Its that great shopping Nirvana again–Black Friday. Black Friday actually got its name from being the day that the stores would go in the black from all the Christmas shopping. In fact, during the Depression, FDR moved Thanksgiving up a week to have a extra shopping days. People were furious. Thanksgiving finally became etched in stone as the 5th Thursday in Novemeber. I personally enjoy Cyber Monday a lot more. I hate to shop. Shopping brings out killer rage in me.
On a not so light note, a friend of mine said there was a huge fight in one of the Walmarts in the electronics department.
FYI, Manning was supposedly in custody before these SD Cables were given to Wikileaks…
well, how do you explain a private waltzing into a treasure trove of info and broadcasting it to the whole world? does anyone expect the lad to ever sit in old sparky for his transgression? will that assange guy from wikileaks meet an early demise? last i checked he’s in good spirits
Why is it that everything wrong in the world gets blamed on this administration?
This isn’t something that just started. How about it being an American problem?
why does obama blame everything wrong in the world on the former administration? but yes, america’s demise started a long time ago, but obama and his gang took a chugging locomotive and transformed it to a hypersonic jet
e – “the obama administration doesn’t really care if america’s clout and prestige are diminished.”
It has to be a lot easier to come up with passionate claims when you don’t let little things like facts stand in your way. Andrew Kohut, President of Pew Research, testified at a House Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee hearing: “Favorable ratings of the U.S. plunged in many countries following the invasion of Iraq and remained low through 2008. In 2009, we began to document a revival of America’s global image in many parts of the world reflecting confidence in its new president, Barack Obama.” Here’s the link to the entire article and the data that shows how U.S. clout and prestige fell off a cliff during the Bush-Cheney years and began to revive when Obama took office. http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1512/restoring-americas-reputation-globally-gains-may-be-fragile
Bush and Cheney wrecked our standing as a world leader the same as they wrecked our economy when they turned the budget surpluses they inherited from Clinton into oceans of red ink thanks to tax cuts we couldn’t afford while we were still a debtor nation, not one but two wars that we plunged into headlong and didn’t pay for, a sharp growth in federal spending during a period of declining revenues, and the suppression of regulations that allowed Wall Street to run amuck and nearly sink the economy. What part of the Bush years did you like best: the wars, the recession, or the trashing of America’s clout and prestige?
the part i liked best about the bush era was the economy. despite liberals’ attempts to rewrite history, like claiming reagan didn’t institute massive tax cuts, an objective analysis will testify that the economy during the 2000s was pretty darn good. a very low unemployment figure, for example, whereas now we’re stuck with a perennial 10%, and will likely get worse. business leaders had confidence that their endeavors could operate in a stable environment, without worrying what new scheme the govment was planning next with cap and tax or eliminating the private sector health insurance industry.
furthermore, there’s a difference between being liked, and respected. ask arab leaders in private, like we now know about the king of saudi (thanks to wikiboy assange)
e – do not let anything like facts get in the way of how you view the 2000’s. As the recession started in 2007, is it Clinton’s or Obama’s?
WTH? Is this a diversion from Corey??! LOL!! 😉 http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=122925&catid=158
I love that Bush has such huge deficits! Oh my! Lets take a look at the Bush deficits compared to the current deficit and proposed deficits:
http://blog.heritage.org/2009/03/24/bush-deficit-vs-obama-deficit-in-pictures/
# President Bush expanded the federal budget by a historic $700 billion through 2008. President Obama would add another $1 trillion.
# President Bush began a string of expensive financial bailouts. President Obama is accelerating that course.
# President Bush created a Medicare drug entitlement that will cost an estimated $800 billion in its first decade. President Obama has proposed a $634 billion down payment on a new government health care fund.
# President Bush increased federal education spending 58 percent faster than inflation. President Obama would double it.
# President Bush became the first President to spend 3 percent of GDP on federal antipoverty programs. President Obama has already increased this spending by 20 percent.
