The Staff Disturber

Lessons From a New Retiree

2006-05-30T09:05:00.000-04:00

Personal finance advice with a twist--it’s to your own benefit to join a union. Wotta concept!

Cash Flow
By Albert B. Crenshaw
Washington Post, Sunday, May 28, 2006; Page F12

“ . . . It’s no coincidence that union membership is falling and so are average workers’ wages in many industries.

Business groups like to pin the troubles of lots of companies on their unions, but the truth is that the big problems are in industries where there has been some fundamental change in the economic climate, in many cases wrought by the government.

In most companies with organized workforces, unions not only fight for better wages and working conditions, they help prevent management from mistreating individual workers.

Many young workers today think of themselves as too sharp, too desirable as employees to need union protection. Don’t delude yourself. You maybe a boy wonder today, but I’ve seen a lot of former boy wonders wishing they had joined, or belatedly joining a union they once thought themselves too good for.

The newsroom at The Post is unionized, and I have belonged to the union here and at an earlier job for almost 40 years. I have never needed its protection, but I have seen it prevent firings and demotions -- some possibly deserved but many arbitrary and brought on by a someone getting on the bad side of someone else. And I have seen it negotiate decent severance packages for workers who joined moments before the ax fell.

If you go to work for a company with a union, join if you’re in its jurisdiction. This isn’t a matter of great principle. It’s simple self-interest.”

Stabbing yourself in the back

2006-04-13T13:51:00.000-04:00

We have created a working class is so open-minded that it won't even take its own side in an argument:

“It’s a wonder that American workers support the 18th century robber baron agenda of the Republican Party, a party that constantly votes against their interests: tax cuts for the rich; judges who support monopolies and always rule in favor of corporations; destruction of the environment; deregulation of rules that protect consumers and workers; support for an avaricious military-industrial-pharmaceutical complex; rampant business and Congressional corruption; and a Congress that refuses to raise the minimum wage, while raising it’s own pay seven times in eight years.”

Labor, the Media and the Protests in France
The Strange Case of the American Worker
by Don Monkerud in CounterPunch

Who speaks for you?

2006-03-31T15:54:00.000-05:00

AFSCME Council 92

Pay Raises Coming!

The House and Senate Conference Committee on the Budget completed its work. The budget includes a Cost of Living Raise for all employees as follows.

Salary below $45,000 $900

Salary between $45,000 - $70,000 2%

Salary above $70,000 $1400

AFSCME has argued that the 2% pay raise submitted by the Governor was too low for low paid state employees and pushed for an equal dollar amount for all employees of $993. This plan represents a compromise that is still better for the average state employee:

For a $20,000 salary this means a 4.5%

For a $30,000 salary this means a 3%

The legislature also adopted a new minimum salary of $20,447 for employees in the State Personnel Management System. This will particularly assist classifications such as Food Service Workers, Grounds Keepers and Human Service Aids.

In addition, the legislature approved:

Step increases in January and July.

Deferred Comp Match of $600 effective July 1.

Correctional Officers will see their upgrade effective April 12.

Much thanks goes to the AFSCME members who spoke out loud and clear about the need for MORE MONEY for State Employees.

Not resolved yet are key issues of the prescription drug benefit roll back and an improved pension system. Stay tuned for further developments.

AFSCME Council 92

Legislative Office: (410) 269-1817

To the unionists who worked for us in Annapolis

2006-03-31T15:47:00.000-05:00

Psalm of the Non-Unionist

The dues paying member is my shepherd. I shall not want.
He provideth me with rest days and vacations
So that I may lie down in green pastures
Beside the still waters.

He restoreth my back pay
He guideth my welfare without cost to me.
I stray in the paths of the non-righteous
For my money’s sake.

Yea, though I alibi and pay no dues
From generation to generation
I fear no evil, for he protects me.
The working conditions which he provides
They comfort me.

He annointeth my head with the oil of worker’s compensation
Sick pay, holidays, and a pension.
He represents me in grievances.

And my cup runneth over with ingratitude.
Surely his goodness and loving kindness
Shall follow me all the days of my life
Without cost to me.

And I shall dwell in his house forever
And allow him to foot the bill.

Thanks and a tip o’ the mortarboard to Saul.

Rally Monday in Annapolis

2006-03-09T18:16:00.000-05:00

Get Active with AFSCME

What: Statewide AFSCME Rally (indoors) in Annapolis
When: Monday, March 13 at 6:30 PM
Where: Joint Hearing Room, Legislative Services Building, Annapolis
(behind the Thurgood Marshall Statue in Lawyers Mall)

Your elected representatives are about to vote on legislation that will benefit you and your family for years to come:

Pay Raise
Pension Benefits
Health Insurance
Strengthening Collective Bargaining

. . . but passage of these bills is NOT A SURE THING!

Attend this rally and have an impact on Maryland legislation that will better your life.
It is both your right and responsibility as an American citizen to speak out now.
This is not the time to sit on the sidelines and hope others will take care of this for you.

Remember, AFSCME is YOU!

For more information, directions, or transportation arrangements, contact:

The AFSCME legislative office at (410) 269-1817, or
The AFSCME Council 92 office: 190 W. Ostend St. Baltimore, MD 21230
547-1515 or 1-800- 492-1996

www.afscmecouncil92.org

Big-league political football

2006-03-09T17:27:00.000-05:00

“Facing budget deficits, Mr. Ehrlich slashed colleges’ budgets, and tuition levels soared to among the nation’s costliest. This year, the state is flush, so it’s politically convenient to try to make colleges whole and dampen tuition increases. Now Democrats would put in even more state money and freeze tuition. Then what happens when state budget deficits very soon return, as predicted? More university system cuts and more 10 percent tuition increases?”

We can understand this. Football has always been good to the gov. It got him out of Arbutus and into Gilman prep, then to Princeton, and now the metaphor serves him well in Annapolis.

Unfortunately, his 12.5-percent UMS budget increase does not
“ . . . make colleges whole and dampen tuition increases.” The increase returns the budget to the level of a year ago. You can bet that his 40-percent tuition increase will not be rescinded.

This year's paltry 2-percent staff wage increase is all the more galling when UMS squandered much of the gov's 12.5 percent on pet projects. Yes, I'm talking about UMS buying the Ward Decoy Museum among other idiocies.

“A firm and farsighted state commitment to funding higher education is absolutely critical to the long-term health of Maryland’s economy. Unfortunately, as recent history shows, Maryland’s commitment is uncertain and shortsighted. State leaders need to get serious about figuring out how to pay for the kind of university system this wealthy, educated state deserves.”

. . . but first, the gov’s gotta go watch the Terps.

Below decks at the flagship institution

2006-03-02T09:26:00.000-05:00

The current federal minimum wage of $5.15 per hour is of course, a national disgrace. Despite our gov’s protests that America (well, his America anyway) will collapse if the minimum wage is raised, the Maryland legislature is currently debating House Bill 55 that would raise our state’s minimum wage to $6.15.

What's to debate? You’d think that the political risk of adding a dollar to the minimum wage is on a par with assuming a courageous moral stand against drunk driving and spouse abuse. Particularly since the Maryland Department of Budget & Management (DBM) estimates that the total yearly cost for the one-dollar increase is $847,500—approximately what Halliburton charges the taxpayer to deliver today’s lunch to one soldier in Iraq.

As if there isn’t enough shame to go around, the University of Maryland admits that 2400 of their employees would be covered under the new minimum wage law (see Extract from Fiscal Note below). If you or anyone you know currently works for the University at less than $6.00 an hour, call AFSCME Council 92 in Baltimore today! Email or phone: 1-800-492-1996

Extract from Fiscal Note

The bill would require that the State pay its employees $6.15 per hour effective July 1, 2006. As a result, State expenditures could increase by approximately $847,500 in fiscal 2007 due to additional wages and mandatory payroll taxes paid on behalf of State employees. The estimate provided by DBM did not include employees at the University System of Maryland (USM). USM advises that approximately 2,400 contractual employees who are covered by federal or State minimum wage requirements are paid a wage of less than $6.15 per hour. Based on information provided by DBM and USM, Legislative Services estimates that wage and payroll tax expenditures would increase by approximately $600,000 in fiscal 2007. In addition, St. Mary’s College advises that increasing the minimum wage would increase its expenditures by approximately $128,000 in fiscal 2007, which represents increased wages for approximately 600 student-employees. Morgan State University advises that the bill would have no impact, as the university currently pays its employees a minimum of $6.25 per hour.

That heady sense of entitlement

2006-02-27T09:19:00.000-05:00

Not that these shenanigans don't cross party lines, but this from our Light Gov, one of the avatars of the "We need to get government off our backs and out of our wallets" Maryland Republicans.

Steele Should Refund Taxpayers for Out of State Political Travel
Steele’s Spanish Holiday Cost Maryland Taxpayers $13,500;
Almost $50,000 in Taxpayer Funds Used for Political Functions

Annapolis, MD – The Maryland Democratic Party is calling on Lt. Governor Michael Steele to refund nearly $50,000 in state taxpayer funds spent on partisan political travel, including a six-day summertime holiday to Madrid in 2005. According to the Washington Post, the Lt. Governor has spent 128 days – over 4 months – in out of state travel, including numerous trips for purely political purposes. A front page report in the Baltimore Business Journal details how Maryland taxpayers paid at least $13,500 to cover the cost of a political getaway for Lt. Governor Michael Steele and at least one government staffer to gather with a Republican political club in Spain.

“George Bush’s handpicked candidate for the Senate race in Maryland has every right to travel abroad but he has no right to make the taxpayers fund his Spanish vacation or his forays on behalf of fellow Republicans,” says Derek Walker, Executive Director of the Maryland Democratic Party.

“The $13,500 price tag for the Spanish trip covers just his security detail,” adds Walker. “It’s obvious from pictures published on the internet by Republicans Abroad in Spain that Steele took members of his official government staff along with him. So, how much did Maryland taxpayers really pay for a six day excursion to Spain?”

The Baltimore Business Journal details nearly $50,000 worth of taxpayer funded expenses for Steele’s political efforts: “Lt. Gov. Michael Steele took more than 20 political trips in the past year, billing Maryland taxpayers each time for his security protection to places as far away as Spain. From July 2004 through December 2005, the lieutenant governor traveled to 21 cities in the name of the Republican Party and two additional destinations in the name of his campaign for U.S. Senate.”

“Robert Ehrlich and Michael Steele have increased the burden on taxpayers by over $3 billion since coming into office, and that doesn’t even include the egregious misuse of public funds for partisan political purposes,” said Walker. “The money Steele raised while arm-in-arm with George Bush and Karl Rove should more than cover the costs of these political junkets.”

The Washington Post article can be viewed here.

The Baltimore Business Journal article can be viewed here.

-- A tip o' the hat to Derek Walker

Frame up

2006-02-24T12:44:00.000-05:00

"Republicans: You can’t trust them. You can’t trust them to run a country, you can’t trust them to live up to their claims of “smaller government,” you can’t trust them to fund their promises of a secure nation or to rebuild New York after Sept. 11 or New Orleans after Katrina. You can’t trust them to get you into a war or out of one. And you certainly can’t trust Dick Cheney with a gun."

BALTIMORE CITY PAPER | 2/22/2006

Political Animal | Columns
Frame Up

By Brian Morton

If there is one thing Republicans are good at, even better at than creating deficits or cutting rich people’s taxes, it is defining their opponents. Many people in America who might be considered “liberal,” if you ask them a series of questions about their beliefs, will never own up to the word, preferring to call themselves “independents” or “moderates.” Because, for the last 25 years, the right has made “liberal” seem as welcome as “rapist.”
Read more here

The party of true fiscal responsibility

2006-02-24T09:57:00.000-05:00

Democrats Fighting to Stem the Tide
of Ehrlich's Tuition Increases

From Fired Up Maryland, Wed, 02/22/2006 - 8:35am.

Democrats in the Maryland legislature are fighting to keep college affordable for Maryland families in the face of Ehrlich administration policies that have forced a 40% rise in tuition at some colleges and universities during the Governor's tenure.

Tuition would not rise at Maryland's public universities in the fall, under legislation introduced yesterday by Democratic leaders of the Maryland Senate.

The Democrats said the bill is needed to ensure that the University System of Maryland remains affordable after a string of tuition increases that have raised the cost of higher education by more than 40 percent at some campuses since Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) took office.

The Board of Regents has approved a 4.5 percent increase at most campuses that would take effect in the next school year.
Read more here.

Thankfully, the Democrats are willing to fight the Ehrlich administration on these back-door tax increases on the middle class.

I am sure Ehrlich feels that students and parents should feel lucky with only a 40% increase in tuition. After all, early in Ehrlich's term, Richard Hug, Ehrlich's finance chair, and an Erhlich appointee to the Board of Regents, tried to set a course to double tuition. "Only a 40% increase? What a deal!"

--A tip o' the hat to Roy Temple

Real Corruption Part II

2006-02-03T17:26:00.000-05:00

Not a bad spread: 29 bedrooms, 39 bathrooms, a 164-seat theater, two bowling alleys, a restaurant-size kitchen, a 2.5 million-B.T.U. furnace, and a parking garage that could hold 200 cars. That's for one person: Ira Rennert.

But, Rennert may have to give up his palace in the Hamptons, as Mary Williams Walsh reports in today's New York Times. You see, while Rennert has been padding around his "home," the government's Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp has been saddled with a mess Rennert left when he dumped the pensions for 2,000 steelworkers who worked for his now-bankrupt WCI Steel. Too often, the PBGC has to shell out money--taxpayers money--to cover dumped pensions because there are not enough assets to recover in a bankrupt enterprise. But, luckily for the PBGC, the value of Rennert's "home" just about equals the pensions of the 2,000 workers--startling as that may be.

