May 2012 – Page 2 – monoblogue

A chance to meet two Presidents

For several months Barack Obama has attempted to jumpstart his fundraising by creating several contests. Whether three guests won an exclusive dinner with the President or you received the red carpet treatment at a fundraiser with actor George Clooney, the promise was that all this was available with a donation of as little as $3.

But buried at the bottom of the e-mail of this and all his other contest announcements is a proviso which reads something like this:

No purchase, payment, or contribution necessary to enter or win. Contributing will not improve chances of winning. Void where prohibited. Entries must be received by May 29, 2012. You may enter by contributing to Sponsor (or) enter without contributing.

(continued at Examiner.com…)

Dock Daze 2012 in pictures and text

Over the weekend, Wicomico County’s Division of Recreation, Parks, and Tourism went to the dogs, literally.

My significant other Kim Corkran took that shot, as both of us attended the inaugural Dock Daze event at Cedar Hill Marina in Bivalve with cameras in tow. Her shots will be interspersed among the remainder of the narrative.

There were two main components to the event. At one end you had the dock dogs, who on Saturday were leaping into a large swimming pool instead of off a literal dock. For many, seeing dogs get ‘big air’ and land with a splash was the main attraction. (Top photo by Kim Corkran, bottom photo is mine.)

The idea, as you can see in the top picture, was to lure the dog off the dock in pursuit of a toy. Generally dogs would leap between 15 and 20 feet from the end of the dock to the point where the base of their tail hit the water, with the best approaching 25 feet. (Apparently the world record is just over 29 feet.) The other components to the competition, conducted over the event’s two days, were a vertical leap contest and speed retrieve, with an overall winner crowned from the top finishers in each portion.

For their part, the dogs were just happy to get their toy and a little love from the master. (Both photos by Kim Corkran.)

There were one or two shy guys who wanted no part of the water, though. Dogs had 90 seconds on the dock to complete the jump and this one said ‘you want me to do what?!?’

On the other side of the marina there was a boat docking contest underway.

The idea of boat docking was to start at a point, accelerate to get into position, and quickly reverse course to back into the dock. Ropes were to be tossed over the four marked pilings, with the entire process generally taking between 20 and 30 seconds.

But the crowd enjoyed watching.

Another interesting attraction was chainsaw artist Rick Pratt, who demonstrated his ability several times over the two days.

Watching him work with the chainsaw, the random thought I had was whether he can do ‘The Lumberjack’ by Jackyl? I don’t know about that, but Pratt can create some seriously sturdy artistic objects.

Also in between were the usual array of food vendors and other selling wares of some sort. This outfit which sells The Fish Bomb was a key sponsor, and covered the bases well with a couple mobile billboards.

One of my favorite sponsors is moving beyond the Good Beer Festival to become a staple at local events.

Maybe they need to support their Maryland blog? Anyway, this tent had other popular sellers.

But I can’t bring myself to have a breakfast like this.

Maybe the closest the affair came to political was the tent put up by the Maryland Waterfowler’s Association, which advocates for duck hunters and the like.

You may have noticed the sign on the bleachers at the boat docking contest, but the local television program ‘Outdoors Delmarva’ was getting footage at the event for future episodes as well.

Surely there will be a lot of dogs and boats on their program over the next few weeks as the hunting seasons wind down and the tourists move in full force.

Kim gets the last shot. As we were leaving she took this picture looking down the marina. You’d never know there was an event going on nearby given this placid shot.

Since we didn’t stay for the whole day or come back on Sunday, there were a lot of things we missed like the live music, Sunday’s duck calling challenge, or the sailboat and paddle boat races also scheduled for Sunday. (With the heavy winds, those may not have occurred.)

But on the way out I believe I heard that about 1400 tickets had been sold, which would put this event in the same ballpark as the Good Beer Festival. Considering the somewhat small venue and remote location that’s a rather healthy turnout so I would anticipate a second event next year. If we were to go, though, next time we camp out on the hill and watch the tapestry unfold from there.

Union picketers engage in ‘shame’ campaign

Picketers protest in front of the Target store here in Salisbury on May 15, 2012. The Eastern Shore of Maryland isn’t known as a union hotbed, but members of Carpenters Local 2012 of Seaford, Delaware were recently spotted at an intersection close by the Target store in Salisbury.

A banner held up by a small group of union members read “Shame On Target For Lowering Area Standards In Our Community.” Since the Salisbury store is several years old, it was not clear if this was in reaction to proposed renovation work there or if the picketers were critical of Target in general. Like most department stores in the value-price retail segment, Target is a non-union store, but the chain is in the midst of a long-term program of renovations to existing stores.

