Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Delegate Mike McDermott Press Release

Delegate Mike McDermott on HB-1213:

“The process surrounding this bill was appalling”

(ANNAPOLIS)—“If we’re going to debate something let it be done fair and impartial and allow the views of the people of this state to be reflected in their citizen legislature. Not those that hide in the back room, making deals around a table deciding what the delegations are going to receive” said Delegate Michael A. McDermott(R-District-38B) on the House floor while discussing HB-1213 on Sine Die. HB-1213, Sales and Use Tax - Alcoholic Beverages - Supplementary Appropriation, will dramatically increase the sales tax rate on alcoholic beverages by 50 percent. Many Delegates, including Delegate Mike McDermott, were angered by the process of the floor proceedings when Speaker Michael E. Busch shut down debate for HB-1213 after only a few delegates had spoken.

“The people of Maryland are booing this process. That’s why they put so many freshmen in here: they’re tired of it! They’re tired of this process! They’re tired of not being heard! They’re tired of you deciding what’s right on a dark night and ramming this through at the eighty-ninth day. They’re tired of you not letting them have a voice in this chamber, where they say ‘You have taxed me enough!’ ” argued Delegate McDermott.

The bill will be particularly tough on border areas like Worcester and Wicomico Counties where prices are cheaper in neighboring states. According to the Fiscal Note on the bill, the increased tax will likley result in job losses and a decrease in overall business for Maryland at a time when our economy continues to suffer.

“The people are weary. They’re weary of your taxes. They’re weary of your intolerance. They’re weary of your opportunity to tyrannically run this house any way you choose” concluded McDermott.

The bill is a sweetheart deal for Baltimore City, Prince Georges County, and Montgomery County who will recieve $27 million of the cut while 8 Eastern Shore Counties will only receive $156,000. HB-1213 passed with a vote of 78-62 in the House.

Allow Me To Respond

A friend just sent me the below comment found on another Website....

"I have no doubt that Sarah was found on 12/24. As a political move, Mike Lewis called the community together to search. They were sent everywhere but where the body was. I had friends who went and searched on their own even they people were told not to. A red ribbon was found on the property where she was found indicating that it had already been searched. The red ribbon was a nice little gimmick,wasn't it? Well thought out and useful. I am very bitter about this. I did not celebrate Christmas with my children as I usually do. My children did not have a joyous happy day. Don't get me wrong, I would do it all again, but I am angry that it didn't have to be that way. How did Joe Albero know? He was with Mike Lewis at the command post on 12/24 (not out searching like everyone else)and got the info directly from him and/or that agency."

MY RESPONSE...

While Sheriff Mike Lewis and I are not on good terms at this point and time I'd still like to make something VERY clear here. During this period, Sheriff Lewis was VERY upset because of the information I was receiving and even forwarding to Sheriff Lewis. Sheriff Lewis, (nor any of his staff) at NO time during this investigation fed me any information and I'd swear to that in a court of law.

While there are some who'd like to believe different, let me assure you, Sheriff Lewis over the past 5 years has ALWAYS been amazed at the information I have received, sometimes before HE even became aware of it.

Now, that being said, let me assure each and every one of you following Salisbury News, I know more about this case and things that happened than ANY one of you. You have to believe me when I tell you, it kills me inside to have made the choice to keep that information to myself. And trust me, 95% of it has to do with the case and NOT how things happened to little Sarah.

Out of respect, (for now) for the Family I have chosen to stay silent. However, believe me, there may come a time in which I will say my peace and if certain Family Members keep doing what they're trying to do, that time may come sooner than anyone thinks and that won't be good for a LOT of people.

I simply wanted to clear the air on the above matter. Sheriff Mike Lewis is a good Sheriff. The choices that were made were in the best interest of Sarah Foxwell and the investigation and conviction of Thomas Leggs. Remember, it was my Christmas too. Yet we stayed put until the very end, or shall I say, until WBOC could go LIVE with it.

Salisbury News Does Interview With National Public Radio Station

When I received a call last week from Washington, D.C. National Public Radio Headquarters I was very pleased to hear they were interested in an open discussion comparing Blogs to the Main Stream Media. With the choice of literally hundreds of thousands of Blogs, MPR wanted Salisbury News, no question about it.

