From my cohorts at Patriot Post:
Has there ever been a group who exhibited such arrogance? They think they are indeed the ruling class, but we fought a war about 230 years ago to detach ourselves from a kingdom which featured a House of Lords.
Perhaps it’s time to go back to the way it originally was before the Seventeenth Amendment was passed and allow the state legislatures to select Senators. It can’t be much worse.
Last night I attended a rare night meeting of the Wicomico County Council. The stars must have been aligned just so because I was far from the only one.
County Council President Gail Bartkovich called this turnout “wonderful.”
I’m not going to make this a blow-by-blow account of what turned out to be a four-plus hour meeting and work session, just hit the highlights. There were two proclamations, nine resolutions, and three public hearings on the agenda plus a open work session, not to mention a presentation of the county’s new website and new crime initiatives the county was planning.
It was that crime initiatives segment which seemed to draw the most interest.
Speaking with Lt. Ernie Leatherbury of the Maryland State Police, Acting Chief Ivan Barkley of the Salisbury Police Department, and State’s Attorney Davis Ruark flanking him, Wicomico County Sheriff Mike Lewis stated the solidarity between these agencies has never been stronger and that they were “working harder than we have ever been” to be preventive.
Sheriff Lewis added that the unity was “extraordinary” and “unprecedented” during the Sarah Foxwell search and complemented the newly-installed Salisbury chief who “wants to work on everything” with the assistance of the WCSD and MSP. He also had a message for criminals: they’re “getting ready to rock their world.”
Lt. Leatherbury also praised the “unprecedented” cohesiveness with other agencies and shared his willingness to bring the full resources of the State Police to the Eastern Shore when the problem dictated such a response.
Chief Barkley had little to add as the “rookie” of the group but assured those gathered “we’re gonna get this done.”
From his side of the crime issue, Davis Ruark called the Christmas Day search for Sarah Foxwell “a moving experience” and vowed that Wicomico County “will be the safest county in Maryland” with the cooperation of these agencies.
Regarding the Foxwell case, Lewis said “no case has affected me more deeply” and that he “just can’t thank the community enough” for their help. He also revealed that the FBI had offered 200 agents to help (Lewis accepted 18) and called the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Police the “unsung heroes” of the investigation.
Lewis also addressed the question of why no murder change had been placed against suspect Thomas Leggs, noting that time is on their side because Leggs is being held without bond and that allows them time to “tie up some loose ends” – they still have “a lot of work to do.” Ruark as well promised “additional charges will be forthcoming” within 45 days, and they would be sufficient to keep the suspect from ever molesting again. “Ultimately justice will be served,” concluded Ruark.
Once Lewis and company had said their piece, some of the audience left and the topics eventually turned to the more mundane business of running the county. Most of the issues were dispensed with briefly and by a unanimous vote but there was some controversy.
The normally ho-hum task of selecting names to submit to the Property Tax Assessment Appeal Board drew opposition because one applicant happened to be a county employee. Eventually Bartkovich sided with the three Democrats (McCain, MacLeod, and Sample-Hughes) to send two additional names to the Governor, including the county employee. They now have the six required to choose from.
Spirited objection to the acquisition of five acres for additional parking for the Civic Center was led by District 5 Councilman Joe Holloway and District 2 Councilwoman Stevie Prettyman. While the lot designer attempted to assure the Council that the state would indeed allow over 500 spaces on the parcel, the pair also asked for a new appraisal, considering the $300,000 per acre too much despite the fact the money comes from a Program Open Space grant. They were the lone opposition to moving the project along and scheduling a public hearing for February 2.
Another item hitting a roadblock was a proposal to change the burning permit laws to better reflect state law and allow county enforcement. Some provisions were objectable to several members of both the County Council and all but one of those who spoke about the proposed rule change, which was tabled on a unanimous vote.
The final item on the agenda for passage that yielded a split vote was a proposal to reject the Compensation and Allowance Commission’s recommendations for increasing the County Executive’s salary. Only Democrats David MacLeod and Bill McCain voted against rejecting the recommendation while the others (who all rejected the CAC’s recommendation for increasing the salaries of County Council) voted to reject.
The public hearing on our Capital Improvements Program also drew criticism from the Holloway/Prettyman camp as one item to be considered was the purchase of 15 more acres adjacent to the 5 acres being considered for Civic Center parking at a lesser price – $250,000 per acre. The county would chip in only a portion, but the pair rightfully fretted about the two deals being separately priced.
