Whoopsie

Well, my misattribution of Steve Harper's party affiliation isn't the first mistake I've made. And won't be the last. Mea culpa....

My critique of the severe and drastic overreaction of Harris supporters to the Banks campaign remains....

Lateral Move

Just in case you didn't see the 15 or so laterals from Division III Trinity on Saturday, here it is:

Understatement of the Year

"I know it is somewhat of a regressive tax,"
- Speaker Mike Busch talking about the sales tax

Yes, and hiking and expanding the scope of the sales tax is going to put the screws to the people the Democrats allegedly are looking after...

It starts tomorrow

Annapolis' long-awaited version of budgetary Armageddon comes to town tomorrow. And let's face it: other than the fact that taxpayers are about to get hosed, we don't really know what is going to happen. If legislative Democrats reverse four-years of precedent under the Ehrlich Administration and decide to support a slots package, the entire session could be over relatively quickly. Mike Miller will likely allow most of the O'Malley tax package through the Senate. In that case, we will see slots, and we will see higher income and sales taxes, to say nothing of the expansion of services and items covered by the sales tax.

But if the slots bill is a no go, the General Assembly will likely go the full thirty-day distance. I see no way that the legislative leadership and the O'Malley Administration will be able to come together on a deal. The O'Malley folks want there to be a consensus on the issue with the leadership, but the O'Malley idea of consensus is everybody agreeing to do what the Governor wants. Given the fact that this leadership style is even more defiant of legislative wishes than even the Ehrlich Administration, O'Malley is risking a lot of political capital on something that is nowhere close to being a sure thing.

My prediction for the session? Nothing gets done, O'Malley's position is seriously compromised, and he finds himself incredibly vulnerable to a primary challenge in 2010, to say nothing of increasing the likelihood of a Republican victory in the 2010 gubernatorial election.

Splitting Humanity

No this does not deal with a magic trick, but with the future of human evolution:

The human race will one day split into two separate species, an attractive, intelligent ruling elite and an underclass of dim-witted, ugly goblin-like creatures, according to a top scientist.

100,000 years into the future, sexual selection could mean that two distinct breeds of human will have developed.

The alarming prediction comes from evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry from the London School of Economics, who says that the human race will have reached its physical peak by the year 3000.

No word yet on how future Maryland Democrats will attempt to protect the goblin class by jacking up taxes on the goblin class....

Anything but Confidence

Memo to Harris supporters: I understand that the candidate and his supporters are confident that the Senator is going to beat Congressman Gilchrest in the primary. However, when supporters start talking to the press about half-baked theories about why certain candidates are jumping into the race, that doesn't exactly exude confidence, now does it?

Again, I'm not supporting or endorsing a candidate. But color me unimpressed with the lame attempt at spin of some Harris supporters...

Checking in where I have been

In this Friday's Gazette, Barry Rascovar checks in where I have been for some time now: that Peter Franchot is positioning himself extremely well to mount a challenge to Governor O'Malley's left during the 2010 gubernatorial primary.

The more Franchot fights the special session, and the more likely it becomes that O'Malley's tax-hike gambit fails, the more likely a Franchot challenge will become....

Fuzzy Math

How come that during a structural deficit of $1.5 billion does Governor O'Malley think the public is going to buy a new half-billion dollar entitlement program?

Governor O'Malley must have a quite a low opinion of the intelligence of Maryland taxpayers if he thinks that they will let this pass by without comment. The disingenuousness of this O'Malley Administration continues to amaze...

Derangement Personified

Air America's Randi Rhodes has accused the Bush administration of a cover-up in the San Diego fires. Yes, she says that the fires are an arson so that the land can be turned over to Blackwater. Click here to hear the actual audio.

No word on whether or not Randi Rhodes is getting the psychiatric help she needs...

BREAKING: O'Malley approval plummets in new Gonzales Poll

Our friends over at Gonzales Research have released their October statewide poll as it relates to the upcoming Special Session. Of note, Governor O'Malley's approval rating has dipped to 46%; I believe that is lower than Governor Ehrlich's approval rating at any time during his four year term. Of special note:

When we asked those who disapprove of the job Governor O’Malley is doing why they felt that way, 61% said it was because of his proposal to raise taxes, 17% said it was because of his proposal to legalize slots, 12% said they generally don’t like his style or manner, and 9% specifically said they thought he was “arrogant.”

Amazing. Additionally, now fewer than half of Marylanders believe that our state is moving in the right direction.

I have made the entire poll available here.

Third Bases

Political Insider takes on the issue of potential third party candidacies from the usual suspects (Bloomberg, Paul, McKinney, et. al.). But I have to ask this question: is there really a constituency for such third party candidates? Does Cynthia McKinney really embody the fringe left? Are the wing-nuts supporting Ron Paul's candidacy going to follow him to a Libertarian nomination? Does anybody take Ralph Nader seriously? A third party candidacy has really not taken off since Ross Perot's 1992 run. Sure, Nader had something to do with the results of the 2000 Presidential election, but really it was Perot who had the last chance to actually win electoral votes.

I don't see a way for a third party candidacy to gain traction if the Democrats nominate their far left candidate (Hillary) and the Republicans nominate a mainstream conservative. However, if the nominees are Hillary and a liberal Republican such as Giuliani or Romney, there is a chance that a third-party on the right will emerge and attempt to run to the right of the Republican nominee. This is, of course, is not an optimal situation given the fact that this increases the likelihood that Hillary Clinton is elected....

Some things are still OK...

A live shot of the sun setting over the Pacific....

Another SD

More SD pics

Pictureblogging the San Diego fires

I am in San Diego, and that is one of the clouds from one of the many, many fires burning in San Diego County.

Out There

The Sun really cracked me up this morning with their editorial on the budget situation. Particularly since the editorial was entitled "Reality-based budgeting," because it was their typical, rather panglossian view of the government that can do no wrong and the government that can never do enough.

Personally, this is my favorite part:

The reality of state government is that most tax dollars go straight into schools, public safety and health care - and often, it's still not enough.

