Kudner Land Scandal + John Griffin – Nelson Reichart + Federal Investigation + Deposed O’Malley * “Smear” Website = Political Quagmire
So the Kudner deal appears to be moving off into another realm entirely. The attorney representing Nelson Reichart is trying to depose Martin O’Malley because of his public comments to the press following the firing of Nelson Reichart. One of the points in contention to Mr. Reichart’s case is that after the State terminated him, they discussed his employment status with the press. If you remember, I first reported the firing and after the mainstream press picked up on that and asked questions, the O’Malley Administration confirmed the press accounts which violated Mr. Reichart’s privacy as a state employee.
I know that a lot of people are asking for money right now, and you should be bracing for the higher taxes that are guaranteed to cause some damage, but if you have a few dollars to spare, you should DONATE TO THE LEGAL DEFENSE FUND FOR NELSON RECIHART. Anything would help out Mr. Reichart since his lawyers are going up against the power of your tax dollars and their unlimited resources. Send your contributions to:
The Legal Defense Fund for Nelson Reichart, P. O. Box 42394, Baltimore, MD 21284-2394
And if you all remember the original story in the Baltimore Sun about the Kudner land deal, it’s fun to look back and see what they were saying then, and what the truth was. The Governor’s key mouthpiece Rick Abruzesse asked us to “Keep in mind the race going on between the state trying to preserve open space and the developers”, but it turns out in this deal the developers were the only ones in the race, and it was a race to see how quickly they could dump this un-developable land before someone found out it was un-developable.
Another gem comes courtesy of Maryland’s Newest Multi-Millionaire David Sutherland, “I’m not trying to gain anything…[U.S. Land Alliance] did it in a way most citizens should be proud of.” But let’s face it, that appears to be untrue because Mr. Sutherland is in a position to sell all of the land for at least $24 million, including the waterfront tract of environmentally sensitive land that will be developed for the millionaires to have an Eastern Shore getaway. I guess when you don’t want to spend the 1/2 million it takes to get invited to the Governor’s mansion, the Eastern Shore is your next stop.
The Capital newspaper has a great summary of the whole deal to this point where they describe the deal as a political quagmire, and DNR Secretary John Griffin’s continued defense of the land deal. I will be covering more hirings and firings at the Stadium Authority and other places coming up shortly. Please keep sending the tips and e-mails, I’m sorry if I haven’t gotten back to you yet, but the site has become so popular and busy.
Point, despite my distaste for our gracious host’s twisting of the news to suit his anti-O’Malley mission, I do agree that he/she has provided a free and open forum with a fair opportunity for posters from all perspectives to contribute.
This is a real contrast to conservative talk radio, in which dissenting callers are often talked over, muted, spliced, or simply dumped.
Shoreman, you’ve betrayed a rural landholder’s perspective, opposing any and all zoning restrictions that might reduce the potential value of your holdings. No one is denying you the opportunity to realize a hefty financial reward from liquidating your property, but neither can you expect society to permit the completely unrestrained and unrestricted use that would maximize your profit, but harm your your neighbors first and foremost, but also society at large.
The suburbanite could say, “Gee, over the past 30 years I’ve paid my taxes, commuted to my boring job, raised my kids, mowed the lawn, and paid off my mortgage, now I want to buy the farm. But I’m not happy just selling my little split level on my quarter-acre plot to another poor slob, despite the appreciation I’ve realized over 30 years. Instead I want to hit the jackpot and sell to a developer who wants to build a 7-11, or an Exxon with a Mini-Mart, or, gee, I don’t know, maybe a small-scale rendering plant. And who are my neigbhors to tell me they don’t want a rendering plant next door or across the street or down the block?”
Jusda don’t forget Gore and his prediction that our shorelines will soon disappear. Wasn’t Martin watching his presentation or he was on one of his many vacations.
Justdafacts
You still got it wrong.
Hitting the jackpot in Maryland isn’t a 7-11, Exxon or a Mini-Mart knocking on your door. No it Martin O’ with a big bag of taxpayer’s money, just ask David Sutherland!
You could say the same about the Weidman Farm deal that Gov Ehrlich inked a month before the general election. Where was all the outcry then?
I think David Sutherland of the Kudner Farm deal is a shady operator, as I’ve explained at length on these pages, but I’m all for Program Open Space. So was Gov Ehrlich, so people who oppose public land acquisition on principal need to yell louder if they want to be heard.
