Trouble in River City
By streiff Posted in Democrats — Comments (7) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
I don't know if Democrat golden boy and Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley is a crook but he certainly renders a good imitation.
It is a tale as old as the Democrat party: using taxpayer money to reward cronies with no benefit accrued to the taxpayers. A snapshot of the story:
A year ago an parcel of land in Queen Anne county, Maryland, came on the market. The land had waterfront access but was fairly swampy. But a crony of Governor Martin O'Malley decided to purchase the property. As even venture Marxists understand the virtues of leverage, in this case an O'Malley crony purchased a $17,750,000 parcel for $10,000 down. Part of the land, that which can be developed, is sold by the crony's development corporation for building lots. There is a huge swath of land, however, which cannot be developed because the county has a moratorium on new water and sewage hookups and the land failed a perc test rendering it useless. This land was transferred to a open space preservation trust conveniently owned by the same crony. An engineering firm is hired to do a feasibility study concerning selling the unbuildable parcel to the State of Maryland to preserve it from, you guessed it, development.
Fast forward to January. Martin O'Malley is elected governor and the crony becomes part of the the O'Malley transition team. One of the guys who worked on the feasiblity study becomes our secretary of natural resources who, suprisingly, recommends that the state buy this swamp land to save if from development that he knows is impossible.
The land is purchased for a much higher price than the highest appraisal and a government official who let this cat out of the bag was fired.
And the Baltimore Sun, newspapers we are told are watchdogs, not only see nothing wrong with it they think it's a pretty good idea.
Martin O'Malley's nemesis, O'Malley Watch, has been covering the story for a while, my other home has looked at it also.
Why is this story important? Because Martin O'Malley is a less talented Bill Clinton. He's a particularly oleaginous pol who fancies himself as a national figure. On the national scene he gives the impression of being a middle of the road politician but in reality is a leftist (even the lefties have noticed this). I don't want to watch an inauguration of President O'Malley and be left screaming "where's the outrage?"
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... and a significant backer of his campaign for Governor after having spent the whole of Ehrlich's term printing every allegation against him on their pages, including those they knew for certain were not true.
It's kinda weird to expect them to do anything to turn a blind eye (or flash-in-pan) to Democrat corruption.
George W. Bush: He's A Folder ... Not A Fighter.
I have lived here in Baltimore Co. MD since 1993. I point to the horribly ignorant citizenry when it comes to MD politics and its corrupt liberal leanings. This is a very good gameplan for the Democrats in this State! 'Keep em ignorant but keep em voting!', 'Over promise (during campaigns) then under-deliver (once elected) repeat steps one and two every two to four years or as necessary.'
I have watched in sheer amazement how conversations with people in MD shifts from knowledgable and sound to oblivious and nervous when you go from pop culture to politics. Its hillarious. I can talk to anyone about Ravens football, The O's, latest movie trends, prime time TV and have hours of conversation. As soon as you mention or shift to a conversation about tax hikes, elections or the latest policy debacle in Annapolis you get this cold sense of nervousness or the old "politics is all the same, I dont pay attention" or some other BS line to make up for the ignorance that you are suddenly witness to. And it is then and there that you realize the state of the State that you live. It is the answer to every question that I have about MD politics. I have had hundreds of conversations that go in this very same direction. I use to shake my head and or get frustrated, now I just laugh right at the person and go on my way.
A lot of people grew tired of playing tug o' war with the the government(s) over their wallets and have bolted for PA and DE and WV. There is a mass exodous from this State by people who care about how they are governed. Any person who takes the time to look hard enough and the extra effort to understand sees MD for what it is; the mid-Atlantic version of San Fran with a flare of Vermont and Boston with inner citys that mimic Detroit. It is a liberal haven being smothered by illegals, urban riff raff (the kid of stuff that can make Bill Cosby cuss!), MS-13 (Ocean City & Baltimore). The schools in Baltimore are comparable to Detroit. The murder rate is on the heels of Detroit (number one and two in the nation).