The tax cuts did not cause the current crisis in red ink. The economy was fine. The regulations that were changed were done under Clinton. The repeal of Glass-Steagall helped that avalanche start. Then Barney Franks and co. decided that housing for the poor was more important than oversight of Freddie/Fannie. That suppression of Wall Street regulations was caused by Democrat demands that Wall Street make loans to people that should never have gotten them. They then tried to make a profit off of that. I didn’t see the Democrats jump aboard the protests about that either. Now, those same fat cats on Wall St. are using their connections to get bailed out and their competitors lose.
The Democrats controlled Congress from 2006. THEY controlled the purse strings. Bush’s problem was that he didn’t use the veto enough. 2008 was when Congress decided to “help” the economy. Oh, wait, didn’t you just decry the fact that there was deficit spending that did nothing during a down economy?
The problem with the Bush administration was that it spent like a Democratic administration. That’s also why the GOP lost in those elections.
Oh, I forgot. That last bit of spending under Bush is all Democrat. Pelosi did not submit the 2008 budget. She held it over until Obama took office because Bush said that he would veto it. So, the spending can be laid at the feet of Pelosi et al.
Bush came into office in the midst of 4 years of budget surpluses and forecasts of continued economic prosperity. Obama came into office in the midst of the biggest economic death spiral since the Hoover Days (another Republican president with keen economic prowess). Here are the figures from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/108xx/doc10871/HistoricalTables.pdf The Bush tax cuts, which passed in May 2001 (the last year we had a budget surplus), occurred when Republicans were in the majority (John McCain was the only Republican in either the House or the Senate to vote “nay”). The next year the budget went into the red for the first time since 1997 and that is where it has stayed. The Republicans controlled Congress until January 2007 and the White House until January 2009. Put whatever spin you want on it, but that period will not go down in history as one where America lived up to Reagan’s vision of a bright shining city on a hill.
Moon, haven’t heard much about the LC Courthouse since the atheists got a legitimate jump on everybody and laid claim to the traditional location for the creche scene. No holiday fistcuffs there that I know of. That’s probably disappointed the atheists to no end.
Refresh my memory…what kind of spot can you put up as an atheist? Just trying to picture what that would look like.
I haven’t seen it. I don’t get to Leesburg much these days. I think it is just a large sign saying something about God not existing. Probably sitting right there between the Christian creche , a Jewish menorah, a decorated tree, and other things. Always somebody wanting to inject a “Bah, humbug!” into our religious holidays.
religion is opium for the masses
e — There is still that old military adage about there being no atheists in the foxholes. When that time of times comes, when you are facing the end, when you are eye to eye with the Grim Reaper, I’ll bet the farm that you will call for a priest or minister to give you comfort and/or absolution. Of course, you may have to get in line behind Bill Marr.
i dunno, christopher hitchens is remaining steadfast so far
The economy was fine. – LMAO – I think that is what did in McCain.
Wolverine, thanks for the update on the courthouse. I suppose they have as much right as the next guy. It does beg the question why they don’t do their display in August.
It would seem to me that the simple solution would be to let the creches stay at the churches and for the city to go heavily into the Christmas trees and wreaths…but that’s just me.
I never thought of what an atheist holiday display would look like – interesting!
“4 years of budget surpluses”
Odd how a deficit can still grow even though we had a “surplus.” And those “surpluses” were only for 2000 and 2001. They only happened because of dead lock because of a GOP congress. However, I think that those surpluses were accounting tricks. Spending did drop then and I applaud that.
Also, don’t forget that we had a little “thing” happen in 2001. Also, I seem to remember a recession that started during the last part of 2000 so, cutting taxes is the thing to do to bring one out of a recession. Proof? It worked. The recession was short and shallow, even with 9/11.
The problem is that Bush, as I’ve said before, spent like a Democrat. He ushered in all sorts of things popular with statists. The Prescription drug plan and NCLB to name two. And while you may disagree on the need or purpose of fighting the war, combat is expensive.
