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I don't know whether to believe the claim or not, unfortunately. It seems far-fetched for it to be true, but I don't have the resources to visit the jurisdictions in question and establish what their processes are myself.

Sure you do. You have a web-browser. You can see that no state has done so. Zero.

You know, unless you don't believe anything unless you see it for yourself. Which would be a serious problem. For you. Because I sincerely doubt you're going to attend every single polling precinct either.

I also thought it was far-fetched for a state government to pass a law forbidding people from cooperating with federal law enforcement.

No state has done that either. If you check out the facts, you can see what states are doing is requiring their employees to hold federal officers to standards of accountability and best practice, not just do things in a slipshod fashion prone to abuse.

It's much safer that way.

I also thought that it was far-fetched for a county/ state that had a votable-verifiable paper ballot that was electronically counted (but could be verified through a manual recount) to switch to an all-electronic system that removed voter verification and just about all auditing capabilities, but that is exactly what happened in my last state of residence (Maryland).

Oh other people could have told you that wasn't far-fetched at all, we were talking about it over a decade ago.

But actually, it didn't happen in the state of Maryland. You must be confused and thinking of some other place.

Or maybe you got caught up by auto-correct. It happens.

I know that I currently live in a state for which I had to get an "enhanced" driver's license in order for it to be used as a federal ID (something that is required in my work, as well as to board civil aircraft) because the ordinary driver's license did not meet the US governments citizenship or basic proof of identity needs.

Oh, others already know about Real ID/SecureID and it's processes too. There are multiple states with waivers on that, from Alaska to Maine, to well, that pretty much covers the east west, so um Arizona maybe?

I also know that my daughter, who was recently licensed to drive, was automatically registered to vote at the same time that she received her license. I do not know specifically which part of the driver's licensing process checked her citizenship (not necessary for a driver's license) before registering her to vote.

Your ignorance is a personal problem that you should address then. For one thing, you could have checked to see if she produced a birth certificate in order to get a driver's license.

I've seen enough stupidity to stop believing that just because something is far-fetched it isn't possible.

Have you seen enough people swearing to falsehoods to stop believing them just because your gut wants to go along with it?

That's something that may help you.

I am against disenfranchising voters. I am not necessarily willing to give up ensuring only authorized voters are voting, and then only voting once per election, in order to prevent all disenfranchising of any voter, however. I think both needs can be met. Perhaps we can do statistical testing (such as is used for quality control to establish whether a lot should be accepted or not based on sampling items in the lot) using randomly chosen voters, which can be tuned for both false acceptance and fa

Well the "jury is out" but there is a lot more data around! Here is a 2013 peer reviewed paper, "Electromagnetic fields act via activation of voltage-gated calcium channels to produce beneficial or adverse effects" by Martin L Pall* https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...
You can see a list of his other papers here; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p...
2016 by same, "Microwave frequency electromagnetic fields (EMFs) produce widespread neuropsychiatric effects including depression." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p... "Non-thermal microwave/lower frequency electromagnetic fields (EMFs) act via voltage-gated calcium channel (VGCC) activation. " So much for the 'thermal is everything' approach at least on this band.

Hourlong video with Pall https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
And here is another one with that devious hippie Mercola; https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

A whole bunch of bills in Massachusetts https://sites.google.com/site/...

Maryland did a whole thing on wifi and kids https://phpa.health.maryland.g...

The site Undark went a ways into the topic https://undark.org/article/cel...

0.08 W/kg they say from FCC. Per here a lot of other health bodies demand or advise far far lower RF exposure. https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/7...
Regulatory FCC/ANSI– USA– 900MHzrange 610,000 nW/cm2
Regulatory Italy,Poland,Hungary,Bulgaria,China,Russia 10,000nW/cm2
Regulatory Switzerland 4,500nW/cm2
Recommendation– EcologInstitute (2000) 300nW/cm2
Recommendation– SalzburgResolution(2000) 100nW/cm2
Recommendation– BioInitiativeReport(2008) https://www.newlook.dteenergy....

big texas report (everything bigger in texas) http://www.puc.texas.gov/indus...

Anyways I suggest you dig around, there is all sorts of interesting stuff coming up on this topic.

At least in my area, this is available. http://chart.maryland.gov/map/ Allows you look at all the traffic cameras live. I do not agree however, that all data should be public. For example, the government has access to people's fingerprints. Allowing public access to that data would make it quite easy to frame whoever you wanted for a crime.

Full disclosure, I am a critical care physician (4 yrs college, 4yrs med school, 3 yrs IM residency, 3 years critical care)

How much do you think the average doctor gets for prescribing an opioid? Doctors aren't pharmacies. Doctors aren't pharmaceutical companies. Doctors aren't insurance companies.

This is a really rough estimate......

