REALLY support Maryland troops: No Maryland pension-systems investments...

March 20, 2007, Annapolis. Defense experts explain the urgent need to divest from Maryland Pension funds foreign companies doing business in terrorist nations. Left to right: Frank Gaffney; former MTA president and author-journalist Ken Timmerman; and MTA board member Peter Huessy. Also see FOX45 coverage.

...in foreign companies doing business in Iran and Syria.

March 25, 2007. Melissa Harris reports on Maryland's missing voters in the Baltimore Sun. "Kate Boland, 57, a Democrat-turned-Republican raised in Chicago, has deduced that just about the only people not registered to vote in Talbot County are young people and newcomers. Under her leadership, county Republicans are considering a recruitment strategy that will involve the monitoring of property records, real-estate listings or residential construction. The party will then mail a voter registration form and letter once the moving vans arrive. 'In places, four out of four here vote in every election,' said Boland from her fire-heated kitchen with a view of a serene Chesapeake Bay inlet. 'And when their self-interests are threatened, they know how to do things. They're sophisticated people. They've run businesses. They've been in government. The head of one of the preservation groups, her husband is a major lobbyist for ABC.'"

March 23, Delegate Ron George wants to pull pension money to slow terrorism; Branch’s Sudan divestiture bill clears key House committee; Branch sees no possibility of combining the two, reports Douglas Tallman in the Gazette. "Branch does not envision a compromise that would combine the George and Branch bills. ‘‘We don’t want any amendment to the Sudan bill,' he said. ‘'We don’t want to change the posture of this bill at all. We would resist.'”

March 29, 2007: The Maryland House of Delegates has failed to approve delegate Ron George's legislation, HB537, prohibiting the issuance of driver's permits to those who cannot show they are in the U. S. legally. Tell your Delegates and Senators: Don't risk our drivers' licenses! Don't make Maryland a magnet state for illegal aliens!

March 23, 2007. Baltimore Examiner editorial: Foxes guard the pension henhouse. "What better way for Maryland to set an example for the rest of the country than by asking those who pay the bills to help oversee state pension benefits? At the very least half of the 14-member board must come from the private sector, with the provision that only those who do no or little business with government be eligible for membership. Gov. Martin O’Malley must lobby for the change. Taxpayers, just like state employees, deserve good stewardship of their money."

March 22, 2007. Democrats hit for trying to kill alien license bill, reports Tom LoBianco in the Washington Times. "'I think it's a terrible problem that we have: People who are more concerned about how the illegal aliens feel than the safety of Maryland residents,'said Sen. Janet Greenip, Anne Arundel County Republican and chief sponsor of the Senate proposal."

March 17, 2007. Phony scandal puts conservatives in a quandry. "To its enemies, the most endearing quality of the Bush administration must be the frequency with which the Bushies act as if they've done something wrong, even when they haven't. President Bush caused himself no end of grief when he apologized for saying in his 2003 state of the union address 'the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa,'even though every word of it was true. That blunder may have been topped by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at his news conference last Wednesday. The 'senior Justice Department official' who told reporters Mr. Gonzales' performance was 'disastrous' was being kind. Mr. Gonzales called the news conference to respond to the manufactured 'scandal' of the administration's decision to fire eight of the 93 U.S. attorneys."

March 10, 2007. Health reform scaled back, reports Laura Smitherman in the Baltimore Sun. "Thomas M. Middleton, chairman of the Finance Committee and a Charles County Democrat, commended the House committee for its work and said the bill could serve as a blueprint for action next year when legislators debate funding for all programs and how to fill a projected $1.3 billion shortfall."

Kyoto promises economic pain for no climate gain, said Senator James Inhofe in a September 25 floor speech. "The alarmists freely concede that the Kyoto Protocol, even if fully ratified and complied with, would not have any meaningful impact on global temperatures. And keep in mind that Kyoto is not even close to being complied with by many of the nations that ratified it, including 13 of the EU-15 nations that are not going to meet their emission reduction promises. Many of the nations that ratified Kyoto are now realizing what I have been saying all along: The Kyoto Protocol is a lot of economic pain for no climate gain." See chart: Implementing Kyoto would cost $300 billion per year, the greatest tax-cost increase in history, dwarfing other historic increases.

