Top Stories for Tuesday, Janurary 27 2009

Office of Thrift Supervision to Suburban: Sell or Takeover, Your Choice!

New Laws to be introduced in the Maryland General Assembly 2009.

Two! Yes Two More Prisons Coming To Your Community.

Plus: The Analysis of the Maryland State Budget 2009 (If I have time)

UPDATE: University of Maryland Closed Due to Snow

Well history has repeated itself again. UMD has decided to close for the
remainder of the day at 12:30pm. All afternoon and evening classes has
been canceled. However the basketball game will continue as scheduled.

If you are not a dorm resident in the university I suggest you leave now
and go back home for the rest of the day. You don't want to get frostbit
don't you?

Morning Update

If you are living in the Maryland area you are already aware that the first snowfall of 2009 in our area has arrived. Problem is that unlike most schools in the Maryland area, university's such as the University of Maryland does not easily closedown. So I get the "pleasure" of going to the first week of classes in this weather. The same thing happened in 2007, even though another winter storm successfully closed down the school for two days.

Also in analog deathwatch front, the US Senate has voted to delay the digital changeover to June 12, 2009. The House has to vote for their own bill, and then reconcile it with the Senate. The President Obama has supported a delay in the digital changeover for sometime because the coupon program has ran out of funds. The problem is that the legislation will not actually solve the actual problems. One there are areas where no matter what they do, even if they have to get an outdoor antenna, they can't get any digital reception at all. Forcing them to pay more in monthly fees to satellite and cable television companies. While the FCC advised them licensees that they can install relays to transmit the signal to dark reception spots, they do not have to.

Another big problem with the digital changeover is that it has there is really no actual change in the content. Aside with crappy weather radar, sport archives (NBC's Universal Sport), and bowdlerized movies broadcast in 4x3, they are not really taken advantage of digital television revolution, except for broadcasting High Definition programs. What worse, is that there is no talk of re-regulating the airwaves to ensure that they use the new frequencies for the public interest, becuase they will not. Come on Obama, do I have to demand change in order to see it!?

Although I did see a special on the digital changeover on MPT, and as a concerned citizen I called their toll-free number and asked this question: What if I have a converter box, and I can't get any signal even if I use an outdoor box. Short answer: You should consider subscribing to cable or satellite service. Other questions include that cable companies may not service the area or the satellite may get a clear view of the southern sky. The represenative said that you may petition that cable regulation authority to service the area, and as for satellite, they can hook the dish in such a way so that you can recive satellite serivce. They even say the signal goes through trees.

(If you can prove the last few sentatives wrong, please contact me ASAP.)

Anyway that was your morning update for Tuesday Januray 27, 2007.

News Headline Summary

Here are the top stories for the blog for October 27, 2008.

Slots in Baltimore City?!

Maryland Education Bureaucracy Discovers Long Lost Subject

and...

Maryland Incumbent Serves a Long Political Career.

Your Silence Will Not Protect You.

Remember the Stop Snitching campaign brought to you by Baltimore drug dealers? Yeah these people did not snitched to you,but they eventually don't want to risk them snitching to you. So you get to pay with your lives anyway.

It's truly a sad story, good kids who have a bright future. Yet their silence did not protect them. The code of silence only protects the strong and perpetuates crime. If you see a crime, talk to the police, you can remain completely anonymous, even if you are in a witness protection program.

Great, more budget cuts.

O'Malley (D) predicted an "extraordinarily difficult budget next year" if his administration does not start to pare spending during the current fiscal year. "While these cuts will not be easy, it is clear that the economic crisis our nation is experiencing will have a dramatic impact on next year's budget," he said in a statement.

No comment. Except for one: Tax the corporate pigs more next fiscal year, because I'm getting sick of the word "Budget Cut".

News summary for September 2, 2008.

You pay your sales taxes and property taxes so public schools are supposed to be free. Yet, in the days of perpetually cash-strapped schools, they're charging fees.

I thought all prisons in Maryland I have a protective custody unit, then how come former Howard County teacher Alan Meade Beier was assaulted by five immates inside his cell? Not to mention after he recovered from the hospital, he was in 24 hour segregation.

Did I mention I'm so glad to be back at the University of Maryland, without dealing with economics or math?

OK, Britain is Unfair. Now Tell Me, How You Going To Sort It Out?

Yesterday in the UK, the British Conservative Party has released a report entitled An Unfair Britain: Why Labour Has Failed in Fairness in which one of the main points is that the number of people in “…deep poverty has rising by 900,000 since 1997 and the gap of life expectancy is now the highest since the Victorian age.” That is one of four main facts that are on the first page of the dossier. But if you look closer you’ll realize that the reason why it’s like is not because of Labour’s perceived socialism or its nanny state mentality. Even worse, the Conservative policy website is silent on how to reduce the deep poverty and the gap in life expectancy.

Since 1900 the Labour party was established as a democratic socialist party. It’s manifestos reflected its political orientation, even when Thatcher came to power in 1979. But it all changed in 1997 when Tony Blair came into power under a manifesto that changed Labour into the socialist democratic party into one which supports the "free market" . Since then, they’re more into making deals with business rather than than making deals with the voters. So there is some blame involved with Labor.

