There are all sorts of happenings out there. Post them here please. There is a great deal going on.
27 Thoughts to “2/17/10 Weekly Open Thread”
Comments are closed.
Archives
Categories
Blogroll
- 9500Liberty
- Bacons' Rebellion Blogspot
- Bearing Drift
- Blue Virginia
- Citizen Tom
- Counts of Monte Cristo. The
- Derecho, The
- Dixie Pig, The
- My Side of the Fence
- My Star Journey
- NARAL Pro-Choice VA Blog
- New Dominion Project
- Nova Common Sense
- NovaTownHall Blog
- One Libertarians's Point of View by Al Alborn
- Pete Candland's Blog
- Potomac Local
- Prince William Muckraker
- PW Conservation Alliance
- PWC Moms
- PWCPolitics.com
- PWCPolitics.com
- Red NoVA
- Shad Plank, The
- She the People
- State of NoVA, the
- The Jeffersoniad
- Townhall
- VEA Daily Reports
- VivianPaige
- WDGolden.com
- You, Me and the Lamp Post
All contents copyright Moonhowlings.net
Blogroll
- 9500Liberty
- Bacons' Rebellion Blogspot
- Bearing Drift
- Blue Virginia
- Citizen Tom
- Counts of Monte Cristo. The
- Derecho, The
- Dixie Pig, The
- My Side of the Fence
- My Star Journey
- NARAL Pro-Choice VA Blog
- New Dominion Project
- Nova Common Sense
- NovaTownHall Blog
- One Libertarians's Point of View by Al Alborn
- Pete Candland's Blog
- Potomac Local
- Prince William Muckraker
- PW Conservation Alliance
- PWC Moms
- PWCPolitics.com
- PWCPolitics.com
- Red NoVA
- Shad Plank, The
- She the People
- State of NoVA, the
- The Jeffersoniad
- Townhall
- VEA Daily Reports
- VivianPaige
- WDGolden.com
- You, Me and the Lamp Post
Four Rest Areas on 81 have reopened. Good news for a change for Virginia and those that travel our highways. Thank you, Governor McDonnell!!
http://www.virginiadot.org/newsroom/statewide/2010/vdot_reopens_first_four45199.asp
That is good news. I wish the announcement had included a map.
Here’s the link with a map in the linik above. You’re welcome. 🙂
http://www.ctb.virginia.gov/resources/2010/jan/2010_SecretaryBriefing-rest_areas_Reopening-1-19-10.pdf
Thanks, I will take the version for blind folks, thank you very much. I still can’t see the names so I will guess.
Prince William County’s government Web site ranks third in the state for financial transparency in goverment.
A new study by Jeremy Beales and Michael Thompson reviews and rates Virginia’s counties and cities on the level of financial transparency provided on their Web sites, examining the web availablility of budget documents, the extent and detail of those budget documents, expenditures, and information on contracts with the private sector.
The top three scorers were the Northern Virginia counties of Arlington, Fairfax and Prince William:
http://www.thomasjeffersoninst.org/pdf/articles/Govt_Transparency_LocalGov.pdf
City of Manassas Web site ranked 33 and City of Manassas Park Web site ranked 51 in financial transparency.
– WE ARE 33rd !!! And what medal do they give for that? Oh, well.
– But the City On The Hill (or right now, the city on top of huge snow piles)
did garner 9th out of 132 Virginia jurisdictions for being healthy in
a just released study published in today’s WaPo. So there.
(Prince William County was 10th).
You all have lost me on all the best stuff.
– Noticed how Saint Bob, armed with self righteousness, charged forth to slay the
federal dragon before it attacked us with healthcare and did it under the
banner of state’s rights!
– Also noticed St. Bob chastising the Loudoun Board of Supervisors
for voting to ban sexual orientation descrimination in county government hiring.
He has pledged to slice off their heads in court. How could such
underlings do such a thing?
– The government most close to the people is the best government. Yes or No?
Hey, you have a car ad on your blog! Does this mean you are making some money? You deserve to, of course.
Do they have a line item that says “IT Department Fraud $9 million”?
Another nail in the coffin of what used to be called “journalism”:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/17/AR2010021701958.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR
Did the White House fax this article to the WaPo with instructions to print it verbatim? Remember when journalists used to ask questions like, “Can you tell us in which industries the job creation or saving occurred?” or “Can you name the companies/public sector areas where the jobs were created?”
Nah, why bother, when you can just uncritically print the news that the President has declared he has “created or saved 2 million jobs.” He must have created them in the seven extra states he thought we had last year.
Why is it poor journalism to report what’s out there. I didn’t see any editorializng. The Washington Post isn’t making the news. I didn’t read it that closely but I didn’t see where the Washington Post reporter got to ask questions or interview the president.
I believe in investigative journalism, not uncritical propaganda. It’s an awfully big claim for a reporter to print without even raising the issue of validation.
Are you at all curious about where those jobs were saved or created?
Well, when I worked for the US, economists would give you an estimate of jobs produced per $100 million. There is no way to know if they are actually produced. I have a suspicion that that is what is being used. Remember these are not sustained jobs, they are temporary until the dollars are exhausted.