“The fact that climate change is so uncertain and so expensive is exactly why collectivists have swarmed to the cause. The scope of the problem can never be identified, its cost never quantified, and complete solutions will never be found. The perfect issue for people whose primary goal is the expansion of government control." ---Anon. [Hat tip Fred Singer.]

March 9, 2007. Eminent Domain debated reports Laura Smitherman in the Baltimore Sun. "Several property owners who have undergone the eminent domain process testified yesterday, including James M. Gillin, whose manufacturing plant has twice been targeted by Baltimore City for seizure. He moved to his current site in Poppleton 23 years ago after the city took his plant in South Baltimore for a school athletic field. Now the city wants to seize his current property for a housing project. 'We deserve compensation for all the turmoil that we as businesses go through,' he said."

March 9, 2007. Should the government make sex safer for women asks MTA participant Yael Levin in American.com, the American Enterprise Institute's online magazine. "The federal government has already agreed to pick up the tab for vaccinating poor girls, ages nine through eighteen, through its Vaccines for Children program, which is run by the CDC. In the spirit of individual liberty and responsibility, the best next step would not be compulsion, but rather for private charities to educate the poor about the risks of HPV and cervical cancer and the available methods of protection. Parents and young women could then decide for themselves what risks they are willing to face."

March 9, 2007. Gun Law in District Overturned by Appeals Court, reports WTOP. "'The District's definition of the militia is just too narrow,' Judge Laurence Silberman wrote for the majority Friday. 'There are too many instances of 'bear arms' indicating private use to conclude that the drafters intended only a military sense.'" See Appeals Court decision text. Maryland Congressman Roscoe Bartlett applauds decision.

March 9, 2007. Global warming efforts in Md. could go beyond new cars reports Kristen Wyatt of the Associated Press, reported in Examiner.com. "The measures would say that by 2020, Maryland's total carbon emissions would be the same as they were in 1990. Last year, lawmakers voted to join a regional greenhouse gas initiative putting similar caps on carbon dioxide emissions, but that bill related only to coal-fired power plants. This year, lawmakers are looking at the whole caboodle - all carbon emissions. To meet the 2020 goal, dramatic changes such as energy-efficient appliances or different car batteries could be required of Maryland residents. The requirement 'can only be characterized, in my opinion, as a serious and bold solution to a very grave problem,' said House Democratic Leader Kumar Barve, who sponsored one of the bills and argued for its passage Friday before two House committees. Barve pointed out Maryland's vulnerability to flooding and ocean rise and said he wouldn't debate whether global warming is occurring. 'For us to ignore this problem would be very difficult for us to explain to future generations,' he said."

March 9, 2007. Former MTA chief Ken Timmerman pens memo To: Karl Rove; From: The Conservative Base; Re: Why the President should Pardon Scooter Libby Now. "Remember when the president told you during the 2004 election season that his goal was not just to win one election, but to lay the basis for a conservative future by building a party and expanding the base to guarantee victories for a generation? We are that base, and we are telling you that by failing to stick up for Scooter Libby, you are betraying us. You are giving into the dark side of compromise and accommodation."

Delegate Warren Miller Introduces Bill to Track Government Spending Delegate Miller's legislation would enable taxpayers to get a better idea of how their hard-earned tax dollars are spent in Annapolis and would allow them to hold their elected officials accountable.

(Annapolis, MD) Delegate Warren Miller of Howard County today announced his new bill to make the financial dealings of the state government available to the public through the internet. House Bill 1252, the Maryland Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2007, mandates that the state develop a website which would allow anyone to review both spending and contract activity. "This puts a new tool in the hands of Maryland citizens but it will be up to us to use it to our advantage. Accountability is only as effective as its enforcement," said Delegate Miller. Miller's bill is modeled after a federal bill sponsored by Senators Tom Coburn and Barack Obama, which passed the House and Senate in September 2006. Indiana has already passed a transparency bill and similar legislation is being considered in Connecticut, Kansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington. Miller noted that he expected strong bipartisan support for HB 1252. The bill is also supported by numerous tax reform groups, including Americans for Tax Reform, the Maryland Taxpayers Association, and the Free State Foundation. Grover Norquist, chairman of the Americans for Tax Reform said, "Accountability is one of the cornerstones of representative democracy. Delegate Miller?s legislation would enable taxpayers to get a better idea of how their hard-earned tax dollars are spent in Annapolis and would allow them to hold their elected officials accountable" The full text of the bill can be found online at <http://mlis.state.md.us/2007rs/billfile/hb1252.htm> See March 5, 2007 story by Sara Michael in The Examiner: Howard delegate wants to put government spending online. "The Maryland Taxpayers Association worked closely with Miller on developing the bill. 'You would be able to go in and get aggregated numbers,' Maryland Taxpayers Association Executive Vice President Richard Falknor said. 'You wouldn’t have to go to each agency’s Web site, and maybe they would have [financial details] and maybe they wouldn’t.'”

