Following in the footsteps of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Howard County Executive Kenneth Ulman has banned, by executive order, soft drinks with high sugar content from county proper- ties and events, leading to charges that he has over- stepped his bounds as an elected public official.

ULMAN’S BAN ON SUGARY SOFT DRINKS
AT COLUMBIA JULY 4 CELEBRATION
GOES TOO FAR, DOING GOOD

Will salmon burgers replace hamburgers?

THE DEMOCRATS SHOULD SEND
FORMER GOP VP DICK CHENEY
ON A NATIONAL MEDIA TOUR

U.S. soccer team exceeds low expectations
 
By David Maril
 
While wondering if Jürgen Klinsmann, the USA World Cup soccer team’s coach, is the toughest commentator in assessing what the squad needs to do to advance further in international play, it’s interesting to note the following:

  If a 1-1-1 World Cup Soccer record for the USA squad against the teams labeled the “Group of Death” merits a White House congratulatory call from Barack Obama and what seems to be universal fan praise, one has to wonder what kind of mammoth celebration would take place if the team scored a few goals and won several games.

  Republican candidate for governor Larry Hogan didn’t waste any time showing there’s little hope for a civilized rational discussion and debate of the issues between him and Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, his Democratic rival, leading up to the Nov. 4 election. Hogan’s political Internet commercial labeling Brown “the most incompetent man in Maryland” is low-class, stupid, and demeaning to the intelligence of Maryland voters.

The two candidates, with stark differences in their viewpoints and platforms, need to stick to the issues and eliminate the character assassinations and playing around with Facebook photos. These cheap shots are a major reason why so many voters get disenchanted with politicians and don’t show up to vote.

  Personally, I have little use for drinking sugary soft drinks and am all for publicly funded school food programs promoting healthy meals and sensible diets. However, the move by Howard County Executive Ken Ulman, who is the Democrats’ nominee for lieutenant governor as Brown’s running mate, to prohibit by executive order certain soft drinks from being sold on county grounds at July 4th holiday celebrations is crossing the line.

What’s next, substituting salmon burgers for hamburgers?

Over a year ago Ulman banned the distribution of sugary drinks in Howard County parks, libraries and other county properties and at all county-sponsored events, but not schools. However in 2006 the county prohibited soda sales in elementary schools, limited their sale in middle schools, and decreed that vending machines in high schools can’t contain more than 50 percent sodas.

POLITICIANS NOT ELECTED TO BE DIET CARETAKERS

The public certainly deserves accurate information on food ingredients and what is healthiest to eat. But after that, it’s each individual’s decision. Politicians are not elected to be our diet caretakers and shouldn’t be making decisions such as allowing diet soda to be sold, while banning the regular drinks.

Ulman’s rules forced vendors at Columbia’s lakefront Friday to ensure that at least 50 percent of their sales were low-calorie alternatives, requiring the vendors to limit portion sizes and/or completely eliminate sale of certain regular sodas and other drinks, such as Gatorade, lemonade and sweetened iced tea.

This is too much and going too far. Will it get to the point where Howard County bans TV remote controls because people need more exercise and should get up more from their couch-potato seats?

Former Republican Sen. Howard Baker asks the loaded question, “What did the President know and when did he know it?” at Senate Watergate Committee hearing in 1973. At right is Committee Chairman, Democrat Sam Ervin of North Carolina. Baker died June 26 at age 88.

  It was the ultimate moment of irony when Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made the formal announcement in the U.S Senate of Howard Baker’s death.

McConnell praised the former Majority Leader for his statesmanship and skill in finding common ground to get things done. To make his point, McConnell could have described Baker as being the exact opposite of him.

McConnell epitomizes today’s typically biased self-serving hacks we elect to serve in Congress. As Minority Leader he set a pretty dismal tone announcing during Obama’s first term his No. 1 goal was to see that the President would not get reelected.

What about the important issues? There’s not much statesmanship or room to find common ground in that type of policy,

Baker, who died on June 26 at the age of 88, was a popular, well-respected Republican U.S. Senator from Tennessee who helped give credibility to the Watergate investigative committee.

Although the scandal was connected to President Richard Nixon’s Republican reelection committee, Baker followed the evidence trail and was famous for posing the question about needing to learn, “What did the President know and when did he know it?”

