They Just Don't Get It

Some people just don't get it. I refer you to the latest comments by Adam Pagnucco as it relates to budget and taxation here in Maryland.

On a post in which in he is discussing the shifting of teacher pensions from a state to a county responsibility, Pagnucco drops the following:

If Montgomery wants to preserve the quality of its schools, it must put up a tough fight and negotiate only when it has maximum leverage. That point is not now, but next year, when the next Governor – whoever it is – will have to pass a tax and spending package to deal with Maryland’s long-term budget deficits. Such a package cannot pass without MoCo’s votes.

Um.....what?

That point is not now, but next year, when the next Governor – whoever it is – will have to pass a tax and spending package to deal with Maryland’s long-term budget deficits.

There is only one problem with Pagnucco's broadbrushed statement.

It's not true.

What is the main reason why Pagnucco's statement bunk? It has nothing to do with the fact that Governor Ehrlich (who, by the way, will be Governor again next year) opposes the broad based tax and spending package that Pagnucco is suggesting. It has nothing to do with the fact that Governor O'Malley has presided over the least fiscally responsible administration in the history of the state, or the fact that O'Malley has engineered a series of immoral and irresponsiblie tax increases that has crippled our state financially.

It's the fact that, as many liberals continue to do, Pagnucco relies on the failed notion of taxes and spending being the solution to deal with our budget problems. People failed to realize that the time for Kenyes still passed.

What's more absurd is the fact that Pagnucco's premise continues to go with the theory that only through higher taxes and increased state spending. Hello? Isn't that the kind of policy on which Governor O'Malley's administration has be predicated upon? All O'Malley has done during his time as Governor is raise taxes, raise spending, and fail to take respoonsible steps to protect the fiscal health of this state.

Liberals like Pagnucco just don't get it. There is another way. Whomever is Governor in 2011 should take broad steps to reduce state spending and lower our taxes. Taxes at the very least should be returned to pre-O'Malley levels, in an effort to the middle and working class families that Maryland Democrats seem hellbent on destroying. Our spending plan should be rebuilt from the ground-up to ensure that only legitimate priorities and not Democratic special interests are receiving the bulk of our funding. And the Governor, whomever it is, should take broad steps to begin reducing the size of our state government. Maryland's government has for far too long been too big for its britches; we need a smaller, mor efficient government that only provides necessary services to the people of Maryland.

Maryland's middle and working class families, the ones who have been so hurt by Martin O'Malley's recklessness, knows that higher taxes are not the answer. If liberal opinion makers such as Pagnucco don't come to grips with the fact that there is an alternative to higher taxes and more spending....the people of Maryland will leave them in the dust.

Judd Legum's New Line same as his old line...

Judd Legum couldn't be bothered to discuss his the recent revelation of his new gig as a mudslinger for New York Governor David Paterson. But he has plenty of time to continue raising money for his campaign for House of Delegates in District 30.....and apparently plenty of time to again violate state campaign finance laws by not including the authority line for his campaign committee.

Obviously, Judd Legum doesn't take campaign finance laws seriously since this isn't his first breach of them. Nor does he seem to care that the penalty for violating such laws is disqualification from being a candidate for public office.

The irony of course is that Legum does not advertise his own fundraiser from his own campaign site or his Twitter account. It's almost like he has been going out of his way to hide his fundraisers from the public; it was only from a post by Paul Foer that I was even made aware of Legum's event. And it's not like his last fundraiser which was sponsored by lobbyists days after claiming his campaign would not accept contributions form...lobbyists.

Judd Legum and his hypocrisy are going to be the gift that keeps on giving in 2010....

Judd Legum's still playing in the Mud

Sure, our friend Judd Legum may be running as a Democrat for Delegate in District 30, but that doesn't mean he's taking any time off from being a political hack for hire:

Gov. Paterson has hired the man who was responsible for "negative research" on then-presidential candidate Barack Obama to dig up dirt on Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who is preparing to run for governor, The Post has learned.

