Cross Posted on Maryland Politics
The Mahamu Kanneh child rape case just keeps evolving into the most glaring example of how Maryland's justice system favors criminals over victims.
Anyone watching Maryland crime news is familiar with the Mahamu Kanneh case. Fox News has by far the most in-depth coverage.
Last month Montgomery County judge Katherine Savage dismissed child rape charges against Mahamu Kanneh, a legal immigrant from Liberia. Kanneh completed high school and attended community college here in Maryland. Savage granted a defense motion to dismiss based on the argument that Kanneh's right to a speedy trial had been denied because of a three year delay by the court in finding a qualified interpreter, who speaks Kanneh's obscure West African dialect of Vai. Savage dismissed the case despite the fact that four different interpreters were found, and one had agreed to participate in the trial. An interpreter was even sworn in the day the case was dismissed. Montgomery County court clerk Loretta Knight claimed she was unable to find an interpreter after an exhaustive 47 state search and requests to the Liberian embassy. The Washington Post found three local interpreters who could speak Vai, one conveniently located in Gaithersburg. Why a person who is proficient enough in English to complete high school and take community college courses, needs an interpreter is a bit unbelievable. According to a Kanneh's neighbor on a scale of one to ten of English proficiency he was, "maybe a seven or eight."
The Montgomery County States Attorney appealed Savage's ruling and asked for the same restrictions to be placed on Kanneh i.e. no contact with children, surrender his passport wear a GPS ankle bracelet, and barred from leaving the state without permission from the county's pretrial supervision agency. Kanneh did not attend the hearing where prosecutors sought to impose these restrictions while the appeal is under consideration.
Kanneh was located in Philadelphia and tried to escape Philadelphia police as they attempted to apprehend him. Montgomery County Sheriff's Deputy Darren Popkin noted that Kanneh appeared to have moved to Philadelphia saying "He had packed up his belongings." This is telling because Kanneh's defense attorney, Theresa Chernosky wrote in a court filing that "Mr. Kanneh has never been accused of trying to leave the area or trying to run away from this charge." It must have been a shock for Chernosky at the hearing, when Kanneh failed to appear because he had packed up and moved to Philly. I can only imagine the hearing judge reading Chernosky's words and then looking around the court room for Kanneh.
We can only hope that Kanneh did not molest any other children during his flight to Philadelphia.
We will continue to see more cases like Kanneh until judges start getting tough with criminals.
A case in point are the reprehensible actions of Judge Joseph P. Manck who terminated the parole (Manck originally suspend all but 18 months of a four year sentence) of a man convicted of first degree assault and let him move to Florida, where he is charged with murdering his ex girlfriend. Another of example of Manck's brilliant jurisprudence is when he sentenced a man, to four months jail time and house arrest, who admitted to molesting his seven year old daughter and two friends. Let's see here, sentence a man who molested his daughter to house arrest in the same house his daughter lives in!
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Progressive is the New Center
Martin O'Malley along with Harold Ford Jr. authored an op/ed piece in today's Washington Post titled "Our Chance to Capture the Center." On its face this seems a reasonable endeavor. Centrist voters are the swing demographic in electoral politics, especially the coveted soccer moms. Cast your party and candidates as the moderate alternative to your hyper ideological opponents and then offer sensible policy proposals.
However, that is not what this op/ed does. It is merely progressive wish projection. O'Malley and Ford do not offer themselves or their party as sensible moderates so much as they try to redefine the center toward the left. That is, they project their ideology and policy preferences onto "the center." Politically, it is a savvy move designed to shore up netroots support for Hillary Clinton. The tactic works like this. Define the progressive left and centrists as one and the same, then call it the “center”. This has the effect of calming the netroots and deceiving actual centrist voters. However, this is patently untrue. O’Malley and Clinton are progressives, not centrists. They are tying to have it both ways by deceiving centrist voters.
O’Malley and Ford state, "With an ambitious common-sense agenda, the progressive center" can win the White House and create a governing majority like FDR. Firs this statement is classic Martin O'Malley. It talks big, but does not really say much, and is partly self-contradicting. O'Malley is surely, if anything at all, ambitious, but he lacks any common sense. Exhibit A: O’Malley’s campaign pledge to stop the BGE rate hike, and change the universal economic laws of supply and demand. Only O’Malley’s political ambition could override the common sense that should have told him there was no way to stop a legal rate hike. The “progressive center” is an oxymoron. By definition progressive cannot mean the center because progressives are constantly moving away from the center on their road to Utopia. Centrists do not like it when political parties move too far in one direction. Furthermore, FDR built a lasting majority not by appealing to centrists, but through creating permanent interest groups and doling out federal dollar to those groups, ensuring an ever-expanding federal government.
