20060419 Dems Smear Politics in Maryland

Dems Smear Politics in Maryland

April 19, 2006

Although it has received only perfunctory coverage locally, it appears that our state continues to grab national attention for what happens when a single “state-sanctioned” majority party runs a state government and ignores the citizens it is supposed to be serving. It’s a storyline that sounds like the fodder for a paperback novel about intrigue in a developing nation.

Read what Gregory Kane said here, and what the New York Post and the New York Sun have recently said…

What is capturing nationwide attention is a March 27 confidential report prepared for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee by a top National Democratic Party strategist - Cornell Belcher - and paid for by the Democratic National Party.

The March 27, 2006 report reflects what many have understood to be the Democratic response to Lt. Governor Steele for quite some time – smear him before he starts being a perfect suitor for Maryland voters in this fall’s election and inspires a full fledged revolt in the Democratic forty-year strangle-hold on African-American voters and Maryland politics. (From my April 19, 2006 Tentacle column, “Guess Who’s Coming to the Election.”)

Republican Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele is a front-runner to replace the retiring longstanding liberal democrat, U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes, in this fall’s Maryland election.

Conservatives from both parties have historically governed Maryland. However, in response to the warning signs of the mid 1990s, the Democratic Party incomprehensibly took a precipitous turn to the left, leaving many party members behind shaking their heads and counting on voter inertia to sustain them.

Voter inertia is no longer working as voters want vision, new ideas and approaches and all they are getting from the majority party is partisan politics.

Like the incoming tide lapping upon the fragile wall protecting a castle in the sand, what started as a trickle is continuing to become a major breach as liberal Democrats in the state increasingly whisper that the times are a changing.

Consider the following statistics cited in the March 27 Democratic National Committee report. According to the Washington Post - Black voters most likely to consider backing the GOP Senate candidate:

Voters ages 18-29: 60%;

Men under 45: 55%;

Baltimore residents: 53%;

Voters with a high school degree or less: 51%;

Women under 45: 51%;

Weekly churchgoers: 50%;

Men 60 and over: 45%;

Women 60 and over: 36%;

Prince George's voters: 35%;

Voters earning more than $75,000: 30%.

The warning signs have been appearing for years, yet the Kool-Aid drinkers are still in denial. In 1994, a Democrat was narrowly elected Governor; the party faithful said it was a fluke.

Many political scientists actually credit the hard right wing of the Republican Party for the Democratic victory for not fully supporting the candidacy of Ellen Sauerbrey.

A mistake not repeated in 2002, when Republican Robert L. Ehrlich was elected governor of the State of Maryland. The first Republican governor in Maryland in almost four decades.

As voter discontent is starting to become obvious over the temper tantrum thrown by the Democratic leadership in the single party controlled 2006 session of the Maryland General Assembly, many thinking Democrats are starting to see the handwriting on the wall.

Snubbing and attempts to discredit good people voicing discontent or outright defecting from the Democratic Party is becoming a major department in the organization of the Maryland Democratic party apparatus.

While the Democratically controlled Maryland General Assembly plays the blame game and “let’s change the rules,” other African-American leaders are finding their voice and stating the obvious.

In July 2003, then-Denton Mayor Victoria Goldsborough said, “This party is moving and shaking, and I just want to be in it.”

With that parting comment, Ms. Goldsborough, an outspoken Eastern Shore African-American joined with Easton Mayor Robert Willey and changed to the Republican Party.

Both had been taken for granted by the Democratic Party and coupled with their differences of opinion with an increasingly liberal agenda, petty annoyances compounded into major friction and they bolted.

In February 2005, Annapolis Alderman George O. Kelley Sr. defected. A life-long Democrat, Alderman Kelly, a former police office and minister of an influential African-American church in Annapolis cited core values, public safety policy and fiscal responsibility differences with the Democratic Party.

Granted, several local elected officials here and there does make for a flood of defections. But coupled with the information that more first time voters are registering Republican and increased numbers of citizens are switching party affiliations; it all leads up to not just a qualitative shift but a quantitative sea change that is sure to continue to be reflected at the polls.

Former Prince George's County executive Wayne K. Curry, a 1972 Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College - in Westminster, MD) graduate, was quoted: “There hasn't been this kind of revelation of the diversity of thinking among African-Americans, and Steele's campaign has brought that into focus…”

As the majority party in Annapolis continues to react badly to the growing threat of republicans, we saw many votes in the 2006 legislative session cast, not according to the merits of the legislation, but on mean-spirited partisan politics.

Memo to the Maryland Democratic Party: a leader like Lt. Governor Steele is not an anomaly as you would like for the electorate to believe. He is simply a sign of things to come.

At present, we may not even know the name of the next “Michael Steele,” but their will be many more as Republicans continue to be relevant and Democrats continue to give African-Americans lip-service or otherwise simply take this vital Maryland constituency for granted.

Republicans are often their own persons, as has been evident in recent well-publicized disagreements between the President George W. Bush’s administration and the national Republican leadership.

Political scientists note that it is a sign of the growing relevancy and strength of the Grand Old Party that it is tolerant of leadership disagreement in pursuit of service to the citizens they serve. This also serves to attract additional folks to the Republican Party as the mantra of the Maryland Democratic Party is: “their way or the highway.”

Picturing the Lt. Governor with President Bush is inside baseball and in the end, is meaningless to the average voter at the polls. (Although, I for one would love to have a picture of the Lt. Governor and Condoleezza Rice for my office. It will not affect how I vote but it would brighten my day.)

In a recent interview with Steele campaign spokeswoman, Melissa Sellers, she summed it best when she said: “Michael Steele is committed to uniting Marylanders behind his vision of opportunity and empowerment. This stands in clear contrast to his opponents’ documented strategy of divisive race-based attack politics.”

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.

