Shall we send the truant officer to investigate?

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So Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and the League of Women Voters co-hosted a forum for the Frederick County Board of Education candidates, and guess who did not show up. Cindy Rose and April Miller.

If you aren’t familiar with LWV, you should be. They are a non-partisan group that focuses on voter education. As you can imagine a nonpartisan group focusing on voter education would be a terrifying thing for anyone to involve themselves with. Especially people who are allegedly interested in education within this community. These are the sights, sounds, and smells of people who know that they have nothing to offer that stands on any merit in the marketplace of ideas, folks.

And we weren’t previously familiar with Delta Sigma Theta, but this sounds like a great organization. College-educated women dedicated to public service with an emphasis on programs that target the African American community. So, double whammy for blowing all of these great ladies off.

More about League of Women Voters: they publish the handy dandy voter guide, and what they do to accomplish that is give a series of questions to candidates and let them respond to those questions in their very own words. Then they publish those words–just what the candidate says about his or her own self–on their website. When you visit the website, it asks for your address, and then you get to choose candidates to compare for races specific to your totally address specific voting conditions. It is super cool. It is extraordinarily helpful for local races that are not covered on CNN’s traveling circus of idiot opinions or Fox News grotesque Trump petting freakshow.

The site is called vote411.org. You should use it, and you should share it with your friends, far and wide. The more people who are informed and vote, the better off and healthier our democracy is. The more people who are informed and vote in our local elections, the better off and healthier our community is. PSA: Do not vote for Cindy Rose. Just don’t do it. We have an extensive body of work detailing this, and we will be happy to refer you there.

And when you get informed about the local community, one thing you definitely should not miss is that the Mayor of Ye Olde Fredericktowne and the City of Frederick have nada nothing nyet nichts to do with funding the local school system, which is called the Frederick COUNTY Public School System for one weird reason. If you plan to vote for Kim Williams, you may wish to consider waiting for the City Board of Ed race. Good luck with that, y’all.

In other local and voting matters, we have not heard about any crazy voter suppression shenanigans around here, but you should know (and again, tell all your friends, wherever they may be) that you can check your voter registration status here. For whatever it is worth, it’s a fair point to say that every vote does matter, and if it didn’t there would not be parts of the country where people are trying to make sure they make it difficult for as many individuals as they can to be heard from at the polls.

And stick with us here for one last thing. This is very important. Know it, share it: if you show up at your polling place and are told that your name is not on the rolls, demand a provisional ballot. Even if you show up at the wrong polling place, casting a provisional ballot with an affidavit is your right.

Will the first meeting of Fall enthrall? Your September 25th drinking game!

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Don’t take it too far peeps!

It’s the first meeting of Fall which means it’s the last season of Shrelauter and Friends! Tony decided not to accept the results of the election and is attempting a write-in campaign in order to ensure the victory of the Democratic candidate! Final days and write-in attempts pretty much ensure that we are in store for some pretty dramatic meetings. Go ahead and grab your agenda, fire up the FCGTV, and remember this is only for fun! Billy isn’t answering any calls from you ingrates!

The clock is a ticking on hearing Billy vote against the agenda, abstain from the budget adjustments, and vote against the minutes!! We can’t imagine any of the future candidates behaving this way. Tis a unique style of legislating! When this farce occurs slam back a thermos of Whiskey Sours.  Because this behavior makes about as much sense as taking a boat out in the Monocacy after a hurricane!

Alderman/Director of Government Affairs, Roger Wilson is in the house to talk about proposed legislative initiatives for the upcoming session in Annapolis! Take a break from your liquor to listen to a smart person talk!

Next up is three separate First Readings on proposed bills having to do with human trafficking. Is it fun to bring up the fact that Billy once said that there are people on both sides of this issue? NO IT IS NOT! Fix yourself a nice tall Thyme Will Tell, because only time will tell if we ever get over that one!

Lots of public hearings including the changes to the school construction fees. We predict this one will garner the most public speakers since overcrowded schools are a HUGE issue in this county. Give your liver a break and rehydrate!

Council member comments have turned into complaining sessions for “some” of our members. Sip on your Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice while attempting to hang on to your sanity.

