Recently in Politics Category
From my jaundiced and apathetic viewpoint, Obama seems to have the most traction in the state. My representative - Elijah Cummings - and a whole raft of local Howard County officials are endorsing him. But Clinton has some high-power endorsements herself: Governor O'Malley and Senator Mikulski are both strong Clinton supporters. I've yet to settle on a candidate. I have till next Tuesday to do so. (Maryland has a closed primary system. To vote in the primaries, you have to declare an official party affiliation. I get to vote only for Democrats.)
I think this is the first time since I've lived in Maryland that my vote in the presidential primary might actually mean something. In all the other primaries, the nominee had been decided long before I got to vote. Now I have to really think seriously about my choice. I'm not free to cast my usual "What will piss off conservatives the most?" vote.
So much for my Al Gore write-in campaign.
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National
Governor Mike Huckabee yesterday apologized to Mitt Romney for disparaging Romney's Mormon religion. Gov. Huckabee caused the issue in published comments when he innocently suggested that according to Mormon teaching, Jesus and Satan are brothers. Presumably the apology was not over this specific point of Mormonism - Mormons really do believe Jesus and Lucifer are brothers (cf. D&C 76:25) - but that he brought up religion at all. Nevertheless, this is exactly the kind of political discourse our Founding Fathers wanted: presidential candidates cowed into defending their ways of worshiping God
by a powerful minority determined to impose its religious tenets as a
test for holding public office. May all Republicans rejoice!
Local
The demise of Columbia, Maryland's, Christmastime poinsettia tree has caused not only a little sadness in Howard County but a protest as well. For forty Christmases, the cultural, social, intellectual, and spiritual heart of Howard County's planned community - The Mall in Columbia - has boosted community Yuletide morale by providing Columbians with a huge poinsettia "tree" at the center of this venerable establishment. Unfortunately the Mall's new out-of-town management ditched the beloved tradition in favor of a tacky, crass, and tawdry "Santastic" experience (Where Santa believes in you!). Brokenhearted Columbians, desperate for solace, succor, and any last shred of the true spirit of Christmas, have been found as far away as Arundel Mills Mall in a futile attempt to regain the magic.
Sports
Major league baseball is issuing a report today naming names in the ever-growing steroid scandal. Evidently some pretty big names are going to be mentioned. Baltimore Oriole's-own Jay Gibbons has already admitted to steroid use and has been suspended for 15 games at the start of next season. Other Orioles are almost certainly going to be named. But you know what? So what else is new? Buzz was pitch-perfect on this one: Marion Jones was the last straw. Now I believe all world-class athletes - no matter the stripe, no matter the sport - are on steroids. I figure that kid who won the national spelling bee is on steroids.
Science
Scientists and anthropologists now understand why pregnant women don't tip over like bowling pins. Researchers from Harvard have discovered that skeletal adaptations of the female lower back can be found in early hominid fossils. These adaptations help relieve strain on the female lumbar region as women naturally lean back during pregnancy. Hominid women so equipped would be better adapted to their environment than hominid women without. It also explains the apparent lack of beer-gutted australopithecine men in the fossil record.
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The court certainly didn't close the door on the same-sex marriage issue in Maryland. It merely punted the whole thing into the lap of the legislature. "In declaring that the State's legitimate interests in fostering procreation and encouraging the traditional family structure ... our opinion should by no means be read to imply that the General Assembly may not grant and recognize for homosexual persons civil unions or the right to marry a person of the same sex," said Judge Glenn T. Harrell Jr., who wrote the majority opinion.
The same-sex marriage issue does merit discussion. In the Maryland case, same-sex couples argued that the Maryland law is a form of sex discrimination. Like the court, I don't really see it this way. Currently everyone has the right to marry someone of the opposite sex and no one has the right to marry someone of the same sex. We all have the one right; we're all denied the other. There's no discrimination against any one group. That this situation works out to the satisfaction of heterosexuals and not of gays is almost beside the point. Same-sex marriage is such a big expansion of the rights of everyone we need debate. What is the impact to society? We need to discuss it. Same-sex marriage is not the no-brainer some folks - both conservative and liberal - want it to be. In this case, the legislature is the proper place to begin.
