Donna Edwards for Congress Facebook Group Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

I have started a Facebook group for supporters of the Donna Edwards in her run for Congress. Neither I nor that Facebook group is affiliated with any campaign or committee. Her district - MD-4 - is sapphire blue and should be represented by a liberal/progressive activist; the incumbent Al Wynn is one of the Republican House Caucus' favorite Democrats and needs to go back to writing real estate deeds for a living. Edwards very nearly unseated Wynn a year ago in a primary challenge despite weak funding and a late organizational start - neither of which will be a problem this round.

Some readers may note that Edwards' positions on some economic issues stand significantly to the left of this blog's perspective, but I will take clean government from someone I partially disagree with over machine politics, lobbyist co-optation of a public trustee and base political thuggery any day.

Meta/Personal: Vacation Continued Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Crab Media's vacation from substantial blogging has been extended through ... August 5th, 2007. It is possible, though unlikely, that you will see minimal blog posts before that date. I am working on other personal issues, including overcoming the effects of poor management of the well-noted North American abundance and a sedentary profession by incorporating a trip to a happily nearby (under 1 mile) gym as part of the daily routine. I have two choices: early morning (up by 4:45 AM to the gym by 5:05 AM), or getting to the gym at about 9 and home by 10 PM, or coming in and being a human being to my wife for half an hour before going out and exercising until the place closes. I am going to go with the first of these for now. They also have a boxing room where one can train against the big and small bags. Look forward to a picture of a plump blogger smacking a big bag here before too long.

All of my life has become more regimented in recent years. While a human being never wants for rationalizations to throw discipline into the trash can, my daily routine has become almost Prussian, approaching the infamous example of Immanuel Kant, and I think I will succeed at adding this item to the daily routine.

What this means for readers is that blogging has to take a back seat to me getting my health in order. Other than being overweight, I have no meaningful health issues or concerns - am fortunate in that . I would like to increase the odds of keeping it that way and getting more energy for greater overall effectiveness and enjoyment of life. Plus I might meet some new people there; I tend towards introversion so I have to give myself a bit of a push sometimes.

I love blogging but I cannot blog in any significant volume until I have successfully incorporated this exercise agenda into the overall routine. See you in a week and a half or so, probably.

Keith Ellison (D-MN) Compares 9/11 to the Reichstag Fire Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Keith Ellison sees the Third Reich today; do you?

HAT TIP to Maryland Conservatarian (who blogged about it) and Greg Kline at the Conservative Refuge podcast (who commented about it late in his podcast on July 17th.) I am mildly surprised that both men held back as much as they did.

Keith Ellison speaking to an organization called "Atheists for Human Rights" a couple weeks ago, per the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, July 8, 2007:

On comparing Sept. 11 to the burning of the Reichstag building in Nazi Germany: "It's almost like the Reichstag fire, kind of reminds me of that. After the Reichstag was burned, they blamed the Communists for it and it put the leader of that country [Hitler] in a position where he could basically have authority to do whatever he wanted. The fact is that I'm not saying [Sept. 11] was a [U.S.] plan, or anything like that because, you know, that's how they put you in the nut-ball box -- dismiss you."

It's pretty miserable when a group of atheists - presumably people with habits of skepticism and possessed of the pedantic but valuable habit of demanding strong evidence for strong propositions - applauds this foolishness.

For those who do not fully know the history of the Reichstag fire, it's pretty simple: a Dutch communist burned the German parliament building. The Nazi blamed the Weimar-era Communist movement for burning it and used the burning as a pretext for seizing broad emergency powers in Germany, banning the Communist Party (which held 17% of the seats in the Reichstag), and arresting and executing major Comintern leaders.

The Democratic Party was not only not banned but is thriving, holding both houses of Congress (the Senate by the hair of Joe Lieberman's chinny-chin-chin) and standing poised to win the Presidency in 16 months. Keith Ellison was elected in that take-over effort; maybe he forgot that he won and how he won. George Bush stands a small chance of getting impeached as do a few of his senior advisers, and Bush's popularity is somewhere between Nixon's low-water mark and gonorrhea's high-water mark. The Supreme Court is marginally more conservative than it was 6 years ago but any comparison between the Supreme Court and German "courts" under the Third Reich is offensive in the extreme. There are a large number of troubling civil liberties and corruption issues surrounding the President but we read and blog about them all the time. The PATRIOT ACT subpoenas are very offensive to me, particularly when issues against institutions like public libraries, but no comparison exists.

The Reichstag Fire was not part of a broad Communist plot, according to the evidence. It was one crank's act, not an act of the Comintern or German KPD or similar organizations. The best analogy would be if Timothy McVeigh had registered to vote as a Democrat or Republican and the sitting President assassinated, executed, jailed or placed into concentration camps every Democratic or Republican political operative in the country. The fact that you are reading this blog testifies to the difference; a post-Reichstag Fire chief executive would do to bloggers today what Hitler did to the "loud, obnoxious bloggers" of his day.

9/11 was the plot not of theocratic Baptists or Methodists but theocratic Muslims. Ellison's silence on this point is deafening. It's great that Ellison is willing to step for the civil rights of atheists - about time in the U.S. Congress - but not at the expense of entertaining this sort of historical malpractice.

