Conservatives

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama fired the head of the Internal Revenue Service, the first sacrificial lamb brought down after the alleged "targeting" of conservative political groups by the IRS. Mr. Obama declared, "Americans are right to be angry about it. " Call me out of step, but I am angrier that the president is joining the rush to judgment. All that is known for sure is that some IRS functionaries took a shorthand route to identify partisan political groups that might be pretending not to be political so that they could get the tax exempt status available to social welfare organizations.

Eric Schwaab, a native Baltimorean who's spent the last three years in the federal government overseeing fisheries and coastal conservation efforts, is returning home to take a new post at the National Aquarium . Schwaab, 52, currently an acting assistant secretary in the leadership at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , will join the aquarium July 1 as its first-ever senior vice president and chief conservation officer, the...

Just when Washington looked like it was completely preoccupied with the scandals, real and imaginary, swirling around the White House, a group of Democrats and Republicans in the Senate managed the unexpected (and, these days, extraordinary): They agreed on something. The vote Tuesday night in the Senate Judiciary Committee to forward to the floor a massive overhaul of the nation's immigration system was, to be sure, a small step and doesn't guarantee success in the full Senate, much less the House of Representatives.

The Maryland State Soil Conservation Committee is accepting nominations for appointment to the Harford Soil Conservation District Board of Supervisors. The appointment will be to fill the unexpired term of Michael S. Birch on Oct. 17, 2016. Nominations should be sent to: State Soil Conservation Committee, Department of Agriculture, 50 Harry S. Truman Parkway, Room 306, Annapolis, MD 21401. Any interested individual or organization may submit a recommendation. Nomination forms are available at the Harford County Extension Office, P.O. Box 663, 2335 Rock Spring Road, Forest Hill, MD 21050.

The Sun does everything it can to demonize, denigrate, misrepresent or in many cases conveniently (for The Sun) ignore those of us who proudly proclaim ourselves Conservatives. Your recent editorial ("One nation," Oct. 2) is a good example of this proclivity on the part of The Sun to do a hatchet job on people opposed to The Sun's radical agenda. Among the many "bad mouth" references to the tea party in the Oct. 2 editorial are such words and phrases as: "...the tea party's fat-cat corporate sponsors.

Since the bloodbath in Tucson last Saturday there has been much talk of ratcheting down the rhetoric in what presently passes for political discourse in this country. I'm sorry to say I'm pessimistic that has even the slightest chance of occurring. The reason for my doubtfulness lies in my belief that, since the days of the late Lee Atwater, the political right in this country is a one trick pony. They are simply not equipped to back off the vitriolic rhetoric since it's just part of the way they operate politically.

There's more than a few things wrong with Thomas F. Schaller's column "Policies favoring conservatism built into the system" (Jan. 26). First, Mr. Schaller's claim that President Obama had a winning presidential vote share that exceeded those of Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush is a bit disingenuous. President Obama beat Sen. John McCain by less than 8 percent of the vote, and President Reagan beat President Carter by over 9 percent of the vote. In a nation with an ever-growing population, such metrics must be measured in percentages, not raw numbers, to have any real meaning.

To me, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s column on why conservatives should be proud in defeat indicates he just doesn't get what the majority of Americans want, including Marylanders ("Conservatives lost but can still be proud," Nov. 18). He listed a dozen points on why conservatives can still be proud, some of which are not in touch with reality, or "cheap shots" which the voters have seen through and in my book are nothing to be proud of. Some examples of what he believes conservatives should feel good about: 1. "Conservatives respect religious liberty as applied to faith-based institutions.

Two letters in the Readers Respond section struck a chord with me. One, "When liberals and libertarians unite" (March 10) upset me with the statement: "We can't tell the real Americans who love and defend our country from the liberals who hate America anymore. " I consider myself a liberal. I don't hate America. What I don't like is when some Americans attack other Americans in the so-called name of defending America. A classic example of this is Mitt Romney's now infamous "47 percent" statement.

Your editorial on green energy light bulbs exposed The Sun's true colors in its intolerance of the idea that conservatives might have a different point of view on the subject of global warming ("Don't save the planet," May 4). The editorial blatantly denigrates conservatives by making them the butt of a "how many conservatives does it take to screw in a light bulb?" joke and using the term "mush-brained" to describe them. To write that conservatives "take pains not to recycle" or "enjoy dumping used motor oil down the storm drain while no one is looking," along with other ridiculous statements, is just over the top in exposing your hatred and intolerance of anything conservative.

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama fired the head of the Internal Revenue Service, the first sacrificial lamb brought down after the alleged "targeting" of conservative political groups by the IRS. Mr. Obama declared, "Americans are right to be angry about it. " Call me out of step, but I am angrier that the president is joining the rush to judgment. All that is known for sure is that some IRS functionaries took a shorthand route to identify partisan political groups that might be pretending not to be political so that they could get the tax exempt status available to social welfare organizations.

The Harford Land Trust honored former board member Mildred Krieder with its Conservation Award at its annual meeting held March 16 at the Bel Air Armory. The award cites Kreider's personal support of the land trust's founding, years of serving on the board of directors, generous financial support of projects and administrative costs and efforts to conserve in perpetuity the historical and natural resources of Little Jericho Farm that she and her late husband, Sidney Krieder, have owned since 1975.

Of course the president deserves some of the blame. Yes, it's extremely unlikely he ordered the IRS to discriminate against tea party, pro-life or Jewish groups opposed to his agenda (though why anyone should take his word for it is beyond me). And his outrage now -- however convenient -- is appreciated. But when people he views as his "enemies" complained about a politicized IRS, what did he do? Nothing. Imagine for a moment if black civil rights organizations, gay groups or teachers unions loudly complained to members of Congress and the press that the IRS was discriminating against them.

Well, this is a fine mess. After years of moaning about various "conspiracies" against them, conservative activists finally have a real (i.e., not manufactured by Fox or inflated by Rush Limbaugh) piece of evidence to take before the court of public opinion. Meaning, of course, last week's revelation that the Internal Revenue Service has been giving extra scrutiny to groups with the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their names. Extra scrutiny from the IRS is about as welcome as extra scrutiny from the proctologist, so one can hardly blame conservative groups for complaining, as they've done since last year.

Peter Jensen 's editorial on conservatives' attitude toward environmental protection is misleading ("Don't save the planet," May 4). The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, stressed the importance of the marketing message. Conservatives react more favorably to marketing messages that stress energy-efficiency or energy-independence than they do to saving the environment. The study does not suggest that conservatives as a group do not support energy-efficient products.

In response to Gerald C. Rose's letter ("Liberals should not tell people what to do," May 8), I can only say, "Well, someone has to. " We have a serious energy problem in this nation, and the continued use of fossil fuels is harmful and futile. I am happy that Mr. Rose purchased more energy efficient bulbs, but he reveals all when he states that his reasoning is because it saves him money. Is this the only reason? I would like to think that he cares more for reducing our use of fossil fuels.

As much as those on the right whine and moan about the "liberal bias" of The Sun, they must be faithful readers. I notice that on most of political-oriented issues, the majority of responders to "What Maryland thinks" take a right wing position. If the voting in general elections corresponded to most of the poll results, Maryland would be a red state. Or, it could be that conservatives have nothing more important to do than take public opinion polls. Ed Johnson, Catonsville Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

Thomas F. Schaller makes the usual liberal mischaracterization of conservatives by asking in his op-ed column, "Why do conservatives hate government so much?" ("How government is like insurance," June 29). Of course, this is completely inaccurate since it's excessive government that conservatives hate, not government. He lists all the benevolent things a government can do and stops just short of drawing a picture of a fireman rescuing a little girl's kitten from a tree before pointing to conservatives and asking, "How could they hate that?"

I am really getting tired of the invective and sarcasm shown by the likes of The Sun and MSNBC ("Don't save the planet" May 3). It is less and less logic and more just "shouting down the enemy". I guess Andrew Green , Rachel Maddow, and others are reading from the same playbook. I am for a balanced budget, the 2nd Amendment, the death penalty in some circumstances, and a fetus' right to live in the third trimester (or later as some liberals seem to think it's OK to terminate kids outside the womb)

I had to respond to Peter Jensen 's vituperative diatribe "Don't Save the Planet" about conservatives supposedly going out of their way to avoid protecting the planet (May 3). Since when did a question limited to specially marked light bulbs measure anyone's environmental consciousness? Based on our voting record, I guess you could label us conservatives. Like most people I know, we use both tubular and CFL fluorescent bulbs (where practical - show me one that works in freezers, variable intensity lamps, outdoor flood lights, desk lamps that take small bulbs, garage trouble light, etc.)