Unfortunately, according to Walsh's piece, "Mr. Rennert is not likely to lose his estate in Sagaponack, the biggest, most expensive home in the Hamptons. But it is a particularly tempting target because of its personal value to Mr. Rennert. To prevent the government from placing a lien on it, he could be forced to hand over as much as $189 million — somewhat more than the value of his property — to cover the government's cost of paying the pensions that he promised to the steelworkers."

Well, why not take the house? Does one person need 29 bedrooms and 39 bathrooms--particularly when the thousands of people he left high and dry likely get by with a couple of bedrooms? It should be taken simply as a signal that such disgusting excess coming at the expense of hard-working people is not acceptable in our society. Make him an example.

If his home is accessible, it would be a wonderful thing to throw up a picket line and set up one of those big, inflatable rats that unions use to highlight strikes and non-union employers. Or, at the very least, make Rennert a poster-boy for what is wrong and corrupt with American business.

A tip o' the hat to Working Life

The Republicans have a dream . . . 1889-style

2006-02-03T17:23:00.000-05:00

. . . The fourth fact to claim attention is the rapid centralization of wealth by the corporation combine or trust and the creation of a few score millionaires, whose wealth and influence are becoming a menace to the republic.

The New York statistician, Mr. Thomas G. Shearman, in an article contributed to the Forum for November, 1889, showed conclusively the dangerous extent to which this concentration has already progressed. The following statistics of great millionaires are gathered from his article:

$150,000,000 each -- Trinity Church, J. J. Astor;
$100,000,000 each -- C. Vanderbilt, W. K. Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, Leland Stanford, J. D. Rockefeller;
$70,000,000 -- estate of A. Packer;
$60,000,000 each estate of Charles Crocker, John I. Blair;
$50,000,000 each -- W. W. Astor, Russell Sage, William Astor, E. A. Stevens, estate of Moses Taylor, and estate of Brown & Ives;
$40,000,000 each -- P. D. Armour, F. L. Ames, William Rockefeller, II. M. Flagler, Powers & Weightman, estate of P. Goelet;
$35,000,000each -- C. P. Huntingdon, D. O. Mills, estates of T. A. Scott and J. W Garrett;
$30,000,000 each -- G. B. Roberts, Charles Pratt, Ross Winans, E. B. Coxe, Claus Spreckels, A. Belmont, R. J. Livingston, Fred. Weyerhaeuser, Mrs. Mark Hopkins, Mrs. Hettie Green, estates of S. V. Harkness, R. W Coleman, and I. M. Singer;
$25,000,000 each -- A. J. Drexel, J. S. Morgan, J. P. Morgan, Marshall Field, J. [54] G. Fair, E. T. Gerry, estates of Governor Fairbanks, A. T. Stewart, A. Schermerhorn;
$22,500,000 each -- O. H. Payne, estates of F. A. Drexel, I. V. Williamson, W. F. Weld;
$20,000,000 each -- F. W. Vanderbilt, H. O. Havemeyer, Theodore Havemeyer, W. G. Warden, W. P. Thompson, Mrs. Schenley, J. B. Haggin, H. A. Hutchins, estates of W. Sloane, E. S. Higgins, William Thaw, C. Tower, Dr. Hostetter, Peter Donahue, and William Sharon.

Mr. Shearman reaches the conclusion that 25,000 persons own one-half of the whole wealth of the United States, and that, under the present rapid concentration, 50,000 persons will practically own all the wealth in thirty years.

What it means, getting government off your back

2006-01-31T15:09:00.000-05:00

STATE OF THE UNION

The state of the union is pretty good. The Canadian union.

"Sorry we killed your dad, but here's a ballpoint pen," said WVa Democratic Governor Joe Manchin III.

What it means, getting government off your back:

After one of the deadliest months for coal mining in years, federal mine regulators last week began formally considering safety improvements to help miners survive underground fires and explosions. Among the proposals: mandatory caches of oxygen tanks and breathing masks inside every coal mine.

The idea may have struck some miners as familiar, because it was. A similar proposal was put forward by the same regulators six years ago, only to be scrapped by the Bush administration shortly after it took office. And the oxygen caches were not the only proposed safety improvement to be withdrawn.

In all, the Bush administration abandoned or delayed implementation of 18 proposed safety rules that were in the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration's regulatory pipeline in early 2001, a review of agency records shows. At least two of the dropped proposals have now been resurrected in the aftermath of deadly accidents at the Sago and Alma mines in West Virginia.

Meanwhile in Canada:

All 72 trapped miners are now safe and home with their families after being brought to the surface Monday morning.

From MaxSpeak, You Listen!

But what about the people who DO the work?

2006-01-31T12:24:00.000-05:00

On January 28th, our Chancellor Brit Kirwan announced "terrific news" in a letter to "Dear Faculty and Staff." He wrote:

“We began the new year with terrific news. Gov. Ehrlich announced earlier this month his proposal for a 12.5% increase in general funds as part of the University System of Maryland’s FY 2007 operating budget. If approved by the Maryland General Assembly, this would mean a $101-million increase in state support.”
[ . . . ]
“Our total FY 2007 operating budget, as approved by the Board of Regents, would allow USM to advance several priorities shared by the university system, state officials, and the citizens of Maryland. Specifically, the budget would:”

allow our institutions to grow capacity to meet full enrollment demand;
allow USM to greatly moderate tuition increases while substantially increasing need-based financial aid;
provide funds to enhance our institutions, including the University of Maryland, College Park, as the state’s flagship university; and the system’s historically black institutions—Bowie State University, Coppin State University, and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore;
target resources to address the state’s critical workforce needs, including nursing, teacher education, and technology fields;
build the state’s capacity for education and research leadership in public health, the biosciences, nano-technology, and other critical fields;
provide the seed funding our institutions need to launch a $1.5-billion campaign to attract the private funding required to support quality, access, and affordability.”

That's it — in a year that the Gov (no friend to public higher education) allocated a 12 1/2 percent budget increase to the University System of Maryland, Chancellor Kirwan fails to mention UM staff at all.

What does it tell you when an institution takes a 12 1/2 percent boost while offering staffers a 4 percent raise? Kirwan and the Gov have spelled it out, in their world — you don't matter.

Remember that there are literally hundreds of University of Maryland employees who qualify for public assistance. The taxpayers will have to pay them one way or another . . . but not from the higher education budget.

Listen Closely

2006-01-30T13:49:00.000-05:00

From the Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO:

Tuesday night, President George W. Bush will lay out his 2006 agenda in his State of the Union speech, and working families will be listening closely. Time and again we have seen the president dress up anti-worker proposals with friendly sounding titles—but when his congressional allies adopt them, the results are disastrous for working families.

So when you’re listening to President Bush speak, think about what his previous proposals have really meant to working people like us:

When Bush talks about health insurance, remember the disastrous Medicare drug prescription scam his team in Congress pushed through. It has stranded tens of thousands of seniors without needed medications and forced some 20 states to declare public health emergencies because President Bush put the interest of drug companies ahead of the interests of seniors.
When the president talks about health care costs, remember that he and his allies in Congress refused to allow Medicare to negotiate with drug companies, costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.
When Bush talks about taxes, remember the huge tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans he and congressional leaders already passed and the ever-growing debt they are leaving to our children and grandchildren.
When Bush talks about opportunity, remember how the income disparity is growing as wages fall and the cost of living rises for working families.
When Bush talks about education, remember that he and leaders in Congress have pushed higher education out of reach for many by cutting student loans.
When Bush talks about keeping America safe, remember his administration’s utter failure to rescue desperate victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The State of the Union address always dominates headlines the next day and generates plenty of water cooler conversations. When you’re talking to friends and family about President Bush’s 2006 agenda and the congressional leadership that will carry it forward, remind them how the agendas of the past five years have turned out for working families.

In Solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO

After the State of the Union address, visit the AFL-CIO’s website
for more coverage: www.aflcio.org

The Gov's Built-in $3.2 Billion Budget Deficit

2006-01-24T10:01:00.000-05:00

From: The Daily Democrat
The Truth in Talking Points
January 24, 2006

Governor Ehrlich's Built-in $3.2 Billion Budget Deficit
- He & GOP Keep Quiet, Not Even Embarrassed

Governor Robert Ehrlich is addicted to the notion that he inherited a billion dollar deficit. Every excuse for his failures, tax hikes and incompetent management depends on it. So, why does he propose a record breaking, spending-cap smashing $29.6 billion budget that leaves the next governor with a $3.2 billion deficit?

The Washington Post: Shortfall Ahead, Analyst Says of Ehrlich Plan

The Baltimore Sun: Ehrlich proposal could cause $1 billion shortfall by 2009

Robbing Peter to Rob Paul

2006-01-23T13:53:00.000-05:00

. . . and you thought the Gov’s magic billion-dollar surplus came from higher tax revenues! Once again the hate-America, rob from our grandchildren Republicans reveal their true colors.

Baltimore Sun
Opinion

Conservation calculation
Originally published January 22, 2006

When Maryland’s Program Open Space was created in 1969, it was envisioned as a kind of automatic savings account for the environment. The idea is simple enough. Each time there’s a real estate purchase, a state transfer tax is assessed. A portion - one-half percent of a property’s value - is then used to buy land, build parks and preserve farms. The beauty of the system is that development would automatically fuel land conservation. Program Open Space wouldn’t have to compete for funds.

Unfortunately, it hasn’t always worked out that way. Governors from time to time have dipped into the program to finance other needs. But no governor in these 37 years has pumped this financial reserve as dry as Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has over the past three. Altogether, he’s taken more than $400 million out of the program to balance the state’s general fund. And unlike the millions he took out of transportation, he’s shown no indication that he’ll ever pay it back.

So it’s surprising that the beset flora and fauna didn’t collectively rise as one out of the Chesapeake Bay to attack the governor last week when he showed up at North Point State Park to announce that he wouldn’t divert money from the program this year. No doubt they were simply overwhelmed by the dazzling display of chutzpah. What oyster has ever seen a fellow with the billion-dollar-plus budget surplus bragging that he’s not raiding the environmental piggy bank (for now)?

True, the governor’s willingness to leave the program alone means $258 million for land conservation. That’s helpful, but we’d be more inclined to ask the question a mortgage lender might pose to a delinquent client who makes a partial payment: What, sir, are you going to do about the rest?

Mr. Ehrlich, whose environmental record has been spotty at best, seems to want to make amends. He’s probably worried that people remember the St. Mary’s County land deal - his effort to sell off 836 acres of forest to a politically connected developer two years ago. The overwhelming public support for a constitutional amendment restricting such deals suggests he’s right. But one year of funding doesn’t balance the governor’s political ledger. Such newfound environmental fervor (particularly such a relatively tepid fervor) seems likely to cool soon enough. Surely, neither crabs nor voters can sit still for that.

Why we educate . . .

2006-01-19T12:47:00.000-05:00

You just can't make this stuff up. Here's an example of the acute reasoning power of the anti-science crowd as explained for us by Phyllis Schlafley in the December 13th 2005 Eagle Forum Court Watch:

Fact v. Fiction #2: Evolutionists claim that their battle against creation-science is primarily a "scientific" issue, not a constitutional question. But our treasured U. S. Constitution is written by persons and for persons. If man is an animal, the Constitution was written by animals and for animals. This preposterous conclusion destroys the Constitution. The Aguillard Humanists leave us with no Constitution and no constitutional rights of any kind if they allow us to teach only that man is an animal.
These subtle and dangerous attacks on God Himself and the Constitution must be repelled. There are additional "Fictions" being hurled by evolutionists against creationism, and we will consider these in our next "Briefing." As the battle moves into the courtroom again, WE MUST BE PREPARED TO DEFEND THE TRUTH!

National Chairman: Virginia Armstrong, Ph.D. * 2438 Industrial Blvd. PMB 190 * Abilene, TX 79605

325-673-3020 * E-mail: CourtWatch@EagleForum.org

Wonder if they will share?

2006-01-18T10:55:00.000-05:00

What does it mean when a division of a state-supported institution of higher learning speaks of making a “profit”?

Washington Business Journal
January 13, 2006

U of Md. sports program scores $46M in revenue
Josh Drobnyk
Staff Reporter

The University of Maryland's athletic programs at College Park generated a record $46 million in revenue last school year.

The College Park campus produced more than twice the revenue of any other college athletic programs in the area, according to recent data from the U.S. Department of Education.

The District's two largest universities ranked second and third among the area's top revenue-generating schools. Georgetown University recorded $18.9 million during the 2004-2005 school year, and The George Washington University reported $16.9 million.

George Mason University, the largest public school in Virginia, rang up $10.1 million in revenue.

American University in D.C. posted $8.6 million in revenue.

Only two of the five schools had revenues that exceeded expenses, turning a "profit" from their athletic departments.

George Washington posted $1.5 million in profit for the 2004-2005 school year, and George Mason posted $250,000.

All of the area's programs pale in comparison to the results from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, which produced $62 million in revenue, pulling in nearly

$5 million in profit.

Driving revenue -- and expenses -- at Maryland were its men's basketball and football programs, which brought in a combined $19.6 million. The basketball program alone produced a nearly $7 million profit.

Politicizing Research

2006-01-18T09:26:00.000-05:00

If this is what happens when the people who fund government research at a “Major Research University” don’t like the results? Now imagine what happens when corporate sponsors get answers they don’t like . . .

