The Builders' Council...

Some time ago I dug into campaign contributions to see which Council candidates were backed by Build PAC, AKA big development.

Today, I went back in to see which new Councilmembers received funding from "The Committee for Responsible Growth PAC", the PAC behind the "Go Montgomery" slate 4 years ago.

The incoming Councilmembers receiving funding from this group include:

Roger Berliner - $4,000

Nancy Floreen - $1,000

Mike Knapp - $2,500

All three of these characters were also funded by Build PAC, and have received thousands from development companies and attornies. Watch these folks closely, my friends...

Environmentalists: MoCo residents are screwed...

If you live or work near major highways - heck, let's throw in urban centers, too - you're pretty well doomed. So sayeth the best and brightest in the environmentalist community. Jim Fary, from the MoCo Sierra Club, and John Balbus of the Environmental Defense Action Fund say living in places with lots of cars "can trigger asthma attacks, heart attacks and respiratory disease."

Fary and Balbus effectively play the "safety of children" card which has proven to be useful in past NIMBY efforts. They hope to marry the inflamed passions of local PTAs with Al Gore's carbon neutrals to put pressure on Governor-Elect Martin O'Malley and the Democratic Congress to deep-six the generations old dream of a beltway bypass.

As a result, millions in the DC area are left pondering the utility of living in the "toxic pollution" along highways and dense urban areas. Why not move to one of those nice new communities out in the sprawl where the air is clean and drive in every day? At least then your car's nice HVAC system can filter out all of the bad air on your way in to work.

Another option would be to ban all autos and go back to the horse, but then the resulting methane emissions of our new equine overlords might trigger the rapid and total collapse of Greenland's glaciers...

The long, dark night of Montgomery republicans...

Gets darker still in today's Washington Post. Lots of great thinkers at those central committee meetings!

I think I'm pretty safe sending my annual contribution to montgomery dems elsewhere this year...

Top this...

Fairfax County is giving MoCo a run for its money in the race to be the wackiest county in the US. First, they ban food for the homeless, and now church bells.

Montgomery's new council will have to do something really stupid to catch up. No worries, I'm sure they won't dissapoint...