Posted on 08/29/2009 6:30:26 AM PDT by BGHater
For Immediate Release
August 25, 2009
Hampstead to Fly Protest Flag
In an act of protest, Hampstead Mayor Haven N. Shoemaker has ordered the Town’s municipal flag to be replaced by the historic Gadsen “Don’t Tread On Me” flag. Mayor Shoemaker will raise the flag after a brief ceremony at the War Memorial in Hampstead at 6 p.m., September 1. The timing of the ceremony coincides with anticipated cuts in state funding to local governments including Hampstead.
“We have the so-called stimulus which is nothing more than an unprecedented issuance of debt. We have ObamaCare. In Maryland, we have a complete failure by Governor O’Malley and the Legislature to balance the state budget,” Shoemaker said. “The $3.8 billion in federal money sent to Maryland was wasted on pork barrel projects and social program spending rather than on rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. Now the State is dumping their failure of fiscal leadership into our laps.”
Mayor Shoemaker directed the flag switch through his first formal executive order. “Normally, I would just call Town Hall and ask our folks to take care of something, but this is a little out of the ordinary.”
When asked what he hoped to accomplish through the symbolic change, Shoemaker was philosophical. “Maybe this won’t amount to anything. Maybe other local governments will decide to join us. In any event, the people in Hampstead will know that there is still one level of government left in America that is of the people, by the people and for the people.”
The Gadsen Flag has become a popular symbol of the recent Tea Party movement. The historic yellow flag features a timber rattlesnake and the phrase “Don’t Tread On Me.” When asked how long he expected to fly the flags, Shoemaker shrugged and responded, “We’ll see.”
f’n AWESOME!
MD ping.
We fly this flag in our front yard in place of our US flag. I wish everyone of us of like mind would use this flag to show what we stand for and against.
I wish my town would do that.
Just up the road from me on a major highway out of my community there is a steel plate in the road where the road washed away almost a year ago. Yesterday I asked my state Representative to try to get it fixed, He stated, Maryland hasnt got any money. If this hole was in Baltimore or PG you can bet your bippy, they would find the money.
Hampstead is right we are being taken for a ride.
O’Malley has totally screwed Marylanders.Obama is totally screwing America.
We had a decent Republican Governor in Ehrlich, he did a good job and left Maryland with a surplus. O’Malley took care of that mistake in quick order. He spent the surplus, raised taxes and spent all of that ,and then borrowed with the stimulus ,and thats gone too.
Maryland is the fifth least free state in the country.
The Peoples Republic of Maryland:
The state is 34th in economic freedom but a distant
50th in personal freedom. Maryland’s impositions on
personal freedom include the second-strictest gun
laws in the country, and marijuana laws are fairly
harsh (except that the first offense of high-level possession
is a misdemeanor, and there is a weak medical
marijuana law), motorists’ freedoms are highly
restricted, gambling laws are tight, home schooling
laws are burdensome (curricula must be approved
by the government), centralized land-use planning
is very advanced, eminent domain abuse is totally
unreformed, victimless crimes arrest rates are high,
and civil unions are not recognized. On the plus side,
taxes on beer, wine, and spirits are fairly low, and
overall Maryland has one of the least restrictive alcohol
control systems in the country. Surprisingly, the
state has not enacted complete smoking bans yet. On
economic regulation, the state has the usual left-ofcenter
failings on labor law, but more strikingly it has
the second-most health insurance mandates in the
country (they add 67 percent to the cost).
Ref: http://www.mercatus.org/uploadedFiles/Mercatus/Publications/Freedom%20in%20the%2050%20States.pdf
Chin up, at least you can gamble now.
It may be safe to fly this flag in South Carolina ,, but in the peoples republic of maryland it may be costly .
A maryland citizen once said he was so argry with governor 0’malley that he would like to go down to the state capitol and wring his neck . He was aressted and charged and had a $300,000.00 bail set .
It is my hope that perhaps one day some contras from South America will sneak in our country and help us marylanders take back our state from the tyrants who have seized control through corrupted election procedures .
Ha ha ha ha that’s beautiful. And I’m relieved to see a “normal people” arrow pointing straight at my house.
I think it's you all who are finally catching up. Now if you could quit being a perinial blue state...
We go by counties here. I live in a red county. :-D
"The timing of the ceremony coincides with anticipated cuts in state funding to local governments including Hampstead."
So what this mayor is "protesting" is the cutoff of his access to the state's sugar tit.
Time for me to rosin up the bow on the world's tiniest violin....
Good for Shoemaker. The libs at the Carroll County Times don't look kindly on this though :)
Yep, that's the driving motivation - a slightly higher cut in state tax revenues flowed back to counties on a per capita basis to a red county vs. cuts made to the blue counties & Baltimore City by our socialist state government. However, it provides a common rallying point with Carroll County libs (article today in Carroll County Times about disproportionate cuts), to which a conservative message is being attached.
We fly it on the flagpole just under out US flag. I guess folks around here know where we stand because we also have a Tea party sign in our yard as well!
Being a Navy man, I like this one better.
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