The 2012 Election Edition

The election is under two weeks away, so I thought I’d put together an “Election Edition” of the Full Monty. I’ll start with Maryland Ballot Questions, then local Congressional races, the Senate race and then the Presidential race.

Maryland Ballot Questions.

Questions 1 and 2 pertain to tightening the qualifications for Orphans’ Court Judges.  These are essentially efforts to limit the number of people who would be eligible to run, which I feel is unnecessary and robs the citizens of a wider choice.

I intend to vote against both Question 1 and 2.

Question 3 will change the point at which an elected official charged with certain crimes is automatically suspended or removed from office. Right now, when an official pleads guilty or is convicted is only suspended, to be removed when the conviction is final. With the change, the elected official would be suspended when found guilty and removed when the conviction is final or the official pleads guilty or no contest.

I haven’t heard a good reason to vote against this one, so I plan on voting for Question 3.

Question 4 boils down to granting undocumented immigrants in-state tuition rates at colleges in MD. While I sympathize with children brought to the United States by their parents, many of them too young to say anything about it or disagree with their parents about coming, this is simply trying to put a bandage on a severed limb. The better thing to do would be set up an easier path to citizenship for these children. Speaking of which, since when does “children” go up to the age of 30? Oh, and I just love what was done with the very last part of the question: “…and extends the time in which honorably discharged veterans may qualify for in-state tuition rates.” What a dishonest way of getting something passed. So now, supporters can say that if you vote against the question you are “against Veterans”. Sorry, but that’s not the case, and putting in a little “poison pill” into your legislation doesn’t gain you many friends.

I plan of voting against Question 4.

Question 5 is the Congressional Redistricting referendum question. The wording on this one is intentionally misleading: “Establishes the boundaries for the State’s eight United States Congressional Districts based on recent census figures, as required by the United States Constitution.” Sounds good, right? I mean, who wants to vote against doing something required by the Constitution? Probably no one, except our current POTUS, his main challenger, and most of Congress. The problem with this redistricting map is it’s horribly gerrymandered, it disenfranchises minorities, puts a Western MD county in the same district as the MD shore, splits up Frederick County and has the dubious honor of putting two of MD’s districts in the top ten list of “Most Gerrymandered Districts” according to a National Journal piece from March 2012.

This one is a no brainer: Vote against Question 5

Question 6 is the same-sex marriage ballot question. I see no reason to not vote for this one. There is no rational reason to deny two consenting adults the ability to get married and enjoy all the joy (and sometimes pain) that comes with it. The argument usually breaks down to religious reasons to oppose it. Sorry, but if I want to live somewhere where the reason for a law is “because the [insert scriptural text name here] says so”, I’ll move to Iran, maybe Saudi Arabia.

I plan on voting for Question 6

Finally Question 7, which is the expansion of gaming, to include adding a 6^th casino in Maryland (specifically PG County) and allowing “table games” (craps, poker, blackjack) at all casinos in Maryland. This one is a tough one for me.

      

      On the one hand:I would love to have poker at Ocean Downs so when I go down to the beach house and feel the itch to play, can go there instead of up into Delaware.

      On the other hand:

• the way OweMalley and the Democrats in the legislature raped working class taxpayers in MD with their 24 (and counting) tax and fee hikes; 
• the way OweMalley and the Democrats have made Maryland one of the “losing-est”  states when it comes to hemorrhaging jobs and income earners to other states;
• the way the whole gambling thing was done: purely partisan, they wouldn’t pass it for Ehrlich, and when OweMalley got in, they passed it as a Constitutional change instead of just passing the law

Still, I guess it will be better to keep the jobs and the money in MD (even though OweMalley and the Democrats will just raid the fund to pay for their pet projects).

I will hold my nose and vote for Question 7.

There is one other question on the Frederick County, MD ballot, and that is Question A, the question on whether or not to adopt a charter form of government for the county , as opposed to code home rule, or the commissioner version of county government, which is what we currently have.

All things considered, I think I am going to vote against Question A.

Board of Education.

There are six candidates, and you can vote for up to three. Technically there are 5 candidates as Tom Shade has dropped out of the race, I believe due to health reasons, but it was too late to have his name removed from the ballot. You have left the three “Union Approved” candidates: incumbents Katie Groth and Joy Schaefer plus newbie Zakir Bengali. Then you have the two newbies not endorsed by the teachers’ union: Tony Chmelik (shmell-lick) and Colleen Cusimano. Right away the gut instinct is to NOT vote for the “Union Approved” candidates, simply because of that reason. But that doesn’t mean automatically voting for the other two. I’ve read/heard enough from Tony Chmelik to know that I won’t be able to, in good conscience, vote for him. I think I am going to simply vote for Cusimano.

Now the Congressional Races.

As mentioned above, there was some serious partisan gerrymandering in the redistricting this year. I guess since the Democrats saw the writing on the wall for a second term for Barry O., they decided to try stacking the deck in the House.

I was gerrymandered into the new 8^th district, the one that puts a rural farming town in the same district as the MD eastern shore, out of the 6^th district, so I get to vote for “new” people. The incumbent is Chris Van Hollen, an alleged “rising star” in the Democratic Party. If he’s a “rising star” I’d hate to see what they consider failures. His main challenger is Republican Ken Timmerman.  There is also a Libertarian candidate and a Green candidate on the ballot. Timmerman is a big underdog in this race, so I’m not entirely sure a ‘protest vote’ for him is in order, plus, I typically vote on principle, not party, so I’ll have to pull the lever for the Libertarian candidate on this one.