But the biggest discussion was yet to come, and occurred after all but a half-dozen or so patrons had left and the PAC-14 cameras turned off.
The County Council hashed out a number of ideas on filling a $2.9 million hole in the county roads budget, placed there when state funding was pulled. The consensus for moving forward seemed to be a combination of dipping into the county’s reserves along with another fund the county unexpectedly received. Other measures would eventually be taken to rebuild the reserve fund; one in particular I was asked not to disclose.
Perhaps the best comments during this portion of the meeting belonged to Prettyman, who bluntly noted, “we are going to have to cut the size of government (next year)” instead of continuing to “kick the can down the road.”
We elect our representatives to make hard choices like this, and sitting through that meeting was an inspiring learning experience. Obviously the roads department is a core function, and perhaps some are right when they claim you can’t rob Peter to pay Paul.
Yet there’s only so much the public is willing and able to give. During the next budget go-round it may be prudent to begin thinking outside the box to alternatives like privatizing services and starting the budget from scratch at a department level. These evening meetings may go a little late, but it also gives the public the chance to directly involve itself in the process. So I commend the Wicomico County Council for holding this meeting in the evening and encourage more of the same.
“In 9 months and 27 days we get America back.”
That’s how Andy Harris termed the 2010 election as he officially confirmed probably the worst-kept political secret in Maryland and placed himself in the running to oust Frank Kratovil as the First District’s Congressman.
After speaking to an audience of 70 in Easton (according to one observer) and earlier stops in Bel Air and Annapolis, Harris greeted over 40 supporters in the metal shop turned announcement location. Observers shivered in the chilly room but were excited by what Harris had to say, interrupting the State Senator with applause several times.
First, though, he was introduced by one of his cohorts.
State Senator Richard Colburn told those present that Harris “knows the Eastern Shore” and would fight to preserve those industries and jobs which define our region – seafood and agriculture. After pointing out some of the half-dozen elected officials in attendance, Colburn praised Andy’s work in the State Senate as well, telling us he would be missed after this session.
After Colburn’s introduction, Harris strode to the podium and told the chilly crowd, “this kind of business is what the election is all about” as it was one directly impacted by federal policy. It was time to put us back on the path to prosperity because people were telling him “enough is enough.”
He recounted the reasons he got into politics in the first place in 1998, as the entrenched incumbent held positions Harris believed were out of step with the district. In contrast, Harris defended his record as one which put families and businesses first.
By the same token, he felt Congress was out to “dismantle” our way of life and make our children worse off than we are. They “attempted to take over” business and health care while “whistling past the graveyard” of mounting deficits.
Harris touched on a number of items he’s planning to work on when elected to Congress:
Perhaps the biggest direct swipe at opponent Frank Kratovil came at a point in Andy’s speech where he spoke about Kratovil’s pledge of fiscal conservatism while spending $250,000 of taxpayer money to send out several full-color brochures to local supporters and other residents. (For the record, I’m not on that mailing list.)
The overriding theme for Harris, though, was one of “bring(ing) back America from Pelosi and company.”
After his remarks, Harris took a few questions from the reporters present. Responding to a question about the election, he termed it “a clear call for changing business as usual in Washington.”
The first thing Harris would do if elected? Co-sponsoring the Constitutional amendment for term limits.
Biggest issue? “Getting our jobs back and preserving our heritage.”
Which Kratovil votes did you object to most? Harris mentioned the vote for the stimulus bill (after voting against it), the partisan vote to install Pelosi as Speaker, and Kratovil’s vote for cap-and-tax, which Harris called, “a jobs bill – for India and China.”
It promises to be an interesting campaign, with the “9 months and 27 days” likely to be full of charges and counter-charges and 30-second commercials mainly sponsored by outside interests. This will be fun.
Update: Maryland GOP Party Chair Audrey Scott also chimed in, describing Harris’s Annapolis stop:
Yesterday was “Andy Harris for Congress Day” across the State and at the MDGOP headquarters, as State Senator, Andy Harris, announced his candidacy for Congress from Maryland’s 1st District. Excitement was high and turnout of supporters and the Party faithful was impressive… the headquaters was packed with enthusiastic, cheering Republicans commited to electing Andy to Congress!
