Friday, April 9, 2010
New List of Most and Least Effective Legislators in Maryland
You would expect that the list would be overwhelmingly in favor of Democrats being the most effective since they occupy an overwhelming majority of the seats in the legislature. And you would be right. When you have the most votes you get your way more often than not.
You would expect that the list would be overwhelmingly against Republicans since they are in the minority by an overwhelming disparity in the General Assembly. And you would be right. If you can't get the Democrats to agree to common sense legislation, then you'll never get anything passed and thus not be effective.
Kumar Barve proved that people with alcohol problems can still be considered influential leaders. He was selected as the 5th most influential delegate in spite of using his influence to get out of a DWI charge. Or maybe because of his influence.
Saqib Ali has a lot of friends. And a lot of haters. Not only did he make the list as the 17th most effective delegates, he is also the 3rd least influential delegate. Perhaps if he added some more pundits and political observers as friends on Facebook he would get a better ranking next year. Seriously - the guy is pretty darn funny. Don't always agree with him (he has a man-crush on Harry Reid), but he IS funny.
Curt Anderson went around and took pictures of everyone in the General Assembly and added their image to Wikipedia. He did this for both Democrats and Republicans - an admirable motion. And for this he was rewarded as the 12th most effective delegate. Is this one of those false positive correlations?
Mike Busch and Mike Miller were awarded for bullying everyone in the General Assembly and received number 1 slots on both lists of Most Influentials. I suspect Miller is influential by telling everyone that he'll retire if they pass such-and-such bill, only to recant later.
Despite Ulysses Currie's brushes with the law, marijuana, and raids of his home by the FBI, he was selected as the 4th most influential state senator. It pays to be a corrupt pot smoker!
Some Democrats, despite having the special wand to do practically anything they want, were selected as un-influential. You must really suck as a Democrat if you fall into this list in Maryland. The list includes James Brochin of Towson (has made this list before), Nathaniel Exum of PG County, Michael Lenett of Montgomery County, Frank Conaway, Jr. of Baltimore, Ana Sol Gutierrez (again, and who wants in-state tuition for illegal immigrants), Emmett "Illegal Campaign Contributions" Burns, Jr. of Baltimore County (again), Jill Carter of Baltimore, Charles Barkley (not that basketball player) of Montgomery County, Herman Taylor, Jr. of Washington County (who also wants in-state tuition for illegal immigrants), and finally Barbara Robinson of Baltimore.
Republicans on the Most Influential side of the list are Tony O'Donnell of Baltimore County and Christopher Shank of Washington County. I was a bit surprised not to see Allan Kittleman on the list, but then again he's the leader of the Republican Party in the State Senate, so naturally no one is going to like him.
So that's my take. Let me know what you think of this list.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Vote for the Most & Least Effective in Maryland General Assembly
Click on this link to vote for yourself:
Gazette Poll.
Who do you think is the least and most effective? For the record, I voted for both Republicans and Democrats. Which Democrats would I vote for? My friend Saqib Ali, for one. He seems like an honest guy. And I'll take an honest hard-working Democrat over a questionable fringe Republican.
Friday, February 5, 2010
Maryland Politicians? Ha!
State-level
Martin O’Malley
Peter Franchot
Anthony G. Brown
John P. McDonough
Nancy K. Kopp
Thomas Perez
State Senators
Nancy Jacobs
Alex Mooney Washington, D.C.
Andy Harris Brooklyn,
Delores Kelley
Bobby Zirkin
Rona Kramer
Robert J. Garagiola
Brian Frosch Washington, D.C.
Jennie M. Forehand
Michael G. Lenett
Jamie Raskin Washington, D.C.
James Rosapepe
Paul Pinsky
Nathaniel Exum
Ulysses Currie
John Astle Charles Town,
Edward Reilly
Nancy King Niagra Falls,
Catherine Pugh Norristown,
Kumar Barve
Talmadge Branch
Tony O’Donnell
John Donoghue
Charles Jenkins
Tanya Shewell
Gail H. Bates Washington, DC
Emmett C. Burns, Jr.
