Marty O'Malley Joins Cancel Culture

"Cancel Culture" being a convenient term for the current progressive crowd trying to deny first amendment rights to their opponents and drive them out of the public space. From WaPoo, who seem to approve:  Ken Cuccinelli walked into a bar. And Martin O’Malley lit into him.

Former MD Gov. Martin O'Malley

A liberal ex-governor walks into a bar, followed by a conservative Trump administration official.

Instead of a punchline, what followed, one witness said, was a “shame-invoking tirade” by Martin O’Malley, the former Democratic governor of Maryland, directed at Ken Cuccinelli II, the former Virginia attorney general who is acting deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

The two political polar opposites crossed paths Wednesday night at the Dubliner, a Capitol Hill Irish pub popular on Thanksgiving Eve with Gonzaga College High School graduates. Both men attended the school, graduating five years apart in the 1980s, and both said they were there to visit with former classmates.

Siobhan Arnold, who was visiting from Philadelphia, had just met O’Malley at the bar when Cuccinelli walked in. Soon the two men were face-to-face, she said, with O’Malley excoriating Cuccinelli over the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

O’Malley said “something about his [Cuccinelli’s] grandparents,” Arnold said in an interview. Cuccinelli said little if anything in reply, she added, quickly leaving the area.

“O’Malley was shouting,” Arnold said. “I don’t think Cuccinelli was responding. I think he’s like, ‘Time to go. Just got here and I’m leaving.’ He pretty much retreated.”

O’Malley disputed Arnold’s account on one point: He said in a text message that he wasn’t shouting, but raised his voice “just to be heard” in the pub.

Both O’Malley and Cuccinelli described a confrontation that involved O’Malley hotly criticizing Cuccinelli’s politics. And both said they eventually ended up face-to-face with O’Malley asking Cuccinelli if he wanted to throw a punch.

But the men disagreed on who invaded the other’s personal space. Cuccinelli said O’Malley, after pushing through a group, bumped up against him, an action O’Malley denied. O’Malley said Cuccinelli “put his chest up in mine, to which I said, ‘What is it, Ken? You want to take a swing?’”

Department of Homeland Security Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli

I wish we had a real recording of the fracas so we could find out if Marty threw some ethnic slurs into the melee.

 In an emailed statement, Cuccinelli said that as he walked to a bar to order a Guinness, he heard cussing and turned to see O’Malley. “For a moment, I thought he was trying to be funny.”

He said he knew that O’Malley was serious when the yelling continued “to the point of veins bulging on his neck.” One or two other people also started cursing at him, Cuccinelli said.

He said he ignored O’Malley and the others, and walked to a different bar within the Dubliner. O’Malley followed, Cuccinelli said, “still cursing me, the President and my Italian ancestry.”

He said that when O’Malley invited him to take a swing, “I said ‘Martin, one of us has to rise above this, and it’s obviously not going to be you.’” “Martin’s behavior was as sad as it was shocking,” Cuccinelli said.

In a phone call Thursday, O’Malley did not dispute that he used “very direct and colorful” language to express his displeasure with Trump administration policy, but he denied insulting Cuccinelli’s Italian ancestry. Instead, O’Malley said he told Cuccinelli that his immigrant grandparents “would be ashamed of him putting children in cages on our southwest border.”

You mean, like Preznit Obama?

Obama DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson passes kids in cages

Hogan Brags on Bay Record

Tallying Hogan's $3 billion investment in the Chesapeake Bay

. . . in the letter raised some environmentalists' eyebrows: "In his first three years in office, Governor Hogan has increased funding for Chesapeake Bay Restoration efforts, investing more than $3 billion in State funds."

The total — actually about $3.02 billion — is 27 percent more than the $2.37 billion in state funds Gov. Martin O'Malley's administration spent on the same programs during its final three years, according to state budget documents.

The Hogan accounting includes tens of millions of dollars spent to protect rural and open land, to promote use of modern, cleaner septic systems, and to run programs in the state's Department of the Environment and Department of Natural Resources.

As O'Malley did, it also counts hundreds of millions of dollars spent to operate the state's transit system each year, even as Hogan has shifted spending away from projects such as the Red Line, a canceled light rail line that would have stretched across Baltimore, and toward road and bridge needs.

According to a chart shared by administration officials, the amount of transit spending has increased 94 percent over Hogan's tenure to a requested $446 million in the fiscal year that starts July 1. That includes $155 million is for "green infrastructure" and stormwater management projects, such as planting of trees and native plants to reduce the amount of runoff that washes pollutants in the bay, said Jay Apperson, a spokesman for the state Department of the Environment.

The rest goes toward "expenses that reduce transportation-related pollutants from entering the Bay," he said, such as park and ride lots, transit centers and the Purple Line, a transit system connecting Montgomery and Prince George's counties.

