What the 99% Are Complaining About...

...when focused upon "Income" alone...but when focused upon the 1%'s total share of wealth...
The smarter you are, the greater your chance of being in the 1%. Should it surprise anyone that the smarter and more capable 1% are earning an ever increasing share of US Income in the "Information Age"?

That college students should be protesting their own economic "advantage" is ironic, to say the least. Perhaps they should decline their next student loan and seek employment in the field of "manual labour" taking lower paying and intellectually deadening jobs that only illegal immigrants seem willing to do. The so-called "meritocracy" that once was the hallmark of America obviously requires a little more government intervention and artificial "leveling". NOT!

Harford County Still Not Buying Romney

from the Baltimore Sun

(Dec. 20) GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney released 37 new Maryland endorsements on Tuesday, including Anne Arundel County state Sen. Bryan W. Simonaire and Baltimore County Del. William J. Frank.

Recent polls show Romney running even or slightly behind former House Speaker Newt Gingrich among likely Republican voters nationally. But in terms of organization and endorsements, Romney appears to be leading in traditionally blue Maryland. Romney unveiled his first round of endorsements in the state in September.

Whether the state’s April 3 primary will matter for helping to choose the party’s nominee remains to be seen. The Iowa caucus is set for Jan. 3 and the New Hampshire primary will take place Jan. 10. Super Tuesday, in which 10 states will hold their primaries, falls on March 6.

Here’s is the list of Romney’s latest endorsements.

State Senator Bryan Simonaire
Former Senate Minority Leader Marty Madden
Former State Senator and Montgomery County Councilman Howard Denis
Delegate William Frank
Delegate Susan Krebs
Former House Minority Leader and former Maryland Insurance Commissioner Al Redmer
Former Delegate Doug Riley
Anne Arundel County Clerk of the Court Bob Duckworth
Former Judge of the Orphans’ Court Joyce Pope
Howard County School Board Member Brian Meshkin
Maryland Republican Party Third Vice Chairman Eric Grannon
Maryland Republican Party Secretary John Wafer
Charles County Republican Chairman Kirk Bowie
Baltimore County Republican Chairman Steve Kolbe
Frederick County Republican Chairman Mary Rolle
Calvert County Republican Women Leaders President Catherine Grasso
Baltimore City Republican Chairman Duane Shelton
State Central Committee Member – Baltimore County Michael Collins
State Central Committee Member – Baltimore County Steve Dishon
State Central Committee Member – Queen Anne County Lindsay Dodd
State Central Committee Member – Prince Georges County Jo Ann Fisher
State Central Committee Member – Anne Arundel County Eric Flamino
State Central Committee Member – Prince Georges County Vernon R. Hayes
State Central Committee Member – Baltimore County Betsy Merena
State Central Committee Member – Queen Anne County John Morony
State Central Committee Member – Howard County David Myers
State Central Committee Member – Baltimore County Mike Pappas
State Central Committee Member – Baltimore County Hillary Pennington
State Central Committee Member – Montgomery County Martha Schaerr
State Central Committee Member – Anne Arundel County Nathan Volke
State Central Committee Member – Montgomery County Josephine Wang
State Central Committee Member – Howard County Dave Wissing
Former State Central Committee Member – Baltimore County Ann Miller
Former Republican candidate for U.S. House of Representatives Charles Lollar
Former Republican candidate for Maryland Comptroller Bill Campbell
Former RNC Deputy Chief of Staff Kevin Igoe
Former College Republicans Executive Vice Chairman Emily Tocknell

Redistricting Public Hearings this Thursday, 22 December

Proposed Plan - State of Maryland Current Harford County Voting Districts Proposed New Harford County Voting District Changes
from the Harford County Dagger

Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Committee Recommends Maryland Legislative Redistricting Plan

Public Hearing to be Held on December 22nd at 10:00 a.m.

The Governor’s Redistricting Advisory Committee (GRAC) released today its unanimous recommendations for Maryland’s state legislative district boundary lines. The Governor and the Committee invite the public to comment on the recommendations during a public hearing scheduled for Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. in the Joint Hearing Room, Legislative Services Building, in Annapolis, Maryland.

Casa de MD Concedes Petition Signatures

from the Baltimore Sun

Attorneys backed by CASA de Maryland who are trying to block a 2012 referendum on the Maryland Dream Act have modified their lawsuit against the state, and now concede that opponents of the controversial law did gather enough valid signatures.

The CASA attorneys still contend that the referendum should not go forward because they say the law, which grants in-state tuition to illegal immigrants, is technically an appropriations measure and therefore not allowed to be petitioned. Oral arguments in the case are set for late January.

"We feel very strongly ... that this is the kind of law that the the Maryland Constitution prevents from going to referendum," said Joseph Sandler, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs.

The development means that a Maryland court will not have a chance to rule on a new internet tool that was used this year to gather signatures for the repeal effort. Maryland Republicans hope to use the tool more frequently, and have toyed with employing it to protest Gov. Martin O'Malley's congressional redistricting map.

The initial lawsuit had claimed that the signatures generated from online petitions did not pass legal muster.

Is the Party Nearly Over?

from The Tennessean

If history tells us anything, the rise of sometime-historian Newt Gingrich to Republican presidential front-runner is a sign that the tea party movement is destroying itself.

After all, the former House speaker has surged to the top of Republican presidential polls on the shoulders of tea party supporters, a movement that ironically came together to topple “Washington insiders” — like Newt Gingrich.

The tea party movement rose up angrily in early 2009 to expose and clean out what its members saw as the greedy Washington fat cats and wheeler-dealers who line their pockets while raising taxes, expanding government and spending taxpayers’ money.

Now, the movement has become a faction of the party whose front-runners are Mitt Romney, who the right largely rejects as too moderate, and Gingrich, the quintessential Washington insider.

After all, this is a man who has earned millions by doing precisely what the tea party rages against: advising, promoting and lobbying for big corporate and public-policy interests.

That includes at least $1.6 million he was paid by Freddie Mac, a government-sponsored enterprise that many conservatives scapegoat for the financial crisis, to help its efforts to block new congressional regulations it didn’t want.

Yet, fiscal conservatives appear to be putting all that aside in the way many social conservatives are looking past his two divorces or his ethical challenges, including his status as the only House speaker to be penalized $300,000 for ethics violations.

No, what’s left of the tea party insurgency appears to be willing to look past Gingrich’s shortcomings in pursuit of a bigger prize, the defeat of President Obama.

One reason for Gingrich’s rise: The tea party and the Grand Old Party have been looking for strong, sure-footed leadership, and no one’s feet are more sure than Newt’s. Gingrich provides leadership the tea party appears to need: someone who can tell a movement what they are for when they only know what they are against.

In a spectacle about as deliberative as American Idol auditions, GOP voters flirted with Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Rick Perry and Herman Cain — before coming back around to Gingrich. Of course, he could be toppled as the latest GOP flavor of the month, but this close to the Iowa caucuses, the timing of his return from the political grave could hardly be more fortunate.

But what does Gingrich’s rise say about the tea party movement? Are they selling out or buying in? Probably some of both. In that way, they’re beginning to look a lot like other conservative Republicans. In other words, business as usual.

So long, tea party. The name remains, but the spirit is fading.