Paterson's campaign committee signed Maryland-based Judd Legum, research director for then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's bitterly fought presidential primary campaign against Obama in 2008, to a five-week contract earlier this month, with the understanding that he would "prepare a research book on Cuomo" and other potential candidates for governor, said a prominent Democratic Party activist.

"Legum is the guy who did a lot of the opposition research work on Obama, and now Paterson's people are outsourcing that kind of work on Cuomo to him," said the source, who demanded anonymity.

Legum, a friend of Paterson campaign spokeswoman and strategist Tracy Sefl, is being paid about $25,000 for the project, it was learned.

Legum confirmed that he had been hired by Paterson's campaign but, when asked to describe his job, insisted, "I really can't talk about that now," and hung up the phone.

Repeated attempts to reach Legum for additional comment were unsuccessful.

Well isn't that special? I wonder what the African-American Democratic primary voters, who just saw Zina Pierre thrown under the bus by the Democratic establishment, are going to think about the white lawyer whose job was to trash Barack Obama in the General Election.

I find it even more humorous that Legum has no comment when you consider the fact that Legum told Capital reporter Eric Hartley that he wants "people would know what I'm up to" in a Twitter interview.

When you combine Legum's shady dealings with Paterson, along with his involvement in ThinkProgress' manufactured deceit, his auctioning of himself to Washington lobbyists, the old questions about his campaign appartus, and the self promoting narcissism that even Democrats can't stand, I would say that there a lot of reasons why nobody of any political stripe can find any reason why Judd Legum should be representing the people of District 30.

Regardless of the ethical clouds that surround Judd Legum, the fact that of the matter is that he owes the people of District 30 and honest answer; is he going to try and be their delegate, or is he content to be a professional political hack. The people of District 30 want to know...

Meaningless Numbers

The left has decided to examine Governor Ehrlich's chances of unseating Martin O'Malley next year, and Adam Pagnucco decided to start his analysis with the most meaningless statistic in all of politics: voter registration data.

Overall, the Democrats have an absolute majority (at 56.9%) and outnumber Republicans by better than two-to-one. But the total numbers mask the geographic domination of the Democrats and the regional isolation of the GOP.

The Democrats have more than 50% of registered voters in eight jurisdictions: Baltimore City and Baltimore, Charles, Dorchester, Kent, Montgomery, Prince George’s and Somerset Counties. Those jurisdictions account for 60% of the state’s registered voters. The Republicans have more than 50% of registered voters in two jurisdictions: Carroll and Garrett Counties, which account for just 4% of the state’s registered voters.

Let’s lower the threshold to 40%. The Democrats have more than 40% of registered voters in 18 jurisdictions (all except Allegany, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett, Queen Anne’s and Washington Counties) that account for 88% of the state’s registered voters. The Republicans have more than 40% of registered voters in eight jurisdictions: Allegany, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Queen Anne’s, Talbot and Washington Counties, which account for just 17% of the state’s registered voters.

All of which, statistically speaking, was incredibly similar to the numbers that then-Congressman Ehrlich faced in 2002 when he defeated Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.

Pagnucco goes on to continue with his analysis:

Registration does not always determine voting behavior. Maryland is a state in which Democrats can and do vote for Republicans, the most successful of whom has unquestionably been Bob Ehrlich. But all of the above means that the Democrats have a far broader reach across the state than does the GOP. Western Maryland is the only region in which the Democrats struggle to compete. The Republicans are non-competitive in three of the state’s four biggest jurisdictions (Baltimore City and Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties) and lag Democrats in Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, fast-growing Charles County and even some parts of the Eastern Shore. All of this is a hurdle that any statewide GOP candidate would have to overcome.

Which of course, is also completely meaningless. When you look at voting results, and not voting registration, you see a picture that is, statistically speaking, more of a level playing field for Republicans running in Maryland; particularly a more-moderate, high-name ID Republican such as Bob Ehrlich. And, of course you need to look no further than the aforementioned Anne Arundel County to notice that a Democratic-majority county has elected this decade a Republican County Executive, Clerk of the Court, Register of Wills, two Circuit Court Judges who ousted Democratic appointees, three Judges of the Orphans Court, four of seven County Council Members, a majority of the Delegates, half of the State Senators, and gave two solid majorities to Bob Ehrlich and George W. Bush, and even one to John McCain.