Notable attendees included Former Ambassador Ellen Sauerbrey, and elected officials, Senator Ed Reilly, Delegate James King, Delegate Bob Costa, Delegate Tony McConkey, Delegate Ron George, former Senator Janet Greenip, and County Executive John Leopold, who addressed the crowd in support of Andy Harris. The race is on! Get on the band wagon and help Andy return the 1st District to Republican representation in Congress.
As a general policy, the MDGOP does not get involved in contested primaries. There are many candidates coming forward and those who are not challenged in primaries can count on full State Party participation from the onset. During the General elections, we are supportive of all our Republican candidates.
As I write this, Andy Harris has begun a full-day campaign announcement tour throughout the First District. Beginning in Bel Air this morning, Harris slated stops in Annapolis and Easton before wrapping up in Salisbury at the East Coast Iron facility at 300 Moss Hill Lane this afternoon at 5:00.
Yet Harris won’t be finished with his day as there will be a meet-and-greet reception afterward at Adam’s Ribs (219 S. Fruitland Boulevard in Fruitland.)
It seems like the Lower Shore will get special attention this time around as Harris ran at his weakest through this area – in three of the four Lower Shore counties he ran worse than he did in Frank Kratovil’s home of Queen Anne’s County. Winning or at least trailing by single-digits on the Eastern Shore is key to Harris’ strategy – his losing margin varied from 2.1% in Cecil County to 32.9% in Kent County (former Congressman Wayne Gilchrest’s home base.) On the Lower Shore Harris trailed by 8 to 19 points in 2008.
My guess is that Harris will have a field day attacking Frank Kratovil’s record, one advantage he didn’t have two years back. Early polls suggest First District voters are clamoring for change, but we haven’t seen the full-throttle attack on Harris the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and their Big Labor/trial lawyer allies will surely bring over the summer and early fall. It was effective last time so Democrats will undoubtedly go back to the same playbook.
One thing I’d like to see from Harris is stressing the alternatives to those items Kratovil has faced in Congress and running a more positive campaign. This time, though, he should have little opposition on his side to call “liberal” and that would make a general election contest easier. Train the big guns where they belong.
After discussion and review of the qualifications of a number of good candidates, the current members of the Wicomico County Republican Central Committee selected Carl Kurten, Jr. and Dustin Mills to fill out their ranks. The pair outpolled the competition and won the two newly-created seats on the Central Committee. The two will be formally inducted at the body’s February meeting and introduced at the WCRCC’s Lincoln Day Dinner on February 6th.
Kurten, who works for the Wicomico County Sheriff’s Department, is a Delmar resident whose previous political involvement focused on volunteering for both national and local campaigns before taking the plunge into party office for the first time.
Mills, of Salisbury, is currently employed by the Wicomico County Board of Education as a long-term substitute teacher and coach but his political body of work includes management stints in both the Michael James for Delegate campaign in 2006 and Andy Harris’ Congressional bid in 2008. He also holds leadership roles in the Wicomico County Republican Club and Lower Shore Young Republicans, and was selected for the William Paca Award as Maryland’s Outstanding Republican Youth in 2008.
In a twist, and because of the large number of qualified applicants, the Committee added two others as non-voting associate members who would be encouraged to participate and speak at WCRCC meetings. Joe Collins and Howard Phillips trailed just behind the two top vote-getters and we decided to encourage their participation by offering them this opportunity.
Kurten and Mills will serve until this coming September, when all nine Central Committee seats will be up for election.
This was actually a story tip for Red County, but another contributor beat me to it while I was away this afternoon. Still, I felt I could put a little spin on it myself.
A piece today by Alex Isenstadt at POLITICO talked about Republicans using the unpopularity of Barack Obama’s policies to run local and state campaigns, and while the Democrats they spoke to naturally thought the strategy would backfire it bears noting that Democrats succeeded with a similar litany of Bush-bashing in 2006 and 2008.
While Democrats don’t think nationalizing state elections will work as well, it bears pointing out that President Obama’s policies – as well as those items offered up by Congressional Democrats – affect states more than ever. Ask those in the other 49 states if they’re truly happy about the Medicaid waiver they’re slated to give to Nebraska in return for Senator Ben Nelson’s affirmative vote or the extra $300 million to sweeten the pot for Louisiana’s Senator Mary Landrieu in the Senate’s health care bill. And maybe Illinois residents don’t want the target on their back that moving Guantanamo Bay inmates to their state could provide for would-be terrorists wishing to make a statement.
