truly hilarious moments are the inside jokes. The film’s self-awareness leads to many call-backs to famous action quotes. These call-backs could easily become mocking or cheap, but instead they’re both nostalgic and tongue-in-cheek. It’s everything you could ever want from an Avengers-esque assortment of 80s testosterone-laden action stars.

It’s probably the most blandly plotted, nonsensical, and unreasonably violent movie of the summer. And it’s so, so awesome.

The post The Expendables 2: Stallone, Statham, and Unrepentant Machismo appeared first on Baltimore Post-Examiner.

Ryan is the very opposite of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, the flaming shooting star who electrified the last GOP convention in 2008 and breathed a brief sense of energy and life to the geriatric, doomed John McCain campaign. Palin energized the conservative faithful then just as Ryan has done now. But she wasn’t ready for prime time then and quickly proved she never would be. Anyone who could be taken down by that feared attack-dog Katie Couric obviously wasn’t going to mix it on the world stage against the likes of Vladimir Putin or Hu Jintao. In her vice presidential candidates’ debate, she couldn’t even stand up to Mighty Joe Biden.

Palin in fact had been an energetic, highly effective, honest and crusading governor of Alaska. But she had no experience on national prime time. Her flame-out has been the stuff of legend comparable to that of Dan Quayle back in 1988.

But Ryan is a very different, vastly tougher customer. Here is a seven-term congressman, who is still only 42 years old. If Romney is elected, Ryan will come close to Richard Nixon and Theodore Roosevelt as one of the youngest vice presidents ever. And he is an outstanding political talent.

Ryan’s convention speech was filled with memorable metaphors and other zingers that are going to haunt President Obama and ricochet after him from now to Nov. 6.

He certainly didn’t impress everybody. Sally Kohn wrote, on Fox News of all places: “To anyone paying the slightest bit of attention to facts, Ryan’s speech was an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech. On this measure, while it was Romney who ran the Olympics, Ryan earned the gold.”

Now Kohn obviously meant those words as a devastating putdown. But similar accusations were repeatedly thrown – and with good reason — at Franklin Roosevelt during his four presidential election victories and at Ronald Reagan as well. None of it stuck to their Teflon hides

What we need to remember is that Ryan has already pulled off one of the greatest switcheroos in modern U.S. politics. A seven-term congressman and chairman of the House Budget Committee – the ultimate Washington insider and power-broker – has become the beloved darling of the Tea Party movement that for years loudly, even fanatically proclaimed its undying rejection and contempt for all Washington insiders and power-brokers.

At one level, Ryan’s triumph in taming the Tea Party raging wolves and turning them into mewing kittens confirms the TP’s meltdown into a bigger joke than the 2011 season Indianapolis Colts.

But it also shows Ryan’s ability to pull a FDR or a Ronald Reagan. He can take the political passions of millions of people and transform them into their opposites without the holders of those passions even realizing they’ve just been turned inside out. Instead, they roll their eyes and thank him for it. He is a political Merlin.

Most pundits will throw up their hands in pious horror at the sight of such shameless political legerdemain.

Eisenhower lied! As Murray Kempton famously discovered to his Shock! Shock! in a famous 1967 Esquire article.

Yes – and Ike also kept the peace, maintained prosperity and left office with approval numbers as high as he entered it.

The success of Ryan’s speech has to send terrors through the Obama camp. Joe Biden serenely glided above Palin in the 2008 vice presidential debate. This year it’s Pay-Back Time. The polarities have been reversed. Imagine poor old Joe rambling on about his fantasy beloved role as Man of the People up against this ferocious young working class Irish Catholic from the mid-West with a mind like a steel-edged bear trap and welding an aggression to match. It’ll be bumbling Primo Carnera taken apart by Max Baer, Bambi going up against a werewolf. Heinz Doofenshmirtz against Perry The Platypus.

Will Ryan’s rising clout and clear success at energizing the Republican base force President Obama and David Axelrod to gently wheel off poor old Joe in his wheelchair and replace him with a still-at-the-top-of-her game Hillary Clinton? Was that decision already reached when the three of them lunched together in the utmost secrecy a couple of weeks ago? Or will the Obama team hunker down and imagine that Biden can still last five minutes in the ring as Ryan’s punch bag?

