Tag: maryland

WaPo: Top O’Malley (D, MD) official ordered document suppression.

[UPDATE]: Red Maryland is also all over this story: see here and here for parts 1 and 2.

(H/T: Jim Geraghty) Background: back in August, the state of Maryland inadvertently put up on its website something that everybody all already knew; which is to say, a report indicating that Maryland’s economy is horrible (if better than the national average, mostly thanks to its proximity to Washington DC) and there was no improvement from June to July 2010.  The document was swiftly suppressed (you can read a copy here), given that it directly contradicted official O’Malley administration claims that job growth had continued for five months straight; the administration claimed that 500 jobs had been added, but that’s the seasonally adjusted numbers. The non-seasonally adjusted ones give a loss of over a thousand – but the real point is that the O’Malley administration was spinning a stagnant economy into an improving one as part of its re-election bid, and got rid of a document that admitted that no, it’s a stagnant economy.

Now the Washington Post reports that the ‘state official’ that ordered the document withdrawn was… MD Secretary of Labor, Licensing, & Regulation Alexander Sanchez.  That’s a directly appointed position by the governor, by the way: which means that this was not your standard ‘internal bureaucratic decision’ kind of thing. If it had been, then Department of Labor, Licensing, & Regulation Communications Director Bernie Kohn wouldn’t have carefully established a then-internal paper trail showing that he didn’t trust the numbers, that he didn’t authorize the release of the document that produced them, and that it was not his decision to remove the document in question.  That last was all due to the political appointees, in fact.

In other words: there was a top-down decision to suppress critical job information for partisan political purposes, and the big question is: is Governor O’Malley lying when he says that he knew nothing about it?

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Robert Erhlich for Governor.

Meet Eric Wargotz (R CAND, MD-SEN).

Eric is one of the candidates running in next week’s primary: he’s the one who did the (accurate) Barbara Mikulski as ‘Political Insidersaurus‘ campaign ad recently.  We interviewed him yesterday on the primary and the race:

Eric’s site is here, and his Political Insidersaurus site is here.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D, MD) and the imaginary Berwick confirmation hearings.

Wait, what?

I may need to walk back on my scorn of Rep. Jackson-Lee’s praise of the non-existent relationship between the non-existent nations of North and South Vietnam. If this video below is any indication, then there’s a fairly nasty virus going around Capitol Hill that turns Democratic legislators into memory-impaired, babbling zombies.

Yes, even worse than usual.

Yes, you remember correctly: in point of fact Donald Berwick is not getting a confirmation hearing, largely because the President is too scared of what the GOP will say about this particular radical (and by extension, what the GOP will say about the President’s judgment in wanting to hire said radical). That’s one issue; the other is, apparently Senator Mikulski isn’t… really paying attention to her duties these days. It beggars belief that the senior Senator from Maryland is unaware of a top-tier controversy and cause for criticism, but it’s self-evident from the video that she didn’t have a clue and was operating largely on autopilot.

So. Brain fever, you think? It’s certainly a more charitable conclusion than the alternative, which is that she and Jackson-Lee are as about as sharp as a sack of wet mice.

Continue reading Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D, MD) and the imaginary Berwick confirmation hearings.

#rsrh MD-GOV: Ehrlich, O’Malley tied.

Well, technically Bob Ehrlich is ahead by a point, but it’s really a tie:

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Maryland finds Ehrlich with 47% support to O’Malley’s 46%. Two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate, and five percent (5%) remain undecided.

As expected, the rematch of the 2006 race has been close from the start and has been getting even closer as time goes on. In February, O’Malley led 49% to 43%, but by April it was a closer 47% to 44%. The two were tied last month with 45% apiece. Continue reading #rsrh MD-GOV: Ehrlich, O’Malley tied.

The Breakdown of Montgomery County.

The Washington Post can be amusing, sometimes.  In this article (via Instapundit) they provide a comparison of two counties – Montgomery County in Maryland, and Fairfax County in Virginia – to the former’s distinct disadvantage.  The short version: Montgomery County is stuck with an elected Democratic leadership that is beholden to public sector unions*, spends in a fashion that insults drunken sailors, and… actually, those two statements sum it up neatly.  Although Montgomery County having a maxed-out local income tax can’t be helping, either.  The end result: with comparable budgets and populations, Montgomery County had to reconcile an almost 1 billion dollar budget deficit and is facing worse, while Fairfax County had to work out deficits one quarter that and is pretty much no worse off than most of the rest of the country.  Continue reading The Breakdown of Montgomery County.

So, there’s this fake Governor O’Malley (D-MD) site…

O’Malley plays guitar, you know.

…found here, and it’s already earning its corn:

Surrounded once again by stupid people
Why the h[*]ll am I surrounded by stupid people???!!!!