When the General Assembly convenes one week from tomorrow in special session to consider Mr. O'Malley's plan, every option should be on the table, including eliminating government programs that are no longer vital. But anyone who claims cuts can balance the budget is either ill-informed or baldly mendacious.

The deficit wasn't caused by waste; it's primarily the result of failing to pay for programs that most people living in this, one of the wealthiest states in the nation, would regard as sensible and prudent.

Read that last sentence again. According to the geniuses on Calvert Street, the deficit was not caused by paying for too many government handouts, but the deficit was caused by too few government handouts.

There is nothing reality based about the Sun's position on the budget. It is the typically urban liberal perspective that the taxpayer is merely a bank, and that government can withdraw however much it wants in order to waste the money on programs that are either ineffective, obsolete, or just plain unwanted. Though maybe the Sun's position on the issue explains its ever declining circulation numbers; maybe readers get tired of hearing that the Sun's editorial writers want them to be poor...

Good News for the Good Guys

2007 may have been a rough year for the GOP, but at least the party can claim victory in Louisiana with the election of Bobby Jindal as that state's new Governor.

Jindal's victory , however, came at a heavy price. The victory was heavily influenced by the catastrophic damage of Hurricane Katrina. Louisiana's dysfunctional government, led by corrupt and incompetent Democratic mismanagement before and after the storm, failed the people of Louisiana during that crisis. The people, both those who perished and those who survived, paid a heavy heavy price.

I look forward to seeing what kind of progress Governor-elect Jindal can make in bringing Louisiana back...

Music for an early Saturday

On my own island

I said before that I have not endorsed, nor will I be endorsing any candidate in the 1st Congressional District scrum. But from the perspective of being an observer, am I the only person who does not think Andy Harris is going to beat Wayne Gilchrest?

The Numbers Game
The numbers are just not adding up for the Harris campaign. The lowest percentage Gilchrest ever received during a primary as an incumbent was 47 percent of the vote, back in 1992 when the district had a larger slice of Anne Arundel County. With the current composition of the District, he beat Dave Fischer 60-36 in 2002, and Richard Colburn 62-38 in 2004. It's hard to imagine that such a large slice of the electorate would defect after two contested elections.

The Others
Also complicating the issue for the Harris team is the fact that there are three other candidates in the race: Joe Arminio, Robert Joseph Banks, and John Leo Walter. Arminio and Walter have been in the race for some time and have both campaign extensively across the district. One would have to almost assume that those three candidates will split around 10 percent of the anti-Gilchrest vote.

District Geography
Senator Harris represents only two precincts that vote in CD-1. He does not start off with the name ID that one would usually expect from a State Senator challenging and incumbent Congressman, and certainly at more of a disadvantage than Senator Colburn (who represented a large chunk of the Shore) did in 2004.

Additionally, it seems that a lot of Eastern Shore Republicans prefer their Congressman to be one of them, living on the eastern shore. That, from the people I have talked to, seems to be as much of a determining factor as ideology. This also plays into the Walter factor, since Walter is a resident of Centreville. On top of that, Arminio lives in Arnold, Anne Arundel County. That may peel a few extra votes away from Harris than might happen otherwise.

The Kratovil Factor
Some Republicans I have spoken with are fearful of Frank Kratovil, Queen Anne's County State's Attorney and current Democratic frontrunner. There is a fear in some that a Harris win will make it more likely that Kratovil, not Harris, will be elected in November. They point to Kratovil being, like Walter, from the Shore and being somewhat of a moderate yet popular elected Democrat. It may mean that a lot of moderate Democrats who may otherwise pull the lever for Gilchrest (or most Republicans in most years) would switch to Kratovil.

To his credit, Senator Harris has been running a textbook campaign, one that has been more effective than any of the previous primary challengers. But he needs to run a perfect campaign and cross his fingers for luck in order to win this race. Missteps like his awkward new TV spot that mixes messages do not help his campaign any.

There is a long way to go between now and February 12th, but if the election were held today I would say that Wayne Gilchrest is going to win the primary by between five and eight percent...

Good Riddance

Next:

Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) will resign as general chairman of the Republican Party today, saying he wants to spend more time on his work as Florida's GOP senator, Politico has learned.

Martinez, who took the job nine months ago as the public face of the national GOP, steps down during a tough time for the Republican party, out of power on Capitol Hill and trying to gain traction in the national campaign under the shadow of an unpopular, lame duck president. Martinez, who publicly parted ways with GOP congressional leaders earlier this year on immigration issues, will not be replaced as general chairman.

The day to day duties of running the Republican Party's political operation will be left to chairman Mike Duncan, the current chairman of the Republican National Committee.

I said last year that this was a bad idea. So now that we've all been proven right, can somebody please call Michael Steele?

Run for the Border

Remember when Bills fans beat up current Ravens RB Willis McGahee when he said the Bills should move to Toronto? Well...

The Buffalo Bills on Thursday announced they are seeking approval to play a preseason and at least one regular-season game in Toronto as part of the franchise's attempt to expand its market base beyond western New York.

"The team hopes to capitalize on the increasing interest of fans in the Canadian market by playing a regular-season game in Toronto," the Bills announced in a release.

The Bills hope to play a preseason game at Toronto next summer, with plans to play a regular-season game as early as 2009. The games would be played at Rogers Center, a downtown stadium with a retractable roof that serves as home to baseball's Blue Jays and the Canadian Football League Argonauts.

Of course, the NFL in Toronto does sense. Possibly one of only two viable major metropolitan area on the continent that currently do not have NFL football (the other being Los Angeles; you're not gonna sell me on Mexico City). Certainly more viable than Jacksonville or Arizona have proven to be (two cities which got teams, incidentally, ahead of Baltimore; though I think it's safe to say that we came out ahead on the Cardinals deal).

Fuzzy Math

In addition to their noted spelling problems, John Leopold's campaign people can't get math right. The District 32 GOP Club website links to this flier which talks about a fundraiser celebrating "Celebrating 20 Years of Public Service to District 31" by John Leopold.