Whatever decision they take, Ryan’s attacks on Wednesday night and his undoubted success at energizing the conservative Republican base has transformed the dynamics of the presidential race. And these developments have vindicated Mitt Romney’s political judgment and allowed him to enter the last stage of this long campaign exactly where he wants to be – neck-and-neck with an incumbent president, a unified party and an energized base behind him, riding high in the position he’s most comfortable, experienced and successful in – as Chairman of the Board.

It worked for Sinatra.

The post The Race: Paul Ryan’s rise – and Joe Biden’s fall appeared first on Baltimore Post-Examiner.

Maryland delegation at Republican National Convention during roll call for president.

By Carl Straumsheim

Capital News Service

TAMPA, Fla. — Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele capped off the Maryland delegation’s Wednesday morning breakfast at the Republican National Convention with a fiery pep talk that included criticism of the Democratic Party, as well as his fellow MSNBC contributors.

Rep. Andy Harris got the partisans going by blasting state and national Democrats as being obstructionist and too dependent on raising tax revenue to close their deficits.

Steele proved he hasn’t become less partisan since losing his 2011 re-election bid to Wisconsin Republican Reince Priebus. He peppered his remarks with digs at the Democratic Party in an effort to energize the delegation before the convention began its second full day of business.

In response to the redistricting of Maryland’s congressional districts, which Republicans fear could unseat longtime Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, Steele accused the Maryland Democratic Party of wanting to sweep the state’s congressional delegation.

Michael Steele (by pamhule on Flickr)

Steele: Maryland Dems are ‘crazy’

“You know how Democrats are in our state: They’re crazy. They’re power hungry,” the former Maryland lieutenant governor said. “I worry about any one party trying to take full control. How do you govern if there’s only one side that you hear from?”

Steele, who ran unsuccessfully for Senate in 2006, also said Republicans still have to “deal with the crazies” in the House of Representatives, referring to congressional Democrats. The only time his confidence wavered was when he hesitated to say Republicans would take control of the Senate.

“We have some weak spots that we need to shore up for sure,” he said, without mentioning any specific races.

The outspoken Steele became a polarizing figure within his own party during his time as national chairman. He also championed the new rules of the 2012 Republican nominating process, which forced early caucus and primary states to award their delegates proportionately in order to extend the race into the late spring and summer.

In lion’s den at MSNBC

Steele now works as a political analyst for MSNBC, which he compared to stepping into a lion’s den.

“They’re nice people — generally speaking — but their ideology is whack,” Steele said about his colleagues at the cable news network. “How do you put so much faith in government? How do you lose faith in people? How do you think the government is going to be the key force in entrepreneurism?”

But Steele joked that he has developed a method of dealing with his new job.

Rep. Andy Harris (By American Life League on Flickr)

“Well, I take a little Valium. I take a shot of gin. And then the lights come on and we go at it,” he said.

Maryland National Committeeman Louis Pope introduced Steele by poking fun at his new occupation, but several delegates approached Steele after the speech to thank him for bringing a conservative voice to the network.

“The joy of being an analyst is that I can tell it how I see it,” Steele said, “which is probably why I’m no longer chairman.”

Harris: the anti-tax pledge

Andy Harris’s blast of Democratic taxes were echoed by Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead, who joined Harris in touting their party’s vision of a lighter tax burden and decreased government spending, embodied in the budget plan introduced by vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan.

Harris echoed a President George H. W. Bush campaign promise from 1988 when he defended congressional Republicans.

“The first thing we did in the House (of Representatives) is that we said, ‘No new taxes,’” Harris said. “Do we think we should increase revenue? Of course we do — by lowering taxes like Ronald Reagan did: You grow the economy; you don’t raise taxes.”

Harris was first elected to the House in 2010 after narrowly losing in 2008 to Frank Kratovil.

“That election night in 2008 wasn’t so good for me,” Harris said. “It wasn’t good for America. We took a turn that was hopefully not irreversible.”

