Exposing Big Spender and New World Order Crony, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley and His Surveillance Society and Bloated Government
Public Sector Union Spending $87 Million to Re-Elect Democrats and Keep Government Huge
October 22, 2010Business Insider - The big spender this campaign season: The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
According to WSJ, the union is spending $87.5 million this election season to re-elect Democrats; and, of course, their goal there is to keep the government enormous, which means more jobs for AFSCME workers.
With spending cuts coming on the state level, and possibly coming at the Federal level, the stakes are huge.
Hilariously, the NYT runs a front-page story today about the Chamber of Commerce's efforts on behalf of big business this season, so both papers are really caricatures of themselves.
The Public Sector is the Largest Employer in Maryland
"If one understands that socialism is not a share-the-wealth programme, but is in reality a method to consolidate and control the wealth, then the seeming paradox of super-rich men promoting socialism becomes no paradox at all. Instead, it becomes logical, even the perfect tool of power-seeking megalomaniacs. Communism or, more accurately, socialism is not a movement of the downtrodden masses, but of the economic elite." - Gary Allen, None Dare Call It Conspiracy, Concord Press, 1971HubPages - This list contains company name and location within Maryland, ranked according to size of staff.- University of Maryland - College Park
- US Goddard Space Flight Center - Greenbelt
- Godard Space Flight Center - Greenbelt
- National Institutes of Health - Bethesda
- Washington County Recreation - Hagerstown
- National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) - Greenbelt
- Northrop Grumman - Baltimore
- Titan Steel Corp - Baltimore
- University of Maryland Medical System - Baltimore
- Johns Hopkins University – Aerospace - Laurel
- US Health & Human Services Dept. - Baltimore
- CareFirst Inc - Owings Mills
- Convergence Marketing - Millersville
- Fort Detrick – Military - Frederick
- Hydro Aluminum North America - Linthicum Heights
- US Post Office - Capitol Heights
- Millennium Inorganic Chemicals - Cockeysville
- Applied Physics Laboratory - Laurel
- Greater Baltimore Medical Center - Towson
- Johns Hopkins Bayview Med Center - Baltimore
- Johns Hopkins School of Medicine - Baltimore
- Union Memorial Hospital - Baltimore
- Peninsula Regional Medical Center - Salisbury
- GEICO Insurance - Chevy Chase
- Laurel Regional Hospital - Laurel
In Anne Arundel County, military and defense contractors are prominent in the top ten employer's list. Fort Meade tops the list, with the U.S. Naval Academy parked at number six. Defense contractors Northrup Grumman, Computer Science Corporation (CSC), and Booze, Allen, Hamilton take up three spots.
In Frederick County, the federal government (Fort Detrick) is the largest employer, with two federal contractors, Bechtel and SAIC, ranking third and fourth, respectively.
Marylanders Re-elected NWO Crony Martin O'Malley as Governor
A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship. - Justice Litle, Is America’s Economic Recovery on the Whole Based on a Rotten Sham?, Daily Markets, April 20, 2010August 2, 2010Cliff Williams - The first thing O'Malley did was call a special session to raise taxes to fund new spending. He was warned the economic indicators showed a downturn and was urged to wait. He could not because he can not control his spending addiction. He instituted a new healthcare program to cover 45,000 people and was going to pay for it with slots. The slots money is still nowhere to be seen. Is that what you consider feasible budgeting?
He continually refused to make tough budget cuts hoping for a federal bailout to balance his spending. When every penny was spent he went out and had the state's debt limit raised so he could spend even more.
Is this feasible budgeting? This isn't spend-spend-spending?????
August 2, 2010
Schiff4Senate - O'Malley has run more businesses out of Maryland with higher taxes than he's brought in. Why would a business stay here and pay employees higher wages due to the higher local cost of living when they can go elsewhere and operate at a lower cost with lower rent, lower wages and lower taxes, too?
People who scoff at politicians who "help businesses" should remember that MOST businesses in the U.S. are SMALL businesses--local mom and pop operations who are your friends and neighbors--not rich fat cats sitting on Wall Street.
August 2, 2010
Schiff4Senate - The goal is to reduce spending sufficient enough to allow us to eliminate the income tax. Many people move to places like Florida that have no income tax. Maryland has a State and an (unheard of) County income tax. Property taxes get paid to state and county gov'ts. Plus they have the sales tax.
