Michael

Nationalizing a campaign

It’s only baby steps, but Libertarian Congressional hopeful Muir Boda is hoping for a little bit of exposure tomorrow evening when he appears on the internet’s Freedom Broadcasting Network. The online broadcaster will slot Boda on the “Ground Wars” program at 7 p.m.

Of course, it’s not likely to entice nearly as many viewers as the typical 30-second commercial during the local newscast – the typical weapon of an average Congressional campaign – but it’s doubtful that Muir, who has just $150 cash on hand for his low-budget campaign, will come anywhere close to being able to afford a campaign commercial. He’ll be hard-pressed to get much radio time at this pace. On the other hand, Democratic challenger Wendy Rosen had just over $30,000 cash on hand (and over $80,000 in debt) during the same reporting period while Andy Harris is sitting on a war chest of over $700,000 on hand. Harris definitely has economy of scale on his side.

Yet the prospect of exposure in any form – particularly if it’s free – is the lifeblood of any low-budget campaign. And Boda needs to increase his visibility if he wants any chance to represent his viewpoint in a formal debate; however, at this stage I’m not aware of any debate plans for the First Congressional District. Hopefully Andy Harris will agree to a series of several throughout the district.

But any show which has a host billing himself as “The Minister of Truth” might be interesting to check out. So if you want to find out more about the Salisbury resident who’s running for Congress, you should check the program either live or via FBN’s YouTube channel after the fact.

Gambling on our fiscal future

It appears the Maryland General Assembly will be working this summer after all, as Governor O’Malley announced there will be a Special Session beginning Thursday, August 9. A few observations:

First of all, beginning the Special Session on a Thursday probably means they’ll try and wrap things up in two days. It’s doubtful the General Assembly will want to be working over the weekend and it’s probable that the session has the single-minded goal of getting authorization for a sixth casino in Prince George’s County and offering table games at existing facilities before voters. The rumors I’ve been hearing make it sound as though the change from a 67% tax rate may be dead for now – but don’t be surprised if that issue is revisited in the regular session next year.

But the question is what people like us get in the deal. I understand the proponents are making all sorts of claims that counties will see a bounty of cash flow into their coffers, but any and all of the financial components are subject to change at the whim of the General Assembly. Since the Eastern Shore only has nine House votes (seven of which are minority Republicans) and three Senate votes (2 of the 3 are GOP), it’s more than likely that any sweetheart deals will be made to entice General Assembly members from Baltimore City and Montgomery County to vote for the plan at the expense of other parts of the state. That claim of $4.9 million for Wicomico County may end up being 4.9 thousand by the time all is said, done, and horse traded.

(Also worthy of note regarding the Eastern Shore delegation: the only three who voted for the bill in 2007 were Democrat Delegate Norm Conway and two Republicans: Senator Rich Colburn and the late Delegate Page Elmore. As it stands now, Senator Jim Mathias – who was a Delegate then – may be a vote against in the Senate, leaving Conway and Colburn as the lone gambling supporters of the Eastern Shore delegation.)

Oh, and speaking of horses: I thought the intention of the original gambling bill was to prop up local racetracks by allowing them to be slot machine locations. Yet I believe Ocean Downs is the only racetrack which doubles as a slot location – the other sites are standalone sites with no racing. Nor would it shock me to see at least some part of a prospective tax cut for casino operators come out of the 9.5% the equine industry is guaranteed in Maryland. The 48.5% for education will be the last thing they touch.

We all have to concede that, compared with the rosy predictions of $1.36 billion dollars in revenue by FY2013 – the year we are in now – slot machines have been an utter failure in Maryland. The reasons for this are legion:

Not all of the expected locations are up and running yet – locations in Baltimore City and Allegany County (Rocky Gap) won’t be open until 2013 and 2014, respectively. The Maryland Live! casino in Anne Arundel County just opened this year.
Because other states weren’t shackled by the poorly thought-out system of needing voter approval to make technical changes, they have already put table games in place, making them more attractive to gamblers.
Entertainment options are limited at the Ocean Downs casino by state law. This puts them at some disadvantage to nearby Delaware locations in Harrington and Dover which permit live music.
Finally, a poor economy has limited people’s “fun money.” On a personal level, I used to go to Harrington maybe once or twice a year with the bowling prize money I received at season’s end or other “mad money” I came across. But that’s no longer possible when there are more bills to pay and less income being made; certainly I’m not the Lone Ranger in that particular situation.

