DarkStar Spouts Off

It's Wonderful Living In The State Of Maryland

It really is wonderful living in the state of Maryland. The government is run very well here.
What?
Huh?

Maryland Ranked Low Among States For Risk Of Corruption

Maryland came out 40th among the fifty states in an investigation into integrity in state government.

That's according to the nonprofit group, Center for Public Integrity, that gave Maryland a D- because of difficulty in getting information.

The state got an overall grade of D minus...with an F in public access to information.

Randy Barrett of the organization that spearheaded the study said one barrier in particular seems to keep the state among those with the least: transparency.

Barrett said, while there are laws on the books that guarantee the public access to government records, they often are not used or enforced.

The state also received F's in executive accountability, state pension fund management, and legislative accountability.

OH, forget what I just wrote. I guess that what happens when you live in a one party state.

Political Quickies

Rush Limbaugh called a woman who said the government should fund women's contraceptives, a slut. I think the government needs to stay out of everyone's sexual concerns, but I find it interesting that the man who was caught with Viagra in his possession (which is legal), by a TSA agent, when Limbaugh was going to the Caribbean, is calling someone a slut. Especially when you consider the understated fact that
there are Caribbean "sex tours" that cater to American men.

Andrew Brietbart died and some on the left are celebrating. Celebrating the death of a person is twisted in some circumstances, especially when the celebration is happening because he was a political opponent. However, the same people decrying the celebration, didn't say a thing when some on the Right, celebrated the death of Corretta Scott-King.

[ ADDED ]

Where are the Black Republicans commenting on the FEDERAL JUDGE who forwarded email that he considered racist but sent it anyway because he's anti-Obama?

Politicians Are Amoral At Best

Some time ago, I came to the conclusion that politicians on the national level are amoral at best. In that vein, think about this.

What does it say about Rick Santorum that he would ask Democrats, in an open primary state, to cast votes in the Republican primary race to vote for him? What does it say about Santorum that he would claim to be THE conservative in the race, yet has for Democrats, liberals, to vote for him in the Republican primary?

I think this shows some of Santorum's character and what is being shown is not a good think, IMO.

Why Does Baltimore City Have A NFL Sky Box?

From the Baltimore Sun:

A government watchdog group said Thursday that Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has politicized invitations to her office's Ravens skybox, and urged her to include more working-class residents.

"The mayor has made the choice to turn this into a political skybox and not the people's skybox," said Susan Wichmann, the director of Common Cause Maryland. "We call on the mayor, going forward, to use the skybox to highlight good work being done by people in the city. There's no reason why she couldn't invite the firefighters and the police officers and the good students and the teachers."

...

The stadium was built with $200 million in public financing, and the offices of the mayor and governor were given premium skyboxes as part of the lease agreement for the stadium in 1995.

O'Doherty said skybox tickets were not intended as a reward for campaign donations or political support, adding that the mayor invites people of all socioeconomic backgrounds.

I really don't care about the political games the mayor played with the seating in the sky box. The issue is, why the city of Baltimore continues to have a sky box in the first place? Especially since the current mayor won't pay a judgement against the city to lead paint victims. In fact, one set of lawyers have confiscated city property to settle the judgement!

Note This Destruction Is Coming From Congress

Note that this is coming from congress.

A House-Senate conference report this week called on the Administration to accelerate the use of civilian unmanned aerial systems (UAS), or “drones,” in U.S. airspace.

The pending authorization bill for the Federal Aviation Administration directs the Secretary of Transporation to develop within nine months “a comprehensive plan to safely accelerate the integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system.”

“The plan… shall provide for the safe integration of civil unmanned aircraft systems into the national airspace system as soon as practicable, but not later than September 30, 2015.”

People are complaining about the Obama administration destroying the United States, meanwhile, congress is quietly stomping all over the Constitution and few people who are going after the Obama administration, say anything about this mess.

The Poor

Romney said he isn't worried about the poor because the existing social net is in place and if there are holes, he is willing to patch the holes.

The problem is, welfare doesn't eradicate poverty, it sustains it at a certain level. From my point of view, in the long term, that's not what you want to happen. You want the family getting welfare to be able to earn enough so that they no longer need welfare. The same thing applies for WIC.