March 5, 2007. National Taxpayers Union: Maryland Taxpayers Reject Harmful Internet Regulation "In its 2006 session, the U.S. Congress decided that net neutrality wasn’t right for America; it isn’t right for Maryland today. Keep crushing regulations off the Internet."

March 2, 2007. Bill would let counties overturn charter limits on property taxes; Hixson-McIntosh bill is seen by some as meddling in local affairs; Montgomery doesn’t support the effort, reports Margie Hyslop in the Gazette. "The measure — sponsored by House Ways and Means chairwoman Sheila E. Hixson and House Environmental Matters chairwoman Maggie L. McIntosh — would allow Maryland’s nine charter counties by a two-thirds County Council vote to set property tax rates higher than authorized by their charters."

March 2, 2007. Bill tackles affordable housing on a state level; But it’s up to local governments to solve their own problems, experts say, reports by Janel Davisin the Gazette. "HB 486 would require the governor to include at least a $19.7 million appropriation in his budget each year beginning in fiscal 2009, which begins July 1, 2008, to provide local governments money to increase the number of affordable units. To pay for the state fund, the bill includes an added state property tax — about 2 cents per each $100 of assessed property value; public utilities would pay 5 cents more for each $100 of assessed property value."

March 2, 2007. Nation’s most livable state’ is goal of environment work group, reports Len Lazarick in The Examiner. “'The grand challenge,'as the work group called it, is 'simultaneously and harmoniously restoring the Chesapeake Bay, managing growth within its landscape and addressing climate change,” the report says. 'Public support is strong. Political will is aligned … as never before' among state, regional and federal officials, according to the report. 'I thought what came out of these working groups was pretty impressive,' said Cindy Schwartz, executive director of the League of Conservation Voters, who served on the work group."
TBN warns that this "work group" is the herald of a state-level Leviathan all dressed up in green.

March 2, 2007. Tax credit aimed at private school scholarships; Teachers union calls bill ‘backdoor approach’ to vouchers, reports Sean R. Sedam in the Gazette. ‘‘This is a thinly veiled voucher program designed to offer tax credits to large businesses who subsidize student tuition at private and religious schools,'Amy Maloney, a union lobbyist, said on the union’s Web site. 'This tax credit will rob public school students of funding they deserve and need.'”

March 2, 2007. Markets' Problem Is Politics, writes Diana Furchtgott-Roth in the New York Sun. "Entrepreneurial activity in our economy may be the mainspring of economic growth and gains in employment. These entrepreneurs also need help. A report released this week by the Kauffman Foundation, based in Kansas City, found that entrepreneurs are impeded by four major obstacles — regulatory red tape, high costs of health care, burdensome litigation, and lack of skilled labor."

March 2, 2007. 'Mikes' battle over deficit, writes Tom LoBianco in the Washington Times. "Mr. Miller has said one year is too long and made that obvious Wednesday when introducing his proposal to bring 15,500 slot machines to Maryland and increase the state's gasoline tax by 12 cents, to 35.5 cents a gallon."

March 1, 2007. Living wage hearing packed reports Sean R. Sedam in the Gazette. ‘Eleven-ninety-five an hour for any business owner is not a low benchmark,” said Ellen Valentino, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business. ‘‘What I heard, even from the secretary of labor ... is I don’t think we know what are the $100,000 contracts. Who holds them? Where are the geographic areas? And what are the wages being paid in those areas?”

March 1, 2007. Maryland's Roscoe Bartlett urges keeping workplace ballots secret . . . "My friends on the other side of the aisle can't be serious when they want to pursue taking away from the rank and file worker the use of the secret ballot as the main vehicle for making the decision to unionize or remain an open shop. There may be problems with the process; but voting by secret ballot, I can assure you, is not one of them."