Did anyone happen to catch the Quadrantid Meteor shower this morning? That had to be one freezing cold sky watch. I couldn’t muster up the courage to even go as far as my car. It was about 14 degrees out there.
Happy birthday Elena.
Did anyone happen to catch the Quadrantid Meteor shower this morning? That had to be one freezing cold sky watch. I couldn’t muster up the courage to even go as far as my car. It was about 14 degrees out there.
Happy birthday Elena.
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The Prince William County swearing in ceremony is a hoot. In the first place, remember all those kids we saw in campaign literature? The kids are much older than we thought. I guess everyone wants to look younger.
John Jenkins gets credit for the most family members present. Maureen Caddigan for the most dignified, and Mike May’s little boy for the most entertaining.
Corey’s kids have grown the most and they certainly are handsome young men. I was just surprised how old they are now. Definitely not little whippersnappers any more.
That one little boy of Marty’s looks just like a mini -he of Marty. How cute!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf9kRFSk0Vs&feature=youtu.be
Happy Birthday, Elena!!
Didn’t even know it was going on.
But, last night, my wife and I saw a bright light cross the sky, not blinking, with no visible red lights. When I put binocs on it, it dimmed and I lost it. (I don’t think the two were related.) I didn’t see wings against the stars and it made no sound. I’m sorry I ran to get the binocs because I missed whether it was above or below the clouds, I’ll have to ask the wife.
http://hamptonroads.com/2010/01/virginia-republicans-revisit-loyalty-oath
Agree with Del. Bob Marshal on this issue,
Happy Birthday, Elena!
http://hamptonroads.com/2012/01/virginia-republicans-revisit-loyalty-oath
Grrr –
There was an earlier discussion about crossover voting and how it affects primaries, if it does. In Iowa, one can change parties the day you enter the caucus. And then change back.
Here’s an excerpt from here: http://www.pagunblog.com/2012/01/04/two-ricks-entered-iowa/
According to the entrance polls, 38 percent of caucus-goers had never voted in a GOP caucus before; of those, by far the largest share, 37 percent, voted for Ron Paul. Among the registered so-called independents who took part in the caucus, 48 percent voted for Ron Paul, way ahead of anyone else. Next highest was Romney with 16 percent.
I’d say that those 16% crossover’s put Romney in the lead and the 48% put Paul into 3rd.
But will they vote for the Republican nominee? I doubt it. So, Paul loses a large chunk of his supposed support during a general election, if he’s the nominee.
That is pretty specualtive. Plus, who says who votes for whom in a general election. Voting just isn’t that pure.
Bachmann’s out. Another one bites the dust.
That leaves only the big government conservative candidates in the race. Oh, did I forget to put ” ” around conservative? My bad…..
Paul is not conservative but not big government…well, except for being a career politician.
Well, we see what happens now. Who with the Bachmann supporters turn to? I’m sure Rick Perry and Santorum can use the dozen or so….
(Yes, I know. Snarky, but couldn’t resist it.)
Some idiots are joining the suit to get on the ballot.
http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/01/04/breaking-three-gop-candidates-file-motion-to-join-perrys-fight-for-ballot-access-in-virginia/
Sad….especially those that actually didn’t submit ANY ballots.
If you snooze, you lose. If you submit the minimum and get some disqualified or hire people that defraud you…..you better make a better effort and get MORE.
Hate to say it, but Romney had the org and Paul had the bots.
They should not get on the ballot. Better luck next time and do the work involved to get in.
I think Virginia is too strict but….those were the rules.
Can someone please tell me how this is not an unconstitutional power grab and and example of an dictatorial attitude? Obama makes a recess appointment when the Senate is STILL IN SESSION. He’s upset because he’s not getting his way and refuses to make compromises. I mean, when you own party won’t approve your appointments….
http://www.speaker.gov/blog/?postid=273766
“President Obama today made an unprecedented “recess” appointment even though the Senate is not in recess – “a sharp departure from a long-standing precedent that has limited the President to recess appointments only when the Senate is in a recess of 10 days or longer,” according to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
It turns out that the action not only contradicts long-standing practice, but also the view of the administration itself. In 2010, Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal explained to the Supreme Court the Obama administration’s view that recess appointments are only permissible when Congress is in recess for more than three days.”
and
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/4/obama-unprecedented-recess-appointment/
The White House, though, argues Republican senators stonewalled the nominee for so long that Mr. Obama had no choice but to circumvent them.