So don’t look for gambling to be a cure-all, and take any predictions of revenue from the state with a significant grain of salt. It’s clear that those in charge of Maryland didn’t think things through when they sold us the bill of goods known as Question 2 four years ago, and now that potential big-money campaign contributors and Big Labor are beckoning to build a casino in Prince George’s County just outside Washington, D.C. (talk about regressive taxation there) it’s suddenly enough of an emergency to call our legislature in.

I know Senate Minority Leader E.J. Pipkin was not amused:

The real crisis in Maryland is not whether there should be a sixth casino location, but rather the trend of recent job losses. The state lost 11,000 jobs in June and has witnessed 4 straight months of job declines. Gaming expansion won’t create jobs for at least another year, and then at most 3,000 jobs. Marylanders need help today.

Meanwhile, this has been the ‘Summer of Union Handouts’ with teachers’ unions getting their own special session in May and now the trade unions getting their own special session in August. Curiously left out are the close to 2,000 union steelworkers laid-off last month at the Sparrows Point plant. The state is bleeding jobs at a rate of tens of thousands on a monthly basis, and the best the Governor O’Malley can muster is, ‘If you give me another casino, I can get you 3,000 jobs in a few years.’ How is that relief?

The Governor should know that economic development is more than just bio-tech and casinos. Instead of a special session for a single casino, we should be taking this time to develop policies benefiting all of Maryland’s working families – not just those with powerful unions.

Five years ago, Governor O’Malley called a Special Session which dealt not just with gambling but also raised taxes and spent big money on providing coverage to a small fraction of those Maryland residents who didn’t have health insurance. All this was supposed to solve our state’s structural deficit once and for all.

But a half-decade later, buffeted by damaging economic winds created in no small part by Democrats just like those who run Maryland’s government with an iron fist, we still struggle with financial hardship as a state – unfortunately, these troubles also affect the federal and local governments as well as many millions of Americans who by no means are better off than they were four years ago.

In short, there are two key problems with Martin O’Malley’s Democratic approach to state finances: rich people don’t stay to be hosed by higher taxes and broke people don’t gamble. Other than that, things are just going swimmingly.

Friday night videos – episode 75

There’s no real theme to this week’s episode, so let’s get down to it.

I believe I featured another song from the now-defunct group Deep Sea Research awhile back, but here they jam to the Beatles classic ‘Come Together.’

This bluesy number is an original from the band 7 Days Wasted, recorded a couple years ago. It’s a little dark but the music is still good.

This video has an interesting story attached. I found it on the Order 6D-6 page, but it’s actually an older song done by a band in which two of their members formerly played called Multiple Personalities. They recruited a drummer from another band they used to play in and remade the song. I thought it was a good song to include, and it’s too bad the original band was derailed by one’s struggle with “seriously abusing his favorite drugs.”

I featured this up-and-coming band a couple weeks past, but this is a different song from Red Angel.

Red Angel opened last night for the Charm City Devils, a Baltimore-based band which has received attention and airplay for a remake of ‘Man Of Constant Sorrow’ so perhaps this band is going places.

Finally, I know it’s been hot outside but this event is right around the corner. I recorded a few videos last fall at Punkin Chunkin and so did whoever recorded this from the Mari Hill Band.

But autumn isn’t here yet, so keep rockin’ the summer!

Shorebird of the Week – July 26, 2012

The photos above show the two sides of Wynston Sawyer, a player who’s been useful to the Shorebirds this season as he alternates from behind the dish and over at first base. In fact Wynston’s split time almost equally between the two, ranking second on the team with both his 27 games caught and 31 at first base.

Meanwhile, Sawyer has become somewhat of an offensive threat over the last month. Hitting just .169 at the league’s All-Star break, his .330 clip since has raised his batting mark to a more respectable .234 average. While he’s not been a stellar hitter in the professional ranks so far – Wynston’s current mark is three points higher than his career average (and peak, having hit the same .231 in both the Gulf Coast League and with Aberdeen) coming into the season – the 2010 8th round pick out of Scripps Ranch High School in California has shown an improving on-base percentage and better eye at the plate, with a nice ratio of 31 walks to 40 strikeouts in 2012.