What does this all mean? It means that voter registration numbers as a means of determining voter performance are completely useless......which was something Pagnucco could have learned had he read my analysis from six months ago, the last time he tried this argument.

If Democrats are hanging their hat on voter registration numbers to bail them out next year, Bob Ehrlich and the Republican Party may be in better shape that even we think...

Never Ceasing to Amaze

This is not the first time we have heard Democrats float this idea, but it never ceases to amaze me that in the middle of a recession that has seen Democrats continue to put the financial hammer to middle and working class families, they want to tax us some more:

A Montgomery County delegate says that legislators should consider new taxes after revenue shortfalls forced Maryland to slash $736 million from its fiscal 2010 budget this summer.

"If our guiding principle is to protect those vulnerable among us, we need to look at revenue, because clearly our problem is a revenue problem," said Del. Roger Manno, who added that the legislature should "as soon as possible, take another look at revenue as opposed to cuts."

Yes, clearly what is called for right now when families are suffering is to make more families suffer, and to make families suffer more.

What is amazing about Del. Manno's attitude is the fact that we need to tax more in order to protect the vulnerable. What that assumes is that anybody who makes even a reasonable middle class living should be forced to subsidize not just the needs of the poor, but also the needs of the special interest groups that bend over backwards to support Democrats during election season. If Manno was not so oblivious to the needs of his constituents, he would do something constructive in order to "protect those vulnerable among us" by sticking to basic good government principles. And a good start to enact those good government principles would be to fight for smaller taxes and to eliminate the very same wasteful government spending that Manno belives we need to raise taxes in order to afford.

Yes, the likelihood of a tax increase during the 2010 General Assembly session is slim to none. But remember that the small minority of Democrats who are willing to admit that they want to raise taxes in the year before an eletion will become a thundering cacophony of tax-hiking Democrats come 2011.

We owe it to our neightbors to make sure that these slicksters don't deceive the electorate into thinking they are against tax hikes, and the electorate needs to be reminded that the historic O'Malley tax hikes and O'Malley deficit will be child's play compared to what will come in 2011 if Democrats are kept in control of our state through another election cycle.

Maybe they get it?

I was surprised to read this:

On every other measure, Fairfax residents and businesses pay lower taxes than their counterparts in Montgomery. The biggest gap is in income tax rates, especially at the top. We do not have the comparative tax burden between the two counties, but on the state level Maryland (ranked 4th in the nation by the Tax Foundation) far exceeds Virginia (ranked 18th). There is no way that Montgomery County, a high-tax county in a high-tax state, can compete with Fairfax on the basis of low taxes.

Emphasis mine, but isn't this something that Maryland Republicans have been saying about Maryland vis-a-vis Virginia for some time now, even before Martin O'Malley's historic and immoral tax increases?

Maybe, just maybe, Maryland's liberal class is finally starting to understand the damage done by high, confiscatory taxation.

For a lawyer, Judd Legum is a bad liar

Well all know that Judd Legum, the newfangled prettyboy of the loony blogging left, has some truthiness issues given his past employment. But today he unleashes a pretty sizable whopper:

Yesterday on ABC’s This Week, Former Maryland Lt. Governor and current RNC Chairman Michael Steele said that President Barack Obama’s approach to economic stimulus was not supported by the American people. Steele said that “the president is upside-down with the voters on this issue.”

Today, a new poll by Gallup shows that the American people strongly support Obama’s handling of the stimulus issue:

Yeah......about that:

With the Senate poised to vote Tuesday on an $827-billion version of the economic recovery plan, 62% of U.S. voters want the plan to include more tax cuts and less government spending.

Just 14% would like to move in the opposite direction with more government spending and fewer tax cuts, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Twenty percent (20%) would be happy to pass it pretty much as is, and five percent (5%) are not sure...