“I refuse to take ‘No’ for an answer. I’ve said before that I will continue to look for every opportunity to work with Congress to move this country forward. But when Congress refuses to act in a way that hurts our economy and puts people at risk, I have an obligation as president to do what I can without them,” Mr. Obama said.
Darn those checks and balances. Mr. Obama just has to go around them to save the country.
bad bad president…doing a recess appointment. Bush did bunches of them. Obama will do bunches of them. Perhaps they should stop blocking each other’s appointments and perhaps appointments should be less controversial across the board.
Mr. Obama just has to go around them to get anything done at all. It falls into the who cares department with me. Screw the entire congress. They are worthless and obstructionists for the most part. Most of House needs to go and I would keep a couple Senators. For the most part they are a bunch of grand-standing cry babies.
I want to know when the annual calendar is coming out for the Board of Supervisor Meetings.
That should have been posted several months ago.
The new website is looking much better. Frankly, it couldnt have been worse. If those crooks in IT hadn’t been so busy stealing millions from the taxpayers of PWC, perhaps it wouldnt have been so bad.
Notice how those jokers have dropped off the face of the earth. No mention. That didn’t even come up during the election, but several million dollars were embezzled right out of the public money. Right under everyone’s nose! Yet no one got held accountable. However, people are more than willing to hang the president out to dry over Solydra. Ah the hypocrisy.
So what is being done to get our money back?
And where is the calendar?
And where is the agenda for the January meeting?
My Momma taught me that ‘no’ means NO. I guess no means a conditional yes depending on how many and what type of laws or precedent are broken. Imagine if President Sarah Palin were to do the same… Howling across the blogsphere..
Interesting story here. This reminds me of Col. Morris.
I wonder what the Corprorals punishment will be? Also of note (not contained in the article) is that CNN had interviewed the same Corporal and the CNN feed was lost when he articulated that Israel could defend itself and that we should not be picking fights with other countries.
http://ideas.time.com/2012/01/04/a-soldiers-dilemma-should-corporal-thorsen-have-endorsed-ron-paul/?xid=gonewsedit
This one is an odd one because it’s gonna make a lot of people feel uncomfortable. A pseudo endorsement by the ACLU for Ron Paul over Obama.
http://www.aclulibertywatch.org/ALWCandidateReportCard.pdf
Examiner.com shows the above as Dr. Paul being more progressive than Obama.
Anyone have feelings one way or the other on what should happen to that Corporal?
What is worse – The Senate not voting a nominee up or down AND the Senate being in a pro-forma session for the sole purpose of the President not do a recess appointment OR the President doing a recess appointment to a job that needs to be filled. Obama has done fewer recess appointments that any other recent President.
Why doesn’t McConnell get to work and either reject or approve of the nominations?
Recess appointments are fine…..WHEN THE SENATE IS IN RECESS.
As for the President being obstructed….too bad. That’s why we have three equal branches of government. If he want to facilitate the appointment…he needs to offer better candidates. He did his job. He offered a candidate. Now its up to the Senate. Of course, they should do this faster. Then again, they should do A LOT of things, like actually offer a budget, not omnibus bills to extend financing for projects.
Pat,
Did you complain about the Senate doing this pro forma session thing against Bush? And last I checked, REID is the Majority leader. He can call a vote anytime he wants.
Actually the latest one wasn’t the person, it was the position. @Cargo
No candidate for any office would suit.
The senate was recessed. Just not for as long as is traditional.
According to the Senate, it was not recessed. According to the article…it was recessed for one day.