Let’s face it – in America today probably the most abused and forgotten part of the Constitution is the Tenth Amendment. Washington has made a history of trampling states’ rights since the War Between The States was fought, and more recently has placed states in a position where significant portions of their budgets are no more than pass-throughs from Uncle Sam to state capitals and eventually county seats and municipalities. What city or county doesn’t drool over the prospect of getting “free” federal money for a project or purchase?
In essence the 2010 election is becoming a referendum on not just President Barack Obama but the direction of Washington as a whole. Certainly we were drifting farther and farther away from at least the pretense of cutting Fedzilla that President Reagan tried to establish, but Obama has taken that drift and accelerated it to warp speed. That phenomenon isn’t lost on the newly motivated voters who make up the ranks of TEA Partiers and the move by the GOP is designed to curry their favor.
Time will tell if the strategy works, but for the moment I’m sure Democrats are hoping for better economic news to eliminate the possibility of a blame-Obama strategy. Fat chance.
Since, thankfully, Congress is away for a couple more weeks we have an opportunity to catch our breath and assess the situation we find ourselves under.
One such effort was undertaken last week by Americans for Limited Government as they did the research and compiled a quick primer of the voting records of 90 so-called “Blue Dog” and moderate Democrats. It tends to show the revolving door aspect of Democrats voting against their leadership in just such a number to make some votes nailbiters, but not enough to defeat the proposal.
ALG’s Bill Wilson puts it this way:
Americans for Limited Government today released the voting records of some 90 Blue Dog and what it dubbed “so-called moderate” House Democrats on what ALG President Bill Wilson called “some of the most controversial votes of 2009.”
“So-called Blue Dog ‘conservative’ Democrats in the House have long touted their caucus as being fiscally-responsible, but what emerges from an analysis of their voting records is a pack of lapdogs who have voted largely in lock-step with their more radical counterparts in House leadership,” said Wilson.
“In vote after vote, the Blue Dogs have been all bark and no bite. Although they had the votes to do so, they have not stopped a single piece of budget-busting legislation in a year that saw the largest budget deficit in American history: $1.4 trillion,” Wilson explained.
“By over a 4 to 1 margin, so-called ‘moderates’ in the House have voted with the bankrupt Pelosi agenda of Big Government,” Wilson added.
The analysis shows 856 Yea votes and 207 Nay votes, which Wilson said “was not enough to stop anything.”
The ALG analysis includes votes on the $789 billion “stimulus”, bankruptcy mortgage “cramdowns,” ACORN funding, a $108 billion International Monetary Fund expansion, the Waxman-Markey carbon emission caps, the $2.1 trillion “public option” health system, the $154 billion assistance program for bankrupt states, and the $290 billion debt limit expansion.
According to the Blue Dogs’ website, “In the 111th Congress, the Coalition intends to continue to make a difference in Congress by forging middle-ground, bipartisan answers to the current challenges facing the Country. A top priority will be to refocus Congress on balancing the budget and ridding taxpayers of the burden the debt places on them.”
“By its own measure, the Blue Dog coalition has not succeeded,” Wilson noted. “The House of Representatives this year alone has voted to spend more than $3.6 trillion, to nationalize the health care system, to strangle the nation’s access to energy, and to bankrupt the Treasury—and yet the Blue Dog and so-called ‘moderate’ Democrats have done nothing to stop the profligate financial catastrophe unfolding at the nation’s Capitol,” Wilson said.
Wilson pointed to the record national debt which currently stands at over $12 trillion, as placing an “insurmountable burden on the next generation of Americans.” The total debt is projected to top the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2011 at over $14 trillion. By 2020, it will top $20 trillion.
Wilson said that if entitlement spending is not reined in, it will soon half of the entire budget. According to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), entitlement spending as a percentage of budget outlays will continue to increase over the next decade. In 2019, OMB projects that entitlements spending will stand at $2.482 trillion (45.93 percent of outlays totaling $5.403 trillion).
According to the National Center for Policy Analysis, by 2050 entitlement spending “will consume nearly the entire federal budget.”