Why did NASA kill a climate change project?

By Robert L. Park
The New York Times
SUNDAY, JANUARY 15, 2006

COLLEGE PARK, Maryland NASA has quietly terminated the Deep Space Climate Observatory, citing “competing priorities.” The news media took little notice. Few Americans, after all, had even heard of the program. But the entire world may come to mourn its passing.

Earth is growing warmer. Even the most strident global-warming deniers have taken to saying that a little warming is a good thing. If the trend continues, however, it will have catastrophic consequences for life on this planet. Correctly identifying the cause could be the most important problem facing humanity.

Most scientists link global warming to unrestrained burning of fossil fuels, which shrouds Earth in a blanket of carbon dioxide, trapping the Sun’s energy. Others, backed by industries that spew pollutants into the atmosphere, insist that greenhouse emissions are not the problem. They prefer to attribute warming to natural variations in solar output. Scientists are skeptical, but they don’t deny the possibility. The issue cries out to be resolved.

Even in a world wracked by wars, battles are not fought over scientific disagreements. In science, nature is the sole arbiter. Disputes are resolved only by better experiments.

The better experiment when it comes to global warming was to be the climate observatory, situated in space at the neutral-gravity point between the Sun and Earth. Called Lagrange 1, or L1, this point is about 1 million miles from Earth. At L1, with a view of the full disk of the Sun in one direction, and a full sunlit Earth in the opposite, the observatory could continuously monitor Earth’s energy balance. It was given a poetic name, Triana, after Rodrigo de Triana, the sailor aboard Christopher Columbus’ ship who first sighted the New World.

Development began in November 1998 and it was ready for launching three years later. The cost was only about $100 million. For comparison, that is only one-thousandth the cost of the International Space Station, which serves no useful purpose.

Before Triana could be launched, however, there was a presidential election. Many of the industries favored by the new Bush White House were not anxious to have the cause of global warming pinned down. The launching was put on hold.

The disdain of the Bush White House for Triana goes much deeper than just a desire to avoid the truth about global warming. Triana began life in early 1998 as a brainchild of Al Gore, who was then the vice president. Gore, the story goes, woke up one morning wondering if it would be possible to beam a continuous image of the full Earth back from space to inspire people with the need to care for our planet. The 1972 portrait of the full Earth, taken from the Moon, had inspired millions with the fragile beauty of our blue planet. Why not beam the image live into classrooms, allowing students to view weather systems marching around the globe?

Scientists had dreamed of such an observatory for years. They hoped Gore’s influence would make it happen. Gore’s support would end up destroying it. Those who hated him, hated Triana. His dream of inspiring environmentalists and schoolchildren served only to trivialize the project. It was ridiculed as “Gore’s screen saver.”

Triana is terminated, but global warming is not. Someday, there will have to be an observatory at L1. Perhaps the most important lesson from our exploration of the solar system is that the most terrible place on Earth is a Garden of Eden compared to the best place anywhere else. We must find out how to keep it that way.

(Robert L. Park, a professor of physics at the University of Maryland, is the author of ‘‘Voodoo Science: The Road From Foolishness to Fraud.’’)

Ehrlich Gets Caught Lying About Wal-Mart Cash

2006-01-17T17:32:00.000-05:00

I realize this story is a few days old, but it really shows how corrupt politicians are more than happy to appear on television and lie right through their teeth. In the lead up to the Maryland legislature’s override of Gov. Bob Ehrlich’s (R) veto of legislation forcing Wal-Mart to improve workers’ health care, Ehrlich lied about having pocketed campaign cash from Wal-Mart. Thankfully, he got nailed by the Washington Post.

Here is the excerpt:

At times, the issue appeared to throw Ehrlich off balance. During an appearance on CNBC yesterday, he was asked whether he was in Wal-Mart’s “pocket” because the company held a $1,000-per-person fundraiser for him.

“Wal-Mart hosted a $1,000 fundraiser for me?” he asked on the national broadcast. “That is absolutely incorrect. Wal-Mart has not hosted any fundraisers.”

Press secretary Greg Massoni later said Ehrlich “misspoke. Wal-Mart was not the host, just one of many hosts.”

The invitation to the December 2004 event came emblazoned with Wal-Mart’s logo, and at the entrance to the function, held in a private room at the waterfront Annapolis Marriott Hotel, a Wal-Mart sign welcomed those attending. Massoni said he could not identify any other sponsors.

Maryland Democrats Make History – Reject Ehrlich Veto

2006-01-13T09:03:00.000-05:00

Override Gives Taxpayers a Break from Corporate Health Care Welfare

Annapolis: With courageous Democratic leadership and Democratic votes – fortified by common sense, fundamental fairness and the concern for the welfare of taxpayers - the Maryland General Assembly made history and rejected Gov. Robert Ehrlich’s veto of the Fair Share Healthcare Bill. It now becomes the first such law of its kind in the nation despite the intense high-powered lobby efforts of Wal-Mart and its allies in the Republican Party.

“With this override, Maryland is now protecting the average taxpayer and small business person from subsidizing the profits of outlaw mega-corporations with their tax dollars,” says Terry Lierman, Maryland Democratic Party Chair. “If Ehrlich, Steele and Wal-Mart had won this fight, Maryland businesses would have been big losers in the ongoing struggle between the local employer and the giant corporate predator intent on keeping its corporate welfare in place and its friendly politicians fat and happy.”

Wal-Mart is among those mega-corporations that refuse to provide adequate health care coverage for their employees. So, they depend on tax supported government health care programs to cover medical care and expenses. Maryland is the only state which guarantees hospital services to anyone regardless of their ability to pay. “Health care by emergency room” is not free and the cost is absorbed by everyone else through higher insurance rates and higher taxes that fund hospital reimbursements, Medicare and Medicaid.

“Corporations like Wal-Mart should never be allowed to profit by dumping the health care costs of their workers on Maryland’s working families and small business owners,” adds Lierman. “Democrats showed great courage defending all Marylanders from corporate outlaws who bleed our state budget and every household budget in Maryland for the sake of their multi-billion dollar profits.”

“This vote is a sad example of the hypocrisy of Maryland Republicans who choose to defend this onerous form of corporate welfare and vote against the interests of Maryland’s working families, bread winners and small businesses,” adds Lierman.

Derek Walker

Maryland Democratic Party

301-858-8818/410-269-8818 (office)

410-980-0939 (mobile)

Hold your nose (Part 3) . . . and vote YES

2005-12-21T13:28:00.000-05:00

Your union has worked hard to negotiate a wage agreement with the University System of Maryland for FY 2006. If approved by you, this agreement will be added to the Board of Regents' budget request for this year's Maryland legislative session.

This is another historic moment that marks the second time UMCP employees have had a say in the budgetary process.

We encourage a yes vote on this wage agreement. If this proposal is voted down, our pay increases in the budgetary process may be in jeopardy.

Voting on this wage agreement will take place on Friday, December 23, 2005 beginning at 10:00 a.m. and ending at 2:00 p.m. in the Edgar Allen Poe Room (Room 2101) at the Stamp Student Union. You must bring identification (ID) to be allowed to vote and be a member of the exempt or nonexempt bargaining unit.

All AFSCME exempt and nonexempt bargaining unit members will be permitted to take up to one (1) hour of paid release time for this voting. This time must be coordinated with your supervisor.

Here is a summary of the agreement:

SUMMARY OF AFSCME - USM
PAY AGREEMENT FOR FY 2006

WHAT RAISE WILL WE GET NEXT JULY 1?

Before we won collective bargaining, we just had to wait to see what management would ask the Governor for, what the Governor would put in the budget and what the legislature would approve. In the contract (known as an MOU) we won language that forces management to come to the bargaining table and negotiate with us over what they will ask for. Now we are no longer just waiting at the end of the process, we are a player at the beginning.

We negotiate over two money items- the Cost of Living increase and the Merit Pay increase for those who meet standards.

COLA – 2% WITH A POSSIBILITY OF MORE

This year, it appears that the Governor is going to put in a 2% raise for COLA. That’s management’s offer so far at another bargaining table where the state has to meet with AFSCME. In our negotiations, we agreed to whatever level of funding the General Assembly provides for. It’s extremely unlikely that they will cut a raise proposed by the Governor; in fact they have never done so. What we’ll be fighting for in the legislature is to increase this 2% at least by having the raise as a flat across the board amount instead of a percentage. To arrive at the flat amount, the state would have to come up with an average that would include all of the very high paid administrators across the state. As a result they would get less and we would get more.

MERIT 2.5% DEPENDING ON THE LEVEL OF FUNDING THAT THE USM GETS

Before collective bargaining, whether or not we would get a merit increase was up to the whim of management. Their own policy made it dependent on whether or not “funds are available.” How much money had to be available was something that was left up to them. And then there was the question of available to whom and for what? Now they have to negotiate that.

With this agreement, if management gets a certain amount of money, we will be guaranteed a 2.5% increase (2.5% Merit Pool for Exempts). If in the unlikely event they get less, but more than a much lower amount, we will get a 2% increase (what management says is the average step increase given to State employees). The schedule of what increase in funds triggers what increase is on the other side. An increase of below $80 million would trigger no merit. Management’s request to the Governor is at the $136 million level and the situation looks very good for getting the 2.5%.

Management began negotiations with a proposal that might have made it impossible or much more difficult to get a merit raise. Negotiations changed the figures. Plus, as opposed to last year, management agreed to increase the second level from 1.5% to a 2% merit increase (equivalent to what they say other state employees get on average).

SHOULD WE VOTE FOR THIS? YES

Is this raise enough in light of increases in health care, gasoline, home heating costs and more? No! And it is certainly not what we deserve. But it is as much as we can win at this point AND it locks in
management- requiring them to give a merit increase at certain levels of funding, even if other agencies in the state were to not give a merit increase. A vote against what we have tentatively agreed to will not result in a larger Cost of Living increase. If it would, we would all be voting “no.” In this case, a “no’ vote would only put our merit pay increase in jeopardy. Due to timing required by law, negotiations must be concluded by the end of the year and we were just able to get management to make the last changes on December 19.

Our contract does not allow for negotiations over what the COLA will be.
Unlike workers in private companies, the law does not allow us to negotiate with management on that. In our situation, we can only negotiate on what the University will ask the Governor for. In this case, knowing the Governor, we have opted to agree on whatever the legislature approves.

The struggle for the best COLA will be during the legislative session.

After that, the next battle is -Who will be the next Governor?

For more information contact the AFSCME leaders on your campus;
or call 1-800-492-1996 and ask for Jeff.

News from the December 13 wage negotiations

2005-12-16T15:56:00.000-05:00

Sorry to report, but we were unable to move UMS, in the person of Joe Vivona, from his initial, best, final, and only merit pay increase offer of 2.5 percent. That will be the number we get from him next Monday (if not lower) after he has presented his UMS dog and pony show to the Gov.

It was not for lack of creative trying. Today the bargaining team presented four separate proposals that were all turned down flat.

It wasn't until the final hour that we finally realized that UMS (i.e., Joe) has a very different concept of "bargaining" than what you might find in say, the dictionary.

Here's the deal:

UMS is currently operating on a yearly $1.1 Billion budget and it won't be cut. Mr. Vivona intends to ask the Gov. for an ADDITIONAL $130 million. Joe told us that $75 million of that figure is MANDATORY increases (energy, health care, pay increases, etc.). AFSCME has the actual figures.

Within the MANDATORY $75 million increase is $27 million for staff pay increases to provide every UMS employee (staff, faculty, managers, administrators, executives, etc.) with a 2.5 percent MERIT raise. Because it would be wrong, or something, to deny the non-union freeloaders to benefit from the work of the volunteer negotiators, right? Just like last year.

So here's what we said to Joe:

"This year the state is boasting a $2.5 to 3 Billion budget surplus, yet you have glommed on to the offer AFSCME made UMS last year, a year with a very bad budget outlook. In the spirit of cooperation in tough times, last year's AFSCME merit pay demand was linked to several gloomy UMS budget guesses and maxed out our raises at 2.5 percent."

Then we asked Joe, " . . . if the Gov. agrees to your $130 million ask, or even $100 million, would UMS consider sharing that bounty with staff in the form of a 3 or 4 percent merit raise?"

Well, Joe got very angry and said that there is no fluff in his $130 million budget ask! He wouldn't lie to staff about such a serious matter. He thought we had established a relationship of trust. Blah de blah de blah.

Hmmm . . . I thought: $130 million ask minus the $75 million mandatory increases, that leaves----$55 million dollars of mad money and UM Staff deserves a fair share!!

Then the light bulb went on!

Joe is asking for money above the $75 million MANDATORY increase only for carefully defined pet projects that our manly man Gov. is sure to love. And the Gov. clearly doesn't love STATE EMPLOYEE PAY HIKES!

Joe went on to explain how UMS wants to cover the cost of increased student enrollment above the amount of increased tuition take. Why says Joe, "There are children who might be denied a college degree--children who might be the first in their families to attend college."

Okay, okay, enough already. Thank goodness he didn't mention widows and orphans--I only had one hankie.

But then Joe went on to talk about how he intended to sell the Gov. on new initiatives in nanotechnology research, stem cell research, a new institute on aging, and GET THIS!! the purchase of the Ward Duck Decoy Museum in Salisbury. Hey, I'm all for duck hunting, but (speaking of widows and orphans) shouldn't food for housekeepers' children rank higher on Joe's UMS priority budget ask list?