Senators from both parties – including Democrats in 2007 and 2008, when Mr. Obama was in the Senate – have said it takes a recess of at least three days before the president can use his appointment powers.
So…anyway…with any luck the new Republican Congress will grow a spine and actually repeal that stupid “Consumers Protection Agency” before it does too much damage.
Moon, you watch more CNN than I do…as in..I don’t watch any…have you seen this:
Sitting in an airport again, being forced to watch CNN again and, though I shouldn’t be, am shocked at their blatant effort to create a “Santorum just might be a racist” innuendo. Regardless of one’s opinions of him the primary, this is an absurd attempt to create a preemptive narrative about a candidate that may or may not go on, that those of us that believe in the pursuit of truth should fight against. What are their insinuations based on? What grievous crime did Santorum commit? Well, he allegedly used the word “black” twice! over the course of one year. And I say allegedly because the recent claim about his “black people’s lives” statement may or may not be true. Keep in mind that I’m not simplifying this. The comment was actually, “But [Santorum] did use the word black another time, last January.”
Welcome to Election 2012.
I don’t watch CNN either. However, the issue wasn’t because of the word ‘black.’ Good grief. It was a reference to people on welfare and Santorum allegedly made mention of black people. He denies it. O’Reilly spoke with it tonight with Santorum. O’Reilly said HE heard the word black. Santorum said he didn’t say it and O’Reilly said he would simply have to take his word for it.
As for Santorum being a racist, I don’t think even if he did make mention of black people and welfare, it doesn’t make him a racist. Making a racist statement doesn’t make a person a racist. It might just mean that the person made a stupid statement.
If he did make the welfare statement, can everyone just accept that he made a stupid statement? Arrggghhhhh.
As for the recess, so where are the rules for this printed out? Is the recess rule somewhere in the Constitution? Who is it that says, with any authority, how long the Senate must be in recess before appointments can be made? Are we confusing tradition with real laws?
Consumer Protection Agency–why is it stupid? Don;t consumers need protection? What damage is it causing? I actually think it sounds like a darn good idea.
Sitting in an airport again, being forced to watch CNN again – was it TSA, the Government or the airline that was forcing you to watch CNN?
@Pat.Herve
No one was forcing ME to watch…it was a copy from Instapundit, an email that he posted.
Sorry if it wasn’t clear.
@Moon-howler
I had a feeling that it was being blown out of proportion by CNN.
Um…the President, when Senator, demanded at least a 3 day recess…. Furthermore, the Senate is not in recess.
It gives a huge amount of arbitrary power to the director. Its being run by the Federal Reserve. It is not subject to Congress. I think that my main problem is that the same people that caused the problems are writing a bill to “fix” the problems. Foxes watching the hen house, indeed.
http://www.heritage.org/research/factsheets/2011/07/consumer-financial-protection-bureau-unaccountable-and-costly
http://blog.heritage.org/2011/07/18/warren-rebuffed-but-consumer-finance-bureau-still-a-threat/
Heck…I’m still trying to figure how what they are supposed to do to protect US instead of the politically connected banks. Every financial transaction except taxes are voluntary. This agency does not identify which of those actions is harming Americans.
It is all political games. Maybe the agency hasnt identified which actions are harming Americans because it didn’t have a leader. I am sure I could find out if i traced the outrage back to all the hoopla over Elizabeth Warren.
More reindeer games. Doesn’t Congress ever really want to get something done other than block the President from doing his job?
http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/303054
Apparently even GOP candidates don’t trust Virginia’s GOP bosses
when it comes to fairly handling petitions.
@Big Dog
What a fuster cluck. So if 15,000 are submitted, they could all be Mickey Mouse?
Moon, per the BOCS standing policy, the 2012 Meeting Calendar gets approved the first meeting in January (Jan. 10th) in all the Consent stuff right after the Chairman does his speech. As a fail safe, that is why the first two meetings in the next year are always published on a calendar – if you look at 2011 on the website now, it has the two January meetings. I say “fail-safe” since the policy allows for them to have some wiggle room if they need to tweak the dates if somebody says something at the first meeting.