The $3 billion figure also includes $66 million on environmental education and research programs at state schools and colleges, and $212 million on preservation of open and agricultural land.

The Hogan administration is stressing that in the face of potential federal cuts, it is increasing its investment in the environment. That investment still relies heavily on the federal Environmental Protection Agency's key program focused on bay cleanup, which Trump has proposed virtually eliminating.

So the expanded environmental spending is bullshit, but at least it's 27% more bullshit than during Gov. O'Malley's  reign.

MD Farms Not as Bad for Bay as Thought

Potentially polluting phosphorus levels in 18 percent of Maryland farm fields, state says

Nearly one in five acres of Maryland farmland has enough phosphorus in its soil to potentially threaten local waterways and the Chesapeake Bay, according to new state data released Monday.

Soil sampling results collected since last summer by the Department of Agriculture show that about 18 percent of all fields statewide have elevated phosphorus levels. And on the lower Eastern Shore — in the heart of the state’s poultry industry, where phosphorus-rich chicken manure is widely used as fertilizer— data indicate that two out of every three farmed acres have high enough levels of the plant nutrient to pose a risk to water quality.

While more analysis is needed, the phosphorus concentrations in those farm soils are such that at least some of the plant nutrient could be seeping or running off the land and feeding the Bay’s algae blooms and oxygen-starved dead zones.

But the problem apparently is not as extensive or severe as earlier estimates made it out to be, state officials said. The sampling shows that 82 percent of farm soils statewide are low in phosphorus, they noted, and there is ample farmland even on the Eastern Shore where manure could safely be spread.

“Assumptions were made that phosphorus was higher than it is,” said Hans Schmidt, an assistant agriculture secretary and a mid-Shore grain farmer himself.

Spurred by warnings about elevated phosphorus levels in Bay tributaries, former Gov. Martin O’Malley had proposed new regulations that would restrict farmers’ use of animal manure as fertilizer on soils with elevated phosphorus levels.

So, if the farms aren't as big a problem as had been predicted by the EPA models, who is the problem? Could it be the nutrients from above the Conowingo Dam, and the sewage treatment plants around the Bal-Wash corridor, as the farmers had claimed?

Iowa?

Iowa's quadrennial day in the sun is past, the results are in, and they can go back to producing the corn needed to feed animals and men, and to brew into carshine that nobody really wants to burn in cars, but that Iowa's have lobbied to have made mandatory.

Don't Come Home, Marty

Onto the business of the day. On the Democrat side, the results show Hillary Clinton with a razor thin victory over Sanders, with 700 votes to his 695. Martin O'Malley's delusional dream fetched him 8 votes (less than 1%), and his dropping out has not only clarified the race by leaving the choice between a slightly demented socialist with no accomplishments, and a brain damaged Peronist apparatchik with negative accomplishments possessing female genitalia, but it has raised the average age of the democratic candidates from 65 to 72. It has not affected the color balance one whit, however.

This result suggests to me that the kids and old hippies feeling the Bern aren't likely going to be active enough to stop Hillary's long march to the nomination, which is all but wrapped up by superdelegates to the Democratic convention in any event. I would guess that the only things that could derail Hillary now are a sudden health crisis, or serious charges from the Department of Justice. My guess is that someday very soon either Loretta Lynch or Barack Obama himself will come out with a statement that it would be wrong to let a criminal process interfere with the coronation election of the next Democrat.

On the Republican side, the results are nearly a three way tie, Cruz 28%, Trump 24% and Rubio 23%, Carson a distant 9% and the wannabes trailing in their wakes. This suggests to me that the media supported Trump hype is somewhat overblown, and that many of his supporters may seem earnest, they won't necessarily be the most reliable voters. In other words, Reagan democrats. The victory of Cruz in Iowa is amazing given his outspoken (and principled) opposition to corn ethanol as mandatory auto fuel. The race just became a little less depressing for me.

Time to get the band back together

In the undercard,  Paul > Bush > Fiorina > Kasich > Huckabee > Christie > Santorum. Huckabee has had enough abuse, and dropped out.  How many Presidents from Hope, Arkansas, can we stand? I can't see anyone in this crowd making it, and it's time some more of them dropped out. Santorum is considering his options and  Jeb spent approximately $2900 per vote in Iowa. While I commend him for redistributing the lucre of his wealthy donors to sign makers and TV advertisers, I can't see this as sustainable. You might gamble on South Carolina, but how many more ads can you put on Fox?

So I guess all the party of old white men from flyover states has to offer a Hispano-Canadio-American, a Cuban Floridian, a New Yorker, and a female business executive, among others. Fiorina is in it for VP, and that's fine.