But would the Tory’s be any better? I do not think so, because when you actually visit the website, there is no mention on their policy section of their on how to reduce this deep poverty. As for life expectancy, there is a health policy available on their website to read entitled Delivering Some of the Best Health in Europe: Outcomes Not Targets. However it’s more to about focusing on outcomes and phasing out Labour led targets for NHS (National Health Service)

For all it’s worth, I’ll wait for the speech the Tory’s will hold in Parliament today. But by the looks of things, their plans will be no different than Labour’s.

P.S. For your reference to support the second paragraph, see this website of archived UK Labour Party Manifestos dating back to 1900. It's best that you compare the one's dated 1982 and 1987, and the ones dated 1992 and 1997 to understand how Labour changed from the democratic socialist party to one that more caters to the "free market".

The Black Otaku

And now for something different for today, the Cumberland Times-News had featured a story about Otakon 2008 in Baltimore, Maryland. The same convention I had a blast of time enjoying last week.

I also like this short description of the recent anime convention:

Halloween gone mad

An Unfair Britian?

Our top story for today, the British Conservatives published a dossier titled "An Unfair Britain" which explains how the gap between rich and poor has been wider than Victorian times under the New Labor's Gordon Brown. This comes to mind that a poll from the Guardian newspaper and ICM that voters would overwhelmingly prefer David "Hug a Hoodie" Cameron by a 21% margin.

But the main question is will conservative policy sort out the problems caused by Gordon Brown? My guess? I think not.

More to come this afternoon (Morning for those in the US).

Live from the Home of Robin Hood!

It's Ndubuisi Okeh blogging from Nottinghamshire, England, launching the 3rd edition of The Modern Day Prophet. From August 19 to August 27 you’ll hear news stories with commentary from Home of the Commonwealth.

P.S. Please pardon the header, it will be replaced tommorrow EST.

Why I Will Not Be Watching the Chinese Olympics

1. The chinese government has proven by their actions that they had and
will not improve their human rights record since they won the Olympic
Bid.

2. King Dubya went to the opening ceremonies despite the fact that china
will not improve said record.

3. The games have become too commercialized.

More later after the weekend. Don't expect me to watch any of the
olympics. Unless there will be a tienamien square incident.

The Prophet Has Spoken.

P.S. I'll be having too much fun at Otakon 2008 to watch the Beijing
Olympics anyway. Fuck Emperor Hu Jintao and his Chinese "Communist"
Party.

Mayor Sheila Dixon...

If you want to end homelessness in the "Greatest City in America", instead of putting homeless people in shelters, here's a better idea. Take ownership of the thousands of boarded up rowhouses in the city, offer the people a $1 rent and a grant to rehablitate the homes.

There, homelessness solved easy.

Source:Shelter plan upsets neighbors -- baltimoresun.com

Here We Go Again.

Yet again, schools in the Washington DC area are planning to, again, increase class size in the face of a tighter budget. Fairfax County,Virginia is planning to save $11 million. Loudoun County,Virginia is planning to save $7.3 dollars. The Maryland counties of Montgomery and Prince George’s: their planned savings has not been disclosed, are either seeking to combine smaller classes or cut support staff and teaching specialists.

Haven’t I seen this before last year?

Increasing pay for teachers would not solve another problem: purchasing supplies. Even with the cost of living increases they still have to buy school supplies that the school itself is supposed to buy.

As for the middle class families can transfer to a private or parochial schools, what about children of working class families? What about disabled children? What about those who speak English as a second language? If they remove the specialized staff, they will have a difficult time in school.

Again, this is easily solvable. Repeal the property tax. Implement a county income tax. Use general taxation to fund schools.

As for the class sizes: Reduce classes to 15 students, per class. From elementary to high school.

News Source: To Save Money, Some Schools In Region Plan Bigger Classes

Tuition Increase Likely! Maryland Senate Subcommittee Approves Higher Education Cut!

If you are a student of the University of Maryland chances are you may have seen stickers promising that if you vote Democrat they'll freeze tuition. But sadly there's something called the Universal Laws of Politics. The first rule of the universal rules of politics is that most politicians don't keep campaign promises when actually elected. Such is the case if O'Malley approves those cuts.

A state Senate subcommittee Friday approved over $80 million in total cuts from the governor's proposed budget, including $6.8 million in cuts to the University System of Maryland, which includes the state's 13 universities and research institutions.

...

• More than $10.5 million of the system's unrestricted funds will be held until each institution can prove its student enrollment is growing at a healthy rate. Institutions that meet their goals will be given their portion of this money, and those that don't might see some of their money go elsewhere in the system.

• Nearly $6.8 million in unrestricted funds will be cut from the system budget, and the cuts must be distributed fairly among all the system institutions. The system will be required to spend at least 4 percent more on each student than it did last year.

• $15 million will be cut from the system's allotment of general fund money. In its place, the system will be allowed to take $15 million from the Higher Education Investment Fund, created last year to set money aside for higher education and supplement state funding when needed.

