What is at Stake

Although the quote below deals with a national issue it is relevant to the stakes in the Queen Anne’s commissioner’s race.

But we’re still in this wrestling match with John Boehner and Mitch McConnell about the last 2 to 3 percent, where ...we’d be giving them on average $100,000 for people making $1 million or more.

--Barack Obama on extending Bush tax cuts to Americans in upper income brackets.


NO Mr. President “we” meaning the government wouldn’t be giving those people anything.

Obama crystallized the central economic fallacy in progressive rhetoric. A tax cut isn’t a handout to the wealthy. A tax cut is the government prohibiting itself from taking more from what these people already earned. It wasn’t the government’s money to give—to anyone—in the first place.

As Rick Moran noted on the difference between tax cuts and entitlements:

To not see how that concept turns the idea of freedom on its head reveals a moral blindness that makes it easy to posit that all property is subject to government approval and control. It justifies eminent domain and host of other egregious threats to human liberty that used to be a concern of liberals but is now seen as an impediment to government management of most every facet of people’s lives.

The anti-growth/anti-property rights crowd in Queen Anne’s County has turned the idea of property rights on it’s head and seeks—and has sought—to make our property rights subject to government approval.

If the words liberty and property rights do indeed mean something to you, then choice today and in November couldn’t be clearer.

A Weak Storm

Evil puppet master of the quote developer cartel unquote Mareen Waterman refutes serial straw man killer Sveinn Storm's lies and distortions.


Water Men Lte

The Two Franks

I'm sure before they head into the voting booth tomorrow, Republican primary voters would like to know that alleged Republican Frank Frohn gave Democratic soon to be ex-congressman Frank Kratovil $1,250.




















Why is a local Republican candidate who bills himself as a "fiscal conservative" supporting a Democratic incumbant voted with Obama and Nancy Pelosi 85% of the time and her agenda of bank bailouts, cap and trade, and the stimulus.

Do As They Say Not As They Do

From a 2005 Washington Post piece on anti-growth money man and former Freddie Mac fraudster Leland Brendsel and his wife losing their lease on the state's historic Wye Hall property.

Hershey [former DNR official] said that he gave the Brendsels until the end of the year to harvest crops that they had allowed a local farmer to plant on the land. The parcel then will be put up for bid, and Brendsel can try to lease it again. If he is outbid, he may have to remove some of the landscaping.

Hershey had also been reviewing whether the Brendsels violated the terms of their lease by making cosmetic changes to the ecologically sensitive property.

The irony, is as they say, delicious.

Here we have a big donors to the statist candidates who would have government dictate what private property owners may do with their land, doing whatever they please on land that does not even belong to them.

The Mansfield Documents

Rob Mansfield responded to the charges made by serial strawman killer Sveinn Storm. Mansfield says the record will prove him correct. It does. See for yourself.


Mans Field Court Docs

When most would seek to hide their past, Rob was honest and open with voters about it.

The same can't be said for the hacks who are attacking him through anonymous blogs with half truths and slander.

Why Sentinels Whisper Anonymously

A funny thing happened while dumpster diving in the archives of Sentinel Whispers, the anti-growth/anti-property rights blog run by the anonymous “GateKeeper.”

A security login window popped up on my screen with asking for the login and password for the cgc.centreville-md.net server.



















Of course, that server is the home page for Citizens for Greater Centreville, run by Dan Worth. A quick look at Dan Worth’s Facebook page shows that his email address is dan.worth@cgc.centreville-md.net.

























Citizens for Greater Centreville, also appears to be a conduit organization for contributions to Jay Falstad’s employer the Queen Anne’s Conservation Fund. The CGC membership application form directs applicants to make checks to QACA.

Also, Dan Worth just happens to be next door neighbor to serial straw man killer Sveinn Storm.

Given the cgc.centreville-md.net login popup window and Worth’s email extension it’s not a stretch to say Dan Worth is the mysterious “Gatekeeper.”

Why would Worth want to act anonymously? Perhaps it is because in 2006 Worth resigned from the Centreville Planning Commission after sending emails impersonating then Town Council President Donna Turner’s name.