“While the nation is going bankrupt, House Blue Dogs and ‘moderate’ Democrats pretend that their support for these terrible pieces of legislation is ‘deficit-neutral.’ They have done nothing to stop the madness, which will only bankrupt the Treasury, destroy the dollar, and saddle American taxpayers without a debt that cannot be paid.”
Obviously I’m most interested in the record of one Frank Kratovil, and while he’s somewhat better than the about 4:1 yea/nay ratio exhibited by these “centrist” Democrats, a Republican would’ve voted for few if any of these budget-busting, big-government items. Aside from voting with his party for the repressive House rules Democrats put in place, Kratovil changed his mind on the stimulus once his price was met, voted for national service (which included a call to make 9-11 a “day of service”) and voted for cap-and-tax before feeling the heat of his constituents and turning into a fiscal hawk late in the game, after the horse had escaped the barn. If you believe today’s Daily Times article on Kratovil by Greg Latshaw, it appears Kratovil will pursue that “independent” fiscal hawk strategy leading up to the 2010 election.
It may be a prudent idea for Kratovil to portray himself as a fiscal conservative, but I’d rather have the real thing in there.
In place of my usual LFS op-ed this Sunday (because my last one hasn’t cleared yet,) I’m going to posit another more localized idea. At least this time I don’t have a 600-word limit!
Regarding elections, Maryland’s Constitution notes in Article XVII, Section 2:
Except for a special election that may be authorized to fill a vacancy in a County Council under Article XI-A, Section 3 of the Constitution, elections by qualified voters for State and county officers shall be held on the Tuesday next after the first Monday of November, in the year nineteen hundred and twenty-six, and on the same day in every fourth year thereafter.
This was ratified in 1922 and since then 21 state elections have been held on a four-year cycle. Barring death or resignation, this limits turnover in the legislature and seems to limit accountability, lending itself to the growth of government. (There’s always the argument that at least some experienced hands are necessary, which causes inertia.) Furthermore, since a governor goes into office with the content of the General Assembly known for the next four years, he (or eventually she) has to tailor his agenda to what he knows can pass and can’t easily make bold, sweeping changes unless they are in the direction of larger government – the Democrats have held the General Assembly since the mid-1800’s.
I think there’s a better way to instill accountability, but it would cause pain for some legislators while the process begins. Oh well.
Many states have adopted a staggered system where a portion of their legislature turns over every two years. In Maryland this idea can take form in one of two ways:
The advantage of this extra check and balance on a governor’s power is the opportunity to reward or punish him or her by adding or subtracting supporters midterm. For example, if a Republican won in 2010 but couldn’t pass his agenda because of recalcitrant Democrats in the General Assembly, the opportunity would exist for popular sentiment behind him to be expressed by the removal of those obstacles in 2012. If Martin O’Malley were re-elected, it would be harder to pass a budget-bloating, tax-raising agenda through the General Assembly if some members knew their re-election was nigh. It’s the accountability, stupid.
Obviously this requires a Constitutional change, and 2010 presents a unique opportunity (although it also promises to be a Pandora’s Box of sorts too.)
Normally to be amended the proposed Constitutional change goes through the General Assembly and requires a 3/5 majority vote in both the Maryland House of Delegates and Senate. But in Maryland’s Constitution, Section 2 of Article XIV notes:
It shall be the duty of the General Assembly to provide by Law for taking, at the general election to be held in the year nineteen hundred and seventy, and every twenty years thereafter, the sense of the People in regard to calling a Convention for altering this Constitution; and if a majority of voters at such election or elections shall vote for a Convention, the General Assembly, at its next session, shall provide by Law for the assembling of such convention, and for the election of Delegates thereto. Each County, and Legislative District of the City of Baltimore, shall have in such Convention a number of Delegates equal to its representation in both Houses at the time at which the Convention is called. But any Constitution, or change, or amendment of the existing Constitution, which may be adopted by such Convention, shall be submitted to the voters of this State, and shall have no effect unless the same shall have been adopted by a majority of the voters voting thereon.
2010 just so happens to be one of those years, and there is a website advocating a “yes” vote. But any change would still need to be approved by voters so the final call is up to us.
This also would present an opportunity to force the legislature to adopt other items which would serve as a check and balance, such as term limits and the possibility of a recall election for wayward members of the House of Delegates or Senate. We could even enshrine the idea of a “taxpayer bill of rights,” which would keep spending increases from exceeding the sum of inflation plus population growth without voter approval. (For example, 3% inflation and 1% population growth would mean the budget could only increase 4 percent.)