Gov Matt Mead (By USFWS Mount Prairie on Flickr)

Republicans feared Democrats would attempt to unseat Harris when Maryland’s congressional districts were redrawn last year. Democrats instead chose to target Rep. Roscoe Bartlett’s 6th Congressional District.

The problem is the Senate, Harris says

Harris faces Democrat Wendy Rosen in his first re-election campaign this fall. Even though the seat isn’t expected to be in play this fall, Harris distanced himself from the idea of a do-nothing Congress.

“The House has spent 18 months now sending bills to the Senate,” Harris said. “The problem is not the House. The problem is the Senate.”

Harris faulted Senate Democrats for refusing to compromise with House Republicans.

“The Ryan budget is the Republican plan to begin negotiations,” Harris said. “We have a Senate majority leader who refuses to take action. We have to elect a Republican majority to the Senate and retire Harry Reid from majority leader.”

Mead contrasted Maryland with his home state and criticized Gov. Martin O’Malley for not considering other methods of generating new revenue for the state.

“We have no personal income tax, we have no corporate tax, and despite that, we’re rated as one of the next five boom states in the country,” he said, to sounds of wonder from the crowd. “I also want to say that I don’t get credit for that. The private sector gets credit for that.”

Mead acknowledged that revenues are down in Wyoming, but said the response should be to cut government agencies — which he praised for doing “good, conducive work” — and not raise taxes.

“While you may think that raising taxes is raising revenue, more often than not, raising taxes is lowering revenue — in addition to making everyone miserable,” Mead said.

Editor’s Note: Wyoming gains most of its taxes from mineral production. It is one-tenth the size of Maryland in population, and eight times the size of Maryland in land area. Maryland’s four largest jurisdictions each have larger populations and budgets than the entire state of Wyoming.

The post Michael Steele, Andy Harris fire up Maryland delegation in Tampa appeared first on Baltimore Post-Examiner.

Chris Van Hollen (By afagen on Flickr)

By Matt McNab

Capital News Service

TAMPA, Fla. – U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Kensington, on Wednesday became the second Maryland Democrat to show up in Tampa to challenge Republicans during their national convention.

But unlike Gov. Martin O’Malley, who spoke at a Democratic Party office across the street on Tuesday, Van Hollen went inside the security perimeter Wednesday evening, doing an interview with Politico before talking to Capital News Service and criticizing the Romney-Ryan plan and the speakers at the convention.

Van Hollen, speaking at the convention center where most of the media is stationed, called the Romney-Plan “wrong for America.”

Tax breaks for the rich

“He’s going to double down on windfall tax breaks on the rich like himself,” Van Hollen said. “When the rich aren’t going to pay a cent more, it’s going to come at the expense of students, the middle class, and almost everyone else. President Obama’s balanced approach is right for America.”

He added that the Romney-Ryan plan would have a “very negative impact on the state of Maryland,” because the tax breaks would hurt things like medical research at the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.

Van Hollen pulled no punches describing Tuesday’s convention events. “(Tuesday) night was a straight out personal attack on the president,” he said. “What I watched was clearly going after the president.”

Stay home, chairman says

Maryland Republican Delegation Chairman Louis Pope called Van Hollen’s appearance an attempt to get Democrats media exposure, and supposed that Republicans would have a surrogate in Charlotte doing the same thing next week.

“They are trying to interject Democratic beliefs into a solid Republican setting,” he said. “They should stay at their convention and we should stay at ours. They are trying to damage the enthusiasm in America for Mitt Romney. (Van Hollen) is going to be depressed on Nov. 6.”

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I’m still working on it. And of course, I’ll never be the person I was before baby, nor do I want to be. But slowly, I’ve tried to get my head out of babyland. And as I regained my sense of self, I found myself becoming a far happier and more relaxed mother. (Nom the irony is not lost on me that I write a baby blog in my free time. I assure you, I have other interests.)