Shirley Nathan-Pulliam Trelawny,
Dan K. Morhaim
Shane Pendergrass
Frank S. Turner
Anne R. Kaiser
Craig L. Rice
Kathleen M. Dumais La Jolla,
Brian J. Feldman
William A. Bronrott Washington, DC
Susan Lee
James W. Gilchrist Washington, DC
Luiz R. S. Simmons
Ana Sol Gutierrez
Alfred C. Carr, Jr.
Hank Heller Washington, DC
Roger Manno
Sheila E. Hixson L’Anse,
Heather R. Mizeur Blue Mound,
Barbara A. Frush Washington, DC
Benjamin S. Barnes
Joseline Peña-Melnyk
Tawanna P. Gaines Washington, DC
Anne Marie Healey
Gerron S. Levi
James W. Hubbard Washington, DC
Marvin E. Holmes, Jr.
Joanne Claybon Benson
Carolyn J. B. Howard
Michael L. Vaughn Tuskeegee,
Aisha N. Braveboy Washington, DC
Dereck
Melony Ghee
Melony Ghee
Jay Walker
Veronica L. Turner Washington, DC
James E. Proctor, Jr. Washington, DC
Joseph F. Vallario, Jr. Washington, DC
Sue Kullen
Peter Murphy Washington, DC
Ron George
Mary Ann Love West Pittson,
B. Daniel Riley
David Rudolph
Susan K. McComas
Richard A. Sossi
Douglas Page Elmore Nassawadox, Virginia
Charles E. Barkley Elkins,
Kirill Reznik
Saqib Ali
Barbara A. Robinson
Shawn Z. Tarrant
Stephen W. Lafferty Washington, DC
Curt Anderson
Ann Marie Doory
Margaret L. McIntosh Quinter,
Keith E. Haynes
Talmadge Branch
Hattie N. Harrison
Jolene Ivey Washington, DC
Doyle L. Niemann
Victor R. Ramirez
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Filling Senate Vacancies
Saqib Ali, if you don't know, once commented on my blog about me listing him as one of the 10 Democrats in the state that needs to be kicked out of office. I do not have any disdain for Delegate Ali, I just do not agree with his politics. Nor do I condone his violation of Wikipedia policy of updating articles about yourself, which he has done regularly. It is a well-written biography and advertisement, but that's not why I'm talking today.
Delegate Ali recently wrote House Bill #369: Special Elections for US Senate Vacancies Act. As the law currently reads, when a Senator leaves office either to appointment to a another office or by some other situation, the Governor of the state appoints his or her replacement until the next election cycle. Clearly, the Governor is going to appoint someone that he or she wants in office and politics being politics, you know there is some kind of kick-back, back-door shenanigans going on. We already saw this in Illinois when Governor Rod Blagojevich offered Obama's Senate seat to the highest bidder. The seat was eventually given to totally incompetent former Illinois State's Attorney General Roland Burris.
Delegate Ali's new law would mandate a special election called by the Governor of Maryland should a U.S. Senator from Maryland vacate his or her seat. I totally agree with this part of the bill. I do not agree with interim appointments as they, the appointee, usually end up getting elected in the next election cycle anyway without having to properly go through normal election channels to gain recognition, raise election capital, and gain the acceptance and trust of the people. Instead, the Governor picks the candidate of his or her liking, someone who will agree with him and push his agenda on a national level, then the candidate gains favor with the Congress and can easily attract funds for reelection. The intention of this bill is right-on. Congratulations, Delegate Ali, for submitting this part of the bill.
Unfortunately, Delegate Ali also included a provision that would not allow the bill to go into effect until January 2015, many years (hopefully) after we kick O'Malley out of office. The reason Delegate Ali gives for the inclusion of this provision is "so as not to seem to impugn the the integrity of our current Governor."
