Jon Stewart: The Newly Elected Republican Step-dads

MoonHowler

Jon Stewart looks to see how some of the new arch conservatives are doing.  He suggests they are like the new guy your divorced mom brings home, but the honeymoon is soon over.

This is possibly the funniest Jon Stewart I have ever seen.  He calls the hypocrites out.  I have never seen more blatant self-serving elected officials in my life.  Some of these guys ought to just be ashamed of themselves-

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
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 There seems to be a common theme here– Worthless public teat-sucking leaches trying to steal from the public coffers—-Why is there a war on the public employees?

Will the public stand for this war?  The polls don’t look so good in Wisconsin.  The polls won’t look so good anywhere once people see how badly some of these newly elected officials are stepping on their…..ooops….

WWII vet discovers he isn’t a citizen

MoonHowler

From Yahoo.com:

Davidson, from Centralia, Washington, told KOMO News that he discovered he wasn’t a U.S. citizen when he was turned down for an enhanced driver’s license he needed for a trip to Canada to visit relatives.

“We always figured because he was born to U.S. parents he’s automatically a U.S. citizen,” said Davidson’s daughter, Rose Schoolcraft.

Davidson was born in British Columbia in 1916, but his parents didn’t register the birth with the U.S. government to ensure they knew he was a citizen. He checked up on his citizenship before joining the Navy and was told by an inspector at the U.S. Department of Labor Immigration and Naturalization Service he had nothing to worry about. Now he worries that he won’t be able to prove his citizenship, because his parents were born in Iowa before local governments started keeping records of birth certificates in 1880. “I want it squared away before I pass away,” he says.

Is Leeland Davidson just being a stubborn old man? Surely he wouldn’t get deported. Should he leave well enough alone or should he persue this one?

N & M: Park Authority approves dog park

MoonHowler


News and Messenger:

WOODBRIDGE, Va. —
The crowd at the Prince William Park Authority Board meeting Wednesday night erupted in applause and cheers after the board took the first steps towards opening a dog park in the county.

The Park Authority Board unanimously voted to approve an agreement with Lake Ridge Parks and Recreation Association to lease 8.5 acres near the intersection of Minnieville Road and Colby Drive to open a dog park.

The Park Authority will pay $1 a year for the land, near the intersection of Minnieville Road and Colby Drive.

Park Authority Board members said that no public money will be used for the dog park. All of the money needed will have to be raised by a dog park support group.

According to a Park Authority staff report, the proposed park will be a fenced in area with a double-gated entrance. Cost for the fence is estimated at $12,050.

Before the dog park can open, it has to be approved by the county’s planning department. The Park Authority also has to develop a master plan for the site.

“This is really the beginning of that process,” Park Authority Vice Chairman Brant Wickham said to dog park supporters after the vote. “It’s really important that you all stay supportive and be visible during the process.”

After the meeting, dog park supporters said they were happy with the board’s vote, but understood that this is just the beginning of the process

So, with all the other pet projects and perks people and groups get in this county, why must the dog people have to raise the money for their project? If each supervisor kicked in a couple grand, they would have the park paid for.

This is the problem with the discretionary funds the way they currently are dispersed. If the supervisors aren’t interested in a dog park then it goes unfunded, regardless of the wishes of the constituents.

I think a dog park is every bit as important as many of those things on the list that were provided yesterday. If you are a dog person, your dog is as important as someone else’s horse. The BOCS needs to just pony up and give the dog folks the money needed and then change the way business is done in PWC. Enough is enough.

When Reporters Attack– Coward Johnson?

MoonHowler
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
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All kidding aside, when some of our politicians making snide remarks about Lame Stream Media, they really need to take into consideration that many reporters are in harm’s way.  We had reporters seriously injured in the latest uprisings in Egypt.  Gaddafi is known for his human shields.  Michael Kelly was the first journalist who died in the second invasion of Iraq.  Olaf Wiig and SteveCentanni were  kidnapped a few years ago and then there was Daniel Pearl who was beheaded on TV.  David Bloom died from an embolism in Iraq and lets not forget Bob Woodruff who suffered a severe head trauma wound.  Shep Smith stayed in Toyko even though the radiation readings were getting higher and there were still strong quakes in the area. 

