According to the Washington Post, about $4 billion dollars has been set aside nationally by HUD to help ease the foreclosure problem and to target the hardest hit localities. The D.C. Metro area will receive approximately $95 million dollars of this money.
In this region, Prince George’s County is eligible for the biggest chunk: $10.9 million. Trailing in Maryland are Baltimore City with $4.1 million and Baltimore County with $2.6 million. In Virginia, Prince William County can tap into $4.1 million and Fairfax County into another $2.8 million, according to HUD.
But to get the money, states and communities have to act fast. By law, the funds must be committed within 18 months. It is up to each community to come up with a plan.
If the plan meets HUD’s requirements, states could receive their money within days, HUD Secretary Steve Preston told reporters yesterday. “It is our intention to push hard to get this money into the hands of these communities.”
It is critical for our BOCS to grab up this money as fast as possible by submitting a plan that meets with HUD’s approval. It seems appropriate that citizens immediately forward their ideas to their supervisor. Time is of the essence.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/26/AR2008092603329.html?nav=hcmoduletmv
Isn’t it wonderful to have Santa Claus in September??!!
That’s what got us into this mess in the first place…:( Do a Googoe search on “Community Reinvestment Act.”
We just can’t ALWAYS be taking OUT of the cookie jar; someone has to put into it…
It is pathetically sad. When sitting down for a discussion is threatening, something is really wrong.
I have finally come to the conclusion that no common ground is wanted on the dark screen. The leader wants to bully and control through whatever means necessary. He wants a win, not a compromise. That kind of thinking is not in the best interest of our county. County policy cannot be set by a bully.
Our BOCS seriously misjudge and miscalculate the number of voting citizens who really support the HSM bully pulpit.
Any Given Sunday by Oliver Stone is on. I love this movie. Rich character development. It makes me think of that saying ‘what does it profit someone, if they should gain the world but lose their soul’
Emma (if you are out there),
Since I can no longer post on the other site, I thought I would try to respond to a post of yours here. You said:
“I was just at Wal-Mart on Liberia. A woman had a table set up with nothing more than a hand-scrawled “Registrare para votar” sign and some forms, and she was instructing a Latino gentleman to “just write Culpeper” on the form. When I asked her if she was representing League of Women Voters, she stammered and stalled a bit, then said, “Um, the Obama campaign sent me.” OK, so why the big secret? I thought it was a little weird. Are political partisans not supposed to disclose their affiliation to registrants?”
I will actually tell you that I volunteered for voter registration with the Obama campaign this summer. I did a couple of days registration at that Walmart in August. I’m sure that the woman you spoke to would have given you more information if you asked her for it.
True, this effort was run by the Obama campaign. Volunteers were given instructions to ask people if they were registered to vote at their current address. They could either fill out an English or Spanish form, and then the forms were turn in to the Board of Elections. We were encouraged to register anyone who wanted to register (Democrat or Republican), and we were not supposed to ask who people were voting for or make any suggestions about who to vote for. If people asked, we could tell them that we were volunteers for the Obama campaign. The woman’s hesitancy probably just meant that she didn’t want to sway your vote.
I’m not sure…but I am guessing from your post that the hand-made sign in Spanish made you a little upset. Believe it or not, there are some actual citizens of this country who would prefer to fill out the form in Spanish. I only had one man (who spoke great English) ask to fill out the form in Spanish, because he was more comfortable with written Spanish than written English. All 23 of the other people I registered in those couple of days filled out their forms in English (students who turned 18, people asking for absentee ballots, older people who had never voted before, people who had moved from another state, etc).
Only a handful of people asked me who I was with, and I gladly told them the Obama campaign. If they didn’t ask, I didn’t get into a discussion with them about politics. It was just important to me to register citizens of this country to vote.
Moon-Howler, I don’t think the BOCS is all that confused about whether or not a majority of citizens are full-blown racists. It seemed that way, even to me and I am quite a skeptic, last October when the 2007 election was looming.
But there was a purpose for the hatred and intolerance them. It was needed for the election.
Now there is no reason for the Board members to put up with such non-sense.
Case in point, just a few months later, during the April 2008 neutering of the Immigration Resolution, it was clear the anti-immigrant lobby had run out of talking points and run out of steam. Sure, the Board got a lot of emails. But they also got a copy of Corey Stewart’s email blast asking for those emails. And they voted unanimously (with Corey taking the coward’s way out and voting with the majority to mask his humiliation) to make the policy Constitutional.
Today, the only power that Gospel Greg and his five remaining followers have over the Supervisors is the power to be a public nuisance, or in Donna Widawski’s case, a public nuisance to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money.