I'm just saying.

Change of Registration

Going back to "non-aligned." I can't take the sanctioned and cheered insults to Blacks. If I don't take it from Democrats, why take it from Republicans?

Republican official praying for the death of the President vs praying for a change of his mind?

Enough!

What Is PIPA?

Start here for a definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PROTECT_IP_Act

What Is SOPA?

Try this definition for a start:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act

Sell Off Baltimore City Hall

When it was first reported that then acting mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake had authorized the Baltimore City Housing Department to ignore a court order to pay victims of lead paint poisoning in Baltimore housing projects, I thought to myself that the lawyers should have a lien filed on city hall. Then, after field, chain lock the doors on city hall and hold an auction to sell everything in the building. Today, I read this:

Representatives from the Baltimore sheriff's office moved across a city housing authority parking lot Wednesday morning, tagging 20 of the agency's vehicles to be seized and eventually sold to pay part of a court judgment to lead paint victims.

The Housing Authority of Baltimore City has resisted paying siblings Antonio Fulgham and Brittany McCutcheon the $2.59 million awarded by a jury in 2010, as the agency appeals the case. But the plaintiffs, who suffered lead poisoning while living in public housing, have filed legal actions to move forward with collecting the debts. The levy against the vehicles, and Wednesday's tagging, paves the way for them to be auctioned.

It's not city hall, but it's a start. It's a great move on the lawyers part.

Waxing Rhetorical On Ron Paul

Actually, I'm waxing rhetorical on the Republican response to Ron Paul:

1. How many people bashing Ron Paul as a racist for what was written in the Ron Paul newsletters, supported Charles Murray's "Bell Curve"?
2. Why are Republicans upset about Ron Paul ideas on 9-1-1 now? He's had those views for years, now.
3. If Republicans think Ron Paul is nuts, why didn't they supports candidates running against him in congress when he was running for re-election?

Just, rhetorically, asking.

The U. S. Financial Mess Stated Simply

From an article I saw somewhere, and now I can't seem to locate it:

That professionalism is evident in the GAO analysis of the net present value of the Social Security and Medicare promises Washington has made to Americans. “Net present value” means the total that would have to be set aside today to pay the costs of these programs in the future. The government puts these numbers in appendices, rather than in headlines. But the costs are real.

In fiscal 2011, the cost of the promises grew from $30.9 trillion to $33.8 trillion. To put that in context, consider that the total value of companies traded on U.S. stock markets is $13.1 trillion, based on the Wilshire 5000 index, and the value of the equity in U.S. taxpayers’ homes, according to Freddie Mac, is $6.2 trillion. Said another way, there is not enough wealth in America to meet those promises.

I think that does it.

 

Republicans: Ron Paul and Racists

How is it for all of this time that Ron Paul has been a member of congress, not one Republican has brought up the racist newsletters that appeared under Ron Paul's name:

As Ron Paul rises in the polls, he is once again fending off questions about those pesky newsletters where racist material appeared under his name. This time around, rather than expressing much in the way of regret, Paul is instead slamming the media for rehashing what he considers an old, irrelevant story.

To recap, back in the 1990s, Ron Paul produced a series of newsletters, all with his name on them, which published a ream of racist and anti-Semitic columns. Among a long list of offensive comments, one notorious column about the LA riots said that, “Order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks.” Another pilloried Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as “Hate Whitey Day.” Paul has always denied writing them and insists he doesn’t know who did. He has expressed regret that the comments were printed.

but now that the "isolationist" Ron Paul appears to be picking up support, the neo-conservative Republicans NOW want to play the race card on Ron Paul? These newsletters were known the last time Ron Paul ran for the Republican nomination.

Facist Police

I keep telling the facist law & order conservatives that the longer unwarranted stop and frisk happens, the more the people it happens to will distrust the police and when those same people get into a court room, they won't believe the police and that may result in a criminal being found "not guilty."

We need change. When I was young I thought cops were cool. They had a respectable and honorable job to keep people safe and fight crime. Now, I think their tactics are unfair and they abuse their authority. The police should consider the consequences of a generation of young people who want nothing to do with them — distrust, alienation and more crime.

