Happy Hanukkah, Al Tuner

MoonHowler

Elena has obligations and so I thought I would be a good Christian and do her Hanukkah post for her since tonight is the first night.  Then I remembered.  This was going to be tough since I know very little about this Jewish festival of lights.  Then I started thinking about other friends and one person stuck in my mind–A man named Al Tuner.  Danny.

I first  knew Danny online, probably about 14 years ago. We all became real  friends eventually since we lived in Northern Virginia.   He was a decent sort, once you got past his gruffness.   Danny loved trains.  I don’t mean sorta liked trains, Danny LOVED trains and he went by the moniker Al Tuner.  Some of you might have known him.  Al Tuner was a play on words for one of his favorite places, Horseshoe Curve in Altoona, PA.  Al worked for Amtrak at the time and he would stop in Altoona as often as he could get by with.

I lost track of Danny and several years ago I made the sad discovery  he was deceased.  He had had  some fatal illness.  I think  of Danny every Hanukkah however, and always have, ever since I cyberly spent that first Hanukkah with him online.  It seems that Danny had a train menorah.  He told me all about it. Unlike the one I am posting, his was lots of different colors. He described it in detail.  It was one of his prized possessions.  Danny must have been lonely.  He talked for hours about his train menorah and his dad, who had been dead for a while.  It was a very reflective night for my friend.  By the end of that conversation, I felt like I knew more  train menorahs than I ever thought possible.

I also knew more about Hanukka also, seen through the eyes of another.  I can’t tell you about the religious significance but I came away knowing a lot more about families and about a son’s relationship with his father and how a train menorah was simply the manifestation of something much deeper.  I hope Danny had his train menorah buried with him.

If there is anything to the notion that the dead live on in our souls, then Al Tuner certainly got in mine that night.  I thank him for sharing his feelings and for telling me what was important to him.  I wish him many more train rides around Horseshoe Curve.  Danny lives on in our hearts and minds and every time I hear a train, I think of Danny. 

 

Danny, like the song says, long may you run.

Danny’s website of short articles about trains, he calls muses.

http://www.on-track-on-line.com/musemenu.shtml

 

McDonnell targets VRS and higher education for money infusion

MoonHowler

Governor McDonald has targetted 2 critical areas for huge cash infusions:  VRS and higher education.  The governor plans to pump over 2.2 Billion into the state pension plan.  He also intends to spend over $200 million over the next two years in higher education.  Both areas are quickly approaching critical mass of not being able to do what they are intended to do.

According to hamptonroads.com:

Gov. Bob McDonnell’s announcements this week that he intends to pour $2.2 billion into the state pension system and boost spending for higher education by $200 million over the next two years are remarkable in two respects.

First, each implicitly acknowledges what nearly everyone in Virginia has long known but pretended isn’t true: The state’s failure to keep up with its obligations has reached a tipping point.

That much has been clear on any number of issues, perhaps none more than on transportation, which McDonnell has begun addressing through debt and public-private partnerships that ensure costly tolls on primary routes in South Hampton Roads.

But a study released earlier this week by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission underscored the bleak future of the Virginia Retirement System and the thousands of state workers counting on it.

The report explained the pension system’s condition as a consequence of multiple factors: the state’s pattern of contributing less each year than recommended, the economic downturn, increasing numbers of retirees and fewer workers taking their place. Analysts have calculated VRS is underfunded by nearly $20 billion.

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Is McDonnell raising taxes?

MoonHowler

From the Richmond Times Dispatch:

Gov. Bob McDonnell on Monday unveiled a two-year, $84.9 billion spending plan that balances increases in transportation, higher education and the state’s pension system with $882 million in targeted reductions largely to Medicaid and public education funding. The proposed budget for July 1, 2012, through June 30, 2014, contains no tax increases but raises certain fees, including $10 million worth from the Department of Motor Vehicles.

If fees are increased at the DMV, doesn’t that really constitute a tax increase, by another name? 

Additionally, if items like Medicaid and public education get shortchanged, doesn’t that simply make local governments more strapped for much needed cash?  The real estate market has not rebounded all that much which is where the taxes come from in most localities.  There is also a movement under way to do away with the BPOL tax. 

