Third Party

I agree with Howard Bluth's frustrations over the obscene inequalities of wages, unemployment remedies, the continuous-without-break money chase, the influence of money in politics, etc., but I differ with his remedy of not exercising his franchise, and especially the suggestion to vote for a third party candidate to express one's disgust with the status quo ("Voting is an exercise in futility," Oct. 18). Enough people did that in the race between Al Gore and George W. Bush, and that resulted in eight years of the Bush administration, a huge escalation of the national debt, a greater disparity between the rich and the poor, and a totally fabricated reason for a protracted war in Iraq!

As a ranking member of the House intelligence committee, Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger says he was briefed every three hours o n the manhunt for the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings. “Right after the bombs went off, we started getting information,” the Baltimore County Democrat said. He praised the FBI's efforts , saying agents have done an  “outstanding job in this investigation . ” Inside a week, two Chechen suspects were identified and tracked down.

Ithaca, N.Y. -- THE RETIREMENT of Sen. Bill Bradley has revived talk of third parties.It's still subversive talk in a land whose political religion is the two-party system.What we need is an evaluation that is honest and sober but does not pour cold water on the dying coals of a third party, which is the only hope for genuine political reform in America.First, what's with Mr. Bradley?Mr. Bradley hit a brick wall. He faced serious opposition in a state gone Republican, and there just wasn't enough support and money coming in to overcome the negative odds.

Three in every 10 Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. customers are buying their electricity through third-party suppliers, continuing a steady trend of increases in recent years, the company said Wednesday. About 30 percent of electricity customers don't purchase their energy from BGE, up from 25 percent at the end of 2011 and 18 percent at the end of 2010, the company said. BGE's natural-gas customers are less likely to switch to third-party providers, though more have done so in the last few years - 22 percent, up from 13 percent at the end of 2010.

WASHINGTON -- Ross Perot, who spent more than $60 million of his own money to promote his independent run for the White House, said yesterday that he plans to continue financial support for his political movement but was not yet ready to launch a formal third party.In an interview on ABC-TV's "20/20" program broadcast last night, the Dallas billionaire said that formation of a third party was "premature" because the next congressional elections were two years off.He also said that he would urge his supporters to work within the system to force President-elect Bill Clinton and Congress to reduce the deficit and reform the political process.

Jim Martin says the county is ripe for something new, something green.The Annapolis business owner is talking about third-party politics. As he sees it, many county voters have seen enough of what the Democrats and Republicans have to offer and are ready for the Green Party.Yes, Green as in the Greens, the party that began in West Germanyin 1977 with an environmentalist, anti-nuclear platform. It's the same Green Party that stepped onto U.S. shores in 1988 and now has 300 local chapters, including an official party in Alaska that has elected nine of its members to the state legislature.

WASHINGTON -- Just as he was being eclipsed by the new crop of candidates and could-be candidates for 1996, Ross Perot has injected himself back into the presidential picture, further jumbling next year's already unpredictable political landscape.Mr. Perot's Monday night announcement that he was launching a third political party, the Independence Party, was met yesterday by cautious glee among Democrats, tempered irritation among Republicans -- and uncertainty among nearly everyone."If the election were being held today, it would be good news for the president," said Democratic consultant Greg Schneiders.

THERE ARE NO second acts for third parties in America, but that may be about to change. This time a third party is going to be greatly subsidized by the federal government. Because Ross Perot got 19 percent of the popular vote in the 1992 presidential contest, he, as nominee of the movement now called the Reform Party, is entitled to $29.2 million from the Treasury. That is only half as much as the Democratic and Republican nominees will receive -- but it is hardly chicken feed.If it is enough to get and keep a Perot candidacy up in the polls, he should be guaranteed a place in the Clinton-Dole debates.

As George W. Bush and Al Gore focus on the issues of Social Security and education, third-party candidates Ralph Nader and Patrick J. Buchanan have staked out ground largely abandoned by the two major candidates. Nader, the Green Party candidate, is talking about universal health care and corporate influence in government. Buchanan, the Reform Party nominee, is focused on abortion, immigration and global trade. "Their appeal to voters is not that they're likely to win so much as it is an issue appeal, a notion that this issue is ignored by the major parties or the major parties aren't committed to it," said William G. Mayer, a political scientist at Northeastern University who has written about third parties.

