Anatomy of a Smear

The Baltimore Sun, and even the Drudge Report picked up the total non-story that is MDGOP First Vice Chair Diana Waterman’s black angus cow “Oprah.” There is, of course, a lot of bovine waste floating around this manufactured tempest in a teapot, but none of it is coming from the cow.

The real story here isn’t the cow as the Sun thinks, but about Queen Anne’s County ne'er-do-well, Sveinn Storm ginning up a controversy where none exists to smear Waterman in order to sink County Ordinance 11-02, which the Queen Anne’s County Board of Commissioners approved Tuesday night.

Storm and his pack of shrieking anti-growth harpies were opposed to the measure, which allows the party central committees to fill vacancies on the Queen Anne’s County Board of Commissioners. A similar system exists for vacancies in the General Assembly. The governor appoints replacements recommended by the county central committee of the party holding the particular seat.

Duly elected pro-growth Republicans dominate the Queen Anne’s County Republican Central Committee. Waterman is not only First Vice Chair of the Maryland GOP, but a member of the county central committee as well. Get the picture.

Storm and his ally Dan Worth claim that their opposition to the ordinance is all about democracy. Worth writes:

I don’t know about you, but I would rather have an opportunity to vote to fill a County Commissioner vacancy rather than have the selection made by who knows who.

Does Dan Worth, an active ally and neighbor of Sveinn Storm really think he can fool people into thinking he actually doesn’t know who is on the Queen Anne’s County Republican Central Committee? Quite cheeky for a guy who was busted for impersonating an elected official to be talking about “who knows who.”

In a letter so full of specious legal reasoning not seen since William O. Douglas wrote about emanations from penumbras, Storm demanded the committee turn over documents under the Maryland Public Information Act. An official from the Attorney General’s office assured me that county political central committees are not subject the law.

What Storm, Worth and the anti-growthers are really worried about is power. The commissioner’s election didn’t go their way, so they’re left with nothing but juvenile tricks and smear campaigns.

Storm and his anti-growth crowd are a fifth column, in what Senator EJ Pipkin and, Delegate Mike Smigiel call the war on rural Maryland.

Economic growth no matter how sensible or how needed is spat upon, and property rights are held in contempt--except their own of course. They know no boundary of decency or propriety, opponents are to be demonized at all costs.

Holy Cow(pie)

"every word she writes is a lie, include 'and' and 'the"

--Mary McCarthy on Lillian Hellman

McCarthy's famous zinger on the Stalinist sympathizing Hellman could well apply to Sveinn Storm, who appears to have fired up the steamroller to pave over the tattered remnants of his integrity.

Storm’s too-clever-by-half attack on Diana Waterman over her black angus cow “Oprah” contains two blatant falsehoods.

First, Storm claims Waterman named the cow. She didn’t. Perhaps Storm was too busy working on illegal renovations to the property he owns on Commerce St. to pick up the phone and call Diana to get his facts straight.

Second, Storm claims Waterman abused her position as Vice Chair of the Queen Anne’s County Republican Central Committee by campaigning for Robert Mansfield during the primary. As the Torch has documented this is completely false.

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.

Storm is free whine about promoting a “positive image” of the Republican Party, only he should conduct his spoon banging tantrums in front of mirror. Going by the long search return of his name in the Maryland Judiciary database, Storm is as about a positive image of a Republican, as President Obama is a centrist.

But let's not be too hard on Storm, he did reiterate for us the definition of the word racist... a conservative who is winning an argument.

What Does Racism Really Look Like?

It looks like this.

After allowing Queen Anne's County to enjoy a period of relative peace and quiet, Mr. Storm has painfully reminded us all of his continued existence (perhaps he's spent the last few months dealing with those possible EPA violations of his?).

In a recent post of his he accused Diana Waterman of being a racist for owning a cow named Oprah. Yes, having a pet named after a black celebrity makes you a racist in Storm's book.

Well, here's a message from the Torch to Storm - look to the speck in your own eye first.

As an aggressive opponent of any and all growth in Queen Anne's County and other rural areas, Mr. Storm has promoted policies explicitly designed to drive up property values by artificially restricting the supply of homes and buildable land.

Driving up prices like that has consequences. And considering that whites on average make about $25,000 more per year than blacks, chief among those effects is that it becomes that much harder for people who aren't white to buy homes here in Queen Anne's County.

Queen Anne's County did see its white population shrink from 2000 to 2009. But in that same time the black population dropped at 7 times the rate the white population did! For some reason, I can't help but think that the fact that the commissioners during that same period consistently adopted Storm's policies probably had something to do with the disproportionate shrink in the black population.

So you tell me which sounds more like racism to you, owning a cow with a celebrity's name or aggressively supporting policies that make it significantly harder for a black or a Hispanic family to buy the house next door?

Trust Svienn Storm?

Centreville's infamous ice cream man/political bully, Sveinn Storm, has a sign up in front of his house asking "Trust Developers?"

Whatever.

However, if you look across South Commerce street you will see Storm's decrepit property, you know the one he is renovating without a town permit and in violation of EPA regulations.

Someone tell Sevinn we have all three of those already or did I imagine the recent budget deficit and proposal to raise taxes--with his preferred anti-growth commissioners.

Sveinn Storm, paving his integrity one sign at a time.

Ice Cream Man, Heal Thyself

We here at the Torch, along with our readers, are enjoying a hearty laugh at Sveinn Storm's latest spoon banging tantrum.

Storm chastises the so called "developer cartel" candidates for lack of a moral compass.

Yes you read that right. This so-called envrionmental activist who violated EPA rules and proceededwith renovations without town approval had the temerity to lecture others on morality.

We wonder if Storm ever considered the moral compass of his compatriot and neighbor Dan cough-Sentinel Whispers-cough Worth, who impersonated an elected official.

Looks like the only thing this environmentalist recyles are worn out, clichéd arguments.

PS

We're still tracking down evidence of Storm allegedly pumping sewage out of his flooded ice cream shop into Annapolis Harbor during the rain storms last month.

Storm's a Brewing?

Courtesy of an anonymous tip the QAC Torch has discovered that everyone's favorite political gadfly, Sveinn Storm got it into his head to do some renovation work on a house he owns in Centreville.

210 S Commerce Street 2

While it's nice that he's cleaning up such an eyesore on one of the main roads in Centreville, he should probably make the next person he attacks on Pave Our County himself.

First, he began this work before the town had granted him permission to do so. As you can see near the bottom of one of the pages of pictures, they were sent on September 15.

210 S Commerce Street 1

However, a quick call to the Centreville town office revealed that Mr. Storm had not yet received a permit for any of those renovations - as of September 22 he still hadn't received a permit since it was still awaiting final signatures.

Second, the town office says the permit indicates that Storm plans to do the work himself. That's another big no-no. Back on May 6th the EPA issued a ruling revising the regulations for renovations on buildings built before 1978.

That ruling specifically prohibits anyone from doing renovation work, interior or exterior, on a house built before 1978 unless they are specially certified for it by the EPA.

The house in question? Built in 1918 - but there's no record on the EPA's website of Storm having completed the necessary certifications. Illegally doing renovation work without certification is a serious offense, one punishable by a civil fine of up to $25,000 and a criminal fine of up to $25,000 and up to a year in prison.

If you're interested in notifying the EPA of these violations, you can use their online complaint/tip form, located here to submit info on Mr. Storm and his flagrant violations of the law.

Now personally, we here at the Torch might not care for these sort of regulations, but if Storm plans to attack others for their law violations he ought to look to his own house first, both figuratively and literally.

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

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.