I like the design of Atheists for Human Rights' website - soft green, light blue. There's a lot on the site that I like in terms of content, including some well-developed video presentations. But I would take a Goldwater-esque conservative skeptic of theocracy over any organization that entertains this sort of foolishness.

The worst part about what Ellison said? He actually took the matter beyond the Reichstag Fire analogy to accuse, then coyly deny accusing, the Bush Administration of executing the 9/11 attacks itself. Ellison's warning about being placed in the "nut-ball box" is too cute by half, and insulting to our intelligence. Deliver your evidence, Ellison, or go home to your nut-ball box unless you can show that Bush operatives, not Muslims from Saudi Arabia, hijacked four planes.

I stepped up hard for Keith Ellison when Dennis Prager lost his mind six months ago over Ellison taking a symbolic, non-functional photo-op oath in his own office on the central Islamic holy text, the Qu'r'an - not from a fear of theocracy creep, mind you. Rather, Prager (who is Jewish) wanted Ellison (who is Muslim) to take an oath on a Christian Bible, and feared for the integrity of the republic were Ellison to hold his own holy book during that photo op pose. I don't know that I called Prager's rants "sacroturf" by proxy; I would today. But I wish I had exerted less effort defending Ellison, now that I know he is both at peace with CAIR's theocrats and, perversely, beloved of some fact-free atheists.

TPM: "Gonzales to Schumer: [xxxx] Me" Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/015781.php

Josh Marshall is usually fastidious about avoiding the use of vulgar
references or foul language in any TPM Media projects.

But I gather that Marshall has reached his limit regarding Alberto Gonzales.

O'Malley would back changing corporate tax law Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

http://mobile.baltimoresun.com/news.jsp?key=149377

You know that Crablaw wants to hit this one.

But I'm on vacation.

Bruce Godfrey

Krauthammer on The 20 Percent Solution in Iraq Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

http://mobile.washingtonpost.com/detail.jsp?key=58976&rc=ck_op

Again, I am on vacation. I have not opened up my blog and am literally "phoning" these posts in on the run.



But this piece by Charles Krauthammer makes the best case for staying in Iraq that I have read thus far. I am not "sold" but this is the sort of pitch that would convince a guy of my perspective.



While making the case for our remaining there temporarily, Krauthammer's piece logically implies a departure once "al-Qaeda" is gone. I put "al-Qaeda" in quotes because the term is not exactly a registered trademark, nor has any branch of the Bush administration been a model of institutional transparency of late.



I suspect that some fraction of "al-Qaeda" must be ordinary local organized crime and not Islamic totalitarian thuggery. Maybe like Tony Soprano pretending to be an organizer for the Nation of Islam in order to protect his North Jersey trucking contracts. But that's a hypothesis and not knowledge on my part.



Bruce Godfrey

Prosecutors Challenge Dismissal in Alleged Abuse/Interpreter Case Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

http://mobile.washingtonpost.com/detail.jsp?key=59695&rc=md_me

I am not going to get into this case as it's the sort of thing a prudent vacationing blogger won't get into. Especially a very crabby one like me.
HAT TIP to Once and Future Craig for catching a typo/copying erratum.

Scott Baio: He's still single? Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

http://mobile.baltimoresun.com/detail.jsp?key=147470&rc=aetoday

The title of this post is not an editorial comment from me, but rather the theme of a new "reality" show of some sort. Chachi wants a love life. Apparently, advertisers think we will care.

I promised you cotton candy goofiness this week but even I did not expect the Sun to find something so clearly "news you cannot possibly use."

A reality show about Scott Baio's love life does nothing to the philosophical arguments against public television, but delivers a grievous blow to the aesthetic arguments. Give me a boring show about the love life of a fruit fly rather than one about the love life of Chachi.

Bruce Godfrey

Meta - Wherein Crablaw Takes A Chill Pill, but Not a Toke Off Of The Primo BC Bud Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

To all who may have noticed a bit of a rougher edge in my comments of late, please accept them with a grain of salt, a large dose of humor and my apologies for my excessive vehemence. To all who have honored this blog by dropping by and taking part, thank you, especially those who take profound disagreement with what you see here. I will do my best to take a chill pill for the next week and a half. Perhaps do a little knitting, some yoga. Okay, no knitting and no yoga, but a little more gentle spirit this week to balance out the overly bitter snark with some cotton candy.

I will be laying off of substantive policy this next week and a half or so, and just indulge some occasional goofiness. Maybe even some immaturity, though I think I have to pay Pillage Idiot a royalty since he invented blog immaturity. (For the record, it takes a genius to play an Idiot.) Playing with my boys today reminded me that I need more goofiness. It's the mature thing to do. You might see a post from me on the other blogs here, but don't expect much from me here until August 1st. I may also decide to take it somewhat easy for August. It's for times like these that this blog is called Crablaw Maryland WEEKLY.

My wife had minor surgery two weeks ago - nothing major, nothing "bad" and all definitely went well. But it has had a cascading effect on her and indirectly on both of us in terms of time and energy. I am behind on some things unrelated to the blogosphere.