While he was drafted to be a catcher, it seemed for a time that the Orioles were more and more interested in seeing how Sawyer does at first base. One drawback of Wynston’s so far is his lack of ability to throw would-be base stealers out, only nabbing 7 of the 50 who have tried this year after a season in Aberdeen where he only threw out 6 of 58. So the 20-year-old may be making a transition at this level to increase his worth to the team as a whole.

But trading away Gabriel Lino left a catching void in A-ball that Sawyer is attempting to fill. If the Orioles would like to keep Wynston as a backstop it may not hurt him to repeat at Delmarva in 2013 in order to build experience and a rapport with the pitching staff. It’s likely as well that Wynston will see additional time behind the plate for the rest of this year, so he gets the chance to learn and grow both as a hitter and receiver.

Hypocrisy at its finest

You can pull the yellow flag out of your back pocket and fire it in my direction because I’m about to be assessed a 15-yard penalty for piling on. But it will be worth it.

As many of you already know, five plaintiffs, who are all connected to the state Democratic party in some manner, along with the Maryland Democratic Party itself filed a complaint yesterday against the State Board of Elections. The Maryland Democrats are eviscerated by Richard Cross, Brian Griffiths and Jim Jamitis (who steals a little bit of my thunder) as well.

Jamitis brings up a topic I was thinking about, too: the same party who haughtily vows through this court case that it’s “committed to insuring confidence in (the) petition process” is dead-set against insuring confidence in the voting process itself by fighting tooth and nail against photo voter identification, even when the state gives it out for free.

Yet there is something strange about the plaintiffs’ contention. Their assertion is that a certain number of petition signatures are invalid because they were signed off a form created by MDPetitions.com which had the voter’s information already printed out – it wasn’t in handwritten form, they argue, and that makes the signature invalid.

This evening I did a little research. I went to my wallet, rifled through it a little bit around the moths which have gathered there because after the high taxes these same Democrats have enacted there’s nothing left in it but the moths’ remains, and found a voter registration card. It’s a card which bears my signature, along with my pre-printed name and address, among other vital information. And it seems to me, if memory serves, that every time I go to vote I sign my name next to the pre-printed information on the registration sheet.

So, Maryland Democrats, are you telling me my vote is invalid because I signed these pre-printed forms? I understand you probably don’t like the fact that I use a little common sense and vote for those who possess same – which naturally disqualifies about 95 percent or more of your party – but the last time I checked, my vote counted for something. It seemed to help elect several of the now-majority Republicans in local offices around Maryland.

I am hoping that a court of competent jurisdiction looks at this complaint, laughs, and places it in File 13. If Joseph Sandler is a party to any lawsuit we can bet it’s not in the best interests of the voters of Maryland since he also tried to get the in-state tuition for illegal aliens referendum tossed out, too. But because the number of signatures was close to the line and Maryland Democrats can’t stand the idea that someone might question their gerrymandering, they’re going to this well once again. They’ve learned from their President that if you can’t beat ’em, get ’em thrown off the ballot by whatever means necessary.

So the next time Maryland Democrats accuse Republicans of trying to suppress voting, just remind them that they’ve challenged two of the three ballot issues petitioned to referendum in an effort to prevent voters from having their say and possibly overturning these laws. (The only reason they didn’t try and knock out the third was the overwhelming support it received, gathering nearly three times the required signatures.) If you’re so confident of victory over “a declining party who has abandoned all hopes of winning elections” (forgetting again that the GOP holds more local offices than they do) then you should have nothing to fear, right?

More depressing Maryland employment news

The bad month for Governor Martin O’Malley continues, with his new nemesis Change Maryland at the forefront once again. They did the research and determined that Maryland’s anemic employment gains were, in fact, no gains at all over the first six months of 2012 – as it turned out the Free State lost more jobs than any other state. Bureau of Labor Statistics data from the watchdog group indicates around 10,300 jobs were lost by Maryland during this time frame; indeed, that’s more than any other state.

And the news gets worse if you expand the period of study backward – only Pennsylvania has lost more jobs in this region than Maryland, and it’s a larger state.