On the humorous side, many sports fans who followed the then-Washington Bullets NBA franchise, described Baker and Dick Motta, the team’s coach, as lookalikes.

CURRENT POLITICIANS COULD LEARN FROM WATERGATE HEARINGS

  Speaking of Watergate, all of the current elected politicians in Washington should spend a few days watching tapes of those hearings. They could learn a lot about the benefits of leaders from both political parties working together on investigations in search of the facts instead of political grandstanding,

Today, any time there is an investigation in Congress, the sides are drawn along party lines. The political party that has possible connections to the wrongdoing accuses the investigators of being on a witch-hunt and then participates in the investigation in a minimal fashion.

Both major parties follow this biased path.

Retiring ABC Chief News Anchor Diane Sawyer began her political ca- reer as a White House staffer under then-President Richard M. Nixon and continued to work for him long after he left office in disgrace fol- lowing the divisive Watergate scandal. She is shown here with Nixon during the former president’s historic trip to China in February 1972.

The current investigation into the IRS’s unfairly targeting Tea Party and conservative fund-raising groups is the latest example of a failure to work together. Just because there is a Democrat in the White House doesn’t mean the Democrats should not be participating more actively in investigating what was going on internally within the IRS.

Politicians of both parties should be outraged if unfair policies were being followed, regardless of whether it was against conservative or liberal groups.

  The IRS question nobody seems to be asking is why political fundraising groups of any type should be getting tax breaks in the first place. Whether right wing or left wing, funding hatchet-job political advertising to support a candidate hardly classifies as “charitable” work.

  Do animals have more rights than people? Apparently the National Park Service believes so.

While the debate remains up in the air over how much latitude — not to mention altitude — is acceptable for use of drones in populated areas, wildlife is being protected. The Park Service, according to the Associated Press, has taken steps to ban drones from millions of acres of public lands and waterways. Officials say they do not want wildlife harassed.

  ABC’s announcement that Diane Sawyer will be stepping down as chief news anchor this September, to be replaced by “20/20” anchor David Muir and George Stephanopoulos, who co-hosts the Sunday interview program “This Week” as well as “Good Morning America,” makes you wonder why the network let a terrific all-around journalist like Jake Tapper escape to CNN.

ABC should have named Tapper permanent host of “This Week” and carved out a prominent role for him on the evening newscasts.

  The amazing thing to me about Hillary Clinton is, despite her toughness, intelligence and political skills, she is still unable to appear comfortable and likable when interviewed in a focused and hard-edged televised setting.

With all the campaign advisors and media coaches at her disposal, she should be able to learn how to stop being so defensive, thin-skinned, impatient, and condescending when asked follow-up questions she doesn’t like or want to answer.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney addresses U.S. troops at Camp Anaconda, Iraq (formerly known as Balad Air Base) in 2008.  Despite having heart transplant sur- gery in March 2012 at the age of 71 he is said today to be as hard-hearted as ever.

I’ll bet she loses 10,000 votes every time she laughs on-camera.

  If I were President Obama or a Democratic party official, I would organize and finance a national media tour for former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Every time he opens his mouth criticizing the President for not being hawkish enough, he diverts public attention away from the difficult decisions that are being made today and which neither Obama nor the Democrats want to openly discuss.

His irresponsible comments remind everyone of the mistakes and misinformation he caused and which got us into the Iraq mess in the first place.

  There’s no question Orioles Manager Buck Showalter and team executive Dan Duquette are masters of manipulating rosters and capitalizing on loopholes with sending players up and down from the minors.

But are they winning the battle and losing the war by treating pitching prospect Kevin Gausman, who is showing signs of deserving to be in the regular starting rotation, like a Yo-Yo?

It’s a big enough adjustment for a young pitcher, no matter how talented, to settle into a routine and make adjustments. All the shuttling up and down Gausman has been subjected to, going back and forth to the minors between big league starts, is not going to help his development and progress.

  The most underrated player on the Orioles continues to be shortstop J.J. Hardy. Although not hitting with his usual power, his batting average is decent and he is the defensive glue of the infield. Because he’s smart and such a fundamentally sound player who executes defensively without any spectacular or wasted motion, many difficult plays appear routine.

The Orioles need to re-sign him and extend his contract beyond this season.
 
davidmaril@voiceofbaltimore.org
 
“Inside Pitch” is a weekly opinion column written for Voice of Baltimore by David Maril.
 
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