Random Thoughts:

·         The Special Session begins tomorrow at 11:30 where the legislature will vote on a plan to reapportion Congressional Districts for the next ten years.  The self serving, incumbent protection plan is meant to grab another Congressional District for the Majority Party.  It is an absurd plan with one district going from Gaithersburg to Deep Creek Lake, another from Assateague Island to Taneytown and the rest of the state looking like someone threw a bucket of paint on the wall.  Remember that in the 1980s we had 4 Democrat and 4 Republican Congressional representatives and they represented reasonably coherent territories.  They also reasonably reflected a state that votes statewide nearly 50-50.  The new plan not only dilutes Republican voting strength, but also minorities and rural areas.

·         Tune in today to WCBM (680 on the AM dial) between 8 and 9 am.  Governor Mandel and I will be talking about the Maryland business climate and the special session.

·         President Obama is returning to the road this week to press Congress to start passing the American Jobs Act, beginning with $35 billion for states to put teachers and first-responders to work.  But as Mort Zuckerman notes in the Wall Street Journal article below,  "But if you look at the make-up of the stimulus program," says Mr. Zuckerman, "roughly half of it went to state and local municipalities, which is in effect to the municipal unions which are at the core of the Democratic Party." He adds that "the Republicans understood this" and it diminished the chances for bipartisan legislating.

·         This is just more of the same/.  While it sounds good to call for putting teachers and first responders back to work, this is the function of local government.  It is not the responsibility of the federal government and it is a payoff to organized labor.  Those jobs pay union dues which find their way right back into supporting Democrats campaign coffers.

Remember the violent and disgusting demonstrations over Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker doing away with collective bargaining for Teacher's unions?  The results are in.  Some school districts went from a $400,000 deficit to a $1,500,000 surplus as a result.  They are even hiring new teachers, not firing like the Liberals said would happen.  Why?

It seems that the insurance company that provided all the "so-called" benefits to the teachers was an insurance company owned and operated by the teacher's union.  Since the outfit was guaranteed to get the insurance business from the teachers, and the State had to pay for it (not the teachers) the insurance company was increasing  annual costs every single year to become the most expensive insurance company in the state.  Then the company was donating millions and millions of dollars to its favorite democrat politicians who, when they got elected, guaranteed to keep funding the union's outrageous costs.  In other words, the insurance company was a "pass through" for Wisconsin taxpayer money directly to the democrat politicians.

·         Former General Electric Chairman Jack Welch says President Barack Obama cannot lead the U.S. and doesn't deserve a second term. He says the remedy needed for the ailing economy involves a mix of tax and entitlement cuts and no new regulations. "I want to take this administration out," Welch says. "They don’t understand how to create jobs ... America is the greatest country in the world, and we have everything going for us except a government that is not supportive of capitalism."  To streamline the economy, Welch says if he were in charge, he'd shave 25 percent off current discretionary spending and another 5 percent off military spending, which would save about $1.3 trillion over 10 years, according to CNBC.