Reports from Clinton.com While the Snow Falls

The El Ninsnowmeggedocopolypse is well underway, with any surfaces on which Wednesday's dusting has melted or sublimed away already recoated with fresh snow. But there's still power, so I might as well try to take care of the accumulation of news on Clinton.com.

Yesterday we say that the IG needed to raise his security clearance to view the material in Hillary's private unsecured server, today we find that even Congress members need additional security clearance to view it.  A former CIA official says There Is "Zero Ambiguity," Hillary Clinton Broke the Law and the FBI Has No Other Choice But to Recommend a Criminal Grand Jury. I wouldn't think a CIA guy would be that naive. Another intel analyst claims  this is indeed a smoking gun. Exposure of SAP data should be enough to make anyone with a significant clearance “mess their pantsuit”: John Cornyn, Senate Majority Whip called for Ms. Clinton's indictment, although he expressed doubts that the Obama Administration would enforce the law. Now, where would he get that impression? Does Hillary's campaign’s response to latest email revelations reveal desperation? No, I think it reveals confidence in the omerta of the democratic party. No crime too great to cover up or, if revealed, to deny or delay justice for. Roger Simon wondered: What Happens if Hillary Isn't Indicted? I can help here: What Happens After Hillary Isn't Indicted?

. . . So now Dem thinkers can contemplate Hillary losing Iowa, losing New Hampshire, then facing a quashed indictment recommendation and major resignations at the FBI. Feeling the Bern?

In terms of timing, either the DoJ needs to tear off the band-aid like, yesterday, or risk creating a situation where Bernie Sanders has a straight path to the nomination and an establishment warhorse like Biden has no time left to get in the race. Or they can try to hold off on refusing an indictment until Hillary has won a few primaries somewhere, which may not be until March.

Well. The rules maven of the DNC will surely find a way to roll in Biden if Hillary's situation becomes sufficiently dire - surely the current rules allow for mid-course adjustments of a candidate has a disqualifying medical crisis, and those exceptions could probably extended to indictments or the threat thereof. One result will be a divided, dispirited party and a lot of disillusioned Sanders supporters.

At this point, very little would surprise me.

Bernie is gaining ground daily: CNN Poll: Sanders Beating Hillary by 8 Points in Iowa, in What Some are Calling "A Schlonging Lead" as Some Democrats fear Clinton's message is failing. Just six people greet Hillary in Texas — and she ignores them!



Slimy Clinton Hack David Brock Already Playing Race Card Against Sanders, of course.  Even the DNC has begun to wake up to the possibility that something may go awry with Hillary's petal strewn walk to the White House, and With Hillary slipping in the polls, DNC suddenly thinks another debate is a good idea. Really? Make them pick between Bernie and O'what's his name?

For your viewing pleasure, The Clintons' War on Women: How Hillary Strong-Armed Women into Accepting Sexual Assault http://www.pjtv.com/s/GM2DMNRV. And you're starting to see things like Why This Democrat Won’t Vote for Hillary Clinton referencing Juanita Brodderick and Bill's other sex crimes, and Hillary's complicity therein. Sorry, Hillary: Women care more about their president than his (or her) agenda. They also want someone qualified on her own merits.

Pew found big differences between how Democrats and Republicans viewed the sexes as potential political leaders. But before liberals start lamenting sexist conservatives’ “war on women,” Republicans didn’t see women as less capable, rather Republicans “are more inclined to say there isn’t any difference between men and women,” while “Democrats are significantly more likely than Republicans to say that women do a better job than men.” In other words, Republicans were more likely to truly see women and men as equals, while Democrats see one sex — men — as inferior.

Victor Davis Hanson on The Many Contradictions of Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton recently said she would go after offshore tax “schemes” in the Caribbean. That is a worthy endeavor, given the loss of billions of dollars in U.S. tax revenue. Yet her husband, Bill Clinton, reportedly made $10 million as an advisor and an occasional partner in the Yucaipa Global Partnership, a fund registered in the Cayman Islands.

Clinton is calling for “huge campaign-finance reform,” apparently to end the excessive and often pernicious role of big money in politics. But no candidate, Republican or Democrat, raised more than the $112 million that Clinton collected in 2015 for her primary campaign.

Clinton has also vowed to raise taxes on hedge-fund managers. Is that a way of expressing displeasure with her son-in-law, Marc Mezvinsky, who operates a $400 million hedge fund? 

For that matter, how did Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, who worked for a consulting firm and a hedge fund despite having no background in finance — reportedly become worth an estimated $15 million?

Just to get started.

Local Boy Lags at Home

Twice burned, forever shy? O’Malley gets 4 percent support from home state

Martin O’Malley, who is hoping to jumpstart his presidential campaign with a strong debate performance here Tuesday, continues to get little love from his home state of Maryland.