So far Governor Martin O’Malley has been mum on this data – as opposed to previous releases by the group, where an O’Malley mouthpiece tried his best at obfuscation – but Change Maryland head Larry Hogan seems to be burnishing his gubernatorial credentials by pointing these dismal employment numbers out, stating in the accompanying release:

Governor O’Malley says repeatedly that Maryland has fared better than other states during the recession. He should be talking about our state’s performance relative to others in this region, not compared to Michigan or Nevada. Once again he is cherry picking data in an attempt to fool people.

As someone who has lost his job during the time period in question, I think Hogan may be on to something when he talks about the frequent tax increases and lack of spending discipline being an issue in the state.

Apparently Nancy Jacobs does too, as the State Senator and Second District Congressional challenger talked about job losses in her region during her opponent’s recent Congressional tenure:

News of layoffs has been especially bad in Congressional District 2 where I am the Republican nominee for Congress. On Friday two more Baltimore County companies announced layoffs. At Siemens in Dundalk, 38 jobs are being cut. Bank of America in Hunt Valley reports it will cut 55 employees in Hunt Valley. Eastern Baltimore County was especially hard it by the loss of 2000 jobs at RG Steel in Sparrows Point Plant earlier this month. We must ask what Dutch Ruppersberger what is he doing in Washington to address this issue so critical to his constituents!

Well, the truth of the matter is that doing something in Washington is the wrong approach – the better question to me is what Nancy Jacobs will undo in Washington. One who uses the slogan “Vote Jobs – Vote Jacobs” may be well-served to show what she can do. Luckily she does have a record:

Maryland Business for Responsive Government gives me a 100 percent ranking when it comes to my votes that improve business and create jobs.

But I wanted to get back to that raw data. Thanks to Jim Pettit, who forwarded me the data, I looked at all the states which lost jobs – here’s the list, in alphabetical order:

Kansas lost 7,800 jobs.
Maine lost 4,300 jobs.
Maryland lost 10,300 jobs.
Mississippi lost 4,100 jobs.
Missouri lost 7,700 jobs.
Nevada lost 400 jobs.
New Hampshire lost 3,700 jobs.
New Mexico lost 4,400 jobs.
Rhode Island lost 800 jobs.
Tennessee lost 4,200 jobs.
West Virginia lost 6,800 jobs.
Wisconsin lost 2,100 jobs.

So it’s true that in raw numbers Maryland performed the worst. But there is a proviso which Martin O’Malley may be able to hang his hat on just a little bit. These are job losses expressed as a percentage of the workforce for these states:

Kansas, 0.58%
Maine, 0.72%
Maryland, 0.40%
Mississippi, 0.38%
Missouri, 0.29%
Nevada, 0.04%
New Hampshire, 0.59%
New Mexico, 0.55%
Rhode Island, 0.17%
Tennessee, 0.16%
West Virginia, 0.89%
Wisconsin, 0.08%

Measured this way there are five states which did worse than Maryland: Kansas, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and West Virginia. So now we’re #46 instead of #51…woohoo!

But the other chart Change Maryland bases its assertions on compares Maryland to a peer group of surrounding states and Washington D.C. and tabulates the total employment figures from January, 2007 through last month. This time I will do both the total jobs gained or lost and percentage, along with peak and trough months:

Maryland, a net 39,900 jobs lost (-1.53%) – peak February 2008, trough February 2010.
Virginia, a net 32,100 jobs lost (-0.85%) – peak February 2008, trough February 2010.
Delaware, a net 20,000 jobs lost (-4.55%) – peak February 2008, trough February 2010.
Pennsylvania, a net 58,800 jobs lost (-1.02%) – peak April 2008, trough February 2010.
West Virginia, a net 600 jobs gained (+0.08%) – peak September 2008, trough February 2010.
District of Columbia, a net 46,200 jobs gained (+6.69%) – peak April 2012, trough June 2007.

Out of these states, only Delaware has fared worse in terms of a percentage of jobs lost. It’s also very telling that early 2008 was peak employment for most areas – except Washington, D.C. And while the others hit bottom in February 2010, the District – while in a bit of a lull – was still well above its pre-Obama low point.

So maybe the problem is in Washington, because these jobs are the fool’s gold of the economy – pencil pushers who add no real value.

