Well, Page Elmore got his way, and the Smith Island Cake is now the official dessert of Maryland.  Woo Hoo. I only hope you can make it with Splenda.

Of course, what went unsaid is that in their zeal to increase spending, Maryland's General Politburo also created an Official Meal.  I am, of course, speaking of the Maryland Shit Sandwich.  It's only available to taxpayers, though. 

I'll leave it to the folks at Red Maryland and Michael over at Monoblogue to go into detail summarzing the twists and turns of the recently concluded General Politburo.

I only wish to offer this general observation:  never before have I seen a gathering of government nicompoops so driven to take credit for fixing problems caused by their own venal stupidity and shameful incompetence.  The Maryland General Assembly -- from Michael Busch to Page Elmore and everyone in between -- has proven the Peter Principle in grand fashion.

It is as if you come home to find your son or daughter cleaning up the glass from a broken window, and saying "Look Dad!  I am cleaning up this mess for you!"  Of course, you later find out they threw a ball through the window, creating the mess in the first place.

Well, at least when it comes to nuclear power.  France generates 80% of their electricity through nuclear power.  We generate less than 20%.  Yet, we have the most nuclearized Navy in the world. The USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), the latest Nimitz-class Supercarrier to join the fleet, boasts 2 Westinghouse nuclear reactors.  That is the same number currently in service at Calvert Cliffs.

According to the Washington Post, Maryland's Illegal Immigrant community is suddenly feeling the heat and is claiming Maryland is becoming "less friendly".

Victory does come in the small steps and not the large leaps.

The Maryland Senate, who takes no pain in soddomizing the citizenry of Maryland on a daily basis, continues to throw us all under the bus when it comes to energy policy.  Today, they gave us the glorious right of being informed when utilitiy companies up and decide to add a surcharge to our bills to pay for "energy efficiency programs".

I have a question:  whatever happened to contract law in this state?  With an entire chamber all but filled with whoring, ambulance chasing attorneys, you would think that tort and contract law would be something they might be concerned about.

Apparently, no.  Because the Maryland Senate is not smarter than a 5th grader.  Or a five year old.

There are facists in our midst.  Politicians who impose a police state here in Maryland.  It's clear to me that civil rights no longer matter to the General Politburo in Soddom on the Severn.

The roll call for the Senate vote on the Maryland DNA bill is in, and I have broken them into "Sons of Liberty" and "Ratfrakking Facists".

Tonight, I received this information email from Wade Kach, R-5B (full disclosure: he was also my 7th grade math teacher at Loch Raven Middle School):

For nearly a decade, lawmakers in Annapolis have tried in vain to pass legislation banning motorists from using cell phones while driving. Far ranging in scope, the current proposal bans use of hand-held devices, including text-messaging.

This year’s version of the proposal (SB 2) passed the State Senate by a 26 to 21 vote.  The bill is now before the House Environmental Matters Committee.    

HB 2 prohibits the driver of a school vehicle that is carrying passengers and is in motion from using a wireless communication device. This prohibition also applies to the holder of a learner’s instructional permit or provisional driver’s license who is age 18 or older.

In addition, the bill prohibits any other driver of a motor vehicle that is in motion from using the driver’s hands to use a wireless communication device other than to initiate or terminate a wireless telephone call or to turn the wireless communication device on or off.

This prohibition does not apply to the use of a wireless communication device to call a 9-1-1 system for purposes related to a contemporaneous emergency.

A police officer may enforce the bill’s provisions only as a secondary action when detaining a driver for another suspected violation. For a first offense, the violator is subject to a fine of up to $50. For a first offense, points may not be assessed against the driver unless the offense contributes to an accident. The court is authorized to waive the fine for a first-time conviction if the person proves that he or she has a hands-free accessory, attachment, add-on, or built-in feature for the wireless communication device.  For a second or subsequent offense, the maximum fine is $100.

The AAA Foundation lists talking on a cell phone as one of several driving distractions, including fellow passengers and adjusting a radio or other listening device.  The Foundation notes that drivers talking on a hands-free phone still tend to be distracted by the conversation, while the act of dialing and receiving calls requires drivers to remove at least one hand from the wheel of the car.
 
According to the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety, driver distraction accounts for 30% of all accidents.  Studies conducted in 2006 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute concluded that the most common distraction for drivers is cell phone use.  Likewise, a 2005 study published in the British Medical Journal found that drivers on cell phones are four times more likely to be involved in a crash.
 
State law already prohibits teen drivers from using cell phones.  The state’s negligent driving law prohibits many other activities that constitute driver distraction. Bans on drivers using hand-held phones have been enacted in California, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington and the District of Columbia.

I welcome your views on this or any other issue of concern to you.

My irreverant reply follows:

Who would have thought that I would ever find common ground with the NAACP?

There is an outstanding editorial in today's Salisbury Daily Times by state and local NAACP leaders who are leading the charge against warrantless DNA searches, an item of great interest before ever-more facistic General Assembly.  While I don't agree with all the reasoning in the editorial, we have a common goal:  to derail the police-state facist tendencies of our state government to make every Marylander the police become involved with a "suspect" in any crime.

Crossposted at Red Maryland

On Red Maryland, my fellow contributor Brian Griffiths points out an article on Hometown Annapolis that Kevin Clarke's attorneys plan to depose O'Guvnah as Clarke's lawsuit against the City of Baltimore moves forward.

Depositions are very interesting, because in most cases -- as Brian points out -- nothing is out of bounds.

Which leads to the possibility that we may finally be able to prove what intelligent people have known all along:  the Ehrlich campaign in general, and Joe Steffen in particular, were not responsible for starting the rumors about O'Guvnah being a tomcat.  In fact, the rumors started in O'Guvnah's own pool of sycophant supporters.

This is only the beginning.

i think its fairly obvious by now that if you took every politician in American, put them all in a gymnasium, and put all the politicians who NEVER broke their marriage vows, or screwed around with young boys, or paid for prostitutes, or whatever on one side of the room, and everyone else on the other side of the room-- it would pretty lonely on that first side of the room.

Which just goes to prove several things:

1)  Prostitution is the oldest job in the word:  you either whore yourself out to voters and contributors, or you are buying the whores.

2)  Politicians, like professional athletes and other celebrities, rarely if ever should be considered "role models".

3)  The old phrase "politics makes strange bedfellows" has many meanings.