The former governor is backed by just 4 percent of voters who are Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents in a potential presidential primary matchup in the state, a new Washington Post-University of Maryland poll finds.

O’Malley lags far behind former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, who gets the support of 43 percent, followed by Vice President Biden -- who is mulling a run -- with 26 percent and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) with 20 percent.

Former Virginia senator Jim Webb is the choice of 1 percent, while former Rhode Island senator and governor Lincoln Chafee attracts less than 1 percent.

I'm a little surprised he isn't more popular in Maryland; the state is generally further left than Cuba. I can see how lack of name recognition in other states could be an initial hindrance for him. But in Maryland, he's well known as an aggressive tax and spend democrat; he even contrived to tax the rain (since repealed, in part). Maybe the appetite for new taxes among democrats knows some bounds after all.

Marty O'Malley Booed Offstage at Democratic Event

O’Malley booed off stage at Netroots Nation after saying “all lives matter”

The first, and probably biggest loser of the day was Martin O’Malley, who showed up there and foolishly began talking about things like income inequality and prison reform. The crowd wanted none of it and began chanting, “Black Lives Matter” until O’Malley was silenced and the stage was given over to a “Black Lives Matter activist” who explained that they didn’t need to hear about those other things. That’s when O’Malley attempted to respond and foolishly uttered the one phrase which will get you hounded to the ends of the Earth with that crowd. (From The Guardian)

His words were greeted by heckling.
O’Malley tried to respond, saying: “This is … let me … sure. I’ll just share with you … I’m trying to respond as best I can. No … hey. Look … I know, I know.”
Vargas said: “What just happened there? I’m so lost.”
O’Malley switched to an inclusive tack. He said: “Black lives matter, white lives matter, all lives matter.”
He was greeted, repeatedly, by booing.

Yes, Martin O’Malley stood in front of the Netroots Nations crowd and dared to say “all lives matter.” He compounded the error to an infinite degree by including, “white lives matter.” In retrospect, I’m rather shocked that he got out of there with all of his skin intact.

Bernie Sanders also came under some fire for not being sufficiently obeisant to the "Black Lives Matter" crowd.

Sanders began a prepared introduction – as had been delivered by O’Malley – talking about policies, including media bias and the need for a raised minimum wage. Chants of “black lives matter” and either “save our men” or “say her name” then broke out again.

“Black lives of course matter,” Sanders said. “I spent 50 years of my life fighting for civil rights and dignity, but if you don’t want me to be here that’s OK. I don’t want to out-scream people.”

Ah yes, Netroots Nation. You'll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

Hillary Clinton found an excuse to skip the event, which suggests that she (or at least her handlers) may be the smartest one on the Democratic side.

Yes America, Martin O'Malley Really Did Tax the Rain

Sorry Media Matters, But O’Malley Did Tax the Rain

Media Matters took issue with my article The Democrats Have the Worst Presidential Candidates in America where I wrote that, “Unfortunately the only other thing that O’Malley is famous for is taxing the rain as governor.”

And that’s true.

Martin O’Malley doesn’t even need a theme song. There are multiple songs about him taxing the rain like No Taxation With Precipitation and Who Would Tax The Rain.

Media Matters responded by quoting a variety of defenses that don’t actually address the issue, but instead drag out assorted environmental arguments.

House Bill 987 did indeed tax the rain. If you want to be technical about it, it taxed any impervious surfaces on which rain falls. Defenders prefer to call it a ‘stormwater fee’, but that’s another way of saying rain tax.

The left obviously hated the term “Rain Tax” because it makes them look bad. But they don’t argue the issue on the facts, instead they whine about it. Media Matters quotes Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s claim that it’s false.

Q: What about the assertion that these fees are a tax on rain (or a “rain tax”)?

A: That moniker is catchy but blatantly false. It is designed to mislead and confuse. The truth is that we are talking about a fee to reduce pollution from water that washes off hard surfaces and empties into local waterways.

It’s ‘blatantly false’ because it’s not a rain tax, it’s a fee on water that falls from the sky.

Can’t be any clearer than that. Right?

It's pretty clear that the "Rain Tax" was indeed the straw that broke the camel's back in Maryland, and caused the state to go for the Republican Hogan over Democrat Brown in the last gubernatorial contest. Maryland is a very blue state, and that was too much for it.

Being in one of the rural jurisdictions in Maryland not affected by the "Rain Tax" (yet), I had no direct interest in the tax. However, I saw how it was being implemented in the ones that got it, and in general, they went out of their way to stick it to rural interests like farms far in excess of their actual contributions to storm water  and protect the liberal churches and NGOs in the cities.

If that's what you want, vote for O'Malley.

