Thursday, April 20, 2006

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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Monday, April 17, 2006

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

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

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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Monday, April 10, 2006

20060410 Westminster Employee Action

Note: I was given this document by certain Westminster City Employees anonymously… KED

April 10, 2006

Employee action: Most of the employees agree with most of these points. Not all the employees agree with all the points. Police not included.

Non-sworn employees have waited several years for an increase in pay and benefits. During this wait, police officers and certain other employees have received substantial pay increases.
Non-sworn employees need to be prioritized for FY 2007 pay and benefit enhancements.
Relations between the mayor and council - and employees are at a crisis breaking point. All communication has broken down. The situation at present appears to have passed a point where anything can repair the relations.
Employees feel blown-off by current mayor and council. Current mayor and council are condescending and only give lip service to the employees. Efforts from the mayor seem misleading, superficial, and not sincere.
Employees distrust current mayor and council and feel they lack integrity.
Employees lack confidence that the current mayor and council have the competence to run the city. The city is not a bank, where you can make it up as you go.
Many feel the mayor and council are in it for themselves and not for the city.
Many feel that the mayor only wants to be the mayor, so he can say that he is the mayor. There is concern that councilmen just want to run for higher office and are using the city and its employees for their own gain.
Mayor and council don’t know the employees, their jobs or how things work and don’t appear to care to know.
Mayor and council do not back up employees leaving them to twist in the wind.
Employees afraid to disagree or take their problems to the mayor and council because they fear negative repercussions.
Employee attempts to talk with press ignored by Carroll County Times and Baltimore Sun, which appears to not question mayor, while the Times and the Sun questions all the other towns.
Employees have to look out for their own best interests.
This mayor and council not looking out for employees – just themselves. As a result, employees actively seeking union representation, feeling that they have no choice. Outside union organizers have contacted city personnel to take advantage of this situation.
The mayor and city council have created employee unrest and low morale for which union organizers can capitalize.
Confidential employee morale study not confidential and further lowered morale.
Concern that if mayor and council raise taxes and/or if the employees get a pay raise; the mayor and council will blame the tax increase on employees and not on their wasteful spending, which includes the city manager.
Right now, employees don’t see long-range plan for the city, except what is in it for mayor and council.
Employees don’t know where the city is going or what to do.
Whatever is agreed to can change whenever mayor and council find it expedient with no feedback or consulting with the employees. Things just seem to be made up as they go.
Making recreation a department level ill timed and made morale worse. Used money that should have gone to other employees, while other employees have been waiting for years for pay parity. Decision to make recreation a department was knee-jerk and made by suspending the rules and doing it all at one council meeting. As a result, an employee quit and another threatened to quit.
While other employees wait and wait for pay relief, recreation made department level without a committee or study. Proof that a study is just a stalling technique.
Meanwhile city has no separate independent human resources department - but now has a director level recreation department.
Mayor and council considered an information technology director – before it had a department level human resources director.
There is a strong lack of trust for current human resources office. Employees feel that confidentiality is not maintained.
Employees impatient for things to change for the better. Feel too many committees are a ruse to insulate mayor and council from decisions.
Mayor doesn’t accept responsibility for anything – especially if he can hide behind a committee.
Employees are proud to be frugal and save the city money. They don’t need to be given money rewards by mayor and council, their pride is their reward.
Employees proud to do their job well and solve problems creatively, when there is lack of budget.
Hiring a city manager is an affront to the employees and destroys a sense of team. Previous mayor did the job for $10k a year.
Last time city hired a city manager it didn’t work.
Money to be used on city manager is not necessary and could be better spent elsewhere.
City manager will only add an additional insulating layer between employees and mayor and council. City manager position does not have support of employees.
City manager adds complicating layer between public and city. Often citizens currently have direct access to city and can get things done.
July 1999, new contributory pension system became effective…
June 2000, 129 employees, including some police, had to choose paying one-year retroactive cost or be penalized when they retired.
It would have cost the city approximately $75,000 to pay the retroactive costs for the 129 employees under the new contributory pension system.
City didn’t offer to pay the retroactive amount. When LEOPS was subsequently adopted for the police officers, all retroactive contributions were paid by the city.
2000 to 2001 Budget, only police officers received reclassified pay scale: $1,200 more than everyone else. This did not include other non-sworn police personnel.
Fiscal year 2002 to 2003, city council gave employees a 1% cost of living increase when cost of living in area with month used for calculation was actually 2.2%.
2002: city police got union representation and started requests for separate retirement system (LEOPS).
2002: city offered police a plan where the city would put in between 5 to 9% of officers annual salary based on the number of years they have been employed. The police officers rejected the offer.
Now police seem to have what they want. (Baltimore Sun, November 12, 2002). LEOPS will cost the city $364,000 a year or $17 million over 25 years after factoring in inflation and additional officers. Police gave up their pay raises the next year to support the plan. Yet several years later, they got a triple-step increase.
LEOPS was adopted July 2003 and the city paid the police contribution retroactively.
City employees would like an improved non-LEOPS pension plan. The 401a can be used as an instrument to increase the percent available to city employees at the time of retirement. Six percent, with an equal match, would be great. The city’s goal should strive for 50% of an employee’s salary at retirement.
The city employees would like to be compensated for unused sick leave at retirement.
Improved longevity and shift differential is important. Longevity needs to reflect cost of living changes. Our number is static and not pegged to inflation.
Non-sworn employees have waited several years for an increase in pay and benefits. During this wait, police officers and certain other employees have received substantial pay increases.
Non-sworn employees need to be prioritized for FY 2007 pay and benefit enhancements.