It’s tempting, and in some circles expected, that a new mom completely give herself into her new role. Especially in the first weeks and months, motherhood is all-consuming. Just as the days and nights blur together in sleeplessness, so does that former pre-mother woman fade away into a distant memory. Perhaps it’s by design and perhaps it’s necessary, but there comes a time to reclaim that identity separate from baby.

I remember one night when my son was just a few months old, when sitting on the couch watching TV, my husband accused me of not really listening to him. He said it was impossible to have a conversation with me. (For the record, I hear that accusation from time to time, and more often than not it’s patently false. At least a strong majority of the time. Definitely more than half the time.)

“It’s like you can’t think or talk about anything but the baby,” he said.

Ouch. His words still sting a little bit. Was there also a tinge of jealousy I heard there? Frustration that he was so far from his wife’s mind now?

He was right. I was completely uninterested in anything outside of my new baby son. And that made me terrible company.

There’s also the case to be made that a parent with his or her own interests and happiness will raise a more autonomous and grounded child. In a recent New York Times column, author Madeline Levine argues the point in the context of avoiding becoming a helicopter parent:

“Parents also have to make sure their own lives are fulfilling. There is no parent more vulnerable to the excesses of overparenting than an unhappy parent. One of the most important things we do for our children is to present them with a version of adult life that is appealing and worth striving for.”

Pamela Druckerman draws a similar conclusion in one of the final chapters of Bringing Up Bebé. Children should be left alone to explore the world and make mistakes, she explains, one of several fundamental French parenting trademarks. French parents are slower to intervene in disputes among young friends, and you likely won’t see a French mother running around the playground with her toddler, praising and following her kid’s every hop, slide and climb.

Druckerman’s point is, I gather, that both parent and child need the autonomy. A kid can’t possibly thrive with a parent who meddles with every move, cheers every tiny victory, pushes and pals around and smothers with attention. Just as a parent unable to separate from that role and foster their independent adult side can’t possibly be as happy and thriving.

Let them be. Get your own life. At least that’s how I read it, and I had to kind of agree.

It wasn’t that my one-track-mindedness was making me unhappy (or stifling my kid – yet). But I was certainly not thriving, and like I said, I was probably really lame to hang out with.

So with my husband’s subtle encouragement, I tried to reclaim some of who I was before I got pregnant. At first I felt really guilty (surprise) for putting myself first or doing things that weren’t for my son. I felt selfish and self-absorbed. Still do on some days. And I know it will come and go. I’ll lose myself in motherhood, then re-emerge seeking balance.

Time for a list. Here’s what the Internet, my husband and my own common sense advised me for finding that balance post-baby:

1. Exercise. Really, it makes you feel good. Endorphins, fresh air, movement, time away with your thoughts or good music – it all does a body good. I had the added bonus that I really enjoy it, particularly running. I used to run a lot and love it (OK, some days I hate it, but isn’t that true for all runners? No?). I didn’t run much during pregnancy and it took several months for me to get back into it. But I started small, and a few months ago I ran a 10K. Which brings me to the next item.

2. Set a goal. Just pick something and work towards it. Again, nothing baby related. Sign up for a race, make a pact to learn something new – whatever makes sense for you. The idea, I think, is to have something to work toward that makes you feel good.

3. Get out of the house. And not just to Target to get diapers and baby clothes. Have a cocktail with friends. Start a book club. Just get out and do something without your kid, and maybe try to keep the baby talk to a minimum.

4. Indulge yourself a bit. If you’re into pedicures or massages, make time to do it and don’t feel guilty about it. Even if it’s just finding time to read a good book or watch a movie all the way through, do it and enjoy it.

What do you do to find balance and feel like yourself?

The post Finding myself again after baby appeared first on Baltimore Post-Examiner.

Don’t be afraid to try a beer that isn’t your norm. I encourage you to go to a store that lets you create your own six pack and try styles that are new to you. My husband loves hoppy IPAs, while I’m a sucker for porters and stouts – or anything with a dark roasted malt, but we don’t let that narrow our tastes. With craft brews and microbreweries growing more and more popular, there’s always something new to try.

This week I take beer out of the bottle and into other parts of the kitchen. From the soup pot to the slow cooker, I have three supper ideas that are hearty, easy and are great for the coming fall.