Crablaw has also been in a bit of the blog doldrums of late. Over half, maybe 65% of my visitors visit this site from Google hits on two posts that I did on a Baltimore pastor who has some national prominence. Most of the searches seem to involve tangential controversies about that minister. I won't name him or his congregation because I want those hits to decline; this blog is not a useful source of information about that church's in-house church politics. Otherwise, Crablaw has been in the dumps and finding time to do the upgrades I want to do has been a logistical bear, as well frankly as the mental energy.

In fairness, it's probably a little unrealistic to expect a law or politics blog to have a good July or August. The Court of Appeals is out of session and most judges (and practicing litigators and criminal defense/prosecuting attorneys as well) try to take vacation in the summer. The General Assembly is out of session until January, so presumably our property and lives are relatively safe from abuse until then. While it's an election year in the City and the presidential (and related federal) elections have been moved up in the calendar, it's just not a hot time for the primary subject matter of this blog.

During the "vacation," please consider checking out among others David Kyle's The Candid Truth, Isaac Smith's Free State Politics and Mr. X's Opinions and Writings, as well as all of the blogs on the Maryland Bloggers Alliance blogroll to the left. When I drink beer, I usually order Sam Adams. To my taste, it's consistently great and time is so precious I hate to "ponder." But last night I enjoyed a Delirium, a Newcastle and a Yuengling (with a two-hour layover in transit before driving.) I had never had the first two before and only rarely had I tried a Yuengling. It's good to try new things. It's good to try these other blogs as well, especially the ones you think you might not like.

During this "vacation" I will be working primarily on career and household matters, the matters that are so seemingly hard for me to get done at a decent hour when I have even a modicum of energy. The improvements that I know I need to make to Crab Media are simply going to have to wait.

Good will and good cheer to all, and thank you. See you in a week and a half.

Baltimore Sun: Autism Study Analyzes Early Intervention Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Baltimore Sun, July 20, 2007:

His mother suspected that there was something wrong, almost from the start. As an infant, Joshua Huffman kept to himself, didn't babble like most babies do, didn't respond to his name when called.

Three years later, Joshua is a whirlwind of activity who can put together puzzles with ease, race around his Clarksville house with older brother Zachary and even tell his brother, in very clear language, to go to timeout.

Joshua was part of a study at Baltimore's Kennedy Krieger Institute that revealed that half of children with autism can be diagnosed not long after the first birthday - nearly two years earlier than it has been reliably diagnosed before. Researchers, who still don't know exactly what causes autism, know this much: Early diagnosis leads to earlier intervention, which they hope can change the course of an autistic child's life, as happened with Joshua.

With our boys, we had fairly early intervention but most of the metrics used to diagnose don't manifest meaningfully until close to age two; if this study holds - IF - it may provide a path to better outcomes.

I have gotten armored against any new information about autism treatment, diagnosis, causation theory, etc. So much of what's out there is driven by media personalities and misinformation desperately lacking in skeptical analysis and scientific, evidentiary rigor. But I do have the greatest hope for improvements in early diagnosis. Right now there are about 6 different disorder cluster heaped together generally as "autism spectrum." We are in the blood-letting and leech stage of knowledge of these disorders.

One of the few certain things about autism-spectrum disorders is that anyone selling you on the idea that he or she has "the cure" or "the solution" is a presumed quack and a fraud meriting criminal investigation.

Washington Post: Tawes Crab Feast Round-Up Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Washington Post, July 20, 2007:

Wednesday's 31st annual J. Millard Tawes Crab and Clam Bake served up thousands of Maryland crabs, fried clams and steamers, cobs of corn and watermelons --and plenty of politicians, considering it's an off-year for elections.

...

Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown made the rounds in a white T-shirt and khakis before boarding a boat for a tour of Eastern Shore oyster beds. "You haven't experienced Maryland till you've experienced the Tawes crabfest!" Brown declared before a gaggle of local television cameras. "It's what you do."

...

Next year's dual primaries for the 1st District congressional seat held by Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest drew a lot of political chatter. The race to unseat the nine-term Eastern Shore Republican is likely to be Maryland's hottest next year. Supporters of Sen. Andrew Harris (R-Baltimore County), the congressman's challenger from the right, were out in full force yesterday--as were Queen Anne's County state's attorney Frank Kratovil and Dorchester County attorney Christopher Robinson, who will battle for the Democratic nomination.

I wish I had been there.

Baltimore Sun: Analysis of Mayor Dixon's Firing of Police Chief Hamm Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Baltimore Sun, July 20, 2007:

While the political consequences of firing a police commissioner two months before an election remain unclear, several experts predicted yesterday that the potentially risky decision may ultimately pay off for Mayor Sheila Dixon's campaign.

...

Dixon's decision to replace Hamm came after her opponents in the Democratic primary race - including City Councilman Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. and Del. Jill P. Carter - spent weeks demanding change in the Police Department's leadership and trumpeting their own proposals for how to deal with violence in the city.

...

There have been 178 homicides in Baltimore this year, up from 149 at the same point last year, police said.

A few points.

