Hey, folks. Two stories popped up on the news junkie radar yesterday, and got us thinking about Sheriff Jenkins “expertise” in a couple of key areas. When Jessica Fitzwater promoted the Human Trafficking Task Force, and the Frederick City Police Department took an active and engaged interest, but the Sheriff’s Department found it unnecessary (and Billy Shreve #neverforgetsaid that some people are in favor of human trafficking) we developed a new awareness of this horrifying issue that our Fredneck Trump Train Faction seems so untroubled by. Oh, and Cindy Rose had some thoughtsabout that too, now that we recall. It was allegedly some sort of scam for teachers to get more training or something that makes covfefe amount of sense. How could you possibly look more foolish than dismissing the efforts to keep kids from being sex trafficked as an evil liberal teacher plot? But, you do you, crazies. Please proceed.
Well, yesterday The Washington Posthad a story about a training program the Texas Department of Public Safety has launched to help officers recognize when they find a child who is being trafficked and what they can do to help. The officers down there have found it to be so helpful, they want to see it go nationwide! This is a fantastic story about good policing–please do follow the link. Isn’t it a wacky coincidence that this type of training was the exact reason cited for forming a task force locally? Is there some reason we wouldn’t be promoting good policing?
It’s incredibly disheartening to review the local discussions surrounding this issue. The more we learn about it, the more monstrous the ambivalence toward–or, more accurately, the hostility toward–acting to stop this seems.
Every damn day these people make us ask…
But there’s more Texsplaining to do because another thing that we read yesterday in The Houston Chronicle deals with immigrants and crime. We’ve bristled before at our local “expert”on the border and what exactly would qualify someone on the Mason-Dixon border to act as a special adviser on these matters. Well, it seems that the quite well-known and esteemed conservative think tank, The Cato Institute, has research indicating that undocumented immigrants in Texas are less likely to commit crimes than native born Texans are. In the immortal words of Rick Perry, “Ewps.”
“Using data from the Texas Department of Public Safety, researchers from the conservative think tank Cato Institute found the arrest rate for undocumented immigrants was 40 percent below that of native-born Texans.” — Fernando Ramirez, The Houston Chronicle, March 6, 2018
Law enforcement officers in real border states uphold sanctuary policies as a tool to help them to solve crimes because it increases the reporting of those crimes and the cooperation of witnesses. It seems like The Cato Institute’s research suggests something in support of that thinking. Maybe we could learn a thing or two from people who have first-hand experience and research in support of their positions? Just a thought.
The first half of the meeting ran a mere 45 minutes. Since it was so short, you may be led to believe that things must have gone pretty well.
Because they certainly did not!!
Billy votes against the agenda. One of our readers contacted Billy about this bad habit and received this reply that was then shared with us:
Uh, public comment has been restored to the beginning of the meeting for quite some time now. And, the county has a whole budget department, but waah! Billy doesn’t want to talk to them because they report to the County Executive. This is not a good explanation Billy!
Lori Depies is before the council to ask the council to renew the contract for the external auditor. All vote yes.
One County Executive appointment. Ray Barnes has been chosen to be the Chief Administrative Officer (yah!)! Well, well, well, Tony has words to say about all this! He was going to withhold his precious vote, but he didn’t want to set a bad precedent for future County Executives when it comes to them being able to chose their CAOs (what?), so instead he will pontificate. He sincerely hopes that Mr. Barnes can find it in his heart to work with this council in a non-adversarial way. Not sure what he is talking about since we have seen Mr. Barnes be nothing but respectful. Probably has something to do with a difference of opinion. Any hoo, he is confirmed with only Billy saying a very loud and annoying no.
Billy wants a workshop on council staffing and the budget. (See above I guess.)
Three First Readings:
-Tony’s OTB bill
–Veteran’s Advisory Council
-Interagency Internal Audit Authority
Public hearings coming soon.
Then we are off to the drama of the evening. Bill 17-21- Permitted Uses in MXD.