(continued at Examiner.com…)

The SEO blues

When I write, as I often do – some might consider me a serial writer, since I have a website closing in on 3,000 posts over 6 1/2 years – I do so for a number of reasons. First and foremost is my enjoyment of doing this, with a close second being the ability to educate on the benefits of conservatism.

And of course, there’s money involved too. I get a monthly stipend from one client, have another I have occasionally contributed to which pays me on a per-article basis, and there are other one-off deals as well as my Examiner page. I also sell advertising and have a tip jar here, so on rare occasions I find a little extra in my generally anemic bank account.

But I also know some who have a different style of writing based on the concept of search engine optimization, better known as SEO. Some do it rather well and some have a hackneyed approach, but all are after that elusive goal of standing atop Google when you do a search on a particular subject. Obviously my SEO is generally anemic as well – a quick look at my site analytics tells me that just 3% of my visits come from search engines. Yet my Alexa world rank hovers in the 280,000 range, which tells me people somehow find this site.

Where I’m going with this is that I had an interesting e-mail exchange with a person representing a company which “has leveraged the power of the Web to create a unique group of specialty e-commerce stores,” according to its website. I’d rather not divulge the company but if you Google the phrase (as I did) it naturally sits at the top.

Originally he wanted me to add guest content to my site, but when I told him that monoblogue works because it is in one voice (with a few rare exceptions) he changed his tactic. What he wanted me to do was to create a post which had three instances of a particular key phrase, one of which linked back to his site, and establish a permanent link back to his site on mine. In return I would get “a total donation of $150.”

That’s a nice chunk of change, but I told this gentleman that, for that amount, I could give him a prominent advertising link on my site as opposed to a post which would eventually both fade off the front page of my site and probably Google in a short amount of time. It seemed like a better solution for both of us, but this person wanted the post.

Could I have written it? Probably, and perhaps I could have made the content interesting and relevant with my point of view. But it’s one of those things where I believe the post would have come out flat and not up to my personal standards of integrity and excellence.

Moreover, does this really contribute to the quality of the internet as a whole? Obviously the World Wide Web has panned out to be a gold mine for certain types of e-commerce (just ask those who benefited from Facebook’s IPO) but it also has its seedy dark corners and people who try to use it for destructive purposes. I’m not naive enough to believe all is sweetness and light in this realm or that every writer of any sort of quality is entitled to riches and fame, but I often wonder if writing just for the purpose of being on top of a search engine – whether the content is really relevant or not – is contributing to the quality of the discourse or the internet as a whole. Search engines also have a way of pulling the rug out from under those who simply exist to take advantage of their system.

So I suspect this gentleman and I will part ways. I offered him the opportunity to advertise on my site and he turned it down, which is his right. I’m certain he will find a writer who will do his bidding – after all, $150 for maybe a half-hour’s worth of work is a pretty good deal, and souls have likely been sold for far less. But I like to sleep soundly at night and the quality of this website is under my control, so if I can’t do something to a satisfaction standard I can live with it’s just not worth doing for any price.

Wright to leave Wicomico BOE

And the system grinds down another would-be participant.

Last year, we were surprised to find Governor O’Malley selected the two Republican picks for the Wicomico County Board of Education, incumbent member Robin Wright and former Delegate Carolyn Elmore. But just a year later we will need to find a replacement to finish out Wright’s five-year term.

While the published report came out Wednesday, I was actually aware of this about a week earlier. But I chose to keep it under my hat because I didn’t have permission to divulge the reason she decided to leave; now that I have seen it in the public realm I have my take on it. The Daily Times changed the actual text of the letter, though – this is from the copy of the letter I received as a member of the Republican Central Committee:

The financial disclosure requires very personal information about my family members, our family business, and business partners to be made available to the public. Many of our media outlets are uncaring with such information and would not be responsible for how information is released and distributed. I hope you understand my first responsibility is to protect my family and our business. (Emphasis mine.)

The part in bold was missing from the news item with a different sentence in its place, and that omission from the Daily Times story is quite important. Obviously we aren’t looking for people to enrich themselves on the public dime – although far too many seem to – and there are some good reasons to see the financial dealings of those who we entrust with the taxpayers’ money. But too often this information can become part of a partisan witch hunt or used to divide a candidate from his or her constituency. Wright’s family has a successful business and it’s obvious she would like to keep it that way.