What are O’Malley and Ford’s practical centrist plans, to help Americans uninterested in partisan politics solve their problems? Cap and trade schemes for carbon emissions, universal healthcare, rebuilding an “embattled” military, and assistance to the working poor (higher taxes).
How many centrists believe that catastrophic manmade global warming is a real threat and not a backdoor to socialism and rent seeking by unscrupulous corporations?
How many centrists want socialized medicine? How many want to pay for it?
How many centrists want higher taxes? In O’Malley speak they taxes are called “investments.”
How many centrists believe that progressives actually care about the military? You would not think that progressives cared about the military from what took place when a soldier showed up to debate the paragons of progressivism at the Yearly Kos.
Interestingly enough chief Kossack himself Markos Moulitsos declared, “We are the center.” This highlights the dilemma of Democratic politicians stuck between appealing to the swing votes in the center and the progressive netroots on the far left. O’Malley’s political patron, Hillary Clinton is squarely in this pickle, she is no stranger to biting criticism from Kos and the progressive netroots. It is no coincidence that O’Malley’s op/ed piece appeared only days after Hillary attended the Yearly Kos to shore up support from the netroots, who once scolded her. Why try to appease the netroots when all you have to do is pull an Orwellian switch and fool centrist swing voters into thinking that netroots policy preferences are in line with what they believe.
O’Malley and Ford claim “proof of the pudding is in the eating.” Marylanders can tell you just how sour O’Malley’s policies taste.
Politicians like O’Malley (I cannot speak to Harold Ford) do not care about centrists. Oh sure he will appeal to them in campaigns, like he did in 2006, but once he wins, centrists and their non progressive concerns are jettisoned for progressive policies like higher taxes and expanding government.
To the centrists out there don’t be fooled.
However, that is not what this op/ed does. It is merely progressive wish projection. O'Malley and Ford do not offer themselves or their party as sensible moderates so much as they try to redefine the center toward the left. That is, they project their ideology and policy preferences onto "the center." Politically, it is a savvy move designed to shore up netroots support for Hillary Clinton. The tactic works like this. Define the progressive left and centrists as one and the same, then call it the “center”. This has the effect of calming the netroots and deceiving actual centrist voters. However, this is patently untrue. O’Malley and Clinton are progressives, not centrists. They are tying to have it both ways by deceiving centrist voters.
O’Malley and Ford state, "With an ambitious common-sense agenda, the progressive center" can win the White House and create a governing majority like FDR. Firs this statement is classic Martin O'Malley. It talks big, but does not really say much, and is partly self-contradicting. O'Malley is surely, if anything at all, ambitious, but he lacks any common sense. Exhibit A: O’Malley’s campaign pledge to stop the BGE rate hike, and change the universal economic laws of supply and demand. Only O’Malley’s political ambition could override the common sense that should have told him there was no way to stop a legal rate hike. The “progressive center” is an oxymoron. By definition progressive cannot mean the center because progressives are constantly moving away from the center on their road to Utopia. Centrists do not like it when political parties move too far in one direction. Furthermore, FDR built a lasting majority not by appealing to centrists, but through creating permanent interest groups and doling out federal dollar to those groups, ensuring an ever-expanding federal government.
What are O’Malley and Ford’s practical centrist plans, to help Americans uninterested in partisan politics solve their problems? Cap and trade schemes for carbon emissions, universal healthcare, rebuilding an “embattled” military, and assistance to the working poor (higher taxes).
How many centrists believe that catastrophic manmade global warming is a real threat and not a backdoor to socialism and rent seeking by unscrupulous corporations?
How many centrists want socialized medicine? How many want to pay for it?
How many centrists want higher taxes? In O’Malley speak they taxes are called “investments.”
How many centrists believe that progressives actually care about the military? You would not think that progressives cared about the military from what took place when a soldier showed up to debate the paragons of progressivism at the Yearly Kos.
Interestingly enough chief Kossack himself Markos Moulitsos declared, “We are the center.” This highlights the dilemma of Democratic politicians stuck between appealing to the swing votes in the center and the progressive netroots on the far left. O’Malley’s political patron, Hillary Clinton is squarely in this pickle, she is no stranger to biting criticism from Kos and the progressive netroots. It is no coincidence that O’Malley’s op/ed piece appeared only days after Hillary attended the Yearly Kos to shore up support from the netroots, who once scolded her. Why try to appease the netroots when all you have to do is pull an Orwellian switch and fool centrist swing voters into thinking that netroots policy preferences are in line with what they believe.