Tony has an amendment that strikes out an earlier amendment. Jerry suggests that they table the bill and have another workshop. You know since it’s kind of crazy that amendments are being put forth that get rid of previous amendments. Kirby agrees! But then starts rambling on about the 3rd Floor and how this is an easy fix.
There’s many references to the 3rd Floor this evening! I guess they can’t even manage to say Jan’s name anymore. So, she will hereby be known as the 3rd Floor!
M.C. and Jessica also agree. The process is bad if amendments are made to correct earlier amendments. Well, now hold on there ladies, but this is all anti-job talk! Billy explains to us all that we aren’t talking about developers we are talking about 2,700 jobs (a number that most members of the council have never even heard before this evening) and we should just pass the bill and fix it later because 2,700 jobs! Tony doesn’t want the past brought up anymore. No more negative talk about the Young BOCC, because apparently it is irrelevant. Tony wants assurances that if he tables this bill, the scary “3rd Floor” will work with Jefferson Technology Park. “Stop the Bleeding,” he says! Billy then jumps in and says, “What’s really interesting is there is someone with 2,700 jobs.” Now wait a minute, weren’t we told there would be thousands of jobs with the original Jefferson Technology Park? WHOOPSIE! There we go bringing up the past again!
Kirby kinda agrees, but there’s other developers out there who are upset over all this and guess what? They want amendments too! Jessica points out that his conversation just proves that they need another workshop. Bud chimes in that the developer contacted him because he felt he wasn’t being heard. Bud also wishes everyone would stop living in the past. He also hopes that the “3rd Floor” will work together to find a solution. Bud advises everyone to vote for it, let the developers hash it out amongst themselves, and then we’ll fix it all nice and pretty.
M.C. DISAGREES. She begins by saying she hasn’t been a part of all of these behind the scenes talks. Billy then rudely interjects: “You are Mrs. Behind the Scenes, you are the least transparent person up here!”
She also points out that these “projected” 2700 jobs are not a reason to pass a bill that nobody understands. Billy then says that is isn’t about developers, it’s about jobs. He then uses a Trumpism: “Frederick County First.” Seriously, folks we can’t take much more of this guy. He tells M.C. that she can’t pander to developers. (!) To which she replies that this is all this bill does! Jerry wants to hear more from the biggest stakeholders-the people that actually live in Jefferson Technology Park. Billy tries to argue that this isn’t really important because the developer representative to the HOA already spoke to the council, as though that’s an accurate view!
Tony won’t pull his amendment, but he hopes this whole discussion has woken up the “3rd Floor”! Tony then decides to bash his primary opponent, Steve McKay, by dissing his comment on the bill, it was rambling or something. Keep it classy Tony! Amendment passes 4-3, but not the way you think. Jerry, M.C., and Kirby voted against it. Jessica has a question about the bill. A representative from the administration is there to answer, but she wants it in writing since they are not talking about the bill anymore this evening. Jerry says, “See how nice the administration is.” Billy replies, “Depends who is asking the questions.” Jerry retorts, “Be Nice!” We love you, Mr. Donald! But, Billy is the direct opposite of nice.
Bunch of public hearings on at 7:00. We’ll let you know what happens when we can get to it!
This clip of an interview by WMAL with Frederick’s own High Sheriff Chuck Jenkins is something else. The first thing that jumps out is that WMAL can’t spell Frederick County. It’s not Fredrick. Once we recovered from seeing this error, and managed to listen we were excited concerned to hear his thoughts on school security in the wake of Parkland.
He made it clear that he feels the buck stops with him for any actions/inactions done by deputies whom he had trained and that work for him. Our first thought in hearing this was remembering the death of Ethan Saylor. The sheriff may have publicly commented on his feelings about that, but all we could find was that he said they need to revise the way deputies were trained.
Check out this part from the link we posted:
As the interview continued, Sheriff Jenkins addressed Sheriff Israel’s actions of politicizing the incident:
O’Connor: I think many people are sort of scrutinizing Sheriff Israel right now because it appears as though he knew about those breakdowns last week, but he still did that nationally televised political event where he was basically blaming the NRA, blaming politicians, he was kind of partisan. Do you think that was appropriate for him?
Sheriff Jenkins: No, I don’t. Again, I think we all have our political beliefs and ideologies but you keep them separate from the actual events that you’re addressing. And some of the statements he said, he made, I don’t think were really appropriate. Again, I wasn’t there. I’m not in his shoes. But I can tell you, you don’t turn a situation like that into politics and you don’t blame the NRA because it’s not a gun control issue. The very basic issues are these:
How do you limit access of firearms to individuals that shouldn’t have them in their hands?
How do we harden the security at our schools to eliminate the threats to our students and staff?
There are a number of ways to do it, but again I don’t think you make it political.
How are guns not a political issue? The sheriff is making it political himself when he mentions limiting access. You can’t limit access without changing laws. Of course this is a political issue.
The sheriff announced plans to bring a proposal to the Board of Education to put an armed and trained security force of 5 or 6 into each and every school. This is how he thinks he will keep our kids safe. We reached out to Karl Bickel, democratic candidate for Frederick County Sheriff to see what he thinks of this idea. Karl didn’t want to give a final opinion on it since it is just a thought at the moment, but he did say it felt like a knee-jerk reaction. “It sounds like an ill-conceived idea that is fraught with problems that would put students, staff and any officers (deputies) in even greater danger.” We tend to agree. We’ll stand by to see what the sheriff presents to the board.
This may or may not be an actual representation of your Yokels.
Y’all. We are a bit overwhelmed with the number of meetings and the OMGeeee number of candidates in this 2018 local election, so things are going to get quick and dirty here. We will do our best to keep on top of as much as humanly possible while still attending to our regular responsibilities such as work and parenting and whatnot. We do step out of our basements into the Vitamin D and seasonal allergens from time to time, actually. If you’re in need of a refresher on the tradition of anonymous writing in America, we have a whole think piece on that. It seems like some BOE candidates aren’t any better versed in history than they are in language arts…isn’t everyone shocked?
The agenda for Tuesday’s County Council meeting is here, and Billy Shreve may even attend, so just grab whatever you have handy and have at it. That said, guard you precious liver, because there is also a joint meeting of the Council and the Board of Education on Wednesday. Same “rules” apply. What have we done to deserve this?
There was an amusing discussion on our Facebook page yesterday regarding Billy’s bad habit of voting against the agenda. During our meeting coverages we have suggested if Billy insists on voting against the items on the agenda, he shouldn’t be allowed to vote on anything! Perhaps we should gather the necessary signatures so we can change the charter come next election! At this point, we don’t even believe that Billy knows why he votes against it anymore!
In this morning’s Political Notes, we are treated to some drama between Billy and the Frederick County Republican Central Committee (FCRCC). As we all know, Billy is running for Maryland State Senate. He’s also running for a seat on the FCRCC, which according to the by-laws in a no-no:
“Any FCRCC member who intends to run against another Republican (other than for Central Committee) should, upon filing, resign from his or her position on the FCRCC since such a candidacy creates a conflict of interest between the member’s personal interests and the interests of the FCRCC and/or Party.”
Billy, in a telephone interview with the FNP, stated the by-laws do not REQUIRE him to resign. You know because of the word “should”. And, we all know that Billy doesn’t do what he SHOULD! Well, Lois Gibson, who happens to be the treasurer of Greater Frederick Republican Women, thinks Billy behavior is unethical and was quoted as saying:
“If he has integrity he should, in fact, resign,” she said.
Your Lady Yokels will be chuckling about this all day!
Please, Ms. Gibson, read through our blog to learn all there is to know about Billy’s governing style. Integrity is not in his playbook!
You may have already seen this, but if not, we are very sorry, both for having to share this announcement with you, and for letting you know we did not come up with the Hate Slate moniker. But the moniker is so accurate. Let’s breakdown their announcement.
Anyone think the announcement looks like it is crying at the bottom?
Our first thoughts are, if you are running for the Board of Education, you should have someone proof read your announcement. We made a few comments and then had a teacher do it for them.
Just a few thoughts. And giggles.This is a revised version. They should have made more revisions before republishing. Our teacher said if this work was turned in by an 11th grade honors student it would get a D. We’ll assume the original would have received an F.
Next, let’s read between the lines. What is the unwritten message in each section?
So is Seth Eisenberg Frederick’s very own Paul Blart, Mall Cop? Retail security officers don’t usually carry firearms do they? Ok. So let’s assume his role is as security expert on the slate. Keeping students safe at school is very important. I’m sure his experience in detering shoplifters will be relevant. Edison’s role will be student expert since he has not yet graduated. We will have to see if his speech is more eloquent than his written words. Since Chaz is a Linganore graduate we are going to make a leap and assume the first amendment rights he is so concerned about involve a headdress. Anyone care to define alma matter for us?
Next section:
The Board of Education isn’t taking responsibility? This is Cindy’s jab at Teresa Alban whom she has shown to have a personal vendetta against. I’m not sure who the politicos and bureaucrats are supposed are supposed to be. The current board is comprised of parents and former teachers. They want to rid education of “politicos?” With highly politicized statements, highlighting they are conservatives? While name calling folks “liberal” like that’s a bad thing. And for ending the “press release” with a Trump-ism?
Who says other expenses = waste? Other Charges is one of six MSDE categories that the state mandates the BOE group expenses into so that when the state receives the budgets for all 24 school districts they can more easily compare and evaluate them. Of course our Board knows what is in these charges because they do not deliberate over our expenses and revenues using these 6 broad MSDE categories. They use an enormous book of hundreds of pages with line items by department. Broadly, that Other Charges include appx. $121 million of fixed charges (most of FCPS employee benefits such as tuition reimbursement, employer FICA taxes and employer premiums for health and dental), $14 million in utilities, $9.3 in non-public placements. And they want a scientically proven reading program? Since when is Cindy interested in science?
We are also unsure why they are saying that 47% of students failed English PARCC. It isn’t a pass/fail test. There are levels of scores for PARCC – 1-5. 4-5 are “meets and exceeds expectations.” 1-2 are “did not meet” and “partially met.” A level three is defined as “approached expectations.” For each assessment there are components/skills that are measured, 4 or 5 for each assessment and students receive scores that indicate where they are on each component. FCPS PARCC assessments have increased in levels 3-5 over the last three administrations. She is correct that the 2017 results reflect that 53% of students overall received a 4 or 5. However, if you include students receiving a “3”, that number is 77.5%. We wouldn’t label students in that range failing. We would also remind folks that the equated levels for proficient and above in our past MSAs and HSAs would have likely equated to 2 and 3 on these current PARCC assessments as the rigor has been ratcheted up.
Last section:
Restorative justice does not restrict allowed discipline. In fact it has no bearing on what discipline may or may not be used. It is a method of creating a school community that seeks to have students and teachers better understand each other and how their individual actions affect themselves and others. It puts the ownership and responsibility of conduct on both the individual and on the community (so that everyone is helping everyone else be there best selves). That notion they are peddling is a scare tactic. There is indeed a school to prison pipeline. Just look at the disproportionate suspension and jail time students of color receive for the same offenses as their white peers. There is no arguing the numbers. It’s not about excusing behavior. It’s about seeing students for who they are, why they are behaving and providing them with tools to control their behavior and stay in school. We forget that the role of schools, in relation to discipline, is to teach appropriate behavior and self-control. It’s not just meant to punish.
This press release reveals an obviously shallow understanding of complex and nuanced issues. Did they make the decision to run based on their misunderstanding of the issues? Do we want our school system run by folks who make judgments on bullets, a sentence or two and a fraction of the information?
No Billy…again! Probably not the greatest idea for him to start skipping out on meetings when he’s trying to convince us all that he deserves higher office. But hey, who are we to complain about not having to put up with him?!
The only public commenter is Melanie Cox, speaking on behalf of the League of Women Voters. She’s here to promote the suffragist march that is happening this weekend. Bud remarks that he cannot imagine women not having the right to vote, and we cannot believe it took as long as it did! Just a short 100 years ago postcards such like this were still making the rounds:
How tragic that a father actually has to help out with the care of HIS very own child!
Since Billy is gone the agenda and minutes get passed with NO PROBLEMO!
Next is a vote on the compromised Forest Resource Ordinance bill. Jessica speaks to the beauty of compromise and then M.C. commends both Jessica and Tony for working together, even though she would have liked to see the one to one tree replacement. But, hey that’s what compromise is, not everyone gets what they want all the time. Kirby then chimes in that he has a different take. He starts talking about DRRAs and everyone is all WTH is going on here!? M.C. reminds him that we are talking about the Forest Ordinance bill and he quickly responds with a:
Pay attention Mr. Wannabe County Executive!
Bud then pulls the bill on the DRRAs because of the concerns that the county attorney brought up last night! So, that different take from Kirby will have to wait! At 7:00 everyone returns for the Land Grab Monocacy River Board hearing. We’ll let you know how that all plays out!
Your Yokel Ladies have been in and out of this meeting for the past couple of days. It’s a lot to contend with, so we are chunking it up and throwing it down, bit by bit.
No Shreve, what a relief! Meetings are always nicer without him!
Steve Horn and friend are in the house to present the Livable Frederick plan. You can go to this website to see all the details, plus the entire plan as it stands today. We say today, because there are still chances for change. If you read our drinking game, you saw that Kirby called this plan a POS. He doesn’t use exactly those words, but he does have things to say. For example, he wants Steve Horn and Co. to explain why the modeling software they use isn’t some kind of soothsayer. It is explained, ever so gently, that all modeling is, by definition, a guess. However, Mr. Horn also points out that the accuracy really isn’t the point here. The point is to see what different paths the county can take based on the possible outcomes that may occur. It’s called PLANNING. Well, Kirby isn’t done. He tells us that the market should decide where people live because the market is NEVER wrong. That’s right people: NEVER. Well, he is also very gently told why that isn’t true. Jerry clears up the erroneous notion going around that this plan is going to downzone properties. It is not. Tony complains some, but it’s pretty much nonsense. After an hour this discussion wraps up.
Unsurprisingly to anyone who pays attention around here, Tony was the council member contacted to introduce legislation having to do with Off Track Betting (OTB). He brings in four representatives, including local lawyer Rand Weinberg, to discuss this pending legislation. Essentially, they want to identify a local restaurant to set up OTB, kinda like Cracked Claw before it closed down. First reading of this bill will be soon.
The Veterans Affairs Council had a lovely professional presentation that introduced the panel of distinguished advocates. Please keep doing what you do. We are relieved to see this move forward. There isn’t a lot of new information to report. Well, other than that a miracle of trans-partisanship that occurred when Bud Otis (unaffiliated), M.C. Keegan-Ayer (D), and Tony Chmelik (R) pared down the originally proposed bill, which had “timed out,” and according to the knowledgeable panel this bill is a reasonable step forward in accomplishing the goal of having a “one stop shop” for veterans to get assistance in accessing the services that are available to them. We know this is a huge problem, and the point that it is unreasonable to expect a veteran with PTSD to sit on the phone through a menu of options for 13 minutes is absolutely true. There were other ghastly anecdotes, so please know that we thank you all for working on this, and we apologize that we aren’t giving this the focus that it is due. There is just so much to say about so much today (and another meeting tonight, people!).
There was the Interagency Internal Audit Authority thing: a panel of accountants working on a bill to codify the existence, charges, and governance of their authority (the interagency aspect is the county, FCPS, and FCC). Work on this bill began in 2014 with the transition to charter government, and they are doing the formal work to ensure that the appointments to the body will not be under the control of those being audited. In other words, a county executive should never be making those appointments, nor should FCPS or FCC be sending their people to do the work. They propose that the current members will nominate future members. Sounds good.
Then we reach the issue of the proposed pipeline under the Potomac River at Hancock. Some environmentalists (yay! go Sierra Club!) ask that a letter be drafted–ideally from the Council, but if not, by individuals on the Council– asking for Governor Hogan to withhold the 401 Water Quality Certificate and request a full environmental impact review of this project from the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE). This is requested because:
We are downstream from an 8 inch pipeline that would tunnel under the Potomac River to connect a proposed pipeline in West Virginia with an existing one in West Virginia
A bunch of municipal governments both up and downstream have already said, “Hey, let’s be careful!” and sent their own letters, including Hagerstown, Boonsboro, Washington County, Montgomery County and P.G. County. hm.
The geology (that’s rock formations, yo) of the land they will tunnel under is extra risky, because the Karst geology (science term) is Swiss-cheesey, so if a blowout occurred, the chemicals could be dispersed in any direction. Many pipelines already go under the river, but none through this type of geological formation.
Frederick County get lots of our drinking water from the Potomac (91%). And the City of Frederick also gets some of its water supply there, too, (17%) so we would theoretically not want to risk poisoning our water supply.
The Chesapeake Bay is also downstream (for good measure).
In case you were wondering where this thing is supposed to go. You can kind of see the Eastern Panhandle Expansion converging with the Potomac there, but unfortunately the County Seal and headings got in the way of some of the relevant details on a couple of these slides.
We nicked their slides. Hopefully they don’t mind. Here is the Karst Swiss Cheese. Get the idea?
This is all well and good for the reasonable, and even seems likely for the less reasonable eventually, reluctantly, however it pains them, to agree that we shouldn’t be reckless with our drinking water. However, it must be noted that we have two drilling savants, both Republican, on our esteemed County Council, so the curt reaction to the idea of a letter from Tony Chmelik was, “It depends on what the letter says.” Well, they only asked for a letter to exhibit caution and thorough review, not to declare pipeline construction forever abolished, so the hang up is hard to understand, but thank goodness we could be treated to some gassy emissions from these guys. We probably don’t even need a pipeline, since we create our own energy like that. Fun fact: one of your local ladies used to work in the gas pipeline accounting, so we know a thing or two round here, too. Gas is tricky to account for, as a matter of fact, due to particle dispersion. That and the Swiss-cheesy thing are a double tricky combo.
**Ten Minute Break because they’ve been there since 4:30; this is taking an eternity and there is a lot left.** Stay tuned. Holy moly, they’re trying to kill us, y’all. There’s another meeting tonight, you know.
So it seems kind of like Billy’s blissful absence and Kirby “#ImReallyRunning4CountyExecutive” Delauter’s recently located partial degree of restraint (NB: we didn’t watch Council Member Comments, so we could be wrong about that) freed the air for Tony Chmelik to fill the role of council insurgent. At this point we are losing all the patience that we never had, but Ray Barnes and the legal advice come with him, and also Steve McKay, think that the move to ax the section of the code pertaining to DRRAs entirely is no bueno and will cause a bunch of legal problems and their advice is to not move forward with that. They have other ideas. And obviously Tony has a problem with them going before Dog and Everyone implying that he meant to do away with DRRAs forever (“What would the developers think???” <<clutches pearls>>) when he would NEVER. He and Jerry Donald have a back and forth that is pretty priceless, wherein Jerry admits that was his goal, and he also thought that was what Tony wanted. We are pleased with Jerry Donald. He is funny but not mean. We have a hard time with that. Then Jessica Fitzwater asks the question we are wondering too, which was, to paraphrase in LocalYokel jargon, “WTF were we trying to do for real then?”
We have finally thought to ourselves somewhere in the midst of the MXD discussion: we do not like this bill either. We would all be pissed if we bought a house and then they changed the zoning and we lived next to a warehouse now. We aren’t going to listen to this anymore. We. Are. So. Done.
