Tuesday, November 6, 2007

November 6

Wait, the 6th, there's something important about today... isn't election day or something? Don't forget to get out there and vote for Elbert Henderson and Maria Allwine!
Unless like most Baltimoreans you're cool with the surging murder rate, the city going without a police commissioner for six weeks, foot-dragging on the probes of the parking-ticket scandal and the fire-department exam scandal, still no explanation of the Marcus Brown pension scandal... and with hardly anyone bothering to vote, your vote counts (almost. Maybe. Well, not really.)

Terrance Regan, 16, was shot to death near Morgan State University.

Blotterata:
  • The teenager killed in the NW was identified as Nathaniel Footman, 18. But still no clue as to whom official murders 252 and 253 are.
  • Five teenage boys were arrested after going on a robbery spree in Hampden at around 1 a.m. Saturday.
  • No good deed goes unpunished: "A man, 31, was driving through Druid Hill Park and was nearing the former reptile house when he stopped to help three men whose car appeared to have a flat tire. When the victim, 31, left his car, one of the men pulled out a handgun and another a knife."
Latar C. Bradshaw and Gregory G. Kulla have pleaded guilty for the attack on aged Sun reporter Carl A. Schoettler. And get this: "Carter was standing at a bus stop with Bradshaw when Schoettler was involved in a minor traffic accident with Kulla. After Schoettler got out of his car to speak with Kulla, Carter attacked him and split Schoettler's money with Bradshaw. Prosecutors said Kulla, who did not know the two men, did nothing to stop the attack, then agreed to drive Bradshaw and Carter away from the scene."

Martin O'Malley may enjoy his first-ever senate veto Thursday, on a law that regulates how government agencies are permitted dispose of guns.

Maybe the roof rack was full?: "According to officers, they stopped the van, with two people inside for unknown reasons."

18 comments:

Sean said...

From the Sun:

"Background: Henderson, the only Republican running for mayor, is taking another stab at it this year. The corrections official who spent 20 years in the Army, including a tour in Somalia in 1994, said he would focus his mayoralty on crime, education and affordable housing. He also wants to help homeless veterans find work.

Henderson said that he would work to tear down barriers that have blocked progress in the past. Despite the fact that every elected official in town is Democrat, there is plenty of rancor. In past races, he has talked about reducing Baltimore's property tax rate, which is more than twice the rate in Baltimore County."

Wow, I guess I'm voting for my first Republican today! I didn't even know about this guy until right now.

ppatin said...

I feel kind of bad voting for Henderson. He'll still get my support because, uh, well he's not Sheila Dixson, but the guy couldn't even bother to put up a website. That's kind of insulting to city voters.

Caederus said...

Just think the Washington State Govenor's race in 2004 was decided by 133 votes...

DurhamSt said...

2:30PM and I was the 67th voter at my polling place. What a disgrace.

Maurice Bradbury said...

Well, did my duty, voted for the not-Sheila and the not-Stephanie. It was mighty quiet. Maybe it'll be like that "Simpsons" where Bart runs for class president but loses to Martin Prince because no one bothers to vote but Martin and Wendell.

Anonymous said...

What are the benefits for being registered in Baltimore City? Only democrats get elected and you get to be on a jury. Truly an incentive not to participate.

Anonymous said...

You can wag your finger and give a condescending look to those that don't bother to vote in this city...


*whistles*

ppatin said...

The voter registration thing is a common myth. They use driver's license lists as well as voter rolls, so it's not just registered voters who get called to jury duty.

The low turnout is making me hope that Henderson will do better than expected. Obviously I'm more likely to win the lottery than he is to actually win the election, but if he gets say, 20% of the vote instead of the 12% he got last time maybe Dixon will take notice and clean up her act a little bit.

Anonymous said...

Ppatin, you surprise me. Coming from such a seasoned person like yourself, I would expect you to know better than that!

You know how daft Dixon is? She'll see a ratio like that as a mandate to run the city into the ground!

After all, all that holistic stuff she talks about costs money... money that her friends and family rightfully should be able to claim...

Let's start a pool - when do you think that the administration's first person will be indicted/forced to resign/subpoenaed?

Maurice Bradbury said...

I vote never. We've had the pension scandal, which seemed to clearly be straight-up fraud, the parking meters, the kickbacks to the sister, the hiring her buddy off the books thing, the fire-department cheating scandal... what would it take? Underage illegal-immigrant hooker parties?

as for jury duty... I vote, I drive, I pay taxes... I can't get called for jury duty for love or money!

ppatin said...

Well, I believe that if Sheila Dixon notices she did a lot worse than Martin O'Malley did the last time around that might be enough to get her to change her behavior just a little bit. I know it's unlikely, but what else can we hope for? Dixon losing the election?

I also don't think we're going to see any indictments or prosecutions. The State Prosecutor already had a whack at Dixon and nothing came of it. Our only hope is for the US Attorney's office to dig something up, but it's not like Rod Rosenstein has the spare manpower to go on fishing expeditions for public corruption cases.

Anonymous said...

Well, to Rod's credit he has his office spending time doing the right thing - prosecuting criminals. At least we can say he has his hands full doing his job...

I'm starting to have a bad case of anger fatigue though. Perhaps judo is in order!

Maurice Bradbury said...

I'm pretty sure I heard about Terrence Reagan on the Sunday night news and that his murder was night Sunday, not last night...

ppatin said...

Did anyone else hear the bit on the Ed Norris show today about how some people are supposedly huffing their own piss and shit to get high? I can't believe that's not an urban myth, but supposedly there are legitimate news stories about this.

taotechuck said...

Here's what Snopes says about "jenkem".

bdshayne said...

Underage illegal-immigrant hooker parties?

I'm in.

I would really like to know how the city chooses their jury pool. I was called last October. And the November before that (yes, less than a year, but the clerk wasn't interested in my arguments), and every year before that going back to my college days.

I voted!

Anonymous said...

More on jenkem can be found here

I guess this conversation has indeed gone to sh!t.

Maurice Bradbury said...

they should just huff some ground beef!