Well, given the fact that it is Leopold, it would be unsurprising to note that it was 25 years ago that John Leopold was elected to the House of Delegates. 25 years since Leopold finished up his "district shopping" for a winnable district and settled on District 31, a mere six months before the 1982 election.

And here's a better question; why are they not celebrating John Leopold's 40 years of "public service"? Or does Leopold forget that he was a professional politician for 15 years in Hawaii, known for much of the similar untrustworthiness and liberalism there, before he ever stepped foot in Maryland?

Then again, I have no idea why anybody would vote for this guy....

Leopold endorses O'Malley Tax Plan

One thing Streiff did not point out earlier was that, as usual, John Leopold is showing his true colors:

County Executive John R. Leopold, a Republican, said the state's transportation demands justify higher taxes.

True, transportation demands are at an all-time high. But as we noted yesterday, there are alternatives to taxpayer-funded roads. Leopold's snap judgment that taxes should be raised to fund transportation projects are just another notch in his pro-tax, pro-big government, pro-liberal belt.

A Reasonable Approach to Fixing our Traffic Woes

Drew Carey on private sector solutions to highway gridlock (H/T absentee on RedState):

Wouldn't it be nice if the state of Maryland would outsource the construction of the Intercounty Connector, a new Bay Bridge, or HOT lanes (like the aforementioned 91 Express Lanes in California)? Wouldn't you, as a taxpayer, feel better about the construction, maintenance, and expediency of construction of these roads as opposed to the ten-years plus it may take to even turn the first shovel of dirt on these projects if the State of Maryland takes the lead?

Knowing your Strenghts

ESPN has a fascinating article about Red Sox ownership using the team's brand name to make a lot of money in other athletic pursuits, such as Roush Fenway Racing and Boston College athletics.

Memo to Peter Angelos: you own the Orioles, a brand with significant cache in the Mid-Atlantic area. You own MASN. There are a great number of other pro sports and Division I athletic programs stretching from Central Pennsylvania to Charlotte. Might be something you want to consider to make some extra cash to push past 70 wins every once in a while...

D-Day

We know when the General Assembly is going back to work:

Gov. Martin O'Malley today formally called a General Assembly special session that would start Oct. 29, despite a warning from the state Senate president that lawmakers were far from consensus on O'Malley's plan to close a projected $1.7 billion budget shortfall.

OK, now let's delve into the gobbledygook:

"The time for delay is past. I am very, very optimistic about what the leaders of our state can accomplish when they know so much is at stake,'' said O'Malley, who signed an executive order calling the session. "We have the ability to come together and forge a consensus.

Which is amazing given the fact that the Administration has gone out of its way to exclude the Republican leadership from this process. Also, don't forget the fact that the Administration knows so much is at stake. Why have they sat on the sidelines during O'Malley's entire time in office, fiddling without dealing with the spending problem like responsible adults?

O'Malley has said the special session is needed to prevent the budget gap from growing wider. He has said the state could face a $2.2 billion budget shortfall on July 1 if lawmakers don't act now, rather than in the legislature's regular session that starts in January.

Again, the budget gap could have been lessened or eliminated had O'Malley introduced a responsible budget back in January. One that did not call for increases in state spending.

At a news conference, the first-term governor said he hoped legislators would take action by Thanksgiving, but he added: "If they need to take more time, they will."

"We don't want this to be a slapdash process,'' O"Malley said.

No, they want to continue to fiddle as the deficit goes higher and higher. It's almost as if it took six months for the Administration to realize there was a problem before saying "hey, we have to fix this." Unless you believe that this was their motivation all along; to continue to increase state spending to push through the buffet of taxes O'Malley wants to ram down our throats.

And whether you like Mike Miller or don't, you have to respect him and his intelligence. As evidenced by this:

Although Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller had been pushing for a special session, he told reporters before O'Malley's news conference that he had recommended holding off on calling lawmakers back to Annapolis.

"I asked him if he had the votes, and he doesn't as of this day," Miller said. "I counseled him not to call a special session until he had the votes. He is determined to go forward."

Starting October 29th, the taxpayers of Maryland are going to pay roughly $40,000 a day (a cost of nearly $1 million if it goes to Thanksgiving) for some bizarre Kabuki theater allegedly designed to get us out of the financial hole. In reality, the Administration is going to try to ramrod through historic tax increases that will do little more than cripple our state's economy in an already economically disadvantageous time. And they will try to do so under the cover of darkness, right before the Holidays so your average taxpayer doesn't know what hit them.

Somebody needs to remind Governor O'Malley that there are a lot of things that you could call this, but leadership is not one of them...

Truth on An Inconvenient Truth

Every so often somebody will moan about there being no scientists who are saying that what Al Gore is doing is wrong. Well, piling on to the court decision outlining Gore's lies is this:

ONE of the world's foremost meteorologists has called the theory that helped Al Gore share the Nobel Peace Prize "ridiculous" and the product of "people who don't understand how the atmosphere works".

Dr William Gray, a pioneer in the science of seasonal hurricane forecasts, told a packed lecture hall at the University of North Carolina that humans were not responsible for the warming of the earth.

His comments came on the same day that the Nobel committee honoured Mr Gore for his work in support of the link between humans and global warming.

"We're brainwashing our children," said Dr Gray, 78, a long-time professor at Colorado State University. "They're going to the Gore movie [An Inconvenient Truth] and being fed all this. It's ridiculous."...

...But Dr Gray, whose annual forecasts of the number of tropical storms and hurricanes are widely publicised, said a natural cycle of ocean water temperatures - related to the amount of salt in ocean water - was responsible for the global warming that he acknowledges has taken place.

However, he said, that same cycle meant a period of cooling would begin soon and last for several years.

"We'll look back on all of this in 10 or 15 years and realise how foolish it was," Dr Gray said....

..."It bothers me that my fellow scientists are not speaking out against something they know is wrong," he said. "But they also know that they'd never get any grants if they spoke out. I don't care about grants."

I'll think I'll put my faith in a guy with a long, respected history of academic scholarship in the field of meteorology than I will a politician from Washington, DC Tennessee.