Even though I am no longer (until Question 5 is defeated, of course) in the 6^th Congressional District, I’ll touch on that one too. The two major Party candidates are 20 year veteran Roscoe Bartlett up against John Delaney. This district was gerrymandered by the Democrats with one purpose and one purpose only: to get rid of the Republican from Western MD. The funny thing is, the “hand picked” Democrat that they wanted to go up against Bartlett was smoked in the primary by Delaney. What’s even funnier is Delaney: doesn’t even live in the district and makes Romney’s involvement with Bain Capital look tame. I urge those still in the 6^th district to vote for Bartlett. He’s not perfect, but he’s one of the “better” Republicans out there.

The Senate.

This year we have Ben Cardin’s seat up for grabs. Well, not really up for grabs, it’s going to be a tough one. The Republican challenger is Dan Bongino. There is also an “independent” named Rob Sobhani and a Libertarian named Dean Ahmad. If there weren’t two other parties in this race, it could actually be considered close. Cardin is a lackluster Senator who votes along party lines most of the time. And just like our other Senator Mikulski, he shows up west of Howard County only during election years. Dan Bongino has run a strong campaign and looks good enough on paper to be a proper replacement for Cardin.  But Sobhani has been able to dump tons of money into his own campaign. There aren’t too many polls done in Maryland, probably because it’s a “gimme” state for Democrats, but this race has been polled and basically Cardin has about 50% and Sobhani and Bongino are splitting up the rest. I’d like to see Cardin lose, but with the divide amongst the more rational, non-Cardin voters will probably deliver the seat back to Cardin. Still, I plan on voting for Bongino.

Now the big contest, President.

As I mentioned, Maryland statewide elections are essentially a “gimme” for the Democrat candidate. So a vote for Romney wouldn’t change the outcome of where Maryland’s electoral votes go. Plus Romney and Obama are essentially the same people, Romney just has better hair. Going back to the principle before party concept, the only thing to do in this case is vote for Gary Johnson.

I hope this was somewhat informative for the readers. It doesn’t matter who you decide to vote for on the 6^th (for Democrats, it’s the 7^th, just teasing), just get out there and do it.

Wow. Over a year since my last entry. Pretty darn lazy if you ask me.

Maybe a good New Year's resolution would be to do at least one blogpost a month? Or is that asking too much? I think I can do it, especially in a year like 2012.

Movies that I am psyched about: "The Dark Knight Rises", "The Amazing Spider-Man", "The Avengers"

It's big election year. President, Senate, Congress (especially interesting in my home state of MD since the Democrats gerrymandered the state to disenfranchise a whole swath of Western MD).

The world is allegedly scheduled for a reboot on 12/21, so it will be interesting to see the freaks that crawl out of the woodwork as that date draws closer.

Plus, I've done enough stuff since my last post to keep posting forever (or until 12/21, of course).

So, until next time, which I promise will be real soon, take care!

Ramblings and musings...

Ok.


I've seriously neglected my duties here and have not posted much since I "started" this endeavor. Who am I kidding, I haven't posted ANYTHING since I started this blog.

So now I am going to subject you all to a stream of conscious posting.

Did you know tonight (12/13) is supposed to be the peak viewing night of the Geminid meteor shower?

I knew about it, but weather reports for my area of the country (Mid-Atlantic) show that we can expect mostly cloudy skies. If you live in an area that will have clear skies and are an insomniac like me, the best time to view them is between midnight and 6:00 AM on 12/14.

I am more excited by the full lunar eclipse happening on 12/21. Not only will the moon be full, but the eclipse falls on the Winter Solstice (read into that whatever you want).

Speaking of eclipses, I watched "Twilight: Eclipse" the other day. Not that good. And it didn't really end. It just kind of stopped. I understand that there is another book that can be made into a movie (and I guess they are making it??), but still, even the "Friday the 13th" movies are self-contained and actually end. And EDWARD? come on... if I were a girl and had the choice between an androgynous sparkly emo type and an outdoors-y werewolf type, the choice is the werewolf, wouldn't even think twice about the vampire.

Speaking of vampires, hasn't that genre been beaten to death lately? True Blood. Vampire Diaries. Twilight saga. I'm sure there are others out there, but seriously? Just like the remaking of all the classics, I have to ask, doesn't Hollywood (and TV land...) have any good original ideas anymore?

Speaking of original ideas, a couple of things: "Kick Ass" is a really good movie if you haven't seen it yet. Not sure what it is but hearing "I'm just fucking with ya, dad" coming out of the mouth of a pre-teen girl is hilarious. Besides the carnage and the cursing, the movie does actually have an interesting concept, it explores (in a semi-realistic way) the question "why hasn't anyone tried to be a costumed superhero yet?" as well as the consequences when someone makes that decision and actually tries it out.

The other thing I wanted to bitch about when it comes to original ideas: The Hangover (yes, I know I look like "Alan")... I understand they are making a "sequel". Sorry, but you just can't have a sequel to this movie. It's kind of like lightning striking the same place more than once (not including lightning rods and tall buildings). Yes, it CAN happen, but usually doesn't. Same thing with the "Old School" sequel. Sure, they've been talking about it, but really, what can they do?

I think I'll give my fingers a rest now that I have bounced around the map. I'm sure there was something else of importance I wanted to talk about, but for the life of me I can't recall. I just hope you don't have to wait another 7 months to read it. :-)

Getting Things Started

Well, I've talked and thought about doing this for a long time, and finally decided to take the plunge and start my own blog.

What you can look forward to:

• Movie, book, music "reviews"
• Rants of various lengths and on a variety of topics, such as politics (local, state, national), religion, pet peeves

As well as random musings, depending on my mood.