The crappiest jobs in Baltimore are coroner, Police Commissioner and State's Attorney. Mayor is crappy too but at least it carries prestige and some power and patronage. The first three get the body count dumped on their table, physically and literally in the first case and metaphysically in the latter two cases. Baltimore is on track to have over 300 homicides this year, a number that it had avoided for about a decade.

I think that to want any of the first three jobs, you have to be either more or less the biggest egomaniac on the planet, a moron or a crook. Mind you, you don't have to be them to do the job, just to want the job.

Baltimore has had miserable luck with its police commissioners. Remember Kevin Clark, who sued the City on his departure and who embarrassed the city with a domestic violence charge against him (the factual foundation of which remains unclear)? Remember Ed Norris, who went to federal prison for corruption and lying on his tax returns, and now works talk radio? The job is undoable; the position exists because it needs to exist politically, in part as the "person to blame." Q.E.D.

Busboys and Poets: Cooler than Cool Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

After a fairly long week, though one pleasantly punctuated with good beer earlier on with good company and good cheer, I find myself blogging at Busboys and Poets near DC's U Street cultural district. The atmosphere is cool, too cool for the likes of a bonehead like myself. The crowd is young dressed to the nines, Cooler than Thou. I am still wearing my ID badge from the Day Job and have been enjoying, you guessed it, beer. First a "Delirium" and now a Newcastle Ale.

The scene, crowd, art on the walls and flowing music are not exactly Afro-centric, more Afro-friendly but easily accessible to a diverse crowd. R&B plays over the speakers but not in a stupid overpowering way that you would expect a stupid bar owner selling cheap brew to 20 year-olds to do it. The restaurant/bookstore/large couch lounge/classy bar smells of herbs and spices I have never tried, and the low lighting sets the right mood against the lively, even crowd. It's tight, smooth, just perfect.

My wife saw Busboys and Poets on PBS during one of its whirlwind tours of restaurants and night spots in DC some months ago. It makes me wish I had parked at the end of the Metro line and were taking one of those after-2 AM weekend Metro trains out to the suburban boondocks. But alas, my pumpkin chariot is a diesel train leaving Union Station at 10:45, so I am out of here no later than 10 PM. Too bad.

The U Street corridor is DC's attempt to promote a positive cultural scene with an emphasis on the specifically African-American history of this neighborhood. It's a mix of restaurants, shops, stage theatre, bars fancy and plain, but with markers showing the history of the black community in this part of DC and its connection to the Civil Rights movement. I am up one block from U Street across 14th Street from a well-built but sterile municipal building. But Busboys and Poets is not sterile, but teeming with life.

I ate earlier so I won't be sampling the menu, no doubt my loss from the aromas sneaking out from the kitchen.

Busboys and Poets' website indicates a strong level of connection with the surrounding community. Today B&P sponsored a "poetry slam" at a local elementary charter school for children up to 12.

B&P is expanding to Arlington in the near future. I hope that Busboys and Poets and the U Street Corridor invade Baltimore and assimilate it, Borg-style. Perhaps that's just the Newcastle talking.

Baltimore Sun: Church Damaged in Fire Splurged on Bentley Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Baltimore Sun, July 18, 2007:

The First Mount Olive Free Will Baptist Church bought a luxurious custom Bentley in 2005, the same year the inner-city church failed to pay a $12,000 water bill that has led to the filing of a foreclosure suit, motor vehicle records show.

...

In addition to facing multiple foreclosure suits over the still-unpaid 2005 water bill of $12,342 and other municipal bills, First Mount Olive was notified just days before the fire that the property it acquired in 2002 would be auctioned at the end of this month. The church is accused of defaulting on its $1.5 million mortgage, held by SunTrust Bank, records show.

...

Matthew Smith, a car salesman at EuroMotorcars in Bethesda said a Bentley Arnage, which takes as long as three months to construct by hand, costs at least $225,000 new. He estimated that the car the church bought was worth between $130,000 and $150,000, assuming it was in good condition. Today, it is worth about $120,000, he said.

I knew I went into the wrong line of work.

Washington Post: Tax Proposals in Maryland Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Washington Post, July 18, 2007:

Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) and leading lawmakers say they are giving serious consideration to overhauling the state's tax brackets, which are among the flattest in the nation. Everyone with taxable income of more than $3,000 a year pays the same rate.

O'Malley called the structure "patently unfair" this week, saying at a Democratic breakfast in Frederick that Peter Angelos, the wealthy trial lawyer who owns the Baltimore Orioles, should not pay the same rate as "the woman who cleans his office."

"I'm in favor of progressive taxation, where people who make a lot more pay more," O'Malley told reporters recently.

The article goes on to discuss, in an oversimplified manner, how the state's income tax brackets work in practice. One proposal is to create a 6 percent bracket for earners earning about $150K single, $250K jointly, in taxable income. The article does not go into the state's personal exemptions or mildly odd standard deduction calculation, and also fails to note the deductibility on Form 1040, Schedule A of most state income taxes for most high-income taxpayers, yielding reduced marginal net damage from a state income tax increase due to already high federal income taxation.
Click Here or at Permalink to Read More...
Governor O'Malley mischaracterized what progressive taxation (of income) is. It's not when "those who earn a lot more pay more," it's when those who earn more pay a lot more. I consider O'Malley's characterization disingenuous; it's sloppy beyond mere negligence.