The agenda should be posted this Friday, and it will be a big one. Since the County does the thing where every four years, all appointees to Board/Committees/Commissions have to be reapproved for four years (regardless of term appointment or those serving at the pleasure of the Board), effort is being made to get them done as fast as possible at the first meeting of the year. I am watching that since I chair one of the Commissions…my City appointment is never affected by elections as Manassas has a different set of rules about appointments.
As for the IT rip-off artists, well, getting the money back is tied in courts since restitution process is long and lengthly.
“getting the money back is tied in courts since restitution process is long and lengthly.”
Likely a pipe-dream given that the then Asst. County Exec. signed off on everything (Gerhardt for all of his faults was a real smart cookie when it came to that).
Remember those spending cuts? Happen any moment now, right?
Yeah…not so much.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/3/what-happened-to-spending-cuts/
Obviously some one is still trying to destroy the country.
The thing that galls me is that 2 wars were fought without funding. Then 2 major pieces of legislation were pushed through with a huge price tag: NCLB and Medicare D. All the while, there were tax cuts. Let’s not try to pin this one on Obama. Good grief.
On to the spending cuts–the fact that all 6 people appointed on the R side of the super committee were tied to a pledge meant they couldn’t negoiate in good faith. They should have not been appointed and they should have not served. Everyone needs to be free to look at everything on the table.
The outcome was predictable from the day they were selected. Can anyone even find a Republican who isn’t owned by someone else with one of those pledges? Not sure.
If someone else has posted this link previously, I apologize:
http://www2.insidenova.com/news/2012/jan/05/delegate-anderson-asks-va-gop-rescind-loyalty-oath-ar-1589801/
I predicted RPV would rescind the oath requirement for the March Presidential Primary. It is causing a great deal of angst and confusion amongst the electorate. Now that the legislature is back in session, I imagine the pressure to rescind the requirement from GOP electeds (and maybe even some local units) will increase.
@Steve Thomas
I’m glad Del. Anderson is on the same page as Del. Bob on this oath requirement. If the oath is rescinded we will have FOUR voters at the polls in March from our house. The two youngest are now registered voters. 🙂
@Moon-howler
“The outcome was predictable from the day they were selected. Can anyone even find a Republican who isn’t owned by someone else with one of those pledges?”
Pretty sure Frank Wolf is clean, and as much as it galls me…Ron Paul.
“The two youngest are now registered voters.”
Oh good, two more signatures for the Del. Bob petitions I’m sending to your house.
@Steve Thomas
Well, they should have been on the super committee then. It might not go a bit better but at least you don’t know the outcome before you start either.
@Mom
Return To Sender stamp is ready to go!
Jon Huntsman has been endorsed by the Boston Globe and was given quite
a bit of air time tonight.
I like him!
@punchak
Huntsman rocks! I think he will do better in NH.
Next week is the 10th anniversary of the first detainees arriving at Guantanamo and there are a number of events marking the occasion. One is Tuesday 12:15 to 1:45 at the New America Foundation. The panel is me, Congressman Jim Moran, author Andy Worthington and attorney Tom Wilner. Moderator is CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen. It’s open to the public if you’re in DC and have the time. http://newamerica.net/events/2012/guant_namo_forever
Andy Harrover has announced he’s is running for Mayor. It looks like we have contested council (Way, Bass, Wolfe, and Lovejoy for three seats) and mayoral (Harrover, Parrish) nominations. Should make for an interesting convention.
Manassas City conventions are open to the public. If you are a registered voter in Manassas, you can fill out and submit a delegate form and participate (warning: The delegate form has always included the loyalty pledge). If you are a county resident, and just want to observe the proceedings, you can come the day of and request a vistor’s badge. You will see how a well-run convention operates (we’ve done these a lot). For a political animal such as myself, conventions are very interesting. No deals made in the preverbial “smokey back-room”. No “the Chairman and the committee picks the nominee”. Just an open and fair exercise in democracy.