We need less government overall. Hopefully (however unlikely) the next governor also keeps a keen eye on the goal. That goal being to cut spending sufficient enough to eliminate the income tax. Other states have no income tax, why do we have them?
Another bonus would be to get rid of these dumb cameras at every intersection watching your every move. Who's dumb idea was it to put those in place?
Sponsoring Legislation in Maryland
January 6, 2010LeaseTrader.com - Maryland's governor, Martin O'Malley, signed into law on May 19 Senate Bill 277, allowing the use of speed cameras in highway work zones and within a half-mile radius of schools, which means that they can be placed on freeways under these conditions.
Maryland is only the second state behind Arizona to codify the use of freeway speed cameras into law. Hawaii piloted a program but dropped it, and similar programs near San Jose, Calif., and in southern Florida were dismantled after they were found to be operating outside of state law. Maryland's law takes effect from Oct. 1.
Sean Adamec, the governor's spokesman, responded to our inquiries.
"Maryland is in a unique position," Adamec said. "A pilot program in Montgomery shows it worked; it lowered incidences of fatalities, crashing and speeding and made neighborhoods safer. It's safer for kids, road workers and it's been shown to work based on evidence. The point of them isn't to raise money but to catch speeders and that in turn makes neighborhoods safer.
"We wouldn't propose any tax on motorists traveling at safe speeds. If it was revenue rising we would've done it years ago, [but cameras] slow people down so they don't need to levy so many fines. Of course there is a financial impact to make roads safer with less fatalities, but in the end you can't put a price on the life of a child."
Maryland Legislature Approves Statewide, Freeway Speed Cameras
April 13, 2009The Newspaper - The Maryland General Assembly yesterday gave final approval to a measure that will expand the use of speed cameras to every part of the state, allowing cameras on high-volume freeways for the first time. Lawmakers in Annapolis, at the urging of Governor Martin O'Malley (D), saw the measure as an essential means of reining in the state's run-away budget deficit. Traffic camera vendors also helped promote the effort with lavish gifts, parties and campaign donations.
The new legislation specifically authorizes the use of speed cameras anywhere in the state up to one-half a mile away from a school zone. School zone cameras can operate as late as 8pm and ticket motorists regardless of whether school is in session. It also creates a statewide freeway camera program designed to be used in so-called "work zones" where the speed limit is lowered, regardless of whether workers are actually present. On a freeway that ordinarily has a 55 MPH speed limit, for example, citations would be issued to anyone driving 57 MPH in the lowered speed zone. For-profit private companies are authorized to take charge of all aspects of the program.
O'Malley's Spy Cameras (Maryland Governor Uses Tax Dollars to Track Your Every Move)
August 8, 2010Washington Times - With great fanfare, Gov. Martin O'Malley on Wednesday announced his use of your tax dollars to track every move made by Maryland motorists. The Democratic chief executive will spend $2 million in federal grants to double the number of roadside and mobile spy cameras, with the data centrally collected at a "fusion center" accessible to government bureaucrats.
Like speed cameras and red-light cameras, Mr. O'Malley's license-plate recognition cameras photograph the plates of passing motorists. Within a matter of seconds, a computer system looks up the vehicle owner's identity and cross-references it against a "wanted" list after recording the time, date and GPS coordinates of the vehicle. All of this information will be stored at the Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center located in Woodlawn, just outside Baltimore. Mr. O'Malley's plan is unique insofar as it allows tracking of persons of interest using cameras located in dozens of local jurisdictions.
"We believe it's the first," Maryland State Police spokesman Gregory M. Shipley told The Washington Times. "It's certainly one of the first to network police [agencies] together like this."This high-tech shakedown hasn't come cheaply. For years, the federal government has been doling out millions in grants - including stimulus funding - for the purchase of license-plate recognition technology, yet there has been no public debate on whether this is a good idea. Former Republican Gov. Bob Ehrlich, a fierce opponent of speed-camera use, thinks that debate needs to happen.
"Bob Ehrlich would need to see compelling arguments that these 'readers' have real benefit to remove concerns about government surveillance," Mr. Ehrlich's spokesman, Andy Barth, told The Washington Times.Mr. O'Malley is locked in a statistical dead heat with Mr. Ehrlich, who wants his old job back. That leaves Maryland voters with a clear choice in November between living in a digital shakedown surveillance state and returning to The Free State.