Baltimore Boiling

Civil "unrest" in Baltimore in the wake of Freddie Gray's suspicious injury in the custody of Baltimore's police continues. Prosecutors prepared to file charges against the 6 officers involved:

In a news conference, the state’s attorney in Baltimore, Marilyn J. Mosby, described repeated mistreatment of Mr. Gray. Time and again, she said, officers abused him, arresting him without grounds and violating police procedure by putting him in handcuffs and leg restraints in the van without putting a seatbelt on him.

Ms. Mosby also said the officers had repeatedly failed to seek medical attention for Mr. Gray after he was injured. By the time he was removed from the van, she said, “Mr. Gray was no longer breathing at all.”

“We have probable cause to file criminal charges,” Ms. Mosby said.

And it turns out the "switchblade knife" that Freddie was taken into custody for possession of was legal:

Ms. Mosby also said that the knife the police say Mr. Gray was carrying had not been a legitimate basis for his arrest. “The knife was not a switchblade, and it is lawful,” she said. She said the officers had “failed to establish probable cause for an arrest.”

Al Sharpton is acting as a guard for Baltimore's black mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, straight arming and clipping Fox News reporters with the temerity to ask her about the widely rumored "stand down" order:

“I was sick to my stomach like everybody else. … This was urban warfare, no question about it. They were coming in absolutely beaten down. The [city officers] got out of their vehicles, thanked us profusely for being there, apologized to us for having to be there. They said we could have handled this, we were very capable of handling this, but we were told to stand down, repeatedly told to stand down,” he said. “I had never heard that order come from anyone — we went right out to our posts as soon as we got there, so I never heard the mayor say that. But repeatedly these guys, and there were many high-ranking officials from the Baltimore City Police Department … and these guys told me they were essentially neutered from the start . . .

Only time will tell if there really was a stand down order as such, but I believe her "space to destroy" comments imply that the she did order one. I just wonder if city authorities would be quite as willing to write off buildings and vehicles if they were the city hall and the administrative motor pool.

If you only read one thing about the long term problems in Baltimore that led up to this, let it be this article by David Simon, the creator the the HBO program "The Wire" which chonicled the drug war in Baltimore:

The drug war began it, certainly, but the stake through the heart of police procedure in Baltimore was Martin O’Malley. He destroyed police work in some real respects. Whatever was left of it when he took over the police department, if there were two bricks together that were the suggestion of an edifice that you could have called meaningful police work, he found a way to pull them apart.

 How?

. . . The initial crime reductions in Baltimore under O’Malley were legit and O’Malley deserved some credit.

But that wasn’t enough. O’Malley needed to show crime reduction stats that were not only improbable, but unsustainable without manipulation. And so there were people from City Hall who walked over Norris and made it clear to the district commanders that crime was going to fall by some astonishing rates. Eventually, Norris got fed up with the interference from City Hall and walked, and then more malleable police commissioners followed, until indeed, the crime rate fell dramatically. On paper.

. . . First, the department began sweeping the streets of the inner city, taking bodies on ridiculous humbles, mass arrests, sending thousands of people to city jail, hundreds every night, thousands in a month. They actually had police supervisors stationed with printed forms at the city jail – forms that said, essentially, you can go home now if you sign away any liability the city has for false arrest, or you can not sign the form and spend the weekend in jail until you see a court commissioner. And tens of thousands of people signed that form. . . Martin O’Malley’s logic was pretty basic: If we clear the streets, they’ll stop shooting at each other. We’ll lower the murder rate because there will be no one on the corners.

Mass arrests with no actual intention to file charges or prosecute, essentially intimidation of the populace.

. . . But it wasn’t enough to declare a Baltimore Miracle, by any means. What can you do? You can’t artificially lower the murder rate – how do you hide the bodies when it’s the state health department that controls the medical examiner’s office? But the other felony categories? Robbery, aggravated assault, rape? Christ, what they did with that stuff was jaw-dropping.

So they cooked the books.
. . .
They cooked their own books in remarkable ways. Guns disappeared from reports and armed robberies became larcenies. Deadly weapons were omitted from reports and aggravated assaults became common assaults. The Baltimore Sun did a fine job looking into the dramatic drop in rapes in the city. Turned out that regardless of how insistent the victims were that they had been raped, the incidents were being quietly unfounded. That tip of the iceberg was reported, but the rest of it, no. And yet there were many veteran commanders and supervisors who were disgusted, who would privately complain about what was happening. If you weren’t a journalist obliged to quote sources and instead, say, someone writing a fictional television drama, they’d share a beer and let you fill cocktail napkins with all the ways in which felonies disappeared in those years.

So there is a "rape culture" and Martin O'Malley encouraged it. But still, David Simon is a Hollywood liberal, so:

Everyone thinks I’ve got a hard-on for Marty because we battled over “The Wire,” whether it was bad for the city, whether we’d be filming it in Baltimore. But it’s been years, and I mean, that’s over. I shook hands with him on the train last year and we buried it. And, hey, if he's the Democratic nominee, I’m going to end up voting for him. It’s not personal and I admire some of his other stances on the death penalty and gay rights. But to be honest, what happened under his watch as Baltimore’s mayor was that he wanted to be governor.

