MDGOP townhall meeting April 5th
Take Back Washington and Annapolis Town Hall Meeting
Monday, April 5th
6:30pm
Doors Open at 6:15pm
Wicomico County Youth & Civic Center
Danang Room
500 Glen Avenue
Salisbury, MD
This event is free and open to the public. If you plan to attend please email
Kim Jorns at kjorns@mdgop.org
Democrat Leadership in both Annapolis and Washington continue to tune out the people of Maryland. Frustrations are growing!
Join us for the opportunity to discuss the current state of Maryland and the Nation with
Audrey Scott, Chairman of the Maryland Republican Party.
Chairman Scott will discuss what the MDGOP is doing to put a stop to one-party rule in Annapolis and Washington and she will
LISTEN to your ideas, needs and concerns.
We hope you will join us for this open dialogue!
Authority: Maryland Republican Party, R. Christopher Rosenthal, Treasurer. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.
**********
Of course, I plan on being there to cover the event, which is one of several being planned statewide that week.
A tax increase may be in the bag
As of the first of the year, shoppers in Washington, D.C. were forced to drop an extra nickel into the till for each paper or plastic bag they used when going to the store. Store owners collected a share of the tax, but the true intent of the proceeds was a fund to help clean up the Anacostia River.
While the ban has caused some confusion among District shoppers, what truly matters to their local government is the estimated $3.5 million in revenue created by the new tax. With dollar signs in their eyes, some Maryland legislators in both the House of Delegates and the Senate want to get in on the taxation action with proceeds going (of course) to the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays 2010 Trust Fund. The fiscal note with these bills posits a possible windfall to the state of $7.8 million based on a number of assumptions – very tempting when this is a fee easily buried within the overall cost of grocery shopping.
(continued on my Examiner.com page…)
An impeachable offense?
The argument over same-sex marriage continues, but has drawn a companion sidebar regarding Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler’s interpretation of his job vs. existing laws. Cue House of Delegates member and same-sex marriage foe Don Dwyer:
On March 31, I will be bringing Articles of Impeachment against Maryland’s Attorney General Doug Gansler at approximately 10am on the Floor of the House of Delegates. Please read further as to why I feel that I must take this action.
If you support me, please consider coming to Annapolis in a public show of support for upholding the Constitution.
(snip)
Maryland recently recognized same sex marriages for the purpose of marital benefits. The recognition of same sex marriages performed in other states was not enacted by the Maryland legislature nor was it mandated by Maryland courts; rather it was the independent decision of Maryland’s Attorney General Douglas Gansler, released on February 24, 2010.
Because this was a blatant attack on Maryland’s current law that states: “Only a marriage between a man and a woman is valid in this state” and because this action is clearly a violation of the separation of powers related to the three branches of government, the Attorney General was put on public notice that impeachment charges were being drafted.
As if the Attorney General was not in enough hot water, on March 1, 2010 HE DECLARED HIMSELF UNIMPEACHABLE in an attempt to thwart any attempt by the legislature to hold him accountable for usurping their authority. Unbelievably, the Attorney General went to a subordinate member of his staff, Mr. Dan Friedman to write the letter addressed to Maryland’s Speaker of the House, stating that the Attorney General could not be removed by impeachment.
Mr. Gansler’s actions have put Maryland in a constitutional crisis. The highest law officer in the state who is an elected member of the executive branch of government has violated his Oath of Office and has revealed his incompetence, and his willful neglect of duty. As a constitutional officer, he must ensure that the provisions of the State and U.S. Constitutions are upheld in all cases, including a constitutional charge against him.
Attorney General Gansler testified in his official capacity two years ago in support of a gay marriage bill. He said that iit (sic) would be hard to not try to correct an injustice in the law. His testimony publicly revealed his partial and prejudiced position on the subject of same sex marriage. Mr. Gansler violated his oath of office in which he swore to perform his duties in an impartial and unprejudiced manner.