And while the Change Maryland group is securing sensational headlines a little bit beyond the true scope of the revelations, the news is still quite bad for Martin O’Malley. As he tours the country on his perceived 2016 Presidential run, MOM’s failing to notice the vast majority of states are creating jobs despite his party’s best efforts. How long this can go on may depend on who is elected this fall.

Election watchdog challenges more names, offers online training

The good-government advocate group Election Integrity Maryland took another step forward in their effort to cull out errors in the Maryland voter registration database, announcing a challenge to over 1,000 more registrations in Montgomery County. Generally the group has found fault with duplicate names at the same address, but has also found voters registered at addresses which are vacant lots and a lack of attention to removing deceased voters from the rolls.

“We have asked all of the Boards to keep us apprised of the progress they make to ensure that Maryland’s voter rolls are up-to-date prior to the next election,” said EIM president Cathy Kelleher.

(continued at Examiner.com…)

WCRC meeting – July 2012

There is rarely a dull moment when Delegate Mike McDermott is around, and tonight’s Wicomico County Republican Club meeting was no different.

Once we got through the Lord’s Prayer, Pledge of Allegiance, my usual reading of the minutes, and the treasurer’s report, we also received a nice note from WCRC scholarship winner Jonathan Hurst that we shared with the membership.

But the folks were there to hear Mike McDermott speak, and that he did. After noting that he wanted to hear our concerns, he made sure to thank those who ran for office – I’m “thankful for the roads you paved,” said Mike. Both Wicomico and Worcester counties have been successful in advancing GOP candidates, with two exceptions: Delegate Norm Conway and Senator Jim Mathias. In 2010, “we had opportunity that was there,” said McDermott. And while we came up a little short, “we have a great foundation,” McDermott said.

Still, Mike contended that we needed to do a little better at “painting the picture,” reminding people that the GOP is “about people being allowed to be all they can be.” On the other hand, Democrats in Annapolis were overly restrictive and created “punitive” policies: case in point, restrictions which added up to $25,000 to the cost of building a home in certain areas of the state. It echoed a theme he brought up at the end of the regular General Assembly session. “Don’t you make a mistake,” said Mike, “that (regulating development) is their goal.”

Michael also spoke briefly on the possible upcoming Special Session for expanding gambling, predicting they’ll be “back up in Annapolis in the next two weeks.” But he did assess that Democrats are “standing in the way of their own voters” with their entrenched positions on many issues. Yet Republicans had “core values (which) need to be untouchable” in order to represent the best interests of their constituents, McDermott concluded.

In the absence of Dave Parker, Ann Suthowski gave an abbreviated Central Committee report. She spoke about our upcoming August meeting and having a presence at the upcoming Wicomico Farm and Home Show.

Shawn Jester also gave a short Lower Shore Young Republican report, saying the group had gone dormant over the last few months but the state YRs had promised them assistance over the next few months to kickstart the group once again.

Bonnie Luna was multitasking this evening, handling reports for the Andy Harris and Mitt Romney campaigns as well as updating us on the new party headquarters, which I’ll get to momentarily. She first thanked the WCRC and the Central Committee for all their support and praised McDermott for his “exciting and encouraging message.”

The 2012 headquarters will be at 800 South Salisbury Boulevard, which is a former Blockbuster video store. It will have a “soft opening” on August 1st, with the grand opening set for Saturday, August 18. Another event likely to be held at headquarters will be a Romney watch party on August 30, once he accepts the GOP nomination.

Jackie Wellfonder chimed in for Dan Bongino’s campaign, saying she has campaign materials but looking for 4×8 sign location.

Woody Willing spoke about getting the 9,000 or so unaffiliated voters to our side, but more formally revealed that election judge training will happen “soon.”

Representing Election Integrity Maryland, Cathy Keim mentioned the total number of registration challenges levied by the group passed the 9,000 mark because voter rolls aren’t being kept up to date. These challenges are only from Baltimore, Montgomery, and Prince George’s counties. She also mentioned that the EIM poll watcher training will soon be available in webinar format on July 31-August 1 and August 14-15. But even after that training, Keim cautioned that poll watchers need authorization from a candidate or Central Committee to operate.

I gave a very quick assessment of the Tawes Crab and Clam Bake (much shorter than this) and pointed out there was a signup sheet for the Farm and Home Show – we will have a presence there.