As if the Governor had any integrity. This totally leaves O'Malley a blank check to appoint a new Senator of his liking should Ben Cardin or Babs Mikulski suddenly decide to leave office mid-election cycle (if we could only be so lucky). Why is the thought of impugning the integrity of Governor being placed above the will of the people? The real intention of this provision is to protect the rapport of the Democratic legislators and their Governor when they vote to approve this bill. Imagine the pissing match O'Malley would have with the Democrats in the General Assembly that voted for this bill without the provision. I think it would make for great headlines!
What is more important? The reputation and rapport of the current gang of motley politicians, or the allowing the people of Maryland to choose which Senator will represent them in the United States Senate?
Unfortunately for Maryland, Delegate Ali is making that decision for us.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Who's Reading Vote NoMalley?
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!
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Maryland Busy Wasting More Money
Frank Conaway (D) House, Northwest Baltimore City - (HB 1009) Designate the shillelagh (a wooden club associated with Irish folklore) as "The State Walking Stick of Statesmen and Gentlemen." This law is definitely needed because we don't have an official state walking stick. Consider these other "official" state symbols and the importance of each:
Cat Calico
Dinosaur Astrodon johnstoni
Drink Milk
Exercise Walking
Folk Dance Square Dance
Gem Patuxent River Stone
Insect Baltimore Checkerspot Butterfly
Frank Conaway receives this week's Bonehead Award for wasting tax-payer money.
Saqib Ali (D) Montgomery County - (HB115) Proclaim April 13 as "Punjabi Cultural Awareness Day." Punjab is a region in northwestern India and eastern Pakistan.
What is the purpose of this bill? Self-promotion? If you haven't guessed, Ali, the liberal extremist who voted in favor of providing in-state tuition to illegal immigrants, is Islamic with ancestral roots to India and Pakistan. Ali receives the Assistant Bonehead of the Week Award.
HB131 - Proclaim March 31 as Cesar Chavez Day. Chavez was a union organizer for migrant farm workers. This is to honor the work that he did in Arizona and California. Wha??? It's fine to teach about his impact on history, but to declare an official day for him? And to waste tax-payers dollars to write a bill and debate it? What a horrible waste of money. Who are the boneheads that jumped on board this one? Unfortunately there are a bunch. Unfortunately, the boat with them on it didn't tip over.
The guilty are: Jeff Walderstreicher (D) Montgomery County, Victor Ramirez (D) Prince George's County, Tom Hucker (D) Montgomery County, Joseline Peña-Melnyk (D) Prince George's & Anne Arundel County, Ben Barnes (D) Anne Arundel & Prince George's County, Joanne C. Benson (D) Prince George's County, Aisha N. Braveboy (D) Prince George's County, Emmett C. Burns, Jr. (D) Baltimore County, Alfred C. Carr, Jr. (D) Montgomery County, Kathleen M. Dumais (D) Montgomery County, James Gilchrest (D) Montgomery County, Ana Sol Gutierrez (D) Mongtomery County, Guy Guzzone (D) Howard County, Jolene Ivey (D) Montgomery County, Susan C. Lee (D) Montgomery County, Roger Manno (D) Montgomery County, Heather Mizeur (D) Prince George's County, Karen S. Montgomery (D) Montgomery County, Nathaniel T. Oaks (D) Baltimore City, Justin Ross (D) Prince George's County, Todd Schuler (D) Baltimore County, Luiz R. S. Simmons (D) Montgomery County, Shawn Z. Tarrant (D) Baltimore City, Herman L. Taylor, Jr. (D) Montgomery County, Veronica L. Turner (D) Prince George's County, Kris Valderrama (D) Prince George's County, and Jewell Jay Walker (D) Prince George's County.
Do you see anything that these people have in common? Yes, they are all Democrats. And most of them are from Montgomery and Prince George's Counties. Areas rich in farmland that would have benefited by the work of César Chávez (not really). Waste-waste-waste!
On a funny note, Maryland Republican Pat McDonough commented that the Democrats are so in toe with whatever the governor wants that if O'Malley wanted to close all of the public schools in Maryland, the Democrats in the General Assembly probably would approve it. Nice one, Pat!