A further effect, though, is one of discouraging good candidates from stepping up. Just like Wright, a person who is successful in business may see the ethics requirements and how available they are to people and simply say “forget it.” Seeing how the local newspaper of record may have played fast and loose with the intent of what was said in order to protect their interests, there’s no telling what devious outcomes are possible with someone’s ethics information.

I would also like to clear up a misconception on the part of the Daily Times staff. In the case of a vacancy in a Republican seat on the Board of Education, it is the Republican Central Committee who makes the selection – not both central committees, as the Daily Times implies. The Democrats tried to play this game last year, too – we Republicans can select a pool of qualified candidates on our own, thank you, so your help is neither needed nor desired. I don’t recall you ever asking us for input when Democratic vacancies occur. I could think of some good Democrats to add to various boards, except the problem is they keep switching over to the GOP because their former political party abandoned them on their pell-mell leftward slide.

If Republicans, Democrats, and unaffiliated and minor party voters want input on our Board of Education, all we have to do is adopt an elected school board. We can blame the Democrats (particularly local Delegates Norm Conway and Rudy Cane) for thwarting our chance of bringing that to fruition in the next two years.

In the here and now, though, we have a school board member to replace. Because Wright’s resignation isn’t effective until June 30, it’s fairly likely we will begin the discussion of selecting her replacement at our next Central Committee meeting June 4. Hopefully the prospect of filling out ethics forms won’t scare off good candidates.

Does Ben Cardin have to worry?

For some time, the conventional wisdom among national political observers has been that Maryland’s U.S. Senate race this November will be no contest and that Senator Ben Cardin will cruise to re-election. Since I’m not privy to the internal polling surely being done on behalf of either Ben Cardin or Republican hopeful Dan Bongino, I would tend to conclude based on the lack of news from the Bongino camp – which would surely trumpet any polling that shows his effort is within striking distance statewide – that the gap is still fairly wide.

However, there are several factors which may manifest themselves in a Bongino upset come November.

(continued on Examiner.com…)

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Moving forward in the wrong direction

When Governor O’Malley formally called the recently-completed Special Session back on May 3rd, he did so because there was “too much at stake not to move forward.” Unfortunately, after passing $260 million of tax increases and shifting the state’s teacher pension burden to its counties, it doesn’t appear Maryland workers will be able to respond accordingly. In fact, 6,000 fewer Maryland workers were contributing to the economy at the end of April than at the beginning, according to Labor Department figures released today – a statewide job loss which was the highest in the nation. Moreover, the March numbers were readjusted in a manner which gave the state a net job loss in that month, too.

(continued at Examiner.com…)

Maryland budget fixed – for now

At the estimated cost of $20,000 per day, the just-completed three-day Maryland General Assembly special session enabled Governor Martin O’Malley and his liberal Democratic allies in the state legislature to wrap up their work on the FY2013 budget. Through a combination of a $263.8 million tax hike which mainly falls on middle- to upper-class wage earners and a complex budget reconciliation, including the passing of the teacher pension burden down to the county level, the state has successfully framed the fiscal picture O’Malley wanted to paint for Maryland.

But for those of us who have observed Martin O’Malley’s five-year reign over Maryland, the result of this special session simply seems like deja vu all over again.

(continued at Examiner.com…)

Shorebird of the Week – May 17, 2012

The youngest member of the Shorebirds is not some highly touted pitcher, but his occasional batterymate.

As he turns 19 today, Venezuelan Gabriel Lino has emerged as the Shorebirds’ top backstop, playing the bulk of the time despite the team having other, older catchers with more minor league experience. The Orioles may be high on Lino because of a nice 2011 season he put together in the Gulf Coast League, hitting .282/2/11/.832 OPS in 28 games – granted, it’s a small sample size but they apparently like the bat and the fact that over his three seasons in the minor leagues Lino has erased 30% of opposing runners with a strong, accurate arm.

So far in 2012 Lino has held his own in his first full-season experience. After yesterday’s game Gabriel was hitting a respectable .245 with 2 home runs (both in the same April 15 game, a 19-2 blowout of Greensboro) and 12 RBI. His OPS isn’t as good as last year’s, but hovers close to the league average at a .681 mark. One thing he will have to work on, though, is cutting down on strikeouts – his 35 Ks is second on the team. The pitching here is certainly of a much better caliber than it was in the Dominican Summer League, where in 2010 Lino piled up 28 walks vs. 21 strikeouts in 54 games.