Unsurprisingly, no domestic news outlets have picked up on this despite the fact the Dr. Gray's speech occurred in North Carolina. They have to protect the agenda at all costs, you know...

Who wants to win a National Championship?

That's starting to become more and more of a valid question as the bodies continue to hit the floor.

LSU goes down. California goes down. Even (formerly) undefeated Cincinnati goes down.

The likely top three tomorrow when the first BCS poll of the year is released: Ohio State, Boston College (!) and South Florida (!!!!).

And that leaves only those three teams, Hawaii, Kansas and Arizona State as undefeated teams (and at this second, the Sun Devils are losing to Washington).

Somebody is going to have to step up and win this thing. And the longer this goes on, the higher the likelihood that one-loss teams like Oklahoma, Kentucky, South Carolina, Virginia Tech, Oregon and even Southern Cal have a shot at this thing, along with the newly minted one-loss teams....

Yikes...

You think the marriage debate is rocky now? Try this (H/T Instapundit):

The University of Maastricht in the Netherlands is awarding a doctorate to a researcher who wrote a paper on marriages between humans and robots.

David Levy, a British researcher at the college, wrote in his thesis, "Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners," that trends in robotics and shifting attitudes on marriage are likely to result in sophisticated robots that will eventually be seen as suitable marriage partners.

I'm not going there. The jokes will come to you....

Who are they kidding?

Gotta love the comedians at the Sun. They can turn a story about a reunion of players in the Mandel trials into something humorous:

The United States of America vs. Mandel et al officially began Nov. 24, 1975, when a federal grand jury handed up a 24-count racketeering and mail fraud indictment against Mandel and five members of his inner circle.

On the heels of the resignation and guilty plea from Vice President Spiro Agnew, the case against Mandel was also handled by federal prosecutors in Maryland, who established a national reputation for going after public corruption. Many believe the Mandel trials also marked of the end of the backroom, political-machine era in Maryland.

Needless to say, I got a chuckle. I guess the Sun really hasn't been paying attention to the Governor's attempts at a slots deal, have they?

Cheapening a Prize

Apparently being a hypocritical let-them-eat-cake biased Chicken Little on the environment has its benefits:

Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Friday for their efforts to spread awareness of man-made climate change and lay the foundations for counteracting it.

"I am deeply honored to receive the Nobel Peace Prize," Gore said. "We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity."

I suppose he'll take his private jet to Oslo to pick up the hardware and, of course, the check.

As always, Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus makes sense on the issue:

Czech President Vaclav Klaus, a rare vocal global- warming sceptic among heads of state, is "somewhat surprised" that former US vice president Al Gore received the Nobel Peace Prize, the president's spokesman Petr Hajek said in a statement.

"The relationship between his activities and world peace is unclear and indistinct," the statement said. "It rather seems that Gore's doubting of basic cornerstones of the current civilization does not contribute to peace."

Klaus said in a recent speech that environmentalists' efforts to halt global warming "fatally endanger our freedom and prosperity."

I would say this cheapens the value of the Nobel Peace Prize that was given to people who have actually worked to do good in the world, like Martin Luther King (1964), Norman Borlaug (1970) and Muhammed Yunus (last year). And David Keelan says he has lost all respect for the prize. But given the fact that Communists, terrorists, anti-semites, and crooks have already won the award, I'm not exactly sure how Al Gore being a hysterical hypocrite makes thing any worse than they already were.

Proving the Point About the Size of Government

Those who modify their cars to run on biofuels are doing so, generally to save money in the long term on the cost of gas, but also in order to help clean the environment. Naturally, the bloated size of government could theoretically get in the way:

But it is technically illegal to modify a car to run on any fuel other than the one it was designed for. Because the Environmental Protection Agency has not approved vegetable oil as a fuel, grease cars are in violation of the Clean Air Act.

This does not apply to the use of biodiesel, an EPA-regulated fuel created from soy and other organic oils.

People who modify their cars to run on vegetable oil could face a $2,750 fine, although the EPA has no record of any such penalties, said spokesman Dale Kemery.

People who run their vehicles on homebrewed fuels are also supposed to pay a Maryland fuel tax of 24.25 cents per gallon, be licensed as a special fuel user by the state and file a monthly report on the use of fuel.

But because the use of vegetable oil fuel is so new, nobody has been penalized for not paying taxes, said Warren Hansen, spokesman for the Maryland Comptroller's Office. He said there are only about 100 licensed special fuel users in the state.

I think that it says so much about government overreach that innovators and early adopters of such emerging technologies could be subject to fines and penalties for doing something so innovative. Though I bet somebody in the Comptroller's office is looking at how to enforce this now given Franchot's zeal for collecting tax dollars...

Blast from the Past

Yes folks, Vinny Testaverde may be in an NFL starting lineup near you this weekend:

Carolina Panthers quarterback David Carr missed practice for a second straight day Thursday with a sore back, increasing the chances 43-year-old Vinny Testaverde could start on Sunday at Arizona.

Testaverde, signed on Wednesday, and undrafted rookie Matt Moore, signed just over a month ago, took all the snaps in practice for the banged-up Panthers. Coach John Fox wouldn't say which QB he'd use if Carr can't play Sunday.

I am stunned an amazed that the same Vinny Testeverde that was run out of Baltimore after the 1997, only to be succeeded by a guy who is now Stanford's Head Coach.

Vinny getting pretty close to Steve DeBerg and George Blanda territory, actually...

Much Thanks

Much thanks out to the Elephant Club for having me as a guest speaker for their meeting this morning. We talked about blogs in general, and opened up into a general discussion about blogs in general, the Presidential race, the Gilchrest/Harris race, the reasons I'm not a Don Dwyer fan, and my goals as a blogger and an activist.

Very vibrant discussion, and I 'm glad that I could be a part of it.

Special Session Rumblings

Streiff is all over it at RedMaryland. He's got the reporting that the Special Session will start October 29th and that O'Malley's tax proposals are causing dissent in Montgomery County.

He's all over it, so stay tuned over there for updates.

Reminder...