I don’t dispute that spending went up. That’s the problem. I’m just pointing out that those that decry Bush’s spending habits don’t seem to care about Obama’s spendthrift habits. The worst spending, however, happened in the 2009 budget when Pelosi did not submit it. She just did emergency spending resolutions until Obama took office. Hey, that’s what she did this time, too! That way the Democrats can point to this year and honestly state that THEY didn’t vote to spend and tax more.
Nobody can tell who spent what. Do we put the blame on Congress or on the President? If a budget is not submitted, but is “continued”, can we blame a President who does not get the chance to approve or veto it? I blame Congress. THEY are the ones that build the budget. THEY are the ones that put in the spending programs.
Reagan did bust the budget in approving Congress’s budget. His overriding goal was the roll back of Soviet influence. The Democrats used his need for a large military budget to also pass social spending. THEY are the ones that decided to fund both. And they went back on their agreement with Reagan to cut spending. Bush, Sr. continued this spending, attempting to increase taxes when he saw how badly the budget was managed. But instead of cutting all spending, he tried to do it by only decreasing military spending and raising taxes.
Clinton had a Republican Congress for half of his term and no major crises, thus, reduced spending, and what some believe to be a surplus.
Bush had a recession, 9/11, and a war. AND he spent like a Democrat on social programs. Again, though, it was a spendthrift Congress, unfortunately a GOP one, that made that budget. Then the Pelosi era started and spending INCREASED from the previous RECORD levels that the Democrats had previously complained about.
And now comes the Obama era, coupled with Pelosi/Reid, to completely and totally destroy the budget with deceptive accounting practices, political funding disguised as “stimulus,” and budget busting. economy killing programs
Congress passes the budget a presidents approves or vetoes (or under Pelosi, doesn’t get presented.)
Summary
Democratic Congress 1960..1995 ~4T to debt
Republican Congress 1996..2007 ~1.2T to debt .1T/Year
Democratic Congress 2008..2010 ~3T in just three years
Are you willing to accept that some folks, including leading economists, felt that the spending was totally necessary to keep the country out of deeper recession?
NTK, lets discuss the ‘road to nowhere’ going to Dulles. I want to know more about it. I thought it was a tri part road. Give me the lay of the land. I think we need a road from PW to Dulles.
The “Road to Dulles” as currently planned winds up on the wrong side of the airport. I’ve seen the impact studies with regard to projected traffic and its demographics. It’s being sold as an economic driver but in truth apart from a few UPS and FED EX trucks will not deliver any of the commercial impact desired.
Above and beyond that there are a myriad of environmental issues along the proposed route, impacts to the Rural Area (read development opportunities for a certain land use lawyer’s clientel), and increased traffic on the I-66 corridor.
Perhaps the most insidious aspect of the PWC plan is that it can not be accomplished without our neighbor to the north which at present doesn’t have it in their plans or budget, thus another road to nowhere that will essentially dead end at the county line.
@Moon-howler
Mom summed it up nicely. I would add that it is being sold as a “limited access” four-lane road. We all know what happens with those (i.e., Prince William Parkway and others). As soon as the road is built, a certain land use lawyer, who is the current driver of Corey Stewart’s campaign funding sources, comes in requesting exceptions for his clients to tie new developments into the road. It would open up massive new areas for residential development with, as Mom described, little commericial development or job creation.
Moreover, even if it were built beyond PWC into Loudoun (Mom assesses correctly the liklihood of that happening) since it comes out well to the west of Dulles airport, the trip from PWC to the airport would be little if any more convenient than driving I-66 to Rt. 28 north now.
This is a textbook “sucker born every minute” project. It benefits pro-development elected officials, such as Corey and the PWC Gang of Five, developers, and their attorneys/lobbyists. We pay the price and get little of no benefit.
Moon, those leading economists may think government spending will lower our debt, reduce the deficit, lower prices, and create jobs, but they have nothing to show that.