....An analysis by Scott Rasmussen notes that the stimulus debate is now driven by a tug-of-war between the popularity of President Obama and the nation’s deeply ingrained reluctance to increase government spending. Forty-eight percent (48%) of voters believe that increased spending is generally bad for the economy. On the other hand, 57% say tax cuts are generally good for the economy . Overall, 37% of voters favor the stimulus plan and 43% are opposed. Most of those who are undecided have a favorable opinion of the new president and are likely to give him the benefit of the doubt.

I understand that Legum is just covering for his President, who is already cruising towards the title of least effective President ever (why else would he have stopped governing and started campaigning today....at least he knows how to do that). But Legum stating that people support the stimulus package is nothing short of a bold-faced lie.

I give Legum credit though, it looks like he set all sorts of state blogosphere speed records in torching one's credibility...

Toolbox

Some people are just idiots, willing to take a "principled" stand, but generally just content to make a jackass out of themselves. For those people, we have found your leader (H/T Mary Katharine Ham):

L.F. Eason III gave up the only job he'd ever had rather than lower a flag to honor former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms.

Eason, a 29-year veteran of the state Department of Agriculture, instructed his staff at a small Raleigh lab not to fly the U.S. or North Carolina flags at half-staff Monday, as called for in a directive to all state agencies by Gov. Mike Easley.

When a superior ordered the lab to follow the directive, Eason decided to retire rather than pay tribute to Helms. After several hours' delay, one of Eason's employees hung the flags at half-staff.

The brouhaha began late Sunday night, when Eason e-mailed eight of his employees in the state standards lab, which calibrates measuring equipment used on things as widely varied as gasoline and hamburgers.

"Regardless of any executive proclamation, I do not want the flags at the North Carolina Standards Laboratory flown at half staff to honor Jesse Helms any time this week," Eason wrote just after midnight, according to e-mail messages released in response to a public records request.

He told his staff that he did not think it was appropriate to honor Helms because of his "doctrine of negativity, hate, and prejudice" and his opposition to civil rights bills and the federal Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Like any good liberal flunky, he protested "negativity, hate, and prejudice" by displaying.....negativity, hate, and prejudice.

Whether or not Eason like Senator Helms or didn't like Senator Helms, the occurrence of the Senator's death certainly was not the time to launch into some cockamamie protest, made even more disturbing by the fact that he was a State Employee defying the will of the Governor of North Carolina. Even more so, this clown actually thought the lab belonged to him:

Eason and a previous boss had sketched out the building's rough design on a napkin at the Atlanta airport in 1984 after attending a national conference on weights and measures.

He then worked to get funding for it in the state budget, and he recently helped snag state money to study building another lab.

"I designed and built that lab," he said. "Even though technically the bricks and mortar belong to the state of North Carolina, I feel very strongly that everything that comes out of there is my responsibility."

Nobody is saying that Senator Helms may have taken controversial positions, but I wonder if this Eason charachter would have objected if it were a controversial Democrat who passed.

This guy Eason is not only is an airhead, but combines that with the worst liberal qualities of privilege, arrogance and entitlement. I frankly am glad that this clown was shown the door, and am glad that he was not a state employee here in Maryland; I certainly wouldn't want somebody with his lack of character getting paid out of my tax dollars...

Once and Again

No matter how bad the budget deficit gets, leftists in Annapolis still always come back the bad idea of public campaign financing:

After narrowly failing last year, advocates are trying again to make Maryland one of a handful of states that publicly fund campaigns for office, a reform they believe will diminish the influence of moneyed special interests.

"I think politicians should be beholden to the public, not to big donors," said Sen. Paul G. Pinsky, a Prince George's County Democrat who sponsored legislation the past two years that would provide state funds to political candidates who volunteer to forgo most funding from private donors.

It seems like we have to start reminding people year after year and time and again as to why this is such a bad idea. Anybody who truly believes that the public financing of elections is going to clean up politics is, as I have stated before, is shockingly naïve.

What's even more damning about the return of Senator Pinsky's proposal is the current budget mess that we find ourselves in. It's kind of hard to get jacked up about spending more of the public's money on another pointless, useless program when the people are being taxed to death in a recession. One would think that the estimated $7.5 million that would be used to fund the program would be better spent, I don't know, on crime prevention or education instead of Pollyannaish feel good programs.