E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org

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20060417 Maryland Dems Smear Steele At Their Peril

“Maryland Dems Smear Steele At Their Peril”

The Web site, Real Clear Politics is carrying an insight post, today, April 17, 2006, by Gregory Kane on Maryland Democrats once again playing the “race-card.”

“If Maryland Democrats were smart, they'd listen to Wayne K. Curry.

That is, if they were smart. But they aren't, so they probably won't.

Curry is the former county executive of Prince George's County, Md., one of the richest counties in the state, if not the country. Curry is also black and a Democrat.

Two weeks ago, Curry warned his fellow party members not to demonize Maryland's Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele.”

Read the rest of the post:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/04/md_democrats_attack_steele_at.html

20060407 Schaefer defends schools takeover

Schaefer defends schools takeover at Carroll meeting

Baltimore Examiner Carroll County Edition

Matthew Santoni, The Examiner

Apr 7, 2006 7:00 AM (4 days ago)

“Carroll County - Comptroller William Donald Schaefer defended the state’s takeover of 11 Baltimore City schools and fended off calls for more state funding of Carroll County schools Wednesday night at a meeting of the South Carroll County Democrats…

“The former Baltimore mayor and Maryland governor praised state Superintendent of Schools Nancy Grasmick as the “top-notch person in the country,” and chastised members of the state legislature who call the takeover politically motivated..."

Read the rest of the article here.

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Gordon Parks - An American Cultural Icon passes Away at 93

Gordon Parks - An American Cultural Icon passes Away at 93
April 5, 2006 By Kevin Dayhoff

A tribute to the life of a man, in which love, dignity and hard work overcome hatred and bigotry.

Last month on March 7, a cultural icon and one of America’s greatest artists, Gordon Parks, passed away at the too-young age of 93, in Manhattan.

Born in abject poverty, Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks came into this world on November 12, 1912 in Fort Scott, Kansas, to a tenant farming family.

He was the youngest of 15 children. By age sixteen, at the dawn of the Great Depression in 1928, his mother died and he ended up homeless in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Kenny Irby wrote a poignant March 15, 2006 retrospective on “Poynter on Line” - “Gordon Parks: From Country Boy to Renaissance Man, A True Photographic Idol, IN MEMORIAM: 1912-2006.” In his essay, Mr. Irby called to our attention:

“Delores Johnson -- formerly with The Kansas City Star, now, with The Virginian-Pilot -- photographed Parks in April 2004, at what is believed to be his last extended photo session.

“Parks was the first black photographer to penetrate through racial barriers at Life magazine and many other agencies. During his photo session with Johnson, he recalled how some whites would not allow him to photograph them, how he was often turned away because of the color of his skin”.

There are many fascinating aspects of the Gordon Parks story, which spans many “revolutions” in the history of American public policy, scope and approach of government and social progress.

But, for an artist as prolific and accomplished as Mr. Parks, many folks are not aware of his name, although most are aware of his work.

Mr. Parks credits his mother with having a profound influence upon his life. Isn’t it so with many of us? She taught him that he could do anything to which he set his mind to do.

Mr. Irby reveals, “In one of (Mr. Parks’) autobiographies, "A Choice of Weapons," he says his mother "placed love, dignity and hard work over hatred, she always told me that I could do whatever little white boys did and that I had better do it better."”

Indeed, it was by his work ethic and his enormous talent that he escaped the chains of poverty or simply becoming another sad statistic of the Great Depression.

It is reported that he was famous for being a workaholic and a taskmaster well into old age.

In an excellent 2,700-word memoriam in the New York Times, Andy Grundberg wrote that Mr. Parks was a “photographer, filmmaker, writer and composer who used his prodigious, largely self-taught talents to chronicle the African-American experience.

“But as an “iconoclast, Mr. Parks fashioned a career that resisted categorization.”

For most of the 1930s, he supported himself by playing piano in a brothel, basketball and working as a busboy. It was in 1938, while working on the Chicago to Seattle train as a waiter, Mr. Parks noticed a discarded magazine with photographs from the Farm Security Administration, and became interested in photography.

In 1937, he purchased a “Voightlander Brilliant” camera, for $12.50 at a pawnshop in Seattle. He began free-lancing as a fashion photographer at local department stores in St. Paul, Minnesota.

It was here that he happened to take a photo of the heavyweight boxer, Joe Lewis’ wife, Marva Lewis. Impressed with the photo, she encouraged him to move to Chicago, where he gained attention doing a photo-documentary series of the poorer black areas of town.

In 1941, he had an exhibition of these photographs that earned him a fellowship from the Julius Rosenwald Foundation. The fellowship paid him $200.00 per month so that he could find photography assignments. That year, he joined the photographic documentation project of the New Deal’s Farm Security Administration, in Washington, D.C., as an intern.

At the age of thirty, Mr. Parks found himself working with photographers such as Marion Post Wolcott, John Vachon, Jack Delano, John Collier, Dorothea Lange and Russell Lee, under the direction of Roy Emerson Stryker.

The photograph for which he may be the most famous was “American Gothic,” which he took while he was with the FSA, in 1942. Mr. Grundberg, describes it best in his New York Times article: “it shows a black cleaning woman named Ella Watson standing stiffly in front of an American flag, a mop in one hand and a broom in the other. Mr. Parks wanted the picture to speak to the existence of racial bigotry and inequality in the nation's capital. He was in an angry mood when he asked the woman to pose, having earlier been refused service at a clothing store, a movie theater and a restaurant.”

Landon Nordeman, in a May 1, 1997 paper written on Walker Evans and documentary photography, gives us an idea of the extraordinary fortunate consequence of the FSA photographic documentation project for generations of historians; in 1944, 270,000 negatives and 77,000 prints by FSA photographers was deposited with the Library of Congress in Washington.