I'll be speaking to the Elephant Club tomorrow morning at 7:30 am. I'll be discussing blogging and some of my views on issues impacting us as Republicans.

The event will be at Our Shepherd Lutheran Church, 400 Benfield Road in Severna Park.

Misusing the Office

We have gone over before the duties and responsibilities of the Office of the Comptroller and Peter Franchot's inability to understand them. And I'm pretty sure that this isn't in there:

State Comptroller Peter Franchot has agreed to cull state income tax records to identify Howard County families who might qualify for health care assistance and then send them letters offering help, county officials said yesterday.

"Who knows better than the state comptroller who is making less than 300 percent of [the federal] poverty [level]?" asked Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, the county health officer, referring to the income cutoff to qualify for federally funded health care programs for children.

The letter campaign was to be announced today at Franchot's Baltimore office on West Preston Street as the latest component of what Howard County officials say will be a comprehensive plan to offer health care access to all uninsured residents. Details of the plan are to be revealed Tuesday.

So the state is going to spend taxpayer dollars to help Howard County spend more taxpayer dollars on covering the uninsured? Where exactly is that in the Comptroller's job description?

Franchot's job is to collect the taxes, and realistically not much else. His job is to not turn the resources of the Comptroller's office over to help Howard County expand the number of citizens on government assistance, no matter how well meaning he is about it. If the people of Howard County want to offer comprehensive health care to its uninsured, and so long as they are using the taxpayer dollars of Howard County residents, I don't really have a dog in the fight. But I do have an issue when the Office of the Comptroller, funded by my taxes, is being misused in this manner.

I will note, however, that the same people who praise Peter Franchot for his "courage" would be first in line to charge the Bush Administration with high treason if they proposed using IRS records to track terrorists...

A Pivotal Day in Western Civilization

On this day 1,275 years ago, The Franks under Charles Martel defeated Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi at the Battle of Tours. Of course the battle had a few longstanding effects, particularly in that the battle led to:

• Christian domination of Europe;
• The holding of Muslim influence in Western Europe no further than the Iberian Peninsula;
  
• Establishment of the Frankish Kingdom, the forerunner of the Kingdom of France;
• The reign of Charlemagne and the Birth of the Holy Roman Empire;
• Basically, the birth of Modern Europe
  

So yes, all of western civilization as we know it owes its existence the events at Tours. Yet, I wonder how many students get taught the importance of this battle in their studies?

Not a Chance Pal

This Kremlin inside makes a logical point that won't see the light of day any time soon:

Russians should move the embalmed body of revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin from Moscow's Red Square and bury him as an act of closure on Russia's turbulent past, a Kremlin insider said on Wednesday....

...."We have only just moved away from revolutions, from turbulent political battles, the country wants to live normally, to work, to be rich," Vladimir Kozhin, one of the Kremlin's top administrators in charge of its property portfolio including Red Square, told the official daily, Rossiskaya Gazeta.

..."Of course, having this necropolis at the centre of the city is nonsense," Kozhin said, adding he wanted a national referendum on whether Lenin should be moved and buried.

Of course, that's not going to happen any time soon, because one Vladimir Putin likes the concept of honoring Lenin in this manner. And since Putin wants to hold on to power as long as possible, that's not going to happen.

Incidentally, I went to the Lenin Mausoleum when I was in Russia in 1997. And it's a pretty odd site to see the body of a guy who died 73 years before being guard by soldiers with Kalashnikovs...

Naming Issues

Villa Julie looks like it may not learn from the mistakes of others:

Villa Julie College went coeducational in 1972 and became a four-year school in 1984, but a lot of guidance counselors don't seem to know that.

The college separated from the Roman Catholic Church four decades ago, but to many employers and would-be students the words "Villa Julie" still summon images of a religious institution.

Now the suburban Baltimore college is considering changing its name.

At least Villa Julie has better reasons to change their name than my alma mater did when they made the bonehead decision to change its name five years ago. And like many people, I have not given a dime to the school in response.

I hope Villa Julie considers long and hard about the consequences of poor decision making like the Western Maryland decision before making any such changes...

The Dope Show

I'm hesitant to even give Free State Politics more traffic then they deserve, but since Andrew Kujan has to be smoking dope to come to this cockamamie conclusion, it has to be addressed.

The fact of the matter is that the family in question that is kvetching because they don't have health insurance makes a little more than half as much money as I do. Yet they have three-times as much square footage of livable space as I do in a more expensive community. They also have four more kids than I do. And choose to spend a boat load on private schools.

So answer me this: who are the parents who pay for private schooling? Who are the parents that choose to have a 3,000 square foot house? Who are the parents who choose to work at jobs with no health care? And why the hell should I have to pay for their poor parenting skills? And to why should some dolts who make choices to spend beyond their means deserves to be protected from ridicule by the right because they are "a white male, who is both married and a small business owner with more than 2 children, who sends his kids to private school and drives an SUV?" Particularly when you consider that said subject is knowingly trying to live off of my money, not their own?

So Andrew: who really is undertaking a rectal self-examination in this instance?

I don't think anybody is saying that there should not be certain government assistance for uninsured children. But to fall for this claptrap from the left, trotting out the kids of parents who pay thousands in private school tuition but can't afford medical bills, is beyond ridiculous. It is the very definition of disingenuous, and shows everything that is wrong with the modern fringe left.

Of course, when the modern left is so chicken that it has to hide behind children in order to score cheap political points, you knew all of that already...

My goodness, something happened

It took an extra thirteen days, but the Anne Arundel GOP website finally got updated to reflect the new chairman. Even with a self-congratulatory message to Jerry Walker.

I hope other simple things don't take a month for this leadership team to figure out...

The Continuing Comedy of Errors

The Anne Arundel County GOP continues to seek innovative ways to act like amateurs. From the weekly GOP calendar email, still distributed by Mike Collins:

Jerry Walker has called a Special Meeting of the Republican Central Committee this Wednesday, October 10, at 6:30 pm. This meeting will be held at the home of Debbie Belcher, 1441 Shot Town Road, Annapolis.