Marty walked over the bodies of the Baltimorons to become governor, and get his shot at running for Preznit. But it's OK because, gay rights! Now, over to WeirdDave at Ace's for the proper expression of outrage over this:

. . . Anyhow, in the middle of all of this, what is a very damning recitation of all the despicable things Tommy Carcetti O'Malley did, actions that should by rights disqualify O'Mally for ANY elected position, including dog catcher, for any thinking person, Simon casually says this: "And, hey, if he's the Democratic nominee, I'm going to end up voting for him.". No pause to consider that the raw totalitarianism that Simon's been matter of factly recounting should horrify any American, no thought that the Republicans might nominate someone worth considering, just blind, reflexive, unthinking "Me vote Dem-o-crat". Modern Libs truly are mindless robots.

Bernie Sanders is at least probably not a criminal.

Maryland Senate Votes to Rein In 'Rain Tax'

Maryland Senate unanimously approves easing ‘rain tax’ terms

The Maryland Senate voted unanimously Friday to no longer require that the state’s largest jurisdictions charge a storm water remediation fee, which Republicans dubbed the “rain tax” on the campaign trail last year.

The legislation now moves to the House of Delegates, where there has been stronger opposition to changing the fee because Democratic leaders say they do not want to do anything that could impede the reduction of pollution reaching the Chesapeake Bay.

One of the loudest critics of the fee has been Gov. Larry Hogan (R), whose vow to kill it became his campaign rallying cry. Hogan introduced his own legislation to repeal the mandate that the state’s nine most-populous counties and Baltimore City charge a fee — while acknowledging that he did not have the power to actually eliminate this jurisdiction-level tax. But the governor’s bill died in both chambers.

Just like Hogan’s bill, the version introduced by Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) version gets rid of the requirement that major jurisdictions charge a fee to at least partially fund anti-pollution efforts that are mandated by the federal government. But Miller’s measure requires these counties to document how much their anti-pollution programs will cost and where they will find that money.

For counties that decide to continue charging this fee — as many plan to do — Miller’s bill would exempt some veterans organizations from having to pay. A similar exemption already exists for volunteer fire departments.

The 'Rain Tax', technically speaking a tax on impervious surfaces was imposed under the O'Malley administration at the behest of EPA, has been uniformly unpopular except in environmental circles, even in the areas not (yet) affected, for the entirely forgivable feeling that it will likely expand. The money raised from the tax was to be designated towards stormwater remediation. However, Maryland has a long tradition of raising taxes for special purposes, and then diverting the money back into the general pool when times get tight.

But once it was time for a final vote Friday morning, Sen. Bryan W. Simonaire (R-Anne Arundel) rose on the floor to support the legislation — and then complain that the original 2012 law was passed too hastily, that it is unfair that some counties charge a fee while others do not and that the administration of former governor Martin O’Malley (D) used environmental funds to plug holes in the general budget.

Now to the House of Delegates.

House Speaker Michael E. Busch (D-Anne Arundel) said his chamber is “certainly going to take a close look at it.”

And after the Senate adjourned, Miller had a more optimistic take on his bill’s chances in the House. “The bill is obviously supported by the governor very vigorously,” Miller said. “I would hope the House could deal with it appropriately.”

I'm agnostic on the 'Rain Tax' since it does not (yet) apply in Calvert County. But I would expect it to in time. And where it's been applied, the tax only counts impervious surfaces, and does not account for the offsetting pervious surfaces common in rural areas, who face high taxes on long driveways, and parking areas for agricultural equipment.

O'Malley Pushes Last Minute Farm Regs

Md. moving to impose tough new farming pollution rules

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is moving ahead with a plan that seeks to reduce polluted phosphorus discharges into the water ways by imposing new rules for farmers.

The plan has been controversial and divisive. Environmentalists say the plan protects the Chesapeake Bay and other water bodies, while farmers have said the requirements would hurt them.

It's not really an either-or question; both assertions can be, and almost certainly are, true to some extent. The question is whether the benefits out weigh the down sides. Moreover, the upsides and downsides are felt by very different groups of people. The downsides effect farmers most, taking land out of production, and increasing their costs and decreasing their competitivity, and to a lesser extent, consumers who pay higher prices.  The upsides are felt by fish and shellfish in the bay, watermen perhaps, people who recreate on the bay, and mostly in the feelings of environmentalists that they have done "the right thing."

The plan involves something called a “phosphorus management tool,” which is a new way for farmers to identify when excess phosphorus is present in the soil.