Somehow politicians need to accept that we are not all that stupid.  We know that neither PWC nor Virginia can print money.  We know that a certain amount of money is needed for schools and for medicaid.  If the buck stops here, we either do without cops and other public safety services or we have 40 kids in a classroom. 

How do you cut back on Medicaid?  Where do you start?  Do you disqualify people?  I don’t know the answers.  It just seems that we are playing a shell game.  The fed cuts what it gives to the states.  The state cuts what it gives to the localities.  The localities have things they must do like provide medicaid, education money and public safety.  So we move it around. 

This is like the song, Where have all the Flowers Gone.  Gone to Flowers everyone.  McDonnell is on Fox News bragging that he has a surplus.  Not really.  How about that money owed to VRS that has not yet been repaid?  How about what is being shorted the localities?  How about the increased fees?  Just because we don’t call it a tax, is it still a tax?  Yup. 

I don’t really care.  I noticed a huge hit since the last time I renewed my license.  I expected it.  But lets call it what it is.  It’s a tax increase called a fee. 

 

 

Is it even safe to send your kid to college?

MoonHowler

From Roanoke.com:

RADFORD — Six of the seven Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity members charged in the hazing death of a Radford University student last year avoided jail time in a plea deal Friday.

Radford Circuit Court Judge Joey Showalter found five of the men guilty of purchasing alcohol for a minor and for hazing in the death of Samuel Harris Mason, 20, of Chesterfield County. Mason was a Radford University student who was pledging the TKE fraternity.

Charges against a sixth student were continued for 12 months with no finding.

“This case vividly illustrates the hazards and risks of binge drinking,” Radford Commonwealth’s Attorney Chris Rehak wrote in a statement released after the plea. “Those who commit crimes of hazing in Radford can expect to be identified, prosecuted and convicted.”

The defendants who pleaded guilty Friday were Chadwick Evancho, 23; Christopher Michael Pizzi, 22; William Taylor Burke, 21; Christopher Scott Cothren, 22; and Louis Hoskins Trible, 22.

Showalter found them guilty of misdemeanor charges of purchasing alcohol for a minor and of hazing. They were each sentenced to 24 months in jail, suspended, and $1,000 in fines.

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Here we go again–More brinksmanship from the Republicans?

MoonHowler

So House Republicans shoot down the extention on payroll tax relief?  Are they going to play that bad brinksmanship game again–you know, the one that makes the stock market wobble on its axis and sets the already unstable European markets nuts?  Can we expect yet another credit downgrade?

I guess the Senate Bill just wasn’t good enough.  Is John Boehner speaking out of both sides of his mouth?  First he agreed with what the Senate did.  Then his whoop-dee-doo financial wizards get hold of him and he comes out brainwashed.  So what will happen?

From Huffington Post:

The House was returning to work Monday, two days after the Senate easily approved a compromise solidly supported by both parties and left town for a month. The House scheduled a vote late Monday, with leaders saying they would either formally request talks with the Senate on a new bill or make changes in the Senate measure that were uncertain late Sunday.

Without congressional action, the payroll tax would rise 2 percentage points on Jan. 1.

Extending the payroll tax cut and jobless benefits have been a keystone of President Barack Obama’s and congressional Democrats’ effort to spur a revival of the flaccid economy. Congressional Republican leaders also say they support the idea, but some of their rank-and-file remain unconvinced, saying the unemployment coverage is too generous and that cutting the payroll tax does not create jobs.

The Senate bill would cut the payroll tax, extend jobless benefits and avoid cuts in Medicare payments to doctors through February. Both sides say they want to renew all three for a full year, but bargainers have so far failed to agree on how to pay for a package that size, which could cost roughly $200 billion.

“If House Republicans refuse to pass this bipartisan bill to extend the payroll tax cut, there will be a significant tax increase on 160 million hardworking Americans in 13 days that would damage the economy and job growth,” Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director, said Sunday.

Many of us have come to the conclusion that some House Republicans will literally do anything to get rid of President Obama.  I hope I am wrong but time after time, that’s really what it is looking like.  Party first, country second.  There is really no need for this.   Has there ever been a worse congress than these clowns?

