http://demforum.com/blog Created with the concrete5 RSS Manager Package by InnerOptics.net Sun, 20 May 2012 03:30:52 CDT http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/andys-mendacity/ By RICHARD CALKINS Two recent press releases from Andy Harris vividly demonstrate his disdain for his constituents. In a May 9 release, he boasts of cutting technical support for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration by 56%. NOAA operates the National Weather service, which warns us of tornados, tsunamis, droughts, floods, and hurricanes, including Isabel and Irene. NOAA provides Eastern Shore watermen with information regarding wind conditions, currents, and tides from several locations, including Poplar Island. As a steward of the environment, NOAA provides information on ocean and coastal resources and climate change, which Harris rejects, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. In a May 11 release, Harris, after complete silence on post office closings, announced a press conference (the next day) to claim credit for a “significant victory” and his support of the House bill. Unlike the hard work of Senators Mikulski and Cardin to keep Easton and other rural offices open, the House bill would end Saturday delivery immediately, reduce hours of some PO’s to two, cut benefits to the bone, and create a commission that would override union contracts and prohibit appeals of office closures, without judicial review, actions that would have closed the Easton PO. Often Harris’ releases are notable for what they don’t say. His cutting of NOAA is incredibly short sighted, and claiming credit for saving the PO is laughable. Next time a severe weather bulletin interrupts your TV show, know that Harris doesn’t want you to see danger coming. He’s too busy cutting essential services, and bragging about it. Tue, 15 May 2012 15:07:00 CDT http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/andys-mendacity/ http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/drinking-the-water/ By RICHARD CALKINS “The reason I got involved in public service… if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand,” said Paul Ryan, author of the latest GOP budgetary outrage. For the uninitiated, Rand viewed capitalists as the producers of all wealth, and workers as useless parasites. Required reading for Tea Party groupies, Rand’s "Atlas Shrugged" posits that when a government punishes the strong to reward the weak, it will eventually collapse. This is the crisis Ryan’s budget seeks to avoid. Ryan’s budget slashes taxes for corporations and the rich while nearly eliminating food and medical aid to the poor. Echoing Mitt Romney’s statement that he is “not concerned for the very poor,” the Ryan budget would cut $3.3 trillion from low-income programs, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The Center concluded by saying “the rest of government would largely disappear” by 2050, meaning food and water safety inspections, cancer research, highway funds, transportation safety, job training, virtually all spending on the poor, and many other essential services under Ryan’s budget, which the “severe” conservative Romney calls “marvelous.” The biggest cuts would be to Medicaid, primarily used by the low-income and poor, which Ryan would cut by $810 billion, dropping coverage for 28 million people, as well as cutting the Medicaid expansion in the health care law (cutting $16 billion), leaving another 17 million uninsured. Ryan would cut food stamps by $133 billion, dropping 8 million people or cutting everyone’s benefits by $90 monthly. These sharp cuts may result in an increase in child hunger, which severely impacts health care and education. Families will find themselves without health care, and then face Ryan’s reductions in job training, housing assistance, and Pell grants. 62 per cent of Ryan’s spending cuts come from low-income programs, and yet he proposes even more tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, who already enjoy the lowest rates in 60 years. Ryan, ostensibly, wants to control the deficit, in this case by $4.4 trillion, by only cutting spending, but conveniently doesn’t specify what those cuts would be. In this right-wing fantasy there is no mention of tax increases or sources of revenue: only phantom cuts. If this madness is approved, spending will drop to 3.5 percent of GDP from the current 12.5 percent-it has never been lower than 8 percent, according to the Congressional Budget Office. As a Rand disciple, Ryan completely rejects any move to close the major loophole for the rich, low tax rates on income from capital, allowing Mitt Romney to pay only 13.9 percent of his $21 million income in taxes in 2010. The Ryan plan contains huge tax cuts for the wealthy, which is why Romney is “very supportive” of the plan. In Tea Party zealot Rick Santelli’s famous rant, he says that we should “reward people who carry the water instead of drink the water.” Ayn Rand would call the water drinkers “parasites”, and with this cruel budget so have her apostles Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney. Tue, 15 May 2012 15:06:00 CDT http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/drinking-the-water/ http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/candidate-for-the-bully-pulpit/ By RICH LEVY Now we're treated to accounts of Mitt Romney's prep school "pranks", including ganging up on the "queer kid" in school, to forcibly chop off his hair, and making a nearly-blind teacher walk into a door. What a rascal, our Mitt. High school