Anyone want to have the debate again on whether or not public land acquisition is worthy of taxpayer dollars?
Jusda you still haven’t answered the global warming question. Your prestine land will vanish in the not too distant future. Al Gore said it.
It is apparent that MOM employs a “Stop Snitching” mentality similar to that of our street criminals when it comes to terminating whistle blowing employees. Perhaps he too should make a video.
Why do you say Nelson Reichart was a whistle blower?
Did you actually read his comment, or did you read Tom LoBianco’s twisting of his comment (with some poor math to boot) in the right-biased Washington Times?
For a great read on Maryland’s long history of political corruption, be sure to check out Thimbleriggers by Bradford Jacobs (JHU Press, 1984.) Isn’t it about time for a sequel!?
There are many posters here that do quite a bit of research and are familiar with the political arena. There has to be a chink in O’Malley’s armor somewhere; there has to be a vulnerability; there has to be a secret. What is it? How can we Republicans and fed-up Democrats get to him and get him impeached. Is this governor governing? What has he done for the State since elected? Speak up Western Maryland. Speak up Carroll County. Speak up Cecil County. Speak up Baltimore County. Let’s quite talking about Baltimore City. It’s a mess. It can’t be saved. Third generation welfare recipients are not going to change - their hands will be out and their mouths will be open like baby birds. Parents can’t parent - they don’t know how. Parent’s can’t teach their children - they dropped out of school or were passed through. Values and morals are not taught. There is no respect for human life. The vicious cycle continues. Forget Baltimore City and PG County. The rest of the state needs to raise their voices against the socialist agendas of the Democrats. Who out there knows something that can get this Governor out of control of our state? I believe we are the silent majority.
Your majority is also silent during the voting process. The two jurisdictions you want to “forget” comprise nearly 30% of the state’s population. It’s this mentality that keeps Republicans out of office. They can’t compete in those two places because they write them off before the campaign even starts. This leaves Dems competing for votes only in Republican turf. All we need to do is make the case that we should care for our less-well-off (a truly Christian concept that even a lot of die-hard conservatives hold dear), as well as tie the wacko social beliefs of the national party to the MD GOP and we have all we need to keep Dems in office.
funny how the counties that you right-wing wackos wants to write off and forget because they ‘can’t be saved’ also happen to be majority-minority, include MoCo in there, which by the next census will also be majority-minority, and one has to wonder when the Maryland Republican party will realize that rhetoric such as yours comes across as mean-spirited and not just a little bit racist as well.
Way to reach out to the voters who consistently vote against you, but of course you just don’t understand why they do, they must just be stupid and poor so why bother with them at all. Nice attitude folks. I hope you like being a minority party for generations to come.
JDF: This land ad nauseam is getting just that. However, thirty years ago the Point was involved in a federal land/capital investment investigation initiated under Carter. The next admin RIFed the entire operation because it was an impediment to the wealthy. (Some believe that Katrina would have been much less a social tragedy and economic failure if we had been allowed to continue) If you would take the time to conduct a cursory fact check, you would know that government procured land has serious consequences which are only compounded during a recession. The Weidman deal was an election year/budget recovery sweeps, no one would argue the stench there – the Open Space fund had just been resurrected and was huge. But the current practices are just plain fool hardy, particularly this soon and on the eve of another budget bust. They demonstrate a complete lack of logic, both politically and environmentally. They also prove the lack of resolve in the environmental movement – they have become the enemy. You may wish to do a little more investigating before you fall further on your sword. You seem too sharp to have such blind faith.
Jusda you continue to ignor Global warming in reference to the prestine land you mention. Got more statistics(Indyprog lives by them). ONLY 28% of Batimore’s voters turned out to vote. In a city predominantly Democrat this is a disgrace. Most people couldn’t pull themselves up and go to the polls as they knew Sheila was going to win. There lack of voting speaks volumes about how the people of Baltimore feel about their leader. Sheila has no mandate as the turnout was so low.
As far as being a minority party for generations to come it’s only going to take 4 years under O’Money for voters minds to change. With no leadership in making Annapolis a more sleeker,less expensive government the cost of living here is set to sky rocket. If Indyprog or you want to rebut this then please provide some stats as the two of you like to google alot. Also, add in per capita population as that is also a mitigating factor.