I found this recipe on browneyedbaker.com and adjusted it just a bit to my tastes. When I saw in the forecast last weekend that it was cooling down some around here (I don’t bode well with summer) I got excited at the aspect of the possibility of autumn being around the corner.

However, the day I made this soup, it was a humid and miserable reminder that while the temp was about 10 degrees lower than the norm for August, it was still very much summer indeed. I hate getting my hopes up like that.

Cheddar and Ale soup. (Photo by Sally Michaelis)

Cheddar and ale soup

• 4 slices thick-cut bacon, diced
• 1 medium onion, minced
• 1 small shallot, minced
• 1 medium yukon gold potato, peeled and cut into ¼-inch dice
• 1 medium carrot, minced
• 1 small stalk celery, minced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1½ cups (one 12-ounce bottle) wheat ale
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 2 cups half-and-half
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 2 tablespoons dry sherry
• 12 ounces sharp white cheddar cheese, shredded (about 3 cups)
• 1 tsp. thyme
• Salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Fry the bacon in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat until crisp, 5 to 10 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate and set aside. Add the onion and shallot to the pot containing the bacon drippings and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 4 minutes. Add the potato, carrot, celery, and garlic and cook until the garlic is fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the flour and cook, stirring to coat the vegetables, until the mixture begins to brown on the bottom of the pot, about 2 minutes.

Gradually whisk in the ale, chicken stock, and half-and-half. Add the bay leaf and increase the heat to medium-high. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer until the vegetables soften, about 3 minutes.

Remove the pot from the heat. Stir in the cayenne and sherry and allow to cool slightly, about 2 minutes. Removed the bay leaf. Slowly whisk in the cheese and thyme until the cheese melts. Stir in the fried bacon, season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve immediately.

This recipe is what got the ball rolling. It caught my attention on the Food Network, then again on Pinterest, and I decided with beer, cheese and bacon, I couldn’t really go wrong.

This is another great crock pot meal, cooking the sides along with the meat, easy to throw together before work and leave for most of the day – doubly so if your slow cooker has a timer setting.

Cheddar Ale Chicken and veggies with rice pilaf. (Photo by Sally Michaelis)

Cheddar-beer chicken

• 1 large onion, peeled and diced large
• 4 medium sized potatoes
• 1 cup frozen diced green pepper
• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, rinsed and patted dry
• 1½ teaspoons garlic salt
• 1½ teaspoons ground black pepper
• 1 can (10-ounce) condensed cheddar cheese soup
• ¾ cup amber ale
• ¾ cup bacon crumbles

In a slow cooker, combine onion, potatoes, and green peppers. Season both sides of chicken breasts with garlic salt and pepper. Place in slow cooker on top of vegetables.

In a small bowl, stir together cheddar soup, beer, and bacon. Pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low setting for 3.5 to 4.5 hours.

Few things go with pork and sauerkraut like beer does. Stereotypical of my family’s heritage?

Yes. Tasty? You’d better believe it. While I’m not a fan of adding sugar to my sauerkraut to take off the edge, in this case it brings out the better parts of the beer, so I’ll do it. (Any other time I tease people who can’t handle sauerkraut without sugar.)

Ale roasted pork and saurkraut with potatoes and green beans.

Ale’d pork and sauerkraut

• 1 can sauerkraut
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 1 bottle amber ale
• 2 lb. pork roast

Cover the bottom of a baking dish with sauerkraut, sprinkle in sugar, then pour over half of the ale. Place on top the pork roast, salt and pepper to taste, pour the rest of the ale over it. Bake uncovered at 400 degrees for an hour. The best possible thing to pair with this dish is potatoes, made by your preference.

Tip of the week: When trying a new recipe, or even one you haven’t made in a while, take a few minutes to read through the recipe before starting to cook. It’s good to know what to expecting for each coming step.

The post Cooking with beer appeared first on Baltimore Post-Examiner.

GOP convention Tampa by BXGD on Flickr

By M.D. Kittle

From Wisconsin Reporter

Federal taxpayers could be on the hook for more than $136 million to cover the cost of the major political parties’ presidential nominating conventions.