One other announcement: tickets are also on sale for the club’s Crab Feast.

County Council member Gail Bartkovich then took the floor, updating us on progress from both the county’s Redistricting Committee and Charter Review Committee, both of which are proposing “drastic changes.” One interesting Charter provision is term limits for the County Executive, something which we were told was in the original proposal which created the position a decade ago but excised by the then-Democrat controlled County Council.

The plan is for public hearings to be scheduled, with the final decision made in mid-August. I will have more on the subject as the time draws closer.

Democrats: Maryland is in the bag for Obama

They don’t say it in so many words, but I found this e-mail I received from the President’s campaign intriguing:

Next weekend, we’ll be 100 days away from Election Day.

We’ve got a lot of voters to get registered and ready for this election — and that’s part of why First Lady Michelle Obama just launched a new effort called It Takes One.

The idea behind it is pretty simple: One person reaching out to others, bringing in one person at a time, is what will make all the difference. She’s challenging us all to bring one new person along every time we take action for this campaign — whether that’s chipping in a few dollars, registering to vote, or showing up at the It Takes One weekend of action in Virginia and Pennsylvania on Saturday, July 28th, and Sunday, July 29th.

Folks from Maryland will be traveling to Pennsylvania and Virginia for the weekend of action, to register voters and reach out to folks there to talk about President Obama’s accomplishments — alongside that one new person they asked to join them for the day.

If you skip the first paragraphs of community organization garbage – although we have a lot of voters to get registered and ready for this election, too – you’ll notice that Jeremy Bird of Obama ~~For~~ Against America wants to use Maryland people to work in Virginia and Pennsylvania, figuring those states are more important to work in. It’s sending the message that they consider Maryland as their territory. But I’m stubborn and agree with Dan Bongino and other thoughtful Republicans: we cede no ground.

This e-mail also gave me an important piece of electoral information, as I now know the local Democrats will have a headquarters in the old Mail Movers building (the one which used to be a bank before that) on Old Ocean City Road. They must not want a whole lot of visibility – although that location is conveniently close by the teachers’ union headquarters. I happen to know the local Republicans will have a headquarters as well, with an official announcement coming soon. (It will be nearby to the locations we used in 2008 and 2010, along that stretch of South Salisbury Boulevard.)

Now it’s time for a little fun. You know, since the Obama forces created an #ItTakesOne Twitter hashtag, I have some suggestions for its usage:

#ItTakesOne entrepreneur to create a job – and one President to take all the credit for doing so.
#ItTakesOne more high-dollar fundraiser among the 1% for Obama to extend his class warfare rhetoric and pander to the rest of us.
#ItTakesOne call to Harry Reid to move job-creating legislation from the House. Obama won’t because he wants to “spread the wealth” via gov’t.
#ItTakesOne speech to show President Obama doesn’t get it when it comes to job creation. “You didn’t build that”? Yes we did.

Maybe I’ll toss those on Twitter this afternoon as I’m working. I’m sure my readers can come up with many more and show the real truth about our current regime. I look forward to reading them – feel free to share in the comment section.

Who knew the guy could write?

I suppose this could fall once again into the category I alluded to last week in my odds and ends post, Sunday evening reading. But this article on RedState by U.S. Senate candidate Dan Bongino hits the subject on the head like few pundits and even fewer Beltway insiders can. (I set this link up to open in a new window, so go ahead and read it then come back here.)

Are you back? Pretty good stuff, huh?

Over the last seventeen years or so that I’ve been politically involved, I’ve heard any number of officeholders and challengers who can talk up a blue streak and sound like they have empathy for the common man. Nine times out of ten there’s at least some amount of acting ability involved because, if you listen and see how the person acts you can tell he or she is putting on a show and telling people what they think they want to hear.

But Dan Bongino is the exception to the rule. Now I’m not going to lie to you and tell you we are best buddies but we have a professional relationship insofar as I’ve covered his campaign for about a year and spoken to him both in person and on the phone a number of times. The thing I find most strange, though, is that Dan comes from a law enforcement background so one would assume he’s a no-nonsense, by-the-book, tough as nails guy – but he’s really not. I hesitate to use the word “sensitive” because it conveys an impression that he would be wishy-washy as far as principles go – although it’s obvious that with no voting record to go by we have something of a blank slate on our hands – but he seems to have a big heart, thoughtful beliefs, and an undying love for his family. Then again, many millions of fathers have that same quality but Dan is the one in question running for office.