Since he is so young, a repeat course of low-A ball may not be out of the question for Lino even if increases his average to the .280 neighborhood he inhabited last season. One thing he will have to develop as he moves through the system is the ability to learn his pitching staff and call good games, and a lot of that can only come from experience. There’s plenty of time for Gabriel to move up the system, so he may as well get used to the grind of a 140-game season here.

Maryland Delegate: Baltimore harbor should be ‘no travel zone’

In a diverse state like Maryland, sometimes people walk on eggshells when the conversation turns to race. And then there’s Delegate Pat McDonough, a Republican from Baltimore County, who may have upset the apple cart with a release sent out today announcing an upcoming press conference Friday.

In the news release, titled ‘Black Youth Mobs Terrorize Baltimore on Holidays,’ McDonough recounts a number of recent incidents where “innocent tourists and others” were attacked and beaten, including one where the video went viral on YouTube. These attacks seriously tarnish Baltimore’s image, says McDonough.

(continued at Examiner.com…)

Doomsday rally quotables from notables

Some of what was said Monday evening in Annapolis:

Delegate Michael Smigiel:

“Did anybody here vote for somebody to create a quarter-billion dollar slush fund for you?” – reaction to a provision in the BRFA called the “Budget Stabilization Fund.”

“They’re telling us to move forward into a tax bayonet, pointed right at the heart of the middle class.”

“We’re going to be one Maryland united against these tax increases that they’re trying to put on us.”

“Only in ‘entitlement math’ is the fact that you’ve got a $700 million increase (but it becomes) a half a billion dollar cut.”

“A triple A bond rating means one thing: you’re willing to tax anybody, any amount, anytime. I would much rather have my freedom, I would much rather our counties have their sovereignty, then to have the burden of having to pay that $35 billion (in teacher pension liability) coming due.”

Introducing Delegate Mike McDermott: “Our next speaker has changed the way things are done in the legislature as far as speaking goes. They had to repaint the walls after Mike spoke the first session because he peeled a little of the paint off.”

U.S. Senate candidate Dan Bongino:

“Frankly, I’m tired of hearing about how Republicans – we’re this anti-government, anti-tax crowd. Folks, that’s nonsense. You know it and I know it. I will proudly give you my last dollar to fund our fighting men and women overseas…I will proudly fund our police, our fire, our teachers, our court system. But folks, I will be damned if I pay one more dollar to fund a cowboy poetry festival in Nevada.”

“We have all the gifts in the world (in Maryland.) Why are people leaving? It’s not us, it’s them…it’s him (Martin O’Malley.)”

“They like to classify people into ‘us’ and ‘them’, because if they don’t have victims they don’t have anything.”

State Senator E.J. Pipkin:

“(As of Wednesday, when the revenue bills pass) Martin O’Malley is officially the $2 billion governor.”

“One thing (Democrats) can never, ever stop: that’s the idea that we can have better ideas than what’s on the table, and we have the right to put them forward, and eventually our better ideas will win out.”

AFP Maryland head Charles Lollar:

“We have the arrogance of an administration that wants to take more money from you and I…it doesn’t work, you’re wasting more of our money.”

“It’s an issue about taking money from those who create opportunity and trying to give it to those who simply don’t want to create opportunity.”

“Whether it’s five people, 15,000 people, or 500 people – this is our state, this is our country, and you’re not going to take it without a fight on your hands.”

“We created the greatest economy on God’s green earth with sweat equity, an American spirit, and a belief in God that was greater than our own. And now my fear is…my daughters are going to inherit a state that does not understand the American spirit.”

“You cannot pursue happiness sitting on your rear end.”

To Governor O’Malley: “On our watch, you will not be able to continue to raise taxes and sleep peaceably because we’ll stand right outside your window…until you understand this is our state.”

David Craig, Harford County Executive and 2014 candidate for Governor:

“This is actually a doomsday session, not a doomsday budget. I could live with the budget that was proposed.”

“If you look at our history, we were called the Free State. Now we’re the Fee State. I’m surprised they didn’t charge you a fee to come here and stand and listen to this.”

“Please don’t die, because it’s going to cost you twice as much to get your death certificate.”

“We don’t have Democrats in this state – I get along with Democrats. We have ‘monocrats’ in this state. They just want a one-party state so they can run things.”

Delegate Mike McDermott:

“We have a governor that is increasingly putting the burden on our children’s children. Nonstop. It is the kids – today we were inside, and all the kids are taking the tour, and they’re walking around looking at history, and I’m thinking ‘you know what, every one of you poor kids is getting tagged for this.'”

“We’ve got the best schools that debt can buy.”

