Cherry_BlossomThere is no more beautiful time in Washington, DC than when the cherry blossoms are blooming.  The added bonus is that usually the many beds of tulips are also in bloom.

We are truly blessed with these trees.  There was a time, right after Pearl Harbor, that the  cherry trees had to be guarded to keep people from hacking them to pieces.  What a strange reaction!

The Apple Blossom parade is also a fun event and is just a hop, skip and a jump over to Winchester.

43 Thoughts to “Open Thread………………………………………………..Sunday, April 14”

  1. Starryflights

    Robert McCartney

    Three reasons McDonnell’s wedding gift controversy should spark outrage

    A joke in Richmond says the wedding march got new lyrics at the nuptials of Gov. Bob McDonnell’s daughter: “Here comes the bribe.”

    It’s just a gag, but it arises from the serious revelation that a Virginia corporate executive paid the $15,000 tab for food at the 2011 wedding reception. The event occurred three days after McDonnell’s wife flew to Florida to promote the donor’s principal business product at a seminar.

    The wedding-gift controversy is the first significant embarrassment to taint McDonnell (R) since he became governor. He has generally enjoyed a reputation as an earnest wonk rather than a slippery operator.

    The affair also forces Virginia to confront the sorry reality of its weak anti-corruption laws, which received a grade of F last year in a national survey.

    Virginia places no limits on gifts to politicians, as long as they’re disclosed. Even the disclosure requirement is waived if the gifts come from a personal friend or go to a family member.

    Partly because of the laws’ many loopholes, there’s no evidence so far that the wedding gift violated any statute. Still, it’s outrageous in three ways.

    First and most important, the pattern of mutual favors between the McDonnell family and Jonnie R. Williams Sr., chief executive of Star Scientific, doesn’t pass a smell test.

    Donations to the McDonnells from Williams and the company go beyond poached shrimp and bruschetta for 200.

    The company has provided more than $100,000 worth of rides on its corporate jet to McDonnell’s 2009 gubernatorial campaign and his political action committee. In the past two years, Williams and the company have also given the governor more than $9,600 in food, lodging and other largess.

    The company benefited when McDonnell used the governor’s mansion to host a party for Star Scientific’s main product — an anti-inflammatory diet supplement called Anatabloc. That’s the one Maureen McDonnell touted at the Florida seminar.

    The governor’s position is that there’s no connection between Star Scientific’s donations and any of his official actions. He says he and his wife have just routinely promoted a Virginia business.

    But does any reasonable person think Williams’s generosity was purely altruistic? He had abundant ways to benefit from access to the governor. His company is losing money and is facing a federal investigation thought to focus on securities transactions.

    “The gift has every appearance of being designed to influence Bob McDonnell and not to help pay for the wedding,” said Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen. “We see a frequent pattern where special interests will find any way to throw money at the feet of a lawmaker to make sure the lawmaker is indebted to them.”

    The second outrage is McDonnell’s failure to be open and transparent about what happened.

    When the story broke, the governor said he didn’t have to disclose the $15,000 gift because he wasn’t the recipient. Instead, he said, it was a present to his daughter, Cailin, and her husband.

    The gift became public only when reported two weeks ago by my Washington Post colleagues Roz Helderman and Laura Vozzella.

    But The Post reported last week that McDonnell signed the catering contract for the reception and paid nearly $8,000 in deposits for it. He hadn’t mentioned that earlier.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/three-reasons-mcdonnells-wedding-gift-controversy-should-spark-outrage/2013/04/13/c9c97950-a3ca-11e2-be47-b44febada3a8_story.html?hpid=z3

    The governor is a lying scumbag

    1. He also has secretly led the charge against reproductive rights for Virginia women. He could have stopped the invasion at any time but chose not to. He allowed Cuccinelli to do a lot of his dirty work for him.

  2. Scout

    A. E. Housman (1859–1936). A Shropshire Lad. 1896.

    II. Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

    LOVELIEST of trees, the cherry now
    Is hung with bloom along the bough,
    And stands about the woodland ride
    Wearing white for Eastertide.

    Now, of my threescore years and ten,
    Twenty will not come again,
    And take from seventy springs a score,
    It only leaves me fifty more.