Even so, the most salient point made by Bongino is this:

The President’s statements are equally infuriating because he is attempting to create a fissure between Americans where there isn’t one. No Republican I am aware of is running for office on a platform of no taxes, no roads, no teachers and no military. I cite these examples because the President chose to mention the use of roads, the work of good teachers and the development of the backbone of the modern internet, through a military research initiative, as examples of how government should be the primary recipient of accolades for individual success. This is absurd and displays a backward logic which is hard to justify.

Conservatives tend to have their argument oversimplified when we say we want government out of the way. There are functions of government which practically everyone agrees are legitimate duties for the common good: as examples, local jurisdictions are charged with building and maintaining public roads and other infrastructure and providing for public safety through fire and police departments; meanwhile states handle things in areas such as the judicial system and elections, and the federal government is charged with items like national defense, coining money, and other roles spelled out in the Constitution. This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list of all functions, but the idea seems to be that the best government is the one closest to the people.

So when President Obama made his Roanoke remarks it showed a clear misunderstanding of the proper role of government. Certainly our elected leaders can create the conditions for a businessman to succeed, but what Obama is missing is that the entrepreneur is taking the initiative that someone else more content to sit on the couch and watch old movies all day chooses not to. The Bongino example of his wife working on a project at 5 a.m. while comforting a cranky baby is something those who grew businesses can relate to in some manner.

It’s not perfect, but the ideal in America is equality of opportunity – unfortunately, it appears the modern federal government tries to put their finger on the scale more often than not in an attempt to artificially create an equality of outcome that’s not possible when those who play the game are simple human beings. If I had to make a living building things with my hands I would have a quite difficult time succeeding on my own, but if the government took an interest in my plight and decided that people had to buy my wares or use my services regardless of the quality, the country would be poorer as a whole. In a nutshell, that’s the problem with how the government tries to pick winners – they create a lot of undeserving losers.

And telling people who know perfectly well the sacrifices they made to succeed that it was only because government got involved? Yeah, I’m pissed too.

So when you consider the Bongino piece, ask yourself if you would believe the same thing coming from the pen of “our friend” Ben Cardin? Well, considering that the only thing Ben built for himself was a political career that’s spanned four and a half decades, one has to wonder which of the two really relates better to the average Maryland working family? The answer is clear once you read Dan’s post.

Maryland keeps leading the way – in losing jobs

Another dismal unemployment report continued a bad month for Governor Martin O’Malley as he tries to regain his early momentum for a probable 2016 Presidential run. Unfortunately for both the governor and those who were more directly affected, Department of Labor estimates peg 11,000 as the number of jobs lost by Marylanders in June, although the DOL also revised the number in Maryland who lost jobs in May downward from 7,500 to 2,900, according to Jamie Smith Hopkins at the Baltimore Sun. The state’s topline unemployment rate ratcheted upward to 6.9 percent, although Hopkins was careful to add this was still below the national average. Obviously that’s cold comfort to those whose personal unemployment number reached 100 percent.

While the GOP is sympathetic to the plight of these newly jobless, they are also using this new data to point out the ineffectiveness of the state’s Democratic majority to address the problem. For example, O’Malley’s favorite new whipping boy and subject of “juvenile attacks” Larry Hogan of Change Maryland commented:

Something isn’t working here. Now would be an excellent time to re-evaluate our tax-and-spend approach to governing and start developing policies that increase private sector job growth. It’s unacceptable to have increases in the unemployment rate month after month.

Fellow gubernatorial hopeful and Harford County Executive David Craig chimed in:

While the state of Maryland has raised taxes, our debt has also increased. This is a dangerous formula and it is the wrong direction for our great state.

Added U.S. Senate candidate Dan Bongino – a man of succinct words:

Absolutely inexcusable. The time for real change is now.

Yet there are those on the Left who seem to think this isn’t such a big deal. One is House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, a Washington insider who believes that economists think food stamps and unemployment insurance are two of the “most stimulative (things) that you can do,” as quoted in CNS News. Hoyer goes on:

Why is that? Because those folks who receive those resources must spend them. And they’ll spend them almost upon receipt. Most economists with whom I talk believe that those with significant discretionary income, that that’s not the case.

