The Maryland Public Service Commission is notorious for its fundamental inability to effectively regulate the energy business in Maryland.  And O'Guvnah O'Malley's inability to move beyond Progressive/Fascist mandates -- like compulsory subsidies for the sales of compact fluorescent bulbs -- is legion.

Government is lousy at picking winners and losers.  And the insistence that we all throw our incandescent bulbs in favor of mercury-laden CFLs is just another perfect example.  Why?  Because private industry is working hard to create another alternative:  LED-based light bulbs.

Baltimore Sun reporter Kevin Rector has a touchy-feely article in the July 18th edition of the Calvert Street Communist Party Newsletter detailing how grief and remorse settled over a Baltimore County Courtroom in the case of Matthew David Miller, who pled guilty to one measly count of manslaughter in the hit-and-run murder of Kevin M. Ryan in October of 2007.

After watching the Pickens plan a few times, and reading this excellent post by Mark Newgent over at Red Maryland, and giving it some serious thought, I am pretty much coming out against the chattering class' clamor for alternative energy sources.

Why?

I've decided to start a new political party.  I don't have a name yet, and "The Leave Me the Hell Alone Party" doesn't cut it.  So for right now, we'll call it the "Grizzly Adams Party", after that fine 1970s show about a mountain man who lives alone with gentle grizzly bear, and is visited occassionaly by Denver Pyle.

The basic principle of the Grizzly Adams Party can be boiled down to this:  government should leave me the hell alone, and stick to the things it does best (note: I did not say well, because I do not believe it does anything well).

On Friday, Brian Griffiths decided I need a trip to the woodshed vis-a-vis my ideas on Campaign Finance Reform.  He decided that I struck out like the Mighty Casey.

I despise public corruption.  And while I am not a big fan of the death penalty, I do think that public officials -- elected and otherwise -- should be tarred, feathered, and run out of town on rail when found guilty of public malfeasance.

And by enema, I mean a CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. Every 20 years, the Legislature is required to poll the citizens of Maryland through a referendum vote whether they want a constitutional convention.  The next opportunity for such a vote is 2010, and I think we need to start working long and hard to make sure that every citizen of the State of Maryland votes YES! to such a convention.

An article in today's Calvert Street Communist Party Newsletter sheds some serious light on the trend toward the "straight vegetable oil" fuel options.  It turns out that using vegetable oil in your diesel engine is illegal on both the State and Federal levels.

As Brian Griffiths has already noted over at Red Maryland, O'Guvnah has pledged to spend $1.1 billion of your hard-earned money on new biotechnology research initiatives in order to make the state of Maryland a "hub" for this kind of work.

But what Brian doesn't get into, is why are we spending even more money when we already have a large and established set of incubators at Maryland's premier research institution -- the University of Maryland, Baltimore?

The Red Line is a walking, talking "charlie fox".  The long hoped-for, long-awaited, long-dreamed-for transportation line to link the west side and easte side of the cities is too expensive, according to this article in the Calvert Street Communist Party Newsletter.