That’s the estimated total taxpayer tab of this week’s Republican Party National Convention in Florida, and next week’s Democratic Party National Convention in North Carolina.

And campaign finance trackers say the millions more flowing into cocktail soirees, celebrity mixers and cigar tent sideshows paid for by unions, corporations and other special interests could eventually come with a higher price tag for taxpayers.

While some voters willingly kick in for the balloons, booze and bunting, plenty of taxpayers are unaware they are contributing to the parties’ parties.

Taxpayers don’t know

“The general public does not know that taxpayer dollars are used to underwrite these conventions. I think it’s wrong,” said Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause Wisconsin, part of the national nonpartisan public-interest organization. The group traditionally supports left-leaning issues.

Congress appropriated $100 million — $50 million for each convention — to cover the cost of security, which, so far in Tampa, appears to be much tighter than the 2008 GOP convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

The two major parties will each receive public grants of $18,248,300 for their conventions, funded through the Presidential Election Campaign Checkoff. 

The Presidential Election Campaign Fund, in effect since the 1976 general elections, allows taxpayers to designate on their federal income tax returns $3 to finance presidential campaigns.

Candidates agree to spending limits in exchange for tens of millions of dollars in federal matching funds to finance their campaigns. Dollars are matched.

Obama, Romney forego public financing

Barack Obama became the first presidential candidate to just say no to public financing in 2008, and GOP nominee Mitt Romney is doing the same this year for one simple reason: The approximately $110 million combined in publicly funded contributions (cost of living adjustment included) is a pittance compared to the $1 billion-plus the combatants will spend in their campaigns for the White House.

Obama outspent GOP nominee and Arizona U.S. John McCain by about 5 to 1, something the Obama campaign has criticized Romney and supporters of doing this election.

Declining support from taxpayers

Much has changed since the 1970s, particularly public contributions to the presidential election fund.

Total public funding has ranged from about $73 million in 1976 to nearly $240 million in 2000, according to the Federal Elections Commission, which monitors the fund. The total for 2008 was more than $139 million, representing the largest decline in spending from one election cycle to the next.

Participation in the tax checkoff program has declined each year, from a high of 28.7% for 1980 returns to 6.6% for returns filed with the IRS in 2010.

Part of the decline has to do with the increasing complexity of income taxes. Fewer people prepare their returns, meaning fewer people personally fill out the checkoff list. But Heck and others acknowledge that the bipartisan nature of the public fund, divvying up the pot of taxpayer money to candidates and parties evenly, doesn’t appeal to an ever-partisan voter.

The fund is supposed to help offset the costs of campaigns for primary and general election candidates, as well as party conventions.

Priority funding for conventions

Tweaks to the law over the years require funding “priority be given first to party nominating conventions, then to general election nominees and last to primary election candidates,” the FEC notes.

Heck, perhaps not surprisingly, is among the dwindling percentage of taxpayers who still checkoff the $3 box.

He holds firm to the belief that publicly funded campaigns, deemed by conservatives as nothing more than welfare for politicians, will come back stronger than ever when the numbers are tallied on all of the special-interest checks cashed this election year.

“We’re always one scandal away from massive reform of our system,” Heck said. “All it takes is another Watergate, another legislative caucus scandal.” It was Watergate and presidential campaign slush funds, after all, that triggered the 1970s public finance laws.

Still, Heck says he’s not thrilled with his tax dollars going to pay for party conventions, but argues public financing is better than corporate, union and other special-interest cash covering the costs.

The problem, Heck and campaign finance watchdogs assert, is lobbying dollars already are paying for a big chunk of the convention pre- and after-parties.

Big spending from special interests

“Involvement of special interests is enormous,” said Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Responsive Politics, which runs the campaign finance and political influence tracking website Opensecrets.org.

“This is a prime opportunity for lobbyists, corporations and union leadership to have prime-time access to lawmakers and policy leaders,” Krumholz added.

And there’s a lot of alone time at these exclusive, invitation-only affairs.

