Today marks the beginning of one of the three tax free weekends in the State of Virginia. This weekend is for school supplies and clothes. The guidelines can be found here. School supplies have to cost less than $20 and clothing has to be less than $100. (I assume per item)

Secondly, a few reminders about navigating Moonhowlings.net.

Upper left hand corner you will see a little house icon. That takes you back to the beginning.

Bottom right hand corner you will see the word top. It works just like an elevator. If you ride the elevator to the top and then click on the house icon, you are right back at the beginning.

Want to use emoticons? There is a pdf with all instructions.  Click on the highlighted word emoticons.

39 Thoughts to “Open Thread for the Weekend 8/6/2010”

  1. From Science.nasa.gov: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/05aug_perseids/

    August 5, 2010: You know it’s a good night when a beautiful alignment of planets is the second best thing that’s going to happen.

    Thursday, August 12th, is such a night.

    The show begins at sundown when Venus, Saturn, Mars and the crescent Moon pop out of the western twilight in tight conjunction. All four heavenly objects will fit within a circle about 10 degrees in diameter, beaming together through the dusky colors of sunset. No telescope is required to enjoy this naked-eye event: sky map.
    Perseids 2010 (Pete Lawrence, 200px)
    A Perseid meteor photographed in Aug. 2009 by Pete Lawrence of Selsey, UK. [more]

    The planets will hang together in the western sky until 10 pm or so. When they leave, following the sun below the horizon, you should stay, because that is when the Perseid meteor shower begins. From 10 pm until dawn, meteors will flit across the starry sky in a display that’s even more exciting than a planetary get-together.

  2. Thanks for posting this information, Cargo. Please post a reminder as time gets closer, even if no open thread.

    You know how I like my star stuff.

  3. George S. Harris

    I just can’t leave the Immigration thing” alone. Back in June when Corey Stewart first plopped his Rule of Law idea on the political table, Delegate Scott Lingamfelter gave him faint praise claiming that, “…legislators in Richmond are already on the job.” Lingamfelter went on to say that Stewart, “…could be of help operating on the local front.” And that he thought, “… where Corey could really help if he wanted to is to get the Board of County Supervisors to propose legislation in their legislative package.”

    Delegate Jackson Miller also waded in claiming, “I was a little surprised that I hadn’t heard from him because this is an issue that I’ve been working on since I went to Richmond.” “Since he wants the state to address this, I’m surprised I haven’t heard from him about it.”

    Back then Stewart was postulating that he might not want to ask Prince William’s delegates for any help getting his proposal before the General Assembly.

    Fast forward to the end of July and guess who is carrying Stewart’s water to the General Assembly—why it’s Scott Lingamfelter, Corey’s new best friend! Kipp Hanley reported in the July 29 NEWS AND MESSENGER that, “Prince William County, Va. – Del. L. Scott Lingamfelter, R-31st, applauded Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart’s recent legislative suggestions concerning illegal immigration.” Since some of Stewart’s ideas are a little off base, Lingamfelter wants to have Stewart’s proposals vetted before they are presented to the General Assembly. Nice work Scott–was that bucket of water heavy?

    But then on August 4, Lingamfelter indirectly attacked Stewart in a NEWS AND MESSENGER article entitled “Get back to the main thing” by stating that, “Closer to home, local and state politicians have elected to get involved. Some are motivated by political opportunity and see the illegal immigration issue as a way to advance their political fortunes for higher office. They vacillate based on the political winds, claiming at one point the issue is “dead” but later renewing demands for “action.” Their motives undermine their credibility.”

    While Lingamfelter and Miller have jumped on the anti-immigration bandwagon, it seems to me they are flip flopping around like a fish out of water regarding their support for Corey Stewart. In bed with him one day, out the next. I guess it’s true that politics really does make strange bedfellows.

  4. Censored bybvbl

    Cargosquid, thanks for the reminder about the Perseids.

  5. George, there does seem to be some flip flopping around as far as the delegates are concerned. I would say that Lingamfelter is making like a fish a little more than Mille, who has been fairly silent on the matter. Make no mistake. Miller is solidly in the camp against illegal immigration. He just has the integrity not to jump on the self aggrandizement bandwagon that Corey is driving. He is also smart enough to know that buddying up to Corey is a good way to get stabbed in the back as many local people have discovered, I suspect.

    Both men would profit from simply distancing themselves from Boy Blabber Stewart who wants to be on every TV station in the United STates promoting himself in the wake of the nun tragedy.

    Stewart is simply aglow with his new found self-promotion and he will slip up. He will make a mistake. No one wants to get THAT mud on them. Furthermore, he has slapped all the local delgates in the face. He has forgotten he is a supervisor and he seriously wants to deflect the attention away from himself after the Finley/Avendale debacle of the last 2 weeks where he has shown truly what a snake in the grass he really is.

    Moonhowlings and friends are not finished with the local issue.