After revealing his bias on the issue, he was asked by a member of the Senate to advise on the legality of Maryland recognizing same sex marriage contracted in other states. Despite the fact that the Office of the Attorney General addressed that very same question in 2004, and despite the fact that no court ruling, or legislation has overturned that 2004 opinion, Mr. Gansler released a “new” opinion in which he “interprets” the law as supporting the legality of recognizing out of state same sex marriages.
In short, the Attorney General decided that a standing Maryland law is an “injustice” and subsequently misused the authority of his office to effectively change the law without having gone through the legislative process defined in the Maryland constitution.
If this goes unchallenged, the next Attorney General is likely to follow this precedent and usurp the authority of the legislature based on his personal bias. As result, citizens will no longer have the representation that is provided them under the Constitution.
The stage is now set in Maryland for a Constitutional show down. On March 31st a charge of impeachment will be brought before the Maryland House of Delegates at roughly 10:05 am. The House Speaker has publicly stated that he will rule the charge out of order citing the opinion that the Attorney General cannot be impeached as the authority for the out of order ruling.
Regardless of your personal view on same sex marriage, the recent activities of the Maryland Attorney General should give us reason to pause. Again, the Maryland Attorney General has taken for himself; the powers vested in the legislature and declared himself unimpeachable and unaccountable to the citizens of Maryland?
In case you’re wondering, I am pondering making this into an Examiner story closer to time but want to do a little bit of research and ask questions first. But in the meantime, I believe Dwyer has a case – at the current time Maryland law indeed states that marriage is between one man and one woman (and has said so since the early 1970’s.) If the General Assembly wants to have that fight, that’s one thing (and this may be considered after the safety of re-election next year) but for the moment that prospect is a no-go.
On the other hand, while Dwyer has a case, the actual prospects of getting Gansler out of office reside between slim and none, with slim having just vacated the premises. It would be a much better move to find a strong Republican candidate to oppose Gansler and perhaps make this election a referendum by proxy on the subject at hand. If Gansler isn’t Attorney General he’s free to make all the erroneous judgments of law he wishes, since it will no longer be as a representative of the state of Maryland.
Ehrlich won’t rule out Senate run
Bob Ehrlich surprised a group in Pikesville this morning by telling a questioner at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast that a Senate run against Barbara Mikulski was still “in the mix.”
That news may come as a shock should Ehrlich follow through with a Senate campaign, especially to a group of eleven people: the seven candidates who are already running for the Republican nomination to unseat the four-term incumbent (leading the way are Carmen Amedori, Jim Rutledge, and Eric Wargotz), the three men who explored but dropped out of the GOP race for governor (Mike Pappas, Larry Hogan, and Delegate Pat McDonough), and Brian Murphy, who might have the GOP nod handed to him as the only other active candidate seeking the Republican nomination for governor.
(for more visit my Examiner.com site…)
Immigration sure to produce fireworks in General Assembly
Over the next week, Maryland’s contentious budget battles will have some competition in the acrimony department as foes of illegal immigration do battle with support groups like CASA de Maryland and the National Capital Immigrant Coalition.
At stake are bills dealing with the reporting requirements for detained criminal suspects and convicted prisoners already in the penal system related to their immigration status, broadening the scope of local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration laws similar to the 287(g) program already in use by Frederick County, an effort to codify into law that non-citizens aren’t permitted to be registered as part of so-called “motor voter” registration, and English-only laws for both Baltimore and Harford counties.
(continued at my Examiner.com site…)
A new opportunity
Tonight I can announce that I’ve been blessed with another new writing opportunity, one which will hopefully grant me a larger audience – but one which may result in a slowdown of posting here.
A couple weeks ago, I was talking to Eric Wargotz about a post I’d done when he suggested I apply for this opportunity because he believed I have the talent to be a good writer in that venue. It’s something I’d thought about peripherally but in coming from someone who I only knew a little bit this was more impressive – certainly I have supportive people from my sphere of friends and acquaintances who think I have talent but here was someone who is a frequent subject (and who knows I may not necessarily support him politically) making the comment. So a week ago I applied to Examiner.com and Friday I found out I’ve been selected – later this week you can look for my first article to appear there as the Baltimore Political Buzz Examiner. (Or, how about right now?)