20060410 Westminster Common Council Meeting Agenda

CITY OF WESTMINSTER, MARYLAND

Mayor and Council Meeting on April 10, 2006

AGENDA

1. CALL TO ORDER – 7:00 P.M.

2. MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF MARCH 27, 2006

3. REPORTS FROM MAYOR

4. REPORTS FROM STANDING COMMITTEES

5. ORDINANCES AND RESOLUTIONS:

a. Introduction of Ordinance No. 747 – Floodplain Ordinance and Floodplain Management Manual

b. Introduction of Ordinance No. 748 – Environmental Management of Storm Sewer Systems

c. Introduction of Ordinance No. 749 – Intergovernmental Relations

d. Introduction of Ordinance No. 750 – City Administrator

6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS:

a. Update on West Green Street Reconstruction Project

7. NEW BUSINESS:

a. Closed Session to Discuss the Acquisition of Real Property

b. Approval of Carroll County Cable Regulatory Commission Budget for

Fiscal Year 2007

8. DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS

9. CITIZEN COMMENTS

10. ADJOURN

Thursday, April 06, 2006

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/

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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20060404 Give Credit Where Credit is Due by Brad Friedman

“Give Credit Where Credit is Due.” by Brad Friedman

Editor and Publisher post from April 4^th, 2006

Read the Editor and Publisher post from April 4^th, 2006: “Give Credit Where Credit is Due.”

~~http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/mailto:letters@editorandpublisher.com~~

[June 28^th, 2007 UPDATE: I think it is a dead link, darn it. Or - It may be behind a pay-wall at this point? Or maybe I made a mistake when I copied the link? But I can’t bring it up for the life of me… And that’s a shame because the rest of the piece is quite profound. Brad Friedman nailed this issue in a highly readable and thoughtful manner and this matter of the mainstream media not giving on-line journalists adequate credit for their work continues to be a problem. Go to the end of this post and you’ll get a glimpse….]

Thanks to the wonderful folks – and a great editor - who carry one of my columns, Patuxent Publishing, I am, perhaps, the first blogger to be credentialed by Maryland State government to cover the Maryland General Assembly.

With the exception of some isolated incidents with individuals with a general “attitude problem,” I have had very little problem with organizations to respond or cooperate on articles for the blog.