Today I was joined by G.A. Harrison, (Contributor to SBYNews.com) John Hayden, a former journalist from The Baltimore Sun and the Host of a local Radio Station WRAU (88.5) Brian Russo, I knew things would get interesting and I was right.

While I won't get in depth with the interview, I can tell you it will air on Friday at noon and again Friday evening. Salisbury News will also provide the link to the broadcast so everyone can hear it at their leisure.

So if you were wondering why I have been quiet over the past few hours it is because we were in Ocean City doing the interview.

Psychiatrist: Leftists Are Mentally Ill

Just when liberal-leftists thought it was finally "their time" to lead center-right America, kicking and screaming, into a stifling socialist "utopia," a veteran psychiatrist is making a powerful case that the "hope-and-change" ideology motivating them is actually a mental disorder.

For more than 40 years, Dr. Lyle Rossiter has diagnosed and treated over 1,500 patients as a board-certified clinical psychiatrist and examined more than 2,700 civil and criminal cases, both state and federal, as a board-certified forensic psychiatrist retained by numerous public offices, courts and private attorneys. He received his medical and psychiatric training at the University of Chicago.

Rossiter explains with great clarity why the kind of liberalism being displayed by Barack Obama can only be understood as a psychological disorder.

"Based on strikingly irrational beliefs and emotions, modern liberals relentlessly undermine the most important principles on which our freedoms were founded," says Rossiter. "Like spoiled, angry children, they rebel against the normal responsibilities of adulthood and demand that a parental government meet their needs from cradle to grave."

"A social scientist who understands human nature will not dismiss the vital roles of free choice, voluntary cooperation and moral integrity – as liberals do," he says. "A political leader who understands human nature will not ignore individual differences in talent, drive, personal appeal and work ethic, and then try to impose economic and social equality on the population – as liberals do. And a legislator who understands human nature will not create an environment of rules which overregulates and overtaxes the nation's citizens, corrupts their character and reduces them to wards of the state – as liberals do."

Dr. Rossiter says the liberal agenda preys on weakness and feelings of inferiority in the population by:

    * creating and reinforcing perceptions of victimization;
    * satisfying infantile claims to entitlement, indulgence and compensation;
    * augmenting primitive feelings of envy;
    * rejecting the sovereignty of the individual, subordinating him to the will of the government.

"The roots of liberalism – and its associated madness – can be clearly identified by understanding how children develop from infancy to adulthood and how distorted development produces the irrational beliefs of the liberal mind," he says. "When the modern liberal mind whines about imaginary victims, rages against imaginary villains and seeks above all else to run the lives of persons competent to run their own lives, the neurosis of the liberal mind becomes painfully obvious."

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Obama ‘Regrets Vote Against Raising Debt Ceiling In 2006, Calls It ‘Mistake’

After averting a government shutdown in an eleventh hour budget deal Friday between the Democratic White House and Senate and Republican House that cut $38.5 billion, the next fiscal battleground will be over whether significant spending cuts will accompany a vote to increase the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. The debt ceiling is the legal limit on how much the federal government can borrow.

Before casting his vote as a senator, Obama said on March 16, 2006:

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren.

"America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America's debt limit.”

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Budget Deal Full Of Tricks

The historic $38 billion in budget cuts resulting from at-times hostile bargaining between Congress and the Obama White House were accomplished in large part by pruning money left over from previous years, using accounting sleight of hand and going after programs President Barack Obama had targeted anyway.

Such moves permitted Obama to save favorite programs - Pell grants for poor college students, health research and "Race to the Top" aid for public schools, among others - from Republican knives, according to new details of the legislation released Tuesday morning.

And big holes in foreign aid and Environmental Protection Agency accounts were patched in large part. Republicans also gave up politically treacherous cuts to the Agriculture Department's food inspection program.

The details of the agreement reached late Friday night just ahead of a deadline for a partial government shutdown reveal a lot of one-time savings and cuts that officially "score" as cuts to pay for spending elsewhere, but often have little to no actual impact on the deficit.

More here

May 5 Presidential Debates

Chairman Floyd,

On Friday April 8, 2011 you announced that the state GOP put a special threshold on who could be eligible for participating in the May 5, 2011 South Carolina Presidential debate. Candidates must have registered a presidential exploratory committee or presidential campaign with the Federal Election Commission, filed paperwork to be placed on the ballot in South Carolina, pay associated state and federal filing fees, and meet national polling criteria consistent with benchmark support numbers used for past debates. Not all the listed candidates have met the requirements, but are expected to.