Like it or not, all the cable news channels are mainstream.  They are on too often not to be considered mainstream.  The jobs our correspondents are doing are dangerous and fraught with peril.   Perhaps we should think before we make Lame Stream and other snide remarks.  Some slob sitting in his underwear putting news on a website just isn’t the same thing as getting rushed by a mob of angry Egyptians who want to beat your brains in.

The 8 District Plan vs 7 District Plan for PWC

MoonHowler

The 7  Magistrerial District Plan is unacceptable as written.  That plan guts the Westgate/Sudley Communities like a catfish.  The divide line runs right down Sudley Manor Drive on the Splash Down side of rt 234.  One side of Sudley Manor Drive, closest to 66 and all streets running off it will remain with the Gainesville District and vote at Stonewall Middle School.  Even those houses 100 feet from Sudley School will not vote there. 

See Map

Equally disturbed are those that live on the Manassas City/Lomond Drive side of Sudley Manor Drive, which includes a whole chunk of Westgate.  Those homes in Westgate will be in the Sudley precinct.  (makes perfect sense–Westgate is the new Sudley?)  Those homes are cordoned off by Strasburg and Sudley Manor. 

It makes no sense for neighbors on one side of a street to vote in one district and for those right across the street to vote in another district.  United we stand, divided we fall takes on an entirely new meaning when we hear rattlings every so often about  opening up Sudley Manor Drive, a neighborhood street, to through traffic.  One grows especially suspicious when listening to idle chatter about the Dulles Corridor Tri-County road that some in this county want to get through.  It would be mighty convenient to have that neighborhood divided, now wouldn’t it?  A nice ramp off of that puppy could run up Sudley Manor Drive and the neighborhood would be too divided to fight it.  That plan of course, is pure conjecture.  However, a divided neighborhood is never a good thing. 

The 8 District Plan makes much more sense.  Those communities surrounding the city have a great deal more  in common with each other than they do Gainesville, rural crescent, and mid county issues.  I see no reason why a chairman is even necessary.  That is a position that could easily be rotated.  Each of the 8 could take a half year and save the county a bundle of money.  Of course, that would strip a little power away from at least one position. 

I am curious what having a chair really does for us anyway?  All I have seen is it gives more press time to the person sitting in that position.  The people of PWC shouldn’t be footing the bill for that also.

Meanwhile, the people of Westgate and Sudley will probably howl over this proposal of gutting their community.  It’s one thing to divide a main road.  Its another thing to split up a community–especially a community that has had the problems that Westgate and Sudley have had.  Those issues  of make them communities of interest.  A strong case can be made to DOJ regarding splitting up these communities and I know a few people who are getting ready to do just that.  Let’s just say politics makes for strange bedfellows.

 

“Highway to Hellwig” Park Saga Continues…………………..

Elena

How much parkland are citizens willing to spend their tax dollars on for private interest  groups.  Whatever happened to the idea of passive recreation, a park that ALL citizens can enjoy, as opposed to parks that EXCLUDE citizens and only INCLUDE a small minority of people.  Hellwig is a blatant example of clear duplicity.  The Park Authority, under  the guise of fixing the entrance, is really simply allowing Parkland to be “given” away ( an annual lease fee of ONE dollar) to another private interest group. 

Read more of the background information here, the Prince William Conservation Alliance blog.

UPDATE: March 23 2011 — Despite the Board of Supervisors direction that the Park Authority work with the County Transportation Dept. to prioritize improvements to the front entrance to Hellwig Park (see below), the Park Authority Board is scheduled to vote tonight on a resolution approving a lease agreement with the Northern Virginia Soccer Club for their use of the property purchased to improve the front entrance to Hellwig Park.

According to the staff report, the lease agreement covers a five year period at $1/year and would renew by mutual consent. Click here to read the staff report and proposed lease agreement.

Update: Park Authority votes to allow five year lease to Virginia Soccer Association. PA demonstrates the worst of government decision making. The “premise” of the PA for supposedly needing the use of tax payer dollars to buy land to build a second entrance was based on safety? HUH? So now, instead of dealing with this critical “safety issue” by fixing the original entrance, as they were directed to do by the BOCS when denied the money to purchase the land, the PA will instead do nothing. You see, in order to fix the entrance, the newly leased house would have to be demolished.  How pathetic.