Last May, I was outside my apartment building on my way to the store when two police officers jumped out of an unmarked car and told me to stop and put my hands up against the wall. I complied. Without my permission, they removed my cellphone from my hand, and one of the officers reached into my pockets, and removed my wallet and keys. He looked through my wallet, then handcuffed me. The officers wanted to know if I had just come out of a particular building. No, I told them, I lived next door.

One of the officers asked which of the keys they had removed from my pocket opened my apartment door. Then he entered my building and tried to get into my apartment with my key. My 18-year-old sister was inside with two of our younger siblings; later she told me she had no idea why the police were trying to get into our apartment and was terrified. She tried to call me, but because they had confiscated my phone, I couldn’t answer.

Meanwhile, a white officer put me in the back of the police car. I was still handcuffed. The officer asked if I had any marijuana, and I said no. He removed and searched my shoes and patted down my socks. I asked why they were searching me, and he told me someone in my building complained that a person they believed fit my description had been ringing their bell. After the other officer returned from inside my apartment building, they opened the door to the police car, told me to get out, removed the handcuffs and simply drove off. I was deeply shaken.

In many areas, the police are out of control.

Hat Tip P6

What A Strange GOP Race

What a strange race when Newt Gingrich is being said to be a "real conservative" and not just by primary opponents.

I've Been Letting This Marinade All Day

I've been letting this marinade all day and I still don't know what to think about it.

For decades, Democrats have suffered continuous and increasingly severe losses among white voters. But preparations by Democratic operatives for the 2012 election make it clear for the first time that the party will explicitly abandon the white working class.

All pretense of trying to win a majority of the white working class has been effectively jettisoned in favor of cementing a center-left coalition made up, on the one hand, of voters who have gotten ahead on the basis of educational attainment — professors, artists, designers, editors, human resources managers, lawyers, librarians, social workers, teachers and therapists — and a second, substantial constituency of lower-income voters who are disproportionately African-American and Hispanic.

...

The 2012 approach treats white voters without college degrees as an unattainable cohort. The Democratic goal with these voters is to keep Republican winning margins to manageable levels, in the 12 to 15 percent range, as opposed to the 30-point margin of 2010 — a level at which even solid wins among minorities and other constituencies are not enough to produce Democratic victories.

How in the world do you consider the working class white vote no longer attainable when, in the last election, you tried, at least, not to get below a floor portion of the vote? You go from a goal to just saying, "ignore white voters"?

The last time I checked, those who don't have a college degree are the majority of the population.

*BLINK*

I think this says more than what is quoted in this article. I think this says the Obama administration hasn't done squat for that demographic so they are just saying, "Forget them because we screwed them, anyway."

The poor, as a group, vote in much lower levels than other demographics and I can't see how the group they are going for is going to get them the vote.

I don't get it.

 

Which Is More Important?

Two stories, actually, three but the third is a different post, have
me DEEPLY troubled.

The first, not because of order of importance, is this story about an
over weight boy being removed from his home and placed in foster care
for the "safety" of the kid. http://bit.ly/vrTck9


Authorities in Ohio, last week, determined that an overweight
(unnamed) 8-year-old boy was too fat, so they took him away from his
parents in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Officials told the parents that
they were not controlling his weight well enough.

The boy was reportedly over 200 pounds, well into the severely obese
category, according to Cleveland Plain Dealer. That extra weight puts
people at risk for diabetes, hypertension and other weight-related
disorders, doctors say.

The state’s Department of Children and Family Services insisted that
the third grader was being neglected, and that his mother was not
following doctors’ orders to control his weight.

The family’s lawyer disagrees, claiming that the state is overstepped
its role in taking the boy, and that his health risk factors do not
pose an imminent threat.


For an 8 year old boy, 200 pounds is in a dangerous zone. And from
what I hear on the radio, now, the government worked with the mother
for a year to do something about the boy's weight. My general concern
is, what is considered to be "too fat" and, given how government
starts at something "reasonable" and then quickly goes into the
unreasonable area, doesn't this set a dangerous precedent?