  6. NoVA Scout

    “new found” self-promotion?

  7. Need to Know

    @Moon-howler

    Moon – I could not agree with you more here. I’d like to see all Republicans, including Stirrup and May, both of whom I like a lot, distance themselves from Stewart. After last Tuesday, and other previous betrayals, I no reason why John Stirrup would ever align himself with Stewart again.

    Republicans – Stewart is toxic and you have no idea what will be coming out as we get closer to the election. There’s a lot of research going on right now and involvement of people who know this guy better than you do. Take the opportunity now to put some distance between yourself and him.

  8. @NoVA Scout

    You got me on that one, NoVA Scout. Not so new found self promotion. I should have said new found audience. Corey goes national. All the bigger cow pie to step in!!

    Maybe Tom Tancredo will pick him up and fly him out of here. TT is up to something else but who listens.

  9. George S. Harris

    I think the Avendale vote may have been the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back, but as I said, politics does seem to make strange bedfellows. Politicians, like gold fish, have short memories, particularly if breaking a promise or accepting large donations advances their self-aggrandizing cause.

  10. A certain politician really wants to distract the locals, meaning us, from his dastardly deeds with the Finley asphalt case and the Avendale case.

    It’s one thing to big-ass as Mr. Tough Guy on Faux News and other places. It’s another thing to know that your constituents have caught you in several lies and are digging.

  11. Need to Know

    @Moon-howler

    Tancredo is running as an independent for Governor of Colorado in a race where a Republican might very well otherwise win.

    I heard Tancredo speak at a meeting the Prince William County Republican Committee sponsored a few years ago. He was reasonable and convincing. He showed slides of how coyotes smuggle people into the US, environmental damage along the routes illegal immigrants take through the desert and stuff like that. His point was that we need better border security.

    Now, he’s gone off the deep end. At a Tea Party convention last February he called for a civics and literacy test as a requirement to vote, and a “counter-revolution.” He’s joined the birthers and called for sending Obama “back to Kenya.”

    Great work Tom – make Republicans look like fools, and split the vote to help the Democrats win a gubernatorial race.

  12. That’s right. I just couldn’t think off the top of my head what I saw him yapping about.

    I am not sure he ever told the truth. Last I heard him on TV, he sounded like an idiot.

  13. kelly3406

    A federal judge found that Cuccinelli’s challenge to Obama’s healthcare legislation has merit ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/02/AR2010080205019.html ). And a whopping 71% in Missouri voted for a referendum that prohibits the federal government from mandating healthcare coverage.

    Finally, it appears that people are waking up and recognizing healthcare legislation, cap and trade, the federal takeover of GM, etc. as the raw power grabs that they really are. It also helps that Pete Stark ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1-eBz8hyoE ) baldly stated that “the federal government can do most anything in this country.”

  14. kelly3406

    I am not sure if anyone else has mentioned this here. President Obama has asked the Senate to correct the record of USAF Gen John Lavelle, a four-star general who in 1972 was demoted to major general and forced to retire after several investigations “found” that he ordered unauthorized bombing missions in North Vietnam and then attempted a cover-up. Two researchers unearthed materials that proved Gen Lavelle was acting under orders from Nixon himself. See http://www.blackfive.net/main/2010/08/wronged-by-nixon—righting-a-good-mans-reputation.html for further details.

  15. And then there is the Patriot act….

    I am not sure that things that are voted on by Congress can be considered raw power take overs.

    As for GM, they are on the road to recovery and are doing the pay-back thing.

    Extreme situtations call for extreme moves. The financial situation in this country was hanging on by a thread.

  16. Please make Corey Stewart stay off my TV. I am very sick of seeing him on my television.

    He is preening himself and his eyes are twitching.

    ICE is going to give him the names of every illegal immigrant who was picked up by ICE and released.

    Of course it is all Obama’s fault that that these people are being released. And it has been going on for 3 years. Does anyone see a flaw in Corey’s logic?

    Captain Sound bite still doesn’t realize that ICE does not deport. Only a federal judge can deport. Captain! Captain! Captain!

  17. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    What about a combination human cannonball / deportation facilitator?

  18. punchak

    @kelly3406
    Yes, Kelly, I read that with a heavy heart. A man’s career destroyed by a B I G lie.

  19. RingDangDoo

    @Moon-howler

    >>>Please make Corey Stewart stay off my TV. I am very sick of seeing him on my television.
    >>>He is preening himself and his eyes are twitching.

    Heads are poppin’ in loonieland!

    >>>ICE is going to give him the names of every illegal immigrant [sic] who was picked up by ICE and released.

    Cool! Hopefully with addresses too. Locating them is easier that way.

    I’m kiddinng BTW. That info has as much of a chance to surface as Obamao’s records. Never happen.

    >>>Does anyone see a flaw in Corey’s logic?

    Have you ever seen yours?

  20. @Ring-and just what is he going to do when he gets them back? That’s the reason it makes no sense to dump millions into a program over which you have very little control.

