Maryland, My Maryland

Beege Wellborn at Hat Hair, MD gov: Book banning "castrates" kids, ignores bill he signed allowing literally just that

Oh, Democrats. If it weren’t for hypocrisy, evil, and mendacity, they’d have nothing.

The new governor of Maryland (as of January this year) is a phenomenally talented fellow named Wes Moore. He’s got what reads initially as a terrific background story, with a host of accomplishments since his mother packed his truculent teenage butt off to Valley Forge Military Academy to get it in line: Army officer with an Afghanistan tour, Rhodes scholar, investment banker, TV producer, film maker, author, you name it. No wonder they swooned over him.

He also seems to carry the same sort of “problematic” issues with paying taxes/utilities…

Maryland Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore owes Baltimore City $21,200, having failed to pay any water and sewage charges over the last 18 months, online records show.

…and resume stretches – especially regarding military service – that are pretty commonly ignored when it’s a Democrat running for office, especially one as appealing as this guy.

…Moore is also a decorated veteran. In 2010, during a book tour event for his first book, The Other Wes Moore, Moore appeared on Comedy Central’s Colbert Report. Host Stephen Colbert introduced Moore to the show by rattling off some of Moore’s accomplishments.

“You’re a decorated veteran in the Afghan War, is that correct,” Colbert asked.

“Yes,” Moore said.

“You have a Bronze Star,” Colbert asked as a quick follow-up.

Moore can be seen in the frame of the screen before a camera cut shows just Colbert on camera. Moore appears to nod his head and says yes.

…Three years later, an article appears in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel talking about a book tour event Moore was holding in the city. The author of the article calls Moore a Bronze Star recipient.

…FOX45 News reached out to the U.S. Army for confirmation of Moore’s Bronze Star Medal. Sgt. Pablo Saez, a U.S. Army Spokesperson, provided information regarding Moore’s military history, including his deployment to Afghanization from August 2005 to March 2006.

…“There is no record of a Bronze Star Medal in his file,” Sgt. Saez said.

I also despise weasel words like the ones Moore’s spokesman uses along with “combat veteran.”

…“In hundreds of interviews about his military service and veterans’ advocacy, Wes Moore – a decorated combat veteran who proudly volunteered to lead soldiers in combat with the 82nd Airborne in Afghanistan – has never claimed to have a Bronze Star,” the spokesperson said.

Good on him – the “M” device on his reserve medal means he volunteered to go to Afghanistan when his unit got called up. He never claimed to have a bronze star, but he sure didn’t actively correct anyone personally to the contrary. That’s awful. Moore doesn’t ever note he has a “combat action ribbon” or “combat infantry badge.” The only “awards” mentioned in his biographies are the National Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Armed Forces Reserve Medal, Parachutist Badge and Army Service Ribbon. None of them have a thing to do with being in combat and I would think that he would want to burnish those “combat” claims with something that proved them.

Yeah, but what about castrating children,  

Maryland Democrat Gov. Wes Moore says restricting certain highly sexualized and racist books from school libraries is "telling other kids that they shouldn't understand their own power. It's castrating them." pic.twitter.com/FnJmMn1i7w

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 19, 2023

And the governor would know all about child castration, having signed a bill at the beginning of May to allow just that. He’s a peach of a guy, no?

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on Wednesday signed a bill that requires the state’s Medicaid program to cover gender-affirming treatment.

The Trans Health Equity Act is one of the more than 100 measures that Moore signed during a ceremony that took place at the State Capitol. Some of the other bills the governor signed focused on reproductive rights and marijuana.

What can I say, we vote poorly, sometimes.