Baltimore Primary also adds some “racist” comments to his post. What is meant by majority-minority? Which racial makeup are you referencing? The poster never mentioned a racial class, but BP sure jumped out and put his foot in his mouth. You left wing folk use different wording to mean the same thing “racism”. Baltimore City is overburdened with folk both White and Black who are on welfare. They are not forced to seek work so as to become productive citizens. The majority are uneducated. The Democrats want them to stay poor as that is the data bank of voters from one election to the next.
If the Democrats were so concerned about these folk then the hundreds of millions of wasted tax dollars wouldn’t be projected towards Mdeicaid. They would develop programs to aid these folk in coming off the rolls of unemployed and uneducated. This would be the way a “caring” party would go about solving the issues of the poor. Oh I forgot Business 101 in that a certain percentage of a given population has to be available to do menial labor. This is why the Democrats are not the party that cares. Martin knows why as he caters to the wealthy.
Bradley, I agree about Baltimore’s dismal voter turnout. Lots of reasons for it, but none of them are excuses. I don’t need to use facts and figures to rebut your contention that O’Malley will be out in 4 years. It’s just an opinion; mine is that he will be in for another 4. I don’t think BP’s comments were racist the way you meant. He was noting that the counties/city that Republicans refuse to campaign in are generally those that have a high Black or Hispanic population. I think he was saying that racist motives underlie Republicans refusal to compete in these jurisdictions. I think it’s more benign than that. Republicans just assume they’re going to lose there so don’t want to spend the effort. I don’t think Democrats want poor people to stay poor so they can maintain their electoral advantage. This is like saying that Bush wants Al Qaeda to keep fighting so that he can continue to attract anti-terror votes. I think we agree on Medicaid funding. Also, I’d love to see a jobs program to help get people off unemployment/ welfare rolls.
I don’t think your point about a certain percent of the population being needed to do menial labor is from Business 101. Introductory business courses don’t generally cover macroeconomic concepts. Even so, as a population gets educated, there are fewer people to do “menial” jobs; therefore the pay required to attract people to do these jobs goes up (labor supply and demand). This is why there is never a “shortage” of labor. There is only underpaid labor.
Indyprog. Status quo, more money and the backing of the governor gave Dixon the election albeit a small turnout certainly helped. Means that 72% of the voters didn’t care who won - statists could almost prove that by not voting it showed that none of the individuals running should be in office.
The three jurisdictions that represent 30% of the state’s population would almost represent a tyranny of the majority even when that majority is minority. Perhaps the borders of the state should change. Cutting the Eastern Shore and giving it to Delaware, and everything west of Howard County to West Virginia or Virginia would give the state a more streamlined look.
And saying Bush needs Al Qaeda to keep fighting to attract anti-terror votes is kind of off. It is the democrats that need Al Qaeda to keep fighting to motivate the anti-Bush movement. I noticed that the fighting was stepped up last year when the democrats started spouting off anti-Bush statements as a lead up to the elections. Similar to what happened towards the end of the Vietnam War.
I agree, although I think that status quo was the biggest factor. It’s not that people there are content with how things are. It’s just that they don’t see anyone who’s going to make it better. I’ll note that turnout was 50% higher in the 1999 primary when O’Malley first took office. Changing the borders is a pretty funny solution. I’m not sure Eastern Shore people would want to be in Delaware, or Western MD folks in Virgina/WV. At any rate, I’d be sad to see them go, I’m actually proud of the natural and social diversity of our state.
I agree that saying that Bush needs Al Qaeda is off. I don’t believe it, I’m saying that’s the same logic as saying that Dems don’t want to alleviate poverty.
Indyprog wrote:
“Even so, as a population gets educated, there are fewer people to do “menial” jobs; therefore the pay required to attract people to do these jobs goes up (labor supply and demand). This is why there is never a “shortage” of labor. There is only underpaid labor.”
This couldn’t be farther from the truth!
There are new individuals entering the labor pull everyday at the bottom level, they are mostly high school graduates and illegal aliens.
And there are people leaving the labor pool which are at a higher level, so the bottom level fills the voids.
There will be a lot more voids as the baby bombers retire.
The major problem today is this so called higher education, I for one should not have to pay for anyone to attend college and that is exactly what the government is doing with my tax money, NOT EVERYONE IS COLLEGE MATERIAL. That is one major problem today with all the so called college graduates strapped with extremely large loans to pay off, for what? I for one would like to see all monies stopped from going to colleges and let them fend for themselves, that way we would actually see professors teach and their pay level decrease to something of reason. It is ridiculous that we pay the chancellor hundreds of thousands of dollars for what?