Obviously it means I’ll have to gain a little more of a local (that is to say, state government) perspective but it also necessitates some changes. In truth, it really leads back to something I tried awhile back but didn’t care much for.
For a short time, I truncated some of my longer articles by breaking them up and using the “more…” tag at the bottom of the excerpt. Personally I prefer having my articles on the front page in toto, but here’s the rub: I’ll make a little bit (okay, perhaps a lot bit) more writing for the Examiner than I do here – however, I have the freedom to post at both.
I may not be the shrewdest businessman to come down the pike, but I realize where my bread is buttered – it’s not too smart to cannibalize my own stuff! So look for just a teaser paragraph here on my Examiner articles, the better to lead you to my page there. (This will probably be three to six articles a week.) Other stuff I do will remain here, but I may not get out 2-3 posts a day like I do on good days – being a good Examiner means I have to read a little more!
This practice will be a little bit like my procedure for my op-ed columns, where I wait until other editors have a crack at them before posting them myself. (I’ve noticed more and more places have been posting my LFS op-eds, which is rather encouraging – the first step to success is being in the regular rotation at a news outlet.)
I’ve rarely been short on things to say, but I have a hard time sometimes expressing gratitude to those who support me – certainly there’s a few who have been fans of my writing since its humble beginnings. (On the web this will be five years early next month, with monoblogue’s fifth anniversary in December.)
So please support my Examiner page and tell your friends! While it’s not the most lucrative thing I’ve ever done, being a writer means I’m rarely bored! As long as that shows up in my writing, I think I’ll do just fine.
An early morning ride
News from AFP Wicomico:
Some elected politicians still don’t get it, but more importantly there are many “on the fence” votes in Congress that need to hear from you and can be pushed to vote no on the Big Government takeover of your health care.
It seems our congressman, Frank Kratovil, may be flip flopping. To see this story click here.
Tomorrow Americans for Prosperity will be sponsoring a Bus to DC for a rally at 10 a.m. outside of the Senate offices and a visit to our Congressman all for $10, including lunch.
We need to let our voices be heard and let our Congressman that he needs to vote no again on the health care legislation
Contact Tom Cook (apatriotforever@gmail.com) to reserve your bus seat.
The bus will be leaving the Steer Inn on Racetrack Road at 5:30 in the morning, Boscov’s at 6:05 at the Mall in Salisbury, and the old K-Mart Parking lot in Cambridge on Rt. 50 at 6:35.
Truth be told, I haven’t decided yet whether to go because it makes for a long day of not being productive with other things I need to get done (probably wouldn’t be back home until 6:00 or later.) It’s a drawback of these sorts of events to have them at a time where working people can’t easily participate.
But if you are in a position where you can go it’s always worthwhile to meet with your Congressman, plus any others whose ear you may wish to bend. For all his faults voting-wise, it seems that Congressman Kratovil is willing to listen and hopefully he’s going to continue being a “no” vote on this issue.
There will be a good roster of speakers at the event, mostly from Congress – Reps. Pence, Bachmann, Price, Blackburn, Wilson, and Gingrey, along with representatives of the TEA Party Express, 60 Plus Association, National Center for Policy Analysis, and AFP.
Oh, by the way, did you answer your phone this weekend only to find an annoying Organizing For Against America volunteer on the other end? Neither did I, but that was their push according to flunkie Jeremy Bird:
The Final March for Reform is going strong — yesterday, OFA supporters made the phones ring off the hook in Congressional offices on Capitol Hill and across the country. But for every member of Congress, there are eight anti-reform lobbyists swarming Capitol Hill — and the upcoming vote is still too close to call.
So in these crucial, final days, we must make sure the voices of constituents break through the lobbyist attacks. And here’s the plan to make it happen:
As the next step in the Final March for Reform, OFA supporters like you will be gathering at volunteer phone banks across the country. We’ll be calling supportive voters in critical districts nationwide, asking them to reach out to their representatives and express their strong support for reform. A local OFA organizer will be on hand at every event, and no experience is required. (Emphasis in original.)
