Save Baltimore, Vote for Ehrlich

Baltimore is in Trouble

O'Malley, The Great Rhetoric

O'Malley is the King of Rhetoric. Whenever Bob Ehrlich mentions that Baltimore City schools are the worst in the state, O'Malley quickly responds that it is not fair to the hard working students, parents, and teachers to attack them and belittle their improvements.

The fact is, Baltimore City graduation rates are near the worst in the country. According to EPE Research Center in an article that appears in the USA Today, Baltimore City schools are second worst only to Detroit for the worst graduation rate of the 50 largest school districts in the country. They show the graduation rate of Baltimore as 38.5%. This is worse than Cleveland! And they say Cleveland rocks? It rocks more than Baltimore. Interestingly, 5 of the 50 largest school districts are in Maryland - Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Montgomery County, Prince George's County, and Anne Arundel County.

What everyone suspects is that Martin O'Malley is altering the way the graduation statistics are calculated. This should come as no surprise since he altered the crime statistics when he took office. His motive for this was to show crime as being higher than previously reported, therefore it would be easier to show a decrease in crime. However, the police keep stubbornly finding dead bodies all over the city. Fortunately for the crime stats, shoot-outs are now classified as suicide.

The speculated calculation rate, as determined by Baltimore City Public Schools headquarters located on beautiful North Avenue, every suburban family's shopping destination (at least up until the 1950's), was to calculate how many students starting their senior year actually graduate. The theory is that most of the students that will drop out of school have already dropped out by this time. However, standard graduation calculations start with incoming freshman and calculate how many of these actually graduate. Using this method, Baltimore City does not look so good. Neither does Martin O'Malley. But he's still kind of cute.

Save Baltimore
I love the city of Baltimore. I have lived in "Baltimore" all of my life, sparing 3 years that I spent in South Carolina to finish college. Should Martin O'Malley win the gubernatorial election, City Council President Sheila Dixon becomes the Mayor until the next election. Not familiar with Sheila Dixon?

Sheila Dixon is the aunt of former Maryland Terps star and now NBA star Juan Dixon. She helped raise him when both of his parents died. Looking at Juan's determination and success, you could say she did a admirable job.

Sheila Dixon likes to help her family. Her sister Janice worked for the 4-person company of Utech, which was given contracts from Comcast. Sheila Dixon, as President of the City Council, awarded these contracts to Utech. The problem is Sheila Dixon did not tell anyone that her sister was employed by them. Ethics law violation? Sounds like one. According to protocol, she should have abstained from voting on issues involving Utech, but she did not. Dixon explains that she did not realize that Utech's full name was Union Technologies, which was used in the contracts. Right. And I didn't know that the FBI had nothing to do with Female Body Inspectors.

Another issue is that Sheila Dixon improperly hired her sister as an assistant. Nepotism is frowned upon in government, except when your father-in-law in Joseph Curran and your wife is a judge. However, we should not come down hard on Dixon for not knowing the law. 10 of 19 other council members also had family members on their staff. I think the rule is that if more people are in violation of a law than people that aren't, then it's okay. Additionally, she and other member of the council also received gifts from Arrow Parking and Comcast, another violation of Baltimore's ethics laws. Yes, laws can be ambiguous and unclear. I once told a police office that I did not realize you had to take the speed limit signs literally. I thought they were a suggestion. I, however, was not cleared of any wrong-doing.

Not enough? Sheila Dixon also steered $600,000 in no-bid contracts to her former campaign chairman, Dale Clark. As E.J. Pipkin would say, "Who knew?!"

Council members are calling the investigations a witch hunt. Well, when you're a witch, I guess you should expect these kinds of things. What do you do with witches? Burn them! What burns besides witches? More witches!!!

And let's not forget when the University of Maryland basketball team won the NCAA Championship. There was a rally held at City Hall which I attended. The always charismatic Martin O'Malley introduced every-other player with the enthusiasm that you would expect from a PA announcer at a professional game. Sheila Dixon introduced the other players as if she just learned English, and did she butcher them.

Steve Blake was introduced as Steve Francis. If I was Steve Blake, I'd be offended. Steve Blake knows where Vancouver is on a map. Dixon then congratulated the Terps with their NAACP victory. Again, I think Steve Blake was offended.

So what is my point? All in all, I do not think Martin O'Malley is doing a BAD job as the Mayor of Baltimore. He's certainly distorting the facts. However, I do not think that we should trust our city to the hands of the bumbling and corrupt City Council President. For the sake of the honest and hard working people of Baltimore, you deserve better than Sheila Dixon. Keep O'Malley as your Mayor!