Open Thread………………………………………….Sunday, December 18

MoonHowler

 

 

 

The blog has gone to the dogs.  But we knew that.  Is everyone ready for the big day?  There are lots of big days coming up.  Winter Solstice is right around the corner as are the 8 days of Hanukkah.  Christmas is next Sunday. 

 These dogs are in a festive mood.  Did I leave off any holidays for our dogs to celebrate? 

Remember that awful barking Jingle Bells?

Where is the best Christmas display in the area? 

1 billion hungry in the world.  www.heiffer.org  a sustainable gift to fight hunger.

 

 

Former Gar-Field teacher pleads guilty to sex with student

MoonHowler

Inside Nova  tells us that Tina Marie Amato plead guilty to sex with a student.  Immediately, seeing the title, an image popped into my head of an older person taking advantage of a younger person–a sexual predator as it were.  After I read the article, I am not so sure that is how it worked this time.

I knew one of the men who was arrested last year at one of the local schools. I have friends who knew the kids involved.  Every last one of the professional  adults I spoke with felt that the teacher was set up by this kid.  Whoa!  That’s a switch.  Now am I saying the male teacher was innocent.  Oh hell no.  He was stupid, dumb and all the other words that pop up.  And he was set up.  He crossed a professional line that allowed him to be set up.  He got what he deserved for not maintaining his professionalism.

I expect the same thing happened to Ms. Amato.  She was convicted of :

“… three counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor by a custodian and one count of crimes against nature.”

We all know what that means without spelling it out. However, it marks Ms. Amato for life and puts her on the sex offenders list for time immemorial.  If she ever gets her life straightened out and has a family, she probably won’t be able to even go to a parent-teacher conference for her own kid.  She has destroyed any chances she ever had of a teaching career.

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1 in 2 Americans are low income

MoonHowler

From the Daily Beast:

Is this what decline looks like? According to new supplemental data from the Census Bureau, nearly half of Americans—a shocking record number—have fallen under the poverty line or are classified as “low income” and barely scraping by. Many in the middle class have dropped to the low-income threshold, meaning they make less than $45,000 for a family of four, because of pay cuts or spouses losing jobs. They number 97.3 million, and together with the 49.1 million in poverty, they represent about 48 percent of the U.S. population, or 146.4 million. That’s up by 4 million from 2009 numbers.

That seems rather high for a poverty threshold.  What defines ‘poor?’  What criteria is used?  Does it vary from region to region?  Many starting pay jobs in this area are below $45,000.   Recently separated or divorced women often have to restart careers making this much money.  Are they all living  in poverty?  Starting pay in Prince William County for a first year teacher is $43,615 for 195 days work.  No paid holidays etc.  That’s below the poverty level if that teacher has a spouse and kids.

Don’t get me wrong.  I don’t think living on $45,000 would be picnic, but I think you can have a roof over your head and clothes on your back, even in Northern Virginia.  Do we need to rethink what poor is?  What does poor mean to you?    

Will Northern Virginia suffer a financial relapse?  If yes, what will cause it?  What can we do to insulate ourselves and our families from it?

 

 

 

The Great Right Hope: Newt even grosses out Glenn Beck

MoonHowler

Jon Stewart helps Republican primary voters come to grips with what they are about to do and tries to steer them around making this decision.  He tries to convince them that Newt isn’t Reagan.  Newt is what Reagan would have been if he had been plucked out of his home as a babe and raised by cactuses.  Newt Gingrich is NOT the Great Right Hope.

 

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Indecision 2012 – The Great Right Hope – Newt Gingrich
www.thedailyshow.com
     

 

Seriously, when you gross Glenn Beck out, there is no where to go but up.

 

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Intervention 2012
www.thedailyshow.com
     

In many respects, this is old news.  On the other hand, Newt’s  arrogance is like watching a well orchestrated train wreck.  You just cannot turn away.   What is the likelihood Newt will win the party nomination?  If not Newt, then who will carry the standard for the GOP? 

So who won the debate?  Were there winners and losers?  Did Bachmann look presidential?

Congratulations Kisha and Manassas City

MoonHowler

update!!!!!

City of Manassas Neighborhood Services Manager Kisha Wilson-Sogunro received
an important phone call last week - from the White House.