    And since to look at things in bloom
    Fifty springs are little room,
    About the woodlands I will go
    To see the cherry hung with snow.

  3. Emma

    It was a picture-perfect day in DC yesterday, and the cherry blossoms were gorgeous. We really enjoyed the Sakura Matsuri Japanese Festival, which took up several blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue.

  4. Steve Randolph

    April is the cruelest month, breeding
    Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
    Memory and desire, stirring
    Dull roots with spring rain.

    From “The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot

    Thought of these lines while watching our Nats get hammered today in a
    third straight defeat at the hands of the Atlanta Braves. Grrrr.

    1. Sorry Steve. I expect Lafayette’s husband is lower than a snake’s belly also.

  5. punchak

    My daughter and friends went to Bull Run Winery on Centerville Road. Said it was VERY NICE. I had no idea that a winery existed at Bull Run. Anybody been there?

    1. I drove up there, Punchak, but didn’t go in. It looks very nice.

      Moe has been there.

  6. Second Alamo

    “There was a time, right after Pearl Harbor, that the cherry trees had to be guarded to keep people from hacking them to pieces. What a strange reaction!” True, because the trees didn’t attack Pearl Harbor, and neither did the planes. It was the pilots flying the planes that attacked.

    Hmmmmm … sort of reminds me of peoples’ reactions to guns today.

  7. Morris Davis

    @punchak

    They did a really nice job on the building and the property. It’s a great place to spend an afternoon, especially when the weather is like it was over the weekend.

  8. Steve Randolph

    A tremendous Masters that featured skill, grace under pressure
    and wonderful sportsmanship. The young Aussie winner
    Adam Scott and the gallant Angel Cabrera needed to play two
    extra holes in the rain to decide the winner. Great golf.

  9. punchak

    @Steve Randolph
    That was the most wonderful ending to a golf tournament I’ve ever seen!
    The two contestants’ reaction at the end was a joy. Talk about grace and poise after, what must have been, an exhausting experience for both of them.
    Too bad ONE had to lose. Cabrera was NOT a loser; he just happened to come in second.

    All in all, it was a great tournament. And I don’t play golf!

  10. punchak

    @Second Alamo
    If the planes hadn’t been available, there wouldn’t have been any attack, would there?

  11. The daughter of what famous children’s author is known as one of the founding mothers of the libertarian movement in America?

  12. @Steve Randolph

    I haven’t gotten past what a scum bucket Tiger Woods really is. I am sorry I missed the ending.

  13. Lafayette

    Moon-howler :Sorry Steve. I expect Lafayette’s husband is lower than a snake’s belly also.

    Oh yeah, he was at his first game of the season on Saturday. That was bad enough. I’m sure glad he wasn’t there Sunday for that beat down. They did win of over the Marlins last night, but that’s not saying much.

    1. My condolences for the fans.

  14. Lafayette

    Please, add the fans’ spouses to your list. 🙂
    BTW-Things are not looking so good in my neck of the woods. Neighborhood Services will be hopping between Laf and Damascus. Major decline at the daycare next door. My “Rat Radar” is working overtime. No thanks, to uncovered trash cans and recyle bin full of soiled diapers, pile of yard debris, and rickety front porch railing. So sick of this sh!t.

  15. I must still be evolving. Barney Frank was on TV (voice) and he spoke of his husband calling him. I am just not used to it. I will be…getting there. But I confess, I did rewind to make sure I heard him correctly.

    I will have arrived when I no longer rewind.

  16. President Obama:

    Any time bombs are used it is an act of terrorism.

    We respond to evil selflessly and unafaid.

  17. As the board of supervisors mneet over the budget, I saw where Rainbow riding is busy laying asphalt. If they paid $200,000 for that job, they got ripped.

    I fail to see why they needed to pave quite that much. Perhaps they have other plans for that building.

    The supervisors need to stop saying ‘Obamacare’ and start saying ‘Affordable Care act.’

    At what point to they want to start representing ALL the people of PWC and stop sounding like partisan rednecks?

  18. Mom

    “At what point to they want to start representing ALL the people of PWC and stop sounding like partisan rednecks?”

    When all of the people of PWC write them a campaign check.

    1. There really is no excuse in public officials still saying ‘Obama-care.’

  19. Lyssa

    @mom

    Hope you watched Casciato walk Candland through some of his adopted vs expenditure questions.

