More info regarding Saturday's post.

Go read it here.

God, it's even worse than we thought.

From an email I recieved from Associated Gun Clubs:

Governor Compromises the Privacy of Thousands of Maryland Citizens

We have confirmed earlier reports that on orders from Governor O'Malley, the Maryland State Police are sharing the personal information on 77R firearms purchase application forms with the following non-MSP government agencies:

Department of Human Resources (DHR)
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
Department of Transportation
Department of Public Safety
Correctional Services of Department of General Services

This will impact no less than the 38 thousand Maryland citizens who are currently still waiting for the MSP to "Not Disapprove" their applications to purchase a regulated firearm.

It is our information that state employees are being offered "comp time" to work this weekend doing data input. Other than a reported confidentiality agreement, there appears to be no effort to investigate the possible criminal backgrounds of these employees.

These forms contain the applicant's name, address, date and place of birth, social security number as well as information on the firearm the applicant intends to purchase. The Maryland State Police have lost control of the Licensing Division.

At this time, we will not publicly speculate on the Governor's political motivation for this action.

I have no words.

I went to my first protest/rally today.

I drove down to Annapolis with a female friend in tow, and we were amazed. I'd estimate about three thousand pro-2A people showed up for the rally, and we FILLED the MD Senate building. They had to shut down the building - it was at capacity. We had folks from Maryland Shall Issue, Maryland Shooters Forum, the NRA, and I believe I spotted one of the Alans from the 2AF...that, or he has a twin running 'round Annapolis.

So, an observation: the crowd at the rally was possibly the most polite and respectful crowd I've had the pleasure to be around. I'm slightly agoraphobic in certain situations - for example, the photos of the Ravens rally yesterday made me nervous - but I only felt a slight amount of ohgodTOOMANYPEOPLE near the end, while waiting to sign the testimony book. This group of men, women, and yes, children, really helped to put a pleasant face on what many folks down in Naptown think is a big evil monster. I'm proud to be a part of it, and given the opportunity I think I'd go back down for similar reasons.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to testify. We stood in line for over 2 hours just to be told we wouldn't be allowed in. I have faith my fellow protesters said some fantastic things. I just hope we have a prayer of making a difference. I'm told Beretta has threatened to leave Maryland if SP281 gets passed, and I trust them to follow through with that threat. If anything has an impact on my state senators, that might. Maybe. I hope.

And because I remembered to take a photo, here's a crappy picture showing the amount of people who were there:

The crowd filled that ENTIRE square, plus maybe another hundred people on the steps immediately in front of me, and another 100 or so in line to get in the Senate building. SO MANY PEOPLE. More pictures and updates have been and will be posted here, here, and probably in other threads in that section of MDS. Please feel free to keep an eye on them.


Also, as we were leaving, "someone" in a police motorcade, two tour buses, and a guy with a Mini-14 hanging out the back of the last car in the motorcade caused the trolley we were in to practically beach itself on the curb. Thanks, nitwit. So glad to know you felt the need to show off your might.

Ugh.

We're now onto day 5 without power.

This is the sort of thing I'd expect if we were, say, in the middle of nowhere. Heck, I'd expect it if I still lived a county over, where there were cows a 20-minute walk from my house. I certainly don't expect that in Baltimore CITY, where (generally speaking) the power doesn't go out for us.

What kills me, though, is this is an issue that could have been easily prevented. Heck, most of the outages were preventable. BGE simply refuses to do the proper maintenance and due diligence required in order to run an effective power company, and they do this in order to protect and increase profit margins.

In our little town in Harford County, where I used to live, our biggest cause of outages was squirrels. Not storms, not freak wind, not ice. Squirrels. Why? Because out there the county and the power company actually kept trees away from power lines (and squirrels apparently love to chew on the lines). I vividly remember major storms (both ice and rain) coming through and watching the power flicker, but it very rarely went out...and it always came back in a few hours. Even in the nasty ice storm of 1994, we retained power with nary a hiccup.

In the decade+ that Chris has been in the house, the trees have been trimmed once, and those who did the trimming left a limb sitting on the lines...but not attached to the tree from whence it came. Because that makes sense. In the 5 years I've been with Chris, the power has twice gone out for over 24 hours. Both situations were caused by trees damaging the lines or the transformer. Last time, the line was knocked off the pole, and this time there's no visible damage, so we're assuming the aforementioned limb hit the transformer.

Last night, Chris and I drove through an area north of Baltimore to assess the damage, as we have friends around there who have gone without power as long as we have. The first thing I noticed: there were bucket trucks up there. LOADS of them! I counted five in a 2 mile drive through the neighborhoods. Where are our trucks? The work locations list says they were working near our home yesterday, but I didn't see any trucks. I didn't even see a marked city-owned vehicle. There is no indication whatsoever that we have any priority.

So where does that leave us? Generatorless (because we have a specific model we're buying, and it's backordered to kingdom come), borrowing an outlet at a neighbor's house so the fish tank can filter for an hour or two a night, and generally miserable. It's frustrating knowing the Governor's on TV and all over the news saying how they're working diligently, blah blah blah...and it's especially disheartening when BGE gets a nice big fluff piece in the Baltimore Sun, touting how awesome they are for getting so many people back up and running in such a short time.

And here's an interesting little bit of information: in Florida, everyone would have had power by now, save a few individuals out in the boonies. Friends down there agree, and they've actually seen real hurricanes.

Frustration is high, morale and sanity are low, and BGE is not the shining star of success they'd like to be.




While I was writing this post, the power was turned back on. THANK YOU Michigan, Ohio and Georgia Power!

Interesting tidbit - I don't know if Chris got the names of the gentlemen who said this, but they say they've never seen a power company with this poor maintenance. What does that tell you, BGE?

Lies are great, especially when liars are caught in the middle of them.

Yesterday, TBolt posted a link of a lying liarpants attempting to testify in the Maryland House Judiciary Committee.

Said liarpants claims to be from Ceasefire Maryland.  Apparently he...isn't.



At least Delegate Smigiel was able to smackify the liar before he got any further into his lies.

This video was posted by Maryland Shall Issue, one of the only groups fighting to change Maryland from a "may" issue state to a "shall" issue state.  Please consider supporting them if you have the means.