All taxation is an invasion, a taking by force. The fact that cops rarely collect taxes at gunpoint (in the U.S.) does not make taxation anything other than a taking by force with some due process review. Non-compliance results in garnishments, levies, sales in execution and in very rare cases criminal prosecution for non-filers.

The question I have is whether the taxation of the marginal income that buys clothing and the staff of life should occur at a lower rate, directly or indirectly, than the taxation of the marginal income that, in practice, buys marble kitchen remodellings and vacations at Aspen - not because the latter are "bad" or out of some class envy but because the net damage to low-income workers of extracting tax money out of their survival staples bothers me. The current tax code provides for a small state earned income tax credit for many such workers to mitigate those concerns somewhat.

But providing relief to poor people is not what the main Democratic proposals are discussing. They are not talking about making it easy for Martin O'Malley's cleaning lady. They are discussing, instead, increasing the tax screw on the most successful people in every field while leaving the slightly lower tier of middle-high earners untouched. I would respect an across the board increase of the rate much more, even though my family and I would fare worse under a broader taxation than under the Democratic proposal. There's no fundamental reason why we should be exempt from such a proposed increase; my family's basic needs are covered and I would hate for Angelos to have his rates increased more due to Democratic lack of character and fear of taxpayers broadly on this issue. If they cannot raise taxes across the board for everyone above subsistence level, they should not do so at all.

Hong Kong is generally regarded one of the freest economies if not the freest on Earth despite having one of the world's least free economies only 20 minutes away by commuter train. Most Hong Kongers don't pay income tax. In effect, the income tax does not come into effect until around 220,000 HKD per annum, which is about $29,000 USD dollars or so. One of the biggest fears of the business community in Hong Kong is threat of democracy or, more precisely, full home rule and universal suffrage. The fear is that the tax system that allows workers to earn pretty much all of the income that they need for life's basics without taxation would be destroyed if a socialist, pro-tax party got elected. Higher income earners do often complain about the brutality of Hong Kong taxation and the high rate of 15% that they suffer. May such a rate smite us and may we never recover.

In a sense, however, the Hong Kong system is paradoxically both the flattest and the most progressive of all tax systems in the industrialized world. The rate jumps high from zero to the maximum rate in one arguably nasty progressive leap on middle income taxpayers. While such a system probably could not be implemented in Maryland practically, I would like to see a system where low-income workers are outside the tax system up to a subsistence level of income and that the rates stay flat thereafter.

Attila went hard on the proposed rates:

I'll tell you how it can be. Governor O'Malley's argument for progressive tax rates is a phony. It's a way of punishing wealthy people for having created wealth. It's a scheme based on ideology, not economics, and on envy, not fairness.

I don't think it's envy or bad faith when you are dealing with the lower end of the income spectrum. It's envy when you are doing what the Democrats are discussing: soaking the highest producers without helping the poor through relief and without demanding that all of the "non-subsistence poor" meet the same rate.

But O'Malley was smart in the examples he picked. Angelos is at the "bowel obstruction" level of popularity due to his decade of perceived baseball malpractice in Baltimore, and it's hard and cruel not to want to help somebody who earns a modest living holding a mop and toilet brush with her face near somebody's toilet. But perhaps a better example would be: should Ravens coach Brian Billick (after a GOOD year!) or a successful restaurant owner who works 70 hours a week get soaked on their taxes marginally worse than some non-disabled citizen hump who doesn't have steady (i.e, moderate and growing) income because he got fired for screwing off or watching porn on the job or not showing up to the job?

Governor, if you tax Brian Billick, you owe it to all of us to tax all of us the same way, exempting people's subsistence survival money. Tax me right here.

UPDATE: Isaac Smith, unlike Martin O'Malley, puts forth some actual arguments for the creation of the sorts of income tax brackets O'Malley advocates in a well-written counterpoint at FSP.

Baltimore Sun: Roger Taney Bust in Frederick in Controversy Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Baltimore Sun, July 17, 2007:

A bronze bust of Roger Brooke Taney stares sternly ahead, as if he were watching the two cherubs frolicking in the fountain in front of City Hall. Author of the inflammatory Dred Scott decision affirming slavery, Taney has been immortalized here for 75 years, largely ignored by passers-by.

...

Click Here or at Permalink to Read More...

"It's quite offensive to have that there," said E. Kevin Lollar, an attorney who is also director of development for Frederick's Housing Authority. "I realize that it's a part of history, but so were a lot of other things that we eventually let go of."

...

Taney was born in Calvert County but resided for two decades in Frederick with his wife, Anne Key, the sister of Francis Scott Key.

Couple of points.

First, Roger Taney and Taneytown in Carroll County (pronounced "TAWN-ey" or perhaps "TAHN-ey") appear to derive from the same English extended family but neither is named after the other. HAT TIP to Kevin Dayhoff and Maryland Conservatarian for their mutual correction of my prior error on this point some months ago.

To my international readers, attorney and Baltimore resident Francis Scott Key was the author of "The Star-Spangled Banner," a poem written at the naval siege of Baltimore during the War of 1812. That poem was later set to the melody of a drinking song popular in the nation whose King ordered that siege, and became the national anthem of the United States.