The agenda will be distributed at the meeting and will include briefing proposed events to be hosted by the Central Committee and a proposed budget by Tom Redmond.

The meeting will be short and followed by stuffing invitations for the upcoming Business event on October 25th, so volunteers are encouraged to attend.

What better way to dissuade the public from participating than by having a meeting at the home of somebody who doesn't think the public has the right to question the Committee, in order to hear a budget proposed by somebody who thinks the Committee should conduct its business in secret.

This committee continues to look more and more like a joke with each passing day...

An idea that's all wet

It's getting harder and harder to tell the Republicans from the Democrats at the County level without a scorecard when you hear about stuff like this:

Of course, protecting her firefighter husband from harm is an added benefit of the mandatory fire sprinkler initiative Councilman Cathy Vitale plans to push this month.

But the reason she wants every new home in Anne Arundel County to come with sprinklers springs from a story he once told her after a heart breaking day on the job.....

....For the past month, she has floated a plan to join the growing ranks of nearly 20 other jurisdictions that require every new home to come with sprinklers.

At least six counties have the rule, from neighboring Prince George's County - which passed the ordinance in 1992 and since then has not seen a fire death in any of the 50,000 homes with sprinklers - to Talbot County, where an ordinance passed last week followed the death of a family of three.

Ms. Vitale has shopped her plan to fellow councilmen, who appear largely supportive, firefighters who have been longing for a sprinkler policy since the 1970s and to the homebuilders association, which generally oppose such measures.

This is the type of liberal nannystatism that you would expect from Democrats, not a veteran Republican County Councilwoman in the county's most conservative Councilmanic District. And certainly not from a politician looking for a promotion in 2010. Voters remember when politicians add at least $1 per square foot to the costs of their new home.

And Vitale isn't even the only alleged conservative who is gung ho for this idea:

Councilman Ed Reilly, R-Crofton, is an insurance agent and said the sprinklers will diminish the cost of insurance policies.

"I'm very much in favor of it, and I'm embarrassed we haven't done anything before," Mr. Reilly said at the hearing.

And the real question on everybody's mind is how in the world the residents of this county are going to pay for this?

For example, neighborhoods on wells must also install holding tanks to make sure the sprinklers have enough pressure to work.

Who is going to pay for that? Is the county going to force new communities to build holding tanks, thus artificially inflating the prices of these new homes?

Additionally if people currently want sprinklers, they can have sprinklers. The market is already giving people the option. And the market seems to be taking care of this:

Today, people building custom homes order sprinklers, but it is rare for the builder of a subdivision to voluntarily install them in a new home, said Larry Cate, the vice president of Absolute Fire Protection in Severna Park who has been installing sprinkling systems in Anne Arundel for two decades.

"You won't close a tough sell," Mr. Cate said of sprinkler skeptics. "It's usually black or white. You either believe in it and you want it, or you don't."

The extra costs put builders constructing neighborhoods at a competitive disadvantage, but Mr. Cate suspects that if every home was forced to have it, the playing field would be even.

Which is also a completely ridiculous statement from Mr. Cate. The playing field is already even. Some builders choose to install sprinklers. Some don't. The consumer gets to make that choice as it is.

We all agree that deaths from fires in the home are a tragic loss to a family and a tragic loss to the community. But this idea is all wet. What is the benefit to the consumer if such systems are mandated? What are the chances that a home is going to be involved in a fire? Do we really want to pass such a cost on to homeowners, who are already going to be expected to pay more and more under the O'Malley tax plan? Do we want to pinch builders, who will likely see somewhat of a hit in business if they are required to install such systems at an additional cost?

I can see the current existing requirement in multi-unit dwellings. But to require that such sprinkler systems in new single-family homes is excessive. In a climate that already finds it difficult to construct affordable housing, why should new costs be added to by government. Vitale and Reilly should really reconsider their positions on this issue, as this is not the kind of conservatism we expect from our Republican elected officials.

O'Hubris

You have to love Governor O'Malley's hubris:

The GOP tactic of opposing a special session produces conflict when lawmakers should be working to build consensus, O'Malley said on Thursday.

''Over the next couple of weeks, any group of 10 or 20 people will get together and figure out if they can keep anything from happening, as if that should be a revelation," he told reporters at Embassy Day in North Bethesda. ''The last four years in Annapolis have unfortunately proven to the people in Maryland that Annapolis is really good at not getting anything done, but blaming everybody else. What we need to do now is find consensus to solve problems."

O'Malley's pretty good at blaming everybody else too, given his consistent record of failure. But I find his hubris completely overwhelming consider that it is the Administration who is purposely keeping the GOP caucus out of the discussions on his slots plan. It is O'Malley who wants to keep Republicans at arms length. It is O'Malley's actions that are ensuring no bipartisan cooperation is taking place on these issues.

And then there is O'Malley's actual bipartisanship:

In his travels around the state, O'Malley has made references to meeting with lawmakers from both sides of the aisle as he developed his budget solution.

Poppycock, Allan Kittleman said.

The party's No. 2 man in the Senate says the guv has only reached out to him twice — once to congratulate him on being elected minority whip and once to inform him that O'Malley was firing his mother, Trent Kittleman, as head of the Maryland Transportation Authority.

That stings.

O'Malley's warped view of bipartisanship is amazing. But I take solace in the fact that it will more than likely be conservative Democrats in the General Assembly who are ultimately responsible for ensuring his tax increases fail to come to fruition...

The Ugly Truth

Stephen Moore lays down the ugly truth on taxes and the GOP:

America's swing voters, especially the suburban "security moms," who abandoned the GOP in droves in 2006 still hold Republicans in very low regard. What has party tacticians especially spooked is that these independents are apparently not much attracted to what the Republicans are saying about taxes. That's a bitter pill for party leaders to swallow, because for 25 years the anti-tax banner has been a political trump card for conservative candidates. A top strategist at the Republican National Committee who attended the meeting told me: "Our tax message has worn thin."