According to a Dec. 31 Maryland State Police investigation report, Worth set up an e-mail account with Verizon using Turner’s name. He sent an e-mail using the address, donna.smith.turner @verizon.net, to two other people, according to the report.

Turner said she does not have an e-mail address.

The incident allegedly occurred Sept. 21 and a police report was filed Dec. 3. Turner said she was given a copy of the e-mail.

On Sept. 21, an e-mail allegedly from Turner was sent to Sveinn Storm and Larry Mort that read: “I can’t believe that you guys are spreading lies that I am somehow going to resign. I do not need this kind of pressure. My grandmother died less than
two months ago and now my grandfather is in poor health. I plan on continuing my term and doing all that I can to make sure that Dan Worth does not get elected.” It was signed Donna S. Turner President, Centreville Town Council.

Mort’s wife, Jodi, replied to the e-mail from the Turner account (allegedly set up by Worth) on Sept. 22. Copies of Jodi Mort’s reply were sent to Worth, Storm, and Centreville Town Council Vice President Mary T. McCarthy. McCarthy sent copies of the e-mails to Town Manager Royden N. Powell III with a message that read, “Just received this today and thought you should be aware of this.” The postscript said, “(p.s. my opinion, off the record: she should have kept dan out of it- he didn’t start it)….”

During a phone interview by Maryland State Police on Dec. 19, Worth said the e-mail was a joke. According to the police report, Worth was asked if he intended to make Turner “look bad and to drag her name through the mud, ‘He said ‘Yea, I guess.’

Classy.

Worth and his wife are also avid supporters of noted birther, U.S. Senate candidate, and current county commissioner, Eric Wargotz.

An ally of QACA, Wargotz introduced county ordinance 08-25, legislation that is an affront to property rights and would have removed the intrinsic value in their land that farmers use to borrow against in order to finance their operations. It should be noted QACA offered a “report” with cooked statistics to justify 08-25

Worth’s wife Temple, is treasurer of Wargotz’s campaign committee, which according to FEC filings has paid the couple $4,600 for consulting and computer services. No wonder they’re such big Wargotz fans.

Trolling through Wargotz’s contribution receipts reveals large donations from anti-growth money men Alan Griffith and Leland Brendsel, and anti-growth commisoner candidate Bob Simmons.

Understand Property Rights in 3 and a Half Minutes

The anti-growthers here in Queen Anne's County would do quite well to take a few minutes and watch this video explaining why we have property rights and why it matters that they are protected.





Please feel free to share this with your friends, it's an important message that seems to be understood far too poorly in Queen Anne's County, at least by some.

Falstad's Intellectually Dishonest Mailer

Jay Falstad’s latest mailer from the Republican Environmental Alliance—paid for by Falstad’s mortgage holder, Alan Griffith and Freddie Mac fraudster Leland Brendsel—urges voters in the September 14th Republican primary to “vote for 3 Conservative Republicans” and features an image of Teddy Roosevelt.























Apparently Jay is as unfamiliar with history as he is with state campaign finance and ethics laws.
Teddy Roosevelt is no conservative. In fact he is widely regarded as progressive. Roosevelt was avid devotee of Hebert Croly one of the four horsemen of American progressivism. TR was a statist through and through.

In his New Nationalism speech Roosevelt said:

We grudge no man a fortune in civil life if it is honorably obtained and well used. It is not even enough that it should have been gained without doing damage to the community. We should permit it to be gained only so long as the gaining represents benefit to the community. This, I know, implies a policy of a far more active governmental interference with social and economic conditions in this country than we have yet had, but I think we have got to face the fact that such an increase in governmental control is now necessary.

Roosevelt also practiced corporatist economics. From Jonah Goldberg’s indispensable book Liberal Fascism:

Since the dawn of the Progressive Era, reformers have constructed an army of straw men, conjured a maelstrom of myths, to justify blurring the lines between business and government. According to civics textbooks, Upton Sinclair and his fellow muckrakers unleashed populist rage against the cruel excesses of the meatpacking industry, and as a result Teddy Roosevelt and his fellow Progressives boldly reined in an industry run amok. The same story repeats itself for the accomplishments of other muckrakers, including the pro-Mussolini icons Ida Tarbell and Lincoln Steffens. This narrative lives on as generations of journalism students’ dream of exposing corporate malfeasance and prompting government-imposed “reform.”