The Farm Security Administration was discontinued in 1943, as the nation’s attention continued to focus on World War II. Mr. Parks transferred to the Office of War Information.

Numerous accounts recall, “One of his assignments was photographing the training of the first unit of black fighter pilots, the 332nd Fighter Group. Prohibited from accompanying them to Europe and documenting their participation in the war effort, Parks left in disgust…” (www.gale.com)

He resigned in 1944 and moved to Harlem in New York City and began free-lancing for Vogue magazine.

According to a biographical sketch by Sharisse Foster, “… He then shoots for the Standard Oil Photography project in New Jersey. It is here that he produces some of his most inspiring work including "Dinner Time at Mr. Hercules Brown's Home” (1944), and "Grease Plant Worker” (1946). In these images he depicts the industrial workers in small cities.”

After several years with Vogue, he was able to attract the eye of Life magazine. In 1948, he took a job as a photojournalist with Life that until 1972, took him all over the world, photographing everything from fashion in Paris to the slums of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to celebrity portraiture.

In 1963, he wrote an autobiographical novel, “The Learning Tree,” in which chronicled much of his childhood in Kansas. In 1969, he adapted “The Learning Tree” into a screenplay, wrote the musical score and directed the movie, by the same name.

It wasn’t until the late 1960s, that the baby boomer generation started to take notice of his work, mostly documenting the Black Panther movement and the struggle for civil rights.

But it was when he burst into the world of commercial Hollywood in 1971, with what many refer to now as “blaxploitation films,” that he gained the attention of the emerging pop culture of the children of the 60s.

Yes, this is the gentleman who in 1971 directed "Shaft," starring Richard Roundtree as the cool, black leather jacket-clad private detective.

The movie was released on July 2, 1971. I saw it in Greensboro (or Burlington – as one gets older the mind is the first to go) NC, where I witnessed much of the audience get up and leave the theatre not too long after the movie began…

Remember the music score was by Isaac Hayes? Wikipedia confirmed some old notes that the “movie was adapted by Ernest Tidyman and John D. F. Black from Tidyman's 1971 novel of the same name…. It won an Academy Award for Best Music, Song for Isaac Hayes for "Theme from Shaft". It was nominated for Best Music, Original Dramatic Score…. In 2000, the United States Library of Congress deemed the original film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.”

Mr. Parks followed this up with "Shaft's Big Score!" in 1972. What is little known is that originally, “Shaft” was written as a straightforward detective movie with a white detective.

However, with the huge success of movie, “Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song,” a few months earlier, it was quickly realized that the money was in the neophyte genre of blaxploitation movies and the film was quickly adapted.

Many of the younger readers became aware of this genre of movies when Samuel L. Jackson starred in a remake of the movie in 2000.

Mr. Parks continued to write books, do films for television, pursuing photography and even composing music right up until his death.

Seldom do contemporary artists exhibit talent in so many different ways. His legacy is that of overcoming obstacles with hard work, focus, perseverance and determination.

He was an artist with a profound social conscious, who never lost track of his responsibility to the public, from which he earned a living.

He set the standards high and served as an example for many of us, that life is not about excuses. It is about taking personal responsibility for our lives, rolling up our sleeves and just going it.

Mr. Parks life is a tribute that love, dignity and hard work will always overcome hatred. One wonders what he could have accomplished if he didn’t have overcome the barriers of hatred and bigotry. Wouldn’t it better if we lived in a world, in which love, dignity and hard work could utilize the springboard of an enlightened society where color, race, religion or ethnic background didn’t matter.

Dr. Martin Luther King said, in his famous August 28, 1963, “I have a Dream” speech, “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

In 1959, in “The Measures of Man,” Dr. King shared with us, “Man is man because he is free to operate within the framework of his destiny. He is free to deliberate, to make decisions, and to choose between alternatives. He is distinguished from animals by his freedom to do evil or to do good and to walk the high road of beauty or tread the low road of ugly degeneracy.”

History has fortunately judged Gordon Parks by the content of his character and his choice “to walk the high road of beauty.” We have been fortunate enough to benefit from the content of his character and the beauty he left behind.

Gordon Parks is an inspiration for all of us, whether we are artists or community leaders or whatever role we wish to play in making our planet a better world.

Gordon Parks will be missed. May he rest in peace. God Bless.

Author’s note: On March 29, 2006, I wrote a tribute to Gordon Parks in The Tentacle. This memoriam expands upon much of that column, but takes advantage of not having a word limit.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.
He may reached at kevindayhoff AT gmail.com or visit him at www.westminstermarylandonline.net

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20060405 Gordon Parks

*****

Kevin Dayhoff Soundtrack: http://www.kevindayhoff.net/ Kevin Dayhoff's The New Bedford Herald: http://kbetrue.livejournal.com/ Kevin Dayhoff Art: http://www.kevindayhoffart.com/ Blip.fm: http://blip.fm/kevindayhoff_soundtrack Kevin Dayhoff Westminster: http://www.westgov.net/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevindayhoff Twitpic: http://twitpic.com/photos/kevindayhoff YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/kevindayhoff Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1040426835 Kevin Dayhoff Banana Stems: http://kevindayhoff.tumblr.com/

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20060405 Omnibus Rolling Blackout Acts of 2006

20060405 Omnibus Rolling Blackout Acts of 2006

April 5, 2006 By Kevin Dayhoff

In my Tentacle columns of April 4^th, 2006 and April 5^th, 2006, I referred to the “recent surge of Maryland General Assembly legislative initiatives in response to the end of the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company’s electric rate price freeze … as the “Omnibus Rolling Blackout Acts of 2006.”

Much is left to be accomplished with the time remaining in the tumultuous 421st legislative session of the Maryland General Assembly - now mercifully measured in days.

Although, for many, the 421st legislative session cannot end soon enough.