So here's the thing. We are going to get a 2.5 percent (or less) merit pay increase come Hell or high water. Because . . . that's all Joe intends to ask for.

That's bargaining?

Greg Johnson
President AFSCME Local 1072
University of Maryland College Park

News from the December 5 wage negotiations

2005-12-16T15:47:00.000-05:00

As usual, please forward this information to your friends and coworkers.

----------------

At the December 5 UMS Non-exempt wage reopener negotiations we learned the following:

That the UM System is still waiting for their budgetary marching orders from Annapolis.

Until then, their merit pay proposal hinges on three budget appropriation levels:

If the state increases the UMS budget by $100 million or more: 2.5 percent

If the state increases the UMS budget by $75 million or more: 1.5 percent

If the state increases the UMS budget by less than $75 million: 0 percent

Here are some facts and figures:

There are 21,000 full time equivalent (FTE) employees in the UM System. At this time we do not know if this number also includes faculty and management.
There are 9000 non-exempt FTEs.

At the moment, the UMS total "asking budget" (the total request for increased state appropriations) is approximately $135 million. The UMS negotiator claims that $75 million of the $135 million are "mandatory" increases.

Here is a partial list of "mandatory" increases:

Reimbursement for money borrowed
Staff merit raises
Facility renewal
Debt service for new buildings
Energy
Health care

The UMS negotiators claim that both health care and energy cost increases amount to $30 million. (Are you sure they bargain with the energy and health care providers as doggedly as they do with their employees?)

They claim that a 2.5 percent merit raise for all 21,000 UMS employees will cost approximately $27.5 million.

They claim that a 2.5 percent raise for the 9000 non-exempt workers will cost between $4 and $5 million. This is the only group that AFSCME represents at these negotiations!

The UMS negotiators continue to cry poverty. They want us to believe that we are asking them for $27 million in wage increases. THIS IS NOT TRUE!

It would certainly be "nice" for all 21,000 employees of the University System to get the same raises as bargaining unit employees. The UMS negotiators are holding non-exempt bargaining unit pay increases hostage in the name of "fairness." Fairness to the thousands of non-union employees in the UMS system.

There is a name for the UMS non-union employees who stand to benefit from the hard work of the union volunteers. That name is FREELOADERS.

The UM System negotiators claim that they include all the 21,000 employees in the raise package in the interest of fairness--fairness to the top earners, that is.

In the interest of fairness to the low-wage employees, we must not back down from our demand for a flat-rate (non percentage) wage increase.

You need to know what are we fighting for--

$4-5 million out of the UMS total request for state appropriations of $135 Million.

That is less than FOUR PERCENT of the UMS budget increase request. The UMS negotiators are telling you loud and clear that your raise is not worth FOUR PERCENT of their budget!

We believe that staff should be a priority--tell your Maryland state legislators that FOUR PERCENT of the UMS budget is the very least they can do.

Greg Johnson
President AFSCME Local 1072
University of Maryland College Park

Attention! Ehrlich spin doctors report to your desks!

2005-12-16T09:04:00.000-05:00

Crikey, in The Washington Times, no less!

Remember that Johns Hopkins, Giant Food, Lockheed-Martin, and Northrop-Grumman already exceed this law's humane requirements. Ehrlich "spokesman" Fawell calls this a "tax increase."

Let's ask the Gov's spinmeisters if they have a phrase for: "Full-time job with wages so low employees are forced to apply for taxpayer-supported Medicaid"?

Override of Ehrlich's veto set as priority
By S.A. Miller
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published December 16, 2005

ANNAPOLIS -- Democratic leaders said yesterday they are preparing to challenge Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. from the start of the upcoming General Assembly, a 90-day session expected to have partisan clashes and election-year posturing.

House Majority Whip Anthony G. Brown said he is already lining up votes to override Mr. Ehrlich's veto of a bill requiring large businesses to pay employee health insurance.

If the assembly's Democratic majority overrides the veto by Mr. Ehrlich, a Republican, and the so-called Wal-Mart bill is enacted, the businesses could close and move hundreds of jobs elsewhere.

"The House leadership is considering the bill one of the top priorities, if not the top priority," said Mr. Brown, a Prince George's Democrat who is also the running mate of gubernatorial candidate Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley.

The legislation is just one of several issue that continues to divide the parties. The governor's plan to revamp the state's juvenile-justice system and his upcoming package of health care legislation are also expected to create political wrangling.

Mr. Brown said he was "pretty confident" the General Assembly leadership will secure the requisite 85 House votes to override the Wal-Mart veto when the session convenes Jan. 12.

Sen. Andrew P. Harris, a Baltimore County Republican and the minority whip, expects the veto also to be overridden in the Senate, despite "having every Republican supporting the governor."

Supporters say the bill will protect employees of large corporations.

The Ehrlich administration and other opponents characterize it as a new business tax and say the job-depleted Eastern Shore would likely suffer first because the bill may persuade Wal-Mart to cancel plans to open a distribution center there.

"It is very telling that the Maryland legislature's first order of business is to overturn a veto to increase taxes," Ehrlich spokesman Henry P. Fawell said yesterday.

He also said the move would be the "first step toward government-run health care."

The bill, officially titled the Fair Share Health Care Fund Act, requires businesses with more than 10,000 employees to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on employee health insurance.

A business could also choose to contribute an equivalent amount to the state Medicaid fund. Companies that do not meet the requirement would be subject to a $250,000 fine.

Right now, Wal-Mart is the only business in the state that meets the criteria, though opponents of the legislation say it would eventually be applied to smaller businesses.

The state's other large companies, such as Northrop Grumman, already provide adequate health insurance benefits to comply with the law.

Copyright © 2005 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

Hold your nose - Part II

2005-11-22T23:44:00.000-05:00

First Karl Rove, now this. Who's next, Ken Lay?

George Bush is coming to Maryland

George Bush is coming to Maryland to raise money for Michael Steele's U.S. Senate campaign.

Shockingly, Steele eagerly associates himself with Bush's misplaced priorities, scandal-ridden Administration, dismal response to Hurricane Katrina and failed Iraq policy. ". . . It is an honor, and we look forward to it," says a Steele campaign aide.

The event is next week, November 30th, at the M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. The special interests clamoring to attend will give $5,000 each to have their photograph taken with Bush and Steele!

This is only Steele's second public fundraising event. The first Steele event was at Republican headquarters in Washington, D.C., hosted by Karl Rove - proving that Steele's only hope is to tie his fortunes to Bush, Rove and the "swift boat" tactics of the RNC. Rove and the national Republicans have promised to import into Maryland $15 million from their national right-wing allies in an attempt to buy a U.S. Senate seat in Maryland.

Bush's coattails

2005-11-22T23:34:00.000-05:00

November 22, 2005--Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich trails two potential challengers in his bid for re-election according to the latest Rasmussen Reports Election 2006 poll.

Ehrlich (R) 40 (46)
O'Malley (D) 46 (41)

Ehrlich (R) 39 (43)
Duncan (D) 48 (44)

More here.

We have a scarcity of knowledge

2005-11-17T21:39:00.000-05:00

"The university is bracing for a maintenance worker shortage"?
How, exactly? The choices seem to be limited by economic elitism - -

Continue the ten-year policy of increasing the ratio of managers to line workers?
Contract the work out?

Wait! there may be a better way . . . You might ask the line workers for their ideas. No, that's too obvious!

University faces dearth of maintenance employees
Department struggles to retain workers in the aftermath of budget cuts

by Megha Rajagopalan
The Diamondback
November 11, 2005

The university is bracing for a maintenance worker shortage that over the next five years will hurt the university’s ability to maintain campus buildings, officials said.

Budget cuts several years ago forced the university to slash its maintenance staff nearly in half even though the university continues to grow both in size and population, said Director of Operations and Maintenance Jack Baker. The expected shortage of maintenance workers comes in the midst of a looming half billion dollars needed to repair and maintain campus buildings.

Read more here.

Who speaks loudest?

2005-11-16T22:14:00.000-05:00

Why would Wal-Mart, a major American corporation fight so hard against the proposition that all employees have a right to health care insurance?

Note the use of words like "battle" and "showdown." Wal-Mart's "ammunition" in Annapolis is money--it sure isn't reason or ethics. They think only money talks.

As Ambassador Joseph Wilson has demonstrated, stopping this kind of crap depends on you standing up to power.

All it requires is a letter, email, or phone call. Active citizens can overcome spending any day of the week.

Wal-Mart Girds for Battle on Maryland Bill
Benefits Measure Spurs a Buildup Of Lobbying Force

By John Wagner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 17, 2005; Page A01

Preparing for a showdown with organized labor in the Maryland legislature, Wal-Mart has deployed at least a dozen Annapolis lobbyists and is making strong overtures to black lawmakers, including a $10,000 donation to help them pay for a recent conference.

The retail giant hopes to derail legislation that would effectively force the company to boost spending on employee health benefits.

Thank a state employee today

2005-11-16T19:15:00.000-05:00

With all that is going on in Annapolis concerning the costs of state employees (health insurance, pay raises, etc.), this would be good time to send letters to the editors of papers about the fact that state employees are not an expense - they are a vital benefit to the well being of our state.

With Thanksgiving coming up, this is a perfect time to say - Have you thanked a state employee this year?

Here is an outline for such a letter.

SAMPLE LETTER TO THE EDITOR

As we approach the holidays and think about all that we are thankful for, have you thanked a state employee? While at first you may think this is strange but we are more than an expense to the state. We provide vital service that Marylanders rely upon every day.

I’ve worked for the state for ___ years as a _____. My job is important to the citizens of Maryland because ___________.

I’m sure you’ve seen state employees portrayed as a mere line item in the budget, but I can tell you that my job is more than just an insignificant expense. My co-workers and I provide vital services to the citizens of Maryland. Asked them what they would do if our jobs were eliminated?

When you’re counting your blessings this year, don’t forget to thank a state employee for his/her service to the

Thanks.

If you would like further assistance on drafting something, or finding our where to send the letter, please contact Sue.

Sue Esty
Legislative Director
AFSCME Council 92
190 W. Ostend St.
Baltimore, MD 21230

You have the Worst Pension Plan in the U.S.

2005-11-15T19:48:00.000-05:00

It's official:
House Speaker Michael E. Busch said,‘‘I don’t think it’s in anyone’s best interests, especially with the worst pension plan in the country, to take away anyone’s benefits.”
--from an article by by Douglas Tallman in the Gazette papers.
Read the full article here.

In case you wondered why your copays and prescription costs have doubled--Last year the Gov tried to shift $120 million in health care costs over to state employees. And why not, we didn't vote for him. We are supposed to be grateful because the legislature managed to cut that increase to "only" $60 million.

So what's next in the Gov's house of budgetary horrors?

Why, deliberately underfund your pension, of course.

"'This administration has not been reluctant to significantly increase employees’ burden on health care costs. We are taking the possibility (of deliberately underfunding pensions) extremely seriously and doing everything we can with our members and retirees to talk to their legislators about this,' said Sue Esty, legislative director for the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees."

Go get 'em Sue!

Call or write your Maryland State Legislators (find contact info here) and tell them that state employee benefits ARE A BUDGET PRIORITY! not an afterthought.

UPDATE on AFSCME - UM wage negotiations

2005-11-14T18:14:00.000-05:00

Please forward this information to your friends and coworkers.

Based on the February 2005 member survey, AFSCME presented a simple wage proposal to the University of Maryland System on November 2, 2005.

This is it:

1. A $4000 cost of living increase (COLA)
2. A $2000 merit increase across the board, or a 3.5 percent increase (whichever is greater).

The February survey results stated loud and clear that AFSCME members believe that a flat dollar increase would help our lowest paid employees while still providing the higher paid employees with a meaningful increase.

In the second wage reopener bargaining session on Thursday, November 10th, the University System Vice Chancellor of Administration & Finance responded to our proposal as follows:

"We are not interested in a flat dollar amount for either the merit or the cost of living adjustment. We are not negotiating pay equity."

Well, he was half right--we are NOT negotiating "pay equity." For proof, read this.

AFSCME's flat dollar increase of $4000 aims to provide a meaningful raise for the least among us--those employees of Maryland Higher Education who are paid less than $20,000 per year. When the raise calculated as a percentage instead of a flat rate, low-paid workers get the shaft.

We are all ashamed that some housekeepers, dining service and facilities maintenance workers at UMCP are eligible for state assistance. That shame is clearly not felt in the UMS Office of Budget Analysis.

In addition, the Vice Chancellor went on to say that it would serve no useful purpose to bargain with AFSCME again until December.

Why?

Before the UMS Office of Budget Analysis presents their "Asking Budget," they want to see how much money will be granted to us by that great friend of Maryland higher education--our Governor. Then, "business as usual" the UMS Office of Budget Analysis will divide up the state dollars among pet projects, construction, and other money pits. Staff raises are low on their priority list.

If you believe that the UM System has turned their backs on staff and that blocking our legitimate wage request is wrong, here are two simple tasks you can do to change things:

1. Call or write your Maryland State Legislators (find contact info here) and tell them that Higher Education staff pay IS A BUDGET PRIORITY! not an afterthought.

2. Call or write the University System Vice Chancellor of Administration & Finance, Joseph Vivona and tell him to pass along our pay request to the legislature. No interference, no footdragging, just do it!

Your voice matters. Don't wait for permission. Do it today!