Gee, I can hardly wait to see what their next step is. But it looks like the people are going to speak tomorrow morning, bright and early.
Missing the podium
Sunday brought a merciful end to the 21st Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver and concluded our quadrennial reminder of just why most of these sports languish in obscurity.
It was an Olympics bookended by the continuing tragedy in Haiti and an new one in Chile while suffering one of its own when Georgian athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed in practice for the luge event. That accident forced last-minute changes to the track and an overall shortening of the course as men began competition from the women’s starting post and the women moved down to the juniors’ position.
While NBC is getting better viewership ratings for the Vancouver Olympics than they did in the 2006 event held in Turin, Italy, there is serious discussion around the television world that the peacock network may relinquish the grip it’s had on the games since 2000 after their coverage contract expires with the London Summer Olympics in 2012. It’s estimated that NBC will lose $200 million on this year’s coverage, with the main gripe from viewers being the network’s usual practice of tape-delaying popular events for showing during prime time – in the Pacific time zone where Vancouver lies it could mean the results are known up to 12 hours before they’re actually broadcast.
Meanwhile, while the United States led the pack in total medals won, there seemed to be a shortage of the sportsmanship for which the Olympics is known. A long-running feud between American speed skater Apolo Ohno and his South Korean opponents boiled over with accusations and counter-charges of cheating and blocking in a sport which is supposed to exhibit speed and grace, not resemble an all-out last-lap scrum at a NASCAR race.
Topping that was the wild celebration of the Canadian women’s hockey team after they dispatched the United States in the final. Although they waited until after the medal ceremony and the arena was cleared, the beer-swilling, cigar-smoking on-ice party lasted nearly an hour as the Canadian ladies savored the victory in a sport they consider their own. The Canadian men were more subdued in victory.
Nor could the specter of politics escape this edition of the Olympics. No doubt it paled in comparison with the massacre of Israeli athletes at Munich in 1972, but American figure skater Johnny Weir became the target of radical animal rights groups and had his safety threatened because his skating outfit featured natural fur. He relented this time but still “loves wearing dead animals” as part of his on-ice costumes.
Believers in anthropogenic global warming also had a field day with this Olympics, pointing out with glee that snow had to be trucked in before the events began because a month-long warm spell had melted the bounty of a snowy December. Meanwhile, regions like the mid-Atlantic only lacked the hills for good skiing competition since they had the several feet of fresh powder required for a base.
All in all, Vancouver was the red-headed stepchild of Olympic Games, combining tragedy, a huge gaffe in its opening ceremony, and a lack of truly compelling storylines into a bland stew of overly hyped events which dragged on for two weeks before coming to an end just in time for the ratings period to expire.
In 2014 it will be Sochi’s turn as the city along the Black Sea has its turn in the Winter Games spotlight, and the Russians are happily spending upwards of $60 billion (at current exchange rates) over an eight-year period to play host. Good thing it’s their money.
Michael Swartz, an architect and writer who lives in rural Maryland, is a Liberty Features Syndicated writer.
This cleared right after my last LFS article was published here on March 1st. It was featured (among other places) in the Epoch Times, which also ran my “Green Police” op-ed a few days earlier.
Maryland GOP: ‘Told you so!’
Unfortunately, sometime awhile back I already used “in the category of ‘duh’” and I didn’t wish to use it again. But, surprisingly, the best-laid plans of Martin O’Malley and Free State Democrats didn’t work, and Maryland Senate Republicans didn’t hesitate to point this fact out:
Final tax data from 2008 now proves what many predicted but had been strenuously denied by Democrats in Annapolis: Maryland’s high income earners are voting with their feet.
In calling a special session for the purpose of passing an historic tax increase less than a year after his election, Governor Martin O’Malley changed Maryland’s personal income tax from a flat rate to a graduated system with a surcharge on high income earners. During this 2007 special session, Republican Senators opposed these tax increases and forewarned that the net result would be revenue losses as this mobile segment of the population relocated their primary residences.
