Greg Letiecq distorts the truth again and spreads misinformation

Elena

 

In a failed attempt to paint me as a liberal open borders advocate, Greg Letiecq, blog owner of BVBL.net, has made quite a laundry list of incendiary charges against me in order to deflect voter attention away from    the important issues of the upcoming primary on August 23.   His ad hominem  attack  on me attempted  to turn the focus off the importance of signing the Rural Crescent pledge and on to other issues. 

 This deflection becomes obvious  when one realizes his candidate of choice,  Peter Candland, did not sign the pledge and is one of only two candidates in the Gainesville Magisterial District who did not commit to the tenants of the comprehensive plan.   Letiecq’s weak efforts  to  intimidate those candidates who did sign the commitment to guard the Rural Crescent will not go unchallenged.  Greg also wants  to down-play the fact that Chairman Corey Stewart not only signed the pledge in the past but also violated it.  Therefore he was intentionally excluded from an opporunity to reaffirm his commitment. 

Please allow me to provide background information on Advocates for the Rural Crescent.   Advocates for the Rural Crescent  (ARC) was started in a small community in Haymarket.  Dominion Valley subdivision had proposed to put their water tank in the Rural Crescent rather than on their property.   Thunder Oak community fought the water tank proposal because  the water tank was intended to serve Dominion Valley    and not any homes  in the Rural Crescent.    Irving Spitzberg, the founder of ARC, asked if I would be willing to take over the leadership role of the organization.  I happily said yes because I felt it was one of the most important issues I could support as a resident of PWC.  

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Warren Buffett: Stop Coddling the Super Rich

MoonHowler

 

New York Times

Op Ed

OUR leaders have asked for “shared sacrifice.” But when they did the asking, they spared me. I checked with my mega-rich friends to learn what pain they were expecting. They, too, were left untouched.

While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks. Some of us are investment managers who earn billions from our daily labors but are allowed to classify our income as “carried interest,” thereby getting a bargain 15 percent tax rate. Others own stock index futures for 10 minutes and have 60 percent of their gain taxed at 15 percent, as if they’d been long-term investors.

These and other blessings are showered upon us by legislators in Washington who feel compelled to protect us, much as if we were spotted owls or some other endangered species. It’s nice to have friends in high places.

Last year my federal tax bill — the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me and on my behalf — was $6,938,744. That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.

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Teenager killed by Mexican vampire bat

MoonHowler

  • WARNING:  Video is very graphic.

    Huffingtonpost.com:

    U.S. health authorities have announced the first death by a vampire bat in the United States.

    According to the AFP, on July 15, 2010, a 19-year-old man was bitten by a vampire bat in Michoacan, Mexico. Ten days later, the migrant farm worker left for the U.S. to pick sugar cane at a Louisiana plantation. He fell sick, presenting symptoms of fatigue, shoulder pain, numbness in his left hand and a drooping left eye.

    Tests later confirmed that the teenager had rabies.  There is no cure for rabies and the youth died within days after his family took him off life support.  The only time rabies can be stopped is before the onset of symptos.  This is the first human death from vampire bat rabies in the United States.  To date, no vampire bats exist in the United States. According to the CDC:

     “Although vampire bats currently are found only in Latin America, research suggests that the range of these bats might be expanding as a result of changes in climate. Expansion of vampire bats into the United States likely would lead to increased bat exposures to both humans and animals (including domestic livestock and wildlife species) and substantially alter rabies virus dynamics and ecology in the southern United States.”

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    • Bachmann: Straw Poll Queen

    MoonHowler

    It’s official.    Michele Bachmann has won the straw poll by a landslide.  That should make her the Republican candidate to take on the  Prez, right?  No.  There are miles to go before Republicans can sleep.  The Iowa dust up is but one of many. 

    New faces will emerge on the scene.  Governor Rick Perry of Texas announced his candidacy Saturday afternoon.  Sarah Palin is still teasing her audiences.  Some of the folks in Iowa didn’t participate in the straw vote. 

    Then there is the question of Bachmann as a mainstream candidate in a general election.  Could enough Republicans get behind Michele “Default is Ok” Bachmann to carry the standard for her party?  I can’t see the business Republicans  thinking her notions about default and the economy are valid for any candidate. 

    The one thing I will defend Bachmann on, even though I think she is weird, is that she works hard and has done her homework.  People like Perry and maybe Palin will try to jump in line without doing all the work that Bachmann has done.  No one likes a line cutter.  Hopefully Bachmann will renounce those who haven’t put in the time, energy and hard work she has if they try to cut in front of her.