We’ll let you know how it all turns out!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let’s hear some arguments as to why we shouldn’t fight human trafficking!

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Don’t worry Fluffy, the good voters took care of this in the primary!

It’s really hard to imagine a discussion in which you are going to hear arguments against preventing human trafficking. What kind of person do you have to be to not want to fight this terrible problem? Well, that’s exactly what a couple of county council members did last night.

It’s a short 47 minutes, so if you have the time go ahead and listen for yourself. Jessica used this workshop to discuss some changes to the three bills she introduced in a previous meeting. The first bill further defined what a bodyworks establishment is and defined exactly what sexual activity is considered to be. What does Billy have to say about this? NOTHING GOOD! He wants to know what is going to happen to all those peeps who want to privately have sex in their place of business. Both Jessica and the county lawyer have the extreme displeasure of telling Billy that has nothing to do with what is going on here! We sure hope that isn’t what’s happening down at Winchester Hall, Billy! Do we need Jan to appoint independent counsel to investigate?

The next bill concerns landlords who KNOWINGLY allow human trafficking on their property. Jessica begins the discussion by saying the amended bill further defines KNOWINGLY. Well, for some reason Kirby can’t get that concept down. He wants to know why we are making the landlords criminals when they can’t keep track of what’s going on at their properties. Jessica: KNOWINGLY. Kirby: Well it isn’t the landlord’s business and the police will take care of it. M.C. : KNOWINGLY.  Kirby: You need to have evidence. KNOWINGLY, KNOWINGLY, KNOWINGLY!! Kirby agrees to disagree.

The last bill has to do with training front end hotel employees. Jessica asks a representative from the hotel industry and guess what? Most hotels already require this training!  This bill will NOT require hotels to provide another training, should one already exist! Who’s going to muck this part up? Billy of course. Now he saw the disturbing video/quiz that PG county requires and he wants to see the Marriott one. However, all Billy wants to discuss is COST, COST, COST. The nice representative tells him there is no added cost because this is just a part of training and doing business. Billy says maybe for Marriott, but what about the Clarion Inn? (Wonder why he chose that specific example?) Billy is told that the Clarion has this training as well. Bud interjects to say that if you have this kind of activity going on at your hotel it damages your brand, so why wouldn’t you want to do everything you can to prevent it? Billy: COST! It is astounding to know that Billy is more concerned with the hotel industries bottom line over the safety of those being trafficked. Think of the children Billy!

Three more months folks, three more months.

No more “Happy Endings” for you, sicko! Your September 11th workshop notice!

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And normal! A massage is a massage and that’s it, people!

You may want to keep the youngins out of earshot of today’s workshop, as there is a very sensitive discussion to be had. Just click on over to the proposed bill and pay attention to the last section!  We imagine the debate (remember Billy wants us all to know there are people on both sides of this issue!) could cause some of our more pious council members to get a little squirmy.  We also can’t wait to hear the arguments over how this bill will oppress our local businesses! Wonder if our favorite local “Silver Linings Playbook” star will be at the future public hearing to give his viewpoint! This may be one of the more exciting council meetings we’ve had in awhile!

 

Your sour grapes candidate is here, District 2

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Imagine that you are such a sore loser that you lost in the primary. You look around and see that there are two great candidates in your district: Steve McKay (R) and Lisa Jarosinski (D)–two people who from what we hear on the street have mutual respect for one another. What’s a blowhard loser who loves overdevelopment and hearing himself talk gonna do? (Those who watched last night’s meeting know that’s Tony Chmelik–he said all the angry man words yesterday because he is unlikely to get an extension on his deadline.)

If you said mount a write-in campaign for the Sour Grapes party, step up and claim your prize…

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And what a prize you have won!

Mr. McKay is a conservative, but he seems to be shunned by the local Republican party groundlings, probably because he has integrity and class, and in case you haven’t seen what’s going on over on that side of the aisle here’s a link for you.

Everyone knows third party candidates don’t work out–remember Ross Perot?–and Tony Chmelik damn well knows that. Draw your own conclusions about his motive.

There was an attempt.

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We came into the meeting late, because between us we had to get 8 kids off to and home from school and their activities yesterday. Plus, reading all the excerpts from Bob Woodward’s upcoming book DID NOT help matters!