However there is hope:

State officials expect that there will be nearly $15.4 million in the HEIF at the end of this fiscal year, so the subcommittee effectively voted to drain the savings account. When Gov. Martin O'Malley released his budget in January, he proposed using HEIF money to freeze tuition next year and possibly the following year, as well. So even if the General Assembly adequately funds the system this year, next year's safety net is gone.

Madaleno said spending the HEIF money now rather than saving it for later makes sense in the long run. He noted the importance of "keeping higher education off the funding roller coaster" it has been on for about a decade. He said if the state moderates spending during good economic times, cuts when money is scarce won't seem so severe.

But if that HEIF spending plan falls by the wayside, and O'Malley approves the cut, it will be proof that the first rule does apply, and that most Democrats are just as conservative as Republicans since the Regan era.

What's truely senseless?! Sending Youths to Adult Prisons!

James Edward "Lil' J" Smoot was 14 years old when his fellow Bloods gang members pressed a loaded 9 mm gun into his hand and directed him to knock on the door of an Essex man who failed to pay a weekly $250 "protection fee" to sell marijuana on the gang's turf.

When the man, Marquel "Marty" Smith, opened his door, Smoot pulled the trigger, shooting the man in the head and chest.

"He killed him because somebody told him to," prosecutor J.R. Francomano told a judge yesterday at the young gunman's sentencing hearing. "This was nothing less than a gang hit."

Saying he was disturbed by gangs' ability to "suck in young men like this" to commit the worst of their crimes, Baltimore County Circuit Judge Timothy J. Martin sentenced Smoot to 20 years in prison.

While the murder was truly senseless, what is really senseless is that Smoot was been convicted as a adult.

Smoot, now 15, pleaded guilty in November to second-degree murder and a handgun charge. He was prosecuted in adult court.

Juvenile courts were established for a reason, to rehabilitate youths and keep them separate from adult prisoners. Due to the "tough on crime" political polices established by the political whores in Annapolis and in Congress more children, as young as 14 are being sent to adult prisons. As I mentioned, prison facilitates are currently run as human warehouses. They do not rehabilitate inmates because the way they are run.

The facts about children in adult jail speak for themselves.

Another Budget Cut?! $300 Million?!

This is proof that no matter who you vote for in the American Idol era, when it comes to bread and butter issues most Republicans and Democrats improve. Especially in the budget cut mania Maryland having for... I don't know, ever?

Lawmakers have been looking for $200 million in cuts in O'Malley's proposed budget to compensate for the flagging economy, but now they are saying that could rise to $300 million or more when updated revenue projections come out next week.

...

Three months ago, O'Malley called the General Assembly into a special session to close the state's structural deficit with $2 billion in tax increases and spending reductions, and a proposal to legalize slot machines that is subject to ratification by voters.

"The likelihood is, given the national economic downturn, that those difficult series of decisions will continue," O'Malley said. "Everybody is looking at the revenue estimates, and if they are coming in lower than projected, there will have to be further cuts."

But I bet there will not be any cuts to corporate welfare and their prison-industrial complex. I can promise you that. But there is one way we can stop this mania: Abolish balanced budgeting.

$2 Million Dollars?! What About Our Profits?!

The O'Malley Government is supporting a bill that would require power plants and other industries that pollute to pay air pollution fees so that the Maryland Department of Environmental Resources to use the money to hire 26 vacant spots for inspectors.

"We need to have adequate enforcement of our air pollution laws, and we don't have that - only 18 inspectors looking after 11,600 sources of air pollution," said Sen. Brian E. Frosh, a Montgomery County Democrat and sponsor of the bill. "That means more air pollution, which causes more health problems for people."

Critics of the legislation say that raising the fees on smokestacks would place an unfair burden on businesses and could lead to higher electric bills for a public already complaining about rate increases.

Here's the difference, the latter were just electric bill increases so that Constellation (who owns BGE) to make more profit. The former is a non issue, because air pollution affects everyone. You want to know a better idea? Outlaw all air pollution except for trace amounts.

Why Reasons Why Maryland Needs Universal Free Higher Education

Fee increases for housing and dining and the University of Maryland-UFHE would fully fund not only tuition, room and board, but also basically necessary infrastructure and needs for universities in the University of Maryland system.

Rising Textbook Costs-A monthly living expenses check of 2,000 per semester (and prorated by month on Summer and Winter semesters) with inflation adjustments would help out a lot with rising textbook costs, so that it will not put students into poverty

Negative Consequences of Using Property Taxes as a Main Source of School Funding

To this day many school districts still use property taxes as a main source of funding for their schools. This is despite two caveats: They highlight inequality between wealthy areas and poor areas in the school system. (That is the first one.) Second, housing market can fluctuate: In this case, we are in a recession and the housing loan crisis this. As property values lower, school districts now suddenly forced to make sacrifices just to keep running. It seems like every year they just keep cutting and cutting budgets . Even worse, there's No (Rich) Child Left Behind they have to deal with.

There are other alternatives to this problem, that is by implementing a county income tax. The income tax would be similar to the federal income tax but smaller. Another idea would to limit property taxes to businesses and people who have more than two homes (so they can only tax the second or subsequent home). I would recommend that both of these ideas be implemented next year, if not this year.