Seeing the Light?

You will never guess who wrote this lament:

So the resulting energy tax hike is both large and narrowly targeted: at the people who create jobs.

The author of that revelation was none other than......Adam Pagnucco.

Yes....Adam Pagnucco has realized that Democrats, when they go out to raise taxes, invariable raise taxes either directly on Maryland's middle and working class families, or they raise them on the companies that employ Maryland's middle and working class families. In the instance of this tax increase, proposed by Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett as a business energy tax, the cost of the tax will be doubly born by the people of Montgomery County. On one hand, all Montgomery County residents who frequent these businesses will be faced with increased costs in an effort to offset the cost of the tax. On the other, a number of jobs that would otherwise be created by these Montgomery County businesses may not be created due to the burden created by Leggett's tax.

All that being said, I would like to welcome Adam Pagnucco as a visitor over here to the real world, as he examines this and other tax proposals by Maryland Democrats that would further devastate our state's economy, and harm the standard of living for Maryland's middle and working class families.

Holy Day for Hypocrites

So in case you've been living under a rock, today is Earth Day. And in what ways do the world's "climate warriors" celebrate Earth Day?

Well, if you're Martin O'Malley, you log 800 miles driving across Maryland on taxpayer dollars to prop up your sagging re-election campaign. This of course, coming weeks after he had an SUV waiting for him to hitch a ride home in lieu of a tough three minute walk home from the bar.

If you're the President and Vice-President, you both fly separately to New York, tying up air traffic for hours. Of course, you really don't want the President and Vice-President to fly on the same plane for obvious reasons. But when you're flying Joe Biden to New York to be on The View...

If you're a rock star or a music lover, you go down to Washington for the Earth Day 2010 Climate Rally being held on the National Mall, which might have some sort of record for biggest carbon footprint in support of lowering carbon footprints since LiveEarth. I drove past the Mall today, and the number of tents, booths, trash receptacles and whatnot that have been brought to the Mall for this event is impressive. Obviously, they didn't bring these things to the Mall in a Pedicab; they were brought in by big, nasty, diesel trucks that spewed all sorts of nasty emissions into the local atmosphere. And to entertain the masses, the organizers of this event are flying in all sorts of people for the event; Jesse Jackson, James Cameron, Dhani Jones, Margaret Atwood, Sting, John Legend, The Roots, and more. How do you think these folks got to DC? They didn't ride Barack Obama's low-emission unicorns powered by rainbow energy, that's for sure.

Look, all of us support making sure we have a clean environment; I mean it was a Republican that basically invented conservation as a national policy. And that's what environmentalism should focus on; conservationism. Conserving our natural resources and not wasting them. Not using environmentalism as a cudgel to push a radical social agenda, and certainly not an excuse to lecture the masses about it while having carbon footprints many times larger than the average citizen.

But then again, like many holidays, Earth Day has become the focal point of a movement, a day for excess and double standards. For these so-called "climate warriors", however, the average taxpayer sees through their shams and recognize them for the hypocrites they are...

O'Malley knows he's losing

Desperation is setting in early on the second floor....

The game of chess between the O'Malley and Ehrlich camps began today, with Governor O'Malley challenging Governor Ehrlich to a debate this Saturday during Ehrlich's radio show, with Governor Ehrlich countering with the offering of a mano-a-mano conversation between the two (which I, for one, would think would be fascinating radio).

Team O'Malley's challenge of a debate is a classic political gambit, trying to take the opposing candidate out of their comfort zone by being generally pesky and annoying.

However, there is one minor detail about the tradition of this gambit; it is invariably only played by a challenger or a candidate who is trailing in the polls. A strong incumbent would never play this card, particularly this early in the campaign.

Is Team O'Malley's opening gambit a tacit admission that their candidate is the underdog? Or is it merely a way to lower their campaign's polling and fundraising expectations? Only time will tell, but clearly it seems to be the opening salvo from a campaign that wants nothing to do with running on Martin O'Malley's record of failure, Martin O'Malley's record tax hikes, Martin O'Malley's record spending, and Martin O'Malley's inability to effectively govern.

Expect similar gambits from the O'Malley camp from here on out.

2010 Baseball Predictions

I did such a great job last year, (though to be fair, I got five out of eight of my division and wild-card picks right) that it's time to give it another run.

AL East: Tampa Bay, New York, Boston, Baltimore, Toronto
AL Central: Minnesota, Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Kansas City
AL West: Los Angeles, Seattle, Texas, Oakland

NL East: Philadelphia, Florida, Atlanta, New York, Washington
NL Central: Milwaukee, St. Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati, Houston, Pittsburgh
NL West: Colorado, Los Angeles, Arizona, San Francisco, San Diego

AL Champion: Tampa Bay
NL Champion: Philadelphia

World Champion: Philadelphia

In$urance Follie$

Maryland's Legislative Democrats continue to wage war on the working poor on behalf of their trial lawyer benefactors in Annapolis, as the bill to raise minimum insurance premiums continues to work its way through the legislative process.

Lobbyist Minor Carter pretty much said the most relevant and succinct thing about this bill: "It's a tax upon the poor people of our state." Mainly because the customers most likely to be impacted by the bill are the drivers who are on MAIF, the state's insurerer of last resort:

The Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund, the state's provider of auto coverage for high-risk motorists who can't obtain it on the open market, said 98.6 percent of its customers would absorb the increase. According to MAIF, which opposes the bill, the change would require rate increases between 6.1 percent and 9.3 percent.

And it's being brought to you by Maryland's Democrats.

As we said before, this is all part of the O'Malley Administration's Christmas in April trial lawyer handout program, or as Senator EJ Pipkin called it "the Trial Lawyers Relief Act of 2010." It is completely inexcusable that these Democrats (and the nine Republicans in the House who voted for this bill) are trying to stick it to Maryland's working poor in this manner, and to benefit nobody by the trial lawyers lobby.

It's a shame, but entirely unsurprising, that Maryland's Democrats want to screw the poor in such an unscrupulous way...

A Piece for me, but not for thee

Buried in the story about Baltimore City Council President Jack Young's dwelling status (itself, of course, somewhat scandalous given the fact the guy is not living where he says he lives) is this gem:

Young said he uses Madison Street as his official residence to protect his family, claiming that neighborhood drug dealers had threatened him a few years ago. Then he flashed something even more startling than presidential skivvies: concealed-weapon permits. Young said he doesn't carry a gun but that he got permission to do so after dealers warned him to "watch your back."

"I want to keep people off balance," he said. "I'm afraid, like everybody else."

Yup. Another elected Democrat who has the right to carry a concealed weapon....even though, under Maryland law, you and I can't legally carry a weapon without going through an onerous and intrusive permitting process.

I don't begrudge Jack Young the fact that he can legally carry a weapon; I begrudge the fact that he is not trying to make the streets safer by allowing the common man to carry one, particularly on streets as dangerous as Baltimore's.