Wall Street Journal editorial writers agreed in a May 2009 opinion entitled “Soak the Rich – Lose the Rich” that described how the misguided budget policy of the O’Malley Administration would lead to outward migration of the very segment of the population that a state wants to keep for a healthy, progressive economy. In response, Democrats in Annapolis produced their own analysis attributing the loss of high income tax filers to the normal slack-off of annual returns.
Now the late filers have completed their returns and final numbers have been tallied. Instead of $106 million of new revenues predicted by O’Malley’s budget office, Maryland saw a decline of $257 million – for a total gap of $363 million. This is just part of the problem created by O’Malley that results in continuing out-year deficits over $2 billion each year.
It’s bad enough business is down for society’s producers, but then they get slammed with a tax increase and figure out that Maryland may not be such a green pasture after all. Why do you think that hundreds of professional athletes, entertainers, and the like live in Florida and Texas? (Hint: yes, the weather is nicer but there are places with even better climates.) Could it be the fact those two are among a handful of states which don’t have a state income tax? (The others are Alaska, Nevada, South Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming.)
I don’t know if they tried this again this session, but last year some Democrat geniuses tried to introduce a bill that would consider 3 months per year as enough time to qualify for Maryland residency for purposes of taxation. It didn’t go far, but this is how many Democrats think – they can’t bear to have anyone here making more that what they deem as a “fair share.” Playing the class envy card has gotten them this far so they aim for continued success.
In the last three years, we’ve all endured an economy which can best be described as a difficult one. Yet those who were affected by the “millionaire’s tax” are those who most likely still have the means to uproot themselves and move to more tax-friendly states like Florida and Texas. And guess who’s the loser? State government.
The state did just fine without a so-called “millionaire’s tax” as well as their other tax increases until Governor O’Malley came in and wanted to prime the state spending pump. (Governor Ehrlich did so as well with his final budget; until then his increases were relatively sustainable.) Throw in a larger share of federal dollars being required to maintain the state’s appetite for services and you have the situation we are in now. Imagine how Democrats must feel to be forced into the box of having to make cuts in an election year – think they’re not inwardly seething?
We have a choice in November. One choice is to take a hard look at what are priorities are and tailor a leaner, smarter budget to match. The other will be a repeat of 2007, where no tax increase will be taken off the table – we could see increases in the gas tax, income tax, sin taxes, sales tax (and services subject to it), and a whole multitude of other fees and levies.
Being a fiscal conservative, I prefer the former. But part of getting that will be looking past the class envy, a favorite divisive tactic of Democrats everywhere, and deciding it’s time to make a stand for maximizing our freedom.
Friday night videos episode 25
Bringing back the FNV franchise again after a week off, so let’s see what the extra week has given me to work with.
Lots of video on the health care debacle, as you might expect. Pollster Scott Rasmussen talks to the Washington News-Observer on the upcoming midterm elections and about how unpopular Obamacare really is:
It wasn’t too popular among this group either. My blogger friend Bob McCarty (who lives in that area) covered the counter-protest to President Obama’s health care show in St. Charles, Missouri.
If I didn’t put this on when it first came out, I sure missed out. This edition of FNV will be graced by the common sense of Rep. Mike Pence, perhaps my favorite member of Congress.
But the Democrats do reveal the facts about their health care bill.
Speaking of leading Democrats, in a couple weeks we’re going to see the third edition of the TEA Party Express, which begins in Searchlight, Nevada (Harry Reid’s hometown.) Mark Williams of TPX3 wanted to have a conversation with MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan but you can see how the left expresses “Anger in America.”
And if you’re interested in saddling up and heading out west, they have an interesting lineup to start their tour – wonder how many will be there for the other stops?
Let’s finish the political end of FNV with something humorous. We can laugh about this now that this half of the globe is actually warming (with a corresponding cooling on the other side – funny how that works, huh?)