Government spending just takes money out of the pocket of the citizen and spends it where the gov’t feels is best. Or they borrow it from other sources and future economic growth is threatened due to higher taxes to pay back the loan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9kfMx8Llcc
We are running a 1.5 trillion dollar deficit. We’d be in the same place if we had frozen spending and killed all income taxes for a year. But the economy would be better off. Because, now, we have a loan plus we had to pay into the taxes to pay for all this stimulus and healthcare reform.
Google “Tri-County Parkway Virginia” for numerous postings on the subject.
The original plan was a #28 bypass starting with Godwin Drive below Manassas
and connecting with I-66 somewhere just west of Centreville. The road would take
through traffic around Manassas, Manassas Park, Yorkshire and Centreville.
The “Tri-County” was in the VDOT longe range plans for years until the reality
of no adequate funding source and outraged Fairfax nimbys (the plan really
would have helped PWC and the two cities and those further out in Fauquier – but
it never offered enough upside to Fairfax for them to get behind it).
The swing out to Loudoun may help developers, but not #28 traffic choked areas
between Nokesville and Centreville.
Below is a link to the map. The route Corey Stewart and the developers want is “C” extending north from where the 234 Bypass stops now at I-66. As you can see, it goes directly through the Rural Area, which a certain land use attorney’s clients want opened up, and continues through western areas of Loudoun County, which have not been opened to high density development, whether it follows the more westerly track along “D” or veers east along tracks “G” and “F’.”
Big Dog is correct that the easterly routes have been dropped from consideration.
“Road to Nowhere” is an apt description because both tracks “D” and “F'” come out to the west of Dulles Airport. If you took this route from where the 234 Bypass stops at I-66 now, you would have to take an easterly route through an already developed area south of the airport to get on Rt. 28 to the same airport entrance we use now, or another road would have to be built going north around the airport that would require you to double back south on Rt. 28. That would likely be the current Route 606, which would be very expensive to improve to serve that use. Either way, taking the existing route of I-66 to Rt. 28 north to get the airport from Prince William County is more convenient than anything this project would yield. I suppose you could build tunnels under the runways.
Here again is the link the PWC press release on the composition of the Economic Development Task Force that recommended this farce:
http://www.pwcgov.org/default.aspx?topic=040086003790005842
Note that its membership consists overwhelmingly of people from the development community, and includes no representatives of conservation or smart land use groups.
The Stewart/Lubeley Road to Nowhere is another big developer scam that will cost taxpayers millions if built, and provide no tangible benefit to anyone who doesn’t profit from opening rural areas to massive new development.
http://www.virginiadot.org/projects/resources/TCPMap022205.pdf
There are hundreds of us – if not thousands – in the Independent Hill area that curse every rush hour as we try to leave our subdivisions and merge into the traffic on the 234 bypass. I’d venture to say a couple of additional traffic lights would be justified on that stretch of road right now. And now we’re to expect more congestion?
Traffic lights (like on Route 1) only compound our traffic problem. Every stop sign helps destroy a few more acres of rain forest. 😉
Marinm, traffic lights would be IH residents’ way of flipping off our fellow commuters a’ la Bristol Palin. 😉
Thank you all. So can I assume that the tri county parkways and the road to no where are the same dead dream of someone?
It aint gonna happen?
Also, is anyone else horribly frustrated by what to call the roads around here? As I see it, there is the Parkway, which goes from east Manassas to across 95 near Horner Road and York Drive in Woodbridge.
Then there is the Parkway that used to be called the 234 bypass that touches I 66.
Then there is some road that the above road turns in to that takes you to Dumfries and is now called Dumfries Road.
This is absurd. I have said on here before…a friend of mine got hit by someone and it took the cops forever to find her because she said she was on the parkway. She wasn’t. She had passed the invisible line of demarcation and was really on Dumfries Road.
Let’s give these sections of road better, more unique names so we know where we really are. Try putting one the these into a GPS. I am not imagining this problem.
The only time a road’s name should change is when it goes through another jurisdiction. Even then it’s not a great idea. Route 28 is Centreville Rd. in part of the county and city and then it’s Nokesville Rd south of the city limits.