To borrow some ideas as to how to explain the bizarre 2006 session, I am reminded of a series called the “Carnival of the Clueless,” written by a freelance writer, Rick Moran.

If Mr. Moran were to be aware of the Merryland General Assembly’s operatic 2006 session deliberations and decisions, he would have a field day.

Special segments would feature the “vote early and vote often” initiative; Wal-Mart; “let’s change any law that happens to not suit us at the moment” and now, “how to cause a problem and then blame anyone else but ourselves.” A bonus feature would highlight, “how to bankrupt a public utility and encourage it to take their jobs, headquarters and business to Florida.”

My April 5^th, 2006 Tentacle column explained:

“Members of the Maryland General Assembly’s leadership deserve a lifetime achievement award for ducking their responsibilities, scapegoating and obfuscating the truth in their response to the rate caps coming off Baltimore Gas and Electric as a result of the 1999 electric deregulation legislation.

“The legislative proposals, the “Omnibus Rolling Blackout Acts of 2006,” that have arrived at the governor’s desk, do nothing to address the problem of consumers facing a huge increase in their electric bills after July 1.”

It would appear that every year, the Maryland General Assembly (MGA) needs to prove to any investor owned company that anything that can possible be regulated (read, most anything that moves) in the State of Maryland is not a good investment.

One wonders that unless the MGA wants to spread its span of control across state lines and start regulating electric generation costs across the country, at some point in time, where is Maryland going to get its electricity and at what cost.

As businesses, jobs and stockholder capital continues to flee Maryland, where is the money going to come from to provide jobs for Marylanders, increase tax base – and with respect to the current cost of electricity for consumers, the power plants necessary to bring the cost of electricity down.

Forget about analogies of this august body’s cluebat populism being an opera, the machinations over the ramifications of Maryland’s California-style electric deregulation have become the stuff of an epic poem written by Franz Kafka.

If the Maryland General Assembly has its way, the sad sorry saga of how it managed to cause a problem, for which it now portrays itself as heroically punishing the victim of its folly, will be recited for the rest of millennium around the glow of candlelight.

The problem has been unfolding for almost seven years. However, just a month or so ago, as the impending reality of the rate caps coming off finally descended on the MGA; the first response by the Maryland Democratic Party was to air commercials - for battery powered radios - all across our great state that it was all Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich’s fault.

Huh? In 1999, Governor Ehrlich was not a member of the MGA.

In anticipation of this rolling black out coming our way, the Maryland General Assembly’s response has been to hold inside-baseball hearings on mythological allegations involving Governor Ehrlich’s personnel practices – at a cost of $600,000.00 and counting.

Perhaps if one tenth of the efforts to play partisan politics had been spent on addressing the issues, instead of synthetically inventing problems and making up Maryland law as they went, we wouldn’t find ourselves lighting candles to fight off the impending darkness.

In January - while the MGA was playing let’s stick it to Governor Ehrlich and Wal-Mart -the Governor was already hard a work, in anticipation of the challenges foreseen with the rate caps coming off this coming July.

In February, the governor wrote the PSC asking for a plan to protect consumers from an abrupt rise in electric rates. The PSC developed a plan that quickly got lost in the high weeds of manipulative partisan gotcha politics.

In an article, “BGE: Cap on rates may force bankruptcy,” in the Baltimore Business Journal (BBJ) on February 17, it is reflected that the Governor “wrote a letter to the Maryland Public Service Commission asking the state regulatory agency to develop a plan to give BGE customers relief from sudden price increases expected next summer.”

The Governor was reported to have written, "Unfortunately, wholesale electric supply market prices are at historic highs just as BGE's rate freeze is about to expire.”

Meanwhile WBAL reports on March 24, that Public Service Commission (PSC) chairman Kenneth Schisler “is dismissing claims by some lawmakers that they were blindsided by BGE's plans to raise rates precipitously when price caps come off in July. WBAL News has obtained records that show numerous conferences and meetings between PSC agents and lawmakers over the course of several months last year. At least 20 briefings or meetings are documented by the PSC.”

Instead of pursuing win-win solutions that will provide electric rate relief of consumers, all the while, maintaining the financial stability of the utility companies, most the of the hot air coming from the Maryland General Assembly has been political spin, in an attempt to re-write history.

In 1999, the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, consumer activists and environmental advocates did not embrace Senate Bill 300, the “Electric Utility Industry Restructuring Act.”

Then-Gov. Paris N. Glendening was skeptical to the point that he threatened a veto. In the end, it passed by such a bi-partisan majority that it was veto proof.

Writing for The Tentacle on March 17, Delegate Richard Weldon (R., Frederick and Washington Cos.) identified the main protagonists of the legislation accurately and succinctly: “Speaker Michael Busch (D., Anne Arundel) was then the chairman of the Economic Matters Committee. The bill was co-sponsored by the two most powerful members of the Maryland Senate, President Mike Miller (D., PG) and Sen. Thomas Bromwell (D., Baltimore Co.). Senator Bromwell chaired the Finance Committee, the committee that deals with utility regulation in the Senate.”

To make matters worse, in 2000 the MGA required Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE) to divest itself of its power plants and forced the utility to sell electricity on the national open market – where, incidentally, it could sell it for higher prices as the price of power plant fuels continued to skyrocket. Read Jay Hancock’s March 12 article in the Baltimore Sun: “Maryland, Michigan take diverging paths in deregulation.”

In an article, “BGE: Cap on rates may force bankruptcy,” in the Baltimore Business Journal (BBJ) on February 17, Wayne Harbaugh, Baltimore Gas and Electric’s (BGE) manager for pricing and regulatory services was quoted: “Our residential customers have been enjoying six years of price freeze service as electricity prices have been ramping up elsewhere in the country….”