We entered at the time they were discussing limits to the Military Tax Credit. Jerry and M.C. made a lot of good points about how most retired military will still be able to take advantage of this AND it’s only to stop those who make over $80,000 from getting a credit they don’t need. Despite Billy many times stating we can just pass legislation and fix it later, he wasn’t on board with this. From the FNP article that ran this morning: 

Councilman Billy Shreve (R), who proposed the original bill with no income limits, argued that the council has voted to increase the budget by $80 million over the last four years and is spending “a zillion dollars” to keep seniors in the county, so $600,000 isn’t a lot of money, relatively speaking, and, he said, would help keep seniors in the county.

Scintillating as always. The bill passes.

Bud’s bill concerning the county council controlling their own employees brings forth a lot of discussion. Billy, Tony, and Kirby make arguments in favor of voting for this out of spite. We cannot tell you how glad we are going to be come December when their time is up! However, between now and then it seems their goal is to cause trouble and be as disagreeable as possible. Well, that’s really not that different from the last four years, is it?

Kirby has some axes to grind over how much has been spent on the Middletown Fire Dept. Didn’t he have some disagreement with the City of Middletown this past budget season when he was tinkering with their library funding in his ALT Budget? Hmmm.

One more workshop this month and then we can breathe easy until October. Maybe by then we’ll be able to focus!

When you only see the world in pink and blue!

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It’s the first day of school, and we need to get back to concentrating on this election! Keep your eyes and ears open for forums, debates, newspaper profiles, and other meet and greets so you can get a feel for what each candidate stands for.

Let’s talk a minute about the school board election. The PTA is holding a forum on October 9th, and all but one candidate has sent in their RSVP. Can y’all guess who that may be?

 

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Oh Dear!

We decided to look around the internet and we see that she started yet another Facebook page that has managed to garner 6 whole likes! Is she really even trying? We were comforted to see that she’s sticking to her main talking points when it comes to our transgender kids:

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End of discussion y’all!!!! We love that someone tried to push back, but NO! Cindy only sees the world in blue and pink!

SIDE NOTE: Don’t tell Cindy, but until fairly recently pink was considered to be more a boy color and blue was seen as a girl’s!

Anyhoo, she’s also not happy that Colin Kaepernick is going to be the next spokesperson for Nike. How dare he not be punished for the rest of his natural born life?!

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We will be looking forward to what all of our other school board candidates have to say! Happy First Day of School everyone!!!!

 

Picturegate

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As soon as your Lady Yokels saw this pic, we knew some tomfoolery was afoot:

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Look at Phil Dacey. 

But, without proof we didn’t want to make any accusations. Luckily, the local Republicans are in full cannibal mode and broke the case for us. Behold:

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Oh Good Lord People! Why would you do this? Why?

There must have been at least 100 people at this event, they had to have known that more than one camera would have been clicking away. But according to  Frederick County Council At-Large candidate Danny Farrar, tis no big deal:

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So, because it was so poorly done and obvious and didn’t’ take place in Iraq there is no deceit to be found! And, if everyone was going to know anyway why not put it in the caption that he was unable to attend?!

For anyone who pays attention around these here parts, not showing up is kind of Phil Dacey’s thing. According to The Frederick Extra  during his tenure as a Frederick City Alderman he was absent from 31 workshops and 5 public hearings! He was also late 21 times! How do voters know he’s going to show up for county meetings? After all, past behavior is a great predictor of future behavior. Pretending that someone was at event when he clearly was not, no matter how poorly done, is deceitful. And in Phil Dacey’s case shows a pattern of not showing up for his public duties.

We happen to be of the opinion that it is a big deal to photoshop in a notorious no-show. #notoriousnoshow

Workshop Alert!

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This evening the county will be holding a workshop on the following items:

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That’s some good stuff! Thankfully we don’t really need to draw attention to the fact that Billy said there are people on the other side of the human trafficking debate since he was so humiliatingly trounced in the primary. We’ll hold on to all that good stuff in case he tries to run for anything ever again.

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Never fear Billy! We will be here to remind voters of all you’ve done if you ever try to run for public office again!