Look long and hard look at this reimbursement schedule (also look at how poorly Medicaid pays). Pay attention to these 2:

Office Visit, Initial, New Patient Level 2 - $75 for ~20 minutes

Offiice Visit, Established Patient Level 2 - $45 or ~20 minutes

So 3 patients/hour x 8 hours//day

Lets say half the patients you see are these types of visits, and of those, half are a mix of new and establishes (never is, most are established) 1.5 patients/hour x 8 hours = 12 patients daily

6 will be established 6*75= $450

6 will be new. 6*45= $270

The other 12 patients? Maybe you can see 12 really sick (6 established, 6 new)

6 * 200 = $1200

6 * 150 = $900

Hopefully your day would be filled with more complex patients, but it doesn't really matter. A new "complex" patient that you spend 60 minutes with will get you $200 reimbursement. So this person, for internal medicine, who went to college for 4 years, medical school for 4 years, then 3 years for residency is getting patient by Medicare (and likely your insurance company) $200 to spend an hour with you. Unless you like in rural America, you probably wont get a lawyer to sit with you for that price (I put that link in there because I did all my training at the #1 hospital in the US, but docs aren't reimbursed like that) for an hour.

So a really good day you can make $2820. Or about $700,000 revenue /yr. Now start to subtract your staff, and the time writing notes and billing queries (insurance companies are always trying to undersell how sick someone is, docs are trying to make their patients look sicker etc..), rent, EMR costs, malpractice (about 15000/yr), blah blah.....

For me, I do critical care. I bill a "99291" code for spending up to 74 minutes bringing your nearly dead loved one pack to life. The reimbursement is $239. Really? It is pretty much the same amount as sitting and talking to your elderly loved on who has 4 or 5 outpatient medical problems.

The dirty secret in medicine is right now if you want to make money as a doctor you need to specialize and do procedures. Even with volume, the numbers still add up 1 60 minute visit gets you the same reimbursement as 3 20 minute visits. That is the only way to "make money" in the ways that are often thought about in the sense of doctors make money.

If anything I hope this shows you that after 11+ (minimum) years of training, doctors are definitely not overcompensated and if anything you can make the argument that compared to other, essentially lesser trainer specialities (lawyer, engineers etc...) their "hourly" rate is undervalued. That is not even taking into account that most doctors are graduating with $200,000 or $300,000 of student loan debt.

Data obtained from Maryland utility
companies indicate that constructions costs for overhead utilities range from $0.62 million per mile to $1.02 million
per mile and underground comparable service ranges from $3.3 million to $8.3 million per mile.

From: http://www.roads.maryland.gov/... (pdf)

It is a bit more expensive...

I did find this line pretty funny though:

Underground installations reduce vehicular
crashes with poles and possible fatalities, reduce the exposure to electromagnetism fields reducing health hazards,
improve the aesthetics of neighborhoods and may increase the assessment value of the nearby properties.

Since when did we prove that electromagnetism causes any health hazards, and when did burying somehow start mitigating these issues? Perhaps it is more about perception, but that line is utter crap.

Google the names of senior executives at MTA and have conversations than slander their sexual habits, lack personal honesty, cruelty to animals and studying at a Bible University. Pepper your speech with copious profanity in multiple languages, making the task of humans who listen to this crap more onerous.
Feel free to have such conversations, even if you are alone, which at the least will get you a seat to yourself.

Dude, you just described every single trip on the #3 line in Baltimore. Folks will sit there, argue with themselves, and lose.

Gah!!!! Other state constitutions say the same thing. CRUD!

CONSTITUTION OF MARYLAND
ARTICLE XVI
THE REFERENDUM. ...No law making any appropriation for maintaining the State Government, or for maintaining or aiding any public institution, not exceeding the next previous appropriation for the same purpose, shall be subject to rejection or repeal under this Section.

Which Bay Bridge?

http://www.baybridge.maryland....

Isn't your's called the Golden Gate Bridge? Mine is called the Bay Bridge.

Someone high enough in power, maybe.

In Maryland, state SWAT had mistakenly raided a mayor's house. They even thought that he is insane because he kept telling them he's the fucking mayor of the place, and it wasn't until local cops intervened that they actually believed him. Shot two of his dogs dead, and held the entire family including kids at gunpoint, with adults handcuffed, for several hours. The warrant was not provided until three days after the fact. There was no apology afterwards, and in fact the sheriff who sent in the SWAT team (to intercept a package of weed that happened to be mistakenly addressed to that address) said that he'd "do it again in a heartbeat", arguing that the ends justify the means. Officers participating in the raid were investigated, but cleared of all charges, including shooting the dogs and handcuffing.