“When the governor moves you forward, just remember you’re walking a plank. That’s where we’re moving forward on, we’re moving on a plank.”

“Governor, if you’re not going to change your ways – if you’re not going to cut our taxes, if you’re not going to control our spending – then the next time you bring a budget in here, and we strike it, you strike the colors of the state of Maryland and you run up the Jolly Roger! Because this is nothing but a pirate ship! The only thing missing from the Governor and his staff is a patch over one eye and a parrot on his shoulder.”

Delegate Neil Parrott:

“Washington County, I look across the border – I see West Virginia. I see Virginia. I see Pennsylvania. And I see businesses, unfortunately, relocating or locating to those other counties instead of coming to Washington County.”

“We’ve got to stop this tax and spend attitude. It’s out of control. We also need to stop the one-party system in Maryland; it’s not working.”

“One other way – besides just winning elections – that we can change our state is something we haven’t used very much, but we just used it last year for the first time. They wanted to raise our taxes to give it to illegal aliens – that’s what they wanted to do and they still want to do it. Thanks to you all, last year we stopped that.”

“This year, I came to session thinking ‘you know, we’re (in a) $1.2 billion structural deficit,’ which just means this: we came to session thinking we’re spending $1.2 billion more than we’re taking in. That must be Governor O’Malley’s top priority…instead, he spent over half the session pushing through a bill to legalize same-sex marriage in Maryland.”

“This (Congressional districting) map is an example of politicians choosing their voters. We don’t want politicians choosing their voters, we the voters want to choose our politicians.”

Senator Nancy Jacobs, a 2012 Congressional candidate:

“Governor O’Malley does not live in reality. When was the last time this man bought a gallon of gas? Before he was here – on our taxpayer dime – he was in the City of Baltimore and they paid for his gas. When was the last time he bought a loaf of bread, or a gallon of milk? We should put him on one of those game shows and see if he knows the price of any of these things, because I don’t think he does.”

“I always thought that when (O’Malley) said we’ve got to move the state forward, that’s code for here comes another tax.”

“(O’Malley) has higher aspirations and they are costing the citizens of Maryland so he can go to Washington.”

Delegate Cathy Vitale:

“We didn’t pick the cuts. We didn’t select what was going to happen. The doomsday budget was carefully selected to cause you to come back here to fix the problem. Anybody figure out there’s a problem?”

“Decisions were made, it’s time to live with them. Go home.”

Delegate Gail Bates:

“Our beautiful State House dome is made of wood…do you know they don’t have a single nail in that? It was all put together with wooden pegs. Do you know why? There was a tax on nails, and they refused to pay it.”

**********

As far as actual results go, the protest didn’t do much. We’ll get the income tax on those who make a middle-class living, the tax on certain tobacco products, and other “revenue enhancements” we don’t need. But now we have them on record again, and you can bet votes from this Special Session will find their way to the monoblogue Accountability Project.

Small but feisty gathering rallies against ‘doomsday session’

Editor’s note, November 2019: This is another of my posts reclaimed from the defunct Examiner.com website. It’s been somewhat adapted to include several slideshow photos.

A crowd gathers for the Rally Against the Doomsday Session sponsored by the House TEA Party Caucus.

Despite the ominous skies and threat of rain, about 150 TEA Party patriots gathered in Lawyers Mall in Annapolis yesterday evening to express their displeasure with the Maryland General Assembly special session going on nearby.

Delegate Mike Smigiel acted as the host for the event.

In the shadow of Government House, the Annapolis address where Governor Martin O’Malley resides, protest organizer Delegate Michael Smigiel led the group in shouting “No more taxes!” and presented nearly a dozen speakers who said their piece about the hastily-called legislative session Democrats felt was necessary to increase state revenue.

Many speakers pointed out the budget adopted during the regular General Assembly session was both in balance and about $700 million larger than last year. In his opening statement Smigiel characterized the state as “mov(ing) forward into a tax bayonet” and challenged attendees to be “one Maryland united against tax increases.” He also termed the budget cuts Democrats bemoaned as “entitlement math,” as overall spending increased.

Maryland State Senate Minority Leader E.J. Pipkin.

Senate Minority Leader E.J. Pipkin echoed Smigiel’s remarks, calling Martin O’Malley “the $2 billion governor,” for that was how much he had increased fees and taxes on an annualized basis since taking office in 2007. Pipkin also revealed that yesterday Republicans introduced what he called “the 2 percent solution.” Those assembled were told that a small 2 percent spending cut would negate the need for new revenue or the necessity of shifting teacher pension liability to the counties, as they would be under the Democrats’ plan.