Speaking of the city. Did anyone read about the brothel that’s been up and running for the past 5 months in the City of Manassas.
http://www2.insidenova.com/news/2010/nov/30/manassas-man-charged-running-brothel-ar-685795/
Lafayette, that’s nothing.
There’s one in DC that’s been running for over a hundred years…… 😉
Great quote by Secretary of Defense Gates on why other countries will continue to work with us despite the WikiLeaks leak:
“Now, I’ve heard the impact of these releases on our foreign policy described as a meltdown, as a game-changer, and so on. I think — I think those descriptions are fairly significantly overwrought. The fact is, governments deal with the United States because it’s in their interest, not because they like us, not because they trust us, and not because they believe we can keep secrets. Many governments — some governments deal with us because they fear us, some because they respect us, most because they need us. We are still essentially, as has been said before, the indispensable nation.”
I hear ya, Cargo.
We had a couple of years of every few months these types of “businesses” were getting busted all over our area. One was just a block away from my house. They had park benches set up in the backyard for their costumers. This was on the main drag of my subdivision.
I agree with yout about roads not changing names. It gets very confusing. Another one is Old Centreville Road in Chantilly which goes through a whole bunch of name changes.
I didn’t know abut the brothel in Manassas, but it’s not the first one I’ve seen in the news in the past few years.
Gainesville,
I know all about Old Centreville Rd in Chantilly. When I worked at Hyatt Dulles we delivered Meals on Wheels in that area. It was almost impossible to keep up with the name changes if you weren’t making that trek daily.
The latest brothel bust is “hot off the press” via Insidenova. Their FB page has a few comments. I couldn’t resist, I had to chime in too. 🙂
The point is, no one knows the names of the 3 parkway sections. It is very confusing.
In this case, especially from 66 to 95, the road needs to named and clearly marked.
On top of that, part of Dumfries is named Ronald Reagan Parkway. For the life me me, I have no idea why. The western Parkway has been called the by pass and is now called the parkway. The change over to Dumfries Road is no obvious at all.
Current nomenclature is simply unacceptable since no one is really sure what it is.
Many roads have more than one name. Most roads have route numbers and names.
Then there is Sudley Road which is route 234 it splits off at Grant Avenue.
My idea of a parkway is not ladened with lights. However, it’s SOP in Fairfax and PW with their “parkways”. The FX and PW Parkways are the equivelant of Rt 1 and Rt 234 without the stripmalls and a greater distance between lights. Of course this is just my opinion.
I dont know how you retro-fit a parkway into an area. The people living along the thing need to be able to get off their streets.
@Lafayette
Welll, the one I’m talking about is called the House of….something…..I forget. Its got another branch in the same building….the …..starts with an S…..can’t remember it right now.
P. J. O’Rourke called them “The Parliament of Whores” Great book.
@Lafayette
And the guy wasnät even a Latino!
Wolverine, I am going to answer you here since nothing Corey has proposed really has much to do with quality of life issues in Virginia.
I find it amazing that your county is turning over that much money to the school system. PW turns over something like 57% and that might be a little high. It sounds like you had a lot more serious crime than we had/have here. PW’s issues were quality of life issues, overcrowding, and general annoyances. Now that is not to trivialize those types of things. They should not be trivialized.
I am a big believer in a man’s home being his castle. Noise, trash all over the place, blaring music, not being able to park in front of your own house, and property ill repair are all issues that need immediate attention. But they aren’t serious crime.
I think you all have to demand that your zoning department upgrade and start addressing your problems. That was done here. And I have to give that dept kudos. The City of Manassas also has some great employees in their neighborhood services dept.
Perhaps Cindy and Lafayette could provide you with some models etc to take back to your jurisdiction and say this is what we need and how this has helped in PWC and Manassas. Both ladies are very generous with their time. They can also hook you up with people who have some real success stories.
