20060618 KDDC Mary Cheney Robert Smith and DC Metro Trains

Mary Cheney Robert Smith and DC Metro Trains

June 18^th, 2006 by Kevin Dayhoff

What in the world does Mary Cheney, former Washington Area Transit Authority board member Robert J. Smith, the planet Romulax, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and running trains have to do with one another?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Let’s edge into this to bizarre story slowly and ever so carefully. Playing the song, "Sinking," by "The Cure," while you read this, is optional.

First off; “Dick Cheney's daughter (Mary Cheney) was a campaign aide for her father during the 2000 and 2004 elections. The fact that she is a lesbian put a distinctive spin on the experience. She has a new memoir: Now It's My Turn.” (Fresh Air from WHYY, June 13, 2006)

On Sunday, June 11, Robert J. Smith referred to homosexuality as ‘‘social deviancy” during a political round-table discussion on a Montgomery County Channel 21 cable show.

I’m not making this up…

Mr. Smith, an architect from Gaithersburg is a regular panelist for 12 years on the Access Montgomery cable show, “21 This Week.” The show’s producer, Rodney Bryant, identified him as the “Republican activist” representative on the program.

Mr. Smith, (no relation to Ann Coulter, the scream Howard Dean, the Dixie Chicks or the Robert Smith that is in “The Cure,”) is also a Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority board member. (“The Cure” is a band “made up of 5 aliens from the planet Romulax.”)

Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich appointed Mr. Smith to the board in 2003.

The Maryland and Virginia governor and the Washington D.C. mayor each get to appoint two voting members to the Metro board. They are paid $21,000 a year.

According to a published article in the Baltimore Sun, Mr. Smith hid behind his religion as an excuse for his inappropriate outburst: “…Smith said that he stood by his beliefs, which he said stemmed from his Roman Catholic faith, and insisted that he would not resign unless ordered by the governor…”

Ay caramba, hasn’t there been enough intolerance and injustice committed in the name of religion…

Oh, Robert Smith of “The Cure,” was also raised Catholic… I wonder if he shares Robert J. Smith’s views?

Anyway, last Thursday, June 15^th, 2006, Governor Ehrlich fired him. File this under stupid career moves for Mr. Smith, who has in the past, been an “unsuccessful Republican candidate for the General Assembly from Montgomery County,” according to published accounts.

The governor is to be applauded for swiftly taking action. Hopefully, this moment of dyspepsia will have the shelf-life of a carton of milk.

Mr. Smith’s rights to free speech have not been trampled. The governor merely afforded Mr. Smith the chance to spew his venom as a private citizen, free from the encumbrances of public office.

According to an account by the Washington Post, on the Sunday, June 11 show, Mr. Smith worked hard to be obnoxious with his intolerant views.

“… Smith interrupted another speaker who was talking about federalism and Vice President Cheney's daughter. The speaker said Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian, would not want the government interfering in her life, according to a recording of that portion of the show… ‘That's fine, that's fine,’ Smith interrupted. ‘But that doesn't mean that government should proffer a special place of entitlement within the laws of the United States for persons of sexual deviancy.’”

Only the Good Lord knows why people need to bring up the vice-president’s daughter. She holds no public office, elected or appointed and she does not make public policy.

And can someone puh-leeze explain to me why I should care that Mary Cheney is gay?

When vice presidential candidate North Caroline Senator John Edwards raised the issue of the vice president’s daughter in the 2004 presidential election debates, many rolled their eyes. The rule of classier political practitioners is leave the family out of it.

But apparently Mary Cheney doesn’t need anyone to chivalrously come to her defense. She can do that quite well on her own. According to May 10, 2006 article in “Canada.com,” Ms. Cheney refers to the “former Vice presidential candidate John Edwards a "total slimeball" for mentioning her sexuality during the vice presidential debates.”

As reported on the blog, “Raw Story,” “According to Canada.com's account of Mary Cheney's book: ‘Sitting in the studio audience when Edwards mentioned her sexual orientation, Cheney said she looked at the vice-presidential candidate and mouthed the words 'Go (*) Yourself' a phrase her father had earlier employed against Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy.’”

Considering the recent racist remarks about MD Lt. Governor Michael Steele and the subsequent profound silence of the Democratic leadership, it’s good to see this governor, stand up for the right thing and state that Mr. Smith’s comments are unacceptable in his administration.

As far as Mary Cheney; it would appear that she can defend herself, perfectly fine.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.

E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org

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For a profile of Mary Cheney by Hank Stuever, Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 19, 2004; Page C01: “What Everybody Doesn't Know About Mary Cheney,” go here.

The entire post from the Raw Story is pasted below:

After Cheney's daughter calls Edwards 'slimeball,' Edwards spokeswoman says Cheneys are 'wonderful role models'

RAW STORY

Published: Wednesday May 10, 2006

After Vice President Cheney's daughter dubbed former Vice presidential candidate John Edwards a "total slimeball" for mentioning her sexuality during the vice presidential debates, Edwards' spokeswoman responded to RAW STORY, calling the Cheneys "wonderful role models."

"Senator Edwards continues to believe, as he said in the vice presidential debate when the issue was raised, that the Cheneys have been wonderful role models for the millions of parents around the country who love their children unconditionally," Kim Rubey, Edwards' spokeswoman for his One America political action committee said.

The scathing comments by Mary Cheney, Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter, were published in a Canada.com article and caught by Washington blogger John Aravosis.

According to Canada.com's account of Mary Cheney's book: "Sitting in the studio audience when Edwards mentioned her sexual orientation, Cheney said she looked at the vice-presidential candidate and mouthed the words 'Go F* Yourself' a phrase her father had earlier employed against Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy."