FYI here is the mission statement of the UMS Office of Budget Analysis:

"The Office of Budget Analysis coordinates with the institutions in developing and presenting the annual operating budget to the Regents, the Department of Budget and Management, and MHEC. As part of this task, the Office collects, collates, analyzes, and presents data relevant to the budget, including priorities and the resource requirements of the institutions and the System. The Office also represents the institutions and the USM in budget matters to the Department of Fiscal Services and the General Assembly."

Fixing the mess they made

2005-11-08T21:41:00.000-05:00

One year from today we will go to the polls to elect a Governor, a United States Senator and a whole host of state, county and local leaders. Every vote will help chart the direction of our State for years to come. There is a lot at stake, but one thing is for certain: we can not afford to continue moving backwards due to the failed leadership of Robert Ehrlich and Michael Steele.

Our State is suffering the consequences of the Ehrlich/Steele “give us a chance and we’ll give you a choice” administration. Well, the citizens of Maryland gave them a chance, and here’s what we got in return:

A veto of the $1 increase in the minimum wage, which at only $5.15 an hour is one of the lowest in the U.S.
A 40% increase in tuition at Maryland’s public colleges and universities
Nearly $2 billion in new taxes and fees, including an historic property tax increase
Public lands being sold to wealthy contributors
The bare minimum funding required by law for K-12 education
3,000 sick children kicked off Medicaid
$42 million in cuts for nursing homes

Marylanders are already expressing their disapproval of Ehrlich and Steele – not to mention their vehement disgust with their good friend and ally, President George W. Bush.

Please also consider getting involved, if you are not already, with a Democratic organization or campaign in your area. A list of Democratic organizations can be found here, and an ever-expanding list of Democratic candidates can be found here.

Next November 7, the voters of Maryland will take back our State. The work we do together in the next year will not only result in a resounding Democratic victory up and down the ballot, but will help usher in a new era of progress and prosperity for our State.

Terry Lierman
Chair
Maryland Democratic Party

Badges? We don't need no badges

2005-11-07T19:33:00.000-05:00

Two items that should concern every University of Maryland employee:

The FBI's use of "National Security Letters" to authorize the examination of your email, web browsing, online purchases, library and book reading habits, etc.. National Security Letters are issued by FBI field supervisors and do not require clearance by a prosecutor, grand jury or judge. In addition, recipients are permanently barred from disclosing the receipt of these letters. Read more here

The August 5th Federal Communications Commission decision that the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) that makes it easier for federal agents to tap computer networks should cover broadband networks like the one on campus. UMCP is now mandated to install $18 million in network hardware approved by the FBI to facilitate the execution of "National Security Letters." Read more here

"The innocent have nothing to fear." - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (quoting Lenin)

Too bad we had to learn from experience

2005-11-06T21:27:00.000-05:00

Potomac Inc. 10/27-11/1.
Likely Voters. MoE 3.2% (4/17 results)

Ehrlich (R) 33 (39)
O'Malley (D) 48 (45)

Ehrlich (R) 37 (44)
Duncan (D) 42 (38)

Democratic Primary

O'Malley (D) 42 (45)
Duncan (D) 23 (25)

Hey, the Gov's numbers are better than his role model's in the ~~Big~~ er, White House.

Training the next generation

2005-11-06T21:09:00.000-05:00

Planning to participate in a political campaign next year? Involved in community, union or issue organizing? Thinking about running for office yourself?

Then Camp Wellstone is for you! A dynamic weekend-long training program that teaches progressives how to win on issues and elect good candidates Camp Wellstone is being brought to Montgomery County November 18-20 by the Metro Washington Council, Progressive Maryland and Wellstone Action!

Find out more or sign up now at: the Databank

The program is fast-paced and highly interactive. Sessions are led by grassroots organizers and campaign professionals from across the United States and the local community. Many have run successful campaigns, consulting firms, unions, or advocacy groups, electing Senators, members of Congress, Governors, and other elected officials across the country and championing issues and causes across the political spectrum.

More info: Cietta Kiandoli cietta@grassrootssolutions.com or 202-419-1040.

It's not citizenship, it's partisanship

2005-10-25T18:24:00.001-04:00

"Can't pay for college? Do what I did--get a football scholarship!"

- Gov. Jockstrap

STEELE, EHRLICH HIGHER EDUCATION CUTS PUT COLLEGE FURTHER FROM REACH FOR MARYLAND FAMILIES

Though Maryland’s Republican Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele plans to make a “special announcement” this morning at Prince George’s Community College in Largo, Steele and Governor Ehrlich’s commitment to higher education has been far from special.

“Higher education should be the foundation for a strong and prosperous future,” said Terry Lierman, Chair of the Maryland Democratic Party. “Unfortunately, under Michael Steele and Robert Ehrlich, the doors to higher education have closed for thousands of Marylanders who can no longer afford to go to college.”

Since Steele and Ehrlich were elected in November of 2002, college tuition rates at Maryland’s public colleges and universities have increased by nearly 40%. The administration cut $120 million from the state’s support of higher education during its first two years – only seven states have cut their higher education investments by a greater margin during that time.

“This Governor and Lieutenant Governor talk about creating opportunity,” said Lierman, “but Maryland’s hard-working middle class families know the real deal – college tuition is increasing faster than their incomes, and the Ehrlich/Steele tax hikes put college further from reach.”Attempts to address the tuition hikes have fallen on deaf ears at the State House.

Two years ago, when a group of Maryland students came to Annapolis to protest the tuition issue, Steele flatly refused their repeated requests to discuss the matter with him. Last year, the Ehrlich/Steele administration vetoed a bill passed by the Maryland General Assembly that would cap future tuition increases.

“Maryland can’t afford to send Michael Steele to the Senate,” said Lierman, adding that President Bush and other national Republican leaders who are working tirelessly to elect Steele are also “working hard to cut Pell Grants and reduce federal investments in financial aid.”

A tip o’ the mortarboard to Derek Walker
Communications Director
Maryland Democratic Party

Who's your (sugar) daddy?

2005-10-17T19:01:00.000-04:00

If you can brush aside her nostalgia angle, Michelle Dyson offers a troubling glimpse of a post-2006 Maryland where patrons rule the land and we small-d democrats are merely gnats on the limosine windshield.

The Candidates' Show of Commercial Enterprise
By Michele Dyson
Washington Post
Sunday, October 16, 2005; Page B08

. . . In 1998, when Parris N. Glendening ran against Ellen R. Sauerbrey (R), each raised about $6 million -- a record at the time. Four years later, when Ehrlich ran against Democrat Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, he raised $10.4 million and she about $8.5 million -- a new record. In those same elections, candidates for the Maryland General Assembly spent more than $28 million.

In 2004 the U.S. Senate election cost Democratic incumbent Barbara Mikulski's campaign $4 million and Republican E. J. Pipkin's $2.7 million -- again, a record.

The 2006 elections will blow all of these high-water marks away. With all the political races factored in -- national, state and local -- the $100 million threshold will be breached.

Two questions need asking here: Where will this tenth of a billion dollars in campaign cash come from, and how do the campaigns plan to spend it?" . . .
Read more

Of course there are more questions that "need asking." What kind of political debts will Maryland's office holders be saddled with? How will this level of financial indebtedness limit political access by us mere mortals? What do the fat cat patrons expect in exchange for $100 million?

Tens of millions is a lot of dough to contribute for a governor's job that pays only $135K (The Book of States, 2004). That kind of ratio puts any government official at risk of "an offer he can't refuse."

What's truly crazy about spending this kind of money on a small state's gubernatorial race--I'll bet the majority of the contributors do so to fend off taxation.

Think for a moment of the kinds of public benefit that $100 million in taxes would buy for Maryland. To these contributors I say: if you hate taxation so much, make a donation to charity instead.

Let Them Eat Cake - Chapter 3249

2005-10-17T18:06:00.000-04:00

Delphi's hourly workers were told to take a 50 percent cut or take a hike. Meantime, the Delphi bosses are asked for 10 to 20 percent cuts in "salaries" already bloated to the point of obscenity. Sigh . . . that's what BushCo means for America.

Delphi to reduce salaries of top execs amid criticism;
cuts to be 10% to 20%
By Terry Kosdrosky
Oct. 17, 2005 8:24 AM

Delphi Corp. has pulled back the salaries of some of its top executives after facing criticism for boosting their pay while asking hourly workers for steep wage cuts.

CEO Steve Miller will reduce his salary to $1 from $1.5 million, effective Jan. 1 and continuing until the company is out of bankruptcy, according to a statement released early Monday morning.

Officers who were at Delphi when Miller arrived will take a 10 percent cut in their base salary, while President and COO Rodney O’Neal will take a 20 percent cut. Those also are effective Jan. 1.

Miller received a $3 million signing bonus and a base salary of $1.5 million when he was hired in June.

Before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Delphi boosted the severance package for executives if they are laid off. Under that plan, they can receive up to 18 months of pay and some of their bonus, up from a cap of 12 months.

After filing for bankruptcy, Delphi filed a key-executive compensation program, which offered bonuses to encourage people to stay.

Both moves were harshly criticized by the United Auto Workers, which faces the prospect of its Delphi members taking huge wage and benefit cuts.

Others have defended the programs, saying a bankrupt company can find its good employees raided by competitors if it doesn’t offer them something extra.

More horrific news here.

Apparently, Chapter 11 bankruptcy means economic protection for positively every stakeholder in Delphi EXCEPT the wage earner.

Sure it's Photoshop

2005-10-17T18:05:00.000-04:00

But one day . . .

A milestone on a rocky road

2005-09-29T23:05:00.000-04:00

Hats off to the AFSCME organizers in Las Cruces! I know that sometimes they feel like they're shoveling sand in a windstorm, but here's proof that right can prevail (even in this time of Delay, Enron, and Abramoff).

And shame on New Mexico State University--a state institution unembarassed by the fact that some of their employees are forced to take public assistance on account of low pay. Yet, like many tyrant employers, NMSU seems all too eager to pay "consultants" big bucks to forestall the day when employees finally gain respect and fair treatment.

We have all experienced the age-old egotism of bosses who say to their employees, "When I want your opinion, I'll give it to you."

It's sad when an institution of higher learning must be ordered to sit down with those who are attempting to improve the institution, but you can read about it here.

Time to kick ass (we've already taken names)

2005-09-19T06:33:00.000-04:00

Your $5 will put this billboard up in Grover Norquist's neighborhood.

Go here to donate.

Benefit cuts in a time of budget surpluses

2005-09-19T06:21:00.000-04:00

The Gov, like our Dear Leader in the White House believes that changing your mind in the face of new evidence somehow demonstrates "weakness" or lack of "will." Now there is a pair of appalling right-wing buzz words.

State workers voice anger on health care cost increases
Billion-dollar surplus in Md. budget renews employees' outrage
Read more - from the Baltimore Sun

Velvet Revolution - US

2005-09-12T23:42:00.000-04:00

These are Dog Tags for Jenna Bush, David Wolfowitz, Elizabeth Cheney, and Valerie Rumsfeld. (Click on image to enlarge.)

The ad reads, "Our children have to die so Chicken Hawk children can stay home and get richer? Take back the White House for Americans who know the value of human life. "

Come to www.VelvetRevolution.us

Union Jobs Better? Count the Ways.

2005-09-07T06:33:00.000-04:00

From Voice@work:

A new report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) details the difference collective bargaining can make in workers’ lives:

Eighty-eight percent of private-sector union workers have access to retirement benefits through their jobs, compared with only 56 percent of nonunion workers.
Seventy-three percent of union workers have access to defined-benefit pension plans, compared with 16 percent of nonunion workers.
Ninety-two percent of union workers have access to job-based health care benefits, compared with 68 percent of nonunion workers.
Seventy-three percent of union workers have access to job-provided dental care, 57 percent have vision care and 87 percent have prescription drug coverage, compared with 43 percent, 26 percent and 61 percent among nonunion workers, respectively.
Nonunion workers’ required health insurance premiums were over $1,000 more per year than what union workers had to contribute, on average.
Union workers also are more likely than nonunion workers to have access to job-based life insurance (65 percent vs. 50 percent) and short-term disability benefits (67 percent vs. 37 percent).
Eighty-seven percent of union members have access to paid holidays and 86 percent had paid vacations, compared with 75 percent and 77 percent of nonunion workers, respectively.
Fifty-eight percent of union workers are offered education benefits, compared with 48 percent of nonunion workers.

To download the full report, log on to the Voice@Work PrivateNet website.

Join the Voice@Work network here.

Dude, where's my party?

2005-09-06T22:46:00.000-04:00

From our observer on the western shore of the Potomac:

After 9/11, Bush stood on the rubble and took credit for the rescue efforts. Now he's getting criticized for inaction during and after Katrina. Here's the difference between the two situations:

The first responders and rescuers in 9/11 were the firemen and policemen of New York City, a blue bastion that believes in the role of the public sector in ensuring the public welfare. Everyone who died in an official capacity in 9/11 was a union member.

The New Orleans flood was an example of a disaster in the red state Confederate culture. NPR reported this morning that a third of NOLA's police turned in their badges when the storm hit and fled.

Now imagine 9/11 this way--It's reported that two airplanes piloted by Islamic terrorists are headed toward Lower Manhattan. The stock brokers and CEOs leave the WTC and Wall Street for Philly and Albany, leaving the clerical workers and custodial staffs behind. The police and firemen head for the hinterlands, too. The planes crash, the buildings collapse, there are no firemen or police on the scene, Manhattan burns, and looting breaks out across NYC. The NYC public is told to head to Central Park, where they find twenty abandoned hot dog push-carts to feed the masses.