Well, of course that’s not the case for those with “significant discretionary income” because they either have steady jobs which give them a paycheck every week or two or they are successful business owners. Congressman Hoyer, those are the people who create jobs, so why “reward” them with higher taxes? That’s what Maryland does on a state level and we’ve seen the results.

If anything is plain to see regarding our economic situation, it’s that people need jobs. There’s an honest difference in political philosophy between that expressed in President Obama’s “If you’ve got a business – you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen” speech in Roanoke, Virginia; an approach which presupposes government needs to step in to “spread the wealth around” in the name of fairness, versus one where job creation is encouraged by allowing employers more freedom to keep their own capital and invest in ways they see fit, like expanding their workforce, building or securing new facilities, and raising the wages of deserving employees as a means of profit sharing. (And yes, I understand there are some business owners who keep the profit for themselves.) But you can’t share a profit if none is to be made.

My adopted home state has a number of assets: good location in relation to markets, a well-educated workforce, and the advantage of having the seat of federal government nearby. But so does Virginia, and we see them gaining jobs at Maryland’s expense. As a third gubernatorial candidate, Frederick County Commissioner Blaine Young, states on his 2014 campaign website:

(N)orthern Virginia just doesn’t talk the talk about being business friendly, they walk the walk.

Sometimes it seems like those in Annapolis just assume that Montgomery County will continue to pay the state’s bills in much the same way that heavy manufacturing and industry in and around Baltimore did a half-century ago, a time when the land which now consists of newer Montgomery and Prince George’s County developments was still cropland and forest. But that golden goose of government may stop laying its eggs, as the brain drain shown by the Change Maryland study could evolve from a trickle to a torrent if reforms aren’t conducted.

Part of the advantage of the American system is that those who don’t like something about a particular state or locality have the freedom to move to a place they feel is more advantageous to their interests. But what that says about a place productive people leave in droves is that something is desperately wrong; revisions need to be made and lessons learned. Maryland isn’t quite the East Coast version of California yet, but we’re working on it and making a course correction should be priority one for 2014.

Friday night videos – episode 74

Last week I warned you that this week’s episode comes from the grooveyard of forgotten favorites – bands I enjoy which have gone by the wayside or at least aren’t active right now.

As an example of the latter, one could go with local favorites Hard$ell. They have pummeled many an ear around these parts with their extremely heavy sound and perhaps as they express in this song, “we’re not dead yet.”

But I don’t think “It Has Begun” for this group, as Se7enth Seal seems to have come undone. Fun while it lasted?

Yet another speaker killer. I remember Property coming up from Virginia to do their first show in the area, and this was their opening song.

If you survived that onslaught, congratulations. I’ll take it easier on you since it’s not just metal bands which have gone into hibernation. This quirky but talented quintet has sort of disappeared from view after a couple years under different names – at this point they were known as Boats to Tangier and I was at this show. Even the venue has disappeared into the mists of time since there no longer is a RiverFest in Salisbury.

I have featured this song before, but it was a different configuration of musicians. Matthew King seems to have folded his solo act in favor for backing Paul Lewis, but this version of ‘So Strange’ was under his nameplate.

The last two are an interesting case, because members of the two joined forces to form We Might Collide, a band I featured in FNV 71. Some of the group comes from the Baltimore-based band Fourth Element, which is featured in this well-crafted video.

The other part of WMC comes from remnants of Lennex, who was huge around these parts a half-decade or so ago. This is one of my favorites from them.

The good news is that my writing off of Lennex may be premature, as there’s a reunion concert billed for August 11 in Towson featuring We Might Collide and veteran (but still active) Baltimore rockers Skitzo Calypso.

But it’s a sad commentary on our area that some of these talented bands couldn’t get the push to go national. And it’s also worthy of note that I compiled most of these bands out of my personal CD collection – although I don’t have every track I featured, six of the seven bands are sitting on my CD rack. I probably have a half-dozen more where I couldn’t find a video.

Of course, in this era of free downloads it’s easy to find new music. So why not try and keep the ones we have out there alive by seeing a show or buying a track or EP? Support local music, people – and…

Until next Friday night, have a great week and rock the summer!