Outrage: no defense against government pickpockets

• WHO: Gov. Martin O’Malley, General Assembly
• WHAT: Despite an “emergency” special session late last year to shove the largest tax increase in state history down Maryland citizens’ throats to solve an alleged deficit “crisis,” our state is facing $500 million to $1 billion in overspending.
• WHY IT WAS A BAD IDEA: Does anybody have to ask? Is anybody surprised? A slowing economy, as expected, reduced receipts from income and sales taxes. Don’t forget our feckless leaders are betting on revenue to squander from slot machines if the referendum passes in November. They ignored voices of reason opposing the “emergency” tax hikes because there was no emergency — yet — and the wise move would have been to begin massive true reductions in state spending immediately to prepare for the inevitable downturn.
• WHY THEY DID IT: Nobody knows. But the only logical conclusion is that they wanted to stick it to us early in hopes we would forget when the real economic storm hit and they try to stick it to us again. O’Malley and legislative leaders have too many hogs at the public trough to actually make any meaningful cuts. So as usual, they’ll go after the children, the elderly, the poor and the dedicated rank-and-file state workers who actually do something for us. We all know what the problem is: O’Malley has to feed the crony machine with our money to stay in power.
• WHERE TO VENT: governor.maryland.gov/mail

BRIGHT BULB Until the lights go out.

That could all too easily be the case from an electromagnetic pulse if terrorists, a rogue state or even “legitimate” nation exploded even a small, crude atomic weapon above the U.S. The bright idea was by Maryland Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, who commissioned a study of the threat and surprisingly easy ways to defend against it.

 

Quote of the day

“What we are hearing anecdotally is that service members … are experiencing a number of instances where they are being forced to move from homes that they are renting when the homeowners are foreclosed on.”

– Lt. Col. Les Melnyk, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Defense, about the effect of recent foreclosures on members of the military