BREAKING: Maryland High Court Leaves Dream Act on November Ballot // Watch the Archived Oral Arguments Online

UPDATE: Read about the potential deportation of an Oxon Hill valedictorian below, and you can watch the Court of Appeals oral arguments online here at Maryland Juice:




The Baltimore Sun reports that Maryland's highest court, the Court of Appeals, is rejecting a challenge to the Dream Act referendum this November. That means voters will indeed be faced with ballot measures on both marriage equality and the Dream Act. The Sun's Yvonne Wenger noted (excerpt below):

BALTIMORE SUN: Maryland's highest court ruled Wednesday to allow voters to have the final say over whether illegal immigrants should get college tuition breaks.

In a two-page order, the Court of Appeals agreed to uphold the decision of the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court to allow the referendum to appear on the November ballots.

OXON HILL VALEDICTORIAN FORCED BACK TO PHILLIPINES: Meanwhile, a high school valedictorian from the Phillipines is being forced back after a glitch in her visa processing leaves her in the U.S. without status. The Oxon Hill 17-year-old will be imminently booted, barring drastic action to assist her visa application. REMINDER: the failure of our immigration rules and deportation systems (which didn't exist when Irish and Italian immigrants were coming to the United States) impact more than just Hispanic families. See the NBC news report below and sign a petition:

View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.

The Maryland Court of Appeals order noted that we should expect to see their full reasoning laid out in a future opinion (see below).

Maryland Court of Appeals Leaves Dream Act on November 2012 Ballot

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....

Sam Arora's Wedding Photographer Complains of Infringement at SamAroraWeddingCard.com // GAY WEDDING PHOTOS

UPDATE: Maryland Juice previously displayed a photo album of parody photos from Sam Arora's wedding. Unfortunately, they've "mysteriously" disappeared from my Picasaweb account. While I am researching what happened, I've replaced the slideshow with a "censored" replica. See below:

Maryland lawmaker Sam Arora's wedding photographer has accused Maryland Juice of copyright infringement for our new website SamAroraWeddingCard.com.  We posted photos from Mr. Arora's wedding with a message asking people to sign a "congratulatory" wedding card for the marriage equality backstabber. The site also included a "gift registry" and other mocking items. But Sam's photographer, Sarah at Ampersand Photography, didn't see the humor in our work and left the following message at the wedding card website:

SAM'S PHOTOGRAPHER: you do not have permission to use these images, and are infringing on copyright agreements by displaying them here.

Maryland Juice disagrees with Sarah, and we think that our use of the doctored photos was in a protected context. Nevertheless, we have decided to remove the photos and assist Sarah by using her work in a much more clear parody. So, we grabbed a few photos from the wedding and re-imagined Sam Arora in a Big Gay Wedding. See our results temporary replacement photo below:

Spoof Source: Sarah @ Ampersand Photography

This is the second time in a month that someone has contacted us to complain of supposed copyright infringement. Last week, AOL-Huffington Post sent big-time hack attorneys from DLA Piper after our blog for supposedly infringing on their "intellectual" property rights. Doh!

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Sen. Ben Cardin Talks Dream Act, Marriage Equality, DOMA & More // PLUS: Netroots Nation Photo Album

Maryland Juice had the opportunity to shadow U.S. Senator Ben Cardin this weekend, as he talked to various groups at the Netroots Nation conference. The annual gathering of progressive, Internet-based organizers brought together a few thousand people to share strategies and talk issues.

Sen. Cardin was there to speak on a panel titled the War on Voting Rights. MarylandReporter today carried coverage of the Senator's talk (excerpt below), which compared the Republican push to scrub voter rolls and make voting more difficult to the Jim Crow laws of the past:

MARYLAND REPORTER: “These laws are the new Jim Crow laws of our times,” said Maryland U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin on a panel about “The War on Voting” at Netroots Nation, a large conference of progressive activists. “This is really an effort to control the outcome of elections” and not protect “the integrity of our electoral system.”

