Manassas Council to spend $100K on Civil War Anniversary

MoonHowler

The Manassas City Council voted Wednesday to spend $100,000 on the upcoming 150th anniversary of the First Battle of Manassas.  The 150th anniversary of the first major engagement of the Civil War will take place around the week of July 21, 2011. 

The City hopes to bring in revenue and position itself for long term tourism.   Creston M. Owen, chairman of the board of Virginia Civil War Events Inc. plans to organize 9 days worth of events.  He came before the board on Wednesday to ask for money. 

According to the News and Messenger:

Owen’s outfit of volunteers is poised to begin organizing the nine-day commemoration that is set to include a Blue and Gray Ball at the Candy Factory, a re-enactment of the First Manassas, breakfast with the troops and concerts on the lawn of the Manassas Museum and at the Battlefield.

Owen told the council that it’s time to get started if the aim is to educate and attract the crowds that will generate income and put the area on the map.

“We’re only 18 months away. If we don’t start beating the drum now, we won’t get people here,” Owen told the council.

Owen has also met with the Prince William delegation of the Virginia General Assembly and hopes to get a million dollars from the state for this 9-day event.  To date nothing has been heard publically about the Prince William County involvement in the commemoration of the sesquicentennial or about their plans to infuse money into this venture.

Already citizens are cheering for their home town.  However, an equally strong set of boos are being heard because of the recession,  extremely tight municiple budgets, and basically, a Tea Party mentality.  Is this something that the local governments ought to be supporting or is this an event better handled by private enterprise?

Letter From SPLC on Lou Dobbs

MoonHowler

Posted below is the correspondence from Richard Cohen of Southern Poverty Law Center on the departure of  Lou Dobbs from CNN.  Whether you agree or disagree, Dobbs’ removal was sought by many hefty organizations.  Without additional commentary:

Nov. 12, 2009

 

Dear Friend,

Last night, CNN anchor Lou Dobbs announced his departure from the network. As you know, we’ve been highly critical of Dobbs because he has used his platform to spread myths and propaganda — poisoning the debate over immigration reform and inciting fear and hate against Latinos.

The SPLC was one of the first groups to bring public attention to Dobbs’ use of false information provided by racist hate groups.

With your support, we exposed his wildly inaccurate reporting about immigrants — such as his insistence that immigrants had brought thousands of new cases of leprosy to the United States during a recent three-year period.

And we condemned his reliance on the Federation for American Immigration Reform as an authority on immigration issues. This is an organization we have named a hate group with longtime ties to white supremacists.

This past July, we called on CNN executives to fire Dobbs after he relentlessly promoted the racist and utterly baseless idea that President Obama is not a native-born American citizen. Soon thereafter, a number of other organizations joined our call.

Immigration reform is an important and complex issue, one that should be debated honestly. We hope that Dobbs’ resignation sends a message to other commentators that the airwaves shouldn’t be used to vent extremist rhetoric and fan the flames of hate. Doing so has serious and sometimes violent consequences, as illustrated by the rise in hate crimes against Latinos and the unprecedented number of threats against Obama.

We are committed to exposing those who disseminate misinformation that foments hate. Together, we took a stand, and our actions made a difference. Thank you for everything you do to combat bigotry and intolerance.

 

Richard Cohen photo Thank you for your support,
Richard Cohen
J. Richard Cohen
President, Southern Poverty Law Center

Update on Fort Hood Massacre

MoonHowler

There have been several developments regarding the Fort Hood Massacre.

The Army has charged Major Nidal Hasan with 13 counts of premeditated murder. Hasan can get the death penalty if he is convicted.

There is some concern from doctors at his last post that Hasan is psychotic. Of course mental illness does not translate into legal insanity, necessarily.

According to Fox News:

President Obama has ordered a review of all intelligence related to Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, and whether the information was properly shared and acted upon within government agencies.

The review will be overseen by John Brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism. The first results are due to the White House by Nov. 30.

Obama also ordered the preservation of the intelligence. Members of Congress, particularly Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, have called for a full examination of what agencies knew about Hasan’s contacts with a radical imam and others of concern to the U.S., and what they did with the information

Good for President Obama. It is time to put sunshine and transparency on who know what when. Sadly, regardless of what is discovered, Hasan is not the only one. The time frame seems reasonable also.

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