This is evidently what the GOP would prefer, after they have "shrunk government and strangled it in a bathtub."

Why aren't the Dems shouting the lesson that only big government can insure safety and security? Reagan always said government wasn't the solution to the problem, it was the problem. How does that wash with Katrina, or 9/11, for that matter? Where's my party?

- Harry

The "Law" of supply and demand

2005-09-02T18:24:00.000-04:00

Let's get government off our backs!

2005-08-26T00:45:00.000-04:00

A veteran returning from Korea went to college on the GI Bill; bought his house with an FHA loan; saw his kids born in a VA hospital; got electricity from the TVA, and later water from an EPA project. His parents retired to a farm on Social Security, got electricity from REA and soil testing from USDA. When his father was laid off and his mother became ill, the family was saved from financial ruin by Medicare and another life in his family was saved with a drug developed by NIH. His children participated in the school lunch program, learned physics from teachers trained in a NSF program and went through college with guaranteed student loans. He drove to work on the Interstate and moored his boat in a channel dredged by Army engineers. When floods hit he took Amtrak to Washington, D.C. to apply for disaster relief, and then spent some time visiting the Library of Congress.

When he returned home he wrote a letter to his congressional representative demanding that the government get off of his back and stop raising his taxes to pay for all of those federal programs created for ungrateful people.

(author unknown)

Pay me now and pay me later

2005-08-23T18:29:00.000-04:00

Big retailers' employees are on N.J. insurance rolls

By Jon Shure
Philadelphia Inquirer
Tue, Aug. 23, 2005

One reason people like to shop at big-box retailers like Wal-Mart and Home Depot is low prices. But consumers might not realize that they often pay twice: once at the cash register and again when they pay taxes. That's because some of the largest, most profitable retailers in the state also have the largest numbers of employees or family members covered by the state-run, taxpayer-funded health insurance program for low-income New Jerseyans. . . . The report finds that the company with the most employees or employee family members in FamilyCare is Wal-Mart, the state's eighth-largest employer. Among New Jersey's top 10 employers, three others are on the list: Wakefern/ShopRite; A&P and Home Depot.

Remember the Republican Party motto: "Socialize the costs; keep the profits private."

A tip of the hat to Jessica at AFSCME FYI for this.

You sure Hank done it this a-way?

2005-08-22T18:54:00.000-04:00

Wal-Mart's low prices come at a high cost to working people. Way too many American manufacturers are willing move "offshore" to provide cheap goods for Wal-Mart. Meanwhile, back here at home, Wal-mart is the poster child of bad employers. But, the Wal-Mart executives squeak, "We treat some of our employees well." You're treating Garth pretty well, but how about your other employees, you know, the ones who qualify for public assistance?

So Garth, why would a singer like you who poses as pro-America, pro-working person come to such an agreement with Wal-Mart?

I don't know. But it seems like you’ve given us another reason to call you the anti-Hank (thanks to Kinky for the epithet!)

Garth's New Friends In Wal-Mart Places

By Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 20, 2005; Page C01

A Progressive’s Wishes

2005-08-18T18:13:00.000-04:00

May the party that convinced Americans that George W. Bush is an outsider remain sensitive to the needs of America’s outsiders: the poor, the elderly, the children, and the homeless.

May the party of Wall Street throw the crooks out of the casino and raise the Dow Jones average to restore the solvency of millions average people’s stock-based retirement accounts.

May the party of CEOs ensure that no corporation will ever again lie to its shareholders and defraud its retirees.

May the party of military armament contractors ensure that the government gets weapons that work at a fair price.

May the party of bosses permit the employees a fair share in the financial successes of their companies.

May the party of religious conservatism honor the right of women to control their own bodies.

May the party of the chemical and oil interests maintain the planet’s soil, air, and water.

May the party of law enforcement observe all of the Constitution, most especially the Bill of Rights.

May the party of war hawks who dodged the draft during Viet Nam remember that when General Patton said: “Now I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country,” The “other poor dumb bastard” meant an enemy soldier and not a poor American boy without social connections.

May the party that has declared “war” on a concept (terrorism) remember that it is unpatriotic to profiteer from homeland security. May that same party also desist from calling homeland security employees unpatriotic when they ask for legal union representation, fair pay, and working conditions.

May the party of agribusiness remember and care for the small farmer.

Finally, may the party of Lincoln remember its roots in the abolition movement and work towards healing the wound of racism in America.

May those who read my simple wishes look to their hearts and add wishes of their own to this list.

The Social Compact

2005-08-18T14:30:00.000-04:00

(a tip o’ the hat to Robert Reich)

In the quarter-century following-World War II, most working Americans had specific expectations in the workplace. Though seldom put into words, these public expectations included the belief that as (organizations) do better, their workers should, too. Wages should rise, as should employer-provided health and pension benefits, and jobs should be reasonably secure.

We were all in it together and as a result grew together. It would be unseemly for (an organization) that was doing well to fail to share its prosperity with its employees and the communities in which they lived.

It is important to understand what this social compact was and what it was not. It defined our sense of fair play, but it was not primarily about redistributing wealth. There would still be the rich and the poor in America. The compact merely proclaimed that at some fundamental level we were all in it together, that as a society we depended on one another.

The unraveling began in the late 1980s, and continues today. The university has downsized staff, reduced benefits, and twiddled with job descriptions and the salary schedule. Full-time workers have been replaced with independent contractors, temporary workers and part-timers. The university has subcontracted work to private firms offering lower wages and benefits. State-provided health benefits are declining across the board, and health costs are being shifted to employees in the form of higher co-payments, deductibles and premiums. Maryland’s defined-benefit pension plan has been replaced with 403(c) plans with ever-dwindling state contributions.

The relentless drive to reduce costs is understandable. Economies of scale longer guarantee competitive advantage and universities are no longer considered “ivory towers” but rather “players in the economy.” Yet it is also the case that the compensation of upper management has escalated in recent years.

It is the core belief of AFSCME Local 1072 that “we are still all in it together.” University staff has both the expertise and the unique vision to help this institution Zoom! Pop management fads such as “shared governance” have failed to get our point across. Only collective bargaining gives our voice the strength to communicate our knowledge and vision.

God gave man reason . . .

2005-08-10T21:17:00.000-04:00

. . . and expected man to use it!

In Stealing God's Thunder, Benjamin Franklin's Lightning Rod and the Invention of America, Philip Dray provides us with a strong corrective to the "religious right's" fanciful history of America. Look at the first paragraph and count the times Franklin blasphemes today's Evangelical/Pentecostal catechism.

"[Benjamin] Franklin wasn't irreligious; he believed in a Creator who paid some attention to what His creatures were up to. But he had no patience with theology; he considered sectarianism a blight and judged reason the appropriate measure of faith rather than vice versa. His parents, solid Puritans, lamented his lapse from orthodoxy; he responded with his own statement of faith: "At the last Day, we shall not be examined [by] what we thought but what we did; and our recommendation will not be that we said Lord, Lord , but that we did GOOD to our Fellow Creatures." One of Franklin's revisions to Jefferson's draft Declaration replaced "sacred and undeniable," in reference to the truths the Americans were defending, with "self-evident." The difference was crucial: "sacred" summoned the authority of God, "self-evident" the authority of human reason."

"At a critical moment of the Constitutional Convention, Franklin uncharacteristically -- or so it seemed to most of those present -- moved that each morning's session begin with a prayer to the Almighty for guidance. Dray reads this as suggesting an eleventh-hour reversion to Franklin's parents' belief in divine intervention; more likely Franklin simply wished to remind his opinionated colleagues that they didn't have all the answers. Significantly, Franklin would no more have looked to Heaven for political guidance than he would have consulted the Bible in fashioning his lightning rod. God gave man reason, he believed, and expected man to use it. Franklin did so with confidence, as did his colleagues."

-- From H.W. Brands review of Stealing God's Thunder, Benjamin Franklin's Lightning Rod and the Invention of

America

by Philip Dray. Washington Post Book World, Sunday, August 7, 2005

_______________________________________________________

". . . the convention rejected the motion . . . that each morning's session begin with a prayer to the Almighty for guidance. Alexander Hamilton reportedly declared that this was no time to seek 'foreign aid.'"

Well, is it any wonder God let Burr kill Hamilton?

Neocon Lip service

2005-08-10T19:04:00.000-04:00

The "conservatives" cut VA Hospital funding, pay their cronies billions to provide "security" in Iraq while soldiers' families endure economic hardship, and now this: "America supports You"

Yes, America supports you, just don't ask Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld for armor, materiel, money, or the Dixie Chicks.

"Circus dogs jump when the trainer cracks his whip," George Orwell observed, "but the really well-trained dog is the one that turns his somersault when there is no whip."

Now repeat after me:

Ignorance is strength
Freedom is slavery
Spending is saving
National security
Western values
The world community
War against terrorism
Collateral damage
American interests

All hail Lee Atwater

2005-08-10T18:34:00.000-04:00

A note from Harry:

Did you see this in today's Post? All hail Lee Atwater.

Can the Dems learn to frame economics in moral terms?

Jihad is an economic loser for those involved, but they don't care.

The Nazi movement was an economic loser for the Germans, it didn't matter, they followed Hitler anyway.

The GOP is an economic disaster for the working man, but it doesn't matter, that workin' man is sending a message by voting GOP.

Harry
_________________________________________________________

"Sure, I ain't got a job, pension, or health insurance, but the menace of same-sex marriage has been stopped in its tracks."

Maybe those working folks who voted for Bush/Ehrlich would consider sending their next message by way of Hallmark? I'm sure we can dream up some form of communication that's a little less toxic to the nation and our offspring.

Flying Blind

2005-08-09T17:45:00.000-04:00

Perhaps our fellow Marylanders don't realize this, but Comcast Cable no longer provides Maryland television stations to subscribers in the Maryland counties that border the District of Columbia.

What does this mean? Well, the only news of Maryland we now receive comes from television stations located out of state--in Washington, DC and Virginia. Consider for a moment the impact if Comcast were to provide say, only the Philadelphia TV stations for their Baltimore subscribers.

If you are unfamiliar with their output, DC television stations seem to think that they are broadcasters to the world. In addition to local car crashes, house fires, and gunplay; the DC stations all carry international car crashes, house fires, and gunplay.

Driven by the tiresome "if it bleeds it leads" formula, the portion of DC television news currently devoted to citizenship information is dwindling and the Maryland portion of that information has become infinitesimal.

I except here weather reporting. Tailored to capture that portion of the viewing audience weary of partisan rancor, DC weather reporting rises to the Ph.D. level. Nevermind that weather is generally of no consequence in the Mid-Atlantic states (moderate semi-maritime climate); DC weather is reported with the gravity normally associated with a Papal visit.

But I digress--here's the problem: we residents of Prince George's and Montgomery counties are Ehrlich-deprived, Steele-deficient, and in general get as much news of Annapolis as we get of the inner workings of Uzbekistan's Oliy Majlis (parliament).

Why is this?

About two years ago, Comcast dropped from our local lineup WMAR-2 (ABC), WBAL-11 (NBC), and WJZ-13 (CBS). They also dropped WNUV-54 (WB), WBFF-45 (FOX), and WUTB-24 (UPN). I suppose the reasoning was that all of these Maryland-based stations essentially duplicate the programming of their network brethren in DC.

Plus, dropping Baltimore stations freed up Comcast bandwidth for more infomercials, home shopping, quack doctors, and hillbilly televangelists, all of which fork over upfront cash money to reach out and bilk us gullible rubes.

I am here to tell you that there is one thing that the DC stations do NOT provide--that is, news of Maryland from a Maryland point of view--no Stan Stoval, no Don and Marty, no Vic and Denise, no Marybeth and Del.

I don't mean to imply that any of the aforementioned Baltimore news readers challenge H.L. Mencken's place in the history books. However, from a DC news director's perspective, College Park is just another sports venue, Maryland politicians are indistinguishable from a thousand other local pols, and we Marylanders are little more than a picturesque bunch of seafood eaters.

Where is Michael Olesker now that we really need him?

Trust but verify

2005-08-03T20:39:00.000-04:00

The Maryland Board of Elections has asked both UMBC and UMCP to investigate allegations of the corruptibility of Maryland's Diebold-made electronic voting machines.

After yesterday's squeaker election in the reddest corner of Ohio, we all need to know how well the Diebold Corporation keeps the democratic covenant with the citizens of our country.

Remember, Walden O'Dell, chief executive of Diebold Inc. was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." [2004] More questions for Diebold here, too.

Not that Maryland Republicans would ever allow themselves to be bought, of course.

Turn back the Gov's attacks on representative democracy

2005-08-02T16:09:00.000-04:00

Voter Rights Rally in Baltimore
11:30 AM this Thursday
in front of the Clarence Mitchell Courthouse

"This year, the Gov vetoed three bills (passed overwhelmingly by the state legislature) that would have expanded and protected our voting rights.

One bill would have made it illegal to suppress voting through misinformation and intimidation, clarified what identification could be used to establish a voter's identity, and ensured that provisional ballots were counted appropriately.

Two other bills would have made it easier for voters to access the polls through absentee ballot reforms and early voting programs, such as those found in dozens of other states across the country."

Here's an Op Ed piece from the Maryland League of Conservation Voters about the bills being addressed at the rally.

Stand Up for Brian Frosh and Good Government

2005-08-02T15:05:00.000-04:00

(I confess -- I'm lifting this from Peter Franchot's blog. Lesson learned: If the White House paints policy critics as "traitors," the very least Bush's Mini-me, er, I mean, the Gov can do is ensure that his surrogates characterize Brian Frosh's investigation as "partisan bias.")