O’Malley and Ford claim “proof of the pudding is in the eating.” Marylanders can tell you just how sour O’Malley’s policies taste.
Politicians like O’Malley (I cannot speak to Harold Ford) do not care about centrists. Oh sure he will appeal to them in campaigns, like he did in 2006, but once he wins, centrists and their non progressive concerns are jettisoned for progressive policies like higher taxes and expanding government.
To the centrists out there don’t be fooled.
Democracy or Dictatorship Update: Steny Hoyer "We Control NOT Parliamentarians"
Friday I posted about House Democrats stealing a 215-213 procedural vote, they lost on motion to recommit an agricultural bill that would have provided tax-payer benefits to illegal aliens. Democrats tried to essentially re-vote on the motion, but Republicans stormed out. Records of the vote have disappeared from the House voting system and the House clerk's website.
Democrat Majority leader,Maryland's own Steny Hoyer tried to strong arm the House parliamentarian saying, “We control this … not the parliamentarian.” The video is telling. Breitbart has a lengthier video here. Sometimes C-SPAN can be enjoyable to watch!
The Washington Post reported that a Hoyer accepted GOP calls for an a select committee to investigate the matter. An interim report is due on Sept. 30 and the full report next year.
This presents a bit of a problem for Hoyer, who the Washington Post quotes as saying "I do not believe there was any wrongdoing by any member of the House. I do believe a mistake was made... and I regret it."
How will Hoyer square his strong arming of the parliamentarian on the procedural matter with his regret that this was all just a harmless mistake?
See Minority Leader John Boehner's take on all this here.
In an interesting side note, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi brushed aside Hoyer's regret and citing Republican sour grapes saying, "they've just been deluged by the success of the Democrats on behalf of the American people." Riiiight Nance, a 26% approval rating is a "deluge." From that statement alone you can tell she grew up in a Baltimore Democratic political machine.
Democrat Majority leader,Maryland's own Steny Hoyer tried to strong arm the House parliamentarian saying, “We control this … not the parliamentarian.” The video is telling. Breitbart has a lengthier video here. Sometimes C-SPAN can be enjoyable to watch!
The Washington Post reported that a Hoyer accepted GOP calls for an a select committee to investigate the matter. An interim report is due on Sept. 30 and the full report next year.
This presents a bit of a problem for Hoyer, who the Washington Post quotes as saying "I do not believe there was any wrongdoing by any member of the House. I do believe a mistake was made... and I regret it."
How will Hoyer square his strong arming of the parliamentarian on the procedural matter with his regret that this was all just a harmless mistake?
See Minority Leader John Boehner's take on all this here.
In an interesting side note, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi brushed aside Hoyer's regret and citing Republican sour grapes saying, "they've just been deluged by the success of the Democrats on behalf of the American people." Riiiight Nance, a 26% approval rating is a "deluge." From that statement alone you can tell she grew up in a Baltimore Democratic political machine.
Monday, August 6, 2007
Maryland Political Blogs
Be sure to check out these three excellent blogs Maryland Politics, Annapolis Politics, and Chet Dembeck's The Last Reporter.
Brian Gill runs Annapolis Reporter, which is a great local blog for Annapolis. Brian is a fellow fraternity brother from Maryland. Brian is also owner and operator of Gill Grilling. Gill Grilling is the long established preference for Fraternity and Sorority meal service at the University of Maryland. Brian represents the entrepreneurial spirit of small business owners that helps drive our economy. See his excellent exposé of the Main Street Maryland program as another deceptive tax grab by state and local government.
Chet Dembeck is the Last Reporter and has produced some of the latest scoops on O'Malley's tax hikes and Baltimore politics. See his take down of O'Malley's push for socialized medicine in Maryland.
Maryland Politics has some of the best conservative political thought and commentary on Maryland politics especially the "twittery" of Maryland progressives.
Brian Gill runs Annapolis Reporter, which is a great local blog for Annapolis. Brian is a fellow fraternity brother from Maryland. Brian is also owner and operator of Gill Grilling. Gill Grilling is the long established preference for Fraternity and Sorority meal service at the University of Maryland. Brian represents the entrepreneurial spirit of small business owners that helps drive our economy. See his excellent exposé of the Main Street Maryland program as another deceptive tax grab by state and local government.
