Examining the Tuesday News

There was good news on page 4 of the Baltimore Examiner this morning, kind of. Len Lazarick reports that there are not more than 70 votes in favor of putting slot parlors in the Maryland Constitution. Pray that the GA members hang in there and address this, appropriately, during the regular session in 2008.

Lower on the busy page we learn from Len that cuts are not cuts, but merely reductions in the rate of increase in a budget that has not yet appeared. Maryland's Constitution permits the GA to cut the Governor's budget, but not increase or rearrange it. In the newspeak of 2007, slowing spending is cutting and the budget receives trimming in the same manner as the Emperor's new clothes, without being seen.

As far as the discussion of priests goes, we are taking about priests now, aren't we, I have a couple of questions: Why haven't the majority of priests stepped forward an objected to the coddling of those in their number who are credibly accused, and those who are convicted of crimes involving sexual abuse of children and young adults. Can't the chief priest in a congregation decline to have a pedophile assigned to his congregation? If sanctions resulted, should not the body of good priests stand together? Lastly, if the Church objects to abortions, and states that politicians endorsing abortion are not welcome, how can priests register as Democrats? Isn't abortion part of the Democratic Party platform?

Thank you, Chief Goodwin, for your lifetime of honorable service to the citizens of Baltimore. Somehow, I expect that your retirement will result in personal and professional growth. I hope that the department staff, the firefighters and officers, will take note of how the Union represents them until they reach the heights of their profession. First, they stick by you, and then they stick it to you. You took responsibility for the failures that occurred on your watch and took timely, appropriate action against those who betrayed the trust placed in them. God speed. Maybe Stephen Janis and Luke Broadwater will write about the other thirty-one years of your career.

I have to jump to page 10 for the continuing saga of Ticket-gate. Some questions continue here, too. Maybe Stephen Janis can address them. How long have the errant ticket writers been writing tickets? How far back are we going to look? When a police officer perjures themselves in a case, our State's Attorney reviews all cases where the officer is a witness, dropping the pending cases. Is there an effort to review the work of the allegedly perjuous parking control officer? The big question - why didn't Citi-Stat catch this?

Page 19 brings a great juxtaposition of articles. News in Brief. Item 1, GOP hopeful Thompson urges growing military. Item 2, Edwards proposes $2B for paid family leave program. You don't need the text of these items to see the difference. GOP candidate urges protection of United States. Democrat candidate proposes to redistribute wealth. One wants to perform a Constitutional function; one wants to do something entirely different.

Moreover, on, and on it went. Democrats refuse to fund the military and complain that although the deficit is falling (lower tax rates resulted in increased revenue) they are not happy. Don't you just love a cup of coffee and a newspaper? I know I do.

Annapolis Halloween

I almost ran into Baltimore Sun Columnist Laura Vozzella in Annapolis Monday as the No-Tax Rally was starting. Sidestepping, I spoke to her, but she took one look at the man in the Stars and Stripes hat and moved quickly away. She looks taller in the paper.

Her column of the following day, Halloween goes all tasteful -- baltimoresun.com, didn’t address the rally, but was, as almost always, interesting. Often I think that her columns reveal more in what they don’t say in that they trigger memories of related information that sharpens the attentive readers’ focus. I did have some comments on her musings. (Or, are these musings on her comments?)

Halloween Decorations
The sedate Government House display is an example of parents molding their children in the image in which the grandparents molded them. Marty is from, as she notes, MoCo and Katie from staid Homeland. Of course, we have to wonder about the sincerity of the plain-jane facade in light of the bathwater drinking proclivity disclosures of the Gov made by the First Lady.

Speech Writing
I suspect the Governor does his own writing. I can't imagine anyone editing this stuff and letting it go through as a speech.

Perhaps what he really needs is an editor with good taste.

By the way, did you notice that there were no explosions of applause during the Special Session opening speech? I have seen it attributed to a lack of support, but believe it more likely that the room was dumbfounded by the rhetorical flourishes.

Harris v. Gilchrest
I am shocked; shocked, I tell you to hear a political operative deny participating in the spreading of nastiness about an opponent in Maryland politics.

If we learned nothing from the recent past, we should know that the pol first inoculates himself from nasty rumors by, at the very least, staring into a television camera and declaring his innocence, particularly when the nasty involves sexual indiscretion.