And he's right. Unfortunately, the message of tax cuts cannot in and of itself save the GOP anymore. Not because people want to pay more in taxes; check out Maryland's reaction to Governor O'Malley's attempts to swindle us out of more money and you'll see that. It's because Republicans, particularly in Congress, stopped being about what Republicans have been about. Smaller government and less government spending. Something the American people do understand:

There is another GOP imperative: The anti-tax message must be linked to wasteful government spending. "There's no question that for seven out of 10 American voters, wasteful government spending is one of the largest problems in Washington," says pollster Tony Fabrizio. "For many of these voters it's a bigger issue than taxes." All of the polling consistently finds that voters believe about 40 cents of every dollar spent by Washington is wasted. So this widespread aversion to the way government mishandles money may be the best shield against tax hikes--at all levels of government.

In Mr. Winston's survey, 75% of respondents agreed that, "Taxes should not be increased as long as Congress continues to waste the tax money it already receives." Only 23% did not.

We need to reclaim the Republican Party as the party of small government conservatism, not statism wrapped in a conservative bow. To continue to spend like Democrats only further imperils our current political state...

Great Moments in Central Committee Punditry

"We need to keep things out of the press. What happens in the Committee stays in the Committee."
- Republican Central Committee Member (and former Democrat) Tom Redmond, during last night's Anne Arundel GOP Central Committee Meeting

AA GOP Legal Counsel Wrap-up

Reports indicate no fireworks last night's Anne Arundel County GOP Central Committee meeting, even in the wake of what we heard going into last night's selection of a new Legal Counsel for the party. So we congratulate Jason Rheinstein on getting the position.

But I have a question. How much should the specific political ideology of a party Legal Counsel play into their confirmation as Counsel? Because what I hear is that a lot of the questions directed at Jason were of this nature....

No, TV doesn't try to push an agenda at all

No sir, no way:

Former Vice President Al Gore is expected to make an appearance on the NBC comedy show "30 Rock" in November. Gore was in New York last week to tape the episode, and a Gore spokeswoman says "he did have a great time".

Gore's office anticipates the episode will air as part of, what it called, NBC's upcoming "Green is Universal" week of environmentally-based programming, Nov. 4 - 10.

I am stunned that NBC will waste a week of program preaching environmentalist propaganda. That being said, if they are dumb enough to try this stunt during the November sweeps, then they've got it coming to them:

"We need to not just think green, but act green," said Zucker. "This commitment to a week of programming is an incredible opportunity for NBCU to use the collective power of its platforms – broadcast, cable, and film – and consumer expertise and reach to further the message of environmental awareness and change."

"For the first time ever, the massive resources of the entire NBC Universal family will stand together behind a single pro-social cause," said Zalaznick. "This far-reaching initiative represents the first step in our commitment to help raise environmental awareness and effect change both internally and externally."

Highlights from the "Green is Universal" week include:

NBC Entertainment programming, both scripted and unscripted, will adopt green-friendly and environmentally-oriented messages – across all dayparts – to promote the crucial issue of ecological awareness. Among NBC's many programs to feature this content will be the entire Thursday night line-up, including the Emmy Award-winning comedy "The Office," "My Name is Earl" and "30 Rock," the hit drama "Heroes" and "Deal or No Deal."

NBC News' platforms including "Today," "Nightly News," "Dateline," MSNBC and MSNBC.com, will support a week of special programming, including in-depth looks at the issues and some unique special broadcast events. NBC News' Chief Environmental Affairs Correspondent Anne Thompson will be featured throughout this special week of programming.

NBC Sports kicks-off "Green is Universal" week November 4th with its Sunday Night Football match-up between the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles. The broadcast will feature additional announcements about "Green is Universal," as well as incorporate the themes throughout its telecast on Sunday and the following Saturday's Air Force vs. Notre Dame game.

And it goes on like this.

Can you imagine if Fox did something like this for, say, capitalism, or individual rights, or the Second Amendment? Incorporating it across every aspect of its programming? Liberals would be marching in the streets. But do something politically correct like this, and nobody says nary a word.

This is bad business, bad policy, and bad politics all at the same time. And I hope they get trounced in the ratings for it. Not that there is anything worth watching on NBC anymore anyway...

Straight Tax Talk

Capital columnist Eric Hartley talks straight about the Governor's tax plan today:

"The vast majority of Maryland families will be paying less," Mr. O'Malley said during an event in Ellicott City, one of seven stops he made in nine days.

But that's an assumption resting on some dubious and suspiciously precise numbers. And the truth is, a lot of us probably will be paying more.

How do I know? Let's look at the numbers.

Hartley goes on to show what the numbers really are going to add up to. He concludes with this:

Are the numbers false? Not exactly, but the presentation is carefully calculated to show the poor and middle class saving money. If the chart showed average families paying, say, $50 or $100 more, it wouldn't be so effective.

But then, it's only October. There are plenty of lies, damned lies and statistics still to come.

Which reminds me back from a few months ago when we talked about getting nickeled and dimed. Which is exactly what Maryland Democrats are going to do to the middle class. Maryland Democrats don't seem to care how much the middle and working classes are going to be forced to pay in order to fund their special pet programs....

Owing Favors

Former Clinton Apparatchik Lanny Davis must owe someone in the O'Malley Administration a favor for his gushing genuflection over O'Malley's tax and spend plan:

I'm a resident of Montgomery County, and under the O'Malley proposal to close the $1.7 billion structural budget deficit the state is facing, I am definitely going to end up paying higher taxes overall, even while some 83.5 percent of other Marylanders will end up paying less. So how can I claim that this plan is good for me, good for my county and good for Maryland?

Hey, if Lanny Davis is so rich he wants to pay higher taxes, I'm not going to stop him. Maybe the O'Malley tax plan should include one of Mike Huckabee's good ideas when he was Governor of Arkansas: a tax me more fund.

First, I believe that most people in Montgomery County, as elsewhere, support the principle of progressive taxation.

