Time for another open thread.  There are too many topics floating about out there. 

There is a Jobs Bill, Charlie Rangel fighting for his political life, the death of Senator Ted Stevens, the injury of former NASA chief O’Keefe and his son who are in critical condition following that plane crash that killed Sen. Stevens, the fed is buying back some US debt, and a host of primary elections that pretty much mean nothing to me.   The local politicians seem quiet for a change.

I hope that Wolverine will bring us up to speed on this serial killer type in Leesburg.  That is all very mysterious.

129 Thoughts to “Open Thread Mid-week August 11, 2010”

  1. marinm

    The system ate my response. 🙁

  2. Don’t you hate when that happens?

  3. marinm

    Highlights as I refuse to re-type my last:

    1. Do votes even matter when the judges can appoint themselves as our overlords and tell us to pound sand?

    2. 47% voted FOR same sex marriage. They only need 3% to effect change. Regardless of Judges within 10 years California will have same sex marriage. So, why not let it spring from the people instead of by judicial or legislative edict?

    3. Direct democracy I believe works on things that are so pivotal and challanging that they need the People to chime in. I appreciate your line of thinking – and share it – on doing everything by direct democracy but when the people avail themselves to the ballot box to determine what the People’s voice is — regardless of it being the answer we ‘want’ to hear, lets do it. The People have spoken.

    4. Going back to your thinking, “The will of the people doesn’t always guarantee everyone equal rights. There must be checks and balances. the minority must be protected from the majority” does that mean the minority (-R) should be protected from the majority (-D) on matters of financial reform, healthcare reform, etc.

    4.a – Whats the point of even being the majority anymore?

    Ok, I’m still long winded when I try to keep it short. I’ll shut up now. 🙂

  4. Big Dog

    M-H,
    What has happened in some areas (Savannah, Georgia for example)
    is that the white population simply vacates the public school system
    and moves to private or parochial schools that they deem safer
    and with higher academic standards. This results in defacto segregation
    that becomes worse as the schools decline and the majority of
    active parents/voters become disconnected and no longer actively
    support the public system. The normal parent, even “liberal” ones,
    will do what they think is best for their child.

  5. Censored bybvbl

    Desegregation didn’t involve only schools. It eliminated separate water fountains, separate restrooms, separate waiting rooms, different seating on public transportation, seating at restaurants,separate school systems, and a multitude of other inequities. I don’t believe for one minute that the South would have desegregated without court intervention at that time. How long would people have had to wait? Until several generations of whites died off?

  6. Big Dog, I guess that is a way of voting.

    Censored, I expect if that issue were put to a vote now…today….there would still be no desegregation. I would bet my next paycheck on it in fact.

  7. DB

    Well completely off the current topic…. I was almost a victim of a purse snatching at Denny’s today. I went in for lunch today with my son. As I was walking in I noticed a woman standing outside holding a stack of freebie newspapers. She followed me into the place but proceeded to walk down toward a booth. My son and I sat at the counter and I hung my purse on the back of his chair. Next thing I knew, the woman was behind our chairs chatting on her cell phone. The manager kept asking her if she needed a table and the person ignored her, continued to chat on the phone while inching closer to our chairs at the counter. At that point I took my purse off the chair and put it on my lap. The woman then proceeded to the back dining area, all the while chatting on the phone, grabbed another woman’s purse, ran out the door and took off in a car. I’m sooooo glad I moved my purse! Fortunately, a customer got the license plate.

  8. marinm

    Censored/MH, so the ends justify the means?

    Leaving it to voters may not get what you or I want everytime but it’s the fairest system we have in place.. I think the idea of leaving it to judges, legislators or a President of a party I support or don’t is more dangerous to civil rights in the long term.

    Would you trust all the power we’re providing the President, if that President we’re Ms. Sarah Palin?

  9. Second-Alamo

    So DB, I hate to ask but I just have to. What language was the purse snatcher speaking?