In the same Baltimore Business Journal article, Kenneth W. DeFontes Jr., president of BGE, shed some light on the issues by saying “that much like a gas station owner shouldn't be blamed for higher fuel costs, high power prices are out of BGE's control.”

Isn’t it odd, that it has been inadequately reported that the PSC followed the 1999 deregulation law in overseeing the 72 percent rate increase by following regulations that “were (subsequently) approved by the Democratic-appointed members of the PSC and the Democratic-appointed People’s Counsel…,” according to Barry Rascovar writing in the Gazette on March 31.

Isn’t it odd, that in the March 18 front page story by the Baltimore Sun, detailing an in-depth review of PSC chairman Shisler’s emails, that the Sun was not able to “discover” that the chairman had been working on the impact of the rate caps coming off and keeping lawmakers informed.

For context, one wonders why the political writers of the Sun has never looked in depth to the money trail, emails and correspondence between liberal lawmakers and Giant Food or the unions that essentially wrote the Wal-Mart legislation.

At this time, after sine die next Monday, April 10, the leadership of the Maryland Democratic Party will all stop by the local hardware store and buy an electric generator.

Once they are home, they will develop even more misinformation by the glow of candlelight and the political writers for the Baltimore Sun to repeat as fact.

The political writers at the largest newspaper in Maryland are doing what they can to be the Web site for this sordid political blame game. This is a gross disservice to citizens they serve, who ultimately will have to pay for partisan politics trumping substantive leadership.

Apparently, it is just a rumor that the Maryland Democratic Party will soon be rolling out a new line of candles for this summer’s campaigning.

Forget the candles, it has been reported that rolled-up old newspapers burn brightly and provide a good source of populist artificial heat. It’ll get ya through the night, but in the morning it will back to cold reality.

In the end, all hopes that the MGA will provide a win-win solution the impending rise to the cost of electricity have resulted in a blown fuse. The governor must veto the current legislation on the table that will ultimately bankrupt the electric utilities and provide no relief to electric ratepayers.

Writing in The Gazette on March 31, Blair Lee nailed it: “But instead of working together, the incumbents are playing a risky game of political ‘‘chicken” with one eye on the clock and the other on the precipice.”

Playing chicken with an increased cost of electricity is not viable for either party in the context of the higher gas prices, mortgage costs, heating oil and property taxes - and growing voter intolerance to all the inside baseball childish bickering.

As the lights go dark on the Merryland General Assembly, the lighters held high in the air are not in honor of Bob Dylan, but rather by members of the leadership of the Maryland General Assembly trying to find their way out of a dark building.

Once again, we’re depending on Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich to come through for the citizens of Maryland.

Electric Deregulation

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.

E-mail him at: kdayhoff AT carr.org

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20060331 Gazette gets MD electric dereg debacle correctly

20060331 Gazette gets Maryland deregulation debacle correctly

In today's March 31^st, 2006 edition of the Gazette, columnists Barry Rascovar and Blair Lee accurately portray the deregulation debacle currently occurring in the Maryland General Assembly

Let’s get some facts straight

Friday, March 31, 2006

Barry Rascovar

“

Are state legislators playing April Fools’ jokes on us? Are they serious about crucifying one of Maryland’s biggest corporations and trashing a 96-year-old regulatory agency to ensure their re-election? Or is it a negotiating ploy?

It’s getting bizarre. Lawmakers are operating on pure emotion. Self-preservation is driving them to pass wildly punitive bills that could have long-lasting and severe consequences.

The House and Senate may well be violating both the federal and state constitutions in seeking to hold hostage Constellation Energy’s $11 billion merger with FPL Group. Firing the Public Service Commission and replacing commissioners with Democratic allies of legislative leaders makes even less sense if the objective is fair and impartial regulation of utilities. Then there’s the brazen attempt to seize half-billion dollars from Constellation because a law passed in 1999 by the General Assembly turned out to be highly profitable for Constellation but not for the state.

Welcome to the Banana Republic of Maryland, where legislative dictators are blowing up long-established government traditions and using the legislature as a partisan vehicle to strip power from a governor who belongs to the wrong political party.

Don’t like the Republican governor’s appointments to the PSC — even though Democratic legislators approved their nominations? Fire them and give the Democratic House speaker and Democratic Senate president power to appoint a majority to the panel. Politicizing the PSC will put an end to that panel as an independent regulatory arbiter and turn it into a pawn of the Democratic General Assembly.

It’s not the only mess being foisted on the public. Look at the irrational effort to junk $90 million of touch-screen voting machines and spend $50 million on less-reliable optical-scanners.

The House of Delegates passed a bill not only discarding the current high-tech machines — because of allegations the software can be tampered with — but mandating less-accurate voting machines be rented. It did so after receiving promises from a single vendor it could deliver all these machines in time for the September primary.

Now it turns out this vendor has failed to meet delivery deadlines in other states. How come no legislator raised questions about who’s behind this slick deal that seemingly violates every procurement safeguard?

Meanwhile, a Senate panel is mulling a plan to turn Maryland’s elections into 100 percent mail-in votes — an experiment never before tried here and attempted on a statewide level only in Oregon.

Advocates insist on a ‘‘paper trail” for ballots, though the systems under discussion are far more prone to error. They insist on abandoning a system that produced the most accurate vote count in the nation two years ago.

State and local election officials have insisted for months there isn’t time to bring in a brand-new voting system. But that hasn’t fazed lawmakers.

Sensible, practical ideas don’t stand a chance in this legislature. As a result, Maryland’s fall elections could be in serious jeopardy.

Meanwhile, the hottest words are reserved for the electric rate increase crisis. Lawmakers keep trying to ignore reality.

Fact: The Democratic legislature and the Democratic governor approved electric deregulation and a freeze in consumers’ power rates in 1999.