Suppose a child doesn't have access to the Internet at home? Will the
government then take kids from their parents because someone deems the
Internet to be "essential" to "healthy living"?

The second is something that is at least as frightening. Senate bill,
S. 1253, the National Defense Authorization Act, drafted by Sens. Carl
Levin, D-Mich., and John McCain, R-Ariz., that would allow the arrest,
detainment, and lack of a trial, for a U.S. citizen, on U.S. soil, if
they are suspected of having "a relationship" with a
terrorist organization.

A U.S. citizen, being stripped of trial rights? And, as equally
important, the military being given authority to perform military
actions on U.S. soil without emergency action by Congress and the
President?

Hello?

Keeping It Plain on Occupy Wall Street #OWS

Plain and simple, they messed up by having "occupations" instead of one day protests, not that I am a fan of them. But when you get a group of people, "camping out," and the objective appears to make a noise and be noticed, there is going to be trouble when the people stay too long.

Were you upset at the amount of student loans you have? Well, blame yourself and/or your parents. You determined it was worthwhile to go into the debt you did for an education. If you want to get mad, get mad at Washington, because in the last bill to "fix" credit issues, congress made it so when a bankruptcy occurs, education loan debt can't be discharged.

And if you are upset at Wall Street, make sure you are also upset at politicians in D.C. because they worked hand in hand in their unholy alliance.

And, finally, you learned a good lesson this week. Early on, the Democrat politicians seemed to support you. But you overstayed your welcome, and now, the Democrats in power in the cities you camped out, are using the government to "suppress" you. The same government from which you are seeking REDRESS, is the same government willing to "SUPPRESS."

Congress: Straight Up Gangstah

I'm not really a fan of the web site, but read this and remember when congress-critters defend the 1%, they are defending themselves. (Not that I have anything against the 1%). Also, read about how Congress is exempt from insider trading.
http://lewrockwell.com/rep2/to-get-rich-get-elected.html

#1 The collective net worth of all of the members of Congress increased by 25 percent between 2008 and 2010.

#2 The collective net worth of all of the members of Congress is now slightly over 2 billion dollars. That is "billion" with a "b".

...

#5 The net worth of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi increased by 62 percent from 2009 to 2010. In 2009 it was reported that she had a net worth of 21.7 million dollars, and in 2010 it was reported that she had a net worth of 35.2 million dollars.

#6 The top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, saw his wealth grow by 29 percent from 2009 to 2010. He is now worth approximately 9.8 million dollars.

...

#9 Insider trading is perfectly legal for members of the U.S. Congress – and they refuse to pass a law that would change that.

...

Well, there are lots of ways they are raking in the cash, but one especially alarming thing that goes on is that members of Congress often make investments in companies that will go up significantly if legislation that is being considered by Congress "goes the right way".

This is called a "conflict of interest", but it happens constantly in Congress and nobody seems to get into any trouble for it.

Straight. Up. Gangstah.

Good Job 10 - 13%

I don't live in Baltimore City but I have family who does live there and I have a few friends who live there. So, I keep a track of what is happening in that city and it really is sad and maddening.

On Tuesday, Nov 8, 2011, there was a city election. Only 10 - 13% of the people eligible to vote turned out. On that day, those who turned out, overwhelmingly selected for mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who has been the interim mayor since Shelia Dixon resigned in disgrace. On Thursday, Nov 10, 2011, interim-mayor-elect Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, announced she would propose a raise the city bottle tax. This same tax, when enacted, was listed as the reason the Pepsi Bottling Company, closed the Baltimore bottling facility.

(Behind a financial firewall)

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-ci-school-bottle-tax-20111110,0,2920358.story

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake plans to propose Monday a plan to boost yearly funding for public school construction by $23 million, in part by increasing the city's new bottle tax to 5 cents,
according to administration sources.

The plan would raise to $40 million Baltimore's annual contribution to school renovation and construction, enabling the city to sell bonds to help pay for the estimated $2.8 billion in improvements needed for the aging school buildings.

All proposed tax increases are claimed to be necessary for school construction, yet it doesn't happen.

You get what you voted for, and didn't vote for, Baltimore.

Rush Limbaugh Praised Jackie Robinson on Politics, But Did He Know The Full Story?