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO & PHOTO COVERAGE: Below see exclusive content from Maryland Juice, including various videos of Sen. Cardin's remarks. We captured video of him talking to LGBT activists, organizers from various communities of color, and more. Senator Cardin gave surprisingly candid remarks about the political and electoral dynamics regarding DOMA, the Dream Act, marriage equality, immigration reform, racial profiling, judicial nominations and much more. See seven videos below.

Within his comments, Sen. Cardin noted that senior members of the Senate were impeding reforms that could help President Obama clear judicial nominees. He also promised to raise the Maryland marriage equality ballot effort at every campaign stop, but also stated that the chances of DOMA repeal this year looked very difficult.

See the videos of Cardin's comments below, along with a photo gallery of Maryland politicos at Netroots Nation. As always, feel free to use any of my content as you see fit, with or without attribution.

NETROOTS NATION 2012 - PHOTOS OF MARYLAND POLITICOS (full album online)

WEDDING PHOTOS: Sam Arora Got Married // Sign a Card for the Marriage Equality Backstabber: SamAroraWeddingCard.Com

Maryland lawmaker Sam Arora got married (to a woman) this weekend. Ironically, the marriage equality backstabber's lavish affair took place during DC's annual Capital Pride Parade. Below, you can see a slideshow of photos from the wedding. His interracial union would've been illegal in 1967 -- fancy that. But he's still okay subjecting other families' marriages to a "popular vote" this November.

"Congratulate" Sam on his recent wedding. 

Sign a wedding card at: www.SamAroraWeddingCard.com
(We'll deliver the card to him with the list of signers)

VIDEO: Maryland Juice Asks Huffington Post to Apologize for Hypocritical Legal Threats // PLUS: Read The Gazette's Take

Maryland Juice spent the last few days at the annual Netroots Nation conference. The gathering of progressive organizers, Netizens, and politicos drew a surprising number of Marylanders. But not surprisingly, in attendance were a number of staff and writers for Arianna Huffington's blogging platform, The Huffington Post.

I used the opportunity to find a Huffington Post writer and see if I could extract an apology on behalf of Arianna Huffington. After all, her company (AOL-Huffington Post) recently unleashed corporate attorneys from mega-law firm DLA Piper to threaten legal action against Maryland Juice. They claimed I was infringing on their "intellectual" property rights by excerpting an article and photo from Patch.com. The national blogs TechDirt and Above the Law cried foul, noting that The Huffington Post itself engaged in exactly the same type of blogging that they were complaining about.

The Gazette's Daniel Leaderman recently picked up on the controversy and noted (excerpt below):

GAZETTE: State politics blog Maryland Juice (marylandjuice.com) found itself under legal attack last week from no less of a media giant than AOL, owner of both Patch.com and the Huffington Post....

....blogger David Moon posted a rebuttal explaining that not only did AOL rely on free writing from bloggers, but his actions were well within the scope of fair use provisions in U.S. copyright law....

Your move, AOL.

Maryland Juice is still awaiting that apology from Arianna Huffington....

JuiceBlender: Maryland Voter Roll Purge, Rep. Andy Harris Staff Raises, MoCo Accessory Apartments, Maryland Netroots & More

Here's a random blend of political tidbits from recent news, starting with a quick hello from the Netroots Nation conference in Providence, Rhode Island:

JUICE #1: MD POLITICOS AT NETROOTS NATION // SEN. CARDIN HIGHLIGHTS GOP WAR ON VOTING RIGHTS - This week, Maryland Juice is attending the annual Netroots Nation conference for work, but I've taken a few moments to try and gather some juice while I'm here. Though I was invited to speak on a panel about lessons for online organizers (watch video),  I've bumped into a surprising number of Maryland politicos. Indeed, from State Senator Jamie Raskin and MoCo Young Dems President Dave Kunes to a former aide to Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, the Free State is decently represented at this progressive gathering (see a couple photos below).

State Sen. Jamie Raskin (center) & Vermont Progressive Party legislator Chris Pearson (right)