Taney's decision in the Dred Scott case involved the Fugitive Slave Act and answered in the affirmative the question of whether a territory designated as slavery-free by Congress had to return to a slave state a fugitive slave. In that decision, Taney wrote that persons of African descent born in the United States could never be citizens:

It is difficult at this day to realize the state of public opinion in regard to that unfortunate race which prevailed in the civilized and enlightened portions of the world at the time of the Declaration of Independence, and when the Constitution of the United States was framed and adopted; but the public history of every European nation displays it in a manner too plain to be mistaken. They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far unfit that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.

Taney held that the Congress had no jurisdiction to create free territories. He further held that the Supreme Court had no jurisdiction to hear fugitive slave Dred Scott's appeal, since Scott was not and could not be by his reasoning a citizen of a state, but the Court held nonetheless that Scott was in fact a slave, exercising in effect the very subject matter jurisdiction that Taney denied that the Supreme Court had.

Taney stated further policy reasons, rather than legal reasons, to exercise jurisdiction in this case - the jurisdiction that he denied the Supreme Court even had. Taney expressed the grave concern that failing to denying persons of African descent the rights of citizenship would have horrifying results:

"It would give to persons of the negro race, …the right to enter every other State whenever they pleased, …the full liberty of speech in public and in private upon all subjects upon which its own citizens might speak; to hold public meetings upon political affairs, and to keep and carry arms wherever they went."

Whether you believe in strict construction, judicial restraint, basic human decency, Congressional authority over non-state territories or the institutional respect of the Supreme Court, the decision was a disaster. It took several generations for the Court to recover.

My own view is that Taney deserves no place of honor. Taney is a major historical figure and belongs in a museum, not on a pedestal. Lee Harvey Oswald is a major historical figure and you can read about his life at the Smithsonian, not on a public square or in a Statuary Hall. In Annapolis Lawyers' Mall, there stands a statue of Taney across from one of Thurgood Marshall. I am ambivalent about that myself; that's kind of like putting a statue of Lee Harvey Oswald across from that of John Kennedy. Maybe on Fox that's fair and balanced but not here.

Baltimore Sun: Exchange Between ABATE and Sun Columnist Michael Dresser Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Today's Sun features a somewhat snarky exchange between transportation columnist Michael Dresser and a representative of Maryland ABATE, the motorcyclists' rights organization perhaps best known for its ceremonial entry/parade down Rowe Boulevard into Annapolis every year near the end of the legislative session, for which event more than one legislator has hung out of an office window visible to the street a white flag of surrender in friendly mock submission.

I won't attempt a fair use excerpt, as it deserves a reading in full. ABATE is known best for its vigorous opposition to helmet laws though it has been active on other less controversial issues involving rules of the road or motorcyclists' rights.

The helmet law is an interesting one to study. From what I understand - and if I am wrong please do send me links to correct information - most studies seem to indicate a lower rate of death from head injuries from helmet use by motorcyclists, and a lower rate of death among motorcyclists in those states that have passed mandatory helmet laws. A libertarian absolutist would urge that the state has no legitimate interest in whether a motorcyclist assumes a greater risk of death for himself or herself as long as no other person's risk of harm is affected. Of course, a libertarian absolutist would urge that not only need cyclists not wear helmets but neither must pedestrians or cyclists wear clothes.

Is there an externality inflicted on others by one's own avoidable death? Arguably so to one's minor children, or to the state from having to pick up or hose your brains off of the pavement or having to hire some company like Aftermath to do so. This is true whether the death is a stabbing or a vehicle accident: after CSI goes home, someone has to do the clean-up.

A separate issue arises as to whether helmets actually lower one's ability to respond to potential hazards and avoid them in some cases. This issue would be of greater interest to a libertarian pragmatist, who tends to favor liberty because liberty works or often works, but also hypothetically of interest to everyone if it's true that all motorists are actually safer with some motorcyclists operating without helmets rather than with. In that situation, the law may be reducing some actuarial risk while increasing others. Perhaps a solution might involve something like an advanced, CDL-style license after X-miles or X-years for such advanced cyclists so expert that they are more likely to survive and thrive without the helmet than with. This is a hypothetical solution that, in my judgment, will please no one involved.

The foregoing said, I would be more comfortable knowing that ABATE did not meet primarily in taverns. It's not reasonable to assume that everyone drinking alcohol at ABATE tavern meetings is merely "sitting bitch" as the phrase goes on the way home from the meeting, rather than operating a motorcycle potentially under the influence. Perhaps it's because I am the son of an ER nurse who learned to read largely from illustrated nursing textbooks replete with injury and burn photos. Or maybe it's because I am in that 10% of American men who considers himself a below-average driver stone sober. But I would rather know that those who are operating somewhat unwieldly, weather-vulnerable two-tired motorcycles without full windshields and without roofs were doing so with a blood alcohol limit that they enforced in the old East Germany: zero. Makes me want to go buy myself a helmet for safer operating of my Corolla.

