O'Malley to Constellation Energy - Good Riddance!

You know Constellation Energy CEO Mayo Shattuck is looking out of the window in his office thinking, "Thank God I don't have to sit around letting Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley piss on me in front of the voters every few years anymore!"

Last week Constellation Energy announced plans to be acquired by Chicago-based Exelon Corporation. The move strips Baltimore -area of its last Fortune 500 corporation. There remain only a few money managers such as Legg Mason, which on its current track will be gone in a year or less, T. Rowe Price, and.....I can't think of anyone else. All of the other major employers in the city are smaller divisions of companies based in other states.

Martin O'Malley has always shown his cards when it comes to for-profit corporations. He hates them. He hates that they charge money for the services they provide. He hates that they have to raise their prices to cover expenses. And especially with Constellation Energy, the parent company of the soon-to-be-gone BGE, he really loved to takes dumps on them.

And as much as most rational-thinking Marylanders hate O'Malley, you have to give him credit as a skilled politician. You'll remember a few years ago BGE's decision to raise rates 72% to national average levels at the expiration of an ill-conceived bargain struck by Democrats in the Maryland General Assembly allowed O'Malley to criticize Bob Ehrlich for not fighting an ultimately kicking him out of office. You may remember the commercials that O'Malley ran vowing that he'd fight against the evil money-hungry corporations.

And now that the money-hungry corporations are gone, O'Malley must be so happy that he's peeing in his pull-ups. "We showed them!" I can hear him saying. Unfortunately, I think all of this is lost on him. What corporations can call Baltimore home? What glamor does the city have when it doesn't show up on any lists as the headquarters? Where is the concern when the top-paying jobs depart for the new headquarters in other cities and leave only entry-level, supervisory, and regional manager positions? Where are the major hometown corporate sponsors for special events in the city? From the offices in Annapolis we only hear silence or misguided happiness.

In the next session in the General Assembly, do you think we'll hear politicians discussing the demands of Marylanders to make Maryland a more business-friendly state? I seriously doubt it. Our elected officials will be more concerned with issues like raising taxes to fund the out-of-control spending and in the eyes of the Montgomery County delegation, the biggest issue confronting our society - gay marriage.

BGE - it was nice knowing you.

Gas Man!

My wife and I were emailing each other about what we think the BGE bill will be this month. I guess around $400. It's been pretty darn cold for Maryland lately. It was 8° this morning. I can't remember when it's been that cold.

Anyway, my wife soon responded that the meter-reader lady actually just stopped by to read our meter. What a coincidence. This made me recall a memory from my childhood I grew up in Rosedale, which was basically an extension of Baltimore City - the only difference was which politician was misrepresenting you. Anyway, we lived in a rowhouse. The yard was probably 15 feet wide and 60 feet long. And we all had chain-link fences.

During the summer when we were home from school and the windows were open, we'd always here the guy from BGE walking through the neighborhood. The meters were on the back of the houses, so he would basically traverse the alley. But as he hopped each fence (rather than walking around) he would yell, "Gas-man!!!"

Does anybody else remember that?

A Week of Potpourri

This post has nothing to do with potpourri, but do you remember watching the Joker's Wild as a kid (I'm dating myself) and as the cards spun and stopped you would hear Jack Berry say, "Joker. Joker! Potpourri." Never failed. And that category could be anything. Hence, this post.

Weight Loss
I am in a Biggest Loser Club at work and it has nothing to do with my personality. It does, however, have to do with losing weight. Just after I had my hernia surgery I weighed 180. When I began this competition I was 176. Today I'm right around 166. Losing weight is great. Except for the fact that I can now take off my pants without unbuttoning them.

Michael Jackson
Along with Martin O'Malley, I have lost my heart. And it's not at Wounded Knee. I must not have a heart because I'm not mourning the loss of Michael Jackson. Sure, he had some cool songs off of the Thriller album, the first album I ever got when I was a kid. But it's not like I just lost my mother. He was a mentally unbalanced pedophilic nut case devoid of any grip on reality.

And I group Martin O'Malley with the heartless because I was watching Larry King last night and I think Martin O'Malley is the only person who didn't call in to offer respects. However, Randy Jackson called and said that 'dogg, MJ was an icon.' Al Sharpton, the Jew-hating pretend preacher ("If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house"[43] and referring to Jews as "diamond merchants."), called and said that Michael Jackson was the first great black in pop music. I guess Sharpton hates Donna Summers, Chuck Berry, and James Brown.

ABC Loves Obama
This week ABC gave Obama an open platform to promote his plan to socialize medicine. Obama denies that his plan it to socialize medicine. Instead of socialized medicine, he wants the government to be in charge of the healthcare system.

Republicans requested time with ABC to offer alternative viewpoints and to allow fair criticism of Obama's non-socialized medicine plan. They were denied. Obama was then showered with flowers and offered many soft pillows for his Town Hall talk. To help reinforce his plan, Obama avoided tough questions and offered long-winded popular rhetoric instead.

Additionally, Obama claims that it is not his intention to actively destroy the private healthcare system. Instead, the government will begin to offer healthcare and the private companies will go out of business on their own because they won't be able to compete. Unbeknownst to the people that will take the government's offer to use their healthcare system, they will be stuck in a bureaucratic mess when they need healthcare and will probably die before they get services.

In addition to the lowered level of healthcare, tax payers will be on the hook for an estimated $2 TRILLION to get this plan started. With an estimated 46 million working families in this country, this will cost the average family $44,000. If you estimate that 35% of them will not be subject to the costs because they are below middle income, then the working families will owe Obama $67,000 each for his nationalized healthcare plan.

The Cheating Politician
I know you're going to have a difficult time believing this, but another politician cheated on his wife. This time it was South Carolina Republican Governor Mark Sanford. Once considered a front-runner for the Presidential nomination for 2012, there are now cries for his resignation.

I'm wondering how this is any different than when Bill Clinton cheated on Hillary (many times). It is well-documented that Clinton was busy sticking his Cuban cigar in Monica's vagina in the Oval Office during a conference call with the Senate. At least Sanford was having an affair with someone his own age.

A liberal college friend commented that Sanford did this on tax payer money, that's why it's different. I don't buy this argument. If Clinton was in the Oval Office, which is where he works, and he was on a conference call with the Senate, then he was working, and while he is working he is getting paid by taxpayers. Sure, he might not have flown to Argentina, but the President should be held to a higher morale standard, though Clinton never claimed to have any morals unlike the Republicans.

My opinion is that you need to argue consistently. If the liberals think that Clinton can have an affair and his personal life is none of our business, then Sanford's affair is none of our business, either. I, however, think Clinton should have been thrown out of office, and thus so should Sanford.

On a funny note, another friend commented that he just got back from walking the entire Appalachian Trail all the way to Argentina.

Maryland Hates Businesses
This is already well documented. However, this week Democrats Jamie Raskin of Montgomery County and James Brochin of Baltimore County filed a complaint with Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler about the compensation received by BGE CEO Mayo Shattuck. The last time I checked BGE, part of Constellation Energy, is a private company governed by a board of directors and shareholders and their compensation system is not regulated by the government.

However, this is another push by the O'Malley Administration and his minions in the General Assembly to argue that the government should be allowed to regulate and restrict the compensation of employees of private companies. Oh, it will eventually happen.

Why there are any remaining private companies in Maryland, let alone Constellation, is beyond my level of comprehension. The State of Maryland has been harassing Constellation for years with threats, political statements, and lawsuits with the obvious objective of eventually running the company at a state-level. My advice to Constellation - get out now!!! Move to Delaware!!!