The problem is that it’s totally untrue, a fact Sinclair freely acknowledged.“The Federal inspection of meat was, historically, established at the packers’ request,” Sinclair wrote in 1906. “It is maintained and paid for by the people of the United States for the benefit of the packers.” The historian Gabriel Kolko concurs: “The reality of the matter, of course, is that the big packers were warm friends of regulation, especially when it primarily affected their innumerable small competitors.” A spokesman for “Big Meat” (as we might call it today) told Congress, “We are now and have always been in favor of the extension of the inspection, also to the adoption of the sanitary regulations that will insure the very best possible conditions.” The meatpacking conglomerates knew that federal inspection would become a marketing tool for their products and, eventually, a minimum standard. Small firms and butchers who’d earned the trust of consumers would be forced to endure onerous compliance costs, while large firms not only could absorb the costs more easily but would be able to claim their products were superior to uncertified meats.

If Roosevelt is a conservative then the word has lost all meaning.



Interestingly enough Falstad’s mailer goes a long way in proving BQA correct that the anti-growth crowd’s candidates are indeed wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Falstad is free to invoke Roosevelt in his appeal, but he should at least be intellectually honest with voters and properly identify Roosevelt as a progressive.

Paving His Own Integrity

Sveinn Storm of Pave Our County blog is paving over his own integrity. In his latest post they accuse Diana Waterman of “abusing her position” on the Queen Anne’s County Republican Central Committee by campaigning for county commissioner candidate Robert Mansfield on Saturday September 4th in Symphony Village.


The only problem with Storm’s clever little conceit is that Waterman wasn’t campaigning for Robert Mansfield, and wasn’t acting in her capacity as vice chair of the QAC GOP Central Committee. Furthermore, contrary to his claim, there is no provision in the Queen Anne's County Republican Central Committee bylaws, which proscribes a member for campaigning as a private citizen for a certain candidate.

In fact, Waterman organized the door knocking effort on behalf of Queen Anne’s for Ehrlich, and the Andy Harris campaign. Furthermore, she wasn’t “campaigning for Mansfield.” As the email alert she sent out clearly contains the addresses of anti-growth candidates David Dunmeyer—Mansfield’s opponent—and Frank Frohn in the distribution list.

Diana also specifically states “Candidates bring your literature (and your volunteers) and we’ll hand it out too.”

The invitation was open to ALL Republican candidates.

























If Dunmeyer and Frohn don’t want to support the effort to help Bob Ehrlich oust Martin O’Malley—the guy who stripped Queen Anne’s County of it’s road maintenance funds and enacted the largest tax increase in state history—that is their right. However, I’m sure most Queen Anne’s Republicans won’t see the virtue in that.

Given the utter lack of credibility to Storm’s argument, his notion that Waterman “gave every appearance of hiding from our camera” doesn’t hold water.


Pave Our County? Really Svienn? Seriously, that’s the worst straw man argument this side of an O’Malley campaign speech.

Following the Money: The Men Behind the Curtain

During the last week voters in Queen Anne's County received two mailers of note. One came from David Dunmyer, another from Frank Frohn.

Now what's interesting is what happens when you look at them next to each other.

Now maybe the fact that their fliers look nearly identical is simple coincidence, but in politics there's usually more than meets the eye. And it certainly looks that way here.

If you take a look at their campaign finance reports, the same names and same amounts show up on both.

• Leland Brendsel, a Freddie Mac chief who got a golden parachute at taxpayer expense, donated $500 to David Dunmyer and $500 and then another $3000 to Frank Frohn.
• Sveinn Storm donated $100 to David Dunmyer and $100 to Frank Frohn.
• And both candidates received $250 (David, Frank) from Jay Falstad's Republican Environmental Alliance PAC.

