Politics

On April 10, the front page of The Sun carried this headline related to the recent budget negotiations and deal: "Who won, who lost?" The subhead further suggested that the Republicans won and President Obama preserved personal political gains. The CNN web page carried a similar article title yesterday, and it's distressing to see that both CNN and the Sun have lost focus of the most important matter. The verbiage in the full article notwithstanding, the aforementioned headline carried the wrong message.

George Edward "Hunky" Sauerhoff, a political aide and fundraiser who was the founder and president of the Loyal Sons of Pigtown, died May 12 of heart failure at FutureCare Cherrywood Healthcare and Rehabilitation Centre in Reisterstown. The unofficial mayor of Pigtown was 79. "In his day, he was a hurricane. He had so much energy that it just spilled out of his pores," said Michael Olesker, author and former Baltimore Sun columnist. "And he had great, great affection for Pigtown, where he simply knew everyone.

I never before entertained the idea of writing a letter to the editor regarding a TV show. However Jean Marbella's article regarding "Dancing with the Stars" was so spot on I couldn't resist ( "Tea partiers: Don't tread on 'Dancing with the Stars'!" Nov. 21). Like many Americans I have some strong political opinions. But when I sit down to watch something as mindless as DWTS I do so to be entertained, not watch a political group hijack the results. When the tea party people have websites to encourage their followers to vote in unorthodox manners in order to have Bristol Palin win a dance competition, one has to question what that says about our country politically.

For the past three years, Maryland has experienced an unprecedented crime wave of political corruption. The only comparable period in memory would be the 1970s, when a governor was jailed and a sitting U.S. vice president (who had served as governor and Baltimore County executive) resigned in shame. The current offenders have been high-ranking elected officials, and the offenses have been far more serious than simple lapses in judgment. They have involved a level of hubris and ethical depravity that are shocking by any standard.

Editor: A recent editorial lambasted Governor O'Malley for seeking a toll increase for the Hatem Bridge across the Susquehanna River, supposedly because it is a payback to voters from Harford and Cecil counties who did not support him. Never mind that tolls on the Bay Bridge, Key Bridge and both tunnels are also going to be increased. I guess he is mad at the voters who live in those jurisdictions as well. Sen. Nancy Jacobs and several of her no-tax friends stood on the bridge and complained mightily about the increase several weeks ago. For over 35 years I traveled to work through the 895 tunnel and gladly paid the toll increases as they occurred, because I realized that it not only takes funding to build these entities, it also takes funds to maintain and add improvements as they age. Why do all these dead-beat Tea Party/Republican politicians think we can have a free lunch forever?

Please allow me (or "myself" as Mike Myers famously said ) to introduce myself. Those of you who have been reading Baltimore-area newspapers for the past decade might (or might not) recognize my byline (I've written articles for The Sun, The Examiner, the Howard County Times, etc.) but this is my first attempt at a regular blog. We're calling it the Ridiculous Report and, on it, I plan to show on a frequent basis how common sense is often lost in our discussions of politics, government and the news in general.

Would you please limit Susan Reimer to the gardening pages? I have to admit that my blood gets to the boiling point when I read anything she writes unless it deals with how to compost. Her latest outrage, "Keep politics out of the Super Bowl" (Feb. 1) is simply too much. Her attacks on Tim Tebow are an affront to all that is good and right with an exemplary college athlete. He donated over 700 hours of volunteer work last year. Last time I checked, this was a free country, and Ms. reimer can turn her sound down when his "hideous" ad airs.

The GOP presidential primary revolts me. It is so full of scummy negativism. Each night the networks news programs thrust clips of Newt Gingrich throwing a jab at Mitt Romney, or vice versa, into our living rooms. Neither has any appreciable platform for what they would do as our next president. Most issues are simply swept under the carpet. Why? Because it's so much easier just to denigrate one's opponent. Both Messrs. Romney and Gingrich have the money to invest in small armies of people whose sole responsibilities are to dig up personal dirt on the other.

O n the first day of kindergarten at Grace and St. Peter's School, a quiet girl was sitting alone, a new student in a room of boisterous children. • Stephanie Rawlings marched up, introduced herself and took charge: "You're going to play with us and be our friend." • That she was bossy and self-assured from an early age - her mother thinks her first complete sentence was "I did it myself" - might come as no surprise to those who have seen only the public side of Baltimore's next mayor.

Café Hon owner Denise Whiting may very well have a legal right to demand that vendors at Honfest, the Hampden festival she created and runs, obey certain rules. After the flap caused last year by the news that she had copyrighted the word "Hon" and would seek to restrict its use on commercial products such as t-shirts and bumper stickers, we might have imagined that she would have lightened up. But evidently, the public outcry and threats of boycotts did not outweigh what she perceived to be her commercial interest in maintaining strict control over her intellectual property.

The Green and Libertarian parties are launching new petition drives to get their candidates for president and other offices on Maryland's November ballot after losing a battle before the state's highest court. The Maryland Court of Appeals ruled Monday that state elections officials were correct to disqualify thousands of signatures on petitions previously circulated by the two parties. Many signatures were thrown out as illegible or not consistent with the voter's official registration card.

If money is the mother's milk of politics, then America's big corporations are Big Mama, and Big Baby is the Republican Party suckling at the enormous bosom of business. Democrats, meanwhile, are abandoned brats scrounging for nourishment wherever they can find it. During the long decades the Democrats held a solid majority in Congress, campaign donations from the corporate world were spread around between incumbents in both parties -- not evenly, but at least the D's got their share.

Readers of this blog know I have been grinding my teeth for years over President Obama's masterful manipulation of TV. It's not about Obama, it's about the press looking the other way, rolling over and refusing to critique and deconstruct the way Team Obama uses the media and the media allows themselves to be used. And so, I sat down to watch him on"The View"  Tuesday loaded for bear after hearing the disingenuous press bashing he did in his commencement address at Barnard Monday.

Former NPR and current Fox News political analyst Juan Williamsmade an excellent point  recently on "The O'Reilly Factor. " Mr. Williams said the major reason President Barack Obama had not endorsed same-sex marriage is because of the strong opposition to it in the black and Hispanic communities. Who could have doubted, though, that the president favors expanding the definition of marriage to include gays and lesbians? Vice President Joe Biden brought this divisive social issue to the forefront of the presidential campaign with his comments Sunday on "Meet the Press.

Terry Weldon Taylor, a former public affairs director of a Baltimore health center and veteran political operative, died Wednesday from complications of a stroke at Northwest Hospital. The Windsor Mills resident was 62. "I got to know him through the late Wendell H. Phillips, who was the pastor of Heritage United Church of Christ and had served in the Maryland House of Delegates. Terry had all of the political spirituality of that congregation," said City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke.

After about eight hours of deliberations Thursday, the Baltimore Circuit Court jury considering the fate of political consultant Julius Henson went home for a second day without reaching a verdict. Henson, 63, of East Baltimore, faces charges of election fraud, conspiracy and failure to include a campaign authority line on an automated call he orchestrated on Election Day 2010. Prosecutors say Republican former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s campaign used the call in an attempt to suppress black votes.

Over and over again, we see that elections are ultimately not really about the issues or leadership qualities. They're about money. Whoever has the most money bribes, er, wins over the voters ("Ehrlich leads in donors; O'Malley leads in cash" and "Bernstein outpaces Jessamy in funds," Aug. 19). I suspect our nation's Founding Fathers are spinning in their graves. Mary Shaw, Philadelphia, PA

In a Chrysler advertisement aired during halftime of Sunday's Super Bowl, actor and director Clint Eastwood says, "I've seen a lot of tough eras, a lot of tough downturns in my life, times when we didn't understand each other. It seems we've lost our heart at times, and the fog of discord, division and blame made it hard to see what lies ahead. But after those trials, we all rallied around what was right and acted as one. " To judge from the reaction he got, we haven't achieved that last stage just yet. Mr. Eastwood was pilloried the next morning by Republican political strategist and Fox News commentator Karl Rove, among others, as a tool of President Barack Obama's re-election strategy.

I remember feeling trepidation when Jules Witcover and I, partners in writing our political column, joined The Baltimore Sun after the collapse of the Washington Star left us on the beach in August of 1981. I was aware of The Sun 's reputation for quality, and I had read the paper often in the 20 years I had been covering Washington and national politics. I knew the work of its stars - notably Phil Potter, Pat Furgurson and later Paul West - because we often were covering the same story.

A 32-year-old Crofton man was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison Thursday for armed bank robbery, after holding up the same two M&T banks a total of five times and making off with more than $30,000, sometimes wishing the tellers a “nice day” on his way out, according to the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office. Wearing a hoodie and a neoprene face mask, William Alexander Norbeck burst into an M&T Bank on the 500 block of Solomons Island Road in Prince Frederick in March of last year, racking a 12-gauge, pump-action shotgun and telling everyone to “get down,” according to his plea agreement.