Did I hear that correctly?

MoonHowler

I might need to have my hearing checked.  While watching the BOCS meeting today I thought I heard Mrs. Caddigan say that she was given $89,000 for her office account out of general funds for the year.  I then thought I heard her say she didn’t need it so she donated it to the Montclair library. 

Then I thought I heard the CXO say that this was the first of 5 such payments?  My ears are ringing.  This is a hell of a lot of money multiplied by 8.  In fact, I expect it would have provided senior day care or perhaps even a resource officer or 2 for the middle schools. 

If this expenditure is $712,000 per year times 5 is $3,560,000.  How many supervisors don’t need these funds?  Can’t we put them to use that will serve the entire county? 

County employees haven’t had a raise in 3 years.   We are short uniformed officers and promises made to fire and rescue have never been kept.  These discretionary funds are growing by leaps and bounds and nothing else is.

Please tell me to have my hearing checked or that I misheard.

Also, while speaking of the county, let’s look at the new redistrict map keeping 7 magisterial districts.  Am I having visual hallucinations or is the old Gainesville district being carved up in Sudley and Westgate?  It seems to me that these are communities of interest and should not be split.  I am willing to be in Coles District but I am just not sure how this community is to be carved up.  The maps do not show street names.  Do I smell a rat?

Friedman Withdraws Name from Supervisor Race

MoonHowler

Press Release From Gary Friedman

 Democratic Nomination Contest

 

Public focus is starting to turn to the upcoming local elections this November. Those of us who have been paying attention to these races for quite some time, now have one important piece of information we have been missing: The election calendar. The Board of Elections recently published the calendar for the 2011 campaign cycle. A quick look at the calendar makes it clear that it puts challengers to incumbents at an even greater disadvantage than normal. The usual five months the calendar allows for the general election, post-nomination for the parties, has been truncated to just over two months this year. That fact alone places a heavy burden on challengers, especia!ly so for those new to the political arena.

With regard to the race for the at-large seat to the Board of County Supervisors, which serves to chair the county board, and for which I announced my intention to seek the Democratic nomination in July of last year, the last thing any Democratic nominee needs is to engage in a long and expensive nomination battle followed immediately by a short calendar general election.

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CNN Nic Robertson tears in to Fox News over human shield reporting

MoonHowler

Nic Robertson says he expect lies out of governments in that part of the world but that he doesn’t expect them out of other journalists.

From Huffington Post:

Fox News’ defense correspondent, Jennifer Griffin, reported on Monday that the British army had been due to fire seven missiles at Gaddafi’s compound. But the attack was held off, she said, because Libya had brought journalists from CNN, Reuters, the AP, the Times of London and other news outlets to the compound for what, in the government’s words, was a press tour. According to Griffin, the actual reason for bringing the journalists to the compound was to “effectively use them as human shields.”

Speaking to Fox News’ John Roberts, Griffin said that Fox News had kept its correspondent in the region, Steve Harrigan, away from the tour because the network was “concerned they could be used as human shields.”

In an interview with Wolf Blitzer later on Monday, CNN’s senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, who was one of the reporters on the tour, lashed out at Fox News. He called the report “outrageous and absolutely hypocritical,” and said that, when you come to somewhere like Libya, you expect lies and deceit from the dictatorship here. You don’t expect it from the other journalists.”

Robertson’s report certainly differs a great deal from Faux News’ report.  Why would they lie?

Checking out the legality of polygamy–Post Big Love

MoonHowler

I never understood the difference in bigamy and polygamy until I went to Utah for the first time about 15 years ago.  I was reading the paper and saw that some man had been arrested for having 2 wives.  Then on the front page there was so big arrest made to a polygamist but it was for beating his daughter.  So naturally I had to give up all my pride and ask my hosts.

And yes, my hosts were all Mormons, but maybe not practicing ones.  After they laughed and carried on over my ignorance, they explained it.  Polygamist only have one state marriage as we saw in Big Love.  Barb was the legal wife.  The others, Margene and Nikki, were ecclesiastical wives.  That is not illegal.  It is taboo, however, in the official Mormon Church, otherwise known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.   Barb has been excommunicated because she was living in polygamy.  Bill, Nikki and Margene  had never been in the mainstream Mormon Church so they were  not excommunicated. 