Now the fun part. This comes from one of my favorite regional bands and was recorded live at the Trocadero Theater in Philadelphia (unfortunately, not by me.) Hailing from Smyrna, Delaware, this is 13:1.
If you go to their website, crank out ‘No Goodbyes.’ (Feel free to do so with their other songs if you wish, too.)
With that, we put another FNV in the books. That was fun.
Earmarks: the gauntlet has been thrown down
With the 2010 elections looming and the lack of fiscal responsibility by Washington becoming a larger issue, both parties are taking steps to curb the use of earmarks, which are loosely defined as appropriations added to spending bills to benefit a particular interest, usually within the sponsor’s state or district.
Democrats Wednesday proposed an end to earmarks designated to for-profit entities, which will mainly affect defense spending. This ban was passed by the House Appropriations committee.
But in the game of “can you top this” they were trumped by the Republicans’ decision Thursday morning to enact an immediate, unilateral moratorium on all earmarks. House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence was excited about the move, calling it, “very uncomfortable for business as usual.”
In truth, earmarks are but a small portion of the federal budget, accounting for only about 1% of total spending. Yet crusaders in both the House and Senate (most notably Senator John McCain) have attempted with little success over the years to curtail the earmarking practice. Even President Obama was on the anti-earmark bandwagon originally but had to capitulate early on by failing to veto a pork-laden omnibus spending bill.
Obviously, the impact of these efforts will only be felt if House Republicans have the stomach to carry out that which they’ve proposed after winning back the majority. Meanwhile the Senate is cool to such restrictions on their own spending. As we’ve seen with Senator Jim Bunning’s stance against a blatant violation of the PAYGO regulations passed weeks earlier, that which is passed into law has no effect on Congress if they interpret the rules in ways that make sense only to them.
And the temptation to bend these new rules is great – according to a study by the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, a politician’s share of the vote increases anywhere from 4.1 to 5.7 percent for every 100 percent increase in earmarks obtained by a legislator. Before too much faith is placed into Congress, though, we have to remember this is an election year and job one for a sitting member is to be re-elected.
Applause for Chile
Needless to say, the South American country of Chile has been through a lot lately. As most who haven’t been under a rock the last month know, its northern region was pummeled by an earthquake a few weeks back, and aftershocks continue to plague the recovery.
But aftershocks yesterday did not interrupt the peaceful transfer of power as outgoing President Michelle Bachelet turned over her control to newly inaugurated President Sebastian Pinera without a hitch - aside from the shaking of the earth. Moreover, much as Democrats give way to Republicans, Pinera is the first right-wing president Chile has seen in two decades.
Yet this moment shows the maturing of a democracy in a region of the world not always known for peaceful transitions of power. If there were ever an excuse for a Honduran-style flouting of a constitution and extension of a presidential term, this may have been it. But that possible temptation was not acted upon, and Chileans are the better for it.
There are a few people out there who have darkly intoned that some national emergency will arise (or be concocted) within our nation in 2012 and somehow elections would be suspended so that President Obama can consolidate his power in the face of sure defeat at the polls. While I know Obama is buddies with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, I don’t see that same sort of rigging the system to become president for life going on here – for starters, he would have to repeal the 22nd Amendment. (It’s worth mentioning, though, that there have been supporters of its repeal during both Reagan’s and Clinton’s second terms and efforts continue to this day.)
The point is that Chile made a large step in gaining the confidence of the world by this transfer of power during a time of national crisis. Even in our history we’ve had issues with this step – witness the secession of states after President Lincoln was elected, leading to the War Between the States. (To quote Axl Rose: what’s so civil ’bout war anyway?) Yet our Republic was eventually mended and we carried on to this day.
Chile may not necessarily be a friend or foe to us, but we’re reassured that it belongs on the world stage of advanced nations by its normality in a time of crisis.
Please note that the opinions expressed on monoblogue are not necessarily those of the Wicomico County Republican Party Central Committee, of which I'm a member. (But they probably should be.)
News from the loony left:
