Links and new members

A couple things as we go into our second-to-last NFL weekend. After Sunday, I’ll have to do stuff like reading and cleaning my house all weekend. I hate that 2 1/2 months between the end of football season (save for the Super Bowl 2 weeks hence) and the beginning of baseball season. Nonetheless…

Today as I promised a couple weeks back I’ve posted the campaign websites of hopefuls for President – not just Republicans and Democrats, but also from those minor parties on the Maryland ballot. I was informed via the Maryland Green Party website and the Libertarian list-serv that both of those parties turned in what they deemed as a sufficient number of signatures by the end of 2006 to maintain their status for the 2007-2010 election cycle in Maryland. So I have their potential candidates linked online as well.

For this effort, I give a large hat-tip to Ron Gunzberger’s Politics1 website as well as fellow MBA member David Wissing (The Hedgehog Report). It was through both websites that I found the appropriate links.

And speaking of the MBA, in the last couple weeks we’ve expanded in both number and subject content. 

In the last couple weeks we’ve added The Pubcrawler from Gaithersburg, who does mostly political commentary with a libertarian tone, plus we’ve added Charles Dowd (C. Dowd’s Blog), an illustrator and Web designer from Lansdowne who writes on a variety of topics. And with a website after my own heart (despite his allegiance to an inferior ballteam), the “Maryland Orioles Fan” brings Orioles Post to the MBA. As a long-suffering Detroit Tigers fan (until 2006) and a follower of the Oriole-affiliated Shorebirds, I feel his pain. He writes out of Silver Spring.

You know, it would be intriguing to know just how many people read one or more MBA-affiliated sites on a daily basis. I’m sure we reach thousands of Marylanders…even if I’m an “average” website with a couple hundred daily readers, that puts us respectably into four figures. Of course, I live in the area of Maryland outside the main population base so my numbers are likely on the low side. I’d bet we get at least 10,000 readers a day between all of us. Perhaps we need to start charging to advertise with these numbers.

I’ll likely add to my “50 year plan” this weekend (I know, where have you heard that before?) so check back. Meanwhile, check out the Presidential contender websites and my cohorts of the MBA, new and old.

Oh, by the way…the Presidential links have been set to appear in random order, not in order of my preference. So being at the top of my list doesn’t construe my endorsement.

Death or Glory? How about “victory”?

I’ve heard the name before and it’s obvious he reads monoblogue, but Isaac Smith of The Old Line took offense to my criticism of newly-minted Senator Cardin the other day.

In particular, he sniffed:

Our Army and Marine Corps is on the point of breaking just in Iraq and Afghanistan. How the hell does Swartz think they can up and depose the Iranian regime, the Syrian regime, the Lebanese regime, etc. without drafting every able-bodied male, including me and him, into a war that would last decades? Swartz may be willing to gamble with other people’s lives, but I am not, and neither is the majority of Americans. Oh, and the troops Swartz claims understand the danger of his “Long War”? They’re against the war too.

So I read the short articles he cited in this passage. One thing that stood out among the two polls he cited was this passage from the AP poll:

Just 35 percent think it was right for the United States to go to war, a new low in AP polling and a reversal from two years ago, when two-thirds of Americans thought it was the correct move.

All this tells me is that the constant beatdown by the partisan media has borne fruit and turned Americans against the War on Terror. As I noted before, back on September 12, 2001 we couldn’t wait to turn our guns on whoever knocked over the Twin Towers. But Americans now seem to be cursed with a short attention span and the enemy is smart enough to see how the steady drumbeat of criticism is yielding results much as the antiwar slant in the media eventually doomed South Viet Nam to a Communist takeover.

The other poll Isaac Smith cites is a Military Times mail poll that states 35% of military members approve of the way President Bush is handing the war while 42% disapprove. Also it claims that “in this year’s poll only 41 percent of the military said the U.S. should have gone to war in Iraq in the first place.”

But then we have this disclaimer:

The results should not be read as representative of the military as a whole; the survey’s respondents are on average older, more experienced, more likely to be officers and more career-oriented than the overall military population.

And I liked this passage:

But (those surveyed) are convinced the media hate them — only 39 percent of military respondents said they think the media have a favorable view of the troops.

That’s interesting since it’s “the media” that did this poll: the Military Times is a subsidiary of Gannett, Inc. (the folks who publish everything from USA Today to our local Daily Times.)

And there’s another item I’d like to address before I finish this tonight.

If I had my preference, we wouldn’t have to see young men and women die in some foreign land. Unfortunately, I don’t think we had much of a choice given the series of attacks that have occurred to America and its interests for nearly 30 years in the Middle East and elsewhere which can be traced to radical Islam. (There. Is that a better description than Islamofascist?)

Honestly, Isaac, do you think that if America had done nothing in response to 9/11, that we wouldn’t have had another similar attack?

I have a philosophy that government should be proactive rather than reactive when used in its proper context. Because of that, I see the logic of the methods (if not necessarily the means) by which we are fighting this war. We are using people who have volunteered to fight the war knowing full well what they are signing up for and taking the battle to the original instigators on what is essentially their turf.

I’ll close with some of what President Bush said on September 20, 2001. It sounds like Isaac and his cohorts on the left may need a refresher course.

Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have ever seen.  It may include dramatic strikes, visible on TV, and covert operations, secret even in success.  We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest.  And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism.  Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.  From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime…the only way to defeat terrorism as a threat to our way of life is to stop it, eliminate it, and destroy it where it grows.

(…)

The civilized world is rallying to America’s side.  They understand that if this terror goes unpunished, their own cities, their own citizens may be next.  Terror, unanswered, can not only bring down buildings, it can threaten the stability of legitimate governments.  And you know what — we’re not going to allow it.

(…)

Great harm has been done to us.  We have suffered great loss.  And in our grief and anger we have found our mission and our moment.  Freedom and fear are at war.  The advance of human freedom — the great achievement of our time, and the great hope of every time — now depends on us.  Our nation — this generation — will lift a dark threat of violence from our people and our future.  We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage.  We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail.

It is my hope that in the months and years ahead, life will return almost to normal.  We’ll go back to our lives and routines, and that is good.  Even grief recedes with time and grace.  But our resolve must not pass…I will not forget this wound to our country or those who inflicted it.  I will not yield; I will not rest; I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people.

Nor will I.

A 50 year plan: Introduction

Tonight it’s time to get sort of philosophical. I’ve spent a couple days between posts thinking about a number of things and how best to express them.

To start out, the reason I got into the political world was that I saw it as a way to make a difference. Back then I was younger and more idealistic but unfortunately had not a clue how to accomplish what I wanted to do. As I got older, I learned much more about things which are my strengths and those that are my weaknesses, and I tried as much as possible to manage my life to bypass those areas that aren’t my main strengths. One thing I found out rather quickly is that I’m not the prototypical politician by any means. I don’t have the gift of gab and the part about raising money and sucking up to people for votes just doesn’t appeal to me very well either, at least in a large-scale sense. I just deal better with small groups.

On the other hand, I do seem to have an ability to put words to paper (or onto a computer screen) that can become a good argument for the position I’m advocating. And political movements have room for people like myself, so I’ve been graced with attracting notice from various people and getting opportunities that not just anyone can take advantage of. Years ago I helped with the newsletter for our Young Republican club and would write the occasional letter to the editor of our local rag. But this political phase began with my being accepted to write on an occasional basis for the Patriot Post, continued with my original Blogger site, and evolved into monoblogue. And this site continues to grow – this week will be my first 1,000 visitor week according to my Site Meter. Part of that is being in the Maryland Bloggers Alliance and some of that comes from being featured on BlogNetNews Maryland. However, I think there’s more to this modest but blossoming success and I’m led to believe that it’s because I put together a website that doesn’t go into the personal attack mode like some others do. Further, when I write about a problem, more often than not I have some thoughts or suggestions for a solution to this issue.

And this in turn brings me to what I’m going to attempt to begin today.

When I ran for my current post on the Wicomico County Republican Central Committee, the main goal of mine was to make Wicomico County a county where Republicans outnumber Democrats. Part of achieving this in my mind was to get the younger people in Wicomico County to become Republicans because of my belief that it’s in their best interest to follow conservative Republican principles, and that American society will be more successful in the long run if they do. I have no idea of the demographics of my readership but I’m betting the average age is less than 40.

Last year I devoted a lot of time and post space to the Maryland election cycle, which gave me an opportunity to see issues from many different sides. In District 37B there was a candidate named Jim Adkins who, while I didn’t agree with his stance on a number of issues, couched them on the premise of looking at their impact 20 or 30 years into the future. Obviously, parents want what’s best for their kids and I believe that may have been a part of his thinking, but there’s a LOT of politicians on both sides who look only 2-4 years ahead and think solely about maintaining their position of power.

I noted earlier that I was not born to be a politician because my skill set isn’t the same as, say, a Jim Mathias. In some ways this is a bummer because I think I have a lot of good ideas.

But, on the other hand, this is liberating as well. Because I’m not a legislator or seeking an executive-type post, I don’t have to deliver a lot of hollow promises. In fact, my political philosophy may turn some types of people off because I’m the sort who doesn’t believe that government in and of itself should enrich people nor do I think it’s a proper vehicle for wealth transfer. Unfortunately, it’s been noted that “a democracy…can only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse out of the public treasury.” Since I’m opposed to that concept, there’s no way in hell I could be truthful about my beliefs and ever reach a high enough office to put these plans into action.

In my small way, by beginning these writings I’d like to help begin a movement much as the Federalists did at our nation’s birth. More recently, at least parts of this goal have been accomplished by leaders like Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich. Unfortunately, President Reagan is no longer with us to lead but Gingrich continues to write and speak with a similar eye on the future of America. Like me, he’s not currently shackled by having to pander to an electorate which frees him to state his case for a movement. Whether or not you agreed with the concepts, the Gingrich vision embodied in the 1994 “Contract With America” changed politics in our country.

And therein lies the reason I term this as a fifty year plan. In my eyes, it’s going to take five decades and a dedicated generation to turn back the tide of government that’s not for the people, but for only some of the people and taken from others – particularly taken from those who achieve financial success. Indeed, it’s possible I may not live to see that day come, and there’s always the threats from without that could doom our society as we have come to know it.

For my generation (I’m on the cusp between Boomer and Gen X’er), it may be too late to make a significant change in America. Our hope for change lies in the Millennial Generation, those born after 1980. It’s a group that came of age with Bill Clinton and 9/11, and it’s the one who’s bearing the brunt of the sacrifices in Afghanistan and Iraq. It’s for them that I begin this series of writings, which will be on an occasional basis and focus on one particular area that I’d like to see the next generation improve our nation in.

Something tells me that they’ll be more than willing to meet the challenges we face.

Updating Pumpin’ and Dumpin’

On January 2nd I put a post on monoblogue called Pumpin’ and Dumpin‘. In essence it was a study of how the stock picks which come unsolicited to the place of business I work at actually performed and also who’s really making the money off these stocks. This was a post that didn’t necessarily deal with Delmarva in particular, but something I have an interest in because I do invest in the stock market (just not in those particular shares.)

The first item of business is to thank all of the commenters who have taken a few minutes of their day to add their input. When I make comments on other blogs (here are a number of examples) generally I’m trying to add to the conversation by either making a point in agreement with the blogger, adding to the post through relating experiences I’ve had, or making a cohesive counterargument to his/her point. On the Pumpin’ and Dumpin’ post I’ve had 21 comments (which is the record for monoblogue’s 300+ posts so far) and they’re apparently people who found the post because they were frustrated by spam faxes and were led here by a Yahoo search (or other search engine.) Best of all, they’ve added to the conversation, which in a local blogosphere that sometimes sees comments stoop to simple personal attacks is extremely refreshing.

While going through the regional media the other day, an idea struck me. (Fortunately it didn’t hurt.) I was reading an article about Doug Gansler, Maryland’s newly sworn-in Attorney General, and how he’s promising to crack down on polluters and modeling himself after former New York AG (and now Governor) Eliot Spitzer.

Think about this. How many hundreds of trees are killed in a week to provide the reams of paper that these faxes waste? And, while it so happens our fax machine sits right over our recycling bin and makes recycling our waste paper easier to achieve, how much landfill space is needlessly wasted promoting stocks that plummet the moment the folks at Gemini News sell out? Doesn’t that toner eventually separate from the paper and find its way to Chesapeake Bay?

But seriously, this did get me thinking further about the problem of these junk faxes.

A couple years back, there was a bill passed by Congress called the “Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2005.” Unfortunately, it seems to have had the opposite effect as businesses are allowed a loophole based on an “established business relationship.” Apparently, having a semi-public fax number (ours is on my business card for example) is good enough to consider an “established business relationship.” Proponents of the bill were legitimate businesses (realtors were one prime example) who do depend on faxes to get information to and from clients but were technically violating previous rules. But the EBR loophole’s big enough to drive a Mack truck through so the federal government was no help. Big surprise there.

Also, here’s part of a short article I found on the MSNBC website:

First, you need to figure out where the call is coming from. If you don’t have caller ID, you can use the *57 call trace service (there is a small charge for this). You may be able to use your phone company’s “call rejection” service to block the call.

If not, you’ll need to contact your local phone company. Most have a call annoyance or unlawful call center. They can help identify where the call is coming from and may be able to figure out a fix.

If you get the runaround from the phone company, contact your state’s utility commission. They may be able to help.

The problems I see with this are twofold. Spam faxers tend to have more than one number in a lot of cases – block one, the person just uses another number. The other problem is anecdotally I’ve found that many of these come from Canada or overseas. It’s not clear whether the phone company can block those numbers, but even if so that just leads back to problem #1.

I guess I did a service in some respects though by tracking their performance. If the word gets out that these stocks are about to become absolute dogs, then maybe the companies recommending them will be shunned.

By the way, with the Dow hitting another record close, thus far this year 3 of the 7 stocks are up, 2 are even, and 2 down. If I readjusted my imaginary portfolio to the end of 2006 numbers, that $7,000 would be $8,318.53 (mostly because HSFI has gone from 4 cents a share to 9 cents a share.) Apparently the dumping is complete but don’t be surprised if we see these and other over-the-counter stocks pushed on a fax coming soon to your machine.

Moving backwards in the Senate

Today I went to my political mailbox and found a note from my “friend” Senator Cardin called “Moving Backwards in Iraq.”

Dear Friend,

Last night, President Bush presented the American people with his plan for the future of Iraq.  Unfortunately, his plan is not the change of course we so desperately need.  It will only put more American troops in harm’s way and will not bring us any closer to achieving success in Iraq.

Later this morning, I am scheduled to deliver my first speech on the Floor of the U.S. Senate. I will use this opportunity to voice my strong opposition to the President’s plan to escalate troop levels.  I’ll offer my own vision for moving forward in Iraq, which acknowledges that the country is in the midst of a worsening civil war.

The President’s plan to send thousands of additional troops to Iraq is not a change in strategy; it’s an escalated version of the same ‘stay the course’ policy that has not worked.  The circumstances on the ground in Iraq are worsening.  More American troops are dying each week and there’s no end in sight. A new policy in Iraq is long overdue.

By choosing an escalation in troop levels rather than a drawdown, President Bush is ignoring the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group and the advice of many military experts, including several of his own generals.  He is also ignoring the wishes of the American people, who last November spoke with a unified voice against the current policy in Iraq. 

Like the majority of Americans, I believe we need to bring our troops home, not send more troops to war.  Iraq is in the midst of a civil war and victory will not be achieved by flexing our military might. 

Success can come only through aiding the Iraqis in establishing a government that protects the rights and enjoys the confidence of all its people. It must be a government that respects both human rights and democratic principles. The efforts of U.S. soldiers, no matter how heroic, cannot accomplish these objectives for the Iraqis.

Our objective must be to escalate our political and diplomatic efforts, not our troop levels.

I sincerely hope the President reconsiders his plan and works with Congress to bring about a real change in policy that allows our troops to start coming home.

Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

Ben Cardin

Ben Cardin was born in 1943, so that makes him 63 years old. Unless he lives to his father’s age, he may not be around for the conclusion of this Long War against Islamofascism.

The reason Iraq is in the middle of what he terms a “civil war” is that we have taken the fight to the Islamic extremists on their turf. And much like Viet Nam, the enemy’s not fighting on a strictly military basis. They seem to have studied our Viet Nam experience and are using much the same strategy as the Viet Cong did. On a strictly military basis, the enemy has much less firepower than we do but they use the guerrilla tactics perfected in the jungles of Southeast Asia very well.

Even more so, our Islamofascist enemy is taking advantage of the same propaganda style that turned the country against the war in Viet Nam. I’m old enough to remember Walter Cronkite leading off the nightly news with the day’s body count from over there and then the second or third feature being an antiwar protest someplace. While the term may or may not be attributable to Vladimir Lenin, “useful idiot” does capture the flavor of the 1960’s mainstream media and their reporting on military events.

But I digress. Getting back to the Cardin letter:

I guess the very first objection I have is that American troops understand when they sign on the dotted line that they will be in harm’s way. To place a local slant on this, I’m sure Eric Caldwell knew that he may lose his life defending our country since he signed up for the military in 2003 and the Army in 2005, well after we began operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unfortunately for him and his family, that’s the very thing that happened.

And I have to disagree that sending more troops to Iraq is automatically a mistake. It seems to me that many on the Democrat side were pleading for more troops to be sent over there not all that long ago. Well, now they get their wish and they bitch about it. And frankly, I’m sick of their whining and pouting about how badly the war is going. Much of this may have been avoided if the last two Democrat presidents had grown a pair and aggressively gone after those who attacked us and our interests abroad.

Next, I don’t believe that the American people “spoke with a unified voice against the current policy in Iraq” in November. Yes, they elected a Democrat majority. But how many of them actually ran against the war? They ran against the “culture of corruption” and against President Bush in general. Many made themselves out as just as conservative as their GOP opponents.

And even if Americans did speak with an antiwar tone in their vote, it still doesn’t mean they’re right. If they were truly antiwar, they would’ve had the attitude they have now on September 12, 2001. But I seem to recall back then most Americans were girded for battle with whoever did this to us at the World Trade Center and Pentagon. By golly, that’s what we’re doing now – how soon they forget!

So this is a message from me to both of my Senators, Senator Cardin and Senator Mikulski (who also had remarks about the troop buildup.) It will be time for the troops to come home when we have achieved victory in the Long War. That will be the point when the threat from Islamofascists and their allies has subsided to an internally manageable level because of the use of our force to a point where free and elected governments thrive – not just in Iraq, but Iran, Syria, Lebanon, and any other country that yearns for freedom in the Middle East.

The only front we can lose this war on would be the home front. I brought up the term “useful idiots” earlier. With their remarks today, the Democrats have firmly shown themselves to be perfect examples of this, and I’m betting there’s smiles all around wherever the Islamofascists are holed up for tonight.

 

Laundry list 2007 through 2010

I think someplace along the line I noted that I was on a whole slew of e-mail list from the various campaigns and I check them every so often.

So, the other day I got an e-mail from the O’Malley campaign regarding their “One Maryland” tour, with stops in Kensington, Solomon, Easton, Frederick, and Annapolis. Doesn’t sound like they’re traveling too far from what they REALLY consider the One Maryland – their power base in Baltimore, MoCo, and PG County.

But what I did with the link back to the O’Malley campaign website is done something I thought I couldn’t do anymore. I got (and saved to my computer) .pdf files of all of the promises O’Malley made during the campaign. The reason was for future reference, of course! So grab your wallet now because here’s just a few of the ways where our soon-to-be governor wants to spend YOUR money:

  • “Adequately fund” the Department of Disabilities.
  • Use “state resources” to better promote community oriented support and services.
  • Create a statewide affordable housing fund to support development projects that ensure affordable housing.
  • “Fully fund” the state’s paratransit system.
  • Fund the Maryland Agricultural and Resource-Based Industry Development Corporation.
  • “Fully fund” Program Open Space.
  • “Dedicate funds” based on recommendations of the Kopp Commission study on school construction.
  • “Fully fund” the Thornton Education Plan.
  • Increase teacher pensions and incentive programs.
  • Increase funding to the community college system.
  • Increase weatherization funds for insulation and windows for low-income Marylanders.
  • “Double funding” to the Community Energy Loan Program.
  • “Fully fund” lead paint prevention programs.
  • “Increase funding” to programs to reward farmers for planting cover crops and creating buffer zones.
  • “Invest” in transit to provide “livable, workable downtowns.”
  • “Increase funding” for community health centers.
  • “Dedicate more state resources” to increasing access to care in rural communities.
  • “Adequate support” to assisted living facilities in Maryland.
  • “Double assistance” to counties for violent crime prevention.
  • “Invest” in mass transportation options to allow Marylanders to use alternatives to cars.

That’s twenty bullet points, really just the low-hanging fruit among the myriad promises made while “the Mick” was on the campaign trail. I didn’t include the maze of tax credits he’s proposing for certain actions or any of the money I’m sure his “Environmental Bill of Rights” will cost, nor the millions his additional health care initiatives are sure to add to the toll. Already his Democrat allies in the General Assembly have thrown their support behind an extra $1 per pack cigarette tax, which is supposed to raise an extra $210 million but likely will fall far short of projections as “sin taxes” generally do. (It’ll get spent as if the $210 million was in the bag though.) And an article in the Sun from yesterday lends credence to a rumor that Maryland’s tax system may be overhauled, which would include an expansion (and possibly an increase) in the state’s sales tax.

But remember Maryland, you elected him so obviously you swallowed the promises hook, line, and sinker. (Well, except for folks like me who voted to retain Bob Ehrlich in office.) Unfortuately, the budget in Maryland is going to be balanced on the back of the businessman, the farmer, the landowner, and the other productive people – let the wealth redistribution by fiat begin. Hopefully Atlas will hold off from shrugging for four years and Maryland can rectify its 2006 mistake in 2010.

The downtown plaza’s not the only place

I know my fellow blogger Joe Albero at Salisbury News seems to have a large issue with graffiti, illegally parked cars, and trash on Salisbury’s downtown plaza. But as far as trash goes, that’s not the only place people just wantonly dump their trash.

Just toss your bags anywhere in an open field.

This bag of garbage is just sitting along Old Ocean City Road. What’s ironic is that not 200 yards away is this:

The county recycling center located near Perdue's headquarters on Old Ocean City Road.

Even more brazen is this photo:

I see a lot of lost revenue for the county here.

In case you can’t read the sign in the photo, it reads “Do Not Throw Litter – $1000 Fine”. That’s a really expensive old TV set, and it’s one that’s been sitting there for at least three months since I’ve moved in over there. This is the underpass where Old Ocean City Road goes under Route 13. There’s much more than that old TV there, it just seems to be a garbage dump for anyone who wants to toss out the trash from their car driving by. I’d bet that if Mike Lewis ran a speed trap of sorts there some Saturday night, there would be several thousand dollars in revenue for the county.

It’s about pride of ownership. I attempt to do the best I can in taking care of my yard along the street, so if I see some litter there I’ll pick it up. But I’m not in the trash picking business. Maybe the state needs to bring a few ECI inmates up here to clean up the mess along this state highway. However, where people’s yards abut the highway they should get out and make an effort to pick this up as well.

And I see something of a parallel to Salisbury’s graffiti situation. What tends to happen is that if a wall has graffiti applied to it and it’s not cleaned up, the next guy’s going to think that the owner doesn’t care and it’s fair game. Someone’s junked their old TV under the bridge so the next guy will throw his bag full of garbage out.

So it’s not just the Salisbury downtown plaza that’s in need of attention. If someone wants an old non-functional television, I can tell you where to pick one up. If someone wants a cleaner and more vigilant city, it’s going to be up to all of us.

Day one in Congress

There were a number of bills I’m going to have to keep track of that I found interesting for various reasons.

First off, our own Wayne Gilchrest introduced one of the first bills on the House docket. H.R. 16 would “amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to improve and reauthorize the Chesapeake Bay program.” It was actually the sixth bill introduced since Nancy Pelosi reserved numbers 1-10 for her own pet items. There’s 18 co-sponsors with this, all with districts surrounding Chesapeake Bay.

Here’s one I really like. Maryland’s Roscoe Bartlett introduced H.R. 77, which would “amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to change the deadline for income tax returns for calendar year taxpayers from the 15th of April to the first Monday in November.” That would be cool if passed. Obviously the intent is to have the tax bill fresh on the minds of voters.

H.R. 121 could impact me as the push for “green” buildings continues. Rep. Michael Doyle of Pennsylvania is the sponsor of this measure “to improve efficiency in the Federal Government through the use of high-performance green buildings, and for other purposes.” It’s those “other purposes” that always scare me. This bill has 1 co-sponsor.

Ending the “automatic” citizenship of babies born in the U.S. is the aim of H.R. 133, introduced by California Rep. Elton Gallegly. This would “amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to deny citizenship at birth to children born in the United States of parents who are not citizens or permanent resident aliens.” He also brought out H.R. 138, which is an act “to require an employer to take action after receiving official notice that an individual’s Social Security account number does not match the individual’s name, and for other purposes.”

On the other end of the political spectrum, fellow Californian Rep. Zoe Lofgren submitted H.R. 182, which would “amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to impose an excise tax on automobiles sold in the United States that are not alternative fueled automobiles, and for other purposes.”

Texas Rep. Ron Paul wants to get rid of the Clinton Social Security tax increase with H.R. 192, a bill that would “amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the 1993 increase in taxes on Social Security benefits.” This actually has 5 co-sponsors.

Congress has jurisdiction over the courts. It’s my assumption that Rep. Michael Simpson of Idaho wants his state out of what’s affectionately known as the “Ninth Circus” Court. H.R. 221 has as its purpose “to amend title 28, United States Code, to provide for the appointment of additional Federal circuit judges, to divide the Ninth Judicial Circuit of the United States into two circuits, and for other purposes.”

Turning to the Senate, I found some of their bills interesting too.

S.48 was introduced by Nevada Sen. John Ensign. He and his two co-sponsors want “a bill to return meaning to the Fifth Amendment by limiting the power of eminent domain.”

S.55 would “amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the individual alternative minimum tax.” Sen. Max Baucus of Montana is the lead sponsor, with 4 co-sponsors.

S.102 also would “amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to extend and expand relief from the alternative minimum tax” but in return it also would “repeal the extension of the lower rates for capital gains and dividends for 2009 and 2010.” Not surprisingly, Sen. John F. Kerry is your sponsor for this “soak the rich” (meaning anyone who happens to sell stock for a gain like I have) bill.

Far-left readers of monoblogue already practically worship this Senator, but Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin is the sponsor of S.121, “A bill to provide for the redeployment of United States forces from Iraq.” (i.e. cut and run.) He has one co-sponsor, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California. Boxer is also the sponsor of S.151, which seeks a law “to permanently prohibit oil and gas leasing off the coast of the State of California, and for other purposes.” That bill, in turn, has one co-sponsor – the other California Senator, Dianne Feinstein.

Barbara’s quite the busy lady. She also introduced S.152, which would “amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to establish a program to help States expand the educational system to include at least 1 year of early education preceding the year a child enters kindergarten.” So the government schools would have control of your kids basically from the age of 3 onward.

Our Rep. Gilchrest has a friend in the Senate. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska placed S.183 into the hopper, a bill to “require the establishment of a corporate average fuel economy standard for passenger automobiles of 40 miles per gallon (by) 2017, and for other purposes.”

In total, there were 230 bills introduced in the House and 173 in the Senate. These are just a few that caught my eye. The Thomas service is a nice way to find these bills and their status.

Modell to Canton?

I was actually doing my reading tonight and bookmarking articles for future post ideas when I came across this one by Jim Williams in the Examiner.

The short version of my reaction is that I’ll support Art Modell’s induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame when he supports Robert Irsay’s. Williams quotes Sports Marketing, Inc. president Tom Wilson:

“But those of us who know Art know his move was all about business. The Indians and the Cavs got new homes, but the Browns could not get a favorable new stadium deal. The Baltimore offer was one of the greatest deals in the history of sports, and Art would have been a fool not to have taken it.”

Or he could have sold the unprofitable Browns and retired handsomely. The way the Browns/Ravens affair was handled was just terrible, much like Irsay’s moving the Colts in the dead of night. It basically left the team and city in limbo for the latter half of the 1995 season. And what was shaping up to maybe be a decent season turned into a nightmare.

I recall the news came out in early November, right before a home game (which once I looked it up I realized it was Houston because I also recalled they got blown out.) A team that started 4-4 before the secret negotiations were leaked to the news then proceeded to get bombed that afternoon by the Oilers and went into a 6 game tailspin. They did win their final game at old Municipal Stadium (their only late-season win as they ended the ’95 season 5-11) when they beat the hated Bengals 26-10 and hundreds of fans took anything they could out of the old park – turf, seats, whatever wasn’t nailed down. By this time the old stadium was no longer the home of the Indians (they moved over to Jacobs Field earlier that year) so no teams would play there after the Browns left.

I’ll concede that the NFL did learn from the Irsay/Colts debacle, mandating that the Browns name and colors stay with the city of Cleveland until it got a new expansion franchise – which did get the new stadium Modell wanted. From the Hall of Fame website:

“Determined to keep the team in Cleveland, Browns fans and Cleveland city officials orchestrated an unprecedented grass-roots campaign to block the move. The NFL quickly responded and, working with city officials, developed a unique solution that not only provided for a new state-of-the-art stadium, but guaranteed the return of pro football to Cleveland by no later than 1999. Additionally, Art Modell agreed to relinquish the “Browns” name, colors and team history to the new owner of the suspended franchise.”

Time heals almost all wounds. But if Modell is inducted into the HOF this August, don’t be surprised to hear a lot of boos and catcalls from the northeast Ohio football faithful (since Cleveland is the closest NFL franchise to the city of Canton.) That’s if he feels safe coming even that close to Cleveland, a city he reportedly hasn’t visited in a decade. Maybe Jim Williams will comment on the fans’ lack of class, but just as Baltimore’s villain is Robert Irsay, northern Ohio’s is Art Modell.

Surveying the MBA

Wanted to make a quick shout out to two fellow MBA members who have items worth reading:

We haven’t figured out why he doesn’t show up on our list yet, but I’d like to welcome “Fredneck” and the Rockin’ Catoctin blog to our merry little group. Today he has an interesting take on unionism. I really have no problem with unions insofar as organizing and such, but politically they support the wrong team and I think it’s their union-first mentality that gets in the way of what’s better for a free society.

Meanwhile, Soccer Dad talks about an interesting juxtaposition in the Sun yesterday and extends it to make some comparisons between crimefighting in Baltimore under Martin O’Malley/Kurt Schmoke and New York City under Rudy Giuliani.

Speaking of the onetime NYC mayor, his Presidential Exploratory site is up and running. I’m going to start building the links to all of the 2008 contenders and pretenders. (Believe me there’s a LOT of them.) However, my motto on this once again is “let the people decide.”

I’ll place these links down toward the bottom since we ARE over a year away from the “Hawkeye Cauci”. Look for them starting this weekend.

One week until 90 days we’ll pay off for years

In a week the 2007 General Assembly session begins, and Democrats are salivating over the renewed possibilities – they now have the governor’s seat back so no more veto threats or messy override votes. Not only that, just 25 miles or so down the road in DC their party now holds the Congressional purse strings as well. It’s just the matter of that President sitting there but the folks in Congress can sucker him by pledging bipartisanship. (Did anyone check to see if Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid had their fingers crossed behind their back?)

But I’m going to focus on Annapolis for this post. Just three articles I’ve run across in the last few days (one in the Washington Times and these two in the Baltimore Sun) told me it was open season on our wallets and our liberty come next week.

You know, one thing that was not noted during the campaign was that Mayor O’Malley raised Baltimore city residents’ taxes by $30 million last year (according to the Times.) A higher property tax rate here, a $3.50 per month tax on cel phones there, maybe toss in a 12% tax on the rest of your phone bill and 2% tax on energy…pretty soon you’re talking about real money. That’s about $50 out of each average Baltimore resident’s pocket. To that end, State Senator Edward Kasemeyer (D- Columbia) noted in the Times article that “increases in state taxes on sales, income, gasoline, and tobacco are ‘in the mix’ for addressing long-term budget needs.” Since he’s the Senate’s Majority Leader, you can pretty much bank on the state grabbing your wallet.

And if that’s not enough, the Sun article regarding auto emissions points to a stricter California-style pollution regulation on autos sold in Maryland. In another case of the Eastern Shore paying for the sins of the rest of the state, it’s cited in the Sun piece that Somerset County’s risk for cancer caused by airborne toxins is 1/6 of that in Baltimore City. Yet the entire state would have to shell out extra (estimates run from $100 to $1,000 for the additional equipment in each car) if the legislation that will be introduced by Del. Elizabeth Bobo (D-Columbia) passes.

However, buried in the tome is one dirty little secret. Pending federal regulations will do much of the work that this bill would achieve. Even more ludicrous, environmental lobbyist Brad Heavner is quoted as saying “the required upgrades could (emphasis mine) prevent one additional case of cancer over the course of 70 years in 25,000 babies born statewide.” Yet those 25,000 babies would pay hundreds extra for every new car they bought to prevent one of them just maybe getting cancer.

And finally, with Democrats in Maryland it will be a case of “if we can’t get what we want because it’s unconstitutional, we’ll just change the constitution.” That’s what they aim to do in my other Sun example. That early-voting law they passed that was unconstitutional according to the Maryland Court of Appeals? Look for it on the 2008 ballot. It’s unlikely that, when an early voting measure was passed, vetoed, and overriden in the last two General Assemblies with solid Democrat support in all four votes, we’re going to see anything less than a 3/5 majority pass this turkey of a constitutional amendment along to Maryland voters. And with practically enough votes just in the Baltimore/PG/MoCo area to carry all four statewide Democrats to election in 2006, there’s little hope that this amendment would fail in 2008.

So in 2010 when Governor O’Malley is up for re-election, how out of the question would it be for busloads of inner-city Baltimore residents to have a nice day trip to the slots down in Ocean City with some of that walking-around money campaigns are allowed to have. The bus will make a stop in each county seat so fill out your early voting ballots and just check off the top name for each office (since Democrats will have the “top” ballot billing again in 2010.)

You see, somehow I doubt that the early voting effort will have a photo ID requirement. Just a hunch.

It’s probably a good thing I don’t read the papers every day because I’m sure that they’re just full of these bright ideas on how the Democrats are going to help out the working man by sticking their hand in everyone’s wallet and their nose into where it doesn’t belong. However, as a blogger and one who craves the return of personal freedom I may have to make this sacrifice more often just so I can point all of this out.

And may I suggest some alternatives?

As far as state spending goes, has anyone ever taken a look at just what the state really NEEDS? I’m not into spending money for money’s sake. For example – does the state really NEED to buy private land to keep it from being developed (and taking it off the county tax rolls?) Or, to use an example I heard on the radio news today, does the state NEED to move part of its Attorney General office to Montgomery County? I don’t sense an attitude in state government that says “we should try to use as little taxpayer money as possible because it’s their money and thus we should prioritize our spending efforts.” Instead we get efforts like the one I noted some time ago about raising the cigarette tax $1.00 a pack to fund Maryland’s bid to combat teen smoking and add people to the state’s health insurance rolls. I don’t care for coercing money from people to do something that private initiative could possibly do better.

Regarding the other initiatives, I believe that the cost/benefit ratio of the auto emissions regulation is too much of a burden on average Free Staters. While no one wants additional cases of cancer, the costs of the emissions equipment would burden everyone from the person who wants a new car to the auto dealer who could lose a few sales to neighboring states. In fact, this law could be counterproductive if the auto dealers’ association is correct and the cost is more like $1,000 plus per car. Then the more polluting older cars likely stay on the road longer.

And most who have read monoblogue know how I feel about early voting, particularly since Maryland already is a “shall-issue” absentee ballot state. It’s going to open a Pandora’s Box of fraud if my gut instinct is correct. However, it’s only when the Democrats lose that fraud seems to be a problem and early voting’s another attempt to game the system so they can’t lose.

Pumpin’ and dumpin’

Capitalism fascinates me. Not necessarily the accumulating wealth part, but the process where a business grows and begins to need additional capital, so it takes itself public. Quite often a company has what they call an IPO, or initial public offering. As an example Google started out in its IPO at $85 per share as I recall and now it’s 5 times that. But for every Google you have to assume there’s 100 companies out there that simply tank because of a poor business plan or a harebrained product. Eventually these companies flame out to such a point that their stocks aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. It seems like that’s the point where some “investment guru” decides to send out thousands of junk faxes (with names such as “Hot Stocks On The Street”, “On The Move Stock Alert”, “Green Stock Alert”, “Wall Street Insider”, or “Uptrend Finder”) to pump up the stock price so they can recoup their investments.

At our business we’re saddled with a number of these faxes a week. So just for fun I kept a few of these and decided to do an imaginary portfolio – $1,000 each at the price they’re listed at the day we received the fax, and track their performance through Friday’s close (the final trading day of 2006.) All of these are “OTC” stocks so they’re very thinly traded.

Allied Energy Group (AGGI) – close at fax date (12-12) was $0.53, closed Friday at $0.40.
Environmental Control Corporation (EVCC) – close at fax date (9-11) was $1.19, closed Friday at $1.39.
Global Beverage Solutions, Inc. (GBVS) – close at fax date (8-30) was $0.89, closed Friday at $0.42.
Homeland Security International (aka Sniffex, Inc.) (HSFI) – close at fax date (10-23) was $0.18, closed Friday at $0.04.
Hybrid Technologies, Inc. (HYBT) – close at fax date (10-20) was $6.80, closed Friday at $3.52.
Syngas International Corp. (SYNI) – close at fax date (9-18) was $0.40, closed Friday at $0.33.
TAO Minerals Ltd. (TAOL) – close at fax date (9-27) was $0.15, closed Friday at $0.10.

So the mythical $1,000 investments in each fared thusly:

AGGI would be worth $754.71.
EVCC would be worth $1,168.07.
GBVS would be worth $471.91.
HSFI would be worth $222.22.
HYBT would be worth $517.64.
SYNI would be worth $825.00.
TAOL would be worth $666.67.

The total “portfolio” would only be worth $4626.22 – off 33.9% from when it was bought scant months ago. Meanwhile, the overall stock markets gained double-digits in 2006 as a whole. There was one gainer out of seven but just randomly picking seven stocks on the NYSE or NASDAQ would probably get me more than one gainer.

So who’s making the money on these? Well, if you read the fine print at the bottom there’s a disclosure that the company which distributed the flyer was compensated for doing so. Here’s a list of the companies that distributed each and their renumeration.

AGGI – “OTM Stock Alerts…was compensated seventy three thousand five hundred dollars by a third party, who is not affiliated with AGGI.”
EVCC – “Sonora Associates Inc. has received one hundred twenty thousand dollars from a third party for the production and distribution of this newsletter.” (This was the “Green Stock Alert”.)
GBVS – “Pathfinder (Marketing) was paid $150,000 for the distribution of this report.”
HSFI – “Cyber (Communications Services) was paid $200,000 for the distribution of this report.”
HYBT – “UTF (Newsletter) has been hired by a third party and is expected to receive $18,000 for the publication and circulation of this report.”
SYNI – Pathfinder (Marketing) was paid $80,000 for the distribution of this report.”
TAOL – “Sonora Associates has accepted compensation in the amount of $120,000 for the distribution of this information.”

Folks, that’s a LOT of stock shares. And I’d have to say that UTF is really selling themselves short since their fee was much less than the others. Something tells me it’s probably pretty easy money because I’m thinking all you need is a nice word processor and a program that can broadcast faxes to thousands of numbers from your computer.

Which leads to the $761,500 question – who’s paying for all this?

In a few cases, it’s noted in the fine print. Sonora Associates “may own a non-controlling share of (Environmental Control Corporation) and reserves the right to sell their shares at any time without prior notice.” Uptrend Finder notes that “UTF and its insiders may from time to time buy or sell (Hybrid Technologies) common shares in the open market without notice.”

Both Pathfinder Marketing and Cyber Communications Services (responsible for the “Hot Stocks On The Street” newsletter) were paid by an outfit called Gemini Market News, Inc. And wouldn’t you know it – “Gemini Market News, Inc.’s affiliates, officers, directors, or employees may own shares of the companies described herein and in that event intend to sell such shares.” Can you say bingo? Seems to me they transfer money from one corporation they own to another (so no loss to them) and they pump up the price to dump the stock (hence, “pump and dump.”) Imagine my surprise when I looked up the stocks through my brokerage account and noticed that there was a spike in volume just after the faxes went out. Yeah, it could be a coincidence, but let’s be real here.

Legally, these fax distribution companies have to provide an “opt-out” number but from accounts I’ve read it’s perpetually busy. And what this also does is verify that you have a “good” fax number so their sister company starts pounding away with junk faxes. I chuckled during my reading on this as one person described how they made a loop of black construction paper and faxed one of these numbers back over a weekend. But if it’s done off a computer there’s no way to get back the faxer in this manner.

Before I finish, I don’t want to make this a vendetta against the companies who offered their shares on the OTC market. They can’t always help who’s bought their stock and the efforts to make a profit (or at least cut their losses) on those shares. Allied Energy Group, et. al. are apparently legitimate companies and who knows, it’s possible they may turn the corner and be successful. Unfortunately, with these penny stocks sometimes the odds are better of hitting the lottery than getting rich off the stock.