    Corey doesn’t grasp that ICE isn’t going to deport anyone. What is ICE supposed to do with all these people they bring in while they wait for an immigration hearing? Have you seen mass detention facilities anywhere around here?

    [I just erased wise-ass because it wasn’t polite] Since you want to question my logic…how about the fact that Obama hasn’t been in office 3 years? Did all this illegal immigrant stuff start last January? Yea its all Obama’s fault.

    The blame game was the really disgusting part of his little attention seeking diatribe.

  21. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Hey, I’m putting together my “dream team” for 2012, and I need to ask the libs a question. Who makes you twitch and tick with hate more, Sarah Palin, Tom Tancredo, Corey Stewart, or Joe Arpaio?

  22. All are just foolish, ambitious political people with the exception of Sheriff Joe. He might be also but at least he is serving as more than window dressing. At least he is doing a job.

    There’s the moderate/centrist answer for you. I don’t go liberal until you start addressing reproductive rights.

  23. Lafayette

    Don’t forget right to die rights!!

  24. Absolutely. I don’t think I am liberal on that. I think I am libertarian. I decide when I check out. @ lafayette

  25. Firedancer

    Hi Moon! I love your phrase, “I decide when I check out.” How can anyone argue with that?!?!

  26. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Moon-howler :
    All are just foolish, ambitious political people with the exception of Sheriff Joe. He might be also but at least he is serving as more than window dressing. At least he is doing a job.
    There’s the moderate/centrist answer for you. I don’t go liberal until you start addressing reproductive rights.

    Hmmm, gotta agree with you, here. I was thinking about “fantasy government”…..like fantasy football or baseball (which bore me to tears). Someone tried it once..”fantasy congress”, but the site is dead now. I’m trying to figure out how the thing would work, how points would be scored.

  27. Fantasy congress…that would require knowing a lot about too many people.

  28. hello

    Obama booed by boy scouts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAWsy7VV8oE&feature=player_embedded

    Not sure I agree with boy scouts booing our President but then again he blew them off to go on the ‘View’. While he gave them the finger I’m glad to see that Gov. McDonnell, who use to be a boy scout, went and talked to the kids. Good for him!

    http://voices.washingtonpost.com/virginiapolitics/2010/07/obama_skips_mcdonnell_attends.html

    I suppose Obama has more Dem fund raisers to go to, much more important than kids…

  29. hello

    What’s up with so many people leaving the administration? Rats jumping off a sinking ship? Romer is leaving to go back to teaching at UC Berkley… I suppose the saying is true, those who can’t do teach. What a waste of money it would be to send your kid to her class. 🙂

  30. The boy scouts who booed him should be put on a disciplinary program immediately. How dare those little brats do that. Where were the adults? Hmmmm…probably helping the children boo.

    That behavior smacks in the face of everything a boy scout is taught. No more donations to the scouts from the Moonhowler residence.

    Those who can’t, teach….interesting theory. Perhaps that explains a couple of things I see coming out of your keyboard, Hello.

  31. Ashcroft, Powell, Gonzoles, Rumsfeld, ….[whistling heard in background] all have what in common?

  32. hello

    Kudos to Obama, this was a good move and I applaud him for it. Entertaining wounded troops with the help of some NBA greats: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-08-08-obama-basketball-troops_N.htm?csp=34news

    Brats? Yeah, maybe, but he did diss them to appear of the ‘View’ in an attempt to boost his poll ratings with women. I suppose his poll numbers among boy scouts don’t matter much because they can’t vote so why bother. He should have made an appearance but I would agree with you here Moon, they should not have booed him, poor taste.

  33. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    I just read in the local fishwrapper that there was a silver lining to the cloud of the Metro melee this weekend. Apparently, an ACLU worker was trampled and had his leg broken. So it wasn’t a total loss!

  34. I agree that it was improper to boo. However, the President is the honorary President of the Boy Scouts. Obama deserved the boos. A more fitting act would be to remove President Obama from that position as he has shown that he does not care about the Scouts and to instate another person as honorary President of the Boy Scouts.

  35. How many years have presidents been present at the jamboree and how often have they skipped it, just out of curiosity.

    They shouldn’t have booed. It is ill-,mannered and against all that the BSOA teach.

    I don’t think he deserved booing. Lets get a list of which presidents came which years.

  36. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Obama’s three predecessors each attended at least one BS Jamboree while in office. I should clarify, that’s “Boy Scout”. So presidents have missed them before. This was the 100th anniversary, which is, I suppose, the crux of the gripe.

  37. What Slowpoke said.

    There’s only going to be ONE 100 year anniversary, and he decided that visiting a common, unimportant TV show was more important than attending a once in a CENTURY event. Let’s make GWB the honorary President again……:) of the Boy Scouts, of course……..

  38. They still shouldn’t have boo’ed him and he should have sent someone in his stead if it was a special anniversary.

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