I'm interrupting this string of blog posts about my vacation to comment on a post by Maryland House of Delegates member Saqib Ali on his blog.
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.
Showing posts with label election. Show all posts
Showing posts with label election. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Voter Hatred
People always say how hateful the Republican right is. They hate poor people. They hate minorities. They hate people in general. Whatever.
Today I have been reading comments left on articles about the election. If the Left thinks that the hatred is only on the right, they need to look in the mirror. Here are some of the comments I have found:
I can't wait until all the asshole Republicans are out of office.
Can't wait until Obama wins the White House. Were going to paint it black!
Do not be intimidated. Reports of GOP thugs posted outside of polling places have been intentionally overblown by the press to keep black voters at home.
There is enough of a sweep to ensure that Bush and Cheney will face a military tribunal for their war crimes.
All evidence points to a nationwide effort of Election Fraud, Voter Suppression and Voter Intimidation conducted by the National, state and local GOP offices.
Sarah Palin believes in witches
here's hoping for an Obama landslide and we won't have to re-invent the phrase "Somewhere in Texas a Village is Missing it's Idiot" to "Somewhere in Alaska a Village is Missing it's Idiot"!!
I can't wait to see if you losers will show your faces out here tomorrow morning while I dish up your just desserts.
Come on, GOP! Stop preventing Americans from voting!
Today I have been reading comments left on articles about the election. If the Left thinks that the hatred is only on the right, they need to look in the mirror. Here are some of the comments I have found:
I can't wait until all the asshole Republicans are out of office.
Can't wait until Obama wins the White House. Were going to paint it black!
Do not be intimidated. Reports of GOP thugs posted outside of polling places have been intentionally overblown by the press to keep black voters at home.
There is enough of a sweep to ensure that Bush and Cheney will face a military tribunal for their war crimes.
All evidence points to a nationwide effort of Election Fraud, Voter Suppression and Voter Intimidation conducted by the National, state and local GOP offices.
Sarah Palin believes in witches
here's hoping for an Obama landslide and we won't have to re-invent the phrase "Somewhere in Texas a Village is Missing it's Idiot" to "Somewhere in Alaska a Village is Missing it's Idiot"!!
I can't wait to see if you losers will show your faces out here tomorrow morning while I dish up your just desserts.
Come on, GOP! Stop preventing Americans from voting!
Monday, October 27, 2008
Stop the Slots Referendum
I've posted about this before, but now that we are almost to the election, I need to say this again.
Martin O'Malley, who opposed slots under Ehrlich, but favors him now that he is the governor, is pushing for the slots referendum. I am not against having slots in Maryland. However, I have been to Atlantic City and if this is what slots brings, no thank you. Leave that trash in New Jersey. Sounds like a contradiction, but I think I may have fallen into the old, "well if it's done correctly, then it may work" philosophy.
Rather than voting on the slots issue themselves and looking like total hypocrites, the Maryland Democrats voted to have a referendum. Referendums are questions that are put on the ballot for the voters to decide when politicians don't want to get in trouble for attaching their name to a law. Imagine if someone like Maryland Delegate Kumar Barve, who was arrested for drunk driving, but managed to have it expunged from his record (meaning it didn't really happen), voted in favor of slots and his constituents didn't like it. They would vote him out of office.
The problem with this referendum is that it puts the slots bill in the MARYLAND CONSTITUTION! This isn't like passing a law that says that the speed limit can't be above 65 mph. This is like the Big Time Law. It's nearly irrevocable. If voters pass this referendum, and it turns out to be horrible, then will have to convince their unresponsive politicians to put it back on referendum to have it removed from the Constitution.
In the newsletter that I subscribe to from State Comptroller Peter Franchot, he says:
This slots referendum doesn't just legalize slots - it writes gambling into our state Constitution. And, it is very specific. Not only are we enshrining slot machine gambling into the Constitution with Question 2 - we're going to make it nearly impossible to change the law. Once it's in our Constitution - we have to pass another Constitutional amendment to protect Maryland families.
This law does not belong in our Constitution. It needs to be passed by our legislatures in the General Assembly. There is a difference.
Additionally, O'Malley is airing misleading advertisements about what the slots will do. He says that it will generate $600 million for schools. I read that this may be over-inflated by as much as 150%. That's a HUGE over-inflation.
Additionally, as Blair Lee has pointed out, the slots referendum says that much of the money will go to schools. However, there is no "back-door" provision in the law. This means that O'Malley can divert the current funding sources to education and use that for something else, like mirrors in his office to see his pretty smile. Therefore, the slots will not mean additional funding for education, it would be THE funding source for education.