Why have we been running ads and doing polls that tell people that Ehrlich is a lobbyist, only to have dumb[*]ss Travis Tazelaar tell the Baltimore Sun that we have no evidence that Ehrlich has been lobbying?

For those not following Maryland politics: former Governor Robert Ehrlich (R) has decided to have a rematch with current Governor Martin O’Malley (D), whose last four years in office have produced… well, I’m sure that he’s done something for this state, but I’m blessed if I can think of anything in particular.  OK, the unemployment rate has doubled, as has the tax rate – and, not oddly at all, the emigration rate of our richest citizens – but that’s not so much ‘for this state’ as it is ‘to this state.’

But, remember: O’Malley plays guitar. Continue reading So, there’s this fake Governor O’Malley (D-MD) site…

#rsrh Maryland considering Amazon tax again?

Yes.  Of course.  Because Amazon won’t pull their affiliate program out of Maryland – thus making the entire exercise moot – the moment that it passes.  Just like they didn’t do it in North Carolina or Rhode Island, and just like they aren’t still thinking about doing it in New York, depending on how the court cases go.

And before I hear about how this won’t have any effect on individual affiliates, so Amazon.com is being absurd:

The bill would require a Web retailer like Amazon.com to charge sales tax on orders to Maryland customers if the retailer gets more than $10,000 in sales a year from affiliate marketers — sites run by businesses or individuals in the state that have contracts to send sales traffic to large retailers.

Ten grand in sales, not profit.  That’s small.  How small? Let me put it this way:  MoeLane.com’s referrals last year would have required Amazon to collect sales tax.  Not that I saw ten grand in revenue, or even a tenth of that (and the amount that I did see was duly taxed by the State of Maryland, even though as far as I can tell the State of Maryland didn’t do anything specific to earn its cut).  And if these Senatorial idiots Richard S. Madaleno and Ulysses Currie (both Democrats, of course) have their way, I – and the State of Maryland – won’t see a tenth of that tenth, because my Amazon Associates account will be terminated before the ink’s dry on the signature of their shiny new law. 

And then nobody gets any money.

My only comfort is that I didn’t actually vote for any of these people.  Being a Republican, and everything.

Moe Lane

PS: Full disclosure, in case it isn’t obvious: I am an affiliate of Amazon.com (ahem). At least, for right now.

Mayor Sheila Dixon (D) of Baltimore to resign.

(H/T: @leonwolf) About time, too.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon, the first woman to hold the city’s highest position, will officially resign her post as mayor.

A deal was reached in the case regarding her recent conviction and her future case involving perjury charges, 11 News I-Team reporter David Collins said Wednesday afternoon. Lawyers for Dixon and state prosecutors in her embezzlement trial spent time behind closed doors to discuss details of the deal.

[snip]

She’ll also have to make a $45,000 donation to the Bea Gaddy Foundation and do 500 hours of community service with Our Daily Bread. According to the deal regarding the perjury charges, she’s agreed to sell the gifts she received from developers, including a fur coat and electronics she bought with gift cards, and give the proceeds to charity.

Since the article doesn’t want to spell it out, let me: she stole from poor kids. But she’ll keep her pension, all the same. This is, after all, Maryland – and she is, after all, a Democrat.  If that sounds cynical, please note that Ms. Dixon actually got complimented by a fellow-Democrat for ‘putting constituents first’ right after Ms. Dixon was convicted of stealing from them…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D, MD) ‘proud’ to join convicted thief.

I have the pleasure – loosely defined – of being in Rep. Elijah Cummings’ Congressional District; and I have somehow found myself on his political spam list. Today I got an email that included this:

On September 23rd, I was proud to join Principal Joy Savage, Commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Thad Allen, Mayor Sheila Dixon, Former Congresswoman Helen Bentley and State Senator Nathaniel McFadden (with students) to celebrate the grand opening of the new Maritime Industries Academy in Baltimore.

Sheila Dixon, Sheila Dixon, Sheila Dixon: where have I heard that name before?

Baltimore mayor convicted of 1 gift card charge
By DAVID DISHNEAU (AP) – 45 minutes ago

BALTIMORE — Baltimore’s mayor was convicted Tuesday on a single charge of taking gift cards from a program intended for the city’s poor children and using them to buy electronics, including an Xbox video game system.

The misdemeanor charge could eventually lead to Sheila Dixon’s removal from office, but she said after the verdict she would return to City Hall and her attorneys said they would begin an appeal.

Ah, yes. That Sheila Dixon.  Personally, if I ended up sharing a podium with a woman who was about to get convicted of stealing from children, I’d not bring it to anyone’s attention: but then, Democratic politicians have their little ways, no?

Moe Lane