Silver Lake, Will it Remain the Jewel of PWC?

Elena

silver lake croppedSilver Lake is such a rare asset, will the county be able to preserve such a beautiful site, I am not too hopeful. Prince William Conservation Alliance has an excellent post up on their blog. If you care about conservation, parks, government process, and integrity, you should click on this link. Make your voices heard, it does make a difference.

A public hearing is scheduled for 7:30 pm tonight strong at the Prince William County Park Authority’s headquarters, at Hellwig Park. It is the first, and perhaps the only, opportunity to comment to the Park Authority Board on the three alternatives developed by county staff for developing recreational facilities at Silver Lake.

Proposed new trails, parking lots, and campgrounds might damage environmentally-sensitive areas – but the maps show only the facilities to be constructed. The three alternatives never identify the environmental assets to be protected. The staff has proposed a standard county park development plan without the ballfields, adding in a fishing pier but ignoring the special character of the Silver Lake site.

Failure to inventory the natural areas at Silver Lake before locating new facilities on a map is an amazing omission. It demonstrates that the Park Authority is locked into its active recreation mindset, and has no clue about managing natural resources.

The staff measures success by how many new things they can build, how much they can change a site. That failure to consider the resources at a site is why the historical places owned by the county were transferred away from the Park Authority, and moved to Public Works.

Another End Run by the BOCS Yesterday

MoonHowler

How dare they!

Yesterday, during Supervisor’s time, (# 8 at 5:06) John Stirrup asked for a directive to send the AG a letter thanking him for protecting their rights because he has filed suit against the federal government.  John Jenkins apparently was the only one with stones enough to object.  The directive was voted on and passed along party lines.  There no citizen input.

Mr. Jenkins called the move political and said it should not be part of the governance of that body.  Mr. Jenkins should be commended for speaking out and both he and Mr. Principi should be praised for going on record in opposition to this incredible  outlandish show of partisanship.  The BOCS has absolutely nothing to with the HCR law that just passed. They are a local governing body.  If they want to individually write to the AG and kiss up to him, that is their business.  Do it on their own time.  They do not have the right to do it for the entire county and they do not speak for me. 

They have pulled an end run.  Those 6 Republican supervisors do not speak for me.  They do not speak for all the citizens of Prince William County.  They did not poll the citizens.  There was no warning.  Now my name goes to an attorney general whom I did not vote for praising him for wasting my money on something I disapprove of doing.

Didn’t they learn a lesson from the initial immigration resolution of July 10, 2007?   John Stirrup must have that tingle going down his leg over this one.  He seemed almost as giddy introducing the directive as he did that night we all saw him on TV at the Republican convention. 

Stirrup, Stewart. May, Nohe, Caddigan, and Covington:  You do not speak for me.  Write your own suck up letter but do not do it in MY name.

Tom Perriello’s Brother had Gas Line Cut

MoonHowler

Rep. Perriello from the Charlottesville  area voted for the Health Care Reform bill.  Today officials and the FBI are looking in to how the propane gas line at his brother’s house got cut.  Political opponents had posted his brother’s address on a website, thinking the address was the congressman’s.   According to msnbc.com:

From NBC’s Pete Williams
Virginia officials, aided by the FBI, are looking into how a residential propane feeder line was cut at the home of the brother of a Virginia congressman.

Investigators have reached no conclusions about how or why it happened. But the line was cut after the home’s address was posted on a blog and a Facebook page, both maintained by members of a local Tea Party group who thought it was the home of Rep. Tom Perriello, a Virginia Democrat who voted in favor of the health-care bill.

One said, “This is Rep. Thomas Stuart Price Perriello’s home address,” and added, “I ain’t holding back anymore!!” The other urged readers to “drop by” the home and “express their thanks” for the vote. 

The cut in the gas line, which runs from a propane tank to a gas grill on a screened-in porch, was discovered Tuesday, the day after the address was posted. When they realized that it was incorrect, the operators of the blog and Faceboook page took the address off.

The chairman of the Lynchburg, VA, Tea Party, Mark Lloyd, told NBC News, “I learned what happened after the fact. We made an official statement on our Web site,” saying that that his group “did not request, sanction, or endorse” posting the address, which appeared on a different Web site.

Tea Party member Nigel Coleman, who wrote one of the Internet posts, told the Charlottesville Daily Progress that he was shocked when he heard about the incident.

Rep. Steny Hoyer reports that threats have been made to around ten Congressmen and women who voted yes to HCR legislation.  Shepherd Smith reports that he is waiting for an update from Capitol Police. 