If only we could get the General Assembly to pay attention to the people's business every once and awhile...

I don't think this is what some O'Malley supporters signed up for

Because I don't think many of the people who were keen on the issue of home insurance thought that they were going to get this:

Maryland regulators cleared Allstate Corp. Monday of wrongdoing in its decision to stop writing new homeowner policies in certain coastal areas, a move that had been criticized by consumer advocates and state legislators.

The regulatory decision comes as the General Assembly takes up legislation intended to protect consumers and ensure the affordability and availability of homeowner's insurance in coastal areas that are most vulnerable to hurricanes.

Insurance Commissioner Ralph S. Tyler is working with legislators to craft the bill based on a task force report that's expected to be released in coming days.

In a fit of irony for a liberal, Tyler then went on to say this:

Tyler acknowledged that his office's decision in the Allstate case, which was triggered by a complaint from the consumer advocate People's Insurance Counsel, might be "disappointing to some." But, he said, it was based on "the law as it is written, not as we might wish it to be."

I don't know why they decided to start now, but hey....

I really have no problem with the decision in this case, because it seems logical and within the scope of the law. But it's just one more way to show how liberals will promise you the world and fail to deliver when the rubber hits the road...

Don't Believe the Hype

Free State Politics is firing up the hype machine and harping the MSTA talking points in favor of throwing more good money after bad to our public schools:

It's trite, I know, but I still love the bumper sticker that reads, "If education is expensive, try ignorance." The truth is, good education is expensive. It requires high salaries and good benefits packages that can attract and retain a well-trained and hard-working workforce of teachers, administrators, and support services personnel. It requires the construction of safe and stable learning environments for kids. It requires the provisioning of thousands of classrooms with the latest and best instructional technology, not to mention the basic supplies for learning. All of these things require money. And that money requires the long-term dedication of our state and our communities, and of the politicians who lead us.

Of course what Eric Luedtke and the rest of the urban liberals fail to realize is that you cannot continue to spend, spend, and spend in the same way that you have already spent, spent, and spent. If the "spend first, ask questions later" was accurate, our public schools would be the Cadillac of public schools systems, and the District of Columbia (who spends more than $15,000 per pupil) would have the best public school system in the Western Hempishphere.

We spend money hand over fist, and education officials still whine that there is never enough money and support. And liberals and union officials continue to want raise your taxes to spend, spend, spend on projects that they deem to be important.

Mainly, benefits. Just look again at what Luedtke wrote:

It requires high salaries and good benefits packages that can attract and retain a well-trained and hard-working workforce of teachers, administrators, and support services personnel.

To be blunt, how the hell much more can we pay on high salaries and benefits pacakges. We discussed a few months back the budget here for public schools in Anne Arundel County and remember what the breakdowns were? 80-percent of the school system budget is spent on personnel. Eighty Percent. And remember something else: there is one administrative staff member for every 4.35 teachers in the Anne Arundel County system.

I think that Luedtke's example of Loiederman Middle School in Silver Spring is a fantastic example of the positive changes that can be made. But a lot of what Loiederman is doing does a great job of proving Luedtke's point about the necessity of additional monies for education false. Read what he writes about Loiderman.

Partially funded with a $7 million, 3 year federal grant, it and its two sister schools adopted programs that have led to a decrease in economic segregation, an acceleration of curriculum for all students in the schools, and provided unique learning opportunities in the arts and technology that few, if any, public middle schools in the country provide.

Sure, the federal grant helped out. But look at what they did with it. They did not throw the money down the drain on what has already does not work. They tried innovative programs designed to change the culture of the school. They saw that Loiderman was failing, and took positive action in order to change the curriculum, change the focus, and put the focus back on educating students. They tried something different. And that's a great thing to see. They didn't wait around to spend more on failing ideas and just hope for the best. And you know something, you don't need $3 billion to make that kind of change.