As annoying and embarrassing as HSM is for county residents and our county government today, they have been rendered politically irrelevant by their own infamous meltdowns, Greg blowing up and threatening police officers because they have Latino sir names, Corey Stewart attacking Chief Deane with the most ridiculous argument voiced by a public official since Terry Schiavo, John “Weasel” Stirrup being stupid enough to want to remind everyone that he is so immoral, so racist, and so VAPID that needs coaching from the likes of Robert Duecaster to do the bidding of the Anti-Immigrant Lobby, and of course there was Corey Stewart’s foolish / fiendish behavior between April 22 and April 29. The list goes on.
No. As far as county policy is concerned, we will never again see the Board bullied by hate-mongering extremists. Citizens may feel bullied. But they too are suffering only nuisance. The Board does not feel bullied. They are merely dealing with a nuisance. As the embarrassment caused by this nuisance grows, they will be less and less generous with the amount of time they are willing to waste on the asinine ideas of men like Letiecq, Stirrup, Stewart, and Duecaster.
The tide has turned.
Emma, if John McCain were made aware of the fact that you were using bigotry to support for his candidacy, he would tell you he doesn’t want your support.
Emma, I beg to differ that you came over and tried to find common ground. You rarely missed an opportunity to take a rude shot at someone. You were warned, put in time out, came back as Willouby, insulted Twinad in a most vicious way, and generally showed your contempt for all contributors here. You also whined and always acted like you were being picked on. I tried to talk with you and find common ground. You ended up spitting in my face also.
No innocent act. Give a little, get a little. You came here guns ablazing and I don’t think you like the return fire. The problem is yours, not ours. Just out of curiosity, have you noticed that others with more conservative views on immigration do not get into the fire-fights here that you did? Wonder why that is?
Please call your Senators and Congressman to reject the bailout plan! Light up the phones!
Sen. James Webb
DC:
Phone: (202) 224-4024
Fax: (202) 228-6363
Richmond Office: (more district offices)
Phone: (804) 771-2221
Fax: (804) 771-8313
Sen. John Warner
Washington, D.C. Office:
Phone: (202) 224-2023
Fax: (202) 224-6295
Midlothian Office: (more district offices)
Phone: (804) 739-0247
Fax: (804) 739-3478
Rep. Frank Wolf
Washington, D.C. Office:
Phone: (202) 225-5136
Fax: (202) 225-0437
Herndon Office: (more district offices)
Phone: (703) 709-5800
Fax: (703) 709-5802
Emma complains about people registering to vote.
That kind of says it all, doesn’t it?
Emma, please, ask yourself what is the root cause of this resentment toward non-white people voting.
What kind of democracy do we have if you are angry when your fellow citizens are offered the chance to participate in it?
Dis. Gust. Ting.
Are you really that racist? Maybe I should give you the benefit of the doubt. Are you simply trying to inspire extra hate in the hearts of Greg’s disciples? Maybe that’s your way of helping McCain: “Hey clones! You might hate McCain but you should hate Obama more! Brown people voting!!!”
That is such an old disgusting tactic, trying to inspire resentment toward people of color voting, and then using that rage to recruit enforcers to patrol the polling places, trying to intimidate ethnic people who try to exercise their civic right and duty as an American. The other half of that strategy is it is supposed to create more motivation among racist people who might not otherwise have a good reason to vote.
If that’s your game, Emma, I suggest you give up on that tactic. It’s a dead end. Whoever you learned it from has probably abandoned it.
Rather than resenting the right of people of color to vote in America, why don’t you try to influence the Republican party to offer some ideas and philosophies that would appeal to ALL Americans, regardless of race?
Mackie, have you thought about the alternative? Something has to happen. Do you have a better bill to pass?
I have decided that people who oppose legislation either don’t understand what we are facing as a nation or they have nothing to lose.
When Warren Buffett, who has nothing to lose or gain in all this says we are facing an economic melt down along the lines of Pearl Harbor, then I listen very closely. Bernake is an academnician. Nothing to gain or lose. I don’t care about big bankers or other millionaires. I care about me. Am I selfish?
Average Americans are who will be financially ruined, not the fat cats.
MH I vote we take the money directly from the fat-cats’ pockets and the politicians who allowed this to happen. They can afford to pay us all back personally with interest. And if they can’t? Let them take out loans from other banks to pay us.
No credit.
There is lots I would like to do in a perfect world. I am just trying to get by in the world in which I live. Reality is hitting me squarely between the eyes.