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Friends -

Once again, Governor Ehrlich and his allies are seeking to impede a balanced and fair investigation of the administration's personnel abuses. The Governor and members of his staff are trying to harass and intimidate legislators who speak out on this important issue. The latest target of their smear campaign is State Senator Brian Frosh, a man of unquestioned rectitude and integrity, a former colleague of mine in the House of Delegates, who is highly respected by both sides of the aisle for his fairness and moderation.

The Governor is using every weapon at his disposal to obstruct efforts by the Special Committee on State Employee Rights and Protections to get to the bottom of the abuse of power represented by his personnel practices. We need to speak out in favor of a balanced and bipartisan review of the hiring and firing scandal. Please send a letter to Governor Ehrlich at the following address:

Office of the Governor
Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr.
State House
Annapolis, Maryland 21401-1925

We need to strike a blow for confidence in state government and our public institutions. The Karl Rove type tactics being exercised by the Governor's Chief Counsel, Jervis Finney, need to stop. From our Governor, we expect evenhandedness and professionalism, not harassment and intimidation. Now is the time to speak out and demand accountability, fairness, and bipartisanship from the Governor. Please visit www.Franchot.com for more information.

Thank you,

Delegate Peter Franchot

Ehrlich Warns Democrats on Questioning Integrity (7/24/05)

Ehrlich Aide Demands Frosh Respond to Bias Claims (7/26/05)

Ehrlich Aide Wants Frosh to Quit Panel (7/30/05)

Steele Complains of Bias in Firings-Probe Panel (7/31/05)

Democrat Wants Finney to Skip Inquiry (8/1/05)

What would YOU do with $1 billion?

2005-07-28T16:48:00.000-04:00

Joanna Shoffner offers her suggestions on the Maryland Policy blog.
The Gov has other ideas and Shoffner's suggestion to look to the future and set some aside for a rainy day of course contradicts his Prime Directive: "Reward your patrons first."

See Three-card monte below.

Stop CAFTA - Call Now

2005-07-27T17:58:00.000-04:00

Please click on this link to go to the Working Families e-activist page. A vote looms on CAFTA and we need more reminder calls to our United States representatives to stand firm AGAINST CAFTA.

Popular book

2005-07-27T10:59:00.000-04:00

Three-card monte

2005-07-26T21:03:00.000-04:00

State's surplus was achieved at a high cost
Originally published July 25, 2005 in The Baltimore Sun

On July 20, The Sun reported on Maryland's unexpected surplus, and indicated that Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. claimed some credit for it ("Ehrlich says Maryland has surplus of $1 billion," July 20).

Of course, a better budget situation can be attributed to both increased revenues and decreased expenses.

On the revenue side, closing the Delaware tax loophole, which was a legislative initiative, and increasing the state property tax, which was the governor's initiative, both contributed significantly to increased revenues.

On the expense side, Mr. Ehrlich sought to balance the budget on the backs of the state work force.

One of his first acts in office was to refuse to comply with a collectively bargained 2 percent pay raise for state employees. Next, in spite of a campaign promise not to lay off employees, Mr. Ehrlich terminated hundreds of state employees with little or no notice.

Still not satisfied, Mr. Ehrlich shifted the burden of health insurance onto state retirees and employees by increasing basic health care costs and recently demanding more than $60 million in shifted costs for prescription drugs. Many employee and retiree prescriptions now cost literally 10 times what they cost one month ago.

The increased costs are not even covered by cost-of-living raises for many employees.

What do such policies mean for the average state taxpayer?

There are fewer correctional officers and there is more violence in Maryland prisons. Caseloads in social services, parole and probation, juvenile services continue to skyrocket. Tuition at state universities is higher.

Such cuts not only hurt state employees and higher-education workers, they also damage the quality of life of Maryland's residents.

A revolving door of state employees does not serve the citizens well. Now is the time to reverse this trend.

We ask Mr. Ehrlich to begin to pay state and higher-education employees what they are really worth. To acknowledge the dire need for increased staff and staff training. To restore critical services that have been cut.

Then Maryland will have something to be proud about.

Ron Bailey
Baltimore

The writer is executive director of AFSCME Council 92

A marriage made in heaven

2005-07-25T21:32:00.000-04:00

UPDATE: According to the Washington Post, Little Gov Steele raked in $75,000 (at $1000 a head) and there were 35 protesters at the Rove-sponsored soiree. Hmmm, lessee . . . 75 fat cats enjoying cocktails and hors d'oeuvres in air-conditioned splendor vs. 35 working people sweating outside in 95-degree heat. Who gets courtesy and help when the phone rings on the Little Gov's desk? Do the arithmetic.

_________________________________________________

PROTEST KARL ROVE’S FUNDRAISER

FOR LT. GOV. MICHAEL STEELE

TUESDAY, JULY 26TH, 5:30 P.M., CAPITOL HILL
425 2nd Street NE, WASHINGTON, DC

Rove -- who betrayed our country by revealing the identity of an undercover CIA agent – thinks he can elect Steele as Maryland’s next U.S. Senator by funneling national right-wing money to him.

Let’s show Rove he is wrong!

Steele thinks Maryland’s moderate voters won’t notice he takes hard-right money from a traitor.

Let’s show Steele he is wrong – and demand he return the money!

When: Tuesday, July 26th, at 5:30 p.m.

Where:
Rove’s Fundraiser for Steele
National Republican Senatorial Committee
Ronald Reagan Republican Center
425 2nd St., NE
Washington, DC 20002
Two minute walk east from Union Station Metro station (Red Line)
Plenty of parking at Union Station garage

FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO YOUR LISTSERVES, COLLEAGUES, FRIENDS, FAMILIES, ALLIES

Why the Prez is in Denmark

2005-07-06T18:36:00.000-04:00

He thought Karl was gonna take him on a tour of the Copenhagen factory!

Governor Sensitive

2005-07-06T11:34:00.000-04:00

If you still flinch when real estate agents describe neighborhoods as "exclusive," you are miles ahead of the Gov.

At 'exclusive' club, Ehrlich goes inexplicably colorblind

"Hello, lame excuse department? Yeah, we need one for the Gov again."

Click here for lame excuse #1.

Click here for lame excuse #2.

There's a reason for Blue State pride

2005-07-06T11:28:00.000-04:00

Dear Red States . . .

We've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us.

In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and all the Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states. We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get Elliot Spitzer. You get Ken Lay.

We get the Statue of Liberty. You get Dollywood.
We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.
We get 85 percent of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama.

We get two-thirds of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get more single moms.

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 Percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Cal ch and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazies believe you are people with higher morals then we lefties.

By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico.

Sincerely,

Author Unknown in New California

What does union membership really mean?

2005-06-27T20:16:00.000-04:00

Sophie Tucker (1920's most popular American "jazz" singer) is reputed to have said, "I've been rich and I've been poor. Rich is better."

Well ask anyone who has worked both union and non-union jobs and almost all will tell you that, "Union is better."
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What has union membership meant for you and your family? Whether you’re a new or longtime union member, we’d like to find out. And if you’re not a union member, we want to hear from you as well—tell us what difference union membership would make in your life and for our nation.

These are the latest in a series of questions we’ve been asking activists about how to strengthen America’s union movement. Your thoughtful comments are helping to shape our planning for the coming years and informing the major proposals the AFL-CIO will take to our 2005 Convention in July. Please take a minute or two to share your thoughts with us again. Click on the link below:

Union membership benefits different workers in diverse ways. Please let us know what you think are the most important benefits of being a union member. Click on the link below:

And don’t forget to read responses to these questions and others at the AFL-CIO’s Strengthening Our Union Movement for the Future website, where you also can read major proposals for change.

As the 2005 AFL-CIO Convention draws closer, we will continue to ask your thoughts about strengthening our union movement for the future. Thank you again for your participation in these important discussions.

In solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO
June 27, 2005

P.S. Don’t miss the AFL-CIO executive officers’ proposal for change, " Winning for Working Families."

57 million Americans say they would join a union if they had a chance - How about you?

2005-06-23T16:32:00.000-04:00

Employee Free Choice Act
Protecting Workers’ Freedom to Choose
From Voice@Work

More working people than ever—some 57 million—say they would join a union if they had a chance, according to a survey from Peter D. Hart Research Associates. But employers routinely harass, intimidate and coerce workers who try to exercise their right to form a union at work.

On April 19, a bipartisan coalition reintroduced into Congress the historic Employee Free Choice Act (S. 842 and H.R. 1696). The act would strengthen protections for workers’ freedom to choose by requiring employers to recognize a union after a majority of workers sign cards authorizing union representation. It also would provide for mediation and arbitration of first-contract disputes and authorize stronger penalties for violation of the law when workers seek to form a union.

NYU Refuses to Negotiate with Graduate Employees Union

2005-06-23T16:23:00.000-04:00

From Voice@Work Update June 23, 2005

NYU Refuses to Negotiate with Graduate Employees Union
Last week New York University announced it plans to end recognition of its graduate employees’ union, the United Auto Workers Local 2110 (UAW), when the current contract ends Aug 31. NYU is exploiting a recent partisan decision issued by the Bush-appointed National Labor Relations Board (Brown University 341 NLRB No. 4) that reversed precedent affording graduate and teaching assistants protection under the National Labor Relations Act.

This is a slap in the face to university employees, who for several years worked cooperatively with the university to win important workplace improvements such as superior benefits for student teaching and research assistants, better compensation and clearer work rules.

NYU administrators made their position on unions clear in a memorandum issued by Executive Vice President Jacob Lew and Provost David McLaughlin, which said “NYU should no longer use a union as an intermediary with our students; accordingly, the University should not negotiate a new contract with the UAW.” Calling the UAW an “intermediary” reveals the university’s lack of respect for the workers decision to form a union.

In the coming days, we will ask Voice@Work activists to tell university administrators to honor workers’ decision to have a union with the UAW.

The New York Times version is here.

Who you gonna believe: the Gov or your own two eyes?

2005-06-19T23:16:00.000-04:00

Ehrlich's Hirings, Firings Reached Deep Into Ranks -- Sunday's Washington Post:

"Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) has denied Democrats' accusations that he fired workers for partisan reasons.

"Ehrlich's top advisers have said they fired 284 workers. That number, they say, is modest compared with what occurred when his predecessor, Parris N. Glendening (D), took office in 1995, replacing fellow Democrat William Donald Schaefer.

"But Ehrlich has overseen the dismissal of four times as many workers as Glendening, according to state personnel chief Andrea Fulton, who reviewed state records at the request of The Washington Post. She said Glendening fired 65 workers during the first three years of his administration.

".. . In many cases, the workers resigned, retired or were demoted after they were told that they would be fired."

The Gov in full Bush mode

2005-06-17T09:29:00.000-04:00

You know the drill: Everything is secret, all publicity is stage managed, nothing is real except for the official television images, "loyalty" is the only litmus test.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that protesters were banned when the Gov held a festive ceremony in Princess Anne on Maryland's Eastern Shore to personally deny Wal-Mart employees the right to health care.

The Maryland legislature passed a bill that would have required large employers to provide health insurance to all employees. The legislation wasn't totally altruistic. Each year, Wal-Mart costs Maryland taxpayers millions because so many of their employees qualify for Medicaid (I've heard that Wal-Mart provides employees with instructions on how to apply).

I guess that the legislature's calling for even a meager level of corporate responsibility must have offended the Gov's corporate patrons. So, the Gov made sure that no one else's reality would intrude on the merry spectacle of vetoing the bill.

Here's Michael Olesker's column on the subject

The Gov's patrons at Wal-Mart have commissioned a "reality" TV show to counteract all this bad publicity (I swear I'm not making this up!):

"For the first time, Wal-Mart Stores is becoming a major sponsor of a reality television show, by signing a branded-entertainment agreement with ABC for "The Scholar," a summer series that begins a six-week run on Monday night. Wal-Mart will be woven into the plots of episodes of the show, which is centered on a competition among 10 high school seniors from across the country for a grand prize of a full college scholarship, valued at $250,000, covering tuition and expenses.

The students will compete in a variety of academic, creative and social tasks, including team challenges, oral exams and defending themselves before a scholarship committee. In one challenge, the five members of the winning team each receive a $2,000 Wal-Mart gift card to outfit their dormitory rooms. And Wal-Mart is underwriting the cost of the scholarships for the nine runners-up, totaling $300,000. (The Broad Foundation in Los Angeles is donating the grand prize.)

There will also be commercials during the show promoting the Wal-Mart and Sam's Club Foundation's long-running program offering scholarships to students in towns where it operates stores and distribution centers. The foundation said yesterday that it would provide more than $6.9 million in scholarships this year to more than 6,700 students through the Sam M. Walton Community Scholarship Program, named after the company's founder."

Everything you need to know about the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

2005-06-17T09:03:00.000-04:00

AFSCME Guide to the Family and Medical Leave Act: AFSCME's Comprehensive Guide for You, Your Family and Your Union

After more than 11 years since passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act, questions still arise from affiliates about workers' rights under FMLA and management's implementation of the law. The AFSCME Guide to the Family and Medical Leave Act: Questions & Answers, remains the most requested publication of the International's Women's Rights Department. Also, over time, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) and some courts have clarified FMLA requirements.

