Beerfest!

Glad to see that Attorney General Doug Gansler has solved all of Maryland's problems regarding crime, punishment, and ensuring that we prosecute criminals to the fullest extent of the law. Gives him plenty of time to deal with this:

Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler and public health advocates launched a campaign Tuesday to make sure drinks like Mike's Hard Lemonade and Jack Daniel's Black Jack Cola are considered legally the same as liquor, not beer.

Yes, the Attorney General is concerning himself with the consumption of alcohol and how one defines said alcohol. Seriously. And, of all things, the entire controversy seems to revolve around two things: tax dollars and teenagers.

The legislature is considering a bill backed by alcohol manufacturers and distributors that would classify the beverages as beer, overruling an opinion that Gansler issued this month declaring such beverages -- loosely termed "alcopops" -- to be spirits under the law because of how they are made and because of evidence that they are popular among teenagers. The opinion effectively changes the way the drinks have been regulated in the state for decades.

Lobbyists for the liquor industry, who deny the drinks are marketed to teens and argue they should be classified like beer because of their alcohol content, have been pushing hard for the bill, which passed in the Senate with little fanfare.

Well, frankly I couldn't care less how the alcopops are classified, seeing as how I don't drink them. And frankly, I don't see the need to differentiate the level of taxation one alcohol is subjected to versus another.

The good news is that apparently Doug Gansler is applying his crack skills as a beer expert on this case:

"Beer is yellow with foam," Gansler told reporters at a news conference, holding up a bottle of Smirnoff Source, which is described this way on its label: "contains pure spring water + alcohol."

"This is not beer," he added.

Well, glad we cleared that up, though I assure you that connoisseurs of Guinness, Killians, and about 3,000 other different kinds of ales, lagers, and darker brews would beg to differ.

All kidding aside, I am disparately trying to figure out how Gansler's knee-deep involvement in this issue is doing anything to about the tough issues that Maryland faces. Regulating alcopops as liquor instead of beer isn't going to do a thing to curb underage drinking, and anybody that thinks it will is an idiot; it's not like the reclassification is going to stop the legal adults buying the stuff from giving it to those underaged kids. Nor is this argument really going to do that much to abate the state budget problem; it's not like the increased revenue from taxing the products as liquor instead of beer is going to do much to abate the O'Malley induced economic jumble.

So.....realistically I have no idea what the hell Gansler thinks he is doing and how this is going to benefit the people of Maryland. But I am glad to see that Gansler thinks that he has accomplished all he can do to stop crime, promote public safety, and put criminals behind bars. Because I suppose it shows that we really need an Attorney General who cares about real public safety issues instead of getting his name in the paper...

Gansler put an end to (some of ) Leopold's Hypocrisy

An actual cheer from the right for Attorney General Doug Gansler, for preserving free speech in Anne Arundel County over the objections of our hypocrite-in-chief John Leopold:

The new county panhandling ban that will take effect in less than a month will be enforced without one of the most controversial local proposals of the last General Assembly session....

...But candidates for upcoming elections still will get a chance to literally campaign on the road because the provision of the bill that would have outlawed people from standing on a highway to advertise any message, including political sign waving, has been deemed unconstitutional.

In May, without much fanfare, Attorney General Douglas Gansler issued an opinion that the advertising ban would violate the First Amendment. Mr. Leopold said this week the county will follow that decision.

The panhandling ban was part of Mr. Leopold's legislative package for the last General Assembly session.

The county executive and Councilman Cathy Vitale, R-Severna Park, pushed for the ban because they were concerned panhandlers endanger themselves and the public by approaching moving cars in traffic.

"(The panhandling ban) was the essential reform I was trying to secure," said Mr. Leopold, who has used roadside sign-waving extensively in his political career.

After the Senate passed the bill, the state Attorney General's office sent a letter to the county House delegation that said the measure was constitutional.

But in a May 15 opinion from Mr. Gansler to Gov. Martin O'Malley, the attorney general says the House went too far by expanding the advertising prohibition from specific infrastructure such as median dividers, roadway cuts and overpasses to include "any other property acquired for the construction, operation, or use of the highway."

"Rather than prohibiting advertising that distracts drivers or impedes them from seeing traffic controls or causes other safety hazards, the legislation prohibits the display of any message regardless of whether it furthers the State's legitimate public safety concern," the opinion states. "Thus, it burdens more speech than necessary."

Although the advertising ban could apply to legitimate safety issues, such as large groups of sign-wavers standing near a busy highway, it could also outlaw benign behavior like holding an American flag, wearing a peace symbol, or walking down the street while wearing a campaign shirt, Mr. Gansler wrote.

"(I)t is our view that the ban on making any message from the broadly defined 'highway' area carries a significant risk that valid expressions that are clearly protected by the First Amendment will be chilled," the opinion says.

Why it took four months for this news to get out is uncertain. But Leopold now says that merely wanted to panhandling ban, but continued to support the measure even after the sign-waving proviso was added. Something that I doubt Leopold would have supported had he not been elected County Executive, since the only reason Leopold even has a political career in Maryland is because he imported the concept of sign waving to Maryland from his past political life in Hawaii. It's unfortunate that as a Republican he could not understand this basic First Amendment concept.

Of course, I still find it hypocritical that Leopold spent 25 years engaging in the same behavior that he sought to ban, but I think that we all understand that John Leopold's name is synonymous with hypocrisy....

A Culture of Corruption?

This certainly doesn't look good, does it?

In office barely a month, Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler has ousted the state's independent monitor of juvenile detention programs and replaced her with a politically connected lawyer from his home county of Montgomery.

The new monitor is Marlana R. Valdez of Takoma Park, a former family law professor who was campaign manager for freshman Sen. Jamin B. Raskin, a Montgomery County Democrat who is a close ally of Gansler's....

...The office's current director, Claudia Wright, was appointed only last month after a national search conducted by outgoing Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr.

Wright, a national authority on juvenile justice issues who moved from Florida to take the monitor's job, has been demoted to one of three investigative positions in the office, officials said.

That's real classy. Take an independent job and take somebody who moved here from Florida to take a job and demote them after being here for three weeks and, in their stead, put a political ally.

Nope, the office of the AG isn't politicized at all, no siree...