  10. My guess would be English.

    I wouldn’t trust all the power to the president if he/she were Bush, Obama, Palin or Clinton. That is why we have 3 branches of government.

    If you accept our system of government, you are going to have to accept that there is a built in mechanism to protect the minority from the will of the majority. The majority doesn’t always get to win. The court protects the little guy when the majority gets too heavy handed.

    One of my favorite cases is Griswald v Connecticut. The Church managed make it so birth control was illegal. How do you fight that? A heavy church population being told their souls were going to fry in Hell if they voted to overturn the ban on contraception?

    The court finally stepped in, mid 60’s and overturned the ban on birth control.

    Loving v Virginia–another favorite of mine. Do you really think Virginia would have ever voted to make interracial marriage legal? The courts had to do it.

  11. DB, I am glad you moved your purse also. I have had it happen before, many years ago–shoe store in Lohman’s Plaze. What a pain. I wear cross body now for that reason. Someone would have to take my head off with it to get to the purse.

    Were you at Denny’s at Portsmouth? That place can be rough for sure.

  12. DB

    She was speaking English, well spoken btw with no discernible regional accent, meaning no drawl or midwestern, or north eastern city accent. No pop/teen culture slang either. Just your typical northern VA run- of- the- mill English. Why do you ask?

  13. TWINAD

    He doesn’t like overhearing people speak in other languages and believes it should be outlawed from what I can tell from his previous posts. He doesn’t think there is white trash…only brown trash.

  14. TWINAD

    Anyone hear that now Utah is backing away from their original knee jerk position of following in Arizona’s footsteps and is now putting together ideas and a plan for their state to allow integration of illegal immigrants into their community or their own comprehensive immigration reform? What a novel idea. There was a great article on CNN.com a few weeks ago how AZ rushed into their great idea and no other alternatives were even considered.

  15. Morris Davis

    Newt’s a hoot. After the judge’s ruling that CA Prop 8 is unconstitutional he said it was “outrageous” and explained that “marriage is the union of one man and one woman.” I used to think 1 and 1 = 2. In Newt’s case 1 and 1 (and then another 1 and another 1) = 4. Must be some of that George Bush “fuzzy math.” Newt, Rush, Strom, Beck, Vitter, Ensign, Fosselli, Sanford … Christian conservative family value; sign me up — those guys know how to fellowship! The Dems are so lame; they think “screw the constituents” is just a figure of speech.

  16. Too funny, Moe. I guess that one man and one woman is being practiced sequentially by the Newster. He just practices serial marriage.

    Newt also has said it doesn’t matter what he does, it matters what he says. H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-T-E

  17. Bob Marshall has crawled all over the governor. He sent him a letter admonishing him for accepting money to save 3,800 teaching jobs.

    I have always know Marshall had nerve but since when does he get off chastising the governor? First Stewart second guesses the governor by hinting (the baseball bat kind of hint) that the 287(g) plan is a first step and now Marshall sends him a letter reprimanding him for accepting federal money.

    Marshall and Stewart make Prince William County look like its full of fools.

  18. An apparent blogger named Dog1 left the following on the Richmond Times Dispatch comment section. Ordinarily, I don’t bother with such rantings but I have heard some rumblings about Wilder being involved with the ABC Stores situation. Therefore I think it bears repeating, albeit with a caveat or 2.

    Richmond Times Dispatch

    McDonnell made a deal with none other than L. Douglas Wilder just before election day. That deal was a trade for the non-endorsement of Mr. Deeds, (therefore a tacit endorsement of McDonell) in exchange for Wilder and his son Larry, receiving first crack at ABC privatization.

    Folks with clear memories back into the late 80’s and early 90’s will recall that Wilder and his son salivated over the prospects of cashing in on the ABC profits – to their own personal benefit. Doug was acting behind the scenes for the most part except for policy statements, and Larry was everywhere lining up the nuts and bolts of the operation and just how all the cash would be divided!