For these reasons, the Women's Rights Department has updated its FMLA brochures in three important ways. First, the brochures have been changed to reflect a major U.S. Supreme Court decision in Ragsdale et al. v. Wolverine World Wide Inc., which struck down part of the DOL's FMLA notification requirements. Second, we have added citations for each of the DOL regulatory requirements contained in the brochure to make it easier for affiliates to locate provisions on their own. Third, we have combined both the AFSCME Guide to the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Bargaining and the Family and Medical Leave Act brochures so that affiliates can have one complete guide to the FMLA.

This publication replaces the AFSCME Guide to the Family and Medical Leave Act: Questions & Answers, and its supplement, Bargaining and the Family and Medical Leave Act.

Gerald W. McEntee
International President
William Lucy
International Secretary-Treasurer

When the chickens don't vote for Frank Perdue

2005-06-17T00:50:00.000-04:00

Alexander Cockburn takes on Thomas Friedman:

". . . when I read the reports filed by U.S. correspondents and pundits from Paris, after the French Non! to the EC proposed constitution a couple of weeks ago. It was striking how many of them, presumably without any direct orders from the owners of their publications, started lecturing the French in the tones of nineteenth-century Masters of Capital.

The 'Non', they howled, disclosed the cosseted and selfish laziness of French workers. On inspection this turned out to mean that French workers have laws protecting their pensions, health benefits, leisure time and other outlandish buttresses of a tolerable existence. No one was more outraged than Friedman, a man who, we can safely surmise, does have health benefits, enjoys confidence about his retirement along with a robust six-figure income plus guaranteed vacations plus a pleasant ambulatory existence living in nice hotels, confabbing with CEOs, and lecturing gratified businessmen on their visionary nature and the virtues of selfishness.

From Bangalore Friedman issued a furious rebuke. 'French voters are trying to preserve a 35-hour work week in a world where Indian engineers are ready to work a 35-hour day. Next to India, Western Europe looks like an assisted-living facility with Turkish nurses.' I guess it does, though 'engineers' is rather a dignified label to fix on the cyber-coolies -- underpaid clerical workers -- who toil night and day in Bangalore's call centers. But if you want a race to the bottom of the sort Friedman calls for, you don't have to travel too far from Bangalore, maybe -- though any direction will do -- north-east into the former realm of posterboy Naidu to find an Indian reality compared with which the so-called IT breakthroughs in India are like gnat bites on the hide of one of those buffaloes you see in photos in articles headlined 'Timeless India Faces Change'."

Read the rest of Cockburn's essay on Friedman

Senator Steele (?)

2005-06-17T00:40:00.000-04:00

From the Daily Kos: "MD-Sen: Steele will form exploratory committee" by kos Wed Jun 15th, 2005 at 09:56:55 PDT

The Maryland GOP has two players on its bench -- the state's governor, Robert Ehrlich (who we're taking out next year), and and Lt. Governor Michael Steele. After much national pressure, it looks like Steele is going to run.

Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele is expected to announce today the formation of an exploratory committee that would be his first step in seeking the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Paul S. Sarbanes, a source familiar with Steele's candidacy said.

The announcement has been expected for several weeks, as state and national Republicans have continued to encourage Steele to enter the race. Leading Republicans say Steele has the best chance of capturing a position last held by the GOP in 1987, when Sen. Charles McC. Mathias retired.

Republicans are excited that Steele is black, since that lynching business and related shenanigans make it hard for them to attract significant non-white support.

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We Marylanders would be excited if the Republican party suddenly discovered that many Marylanders are black -- and deserve respect.
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Michael Steele, The Lost Years - During the last gubernatorial election Maryland dems filed a complaint saying that, in their view, the Man of Steele had acted in the capacity of an attorney when he attempted to arrange a financial settlement for his sister (who was trying to divorce Mike Tyson!). The Man of Steele is not a member of the Maryland Bar and his sister's dee-vorce was filed in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Taking a leaf from the Karl Rove strategy book, the Man of Steele shifted into full Rottweiler mode to "respond" to his critics, "My family is off limits in this debate," he said. "If my opponents want to try to destroy me, I welcome and will meet the challenge in kind. But my loved ones will not be attacked."

Hmmm, ". . . trying to destroy me" and "my loved ones will not be attacked" Destroy? Attacked? All we wanted to know was "did you belong to the Maryland Bar?" Gee, touchy touchy!

Why I'm joining the GOP

2005-06-14T20:52:00.000-04:00

Why I'm joining the GOP / Leaving the left for fun and profit
- Jeff Gillenkirk
Sunday, May 29, 2005

After a lifetime voting for and working for Democratic candidates and independents, I'm finally going to make the switch and become a Republican.

The reasons are many, not the least of which is age. I turned 55 recently and, having lived more than half my life, I can't afford to worry anymore about the other guy. It's time for me.

As a Republican, I can now proudly -- indeed, defiantly -- pledge to never again vote for anyone who raises taxes for any reason. To hell with roads, bridges, schools, police and fire protection, Medicare, Social Security and regulation of the airwaves.

President Bush has promised to give me more tax cuts even though our federal government owes trillions of dollars to its creditors. But that's someone else's problem, not mine. Republicans are about the here and now, and I'm here now.

As a Republican, I can favor exploiting the environment for everything she's got. No need to worry about quaint notions like posterity and natural legacy. There are plenty of resources left for everyone, and if we don't use them, someone else will.

I want a party that doesn't worry about things before we have to. Republicans refuse to get hog-tied by theories such as global warming, ozone depletion, fished-out oceans and disappearing wetlands. The real problems -- if there are any -- aren't forecast to take hold for at least 50 years. So what do I care? I'll be dead.

As a Republican, I can swagger and clamor for war -- in Iraq, Afghanistan, Colombia, wherever -- even though I've never fought in one or even been in the military. I can claim that we're fighting for Democracy, ignoring reports of torture at Abu Ghraib, Bagram Air Base and Guantanamo Bay, and a spreading gulag of secret detention centers around the world.

Read the rest here

Summer of Honor

2005-06-14T10:05:00.000-04:00

This Friday night is Union Night at Camden Yards. Show your union pride at a rally with the stadium workers who are part of the United Workers Association (UWA).

Labor organizers have been working with this group for over a year and the UWA is now affiliated with AFSCME and needs our support on Friday night.

Peter Angelos, the Orioles owner, promised clean-up workers a living wage this season. Workers demand Angelos honor his commitment. I'm told that the head of the AFL/CIO in Baltimore is not supporting this rally-because he would rather be friends with the owner of the Orioles than with the workers who clean the stadium.

Come meet at Council 92 office at 6:00 pm, rally at 6:30, and then enjoy the game after.

Spread the word!

Where: Meet at 190 W. Ostend Street (AFSCME Council 92 office), Free parking!
When: 6:00 pm Union Night Friday June 17, 2005
What: Rally for Honor - United Workers Association

Show your spirit and solidarity with the UWA by purchasing a campaign t-shirt for $10!

p.s. It's also Student Night at Oriole Park! For all students with a valid ID -- Left Field Upper Reserve Tickets are $5. ONLY at the Box Office or by calling (888) 848-BIRD

Ending the New Deal (Why Union?)

2005-06-14T00:01:00.000-04:00

In response to the post "Why Union?" Aldesko wrote . . . "Read the article from the Washington Post [Public Workers Under Fire] and then tell me why public employees--who are suported by tax dollars--deserve to have it better than private sector employees."

I am as usual, moved to despair by our fellow citizens who have internalized the right-wing notion that "Class warfare" means to deligitimize any attempt to rein in the excesses of Bush's corporate patrons. Yet at the same time "Class warfare" means it's okay to step on the fingers of those beneath us on the economic ladder.

The flipside of the "class warfare" coin is revealed in Aldesko's phrase "why public employees--who are suported by tax dollars--deserve to have it better than private sector employees."

To the question: "What is Swing?" Fats Waller once answered, "If you have to ask, you ain't got it." To the question, "Why do any employees 'deserve to have it better?'" I can only say, "If you have to ask . . . "

Yes, all employees are in trouble. Let us again ask ourselves, how has the GOP managed to get the chickens to vote for Frank Perdue?

The answer is this: the GOP has constructed a compelling, overarching narrative that has swept away the weak efforts of the folks who are remnants of the New Deal to reach the American voter. Well, actually, the Dems got 48 percent of the US voters to pull the lever for the "most liberal man in America," John Kerry. It was a good effort, but not enough to save the country from a right-wing take over.

The reason the GOP is so successful is because they are selling an irresistible story that has the squares wrapped up in knots. Grover Norquist and Karl Rove play their siren song for the suckers--"Don't restrict the rich, this is America and one day you may be rich too." The Orwellian lyric is rewritten every week by Frank Luntz and distributed to a disciplined cadre of gauleiters who will not deviate from the bullet points of received right-wing orthodoxy.

It's high time organized labor got up from the canvas and defended itself.

Love note to Steve Hill

2005-06-13T23:52:00.000-04:00

Steve Hill of the Maryland Budget and Tax Policy Institute is your lighthouse in the fog-bound Maryland State budget process. My mental image of Steve's work comes from those 1930's prison movies where the cons try to break out only to be caught in the guard's searchlight beam. Steve is the guy with the searchlight . . . and the ability to read mounds of legislative prose to discover the single phrase that's going to cost us taxpayers big bucks. Not that I'm implying anything about the lobbyists' impact on Maryland's legislative and executive branches . . .

I'm sure the Gov would love it if Steve's searchlight beam were dimmed. After all, Steve is the guy who discovered the corporate tax loophole that permits multi-state corporations to scam their way out of paying any Maryland corporate tax. Meanwhile, Maryland's instate business people pay their tax in full to make up for the budgetary shortfall.

We have a name for the Maryland business people who think Governor Ehrlich represents their interests: "Chickens who vote for Frank Perdue."

I attended a budget committee hearing in Annapolis during the last legislative session where they heard testimony regarding a modest proposal to increase Maryland's corporate tax rate from 7 to 7.4 percent (don't hold me to those exact percentages). Maryland's patriotic and civic-minded business associations responded with the usual cries of, "It will mean the end of civilization as we know it." Well maybe, but corporate taxes were NOT raised and now Maryland's individual taxpayers are feeling the crunch.

We, in higher education know what the budget shortfall means: Continue to provide well educated new employees to Maryland's companies, but don't spend any money doing it.

Hey, the good news--the budget crunch has simplified the hiring process at Maryland's public colleges and universities. We only ask applicants one question, "Can you do the work of two people without whining?" (I shouldn't tip off the applicants, but there is only one acceptable answer, "Yes, but I'll need an assistant!")

Check out Steve's Maryland Policy Blog. Hats of to Mr. Hill.

Paging Mr. Orwell

2005-06-13T22:02:00.000-04:00

Does the Governor Have a Plan B For Code Red?

You gotta love the Gov! He ordered Joe Curran, the Maryland state Attorney General to drop out of a multistate challenge to the Bush administration's demolition of the EPA's air pollution regulations. Curran intended to forward Maryland's Department of the Environment advocacy of, "a national program with emission caps more stringent than current federal proposals . . . "

But wait, during the past General Assembly session, Ehrlich also opposed state anti-pollution legislation claiming that a state shouldn't involve itself in legislation that could involve out of state polluters.

Hmmmm, lessee. The state shouldn't tackle air pollution, the federal government shouldn't tackle air pollution, maybe we need to go to the UN . . . no that's no good, Bolton is gonna be "our" rep there . . .

When Scoundrels Rule

2005-06-13T05:20:00.000-04:00

I am reading The Last Refuge, Patriotism, Politics and the Environment in an Age of Terror, by David W. Orr.
The book is dedicated to Vaclav Havel, Nelson Mandela, and Paul Wellstone--pioneers of twenty-first-century politics.

Yes, it's another description of the damage that the right-wing idealogues have wrought--environmental, civic, political, economic--but Orr skillfully weaves these many disparate strands into a coherent whole.

The environmental movement has at its core, the wonderful, soul-stirring transcendence you can experience in America's wild and lonesome places. That psychic jolt has energized an army of ecological activists. Those soldiers work unstintingly to maintain our wild and lonesome places purely in the hope that generations of Americans as yet unborn will be able to experience the same psychic jolt.
I am sorry to say that America's labor movement does not seem to provide a comparable heart-felt enthusiasm. Sure, we can all reason, judge, and explain why workers should organize, but it is a rare (and joyous) moment when a worker "feels" what organized labor is all about. One day perhaps . . .

Here is a quotations from the Introduction to The Last Refuge

". . . Increasingly, we are ruled by a plutocracy, distracted by the entertainment industry, and frequently misinformed by an increasingly concentrated news media that puts the pursuit of market share above telling the whole truth. And, part symptom, part cause, we have state legislatures and a congress with many members who havent read widely, thought deeply, or imagined much beyond their own pecuniary gain."

Gee, sounds as if David Orr visited Annapolis during the last legislative session!

Why Union?

2005-05-24T14:02:00.000-04:00

Hundreds of your fellow employees at UMCP have come together in support of a principle--the same principle upon which the United States of America is founded: namely, that democracy is better than autocracy.

Over the past few months, Maryland’s decision makers have again passed the economic burden of current revenue shortfalls onto UMCP employees.

With a democratically structured employee organization, such as AFSCME Local 1072, the individual employee has a voice and is not subject to such arbitrary decisions. Only as part of an organized group do you have the economic strength that permits bargaining with the university on a basis approaching equality. You can join with us to help establish orderly procedures for determining hours of work, job descriptions, wages, health and retirement benefits, paid holidays, and vacations.

AFSCME Local 1072 represents UMCP employees as they seek to apply American democracy to their work life. The university works better when employees have a voice. Please join us.