Neither the Republican Party of South Carolina nor the National Republican Party has the authority to override, bypass or rewrite the Constitution of the United States of America. You do not have the power to create special thresholds that limit the participants to career politicians, millionaires and the ruling elite. Our campaign has been officially registered with the Federal Election Commission and our candidate has met the criteria required by the Constitution of the United States of America under Article II section I to hold the Office of the President of the United States of America.

Therefore, we are formally requesting that Presidential Candidate Thomas J. Miller be invited and allowed to participate in the May 5, 2011 South Carolina Presidential debates. Please forward all information regarding this event to me at jalbero@reducegovernment.com.

Regards,

Joe Albero

National Press Secretary

Reduce Government Miller for President

Thomas J. Miller

Registered Candidate R., President of the United States of America 2012

Federal Election Commission ID: P20001947

Principal Campaign Committee:

Reduce Government w Miller for President ID: C00462010

www.reducegovernment.com

Wicomico Elected School Board Bill DEAD! …

… at least for this year.

THANKS Norm Conway! Rick Pollitt, John Fredericksen, and the NAACP couldn’t have done it without you!

Here’s the synopsis:

Senate passes bill.
Conway diddles with his own bill by adding one amendment, withdrawing it, and then adding another (one that was obviously designed to confuse the voters).
House Ways & Means gives bill favorable report on Saturday.
House adopts Conway’s amended bill.
Bill is recommitted to the Senate because the Senate bill (which is EXACTLY the same as Conway’s original bill) differs from the House bill.
Bill is dead for 2011.

Confusing?

Of course it is. Watch Norm explain that he really didn’t torpedo the elected school board bill. Watch Norm’s nose grow as he speaks.

"Paying It Forward" A Huge Success At Pani Pit Pizza

Let me start by thanking ALL of the people for attending our FREE Pizza Night last night at Pani Pit Pizza.

Not only have we helped introduce a local business to the community, we also paid it forward by supporting that business by purchasing 22 Extra Large Pizza's over a 2 hour period.

From 6 to 8 PM we enjoyed a completely packed house. The Staff did everything they could to keep those pizza's coming and while there was a slight delay in the beginning, (so many people) they quickly caught up and ultimately had pies ready at will.

Even though the Anti Albero Bloggers claimed they would picket this event, none of them showed up, as usual. Just remember Folks, these are very obsessed people who have very serious mental problems. They spend all of their time on earth trying to bash one person, me. They don't go out to ring a bell for the Salvation Army. Instead they call corporate WalMart and tell them they witnessed me calling an interracial couple a N-Word loving whore, (a complete and utter lie). They don't go out and clear the snow from driveways and walkways for the elderly and handicapped and they simply do not give back to their community.

These are the same people who call our advertisers and threaten them, yet they don't even have the money to patronize them. In the end, these people are attempting to hurt organizations like the Salvation Army and those recipients of the tens of thousands of dollars we donate to non profits and people in need.

The whole idea of Salisbury News is not only to keep you informed on a real time basis but to also give back to this community. Last night was yet another example of how "good people" can come together and help support a local business.

I want to thank ALL of you for participating as well as Pani Pit Pizza. Each and every person who visited said they'd be back. Finally, to those Parents who brought all those children. Each child personally came up to me to thank me. That was how I was raised and it is such a pleasure to see their generation offering the same gratitude. You've ALL done well and you should be very proud.

DC Mayor Arrested Protesting Budget Restrictions

Gray calls terms of budget deal to avoid government shutdown 'completely unacceptable' for district

WASHINGTON — The budget deal lawmakers struck to avoid a government shutdown was greeted by some with relief, but it has one city already reeling: the capital itself.

City officials say Washington was used as a pawn in last week's budget bargaining, with new restrictions part of the price of a deal.

Maryland's 'Transvestite Protection Act' Sent Back To Committee

Members of the Maryland state Senate voted to return a "Gender Identity Anti-Discrimination" proposal that originally could have created coed showers in public facilities across the state to a committee, a legislative maneuver on the last day of the 2011 legislature that ended its chances for this year.