Well, it’s been a long and not always very satisfactory struggle, Moon. We ‘ve got some new BOS ordinances pertaining to things like tall grass and parking on front lawns and the like. We also now have a progam where the county is purchasing a number of derelict houses, fixing them up , and offering them for sale. But the system is much slower than it should be and still does not address some of the more acute problems. We do have a serious problem with adequate county personnel for enforcement, and those we do have are so outnumbered that they do not have the time to try to outfox the miscreants who have become very adept at outfoxing them.
I don’t think that the budget problem is going to be resolved any time soon unless an economic miracle comes along; and, if I had my druthers, I certainly wouldn’t want law enforcement to lose a chunk of their funds. They have already had to cut back on some law enforcement programs. If there has been a certain bright spot for us, it has been the drop in crime in most categories through the hard work of our deputies and those who support and assist them. That has been a big and important step forward, and I hope we can keep it going. The other thing I would not want to see is law enforcement serving as a substitute in the enforcement of zoning violations, since that takes them away from the job they are doing and are supposed to do.
We also have another problem in that there are virtually two Loudoun Counties now — the East with most of the major problems and much of the Center and West without so much. One of the troublesome aspects has been trying to convince those people who do not see the problems every day to actually believe it when we hollar out about the needs here. There was a very disheartening moment some months ago when a supervisor from the West exclaimed that she was sick and tired of hearing about Eastern Loudoun. Well, excuse me, Madam!! Indeed, we have been exceedingly loud in the past few years. I sat through a community meeting with most of the BOS not so long ago which was louder and more contentious than you will ever see at one of those Tea Party townhalls.
Anyway, we are sticking to it on our turf and are blessed by having a very excellent HOA on-site manager, a good staff, and a supportive elective HOA board. Between them and NW we are managing to stay ahead of the major problems most of the time. Elsewhere others are going into their own NW programs, but the key will be to get them to form some citizen action committees to address the quality of life issues. The HOA thing is nice; but, as I understand it, when an established neighborhood tries to establish an HOA, it requires virtually unanimous consent of all the homeowners or you get a royal legal snarl.
Maybe not the most serious of crimes; but the daily antagonism is, in my book, almost as much a cause of backlash as periodic serious crime. I think you really have to live it to fully understand it. At one of our public meetings, an elderly lady got up and spoke to the attendees. She told us she and her husband were among the first to move in here. They loved the home in which they had raised their family. This was where they felt they would always belong. Now, they were so fearful for their own safety that they were going to sell that home and move away. Then she broke into sobs, with the tears rolling down her cheeks. I dunno, Moon. You’ve got to be there, I guess. It keeps ME going at this, I will tell you that..
@Moon-howler #35
Exactly. It was called the “Tri-County Parkway” and the road going from Godwin to hook up with Rt. 28 might have been a positive thing for PWC. That’s dead.
Corey’s developer pals renamed the project “Road to Dulles” to try to sell it as something benefiting PWC residents. Look at the VDOT map to which I linked and decide for yourself.
Another point on this matter; if Corey thinks PWC can find 2 or 3 hundred million dollars to build this unnecessary road to nowhere through a rural area that comes out west of Dulles Airport and is not convenient for anyone, why he can’t just use that money to improve the roads that serve current County residents and improve their quality of life?
The Road to Nowhere is plain and simple another Stewart developer scam that will cost taxpayers millions and provide them with absolutely no benefit (unless you are Mike Lubeley or one of his clients).
Wolverine, I’m going to step on the third rail here and suggest the creation of a taxing district to address some of your neighborhood’s problems. Perhaps a service district could be created for trash pick up. Everyone pays and everyone should take advantage of it. Your county attorney could tell you which services could be covered by this. Our neighborhood used a taxing district to solve a unique problem. In counties where not everyone is affected by quality of life problems it is often hard to muster enough sympathy for the plight of others – particularly when an acrimonious atmosphere is created. Sometimes those affected have to assume most of the responsibilty for solving the problems by becoming more involved in the solutions. You’ve obviously done this through NW.
2 million lose jobless benefits as holidays arrive!
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/12/01/million-lose-jobless-benefits-holidays-arrive/