I was looking to see what Rush Limbaugh had to say about the Herman Cain mess. On Limbaugh's website was posted a transcript of what he had to say. I read it and saw this:

Anything goes, as far as they're concerned, and they cannot allow a black or an Hispanic to rise to the top of a political establishment that is not Democrat.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You think I'm wrong about this? Jackie Robinson in the 1960s was denounced. Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball, was denounced as an "Uncle Tom" because he supported Republicans in the 1960s. Jackie Robinson. The left, the Democrat Party of the day called Jackie Robinson an Uncle Tom.

I remembered Jackie Robinson got slammed for backing Nixon, not Republicans in general. So, I did a search and came up with this, Jackie Robinson, Political Life After Baseball:

In 1964 Governor Rockeller asked me to become one of six deputy national directors of his campaign.  I had spent seven years at Chock Full O'Nuts.  I decided to resign from my job rather than ask for leave.  The knowledge I had acquired about the business world, I considered invaluable.  I had been criticized by some of my fellow officers in the company who genuinely felt I took the part of the employees to often, that I was too soft on them.  Even so I had been given generous raises and benefits, allowed to purchase a healthy bundle of stock, and been elected to the board.  I was becoming restless; I wanted to involve myself in politics as a means of helping black people and I wanted my own business enterprises.  I had been increasingly convinced of the need for blacks to become more integrated into the mainstream of the economy.  I was not thinking merely of job integration.  A statement Malcolm X made was more impressive.  Referring to some college students who were fighting to be served in Jim Crow restaurants, Malcolm said he wanted not only the cup of coffee but also the cup and saucer, the counter, the store and the land on which the restaurant stood.

I believed blacks ought to become producers, manufacturers, developers, and creators of businesses, providers of jobs.  For too long we had been spending much too much money on liquor while we owned too few liquor stores and were not even manufacturing it.  If you found a black man making shoes or candy or ice cream it was a rarity.  We talked about not having capital, but we needed to learn to take a chance, to be daring, to pool capital, to organize our buy power so that the millions we spent did not leave our communities to be stacked up in th downtown banks.  In addition to the economic security we could build with green power, we could use economic means to reinforce black power.  How much more effective our demands for a piece of the action would be if we were negotiating from the strength of our own self-reliance rather than stating our case in the role of a beggar or someone out for charity.  We live in a materialistic society in which money doesn't only talk - it screams.  I could not forget that some of the very ballplayers who swore the most fervently that they wouldn't play with me because I was black were the first to begin helping me, giving me tips and advice, as soon as they became aware that I could be helpful to them in winning the few thousand more dollars players receive as world champs.  The most prejudiced of the club owners were not as upset about the game being contaminated by black players as they were by fearing the integration would hurt them in the pocketbooks.  Once they found out that more - not fewer - customers, black and white, were coming through those turnstiles, their prejudices were suppressed.

When Governor Rockefeller invited me on board his campaign ship, I had no idea of any long-term relationship in politics.  I saw this as a sign that now was the time for me to enter into a new world of political involvement with a man I respected.  At the same time I could be free to pursue some business endeavors that had been proposed to me.  I had been approached about becoming a key organizer in a projected, new insurance company, an integrated firm that, I hoped, could be a force in correcting some of the unjust practices of some insurance firms that treat blacks unfairly.  At this time the group organizing a new bank in Harlem - Freedom National - had asked me to help put it together and to become chairman of the board, and there were other business ventures in which I felt I might be able to play a vital role.  When I submitted my resignation to Bill Black, he understood my aspirations.  He didn't want me to leave, and he was genuinely concerned as to whether I was making the wisest move.  He tried to persuade me to stay.  I appreciated his attitude, but my mind was made up.  I joined the Rockefeller headquarters.

One of the first things that became clear to me was that I had not been called on to be the black adviser to the campaign.  Often white politicians secure the services of a black man and slot him only for appearances and activities within the black community.  Sometimes they do this to avoid letting whites know that they are making a strong pitch for black support.  During the Rockefeller campaign I met with groups and made appearances before audiences which were sometimes predominately black, and other times mainly white.  On several occasions, when the governor came into town for a meeting with politicians or community people, I would accompany him.  At some of the larger meetings, I would be asked to introduce the governor.