The 27-20 vote in the legislative body was on H.B. 235, which had been approved days earlier by committee on the judiciary on a 7-4 vote.

The decision was the second recent victory for traditional morality in the state, with the earlier vote by lawmakers against approval of same-sex "marriages."

Officials with the National Gay and Lesbian Task force lamented the decision.

Executive Director Rea Cary accused the members of the Senate of turning their backs "on an opportunity to recognize and affirm our common humanity." Activists for the gender bill already had reduced its impact by making it apply only to credit, housing and jobs.

Originally, the strategy would have included gender identity nondiscrimination in "public facilities," which would have included locker rooms, restrooms, bath houses, club houses and dressing rooms.

The state's HB 235 would prohibit discrimination based on "sexual orientation" or "gender identity" with regard to housing, leasing property and in credit.
Officials with the NotMyShower.com website, who organized when Montgomery County was considering its own plan in 2007 and 2008, said there were a number of problems with the idea.
The proposal also would have taken away "the freedom of Marylanders to disagree with those who cannot accept their gender, mandates acceptance of ideology" and other complications, the coalition worried.

While the legislation would ban "discrimination" against cross-dressers and others, employers would have no way of knowing what they could do.

"'Appearance' could even change from hour to hour during the work day. Gender Identity can change at will. Gender Identity is not an immutable class like other protected classes such as race or sex. … With HB 235, your employee can be Molly in the morning and Mark in the evening. The bill gives no restriction," it warned.

Companies originally even could be banned from asking questions of an employee if there are worries about men and women sharing dressing areas or "if a customer has privacy concerns, for example, about male employees dressed as females monitoring female dressing rooms."

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Child Shocked By Wire At National Zoo

A safety wire at the National Zoo’s Lemur Island exhibit shocked a little girl at about 5 p.m. Monday, sending her to a nearby hospital.

Zoo officials said the girl was balancing on her father’s shoulders when she reached up and touched the overhead safety wire.

Ever since we went back to allowing anonymous comments, its just amazing how many messages have already made it to our automatic spam file.

As of this morning there are a more than 800 spam messages in that folder. Now, more than likely these are the same hand full of people obsessed with trying to get their message through, yet they go right into spam and never get the chance to see the light of day.

Now let's see. If there are so many people visiting SBYNews every day being called cult members, what shall we call these people who keep writing nasty anonymous comments in that spam folder?

Local Blogger Joins Presidential Campaign

HEBRON, Md. - A local blogger is joining the campaign of a presidential candidate.

Joe Albero was recently hired as the National Press Secretary for the Thomas J. Miller campaign, which is titled, "Reduce Government, Miller for President."

China Dominates Market For ‘Rare Earth’ Minerals

It is time for the U.S. to stop panicking and start mining in the face of a possible shortage of “rare earth” mineral supplies from China, which dominates the global supply for the obscure minerals critical to the modern high-tech economy, according to market analysts and a growing number of lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

“The first step in the supply chain is the mining,” said Jack Lifton, a founding principal of Technology Metals Research LLC, an Illinois-based research firm that tracks the rare earths market. “The United States should develop immediately what it does have. Stop looking already. Start producing the stuff, [and] stop talking about it.”

More than a half-dozen bills have been introduced in Congress to survey U.S. rare earth stocks and encourage domestic production, though none has made it into law.

So-called rare earth elements reside in the obscure far reaches of the periodic table, but the little-known materials such as cerium, yttrium and praseodymium are front and center in a broad range of sophisticated industrial and defense uses, including cellphones, pollution control devices, medical tissue research and laser pointers.

Although it has only 30 percent of the world’s estimated deposits, China supplies more than 95 percent of the global market for the 17 rare earth minerals and has been steadily dropping its export quotas in recent years. That dominance was worrying many before Beijing abruptly “suspended” exports to Japan last fall in the middle of an unrelated territorial dispute.

China in 2010 exported 32,000 tons of rare earth materials, even though international demand was estimated at 55,000 tons. With demand expected to rise again this year, China’s quota has fallen to 25,000 tons, and prices for many rare earth minerals are soaring.

More here

Nine Out-Of-State Fishermen Charged With Poaching From Choptank River

Natural Resources Police tapes recreational anglers fishing in protected waters

Nine recreational anglers from out of state were charged with fishing for striped bass in protected waters during a weekend sting operation in the Choptank River south of Denton, just one week before the start of Maryland's spring season.