Fact: Agreements implementing that law were approved by the Democratic-appointed members of the PSC and the Democratic-appointed People’s Counsel in 2001 and 2002.

Fact: These are legally binding actions.

One of the few sane voices has been People’s Counsel Patricia Smith, a liberal Democrat whose strong legal credentials led to her appointment by Republican Gov. Bob Ehrlich. She’s been saying things legislators don’t want to hear.

Energy prices will continue to rise, she says. It’s crazy to focus on things the legislature cannot alter. Pepco and Delmarva Power & Light customers were hit with large electric rate hikes starting two years ago when their rate freezes ended. Where was the outrage from lawmakers?

Now those power companies are raising rates 38 and 35 percent, respectively, to reflect the higher cost of power. Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. customers get socked with an unwelcome 72 percent increase this summer because BGE negotiated a longer rate freeze.

All of this flowed from the legislature’s 1999 vote. Lawmakers ‘‘can’t wave a wand,” Smith says. ‘‘There was no parachute built into that law.”

Firing members of the PSC misses the point. Their hands are tied by the 1999 law, too. Appointing new commissioners friendly to legislative Democrats and hostile to electric companies shatters the underpinnings of Maryland’s utility regulatory system.

Smith wants lawmakers to focus on ways to protect customers in the future. She thinks stronger regulation by the PSC is necessary as well as new methods for purchasing power, the re-acquisition of power plants by local utilities and authority for the state to buy its own power plants.

These are intriguing ideas. But Smith, who was hired to be an independent consumer advocate, has been ignored by politicians. Instead, we get political tripe posing as substance.

Fortunately, there’s still time for a moment of clarity. If legislative leaders use their preposterous PSC⁄electric rate proposals as bargaining chips, a workable compromise is possible. If legislators finally heed veteran election officials, a sensible balloting plan could surface. We have not yet reached the point, as Dante might phrase it, where the words over each legislative chamber read, ‘‘Abandon hope ye who enter here.”

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.

”

http://www.gazette.net/stories/033106/poliiss172607_31940.shtml

Playing political ‘chicken’

Friday, March 31, 2006

Blair Lee

“

In politics, as in life, self-preservation is the strongest instinct. And in politics self-preservation means re-election.

That’s why, when faced with common extinction, statehouse lawmakers circle the wagons to collectively save themselves. Temporarily they drop their partisan, racial and regional differences and all become incumbents. Then, once the storm passes, they go back to infighting.

That’s what happened with the 1986 savings and loan crisis and the 1978 property tax rebellion. The incumbents knew that, instead of blaming each other, they’d better work together or they’d all be unseated.

So why are today’s statehouse lawmakers blaming each other instead of banding together to solve the energy rate hike crisis? Do they really believe that incensed voters, clutching their nearly doubled energy bills, will care who voted for deregulation seven years ago or why competition failed to materialize?

Believe me, the statehouse norm that ‘‘you kill my dog, I kill your cat” applies to the voters as well. ‘‘You double my electric bill, I vote you out of office.” Unless the incumbents do something quickly, almost 2 million ratepayers will receive new, astronomical energy bills right before the elections.

But instead of working together the incumbents are playing a risky game of political ‘‘chicken” with one eye on the clock and the other on the precipice.

The Democrats won’t accept any solution that lets Republican Gov. Bob Ehrlich look good. They’ll risk anything, even their own re-elections, to deny Ehrlich a major political victory this close to Election Day. Conversely, Ehrlich knows that any solution he negotiates with the power companies now — no matter how beneficial to the ratepayers — will be labeled ‘‘inadequate” by the Democrats and the partisan media.

So Ehrlich is biding his time while the Democrats rush a host of emergency measures through the legislature. One makes Constellation Energy cough up $528 million in past charges. Another holds hostage Constellation’s $11 billion merger with a Florida utility company until Constellation solves the rate hike, and another switches control of the Public Service Commission from the governor to the legislature.

It bothers the Democrats little that these bills are unwise, illegal, ineffective and threaten to drive the utilities into bankruptcy (remember these are the same people who gave us the Wal-Mart Bill). Their plan is to make Ehrlich veto the bills, then override his vetoes and hope the terrified utilities cave in to the legislature’s wholesale recklessness. Then the Democrats can declare ‘‘victory” and label Ehrlich a utility lapdog. In Annapolis this passes for statesmanship.

Meanwhile, just in case their strategy backfires, the Democrats (and the Baltimore Sun) are busy rewriting history. If the voters ever find out who caused the rate hike crisis, the Democrats will be in deep trouble. After all, the 1999 bill that deregulated Maryland’s energy industry was enacted by a Democratic legislature and governor. The principal architect was Senate President Mike Miller whose political PAC subsequently received $119,000 from the energy companies.

Mayor Martin O’Malley’s running mate, Anthony Brown, voted for the bill and O’Malley’s brother-in-law, Max Curran, sat on the Public Service Commission that blessed it. No wonder the Democrats don’t want to discuss how we got into this mess.

Instead, they’ve generated one of the greatest smoke screens in Maryland political history — they’re blaming the current Public Service Commission, appointed by Ehrlich, for the crisis.

The state Democratic Party is running radio ads blaming the rate hikes on ‘‘Bob Ehrlich’s Public Service Commission.” Leading Democrats are calling for the chairman’s ouster and Sen. Paula Hollinger (a Democrat who voted for deregulation) told the media, ‘‘If we had a Public Service Commission that wasn’t industry-driven, that was fair, that could look at the facts, we wouldn’t have the 72 percent (rate hikes).”

The Democrats’ disinformation is echoed daily by the Baltimore Sun whose anti-Ehrlich hatred has eclipsed any shred of journalistic professionalism. Everyone knows the Sun plays politics but this is disgusting. Heck, even the Sun’s ombudsman expresses concern.