Yes, but in order to attract people to fill those positions you need to offer enough money to qualified people to induce them to want to work for you. Because of immigration, we are having no trouble maintaining our population growth rate. As people leave the workforce, there are plenty of people to take their place.
I agree not everyone is college material the way colleges are set up today. But this doesn’t have an impact on my contention that there is no such thing as a labor shortage. The idea of “menial” labor is entirely driven by supply and demand for labor. If there are fewer people to fill menial labor positions, pay in those positions must rise, making them more attractive to people.
Whether colleges should be funded publicly is a different argument. The talented workforce that is a result of Maryland’s spending on higher education is one of the reasons we are attractive to high-paying jobs. You may say it’s ridiculous what we pay a Chancellor, but again, that’s a supply and demand issue. You don’t think the job requirements justify that kind of pay, but if not, someone would do it more cheaply.
Also the pay in jobs that loan-addled graduates are able to get because they have a college degree more than makes up for the added of expense of college loans. Even when you figure in the time spent in college as lost wages, college graduates still come out ahead. In some ways, it’s not even what you learned in college that matters. Employers just want to see that you were smart enough and persistent enough to get a degree.
I have to admit that I don’t entirely disagree with you on reducing funding for education though.
For once we have found some common ground. I would have to say I’m a little skeptical about the supply and demand assertion, the legislators make up the salaries and I think you could find a lot of people willing to fill that position at a lower salary. The argument that we need to pay X amount of dollars to attract MORE qualified people is bogus in my opinion. Take the City States Attorney, P.J., increasing her salary as much as O’Malley did for the same above argument, I don’t think so, you have people knocking down the door for her position.
To my mind, that position may require even higher pay. It needs to be high enough to attract someone who will competently go after criminal behavior in Baltimore. To be honest, I don’t really know who sets the salary of the States Attorneys, are you saying she did this herself?
At any rate, the supply/demand behavior breaks down a bit in the short run on the government level (as it does in the private sector when you have a large bureaucratic company) because the labor supply demand issue ultimately is resolved by the public who elects the managers who pay the workers and you have several layers of management to go through. The public’s control hinges on their feelings about whether they’re getting their tax money’s worth in services.
Maybe a better example you should have given would have been a low-level political appointee (one not affiliated with the unions). I think the Chancellor is a high enough profile position that attracting qualified candidates requires high pay (remember they’re competing for the Chancellor’s services with other colleges who are also willing to pay this much).
Also, this argument is a bit obtuse. I’m generally referring to mass labor jobs where you hear a lot of employers complaining about labor shortages… retail workers, landscaping, and maintenance workers on the low end to nursing, truck drivers, first responders as you climb the skills ladder.
Indyprog I got my information on menial labor from the Business 101 class I took. The state is in a crisis that O’Money doesn’t want anyone to know about. The system is losing many mid and upper level managers. It’s at a rate that they can’t find enough competent replacements. Soon they’ll have to start promoting inexperienced folk who wount know right from a hill of beans. It’s a scarry proposition except you have to delete the Troopers from this mess as they’ve received pay hikes well above other state workers. This is one of the reasons people are fed up and leaving.
The system is too top heavy in executive positions and Martin continues to add to them. Doesn’t he realize that people working their tales off see these unfair practices and begin looking elsewhere. Add to this O’Moneys intention of taking retired workers prescription plans from them then why would lower state personnel want to continue working for somone who shows their lack of caring. Martin doesn’t have the average joes to place in all of these positions that open so government might come to a stand still. All of the programs that you and jusda talk about can’t be accomplished without workers. I know you’ll want them to lower standards so that the disadvantaged can be employed. You get what you pay for and just wait until services slump as there are unqualified folk doing them. Dag I forgot you lowered the standards so they should be competent.
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article OMalleyWatch.com, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
This is the best website in the entire State of Maryland. Hey lets impeach O’Malley if he signs that Tax Hike on everybody in this State and did anybody hear the governor has called for a Special Session on October 29 if this Tax Hike passes then in January the House of Delegates should call for Impeachment procedures based on Section 26 of the Maryland state Constitution where the state senate holds a trial then the sitting elected State Senators vote to impeach by a two-thirds vote of the State Senate.
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