The bottom line is that the jobs may have lasted 60 days or less or they could be still there. It is impossible to know based on the wide range things in the stimulus package.
While someone out of work would say that 60 days employment is better than nothing, this is where statistics don’t add up. When 3 million jobs are lost, it is permanent until the people get a job. When 2 million jobs are created or saved, it may be short term.
But people view them as equal but I bet the ones who get the short term would not tell you it is the same thing, nor would I. So people should look beyond the broad statements and ask how many of the same 2 million are still employed. Then you can compare.
From the same article:
No mention of who these lawmakers are, no mention of how many have done this “touting” and under what circumstances–no substantiation whatsoever, just editorializing to bolster the President’s spurious claim. Talk about faux news.
Lafayette, how about that “Big Love” this week? It’s absolutely breakneck now. Only three episodes to go until I go into withdrawal…
It is healthier in Manassas Park – they ranked 8th!
Emma, don’t watch Fox News in the morning if poor journalism bothers you. I can promise you nothing is investigated…just spouted and spewed.
Why don’t you email the dude who wrote it and complain? Why do you think the reporter had access to questioning?
What good happened today?
“Why do you think the reporter had access to questioning?”
The reporter has a forum known as an “article” to write, where one would imagine he or she would ask the essential journalism 101 questions of “who/what/when/where/why.” Presumably, not every reporter has direct access to the president on every article written, but turns to other sources to substantiate claims that are made.
Do you question the 2 million figure at all, or do you believe it’s true?
I already said I didn’t read it in detail.
Perhaps the reporter plans a follow up. Its just another slam. Say, what do you think of the governor’s proposed cuts?
Cindy B., One of the stated criteria in the healthy jurisdiction study
was “liquor store density” and Manassas has two ABC stores and MP
has none, although, no doubt, MP folks frequent our stores making us,
on paper, perhaps cross another negative line in the study –
rate of “binge drinking”.
Your help is needed to help SAVE OUR LIBRARIES!
The Prince William Public Library System currently operates at the same level of funding as it did 20 years ago. The budget proposed by county staff suggests closing community libraries and reducing the budget by one million dollars. Did you know that 300 to 500 volunteers help maintain our current library system each year?
To achieve this budget cut, the county staff recommends eliminating the position of Library Director among others. What a horrible message this sends to other county employees who have invested their career serving our citizens. Other cuts include a reduction in book purchases (AGAIN).
Library Trustee’s are appointed by our Supervisors and they voted to reduce hours of operation, close Sunday but keep all libraries open.
Your help is desperately needed to speak out at Citizens’ Time and protest this attack on our quality of life in Prince William. Please call your Supervisor, the Chairman’s office, and Library Trustee and tell them to leave our libraries alone! We need all our libraries to remain open and at a full schedule of operation. After “finding” another 7 million dollars in savings in the OIT budget, I’m sure they can apply 1 million of that savings to sustain our public library system!
Please join me and others to SAVE OUR LIBRARIES!
The proposed library cuts are this year’s BOCS budget flashbang. Throw it out there like the Senior Center cuts in past years to deflect attention and ensure that the Board and Executive Staff don’t have to make real cuts or find real efficiencies. If the BOCS and County Exec. were truly looking at paring the budget they would look at sharing the costs of some services with the School Board, ie: transportation maintenance, planning staff, boilerplate legal issues, etc. or consider re-assessing property every three years (like many jurisdictions) and paring back the staff and cost of that office. If I heard correctly last Tuesday, they are in the process of implementing a new system/software for that office. Not only would it likely save on cost but it would make the commercial/residents’ tax burden more predictable and eliminate many of the machinations involved in setting the tax rate. But sound fiscal governance is probably too much to ask from our soundbite driven board.
It is a flashback to last year with the Senior Center cuts. People are hoping this is a benign soundbyte intended to paint a picture of doom and gloom knowing the BoCS will come to the rescue.
Local version of closing the Washington Monument.
So Bryanna, is the premise that “People are hoping this is a benign soundbyte intended to paint a picture of doom and gloom knowing the BoCS will come to the rescue” one that is acceptable. To me, it is not. Leadership by soundbite is apparently a tradition in PWC and one that has not served us well. True enough it is flashback to the Senior Center cuts and one that I would suggest is intentional by the BOCS. If you get a calvalcade of people speaking at the budget hearing with their sole focus being on (take your pick: Senior Centers, Senior Transportation, Libarary Services), everything else gets lost in the hue and cry over those specific hot button issue. It enables the BOCS and County Staff to get away with a budget process that doesn’t involve and real heavy lifting or jeopardize any members sacred cow. If the BOCS (and particularly those members who claim to be fiscal conservatives) really were concerned with the budget, they would examine the “deal” with the School Board, look for cost efficiencies within the existing structure, give up their sacred magisterial funds, etc., but I guess we all know that the BOCS members aren’t Reps or Dems but merely opportunists wrapped in whatever cloak will help get them elected.