Working on tips from the public, Natural Resources Police officers shot video of the alleged poachers fishing on known spawning grounds and intercepted them as they returned to shore at Ganeys Wharf. Police say one angler caught 20 striped bass.

NRP said it shot video to prove in court that the anglers were targeting striped bass and not accidentally catching them while chasing other species.
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Mathias “Beams” While Harming Shore Veteran’s Organizations

Maryland Senator Jim Mathias (D-38) is portrayed in this morning’s Daily Times as “beaming” over the successful passage of his bill to get slots for Worcester County fraternal organizations. Good for you Jim.

Of course, if you happen to be a member of a fraternal or veterans organization in Somerset or Wicomico counties (also part of Mathias’s district) I wouldn’t be too happy. An important source of funding is now going to decline thanks to Mathias. If you are a member of a fraternal organization that has slots and you live in one of the remaining 6 Eastern Shore counties, I would be seething mad.

Why?

The bill that passed in the dead of night includes amendments that will require Shore organizations with slots to pay out a higher percentage of their revenues. In addition, the Comptroller (rather than each county’s Sheriff) will now license these slots and set fees.

Sen. Rich Colburn said he supports Worcester groups getting slots, but not if it means making backdoor changes to the regulations for everyone else.
"My main contention is that the people in the VFWs, the American Legions in the four counties that I represent, they didn't have any input to testifying in favor or against it," said Colburn, who voted against the amended bill in the Senate.

Great job Jim! I am sure that all members of the American Legion, VFW, Moose, Elks, and other organizations in Somerset, Wicomico, and the other Shore counties will be grateful.

Note – the link to the bill above is for the House Bill. That is because that is where the bill was finally passed. The offensive amendments came from the Senate where Mathias introduced the bill.

Norquist: Dems Lie On Default Risk

Democrats in Congress and the White House have warned that a failure to increase the debt limit would lead the government to default on its debt, throwing financial markets into turmoil. But Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform says default can be avoided without lifting the debt ceiling.

“This has been exposed as a political ploy, not a real concern, by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Penn., who has introduced legislation that would instruct the federal government to pay debt obligations first,” he writes on Politico.

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Is Fluoride Good For You?

Joe,

Flouride is a poison which is being added to public drinking water (bathing water) and being force delivered to the population. It is a by-product of industry. Most people know very little about flouride and I thought this article may be appreciated by some of your readers.

http://www.rense.com/general93/fluo.htm

Judge Threatens Jail In Homeschool Case

A judge who was demanding – for his own use – the names and addresses of all the homeschool students and their parents in his Mississippi judicial district threatened school officials with jail if they didn't give him what he wanted.

The reports of the threat from Judge Joe Dale Walker, of the state's 13th Chancery district court, come from one of the attendance officers involved in the case in which Walker demanded the student data.

"He threatened us," said one of the school officials later served with an order the judge wrote and signed for himself.

WND reported a week ago when Walker was ordered by the state Supreme Court to explain his demands.

His order for details about homeschoolers has been suspended until April 18 at least, when his explanation is due to the high court.

Walker declined to respond to multiple message left by WND seeking comment on the situation.

The state Supreme Court got involved when lawyers with the Home School Legal Defense Association, which fights for the rights of homeschooling worldwide, was informed of the situation by some of its members in Mississippi, and petitioned the high court on an emergency basis.

Walker had called a meeting with the school attendance officers and told them to provide the students names and addresses. They hesitated, as under federal law such information is confidential, and the judge said he had researched the issue and it was safe for them to give him the information, according to one of the attendance officers who spoke with WND today.

However, the state education department told them not to provide the information, and the judge, upset with the results, threatened that he would go write his own court order and then they would have to comply, the attendance officer said.

"The judge wanted information. We tried to explain we didn't think we could give it to him," the officer, whose identity is being withheld by WND. "He wanted it. He threatened us, said if he gave us a court order and we did not fulfill, we would be in contempt and would be arrested."

When WND reported on the case, it was noted that the information is being sought by the judge himself, as there is no underlying case, motion or dispute that could have prompted the request. There was no case number on the order and there were no other documents in the court file.

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Attention