A.F. James MacArthur in his online radio studio, from which he held an hours-long ‘debate’ early Saturday night with BPD negotiator Jason Yerg.

UPDATE (Wed. Dec. 5th @ 12:55 PM):  NO BAIL!
COURT DENIES BOND  FOR GADFLY REPORTER

In denying bail, the judge termed the gadfly blogger a “threat to public safety.”
 
VoB’s original story follows below:
 
A.F. JAMES MacARTHUR AND CITY POLICE NEGOTIATOR
CONDUCT HOURS-LONG TELEPHONE ‘DEBATE’  ON-AIR
 
By Alan Z. Forman
 
A contingent of 50-100 heavily armed Baltimore City police officers — including SWAT and tactical team members — surrounded the Waverly home of gadfly journalist A.F. James MacArthur Saturday night and arrested the 37-year-old blogger on a warrant alleging he violated probation on a gun charge nearly four years old.

Following an hours-long telephone conversation between MacArthur and Baltimore Police Department negotiator Jason Yerg, MacArthur surrendered peacefully about 11 p.m., ending a five-hour standoff which featured a simulcast ‘debate’ between him and Lt. Yerg on the activities and alleged indiscretions of the city police.

MacArthur broadcast the debate between him and the police negotiator in real time on his website, BaltimoreSpectator.blogspot.com, during which he repeatedly questioned the decision making of a police department that would send so many heavily armed officers to surround the home of a man with no record of violence, charged only with having come outside his house four years ago carrying a shotgun to try to break up a neighborhood fight, plus a weapons conviction dating back to 2002, which restricts him from owning firearms.

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Newsweek orders Obama out of office, Ray Charles style.

‘HIT THE ROAD, BARACK,’ SHOUTS NEWSWEEK MAGAZINE
      The bastion of liberal reportage calls for the President’s departure

 ROMNEY APPEARS POISED FOR SIGNIFICANT WIN IN NOVEMBER

  A POTENTIAL SHIFT OF REAGANESQUE PROPORTIONS IN THE OFFING?

By Alan Z. Forman

Like a Ray Charles hit, the cover of Newsweek magazine shouted out the headline: “Hit the Road, Barack”! followed by a series of Washington Post news stories that were highly critical of the nation’s second black president.

The first, as the saying goes, was Bill Clinton. But for Barack Obama and his top advisers this was no laughing matter.

The Newsweek cover must have been a wakeup call, because just over a month later the President played it so safe in his first debate in nearly four years he all but ceded the election to his GOP opponent, who on that single night accomplished everything he could possibly have hoped for, and more.

Voice of Baltimore believes that as a result a seismic shift in the American electorate began, unlike any this country has seen since 1980 when Ronald Reagan soundly defeated a similarly weak and ineffectual president Jimmy Carter.

The Newsweek cover made the top of the Drudge Report, a right-leaning news compendium. The article inside discussed at length Barack Obama’s duping of the American public into believing he was something he was not and focused on the startling absence of accomplishment in his single undistinguished term.

Within weeks, Newsweek would announce the impending end of its print edition as the magazine goes all digital in January, just before the conclusion of the current presidential term; its final print publication will hit newsstands Dec. 31. Perhaps the Obama cover was a last-ditch effort to stave off the inevitable for the magazine?

But the message was clear: A left-leaning pro-Obama publication was dissing the President. And its liberal parent company was suddenly writing news stories critical of his administration.

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Oriole players’ faces tell the story. (Photo/Baltimore.Orioles.MLB.com)

‘THIS IS THE WAY’ THE SEASON ENDS,  TO PARAPHRASE  THE POET,
AS BOTH TEAMS COME UP SHORT IN RESPECTIVE DIVISION SERIES
 
Seemingly in tandem, the Baltimore-Washington Corridor’s two Major League Baseball wonders that no one in April dared dream would be in contention in October, collapsed at the end of Game 5 of their respective division series, unable to complete the “miracle” their fans had hoped for as recently as Friday afternoon.

By two-run margins each, the Orioles lost to the New York Yankees early in the evening in New York; the Nationals, to the St. Louis Cardinals in the nation’s capital later Friday night. It was a sad ending for the Birds at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, and for the Nationals at home at Nationals Park in Washington.

The Orioles’ only solace was, they won their season’s final home game, the second game of the American League East Division Series, at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on Monday, as the historic ballpark marked the end of its twentieth year with a win.

Neither team had been expected to accomplish much this season.

Washington’s last postseason encounter was Game 5 of the 1933 World Series when the former Washington Senators lost to the then-New York Giants in 10 innings at Griffith Stadium in D.C.

The Orioles were last in the playoffs in 1997, losing the American League Championship Series that year to Cleveland, four games to two. That was the most recent year the Birds had a winning season, 98-64, until 2012, when they went 93-69 to win one of two American League Wild Card spots.

Before losing to the much-hated Yankees, the O’s defeated the Texas Rangers a week ago in a single-game playoff to earn the right to challenge New York for the East Division title, which some sportswriters predicted would be a Yankee sweep.

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ORIOLES  CLINCH  POST-SEASON BERTH
WITH 1st WINNING SEASON SINCE 1997
 
UPDATE (Friday October 12th @ 2:01 a.m.):  
ORIOLES AND NATIONALS MOVE TO GAME FIVE of their respective division series as both teams win Game Four Thursday night. The Birds defeated the Yankees 2-1 in 13 innings; the Nats beat the St. Louis Cardinals by the same score, winning the game in the bottom of the ninth. On Wednesday the O’s lost their first extra-inning game since April but returned to form Thursday night, beating the Yanks in 13 innings. Game Five Friday night will determine which teams go to their respective league’s seven-game Championship Series.
 
UPDATE (Friday October 5th @ 11 p.m.): 
ORIOLES DEFEAT RANGERS! in single-game Wild Card Playoff, 5-1, go to five-game American League Division Series against Yankees beginning Sunday in Baltimore for right to play winner of Oakland-Detroit matchup for the American League pennant (seven-game Championship Series beginning Saturday October 13th).
 
It was written in heaven. Baltimore Baseball Heaven.

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WEEKS OF BOTCHED CALLS,  FAN DISSENT
AND FIGHTING-MAD PLAYERS & COACHES
ENDS  WITH  EIGHT-YEAR  LABOR  PACT
 
Following weeks of botched calls, severe criticism, fan dissent and fighting-mad players and coaches — culminating in the Green Bay Packers’ being robbed of victory over the Seattle Seahawks on the final play of their Monday night game this week — the regular National Football League referees will return to work in time for the Baltimore Ravens-Cleveland Browns game at M&T Bank Stadium later tonight.