high jinx fall away as we mature, but character lives on. I'll bet Mitt's pranks really helped the laid off workers at the companies devoured by Romney and his fellow vulture capitalists at Bain Capital Management. And Mitt was surely a much more mature and empathic adult, by the time he put his dog in a crate on the roof of his car for 800 miles. And remember, Mitt is admitting nothing - he claims not to remember the prep school incidents. Romney's "I don't remember, but sorry if I offended" is the universal PR apology of the oily and unrepentant. One would expect someone who lies as often as Romney has to be better at it. Sun, 13 May 2012 10:50:00 CDT http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/candidate-for-the-bully-pulpit/ http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/indiana-gop-make-a-bad-choice/ By FRANK LAWLOR The respected Republican Senator Richard Lugar was defeated in a primary election. The man who will compete with a Democrat for this Senate seat appeared on TV and explained his political intentions. What he said was astonishing, almost unbelievable! He declared that in voting for legislation he "would never compromise in any way". He explained that compromise would only be acceptable when the opposition gave in and agreed with him. Only for a narrow minded ideologue is compromise impossible. We are all very lucky that the framers of the constituution had a very different attitude toward compromise. For the Constitutional Convention they deliberately gathered a diverse group of men and debated freely, compromised and cooperated to frame a government within which reasonable legislators would similarly act together to create better laws than any one viewpoint could achieve. Compromise is at the heart of our way of government. It has never till now been dogmatically unacceptable in the deliberations of Congress. The sad, and dangerous thing for Democracy is that this candidate's attitude is in line with the principle declared in 2009 by the GOP leader Mitch McConnell that his primary goal is to make sure that President Obama is not reelected. His oath of office is surely violated by such an irresponsible priority. So also will the candidate's oath be compromised if he enters the Senate with a pledge incompatible with his duties to the nation. But perhaps these days the GOP subordinates everything to the thirst for unfettered power. Thu, 10 May 2012 16:09:00 CDT http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/indiana-gop-make-a-bad-choice/ http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/an-unpleasant-haircut/ By FRANK LAWLOR Recently I had an unpleasant haircut experience. With a flat screen TV just beyond my nose, I had to endure watching "Faux News", in particular, a long rant by a chubby ex-judge who was obviously dealing with an anger problem and a distorted view of what President Obama had said about his low expectations of what the five ideological members of the Supreme Court would do to the Affordable Health Care Bill. Having watched this presidential speech, I could hardly recognize it as the vicious, intemperate "attack" over which the judge was hyperventilating. It was "deja vu" to read the recent Op-Ed piece by Mr. Panuzio which was almost word-for-word the same outraged rant about the "power hungry" President's speech complete with eleven repetitions of calling the speech an "attack" on the Supreme Court stopping just short of accusing the President of treason. How silly! Thu, 10 May 2012 16:07:00 CDT http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/an-unpleasant-haircut/ http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/dr-harriss-surgical-theater/ By RICH LEVY . Stampeding blindly rightward, Republicans have removed themselves from the mainstream, making their party a variously detested insurgency fortified with a staggering sense of their own self-righteousness. Now women’s health is in their perverse gunsights. But the public grows sick of Andy Harris and the GOP, peering into every pregnancy to determine, most of all, if any punishment is warranted, or if the pregnancy alone satisfies their sense of justice. From "state rape" (forced, medically unnecessary vaginal ultrasounds), to allowing states to ban contraception; from shuttering clinics where many women - pregnant or not as they themselves see fit - get care for their health, to creating and supporting laws which mandate that pregnancies of rape or incest victims be carried to term; even giving spiritual extremists or conniving cheapskates who sign a paycheck the key to women’s medicine cabinets and dresser drawers - if there's an astonishing, politicized cruelty to be needlessly inflicted on American women (whose control Republicans take as their duty) Harris and his cohorts are down with it. The GOP and Andy Harris regularly disgrace the Hippocratic oath that Harris took, when he seemed to be a doctor. Now, Andy's just one more Republican insurgent, performing surgery with large, unmarked, and unsterilized donors on the women of America. Tue, 01 May 2012 09:05:00 CDT http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/dr-harriss-surgical-theater/ http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/another-gop-caused-crisis/ By MIKE BROWN A 4/19 Star Democrat article mentioned amendments to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) reform legislation offered by Senators Mikulski and Cardin to save our Easton Post Office processing facility. USPS was described as "struggling," losing $5 billion in 2011. The