Yeah, I know. Reality isn’t too great sometimes, is it? I guess that’s when I think of people who have it far worse off than I do–people’s whose towns are being bombed, people who literally have nothing to eat….it reminds me I have so much to be grateful for and how important it is that we give of ourselves to our loved ones and to our global neighbors to the best of our abilities.
“Not a sermon….just a thought!” Ha ha ha!
Bill defeated. Enjoy the depression. Kicking wall street in the ass kicks the American people in the ass if they have mortgages, 401k’s, IRAs, retirement plans, need to buy a car, have jobs, have 2nd trusts.
These are very scary times. I hope the whore politicians can live with what they have done. Anything to get elected.
Whore politicians always seem to be able to sleep at night. They must have some mighty good pills.
An absolutely disgusting display of political fear on display in Congress today. A Republican President who cannot get more than 1/3 of his party in the House to support a plan to avoid economic disaster and Democratic Congressional leadership who can’t supply the votes to a bill they declared as a “deal”. Interesting that the number of Republican votes that switched (12) after a speech by Pelosi is the exact number that would have passed the bill by one vote. Political games played with citizen’s future – a 770 point drop in the market. For the first time in history, over a trillion, yes, a trillion dollars of equity was lost in the stock market.
Doesn’t anyone on Capitol Hill have any political courage at all?
As I have written previously, nothing of any significance will be decided regardless of whom is elected President in November unless any courage is displayed by those spineless losers in Congress. I am disgusted with each and everyone one of those self serving cowards.
We need to go through a recession in order to clear out all of this mal-investment. It might take a few years and then we’ll be back on our feet. Recession’s are healthy.
The bailout is not real recovery. It’s only a temporary reprieve. If we continue with a bailout, we raise the chances of falling beyond a recession and into a depression that will last a decade or more.
The American people will need to hunker down for the next few years and watch what they spend. It won’t be easy. We’re used to living on credit. Those people who irresponsibly live beyond their means will be punished by the tough times. Those who practice self discipline and live within their means will be rewarded.
WhyHereWhyNow,Today, the only power that Gospel Greg and his five remaining followers have over the Supervisors is the power to be a public nuisance, or in Donna Widawski’s case, a public nuisance to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money.
What costs tens of thousands of dollars of tax payers money? You must have lost your mind. Most citizens have to pay for FOIA requests. Who is feeding you this bull??? or are you imagining this info. FOIAS are reproduced electronically and time spent is minimal, ask Alanna.
We could reasonable attribute $20,000 in FOIA requests to DW. FYI, I have made 2 FOIA requests. You on the other hand have requested 7 or 8 just from the police department.
Alanna,
We could reasonable attribute $20,000 in FOIA requests to DW. FYI, I have made 2 FOIA requests. You on the other hand have requested 7 or 8 just from the police department.
What BS are you talking about costs. Where are you getting your figures from? Why are you lying about the number of your requests?
FOIAs are important in holding county government responsible for their actions. They will continue whether you or anyone else agrees with the request. It is the law.
I encourage all citizens to continue holding county and elected officials accountable. Keep the FOIAs coming!
According to the Chief’s Illegal Immigration Update, approximately 1,000 man hours have been spent fulfilling FOIA requests. Half of the FOIA requests were made by one person, so one could reasonably attribute 500 man hours to those FOIAs. The $20,000 estimate comes from taking that 500 man hours at a $40/hour rate of a county employee to compile such a request. This in my mind is a fairly conservative estimate considering county attorneys review them before they are released to the public. Keep in mind we are ONLY talking about the FOIAs to the Police Department which don’t include FOIAs to the Supervisors, Communications Department, County Executive Office and whomever else.
In terms of the FOIAs that I have made. I made one early on which was actually a kind of piggy back to a FOIA by Maureen Wood. So, I went down and looked through a couple boxes. Again, no cost attributable to me because it was already compiled. Then I submitted another request after Greg posted the emails from the other Supervisors back with the whole Chief Deane fiasco. Then most recently, I requested one which is still outstanding. Perhaps, Elena might have done 1 or 2 over the course of the year. But I am not lying about the number of my requests. Perhaps your source is purposely giving you inaccurate information? I would give that some serious thought. Here’s an idea, request a copy of all my FOIAs from John, it’s ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE that I have made more than a handful.
In terms of FOIA’ing the County government, there’s probably a point where you become a nuisance and I suggest you’re probably pretty quickly approaching that classification. If you need to cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars to find out that an audio cord was borrowed or that there might have been a dvd that wasn’t ‘paid for’, well I suppose that’s your prerogative. But just imagine for a minute if ALL CITIZENS used the FOIA system in this way, the county government would grind to a halt.