A division of the Baltimore-based Cordish Cos. has been named as a co-defendant in a lawsuit alleging discriminatory practices at The Maker's Mark Bourbon House and Lounge, a tenant at Cordish's Fourth Street Live! property in Louisville, Ky. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, alleges that the lounge's employees "demanded to know the ratio of 'black people' to 'white people'" who were expected to attend a party, then denied entrance to every black person who showed up. Andre Mulligan, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, is suing Louisville Bourbon LLC (doing business as Maker's Mark Bourbon House and Lounge)

A division of the Baltimore-based Cordish Cos. has been named as a co-defendant in a lawsuit alleging discriminatory practices at The Maker's Mark Bourbon House and Lounge, a tenant at Cordish's Fourth Street Live! property in Louisville, Ky. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, alleges that the lounge's employees "demanded to know the ratio of 'black people' to 'white people'" who were expected to attend a party, then denied entrance to every black person who showed up. Andre Mulligan, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, is suing Louisville Bourbon LLC (doing business as Maker's Mark Bourbon House and Lounge)

While Republican leaders console themselves that they salvaged control of the House from the defeat of Mitt Romney, they need to ponder the long-term future of the party of Lincoln and of Ronald Reagan. The course of the Grand Old Party from the Great Emancipator to the Great Communicator took some very twisted turns - from Theodore Roosevelt, the great trust-buster; to Dwight Eisenhower, the great highway builder; to Richard Nixon, the great corrupter. Through it all, it has largely been the party of white men, then of white men and women, and more recently of white Christian evangelicals and tea party naysayers.

I agree with Howard Bluth's frustrations over the obscene inequalities of wages, unemployment remedies, the continuous-without-break money chase, the influence of money in politics, etc., but I differ with his remedy of not exercising his franchise, and especially the suggestion to vote for a third party candidate to express one's disgust with the status quo ("Voting is an exercise in futility," Oct. 18). Enough people did that in the race between Al Gore and George W. Bush, and that resulted in eight years of the Bush administration, a huge escalation of the national debt, a greater disparity between the rich and the poor, and a totally fabricated reason for a protracted war in Iraq!

An elderly man and woman were found dead in a Pikesville home Monday afternoon with injuries that led Baltimore County police to begin investigating their deaths as homicides. Police identified them today as Vaughn George Pepper, 87; and Marjorie Marie Pepper, 85. Police believe the two were killed in a home in the Sudbrook Park neighborhood, and they are looking for a third party, said Cpl. Cathy Batton, a police spokeswoman. Police said they do not believe that this was a random crime, but caution that the investigation is continuing.

One good thing about being the victim of a widespread scam estimated to cost American consumers $2 billion a year: You don't feel like the only fool in the country. And in the matter of "cramming" — when shady text-message companies bill cell phone customers for services they never ordered — there's even less reason to feel a fool's desolation: You weren't duped. You were a victim without knowing it, and without doing a thing. In fact, some crammers prefer that we neither notice them nor act to stop them.

Here's a word of advice to readers with cellphones: Check your bills for mysterious charges. I found a few on my last T-Mobile bill, and it wasn't pretty - some $350 over the last year for services I never ordered from third parties I never heard of. Apparently, there's a lot of this going around. "People are finding charges on their mobile phone bills that they say weren't authorized, including mystery text services that appear out of nowhere and charge for content that people believed was free.

A large waterfront parcel in Port Covington sold for $2 million at foreclosure auction Thursday to an investor who declined to identify himself. The site contains 5.2 acres of land and about five additional acres on two piers that jut into Winan's Cove. It is assessed for tax pursposes at $521,000. The site's previous owner, Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse, defaulted on a multimillion-dollar mortgage, resulting in the trustee-ordered sale. The now-defunct developer owed more than $10.7 million for the land in South Baltimore off East Cromwell Street.

1-800-685-777. Now there are two 800 numbers in the presidential campaign. We print H. Ross Perot's because, unlike Jerry Brown's, readers can get some information without being solicited for funds. Mr. Perot is the Texas billionaire businessman, philanthropist and corporate soldier of fortune whose efforts to free captured Americans in Vietnam and Iran made him a household word. He says he will finance his own third-party presidential campaign if a grass roots effort gets his name on all 50 state ballots.

Why is it that the only party candidates that get into the presidential debates are Republicans and Democrats? Why not let a couple of the other parties' candidates participate as well? I would like to see the Green and Libertarian parties in the presidential debates this year and every election year afterward. That way the American people would have a better view of who is running and what they are proposing to do. John Hamilton, Columbia