I've got to hand it to Governor O'Malley's and the Maryland Democratic Party's communications teams. They have been more successful promoting their guy than any of the KGB active measures I studied in graduate school. Of course the folks of First Chief Directorate in the Lubyanka did not have benefit of a pliant elite media as Rick Abbruzzese and David Paulson do. To complete my analogy, Paulson is the Sword and Abbruzzese is the Shield.
If you think this analogy is unfair or wrong, then ask the communist intelligence officer who specifically singled out O'Malley's rhetoric as emblematic of the American's left's use of Soviet propaganda playbook.
My Red Maryland colleague and broadcast partner Brian Griffiths already dismantled the Baltimore Sun's predictable flag carrying for its favorite son. However, The Washington Post and C. Fraser Smith were not to be outdone in heaping praise to make benefit for glorious leader.
The Post in asking what is next from O'Malley lauded him for "his sweeping blueprint to rewrite the state's tax code and put Maryland back on the road to fiscal solvency..." and noted his plan, among others, to propose "a fund paid by electric companies to promote clean and efficient power sources. He also is pushing other incentives to wean utilities from pollution-producing technologies... But by laying out an activist, multi-pronged agenda, Mr. O'Malley has shown he is not willing to rest on his deficit-cutting laurels."
C. Fraser Smith's sonnet The Perils of Responsible Governing echoed The Post with similar platitudes. Smith went further saying:
Ahh yes the governor made the unpopular but tough decision to raise taxes to solve a problem left to him by others to get Maryland "moving again." Smith like the Sun and the Post praises O'Malley for his new budget for being fiscally responsible and in O'Mally's words, "one of the clearest reflections of the values we share to build a stronger, healthier Maryland for the next generation, and to make progress on our shared goals."
When you get past the fawning and look into the real numbers and policy ramifications, the brass on O'Malley's "deficit cutting laurels" isn't as burnished as the Post, the Sun, and Smith would have you think.
Only a few short weeks after the ink was dry on O'Malley's signature signing Maryland's historic tax increases into law, Office of Policy Analysis Director Warren Deschenaux warned of a new deficit in 2010, which he estimated to be $237 million, increasing to $263 million in 2011.
The Examiner also noted that O'Malley's "31.5 billion budget is bigger by a little more than the $1.4 billion emergency tax increase. So even if none of those new taxes was passed, the budget would not have been cut. "
Yes, O'Malley made the $550 million in cuts and eliminated the 500 vacant positions. However, the Department of Legislative Services noted that his budget added 898 new jobs to state government.
On spending, the administration is using sleight of hand tricks to hide the actual increases in state spending. The 2009 budget increases spending by 6% not the 4% touted by the administration and their useful idiots. Anyway you slice it state spending increased between $1.7-$1.8 billion.
On the energy issue, the Post editorial writer is either deliberately lying or ignorant. Energy companies will not pay for the fund to promote clean and efficient power, consumers will pay the costs. Even if consumers install energy efficient appliances and practice energy conservation, they will still pay the same rates as if they were not conserving energy. "Weaning" is the Post's euphemism for increasing RPS standards requiring utilities to purchase power from higher cost wind and solar producers. The costs of which are again passed on to consumers.
Brian Griffiths accurately labeled this shell game "O' Malleynomics" Taxing/charging citizens more under the guise of saving them money, in order to spend more of their money.
If the Post, the Sun, and Smith wanted to congratulate governor, instead of beclowning themselves and insulting their readership, they should have just sent him flowers.
If you think this analogy is unfair or wrong, then ask the communist intelligence officer who specifically singled out O'Malley's rhetoric as emblematic of the American's left's use of Soviet propaganda playbook.
My Red Maryland colleague and broadcast partner Brian Griffiths already dismantled the Baltimore Sun's predictable flag carrying for its favorite son. However, The Washington Post and C. Fraser Smith were not to be outdone in heaping praise to make benefit for glorious leader.
The Post in asking what is next from O'Malley lauded him for "his sweeping blueprint to rewrite the state's tax code and put Maryland back on the road to fiscal solvency..." and noted his plan, among others, to propose "a fund paid by electric companies to promote clean and efficient power sources. He also is pushing other incentives to wean utilities from pollution-producing technologies... But by laying out an activist, multi-pronged agenda, Mr. O'Malley has shown he is not willing to rest on his deficit-cutting laurels."
C. Fraser Smith's sonnet The Perils of Responsible Governing echoed The Post with similar platitudes. Smith went further saying:
That decision is likely to be unrivaled as a moment of truth for his young administration. It was not long before he began to pay the price for decisive but inevitably unpopular action. His approval rating, high enough to win the office handily a year earlier, dipped sharply.
It didn't matter that he hadn't created the problem. And since his explanations couldn't be relayed in a sound bite, he had to accept the flak as the price of doing business responsibly.
Ahh yes the governor made the unpopular but tough decision to raise taxes to solve a problem left to him by others to get Maryland "moving again." Smith like the Sun and the Post praises O'Malley for his new budget for being fiscally responsible and in O'Mally's words, "one of the clearest reflections of the values we share to build a stronger, healthier Maryland for the next generation, and to make progress on our shared goals."
When you get past the fawning and look into the real numbers and policy ramifications, the brass on O'Malley's "deficit cutting laurels" isn't as burnished as the Post, the Sun, and Smith would have you think.
Only a few short weeks after the ink was dry on O'Malley's signature signing Maryland's historic tax increases into law, Office of Policy Analysis Director Warren Deschenaux warned of a new deficit in 2010, which he estimated to be $237 million, increasing to $263 million in 2011.
The Examiner also noted that O'Malley's "31.5 billion budget is bigger by a little more than the $1.4 billion emergency tax increase. So even if none of those new taxes was passed, the budget would not have been cut. "
Yes, O'Malley made the $550 million in cuts and eliminated the 500 vacant positions. However, the Department of Legislative Services noted that his budget added 898 new jobs to state government.
On spending, the administration is using sleight of hand tricks to hide the actual increases in state spending. The 2009 budget increases spending by 6% not the 4% touted by the administration and their useful idiots. Anyway you slice it state spending increased between $1.7-$1.8 billion.
On the energy issue, the Post editorial writer is either deliberately lying or ignorant. Energy companies will not pay for the fund to promote clean and efficient power, consumers will pay the costs. Even if consumers install energy efficient appliances and practice energy conservation, they will still pay the same rates as if they were not conserving energy. "Weaning" is the Post's euphemism for increasing RPS standards requiring utilities to purchase power from higher cost wind and solar producers. The costs of which are again passed on to consumers.
Brian Griffiths accurately labeled this shell game "O' Malleynomics" Taxing/charging citizens more under the guise of saving them money, in order to spend more of their money.
If the Post, the Sun, and Smith wanted to congratulate governor, instead of beclowning themselves and insulting their readership, they should have just sent him flowers.
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