Tuesday, June 12, 2012

JuiceBlender: Tiffany Alston Found Guilty, Karl Rove Compares O'Malley to Dean, Canadians on Rollin Stanley, MD Drone Crash

Here's a random blend of political tidbits from recent news, starting with disturbing news that an unmanned predator drone has crashed on Maryland's Eastern shore:

JUICE #1: UNMANNED PREDATOR DRONE CRASHES ON MARYLAND'S EASTERN SHORE - Earlier this month, Maryland Juice reported on disturbing news that local governments and even college police forces were beginning to apply for permission to fly unmanned "predator drones" in U.S. airspace. Queen Anne's County, Maryland is one of the jurisdictions that had received authorization to fly drones. As we've seen through our (questionable) use of drones in other nations, they can be dangerous. Indeed, yesterday a $176 million "predator drone" crashed on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The Associated Press carried video footage of the flaming wreckage in Maryland:




REP. DUTCH RUPPERSBERGER & VA GOV. BOB MCDONNELL SEEK EXPANDED DRONE USE: Notably, Maryland Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger wants to see more drones flying around and takes thousands of dollars ($190,000) from drone manufacturers. As a result of this mission creep, privacy advocates in the U.S. have become increasingly alarmed about the prospect of spy drones and now hummingbird-sized flying spy cameras being cleared for use by local law enforcement. The Examiner's Gene Healy recently raised red flags about drones invading Americans' reasonable expectations of  privacy (see excerpt below):
EXAMINER: Last week, in its report on the 2013 Defense Authorization bill, the Senate Armed Services Committee called for allowing drones to operate "freely and routinely" in U.S. airspace....

...they're increasingly "contributing to missions of agencies and departments within the United States. ... The pace of development must be accelerated," the report concluded.....

"It's great!" Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell said on WTOP's "Ask the Governor" program last month....
Drone technology dramatically enhances the government's ability to monitor citizens in public places and on their own property -- and privacy law hasn't kept pace with technological change.

Law enforcement agencies already have access to some 146 commercial drones -- and that may be just the beginning as drones get smaller and more capable.

Defense contractor AeroVironment is perfecting the "Nano Hummingbird," a drone that weighs less than an AA battery and is capable of alighting on a window ledge to record video....

WILL MARYLAND SENATORS STOP UNWARRANTED DOMESTIC DRONE SPYING? - Today, U.S. Senator Rand Paul introduced a bill to prohibit unwarranted use of surveillance drones in the U.S. But Maryland Juice hopes that Senators Ben Cardin & Barbara Mikulski will support efforts to curtail domestic drone use. After all, it is becoming frustrating that in the post-Russ Feingold era, many Democrats seem to have ceded civil liberties and privacy issues to the GOP.


JUICE #2: JURY FINDS DEL. TIFFANY ALSTON GUILTY IN TRIAL 1 OF 2 // APPEAL PENDING - The Associated Press reports that a jury has found Maryland lawmaker Tiffany Alston (Democrat, Prince George's County) guilty of misdemeanor theft (excerpt below):
AP: A jury found Maryland Delegate Tiffany Alston guilty on Tuesday of misdemeanor theft and misconduct in office for using state money to pay an employee in her law firm by representing the worker as a legislative employee.

The jury in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court reached its verdict in less than an hour after gathering for the second day of deliberations.

The convictions mean Alston, D-Prince George’s, could eventually be forced from office. However, her attorney, Raouf Abdullah, said the freshman delegate has no plans to step down. He said he plans to request that Anne Arundel Circuit Court Judge Paul Harris, Jr., overturn the convictions for lack of evidence.....

Alston also is accused in a separate case of using campaign funds to pay for wedding-related expenses. The judge declined to set a sentencing date, noting that the pending case was scheduled for October....

JUICE #3: CANADA WELCOMES BACK MOCO PLANNING CHIEF ROLLING STANLEY - Maryland Juice previously reported that the city of Calgary in Alberta, Canada had poached Montgomery County's outspoken planning director Rollin Stanley. This week, The Calgary Herald prepared for Mr. Stanley's arrival by printing a profile of his smart growth vision. Their write-up includes a review of many of his battles in MoCo. Though I find that the article focuses a bit too much on personality over substance, it is still an interesting read (excerpt below):
CALGARY HERALD: When you find a planning bureaucrat extolling the virtues of parking shortages, normally it's in an unguarded remark after the third pint with peers, or perhaps an off-script moment in a conference speech.