Blaming the rate hike on the Public Service Commission is like blaming the Lincoln assassination on Mrs. Lincoln. She was there, why didn’t she do something? And we all know she had family members who were Confederate sympathizers!

Look, the 1999 deregulation law stripped the Public Service Commission of its rate-setting authority. Its only role was to determine the future ‘‘market rates” when the rate caps ended and that determination was made in 2003 by a Public Service Commission made up entirely of Parris Glendening’s appointees. Furthermore, the current commission met with lawmakers 22 times over the past two years updating them on the coming rate hikes. Blaming the commission is pure political scapegoating.

In olden days a red herring was used to distract hunting dogs from the trail. Blaming the Public Service Commission for deregulation is not only a red herring, it’s a public lie, which, if it doesn’t bother the Democrats and the Sun, ought to bother the voters regardless of who wins at ‘‘chicken” in Annapolis.

Blair Lee is CEO of the Lee Development Group in Silver Spring and a regular commentator for WBAL radio. His column appears Fridays in The Gazette. His e-mail address is blair@leedg.com.

”

http://www.gazette.net/stories/033106/poliiss172606_31939.shtml

20060329 Media Matters is leaking

20060329 Media Matters is leaking

Hat Tip Wonkette

Looks like employees for Media Matters have attended the same classes as elected official(s) from the Maryland Town of Mount Airy. In Mount Airy, there is curious phenomena occurring - or so it would appear. Perhaps it is just the vivid imagination of some folks. But anytime there is a confidential/internal memo circulated among staff and elected officials in Mount Airy – it is automatically forwarded to the Carroll County Board of Commissioners, local newspapers and anyone else who may have a passing interest in only one small portion of any particular issue.

In a March 7^th, 2006 Frederick News Post article by Katie E. Leslie, Mount Airy Councilman Peter Helt was quoted as publicly stating was has become common knowledge in the public: “Confidential documents sent to council members and the mayor have recently been leaked to the public, Mr. Helt said. Yet neither the mayor or any council member have acknowledged distributing those documents, he said.”

And OMG – there was one really special moment in the Media Matters internal memo: “One rule from the communications shop: TREAT BLOGGERS AS PRESS…”

Perhaps the Associated Press should read this memo.

Please see: 'Only a blogger' in Pajamas Media and also see: MSM Plagiarism Strikes Again – AP Welcome to the Party, by Larisa Alexandrovna.

I have also received a T-shirt for having the Associated Press use my work and not giving me credit for it.

One of many fascinating paragraphs is: “We do not credit blogs!

Meanwhile, thank you Wonkette for keeping us to date with the bathroom etiquette of the male employees at Media Matters.

_________________

Most Meanspirited Post of the Day

Hat tip to Wonkette

http://www.wonkette.com/

March 29, 2006

“

(Well, so far, anyway.)

Hey, another Media Matters email!

Subject: I can't believe I have to do this again...
From: [Redacted]
Date: Tue, March 28, 2006 10:49 am
To: "'Mmfa staff'"
Priority: Normal

but once again, someone forwarded an internal email to the Wonkette, embarrassing both Media Matters as an organization and all of the colleagues you work with on a daily basis. It's ridiculous enough that email needed to be sent in the first place, and appalling that someone's had the lack of judgment to send it to a widely-read logger. One rule from the communications shop: TREAT BLOGGERS AS PRESS, and communicate with them through the communications shop. If you have a question about that, ask one of us. I hoped, apparently in vain, that this wouldn't happen again. It did. So I'm hoping again. Don't let this happen again.

Oh, Media Matters, come on. Treat us as press? But the press ignores you! We hang on your every internal memo!

Media Matters

Earlier: Report: Male Employees At Media Matters Are Total F**king Slobs

Update: Men at Media Matters Still Total F**king Slobs

”

20060104 Male Slobs at Media Matters

Report: Male Employees at Media Matters are Total F***ing Slobs

Hat Tip: Wonkette

January 4^th, 2006

“

We received a copy of this email from confidential sources at Media Matters:

Subject: Men’s bathroom complaint From: “S———” Date: Tue, January 3, 2006 10:37 am Priority: High

Good morning!

On my way out of the office on December 23rd, I was stopped by someone from the management office. He lectured me about a problem in the men’s bathroom. Despite my protestation that I clearly do not use the men’s bathroom, and thus complete unaware of any problems, he continued on. He received complaints from the cleaning crew that newspapers have been “strewn” (his word, not mine) all over the bathroom. If you bring a newspaper or other reading material, please bring it back out. Thanks!

S————

Media Matters for America

While we’re not surprised that the rending and strewing of journalism is a popular activity at Media Matters, we’d like to remind their staff that the medium is the message and that the message you send to your janitorial staff matters. Also, guys, you can’t let yourself be so blinded by the right that you start forgetting how to distinguish between two types of genitalia. — DCEIVER

”

_________________

Update: Men at Media Matters Still Total F***ing Slobs

Hat Tip: Wonkette

March 27^th, 2006

“

The good people are Media Matter for America: hard at work fighting conservative bias, still pissing off the janitorial staff:

Subject: Men’s bathroom….again
From: [Redacted]
Date: Mon, March 27, 2006 12:51 pm
To: [Everyone with a penis]
Priority: High

I’m sorry to have to send another e-mail about the men’s bathroom, but Jenny was on the receiving end of an unfortunate tirade from the building engineer (wait….assistant building engineer) a few minutes ago about a clogged toilet from this morning. I know that none of you would intentionally “stuff” a toilet, but he seems to think that someone from this office is doing just that. I’m not sure how to suggest to you guys to be conscious of what’s going down there (and I know it sounds ridiculous), but please try. They already hate us, so let’s try to play nice.