Have some numbers to back that up? Nope, didn't think so. The only possible reason that Davis can possible believe that this is true is the fact that he surrounds himself with like-minded urban liberals who all think that the middle classes should be taxed at a high rate in order to spend more and more on social programs. And I'm willing to bet that these same people Davis knows love the idea of "progressive" taxation when it's someone else paying the freight,

Some of Montgomery County's elected officials immediately opposed this income tax increase because, combined with Montgomery's local add-on income tax of 3.1 percent, it would give county residents a total of 9.7 percent in state and local income taxes.

Hold on: elected officials opposing tax increases? Because it is going to screw their constituents? In Montgomery County? This is supposed to be a bad thing? Are elected officials in this liberal bastion opposed to new taxes? Hallelujah!

Second, despite its image of affluence, Montgomery and other suburban jurisdictions suffer from overcrowded roads and schools. So Mr. O'Malley has proposed a 1 percent increase in the state's corporate income tax, with the revenues (more than $100 million a year in the next four years) dedicated to transportation and education, including stabilizing college tuition after an increase of more than 50 percent in the last six years, and providing long-term security for the Thornton plan's multibillion-dollar education investment.

The law of diminishing returns tells us that an increase in the corporate income tax is going to cause businesses to either pump less into the economy, or to bail out of the state completely. That's to say nothing of the citizens who may sell "the hell with this" and move elsewhere. And we have already talked about the education funding fiasco that is Thornton and general education funding.

It is regressive, because rich and poor pay the same rate. But the governor has compensated for this by offering special tax relief for seniors and the working poor. And few could argue that the extension of the sales tax to tanning and massage services cannot be absorbed by those who use these services.

Some call it "regressive". Others call it "unfair" because some citizens are treated differently than other citizens. Usually liberals call the treatment of one group of people differently than others"discrimination." In this case liberals call it "justice."

All parts of the state and all income groups benefit from different parts of this package. That is its genius.

I'm not seeing how me paying more taxes to fund services I don't use and I don't want to pay for benefits me. That's not genius. And that's extortion when it is done through additional taxes.

The bottom line: The governor is required, under our state's constitution, to close a $1.7 billion structural deficit. He has chosen an artful and comprehensive balancing act of spreading the pain and benefits equitably.

The middle class seems to be the one getting most of the pain. Billions in new taxes to cover a deficit and then some; up to $3.6 billion more than necessary to cover the deficit. That's not leadership; that's irresponsible fiscal stewardship.

Anybody have a better idea?

Yeah. Cut taxes and cut discretionary spending. Don't steal from me to buy a Rolls Royce when you can only afford the Pinto. Make intelligent choices. How hard is this basic economics stuff to figure out?

The fact of the matter is that the Administration is acting like the kid in a candy store whose mom is paying them no mind as they ransack the Jolly Rancher bin when the Administration should try and act like a mature, fiscally responsible adult. This robbing Peter to pay Paul stuff has never been fair before, is not fair now, and will never be fair or just. Talking about how "genius" this plan in completely laughable and makes it hard to take Davis seriously at all.

I really don't know how people who want to take more and more from the overtaxed middle classes can look themselves in the mirror every morning and say that they are doing good for the state of Maryland.

A Question of Seriousness

Nobody thinks that Ron Paul is a serious candidate for President. Well, at least nobody who is serious takes his campaign. But, the Paul campaign raised $5 million during the 3rd quarter. That is five times more than Huckabee's total, and almost as much as Democratic first-tier candidate John Edwards and second-tier candidate Bill Richardson.

So I have to ask the question. Is a candidate for President a serious candidate when he raises a substantial amount of money despite minuscule to nonexistent popular support?

Fringe Elements have Coffee Klatsch

And who says the fringe left and the fringe right can't get along?

In an unlikely marriage of desire to secede from the United States, two advocacy groups from opposite political traditions — New England and the South — are sitting down to talk.

Tired of foreign wars and what they consider right-wing courts, the Middlebury Institute wants liberal states like Vermont to be able to secede peacefully.

That sounds just fine to the League of the South, a conservative group that refuses to give up on Southern independence.

"We believe that an independent South, or Hawaii, Alaska, or Vermont would be better able to serve the interest of everybody, regardless of race or ethnicity," said Michael Hill of Killen, Ala., president of the League of the South.

Read the whole thing. Man, to have been a fly on the wall in that room. But it is incredibly that this kind of thing gets reported in the news. I wonder what the reaction would have been if the same fringe elements held such a meeting during the Clinton years....

A Gambling Gamble

Senate Republicans today said no to the O'Malley slots plan:

Senate Republican leaders said that they do not support a special session of the General Assembly and that if Gov. Martin O'Malley calls for one anyway that the GOP caucus would block his slots proposal.

Sen. David Brinkley, the Senate minority leader, chided O'Malley for not releasing the details of his proposal to legalize slot machine gambling in Maryland before calling for a November special session. Brinkley said he and his colleagues would be open to a slots bill, however, when the General Assembly convenes for its annual three-month meeting, which begins in January.

"Part of our concern is that the Republican votes for slots were being taken for granted," Brinkley said in an interview. "The whole package has been crafted without our input."

Presumably, the House Caucus is probably going to take a similar stance.

This is a calculated risk on the behalf of the Senate Caucus. During the Ehrlich Administration, the legislative Republicans were (along with Mike Miller) slots most ardent cheerleaders. Now, this has the potential to be seen as a course reversal for the sake of political posturing.

However, at the moment, this is really one of the few bullets the GOP has in our legislative arsenal. The fact of the matter is that Republican leadership in Annapolis wants a piece of the action on crafting this legislation. And O'Malley along with the legislative leadership, as they are hypocritically wont to do, have completely cut off Republican input in the name of crafting a "bipartisan bill." One of the only ways Republicans can throw a wrench into the works is to unite together and vote no during the Special Session.

Of course, this could backfire. If the slots bill does pass notwithstanding GOP objections, then everybody will have played the fool. And if the failure of slots leads to higher taxes, the Democrats can blame Republicans for not supporting the slots bill.

That being said, it is a smart tactical move. Not only will it (hopefully) get GOP leadership to the table, it may throw the brakes onto any tax increases. If Mike Miller doesn't get slots, I doubt that Administration will get their cherished tax hikes.