November Elections will Determine Future of Cameras in Maryland
October 28, 2010stopbigbrothermd.org - For the past two years StopBigBrotherMD.org has been documenting the expansion of speed cameras in Maryland. Last year a bill sponsored championed by Governor O'Malley authorized the use of speed cameras in school zones and freeway work zones anywhere in the state.
We argued that this new power would be abused, that it would diminish the legal rights of drivers, subject drivers to mass surveillance, and that it would be viewed as a cash cow by local governments and a way of taxing out of town drivers. We argued that while in fact these machines are fallible, that cameras would still always be presumed correct and the driver always presumed guilty. Now, a year after that new law went into effect, the truth has been exposed:
- In most cases 'school zone speed cameras' have been placed in areas never designated or marked as school zones before statewide speed cameras were approved. This is true in Baltimore City, New Carrollton, Brentwood, Mount Rainier, Forest Heights, Cheverly, and many other towns which have recently added cameras. The SHA released guidance stating "school zones should not be established solely for the purpose of installing speed cameras" and "Not all roadways within a ½ mile radius of schools are considered School Zones". Yet this has not prevented the creation of new school zones solely for speed camera use on roads not adjacent to any school.
- In some towns, such as Cheverly, Brentwood, and Mount Rainier, the newly approved camera sites are at locations where speed limits were lowered right before cameras were added.
- Many of the restrictions in state law have been bent or broken, demonstrating how local governments consider themselves above the law:
- A portion of the law designed to ban per-ticket payments to speed camera contractors has for all intents and purposes been declared void, so long as they don’t call what the camera contractor ‘operating’ the cameras. Now this type of contract arrangement is the norm almost everywhere the cameras are used.
- Montgomery County and Gaithersburg were found to have routinely skipped daily checks of the cameras which are required by law.
- Innocent people HAVE received tickets:
- A camera in Baltimore was configured to the wrong speed limit for weeks, issuing hundreds of tickets in error.
- Cameras in Forest Heights and Brentwood have been recording some very large vehicles at speeds which would be impossible under the circumstances. In some cases drivers of commercial vehicles had their careers threatened over these false tickets.
- Citations have gone out to drivers for vehicles which are not even theirs, sometimes from cities they have never even been to, proving that in many cases there is no meaningful human review taking place before citations are sent.
- Speed cameras are stripping drivers of due process rights. In Forest Heights, some drivers who tried to exercise their right to challenge tickets were not given court dates and instead were sent late notices with additional penalties and statements that their registrations would be suspended if they did not pay. Forest Heights has also denied a MPIA request for public records pertaining to this situation. Should these drivers be fortunate enough to eventually receive a hearing, they will still be subjected to a lower burden of proof than for any other type of violation in the state.
- Claims by officials that the cameras are not about revenue are laughable in the face of actions by some local governments. Baltimore City voted to include $7million in speed camera revenue in their budget before the cameras were approved by the city or any camera sites selected. Towns such as Cheverly and Forest Heights have planned to vastly increase their budgets using fines from cameras placed on major state highways.
- Claims that speed cameras have improved safety are in fact exaggerated. Montgomery county saw a large increase in traffic fatalities in the first half of 2010, bucking a nationwide trend, even as more speed camera sites were being added. Meanwhile other methods exists which can produce the same reductions in average traffic speeds where that is necessary.
If there is no change to makeup of our representation in Annapolis, and the supporters of speed cameras do not pay a price, then the result will be predictable. Within the next four years the number of cameras will balloon from hundreds to thousands, with over a million citations going out every month. The camera companies are heavily pushing to see the restrictions on cameras eliminated and the fines raised. They want to see new types of photo enforcement, such as cameras on school buses, cameras at stop signs, or cameras enforcing cell phone restrictions. With each of these the burden on drivers to prove they are innocent will increase. By the time voters have a chance to weigh in again, the ‘Free State’ will be a full blown 'surveillance state'. Every driver will be at the mercy of whichever local government is most corrupt or least competent.
We need allies at the state and county level and we need them NOW. To make a difference on November 2nd, we need every single opponent of speed cameras to cast their vote. We have documented the position of the state lawmakers on statewide speed cameras here: http://sites.google.com/site/mdspeedcameravotes/Home
No comments:
Post a Comment