So I got an email from a friends asking me what was the difference in living together and polygamy.  I would say there is none legally.  The legal problems of polygamy center around child abuse and statutory rape.  Amongst consenting adults,  what is the problem?   There has also been a problem with many of the polygamist men not supporting their children and costing the state lots of welfare money.  The Juniper Creek class polygamists ran in their own little world and lived by their own laws.  However, if people are living like the Hendricksons or those seen on the reality show Sister Wives, why does it concern us?

Any opinions or comments?

Libya No-fly Zone

MoonHowler

Washington Post:

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen provided an update regarding the military situation in Libya. “I would say that the no-fly zone is effectively in place,” said Mullen, outlining the ultimate goal as being threefold: successfully establishing the no-fly zone, arresting Gaddafi’s ability to massacre his own people, and making possible the entry of humanitarian assistance into Libya.  “While the United States leads this right now,” said Mullen, “we expect in the next few days to hand that leadership off to a coalition-led operation, and the United States recede somewhat to the background in support.”

So where do we stand?  What do we hope to achieve?  Are we leading the pack or are we part of a coalition?  Who is the boss?  Who pays the bills? Humanitarian assistance sort of says ‘boots on the ground’ doesn’t it?  Are we trying to take Gaddafi out or not?  If not, then why are we bombing his compound?

All of this is very confusing.  Don’t we think most wars will be over in a week or 2? 

Another Virginian considers U.S. Senate bid

MoonHowler

Richmond Times Dispatch:

Timothy E. Donner, a Northern Virginia television production company owner, is considering challenging George Allen for the Republican nomination in the 2012 U.S. Senate race, Politico reports.

Donner, founder of Horizons Television Inc. and a member of the Virginia Institute for Public Policy, is a couple of weeks away from a decision, an adviser told Politico.

If the wealthy conservative from Great Falls in Fairfax County does jump into the race, he could be one of many trying to defeat Allen, a former U.S. senator and Virginia governor.

Jamie Radtke, a tea-party activist, and David McCormick, a Hampton Roads attorney, are already seeking the nomination along with Allen.

Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart and state Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William, have also hinted at runs, along with others.

The Republican ticket for the elusive Webb seat has become quite crowded, hasn’t it?  There is no reason at all for Tim Kaine to announce his intentions.  He can just sit back and let the Republicans devour each other, then decide what he is going to do.  Kaine has said he will announce  his intentions towards the end of the month.  

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More join protest against mandated 150 minutes PE time

MoonHowler

Washington Post:

Three statewide education groups are joining with the Virginia Association of Counties and the Virginia Municipal League to urge Gov. Bob Mc­Don­nell (R) to veto a bill that requires elementary and middle schools to offer 150 minutes of physical education a week.

Fairfax County Schools have been voicing concern.  The three new educational groups urging the governor to veto include:

… the Virginia Association of School Superintendents, the Virginia Education Association and the Virginia School Boards Association have joined with the local government groups to make the same arguments. 

Their letter to the governor states the following:

“We recognize that the bill’s intent of fighting childhood obesity is a laudable goal.  We ask, however, that you exercise your discretion to veto this bill because of two major concerns: (1) the bill imposes a substantial unfunded mandate on school divisions and localities and (2) due to time constraints and other requirements imposed on the public schools, the bill’s implementation will pose very significant instructional and practical problems,” they write in a letter to Mc­Don­nell.

Basically, most buildings don’t have the facilities to comply with what would be the new law.  Very few elementary schools have gyms.  Scheduling is already difficult at middle schools.  Most jurisdictions simply don’t have the money to comply or to retrofit new gym facilities.  They certainly don’t have the money to hire new PE teachers. 

Parent groups are meanwhile lobbying Gov. McDonnell to sign the bill into law to help curb childhood obesity.  No one denies that kids need more exercise.  However, Virginia legislators really didn’t look at the reality of how to implement their new law or who was going to pay for it.  According the the WaPo, this is the most hotly contested of all of the 1600 bills passed this session.  Right now, jurisdictions and school systems are viewing the PE Bill as just another unfunded mandate.