Take things a little bit deeper, and you'll see that Jay's PAC is funded by:

• Leland Brendsel, $1000 and $4000
• Alan Griffith, $1000 and $2000
• Robert Simmons, $4000 (former CATSOC chairman and current County Commissioner candidate)
• Earl Chambers, $250 (also donated $850 to Frohn, here, here, and here)
• Edward Walls, $100 (also donated $100 to Dunmyer)

With fliers and donations this similar, it's hard not to think that both of these candidates have some money men pulling the strings for them.

Following the Money: Who Owns Jay Falstad?

According to the Queen Anne’s Conservation Association’s 2008 990 return, Alan Griffith is listed as a board member.

Alan Griffith is a former executive vice president of the Bank of New York and head of BONY’s international banking sector. Griffith was named in a federal lawsuit involving bank executives and Russian mobsters laundering billions of dollars through BONY accounts.

Griffith and his wife are generous donors to candidates and web of PACs, which fund the anti-growth crowd, as well as to county commissioner and U.S. Senate candidate Eric Wargotz.

It also appears that Griffith is in the mortgage business. Griffith owns QACA lobbyist/PACman Jay Falstad’s mortgage. Also, Griffith has given $3,000 to Falstad’s Republican Environmental Alliance PAC—including the most recent contribution of $1,000 on August 26.

So the question now is: Who else owns Jay Falstad?

Jay Falstad: Too Busy Attacking Property Rights to Obey the Law

Among the members of the anti-growth movement, Jay Falstad's voice has been one of the loudest and one of the ones most often heard.

Jay happens to be the paid lobbyist for Queen Anne's Conservation Association, a key part of the web of front groups organized and maintained by the I've Got Mine crowd.

Now, overall, I think reasonably well of Jay. Unlike most of the others anti-growthers, he honestly seems to believe what he says. That makes it both better, because he's honest, and worse, because he truly doesn't care about property rights. But as much as I disagree with him, I respect him.

But that doesn't excuse him for flouting state ethics law.

Back in 2007, Jay was a lobbyist registered with the state of Maryland. As such, he was obliged to adhere to the State Ethics Code.

At the same time, Jay was also the chairman of the Republican Environmental Alliance PAC, a group he started in 2006 and still chairs today.

That's where the problem starts. Two problems actually.

First, there are Jay's actions as chairman of the PAC. On two separate occasions he made transfers of funds from the PAC to political candidates, once to a state senator and once to a delegate.

This is a very big deal. Section 15-714 of the Maryland Code clearly states:

(d) Restrictions on activities. --

(1) A regulated lobbyist who is subject to this section or a person acting on behalf of the regulated lobbyist may not, for the benefit of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, or Comptroller, or a member of the General Assembly, or a candidate for election to the office of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Comptroller, or member of the General Assembly, engage in the following activities:

(i) soliciting or transmitting a political contribution from any person, including a political committee;

A lobbyist transmitting funds from a PAC to the campaign of a state senator or delegate, which is what Jay did, is unquestionably a violation of state ethics law.

That's the first problem. Here's the second.

Going back to the ethics code, section 15-714(d)(ii) and (iii) state that lobbyists are also prohibited from:

(ii) serving on a fund-raising committee or a political committee;

(iii) acting as a treasurer for a candidate or official or as treasurer or chairman of a political committee;

If one checks the definitions listed in section 15-714, it states that "political committee" is defined by section 1-101 of the Election Law Article. And section 1-101 has this to say about PACs:

(ff) Political Action Committee. - "Political action committee" means a political committee that is not:

(1) a political party;

(2) a central committee;

(3) a slate;

(4) a political committee organized and operated solely to support or oppose a single candidate; or

(5) a political committee organized and operated solely to support or oppose a ballot issue.

Since a PAC is clearly a political committee in the eyes of the code, it certainly looks like Jay violated ethics law on this count as well.

On two counts then Jay has violated state ethics law. That should make everyone in QAC suspicious of his work, as a lobbyist for QACA, as chairman of the Republican Environmental Alliance PAC, and as a player in local politics in general.

In particular we ought to be wary when it comes to the current election. According to Frank Frohn supporter Paula Kougores, Jay has raised $3000 for Frohn's campaign.

With those kind of ethics law violations, it makes one wonder if that was all on the up and up.