  20. Mom

    @Lyssa
    Forgot there was a meeting today.

  21. Lyssa

    Too bad. They gave the same answers I gave you – changes in program structure and shifts in internal funds and cash. If citizens would like more footnotes and more explanation added in the fiscal plan, then add staff to do it.
    Mr Nohe recommended cutting funding for some transportation projects.

  22. Mom

    Which transportation projects?

  23. Lyssa

    Minnieville road.

  24. Morris Davis

    Mark Sanford’s Ex-Wife Charges Him With Trespassing At Her Sullivan’s Island House http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20130416/PC16/130419373/1165/jenny-sanford-charges-mark-sanford-with-trespassing-at-sullivan-x2019-s-island-home Is it just me or is Mark Sanford like a South Carolina version of Marion Barry?

    1. Moe, that link doesn’t seem to want to cooperate.

      I think you might be on to something.

  25. Starry flights

    Law-enforcement authorities announced Wednedsay they had intercepted a poison-laced letter intended for President Barack Obama, and locked down some Senate office buildings amid rising concerns of a terrorism-by-mail campaign reminiscent of the anthrax attacks that followed the Sept. 11, 2001 strikes. The missive tested positive for the deadly substance ricin.

    http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/letter-addressed-obama-contained-suspicious-substance-153931701–politics.html?.b=index&.cf3=Jumbotron&.cf4=2&.cf5=The+Ticket&.cf6=%2F

  26. Morris Davis

    And now the National Republican Campaign Committee has dumped Sanford. Still, he’s running in South Carolina where being a lying, philandering, ethically impaired, trespasser who got dumped by the NRCC may not be an impediment.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/17/nrcc-pulls-support-from-sanford-campaign/

  27. Cargo said

    Control of Women’s bodies by men……hmmm.. how about the women that are on the anti-abortion side..

    Most of the GOP legislators who are enacting laws are men. All of the people who have made incredibly stupid remarks (like ‘legitimate rape) have bren men.

    However….Roe v Wade is the law of the land. NO one is forcing anyone else to have an abortion. Certainly people who are opposed to abortion at all stages of gestation never even have to consider abortion. Even people who are personally opposed but support the legal right to abortion never have to even consider it.

    Just for the record, if you gave every duddly do-right a say in someone else’s reproductive rights, you can bet your bottom dollar that someone would oppose contraception on religious grounds and all of a sudden the God-Squad from somewhere would be attacking the Trojan company and anyone taking birth control pills. Seriously, its all a matter of degree.

    That’s the reason that within guidelines, this has to stay a personal decision.

  28. “All of the people who have made incredibly stupid remarks (like ‘legitimate rape) have been men. ”

    You mean, like Whoopi Goldberg’s, “Well, its not as if it was “rape-rape.”

    But you are right…. it is the law of the land.

    1. I would have to know the context before I declared her remark stupid.

      BTW, what office was she elected to? What political party is she a spokesperson for? what organization does she belong to? Last I heard she was an actress comedian…sort of on the same lines as Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart.

    2. No, what she said wasn’t stupid. She was speaking of Roman Polanski who was accused of statutory rape. Statutory only means underage sex and usually the charge has nothing to do with forcible rape.

      Rape rape means forcible rape in her mind. I see a huge difference also. I am not saying underage sex is a good thing. It isn’t. However, it doesn’t generally go along with the horrible violence and danger involved with forcible rape and it is generally with permission and often sought after.

  29. @Morris Davis
    I blame Americans. There are too many people like him that seem to be able to run for office and win after scandals. Or get re-elected.

  30. Scout

    On a brighter note, late this afternoon at Wallops Island, Virginia, the largest space vehicle launched from the East Coast outside of Cape Canaveral was placed into orbit by the Antares Rocket. The Commonwealth was instrumental (in partnership with NASA and private contractors) in building the facility for Antares. It was an extraordinary event, visible from the ground until the vehicle reached somewhere in excess of 150,00 feet. Observers as far away as Norfolk and Richmond reported seeing Antares as it gained altitude. Wallops Island, Virginia will be a significant space launch site going forward.

    1. Could the launch be seen from this area, Scout?

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