Thanks!
S——-
Media Matters for America

Guys — you may not think this is a big deal, but we happen to know that Media Research Council keeps their place neat as a fucking whistle — ‘cause you never know when Exxon’s gonna stop by to see how their money’s being spent. You think Soros wants to keep you guys afloat if you can’t pick up after yourselves?

”

_________________

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.

E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org

####

20060327 Dial N for Naked

20060327 Dial N for Naked

Dial N for naked

Hat Tip: My Nephew Smurf. Thank you Mr. Smurf!

Mon Mar 27, 2006 3:40 PM ET

I’m not really sure if Reuters uses permalinks and this is short and way too precious to be lost for future prosperity. Please enjoy the entire article below.

For the record, not only do I NOT make phone calls in the buff, but I also do not blog in my pajamas.

_________________

“LONDON (Reuters) - Up to a third of telephone users in Britain make calls in the nude, with men more prone to do it without clothes than women, a survey revealed on Thursday.

“Research commissioned by Britain's Post Office, which offers a fledgling home phone service, revealed that 40 percent of men admitted to nattering naked compared with 27 percent of women. The results were based on a survey of 1,500 telephone users.

“The research also showed that people were so busy that one in 10 people admitted to wandering off and leaving the caller talking to themselves.”

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

_________________

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.

E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org

####

20060329 Always Dress better than expected

20060329 Always Dress better than expected

HAT TIP Wonkette

OMG - It would appear that there is a war of the wardrobe occurring in the pressroom these days. Since journalists have always been know to be such slaves to fashion, this blogger is simply aghast that such memos are even necessary. Thank goodness, according to the mainstream media, all it would appear that I need to wear while slaving away at the keyboard is my pajamas.

Many thanks to Wonkette for keeping us up to date on such pressing matters.

DC Examiner Dress Code: Only Due Attention To Ones Self, Please

This just in from Wonkette:

http://www.wonkette.com/

March 29, 2006

“

What, you think working for a free paper is all loosey-goosey anything goes hippie bullshit? It's a business, dammit, you'll treat it as such! Here, for your perusal, are samples from the dress code at the DC Examiner (instututed, no doubt, after Vivienne Sosnowski showed up in torn denim mini-skit and studded collar) -- we note that it doesn't appear to have been written (or read) by a copy-editor.

From the "Appropriate" column:

Dresses (length cannot be more than three inches above the knee). ["more than"?]

Pants in business suitable fabrics. [Satin, leather, vinyl, etc.]

And the more fun "Inappropriate" column:

Any type of denim (including jean dresses, denim shirts, denim pants, denim skirts, etc.).

Any material resembling denim.

Khaki or Docker- style pants. [Harsh, but fair -- we have a similar rule against tucking your t-shirt into your jeans]

Stirrup pants and leggings. [That, along with their anti-sweatband and big sunglasses provision, explains their disappointing lack of hipster coverage]

Camouflage clothing [Despite this, they still manage to poach Wash Times staffers]

Clothing is not to be overly tight nor draw undue attention to ones self.

Full memo after the jump.

It is important for all employees to project a professional image of Washington Newspaper Publishing Company, LLC. To create this image to our clients and /or visitors, WNP has implemented a dress-code policy. The following list is a guideline of what attire is appropriate and inappropriate. This list is not all inclusive but is a guide.

APPROPRIATE:

Dresses (length cannot be more than three inches above the knee).

Suits/pantsuits/ties.

Skirts (length cannot be more than three inches above the knee).

Blouses/shirts.

Blazers.

Vests.

Walking shorts/skorts in business suitable fabrics (length cannot be more than three inches above the knee).

Pants in business suitable fabrics.

Any type of business shoe (heels, flats, etc.).

INAPPROPRIATE:

Any type of denim (including jean dresses, denim shirts, denim pants, denim skirts, etc.).

Any material resembling denim.

Casual/sport T-shirts (including logo merchandise).

Casual shorts.

Khaki or Docker- style pants.

Stirrup pants and leggings.

Casual sandals, athletic or canvas shoes, casual boots, flip flops,

Flannel shirts.

Camouflage clothing

Bras, sport bras, tank tops, etc. (must be fully covered by clothing), short/crop tops. Mid drifts are not to be visible.

Employees dealing with and interacting with the public and clients are not to wear facial piercings.

Clothing is not to be overly tight nor draw undue attention to ones self.

Employees violating the code may be sent home, without pay, to change and may be subject to disciplinary actions up to and including termination.

Employees are also reminded that it is your responsibility to keep your work area clean. Papers are not to be stockpiled, work information is to be put away daily, excessive trash must be removed. If you see papers on the floor in your area or common areas, take the minute necessary to pick it up and throw it away or straighten it up. Employees are not to eat meals at desks or in work areas. All locations have break rooms! Do not keep food at your desk or store food in your work area.

”

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.

E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org

####

20060123 No proof seen Donner clan were cannibals

20060123 No proof seen Donner clan were cannibals

By Kevin Dayhoff Monday, January 23, 2006 11 PM

For the history buffs: (Hat Tip – Baltimore Sun, January 13, 2006) In a January 13, 2006 Los Angeles Times article by Eric Bailey: “No proof seen Donner clan were cannibals - Pioneers split into 2 camps; it appears only 1 group resorted to eating flesh.”

“SACRAMENTO -- Nudging the history books, archaeologists studying one of two campsites used by the ill-fated Donner Party during a snowbound Sierra winter 160 years ago announced Thursday that a study had unearthed no physical evidence of cannibalism.

The stranded emigrants settled into two camps during the harsh winter of 1846 and '47, and previous scientific studies confirmed cannibalism at the principal encampment, on the east shore of what is now Donner Lake.”

Hmmm, reminds me that in 1967, President Lyndon Johnson was quoted: "Do you know the difference between liberals and cannibals? Cannibals eat only their enemies."

That’s all for now folks. I need some ice cream and a nap.

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA.

E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org

####