However, when I broke the Michael Olesker (a columnist for the Baltimore Sun) plagiarism story, (”Who is Max Cleland”) the Associated Press, would not credit me. Other local publications did – but AP went out their way to avoid citing my column in an on-line columnist web site, “The Tentacle,”

If you will recall, I’m the one who called-out Michael Olesker… Doug Tallman with the Gazette was a stand-up guy and gave me credit. The Associated Press, Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun refused to acknowledge my work or that I exist… And I put many-many-many exhausting hours of work into that piece…

In a Tentacle column I wrote on December 21^st, 2005, “Who is Max Cleland?,” I called to my readers’ attention that Mr. Olesker had written a column on December 12^th, 2005, “Continuing the pattern of dirty politics,” in which he failed to properly attribute a portion of his column to words – intellectual property – that had been written by Peter Carlson in The Washington Post, on Thursday, July 3, 2003, on page C01.

On December 24^th, 2005, the Baltimore Sun ran a correction. On December 27^th, 2005, Mr. Tallman contacted me and he ran a story on the matter on December 30^th, 2005. On January 3^rd, 2006 Mr. Olesker resigned. Gadi Dechter, writing, at the time, for the Baltimore City Paper, published a piece on January 4^th, 2006, “Sincere Flattery?”

On a related front, in spite of the fact that colleagues get upset with me when I say this; I found Mr. Olesker’s explanation of the matter plausible. I think that the Baltimore Sun threw him under a bus.

[January 15^th, 2007 UPDATE: That said, to his discredit, Mr. Olesker did not take responsibility for the alleged and made the entire matter worse… America is a great country and by and large, if you admit your mistake, apologize and offer a plan as to how you will address it in the future, folks are extraordinarily forgiving. Mr. Olesker simply offered a complicated explanation and then said, in essence, everybody does it – so no one is guilty.

Ay caramba.]

But on the other equally big issue - - apparently as you can read here, the story is murky as to whether or not the Associated Press credits on-line journalists… In my case, there was no murky about it. They did not credit my work…

20060401 Give Credit Where Credit is Due eandp

Give Credit Where Credit is Due

~~http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/mailto:letters@editorandpublisher.com~~

Mainstream news sites fell in love with blogs and citizen journalists last year--but this year they still often fail to credit them when following up on some of their most credible scoops.

By Brad Friedman

(April 01, 2006) -- Recently, the Associated Press carried an article which was based largely on material uncovered through the diligence, research and eagle eyes of the folks at the Web-based news site Raw Story. Though the AP has now admitted to using Raw Story's original reporting, they failed to give credit of any sort to the site.

When called on it by the editor at Raw Story, they said that it was AP policy not to credit blogs. After it was found that they do credit blogs on occasion, they modified their comments to say "We do credit blogs that we know," but added they hadn't heard of Raw Story.

Never mind that Raw Story has been credited by name in dozens of leading newspapers around the country. Or that it is not even a "blog" -- whatever that means, and whatever that has to do with it.

Journalism is journalism is journalism. […]

Read the entire article here: Give Credit Where Credit is Due

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Associated Press does not credit bloggers

June 28^th, 2007

Larisa Alexandrovna: MSM Plagiarism Strikes Again – AP Welcome to ...

Yes, the groups had found it in my article, which they gave to the AP. ... We do not credit blogs! Never mind that plenty of journalists have blogs or that ... www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/msm-plagiarism-strikes-ag_b_17873.html - 39k - Jun 27, 2007 - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Larisa Alexandrovna: Now "We Credit Blogs we Know" - AP Part II ...

He found that the AP had, indeed, gotten our article from "human rights groups" but that it was AP policy not to credit blogs. "It does turn out that we ... www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/now-we-credit-blogs-we-k_b_18057.html - 40k - Jun 27, 2007 - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald: The "credibility" of the ...

And, to their great credit, AP -- which continues to aggressively defend its ..... UPDATE X (a new record): Right-wing bloggers are not, of course, ... glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2007/01/credibility-of-right-wing-blogosphere.html - 57k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

The Raw Story Associated Press releases statement about Raw ...