PSA: Introduction to Maryland Legal Research Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

This is an outstanding basic guide to legal research published by the Thurgood Marshall Law Library at the University of Maryland School of Law. It has some emphasis on Maryland law and procedure but is useful to a large extent to legal researchers anywhere

Baltimore Sun: Spot The Fallacies in This Article About Crime Polling in Baltimore City Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

I won't summarize it here but analyze this article's claims about both crime and the perception or apprehension of crime in Baltimore City. See if you can spot the mischaracterizations, logical fallacies and math errors that the article either explicitly committed or seems to have committed.

Brian Grifftiths: Ugly Government Design Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Brian Griffiths and I are not exactly clones politically, but aesthetically we are of one mind as to the ugliness of this image selected as Anne Arundel County's (copied here under claim of fair use for promotion of discourse on public affairs):



The brown letters are barely legible; they suggest a concatenation of cheap, shiny almost-meatless McBurgers jammed one after the other on a McBurger assembly line rather than letters of the Roman alphabet. Anne Arundel: cheap, shiny and where's the beef? Ah, a winner.

The "all caps" black lettering is not easy on the eyes either, and the "County" in the lower right looks deliberately difficult to read, sort of "cooler than thou."

Designing a logo is not easy. A lot of hard work went into the barely legible item above, both conceptualization and the grunt work with drafting tools, even in the age of computer-aided design. I have designed and scrapped many a logo on this site and have left standing probably more than a few that I should have scrapped.

It recalls for me the recent "Baltimore: Get In On It" hoo-hah on which the City spent half a million dollars. At least Anne Arundel's new logo does not suggest "Let's Get It On On It" or "Get Down On It" as mockery.

Bastille Day Impeachment Party Blogswarm Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Happy Bastille Day and welcome!

Cut-off time is 9:00 PM on Saturday, July 14th. Exceptions will be made for any reason, just shoot me an email before 9:00 PM and tell me when you can get me the post. Please email me a link to your post at the same email address used for the Take Back the Blog post back in April: TBTB2007@crablaw.com. If you have submitted a post and it is not below, please email me with the word "RESEND" prominently in the subject line.

I will not be annotating the blogswarm posts at this time, but may (or may not) do so as the day, evening and night progress and additional posts come in. I would definitely welcome discussion of any of these or other posts in the comments below; it's the discussion where a lot of the best insights develop.

Many thanks to Alice for her inspiration and aggressive promotion of this blogswarm.

To the posts!

Tofubo's terse recommendation regarding executive privilege

MEC's Grounds For Impeachment

Jarl von Hoother's Impeach Cheney First

CT Blue's Impeach Dick, then George

Scorpio's Indict Cheney First

Scorpio's Post about French History and "lettres de cachet"

Libby Spencer's Impeachment - Do It For The Children

Keith Thompson's Impeachment

Kelly Garbato's "Can I get a w00t w00t" [warning: hard language]

Daylight Atheism: An Incident in the Senate Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

First the facts, then the opinions.

The Hill, July 13, 2007:

Three protesters were arrested in the public gallery of the Senate and charged with unlawful conduct yesterday for shouting down the opening prayer, which for the first time ever was being conducted by a Hindu.

Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.), who was presiding in the chair, had to call on the sergeant at arms repeatedly to restore order as the protesters denounced the presence of Rajan Zed, who was standing on the dais wearing saffron robes.

The three people arrested were Ante Nedlko Pavkovic, Katherine Lynn Pavkovic and Christan Renee Sugar, said Sgt. Kimberly Schneider, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Capitol Police.

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Daylight Atheism, July 14, 2007:

We are a nation of many faiths, and if the Senate session absolutely must be opened with prayer, let us invite representatives of as many different religions as possible, on a rotating basis - the more, the merrier. Jews and Christians should get their fair turn, but let's also bring in Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Baha'is, Native American religions, Taoists, Sikhs, Rastafarians, Wiccans, and anyone else who cares to apply. And let's not overlook one group in particular - the 15% or more of Americans who are not religious, a far larger number than any non-Christian church and most Christian denominations. Let's invite an atheist to open the session with a secular benediction expressing hope that reason and human conscience will guide the decisions of our elected officials.

A rotating, non-preferential prayer schedule would serve many valuable purposes. It would be a powerful symbolic reminder that America has no official religion, and that all citizens are equal under the law regardless of their choice of faith. It would reaffirm the freedom of religion guaranteed by the Constitution and show that we are all represented by the government that our votes put into power. And last but not least, it would be a stinging rebuke to the Christian right, and that can only be a good thing. Their impotent, whining temper tantrums make it exceedingly clear that they think they have the god-given right to lord it over everyone else, and the more obvious that is to the American people, the more we can expect people to turn away from their agenda of theocracy and intolerance.

A few comments.

First, many are tempted to consider the Senate prayer as both a trifle and a big deal at the same time, whether in opposition or support. I think that the issue tempts a sort of schizophrenia in which some of us we simultaneously state that it's a petty nothing and a big deal. What the arrestees and the Freedom From Religion Foundation have in common is that they consider the Senate prayer to be an enormous issue, worthy of an arrest for the former and regular harping by the latter.