Following the Money

Lester Freamon the wily detective from HBO’s The Wire once said, “you follow drugs you get drug addicts and drug dealers. But you start to follow the money... and you don't know where the fuck is going to take you.”

Following the money for the anti-growth crowd in Queen Anne’s takes you to some interesting places.

Money doesn’t travel on it’s own. People who have it need to give it to the people and organizations that will use it. The first place to look for the anti-growth crowd is the Queen Anne’s Conservation Association. QACA is an IRS registered 501(c)3 tax exempt organization. You can view QACA’s IRS 990 returns for 2005, 2006, and 2008 the latest available on Guidestar. QACA also has a related 501(c)3 the Queen Anne’s Conservation Fund, which is “operated for the exclusive benefit of the Queen Anne’s Conservation Association Inc.” Form 990s available for 2006 and 2008.

The returns tell us that QACA raised and spent a lot of money on lobbying, consulting and legal fees to stop the Four Seasons on Kent Island. While QACA is not required to disclose the identity of their donors, the names on the board of directors and listed addresses provide interesting leads.

Richard Altman is listed as QACA’s “Senior Planning Consultant” and is a registered lobbyist for QACA. Altman is also the former chairman of the Citizen’s Alliance to Save Our County political action committee. QACA board member James Campbell is the former treasurer of CATSOC and anti-growth commissioner candidate Bob Simmons is another former CATSOC chairman.
Altman’s wife is vice president of QACA.

QACA’s available 990s show that QACA paid Altman’s firm RSA Associates over $248,000 over those years. Only on the 2008 filing does QACA disclose the payments to Altman’s firm under “payments to “interested persons.” The disclosure lists the payments as providing “executive management services to QACA.” This is curious as Altman is an architect and his firm specializes in construction design rather than “executive management services.”

The 2800 Bennett Point Rd. address on the Queen Anne’s Conservation Fund’s 990s is the same address as Altman’s RSA Associates.

It is highly suspicious that the firm of QACA’s “senior planning consultant” and paid lobbyist just happens to be the same address for the 501(c)3 “charitable and educational” entity charged with benefiting QACA.

Is QACA merely Altman Inc.?

Just Who Are the Anti-Growthers

As we've noted, there is an anti-growth movement in this county.

It's not an overstatement, it's a simple fact. In spite of their claims of supporting what they term smart or sensible growth, the reality is that this crowd is opposed to any and all growth occurring within Queen Anne's County.

Don't believe it? Ask any growth opponent to name one project they supported. Odds are they won't be able to. They have opposed all proposed projects located outside the growth area because that's not smart growth, and they simultaneously have opposed all projects inside the growth areas because that would make things too dense.

They hold no concern for the property rights of the people of Queen Anne's County and they consistently play by one set of rules yet hold their opponents to another. They'll say whatever they need to in order to stop their opponents and they'll spend however much money it takes to enforce their agenda - all the while doing just as bad and worse as what they condemn their opponents for. But no more!

Queen Anne's County has suffered long enough under this elite Got-Mine Gentry of trial lawyers, trust funders, bankers, lobbyists, egomaniacs, and others who have gotten their piece of the Eastern Shore dream and are ready to do whatever it takes to make sure the little people don't spoil their fun.

But no more! It's time to let Lady Liberty's torch shine brightly and take back our county and take back our property rights so that all can have the opportunity to live here in Queen Anne's County, not just the old and well-off.

Be sure to check back for more info on the men and women who think it's their place to steal your property rights and your children's future in this county.

Mission Statement

Hello, and thanks for taking the time to come and check out the site. We wanted to take the time to let you know just what we believe and why we're writing. So here's our mission statement:

The Queen Anne's Torch exists to spread light on the uncomfortable truths the anti-growth movement in Queen Anne's County would rather you not know and counter the darkness and deception they are working hard to spread in support of their anti-property rights, anti-freedom agenda.

We hold a simple philosophy here. People have rights, not because government gave them to us, but because we were naturally and inherently born with them. Key among these rights are property rights, and as history has shown, where property rights are not respected, other liberties are soon to follow.