Organizers of the President's Champions of Change program invited her to
their weekly panel and networking discussion.  Ten Champions, ranging from
educators to entrepreneurs to community activists from around the U.S., were
being recognized for the work they are doing to better their communities.

Sogunro thinks the invitation resulted from the city's recent Virginia
Municipal League President's Award, the latest of 11 state and national
awards the city, its community partners and volunteers have accumulated in
the past five years for their neighborhood revitalization projects.  

She accepted the invitation in typical "Kisha" style - by asking for more.
Sogunro asked if she could bring with her the four AmeriCorps VISTA members
who are living in Georgetown South and working with residents to revitalize
that community.

And the White House assistant said yes.

"I was extremely appreciative," said Sogunro, took Kimberley Jenkins-Bailey,
Mignon Broughton, Kenisha Salvary and Jesus Tlatelpa with her to the White
House on Dec. 15.

The Manassas group joined up to 75 others in the Eisenhower Executive Office
Building for a four-hour panel, Q & A and networking session.  One Champion
of Change panelist was Timothy Solano, a child abuse victim who overcame
substance abuse, homelessness and incarceration to become an executive board
member for Habitat for Humanity International.  Solano admitted:  "When
you're making speeches about cleaning up your neighborhoods, I was the guy
you were talking about."

Kenisha Salvary, 20, who graduated from Osbourn High School, was moved to
tears.  "I related to his story of survival and the challenge of single
parenting.  We need to bring these success stories to GTS where people my
age can hear them."

Mignon Broughton, who recently published her own story of struggle, Hidden
Voices: Revelations of a Young Soul [Godzchild Publications], took heart in
Solano's message as well.  "Don't let your struggle stop you.  Keep your
focus.  Be confident.  Model that for others, and they will learn to meet
their goals."

Another Champion of Change panel member was Rev. Dr. Judy Talbert, who works
closely with the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood
Partnerships, and was recognized for dedicating 36 years to helping at-risk
and challenged populations, including the homeless, ex-offenders, members of
gangs and persons with HIV-AIDS.  

"It was encouraging to hear that I don't have to leave my faith at the door
when I'm working," said Kimberley Jenkins-Bailey.  "What we are doing in GTS
matters and is making change.  We are planting seeds and watering for the
future. My role is to use my time wisely now and do the best I can."

"It was an energy boost," said Sogunro, who talked one-on-one with Jonathan
Greenblatt, Director of the White House Office of Social Innovation and
Civic Participation.  "Manassas is on the right track with capacity building
and I'm eager to do so much more. We heard story after story of people who
turned their lives around and now they're working to make their communities
better.  We need a strong hand, but also offer that hand to lift people up."

On Jan. 16, the City of Manassas, Manassas City Public Schools and the Boys
& Girls Club of Manassas will launch a pilot youth transportation project
that will connect youth in Georgetown South to the club for after school and
early evening tutoring, mentoring, computer lab, athletics and other
programming.  If successful, the pilot will be expanded to other areas of
need throughout the city.

Sogunro is also recruiting community partners and volunteers for the Big Day
of Serving Manassas on May 5 in the Bristoe Station neighborhood - moving
the successful 1 By Youth model to the next area in need of revitalization. 

"Engaging youth drives change," says Sogunro.  "We also have a great
untapped influx of veterans returning to our neighborhoods. These vets have
the skills and abilities we need to build strong neighborhoods.  We need
them in CERT-Fire Corps and Neighborhood Watch.  We need them on the boards
of our community associations."

As soon as she returned to her office, Kimberley Jenkins-Bailey taped up her
quote of the day.  It reads, 'After you go to the White House, life will
never be the same.in a good way!'" 

To sponsor, partner or volunteer with City of Manassas Neighborhood Services
in their 2012 initiatives, call 703-257-8240 or e-mail
[email protected].

For more information about the Champions of Change program, visit
www.whitehouse.gov/champions.

Press Release from our in-cindy resource:

City of Manassas Neighborhood Services Manager Kisha Wilson-Sogunro is at The White House this morning, Dec. 15 at 9:30 a.m., to meet and be a part of a conversation with the President’s weekly Champions of Change program.  Each week, a different issue is highlighted and groups of Champions, ranging from educators to entrepreneurs to community activists, are recognized for the work they are doing to better their communities.