Please note that the material for this post comes from both MSNBC and from Fox News.   Unfortunately incendiary rhetoric meant to gather the troops sometimes sends some of them off the deep end.  All of us, regardless of party affiliation or ideology must be mindful of our audience and what we say.  Civil debate becomes increasingly more important.  Shepherd Smith gave one of his fierce admonitions about settling political unhappiness and discontent at the ballot box.  I feel certain there will be footage of his remarks.  I will post them.  One bad apple can give many black eyes. 

It goes without saying that any  remarks like that would be removed from this blog.  However, no one here would post like that either.  The blogosphere does have the responsibility to maintain civil discussion.

Daily  Progress Story

Courtland Milloy: Congressmen show grace, restraint in the face of disrespect

MoonHowler

Courtland Milloy is a Metro Section Washington Post columnist. The other day someone on this blog intimated that I would have no idea how a black person would feel and that I was insulting. Let’s look at it through someone’s eyes who meets all the qualifications. I have no opinion. Milloy has been with the Washington Post since 1983. I found the opinion piece to be rather humbling. I would like to highlight someone else’s opinion. We don’t have to agree with Milloy, but we need to view this incident through someone’s eyes other than our own. These are not MY sentiments but I feel it is imperative that we acknowledge how someone else might feel.
 

 Washington Post 3/24/10

Courtland Milloy: Congressmen show grace, restraint in the face of disrespect

I know how the “tea party” people feel, the anger, venom and bile that many of them showed during the recent House vote on health-care reform. I know because I want to spit on them, take one of their “Obama Plan White Slavery” signsand knock every racist and homophobic tooth out of their Cro-Magnon heads.

I am sick of these people — and those who make excuses for them and their victim-whiner mentality.

Read More

Update on Mississippi Teen Lesbian and the Prom

MoonHowler

A follow up on the original story about  Constance McMillan’s desire to go to her own prom with her girl friend has lead to a less than conclusive end:

 

ABERDEEN, Miss. — A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Itawamba County, Miss., school board violated the rights of a lesbian student by canceling the prom when the student challenged a ban on same-sex dates, but the judge stopped short of ordering the district to reinstate the April 2 prom.U.S. District Court Judge Glen Davidson said he denied the injunction request because a private prom parents are planning will serve the same purpose as the school prom and because “requiring defendants to step back into a sponsorship role at this late date would only confuse and confound the community on the issue.”

 Did Constance win/lose or did she lose/win?  The school violated her rights.  However the judge isn’t going to make things right.  The school will not be forced to have a prom.  The private prom folks will not be forced to admit Constance.  Constance must go to the gay and lesbian prom instead of to her school prom.  Does this sound like forced segregation to you?

The federal judge sounds like the chicken you-know- what judge to me.  I thought the entire point of these kinds of court rulings was to either say yes her rights were violated and fix things or no her rights were not violated, go home and get over it.   I guess there is a lot of laughter and snickering in the Itawamba County school district today.  I guess they showed “them thar dykes a thing or 3 now didn’t they?”   What a shame that this young woman’s civil rights weren’t upheld. 

Maybe Constance McMillan has the last laugh after all.  She appeared on the” Ellen” and was awareded $30,000 in scholarship money by the talk show host who said she was so proud of her.  DeGeneres said:

“I admire you so much. “When I was your age I never would have had the strength to do what you are doing.”

 

Meanwhile, her ACLU lawyer is preparing round 2 of her legal battle. 

USA Today story

No Viagra for Sex Offenders

MoonHowler


Rep. (Dr.) Tom Coburn (R-OK) has introduced an amendment he feels most Democrats will support also:

No Erectile Dysfunction Drugs To Sex Offenders – This amendment would enact recommendations from the Government Accountability Office to stop fraudulent payments for prescription drugs prescribed by dead providers or, to dead patients. This amendment also prohibits coverage of Viagra and other ED medications to convicted child molesters, rapists, and sex offenders, and prohibits coverage of abortion drugs. (Note: the creation of exchanges could allow sex offenders to receive taxpayer-funded Viagra and other ED drugs unless Congress expressly prohibits this action

I guess I want to know why sex offenders are in a place where they would need ED products. What about when they have served their time. In addition to being on the sex offender list would they be banned from ED materials? (not that I care) Where do abortion drugs fit into this profile? Granted I am posting  an excerpt, but I don’t know how many sex offenders are standing in line for abortion drugs. I think I would need to see a list of what these abortion drugs are before I pull down the red flags that have shot up.

Meanwhile, I am all in favor of not giving sex offenders Viagra with taxpayer money.  Of course, this begs the question:  Can they buy it with their own money?   I suppose it depends on how badly they want it.

Politico