So, what were the long-term consequences? Well, the mayor came up with a law proposal to require all police departments with SWAT teams to submit and publish regular reports documenting all instances of their deployment, including the reasons why they are being deployed. You can see those stats for yourself. They show that SWAT basically does this kind of thing (routine drug search warrants) most of the time, and actual hostage-taking, barricade and other stereotypical situations that would necessitate the use of SWAT are around 5% of all deployments. Because of that, they get deployed a lot - just under 1,700 every year for the last two years.

Most importantly, over 2/3 of deployments involve forcible entry, even those dealing with non-violent crimes. This basically means that if you're SWAT'ed, whether by mistake or because someone has sent them your way, you have just one chance out of three that they won't just break down your door and rough up anyone inside, and shoot any dogs that might be "agitated" (basically doing anything other than standing still and remaining silent - any movement or barking is interpreted as aggression).

So now that we, and specifically the citizens of Maryland, know all that, was has changed? Fuck all. You can see it in those stats, comparing year to year. No new bills have been enacted to curb the clear abuse of SWAT in the state. And only one state since then - Utah - has enacted similar law. So nation-wide, we still have no clear stats on how SWAT is (ab)used, though I see no reason to expect the picture to be any different from what we see in Maryland.

So apparently a mayor (of a relatively small town, granted) is not someone in position of enough power. Maybe someone should try to get some Congressmen SWAT'ed? Or perhaps Joe Biden, seeing how he was one of the assholes who created the legal framework for SWAT in the first place.

90% of what SWAT is "legitimately" used for is domestic terrorism if you use the same standard. When Maryland adopted a law that forced police departments to keep track of where and why they deploy SWAT and publish it (this happened after they mistakenly raided a house of a mayor in one of the small towns), the stats for the first year have immediately shown that people complaining about needless escalation were right all along - over 90% of the time SWAT is used to serve search (not arrest!) warrants, half of them for non-violent crimes. When dealing with those non-violent crime cases, SWAT teams have used forcible entry (i.e. breaking down doors, throwing flashbangs and otherwise having fun) 66% of the time.

Oh, and as you'd expect, every single PD in Maryland fought that law tooth and nail, too.

It's a setup that's ripe for abuse. Of course it gets abused!

MD laws and statutes didnt come out, link here
http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/web...
http://www.lawlib.state.md.us/

In Liberal Maryland, my Tundra required a more expensive registration, but not commercial. It is possible that uber progressive California wanted to push people to not buy trucks anymore.

http://www.mva.maryland.gov/ve...

It looks like my truck fits in the class M (over 3700 lbs), so costs $187/2 year, which isn't much different than the fee for hire of $334/2 years.

My truck could also be class E (3/4 ton or 7000 lbs) at $161.50

Do they intentionally make this stuff complicated to confuse people? It took me 10 minutes just to find that particular link and it doesn't even explain the difference between E and M.

I hadn't heard what you were talking about so I did this Google search which gives a lot of news media covering a study where survey results included people claiming both to be non-citizens and to have voted. I provide the link because it's entertaining (in a horrifying way) just how different the right- vs. left- wing media is covering the story. It is interesting for no other reason than that I've often seen voter ID laws attacked with the assertion that there is zero evidence of voter fraud, so it's surprising to see any evidence of voter fraud at all.

If you were paying attention, you'd see that legislation aimed at making sure that liars and illegals can't cast votes include provisions for photo IDs paid for by the state in question. Who, by the way, has no form of ID? You can't cash government checks without it. You can't use social services without ID. You can't sit at the library and use taxpayer provided computers and internet access without ID. You can't live in subsidized housing without ID, or get Medicare coverage (or Medicaid) without one. But thousands of people can cast votes without them, and millions in Colorado can now make a complete circus out of the idea.

I'm not going to address those specific reasons for needing ID, but even before that, there's a very important constitutional issue here: the 24th amendment forbids making voting a right contingent on paying a tax. Of course, it's up to the courts to decide whether the fee for government ID is a "tax", but it seems pretty absurd to claim that it isn't.

It turns out that people without ID are surprisingly common (all of the articles I could find at a quick glance were focused on Texas because their recent voter ID law has made a lot of noise). Looking for reasons why that would be the case, I find a lot of mentions of disable people who are unable to drive and people who are unable due to logistics or money* to obtain an updated ID and therefore are using an expired driver's license.

Here's a list of state ID costs from 2008. The $10.50 cost appears to still be accurate for Colorado. The situation for Maryland is more complicated. The $15 in that list matches the cost for a non-license state ID for under 18; it's $24 for over 18 but there's also a comment about it being free for people with qualifying disabilities. Anyway, food costs ~$3-5/person/day (assuming you are being careful with cost cutting and have the time to cook), so that comes out to a Colorado ID costing 2-3 person-days of food or a Maryland ID costing 5-8 person-days of food. For a poor person living paycheck-to-paycheck, that is almost certainly the computation they are making when they decide to get by without valid ID.