When a member of The White House staff called Sogunro earlier this week, they did not say she was being recognized, simply that they wanted her there, to be a part of the conversation, based on the work she’s been doing in the City of Manassas in neighborhood revitalization. 

Earlier this year, the City of Manassas was awarded the Virginia Municipal League’s President’s Award for the city’s “One Neighborhood at a Time” campaign, which includes Week of Hope, 1 By Youth and Neighborhood Improvement Circles.  Sogunro presented a workshop detailing the city’s program at the Neighborhoods USA Conference in Spokane, Washington in 2009.

Sogunro, a former Community Relations Director for AmeriCorp in Provo, Utah, was hired in 2006 to carry out the City of Manassas’ new Neighborhood Services program.  She earned a bachelor’s degree in Communications from Brigham Young University and a master’s degree in Strategic Communications and Leadership from Seton Hall University.  She and her husband, Isaac, are residents of Bristow, Va., along with their two sons.

The City and Kisha make our entire community proud!  Watch out City, Corey will try to steal her away from you all.  :mrgreen:

Manassas City, some of your council folk go out of their way to promote the City also.  Is there an event that Steve Randolph misses?  If there is, I haven’t heard of it.  No one makes themselves more available than Andy Harrover, whether its his Friday coffee meet ups or opening up his home to discuss issues in a beer summit.  Both of these council-folks go far above and beyond.  I hope you City folks realize what gemstones you really have.  Its great to see that some public elected officials really do get off their dais and work with those who elected them and even those who didn’t. 

 

 

 

The Iraq War: Shock and Awe to a quiet…its over

MoonHowler

The Iraq War is over.  President Obama announced the end of the war at Fort Bragg yesterday.  The official date of the end of the war is today, December 15.  The colors have been cased.  Secretary Panetta addressed Iraq and remaining troops.  Iraq is a fully sovereign nation without military occupation.

 The Iraq War is one of our longest wars.  It started off as the shock and awe bombing of Baghdad and Americans were glued to their TVs, watching the spectacle.  We watched our troops enter Iraq and begin their long trek across the desert.  We honored our dead, those early victims of the war like Hopi warrior Lori Piestewa and captive Jessica Lynch who was rescued.  We donned our Support the Troops attire  and we saw anti-war icons like Code Pink and Cindy Sheehan on TV nightly.  But something detached.

Us.  We, the civilians, never really were a part of this war.  Unless we were a military family, we didn’t participate.  We didn’t sacrifice.  We didn’t alter our every day lives.  The war was 8 years, 8 months and 25 days long.  We didn’t engage our souls or follow the troops.  It was ‘their’ war, not ours.  

So it is over.  The players have all changed.  Very few great ‘stars’ came out of this war.  There were no Ikes, Pattons,   ‘Chestys’ or Westmorelands.  To my knowledge, former President Bush has not commented or spoken of the end of the war.  I saw no headlines, no nurses being kissed in Times Square and no ticker tape parades. 

How many lives were lost?  Over 4,000?  How many of our troops suffered life- altering injuries during that war?  Over 30,000?  How many mothers and fathers  missed seeing their children grow up because of a war that refused to be over?  How many kids felt the absence of a parent?  Unless we were a military family, we didn’t feel those things.  We barely feel them as a nation.  These are things that are out of our sight, sanitized, barely trotted out on Veterans Day.

There is just something quietly still and quietly dead wrong.  Our military deserves more recognition, more of our thanks.  More notice, more fanfare, more SOMETHING.  Are all those people who served in the Iraq  War going to just merge back in to society without missing a beat?  Will there be jobs for them?  Will the VA be there for them with full support for their injuries, both psychological and physical at a time when our politics are fighting every penny spent and the national debt is on everyone’s tongue? 

We, as a nation, need a National Day of Recognition for those who have given so much.  We who barely gave at all need a special day to say thank you and to honor those who gave given 8 years, 8 months and 25 days so that we didn’t have to give at all.  We need to do it sooner rather than later. 