Personally I have no problem with same-sex marriage. If two people want to create a stable, loving family unit why should society stop them? The high divorce and teen pregnancy rates seen in this country as well as the amount of spouse and child abuse do not lead me to think hetero-marriage is the noble, pro-family, society-sustaining, life-affirming institution traditionalists suggest it to be. The notion that marriage is for producing children has never been anything but antiquated. Senior citizens get married all the time without any intent (or capability) of producing offspring. All the hysterical, slippery-slope predictions suggested by traditionalists ("What's next? Marrying animals? Marrying dead people?") are nothing but canards. And please, please, please don't wave your Bible in my face and shout about biblical injunctions and abominations before God. Two verses plucked from a Pauline letter, devoid of any historical context, are not a sound basis for public policy. We need a 21st-century solution for all of society not just conservative Christians.
I expect the issue to surface again when the House of Delegates begins meeting in January. Gay couples are smarting from yesterday's ruling and religious zealots want to seal current law in the state constitution. The legislating will be difficult. But in the end, the fair and compassionate thing to do is ensure that everyone in Maryland is treated as equally as possible by the law.
I'll keep you posted.
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An update to this. Yesterday the Maryland General Assembly passed a bill requiring that Maryland restaurants and bars be smoke-free beginning in February 2008. The smoking ban includes private clubs. Governor Martin O'Malley has pledged to sign the smoking ban legislation.
The General Assembly ended its 90-day session ducking a few pressing issues: Maryland's looming budget deficit and the ongoing decline of the Chesapeake Bay chief among them. Other contentious issues - granting in-state tuition to the children of illegal immigrants and slot machines in Maryland - were deferred until next year. Bills to ban the death penalty and assault weapons were defeated. The tone of discourse seemed more pleasant now that Robert Ehrlich is gone.
That's it till next year.
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The Maryland General Assembly meets for 90 days beginning in January. It's a whirlwind of activity only occasionally capturing my undivided attention. This year's legislative session promised to be just a bit more entertaining because last November Republican governor Robert Ehrlich and his monstrous arrogance were voted out of office. Democratic mayor of Baltimore, Martin O'Malley, was voted in. No one was sure how well O'Malley and the legislature would play together.
This year, one issue I've been paying more than passing attention to is the statewide smoking ban now being debated in Annapolis. Howard County enacted a countywide ban last year and Baltimore City enacted one very early this year. A few other Maryland counties had already gone that way. Seeing the writing on the wall, both the Maryland House of Delegates and State Senate have passed measures banning smoking in bars and restaurants statewide. A conference committee will be required to iron out the differences. Whether to regulate smoking in private clubs and who decides hardship cases separate the two measures. O'Malley has stated he would sign a statewide ban if a bill reached his desk.
I didn't need one parent who died as a result of smoking and another who died from the effects of secondhand smoke to support a smoking ban, but it helps. For me, this is purely a worker health and safety issue. Let's try and think of another business or industry where known carcinogens are intentionally pumped directly into the workplace atmosphere shall we? Thought of any? Nope, me neither. In no other situation would a local jurisdiction permit such a palpably unsafe work environment to exist. It's only a matter of time before smoking bans in bars and restaurants become the norm everywhere.
As for the smokers? Well, the hell with them. Smokers fly cross-country in airplanes, they fly to Europe and Hawaii, they go to movies and concerts and shows, they sit in classrooms, all no smoking situations of duration longer than your average restaurant meal and gotten used to it. They can get used to this, and at the same time, feel good about not poisoning thousands of bar and restaurant workers. Quite frankly, I see this as a win-win situation.
I'll keep you posted.
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Maryland does most of its electing at the interim election. Senators, representatives, governors, state delegates and senators, county council representatives, and county executives all get decided in the off-years when there's no presidential election to contend with. (With its 10 electoral votes, Maryland is much too important to the presidential outcome to complicate things with state and local races.)
For several reasons, this year's national, state, and Howard County campaigns all promise to be barnburners. Maryland's race for US Senate is up in the air now that five-term senator, Paul Sarbanes, is retiring. Ben Cardin (D-MD District 3 representative), Kweisi Mfume (D-former head of NAACP), and Michael Steele (R-lieutenant governor) all are vying. I've met Cardin twice including one time on a bicycle ride. He joined the Baltimore Bicycling Club for a 15-miler one Saturday morning several years ago. He came across as a very nice guy who genuinely cares about Maryland. I hope he wins but he has to get past the primary. Steele may have already screwed the pooch trying to distance himself from W last week. In an effort to patch things up, Steele called W his "homeboy". How articulate.