It stands to reason: if it's no big deal, why not kill the procedure? Why should Roman Catholic legislators have to sit through a prayer offered by the Senate's regular chaplain whose denomination, Seventh-Day Adventist, is infamous for its harsh anti-Catholic views? Why should Methodist or Presbyterian or evangelical Christian legislators have to sit through prayers offered by a hypothetical Catholic priest whose church teaches, as affirmed of late by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, that the Protestant churches are not only not the true Church but are not even churches, period?

The answer is that the service is a BIG deal to the people who want to claim their religion as the official religion of the United States. That's why those three citizens were willing to get arrested: it is INTOLERABLE to have the wrong minister doing the prayer, even once. For those Christians of whatever church or denomination who got arrested, the message was clear: our church "owns this house" and must "protect this house" from any competing religion daring to stick its head up above water.

Emotionally, my reaction to forced prayer is similar to those of the arrested Christians to the prayer that they did not like from the Hindu minister, though I gather it was his very presence rather than the specific content of his prayer that set the nice folks from Operation Rescue into arrest-begging disorderly conduct. I don't view official prayer in the Senate as a "forced" environment; I would prefer it not occur during official business by official designated Senate "priests" but I hardly view ceremonial prayer by Senators for Senators as a big deal, far down my list of grievances below the failure of the State of Maryland to incarcerate rubberneckers on the west side of the Baltimore Beltway.

Sticking up religious monuments and fixtures in the judicial branch of government, on the other hand, is a much bigger deal because in that case, the monuments are not for the judges but for the citizens who appear at litigants, witnesses and especially criminal defendants, under compulsory process or under pain of prejudice of their rights. In my view, it is as inappropriate for such monuments and fixtures to be put there as it would be to place a picture of such monuments with a "no parking" red slash through them. Both "Worship Jesus" and "Worship Nothing" are inappropriate messages for the government to deliver in a courthouse.

Ravens 2007 Schedule Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

I got a look at the Ravens schedule for this fall, and I don't understand the rationale behind the early starts for some of the evening games. It would make sense if the games were held out west. But a 7 PM start in Eastern Daylight Time means that pretty much the entire country is either in rush hour traffic, finishing up work or cleaning the dinner table when the game starts. I could sort of get it for a game late in the season due to temperature and lighting issues for outdoor stadiums. Or maybe ESPN and FOX have plans for 2 hours of pre-game garbage.

Maybe I am biased because my usual return time from work is 8:55 PM but I do not get the logic, the ad revenue rationale or the marketing edge of the choice to start a game in Cincinnati at 7 PM on a Monday "night".

Kickoff for the Ravens' first regular season game is 58 days away. Maybe I will skip work early. Or maybe I will be working in Baltimore or Towson by that date, who knows.

Bush's Balls Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Note: Indecent Content Below the Fold
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If President Bush wanted to pull his ratings and popularity out of the ditch, he could start by following the advice that the Godfather gave to Johnny Fontane when he slapped Johnny across the mouth - "You can act like a man!!"

Bush could stare down the Democrats and waive all executive privilege to get the entire matter of the politicization of the Department of Justice with conservative activists and Republican operatives out in the open. He could command Harrier Miers to go to Capitol Hill to clear this entire mess up. He could then have Rove call Bill Kristol and tell him to make this known as the Bush "Brass Balls Moment" a la the Clinton "Sister Souljah" moment of 14-odd years ago. You know, a cartoon of Bush lecturing the Democratic wimps in a real estate sales office, holding a pair of brass balls "strategically" like Alec Baldwin's character Blake in Glengarry Glen Ross. (NOTE: extreme language in following YouTube clip):



Bush's base would go wild and Kucinich would look like Howdy Doody for filing a motion to impeach.

Bush could but he won't, and his excuses are garbage, just as his explanation of the 33 month sentence for Irving Libby as "excessive" when Libby spent ZERO time in jail was excessive.

He claims he is preserving executive privilege for his successors, but that makes no sense. He could get a promise from the House committee issuing the subpoenas that his waiver would be "without prejudice" as to future presidents' invocations, but that promise would mean nothing. Why? The next Congress can do what it pleases. Similarly, the actions of President Bush in waiving or failing to invoke privilege likewise mean nothing to future presidents. Neither Congress nor Bush is capable of acting with prejudice as to future Congresses or Presidents. The transparency of this claims is patent from Bush's failure to attempt to negotiate with Congress for future presidents' privileges; both Bush and Congress understand that this is a ruse, a faux bauble at which stupid people including the Washington J-School stenographers may gawk.

Since the next president is likely to be a Democrat, one would think that Bush's top priority would not be keeping the post-Nixon executive privilege precedents and customs safely for a Democratic president who will win that office by slamming a wing-tip or high-heel-shaped imprint on Bush's buttocks for the next 16 months. Does Bush really have Obama's back the next time President Obama decides to protect himself from, er, himself? And Hillary?? One thinks that Schadenfreude at their hypothetical future slow roasting would be a more likely result.

If you are male, some other male probably did you a kindness in your early youth by teaching you to block your groin from a punch, kick or missile. If you still have a groin, that teaching is part of the reason that you do still have a "groin" now. If no one taught you, you learned by experience, sorry fella.

Bush is blocking his groin from the boomerangs he threw. Bush is blocking his groin because he knows that his are not made of brass.