    Many RTD readers may be unaware that McDonnell as a partial down payment, gave Larry Wilder an appointment in the McDonnell administration. Why do you suppose that was? Did you know that non other than Larry is sitting in on many of the ABC talks?

    So folks there you have it. The only reason McDonnell is trying his best to fall over this sword, is L. Douglas Wilder. It is likely that we will continue to wrestle the ghost of Doug Wilder, even from his grave, as his fingerprints have been left in so many places.

    McDonnell has made a deal with the devil, so-to-speak. McDonnell is a bright person, but once you have made the deal, what option do you have? Do you think McDonnell wants to wake up nightly worried about what Doug might do to him next, acting from the grave?

    The deal was struck, and McDonnell will do his best to keep it. Would you want the ghost of Doug Wilder hanging over you the rest of your life? Nonetheless, if McDonnell succeeds with the ABC change, Virginians will suffer for generations with hundreds of millions in higher taxes to make up for lost ABC profits…Profits lost to the Wilders. If successful, the Wilders win, and all Virginian loose.

  19. Lafayette

    UFB!!! I’m glad you shared that ranting.

  20. Lafayette, I think there is probably some truth in what he says. I haven’t seen it any place else. Keep your ears to the ground.

    It did seem unusual that Wilder got all cagey over Deeds. I had not heard of there being bad blood between them.

  21. Big Dog

    Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star has a story today about an
    English speaking man breaking into a Hispanic home
    and using a female companion as a translator to help
    him rob the seven residents.

    Another example of a US citizen going an extra step
    to meet the needs of the Spanish speaking community!

  22. Big Dog

    M-H, You might appreciate Gail Collins op/ed piece on the
    NYT website -“My Favorite August”. Talk about a long tedious
    legislative march through the wilderness.

  23. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    Moon-howler :
    Bob Marshall has crawled all over the governor. He sent him a letter admonishing him for accepting money to save 3,800 teaching jobs.
    I have always know Marshall had nerve but since when does he get off chastising the governor? First Stewart second guesses the governor by hinting (the baseball bat kind of hint) that the 287(g) plan is a first step and now Marshall sends him a letter reprimanding him for accepting federal money.

    Marshall was right to chastise McDonnell for accepting that money. That money comes with big-ass strings attached to it.
    Marshall and Stewart make Prince William County look like its full of fools.

  24. Slowpoke Rodriguez

    I don’t know why I can’t do a quote anymore…dog-gone-it!

  25. Slowpoke, use the following

    Get rid of the ! in the middle. I put it in there so I could type it and not have it do it.

    What strings do you see attached? I know of none. Tell.

  26. From the TD:

    Because Virginia’s GOP U.S. House members opposed the so-called emergency bill, accepting the aid is a repudiation of fellow Republicans, said Marshall.

    So really, its all about politics rather than about what’s good for Virginia’s school system.

    By all means we wouldn’t want to “refudiate” what those fellow Republicans say. (gag!)

    Demagogue, ideologue, and party man.

  27. There will be no special booze session until at least NOvemeber. Apparently McDonnell doesn’t want the booze situation to creep over into the regular general assembly.

    The privatization is pure crap.

    http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/virginia-politics/2010/aug/15/jeff15-ar-426777/

  28. Lafayette

    Pure crap, is exactly right. I still can’t believe the privatization of our ABC Package Stores is even being discussed. Looks like fellow Republicans might even have a few concerns about this short-sighted idea. Grr!

    Moon, thanks for sharing this link. I think we are the only two around here that feel the Commonwealth’s liquor stores should remain the Commonwealth’s. 🙁

  29. Lafayette, so it appears. Statewide there is a great deal of concern, and the concern isn’t running along party lines.

    No one has yet given a satisfactory explanation of how the profit money will be made up.

    Also, McDonnell is using high priced lobbyists to support his cause.

    I still want to know where Doug Wilder and his son Larry fit into this equation. Those 2 have been salivating for years over privatization of that booze money. Sorry Wilder, no booze for yous.

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