Maryland's race for governor is going to get ugly. Very ugly. Republican incumbent Robert Ehrlich goes up against Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley. There is no love lost between these two guys and as we get closer to November, we're going to see a lot of mud. This race, and the US Senate race, are already being closely watched by political strategists from both parties - particularly Republicans - to see just how far down the Bush taint will affect things. (Which is going to be irritating. No one pays much attention to Maryland usually. I'm going to hate it if CNN and Fox News start getting into our knickers. We can elect our own governor thank you very much.) O'Malley is competent but too local to displace the ever-arrogant Ehrlich. Maryland's best hope was in Montgomery County Executive, Doug Duncan, who had to withdraw from the race due to health problems.
Then there's Howard County. Seems like everybody is running for something: county executive, county council, school board, registrar of wills, you name it. Land use and zoning will drive the outcomes. There are a lot of pissed-off Howard Countians right now and a couple of recent decisions - Comp Lite and approval of a 22-story condominium in Columbia - only confirm what everyone here already knows: developers have free reign. Even now, hundreds of candidate signs dot the landscape. There will be a lot of political hay to be made at next week's Howard County Fair.
I'll do my best to keep local politics out of Plugs and Dottles but no promises. These next three months are going to be just too much fun for us Maryland politics junkies.
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Maryland's 84-year-old comptroller and state curmudgeon, William Donald Schaefer, has made national news. On Wednesday, Don ogled a 24-year-old administrative aide at a public hearing. (He required two walking-away shots of her backside, making the second walk-away request of her in full view of the press.) Later he was unapologetic about what - at my place of employment, at least - must be considered an egregious bit of sexual harassment.
“That’s so goddamn dumb, I can’t believe it… [She] ought to be damn happy that I observed her going out the door. The day I don’t look at pretty women is the day I die,” said the unrepentant Schaefer.
No one, not a single, solitary person in Maryland, is surprised. Various Maryland state Democratic leaders have criticized Schaefer about the episode (including Montgomery County Executive, Doug Duncan, and Baltimore Mayor, Martin O'Malley, gubernatorial candidates both) and women's organizations have expressed both outrage and indignation. But for the hoi polloi of Maryland, this is just one more eye-roller from That's-Our-Don.
I'm sure many states have guys like Schaefer. He's a 50-year Maryland public servant, having been both Mayor of Baltimore and two-term Governor of Maryland. He's been Maryland State Comptroller since 1998. He's also an unabashed and vigorous booster of all things Maryland. But his statements and faux pas have gotten him in trouble before. He's kind of that wacky uncle people have: simultaneously dedicated and intemperate, loyal and exasperating, caring and belligerent. Even Maryland's current Republican governor seeks him as an ally.
All this doesn't excuse him. The woman humiliated is many decades and pay-grades below him. Where I work, only cheating on your timecard gets you fired faster than sexual harassment. It remains to be seen whether with this rudeness he has finally over-stepped.
But at least he only shot off his mouth.
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The Baltimore Sun has a very interesting article on the Trailblazer program at NSA. You remember the NSA? That's the place listening in to all our phone conversations at W-'s order.
Trailblazer was intended to be a high-tech response to NSA's problem of reducing and analzying all the data it receives every hour. Overly ambitious from the start, the program has failed to deliver on its promise despite 6 years of effort and $1.2B spent. One intelligence expert calls Trailblazer "the biggest boondoggle going on now in the intelligence community." Here's the link to the complete article although you may have to register to see it in its entirety. The article makes for compelling reading and may worry you (if you're not already concerned) about POTUS's illegal wiretap effort. (If you want, you can reach NSA by, quoting Letterman, "simply calling any phone number in the country.")
And speaking of compelling reading, check out the New York Times editorial from today. It clearly rebuts all of the Bush administration myths that will be foisted off on the country again Tuesday night.
Incompetentcy and arrogance abounds - though for different reasons - at NSA and in the Executive Branch.
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