article said only that the reform would involve pensions and health care, and did not say why USPS is struggling. The crisis with the Easton facility and USPS nationwide is all completely artificial and unnecessary, caused by Republicans when they jammed through legislation during the 2006 lame duck session, after they had lost power in the elections, forcing the Postal Service to forward-fund over a ten-year period pensions for the next 75 years. This required payments of $5 billion annually, exactly the amount of the 2011 shortfall. Republicans forced this legislation not to address a real problem as they claimed, since the pension fund was in good shape, but to undermine postal unions and eventually privatize USPS. They created USPS deficits to justify huge cuts in service and benefits, and we're all suffering the consequences of threatened post office closures as a consequence. Without their 2006 legislation, USPS would be operating in the black and we wouldn't be wringing our hands over collapse of mail service here on the Shore. Once again Democrats are left to clean up wreckage caused by Republicans just as they've had to do the past three years to deal with the massive Republican Great Recession and debt created in 2000-2006. We cannot let them back into power to inflict more damage. Sat, 28 Apr 2012 13:09:00 CDT http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/another-gop-caused-crisis/ http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/defining-progress/ By ART CIZEK On April 18, the Star printed a letter from Carol Kilman responding to a letter I had written. In my letter, I talked about the progress women had made in the last fifty years. Ms Kilman contends that the progress I referenced was a “politically manufactured lie”. We are both talking about the last fifty years and yet we come to opposite conclusions. Perhaps we define progress differently. Here are just a few of the changes made in the status of women which I believe are progress and are indisputably factual. So called “protective laws” in 43 states severely limiting women’s participation in the work force were nullified by Federal Civil Rights Laws. In 1979 (the first year when comparable data was recorded) women earned 62% of what men earned. In 2006, women earned 81 percent of what men earned. In 1979 women, aged 23-34 earned 68% of what men earned. In 2008 women, aged 23-34 earned 89% of what men earned... In the academic year 1965-1966 women were 6.9% of students enrolled in medical schools. In the academic year 2009-2010 48.3 percent of students enrolled in medical schools were women. Women serve side by side with men in the armed forces contributing vital service in defending our country. Four women have been appointed to the Supreme Court. I call these changes progress Ms. Kilman. What do you call them? Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:51:00 CDT http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/defining-progress/ http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/the-republican-war-on-against-women/ By ART CIZEK The Republicans claim that what we (Democrats) call the War on Women is really a matter of religious freedom. What brilliant Democratic strategist turned the alleged Republican defense of religion into a war on women? It seems that a long time Republican operative named Tanya Melich blew the whistle on the Republicans way before the Democrats caught on. In her book, The Republican War Against Women she chronicles the descent of the Republican Party. According to Melich, the Republican Party has consistently used the wedge issues of sex and race to win elections. The book was published in 1996. Has the Republican Party changed? There are five Republican women in the Senate. Two have decided not to see reelection. One who is staying, Lisa Murkowski, had this to say about the issue, “It makes no sense to make this attack on women. If you don’t feel this is an attack you need to go home and talk to your wife and daughters.” It is a War on Women or a War against Women or maybe an attack on women. Whatever its name it is truly reactionary and seeks to reverse over fifty years of progress for women. Republicans attempting to return the status of women to the 1950’s may seem quaint but they are dead serious. Republicans pose a grave threat to women and to men who care for their wives and daughters. Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:49:00 CDT http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/the-republican-war-on-against-women/ http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/the-republican-war-on-women/ By ART CIZEK Some historical perspective is required to understand the Republican war on women. In the 1960’s and 1970’s three historical elements emerged that radically changed the status of women in our country. First was the development and marketing of the birth control pill. Second, a variety of Civil Rights laws prohibited discrimination against women in the workplace. The third element was the embrace of the previous two by women and eventually by the country. With women afforded the opportunity to plan when or whether to have children, and with Civil Rights laws that allowed the upward climb toward equality in the workplace to begin, the advances made since the 60’s and 70’s have been stunning. Republican administrations have consistently weakened enforcement of Civil Rights laws and appointed Federal Judges who interpret these laws in a most restrictive manner. This strategy proved effective when the highly partisan Supreme Court issued the Ledbetter decision, effectively gutting the requirement for equal pay for both sexes. The Christian Right is doing everything it can to limit women’s access to contraceptives using the phony issue of religious freedom to achieve their goal. We witness a union between two wings of the Republican Party. The business oriented Republican establishment opposes any lawsuit that would expose discriminators. The Christian right believes sex must be reserved for procreation only and that pregnancy must be a consequence not a choice, regardless of a woman’s own beliefs. If it is not a war, it is certainly a hostile take over. Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:47:00 CDT http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/the-republican-war-on-women/ http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/a-dissent1/ By ART CIZEK Recently the Star printed an editorial arguing that HHS regulations on contraceptive insurance coverage are an issue of religious freedom. I disagree with the Star’s premise that the issue is religious freedom. There are three issues. The paramount issue is Women’s health and freedom. A substantial number of women are prescribed contraceptives to treat medical conditions. Additionally, unwanted pregnancies may have adverse health effects for women and place a burden on society. The second issue is the attempt of an all male hierarchy to impose its doctrine on the women of this country. The Catholic Bishops clearly intend to use their political power to limit contraceptive insurance coverage. Failing to persuade from the pulpit they use political power to advance their goal. We accept churches exercising political power. It is wrong to characterize opposition to such exercise of political power as an assault on religious freedom. The third issue is the political use of the matter by Republicans to attack the complete health care law. A law the Bishops supported. Those who threw the religious freedom bone to the Republicans will seem them chew on it ad nauseam. The Star Democrat was dead wrong when it stated, “Catholics, traditionally oppose any contraception”. The all male Catholic hierarchy traditionally opposes any contraception. An overwhelming percentage of Catholic women like all women in this country ignore the ban on contraception. The choice to reject a religious doctrine is as important as the choice to accept it. Protect that religious freedom. Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:46:00 CDT http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/a-dissent1/ http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/the-low-tax-no-tax-saga/ By CAROL VOYLES The low-tax, no-tax saga Your April 19 editorial lauded population growth in Texas. It was also critical of California while neglecting to mention that California is the state with the second-highest rate of population growth. Evidently, Texas also scored first among ten states in some unidentified area of educational achievement. That’s a real mystery, since Texas ranks 51st in high school attainment, 44th in per pupil spending, 40th in reading proficiency, and 20th in its percentage of advanced placement students. Maryland, by the way, is first in advanced placement; and mean wages are $8,000. higher in both California and Maryland than in Texas. That's important to some of us. While businesses may find lower wages appealing, an educated workforce is often required today. Texas may be coming up short. In any case, both California and Texas have a hard time keeping up with the influx of immigrants that accounts for most of their extraordinary population growth. Their unemployment rates are nearly identical - 11 and 10.9 percent respectively. Maryland is doing better. We have just 6.5 percent unemployment. Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:47:00 CDT http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/the-low-tax-no-tax-saga/ http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/more-harris-scare-tactics1/ By MIKE BROWN On March 23, Rep. Andy Harris released another of his divisive partisan canned statements fed to him and his extreme right-wing House collegues by special interests, this one aimed at scaring us with more lies and distortions about the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a.k.a. "Obamacare." His first whopper was to assert that President Obama and Nancy Pelosi claimed that the ACA would "immediately create 400,000 jobs." Even Harris knows how irrational and nonsensical his claim is, especially since the law doesn't fully go into effect until 2014. He says the Congressional Budget Office reported the ACA potentially "reduces the labor supply by 800,000 jobs." That's untrue and even illogical. Labor supply means people available to work; jobs means positions filled by people. They aren't the same, as Harris hopefully knows. CBO did indicate that thousands might now be able to leave jobs they cling to only for the health insurance to pursue other options such as starting small businesses or working part time. This increased mobility would be a good thing for employees and employers alike. Harris brags about voting to repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) calling it a rationing board. As a physician, Rep. Harris should know this is merely an advisory group similar to NIH consensus panels that have been in existence for decades to determine most cost-effective care practices and whose only role is to provide advice. IPAB is no rationing board. Mr. Harris wants to return to the abuses of unrestrained insurance companies, the real rationing boards. Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:45:00 CDT http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/more-harris-scare-tactics1/ http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/another-gop-constitutional-distortion/ By RICHARD CALKINS In his embarrassing Republican Viewpoint (Star, April 8), RCC Chair Nicholas Panuzio says that “our judicial system was upheld in the Madison v. Mayberry (sic) over 200 years ago.” The decision, actually called Marbury v. Madison (1803), established judicial review (not our judicial system-see Article 3 of the Constitution). Perhaps Panuzio has been watching too many Mayberry RFD reruns, eschewing any credentials he claims as a student of the Constitution. Incomprehensibly, he says that the President, a constitutional scholar, does not understand the Constitution, and says there are “three parts” of government, described as “the administration, the Congress and the court system.” He later incorrectly calls them “three forms” of government, which opens up another can of worms. Those “three parts”, correctly called branches, are known as the executive, legislative, and judicial, and the “system” is called checks and balances. Panuzio could use a middle school Civics course, in which the excellent (albeit underpaid) TCPS teachers could assist. The core of Panuzio’s piece is the Affordable Care Act, which he says attacks religious freedom, ignoring the central issue, women’s health care, which the GOP by its behavior has sought a big government take-over of a women’s body. Curiously, he seems to make the Democratic case, calling Roe v. Wade “the law of the land”, even as the activist Roberts Court has reversed previous decisions concerning abortion, race, and recently Citizens United, overturning a century old election law decision. Indeed, were it not for Justice Kennedy, Roe v. Wade would have been overturned. Before your next Viewpoint, Mr. Panuzio, I have one word of advice: Google. Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:34:00 CDT http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/another-gop-constitutional-distortion/ http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/mike-wallace-fair-balanced-one-of-a-kind/ By RICH LEVY Mike Wallace of CBS, one of the last journalists who earned "the legendary" before his name (without any help from a P.R. management consultant), has died. My earliest recollection of Wallace - well into his long career by then - was his "Biography" show, which provided my first education in the heroes and villains of then-recent history. His greatest work was on CBS' "Sixty Minutes". Indelible memories of suit-and-tie scumbags of society and their horror-stricken looks, as they saw Wallace and his camerman closing in, are reminders of an era when journalism's best charged headlong after corruption to root it out. Now, sadly, too many leading lights of media are more prone to fertilizing weeds than rooting them out. Softball questions, false equivalencies, and Tweeted "analysis" all make truth secondary to the journalistic "access" that bumps ratings; stenography masquerading as reporting. But, we have memories - a flustered receptionist repeating "He's not in! He's not in!", a deer-in-the-headlights major sleazeball, his Brooks Brothers suit deflating before the camera's eye - all unfolding before a giant stopwatch and a microphone wielding man who could never be mistaken for a model. R.I.P., Mike Wallace. Maybe some kid'll come across YouTube clips of Mike and his straightforward exposure of disreputable businessmen, doctors, clergy, and high government officials, and maybe that kid will think "Kewl. Somebody should be doing that now." And thus again, the countdown timer could start on a deserving perpetrator, long after Mike Wallace's enviable 93-year stopwatch finished it's run. Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:33:00 CDT http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/mike-wallace-fair-balanced-one-of-a-kind/ http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/defending-the-mandate/ By RICHARD CALKINS As the Supreme Court hears arguments regarding the Affordable Care Act and the mandate to purchase health care, consider this from the Solicitor General: 1. Uninsured patients consumed $116 billion in health care services in 2008. 2. In 2008, people without insurance did not pay for 63 percent of their health care costs. 3. Shifting fees from the uninsured costs the insured an additional $1,000 annually. Yet, the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation found that two-thirds of those surveyed disliked the mandate, which was originally proposed by the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation, supported by Newt Gingrich, Orrin Hatch and conservatives opposed to the 1993 Clinton initiative, and is modeled after Mitt Romney’s health care mandate while Massachusetts Governor. When worded differently to include what could happen without the mandate (denying coverage to children and those under 26, for example), favorability in the same poll rose to 50 per cent. Kaiser polling director Mollyann Brodie said that “this law as a whole has become a symbolic issue to people and they really aren’t open to information.” That would be the GOP, who mendaciously characterize the ACA as overreach, even as they establish their own intrusive mandates regulating women’s health care. If the Court follows its own precedents concerning the Commerce