I was not as sold on the Republican party as I was on the governor.  Every chance I got, while I was campaigning, I said plainly what I thought of the right-wing Republicans and the harm they were doing.  I felt the GOP was a minority party in term of numbers of registered voters and could not win unless they updated their social philosophy and sponsored candidates and principles to attract the young, the black, and the independent voter.  I said this often from public, and frequently Republican, platforms.  By and large Republicans had ignored blacks and sometimes handpicked a few servile leaders in the black community to be their token "niggers".  How would I sound trying to go all out to sell Republicans to black people?  They're not buying.  They know better.

I admit freely that I think, live, and breathe black first and foremost.  That is one of the reasons I was so committed to the governor and so opposed to Senator Barry Goldwater.  Early in 1964 I wrote a Speaking Out piece for The Saturday Evening Post.  A Barry Goldwater victory would insure that the GOP would be completely the white man's party.  What happened at San Francisco when Senator Goldwater became the Republican standard-bearer confirmed my prediction.

I wasn’t altogether caught of guard by the victory of the reactionary forces in the Republican party, but I was appalled by the tactics they used to stifle their liberal opposition.  I was a special delegate to the convention through an arrangement made by the Rockefeller office. That convention was one of the most unforgettable and frightening experiences of my life. The hatred I saw was unique to me because it was hatred directed against a white man.  It embodied a revulsion for all he stood for, including his enlightened attitude toward black people.

A new breed of Republicans had taken over the GOP.  As I watched this steamroller operation in San Francisco, I had a better understanding of how it must have felt to be a Jew in Hitler’s Germany.

Herm Cain Isn't Being Lynched

Herman Cain is not being being "high tech lynched." When these allegations of sexual harassment broke in Politico, there was mention of a settlement of some sort. Now Herman Cain is saying he was cleared of allegations but the National Restaurant Association settled something of some sort. One, if they settled, I maintain that he would know enough of the details since he was the target. Two, the stories coming from his campaign and then him, are inconsistent. It's the latter that's becoming a BIG problem with Herman Cain.

Whether it's abortion, foreign policy, or the 9-9-9 plan, Cain is showing an inconsistency of replying, when he is put under questioning. Those who are defending Cain by saying this is a bias against conservative Black men, are race hustling; period.

[ Update ]

And one other thing. Conservatives are crying "liberal bias" when it's not clear WHO it came from. Really, what they are saying is, if conservative media heard the story, they would not report it. Which is a bias the conservative media always complains about when it comes from the liberal press.

 

Lack of Immunity Is Why US Withdrawls from Iraq

The lack of immunity for U.S. forces is the reason why the U.S. is withdrawing from Iraq:

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's prime minister said Saturday that U.S. troops are leaving Iraq after nearly nine years of war because Baghdad rejected American demands that any U.S. military forces to stay would have to be shielded from prosecution or lawsuits.

The comments by Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, made clear that it was Iraq who refused to let the U.S. military remain under the Americans' terms.

A day earlier, President Barack Obama had hailed the troops' withdrawal as the result of his commitment — promised shortly after taking office in 2009 — to end the war that he once described as "dumb."

Republicans need to shut up. Once this gets around, it's going to be a big bullet in the foot.

Gangsta Super Committee Questions

Let me ask a very simple question: What is the percentage increase of funds raised by members of the "super committee"?

Let me ask another question: What lobby groups gave to these members for the first time?

Let me ask a bonus question: Why are Republicans on the committee keeping quiet about what is happening when Republicans, rightly, complain about lack of openness of the Obama administration?

MD Republicans Looking Out For Black Voters

The governor of Maryland has released his ideas for congressional redistricting and some Black politicians are not happy. Census data indicates that growth in Maryland is in Maryland D.C. suburban areas where Hispanics and Blacks are living.

The Democratic governor has devised a plan that DILUTES the voting power of Blacks. It is Republicans who are presenting a plan where another majority ethnic minority district is created. Of course, it secures currently Republican districts but not at expense of minority voters.

More as this unfolds.