Chet Dembeck is the Last Reporter and has produced some of the latest scoops on O'Malley's tax hikes and Baltimore politics. See his take down of O'Malley's push for socialized medicine in Maryland.
Maryland Politics has some of the best conservative political thought and commentary on Maryland politics especially the "twittery" of Maryland progressives.
RINO Alert
RINO Alert
As a candidate for city council, I routinely get email blasts from other campaigns. I assume their staffs plucked my name and email from the list of declared candidates from the state board of elections.
One of the routine email blasts I get is from A. Robert Kaufmann a socialist candidate for mayor running for the Democratic nomination. Kaufmann, teaches a Johns Hopkins/Baltimore Free University course The Class Struggle and the Road to Socialism, where he "teaches" that "socialism is the only answer to the myriad of crises wrought by capitalism in its imperialist stage."
At Kaufmann's campaign site , which is a myspace site, he has a Brian Davis for Baltimore City Council listed as one of his friends. Naturally curious about the other candidates in the race I checked out Brian Davis' site. Turns out Davis is a fellow Republican, or so I thought. Davis is a Republican in Name Only or RINO. Apparently Davis is running as a Republican to avoid a Democratic primary fight. Davis says:
As a candidate for city council, I routinely get email blasts from other campaigns. I assume their staffs plucked my name and email from the list of declared candidates from the state board of elections.
One of the routine email blasts I get is from A. Robert Kaufmann a socialist candidate for mayor running for the Democratic nomination. Kaufmann, teaches a Johns Hopkins/Baltimore Free University course The Class Struggle and the Road to Socialism, where he "teaches" that "socialism is the only answer to the myriad of crises wrought by capitalism in its imperialist stage."
At Kaufmann's campaign site , which is a myspace site, he has a Brian Davis for Baltimore City Council listed as one of his friends. Naturally curious about the other candidates in the race I checked out Brian Davis' site. Turns out Davis is a fellow Republican, or so I thought. Davis is a Republican in Name Only or RINO. Apparently Davis is running as a Republican to avoid a Democratic primary fight. Davis says:
"I'm the Republican candidate for Baltimore City Council representing the second district. I'm running as a Republican only because it's the best way to get to the general election in November... not because of any particular partisan feelings."
Davis lists Dwight Eisenhower as "the last great Republican politician I can think of," and links to and Oliver Stone type Youtube video of Ike's famous farewell address. Very similar to the opening sequence of Stone's fantasy film JFK.
Davis lists Fahrenheit 9/11 and WalMart: The High Cost of Low Prices as his favorite movies.
His heroes: John F. Kennedy, John Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Michael Moore and Keith Olbermann.
His favorite books: Our Endangered Values by Jimmy Carter and John Dean's Conservatives without Conscience.
Where to begin.
Let's start with the oxymoron that Davis is a declared candidate with no partisan feelings. The very act of running for office is partisan and it is quite clear where Davis' partisan leanings lie. No man who counts Michael Moore and Keith Olbermann as his heroes is non-partisan. Those two are poster boys for left-wing Democratic partisanship.
Ike is the last great Republican president he can think of? Davis must have forgotten about Ronald Reagan, even liberal historians have begrudgingly ranked Reagan in the top tier of presidents.Brian Davis is not a conservative, he is not a Republican. If he wants to make it to the general election fine, but he should not run as a Republican because his politics clearly reside on the left. He should at least show the courage of his convictions to run as either a Democrat, a Green or an independent.
Wyman Park: The land of NIMBY
My Baltimore neighborhood of Wyman Park pitched a collective fit about a planned "dusk-to-dawn" John Waters film festival in the neighborhood park. A community member who had a hand in planning the event sent an email to the Wyman Park listserve to give the event some publicity.
A vocal group of neighbors bombarded the listserve with albeit vaild complaints about the all night festival. They don't want the all night noise, trash, dog poop, litter etc...
One or two folks voiced their support for the festival based on the notion that it would be a good cultural event for Wyman Park to host. This sparked some healthy and clarifying debate on the listserve, if for a time before the moderator shut down the thread. Apparently some of the open-minded progressives that dominate the neighborhood cannot tolerate free exchange of ideas.
The Wyman Park Community Association (WPCA) officers notified the city and our councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke (full disclosure I am running against her in the November election). The city notified us that the festival planners did not have a permit and eventually moved the event to Middle Branch Park.