 

‘All American Muslim’: It’s too clean, wholesome and decent, get it off the air

MoonHowler

From the Daily Beast:

The boycott against All-American Muslim surely marks the first time that right-wingers have objected to a television program for being too bland and wholesome. Since the reality show debuted last month, the putative forces of anti-jihadism, both Jewish and evangelical, have attacked it not for promoting radical Islam but for portraying Muslims who are not remotely radical. “The show profiles only Muslims that appear to be ordinary folks while excluding many Islamic believers whose agenda poses a clear and present danger to the liberties and traditional values that the majority of Americans cherish,” said an email that the Florida Family Association urged its supporters to send to the show’s advertisers.

Ach!!  What’s wrong with this picture?  Since when did right-wingers start clamoring for removal of shows for being too decent?  Apparently there is concern this new show is being deceptive and trying to put on a happy face when they are really covering up some nefarious, hidden, terrorist plot.

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A New Low at Lowes

MoonHowler

Every once in a while Jon Stewart agrees with Moonhowlings.  This is one of those times.

 

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Kabulvision – A New Lowe
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog  

What is Lowes’ thinking?  Are they trying to join the New Coke and Netflix tribes?  Bad business decisions are sometimes hard to recover from.  This seems like one that could have easily been avoided.    The push back on this one could get bad.  It might have flown under the radar except for the blatant prejudice and stereotyping. 

They get what they deserve.

E-books or Print- books?

MoonHowler

Everyone seems to have an e-reader.  The only adult I know who doesn’t have one is that resident techno-tard over here, Mr. Howler.  So how popular are e-readers and with whom? 

Kids don’t seem all that interested in them.  Schools don’t allow them here in the county (Leave your electronics at home) and often the books kids are forced to read aren’t available on Kindle, Nook or Ipad.  There is also the idea of a specific publisher for student books.  God forbid that anyone reading The Crucible isn’t reading the ‘designated copy.’   Being on the same page takes on a new dimension in schools.  Little kids love e-readers but most people aren’t going to go out and get a 6 year old their own ipad as an e-reader.

That leaves adults.  Who really likes the e-reader and whose habits has it changed?  Who really likes holding a real book and turning its pages so much that they will not use an e-reader?  I have heard several people flat out refuse to go with an e-reader just because they love touching a real book and turning its pages.  Someone even told me they would miss the smell. 

Commuters and travelers seem to love e-books more.  E-readers fit right in a purse, briefcase or backpack and weigh far less than most books.  You can even take more than one book along for the ride without weighing yourself down.  The convenience of unlimited books in something weighing less than a pound is just nirvana for a  week at the beach or someone who is trying to pack light. 

What are some advantages of e-books that you just can’t get from a real book?  E-books have adjustable print size.  This attribute is critical to someone like me who gets tired eyes and who has presbyopia.  The longer the day gets, the larger the print is needed.  Many folks also love the instant gratification part of e-reading.  For someone like me, I get too much accumulated that hasn’t been read.  I used to do that with real books also though. 

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The Tea Party: Is it a political party or isn’t it?

MoonHowler

From the Daily Press:

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Jaime Radtke and roughly 30 of her Tea Party supporters stood outside the Capitol on Wednesday to protest Radtke’s exclusion from a debate featuring former Govs. Tim Kaine and George Allen.

Democrat Kaine and Republican Allen were the only two candidates for the Senate seat being vacated by Jim Webb to meet the qualifications laid out by event organizers, the Associated Press and the Virginia Capitol Correspondents Association. To get an invite candidates must have averaged at least 15 percent in published polls and raised at least 20 percent of the amount of money raised by their party’s front runner.

In addition to Radtke, this left out Tim Donner, E.W. Jackson and David McCormick who are running for the GOP nomination, and Julien Modica and Courtney Lynch on the Democratic side.

Radtke consistently complained that limiting the debate to the two big-name former governors was a circumventing of the primary process and an attempt by the “mainstream media” to pick the Republican and Democratic nominees.

I am still trying to figure out if the Tea Party is a political party or not.  If not, what are they?  Is it just a descriptor? Right now, it seems like the old Republican Party has a push me/pull me relationship with people espousing TP state of mind.  On the one hand, the R’s seem to want to use them in their mix and on the other hand, they seem to feel that undo influence and pressure is coming from that wing of the party. 

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