The hard part would be getting good items like those without adding bad items like overt restrictions on growth in critical areas or specifying excessive amounts of spending on education into the Constitution. Voters last year managed to muck it up with slot machines and early voting, and those will be hard to get rid of (although they could be in a new convention.) Just keep the special interests out of the room and it could go well.
Mitch Stewart, of the group I like to call Organizing Against America, checked in the other day with his 2009 assessment. Aside from my leaving out their overt begging for funds, this is how Stewart saw their year:
Looking back at 2009, it turns out you were right.
Early this year, millions of you chose to keep working together and create Organizing for Against America, to build on the momentum of the Obama campaign, take on the defenders of the status quo, and make change happen.
Special interests thought they could steamroll you with hundreds of millions of dollars in lobbying and attack ads. Meanwhile, you built a massive organization, driven by local leadership, that reached out to millions of fellow Americans and made your voices heard to Congress in record numbers.
In the coming year, our opponents will make a final stand to block health reform and seek to defeat many of the President’s other crucial initiatives. And they’re already targeting those in Congress who are championing change.
So I wanted to take a moment at year’s end to reflect on everything you’ve built, and to ask for your help one last time this year to hit the ground running in 2010…
…This has been a remarkable year for the movement you’ve built from the ground up.
Beth Kimbriel, a mother of four from Richmond, Virginia, has no formal political experience. But every week, as an OFA “Community Organizer,” she trains and manages other volunteer leaders to organize effectively around the President’s agenda. Hundreds of her fellow OFA Community Organizers around the country have already volunteered more than 200,000 hours doing similar work. Thousands more have taken on other leadership positions in every single state. And we’re still growing — nearly a million people who had never volunteered for the presidential campaign have signed up with OFA this year.
Supporters spread the word throughout our communities, with more than a million conversations with neighbors on the phone and at the doorstep, and 250,000 letters to the editor about how President Obama’s policies would help ordinary Americans.
And when Congress was making crucial decisions, you spoke out more powerfully than the special interests ever could. In the last few months, you’ve made more than 1 million calls to Congress — including more than 300,000 on one amazing day in October that created huge momentum for health reform. Thousands of supporters attended town halls to counter the shouting mobs and speak out in person. And you even held 37,107 events in every congressional district — bus tour rallies, phonebanks and forums to inform your neighbors.
These incredible efforts have powered victories on a wide range of issues. OFA volunteers provided a huge boost to help pass the Recovery Act, President Obama’s historic budget, an expansion of children’s health care, credit card and student loan reform. Your voices helped pass a historic green jobs and energy bill in the House, and the confirmation of the nation’s first Latina Supreme Court justice, Sonia Sotomayor, in the Senate. And of course, you were instrumental in passing comprehensive health reform through both houses of Congress for the first time in American history.
With every phone call to a member of Congress, every door knocked on a rainy day, every event held in a town center, you’ve helped to push this country forward.
But with the special interests and their allies in Congress fighting us for every inch, we need your help again to keep our organizing strong in 2010. (Emphasis in original, strikethrough obviously mine!)
Well, Mitch, looking back at 2009, I know I was right – correct in fighting your idiocy and ignorance of Constitutional government practically every step of the way. Hate to break it to you folks, but the Constitution IS the “special interest” of the American people.
As a member of one of those “shouting mobs” I’d also like to point out that you have a LONG way to go still to secure so-called “health care reform,” and I haven’t received one dime from Big Insurance to say this. That’s because I don’t need to be paid to be right. (It would be nice, though.) On the other hand, Beth Kimbriel, the Virginia volunteer who Stewart cites in his e-mail, conceded “‘it’s difficult to be believed’ when she lays out the president’s position” in a Los Angeles Times article back in August. Beth, the President has no position because we’ve never seen “his” bill and he won’t claim ownership of one until he signs whatever is passed.
And the only push forward we’ve gotten from Obama’s allies is one closer to an economic precipice. Without new private-sector job growth, the economy will sputter and if this is considered a recovery I’d hate to see their version of prosperity and growth.
The idea behind putting this up, though, is to show my side what we’re up against. We need to work twice as hard as they do because the job of slowing down government is much more difficult than the default position of growing it. (Reversing the tide may be ten times more difficult still.)