@Steve
I am trying to catch up here. Does that mean that Harrover or Parrish will be out and not part of City Council at the end of the election?
oh, you can download the delegate form here: http://www.manassasgop.com . The link to download the .pdf file is on the right side of the splash page.
I smell multiple rats, the BOCS agenda for the 10th is out and the only appointments listed are Corey’s which means that everyone else is waiting until the 17th to name their appointees. Nice transparency and planning guys, given that the first PC meeting of the year is the 18th.
@Moon-howler
Can you point at any Democrat that is trying to hide their spending problems by starting class warfare, by trying to claim that taxes that will amount to about 6-18 billion dollars will cover their malfeasance? Can you find a Democrat on that committee that’s not pledged to raise taxes and spending no matter what?
The problem is not a lack of taxes. The problem is a lack of honesty on the part of Congress that refuses to make realistic cuts. The only honest people in Congress are those that are trying to make real cuts, not a reduction in increased baselines.
For one thing, there shouldn’t be a committee in the first place. There should have been a budget in place to show future spending, instead of random omnibus bills. But Senate Democrats are refusing to do their jobs. They haven’t submitted a budget since Obama took office.
Apparently we were doing fine until the Reid/Pelosi spending took off in 2009. The deficit was at 450 billion and shrinking in 2008. So this complaint about unfunded wars and other programs is only partially true. We were working with debt and deficits, but they were not out of the norm. The Democrat Congress tripled the deficit in one year, waited until Obama was in office to submit it, and haven’t looked back.
So…yes. I can blame Obama for THIS deficit spending. And making decisions that are politically motivated, not economically motivated. I’m sure that South Carolina would like those Boeing jobs, Louisiana would like those drilling jobs, that pipeline workers would like those new jobs. But, he wants to make energy prices “necessarily skyrocket.” HIS words.
I can blame the Democrats for writing bills that make businesses harder to run and to start. I can blame Republicans for caving into expedient “deals” that won’t help either them or the nation.
@Cargo, why do you think we were doing find until 2009? What bizarro world do you live in? Why do you think we kept getting further and further in to debt as a nation?
Answer to your first question–NO.
I guess you can blame Democrats and Obama for anything you want. Expect laughter.
“Can you point at any Democrat that ISN’T trying to hide their spending problems by starting class warfare, by trying to claim that taxes that will amount to about 6-18 billion dollars will cover their malfeasance in increasing the deficit by 1.2 TRILLION DOLLARS?”
The first line above is supposed to read like this.
Not sure the Democrats ‘started’ class warfare. That too, is a sound-byte. Keep on protecting the 1% from any tax increases.
“I can blame Obama for THIS deficit spending. And making decisions that are politically motivated, not economically motivated. I’m sure that South Carolina would like those Boeing jobs, Louisiana would like those drilling jobs, that pipeline workers would like those new jobs. But, he wants to make energy prices “necessarily skyrocket.” HIS words”
Has anyone looked at how the canadian economy is doing? It’s doing well. How did they get out of their recession? They drilled their way out of it.
@Steve Thomas
Looks like things are getting interesting in the city. I like the sound of Mayor Harrover myself.
I completely agree about the convention process in the city. It’s open and fair. I’m sure glad I’ve seen it in action. I would suggest that the PWC GOPers get a visitor’s badge and take notes. I don’t believe the county has near the well run operation you all do in the city. I don’t care if the county is larger, that’s no excuse for not being a well run organization like the city is.
@Mom
I think I may smell a rat. What are your thoughts on the new PC Chairman at-large being the owner of a real estate agency? I think it stinks to high heaven, personally.
Looks like we’ll have to wait a little longer on the other appointments. Hey, who’s up on the rotation this year for Vice Chairman on the BoS?
@Lafayette
“I completely agree about the convention process in the city. It’s open and fair.”
Thanks Lafayette! The MGOP committee works very hard to accomplish this.
