WBAL.com

A group of Baltimore residents is planning a protest this week of Mayor Sheila Dixon receiving her pension when she steps down next month.

[...]

Organizer Josh Dowlut has used Facebook to get the word out. As of Sunday he tells WBAL Radio he had more than 500 people interested in the Tuesday afternoon protest.

He says the goal of the protest is to send the politicians in Baltimore a message that voters will remember at the polls, “if they end up giving this thief a pension.”

Dowlut says he and others do not believe that Dixon deserves the pension. He believes that the money she will receive each year through her pension from the City can be better used to pay for services or programs.

“I think if anything with this protest on Tuesday, I think it can bring together, fire people up and get people more involved in their own government,” says Dowlut.

The protest is planned for 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.

If you didn’t have the link to the protest information on Facebook, you might have trouble finding it since WBAL.com didn’t include a link. Dowlut used a group – which are dinosaurs in my opinion. Pages are the way most people market things on Facebook now, but, even before they became a better option than groups, Facebook Events has always been the best way to promote events on Facebook. Currently there are over 730 people in Dowlut’s group – but that just means 730 people are interested enough to join the group. It is no indicator of turnout for an event whatsoever.

Dowlut’s Facebook profile indicates that he is a fan of Conservative Marylanders United.

NRA-ILA

“Mayors Against Illegal Guns” Loses Yet Another Member!

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Mayor Sheila Dixon (D) has accepted a plea deal for perjury charges stemming from accusations that she did not report gifts she received from a local developer. In a teary announcement yesterday, she resigned her post as the Mayor of Baltimore as part of the plea.

As you will recall, Dixon, a vocal member of “Mayors Against Illegal Guns,” was convicted last month of pocketing gift cards intended for Baltimore’s needy families.

Dixon now joins the ranks of disgraced anti-gun politicians like former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (D) and Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (D) of Detroit. Perhaps these folks should focus on abiding by the law themselves instead of persecuting law-abiding citizens.

“Mayors Against Illegal Guns” (MAIG) was founded and is funded by activist anti-gun billionaire and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as a front group to lobby Congress to oppose important pro-gun reforms and support new federal gun control restrictions. Despite its very misleading name, this national group of anti-gun mayors has lobbied Congress against national reciprocity of state Right-to-Carry permits, against much-needed reform of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), for regulating gun shows out of existence, and for repealing the Tiahrt Amendment that protects the privacy rights of law-abiding gun owners and limits disclosure of sensitive firearm trace data to protect law enforcement personnel and protect lawful gun manufacturers from bogus lawsuits.

Some in the pro-life community in the Baltimore area and, presumably, some in the Archdiocese of Baltimore are not exactly thrilled with the upcoming ascendance to office of Mayor by City Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. Rawlings-Blake will take office when the resignation of Mayor Sheila Dixon becomes effective on February 4.

All of this stems from actions taken by Rawlings-Blake in the latter part of 2009 when she shepherded a bill through city council regulating crisis pregnancy centers. This was the first bill of its kind to become law anywhere in America (state legislation failed in two states.) Montgomery County Council later voted on a similar measure.

Here’s an excerpt from The Baltimore Sun on November 23, 2009:

The measure, introduced by council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake at the behest of Planned Parenthood of Maryland, would require that crisis pregnancy centers that do not provide abortions or birth control post signs saying so.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore opposed this bill and cited a Rawlings-Blake comment that, “Crisis Pregnancy Centers do good work.”

The proposal was written under the guise of providing complete information to women visiting the crisis pregnancy centers. NARAL and Planned Parenthood both pushed the measure while opposing amendments that would also apply a similar standard to abortion clinics or other counseling centers who do make referrals for abortions or birth control.

Three members of City Council opposed the proposal. The Baltimore Sun briefly mentioned this opposition November 24:

“It should not just apply to these four centers,” said Councilman James B. Kraft, who tried unsuccessfully last week to broaden the scope of the bill. “But if you hold out yourself as a facility that gives advice to a young woman who finds herself pregnant – whether she wants abortion, comprehensive birth control, prenatal care, postnatal care – there should be a sign saying we do not provide advice on this one option.”

Newsbusters points out one interesting fact that the Sun left out of their story – Rawlings-Blake voted against a measure proposed by Kraft that would require abortion clinics to provide a list of services they do not provide.

The Catholic Review reported on this vote:

On a 5-10 vote, the council rejected an amendment offered by Councilman James B. Kraft that would have broadened the bill to require abortion clinics to post signs indicating what services they do not provide.

When a woman is facing a decision about abortion, Kraft said, it’s important for her to have access to information about all services – including abortion, adoption, birth control, counseling, financial assistance, postnatal assistance and prenatal services.

“Each place should give her every bit of information it can,” Kraft said.

Council President Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, chief sponsor of the bill, voted against Kraft’s amendment. Despite the fact that there were no amendments offered that would have required abortion providers to post signs saying that they offer abortions, Rawlings-Blake told the council she opposed making abortion clinics post such signs because it could open them up to violence.

“There’s a long history of violence against abortion providers,” she insisted.

I remember there being some talk before this measure became law that the Archdiocese of Baltimore would consider litigation, but I have yet to see any evidence of such a lawsuit materializing. In fact, I previously heard that it probably would not happen. However, there is a concern by many of the critics of this law that it has opened the door for further regulation of what crisis pregnancy centers do and say by politicians who favor abortion who are simply grandstanding for their own political future.

Apparently both Jayne Miller of WBAL TV and Rob Lang of WBAL AM beat Marc Steiner to the punch on the Sheila Dixon resignation story. David Zurawik originally gave Steiner the credit. Baltimore Brew has more (via DCRTV.)

Zurawik also blogged about the “social media” aspect of the breaking story yesterday and goes on to mention reporters tweeting about the resignation. He points out a tidbit from Julie Bykowicz – that courtroom staff kept reporters from leaving the hearing after the judge reminded them of no tweeting or texting from the courtroom.

Zurawik left out any mention of the @insidecharmcity tweets about the breaking story and he also has no mention of Google Wave for discussions of events as they happened. We seem to be the only media outlet in town that has been using Wave in groundbreaking ways for the past couple of months – including yesterday and on the day Dixon was found guilty.

@justin_fenton

Wbal radio just reported fines, community service and feb 4 resignation

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