The plan has been delayed previously due to opposition from farmers and the agricultural industry.

O’Malley forwarded the new regulations to the Joint Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review Committee on Nov. 14.

The committee will review the new rules, which could be adopted just before O’Malley leaves office.

This tool has been in the works for some time, and pushing it through in the twilight of the O'Malley administration suggests that it was not something they were willing to do before an election. Now that they are on the way out, they leave it as incoming Gov. Hogan's problem.

When asked what Gov.-elect Larry Hogan intends to do if the rules were to take effect, spokeswoman Erin Montgomery said that he would not be commenting on any policy issues until after his inauguration on Jan. 21.

However, Hogan has said previously that the new rules “could’ve crippled the entire poultry and grain industry and crushed the economy on the Eastern Shore” according to one published report.

Hogan could try to undo the rules, if implemented, through new regulations or with the help of the legislature.

This reminds me of the slew of regulations that the Clinton administration quickly published after Al Gore lost the 2000 Presidential election. The bureaucrats, of course, desperately wanted to keep all those in place, but Bush did, in fact, put off a number of them, for later review. Some were kept and others were not.

I could see that playing out in Maryland over the next year or so.

Fracking Maryland!

O’Malley says he is ready to allow ‘fracking’ in Western Maryland, with strict safeguards

Outgoing Gov. Martin O’Malley says he is ready to allow drilling for natural gas in Western Maryland, but only if energy companies adhere to some of the most restrictive public health and environmental safeguards in the country.

O’Malley (D) will propose regulations next month that start with the “best practices” of other states and nations where hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is permitted, administration officials said. The regulations will include additional restrictions on drilling locations and efforts to limit the risks of drinking-water contamination and air pollution.

The rules would not take effect until after O’Malley is succeeded by Gov.-elect Larry Hogan (R), who on Tuesday criticized the governor for taking action on a number of controversial issues “on the way out the door.”

“We’re going to review every single one of them, I can assure you,” said Hogan, who has called drilling opportunities in Western Maryland “an economic gold mine” and faulted the state for taking too long to decide whether to allow fracking — which is already permitted in neighboring Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

I don't regard this as a sincere effort to allow fracking in Maryland, rather I see it as one of O'Malley's outgoing gifts to his environmentalist base. It will be some time a trouble for the incoming Governor Hogan to undo, especially with the state bureaucracy still on O'Malley's side.

O'Malley really expects these regulations to be sufficiently onerous as to effectively put off fracking in Maryland for the indefinite future, and he as much as admits that:

“In the short term, as a practical matter, the industry will probably choose to frack in other states than Maryland where the standards are lower,” O’Malley said. 

But I don't care. Maryland is a smallish state, and while fracking would be a nice source of jobs out in the rural Appalachian portion of the state, it is not going to be important in supplying the much needed energy to the nation. Let North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Texas carry that load for a few years. When the time is right, Maryland's will still be available.

Nope, Nothing Funny About This

State would lease $2.8 million farm for $1 a year

The O'Malley administration has struck a deal to buy a Kent County farm for $2.8 million and then lease it for $1 a year to a company controlled by an organic farmer and Democratic campaign donor.

Wow, that saves a lot of money. I imagine it's a lot easier to have a profitable farm when the government buys the land, and lets you use the property for, let's face it, nothing. I'll bet every farmer wishes he could have a deal like that. Imagine what they would save on property taxes alone.

The proposal has drawn criticism from businesses that worry about unfair competition.

It should also draw criticism from anyone concerned about corruption.

The beneficiary of both deals is the nonprofit Eastern Shore Food Hub Corp., a company led by Cleo Braver, an environmental lawyer-turned-organic farmer who is a critic of the prevailing agricultural practices on the Eastern Shore. Braver advocates for "green" farming techniques as part of the local food movement.

Franchot spokesman Andrew Friedson described the deal as a "highly irregular transaction." He said the comptroller "has serious concerns about the appropriateness of this type of state investment, especially considering the millions of taxpayer dollars at stake."

This should effectively kill any thought of an O'Malley run for President; but then one would have thought the same of Hillary after Travelgate, Whitewater and the Hillary Cattle Futures Affair, just to name a few.

Also in the pipeline — but not on the agenda Wednesday — is a deal in which the same company would receive $500,000 in state bond money toward the cost of establishing a $2.3 million "food hub" in Easton to process and distribute organic and sustainably produced food.

It's good to have friends in high places, I guess.

O'Malley on Immigrants: Not in MY Backyard

As you may be aware, the Governor of Maryland, term limited here at home, is looking a lot like a Presidential or Vice Presidential candidate.  Yesterday, however, the ongoing immigration debacle got him caught up between the two wing of his own party:

After criticizing White House over unaccompanied minors, Martin O'Malley said don't send them to Maryland site

After his strong criticism of the Obama administration's plans to return thousands of young undocumented migrants back to Central America, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley asked a top White House official that the children not be sent to a site that was under consideration in his home state, sources familiar with the conversation said.