No one can sustain an argument over this after the election in 06! No one! Why? Because this State elects a governor who was mayor of the worst run city in MD; Baltimore City, he is married to a judge whose daddy serves as Attorney General for 20 years and running. How any group of knowledgable citizens could look at Martin O'Malley's ACTUAL RECORD as Mayor of a major city and vote to put him in charge of the entire State is beyond anything that most understand or can even begin to comprehend.
These voters who are responsible for this leadership are the very same people who would complain and complain about the "abuse of power" or the "consolidation of absolute power" in DC from 2000 until 2006!?! It is baffling but at the same time typical here in the Land of Dummies. We had a Republican Governor and a hard liberal General Assembly with a mere handful of Republicans... it provided at the least, a mild balance of power. Even though many vetoes were overturned by sheer party line vote, it caused enough of a stir to get the points and counter points out there for people to see and hear. (usually to no avail, again due to sheer ingnorance).
People in this State better hold on to their wallets because the government that THEY ELECTED is coming hard and fast. Liberal love keeping people poor and dependant on them. Hell, its their platform. Maryland citizens can blame no one except themselves. The Republican party in MD is broke as a joke!
Want more silliness? Try this...
A Maryland Federal Judge just took a plea bargin from a powerful ex-State Senator Thomas Bromwell on a 20+ count indictment that included RICO charges! After seeing what this crook got to plea too I would be willing to bet that he does little to no time for these crimes. This guy was giving out lucrative government contracts and getting outrageous gifts that included damn near the entire construction costs of his 800K dollar home and a 500K dollar no show job for his wife Mary Pat. His boys, one of whom is a State Delegate Eric Bromwell, not surprisingly landed jobs at Comcast Cable (the monopoly) a company who Tom was in bed with. Yeah, ol Tommy was taped by FBI calling himself "the Rainmaker" when it came to handing out MD citizens tax dollars for favors and his attorneys are headed into the sentencing phase ready to ask for a lighter sentence because of the "years of service to the State of MD and its citizens" and it will likely fly. Upon his plea, MD politicians did not stop to blast his actions, they called it "frightening". I bet! But what is it that they find frightening? IS it that Uncle Sam is here watching these dirty jerks? Probably.
Why this O'Malley land deal has struck a nerve among anyone living in MD or seems to shock anyone is laughable to me. This is the same old MD politics that has gone on here for hundred of years. They dont call this the "knock and drag" State for nothing.
I am one who is looking to move from this State to an area with more like-minded and concerned citizens (probably back to VA or further South). In my search I have found that most of the areas that I have considered moving to from Maryland would provide my family anywhere from 13-18.7% more disposable income due to the high taxes here. Maryland is in the top 5 for highest taxed States and is among the smallest in size.
People here love their BIG government. Liberals have a safe haven here in MD! They can have it.
... you dumped Bob Ehrlich, who on election day had an approval rating of somewhere around 55% if I recall, for this.
So, how's it working out for y'all?
Dopes.
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Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock.
you may not recall the Sauerbrey problems, but I wouldn't be surprised if voters elected Steele (Ehrlich wasn't on the ballot) but the talley just didn't work out that way when the Dems were done counting the vote.
the problem is I just can't prove it.
Oh, and that I live in MD where even if I could prove it to a reasonable person, no leftist jury would ever convict him.
They can find the time and interest to look under every rock in Alaska over chump change, but can't get interested in this. Maybe its because the FBI likes the fishing and hunting here.
Unfortunately, Democrats ARE better at graft and corruption. A Republican who owned that worthless land would have gotten his buddy the Gov to have the DNR rewrite the regs so it would pass the percolation test and probably several Republican officeholders would have turned out to be investors in the real estate. The media would have screamed bloody murder until the FBI showed up, and the ham-fisted Republicans would have done a perp walk.
A Democrat can do something noble like turn it into a wild and scenic area and get his buddies to buy it for a state park. He might not make as much as the R would have if he'd successfully developed it, but it sounds like our boy turned a handome profit.
In Vino Veritas
Washington state - democrat only by electoral theft
New York - Spitzer, the self-righteous democrat governor breaking laws to intimdate opponents
Maryland - democrats setting up tammany hall land scams
Nevada - Reid and the land deal money machine
California - Feinstein on defense apropriations committee steering money to her family owned defense contractor
Where is the intrepid journalist 'following the money'?