Clause, this case should not be a close call. The Roberts Court, as it has in campaign finance, race and abortion cases, is politicized. To restore respect, the Court’s conservative majority ought to show judicial restraint, not activism, adhere to precedent and uphold the constitutionality of health reform. Tue, 03 Apr 2012 11:11:00 CDT http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/defending-the-mandate/ http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/harris-fractures-the-fracking-debate/ By CAROL VOYLES Rep. Andy Harris says Maryland should not delay being “part of the Marcellus shale natural gas boom sweeping neighboring states.” What’s going on in Pennsylvania should concern us. The Republican governor of Pennsylvania signed into law Title 52 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes. This law includes an alarming amendment forbidding health care professionals from sharing information about the toxicity of fracking chemicals. These formulas are also considered corporate “trade secrets,” making it difficult to know what chemicals are being used. We’re unlikely to hear Rep. Harris saying much about the Pennsylvania law, the Chesapeake Energy well blowout, fluid dumping, wastewater sent to ill-equipped treatment facilities, polluted streams, drillers cutting emergency clean water supplies to fracking victims, methane levels in groundwater supplies within a kilometer, lawsuits, loss of property value, and the Delaware River Basin Commission canceling its vote to allow fracking there. As for “boom” jobs sweeping the state, Pennsylvania's unemployment remains at 7.6 percent. Maryland's is 6.5 percent. As this technology has moved into more populated areas, safety has become a concern. Thankfully, our governor takes this seriously. A study will be completed by August of 2014, and we'll avoid Pennsylvania's problems. By the way, there is no "three year moratorium." Sat, 24 Mar 2012 14:17:00 CDT http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/harris-fractures-the-fracking-debate/ http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/bad-actors/ By RICHARD CALKINS HB 1412, which would force delinquent counties to fund education properly, makes Dirck Bartlett’s “blood boil”, and made Laura Price use dated, selective 2005 data to support her argument against the bill in their Star Democrat articles. Bartlett worries that our property tax cap will be “broken” in his fact-free article. Talbot County’s average property tax rate is 45 cents per $100 of assessed value, by far the lowest in the state (the next lowest is 70 cents). Bartlett worries that “Our income tax will be increased.” Talbot’s income tax rate is 2.25 percent, second lowest in the state, and well below those above it. He worries that a “wealth formula” will determine our “education effort”. HB 1412 is an embarrassment for the Talbot County Council, which presides over the state’s second wealthiest county, but cut the school’s budget by $1.8 million in 2012, creating the lowest per pupil funding and teacher salaries in the state. As a result, Talbot’s “education effort” of .77 is by far the state’s worst, the average being 1.24. “Good Actors” can restore their funding, according to Delegate Ann Keiser. By every measure the County Council are bad actors. A recent Salisbury University Business study indicated that for each $1 spent on supporting Talbot Schools, $1.43 is generated. The logic of this seems to escape most of the Council, who by their behavior invited HB 1412. Rather than invest in the schools, and seek new sources of revenue, they prefer to starve the beast until it tumbles over, lifeless. Did they think no one would notice? Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:31:00 CDT http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/bad-actors/ http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/moe-facts-please/ By CAROL VOYLES MOE facts, please President of the Talbot County Chamber of Commerce Alan Silverstein cited questionable statistics regarding Talbot County funding of the Board of Education. “Talbot County has consistently met or exceeded MOE funding since it was instituted.” Talbot County cut funding for the 2012 budget by $2 million, and did not meet its MOE funding requirement. Talbot County “ranks in the top three Maryland Counties for local contributions to education.” Our local education appropriation is below Anne Arundel, Prince George’s, Montgomery, and even Wicomico, which cut per pupil funding by 27 percent over the past two years. Talbot County also ranks last in per pupil funding, despite being the second wealthiest county in the state. Wed, 21 Mar 2012 09:14:00 CDT http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/moe-facts-please/ http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/harris-is-pro-jobs-in-virginia-and-pennsylvania/ By RICHARD CALKINS It's nice that Harris claims he is creating jobs-Wallops is in Accomack, Virginia, and is a research park that comprises 14 Pennsylvania colleges and universities, and will serve as a NASA training facility for students. It has nothing to do with Maryland, which he does not mention. There are virtually no government regulations on the facility, and it's a stretch to imply that his bill would create hundreds of jobs, which "could" go to Marylanders. The jobs are already there, and they are going to Virginia and Pennsylvania. This is a pander, and it is a lie. Wed, 21 Mar 2012 09:08:00 CDT http://demforum.com/index.php/blog/harris-is-pro-jobs-in-virginia-and-pennsylvania/