Democratic and Republican parties are seeking donations of at least $105 million through host committees that don’t have to provide a full accounting of donors and contribution amounts until mid-October, according to a story last by Bloomberg.

Big donors, most of which were labor unions and corporations, chipped in $123 million in 2008, less than the $142 million they contributed to the parties in 2004, according to the FEC.

Heck sounds indignant.

“The purpose of (public financing) was not to underwrite these conventions, but to help candidates for the presidency to finance campaigns so candidates don’t have to do what Romney and Obama are doing almost every day – fundraising.”

Public funding for nominating conventions appears to be among the few issues the major parties can agree on.

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Gov. Martin O’Malley (file photo)

By Matt McNab

Capital News Service

TAMPA, Fla. — Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley made a surprise appearance in Tampa Tuesday, criticizing Republican candidate Mitt Romney and other high-profile Republicans, leading to a quick, critical response by the state’s delegates.

O’Malley appeared at the Democrats’ “rapid-response” center just outside the convention’s security perimeter at a press conference Tuesday, slamming Romney’s economic plan and his record at Bain Capital.

“Romney economics would spell disaster for America’s middle class,” he said. “Gov. Romney does not have what it takes to grow this economy. The lessons he learned as a corporate buyout specialist were not lessons that should be applied to a national economy.”

O’Malley, who as chairman of the Democratic Governor’s Association has taken a prominent role in this year’s campaign, was especially critical of Romney’s private sector experience, calling Romney out over a lack of middle class job creation.

O’Malley slams Romney job creation, Christie

“The type of business experience that Mitt Romney has during his time at Bain Capital is not the experience of job creation,” he said. “It is not the experience that led to a stronger, growing middle class. It is not the experience that led to job creation on a national scale.”

Senate Republican Leader EJ. Pipkin

O’Malley also slammed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Romney’s running mate, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, over middle class job creation.

“Tonight you’re going to see Chris Christie, a governor who has the fourth worst unemployment rate in the country, giving his angry, Don Rickles keynote,” he said, “extolling the virtues of their candidate, Mitt Romney, and holding up as their new face, Congressman Ryan, part of the most unpopular House of Representatives in modern times.”

O’Malley’s appearance led to members of Maryland’s delegation calling an impromptu afternoon press conference, held on a walkway in the Tampa Convention Center.

GOP lawmakers fire back

“Gov. O’Malley crashing our convention is a waste of time,” said State Senate Minority Leader E.J. Pipkin, R-Upper Shore. “And he should not be talking about jobs after the dismal performance over the last few months.”

Del. Tony ODonnell

House of Delegates Minority Leader and U.S. House of Representatives candidate Tony O’Donnell said O’Malley was making “a mockery of the free-enterprise system” in the state.

“The country deserves to know what a fraud O’Malley is,” he said. “We have a structural deficit of over $1 billion, we’re losing jobs at a higher rate than anyone else in the country and we have an underfunded pension system. There’s much to do in our state. The Democratic folks are very desperate to hold on to their national power.”

Maryland Republican delegate and New Day Maryland PAC President Charles Lollar agreed.

“It’s not a tranquil state at all,” he said. “We have a $1 billion deficit and a governor who expects to cover that with revenues from taxes we haven’t even seen yet. We’re the second-wealthiest state in the country and we still continue to raise taxes.”

O’Donnell said O’Malley’s presence in Tampa likely would mean a Republican presence in Charlotte for the Democratic National Convention next week, but he does not plan on attending.

“I won’t be in Charlotte,” he said. “I’ve got bigger fish to fry running against Steny Hoyer.”

Charlotte band appearance

Pipkin closed his comments by taking a dig at O’Malley’s Irish band, which is slated to perform at the Democratic National Convention next week in Charlotte.

“We look forward to his performance in the convention as part of his band,” he said.

Tuesday’s stop isn’t O’Malley’s only scheduled visit to Tampa. He is set to appear on an MSNBC talk show on Friday alongside Christie, but O’Donnell said he wouldn’t be watching.

“I’m going to avoid it at all costs,” he said.

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