READ THE FULL CANADA.COM ARTICLE HERE, and ARAVOSIS' COMMENTS HERE.

200060616 KDDC What a sham by Barry Rascovar

What a sham!

This column appears in the Friday, June 16, 2006 edition of the Gazette.

Barry Rascovar

Legislators patted themselves on the back for a job well done. Yet the flimflam we witnessed this week doesn’t hold up under close inspection. The details and long-range impact of the Democratic legislature’s answer to the electric rate increase controversy show that consumers are being conned.

Remember those howls of outrage from Senate President Mike Miller and House Speaker Mike Busch? They were furious at the Republican-appointed Public Service Commission for imposing a 21 percent electric rate rise on 1.2 million Central Maryland residents in July, with gradual monthly increases bringing the total increase by next April to 72 percent.

Miller, Busch & Co. also said a 5 percent interest payment on Baltimore Gas and Electric bills for 15 months was intolerable and could not be allowed to stand.

They assured us the overall 72 percent jump facing BGE customers would be dramatically reduced.

This is what these lawmakers told us. Now, let’s look at what the Democratic-controlled legislature actually did this week:

*Instead of an immediate 21 percent increase for BGE customers, it will be a 15 percent rise in July — a savings of a mere 6 percent — followed by as much as 57 percent more added to BGE electric bills next June.

*Instead of 15 months of interest payments, BGE consumers face 120 months of interest charges to pay off BGE’s borrowing costs.

*Instead of an overall rate increase for BGE customers of 72 percent, the grand total will be (drum roll, please) ... 72 percent.

That is not a misprint. After denouncing BGE’s rate hike and pledging to bring it down to affordable levels, Democratic leaders did nothing of the kind. They tossed a fig leaf in the form of a delayed rate increase over this embarrassment.

The unkindest blow was a 10-year interest payment plan. It’s bad enough when you pay off your car loan over six years. At the end of the day, at least you have a vehicle that’s worth something. Not so with the Democratic legislature’s BGE deferred interest-rate plan. For the electricity I use over the next 12 months, I’ll be writing checks for interest charges until 2017.

This is not a misprint, either. Unless I opt out of this plan next June, I will be paying off my IOU for 2006 electric power a decade from now. Even the opt-out provision is loaded with dynamite. It gives me the choice of an immediate 57 percent increase in my electric bill or a more gradual phase-in plan with much higher monthly electric rates plus interest charges.

Wow. That really helps consumers.

Even worse, the legislature has set the stage in future years for similar long-term, deferred payment plans. So I could be billed a second set of deferred charges in 2007, and a third in 2008, etc.

There’s more bad news contained in the bill. By moving to re-regulate BGE and other local electric distribution companies, the General Assembly has undercut the credit ratings of Maryland utilities, including Delmarva and Pepco. That could drive up borrowing rates for them with customers ultimately picking up the tab.

By making it far more difficult to consummate the merger of Constellation Energy and Florida Power & Light, the legislature may have killed the deal. This could have dire consequences for utility jobs in Central Maryland.

By moving to micro-manage electric power purchases, the legislature may have chased away power-generating companies that previously bid for business in this state. If that happens, it could mean much higher electric rates throughout Maryland.

By retaining rate caps until 2008, the legislature extends local utility monopolies for 18 more months. That locks the door on efforts to drive down electric prices through competition.

The black eye Maryland is getting nationally means that Aris Melissaratos, the state’s economic development secretary, can forget about wooing large corporations. What CEO is going to choose Maryland after the legislature’s harsh actions against CareFirst, Wal-Mart and now Constellation⁄BGE?

It’s a highly partisan bill designed to punish Republican Gov. Bob Ehrlich and his appointees and give Democrats a big political advantage, especially in the race for governor.

Ehrlich played his hand poorly. Yet given the anti-consumer aspects of this bill, he has an opening if he effectively communicates how Democrats turned consumer relief into a consumer’s nightmare.

The overreach of Democrats in this bill is stunning. In a dangerous precedent, they fired Ehrlich’s PSC and gave themselves appointment power. They fired the People’s Counsel because she was an Ehrlich appointee and gave that appointment power to the Democratic attorney general.

If those provisions are declared illegal by the courts, legislators still mandated the immediate dismissal of the current PSC.

Legislators interfered in the judicial process, too, dictating that any legal challenges must be heard in pro-Democratic Baltimore city — even though the legislation was crafted and approved in Annapolis.

There’s even a preposterous provision forbidding the governor or any state official from spending a dime of state funds to challenge any portion of the bill in court. It’s a power grab in the extreme.

That’s the Democratic legislature’s handiwork. Consumers get a bad deal but legislators will try to spin it the other way. In this case the devil, indeed, is buried in the details.

Barry Rascovar is a communications consultant in the Baltimore area. His Wednesday morning commentaries can be heard on WYPR, 88.1 FM. His e-mail address is brascovar@ hotmail.com.

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20060617 Malkin's Hot Air Vent on Coultermania

Coultermania
posted June 17, 2006 by Kevin Dayhoff

Almost two weeks have gone by since Coultermania began over Ann Coulter's latest number one best selling book, "Godless." Michelle Malkin has a Hot Air Vent on Coultermania that reiterates, to paraphrase one of the commenters on Michelle Malkin's web site - - 'whether you agree or disagree with Ms. Coulter's approach to political discourse, ya gotta love the way she gets liberals all riled up.'

You can find the "Vent" here.

Oh, the image of Ann Coulter as a patriot, I got that off the video. It belongs to "Hot Air," I guess. I just found the image priceless...

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