But Mitch made an interesting choice of words in that boldly emphasized sentence – “the movement you’ve built from the ground up.” That’s exactly how Astrotrurf is installed – you tear out the sod in place, bury the barren soil in a layer of pea gravel, and roll the Astroturf out on top. The grassroots have no chance as they’re smothered away from light and most of the water.
That seems to be the goal of this administration – snuffing out the political grassroots represented by thoughtful Americans and instead placing an impermeable layer of bland sameness atop them.
We’re just 12 days away from the “90 days of terror” annually perpetrated by our General Assembly. But this year’s session will begin with a message for our legislators: it’s an election year and we’re watching you.
For months our attention has been placed squarely on the happenings of Congress and the shenanigans on Capitol Hill. Health care, cap-and-trade, card check – all are attempts by the federal government to take away our freedoms. Unfortunately, the situation with the state government in Maryland is no better.
When Governor O’Malley and our legislators convene next month to begin the 90 day Maryland General Assembly legislative session, they will be facing a $2 billion budget deficit. Even after the largest tax increase in Maryland history (2007) and nearly $4 billion in federal stimulus funding, the politicians in Annapolis are projected to spend more money than they can collect. Combine the deficit with a 26-year high unemployment level, and we the taxpayers have a huge mess on our hands.
Governor O’Malley (D-MD), House Speaker Michael Busch (D-District 30) and Senate President Mike Miller (D-27) have already talked about tax increases to cover the budget hole. The last thing taxpayers and small businesses need right now is another tax hike. We need to let the politicians in the State House know we will NOT stand for that. We need to send them a message: “No More Deficits, No More Tax Hikes, Bring Back Our Jobs!”
The chance to send them this message is a TEA Party on January 13, 2010 –the first day of the MGA legislative session. AFP-Maryland has launched a special website for this event. At 7 p.m., along with hundreds of others, we will convene at the steps of the State House in Annapolis to make our voices heard. Grover Norquist from Americans for Tax Reform and our national president Tim Phillips will be the keynote speakers. CHECK OUT THE WEBSITE. You can pre-register for the TEA Party, see other activities to participate in that day, and find out how to catch a local bus to the event. (Please make sure you register for a bus with the BUS CAPTAINS.)
We have the ability to change the way business is done in Annapolis. Unlike Congress, the members of the General Assembly are, for the most part, more accessible and easier to track down. With 2010 being an election year, AFP-Maryland is in a great position to affect policy. Please go to MarchOnAnnapolis.com, pre-register for the event, sign up for a bus, and pass the information to friends, family and neighbors.
It goes into the “mad as hell and can’t take it anymore” department.
The problem is that there are a number of legislators who know they don’t have to listen to our requests because they’ve bamboozled their voting public enough to make them believe the higher taxes only go to the “rich,” health care is “free,” and their only way out of their dilemma is to keep voting the same politicians in because “someday” they’ll make things better – but only if they continue to be placed in power. Generations have been born, educated, raised children, and died in a vain wait on these pols to make things better – but somehow these unfortunate souls still hold out hope a sugar daddy will improve their lot in life.
We on my side are speaking out but after the protests are over the second part of the equation is convincing voters we have a better alternative and they need to take a chance on allowing these changes to happen. Those who take comfort in the reliability of a government handout are naturally susceptible to threats of that lifeline being taken away if the “other” party somehow gains power. Even I know that these programs can’t disappear overnight, but they must eventually if freedom and liberty are to prevail.
Some consider groups like AFP “astroturf” because they have corporate backing, but to me it’s simply a vehicle to facilitate expression. They’ve shrewdly placed themselves aboard a nascent TEA Party movement that found a critical mass simply because of an utterance on a network news show and built up their own network of political activists – activists who are simply acting as a counter to the network put in place by the slick marketing and packaging of a man who eventually became President.
Our side has some catching up to do, but right is on our side and it makes that matter easier. It should be a fun time in Annapolis twelve days hence.
Oh, and one more thing: even if Annapolis shapes up, I’m going to be skeptical that the trend will continue once the year passes and some of these legislators are safely re-elected for the next four years. I have one idea I’m saving for a post later today or tomorrow.
Yep, I’m up still. Just wanted to wish my readers a great 2010! This may set a record for the shortest post but who really cares?
See you later today with more relevant stuff.