The general mindset in Wyman Park is NIMBY or Not In My Backyard. Which is a delicious irony given that many folks in the neighborhood consider themselves open minded progressives. Typical of this mindset, many of the listserve commenters wanted the event shut down. No counter proposal to limit the time frame, or requesting the city to provide portajohns and trash pick up. Nope, just shut it down, we don't want it.
Say what you will about John Waters and his movies, I like some, don't like others, he makes a good flick. Obviously, some of his movies like Pink Flamingos, may not be appropriate to show on a big screen in the open, but there are plenty of others like Hairspray, Serial Mom, and Pecker that are suitable for a public event. As a conservative I don't much identify with Waters, but if I selected all my entertainment based on the politics of its creators, I wouldn't have much to do. One of my neighbors wittily noted that if Divine showed up for the festival there would be no need to worry about cleaning up dog poop. Watch Pink Flamingos if you don't get that joke.
Anyway, the point is that there was some room for compromise. However, the NIMBY mindset asserted itself and Wyman Park lost out on a chance to host a cultural event. I didn't like the idea of an dusk til dawn event. However, an early evening to late night event The movies could have been screened in the dog park, which sits in well below Tudor Arms St. and provides some natural sound barrier. Furthermore, Johns Hopkins uses the dog park as intramural fields and they could have been brought in as a co-sponsor and assisted with the clean-up.
This isn't the first time the neighborhood nixed a good opportunity to showcase itself. The WPCA fought the LAB School, a private special education school from locating in the old Northern District police station. The building is still vacant.
A vocal group of neighbors bombarded the listserve with albeit vaild complaints about the all night festival. They don't want the all night noise, trash, dog poop, litter etc...
One or two folks voiced their support for the festival based on the notion that it would be a good cultural event for Wyman Park to host. This sparked some healthy and clarifying debate on the listserve, if for a time before the moderator shut down the thread. Apparently some of the open-minded progressives that dominate the neighborhood cannot tolerate free exchange of ideas.
The Wyman Park Community Association (WPCA) officers notified the city and our councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke (full disclosure I am running against her in the November election). The city notified us that the festival planners did not have a permit and eventually moved the event to Middle Branch Park.
The general mindset in Wyman Park is NIMBY or Not In My Backyard. Which is a delicious irony given that many folks in the neighborhood consider themselves open minded progressives. Typical of this mindset, many of the listserve commenters wanted the event shut down. No counter proposal to limit the time frame, or requesting the city to provide portajohns and trash pick up. Nope, just shut it down, we don't want it.
Say what you will about John Waters and his movies, I like some, don't like others, he makes a good flick. Obviously, some of his movies like Pink Flamingos, may not be appropriate to show on a big screen in the open, but there are plenty of others like Hairspray, Serial Mom, and Pecker that are suitable for a public event. As a conservative I don't much identify with Waters, but if I selected all my entertainment based on the politics of its creators, I wouldn't have much to do. One of my neighbors wittily noted that if Divine showed up for the festival there would be no need to worry about cleaning up dog poop. Watch Pink Flamingos if you don't get that joke.
Anyway, the point is that there was some room for compromise. However, the NIMBY mindset asserted itself and Wyman Park lost out on a chance to host a cultural event. I didn't like the idea of an dusk til dawn event. However, an early evening to late night event The movies could have been screened in the dog park, which sits in well below Tudor Arms St. and provides some natural sound barrier. Furthermore, Johns Hopkins uses the dog park as intramural fields and they could have been brought in as a co-sponsor and assisted with the clean-up.
This isn't the first time the neighborhood nixed a good opportunity to showcase itself. The WPCA fought the LAB School, a private special education school from locating in the old Northern District police station. The building is still vacant.
Friday, August 3, 2007
Democracy or Dictatorship
More from the most "ethical Congress in history."
Powerline has a developing story about Democrats continuing to vote on an agricultre bill AFTER the gavel.
Powerline has a developing story about Democrats continuing to vote on an agricultre bill AFTER the gavel.
Rep Eric Cantor has more here and Politico hereWhile voting on a motion to recommit for the agricultural appropriations legislation, the presiding chair (who is a Democrat member) gaveled the vote closed. The tally was clear and the
vote was over. The Republicans had won. Then, realizing what had happened - the
Dems allowed just their people to keep voting to change the result. Let's be
clear, this wasn't holding the vote open - they changed the results of a vote
that was legally declared over.
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