Who's Reading Vote NoMalley?

Apparently, Saqib Ali, that's who. Who's that? He's a member of the Maryland House of Delegates and represents liberal District 39 in Montgomery County.

Why would he be reading this blog? Well, I've tagged in a couple of times. And like a modern educated politician, which is the total antithesis of most of the delegates from Baltimore City, Ali probably Googled himself and found his name. Delegate Ali appears to be well-educated. He has a bachelor's and master's degree in computer science from the University of Maryland (yeah -Terps!). Sound like my kind of guy.

I'm fairly certain that he wrote his own bio on Wikipedia. I only write bios for Republicans and his is written like a political campaign pamphlet - not that there's anything wrong with that. I applaud him for being proactive and utilizing all of the means available to him to promote himself....unlike Republican Delegate LeRoy Myers who totally snubbed me. I bet he Twitters and wouldn't be surprised if he's on Facebook. Perhaps I'll try to add him as a friend when I get home.

So how do I know that Delegate Ali reads (or has read) my blog? Because he left this comment:

Saqib Ali said... Interesting Blog.Would love to explain to you sometime why my bills are not stupid. I'm *sure* I could convince you ;)

Thank you, Delegate Ali, for reading my blog. And I appreciate your comment, though I did find it interesting that you left the comment on the post about how hot Valerie Bertinelli is. :-)

I hope by "interesting" he means that this is the best f-in' blog he's ever read and he set it as his homepage when he opens his web browser in the morning. I mean, where else are you going to find top-notch political banter along with hot pictures of Reese Witherspoon and news on Van Halen? Only on VoteNoMalley!!!

So my message to Delegate Ali - I would love for you to explain to me why your bills are not stupid. And I don't think I called your bills "stupid". I did give you a Bonehead Award for wasting time and money in the General Assembly, but that was one of about 80 awards that were given.

[Correction] - I found that I did say "Stupid Bills" in my Top 10 List on the side bar. In fairness, I reworded this to be "unneeded". My apologies to Delegate Ali.

One particular item that I know I will NOT agree with Delegate Ali is his sponsorship of HB6 (2007). This bill was to allow for in-state tuition for illegal immigrants. Seriously? You wanted to use MY tax money to give in-state tuition to people who are illegally in this state??? How about you sponsor a bill to tax illegal immigrants and give me the money to help me steal cars? I mean, I gotta make a living doing something, right? I'm not getting rich by blogging.

Coincidentally, another bill is before the House of Delegates (HB 387 2009). On the surface, this bill looks like it makes sense. However, once you factor in all the amendments that the hard left-wing liberal extremists have added, you now have a bill that will allow for a 2-tiered drivers license system - one for illegal immigrants and one for Marylanders. I cannot seem to find how Delegate Ali voted, though I do not see his name as one of the sponsors of the bill, so based on his previous support of illegal immigrant activity, I'll assume that he supports drivers licenses for illegal immigrants until I see otherwise. Why will I assume that? Because this is my blog and I can do whatever I want.

Furthermore, WBAL Channel 11's question of the day was something to the effect of, "Do you support drivers licenses for illegal immigrants?" My answer (as always) is 'I support deportation of illegal immigrants, so they don't really need a drivers license now, do they???'

The illogical argument that illegal immigrants perform the jobs that Americans won't do does not hold water when unemployment is rising rapidly and our taxes are going up along with it. If I'm unemployed and have been for a while, you better believe I'll clean toilets or cut grass.

So, Delegate Ali - I'm listening!

Wikipedia Snub

One of my nerdy hobbies is/was to create the biographies of elected Republicans. I completed all of the current Republicans from Maryland (there aren't that many) and I did as many former Republicans as I could find.

Some of the delegates and state senators do not have a lot of information online. For some of these I have been contacting them directly. Most have been very helpful. To name a few - Delegate Susan Krebs, Delegate Jeannie Haddaway, Delegate Andrew Serafini. All responded promptly and provided the information I requested and were grateful for the work that I was doing.

My latest inquiry was to Delegate LeRoy Myers, District 1C in Allegany and Washington Counties. Now, I do not know him personally, and you certainly cannot (should not) read intent into the email. All I asked him was:

Delegate Myers,
I was going to update your wikipedia profile to include more information. The Maryland Archives indicates that you attended Hagerstown Community College. Did you graduate or just attend? And what high school did you graduate from? Is there any other information you would like to have included?
Sincerely
Eludius

Today I got his response:

Eludius,
Thank you for contacting me however I am not interesting in updating a Wikipedia Profile which I didn’t create. Thanks but no thank you.

Delegate LeRoy Myers

In Delegate Myers' defense, he is a hard-working politician. He is the one who submitted legislation trying to ban the use of fake bull balls that hang from the bumpers of many pick-up trucks in Western Maryland and in Dundalk. He tried very hard to prevent these people from looking like a bunch of clowns.

So I guess I'll move onto the next politician who's missing key information. Oh, well.