"He privately said 'please don't send these kids to Western Maryland,'" a Democratic source told CNN. The heated discussion between O'Malley and White House domestic policy adviser Cecilia Munoz occurred during a phone call late Friday evening, sources familiar with the conversation added.

A potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2016, O'Malley surprised some in his party when he sharply criticized a White House proposal to give new legal authorities to the Department of Homeland Security to expedite the deportation of the unaccompanied minors and their families.

“We are not a country that should turn children away and send them back to certain death,” O’Malley said last week at a National Governors Association meeting in Nashville.

I have no problem with bringing them to Maryland, as long as they're packed into Baltimore, Prince George's, Montgomery or Ann Arundel counties, the bases of the liberal democrats in Maryland. Of course, some of the minorities in Baltimore are already beginning to complain that the immigrants are being given more good shit than the native down and outs...

"I'm living a nightmare. My whole neighborhood is so violent. There's so much crime," she said. "I have gangs everywhere here in Baltimore! I can't let my daughter ride her bicycle outside – I can't do anything, Laura! I'm trapped here."

Elaine told Ingraham that she listens to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Obama and feels that "nobody is saying a word" while spending billions of dollars taking care of foreigners who are unlawfully in the country.

"Well, what about my neighborhood? You don't have to do it in Beverly Hills, but in the inner cities where we are suffering," she said. "My children cannot play outside. I cannot take my trash out without locking the door – it's awful. Who is going to give us anything? Where can I get asylum? Where can I get refugee status? I don't know what I can do. Nobody cares what happens to my children."

Try Honduras. . .

Illegal immigration crisis poses quandary for Democrats

Potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidates are showing divisions over how to handle the surge of illegal immigrant children, underscoring how quickly the immigration issue has gone from what they thought was a guaranteed political winner to an electoral headache.

Some Democratic governors considering presidential bids also are having to grapple personally with the surge as they decide whether to fight or accept the Obama administration’s requests to house the children in facilities within their borders.

Those within Congress, meanwhile, will have to take tough votes on boosting spending and changing the law to allow for faster deportations — all under the close scrutiny of Hispanic groups that are prepared to punish those they deem to be working against immigrant rights.
. . .
Mrs. Clinton, Mr. O'Malley and other potential Democratic presidential candidates such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo likely will get other chances to revise and expand on their positions before the primaries and caucuses begin.

“This issue is not so much about their initial reaction or instinct, but how do they address this issue over time. If there were significant differences there, it could become an issue,” said Marshall Fitz, director of immigration policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress. “It’s going to change 50 times between now and then. I think their thinking will evolve over time. Right now, we’re right in the midst of it.”

And then, whatever position they evolve to will be held as something that people will always have to have held, or else be censured; like gay marriage.

Casting doubts on the entire "unaccompanied minor immigrant theme: Just how “unaccompanied” are the children coming across the border?

The border crisis has been depicted as a wave of children and teens overwhelming US Border Patrol resources, traveling mainly alone through hostile territory controlled by drug cartels and gangs. The Washington Post’s Joshua Partlow calls this “somewhat misleading,” as least as pertaining to the definition of “unaccompanied.” Many are not traveling with their parents, but most of those are traveling with another adult of their acquaintance:

The “unaccompanied minors” who walked out of the brush on the banks of the Rio Grande and turned themselves into Border Patrol officers last month were not, technically, unaccompanied. In the group of 15 people that we watched that night, about half of them appeared to be adults, including men and a woman carrying a baby, in addition to several children.
It’s the most potent image in the current immigration crisis: Tens of thousands of Central American children on a dangerous solo exodus out of their countries. But from what I’ve seen reporting on this issue from the U.S. border and in Honduras, it is also somewhat misleading.
The term “Unaccompanied Alien Children,” or UACs, as used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, refers to people up to age 17 who are traveling without a parent or legal guardian. It does not mean they are traveling alone.
In migrant shelters in Mexico and Honduras, talking to both children and adults who are making these journeys, or have been deported after failing to reach the United States, the most common scenario seems to be children who are traveling in groups that include adult relatives, neighbors, smugglers or others. Often the children migrating already have one or more parents living in the United States, and they are considered “unaccompanied,” even if traveling with other adult relatives.

Children truly traveling alone “seem[] to be the exception,” Partlow concludes. If so, that provides a different context to the recent flood of immigrants crossing illegally into the US, and that has an impact on how the US can approach it. The narrative thus far is of children left to themselves with no adults to watch out for their interests, and demands for an open-arms policy have risen at least in part because of that perception.