We need to streamline education. Public schools systems need to trim their size, not expand further. Many administrative positions need to be eliminated. Costs savings need to be transferred to repair dilapidating structures, and modernize classroom spaces, technological upgrades and replace textbooks. State profits from the passage of casino gambling should be funneled as a dedicated funding mechanism for school construction and rehabilitation. Focus should be put solely on classroom instruction, and more taxpayer dollars should directly impact the classroom environment And yes, teachers should be paid for their performance, not their longevity.

Education is the touchstone issue. Conservatives agree with liberals that it is one of the most important issues facing our state. But the fact of the matter is that we have tried education for the last 100 years through the liberal, Democratic worldview. And more and more, we are seeing that the liberal view of education as some place to throw more and more money is not working.

Schools should not be viewed as a depository of taxpayer dollars designed to reward Democratic supporters. Nor should public schools be laboratories for whatever the latest leftist education theories should be. Schools should be merely for learning about the things that any basic educated individual needs to know. We need to make sure that kids learn match, learn science, learn history, and learn to properly read and write. We need to teach them skills they need to succeed in our modern world.

Frankly, I am afraid that Democrats, liberals, education leaders and union officials are not focused on educating our students anymore.

The Unseen Side of Government Overregulation

There has been a lot of discussion in recent days about economic fairness and wages when it comes to workers at the stadiums. Classical Values has a fascinating piece on the government getting involved in places where it had no business in the first place (in this case, selling beer in Pennsylvania). And how, once government gets involved, real people are going to get screwed one way or the other....

Andrew Kujan's own little brand of Discrimination

Andrew Kujan proudly displays his typical unthinking urban liberal prejudices aimed at Carroll County Commissioner Julia Gouge:

Its hard for me to see Carroll County Commissioner Julia Gouge's comments as anything other than poorly hidden racism....

Rural character? I would argue there are any number of things that threaten the "rural character" of Carroll County more than adequate public transport to the largest city in the State.

Of course, perhaps Gouge refers to the "rural character" which is built around a several mile long strip mall containing every fast food restaurant known to man (and finally, a new ROY ROGERS). Then again, she could be referring to the character brought by building thousands of box homes on long disabused farm land, with more acres being sold every single day. Heck, maybe someone from Baltimore is buying one!

Will these terrifying buses be running roughshod over the Farm Museum? Will they bring bar hoppers attracted to the two bars in Westminster that stay open past 1 AM on weekends? Of course not.

Will they bring city dwellers, both white and black, to the county looking for work, housing, or possibly a little day trip to enjoy the "rural character"? Possibly.

Its pretty clear what Gouge refers to when she says "something coming from Baltimore City" will ruin the "rural character" of the county. She means that allowing the majority black population of Baltimore City to mix with the majority white population of Carroll County will lead to bad things, to a denigration of the county. The Commissioner should be ashamed of her ridiculous and offensive implication, and you should tell her so.

I love it when liberals display the same type of prejudiced behavior only us uneducated bumpkin Republicans are supposed to show. Kujan's remarks are bizarre, mean spirited, and show a general disdain for anybody who disagrees with his myopic worldview. I for one do not subscribe to Kujan's prejudiced worldview.

Want to know why Gouge might be against public transit? Could it be that mass transit in Maryland sucks? Could it be she doesn't want to spend billions on wasteful programs nobody would use? Could it be that she doesn't want to see an easy conduit to bring crime from the city (more on that here) to Carroll County communities already seeing an uptick in crime?

(And, as somebody who went to college and spent a lot of time in Carroll County, Carrol County is being ruined by liberals fleeing the inner suburbs buying thousands of box homes on long disabused farm land. They come to Carroll County, places like Finksburg, Westminster, and Eldersburg, for the rural character. Then demand a Chili's, a Starbucks on every corner, and a Target. And then bitch about the county losing it's rural character....)

I cannot stand to see liberals support the kind of discrimination that Andrew Kujan clearly supports in his diatribe against Carroll County. Discrimination is discrimination, no matter whom it is aimed at. Andrew Kujan should be ashamed of his ridiculous and offensive implication, and you should tell him so: akujan@hotmail.com.