The word of the day is "choice."
Gov. Martin O'Malley will give his seventh State of the State speech at noon on Wednesday. The focus of his address will be the choices state government has made during his terms in office, according to portions of the speech released by his office.
"When the national recession hit—wiping out jobs and revenues all across our country—other states tried to cut their way to prosperity. Many found this only made things worse. Laying off police officers, fire fighters and teachers, cutting public education, hiking up college tuition by double digits every single year, continuing down the merry path of cutting taxes for the very wealthy, hoping against cruel experience that somehow it would trickle down to the rest of their citizens."
"But in Maryland, we made better choices," O'Malley is expected to say, according to the prepared text.
The governor will focus on efficiencies in government over the last few years as well as more than $8 billion in reductions to expected spending made since 2007.
"Knowing that we could not cut our way to prosperity, we balanced record budget cuts with modern investments; investments in the very priorities that create jobs and expand opportunity: educating, innovating, and rebuilding for a better economic future," according to O'Malley's prepared text.
"These are the choices which enable us to invest in a stronger and better future: more job creation, more opportunity, and a stronger, growing middle class.
"Better choices. Better results. The proof is in our progress," O'Malley said in his prepared remarks.
That was not my point. You may have another point weighing heavily on your thinking. My point is that we have situation that will cost more tax dollars any way you cut it.
4:10 pm on Wednesday, January 30, 2013 Some rational discussion minus the name calling would be a refreshing change. Anyone want to try it? Cat's away, hunh?
Ain't going to happen. Young v. Hawaii pretty much sealed that fate. "May Issue " is allowable under the Constitution.
Lets not have any name calling... But childish schoolyard taunts are just fine..
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/30/health/mental-illness-guns/index.html?iid=article_sidebar Here is a relavent quote. "The system is only as good as the data. And "the data is the real problem," said Mark Glaze, the director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, an organization whose recent in-depth study found millions of mental health records were missing from the federal background check system." So the existing law are not being used to stop guns from getting into the Hands of the mentally ill, then Democrats stamp their feet and say we have to do more. More hastily prepared and poorly implemented measures will not have any real effect.
You know many people are just tired of every item thats purchased its taxed to the hilt with no end of tax cost in sight. This state is so expsense to live in becuae of the highest tax base, next to NY state in the union. Tell everyone Steve what do you have to show for your hard work, except higher taxes to pay for more welfare and illegal aliens.
Why is this not in this national discussion on gun crime? This shows that the national discussion is not about gun violence as much as it is about infringing more on the rights the government did not give us so they cannot take it away. If they COULD have they would have banned the sale of full auto firearms in 1934, they didn't. They created a licensing scheme so as to not violate the Constitution.
I agree with you. Did you hear some of the speech O'Malley gave recently? He sounds downright creepy.
quick thought on gun control. I listened to some of the discussion before the judiciary committee on Wednesday. The Police chief from Baltimore (not sure if it was city or county) Made the case like many here that bans in DC and Chicago have been ineffective because people just cross the border any buy guns elsewhere. Before some of the recent changes in state drug laws, we had a complete ban on Cocaine, Heroine, Marijuana, etc. How hard is it to find illegal drugs in this country. What makes people think that banning guns, or certain types of guns will be successful?
Guns, hopefully, are not addictive substances with markets that stretch in one form or another into antiquity. If they are--and the post in another forum where some yahoo attests to owning 85 guns indicates that they are for some folks-- we need to start doing some house to house searches. Ummm, I guess that is what the subpoenas were about.
Screw the Constitution! Who needs those protections from the tyrants?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/guns/procon/guns.html "An expert on crime gun patterns, ATF agent Jay Wachtel says that most guns used in crimes are not stolen out of private gun owners' homes and cars. "Stolen guns account for only about 10% to 15% of guns used in crimes," Wachtel said. Because when they want guns they want them immediately the wait is usually too long for a weapon to be stolen and find its way to a criminal." "Wachtel says one of the most common ways criminals get guns is through straw purchase sales. " "The next biggest source of illegal gun transactions where criminals get guns are sales made by legally licensed but corrupt at-home and commercial gun dealers. Several recent reports back up Wachtel's own studies about this, and make the case that illegal activity by those licensed to sell guns, known as Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs), is a huge source of crime guns and greatly surpasses the sale of guns stolen from John Q. Citizen. " Everything the civil rights deniers are attempting have little effect on where the criminal acquires their firearms. The proposed laws only affect the law abiding which is the desired result.
"Among prisoners who carried a firearm during the offense for which they were serving time in 1997, 14% had bought or traded for the gun from a store, pawnshop, flea market, or gun show. The 1997 percentage who had acquired their firearm at a retail outlet represented a significant drop from 21% in 1991. The percentage of inmates receiving their gun from family or friends rose from 34% in 1991 to 40% in 1997." "Less than 2% of inmates reported carrying a fully automatic or military-style semiautomatic firearm. Fewer than 1 in 50 State and Federal inmates used, carried, or possessed a military-style semiautomatic gun or a fully automatic gun during their current offense (table 2). These guns, as used in the questions and definitions for the personal interviews with prison inmates, include the following:" "Of inmates who carried a firearm during their offense, 8 in 10 had a handgun" Going after long guns that look mean and nasty is a waste of resources, time and effort and is only more infringement on our civil rights.
When Criminal Face Armed Resistance From Citizens "The National Survey of Private Ownership of Firearms found approximately 1.5 million defensive gun uses per year ." "Many defensive gun uses never make the news. After all, “Man Scares away Burglar, No Shots Fired” is not particularly newsworthy."
The country is still center to center right.. The issue is that even people slightly right of center recognize crazy when they see it and some of the far right folks are just that, crazy. That combined with a candidate that had the personality of a lemon spelled doom. It's also hard to get support for the 49% of people on the take. Democrats win by bribery, plain and simple. Vote for me and get your free "Obama phone" Republicans are also masters at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Take the Fiscal cliff. There was a deal on the table last summer that would have cut three dollars for every dollar in revenue increased. The far right dug in their heels and said no taxes. The far right was happy with congress, but they sat out the election because they did not trust Romney. Now we will get the taxes but not the cuts. because the momentum shifted. I do get a kick out of your moral outrage over congress and what you see as gerrymandering keeping the house Republican. A bit ironic coming from a liberal in Maryland that has done the exact same thing with great success.
I get a kick out of how worked up you and your pals get over your teabagging politics and your peashooters. Patriot Buck. JoeBlob, B.O., Lorna Doom.