Delegate Mike McDermott compared Governor O’Malley’s governing to that of a pirate ship.

Several other Republican members of the General Assembly made their points during the protest, which lasted slightly over an hour. Most forceful among them was Delegate Mike McDermott, who bellowed at the governor, “the next time you bring a budget in here, and we strike it, you strike the colors of the state of Maryland and you run up the Jolly Roger because this is nothing but a pirate ship!”

Delegate Neil Parrott spoke about how state budget priorities were harming his district.

Delegate Neil Parrott was more subdued, but spoke about seeing businesses go to nearby West Virginia or Pennsylvania, bypassing his county. “We’ve got to stop this tax and spend attitude,” Parrott added, while also saying that we can take back Maryland via the ballot box and put a check and balance on some of the more egregious things the General Assembly does by using the referendum process.

Other members of the General Assembly who made remarks were Senator Nancy Jacobs, who wondered if Martin O’Malley was living in reality, and Delegates Cathy Vitale and Gail Bates.

U.S. Senate candidate Dan Bongino lent his support to the effort.

But speaking parts weren’t just reserved for members of the General Assembly. U.S. Senate candidate Dan Bongino made the case that it wasn’t just about taxes. “I’m tired of hearing about how Republicans are the anti-tax crowd,” he said. Instead, it was about prioritizing spending toward things we need as a society and away from frivolous items like a cowboy poetry contest in Nevada or a study of shrimp running on treadmills. “How dare you ask us for more?” Bongino asked, exhorting us to “cede no more ground.”

The chair of Maryland’s Americans for Prosperity chapter, Charles Lollar added his voice to the chorus calling for fiscal conservatism.

And while AFP Maryland head Charles Lollar believed “this fight…is about our liberty,” Harford County Executive David Craig – an “unofficial official” 2014 GOP gubernatorial candidate – reminded those within hearing distance that, while keeping taxes low, “I make (Harford County) live within its means.”

“I could live with the budget that was proposed,” added Craig.

Harford County Executive David Craig told those assembled how he kept a balanced budget in his county.

Attendees also heard briefly from Fourth District Congressional candidate Faith Loudon.

And while turnout was on the light side overall, a number of people came from outlying areas to attend with the Eastern Shore quite well-represented.

Representing Wicomico County: Julie Brewington, a former candidate for Delegate from Fruitland, and Jackie Wellfonder, a Bongino volunteer from Salisbury.

There were also a number of media outlets in place to develop the story of the protest, amplifying the voice of those who attended and giving conservatives an opportunity to get their message out.

A number of media outlets came to cover the Rally Against the Doomsday Session, including me.

Delegate Mike Smigiel is interviewed by a local television station.

In particular, one young lady stole the show. Ten-year-old Emily Gray arrived at the protest with her mother, toting a handwritten sign which read “Governor O’Malley, when I graduate I have to move away. I won’t be able to pay my share of this debt.”

Ten year old Emily Gray would like to stay in Maryland after she graduates.

Another couple had bright handwritten signs pleading with the government to not take her last nickel because she “needs it to eat” while her friend stated “I’m poor enough – stop putting me in the hole more!”

Dueling signs with the same basic message.

The Rally Against the Doomsday Session culminated a full day of political expression in and around the state capitol. It began with a ‘picket line’ outside manned by about 15 who stood in the rain Monday morning to solicit reaction to their cause. Inside, Republicans held a news conference condemning the proposed tax hikes and gained an unlikely ally in Democratic Comptroller Peter Franchot, another eyeing the open governor’s seat in 2014. Later at noon, a second press conference was held by the Maryland chapter of Americans for Prosperity.

On the other side, a counter-protest favoring the tax increases was slated for Lawyers Mall late yesterday afternoon, but the rain threat forced the protest into a nearby union hall. A few stragglers from that event, obvious in their green AFSCME shirts, strolled by to check out the Rally Against the Doomsday Session but no incidents occurred.

Unfortunately, the immediate result of the protests is likely to be negligible. Majority Democrats have the votes to ram through any revenue enhancements they desire, with the only question being just how severely they will impact wage-earners in the state.

But politics isn’t always just about the here and now. Certainly those who oppose the laundry list of tax increases which have been proposed time and again by revenue-hungry Democrats in Annapolis are making a mental note to remind voters in two years just who voted for what.

I think I will also do a post of notable quotables from the event just for monoblogue so look for that in the next day or two.