Not when it's Rollin Stanley. That utterance is on his official government blog. Actually, it's the motto:

"No place is worth visiting that doesn't have a parking problem."

Stanley, a man with an equally vocal disdain for one-way streets, drive-thrus and strip malls - and, to some extent, suburbs and opponents - starts today as Calgary's top planning official.

He's been recruited from the Washington, D.C., area to do here what he did there with brashness, flair and the occasional kilt at dressy functions: invigorate a rather slow and cautious planning system, and do so to assertively add density and urban liveliness wherever the strategy fits.

Stanley is coming from somewhere that, like Calgary, has roughly one million people, and is dominated with suburban neighbourhoods linked by roomy roadways and commuter rail lines. Al-though he had thorny relations with community activists, Montgomery County, Md., suited his style: one that had stopped expanding outward, and grew predominantly with infill redevelopments like White Flint, a conversion of a massive swath of strip malls into a pedestrian-and transitfocused array of condo and office buildings including what's now the county's tallest tower....
The full article includes a number of humorous/poignant quotes from MoCo's former planning director (scroll to bottom of article). Travel well!


JUICE #4: KARL ROVE GIVES ADVICE TO MD GOP, FORGETS TO REMIND THEM ABOUT HIS IMMIGRATION STANCE - With much fanfare, George W. Bush's strategist Karl Rove recently gave an address to Maryland Republicans. Hassan Giordano at The Baltimore Examiner covered the event (excerpt below):
BALTIMORE EXAMINER: ...while the Texas reformer spoke, Maryland candidates diligently wrote down the notes needed in order to enact real reform in one of America’s bluest states....

“We would be blessed as a Party and a nation if O’Malley ran for President, for he would be the Howard Dean of 2016,” said Rove. “Even in the Democratic Primary they’re not that dumb.”
But while the annual dinner was packed with state party leaders and congressional candidates running for office in this year’s Presidential Elections, some took notice as to the problems that still seem to exist within the party.

“Until the party actually takes Karl’s advice and begins to micro-target precincts in democratic strongholds like Prince George’s County and Baltimore City, they’ll continue preaching to the choir without any real results,” says Independent political analyst Shaun Louis....

MARYLAND GOP DESTINED TO KEEP FAILING: Maryland Juice is extremely amused by the thought of Republicans taking notes on how Karl Rove operates and concluding that the reason they lose elections is their lack of micro-targeting. REALLY? Wow, good luck with that. For that to be true, there would have to be a sufficient number of voters for the GOP to activate in Maryland. Unfortunately, they are in reality facing: 1) a near 2 to 1 registration advantage from Democrats, 2) a majority-minority state, and 3) perhaps the nation's most liberal electorate. Seriously. I'll write about that one day soon....

Meanwhile, Maryland GOP Chair Alex Mooney (and the Maryland House & Senate Delegation) continue to think that finding hateful wedge issues will be their way to success at the ballot. But again, the numbers just aren't there for a strategy like that. Instead, it is polarizing the electorate in a way that will make the Maryland GOP a perpetual regional party. Their only elected officials will be fringe candidates from the furthest parts of Western and Eastern Maryland, where few voters live. Like I said. Good luck with that!


P.S. MARYLAND GOP IGNORING KARL ROVE'S ADVICE ON IMMIGRATION & HATE - If the Maryland GOP is so enamored with Karl Rove's brain, they may want to listen to his advice on immigration reform. After all, Rove was the one pushing W. Bush to try and build a strategy for capturing a share of the Hispanic vote. He saw the future destruction of the GOP if they continued to demonize Latinos. The Hill's Niall Stanage reported last October (excerpt below):
THE HILL: Republican activists could be pushing their eventual presidential candidate off a cliff over illegal immigration....

In the view of Rove, and others, many Hispanic Americans could be weaned away from their traditional support for Democrats by appealing to their socially conservative values and entrepreneurial spirit.

But such an effort would founder if the party were to be seen as gratuitously severe on immigration. And notably, Bush’s support for a 2005 immigration reform bill sponsored by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) could not save it from failure in a GOP-dominated Congress....

Such efforts moved conservative activist Grover Norquist to warn the party: “We can’t afford to do to Hispanics what we did to the Roman Catholics in the 19th Century: tell them we don’t like them and lose their vote for a hundred years.”

The problem, for Republicans, may be that many of its grassroots supporters just don’t see things that way....

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