As you may have heard, Cindy Rose is (unsurprisingly) running for Board of Education. Cindy Rose thinks up crazy things, sometimes with the help of Rush Limbaugh. Election 2018 is cranked, and ugh, please make it stop. Presumably this guy in his MAGA cap (yeah we Snopsed it for ya!) is the reason we are seeing this effort to somehow make it the fault of progressives that this human waste became a monster. According to Lady Rose this murderer who shot up his school is the real victim here. Oh, the poor Rosemary’s Baby. #PartyOfPersonalResponsibility much?
Do you see that snowflake b.s. up there? This woman is like Donald Trump. She does not have the appropriate temperament to hold the office she seeks, and yet she will try it anyway. Be vigilant, folks. You know what could happen. Heed the cautionary tale.
We’ve taken up the cause of warning her to keep her crazy tucked in previously, but it is an uphill battle, as evidenced by her blaming it upon the evils of progressivism that kept his access to that weapon legal, and ensured that laws to take guns from people who everyone in the community is already terrified of do not exist. Is that what we are to understand? Color us skeptical, maybe. She bangs out this hate fueled and twisted excuse for this psycho, extends all the empathy to him as the real victim in the situation, and then has the audacity to ask how the kids of conservative parents got so liberal. Go figure, lady.
Also, apologies for our elitism, but Mrs. Rose’s post would fail as an elementary school writing assignment, so is she really the right person to take up the mantle of improving education? There’s no citation for or even explanation of her dubious claims, and as a person who is constantly e-mail blasting the school system she should know that the written constructed response is a typical third grade curriculum item, covering along with it the “cite and explain” portion of the rubric. Is she agreeing with us that we have been bombarded with apocalyptic climate change and systemic racism? She hurls hatred at the liberals and, to read her words, would appear simultaneously gravely concerned about liberal issues. (The irony that she was all over the inter webs favoring English-Only legislation when she is not exactly demonstrating mastery of the native tongue is aggravating, in retrospect.) Sigh. Please don’t elect this woman. We have a whole catalogof reasons why, even when we have sometimes agreed with her.
This is from a July 12, 2015 “discussion” of the English Only Ordinance on the Frederick County Council Watch Facebook Page. One of the premium services this online community provides is self-cataloguing their bad ideas, illogical thinking, and personal insults in a forum where you can just bang some search terms in and find evidence to cite.
In conclusion, let’s ponder what Marjory Stoneman Douglas, the namesake of the high school where some very inspiring young activists have given us the first reason in quite awhile to be optimistic about the direction this country is headed, and who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her work to protect the environment (and because of that was in the White House the same day to witness the signing of The Brady Bill), would think of Cindy Rose’s nonsense up there. She said:
Be a nuisance where it counts. Do your part to inform and stimulate the public to join your action. Be depressed, discouraged, and disappointed at failure and the disheartening effects of ignorance, greed, corruption and bad politics—but never give up.
The council has saddled us with two meetings this week. The first one, scheduled for this evening at 4:30, has some interesting items. Steve Horn, who seems to be Billy’s mortal enemy as of late, is in the house to present the Livable Frederick plan. Here’s how Kirby feels about it:
NICE!
Next, it appears that Tony wants to bring Off Track Betting to Frederick County. There’s also some discussion of some other bills and the gas pipeline that Potomac Edison wants to run under the Potomac River so they can pump fracked gas down from Pennsylvania! What could go wrong?! We end Tuesday’s meeting with two public hearings on the MDX bill and DRRAs.
Wednesday’s meeting, scheduled to begin at 6:00, has two third readings and a public hearing on the Monocacy Scenic River plan. We cannot possibly commit to making two drinking games in a week! Therefore, we are leaving you with this handy bingo drinking game that can be used for both nights! Pick your poison, mind your liver, and drink whenever you get a bingo! Good luck!
frederick local yokel 