Friday, August 3, 2012
As you may have already heard, Senator Harry Reid told the Huffington Post the other day that an unnamed Bain Capital investor told him that Mitt Romney has not paid taxes for 10 years. That, according to Senator Reid, is why Mr. Romney doesn’t want to release his tax returns prior to 2010. Mr. Romney has vehemently denied the story and has challenged Senator Reid today, in no uncertain terms, to “put up,” the name of the informant, “or shut up.”
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
In three months, we Maryland voters have the option of re-electing or replacing all 8 of our Representatives and one of our Senators. Elections being a really big deal, I thought it appropriate to ask myself, “To what extent is it necessary for someone to be representative of the people who elected him or her in order to represent them?”
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Candidates for Congress and the Presidency, both incumbents and challengers, tend to talk in generalities. “We need more jobs!!” Really? “If only we could ask the rich to pay a little more,” or from the other side of the aisle, “A recession is no time to increase anyone’s taxes!” Unbelievable, isn’t it. Even when they elaborate in their position statements, the points they make are more likely to be superficial than identify the specific economic tools they recommend and explain precisely how those tools should be applied.
And so the headline from Reuters read.
It may not have made as much news, what with the Olympics starting up, and the media making way to much of Mitt Romney’s technical, honest answer to a question about those games, but it is big news, as important, maybe more so, than jobs and unemployment data.
Friday, July 26, 2012
I’m a registered Independent, an equal opportunity critic of both parties. When I was growing up, I was taught that the distinction between Republicans and Democrats was that the Republicans were pro-business, while the Democrats were pro-labor.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
The table on the left appeared in Monday’s Washington Times.
As my title indicates, it is a dubious distinction, to say the least, that Maryland, a relatively small, generally successful state, would have lost any jobs at all during the first 6 months of this year, let alone lead the nation in that negative statistic.
In fact, as the table indicates, only 12 states of the 50 have net job losses over the first half of this year.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
The following table is too large to insert into this article without the type being too small to read easily. Instead of making you squint to see the numbers, just click on the link below to see – and print, if you like – the PDF version of the table.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Today’s story in The Baltimore Sun wasn’t good news. Take a look at the screenshot of the article’s headline and first few sentences.
Friday, July 20, 2012
This post updates an earlier article that showed the dramatic differences between what incumbents versus their challengers are able to raise to finance their respective campaigns. The previous article’s data were as of March 31, 2012. Reporting to the Federal Election Commission is quarterly. These data, in the table below, are as of June 30, 2012.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
It’s a reasonable question that deserves a serious answer. There are four reasons, any one of which is sufficient basis not to vote for him. Here they are.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Put another way, who exactly is Dutch Ruppersberger representing for the $174,000 per year, plus benefits, that we’re paying him? We know who he works for, who pays his salary, but who does he really represent?
Monday, July 9, 2012
In recent weeks I’ve written about the appropriateness, about the essential nature of negative advertising.* The simple reality is that incumbents aren’t going to tell you why they don’t deserve to be re-elected. Unfortunately, the media in our day and age is more likely to react to what candidates say than to take a pro-active, watchdog roll to educate the voting public.