An AP spokesman did tell Raw Story that AP does not credit blogs, but he was mistaken. AP does credit blogs when we are aware that they have broken a story ... www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Associated_Press_releases_statement_about_Raw_0404.html - 23k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall March 29, 2006 08:44 PM

This evening I noticed that a writer for the Associated Press, ... a 'blog' and orders its stories in reverse chronological order does not give Mr. Hananel ... www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/008044.php - 35k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

20060405 Omnibus Rolling Blackout Acts of 2006

April 5, 2006 By Kevin Dayhoff

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.

My April 5^th, 2006 Tentacle column explained:

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

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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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Sunday, April 02, 2006

19710402 Mt. Airy Fire Dept.: Now's The Time To Rid Property Of Fire Hazards

35 years ago: Mount Airy Fire Department: Now's The Time To Rid Property Of Fire Hazards

Community Reporter, April 2, 1971.

Spring into action against fire hazards now that Spring Clean-Up time is here, is the advice of the Mt. Airy Volunteer Fire Company. Trash and rubbish are breeding places for fires.

The following is a four-point program for spring clean-up action:

1. Clean out stacks of newspapers and magazines; discard old clothing, mattresses, furniture, lamp shades, draperies, etc., that clutter up the attic, basement and closets.

2. Do the same clean up job in your home workshop. Get rid of shavings, oily rags, old paint, etc.

3. Get after the trash in the garage and remove the dead grass and brush around and near the house.

4. Have your furnace, chimneys and stoves inspected and cleaned now. Don't wait until fall when you may get caught by the first cold snap. A little "elbow grease" now may save a lot of grief later.

And if you have to burn trash, etc., watch it closely so it will not get out of control.

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20060331 Maverick Pipkin pulls no punches by Tom Dennison

Maverick Pipkin pulls no punches by Tom Dennison

Senator crosses the aisle to lead the charge against electric rate hike

http://www.gazette.net/stories/033106/polia%20s193642_31954.shtml

Friday, March 31, 2006

by Thomas Dennison, Gazette Staff Writer

ANNAPOLIS — Sen. E.J. Pipkin has some friends and enemies in unusual places these days.

Pipkin, an iconoclastic Republican from the Eastern Shore, has become a leading player — and a hero to Democrats — for taking on utility companies that are planning a 72 percent rate hike that could affect more than 1 million Marylanders on July 1.

‘‘He’s got guts, and he’s willing to take on anyone — a committee chairman or even the governor,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Thomas McLain Middleton (D-Dist. 28) of Waldorf. ‘‘If I had a bill that I really wanted to pass, I would feel very comfortable if E.J. was carrying it for me. I would know that it’s in good hands.”

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Dist. 27) of Chesapeake Beach grabbed the freshman senator around the shoulders last week, declaring that Pipkin is one of the session’s biggest ‘‘winners.”

[…]

Somehow, Pipkin (R-Dist. 36) of Stevensville has become Maryland’s version of U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) — a darling to some Democrats and a lightning rod for some Republicans.

From the time he entered politics, Pipkin has been characterized as a hard-to-define maverick who doesn’t shun risks: Two years ago, he ran against U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski and got clobbered at the polls.

A wealthy former Wall Street stockbroker, Pipkin won his Senate seat in 2002 by knocking off Judicial Proceedings Committee Chairman Walter M. Baker, a Miller ally…

[…]

Pipkin is also known for his independence…

[…]

On electricity deregulation, Pipkin has charted his own course, clashing with some of his GOP colleagues and the Ehrlich administration, which is trying to remain neutral in the negotiations while blaming Democrats for passing deregulation in 1999.

‘‘This is about policy — not politics,” said Pipkin…

[…]

Other Republicans refrained from passing judgment on their colleague.

Pipkin is ‘‘exercising his prerogative” as a senator and it should not come as a surprise that he is out in front on the issue, said Sen. David R. Brinkley (R-Dist. 4) of New Market.

‘‘He’s been working on this issue for a long time,” Brinkley said.

[…]

Read the rest here: Maverick Pipkin pulls no punches by Tom Dennison

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