And everyone's assuming that this will bring in a lot of money. If Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and West Virginia already have slots, are we really bringing that much more money into the state? How much gambling money is there to spend? No one should expect new gambling money to be pumped into the system. We're just going to spread existing gambling money around.
Furthermore, if the slots referendum passes, this money will start pouring in immediately, right? Or do you suppose the state will have to order the machines, sign contracts with gambling companies, and build facilities first? Does this mean that the slots could be several years away from fruition? But O'Malley said that in these tough economic times, slots are needed now. perhaps they have already been brokering dark alley deals and everything's is ready to go. Wouldn't that be nice? Politicians doing things behind our backs. That's never happened before.
Anyone who's over 25 knows that tough economic times usually do not last several years. O'Malley is just looking for a phantom boost to our economy. he's pretending that he's "making the tough decisions to invest in our future." He's so full of crap. He's making scape-goat decisions to help lengthen his political career. Martin O'Malley is so vain that he probably thinks Carly Simon's song is about him. Hey, Martin O'Malley, have you been to Nova Scotia lately?
If Marylanders were smarter than we are, we'd reject the slots referendum and start working on removing this bone-head from office. We want a governor that's interested in Maryland, not a governor that's interested in Martin O'Malley.
Martin O'Malley, who opposed slots under Ehrlich, but favors him now that he is the governor, is pushing for the slots referendum. I am not against having slots in Maryland. However, I have been to Atlantic City and if this is what slots brings, no thank you. Leave that trash in New Jersey. Sounds like a contradiction, but I think I may have fallen into the old, "well if it's done correctly, then it may work" philosophy.
Rather than voting on the slots issue themselves and looking like total hypocrites, the Maryland Democrats voted to have a referendum. Referendums are questions that are put on the ballot for the voters to decide when politicians don't want to get in trouble for attaching their name to a law. Imagine if someone like Maryland Delegate Kumar Barve, who was arrested for drunk driving, but managed to have it expunged from his record (meaning it didn't really happen), voted in favor of slots and his constituents didn't like it. They would vote him out of office.
The problem with this referendum is that it puts the slots bill in the MARYLAND CONSTITUTION! This isn't like passing a law that says that the speed limit can't be above 65 mph. This is like the Big Time Law. It's nearly irrevocable. If voters pass this referendum, and it turns out to be horrible, then will have to convince their unresponsive politicians to put it back on referendum to have it removed from the Constitution.
In the newsletter that I subscribe to from State Comptroller Peter Franchot, he says:
This slots referendum doesn't just legalize slots - it writes gambling into our state Constitution. And, it is very specific. Not only are we enshrining slot machine gambling into the Constitution with Question 2 - we're going to make it nearly impossible to change the law. Once it's in our Constitution - we have to pass another Constitutional amendment to protect Maryland families.
This law does not belong in our Constitution. It needs to be passed by our legislatures in the General Assembly. There is a difference.
Additionally, O'Malley is airing misleading advertisements about what the slots will do. He says that it will generate $600 million for schools. I read that this may be over-inflated by as much as 150%. That's a HUGE over-inflation.
Additionally, as Blair Lee has pointed out, the slots referendum says that much of the money will go to schools. However, there is no "back-door" provision in the law. This means that O'Malley can divert the current funding sources to education and use that for something else, like mirrors in his office to see his pretty smile. Therefore, the slots will not mean additional funding for education, it would be THE funding source for education.
And everyone's assuming that this will bring in a lot of money. If Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and West Virginia already have slots, are we really bringing that much more money into the state? How much gambling money is there to spend? No one should expect new gambling money to be pumped into the system. We're just going to spread existing gambling money around.
Furthermore, if the slots referendum passes, this money will start pouring in immediately, right? Or do you suppose the state will have to order the machines, sign contracts with gambling companies, and build facilities first? Does this mean that the slots could be several years away from fruition? But O'Malley said that in these tough economic times, slots are needed now. perhaps they have already been brokering dark alley deals and everything's is ready to go. Wouldn't that be nice? Politicians doing things behind our backs. That's never happened before.
Anyone who's over 25 knows that tough economic times usually do not last several years. O'Malley is just looking for a phantom boost to our economy. he's pretending that he's "making the tough decisions to invest in our future." He's so full of crap. He's making scape-goat decisions to help lengthen his political career. Martin O'Malley is so vain that he probably thinks Carly Simon's song is about him. Hey, Martin O'Malley, have you been to Nova Scotia lately?
If Marylanders were smarter than we are, we'd reject the slots referendum and start working on removing this bone-head from office. We want a governor that's interested in Maryland, not a governor that's interested in Martin O'Malley.
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