A bunch of white guys except for the token minority (two birds with one stone, she's female and black). And I'd bet the two guys sharing the last name of Bramble vote in lockstep on everything. Curiously, Glen Bramble won his race in 2008 against a contestant named Troi Lynn Bramble Jones http://msa.maryland.gov/msa/md... . And there were some oddly close votes in 2012 http://msa.maryland.gov/msa/md...

A bunch of white guys except for the token minority (two birds with one stone, she's female and black). And I'd bet the two guys sharing the last name of Bramble vote in lockstep on everything. Curiously, Glen Bramble won his race in 2008 against a contestant named Troi Lynn Bramble Jones http://msa.maryland.gov/msa/md... . And there were some oddly close votes in 2012 http://msa.maryland.gov/msa/md...

The average used car sells for $9-10k (Maryland statistics for 2014; the new price matches your numbers). There are twice as many used car sales as new car sales.

...let's not forget that it is deep blue Maryland and Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley, widely considered to be eyeing a run at the Democratic nomination for POTUS in 2016, who took this to the Supreme Court over their own MD Court of Appeals, and who is the one shitting all over the 4th Amendment here. The MD DNA Database has been one of O'Malley's pet projects for years, and he's advocated its expansion and use for this type of thing since he was Mayor of Baltimore.

Where is it that unemployment pays more than the job one was laid off from?

I only ask so I can move they and get laid off, as all the states in my tri-state area pay about 60% of income, with a max that varies from 330/wk to 650/wk

Here's a sample from the one in the middle
http://www.dllr.maryland.gov/employment/claimfaq.shtml#wba

I mean if you worked somewhere good, then got laid off and went to KFC, realized it sucked, and then got yourself laid-off, you would get more than at KFC (minimum wage * 37.5 hour is 281.25, and I don't think there is wage tax on it either). But to get that you would need to have the 4 quarters used to calculate be at significantly better than KFC.

Anyway, please do let me know the state that uses a calculation that calculates out an increased number to the layoff so I can move there please.

False. Do your homework before making a claim like that.

In FY2009, MD spent approx 1.6 Bn on highway administration. 2010 appropriation is about 1.3 Bn. 2011 proposed appropriation is 1.4 Bn.

For FY2009, fuel tax receipts totaled only 758 million, of which only $549 million went to the Dept of transportation.

Once again, 5 minutes of googling proves you to be an ignorant liar.

Sources:

http://www.comp.state.md.us/finances/revenue/motorfuel/FuelAnnualReportFY2009.pdf
http://dbm.maryland.gov/agencies/operbudget/Documents/2011/Proposed/trans.pdf

This is somewhat misleading. Interstate highways and US routes are funded in large part by the Federal government. Granted a part of that also comes from fuel taxes, but not all of it. The Maryland transportation trust fund has quite a few sources of revenue, not just motor vehicles.

From http://www.mdot.maryland.gov/Transportation%20Revenues%20and%20Expenses/TransportationFund.html :

Sources of funds include motor fuel taxes, motor vehicle excise (titling) taxes, motor vehicle fees (registrations, licenses and other fees), and federal-aid. In addition, the Trust Fund also includes corporate income taxes, sales and use taxes, operating revenues (e.g., transit fares, port fees, airport fees), and bond proceeds. Federal-aid projections are based on current appropriations and the match required to meet capital program cashflow requirements. Bonds are issued to support the cashflow requirements of the planned capital program while maintaining debt coverage requirements.

And I'm really weirded out that you live in Maryland.

If states had more influence, the people would have more influence. You can change your state much easier than the federal government.

Not in my state, friend. The Democratic machine has a lock on the state legislature; if they chose the Senate, the Republicans (and Greens and Libertarians) probably wouldn't even bother running a candidate. (Not to say that a non-Democratic candidate has much chance in a direct election, but it would be even worse if selected by the legislature.)

I agree that the balance of state/federal power has swung to far in the federal direction. That doesn't mean indirect election of Senators would help. And it doesn't have any bearing on the original topic of pork-barrel spending.

They have been busted in California for using revisions of the software on their machines which were *never* reviewed. How can you (or anyone) say that turning on the modem is the only way to modify votes when you have no idea what that software release contained? It was certainly never reviewed by the state or the (ahem) "independent reviewers" that Diebold touts so vociferously.

Besides that, who knows if someone doesn;t go visit the machine and touch a few key places on the touch screen to modify votes. Who says it has to be done remotely by modem or otherwise?

Please pull your head out of your ass and realize that people are fucking stealing our elections; Elections which are supposed to represent the very core of our so-called "democracy". You are the fucking reason they are able to get away with shit like this.