I hope Krystal Ball has sent a nice gift basket (perhaps from a store in Old Town Manassas) to the hate-mongers on the far right who elevated her from relative obscurity to a spot on a national network and a much bigger following than the hate-mongers ever attracted. http://www.krystalonline.com/
@Moe,
She really needs to thank two PWC bloggers in particular for catapolting her from relative obscurity to national attention. I wonder if she is up to 6 figures yet?
Are Greg and Riley celebrating with her? She does a pretty decent job, doesn’t she?
“Are Greg and Riley celebrating with her?”
Mental picture I really didn’t need on a Friday afternoon. Think bald head, dog collar and leather gag.
@ MoM…you are bad!!!!
I will keep thoughts like that out of my head, thank you very much.
Ms. Ball does owe them a great deal, career-wise. I wonder if that was their intentions?
@Moon-howler
Have you seen the horrible anti-Huntsman/pro-Paul ads on UTube? Paul has stated that he has nothing at all to do with them. Megyn on Fox said that they’ve tried to find out the source of the ad, but to no avail. She had Abby Huntsman on her 2 hr show today.
@Morris Davis
She’s probably laughing all the way to the bank. Good for her.
Uh, who were those two pot-stirrers again? You know, the ones who catapulted her to fame? Anyone remember their names….
@Steve Thomas
I would hardly say that Canada drilled there way out of the recession – http://www.indexmundi.com/energy.aspx?country=ca&product=oil&graph=production – 2006 – 2009 production was basically flat, with a slight increase in 2010. They have managed to avoid most of the cheap money and housing bubble. Although Toronto and Vancouver might be in their own real estate bubbles.
@Pat, their medicines also aren’t breaking the bank.
I cannot stress enough the perilous rx situation in this country. My husband is now on medicine that replaces coumadin. He nearly died this summer from coumadin so he simply cannot take it any more. The replacement medicine is extremely expensive and cannot be bought generically. When he goes in to the donut hole, and he will, his medicines will cost about $600 a month until he gets to the catastrophic stage. When my mother was in transition, her meds came to $1100 a month. That was 6 years ago.
This situation is absurd. If Congress won’t kick the drug companies to the curb then it needs to open up things so we can buy drugs from Canada in bulk.
These are not unusual situations. I just don’t think people realize how much some people have to pay to stay alive.
The Obama administration on Friday proposed new hardship rules that would make it easier for illegal immigrants to apply for legal status and stay in the country if they have a spouse or parent already living here legally.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jan/6/obama-administration-eases-deportation-rules/
@Cargo, how about a wife? What if you have a wife and a child who are American citizens? I would hope that there would be a way for people who have legitimate strong ties to the United States to adjust their status.
I know of 2 cases that are just absurd to me. One has been reconciled. The other has not. In the reconciled case, the wife married here and inadvertently overstayed a student visa. She and her American husband went to visit her parents out of country. American authorities would not allow her back in the country and told her she had to wait 10 years.
I feel situations like these are absurd and I really resent being called an open border person when I argue cases like this. Not everything is cut and dry. (you haven’t called me that…at least to my face.)
This is very characteristic of some of the Paul supporters I have been engaging. Moon knows all about Joey Fowler.
To say that some of them lack social skills is just not addressing the problem. Think about trolls that you just shove food under the door to.
Joey ….needs a few more rounds with Uncle Steve….[evil grin]
@punchak
Update on Manassas Republican canditate runs….
Five – count ’em Five! – canditates for Three Council postions: Bass, Way, Wolfe, Lovejoy and now Patullo.
Two for Mayor…although why not skip convention, and just go over to the Musuem and take the two cannons on the lawn and have a duel? Last man standing is Mayor! Right in the spirit of the Civil War 150th Celebration!
@Ray or Steve
Here is my question: If Andy Harrover loses, he retains his council seat, doesn’t he? However, if Mayor Aprrish loses, he retains nothing? If Harrover wins then a special election would be hld or would the 4th person running for council get that seat?
Maybe that is a stupid question. I don’t know the schematics of the City Council. I am assumign 6 seats, each for 4 years, half one set of even years, the other half the other even years.
Elena – 1 Bambi-0
RIP Bambi